Understand the Mystery of the Triune God!

1st Sunday after Pentecost, Holy Trinity, 5/26/24 Isaiah 6:1-8 Understand the Mystery of the Triune God! I. His righteousness condemns. II. His righteousness saves. III. His righteousness motivates. The unknown has always compelled humanity. For instance, what lay beyond the horizon compelled Columbus to set sail under the assumption that the earth was round, not flat. And, why climb a mountain? The easy answer is, “Because it’s there,” but the compelling answer is, “To know what the world looks like from there.” Why travel to the moon and walk on it? Why send the world’s most powerful telescope on a mission to the “ends of the universe”? Why send an exploratory vehicle to the bottom of the ocean at its deepest point? Because humanity doesn’t yet know what’s there, and it’s compelled to find out. In that same vein, humanity has always been compelled to know and understand God, however that deity is defined by the person who wants to know. The easy answer is, “God is whomever and whatever you want him to be.” That’s both a very ancient answer and a very modern answer at the same time. But it’s woefully inadequate, lacking all objectivity. It doesn’t really arrive at a definitive answer; it allows anyone to devise one. As Christians, we know that God reveals himself to us in his word, the Bible. And the God of the Bible is the only true God, which only makes sense. The idea that there is more than one god, or many gods, is logically preposterous. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that the true God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And yet he is only one God, not three gods. How can that be? The world will never understand it. But we can understand who he is (not fully; only partially) by what he does. And we have a vivid account of what the triune God does here in the account of the Lord calling Isaiah to be one of his prophets. We know our God by what he does. We hear about it and “see” it in this account. So, by the working of the triune God, understand what you can’t know about God on your own. Know it by what he says about himself and what he does. Understand the mystery of the triune God! That’s exactly what our triune God calls on you to do through his word this morning. I. I’m sure you’ve heard or spoken the advice, “Be careful what you wish for.” Throughout history there been countless people what want to see God, to have an audience with him, to ask him some pointed questions in order to receive his honest answers. The biblical character Job is among them. He demanded to have a session with God. It didn’t go well for him. Isaiah could have told him, “I told you so.” Isaiah didn’t ask for a session with the triune God, but he received one, and it scared him to death. We read, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.’” Not exactly a warm and welcoming encounter. Isaiah wasn’t expecting this vision, but he understood what he saw. First, he realized he was seeing the Lord, the King. He rules over all things. Nothing can oppose him successfully. He uses his almighty power to direct all things. He also saw the train of the Lord’s robe fill the temple. That was a figurative expression of his majesty filling all things. He’s omnipresent. And he’s holy to boot. In fact, three times holy. This is an obvious reference to the fact that the true God is three persons. Three is the biblical number for God. It indicates, among other things, his transcendence above all things. In other words, his holiness exceeds all other holiness. In fact, it’s an integral component of this essence. What a glorious vision of the triune God! But it mortified—literally mortified—Isaiah. “I’m ruined!” he exclaimed. In other words, I’m done for. I am about to cease to exist. Why? Isaiah admits the obvious. He was a sinner, and sin cannot stand in the presence of the holiness of God. God’s holiness not only cannot tolerate sin; it destroys what is sinful. Period. And that assists us in understanding what is ultimately a mystery to us—the triune God. Understand that mystery! Understand this: His righteousness condemns. It’s easy for us to reply, “Indeed it does, and our world needs to realize it.” I agree with that, to a point. We live in a morally upside-down world. What God calls good, our world calls bad, and what God calls bad, our world calls good. And he won’t stand for it. His righteousness condemns it. But it also condemned Isaiah, and he was painfully aware of it. It’s not that Isaiah was an open sinner. By the world’s standards, he was a “good” person. But that was only before the world. Before God, he was a sinner, and he knew it, painfully so. And so do we. As much as we want other people to think we’re pretty good, the truth is we can’t stand in the presence of the holy God on our own any more than any other sinful human being can. It’s not possible. His righteousness exposes our sinfulness in all its ugly colors. That’s the first truth we need to understand about ourselves and the triune God. II. What Isaiah experienced at the outset of his vision of the holy God is what some biblical scholars call the “foreign activity of God.” His holiness condemns sinners. But that’s not his highest will. That’s not what he wants to do. What he wants is to save sinners. And that’s exactly what we hear happening. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’” Isaiah’s ugly “near death experience” is immediately followed by the triune God’s glorious response. I’m sure you caught the symbolism. One of the seraphs took a live coal from the altar of the temple, touched Isaiah’s lips with it, and cleansed Isaiah. You and I immediately see our Savior on the cross. His sacrifice on the “altar” of Calvary’s cross washed away the sins of every sinner. Because of his death and resurrection, God has declared the whole world full of sinners to be not guilty. What a glorious, saving truth! And, as God’s New Testament people, we know how our triune God accomplished it. That work of saving the world full of sinners was planned in eternity by God the Father. That work was fully and completely carried out by God the Son. And the blessings or the results of that saving work become our own possession by the work of God the Holy Spirit who works saving faith in Jesus in our hearts. And if that’s all you understand and believe about the triune God, that’s all you need to know. That’s everything. There you go. Understand the mystery of the triune God. His righteousness saves. If we know and believe that the triune God’s righteousness saves us, that’s all we need to know. That’s everything. But, too often, that isn’t enough, is it? We have questions for God that go a lifetime unanswered. “Why did this happen in my life, Lord? What are you going to do about what I’m facing? You don’t seem to care. Why?” And those questions lead to despair, impatience, and anger. Most often, those questions go a lifetime unanswered. But this question does not: Lord, what are you going to do about my sins and the eternal judgment that awaits me?” That question he answered on the cross of Jesus, where Jesus took our sins upon himself and gave us his righteousness in exchange. That’s the truth about the triune God which saves us. And, in the end, that’s all we need to know. What remains a mystery to literally billions of people, the triune God, in his grace and mercy, has revealed to you. Understand the mystery of the triune God. Understand that his righteousness saves. III. And, once Isaiah understood that amazing, saving truth about the triune God, here’s what happened. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” Isaiah willingly accepted the Lord’s call to share the news of God’s saving righteousness with God’s people. He became one of the greatest of Old Testament prophets. The words he spoke and wrote have been heard and memorized by billions of people in our world. What a glorious ending, right? But we know how difficult Isaiah’s ministry was. God’s people, the Jews, refused to listen to him. In fact, legend states the king ordered him to be sawed in two. That’s what Isaiah received for boldly speaking the truth and living in that truth. But that’s not the end of his story. In fact, his story doesn’t end. It’s eternal. He died in the faith and now enjoys eternal life with the Savior whom he proclaimed. Can it get any more glorious than that? By the grace of God, that’s your eternal story as well. And it’s all due to the working of the triune God. God the Father planned your salvation. God the Son accomplished your salvation. God the Holy Spirit brought you to faith in Jesus and conveyed to you all the eternal blessings that Jesus won for you. I can’t know and believe that on my own. No one can. But you and I do. And now the rest of the world needs to know and believe it. Here am I. Here are you. Here we are! Lord, send us and use us to share who you are and what you do with everyone. Amen.