Cleansed and Renewed

In our weekly rhythm of worship, we are confronted with our sin and cleansed by our Savior. Today, Sinclair Ferguson considers the effect that worship should have on us, drawing from the experience of Isaiah in the temple of God.

I mentioned yesterday how much I’ve loved to sing the Sanctus in Saint Andrew’s Chapel near to the headquarters of Ligonier Ministries: “Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy is the Lord.” Of course, the words are based on the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, when Isaiah, in the year that King Uzziah died, saw the true King, the Lord seated on a throne in His temple, and heard the voices of the seraphim chanting these words: “Holy, holy, holy.” We thought about that chapter in Isaiah before in these podcasts. I want to think about it again today. In chapter one, Isaiah talks about the impoverished worship that was taking place in the Jerusalem temple in his own day. But by chapter six, he has seen his own impoverishment because he saw and heard the worship of the holy seraphim as they praised God as the Great Holy One. It must have struck him that these seraphim covered their faces with two of their wings.

I wonder what that really means. After all, they were permanently holy. They were perfectly holy. I think it’s probably an indication that perfectly holy creatures, these seraphim, needed to veil their faces before uncreated holiness before this thrice-holy God. So, it’s not surprising that when Isaiah saw and heard this, he cried out that he was a man of unclean lips and felt he was disintegrating. And I’m pretty sure that when he left the temple, he must have felt that he had been in the presence of God in a completely new way, and he could never be the same man again.

Now, that’s what worship is for. That’s why God calls us to worship regularly, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the author of Hebrew says. Because in the rhythm of our worship week by week, Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, we find ourselves cleansed and renewed. And if you belong to a church that has not only a morning service but an afternoon, or perhaps an evening service, let me encourage you to attend both. After the morning service, you are really just a little cleaner than you were when the day started. You are just ready to worship. And if we love the Lord, we will want to worship Him more. That’s why certainly, our forefathers recognized that there was wisdom not only in gathering together once, but in gathering together twice on the Lord’s Day, so that we might experience this wonderful paradox that Isaiah experienced.

That on the one hand, in God’s presence we become conscious of our sinfulness. And yet the glory of the gospel is that Christ—not merely a seraphim, but Christ Himself—comes to us by the Spirit, puts His gospel into our hearts, and says: “Lo, this has touched your life. Your sins are forgiven.” And to be able to go out into the week knowing that your sins are forgiven, that you have been strengthened by the presence of the Lord, is surely the most wonderful way to live the rhythms of the Christian life. And to go as Isaiah did, not saying, “This is my special gift, and I’m going to use this exclusively,” but rather saying: “Lord, whatever you want me to do, wherever there is need that I can meet, Lord, whatever you hold for me in this week, here am I. Send me.” That’s a great way to leave our church services, with the words ringing in our ears, “Now go forth to love and to serve the Lord.”