[0:00] Let us read some scriptures this evening. Turning to the book of Isaiah, the prophet of Isaiah and chapter 6.
[0:10] Turning to Isaiah chapter 6 please.
[0:20] Isaiah chapter 6 commencing to read together at verse 1. In the year the king Uzzi died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple.
[0:36] Above him stood the seraphim, each at six wings, with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
[0:52] The whole earth is full of his glory. The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.
[1:14] Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
[1:34] And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here I am, send me.
[1:46] And he said, Go and say to this people. Amen. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts this evening.
[1:57] Shall we come to the Lord again in prayer? Our God and Father, we thank you for your precious word. We thank you, this is the inspired infallible word of the living God.
[2:10] We thank you, this is God's revelation to man. And Lord, may you come upon your word this evening. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
[2:27] We thank you, Lord, that you speak through your word. Lord, come tonight we pray. Glorify yourself in our midst.
[2:37] And Lord, may your word be applied to our hearts and bring forth that desired result that you long to see. Help us in these moments, Lord.
[2:48] Help us, Lord, to bring your truth in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I want us to consider tonight about meetings with God.
[3:02] Here we read that King Uzziah has died and the throne of Judah is empty. King Uzziah was a very strong king. That's underlined for us in 2 Chronicles, chapter 26, where his reign is described, where Uzziah made himself strong.
[3:19] He had been on the throne for 52 years. I would think that the death would have come with a national throng.
[3:30] What are we going to do now? What is going to happen to the future of the nation? Young Jotham, who was 25 years of age, was going to be the successor and nobody knew how he would cope as king and how he would really perform his duties.
[3:49] You can't be surprised that there was a real anxiousness about the future. And in this situation, Uzziah has gone to the temple to pray and to seek God's face for the future of his people.
[4:04] Uzziah turned to God for his help and comfort. And in that hour of seeming defeat, he experienced a great spiritual blessing.
[4:16] Because Uzziah, he saw the throne of heaven, was still occupied by God. And there Uzziah had a meeting with God that really transformed his life.
[4:30] There were three looks. The upward look, he saw the Lord. The inward look, he saw himself. The outward look, he saw the need.
[4:43] Let's look at the first point this evening. The upward look, he saw the Lord. We live in days where wrong seems right and right seems wrong.
[4:55] We live in very strange days. There's a little sense of human dignity that seems to remain. Moral standards are at an all-time low.
[5:06] Lord's Day, the Sabbath Day is a day for entertainment and very few seem to regard the house of God as important. And one wonders where we'll be in another few years.
[5:20] What do you think has happened to produce this change? I think our spiritual weakness can be pinpointed like this. No longer do we see God.
[5:33] There's a little sense of realizing who he is and remembering that we live in his presence. Not for Uzziah, the effect of seeing what he saw made him realize who and what God is.
[5:47] And that awareness is awareness that we need to recover in our nation in these days. Uzziah realized that though the nation had prospered materially, it was in a terrible condition spiritually.
[6:02] What was going to happen to Judah? And God lifted Uzziah's eyes from himself and his people to the throne of heaven. Does he wear it in the divine presence?
[6:13] A vision broken upon his soul. That heavenly vision had to do with the glory of God. I believe there was the glory of his person.
[6:26] Here in verse 1 the word of God says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. This glory was undoubtedly the holiness.
[6:38] As I hear he speaks of the syrophims in verse 3, he says that they were crying, holy, holy, holy. Now some feel that this threefold reputation of the word holy is to reveal the trinity.
[6:54] But also the same reason why we repeat things, it is to emphasize something. And I'm not going to deny that holy, holy, holy is speaking of the trinity this evening.
[7:08] But when we want to emphasize something we repeat it and the angels were celebrating the holiness of God, he is holy, he is holy, he is holy.
[7:22] There was the glory of his person, God is holy. The Bible labors through many types and sacrifices and ceremonies to bring out the fact that God is holy.
[7:37] The prophet describes him as the high and lofty one that inhabit of the eternity whose name is holy. The way to focus what Uzziah saw was to see it as a vision of holiness, the glory of his person, God is holy.
[8:00] Not only was there the glory of this person, but I believe also there was the glory of his power. The word of God tells us here that the robes of God, they filled the temple.
[8:14] You can imagine the grandeur which he saw. The vision of the throne was enormous, he had to raise his eyes to see it. It was a vision of greatness, it was a vision of divine grandeur.
[8:27] And Uzziah saw the heavenly throne in the year the king Uzziah died. On earth the throne was empty, but heaven's throne was still full.
[8:39] And that is a good practical lesson for Christians today. When the day is dark, we look at our nation today.
[8:49] We see our nation in a crisis. We see our nation in confusion. We could look at our nation and see our future is so dark and hopeless with our politicians and how we're being led in these days.
[9:04] But friends, a wonderful encouragement for us this evening is, God is still on the throne. And our God reigns. And Uzziah in the vision of God, he saw that vision of God's power.
[9:20] God was still occupying the throne. It was a vision of greatness. It was a vision of grandeur. It was a vision of power. And Uzziah lifted his eyes and he saw God was still on the throne.
[9:34] And thank God he's still on the throne tonight, for he is the eternal God. He is from everlasting to everlasting.
[9:44] Power belongs unto the Lord. And there's power tonight in heaven's throne. There's no power on earth to match the power of heaven.
[9:57] When we think tonight of our God and the one that reigns, God is eternal. The heavens and earth have been here for a very long time, but God was here before they ever existed.
[10:10] Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He will still exist when heaven and earth are no more because God belongs to the realm where time does not exist.
[10:26] He always was, he always is, he always will be. God is eternal. His throne is from everlasting to everlasting.
[10:38] It's God that we trust in tonight. Our trust is not in man. Our trust is in God, the sovereign God, the God of power, the God who is on the throne.
[10:52] God only is the eternal God, the one that's on the throne, but God is the omnipotent one. God has ability to do all things. The Word of God reminds us with God all things are possible.
[11:05] We can think of revivals here in your island when God moved by His Spirit. Many people came to faith, churches were filled and God was doing wonderful things.
[11:17] God is still the same God tonight and God is still able to do great things. I think of the situation in Romania.
[11:27] My mind goes back to the days of communism when it was so difficult for the believers. There were two ladies in the city of Aradija who decided that they were going to pray every morning at 5am that God would send revival to their nation.
[11:48] Those two ladies came to the church at 5am. Some others began to join them and the more that they prayed for God to send revival and move by His Spirit, the more difficult life became for them and the communist regime was closing in on them tighter and tighter and life was so difficult, it was almost unparable.
[12:11] But those people believed that God could do something special and God did. And God began to move by His Spirit until the people could not get into the church.
[12:27] The people were standing outside, hundreds of people and I understand for the communion or the breaker of bread service, the elders were out on the street serving the bread and the wine to the many people because God was moving by His Spirit, God was answering prayer, God is still ability to do great things and God moved graciously in those days.
[12:52] Communism did its best. I understand that the secret police would come and sit in the congregation and interrogate them. They would stuff the surpikes to create a stench in the church so that people couldn't come into the building but my friends, that did not stop the blessing of God.
[13:09] When God begins to work, man cannot stop it. I understand that they built large apartment blocks.
[13:20] They thought this will close the church because people will be living so close and looking out on people. But you know, the church put a little speaker just outside the door and as they were preaching the people were coming out on their balconies and they were listening to the gospel and they were still coming to Christ.
[13:39] That revival spread from the city of Oradea right down the west coast and the impacts of it are still there today. God is the omnipotent God.
[13:50] He has the ability. God is the omniscient God. He knows all things. There's no secrets with God. He knew the thoughts of man.
[14:02] God is the omnipresent God. God is everywhere. The Samistin Sam 139 he said, if I go up into the heavens, behold thou art there.
[14:12] If I go into the lower parts of the earth, behold thou art there. There was a little girl in school and her teacher was an atheist.
[14:24] The teacher knew that little girl was a Christian. She said to little girl one day, she said, I will give you an apple. If you tell me where God is.
[14:38] And the little girl spoke to her teacher and she said, well, I'll give you two apples if you tell me where God is not. Friends this is our God on the throne.
[14:50] He's with us here tonight. He's with the people in far East Russia. He's the omnipresent God. And oh friends tonight, he is the infinite God.
[15:01] He knows no bonds. He knows no limits. First Kings 827, the heavens of heavens cannot contain thee. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
[15:11] But the God on the throne tonight, our God is the God who never changes. Malachi chapter 3 in verse 6, we read those lovely words. I am the Lord.
[15:22] I change not friends. This word is true. He promises true because God never changes.
[15:34] He is the God of power. He's the God that's on the throne tonight. There is the glory of his person, the glory of his power and the glory of his purpose that the whole earth might be filled with his glory.
[15:50] The upward look, he saw God. But secondly, there was the inward look. He saw himself. We come here to verse 5.
[16:00] The word of God reads, and I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
[16:13] You know a true vision of God and His holiness always makes us realize our own sinfulness and our failures. You remember Peter cried out, I am a sinful man when he saw Christ.
[16:25] My friends, when we sense the holiness of God, we will sense our sinfulness before God. Here we read in verse 5, then said, When I saw the Lord, verse 5 says, and I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.
[16:45] The prophet had been speaking a message of doom to the people in the previous chapters, but now he senses God's holiness. The reality of God has come to him.
[16:57] You know we're never told that a word was spoken directly to him from God about himself, but as he heard the angels celebrating God's holiness, as he realized God's purity in the depths of his own soul, he began to see himself, as he never seen or sensed himself before, and he comes before God and he says, I am a sinful man.
[17:20] I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. But Isaiah had met with God, and then the cleansing took place symbolically how the life cold was taken off the altar, it touched his lips and it cleansed him.
[17:40] Thank God tonight there's cleansing. Word of God reminds us that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin when we sense our sinfulness before God, when we feel our lostness before God.
[17:59] Tonight there is a God of mercy, there is one that is ready to forgive us, and the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin.
[18:12] Then we notice thirdly, there was the outward look, he saw the need. We come here to this missionary part of service of this reading these verses and verse it I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
[18:30] Then I said, here am I sent me. Everything to this point was preparation, but now God can call Isaiah and God can use him.
[18:41] The prophet is no longer wrapped up in his own needs, he wants to do the will of God. He's no longer burdened by sin, he has been cleansed. He is no longer discouraged, he knows that God is on the throne and the prophet Isaiah is ready to serve the Lord and he says, here am I, send me.
[19:03] This meeting with God changed this man. God said to him, go and tell this people.
[19:13] We would call the prophet Isaiah a home missionary and if I'm been honest with you this evening, I would say that the home mission field is the most difficult mission field in the world.
[19:28] To reach your family, to reach your neighbors, to reach your workmates or those that you study with with the message of the gospel, I believe that is the most difficult mission field in many respects.
[19:43] And God said to Isaiah, I want you to go to your own people. God said, go and tell them. And then God says, they're not going to listen to the message.
[19:54] They will not want to hear the message. But Isaiah, your responsibility is to go and tell them.
[20:04] Many years on, thousands of years on friends, little has changed. I can speak for myself and our country of Northern Ireland, largely speaking, people don't want to hear the message of the gospel.
[20:20] They're taken up with temporal things, material things, they're taken up with many other things in life. They're not interested in this message.
[20:30] And yet God still says to the church tonight, go and tell them. Give a message to bring to the nations. As Isaiah said, here am I.
[20:42] Send me. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to serve you. Maybe tonight you feel, well, there's very little that I can really do for God.
[20:53] What can I really do that will have any impact on the situation? I remember here in the account of a little boy who was out walking one summer's morning.
[21:07] It was very, very hot summer's morning. He was out on the beach. There'd been a storm when many starfish had been washed up onto the sand and that little boy was picking up a starfish and throwing them back into the water.
[21:20] Little starfish that were still surviving. There was a gentleman out walking his dog that morning. He watched the young boy. And he looked at the thousands of starfish and he thought to himself that young boy's wasting his time.
[21:34] He's making no impact on this situation. So he went to the young boy. He said, look, he said, I've been watching you. But he said, really, it's a huge task.
[21:46] There are thousands of starfish and you're making no impact on this situation. Young boy, you should just go home.
[21:57] The young boy reached down and he picked up a starfish. And he threw that starfish into the water and he said, sir, it'll make a difference to that one.
[22:15] You know if God should use us to be instrumental in influencing one's soul for Jesus, it's going to make a difference for that one.
[22:28] The word of God tells me that a soul will be saved from death. And Jesus said, what will a prophet of man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Friends, it's hard for us to take it into now, isn't it?
[22:39] But the Bible tells us that one soul is worth more than the entire world. One soul. One soul.
[22:51] You know, as Isiah left the temple that day, he was no longer a mourner, he was a missionary.
[23:02] He had met with God. He had a meeting with God that changed his life and got his priorities sorted out. And that impacted his life so much that Isiah said, Lord, here is my one life.
[23:18] I'm going to surrender this life to you, God, that you might use it for your glory. As Isiah said, here am I. Take my life.
[23:33] I know you wouldn't believe for a moment that I've joined the 50 Club. I've shocked you probably. But you know, I'm so conscious that this one life of mine is passing so quickly.
[23:48] Friends who were here in Lewis, one year is gone. I've one year less to serve God. I've one year less to touch souls for Jesus.
[24:04] Mine are the hands to do the work. My feet shall run for thee. My lips shall sound the glorious news, Lord, here am I. Send me. You know, we've just one life, we can use it on other things.
[24:19] We can spend a lot of time on the temporal, on the materials, on the earthly things. And I believe that God is saying to us in these days, I want you to focus on the spiritual.
[24:36] God has challenged my heart so often about this. To give this one life that God might use it.
[24:47] That others might be touched for Jesus. For Isiah, there was the outward look. He saw God. The inward look, He saw Himself, the outward look.
[25:00] He saw the need and He said, here am I. Send me. I trust that God will help us to live for the eternal things.
[25:13] Jamalya, who went to be a missionary to reach the Orchid, Indians in Ecuador. I have his words in my study just before me every day.
[25:26] He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep again. What he cannot lose. Jamalya's life was taken at the age of 29.
[25:39] What he said, here am I. Send me. I may have shared this account with you before.
[25:49] Please forgive me. I finish with this account tonight. Of a dear lady that's with the Lord. Her name is Wasmali Harvey.
[26:00] She was a missionary in Brazil in the Amazon for many, many years. Mali Harvey was called of God and before she could go to the mission field, she had to go before a panel of doctors to be examined.
[26:14] And the doctors informed her and said, Mali, your heart is weak. You'll never survive the Amazon. You cannot go there. You must stay in Northern Ireland.
[26:26] Mali was called of God. She went to Brazil to serve the Lord. She used to say with some amusement, the doctors who told me not to go are all dead and I'm still alive.
[26:40] But there was something that lady used to say that has impacted my life very powerfully. So powerfully that it almost comes to me every day.
[26:53] This is what she would say, don't count your years. But make your years count. May that be true of all of us.
[27:05] May God help us to live for him and for his glory. God is still on the throne and our trust is in him.
[27:18] And God can use one life in a tremendous way. May our lives be available for him and may we serve him for eternity.
[27:30] Shall we bow together in prayer? Dear God and Father, we thank you for your precious word.
[27:40] We thank you Lord for reminding us this day that you're still on the throne. Thank you Lord that you are the one that is all power. And your name is holy.
[27:52] We thank you Lord tonight for your vision for the world and we thank you for each one that is serving you. And Lord we pray that we might serve you wherever you please us.
[28:03] And that we might be like Isaiah the prophet here am I, send me. Lord help us to work and serve you and to do all that we can with this one life that we have that will invest for eternity.
[28:17] And oh God that you'll use our lives for your glory. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to conclude our service by singing from Psalm 93 from Sing Psalms and it's on page 1, 2, 3.
[28:37] We're going to sing all of this Psalm. The Lord is king, his throne endures, majestic in his hand. The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength and might.
[28:50] The world is founded firm and sure, removed it cannot be. Your throne is strong and you are God from all eternity.
[29:03] Psalm 93 we will sing all of this Psalm to the glory of God. The Lord is king, his throne endures, majestic in his hand.
[29:32] The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength and might.
[29:47] The world is founded firm and sure, removed it cannot be.
[30:03] Your throne is strong and you are God from all eternity.
[30:18] The seas, O Lord, have lifted up, they lifted up their voice.
[30:34] The seas have lifted up their ways and made a mighty noise.
[30:50] The Lord in throne long highest from, more powerful is he.
[31:05] And thunder of the ocean sweeps our breakers of the sea.
[31:20] The royal statutes, Lord Stanford, unchanging is your word.
[31:36] And holiness adorns your hearts, for endless days, O Lord.
[31:54] May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all from this day. And for always, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
[32:10] Now if you can at all wait for the refreshments and then the presentation, I'd be delighted if you were able to stay as I share something more about the ministry that we're involved in. Thank you so much and may God richly bless you.