In his sermon titled 'When Sinners Encounter the Living God,' Peter Allison explores the profound encounter of the prophet Isaiah with the holiness of God as depicted in Isaiah chapter six. The sermon begins with Isaiah's vision of the Lord, emphasizing the overwhelming sense of unworthiness and sinfulness that arises when mortals face the divine. Allison relates this to a scientist's statement in a debate, highlighting the folly of demanding God's presence without understanding its implications. The sermon details the physical and spiritual reactions of biblical figures like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Paul when in the presence of God, describing their immediate awareness of personal sin and inadequacy. Allison explains the process of spiritual cleansing through the symbolic act of the seraphim touching Isaiah's lips with a coal from the altar, emphasizing confession as a crucial step toward receiving God's grace. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to recognize their own sinfulness in light of God's holiness, to embrace sanctifying grace, and to respond with willingness and dedication to serve God in all aspects of life.

Our scripture reading is Isaiah chapter six. I'd like to begin reading at verse five. Isaiah has just had this vision of the Holy One of Israel upon His throne, the Lord of hosts. He's witnessed a temple filled with smoke. The building shake.

Pick up in verse 5. So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because 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. Then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And He touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.

Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And then He said, Here am I, send Me. The Lord is our hiding place and our shield.

May we hope in his word. Gracious Father in heaven. We have entreated you with the spirit of supplication that you have given to us. We ask now that your spirit might illumine our hearts. We ask Lord that we may see you as Isaiah has in your word this morning.

And we ask that we may respond as he does as well. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips, unclean lips, that they may proclaim your truth and your grace in Christ. In His name we pray, amen. Well, on the evening of February 11, 1985, a scientist stood before a very large auditorium, before a large crowd, on an auditorium on the campus of the University of California at Irvine. And according to one observer who was there that night, the atmosphere was electric.

See, a debate was in progress on the existence of God. A debate that has not only not been forgotten over the past forty years, it has actually become more and more well known. That night, this scientist spoke some of the foolish most foolish words that anyone could ever say. And one. Example of this was his statement.

If God wanted man to believe in Him, all he would have to do is put in an appearance before a group of people, especially a group of atheists. In fact, he said, we invite him to our meetings to put in an appearance, and that way anyone would believe in him except the fool. Well, that's a foolish and ultimately blasphemous statement on many levels. But it demonstrates that he has absolutely no clue, as we say today. He has absolutely no clue about what he is asking or suggesting.

For no one can see God and live. No one can even approach Him because He dwells in unapproachable light. See, the universal response to those who in some way have encountered the glory of the holiness of God, it's an overwhelming awareness of their own sinfulness, their own unworthiness to even be in the presence of the living God. And it's an awareness that is even physically debilitating. Physically debilitating.

When the guards saw the glory of the risen Christ, they fell to the ground and became His dead men. Strong Roman soldiers. When Minoa and his wife saw the angel of the Lord ascend into heaven in a flame of fire, they fell flat on their faces to the ground. And afterwards, Minoa says to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. When Ezekiel saw the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God, he said, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one speaking.

Daniel describes a vision he had by the Tigris River where he saw a man who had eyes like torches of fire, arms like burnished bronze. The sound of his words was like the sound of a multitude. And Daniel said, when I saw this great vision, no strength remained in me. And he ended up with his face to the ground. The men who were with him didn't see this vision of the pre-incarnate Christ.

But nevertheless, just a mere presence without even seeing anything. A great terror fell on them so that they fled to hide themselves. When Paul saw the brilliant light of the glory of God, he fell to the ground blinded, fell off his horse. And when the apostle John saw his vision of the glorified Alpha and Omega. Appearing to him on the island of Patmos, he fell at his feet as dead.

Those are the reactions of godly people mostly in the presence of the living God. No, Mr. Scientist, you wouldn't just casually believe in anything. And when I when Isaiah. Sees the glory of the Lord of hosts.

And he sees that even the sinless seraphim don't look directly at that glory, but they cover their eyes with their wings. Isaiah cries, Woe is me. Woe is a word that precedes an announcement of doom. It identifies the content of a message that is to follow. In fact, just in the last chapter, Isaiah speaking as the voice of God, as the prophet, as the messenger of God, had pronounced seven woes on the wicked people.

And now, still speaking as God's prophet, he sees himself as being under that same position. Woe, woe is me. Woe is me, I am Undone. You know, to be undone. It's to be unmade.

We speak about having integrity, meaning we are put together. Be undone is the opposite. Unmade to be destroyed is to be cut off. These are all ways the Old Testament translates this word. To be destroyed, cut off, caused to cease.

It's used in reference to beasts that die or people that were destroyed for lack of knowledge in Hosea or the destruction of the nation of Edom that we sung about this morning. These are examples of being undone. And this is the reaction, the universal reaction to all flesh that encounter the living God. Even animals like Balaam's donkey trembled in the presence of the Holy God. You know, he saw that presence in Balaam didn't see outside the presence of the living God.

We can deceive ourselves. People can deceive themselves into thinking that they are basically okay. Everybody acknowledges that they are not perfect. I don't think I've ever encountered anyone who thought that they were perfect. That's one of the first things that people want you to know is they're not perfect.

I have actually encountered people who thought they were sinless, but There's no sane person. He went to be with the Lord, I believe. Maybe he has a different opinion. But there's no sane person who thinks that they are perfect. Or at least that would be willing to say that.

Because we think we're okay. We're basically okay because we can look around and compare ourselves to everybody else and compare to everybody else. We can justify to ourselves that we aren't that bad. Maybe we're even OK. Maybe even a little better.

And so we, the Bible says, commend ourselves. And Paul said he would not dare to put himself in the class of people who commend themselves because those who measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves are not wise. No, they're fools. See, but in the presence of the living God, all such deceptions, all such artifices to hide the truth by comparing ourselves to other sinners, they're all stripped away. And we are able to see ourselves for what we really are.

It's like an off-white wall. If you have something that's a little off-white, you may think of it as white, right? Until you see it against something that is truly white, bright white. And then you realize how not white it is. Or you might look at something when it's somewhat dark, you know, you get up in the morning and it's a little bit, you know, it's kind of dark in the room and you might look at something And not in that semi darkness and not see how dirty it really is.

Right. But if you get it in the bright light, then it becomes very obvious how dirty something might be. Or you know, you can see this a lot of times in sports or even in academics where somebody can excel in a particular among a particular group on a particular team in a certain league, but you put them in a different league in a different class among a different group of people and then they don't look so good. They don't look nearly as good. So Isaiah now is standing in the presence of the holy God.

And his response is, woe is me, I am undone. This is really a realization of his inability to cleanse himself. He's realized it's a realization of our own uncleanness and a realization that we can do nothing in ourselves to fix it. If we could fix a problem, there wouldn't be a problem. We would just fix it.

But Isaiah is undone because he knows he can't fix it. There's nothing he can do to cleanse himself. There's nothing he can do to fix his moral purity, his uncleanness. But Isaiah's realization goes beyond just trembling at the presence of God and recognizing that he is undone. He can do nothing to fix it.

Remember, All creatures do this. All creatures tremble at the presence of the living God. James says even the demons tremble in the presence of Almighty God. But Isaiah does more. He he says, I am a man of unclean lips.

He acknowledges his problem is his uncleanness. He confesses that sin. And this is a mark of sanctifying grace. And we're able to confess our sin. The Proud people don't see anything wrong with themselves.

They've justified themselves to themselves and they think they're okay. But here there is no deflection of his uncleanness to other people. There's no minimizing, no explanations of why he isn't as guilty as he appears. There's no trying to explain why other people are partly responsible for what he has done. And that's something we see in our children, right, all the time.

And they've been caught doing something wrong. They have an explanation why they're not solely at fault. And then somehow by bringing somebody else in, they can minimize their guilt. But there's not that here with Isaiah. He says, I'm a sinner.

I am a man. I'm a man. And I'm a man of unclean lips. He's recognizing that apart from the grace of God, There is no sin that a sinner is not capable of. He's saying, I am a man and unclean lips.

Apart from God, there is no sin that I wouldn't be capable of committing. And this is the realization of all saints who have a sense of the holiness of God, of his moral purity, of his excellence, and of the complete separation between us and God. See, it's only when we can see, truly see God's majesty, his holiness and goodness that we can have this knowledge of ourselves, that we see our own poverty and our sin. It's only then that we can see, it's only when we know God, that we can see our own existence as completely dependent on His existence. And Him, He is the one that gives existence to everything else.

See, our knowledge of ourself does not begin with introspection and knowing yourself. That's sometimes spoken as a word of wisdom, know yourself. We can't, We can't know ourselves unless we know God. Unless we've seen His glory and we can see ourselves in the light of His glory. The heart is deceitful, Jeremiah said, and desperately wicked, right?

Above all things, who can know it? We can't know the deceitfulness and deception of our own heart. It's only when we see the Lord as Isaiah does that we can see that now this reaction is is a sign of this of sanctifying grace This reaction that I'm a man of unclean lips. This was Peter's reaction right when he recognized that he was in the presence of the Son of God. Remember, Jesus had finished giving a sermon on a boat, Peter's boat.

And then after he's finished, he said, hey, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch of fish. And Peter said, Simon said, well, We've labored all night and we haven't caught anything. But since you say it, I will. And so they go out and they know the story, how they catch this incredible load of fish, a great number of fish and their nets are breaking. They have to call for another boat from the shore to help them.

And they fill both boats and both boats are now beginning to sink. And when when Peter saw this. What was his reaction? Wow, this is nice. We're going to have a big dinner tonight.

We're going to make a lot of money and in the marketplace, Not at all. Not at all. When Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And this sanctifying grace that gives us this initial awareness or unawareness of our sin it it produces As we mature in the Lord it produces an increasing awareness of sin Maturity in the Lord means dying more and more to sin It means we draw closer to Christ. But it doesn't mean that we think more and more of ourselves.

It means we think less and less of ourselves as we see and know Christ more and more. Because the closer we are drawn to Christ, the more we see his glory and perfection, then the more we become aware of our own impurity, our own imperfection, our own unholiness. Right? The closer to the light, the more imperfections become visible. And so we can actually, many saints have pointed out this, but we can see it in the life of Paul himself.

He wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15. He said, I am the least of the apostles who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. He's the least of the apostles. Well, the apostles would have been considered an elite group of people. But a few years later, he wrote to the Ephesians, to me who am least of all the saints this grace was given.

Not just least of the apostles, now least of all the saints. That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." And then close to the end of his life, closer to the end of his life. And not the last letter, but one of the later ones. He wrote to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1. He said, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

Paul, who had dedicated at this point his life to several decades of hardship, real hardship, prison, beatings. We've talked about all those in going through Acts. His view as he drew near was that he was the chief of sinners. May we have that sense of ourselves that we can say that not just in our memory work, not just in reading this, but to say it from our heart. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

Now why does Isaiah say that his lips are unclean? Why didn't he say my heart is unclean or I am unclean? And I think that's because what comes out through the lips is a reflection of what is in the heart. It is out of the heart that The mouth speaks. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 15, things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile the man.

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and murders and adulteries and fornications and thefts and false witnesses and blasphemes. And these are the things that defile a man. So these are in the heart, but it's through the mouth that they are expressed. And Jesus said that's what defiles a man. It's not what we take in that makes us defiled.

It's what comes out of our heart and that comes through our mouth. That's why David prays in Psalm 141, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips. Because that is the expression of his heart, and that's what's in his heart. So that's how Isaiah refers to his lips as the part of us that communicates what is in our heart. It's the instrument, the organ, through which our heart is revealed.

Our countenance can also reveal what's in our heart. You can see in somebody's countenance. But it's not as direct as our words. Looks can be easily misinterpreted, but words are more definite. And words can communicate propositions in ways that a look cannot.

He also says that I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I don't think he's excusing himself here trying to minimize. He is making a corporate confession as a prophet. This is what Daniel does in Daniel nine. Daniel prays to the Lord.

He says to the Lord, my God, He prayed and made confession and He said, Oh Lord great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and with those who keep His commandments He says we have sinned and Committed iniquity We have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes to our fathers and the people he's saying we He's he's confessing sin now This is the corporate we He's confessing the sins of the land as a member of the land, not sins individually. Daniel was a righteous man. He's used as an example in scripture of a righteous man. And he had not personally committed the sins that he's confessing here of. Rebelling, departing from God's precepts and so on, but he was a part of a nation that had, part of a church that had not heeded God's servants, the prophets.

And I think that's Isaiah's sense here, that he is dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He's confessing the corporate sin of the land. And he's able to do this because his eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. His eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. Well, it is Isaiah's conviction and confession of his sin that results in The next action that happens in this vision, and that is a seraphim flew to him, having in his hand a live coal which he'd taken from the altar.

This confession of sin results in this coal being brought to his lips. God sends a messenger to cleanse Isaiah. You see, this cleansing is tied. It follows. It's connected to his confession.

Proverbs 28 says, he who covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them have mercy. Or 1st John 1, 9 that most of you probably have memorized, if we confess our sins, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive. And so, following Isaiah's and because of Isaiah's confession of his sins, he is cleansed. Now, this cleansing is a gift of God. It's not something that Isaiah earned.

His confession doesn't earn him the right to this party. It is simply. It is simply what he what precedes it as necessary. Precursor. His confession is not shouldn't be seen as a work that somehow merits God's forgiveness.

That forgiveness is grace, it's favor that's not deserved. But it only comes to those who confess. It's also more than a mere pardon and I maybe I'm splitting hairs here but this is a purification is iniquity is taken away the the angel the seraphim says, your iniquity is taken away. That is saying his debt is paid so that he no longer bears legal liability for it. Yes, that's what forgiveness is.

But He is also cleansed. He says, and your sin is purged. Your sin is purged away. It's atoned for. And that atonement includes the removal of the shame, of the guilt, and it cleanses him.

In sanctification, cleansing grace is infused So that we are enabled to live consistent with our legal status as those who are not guilty, as those who are children of God. And so Isaiah's is is cleansed. And this cleansing is by a fire because fire is a purifier and it's carried. This fire is carried on a coal from the altar. And I think There are two things that are being represented here in this picture that combines compresses a lot.

It's the sacrifice that atones for the sin and the application of that sacrifice to the sinner. Those two things are represented in this picture first you have the altar the the coal is the fire is taken from the altar the altar was where the sacrifice was made that atone for sin and that was by fire and This is pictured very similarly in number 16. Remember after the children of Israel, well, after Korah, Dathan and Abiram had resisted Moses and Aaron and God spoke decisively by opening the ground up and swallowing them all alive. And all the other people that were trying to offer strange fire. The next day, the very next day, amazingly, the whole congregation of Israel comes to complain against Moses and Aaron and says, You've killed the people of the Lord.

How they could say that after witnessing God speak decisively by accepting Aaron and causing all the other people with their censors trying to offer strange fire to be just disappear the earth opened up swallow them up and cover them back up and these people the next day are complaining against God and they turn toward the toward the tabernacle of meeting and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. And then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting, and the Lord said to Moses, Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces. And Moses says to Aaron, Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly, herby, to the congregation and make atonement for them for the wrath of God has gone out from the Lord. The plague had begun.

And Aaron does this. He grabs... He grabbed that censer and put incense in it and and ran among the people and when he got in among the people and stood between the dead and the living, this plague was stopped. But not before 14, 700 people had died in addition to those who died in the Quora incident. So there's a there's a another vivid picture of what's represented by a coal from the altar that is used to arrest this plague to forgive the people, to bring forgiveness to the people.

It's a symbolic action. The coal itself doesn't cleanse. It represents the sacrifice that was made on the altar. The cleansing power is the blood of Christ applied by the work of the Holy Spirit. It's a little like the sacrament.

This is really a sacramental sign here. In the sacrament, the reality is communicated with the sign. The sign is in a sense connected, sacramentally connected with that which it signifies and seals. The reality really is communicated. When we partake of the Lord's Supper, we do receive grace.

Not because bread touched our lips, but by faith we receive grace. But it's truly through that, I should say at that sacrament, in the eating and drinking the grace is communicated by faith but it also notices is interpreted by the word The Seraphim doesn't just come and touch his mouth and fly back, but the Seraphim says, behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity has taken away. And this is why the signs must always be accompanied by the Word. The sacraments are always accompanied by the preaching of the Word. And we never take the sacraments separate from the preaching of the Word.

Because that is what's necessary to give understanding, to give meaning to the sign. So these two always, they always go together. Well, Having been forgiven and cleansed, Isaiah is ready to serve. God calls him. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

And he said, here am I. Here am I. Send me. Just a couple of comments or by way of application in this, when God appeared to Isaiah in his glory, it showed to Isaiah that we serve a great and mighty God. That a God who is capable, who is able to defeat every enemy, every foe before him.

And this is so necessary to see this vision, this understanding of the greatness and the glory of God if we are if we are going to serve Him acceptably and even in prayer, right? If we don't believe that God is the great and mighty God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. We're not going to pray for very much. But it's only when we see a vision of this great God in His glory and majesty and power that we are enabled to pray. Great prayers, powerful prayers.

It's it's when it's then that we have confidence. That Paul could say I'm persuaded that he is able to do, do all his will. He's able to carry out all his promises, as fantastic and incredible as they may seem to us. And Isaiah answers this call with a really great willingness to serve. Here am I, he says.

Here am I. Send me. This is what Paul brings out in Romans 13. He beseeched the brethren by the mercies of God that they present their bodies as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God. When we have an understanding, a vision of the God that we serve, then we are willing and desirous to serve him.

And we're able to present our bodies as living sacrifices in whatever calling God's called us to. And we'll talk more about this call next week because it is in some ways an unusual call, but it's a call that I think will bring great encouragement to us in our calling. Let us go to the Lord with our prayers. Almighty Heavenly Father, thank you for this picture that you've given to us of who you are, the eternal, existent one, the all-glorious one, who dwells in unapproachable light. And it is only in your light that we see light.

We ask that you would give to us this this view that Isaiah had and that we might be also willing as he was willing to go where you send us to come when you call us To present our bodies as a living sacrifice to you and whatever grace that you have given to us, whatever gifts you have given, whatever you have called us to do. We ask for your. We ask that in showing mercy, we might be able to do it with a cheerfulness, that those who you've called us to lead might do so with diligence, with a willingness, with a here am I, send me. Those who you've called to give may do so with generosity. Those who are called to teach in our home in the church may teach with the power of your spirit and according to the grace that you have given.

And so we ask Lord that in all of our calling might see it as holy to you, as our service to you. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.