I'm Trevor Davis. I'm GCC's pastor and I want you to repeat after me. Circles are better than rows. Circles are better than rows. It's part of our common language that we've adopted together.

Our Sunday morning services are designed to inspire God's people and to feed God's people His word. Our midweek ministry is designed for you to feel loved and cared for and seen and known and prayed for. You can be prayed for here on Sundays and you can be prayed for in our small groups midweek. And we're gonna begin our small group ministry term again in, I believe it's two weeks from now. And so my wife and I are organizing our small groups and we want you to be a part and you don't have to be a member of our church, but if you feel like this is kind of your place now, we want to know you and so you can be a part of our small group ministry.

When it says what's next for me on the welcome card, the very first box you can check is I want to get to know people by joining a group. Mark that box, put your name on there. Make sure we have a way to contact you, Angie or me with a phone number or an email. Now when you write your email, please be legibly, like do it like when you were in second grade and you were gonna get a grade for the writing so we can get it right. And we want you to be part of our small group ministry.

If you've been a part and you want to change a different group or a different fit also let us know that. And we're gonna seek to accommodate as many people as we can when our small groups start back up. The series that we started last week is a four week study about who God is. We're not going to exhaust the character and nature of God in four weeks. Right.

But we're going to get a good start in it. And we call this series 22 days with God. It's now 15 days with God or so because we're a week into it. But we have these daily devotions. We want you to walk through these with us.

If you're, if you missed last week or you're just getting back in town or you were sick and you didn't get one of these, we have them for you. Take one with you on the way out and start with the day. The devotionals in here are not very long. You can probably get caught up. Or if you just start with today's, you can stay with us.

They correspond to the messages that I'm preaching. If we run out, we can print more. We want you to join in this journey with us. And so today my topic is God is holy. You guys think I'm going to exhaust the teaching on the holiness of God in one sermon?

I'm going to try. Okay, how about that? We won't exhaust it. God is holy. You can find Isaiah 6 in your Bible.

I do have a key text. Pardon me. The first seven verses of Isaiah 6. We'll get to those as we go along, but some introductory things first. In his book Knowledge of the holy, A.W.

tozer wrote these words. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. I believe that's true, and I believe the church needs to tighten up our accuracy about who God is and know it by Biblically, what makes God utterly unique and unmatched in the universe? The answer is it's his holiness. God's holiness means he's completely pure.

He is free from any flaw or sin. He is entirely distinct from everything and everyone else. It's not just about being morally perfect, although God is that. Holiness is about being set apart in a way that nothing else can compare. God's holiness is the collective and consummate glory of his nature.

That's why Jerry Bridges wrote, holiness is not a mere attribute of God. It is his very essence. Every action of God is holy. And just this week when I had lunch with him, my favorite professor reminded me that the term holiness is the closest we can get to describing who and what God is. So we've got a big task today to to try to get our minds thinking biblically about holiness.

But what if I told you that in the Bible, holiness is the attribute by which God makes war? God killed his enemies and blamed his holiness. What if I told you also that same attribute? Holiness is the one that he uses to make peace. It's the one he uses to forgive sin.

Holiness, Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.

This is kind of a snapshot of what happens in God's presence all the time. God's holiness inspires worship. When you come into his presence, the one thing you can't do is ignore what's going on and what's before you. This verse, these verses, seraphim, as best we can tell, are some kind of heavenly, angelic, powerful beings of pure worship. And even they cover themselves in reverence before God.

You've never seen a creature with your eyes like seraphim, majestic and lifted up and yet they bow before God and they repeat the word holy three times. And the reason they repeat it three times, God is the ultimate of whatever holiness is. He's the limit of it. So in Hebrew, when something is repeated, it's very important. And I want to say to you that God is not simply holy, he's infinitely holy.

He's superlatively holy. And his holiness surpasses our ability to understand it.

Awe and worship.

This is no casual acknowledgment. It is a heart stopping reverence that happens in his presence. Nobody passes notes and giggles in the presence of God. And may I say to us the thing that Western minds hate to hear, and that is that worship is not about us. I said that to a family one time when they left the church over it.

Worship's not about us, it's about God. Our preferences, therefore, must be set aside for us to worship the Lord in spirit and truth. And instead of saying things like, well, I didn't get much out of worship today, you should be asking yourself, God, did you get anything out of it?

Worship the Lord. Ask yourself, does my worship reflect the holiness of God and not my desire to be pleased and satisfied and entertained? In other words, when I sing to him, when I pray to him, when I read His Word, when I hear His Word and sit under it being taught, do I approach him with the wonder that he deserves?

Is my worship marked by reverence? Or listen, is it routine and casual? Am I just going through the motions? Because it's easy to get in a habit in this room, right? And just kind of, hey, you know what's coming, And I'm gonna kind of engage just to go along and.

And it's not that I'm bored, but hey, look, it's gonna be 60, 65 minutes and it'll be over. And then I'll get to do what I really wanna do that's routine and casual. I want to approach the gathering of the saints like, can't believe I get to do it. Hope it takes longer than my flesh even wants it to, because there's nothing more important I'll do this week than this. Does that make sense?

See, God's holiness inspires worship. The seraphim say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. But do you know who C.S. lewis was? Clive Staples.

Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. You probably saw some of those movies. But he wrote even better nonfiction works. He was a Christian man and a philosopher, and he wrote something that your flesh won't like. You ready?

He wrote in God, you come up against something which is in every respect, immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that and therefore know yourself as nothing in comparison, you do not know God at all.

Now, I don't wish for this idea that I just read to you and I'm preaching to you. I don't wish for it to discourage you. My goal is to remind us of the privilege it is to know and worship a holy God. We get to do this. We don't have to do it.

So today, as we end sermon point number one, ask God to renew a sense of awe in how you worship. What does God's holiness do? It inspires worship. Number two, it exposes our sin.

Here are verses four and five of Isaiah six. Isaiah writes, 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, the seraphim say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Isaiah doesn't say that he suffers over his own condition when he sees God.

When Isaiah saw the holiness of God, his immediate reaction was, oh, no, I'm ruined.

And so are the people around me. We are unclean before one who is spotless and pure. And now I've seen him, and I don't think I'm gonna make it. That's what he said that just came out of him when he got a glimpse of the holiness of God. My brothers and my sisters, God's holiness reveals the depth of our sinfulness.

It's like a mirror that shows every flaw that we might otherwise overlook.

So In Isaiah, chapter 6, verses 4 and 5, in that moment, Isaiah sees himself clearly. And it's not as a prophet and it's not as a man of notable accomplishments. When Isaiah sees the holiness of God, his resume is worthless to him. He sees himself as someone exposed before the perfect standard of holiness. I wonder if you remember that story in the Gospels.

The first miracle that Jesus performs in front of Peter, Andrew, James and John. His would be apostles, but at that time, they were just professional fishermen. Do you remember this story? It's like Luke chapter five. They've been out fishing all night.

Because the best catch of fish on the Sea of Galilee in the ancient world happens at night. These guys are pros. They're mending and washing their nets. It was a terrible Night fishing. They got skunked.

They didn't catch anything. Here comes this rabbi that they had only maybe heard about. Not very familiar with. He's no fisherman by his looks. And he says, hey, can I get in your boat and can we go put out for another catch and will you throw it on the other side of the boat?

You remember this story? And they're like, well, we kind of hear Peter's thoughts. Well, I don't know who this guy thinks he is. I mean, we're the ones who know what we're doing, but I guess I'll just appease him. And they throw the nets out there in the middle of the day when you're not supposed to catch fish.

And the haul was so big that it began to sink two boats. Remember this, okay? That's the miracle. The reaction to the miracle is what we don't need to miss. Luke, chapter 5, verse 8.

When Simon Peter saw it, the catch of fish, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. No sermon, just the display of the power of God, which is related to the holiness of God. And Peter says, you need to go away from me. I'm not worthy of you. You see, God's holiness exposes our sin.

When we truly encounter it, all our self righteousness falls apart.

We recognize that we cannot measure up on our own. So may I just very gently say to you, let the holiness of God humble you this morning and let it bring you to repentance.

I wonder, have you ever had a woe is me moment? Isaiah says, woe unto me. That modern English would be, oh no, this is terrible. Have you had that encounter with God, the woe is me moment? Is it true that our culture minimizes sin?

We minimize it with our own language that we use. I'll give you an example. Our culture calls them affairs. God calls it adultery, right?

Our culture, especially in the young people, they call it body count or hooking up. God calls it promiscuity.

Our culture calls it living together. God calls it fornication or sexual immorality. The state of Nevada calls it gaming. God calls it gambling.

The culture calls it my truth. God calls it paganism.

Our culture calls it letting loose or having a good time. God calls it drunkenness. The culture says, my body, my choice. God calls it shedding innocent blood.

Our culture calls it going off on someone, telling them how it is, putting it in their place. God calls it cursing.

Isn't it true that our culture minimizes sin? Isn't it true that if no one were around and you were asked, and if you were honest, you do too.

But friends, when we see God's holiness, we realize that sin is not just a mistake. It's an offense against a completely different kind of being.

If you don't know Psalm 50, verse 21, you need to. Here's what God says to clarify. He says, the things you've done, these things you've done. And I kept silent. You thought I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you.

I'm not altogether like you. You're made in my image, I'm not made in yours. You're like me, but I'm not like you. Does that make sense? It exposes our sin.

And did you know that woe is me, for I am undone is not the same as woe is me, for I am uncomfortable.

Isaiah is completely overwhelmed by his own impurity. He's a common man. Yahweh is a holy God. And they are not the same.

Let me ask you this question. In the text that we read, did Isaiah try to justify his condition? Did he blame others? Did he attempt to minimize his flaws? Friends, he did not pretend he was fine.

Finds the Christian F word. It says, just don't look any further into me and don't try to give me any help. Instead, Isaiah confessed his brokenness. I am a man of unclean lips. That means he had come to the end of himself.

So now let me ask you piercingly. Is there anything in your life, and only you're going to know this, you and the Lord. Is there anything in your life that you know is unholy? Do you have besetting sins that you're protecting because they're like therapy to you when no one else is looking?

Are you managing wickedness in your own heart? Are you overseeing it? Are there sins you've been ignoring? Are there sins you've been excusing? Are there sins you've been minimizing?

Why let pride or fear keep you from addressing these areas?

Does God already see them?

Yes. His holiness has exposed them. The question is, will you bring them to Jesus in this day of grace?

The Bible scholar John R.W. stott wrote, before we can see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.

I want you to imagine the scene in Genesis, chapter three. Genesis chapter three is the biblical narrative of the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve, the first sin. Imagine this scene. God confronts Adam and Eve after they've eaten the forbidden fruit.

I think you Know the story, what happens next? What happens next is they scramble for excuses. Adam points to his wife, Eve, and essentially he blames God. He says, the woman you gave me. Eve tries a different approach.

She seeks to shrink the whole thing down and diminish it to just a mistake, an error. She shifts blame to the serpent, saying, it deceived me. It's my mistake. But what happened in the end? What happened in the end?

At God's first tribunal? The answer is, there's no escaping the truth when it's you and God. So each of them, both Adam and Eve, if you look in the text, they both say these words, I ate.

After the excuses, after the scrambling, after the stumbling and tripping over their words, faced with the holiness of God, they confessed, I did it. And isn't that often true about us? We blame our circumstances, we blame our poor judgment. We even blame others for our wrong choices. But one day, when we stand before God's judgment seat, it is my duty to tell you there will be no room for excuses.

And each of us will have to take responsibility. And each of us will have to say to God, it was my fault. I8 well, Pastor, that's heavy. And it feels angry and mean. No, no, listen.

God's holiness shines through this reality. God's holiness is what makes the cross necessary. And it's also what makes the cross profoundly beautiful. Because it's there, at the cross that God's holiness meets his mercy and offers us grace in. In the midst of all of our failures.

That's good news. May I tell you that when we invite people to pray these prayers every Sunday, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. That's a prayer of repentance. I'm a sinner. Have mercy on me, God.

Remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's a prayer of faith. God, I believe there's a kingdom after this world, a next world, that you've invited me to be a part of, and. And I want in on that. That's the prayer of faith.

And we don't trust in a prayer to get us to heaven. We trust in a person. But that person said, call on my name. And we do that by praying. And so you go, why do you do this?

Every week it's the same old thing, because God's message doesn't change. And every week he takes the anvil of the hammer of the gospel and he strikes the hard hearts. And every week, a little bit more chips off and a little bit more chips off. And soon he's going to open your heart. Like he opened Lydia's heart and caused her to believe in Acts chapter 16.

Because of the cross, because God's holiness exposes our sin.

Point number two. Point number three. The third answer to our question. What does God's holiness do? God's holiness enables our holiness.

God's holiness makes it possible for us to be made holy. Here are verses 6 and 7 of our text. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it. And he said, behold, this has touched your lips.

Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. God's holiness enables our holiness. Isaiah is overwhelmed by God's presence. We've established that he's fully aware of his own unworthiness. That was point number two.

But then something remarkable happens. One of those seraphim flies over to him with a burning coal taken from the altar in the temple where the sacrifices are made and the incense is burned and the presence of God is veiled. And that coal, that coal of holiness touches Isaiah's lips. And the seraphim declares, your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged.

I wonder if you see it. What's the takeaway here? The takeaway is, friends, that God's holiness doesn't just expose our sin, it also purifies us and transforms us.

God doesn't leave us condemned. His holiness leads us to cleansing. And this is what Isaiah experienced as an example for us.

Did you notice that Isaiah didn't cleanse himself? How could he? What equipment was he going to use? What virtue? Was he gonna look deep inside and pull out an offer to this God of holiness?

How was he gonna fix himself? The coal was brought to him because holiness starts and ends with God.

Now we have to begin to start thinking biblically about holiness and stop making it about ourselves all the time. Let me tell you why. The term holiness and all of its related words, all of its cognates, from Genesis to Revelation, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, throughout the whole Bible, that term holiness shows up about 900 times. And I'm having lunch with my favorite professor. He's the greatest scholar I've ever known.

Taught me about holiness back in Bible college and still does. And I said to him, doctor, what's the one thing you would tell the church about holiness if you could? He said, oh, that's easy. The term holiness shows up in the Bible over 900 times. And guess how many times it's referring to your personal purity and your personal righteousness and holiness.

And the answer is, he goes, I can't remember exactly. He goes, I'm getting old. It's either six or seven. It's pretty specific because the sermons that I've heard and the way I hear Christians talk about holiness, it's always, are you giving effort to be a better Christian? In the Bible, there is no good Christian, better Christian, best Christian.

You're just born again or you're not. You just have the righteousness of Jesus imputed to your account or you don't have it. And there is no growth in holiness in the Bible over 900 times. And six or seven of them make a reference to your personal purity. The rest of them are about God's nature.

So just by proportion alone, we learn that we can't make ourselves holy.

But it is God's mercy that flows from his holy nature that cleanses us and makes us new.

I want you to understand that it's God who takes the initiative to address our sin and replace it with his righteousness. God sends the seraphim with the coal to your lips. Isaiah didn't ask for it. All he could do was commiserate with how dirty his lips were, how unworthy what came out of his mouth always was in the presence of holy God. I want you to take.

I want you to think about this, that holiness isn't just a measure of God's perfection. Holiness is also the source of grace that equips us to live as vessels that he can use and give you an example. Take the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, his special nation, the descendants of Abraham in the Old Testament and even in the New. Take Israel as an example. What you have in the Old Testament is a common theme that this nation, as a group of people, constantly complains to God that what he's given to them is not good enough.

They overwhelmingly show a lack of faith. They even look up one day and go, you know what would be better than being out here with God in the wilderness? It would be better to be in slavery, back with those slave drivers in Egypt. These are the same people who walked on dry land across the Red Sea as God parted it. You think if you saw a miracle, you'd always believe, right?

No, you wouldn't. No one did.

They rebel against him at every turn, worship false gods. These are not good people. And yet the Bible says they remained holy somehow.

And it's not because of Their morality. They were not a moral people. They didn't really even love God. They were afraid of him, but it wasn't holy fear. And yet they remained holy because of the relationship that God started with them.

They were set apart because God chose them, not because of their performance or their behavior. This encourages my heart so much because I see myself in the nation of Israel. Let me even take it further. What was the name of the first high priest God ever ordained? Moses.

Brother Aaron. Right. Aaron is ordained as the high priest, meaning he's supposed to be the holiest guy in the nation. And the first thing he did as soon as his brother goes up on the mountain with God, is he says, everybody, bring an offering. Bring all your gold.

Put it in the cauldron. And he smelts it there, melts it, and then they form a golden calf. And he says, israel, here's your God. This is the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Then when Moses came down and said, what in the world are all you people doing?

And he looks at his brother, the high priest, and says, what gives? Aaron thinks, not only can I build an idol and get away with it, I'm going to snooker my brother who's just met with God, and I'm going to lie to him and say, look, man, I don't know how this happened, but the gold went in and out came this calf. I promise you. Your Bible says that that's the holiest man Israel has. Yes, because your holiness is not about your performance.

It's about God's grace to you and putting you in a relationship with Him.

Man, that'll preach.

That ought to make you feel so much better.

Because holiness then, is not something we grow into by our own effort. It's about living in alignment with the relationship that God has established with us. So how do we sanctify ourselves? How do we make ourselves holy? We adopt actions and behaviors appropriate to the relationship that we have with God.

But the holiness comes from God himself.

And as I land the plane, let me remind you this. God's holiness is not something that we just admire. It's something that we're commanded to reflect. A Christian is a little Christ.

It was a nickname that you didn't want to have in the Roman Empire. The idea was they looked just like their guru.

We got that from the book of Leviticus. I think it's chapter 19, verse 2, where God says, you be holy because I'm holy. And then Peter, in his first letter, quoted that verse 1 Peter 1, 15, 16. But as he, God who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it's written be holy for I'm holy. The scriptures bid us to live in a way that points to the holiness of our God.

We adapt our behavior to the relationship we're in with God.

So what I'm trying to tell you is that encountering God's holiness is a life changing experience. You don't forget it, you don't get over it, and you don't ignore it. It humbles us, it shows us our sin, and ultimately it drives us to grace. And the grace is found in Jesus. Last quote for you today, J.C.

we must be holy because this is the one grand end and purpose for which Christ came into the world. And if that's so, then let me call you to response today. The holiness of God is not just a truth to be admired. It's a reality that demands response. And so let me give you some questions as I close.

Will you let his holiness lead you to awe and worship?

Will you let it expose your sin and drive you to repentance?

Will you let it call you to live a life set apart?

And most importantly, will you rest in the grace of Jesus who makes it possible for unholy people to be made holy? Let's pray together. Father, we confess that one sermon on holiness won't do the trick.

But it has pointed us, God, to greater understanding of who you are. And so just in this prayer time right now, God, we say that we bow before you and we worship you. We want to be better at doing that. We want to be accurate in how we think about you. We want to live in holy fear and we want to feel your holy love.

In Jesus name, amen.