Lord, in prayer, Heavenly Father,
we just lift up all these people we've mentioned, the dear brothers
and sisters in Christ. We pray that you'd be with each
one of them and that you'd minister to them. And we just are so thankful
for each other, for each one of us that we have, that we've
gotten to know and are getting to know. And we just pray that
you'd be with each one of them, that you'd put a healing hand
upon them and that your will would be done. And we also pray
for our missionary friends, and pray that you'd be with each
one of them, Brother Lance and Brother Jean-Claude, that you
would give them doors of utterance to proclaim your gospel boldly,
and that they would be able to teach other pastors there in
the different countries they're at, and that they would go forth
and preach your word with boldness, we pray, and that the Holy Spirit
would empower it. And we pray that you'd be with
us today in service, and all that we say and do may it bring
all glory to you, and honor, and praise, May you be magnified
and glorified in the preaching of your word, in the singing,
and in all we do. And we love you because you first
loved us. In Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter
6. We'll be looking at the first
10 verses today. And then actually, our message
in the morning will have a direct connection to this passage of
Scripture. Isaiah chapter 6, it says in
the first verse, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple. Without a vision of the Lord,
we will all perish. Every one of us. And I'm not
talking the supernatural vision. I'm talking being given eyes
to see who God really is. And to be given eyes to see who
we really are. Who we really are. No man can
be saved without seeing the Lord. Our Lord said that everyone that
seeth him in John chapter 6 verse 40 He says, and this is the will
of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth
on him, seeing and believing, may have everlasting life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. Who Isaiah saw here is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, high and lifted up upon his throne
before he became a man before his incarnation. This is a vision
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where he is. Right
now, too, he rules and reigns. He's not waiting to come back
and rule. He's not waiting to come back and reign. He reigns. See, he's God before he come.
He's king when he was here. And he's king in glory. He's
the king of kings and the Lord of lords. So when there's no
vision, the people perish. Proverbs said, where there is
no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy
is he. When we are given eyes to see
who the Lord really is, when we are given eyes to see who
he is, we have a vision of his righteousness. vision of His righteousness,
of His holiness. See, before the Lord gives us
eyes to see, we don't even know. We can't even understand who
He is. We can't even fathom the holiness
of God, or of His justice, or of His
power, or of His great love. We don't even understand. or
of His grace, or of His mercy. We don't even understand before
the Lord gives us eyes to see who the God of the Bible really
is. But oh, when He gives you eyes to see, oh, you see Him
in His holiness. You see Him as a righteous God.
You see Him as a King upon the throne. We are given eyes to see who
God really, really is. And preaching in our day is without
a vision of the Lord. We don't even... Some of the
preaching going on, it's all about how to better your life,
how to better yourself. There's no vision of the Lord.
One of the things I often found when I would go out and talk
to people and various people in various places was there's
no fear of God. There's no fear of God. But let's look at what happens
to Isaiah here. In the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw
the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, high and
lifted up. He sees the Lord Jesus Christ
upon his throne, high and lifted up. In his train filled the temple. So a man who has seen the Lord
sees God in his majesty, sees God as king. 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. Even the angels are covering themselves in the presence of
a majestic holy God. So when a man gets a vision of
the Lord, or when we get a vision of the Lord and who he really
is, all we see is holiness. We cover our faces. And one cried with another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke." And then look at Isaiah's response. Woe is me. Woe is me. For I am a man undone. He's had
revealed to him his depravity, and his unholiness, and his unworthiness
before the Lord. And he's revealed to him what
he really is. And do you see the great contrast? between the holiness of God,
God upon his throne in majesty. And when it says the train filled
his temple, the kings, in the old days, the kings would have
a train that, and the longer the train, they would say the
more authority they had. The Lord's train fills the whole
temple. He is King of kings and Lord
of lords. And I, these are angels, like
I say, are covering their faces, holy, holy, he's holy. They can't
even. And then I can say in verse five,
woe is me, for I'm a man, I'm done. This goes to Job and Job and
turn with me, if you were to Job chapter 42. Job chapter 42. Verses one to
six. And keep in mind, this woe is
me. Woe is me. Job 42 verses 1 to 6. Then Job
answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything,
and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Verse 3, 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. I've heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear. Now my eye. But now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes. The great contrast. The great
contrast between God and man. When a man has obscene the Lord,
all his idols get tore down. They get tore down. Idols of false religion, idols
of morality and goodness, thinking that they're good enough to get
to heaven. That's not Job and Isaiah's responses
of, woe is me. I'm undone. The idol of a false
Jesus, there's another Jesus out there. Recently I heard of
someone who was talking to their son,
and I guess their son has a new girlfriend, and they're Catholic. And this person is professing
evangelical, or I would say religious person, and they said, well,
Her and I have the same Jesus. Yep, that's true. But it's not
my Jesus. I was saved out of Catholicism,
the darkness of that, the idol of false religion. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse three, but I fear less
by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his celibacy, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, there's
another Jesus, whom we have not preached. Or if you receive another
spirit, there's another spirit, which he have not received. Or
another gospel, there's another gospel out there. You might well bear with him.
And you notice I've noticed something through the years talking with
folks of different religious flavors. And I had an older Greece
preacher tell me this. He said, why do they all get
along? Because they have the same God, a God of their imaginations. It's not the God of the Bible. If you know Christ, if He's revealed
Himself to you in who He is, like He does with Isaiah, give
all the glory to God and praise His mighty name. Praise His mighty
name. And it's not popular to say stuff
like this. It's not. It's not popular in
the religious world to say, well, you're worshiping another god. Calvin used to say, Our minds
are like idle factories, and they just keep producing new
gods. He called it the god of our imagination.
But oh, when the god of the Bible reveals himself to you, you have
a vision of who he is and what we are. And when does a man When a man
sees God in His majesty, he sees Him high and lifted up, right?
High and lifted up. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I also saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted
up. He's reigning. He sees His sovereignty. He's
king. He's king. King of kings and Lord of lords. And a man will not argue or bargain
with the Lord if he ever has a If his eyes are ever open,
he won't argue with the Lord. He'll say like Isaiah, I'm like
Job, I abhor myself. And do not charge God foolishly.
Turn with your word to Job chapter 1. What a picture we have with Job.
All that he went through, the loss of his servants, the loss
of his children, What is Job's reply through all that? Job chapter
1 verse 20 to 22. Job chapter 1. Then Job arose and rent his mantle,
verse 20, 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. He just lost all
his children. In all this, Job sinned not,
nor charged God foolishly. Amazing. He knew God's absolutely sovereign. He's in charge. He can do whatever
he pleases. When a saint has a vision of
the Lord, he sees a throne of glory, a throne of glory, high
and lifted up, a throne of government, a throne of government. Before we were saved, I know
before I was saved, I said, I'll not have this man rule over me.
And if I didn't say it verbally, I said it in my actions. Oh, now. Oh, we bow to his majesty. We bow to his sovereignty. We
bow to his government. He is king, king in our lives. Where shall we go? That has the words of eternal life. We see a throne of grace too,
don't we? A throne that we can approach. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. I need mercy all the time. And think of this, beloved, when
kings rise up and vanish, When governments are rised up and
vanished, let us think here. Alexander, Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar came over a huge
empire. The Romans had a huge empire. The Greeks had a huge empire.
The Persians had a huge empire. They're gone. But Christ is still
on the throne. He's still on the throne. Oh, and it's a throne of grace. But our God is in the heavens,
and He hath done whatsoever He pleased. Whatsoever He pleased. Look at Isaiah 6, 3, and 4. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of His glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Oh, what a picture of the holiness
of God. What a picture. How can the one who's spoken
of as holy, holy, holy, right? How can he put away sin and make
us righteous before himself? We who are sinners, Look at Isaiah six and seven.
And 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 has touched
thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
What a picture of the blood of Christ. What a picture of the blood of
Christ. What does it do? What does the blood of Christ
do for the believer? Takes their iniquity away, and
their sin is purged. Then said I, woe is me, for I
am a man 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. He's seen his awful guilt before
holy God. And look what else he says in
the text here. Then said, I woe is me, identifying himself as
a sinner, right? But look, he sees the depravity
of all mankind. Woe is me, for I am a man undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips. So he's owning his own
sin and what he is. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of uncleanups. He sees the whole depravity of
mankind. And he's not saying, well, look
at all them fellows, is he? No, he's saying, woe is me. Just
like that publican in the New Testament, right? God have mercy
upon me, the sinner. Why does he see this? Because
his eyes have seen the king. Oh, that God would give us a
vision, take the scales off our eyes. And may this give us hope
through the week too, that this king who reigns upon the throne
watches over each one of his people. He's this great shepherd
of his sheep. So Isaiah said, woe. And if you
read the first five chapters, Isaiah is saying, woe is them,
and woe is them, and woe is them, and woe is them. And then he
says, when he sees the Lord, woe is me. Think of this. Did you love Christ
before he saved you? I didn't, to my shame. Did you have any interest in
the Bible? Did you have any interest in coming to church? But when the Lord saves you,
oh, you love Christ, don't you? Oh, you love to read his word
and hear it preached. Oh, you love to get together
with the Lord's people. Psalm says this, for I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against thee
only have I sinned. See, when God reveals himself
to a sinner, he sees what he is, and he sees who he's sinned
against. And done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear
when thou judgest. And we're going to look at this
morning. There is a day coming. There is a great day coming. George Whitefield said, a man
has not repented until he has repented of his sin, what he
is, his sins, what he does, and his righteousness, which is like
filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord. And repentance is a continuous
thing, isn't it? It's not a one-time thing. Folks
like to look back and say, well, I punched the clock, and I repented
back then. It's a continuous thing. We're
continuously coming to Christ, continuously. Look at verse eight. And if anyone, if you ever run
into any Jehovah Witnesses or anything, they don't believe
in the Trinity at all, or any of the cults that are out there
who don't believe in the Trinity, this is a marvelous verse just
to give them to chew on. And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Speaks of the plurality of the
Trinity. Then said I, here am I, send me. He was saying, woe is me, and
now he's saying, send me. He's got a vision of the Lord. He sees Christ as prophet, priest,
and king. Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. And remember,
it's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Cleanses
us from all sin. No, the Lord has no secret disciples. I like what old Scott Richardson
said. He said, if the Lord saved you, it'll leak out. It'll leak
out. Folks will know. And we're going to look at this,
too, from John chapter 12 in the morning message. Romans chapter
10. And think of this, whosoever
believes on Christ will not be ashamed, and they'll confess
him as Lord. Brother Matt, did you confess
Christ before he saved you? No, we didn't, did we? We didn't
have any interest in that. Matter of fact, we probably wanted
to be as far away from believers as we could be. I didn't want
to be around them. But now, the Lord saved me, and
he did it all. Romans 10, starting in verse
5, for Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring
up Christ again from the dead, verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. Now here's a verse that gets torn out of context
and folks use what's called the Roman's Road just to try to get
someone to pray a prayer. But in context and what we see
this morning, this is actually very important. that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. The Lord doesn't have secret
disciples. His people will confess his name.
For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. And why are we not ashamed? Because
he did it all. He did it all. And I'm not talking,
I won't guilt anyone into witnessing and all that. If the Lord opens
the door, we just tell the people the great things he's done for
us. That's what witnessing really is. It's just confessing what
he's done. I'm a sinner, I have no hope.
But you don't have to bang the door open. I used to think that
in religion. God will open the door if he's
so pleased. And if he does, just tell him what God's done. Don't
be afraid. We'll see that today. Don't be
afraid. Oh, God is great and greatly
to be praised. These last two verses in verse
9 and 10 will actually tie right into the morning message. And I'm going to read them, and
I just want you to keep them in mind as we look at this morning's
scripture in John chapter 12, because we're going to see them
come alive. And now we've seen that when
a man gets a vision of the Lord, when he sees the Lord, He sees
what he is, he confesses him as Lord. Look at verses 9 and 10. And
he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand
not, and see 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. So keep those
two verses in mind as we go into the Sunday morning message, because
like I say, we're going to see it come alive right before our
eyes.