May I invite us to open our Bibles to Isaiah and chapter six. Isaiah and chapter six. We have just sung a hymn that declares the glory of Christ. There is an angelic anthem that arises before the throne of God. And it's not an anthem that which is compounded with the words which are made by man here below, but these are words of the angels, the holy angels that minister before the majesty of the king on high. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And it is in line with that that I want to bring the word of God to us entitled the Exalted Enthroned Sovereign Lord. The Exalted or Enthroned Sovereign Lord. Isaiah chapter number six. And this is what the Word of God says. And we'll read up to verse 13. But my concentration this morning will be verse 1 and verse 4. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with a train of His robes filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, they covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundation of the threshold trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among the people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongues. He touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am. Sorry, here am I singing. He said, go and tell these people. Keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of these people insensitive. Their ears dull. Their eyes dim. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears. understand with their hearts and return and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, until cities are devastated and without inhabitants, houses are without people, and the land is utterly destroyed. The Lord has removed men far away and forsaken And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, 13. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning, like a terebinth, or a oak, rather an oak, whose stamp remains until it is felled. The holy seed is its stamp. We spend our time looking primarily on verse one down to verse four. Now, there's only about three principles that I want to bring to us. Now, this is more of a historical narrative that I want to bring to us. Now, as a narrative, at times we just tell a story as it comes. But at the same time, there are certain nuances that you can't just look over and proceed to the next idea. And in this case, what we have is our Lord God being seen by a man. And this man is called Isaiah, the most puny man, the most insignificant man, just like you and I. So I want to take time and look at the portrayed sovereignty of God, the postured supremacy, and then the perfected superiority of God. Now those is more like the play on words. They all reflect the greatness and the grand portrayal of this great God, the exalted sovereign Lord. Matthew Henry speak of these painting a picture in our minds. He says Isaiah was standing outside the temple. He sees the divine presence seated on the mercy seat raised over the ark of the covenant between the cherubim and the seraphim and the divine glory filled the whole temple. That is a summarized version of what we have read from verse one down to verse 13. I want us to consider Yahweh and his portrayed sovereignty in the first place. And we read from verse one, in the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The earth is full of his glory. And the foundation shook. Now for us to appreciate the words we have read, we need to go back and look at the context. Why are these words so important? Why would Isaiah record these particular words here? Well, when we come to the next installment, we'll come and look at verse five going down, and why he said he's a man of unclean lips that will take us back to chapter one and trace the idea up to chapter five. Now, I want us to look at the context of the vision itself. In the year that King Uzziah died, according to the Hebrew arrangement of the word, it says, saw the Lord but when you read in the English version he says in the year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord but there is an emphasis of vain there is a transition in time then I saw the Lord it is all focused and centered on the historical context of King Uzziah Because it was upon the death of Uzziah, or about the time when Uzziah was about to die, that he saw the Lord. And this was in the year 740 BC. Now there is a series of kingdoms. If you go to chapter 1, if you would, you'll see that Isaiah's prophecies all fail. during the time of the reign of these kings. Look at verse one. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. That's very important. Because at every juncture, every single one of those kings, there is an encounter given. But in this particular case, we have King Uzziah. This Uzziah was the son of Amaziah. We'll go to one of the texts. If you are to read in 2 Kings and chapter 15 verse 1 down to verse 7, we find that the 27th year of Jeroboam the king of Israel Azariah son of Amaziah now those are interesting names and I'm not going to give us the meaning of those names but I'll just emphasize that these were the kings of Israel or rather Judah in verse 2 he says he now he is in reference to Azariah Now we'll be like, who is Azariah? Azariah is the same man Uzziah. You will see as we read on. This Azariah was 16 years old when he became the king, when his father Amaziah passed on. And he reigned 52 years. And those accounts, you'll find them in 2 Kings 15 and verse one through seven. Now this Azariah, he at some point was struck with leprosy. And that led him to death. And when he was about to die, when he was struck with leprosy, his son Jotham, that is the son of Uzziah, he became the king in his place. Now contextually, you would turn with me to 2nd Chronicles and we'll read from verse this 26 and verse 1 chapter 26 and verse 1 through verse 5 in that account will be given the whole context of who this Azariah was and how Azariah is Uzziah in verse 1 of 2nd Corinthians chapter 26 it says and all the people of Judah took Uzziah who was 16 years old now that's the same account we find in 2nd Kings 15 who was 16 years old and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah now look at the success as to why Uzziah became so concerned when Uzziah died. This Uzziah, he built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept with his father. Uzziah was 16 years old and he became king and he reigned for 52 years now, you can add. 52 years and he became king the age of 16 so he was almost 70 years old as a man now for 52 years Judah had known success Judah has had come to know all the prosperity there could be in the land and the scriptures in verse 4 says he did all things right in the eyes of God the Lord blessed this man. In verse 5, he continued to seek God in all the days of Zechariah. Now we can have an example of the success that he had continuing on in verse 6 and verse 15 of 2nd Corinthians. This man Uzziah went out to war and war against Philistine and broke down the war of Gath and the war of Jabneh and the war of Ashdod and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines. Verse 7. And he helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians and who lived rather in Gabal. Verse 8. The Ammonites also gave tributes to Uzziah And his fame extended the borders of Egypt, for he became very strong. This is Uzziah. Uzziah built fortified cities. In verse 10, he built towers. He owned many cisterns. In verse 11, we find that Uzziah had the mighty army. He would go and war with anyone and he always imaged a warrior. Now, we are given in verse 12, the total number of the heads of the households, the valiant warriors. The number given is 2,600. Now you can imagine how many of the armies that were under him. The figures are given 307,500. Uzziah was a great man. And because this man was greatly prosperous and quite industrious, something came upon him. the downfall of Uzziah. Yes, this man experienced prosperity. It was a golden age when he ruled Judah. Assyria was weak. No nation could stand against Judah at the account of Uzziah. He was a great man. For 52 years, we are not told the nitty gritties of other things that the people of Judah enjoyed under Uriah's reign. But as it is always the case, brethren, when something great happens and we are counting success, we tend to push away the idea of God. We begin to think that we are the reason we have done what we have done. We are the reason for the success that we have attained. It is because we are genius, we are wise, we know more. We understand better than our neighbor. We are more learned, we have read widely. We are greater than. Verse 16 down to verse 23, 2nd Chronicles chapter 26. Uriah's pride brought him law. Brought him law. But when he had become strong, that's verse 16, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly. But not too long ago, we read that this man sought after God at all times. And the Lord blessed him. He granted to him success when he went to war, And I should think that as a king, as it was a practice back then, that he would always go back to the temple and bring glory to God. But things have changed. His heart became proud that he acted corruptly and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God. For he entered the temple of the Lord, and what did he do? To burn incense on the altar of incense. What is he doing? He's assuming the role of a priest, when he was not a priest. Then Azariah the priest entered after him, and with him 80 priests of the Lord, valiant men. they opposed Uzziah the king and say to him it is not for you Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord but for the priests the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense and they use very harsh words against the king get out of the sanctuary you do not belong here It does not matter the kind of success that you have attained or the prosperity the land has enjoyed on your account as a man. But this whole thing you have done is because of God. You do not belong here. You do not need to assume the role that does not belong to you. He says, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor. from the Lord but Uzziah with a censer in his hand for burning incense was enraged and while he was enraged with the priests the leprosy broke out on his forehead that is sudden judgment from God he became unclean immediately this happens the scripture says before the priests of the house of the Lord besides the altar of incense and Azariah the chief priests and all the priests took him out rather looked at him and beheld he had leprosy on his forehead this 21 King Uzziah was smitten in verse 20 and King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. We do not know how long he stayed with his leprosy. That's why the commentators tend to argue that it's possible that the 52-year mark would have been the time he got struck with leprosy. And others argue it's possible it's when he died that Isaiah, rather Isaiah, put this, rather had this vision before the Lord. So it was because of Uzziah's pride, he lost his kingship, he lost the honor that comes with the position that he had, he lost his life and he died as a leper, dejected of God. 2nd Kings 15 7 actually says as well that he slept with his father and they buried him in the city and his son Jotham became king so what what value does this vision have what is the value to this vision first we see the sight of God We see the sight of God. There is a portrayal of who the king is. When Isaiah was so engrossed in looking at Isaiah, and rather Uzziah, and also attributing to him the greatness that this king Uzziah had, it's very possible that even Isaiah and others, we are looking at Uzziah as a great man. possible. It's also very possible because going back to chapter 1 down to chapter 5 the Lord God was lamenting that the Orc knows its master but Israel does not know me. They turned their backs on God because all was going well. Now when King Uzziah died there is the vision God. Now the language to see the Lord is to behold or give attention or to have a vision of this great God and how can this be? Because the scriptures tell us that this God is immortal, he's invisible, he cannot be beheld by man. You can't see God. No man can see me, the Lord God said in Exodus 33 and 20. No one has ever seen God at any time, Jesus said in John 1 and verse 18. Paul says, this God dwells in light inapproachable. No man can see him, 1 Timothy 6, 16. And yet we find Isaiah, he sees the Lord. He says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He fixed his gaze on this God. He beheld this great God. Others have claimed the same, Jacob. Genesis chapter 32 and verse 30, I have seen God face to face. I have seen God face to face. And there are similar descriptions when you read 1 Kings 22 and verse 19. Micaiah also said, I saw the Lord sitting on this throne. Amos chapter 7 verse 1, chapter 8 verse 1, chapter 9 verse 1, the same claims. Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 and forward he says I saw the Lord when Uzziah is moved out of the place then the vision of the Lord became more and more clearer to Isaiah the reason this is important is that many a times when we get engrossed in what we do, what we have accomplished, that God is pushed out of the side. He's not in our minds, he's not in our hearts, he's no longer the significant part in our lives. Like Uzziah was taken away, that's why the Lord in his providence takes away those things that we lavish so much so that we can have our single focus on this sovereign God who reigns forever and ever. But he saw the Lord. In his limited capacity, he was able to see the Lord. And why was that? The Lord himself enabled him to see him. Now did he see God the Father? Did he see God the Son? Or did he see God the Holy Spirit? Well, look at the wedding. I saw the Lord. Those are in smaller letters. I mean, look at verse four. I'm sorry, verse three. And when these seraphim were crying one to the other, holy, holy, holy is the Lord, and then we have the capitalized Lord. So there is a significant difference there. The Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, he used to reveal himself. What Isaiah is seeing is the Son of God on the throne reigning. He did not see God the Father. He saw God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is reigning. The word they are used for Lord is Adonai. Adonai. In verse one, in verse four is Yahweh. Now with Adonai, it is the word which the Jews were using in place of Yahweh. Because the name Yahweh is the name that speak about the being of God. And they refused to pronounce this name Yahweh or Jehovah. They did not want to use the name of the Lord in vain. And out of reverence, they decided to use, in place of Yahweh, they used Adonai. But this word, the primary meaning of the word itself, Adonai, is not as far removed from Yahweh itself. Adonai is equivalent to curious. in Greek which is Lord. Curious is K-U-R-I-O-S. It means the primary possessor or the owner or the master or supreme one. So he saw the possessor of all things. He saw the owner of all things. He saw the master of all things. He saw the supreme ruler of all things or rather above all things, which means he saw the sovereign one, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the personal being of Christ. This word or the noun Lord signifies one who has sovereign power, the one who has supreme authority, the one who's He has absolute ownership of all things. I, brother Isaiah says, I saw the Lord. The extent of Adonai as prescribed as the owner and the ruler of all things. We can find a lot of attributions in the scriptures all the way from Daniel down to Malachi that the Lord God is over Israel and Egypt according to Daniel chapter 9 and verse 26. He is Lord over. He is Lord over all the nations. Psalm 2 verse 1 through 4. He is Lord over all creation and over all creatures of this world. That is also over all the wicked and the righteous. Psalm 37 and verse 12 down to verse 13. He is the Lord over all the mountains, over all the earth, over all the gods of the earth. He says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the supreme ruler, the owner of all things. seated on the cross or rather on the throne. I don't know. He's a sovereign one. It is him before whom all men and all nations tremble. It's before him that all men and women and all the nations will bow down and worship. This Adonai is one who is exalted in power and majesty. Now imagine, this is the way the Lord is presented in the scriptures. And then Isaiah chapter one and verse three, we read, an ox knows its master, and a donkey, rather its owner, and the donkey knows its masters, manger but Israel does not know me my people do not understand if he is the owner if he is the lord and he commands all men to honor and worship him and the people that should have understood better did not understand him it could be because of the love of sin, because they became way too comfortable under the reign of Uzziah. Now this is significant, a vision. In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Now with what I've just said to us, dear ones, in Isaiah's mind, it's possible that he felt that is hero was taken away this man that has brought so much prosperity in the land of Judah is no more and his son Jotham has taken up the position of a leader and at the same time Assyria is gaining grounds The fear which was attached to Judah is no longer there. The respect and the tributes that were coming Judah's way were no more. And then he realizes our leader is smitten by God. Not only is he smitten by God, he's dead. And we have the weekly as a leader in the land. No, the Lord had to step in and say, no, no, no. I am still on the throne. I am reigning. Uzziah was but my servant. And Uzziah dishonored me. And Uzziah had to be punished. But I am still on the throne. I am reigning. I am supreme. Someone said Isaiah lost a hero and he found the Lord. Isaiah feared because a great pillar had fallen. And he found the pillar of the universe, that is God himself. Isaiah would have thought everything would topple into disaster. And lo, he felt the strength of the everlasting arm. When Isaiah lived, Isaiah had forgotten his Lord. He so depended on the earthly that he had overlooked the heavenly. Uzziah concealed the Lord as the thick veil can hide a face. But when Uzziah died, when Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Well, dear ones, it's very possible for us to look at Isaiah and possibly condemn Judah or Israel, but what transpired is not very different from us. The times we trust in our political system, political powers, The particular man we feel, if only it was him, then things wouldn't be the way they are. When you feel that your safety, and even speaking about this land, maybe the sovereignty of this land is threatened, we desire to have some man or men who supposedly seem to be stronger than the rest. I want us to remember that the God of heaven is the Lord and the King indeed. He is so He rules over all. He directs the course of history. He does all things after the counsel of his will. He permits to rise up to power and withholds and denies the other. He is in charge. He is sovereign. We should trust him. We should look to him. The reason for Judah or Isaiah having this vision was to have this reassurance from God that he has not left his throne, he is still reigning, he is still in charge. He is still the Lord and King. Only him can guarantee defense that is meaningful. Only he can guarantee safety. And His safety comes with hope. Only He can guarantee peace. Only He, in His dreadful holiness, would find joy. We have to remember, dear ones, that only the Lord possesses that which we possess. In other words, he is the owner of all that which we probably boast over. Your breath belongs to him. Your strength belongs to him. Your wit belongs to him. Everything about you, everything about me belongs to God. And therefore he deserves all the glory that is due to his name. Never let an ounce of an hour or the day go by without you attributing or ascribing greatness and glory to God for what you have. Reminded of the parable the Lord Jesus Christ gave, the parable of the rich fool. Who remembers that story? Amen. What did this rich fool do? Luke chapter 12 and verse 16 through 21 this man had a land planted and yielded good crops in verse 17 it says and he began reasoning to himself saying what shall I do since I have no place to store my crop then he said this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And then I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, so you have many goods laid up for many, many years to come. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. Sounds very familiar. Be merry, verse 20. But God said to him, you fool, this very night, this fool was saying, I have all things to order for many years to come. But the Lord says, this very night, your soul is required of you and now, Who will own what you have prepared? Who will own? So is the man who stores up treasures for himself that is not rich toward God. All things we own, regardless the measure, belongs to God. Belongs to God. Remember Uzziah's downfall. What was the reason for his downfall? Pride. Pride. I did it my way. I did it. And also we need to be reminded that earthly kings or leaders or rulers will pass away. They will pass But the true King, the Lord of glory will still reign because He is eternal. He is eternal. We have seen this great God that only was able to be acknowledged when Uzziah was taken out of the picture. May that never be the case with us. This got me thinking, by the way. We just read in 2 Kings 15, 1 through 7, and even 2 Corinthians 26. that he did all things according to God and he pleased him. And then he goes in the temple and he does something that was not required of him. We might be wondering, is God not a merciful God? Why couldn't he have just forgiven him that he had gone into the temple and offered incense to God? Maybe he did it out of fear before God or the desire to worship God. Oh, but we are told it was pride. That sounds the same like reading Leviticus chapter nine and chapter 10. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. They offered strange fire before the majesty of the king. And immediately they were struck down and they died. The scripture says before the Lord. And the scriptures say Aaron was there And the Lord God tells him not to weep, not to mourn. All those that come before me, I should be treated reverently, the Lord said. Oh, I used to say, we ought not to take for granted who we are in the sight of God. We may not receive the fire fall from heaven and consume us, but as long as the sovereign Lord is on the throne, he is still reigning in his own way, he can deal with us. This is not meant to frighten us, dear ones, but this is meant to encourage us to know that our Lord and Father before whom we go, he is holy. Look at how the seraph will not get to speaking about who they are and all that. We'll come and talk about that, you know, some time to come. But seraph in Hebrew speak of fire or fiery. Now we hear in verse two the seraphim The im, I am in Hebrew, that is plural. So more than one fiery ones, scripture says, stood above him, each having six wings, with two covered his face, two covered his feet, two covered his, I would rather, flew. But look at these three, all those that come before me. they should treat me reverently. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. How long did they say holy, holy, holy? That called out in the perfect and in Hebrew that speak of an action that is completed and yet continuing on they never cease to remind each other that they are standing in the presence of the Most Holy One and he deserves all the honor and all the glory that is due to his name now what is interesting is the arrangement of the word They are not saying this to God. They are saying this one to another. With reverent fear, they have the wings covering themselves. Covering the face, they behold the one who is sovereign, whose light can consume. And yet they are reminding each other, he is holy. Never forget, he is holy. Never relent, he's holy. Continue on because he's holy. And we are standing in his presence, in the presence of the holy God, he is holy. in their minds, in their hearts, in their ministry, in their service, anything and everything they were doing, it was all centered at ascribing the greatness to God. Non-stop. How long? As long as God has been existing. This should be a rebuke to us. Come and look at Yahweh's postured supremacy. But this should be a rebuke to us somehow and also an encouragement. An encouragement in the sense that we do not cover ourselves to go before God. The curtain tore into two and we draw near to him with assurance of heart. We can call him our father. Christ is like our brother and yet he is Lord. But that is not the way the angels relate with him. That is an encouragement. We have a relationship with the God of the universe. We have tasted the goodness of We are recipients of the salvation that has come from him. A rebuke. In the sense that we, who have not known what holiness is, to its full extent, experientially, could with a relentless, not even a relentless, laxity, we go before him. We go before him only when it's convenient for us. And we go before this holy and majestic God in a so not attentive, committed attitude. And we have the seraph. the seraphim, rather, and the cherubims before God who worship in reverent fear. We should emulate that attitude and attentiveness to worship and render service to God. And this is all to say, this exalted, enthroned, glorified God, is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom you and I know and who's always interceding for us, who is our advocate, who is the sympathizing Savior. We are greatly privileged. May we honor him as long as it is called today. Honor him with reverent fear. What we have looked at, dear ones, is just one of those elements I promised to bring before us, the portrayed sovereignty of God. Shall we pray together?