Sovereign Grace Chapel, located at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. and I'll go ahead and get started. So if everyone would turn with me, turn with me to Isaiah six, Isaiah six. Isaiah six, and I wanna read the first seven verses. I don't know about you all, but I don't know where Joni is, so when Joe brought up that Jonah passage, I had to ask Paula, where's Jonah at? So. Isaiah six. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. We read here in the first verse a statement that this was the year that King Uzziah died. We read that King Uzziah followed the Lord when he was young, but when he was older, it says in 2 Chronicles 26, 15, it says it this way, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong, but when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. King Uzziah had everything going for him, so to speak. When he was following the Lord, God made him to prosper. But then pride came in. We know about this pride, don't we? Even today, we know this pride, what it's like. Pride came in that heart he had and it hardened against God. He then began to think he could do as it pleased him and not as it pleased God. He took it upon himself to go into the temple of the Lord and offer incense upon the altar of incense. All these pictured Jesus Christ. King Uzziah was not a son of Aaron, a priest. These priests were to do this. This pictured the Lord of glory doing this and King Uzziah thought he could add to God's work. This was done when he was strong. That's what it says in 2 Chronicles. He was full of pride. What do we read in Scripture in 2 Corinthians 12.10? Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. Strong in the Lord, that is the place I want to be. I want my strength to come from Him and not from myself. When we are strong in ourselves, then pride will begin to show itself. Pride is already there. It will just begin to come out on us when we are strong in ourselves. So let's look at the following today. This all comes from this passage. I'm just going to kind of go through it. What do we see in the death of the king? And what does that cause us to recognize? In recognizing these things, what do we think about ourselves and the final result of this? So what do we see in the death of the king? We could see this as the Lord of glory dying and then being raised up. Him dying the death that made him to be just like me, who is full of pride. He was made the very thing I am, sin. And it's certainly okay to look at it this way. But what I see here is that once that old man, that prideful old man is done away with, we will see things that we could not see before. Uzziah means my strength is Jehovah. I find that quite telling seeing what we read about King Uzziah in Chronicles. Here is a man who before he was strong was blessed by God. But when he was strong, he was filled with pride and the judgment of God came down on him and filled him with leprosy, it says, until the day he died. This old man had to be dealt with and it could not be us to deal with it. We can look at King Uzziah and see that when we are strong, pride will enter in. But as I think this picture's here, I think God, this prideful old man, was crucified with Jesus Christ. We read it last week, I believe it was, Romans 6-6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. So that old man, and scripture puts it this way, not me, this old man, but the old man was crucified with Christ. The reason this was done was to destroy this body of sin. And we should not serve sin is what it says. That's exactly what it says. But Paul also says again in Romans 7, 4, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. We are become dead to the law, just as he said previously in Romans 6, 6, to destroy sin and that we should not serve sin. In him doing this, it will allow, and we know it is all by grace, but it will allow us to bring forth fruit unto God. What is that fruit? Believing God and giving him all the glory. But Jesus Christ is our strength and he had to be the one who did all of this. The old man was crucified with Christ because we are told it was by God himself in his word. But we still have this old man with us, even today. He was crucified with Christ, but he has not been fully put away from us. Put away from before God, but not from before us. I know this is so because we are told to put him off, Ephesians 4, 22 and 23, we read, that ye put off concerning the formal conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So believers still have this old man and we are to put him off so he still exists. When it comes to this holy just law, I am dead to the law that I might serve him. But not only do I see this as talking about what Christ did on that tree, and that is the base or the crux for everything else that he does or that is done to us. In time, in God's own time, he will come to those whom he died and crucified, that old man with him, and he will come and conquer them by his gospel. He will conquer them and let them know to put off that old man. Second Corinthians 10, four, we read, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Jesus Christ will give you life and he will send you his gospel. And that gospel sword will cut through everything and pull down your citadel into ruins. And he will come in and reign in that new heart he has given. He will abase you if you're one of his. That pride that reeks with every stone on the citadel, he will do this in his own good time. When he does this, you will begin to see some things. You see that he is mighty and that it is he that has died for you and for all those he loved. You will see that old man was crucified with him, that prideful old man, and has come to you and abased you so that you now bow down to him as your reigning king. But it will cause you to see something once you know who it is that had to die for you. You will see him high and lifted up. So what does that cause us to recognize? This killing of me done by our Lord, the end of it leaves us only seeing one person. We see the Lord where he now sits on his throne. And we read in Mark 14, 61 and 62, we read, but he held his peace. And this is when he was getting close to the time where he was gonna be crucified, but he held his peace, this Christ. He held his peace and answered nothing. Again, the high priest asked him and said unto him, art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. As has been said before, all will see this one day. But there are some who see that he has always reigned on the throne, but that he specifically went to this throne after he completed the work the Father gave him to do. We read in Ephesians 1, 19 and 20, And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places? There are many more passages that can be used to show that Jesus Christ sits on the throne. But I think we can see that our Lord, the Lord of glory, now sits on his throne. He is high and lifted up. He is high above all things. He is high and lifted up because he is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. It was God that came down and took care of the sin debt of his people. God himself had to come down and take care of that which he required. No one else could do such a thing. This is where we see him high and lifted up. High and lifted up on that tree to be made sin for us. But then high and lifted up in heaven, approved of God the Father. But then we read, his train filled the temple. And when I read this, it kind of reminds me of in the book of Ruth where they were out in the field and she got under his skirt. Being under his skirt is a sign that he owned her and she was his. His train filling the temple, his skirt covering the temple, Anything that is holy, anything that is righteous, is so because of what Christ has done. If his skirt covers you, then you are a sanctified one. One meet for the master's use, made so by him. But in him, and always in him, he has covered those whom he loved and covered all things pertaining to the temple of God. If he does not cover you, then you're open and naked before God. But if you see this, you will begin to recognize some other things. So what do we think about ourselves? Now, I believe these seraphims to be God's people. I believe that's what it's indicating. But if someone knows better, I'm willing to listen to that because I'm not very real sure on this. It says here these were seraphims, and the word there for seraphims means burning or poisonous. Moses was told to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole. So I believe this to be God's people. It does seem to be some kind of vision here in Isaiah, although it does not use those words. It would seem to indicate that Isaiah has some kind of vision here to me, though. This is one thing I can say about this verse, though, for sure. Whatever seraphims are, they for sure do not want the Lord of glory, who is high and lifted up and his train fills the temple, to see any part of them. So I take from this that we will stop with trying to show ourselves. It will no longer be about what we want or our will. We cover our faces. I think this is put here to show us when God brings us to that place where we see him high and lifted up, we begin to want to cover up our will, our face, and what we want. We begin to recognize that what we want and what our will is, is poisonous and it will only lead to our destruction. What else does it say? They covered their feet. Those who Jesus Christ loves, when they see Jesus Christ for who he is, they began to cover their feet. I do believe that what we see here said to be feet covered symbolizes a walk or a work, as I see it in this passage. We do not want this God to look at our walk, to look at our will, but we want to give him all the honor and glory. What do we read in the New Testament when Christ was going to wash the disciples' feet? just to show what the feet mean as we talk about a man or a woman's walk. And let's turn there to John 13. John 13. John 13, verses 6 through 10. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all. We need wash daily by Jesus Christ in our walk. Because we have this old man, he must, not us, but he must wash our feet. Jesus Christ comes and breaks down the walls of our citadel and he ascends to the throne of our heart that he has given us. But as we go through this life, those walls will try to erect themselves back. Because we have this old man and he will do what he can to not have this man reign over him. Those walls will begin to come back and have to continually be knocked down. But Jesus Christ, through his gospel, will crush those walls over and over and over again. We do not want him to see our walk or our feet. We know that if he were to look upon our walk or work, we would be forever consumed by this thrice holy God. We want to be hid in his works of righteousness, which he has done on our behalf as our substitute. When we see all these things, when we know him for who he is, when we see him as holy, holy, holy, we begin to know some other things. And this leads me to the final results of all this. Then said I, what does Isaiah say? If what comes next is not the kind of thought you have when coming to know Jesus Christ, then I'm afraid the Jesus you know is another Jesus. What did Isaiah say? Woe is me. I'm in trouble. I'm undone. That is, my mouth is shut up for anything that I might have to say on my behalf. I am about to be cut down should my lips utter one more word in my defense. What does he go on to say? Because I am a man of unclean lips. Isaiah knows that what comes out of his Adamic heart comes out of his lips. He may have not known these things in detail as we know them, but then again, he may have known more than I know about the matter. Who am I to say? But he knows just as our Lord told us, Matthew 15, 18, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. He knows, and that is Isaiah knows, that if he speaks on his behalf, there will be nothing but defilement that will come out. Not only that, but he knows that there is no one else to help where he's at. because where he dwells are nothing but those who have these same unclean lips. This all comes, all this knowledge, if you will, comes by seeing the King, the Lord of hosts. Verse five, we read, then said I, 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. What does God do for those who see him as Lord and themselves as woe and unclean? He sends his gospel through his messenger and by his spirit giving us the gospel. He puts live coal to their lips. But this is where we see that God uses the gospel to cleanse us daily. Ephesians 5.26 we read, that he might sanctify and cleanse us, cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. This cold comes from the altar, that place where all of this has taken place. That brought the Lord of hosts to where he is, high and lifted up. This coal is the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. And with this coal, we are enabled to proclaim that which comes from the altar. That which comes from that work done by this one who is holy, holy, holy. And he has done all the work. Being touched by the gospel, by his spirit, we now want to go share it with others. We see that in verse eight, verse eight. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. What do we conclude from all this? What do we see in all this? We are, as we are born in Adam, full of pride and strong in ourselves. He had to die. him taking that old man with him to the grave, being made a curse and sin for his people. He was high and lifted up where he sits on his throne, making intercession for his people. Anyone who wants to make an accusation against his people, he is there to tell them, my train fills the temple. They are all in me and I in them. There is no accusation against them. They are righteous, even as I am righteous. He will teach them who they are. They will come to know that in no way do they want their will or their way to be known of God. They will be taught of God, that they do not want their works or their way of life to be seen by God, because there is nothing but destruction in that. They will come to know exactly what they are. This all because they have seen him for who he is. We would not know ourselves had he not allowed us to see him for who he is and what he has done. When we come to see this, we will not be coming chewing our bubble gum and blowing and popping bubbles. We will come with our head bowed down to the ground and saying, woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips. Job says it this way in Job 9, verses 30 through 33, we read, if I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet shall thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man as I am that I should answer him and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both. But finally, Job, finally by God's own teaching and God's own comfort, came to know and see things just as Isaiah has here. In Job 42, five and six, we read, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. He come to know that there is a days man. If Jesus Christ died for you, you will come to know this as well. He and only he could do such a thing, who is Jesus Christ, when I say he. Jesus Christ is God, so God had to die for our unclean lips, our unclean hearts, our unclean hands, and our unclean feet. In seeing Christ and what he is, he teaches us about who we are in knowing him. And we will ever cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Amen. Thank you, dear Lord, for allowing us to be here once again, dear Lord, and hear words of your son, dear Lord. Apply these words to our heart, dear Lord. If we only hear someone up here speaking in your spirit, you don't do your work by your spirit, dear Lord. We won't learn anything, dear Lord. But cause us to learn and see you, dear Lord. Be with Walter as he comes up, and be with those as we've talked about earlier, dear Lord. I can't remember all their names now, but dear Lord, be with those that we know that we are close to. Comfort them, dear Lord. And mainly, dear Lord, in the knowledge of your son, dear Lord. May it be that you will comfort them. knowing Him and all these things we ask in Christ's name, amen. ♪ When overwhelmed with doubts and fears ♪ ♪ Great God, do Thou my spirit cheer ♪ ♪ Let not mine eyes with tears be fed ♪ ♪ But to the rock of ages let me rest ♪ When storms of sin and sorrow beat, lead me to this divine retreat. My perfect righteousness and blood, I rock my fortress at my God. When guilt lies heavy on my soul And waves of temptation roll I'll to the rock for shelter flee Take my refuge, Lord, in Thee. When called the veil of death to tread, Then to this rock may I be led.