CJ Dause: 0:03

Happy Father's Day. Hope you guys, dads, hope you all get a steak or some barbecue or something good. today, kids, treat him nice. I think Father's Day you're supposed to like, dads are supposed to like have a bell and they should just like sit down and ring it whenever they want something. I think I read that somewhere, i'm not I forget where, but anyway, hope everybody enjoys.

CJ Dause: 0:24

Today We should show respect and love to our fathers, our Holy Father. We should also remember that God is our Father And we should also give him a respected love today. You know, revelation says he will be our God and we will be his son, we will be his children. So let's give him the praise and love and respect that's due to him. So we're going to be in Isaiah, chapter six today. You can up up in there if you got your bobbles, and before we get into it, let's go to the Lord, shall we Heavenly Father? Lord, i thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your presence. Lord, you say that we're two or three or gathered together, that you are intermixed, and there's more than two or three with us today. God, i pray that you would cleanse us of anything that might hinder your word, lord, i pray that you allow your word to build us and edify us, that we might glorify you, for you are worthy of glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, all right.

CJ Dause: 1:31

Isaiah, chapter six. Isaiah, chapter six. You know, one of the things I wanted to talk about today was what does it mean to know God, what does it mean to have a relationship with God, what does it look like? And some of the things you see Isaiah in his coming into a relationship with God here. Some of the things that we see here are applicable to us, not just when we initially come to God in faith and repentance, but also as we walk with him and he continues to show more of himself to us and reveal more about ourselves to us and continue to affirm his calling in us. I hope we can take some good things from this morning. Chapter six, verse one, is where we'll start.

CJ Dause: 2:24

In the year that King Isaiah died, i saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above us stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke.

CJ Dause: 3:02

In the year that King Uzziah died, that's about 740 BC. Uzziah had been king for over 50 years. Israel had been prosperous under Zerain, prosperous economically, prosperous militarily. Now he's dead. Assyria, which within a couple of decades would come in and completely take Northern Israel captive and march all the way up to the gates of Jerusalem, causing destruction all through Judah. Assyria was getting bigger and the threat was there. There was another couple of nations that also were not happy with Israel.

CJ Dause: 3:34

At this point in time, there's some uncertainty going on right. There's some uncertainty going on in Isaiah's life and the life of the Jews, and now the king's dead, the only king that probably most of them would have had any interaction with or could have remembered. But Isaiah recognizes that no matter what's going on politically for Israel, no matter what's going on personally for us, no matter what the situation is, no matter if, doesn't matter who's in the White House, it doesn't matter who's the president and CEO with your company, doesn't matter who's the principal at your school, doesn't matter what the situation that you look like, that you are in, looks like. We can recognize that God is still on the throne, amen, and he is continuing to work all things out for our good and his glory. Isaiah sees the true king lifted up high on the throne. He also sees the seraphim Seraphim in Hebrew the term means burning ones, bright, looking like bronze, probably overpowering with heat. Right, they got six wings.

CJ Dause: 4:41

These creatures are similar to some of the things you see in Ezekiel, chapter one, or Revelation, chapter four, other images of visions of the throne of God. In those situations you see differing animal heads. On some of them one's got a head like a lion, one's got a head like an ox Revelation you can see they're covered with eyes indicating wisdom and they're just overpoweringly beautiful. If something like this just kind of manifested in a parking lot at public's this afternoon, everybody would either wet their pants or they would fall down and worship it. That's what this thing is. It's a pretty incredible thing, and there's a handful of them around the throne before the glory of God.

CJ Dause: 5:25

I want you to notice something about these creatures, despite their magnificence, despite what they might conjure up if it appeared in front of us. Look at the way it is presented as being before God. First of all, it's got six wings, but two of them are covering his face. What is that? That's a picture of reverence before God, right? I mean you think of Moses in Exodus.

CJ Dause: 5:54

Moses broke down, he's been trying to lead the Israelites and they're beating their heads against them and all kinds of issues is having with them, and he's broke down and says God, i just need you, man, show me your glory, i need something from you. And God says, okay, i'll show you my glory, but this is what's gonna happen. I'm gonna stick you in this rock and I'm gonna cover you with my hand because you can't see the fullness of my glory, because it'll kill you. Excuse me, you can't see the fullness of my glory. It is too overwhelming for you to receive in natural flesh These creatures as a magnificent, as they are in the same boat, they cannot take on the full glory of God.

CJ Dause: 6:31

I was walking the other morning. I was walking in an easterly direction at work and the sun was up and I couldn't even. I was just walking kind of like this, trying to get there. You can't even. You cannot even bear. We can't even bear the full weight of a created son. There's no way we could bear the full weight of the glory of the creator. They're in a position of reverence before the king. They also have two of them, two of their wings that are covering their feet, covering the lower half of their body. They're there in a position of modesty and humiliation before the king. Even these mighty, impressive creatures are nothing. They pale in comparison to the creator.

CJ Dause: 7:13

And then they sing praises holy, holy, holy. The trifle holy. Part of that points to the trinity, i would say, but they use the term holy, which is an attribute of God. Why didn't they use a different attribute? Why didn't they say gracious, gracious, gracious or merciful, merciful, merciful or just something like that? There's a lot of different attributes you could apply to God and they would all be legitimate, but instead they say holy. Why do they say holy?

CJ Dause: 7:48

Now, when we think of holiness down here holiness in reference to God's people we think of it as being separated unto God's service. Right, christians are separated unto God. You'll read Leviticus. You see all of these different temple articles, tabernacle articles, and it said they're holy. You can't use it anywhere except in the tabernacle, it's separated unto the service of God.

CJ Dause: 8:17

The holiness of God is a little bit more. The holiness of God is his distinction and transcendence from everything else in creation. You know, sometimes I think people have this concept of there's like two categories of beings, right, like there's one category where there's man and animals and trees and plants and water and earthly things, right, and then there's another category, and this other category is God and Satan and Michael and the archangels and all these heavenly things. But that's not the truth that is given in scripture. That's not the truth. The truth is on one side you have man and animals and trees and plants and Satan and Michael and the entire hosts of heaven, and on the other side you have God, all by himself. He's completely distinct from anything else in creation. He is the creator. Everything else is created, he is the source. Everything else is derived.

CJ Dause: 9:24

Right, god is distinct and beyond comparison with anything in creation. That's one of the reasons why, if you go back and see some of the stuff in the books of Moses and what God comes to them and says hey, i don't want you to make idols, i don't want you to build an idol of me, because there's nothing that we can make, nothing we can form which comes anywhere close to showing something about who God is. No idols, you cannot make a picture of me, because there's nothing that represents me. He is completely indistinct, distinctly other from his creation. So this is one of those things that happens as we come into relationship with the Lord, or this is one of those things which we need a reminder of as we continue to walk through our relationships with the Lord. One thing that happens is there will be a revealing of the person of God. God will show himself to us in some way that overwhelms us. Maybe it's his sovereignty and his majesty or his power. You know, one of the ways God has revealed himself to me, both before I came and submitted myself to Jesus and also afterward, one of the ways he's shown his, his power and sovereignty to me is through lightning.

CJ Dause: 10:44

Lightning a lot of times scares the dickens out of me. I can think of one time when I was a kid I was out riding my bike. I could think of it a couple times when I've been in in parking lots and I've had to walk during a storm. One time, specifically a couple years ago, i was mowing a pasture up in Brookfield big pasture, you know, nothing but grass for hundreds of yards. I'm like the tallest thing out there and I'm sitting on a riding lawn mower made out of metal and a storm rolls up and I'm in a. I'm trying to get it done. There's big field, a lot of stuff I got to do. I'm like no man, i don't care, i'm just going to keep doing it and just keep mowing, just keep on doing right, my own kind of rebellious self-will. Right, just keep on doing it. Anyway, as I'm, as I'm mowing, one of the wheels on the lawn mower falls in a hole right and gets stuck because the grass too high. I couldn't see it. So I get off and now I'm really not happy. Not only is it raining on me now, my lawn mower is stuck. So I take off and start walking back toward a barn. I got to get a truck and pull it out right, and as I'm walking back over that way, i turn around and the rain has started coming pretty good. I turn around and I see this massive bolt of lightning crack like a dozen yards or so in front of the lawn mower. I'm like, all right, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm going to go sit in the barn and wait until this is over. It's one of the ways in which he has shown himself to me.

CJ Dause: 12:10

Sometimes I need a reminder. The other day we were playing with our kids before bedtime. I'm playing with Noah and Anna because that's time for them to go to bed And as we're having a good time, i say all right time to go to bed, time to go get brushed teeth, put your PJs on. And Anna is not doing it. She just keeps playing, keep having a good time. And we've been silly. We've been playing around doing all that stuff And I hear them upstairs and she's still doing the same thing. She's still just kind of like ha ha ha. You know, bubble, i don't even know what she's doing. She had a C player played in it, plugged in or something, just enjoying herself. But you know that time's over, it's time to get ready for bed. We got other things to do And I said, anna, there's a time to be silly, there's a time to listen. And now it's time to listen And she says, oh, okay, and she went and got ready for bed.

CJ Dause: 13:07

Every once in a while. God has to do that to me, god has to do that to all of us. There's a time for us to pay attention to who he is. And sometimes he does things like this. Sometimes he snatches a prophet up into the heavenly temple and shows himself in power and majesty. Sometimes he strikes a bolt in lighting out in the middle of the field just to show Hey, i was telling you to turn around, you didn't do it, I had to make you turn around. Sometimes it's something else. Sometimes he has to show us who he is because we don't want to listen a lot of the times.

CJ Dause: 13:40

And you know, sometimes you think of this right, this situation in Isaiah and Isaiah chapter six, it's, it's big, it's powerful, it's impressive. There's a you know, seraphim and smoke and earthquakes and all corn of things like that. And you go read God coming down on the Mount Sinai and there's earthquakes and fire and all sorts of crazy, big, loud, cataclysmic kind of stuff. Sometimes God comes in something big like that to show who he is, but sometimes he comes in a still small voice. And you go read about Elijah, right, elijah is out in the wilderness, he's all depressed, say man, just kill me, i'm tired of this right. And there's an earthquake and there's a fire and there's a great wind, but God's not getting, he's not in any of those things. But then he comes to Elijah in the still small voice. So sometimes we have these big, impressive things that God shows us to remind us of who he is, but sometimes he just comes in a still small voice to tell us who he is And those of those he can be equally convincing at because he's God.

CJ Dause: 14:43

So there will be a revealing of the person of God, and when we see who God is, that will tend to show us something about ourselves. We go to verse five. So I said woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips And I dwell in the mist of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. After there's a revealing of the person of God, there will be a recognition of our own sin. Isaiah gets snatched up before the throne and he is terrified. Woe is me. I'm about to be destroyed just from being in the presence of God.

CJ Dause: 15:37

And you see that, scripturally, almost anytime somebody comes into contact with the creator, that's kind of what they do. You go read the book of Job, book of Job's, good book. Job threw almost the whole book is complaining about how, man, i didn't do anything wrong. I deserve an audience with God. God needs to fix this man. All this kind of bad stuff's going on. I didn't do anything to deserve this. And then at the end, god shows up in a whirlwind And God says all right, go ahead, arrain yourself in power and glory, i'll wait. And then Job responds by saying man, i'm vile, i'm not saying anything.

CJ Dause: 16:18

Ever again, you see the same thing with Peter, when Peter comes into contact with Jesus and go to Luke, chapter five, the fishing miracle right, peter's fishing. And Jesus says hey, go out and go out again and lower your nets down. And Peter says well, you tell me to. I mean, i'm the fisherman here. I don't think you know anything about fishing there, rabbi, but I'll go do it just because you've said to, right. So he goes out and he drops the net down. And then, of course, there's this huge sketch of fish and they start struggling with the nets and getting it all to, dragging it all back into the beach and all that stuff. And when the whole thing's over, peter falls on his knees in front of Jesus, says listen, depart from me, lord, i am a sinner.

CJ Dause: 16:58

When we come into a recognition of who God is. We're gonna see, by contrast, who we are And who we are in and of ourselves is not a good thing. This certainly happens when we come to him the first time. You know big picture coming to Jesus in faith and repentance the first time. But God should be showing himself to us and we should be remembering who we are throughout our walk with him. Right, you know, at one point in my life I thought I was a pretty decent guy. The longer I've walked with the Lord, the more I see of him and the more of my own shortcomings I recognize. In contrast, the longer I see what he is and what he has called me to, the more I see man I'm not measuring up to what I'm supposed to be.

CJ Dause: 17:50

There's gonna be a revealing of the person of God. There's gonna be a recognition of our own sin, and you know that is important. You know we don't like to think on. Nobody likes to sit around and beat themselves up about how bad they are. And I'm not saying we should do that. We don't like to think about sin and bad stuff. But until we can recognize where we are, we're not gonna recognize what he has to offer.

CJ Dause: 18:14

And that point is true certainly for us as we walk through this walk with Christ. That point is true in the way we witness to non-believers And we don't beat people over the head with the Bible. But if you have the opportunity to share something with the non-believer concerning their own sin, which they're in just as much as everybody else is then we should be able to be clear about it. We shouldn't compromise the truth on that. That doesn't mean we're hateful or spiteful or beat people over the head or whatever we do, but we should try and do it tactfully and respectfully. But we should do it because until you recognize the position that you're in, you're never gonna recognize the grace that's been offered.

CJ Dause: 18:53

Isaiah has come to recognize the position that he's in. Whoa is me, for I'm undone. You know, when I think about this little scene here, i think about like a spaceship and the sun, right. So the spaceship, if it's flying into the sun, the sun is not like actively trying to destroy the spaceship, but simply because of what the sun is and its being, the spaceship's not gonna last, it's gonna melt, right. Well, the same thing is kind of said, i would say is true of the situation, simply because of what God is in his being, we cannot be in his presence in flesh and blood, and sinful man we cannot. We can't do it right.

CJ Dause: 19:39

God says Moses, i'm gonna put you in here because you just can't bear the weight of my glory. So there will be a revealing of the person of God, there will be a recognition of our own sin. But thankfully that's not where it stops, verse six. Then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal from 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.

CJ Dause: 20:20

Seraphim, there's a little, you know, in the Jerusalem temple there was a, an altar of incense, kind of in front of the Holy of Holies, and that's where they burn incense as a sacrifice to the Lord. You know, the same seems the same, maybe the same similar setup as in the heavenly temple. The seraphim comes down and snatches up a burning coal and flies over to Isaiah and touches his lips with it. Isaiah receives the atoning work of God. Once there's a recognition of our own sin, then we can receive the atoning work of the Lord right. Isaiah gets it in the form of a coal. The atoning work of the Lord is certainly not in the form of a coal for any of us. The atoning work of the Lord is in the person of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. That is the atoning work of the Lord And that is what we receive once we recognize the sinfulness and the condition that we're in. We receive the grace that is offered through the person of Jesus. He presses the coal, he comes to it and touches it to his lips. Why does he touch it to his lips? That doesn't seem very nice. Or, animal, burn your mouth off of this coal. And this is the same place, if you go the verse above this right. This is the same place that Isaiah identifies his own sin. He says I have unclean lips. I live with people that have unclean lips. He identifies the simple-ness of his condition with his lips, and that is the exact place that the Lord cleanses.

CJ Dause: 21:53

Sometimes I think that we can have the thought that what we've done is too bad. Maybe we think, maybe, as a non-believer, somebody that hadn't come into connection with Christ yet, we think, man, my sin is too bad for the Lord to save me, what I've done, what I've thought. It's too bad for the Lord to save me. Sometimes, i think, as we walk our Christian life, we think the same thing about ministry or about service to the Lord. We think, man, i can't do that. I know I mean, jesus has brought me in the door right, he brought me in the door and he saved me, but I can't get involved in whatever the church is doing in this situation because, man, i'm just a bad person. Right, i think sometimes we can wear that. But the Lord cleanses Isaiah in the exact place where he identifies his own sin. The Lord cleanses us in the exact same place where we identify our own sin. There is no sin that is too big for the Lord to cleanse through his blood. There's nothing that we can do that he is not capable of taking care of.

CJ Dause: 23:00

Think back to the holiness of God. Think back to the separation, the distinction of God. God is over here and everything else is way the heck down here. Right, you think about. We have this perspective from. We have a perspective from humanity? of course we do, because we're all humans. But we tend to think somebody who pays their taxes and raises their kids and goes to work on time and doesn't speed, and things like that. Sometimes we tend to think, well, that's a halfway, that's a good person, right. But you take that person and compare it to like somebody who's an ax murderer or like a drug dealer, like they're way down here, right. That's kind of what we think sometimes. There's halfway decent people and then there's really really bad people, right. But in the light of the holiness and distinction of God, god is way up there and everybody else is way down there. Whether you're a taxpayer and a good person or an ax murderer or whatever it is you are, you're way the heck down there.

CJ Dause: 23:59

There is nothing that we have done that comes anywhere near not being able to be cleansed by the Creator. So we need to remember that. We need to extend that grace. When we do have the opportunity to speak the truth concerning sin to a non-believer, we also need to make sure we're speaking the truth of redemption to a non-believer, the truth of forgiveness to a non-believer. We need to remember that as we walk this Christian walk and we stumble into our own sin, or we stumble into a bad situation, or somebody else in our family or in our circle stumbles into something that's bad. We not only remember the truth of the sin and what we are, we also remember the truth of forgiveness and redemption. That is just as important as recognition of sin.

CJ Dause: 24:48

Isaiah receives the atoning work of Christ. You know, you see this also scripturally, right. Think about Job. Right? Job complains, complains, the whole book. Man, i deserve an audience with God. Why is God doing this to me? The heck with this right. And then God shows up. And then Job recognizes his own sin. Man, i'm vile, i'm not saying anything else.

CJ Dause: 25:13

But then what happens after that? He's restored. He's restored in what God took from him originally. He's also restored in ministry. What does God say? He says, job, you're gonna pray for your buddies over here. Your buddies need some help, man. You pray for them because I've taken away your sin. You intercede on their behalf, right, the same thing with Peter.

CJ Dause: 25:35

Peter gets all the fish up to the boat, or, you know, up to the beach. He gets all the fish up to the beach. He falls down and says Lord, depart from me, man, i am a sinner. What does Jesus do? Say, yeah, get out of here, jesus, okay, come on, come serve me. You've recognized your own brokenness before me. Well, you can probably tell somebody else that they're also broken. And because you've recognized that and you've seen that I've restored you, well you can probably tell somebody else that I can restore them to. It brings Peter into the fold and makes him essentially like the head disciple.

CJ Dause: 26:08

There's nothing that we have done that God can't use and bring forgiveness to so that we can serve. And also some of our own struggles, some of the things we fell into in the past before we walked with the Lord, some of the things we continue to struggle with. What's a? I forget where. It says somewhere. Now Paul says this somewhere. He says for, sorry, it's in Corinthians.

CJ Dause: 26:36

First Corinthians, paul says God uses the weakness of men to show his strength. He uses the foolishness of men to show his strength. So the struggles that we have right, the things that we're not good at where we're if you're not, maybe you're not a good speaker, or maybe you're not good at reading, or maybe you're not good at, you know, having interactions with another person, you know, maybe you're kind of an introvert, you're not, you're not, that's not your thing right, whatever your weakness is, god can take that and show his glory and his strength through that, and that includes some of the sins we have stumbled into in the past. He can take those things that we have fallen short in and help us to show his glory to others. They're in that same situation. There's nothing that he cannot use. Romans, day 28,.

CJ Dause: 27:17

Right, all things work for the good of those who love the Lord. All things that's not, some things That's not well nice things. All things God uses to bring his children into conformity with Christ and to glorify himself. So there's a recognition of our sin. There's a receiving of the atoning work of the Lord Verse eight Also. I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said here am I send me. There's a recognition of our sin. There's a receiving of his grace and then there's what? there's a renewal of our call in him. Here am I send me. I want you to notice something There's been a lot of really cool things in this vision Seraphim, flying around an altar with a burning coal and smoking and shaking posts and all sorts of big things. Isaiah has not heard the voice of God until verse eight. He heard the Seraphim, he saw all the stuff. He saw the smoking and shaking, all the other things. He did not hear the voice of God until verse eight.

CJ Dause: 28:41

Now you're a non-believer, you haven't come into connection with the Lord yet. You want to have a call from God. You got to come through Jesus. Yeah, i remember there was a man in my work this few years ago, a man in my work who wasn't a Christian. I think he'd kind of been raised in church And so he had some of the terminology down, but he wasn't a Christian. He'd go to church, he didn't claim the name of Christ, he didn't believe in Jesus. And he was telling me one time about him going to the hard rock casino and he wanted a bunch of money. And he was telling me when he was in the midst of playing cards or whatever it was he was doing to win the money. He said man, i said prayer, now I want a bunch of money. And he said man, god is good. He said I want God.

CJ Dause: 29:27

If you haven't submitted yourself to Christ, you're not going to hear the voice of the Lord, because the voice of the Lord only comes through Jesus.

CJ Dause: 29:38

I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us?

CJ Dause: 29:44

There will be a renewal of his call. As we walk with the Lord right, as we journey this wearing journey, and God shows himself afresh to us again and we submit to him afresh again, god says, hey, i still have work for you, i still have a plan for you, i still have a will for you to be carried out. And what is there? There's a desire to do it. There's a desire on our behalf On our behalf, i'm sorry There's a desire on our part to seek out what he wants us to do. There's a desire on our part to submit ourselves to him. Why? Because we've just received grace that's beyond what we can imagine. We've just received that, the Creator. Who's way up there, and we're way to heck down there. I said, no, man, i love you, come be my child, come into my family, come into my kingdom. You know what I'm gonna make you a king and a priest and you're gonna reign with me forever.

CJ Dause: 30:34

We've just received the grace of the Lord, which gives us a desire to continue in service to him, a desire to continue to submit ourselves to his will, a desire to continue to share him with others around us. And that desire we can use that in any situation, just like any sin, any brokenness, any shortcoming. It doesn't matter where it is, god can use it. God can use us in any situation. It doesn't have to be in a pulpit on Sunday morning, it doesn't have to be in a Bible study on Tuesday night. It can be at school, it can be at work, it can be on the playground, it can be at a sports field, it can be anywhere that we have chosen to submit ourselves to him.

CJ Dause: 31:14

Praise God, you know, there's a I believe this wholeheartedly There is a calling on every single individual that comes to faith in Christ, a calling for something. And of course there's like general calling, right, like you know, don't be a drunker, don't be a fornicator, you know that kind of stuff. You know one man and one woman, the general callings that sort of apply to everybody. Of course, that calling is for everybody, right, but there's specific callings to everybody that he is brought in to the fold, something he is prepared for us to do. You know, you think of the way Paul presents the church. He presents it as a body, right, he says, well, there's a head and there's arms and stuff, but there's also other body parts that are, you know, not exposed and we give them more honor. It's presented as a body, right, because you think about, think about a body.

CJ Dause: 32:07

If one part of your body is not operating correctly, then the whole thing is not operating correctly. You ever see, like a you know, watching like a football game or something, and you hear there's a football player that's been sidelined for like a sprained toe or something like that, and I'm like sprained toe man, take that stuff up and throw it at you. If one part of their body is not working correctly, then they're not able to play up to the level that they're told that they're called to play. They're expected to perform right. Well, the body is all of us And all of us have a function to perform and he wants you to perform it.

CJ Dause: 32:49

He has a desire for you to carry out his will and whatever it is he has planned for you, he has a purpose for all of us. That's what I'm trying to say. He has a specific purpose for all of us. So let's receive the grace that he's given to us and seek out his will and willingly say here I am, send me Fellas. One of the general principles that applied to all of us is the spiritual headship of our family. Here I am send me, help me to be the leader in my family, to ensure my family's trajectory is on one of God's will and not off of God's will. That's one for us. So let's receive the grace that is provided in the Lord. Let us seek out the person of God. Let us receive the grace that is provided through him, and let us willingly submit to his call on our lives. Let's go to the Lord.