Holy, Holy, Holy!

Most of us would rather not dwell on God's Holiness. There's other characteristics that are far more attractive, like His love, His mercy, His compassion, His presence, His power. His Holiness is a little daunting to us, and for some it even bothers.

However, Holiness is God's most noted attribute. God's Holiness can be tough to understand, and today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares why God's Holiness is vital to your life and spiritual walk. But before we begin, we want to tell you about a resource that puts Skip's years of Bible teaching in your hands to help you build your legacy of faith. As we come to the end of the year at Connect with Skip, we have new plans for expansion that we want you to know about. In 2023, we hope to take these through the Bible teachings to more of the large population cities in our country. When God deals with a nation, He often focuses on the cities, and we know our nation needs the Word of God.

We'll tell you how you can join this project. But first, this from Skip. I want my legacy to be I made much of Jesus, that Jesus became greater in people's hearts and lives because of my life and ministry. That they walked away understanding the Bible, that what seemed to be complicated was actually very simple, that I helped make it simple for them and understandable. When you help us expand into more metropolitan areas in 2023 with a year-end gift of $1,000 or more, we'll send you the Skip Heitzig Legacy Library so far, containing 11 books, 17 booklets, and the Bible from 30,000 feet. Pastor Skip's incomparable teaching series of 64 full messages through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation on a flash drive that also includes Learning from the Land, Skip's video tour of Israel. G. Campbell Morgan was called in his biography a man of the Word or the man of the Word. That's what I want to be, a man of the Word. The Skip Heitzig Legacy Library so far is a real treasure, and it's yours when you make a year-end gift of $1,000 or more, and you will be helping us expand the reach of these teachings.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we'll be in Isaiah Chapter 6 for today's study, so let's join Skip Heitzig. I suppose if ever there were a religious-sounding word, it would be the word holy or holiness. When people hear the term, they think of church stuff. I grew up seeing in my church something known as holy water, and I think as a kid I kind of walked around it because it just sort of spooked me. What is that all about?

Holy water. And then when I was eight years old, they put me through my first holy communion. And then when people grow older, they go through the ritual sometimes known as holy matrimony. And some want to go take a tour of Israel, but they say, I'm going to go visit the holy land. And we even worship someone called the Holy Spirit. Now, that word to some people is a funny-sounding word, simply because most people don't get it.

They don't understand the meaning of it, and or they don't like it. There was a minister who was at a yard sale, and there was a lawnmower for sale, so he bought it. It was a good price. The guy said it worked. The minister took it home, made sure gas was in it, spark plug was in it, pulled the cord, it didn't work.

Pulled it again, didn't work, didn't work. Finally, the minister went back to the yard sale and said to the man who sold it to him, look, I paid good money for this thing, and the lawnmower doesn't work. And the man who sold it to him said, well, that's because you have to curse for this thing to work. And the minister looked at him and said, don't you know, I'm a minister, I'm a pastor, I'm a man of the cloth. He says, I don't even remember how to curse anymore.

And the man smiled and said, just keep pulling that rope, Reverend, it'll come back to you. All of us are capable of saying things that are not good or doing things that aren't wholesome, but by God's grace, on the other hand, we can do things that are awesome. All because of one trait of God, holiness. I know it's an odd sounding word. In fact, one author said the word conjures up images in his mind. Words like thinness or gauntness, hollow eyes, beards, sandals, long robes, stone cells, no sex, no jokes, hair shirts, frequent cold baths, fasting, long hours of prayer, wild rocky deserts, getting up at four in the morning, clean fingernails, stained glass, self humiliation. Now, those are images that some of us carry with us when we hear the word holy.

I'll prove it to you. There's three words in that little list that make us think of somebody. Beards, sandals, long robe. You think of Jesus. That's how we picture him. That's holy.

If you were to try to picture Jesus for a moment with faded blue jeans, a mustache riding a Harley, that might not be able to be something you could do because you have the idea in your mind of what he looked like. We are in Isaiah chapter six, and I draw your attention to verse one. 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 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. Then one of the Seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal with which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

And then I said, here am I, send me. There's another passage parallel to this one, I'm going to read just a couple verses, because you need to hear it in the context of what we just read. It is Revelation chapter 4, another vision, seen by a different man by the name of John, not Isaiah.

But it's similar. In Revelation 4, John writes, after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. The first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. We are told, as we keep reading, that immediately John was in the spirit, and he saw a throne, and once seated upon that throne, with the bright appearance of jasper and sardius stone, there was a rainbow, like an emerald around that throne, and there were 24 thrones around it, with 24 elders and four living creatures, angelic beings. I'm picking it up again in Revelation 4, verse 8.

The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. God is holy. I call God's holiness his most unpopular attribute. Because most of us would rather not dwell on God's holiness, there's other characteristics that are far more attractive, like his love, his mercy, his compassion, his presence, his power. His holiness is a little daunting to us, and for some it even bothers.

However, holiness is God's most noted attribute. Now listen to this, of all the things God has called in scripture, he is called holy most often. In the book of Isaiah alone, 30 times the prophet refers to God as the holy one. The holy one. Not the merciful one, not the compassionate one, the holy one. And all told, the Bible uses the word holy 637 times.

Only twice is it repeated back to back three times. Holy, holy, holy, that's Isaiah 6 and Revelation chapter 4. But notice that it's not love, love, love, it's not mercy, mercy, mercy, it's not grace, grace, grace. It's not wrath, wrath, wrath.

It's not justice, justice, justice. It is holy, holy, holy. Now, as we go through this passage, there are four ways in which God's holiness should affect us.

And the first is just understanding its meaning. Holiness means separation. Now, we are told in verse 1, it says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. You say, is that an important piece of information to have in the year that King Uzziah died? Well, if your name is Uzziah, it is. Or if you're Mrs. Uzziah, it's a pretty monumental year.

Or if you're one of the little Uzziahs running around, this is a big deal. What you need to know is King Uzziah, who was the king of Judah at the time, had been reigning on the throne of Israel politically for 52 years. And they were, for the most part, 52 good years, godly years. The people felt stabilized, they felt good. As long as a good and godly king was on the throne, it's almost like God would give them a pass, right? They have a good and godly leader, everything's good. I suppose it's how people feel knowing that there's a Christian in the White House or a Christian on Downing Street if you're in England or a Christian prime minister like in Australia.

People feel, well, as long as he or she's in that position, we're good to go. And maybe even Isaiah the prophet felt like that until the king died. After 52 years of being in office, King Uzziah died. Now Isaiah, being a prophet, knowing that the condition of the nation of Judah was already deteriorating, that's evidenced by chapter 5 of this book, the fact that now the king is dead, this prophet would have had these thoughts.

Oh no, we're sunk. Now the throne is empty, who is going to lead our nation now? There is no one on the throne of Israel. So in the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on his throne.

It's important to remember that. When the world seems dark around you, when your country seems crazy around you, when it's confusing on the earthly scale, when things are really terrible, listen, God is not panicked. He's not sweating. He doesn't wring his hands. He doesn't say, oh no, God is on the throne.

He's still got it covered. He's occupying the throne. As we like to say around here, God rules the universe with his feet up. It's easy for him, no sweat. In fact, Isaiah 66, God says heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.

There he is, feet up. This is one of the reasons why doing what we're doing now is so important. Gathering together for worship is such an important thing because one thing it does is it adjusts our perspective. We get enough bad news out there. We hear it all day long. And in hearing it all day long, it skews reality. So we need to get our perspective adjusted. We hear enough woes about the virus and about the economic free fall and the wearing of masks, et cetera.

We need to get our perspective right and corrected. So look at the message here. The angel says, cries out, holy, holy, holy. Let's get a grip on what that word means. The Hebrew word is kadosh, kadosh. And it sounded like this, kadosh, kadosh, kadosh. Holy, holy, holy. The word kadosh means to cut, literally to cut off or to be cut off. So the idea of holiness is to be cut off, to be separate or to be separated or to be in a class of your own, to be utterly unique, to be totally singular. It is a term given to God in particular, but you also know that other things and other people are called holy.

You can have ordinary objects, but if you cut them off and separate them for a special use, they become, by virtue of that use, holy. Example, in the Old Testament there was a tent structure that they worshiped at known as the tabernacle. And in the tabernacle were priests, were implements that were used, there were clothing that was worn, there were dishes and utensils that were employed, and they were called holy.

I'm going to read to you out of a passage of Scripture in Exodus 40. God tells Moses, You shall set up the court all around and hang up the screen on the court gate, and you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is in it, and you shall, here's the word, hallow. Hallow means make holy. You shall hallow it and all its utensils, and it shall be holy. You shall anoint the altar and the burnt offering and all its utensils and consecrate the altar. The altar shall be most holy, and you shall anoint the laver and the base and consecrate it.

Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and wash them with water, and you shall put the holy garments on Aaron and anoint him and consecrate him that he might minister to my people. So you've got clothing called holy. You have articles that are used in the tabernacle called holy, and it's not like they glowed in the dark or anything. It's not like you went in the room and they just kind of hovered. Oh, those are the holy things.

They were ordinary things cut off, separated, and used for one purpose only. Therefore, they are called holy, and when you think of God's holiness, if you want a better definition, call it God's otherness or God's apartness. It is us acknowledging that God is utterly unique and no thing and no one comes close to him. In fact, Exodus chapter 15, verse 11 says, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? And, by the way, do you notice the angel does not say, holy, or holy, holy, but three times he feels the importance to say holy, holy, holy. This is known as the trihagion or the thrice holy. And whenever something in the Hebrew culture was emphasized three times, it was for emphasis.

It's to emphasize this as the central core or character of God's being. You know, if we were in high school and we were with a Hebrew background, if there's a cool kid in school, we'd say he's cool, but the Hebrews might say he's cool, cool. Or if he's like the coolest kid, he's cool, cool, cool. That sort of follows the pattern. Or if we want to say this little boy is handsome, but he's like really handsome.

He's handsome, handsome, handsome. Or the masks that we're wearing, some feel they're safe. Others say, oh, no, they're safe, safe. Others say, oh, no, no, they're like safe, safe, safe, ultimately safe.

And others just think they're annoying, annoying, annoying. I couldn't resist that. God is holy. And this is the only attribute, by the way, of God, the only attribute that is given a threefold repetition, the only one of his attributes. I believe this particular trait of God has been lost in the church, lost on most Christians, again, because we prefer to think of God's comfort, God's power, God's graciousness, God's mercy.

We like all those characteristics. Perhaps we have lost the reality of God's transcendent holiness. God is not the man upstairs, as some people refer to him as. He is not the big guy. I was talking to the big guy the other day. Who are you talking about? God.

He's not the big guy. He's holy, holy, holy. So that's what it means.

It means separation. There's a second way God's holiness should affect us because it does to Isaiah. Holiness magnifies corruption. You see, when you come in contact with somebody like God who is holy, holy, holy, it does something to you.

Look at what it does to him. Down in verse 5. 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. This is Isaiah talking. But even Isaiah the prophet, he didn't go, so I said, woe is me, or wonderful is me. He says, woe is me. I am undone, or literally I am ruined. The New English Bible renders it, there's no hope for me, I'm doomed.

Wait, what? Isaiah, why would you say woe is me? You're Isaiah, you're a prophet, you're famous. You sound pretty holy to me given what you do.

Why would you say woe is me? I mean, you could write a book, The Day I Saw God. You could go on Christian TV circuit, or Jewish TV circuit, and talk about your vision of heaven.

Here's why. In seeing God, Isaiah saw himself. In seeing God, he saw himself. The holiness of God served to magnify the unholiness of Isaiah. So in seeing God, he saw himself. Now, he's not the only one.

This happens to be a theme throughout scripture, of people who encounter God. I'll give you another one. Job. You know about Job. God called Job the finest there is, right? The apotheosis of righteousness as far as earthlings are concerned.

Have you considered my servant Job? He is blameless, God said of him. But at the end of the book of Job, Job confesses this. I have heard of you, he prays to God. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, therefore I abhor myself.

I hate what I see. I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Yeah, it's one thing to be Mr. Holy among your peers, but standing next to God, I'm Mr. Unholy. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from his series, 2020. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep these messages coming your way to connect you and many others around the world with God's Word. In the priority grid of life, God should always come first, and He should be at the center of everything you do. We want to keep connecting others to the life-changing truth of the Gospel so they might be led to make Jesus the Lord of their lives. And when you give generously, you become part of that life-transforming work. Here's how you can give today. Find access to a treasure trove of Skip's messages right at your fingertips. Find more information at connectwithskip.com slash app. And come back next week, as Skip Heitzig introduces you to the Holy Spirit and how He works in your life. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast all burdens on His Word Make a connection A connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.