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Wholly Holy!
Skip Heitzig

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Rediscovering Our Foundations

In this current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've considered some key attributes of the God we know and love. He is omniscient (knows everything); He is omnipresent (everywhere present); He is omnipotent (operates at full power). But there is another key attribute that is seldom considered, yet is fundamentally key in understanding the Bible—God's holiness. Let's observe one man's encounter with this holy God and what it means to us.

We live in an age where truth has become a relative term. But the Bible leaves no room for doubt when it comes to the absolute nature of truth. Unfortunately, our culture is vastly biblically illiterate. In this series, Pastor Skip Heitzig gets back to the roots of our faith, looking at what the Bible has to say about God, Christ, the Trinity, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell. Learn to stand on a firm foundation in the midst of an unstable culture.

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Outline

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  1. Captivated (vv. 1-4)
    A. By What Had Happened Nationally
    B. By What He Experienced Personally
  2. Convicted (v. 5)
  3. Cleansed (vv. 6-7)
  4. Commissioned (vv. 8-13)

Transcript

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Turn to Isaiah chapter 6. You've heard of Shirley MacLaine. She's an award-winning actress who has an interesting belief system. And has a home not to far from here. She did an interview with The Washington Post in which she stated, "The most pleasurable journey you take is through yourself. The only sustaining love is with yourself. When you look back on your life and you try to figure out where you've been and where you're going, when you look at your work, your love affairs, your marriages, your children, your pain, you happiness; when you examine all that closely what you really find out is the only person you really go to bed with is yourself. The only thing you have is working to the consummation of your own identity. And that's what I've been trying to do all my life."

Well, I have to disagree with Shirley. I don't think it's a pleasurable journey through yourself. I think it can be a pretty painful journey. There's an old poem that says, "Look around and be distressed, look within and be depressed. Look to Jesus, be at rest.

We're going to look at the journey that Isaiah took through himself and find that to be true. It's a journey he took and a vision he had with God. He saw God but he also saw himself and we notice his reaction. "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple." Above it stood seraphim, each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.' And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, 'Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.' For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts."

Isaiah cried out those words because he had an encounter with a holy God. We're doing a series called Rediscovering Your Foundations (and perhaps we ought to do a message on rediscovering your pastor since I've been traveling so much). We've done several studies so far, let's just bring you up to speed. The first study we did was on the importance of truth itself and the alarming amount of spiritual illiteracy, biblical illiteracy that exists. The importance of knowing the scoop, knowing the truth. Our second study is how God reveals himself to humanity in general revelation and in special revelation and how it is we can know God. Our third and fourth studies focused on the Bible itself, the transmission, the accuracy, the inerrancy of the Bible and why we ought to trust it. Then the last two studies, study number five and six, we looked at Psalm 139 at the attributes of God: his omniscience, he knows everything; his omnipresence, he is everywhere; his omniscience, he can do anything. Tonight we will focus on what is the least discussed attribute of God, at least by people, and that is the holiness of God. In fact it's what many consider God's least attractive feature. However, in saying it's the least discussed topic, it is only from a human standpoint, because you know the Bible speaks a lot about it. It is the most discussed attribute of God in the Bible. Of all the things the Bible says about God, the adjective a holy God is affixed to his name more than any other description. More than loving, more than merciful, more than faithful is that God is a holy god. And lest you think that's just an Old Testament emphasis and not a New Testament emphasis, let me remind you that when Jesus himself taught us to address the Father, we are to remember that he is holy. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name." So it is to be a focus, an emphasis of the New Testament believer's relationship to his father in heaven.

Also, holy is the principle adjective is it not for the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit? He is not addressed principally as the loving Spirit, the eternal Spirit, or the peaceful Spirit, but the Holy Spirit. Here's the point: You and I can't pick and choose which attributes we like and dump the rest. "Oh, I like this aspect about God, that's cool, that makes me feel good. But I won't at all deal or study or respond to that attribute." You've got to take God as he is. You can reject God wholeheartedly but you can't change him. Yet that seems to be the focus and emphasis in modern worship. "I shall create God in my image after my likeness."

Over in Kyoto, Japan there is a interesting temple. It is the Buddhist shrine. It's called the Temple of 1000 Buddhas," and there are I hear one thousand different likenesses of Buddha, each a little different from the other. The idea is the worshiper goes into the temple, looks all around at all the different faces of Buddha, finds one that resembles himself or herself most closely and worships that. Sound familiar? Many people want the pleasurable journey through themselves. But tonight we see that the most satisfying journey is actually through the nature and character of the true God.

I have divided up and you have it in your outline the study into four sections. Isaiah's encounter with the holy God, he is first captivated by something that he sees, something going on around him. He is convicted by what he sees that's going on around him. He is cleansed in the midst of that vision and then finally he is commissioned.

Let's go back and look at the first couple of verses. Let's see what captivated him. It says, "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. And the train of his robe (or his long-flowing garments) filled the temple." Notice it says it was the year king Uzziah died. That's what's going on around him nationally. The years is 739 BC, if you care to note that. It's very important. You may remember that Uzziah, when he became king was a teenager. In fact he was sixteen years old when he began to reign. Can you imagine your sixteen-year-old reigning over a nation? What is remarkable is that this guy became a pretty good king. He reigned fifty-two long prosperous years. He expanded the borders of Israel. He successfully campaigned against the enemies and brought a level of security. So that he became one of Israel's best kings, starting at sixteen and for fifty-two years til this year, 739 he did a good job. He wasn't perfect, at the end he rebelled but he was good. And perhaps Isaiah along with the other people saw this good godly king as the reason God restrained judgment. You see, just north a few miles in the nation of Israel, the Assyrians had already swooped down and taken captive the northern kingdom. Now they're threatening the southern kingdom, Judah, Jerusalem, where Isaiah is. And maybe Isaiah and the other people in Israel are going, "Oh no, good king Uzziah is off the throne. The throne is empty. Who will lead us?" Well in the year that king Uzziah died and got off the throne because of death, "I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up." Boy this is something we tend to forget too often as we look around at our world. We forget God's still on the throne in the midst of this bizarre world we live in. We look around and we hear the news and we see the reports on television of terrorism and snipers and possible war. And we think, "What is going on? Does God see? Does God care?" Yes, God is still on the throne, he is still in charge. If you fail to see that, you will be a very depressed individual. A week of watching CNN is enough to just dislodge any hope and confidence in the future. Bad news all week long and this is the value of coming to church every week. This is the value of coming into a place of worship and singing songs to God and being reminded, "Oh right, God is still up there on the throne." He is not dislodged from his power base.

So, Isaiah weighed down by life, weighed down by the circumstances, God gets his attention and reminds him, "Hey buddy, remember me? God. I'm on the throne. Forget Uzziah. Trust me. Don't trust human leadership. Trust me. Don't worry about who won the election. Trust me."

Have you ever been somewhere and you're there but you're preoccupied. You're not really paying attention. (That could be happening right now.) A few years back I flew into Charlotte, North Carolina and drove a rental car to Boone and I was very distracted, looking at a map of "How do I get there?" It was for a board meeting with Samaritan's Purse. And I'm looking around at the countryside, looking at road signs, looking at the map. And I completely forgot, I didn't notice how fast I was going, until I saw lights in the rearview mirror. The police officer came to my car, I rolled down the window and he goes, "You know son, you're doing pretty fast speed." "Yes officer, I'm sorry." "I'm going to give you a ticket." And he did. I was preoccupied, that interruption got my attention, stopped my distraction. I behaved all week. Isaiah's distracted. The throne is vacant. The Assyrians are coming. God is on the throne.

Notice this vision, something he saw, something he heard and something he felt. He saw the Lord, above it stood the throne seraphim, each one had six wings, (wild!) with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. One cried to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door (imagine that) were shaken by the voice of him who cried out. And the house was filled with smoke." Isaiah saw a vision of God's majesty. Isaiah heard an anthem of God's holiness. And Isaiah felt the thunder of the voice of the one who cried out. The angel, the seraphim, literally the burning one cried out without stopping, incessantly is the idea in the Hebrew language, he just kept crying it out, "Holy, holy, holy," this is called the trihaggion, three utterances of the term holy by this angel. He felt it, he heard it, it was loud, it moved him. You know, I read this, if you don't like loud music, you might want to bring earplugs to heaven because this crying out, this anthem is so loud, the house shakes. Talk about a subwoofer.

I want you to notice what these angels are saying. They are not saying, "Faithful, faithful, faithful is the Lord God almighty." But he is. They're not saying, "Loving, loving, loving is the Lord God," though he is. Or, "Eternal, eternal, eternal," or "Merciful, merciful, merciful." But there is one key characteristic they are honing in on which causes the reaction. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory." What does that mean: holy? It sounds pretty churchy doesn't it? Be honest, for some it sounds pretty boring. "Holy? I have to be holy." That sounds so outdated, medieval, stained glass, long robes, oooo," some of us think. C. S. Lewis said, "How little do people know who think that holiness is dull. When I, when one meets the real thing it is irrestible." And then he goes on, "If even ten percent of the worlds' population had it, would not the whole world be converted before the year's end?" Holy, holy, holy. Of all God's attributes and I think of all of them that I can think of, this is the most misconstrued attribute of God, his holiness. And here's why: Because generally, from a human perspective, we grade people. With a little tacit understanding, a little scale in our heads of somebody holy, holier, holiest. We might begin at the lowest level, the lowest scale of society and we might put in that category criminals, perverts, um we might say they have a holiness percentage of zero to maybe five percent. (Some would even put lawyers in that category. Some would put ministers in that category.) Then above that is another scale, this is the average people, this is where most people hang out, they're a little better than the lowest scale, these are the moms and dads, husbands and wives, business owners, blue collar workers, we might grade them as anywhere between a high teen to a thirty or forty percent holy. Then there's the above average individual, the humanitarian, the philanthropist, some would put judges in there if they're righteous (surfers, no I'm just kidding). People that we would say, "Now they're just a little better than most. They're the saints of our culture." Then we go all the way up to a hundred percent, nobody can hang out in that category but God. He is a hundred percent holy. And because he's the only guy that gets a hundred percent on the test, he has the right to grade everybody else. But you see that's a misconception. If you could pile up all of the holiness and righteousness and goodness of all people of all times in one big pile and it would be a speck of dust compared to the holiness of God. And here's why: Because God is in a completely different category. God is wholly other, God is unmatched. God is set apart, which is by the way the first principal meaning of the word holy, to be different, set apart, for special use only.

I would like you to keep a marker here and go back to Exodus. Find that book, it's the second book in your Bible. There's a passage in Isaiah 40 that just begs to be read to understand this basic idea of holiness. Exodus chapter 40, I'll give you a second, then we'll jump in. Let's just read a few verses and we'll begin down at verse 8 of Exodus 40. By the way if you're in Exodus, 40 is the last chapter. So if you're in Leviticus, turn left, you'll be there. Verse 8, "You shall set up the court all around." This is the tabernacle, "And hang up the screen in the court gate. You shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it. And you shall hallow (or make holy) and all its utensils and it shall be holy. You shall anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its utensils and consecrate the altar. The altar shall be most holy. You shall anoint the laver and its base and consecrate it. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to wash them with water. You shall put the holy garments on Aaron and anoint him and consecrate him that he may be minister to me as priest and you shall bring the sons and clothe them with tunics." So Moses was told to sanctify the altar, the utensils, the garments and called them holy. Stop. To call garments, utensils and an altar holy, nothing changed in the intrinsic worth or value of the utensils or the altar. The altar didn't glow suddenly, the basin didn't gleam a little brighter because it was designated as holy. The basic idea is that here's stuff that is set apart to be only used for the sacrifice of God in the tabernacle. These utensils, only to be used in the tabernacle. This altar is only to be used sacrifice. It is set apart, it is wholly other, it is different from all the other utensils and stuff that goes on in your life. Now we do this at home. And I'm going to take down the definition a little bit. Do you have holy stuff in your home? What I mean by that is some of you have pitchers, containers, and it's the juice pitcher. You could hold milk in it, you could water. It could hold anything but you designate it as, "This is for orange juice." You put juice in there long enough and it sort of stains it and it has its own feel and smell and that's what you do with it. It is a holy pitcher. You have set it apart for a special use. So, to cal somebody a saint doesn't mean they glow in the dark or they have big halos or they walk on water or are a hundred percent, or eighty-five percent, it simply means they have been set apart for God's purpose, his use.

Well, we talk here about the holiness of God. Go back now to Isaiah, "'Holy, holy, holy,' the anthem cries, 'is the Lord of hosts.'" Now we know what that means. God is different, he is set apart from his creation. He is wholly W-H-O-L-L-Y, wholly other, unmatched, unique. Now this is what the new age forgets. This is what Hinduism forgets. This is what virtually every modern religion forgets about God. What they will say is, "God is a part of his creation. We're part of God and God is part of us. The door is God, the trees are God, the sky is God." That is baloney. God is separate from his creation, he is distinct from his creation, he is wholly other.

We mentioned the tabernacle. I'm not going to have you turn to portions of the Old Testament but the tabernacle taught a twofold lesson. You know what that is, that's that tent structure out in the desert that they kept with them for years. The tabernacle taught two truths that are sort of at tension with each other. Truth number one, the tabernacle showed that God wanted to be with his people. He was available. We might say God is eminent, he wants to fellowship with us. But the other truth the tabernacle shows us is that God is separated from his people because of his utter holiness and man's utter sinfulness. Example: If it was a nice sunny Saturday and you said, "I'm going to go hang out with God. I'm going to barge into the tabernacle and just talk to God freely, you would die. God would strike you dead. In fact there was only one guy, right? Who could go into the holy of holies where God's presence dwelt, once a year on Yom Kuppur, the high priest only after he sacrificed for himself and cleanses himself. So God wanted to rellowship with his people but there was this separation. This is different from pagan worship. If you were a Greek, you could walk into any Greek pagan temple in Greece and pray before any statue you felt like any time. If you were a Roman, you could walk into any Roman cultural religious place of worship and do the same. But if you were a Jew, you can't just barge in and hang out with God. You have to be a priest, moreover you have to be a high priest, moreover it has to be once a year. And then there's veils, right? That separated these sections. There was a veil that was thick between the hly of holies and the holy place. There was a second veil between the holy place and the outer courtyard. And there was a third veil between the outer courtyard and the general housing tent development of the nation of Israel. So you were stopped at each place. And if you ignored those barriers you were treated as an intruder and the wrath of God would come upon that individual. Now until we recognize this, until we recognize the pure holiness of God and the utter simpleness of humanity, we will never appreciate the cross, ever. We'll never appreciate the need for atonement by Christ on the the cross. Oh, we'll hear about it, Jesus died on the cross, God love you," yawn. Until we understand. And Isaiah does, because look at verse 5, after he is captivated he is convicted. "So I said, 'Woe is me.'" And this isn't like a southern California "Whoa, dude." This is like, "Iam undone, man." "Because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts." The New English Bible translates the first part of that, "There is no hope for me. I'm doomed." The New Living translation, "My destruction is sealed." Question: Why did Isaiah, a prophet, who was like in the above average category, he's like a saint, why would he have to say that? I mean Isaiah just had an experience that very few people ever have. He could write a book, "My Vision of God." He could go on a speaking tour, he could go on Christian television. He could do anything with that. But he doesn't. It doesn't puff him up, it humbles him. And he says, "Woe is me." Why? Because in seeing God, he saw himself and this produced conviction of sin. Here's the point I want to make. Show me a person who is filled with pride and I'll show you a person who has never encountered God. You can't encounter God and remain prideful, it humbles you. Have you ever stood next to someboey in a song service who has a beautiful voice? And you couldn't carry a tune in a bucket perhaps. And when you hear that beautiful voice you feel like, "I don't want to ruin this. I want to sing to the Lord but I'm going to do it in my heart. (It says that, "In your heart making melody to the Lord," that's the best thing I'm going to produce right now because my voice compared to that, that's so beautiful). Or m aybe you attended a function and you didn't get the dress instructions correctly. You thought everybody was going to be csual and you come there, tuxedos, evening dresses; you have blue jeans on and a T-shirt, you don't feel quite right. Now here, even a prophet of God, next to God's purity has to cry, "Woe is me."

Max Lucado tells us why. He says, "You don't impress the officials at NASA with a paper airplane. You don't boast about your crayon sketches in the presences of Picasso. You don't claim equality with Einstein just because you can write H2O. And you don't boast about your goodness in the presence of a perfect man. Now here's an encounter with ta holy God that evokes a conviction, "Woe is me," like Jesus said, "If you want to enter the kingdom of God, you've got to be poor in Spirit. Blessed are the poor in Spirit, blessed are those who what? Mourn. And that's what Isaiah's doing. '

I could give you a couple more examples and I will. How about Job? He was Mister Holy, right? Wasn't Job the guy that God said to Satan, "Hey I got a guy that's the holiest guy on earth," Job 1:8, "There's nobody like him in the whole world. So if anybody could stand before the holiness of God, it was Job right? He was the best God said he had on earth. Yet we know Job suffered ad he questioned. And at the end of Job's period of suffering, God asked him several questions to show his holiness and glory and majesty. Job says, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. Now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." I know some of you are thinking, "That's low self esteem." You better believe it and it's one of the healthiest things you can have in the midst of perfection. How about Peter? Mister Fisherman, Mister Cool, til Jesus gets in the boat one day and he goes, "Depart from me I'm a sinful man." After that great catch of fish. Not, "Oh Lord, I'm an expert." "Depart from me, I'm a sinful man." Or how about John in the book of Revelation, he sees a vision of the glorified Christ, "And I fell before him as a dead man." In every case, when somebody is face to face with God's holiness, there is conviction of sin. Why? For this reason: Because holiness can never coexist with unholiness. God must either destroy the unholy or do something, purge the sin, fix the problem. Now if this is said for the very best people, the righteous people, the saints like Isaiah and Job and Peter and John, what about the agnostic. the atheist, the lower scale we would say in our minds. Even the very best has to say, "Ughh," about himself.

Look at verse 6 and 7, this is the third part, he is cleansed. "Then one of the seraphim flew to me having 9now it does sound bizarre, I admit.) "One of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the tongs from off the altar and he touched my mouth with it." Oof, that doesn't sound pleasant. A hot briquet, ssss! Like the first time I ever had green chile, wow that's hot. But he said, "Behold this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged." This is symbolic, there's a coal on the altar of sacrifice in the outer courtyard probably, that's where the coal was taken. There was a fire that never went out, sacrifices were being offered there to cleanse people from sin. So symbolically, a coal taken from off the altar touching his lips was important, because he said, "I'm a man of unclean lips, I dwell among a generation of people with unclean lips." So God says, "I'm going to fix it, I'm going to cleanse this problem." "And he touched my lips. And the angel said, 'Behold this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.'" God cleanses him, why? Again, let me remind you, holiness can never co-exist with unholiness, etiher that which is holy must destroy the unholy or else purge the sin, which he does. Now listen carefully, this is the whole story of the Bible. This is the whole story of the Bible. Let's go back to the tabernacle again. The tabernacle taught, "There's a great gulf of separation between holy God and sinful man. There's ports and there's veils and everything else. But it also taught that he gulf can be taken away by sacrifice, so people brgouht lambs, innocent victims, animals were killed, their blood was poured out and the sin of the person was transferred to the animal. Literally, the animal died in the place of the worshipper, even the high priest himself had to have his sins cleansed this way. And that's the meaning of the cross, the true atonement that came through Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb of God, at the moment that Jesus died and was separated judicially from the Father, remember what God did? He tore something. A veil in the temple, he tore it in two from top to bottom. God was making a statement. He was saying, "The way to the holy of holies to which everybody was kept out of, was now open. "Anyone in my Son's covenant of blood who trusts him can have fellowship with me any time. It's open. "Come in," God invited the world. That's the glorious message of the gospel. God does something about the gulf, the separation and the sin.

So, what is God's solution to unholy man? He declares the unholy as being holy. And says, "Come on in."

Isaiah understood this, he understood there was a gulf between himself and God, so he cries out, "Woe is me." But now he understands that the gulf is bridged by God's love and forgiveness. We just hit on something, didn't we? We hit on this truth: The reason you can have a lot of people going to church every single week in our country, week after week, month after month, year after year, without any change at all in their lives is because they do not understand this great gulf between God's utter holiness and man's utter sinfulness. I've even heard people pray, "Well God, if I've sinned... I'm sorry." If? If? I mean If, you've sinned, why even bother praying about it? Since you've sinned, since I've sinned. That's why we have to confess our sin, we have to 'fess up. Right? I John 1:9, "If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness."

I've told you before about the story of the great Prussian king Frederick the Great who was touring a Berlin prison. All the prisoners came in and got on their knees claiming their innocence, "I don't deserve to be here," "I should be set free," "I didn't do anything wrong." The great king went to one other person and said, "And I suppose you're going to say you're innocent too." And that last man said, "Oh no, I deserve all of the punishments that I get in this prison. I am guilty of the crime charged." The king heard that. What a different anthem by this one criminal. Then he smiled and he said to the warden, "Quickly release this rascal before he corrupts all of these fine innocent people." (laughter) He confessed his sin and he was forgiven.

We're going to close with just reading these next few verses. It says in verse 8 and this is the final phase of this, this prophet is commissioned now. "And also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send?' (This is all part of the same vision.) 'And who will go for us?' Then I said (the prophet), 'Here I am. Send me.' And he said, 'Go and tell this people.'" And the rest of the chapter is the message he was to give.

Tonight God is looking for volunteers. Willing representatives, he doesn't want forced labor, willing representatives who've been cleanse and will willingly go for him. Once cleansed by holy God.

I was in a store sometime back and somebody recognized me and they go, "Hey Pastor Skip." I go, "Hey, God bless you." I was in line and the woman in front of me heard the conversation. She turned around and she goes, "Are you a minister?" I said, "Yes I am." And she said, "Why?" Like, "Man, who coerced you, who held a bun to your head?" She was surprised when I said, "It's an addiction."

God is looking for willing servants. And he gets a hold of Isaiah, here's the beautiful part of the story, God takes a cleansed sinner and sends him to a corrupt nation. In fact, the whole reason I think for the vision of what we just read is so that God could use this guy effectively now that he's cleansed. God wanted Isaiah to be wholly holy. Wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, holy H-O-L-Y, completely given over to God, completely set apart for his use. And he was now at this point.

God wants to make you wholly holy, completely his, given over to his use. And what did God say in Leviticus 11? He introduced himself and he said, "I am God your God who is holy. Therefore you shall be holy for I am holy." So the mandate of holy God is he says, "Be holy (not be holy exactly like I am holy, nobody could do that, nobody could reach a hundred percent) Be holy for I am holy."

Now how do you know if you're holy? I'll give you two easy ways. It's not if you wear long robes or have a halo. Number one, you know you're holy when you hate sin. You hate sin. Number two, you know you're holy when you love righteousness. Simple, isn't it? Hate sin, love righteousness. Now naturally we don't hate sin, we love sin, we abhor giving it up. Why should we hate sin? That's what we need to learn to do. How do you do that? By looking at what sin did to the Savior you and I love, put him on the cross, caused him to bleed to death. Sinless perfect God bled. That's what my sin did to him. I should hate it for the that reason. I should also hate sin because look around, look what it does to everybody else. Look what it does marriages. Look what it does to a nation. Look what it does to individuals. Ruins people. We know we're holy when we hate sub and we love righteousness. That's why there's a struggle inside us, because the flesh and the spirit war.

Well, let me just close by saying, make your life count for semething. How do you do that? By seeing yourself for who you areally are. That's the first step. And how do you see yourself for who you really are? By seeing God for who he really is, exactly in his perfect holiness. Which causes us to go, "Ooo, ick, poor in spirit, mourn, woe is me." And then we discover what God can do with this, as God works in us to cleanse us and through us to use us.

Nancy Jones was a spinster in a Midwestern community. Nobody never really knew much about her and when she died it was an enigma because the editor of the local paper was told to write some king of announcement in the newspaper and something for her gravestone. Nobody really knew Nancy Jones all that well. The editor didn't know what to write. This lady didn't do much either good or bad. So he decided to pawn off the job of writing the little epithet to the first editor who would come into the office that day. Eight thirty a.m. the sports editor walked in. He said, "It's your job, you have to write the obituary." And so the sports editor wrote, "Here lies the bones of Nancy Jones. Her life it held no terrors. She lived an old maid, she died an old maid, no hit, no runs, no errors." How would you like to have your life read, "no hit, no runs, no errors," we don't know really what he or she did." Lived and died an old maid. Make your life count for something. God would say, "Whom will I send?" "Here I am, Lord, send me." That's how you make your life count. But it begins by seeing yourself and then you see God. And then you discover in that lowly place how God can cleanse you and use you.

God's holiness and God's love are partners. God's holiness shows the gulf, God's love shows the bridge. And tonight that bridge is extended to you if you want it, if you're willing to take Christ and the atoning blood he shed on Calvary's cross and say yes to God. He will wipe away all of your sins, bridge the gap, rip the veil and say, "Hang out with me."

Heavenly Father, as we close tonight, that's what we pray for. We pray we might enjoy fellowship with you the holy God and by that fellowship be transformed as was Isaiah. In seeing you we must ourselves. In seeing ourself in the light of you, we must say what Isaiah, Job, Peter, John, Habakkuk and others declared. Then comes the cleansing. And then comes the commissioning. To call us, you convict us, you cleanse us, you qualify us to do what you told us to do. Lord, it all begins with the pverty of spirit. We enter the kingdom by bending low, by mourning, by asking you holy God for forgiveness. And we know it can be guaranteed, not by our works, not by the blood of a lamb or a goat, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb that takes away, not covers, takes away the sins of the world. Take away more tonight. Cleanse more tonight. Bring more into your kingdom tonight.

Additional Messages in this Series

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9/15/2002
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Does the Truth Really Matter?
2 Timothy 4
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Today I begin a new series I am calling Rediscovering Our Foundations. I am concerned about the vast biblical illiteracy that exists in our country in general and in our churches in particular. Truth is commonly seen by our culture as relative and not fixed. Often sentiments such as, "Well, that is your truth, but it's not my truth," are expressed by many. But if truth is absolute, then why not stand up for it? Why be embarrassed about it? What do you really believe about God, the Trinity, Christ, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell?
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9/22/2002
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Is Anybody Up There?
Hebrews 11:1-40;Romans 2:1-29
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We all remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her three friends come to approach the Great Oz. Out of the corner of their eye they notice a man pulling levers behind a curtain, working the mechanical, smoke-breathing Oz. The man then reacts by announcing, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But how can they not? The man is the explanation for everything to them. They discovered that Oz didn't really exist! So how do we know that God exists and isn't a fabrication or projection of our own imaginations?
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9/29/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 1
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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In this series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, it's time to consider your own personal foundation. What is the final resting place for your cares, concerns, griefs, surprises and sorrows? Where do you turn for answers to life's deepest questions? What is your authority? How sure are you that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God? Can you articulate to others the difference between the Bible and other "sacred" religious works?
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10/6/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 2
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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Last week, we discovered exactly what the designation "Scripture" referred to and how books of the Bible were considered as part of the inspired text. We also learned what inspiration means and how God used humans in His process of having exactly what He wanted written down. But anyone can claim inspiration for their work. Yet how do we know that the Bible is the authentic Word of God? Moreover, how can we share with others its uniqueness so they, too, may listen to its message and apply it?
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10/13/2002
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The God Who Knows It All!
Psalm 139:1-6
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A little boy climbed his neighbor's apple tree when he saw their car leave. He didn't realize that while he was stuffing his pockets full of apples, another neighbor was watching through a pair of binoculars and saw the whole thing! God isn't spying on people, trying to catch them doing something wrong; but God is aware of everything. Such a truth has a profound effect on us: it can either be very comforting or else extremely unsettling.
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10/20/2002
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Are You a Big-Godder or a Little Godder?
Psalm 139:7-24
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11/17/2002
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Good Man, Mad Man, Con Man, or God-Man?
Matthew 16:13-17
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No other person from history has generated so much controversy and speculation, as well as written literature, as Jesus Christ. Theologians, philosophers, poets and pundits have all weighed in concerning who Jesus is. What is often forgotten is that Jesus can never be overestimated! John said that the, "world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25) about His accomplishments.
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12/1/2002
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A King Among the Critters
Luke 2:1-7
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In our current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've come to the person of Christ. Last time, we considered His identity; today, we contemplate His nativity. For the next few weeks, we'll look closely at Jesus' birth, His early years, ministry, and death on the cross, which was the very purpose of His birth. It's my hope that we'll all emerge with a fuller understanding of Jesus and a deeper desire to worship and serve Him. Today, let's look at the strange circumstances of His birth.
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12/8/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 1
Luke 2:1-52; Matthew 2:1-23
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Jesus' upbringing and boyhood has been the subject of much speculation and endless controversy throughout the centuries. Myths have developed about Jesus based (interestingly enough) on what isn't written. The Bible gives us five cameo glimpses of Jesus from early boyhood to age 30. We'll look at three of these today and then two more next week. We discover that Jesus' whole life was marked with purpose.
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12/15/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 2
Luke 2-3
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We don't give much thought to Jesus growing up, developing into adolescence and then into manhood. But of course He did. Luke is really the only New Testament author who gives us information about these early years. He speaks generally about Jesus' growth as well as specifically about Jesus' capacity as a young boy of 12. At each stage of His life, Jesus demonstrated He knew His purpose for His life on earth.
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12/22/2002
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A Lamb at the River
Matthew 3:1-17; John 1:1-51
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When Jesus turned 30, He presented Himself to the nation of Israel in public ministry. His first appearance, however, seemed so out of character for the kind of Messiah that people were anticipating. What was He doing getting baptized in a river with everyone else? John was about to find out—and so was everyone else.
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1/12/2003
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The Holy Spirit: Invisible, Personal, Powerful
John 14-16
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Today in our series Rediscovering Our Foundations, we consider the Holy Spirit. Most of us have heard of Him, but who is He exactly? What does He do? How important is the Holy Spirit to your personal life, your family life, your work or your leisure time? Perhaps A.W. Tozer was right when he said, "For multitudes of Christians profess today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires." It is my sincere prayer that will change for us in the few weeks ahead.
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1/19/2003
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The Gracious and Holy Hound of Heaven
John 16:5-11
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Having understood Who the Holy Spirit is (Person, not just power; Deity, not just dignitary), we now find out what He does, specifically what He does in the world of unbelievers. Since the greatest gift God ever gave to the world was His only Son (John 3:16), it stands to reason that the greatest sin one can commit is to reject the Son (John 16:9). How does the Holy Spirit both sentence the world as prosecutor and yet lead people away from judgment? And what role do we play in all of this?
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1/26/2003
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I Need Somebody, Help! Not Just Anybody
John 14-16
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To live one's life for God in an ungodly world sounds like mission impossible, right? It would be as if we had to do it without help. But be strengthened by this thought: God never intended for us to do it alone! That's why He has provided His people a Helper, the Holy Spirit. This ever-present divine Person is very busy helping God's people become all He wants them to be.
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2/2/2003
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Brand-Spankin' New Apostles!
Acts 1:1-8
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The legendary missionary to India, William Carey, didn't see obstacles; he saw opportunities. He was the "Let's go for it!" kind of guy. In fact, one of his most famous sayings was, "Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God." Carey did both and saw results! The Holy Spirit can take ordinary men and women and do extraordinary things with them. He is the God who "makes all things new" (Revelation 21:5). Such a truth can only create a sense of wonder and excitement in the heart of a child of God. After all, what new thing could God do through you?
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2/9/2003
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Unholy Responses to the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 4:30
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You might say that we live in the "Age of the Holy Spirit." Jesus promised Him to us after He was done with His own earthly ministry. We have seen that He is very active both in the world among the unconverted and in the church among God's own people. But He has one overriding goal-to bring glory to Jesus Christ in every life. What does that mean to us? It means a total surrendering to Him. As Oswald Chambers said, "The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a guest in a house. He invades everything." But what happens when people don't respond to Him rightly? Then what?
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2/16/2003
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How Can Three Be One?
Matthew 28:16-20
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1+1+1=1. Is this new math? No, it's the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. At the very heart of the Judeo-Christian faith is the belief that there is only One God. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the plurality within the Godhead—three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. What are we to make of all this? Why is it important? And more fundamentally, how should it affect us personally?
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2/23/2003
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The Exceedingly Un-Holy Spirit
1 John 5:19
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Satan, the prince of darkness, has been around a long time. He has studied mankind for thousands of years, marking his strategies according to what he sees in us and what God's plan for the world is. He hates what God loves; he fights what God establishes. And let's remember, he's got help! Other spirit beings have joined his rebellion and control the system known in Scripture as the world. John even said, "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). What should we know about this arch-nemesis of God in order to stand against him?
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3/2/2003
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Touched by an Angel
Luke 1-2
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As even the title suggests, angels have become popular in modern culture. But whether we know it or not, we've all been "touched an angel." Martin Luther helped us to understand their role by remarking, "An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body, for the service of Christendom and of the church." He was partially correct, but angels serve an even greater role than being strictly for the church. Their ministry goes beyond us and is principally concerned with the glory and majesty of God.
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3/9/2003
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Man, Has God Got a Plan For You!
Genesis 1-3
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Alexander Pope once remarked that, "the chief study of man is man himself." That may be true, especially in our culture, but this could also be the reason why mankind is so desperate and spiritually thirsty. Looking only to ourselves rather than beyond ourselves can get pretty lonely! But why are we here? What is the purpose of mankind inhabiting this planet? How can I fulfill the God-given destiny that He originally designed for me?
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3/16/2003
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From Creation to Corruption
Genesis 2-3
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How did we, as the human race, get into the colossal mess we find ourselves in? Was it always this way? And what do Adam's actions, acted out so long ago, have to do with us in this modern technologically advanced age? Am I at all responsible? Can the effects ever be undone? Let's look at these issues in the opening chapters of Genesis.
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4/27/2003
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Church-Building 101
Matthew 16:13-20
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The church was God's idea; it was never man's notion. Jesus Christ is the founder, director, architect, owner and builder of the church. But there is an awful lot of confusion about what a church is supposed to look and function like. Today, we look at the first New Testament mention of the church and look at our spiritual origins. As we are Rediscovering Our Foundations, let's also rediscover our spiritual roots as the people of God.
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5/4/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 1
John 17
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The church is not a place, but a people (a called-out assembly of people who gather together and whose heartfelt conviction is that Jesus is Lord). Jesus laid claim on the church—it belongs to Him ("I will build My church"). So then, what does He want His church to be like? What should mark us overall? In Jesus' longest recorded prayer before His crucifixion, He prays for four characteristics that are to mark the people of God. Today we look at the first two.
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5/25/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 2
John 17
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Church shopping and church hopping have become one of American Christians’ favorite pastimes. We want a church that suits us, helps us, and pleases us. But since Jesus paid for it, it’s His church (Acts 20:28). So what does He want from us? What should the people of God be like? What ingredients and activities ought to be part of our makeup? In this series, Rediscovering our Foundations, we must rediscover the foundational purpose for our existence as His church.
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6/1/2003
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How to Build a Beautiful Body
1 Corinthians 12:3-22
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6/22/2003
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The Last Days
2 Peter 1-3
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On October 30, 1938, the day before Halloween, the novel War of the Worlds was made into a radio broadcast featuring Orson Welles. As millions of Americans were listening, the play was performed so it would sound like a news broadcast about an invasion from Mars. Many thought they were hearing an actual news account of an invasion from Mars and concluded this was the end. Some even committed suicide as their final fatal act! In Rediscovering Our Foundations, what can we know about the last days of this world and what can we do to prepare?
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6/29/2003
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I'll Be Back
John 13:31-14:6
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A little boy was trying desperately to tell his friends about what Jesus' return would be like. He described Jesus' coming in glory as being "greater than Superman, Batman, and the Power Rangers put together!" Of course even that would be an understatement. Jesus came here 2000 years ago and then left; but He promised to return. What will it be like? What difference should it make to us right here, right now?
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7/6/2003
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The Burning Question
Revelation 20:11-15
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Hell is an eternal and biblical reality that has been relegated to the junk pile of modern myths. Woody Allen once said that hell is the abode of all people who annoy him. The word hell is used on a daily basis in people's dicey language patterns—usually as a fill-in expletive. Of all the Christian doctrines unfolded in Scripture, hell is the toughest one to handle. Most love the notion of a blissful heaven awaiting them; few cling to the idea of a literal hell to punish the lost.
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7/13/2003
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Heaven: Our Final Frontier
Revelation 21:1-27
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Captain Kirk and his starship Enterprise weekly traversed the galaxies on the famed Star Trek episodes. That was fiction! But one day you will inhabit the recreated millennial earth in a glorified body and then explore the vast kingdoms of heaven in the eternal state. That is reality! It will be so different than what you're used to that it's linguistically impossible to convey its vastness. But there's enough here to whet the appetite for heaven!
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There are 29 additional messages in this series.
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