{"id":18665,"date":"2017-10-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/isaiah-6-session-002-rebellion-against-god-is-self-destructive\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T20:02:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T02:02:19","slug":"isaiah-6-session-002-rebellion-against-god-is-self-destructive","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/isaiah-6-session-002-rebellion-against-god-is-self-destructive\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah 6 – Session 002: Rebellion Against God is Self-Destructive"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[68],"series_event":[532],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[482],"class_list":["post-18665","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-isaiah","series_event-isaiah-6","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-alex-garcia","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Isaiah 6 - Session 002: Rebellion Against God is Self-Destructive","sermon_date":"20171004","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":5009,"sermon_mp3":5015,"sermon_id":"104171843532","series_or_event":532,"service_type":[474],"speaker":482,"books_of_the_bible":68,"chapter_and_verse":"6:8-10","sermon_transcript":"Alex Garcia\r\n\r\nRebellion Against God is Self-Destructive, Isaiah 6:8-10\r\n\r\n10-4-17\r\n\r\nGood evening.\u00a0 Thanks for the opportunity to speak before you all tonight.\u00a0 In Sunday School a couple of weeks ago we studied Isaiah 6:1-7 and tonight we\u2019re going to look at verses 8-10.\u00a0 But before we do that let me just take a few minutes and go over what we looked at in Sunday School with respect to verses 1-7 and let me talk a little bit about background, the background with respect to Isaiah and the Book itself.\r\n\r\nAs we saw before, Isaiah\u2019s ministry started in the mid 700\u2019s B.C. and went to around the 680\u2019s B.C.\u00a0 So if you look at a larger timeline, King David lived around 1000 B.C. so Isaiah comes along about 250 years later.\u00a0 And Isaiah had access to many kings of the southern kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 At this time the land of the Jews was divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.\u00a0 Isaiah lived in the southern kingdom and the capital of the southern kingdom was Jerusalem.\u00a0 So Isaiah is a city dweller, like most of us.\u00a0 He\u2019s not from the country, he lives in the city and extra Biblical tradition, Jewish tradition, extra Biblical sources suggest that Isaiah was part of the royal family, that he was a cousin of one of the kings, King Uzziah.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why he had all this access to the kings there in Jerusalem.\u00a0 He had access to kings like Uzziah, Hezekiah,\u00a0 Ahaz, and Jotham.\r\n\r\nNow the name \u201cIsaiah\u201d means Yahweh is salvation.\u00a0 And Yahweh is the divine name, it\u2019s the name of God, one of the names of God in the Old Testament, one of the principle names of God.\u00a0 The Book of Isaiah is often called the fifth gospel.\u00a0 You know, you\u2019ve got the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but Isaiah is often called the fifth gospel because there are so many references to the Savior, so many references to the Messiah in the Book of Isaiah very similar to the other four Gospels.\r\n\r\nThe book is divided into three parts; chapters 1-39 is directed to the people who are alive at the time of Isaiah; they\u2019re the listeners of Isaiah\u2019s message.\u00a0 Then chapters 40-55 are directed to a future generation of Israelites, a generation that will live 150-200 years later and they will live in exile as slaves to the Babylonians.\u00a0 And the message of the first part is a message of judgment; judgment is coming because you\u2019ve been rebelling against God.\u00a0 That\u2019s the message of the first part of Isaiah; there\u2019s going to be blessing but first intense extreme judgment.\r\n\r\nThe second part of Isaiah is chapter 40-55 which is directed to that future generation who\u2019s going to live under the boot of the Babylonians.\u00a0 That\u2019s a message of hope and comfort; persevere\u2026 persevere is realized because God has a plan.\u00a0 He has not forgotten you, He has a plan for the future of Israel. That\u2019s the second part of the book.\u00a0 And the final, the third part of the book is chapters 56-66 and that\u2019s directed to even a future generation of Israelite\u2019s, it\u2019s the generation that\u2019s going to return from Babylon, return from exile, and return back to the land.\u00a0 And the message there was a message of follow the Law, obey because in the first part that\u2019s what got us into trouble was not obeying God, disobeying God.\u00a0 So the message of the final part of the book is follow the Law and look to the coming Messiah.\r\n\r\nSo in our passage tonight, in chapter 6 of Isaiah, Isaiah is brought up into a vision of heaven and Isaiah gets a glimpse of the majesty and glory of God and he is utterly terrified.\u00a0 Standing in the presence of perfect holiness gives sin\u2026 even just the slightest of sins, is magnified in the presence of God and God\u2019s perfect holiness.\u00a0 And so God, in His matchless grace gives Isaiah a solution, a solution to the sin problem.\u00a0 So let\u2019s review verses 1-7 quickly.\r\n\r\nIsaiah 6:1, \u201cIn the year of King Uzziah\u2019s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.\u201d\u00a0 Now what\u2019s unique about this temple is that there\u2019s a throne in it; the temple in Jerusalem didn\u2019t have a throne in it.\u00a0 The temple in Jerusalem is where there\u2019s spiritual power, there\u2019s worship.\u00a0 That\u2019s a place of worship.\u00a0 The throne is the political power over in the King\u2019s palace with the spears and the swords and the armor and the soldiers.\u00a0 But in heaven those two are combined because all power comes from God.\u00a0 All power emanates from God and when the God-man, Jesus, returns to rule the world for a thousand years He will exhibit that power.\u00a0 He will show that power that He currently exhibits in heaven but when He returns He will exhibit it on earth.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the Second Advent and that should be a source of comfort for us.\r\n\r\nNow the next couple of verses describe, verses 2-3, are earthly words describing a heavenly scene that is totally foreign to our images of earth.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look at those.\u00a0 Verse 2, \u201c2 Seraphim stood above Him,\u201d stood above the Lord, \u201ceach having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.\u201d\u00a0 So you have the Lord on His throne, lofty and exalted with the train of His robe filling the temple and you have these Seraphim, these angels flying above Him, with two wings; they\u2019re hovering like a bee or a wasp would hover.\u00a0 With two wings they\u2019re covering their feet because presumable their feet are the least honorable portion of their body.\u00a0 And with two wings they\u2019re covering their face because not even these sinless creatures will look on the presence of God.\r\n\r\nVerse 3.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cAnd one called out to another and said, \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.\u201d\u00a0 The Hebrew word there is Kadosh<\/em>, so the angel says, one angel says to the other angel, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh<\/em>, Holy, Holy, Holy, and we saw (when we studied this a couple of weeks ago) that the word \u201choly\u201d when used for a person or a group of people or a place or a thing means separated to God, set apart to God.\u00a0 But here holy is not being used to describe a person or place of thing; it\u2019s being used to describe God Himself so it means something much bigger.\u00a0 Here when holy\u2026 in the Scripture when holy is being\u00a0 used to describe God it means He is totally distinct, above and beyond, outside of His creation, totally independent of His creation.\u00a0 Or using the theological term, transcendent, He transcends His creation.\u00a0 And God needs nothing outside of Himself; He is His own source of existence, His own life.\u00a0 We, on the other hand, have all kinds of needs; we need all kinds of things, oxygen, sleep, money to pay the bills, food.\u00a0 God is absolute holiness and His holiness gives Him sovereign and authority over His creation.\r\n\r\nAnd the seraphs repetition of \u201cHoly\u201d three times is designed to show the absolute unapproachable holiness of God.\u00a0 And it also fits with the three person nature of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 In the Old Testament you see these glimpses of the Trinity; the doctrine of the Trinity is not fully unpacked for us until the New Testament but here in the Old Testament you see glimpses of it.\r\n\r\nBut the point here is that the Lord is above His creation, He\u2019s transcendent.\u00a0 But He\u2019s not just \u201cout there,\u201d He\u2019s also involved in His creation.\u00a0 He loves it, He provides for it, He sacrifices for it and that\u2019s the rest of the verse that you see there, \u201cthe whole earth is full of His glory.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s engaged in His creation, and the theological term there is imminent.\u00a0 So He\u2019s transcendent, but He\u2019s also imminent.\u00a0 Also we see here in verse 3 this phrase, \u201cLORD of hosts.\u201d\u00a0 And the Hebrew word there, \u201cLORD of hosts\u201d is Yahweh Sabaoth, Yahweh\u2014the name of God, and then Sabaoth means armies.\u00a0 It\u2019s translated here \u201chosts,\u201d that old English word meaning army.\u00a0 The word Yahweh, the name Yahweh is related to the Hebrew word [can't understand word] which means to exist or to live.\u00a0 You see, it\u2019s the name itself is pregnant with meaning, with relationship in terms of existence; He IS existence, He\u2019s always existed, there\u2019s never been a time when God did not exist, from eternity past to now to eternity future there was never a time that God did not exist.\r\n\r\nAnd so you can see the relationship with that verb to exist or to be.\u00a0 Now Sabaoth, this armies, what\u2019s that saying is that God is the Lord of the armies, the angelic armies are within reference here and it\u2019s describing the extreme military power and might of God.\r\n\r\nVerse 4, \u201cAnd the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.\u201d\u00a0 The Lord\u2019s presence is always overwhelming and the smoke and quaking is reminiscent of the Israelites when they were introduced to God at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, when the mountain quaked and the ground shook and smoke bellowed out.\u00a0 Same think here, Isaiah is being introduced to the King of the universe and you have smoke and quaking happening here as well.\r\n\r\nVerse 5, \u201cThen I said, \u2018Woe is me, for I am ruined!\u00a0 Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts,\u201d or \u201cLORD of the armies.\u201d\u00a0 Isaiah, this great prophet of God, is terrified because he is standing in the presence of perfect holiness.\u00a0 He is standing in the presence of God and even the slightest of his sins is magnified; he\u2019s humbled because of his total inferiority to God, inferiority because he knows he\u2019s a sinner and he knows God is holy.\u00a0 He knows that the Lord is God and he is not and that\u2019s what makes Isaiah so great, because he submits to God.\u00a0 Isaiah understands that the Lord has moral authority to decide how we should and shouldn\u2019t live.\u00a0 And Isaiah knows that he and his people have both violated God\u2019s moral standards.\u00a0 And so Isaiah is not even qualified to speak to God because his lips, the instruments of speech and praise, they\u2019re unclean. So the Lord, in His grace, provides a solution.\r\n\r\nVerse 6 and 7, \u201cThen one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. \u00a0[7] He touched my mouth with it<\/em> and said, \u2018\u201cBehold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 The angels act of touching a coal, a burning coal to Isaiah\u2019s lips was a representative sign that Isaiah\u2019s sin was forgiven.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the same thing for us, right?\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s sin was forgiven by grace; our sin is forgiven by grace!\u00a0 By grace our sins are forgiven if we trust in Christ.\r\n\r\nNow we don\u2019t need an angel to touch coal to our lips for our sins to be forgiven; all we need to do is trust that Christ paid for our sins and then after we\u2019re saved when we sin, under 1 John 1:9 we confess our sin to God and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.\u00a0 So this act by the Seraph of touching the coal to Isaiah\u2019s lips was a representative sign because Isaiah is already saved.\u00a0 He\u2019s already a believer when he\u2019s brought up into\u00a0 this vision in heaven but it was a sign that his sins were forgiven and now he\u2019s ready to have a conversation with the God of the universe.\r\n\r\nSo that\u2019s what we saw las time in Sunday School.\u00a0 That\u2019s a summary of what we looked at.\u00a0 And the point of verses 1-7 is that God\u2019s holiness demands that we submit to Him.\u00a0 God\u2019s holiness gives Him absolute authority over His creation and we as sinners must recognize that we are inferior to God and that\u2019s kind of an understatement.\u00a0 We are inferior to God and we have to submit to God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Isaiah did.\u00a0 Tonight in verse 8-10 we\u2019re going to see that rebellion against God is self-destructive.\u00a0 Rebellion against God is toxic to the human soul.\u00a0 So let\u2019s jump right in.\r\n\r\nVerse 8, \u201cThen I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, \u2018Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?\u2019 Then I said, \u2018Here am I. Send me!\u201d\u2019\u00a0 What we see here is that Isaiah volunteers just like that [snaps his finger], there\u2019s no hesitation with Isaiah.\u00a0 The Lord doesn\u2019t order Isaiah to serve; Isaiah doesn\u2019t get voluntold.\u00a0\u00a0 You know what I mean when I say \u201cvoluntold\u201d?\u00a0 You\u2019re told to volunteer; it\u2019s when your boss comes in and says you will volunteer for this.\u00a0 Well, Isaiah doesn\u2019t get voluntold; he says pick me, PICK ME!\u00a0 He raises his hand and says I want to serve.\u00a0 Isaiah is so grateful, so grateful from having gone to \u201cwoe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I\u2019m ruined\u201d [verse 5]\u00a0 to having his sins forgiven. He\u2019s so grateful that he is forgiven that he wants to serve.\u00a0 He wants to serve God in the way God wants him to serve.\r\n\r\nWe have to ask ourselves, are we that grateful about our salvation or are we just kind of blas\u00e9 \u00a0about it?\u00a0 Do we have that attitude of gratitude and we\u2019re anxious to do God\u2019s will or are we kind of\u2026 you know what, I\u2019ll get to you God when it fits my list of priorities.\u00a0 Now we can\u2019t repay God because it\u2019s a gift, salvation is a gift, it\u2019s free.\u00a0 And so we can\u2019t pay God and that\u2019s not what Isaiah is trying to do.\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s just grateful and so he wants to serve the Lord.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we should be doing too.\r\n\r\nNow in verse 8 God is not wondering who He should send.\u00a0 God\u2019s not saying well do we sent Mike?\u00a0 No, Mike\u2019s kind of a dummy, we can\u2019t send Mike.\u00a0 Do we send Joe?\u00a0 Well, you know, there\u2019s pros and cons with Joe.\u00a0 Well, maybe we should send Jeff, how about Jeff?\u00a0 That\u2019s not what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how God operates.\u00a0 What God is doing is He\u2019s giving Isaiah an opportunity to volunteer.\u00a0 God\u2019s knowledge is unlimited because He\u2019s omniscient.\u00a0 And some of the verses that lay this out are 1 John 3:20 which tells us that God (quote) \u201cknows all things.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAll\u201d means all, meaning He knows all the knowable. Anything that can be known He knows.\r\n\r\nOr Psalm 147:5 tells us that God\u2019s\u00a0 understanding is infinite.\u00a0 [Psalm 147:5, \u201cGreat is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.\u201d]\u00a0 Isaiah 40:28 tells us that His understanding is inscrutable. [Isaiah 40:28, \u201cDo you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s a pretty strong word, \u201cinscrutable\u201d!\u00a0 That means we can\u2019t get it; that means our finite brains cannot comprehend the breadth and the magnitude of God\u2019s knowledge.\u00a0 What this means is that God has perfect clarity of knowledge, of the past five days ago, fifty years ago, five hundred years ago, five thousand years ago.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing good to remember last week; God has perfect clarity of the past.\r\n\r\nPraise God that He memorialized Scripture and He entrusted it to the children of Israel for it to be preserved, Scripture that\u2019s thousands of years old.\u00a0 But other than the Bible if we go back into history 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 years our historical record of historical events is pretty scant.\u00a0 We have no idea what happened in Scandinavia or in South Africa or in Northern Russia 10,000 years ago.\u00a0 God has perfect clarity of knowledge of the past.\u00a0 He has perfect clarity and knowledge of the present.\u00a0 He knows exactly what is happening at Sugar Land, Texas, right now, in Bangladesh, in Taiwan, in Berlin, in London, and in Santiago Chile right now in this instant of time.\u00a0 He has perfect clarity of knowledge of the future, not in some goofy Nostradamus way, you know, where you take Nostradamus\u2019s writings and you kind of squint and you cock your head this way and say well, maybe it means this. NO!\u00a0 God has perfect clarity of knowledge of what will happen in the future.\r\n\r\nAnd then, this is the one that makes my brain hurt.\u00a0 He has perfect clarity of knowledge of what could have happened, ALL the potentialities.\u00a0 You know those TV shows or those movies like Back to the Future where they go back in time and they\u2019re always worried about we need to be careful to not change events here because when we get back to our time the course of history is going to be changed and we might not even exist.\u00a0 If we change the events in earlier time and, you know, our parents or our great grandparents never met then we might not exist.\u00a0 Well, we make decisions, every human being makes decisions every days, hundreds of them.\u00a0 Do I go left, do I go right?\u00a0 Do I do this, do I do that?\u00a0 And God knows all of the decisions that we could have but didn\u2019t make.\u00a0 And that goes on ad infinitum<\/em> for every human being, for the trillions of people that have existed and exist.\u00a0 He has complete absolute knowledge and His knowledge is infinite, eternal and immediate!\r\n\r\nWe can\u2019t fully understand God\u2019s knowledge, and that\u2019s why the Apostle Paul said in Romans 11:33, \u201cOh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!\u00a0 How unsearch\u00adable His judgments and untraceable His ways!\u201d \u00a0But God, in His matchless grace and mercy gives us a glimpse of Himself and by extension God gives that glimpse of Himself to us in the Scripture.\u00a0 God reveals this divine conversation that is happening among the Trinity.\u00a0 And you get to peak behind the curtain and you see a few times in Scripture these intimate conversations that happen among the Trinity, like in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prays to the Father.\r\n\r\nNotice in verse 8, go back to verse 8 here, it says \u201cWhom shall I send and who will go for Us?\u2019 Do you see how the pronouns change?\u00a0 \u201cI\u201d to \u201cUs\u201d?\u00a0 This \u201cUs\u201d is the same \u201cUs\u201d as in the creation account of Genesis 1:26 where God said, \u201cLet Us make man in our own image, according to our likeness.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s the same \u201cUs\u201d as in Genesis 11:7 where God created humanity\u2019s separate languages at the tower of Babel. There God said, \u201cCome let Us go down and there confuse their language so that they will not understand one another\u2019s speech.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo the \u201cUs\u201d in all these verses, in the Genesis account and the tower of Babel account in Genesis 6 represents and shows the plurality of God.\u00a0 We can\u2019t say that it tells us that much about the Trinity; we don\u2019t get the Trinity unpacked, the doctrine of the Trinity unpacked for us until the New Testament, but the \u201cUs\u201d here shows that there is a plurality of the God head.\u00a0 And then we learn in the New Testament that it\u2019s Father, Son and Holy Spirit.\r\n\r\nNow some suggest that the \u201cUs\u201d in the creation account doesn\u2019t mean God alone and that it instead means God and His angels.\u00a0 And what they\u2019re saying by that is that God and the angels together jointly created the heavens and created humanity.\u00a0 I do not believe that is an accurate view of those passages.\u00a0 There certainly are passages that describe the angels being present in the courtroom in the heavens and in the throne room of God but God alone is the Creator and He takes counsel from no one!\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t take advice or assistance from the angels in His creation, in His act of creation.\u00a0 And we see that in Isaiah 40:12-14.\r\n\r\nBut what these verses lay out, and these are questions that Isaiah asked and they all demand\u2026 the implication is no, no one else.\u00a0 So let\u2019s just read through these.\u00a0 Isaiah 40:12-14, \u201cWho has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,\u201d\u00a0 no one,\u00a0 \u201cand marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,\u201d no one, \u201cand weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?\u201d\u00a0 These questions demand a negative answer. In other words, no one did any of these things with respect to creation other than God Himself.\u00a0 Verse 13, \u201cWho has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has informed Him? \u201c\u00a0 No one.\u00a0 Verse 14, \u201cWith whom did He consult and who<\/em> gave Him understanding?\u00a0 And who<\/em> taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?\u201d\r\n\r\nWhat these verses are saying is no one counseled God; no one assisted God in the creation account because that\u2019s what these verses are about, the creation of the heavens and the earth and humanity.\u00a0 And these verses describe God almost as \u00a0if\u2026 look back at verse 12, almost as if He\u2019s a workman with His tools.\u00a0 See how it describes, \u201cWho has measured\u201d so He has a measure, or \u201cmarked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust\u201d He knows exactly how many specs of dust there are in the earth.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that amazing?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026by the measure,\u201d so it\u2019s as if God has a measuring rod, \u201cand weighed the mountains in a balance \u2026 in a pair of scales.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo God is the one who created the heavens and the earth and He didn\u2019t use the angels in that activity.\u00a0 God, just by a word created us and the heavens and the earth.\u00a0 So based on this Isaiah 40 passage the \u201cus\u201d and the creation account of Genesis 1 is only God Himself, NOT God with the angels.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the same thing in our passage in Isaiah 6.\u00a0 God is not asking the angels, those seraphim who are flying above the throne, God\u2019s not saying who do you think we should send.\u00a0 He\u2019s not asking the angels that.\u00a0 It\u2019s God having a conversation\u2026 it\u2019s the Godhead having a conversation among themselves and what they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re giving Isaiah an opportunity, God is giving Isaiah an opportunity to volunteer.\r\n\r\nNow there are two false doctrines that have come about from a failure to understand the Trinity.\u00a0 The first is the idea that Christians say that there are three separate gods.\u00a0 In other words, the argument that Christians are polytheistic, that we believe in multiple gods.\u00a0 We don\u2019t! But Islam makes this accusation against Christianity and they say in the Koran, they say, \u201cthey do blaspheme who say Allah is one of three in a trinity; for there is no god except One Allah.\u201d [Surah 5:73]\r\n\r\nBut this accusation against Christianity is false because it reveals a lack of understanding of the Trinity.\u00a0 Christians do not believe in multiple gods, they believe in one God.\u00a0 And we see that from the famous Shema; Shema in Hebrew means hear, or listen.\u00a0 The Shema is\u00a0 Deuteronomy 6:4, \u201cShema Yisrael<\/em>, <\/strong>Adonai Eloheinu<\/em>, <\/strong>Adonai Echad<\/em>\u201d \u201cHear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one!\u201d\u00a0 In other words, one in essence; each member of the three person Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, have the same divine essence.\u00a0 So we can say that God is one, one in essence and in perfect unity.\r\n\r\nThe second false doctrine about the Trinity is the view that only the Father is really God and the Son and the Holy Spirit are something less than the Father, they\u2019re something less than God.\u00a0 And this is the false doctrine that is disseminated by the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses and they view Jesus, for example, as being a created being, as being less than God.\u00a0 The Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses say on their website, \u201cJesus lived as a spirit person in heaven before he was born in Bethlehem. He was God\u2019s first creation and the only one created directly by God.\u201d [www.jw.org.] \u00a0\u00a0So there they\u2019re saying that Jesus is not God, instead He\u2019s a created being.\u00a0 That\u2019s false!\r\n\r\nThen with respect to the Holy Spirit Jehovah\u2019s Witness doctrine is that the Spirit is not even a person and instead the spirit is like a force or an energy.\u00a0 And we see that in this quote from their website which says, \u201cThe holy spirit is God\u2019s power in action, his active force. . . . By referring to God\u2019s spirit as his \u2018hands,\u2019 \u2018fingers,\u2019 or \u2018breath,\u2019 the Bible shows that the holy spirit is not a person.\u201d\u00a0 [www.jw.org.]\r\n\r\nWell, all of these Jehovah\u2019s Witness views are false because the New Testament teaches clearly that each member of the Trinity is fully God.\u00a0 God\u2019s not just one, one in essence, God\u2019s also three because each member of the Trinity is fully God.\u00a0 And let me show you what I mean.\u00a0 The Father is described in Scripture as full deity and usually there\u2019s not much argument about God the Father.\u00a0 But let\u2019s go ahead and look at these passages about the Father.\r\n\r\nIn Matthew 5:16 Jesus said, \u201cLet your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 So there it\u2019s specifically referring to the Father as in heaven, in other words, He\u2019s God.\r\n\r\nOr Philippians 4:20, this is Paul\u2019s prayer where he states that the Father is God, specifically, \u201cNow to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen\u201d\r\n\r\nHow about the Son, how about God the Son.\u00a0 He\u2019s also full deity and there\u2019s the well-known passage, John 1:1, \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cand the Word\u201d here is a reference to God the Son, a reference to Jesus.\r\n\r\nThe Apostle Paul also laid out the deity of Christ in Colossians 2:9, very clearly, \u201cIn Him,\u201d this is a reference to Jesus, God the Son, \u201call the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.\u201d\u00a0 And look at that passage just for a minute.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t only saying that the Son is God, this is also a passage about the Hypostatic union, about the union of God and man together because it says, \u201cIn Him,\u201d in Jesus, \u201call the fullness of deity dwells,\u201d so that\u2019s an absolute statement that Jesus is God, because \u201cfullness of deity,\u201d you don\u2019t get much broader than that.\u00a0\u00a0 But then it also says, \u201cin bodily form,\u201d so deity dwells in bodily form. That\u2019s one of the mysteries of the Bible, of how God and man can be united in one person forever, in Jesus.\u00a0 So the Father and the Son each have the same characteristics of deity.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s talk about the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 He also is full deity and has the characteristics of God, divine essence.\u00a0 For example, in Hebrews 9:14, it describes the Holy Spirit as being eternal.\u00a0 Only God is eternal, everything else had a time of creation but God has always existed.\u00a0 So here we read and\u00a0 9:14 breaks into the middle of the sentence, \u00a0\u201chow much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit\u201d<\/u> that\u2019s the Holy Spirit, \u201coffered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?\u201d\r\n\r\nThen the Apostle Paul also described the Holy Spirit as being omniscient, another characteristic that is possessed solely by God.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 2:11, Paul says, \u201cEven so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.\u201d That means the Holy Spirit has the same knowledge as God does.\u00a0 Or to say it differently the Holy Spirit is omniscient in the same way that God is.\r\n\r\nAnd finally there\u2019s the Trinitarian formula and let me say, there are a number of verses\u00a0 in the Bible that lay out, especially in the New Testament, that lay out the doctrine of the trinity, and so I\u2019m just touching on a few of them here.\u00a0 But the final one that I want to talk about is the Trinitarian formula and what I mean by that is there are passages that list \u201cthe Father, the Son and the Spirit\u201d without any sort of suggestion that any member of the Trinity is less than the others, without suggesting that there\u2019s some lower rank or lower standing than any of them.\u00a0 And one of the classic passages on that is the great commission that Jesus spoke at the end of Matthew in Matthew 28:19, where Jesus said, \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,\u201d there\u2019s no distinction at all that a couple of these are at a lower rank than the other; they all have the same equal standing.\r\n\r\nOr how about Ephesians 2:17-18, which shows that each member of the Godhead is involved in our salvation,\u00a0 In verse 17 we read, \u201cAnd He,\u201d that\u2019s a reference to Christ, \u201cCAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR;\u201d that\u2019s still a reference to Christ, \u201cfor through Him we both have our access in one Spirit\u201d there\u2019s the Holy Spirit, \u201cto the Father.\u201d\u00a0 So\u00a0 you have all three members of the Trinity involved in your salvation, involved in plucking you from eternal death and placing you into eternal life.\u00a0 The gospel itself is Trinitarian.\u00a0 The point here is that God is made up of three persons that all have the same divine essence, Father, Son and Spirit.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we can say that God is three and yet one.\r\n\r\nAll right, back to our passage in Isaiah 6:9-10, \u201cHe said,\u201d this is the Lord speaking, \u201cGo, and tell this people: \u2018Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.\u2019\u00a0 [10] Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.\u201d\u00a0 These verses are dripping with divine sarcasm and irony.\u00a0 What the Lord is saying is you\u2019ve rejected me so go look all you want, go seek the Lord all you want but you\u2019re not going to get it because you don\u2019t want Me, you hate me, we\u2019re going to see a passage here in a moment that they hate God.\u00a0 And so God is speaking with this sanctified sarcasm, you\u2019ve rejected Me so go search the Word and search truth all you want but you\u2019re not going to understand it because you\u2019re rejecting Me.\r\n\r\nRejection of God is toxic to the human soul; it is self-destructive; it hurts us.\u00a0 And so the children of Israel\u2019s rejection of God that forms the basis of God\u2019s condemnation of them here in verses 9 and 10, the rejection is laid out earlier in the Book of Isaiah.\u00a0 It\u2019s laid out in Isaiah 1; Isaiah 1 explains why God is condemning them and using this divine sarcasm here in a real sharp way.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look over at Isaiah 1:2, here we read, God says, \u201cListen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, \u2018Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 What God is doing here is He\u2019s calling into session a cosmic courtroom and He is bringing His indictment against His people who are rebelling against Him.\u00a0 And he calls witnesses for the prosecution, for His prosecution, He calls the heavens and He calls the earth to come and testify to what they have seen in terms of the people\u2019s rejection and rebellion against Him.\r\n\r\nAnd this imagery of a cosmic courtroom is not unique to us.\u00a0 Moses used the same imagery a number of times in Deuteronomy.\u00a0 For example, in Deuteronomy when Moses lays out the Mosaic Covenant and that\u2019s a special covenant between Israel and God that got entered into with the Israelites.\u00a0 And it\u2019s actually a very straightforward covenant because I\u2019m going to give you this Law, the Mosaic Law, and if you obey Me I will bless you.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a long, long list of blessings, I\u2019ll give you good crops, and I\u2019ll give you good livestock, productive livestock, and I\u2019ll give you peace and I\u2019ll give you military victory and I\u2019ll give you prosperity and I\u2019ll give you blessing.\u00a0 But if you disobey Me and you rebel against Me then I will give you curses and I will give you famine and I will give you poverty and I will give you military defeat and I will give you suffering.\u00a0 And ultimately I will rip you from the land and I will expel you to the uttermost parts of the earth. \u00a0So that\u2019s the Mosaic Covenant; it\u2019s very straightforward.\u00a0 Obedience\u2014blessing; disobedience\u2014cursing.\r\n\r\nAnd so as Moses is describing the Mosaic Covenant and the blessings and the curses in Deuteronomy 28 and 30, at the end of chapter 30 of Deuteronomy he describes this cosmic courtroom and he says this in Deuteronomy 30:19, \u201cI call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. [So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,]\u201d\u00a0 So then fast-forward 800 years to the time of Isaiah and he uses the same imagery of the cosmic courtroom.\r\n\r\nSo Isaiah 1:2-4, let\u2019s just read 2 again, \u201cListen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the Lord speaks, \u201cSons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me. [3] An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master\u2019s manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.\u201d [4] Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly!\u201d\u00a0 And here\u2019s the real clicker, at the end of verse 4, \u201cThey have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel,\u201d that\u2019s one of the other names of God in the Holy Spirit, \u201cthe Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him.\u201d\u00a0 What this passage is saying is that they hate God; that\u2019s what \u201cdespised\u201d means, right?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026they have despised the Holy One of Israel,\u201d they have despised and they\u2019re saying get away, go, I don\u2019t want you God, get out of here, I don\u2019t want You, I don\u2019t want Your truth just go.\r\n\r\nAnd in verse 3 God says they\u2019re worse than animals because at least the donkey and the ox know their master. So for centuries they have been rejecting God and in their despising of God they were covering their eyes, covering their ears and saying I don\u2019t want Your truth, I don\u2019t want it!\u00a0 GO!\u00a0 Rejection of God is self-destructive; it\u2019s dangerous because rejection of God begets more rejection and it\u2019s a poison in the soul.\u00a0 It\u2019s toxic to the human soul because it blinds the person to God\u2019s truth.\u00a0 So their hearts are being hardened because of their negative volition towards God.\r\n\r\nAnd then when He send one of the most eloquent prophets, Isaiah, to preach His truth they\u2019re negative volition is intensified even more.\u00a0 And the sad reality is their rejection against God is pointless; it\u2019s futile because He is God and we are not.\u00a0 God\u2019s plan marches on, it just ticks on regardless of people\u2019s rebellion.\r\n\r\nSo the children of Israel would reject Isaiah, one of the most eloquent prophet speakers of the Old Testament.\u00a0 And it appears that this rejection culminated in the wicked King Manasseh, who was one of the southern kings of the southern kingdom, murdering Isaiah because he didn\u2019t want to hear about Isaiah\u2019s prophecy of coming judgment.\u00a0 And Jewish tradition says that Manasseh ordered Isaiah to be sawn in half; that\u2019s an extra biblical source, we can\u2019t say that that is definitively what happened but we do see in Hebrews 11:37 the description of the sufferings that Old Testament saints went through and there we read, \u201cThey were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword\u2026.\u201d And it goes on. [\u201cthey went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated.\u201d]\r\n\r\nSo as I say we can\u2019t say definitively that that is how Isaiah died but what we know for certain is that the people rejected Isaiah\u2019s message. But even in the midst of all this rejection of God, this despising of God, God longs for reconciliation\u2026 He LONGS for it, and this is explained in Psalm\u00a0 81:11-13.\u00a0 And in this passage you see the\u2026 almost the pain of the words that describe God\u2019s longing.\u00a0 There we read, \u201cPsalm\u00a0 81:11-13, \u201cBut My people did not listen to My voice, and Israel did not obey Me.\u00a0 [12] So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart,\u201d you see the time sequence there, first they didn\u2019t :listen to My voice\u201d and they \u201cdid not obey me,\u201d so then God gives them over to what they want.\u00a0 \u201cSo I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.\u201d\u00a0 And here\u2019s the painful part, \u201cOh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!\u201d\r\n\r\nGod\u2019s desire is to turn to Him but they don\u2019t want it.\u00a0 And you see a similar passage like this with Jesus\u2019 words in Matthew 23:37 where He says, \u2018Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it.\u201d\u00a0 God longs for reconciliation.\u00a0 And that goes for us too, we have to ask ourselves, are we in rebellion against God?\u00a0 A believer can be in rebellion against God.\u00a0 A believer can be rejecting God.\u00a0 Sure, the believer who has accepted Christ is now saved and he\u2019s no longer in eternal condemnation he has eternal life (or she has eternal life) but his life can be in total rebellion against God if the believer is rejecting the Lord, and rejection of God is self-destructive.\u00a0 It hurts us.\r\n\r\nSo back to verse 9 and 10.\u00a0 God\u2019s condemnation of the children of Israel here in Isaiah 6:9-10 is quoted many times in the New Testament.\u00a0 It\u2019s quoted in all four Gospels; it\u2019s quoted at the end of Acts where the Apostle Paul is citing it.\u00a0 And in all these passages in the New Testament Isaiah 6 is quoted here, these words a condemnation in 9 and 10, in connection with the nation of Israel\u2019s rejection of the Messiah.\u00a0 The nation of Israel rejected Christ.\u00a0 Now of course a nation is made up of individuals and so what happened was the leadership of Israel at the time of Christ had an attitude of rejection of Christ.\u00a0 A majority of the people of Israel had an attitude of rejection of Christ.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we can say that the nation itself had that approach of rejecting the Messiah.\r\n\r\nSo what has happened here is there\u2019s a near fulfillment of Isaiah 6:9-10 in terms of rejection, and a far fulfillment.\u00a0 What I mean by that is the people who listened to Isaiah\u2019s message, they rejected it\u2014I don\u2019t want it!\u00a0 Get out!\u00a0 Go!\u00a0 And then that rejection continued over the centuries and it heaped, it culminated at the time of Christ when God Himself came and tabernacled among them and preached the Word, preached the word of reconciliation, comma, listen to God\u2019s Word, Jesus was preaching.\u00a0 And they said no, go, get out!\u00a0 Let\u2019s kill\u00a0 You!\u00a0 Near fulfillment at the time of Isaiah, far fulfillment at the time of Christ.\r\n\r\nAll right.\u00a0 Well, what have we seen tonight in these verses, 8-10?\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen that rebellion against God is self-destructive.\u00a0 Rebellion against God is toxic to the human soul because it begets more rebellion, more rejection, it eats away at our souls. When a person hears divine truth they say bah, I\u2019m already used to putting up my barrier of rejection.\u00a0 And it intensifies people\u2019s rejection of God.\u00a0 It blinds them to the divine truth and to the truth giver who is God Himself.\r\n\r\nSo what\u2019s the solution?\u00a0 The solution is what Isaiah said in verses 1-7.\u00a0 Be submitted to God, it\u2019s a simple solution.\u00a0 It\u2019s two paths, one is a path of humility and submission to God and one is a path of pride and arrogance of no, no, no, no, no, I\u2019ve got this God, I\u2019ll hold my fist up to You, my puny little fist up to You God!\u00a0 That\u2019s the path of arrogance and pride.\u00a0 Isaiah, knowing that he\u2019s inferior to God because of His sin, submits to God, recognizes his inferiority and accepts God\u2019s sin solution.\r\n\r\nThe solution to sin is pretty simple actually; it\u2019s all about accepting God\u2019s solution.\u00a0 All we have to do is jettison our pride and submit to God, either the unbeliever jettisoning his pride and submitting to God in accepting Christ for the forgiveness of his sin, or the believer, when the believer is engaged in sin to confess his sin to God and run from it, and return to God.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ll finish the rest of chapter 6 on October 15th<\/sup> in Sunday School. \u00a0Let\u2019s close in prayer.\u00a0 Father, we thank You for this time together; we ask that You humble us.\u00a0 Remind us that You are God and we are not and challenge us to submit to you, challenge us to discard our pride, challenge us to remember that rejection of you is self-destructive and Your plan marches on anyway.\u00a0 Challenge us to remember that rejection of you, rebellion against you hurts\u00a0 us and challenges us to submit to You.\u00a0 And we pray these things in the power of the Spirit, in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t