1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,960 Glu problemó faru, gyweith are unixen gaps o bos ni cynkwede fel fodaen. 2 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:24,800 Byndyni – fachw ytypeb Michaelio zoi fui a hodor… 3 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:27,720 Zaraud gwiaxie weaknessesau gamda gondola oDiddi 4 00:00:27,900 --> 00:00:34,920 Daaf heb dsleud Yahdofen tässä, 5 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:38,380 fel, diddi boras, 6 00:00:39,020 --> 00:00:42,200 Fel Prostod wickedig sydd yndyd estefa love aínìd 7 00:00:39,160 --> 00:00:44,100 yn pam nerburgh y goteth Parnigan 8 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:46,120 i iaith b category üd'im maet Mattio 9 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,720 nydd yn strawig yυflawla... 10 00:00:48,720 --> 00:01:09,420 nawdym yr ym�hynddwlch yn chwy o diruf'r syddwn yn dgynt Diwcua yn yngnoeth fel yn ymumen f被 ciefdol yn gor yrноeth bitas 11 00:01:09,420 --> 00:01:16,060 A ddim o br mine di pydd heweri d們i schloolwedd d selfprig gll, dydd gael bod parBud, 12 00:01:16,060 --> 00:01:20,540 mai atha war角daroleum, mae mef снимai bylo pheu a M invented byna area g bipform 13 00:01:20,540 --> 00:01:22,580 I e 유튜�ún. 14 00:01:22,580 --> 00:01:26,500 Appro disfraud i dwun gael dcolltail, fi gord bún weth syddys syddys gweii drool broadband waith thymfid. 15 00:01:26,500 --> 00:01:26,620 Wysd i ddim y a betraeth y sefra ch chassis eith nhau 16 00:01:26,620 --> 00:01:30,460 Eithinddyl nhau i dw Channelcji byn Robloith 17 00:01:30,460 --> 00:01:33,800 I ddim gweii co eithind y fawытing y fadday 18 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:35,260 o'r ladd pa siадydd Eithinu, 19 00:01:35,260 --> 00:01:39,260 I'r cymwysd, a'r cymwysd, a'r cymwysd. 20 00:01:39,260 --> 00:01:45,260 In the year that King I'r dyd, I saw the Lord, 21 00:01:45,260 --> 00:01:50,260 sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. 22 00:01:50,260 --> 00:01:54,260 And the train of his robe filled the temple. 23 00:01:54,260 --> 00:01:57,260 Above him stood the seraphim. 24 00:01:57,260 --> 00:02:02,260 Eich had six wings, with two he covered his face, 25 00:02:02,260 --> 00:02:07,260 and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 26 00:02:07,260 --> 00:02:10,260 And one called to another and said, 27 00:02:10,260 --> 00:02:16,260 holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 28 00:02:16,260 --> 00:02:21,260 The whole earth is full of his glory. 29 00:02:21,260 --> 00:02:25,260 At the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him, 30 00:02:25,260 --> 00:02:29,260 and the voice was, and the house was filled with smoke. 31 00:02:29,260 --> 00:02:33,260 And I said, wo'is me, for I am lost. 32 00:02:33,260 --> 00:02:40,260 For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, 33 00:02:40,260 --> 00:02:45,260 for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. 34 00:02:45,260 --> 00:02:49,260 Then one of the seraphim flew to me. 35 00:02:49,260 --> 00:02:54,260 Having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, 36 00:02:54,260 --> 00:02:59,260 and he touched my mouth and said, behold, 37 00:02:59,260 --> 00:03:04,260 this is touch your lips, your guilt is taken away, 38 00:03:04,260 --> 00:03:08,260 and your sin atone for. 39 00:03:08,260 --> 00:03:11,260 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom should I send, 40 00:03:11,260 --> 00:03:13,260 and who will go for us? 41 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:17,260 Then I said, hear am I, send me. 42 00:03:17,260 --> 00:03:22,260 Let's pray in us, for God's help. 43 00:03:22,260 --> 00:03:30,260 Foddor, as we come this evening to your word to a passage which may well be familiar to many of us, 44 00:03:30,260 --> 00:03:34,260 Lord, we pray that your holy spirit be at work amongst us. 45 00:03:34,260 --> 00:03:40,260 We pray that you would be giving us all eyes to see who you truly are, 46 00:03:40,260 --> 00:03:46,260 and we ask in Jesus' name, ar men. 47 00:03:46,260 --> 00:03:50,260 So at this point in the book of Isaiah, 48 00:03:50,260 --> 00:03:56,260 Isaiah pauses, and he gives an account of how he was called to be a prophet of God. 49 00:03:56,260 --> 00:03:59,260 And the first thing that he does is he grounds his vision 50 00:03:59,260 --> 00:04:02,260 in the historical backdrop of the time. 51 00:04:02,260 --> 00:04:08,260 He writes that God gave him the vision in the year that King Osaya died. 52 00:04:08,260 --> 00:04:11,260 I'm going to try and pronounce Osaya an Isaiah quite differently, 53 00:04:11,260 --> 00:04:16,260 because I could get confusing. 54 00:04:16,260 --> 00:04:19,260 But King Osaya was a significant king for Israel. 55 00:04:19,260 --> 00:04:23,260 He is reine, is documented in the book of two Chronicles. 56 00:04:23,260 --> 00:04:29,260 Chapter 26 tells us that for the most part, he was a pretty great king, a model king, in fact. 57 00:04:29,260 --> 00:04:34,260 We told that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. 58 00:04:34,260 --> 00:04:38,260 The prophet Zechariah instructed him in the fear of the Lord, 59 00:04:38,260 --> 00:04:42,260 as long as he was seeking to do what God wanted him to do, 60 00:04:42,260 --> 00:04:46,260 God blessed him and gave him great success. 61 00:04:46,260 --> 00:04:50,260 And for the longest time, this was the story of Osaya. 62 00:04:50,260 --> 00:04:53,260 God, richly, blessing him, giving him success, 63 00:04:53,260 --> 00:04:57,260 blessing the nation of Israel through him. 64 00:04:57,260 --> 00:05:05,260 But this didn't last, over time, Osaya began to become proud and arrogant. 65 00:05:05,260 --> 00:05:08,260 He started doing things his way instead of the Lord's. 66 00:05:08,260 --> 00:05:16,260 He took it upon himself to go into the Lord's temple and to carry out sacred duties, which he had no right to do. 67 00:05:16,260 --> 00:05:23,260 And as a result of this, we're told that for his sin, God struck him with leprosy, 68 00:05:23,260 --> 00:05:26,260 which according to the Lord would make him unclean. 69 00:05:26,260 --> 00:05:30,260 Therefore as a result, he was banned from God's temple altogether. 70 00:05:30,260 --> 00:05:34,260 He was denied the right to take part in worship of God, 71 00:05:34,260 --> 00:05:40,260 and King Osaya remained unclean until the day he died. 72 00:05:40,260 --> 00:05:48,260 Now, in many ways, King Osaya, he's a perfect representative of what Israel was like at the time. 73 00:05:48,260 --> 00:05:54,260 Israel were a nation who had been faithful to the Lord, who had sought the Lord's will for them. 74 00:05:54,260 --> 00:05:58,260 But they weren't anymore, they weren't fearing him, they weren't seeking him. 75 00:05:58,260 --> 00:06:02,260 They didn't trust in God for their strength. 76 00:06:02,260 --> 00:06:06,260 Instead, they were starting to partner with the sinful nations around them, 77 00:06:06,260 --> 00:06:11,260 trying to find strength in others, people other than God. 78 00:06:11,260 --> 00:06:19,260 They had a completely insufficient view of who God is. 79 00:06:19,260 --> 00:06:28,260 And as Isaiah's vision, what he records here for them and for us is a stark reminder of who God is. 80 00:06:28,260 --> 00:06:34,260 And who is God? He is a king exalted. 81 00:06:34,260 --> 00:06:40,260 A king exalted. 82 00:06:40,260 --> 00:06:48,260 Isaiah sees God, or rather he sees a representation of who God is. 83 00:06:48,260 --> 00:06:55,260 John chapter 1 verse 18 tells us that no one has ever seen God in the sense of seeing him face to face, 84 00:06:55,260 --> 00:06:56,260 except the sun. 85 00:06:56,260 --> 00:07:00,260 God himself says to Moses in Exodus 33, 86 00:07:00,260 --> 00:07:03,260 no one can see my face and live. 87 00:07:03,260 --> 00:07:14,260 But Isaiah sees God in that the Lord grants him a stark, a palpable revelation of his very nature of who he is. 88 00:07:14,260 --> 00:07:18,260 And who does he see? He sees a king. 89 00:07:18,260 --> 00:07:26,260 Isaiah sees God seated on a throne, high and exalted. 90 00:07:26,260 --> 00:07:33,260 Where King Eusia, the disappointment had been disgraced and struck down the true king of Israel, 91 00:07:33,260 --> 00:07:37,260 is exalted lifted up. 92 00:07:37,260 --> 00:07:43,260 And Isaiah says the train of his robe filled the temple. 93 00:07:43,260 --> 00:07:50,260 The royal robe, of course, is a symbol of power and majesty, the authority of a monarch, 94 00:07:50,260 --> 00:07:53,260 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. 95 00:07:53,260 --> 00:07:56,260 She wore something called the robe of state. 96 00:07:56,260 --> 00:08:00,260 This was a robe that was 18 feet long. 97 00:08:00,260 --> 00:08:06,260 And it was so heavy that it required seven ladies in waiting to carry it behind her. 98 00:08:06,260 --> 00:08:09,260 Now, of course, more being completely impractical. 99 00:08:09,260 --> 00:08:11,260 The robe made a point, didn't it? 100 00:08:11,260 --> 00:08:15,260 It said, look at your queen, Britain. 101 00:08:15,260 --> 00:08:22,260 Look at how far reaching her royal sovereignty and her power and her majesty is. 102 00:08:22,260 --> 00:08:31,260 But of course, no human majesty could ever compare to the splendor and the sovereign power of the Lord. 103 00:08:31,260 --> 00:08:37,260 The train of his robe filled the entire temple. 104 00:08:37,260 --> 00:08:39,260 It surrounded Isaiah. 105 00:08:39,260 --> 00:08:46,260 He was completely and utterly surrounded by the kingly presence of God. 106 00:08:46,260 --> 00:08:55,260 It was overwhelmingly clear to see who the true king was, where the true power and majesty lies. 107 00:08:55,260 --> 00:08:58,260 And of course, the king needs attendance. 108 00:08:58,260 --> 00:09:04,260 So what sort of servant is fitting of a king this great? 109 00:09:04,260 --> 00:09:07,260 We're introduced to the seraphim. 110 00:09:07,260 --> 00:09:12,260 Heavenly creatures, angels, they're stood above the throne. 111 00:09:12,260 --> 00:09:19,260 That is their stood waiting to serve the seated king to follow his commands. 112 00:09:19,260 --> 00:09:23,260 We're not told how many of the seraphim there are. 113 00:09:23,260 --> 00:09:26,260 It's funny, whenever I've read Isaiah 6, I've always imagined two. 114 00:09:26,260 --> 00:09:29,260 I've always imagined one on either side. 115 00:09:29,260 --> 00:09:33,260 Maybe it's something to do with the wording of one called to another. 116 00:09:33,260 --> 00:09:40,260 I picked a one calling to one other, but we're not actually told how many there are. 117 00:09:40,260 --> 00:09:45,260 Win John sees the angels gathered around the throne in Revelation chapter 5. 118 00:09:45,260 --> 00:09:53,260 He sees a thousand times a thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand. 119 00:09:53,260 --> 00:09:56,260 Now you can get ecapulis for a year or two. 120 00:09:56,260 --> 00:09:59,260 But it's a numeral isn't it? 121 00:09:59,260 --> 00:10:03,260 It's a huge vast number of angels that John says he sees. 122 00:10:03,260 --> 00:10:06,260 Is this what Isaiah is seeing in chapter 6? 123 00:10:06,260 --> 00:10:14,260 It seems quite likely the term the name that the seraphim used for God is the Lord of hosts. 124 00:10:14,260 --> 00:10:18,260 Literally meaning the Lord of armies. 125 00:10:18,260 --> 00:10:28,260 It's speaking of God's incredible supreme power that he has legions of angels at his command ready to go out for them as king. 126 00:10:28,260 --> 00:10:33,260 So it certainly seems likely that as Isaiah stands before the throne of God, 127 00:10:33,260 --> 00:10:39,260 he sees thousands upon thousands of heavenly warriors staring back at him. 128 00:10:39,260 --> 00:10:48,260 I can't imagine much scarier than that, but of all the people in that room with Isaiah. 129 00:10:48,260 --> 00:10:52,260 The seraphim should be the least of his concerns. 130 00:10:52,260 --> 00:10:56,260 Did you see the body language of the seraphim? 131 00:10:56,260 --> 00:10:59,260 Did you see what they're doing? 132 00:10:59,260 --> 00:11:04,260 The seraphim they have six wings with two wings. 133 00:11:04,260 --> 00:11:09,260 They covered their face. 134 00:11:09,260 --> 00:11:11,260 With two they covered their feet and they used just two to fly. 135 00:11:11,260 --> 00:11:22,260 In other words, in the presence of God, these creatures completely covered themselves head to toe. 136 00:11:22,260 --> 00:11:33,260 These angels, these creatures who are completely morally pure, who are deemed worthy by God to be in his presence, 137 00:11:33,260 --> 00:11:34,260 serving him. 138 00:11:34,260 --> 00:11:42,260 Even they can't bring themselves to look upon the radians of the holy, exalted king. 139 00:11:42,260 --> 00:11:47,260 They cover themselves in fear and reverence. 140 00:11:47,260 --> 00:11:52,260 Then this reverence and this fear, it swells up in them until they cry out in song, 141 00:11:52,260 --> 00:12:00,260 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 142 00:12:00,260 --> 00:12:07,260 The whole earth is full of his glory. 143 00:12:07,260 --> 00:12:13,260 Holy, holy, holy. 144 00:12:13,260 --> 00:12:20,260 In Hebrew, a word will sometimes be repeated to emphasise it. 145 00:12:20,260 --> 00:12:24,260 We see an example of that in two Kings 25. 146 00:12:24,260 --> 00:12:31,260 The word is pure God, which in the Hebrew language is literally gold, gold. 147 00:12:31,260 --> 00:12:36,260 It's not just gold, it is gold in its purest possible form. 148 00:12:36,260 --> 00:12:40,260 The Lord Jesus continues this, doesn't he, in the New Testament. 149 00:12:40,260 --> 00:12:45,260 Time and time again, we see him say, truly, truly, I say to you. 150 00:12:45,260 --> 00:12:48,260 He's saying, what I'm saying to you right now, it's not just true. 151 00:12:48,260 --> 00:12:50,260 It is the truest of truth. 152 00:12:50,260 --> 00:12:55,260 There is no greater truth that you can hear. 153 00:12:55,260 --> 00:13:09,260 And yet here in Isaiah chapter 26, we have the only quality, the only attribute in the whole of the Bible that is repeated like this three times. 154 00:13:09,260 --> 00:13:13,260 The Lord of hosts, he isn't just holy. 155 00:13:13,260 --> 00:13:17,260 He isn't just the holiest of Holies. 156 00:13:17,260 --> 00:13:23,260 He is holy, holy, holy. 157 00:13:23,260 --> 00:13:26,260 He is incontrably, holy. 158 00:13:26,260 --> 00:13:28,260 He is unfathomably, holy. 159 00:13:28,260 --> 00:13:32,260 He is unspeakably, holy. 160 00:13:32,260 --> 00:13:34,260 It's who he is. 161 00:13:34,260 --> 00:13:36,260 He is holy through and through. 162 00:13:36,260 --> 00:13:45,260 If you want to know who God is, he is holy, start there. 163 00:13:45,260 --> 00:13:47,260 So what does it mean? 164 00:13:47,260 --> 00:13:50,260 What does it mean that God is holy? 165 00:13:50,260 --> 00:13:58,260 It's a pretty intimidating word to define really, but I think it incorporates a number of different ideas. 166 00:13:58,260 --> 00:14:11,260 To speak of God's holiness is to speak of his beautiful radian majesty as king. 167 00:14:11,260 --> 00:14:18,260 To speak of the radians which commands the fear and the awe of angels. 168 00:14:18,260 --> 00:14:24,260 To speak of God's holiness is to speak of his worthiness to be praised. 169 00:14:24,260 --> 00:14:34,260 His infinite worth and value for who he is, which commands our worship and our praise. 170 00:14:34,260 --> 00:14:46,260 To speak of God's holiness is to speak of his complete total utter moral purity and his goodness. 171 00:14:46,260 --> 00:14:53,260 And then all of these things, God's holiness is his uniqueness. 172 00:14:53,260 --> 00:14:58,260 It is his uniqueness in all of these traits. 173 00:14:58,260 --> 00:15:04,260 There is no king with his splendor and his glory. 174 00:15:04,260 --> 00:15:09,260 There is no other being in all of creation who is worthy of our praise. 175 00:15:09,260 --> 00:15:19,260 There is no other being who is good like him, his purity is so far beyond the goodness of anything and all of creation. 176 00:15:19,260 --> 00:15:23,260 He is the source of goodness. 177 00:15:23,260 --> 00:15:30,260 In all of these things, in everything that he is, God is totally and utterly unique. 178 00:15:30,260 --> 00:15:35,260 He is holy. 179 00:15:35,260 --> 00:15:42,260 God's holiness is something that we can be quick to forget, isn't it? 180 00:15:42,260 --> 00:15:47,260 We often don't make enough of God's holiness. 181 00:15:47,260 --> 00:15:53,260 You often can't see that it's true in how we live. 182 00:15:53,260 --> 00:16:07,260 I make sure you wonder how, with the ways, in which I relate to God, be different if I had a bigger view of his holiness. 183 00:16:07,260 --> 00:16:10,260 What might it change? 184 00:16:10,260 --> 00:16:12,260 Would it change the way you sing? 185 00:16:12,260 --> 00:16:15,260 Would it change the way you sing to God? 186 00:16:15,260 --> 00:16:19,260 We can quite often particularly as British people. 187 00:16:19,260 --> 00:16:26,260 We can be quite half-hearted in how we sing, Garmwy. 188 00:16:26,260 --> 00:16:31,260 It's quite easy just to stand up to do our best to follow a tune and then to sit back down. 189 00:16:31,260 --> 00:16:36,260 But how might that change if we had a bigger view of God's holiness? 190 00:16:36,260 --> 00:16:46,260 If we thought that God is the one who even the angels can't help but cry out to in song as they see his holiness displayed before them, 191 00:16:46,260 --> 00:16:53,260 he is worthy to be exalted with their earnest, joyful praise. 192 00:16:53,260 --> 00:16:58,260 If we really believe that I wonder how that might change the way we sing to God. 193 00:16:58,260 --> 00:17:02,260 Would a big of view of God's holiness change how we come to the Bible? 194 00:17:02,260 --> 00:17:05,260 Would it change how you read God's words? 195 00:17:05,260 --> 00:17:10,260 Would it change rather why you read God's word? 196 00:17:10,260 --> 00:17:22,260 Would you read with more humility and a greater sense of reverence knowing that you're not just reading a book you are listening to the words of the exalted King? 197 00:17:22,260 --> 00:17:26,260 Would it change how we pray? 198 00:17:26,260 --> 00:17:34,260 Would your prayers be more centered around serving the King seeking his will, asking for his help as you seek to live a life of obedience? 199 00:17:34,260 --> 00:17:45,260 Would your prayers maybe become a little bit less about him fulfilling your will and a little bit more about you fulfilling his will? 200 00:17:45,260 --> 00:17:48,260 Now, of course, it's not wrong to ask God for things. 201 00:17:48,260 --> 00:17:49,260 It's a privilege. 202 00:17:49,260 --> 00:17:55,260 If we're Christians of we're in Christ, we can come to God in boldness. 203 00:17:55,260 --> 00:18:03,260 But when you see the holiness of God displayed, it rearranges our priorities. 204 00:18:03,260 --> 00:18:11,260 When we see God's glory, his holiness revealed to us, it demands an appropriate reverence and fear. 205 00:18:11,260 --> 00:18:17,260 Now, as I received a really stark display of God's holiness. 206 00:18:17,260 --> 00:18:38,260 However, the fear that he felt was a fear of destruction, which leads us to our second point, a ruined sinner, a ruined sinner. 207 00:18:38,260 --> 00:18:50,260 First four, the foundations of the thresholds shook and the house, the temple that is, was filled with smoke. 208 00:18:50,260 --> 00:18:54,260 This imagery is similar to Exodus chapter 19. 209 00:18:54,260 --> 00:18:59,260 Do you remember when God's presence descends on Mount Sinai? 210 00:18:59,260 --> 00:19:09,260 And the mountain was wrapped in smoke because God had descended on it in fire, and when Moses spoke to God, God spoke back in thunder. 211 00:19:09,260 --> 00:19:19,260 The presence of God on earth is often accompanied by signs of danger, namely fire and smoke, and that's what Isaiah is seeing here in the temple. 212 00:19:19,260 --> 00:19:32,260 And Isaiah specifies that the tremors are to the threshold, the entrance to the temple, the place where Isaiah would access God. 213 00:19:32,260 --> 00:19:36,260 And he surrounded by smoke, he's unable to see God. 214 00:19:36,260 --> 00:19:40,260 What we see here is that Isaiah is being separated from God. 215 00:19:40,260 --> 00:19:43,260 He's being denied access to him. 216 00:19:43,260 --> 00:19:51,260 And more than this, he knows that his death is imminent. 217 00:19:51,260 --> 00:19:58,260 So, why is Isaiah so fearful of the presence of God? 218 00:19:58,260 --> 00:20:04,260 Why is he so certain that his fate is death? 219 00:20:04,260 --> 00:20:15,260 First five, Isaiah says, Woe is me for I am lost or ruined or silenced. 220 00:20:15,260 --> 00:20:25,260 For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. 221 00:20:25,260 --> 00:20:30,260 For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. 222 00:20:30,260 --> 00:20:36,260 The reason that Isaiah is being denied access to God, the reason that he is fearful for his very life, 223 00:20:36,260 --> 00:20:40,260 is that he knows he is a man of unclean lips. 224 00:20:40,260 --> 00:20:49,260 His internal moral corruption is seen in the unclean things that come from his mouth. 225 00:20:49,260 --> 00:20:56,260 And he is an active participant in a corrupt unclean nation that doesn't fear the Lord. 226 00:20:56,260 --> 00:21:00,260 And he is in the presence of a holy God. 227 00:21:00,260 --> 00:21:06,260 And that is an incredibly dangerous place for a sinner to be. 228 00:21:06,260 --> 00:21:15,260 Why do you think that God's presence is so often seen in fire? 229 00:21:15,260 --> 00:21:19,260 Fire is a wonderful thing, it's a beautiful thing. 230 00:21:19,260 --> 00:21:28,260 Its warmth can be life giving, but it is a deadly and consuming thing. 231 00:21:28,260 --> 00:21:36,260 In Tusamiol chapter 6, we see a man struck dead for touching the ark of the covenant, 232 00:21:36,260 --> 00:21:42,260 the symbol of God's holy presence with his people. 233 00:21:42,260 --> 00:21:49,260 God's presence needs to be respected and sinful people can't just walk into the presence of a holy God. 234 00:21:49,260 --> 00:21:51,260 Isaiah knows that. 235 00:21:51,260 --> 00:21:53,260 That is Isaiah's biggest problem. 236 00:21:53,260 --> 00:21:56,260 That is Israel's biggest problem. 237 00:21:56,260 --> 00:22:01,260 Today, this is our biggest problem. 238 00:22:01,260 --> 00:22:13,260 And it will be the only problem of an unrepentant sinner on the day of judgment. 239 00:22:13,260 --> 00:22:19,260 No sinner will ever be granted access to the holy God. 240 00:22:19,260 --> 00:22:25,260 I was speaking to an unbeliever recently, we're talking about morality. 241 00:22:25,260 --> 00:22:30,260 We're talking about right and wrong and how we can know that we're living a good life. 242 00:22:30,260 --> 00:22:36,260 And he told me that he thinks that if there is a God, God will let him into heaven. 243 00:22:36,260 --> 00:22:46,260 Because God will see that he's lived a pretty good life based on his understanding of what is right and wrong. 244 00:22:46,260 --> 00:22:56,260 And of course, this way of thinking, it makes sense if you have never understood the holiness of God. 245 00:22:56,260 --> 00:23:02,260 If you have never seen what it means that God is holy, of course you're a good person. 246 00:23:02,260 --> 00:23:06,260 If you've never seen what goodness really is. 247 00:23:06,260 --> 00:23:16,260 But when you see the radians of God's purity, the darkness of our sin is undeniable. 248 00:23:16,260 --> 00:23:27,260 Isaiah knew this all too well and he wasn't arrogant enough to think that he deserved anything other than God's wrath. 249 00:23:27,260 --> 00:23:37,260 But while Isaiah had seen God's glory so clearly he hadn't yet seen the depths of God's grace. 250 00:23:37,260 --> 00:23:50,260 And that leads us to our final thought for the evening, a gracious call, a gracious call. 251 00:23:50,260 --> 00:23:59,260 Upon hearing Isaiah's cries of anguish, one of the seraphim flies to him, holding a burning coal from the altar. 252 00:23:59,260 --> 00:24:08,260 The altar is, of course, the place where the sacrifice is take place, and a sacrifice has been burnt on Isaiah's behalf. 253 00:24:08,260 --> 00:24:14,260 The seraphim approaches Isaiah with the burning coal and he touches it to his lips. 254 00:24:14,260 --> 00:24:21,260 And rather than speaking words of condemnation to you in, he reassures him. 255 00:24:21,260 --> 00:24:32,260 First seven, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atone for. 256 00:24:32,260 --> 00:24:36,260 First eight, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? 257 00:24:36,260 --> 00:24:43,260 And who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me. 258 00:24:43,260 --> 00:24:50,260 Here we see the reason that God gave Isaiah this vision in the first place. He wants to commission Isaiah for his service. 259 00:24:50,260 --> 00:25:00,260 But I hollie God must send a hollie prophet, and Isaiah is covered in guilt and shame, so to prepare him for service, 260 00:25:00,260 --> 00:25:04,260 God makes a sacrifice on his behalf. 261 00:25:04,260 --> 00:25:12,260 And you notice that Isaiah does absolutely nothing here. He just stands there completely passive, helpless. 262 00:25:12,260 --> 00:25:17,260 God makes the sacrifice. His servant takes the coal to Isaiah. 263 00:25:17,260 --> 00:25:25,260 It is completely God's grace. Isaiah brings nothing to the table except unclean lips. 264 00:25:25,260 --> 00:25:32,260 Lips that are in no state to tell the nations about the goodness of God and to speak on his behalf. 265 00:25:32,260 --> 00:25:37,260 And yet offering nothing to make him men's for his own sin. 266 00:25:37,260 --> 00:25:45,260 Purely receiving the grace of God, Isaiah is completely atone for. 267 00:25:45,260 --> 00:25:57,260 The death, the wrath that he deserves has been poured onto another, and he is clean. 268 00:25:57,260 --> 00:26:04,260 And of course, Isaiah is a representative of Israel, and they have the exact same problem. 269 00:26:04,260 --> 00:26:08,260 He's part of this adulterous nation, which doesn't have a right fear of God. 270 00:26:08,260 --> 00:26:14,260 They don't have faith in God as the true king. They don't believe in the greatness and power of God. 271 00:26:14,260 --> 00:26:16,260 That's why they're seeking help from other nations. 272 00:26:16,260 --> 00:26:26,260 And Isaiah must tell them of the wrath that they are storing up for themselves, and of the incredible grace and restoration that is a veil of God. 273 00:26:26,260 --> 00:26:32,260 That is available for them if they just turn back to the holy one of Israel. 274 00:26:32,260 --> 00:26:35,260 And of course, nothing has changed, since then, hasn't. 275 00:26:35,260 --> 00:26:39,260 Sin is still our greatest problem. 276 00:26:39,260 --> 00:26:50,260 As individuals, as a nation, we're living unclean lives, and we're deserving of wrath. 277 00:26:50,260 --> 00:26:57,260 But just as the human heart hasn't changed since Isaiah's time, neither has God's heart. 278 00:26:57,260 --> 00:27:08,260 He is still the God of grace, who cleansed Isaiah, and he wants to cleanse us still. 279 00:27:08,260 --> 00:27:16,260 Isaiah chapter 53 introduces us to the ultimate sacrifice who was to come. 280 00:27:16,260 --> 00:27:21,260 Let me read you just a few verses starting at verse 4. 281 00:27:21,260 --> 00:27:29,260 Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. 282 00:27:29,260 --> 00:27:34,260 Yet we esteem dim stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. 283 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:39,260 But he was pissed for our transgressions. 284 00:27:39,260 --> 00:27:43,260 He was crushed for our eniquities. 285 00:27:43,260 --> 00:27:50,260 Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. 286 00:27:50,260 --> 00:27:55,260 And with his wounds, we are healed. 287 00:27:55,260 --> 00:27:59,260 All we, like sheep, have gone astray. 288 00:27:59,260 --> 00:28:09,260 We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the eniquity of us all. 289 00:28:09,260 --> 00:28:16,260 I was always, of course, prophesying about the Lord Jesus, who was to come about 600 years later. 290 00:28:16,260 --> 00:28:25,260 Jesus, the holy one of God, in his love for us, and in his obedience to the Father, 291 00:28:25,260 --> 00:28:31,260 took on our eniquities and gave himself up as our sacrifice. 292 00:28:31,260 --> 00:28:37,260 He carried our shame, and he was crushed by the Father on our behalf. 293 00:28:37,260 --> 00:28:47,260 The only person to ever live a holy life died, because of us in, to bring us out of death and into his kingdom, 294 00:28:47,260 --> 00:28:52,260 and to reconcile us to God in the way that we can't. 295 00:28:52,260 --> 00:28:59,260 And ultimately to prepare us for God's good works. 296 00:28:59,260 --> 00:29:08,260 When you've truly seen the holiness of God, when you have experienced his astounding grace, it changes your priorities, doesn't it? 297 00:29:08,260 --> 00:29:12,260 All of a sudden, you don't belong to yourself. Your life is Christ. 298 00:29:12,260 --> 00:29:15,260 You've been purchased by him. 299 00:29:15,260 --> 00:29:26,260 Your life is no longer about pleasure or the idols of your heart or about wealth or success, 300 00:29:26,260 --> 00:29:32,260 or the glory of your name. Your life is now all about the glory of God. 301 00:29:32,260 --> 00:29:37,260 It is all about bringing glory to the name of Jesus. 302 00:29:37,260 --> 00:29:49,260 It's about wanting more than anything for God's holiness to be seen, and where do we most see the holiness of God? 303 00:29:49,260 --> 00:29:56,260 Where do we see his righteousness? His unwillingness to tolerate sin? 304 00:29:56,260 --> 00:30:04,260 Where do we see his perfection and his goodness and his worthiness to be praised and exalted? 305 00:30:04,260 --> 00:30:08,260 We see it at the cross of the Lord Jesus. 306 00:30:08,260 --> 00:30:14,260 We see it in the gospel, in the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus. 307 00:30:14,260 --> 00:30:26,260 In the gospel, we see the majesty and the splendor of King Jesus as he lays down his life to reconcile God's people. 308 00:30:26,260 --> 00:30:35,260 And as we consider what Jesus went through on our behalf, as we will later this evening around the Lord's table, 309 00:30:35,260 --> 00:30:41,260 the deaths and the severity of our sin becomes so much more clear, doesn't it? 310 00:30:41,260 --> 00:30:46,260 When we consider what Jesus had to do to make at home. 311 00:30:46,260 --> 00:30:58,260 And as our vision of our sin becomes so much clearer, the greatness and the goodness and the mercy of God becomes so much more radiant by comparison. 312 00:30:58,260 --> 00:31:14,260 And so seeing the holiness of God revealed to us in the person of Christ, we long to proclaim him to a nation that so needs to be atownful. 313 00:31:14,260 --> 00:31:23,260 That so needs to be made holy and set apart for the good works of God. 314 00:31:23,260 --> 00:31:32,260 And of course, one of the most amazing things of all is that we don't do this alone. 315 00:31:32,260 --> 00:31:39,260 That the Lord Jesus has washed us so perfectly clean. 316 00:31:39,260 --> 00:31:51,260 He has made us so pure that the holy spirit of God himself is pleased to live within us. 317 00:31:51,260 --> 00:31:59,260 The presence that Isaiah was so terrified of is alive within the believer. 318 00:31:59,260 --> 00:32:08,260 Renewing us day by day, empowering us to turn from the road we were once on and to live for his good works, 319 00:32:08,260 --> 00:32:17,260 walking with him in complete confidence as we seek his will and as we proclaim his kingdom. 320 00:32:17,260 --> 00:32:22,260 If you want to know who God is, he is holy. 321 00:32:22,260 --> 00:32:30,260 If you want to see his holiness displayed, look to the Lord Jesus, look to the cross of Christ. 322 00:32:30,260 --> 00:32:38,260 And if you want to see who he is calling you to be, look to the Lord Jesus. 323 00:32:38,260 --> 00:32:43,260 Let's pray.