WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 Great, so for a little while this evening, we're going to look back at Isaiah chapter 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:05.480 6. 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:11.519 And up till now, we've been looking at the introductory chapters of Isaiah, the first 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:18.019 five chapters, which really set out what Isaiah is telling the people, which is not really 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:19.519 great news. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:26.080 It's news about his own judgment coming on his own people because they've turned away 00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:28.080 from him, turned their backs on him. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:34.000 There's a message of judgment and a message of hope, which the first 39 chapters of Isaiah 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:35.000 focuses on. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:42.799 And it's like we're given a slight interlude here in chapter 6, and Isaiah tells us about 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:43.799 his commissioning. 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:54.640 He tells us about his call and about this remarkable time where he met with the living 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:01.719 God in the most astonishing circumstances, and it is recorded for us. 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:08.879 I have to say, it feels like an impossibly difficult passage to preach from. 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:17.680 I feel entirely inadequate to preach from this chapter. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:19.319 But that's what we're called to do. 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:21.480 And so do it for a little while this evening. 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:28.480 What we do need desperately is the strength and the insight and the power and the help 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:35.120 of the Holy Spirit to take from this chapter something that will bring us a little bit 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:39.280 closer to the living God, to understand him a little bit better. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:46.840 And I crave your prayers for me, but also for yourselves, that God in His mercy will 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:52.040 look down on us and help us to understand this amazing passage. 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:56.719 Because a bit like the people of Israel, I think in many ways, because humanity doesn't 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:58.320 change that much. 00:01:58.320 --> 00:02:05.800 We spend our lives trying to understand God on our own terms, and certainly the world 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:10.939 that isn't Christian seeks to do that all the time. 00:02:10.939 --> 00:02:17.560 People need God to justify Himself from our perspective. 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:21.259 We need Him to explain Himself to us. 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:24.020 We hold Him accountable all the time. 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:30.159 We put God in the dock throughout our lives in so many different ways. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:36.319 In other words, naturally, without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, we demand that God 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:38.360 is subservient to us. 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:45.160 We demand that He is below us and that He answers us, because as I think we saw last 00:02:45.160 --> 00:02:54.520 week when Cori unpacked chapter 5, ultimately, the challenge is that we know better than 00:02:54.520 --> 00:03:04.040 God, that we have more answers, that we reject His omnipotence, and naturally we reject His 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:09.359 sovereignty over our lives and our accountability to Him. 00:03:09.359 --> 00:03:12.399 We're very uncomfortable with that truth. 00:03:12.399 --> 00:03:19.840 And if you speak to people who are not Christians, they are exceedingly uncomfortable with the 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:27.000 concept and the idea of being accountable to God, of God being sovereign over their 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.479 lives and indeed over the world in which we live. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:37.840 And I think even as Christians, when we come to faith, when we grow in our Christian lives, 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:39.439 His love certainly changes us. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:40.439 I certainly hope it does. 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:44.599 I hope it changes you and I hope it changes me and helps us to see differently through 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:46.199 the Spirit. 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:49.839 But there's no doubt that we face a battle, an ongoing battle as Christians, and that 00:03:49.839 --> 00:03:57.280 battle is when we come to Christ that we remember the words of Romans chapter 12, that 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:01.479 we are living sacrifices, but the trouble with living sacrifices that we often find, 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:06.280 and you have been here for any length of time, you'll have heard me quote this before, the 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:11.240 difficulty is that we crawl off the altar so much, the altar of service. 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:17.160 We don't necessarily like that position of serving the living God, we crawl off that 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:18.600 altar. 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:24.639 We struggle so often to see God's justice as reasonable because so often we're looking 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:31.439 at it and trying to justify ourselves to a world who don't believe. 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:38.560 And we often choose to fear mankind rather than fearing God. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:44.759 We find it easier to be accountable to people than we do to be accountable to the living 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:45.759 God. 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:53.039 And our God becomes very small and people become very big so that we are afraid of them 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:59.160 and afraid of their responses and of their rejection rather than of what God thinks of 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:00.160 us. 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:06.480 And that's exactly what happened to the people, God's people in the Old Testament here who 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:11.920 had been redeemed by God from slavery in Egypt, who had been taken through the Red Sea and 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:16.400 through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, who had been promised many, many blessings 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:23.039 and were to be a light to the world around them, showing the world around them the living 00:05:23.039 --> 00:05:25.879 God and the grace of the living God. 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:31.639 But their God had shrunk terribly and he had become a small God. 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:35.679 And they justified rejecting Him and ignoring Him. 00:05:35.679 --> 00:05:40.519 And they despised Him despite everything He had done on their behalf. 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:46.719 And they were unwilling to see themselves as God saw them, as needy, as sinful, who 00:05:46.719 --> 00:05:50.039 could be forgiven and dependent on the living God. 00:05:50.039 --> 00:05:56.399 They were enslaved by the fear of the nations around them and by being accepted or being 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:58.759 indeed crushed by these nations. 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:03.759 They were not living by faith, they were living by sight. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:13.879 They enjoyed the independence of living without God and they were proud as a result. 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:16.000 And again, I think we saw that last week. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.279 And Corey preached on that. 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:22.399 And then interestingly, in this, we had this staff meeting in the morning downstairs and 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:29.519 I was reading from a passage, not a biblical passage but a daily reading, which I thought 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:34.120 was very opposite to what Corey had been saying the night before. 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:40.039 And I'll quote it, it said, we fall into thinking what multitudes of our lost forefathers thought. 00:06:40.039 --> 00:06:47.959 We buy into this one fateful thought that perhaps we're smarter than God, that maybe 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:51.399 our way is better than His way. 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:58.560 Only grace can deliver the deluded from the danger that they are to themselves. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:04.759 And I thought that fitted very well with where Israel and Judah were in relation to God and 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:06.399 sometimes where we can be. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:11.160 Now obviously, our circumstances are very different to the Old Testament circumstances. 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:18.079 But I think the message remains the same for us in our lives as we reach out to God for 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:20.840 rescue and renewal this evening. 00:07:20.840 --> 00:07:28.319 Can we look just for a few minutes at Isaiah's encounter with God and try and grasp one or 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:37.120 two very important things for ourselves if we can and seek that God's Spirit will speak 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:38.599 through His Word. 00:07:38.599 --> 00:07:39.599 And we always need that. 00:07:39.599 --> 00:07:44.439 I know, I just feel more conscious of needing it, which is maybe a good thing, but it's 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:49.339 maybe a bad thing that I'm not more conscious of it from week to week and should be. 00:07:49.339 --> 00:07:57.000 So we've got this incredible vision that Isaiah has of the living God in his temple and of 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:05.079 the seraph that surround the living God and say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:09.560 the Lord of the armies, the Lord of the heavenly hosts. 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:18.680 And I think the one thing that this passage is seeking to teach us is that God is not 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:20.000 like us. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:21.319 He's not like us. 00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:25.199 Now there's, we know there's ways in which we are made in this image and that we can relate 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:33.200 to Him and that there are communicable characteristics and attributes of God, but this passage is 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:44.360 reminding us of who God is that He is thrice holy, holy, holy, holy just means separate. 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:50.840 That's exactly what it's teaching us that He is...there's a...underneath the root word 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:56.800 of separateness or brightness that this is who God is, that there is an absolute and 00:08:56.800 --> 00:09:01.120 complete difference between ourselves and the living God. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:03.320 He's divine. 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:04.320 We're not divine. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.960 We are human and we need to remember that. 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:08.960 We're mortal. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:10.680 We'll not be long here. 00:09:10.680 --> 00:09:17.639 Someone was telling me recently talking about people and that the vast majority of people 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:24.159 by the third generation have been forgotten, even by their families, by the generations 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:25.159 beyond them. 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:26.879 And we're mortal. 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:30.759 We come when we go, but God is immortal. 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:32.759 He is everlasting. 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:39.759 He is utterly pure and there's a purity about Him that this holiness seeks to speak about. 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:40.919 We are not like that. 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:43.039 We are impure at that level. 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:47.000 Our thoughts are not perfect and good and right. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:50.799 He's incomparable and He is unequal. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:56.120 It's very difficult to try and get across because I don't fully understand, and none 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:58.480 of us do fully understand this living God. 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:07.679 But Isaiah himself in chapter 40 towards the end of the book, Isaiah 40 in verse 25, he 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:13.320 reminds us of who this God is, Isaiah 40 and 25. 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:16.960 He says, you know, to whom then will you compare me? 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:26.920 He is incomparable and He is so different from us, utterly incomparable. 00:10:26.920 --> 00:10:30.600 There's no one like Him, says the Holy One. 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:31.960 And we can't... 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:37.400 So it's difficult to speak about someone that we can't compare to anything else. 00:10:37.400 --> 00:10:40.920 But He sits sovereign on the throne of the universe. 00:10:40.919 --> 00:10:46.120 A picture of Him on a throne with His train filling the temple. 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:57.120 Immovable, with total authority over all creation as the uncreated one, the source of all life. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:05.240 Self-existing, infinite in glory, the commander of the heavenly hosts of angelic beings that 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:09.079 we can't even see. 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:16.840 This great invisible spiritual realm that He is sovereign over, as well as the created 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:19.960 world, the universe and humanity. 00:11:19.960 --> 00:11:20.960 It's impossible. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.440 It's simply impossible. 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:32.639 I think for Isaiah, and I think if it's impossible for Isaiah, how much more for us to do Him 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:34.040 justice. 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:40.399 And we can only pray that the Holy Spirit will enable us to see a little bit more of 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:42.519 who God is. 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:47.480 So we have this great cry, this great song of praise from the Seraph who are here, the 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:53.480 Seraphim, and they worship Him at these remarkable beings. 00:11:53.480 --> 00:12:04.000 Big, strong, holy, angelic beings who surround the throne, these created, pure beings themselves. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:12.600 Sinless beings, fiery ones is what the word Seraph means. 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:20.080 And they were clearly powerful and clearly holy and clearly serve the living God, even 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:23.840 in this world in which we live though we can't see them. 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:29.399 And they reveal their own place before God, adding to the holiness of the picture that 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:30.399 we have. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:33.200 They in their perfection and their purity, they can look on Him. 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:36.680 They have two wings which cover their eyes. 00:12:36.680 --> 00:12:41.759 They have two wings which cover their feet, which the commentators aren't sure exactly 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:47.000 what it means, but it seemed to suggest a degree of humility and a degree of respect 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:52.200 and known culturally that people would cover their feet because the roads were dusty and 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:56.600 they got dirty and so they would cover their feet as a mark of respect or would wash their 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:59.200 feet, of course, as we know also. 00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:06.040 And then the two wings with which they were flying, as it were, in readiness to do His 00:13:06.040 --> 00:13:10.840 bidding, always around this throne ready to serve the living God. 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:14.120 It's like nothing we've ever seen. 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:20.879 We can't imagine even the best CGI image, couldn't possibly do justice to this picture 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:28.480 that Isaiah sees here of the living God and of the Seraph worshiping Him. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:29.480 So He's separate. 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:30.480 He's distanced. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:32.480 He's holy and bright. 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:38.279 I guess we get a touch of that in the transfiguration of Jesus when He's so bright that the disciples 00:13:38.279 --> 00:13:40.120 can't look on Him. 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:43.320 But despite His separation, He's also close. 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.399 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:50.279 The whole earth is full of His glory. 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:54.159 So the whole earth, and we're living on the earth, we're part of the earth here today. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:55.560 The whole earth is full of His glory. 00:13:55.560 --> 00:13:58.039 Well, what does that mean? 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:02.279 You know, in what ways the earth filled with the glory of God this evening? 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:03.279 Can you see it? 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:07.480 Are you aware of God when you're walking in the hills or walking down the royal mile, 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.079 or as you sit in here this evening? 00:14:10.079 --> 00:14:16.079 Well, you know, we should be because glory simply means weightiness. 00:14:16.079 --> 00:14:21.839 It means a sense of worth and significance. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:28.720 And I think in this context, it can be applied to a sense of His, or the weightiness leading 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:29.720 to His imprint. 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:35.280 You know, if there's something heavy, it makes its own imprint on whatever it rests on. 00:14:35.280 --> 00:14:41.240 And there's this sense in which all around us is His weightiness, is His imprint in this, 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:43.000 in the whole earth. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:49.519 The incredible reality of the people sitting beside you, of even yourself when you look 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:56.879 in the mirror, your being, your consciousness, your creativity, your laughter, your tears, 00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:06.240 the amazing way in which you reflect the character or the reality of the living God, this solar 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:17.240 system, the mountains, the beauty of the never seen flower, the marvel of what is revealed 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:24.200 by those amazing guys that go underwater and with their cameras and reveal parts of the 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:27.039 creation that have never before been seen. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:34.240 The architecture, the music, the love, the breath of life, the gentlest act, family, all 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.560 of it reveal the glory of God. 00:15:36.560 --> 00:15:38.440 All of it is His imprint. 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:43.159 All of it reflects who He is and reveals His glory. 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:44.759 I know it's veiled. 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:46.560 I know people don't recognize that. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:55.239 It's reflective glory and in many ways for us, it's manageable glory because we can study 00:15:55.239 --> 00:16:03.359 it and we can evidence it and we can touch it and feel it. 00:16:03.359 --> 00:16:13.479 But nonetheless, it's His glory, different from the holiness that is unseen and remarkable. 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:19.960 And then we have Isaiah as he witnesses this, as he witnesses God. 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.879 Oh, wouldn't we love to see God? 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:25.360 Wouldn't it be great to see God? 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:32.240 I'm not sure if Isaiah would say that because when Isaiah sees God and sees, as it were, 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:38.960 His glory uncovered and sees this remarkable vision of the living God, he doesn't slap 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:43.720 his thigh and he doesn't clap and say, yee, there's the living God. 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:44.920 Wow, he's amazing. 00:16:44.920 --> 00:16:46.879 It's great to see him, love him. 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:48.960 It's not like that at all. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:54.360 He's utterly and completely terrified when he sees the living God. 00:16:54.360 --> 00:17:02.560 He says, woe is me for I'm lost and I am unclean and I come from a people of unclean lips. 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:10.000 He's declaring as he is in the company of the living God, his own uncleanness. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:20.480 And the word that we have there for lostness, its root seems to be silence. 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:21.839 I'm silenced. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:24.839 I'm absolutely silenced before this God. 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:31.039 I have nothing I can say in His presence, nothing I can justify myself with in His presence 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:34.039 because of who He is. 00:17:34.039 --> 00:17:37.039 And it's utterly memorable for Him. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:42.680 You know, I'm sure many of you will remember what happened, where you were when Queen Elizabeth 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:43.680 died. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:49.319 And you will remember that year, last year, and many things in it will be memorable for 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:50.319 you. 00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:55.720 Well, so too, Isaiah remembered the year King Uzziah died. 00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:58.039 He'd been king for a long time. 00:17:58.039 --> 00:17:59.920 And he, for the most part, been a really good king. 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:03.920 It was a really prosperous season for Israel and Judah. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:09.960 But laterally, he turned away from the living God. 00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:11.000 And he died. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:15.240 And when he died, maybe they all wondered, well, what's going to happen now? 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:19.560 What is going to be the fate of our nation? 00:18:19.560 --> 00:18:23.880 And as he remembers that, he also remembers what God showed him. 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.640 The king died. 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:29.000 But he was shown the King of kings. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:32.920 He was shown the King, the Lord of hosts. 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.799 And it was utterly memorable for him. 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:43.200 And as he does so, and as he sees this King, and as he sees the living God, he shares the 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.839 guilt of His people who are under God's judgment. 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:50.200 Woe is me, I am lost. 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:53.839 I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the people of unclean lips. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:55.640 He associates with them. 00:18:55.640 --> 00:19:00.320 He's a great prophet who has come to bring God's message, but he doesn't stand aloof 00:19:00.320 --> 00:19:01.320 and apart. 00:19:01.320 --> 00:19:05.560 And he says, well, I'm glad I'm clean, but the people of man, they are such a state. 00:19:05.560 --> 00:19:11.320 He associates with them because he sees himself in the same condition as they are before the 00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:13.040 holy God. 00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:16.040 All utterly silenced before the throne. 00:19:16.040 --> 00:19:19.920 And Isaiah is the best in the land, probably. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:23.960 He's probably one of the holiest guys there. 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:32.720 And yet, even in his speech, which obviously as we read Isaiah, we recognize him as a great 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:41.079 wordsmith, yet it's his speech that he finds himself to be so unclean with as is the speech 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:48.519 of his people, incomparable to the living God, lost in light that is unbearable to look 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:53.360 at, purity, holiness, and awesomeness. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.559 And he senses and associates with the guilt of his people. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:02.359 Now, there's just one thing by way of application I want to say just for a second here is that 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:07.479 the danger of comparative holiness, comparing ourselves with other people. 00:20:07.479 --> 00:20:14.159 Isaiah could easily have said, well, I'm certainly not right and as good as God, but I'm a lot 00:20:14.159 --> 00:20:15.159 better than that lot. 00:20:15.159 --> 00:20:18.879 And I'll be bringing judgment, a message of judgment on them. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:24.640 And comparatively, I'm at least much more holy than them, that is so deadly, isn't it? 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:30.240 And we're called against that kind of thinking with what Isaiah sees here. 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:34.640 And if we truly understand ourselves before God, we will never say that. 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:39.360 We will never say, well, at least I'm better than that bloke or that girl there, because 00:20:39.360 --> 00:20:47.720 we will see the cleanness of God and the filth of our own hearts and the marvel of forgiveness 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:50.000 and grace to us. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:51.400 So we'll never be comparative. 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:57.720 It's such an insidious, miserable, wretched way of thinking in a church. 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:03.079 Better than them, better than them, maybe not as good as them. 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:08.480 Because we're called to recognize our condition before the living God and rely on His grace 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:13.200 all of us, and we stand equal before Him. 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:18.360 So there's this shared guilt that He feels that makes Him no different. 00:21:18.360 --> 00:21:25.519 But if God comes close in creation and the glory of creation, He comes closer still in 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:27.200 this story. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:38.160 In verses 6 and 7, the Seraphim on God's behalf fly at God's bidding to Isaiah with 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:43.840 a burning coal taken from tongues from the altar, he touched my mouth, said, Behold, 00:21:43.840 --> 00:21:50.480 this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:58.360 So we have a vision of Isaiah and the holy of holies where on the day of atonement, sacrifice 00:21:58.360 --> 00:22:05.240 would be made once a year on behalf of the people and indeed on behalf of the priest also, 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:09.480 where a substitute would take the sins of the people and the guilt would be laid on 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:15.799 the substitute animal and the substitute animal would be sacrificed and the goat would also 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:21.160 be thrown out into the desert, out into the wilderness. 00:22:21.160 --> 00:22:29.279 And this great religious act, the Old Testament people knew, was always pointing forward to 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:34.799 their need for a substitute for someone to come and touch their lips with forgiveness 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:38.440 and cleansing and a message of forgiveness. 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:47.440 And it was this recognition that that is pointing forward to the great Messiah of the people 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:51.079 who would be their redeemer and would be their Savior. 00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:55.680 You know, Hebrews 4 in the New Testament speaks of the blood of bulls and of goats, never 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:02.839 being able to take away sin but pointing forward to someone greater, some great substitute. 00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:09.000 Now in the last verse of this chapter it speaks about the holy seed being the stump. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:15.720 Now we simply don't have time to go into this but the holy seed is pointing forward to the 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:22.599 Jesus who would come close, even closer than the glory of creation. 00:23:22.599 --> 00:23:32.359 This Lord of hosts, this thrice holy living God who is revealed in vision here becomes 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:41.199 a lamb, becomes a lamb, not on a throne but on the altar. 00:23:41.199 --> 00:23:45.519 The separate one, the light of the world. 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:49.919 The most amazing verse from me in the Bible is in many ways, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he who 00:23:49.919 --> 00:23:56.559 knew no sin becomes sin so that in him we might be the righteousness of God. 00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:05.839 That great substitutionary verse, the burning touch on Isaiah's lip, a reminder of the 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:16.559 cost, the judgment, the searing judgment of God that God's substitute, Jesus Christ would 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.599 ultimately pay on our behalf. 00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:29.240 For he himself, as he went to the cross and on the cross, was silent, just as Isaiah 00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:31.359 was. 00:24:31.359 --> 00:24:38.439 Silent before, as Isaiah then prophesies in Isaiah 53, before his accusers, because he 00:24:38.439 --> 00:24:47.000 was guilty, yes, bearing our sin but because he was willing and he would not justify himself 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.319 because he was going there as our Savior and as our Lord to receive the burning judgment 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:59.839 of his Father, to take upon himself our guilt, the silence as the wrath and guilt was poured 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:04.759 on him, our guilt so that we might sing his praises. 00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:14.200 And the seraphs are bringing God's mercy and God's grace into Isaiah's situation and 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:19.680 the words that he needed to hear, your sins are forgiven. 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:21.360 You're made clean. 00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:30.960 You're made clean by this atoning work that is seen in the substitutionary lamb but it's 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:35.920 pointing forward to the amazing work of Jesus on the cross. 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:42.480 And we see that Jesus himself speaks of that in the passage we read in Matthew where he 00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:46.000 says that Isaiah could see that day. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:51.759 He quotes this very chapter and recognizes that Isaiah, whatever Isaiah understood by 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:57.720 that, he could see that the forgiveness he was given, the touch that he received, the 00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:03.720 closeness of God coming in this way was pointing forward to some great significant salvation 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:04.720 for his people. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:07.559 It's a remarkable chapter. 00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:12.559 Now I just want to finish with four very quick observations. 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:16.599 I'm sorry I haven't gone into this as we should and there's much that's been missed 00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:21.960 out and you're probably thinking he's missing out the hardest part and you might not be 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:23.759 that wrong. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:29.079 But I will mention it because it's important. 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:32.359 There's a thousand lifetimes of truth in this chapter alone. 00:26:32.359 --> 00:26:39.159 If we could grasp this chapter and the truth of the God who's revealed and the mercy that 00:26:39.159 --> 00:26:45.439 is spoken of and pointing towards which will be made even clearer next Sunday evening when 00:26:45.439 --> 00:26:52.959 Sebastian preaches from chapter 9 which speaks about the coming of the Messiah. 00:26:52.959 --> 00:26:58.000 There's just so much here but a few things just very briefly as we closed. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:06.559 Isaiah rebellion before God is much deeper and much more serious than we have ever contemplated. 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:13.880 And this passage, this chapter reminds us of the seriousness of falling short of God's 00:27:13.880 --> 00:27:20.759 glory and of being sinners which we all are, which Isaiah himself recognized as he stood 00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:24.519 alongside his people in guilt. 00:27:24.519 --> 00:27:30.839 It's easy to treat Jesus today with all the distance from a passage like this as our cheap 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:38.480 get out of jail free card to allow us to carry on building our lives our own way as if we 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:41.960 can say sin's not really that bad. 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:50.879 It's not that significant until we see the holy, holy, holy one nailed to a cross on 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:57.800 our behalf naming you and naming me in his place and only the Holy Spirit can show us 00:27:57.800 --> 00:27:58.800 that. 00:27:58.800 --> 00:28:05.480 If ever there was a plea to pray, it's in that truth. 00:28:05.480 --> 00:28:11.720 Only the Spirit of God can show us the cost and take away the complacency that so often 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:14.600 we treat Him with. 00:28:14.600 --> 00:28:16.200 Only prayer. 00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:22.440 The second thing connected that is the danger of despising God's mercy because that's exactly 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:24.680 what this Old Testament people were doing. 00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:29.960 And God was bringing a message of judgment on them for doing that, particularly in these 00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:33.600 difficult verses in verses 9 and 10. 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:37.360 Keep on hearing but do not understand, keep on seeing but do not perceive. 00:28:37.360 --> 00:28:41.920 Make the eyes of this people dull, their ears heavy, their blind, their eyes less they see, 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:48.759 less they hear, less they understand and be healed, which is what Jesus quotes, of those 00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:56.200 in His own day who continued to reject the message of the prophets and finally the message 00:28:56.200 --> 00:29:05.200 of the Son who surely, the Son of the vineyard owner, surely they would respect and bring 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:07.519 fruit on behalf of. 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:12.879 But we remember that was not the case. 00:29:12.879 --> 00:29:19.680 And we have here God's solemn declaration of judgment upon His Old Testament people calling 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:22.200 Isaiah to proclaim that. 00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:29.279 Remember they were already rejecting God, already ignoring Him, already not living by faith, 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:33.559 already worshiping idols, already living in fear of those nations around them rather than 00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:35.920 in fear of God. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:40.160 And as Isaiah goes on to speak, it's not that he speaks in riddles, it's not that he makes 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:42.320 things impossible for them to understand. 00:29:42.320 --> 00:29:44.160 He spoke very clearly and very simply. 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:49.519 He was a beautiful speaker and he brought God's message was very clear. 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:53.960 But despite the clarity of the message, they kept on rejecting. 00:29:53.960 --> 00:30:01.519 And as they rejected, God's judgment further brought punishment and condemnation on them. 00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:10.960 It was this dual spiral downwards, both their own rejection and God's judgment on them for 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:20.000 rejecting which meant that though they were able to hear less and able to see less because 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:28.480 of God's judgment, but the reality was they were choosing also not to see and not to hear. 00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:36.000 And we need to recognize and remember how helpless we are and how prone we are to despise, 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:42.319 to resist, to quench the spirit of God in our lives, even as Christians. 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:47.559 And to take for granted that God had to move from the throne to the cross in order to redeem 00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:49.880 us. 00:30:49.880 --> 00:30:55.360 And so the call is for us not to turn our backs on God as believers because that's a 00:30:55.360 --> 00:30:58.319 dangerous thing to do. 00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:06.159 But if you're not a Christian, particularly solemn and significant, not to keep on rejecting 00:31:06.159 --> 00:31:12.879 the one who offers eternal life and offers himself in love and in grace, because there 00:31:12.879 --> 00:31:17.679 does come a day when there is no turning back from that. 00:31:17.679 --> 00:31:22.200 And it's an awesome and frightening reality. 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.240 We need the power of prayer. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.599 If I think I can live a day as a Christian, and if you think you can live a day as a Christian 00:31:30.599 --> 00:31:39.200 without prayer, and the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk and talk and share and live for 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:44.640 Jesus, then we misunderstand what the gospel says. 00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:50.519 But even in this, I think there's a message of mercy towards them. 00:31:50.519 --> 00:31:53.400 I'm not sure if other commentators would agree with that. 00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:59.080 But there's a call in what Jesus, what Isaiah is saying here, God is saying through Isaiah, 00:31:59.080 --> 00:32:02.960 is a message of judgment for sure. 00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:09.240 But surely also it's a call to repent, to cry out, to confess and to return. 00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:17.240 And of course if they didn't do that, then the judgment would be unfolded in their lives, 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:21.400 which of course it was revealed to be the case. 00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:27.800 The prophet is known to be genuine when the prophecy that he makes about Assyria and about 00:32:27.800 --> 00:32:33.759 Babylon as the oppressing nations who bring God's people into slavery and judgment for 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:40.640 seventy years comes true, which it did. 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:43.360 And yet a stump remained. 00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:52.759 And from that stump, from those believing few, the Redeemer came and Jesus came. 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:58.359 Habakkuk 3, our prayer, should always be in wrath, Lord God, remember mercy for all of 00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:01.399 us, for this nation of which we're apart. 00:33:01.399 --> 00:33:06.359 And recognition that it's sovereign purpose is never thwarted. 00:33:06.359 --> 00:33:13.000 That's part of what this passage reminds us, that God, what God said would happen, happened. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:18.799 And from that stump came the Savior, the Redeemer. 00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:27.880 And indeed, more remarkably, even in their rejection of Him, we find that that rejection 00:33:27.880 --> 00:33:32.839 becomes the way of the cross and the way of redemption. 00:33:32.839 --> 00:33:38.720 So He uses their rejection as the means to redeem His people because it is through the 00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:41.079 cross, through His death and resurrection. 00:33:41.079 --> 00:33:48.039 Though they thought they were quenching the sun, they thought they were getting rid of 00:33:48.039 --> 00:33:49.879 God, they were defeating Him. 00:33:49.879 --> 00:33:58.039 It's through that amazing rejection that the salvation of God is most gloriously revealed. 00:33:58.039 --> 00:34:04.399 Lastly, and again, I'm sorry we haven't really spent any time on this, but when we're forgiven 00:34:04.399 --> 00:34:08.840 as believers, we're called by God to serve Him. 00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:13.360 I heard in the midst of the Lord saying, whom shall I send to Isaiah? 00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:14.519 Who will go for us? 00:34:14.519 --> 00:34:17.880 Then I said, here am I, send me. 00:34:17.880 --> 00:34:26.160 Unequivocal that He has this commission and He has this willingness to serve and follow 00:34:26.160 --> 00:34:27.160 the living God. 00:34:27.160 --> 00:34:32.800 Now, we're not all called to be Isaiah's, thankfully, but we're all called to serve 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:39.640 Him unconditionally, we're all called to be known as Christ's and to obey Christ. 00:34:39.640 --> 00:34:44.280 However counter-cultural that happens to be, we might not be asked to bring a message like 00:34:44.280 --> 00:34:54.240 this specifically, but we will be asked to live and to share a truth that is diametrically 00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:59.240 opposed to the way this world and our neighbors and our friends are going, and to shine as 00:34:59.239 --> 00:35:03.199 light in the darkness for Jesus Christ. 00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:10.079 He empowers us, He commissions us, He partners with us, He wants to use us for His glory 00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:13.000 and to serve Him. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:20.479 And may that be what we are enabled to do by grace, responding to His call, because we've 00:35:20.479 --> 00:35:27.839 seen who He is, and we recognize the worthiness of the living God to serve and to follow. 00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:29.559 Let's pray. 00:35:29.559 --> 00:35:37.519 Father God help us to know You better, to… even can I ask that everyone here this evening 00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:45.120 just will have a little bit of a deeper and more clear understanding of who You are through 00:35:45.120 --> 00:35:55.120 Your Word, which does seem impossibly different. 00:35:55.119 --> 00:36:01.599 We understand Jesus because we can see Him, but we find it difficult to comprehend this 00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:13.279 remarkable invisible spirit who is thrice holy, whose angelic hosts serve Him perfectly, 00:36:13.279 --> 00:36:19.920 who is sovereign over everything in this universe, even the things that seem dark and difficult, 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:29.559 and who will one day reveal Himself in a way that the whole earth will know and recognize, 00:36:29.559 --> 00:36:35.720 and will either call on the rocks to follow them, or they will be those who have been 00:36:35.720 --> 00:36:42.920 broken themselves as they have fallen for salvation onto the rock in whom they can trust. 00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:52.320 So Heavenly Father, help us to by faith see this invisible world a bit more clearly, and 00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:59.519 with Your strength and with Your power, obey Your call to serve You with grace, humility, 00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:09.159 with respect, with honesty, with courage, with joy, with thanksgiving, and forgive us 00:37:09.159 --> 00:37:11.280 when we don't do that. 00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:12.280 Amen. 00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:13.280 Thank you.