Welcome to “Learning and Living the God-centered life”

Carmel Baptist Church

www.learningandlivingtheword.com
December 6, 2009
 Review from last Sunday
Go to Isaiah 57:15
For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
“I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.
 Review from last Sunday
 Transcendence means that God is far “above” the
creation in the sense that He is greater than the creation
and is independent of it.
God is transcendent in His;
Majesty
Holiness
Greatness
Otherness
 The immanence of God means His involvement in
creation which means His remaining in and close to
creation.
 Review from last Sunday
Last week we covered Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah is writing around 740 BC, when King Uzziah dies and
the concern is will the next king be a good king or a bad king.
This is a time of great uncertainty.

And then we get a three fold description of God:

 Sitting on a throne - the royalty and majesty of God
 Lofty and exalted - the sovereign rule of God over all
things
 Train of His robe fills the temple - the importance of God
 Review from last Sunday
Verse 3
Holy - Holy - Holy
 This is amazing when you realize in the Hebrew language
when you express a superlative for example like the greatest
king, then you do this with a single repetition
 So King, King we read as King of Kings and that is the
greatest King
 Or Lord, Lord we read as Lord of Lords and that is the
greatest Lord

But in this verse we don't have a single repetition instead we

have a double repetition
The English language again is not capable of holding this
infinite truth about this glorious God.
(Photos to illustrate)
 Today’s Lesson

Isaiah Chapter 6 verse 4

This is portraying to us the intensity of their worship

toward God

In heaven when we get there and are freed from all our
inhibitions and sin then we are going to worship from
purified souls and our worship will take on an intensity that
we never thought possible.
The temple is filled with smoke, so where did that come
from?

In verse 6 we get the clue and it is from the altar that has
burning coals on it

This smoke is filling the temple and represents the

absolute purity of God

So the smoke symbolizes purity of God because it is from

this very altar that a coal will be pulled to purify Isaiah.

And now we realize that this God is not only powerful,

glorious, majestic, great and awesome in who He is but He
is also morally perfect and pure and can't have anything
like sin or sinners in His presence.
Verse 5
Notice that Isaiah doesn't say "I have got some personal
baggage that I need to work through."
We have no idea to the degree of the wickedness of the
human heart
Now look at the word FOR - which could be read
BECAUSE
Because my eyes have seen the greatness, majesty and
holiness of God. (the transcendence of God)
Isaiah here is not recognizing his worth or anything that is
owed him
He sees here to the very depths of his human sinfulness
And he recognizes he has no right to stand before this
righteous and holy God
Why does Isaiah mention his lips?
Because as we learn later in the gospels from Jesus, from
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks

READ Matthew 12:34

You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is
good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the
heart.

Read Matthew 15:16-20

When we are free to speak with no restraints or when we

speak the first things that come into our minds when
something happens to us it reveals what is going on in the
heart
Remember the context in which Isaiah is writing these
words…

 740 BC was a time of great rebellion against God and

here we have Isaiah who is on of the good guys

 Many of the people had turned to idol worship and

Isaiah could have determined in his mind that he was
doing quite well compared to the crowd and said I'm not
that bad

And he could have thought, I am a prophet and I am hot

stuff

But then he sees the LORD and what does he conclude?

"I am a man of unclean lips just like everyone else"
Isaiah Chapter 6 and verse 6
So we see that there is a coal pressed upon the lips of Isaiah in
order to burn away all of his iniquity before the LORD

Where we should expect judgment instead we see right at this

point God's amazing grace

Notice the One here who initiates the grace

 Answer - it is God Himself
Isaiah is before God probably laying is a prostrate on the floor
feeling hopeless and helpless

And now notice the means that God uses in His display of
mercy for Isaiah
Purification
Forgiveness
The Seraphim touches the lips of Isaiah
Here is the Biblical principle
 God has the exact remedy of forgiveness that is able to
match your sin

There is a coal to burn away the sin and now this leaves Isaiah
as righteous before God
Isn't this the wonder of the doctrine of "justification by faith"
We receive the righteousness of Christ that is credited to our
account via faith (Romans 4:25)
The goal is nothing less than Isaiah's restoration to service in
ministry

Do you think of Christian service in this way?

Not only does God initiate saving grace that brings us to
salvation which purifies and restores us
But then He calls us to be in ministry with Him
What a privilege we have to be servants of this great and
glorious king
The ministry that God calls Isaiah to as we can read later
on is anything but warm and fuzzy

But instead God is saying to Isaiah that the vast majority

that you speak my word to you will face nothing but ridicule
and hardship
And Isaiah you can expect this for a lifetime but know that
there will be a remnant

What could possibly motivate Isaiah to this kind of service?

Answer - he has seen the very face of God!
He has seen and experienced the grace of this God who is
infinitely great
Willing service is an overflow from this knowledge of God
Especially for endurance in the service of God
How does Isaiah hang in there for a lifetime of tribulation?
Isaiah knows God
Conclusion
Point 1 - we can clearly see in Isaiah a vision of God's
goodness the kindess and the grace of God but we see first
and foremost the transcendence of God's greatness and
God's glory
And we see God's greatness as it compares to our
sinfulness, and wretchedness

If you are wondering if we as the creation have any rights

the answer is yes, we have one right
We have the right to condemnation because we have
offended the infinite holiness and glory of God

The breath that you are taking right now is because of His
grace, the food that you will eat today at lunch is by His
grace, and the recreation and rest you have watching the
Panther game is also by His grace
And now wrap your mind around this, the very God that is
transcendent and great, glorious and above us has freely
chosen to come to us

Romans 8:32 - He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him
freely give us all things?
We are going to have to work hard in this culture against this
push to try and convince us or our self importance and self
worth
God brings us to His grace and He did not have to do it

Point 2 - Let us rethink as Christian people what it means to

serve God.
This we will talk about in the coming weeks as we talk about
the self sufficiency