Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 6. The name of the message is Christ
in His Glory. Christ in His Glory. We'll look at this chapter. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne. Isaiah writes,
high and lifted up. And his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the king, the lord of hosts, Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Notice
the plural word there, us. the Trinity, the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Then said I, Jeremiah, send me. And he said, go and tell this
people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of the people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, Until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be literally desolate, and the Lord have removed man
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tenth,
and it shall return, and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as
an oak. whose substance is in them when
they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance
thereof. Notice there's a tenth, there's
a remnant, beloved, there's always a remnant. God always has a remnant. Notice in verse 1 it says, In
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and lifted up, And his train filled the temple. Now, without a vision of the
Lord of glory, no man is saved or can be saved. And I'm not
talking about a vision that some folks out there say they have.
I'm talking about being given spiritual eyes to see Christ.
And spiritual ears by the Holy Spirit of God to hear Christ. No man will see Christ unless
he reveals himself. And we saw a picture of that
very clearly today in our study in the life of Joseph. His brothers
had no clue who he was until he revealed himself. And when
he revealed himself, they were afraid, weren't they? They were
afraid at first. And he said, don't be afraid.
God sent me before you to preserve you. And the Lord speaks peace
to us, to his people, doesn't he? He speaks peace to us. He
was sent by the Father. He was sent by the Father to
save us from our sins, beloved. And He did it. He did it. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, Christ said, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on Him may have everlasting life. Have you seen the Son by faith? Has God given you faith to see
the Son? Oh, my. Because the Scripture says, and
believeth on Him. Do you believe on Christ? Do you trust him? May have everlasting life and
I will raise him up the last day. What a promise from our
Savior. In our text in Isaiah 6, 1, Isaiah
is speaking of the Lord of glory. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, beloved, whom he sees high upon his throne in glory.
He has a vision of Christ upon his throne in glory. And John
writes this, we know this, turn if you would to John 12, verse
41. We know this because of what
John writes over here. John 12, verse 41. Let's turn
there real quick. John 12, and keep this verse
in mind as we keep reading the scripture here. John 12, verse
41. These things said Isaiah when
he saw His glory and spake of Him. He saw Christ in His glory. He saw the pre-incarnate Christ.
Remember, He's the Word of God. He's the Word of God in glory
before He even comes to this world. And Isaiah has a vision
of Him. He sees Him in glory. And this vision was given to
Isaiah in the year, note the text, in the year that King Uzziah
died. Turn, if you would, to 2 Chronicles
26. 2 Chronicles 26. This vision was given to Isaiah
in the year that King Uzziah died. Uzziah was the king of
Judah and he actually united Judah and he reigned after the
death of his father. He reigned after the death of
his father. And he was made king at the age of 16 years old. He
was made king at the age of 16 years old in the room of his
father, Amaziah. Look at verse 1 of 2 Chronicles
26. Then all the people of Judah
took Uzziah who was 16 years old and made him king in the
room of his father, it's Amazah. And then we see in verse 3 that
he was 16 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 52 years
in Jerusalem. And then we see what was Uzziah's
downfall further down in this chapter. Let's read verses 16
to 23 and we'll see Uzziah's Downfall, his pride, his pride. But when he was strong, verse
16, 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 he was a king,
he probably thought, well, I can go do this. No, that's the only
place, the only people who can go in there is the priests. But
he probably thought, well, since I'm king, I can look at this. And Azariah the priest went in
after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were
valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the
king, and said unto him, It appears not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn
incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron. So they were the only ones allowed
in there to burn incense. are consecrated to burn incense
go out of the sanctuary for thou has trespassed neither shall
it be for thine honor from from the Lord God then Uzziah was
wroth well he got he got ticked off these priests are going to
tell me what I can do I'm king and and had a censer in his hand
to burn incense and while he was wroth with the priest look
at this you don't you don't mess with the Lord's order Look at
this. While he was wroth with the priests,
leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house
of the Lord from beside the incense altar. He is struck with leprosy. And Isaiah 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, himself
hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. Uzziah
the king was a leper until the day of his death and dwelt in
a several house 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 Now the rest of the Acts of Uzziah, first
and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, write. So Uzziah
slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in
the field of the burial which belonged to the kings. For they
said, he is a leper, and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.
So now we have a setting for when Isaiah had this vision.
It's the year that Uzziah died. The scriptures declare that where
there's no vision, the people perish. It says in Proverbs 29,
18, where there's no vision, the people perish. But he that
keepeth the law happy as he. When we're given eyes to see
the Lord, when we're given eyes to see the Lord, when we have
a vision of his of who he is. And again, that's just having
our eyes open. I'm not talking about a vision
like Isaiah had. I'm just talking to when our
eyes are opened up, when we're actually given sight. to see
Christ. What do we see? Oh, we see his
righteousness, don't we? We see how he's perfect righteousness.
We see his holiness. And we see our unholiness. We
see his justice, which demands satisfaction. We see how we have
no ability to satisfy that justice on our own. We see his immutability. We see his almighty power. But
we also see his great love, don't we? That he has for his people,
an eternal love. And we who are the people of
God, we've tasted that the Lord is gracious, haven't we? Peter
wrote that we tasted it. We know he's gracious personally. And we know of his mercy personally.
Because we've been changed by the grace of God. You creatures
in Christ, Born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And this
is a missing note in today's preaching. What's a missing note
in today's preaching? Who God really is. And his righteousness. How he's an absolutely righteous
God, a holy God. I was thinking about that. I
was actually thinking about some songs I used to sing with the
kids sometimes. And I'm not trying to be a nitpicker. I'm not trying to be that. But
I was thinking of some of these songs that in my religious days
we used to sing with some of the little ones. And it made
God like he is just our buddy. You know, and a lot of modern
worship songs are like that too. They just make, you know, there's
no substance. The one thing I love about the
old hymns is they're just full of doctrine. They're chock full
of doctrine, and it's wonderful. They give glory to God, the real
God of the Bible, and it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. But
the missing note in today's preaching is who God really is. Who God
is according to what the Bible says, not according to our opinions,
but according to what the scriptures say. And I find, as I talk to
a lot of people who are religious and everything, that they really
don't have any idea of who the true God is. And I don't look
down at them, I'll be honest with you, I don't look down at
them, because I was there. I had no clue. I had no clue. I thought it was
all up to me. I thought I had made a decision
and saved myself. Well, what a lie that was. I
found out it's the holy God of the universe who saves his people. It's him who saves. It's Him
who makes us will in the day of His power. And it's pure mercy. It's pure mercy. So, there's just not a lot of preaching
about who God really is. About who God really is. Now
we hear it in the Grace Circles because that's what we really
center on. Who Christ is. What He came here
to do. Where He is now. But preaching in our day is without
a vision of who the Lord is. And without a knowledge of the
awesome work that he accomplished. Again, it's not about what we
do. It's about what he's done. It's about what he's done. And
when God gives us eyes to see, when God gives us eyes to see
who he is, we see our great sinfulness, don't we? We say like Isaiah did, I'm a
man undone. I'm not just a little sinner.
I'm a great sinner to my shame. And even after I'm saved, I'm
still a sinner. But praise God, now I'm a sinner
saved by grace. But that's what we really see,
isn't it? That's what we really see. And we cannot see our own sinfulness
unless the Lord reveals himself to us, right? Did you think you
were a sinner before the Lord saved you? I get mad when religious
people come over to me and tell me I was a sinner. I got ticked
off at them. I tell them, get out of here,
I don't even wanna talk to you. Didn't wanna hear it. Me? No,
the guy's in prison's a sinner. I'm doing the best that I can
do. Was it so for you? That's how we thought. My turn,
if you would, the job, the book of Job. Take a look here in Job chapter
42. Now, the Lord's revealed. Himself,
the job, who he really is. You start reading those latter
chapters of Job, my, my goodness, God just reveals himself to Job
who he is. And look, look at the conclusion
that Job comes to. And keep in mind, mostly verse
six, but we'll read verses 40 or chapter 42, verses one to
six. Look at this. And this is a this is a very
clear example of how we see our sinfulness when the Lord reveals
himself to us. And this is our brother Job.
Look at this. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, I know that thou canst do everything. He's been taught
this now. He's been taught the Lord can
do everything. And that no thought can be holden from thee, that
every single thought we have is exposed to the Lord. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that
I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, and I will
speak. I will demand of thee, and declare
thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee." His eye of faith. He now understands even more
than when the trials first started who the Lord is. And look at
what, look at the reaction of him in verse six. Wherefore I
abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. So what do we see here? We see
full submission before our great God, don't we? Job is in full
submission to our great God. We see a humble acknowledgement
of himself before God, who he is and who God is. Who Job is and who God is. And what does he, his words after
having this revealed to himself, to him by God is, I abhor myself
in dust and ashes. Is that not what happens to every
born again blood washed believer when we're bought to Christ?
And is that not what we're taught each time we hear the gospel
preached and proclaimed to? Our sinfulness and His greatness. His greatness. His greatness.
They say, you preach God too much up. I don't think you can
preach Him too high up. Oh my. You can never preach Christ up
too high. Never. Let's read verse 1 again. In
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon
the throne. He's sitting. He's sitting there.
He's in full control. He's rolling and raining high
and lifted up in his train filled the temple. Now, again, I've
mentioned this before, the train of a king, the length of it describes
the vastness of his kingdom. Well, the Lord's train fills
the whole temple. Because he's king over a vast
domain, there's nothing that's within, not within his sight.
And we see that in this vision, Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up. Think of that, high and lifted
up above all the trouble of this world. Nothing can touch him. And think of this, this is what
he left to come to this world to redeem us, beloved. We're
getting a picture of what he left to come to this world. These angels are covering themselves
before him. Just with what we see here, think
of the greatness of our God. Think of the greatness of our
Redeemer. Think of the humility of leaving glory where this is
occurring and coming to this earth as a servant in full submission
to the Father. Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ
in His pre-incarnate state as mediator and head of His people.
We saw that in the text in John 12, verse 41, these things said
Isaiah, when he saw His glory and spake a hymn, spake of Christ. So he sees Christ in His pre-incarnate
state as the mediator and head of His people. Because remember,
He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, right? And now he sees Him in all His
glory. Remember in John 17, He prays
for us that we'd be able to see Him one day in His glory? Oh
my! To be with Him? And again, the Lord whom the
prophets saw was the Lord Jesus Christ in His meditatorial glory. And what comfort this can bring
to the believer. This is our Savior. This is our Savior. This is the
one who keeps us. And think of what light this
brings to the Scriptures, where the visible appearance of the
Lord is spoken of, and from which other Scriptures compared with
them, which some have wrestled to the destruction, and therefore is the importance
of comparing Scripture to Scripture. Anytime there's a mention of
a vision of the Lord, it's Christ in the Old Testament. Turn, if you would, to Exodus
chapter 33. Exodus 33. And here the Scripture proclaims
that the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, just like you and
I speak to one another. as a man speaketh unto his friend.
Look at this in Exodus 33, verse 11. I'm gonna show you three or four
scriptures here, and people will take this stuff and say, see,
there's contradictions in the scripture, but we're gonna find
out there's not, and there's no contradictions in this word.
None. None at all. Look at this. Exodus
33, 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned
again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun,
a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Now turn,
if you would, to Exodus 24. Exodus 24. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the elders
went up into the mount, and they saw the God of Israel. Look at
this. Exodus 24, verses 9 and 10. Then went up Moses and Aaron,
Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God
of Israel. and there were under His feet,
as it were, a paved work of sapphire, and as it were, the body of heaven
in His clearness. Both those situations, beloved,
they're seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state. Now people, again, jump on the
wagon of there's contradictions in the Bible. Turn, if you would,
to Exodus chapter 33. But these people who say this
have usually never studied Scripture and compared Scripture with Scripture,
which makes it very evident who Isaiah saw. Who Isaiah saw, as
we saw there in John 12, verse 41. Look at this in Exodus 33,
20. They take a verse like this and
they say, see there's contradictions. Look at verse 20 of Exodus 33. And he said, thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And then in 1 Timothy chapter
6, the scripture says this, declares of God that no man can approach
unto whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and
power everlasting. So we could say, how can these
be reconciled? Turn, if you would, to John chapter
1. John 1, verse 18. It's because those two verses
are speaking of the Father. Look at this in John 1, verse
18. Anytime in the Scriptures when
it says that they saw the God of Israel in the Old Testament,
they're seeing Christ. They're seeing the pre-incarnate
Christ. because God will only speak to
men through Christ. We know that from Hebrews. The
book of Hebrews. Look at this though. Look at
John 1, verse 18. How then can these scriptures
be reconciled? Well, John the Evangelist does this in one verse.
He reconciles them. Look at this. No man hath seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. There it
is. There it is. So all the manifestations of
God, God has graciously been pleased to make of himself in
all the ages of the church, has been in the person of his dear
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The God-man mediator, both before
his incarnation and after. Both before his incarnation and
after. As the Son of God, He was set
up for eternity in this glorious character as the head of His
church, as the mediator between God and man. So His glory in that character
was frequently manifested to the church. We saw two situations
there in Exodus. To special servants in the church,
Moses and Isaiah, and what a blessed thought, to be born again, blood-washed
church of God, The Lord sitting high on His throne. Isaiah saw
Him high on His throne. And what a comfort that brings
to we who are God's people. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
pre-incarnate. And what a testimony to the Godhead
of our Lord. And it should never be questioned
whether He possessed all divine attributes. Because we see here
that He's seated. He's seated. On the right hand. Or seated
on the throne. Turn if you would to Hebrews. Hebrews. Look at
this. He's sitting on the throne. So
He was on the throne before He came to this world. And where
is He now? Where is He now? Well, look in
Hebrews chapter 1. We'll read verses 1 to 3. Look
at this. This is wonderful. Who does God speak to His people
through? The Lord Jesus Christ. God, who at sundry times and
in divers past spakes and times passed unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory, in the express image of his person, and upholdeth all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,
being made so much better than the angels, as he had by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of
the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee, And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall
be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels
of God worship him. And of the angels, he saith,
who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers flame of fire.
But unto the son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is God. is forever and ever a scepter
of righteousness, is a scepter of thy kingdom. And there we
see our Lord in His glory, in Isaiah. Now think of this. He's on the throne before He
came here. We saw that in Isaiah 1. He's king. We know He's born king. He's born king. And where is
He now? Oh, He's king on His throne,
beloved. He's king on His throne. Right now. We just read that
in Hebrews. He sat down on the majesty of the high. He sat down.
The work is finished. It's all done. My oh my. So all the manifestations that
God has graciously pleased to make of Himself is being in the
person of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The God-man mediator. both before His incarnation and
after. If anyone doubts the sovereignty
and eternality of Christ, it will be erased here by God, by
God-given faith, as we see Him sitting upon the throne of glory.
We see Him sitting upon the throne of glory, which, what does it
speak of? It speaks of His power, doesn't
it? You remember what the demons said? They knew who He was. They
said, Thou art the Holy One of God. They knew who He was. They knew. And they tremble. My, He's absolutely sovereign. He's the Word of God. Became
flesh. And here in our text, we see
Him sitting upon the throne of glory. Again, which speaks of
His power, speaks of His glory, speaks of how He's over all,
His government, His dominion over all things visible and invisible. And even angels, holy angels,
they have to cover their eyes in His presence. He's so holy. That's who died for our sins,
beloved. That's who left the glories of
heaven to save us from our sins. Listen to the words of our master. Listen to this in John 6, 62. Listen to this. And he proclaims
this. What and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Up where he was before. We see
that in Isaiah 6. He's on the throne. Where is
he now? He's ascended up to where he
was before. We saw that in Hebrews, didn't
we? He's in glory. Reigning as king of kings. And
then consider his words in John 3, 13, which he said this, No
man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.
Even the son of man which is in heaven, John 3, 13, I'll read
it again. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven. He's the only man that's ascended
up to heaven, isn't he? And he's the head and we're the
body. The only reason we go to glory is because that's where
our head is. Because where the head is, the body soon follows. And we're risen in him, beloved.
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So when a man or woman is given
eyes to see Christ and His glory, then some things occur. Let's
consider some of the things that occur quickly. A man or woman
has been given eyes to see the Lord, have all their idols torn
down. Have all their idols torn down.
You might say, well, I don't have any idols. Well, we all
had idols. We all had idols. Some made self
an idol. Religion can be an idol. Morality
or goodness can be an idol. Natural men and women, they think
they're pretty good. I think they're pretty good.
Surely not as bad as those in prison or those in outright wickedness. Never be as bad as them, but
when God is pleased to reveal himself to one of his sheep,
one of his lost sheep, then we cry out like Isaiah did. Look
at verse 5. This is what we cry out, eh?
Look at this. Take note of what he says here.
Then said I, woe is me. Now he's previously been saying,
woe is you, and woe is you, and woe is you, and woe is you. Now
he says, woe is me. Why does he say that? For I am
undone. Because I am a man of unclean
lips. He sees his own sinfulness. And
now look, now he sees also the total depravity of all mankind,
because look what he says, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. But first he sees his own sinfulness,
doesn't he? It's not hard for us to point
at other people and say, well, look at that person. He sees
his own sinfulness. He owns his own guilt. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. So when we see the Lord in His
glory, when He reveals Himself to us, we cast away the false
gods of our imagination, beloved. We cast them away. The idol of
a false profession, too. I had one of those. Idol of a
false profession. Well, I chose Jesus. I was lost as a white goose in
a snowstorm when I said that. I had no clue who God was. No
clue at all. Didn't know him at all. But praise God, by his grace
and mercy, he chose to reveal himself. Didn't leave me in that
state. And so we cast away the false
idol of our profession, and then what do we cry out? What do we
cry out? Salvations of the Lord. Salvations of the Lord. It's
not of anything we say or do. It's all by the grace and mercy
of God and through the Lord Jesus Christ. When a man or woman has
seen the Lord by God-given faith, they see Him high and lifted
up and seated on a throne, just like Isaiah did. We see Him in
that state, that He is God, and we see ourselves in the dust,
don't we? We see ourselves in the dust. Look at verse 1 again. Verse
1 again of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, ruling, and His train filled the temple, high and lifted
up. So by God-given faith, the believer
in Christ sees Him in His sovereignty, sees Him in His sovereign, majestic
majesty and see how his will is accomplished and none can
stay his hand. I ask you, can anyone stay the
hand of our great King? Anyone? No one. Most men and women today have
a God of their own imagination, one that they've carved out in
their own imagination who cannot do his own will or accomplish
Anything at all without their help And this this false God he's
a frustrated God He's a frustrated God, but beloved he's no God
at all He's no God at all He's the God of human imagination He's God who can't accomplish
his will He's a God who can't accomplish his purpose. And I'll
say this, a God like that is not God. A God like that is not God. The God of the Bible is almighty. He makes statements like this.
This is the God of the Bible. He makes statements like this.
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways. Neither
are your ways my way, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.
And my thoughts than your thoughts. So the man or woman who has truly
seen the Lord by God given faith, sees him as absolutely sovereign,
ruling and reigning right now. Just his name his titles again
what we looked at this morning just his names his titles Proclaim
who he is Proclaim who he is he's the Lord high and lifted
up. He's the Lord God Almighty He's
the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and and in a man or
woman cannot argue Cannot argue or bargain with the Lord glory and not argue or bargain with
the Lord of Glory. If they're given eyes to see
Him by faith, they will submit to His will in their lives. They'll
bow themselves down in the dust before Him because He's Almighty
God. And the man or woman who sees
God by faith will not charge God foolishly either. Turn if you would to Job chapter
1. We have a clear picture of this
in the book of Job. All he went through, the loss
of his servants, all his sheep, his sons and his daughters, and
look at Job's reply. He did not charge God foolishly. Job chapter 1 verses 20 and 22. Some of the most incredible scripture.
In all the Bible. Then Job arose and rent his mantle
and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped. And said, Naked came I out of
my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And look what it says. In all this Job sinned not nor
charged God foolishly. So God's people will not charge
God foolishly. Because we see Him on the throne
in glory, beloved. And we worship Him and we give
Him all the glory and all the honor and all the praise. He's
not a fire escape to His people. He's not a fire escape. He's
not an assurance policy to keep us out of hell, is He? No. He's the king of our lives and
he is the one who has saved us from our sins. Saved us from our sins. In his
throne is a throne of grace. Throne of grace. Which we who are the people of
God have the promise from God that we can come boldly. We looked
at that this morning boldly before him. Let us therefore come boldly
until the throne of grace. that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. I ask you, do you need
grace? Do you need mercy? The believer cries out, oh how
much I need Him. Always. Think of this, when kings die
and idols vanish, God is still on the throne. I often think,
I love history, and I often think of that. Here's these great empires
that rose up. Babylon and Rome was one of the
greatest empires that ever rose up. Before them, the Greeks,
they're gone. We have stone remnants of what
they did. The Egyptian nation was great
at one time. It has nowhere near the glory
that it once had at one time. I have a friend who lives in
Britain. Britannica at one time was one of the greatest nations
in the world. They ruled the seas. They don't
anymore. But our God's still on the throne,
isn't he? He's still on the throne. He's still there. That has not
changed. Oh, my. So kings die and idols
vanish, but God is still on the throne. Scripture declares David
wrote this. And David's a king, too. But
our God is in the heavens. He had done whatsoever he had
pleased. Psalm 115, three, our gods in that. Where's our God?
Somebody ask you, where's your God? He's in heaven right now.
And he's seated on the throne and he does whatever he pleases.
Oh, how that greats against the pride of man. but not for the
believer. Oh, we're so thankful that He
saved us. Look at verses 3 and 4 of this chapter, this wonderful
chapter. And one cried unto another, these
are the holy angels, and said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,
the whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door
moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke. My, the angels, the holy angels
have to cover themselves in the presence of He who sits upon
the throne. And they cry, no, holy, holy,
holy, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Oh my. And notice the post of the door
moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke. My goodness. He is great. And how can He be spoken of as holy,
holy, holy, and yet put away our sin, and make us righteous
before Himself? Well, on the cross of Calvary,
all our sins were imputed to Him. All our sins were imputed to
Him. And the perfect, spotless Lamb of God died in our room
and place. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Our sins are imputed to Christ,
and he bears them before God's law and justice in our place.
And his perfect, spotless righteousness is imputed to us. A great transfer,
beloved. Great transfer. And we are cleansed by the precious,
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which is pictured in
this chapter too. Look at with the live coals taken
from off the altar. Look at verses 6 and 7. Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his
hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched
thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."
It's a picture of the blood of Christ, beloved. Now if one's been born again
by the Holy Spirit of God and given faith to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, they will proclaim that salvation is of
the Lord. Without a sight of God, a man
or woman is without the salvation of God. But how can one know
they have seen the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, here in Isaiah's
experience, the believer sees his own experience. The question may arise, have
I really been saved? Or have I just made a religious
profession? Let's look and see if we have
seen the Lord by God-given faith. Saved not only by his death,
but by his obedient life as our substitute when he worked out
a perfect righteousness for us. Again, that was imputed to his
people. A man or woman who has some understanding of their awful
guilt before God is a saved man or woman. Because God only reveals
to his people our guilt before him. Sin never bothered us before
we were saved. Never bothered us at all. Now,
we hate it. I hate it in myself. Look at verse 5, though. Then
said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. So the believer
sees their state. The unbeliever doesn't see their
state before God. But the believer sees their state,
their natural state before God. Just as Isaiah saw himself before
God. You talk to unbelievers, they
don't think they're sinners. They don't. They may say, well,
I might do a few bad things, but overall I'm a good person. I used to say it. I know some
of you did too. It's just natural, isn't it? We never loved Christ before
we were saved. We may have knew of Him, but
we never loved Him. We may have heard of Him, just
like the Egyptians heard Joseph weeping, like we looked at this
morning in Sunday school. Listen to what George Whitefield
says. George Whitefield said, a man
or woman has not repented until he has repented of their sin.
What he or she is. What he or she is. Their sins. What he or she does. And their
righteousness. Which is filthy rags in the eyes
of the Lord. So I ask you. Have you seen what
your sin is? Have you seen what Have you seen
our sins, what we do, how we sin, like drinking water? And have we seen our righteousness,
our natural righteousness before God as filthy rags in the eyes
of the Lord? God's people see these things. And this repentance that we have
before God, it's not a one-time thing, is it? I like what Henry used to say,
Brother Mahan, he said, we've repented and we keep repenting. Just like we believed, we believed
and we keep believing. It's a continuous action. It's
a continuous action. Isaiah 64, 6 says this, but we
are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as
filthy rags. And we do fade as a leaf. A leaf
springs out in springtime, and in the fall it's fallen off the
tree and dead on the ground. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away. Think of that. Watch how the
wind grabs things and just blows them away, right? See some leaves,
just off they go. That's how the scripture says
that our iniquities have taken natural man. Just like the wind takes things. And what does the believer in
Christ do? I ask you this. Have you not
done this? The believer in Christ takes
sides with God against ourselves. Don't we? You say, God, I'm guilty
before you. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Just like the publican said. And the believer in Christ confesses
Christ. Look at verses 6 and 8, or verse
8 I mean in this chapter. Look at this. They confess Christ.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send
and who will go for us? What's Isaiah's response? Then
said I, here am I, send me. We confess that we're followers
of Christ. Scripture says John the Evangelist wrote this, but
as many as received him, To them gave He power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name. Believe on His name. So to the believer, Christ is
our prophet, priest, and king. He's everything to us. What is
Christ to you? Is He everything to you? Is He
everything to you? All the believer confesses He
is. And that the blood of Christ shed on Calvary's cross cleanses
us from all sin. And that all occurs because of
the mercy and the grace of God which is bestowed upon us in
Christ. No other reason. Because it pleased
God to save us, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. Because we know what we are,
don't we? But it pleased God to save us. What? Mercy. As Brother
Neil read in the text, I love that portion where Paul says,
I've obtained mercy. That's what we've obtained, beloved.
We've obtained mercy. And whosoever believeth on Christ
will not be ashamed. We confess Him as Lord, don't
we? We confess Him as Lord, beloved. Romans 10, verses 8-11 says this, But what sayeth that the word
is nigh unto thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart? That is the word of faith which
we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus Christ. We confess Christ, don't we?
We confess Him as our Savior. And thou shalt believe in thine
heart. We've been given a heart to believe, haven't we? We didn't
believe before we were saved. And now we believe if thou shall
believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead
thou shall be saved Thou shall be saved for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation For the scripture said whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. We're not ashamed of our King.
Are we? No We glory in him We glory in Him. Now let's look
at the last two verses in our text here. And He said, Go and tell this
people, verses 9 and 10, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed,
but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with
their ears, and understand with the heart, and convert, and be
healed. Beloved, salvation is of the
Lord. It's of the Lord. It's His doing. And if the Lord has revealed
Himself to you again, if the Lord has revealed Himself to
you, rejoice. Because He hasn't revealed Himself
to everyone. But He reveals Himself to His
sheep. If he's revealed himself to you, you're one of the ones
he purchased at Calvary. You're part of his beloved bride. My. And you're one of the ones whom
he died on Calvary's cross for. Who he gave his life for. Wonder
of wonders that were even included in that number, eh? It's glorious. But it pleased God to do so.
And what do we say as a result of that? Glory to his name. Glory to his name. What a king,
what a savior, what a redeemer. My. May God open doors of utterance
for us that we may tell others the great things that the Lord
had done for us.