I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6. The sixth chapter of Isaiah. I appreciate Pastor Dave and the song selection to really prepare our hearts to bring us to this passage. I think a great reminder for us, and as our bulletin is laid out for our younger children as well for this, I notice one of the pages gives them an opportunity to draw something that they get out of the service. I would be interested in seeing your drawings, and so you can show those to me. I would like to see that. Isaiah chapter 6, we will read together. I will read the first verse, and then invite you to read the second. We will read responsibly, down through verse 8. Isaiah 6, beginning in 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. 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. So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me." Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the vision of who you are, and we pray that as we look into scripture this morning, that our hearts would be open to the truth. that we would see your majesty, your greatness, your holiness, and that it would convict us, but also challenge us, that we would be changed, that we would be willing to go, that we would be delighted to serve. Lord, this is a change that we cannot do in and of ourselves. We pray that your Holy Spirit would convict us of sin and change us, that we might be like Jesus Christ. For it is in his name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. About a month ago, I had the privilege of sitting on the ordination council for our son, Timothy. The church, the ordination council took place then, the church ordination is actually taking place in another month, take place in August. But just before I left, Pastor Dan asked me, he said, do you have a particular question that you like to ask at ordination councils? Now I've sat on a lot of ordination councils. I enjoy them, though it was an unusual situation to be on my son's council. And I felt a little awkward, because there were some questions that I might ask, or I would read the doctrinal statement, and normally I would ask, but I felt a little awkward because it's like, well, why is his dad asking that question? But I did tell Pastor Dan, I said, I do have a question that I like to ask at ordination councils. I like to plant the seed that I think will help in future ministry. And the question I like to ask is this. Is there one attribute of God that tends to be primary? That tends to govern the other attributes of God's goodness? Or maybe to put it another way is, what is God's fundamental attribute? And I believe the answer to that question is God's holiness. That God's holiness is the crowning glory of his divine character. That all of his attributes really are seen in Him being holy. That what God does is holy. And we'll look at this a little bit more in just a moment. But I think Scripture suggests that. We read that His name is holy. His throne is holy. That Jesus, when He taught His disciples to pray, when they said, Lord, teach us to pray. He said, well, here's how you pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, Holy, hallowed be your name. And the emphasis of that, the strongest evidence that ascribing God's holiness as its primary attribute is what we see here. It is the only attribute of God that is repeated, that thrice statement, holy, holy, holy. We don't find that said of his mercy or his love. though God is love and God is mercy. But we find this stated and we find the word holy or holiness repeated over 600 times in Scripture. Well, the first question would be, so what is holiness? What does it mean to be holy? What does that word mean? And when I had mentioned at my son's ordination that I see this as the primary attribute, and by the way, he got the question right when I asked him, though we had not talked about it. But the pastor talked with me later, and he said, you know, I've thought about that, but I've wrestled with it, because if we view God's holiness as Him being separate from corruption or separate from creation, was that His primary attribute in eternity past? I thought, well, that's a good question. And I've pondered that, but I think to speak of Him being separate from creation or corruption is only part of what is summed up in holiness. The Word at its very core speaks of his being apart, him being separate, that he is unique, that he is separate, and really his glory is summed up in that. Now, obviously he's separate from corruption. That speaks of his moral purity. And he's separate from his creation. That speaks of his majestic transcendence. But God is unique in His being separate. See, not only is God holy, His Spirit is holy, His Son is holy, the thrice holiness of God is seen in the Trinity. But not only is He holy, He calls us to be holy. And Pastor Dave reminded us of that as we sang, take time to be holy. That we see that, and if you had noticed in the hymnal, the verse that was stated there was from 1 Peter chapter 1. It says, but as he which has called you is holy, so you are to be holy in all manner of living, in all manner of conduct. Because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. That's a quote from Leviticus. The theme of the book of Leviticus is holiness. And you find that over and over in Leviticus. In Leviticus 19 verse 2 it says, In Leviticus 20 verse 26 it says, That as believers we are his people. than were to be like him. So I had asked several weeks ago one of the questions, will you strive to be holy? You've probably noticed that I'm working through those questions. That I've asked, I asked the questions of the congregation before you voted, and I'm working through those because I think it's good for us to be reminded. They also provide a series for the summer with standalone messages because so many people are in and out. It's one of those times. But I also loosely organized them around Isaiah 7 verse 10. It says, Isaiah had prepared his heart to seek, to study the law of the Lord, and to do it. And then to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. and trying to organize around that, that first of all, we would prepare our hearts, that we would strive to seek the Lord, and then we would obey, that we would do, and then to share, to teach others. So the question then is, will we strive to be holy? See, holiness is not optional. God calls us to that, and when we come to Isaiah 6, We find a unique situation. Israel was facing a time of uncertainty. The historical context here is that the king, Azariah, who was a good king, or his name that is listed here is Uzziah, had died. Uzziah reigned for 52 years. Realize there were people in Israel that had lived their entire lives under the reign of this king. I mean, we're used to changing leadership every four or eight years, and sometimes we really want that to happen, other times we wish it wouldn't, but it happens. Well, if we go back 52 years, we're going back to the Johnson administration. We've had a lot of presidents in that time. Israel had one king. And Uzziah was a good king. He brought stability. In fact, he was really a light in a very dark time in Israel's history. And when you have a change of leadership at that level, after such stability, it's a time of uncertainty. Well, where do people turn in times of uncertainty? You know, that's often when they turn to the Lord. And we find a man who goes to the temple. We find Isaiah, Ben Amos, son of Amos. He goes into the temple, and there he gets a glimpse of God's holiness. And when he gets that glimpse of God's holiness, it changes him. He sees his sinfulness, but he's cleansed, and then he's commissioned. He wants to serve. And I believe that the same thing will happen to us when we see the holiness of God. When we see the holiness of God, several things will happen. The first one is your perspective of life will change. Notice what we see here. It tells us about the character of God. We, first of all, will recognize God's character. You get a different view of life, but it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. The first thing that we see is that God is alive. Uzziah was dead, but God was not. You know, there's a 100% turnover in world leadership. But our Lord reigns. He was alive. It says, secondly, he was authoritative, sitting upon a throne. His throne is his right to rule. He rules whether people want him to or not. Our God reigns. That ought to bring great confidence to us. The third thing that we see is he's all-powerful. He's high and lifted up. His throne is above all others. That he is above, in fact, when we read in Ephesians, and when it speaks of him sitting on his throne, and that every other king is under his feet, we realize that his lowest part is above anybody else's highest part. Our God reigns. He is all-powerful. And then we see he is awe-inspiring. The train of his robe filled the temple. It speaks of his royalty, of his majesty. In fact, Psalm 93, verses 1 and 2 talk about that majesty and holiness. But we also see in this passage he was adored. Above him stood the seraphim. We sang, the cherubim and seraphim bowed down before him. This is the only mention in scripture that we have of the seraphim. Now there may be an allusion to them in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 7. It says, who makes his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire. Because the Hebrew word for seraph is the word that means to burn. So it could be an allusion in Hebrews 1, but this is the only specific mention. And notice the change of perspective that takes place. When we read this passage, it says, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and his glory, the train of his robe filled the temple. But notice what the seraphim say in verse 3. They cry one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with his glory. Isaiah saw his glory in the temple. From their vantage point, the seraphim saw his glory filling the earth. And the psalmist said, the heavens declare the glory of God. We see a change of perspective that I think is important for us to get. To get a glimpse of God's authority and His power ought to elicit our response of awe and adoration. And that ought to also bring us great comfort. But when we see His character, we see it elevates His glory. That thrice holiness that is stated. Holy, holy, holy. That repetition. And in the Hebrew, the repetition is a form of emphasis. If we want to emphasize something, we do it different ways. We can put it in bold, as it is on the PowerPoint. Or we can do bold italics. Or maybe change the color or the font size. We have multiple ways of doing that. The Hebrews, in the Hebrew language, they would repeat it. Holy, holy, holy. There's an interesting example of this in Genesis chapter 14. In verse 10, it talks about this valley, and there's the battle of kings that is taking place, and it says that the kings fell into, and in the New King James it says they fall into asphalt pits. Well, other versions translate it, bitumen pits, slime pits, tar pits, even clay pits. Why the variety? Because in the Hebrew, it just repeats the same word, pit. So you have pits, and then you have pit pits. And as one writer said, if you fall into the pits, that's bad, but if you're in the pit pits, you're really in the pits. It's the repetition that emphasizes these were really nasty pits. Well, on the other side of it, the repetition is on the holiness of God. And as I mentioned, the Bible does not say God is mercy, mercy, mercy, or love, love, love, but it says he is holy, holy, holy. See, God's love is a holy love. God's mercy is a holy mercy. His love is his desire to impart holiness. Because all have sinned, all have come short of the glory of God. And when you read the context of that in Romans, it's because all have sinned that all can be saved. That's the mercy of God. Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. One systematic theology put it this way, holiness is the track on which the engine of love must run. God's love is not giving up his holiness. It is a holy love. God's truth is a holy truth. God's knowledge always has a moral component to it. It has a moral purpose. You know, people today sometimes seek knowledge. They want information for unholy purposes. Sometimes it's to enjoy sin vicariously. Other times it's to find ways to sin. But God's knowledge and truth is a holy truth. In fact, we're told in Romans 16 verse 19, I want you to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil. God wants us as his children to be, have a level of naivete concerning wickedness. Now we live in a vile world, and we're exposed to things, but our desire ought to be to know what is good. to make it our pursuit to know the Lord and his word, that we would be sanctified through his truth. Because when we see who he is, it changes how we view life. The second thing we see is when you have the view of the holiness of God, it changes your perception of your sin. How we really view our sin will be exposed. Because we begin to comprehend the personal aspect of sin. Notice Isaiah's response. He says, so I said, woe is me, for I am undone. That's not some kind of a melodramatic statement that the word tends to be viewed today. He is saying, I am doomed. He's actually, he's announcing judgment on himself. Think of the New Testament when Jesus confronts the religious leaders and he says, Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, you hypocrites. He was denouncing them with judgment. Isaiah does that to himself. He said, I am doomed. He looks around and he says, I am a man who is sinful. The temple was shaking. The doorposts, it says, were shaken by this cry of the glory of God. You know, sometimes things shake, and it doesn't bother us. When I was pastoring in Maine, we were doing a building project, and because Maine, it's a high ledge. You don't get very deep, and then you've got a real solid ledge of granite. And so we had to, when we were expanding our parking lot, they had to dynamite. That adds quite a bit to building costs. And we had a Christian school. And so they would tell us, okay, when we're going to set off the charges, we'll give you the warnings. The horn will go off, and that's a five minute warning, and then we'll give you two minutes, and then everything goes boom. Well, we would move our students to another part of the building. Well, our church had been built as a tractor sales and service center. So it was built on 12 inches of concrete. And we'd move the kids, and a lot of them would lay down on the floor because they wanted to feel it shake when that explosion took place. Now, I could feel it just fine standing up. But they considered that fun. They enjoyed that excitement. I had enough excitement when I didn't hear the first whistle or the second whistle, and then I felt the shake. Do you know, there was one night that I was in my office, about 7 o'clock, and all of a sudden I heard this loud bang and felt everything shake. And I walked outside because there hadn't been any whistles and they weren't doing construction. and other people in businesses around us were outside. And nobody seemed to know what was going on. And I found out later that three miles away at our home, my wife had felt the same thing, and she had gone outside, and the neighbors had met in the street. And we realized there had been an earthquake. Maine is not a place that you expect to have earthquakes. But that one was a little more unnerving. It wasn't just the doorposts shaking here. Isaiah is quaking. And it wasn't the ground, it was God's glory that had caused this. As he saw his sinfulness, his cry was a declaration of judgment. He said, I am devastated, I am doomed. He didn't say, well, you know, I'm better than some people. No, he cried out, I have a dirty mouth and I live around a people with a dirty mouth. I'm a man of unclean lips. His integrity, his personal integrity collapsed. He didn't say, well, you know, I'm okay, you're okay. He said, I'm in trouble and you're in trouble. Because he saw who God was. When we truly understand who God is, that's how we view sin. A.W. Tozer put it this way, we have learned to live with unholiness and come to look upon it as natural and as the expected thing. Until we see the holiness of God, we sometimes say, well, you know, my sin, it's not as bad as other people's sin. And granted, there are levels of depravity, but it's all falling short of the glory of God. Now, I've wondered at times, why did Isaiah say, I'm a man of unclean lips? Why was that where he went? You know, I think back to Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 when God, just before he destroys the entire earth except for Noah and his family in the flood, he says every thought of their heart was only evil continually. Why did he say, you know, I'm struggling in my thought life? Or I have a bad temper, right? It was his lips. And I don't know, the answer in Scripture doesn't give us more than this, but I've wondered at sometimes when he heard the cry of proclaiming the majesty of God, the holiness of God, if he didn't realize just how mundane what he talked about was. Or maybe it was he realized, as Matthew 15, 11 says, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. That it's what comes out of the mouth that defiles. But whatever it was, Isaiah said, I am in trouble. And when he saw his need, that's when he experienced personal cleansing. This is the message of hope. Sometimes we shy away from the holiness of God because we think, well, that is so convicting. It is, but there is hope for sinners. That's why Christ came. And when we see our sin before God, that's when there is hope for repentance, for cleansing. And when he cries out, I'm doomed, that's when the cleansing comes. That's where the seraphim come. Because when we sin, what we're doing is we are doing what God hates, and we're doing the thing for which Christ died. Because God is holy, he has a divine allergic reaction to sin. It is against his character. And it's said that the wrath of God is the natural expression of his holiness toward unrighteousness. And that's why Christ came. I mentioned that the theme of Leviticus is holiness. I came across an outline for it that I found very helpful. That the first part is, how do I have fellowship with God? And that's the sacrifice. How do I maintain fellowship with God? That's sanctification. But it's understanding the holiness of God. As I was rereading Leviticus, and we sometimes joke that that's where Bible reading programs go to die. Because it's such a difficult reading. But what it shows is every area of life is to be under God's holiness. But as I was rereading it, I thought, you know, I'm really glad that I'm not an Old Testament priest. When you read all the stuff they had to deal with, I mean, if the people had a skin condition, they had to go to the priest. If there was a problem in their home, the priest had to come and see what that was and if that house had to be, and I'm thinking, you know, and plus all of that dealing with the sacrifices and the butchering and all, so you've got to be a butcher and a dermatologist and a code enforcement officer. But every area of life was to be under God's holiness. So how can I have a relationship with a holy God? That's where we see the sacrifice and Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's the mercy of God. That we can come to Him and we can strive to be holy even though none of us will ever attain it in this life because God is love and He is mercy. But do we understand that we must be holy because that is the purpose for which Christ came into the world? Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Colossians 1 verses 21 and 22 say, And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy. that we can be holy and blameless and above reproach. I think that's why the songwriter said, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross. And I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. When we see the holiness of God, we see the majesty of his mercy. We see the greatness of that. And when we see that, then we're willing to serve Him. When you see the holiness of God, your purpose for serving will be emphasized. We see this in, I'm not gonna expand on this this morning, but really verses eight and following. We concluded with verse eight in our public reading, I heard the voice saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me. that Isaiah, when he saw the holiness of God and he heard their need, he heard the discussion, he said, Lord, send me. I want to be your ambassador. I want to tell others about your greatness, your glory, your holiness. He didn't say, you know, I've done enough. Somebody else ought to go. I've done my part. No, he said, Lord, I want to serve. Use me. Give me that opportunity to tell others of your glory. But as you read the rest of the passage, and we won't take that time this morning, we also find that we trust God's working in difficulty. Because what Isaiah is told is not an easy task. The Lord tells him, go. He said, I'm going to send you this people, and you're going to talk, you're going to tell them, and they're not going to listen. And they're not going to see. Their ears are heavy, their eyes are shut, their hearts are hard. And Isaiah's response is, Lord, how long? And I wonder if you say, Lord, how long do I have to do that? How long are they going to be like that? And the Lord says, it's part of my judgment. The ministry that Isaiah was being given is not the kind that most of us would say, that's what I want to do. But because he had seen the holiness of God, he was willing to do it. He said, I want to share what God is doing. And he was willing to serve. See, when we see what God is doing, it touches our heart. When we see the heat of his holiness, our tender hearts ought to respond. You know, the heat can do one of two things. Just like, you know, we're coming into that time of our summer. when we get to enjoy the heat of the summer. When I lived in Maine, we had to endure the winters. And I had somebody tell me, they said, well, if you can't take the winters, you don't deserve the summers. And I said, why do the winters have to be so much longer than the summers? Sometimes we think, okay, if we can't handle the summers, we don't deserve the winters. But you know, the same heat that melts the crayons that your child leaves in the car, will harden the clay. How do we respond to the heat of God's Word? Does it melt us or harden us? Because we see the same thing in people. Some people, when the light of God's glory comes on them, they come to this point and say, Lord, woe is me. And others push back. Because sinful people are not comfortable in the presence of God's holiness. That's why Jesus said they love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were wicked. But our heart ought to be, Lord, I want to be holy. I want to be like you. So how do we do that? Let me just give us some questions that I think can be helpful as we examine our lives. The first, as we've looked at this passage, do we see the circumstances of life in light of God's character? Do we really believe that he's in control, that he is alive, that he has power, that he can change people where we can't? Because if we understand that, it brings us to a place of submission. You know, sometimes we can say that mentally, but we live like we're Christian atheists. Like God's not even in the picture. And we need to get the view that Isaiah did. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Do we believe that He works all things together for good to those who love Him? But you don't know what I'm going through. No, but He does. And He's on His throne. Our God reigns. Do we see life in light of that? Do you desire to know the mind of Christ through the Word of God? A.W. Pink, in his little booklet titled, Profiting from the Word, lists various reasons that people can read the Bible. He says some people read the Bible because they want to increase their knowledge. It's for pride. They want Bible facts. They can do better at Bible trivia. Some do it out of curiosity. Some do it because they want to prove their point. But God's word only profits us when we come in surrender to his truth. That we would say, Lord, I want to see you. That your word will touch every area of my life. And I want to live for you. John 15, verse three says, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Third question, are we becoming more holy? And the question here is one of direction more than position. It's where are we headed? Where are our feet pointed? It ought to be a question that encourages us. Say, okay, I'm not all that I want to be, I'm not all that I should be, but I see progress spiritually. But it should also be a question of caution. that we don't live in the past. Well, you know, I really serve God and I really grew spiritually two years ago. Now, how are we doing now? Because it's the direction that we're headed that is most important. And we don't want to compare our holiness to the culture around us, even a Christian culture, because that's not the right standard. The standard is the holiness of God. The Lord said to Israel, don't be like the nations around you. You're my people. That's what we see in Peter's epistles. You are a chosen people, a special people of God's own choosing. Now let me caution us as I say, well, what's the direction? It's important that we take the broad view. That we don't get so introspective and tied up that, well, you know, I'm not sure I'm more holy now than I was 10 minutes ago. Or, you know, well, an hour ago. Or, you know, Sunday's not better than Saturday. We can get really tied up in that. What we need to look at is how are you doing over the months, not the minutes? But I think it would be fair to ask, as we come to kind of the halfway point of this year, how are we doing? Has this year, as we look back at January, has this been a time of growth? Say, you know, I'm struggling. Okay, then let's commit to go forward. But look at the bigger picture. It says in Psalm 97, verse 10, you who love the Lord hate evil. See, realize that a growing holiness will be seen by others. Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, Timothy, I want you to commit to be an example of believers. Do it in your speech, in your conduct, in your faith, in your purity. He said that your profiting will appear to everybody. This was Moses when he came off the mountain and the people of Israel said, we can't look on your face because it's glowing because of the time you had spent with God. Sometimes we struggle because we see that battle, but understand, God is working. And be encouraged as we strive to become more holy. I think a fourth question is, do we regularly repent? Do we see the holiness of God? And when we do, we're gonna see our sin. When Isaiah saw God's holiness, he said, woe is me. When Paul saw God's holiness, he lamented, oh wretched man that I am. David wrote an entire psalm expressing his heart of repentance, pouring out his heart, and he said, Lord, when I kept silent, it had a physical impact on me. We have to be willing to repent. Do we really see sin as disgusting? That it makes God sick? I think sometimes we discount God's holiness because we presume on his grace. R.C. Sproul, in his book, The Holiness of God, tells of a time when he was teaching college freshmen a Bible course. He said he had 250 freshmen in his course. And it was the first semester he was teaching, and he assigned three papers. He said, one of them is due on September 30th, the next one on October 30th, and the third one on November 30th. He said, they have to be on my desk by noon, or you get an F. There's no grace period unless you're in the hospital or you have a death in the immediate family. He said, other than that, they're on my desk, or it's an F. He had 250 people in the class, the first assignment came due, he said 225 of them gave his papers. He said, and 25 of them were trembling. They said, oh, this is our freshman year. We haven't learned to budget our time. We're struggling with getting all these things done. All of this going on. And he said, can't you just give us a little bit more time? And he said, OK, I'll give you a little longer, but get them in quickly. He said, it came to the next deadline, and 50 of them didn't have their papers. And they were a little concerned, but not nearly as much. They said, please give us a little more time. It was homecoming weekend. There's a lot of other projects due at this point. It's kind of the middle of the semester. Give us more time. He said, OK, I'll give you a little more time. Came to the third assignment. And there was about 150 of them turned in the paper. And the rest just came in very nonchalant and said, we don't have it. We'll get it to you in the next few days. Don't worry about it. And he said, no. He said, it's due today. And he began calling names, and he said, do you have your paper? No. F. Called another name. Do you have your paper? He said, no. F. And the cry was, that's not fair. And he said, oh, you want fairness? If I remember correctly, your last paper was late. I'll change that to an F also. The point was, they'd begun to presume on his grace. and assume his grace. But don't we do the same thing? Well, when I sin, I can ask God to forgive me and he'll forgive me because he is faithful and he is righteous to forgive me of my sin. That is all true. But that does not remove the horror of sin. And if we're not careful, we get to a point where sin does not disgust us. The Puritan Thomas Brooks described repentance very vividly. He said this, repentance is the vomit of the soul. That's gross. I don't know about you, but I hate throwing up. If I am sick, I will do everything I can to not regurgitate, to use a much nicer word. But I thought, what an interesting word to use when it comes to repentance. Do we really see sin as making our souls sick? That we have to come to God and get rid of this. That genuine repentance means that my soul is rejecting what is making me spiritually ill and I don't want it. And I was pondering Thomas Brooks' statement when I read Leviticus 18 and it says, if you do the wickedness that the other nations did, the land will vomit you out. That's the description God uses. See, if we view repentance as our simple backup plan, you know, I'm gonna live up, you know, well, Lord forgive me, it probably means we're not living in awareness of His holiness. Because regret feels bad about sin, but repentance turns away from sin. Regret looks at my circumstances, but repentance says God is holy. You know, I can regret my sin without really doing business with God. I can feel bad that it happened. I can even be really emotionally upset, and that might even be a relief. But genuine repentance means I come to the Lord and say, Lord, I don't want that worldly sorrow that 2 Corinthians 7, 10 warns about. I want a godly sorrow that brings about a change. Like what Kevin DeYoung in his book, The Hole in Our Holiness, said. He said, throwing up is not easy, and neither is repentance. But one is much sweeter than the other. Oh, that that would be our desire. And I dread using that illustration because I'm wondering what kids are drawing. But do we repent regularly? Number five, what fruit is the Holy Spirit developing in our lives? I've already mentioned that as we progress in holiness, our advancement will be noticed. But what areas of the Spirit's fruit are we seeing? Are we seeing more love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness, self-control? Do we understand that in our conversation with our spouse or with our children or our parents or our co-workers that we're living in the holiness of God? Are we endeavoring to establish personal habits of holiness? Those patterns Jerry Bridges in his book Pursuit of Holiness said, the more we sin, the more we are inclined to sin. He said the more we sin, the easier it becomes, because we start down that road, and so every time we lust, or cheat, or covet, or gossip, or lie, we're planting seeds for more wickedness. But the positive side of that is in Galatians 6, 8, while it says, he that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, it doesn't stop there. It says, but he that sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So do we read our Bibles? How can I be holy? Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to your word. With my whole heart have I sought you, O let me not wander from your commandments. Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119, 9 through 11. Further on in that same psalm, in verse 104, it says, through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Do we read the word? How are you developing in your prayer life? How important it is that we spend time in prayer, and again, that's one of those areas of struggle. We invite you to join us this Wednesday as we spend time together. to grow together. Are we walking in the Spirit? Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. So when the Spirit prompts you, don't do that, don't go that way, that we will respond. And then looking to serve. Okay, why is this so important? We know God is holy, but we know Christ has died for our sins, because holiness is not an option. It says in Hebrews 12 verse 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. It says, blessed in Matthew, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now understand again the hope that if you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are set apart. That's why Paul can write to the church at Corinth, which has all sorts of problems, and he calls them saints. Because they were set apart. That we are positionally set apart, but we are to be growing on a daily basis. that we would seek to be holy because we long to see the Lord. And the more we see of Him, the more we hate our sin, and the more we desire to be like Christ. And if you're here without Christ today, you can turn from that sin and trust in Christ because Jesus died for you. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, as we get a vision of your greatness, your majesty, your purity...