Preached in Markham Baptist Church - Sunday, August 1, 2004.

Isaiah 6:1-7

A SEASON OF PRAYER:
Part 3 - A PRAYER OF CONFESSION

It is a truth that all prayer flows out of a realization of the character of God.  For instance when we come to the realization in our Christian walk of God’s beauty, grace, might and power and we offer prayers of adoration.  When we come the realization of God’s provision for us and we offer prayers of thanksgiving. When we recognize that God is able and that He is faithful and we come with asking prayers – so we discovered in our study of Abraham’s prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah.  It was because he realized that God was able to save the towns that Abraham boldly asked God for their salvation.  

But what happens when we get a vision of God’s holiness and purity?  They are part of God’s character. What happens then?  It is then that we are brought to confession. 

Now confession is not a popular word among many Protestants. It stirs up to many images of people always feeling miserable, always groveling, always seeking God’s forgiveness.   To be sure we have a faith that celebrates, not one that wallows in guilt.  We are a forgiven people, living on the side of victory, because of faith in Jesus Christ we are new creations, sin has lost its ownership of us because of the sacrifice of the perfect life of Jesus on the cross.  Because of Him and through faith in Him we believe that  God has removed our transgressions from us as far as east is from west. (Psalm 103:12).   We have a singing faith, a faith that celebrates not one that is dull and dreary or morbid.  All of this is true. 

But it is also true that we have not yet been released from this body of death and we still fall into temptation, we still are able to say no to God’s will in our lives.  And we still do.  He does not force Himself on us.  We still are able to turn our backs on Him and we still have to struggle with the old nature and we forget that it has been defeated and we allow self and Satan to lure us away from what is good and pure and holy.  And it is wrong of us to think that we do not need to come to God and say to Him, “I’m sorry.”  That’s a prayer of confession. 

Sometimes we lightly skim over these sins of ours and we think them to be so trivial.  But when we do this it is a real hindrance to our Christian growth and witness.  Very quickly, when we don’t confess it hinders our closeness with God.

As you study Scripture you discover that the men and women who had the deepest relationship with God, and had the most influence for God, were those who confessed their sins and failures.  Here is Daniel on his knees confessing his sins (Daniel 9) and while he is confessing his sin, says the text (9:20-22), he is given skill and understanding.  Here is King David acknowledging his sin and he receives forgiveness a clean conscience.  Here is Nehemiah leading his people in confession of sin and there is a renewed faith and passion for everything holy.  (Nehemiah 9) 

And here is Isaiah, who will be focus of our study this morning, he calls out to God in forgiveness and blessing comes.  

Not only does unconfessed sin hinder our relationship with God, it hinders our prayers.  People often ask why their prayers go unanswered and Scripture makes it clear that sometimes the cause of unanswered prayer is that we have left sin unconfessed and unjudged.  Sometimes the sin is cherished and sometimes the sin is rationalized, sometimes it is hidden – hidden from everyone but God and God won’t honour the prayers of such a person. 

So we read in Isaiah 59:1,2: “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear to dull to hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

But I get ahead of myself - I want to show you this morning that the prayer of confession is vital to a vibrant prayer life and essential in our walk with God.  Far from being anti-Christian, it is at the heart of our walk with God.  Indeed it flows naturally from a fresh vision of Jesus Christ.  This is what we discover as we look at the prayer of Isaiah in chapter 6 of his book.  I am indebted to the work of Anne Graham Lotz and her study of this text.¹    

We begin at verse 1.  “In the year that King Uzziah died”  It was a time of distress for Isaiah.  He is in mourning for this king, the ruler of the land.  And in this time of distress the verse continues, Isaiah “saw the Lord”.  John 12:41 tells us that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory.  So Isaiah has a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And look at the wonderful vision Isaiah has. 

“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their face, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.' ”

Isaiah’s vision of the King of kings is a wonderful one, for he is able to see the power of Jesus Christ, he is able to see the position of Jesus Christ, (high and lifted up), he sees the presence of the Lord, he sees the praise of Jesus Christ.  But above all this he sees the holiness of Jesus Christ. 

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty” cry the angelic beings.  Jesus Christ is absolutely pure. 

There once was an ad for a company that I have updated a bit but it ran essentially like this: “In this age of politicians who go back on their word, athletes who cheat, accountants who fudge figures, billionaires who evade taxes, T.V. and movie stars who are promote pornography, and Corporate executives that steal from their companies isn’t it nice to know that there is still one thing that is completely pure. Mazola Corn oil 100% pure."

My friends, if that is the case there is more than one thing in this world that is absolutely pure – Jesus Christ, 100% pure.  He is pure in His motives.  He will not trick you or deceive you. He is absolutely pure in his thoughts. He does not want to use you or abuse you.  He is absolutely pure in His deeds.  He will not do anything to hurt you.  He is absolutely pure in His decisions. He can be trusted and His word is sure.  He is absolutely pure.

O, that we would be able to wipe our eyes of that seeks to keep Jesus Christ down, that makes Him out to be only a good teacher, only a good man and that we would see Him as high and lifted up, holy, completely pure, untarnished by the desires and things of this world.  Such a vision would knock us off our “high horses” our sin, our self sufficiency, our pride our struggle to do things in our own strength.    In view of Christ’s holiness we would recognize our own helplessness.

Indeed this is what happened to Isaiah. After catching a glimpse of the Lord’s holiness – what is Isaiah’s response?  In view of the Lord’s holiness Isaiah sees his own helplessness. 

Verse 5: " 'Woe to me!' I cried.  'I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty.' ”  

Now let’s unpack that verse for a moment because it is a wonderful example of a prayer of confession.  In view of the Lord’s holiness Isaiah sees his own helplessness.

“Woe to me” he cries.  Notice how his prayer of confession is personal, he recognizes that he is responsible for his own sin.  Woe to me.  If you turn the pages of your Bible back to chapter 5 of Isaiah you discover Isaiah saying “Woe to you”. 

5:8 – “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field…”  

5:11 – “Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks”

5:18 – “Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit and wickedness”

5:20 – “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”

Again and again through this chapter, "Woe to you, woe to you, Woe to you."  Isaiah was right in what he was saying.  He was convicting them of their sin. But notice what he says when we sees the holiness of Jesus Christ?  “Woe to me!”.  He recognizes his own sin, he recognizes his responsibility for his sin. He isn’t a victim of circumstances or anything else.  He was responsible.  He is a sinner.

How often we blame our sin on someone or something else.  We blame our spouse or our parents or our lack of opportunities.  Isaiah says, “Woe to me.” 

Let your eyes be opened to the holiness of God and let yourself see your utter sinfulness.  This is genuine confession.  There is a confession that sees others and says I am not as bad as others so I guess I’m all right.  That’s not the kind of confession that God calls for.  It needs to be personal.

Ask God to probe your heart, your motives, your desires.  Sometimes when we search our own hearts we tend to go easy on ourselves and say that everything is all right.  But when God searches our heart, when the light of his holiness falls on our hearts we are able to see the darkness that lurks there. 

Let your prayer of confession be personal. Woe to me. 

Isaiah’s prayer of confession was also sincere.  This cry comes from the depth of Isaiah’s heart.  And so must all prayers of confession come from the heart. 

And he continues.  “I am ruined.”  Anne Graham Lotz  writes, “Isaiah knew the sin in his life ruined him as a person.  I believe he stood there in the light of the holiness of Jesus and he lost all of his self-confidence. He lost all of his pride.  Isaiah just crumbled in the light of who Jesus is.  'I am ruined,' he said.” ² 

Not only is Isaiah’s confession personal and sincere it is humble.  He is brought low and he does not try to bolster himself up with false piety or anything else.  He says, "I am ruined!"

Again this is the mark of a genuine prayer of confession - it is humble.  We are emptied of all our pride.  We don’t try to put on any masks and pretend we are better than we are.  We recognize our sin and the horror of it and recognize that we are undone, ruined by it.  

He says toward the end of his prayer, “I live among a people of unclean lips.”  He is not bolstering himself up there.  He has been brought low and what he is saying there, is that he is no better than anyone else.  He had been condemning their sins but he realizes that he is no better. He is a sinner and he is ruined. 

And then Isaiah says, “I am a man of unclean lips.”  Notice that Isaiah is specific in his prayer of confession. He recognizes that he has sinned against God with his lips, by what he had said.  He is specific in his prayer of confession.  And so must be our prayers of confession.

We often hear people pray publicly, “Lord forgive us for our many sins”.  A lot of us carry that approach into our private prayer.  We throw all our sins into a pile without so much as looking at them and we say, “God please cover the whole dirty heap.”

This approach to confession, unfortunately is a colossal cop-out.  When I lump all my sins together and confess them en masse, it’s not too painful or embarrassing.  But if I take those sins out of the pile one by one and call them by name, it’s a whole different thing.

We need to be specific. Instead of praying, “Lord forgive me for being a less than perfect husband we need to pray, “Lord, I came home to my wife concentrating on my own circumstances and willfully decided to be uncaring and insensitive.  I decided that because of my heard day that I would not serve her or listen to what she had to say.  I need your forgiveness for the sin of selfishness."

Or “Today, Lord, I telephoned my friend with the intention of complaining about so and so in the church because I’ve had it up to here with his goings-on.  Lord, forgive me for my wanting to gossip and tear my brother down."

Do you get the idea?  We need to be specific.  Do you know what will happen?  After a couple of days of admitting to God that you are a gossip you will say to yourself, “I’m tired of admitting that. With God’s power I need to root it out of my life.”

So Isaiah sees the holiness of Jesus Christ and he is made to recognize his own helplessness.  He accepts responsibility for his sin, it is personal, he is sincere, he is humble and specific.  My friends, have you accepted responsibility for your sin?  Have you confessed that you are utterly ruined by it and cannot live life without Jesus Christ?  Is there some sin in your life that you have harboured and even blamed other people for, but you have not recognized it in your own life? 

Don’t close your eyes!  Don’t close your eyes  See our Lord’s holiness, see your own helplessness but see also what Isaiah saw – see the hope of the cross. 

Verse 6 and 7: “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with the live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, “See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

There is only one altar that I know of where you can have your guilt taken away and your sins paid for and that is the altar of the cross of Christ.

In an Old Testament sense Isaiah was coming to the cross.  The angel took that burning coal and pressed it on Isaiah’s lips.  That must have hurt, it must have been painful. 

When we come to God and He convicts us and we confess our sin it is painful.  It hurts to admit that we are sinners, it hurts to admit that I am responsible for my sin.  It hurts to admit that I’m not as holy as I want everyone to believe I am.  When we come to God in confession, in sincere, humble confession it hurts.  But, my friends, it cleanses because it drives us to the cross and there we recognize that the body of Christ was broken for me, that His blood was spilled for you.  And we are cleansed. 

Where do you need that burning goal of Christ’s forgiveness to touch you today?  Do you need it applied to your lips because of what you have been saying? 

Do you need it applied to your ears and because of what you have hearing?

Do you need it applied to your eyes because of what you have been looking at?

Do you need applied to your hands because of what you have been doing?

Do you need it applied to your feet because of where you have been going?

Do you need it applied to your mind because of what you have been thinking?

Do you need it applied to your heart because of what you have been feeling?

What you need to do is confess to Jesus Christ and ask for His forgiveness.  It hurts.  But it makes a huge difference.  Because we won’t think the same, feel the same, talk the same, hear the same, see the same - why? Because when we have been cleansed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are cleansed.  We are cleansed thoroughly and completely. 

This is our sure and certain hope. 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - August 2004
 

2.   Ibid., page 65