Seeing the holiness of God

God is Holy, and any true encounters with Him will lead us ultimately to a revelation of His holiness. That is an obvious piont but I think, at the present time, it is a vital one. A scripture that means a lot to me, and of course to many people, is Isaiah 6, where we see the wonderful encounter with God that the prophet Isaiah had. It starts with a revelation of the greatness, the majesty and the holiness of God. And that is where Christianity starts, with Gods revelation of Himself, with His glory-not the needs of men and women, though God in His love and mercy meets those, but with His greatness and His name. If we put the needs of mankind at the centre we believe in a type of humanism, which is alien to the bible. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.Above him were seraphs, each with six wings:with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty:the whole earth is full of his glory.At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke."
That is what Isaiah sees- there is NOTHING in that initial vision about Isaiah! He does not hear a voice saying he is sinful. He sees the holiness and majesty of Almighty God and what conclusion does he draw?
"Woe is me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the the King, the Lord Almighty."
As soon as Isaiah saw the glory and holiness of God, he knew that he had had it: he knew that he could never deserve anything but destruction from such a God, and he was right. God does not contradict him, he forgives him. That is the heart of the Father.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
I believe that Gods heart is to amaze people, to shock them if you like, with mercy. But unless that comes from a genuine revelation of Gods holiness leading to genuine repentance we will be confirming people in what is sometimes referred to as "unsanctified mercy". In any true revival, the preaching and teaching will reveal to people the holiness of God. People must see that outside the mercy of God they are utterly ruined. And then, we can hold out the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father in the parable of the prodigal son amazed his son with mercy, with acceptance, but he had to come to his senses and come back first. And, as in the parable of the prodigal son, Isaiah is forgiven quickly. Forgiveness is never achieved by works, someone else did it all, Jesus Christ, but the repentance must be real and that can only come fully from a revelation of the holiness of God. Without that revelation, Christiainity becomes shallow, flippant, and preaching comes to be entertainment rather than leading to real conviction, repentance and freedom.
Don't get me wrong-I am all for joy, but not that levity that does not take anything seriously. I want to glimpse, and to see again, the holiness and majesty of God. Anything less is not true biblical preaching and wont lead to true revival. Entertainment and hype?Enough already. I have seen far too much and I feel strongly about it. Why? Because if we keep people from seeing Gods holiness we keep them from receiving His mercy. There is absolutely nothing whatever loving about that.
So, in the vision of Isaiah, what happens next?
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? " And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
So the process is, seeing the holiness and glory of God, which leads to true repentance, and then to a desire to respond to Gods call and reach out to others. You can't start off with the final stage-ministry from those who dont grasp the holiness of God (who havent been grasped by it, if you like) is dangerous. The good news of the gospel makes no sense without the bad news- that without receiving salvation through Christ, people are sinners deserving hell, however nice they may appear to be. Unless people see that God is holy, as Isaiah did, the judgment of God and the doctrine of hell will make no sense to them. In fact, they are unlikley to believe in such things.
Listen, the God who forgave Isaiah so willingly, then sent him with a hard message- a harsh message if you like. People who have expereinced mercy can be trusted with a harsh message, a message to bring people to their senses. Those who don't know their own need for mercy will come in a critical and self righteous spirit. Those who have seen their own sin can hold up a mirror, which is what the scriptures are, for others to see their sin and repent.
God bless you-many thanks to anyone who has taken the trouble to read this, it is much appreciated.