Well, I'd like you to open your Bibles
with me. We're on our journey to the end
of Acts, and at the end of Acts, in chapter 28, Paul, having declared
the kingdom of God, then quotes the most often quoted Old Testament
verse in the New Testament. And I was going to read Let's
go back to verse 24. And some believed the things
which were spoken. Some believed about the kingdom
of God. Some believed Paul's testimony
concerning Jesus. Some believed the things which
were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not
among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word.
Will spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet. I love what
that word will means. It means beautifully spoke the
Holy Spirit. Finely, excellently, right, so
that there is no blame to him. He honestly spoke the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Spirit, by Isaiah, Isaiah the Prophet, unto our fathers.
And here he is quoting from Isaiah chapter 6, and it's Isaiah's
commission. Go unto these people and say,
hearing they shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye
shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed. lest they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known
therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
and that they will hear it. And when he'd said these words,
the Jews, to pardon, had great reasoning among themselves. And
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hide house and received
all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence,
with all boldness, no man forbidding him. So those words from Isaiah
are quoted in the four Gospels, and they're quoted in Acts, here,
and in Romans. And the theme of those words
that we have just read are repeated throughout the Scriptures. So
I'd like us to turn back to Isaiah chapter 6, and we'll spend most
of our time in Isaiah chapter 6 this morning. I want us to
begin this year looking at the declaration of who our God is. I want us to look, and I trust
the Lord my causes, to see the depths of the seriousness of
what it is for us to have a God who is holy. Isaiah chapter 6 is only 13 verses
so we might take time to read them all. In the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. Before we go much further I want
us to turn to John chapter 12 so we have no doubt in our minds
whatsoever whom it was that Isaiah saw. In John chapter 12 in verse
37, and we might see the context of this in terms of why Isaiah
quoted these words. But verse 37 of John chapter
12, But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet
they believed not on him. that the saying of Isaias the
prophet might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord, who hath believed
our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
You might recall that's the beginning of Isaiah chapter 53. Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes
nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should
These things said Osiris when he saw his glory and spoke of
him. So let's be in absolutely no
doubt that the scriptures are saying that Osiris saw the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you see God, no man will see
God, if you see God, you'll see God in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the year that King Osiris
died, back to Osiris chapter six, verse one. In the year that
King Osiris died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims. Each one had six wings, with
twain with two he covered his face, and with twain he covered
his feet, and with twain did he fly. And one cried unto another
and said, Holy, holy, holy! The whole earth is full of his
glory.' And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him
that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said
I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid
it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and
thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then
said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go, and tell these
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert and be healed.' Then said I,
Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities
be wasted without inhabitants. and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tent, and it shall return and
be eaten, shall be eaten, as a teal tree and as an oak, whose
substance is in them when they cast their leaves. So the holy
seed shall be the substance thereof. Isaiah is commissioned to go
and preach. People aren't going to listen to him. And yet the
Lord will have a remnant there, and I love how this passage of
scripture which is full of heaviness, the Holy Seed, the Holy Seed
shall be the substance thereof. So I trust. Which hymn are we
going to sing next, Tom? I'm sorry I didn't write down
the numbers. Number 18. Thank you. Let's sing. Isaiah was brought to worship
the King, and I trust that the Lord might cause that to be our
portion this morning. I worship the King, all glorious
above. I gratefully sing his power and
his love. Our shield and defender, the
ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. Thanks, Tom. And gratefully sing His power
and His love, Our shield and defender, The Ancient of Days. in splendor and girded with praise. O tell of His might, O sing of
His grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy's face is
chastity. Deep thunder clouds form, and
dark is his path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care,
what Tom can resign, It rains in the air. It shines in the
light. It streams from the hill. It descends to the plain. And sweetly distills in the dew
and the rain. The frail children of dust and
feeble as nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, are Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. I'm so thankful to the Lord for
each and every one of you, and I'm so thankful that he's raised
up a place where we can contemplate these things, contemplate the
character of our God, contemplate the wonder of his salvation.
And one of the things that is always so critical in our knowledge
of God is that the more we see the character of God, the true
character of God as revealed in the scriptures, the more we
will be amazed and we will esteem the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says, when I am lifted up, he'll draw all, it says to himself, You'll draw all these people
to him, but when we're drawn to him, we're drawn to a God
who is absolutely holy, is perfectly just. And I might remind you
yet again that this is the last Holy Spirit-recorded apostolic
testimony to the Jews. I'm not saying for one moment
that they weren't witnessed to by John for another 40 years,
and I'm not saying that they weren't written to by the apostles,
and I'm not saying for one moment there were any of those things,
but I'm saying that this is the last Holy Spirit-recorded apostolic
witness, personal witness to the Jewish nation. And so these
are the closing words of God to the Jews. The other thing
I want us to know, of course, is that I want us to see, as
time goes on this morning, and I trust the Lord might show it
to us, but the Jews in the Scriptures are emblematic of a world that
professes belief in God and professes worship of God and professes
relationship with God and blessings from God. and they don't know
him. They don't know him. This is salvation, says the Lord
Jesus Christ. They might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And so what a
remarkable beginning Isaiah has when he describes the sins of
the people of Israel and he says, thy sins, we read this last week,
thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. This is a remarkable
time, isn't it? God says, come, let us reason
together. Come let us reason together,
ongoing as the Lord enables me to present the character of God
as He is revealed in this book to you today, and in revealing
the character of God, your character is revealed. What a remarkably
blessed time for us to have. in his word. And may the Spirit
bless our words this morning, bless our time. And of course,
as well as this being a depiction of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's
a depiction of the glory of his salvation. And our God, I want
you to know, again, that our God never changes. There's nothing
in this creation, nothing about him, that will ever change. He
cannot change. He need not change. Nothing can
cause him to change. In fact, all of this creation
is about the exaltation of his character. All about the gathering
of church is about the exaltation of the character of our God. Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw him as he really is. He saw him as people will see
him when they leave this world. People are leaving this world
in countless multitudes day by day, and when they leave this
world, they meet this God. They meet this God. He is given the nations to his
possession. He has sovereign right of rule
over all things. So I want us to begin in Isaiah
chapter 6 verse 1, and this is a very significant beginning.
Isaiah has written five chapters of declarations of the Gospel,
declarations of the woes of God upon the people of Israel, and
again, as with all the prophets, an exhibition of their willful
rebellion against God, an exhibition of the fact that they set up
a religious system that looked as if, in many ways, it honoured
God. And God says, that he says he's
tired. He's tired of their religious
activities. He's tired of their religious
activities. But Isaiah has a special meeting
with God, and it's a special time. And if you meet with God,
there'll be a special time, and you will mark that special time.
In the year, verse one of Isaiah 6, in the year the king Uzziah
died, It's about 740 BC, so we have a pretty accurate timeline
for it. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. So I want you to turn
back with me just briefly to 2 Chronicles 26, and let's read
about Uzziah. Uzziah was one of the most esteemed
kings in all of Israel. He reigned for 52 years from
the time he was 16, so he was an old man when these events
that Isaiah is referring to. He was an old man of 68 years
of age when these things happened. His father had reigned for 29
years, his father 25 years, so together they had reigned for
over 80 years. Back in 2 Chronicles 25 verse
27 it says, Now that after the time that Amaziah did turn away
from following the Lord, They made a conspiracy against him
and they slew him, it says. And they brought him and they
buried him with his father in the city of Judah. So Uzziah
was made king. Verse 1, it says, then all the
people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made
him king in the room of his father, Amaziah. 16 years old. He was a king, a teenager and
a king. And he was the king for 51, 52
years. In verse 5 it speaks well of
Uzziah. And he sought God in the days
of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. And as
long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. Down in verse 7 it says, And
God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians that
dwelled in Ger, Baal, and the Mahums. God made him. God gave him military power and
he had an army, it says. He had an army of 307,500 men
with 2,600 chiefs of the army. In verse 16. Verse 15, he was a military engineer. He was an extraordinary man.
He's not only a military engineer, but he was a great horticulturalist
and farmer and manager of those things. And he built special
machines, it said. He made in Jerusalem, verse 15,
engines invented by cunning men. to be on the towers and bulwarks
to shoot arrows. So he made these machines that
could shoot a multitude of arrows all at the same time, and great
stones. He made these machines to throw
great stones. And his name spread far abroad,
for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. Till he was strong. Verse 16. was lifted up to his destruction. His heart was lifted up to his
destruction. For he transgressed against the
Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense
upon the altar of incense. He says, now I'm a king. I've
been a king for 50 odd years. I have reigned successfully and
God has helped me, and now I can go into the temple of God. I
can go into the temple of God, and I can burn incense. Quite
simply, Uzziah's crime against God is he presumed to be God.
in his pride that he could go into the presence of God and
worship God without the Lord Jesus Christ interceding for
him. His heart was lifted up to destruction
and he went into the temple to burn incense. Isaiah is a picture
of all sinners. He's a picture of Isaiah and
he's a picture of us, isn't he? You shall be as gods. What a
great opportunity this man had to be as God from 16 years of
age, and what extraordinary blessings he had through all of his life.
But Satan says to us, you shall be God's. You'll be master of
your own destiny. I'll determine good and evil. I'll have good and evil. I'll
have free will. I will be master. And when you meet with it in
rebellion against men, against other men, It causes us, should
I trust cause us to be humbled by the fact that that's exactly
what we are. We want to be high and lifted up. He went into the
temple to burn incense, and look what happened in verse 17. And
Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him four school
priests. Eighty-one priests went in with
him. They were valiant men. They still
opposed to this 68-year-old king and said, you dare not come into
the presence of God in anything other than the due order. Valiant
men, verse 19. Uzziah was And he had a censer in his hand
to burn incense. And while he was wroth with the
priest, the leprosy even rose up on his forehead before the
priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. God struck him with leprosy. Leprosy is, of course, in the
scriptures, a picture of sin. Verse 20, and they thrust him
out. They thrust him out hence. And
now Uzziah wants to go out. He hasted to go out, because
the Lord had smitten him. Verse 21, and Uzziah the king
was a leper until the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate
house, being a leper, for he was cut off. And I want you to
take note of that word. He was cut off. from the house
of the Lord, and Jotham his sons over the king's house, judging
the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah,
first and last, did Uzziah the prophet, the son of Amos, write.
So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his
fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the king. And
they said, he is a leper. until his death. So for Isaiah,
who was a man possibly in his thirties at this time, maybe
a little bit older, all of his life and all the prosperity of
the nation Israel was tied up under the hand of this remarkable
king who was so, so highly esteemed. And yet this man who had been
blessed of God as a sinner under the judgment
of God, a leper. And there are some really fundamental
lessons that we learn, and Isaiah will learn them as he meets the
Lord, and only a people who meet the Lord will ever heed these
lessons or ever learn them whatsoever. Isaiah's problem, wasn't it,
was pride. When his heart was lifted up,
so the pride of his heart, Obadiah says, the pride of your heart And then he was presumptuous,
wasn't he? See, evident blessings from God
should be humbling wherever there is in those who profess the name
of the Lord Jesus and profess Wherever there isn't humbling,
there ought to be trembling in the people watching on. God's
people are humbled in the presence of God, whose ire, after 52 years
of extraordinary blessings, was made to be proud. And Isaiah,
the other lesson of course, and I want us to think about all
this in light of the fact that when Paul quoted these words
of Isaiah chapter 6 to these Jewish people here, he was speaking
of God's judgment upon the nation Israel and upon those people
who claimed to worship God. but claim to worship God exactly
as Uzziah did. They claim to worship God without
going through the high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. They claim
to worship God without a blood sacrifice. They claim to worship
God without God's priest. They claim to worship God ignoring
God's prophet. Uzziah is a picture of the Jews. He's a picture of all of us.
And see, Uzziah was warned, wasn't he? He was warned by people that
loved him and respected him and cared for him. And Uzziah, when
he was warned, was angry rather than humbled. He had a hardness
of heart and his forehead, pictured that, didn't it? And the warnings
of God were unheeded. God struck him in his forehead,
struck him in his forehead with leprosy. and there was no healing
available for Isaiah. You might recall that Jeroboam
was struck with leprosy by the prophet who told him that what
he was doing up there in Israel with his calves that he'd made
to worship God, mimicking the worship of God in Jerusalem in
the temple. Jeroboam was struck with leprosy was struck with leprosy and Moses
interceded for her and she was healed. Uzziah remained a leper
to the day he died. There are some really fundamental
lessons, aren't there, in the story of Uzziah. The story of
Uzziah is critical to understanding what happened to Uzziah in that
temple. It was in that year that King
Uzziah died. I was going to learn that you
don't go into the presence of God. by just going into the presence
of God. You go into the presence of God
in and through a priest, in and through a blood sacrifice. You
go into the presence of God in the due order. That's what Uzzah,
who put his hand on the ark to restrain it from what he thought
it was doing when it might have fallen off a cart, he touched
the ark, didn't he? He wanted to lay his hands of
his own activities to the work of God and God struck him down.
You only go into God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll
only know anything of God if he has revealed it to you. You
come into his presence as he reveals himself to you, you come
to him. You can't do anything, says the
Lord Jesus Christ, without me. You can't come into the presence
of God without the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't pray a prayer
that is heard without the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't have
fellowship with God without the Lord Jesus Christ. Without me,
you can do nothing. God's people, like Isaiah, as
we'll see, are shut up to the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah was
cut off. When Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, he says, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm cut off. The solution
to being cut off is that the Lord Jesus Christ was cut off. He was cut off He saw the Lord. See, when you
see the Lord Jesus Christ, when you see God in his holiness,
God's people will be brought to beg for mercy. I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." Why did he
declare that? Verse 5, For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. The desire presumptuously came
into the presence of God. He came into the presence of
this holy God, and God struck him down. When Isaiah says, come let us
reason together, we're going to come into the presence of
God. We stand in his presence right now. And the glorious thing
about our God is that the very attributes of his character,
which will strike terror into people on the day of judgment,
the very attributes of God, his holiness and his justice and
his mercy, His absolute sovereignty over all things, the very attributes
of God are the greatest comforts of God's people. The fact that
God is holy is the greatest comfort to the children of God. God in
holiness, God in holiness slew his son. Isaiah was taught the
gospel and he went out to proclaim the gospel. And that's what we are saying,
that's what Paul was saying, wasn't he, when he spoke to those
Jews, he was declaring the kingdom of God, he was declaring this
king, he was declaring God, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, is
the Lord of hosts, high and lifted up, high and lifted up. When we see him, we'll see ourselves
as leprous. will see our righteousness as
filthy rags. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
will be precious and priceless. The Jews with pride presumed
as the religious world today presumes to come into the presence
of God to mock his character, to believe that he owes them
something because of their activities. that somehow by their so-called
legal obedience they put God under some obligation to them.
Our God is holy. I want for us to begin this year
by contemplating the holiness of our God. Behold your God. This is And when we see him, when we
see him in the preaching of the gospel, we'll see the Lord Jesus
Christ is precious. His blood is precious. His intercession
is precious. I need a priest to go into this
presence of this God with me. I need a king. I need him to
rule all things. I need him to take away from
me my desire to be a sovereign ruler of my life. I need him
to be my prophet. I need him for me to see that
my lips need cleansing. My thoughts of God are vanity. Our thoughts of God are far too
small. I love what Luther said to the
Catholic Erasmus. He says, your thoughts of God
are far too human. Your thoughts of God are far
too human. Isaiah saw in Uzziah's death
God's holiness. He saw that God is just, that
he must be just, that he's righteous, that he must punish sin. But
Isaiah wonderfully and mercifully saw that in the Lord Jesus Christ
everything has been done for him. Everything has been done
for him. We enter into the We come by him. Uzziah's sin
was to bypass the Lord Jesus Christ. The sins of the Jews
was that they thought that they could worship God and bypass
the truth and the character and the blood and the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews in Rome had spent all
these years opposing the gospel. They thought that they were worshipping
God and could come into his presence by passing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Uzziah's presumption was theirs. Uzziah's presumption is the presumption
of the religious world today. Uzziah's punishment will be theirs. See, Uzziah was made to see himself
as Uzziah was. And Isaiah's salvation mirrors
and pictures, doesn't it, the Paul's salvation, that he met
God and he was humbled in the dust. And Isaiah's salvation
and Paul's salvation is the same as the salvation of all those
who are made by the very presence of God, revealed as holy to bow,
to bow in worship to him. Isaiah was legally banished. Isaiah had an infectious disease. You bring your works into the
presence of God, and you'll be like Isaiah was. The priest came
with blood. The priest that went in there
brought in the emblems of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah presumed that he could
do it. See, Isaiah had no use for a
priest, and God cut him off. That's something of the bad news.
We might have a break and spend our time looking at the good
news of what happens. Let's pray. The Lord will grant
us the grace to meet him as Isaiah did and