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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Again, just glad you're glad you're with us. Had a had a great weekend, last weekend of the Easter, and just a just full house, and so thankful for so many people visiting with us and just just worshiping together. Wasn't it nice? And we lift our voices together. I just love it.
John Gunter:We are we are starting a new series, and of course, you you can see on your screen it's called God Revealed. And today, we are talking about God being holy. And so before we know anything else about God, before we understand anything about him, we must see him, I believe, as he is. That's why we we've sung these songs this morning to remind us about who God is. He's completely set apart, which is what holy means.
John Gunter:He's completely set apart and unlike us. And so over the next few weeks, we're asking the question, what do we think about God? We are asking what God has revealed about himself to us. And so we will be going through scripture to understand who God is. And if we understand that, if we understand who God is, I believe everything else kind of clears up for us.
John Gunter:And so I believe most people don't necessarily reject God, but we do have a tendency to kind of reshape God, to kind of form God in our image instead, to make him easier for us, make him more agreeable, maybe even make him a little more like us. I I love what Ryan was saying there at communion time, even his reference to his his coffee cup. And often, even little sayings that we have, we we try to make God adopt the same things that we may may like or enjoy. But that's not who God is. God does not begin with God is like you.
John Gunter:Right? We were formed in the image of God. And so I think we see this very clearly when we look at the book of Isaiah, and we're gonna start there this morning. I have it on the screen for you in the book of Isaiah, and we're gonna start in chapter six verse one. And so Isaiah begins this way, in in the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
John Gunter:Above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, holy holy holy is the lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
John Gunter:And so as we begin here this morning, we we see this image, and hopefully, you can you put yourself in that place. I can't imagine it. Can you? But God here is seated. He's not reacting.
John Gunter:He's not overly burdened. How many times have you heard somebody say, well, I don't wanna pray about that to God because he's probably busy, as if God can't handle your thing. Right? But God is calmly seated, he is on a throne, he is ruling, he is high and lifted up, He is above everything, and the the very Seraphim that are surrounding him are crying out as we did this morning, holy, holy, holy. And that's what God wants to us to know about him, that he is holy.
John Gunter:And in scripture, one of the things as you study scripture, what you should notice is that repetition matters. You get that? Repetition matters. If I want you to catch something, if I want something to have extra weight, I'm going to repeat it. And so, what do you think holy holy holy want you to know?
John Gunter:It doesn't say love, love, love, it doesn't say mercy, mercy, mercy, and we know that God is those things, but it says, holy, holy, holy. That is what is emphasized, and that is what God wants us to see about himself. We see this not only in Isaiah, but the book of Revelation. Time we just had to sing the Revelation song. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night, they never cease to say, holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.
John Gunter:Yeah. Yeah. That's what God wants to reveal about himself, that he is holy from the beginning of the book to the very end. God is holy. He's not just loving, but he is holy in his love.
John Gunter:He's not just just. He is holy in his being just. And so, if we remove the holiness, we reshape God into something else or someone else that he is not. And so, let's not try to make God more manageable or more agreeable to me, but allow God to exist in who he is. God is not just a better version of me.
John Gunter:You ever thought of it like that? I think because Jesus came, we talk about Jesus being an example, and we know our own sin, and so often, I think we feel a little, I'm incapable of this. But but God is not just a better version of us, not just a better example, he is holy. He is entirely different. Not slightly better, not slightly improved, but he is completely different.
John Gunter:I don't even think we have the words to describe it. Do you spend any time thinking about who God is? That he is holy. From first John one verse five, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. What does that say to you?
John Gunter:There it is, a purity. There is nothing else. I feel like I have you ever have a good week and you just feel like, man, things went well this week? You ever have a bad week and you think, yeah, let's redo that. Reset, I love a good reset button.
John Gunter:Even on I love I grew up playing video games, I love a good reset button when I'm angry. I was never a controller thrower because I was gonna have to pay for that controller, but I love a good reset. And so we have good days, bad days, we have good weeks, bad weeks. God does not have that. In him, there is no darkness at all.
John Gunter:God is holy. He is completely separate. He is different. And again, it's not that we necessarily reject God, it's that we have, I think, lost the weight of his holiness. You notice when Isaiah comes into this, can you imagine how wide eyed you would be?
John Gunter:Do you have how many of you have questions you'd love to ask God? And we're gonna get more into this story in Isaiah, but I think what we learned from Isaiah is all those might go out the window. Because to come into his presence and and even this very robe fills the temple, and can you imagine that? If if you walked in this morning and I had a robe on that filled this area, first of all, you'd fire me. I know you would.
John Gunter:What does John think of himself? Couldn't even sit down. His robe was everywhere. But that is a majesty. Like, this is a fullness of God that it it fills everything.
John Gunter:That's who God is. He is bigger than us, but we have lost the weight of his holiness. We've been I think we we become comfortable with our version of who we think God is. Again, we we talk about sometimes that we carry Jesus around on our in our pocket and bring him out when we need to. Like, Jesus, you just hold on.
John Gunter:I'll handle this until I need to bring Jesus out again. So we I think we can also become comfortable with who we believe God is, and that's often a distorted version of who he is. But notice, we're we're about to read here what happens when Isaiah sees God clearly. Verse five back in Isaiah six, and I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for 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.
John Gunter:Oh. I'm sure Isaiah, a prophet, lived with a lot of questions for God. Why'd you want me to do that? Why did you want me to go down that road? Why'd you want me to say that?
John Gunter:And Isaiah, when he experiences this, his first thought is, uh-oh, woe is me. And and what he he sees in this moment, he is not inspired, he is not encouraged, and Isaiah was filled with encouragement. No. He said, uh-oh, woe is me, for I am lost. Because in that moment, Isaiah sees God clearly for who he is, and because he sees God clearly for who God is, he sees himself clearly for who he is.
John Gunter:He said, I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. Oh, all those things I said are coming back to me. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I'm around dirtiness and uncleanness.
John Gunter:Woe is me, for my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts. This vision, this clarity brings about new life and new perspective to the way I'm living my life and who I am. And then all of a sudden, changes who he is. But we live in a world that's a little different. We live in a world where sin can be normalized, we often lower the standards, we come up with excuses for nearly everything.
John Gunter:Right? Even though we tell our kids not to make up excuses, probably did that this morning on the way to church. But we come up with excuses why everything's okay. Often, compare ourselves to others instead of God. Notice, Isaiah does not do that here.
John Gunter:He sees God and he sees himself. He doesn't say, oh, you remember that Jeremiah guy? Remember let's compare it to him. He compares himself to God in that moment, but when Isaiah sees God, comparison to anything else disappears. Nothing else is important because God's holiness is that big.
John Gunter:In Luke chapter five verse seven and eight, This is a story here about Peter and and seeing all the fish. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sing. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, o Lord. So Peter in this moment is experiencing something miraculous. Right?
John Gunter:We fished all night, we can't catch anything, all of a sudden, we've got boats to fill. And in this moment, a new perspective, a new clarity. This is something much greater than me. Now, we've got some fishermen in here. You ever had to just, hey, signal somebody else, I've got so many fish, my boat's sinking, can you bring yours?
John Gunter:I don't know what I how I'd react in that moment, and I know most of you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Right? Ain't no way my preacher lies about his fishing. Yeah. That's what it'd be.
John Gunter:But Peter, when he experiences this, is is just blown away, and he says, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh lord. He immediately knows I am in the presence of something much greater than who I am. The comparison is not close. It's not God is just a little better, it is that God is way better. He is holy, he is other, and he is completely other.
John Gunter:I believe you cannot see yourself clearly until you see who God is clearly. You're able to compare and and know that God is greater, but the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves always go together. So I wanna talk about a couple of things. I mentioned it earlier. How often do you measure yourself compared to someone else?
John Gunter:I see it a lot of times as a minister. Even in even this bible class discussions, I've had people before that they didn't like something I said, and they and they will bring up, well, my grandpa didn't believe that way. So what are you trying to say, preacher? And he was a good guy, and he did this. And so the comparison is not me and God, but me and brother so and so, or me and sister so and so.
John Gunter:And often, that's our comparison, and and that's a that's a that's a bad comparison. Look, as your minister, I hope you look at me and what you see is a good example. I hope to be a good example for you. I hope our elders are good examples for you, but none of us will be perfect examples for you, and you will not be perfect examples for us. Right?
John Gunter:And so we we need to quit measuring ourselves versus other human beings and look at God in his holiness because then that will shine the the correct light on who we are versus who he is. And I believe when we understand that, that that helps everything. And and because we talk about the love, the grace, the mercy of God, we need to hold that. That God is holy, he is perfect, and in that, we see how sinful we are, but God is also someone who forgives. Right?
John Gunter:We often also excuse what we tolerate. Yes? If I tolerate it, I excuse it. We see this, you've heard me say, when people get upset and wanna talk about sin, it's never the sin they deal with. But I'm alright with that.
John Gunter:I'm not okay with that other one. Let's talk about that one. What about yours? And so we often operate throughout the week with things we tolerate, and we're okay with those things. We're still upset about the others, but in in seeing God clearly, that should shine a light on everything, not just our our pets, but shine the light within our soul.
John Gunter:And then from that, we justify what we have grown used to. When I first started driving, I've told some of you this story before. Anybody ever grew up in a small town where you you cruised Maine? Yeah. So I'm I'm from a town of 1,200, no red lights.
John Gunter:We're down to 900 now. The town's gotten older, shrunk. And so we've got a couple of miles of main street, up and back. The speed limit was 25 miles an hour. And the first time I got out there, driving 25 miles an hour, I had a line behind me like you wouldn't believe.
John Gunter:But I had one of my friend's mom, said, John Robert? That's my name. If you're from Dirks, Arkansas, my name is John Robert. I said, don't you ever start speeding because once you start speeding, you will never stop. I don't like a lot of the things she told me over my life, but she was right about that one.
John Gunter:Now, I understand we live in a place here where you better speed or you're going to die. Okay? First of all. I tried out for a church. I'd actually pretty much decided I was going to the last church I was at, but drove over in Magnolia, Texas, and one of the first things took me out to eat, and one of the first things this older couple said is, You better ignore that speed limit, you better get with traffic or you will die out here.
John Gunter:They saw me being from Arkansas and thought, Well, we better tell them that. But that's just a simple thing. Right? How many things in your life we talk about the slippery slope, and I don't even like slippery slope because me growing up, everything was a slippery slope. Right?
John Gunter:Don't you be too happy in church. That's a slippery slope and I don't know what. Okay? But I don't like the slippery slope, but often it is. Once you start again, alright, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this a little bit, well, that becomes the normal.
John Gunter:Right? And I move the bar, I move the normal. And so I started here, and now I'm way over here because I begin to justify. And if we don't see God clearly, if we don't see God clearly within his holiness, we're able to justify. But I think there will be a day when we're able to see God face to face and probably be exactly like Isaiah.
John Gunter:All that will go out the window and we will see clearly, woah, it's me. All of it is coming out. Like, we think we have secrets. I I imagine that's probably a very toned down version of what Isaiah would say. Right?
John Gunter:Let me tell you about all this. God, let me get this out right now because I wanna be right with you. I have seen the Lord, and hopefully, we will not continue to justify because this holiness should remove every comparison that we have. If the story ended here if the story ended here with Isaiah's kind of overwhelming encounter with God, we we wouldn't have a lot of hope, would we? Because I think we all understand, if we're not just glossing and justifying everything, we understand our sin.
John Gunter:Everybody understand yours? You understand your things you deal with? I hope so. We're not just overlooking those things. But if all we did is is go, oh, yeah.
John Gunter:God is is holy, I am not, I am doomed. Woe is me. That's the end of the story. But that is not what happens here. In verse six, we get this, then one of the seraphim flew to me, Isaiah says, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
John Gunter:Somebody needs say amen. Did you see what happened there? The same God who exposes the sin of Isaiah's heart. The same God who, just upon being in his presence, Isaiah goes, uh-oh, let me tell you about all this. I'm unclean.
John Gunter:I don't need to be around this. The same God that exposes Isaiah also cleanses Isaiah. You notice that? And all all that Isaiah does is express, he he confesses, I am a sinner. I'm a man of unclean lips.
John Gunter:I'm around people of unclean lips. I am not worthy to be here. And God says, I'll take care of that. And he cleanses Isaiah's lips and says, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. This coal from the altar, the initiative is God's.
John Gunter:Isaiah doesn't request it. You see that? It is God's desire to cleanse you. That is his desire. So if we just stay within our guilt, if we just, oh, God is holy, I know all the sin I have, you can stay in that, and that's not gonna do anything for you, not not anything positive.
John Gunter:But God's desire is that when you confess those things, I'm gonna take care of it, I'm gonna purify you, your guilt is taken away. God doesn't hesitate, he doesn't wait. He doesn't make Isaiah just say all the things. God's reaction is instant, I want to purify you. In first John one nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
John Gunter:So church, if you are holding on to something this morning that you know is not right, and that guilt is eating you up, you need to focus on scripture. He is faithful. What you need to do is confess. Now, do you think that God didn't know Isaiah's situation before he confessed it? Do you think God does not know your situation right now before you confess it?
John Gunter:But God's desire is not to humiliate you, to make you feel bad. God's desire is to purify you because he is holy and he wants that relationship with you. God is able to expose our sin and he's also able to remove it. God's holiness does not mean that God just confronts sin, he also provides a way to cleanse it. People often assume if I saw God, I would be rejected.
John Gunter:Or if we break it down even further, if that church if the people at church knew what I struggle with, they wouldn't have me anymore. Isaiah shows the opposite from God's perspective, and if we strive to be a church who loves like God does, it should be different for us too. That we walk alongside each other as we struggle. Because if we walk in a room like this, as we talked about in the Easter sermon, if we walk in a room like this, and what we think is that everybody is just doing fine, nobody is struggling, especially not anybody that's preaching or leading singing or teaching or anything like that, we have pulled the wool over our own eyes, haven't we? Because we're all human, as I said last week.
John Gunter:We are all sinners in need of a savior. And that is not to say, and we're all good with all the sin we've got because of that. No. That is to say, we understand that the God we serve is holy, and we wanna make that right. It's not anything that I do, and all it is for me is to confess those things.
John Gunter:God, I need your help, and God provides a way. Isaiah showed us that this morning. He doesn't reveal our sin to destroy us, to mark us out of the book of life. He reveals our sin so that he can fully cleanse us and make that relationship right. In verse eight, he says, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
John Gunter:Then I said, here I am, send me. And notice, God reveals himself. Isaiah is undone, woe is me, I have all of these sins. God cleanses Isaiah, and then Isaiah's response is, I will live for you. How many of you have said How many of you have made that profession that you will live for God?
John Gunter:You have been baptized in his name. Let's see some hands this morning. I'm gonna wake some of you up for a minute. That is a continual profession, isn't it? That wasn't a one time years ago, me, 09/18/1994.
John Gunter:Don't do the math. Back in the nineteen hundreds, Evan would say. I made that profession that I will live for God, and that is not a just a September eighteenth nineteen ninety four thing, that is a today, 04/12/2026. That will be tomorrow, 04/13/2020, and continuing on. Because I know who God is, I know what God has done for me.
John Gunter:I need to continue confessing those things that I am struggling with, and God's desire, as we've already read, he is faithful to forgive if we will just confess. And how many of us are just holding on to things? Isaiah responds with, here am I, send me. In Romans 12 verse one, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Your response has to be this, that I am responding.
John Gunter:My spiritual worship is to live for God. Will it be perfect, church? No. Do we need to just justify it because we know it's not gonna be perfect? No.
John Gunter:But we understand our imperfections. I understand I I struggle. I understand you will struggle. But we give those things back to God, and again, continue to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, not because of something we have done, but because of God's faithfulness to us. That I forgive you if you just confess, you just admit, I am a person of unclean lips.
John Gunter:Maybe that needs to be your prayer this morning, but you know, I can relate to Isaiah, there are some things I said this week, maybe that's you this morning, and you just need to give those things up. Lord, I am a man of unclean lips, I'm around people of unclean. I don't know why Isaiah threw everybody else under the bus, but maybe you need to too. Some of you work in very difficult circumstances, don't you? You just submit to that.
John Gunter:Work around some difficult people, some people that you would absolutely say are of unclean lips. God is ready to forgive. In Leviticus nineteen two, speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, is holy. That seems like a monumental thing, but God is holy, and he desires to make you holy. He doesn't just ask a couple of people to be holy.
John Gunter:He didn't just purify Isaiah because Isaiah was a prophet. He doesn't just bless ministers or elders or deacons or or whoever, bible class teachers. God asked everyone, be holy. You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, is holy. And so we have to reflect on that and understand it's not for just certain people.
John Gunter:It's not for just the back in the was it nineties, February, the Jesus freak? Not for just the Jesus freak, it's for all of us. Right? We desire to be like God, and he wants us to be holy. So we often try to maybe serve a little better, make a commitment, change our behavior, and those are all good.
John Gunter:But if we don't see God for who he is, those are short lived. We have to see God clearly, and then that transformation begins because we see God in his holiness. I don't know what Isaiah did when he walked into this situation. I don't think he walked in understanding everything he was gonna see. He probably didn't look in look at this situation at the moment that his life was going to change.
John Gunter:He simply saw God and was changed immediately. So I know often we come to God and I tell people a lot of times, people will ask me difficult questions and I'll say, you know, that's one of those things we're going to have to ask God. But I imagine, just like Isaiah in the future, when we see God face to face, a lot of those things that maybe we feel are very important to answer right now, we're going to see the holiness and the majesty of God, and all of that's going to melt away. And we're gonna start singing, holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. So when you see God clearly, sin is no longer a small thing.
John Gunter:It's no longer something that we can overlook or justify. God is no longer manageable, able to use him just whenever we want, and your life can no longer stay the same. The question I'm gonna leave you with this morning is not what will you do for God. The question is, do you know God? Do you truly know God because God is holy?
John Gunter:So we're gonna offer an invitation this morning. We'd love to pray with you. We'd love to walk alongside of you when somebody responds as they did last week. That is not a us and you separation, this is a coming together of a community of believers who love each other and who love God, who desire to follow God. That means wrapping arms around you and lifting you up because tomorrow it may be the opposite.
John Gunter:You're wrapping your arms around me and lifting me. Yes? So would you come this morning as we stand here at this stage?