In Awe of the Almighty

Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a Page | 1
throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the
temple. (2) Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six
wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered
his feet, and with two he flew. (3) And one called to another
and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole
earth is full of his glory!" (4) And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house
was filled with smoke. (5) And I said: "Woe is me! For I am
lost; for 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!" (6) Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs
from the altar. (7) And he touched my mouth and said:
"Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away,
and your sin atoned for." (8) And I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I
said, "Here I am! Send me."

Introduction: Big Eye in the Sky Story

I became a Christian when I was a very young adult. I was
about 26 years old. Just about the same age as my daughter right
now. Before becoming a Christian I was an atheist. I dropped
out of the Catholic church during high school. I could not see
the relevance of going to church. So I had a silent challenge to
God, which I did not really take seriously. I told myself,
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basically, that if God is real, then he’ll somehow get through to
me.
And so dispensed with God since that time. Went through high
school and college without going to church, without the need
to pray.
Then when I was already working in my first office job, I met
this very pretty lady. I courted her, and she became my
girlfriend, and we were fine for a few months. That summer,
after she returned from a Christian revival camp, she broke up
with me. When I asked why, she said we were “unequally
yoked,” so she had to let me go. I couldn’t understand what she
was talking about. So I set off on a mission to rescue her from
this cult that has captured her.
I attended their Bible studies, trying to find the key to pry her
out of that group. And I found the answer. All they talked
about was based on the Bible. And if I could prove the bible
was not written by God, I can get her back. So one bible study
session I asked the pastor, who was very young, “how can you
be sure that the Bible is really from God?” The pastor’s answer
always referred to a bible passage so I told him, he could not
prove God’s authorship using the Bible because that would be
circular argument. And the pastor got stumped. I felt I had a
change of rescuing my girlfriend.
Then a young lady in the group said to me, “you and I will Page | 3
never see each other’s points of view because I believe that the
Bible is God’s Word and you don’t.” And somehow I couldn’t
get that idea off my head. That’s when I realized these people
were standing on the truths of the Bible, that is what they
based their lives on. And I had to confront myself, what was
my life standing on? And I realized I was just standing on ideas
and philosophies that I put together myself, that I claimed to
be true. What if they weren’t? What if my life was founded on
a lie?
And immediately I plunged into an existential crisis. Life had
no more meaning to me. I could kill myself that day and it
didn’t matter. I had to ask myself, what if the Bible is indeed
the Word of God? But I got scared, I didn’t want to touch the
bible. A friend gave me a bible a few years back that was just
gathering dust somewhere in my room. I was scared to know
the truth.
Then one night, at 3 am, my mind just snapped and I was
awake. I was in my dark room. And right that moment I was
transported to space in an instant, I was floating in space with
stars all around me. And suddenly there appeared right in front
of me a very large eye looking at me. All I could see within my
span of vision was the iris, of the eye, of a person who was in
front of me, was very very far away, but was so huge that all I
could see was his eye. Then I heard a huge deep voice, which I
presumed came from this person, “read the Bible.” Then just as
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suddenly, the vision disappeared and I was back in my room
and I was shaking in fear.
When I got up that morning, I got my Bible and started
reading. I opened the New Testament (which was shorter than
the Old Testament, that’s why I chose it) and I started reading
Matthew, and I could not put in down. Every free time I had I
was reading, and reading and reading. After seven days,
finished the Book of Revelation. And as I put the bible down,
all I could say, “the Bible must be true.” And I knew in my
heart God was asking for my life, he wanted me to give my life
to him. And in the most primitive prayer that I could put
together, I muttered to God, in utter defeat, “so it looks like
you are real, and you are asking for my life. Ok, I’m giving it to
you.”
That vision changed my life forever. I started out as an atheist,
and I came out of that experience compelled to confront the
truth, the reality of God. I had no choice. In the most unusual
way I became a Christian, and was called to serve in a not very
typical sort of ministry, or mission, on the strength of that
vision. And in case you’re wondering, that girl that I was
pursuing, she eventually became my wife.
We are called in different ways. Not many of us have had
visions like these. But if you had, I’m quite sure God has a very
specific purpose for this. Just as God had a specific purpose for
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the man that you’ve been studying the past few Sundays—the
prophet Isaiah. He had quite a compelling vision himself. And
he came out of it a completely changed man.

A Vision of God
(Isaiah 6:1) In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his
robe filled the temple.
King Uzziah (which we find in 2 Chronicles 16) is also known
as King Azariah in Kings Chapter 15, and it was said that he
started to rule the Kingdom of Judah at the age of 16 and ruled
for 52 years. King Uzziah, the bible tells us is a relatively good
king. “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But he
failed to put a stop to idolatry and the people of Judah
continued to worship other gods in his kingdom. The Bible also
tells us because of pride, and that he performed a ritual in the
temple that were to be performed only the priests, “the Lord
afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died.”
And it was during this time that Isaiah, a scribe who was
working in the royal palace in Jerusalem. He was an educated
man—to be a scribe you had to be one; he had a respectable
career, and I would presume that he was fairly faithful in
following his Jewish faith. I believe he was just like you and
me, but lived in a different time, in a different society. I’d like
you to see yourselves in him.
One day, without warning something happened to him that Page | 6
turned his life around completely. He saw a vision of God.
Now there are many ways that our lives can change
completely. You may be poor, with no hope of getting a good
education, then someone offered you a scholarship in a
prestigious university. You may be a working woman with a
very demanding job in a fast-charging career, and then you
find out that you’re pregnant. You may be a man who is very
athletic, and excels in sports competition, and an accident
leaves you a paraplegic. Or you may be working on an
experiment, and you accidently invented a product that will
cure cancer. Or you won P100 Million in the Lotto.
These things will set off your life on a totally different
trajectory from what your normal life would have gone. But
nothing compares to the kind of revolutionary change that
happens when you encounter God. You are deeply and
radically changed from the inside.
Isaiah saw the LORD. The Gospel according to John 12:37-44
tells us that what Isaiah saw was the pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The King was sitting in His throne in
all his greatness, splendor and majesty; in all his mystery and
power.
If that happened to me, I would have been in a state of shock.
My knees would have given way and I would dropped down
on my knees. I would have been paralyzed in my place, and I
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wouldn’t have been able to move an inch from where I was.

Holiness of God
(Isaiah 6:2-4) Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six
wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered
his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and
said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth
is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds
shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled
with smoke.
Isaiah saw seraphims. The name “seraph” was derived from the
Hebrew word for “burn”, so you can imagine that they must
have looked like they were on fire. They were “fiery angels”. It
probably referred to their purity as God’s ministers. This was
only time that seraphims were ever mentioned in Scripture.
The seraphims led in worship, in the presence of the King of
Heaven. They were praising God, calling out to each other
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full
of his glory!" And they worshipped with such vigor, unleashing
tremendous energy in the process that the foundations of the
threshold shook. Such powerful worship!
This should remind us that worship is not a duty or an
obligation to God. Worship is a response to who God is. It is
the heart, soul, mind and strength’s response to the presence of
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a holy, perfect and pure God, one who is set apart from sin. We
are left in awe before God.
It’s very much like when we are in awe when we behold the
beauty of the Banawe rice terraces for the first time, or when
we get to finally experience Handel’s Messiah by a 100-person
voice choir with a full symphonic orchestra in a massive
auditorium. It’s a little bit like being star-struck when you
suddenly get face to face with a very handsome actor or a very
beautiful actress. You cannot keep yourself from saying,
“Wow!”
Imagine that sense of being star-struck, of being in awe, and
multiply that a hundredfold. A million fold, even. And in
response to the presence of the almighty God, the seraphims
could not help but worship Him.
I imagine that’s how Isaiah felt seeing that vision. And it gave
him the opposite effect. It brought fear into his heart.

Conviction of Sin
(Isaiah 6:5) And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!"
Isaiah knew in his heart that he was doomed to death. The God
of heaven appeared before him and caught him red-handed in
his sins. He knew how sinful he was, and he could never
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measure up to the standards of God.
Until Isaiah was confronted with the presence of God, he
probably thought he was ok. He probably knew he sinned
every now and then, but not so much as to bother his
conscience.
We also, most of the time, we think we’re ok. We do our usual
thing, pray perhaps for 5 minutes when we wake up—that is if
we do remember to pray, do our work as honestly as we can,
and we do cheat or lie, we just make sure we don’t get caught.
We do not steal, we do not commit murder, we do not curse
God like some people I know, we’re just normal people, and we
feel we’re pretty ok. Or so you think.
It’s very much like the white t-shirt in the Tide commercial.
You think it is white enough, until a t-shirt washed in tide in
set against it, then you realize it wasn’t that white after all.
Makutim pala. Under normal circumstances, we think we are
living in the light, because we do get to see things given the
light that is available. That is until an extremely bright light is
shone in front of us, then we realize we’ve been living in semi-
darkness afterall.
When presented before the holiness of God, Isaiah instantly
realized how utterly sinful he was. And he knew he had no
hope of salvation in himself.
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I believe we all have experienced this. We all have sensed the
conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And it
matters much how we respond to this deep conviction in us.
Perhaps he is speaking to us right now. Is there something in
your life right now, that you’ve been hiding from everyone
else, covering it up, that you need to confess before God? Heed
that still small voice.
I wonder if God is speaking to the hearts of some people in the
halls of power? Is the Holy Spirit at work in President Duterte?
I don’t know. He did say his god is not my God, so he does not
know our God. Is the Holy Spirit at work in the hearts of Sec.
Calida, Sec. Panelo, or even Sec. Cayetano? Will anyone stand
up for truth in Malacanang? Is He speaking to former Sec. Teo,
will she return the money given to her brothers? How about to
Speaker Alvarez, or Congressmen Umali, Garcia and Farinas?
Will they listen to the Spirit of God or are their ears trained to
listen to Malacanang alone? How about to Senate President
Sotto, has he asked for God’s forgiveness for his sins of the past
that he would rather be taken out of sight by media? How
about Sen. Manny Pacquiao, will he find the courage to stand
for God rather than a godless president? Is the Holy Spirit at
work in Justices de Castro, Martirez, Tijam? Are they aware of
the injustice they have committed? Or are their hearts
calloused already?
Is the Holy Spirit at work in us? Are we sensitive to Him, are Page | 11
we listening to Him still? I pray that He is, and I pray that we
are.
(Isaiah 6:6-7) Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having
in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from
the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this
has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin
atoned for."
Isaiah had to be cleansed in the area of life where he felt most
sinful, in the area of life where the culture that surrounded him
had accepted the sin as normal.
He had unclean lips, just as everybody else around him in
Jewish society in Jerusalem had evil, unclean lips. Perhaps they
have become used to telling lies. Perhaps they have become
used to making false testimonies, of deception, of fake news.
Perhaps they have gotten used to cursing and dirty talk. Some
of them may have even called God by a curse word. They had
unclean lips.
And because Isaiah had no power in himself to save himself,
God had to do something to give him moral cleansing. One of
the seraphims took a burning coal from the alter and touched
Isaiah’s mouth with it. Something holy had to come into
contact with a sinner for his sin to be atoned for.
And that is precisely what Jesus did. He offered his life as a Page | 12
sacrifice on the cross in Calvary to atone for the sins of man.
And for us to be saved, we had to be connected to Jesus, we had
to unite our lives with His life, for us to be forgiven, for our
sins to be atoned for. It was not our work, it was the work of
God in us.
And in the case of Isaiah, he had to be cleansed in that area of
his life that God was about to use for His purpose. His lips. His
speech. He was called to be a prophet for God. And that was
what he was summoned to do.

Summoned to Serve
(Isaiah 6:8) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom
shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am!
Send me."
Isaiah was given a very difficult mission. He as called to speak,
but no one will listen. He was called to tell an idolatrous and
unfaithful people who believed that they will be blessed by
God, that instead, they will be destroyed for their
disobedience. He was given a task for which we would be
rejected by many of his own people. It was not a life of
popularity, of fame and honor. It was an assignment that was
set against the ways of the world.
And because the assignment was difficult, I guess that was the
reason why the way he was called was that dramatic. That
really got his attention.
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It is much like the way Saul of Tarsus was called as well. He
had a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus. And he was
called to suffer much for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus.
But in both cases, the summon to serve is given. God does not
force anyone to serve him. God’s servants serve him because
that is the heart’s response to the Heavenly King’s call. Isaiah
responded to the call. So did Saul of Tarsus, who later became
the apostle Paul. I responded to the call as well.
How about you? Have you heard the summon to serve? Have
you responded to the call?
Recovering Our Sense of Awe
We do not do this is our own. It is God himself who speaks to
us. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals these truths to us, and we
respond in faith.
Unfortunately, in our present age when our attention is pretty
much fixed on that little LED screen on the palm of our hands,
or that wide LED screen in our living room, 80% of our waking
time, we are no longer sensitive to the ways of the Spirit.
We have lost our sense of awe of God. When was the last time
you’ve cried, or you’ve felt your emotions welling up at the
thought of God’s glory and honor and majesty, of his power
and might, of his holiness and righteousness and justice, of his
steadfast love and his tender mercies? When was the last time
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you felt so much in love with God, just like a teenager’s first
love?
We have brought Him down to a level that is just too accessible
to us, just a little higher than humans, but not too high. I guess
that’s why people who do not believe God cannot see that
vibrant life of God in us. Unbelievers no longer sense a fear of
God. And so, there are people now who think they can call God
stupid, and believe they’ve done nothing wrong.
We need to go back to a state of humility before God, seek His
face, and desire to hear from Him. Let’s go back to Scripture.
Meditate on God’s Word. Listen to the Holy Spirit.
And when you hear God call and ask, "Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us?", may we, just like the prophet Isaiah,
boldly declare "Here I am! Send me."