Have You Seen God's Holiness? — Erlo Stegen

Let us read our text in Isaiah chapter 6 from verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim, each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

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.

Then 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. We will read thus far.

The Living King Above Earthly Thrones

Let's have a closer look at this matter and see what it has to speak to us. The first point, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

In that year in which King Uzziah died, the King of Israel died. But even though that King was dead, the King of kings was still alive.

The King of kings was still alive. The King of kings was still alive.

Kings and thrones come and go. Political kingdoms and authorities and powers, they all come and then pass by to make way for the next. And also people pass on. These days I spoke to a brother from Paul Petersburg,.

Who told me about.

A young man who was found dead, his heart had just stopped, only 33 years of age. Another farmer in that area was very fit, he used to go jogging regularly. He went to his doctor just a week before he passed away.

And the doctor marveled at his fitness. He used to go running with his wife. He was the fitter of them and sometimes she would stop, he would continue running, and come back and collect her, and they would continue running back home.

Now his wife would continue jogging slowly when he had left and gone on, but she wondered why hasn't he come back. And then she thought, well let me go and check up. Just a little bit further on she found him there lying down, dead.

Don't ever be self-confident in your fitness. Don't think that you're so fit that you can't die. God can just touch the heart, or he can just say, you come, dust to dust. Maybe you're in matric and you're looking forward to finishing your matric year, little knowing that God has already ordained that he's going to take you before you see the end of your matric.

So don't be confident in yourself, listen to the word of the Lord. So you see how people can suddenly pass on. Before I continue, let me just say that I was quite troubled this morning. I was troubled by many different sermons.

Rejecting Feelings as the Authority for Faith

And I said, Lord, which one should I take, which should I leave? And then I thought, well let me go back to the original text which I had been looking at. This is the one that I've read to you. Another message was to be directed at those who are depressed, because there are many people in this world who suffer from depression.

And become ill. They become ill through the heaviness and depression they suffer from. I'd wanted to speak directly to them. And then also to those who are not progressing in the faith. I'd wanted to point out that the person who suffers from depression, and the one who can make no headway in the faith, they are listening to their own feelings or their soul.

They're listening to themselves.

Don't listen. Don't be subject to your feelings, otherwise it will drive you crazy. You'll end up in an asylum. You'll be a madman. God has not called us to be obedient to what we feel, but to listen to Him.

So don't be soulish. Don't be a slave of your feelings and listen to your own voice and what you think. You are the one who should be speaking to your soul. You are the one who should be telling yourself things.

I remember when I was still a child and I was preaching to some black people about repentance.

And they replied with the standard reply,.

I don't yet feel like it. Well, that has nothing to do with the issue. If God has spoken, you cannot answer I don't feel like it.

Not only I don't feel like it, it hasn't told me that I should get converted. And God has spoken. You're listening to the wrong thing. Don't listen to yourself. You speak to yourself. You tell yourself what you should do.

You understand? Otherwise, you yourself will drive yourself crazy. Are there some here that get depressed? I hope that this will be the end of it. You are depressed because you're listening to yourself.

And you yourself have got to listen to you, what you tell yourself. You tell yourself what to do, what God says. And that's the end of your madness.

David's Self-Encouragement and Speaking to the Soul

In the Bible, we hear that David encouraged himself and strengthened himself. He spoke to himself.

In the Bible, we hear that David encouraged himself and strengthened himself.

We find that in the Psalms. Speaking to himself, Why are you troubled, O soul? What is it that causes you to be cast down? Speak to your own self. And command your own self.

You've heard, I've spoken in tongues. I was speaking in tongues. I was speaking in German. If you don't understand, there's a program of a quiz. Back to school. Back to school.

And that is what I wanted to speak about, especially regarding depression. The need for you to command yourself. That you say, get out of that. Stop with that. Let that go. Do what the Lord says. And the third sermon I had prepared is something I won't even refer to, otherwise I won't get to this first message.

The Lord Remains on His Throne

When King Uzziah died, and he had been reigning for 50 years, He died in hospital, having suffered from leprosy for years. And when he died, the prophet, the man of God, saw the Lord. Even though the king was dead, the Lord doesn't die with the kings and the great ones of the earth when they die.

The king died of his leprosy. But the Lord of Lords was still on his throne, high and lifted up.

The Lord of Lords was still on his throne, high and lifted up. The king was still on his throne, high and lifted up.

If you trust in man, and you lean upon humans, your foundations will be shaken. But if your trust is in the Lord, you are on an eternal, unshakable foundation. I don't know, the prophet was maybe very close to the king, maybe had gained from him, but when the king was dead, the prophet saw the Lord in his power and in his strength.

The Church as God's Living Temple

Where did he see the king of kings? In his temple. And there's explanation then about the temple after that. But today I want to say, the temple in today's language, in this time, is. And you know what type of stones this temple is made of.

The temple today is made of living stones of believers, you and me, the temple of God. If Isaiah was here today, and he was shown the temple as it is today, here to look at you and me, what would he record about the temple?

Or is it a lie that we are the temple of God? Now he saw the Lord high and lifted up on his throne, he saw smoke filling the temple, he saw the train of his robe. If he had to look today at the Lord's temple, at us as his people, what would he record?

It says, his glory filled the temple. And he saw the seraphim. Seraphim was a flaming angel. Was on fire. It was a creature burning, and burning for the Lord. And it would move up and down in the temple.

Each seraphim had two wings, or six wings. Two of which were used to cover the face. Two of the feet. With two it flew.

And he would call out, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.

They would cry out in unison. They were like soldiers moving in absolute unison together. They used their wings to hide their faces and their feet and to fly together and shouted together. No conflict, nothing that was separating them.

They spoke with a single voice. We who say we are the temple, I ask you, what temple, what type of temple are we?

A bunch of mad people. The one says this, the other one says that.

The one who says this, the other one says that. Isaiah the prophet, he was known as one of the major prophets, was unaware of anything in his life that wasn't right. But there was something that wasn't right.

But he wasn't conscious of it. Some people see nothing. When they are requested to go and seek the Lord, they say, well, for how long? What time span? I've said, well, if you just pray earnestly, seeking the Lord with all your heart, you can find him in the same day.

But some will pray for weeks on end and months and they hear nothing and they receive nothing. They just disappear. One will even be upset if he's asked to go and pray. Another one will just boycott the others and turn his back on others.

He doesn't understand. Why should I pray about anything? There's nothing wrong with my life. He'll say, I'm perfectly healthy. There's nothing that's wrong with me. But Isaiah the prophet, as he gazed into the temple, as he saw what was happening there, and the resounding cry of holy, holy, holy, he saw his sin, that which he hadn't seen before.

So, even though he had been sure of his position and his right condition as everything being alright, it was only in the presence of the glory and majesty of the Lord that he saw. So, we need to seek the Lord, that we see him, so that we can see.

It was then that he saw what he had been speaking in a different light. Like a person who suddenly awakes to the realization, all that which I've been saying, that was gossip. Now, these angels were shouting in the temple or calling out, holy, holy, holy.

Examining What the Church Proclaims

I wonder, what are we calling out? Is it noisy? Is it slanderous? Is it against other people? Criticism?

Oh, Isaiah. Oh, Isaiah. Oh, Isaiah.

Now, he gazed into the temple. He describes what he saw, the throne, the glory, the earthquake, and he was able to say what it was like. If one looks into the church today, in this modern world, into the present church, what can one say about it?

What does one see? Yesterday, I was told by somebody how they'd been in a certain church and the way that they had worshipped there. This person said the way that they worshipped was so strong and powerful, but as one looked further at the way that they were, who they were, the way that they were dressed, the way that they spoke, the way that they moved, one just felt powerless.

Now, aren't you a believer? Why don't you look and see what is inside your life and let others have a look and explain? If others look at you completely, all over, from your head, your face, your clothing, your shoes, all of you, can they shout out about the glory of the Lord and say, Woe is me, my unclean lips?

He saw the seraphim. Covering their face in reverence before the Lord. Even their feet. And calling out. They cried out to one another with a single message, holy, holy, holy, and about the glory of the Lord.

Can others see that and cry out that when they look into your life? Maybe you are so fixated on a person. Stop fixating and being obsessed with a person. Look to the Lord. Fix your eyes on Him. I'm tired of seeing people who follow after people, who fixate on others, and when they go astray, because they are following them, they go astray with them.

And then backsliders follow those who are backsliders. The blind follow the blind. But you need to be one who beholds the glory of the Lord. And you too burn like the seraphim, for of them it was said that they burned.

Their complete, utter focus was on the Lord. They were burning only for Him. You child of God, in this temple as well, are you burning for Him too, like them? Not that you should burn for the Lord only when your children are together with you, following the Lord, and then if they go astray, that your light goes out as well?

Rather be like a red hot iron, if any fly decides to sit on it, it burns up. Psalm 104 verse 4 it says, Who makes His angels' spirits, His ministers, a flame of fire. Are you a minister of the Lord?

Are you a flame of fire? Or His servants, a flaming fire?

Who makes His angels' spirits, His ministers, a flame of fire. You children of the Lord, you who say you are servants of the Lord, are you a burning flame? I should just leave you now with this question.

Burning for God Rather Than Earthly Desires

Are you like a flame of fire for Christ, for God, and His work? Are you? Are you a flame for Christ, nothing less, a flame? If not, then one can understand that you've got time for witches and for bitches.

Excuse me, but let me put it plain to you, the world is rotten. I'm just explaining to them that a bitch is a terrible thing. One person from Durban who wasn't very familiar with the English language, When he got to the bus stop, he said, Bitch, wife of a dog.

He went to the bus stop and said, Bitch, wife of a dog.

You females don't burn for marriage, don't spend your time obsessed with who you're going to get married to. Otherwise you'll get a man who'll wake you up the first day, he'll set you straight that you realize what you're into.

I was just.

Saying I wish that you get married not to a pantoffelheld. What's pantoffel? These... Slipper hero. Slippers, yes. The Germans say a man who wears a dress is a pantoffelheld. A slipper hero, yeah. If you get a real man, the first week he'll put you right, then you'll know I can't fool around with this man.

Forget about getting married! Be aflame for God, not for him! It's a pity if you're not of a more noble character than such a person.

To the one who burns with lust that the father should seek a spouse. You can come.

And ask for prayer, although we will never choose for you. Your father can do that, not I want to do it. Stop being obsessed with wasteful, rubbishy.

Thoughts. Rather, let your mind be on him. Let you, the temple, be one full of glory.

That others will see the fire of the Lord burning in there. And you'll see what they were busy with. The holiness of God. Not with anything else. We need people on.

Fire for the Lord himself. Not that they are burning for their wives, or for their children, or for their careers, or for their parents, or anything else but the.

Lord. They were burning in spirit. You too, burn in spirit. And let God make you a flaming fire, as his servants should be, and his ministers, those that minister to him. We believers who are here, are we completely one, or are they groupings?

Holiness Revealed in Conduct and Appearance

Now, as people come in and see you, and see the glory of the Lord which is in you, or absent in you, and they look all over you, from your hair, down through your clothing, to the whole of you, do they see what emphasizes God's holiness and glory, or is it your.

Figure? That's why I use the word, a bitch. No, I didn't say bitch, I said a beach. That sounds better.

Now, one person might say, but what is this? This is clothing. Clothing can't be saved anyway. Indeed it can't, but we need to see what you are inside, which we can't see, but by looking at what you are outside.

Like John Bunyan has said, God doesn't need clothing to see your heart. He sees right through, but we need to see your heart.

By what you are outside. Yes, he says, God doesn't need your clothing, our clothing, to see what our heart is like, but we can't see the heart, so your heart is seen in your clothing. That was John Bunyan.

The Primacy of God's Holiness

And so they cried out together in the temple, saying what? A certain minister who had been holding a discipleship course was discipling others, and he taught them while he was discussing the attributes of God,.

Or the characteristics of God.

He said to his students, now before we continue, let's make a list of the attributes, the.

Nature of God. Let's write down these different qualities of God.

Let's make a list sequentially, one, two, and three, which they did.

When he got their papers and read them,.

Listen to what he found. They said his first attribute is love, his second is wisdom,.

And thirdly, his power,.

His omnipotence, and fourthly, his grace. Fifthly, his omniscience. Sixthly, his being the truth. At the bottom of the list, they wrote holiness. Why is it? He said then, this preacher said, this is surprising to me.

He said, for if we read the Bible, through the whole Bible, we discover the holiness of God. He says, no other attribute is highlighted as much as that one. It is of greatest importance. He said, nowhere will you find the angels crying out, love, love, love.

Wise, wise, wise. It's not like that. This love affair can be very, very dangerous.

But his thrice holiness, we prefer to present his love attribute only in the front, and it can be very dangerous. This burning of the seraphim was of noble quality. It was a burning for God. It wasn't like some people are burning in the flesh or a burning of their words with slander.

Repentance, Confession, and a Shaken Church

Is the church today as this temple? Are we like this temple? If not, there's only one hope for us, to repent and to confess our sin.

As they cried out, it says, the posts of the door were shaken. Does the world shake because of us? The early church in Jerusalem prayed and it was shaken. What can I do that you hear? What must I do? Do you need to be whipped into consciousness to understand?

What type of a temple are we? And I ask you that, you who are from overseas, you colored people, or you Indian people, whatever type you are, what is there? What is present in this temple? If you are not prepared to confess and deal with what you have done, like those who would go and secretly have their affairs down by the river, if you're not able to bring it to the light, then you will be expelled and your parents don't complain if I expel your children.

You parents should know what your children are like. And when they are dealt with in a fiery way, don't take their side.

Discipline and Obedience in the Christian Community

As they cried out, they were shaken. This house of ours, the one without a pole, we have to be like the ones who taught us.

We have to be like the ones who taught us. We have to be like the three of us, the three that passed away. The ones that was born, the one who was gone. The ones that were left. The three that were born, the three that died.

A certain preacher of old in Durban, Reverend Duma from Mgeni Road Church, he was on fire for the Lord. When his child was told, he said to the child, you come back immediately after school, two o 'clock.

When the child came at three, he packed his clothing and said, off with you. The mother, his wife, complained bitterly and said, how can you do such a thing for our child? He said, well, if you want to join the child, you can.

She said, no, I'm standing with you.

She cried, oh, dad, are you really, are you really chasing my child away? He says, if you want to go with the child, go. You see, that's not a pantoffle held. I respect such a man. Then she quickly turned around and said, oh, no, dad, I'll be with you.

I'll stand with you. After three months, that boy came back and he repented. He said, I'm sorry. But the father said, my boy, that doesn't suffice. In my office is a Bible and a cane, and I'll use both.

Of course, nowadays we can't because of human rights. Human rights. But the parents have got no rights. The children have got rights. And our prisons are overflowing. Why shouldn't they? Because they can look at TV all day and night.

And they eat meat. And human rights fight for them. So they can come out and murder people. Human rights. Some of those are the devil's rights. I'm going to get it. I'm not going to get it. But it's so bad.

I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to get it.

And they can watch TV all day, those in prison. They can eat meat, and there are special defences for their... And they have a wonderful time. They are specially defended. They have their special human rights in prison.

There are also some children of God who love TV in a stealing type of way, to secretly see it. And so, there are those prisoners who then don't have to work, they can just get their food regularly. But they kill each other in jail.

A neighbor told me, though, that on the other hand, despite these nicer conditions, the thing that they are always afraid of is being murdered. And also because of sexual abuse. I saw the temple, the seraphim, crying out.

I saw the temple, the seraphim, crying out. I saw the temple, the seraphim, crying out.

Crying out together in unison, holy is the Lord, thrice holy is He. If you want such a temple, you come next Sunday. Otherwise, why don't you join another.

Church? And pack your clothing and go. You can gladly come to me and I'll arrange transport for you to Great Town or Stanger or Tongat. We want the church to be one. We want the church to be one.

Unity, Holiness, and Counting the Cost

We need a church that is holy and is completely in unity together. Now, you can also go to another school if you like. You don't have to be at the school. There are plenty of other schools and the government has said that per teacher, 60 pupils per teacher is fine.

There is space in other schools.

This is the kind of temple that we want. Nothing else. And if you are not ready to pay the price, and this is how we live, pack your clothes and go.

It was necessary for King Uzziah to die for the prophet to see the temple.

Then you won't say, oh Elo, bring us together. Let's fight it out. Let's argue. Let's fight. You will say, no, no, I don't need that. I want to go and say, sorry, I've acted like the devil. Forgive me that I haven't been a blessing to you.

Forgive me that I haven't been a blessing to you.

Your tongue, your hands, your feet, every member of your body must be holy to the Lord. Then you won't have any time for anything else. Even if you're driving along the road, your eyes are set. You won't be able to be distracted by other things.

In the Western culture, they stand up as a mark of respect. Let's do that. Lord, I ask that your word would not fall to the ground, to the hard ground, to the byways, and to be just taken away by the birds of the air.

Work, Lord, in a marvelous way.

Make us to be a church, a temple thrice holy.

Make us, Lord, to be one, to be in unison, to be of one word, to burn together for your holy word. Amen.