The Gospel...Laying the Foundation

The foundation is the key to the strength and stability of any man-made structure.  It bears and evenly distributes the weight of the structure to the earth beneath.  The taller the building, the deeper the foundation needs to be to ensure stability.  If the foundation is poorly constructed and begins to deteriorate, everything that is built on top of it is in jeopardy of collapse.

The same is true in the spiritual realm.  If a person's key, or foundational, beliefs and ideas are built on a solid, doctrinal understanding then everything else that is built on that foundation will be solid as well.  If the foundational beliefs are at fault then the resulting structure of beliefs on top of that foundation will be faulty.  

Psalm 50:21 says this (God speaking):

These things you have done and I have been silent;
You thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.  (ESV)

In context, God was speaking to wicked people, listing out their wicked behavior.  They kept silent about their wicked behavior as well as the wicked behavior of others.  They were approving and being approved.  God saw all of these things and was silent.  These people thought His silence must've meant His approval or indifference.  They thought God was like them.  And therein lies the problem.  People have an image of God, made up in their own heart, and he's just like them.

As I stated in the last post, the church, for the most part, doesn't know what the gospel is.  I think it is a fair statement that the lack of understanding of the gospel comes from a lack of understanding who God is and that is where we are going to start this exploration of the doctrines of grace and the gospel.  We are going to take a look at God and who He is.  That's going to be the focus.

To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
   and compare me, that we may be alike?
Those who lavish gold from the purse,
   and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
   they fall down and worship!
They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,
   they set it in its place, and it stands there;
   it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
   or save him from his trouble.
Remember this and stand firm,
   recall it to mind, you transgressors,
   remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
   I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
   and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
   and I will accomplish all my purpose,'
calling a bird of prey from the east,
   the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
   I have purposed, and I will do it.

Isaiah 46:5-11  (ESV)

These are the words of the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah.  God is clearly setting Himself apart from all other things.  There are no other gods.  He is the one and only God.  There is nothing like Him.  There is nobody like Him.  He alone is worthy.

This same Isaiah saw the Lord:

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.

Isaiah 6:1  (ESV)

This is a proper view of God..."high and lifted up".  This verse is speaking to His holiness because He is separated from everything else..."high and lifted up".  Verse 2 speaks of the seraphim that are above the throne.  They have 6 wings: with two they cover their face, with two they cover their feet and with two they fly.  There are a couple of things here about these seraphim in the notes of the ESV Study Bible, as we take a detour off the main path.  The seraphim were fiery, angelic beings.  It translates the Hebrew word SERAPIM which means "flames”.  These were not ordinary, run-of-the-mill beings.  It is also very much worth noting that, in the words of the ESV Study Bible, these perfect, superhuman creatures humbled themselves, by covering up, before the all-holy God.  

We continue.  In verse 3, this understanding of holiness is further corroborated because one of the seraphim calls to the other seraphim:

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; 
the whole earth is full of his glory!

The Hebrew word here translated "holy" is the word QADOWSH, which means sacred, holy, set apart.  In what Isaiah saw, God is high and lifted up because he is holy or "set apart".  It is also worth noting here that the word HOLY is repeated three times in succession.  This is THE ONLY attribute of God that is treated this way in the entire canon of Scripture.  According to the MacArthur Study Bible, the 3 fold repetition of HOLY is called the TRIHAGION and it's primary function is to emphasize God's separateness from and independence of His fallen creation, though it also secondarily implies that God is 3 persons.

In verse 5, we see Isaiah's reaction to what he saw:

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!"

I like the way that the KJV translates the first part of this verse.  It says, "Woe is me!  For I am undone".  There are 2 Hebrew words from which this sentence is translated.  "Woe" is translated from 'OWY which is a passionate cry of grief or despair.  "Is me for I am undone" is translated from DAMAH meaning "to cease, cause to cease, cut-off, destroy, perish".  So, putting these together, Isaiah's response was something like this..."Woe! I'm going to die!".  He saw God sitting high and lifted up, or in His holiness, and thought he was going to perish.  This is a proper reaction to God and His holiness.  Next time, we are going to look at a few more examples, from Scripture, of what it looks like when a person has an encounter with the living God and contrast those encounters with the nonsense that is happening today.