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SERIES:
Biography of God, The
MESSAGE:
God's Most Unpopular Attribute
SPEAKER:
Skip Heitzig
SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 6
TRANSCRIPT
Good evening. I know you brought a Bible, so it would be a good thing to take it and turn to Isaiah chapter 6
because that is where we will be camping out tonight. Isaiah chapter 6, continuing this great series on The
Biography of God, taking like a jewel, turning it and looking at every facet that we have available to us in the
time available to us, every facet of God's personality is revealed in scripture because that is essential.
So let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we do come and we beg your mercies, we would have ears to hear
because some of things that we hear tonight may be for some hard things, and so necessary to our own
personal growth. Maybe for some it's been a while since they were spoken to by anyone and you especially
about their walk. So Father we pray that as we look at this all-important essential and central characteristic
trait of who you are and we pray Lord that we would understand how we relate to you, what it means to
have a personal relationship with this kind of God. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Well there are some characteristics of God that are just very appealing. I think of God's love, I mean who
doesn't want to sing or speak or preach on the love of God? That's an appealing characteristic. Along with that
would be his grace. Or God's mercy, or God's power, those are appealing characteristics. But there are some
characteristics of God that aren't so appealing to people. They're real, they're truth, but they're not attractive
to some.
Years ago there was a famous photographer by the name of Usef Karf. He was from Turkey originally and he
was world famous for his large format film photography. And he took pictures of very famous people. A book
was put out called Portraits of Greatness. I've seen the book, ninety famous people, renowned people are
featured in this book. He is probably credited with the most famous photograph of Sir Winston Churchill. But
it's been noticed in this Portraits of Greatness book, of those ninety faces, that seventy of them, seventy of the
people in the book are physically unattractive, thirty-five have moles, thirteen show liver spots, twenty reveal
acne when the photograph was taken and two are sporting visible scars. So thanks to the high detail and
resolution of large format camera and that lens, people in the photograph are seen for who they really
are. That's who they are.
Tonight we want to look at probably the least-discussed attribute of God and perhaps, certainly not a flaw but
to some an unattractive attribute; and that is God's holiness. And that's because it's this attribute that
accounts for some of God's unappealing actions. It's because of God's holiness that God is a God of justice. It's
because of God's holiness that he's a God of judgment. It's because of his holiness that he's a God of wrath
and even vengeance at times. It's because of God's holiness that he even created a place called hell. But
holiness is the most noted characteristic of God in the scripture. I don't know if you know this or not but
God is called holy in the Bible more than he is called anything else. More than he is called loving, more than he
is called mighty, more than he is called merciful, more than he is called gracious; he is called holy. Just this
prophet Isaiah alone calls God "the holy One" thirty times and that's just in this book alone.
Could it be perhaps that we have been so conditioned by a hyper grace kind of environment that we
overestimate God's love and kindness and grace and underestimate other characteristics like justice,
vengeance or holiness. And yet, it seems that holiness based upon frequency of description in the Bible and
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based upon what we're going to read, is the core of His being. I know that God is love. God is loving, God is
gracious and merciful but that is not the core of his being if you had to describe him in one word. If love were
the core of God's being, I suppose God would let everybody into heaven, it doesn't matter who they are,
Hitler, everybody. And just like, "Come on in and we'll sort it out later." Because God is not only loving but
centrally holy that doesn't happen. Now I know that some people think of I John chapter 4 immediately and
say, "Yeah but the Bible says God is love." Please don't misunderstand that or misinterpret it. It doesn't mean
that love defines God, it means that God defines love. It doesn't mean that wherever there is a demonstration
of love by anyone that that is God, that God himself because of who he is defines love.
Let me take you into my study this week, to a book that I read, probably first of all, with this study. And that is
a book by William Evans called Great Doctrines of the Bible. He was a theology professor and he writes, "If
there is any difference in importance in the attributes of God, that of his holiness seems to occupy the first
place. It is to say the least, the one attribute which God would have his people remember more than any
other." Now lest some of you think, "Well I've heard this stuff before but it is an Old Testament, concept, this
idea of God's holiness." Let me remind you that when Jesus taught us to pray in the New Testament, he said,
"You pray this way: ‘Our Father in heaven, holy (or hallowed) be your name." Let me further remind you that
the word holy is that one repeated adjective of the third person of the Trinity. He is not referred to the loving
spirit, the merciful spirit, the gracious spirit, or the mighty spirit. He is called the Holy Spirit, that is his
designation. Here's the point: We cannot pick and chose which characteristics of God that we like and toss
out the rest. We can either accept or rject the true God as he reveals himself but we can't say, "I don't like
that part of God, I won't worship God like that. My God isn't a god of holiness, my god is a god of
love. There's an interesting temple over in Japan in Kyoto. I went by it when I was there years ago called the
Temple of the Thousand Buddhas. There's 1001 different carvings, depictions of Buddha each one slightly
different than the other and the idea is the worshipper goes in and finds the one that suits him or her most
and begins to worship. That is the modern approach to God: We create God in our image and then we
worship the image that we create. We cannot do that, we cannot change his nature and this is a key element
to his nature.
So, as we work our way through the passage of Isiah chapter 6, we're going to look at four ways that God's
holiness affects us. Four ways God's holiness, or I should say, should affect us. You could call this message
"How to have a personal relationship with a holy God." Number one is that holiness describes
separation. Look with me at chapter 6 of Isaiah, the first four verses. "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw
the Lord sitting on a chtrone, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood
seraphim (these are angelic beings) each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he
covered his feet, with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.' And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who
cried out. And the house was filled with smoke." The first thing that is noticed is that God is seated, on a
throne; meaning he's in charge, he's the ruler, he's running the universe, he's not standing up wringing his
hands like we often do, he's seated in a comfortable position. Someone once said, "God rules the universe
with his feet up." Why? Because he can. You could have a billion other universes like this one and they
wouldn't tax God in the least. He's in charge, he's ruling.
Notice it's the year King Uzziah died, that was 739 BC. And here's the deal, here's the long and short of it
very quickly. King Uzziah started out very young but ruled Israel for fifty-two relatively great years. He was a
great politician, he brought in much refore, he's the kind of guy who brought in a relative godliness to the
nation. Now he dies and everyone including probably Isaiah the prophet is wondering, "Oh no, what are we
going to do now?" That was when he saw this vision of God seated on a throne in charage, in control of
everything. That's important for us. It's important because we live in a world that if we read the newspapers
and watch television, there's enough there to distress us, to depress us. We could say, "It's so bad, it's so evil
that if we don't remember God is still on the throne in charge, we'll lose it. That' s why we're coming together
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corporately for worship like this, it's so vital. It changes our perspective so we remember as the songs are
sung and as the word preached, we go, "Oh yes, that's right. God is seated on the throne. I must never forget
that. It's a time that rightly adjusts the way we view life. Now this is a vision that Isaiah has. He doesn't really
physically see God. Hw do we know that? Because it says in the gospel of John, "No one has seen God at any
time." Sop this is a vision. If this were not a vision, if this were reality, Isaiah would not have lived to write
about it. It would be like a bug getting close to a bug zappe, Pzzssh." It would happen to Isaiah. He saw God. It
would be over because he's a vision of God and he sees a throne that is lifted up, that is it's higher than
everything else around it. It's spectaculr. And the one on the throne has a long train, a flowing aftergown that
filled the temple. Now some of you remember back to 1981 when Princess Diana was married. I remember
the wedding, I should remembwer the wedding, it was a monumental wedding. The train of her wedding dress
was twenty-five feet long and it flowed on the floor of St. Patrick's cathedral in London. But go back a few
years, in 1953 before I was born and Queen Elizabeth was coronated as the Queen of England. The purple
velvet train of her robe was sixty feet in length. And the idea of such a long train was to speak of splendor,
majesty, and (to use the term correctly) holiness. No one else in England could wear that cape but here. It's
the splendor, majesty, it's a symbol of that. So God's splendor filled the temple. Let me just say probably in
passing that if you hate loud music, you might want to bring earplugs with you to heaven because the noise
was so all-consuming that the doorpost itself shook because of the volume that's here during this episode of
worship. What I want you to notice is this threefold repitition called the tri haggaion, three-fold repetition of
the word holy: holy, holy, holy. Now whenver you see a repitition in the Bible, especially in Hebrew language,
it's to emphasize some kind trait or to emphasize whatever is being talked about. So let's put it in modern
terms. If we were to say over in Gaza tonight is a war, over in Iraq tonight is a war. If we wanted to talk about
World War II we would say, "Oh that's a war war." Or if we wanted to talk about Armageddon we would say,
"Oh that's going to be a war war war." When we speak about a storm, "Wasn't that an unbelievable storm we
had last week." Well you want to speak about Katrina, then it's a storm storm. So here's this characteristic of
God. He is not holy, he is not holy holy, he is holy holy holy. It is the only attribute of God that is mentioned
like this three times. Holy, holy, holy. Just notice that. Of all the attributes, those seraphim, those angels could
have been singing. They didn't say, "Faithful, faithful, faithful." He is certainly faithful. They didn't sing, "Loving,
loving, loving." Or, "Merciful, merciful, merciful." Or, "Mighty, mighty, mighty." Holy, holy, holy.
The question is what does that mean? It sounds so churchy, it sounds so old, it sounds stained-glass and
cleaned fingernails and barren deserts and long flowing robes with sandals and fasting. Holy. It simply means
marked off, set aside, marked off, set apart for special use. If you were to go back for example to Exodus
chapter 40, it says take oil, it's holy oil, and with that oil you anoint the vessels of the tabernacle, they're holy
vessels. And you anoint the altar, it's a holy altar. And the laver, God says it's a holy laver. And then you also
anoint Aaron and his sons for they are holy unto the Lord. You see it's not like there's some intrinsic glow
that comes out of these things or people, it just means they're special, they're marked off for special use. So
when we say, "God is holy," or we speak of God's holiness, what we mean if there's no one at all ever who's
like him. He is unique, he is unparalleled, he is unprecedented. He is exclusive. Now I must say that this view
of God has been lost in the church I believe. We prefer the comfort of God's nearness and I think we have, in
some cases, lost the reality of the transcendent holiness of God. He is not the ‘Man Upstairs.' He is not ‘The
Big Guy.' Ever heard people say that? That's like, to me, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. "Yeah I want to get
close to The Big Guy, the Man Upstairs, the old codger with the beard." It's not God, God's in effable glory,
God dwells in unapproachable light. Our God is a consuming fire. That's God. So holiness describes
separation.
Which leads to a second character trait and the way that God's holiness should affect us. Number two,
holiness depends conviction. Look at verse 5, "So I said," here's Isaiah, remember he's a prophet) "So I said,
‘Woe is me, I am undone. For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips
for my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts. Notice Isaiah didn't say, "cool. I saw God and you
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didn't." No he says, "I'm undone," or I'm ruinied, or one translation is very forceful, "I'm doomed." Now why
would he say that? I mean he is a prophet. He just had an experience that very few, probably no one else in his
generation, had with God. You would think perhaps that because of this experience he could go on a speaking
tour, write a book, "The Day I Saw God," go on television, he could make money with this. But his reaction if
of profound conviction, "Woe is me." Why? Why is that? And why must that be? Because in seeing a holy
God, I must then see my unholy self, that's why. Myself next to God, because he is so holy and also enlightens
my unholiness and so there's a deep conviction. Show me one person filled with pride and I will show you a
person who's never encountered God. It's just so different, he's so utterly unique. Well you know what it's
like if you stand next to somebody who has a perfect voice, it's beautiful. And you know, you like to sing in the
dhower but next to that person, it's like, "I'm not going to even bother, they're just so amazing." The
difference is stark.
Even this prophet next to a holy God must confess his own utter bankruptcy. Jesus called it poor in spirit. Max
Lucado puts it this way, "You don't impress the officials at NASA with a paper airplane." You don't boast
about your crayon sketches if you're in the presence of Picasso. You don't claim equality iwht Einstein because
you can write H2O. And you don't boast about your goodness in the presence of the perfect. Now this
happens to be because this characteristic of God is so monumental and so central, it would only make sense
would it not, that you'd find this kind of reaction like Isaiah had all the way through the scripture. Here's a few
notable examples: Job. Now Job you remember was almost perfect. God even said so, "There's nobody like
him in the whole earth. He's as good as they come." Toward the end of his experience Job said to God, "I
have hard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you, therefore I abhor myself and repent in
dust and ashes. He encountered God. It happened to Peter as well. Peter, naturally boastful and aggressive,
expert fisherman; gets Jesus in the boat and he sees what Jesus us like and he says, "Depart from me Lord, I
am a sinful man." Not a cool fisherman, I'm a sinful man. His perspective changed. The apostle Johmn in the
book of Revelation, sees the vision of Jesus Christ and he repeatedly says, "And I fell on my face as dead." He
fell at at his feet as a dead man.
Now this same thing happens, it seems like, in eternity. I wish we had time to turn to it but in the book of
Revelation chapter 4, there's a huge throneroom setting like this and all the angels and the elders are around
the throne of God. Remember what those elders who had crowns on their head do with their crowns? They
cast them down, the same anthem, "Holy, holy, holy," and they take their crowns and they throw those
crowns down before God's throne. As if to say, "In your presence no honor at all can come to me. All honor
must go to you," because no one rightly viewing God wants any honor at all. You know, it does, it bothers me
when somebody things like this, have you ever heard this? "When I see God I have a few things I want to tell
him." You know, would you just step away like five paces from me when you say that? You like have no idea
what you're even saying. He is so utterly holy.
And one of the ways you can tell if you're growing in your relationship with holy God is this sense of
conviction. Jesus again called it poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn. It's
a natural progression, somebody who is in relationship with a holy God, they grow in conviction. The third
thing I want to point out is that holiness demands purification. Holiness demands purification. Look at verse 6,
"Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal." What would you think if you saw
that? Here comes the angel with a coal and what is he going to do with that? Well watch this. "Which he had
taken with the tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and he said, ‘Behold this has touiched your lips
and your iniquity is taken away, your sin is purged.'" Ouch! I remember the first time I had green chile, first
time I came here years ago and had it, and it's like, "Oh come on, who can do this? This is like insane." Then I
got hooked. It's like, "Brind on the fire." Now what's this all about? Well the coal off the altar, the altar was
presumably the altar of sacrifice in the outer court, that's part of the vision, and that was the altar where the
sacrifices were killed to atone for sin. So that's a place that sin was dealt with. So this is symbolic of cleansing
Isaiah of sin. Remember he said, "I'm a man of unclean lips." So the coal touches his lips. And the angel says,
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"You are clean." You are purged, is the idea. And why does this happen? Well, back to God's holiness. This
happens to Isaiah the prophet because holiness cannot coexist with unholiness unless something
happens. Holiness cannot coexist with unholiness unless number one, God destroy that which is unholy or
God purges the sin and declares something or someone holy by an act. And do not we find this throughout
the Bible? Isn't that one of the themes of the Bible? I mean think of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, boy if
there was ever a message that God is untouchable and holy and you better not get too close or you could die,
that was it, that was a picture of that. God is utterly unapproachable and utterly holy and even a priest himself
has to be really right with God. There's a big gulf that is fixed. But the tabernacle also teaches that the gulf can
be bridged by sacrifice. You bring an animal, you lay hands on it, you bleed the animal, it loses its life for you
and atonement is made in a person's place. And so we get to the New Testament, same theme, the cross of
Christ, Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb, lived the perfect life, the perfectly holy life that we could never
live. And the upon his death was able to confer to us all of his holy merit. All of his holy merit, so we who
were once bankrupt instantly became like gazillionnaires. We're like rich in God's favor because of the act of
Jesus on the cross. So listen to this, I Peter chapter 1 verse 19, "You were redeemed by the precious blood of
Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish and without spot. In other words, perfectly holy, perfectly holy. Only
one, only one who is perfectly holy can perfectly cleanse someone who is perfectly unholy. That's what the
atonement was about. So God's solution to the problem was to make a declaration by an act that that
creature, that being, that person, is now holy, cleansed, purged.
So, Isaiah is understanding this. He sees God. God is so holy and lifted up. And he goes, "Aw, and I'm like so
horrible and crummy." He gets cleansed, he gets cleansed. He sees the gulf and it's taken care of. Now here's
one of the reasons why many good churchgoing folk come to church week by week and there's no change in
their life. Because they don't see the great gulf that exists between unholy people and holy God. Evidenced
when somebody prays like this, "God, if I have sinned please forgive me." If? How about since. Because if it's if
and if you're not so sure about it, what do you have to confess? Why bother talking to him about it unless you
know that you need him? That's why many come to church week after week utterly unchanged. John said, "If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." You
have to admit that and Isaiah, even this great prophet admits that. He was purified.
I've always enjoyed the story about the great Prussian king, Frederick the Great who went to visit a prison in
Berlin and cell block after cell block was prisoners who claimed their own goodness. They shouldn't be here,
they were falsely accused and falsely judged. They're really innocent and righteous and they need to be out of
prison, one after the other. He finally comes to another guy, he doesn't say anything and the king says, "I
suppose you're going to tell me you're just like them, perfect and righteous." And he goes, "No, I am punished
for what I did. I did wrong. I deserve my punishment." And Frederick the Great smiled and said, "Quickly
release this rascal before he corrupts all these fine innocent people here." And listen, that's exactly what God
does. Exactly what God does, only those who say, "I need to be cleansed. I admit my unholiness." They're the
only ones that God will declare holy. That's why self-righteous people, that's why religious people often do not
get saved, because they see no need, they're good enough, they're holy enough. There's no sense of
conviction. There's no calling upon God for cleansing. Thus there's no cleansing.
Let me give you the fourth and final way that God's holiness should affect us. The fourth way to relate to a
holy God. Holiness develops commission. Holiness will result in service, a sense of mission. Verse 8, "Also I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, (I love this) ‘Whom shall I send?' He says out loud, God says, "Whom shall
I send and who will go for us?" I don't think he's speaking to the angels who will go for us because after all
they're the ones serving him in heaven, they're doing his bidding, they themselves are on a mission. I think it's
the Father speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's the triune God in conference with each other. It hints
to that and makes that open for possibility in the New Testament.
"Whom shall I send?" "Who will go for us?" You know what I love, is that God looks for volunteers. He
doesn't, he doesn't force a person, he doesn't push a person, he doesn't guilt a person into service. He simply
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asks and looks for volunteers. I think there are far too many Christian organizations and churches that try to
artificially produce within their congregations something that is a natural process by the Spirit of God and that
is service. That is service. You shouldn't do it unless you feel that sense of, "I want to do that." Here am I, says
Isaiah, send me. "Then I said, ‘Here am I, send me.'"
So from the revelation of a holy God to the conviction of his own sin to the cleansing of that sin. Now he
goes, "Send me God. Use me. I want to go on a mission." Holiness develops commission. This is always the
pattern. This is always something that happens. An unholy man or woman is declared holy by a holy God
through sacrifice and then at some point that man or woman decides, "I want God to have all of me. I want to
do whatever he wants. I want to go on his commission, his mission, his work. I want to serve him." In other
words, "I want to be holy because he is holy. My life is now all about serving him." I see this all the time. You
know, every pastor that's here on staff, every ministry leader that's a part of this wonderful church, who are
they? I'll tell you who they are, they're saved sinners who met holy God who cleansed them and brought that
deep sense of conviction. And they came to a place where they said, "I want to serve the Lord." It's a natural
process by the Holy Spirit.
Now, wouldn't you agree that the big challenge for every one of us as Christians is to, as we live the Christian
life, increasingly match our practice to our position. See it's one thing to be declared holy by an act of
atonement where God says, "You're mine, you're holy, you're set apart." But it's quite another thing to live a
holy life. So the big challenge that I find as a Christian is the increasing matching of my practice to my
position. For example, a famous text is Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, "God chose us that we should be holy and
without blame before him." Now that's a positional statement, that's how God sees you in Christ: holy and
without blame. But we, we fall short on a daily basis. And that sanctification that comes after salvation, where
we become holier and holier and more like the Lord is paramount. I've always loved what Layton Ford said, I
was reminded of it because I was looking a few months back. He said, "God loves you just hew ay you are but
he loves you too much to leave you the way you are." Isn't that great? God loves you the way you are. But
he's not going to let you stay that way. He loves you too much to leave you that way. And so, he makes you
increasingly by his grace like him.
A guy the other day jokingly said when he said, "What are you going to preach on Sunday?" I said, "God's
holiness." He laughed and he said, "I don't think I'm going to come this weekend." Now I know he was joking
but there's a little bit of truth tucked in that. See this is something we can't skip if we're not interested in
it. This whole holiness thing, this is not optional. This is not an elective for the Christian life. We are to major
in this. We are to major in this. The Bible is filled with his truth. God said to his people, Leviticus chapter 11,
"You shall be holy for I am holy." In other words, "If I'm going to be your heavenly Father, like father like
son. If I'm holy, guess what? You're going to be more like me. That's what I'm calling you to do, be holy for I
am holy. Hebrews chapter 1, "Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord." And I Thessalonians 4
verse 3, here it is, "This is the will of God, your sanctification." Fancy word for being holy.
So if you are one tonight and say, "I want to know God's will." I'm going to tell you what God's will is for your
life: Be holy. Wait a minute, "I thought God wants me to be happy." No, he never promised that, he wants you
to be holy. And here's what you'll find: The holier you and I become, the happier we will become. Because we
live with this satisfaction, this abiding satisfaction, that I'm pleasing him. There's nothing better than that.
So I want to close with this thought: How do you know you're getting holy; or, holier, than you were last
year? Twelve months ago, you can mark that on your calendar and take it back down. How do you know
you're growing in holiness? It's pretty easy: Because you love the things the holy God loves and you hate the
things the holy God hates. It's pretty easy way to gauge that. I can tell that I'm growing in holiness because I
have more of a love for what this holy God loves and more of a hatred for what this holy God hates: sin,
unrighteousness, impurity. I love all the things that he loves. And in that process we become godly which
means God-like. And what is he like? He is holy, holy, holy; that central core of his character.
I want to close with something C.S. Lewis said, I've always loved his writings, a lot of times I have to read it
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three or four or eight times just to understand it. This one was pretty simple, I could manage this. He says
this, "How little do people know who think that holiness is dull? When I meet the real thing, it's
irresistible. Even if ten percent of the world's population had it, would not the whole world be converted
before the year's end?" Imagine even a small group of people who say, "I will live with the great desire of
pleasing God in all areas of my life." Now that's the challenge of my life is that my practice would hopefully
increasingly match more and more by God's grace what I read and what I study and what I preach. I've got a
long way to go but that's what I want. And it's my prayer, honestly my prayer, for me and for us, for this
church, that God's characteristic of holiness would not be his most unpopular but his most popular
attribute. When we hear those scriptures, go, "Oh yeah. That's what I want. The fear of the Lord to depart
from me. That's what I want."
I read The New York Times cover title in Starbucks the other day. I didn't make it through the whole
newspaper, wouldn't want to. It was an interesting article, you know what happened about the plane crash in
the Potomac. The New York Times article title said, "Miracle on the Potomac." It talked about how people felt
like they had a second chance. I caught a lot of that on the newscast of people mostly die typically in these
kinds of accidents and they all lived. And they're all talking about what this did to them. It's like, "ive got a new
chance and I'm going to live with priorities now." Miracle on the Potomac. There could be a miracle in
Albuquerque tonight if you would give your life to Jesus Christ. You would discover that he could change you,
he could totally change you. But you can't just come and accept him like, "I'm going to do everything I do but
then accept him on top of this. I've got all this stuff that I do and Jesus too." The truth his you don't accept
him, he accepts you by his grace. This holy God will accept unholy men and women and confer salvation to
them if they receive the gift that he offers which is eternal life through Christ.
Let's pray for that. Heavenly Father as we close tonight and we have just again scratched the surface on this
all-central core attribute of you, you are unique, holy, different,, unparalleled, exclusive. But you in your
perfection have made a way for those who are imperfect, marred by the fall, marred by sin, willful and
inherent; to be in heaven. That's what this book is all about, from front to back. You have made a way for
unholy men and unholy women to have a relationship with a holy God that comes by being poor in spirit and
by mourning. It comes by acknowledging that we need you. Father, I pray that those who have never received
you before, have never really honestly considered that they need to come the way of the cross, the narrow
way which leads to eternal life, would come tonight. It's not a popular thing to think about or preach, it just is
the truth. And you do your work Lord we pray. And those who have fallen or walked away, I pray Father
would come back. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Let's all stand. And you guessed it, I'm going to call those of you in either camp whether this is the first time to
receive Christ as Lord and Savior, maybe you've grown up religious all your life but you've never really made a
personal commitment to Christ, you've never made a step where it's become real for you. Or, you're one of
those folks who made some kind of decision in the past but you're not walking with him, you're walking from
him, you're walking around him today. I'm going to give you this opportunity to get up out of your seat, find
the nearest aisle come right up here to the front and give your life to Christ, come back to him. So as we sing
this song you come right now and let me lead you in a word of prayer. You might even feel like, "Well they
dragged me to church and I didn't want to come but I lost a bet this week so here I am." Maybe you've
discovered that there's a God in heaven who's perfect and just, holy, who will forgive. Not based upon
anything you've done or I've done but simply because that's how he's chosen to do something utterly
impossible by having all your sin go on his son Jesus so that you could be his child, his son or daughter and be
in heaven with him. He'll never force that. Just like he said, "Whom will I send?" He would ask, "Who would
be saved?" He won't drag you to heaven. If you chose not to be with him forever in heaven, that's your
business. He'd love you to be with him now and then. But you must receive the gift. If God is speaking to your
heart, in these last few moments, you get up and come. Do it now, do it quickly. God's speaking to your heart,
say yes to him. Those of you who have come forward and I'm so happy you did, I see two guys up there with
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canes and so I know it wasn't easy. God is going to make you his, make you whole, he's going to forgive you of
your sins, give you a reason for life and hope for the future.
I'm going to ask you to pray right now after me. I'm going to pray out loud, I'm going to ask you to repeat this
after me, from your heart, to him. Give your life to him. Let's pray together.
Lord I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I turn from my sin. I turn to you. I trust Jesus
who died on the cross and rose from the dead for me. Fill me with your Spirit and help me to live for you
today and every day. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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