SPEAKER_01: Hello, friends.
SPEAKER_01: This is Pastor Creighton.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be reading from Isaiah chapter six, verses one to seven.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Above him stood the seraphim.
SPEAKER_00: Each had six wings.
SPEAKER_00: With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
SPEAKER_00: And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called.
SPEAKER_00: And the house was filled with smoke.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having on his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
SPEAKER_00: And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.
SPEAKER_00: Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Father, you declare to us those things that belong to you through our Lord Jesus by your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And we invite you to do that work once again, even in this moment, even in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Illumine your word to us that we may have life in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_01: I can't help but think of Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Bean when we sing that hymn.
SPEAKER_01: All creatures.
SPEAKER_01: Dear friends, God wants you to experience him.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to experience him.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to know him.
SPEAKER_01: But know him with more than just a head knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to taste and to see that he is good.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to experience him and all of his lavish grace towards you and I in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The grace of God, his generous and unearned kindness, doesn't leave us the same as it finds us.
SPEAKER_01: It confronts us with the reality of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: It convicts us of our own sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And it converts the unworthy sinner into a friend of God.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: The story of Isaiah's prophetic ministry begins right here in Isaiah chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your order of service, if you have your Bible, I encourage you to follow along with me.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah's ministry begins around the year 740 BC, the year that King Uzziah died.
SPEAKER_01: His death signals to God's people that good times have come to an end.
SPEAKER_01: And God's people now ask, so what's next?
SPEAKER_01: Has God's grace been exhausted towards us?
SPEAKER_01: As God's people anxiously mourn their king's death, Isaiah is granted a vision from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: God wants Isaiah to experience him.
SPEAKER_01: And in this divine vision, Isaiah is confronted with a right view of God in his sovereignty and in his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah writes, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
SPEAKER_01: So Judah's throne is now empty because King Uzziah died.
SPEAKER_01: And there seems to be no one to lead or protect or provide for the people.
SPEAKER_01: But here Isaiah is reminded of the reality of things.
SPEAKER_01: The throne of the universe is never empty, no matter what the present circumstances may be.
SPEAKER_01: The reigning Lord is high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: He is supremely exalted and the sovereign one.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: So this God, to borrow a phrase, is large and in charge.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Isaiah sees here.
SPEAKER_01: And the angels who live and serve in his awesome presence know it best and they want to make it known.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: One called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Holiness is God's incomparable purity.
SPEAKER_01: God is entirely blameless, faultless, righteous.
SPEAKER_01: He is holy.
SPEAKER_01: And this God proclaims these fiery angels called the Seraphim is not just holy once over, he is holy thrice over.
SPEAKER_01: He is incomparably, matchlessly holy.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps God's thrice holiness should ring with a special clarity on Trinity Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: One holy God, three holy persons.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: He is the high and lifted up one, the thrice holy one, the one whose glory fills the earth.
SPEAKER_01: See, sometimes I wonder if my idea of God is awfully small.
SPEAKER_01: Did you ever feel that way?
SPEAKER_01: Even words like sovereign and holy, which are certainly true of God, can be so overused that they start to seem kind of domesticated.
SPEAKER_01: God's infinite majesty gets obscured so often by my own finite intuitions.
SPEAKER_01: And this God seems to no longer inspire awe and wonder.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is why I need Bible passages like Isaiah chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I could never arrive at such a knowledge of this holy God on my own.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: But to stand confronted with this right knowledge of the thrice holy God is to stand convicted.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: He is on his own disqualified from making such an angelic proclamation, or even approaching this thrice holy God.
SPEAKER_01: So here we see the Bible's central diagnosis of the human condition come into view.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Try as we may, the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps Isaiah thought, if I live a generally respectable life, then sure God should be pleased enough with that.
SPEAKER_01: But here, before the throne, Isaiah's soul is laid bare.
SPEAKER_01: He can no more water down God's supreme holiness than he can whitewash his own uncleanness.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing how holy God is means knowing how unholy we are apart from him.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're undone.
SPEAKER_01: So what do you think we should expect this thrice holy God to do next?
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps the same thing that would happen if a notorious criminal wandered into the police commissioner's office.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: So let's pause here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pretend we don't know how this story ends.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think Isaiah thinks this coal is for?
SPEAKER_01: Oh crud.
SPEAKER_01: God's found me out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna burn.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever feel fearful to approach the thrice holy God because you think once he really gets to know you, you're toast?
SPEAKER_01: In the quiet of your heart, do you slink back from God, feeling unworthy, unclean, and afraid?
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like God is eager to see a burn?
SPEAKER_01: What does this God do for an unclean, unworthy, undone sinner like Isaiah?
SPEAKER_01: God does for sinners what sinners cannot do for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: God converts them.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Through the ministry of this fiery angel, the Lord makes an affirmation to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: See, God has done for Isaiah a confronting, convicting, and converting work of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah has experienced God.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And he provides this grace at his own cost.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: So notice this.
SPEAKER_01: God gifts his grace to Isaiah through a material means.
SPEAKER_01: And the material means is this a burning coal taken from the heavenly altar.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And the Old Testament altar anticipated the once-for-all sufficient sacrifice for sin which was to come.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: This has touched your lips.
SPEAKER_01: Your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for.
SPEAKER_01: And God still brings the means of his supreme sacrifice for sin to his people's lips, to you and I.
SPEAKER_01: But for us, this means of grace is not a burning coal, thankfully.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And with the wine, Jesus says, This is my blood.
SPEAKER_01: It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
SPEAKER_01: See, the cross is the supreme altar.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is God's chosen Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's chosen experience of himself for us.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: It's taken away your guilt and your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Holy communion, the church has long understood, is an Isaiah 6 experience of the God who confronts and convicts and converts by his grace.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah chapter 6 inspired the English reformers in the 16th century as they arranged the prayers for Holy Communion.
SPEAKER_01: Now, over time the communion liturgy became lengthier and new material was added, and the order of the prayers were rearranged.
SPEAKER_01: And it somewhat obscured this intended Isaiah 6 experience of God's grace from his table.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Mind you, without the Elizabethan English.
SPEAKER_01: If nothing else, this order of the communion prayers is much shorter, and perhaps for that reason it seems much sweeter.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we lift up our hearts to the Lord, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord is high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And we hear in the sanctus the song of angels, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: This God confronts us with who He is, and this convicts us of our sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: That's why at that point in communion we pray, in the words of the prayer of humble access, we are not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: We, like Isaiah, are undone when we pray this prayer in its original place.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: So, dear friends, God wants you to experience Him.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening today.
SPEAKER_01: We worship a generous God who calls us to follow Him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially.
SPEAKER_01: Newsong Church's mission and ministry is 100% funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: May God bless you and keep you today and every day.