Nothing Casual (Part A)

Maybe you go to church and you're just not interested. You hear the pastor saying things this blah blah blah when are we this is gonna be over. Well that's a very serious symptom.

There's something wrong. Well what do you do about it? You have to go to the Lord.

Is he not worth it? You go to him and say Lord I'm not getting it. I'm not moved. You know what happens when you if you prepare Bible studies for decades and you come to a place where you're not being moved.

You better cry out to God. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio.

Specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 6 for a brand new study called Nothing Casual. Nothing Casual that is the title for this evening's consideration because contact with God is never casual and that is just a fact. And when we have contact with God in a very special way in a unique way it comes with an assignment. There's duty attached to it.

It's not just well I you know you were a little lonely and I just come by to say hi. It could be some of that but there's also work that's involved. I don't think Isaiah's audience when they got to what we call the sixth chapter I don't think they overthought what Isaiah was saying.

And I don't think you have to. I do believe the pastor part of the pastor's role in preaching the word is to squeeze every insight that he can get out of the that passage from the Holy Spirit that's going to be meaningful to the people. But I also feel like many commentators just overthink the chapter. So I hope I'm not guilty of that as I think most of you are familiar with what Isaiah 6 is about the calling of the prophet and we'll talk about in a moment at what point does his calling come. But how could he not share such an experience? How could a man like Isaiah have a vision like this and leave it out of his great prophecies? He just can't because it's nothing casual about having a vision given to you by God or such contact with God. So we look now at verse 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. Now that alone you could preach him for an hour and a half very easily on just that one verse. This King Uzziah we'll talk briefly about him he's evidently still alive when he writes this or when he has this experience. He says in the year that King Uzziah died not right after King Uzziah died and this King is also known as Ahaziah we'll come to that in a moment but he was one of Judah's great kings in spite of a spiritual blunder later on in his life later in his ministry where he overstepped his authority it became presumptuous and David prayed Lord protect me from presumptuous sins and he presumed that because he was king he could also act as priest sort of merging the throne with the priesthood and God shut that down in a very severe way smote him with leprosy for that self-righteous act but that one act did not take away from how much God did through this man and Isaiah wrote a biography on him because of how meaningful his life was to the people and wanting to even say to future kings the how-to and the how-not in the life of this king who fortified Jerusalem the economy was booming while he reigned in the latter years after the leprosy he was co-regent with his son Jotham who was a good king also but his grandson Ahaz will come to the throne and he's a he's wicked King so when he dies it really is the end of the Judean prosperity the great time to live in Jerusalem and in in Judah the Assyrian power was re-emerging as a superpower in that region and that has always a lot to do with everything because they were a threat to life where they were very dangerous they would just conquer and take everything and Ahaz would get to that beginning of that in chapter 6 so here is this king Uzziah that meant so much to this prophet Isaiah and he ascends the throne Uzziah does when he's 16 years old and he reigns for 52 years I think a small portion of it with his son because of the leprosy and even if he didn't have leprosy it was not uncommon for them when the kings got older to share their throne with their heir apparent so for 52 years he's king and up to that point the longer reign than any of the Judean or kings in the north but Manasseh will have a 55 year reign and most of it wicked anyway leprosy that he was smote with may explain the double name Uzziah he's known as Uzziah as here and also Azariah Azariah means the Lord has helped Uzziah means the strength of Yahweh and it the Assyrians when they have they have monuments that archaeologists have found and they wrote some of their history on it and the Assyrians called him Azariah it seems as though after he became a leper he took on the name Uzziah the Lord Yahweh is my strength and this would account for why he has these two names that are very prominent in his the record of his life and that new name Uzziah speaks of his repentance that God is my strength yes I'm smitten but God is my strength and if all a lot of evidence points in that direction I like that evidence and so I'm going with it now that's the king but as to Isaiah and you just can't come to such a chapter like this and not color in some of these sections I think he's already a prophet a lot of commentators think that chapter six is Isaiah going back and saying well the authority for or whatever I said in chapters one through five is because of this calling that I had but I don't see it that way no surprise there you know I'll tell you why in a little bit but he's already a prophet this calling in chapter six is to a larger work it is not an initial calling to the prophecy he is already a prophet but he's getting a special call from God and the first five chapters are really prologue to his writings and you have to remember the writing prophets because some prophets didn't write like anything for us like Elijah Elijah did you don't have the book of Elijah but when the writing prophets come along many of what they had to write was the outcome of their preaching God would give them these things in preparation they'd preach them and then they'd write it down and Isaiah clearly you know we can't think of the ancients as being well they weren't as savvy as us they were certainly were well they wouldn't know how to work a microwave perhaps but they when they wrote something down it was organized they weren't just sloppy about these things so the first five chapters are prologue to his writings he lays it out in the beginning where this is going is God reaching for his people dealing with their sin not winking at sin but condemning it telling them you better get your act together and then he inserts this sixth chapter and says let me tell you about when God expanded my ministry from just being a prophet in Israel to really coming to the nation and dealing with her troubles so it is I think a secondary call and you have to understand again the writing is not meant to be chronological however there is a sequence of themes so that's how they structured it now you're not trying to write his biography and saying this happened to me and then I got married and no he's he's giving the theme that he is after to the people in section so we'll come to sections for instance where he's dealing with the nation's you know woe unto Moab woe unto Syria and then he goes we get by the time we get to chapter 40 we have this whole nother approach to ministry which is in many ways more passionate has to do with the Messiah coming and the prophecies regarding him so this secondary call to a specific work that carries the ultimatum of God why I think that he's already a prophet before this calling is because of what's recorded in verse 9 if you have your Bible still open in Isaiah chapter 6 look at verse 9 and he said go and tell this people keep on hearing and do not understand keep on seeing and do not proceed evidently he was already preaching to them so the Lord says keep on hearing keep on you know that he's already been a prophet but things are going to predictive prophecy is going to come to the front and it's going to move away from being just upholding the law of Moses and the glory of Yahweh in the face of idols to now a prophetic word with things and that starts in chapter 7 we get to chapter 7 and he's going to start giving predictions and if you've been a Christian long enough you know that there are secondary experiences with God there's not just that one time you're saved there was a time that I was saved and there was a time that God called me to ministry and then there's been time since then where God has spoken to me about other things so I find nothing out of place and and I don't think I'm overthinking it when I do that anyway this larger ministry is what he is now called to and the first five chapters to the reader is saying he gets right out the starting gate where this is going so really nothing more to add about that and his calling that I haven't already said now he is young at this time he's going to be a prophet about 60 years maybe a little bit more and the way we know that is because in chapter 1 he tells us that he was a prophet in rain during the reign of Uzziah of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh so just looking at the time period leaving out Uzziah the year that he died in this prophecy begins just taking the other ones Jotham for 16 years Ahaz for 16 years this 32 years of ministry right there Hezekiah for 29 years he was prophet with him all the way through and then Manasseh who reign 50 years old Isaiah probably dies early on in Manasseh's reign but he still was around in the early parts legend says that Manasseh had Isaiah killed but the Bible does not record that so it's just sort of hearsay so you know adding up the time you said well he was around a very long time to minister in Israel he says I saw the Lord sitting on a throne well he saw Jesus Christ that's who that is before the virgin birth of course Christ is eternal and he shows up in the Old Testament before the manger in the New Testament and the way we know this is Jesus is because Jesus says it was him John's Gospel chapter 12 verse 41 these things Isaiah said when he saw his glory and spoke of him and that's John writing about the experience with Christ well I would think John had some inside information on that having walked with the Lord also when John writes this in the first chapter and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth well that's what Isaiah saw that's who Isaiah saw and when he says I saw the Lord well to him this is Yahweh but we know this there's no difference to try you and God and none could survive a full-blown experience with God but God at the same time knows how to make them to manifest his presence so that we're not overwhelmed first Timothy 6 who alone has immortality that means he treats eternal dwelling in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or nor can see to whom be honor and everlasting power amen now we get to heaven of course we'll be able to see him but now the God shows up in Christophany form Christ in the Old Testament in human form or through a theophany some created object representing him although it is not him like the fire that led them at night in a pillar of cloud that led them by day that was the presence of God with his people packaged for them in such a way that they understood he was with them and yet not revealing his full glory so this Isaiah this vision that he is given of the Lord's glory is in contrast to the nation and how they live because the majority we're not living in a glorious way they're out doing their own thing they weren't interested so maybe maybe you go to church and you're just not interested you hear the pastor saying things there's blah blah blah when are we gonna be over well that's a very serious symptom there's something wrong well what do you do about it but you have to go to the Lord is he not worth it you go to him and say Lord I'm not getting it I'm not moved you know what happens when you if you prepare Bible studies for decades and you come to a place where you're not being moved you better cry out to God and he is faithful you've got to believe that I know he is faithful been there and will likely be there again you know what happens when you're not in the mood but your duty requires you to do the task that you just don't feel like doing we break through it and it has fruit very great rewards and anyway he says in the train of his robe fill the temple now train here's the fringe or the hem of his robe and this is poetic language because he sees them on the throne and he's saying it's just filled with his presence it's just extraordinary the hem of the temple here he is referring to is not Solomon this is the heavenly temple in the in the vision that he is seeing and visions are somewhat like dreams a dream you're sleeping a vision you're awake but they're also similar in that there are things that take place in the vision that would not take place in reality not without consequence in this section the Seraphim is going to put a hot coal on the lips of the Prophet he's not gonna hurt there'd be no blistered lips because of it well because it's part of the vision and it's making a point and giving the Prophet insight into what God wants what the people do not want and it just is all there's more to it than just a vision it's just literal interpretation and though it is consistent with with other things and so we're not left groping to make up things as we can do anyway the Israelites they saw their temple in Jerusalem that was still in existence at this time as the earthly point of contact with Yahweh now John in his gospel writes about the fragrant oil that was put on Christ by the woman before the cross and they tried to stop it this costly spike not you know Judas could have been sold and given to the poor and Christ said that she's doing this for my burial she's ahead of you she sees where this is going and she is anointing me for my burial but the Bible says that the whole room was filled with the fragrance that's filled with the train of his robe is and then when he goes to wash the disciples feet we later in John's gospel we read in chapter 13 that he rose from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself he was filling that room with love for these men and this is a characteristic of the Holy Spirit to fill us we say fill us O Lord when the priests were ministering at the inauguration of the Solomon's temple the smoke filled the place they couldn't minister anymore they were overwhelmed to a point and not to the point of injury or anything like that and so this filling of the temple would just just a fringe of his robe it speaks about the glory of God and Isaiah is seeing this how does he communicate it well he's doing his best to tell us so you put yourself in his spot and you imagine seeing God on the throne and then this experience of man but just the hem of his garment was too much for the structure to hold is the temple in heaven and then you start thinking about them the fragrant oil filled the place with its fragrance and it was the fragrance of sacrifice for me the sinner and then the servant of God just laying aside his garments he don't have to do this for sinners to wash their feet and that's love and he speaks so compassionately for in Peter said you'll never wash my feet Lord the Lord says if I don't wash your feet you have anything to do with me Peter you know yelling at him screaming he's saying it like it is and Peter of course submits immediately so this is the love that belongs to the relationship between those who worship God and God and no matter what you're going through that love is there verse 2 above it stood seraphim each one at six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he flew consistent to a man of God he first talks to us about God and then some of the other things that were going on clearly God has other celestial intelligent creatures that are not Martians and the seraphim the only time they mentioned in the scripture as a it does it twice these angelic creatures are certainly part of worship in heaven as they cry out holy holy holy to one another lightly in some chant form perhaps and and don't think that's negative because some cults have chance doesn't mean okay there's no good chanting Gregorian music can be a little interesting but it doesn't make it evil in and of itself anyway these are different experience than revelation for when the scene is in heaven and you see the cherubim there so you know God has just got so much that how many things are in heaven that are not recorded in the Bible and when we get there it's just like wow that this is pretty incredible how would anybody have described that anyway anyway each one had six wings well again a little different from the four creatures that Ezekiel saw who had four wings you know you could just guess it at that I don't want to do that but Ezekiel writes after Isaiah and he makes no attempt to reconcile the two he doesn't try to say well Isaiah saw six I better write six no he tells you what he saw Isaiah saw six of them I saw four of them just nothing no contradiction no problem there it says with two he covered his face now part of what that means because that's your identity your face visage is that they were aware of their in significance relative to the throne of God it wasn't about them that's what they're communicating with this gesture there two of the wings covering their face and so we're not preoccupied with the seraphim oh we will be just for a moment but there are many and come to the Bible and they want to hear all the you know the spooky things and can just start going weird with that if they're not careful giving angels more attention than other things that need me really need the attention anyway it was as if to say that you know I'm not worthy it's just not about me the worthy one is on the throne John the Baptist put it this way he must increase I must decrease and you find somebody that's full of themselves and you're full of a problem you know how many of them are out there today people just with their selfies and posting these things of just their faces it's and it's insane this is just like I don't know all right I mean what I'm not saying selfies are bad but like anything else to a point after a while you've just become so self-absorbed we see a lot of these people and they become celebrities heroes royalty for other people anyway a picture of personal unimportance that's what's and and absolute trust at the same time that's the beauty of it when Peter said let me walk on the water and the Lord said come on that was absolute trust for a little bit for a few steps at least and if he took two steps he walked on the water just say for two steps that's more than I've ever done and more than anybody else has ever done it is remarkable and anyway I should point out they're covering of their faces it's not self-abasement that's from the devil it is exaltation to God one one self-abasement destroys the one who is abasing themselves the other edifies you enjoy a view once you're born again you enjoy praising God you enjoy his glory he says with two he covered his feet well that's that's what takes us to where we're going and it also operates the bass drum their paths are always subject to the throne of God that's how I see it and I think that's a very basic yet serious and profound understanding that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord that's what the psalmist said that's what they're illustrating here it's you know I go where I'm told yeah but incidentally just kind of a cute little side note yeah but it's their wings that are making them move around not their feet anyway by this they disavow the any intention on choosing their own path thanks for tuning in to cross reference radio today cross reference radio is a ministry of pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel mechanics ville in Virginia if you'd like to learn more about this ministry we invite you to visit our website cross reference radio.com you'll find a number of teachings from pastor Rick available there we also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast when you subscribe you'll be notified of new editions of cross reference radio just search for cross reference radio on your favorite podcast app you can also follow the links at cross reference radio.com we're glad we were able to spend time with you today tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with pastor Rick right here on cross reference radio