I ask Adam to lead us. In that
him this morning. And I would like to ask you to
turn in your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 6. A very familiar
passage. Surely. The passage of Scripture
that are him writer had in mind when he was writing that him. In the Bible, when. God wants
to make emphasis, he'll repeat things. We see that in the Psalms
often one verse in the Psalm will be exactly the same as the
preceding verse, it's only written just a little bit different.
We see that when our Lord told the disciples, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, he repeats himself for emphasis. any of his other words or less
important, but what our Lord is saying is I'm going to summarize
now a lot of things that I've been telling you and need to
pay special attention to this. No place in the word of God is
anything brought to the third level of repetition except here
in Isaiah chapter six. Um, And the point is clear, isn't
it? The Lord is saying to me and
you, this is the most important thing. This is who I am. Let's read
this passage together. In the year that King Uzziah
died, King Uzziah, you remember, tried to In the Old Testament,
a man could be a prophet and a priest, but he could not be prophet,
priest, and king. David, for instance, was a prophet and a
king, but he could not be a priest. Uzziah was a king, but he could
not usurp the authority of the priest. And he went into the
temple thinking that he could make sacrifice without a priest. What a deadly error for any man
to think that he can approach God without an advocate, without
the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest intercede on our
behalf. But that's what Uzziah thought. He had been a good king
up until then, but when he went into the temple to try to make
that sacrifice, the Lord struck him with leprosy and he died
in shame. And so Isaiah, as the prophet
of God, must have thought all is lost. God has taken his hand
off of Israel. He has written Ichabod. The glory
of the Lord has departed across the temple and we've lost all hope. And so he
goes to church to seek the Lord. You and I have come here to find
hope for our souls. So much shame and sorrow in the
world, and most particularly in our own hearts. We need a
word from God. So Isaiah says, in the year that
King Uzziah died, things seemed hopeless. I saw also, also the Lord. Here's what made it all well.
God didn't leave us with just the sin and sorrow and sadness
of our hopelessness and our rebellion against him. I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. His position
of sovereignty has not been in the least bit challenged. by
man's rebellion or by my sin. He has not been moved. He's seated
upon his throne. If we go to John chapter 11,
which we won't do right now, we'll find that the Holy Spirit
lets us know in John chapter 11 that the one that Isaiah saw
was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The pre-incarnate
glory of Christ seated upon that throne. High and lifted up. And his train
filled the temple. Now if his train filled the temple,
if something's filled, then there's room for nothing else. His glory, that's what the picture
of the train was, just like kings that parade their glory in the
world today. They have these long trains.
A bride has a train to her veil. It's her glory. His train filled
the temple. There wasn't room for anything
else. He gets all the glory. And above it stood seraphims.
These were the angelic host of all angelic hosts. We see them
also in the book of Revelation. They've been given the duty of
hovering over the very throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. And each one of them had six
wings. And with Twain, with two, he
covered his face. He was in the presence of God. Oh, he could not look upon his
glory. The Lord told Moses, no man can
see God and live. The revelation that we have of
the Lord Jesus Christ is made in the God-man, in his incarnation. When God became man and dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. So we see
the glory of God in the God-man when God became man. And with Tawain, he covered his
feet. The Lord said that the angels
before him are charged with folly. These angels are innocent. They've not sinned. And yet they
too, though they be not sinners like we are, fall short of his
glory. And they are charged by this,
by God who is holy with folly. And so they're creatures. And just as we are creatures
with feet of clay, unlike his feet, which are like brazen brass
tried in the fire, we have feet of clay and we must
cover our creatureness before God. We must have it covered. That's the picture of Ruth getting
under the skirt of Boaz, isn't it? that she would have the covering
of the righteousness of Christ to cover her feet. So with two, they covered their
eyes and with two, they covered their feet. And with two, they
did fly. And that's a picture of their
perpetual service to the Lord. And one cried unto the other
and said, holy, holy, Brethren, what God is saying
to me and you is that my holiness is the supreme characteristic
of my nature. Everything about me is holy.
My sovereignty is holy. My hatred is holy. My love is
holy. My immutability is holy. Holiness
is who I am. You say, well, preacher, what's
it mean to be holy? Well, the word means, literally
it means other. It means other. It means to be separated. In
other words, there's nothing in us like Him. He is other than
we are. He is separate from sinners.
He's holy, undefiled, sinless, and separate from sinners, and
higher than the heavens. That's who He is. He's holy. And these seraphim, who have
never sinned, never rebelled against God. They've been flying
with that pair of wings perpetually, continually, crying, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God of hosts. He's Lord of hosts. He's Lord. Scripture says over
the living and the dead. He reigns sovereign over the
armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. He
hath done whatsoever he wills. Oh, aren't you thankful that
we have a God who is sitting upon his throne, who is holy
other than we are in every way, cannot be moved and cannot be
changed. And he is Lord. We look the first hour of the
wife's responsibility to submit to her husband. And we saw that
as a picture of our rebellion of bride of Christ. And by nature,
we come into this world speaking lies and rebellion and pride
is our, is our central nature. And it, but for the grace of
God, we would all raise our fists towards God and say, I will not
have that man reign over me. It's only by the grace of God
that he causes our swords to be beat into plowshares and our
spears into pruning forks. He takes those who are at enmity
with him, those who would rebel against him, and he makes them
servants of his by his grace, by his grace. He's the Lord of
hosts. Truth is that before he showed
you his grace and before he caused you to submit to his authority,
he was Lord over you then. He reigned over you then as he
does over all men and as he does over the devils. The devils are
subject to him. Satan is subject to him. He's
the Lord of hosts. And the whole earth is full of
his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. A smoke in the Bible is a picture
of prayers and going up into heaven. And the Lord Jesus Christ's
prayers go before our father and he intercedes on our behalf.
I write these things unto you, little children, that you sin
not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who has prayed for us and who
said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Peter,
you're going to deny me, but be of good cheer. I prayed for
you. I prayed for you that your faith fail not. There's the results
of our Lord's prayer. Those he's given faith to cannot
lose that faith. His gifts are without repentance. When he gives the gift of faith,
it is forever. So the very foundation of the
door is moved at his voice, at his word. And I pray right now
that the foundations of our lives will be shaken to where we have
to have Christ. We have to have him. He shakes
those things which can be shaken in order that that which cannot
be shaken might not be moved. And he does that by his word.
He does it by his word. He speaks, and when he speaks,
his word is effectual, it's powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged
sword. God's people, he gives us a hearing
ear and a believing heart, and we rejoice in his word. Everything
is shaken, and his prayers go up for us. I said, well, how
do I know that the Lord's done such a work for me? You've come
to one clear conclusion. The only way, the only hope of
you standing in the presence of a holy God is for Him to do
something for you that you cannot do for yourself. He's going to
have to save you. He's gonna have to provide a
righteousness. What is the first thing out of Isaiah's mouth?
Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
live among people of unclean lips. Look, nobody can save me. They're all just like me. My eyes have seen the king. I'm
a dead man. There's nothing in me like him. He's holy and I'm sinful. And
if he doesn't put away my sin and satisfy his own justice and
righteousness and establish for me a holiness outside of me,
there's no hope that I have to stand in his presence. That's the evidence that we've
had some revelation of God. And if we're gonna have any understanding
of all of holiness, which we have so little understanding
of, it'll be by divine revelation. The Lord will cause us. It's
not so much to believe that he's holy, I mean, to understand that
he's holy is to believe that he's holy. We've said this before and it's
so true. We don't really understand anything that we believe. We
don't understand what it means to be a sinner. We don't understand
what it means to be holy. We don't understand these things,
but we believe them. We believe them. But why? Because the post of the door
has shaken and the smoke has gone up and the voice of God
has spoken and he's opened our ears and he's made us to believe
what he has said. So we believe. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things
that we cannot see and cannot understand. Verse six, here's the hope. Then
one of the seraphim, one of the seraphim came unto me having a live coal
in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar, Now, the word angel literally
translated means messenger. And when the scriptures speak
of the pastors in the book of Revelation of the seven churches,
it refers to them as angels. It's not that they're angelic
or any more righteous or holy than anyone else. I hate the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans, the Lord said. which is the doctrine
of clergy laity. We don't believe in clergy laity,
man. God doesn't establish his church
that way. The ground at the foot of the
cross is level. Whether man's been called to
preach, to be a messenger of God, that's all he is. He's just
declaring what God has said. Or whether he's here to hear
what God has said. Here's the picture I hope right
now. I hope that these hot coals from
off the altar of God can be applied to our lips. It's the fire of God's wrath. The sacrificial system in the
Old Testament, all those sacrifices that were made year after year
never put away sin. They all pointed to the sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus Christ would accomplish. when he hung on Calvary's
cross and the full fury of God's holy justice fell on him. God
was not a respecter of persons. When he saw sin on his own darling
son, he was required, he was forced by
his holy justice to judge that sin. And just like, just like,
Elijah's sacrifice on Mount Carmel, when he built that altar and
he poured all that water on it and he cried for the fire and
the God that answered by fire, he'll be God. And the prophets
of Baal cried and cut themselves and pleaded with God to save
them and to reveal himself and nothing happened. Why? Because
that God didn't exist. There's only one God. All these other gods are figments
of men's imagination. That's all they are. They're
idols fashioned by the hands of men, shaped in the darkened
foundry of man's own mind, forged in his own will. And the Lord said, you thought
that I was altogether such a one as thyself. You thought I was
like you. I'm not like you at all, I'm
holy. Holy, holy. Oh, aren't you thankful? There's a fire. It purges all sin. When the Lord
Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said,
it is finished. Everything that God required
for the putting away of our sin was accomplished in the sacrifice
that he made. The fire of God consumed the
sacrifice and the sacrifice consumed the fire. No more fire, no more
fear, no more wrath. Justice of God has been satisfied. Oh, what hope. or those who stand
in the presence. Who shall stand before thy holy
hill? Who's gonna stand in the presence
of the holy God? And the Lord answers that question.
He said, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Now, hands
are a picture of our works, and our hearts is a picture of, well,
you know what that is. That's everything there is about
us. Our soul, our thoughts, our motives,
our intents. Who can stand in the presence
of a holy God and say, all the works that I perform by my hands
are acceptable inside of God. And my heart, oh my, got such a pure heart. You know
that's not true. A heart is wicked and deceitful,
desperately wicked, no man can know it. And you hear the media interviewing
a mother of a serial killer and what she said, well, you know,
my son has a good heart. Isn't that the way men are? Everybody's
got a good heart. Everybody's got a good heart.
No, you don't. But he did. His heart was pure. And by his grace and in the new
birth, we have the very mind of Christ. We have the very nature
of God, Christ in you, your hope of glory before God. Verse seven, he laid it upon
my mouth. Why delay it? What's the importance
of the mouth? Well, from the issues of the
heart, the mouth speaks. God looks down the throat in
Romans chapter three and he sees nothing but corruption. Our words, by your words you
shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned.
And that's not speaking of every idle word. We speak so many idle
words. It's speaking of the words that
we speak concerning Christ. What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? Well, he's the son of David. Well, if he'd be the son of David,
then why did David call him Lord? Why did David call him Lord?
Because he is David's Lord. What do we say about the Lord
Jesus Christ? Whose son is he? He's the son
of God. He's the Christ, he's the anointed
one. And lo, this has touched thy
lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sins purged. There's our hope, brethren, in
Christ, He said, I've separated your sin from you as far as the
East is from the West. And you just think about it.
Think about the globe. North and South meet. You go
North, there's going to come a point you're going to start
going South. You go South, there's going to come a point you're
going to start going North. You go East, you're always going
to go East. You go West, you're always going to go East. You
know, we've got some fake lines in the earth to show us, you
know, different time schedules, but there's no real, East and
West don't have a place to meet. They don't meet. Your sins have
been separated from you. I remember them no more. They've
been put under the blood. They've been put away. There's
no more sacrifice for sin. And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall go for us? And almost spontaneous, Isaiah,
not even really thinking about it, but in light of what the
Lord had done for him, his heart is overflowing with gratitude
and with desire. And he said, Lord, hear my eyes.
Is there anything I can do? Send me, Lord. Send me. And the Lord said, go and tell
this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not and see indeed,
but perceive not. And make the heart of this people
fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they
should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand
with their heart and be converted and be healed. This is the response
that most men are gonna have to the gospel. The majority of
the world, this is their response. They're gonna hear some words,
but they're not gonna understand them. They're gonna see some
doctrine, but they're not gonna apply them. They're gonna hear
you talk about total depravity of man, but they're not gonna
be totally depraved. They hear you talk about the
sovereignty of God, but they don't really believe God's sovereign. They hear some words, but they,
They don't see, they don't believe. And Isaiah said, how long? Lord, if this is gonna be the
response to the gospel, how long do I have to do this? Oh, every
preacher has thought this. Lord, is there any fruit at all,
any hope, any benefit to this burden? And then said I, O Lord, how
long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without
inhabitants and the houses without man, and the land be utterly
desolate, the Lord to remove men far away, and there be a
great forsaking in the midst of the land. Isaiah, as long
as there's anyone to preach to, you keep preaching the gospel.
And that's all I know to do. In light of every other problem
that you and I have, all I know to do is just keep preaching
Christ. Because He is our hope. He is our life. He is the answer to everything. But here's the good news. Not everybody's gonna respond
that way. Not everybody's gonna have, hear something but not
really understand or see something but not really see. Not everybody's
gonna be like that. There's going to be a tent. There's
going to be a remnant. There's going to be a few. And yet in it, in the world that
is, there shall be a tent, and it shall return, and shall be
eaten as a teal tree, as an oak, whose substance is in them."
Where is your substance? Where is your substance? Job
said, the root of the matter is in me. The substance of God
is in Christ, and Christ is in me. And outside of him, I have
no substance. I'm but a shadow. I'm but vanity. At my very best state, I'm altogether
vanity. But this tree, the trees of righteousness,
which are the plantings of the Lord, they have the root of the
matter in them. They have the substance in them.
They have Christ. And when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof. God told Abraham, your seed,
not seeds, but your seed, this promise is gonna be fulfilled.
And that seed, singular, is Christ. Our text for this morning can be found in 1 Samuel 2. 1
Samuel 2. Hannah is expressing her praise and worship. to God for having saved her. And she says in verse one, my
heart rejoiceth in the Lord. He's done a work of grace in
my heart. I didn't just turn over a new
leaf. We didn't just clean up the outside of the cup. We didn't
whitewash the tomb. The seed of the matter is in
me. The root is in them. The substance
is in them. The Lord has caused me to believe
on Christ. He's done a work of grace in
my heart. My horn has been exalted in the Lord. My strength is his
strength. I have no strength outside of
him. And my mouth has been enlarged against my enemies. He's given
me hope in Christ. I have an answer now. The accusations
that are made and the lies that are told, I know the truth and
the truth has set me free. God has given me a word and I believe it. Say, well, preacher, you know,
I can't come up with all those words when I'm being tempted
or being tried and I don't know if I, When you hear them right now,
do you believe them? God hasn't called everybody to
spend their whole life in his word, preparing his word to feed
God's people. The Lord says, study to show
thyself approved, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly
divine, the word truthy. He's talking to Timothy and the
pastors. Are we also to be ready to give
an answer to them? Yes, yes. As the Lord enables,
as the Lord enables, but don't be intimidated because you don't
feel like you have, your mouth is enlarged against your enemies
every time an accusation comes or a lie is being told or some
religious friend or family members has an objection to the gospel
that you can't give an answer to it. The hope of your salvation
is not in that. The hope of your salvation is
that when you hear God's word, you believe it. You believe it
right now. Yes, amen. And maybe that's all
I can say is amen, but that's my mouth enlarged against my
enemy, just to be able to say amen. And here's our text. And I have about
14 pages of notes on this one verse. but I've already taken
up all my time, so let's just read it together. There is none
holy as the Lord. None holy like him. There is none beside thee. Neither
is there any rock like our rock, like our God. Our holy rock. If we're to be
saved, brethren, we're gonna have to have a God who not only
is holy, but who is able to satisfy the demands of His holiness for
us. We need the security and the
stability, the immutability of a rock. And that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. The rock which the builders rejected,
God has made to become the head of the corner. And the Lord said,
if you hear these words, Do these things, you're like a man who's
built his house upon a rock and when the wind blows and the water
fall, the rain falls and the storms come, that house shall
stand. But a house that's built upon
sand? Now this world's got a lot of wind, a lot of rain, a lot
of things that were that threaten us every day, none of which can
be compared to that overflowing scourge of wrath and judgment
that will come on the day of judgment against those whose
house is built upon the sand. Upon this rock, upon this rock,
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Peter, whom do you say that I
am? O thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. My Father, which is in heaven, made that known
unto you. Here's what Hannah knew. Hannah knew that there
was no God like her God. And there was no rock like her
rock. The prophet said, our rock is higher than their rock. This
is the rock we read about the first hour. In Exodus, let's
go back to that passage in Exodus chapter 33. Moses met God at the burning bush. He heard the very voice of God.
He saw the bush ablaze, but not being consumed, which is a picture
of the cross. Fire of God falling on Christ,
but not consuming him. He raised from the dead. He consumed
the fire. And the Lord sent Moses back
into Egypt. And Moses witnessed the Nile
River turning into blood. And he witnessed all the plagues
that God sent. Miraculously, these things that
God sent to show the children of Israel what the gods of Egypt
were like. All of those 10 plagues represent
a different God that was worshiped in Egypt. And God's not speaking
to the Egyptians. He's speaking to the children
of Israel. The Lord never speaks to the world, he speaks to his
people. And he's showing the people of God his holiness over
the false gods of the Egyptians. And God made a difference between
the Israelites and the Egyptians, and God separated them out. And
Moses and the children of Israel saw all these plagues, the last
of which was the death angel. And the Passover lamb, another
glorious picture of Christ. And then they get to the Red
Sea, and the Egyptians are hot on their heels, and the Red Sea's
in front of them, and God divides the water. And they all see the
water walled up and the dry ground made for the children of Israel.
And then the Egyptians try to follow them through that cleft in the sea and God collapses
it and drowns the Egyptians and destroys the enemies. What a
picture of what the Lord has done. Now they get to the other side and there's a rock and the children
of Israel are dying of thirst. God says to Moses, take your
rod and smite the rock. And Moses smote the rock and
water came forth out of the rock. And that too is a picture of
the justice of God. That's the rod smiting the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, causing the water of life to
flow. And that happens again. And the children of Israel moved,
and they are out of water again. And the Lord says to Moses, don't
smite the rock again. The rock's been smitten once.
Speak to the rock this time. And Moses, out of anger for the
rebellion and the children of Israel, I'm sure there was a
sense of showing his whatever, took his rod and smoked the rock
again. The rock was only smitten once.
Calvary only happened one time, one time. And all the sins of
all of God's people were put away one time by the wrath of
God's justice falling on his son. Now we need water, what
do we do? We speak to the rock. We pray
to the rock. We ask the Lord to quench our
thirst with the water of life. And after all that Moses saw,
Now Moses says, Lord, show me your glory. I said, wait a minute,
Moses. All these things that you've
seen, you haven't seen the glory of God? And God said, you see that in verse
18 of Exodus 33? And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee. The rich young ruler came to
the Lord Jesus Christ and said, good master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? And the Lord said, why callest
thou me good? There's none good but God. Do you not understand who you're
talking to? And now God says, I'm gonna cause
my goodness to pass before thee. I'm gonna cause the Lord Jesus
Christ, the goodness of God, which shall follow me all the
days of my life, to pass before thee. There's no goodness in
us. Paul said, in me, that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. All the goodness of God is in
Christ. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. I'm gonna show you my glory by
proclaiming my name. And his name is holy. God the
Father is holy. God the Son is holy. He's the
Holy One of Israel. God the Holy Spirit is holy.
This is his name. I'm gonna proclaim my name before
thee. And I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. When you see who I am and my
holiness, You will understand that salvation is completely
in my hand. You're going to see your need for me to do a work of grace
for you. And the evidence that we have
again is faith. Oh Lord, I do believe that. I
believe that you're holy. I believe there's nothing I can
do to come into thy holy presence and obligate you in any way to
save me. If you're gonna save me, it's
gonna have to be by pure mercy. It's gonna have to be by pure
grace. It's gonna have to be your way. It's gonna have to
be by the sacrifice that Christ made for me. I have nothing else. And he said, thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, look. That's what that word behold
means. Hey, look, look. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, and the spirit and the bride
say, come, look. Look who saved his people. Look who he is. Look what he's
done. Look where he is. Behold, there's a place by me
and thou shalt stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass while
my glory passes by that I will put thee in the cleft of the
rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And
I will take away my hand and thou shalt see my back part. And I put you in that place that's
near unto me, cleft of the rock, Christ. And I remove my hand. You're
gonna look and you're gonna see where I've been and what I've
done. And you're gonna hang all the
hopes of your immortal soul on my finished work of redemption.
Everything. Everything. You're gonna rest
in Christ. He's gonna be your life. He's gonna be your rock. He's holy. There is none holy as the Lord.
There is none beside thee. And there is no rock. Like our
God. Our Heavenly Father, Thank you
for the revelation that you've given us. Forgive us of our unbelief. Cause us, Lord, by your grace.
To flee to Christ, to believe on Christ, to rest all the hope
of our salvation in him. Who is holy? And who is? The Rock. Of ages. On which we
stand. Amen. Rock of ages. Cleft for me. Let my let me hide. Myself. In the. Let the water
and the blood from by wounded side which flowed. Be for sin. The double cure. saved from wrath
and make me pure. Number 126. Let's stand together. Adam, you come, please. Number
126.