The Power of Praise

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Our reading is from the prophet Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 through 8 as printed in your liturgy.

Isaiah 6:1–8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne,

and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphim, each with six wings.

With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet,

and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook,

and the temple was filled with smoke.

Woe to me, I cried, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips,

and I live among a people of unclean lips,

and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand,

which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

With it he touched my mouth and said,

See, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

And I said, Here am I, send me.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Well, good morning.

My name's Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And it's good to be with you this morning.

It was fun at Boxes of Love yesterday.

Man, people can move really fast.

I was on the tape.

This is the last part of the bottleneck, right?

And you've got to tape those boxes shut.

And this guy, he said, Hey, you come do the tape with me.

I was like, Oh, shoot.

And he was a machine.

He was like, And I was like, Sorry, sorry.

But everyone else, you did such a great job.

And I can't wait for it again next year.

What are we doing?

Okay, we're preaching.

So you may have noticed we're in this fall series.

We were in this fall series called Explore God.

We joined with hundreds of other churches in the Bay Area,

exploring God for seven weeks,

asking big questions.

And there were two weeks, though,

in between our Explore God series and Thanksgiving,

where Jonathan and I wanted to just preach sermons

that spoke particularly to our specific moment

in this moment of our history as a church,

Christ Church East Bay.

So last week, Jonathan announced our capital campaign

to raise $600,000 to pay off what we owe

on this historic, strategic church property

by the end of next year.

And another thing that's going on in our churches,

as you know, we're looking for a worship director.

And I'm the interim worship director right now.

So Jonathan, last week, he preached on,

you know, he preached a sermon

that most pastors never want to preach, right?

He preached on giving and generosity,

about how the ancient people of God

gave gratefully and cheerfully and generously

to build a place of worship,

to build the tabernacle.

And if you think that the main point, though,

of that story was generosity,

just generosity toward a house of worship,

I want to remind you this morning

about how that story ended.

Because remember, not only did they give generously,

not only did they build that tabernacle,

but more importantly,

when the tabernacle was completed, what happened?

The glory of the Lord fell upon

and filled that tabernacle in a thick cloud.

The point of that story about the building of the tabernacle

and all the extravagant giving

that went toward that capital campaign project,

it wasn't just a story of generosity.

The point was that for God's people,

there was nothing more valuable to them,

nothing more worthy of their investment

than the worship of God and his presence among them.

Like see, generosity toward the church is one thing,

but apart from worship,

apart from a passion for the presence of God.

If we give and give and give,

even with lavishness,

but God is not wanted and worshiped here,

and thus God is not pleased to dwell here amongst us,

then we could raise that 600K,

we could raise a trillion,

but it will only be toward a four-walled waste of money.

If there are no praises here for our God to inhabit.

As King David said in Psalm 22, verse 3,

Psalms 22:3

you are holy,

and literally it says,

you inhabit the hallelujahs of your people.

You inhabit the hallelujahs of your people.

You sit enthroned in their praises.

So Christ Church family,

yes, we want to be generous,

and yes, we do believe God wants us to preach the gospel

and minister here in this historic and strategic location

in Berkeley, the Bay, and beyond,

and hopefully we will call this property,

you know, truly our own without debt,

but make no mistake,

if God is not worshipped here,

if his glory is not beheld here,

and if his presence doesn't fill this place,

and he is not enthroned in our praises,

then I hope he sabotages our capital campaign.

I hope he sabotages all our plans for this building

and for this church

if we do not worship him here in his presence.

So the question isn't simply,

will Christ Church,

will we as a church family be generous enough

to raise 600K?

The question is, will we worship?

Will we worship here?

This is my question for us today,

as your pastor,

as your interim worship director,

as we look ahead to owning this place debt-free,

and as we look for a new worship director,

and as we're in this season of re-exploring, right,

and rediscovering the heart of worship,

apart from all the bells and whistles

maybe many of us got used to,

will we worship?

Will we fill this place with the kind of praise

that the holy, holy, holy God desires to inhabit?

And in case you're wondering what that might look like,

that's why we had Cherubha read that passage this morning

from Isaiah chapter 6,

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Isaiah describing his famous vision of the Lord.

I saw the Lord, he says,

enthroned amidst hundreds of hallelujahs,

hundreds of holy hallelujahs.

So what we're gonna do this morning

is we're gonna walk through this passage,

kinda like I'm gonna be your tour guide,

and I just wanna point out to you

what it means to be a worshiping church.

You know, this week, this passage,

it just really wrecked me.

There's just so much that I saw in it,

that God spoke to me in it,

and I had no idea how to organize all those thoughts.

And I trembled to consider

being up here preaching this text

with my own unclean lips.

How do I preach this holy, holy, holy God?

But I think we'll find out in Isaiah chapter 6

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

what kind of a God he is

and how he enables even preachers like myself

to come before him, to serve him,

and to fill his church that we might serve him as well.

So, you know, I haven't prayed yet.

I wanna do that this morning.

And I think it's fitting, actually,

to pray on my knees.

I don't normally do this here,

and I don't mean to make you uncomfortable

or to make this a show,

but I think we need this.

Father, you know,

this is gonna be a different kind of sermon.

Father, who am I

to preach your glory

and your holiness

and your majesty

with my unclean lips?

And who are we

to come before you

to take the body of your son

and his blood upon our lips,

our unclean lips,

as a church?

Lord, open our eyes.

Would you set before us

your immense holiness?

Would we be stunned, Lord God,

in your presence,

arrested by your holiness,

would we catch this vision?

Would we see you?

Would we encounter you

as the God that you are?

And would you fill us with praise,

reverent praise,

but also confident praise,

for you have provided the way

before your throne

in Christ Jesus.

and would you

so fill our hearts

with adoration for Christ,

who has brought us near

to the holy God.

And Lord, as we always pray,

would this be a sacred place,

Christ's church?

Would you inhabit

our hallelujahs?

would our praises go out,

would they go forth?

Would the nations be glad

along with us

because of the great salvation

you've offered us in Christ?

So be honored, Lord God,

in the preaching of your word,

and give us eyes to see,

hearts that are longing,

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I'm just gonna walk us through

this text,

and I want us to have worship

on our minds.

Jonathan sent me something

really kind of humorous,

but also like so profound

this week

from a pastor friend of his.

He said,

you know,

if you ask a typical churchgoer

you know,

just how they experienced

Sunday worship

or what they expected

to experience

at Sunday worship,

they might say,

well, you know,

there's gonna be some music.

I kinda like the song selection

this week compared to last week.

The pastor had, you know,

two or three points,

and this is something funny

that he said,

and then the donuts

were kinda nice.

Right.

But if you ask Isaiah,

right,

if you ask Isaiah

what he experienced

in worship,

he would say,

I saw God.

I saw God

for who he was.

and then I saw myself

for who I am

before him

and it was terrifying,

but I also saw his mercy

and I saw my calling

from that day forward.

I was transformed

because I saw God.

every Sunday

when we come here,

we don't come here

to mess around.

We come here

to encounter God.

I teach my girls this

every Sunday.

I say,

girls,

what day is today?

And I've trained them

to say,

it's the Lord's day.

It's the Lord's day.

And I say,

and what do we do

on the Lord's day?

And they say,

we worship God.

We worship God.

This is not something

to take lightly.

We worship

the holy,

holy,

holy God.

So let's see

what Isaiah saw

in Isaiah chapter six.

Now look with me

at verse one.

This isn't some fantasy

that he's having,

some mythical fantasy

that he's trying to make up.

He is rooting this

in a historical moment.

In the year

that King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord,

he says.

High and exalted,

seated on a throne,

and the train of his robe

filled the temple.

There's a lot packed

into this right here.

There's a lot going on

in this historical moment.

See,

because King Uzziah,

you could argue,

was one of the greatest kings

of Israel.

He's the king

that reigned

the second longest

of all the kings,

and the king that reigned

longer than him,

Manasseh,

he was wicked.

He was awful.

He was one of the worst.

All right?

But King Uzziah,

he reigned for 52 years,

and Israel prospered,

and Israel followed,

and worshipped,

and feared the Lord.

Very good years.

You could read about it

in 2 Chronicles 26.

He reigned from the time

he was 16.

He listened to the priest

who taught him.

He sought the Lord.

He was victorious in battle.

The nations paid him tribute.

He was famous.

The soil was fertile.

There were large herds.

He built many monuments

and structures.

He fortified the nation of Israel.

And he had a whole huge army,

mighty warriors,

to defend his people.

He was successful in every way

until he grew proud.

He grew proud of all these accomplishments

as we often do.

He grew so proud that he thought,

apparently I can do anything,

so I'm going to walk

into the holy place of the temple.

I'm going to burn my own incense unto God.

I'm going to worship him how I want

because I'm this amazing king.

And he went in and did what only the priests

were allowed to do.

And so the priests,

60 of them said,

no, you cannot do this.

You must not do this.

They rebuked him.

They withstood him.

And he got angry.

But in his anger,

as soon as he was angry,

in response,

God struck him,

his forehead, it says,

with leprosy,

which meant that

for the rest of his life,

he could, one,

no longer even live in his own palace,

and two,

he never stepped foot

into the temple ever again.

And he lived alone

and he died alone.

That's what happened.

That's the context around this

in the year that King Uzziah died.

So if you are a part of the nation of Israel,

you are nervous.

This was the greatest king

that you've seen in a long time.

52 years of prosperity.

Now he's struck with leprosy.

Now he's dead.

Also at this time,

the Assyrians had started

their major conquest

and they were coming closer

and closer to Israel every year.

And according to Jewish tradition,

not only was this a time

of political, national instability

for Israel,

Isaiah personally would have felt this

because according to the Jewish tradition,

Isaiah's dad and Uzziah's dad

were brothers.

So they were cousins.

Isaiah was part of this royal family

and this was happening to his cousin.

All right?

Lots of hard stuff is going on here

as we come into Isaiah chapter six, verse one.

And yet it's precisely in this moment

of instability

that God reveals himself to Isaiah.

In the year that King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord seated on a throne.

Right.

And I love how Jackie Hill Perry puts this.

In this moment when Israel's questioning

their well-being,

Jackie Hill Perry,

if you haven't read her book,

Holier Than Thou,

I highly recommend it.

But she says,

Uzziah is dead,

but the King of God's people is alive,

sitting on his throne.

Maybe that seems obvious,

but don't miss this.

A big part of the holiness of God

is that God has never not been alive.

God is self-existent.

He exists because he exists.

He needs no one but himself to be.

Therefore, he always has

and will always be.

He was before was,

was, she says.

So in the year that King Uzziah died,

this great King of Israel,

God reveals himself

as an alternative King,

as a better King,

a King that will never die.

And that's who he sees

in this vision,

high and lifted up,

seated on a throne.

Now another thing

that's interesting though,

right,

is Uzziah,

what was he punished for?

He was punished for trying to be

both a king and a priest.

That never happened before

in all of the nation of Israel's history.

Right?

And yet somehow,

in this temple vision,

you have this king sitting on the throne,

and it's okay for him

to be on the throne.

You have a king and a priest there,

it's the Lord.

There's something utterly unique

about this king,

and we'll talk about that more later.

Look with me now at verse two.

What else is going on here?

Above him were seraphim,

each with six wings.

With two wings,

they covered their faces.

With two,

they covered their feet.

And with two,

they were flying.

So,

in case you're wondering

what seraphim are,

they're probably like

these angelic figures.

This is the only place

in all of scripture

that talks about these figures.

There's these seraphim,

literally the burning ones.

All right?

So,

they're these burning creatures,

angels,

unfallen creatures,

with six wings.

Two to fly,

two to cover their faces,

and two to cover their feet.

They're covered from head to toe.

Why?

Because even though

the very thing

that they're created for,

the only thing scripture

ever tells us about them

is that they're here

to worship God,

they can hardly do that.

They can hardly be

in the presence of God,

even though they're created

to be in the presence of God,

even though they're

unfallen creatures.

And if anyone of us

saw one of these creatures

like flying to this place,

it'd probably freak us out.

All right?

And they're just kind of

so strange, right?

What is this image?

I don't know.

It's hard to imagine, right?

But I think the point

is to accent

the strangeness,

the otherness

of God.

Our holy,

holy,

holy God.

Even the unfallen creatures,

these angels,

cannot bear his presence

without covering themselves

with their wings.

Now look with me

at verse three.

What are they doing?

Well, they're worshiping.

They're worshiping.

And they were calling

to one another.

I love that.

They're worshiping

by preaching

to one another

the truths about God.

You know,

when I was

a young worship leader

in high school

and I used to pick the songs

for my youth group

or for my church,

I had this understanding

of worship

that is all praise unto God.

And so I would only

pick songs

that were like

in the first person.

Like,

I want to know you.

I love you, Lord.

Right?

My Jesus,

I love thee.

Right?

And I tried not to pick songs

that were like

more in the third person

about God.

Like,

holy,

holy,

holy

is the Lord God almighty.

Because I wanted to direct

all my worship

toward God.

But you know,

I was missing something.

I didn't realize

that the point of worship

is not just to

approach God

to lift our praises up

to Him,

but it's to encourage

one another.

It's to stir one another.

It's to provoke one another

unto praise.

And it's a beautiful thing

when we do that.

Like,

Christchurch,

what if we came

into this place

every Sunday

ready to worship,

not lifting up

our praises

only to God,

but what if we saw

our ministry

as singing

to one another

and provoking

the praise

of the holy,

holy,

holy God?

You know,

we do this thing now

where we have a playlist

every Sunday

if you'd like to listen ahead

to the songs

that are gonna be played

for the following Sunday.

We try to highlight

one of the songs

that might be lesser known

or that we're trying

to introduce.

And so my family

plays that quite often

at least on our way

to church on Sunday.

And one of the things

that stirs my heart

the most

is when I'm standing

next to my daughter,

Cammie,

and she's singing

every word.

Your goodness

is running after,

it's running after me.

I will sing

of the goodness

of God,

right?

Praise God

from whom

all blessings flow.

It's a beautiful thing

to hear the praises

of God's people,

to sing them

to one another.

And that's what

the seraphim

are doing

in this moment.

They are calling

to one another,

it says in verse 3.

Holy,

holy,

holy

is the Lord

almighty.

The whole earth

is full of his glory.

They are pointing

away from themselves,

pointing to the throne

and saying,

holy,

holy,

holy,

there is nothing

like this God.

And notice the song

they sing,

holy,

holy,

holy.

We sing it all

the time here,

but it's so significant.

Throughout the scriptures,

whenever you see

repetition,

it means emphasis.

Jesus.

So,

for example,

we might see

amen,

amen,

truly,

truly,

right?

David cries,

Absalom,

Absalom,

when he's sad

about his son.

Jesus cries,

Jerusalem,

Jerusalem,

right?

But never in all

of scripture

do you see

a triple repetition.

Never.

Holy,

holy,

holy.

He's even distinct

in his distinctness.

He's holy

to the uttermost.

Holy,

holy,

holy is the Lord

almighty.

They cry out.

And what does that

even mean?

What does holy mean?

Well,

to be holy

is to be set apart,

right?

It's to be distinct.

It's to be in a class

of his own.

That's what God is.

God is in a class

of his own.

This is the godness

of God

that they're getting

at here

when they're crying

holy,

holy,

holy.

Right?

Notice,

they don't cry

love,

love,

love,

or goodness,

goodness,

goodness,

or,

I don't know,

mighty,

mighty,

mighty,

no.

Say holy,

holy,

holy.

Why is that?

Why is this first?

Why is this essential

to the godness

of God?

Well,

it's because

God could not be

loving

if he were not holy.

if God were not holy

in and of himself,

never tempted

to do anything

out of selfishness

or sinfulness

or malice,

he could not love us.

He is holy,

holy,

holy,

so that he can be

holy in his love,

holy in his goodness,

holy in his might,

holy in his grace,

holy in his mercy.

There is no,

it's not like there's

this like love

that he participates in,

no,

he is love himself

because he's holy love.

There's no like goodness

that he just participates in,

no,

he defines goodness

because he's holy

in his goodness.

His holy,

holy holiness

is his transcendence,

he's the source,

he's the fountain.

Everything else

is derived

from him.

Everything else,

and there's nothing

like that in all creation,

right?

Right,

your kids might say

something like,

you know,

hey,

daddy,

mommy,

who created

like the world?

And you would say,

well,

Genesis 1,

God,

all right?

You think you're

a pretty good theologian,

right?

And then number two,

they might say,

well,

who made me?

Well,

you say,

well,

God,

he knitted you

in his womb,

right?

What do you do

when they ask you,

well,

who made God?

Right?

Who made God?

God.

When God is crying,

when they're crying out

that God is holy,

holy,

holy,

when they're getting

at his supreme holiness,

they're getting at the fact

that there is nothing

in all creation

like this God.

Again,

he's in a class

of his own.

Holy,

holy,

holy is the Lord Almighty,

is the Lord of hosts,

of all the armies

of heaven.

The whole earth

is full of his glory.

It can't contain his glory.

The whole earth

is filled

with the weight

of his majesty.

That's what they're singing

to one another.

And they're singing it

so loud,

right?

Verse four says,

at the sound of their voices,

the doorposts

and thresholds

shook

and the temple

was filled

with smoke.

Their praises

are rocking the place.

You know,

it's like,

maybe a little

tiny picture of that

is Easter here

where Jonathan's like,

make some noise,

right?

And we get the cowbells

and people are like

stomping their feet,

clapping their feet,

and their hands.

This is like that

on steroids,

all right?

People are just,

God's creatures

who are made

to worship him

are just offering up

this crazy noise,

shaking the whole place.

It reminds me of,

you know,

actually around

Thanksgiving time

when I used to live

in Philadelphia

during seminary,

I would go to this church.

It was called

North Shore Baptist Church.

And every,

I think it was the Wednesday

before Thanksgiving,

it was a tiny

little church

with a low ceiling

and they would do

testimonies

every Wednesday

before Thanksgiving

and people would give

like crazy testimonies.

There was this drug lord,

like he was a

multi-million dollar

drug lord

and he told a story

of how he came to Christ,

how he was like

in international prison

and stuff.

It was wild,

all right?

They always had stories.

And hearing those stories

and responding

to those stories,

it was like testimony

and worship

and they worshipped.

man,

with those low ceilings,

I know this is beautiful,

I love this,

but man,

those low ceilings,

they rocked that place

with worship.

It shook.

That's what I think about

when I think about

this kind of praise

that God deserves

from his people,

a praise that shakes

this place,

that has an impact.

Do you know

that people have come

into Christ's church

just having heard

the music

from the street?

They've come in

through our doors.

It is a missional thing

to sing forth

God's praises

with all your might,

no matter how bad

you sing.

In fact,

that's a greater testimony

to the grace of God,

to the glory of God.

So they're shaking

this place,

but not only

is the place shaking,

but here we go,

it's filled with smoke.

What does that mean?

There's fire,

something dangerous,

right?

Something hot,

something burning,

something being consumed.

What's going on here?

There's smoke,

and he sees it.

Verse five,

what does he say?

Woe to me,

Isaiah cried.

Woe to me.

Now, a question I have

for us is,

why does he say,

why is it woe

and not worship?

Why doesn't he join

the seraphim in worship?

Why doesn't he say,

holy, holy, holy,

yeah, me too,

I affirm that,

amen, holy, holy, holy?

Because God's holiness

is not just about

his transcendence,

it's about his moral purity.

And when we come

into the presence of God,

we're not just struck

by his otherness

as the I am,

the holy, holy, holy God,

we are struck

by his absolute purity

and his righteousness.

And like a mirror

before us,

we see ourselves

and we don't measure up.

We see ourselves,

we not only see God

for who he really is,

but we see ourselves

for who we really are.

Right?

People of unclean lips.

He says,

I am ruined.

You can say,

I am doomed.

I am undone.

I am lost.

For I am a man

of unclean lips,

he says.

It's interesting

that he says,

I'm a man of unclean lips,

isn't it?

Because what's his job?

He's a prophet.

The very instrument

that God gave him

to most usefully serve him,

his own righteousness,

he's repenting of.

Because before this holy God,

the thing that he is best at,

he realizes is not enough.

It's unclean.

It's wrong.

I feel that all the time

as a pastor.

How often I get up here

and I want to preach to you

because I do want to honor God,

but I kind of want

to honor myself.

I kind of want to glorify myself

sometimes with the words

that I say.

Ask any worship leader.

They want to worship God,

but they kind of like

letting people hear their voice.

Same with Isaiah the prophet.

We have unclean lips.

Out of the overflow of the heart,

out of the mouth comes

the overflow of the heart, right?

Out of the abundance of the heart.

I'm a man of unclean lips,

he says.

And not only that,

but I live among a people

of unclean lips.

I'm surrounded by this.

I can't escape it.

This is who we are.

And with these unclean lips,

my eyes have seen something

that I'm not sure I can handle.

My eyes have seen the King,

the Lord Almighty.

And he says,

woe is me.

Do we come into worship

every Sunday

with woe?

Do we have a holy reverence

to our worship?

Is this truly a sacred place?

Do we behold who God is

and do we behold who we are?

See, Isaiah 6 is actually

where we get our liturgy.

If you look at your liturgies,

this is the format.

We come before God,

we sing his praise,

right?

We acknowledge who he is,

this glorious God.

And we also acknowledge

our unclean lips,

our uncleanness,

our sin before him.

We confess our sins,

right?

Every week,

we confess our sins

to God

and to one another.

It's coming right out

of Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And what do we do next, though?

What do we do about that?

What do we do

when we realize that,

yeah,

we are unclean?

I think a lot of us

want to say,

well,

I just want to put aside

the holiness of God.

That's one of my

less favorite things about him,

one of my least favorite

doctrines,

right?

But God says no.

And Isaiah says no.

Let's lean into this,

let's lean into the truth.

Woe is me.

Woe is me

because I truly am unclean.

When we come into worship,

we face the truth

about God

and about ourselves.

And that can be

a hard truth

to face up to.

Super hard.

But get this,

the good news

of the gospel

is that that's not

the end of Isaiah's vision,

right?

Verse 6.

Then one of the seraphim

flew to me

with a live coal

in his hand,

which he had taken

with tongs

from the altar.

With it,

he touched my mouth

and said,

see,

this has touched

your lips.

your guilt

is taken away

and your sin

atoned for.

It's crazy right now

that Isaiah's here,

all right?

In this temple.

So there are a couple

details I want to point out

to you in this vision,

all right?

So he's in,

he sees the Lord

seated on his throne,

okay?

And if you're familiar

with that language,

the throne,

what is the throne

that was in the temple?

What is considered

as the throne

of the temple?

It was the Ark

of the Covenant.

Sometimes known

as the footstool

of the Lord,

but also known

as the throne.

That's where God

would sit,

in the holy of holy

place in the temple,

the place that

the high priest

could only enter

once a year,

but somehow

the Lord

is sitting there

and Isaiah

is present there,

all right?

And notice

the smoke

that's in there,

right?

Because once a year,

they would burn

a sacrifice

on that altar

at the Ark

of the Covenant.

So this is

a special time,

this is Yom Kippur,

this is the day

of atonement,

right?

And it's like,

first of all,

why is a king there

and why is Isaiah there?

How can that even happen,

all right?

Why is a king there?

Why is Isaiah there?

Why is a prophet there?

Where's the priest?

Well,

that's what's spoken to

here in verse 6

and 7.

When the seraphim

is flying toward him

with a coal in his hand

and taking it

and touching his mouth

with it

and getting rid

of his guilt,

what he's doing

is he's

atoning for

his sin

from the sacrifice

that's on the altar.

There's a sacrifice

as well

in this scene.

It's not just

the Lord on a throne.

It's not just

Isaiah

seeing all this.

There's a sacrifice

being burnt.

And when

Isaiah's lips

are put in touch

with that sacrifice,

those burning coals,

his guilt's taken away.

His sin

is covered.

And I think,

you know,

we might be tempted

to think this is just

a cheap, easy grace.

This is just something

he does,

some kind of ritual

from these coals.

Boom,

he's clean.

But if we have eyes

to see what's really

going on here,

this is a foreshadowing

of the gospel.

This is a picture

of Christ.

You know,

John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

In John chapter 12,

John 12 · chapter mention

the evangelist John,

he says that

Isaiah saw

Jesus' glory.

glory.

It's in John chapter 12,

John 12:41

verse 41.

Isaiah saw

Jesus' glory.

And I think

what he meant

by that was

he's seeing

this,

not only this king

who's seated

on his throne

high and lifted up,

but he's also seeing

this sacrifice

that's made for him,

that's making him

able to be

in the presence

of God.

this purifying

work of God,

this initiative

of God

to come near to him.

He didn't even ask

for forgiveness.

He didn't even ask

to be clean.

All he's thinking

is woe is me,

I'm dead.

But God comes

near to him,

puts him

into union

with his sacrifice

and his sins

are atoned for.

And listen,

this changes everything.

This changes

everything

about how Isaiah

will live

from then on.

verse 8,

this is the last verse.

It says,

sin's been atoned for.

Then I heard

the voice of the Lord

saying,

whom shall I send

and who will go

for us?

And this guy,

Isaiah,

who goes from fearful

and woe is me

and I cannot

behold the Lord,

all of a sudden,

because of this mercy

that has come

near to him,

he says,

here I am.

Or in the Hebrew,

behold me,

he says.

All of a sudden

he says,

behold me.

Is he crazy?

This is the holy,

holy God.

And he was saying,

woe is me at first

and now he's saying,

behold me?

How can he say

something like that?

How could any of us

say that

to the holy,

holy,

holy God?

God.

It's because his sins

were atoned for.

It's because of the sacrifice

that was made for him.

And if we look forward

to what this was pointing to,

it points to Jesus,

all right?

The Lamb of God.

The Lamb who was

foreshadowed in that sacrifice

at this altar.

The only one who is

not only a prophet,

but also a king

and a priest.

Who can go into

the temple for us.

Not just sitting

on the throne,

but who is

our very sacrifice.

What kind of a king

is that?

It's a priestly king.

The Lamb of God

slain for us.

And this transforms

everything about Isaiah.

He sees God.

He sees himself.

He sees God's mercy.

And he sees his calling.

And he says,

here am I.

Behold me.

I'm unafraid of you now,

God.

Not because you are not

a fearful holy God,

but because you have

made me confident

to come near

to your throne of grace.

And here am I.

Send me.

Use me, Lord.

However you want.

In Christ's church,

I hope that this church,

this place,

will be such a place

of worship

that we also see God,

that we also see ourselves,

that we see his mercy,

and that we go forth.

That's what the benediction

is every week.

Go in the name of Jesus,

in the name of Jesus,

in your union with Jesus,

because of his sacrifice,

to love and serve this world

in response to his sacrifice.

And I pray that that's

the kind of sacred church

we'll be.

That's the kind of

worshiping church we'll be.

So will you pray with me?

Amen.

Lord God,

help us to see.

Give us this kind of

holy vision.

And make us this kind of

holy,

worshiping church.

would you do it

unto the glory of Jesus,

with him lifted up

before our eyes,

the author and perfecter

of our faith,

the Lamb of God

who was slain

for the sins of the world,

who's come near to us.

Thank you for this mercy.

Give us eyes to see

the heights of your holiness

and the depths of your grace

all at the same time

and make us a people of worship

because of it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.