So if everyone would turn with
me, turn with me to Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, and I want to read
the first seven verses. I don't know about you all, but
I don't know where Joni is, so when Joe brought up that Joni
passage, I had to ask Paul, where's Joni at? 916. Isaiah 6. In the year the king Uzziah 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 he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 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. 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 hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged." We read here in the first verse
a statement that this was the year that King Uzziah died. We
read that King Uzziah followed the Lord when he was young, but
when he was older, it says in 2 Chronicles 26.15, it says it
this way, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong, but
when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. King Uzziah had everything going
for him, so to speak. When he was following the Lord,
God made him to prosper. But then pride came in. We know
about this pride, don't we? Even today, we know this pride,
what it's like. Pride came in that heart he had
and it hardened against God. He then began to think he could
do as it pleased him and not as it pleased God. He took it
upon himself to go into the temple of the Lord and offer incense
upon the altar of incense. All these pictured Jesus Christ. King Uzziah was not a son of
Aaron, a priest. These priests were to do this.
This pictured the Lord of glory doing this and King Uzziah thought
he could add to God's work. This was done when he was strong. That's what it says in 2 Chronicles. He was full of pride. What do
we read in Scripture in 2 Corinthians 12.10? Therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. Strong in the Lord, that is the
place I want to be. I want my strength to come from
him and not from myself. When we are strong in ourselves,
then pride will begin to show itself. Pride is already there. It will just begin to come out
on us when we are strong in ourselves. So let's look at the following
today. This all comes from this passage. I'm just going to kind
of go through it. What do we see in the death of the king?
And what does that cause us to recognize? In recognizing these
things, what do we think about ourselves and the final result
of this? So what do we see in the death
of the king? We could see this as the Lord of glory dying and
then being raised up. Him dying the death that made
him to be just like me, who is full of pride. He was made the
very thing I am, sin. And it's certainly okay to look
at it this way. But what I see here is that once
that old man, that prideful old man is done away with, we will
see things that we could not see before. Uzziah means my strength
is Jehovah. I find that quite telling seeing
what we read about King Uzziah in Chronicles. Here is a man
who before he was strong was blessed by God. But when he was
strong, he was filled with pride and the judgment of God came
down on him and filled him with leprosy, it says, until the day
he died. This old man had to be dealt
with and it could not be us to deal with it. We can look at
King Uzziah and see that when we are strong, pride will enter
in. But as I think this picture's here, I think God, this prideful
old man, was crucified with Jesus Christ. We read it last week,
I believe it was, Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. So that old man, and
scripture puts it this way, not me, this old man, that the old
man was crucified with Christ. The reason this was done was
to destroy this body of sin, and we should not serve sin is
what it says. That's exactly what it says.
But Paul also says again in Romans 7-4, wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. We are become dead to the law,
just as he said previously in Romans 6-6, to destroy sin and
that we should not serve sin. In him doing this it will allow,
and we know it is all by grace, but it will allow us to bring
forth fruit unto God. What is that fruit? Believing
God and giving him all the glory. But Jesus Christ is our strength
and he had to be the one who did all of this. The old man
was crucified with Christ because we are told it was by God himself
in his words. But we still have this old man
with us, even today. He was crucified with Christ,
but he has not been fully put away from us. Put away from before
God, but not from before us. I know this is so because we
are told to put him off. Ephesians 4, 22 and 23, we read,
that ye put off concerning the formal conversation the old man,
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind. So believers still have this
old man and we are to put him off so he still exists. When
it comes to this holy just law, I am dead to the law that I might
serve him. But not only do I see this as
talking about what Christ did on that tree, and that is the
base or the crux for everything else that he does or that is
done to us. In time, in God's own time, he
will come to those whom he died and crucified, that old man with
him, and he will come and conquer them by his gospel. He will conquer
them and let them know to put off that old man. Second Corinthians
10, four, we read, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Jesus Christ will give you life and he will send you his gospel.
And that gospel sword will cut through everything and pull down
your citadel into ruins. And he will come in and reign
in that new heart he has given. He will abase you if you're one
of his. That pride that reeks with every
stone on the citadel, he will do this in his own good time.
When he does this, you will begin to see some things. You see that
he is mighty and that it is he that has died for you and for
all those he loved. You will see that old man was
crucified with him, that prideful old man, and has come to you
and abased you so that you now bow down to him as your reigning
king. But it will cause you to see
something once you know who it is that had to die for you. You
will see Him high and lifted up. So what does that cause us to
recognize? This killing of me done by our
Lord, the end of it, leaves us only seeing one person. We see
the Lord where He now sits on His throne. And we read in Mark
14, 61 and 62, we read, But he held his peace, and this is when
he was getting close to the time when he was going to be crucified,
but he held his peace, this Christ. He held his peace and answered
nothing. Again, the high priest asked him and said unto him,
Art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed? And Jesus said,
I am. And ye shall see the son of man
sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds
of heaven. As has been said before, all
will see this one day. But there are some who see that
he has always reigned on the throne, but that he specifically
went to this throne after he completed the work the Father
gave him to do. We read in Ephesians 1, 19 and
20, and what is this exceeding greatness of His power to usward
who believe according to the working of His mighty power,
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. There are many more passages
that can be used to show that Jesus Christ sits on the throne.
But I think we can see that our Lord, the Lord of glory, now
sits on His throne. He is high and lifted up. He
is high above all things. He is high and lifted up because
He is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. It was
God that came down and took care of the sin debt of His people.
God himself had to come down and take care of that which he
required. No one else could do such a thing.
This is where we see him high and lifted up. High and lifted
up on that tree to be made sin for us. But then high and lifted
up in heaven, approved of God the Father. But then we read
his train filled the temple. And when I read this, it kind
of reminds me of in the book of Ruth, where they were out
in the field and she got Boaz, she got under his skirt. Being under his skirt is a sign
that he owned her and she was his. His train filling the temple,
his skirt covering the temple. Anything that is holy, anything
that is righteous is so because of what Christ has done. If his
skirt covers you, then you are a sanctified one. One meet for
the master's use, made so by him. But in him, and always in
him, he has covered those whom he loved and covered all things
pertaining to the temple of God. If He does not cover you, then
you are open and naked before God. But if you see this, you
will begin to recognize some other things. So what do we think about ourselves?
Now, I believe these seraphims to be God's people. I believe
that's what it's indicating. But if someone knows better,
I'm willing to listen to that because I'm not very real sure
on this. It says here these were seraphims,
and the word there for seraphims means burning or poisonous. Moses
was told to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole. So I believe
this to be God's people. It does seem to be some kind
of vision here in Isaiah, although it does not use those words.
It would seem to indicate that Isaiah has some kind of vision
here to me though. This is one thing I can say about
this verse, though, for sure. Whatever seraphims are, they
for sure do not want the Lord of glory, who is high and lifted
up and His train fills the temple, to see any part of them. So I
take from this that we will stop with trying to show ourselves.
It will no longer be about what we want or our will. We cover
our faces. I think this is put here to show
us when God brings us to that place where we see him high and
lifted up, we begin to want to cover up our will, our face,
and what we want. We begin to recognize that what
we want and what our will is is poisonous and it will only
lead to our destruction. What else does it say? They covered
their feet. Those who Jesus Christ loves,
when they see Jesus Christ for who He is, they begin to cover
their feet. I do believe that what we see
here said to be feet covered symbolizes a walk or a work,
as I see it in this passage. We do not want this God to look
at our walk, to look at our will, but we want to give Him all the
honor and glory. What do we read in the New Testament
when Christ was going to wash the disciples' feet? Just to
show what the feet mean as we talk about a man or woman's walk.
Let's turn there to John 13. John 13. John 13, verses 6 through
10. Then cometh he to Simon Peter,
and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus
answered and said unto him, what I do thou knowest not now, but
thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, thou shalt
never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash
thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said
to him he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet But
is clean every wit and ye are clean, but not all We need washed daily by Jesus
Christ in our walk Because we have this old man. He must not
us, but he must wash our feet and Jesus Christ comes and breaks
down the walls of our citadel and he ascends to the throne
of our heart that he has given us. But as we go through this
life, those walls will try to erect themselves back. Because
we have this old man and he will do what he can to not have this
man reign over him. Those walls will begin to come
back and have to continually be knocked down. But Jesus Christ,
through his gospel, will crush those walls over and over and
over again. We do not want him to see our
walk or our feet. We know that if he were to look
upon our walk or work, we would be forever consumed by this thrice
holy God. We want to be hid in his works
of righteousness, which he has done on our behalf as our substitute. When we see all these things,
when we know Him for who He is, when we see Him as holy, holy,
holy, we begin to know some other things. And this leads me to
the final results of all this. Then said I, what does Isaiah
say? If what comes next is not the
kind of thought you have when coming to know Jesus Christ,
then I'm afraid the Jesus you know is another Jesus. What did Isaiah say? Woe is me. I'm in trouble. I'm undone. That is, my mouth
is shut up for anything that I might have to say on my behalf. I am about to be cut down should
my lips utter one more word in my defense." What does he go
on to say? Because I am a man of unclean
lips. Isaiah knows that what comes
out of his Adamic heart comes out of his lips. He may have
not known these things in detail as we know them, but then again,
he may have known more than I know about the matter. Who am I to
say? But he knows just as our Lord
told us, Matthew 15, 18, but those things which proceed out
of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the
man. He knows, and that is Isaiah
knows, that if he speaks on his behalf, there will be nothing
but defilement that will come out. Not only that, but he knows
that there is no one else to help where he's at. because where
he dwells are nothing but those who have these same unclean lips. This all comes, all this knowledge,
if you will, comes by seeing the King, the Lord of hosts.
Verse five, we read, 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. What does God do for those who
see Him as Lord and themselves as woe and unclean? He sends
His gospel through His messenger and by His Spirit giving us the
gospel. He puts live coal to their lips.
But this is where we see that God uses the gospel to cleanse
us daily. Ephesians 5 26 we read that he
might sanctify and cleanse us cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word This coal comes from the altar that place where
all of this has taken place That you know that brought the Lord
of hosts to where he is high and lifted up and This coal is
the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. And with this
coal, we are enabled to proclaim that which comes from the altar.
That which comes from that work done by this one who is holy,
holy, holy. And he has done all the work.
Being touched by the gospel, by his spirit, we now want to
go share it with others. We see that in verse eight, verse
eight. 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. What do we conclude from all
this? What do we see in all this? We are, as we are born in Adam,
full of pride and strong in ourselves. He had to die. him taking that
old man with him to the grave, being made a curse and sin for
his people. He was high and lifted up where
he sits on his throne, making intercession for his people.
Anyone who wants to make an accusation against his people, he is there
to tell them, my train fills the temple. They are all in me
and I in them. There is no accusation against
them. They are righteous, even as I
am righteous. He will teach them who they are.
They will come to know that in no way do they want their will
or their way to be known of God. They will be taught of God, that
they do not want their works or their way of life to be seen
by God, because there is nothing but destruction in that. They
will come to know exactly what they are. This all because they
have seen him for who he is. We would not know ourselves had
he not allowed us to see him for who he is and what he has
done. When we come to see this, we will not be coming chewing
our bubble gum and blowing and popping bubbles. We will come
with our head bowed down to the ground and saying, woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips. Job
says it this way in Job 9 verses 30 through 33, we read, if I
wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean,
yet shall thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall
abhor me. For he is not a man as I am that
I should answer him and we should come together in judgment. Neither
is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon
us both. But finally, Job, finally by
God's own teaching and God's own comfort, came to know and
see things just as Isaiah has here. In Job 42, five and six,
we read, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but
now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes. He come to know that there is
a daysman, If Jesus Christ died for you, you will come to know
this as well. He and only he could do such
a thing, who is Jesus Christ, when I say he. Jesus Christ is
God, so God had to die for our unclean lips, our unclean hearts,
our unclean hands, and our unclean feet. In seeing Christ and what
he is, he teaches us about who we are in knowing him. and we
will ever cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory, amen. Thank you, dear Lord, for allowing
us to be here once again, dear Lord, and hear words of your
son, dear Lord. Apply these words to our heart,
dear Lord. If we only hear someone up here
speaking, You don't do your work by your spirit, dear Lord. We
won't learn anything, dear Lord. But cause us to learn and see
you, dear Lord. Be with Walter as he comes up,
and be with those as we've talked about earlier, dear Lord. I can't
remember all their names now, but dear Lord, be with those
that we know that we are close to. Comfort them, dear Lord. And mainly, dear Lord, in the
knowledge of your Son, dear Lord. May it be that, you know, You
will comfort them knowing him and all these things we ask in
Christ's name, amen.