Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter six. This passage of scripture is
Isaiah. He's been prophesying through
the first chapters here of the prophecy of Isaiah. And then
the Holy Spirit has led him to go back in time and speak of
what I believe is his own conversion. Now there are people, some preachers
disagree that Isaiah's speaking about his conversion. But what
happens in this whole chapter, there's 13 verses in this chapter,
and you know the Bible was not originally written in chapters
and verses, but in this section of scripture, he begins to talk
about his calling as a prophet. Look at verse nine, it says,
and he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand
not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. And what he's going to talk
about, and the Lord revealed to this man who's a prophet of
God, speaking God's word to the nation Judah and Jerusalem, and
they don't hear him, they don't hear what he's saying, they don't
listen to him, they don't obey it, they don't believe. And what
he's showing here is that's his calling as a prophet. It's almost
like God says, I'm calling you to preach my word, but they're
not going to hear you. They're not going to listen to
you, but you preach it anyway. And that's what God's preachers
are to do. You say, well, you're not getting any results. Yes,
I am. Paul spoke of that in the book of 2 Corinthians. He said,
when we preach Christ, When we preach the gospel, whether anybody
believes it or not, and we want everybody to believe it, don't
get me wrong. I mean, I love it when God brings a sinner to
believe the gospel. But whether anybody believes
it or not, we're successful, we're victorious. Now he says,
now to some, we're the saver of death unto death. And the
reason is is because this is a message of life and death.
This is no opinion. This is not something that you
can take or leave. This is it. This is life and
death. There's life in Christ as he's
identified and distinguished in the Bible, and there's death
everywhere else. And I know that's what people
hate about true Christianity, true gospel, is that we say Christ
is the only way of salvation. For anybody, I don't care where
you're from, what part of the earth you live in, what language
you speak, what color you are, what socioeconomic status you
are, your only hope of salvation and eternal life is Christ Jesus
crucified and risen from the dead, his blood, his righteousness
alone. And there's no other way. And
every other way is the way of death. And you know what people
did, especially today, well, it's always been this way. But
people hate to hear that. There's a thing now called, quote,
progressive Christianity, unquote. And what that is is people who
claim to be Christian, but they say, but there are other ways
to heaven. There's other ways to live eternally other than
Christ. Well, that's a lie. That's not
what the Bible teaches, if you believe the Bible. And we do,
and that's what we preach here. But Isaiah was told by God, I'm
calling you to preach, you go preach to them, they won't hear
you. Now, there always was, even in Isaiah's time, There was a
remnant, a small group of people whom God brought to believe the
gospel. In fact, Isaiah over in chapter
one, he makes this statement. He says, verse nine, except the
Lord of hosts, and when you see that term, the Lord of hosts,
what it means is the Lord who's invincible. So Lord of a great
army. and the army consists of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they cannot be defeated.
He says, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small
remnant, just a very small part of the nation, we should have
been a Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah, which
nobody was spared. The whole city, every individual
in that city, that's why a lot had to get out. because that
whole city, the two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
And Isaiah told this group of religious people who worshiped
at the Temple of Solomon, he said if it weren't just for a
small group, a small number, many are called, few are chosen,
we saw that today, we'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah. And
you know how offensive that was to people who claim to be the
people of God, claim to be saved. So over here in chapter six and
verse nine, when he talks about his calling, verse eight, he
says, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I
send? Whom am I gonna send to preach
for me? And who will go for us? And then
said, here I am, send me. And so he tells Isaiah, but they're
not gonna hear you. Now that's a real plan for evangelism,
isn't it? Go, but they're not going to
hear you. But Isaiah was just like the Apostle Paul, like every
other true preacher of the gospel. Whether you hear me or not, Christ
is preached, God is glorified, and that's our victory. To some,
we're the saver of death unto death. To others, we're the saver
of life unto life, however few there are. Well, in the first
seven verses, what I think is happening here, what the Spirit's
purpose is, is to show what it takes to bring a sinner to believe
what Isaiah is preaching. Well, what does it take? Well,
ultimately, this is a foreshadowing of the revelation of God in our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it takes the power of God,
the work of the Spirit, Invincibly calling a sinner, changing the
very nature of things because by nature we're falling in Adam,
born dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually totally depraved,
darkness, deceit, unbelief and it takes a work of a sovereign,
invincible, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit to bring us
out of that state to a state of belief, looking to Christ
and resting in Him. And so Isaiah, what he does,
I believe, in these first seven verses, he goes back and shows
his own conversion. And it starts with a glorious
vision, a vision that every true believer has had in some way
or another, all the same truth, And it starts out something here,
and this is why I call this Our Confidence in Christ. Look at
verse one of Isaiah six. It starts out something kind
of strange. It says, in the year that King
Uzziah died. Now this is the year that it
happened. When a king of Judah, headquartered in Jerusalem, where
Isaiah preached, And some say that Isaiah was related to the
royal family of Uzziah. Some say he was an attendant
in the court or something like that when he was young. It doesn't
matter. But in the year that this man
Uzziah died. Now, what's significant about
that? Well, turn in your Bibles back to 2 Kings. I mean, I'm
sorry, 2 Chronicles chapter 26. 2 Chronicles, now. You can also find a version of
this history in 2 Kings 15, that's why I said 2 Kings, but I want
you to go to 2 Chronicles. And incidentally, if ever in
your study or reading of the Bible, if you've ever wondered
why are there two histories, like there's the history written
in 1 and 2 Samuel, And there's a little bit of a difference,
not in contradicting, they're all together. Then there's a
history written in 1 and 2 Kings, and a history written in 1 and
2 Chronicles. And why are there three histories
like that? Well, Samuel starts out before Kings and Chronicles,
but here's the way you need to look at it. 1 and 2 Samuel is
the history of Israel and Judah, especially, from the view of
a prophet. prophetic view and the history
written in the Kings is the view from the throne, the royal view. That's like you might say a political
view of it and the history written in First and Second Chronicles
is the priestly view, the view from the tabernacle or the temple.
And that's so significant because think about it this way, what
is Christ to his people? He's our prophet, he's our king,
he's our priest. So we have the same histories,
just from different points of view, but they don't contradict.
But you also have a little bit of this in 2 Kings 15, but look
at 2 Chronicles 26. Uzziah, verse one, then all the
people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made
him king in the room of his father Amaziah. So Uzziah was a man
who became king of Israel when he was 16 years old. It says
in verse, now I'm not gonna read all of this, but you read the
whole thing. But he says, he built Eloth and restored it to
Judah. After that, the king slept with
his fathers, that is Amaziah. And it says 16 years old was
Uzziah when he began to reign and he reigned 50 and two years
in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jechaliah
of Jerusalem. And verse four is so significant.
You'll see this written about all the obedient kings of Judah,
he said, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
according to all that his father Amaziah did. So Uzziah was a
good king. Now that doesn't mean he wasn't
a sinner and who needed salvation by grace, he was. But he ruled
the land justly and according to the law of God. He was a good
ruler. And it says, verse five, he sought
God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the
visions of God, that's the word of God. And as long as he sought
the Lord, God made him to prosper. Now if you go ahead and read
the rest of this, you'll find that Uzziah was one of the most
gifted, prosperous kings that ever ruled in Judah, the southern
kingdom from Jerusalem. He was admired, looked up to,
And I'm sure that Isaiah, in his youth, looked up to King
Uzziah. I'm sure, and I believe this,
I can't prove this, but I believe that Isaiah, before he was converted,
his confidence was in King Uzziah. But something happened. And if
you'll jump over to verse 16 of 2 Chronicles 26, Now it's
talking about Uzziah and how strong and how much he had done
for Jerusalem and Judah. It says, but when he was strong,
his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed
against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord
to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Now what's the problem?
Well, Uzziah was from the lineage of David. That's the tribe of
Judah. Only the tribe of Levi, the priesthood,
had a right to go into the holy place and burn incense in the
temple. That's God's law. You remember
how the temple was divided into three places? You had the outer
court with the burnt altar, the brazen altar, rather. And then
you had the next chamber, which was the holy place where the
priest of Levi attended, with the table of showbread, and the
golden candlestick, and the altar of incense. And then on inside,
the holiest of all, was the holy of holies, the mercy seat, and
only the high priest, a direct descendant of Aaron, Moses' brother
from the tribe of Levi, only he could go in there one time
a year, bringing the blood of sacrifice for atonement, on the
day of atonement. Well, what happened here is Uzziah
began to believe his own press, and he became lifted up in pride
over God's blessing him and all the accomplishments, and he became
proud, and he took upon himself to go into the holy place where
only the priest of Levi could go and burn incense on the altar. Strange fire, they call it. And
it says, look at verse 17. It says, and as arrived, the
priest went out after him, and with him fourscore priests, what's
fourscore? That's 80, isn't it? And of the
Lord, and they were valiant men, and they withstood Uzziah the
king and said unto him, it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, it's not
appropriate for you, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord,
but to the priests of the sons of Aaron that are consecrated
to burn incense, they're separated out by God to do this, Go out
of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed, neither shall it
be for thine honor from the Lord God. God won't honor this. Now you know what this is, it's
a picture of Christ going into the presence of God for us. Only
Christ has that right. You can't go in on your own.
But look at verse 19. Then Uzziah was wroth. That means
he was angry, he got mad. And he had a censer in his hand
to burn incense, and while he was wroth with the priest, the
leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priest. That means
it was all over his body and it reached up to his forehead.
In the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar, And
Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests looked upon him,
and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust
him out from thence. Yea, himself hasted also to go
out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was
a leper until the day of his death, and he dwelt in a separate,"
that's several, means separate, being a leper, for he was cut
off from the house of the Lord, and Jotham his son was over the
king's house, judging the people of the land." And I think it's
said that when Uzziah died, Isaiah was about 25 years old, and Uzziah
dwelt in a leper's house separate from the people about 12 years. Again, one of the greatest kings
of Judah. But he did not honor the Lord, he broke the law, and
he spent his last days as a leper and died. And then Isaiah, go
back to Isaiah 6 now. In that year that King Uzziah
died, Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne
high and lifted up, and his train, his robe, filled the temple,
the king's robe, indicates his power, his authority. What I
believe is happening here is that when all this happened with
Uzziah, Isaiah, whose confidence was in Uzziah, the king, his
confidence was turned from Uzziah to the Lord. What is that telling
us? We cannot put our trust in men,
no matter what they accomplish. We trust men who stand behind
this pulpit to tell us the truth, but in them telling us the truth,
what do they say? Don't trust me for salvation.
Trust Christ. You see what I'm saying? I've
seen it happen so many times where people will follow preachers
when they go away from the Word of God. You know, it's just amazing to
me. Well, it's not amazing, because if left to ourselves, that's
what we'll do. We put our stock in some man. And we do have confidence
in men to do what men are required and called to do, but when you
think of them as being your salvation, and especially preachers who
go away from the Word of God, when they go away from the Word
of God, you don't follow them. Your confidence is not in men,
it's in Christ. We are the circumcision. What
Isaiah is going to describe here is his spiritual circumcision,
his new birth. And what he's showing here is
what it takes for God to do to bring a sinner to faith in Christ.
and it's totally the work of God. Look at, here's God high
and lifted up, the Lord, that's Jehovah, that's Christ who is
the manifestation of deity. He says in verse two, above it
stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings, with
twain or two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet,
and with two he did fly. I don't know a whole lot about
the seraphim. This is probably, I think it's the only place that's
mentioned in the Bible. They were angels, but they had
a certain task. And that word seraphim, as this
is the only place that appears in the Bible, in the Hebrew what
it means is to burn. And I believe what this is is
angels who are set on fire of the glory of God. They're showing
forth God's glory which no human being can rival. Not even Uzziah. Not even Uzziah's best work.
stand beside the work of God, especially in the salvation of
sinners. And look what he says in verse 3, one cried unto another
and said, holy, holy, holy, thrice holy. I believe that this is
a reference to the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit. Not everybody agrees with that
but it doesn't matter. God is holy. Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. The earth, the whole earth is
full of his glory, his effulgence, his nature, his light, his work. Stand in awe, that's what he's
saying here. I was talking about God's attributes
a little bit in our lesson at 10 o'clock. And I told the people,
I said, you know, one of the most terrifying statements that
you'll find in the gospel or in the Bible, is this, God is
good. You say, well, what's terrifying
about that? I'll tell you what's terrifying about it, if you realize
that you are not good. And realize this, that in order
for God to save you and me who are not good, God has to remain
good. How can that happen? He cannot
deny himself, he cannot deny his justice, and he cannot deny
his holiness. What does it mean God is holy?
It means he's separate. It means there is no being like
God. Nothing to compare him to. That's
why we're forbidden to make likenesses and say like statues and paintings,
well that's God. No it isn't. He's holy. He's
high and lifted up. It says here the whole earth
is full of his glory. Think about it. The creation,
that's what David wrote in Psalm 19. The creation, the whole firmament
reveals the glory of God. His wisdom, his power. But there's
no place where God's glory is revealed more than in the salvation
of a sinner by his grace through Jesus Christ the Lord. Every
attribute of God is revealed, honored, as working consistently
together in the Lord God who is both a just God and a Savior
based upon His grace revealed in the glorious person and the
finished work of Christ. And so when this vision, this
glorious vision, when it comes to us in the preaching of the
gospel and the power of the Spirit, we see how holy God is. It says in verse four, the post
of the door moved, and the voice of him that cried, and the house
was filled with smoke. Smoke, like the cloud, the pillar
of cloud that followed the Hebrew children out of Egypt. It's a signification of God's
presence. God is here. That's what he's
telling Isaiah. Uzziah's not here. He's gone.
He disobeyed God, and God punished him. But God is here, and that's
where we need to seek the Lord, where He is. You say, well, He's
omnipresent. He's everywhere. I'm talking
about in the effulgence of His glory, and that's where the gospel
is preached. Understand it. Now, we don't
have any bright lights and smoke and everything going up here,
but you know what we do have? We have Christ. in the preaching
of the gospel where he's defined and distinguished and identified
and set apart in the glory of his person and the power of his
finished work. And if God ever brings you and
me to see that, here's the next thing that's gonna happen. It'll
bring us to an honest confession. Look at verse five. Here's where
Isaiah was brought to. Now this is conviction right
here. Then said I, woe is me. You know what, we don't use that
word woe very much today, but woe is me. If you've ever studied
any early English literature, you see that word a lot. It means
I'm in trouble. It means I've got a problem.
That's what it means, woe is me. I'm in sorrow. Isaiah was
brought to sorrow. And he says this, he says, I
am undone. What does that mean? It means
I'm cut off. I thought I had fellowship with
God. I thought I was saved. But when I saw this vision of
God's holiness, his glory, I found out I'm cut off. I'm separate
from God. That's what it's talking about. I've said before, I said, you
know, everybody, just about everybody, thinks they are saved before
they are saved, until they are saved. And then, just like that
word in Philippians 3, for we are the circumcision which worship
God in spirit. That means we worship God from
our hearts as he reveals himself to us. We have our confidence
in Christ. and no confidence in the flesh.
I don't have any confidence in me. I'm telling you. I can't save myself. You can't
save yourself. I can't make myself righteous.
You can't make yourself righteous. And God doesn't enable us to
do that. He saves us by His grace. And he gives us everything necessary.
I'm undone by nature. He says in verse five, because
I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. You know, somebody might say,
well, Isaiah, you can say that about yourself, but you can't say that
about everybody. Oh, yes, he can. You're in the same boat
I'm in. I've had people say, well, that's
the way God revealed himself to you, but he revealed himself
to me differently. Oh, no, he didn't. No, sir. We're in the same boat. We're
sinners who need salvation by grace. We're sinners who need
a righteousness that none of us or all of us put together
can produce. Can you believe that? Why does Isaiah just mention
the lips here? Well, you know what the Bible
says about the lips and the mouth. Look with me over at Matthew
chapter 15. He says, I'm a man of unclean
lips. And he's talking about what he
says, because what he says reveals two things about him. What he
says with his mouth, with his lips, with his tongue, reveals
two things about him. It reveals what he thinks. Preachers get up and they preach
what they think about God, what they think about man, what they
think about salvation. We hear it from their lips. I've
heard people say, well, I may be wrong in my doctrine with
what I say, but it's right in my heart. That's not scriptural,
folks. By your words, you'll be condemned
or justified. So the lips reveals what a person
thinks and reveals the state of their heart. at Matthew 15,
look at verse 8 I believe it is, Christ said, this people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their
lips but their heart is far from me. You see that? What is the heart? That's your
mind, that's your affections, that's your will, that's your
conscience. Go down to verse 11, told him, he says, it's not
that which goeth into the mouth that defileth a man but that
which cometh out of the mouth this defileth a man. It's not
what you eat or drink that defiled, it's what comes out of the mouth
and why? Because that's what comes out of the heart. Look
down at verse 15 and he says, then answered Peter
and said unto him, declaring to this this parable, he was
talking about this parable here of of the mouth and the lips
and all that. And he says, Jesus, are you also
without understanding? Do you not yet understand that
whatsoever entereth at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast
into the draft? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart. And they defile a
man for out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy. These are the things
which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defiles
not a man. In the conversion of his people,
go back to Isaiah six now, what does the Lord do? It says he
gives us a new heart, a new heart. A heart of understanding, a heart
of belief, a heart that wants to serve God. As God reveals
Himself, holy, holy, holy. A new heart. That's what we need. That circumcision that Paul spoke
of is circumcision of the heart. Cutting away the filth of the
flesh. What does that mean? It brings a sinner from thinking
that salvation is conditioned on something he does or decides
and brings him to knowing that salvation was all conditioned
on Christ and he fulfilled those conditions by his obedience unto
death to establish the only righteousness by which God can justify a sinner
like me. And so Isaiah, go back to chapter
six now, after he comes in on verse five, he said, I'm a man
of unclean lips, dwell amongst a people of unclean lips, for
mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And look what
happens in verse six. Now all of this language is the
language that illustrates the new birth. And it says, then
flew one of the seraphims, one of these creatures of fire, light,
He flew unto me having a live coal in his hand, a living coal,
burning coal. Where did he get that coal from?
Which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar." What altar? The burning brazen altar where
sacrifice was made. What sacrifice? The sacrifice
of a lamb or a goat. Remember the lamb that was slain? shedding its blood, the lamb
that was a year old, without spot and without blemish, what
all that was, that was a type of Christ, the Lamb of God. And
out of Christ's obedience unto death, giving himself as a surety,
a substitute, a redeemer, a sacrifice for the sins of his people imputed
to him, out of that comes righteousness. And out of righteousness comes
life, alive coal. Burning. This is the burning
power of God the Spirit to burn it into our hearts, our new heart. The glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And it says, he laid it upon
my mouth. What does that mean? He gave
me a new message, a new way of thinking. I think differently now, don't
you? I know when I was in seminary, learning to preach a false gospel,
I had different thoughts than I have now. That's because the
gospel and the power of the Spirit has been laid on my lips. I've
got a new message. And that's what Isaiah had after
King Uzziah died. I'm not going to go around singing
the praises of Uzziah anymore. I'm going to preach Christ. He laid it upon my mouth and
said, lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin purged. How was my iniquity taken away?
Well, it's no longer charged to me. It never has been, really. It's charged to me as I stood
in Christ, but really that's charged to him. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's right, in
whose heart there is no guile, no dishonesty. See, Isaiah was
made by God to be brought from a dishonest sinner, trusting
in himself, trusting in Uzziah, trusting in his works, to an
honest sinner, trusting in Christ for all salvation. Has that been
your experience? He says, your sin, your iniquities
taken away, and thy sin is paid for. The redemption price has
been paid on the altar. And the live coal has touched
our lips in the preaching of the gospel and the power of the
Spirit. Isn't that marvelous? If that ever happens to any of
us, which I believe it has, that's the greatest, greatest event
in our whole lives. I mean, I know y'all think about
great events in your life. Your marriage, having your children,
and those are great events, and I don't want to belittle them.
Kids graduating from high school and college and all, those are
great things. But there's nothing greater than
this right here. Isn't that right? when that live
coal touches your lips, and you go from trusting yourself, trusting
men, to trusting Christ, and Him alone for salvation. I think that's enough said, don't
you? All right. In the year that King Uzziah
died. All right.