I mean, thank you, pastor. It's a blessing to be with you.
And I met your pastor back in 2023 when we were on a trip to
Israel and sensed very quickly a oneness of spirit.
And like Pastor Boots said, it's a blessing to to have like
minded friends in the ministry and to meet faithful men who are
standing for the Word of God across the globe.
So it's a blessing to be here. Thank you for the invitation to
come. It's much appreciated and it's
really an honor and a privilege to be with you.
OK, A number of folks during the trip have asked me where they
can find more of my sermons. And so I'll just mention a
website that might be a help to you.
It's called Baptist expositor.com.
So if you want to write that down, if you're looking for more
preaching from down under Baptist Expositor dot com.
Most of my preaching is through books of the Bible.
And so if you go to that website, you can click on the
Old Testament and find a series I've done to date on Old
Testament books. You click on New Testament, find
series I've done to date on New Testament books.
And then there's also a topical section with various series on a
number of different issues like music, tongue speaking and other
things. So I hope that'll be a blessing
to you and many of our folks back home.
Now listen to your pastor regularly since he's been and
Courtney Lewis as well, he's been over to preach and that's
fine by me. I tell our people, if you want
to listen to sermons, get tapped into a good solid man.
Obviously your primary instruction comes from your
local church and your own pastor.
That's always priority one. But if you're going to listen to
sermons, I encourage people there's no need to link up with
some false teacher online or some compromise preacher.
There's plenty of that out there.
Better to listen to someone who's on the same page and
someone who's going to tell you tell you something from God's
word. So if that can be a blessing to
you, then by all means, feel free to look that up.
And otherwise you can find us on sermonaudio.com.
Just look up the the website there and trust.
That'll be a blessing to. You turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6.
And the choir song was really timely this morning.
Believe the Lord is leading in relation to the message for
today on that wonderful theme of the holiness of God.
And we're going to be confronted with the holiness of God this
morning on in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6 as we look at
the theme personal revival and missions, Personal revival and
missions, there is a link between personal revival.
And missions Isaiah chapter 6. And we're going to read from
verse one through to verse 8. The Bible reads 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 had six wings.
With Twain he covered his face, and with Twain he covered his
feet, and with Twain he did fly. One cried unto another and said.
Holy, holy, holy. Is the Lord of hosts, The whole
earth is full of his glory. 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'm a man of
uncling lips, and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the Seraphim's unto me, having a live coal in
his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the old,
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched
thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
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. Let's pray.
Gracious God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity
to come into your holy presence this morning.
Lord, we come not upon the basis of our own works, our own
merits. We come only by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ into your presence.
Lord, we come this morning because You are the source of
all life and blessing and without You we can do nothing.
We need Your hand to rest upon us now for this time of
preaching. Still our hearts in Your
presence take away from our hearts anything that would
distract. Lord, we pray that Your word to
find a ready entrance into our lives.
We pray, Lord that You would move in our hearts today, that
You would revive us. Lord, help us to see You afresh
for who You are, the thrice holy God of eternity.
And we pray, Lord, that then we would be open to being used to
view in this great work of missions.
We pray. So bless us now we ask in Jesus
name, Amen. I don't know about you, but I
really want to see the Lord do a mighty work in these last days.
And as we talked about, I think it was on Friday night, how we
are living in a day-to-day where there is a dearth of labourers,
how we need labourers. And one of the reasons why, as
we're going to see in the passage today, one of the
reasons why we don't have labourers, I believe is because
of a lack of revival in our churches.
People are not hearing the call of God because of sin in their
lives. So we come to this very powerful
passage of Scripture and here we have the death of an earthly
king. And Isaiah 6 opens with a vacant
throne in Israel, but an occupied throne in heaven.
And while earthly leaders come and go, God remains unchanged,
unchangeable. God remains there on his throne.
He can never be impeached. He can never be removed.
He's the eternal, everlasting, unchanging God.
So the earthly king was dead, but the King eternal was on his
throne. His I died approximately 740 BC
after reign of 52 years. Overall, he was a good and godly
king, but like many many, many kings, that success went to his
head and he had a failure towards the end of his life.
Perhaps Isaiah was encouraged by the presence of Uzziah in his
life as a godly king. We don't know, but whatever.
At this particular time in Isaiah's life, Uzziah was
removed from the scene and God granted Isaiah a fresh glimpse
of his glory. And what I want you to see in
our passage this morning is that there are 4 clear steps that we
can trace in the life of Isaiah that led him down the path of
personal revival and toward usefulness for God.
Let's note those four steps that we also need in our in our
lives. Number one note in verse one
through 4 what I would call Isaiah's vision.
Isaiah's vision in one verse one through 4 in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up what a glorious description we have here of God
seated in power and in majesty. God granted Isaiah a fresh
vision, a fresh glimpse of his glory.
In fact, it seems to me that very often in the Word of God,
when God was about, when God called a man to special service,
very often he gave that man a glimpse of his glory that would
have an would make such an impression upon that man as to
prepare him for a life of service.
And if there's something that we need in our day, we need to get
a fresh glimpse of the glory of God.
We need to get a fresh vision of who God is because today we're
living in a day where people have a very light view of God.
People have a very wrong view of God, and this passage brings us
back to the reality of. Who God really is.
Look for a moment at what Isaiah saw.
He was confronted, we could say, with the Highness of God.
He was confronted with the Highness of God.
As I seize God there exalted, exalted.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne. Don't miss these words.
High and lifted up. Is there any higher than our
God? Is that not our God this
morning? Our God is a God who is high.
In fact, he is above all. There is none higher than our
God. And we need to get back to that
high and exalted view of God because there's a move out there
today that says, well, we just need to bring God down to the
level of the people. Listen, folks, you will never
bring the eternal God down to our level.
He is high and he is lifted up. And the low views of God we have
in our day are destroying churches.
God is not a rap star. God is not a pop star.
God is not the man upstairs. He is the thrice holy God of
eternity. And if there's something we need
today, it's a revival of reverence for God.
God is not your buddy. God is not your boyfriend.
And many churches across Richmond today have, have, have,
have have a very low view of God.
You say, how do you know? Because they're dancing, they're
jumping around, and clearly they've lost sight of the.
Highness and the holiness of God.
As I 5715 For thus saith the high and lofty one, listen to
these words that inhabiteth eternity.
Can you even wrap your mind around eternity?
From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
God is so immense and God is so awesome and God is so powerful
that he is described as one who inhabits eternity.
I dwell in the high and holy place, says God with him also
that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble and to revive the heart of the the contrite ones.
And so here Isaiah got a glimpse of the Highness of God.
He saw God exalted in his sovereignty.
He saw God exalted in his. Majesty verse 6 verse one again.
And his train filled the temple. The train.
That comes from the word train comes from the the word there to
hang down. It's it's it, it was a feature
of of the ancient monarchs where they would have a long flowing
Rd. there a long flowing train, symbolic of their high position.
We have something similar today or, or something that might help
you to understand what the train means.
Doesn't mean a Choo Choo train. OK, OK, a bridle.
A bride often has a train, that big long thing that flows out
behind her there, and it's a, it's a symbol of, of, of glory
and beauty. And so here we find that God's
train, God's glorious robe, as it were, probably a robe of
light. OK, Isaiah's trying to describe
this majestic scene as he looks upon this exalted one upon the
throne, and he sees the glory of God as like a beautiful train
there filling the temple. And so Isaiah saw God in His
Highness, there exalted in his sovereignty.
He's the king upon the throne, and he saw God there exalted in
His Majesty. In fact, how can we even begin
to? Describe the majesty and the
glory of God. How can human lips begin to
describe what we see here? So he was confronted with the
Highness of God. We need to get back to a proper
view of who God is and His position.
He is higher than the highest. He is above all.
But as I was also confronted in this vision with the holiness of
God, the Highness of God, but also the holiness of God, look
at verse 2 through 4. Above it, referring to the the
throne, there stood the seraphims.
Each one had 6 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 posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. How can we begin to describe the
holiness of God? The holiness of God and the
holiness of God is the major emphasis of the passage here.
And it's emphasized #1 in the seraphim's posture, the the.
Holiness of God is emphasized in the Seraphim's posture.
You see that in verse 2 above it stood the seraphim.
So as as Aziah describes this throne, he sees these beautiful
heavenly creatures with six wings positioned above the
throne of God. Very close to the presence of
God. And these creatures there, they,
with two of their wings they cover, they cover their feet in
the presence of God. With two of their wings they
cover their faces in the presence of God.
And with two they fly, symbolizing swiftness in
service, readiness to praise, readiness to do the will of God
there. But don't you get a picture
there of the holiness of God? Because remember, these
Seraphim's have never sinned. They are pure and sinless
creatures, and yet even as pure sinless creatures, they are so
full of reverence and so full of awe for the holiness of God that
they veil their faces. They dare not look upon God's
presence so, so profound is their respect and their
reverence for God. And they cover their feet again,
a symbol of their humility in the presence of God, and they
cry continually one to another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts. That's quite different, isn't
it, to the modern church that says let me dance in Jesus
presence and, and let me lift myself up in the presence of
God. No, you find in the Bible when
people were truly confronted with the holiness of God, they
fell on their paces. And we need more of that in our
churches today. More of reverence for God, more
awe and wonder. Of the God we serve.
We've lost the fear of God. We've lost the awe.
We've lost the reverence for God in our day.
We need to get back to it. Where is the holy or in fear of
God in our day? Let's remember the God we serve.
He's at an eye. He's almighty.
He's all powerful. He's before all things.
He's the Creator. He's everlasting.
He's ever present. He's El Shaddai, God Almighty.
He's Elohim, God of power and majesty, The Creator.
He's God. He's glorious.
He's holy. He's high.
He's the high and lofty one. He's immutable.
He's immortal. He's invisible.
He's indescribable. He's unchangeable.
At the God we serve is the I am. He's just.
He's Jehovah, Jehovah Jaira, the Lord will provide, Jehovah Rafa,
the Lord who heals, Jehovah Nisi, the Lord, our banner,
Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace, Jehovah, Raah the Lord,
our shepherd, Jehovah to said, can you the Lord, our
righteousness, Jehovah Sabayoth, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah
Mekanoshim, the Lord who sanctifies, Jehovah Shema the
Lord is there, that's our God. He's king.
He's king of Israel, He's king everlasting.
He's king of kings and Lord of Lords.
He's marvellous, majestic, mighty God, most high God.
He's never changing. He's omnipotent or powerful.
He's omnipresent everywhere present.
He's omniscient, he knows all things, He's the only wise God.
He's perfect, he's pure, he's powerful, he's potentate, he's
provider, He's ruler, Redeemer, self existent, self efficient,
sovereign, sinless. The same yesterday, today and
forever. And he's victor over sin and
death and the grave. That's the God we serve.
That's God. The holiness of God.
He's emphasized in the seraphim's posture that posture
of reverence in God's presence, and it's emphasized #2 in the
seraphim's praise. Verse 3 And they cried, 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 in the house.
Was full of smoke. And so these heavenly creatures,
as they fly above the throne of God, they are continually crying
out, notice, one to another. I find that interesting.
No doubt the anthem of praise was directed towards God on the
throne. But notice, it's like they will
not allow each other to forget this attribute of God's
holiness. They're crying one to another as
it were, reminding each other holy, holy, holy Lord, God
Almighty. And isn't it significant that
out of all of God's attributes, the attribute that most
impressed these holy creatures was God's holiness?
God has many attributes, but there is a strong emphasis in
His Holiness in the Bible. Did you know that this is the
only attribute of God that is repeated 3 times in this kind of
pattern? Holy, holy.
Holy Lord, God Almighty, we don't read in the Bible
gracious, gracious, gracious, and God is gracious.
I'm not denying that. We don't read merciful,
merciful, merciful repeated in that way.
And God is merciful. We're not denying that.
But I'm just saying, if we're going to understand something of
the God we serve, we must understand that He is holy.
What does holiness mean or what does it refer to?
Well, it refers to the absolute purity of God.
How can we even begin to describe the purity of our God?
Light of very light, holiness speaks of the otherness of God.
It means to be set apart is not God.
Is not God above his creation and over his creation and
separate to his creation. We could put it this way, there
is none like God. There is none like him.
The word holiness emphasizes the purity of God, the otherness of
God, and we could say the above Ness of God.
There's none like him. He's God alone.
You know, this vision had a huge impact on Isaiah because you
know what one of his favorite titles for God is in his book?
It's the Holy One and the Holy One of Israel.
As you read the book of Isaiah, you will find that about 30
times he refers to God as the Holy One and the Holy One of
Israel. In fact, there's very few of
those references outside of Isaiah.
There's just a couple elsewhere. Most of that, that title we find
the holy, the Holy One and the holy one of Israel.
That's found in the book of Isaiah.
I believe if you could, if you could have met Isaiah and said
Isaiah, what is God like? He would have immediately said
God is holy. Psalm 99133 the Lord reigneth.
Let the people tremble. He sitteth between the
cherubims. Let the earth be moved.
The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the people.
Let them praise thy great and terrible name.
For it is holy. Look at the effect their praise
had upon the temple there. Verse four.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried,
and the house was filled with smoke.
There was a literal shaking. Whether Azar is actually seeing
this vision in the actual temple in Jerusalem possible.
Or perhaps he's been given. No doubt he's been.
He's been given a vision there in heaven itself.
Whatever we see here, the posts of the door, literally.
Convulsing at the mention of God's holiness.
There's a shaking there in the temple of the mention of God's
holiness. And while we don't look for a
physical shaking of a building this morning, we do need to have
our hearts stirred and we need to be shaken and in a good way
at the mention of God's holiness.
Oh, how we need a shaking in our day and we need a reviving and
we need a moving in our hearts. You say, how's that going to
come about? Well, it's going to start with
us seeing God for who he is. So we have eyes, eyes, eyes,
vision. What's your view of God this
morning #2 look now at eyes, eyes, confession, Isaiah's
confession. Look at verse 5 and I want you
to see the Word then, then the Word then in verse 5, and then
the word then in verse 6. Describe the effect this
powerful vision had upon Isaiah. Then said, I woe is me, for I am
undone, because I'm a man of uncling lips, and I dwell in the
midst of a people of uncling lips, for mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. Do you see the pattern here?
When as I got a correct view of God, he then got a correct view
of Himself. When Isaiah saw God exalted in
His Holiness, when Isaiah saw God exalted there in His
Majesty, he came away with a very accurate view of himself.
And that's what we need today. We need to see God for who He
is. We need to see God exalted in
His Holiness. And then we need to see
ourselves as we really are in His presence.
And Isaiah confessed 2 things. Lord, I am undone.
I am undone. That word undone is a very
powerful word. You drill into that word and it
has the idea of to be destroyed, to perish.
It's like as I said, Lord, I'm done, I'm finished.
I'm, I'm, I'm cut off. I, I, Lord, I perish.
This same Hebrew word is translated perish in Psalm 49,
verse 12, brought to silence Isaiah 15, verse one.
Cease. Jeremiah 14 verse 17.
Cut off Jeremiah 47 verse 5 and cut down Zephaniah one verse 11.
By the way, the King James Bible is a wonderful resource.
There you study a word, you find how the translators use that
word in other places, and it can give you a beautiful picture of
the spectrum of meaning in that. Word that the Holy Spirit gave.
And so he say, he's basically saying, Lord, I'm speechless.
Lord, I feel cut off. Do you know what happened?
Isaiah gained a deep sense of his nothingness and his
unworthiness in God's presence. You read the first five chapters
and he there was some powerful preaching there from Isaiah.
But this was a turning point in his life.
He came to realize that really he was nothing before God and we
have to come to that place. And again, society says the
opposite. This is society we live in says,
well, you just pump yourself up and you discover the inner
champion within you and you just need to release that champion.
Is that not the lot? That's a lot of the preaching
out there on YouTube and the Christian television, so,
so-called. It's all about you pumping
yourself up and you, you've got what it takes.
No, If you really want to be used of God in this area of
missions, if you really want to be used of God in Christian
service, you have to come to the place where you realize that you
are. Nothing, and God must be
everything. Lord, I perish, I'm undone.
It's interesting, isn't it, that God often has to undo us before
he can use us. You know, God is in the business
of breaking us so that then we might be useful again.
It's the opposite to the way we think.
Well, here are my strengths. Here are my weaknesses.
I'll you know, I'll focus on my I'll try and build my weaknesses
and and here's my strengths. Well, hang on.
Maybe the Lord might have to actually even break some of
those strengths that you might learn to rest on him and trust
him. Let.
God undo you in His presence. We have to come to the place
where we realize that in and of ourselves, we don't have what it
takes to serve God. We don't have what it takes to
do anything for God. That's the right kind of
humility we need in the presence of God, and that's the place of
usefulness when we come to realize that it's not us, it
must be God who does the work through US.
Lord, I am undone. We could say this is really a
death to self experience for Oz I.
You know, we need to learn what it means to say I perish as it
were, or I died in Christ and embrace the cross.
Do you realize that God views you as a believer, as one who?
This is the position, the position we have in Christ.
He sees you as one who, who, who died with the Son of God.
Galatians 220. I'm crucified with Christ.
Romans 66. There talks about the old man
was crucified with him there that the body of sin might be
destroyed. God sees you as one who was
buried with his Son and raised in your life in his Son.
And we have to learn to embrace the cross in service and say not
I, but Christ as I was confession.
He said I'm undone #2 He said I am unclean.
I am undone, I am unclean. Look back at look back at verse
5, then said, I woe is me, for I am undone because I'm 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. You see how Isaiah got a sense
for his sinfulness in the light of God's holiness.
I am unclean you know you really have to come to that point in
your life for salvation before you ever become be used of God
in service. Just just make an application
here. You know you have to come to
that place in your life where you recognize that you are
unclean in your sin as I646 but we are all as an unclean thing
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
You've got to come to the place in your life where you realize
that you are what the Bible says, a Sinner for all have
sinned. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 and
come short. The glory of God the Bible is so
clear. Romans 310 as it is written
there is none righteous, no not one and we define sin according
to God's word. Read first John chapter 3 verse
4. Sin is the transgression or the
breaking of the law. All you have to do is run your
eye over the 10 commandments and you'll realize that you are not
a law keeper, you are a law breaker, and therefore you are a
great Sinner in the eyes of God. And for salvation you must come
to that place where you're willing to say, Lord, I am
unclean. And the only thing that can wash
me clean, the only thing that can make me whiter than the
whitest snow is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh how the Lord Jesus loves you. And he came and he died.
He lived a perfect life and he died a perfect death upon the
cross. And you must come as a guilty
Sinner, as an unclean Sinner. Oh, how filthy we are in our
sin. Oh, how dirty we are and how
depraved we are in our sins. We are unclean and we are naked
in the presence of God. But we come there and with that
spirit of repentance, acknowledging that we are
sinners before God, and then reaching out the empty hands of
faith, receiving by faith God's free gift of eternal life.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
And when you'll do that, he'll cleanse you.
He'll make you clean. He'll make you white as snow.
That's where it all starts. But you have to also come to
that place in a sense, like as I did as a believer when it comes
to Christian service. You see, there's the cleansing
for salvation, but there's also an ongoing work of cleansing for
service. Salvation happens once in our
lives. It's a one time event.
Save forever. Once saved, always saved.
But aren't you thankful that cleansing is not only available
for salvation, but cleansing is available for sanctification?
And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Aren't you thankful for the power of confession and the
power of. Cleansing in your life as a
believer that you might be usable for God.
And so as I was acknowledging the fact that he's that is that
that he that he was, he's acknowledging here his sin and
his unworthiness to speak for God.
Notice that Isaiah was most conscious about his lips.
I understand that as a preacher, he's a man who's endeavoring to
speak for God. And whether you're called to be
a full time preacher or not, we're all called to speak for
God, aren't we? And it doesn't take very long
when you look at God's holiness to realize I have unclean lips.
Lord, how can you? And I'm still, I still wonder
this, how can God take unclean lips and use them to preach his
word? Well, the answer is cleansing,
as we're going to see in a moment, I am unclean.
Notice then he says, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. See how Isaiah when he was
confronted with God's holiness, it brought him to a realization
of his own uncleanness, but also the uncleanness of those around
him. Now note the order he started
with his own sin first, then the sins of others.
And when you really get a sense of God's holiness in your life,
you will firstly see your own uncleanness before you see
everybody else's. But when you get revived in the
presence of God and you see God for who He is, it'll not only
give you a consciousness of sin in your own life, but you'll
become more sensitive to the sin around you.
You know, today we are so desensitized to the very vilest
of sins, and the holiness of God will bring sin into sharp
clarity. Do we not live in a wicked age?
Does that not break our hearts? Not only the sin in our own
lives, but how we live in a sinful generation, a generation
that blasphemes the name of God, a generation that has
popularized and normalized the vile sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And there's something wrong today where Christians don't
seem to care anymore about sin in the nation.
You say what's happened? They've lost sight of how holy
God is. You know, our problem today, our
problem is we laugh about sin rather than mourn about sin.
Do you know our problem is today we're more interested in
covering up sin than confessing sin.
You know, a lot of churches today like that.
You know, pastor's been involved in calling some of that out.
God bless him for that. But there are a lot of pastors
out there. Their main interest is cover sin
over keep the keep cover over the child molestation.
Cover over the adultery in the fornication in the church.
Don't deal with it. Whatever you do, make sure
nobody finds out they've lost sight of the holiness of God.
I don't care if they call themselves independent.
Baptists don't care what they call themselves.
If you are covering over sin and not dealing with sin biblically,
you have lost sight. Of the holiness of God, there's
something wrong with you. The holiness of God not only
produces A soberness about sin in my own life, but it also
produces A sharpness to the sin of a nation.
Isaiah's vision, he saw God. Isaiah's confession, then said I
woe is me. Interesting, isn't it, how you
read Isaiah? And he was saying, woe to this.
You read the first five chapters.
Woe unto the drunkids, woe to this, but he came to that place.
Woe is me. And you're going to find in the
Christian life, you know, when you when you got saved, you said
very much, Lord, save me from sin, but you're going to find
this. In the Christian life, you're
going to get to the place where you say, Lord, save me from me.
Lord, save me from sin. That's how you get saved.
Oh, but Lord, now as a Christian, save me from self.
Woe is me. In me, in my flesh, Romans 7
dwells no good thing. Lord, deliver me from the body
of this death. Lord, apply the cross to the
self life that I might be usable for you #3.
Look at our eyes cleansing, and you'll notice the word then
again in verse 6. 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 thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
God saw sorry, as I saw God in His Holiness, and in His
Highness. Then said I Woe is me.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me.
Verse 6. Laid it upon his mouth, my
mouth. Verse 7.
You see the sequence here? Confession leads to cleansing.
Confession brought cleansing and ultimately equipping.
Let's look at three points about this cleansing.
Firstly, we could say it was a fast cleansing.
A fast cleansing then flew one of the seraphims.
No doubt this seraphim was sent by God.
They are there to serve the purposes of God and the will of
God and one of them is dispatched very quickly there.
Aren't you thankful that when we come to God and we acknowledge
our brokenness, we've. Acknowledged our simpleness
before God. Aren't you thankful that
straight away the heart of our God is to cleanse us in response
to our confession? I'm so thankful for that.
It tells you something about the grace of God and the love of God
and the and the goodness of God that God would be so willing to
cleanse us and to purify us in our Christian.
Lives the fast cleansing. It was a fiery cleansing. #2 is
a fiery cleansing. Look back at verse 6.
Then flew one of the Seraphim's unto me, having a live coal in
his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the
altar. Do you see here that the
Seraphim flew swiftly to the altar there in the temple, no
doubt the altar of sacrifice, the place where the lambs would
be slain and then burned upon the altar.
And I love the picture there. You see, the altar of sacrifice
speaks of the cross. It speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Where are you going to find
cleansing at the cross? Where are you going to find
cleansing? At the feet of the.
Lord Jesus and here, as it were, the seraphim takes the blood
stained coal off the older, flies over there to to Isaiah
and applies that glowing coal to the lips of Isaiah.
Cleansing is applied. You know, I find it interesting
that the seraphim had to use a pair of tongs to touch the
coals. You know the the angels as as as
exalted as their position is, they don't know what it is to
receive cleansing as a Sinner. And the seraphim could not touch
this coal of redemption, as it were.
The seraphim could not touch this coal of cleansing.
But that coal of cleansing could touch Ozai.
Isn't it a wonderful thing to be cleansed?
It was a fiery cleansing. It was a fiery cleansing.
Number three, it was a focused cleansing.
Notice that the cleansing was applied to the specific area of
need. As I confessed, I'm a man of
unclean lips and God immediately applied cleansing to that area
of need. And that's that's how we need to
confess sin in our lives. Vague confession brings vague
relief, but specific confession brings specific relief.
Don't tell God about your sin in vague terms.
You tell him what he did, what you did.
Specifically. It's like with your children,
they, you know you, they've done something wrong and they try and
sort of generalize things and make it sound not too bad.
No, tell me what you did. What did you do, boy?
Tell God what you've done. He knows about it already
anyway. And when you're willing to tell
God what you've done, that's really what confession is.
It's to agree with God about your sin.
It's to confess plainly your sin.
When you confess your sin to God in that manner, God will apply
His cleansing. To that area of need, the word
purged we see in the verse here. It's an interesting word.
It comes from the Hebrew word translated repeatedly as
atonement in the Old Testament. Purged sin atoned for.
Don't you see the picture here? Isaiah, as a man of God, needed
the touch of God, the special, special touch of God upon his
lips in order to give him the power to speak God's words.
I tell you, that's what we need today.
We need preachers whose lips have been touched with the fire
of God. We need preaching that is not
preaching that is spoken in demonstration of men's man's
wisdom, but is spoken in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power, that our faith would not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. That's the kind of preaching we
need today. Oh God, deliver us from cold
preaching and dead preaching. God, give us some preaching
that's been fired with fire off the altar.
That's what we need today, not some strange fire, not some
charismatic fire, but the genuine power of God.
There needs to be warmth and and our preaching needs to be alive
with the presence and the power of God.
And that comes by God's men getting in the presence of God
and realizing their unworthiness and their unusefulness really in
their humanity, and casting themselves upon God for His
cleansing and His equipping and His empowering.
For service how we need that touch?
Upon our lips. That's the thing that scares me
the most, frankly, as a preacher, that I could be
preaching even doctrinally accurate sermons, but with no
power. It happens today.
There are preachers in pulpits, and give credit where credit's
due, they may even be preaching sound doctrine, but it's hollow
and it's empty. There's no touch of God upon it.
And we need to be, to be. Touched by the fire of God, as
it were. Amen.
That our preaching might be a glow for the Lord.
And so we see His cleansing #4 at Isaiah's Commission.
We've seen His vision, His confession, His cleansing, and
now His Commission. Look at verse 8 and verse 9 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.
And he said, Go and tell this people as I as Commission.
Now let me draw your attention to three important features of
this Commission #1. The sequence leading to this
call. The sequence leading to the
call. I believe the sequence in the
events of the passage are significant.
Isaiah did not receive this call at the beginning.
First he had to get a fresh vision of who God was that then
he might see himself as he really was.
There had to be a purging of sin out of his life, a clearing of
the blockage of sin in his life. And once Isaiah had received
that cleansing from God, once Isaiah had done business in the
presence of God, and it had and had experienced a measure of.
Spiritual revival. Then, and only then was he able
to hear God's call. Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us? That is very significant.
You know why I, I believe this with all my heart.
You know why so many there's, there's such a dearth of labours
today. Do you know why so many are not
hearing the call of God? I don't believe it's because God
stopped calling. I believe that people can't hear
the voice of God and can't hear the heart of God in relation to
missions because their lives are so full of sin.
And when your life is full of the blockage of sin, you're not
going to have any interest in reaching a lost world for Jesus
Christ. You're not going to have the
kind of heart you need to have to reach the World when your
life is full. Of sin.
Sin is stopping revival in our churches.
Sin is what's stopping young men from surrendering to the call of
God. You say why so little revival in
our day? Why so few laborers?
Because the average young man today is full up to his eyeball
eyeballs with pornography. And how are you going to
possibly hear God's call to you? How are you possibly going to
hear God's voice about the great need of the harvest fields of
the world if you're full of pornography?
You know why so little zeal for missions today?
Because the average independent Baptist watches way too many
dirty movies. The average independent Baptist
today watches way too much trash on television.
How many times do you have to hear?
How many times do you have to hear the name of your blessed
Saviour Jesus Christ blaspheme before you will shut that
program off? How many immodest scenes do you
need to see? How many dirty scenes do you
need to see before you will say enough?
Enough in light of the presence of God.
Might be good to go home today in light of this message and
think about the holiness of God and think about what you have on
your computer. Think about your Netflix
subscription. In fact, a little suggestion for
you. Just get off of Netflix.
Disconnect from that. Won a revival today.
Sin. Dirty movies.
How many? How can you as a Christian?
How can you as a Christian watch some movie with some lewd
inappropriate scene in it? How is that OK?
It happens in our churches. Is it really God honoring for
you to play that video game going around blowing off heads
all day? Amen.
And hacking people to pieces. In fact, I remember back, I
remember somewhere in the Bible about the world being full of
violence before Noah's flood came.
Do you remember anything about that?
Yes. Amen.
Why no revival today? Because some of you are wrapped
up in the online sewers of social media.
And let's just be honest this morning, while some use some of
those platforms in a disciplined and character way, most of
social media is a sewer. Instagram.
It's called Instaporn in the world.
That's its nickname, Insta porn. Why?
Studies have been done by family research groups that find
literally within seconds, you can access an almost limitless
supply of pornographic imagery and links to more and more
pornography. Because guess what?
Those massive big pornography companies have embedded
themselves in those major sites. Word to parents.
If you let your teenager have an unrestricted smartphone with
unrestricted access to the Internet, you are a fool.
Yeah, that's true. You are a fool.
In fact, I've seen enough as a pastor to date to say this.
If you give your teenage boy a smartphone with unrestricted
access to the Internet, you've basically signed their spiritual
death warrant. That's true.
You see, that's a bit dramatic, I'm telling you.
I struggled enough as a teenager with my thought life without the
TV in the home. I struggled enough as a teenager
with my thought life without a smartphone.
And if I had lived, if I had grown up as a teenager in the
smartphone age and my parents had given me one, I'm about
99.99% sure I would have looked at the wrong thing.
What do you? Think your teenage is going to
do with that smartphone with unrestricted access to the
Internet in their bedroom? You know the strange woman has
found her way into the bedrooms of most independent Baptist
homes today. The digital strange woman.
And I'm not trying to sound like I'm some sort of prophet.
It would not surprise me at all if there's a man under the sound
of my voice in this building who has a problem with pornography.
That's you. You need revival and you need
help. So I could never come forward.
My pastor will smash me. No, he'll try and help you.
But the longer you go on with that in your life, it's going to
clog up the wellsprings of revival in your life.
And as long as you spend more time on Facebook than having
your face in God's Book, there will be no revival.
That's the reality today. The average Independence Baptist
spends way more time on Facebook than they do having their face
in God's Book. And you sit there before the
service, browsing social media. Couldn't you have one day off?
Couldn't you have one day off and just have one day for the
Lord? That wouldn't hurt you, you
know. I'm not against technology and
the appropriate use of technology.
You say why are you preaching this?
Because I'm seeing the digital world destroy many families,
destroy young men, and don't think you're exempt as a young
woman. Oh well, it doesn't affect me.
I'm a woman. Yes, it's affecting our young
girls and the self harm culture that's being promoted on TikTok
and the pornographic culture that's being promoted on TikTok
and the pornographic culture that's being promoted on
Instagram. We're living in a world that is
going to hell in a sea of vile imagery.
And if ever there was a day where we need to get a hold of
the holiness of God and to translate our understanding of
the holiness of God into practical life, it would have to
be in 21st century America, 21st century Australia, where we have
more access to the sordid sins of the wicked nature there than
at any other time in human history.
Literally today, within a few taps, you can be into the depths
of depravity. I'm tired of seeing good
Christian young people get destroyed and sometimes they're
in really good homes. But somewhere mum and dad lost
the plot. Thick as a brick.
And I've even seen, Listen, I
can tell you about a young man right now, and he grew up in a
clean home, homeschooled, no television.
And yet somewhere the parents dropped the ball with the laptop
and he was getting up at night and accessing the depths of
iniquity on his mother's unprotected, unsupervised
laptop. This is a little bit fresh in my
mind because of the conference I just preached at for brother
Courtney. But his sister, there I was
preaching on some of these things and she said I'm, she
said, I want you. I want you to know you're free
to share this story with other people.
She said what you said is true. We home schooled our children,
but I had a laptop. My daughter found out the
password to that laptop and unbeknownst to me, when I would
go out to the shops or go to do something or be out of the home,
she was getting into that laptop.
She got onto social media and she got tangled up in
lesbianism. So what happened to her?
She's seriously messed up. She's in her 30s now and still
hasn't found her way back to the Lord.
She may not even be saved, but it happened in a good home,
schooled home, an overall godly home.
But the parents were unwise and didn't think.
And she said you share that story to warn others.
You know, you need to think as a parent about every device in
your home. And if that device has
accountability and protection on it, and that includes you as a
wife, well, it doesn't affect me.
I'm a woman. Firstly, that's a lie.
You have a sinful flesh and you can get wrapped up in the in the
whole thing. In fact, many women get caught
up in emotional affairs you might not be so attracted to.
Naked pictures. But you can get caught up in
some emotional affair with some old school contact who's not
your husband. Plus you should be setting a
good example for your children. Plus, you don't want your kids
to maybe somehow get. Access to that phone and get
into things because kids work out technology very quickly.
My kids have told me things about my iPhone and features
that I didn't even know existed and they barely touched the
thing. Guess what, if you don't give
your teenager an iPhone, they will live.
They'll live. Your son won't die.
In fact, don't we want our kids to just enjoy their childhood?
I'm thankful that overall I enjoyed my childhood.
So poor. Oh, you poor guy, you didn't
have ATV. What did you miss out on?
Well, I missed out on having my mind scarred.
That's worth missing out on. I missed out on a whole learning
a whole bunch of evil things you say.
What did you do? We climbed trees, we fell out of
trees. We dug holes, we fell in.
Holes. We broke arms, you say?
That was wonderful. Well, not the breaking of the
arm part, but you know, I didn't break.
I'm actually the only one who didn't break a bone.
I helped my younger brother break one on accident.
Yeah, it's always an accident, isn't it?
But somehow the older brother's got some hand in it.
So we were jumping, we were jumping off this box and
grabbing onto a bar, and I just moved it back to give him a
high, you know, just moved the box back a bit and he jumped
again, sailed past, broke his arm in two places.
I didn't tell Mom and Dad about that until later.
I thought I'd admit that detail from the report.
It's great to see children enjoying simple things.
So what do your kids do? We take them to the fruit and
veg shop we go to. We get our we get our fruit and
veg from a little Indian grocer because it's about half 1/4 of
the process of the major grocery stores.
They just love it. Think man, these kids are
homeschooled. They get excited over fruit and
veg. Why no revival?
Ungodly music. Do you really?
Think you're going to hear hear Ma send me?
Well, you've got that stuff pounding in your ears with its
sensual beat and its sensual lyrics.
Do you really think you're going to have a heart for missions,
young ladies, while you're listening to Taylor Swift?
Taylor Swift has zero wisdom for your life.
I mean, how ridiculous. Basically singing about your
dysfunctional life and this love life you find it.
You know you're looking for what other stupidity?
And Ariana Grande and and Doctor Dre and and and and Kanye West
and $0.50 and and and Snoop Dogg.
How stupid is Snoop Dogg? And I know I got into rock music
as a teenager and it had a profound effect on my heart.
When I was a teenager. It was the Backstreet Boys.
Oh, the Backstreet Boys. What a bunch of idiots.
Well, Pastor, I'm glad you haven't mentioned the oldie
Goldies. Elvis, The Beatles.
Do you know how much do you know how much destruction those men?
Do you know how much they destroyed America?
Do you know how much they undermined the moral fabric of
your nation? And not just our nation, but
Australia? In fact, The Beatles came.
Back in the 1960s to Adelaide and you can see footage of it
and it had a profound effect. I mean I think about a million
people showed up or something to try and see them and it had a
huge effect. Australia was never the same
again. My grandmother, who is from the
World War Two generation, said everything changed in the 60s.
It was the IT was the decade of rebellion.
Against authority and rock'n'roll.
And men like Elvis and The Beatles were no Saints.
They were wicked men. They were serial adulterers,
serial fornicators. And just don't listen to that
stuff. How are you going to have
revival when you're listening to rock'n'roll music?
Why no revival? Violent video games.
Apart from anything else, you're wasting a lot of time.
And I'm not saying that there aren't some.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there aren't
some wholesome programs and things that we can watch as a
family. We do that as a family, even
some films, not against that. But the point is we're careful.
We're watchful. You have to just be careful in
this digital age and make sure we're not allowing things into
the home that can white Ant the spiritual lives of our children.
You know, D or Moody back in his day, How many of you have heard
of D or Moody? Great evangelist here in
America, from America, Chicago area there.
You know what he preached against in his day?
He was preaching against the Sunday paper.
He said people go home after the morning service and they fill
their minds with all these silly articles and things.
And he said they come back Sunday night.
And he said if I if Gabriel himself showed up to preach, he
wouldn't make a dent on them because their heads are so full
of the trash from the newspaper. What do you say today where the
average independent Baptist can't get off of Facebook on
Sunday, can't stop looking at Insta porn?
I mean, Instagram on Sunday. I'm.
Serious. That's why there's no revival.
You know, independent Baptist. Love talking about revival, love
shouting about revival, but I find they don't really like
dealing with the. Issues that are stopping revival
and I find it's independent Baptist.
When things go quiet, that usually means we're on to
something, usually means we're getting down to dealing with the
issues. I know I've grown up in
independent Baptist churches and I love independent Baptist
churches, but I know the culture and.
Amen and Amen and Amen when? Things go quiet.
That usually means we're getting down to business.
Well, no revival. Lewd literature.
This is a big danger. It's been well said.
What images do for men, literature does for women.
You get wrapped up as an older woman, maybe in all those slushy
romance novels as a wholesome there are wholesome love
stories, and not against those. There's even wholesome love
stories in the Bible. But I'm talking about steamy,
slushy, sensual, immoral stuff. No wonder there's no concern for
missions. How are you going to have any
concern for missions while you're reading that junk?
Why no revival? Immorality and perversion
amongst God's people. Why no revival?
Well, because of idolatry in the area of sports.
Now, is sports simple in and of itself?
No. Can it have some time in our
lives? Probably a tiny bit, but that's
quite different to the average independent Baptist who knows
way more about the names of the sports stars than they know
about the names of the heroes of the faith.
And I'd much rather actually have my kids look to godly
preachers and things as their heroes than some baseball player
or football player who may be good on the field, but he lives
like the devil off the field. It's great we had your pastor
over and a lot of our young men now have got what they call the
Steve Boots haircut. The Pastor Boots haircut started
a new trend. I don't mind.
I'd rather young men get excited about a preacher from America
than get excited about some idiot playing soccer.
So do you see the sequence leading to the call?
There was this work of spiritual revival in Isaiah that then
brought him to the place of readiness to hear God's call.
The blockage of sin was removed. We need to do some business with
God this morning. Maybe you at the end of this
service need to come forward and you need to get on your face
before God and say God, there's some music in my life I need to
get off my iPhone. There's some unclean shows that
I'm involved with. I'm going to disconnect from
them. And that includes, by the way, a
lot of these trashy podcasts. And they may not be.
Even very sinful, but they're just useless as far as eternity
is concerned. Ladies, Candace Owens is not a
good role model for you. She just spews out endless
gossip and trash and speculation and and conspiracy.
Don't waste your time on those kinds of people.
Andrew Murray. Wisely observed, great advances
in missions are always connected with a deep revival of spiritual
life and a high devotion to the Lord Jesus.
Great advances in missions are always connected with a deep
revival of spiritual life and a high devotion to the Lord Jesus.
The sequence leading to the call, we need to wrap up the
sensitivity to the call. Look back at verse 8.
Look back at verse 8 also, I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
Do you see that there's a new sensitivity in ours eye now, now
that he's dealt with sin in his life, now that he's confessed
sin in his life and. Experienced God's cleansing.
Now there's a new sensitivity to this great work upon the heart
of God. And when you get close to God,
you will find that missions is on His heart.
And now he hears this question that is upon the heart of the
eternal God. Whom shall I send and who will
go for us all? How we need some young men today
who would hear that call, hear the call of God.
Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
And all that? We would have more men today who
would fall on their knees and say, here am I send me.
That same question comes ringing down to us today.
God's heart has not changed and he's still asking, whom shall I
send and who will go for us? Maybe there's a young man on the
sound of my voice this morning. Maybe you've got your life
mapped out and you think you're going to have this career and
you're going to pursue money and do this.
Maybe you need to come to that place this morning of saying.
Lord, here am I, I'm willing, you said, but I'm not sure if
I'm called yet. We'll at least say, God, I'm
willing. Make yourself available and see
what God will do. The sequence leading to the
call. The sensitivity to the call.
Finally the surrender to the call.
The surrender to the call. 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. It's interesting to me that God
did not directly address Ozai here.
He simply allowed Ozai to hear the Godhead expressing that
searching question. Whom shall I send and who will
go for us as I would need to voluntary, voluntarily surrender
for this task? God's not going to force you
either. But there is no greater
privilege than the privilege of being a preacher of the Word of
God. And maybe as a young man, you
need to beg God, make me a preacher, abuse me.
God, here am I send me. But you can't say here am I send
me until you first confessed. I am undone.
I am unclean. In many ways, I think that's the
burden of the message this morning.
The blockages of sin in our lives must be dealt with.
Then and only then, will we really be able to do something
for the Lord in the area of missions.
Let's have every head bowed, every eye closed, every head
bowed, every eye closed. Let me ask you this morning, are
you saved? Have you come to that place in
your life? Of being willing to admit I am a
Sinner, I need Christ. Forgive me, Lord, for my sin.
Cleanse me in my blood. Would there be any this morning?
Well, every head is bowed and every eyes closed.
The piano begins to play with. There'd be anyone here this
morning who would just be willing to put their hand up and
say, Pastor, If I'm honest this morning, I'm not 100% sure that
I've been saved from my sin. If I was to die today, I'm
really not 100% sure where I would go, where I would spend
eternity, but I'd like to deal with that today.
If that would be you only Pastor and I are looking around.
Would you just raise your hand? If that's you this morning,
Pastor, pray for me. And I'd like to know more about
how I can know for sure that my sins are forgiven and that I
have eternal life. Would that be you?
Anyone here? Would you just raise your hand?
If that's you, I need to know where I'm going to spend
eternity. Pray for me as you close.
Anyone at all. Maybe you're here today and you
say, pastor, I know I'm saved, but if I'm honest, there's some
pretty serious sin in my life. Maybe not even serious sin, just
a sinful habit. All sin is serious, isn't it?
To God? The Lord spoken to me this
morning about clearing out some blockages in my life that have
been stopping up the worlds of revival.
If that would be you, I'm not going to come after the service
and ask you to tell me what it is.
But would you be willing just to humble yourself and raise your
hand and say, pastor, pray for me?
There's some things in my life that God has spoken to me about
that I need to deal with. Yes, Amen.
Anyone else, just raise your hand and slip it back down.
Amen. Pastor, pray for me as you
close. There's some sin in my life.
There's some issues in my life that I mean.
I need to deal with. Maybe parents, you've raised
your hand. So pastor, pray for me.
There's some changes in my home I need to make.
God's convicted me about some things I've allowed in my home
that need to change. Would you raise your hand if
that's you, Amen. I'm going to have a pastor come
and finish the invitation as he sees fit.
But let me encourage you as the invitation is given.
If the Lord has dealt with your heart, what better place to
start that work, of allow that work of revival to start, but to
come forward in the local church and do business with the Lord as
we bring our service to a close. Thank you.