Sermon Tone Analysis

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! Living in Light of God’s Holiness
Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Preached by Phil Layton on January 21, 2007 at Gold Country Baptist Church
www.goldcountrybaptist.org
 
C.
S. Lewis was a well-known and respected Oxford literature scholar and professor and a Christian.
Some of his best-known writings for children include The Chronicles of Narnia, which present spiritual truth in fictional allegory.
There is a scene from chapter 3 of /The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe /where:
At Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s house, the four children are told that “Aslan is on the move.”
And now a very curious thing happened.
None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken [his name] everyone felt quite different.
Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning – either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words …  At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump inside.
Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror.
Note: In the story, by the way he talks to the children about Aslan, even without knowing anything about this person, they sense that there is /enormous meaning /and importance and weightiness about him just by the way he is spoken of.
[Is this true of how we speak of God?]  The mere name alone provokes fear or freedom or hope in those who hear; each child experiences Aslan in relation to his or her own unique personality and current attitude toward Aslan.
Later back at the house, Peter talks about how he hopes they can rescue Mr. Tummus:
“It’s no good, Son of Adam,” said Mr. Beaver, ‘no good /your /trying, of all people.
But now that Aslan is on the move---”
“Oh yes! Tell us about Aslan!” said several voices at once, for once again that strange feeling – like the first signs of spring, /like good news/ – had come over them.
“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.
“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver.
“Why, don’t you know?
/He’s the King.
He’s the Lord of the whole wood/, but not often here, you understand.
Never in my time or my father’s time.
But the word has reached us that he has come back.
He is in Narnia at this moment.
He’ll settle the White Queen all right.
/It is he, not you/, that will save Mr. Tumnus.”
“She won’t turn [Aslan] into stone, too?” said Edmund.
“Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say!” answered Mr. Beaver with a great laugh.
“Turn /him /into stone?
If she can stand on her two feet and look him in the face it’ll be the most she can do and more than I expect of her.
No, no …”
“Is — is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!”
Mr. Beaver said sternly.
“Certainly not.
I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea.
Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts?
Aslan is a lion — /the /Lion, the great Lion.”
Side note: The Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea is never directly portrayed in any of the seven /Chronicles of Narnia.
/ It’s thought that “Lewis thought it wiser to simply refer to the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, suggesting numinous majesty and transcendent inaccessibility without trying to show it.”
Of course Aslan is the incarnate representation and embodiment of the holy God, He is a picture of Christ in this allegory.
The discussion continues with one of my favorite sections from the book:
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man.
Is he — quite safe?
I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.
“Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?
Who said anything about safe?
‘Course he isn’t safe.
But he’s good.
He’s the King, I tell you.”
Aslan is neither a harmless grandfather figure nor a beastly tyrant.
Instead, Aslan is both awe-ful and good.
He inspires fear and love.
He can be joyously embraced but he must also be reverently approached …  [as the line in the movie says, “He is not tame”] He is mysterious, and yet approachable.
He is not safe, but he is good.
Like the old hymn, God is both “merciful and mighty.”
In the book, the narrator says, “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.”
In Aslan – just as in God – we see that this is possible, indeed, necessary!
One of the reasons that Aslan is such a fascinating character is Lewis’ amazing ability to hold these two tensions in balance.
… In Romans 11:22 Paul says, “Behold the kindness /and severity/ of God” (Romans 11:22).
[adapted from article at theocentric.com]
TURN TO ISAIAH 6
The /Chronicles of Narnia /are fictional, of course, but there’s a fact behind that dialogue that Lewis believed and I want to affirm tonight: God is not safe, but He is good, He’s the King.
I want to show you a true story, Isaiah’s, that I think also illustrates the fact that Lewis wanted to portray in fiction: our Lord is both lion and lamb, both merciful and mighty, He is kind but also the King, He is our Savior but He’s not safe.
\\ /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 died in 739 B.C.
He had fallen into sin in his latter days of Israel, but was a good king compared to most.
He reigned over 50 years, so much so that the people’s identity was tied with their ruler.
(U.S. history perspective: timeframe covering Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush).
More than instability and uncertainty, it was a time of national mourning.
The word for “Lord” in this passage (Adonai) refers to the sovereign rule of God.
The human king had died, but here Isaiah sees the real King.
Uzziah was dead but Yahweh is alive, and Israel’s trust and focus needed to be on him, not their political ruler.
The world might seem to be falling apart but Isaiah needed to see that God is on His throne.
This is why we are studying the attributes of God, because we all need to get a vision of God as He really is, ruling on His throne, and exalted and magnified.
Not only is He sovereign “on the throne” He is SUPREME (see the phrase “high and lifted up”).
And this is one of the best passages in scripture in giving us a glimpse of God and what Isaiah needed to know in His day and what we need to know in our day as well.
When the text says the “train of his robe filled the temple” the idea is that God is big, we can’t contain Him.
In verse 1 we see that God is sovereign, and He is supreme, but in verse 2 we move to what is the main attribute of God here and our study tonight, God is sanctified – holy.
\\ /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/.
\\ \\
The seraphim are only mentioned here in scripture – they cover their feet which some say is modesty but it may represent that everything around God is holy (cf.
Moses’ feet in presence of burning bush).
What’s interesting is that they cover their faces.
If these perfect beings, with no sin, cover their faces in God’s presence, how much more do we imperfect sinful beings need to recognize and revere God’s holiness!
/3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” \\ \\ /
The Hebrew tenses indicate the angels were continually doing the actions of verse 2 and 3.
And Revelation 4 (written over 800 years later) indicates that when John gets a glimpse of the throne room, angels are still saying “holy, holy, holy” – they never get tired of worshipping, in fact God is so holy and so worthy of worship, that eternity is not enough.
The attribute of God we will focus on today is THE HOLINESS OF GOD.
Outline:
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Definition of Holiness
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Importance of Holiness
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Application of God’s Holiness
 
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Definition of holiness*
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