It grieves my heart when I see the same attitude today in the Church of Jesus Christ and in the lives of believers. Too often, I observe fellow Christians who emulate the world in this regard. They, too, liken God to an indulgent old man Who winks at sin. They view God as lenient with their sin. Some even go so far as to say that He has set aside His rules and demands for them.

As evidence for my conclusion, I submit these common clues. Toleration of sin has spread throughout the Church. Somehow Christians have confused toleration of sin with God's mercy. Similarly, believers frequently call sin by other names, e. g., indiscretions, foolishness, errors, or mistakes. Again, Christians equate God's mercy with His cancellation of demands. In general, the Church and vast numbers of believers take a light-hearted view of sin.

As a consequence, the Church today and multitudes of believers in Jesus Christ lack spiritual power and God's glorious presence in their lives. We deny the glory to God He rightly deserves. Our sinfulness grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches His work and ministry in our lives. We face a crossroads. We desperately need spiritual revival because of our sinful conduct.

Our present sad state comes, in part, from a misrepresentation of God's nature and a misunderstanding of His character. If the Church is to experience once again God's glorious presence, She must once again examine the Bible for the truth of God's nature and character. Then in light of the truth, we must confess our sins of unbelief and disobedience. In repentance, we need to turn from our sinful ways to believe and obey God's truth. Nothing short of a change of mind, heart, and life will do.

God has promised a spiritual revival to those who do repent. Once again they will experience God's supernatural authority and ability. He will pour out His glorious presence upon them with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The Scriptures reveal in numerous places God's true nature and character. I call your attention specifically to Isaiah 6.1-7. In this passage, the Holy Spirit discloses the King of Glory. From this passage, I want to examine with you three certain truths and the role they should have in believers' lives. I pray that the Holy Spirit will use these truths to bring a spiritual transformation in your life.

Revelation of God's nature
In our passage, Isaiah immediately describes the revelation he saw of the Lord. In his description, one feature stands out above the rest, the holiness of the Lord. In fact, it gets a trinity of acclamation, holy, holy, holy. The heavenly hosts declare with great assurance the holiness of the King of Glory.

In understanding the Lord's holiness, note first its negative aspects. It shows the absence of sin. He has no marks, spots, or blemishes against His character. His nature lacks all defilement of vice, idolatry, and any other impure and profane thing.

In addition, the Lord's holiness exhibits positive virtues. He does not conform to a standard, nor is He the best of many. He is the Standard. His holy nature exudes moral excellence and righteousness. His holy character is intrinsic and self-sufficient. His righteousness is infinite, above mankind and all created beings. Mankind and the angelic hosts catch only a glimpse of His incomprehensible, absolute holiness. Further, all that he does or ever did, His works, the Law, the cross, His attitude toward sin, manifests His holiness.

The Scriptures abundantly confirm this attribute of God. Moses sang of it upon crossing the Red Sea after seeing God's mighty destruction of the Egyptians. In Exodus 15.11, he sang,

"Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"

The Apostle John said it in a different yet conclusive manner in 1 John 1.5,

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

To Her disgrace, the Church has seldom experienced such a revelation. It forever changed Isaiah's life; it will have the same effect in our lives today, too. It will change our view of God, our circumstances, others and ourselves.

Recognition of our condition
Immediately upon his revelation of God's nature, Isaiah recognized his true condition. The holiness of the Lord of Hosts exposed his unworthiness. Isaiah the prophet, the friend of God, found himself undone. This word has multiple aspects to its meaning. It means to be dumb or silent. In addition it describes one cut down to size. The revelation of the Lord silenced him and left him speechless.

Additionally, the infinite holiness of the King brought dread and astonishment to Isaiah because of his sinful condition. Isaiah knew his uncleanness. He recognized his imperfect and incomplete conduct before God. Isaiah then saw not only his uncleanness and unworthiness, but also that of those around him. He saw the encompassing evil in the lives of the people of God. The brighter the light, the more dirt you see.

When we catch a glimpse of Jesus as He really is, we see ourselves as we really are. To the untrained eye, an eye unexposed to the Holy Christ, the flesh looks good, harmless at least. Yet the Scriptures repeatedly affirm that the flesh is the enemy of God.1 All of its actions and purposes have one aim, to dethrone and defame the Lord. The flesh can never produce anything of the Spirit; it produces only fleshly results.2 Thus the flesh can never please or honor God. It requires an experience with God like Isaiah's for believers to recognize the sinfulness of their own flesh.

References: 1. Romans 8.5-8; 2. John 3.6; 3. Luke 10.40-42; 4. Hebrews 12.14; 5. Matthew 6.24.

Bibliography

Gill, John; Exposition Of The Old And New Testaments (The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc., Paris, AR), 9 Vols. reprinted in 1989.

Henry, Matthew; Matthew Henry's Commentary On The Whole Bible (Revell, New York) 6 Vols.

Jamieson, Robert, D. D.; Fausset, A. R., A. M.; Brown, David, D. D.; Commentary On The Whole Bible (Zondervan, Grand Rapids), 5th revised printing in 1966.

Pink, Arthur W.; The Attributes Of God (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids) 1975.

Poole, Matthew; A Commentary On The Holy Bible (Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MS), 3 Vols.

Tozer, A. W.; The Knowledge Of The Holy (Harper & Row, New York) 1961.

Watson, Thomas. A Body Of Divinity. (The Banner Of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA) 1992.