SPROUL: In the English language, when we want to call attention to something
that’s particularly important, to give it emphasis, there are different ways that we
can do that in print. We can underline words or italicize them, put them in bold face type,
put little quotation marks or brackets around them or fill the page with
exclamation points – how I hate exclamation points when it’s not an exclamation. Even
my editors do that. I find it in the final draft. I’ll see – I’ll read these things,
and they’ll put exclamation points in sentences that aren’t exclamations,
and please don’t think so poorly of me to think that I don’t know any better about the use of
exclamation points. They do that, and it drives me crazy. But that’s what we do with emphasis.
Well the Jews did the same thing. They did all of that – underline, boldface, italicize – but
they had another technique to call attention to something’s particular importance, and it
was the simple technique of verbal repetition. I think, for example, of the apostle Paul when
he’s writing to the Galatians and warning them of the dangers of departing from the gospel that they
had received from Paul. And he said, “I say unto you that if anybody preaches unto you any other
gospel than that which you have received, even if it’s an angel from heaven, let him be anathema,
anathema – let him be damned.” That’s a strong statement that comes from the pen of the apostle
Paul, but he doesn’t stop there. He immediately goes on to say, “Again I say to you if anyone
preaches unto you any other gospel than that which you have received, let him be anathema.”
Jesus was fond of using this device of repetition to make His points. Now remember,
Jesus was a rabbi. That meant that He was a theologian. He had a school,
and He had students called disciples, or learners, who enrolled in His school. And
He was a peripatetic rabbi. That meant that He walked around, and as He walked
the disciples literally followed Him. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” He meant literally,
“Walk around behind me.” And the way they would do it would be this way: the teacher would give
His recitation. He would lecture as He walked down the road to Emmaus, or wherever, and the
disciples would follow along behind Him and commit to memory the things that the rabbi taught them.
Now ladies and gentlemen, every teaching that ever came from the lips of Jesus Christ was important,
but even our Lord took time to call attention to things that He regarded as being super important,
and whenever He would come to a point like that that He wanted to make sure His disciples never
missed, He would preface His teaching by saying two words. He would say, “Truly, truly I say
unto you…” or the older translation, “Verily, verily.” Actually what He said was, “Amen,
amen I say unto you.” You recognize that word. It comes directly into English, and we say, “All the
people said” – what? “Amen.” But we say, “Amen.” after the teacher teaches or after the preacher
preaches. It means, “It is true. We believe it,” and so on. Jesus didn’t wait for His disciples to
confirm the truthfulness of what He was saying. He started His sermon by saying, “Amen, amen.” That’s
like the captain of a ship getting on the intercom and saying, “Now hear this: This is the captain
speaking.” When Jesus repeated that word, saying it twice, He was underscoring its importance.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one attribute of God that is ever raised to
the third degree of repetition in Scripture. There is only one characteristic of Almighty
God that is communicated in the superlative degree from the mouths of angels. Where the
Bible doesn’t simply say that God is holy, or even that He’s holy, holy, but that He is holy,
holy, holy. The Bible doesn’t say that God is mercy, mercy, mercy or love, love,
love or justice, justice, justice or wrath, wrath, wrath, but that He is holy, holy,
holy. This is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence, and when it is manifest to Isaiah,
we read that at the sound of the voices of the seraphim the doorposts, the thresholds of the
Temple itself shook and began to tremble. Do you hear that? Inanimate, lifeless, unintelligible
parts of creation in the presence of the manifestation of the holiness of God had the
good sense to be moved. How can we, made in His image, be indifferent or apathetic to His majesty?
God alone is holy, and what I want to do in this series is try to describe what that
means and what the reaction of Isaiah and other people historically is when the holy appear.