Sinclair Ferguson: Who Is Like the Lord?

[Applause] number of years ago I was on a plane from London to my homeland opened one of the great quality newspapers in the United Kingdom turned as I always do first of all to the obituary page to see I was still alive and I saw a quarter-page photograph of my Latin professor from University and my first thought was how could he possibly still have been alive and I realized the gap between 17 and 37 was quite substantial that decreased and he was described as the most elegant Latinist of his generation and I mention that because I'm pretty certain that in many ways we are here tonight because of the man who taught more people Latin in the early 21st century than any other teacher probably in the whole world and those of you who were familiar with our ceased teaching remember how theologian as he was he loved to drop in these little Latin phrases that the Christian is simultaneously a sinner and yet justified simul Eustis at Picatta and Abu Zeus non tallit uses the fact that you misuse something does not destroy the truth of that something and other little latin phrases that he loved he loved this particular one although I think for obvious reasons he usually used it in English in veteran novel a tea at Eton novel Vettes patty at that is to say the new is in the old concealed the old is in the new revealed it's a statement of Augustine way back in the early Christian Church and it's really a great key to reading and understanding the Scriptures isn't it when we get hold of that principle that God's revelation is progressive and cumulative that he gives indications of his purposes in the old but then brings them to consummation in the new helps us to structure the way we read the Bible we see it of course and what we call types Adam says Paul was a type a picture a figure of the one who was to come our Lord Jesus we see it sometimes in events patterns embedded in history that point forward to the way in which God will bring salvation through faith in Jesus Christ we see it obviously most obviously in in prophecies the prophet Isaiah foresees a servant of the Lord who will suffer but if Isaiah had gone home and his family had asked him about whom was he writing when he wrought about the one who would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities Isaiah would have been bound to say I wrote of him but I cannot fully identify him and all of these patterns that we find in the Old Testament Scriptures come to the consummation of their revelation in our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and the same is true in the experience of God's people the new is in the old somewhat concealed the old that was concealed in the new is fully revealed and I want us to think about what in many senses is the foundational texts of Ligonier ministries and the theme of this conference within that context if I were to say to you from what passage in Scripture am i quoting when I say holy holy holy is the Lord my guess our instinct would be to say in large measure he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 6 and indeed he is quoting from Isaiah chapter 6 but if I asked you to finish that text and you said the whole earth is the fullness of his glory I would know you were thinking about those words cited in Isaiah chapter 6 but if you concluded that quotation by saying who was and who is and who is to come then I would know that you were quoting those same words not from the vision of Isaiah but from the vision of the Apostle John in the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation and it's very interesting to notice that these very striking words that are used in Isaiah 6 and in revelation chapter 4 the the way in which that Hebrew way of placing emphasis by repetition is present and not only interestingly the way in which the Hebrews placed emphasis by repeating a word as God says to Adam if you eat of that tree then dying you will die but also the way in which that repetition expresses profound emotion deep affections so all my son Absalom Absalom my son or with Jesus Simon Simon or Martha Martha then we understand that there is not only emphasis here but there is profound affection there is emotion attached there is this sense of doxology in the praise of the Seraphim who repeat the words holy holy holy and then of course we realize that this is a unique statement because of the double repetition there is a doubled emphasis and there is in a sense a double doxology in the understanding of what it means that God is holy and yet when we come to the book of Revelation we see the same praise the same words set within a slightly different context and set within did I say it if fuller revelation of who God is and what his gospel is and since folks who have been sitting down here who have not moved all day long are now in their sixth plenary session have been at three optional sessions and also at a Spanish session and they've only been here for the last 11 hours I want us to try and think very simply this evening about what this means we saw love Isaiah chapter 6 it is a mountain peak of Old Testament revelation yes there are other mountain peaks but this is a mountain peak that rises with other great mountain peaks and yet when we come to the end of scripture when we realize that revelation is both progressive and cumulative I think we actually have to say that when Isaiah came to that summit and saw in this vision of the heavenly temple of God the majesty and glory of his holiness he must have yet realized John says he saw the glory but he must have realized that was a summit still beyond and it's that summit that I want us to be thinking about this evening simply by looking at these two passages and seeing their profound and basic similarities their commonalities and yet also the the color that we find in Revelation chapter 4 we might say that Isaiah chapter 6 is the vision of God in in black and white whereas the fourth and fifth chapters of the book of revelation give us the vision of God in high definition and color and there is a connectedness but we never want to deny that in the New Covenant in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ there is a glory that bursts forth upon the church that takes us even higher than the summit that Isaiah was brought to to see the glory of the Lord and so I want us to try and think this evening about a series of fairly obvious parallels between Isaiah's experience and John's experience and also to note how in the revelation of God through the Holy Spirit the Apostle John is taken to a clearer richer fuller and in a sense more beautiful vision of the holiness of his and our God actually the first and most obvious parallel between these two great prophetic figures of the old and the new testament scriptures is that there is a striking parallel in their experiences that brought them to this encounter with God interestingly both of them come to this in kind with God within the context of deep personal pain Isaiah of course is there in the year that King Uzziah died as one of the older commentators describes him as the king with the glorious reign and the ghastly end and all the aspirations of the nation and doubtless of Isaiah that had been focused upon this earthly King have been demolished and destroyed by the Kings disobedience to the Word of God his his excommunication from the house of God living apart in as a leper who has been under the visible judgment of God and all the aspirations and hopes embedded in this remarkable man demolished in the soul of presumably the greatest of the prophets walking the streets of Jerusalem but he tells us it was just then just then when man was small just then when he must have sensed his own littleness that God manifested himself to him and the Apostle John we might say in parallel if Isaiah had seen a king with a glorious reign and a ghastly and we might say about the Apostle John that he had a glorious ministry that ended in ghastly exile and here he is on this remote island of Patmos he is in the spirit and the Lord's Day and in a sense I think like Isaiah before him if you had asked him at the end of the day what happened I think he might have said I think I've gone to church for the very first time in my life and all that we were taught by our Lord Jesus that we're two or three would meet he would be there in the midst and that he would lead us in our worship I found myself assured in two the very presence of the throne room of God both of them amazingly going through periods of trial difficulty disappointment affliction and yet God gives them the one thing that secures every believer under such circumstances and it is the knowledge of God himself it's the very thing that Jesus does in the farewell discourse doesn't he that's why there's so much about the Trinity in the farewell discourse because he's teaching his disciples that if they are to have a stable foundation what they need more than anything else is the knowledge of God and yet it would be true to say that in the Marvel of that revelation that the lonely John had on the island of Patmos he saw the throne room of God as no mortal had ever beheld it before with the possible exception of the Apostle Paul's visit to those heavenly spheres where he saw and heard things that are illegitimate for man to utter there is a sense in which in the Apostle John what Paul could not describe this poet of the soul this poet who paints in the palates of the language of all testament scriptures helps us to see what was there in the revelation of God in his glorious throne room so there is a parallel in their experience but it's fairly clear that is there is something new about the experience of the Apostle John there's a second parallel not only a similarity of experience but it seems as though they are both brought into the same place if I can put it this way it's recognizably the same church there is so much about the experience and the location and divisions that seem to suggest what Isaiah saw as I said as though we're on a black-and-white television John is now seeing in full high-definition color what was hinted at what was opaque what was hidden in the experience of Isaiah has become clear now in the experience of the Apostle John actually is very interesting you remember in Isaiah chapter 6 the that I saw himself gives us a hint that there was more than he could see because when God manifests himself when these supernatural creatures praise him the foundations of the play shake and the house fills with smoke but in the revelation that's given to the Apostle John it's a it's almost as though the smoke has cleared isn't it and everything has become clear and visible I happen to live on the edge of one of the great golf courses in Scotland a lynx golf course and the the c.ha comes in or the misters there in the morning and you see there are some trees and there you may see the edge of a green I know this doesn't interest many of you but you need to learn to live the Christian life fair with a little more joy and challenge and then the Sun comes and it burns away the mist and the the glory of the Golf Course becomes visible it wasn't that it had disappeared it was that we couldn't see it and there is this marvelous sense that as John is excelled in Patmos the the smoke has the smoke has bee burnt away by the bright light of the majestic presence of God and the thing you notice now is that the vision is full of color and a John has these spectacle lenses that have been crafted by his knowledge of Scripture and he he sees and describes this vision of the throne of God using the the colors of Old Testament pictures and the amazing thing is that whereas for Isaiah the foundation shook and the house filled with smoke now everything seems to be a great calm it's not explained in Revelation chapter 4 but before the throne of God is this sea and it has as calm as it were made of crystal and he's given the sense before he understands the reason for this that what he is now seeing is the throne room of God after the shaking of the foundations and after the smoke has filled the room and here all is calm here all is Shalom and in that Shalom he sees what Isaiah only vaguely saw and it's this that is so striking also I think what Isaiah sees is one who is seated on the throne who's whose robes flood out and fill the temple you can imagine him almost becoming the church mouse at this point and scurrying away into a corner but all he sees is the edges of God's ways what he sees are the robes that are appropriate to the dignity of God and he recognizes that he cannot see the face of God and live but now for the Apostle John all this come all is Shalom so they have similar experiences they are brought into the same place and it does rather look as though they they are actually attending the same worship service now we go to the same worship service you can test this yourself and you come out of the worship service and not everybody experiences the same thing in the same worship service so the worship service in glory has can I put it this way it has a permanent liturgy it does not change it does not in its essence change from the Old Testament to the New Testament as though some new minister had come along and said let's have a different order of service it's clear that they have come into the same worship service but the smoke has now gone what does Isaiah see he sees these amazing creatures the the Seraphim around the throne of God with their six wings and he sees that although they are perfectly holy yet in the presence of uncreated holiness they have to veil their faces and cover their feet using only two of their wings to fly and they are ever crying holy holy holy because they understand this Holy One is the creator of the universe and what they are proclaiming is that his glory has been made manifest in all creation the very thing that Paul would later say in Romans chapter 1 but when you turn over your Bible to the end part and to Revelation chapter 4 and the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled john sees an entire congregation he sees these amazing creatures that are around the throne they seem to be now cherubs are not just serifs whatever brought Presbyterians with which I'm familiar to call their children's choirs the cherub choir is somehow or another they missed the book of Revelation when they did that or maybe they knew better than they actually knew these powerful figures and they see not only these creatures so that are not just these these Seraphim were the two of them and two finale chanting to one another the Sanctus but now he sees these four mighty throne characters of this glorious God and not only so but now they see that this throne is surrounded by elders and eventually John will see that this throne is not only surrounded by elders book by myriads of Myriad's of angels and not only that but ultimately a multitude that no one can number so that you might say Isaiah thought he had gone to a kind of private service and he couldn't see that he was in the worship service of eternal glory and that not only was God high and exalted but now John sees that God is infinitely beautiful in the description but somehow or another as yet unexplained he has created peace and so the foundations are stable and the smoke has cleared and now not only the cry of a couple of Seraphim but the language of countless numbers of the saints and glory and Myriad's of angels and Seraphim and cherubim there because God has now United the two branches of his creation family and all of this is a wonder to him even though and and and you can tell that he is describing the chronology of his experience rather than putting it in theological order he describes the order in which he saw things and he realizes that that something has happened but he does not yet see what it is that has happened so they have similar experiences they're brought into the same place they enter the same worship service and an actual fact they are still using the same order of service it begins with a proclamation a revelation of God it goes on with this heavenly adoration of His Holiness it leads to a consciousness of the worshippers sinfulness it goes on with an absolution of the worshipers sin there is an application of the word of God and there is a respondent consecration to the Lord and then there is a commission to go out into the world and it unfolds briefly in Isaiah's experience but a great length in the experience of the Apostle John I want you to notice that there is no there is no a new intensity in the experience as well as a new clarity and there are differences for example when Isaiah sees the Lord proclaimed in his holiness he is undone and his sinfulness becomes manifest to him and that sinfulness as he confesses touches and not his not the weakest aspects of his life but the strongest aspects of his life his ability to speak he is a prophet after all and he does something very interesting doesn't if you if you read Isaiah six in context which is usually a good thing to do you'll notice it's preceded by Isaiah pronouncing a whole series of wars upon others there are six of them and in the Old Testament where there are six you expect that to be a seventh and it's in Isaiah chapter six isn't it he pronounces the consummate war not upon others but upon himself because what he is most profoundly conscious of is the sinfulness of the human condition but you'll notice that with John there is something slightly different of course it isn't the denial of the radical sinfulness of the human condition but it's another facet of that when Isaiah sees the Lord he is overwhelmed with his own sense of sinfulness and feels he is disintegrating when John sees this vision of the Lord so clearly that he he sees there is a scroll a little book in the hand of the one who is seated on the throne no doubt he was conscious of his utter unworthiness to be there but John did not pronounce a war John wept and the reason he wept because he was conscious not just of the sinfulness of fallen humanity but the tragedy of fallen humanity's condition I think that was actually a big thing for the Apostle John not only perception of radical sinfulness but perception of the tragedy of the human condition I've often thought reading Romans chapter 3 verse 23 that if I'd been writing that famous verse that Paul writes I would have written a different way we have all sinned and I would have said we've broken the law of God and that's absolutely true but it's not what the Apostle Paul says it's a truth of Scripture but it's not the truth of that scripture the truth of that scripture is we have all sinned and we have fallen short of the glory of God that is to say sin not only alienates us from God but sin alienates us from seeing him in his glory loving that glory because it's his reflecting that glory and one day being brought to manifest that glory in ourselves when we see him face to face and it's this that overcomes the tender spirit of the Apostle John and he weeps much because this word has gone out is there anyone in heaven or in earth who can break the seals and open the book so that God's creating destiny for humankind can be brought to consummation and none is able to do it and of course the the climax of this vision it's almost as though there is a there is a replay on the large screen of heaven because there are so many myriads and countless numbers they are it's as though there is a there is a replay on the large screen of heaven of why it is that the sea has come the dust is cleared the foundations are no longer shaking and one of the ushers comes to John and says weep no more look the Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and he is able to do it and one of those melting moments and you can see here the the the progress towards this wonderful revelation that John is given he sees what Isaiah could only later describe that he would be led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her Shearer's is dumb he would not open his mouth but he would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement that would bring us peace would be upon him and with His stripes we would be healed and he sees the lamb standing as one who had been slain and before his very eyes he sees that at the center of heavens worship what what as it were enables him to be there is the fact that what Isaiah would later prophesy has now come true in the Incarnation the dying the rising the ascending the glorifying of the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has been slain for the transgressions of his people so that we might have restoration to the throne room of God access into his presence and he sees you see this he sees in this this Technicolor vision of heavens worship the reality of which Paul speaks in Ephesians chapter 2 that we have access to the Father through the spirit by the blood of G as Christ and they are as it were a flame before the throne or the Sevenfold fire of the Spirit of God the the seven tributaries of the waters of life that flow from under the throne and the the early Christians who read this for the first hour imagine imagine this being smuggled off the island of Patmos and coming to those seven churches of Asia Minor and the People of God and there the trials and their difficulties seeing the glory of God in the revelation that has been given to our wonderful apostle and he hears a different refrain doesn't he holy holy holy is the Lord the whole earth is the fullness of his glory but you see now he's he is brought to the very the very reason but God is to be worshiped because he was and he is and he is to come the acidity of God that Michael Reaves was expounding to us this afternoon to worship God because He is God and to know that you can only do that as a sinner because of the lamb slain and the burning of the spirit of the gospel into your heart and you see what Isaiah had experienced was was just a painful picture one of the sheriff's coming and taking a call from off the altar and touching his lips with her and and cleansing him and in that vision he must have known this is only a picture but a picture of what and it's the picture not of an angel taking a call from off the altar but a perfect lamb being laid on the altar as the all-sufficient sacrifice for all the sins of all of his people forevermore so that forevermore we made join in that worship service where the chorus is he is holy holy holy because he was and he is and he is to come and here I will be with all the Ransom hosts throughout all eternity and in this wonderful way he's brought to see the very reality that Isaiah saw but now somehow there is a fullness of knowing God in his threefold holiness so how did they say it I woke up in the middle of the night one night I turned on one of those Ligonier apps and I was alarmed at 3 o'clock in the morning or more exactly 259 to hear myself reading the Shorter Catechism and those of you who may be insomniacs me listened to that in order to get you back to sleep again but what you may not know is behind that story the evening before I recorded the Shorter Catechism I lay in bed for ages thinking about how do you ask the first question in the Shorter Catechism is it what is the chief end of man or is it what is the chief end of man is that what is the chief end of man or well what is the chief end of man and these words holy holy holy are the same aren't they you know the difference in a way lies in this that in in Isaiah 6 it is a description of the sheer intensity of the holiness of God that makes these Seraphim fail their faces and cover their feet but I think that we could make out a fairly substantial case in the light of the revelation that John has seen in this picture in the book of Revelation but here in Revelation chapter 4 it's not just holy oh he really is holy or he really is holy but he is that and the one who is seated on the throne is holy the Sevenfold lamp that burns before the throne is holy and the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne who was slain for our sins is holy you know you might say just on the basis of isaiah 6 that holiness means separation from sinners and sin and that is totally true but it wasn't true before creation that that was how holiness would be defined because in the end being of God and the Fellowship of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit there was no sin from which to be separate and so in some ways when we think of this we should think not just of separation from sin but consecration to God and that was what was true and is true in God from all eternity the absolute consecration devotion being entirely taken up in love with that other unknowing that in that other one is also perfectly loved and that other is fully consecrated to oneself I've very little doubt that that is at least one of the reasons why when God made man as his image he made man male and female and that he gives some of us at least a reflection and experience of of what that means I've never forgotten seeing my wife for the first time I am I'm a very boring person with a very exciting private life in here in here I am the great romantic out there I am as awkward as you can get and I always think about the first time I met my wife of that Roberta Flack song for my generation you know it the first time ever I saw your face I thought the Sun rose in your eyes took her a little while to realize the Sun also rose in my eyes but that's a different story altogether but those that immediate sense but I want to be with this girl forever I find myself in her I longed that she would find herself in me that there there might be forever this dynamism of mutual love in which we would remain to but also be one and here is aware on the on the throne of glory is the one who who has this devotion and satisfaction in his son with whom he is well pleased from all eternity and is well pleased with him in our humanity and this spirit who from all eternity shines upon the father and the son who seems as it were to move as Augustine said as a kind of bond of love between the two of them and in our own experience we we get fleeting moments of seeing that and I think John must have seen it in an entirely different and new way altogether and he was drawn to worship to love and to praise and when he saw that God ever three ever one Father Son and Holy Spirit he could never be in any doubt whatsoever that there was no God like this God perfect in holiness pardoning sinners welcoming Saints blessing them throughout all eternity and you're a seminary president who was taking a tour and the tour guide told them not to go to Patmos and said to him there's nothing to see there but that wasn't John's experience and thank God for this part of scripture that means is not our experience either but through this we are brought there to be brought back here to live in an entirely different way let's pray together our Heavenly Father we thank you for the marvelous way in which you speak to us through Scripture and for the variety of ways in which you do so we thank you for this great mystery of your spirits working that by reading passages like this we ourselves may be transported into that heavenly worship service where Jesus is seen and loved without sin and we pray that in whatever measure we experience this and see this that our assemblies may more and more become reflections of that great assembly and that when others come and join us they may realize that they have had a truly heavenly experience and hunger and thirst for that holiness without which they nor we will ever see the Lord bring it to pass we pray for Jesus sake [Applause]

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Keywords: Ligonier, Ligonier Conference, orlando conference, ligcon, holiness of god, holy, holiness, dr ferguson, sinclair ferguson, ligonier ministries, ligonier conference 2019, reformed theology, reformation theology, who is like the lord, the lord, lord, sinclair, ferguson, attributes of god, god is holy, holy holy holy, he is holy, theology, reformed, psalm 113, paslm 113:5, christian, absolute truth, evangelism, lord of hosts, jesus christ, bible, god, christ, christianity, jesus, evangelical

Id: RgQ2uowECAY

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019