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joy to be in the for all of you it's likewise a joy to be here to worship our triune God on this is lord's day Sabbath a couple of announcements for those of you who don't know pastor Butler is recovering from the hip surgery you probably got the emails there he had hip surgery on Monday procedure went very well he is now in recovery mode and strengthening day by day by God's grace so we can continue in prayer for pastor Butler as he recovers I'll be preaching this morning and this evening next Lord's Day dawn Lindblad from Trinity reformed baptist church down in kirkland will be up here many of you know him he'll be doing a presentation in the morning hour that is 9 30 to 10 30 on the missionary work in Cuba and then he'll be preaching morning and evening so that's next Lord's Day additionally next lord's day that will be the the hymn sing in the evening service or anybody who wants to stay after next Lord's Day evening service you can come up to the fellowship luncheon hall for the singing of more hymns lastly we do have dr. James renehan coming up I believe its februari 12 13th and 14th he'll be coming and giving a presentation with regards to the seminary and then I believe will be preaching with us to us for us on on that Sunday that's dr. James renehan I don't know if he's ever been here I don't think yeah that he has it'll be a joy to have him up here with us giving that presentation and and also preaching to us a a well beloved brother in in the Reformed Baptist world and and beyond that as well to be sure well let's go to our Bibles then and turn to Psalm 139 psalm 139 so we open up our worship this Lord's Day morning psalm 139 beginning in verse 14 the chief musician a psalm of David o Lord you have searched me and known me you know am I sitting down and my rising up you understand my thought of far-off you comprehend my path and my lying down you are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue but behold O Lord you know it all together you have hedged me behind and before you laid your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high i cannot attain it where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence if I ascend into heaven you are there if I make my bed in hell behold you are there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me if I say surely the darkness shall fall on me even the night shall be light about me indeed the darkness shall not hide from you but the night shines is the day the darkness and the light are both alike to you for you formed my inward parts you covered me in my mother's womb I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully rod in the lowest parts of the earth your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they all were written the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them how precious also are your thoughts to me Oh God how great is the sum of them if I should count them they would be more in number than the sand when I awake I am still with you oh that you would slay the wicked Oh God depart from me there for you bloodthirsty men for they speak against you wickedly your enemies take your name in vain do I not hate them Oh Lord who hate you and do I not low those who rise up against you I hate them with perfect hatred I count them my enemies search me O God and know my heart try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting amen well let's stand together as a church we're going to sing for our first him in the larger Trinity hymnal hymn number 35 let's all stand and sing 35 together you be seated what will have a time of prayer now as we normally do we can remember to pray for pastor Butler was nice to hear that he was released a day earlier from the hospital because of his strength and a inability with the the tests that he undertook but of course he still needs prayer you don't recover that quickly so we can continue to pray for him we did so this morning in our morning hour as well as many other things the the number of which we may not be able to bring up now as we pray as a congregation but nevertheless let's now go to our great God in prayer that he might bless us as we gather for the worship of him let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this lord's day Sabbath we would now yet pray again that you would cause us to hallow your name we pray that you would give us such a presence of spirit that we might adequately honor and praise you we pray that from the lips of your gathered Saints there would be the the proclaimed and declared praises of the triune God and we pray that you would just help us this morning to praise you or right and to worship you are right for truly we now rejoice in our God and we rejoice in the gospel of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ we know that we stand as Christ's not by virtue of deeds of holiness which we have done but solely and alone by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone we know that we're saved from first to last midst and throughout from a triune God who saves without a helper and we rejoice in the fact that in your appointed and accepted time you called us forth from darkness to light from deadness to life and we know that this is all because of the perfect work of the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for His perfect work of obedience to your law rendered in the stead of all those who believe we rejoice in that perfect substitution Airy sacrifice upon Calvary's tree that blessed cross wherein he took upon himself the wrath of God do for all those who believe we thank you that in our stead he died upon Calvary's tree and bore your wrath and we do pray that you would cause us to rejoice in this truth and we know that the victor came as well as we see in the resurrection of our Savior on the third day he rose again in power and in great victory that he subsequently ascended to your right hand where he now ever lives to make intercession for us and we do pray that you would cause us now to rejoice in the glorious gospel to sing the praises of amazing and victorious grace to be rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins and in the Blessed reality of everlasting life for your people help us always to rejoice in our Savior the Lord Jesus and to give you the praise that is due your Most High name we would ask that you would continue to be with pastor Butler as he recovers from his surgery we thank you that it went well we thank you that he has so far recovered well we pray that you would continue to increase his strength that he would very swiftly return to physical health we pray in the meantime that you would bless him with a time of recovery of refreshment we just pray that you would bless our dear brother and pastor and caused him to be renewed physically and to be strengthened even this day in the inner man we pray Lord God that you would continue to be with dawn neufeld strengthen him Lord God please knit him together physically and we pray that you would cause him to to know a relief from pains and discomforts associated with his disease we just pray that you would give him much comfort as well though in the inner man in the midst of physical suffering that you would strengthen him and it caused him to rejoice in his God and in his Christ we do pray Lord that you would be with this woman sky and her six children friends of the dittos we do pray Lord God that you would just cause them in the midst of such loss and tragedy they would nevertheless be resigned to the judge of all the earth that does right they would find much comfort in you that they would find much comfort in the risen Christ and again in the midst of this loss they would a day by day find strength in our blessed God might they find themselves in your word might they find themselves in the comfort and in the promises of Holy Scripture and Lord God we pray that you would bring not only the dittos but many others alongside them that they might serve as those portions of earthly comfort also pointing them to the comforts of our Blessed God we do pray that you would continue to be with many others who suffer physically in our midst Lord God we would ask that you'd be with the proctors please strengthen them and be with them god help them to know gains and physical health and strength and we pray unable to join us that they nevertheless would be rejoicing in our God and in his Christ and singing the praises of amazing grace we pray that you would be with John cruel help him as well to heal and to be strengthened many others Lord God in our midst that are suffering physically that you would just uplift them and help them we think as well of maryland's father lord we do just pray that you attend to this man we would ask Lord God for all of your struggling Saints and for those who we know and love that may be outside of saving faith we do pray that you would come to each and every one bless them in their infirmities and above all caused them by your grace and by your gospel to know our Christ and to sing the praises of his Most High name we would ask God that you would be with those who are in the persecuted Church Lord there are many there are so many throughout the earth that suffer persecution at the hands of your enemies that suffer persecution for their profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we do pray that you would cause them to know your strength you would grant them that aid in this lower world to endure the attacks and the the blasphemies and the lying lips of of the enemies of God and we pray that you would just cause them daily by your grace and for your glory to lay hold of the hope that is set before them with great strength we do pray again that you would deal with those who are your enemies we pray that you would turn many unto your friends that you would cause many those who are outside of saving faith and who actively persecute to be saved by your grace and for your glory that you would bring them from deadness to life and it caused them to rejoice in Christ Jesus and to fountain to be found among those whom they formerly persecuted we do know that in this lower world there will be many who rail against you unto the day of their judgment and we do pray though while before they reach that final end that in this lower world you would cause them to stumble like drunken man you would take them out of the way bring temporal judgment and effect upon them Lord that they may no longer bring violence against the church of christ we do pray that you would help us Lord God those who rule over us we pray that you would be with the governments of the nation's cause them to rule in justice and equity and proper judgment we pray that they would cast off the sanctioning of wickedness and that they would uphold the sanctioning of proper virtue in the will of God we do ask that you would be with us now in worship we know that we cannot worship absent of the Spirit we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to strengthen your gathered assembly hear your people would know the Spirit of the Lord lifting our souls to proper rejoicing and proper worship we pray that we would be found as those who are worshiping you now in spirit and in truth we pray that that self same spirit would be powerful today would be efficacious unto the salvation of sinners that by your spirit and by your word you would bring dead sinners to life through the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ we long to see these pews those who sit in them who come in outside of saving faith in unbelief we long to see those leaving these two doors rejoicing in our Christ and singing along with us hallelujah what a savior so we do pray unto that end and we ask that you would be now now be with us be with preacher and here might all that is done now be done unto the praise of your glorious grace and it's in Christ's name that we pray amen well let's stand and sing again then this time in your red Trinity salter it's the smaller hymn book there the red Trinity salter we're going to sing hymn number 24 Psalm number 24 to a familiar tune that Psalm 24 let's stand and sing together you you please be seated you can turn in your Bibles for our new testament scripture reading to Revelation 19 Revelation chapter 19 we near the last number of chapters we near the end of the book of Revelation number of Sunday's will restart in the book of Matthew are consecutive reading in the morning services through the New Testament but we're not finished yet in the book of Revelation so let's read chapter 19 of this book verse 1 of Revelation 19 the Word of God after these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying Alleluia salvation and glory and honor and power belonged to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgments because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her again they said Alleluia her smoke rises up forever and ever and the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne saying Amen Alleluia then a voice came from the throne saying praise our God all you his servants and those who fear Him both small and great and I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings saying hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigns let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints then he said to me write blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb and he said to me these are the true sayings of God and I fell at his feet to worship Him but he said to me see that you do not do that I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of god and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nation's and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written king of kings and Lord of lords then I saw an angel standing in the Sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven come and gather together for the supper of the Great God that you may eat the flesh of kings the flesh of captains the flesh of mighty men the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free and slave both small and great then I saw the Beast the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army then the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who works signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped His image these two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone and the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh amen well a number of things we could comment on I think the thing most prudent to comment on with limited time is the fact of our victorious Christ it's always a blessed blessed picture for the saint of Christ to come to these verses specifically 11 to 16 and to see the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ truly throughout the ages truly throughout the age you see when the world rails against God and it has ever since the beginning the world rails against God when the world rails against his people and when it can be our carnal inclination to think that wickedness will win an evil is winning we must understand that the valiant Christ rides upon a white steed conquering and to conquer he goes about with the sword protruding from his mouth that is the word of God and he goes out any conquers and this double-edged admiss to the sword perhaps is to be understood this way with one edge it cuts to the heart and by God's grace those who hear the word of God are saved their brought from deadness to life by the proclamation of the word of God but you see the other edge of the sword it renders those slain who disobey it cuts to the heart and it elicits a response of rejection and venom and vitriol those who hear the word and remain obstinate reply to God reply to God with blasphemies and they shake their fists at the one who rides valiantly if you're here this morning and you know the Lord Jesus Christ and you are one of these who are decked in fine linen you are one of these who will eat at the marriage supper of the Lamb a blessin supper but if you're here and you don't know this Christ there is another supper for you and it is that these birds will eat your flesh it is to see this figurative picture of these birds feasting upon the flesh of those who oppose so glorious a writer of the white steed believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and you will be arrayed in fine linen the righteous robes of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will ride with the king of kings and the Lord of lords unto that great day do not oppose this conquering King do not oppose this blessed Christ because only in him is blessing and everlasting life let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this revelation of yours we rejoice in our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray that you would help us now to sing his praise to rehearse his riches in his excellent season to glory in your name we do thank you for salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone and we pray that you would help us daily to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior the Lord Jesus we do pray for those here this morning outside of Christ that you would come upon the wings of victorious grace and cause them to turn from the madness of sin to the glory of Christ we know that this comes by your grace and we do pray that you would just come victorious Lee and remove hearts of stone replace them with those hearts of flesh that beat for the Savior and for true righteousness we pray that you would be strong to save this day and we pray in the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ amen well let's stand and sing again him 42 is the the him that we're going to sing that's him number 42 let's stand and sing that together that's in the larger Trinity hymnal you can turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter six please Isaiah 6 this is one of those passages that preacher often goes to when he talks about the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of the pre Incarnate Christ perhaps contrasted with the humility of the Incarnate Christ there's something here that we ought to notice because John's testimony is true in the Gospel of John that we have a Isaiah seeing the pre Incarnate Christ he sees the Son of God has this vision of the second of the Blessed triune we have in Isaiah 6 wonderful language that hopefully we'll be able to explore if only for approximately 51 minutes perhaps shorter perhaps longer whatever the Lord has in store but let's read Isaiah 6 now the portion that we're going to be focusing on is verses 1 to 7 but will read the entirety of the chapter let's do that now then once again the word of the triune God Isaiah 6 verse 1 in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple above it stood Seraphim each one had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to 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 were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke so I said 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 my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts then one of the Seraphim flu to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth with it and said behold this has touched your lips your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged also i heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall i send and who will go for us then I said here am I send me and he said go and tell this people keep on hearing but do not understand keep on seeing but do not perceive make the heart of this people doll and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed then I said Lord how long and he answered until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant the houses are without a man the land is utterly desolate the Lord has removed men far away and the Forsaken places are many in the midst of the land but yet a tenth will be in it and will return and be for consuming as a terrible tree or as an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down so the holy seed shall be its stump amen let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our worship Heavenly Father we pray that you would help us now as we have gathered to worship you to be attentive in this act of worship the preaching of your word we would pray that you would help preacher and pulpit to proclaim well the things of your truth give him aid we pray for those in the pews this morning that you would strengthen st. that you would save sinner that because it is possible with you Lord God alone that you would cause each and every one to leave this place rejoicing in the king of kings and in the Lord of lords and it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray amen well perhaps you're like me or perhaps you're not you don't have to be but whenever I come to certain passages in Holy Scripture I'm reminded of chapter one paragraph 5 of our confession read certain texts and your you're confronted with the heavenly pneus of the matter the efficacy of the doctrine and the majesty of the style there is a certain palatable a certain palatable cadence if you will to Isaiah 6 verses 1 to 7 we read this language it's absolutely glorious in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up in the train of his robe filled the temple what a blessed sight that must have been for the prophet Isaiah the son of a maz what a wonderful and glorious day that was to see the Lord but you see it was wonderful and glorious but it was all so awful and terrible because of the immense glory because of the the immensity and the majesty and the the multiply the superlatives the absolute glorious sight that he would have beheld we want to navigate through these seven verses and consider them under three headings surprise surprise surprise three headings that we're going to examine this passage by and those three are this and then we'll get to a bit of an introduction we want to look at the vision of the unrivaled majesty secondly the appropriate response by the son of a maz and thirdly the Blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord now perhaps a side note if we were to generalize in a wholesome manner these seven verses we could simply summarize them with God man and gospel but there because there are things peculiar to Isaiah and peculiar to this occasion we want to look at them under those headings already stated now Isaiah was a prophet in the 8th century in Judah and he is prophesying as verse 1 of chapter 1 says the vision of Isaiah the son of a maz which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah we come to verse 1 and we read here in the year that King Uzziah died a king uzziah reigned from 792 738 he had a 52-year rain you can read about him on your own time from 2nd chronicles 26 the entirety of chapter he was installed as king at the age of sage of 16 and reigned 52 years now at the tail end of his reign his son Jotham was the regent if you will active over over his particular rule because if you read second chronicles 26 it didn't really end all that well for Isaiah he offered up against the sanctions of the Lord incense in the temple of the Lord and the priests come in and indict him and so he's given by God leprosy as a judgment for his opposition to the proper course of religious practice in the day and so he's judged by God and given leprosy but during his reign his nation is brought the Dominion of Judah's expanded there is there is political prosperity there is we may even say a measure of military prosperity but there was not a there was not a concordant moral character there was not a matching godliness to any prosperity that they may have had they were not walking in the old paths where the good way is in fact just before we move to point number one in Isaiah too we can read of the situation in the nation at that particular time notice just very briefly in Isaiah 2 and verse 6 the reason we read this is to see the plight of the nation to see the condition that it is in and to see why God grants to Isaiah this vision and commissions him on a peculiar preaching ministry notice in Isaiah to at verse 64 you have forsaken your people the house of Jacob because they are filled with Eastern ways they are soothsayers like the Philistines and they are pleased with the children of foreigners their land is also full of silver and gold and there is no end to their treasures their land is also full of horses in there is no end to their chariots their land is also full of idols they worship the work of their own hands that which their own fingers have made people bow down and each man humbles himself therefore do not forgive them enter into the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty the lofty looks of man shall be humbled the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day so this vision comes in chapter 6 the Lord manifesting himself the Lord disclosing a sight of himself to Isaiah and then sending him out to preach judgment against this nation of idolaters against this nation of wicked men Isaiah again is a prophet preaching in the 8th century Assyria the dominant world power of the day gaining territory gaining dominion and Isaiah while he would while his name does mean and does signify yahweh is salvation nevertheless he comes with a preaching tongue to indict the nation and to set before them the only way of escape the only way of salvation the suffering servant of the Lord even our Lord Jesus Christ well let's look first then at the vision of the unrivaled majesty what does that language mean kids unrivaled simply means unmatched there is no other that can compete in the case of God against all others no one comes close the vision of the unrivaled majesty we see in verses 1 through 4 this vision of the Lord God Almighty this site that Isaiah casts his eyes upon we want to note first the fact of the vision notice in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord it's a wonderful thing it's a wonderful thing and we need to ask a couple questions or we need to make a couple observations the first is that Isaiah saw the Lord this is is an absolutely amazing thing what is the nature of this seeing do we need to you know do we need to seek to mine the scriptures to find out what the nature of this seeing was was with the physical I was it a vision was Isaiah brought into a trance was it in a dream was it a crystal phony like the many that we see in the Old Testament well we need not explore vainly but we do know this Isaiah saw the Lord now secondly what we need to say is that Isaiah did not see the Lord as he truly is in himself when we come to the scriptures we must conclude that God is invisible God is invisible when we come to the scriptures we find this in John for God is spirit perhaps you know the katha the catechetical language God is a spirit infinite eternal and unchangeable etc ends there's some that think that we should not say God is a spirit but rather God is spirit because saying God is a spirit sort of seems to have the language of putting him hint putting him in a category along with angels and Men he's just another constituent fellow in the order of being along with men and angels he's the highest to be sure he's supreme to be sure but he's nevertheless a spirit like angels just maximal instantiation of an angel if you will know he is God is spirit he is infinite eternal and unchangeable he is the one who is above all and so this seeing of the lord we must say with the scriptures with god's own self revelation that isaiah did not see the lord as he truly is in himself our confession says that the the lord our god is but one living in true God whose subsistence is in and of himself whose essence cannot be comprehended by anyone but himself a most pure spirit without body parts or passions he is immutable he is invisible God is a spirit God is spirit rather it can turn to a place such as John 118 this language ought to be familiar with to you in the prologue of John's Gospel we have this fashion clear in its declaration concerning the essential nature of God notice in John 118 no one has seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he has declared him no one has seen God at any time this language of seeing if it is anything we know what it is not that someone actually cast their eyes upon the form of God for there is no form of God properly speaking you can as well turn to first Timothy six it's a wonderful doxology that we have there in first Timothy six you can begin reading at verse 13 if your fingers have found yourself there quickly let's read I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession Pontius Pilate that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing which he will manifest in his own time now notice he who is the Blessed and only potentate the king of kings and Lord of lords who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see to whom be honor and everlasting power amen the Lord our God does not have form he is without body parts or to be seen so what do we mean then when we say what what is this manner of seeing whatever it is we know this with Kelvin it is asked how could I Zeya see God who is a spirit John for 24 and therefore cannot be seen with bodily eyes name or since the understandings of men cannot rise to his boundless height how can he be seen in a visible shape but we ought to be aware that when God exhibited himself to the view of the fathers he never appeared such as he actually is but such as the capacity of men could receive though men may be said to are below the heavens there is no absurdity in supposing that God comes down to them in such a manner as to cause some kind of mirror to reflect the Rays of his glory there was therefore exhibited to Isaiah such a form has enabled him according to his capacity to perceive the inconceivable majesty of God and thus he attributes to God a throne a robe and a bodily appearance brethren were confronted with two amazing things the first is clearly the glory of our God isn't it what do we mean when we say the the glory of God we say that a lot don't we the glory of God we pray and we rightly pray and we refer to the glory of God what do we mean when we say that well there is a sense of the meaning where we are to ascribe to God a surpassing weightiness to his being and to his reality the superlatives mount the perfections of God mount we cannot adequately mount adjectives and nouns upon each other to adequately describe the majesty the perfection in the glory of so great a god we're confronted with the fact that when we speak of the glory of God we're speaking that we are giving a high opinion of him he is not the stuff of casual contemplations he's not the stuff of simple speech but rather he's the stuff of surpassing Majesty glory holiness perfection in in an eternal and unchangeable in all of his beautiful attributes our God nevertheless Isaiah saw and that second great thing the glory of God is the first the condescension of God is the second isn't it what a glorious condescension to meet Isaiah and his frail and finite capacity making himself known in a way that Isaiah can comprehend and understand well maybe not comprehend but no because the living in true God is on incomprehensible he condescends to isaiah's creaturely pneus and gives a manifestation of himself in such a way that Isaiah can receive it our glorious God and our condescending God whatever the manner of seeing it is an instance of God condescending to our finite capacities tending to our creaturely pneus in making himself known notice then besides the fact of the vision we have the content of the vigeant vision and the first thing is the majesty of God in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up in the train of his robe filled the temple this is to cause us to reflect with high opinion upon the majesty of God his surpassing glory his royalty he is regal he is the unrivaled Majesty he is matchless so what the language is to speak to us he's hot he's sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple there's some perhaps disagreement or different ideas as to what this means when we read the Train of his robe filled the temple some might see that we have this this temple vision the Lord our God again meeting Isaiah and his capacity as a creature he's there in some sort of human form of a king and the Train of the robe the robe entirely fills the temple and so there is this one seated a throne in a heavenly temple and the robe fills that temple others see it this way that there is just a hem of the garment that is filling the entirety of the temple so Isaiah's vision of the Lord is really just the hem of a garment that feel that fills the temple God is so immense the son of God the second of the Blessed triune the brightness of the father's glory the Express image of his person who upholds all things by the word of his power is so glorious that only the hem of the garment fills the temple it's a picture of his majesty in both instances it's a picture of his majesty in the latter not that it isn't in the former but in the latter it's a it's a picture of his immensity God is immense he is omnipresent you see we cannot confine God as Christians we don't worship the god of the pagans he's not the god of of you know weekly comic book strip gods that is gray beard with a cane speaking you know wise sayings or doing whatever he does in the the folly of the comic books there is no form to God we cannot confine him he is unconfined there is nowhere that he is confined and there no there is nowhere where he is restricted from he is omnipresent he is immense he does not move from one place to go to another absented himself of that place and coming to a place where he was previously absent he fills the heavens in the earth he is everywhere he is omnipresent his immensity brethren if you were to sit if you were saved at the age of eight and you were to sit daily to reflect upon and to search out and to discover his immensity and reflect upon and meditate upon his omnipresence by the time let's say you live till you're a hundred and thirty-seven you would not have come close to exhausting even in my new show of the glory and the majesty of God and only one of the attributes that we can consider him after our God is glorious our God is not pagan conception he's not some individual being that occupies some space and goes about to various places of his created universe he is nowhere found and yet he is everywhere found you see men our men are circumscribed by space angels are definitively located in a place in time and space but our God our majestic God the creator of men and angels is replete of Lee unconfined he is everywhere immediately present by the fullness of his essence our God is immense brethren hopefully hopefully maybe not now as I as I'm preaching but hopefully we'll hopefully hell is that preaching but whenever you find yourselves in your word and contemplating on our God spend some minutes doing so you see kids there are some glorious things in God's creation of flood there are some flowers I'm okay and my madness to say there's some pretty beautiful flowers out there my I can you know land upon a flower and I see God's creative Beauty his ingenuity his his his genius in creating things to the beauty of the human eye there is a certain Majesty even an even in the the smallest flower you transcend a bit to a tree some pretty cool trees out there majestic trunks you know a multitude of branches in their their flowers and their leaves and we can look upon trees and and and we can be amazed at at the splendor of a tree transcend a bit further at transcend but I send a bit further to mountains kidzee you drive around in British Columbia and hopefully you haven't been here too long where you just you know don't even look at the mountains sometimes we can become acclimated you know we adapt to our environment I others mountains majestic majestic God's creation is majestic you can find yourselves contemplating earthly things and seeing an inherent beauty even in those things but remember the one who made those if a flower is majestic in its miniscule beauty if a tree is majestic in its larger a grandiose Ness if the mountains are majestic in their massive appearance and in the you know that seemingly boundless size that they have before our eyes what about the God who made those things who fills the heavens and the earth who cannot be confined by anything of his creation who is completely unconfined and yet not restricted from any place he fills the heavens and the earth and if that latter translation or understanding is right in this vision in order to communicate something of his glory and his unrivaled majesty there's only a hem of the garment of the robe filling the entirety of the temple our glorious God we need to move from wholesome and lawful but small thoughts of flowers and trees and mountains too high and heavy thoughts of the unrivaled majesty are blessed God holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the angels cry but we're not there yet notice secondly then after the majesty of God the seraphic attendants the seraphic attendants i typed seraphic into word and it didn't put a little squiggly red line under it so it's a word if words if Microsoft Word says it's a word then it's a word the seraphic attendants notice what we find in verse 2 and this is still under the the fat the content of the vision notice in verse 2 above it stood Seraphim each had each one had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew we have these seraphic attendants and if you think now that we've moved on from the majesty of God to these seraphic attendants and then so we've put aside for a moment the majesty of God you'd be wrong because this vision of the seraphic attendance isn't moving on now from the majesty of God but it simply amplifies what was before stated you see these Seraphim attend unto the worship of this unrivaled majesty and they fly with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew whenever you hear somebody preaching the old King James it it sounds cooler I think with Twain he covered his fare with Twain he covered his face with Twain he covered his feet and with Twain he flew you see what's going on here hopefully and perhaps you've heard it before these angels glorious in their own being to a certain degree because they have the derived glory of God they don't they have they don't have the glory originally like God it is derived its non-essential but nevertheless the angels in their appearance are glorious they are the fiery ones who fly about the altar of the Lord the the the throne of God giving him praise but you see they have to cover their eyes from the glory of God these sinless elect angels who serve God are flying about and they cannot look upon the majesty of God they hide themselves from the glory of this glorious one by covering their eyes with two of their wings you see we haven't moved on from the majesty of God we're only more deeply exploring the majesty of God when we see the sight of these Seraphim these ceramic attendance each one had six we wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet differing interpretations of this as well what the most common one I think is they cover their feet as a symbol of modesty and humility as a symbol of modesty and humility before the creator of Seraphim before the creator of Isaiah before the creator of all things who made all things from nothing in the space of six days and all very good there is another interpretation though that has this covering of feet meaning that they are covering they are blocking their angelic glory from Isaiah they're blocking their own angelic glory from Isaiah by covering their feet they're flying above the the Train of the robe in Isaiah's looking at this glorious sight and they have two masks if you will their own glory whatever interpretation you take and I personally prefer the former because God is disclosing a measure of his own glory by this vision to Isaiah so why would the Seraphim need to be hiding there's from him but nevertheless what it shows is still the majesty of our God as we get then to under the content of the vision the angelic refrain because what are these seraphic attendants doing but continually crying out to one another holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory hole earth is full of his glory as you've heard pastor Butler say before and some versions this holy is repeated nine times and others it's repeated six here it's repeated three the force I imagine not I imagine the force is the same God is holy God is holy and there is something very interesting about this passage you've heard it before these angels are holy these angels are maybe more to what we want to say sinless you see we can take the definition of the Holy of holiness as it pertains to God and bring it down to a lesser level we can strip it of its full glory sorry about that we can strip it above its full glory if we only say that holiness is the sinlessness of God or his ethical perfection his impeccable morality if we only say that that is what holiness is and the Angels have that too the angels are sinless they are the elect angels who do not transgress any laws of their creator they are ethically pure the Sarah the seraphic attendance so holiness must mean something else one man describes it or defines it this way as a predicate of deity holiness as a predicate of deity it expresses first of all the awful contrast between the divine and human and those positive attribute of God which constitute true divinity so in the first place we would want to say that holiness is that awful contrast between divinity and the nature of angels and humanity you see we have God and we have angels and Men there is a transcendent unrivaled and unmatched glory to God there is another pneus there is a separateness to our God as we said earlier he is not a constituent fellow along with us and angels in some order of being but rather he is transcendently removed from any category of created being and he stands alone as the one who is immense invisible eternal a most pure spirit without body parts and passions whose subsistence is in and of himself he is that most pure spirit whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself there is this other pneus to God where he is not just a you know a better he's just not a he's not a super angel he's not a sinless higher supreme version of men you know in his omniscience he is not simply some uber Santa Claus he is immense eternal glorious majestic holy removed if you will from his creation yet by His Eminence holy present by his glory because the whole earth is full of his glory holy holy holy is the lord of hosts we will not we will not exhaust explorations of the holiness of our Blessed God we will not exhaust it the angelic refrain holy holy holy is only used twice in the Bible it's only used twice in the Bible here and in Revelation 4 notice in Revelation for something quite similar and I would want to say and we should want to observe that there are great similarities between John and Isaiah what is John see the outset of his revelation the revelation of Jesus Christ to him he sees the Son of Man a vision of the Son of Man this glorious one the description that he gives is quite glorious notice in Revelation 4 though with respect to the language of holy holy holy notice verse 8 of Revelation for the four living creatures each having six wings were full of eyes around and within and they do not rest day or night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come notices well the song in 11 you are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they they exist and were created you see this language of holy holy holy is only right it's only it's only proper brethren if this if this section is to break well let's get to that point in a moment let's get to that point in a moment but hopefully you sing with the Angels holy holy holy is the lord of hosts hopefully your contemplations christian is that this point of blood doctrine in reality holy holy holy is the lord of hosts his the awful contrast between the divine and the human but let's not forget those positive attributes of God which constitute his true divinity there's probably a two-pronged aspect if you will to the holiness that he's speaking of when he talks about positive attributes if we could sum it up in two things it would be the perfection the impact ability the absolute purity of his moral and ethical character he is perfect there is of course as well the reality of his holiness where we see its effect the wrath of God the exercise of justice the holiness of God is seen in the destruction of enemies and in the judgment of those who oppose his Christ and reject his gospel the book of Revelation we saw that earlier holy and just is this one who renders the judgment upon the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth so holiness is seen in his awful contrast compared with angels and Men and everything else it's seen in the perfection of his being the point of his ethical and moral character and it's seen in the fact of the hotness of his justice the glory of his wrath God is holy always infinitely eternally and unchangeably lastly then under the vision of the unrivaled Majesty we want to note the manifest terror of the vision the manifest terror of the vision we see this in verse 4 we're back in Isaiah 6 now and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke manifest terror of the vision it has already been terrible because Isaiah has cast his eyes upon the Lord of Hosts has already seen that the the Lord of hosts seated on a throne high and lifted up with the Train of his robe filling the temple he's seen these perfect angels having to hide themselves from his glory having to cover their feet in absolute modesty and humility flying with the other two and now the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out in the house was filled with smoke not sure if any of you it was just I'm not sure how long ago maybe a month ago we had a little bit of an earthquake I put it in quotes because you know it wasn't as immense as earthquakes in other areas but my family and I were in our house and we were shaken it disturbed us a little bit you know there's there's shaking and where you know there's as far as i can remember there were two instances of a shaking of this massive 4.2 earthquake we are startled at the first one and then the second one at 10 seconds later even more startled at first we thought maybe someone fell out of their bed I was downstairs so I don't know who is heavy enough to make a loud noise falling out of their bed nobody but the second one came and we were we were shaken to the to the core of our beings it was just a little bit of an earthquake you know when natural disasters come when when we hear the rolling of the thunder when we hear that the screaming of a storm isn't there something in your your soul your you're rattled there there's something going on where you're you're driven as Christians you're driven to be thankful to your God and yet there is this sense as well of a reverential terror in awe at His Majesty you see because it is God who raises up the stormy winds that shake you to your core we don't have a god that has just created and now sits back and watches the winds roar watches the Hurricanes blow and watches the earthquakes Rumble we have a God of unmatched sovereignty who has ordained these things who brings them about for his own sovereign purposes hopefully when you feel those things or it is the case that when you feel those things there is this sending of the contemplative mind to God for the unbeliever this is very often the case as well the unbeliever has a knowledge of God don't ever forget that Romans 1 Psalm 19 the unbeliever has a knowledge of the unrivaled majesty and when his soul is rattled if it's if it's even just an earthquake or the screaming of a storm that sounds like a steam train there is something in him that reminds him that there is a king in high heavens who has hung out his his coat of arms bearing shield to show the atheists how much he despises their denunciations of him and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke this speaks to two things the glorious majesty of the presence of the lord and the wrath of that self-same lord the house is filled with smoke hopefully instances this reminds you of instances in the Bible that Exodus occasion of the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai God giving himself as special or bringing a special instance of his presence upon that holy mount there were thunderings and and fire and smoke we go to the book of Revelation and there is something of the same thing in John's vision we see in fact even in the book of Acts and perhaps it's a little bit different but the the house where the disciples were gathered it was shaken in act 6 confirming the presence of God all of that to come back to this the manifest terror here this is only the doors being shaken the threshold being shaken by the song of the angels you see were this the exercise of the unmatched power of God it wouldn't just be a shaking it would be an utter an utter destruction of whatever is going on here and whatever is in view only the song of the angels singing holy holy holy is the lord of hosts to each other rattles the place and the house is filled with smoke and we see then now as we move to the appropriate response by the son of a mat a masz our second large point we see why this was so terrible or we see what happens in response to this terrible thing the appropriate response by the son of a maz notice in verse 4 of 5 so i said this is isaiah he's the son of a maz 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 my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts the appropriate response isn't it from everything we've just briefly explored this is the proper response to the glory into the majesty of God how often do we come into church where we may not be confronted by the glory of God as Isaiah saw it but nevertheless we ought to be confronted by the glory of God God is present and he is present peculiarly through the preached word the hymn books that you open our hymns the hymns that you sing with an open hem book have glorious language that speak to the glory of our God as we pray and as we read the scriptures the glory of God is disclosed to you how often do you come in thinking about your lunch sandwich and leaving thinking about your lunch sandwich not being confronted with the glory of our God not being confronted by the glory of God and responding like the son of a maz woe is me for I am undone notice first the cry of alarm under the appropriate response the cry of alarm there is what we find here in this cry of alarm and it is simply these three words woe is me woe is me brethren there is something in this language of self recognition in fact this whole verse 5 we ought to note first off self-recognition generally Isaiah is made acutely aware of his sinfulness frailty and inadequacy before such a glorious spectacle again the Lord our God has not revealed himself as he truly is he has revealed himself make no mistake Isaiah saw the Lord and even in that condescension to isaiah's capacities as a as a finite creature nevertheless it elicits this response of self recognition woe is me for I am undone etc notice Calvin on this point and this is important to understand with regards to the response man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself the whole of our wisdom wisdom that is which deserves to be called true and assured broadly consists of two parts knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves that is what true wisdom is seen if we could summarize it in two parts knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves Calvin and he is Institute's I think begins the Institute's not with only this but with this particular portion the statement know thyself know thyself in fact the pagans even had that on their pagan edifices in Delphi for example stamped or engraved or however it was done back then know thyself whatever the pagans meant by that we know what the Bible means by that examine yourselves in the light of God in his revelation what does God say about men and what does God do to men to whom he discloses himself what ought man's response to be in the sight of such a god and after contemplations of such an unrivaled majesty it isn't it isn't hands in the pocket and just you know going to cut parsnips at home and not giving any thought about what we heard on the Lord's Day what we heard in church it's not just leaving you know getting in the car and turning on sports radio and moving on with your day we are to take pause as Christians where to take pause when we leave these doors there's there's not really you know there is something absolutely special to the church and the gathering on the lord's day Sabbath but when we leave that door there's not some sort of invisible membrane that we walk through and now we can just you know talk about everything worldly and and pay again and that sort of a thing all that to say this brethren hopefully when you come in and you're confronted with the glory of the Lord here on the Lord's Day in the Church of the Living Christ you're brought to a place like Isaiah where you scrutinize and examine yourself you explore the inner depths as much as you can as a finite being of your own soul and you arrive back at God and you say God cleanse me Lord clean me make me to walk in the old paths where the good way is give me the grace if you're a Christian and you're going through that exercise and that's who I was specifically talking to you leave this place with contemplations of your God and you seek to glory in him you seek to sing with the Angels holy holy holy is the lord of hosts self recognition is absolutely vital for the people of god we should be welcoming of divine scrutiny is how it dulls all puts it when we come up against a knowledge of our God when we grasp only the smallest picture of the glory of our God we are to welcome scrutiny we are to welcome divine scrutiny as his truth drills itself into our inner core we are to arrive at the place where we're with Isaiah we say we're with you man woe is me woe is me for I am undone notice as well we have something of something under this cry of alarm of self imprecation or commiseration or an exclamation of grief in the face of calamity woe is me for I am undone you know this this language of I am undone has been translated I am lost which carries a little bit of the meaning but not enough I am ruined is closer I am undone is good carries the meaning of I motherly destroyed I have ceased God has caused me by his glory to cease it is as if I have been obliterated by the majesty of God by the knowledge of him and no doubt by the knowledge of my own sinfulness in sight of such an unrivaled majesty woe is me for I am undone the reason behind this alarming assessment well actually not quite yet because notice what we have in the assessment of his condition not only is he undone not only is he ruined not only is he destroyed by this glorious vision but we have this language of unclean lips he goes on what was 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 he's acknowledging something of the dirtiness the uncleanness of his lips and we make a mistake if we simply say that this means that Isaiah said bad words occasionally you know if we you know for just you know occasionally uh he cursed when he spilled his coffee a man of unclean lips woe is me now you know there's something to this largely where we are to see hypocrisy deceit even silence a man of unclean lips hypocrisy deceit and even silence there might be something here peculiar to Isaiah that he did not cry out like the Angels or does not continually cry out like the Angels holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory he goes on to say for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts and yet I find myself perhaps Isaiah is rehearsing I find myself not saying with the Angels holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory dirtiness of lips is seen when we don't use them or write in silence there may be something as well here as not engaging in his prophetic ministry and so in Isaiah 6 we have a peculiar and special recalling if you will or recommissioning by God for Isaiah to go and proclaim to the nation their wickedness and their coven ental unfaithfulness I'm a man of unclean lips because I was charged by God to go about my prophetic ministry and now he must charge me again he go in verse 8 remember what we read there sorry and yeah the end of verse 8 then I said Here I am send me he's confronted with the holiness and the majesty of God and it's designed to put isaiah back out there to proclaim to this nation to make the heart of the people dull to me their ears heavy shut their eyes etc and to proclaim divine judgment for their iniquity there is something much much more than saying bad words with unclean lips there is something much more and he dwells among a people of unclean lips and I dwell he writes in the midst of a people of unclean lips this is something that marked that nation hypocrisy deceit silence hypocrisy you know they render me service with their lips but their heart is far from me they give me service with their mouths sure but it's hypocritical service their hearts are far from me it's a common refrain by God to the people in other forms but a common refrain this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me Christ Himself uses that language in Matthew 15 doesn't he when he's talking about those hypocritical self-righteous Pharisees who common and talk about the disciples washing her hand or not washing their hands and eating with unwashed hands their hearts were far from the Lord their lips might confess superficially service to the Lord but they were wicked and abominable deceit throughout one of the the one of the illnesses the sickness is the diseases of this people deceit deceiving neighbor deceiving family deceiving friend deceiving themselves silence not proclaiming not singing unto the Lord holy holy holy you know they're there we have to move to a close now I'm going to pick up the rest tonight because we've we've gone on and the the young preacher has not managed his time well that we need to take a few things from this we need to take a few things from this we're going to look at the reason behind the alarming assessment tonight and then the Blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord our last point but let's close with a few observations and the first is this brethren I think we've lost something we've lost something at the point of Christian worship what I mean by that is yes we are not to engage in the excessive you know pomp and circumstance an empty religion of let's say the roman catholic church or the eastern orthodox church and other churches where there is sort of this this overemphasis on liturgical externals and that sort of a thing perhaps the Pope ish Anglican environments are around the world where there is much of this external religion but you see we shouldn't verse lee overreact and just casually stroll in to the house of the Lord showing up you know 35 minutes late strolling in I'm actually not picking anybody I'm not looking at anybody you show it up late if you showed up light late you might have a reason perhaps you don't have a reason though we treat worship as its jit you know like it's a visit you know a visit to a seminar where we're going to hear about the latest skittle flavor I don't know I can't think of any other example but some worldly and casual and and some sort of thing where you're just you know rolling into a me hopefully when you show up for a work meeting you show up early you find your seat and you get ready for the person to pull down the little projector kick up the laptop to bring out the new the fact that green is now changed to Apple it's no longer lime hopefully you're there on time the Church of the Living God this one who is majestic this one who's who in this vision of condescension the hem of his robe only fills the temple this one who is holy holy holy this one who's a glory fills the whole earth the whole earth is the fullness of his glory we come in to worship this God we are not to treat him as a speaker disclosing the you know the verities of candy this is the king of all the earth will look at tonight this is the king the Lord of Hosts brethren worship is an honor we come in and we worship the triune God we should approach it not with liturgical superficiality but with a measure of outward respect we should put on our best we should be on time we should come and sit perhaps even a few minutes before the service starts open up our Bibles and prepare our minds for the worship of God because we worship such a one think about it the majestic one who created all things who holds all things by the word of his power we don't even know what that means but we know he upholds all things by the word of his power to use borrowed language at the point of His Holiness when we say God is holy one man has said something like this when we say God is holy we have not really known what we said we have only intimated what we adore we cannot comprehend him in the fullness of his essence this immense and glorious one has made himself known in his holy scriptures here to Isaiah he has disclosed his glory and the response of us the sons of Hamas the response of us the sons of men saved by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ is to come with a solemnity with a sobriety with a with a measure with it with the highest measure of respect for the king of kings and for the Lord of lords and hopefully if you're here this morning and if you don't know this god I pray by his Spirit and for his glory he would make known to you the severity and the weightiness of this passage note that you will one day be confronted with the glory of God if you remain in your sin if you remain in your rebellion against him it will be too late it will be too late and that day your knee will Bend the force of the power of the unrivaled majesty and he will say depart from me you wicked into the everlasting fire reserved for the devil and his angels you close with this Christ be confronted by the glory of our God understand that woe is you say with the Prophet woe is me for I am undone I am brought to oblivion but then know what we'll see tonight that in Christ Jesus there is atonement in Christ Jesus if you believe upon him by grace then behold this has touched your lips your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and you won't look with horror on that great a at this glorious unrivaled majesty but you will look with peace and joy and you'll sing with the Angels everlastingly holy holy holy is the lord of hosts let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word we thank you for this vision of Isaiah we thank you for what it discloses concerning you and concerning men we thank you for what this shows us about your glory about your majesty we thank you for what it shows us concerning our own state before you we do pray that you would help us to rejoice in you we pray that you would help us to sing your praises we pray that your Saints would all the more be lifted up to diligence and walk that we would know with whom we have to do and that we would adequately respond to your glory with our own service in this lower world and we do pray for those who do not know you those who are here this morning outside of Christ that you would confront them with your glory that you would meet them with your grace and that you would cause them to leave this place singing the praises of our gracious God we pray that you would go with us that you would help us we pray that you would just cause us to leave this place reflecting upon your glory seeking to live in light of it we pray in Christ's precious name amen why don't we all stand and sing the doxology if you know it great if you don't it's Roman numeral 16 in your hymn books let's stand and sing the doxology praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise Him above ye heavenly hosts praise for the Son and Holy Ghost Oh now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior who alone is wise be glory and Majesty Dominion and power both now and forever amen please be seated we'll have a brief time of prayer and once the piano is finished you're free to free to go you