A Thrice Holy God and a Backslidden Church — E.A. Johnston

Isaiah’s Vision of the Thrice-Holy God

I bring before you a message today, friends, which is a great burden upon my heart. I want to read us a passage of scripture today, which I feel has some striking parallels to our situation in our society today, and in our churches today, where darkness prevails in society, and the churches sound asleep on pillows of conformity and compromise.

I want us to peer into the realm of heaven and see a thrice holy God seated high and lifted up. The title of my message today, friends, is A Thrice Holy God and a Backslidden Church, and my text can be found in the book of Isaiah.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 6 and in verses 1 through 12, and there are several aspects I'd like to bring out from this passage to our attention today, the first being Isaiah's vision, the second being Isaiah's commission, and the third, Isaiah's mission.

Let me read us this striking passage of scripture at this time, and it is my prayer that the Spirit of the Lord will attend the reading of his holy word. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto 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 moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Let me pause here, friends, and as we look at Isaiah's vision of a thrice holy God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, it is an exalted view of God that the prophet witnessed, unlike our view today of God where we have shrunken God down to our size or smaller.

Sin Seen in the Light of God’s Holiness

That is one of the reasons that your average church member today can sin all he wants to because he maintains such a low view of God. For when you have a low view of God, you will also have a low view of sin.

And when we are confronted with a thrice holy God, we are then to see ourselves in the proper light as undone sinners. Notice our next verse. Then said I, 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Cleansing and Hearing God’s Voice

Also I heard the voice of the Lord. Let me pause here, friends. I want to make a statement, and I believe it's true. We must be clean before we can hear God's voice. If we are harboring unconfessed sin, or backslidden in unrepentant sin, we cannot hear his voice.

We must get cleaned up in a right relationship to him to hear his voice. Do you believe that, friend? I hope you do. For it is when we are walking closely with God that we hear him more clearly. In my own life for years I felt I was going to be a preacher, but I had no clear call from him to be a preacher.

It was only after I was walking closely with him and in a red-hot pursuit of him that I heard his clear call to be a preacher, and I said like, Isaiah, here I am, send me. Listen to Isaiah's commission from God.

The God-Sent Ministry

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and whom will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Let me pause again, friends. Let me say this. I fear we have a multitude of preachers today who were never sent by God into the ministry. Some years ago I was being interviewed on Christian radio, and the lady host commented that before she became a radio broadcaster, she had a job where she had a telephone and interviewed pastors around the country.

And the main question she asked these pastors was, Why did you become a pastor? Well, some said, I like to get up in front of crowds, and that's why I became a pastor. Or another said, I'm a good public speaker, so naturally I became a pastor.

Or another said, Well, I wanted to give back to my community, so that's why I became a pastor. And out of the thousand pastors whom she asked, Why did you become a pastor? Only one man, a black man, said, I became a pastor because God called me to be one.

Isaiah’s Mission to a Backslidden People

Believe, friends, we have a good many professionals in our pulpits today, but very few God-sent men. Isaiah was a God-sent prophet. Look at Isaiah's mission. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed.

Old Isaiah had a peculiar ministry of not only foretelling the rune of God's people, but his preaching was to ripen them for that rune. The people of God were in a backslidden state, focused on self-indulgence.

The men of Judah were full of the world, and in a pursuit to gain as much of it as they could, expanding their personal properties and indulging a pursuit of worldly pleasure. They were oblivious to the heart of God and the prophets who were sent to them.

Woes Against Those Who Call Evil Good

They destroyed, for they did not want to correct themselves, and return to a thrice holy God. But God declares his woes to them, in verse 20 of the preceding chapter. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Let me ask you, friends, is that not a vivid description of our society today, that calls evil good, and good evil? And it's a sad commentary on our backslidden churches, that are sound asleep, wrapped in silk sheets of arrogance and pride.

Isaiah had a preaching ministry of which his hearers would not be made better by it, but they should be made worse by it. Kind of like some pastors today, that if you sit under their ministry, you will be made worse for it.

We have today, friends, a thrice holy God, who has withdrawn himself from a backslidden church, that is focused on a mad pursuit of this world, and expanding their already bulging campuses, and boasting about their growth in numbers, and multi-million dollar buildings, while enjoying all the pleasures a sin-loving society can offer.

This is the sad condition of the church in this country today. They are dull of hearing the vital truths of God, and disobedient to the word of God, and out of step with the heart of a thrice holy God, and because of their pride, they are unwilling to repent of their sins, and turn back to the living God of the Bible.

Judgment on a Worldly Church

Now look at our last verse in this passage today, friends, and I want you to see how dreadful it is, and how full of terror it is. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wavered, and the people wasted, without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.

If that doesn't bother you, friend, it should. I had the privilege this year to speak to a high-ranking army general one-on-one, and I asked him if we as a nation should be concerned about Islamic terrorists destroying us with a dirty bomb, and he looked me in the eye and confided in me that, in his opinion, and other generals in the Pentagon, that they were more concerned about an all-out war between the United States and Russia.

He said there'd never been a time more dangerous than right now, even more dangerous than in the Cold War, when we'd been closer to World War, with a superpower, when we were at our weakest in a military sense.

Listen to me, friends, and listen to me closely. A thrice-holy God is not going to put up with a sin-loving society that hates him, that mocks him, that legislates him right out of their land, and all things holy, and he's not going to put up much longer with a worldly church filled with their own prideful ways, unless we repent and get right with a thrice-holy God.

There will be hell to pay. Judgment and utter destruction through nuclear war will empty our cities and make them both uninhabited and uninhabitable, and the land shall be utterly desolate. Look around you today, friends, and look me in the face, and tell me, am I right or am I wrong?

Revival and a God-Centered Gospel

Evil is called good in society at this hour, and a self-absorbed, back-slidden church is powerless to do anything about it because she has formed an alliance with the world, and compromised herself with the world, and she lacks authority.

A revived church will always be a moral compass to society, and one the world can look to for direction. Oh, how desperately, friends, we need revival at this sad and tragic hour. Let us be like the prophet Isaiah, and let us maintain a high view of God, and let us pulpits once again preach a God-centered gospel that holds up a bloody, scandalous cross to a sin-loving society, and tells them about a crucified Christ who has power to save.

May God have mercy on us all. Let us pray.