Good morning. Let's go once again in our Bibles back to the book of Isaiah. The prophecy of Isaiah. We have been there for some time considering another one of these attributes of God that I felt compelled for us to consider some time ago for the simple reason that the Lord impressed, I believe, upon my heart all of the difficulty, all of the problems that we see in the world, and even much of what does not align with what the Scripture teaches us the church is to be, so much, nevertheless, of what we see in the professing church today can, I believe, even be traced to this lack of knowing who God is and what He's like. And if that is the case, then our great need as believers, our great need as the church, not to mention the overwhelmingly great need of a lost and dying world, is to see and know and understand who God is and what He's like. And so we're looking at the attributes of God, and we're doing it in a way that can only make known unto us what God is like, and that is by looking at the pictures or the portraits that God has given us of Himself in the Word in order that we might know who God is and what He's like. There's no other way to know. I've said before, let me say again this morning, I would to God that I could reveal Him to you. There is nothing that I would rather be able to do and that would fill my heart with more joy than to know that I could make God known to you. But I can't do that. And neither can any other man except that God is pleased to use men as instruments to make His own picture of Himself known to us. So we have to look to the Word of God. If we're going to know and understand who God is and what He's like, then we must see that and come to understand that as it's made known unto us in the Scripture. And the Scripture is God's revelation of Himself to us. And we do not find that anywhere else but in God's Word. The Word of God alone is sufficient to make God known to those who are alienated, separated, and ignorant of Him because of their sin. Only the Word of God will reveal God to us. And so we are looking at another one of those attributes of God. Another one of those portraits here in the Museum of Finest Art that God has been pleased to give us to make Himself known unto us. We have been most recently considering that attribute that is known as the holiness of God. The holiness of God. Now there's some of these attributes that we spend more time on than we do others. because of their extreme importance. We spend some time looking at the sovereignty of God more closely than perhaps we look at some of the others because of its importance. But if there is any one attribute of God that is even greater in importance, If not the greatest in importance of all the attributes of God, then the sovereignty of God, it would be the one we're considering right now. His holiness. His holiness. And so this morning as we continue to look to the holiness of God, to this portrait of God that makes His holiness known to us, I would perhaps entitle the message this morning on this particular subject, something to the effect of a most important attribute, or perhaps even the significance of God's holiness. Every attribute of God is important, and extremely so. And I would never downplay any of them to any degree. But there are obviously some attributes of God that hold a greater place of prominence and therefore importance in the Word of God in God's revelation of Himself than others perhaps do. And this particular one is perhaps, I believe, the most prominent. of all of the attributes of God and therefore I suspect to be of greater importance than all the rest. And so this morning I want us to continue looking at this attribute, the holiness of God. And to do so, we are going to come back to our text from last week, and a text we've looked at for two or three Sundays now, found in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. But would you just turn to our text for this morning, once again with me, to the twelfth chapter? where I read at the beginning of the hour. Let me call your attention again to a few things in this portion of Scripture that call our attention to the main thrust of what I believe God has placed upon my heart this morning as we continue to look at this portrait of God that He has painted of Himself, which is so clearly made known unto us in the sixth chapter of Isaiah that we're going to come back to in just a little bit. But there are some things that are spoken of in this twelfth chapter here of Isaiah that make known unto us just how important and how significant this particular portrait is. And when I use that word significant, I hope that I'm not using a word that perhaps we don't really comprehend or understand the meaning of, because it's important that we do so if we're going to look at the significance of God's holiness. That word significance has as its root the word sign, does it not? Significance, significance, S-I-G-N to begin the word significance. And what is a sign? What does a sign do? Well, a sign does a lot of things really, but a sign shows us something to begin with, doesn't it? It shows us something and it impresses upon us a need at least at times, when you get out here on the street and you are driving down the street and you see a sign, a red sign with the word stop on it, that sign has some significance, doesn't it? It's showing you something, it's pointing something out to you, and it's expressing to you there is a need for you at this particular intersection to stop! Because if you don't stop, your very life could be endangered as well as the lives of others. And so, significance is an important word. And so, when we think about the significance of a stop sign, we are brought face to face with the importance of that stop sign. When we think about the significance of God's holiness, we are brought face to face with the importance of God's holiness. It is extremely important that we understand the holiness of God, at least to the degree that God will enable us to understand it at this time. And so, there are some reasons why it is so important. And some of these reasons are found here in the 12th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. Listen again to these words. And in that day you shall say, O Lord, I will praise You. You know, eternity is going to be an eternity I believe of primarily what? Worship and praise of God. If we're in the presence of God. If we're in the presence of God. If you are not in the presence of God, It'll be an eternity not of praise and worship of God, but it will be an eternity for you of cursing yourself because you find yourself experiencing the curse of God upon you for all of eternity because you did not Put your confidence, your trust, and your hope in the Savior, the only Savior that there is from our sin, its guilt, and its penalty, that being God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But oh, Isaiah begins this chapter of his prophecy, or this portion of his prophecy, by telling us there's a day coming when some at least, We can draw as a conclusion from what he says, some at least will praise God and be doing so for all of eternity. Why? I think it can all be traced, the reason why anyone will be in the presence of God, worshipping Him, praising Him for all of eternity. The reason and the sole reason for that can be traced to the fact that God was pleased at some point in time to make known, to reveal unto that individual His holiness. His holiness. There will never ever be, hasn't been, nor ever will be anyone enter into the eternal presence of a holy God who has not already beforehand seen that God is holy. And we'll see a little bit later why that is. I hope. If not today, next Sunday. And let's go on. Not only will there be praise in the hearts and lives of some, but then Isaiah tells us that'll be so although there was a time when God was angry with us. Did you know that? That God is angry with some? Scripture makes that very clear. God is angry with some. So angry with some that He hates some. Did you know that? Oh, you know, we hear today so many that like to say and would like for us to thank, and even preachers stand in the pulpit so often saying, God hates sin, but He loves the sinner. I challenge you to find anywhere in God's Word that God loves sinners or sin. The only sinner that God can love is the sinner that He sees hidden, secure, safe in the righteousness of His Son, the Lord Jesus. And that righteousness of Christ is seen on no one except those who trust Him and believe in Him to be their hope of salvation from their sin. But God is angry with sinners. In every sinner outside of Christ, God hates. The psalmist tells us in Psalm 5 that God hates all workers of iniquity. Who does that include? Every man, woman, boy, girl that enters into this life, into this world. We come into this world sinful, don't we? According to what Paul says, we inherit from our first father, Adam, a sinful nature that just brings forth nothing but sin in the eyes of God. That's why God hates. Because we're sinners, we're rebellious, we're disobedient, we're obstinate. We refuse to acknowledge that He has every right and we have none. We're rebels, sinners in the eyes of God. And that angers God. He's a jealous God. He'll give that right to be praised, to be acknowledged as good to none but Himself and those that He sees hidden in His righteous Son, the Lord Jesus. Well, there was a time, Isaiah tells us, that God was angry. And Isaiah makes it a very personal thing to himself, doesn't he? He says, you were angry with me. With me. And I want to tell you what, folks, until God shows you His holiness, you'll go throughout your life not ever seeing that God is angry with you. Did you know that? You'll go through your life and you'll pass from this life. If you never see the holiness of God, you'll pass through this life and enter eternity. And only then, when you enter eternity, Beyond this life will you realize the anger and the hate that God has for sin and the sinner whose sin has not been pardoned or forgiven through the merit of Christ. Oh, Isaiah made it a very personal thing. And it's got to be a personal thing. It's got to be personal with me. It's got to be personal with you. You and I have got as individuals to see God in all of His holiness. For until we see God in all of His holiness, we'll never see ourselves in our unholiness. What is it that Sproul said? God is holy. We are not. If you never see that God is holy, you'll never see that you are not. You'll always be thinking, there is just a little bit of good in me somewhere, enough that God will surely be satisfied and accept me into His presence. That's a lie. That's the devil's lie. That's the lie that the devil planted in Eve's heart in the Garden of Eden so many years ago. And it's the lie that fills the heart and consumes the thoughts of every man, woman, boy, girl, child born into this world. The lie that there's something good enough in me to satisfy God. Religions. Every religion, if you will, that is not the Christian religion, the biblical Christian religion, every other religion, you'll find the teaching that you can do enough if you just work hard enough, if you just strive long enough to satisfy God. God will be pleased if you do what is right in His eyes. Well, that may be the case if it were possible for anybody to do what is right in God's eyes, but it's not possible. We have a nature that renders it impossible for us to do anything right in the eyes of God. Although it may outwardly appear right, the motive that spurred it was not right in God's eyes, and that makes the act itself not right in God's eyes. Oh, how we need to see personally, personally, that we are sinners and that our sin angers God and alienates us from Him and brings us under the curse of God and the condemnation of God. And that we, yes, one day will face and experience the wrath of God and that for all of eternity, unless we see God in His holiness. and ourselves in our sinfulness, and realize that we have a need that's greater than we can meet in and of ourselves, and realize that God alone has provided the remedy, the only remedy for our sin that will save us and secure us from His wrath. Only God, only God can provide such a remedy. Oh, he not only said, Isaiah did, not only did he say, you were angry with me, God. What did he say next? But your anger is turned away. Your anger is turned away. And now I have comfort. I am comforted because God turned away His anger from me. Isaiah is continuing, you see, to give us his testimony, is he not? He's continuing to give us his witness, his testimony, the story of his own life, his encounter with God that we've been looking at in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, where Isaiah said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up. And his train filled the temple. And about the throne of God, Isaiah said, were these angelic creatures seraphim. And they cried out day and night, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah saw what? God in His holiness. Isaiah no more than saw God in His holiness than he saw himself in his sinfulness and realized that because he was a sinner, he was lost. He said after seeing God in His holiness, he said, woe is me. He pronounced upon himself the curse that he saw rested upon him because of his sin. He said, I'm a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. What's he saying? He's just describing the fact that he's a sinner. Jesus himself said it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Everything that comes out of our mouth is an indication of what's in our heart. Before we speak, we need to stop and think about that, don't we? We need to stop and think about that. Because what comes out of our mouth is an indication of what's reigning and ruling in our hearts at that particular time. And so Isaiah cries out, I'm lost. I'm undone. Woe is me. I am undone because I am a sinful man. And he looked about him, and he realized that everybody else was in the boat with him. We're all sinners. We're all sinners. That's what Isaiah saw. When he saw God is holy, he saw that all of us are sinners. All of us. Paul said it so clearly in Romans 3, did he not? Verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And what is the glory of God? His sinless perfection. His holiness. We fall short of God's holiness. And did you know that God is not satisfied with anything less than holiness? Nothing. The book of Hebrews, we read without holiness, no man's ever going to see the Lord. We'll never stand in the presence of God, accepted before Him, unless we stand before Him, holy as He is holy. And there's only one way to do that. It's not in and of ourselves. It's only to be found in Christ by trusting Him. It's only to be found clothed with the righteousness of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that God will see us as holy because He no longer will see us in our sin because we've trusted Christ who died to take away our sin. But He sees us in the righteousness of Christ, that Christ put to our account when we trusted in Him and believed in Him. And therefore we are holy. God demands it. God demands it. And the demand that God made all the way back in the Old Testament, He has never taken back, He's never lessened in any way, any degree, any shape, any form. He said there in the book of Leviticus, I, the Lord your God, am holy, so you be holy. God said it. He meant it then, and He means it today. Holiness. holiness. We must see the holiness of God. Isaiah did, and he could confess that God's anger was turned away, and now he found comfort in knowing that the anger of God no longer rested upon him, because he was hidden in that only cleft of the rock that is safety from the wrath of God. Oh, Isaiah went on there in Isaiah 12 to say, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. I will trust and not be afraid. I want us to stop and pause here this morning and maybe we not go much further than this thought this morning as we are looking at the holiness of God. But I want us to just consider, consider what it means to us to have God for our salvation. God for our salvation and to be able to trust in Him by the marvelous gift of His grace that He bestows upon us so freely and so unmerited on our part that we not be afraid. That we not be afraid. I've been thinking this morning about fear. About fear. Have you ever stopped to think about what the thing is that you're most afraid of? You know, we have lots of fears, don't we? You know, that's a natural thing, I suppose. Some people are scared to death of spiders. Well, I don't like them, but a spider doesn't scare me. I tell you what, I can walk across the yard and see a little green garter snake and I can go sky high. I don't like snakes. I have a fear of snakes, you know. But what are you afraid of more than anything else? I suspect that if we were honest, if all of us were honest, which we should be, we would have to say that there is nothing that more frightens us than death. Don't you think? I mean, death presents something that is, to a large degree, totally unknown. I mean, it lays right before us. I mean, you cross the threshold of death and you're entering into something that you really don't know hardly anything about other than the few things that God has been pleased to reveal to us here in His Word. And we do know enough to either give us hope or to create even a greater fear. But death is perhaps one of the things that frightens us more than anything else. And we're confronted with it so often, aren't we? We've all lost loved ones, some of us recently. And I venture to say that we never go to a funeral with what, but what we're reminded that there's coming a day when we too are gonna experience what that loved one whose funeral we're here for has just recently experienced. We're mortal, we're mortal. And the Scripture is so clear about that, the truth of that. In Hebrews 9, verse 27, I believe it is there, the Apostle says, It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. After this, the judgment. Appointed to die, and after this, the judgment. And our tendency, I think, so often, Even when we go to a funeral of a loved one or a friend or whatever and are confronted once again with our own mortality and the fact that yes, we're going to die someday too, I suspect that it's not long after we've parted from the funeral and gotten back into the regular routine of life that we've kind of pushed that thought aside. Why is that? Because we don't like to think about that. We don't like to think about the reality of the fact that we are mortal. That there's a day coming when we're going to die. We're going to face death. And there is a certain amount of fear that always accompanies the thought of death. I mean, even those of us who know the Lord, why do we want to put it off? Why do we want to put it off? There's just some unknown things, isn't there? Perhaps there's some uncertainty about some things. created by unbelief and our lack of confidence and trust and resting in the Lord. But there is a truthfulness about the fear of death and so we like to push that from our minds and put that aside. And we're never comfortable when an untimely death of someone somewhat intrudes into our lives and reminds us that all of us are facing some things in the future that are unknown to us. And those are things that we don't like to think about, things that we don't like to deal with. And death is something that reminds us that we are not just creatures, But we're sinful creatures. We are sinful creatures. That's what the Word of God tells us. And that's what Isaiah is seeking to impress upon us in his testimony here, in his prophecy, when he says, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord high and lifted up, seated upon His throne. And these angelic creatures crying out day and night, holy, holy, holy. And Isaiah saw that, and the thought of it, God's holiness gripped his heart, arrested his heart, and made known unto him that God is holy. But he wasn't. He wasn't holy. Perhaps for the first time in Isaiah's life, he realized his true state before God. Isaiah was a Jew. Isaiah was a Jew. And he was undoubtedly a religious person, adhering to Jewish religion, perhaps strictly. We don't know too much about Isaiah and his life, but he was a Jew, and therefore being a Jew and following closely the teaching of the Jews, what would have been his hope? His own obedience to God's law, right? That's what the Jews are placing their hope in. That's what they're depending upon. And by the way, it's not just the Jews, it's everybody else in one sense. That's what everybody else, apart from Christ, is depending upon. Their own obedience, their own righteousness, their own goodness. Something good in me that will surely cause God to accept me into His presence and invite me into His eternal heaven? Well, that's where Isaiah was. But seeing the holiness of God reminded him of his sinfulness and what God said sin does. What does it do? It brings death. Physical death. Did you know that there would have never been physical death for the man that God created had he not sinned? Would have never come. Would have never come. But even worse than that, The sin that entered into man's heart brought about not only just physical death, but it brought about a much worse death than that, didn't it? It brought about a spiritual death that alienated him and separated him from God. And if there is anything more fearful, more fearsome than death itself, physical death, it is Nothing at all compared with the fear of a sinner without Christ coming face to face with a holy God. On that day, on that day, the sinner outside of Christ will face a holy God who is angry and who hates sin and hates the sinner, and he will hear himself pronounced guilty, condemned, and destined for an eternity. in a hell prepared for the devil and his angels and all who do not trust the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the greatest fear of all, or ought to be the greatest fear of all. When we encounter Him, the reality of what we are as sinners breaks upon us and totally destroys the falsehood and the lie that we can depend upon ourselves. Because we'll realize when we see God, there's no hope for me in me. None whatsoever. Nothing to be found in me that would ever satisfy a holy God. This is Isaiah's testimony, folks. This is what he's revealing to us. This is what he's showing us. And then he goes on to talk about the joy that has filled his heart and that will fill our hearts, those of us who have seen God in His holiness as He did. And seeing God in His holiness, seeing ourselves in our lack of holiness, lack of that which is acceptable in God's eyes, and brought us to the point of realizing that we could not in and of ourselves ever make it. But that God has provided a way. And Isaiah went on to share that provision in the 6th chapter of Isaiah. I want us to turn back there in closing, and we'll stop here this morning. But I want us to turn back there and I want us to look in the 6th chapter of Isaiah at that portion of Isaiah's testimony where he has already made known unto us his revelation of a holy God and his revelation of his unholy self and now he's going to make known unto us the revelation of God's remedy of grace for the sinner who is in such a need of that which only God can provide. Verse 5 and following of Isaiah 6. Verses 5 through 7. Isaiah said, as he cried out, Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. In other words, I am a sinner, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, and all of His holiness. in all of His purity. Therefore, I see myself as a sinner." And Isaiah is confessing here, is he not? Is he not confessing? Isn't that what he's doing in his testimony? He's confessing that he is a sinner before God in the presence of a holy God. And what does God do when we confess our sin? It was interesting to me this morning as I thought about John's first epistle. The first epistle of John. As we begin that epistle, we get to the fifth verse, and it tells us there in verse 5 of 1 John chapter 1, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. What is John telling us there, but the very same thing that Isaiah is telling us in the first part of his testimony? God's holy. God's holy. He's light. He's pure. There's no darkness in Him. There's no sin in Him. He is without sin. Perfectly holy without any sin. He is pure light. No darkness in Him. Same thing Isaiah is saying. He saw God in all of His holiness. That there was no sinfulness in God at all. But then in verse 9 of 1 John chapter 1, John says, but if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. What an amazing thing. And that's what Isaiah is about to tell us here happened to him. When he confessed his sin before a holy God, he says, then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a lie of coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth and said, This has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged. Oh, that is just a picture of a sacrifice having been offered up and a live coal from off that altar. which represents the blood of Christ coming and being applied to the sinfulness of Isaiah's heart. And his sin, therefore, is cleansed and purged and taken away, and he's forgiven. Forgiven. Just as John said in 1 John 1, 9, when we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all our unrighteousness. Oh, but don't you see, we'll never come to that point, we'll never come to that place, unless we see the holiness of God. Unless we see the holiness of God. Until you see the holiness of God, you will never, ever see or appreciate God's amazing grace in saving sinners from their sin. We must see the holiness of God. The significance of God's holiness is paramount. There's nothing greater. There's nothing greater. No greater need do you have in your life and no greater need do I have in my life than that of seeing God as Isaiah saw Him. High and lifted up, yes. Lord, sovereign Lord, yes. But most of all, holy, holy, holy. Because only then Only then will we see our sin and confess it for what it is and be forgiven. May God enable us to see Him in His holiness. Would you pray with me?