His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Today on His Perfect Love, the Great Physician and his work on the heart of mankind. When God does surgery, he does it gently. When God does surgery on the heart, you don't have to be afraid. You don't have to run from God or be afraid.

"Oh Lord, I don't want to pray for patience because I know how hard this is going to be. I'm going to be on the way to work and we're going to be in a five-car pile-up because I asked for patience this morning." You don't have to be afraid. That's man's thinking.

You don't have to be afraid of God. You don't have to be afraid of God whatsoever. God wants to do that perfect work of surgery in your heart and my heart. He wants us to conform to his image. He wants to make us more like him, and he wants us to want that willingly and trust him in the process.

Guest (Male): Every good soldier knows the importance of following orders. Even if those orders involve a task that they feel completely inadequate to carry out, they don't question it. They just do it.

Such was the case with Isaiah. God has given him a calling and orders, and even as he recognized his own sinfulness, Isaiah responded with, "Send me, Lord." How will you respond to God's calling? Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 6 for His Perfect Love, as Pastor Matt VanderVen recalls the ministry God called Isaiah to.

Matt VanderVen: In verse 30 here in chapter 5, we've been with Isaiah and we're coming up to a really important chapter here in chapter 6, Isaiah's calling. It's significant because before we left the scene with Isaiah last week in verse 30, it said, "In the day that they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened by the clouds."

What I didn't get to bring out last week, and forgive me because of time, is I really believe this is prophetically talking about or referring to the Assyrians that did come against Judah. We say "will," but they did. For us today, it’s 3,000 years later, but at that time they did come against Judah. It's interesting because they were able to come into that region of the south, but they could not take Jerusalem. They were unable to take Jerusalem.

So I really believe that verse 30 is actually a prophetic passage describing how Assyria would come in. At this time, it would have been so striking because Isaiah would not have been thinking to say this in his own wisdom to the people of Judah because they're dealing with the northern tribes and Assyria is getting ready to go attack the north. What would Assyria have to do with the south down in Judah and Jerusalem like that?

But because of their sin, God was preempting and warning them. This is what's going to come to you because of your sin. All he wants them to do and all he's ever wanted any of us to do is repent and get right. That's really Isaiah's calling—to bring this news of judgment, but also to bring the opportunity for them to see that God is a deliverer. He enjoys delivering his people from sin and from heartache and difficulty.

That's where we're going to be going into chapter 6 here. We really can't get that far before we get exposed to one of the only eight good kings in all of Israel. When you think about all the kings they had, really one of eight was King Uzziah. Let's just look at chapter 6 here, verse 1. It says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple."

This is approximately, if you want to put a date in here to help you, right around 739 BC. King Uzziah ruled for about 52 years. He again is known as one of the good kings of Judah. His father was King Amaziah and his mother was a woman by the name of Jecoliah, and she was from Jerusalem.

Uzziah was the father of King Jotham, and he was ministering certainly during Uzziah's reign. When we look back, we talk about the contemporaries of the prophets. I think sometimes this is helpful just to refresh us to help us understand who's on the scene at the same time Isaiah is. You had Hosea, Amos, and Jonah. These are all contemporaries of Isaiah as well.

So they have different ministries and they're out and they're speaking to different aspects and different people within Israel, specifically the northern tribes. Remember Jonah? Judgment was coming once again and he was not wanting to give that message. Remind me of the people group that Jonah was being sent to minister to? It was Assyria.

When you think about it, the irony of the timing of that, and if you remember, he didn't want to go, did he? God was sending him, and you know that time because there was a time for repentance right there where they had taken the time, slowed down because Jonah answered the call. They turned around. Remember they were a rebellious people, but they were willing. They said, "Oh, we did not realize we had sinned."

Jonah had his own journey on that whole thing. Meanwhile, what was God doing by sending Jonah to the Assyrian people? He was giving time for Judah to repent and to get right. You see these pearls that are strung; so many times we miss these dainty little pearls, but they're important because they give us a different reflection, a different view of what God's doing behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, Jonah's fighting God the whole way. Wasn't the irony of it protecting his own people? But he didn't even know it, did he? He thought it was about him. Well, the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel during this time were Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea.

Uzziah is called Azariah, interestingly. You might see his name as Azariah and not only Uzziah. In 2 Kings chapter 14 verse 21, we believe it's one and the same. King Uzziah was 16 years old when he had begun to reign. As I mentioned, he reigned 52 years in Judah from approximately 790 to 739 BC.

You'll understand why I'm bringing this all out here in a moment because Isaiah really looked up to Uzziah. He really did, and it was striking that right at the year in which Uzziah died is about the same time that God is going to confirm the mantle being placed on Isaiah. It's very difficult because of loss and different things that are going on, and we'll get more to that.

But he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, it was said of Uzziah as his father Amaziah had done. 2 Chronicles chapter 26 verse 4. King Uzziah sought the Lord during the days of Zechariah who instructed him in the fear of God. We all have a Paul, we all have a Timothy, and we all should have a Barnabas.

Zechariah—we don't know if it's the same Zechariah we know from our scripture—but this Zechariah was probably a godly prophet. Obviously, Uzziah listened to him. As long as Uzziah made the point to seek God, God made him prosper. 2 Chronicles chapter 26, verse 5. But unfortunately after Zechariah dies, Uzziah begins to make some mistakes.

I know that was at the top of the mind for Isaiah because Isaiah is coming into this place where he's going to be anointed by God and Uzziah is dying. So I just want you to connect this from a human perspective here. Back to King Uzziah. He made some mistakes later on in life. He was used by God to defeat the Philistines and the Arabs. He did amazing things. He built fortified towers and strengthened the armies of Judah.

He commissioned skilled men to create devices that could shoot arrows and large stones at enemies from the city walls. He also built up the land. The Bible said he loved the soil. He loved gardening. The Ammonites paid tribute to King Uzziah, and his fame spread all over the ancient world as far as the border of even Egypt. So King Uzziah was highly respected.

But unfortunately, King Uzziah's fame and strength led him to become prideful, and it led to his downfall. We read about that in 2 Chronicles chapter 26 verse 16. He committed an unfaithful act. Some of you may or may not remember it. He entered the temple of God to burn incense on the altar.

Now that was solely reserved for the priests, not the kings. Burning incense on the altar was something that only the priests could do. By attempting to do this himself, Uzziah was basically saying he was above following the law. Solomon also had that problem, and so did really the first king, Saul. He had a similar problem. He didn't want to wait on the Lord.

It was not the humble thing to do. So what happens? We read in 2 Chronicles chapter 26, verse 18, 80 courageous priests basically stand up to King Uzziah, and it was led by the high priest named Azariah. They tried to stop the king. It says, "It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense."

Consecrated, set apart for this work. "Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honored by the Lord God in what you're doing." You see, we don't get to practice religion our own way. That's a really good reminder. God has a very clear declaration on how he's to be worshipped and how we're to practice our faith.

Well, Uzziah became angry with the priests. To anybody who dared to confront Uzziah, he got right in their face. But while he was raging at the priests in the presence before the altar of incense in the Lord's temple, all of a sudden leprosy starts to break out all over his forehead. Uzziah ran from the temple in fear because God had struck him.

From that day until his death, King Uzziah was a leper. He lived in a separate palace and was not allowed to enter the temple of the Lord ever again because he was considered unclean. That was a heartache in those days because you would have been basically ostracized.

Now his son Jotham governed the people in his palace, and King Uzziah is also mentioned in the book of Matthew as one of the ancestors of Joseph, Jesus' legal father. That's in Matthew chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. So when we begin chapter 6 here, it's significant because God is directing our attention to the timing, 739 BC. He's directing us to what's about to happen here, but it's significant that this man, this man that was highly respected in Judah, 52 years of rule, he dies.

Then the attention goes to Isaiah saying, "I saw the Lord sitting on the throne and high and lifted up." I imagine he needed to know God's in control because the stability of the nation of Judah at that point would have absolutely been something that would have been vulnerable. Here he is trying to give this word of judgment, hoping that change would be made to Judah, and he knows it's falling on deaf ears. He's probably thinking, "Only if Uzziah was still alive, he would have listened."

Well, he says instead he looks into the throne of God. He sees him there, sitting high up. The train of his robe filled the temple. I just love this, the calling of the prophet Isaiah. Above it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings: two he covered his face, two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. If you ever wondered, can angels fly? Here's a passage for you.

Do they need wings to fly? I don't believe so. We know Jesus Christ in the spirit could move into different places. He didn't have wings. I don't know that we need to have wings in heaven to fly or to move about that way if Jesus Christ is our example of a resurrected body.

And one cried to another and said—this is beautiful—heaven is so excited about the holiness of God. It's wonderful. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." You see, here's the point and this is something that's sort of sobering to every single pastor, to every Christian: the work must continue. Yes, King Uzziah is no longer on the scene, but the work must continue. If it's God’s work, he will bring it to pass.

So I believe often when we read this passage, what God is bringing us to the point is he's going to create a greater one than Uzziah. The prophet Isaiah is where we're reading of him. The posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. That's giving us indication imagery; the presence of God is upon that place.

God inhabits the praises of his people, we read in scripture. He's inhabiting the praises as heaven and the people have gathered in the temple, and they're singing out, "Holy, holy, holy." And all of a sudden, God's presence is there because he inhabits the praises of his people.

And he said, "So I said, Woe is me!" He's humbled. Isaiah is humbled in the presence of God, isn't he? "Woe is me, for I am undone!" Do you know what that means? This translation in the Hebrew here is heavy. It means, "I am dead," literally.

Obviously, he's not dead, but he's like, "I am undone, I am dead, I am ruined because I'm standing in the presence of God. And in the presence of God, I see who I really am." We talk about contrast, right? You guys know what contrast is with the eyes. You take a background color and you can change contrast by using different colors, maybe whites and darker colors. You see a greater image of contrast.

The Holy of Holies, the purity of God. Every human being standing in front of that is going to appear as all kinds of shades of whatever you want to describe it. The holiness of God. This is why he's undone. He says basically, "I'm a dead man walking."

He explains why because he's very aware of his own sin. And not only his own sin, but the sin of the nation. He says in verse 5, "Because I am a man of unclean lips." He's very honest, isn't he? "And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." What is God using a guy like this for? I mean, there has to be somebody else on the earth that's walking around without unclean lips, right?

Well, Romans tells us, nope, that's not the case. I think we just need reminding of that sometimes. I like the way that Isaiah comes humbly before God and because of that, God doesn't need to remind him of that. Isaiah's very aware of his own failings. He says, "For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." He is just having a "pinch me" moment.

Partly because he's like, "Am I still breathing? My heart, is it inside or where?" He's having this moment where he's standing before God in the presence of God. He says he's looking on him. Then it says, "Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar."

Now here's something that's interesting. Do you believe that if this angel, this seraph with the six wings, goes and he doesn't just grab it in his hand, why? Because that coal is hot. So it says that he grabs the tongs. Now what he's about to do with this, I want you to think about it.

Anybody that would—now look, when we start talking about aspects of the body, I promise not to go into anatomy and physiology on you. I won't deep dive on you. But do you realize the lips are so sensitive? And the nerve endings on the facial nerve—there I go, facial nerve, I'm already going deep.

Do you know that in this area, you have so many nerves in the facial nerve? He's about to take a hot, searing coal and touch it to one of the areas of your face where you have so many sensory—we call them afferent nerves. You have so many sensory nerves that anybody would jump back. How about it when we touch our hands? Pressure sensing, we have nociceptors and different things like that. When we touch, we can feel pain. So I touch something, my hand goes back. That's called a reflex.

I want you to picture your lips and how vulnerable and how that must really smart or scream or sear or something. Why? What did Isaiah say? "I am a man of unclean lips." So what is God doing? Is this for God because God's like, "Oh Isaiah, I can't use you"? No, he's already talking to Isaiah in his current state.

Isaiah's a sinner and he falls short of the glory of God, and God can use sinners that have a humble heart that love him, that come to him. God's not looking for perfect helpers. He doesn't need perfect helpers. He's perfect. He enjoys using vessels of imperfection as he conforms them into his image.

It's beautiful how God wants to do this. So he comes to Isaiah and he takes this because Isaiah's aware of his failings. "I'm a man of unclean lips." So what does he do? He goes and flies and grabs the coal. Isaiah's like, "Oh this ain't going to be good." Because if I'm Isaiah right there, I'm like, "I know I said unclean lips, but do we need to go this far?"

Because this is going to hurt. He grabs the coal, he comes over and we read here, "And he touched my mouth with it and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged."

Just look with me here how gentle God is. God did something here that you can't and I can't explain. In all aspects of the natural, that should have burned his lips. I'm talking fourth-degree burns. This should have been to the place where he was so seared that his lips would stick together. He can't eat, he can't drink. And yet we don't see from Isaiah even an "ow." We don't see anything from Isaiah even indicating pain.

Because when God does surgery, he does it gently. When God does surgery on the heart, you don't have to be afraid. You don't have to run from God or be afraid. "Oh Lord, I don't want to pray for patience because I know how hard this is going to be. I'm going to be on the way to work and we're going to be in a five-car pile-up because I asked for patience this morning." You don't have to be afraid. That's man's thinking.

You don't have to be afraid of God. You don't have to be afraid of God whatsoever. God wants to do that perfect work of surgery in your heart and my heart. He wants us to conform to his image. He wants to make us more like him, and he wants us to want that willingly and trust him in the process.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for His Perfect Love. You can hear the study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. Catch up on what you may have missed in Isaiah at hisperfectlove.org. Look for us on oneplace.com and most podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit hisperfectlove.org.

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Set aside another half hour to join us tomorrow at the same time on the same fine station where Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Isaiah here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg-West Shore.