been a blessing to my heart.
I'm grateful for the year and look forward to the new one.
Look at Isaiah 6 again for a little while. This is a passage of scripture
that I've wanted to preach on for
some time. I've heard it preached on at least a couple of times.
It's one of those glorious passages of scripture that No preacher
can go long, I guess, without preaching on. It's just, if the
Lord is going to say something about my iniquity being taken
away, we're going to have to look into that at some point,
don't you think? And, you know, I don't know. I think I speak
for you when I say this. I want to see the Lord, don't
you? Isaiah saw the Lord. Does that interest you at all? He saw the Lord. In the year
King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord. And Uzziah's death is not
mentioned here casually or without design. It was in the death of
King Uzziah that the Lord began to reveal himself to Isaiah.
I want you to turn with me into the book of 2 Chronicles, chapter
26, and we'll see that. The account of Uzziah as king
can be read in that chapter. I'll summarize some. for time's
sake, he was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he was
a great king. He was a wise king, he was capable
in battle, and best of all, it says he did that which was right
in the sight of God. But the problem comes as we pick
up the narrative in verse 14. We'll find out how King Uzziah
died, beginning with verse 14. And Uzziah prepared for them
throughout all the host shields and spears and helmets and have
urchins and bows and slings to cast stones, and he made in Jerusalem
engines invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon
the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and break stones withal. And
his name spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped till
he was strong." He was a mighty, wise, inventive, and strong leader. But verse 16, when he was strong.
his heart was lifted up to his destruction. But Solomon said,
What pride goeth before what? And he did fall, didn't he? He
went into the temple of the Lord, it says in verse 16, to burn
incense upon the altar of incense. Well, that seems like a good
thing to do. Going to church is a good thing, isn't it? Worshipping
the Lord. There's worship, what men call
worship, and then there's worship. And we're going to find out the
difference by God's grace this morning. And Azariah the priest
went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord
that were valiant men. He got their attention. Then
the eighty men, eighty-one men, went after him and said, Hold
on now, Uzziah. And they withstood Uzziah the
king and said unto him, It pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah the king.
has all authority, and we're supposed to obey the king, aren't
we, until he crosses God, until he is against God, and then we
withstand the king, won't we? We withstand whoever flies in
the face of God as he's revealed in Christ, and that's what Uzziah
did here. They withstood him, and they
said this, it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense
unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated
to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for
thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honor from
the Lord." Then Uzziah was wroth and had a censer in his hand
to burn incense, and while he was wroth with the priests, the
leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house
of the Lord from beside the incense altar. And as arrived the chief
priests, and all the priests looked upon him, and behold,
he was leprous in his forehead. And they thrust him out from
thence, yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had
smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper
unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being
a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And Jotham
his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land. Well, isn't it a good thing to
go into God's presence? Is that what you've done? You've
come here to meet in this place before the Lord this morning?
That's a good thing, isn't it? Are you here in Christ? Or did
you come here with your goodness and your works before God? Did
you come here to do something for the Lord? That's what Uzziah
was going to do. And God turned him into a leper.
The right way is for the consecrated priest who represents us before
the Lord. to present himself before the
Lord, and we look to him. We look to our priest and find
acceptance with God alone in him. Not our doing something
for God, but what our priest did for God. And that's what
Uzziah usurped. He did an end run on that. You
can't do that. He that cometh in any other way
is a thief and a robber, Christ said. What was Uzziah saying? Beside the obvious disobedience
to God's order in the priesthood, there is a reason for God's order
and instructions regarding the temple that Uzziah entered. The
things in the temple, and the people who ministered in and
around the temple, and what they were to do in the ministration
of the temple, and how they were to do it, all were designed and
ordained of God to set forth Christ. Christ is our tabernacle. Christ is our high priest. Christ
is our sin offering. He's all the things represented
by this temple and the business of the temple and those who did
the business of the temple. What Uzziah did was an attempt
to bypass Christ as the priest who ministers as mediator between
God and the people. You don't want anything to do
with a holy God without a mediator. And that's what Uzziah did. He
went into the presence of God without a mediator. Those priests
said it pertains not to you, Oziah, to do that, because God
cannot be approached without a mediator, a high priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was wroth when they told him
that. It made him mad. You mean I can't
go into the presence of God? I'm not good enough? He was wroth
like Cain was wroth, that God would not accept his bloodless
offering. What do you mean God won't accept
me? I've joined the church, I've made my decision for Jesus, I've
paid my tithes, I've been baptized. What do you mean God won't accept
me? That's exactly what I mean. God won't have anything to do
with you except in wrath apart from your substitute. Our merits or lack thereof make
us unworthy to enter his presence and we must rest and trust in
Christ who enters the presence of God as our representative
that's what Uzziah despised right there he must enter on our behalf
as these earthly priests performed and ministered in the temple
on behalf of the Israelites the people of God in an earthly sense
or you'll die in your sins you will die in your sins it says
that Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death and you'll
be in your sins until the day you die, and you'll die in your
sins if you despise the Lord Jesus Christ and his mediatorship,
his work, and his representation before God. We trust him. We rest in him. We own him as
our representative and high priest. And this is key to God showing
himself to you. It was in the year that that
happened that Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. And it'll be when Christ
is exalted in your eyes that you can say the same thing. God
will exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, His office, His person, His work,
when He reveals Himself to you. Christ won't any longer be your
fire escape from hell, waiting over in the corner for somebody
to feel sorry for Him and make a decision for Him. You'll see
Him as Isaiah saw. And who was it that Isaiah saw,
after all? How can it be said that Isaiah
saw the Lord? John said in 118, No man hath
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is
in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared it. No man, no
human, no mortal has ever seen the completely unveiled person
of God. Nor could we without being destroyed. He told Moses, Moses said, show
me your glory. And God said, if I do, it'll
kill you. It'll kill you. But he put him
in the cleft of the rock and standing in the cleft of the
rock, put his feet upon a rock. And from there he could see the
glory of God. And that's where Isaiah saw God
in the face of Jesus Christ. You think I'm making that up,
don't you? It's Christ who is God with us. Look, turn with
me to John 12, and I'll show you that that's right. He saw
Christ on the throne, is who he saw. And I'm fixing to prove
it to you. John 12, 36. John said, while
you have light, believe in the light. The Lord spoke these words. Believe in the light that you
may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus and
departed, and it had himself from them. But though he had
done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on
him. Now who's this passage talking
about? They're talking about Jesus Christ. And it goes on
to say that the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed thy report? And to whom
hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 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 heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory." Whose glory? Who are we talking about? Jesus
Christ. When he saw his glory and spake
of him. He prophesied of the one and
that prophecy concerning him is being fulfilled right there
in their presence. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ
he saw when he looked at that throne. and said he is high and
lifted up, his train fills the temple, and the whole earth is
full of his glory, Jesus of Nazareth. So you see how what happened
to Uzziah and what Isaiah saw are the same thing, they are
part of the same experience. It was Christ that was dishonored
in what Uzziah did, the bypassing of the high priest and God's
way of acceptance for sinners with him. through a mediator,
through a representative, through a substitute, and that offering
that that substitute has to offer. Uzziah bypassed that and despised
that. And what Isaiah saw was the same
thing. He saw Christ high and lifted
up as the way to God, the way, the truth, the life. And that's
who he saw. In Uzziah's death and in the
heavenly vision of the throne, Isaiah saw the sovereign Christ
who's not to be trifled with, He saw Christ Jesus high and
lifted up. You see, the Lord Jesus has always
been and has never ceased to be the sovereign King of glory. John 1.1, John said, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the same was in the beginning
with God, and everything was made by him. Who was it that
was speaking when God said, Let us make man in our image? That
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. The psalmist spoke of Him when
he said in verse 7 of 24, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and
be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory
will come in. Who is this King of Glory? He's
the Lord of hosts, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in
battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye
everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is
this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Even when Christ humbled himself
and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, he was the sovereign
King of glory then. Did you know that? He didn't
cease to be the King of glory. When he spoke as a man, the elements
obeyed him like a trained animal. They feared exceedingly, and
they said to one another, What manner of man is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey him? We know what manner of man he
is, don't we? He is the King of Glory. He is
the high and lifted up Sovereign that Isaiah saw in chapter 6. In Matthew 17, when he The Lord
briefly lifted the veil of his humanity. And it says in verse
2 of chapter 17 of Matthew that Christ was transfigured before
them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was
white as the light. And when Paul met him on the
Damascus road, he saw him that way, didn't he? He was given
account of his experience to King Agrippa, and he said, I
saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun.
I've never seen anything that outshined the sun. Not physically,
but the face of Jesus Christ shining round about me and them
which journeyed with me and when we were all fallen to the earth.
What did you do, Saul? I fell to the earth. I heard
a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? It's hard for thee to kick against
the goads." And I said, who are you, Lord? Who are you? And he said, I'm Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. Saul had authority from who he
thought was in authority to go persecute this Jesus of Nazareth. And then he met the king on his
way, didn't he? He met the king. Even in the
hour of Christ's betrayal, and his submission into the hands
of wicked men, he was in perfect sovereign authority and control. Turn with me to John 18 and verse
3. We're talking about the king
this morning. They said, where is he that's born the king? He was a king when he was born.
He was the king before he was born. And he's the king today. He was the king even in the hour
of his betrayal. John 18.3, Judas, then having
received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus,
therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went
forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? And they answered him,
Jesus of Nazareth. And he saith unto them, I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. And as soon as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground." That's
not a mere man speaking. That's the Lord of glory. And
then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. And Jesus answered, I have told
you that I am. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. And they did, didn't they? Who's
calling the shots here? Who's calling the shots? That the saying might be fulfilled
which he spake, of them which thou gavest me, I've lost none. While he was by his own design
in the hands of men, men were still in his to do with them
as he would. Even when Christ was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross, that one thief recognized
him, didn't he? And he said, Lord, you remember
me when you come into your kingdom. You're a king, and you're going
to the throne, and when you do, don't forgive me. Don't forget. And when we see
the little plastic dolls and the nativity scenes around the
city this time of the year, let's try to remember who he really
is. Who it is we're dealing with. This is interesting to me, and
I know it is to you. I want to hear what you, the
people of God, have to say about the Lord. I rejoice to hear you
speak about him, because I know that you are jealous for his
glory, and I know that it is by the lips of chosen, gifted
men that God has ordained that his gospel be preached, and I
love to hear that. But here in our text we have
the testimony of those who dwell in his very presence continually,
and those who are perfect without sin. and holy before him, who
are already perfect in the sense that you and I are not. And these
creatures have three words to describe this key. Holy, holy,
holy. What is holy? Have you ever thought
about that? What does holy mean? I've explained
to you before how we know some things about God by reversing
it, by putting a negative at the beginning of it, like immutable.
God's immutable. We know what mutability is because
we're mutable. We change constantly. We're fickle. We're hot one day, cold the next,
and when you put a negative in front of that It gives you some
idea of God's character, doesn't it? Because He's not that way.
He said, I'm the Lord. I change dots. He's immutable. But what about holy? How do you
get a grip on that? I don't know how to describe
it to you except in scripture language. Holy is that even the
angels are not pure in His sight. Even they have to cover their
faces in his overwhelming presence. Does that help at all? Holy is
John saying in the book of Revelation, when I saw him, I fell at his
feet as dead. Holy is Peter in that little
boat with him, getting a glimpse of his majesty and power and
saying, That's holy. Does that help at
all? Holy is Job saying, I've heard
of you before, but now I've seen you. Mine eye seeth thee, and
I abhor myself. Holy is God not sparing his only
begotten well-beloved son when he became what I am. Holy is when that loud voice
cried from the cross, that earth-shattering cry, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And the answer, the awful answer is this, holy,
holy, holy. Well, when the Lord, When you
see the Lord as Isaiah saw Him, and as Job did, and as John did,
what was your reaction? Have you seen Him by faith? Have
you seen the Lord by faith? I don't know if I've seen Him
to the extent that Isaiah saw Him, to the extent that John did.
I don't know about that. But I know this, when I saw Him,
I saw Him where they saw Him. Didn't you? And when he revealed
himself to me, he revealed himself the same way that he revealed
himself to them. I was, I was going to say forced, and
that's right, but forced with my full consent to say he's high
and lifted up. High and lifted up. Is that how
you saw it? Isaiah, the angels had three
words to describe God, and they were all the same word. You reckon
he had reference there to the three persons of the Godhead?
The Father is holy, the Son is holy, and the Spirit of God is
holy. He is the thrice holy God. And when Isaiah saw Him who was
described by those three words, Isaiah had two words to describe
himself. Undone and unclean. Have you seen him? Has he revealed
himself to you? And if he did, would you describe
yourself that way? We saw the same Lord, didn't
we? I don't know in what sense and with what intensity, with
what vividness, to what degree Isaiah saw it, but I've seen
the same God, haven't you? By God's grace, God who caused
the light to shine out of darkness, shined in my black, wicked, sinful
heart. And he gave the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the same face that Isaiah
looked into when he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up,
the face of Jesus Have you seen him? I have. I'm honest with you. I've seen
the same one he talked about. And I would describe myself the
same way. Unclean. I'm undone and he said
I'm undone because I'm unclean. That's why I'm cut off. The word
there undone means cut off. I'm cut off. I'm cut off from
God. Your sins have separated between
you and your God. And in and of myself I am cut
off. I'm even as others who have no
hope in and of myself. I'm cut off and I'm cut off because
I'm polluted. That's the word there, unclean.
I'm polluted before God. And if we ever see him as he
is, we'll get a glimpse of ourselves as we are. That's why Job hated
himself. He didn't just wake up one day
and decide, I just don't like myself. You know, he had bad
self-esteem. He saw God and he said, I hate
myself. And John fell at his feet as
a dead man when he saw him. As he is. And when we do, we
shall as well. We'll quit thinking those high
thoughts of ourselves. We'll fall at his feet and we'll
say I'm cut off. Unless he has mercy, I'm done
for. I'm done for. And then look at verse 6. There's
just one remedy here. There's a holy God and there's
a wretched, vile, cut off, polluted sinner. And there's one remedy. There's one hope. There's one
plea. One glimmer of hope here. Verse 6. 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. Where did he get it? From the place where the blood
was shed. That's where it came from. And he applied it to me. He said,
I'm a man of unclean lips. And we know that out of the heart
proceedeth. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. And so we know where the uncleanness
comes from. Our lips are unclean. because
our heart is unclean, and he touched us with that coal from
off the altar, and he said, lo, this hath touched thy lips, and
your iniquity is taken away. You're cut off, but not in Christ. You're undone, you're polluted,
but that pollution is done away with, because the sacrifice is
applied to you. If this holy God is going to
have anything to do with me and you this morning as we sit here,
our sin has got to be purged. You know what the word purged
means there? To make atonement for. How does God make atonement for
our pollution? The altar. He does it on the
altar. Who is our altar? Christ who
was represented in that altar where that high priest took that
animal and shed its precious blood Shed the life force of
that animal upon that altar and said this is my hope before God
That the penalty of my sin, which is death That penalty is executed
upon a substitute There's my hope right there There's my hope. Where did that coal come from?
From off the altar where the sacrifice was slain. And Isaiah
was shown who Christ is. He saw him on the throne, didn't
he? He's the sovereign king of glory. And he was shown something
else. He was shown what he did for
sinners. The coal was taken off of the altar where the blood
was shed. And it was applied to Isaiah.
And the angel said, your sin Is that what happened to you?
Do you know anything about that? Have you seen the same one Isaiah
saw? God gives varying degrees of
faith, but there is one object of faith. If you saw anybody
else besides the one Isaiah saw, you haven't seen the Lord. But
if you saw him, however dimly, however weakly, However pitiful
your grasp, if you have laid hold of the same one, the one
who is on a throne and whose blood was shed on an altar, that
sin and iniquity might be purged, then you have seen the Lord.
And the same thing can be said of you. Thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin is purged. That is what we are here to celebrate.
That's what we celebrate when the elements are put on the table
and we take the bread and drink the wine. We say, the Lord, we
show him for his death until he comes. The Lord's body was
broken for me and his blood was shed for me on that altar. He's
the altar. He's the high priest. He's the
sacrifice. And he's my hope. And he was
Isaiah. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he
could say, what we sing sometimes, my sins are gone. Praise God,
my sins are gone. They are underneath the blood
of the Christ of Calvary, as far removed as darkness is from
dawn. In the sea of God's forgetfulness,
that's good enough for me. How about you? Praise God, my
sins are gone. Lord, thank you for this glorious
word. Your iniquity is taken away,
and your sin is purged. And we know from the writings
of this same prophet in what manner this is so, because the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord took all
the sin of we his people, his sheep, His saints, His elect,
and laid them upon the Son of God. He became what we are, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Help us to get
a glimpse of that, Lord. We know these things are true,
but have we, like Isaiah, have we seen the Lord? Ah, give us
a glimpse of Him high and lifted up. and him in his sin atoning
work for us, and him reigning forever as our mediator and high
priest, with somewhat to offer his own precious blood on our
behalf. What rest! What comfort! Thank you, Lord,
for this glorious gospel. And give us rest, Lord, cause
us not to lean on the arm of the flesh. but to ever see him
and look to him and rest in him. Thank you for all the blessings
of this past year, Lord. How would we ever name them?
You've been so gracious to us in blessing us and revealing
yourself to us and edifying us and just blessing us with one
another and with the gospel of your grace. We pray, Lord, that
you'd continue to be with us. For how else are we different
than they that go down into the pit, but that you're with us?
Your grace is upon us. Your hand is with us. Your strength,
your guidance, you constantly increasing our faith and giving
us the peace that we have in Christ and causing us to look
nowhere else, keeping us in the fold. Thank you for all that
you've done for us, Lord. all that you are to us in your
son. Use us for his glory. In his precious name we pray. Amen.