Thursday November 25, 2010

Read Isaiah 6

Having read Isaiah 6 and seen the prophet’s reaction, why do you think he reacted the way that he did? Jot down your thoughts.

Having read over Isaiah 1-6 this week, I pray that you are in a better position to really grasp the heart and mind of the prophet standing in the Lord’s presence. The big issue that we need to comprehend is sin and rebellion. The people of God have been sinful and rebellious from the very moment they entered the Promised Land. Indeed, they proved stiff necked and rebellious from the very day they left slavery in Egypt.

To understand   why sin is a problem think of God as a blazing inferno - a bon fire so big that you cannot stand within 10 Km of the fire. That’s a huge understatement of God’s burning holiness! But think of your sin as excessively dry wood. As you draw near to God with your dry wood sin upon your back, you know you are in deep trouble. Get to close and your dry wood sin is going to burn up.  As Isaiah draws near to God he is carrying on his back the dry wood sin of the entire nation. Isaiah cries out "Woe to me!" and  "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 King, the LORD Almighty," because the the burning holiness of Yahweh, El Shaddai (the Lord God Almighty) is about to burn up the sin of the nation.  You cannot stand in the presence of God with your sins undealt with. You cannot carry a national load of sin to the Lord and expect to be blessed. Isaiah rightly trembles in his sandals. He rightly fears for his life!!!

Isaiah is not blazé about his sin or the sin of his nation. He doesn’t brush it off as irrelevant and he doesn’t pretend it’s not there. He understands sin for what it is and, while standing before the Lord, knows exactly what that sin deserves.  Today’s believers need to re-grasp the nature of sin and weight of sin when compared to the burning holiness of our Lord. We need to see the gravity of sin and the punishment it really deserves. Our generation of believers needs to capture a fear of the Lord so that we willingly, even joyously, walk in the ways of the Lord. We need to experience that fear of God so that we consciously work at putting sin out of our hearts and minds, out of lives and out of our congregations. Far too many believers are deluding themselves with notions that Jesus accepted all people and didn’t judge them. Some even quote the occasion where an adulterous woman was caught in sin and brought before Jesus. They proudly boast that Jesus said to her,  ‘Neither do I condemn you’. Having quoted Jesus, they affirm everyone, even those who are continuing in sin. What they conveniently forget is that Jesus immediately said to her, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin’.

James 1:13-15 makes it very clear that if you and I don’t kill sin in our lives, it will kill us.

Prayer:-

> Pray that you and everyone in your congregation has a proper understanding of sin and God’s holiness.
Pray that God would grant repentance and penitence to those who are wilfully engaging in sin in your congregation.

> Pray that more preachers across the nation would be ready and willing to preach of the Lord’s holiness and his hatred of sin, even though it’s not popular.