WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:01.600 Hello, friends. 00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.879 This is Pastor Creighton. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:06.160 Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:13.359 At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:18.800 You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca. 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:28.160 I'm going to be reading from Isaiah chapter six, verses one to seven. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:43.679 In the year that King of Zias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:46.880 Above him stood the seraphim. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.520 Each had six wings. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:59.359 With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:08.159 And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:11.920 The whole earth is full of his glory. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:19.359 And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:22.640 And the house was filled with smoke. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:37.920 And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:43.519 For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:54.239 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having on his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:00.959 And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:06.719 Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:09.680 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:25.840 Holy, holy, holy God, today especially we're mindful that you command the waters, and it's you, God, and your glory that make the thunder. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:33.520 Father, you declare to us those things that belong to you through our Lord Jesus by your Holy Spirit. 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:40.159 And we invite you to do that work once again, even in this moment, even in our hearts. 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:44.879 Illumine your word to us that we may have life in Jesus' name. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:45.840 Amen. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:47.759 Please be seated. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:51.360 I can't help but think of Mr. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:53.439 Bean when we sing that hymn. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:55.280 All creatures. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:03.360 Dear friends, God wants you to experience him. 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:09.439 God wants you to experience him. 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:12.800 He wants you to know him. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.479 But know him with more than just a head knowledge. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:22.960 He wants you to taste and to see that he is good. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:33.280 God wants you to experience him and all of his lavish grace towards you and I in Christ. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:42.960 The grace of God, his generous and unearned kindness, doesn't leave us the same as it finds us. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:47.759 It confronts us with the reality of who God is. 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:51.199 It convicts us of our own sinfulness. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:56.479 And it converts the unworthy sinner into a friend of God. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:09.360 This is true of the prophet's Isaiah story, and I hope we catch God's invitation today, even to us, to experience much the same. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:14.560 The story of Isaiah's prophetic ministry begins right here in Isaiah chapter 6. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:19.439 If you have your order of service, if you have your Bible, I encourage you to follow along with me. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:25.920 Isaiah's ministry begins around the year 740 BC, the year that King Uzziah died. 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:32.000 His death signals to God's people that good times have come to an end. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.959 And God's people now ask, so what's next? 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:41.040 Has God's grace been exhausted towards us? 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:48.560 As God's people anxiously mourn their king's death, Isaiah is granted a vision from the Lord. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:05:00.319 See, God grants visions to his prophets when he wants them to see things, not as they seem from an earthly perspective, but as they are from a heavenly perspective. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:03.839 God wants Isaiah to experience him. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:13.680 And in this divine vision, Isaiah is confronted with a right view of God in his sovereignty and in his holiness. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:23.360 Isaiah writes, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:28.639 So Judah's throne is now empty because King Uzziah died. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:33.199 And there seems to be no one to lead or protect or provide for the people. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:37.680 But here Isaiah is reminded of the reality of things. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:45.360 The throne of the universe is never empty, no matter what the present circumstances may be. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.759 The reigning Lord is high and lifted up. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.920 He is supremely exalted and the sovereign one. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:10.480 And there is no greater glory or honor or power that can be with than that which doesn't already belong to this heavenly king, which is what the temple throne room robe filling is meant to symbolize. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:15.759 So this God, to borrow a phrase, is large and in charge. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.839 That's what Isaiah sees here. 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:24.160 And the angels who live and serve in his awesome presence know it best and they want to make it known. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:25.519 Verse 3. 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:33.040 One called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:37.519 The whole earth is full of his glory. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:42.480 Holiness is God's incomparable purity. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:48.319 God is entirely blameless, faultless, righteous. 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:50.240 He is holy. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:07:00.240 And this God proclaims these fiery angels called the Seraphim is not just holy once over, he is holy thrice over. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:05.839 He is incomparably, matchlessly holy. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:11.920 Perhaps God's thrice holiness should ring with a special clarity on Trinity Sunday. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.759 One holy God, three holy persons. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:29.279 Now Isaiah doesn't see here a full-blown revelation of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but by God's grace, Isaiah is confronted with the unmatched reality of who this God is. 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:38.079 He is the high and lifted up one, the thrice holy one, the one whose glory fills the earth. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:43.519 See, sometimes I wonder if my idea of God is awfully small. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:45.360 Did you ever feel that way? 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:54.560 Even words like sovereign and holy, which are certainly true of God, can be so overused that they start to seem kind of domesticated. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:08:02.560 God's infinite majesty gets obscured so often by my own finite intuitions. 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:10.240 And this God seems to no longer inspire awe and wonder. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:14.879 See, this is why I need Bible passages like Isaiah chapter 6. 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:19.839 I could never arrive at such a knowledge of this holy God on my own. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:38.960 I need to be invited into Isaiah's shoes and stand, as it were, in the quaking and smoking heavenly temple throne room of God, to be confronted with the reality of how infinitely sovereign and holy our God is. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:48.080 But to stand confronted with this right knowledge of the thrice holy God is to stand convicted. 00:08:48.639 --> 00:09:10.000 Isaiah cries out verse five, Woe is me, for I am lost, ruined, undone, doomed, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:26.320 Isaiah is convicted not only of his own moral shortcomings and failures to live up to the standard of God's law, but he's convicted of the failures and corruptions of his own sin-sick and prideful and rebellious people. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:39.360 Whereas the angels pronounced with holy lips that God is thrice holy, Isaiah understands that he is so thoroughly corrupted by sin that his lips are unclean. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:50.159 He is on his own disqualified from making such an angelic proclamation, or even approaching this thrice holy God. 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:57.120 So here we see the Bible's central diagnosis of the human condition come into view. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:11.519 Human beings are so corrupted by sin that we aren't capable of restoring a rightly related fellowship or friendship or communion with God on our own. 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:17.360 Try as we may, the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:29.679 Perhaps up to now Isaiah has had something of a theoretical knowledge of sin, or he's pointed out sin in others, or perhaps before this experience he didn't think much about sin at all. 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:36.480 Perhaps Isaiah thought, if I live a generally respectable life, then sure God should be pleased enough with that. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:43.360 But here, before the throne, Isaiah's soul is laid bare. 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:52.080 He can no more water down God's supreme holiness than he can whitewash his own uncleanness. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:59.919 Knowing how holy God is means knowing how unholy we are apart from him. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:02.080 And so we're undone. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:08.559 So what do you think we should expect this thrice holy God to do next? 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:16.320 Perhaps the same thing that would happen if a notorious criminal wandered into the police commissioner's office. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:25.200 One of the seraphim flew to me, Isaiah writes, having in his hand a burning coal that he's taken from the with tongs from the altar. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:26.960 So let's pause here. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:31.120 Let's pretend we don't know how this story ends. 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:35.200 What do you think Isaiah thinks this coal is for? 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:39.360 Oh crud. 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:42.320 God's found me out. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:44.720 I'm gonna burn. 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:56.879 Do you ever feel fearful to approach the thrice holy God because you think once he really gets to know you, you're toast? 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:05.840 In the quiet of your heart, do you slink back from God, feeling unworthy, unclean, and afraid? 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:10.000 Do you feel like God is eager to see a burn? 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:19.360 What does this God do for an unclean, unworthy, undone sinner like Isaiah? 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:25.759 God does for sinners what sinners cannot do for themselves. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:27.919 God converts them. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:29.120 Verse 7. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:41.519 The seraphim touched my mouth with this coal and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:58.080 See, God extends to Isaiah his heavenly grace, his lavish kindness and mercy, which cleanses Isaiah of his sins and converts this unworthy sinner to a righteous friend of God. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:04.559 Through the ministry of this fiery angel, the Lord makes an affirmation to Isaiah. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:27.120 Whereas the sin that defiled you and your people separated you from me and left my love for you unenjoyed, I will do for you the work that brings us back together to share a sweet and unending communion with one another. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:35.360 See, God has done for Isaiah a confronting, convicting, and converting work of grace. 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:38.720 Isaiah has experienced God. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:56.080 What a comfort it is to us, unworthy sinners, to know that the thrice holy God is the same God who provides for us the means of grace required to turn sinners into saints. 00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:59.759 And he provides this grace at his own cost. 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:13.200 We ought never to slink back from him, but boldly approach the throne of grace, not on the basis of what we've done for God, but on the basis of what God has done for us. 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.080 So notice this. 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:22.639 God gifts his grace to Isaiah through a material means. 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:30.799 And the material means is this a burning coal taken from the heavenly altar. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:41.120 See the Old Testament altar in the tabernacle and in the temple, it was ground zero for the thrice holy God's reconciling work amongst a sinful people. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:51.519 The people's sin was symbolically laid on a sacrificial animal by the priest, and the sinner was symbolically restored to God by putting the sin to death. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:15:01.840 In the book of Hebrews, we're told that this Old Testament altar was a copy or a shadow of the heavenly reality, which Isaiah sees right here. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:11.759 And the Old Testament altar anticipated the once-for-all sufficient sacrifice for sin which was to come. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:25.840 So when this burning coal was brought from the heavenly altar to Isaiah's lips, the reality of God's supreme sacrifice for sin was brought to bear upon the prophet. 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:28.720 This has touched your lips. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:33.519 Your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:42.799 And God still brings the means of his supreme sacrifice for sin to his people's lips, to you and I. 00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:48.000 But for us, this means of grace is not a burning coal, thankfully. 00:15:49.440 --> 00:16:00.799 This is my body, broken for you, Jesus told his disciples, as he gave them bread on the eve of his crucifixion, the once-for-all atoning sacrifice for sin. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.919 And with the wine, Jesus says, This is my blood. 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:09.039 It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:12.159 See, the cross is the supreme altar. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:15.440 Jesus is God's chosen Lamb. 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:29.200 And according to his promise, his body and blood are brought to our lips as the means of God's grace to us, like a burning coal to take away our sin. 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:36.000 This is God's chosen experience of himself for us. 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:50.000 That's why the fourth century Bishop John Chrysostom would say to Christians coming forward to receive communion: this has touched your lips and has taken away your iniquity. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.720 It's taken away your guilt and your sin. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:17:04.559 Holy communion, the church has long understood, is an Isaiah 6 experience of the God who confronts and convicts and converts by his grace. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:13.519 And Isaiah chapter 6 inspired the English reformers in the 16th century as they arranged the prayers for Holy Communion. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:21.440 Now, over time the communion liturgy became lengthier and new material was added, and the order of the prayers were rearranged. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:28.480 And it somewhat obscured this intended Isaiah 6 experience of God's grace from his table. 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:42.160 But as we head into the summer, I'd like for us to restore the Isaiah 6 pattern for Holy Communion, which the English Reformers laid out for us by returning to this Reformation order. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:45.279 Mind you, without the Elizabethan English. 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:53.920 If nothing else, this order of the communion prayers is much shorter, and perhaps for that reason it seems much sweeter. 00:17:55.039 --> 00:18:09.279 But my sincere desire for us is that we are caught up in an Isaiah 6 experience of this thrice holy God of grace, who confronts us with a right view of his sovereignty. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:12.000 I mean, we lift up our hearts to the Lord, don't we? 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:14.960 Because the Lord is high and lifted up. 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:23.759 And we hear in the sanctus the song of angels, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:30.640 This God confronts us with who He is, and this convicts us of our sinfulness. 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:39.039 That's why at that point in communion we pray, in the words of the prayer of humble access, we are not worthy. 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:46.559 We, like Isaiah, are undone when we pray this prayer in its original place. 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:58.400 And having been confronted by God's holiness and convicted of our sin, it's God's gift of grace to us that converts us to his holy people. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:09.599 As we take the substance of God's altar to our lips, the body and blood of Jesus, which takes away our guilt and atones for our sin. 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:14.960 So, dear friends, God wants you to experience Him. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:27.119 Come and receive the means of God's lavish grace towards you, like a coal from the heavenly altar, in the body and blood of Jesus. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:28.319 Amen. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:30.240 Thank you for listening today. 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:35.839 We worship a generous God who calls us to follow Him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:42.559 Newsong Church's mission and ministry is 100% funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:50.240 If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that. 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.599 May God bless you and keep you today and every day.