Holy and Awesome, Part 2

Today on Summit life with James Greer cultural is all about self help at all, but really good about yourself become yourself. You're seen as a culture that is teaching us not to know God at all but the first time you come into God's presence as you start feeling on my ear. I'm your host Molly minutes and we are so glad you're back with us today so if you want to get to know someone first thing you do you introduce yourself knowing someone's name is an important part of knowing.

Then, I mean think about it, you're never going to feel very close with someone if they're always calling you by the wrong name. So in our new series pastor JD is helping us know God personally by learning his name.

As always, if you miss any of our programs or if you are in search of our featured monthly resource you can find it all online JD career.com. Now let's rejoin pastor JD as he teaches from Exodus chapter 30. There are even more of you, perhaps listening to me who are described last week. It was like I was. You believe in God. You know how to say I have a relationship with God.

But for many years. I just felt no warmth of affection of emotions forgot until Joe hear people talking about God and get emotional not speak like there's not a lot going on.a near believe in him on the woman after doing, but there's no warmth of feeling for him and there's a number of you that what if you are honest would be in that category. All these issues are addressed in Scripture through coming to know the name of God.

Exodus 34 is the place we are working from each of you have a Bible and invite you to take it out and begin to open it to Exodus 34 that's where God declares his name to Moses, I want to talk about the holiness of God's name.

Holiness is one of those words that most Americans find bland and unattractive baby asked him what holiness means they can think of some kind of bright white colorless light or they think it means you know, weirdly religious, so that if you say so and so is so holy that's usually not a compliment, but holiness just means perfection in English the word comes from the word hole like wholeness and so when you're saying holiness. You're saying the something is completed is holistic in its goodness that is the essence of goodness. It is something that I want to show you today that you yearn for whether or not you've ever known what to call it, for example, we want holiness in our relationships. Nobody wants a spouse who is unfaithful. Nobody wants a boyfriend who lives nobody wants a friend who exploits them.

We want holiness in our business dealings. Nobody wants to deal with a contractor who shows up late does inferior work and overcharges us.

You may not have known what to call Babel what you're yearning for is holiness, but let me show you. Exodus 34 and God said, I will make all my goodness is your keyword. I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. Verse 20 but God said you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live in these encounters both Moses and Isaiah as we see God set apart in at least two ways.

Number one, we see that God is set apart by his awesomeness. She often we want to reduce God to be just a slightly bigger, slightly stronger, slightly more intelligent version of virus but God is not just one of us just a slob like one of our three children of the 90s, and at the end of the day. We are not in a position to judge him. That's kind of the whole point of the book of Job.

Let's take a look at the expense of your knowledge for a second. Ellison, I'm not telling you there is never a place for you to question God.

The Psalms are filled with people doing just that. But God's point in Job is that we are not supposed to ask God questions we can ask questions, but were not to do so in a way that supposes we can bring God down to our level as if God had the answer to our bar justice as if we could see or know enough to bring God into judgment is a classic objection that people have the Christianity is probably the number one is what we call the problem of evil and the problem of evil.

It's basically built on two premises. It goes like this. If God is all-powerful God could stop evil and suffering. If God is all loving, then he would want to stop evil and suffering but evil and suffering still happen. Therefore, God must not be all-powerful or a loving and a God who is not all-powerful and all loving, would not be the Christian God. Therefore God does not exist. That's the expiration of the problem of evil but I've explained you before that that problem is missing a premise and I premises this, that if God is all-powerful and he is God is all loving, which he is also follow the God is all wise and if God is all wise in his wisdom exceeds my wisdom. To the extent that his power exceeds my power, then it makes sense that there might be a lot of things that my small mind are not immediately be able to grasp at least at the present moment that makes sense. The sun sign. Our son generates enough energy in one second one second to supply all US energy needs for 13 billion years and God just spoke the sun into existence is let there be light. There's light I work my heart out for two minutes and I can live libelous God just has a throw aside comment and he creates one star of millions of stars that produces enough energy to light our earth, our planet for 13 billion years. Here is my question God's wisdom exceeds mind the extent that his electrical generating power exceeds mine, then I my really a place to hold God to account like Evelyn Underhill that the British political writer of the early 20th centuries to say if God were small enough to be understood, they would not be big enough to be worshiped, got a set apart as awesome as number two got a set apart in his moral perfections be set apart as moral perfections. God is pure goodness with no mixture of bad at all is without injustice without deceit, without caprices is pettiness for impurity. As I told you these are all things we value and people were there to find her ultimate expression of God. God's holiness is terrifying. It's terrified the Angels have to cover their faces when they're in the presence of God the temple the pillars of the temple which are even people there shaking with fear. Isaiah the prophet of God. The man with the message God's appointed messenger for that generation. Isaiah falls on his face and he says I'm lost. I'm ruined. I'm undone. That's God's holiness.

They are seeing the extent of his power, and it is terrifying to.

Why is God's holiness terrifying to us give you ample reasons. First, just to be in the presence of greatness is terrified for me. Michael Jordan just to be in his presence is a mixture of fascination and fright right because that's what it always means to be in the presence of greatness. Fascination your simultaneously attracted and repelled of the same.Rudolph Alter the German philosopher said that's how you know when you're worshiping whenever you're filled with a sense of fascination and fright at the same time, the idea of a threatening frightening God is really out of fashion. Today, I understand that it's on modern would much rather have God be the precious moments teddy bear that we can make this the warm or cold, but if being in the presence of human greatness makes you feel fascination and a great deal of fright. How much more is it to be in the presence of the Almighty God, how much fright must you actually on the presence of that kind of greatness. If you want to reduce God down to be in our body to be in your when I was in college at a teacher. Jesus is my homeboy my the precious moments God which you understand that when we say things to God like oh God when it being a presence and just be with us, that if in the middle of worship today. God answered our prayers and okay you want me and Rex off the roof and looks down in here.

We would all outside of Christ would all die.

That is the God that you and I are dealing with and it is terrified. Second, God's holiness is terrifying because it exposes our sin medicine. Isaiah says I'm unclean.

I'm lost and ruined the KJV King James version. I grew up on you to say I'm undone I'm undone – I like that translation better.

Out of all the different English words because the word in Hebrew implies I'm coming apart psychologically. The glue that held Isaiah's life together. His sense of goodness is revealed to be nothing before God is God's presence enters your life begins in real life you always feel you feel like everything that I depended on to be good. Everything that I've used to justify myself everything I've usable strong I feel real, and then I feel undone. I'm coming apart. These side listen to this. The sign that you don't know God at all is that you feel pretty good about yourself. So when we live in a culture that's all about self help at all about feeling good about yourself. Be confident in yourself what you're seeing is a culture that is teaching us not to know God at all but the first saw you coming to God's presence as you start to feel undone. You see, we are creatures of comparison, and so we tend to console ourselves people by comparing ourselves other people with it while not as bad as also a member of it but I'm out of episodes of another document, read the curve is like when you're in school, whatever, but it is better the test and you feel good because the Georgians at all, you did by living just to the old ones are to fail others. You did really badly anything morally speaking, that's gotta be the child porn people in terrorist and you're not one of those so to be okay. And God will be fine with you but all of a sudden you get in the presence of God's holiness and you realize that has nothing to do with how you compare to somebody else how you compare to the goodness of God, and you look into his holiness and you see how sick and twisted in the form your heart has really become Isaiah would later explain. I probably reflected on this counter, he would say Isaiah 54 until my righteousness is like a filthy rag. We only translate that well in English because we do still have a word that captures the word filthy for them. Filthy mint defiled on Billy use it in the Old Testament to describe two different things, filthy rag was used to describe the lepers, rags who had wrapped that open source of his leprosy. These rags now fill with blood and class and disease contagious disease that would be a filthy rag.

The other one the use of force woman's menstrual rag which they believe made her ceremonially unclean and Isaiah said all my goodness that I was carrying all these things that I thought maybe awesome.

All these things I thought made you approve of me and they gave me hope for the future is that suddenly I realize I was standing there holding a big group of class feel blood filled lepers, rags, and I'm saying this is how I want you to accept me, God's holiness is terrifying as it reveals our goodness to me. Not that good. You're listening to some it might will be right back with the conclusion of today's message in just a moment but first, did you know you can find Pastor Jamie on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Social media is a great place to receive daily encouragement as well as an easy way to share Jesus with those you care about splinter feeds with the life-changing message of the gospel. Just search rest on all platforms and give us a follow-up and while your online visit our website for transcripts, videos and other free resources all available right now@jeanniegreer.com for right now let's get back to her teaching is pastor Jamie third, God's holiness is terrifying because it reveals her strengths to be weakness.

Notice Isaiah's are talking about his lips was significant about his lips my lips are unclean for a prophet. His lips would've been his pride and joy, is how he proclaimed the message of God.

He's been a prophet now. By the way, for several years. This is not his calling is no profit for five chapters. Isaiah his lips and admin's greatest wrinkles, like the quarterbacks arm of the dancers led to the science of mind, but God reveals even his strongest ranks to be weakness. That's why he feels undone because even his best is insufficient is all Tim Keller says of the holiness of God does not make Isaiah ashamed of his weaknesses boldness of God because they look at his strengths and realize of the not really strengths all that's how you feel when you come into God's presence and that's why you feel undone because the glue that you believe hold your life together is suddenly gone.

The apostle Paul had a very similar experience.

He described in Romans chapter 7 when the apostle Paul says what I thought always held my life together when I thought maybe awesome. What I thought was my over the future was my knowledge of the 10 command knowledge of God's law and my obedience to the giga mems is as I was a Jew with the Jews back to the law better than anybody. I knew that I was in the upper 1% when it came to religious zeal. He said one day I was studying the 10 Commandments and I came to the 10th commandment thou shall not covet, and it suddenly God illuminated my heart to see that all my life I've been jealous and I've never been satisfied with what I had and people that I thought were little better than me. I just hated them is and suddenly I realize that every one of my obedience to the 10 Commandments are saturated with this disease.

They said in that moment. Normal switch to Galatians 3.

Is it in that moment I sold all my obedience to law was use another word we don't want to translate scuba law all my obedience was scribbling to God, scuba law, we translated as dong, but let me just tell you parents this if your kid spoke Greek and since Kubla you wash your mouth out with soap. The apostle Paul did not use a polite word. In fact he used a pretty rough word. He bases at all my best righteousness was nothing but a bunch of human dong. It was filthy and nasty and my greatest strength was revealed to be weakness. Just ask you for a moment.

What is that for you. What is your glue. What you what what what you feel like it's your strongest thing that gives you hope for the future or justifies you before God is your bank account.

You think you know what, this is a rough season we had an offer to be fine.

Is your business ability like Things over tomorrow to rebuild things with them.

Awesome is your athletic ability. Is it your looks. Is it your family. Is that your involvement in church is that your moral goodness, George Whitfield, who helped spark the great awakening in the United States and 18th-century. It basically had one message he preached in different forms right what Richard like this, including me, you have basically will message you just put in different forms deliverance toward his message that only two points. Always tell the people he was speaking.

Cinema one repent of your sins water so that repent of your sense you stop doing that something was wrong but Whitfield second one was always really surprising. The people as you would say, repent of your goodness because he was say two things that happened with your goodness and the one you use your goodness is a cover to justify yourself to cover up the fact that your heart is really evil.

He said number to your goodness is the place where you do not depend on God because you feel like this strength in this goodness is going to give you the ability to succeed in life.

What is that for you. What you select will justify you what you think. Hold your life together because that will be the greatest source of your sin because it's that strength that takes your eyes off of your hope in God's grace and it's not strength it makes you align your strength, not his. The apostle Paul would say it like this, whatever is not of faith is sin was that mean what it means is whatever in your life does not come from hoping in God's grace for your justification and dependence on God's grace and strength for your future.

That is the very thing that is become sent to you and it is more likely that your strengths will keep you from hoping in God's grace in your weakness as well. You see, you naturally lean on God and and a place of weakness right when you feel unable you like I got a have God help this now it is your strength where you begin to rely on yourself and that is your goodness that keeps you from hoping in God's grace.

That's why the writer John Newton of amazing Grace would say grace first teaches our hearts fear and fan our fears release you to keep makes us feel undone makes us feel like nothing. We have is sufficient. That's how Isaiah feels of the holiness of God.

Now this point it all feels like bad news done. What happens next in one of the seraphim flew to me, having it in his hand a burning coal be taken with tongs from the altar and touched my mouth with it and he said, behold this is test your lips, your guilt has been taken away and your sin is been atoned for out of the darkness comes a burning Angel with coal from the altar, he touches Isaiah's mouth with you might be tempted to think of this some kind of purification by fire in a burning out the impurities but that's not an Old Testament concept. We never see that metaphor used that way in the Old Testament what's happening here. The coal listen represents the fire of judgment that sorted and burned you and I've course, even more clearly then Isaiah saw, but I what Isaiah saw was that God's holiness was not just terrifying. Listen to this is the irony God's holiness was also cleansing because not only was God's goodness so far above Isaiah's.

He felt undone.

God's goodness also included him being in Craig being filled with love, so that God could not watch Isaiah suffered God would ultimately come and receive the punishment that was due to Isaiah for his sin. We know that that land that was offered on the altar was going to be Jesus and in Jesus we would see the holiness of God on clear display that God was so holy that sin could not survive in his presence. We see that God is so loving that he offered up himself in our place so that we could survive with him forever. We see in Jesus the guy was so righteous. He was so good that we had to die for our sins but God was so loving that he was glad to die in our place.

This is what it means for God to be a holy and what Isaiah it experiences. In this moment is this kind of understanding of who God is and how much he loves Isaiah when you see it was in this is not his salvation in a profit now for five chapters is the same for God's grace is becoming real to him as we talked about last week is when all these theories suddenly become felt and that's when your eyes begin to fill with tears because you begin to say oh my God will do what you save me from and look at how much you love me and that experience caused two things happen. Isaiah wanted propelled him outward.

You see the next phrase.

What happens then I heard the voice of the Lord same. Whom shall I send, and will go for us. I said here my send me have often told you guys got the spiritual cyclone. He never pulls you in, without a merely propelling you back out certain uses a burning heart always fine for us all the flaming tong the sign that you have met God is that you suddenly become very overwhelmed with people around you don't know God, who were no less holy than you were, but are under God's condemnation, you begin to see incense a much God loves them. I think when I read this I think back to my own call to ministry overwhelmed the side of the holiness and the grace of God I said, please let me go tell these 2.2 billion people. Let me preach the people in a way that brings them to faith in Christ and you know it was one of those moments where the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit said finally. You're asking the right question shall volunteered to go.

That's what I say it is it it is some of you got to sit around waiting on God to reveal some of the problem is you've never been overwhelmed. God's grace is when your mama God's grace, it will turn you into an evangelist/version said reader a missionary or an imposter.

Because those people who have been saturated by the experience with the grace of God. They become zealous evangelist for the grace of God, so he is Vegas propelled our is everything that happens what's this gives us a ridiculous amount of confidence. Notice how kind describes Isaiah's ministry is on Elizabeth imaginary and oxidizing notice. Don't people keep on hearing and to understand keep on saying but do not perceive make this people's heart un-perceptive and dull.

What kind of call to ministry that got into profit is going to preach for the next 40 years and everybody's good item and nobody to listen and not a single person can be converted and as a like that means nobody ever wrote a glowing review of Isaiah's ministry. Nobody ever came a glace on the street with tears in her eyes and said major sermons of really touched my life. I say would be be hated all of his life he will be rejected. In fact, we know that Isaiah died because one of the Israelite kings took him and put them in a log and cut them in half. How does Isaiah volunteer for a ministry like that. He volunteers for ministry like that because he knows a holy God stands behind him and he says that God is with me that God promises to supply my need that God is waiting for me at the end of the journey to say well done good and faithful servant that I stand against the world because I got him on my side. That's all he does is you I think about that sometimes. And all the sudden the miss preach and I'll get a sense of confidence because all know how much that God stands behind me that I don't care who stands against me. Some of you are aware, Isaiah was your discouraged success is not in front of you. Nobody praises you, you need a vision of what I say, a soul, and that is a holy God. If you're doing what he told you to do stand behind you saying I am with you. Others of you over the nation of Israel was your in the year that King Uzziah died the foundations of your life are shaking, you suddenly need to learn you got cancer. Or maybe you're in a divorce, or maybe your family's phone, a partner I don't know what's going on with you something to happen and found that you lost your job in the foundations of your life are shaking. I might be okay need to see there were others fail you, parents, leaders, a friend, your job, where they have fallen off the throne. God never will. In the God that made his promise to you in the beginning is to stay with you for the rest of your life and that God is the one rock that you can build your life on. He's the one throne that will never falter. It will never fail and you can establish the rest of your eternity on is he Jesus is the God that you see high and lifted up, and it's the God you've always wanted to know you meant out of real life. Jesus is the God that you've always craved you crave this kind of goodness you know this guy, the guy who gave himself for you if you don't then consider this your invitation to get to know him personally through listening to Summit life Bible teaching ministry of pastor and author JD Greer, JD most Christians believe prayer is important but when it comes down to it we sometimes go cold days or even weeks without really spending time in prayer.

Why do you think most of us want blame our lack of prayer are prayerless in a subtle lack of self-discipline that same reason we don't work out enough enough broccoli and alfalfa sprouts to lack of discipline prayerless. This is hosting what is a gospel problem because I'm not aware of how dependent I am on God or how willing he is to help me as well offering this month as it is a great little prayer bundle of books I used both as a pastor when I leave people and also my own personal time. The wife and I pray through these and I before we go to bed.

I think you pray for your kids by Melissa Kruger, Scott think to pray for your parents by Chelsea Stanley and invite things to pray for your city by Helen Thomas empty necklace. It's a great bundle that will really put some structure or maybe even jumpstart your prayer life.

I'm very excited to be able to recommend MTA will reach out to us. JD Greer.com. I would love to start a partnership with you will you support the ministry here and this is the missing our thanks for your generosity today.

We'll send you this kind of reflux and you don't need to support ministry you are joining our Denny today and request are you prayer resource by giving us a call 520. You can always get online JD clear.com I'm all even if it's sure to listen tomorrow. Teaching series continues Thursday here on Senate