Good evening, everybody. If you would, turn over to 2
Chronicles 26. This is not our text for tonight,
but by way of introduction, I want to bring to the forefront of
your mind the story of an old Judean king. His name's Uzziah. You guys probably already know
the story, but we're going to look at it tonight. We're not going
to read this whole chapter. But I'll give you a little bit
of a back story on Uzziah. Uzziah was the 10th king after
David. So David, Solomon, so on and
so forth, till you get all the way down to Uzziah. Uzziah was
16 years old when he came to power. Can you imagine that? 16 years old, I could barely
keep a part-time job, go to school, complete the basic functions
of life. This man ruled over an entire kingdom. Scriptures
have some good things to say about this man. One thing they
said is he loved husbandry. Which means he was a man of agriculture.
Loved the soil. I mean, he set up agricultural
prospects for Israel so that the people could eat. That's
a good king. Provides for his people. That's good. Said he
set up these military outposts, these defenses, these garrisons.
He had these cunning men develop these weapons of war so that
his people were defensed. So they could ward off their
enemies. That's a good king. That's a good king. That's what
a good king's supposed to do. And he had some very strong recommendations.
Look down at verse 4, 2 Chronicles 26. Speaking of Uzziah, it says,
and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according
that all that his father Amaziah did. That's a strong recommendation,
isn't it? He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord. Go on reading in verse 5. 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. That's a very strong recommendation.
It looks like the Lord's hand is upon this man. Look down at
verse 15. And he made in Jerusalem engines
invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks
to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far
abroad, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. He
was marvelously helped. That's a strong recommendation.
The Lord's hand appears to be very strong on this man. Something
happened. It happened according to the
purpose and the will of God, and it was all Uzziah's fault. Read on verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart
was lifted up unto 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. And Azariah the priest went in
after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were
valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto
him, 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 God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his
hand to burn incense. Remember that. 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 Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked
upon him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead. And
they thrust him out of the vents. 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." It's a hard lesson to learn, isn't
it? What was Uzziah's chief sin? He denied the very holiness of
God. Uzziah said, I'm able, me all by myself, I can walk into
the presence of God, in all his holiness, without a priest, without
a mediator, without an intercessor, I can waltz into the presence
of the holy God, and I can offer something that comes from mine
own hand. From my own hand, and the Lord's gonna find that acceptable.
That's salvation by works in its simplest form. A sinful man
coming to the presence of a holy God and offering something that
comes from him, him thinking that the Lord would find that
acceptable. He denied the holiness of God. He bypassed the priest.
No doubt when Uzziah is tearing out of that temple and he sees
the leprosy rising up out of his skin, he saw himself as he
had never seen himself before, as a sinner. unclean. What's the point? The point is
that you and I are going to have to be brought to this exact same
place. Before the Lord will have a word
of mercy or pardon for any of us, we're going to be had to
made to see that we are unclean. We are sin sick from the top
of our head to the sole of our foot and everywhere in between,
most especially the heart. We have to have it revealed to
us that God is holy, that he is absolutely unapproachable
without a priest, without the great high priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have to be made to see that nothing that comes from
us, God will accept. How does a man get to that point?
How does that man get to that point? The Lord has to reveal
himself to that man. The Lord has to reveal Himself,
who He truly is, to that man. And in the light of who God is,
that man sees himself for who he is, and he cries out for mercy.
Somebody says, prove that to me. Turn to your text in Isaiah
chapter 6. We're gonna take the opportunity
just to read the first seven verses. This is gonna be our
text for this evening. Isaiah chapter six and verse
one. Isaiah says, 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. 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
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'm
undone, because I'm 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 tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is
taken away, and thy sin purged." Now in the first verse here,
Isaiah says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also
The Lord. A little back story here. Isaiah
was a prophet in the days of Uzziah. He prophesied unto Uzziah,
but there's more to the story. Isaiah actually held a very special
place in Uzziah's court, and they were special to each other.
They were actually kinsmen. They were related, distant cousins as I
understand it. And no doubt Isaiah loved his king very much. The
scriptures record that Isaiah wrote down everything Uzziah
ever did. And no doubt when this thing
happened with Uzziah, Isaiah was very distraught. and very
sorrowful, he's down in the dumps. His king is dead through this
horrible transgression, and he's in a terrible place. But in the
same time, when he reaches this terrible point, the Lord is pleased
in his mercy to give Isaiah a very special revelation of who God
is. Now, my question to you and me
tonight is this. Have I seen the Lord? Have I been given a revelation
of who God is? That's my question for us tonight. Now we can know. We're gonna
look at what Isaiah saw here. We're gonna look at the Lord
he saw in this vision. And if we know the Lord, if he
has revealed himself unto us, our vision of the Lord is gonna
be the same as Isaiah's. And you know what? If we know
the Lord, if he's revealed himself unto us, you know what that means?
That means He knows us, and He knew us long before we ever knew
Him. So start here. We're going to
spend a lot of time in verse 1, and we'll breeze through the
rest of it. In verse 1, it says, In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Now, we have to
stop there for a second. Who did He see? Who was it that
He saw? It was Jesus Christ. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. No man can look upon the Father
and live. You remember Moses, when he's speaking with God,
said, Lord, show me your glory. The Lord said, I'll make all
my goodness pass before you, and I'll proclaim my name. But
you can't look upon my face. No man can look upon God, essentially,
and live. The Spirit, He's just that. He's
a Spirit, whatever that means. Invisible. And He speaks not
of Himself. The only person we ever see, and will ever see,
of God is this man, Jesus Christ. And He is going to be our topic
here tonight. And let Him be our topic till the end of our
days. Jesus Christ is who he saw. How did he see him? In the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting." Sitting. Why is he sitting? Because the
work that his father gave him to do is complete. Now, turn if you would to Hebrews
chapter 10. Andy read it, but I want to look
at it again. Hebrews chapter 10, and look
at verse 11. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. Now, these Levitical priests,
Levitical priesthood, if you were a Jew, You're a man who
was born in Israel, and you want to make an offering unto the
Lord, you had to go to a priest. You couldn't offer it yourself.
The priest had to offer for you. They're a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the type of the great high priest, the great high priest
that can waltz into the presence of the Holy God, and he can find
acceptance with God, and we're in him. And when he goes to the
Father, we go in him, and we find acceptance with him. These
Levitical priests, they were just types of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the offering they offered was a type of Christ
as well. These men would slay that animal. quarter it up, put
it on the altar, burn it with fire. It was just a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his shed blood and the offering of his
body and his blood for the sins of his people. They were just
types. But these men stood daily. In the temple, there were many
pieces of furniture, but there was no chair. There was no chair because
these men could not sit down because their work was never
done, because these sacrifices and these priests could never
put away any sin. It was one sacrifice for themself.
They'd have to offer for their self and for their own sins and
then offer for the people. And then it was a wave offering.
There was another offering and another sacrifice. Their work
was never done because those sacrifices and those priests
could never put away sins. But look at verse 12. But this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
what'd he do? he sat down on the right hand
of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." He sits because his work is done. And that means that every member
of the elect, those whose sins he bore in his body on that tree
and bled and died for, their sins are put away. and the work
is done, it is accomplished, and there is nothing left to
do. He sits. And if you ever see
him this way, you see him, the Lord, sitting in his finished
work, you know what you'll do? You'll sit down too. You'll sit
down and you'll rest in this man because there's nothing left
to do. He's sitting. Now go back to
Isaiah chapter six. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting, where? Upon the throne. Who sits on the throne? Kings
sit upon the throne. Rulers sit on the throne. Decision
makers sit on the throne. And if you ever see him, you
will see an absolute sovereign. I had had a conversation with
a man about two months ago at this point, in the course of
my work, and he was telling me about something that was troubling
him very much. And he tells me all about this story, and at
the end of it he said this, he goes, I'm not worried, I have Jesus in
my pocket. The conversation stopped there. Well, he didn't go into detail
about who his god, little G, is. He didn't go into his attributes.
I knew exactly who he was talking about, because he explained to
him everything I needed to know was just right there. This man's
god, little G, was his good luck charm. It was his genie in the
bottle. He held him in his pocket, and
when he got into trouble, he pulled out his god, and he said, OK, you're
up. Take care of it. And everything he needed to know about his God
was right there in that one statement. His God is small. He's much smaller
than the man. The man is very large. He's imposing.
He's in control. His God is small. He's so small
that he fits in the man's pocket. His God is constrained. Constrained. He can only do the will of the
man in whose pocket he sits. That is the God of false religion,
an impotent, weak God. But that is not the God of the
Bible. Now, if you would, turn to Jeremiah 18. Lord's going to teach one of
his prophets about his sovereignty. Pick up in verse 1 of Jeremiah
18, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and
go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to
hear my words. And I went down to the potter's
house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels and the
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter.
So he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter
to make it. Then the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this
potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel." Now,
I have three questions, three questions, and they are very
simple questions. You may consider them almost
juvenile. But I want to ask these questions. It's simple, and that's
how I understand things. First question is this. You all
know what's talking about here in a potter and the wheel, right? So if you see a pottery wheel,
you've got a wheel that sits on top here where the clay sits.
Below it is a larger wheel that you kick, and it spins the top
wheel so the potter can work with the clay. The potter sits
behind that on a stool. Here's the image. We are the
clay sitting on that turntable, and he is the potter. Now, here's
the first question. Imagine a lump of clay sitting
on a pottery wheel and the potter sitting behind it. Does that
clay have any power whatsoever, whatsoever, over that potter? Any whatsoever? Let me ask this
question. Does the potter have to consult
with the clay before he does something with it? Does he have to look at the clay
and say, hey, listen, I'd love to turn it into a bowl. How do
you feel about that? No, that's absurd, right? It's
absolutely absurd. Is it any more absurd than free
will preaching? Men going around saying, listen, God loves you.
Christ died for you. He wants to save you. You just
have to let him have his way. You just have to let him make
you into this honorable vessel. It's about as absurd as the other
statement, isn't it? Let me ask this. If he wants to make a vessel
of wrath, fitted for no other purpose than unto destruction,
can he do that? Is he right if he does that?
I'm gonna say something here, and I hope you guys understand
what I'm about to say. The fall of man was no surprise
to the Lord. He wasn't caught off guard by
it. We fell, I fell, and I'll say I because Adam and Eve just
won. I fell because I disobeyed God, and I fell because I sinned,
and I fell because I was doing what I wanted to do. And it was
all according to the Lord's purpose, every bit of it. He is the absolute
sovereign. He is in control and is the first
cause behind everything. Now, let me ask this last question,
a very simple question. Is that clay in that potter's
hand to do with him as he sees fit? Can he ball it up and chuck
it back out to the dirt where it came from, or can he make
a beautiful vessel out of it? He can. And that's where you
and I sit today, in the hands of the potter. Now, this teaching
of the Lord's sovereignty, if you teach it to the unregenerate
heart, the natural man gets a hold of this, he will hate it. He
will war against it. He will say, I will not have
this man to reign over me. The natural man and the men of
this world hate God's sovereignty. There's something I thought about.
I was reading something recently. There's a man that's named David
Brainerd. I don't know if you all ever heard of him. David
Brenner was a missionary to the American Indians in the 1700s.
He was a good friend of John Edwards. David Brenner had an
interesting life. He only lived to be 29 years
old. He died of tuberculosis at John Edwards' house at the
age of 29. He kept a journal for the large majority of his
adult life. John Edwards asked him, he said, can I publish your
journal? And he allowed him to publish part of it. What I read of it,
something very interesting in the beginning, David Brenner's
talking, he said, when the Lord first started dealing with me,
one of the first things he revealed to me is his sovereignty. He
said, when I first saw it, I absolutely hated it. And there were four
things he saw that he absolutely hated and he later loved. I want
to share those with you. Now, I'm going to, he didn't
go into great detail. I'm going to take some liberties
with what he said, but hopefully it'll be a blessing to you as
it was to me. David Brainerd said first, he saw this. He said,
he saw that the Lord demanded a perfect righteousness, a perfect
law keeping, not just in deed, but in imagination, in desire,
in will, in intention, in motive, in every aspect of the man, in
other words, holiness. He demanded that, and he said,
I couldn't meet it. He said, I couldn't keep the
law. I couldn't reach the mark. I said, that's unfair. God's
too strict. He's too harsh. And he hated
him for it. Second thing he saw. He said
he saw the Lord demanded a perfect, a faith, faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He demanded faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and he said, I couldn't come up with it. I couldn't muster
faith. I couldn't bring it out of me.
I couldn't come to Christ. I didn't know what it meant to
believe. I couldn't do those things. Thirdly, he said, I saw
the Lord was sovereign in doing this. He could give me that faith. He could sovereignly give me
that faith, but he was sovereign to give it or he was sovereign
to withhold it. And the fourth thing he said
was this. He said, I saw I was in the hands of that sovereign,
and he had the power to save me, or he had the power to damn
me. Now, he saw that in the beginning, and he hated it. It made him
very angry in the beginning. But no doubt, the Lord saved
David Raynard. And his response was different
the second time around. And no doubt, when he looked at that
first point, he said, I was trying to keep the law. I was trying
my best. I was working, trying to keep
the law. And then I found out I was dead to the law, because
the law didn't have anything to say to me. I wasn't under
law, I was under grace, that the Lord Jesus Christ kept the
law for me, and the law now has nothing to say to me. He said,
I couldn't muster faith, but he just found himself believing.
One day, When he had nowhere else to go and nowhere else to
come to, he came to Christ. He found himself believing. And
he said, I saw myself in the hands of that sovereign, that
sovereign God. And he could do with me whatever
he wanted. He could save me or he could damn me. He was right
out of the way. But he saw himself different. I was a guilty man
in the hands of a sovereign. And I was fully deserving of
punishment and hell. But he sovereignly chose to show
mercy. Now, the men of this world and
the religion of this world can get angry at the Lord's sovereignty
all they want. That's fine. But I absolutely
love His sovereignty and every believer loves His sovereignty
because of this. If He did not purpose my salvation
with an unthwartable will that couldn't be thwarted by even
me, I would not be saved. My only hope is that He's sovereign.
that He purposed my salvation and His will can't be thwarted
in any way. That's what I need, a sovereign
God. Turn back to your text, Isaiah
chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up. Now, every man is going to have
one of two views of God. especially in the light of this
thing of his sovereignty. Either God is high, which makes the
man low, or the man is high, and God is low. There is no in-between,
there is no equal footing. With every man, someone is in
charge. Someone sits high, high and lifted up, which puts the
other low, or the other is high and lifted up, and it's low.
For the believer, God, the Lord, he is high and lifted up, and
we're low. And this has something to do
with worship. in the light of His sovereignty, in the light
of knowing who He is, we see Him high and lifted up. Job said this, Job said, I've
heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth Thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself. He
saw the Lord and he abhorred himself, he hated himself. In
the light of His holiness, he took his rightful place. He says,
I repent. I was brought to repentance.
You are not who I thought you were. and I am not who I thought
I was. And I make my bed down there
in the dust and the ashes, and I say, whatever you do, it's
right, and it's simply right because you do it. Every man's
going to have one of two views. Either he is high and lifts it
up, or Christ is high and lifts it up, and there's no in-between
ground. This God of false religion, I don't know if I'm talking about
it right, but I've been exposed to a lot of it recently. He's never worshipped. He's never worshipped. For one
reason, it's because he doesn't exist, and two, because he's
not worthy of worship. God of false religion, this constrained
God that can't do anything unless you allow him to. He paces the
halls of heaven, he wrings his hands, and he just says, well,
I'd love to save them if they'd just let me have my way. Who
would worship that God? Nobody's gonna worship that God.
He's not worthy of worship. But this God, this God that Isaiah
saw, is Christ. That's high and lifted up. I
can worship that God, and I have no choice but to worship that
God. Worship is not an option, it's not a choice. You don't
choose to worship Worship is the believer's automatic response
to being in the presence of the Lord. He saw him high and lifted
up. The last thing he saw, Isaiah
6.1, 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. His train. What's meant there?
This word train, it's translated two ways. in the Bible. It can be translated hem and
it can be translated skirt. Now I want to give you a story.
The way it's translated here is going to be skirt. I want
you to look for that word. Let's see if we can pick out
what's being taught here, what the type is. Turn to Ezekiel
chapter 16. Pick up in verse 1 of Ezekiel
chapter 16, look for the word skirt. Again the word of the
Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, call Jerusalem to know
her abominations. And say, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, In the
day that was born, thy navel was not cut. Neither wast thou
washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. None I pity thee to do any of
these unto thee, to have compassion unto thee. But thou wast cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee and
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when
thou wast in thine blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. Now this is us. This baby is
us. He has been abandoned by his
father and mother in the middle of this open field, and he has
been left for dead, and that's us. We have been abandoned by
our father and mother, Adam and Eve. The inheritance they left
us with was an inheritance of death. And this child is covered
in pollution and filth and blood, and that's us. We are covered
in pollution and filth and blood. We've been left for dead by our
parents. Nobody owes us anything. Nobody owes us a thing. We're
just left for dead. Now pick up in verse eight. Now
when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness, yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Skirt, train, what is it? It is the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is our hope, folks.
Just like this baby, we've been left for dead, out in the middle
of this field, covered in our own filth and our own pollution,
that He comes by and He pities us. And He takes that train,
that skirt of His perfect righteousness, and He covers us. Now, a word
on this covering. It's not a covering where the
Lord comes by and He just covers filth and pollution with an outward
covering, no. The Lord takes away the pollution
and the filth. He washes us clean in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this covering is not an outward
covering, it's an inward covering, a covering inside, not something
that's pasted over, not something that's just put on, but something
that is inward. His righteousness, it really
is our righteousness because we are part of His body. through
our union with Christ. When he came to this earth and
he walked the paths of righteousness, we were in him. And that righteousness
he worked out, that is our righteousness. If the head is righteous, what
is the knee? What is the elbow? What is the
finger? It's absolutely and utterly righteous. Isaiah has something interesting
to say about his righteousness. He said his train filled the
temple. It filled. Now, this glass of
water here, if you can see it, it is not full. It's about three
quarters of the way down. If it were full, it couldn't
hold another drop. It would mean that if I poured
something else in there, it would come spewing right back out because
it couldn't hold another drop if it was truly filled. And it
says, the temple of the Lord is filled with His train, His
righteousness. There is no room for another
righteousness. No room for the righteousness
of man, our filthy rags, our so-called good works. And there's
no room for a mingling. If this glass wasn't full, you
could pour something else in there. I could pour milk in there
and I'd have a mingling of water and milk. I could pour wine,
I'd have a mingling of water and wine. But if it's full, whatever
gets poured in there, it gets spewed right back out. There
is no mingling of law and grace. There is one righteousness, and
it's his righteousness alone. And his righteousness, his train,
it fills his temple, and it fills his temples, his temples. We are the temples of the Lord,
and his righteousness fills us, and there is no room for another
righteousness. Folks, I don't have any room
for another righteousness, and I don't want another righteousness.
Come full up with Christ. All right, go back to your text,
let's look at verse two. Let's see what else Isaiah saw. Isaiah says, 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. These seraphims,
what are they? I don't really know. I'm going
to be honest with you. Some have said that these are
angelic creatures, angels maybe. Some have said they're just heavenly
beings that do the Lord's will. People have said a lot of things
about these seraphims, and I don't really know what they are. You
know what I'm interested, though? I'm interested in how they react
to being in the presence of the Lord. So they've got six wings. With two, they cover their face. The holiness of God is such.
It is so overpowering and so awful and so terrible that they
can't stand the sight of it. They have to cover their face. Every creature that stands before
God stands nameless and faceless before him. There's one that's
going to get the glory in this whole thing, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's one whose face is going
to be looked to, and it's going to be seen, and it's going to
be his face. And if it's an angel, it just covers his face before
him. He's nameless, and he's faceless, and he's nothing before
God. Two wings he covers his feet,
his walk, his works. You say if he's an angel or an
angel's upright, why would they be ashamed of their walk and
their works? Because he even charges his angels with folly.
Why? Because if he didn't hold them
up, they'd fall. Everything that is held up is
held up because He holds it up. And if He didn't hold it up,
it would fall. Those elect angels, they're elect angels, they're
held up and they have the ability to fall. And the Lord charges
them with folly simply because they could fall if He didn't
hold them up. They'd fall like Lucifer, like a bolt of lightning
out of the sky. They cover their feet. And if
he is a man, he better cover his feet, his walk, and his works.
We don't want the Lord to see any of that. I want him to see
the Lord Jesus Christ, look to his feet, look to his walk, look
to his works. That's where I want him to look.
But he has two more wings. With Twain, he did fly. And that's
what every creature does before the Lord. It's got two wings,
and everything is just doing his will, whether in obedience,
or in disobedience. It is all His will being done. Now, I don't want to spend a
lot of time talking about the seraphims, but I do want to talk
about their message. The seraphim cries, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Now, we're going to talk about
something here I'm terrified to talk about,
and I know nothing about. I'll start right off with that.
We're gonna talk about the holiness of God. Somebody said once that
a good definition of holiness is other. Other, just the opposite
of us, and we don't know anything about it. I wanna take a little
stab at it tonight. We'll see how it goes. What is
holiness? Holiness is the Lord's essential
characteristic. It is his nature. It was explained
to me this time once, once this time, and it spoke to me, maybe
it will to you. Think of a bicycle wheel. Bicycle, you have the
outer rim, right? You have spokes that come in
and they all come to a central hub, central round piece, the
spokes go out from it to an outer rim. That central hub put the
Lord's essential characteristic, holiness. Those spokes are his
attributes. Every attribute of God stems
from this singular attribute of being holy. He's holy in being
sovereign. He's holy in being merciful.
He's holy in being gracious. He's holy in being wrathful.
He's holy in his hatred. He's holy in his judgment. My
wrath and my hatred is evil. It's sinful. His is completely
different than mine. It's holy. It's right because
it stems from that singular essential characteristic of holiness. Holiness
is unfathomable perfection and an inability to accept anything
that is not unfathomably perfect. Holiness is constraining. Because
the Lord is holy, there are things he cannot do. He cannot sin. He cannot lie, he cannot cheat,
he cannot steal, but it's greater than that. We say this all the
time, but I want us to think about it when we say it. Whatever
he does is right, but it's right simply because he does it. He
can't lie because the standard of what is true and what is false
is what he says. If he says it, it's true. If
he does it, it's right. If he thinks it, it simply is.
That's the way he is, and holiness is immutable. He does not change. I am the Lord, I change not. Now that's just a few thoughts
on holiness, but I want us to look, go over to Exodus chapter
three if you would. Exodus chapter 3, this is the
first time where this word holy is used in the scripture. As
you all know, if you see a reoccurring word in the scripture and you
want to know what it means, the best thing you can do is go back
to the first place it's used. Somewhere in there, you'll probably
find the definition. Pick up in verse 1 of Exodus chapter
3. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the
priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside
of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses
said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of
the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. He said,
draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. That
is the first time this word holy is used in the scripture. So
let's talk about some of the components here. First, the bush.
The bush. This is a bramble bush. It can
be compared to a tumbleweed. And this is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Him being made man. God was made man, dwelt
in the body of flesh and blood, and He was made of no reputation.
He was a carpenter, and if he was walking down the street,
you never would have taken a second look at him. This bush, a bramble
bush, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have a type of
the holiness of the Father, the bush burned with fire. God's
wrath was poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ for one reason,
because he bore the sins of his people in his body on that tree,
so much so that he was guilty of them. so much so that he was
guilty of them. That's how real it was. And the
way we know it's real is because it was right and only just and
only fair that the father would forsake him, would turn his back
on him. God is so holy that when sin
was found on his only begotten son, he would not spare him. The justice of God had to be
satisfied and he poured out that wrath that was reserved for you
and me out upon his only begotten son. That's how real it was,
that he bore our sins in his body on that tree, that God being
holy would not spare his only begotten son. Now, the bush burned
with fire, but the bush was not consumed, and this shows the
holiness of the son. He became the sins of his people.
He bore our sins in his body on that tree, and God's wrath
was poured out upon him for sin. That was right, that was just,
that was fair, and he never stopped being holy. He drank the cup
of God's wrath dry. He drank all that wrath up, and
he put it all away, and he was risen again, having put it away,
because he's holy. Light shines down upon the dunghill,
and it burns, and it purges, and it rots it, but the dunghill
has no effect on the light. Someone says, how can this be?
How can He be made the sins of His people and bear our sins
in His body, and it be right that the Father would slay Him
and Him never stop being holy? Can holiness change? Holiness
is immutable. How can He bear the sins of His
people in His body, so much so that the Lord punished Him for
it and still remain holy? Folks, I have no idea. I have
absolutely no idea. That is a secret thing of God,
and a lot of people want to know that. It's a topic of conversation
of our day. Moses wanted to know. Moses said,
I'll now turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is
not burnt. And what did the Lord tell Moses? Moses, Moses, draw not nigh hither. You're not going to be able to
understand this. This is a secret thing of God. You kick off your
shoes. This is holy ground. You get down and you worship.
Then, Moses' attention is redirected. Look down at verse 14. Actually, pick up in verse 13.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children
of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers
has sent me unto you. And they shall say to me, What
is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto
Moses, I am that I am. He said, thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. That I am, that I am, you know
what that means? It means I save in the manner
by which I save. Folks, I don't know the first
thing of what really went on between the father and the son
on Calvary's tree. I don't. That was a secret thing
between the father and the son. But here's what I know. What
the son did, the father accepted. He stands acceptable before the
Father today. And you know what that means?
That means I stand acceptable in Him. However He did it, however
the secret thing of God worked out, that's just fine with me
because He did it. And the Father is satisfied.
That is the holiness of God. All right. Go, if you would,
back to our text. If we ever get a glimpse of the
Lord's holiness, we're going to see ourselves. Pick up in verse 5. Isaiah says, 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. Now, if you read the
previous five chapters before this, there's a reoccurring theme
that Isaiah uses. He says, Woe unto them. Woe unto
them, woe unto them, always holding people's feet to the fire, but
in standing in the light of God's holiness, for the first time
he cries, woe unto me. I'm undone. That means I'm ruined. I'm helpless, and I'm hopeless.
I'm cut off. It means I'm speechless. I'm
silent. I've got nothing to say for myself,
and I have no excuses to make. The natural man can make all
kinds of excuses for his sin, can he? And two of them come
to mind. There's two big people the natural
man will seek to blame. First, he'll blame the Lord.
He'll blame the sovereignty of God. He said, you just said he's
the first cause behind everything. First cause behind everything.
That means I'm just a puppet on his string, and I'm just doing
according to what he wants me to do, so I can't be held accountable
for my sin. If that's our reaction, we know
nothing about the sovereignty of God, and we know nothing about
ourselves. I do exactly what I want to do. I sin because I
want to sin. That's the truth. Those sins
that have been committed, they're the sins I committed. No one
forced my hand. No one twisted my arm. I have
done exactly what I've wanted to do, and those are my sins
to bear. Second scapegoat we come across is Adam. Somebody
says, well, this guy Adam, you know, he disobeyed the Lord,
and then I'm just bored dead and trespassing sins in Adams.
I'm just acting out according to my nature. This can't be my
fault. I must have Adam to blame. If
we say that, we have no understanding of who really was in that garden.
Yeah, Adam was in the garden. It's just Aaron. It's just Claire. It's just Andy. We're all in
Adam. Take any of us out of there,
put us in there. We do the exact same thing we did, the exact
same thing. We were in Adam. When Adam disobeyed
God, I truly did disobey God. That was me eating that fruit.
I'll give you a scripture for that. You don't have to turn
there, I'll just read it to you. Romans 5, 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered in the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all, all have sinned. What happened in that garden
was Aaron disobeying God, nobody else. Isaiah says, I'm a man of unclean
lips. Why would he talk about his lips? Why is that important
at this point? Let me read you this. Luke 645
says, concerning men, for the abundance of the heart, his mouth
speaketh. The lips are just the mouthpiece
of the heart. Genesis 6-5, God looked down,
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil and that
continually. Isaiah is saying the problem
is not my actions. It's not a behavioral problem.
It's a heart problem. This world would say you just
change your circumstances. Change your circumstances. Go to a different
place. Stop doing this. Start doing that. Start thinking
this way. You'll be taken care of. Put me anywhere you want.
Take me out of any circumstance. Put me somewhere else. I still
got me. So sin follows because I'm the
originating source. I'm a man of unclean lips. Now,
this is probably, in Isaiah's experience, a horrible place
to be. Hopeless and helpless, a guilty man before a sovereign
and holy God. Probably, in his experience,
a very horrible place to be. In all actuality, this is the
best possible place he could ever be. Because the Lord never
brings a man to this place, this hopeless and helpless place,
where he is a guilty man before a sovereign and holy God, without
providing for that man's need. Look down at verse 6. Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with 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. A live coal. What is this live coal? First
question we should ask is where he got it from. He got it from
off the altar. And what's the altar for? Sacrifice. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is his shed blood for the remission of sins. This is the
broken body and shed blood of Christ. Now, I would notice some
things. First, I would notice that Isaiah couldn't get to the
sacrifice. The sacrifice had to be brought
to him. we can't get to God. He has to
come to us exactly where we're at. In all our depravity, in
all our sin, in all our unwillingness, in all our unbelief, He comes
to us where we're at. And He delivers us this live
coal, the atonement for our sin. What's the evidence that that's
what this is? It says here, this live coal took away sin and purged
iniquity. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Why can we have such confidence
in this coal? Because it's alive coal. You
remember when Mary Magdalene, the rest of the women, they go
to the Lord's tomb. He's not there. They're met by two angels
and they say, why seek ye the living amongst the dead? He's
not here. He's risen. The resurrection,
what does that teach us? It teaches us that the offering,
that the Lord offering on that cross, the Father accepted, and
that means my sins right now, and your sins right now, every
man who's looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone as his only
hope of salvation, any member of the elect, our sins are no
more. As he lives, we live completely
and utterly without sin, even though we experience them on
a daily basis. He is a live coal, and he's life. This is a new man, a new creature,
a new heart, the very mind and heart and spirit of God himself. False religion says you just
need to change. I haven't changed yet. Those same evil thoughts,
those same evil experiences, those same evil imaginations
still run across this mind and this heart. but there's something
new there that wasn't there before. A new man, and he wants new things,
and he loves somebody new, and it ain't himself. The old man
does. The new man loves Christ. All right. Wrap it up. The first question I asked you
here tonight was this. Have I seen the Lord? I mean, have I been
given a saving revelation of who Jesus Christ is? Can you
see him sitting? sitting in his finished work
with nothing left for him to do and nothing left for you to
do. The work has been completed. Can you sit down? Can you rest? And can you trust this man? Have
you seen the sovereign? Have you seen the one who rules
and reigns and is the first cause behind everything and is high
and lifted up and purposed all things according to his good
pleasure and his will? Have you seen him? Have you finally seen
the one that's worthy of worship? You might have seen some others,
and they were not worthy of worship. They were just impotent, pygmy
gods. But this one, when you get in his presence, all you
can do is fall down on your face and say whatever you do is right. You ever seen this holy one?
You ever made to cry out, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm just a
guilty man before a holy God? That's who you've seen. That's
who you are in the light of Him. The live coal has been delivered
to you. Took away your sins and purged
your iniquity, and you bear them no more. And as He lives as a
live coal, you live as well. I'll stop there.