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Our reading is from the prophet Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 through 8 as printed in your liturgy.
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.
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.
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.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Well, good morning.
My name's Andrew.
I'm one of the pastors here.
And it's good to be with you this morning.
It was fun at Boxes of Love yesterday.
Man, people can move really fast.
I was on the tape.
This is the last part of the bottleneck, right?
And you've got to tape those boxes shut.
And this guy, he said, Hey, you come do the tape with me.
I was like, Oh, shoot.
And he was a machine.
He was like, And I was like, Sorry, sorry.
But everyone else, you did such a great job.
And I can't wait for it again next year.
What are we doing?
Okay, we're preaching.
So you may have noticed we're in this fall series.
We were in this fall series called Explore God.
We joined with hundreds of other churches in the Bay Area,
exploring God for seven weeks,
asking big questions.
And there were two weeks, though,
in between our Explore God series and Thanksgiving,
where Jonathan and I wanted to just preach sermons
that spoke particularly to our specific moment
in this moment of our history as a church,
Christ Church East Bay.
So last week, Jonathan announced our capital campaign
to raise $600,000 to pay off what we owe
on this historic, strategic church property
by the end of next year.
And another thing that's going on in our churches,
as you know, we're looking for a worship director.
And I'm the interim worship director right now.
So Jonathan, last week, he preached on,
you know, he preached a sermon
that most pastors never want to preach, right?
He preached on giving and generosity,
about how the ancient people of God
gave gratefully and cheerfully and generously
to build a place of worship,
to build the tabernacle.
And if you think that the main point, though,
of that story was generosity,
just generosity toward a house of worship,
I want to remind you this morning
about how that story ended.
Because remember, not only did they give generously,
not only did they build that tabernacle,
but more importantly,
when the tabernacle was completed, what happened?
The glory of the Lord fell upon
and filled that tabernacle in a thick cloud.
The point of that story about the building of the tabernacle
and all the extravagant giving
that went toward that capital campaign project,
it wasn't just a story of generosity.
The point was that for God's people,
there was nothing more valuable to them,
nothing more worthy of their investment
than the worship of God and his presence among them.
Like see, generosity toward the church is one thing,
but apart from worship,
apart from a passion for the presence of God.
If we give and give and give,
even with lavishness,
but God is not wanted and worshiped here,
and thus God is not pleased to dwell here amongst us,
then we could raise that 600K,
we could raise a trillion,
but it will only be toward a four-walled waste of money.
If there are no praises here for our God to inhabit.
As King David said in Psalm 22, verse 3,
you are holy,
and literally it says,
you inhabit the hallelujahs of your people.
You inhabit the hallelujahs of your people.
You sit enthroned in their praises.
So Christ Church family,
yes, we want to be generous,
and yes, we do believe God wants us to preach the gospel
and minister here in this historic and strategic location
in Berkeley, the Bay, and beyond,
and hopefully we will call this property,
you know, truly our own without debt,
but make no mistake,
if God is not worshipped here,
if his glory is not beheld here,
and if his presence doesn't fill this place,
and he is not enthroned in our praises,
then I hope he sabotages our capital campaign.
I hope he sabotages all our plans for this building
and for this church
if we do not worship him here in his presence.
So the question isn't simply,
will Christ Church,
will we as a church family be generous enough
to raise 600K?
The question is, will we worship?
Will we worship here?
This is my question for us today,
as your pastor,
as your interim worship director,
as we look ahead to owning this place debt-free,
and as we look for a new worship director,
and as we're in this season of re-exploring, right,
and rediscovering the heart of worship,
apart from all the bells and whistles
maybe many of us got used to,
will we worship?
Will we fill this place with the kind of praise
that the holy, holy, holy God desires to inhabit?
And in case you're wondering what that might look like,
that's why we had Cherubha read that passage this morning
from Isaiah chapter 6,
Isaiah describing his famous vision of the Lord.
I saw the Lord, he says,
enthroned amidst hundreds of hallelujahs,
hundreds of holy hallelujahs.
So what we're gonna do this morning
is we're gonna walk through this passage,
kinda like I'm gonna be your tour guide,
and I just wanna point out to you
what it means to be a worshiping church.
You know, this week, this passage,
it just really wrecked me.
There's just so much that I saw in it,
that God spoke to me in it,
and I had no idea how to organize all those thoughts.
And I trembled to consider
being up here preaching this text
with my own unclean lips.
How do I preach this holy, holy, holy God?
But I think we'll find out in Isaiah chapter 6
what kind of a God he is
and how he enables even preachers like myself
to come before him, to serve him,
and to fill his church that we might serve him as well.
So, you know, I haven't prayed yet.
I wanna do that this morning.
And I think it's fitting, actually,
to pray on my knees.
I don't normally do this here,
and I don't mean to make you uncomfortable
or to make this a show,
but I think we need this.
Father, you know,
this is gonna be a different kind of sermon.
Father, who am I
to preach your glory
and your holiness
and your majesty
with my unclean lips?
And who are we
to come before you
to take the body of your son
and his blood upon our lips,
our unclean lips,
as a church?
Lord, open our eyes.
Would you set before us
your immense holiness?
Would we be stunned, Lord God,
in your presence,
arrested by your holiness,
would we catch this vision?
Would we see you?
Would we encounter you
as the God that you are?
And would you fill us with praise,
reverent praise,
but also confident praise,
for you have provided the way
before your throne
in Christ Jesus.
and would you
so fill our hearts
with adoration for Christ,
who has brought us near
to the holy God.
And Lord, as we always pray,
would this be a sacred place,
Christ's church?
Would you inhabit
our hallelujahs?
would our praises go out,
would they go forth?
Would the nations be glad
along with us
because of the great salvation
you've offered us in Christ?
So be honored, Lord God,
in the preaching of your word,
and give us eyes to see,
hearts that are longing,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'm just gonna walk us through
this text,
and I want us to have worship
on our minds.
Jonathan sent me something
really kind of humorous,
but also like so profound
this week
from a pastor friend of his.
He said,
you know,
if you ask a typical churchgoer
you know,
just how they experienced
Sunday worship
or what they expected
to experience
at Sunday worship,
they might say,
well, you know,
there's gonna be some music.
I kinda like the song selection
this week compared to last week.
The pastor had, you know,
two or three points,
and this is something funny
that he said,
and then the donuts
were kinda nice.
Right.
But if you ask Isaiah,
right,
if you ask Isaiah
what he experienced
in worship,
he would say,
I saw God.
I saw God
for who he was.
and then I saw myself
for who I am
before him
and it was terrifying,
but I also saw his mercy
and I saw my calling
from that day forward.
I was transformed
because I saw God.
every Sunday
when we come here,
we don't come here
to mess around.
We come here
to encounter God.
I teach my girls this
every Sunday.
I say,
girls,
what day is today?
And I've trained them
to say,
it's the Lord's day.
It's the Lord's day.
And I say,
and what do we do
on the Lord's day?
And they say,
we worship God.
We worship God.
This is not something
to take lightly.
We worship
the holy,
holy,
holy God.
So let's see
what Isaiah saw
in Isaiah chapter six.
Now look with me
at verse one.
This isn't some fantasy
that he's having,
some mythical fantasy
that he's trying to make up.
He is rooting this
in a historical moment.
In the year
that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord,
he says.
High and exalted,
seated on a throne,
and the train of his robe
filled the temple.
There's a lot packed
into this right here.
There's a lot going on
in this historical moment.
See,
because King Uzziah,
you could argue,
was one of the greatest kings
of Israel.
He's the king
that reigned
the second longest
of all the kings,
and the king that reigned
longer than him,
Manasseh,
he was wicked.
He was awful.
He was one of the worst.
All right?
But King Uzziah,
he reigned for 52 years,
and Israel prospered,
and Israel followed,
and worshipped,
and feared the Lord.
Very good years.
You could read about it
in 2 Chronicles 26.
He reigned from the time
he was 16.
He listened to the priest
who taught him.
He sought the Lord.
He was victorious in battle.
The nations paid him tribute.
He was famous.
The soil was fertile.
There were large herds.
He built many monuments
and structures.
He fortified the nation of Israel.
And he had a whole huge army,
mighty warriors,
to defend his people.
He was successful in every way
until he grew proud.
He grew proud of all these accomplishments
as we often do.
He grew so proud that he thought,
apparently I can do anything,
so I'm going to walk
into the holy place of the temple.
I'm going to burn my own incense unto God.
I'm going to worship him how I want
because I'm this amazing king.
And he went in and did what only the priests
were allowed to do.
And so the priests,
60 of them said,
no, you cannot do this.
You must not do this.
They rebuked him.
They withstood him.
And he got angry.
But in his anger,
as soon as he was angry,
in response,
God struck him,
his forehead, it says,
with leprosy,
which meant that
for the rest of his life,
he could, one,
no longer even live in his own palace,
and two,
he never stepped foot
into the temple ever again.
And he lived alone
and he died alone.
That's what happened.
That's the context around this
in the year that King Uzziah died.
So if you are a part of the nation of Israel,
you are nervous.
This was the greatest king
that you've seen in a long time.
52 years of prosperity.
Now he's struck with leprosy.
Now he's dead.
Also at this time,
the Assyrians had started
their major conquest
and they were coming closer
and closer to Israel every year.
And according to Jewish tradition,
not only was this a time
of political, national instability
for Israel,
Isaiah personally would have felt this
because according to the Jewish tradition,
Isaiah's dad and Uzziah's dad
were brothers.
So they were cousins.
Isaiah was part of this royal family
and this was happening to his cousin.
All right?
Lots of hard stuff is going on here
as we come into Isaiah chapter six, verse one.
And yet it's precisely in this moment
of instability
that God reveals himself to Isaiah.
In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a throne.
Right.
And I love how Jackie Hill Perry puts this.
In this moment when Israel's questioning
their well-being,
Jackie Hill Perry,
if you haven't read her book,
Holier Than Thou,
I highly recommend it.
But she says,
Uzziah is dead,
but the King of God's people is alive,
sitting on his throne.
Maybe that seems obvious,
but don't miss this.
A big part of the holiness of God
is that God has never not been alive.
God is self-existent.
He exists because he exists.
He needs no one but himself to be.
Therefore, he always has
and will always be.
He was before was,
was, she says.
So in the year that King Uzziah died,
this great King of Israel,
God reveals himself
as an alternative King,
as a better King,
a King that will never die.
And that's who he sees
in this vision,
high and lifted up,
seated on a throne.
Now another thing
that's interesting though,
right,
is Uzziah,
what was he punished for?
He was punished for trying to be
both a king and a priest.
That never happened before
in all of the nation of Israel's history.
Right?
And yet somehow,
in this temple vision,
you have this king sitting on the throne,
and it's okay for him
to be on the throne.
You have a king and a priest there,
it's the Lord.
There's something utterly unique
about this king,
and we'll talk about that more later.
Look with me now at verse two.
What else is going on here?
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.
So,
in case you're wondering
what seraphim are,
they're probably like
these angelic figures.
This is the only place
in all of scripture
that talks about these figures.
There's these seraphim,
literally the burning ones.
All right?
So,
they're these burning creatures,
angels,
unfallen creatures,
with six wings.
Two to fly,
two to cover their faces,
and two to cover their feet.
They're covered from head to toe.
Why?
Because even though
the very thing
that they're created for,
the only thing scripture
ever tells us about them
is that they're here
to worship God,
they can hardly do that.
They can hardly be
in the presence of God,
even though they're created
to be in the presence of God,
even though they're
unfallen creatures.
And if anyone of us
saw one of these creatures
like flying to this place,
it'd probably freak us out.
All right?
And they're just kind of
so strange, right?
What is this image?
I don't know.
It's hard to imagine, right?
But I think the point
is to accent
the strangeness,
the otherness
of God.
Our holy,
holy,
holy God.
Even the unfallen creatures,
these angels,
cannot bear his presence
without covering themselves
with their wings.
Now look with me
at verse three.
What are they doing?
Well, they're worshiping.
They're worshiping.
And they were calling
to one another.
I love that.
They're worshiping
by preaching
to one another
the truths about God.
You know,
when I was
a young worship leader
in high school
and I used to pick the songs
for my youth group
or for my church,
I had this understanding
of worship
that is all praise unto God.
And so I would only
pick songs
that were like
in the first person.
Like,
I want to know you.
I love you, Lord.
Right?
My Jesus,
I love thee.
Right?
And I tried not to pick songs
that were like
more in the third person
about God.
Like,
holy,
holy
is the Lord God almighty.
Because I wanted to direct
all my worship
toward God.
But you know,
I was missing something.
I didn't realize
that the point of worship
is not just to
approach God
to lift our praises up
to Him,
but it's to encourage
one another.
It's to stir one another.
It's to provoke one another
unto praise.
And it's a beautiful thing
when we do that.
Like,
Christchurch,
what if we came
into this place
every Sunday
ready to worship,
not lifting up
our praises
only to God,
but what if we saw
our ministry
as singing
to one another
and provoking
the praise
of the holy,
holy,
holy God?
You know,
we do this thing now
where we have a playlist
every Sunday
if you'd like to listen ahead
to the songs
that are gonna be played
for the following Sunday.
We try to highlight
one of the songs
that might be lesser known
or that we're trying
to introduce.
And so my family
plays that quite often
at least on our way
to church on Sunday.
And one of the things
that stirs my heart
the most
is when I'm standing
next to my daughter,
Cammie,
and she's singing
every word.
Your goodness
is running after,
it's running after me.
I will sing
of the goodness
of God,
right?
Praise God
from whom
all blessings flow.
It's a beautiful thing
to hear the praises
of God's people,
to sing them
to one another.
And that's what
the seraphim
are doing
in this moment.
They are calling
to one another,
it says in verse 3.
Holy,
holy,
holy
is the Lord
almighty.
The whole earth
is full of his glory.
They are pointing
away from themselves,
pointing to the throne
and saying,
holy,
there is nothing
like this God.
And notice the song
they sing,
holy,
holy.
We sing it all
the time here,
but it's so significant.
Throughout the scriptures,
whenever you see
repetition,
it means emphasis.
Jesus.
So,
for example,
we might see
amen,
truly,
right?
David cries,
Absalom,
when he's sad
about his son.
Jesus cries,
Jerusalem,
right?
But never in all
of scripture
do you see
a triple repetition.
Never.
Holy,
holy,
holy.
He's even distinct
in his distinctness.
He's holy
to the uttermost.
Holy,
holy,
holy is the Lord
almighty.
They cry out.
And what does that
even mean?
What does holy mean?
Well,
to be holy
is to be set apart,
right?
It's to be distinct.
It's to be in a class
of his own.
That's what God is.
God is in a class
of his own.
This is the godness
of God
that they're getting
at here
when they're crying
holy,
holy.
Right?
Notice,
they don't cry
love,
or goodness,
goodness,
or,
I don't know,
mighty,
no.
Say holy,
holy,
holy.
Why is that?
Why is this first?
Why is this essential
to the godness
of God?
Well,
it's because
God could not be
loving
if he were not holy.
if God were not holy
in and of himself,
never tempted
to do anything
out of selfishness
or sinfulness
or malice,
he could not love us.
He is holy,
holy,
so that he can be
holy in his love,
holy in his goodness,
holy in his might,
holy in his grace,
holy in his mercy.
There is no,
it's not like there's
this like love
that he participates in,
no,
he is love himself
because he's holy love.
There's no like goodness
that he just participates in,
no,
he defines goodness
because he's holy
in his goodness.
His holy,
holy holiness
is his transcendence,
he's the source,
he's the fountain.
Everything else
is derived
from him.
Everything else,
and there's nothing
like that in all creation,
right?
Right,
your kids might say
something like,
you know,
hey,
daddy,
mommy,
who created
like the world?
And you would say,
well,
Genesis 1,
God,
all right?
You think you're
a pretty good theologian,
right?
And then number two,
they might say,
well,
who made me?
Well,
you say,
well,
God,
he knitted you
in his womb,
right?
What do you do
when they ask you,
well,
who made God?
Right?
Who made God?
God.
When God is crying,
when they're crying out
that God is holy,
holy,
when they're getting
at his supreme holiness,
they're getting at the fact
that there is nothing
in all creation
like this God.
Again,
he's in a class
of his own.
Holy,
holy,
holy is the Lord Almighty,
is the Lord of hosts,
of all the armies
of heaven.
The whole earth
is full of his glory.
It can't contain his glory.
The whole earth
is filled
with the weight
of his majesty.
That's what they're singing
to one another.
And they're singing it
so loud,
right?
Verse four says,
at the sound of their voices,
the doorposts
and thresholds
shook
and the temple
was filled
with smoke.
Their praises
are rocking the place.
You know,
it's like,
maybe a little
tiny picture of that
is Easter here
where Jonathan's like,
make some noise,
right?
And we get the cowbells
and people are like
stomping their feet,
clapping their feet,
and their hands.
This is like that
on steroids,
all right?
People are just,
God's creatures
who are made
to worship him
are just offering up
this crazy noise,
shaking the whole place.
It reminds me of,
you know,
actually around
Thanksgiving time
when I used to live
in Philadelphia
during seminary,
I would go to this church.
It was called
North Shore Baptist Church.
And every,
I think it was the Wednesday
before Thanksgiving,
it was a tiny
little church
with a low ceiling
and they would do
testimonies
every Wednesday
before Thanksgiving
and people would give
like crazy testimonies.
There was this drug lord,
like he was a
multi-million dollar
drug lord
and he told a story
of how he came to Christ,
how he was like
in international prison
and stuff.
It was wild,
all right?
They always had stories.
And hearing those stories
and responding
to those stories,
it was like testimony
and worship
and they worshipped.
man,
with those low ceilings,
I know this is beautiful,
I love this,
but man,
those low ceilings,
they rocked that place
with worship.
It shook.
That's what I think about
when I think about
this kind of praise
that God deserves
from his people,
a praise that shakes
this place,
that has an impact.
Do you know
that people have come
into Christ's church
just having heard
the music
from the street?
They've come in
through our doors.
It is a missional thing
to sing forth
God's praises
with all your might,
no matter how bad
you sing.
In fact,
that's a greater testimony
to the grace of God,
to the glory of God.
So they're shaking
this place,
but not only
is the place shaking,
but here we go,
it's filled with smoke.
What does that mean?
There's fire,
something dangerous,
right?
Something hot,
something burning,
something being consumed.
What's going on here?
There's smoke,
and he sees it.
Verse five,
what does he say?
Woe to me,
Isaiah cried.
Woe to me.
Now, a question I have
for us is,
why does he say,
why is it woe
and not worship?
Why doesn't he join
the seraphim in worship?
Why doesn't he say,
holy, holy, holy,
yeah, me too,
I affirm that,
amen, holy, holy, holy?
Because God's holiness
is not just about
his transcendence,
it's about his moral purity.
And when we come
into the presence of God,
we're not just struck
by his otherness
as the I am,
the holy, holy, holy God,
we are struck
by his absolute purity
and his righteousness.
And like a mirror
before us,
we see ourselves
and we don't measure up.
We see ourselves,
we not only see God
for who he really is,
but we see ourselves
for who we really are.
Right?
People of unclean lips.
He says,
I am ruined.
You can say,
I am doomed.
I am undone.
I am lost.
For I am a man
of unclean lips,
he says.
It's interesting
that he says,
I'm a man of unclean lips,
isn't it?
Because what's his job?
He's a prophet.
The very instrument
that God gave him
to most usefully serve him,
his own righteousness,
he's repenting of.
Because before this holy God,
the thing that he is best at,
he realizes is not enough.
It's unclean.
It's wrong.
I feel that all the time
as a pastor.
How often I get up here
and I want to preach to you
because I do want to honor God,
but I kind of want
to honor myself.
I kind of want to glorify myself
sometimes with the words
that I say.
Ask any worship leader.
They want to worship God,
but they kind of like
letting people hear their voice.
Same with Isaiah the prophet.
We have unclean lips.
Out of the overflow of the heart,
out of the mouth comes
the overflow of the heart, right?
Out of the abundance of the heart.
I'm a man of unclean lips,
he says.
And not only that,
but I live among a people
of unclean lips.
I'm surrounded by this.
I can't escape it.
This is who we are.
And with these unclean lips,
my eyes have seen something
that I'm not sure I can handle.
My eyes have seen the King,
the Lord Almighty.
And he says,
woe is me.
Do we come into worship
every Sunday
with woe?
Do we have a holy reverence
to our worship?
Is this truly a sacred place?
Do we behold who God is
and do we behold who we are?
See, Isaiah 6 is actually
where we get our liturgy.
If you look at your liturgies,
this is the format.
We come before God,
we sing his praise,
right?
We acknowledge who he is,
this glorious God.
And we also acknowledge
our unclean lips,
our uncleanness,
our sin before him.
We confess our sins,
right?
Every week,
we confess our sins
to God
and to one another.
It's coming right out
of Isaiah chapter 6.
And what do we do next, though?
What do we do about that?
What do we do
when we realize that,
yeah,
we are unclean?
I think a lot of us
want to say,
well,
I just want to put aside
the holiness of God.
That's one of my
less favorite things about him,
one of my least favorite
doctrines,
right?
But God says no.
And Isaiah says no.
Let's lean into this,
let's lean into the truth.
Woe is me.
Woe is me
because I truly am unclean.
When we come into worship,
we face the truth
about God
and about ourselves.
And that can be
a hard truth
to face up to.
Super hard.
But get this,
the good news
of the gospel
is that that's not
the end of Isaiah's vision,
right?
Verse 6.
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.
It's crazy right now
that Isaiah's here,
all right?
In this temple.
So there are a couple
details I want to point out
to you in this vision,
all right?
So he's in,
he sees the Lord
seated on his throne,
okay?
And if you're familiar
with that language,
the throne,
what is the throne
that was in the temple?
What is considered
as the throne
of the temple?
It was the Ark
of the Covenant.
Sometimes known
as the footstool
of the Lord,
but also known
as the throne.
That's where God
would sit,
in the holy of holy
place in the temple,
the place that
the high priest
could only enter
once a year,
but somehow
the Lord
is sitting there
and Isaiah
is present there,
all right?
And notice
the smoke
that's in there,
right?
Because once a year,
they would burn
a sacrifice
on that altar
at the Ark
of the Covenant.
So this is
a special time,
this is Yom Kippur,
this is the day
of atonement,
right?
And it's like,
first of all,
why is a king there
and why is Isaiah there?
How can that even happen,
all right?
Why is a king there?
Why is Isaiah there?
Why is a prophet there?
Where's the priest?
Well,
that's what's spoken to
here in verse 6
and 7.
When the seraphim
is flying toward him
with a coal in his hand
and taking it
and touching his mouth
with it
and getting rid
of his guilt,
what he's doing
is he's
atoning for
his sin
from the sacrifice
that's on the altar.
There's a sacrifice
as well
in this scene.
It's not just
the Lord on a throne.
It's not just
Isaiah
seeing all this.
There's a sacrifice
being burnt.
And when
Isaiah's lips
are put in touch
with that sacrifice,
those burning coals,
his guilt's taken away.
His sin
is covered.
And I think,
you know,
we might be tempted
to think this is just
a cheap, easy grace.
This is just something
he does,
some kind of ritual
from these coals.
Boom,
he's clean.
But if we have eyes
to see what's really
going on here,
this is a foreshadowing
of the gospel.
This is a picture
of Christ.
You know,
John chapter 12.
In John chapter 12,
the evangelist John,
he says that
Isaiah saw
Jesus' glory.
glory.
It's in John chapter 12,
verse 41.
Isaiah saw
Jesus' glory.
And I think
what he meant
by that was
he's seeing
this,
not only this king
who's seated
on his throne
high and lifted up,
but he's also seeing
this sacrifice
that's made for him,
that's making him
able to be
in the presence
of God.
this purifying
work of God,
this initiative
of God
to come near to him.
He didn't even ask
for forgiveness.
He didn't even ask
to be clean.
All he's thinking
is woe is me,
I'm dead.
But God comes
near to him,
puts him
into union
with his sacrifice
and his sins
are atoned for.
And listen,
this changes everything.
This changes
everything
about how Isaiah
will live
from then on.
verse 8,
this is the last verse.
It says,
sin's been atoned for.
Then I heard
the voice of the Lord
saying,
whom shall I send
and who will go
for us?
And this guy,
Isaiah,
who goes from fearful
and woe is me
and I cannot
behold the Lord,
all of a sudden,
because of this mercy
that has come
near to him,
he says,
here I am.
Or in the Hebrew,
behold me,
he says.
All of a sudden
he says,
behold me.
Is he crazy?
This is the holy,
holy God.
And he was saying,
woe is me at first
and now he's saying,
behold me?
How can he say
something like that?
How could any of us
say that
to the holy,
holy,
holy God?
God.
It's because his sins
were atoned for.
It's because of the sacrifice
that was made for him.
And if we look forward
to what this was pointing to,
it points to Jesus,
all right?
The Lamb of God.
The Lamb who was
foreshadowed in that sacrifice
at this altar.
The only one who is
not only a prophet,
but also a king
and a priest.
Who can go into
the temple for us.
Not just sitting
on the throne,
but who is
our very sacrifice.
What kind of a king
is that?
It's a priestly king.
The Lamb of God
slain for us.
And this transforms
everything about Isaiah.
He sees God.
He sees himself.
He sees God's mercy.
And he sees his calling.
And he says,
here am I.
Behold me.
I'm unafraid of you now,
God.
Not because you are not
a fearful holy God,
but because you have
made me confident
to come near
to your throne of grace.
And here am I.
Send me.
Use me, Lord.
However you want.
In Christ's church,
I hope that this church,
this place,
will be such a place
of worship
that we also see God,
that we also see ourselves,
that we see his mercy,
and that we go forth.
That's what the benediction
is every week.
Go in the name of Jesus,
in the name of Jesus,
in your union with Jesus,
because of his sacrifice,
to love and serve this world
in response to his sacrifice.
And I pray that that's
the kind of sacred church
we'll be.
That's the kind of
worshiping church we'll be.
So will you pray with me?
Amen.
Lord God,
help us to see.
Give us this kind of
holy vision.
And make us this kind of
holy,
worshiping church.
would you do it
unto the glory of Jesus,
with him lifted up
before our eyes,
the author and perfecter
of our faith,
the Lamb of God
who was slain
for the sins of the world,
who's come near to us.
Thank you for this mercy.
Give us eyes to see
the heights of your holiness
and the depths of your grace
all at the same time
and make us a people of worship
because of it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.