In Isaiah 6, there's so many
lessons for us to learn. Uzziah was king at 16 years of
age. Uzziah was a good king. In fact, he was a great king. It's all right, for 50 some years
I've been in competition with babies. We're okay, I'm okay. Uzziah was a great king, beginning
at 16 years of age. He led Judah into many great
military victories. Scripture says he sought the
Lord God for his nation, and did just so many, many things
that we're honoring to God. There's one thing fatal to our
ministries, no matter how great they are. And that fatal part
is if we begin to think that we did it, that we're the captains
of our own fate. that we don't need God, we're
just great victorious people. And what happened to Uzziah,
if you go to 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 26 says this in verse eight,
and the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name spread
abroad even to the entering in of Egypt. for he strengthened
himself exceedingly. He became a powerful kind of
guy in his day. Verse 16 says this of 2 Chronicles
26, but when he was strong, his heart was lifted up. Uh-oh. You get to believe in your own
lies. His heart was lifted up to his
destruction. You stop leaning on God, start
believing you are the great I am, and God will destroy you. Because God says, my glory I will not
give to another. The chief end of man is to glorify
God. Those of you watching through
the computer today, let us all learn that we are what we are
by the grace of God and that anything good comes out of us,
it's because God put it in us. Because in ourselves dwells no
good thing in our flesh. And so we must always be very
careful here I don't want to become a silly
old man. I mean, there are great things
happening here, but I know for certain, and I want you to know
for certain, it is not Kent Clark. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus in Nazarene and wonder myself at what he's doing here
with us and through us. He's a great God and a mighty
God. So I wanted to just give you
a little background about Uzziah. Always remember that boasting
is excluded, totally excluded in the Christian life. You have
nothing to boast in, save in the cross of Christ, his substitutionary
death, burial and resurrection. Mr. Spurgeon said this, there
is never a boastful thought in any man's mind when he's in the
presence of God. The Bible says two men went up
to the temple to pray. I just thought about this. Two
men went up to the temple to pray and one prayed with himself. I thank thee, God, that I'm not
as other men are. I'm a tither, I'm a churchgoer,
I'm a this. When you start praying that way,
the only one there is you. Amen. God is not there. You're praying to yourself. While
the other said, smoting himself upon his breath, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner, the only sinner. He wouldn't even lift up his
head. Let's get back to our scripture
verse, Isaiah chapter six. In the year that King Uzziah
died. So Isaiah had seen Uzziah as
a great and mighty king. Many victories had been won for
the nation. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up
and his train filled the temple. So here's where I think Isaiah
was. Isaiah saw Uzziah as a great
king, as a great leader, and that he was. And then he did
something so destructive that the Lord sent leprosy on him
and he died. He spent his last days alone
in a house outside of the city. And he died alone with leprosy. And I think probably it kind
of shook Isaiah a little bit. We've lost our great leader,
our great king. But God said to Isaiah, don't
worry about it. I'm still here. I'm king of kings
and Lord of lords. Uzziah died and Isaiah said,
I saw the Lord God sitting on a throne. Now I want to say to
you today, pastors may come and go, I'm getting on up there myself,
but we are what we are here by the goodness and the grace of
God. There is our God, and He's a
great God, and He's a mighty God, and He's a sovereign God. Notice this. I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne. Have you seen the Lord sitting
on the throne? Some of you in here need to grow a little more
because you say things like this. You know, I took Jesus as my
personal savior and made Him Lord of my life. He was already
Lord. Do you know where Jesus is today?
He's sitting on a throne in heaven as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. This world is not a runaway.
He's the sovereign King. He holds the reins. I look at
America and all of its craziness. I don't know what's going to
happen here. It looks like it could be a real mess. we're headed
toward. But I do know this, there's one
who has not dropped the reins, who is sovereign, who has his
will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of this earth.
And none can say to him, you can't do that. He is a sovereign
Lord. Some of you say this, I took
Jesus as my savior. The first thing God does when
he saves you is let you know who's boss. He sets up the lordship
of Christ in your heart. In fact, he must first become
your lord. You know you have to be overcome. Because you're a fighter against
the will of God. You have to be born again, and
you didn't born yourself again. It was this sovereign Yahweh,
this Jehovah God, this great I Am that ran you down, sought
you out. and brought you out of your Lodibar
and set up his throne. And you say this now, not my
will, but thy will be done. King Jesus, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up. I hope you have seen him. And
Isaiah said this, high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. You know why in most wedding
gowns they have a long flowing veil? It's because that person
is to be respected. The bride is to be respected.
It's a place, it's a thing of honor. The Lord God of heaven is sovereign
and on a throne and he has this long flowing train behind him,
a place of honor and great respect. I don't know whether we have
been there yet, but I pray that as time goes on, that this church,
we will see him as Isaiah saw the Lord, high, high and lifted
up. And then we'll put away our cell
phones and our magazines and quit writing notes in church.
And it will be a place of worship and admiration. The Lord is in
this place. And notice this in verse two,
above it, that is this throne, is that where you see him today?
On the throne, high and lifted up? You know, that's why we have
no crucifixes around here, because Jesus is not on a cross. He's
sitting on a throne. All is well with him. He is sovereign
and Lord. By the way, Saul of Tarsus on
the road to Damascus, when he met up with Jesus, he didn't
say, Jesus, where's the decision card? I'll sign it. They weren't
singing 29 stanzas of just as I am. Who art thou, Lord? Who art thou, boss? Who art thou,
master? I'm Jesus. You know, the one
that was crucified. I'm that one. That's where Christ
is today, on a throne. He's my Lord and Savior. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."
Have you ever wondered what was that all about? These angelic
beings, these seraphims, these beings that were there to wait
on the Lord's will, to do His will, whatever His message was,
whatever His desire was, these were seraphims of light, great,
great light. And they were great beings. But
I think it's very noticeable that in the presence of the one
sitting on the throne, they covered their face. See, over in the
book of Exodus, it says you can't see God and live. God told Moses,
if you see me, you'll die. I'm gonna have to hide you in
the cliff to the rock and my hinder parts are gonna pass by. You'll just get to see my rear
parts. Kind of humbling, isn't it? Because
if you see me, you'll die. And so he was hid in the cliff
of the rock as God passed by. The seraphims were so humble,
so lowly in this sense, in the presence of the mighty God, they
covered their face and their feet, humility. Oh, that ought
to be a part of every Christian, great humility. I don't think we show that a
whole lot. You know, by the time you're
asking, well, do you think so-and-so was saved? Well, what about you? What about you? So they covered their face and
they covered their feet and one cried unto another and said,
holy. And I think this is a literal
what it's saying. Holy is God the father. Holy is God the son. Holy is the spirit of God. I think it have reference to
the Trinity here. Holy, holy, holy. These three
beings are holy. The Lord of hosts, the whole
earth is full of his glory." So much glory. So much glory. The presence of God, so much
glory that it moved the posts. That's what it says here. The
posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the
house was filled with smoke. You say, well, what does that
mean? I don't know. But it was something tremendous.
When God shows up, it's not ordinary humdrum service. God is here. The cherubims, the seraphims,
they are here. And there's a power here. And
there's a sense of the holiness of God. There's probably more
said in the Bible about the holiness of God than there is the love
of God. God is holy. See, some of us haven't quite
got it yet that we were justified by a holy God, a God who is holy. He's not a Santa Claus God. He
is holy, holy, holy. He is of pure eyes than to look
upon sin. And yet, I gotta slow down just a little
bit, And yet this holy, holy, holy God found a way to go down
into the coal mine of sin and take hold of me, crack addict,
heroin addict, prostitute, drunk, sinner, self-righteous, and take
me all the way to heaven and not get himself dirty because
he's holy. That's why we make so much of
this matter of God being a just God. He will not pass by sin. And so He became sin for us,
He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. I'm so enjoying my own preaching
today. It is so true. And here is the
effect. When you see the king sitting
on the throne, and you can kind of judge yourself whether you
are converted or not, whether you are a Christian or not, judge
yourself. Here's what happened to Isaiah
when he saw the Lord sitting on a throne. Woe is me! That's what happens when you
see the Lord. In the presence of a holy and
a righteous God, and the lights come on in your cellar. For years
you walked by that door and never opened it because it led down
to the cellar. And you didn't want to see what
was in the cellar. It was a dark place, a gloomy
place. And one day in power, the spirit
of God took you into your own cellar and clicked on the lights.
And there was creepy crawling things down there in your cellar,
things that you had tried to forget. They were all down there
and they were accusing you and reminding you of where you'd
been and what you'd done. And then, You had insight into
the glorious substitutionary death, the propitiation of Jesus
Christ on the tree of the cross, dying in your room, in your stead,
bearing your sins away, and ascending back into heaven until time came
to call you from this earth to be with him in glory. That's
the glorious truth for us Christians. We're not what we used to be.
but we're certainly not what we're gonna be. One day absent
from the body and present with the Lord. Isaiah said, woe is me for I'm
undone. You're not a Christian until
you're undone. Have you been undone? I was thinking
about this last night, undone. He undones everybody that he
takes to heaven. Have you been undone? Say, well,
what does that mean? Again, I don't know exactly.
Undone, maybe not finished, undone. You ever seen yourself undone?
Just undone. Then said, I woe is me for I'm
a man of undone and I'm a man of unclean lips. And I dwell,
not only am I undone, but everybody else is undone. There's something
I know, everybody in here, you're an undone person. All of us undones,
we ought to be inviting people. All of you undone people, come
over to the church of undone folks. About half baked we are. I could have said half-lit, but
that wouldn't... Undone. And notice what he says right
after that. For mine eyes have seen the King,
in verse 5. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Have you seen the King? King
Jesus? He's my King. I hope He's your
King. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. This verse comes to mind, if
I can find it. I believe it's in the book of
Job, the last chapter, Job 42. Yes. Job 42 and verse 5, I have heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear. How long did you go to church
before you were converted? Sometimes I ask people, do you
know the Lord? Oh, I've been a Catholic all
my life, pastor. You know, I've been a member
of the church of God, church of Christ. I didn't ask you that. I know you've heard of God by
the hearing of the ear. But notice what Job said, I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth
thee. My question to you is, have you
seen the king? Have you seen the Lord of hosts?
Have you seen that one who sits on a throne, who's sovereign,
who can save you or damn you and still be God almighty? Have
you seen him having mercy on you? Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me. Out in the darkness, no light
could I see. He put His great arm under, and
wonder of wonders, He saved even me! I've never got over it. Job said, I heard about you,
but now my eye seeth thee, and the result is I abhor myself
and repent in dust and ashes. I abhor myself. Don't you know
I appreciate you? I love you when I stand at the
door. and shake hands with you and
you say good things, great message, love you pastor, I appreciate
all that. I do truly appreciate all of
that. But know this for certain, that
I am and you are what we are by the grace of God. Abhor yourself,
because in yourself dwells no good thing. All you have to do
to abhor yourself is look how silly you've been. It is kind of crazy to smoke
dope till it kills you. To drink until you're so drunk
you don't even know who you are. To just introvert yourself. Oh, you know, the person I don't
trust the most is me. See, because I know me better
than I know you. I don't trust me. In my flesh
dwells no good thing. When you see the King, you're
undone. Well, let's go back to Isaiah.
We're about through. Praise team, you can come while
I finish up here. Verse seven, he took a live coal. One of the seraphims took a live
coal from off the altar. And by the way, that's where
we belong on the altar, not on the throne. We belong on the
altar. The seraphim took alive coal,
a hot coal, and he laid it upon my mouth, verse 7, and said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin is purged. Isn't that something? You don't
have a, you don't have, the old account was settled long ago
at Calvary. You don't have one sin against
you because Jesus paid it all. That is so awesome. So awesome. Now, verse 11, Isaiah said, the
Lord said, think about this. The Lord's looking for volunteers.
He says something like this, who shall go for me? Who's gonna
go and tell my message, the gospel? And Isaiah said, here am I, send
me. Every one of us in here who have
been converted, you've been called to ministry. Every one of us
who've seen the King on the throne high and lifted up, you've been
called to ministry. How many people do you know? Every once in a while, people
say, you know, every morning on radio, I speak to about 30,000
people on WMUC. But that's no amount of people.
How many people do you know that have not seen the King sitting
on the throne? How many children do you have?
How many mothers and fathers do you have? Sisters and brothers
who have not heard the message of the gospel? God did not bring
you over here to hear the gospel and then for you to sit. go into all the world and preach
the gospel. And our attitude is, here am
I. Sometimes I get calls like this,
or used to, I don't anymore, not as much, but I used to get
calls like, will you come over and talk to our children about
the Lord? You talk to them about the Lord.
It'll get all scary when they know the preacher's coming. But
if mom and dad are there, you lead them to Christ. Somebody
say amen. Tell them what God has done for
you. I will come though, if you want me to come. I didn't mean
I wouldn't come, but I used to say this. I defy anybody to lead
my two girls to the Lord, but me, me and miss Pam. I want to be the one that lead
my girls to the Lord. Moms and dads, I was just watching,
half my crowd left when the Sunday school group went out. How many
children do we have here? And some of you moms and dads
have been so gloriously converted from crack and heroin and the
horrors of this world. And those little ones have seen
you in states they shouldn't have seen you in. How awesome
God has given you this opportunity to be the one to lead them to
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Well, how long? You know, I've been preaching
this gospel. You know, this church is gonna be 40 years old the
end of this month, at 20 something, 40 years old. And I've been preaching since
I was 18. Message hasn't changed. Message hasn't changed. And every
once in a while, I even say, how long? And here's how long. Until the cities be wasted without
inhabitants. All of Pontiac is not converted
yet. Let's go get them. Let's preach the gospel of God's
grace. Until houses are without man
and the land be utterly desolate. That's how long. We're going to proclaim this
gospel. And I believe God's going to do some of the greatest things
we've ever seen. You know, I've been getting calls
all week about miracles that have happened to people around
here with regard to telling out the gospel or what God is doing
in their life. And people saying, oh, I've heard
about Grace Gospel Fellowship and Grace Centers of Hope. How's
all that happening over there? How's that going on? Or I hear
something like this. You know what? I want to get
involved in that. Isn't that something? I want to get involved
in that. If God's on the throne and God's
sovereign, and God has come to you and converted you, and God
says, I want you to go for me. I want you to go tell what could
happen in your life. Well, let's go see how much money
was given to Pastor Clark this week over at Grace Centers. Now,
how about you inviting your family to come and hear the gospel.
You tell them first, or they see in your life what God has
done for you. And I've been saying this for
many, many years now. Let the word get out. You better
not get near that church if you don't want to get saved because
God's over there. God's in there preaching. God's
in there praying. I'm telling you, there is something
going on over there. People even say that to me. What's
going on over there? And my answer is, come and see.
Let's pray. Every day before us, we have
reason to disbelieve. We have reason to doubt. We have
reason to claim that there is no God. It seems like the world
is going spiral at times. It seems like our thoughts are
absolutely out of control. But that's exactly the time that
we need to learn and lean on Christ and what he's accomplished
on our behalf. It's an incredible thing that God would leave the
throne of glory to come down and invade history to do for
us what we could never do for ourselves. if only we could believe
all the way, and we can. And that's throwing all our trust
at Christ, because he is our propitiation. Be with us this
week, teach us to be kind and merciful and gracious one to
another, and open up our minds and our hearts for you. We ask
these things and pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.