Sermon Tone Analysis

Close Encounters with Christ

Isaiah 6:1-8

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - Oct. 24, 2012

BACKGROUND:

*We have been studying Old Testament encounters with Christ for almost a year: From Adam to Abraham to Moses.

I counted around a dozen more personal encounters with the Pre-incarnate Christ in the Old Testament.

*For example, in Judges 6 the Lord appeared to Gideon, and Judges 6:14 says: “Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

Have I not sent you?”

*If you remember the story, when Gideon started out to the battle, he had 32,000 men in his army, but God said in effect, “That’s too many.

I want you to know where the victory comes from.”

By the time the Lord was finished sending soldiers home, there were only 300 men in Gideon’s army.

But that was enough to defeat an army of 135,000, because the Lord was on their side!

*God can do big things with a little army, and that’s great because it means He can do great things through us!

*In Judges 13, the LORD appeared twice to Sampson’s parents to tell them about their coming son.

*1 Kings 3:5 says: “In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, ‘Ask what I shall give thee.’

*2 Chronicles 3:1 says: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”

*Tonight we will finish this study by exploring one of the most famous OT appearances of Christ.

Let’s begin by reading Isaiah 6:1-8.

INTRODUCTION:

*Some years ago, George Barna surveyed adults who don’t go to church.

Two out of three said that they would be strongly motivated to come, IF they could truly experience God.

Many people are hungry for God.

And the best thing that could happen here tonight is for each one of us to have a close encounter with Jesus Christ.

*What happens when people encounter the living Lord?

1.

First of all, we discover the majesty of our Savior.

*That’s what happened to Isaiah in vs. 1-4.

Listen again to his testimony from these verses:

1.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

2. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

3.

And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!''

4.

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

[1] Think for a few minutes about who Isaiah saw.

*Well, of course he saw God.

But speaking of the time before Jesus ascended back to Heaven, John 1:18 says: “No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

*And in John 5, Jesus said:

36.

“But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish the very works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.

37.

And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.

You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.”

*In John 6, Jesus also said:

44.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

45.

It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

46.

Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.”

*And John 12:36-41 removes all doubt.

There Jesus said:

36.

“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.

37.

But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,

38. that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: "Lord, who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?''

39.

Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:

40.

"He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, lest they should turn, so that I should heal them.''

41.

These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory (i.e. when Isaiah saw Christ’s glory) and spoke of Him.

*Who did Isaiah see? -- He saw God the Son.

He saw the eternal Jesus before He took on a human body.

[2] Now think about when Isaiah saw Jesus.

*It was during a crisis.

Verse 1 tells us it was “in the year that King Uzziah died.”

At the end of his life, King Uzziah strayed from the Lord and was struck with leprosy.

But for most of 52 years, he had been a good king.

Uzziah was the last good king Judah would ever have, so it was a troubling time.

(1)

*“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord.”

Maynard Pittendreigh explained: “It’s like saying, ‘In the year the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, I worshipped God.

In the year of 9-11, I worshipped God.

In the year my friend died, worshipped the Lord.’

Why do we worship God? -- It is not to escape life out there.

It is to deal with life out there.” (2)

*And if there is any good that can come out of the storms in life, it’s that we will turn to the Lord and seek His face!

*Alexander Maclaren added this insight: “God never empties places in our homes and hearts, or in the nation or the Church, without being ready to fill them.

He sometimes empties them (so) that He may fill them.

Sorrow and loss are meant to prepare us for the vision of God, and their effect should be to purge the inward eye, that it may see Him.

*When the leaves drop from the forest trees we can see the blue sky which their dense abundance hid.

Well for us if the passing of all that can pass drives us to Him who cannot pass.

(Well for us) if the unchanging God stands out more clear, more near, more dear, because of change.”

(3)

*Many times our eyes have been opened to the Lord during a time of personal or family or national crisis.

-But thank the Lord that it doesn’t always have to be that way!

-We can have a close encounter with the living Lord right now.

*How do we know that?

-- Because Jesus Christ promised to be here with us!

-In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

[3] Now think about how we should see Jesus.

*In vs. 1 we should see Jesus “high and lifted up!” -- Sitting on a throne as the Ruler of the whole universe.

*In vs. 2, we should see the Lord worthy of worship.

There the Lord was being worshipped by mysterious six-winged, angelic creatures called seraphim.

Their appearance is beyond our imagination.

But we clearly understand the words of their worship, words spoken with such ear-splitting passion that the door posts of Heaven shook: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”

*The Lord is holy!

-- R.C. Sproul helped us understand God’s holiness when he said, “The first prayer I learned as a child was the simple table grace: ‘God is great, God is good and we thank Him for this food.’

Those two virtues are the essence of God’s holiness: infinite greatness and infinite goodness.”

(4)

*And even a glimpse of the glory of God’s holiness can change our lives forever.

-The holiness of God caused Adam and Eve to hide in the Garden of Eden.

-The holiness of God caused Moses to say, “I exceedingly fear and quake.”

(Hebrews 12:21)

-The holiness of God caused the Apostle John to fall at the Lord’s feet as if he were dead.

(Rev 1:17)

*This is the majesty of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But the Lord is not just holy.

He is holy, holy, holy!

*Bruce Goettsche explained: “Of all the attributes of God, holiness is the one that seems to take center stage.