Here is the second sermon in revival from Isaiah 6:1-7.  

REVIVAL

(Part 2)

INTRODUCTION

I wonder what disappointments that you are carrying around with you today.  Lets face it, we all experience disappointment.

There are so many things that disappointment in our lives:

• Things disappoint.  It is amazing, isn't it, the self-life of many products that we buy today.

But not only does the shelf-life of many things disappoint, but the short-lived satisfaction we get from our stuff disappoints.

How many times as kids at Christmas do the gifts lie collecting dust or lie broken just a few days or even just a few hours after receiving them?

• We disappoint ourselves.  How many times are we disappointed in ourselves?  Disappointed in what we have done or not done or how we look or how we don't look or how we performed at work.

• People disappoint.  When we think about the disappointment that we are carrying around, we will find out that most often the cause of our disappointment is other people.

Have you noticed that?

There are so many levels of disappointment that other people can cause.

Dever points out that this can happen on a national level.  For example, we can look back in history to the nation of Germany.

After their defeat in WWI, it's economy was in complete ruins.  Inflation rose at runaway rates, and people literally had to wheel-barrow currency to the store to buy bread.

Then the nation puts its trust in someone who promised hope.  The people democratically elected the leader of the Nationalist Social Party, Adolf Hitler. 

And what happened, Hitler betrayed that national trust most tragically (Dever 2006, 567).

We have see this type of disappointment over and over again in the past 100 years.

But this can and most often happen at a personal level.  These hurt us to the core of our being, don't they?  You know what I am talking about, right?  We all have experienced this.  

You waited for someone, but they did not come.  You planned an event, but they did not show up.  You invested in a relationship, but they were not faithful.  

They said they would never do it again, but they did.  We get our hopes up and are disappointed (Dever 2006, 567).

And we can get so discouraged.  Disappointment and discouragement can have a serious effect on our spiritual lives.  

Lets face it, when we even look at the state of our spiritual lives, we can be very easily disappointed, right?

When we look at the state of the churches all around us, we can easily be discouraged, can't we? There is a lot to be discouraged about!

My hearts cry, and I hope it is your cry, which is the Psalmists cry, "Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?"

And the verses that we are looking at here today describe how one man's life was totally transformed by what he saw.

He was brought out of the depths of disappointment, fear and hopelessness and was transformed and he was revived.

What did he see?  He saw God in a way that changed the rest of his life!

He saw three things and he heard 1 thing...

I. Sovereignty of God 

He saw a picture of the absolute sovereignty of God.  There are three things that i want to highlight about the his vision of the sovereignty of God...

1. Timing of the Vision 

Isaiah wishes to make it very clear, here in the text, as to when this occurred.  The vision happened in the hear that king Uzziah died.

Isaiah 1:1 says that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah...

So, this vision came to Isaiah at the beginning of his ministry.

The question is, "What was happening at this time?  What is the significance of king Uzziah and his death?"

King Uzziah, in many ways, was a great king.  In fact, Judah had known no king like Uzziah since the time of Solomon (Oswalt 1986, 177).

After two centuries, he brought the splendour of Solomon back to the nation of Israel.  During his reign he regained territory and political prestige back to the nation of Israel.  

This was a long time coming.  Two centuries of uncertain leadership.  Back then, they really trusted their political leaders.

• 2 Chron. 10-26 (survey) - they needed a king like Uzziah.  He was going to change things around.  He was their hope as a nation, especially for a prophet like Isaiah.

But notice 2 Chron 26:16 - he became proud.

That was the problem in Isaiah's day - their rebellion consisted of the tendency to glorify humanity at the expense of God (Oswalt 2000, 218).

They were hoping in the wrong things!

Uzziah's fall would have left Isaiah deeply disappointed and discouraged.  The hope of Judah and Isaiah were in king Uzziah. He has done so much to restore Judah, to being the nation back to where it once was and where is should be.

But his anguish were have been exacerbated by fear, since just prior to the death Uzziah in 742 BC, the great Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III had ascended to the throne, reviving the neo-Assyrian Empire.  He turned his attention to Israel and the west starting his military campaigns in 743 (Baker 2009, 31).

It was a time of crisis…hopes dashed...deeply discouraged and disappointed.  In spiritual ruin.   It is right in this moment that he sees and hears something that will change his life.

God's timing was perfect in this. Isaiah was brought to the end of himself.  All the things around him brought great disappointment.

This will happen to us to if we put our hopes in this world - in our families, our bank accounts, our possessions, our abilities.

We will be disappointed!!!  They are not meant to be hoped in!!!  They are not to dominate our hearts.

2. Content of the Vision 

He sees God.  This is rather remarkable since the Jews normally believed that to see God was to die.

• Genesis 32:30 - So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."

• Exodus 19:21 - And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish.

• Ex. 33:18-20 - 18 Moses said, "Please show me your glory." 19 And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.  20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live."

But here he sees The Lord...what about The Lord?

i) Sovereign - sitting on a throne.  He is king!

ii) Exalted - only God is exalted.

Human beings attempt to exalt themselves, but God is the only exalted one.  

• Daniel 4:28ff

• Proverbs 6:16-17 - 16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes...

Eyes that say that I do not need God - lives lived that says I do not need God.

Thats a description of the Western world.  Our cultures secularism has pushed God off to the sidelines.

It was not literally that his robe filled them temple, but that God filled the temple.

Notice the seraphs.  The chief meaning of the term is "fiery".  Notice how they could not even look upon God himself.

"But to be in the presence of the Creator is not primarily to be prostrated with awe.  Rather it is to be filled with praise" (Oswalt, 1986, 179)

iii) Holy 

• Rev. 4:6b-11

What does this mean here?

1) Distinct 

2) Independent 

3) Pure

Why three times?  Because the seraphs are praising a triune God!!!

Notice again how God's presence is not restricted to the temple.

C. Message of the Vision 

Isaiah needed to be reminded that the true king still reigns!!! "King Uzziah is dead; long live King Yahweh!" (Baker 2009, 31).

Don't put your hope in an earthly king.  Put your hope in the one who is really in control of all things.

He is the sovereign king!

• Psalm 2 - He's the one who is calling the shots.

Did you know that is why Christians should be able to sleep well at night?

I was at pastors conference at the beginning of the week and the speaker talked about the importance of sleep in our Christian life and on our bodies.

Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon in Boston in "God is glorified in man's dependence."

II. Sinfulness of Humanity 

What happens?  What was his response?  To write a book?  To go on the latest Christian talk show?  Write a movie about it?

1. He confessed his own sin - he was suddenly and brutally aware of himself…it is his finitude that crushes Isaiah; its his uncleanness (Oswalt 1986, 183)

You see, sin cannot last in the presence of God.  This vision brought great humility.

2. He confessed the sin of the people 

"Lips" express the heart and will.

3. He saw that he was doomed

Cannot help but be in despair and repentance.  He was humbled by his sin.

"For the finite, the mortal, the incomplete, and the fallible to encounter the Infinite, the Eternal, the Self-consistent, and the Infallible is to know the futility and the hopelessness of one's existence" (Oswalt 1986, 182).

This is the kind of person God wants - people who are penitent and who are purged, who are broken over their sin.

 Is this the posture of our hearts? A self-confident person is not what God desires because God is not about making much of you but making much of himself.

Are you broken over your sin?  

III. Grace of God

Do you use see the depth of God's grace?

1. Divine initiative - could have been the alter of sacrifice or the alter of incense.

Fire is significant here.  It can destroy but is also can cleanse.

2.  Divine cleansing 

3. Divine forgiveness

He is talking about sin in general…painful but glorious experience…being broken by the Holy Spirit and gloriously forgiven by God through Christ.