Pastor’s Fellowship Breakfast

This is the skeleton outline I used for the pastor's breakfast yesterday. Hope you enjoy this basic outline.

September 20, 2011

Introduction

Christianity is facing tremendous challenges today.

• ·         The onslaught of Islam

• ·         Pat Robertson redefining marriage vows

• ·         The Young, Restless, and Reformed

• ·         It’s very image – content being redefined

• ·         The internet – no need for pastors or churches

• ·         Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Darrin Patrick, the Perry Nobles

Prop:  the number one problem facing Christianity and Christians is a very weak and low view of God

Isaiah 6:1-7

I think if we are going to face any problem that affects Christians, Christianity and Christ we have to have the highest view of God that we can possibly by His grace have.

I wonder if to many times we are focusing on symptoms rather than attacking the roots of an issue?

In this passage we truly are privileged to get a glimpse o fthe majesty, the holiness, the awesome and awfulness of the living God!

Let me ask you…

• What is your view of God? (This is the view our people  will have of God)

• How would you describe God to someone totally unfamiliar with God? What words would you use?

• How would you describe His character?

• ·   Do we really fear God? (Are we teaching our people to really fear God?)

I read a statement recently that said, “the majority of believers…feel confused about who God really is. They seem to know all about God in their minds, but they are frequently unable to feel His presence in their hearts.”

From Isaiah 6: 1-7 let’s look at four truths:

First – The Scenario

“I saw the LORD of all sitting upon a high and exalted throne, and His borders filling the temple.” (vs-1)

Isaiah saw – he was not dreaming nor sleeping, but while awake God Gave Isaiah a view into the invisible world by opening his senses for a super sensuous event. Isaiah saw a visible representation of God. He by a miraculous and divine decision of God saw the Sovereign Ruler

of all. [adan] the Lord of all.

According to John 12:41, Isaiah saw Jesus in all His glory and splendor.

Second – The Seraphim

“Above it [the temple] stood seraphim: each one has six wings; with two He covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly.) (vs-2)

The seraphim used two of their wings to fly, to hover above and soar above God as He set on His throne. They covered their face and feet in utter consciousness of the depth at which they stand below their Holy creator and God.

By the way, this is the only time seraphim are mentioned in scripture. Their seems to be no evidence or proof that cherubim and seraphim are the same.

Third – The Sound            

“And one cried to the other, and said Holy, Holy, Holy is Jehovah of hosts: Filling the whole earth is His glory.” “and the posts of the doors were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke (vs-34)

They didn’t all cry or sing at the same time, Isaiah implies that there is an unbroken continuous antiphonal song. One seraphim starts singing and then other seraphim jump in and respond.

Keil-Delitzsch states that the song was not simply for Isaiah to know that there was uninterrupted worship of God but that this doxology demonstrated that God is in Himself the Holy One, [kadosh] the one who is separate, the one Who is beyond and above the world, spotless purity, the perfect one. His glory is his manifested holiness.

What is God’s primary and overall design? It is that his holiness should be universally made known to every creature. His glory or his holiness or his character should fill the whole earth.

The unique thing is that while this is being worked out presently by our Sovereign God and awaiting complete fulfillment, the seraphim have it before them as completed and sing of it as such. The whole earth is full of His glory! 

Finally (fourth)   The Significance

“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.” (vs-5)

Isaiah who was overwhelmed and even intoxicated by his majestic sight now becomes self-aware. He knows the OT principle that no man can see God and live. He believed he would die, he seems to believe that he must die because he saw God and the holiness of God is like a consuming fire.

Don’t forget even the seraphim had to cover their face, they could not see God. Isaiah saw himself as lost.

The reason that he mentions unclean lips is he is in the presence of a choir of being who were praising God with their lips or mouths or their pure lips. The idea is that he is aware of his deep uncleanness and the right reaction of self-condemnation.

Conclusion

God is the absolute separate one. He is holy in every aspect of his being. When we have a high view of God we will respond appropriately. Then the issues facing the church, individual believers, and Christianity will become insignificant or at least less significant.

Use of this Doctrine – Application

1.             We as pastors need to ask God for the highest view of God that

                He is willing to grant us. We need to once again be dumbstruck

                and awestruck by the awesomeness of God.

2.             We as pastors need to disciple our people in such a way that

                They too develop this high view of God and are equally

                awestruck

3.             We as pastors need to get alone from time to time to simply

                meditate on the awesome, awful, absolute holiness of God

4.             We as pastors need to spend less time worrying about fads

                and fancies and give our people a view of God that will

                demonstrate His character to them proving Him to be all

                sufficient for everything.