Our thoughts this morning will
centre around this passage from Isaiah chapter 6. And we trust
that the Lord will be pleased to minister to our hearts from
the things that the prophet has recorded there for us. The opening verse of the chapter
says this, 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." This vision, this person that
Isaiah saw is the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we begin our thoughts
this morning, I want us to realize and recognize that it is the
Lord Jesus Christ that is always the one who reveals himself to
men. It is the Lord Jesus whom we
seek to see today. The one in view in Isaiah's prophecy
is the Lord Jesus Christ. For though we do not divide,
the Trinity, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not divide them up and
separate the Lord Jesus Christ from these other two persons
of the Godhead. Yet it is always the Lord Jesus
Christ who speaks to men. It is always the Lord Jesus Christ
who is seen of men and women. It is always Christ who declares
himself and reveals himself and he shows himself to us in our
need. Indeed, when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world, first of all in the incarnation as he
came as that little child and as he lived upon earth and began
his own ministry, he declared, no man hath seen God at any time. So therefore, when we hear Isaiah
saying that in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, then we recognize
that this is the Lord Jesus Christ, for no man has seen God at any
time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And so
here is Isaiah seeing Christ in this prophetic vision so many
years before the Lord Jesus Christ actually came into the world.
Yet, Isaiah was granted this glimpse in his prophetic capacity. As a prophet of God, in order
to set, as it were, the pattern of anticipation that the church
would expect in days to come, he caught a glimpse behind the
curtain. It's as if it was drawn aside
just a little that he might glimpse something. by which he might
prepare the Lord's people of his own day and subsequently
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We sometimes call these
events in the Old Testament scriptures pre-incarnation appearances of
the Lord. And I'm sure you'll remember
that there are several of them. The Lord was pleased to meet
and minister to Abraham way back in the days of the patriarchs.
And he met him there, one of several who encountered Abraham
as he was on the plain of Mamre, sitting in the entrance of his
tent. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and spoke to him. Or perhaps like Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego when they were taken in that land of exile in Babylon
and because they wouldn't worship the king and the idolatrous statue
that the king raised, they were cast into a furnace. They were
taken and physically manhandled, bound and thrown into the fiery
furnace. And the king looked down from
a high vantage point into the flames. And he said, did not
we cast three men into the furnace? I see four men walking in the
flames. And the fourth looks like unto
the son of God. Lord Jesus Christ made these
appearances at times of miraculous demonstration, at times when
his people had great need for him. The Lord Jesus Christ came
in this pre-incarnate body and spoke to men and women. And here we see another example
of that. Isaiah is given a glimpse. Isaiah
is caused to see the Lord Jesus high and lifted up. And I think as I read these verses
of Isaiah, that every word of description that Isaiah is caused
here to lay before us just drips with significance and meaning. He saw the Lord, not another. He saw the Lord. This was no
angel. This was God Himself, the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say to you this morning,
wherever you have come from, wherever this week has held for
you, wherever your mindset is with regard to these matters
of spiritual truth and divine revelation, the most important
thing that will ever happen to you in your life is that you see the Lord. That's
what we need, and that's what I crave this morning. That's
what I desire for myself, and it is my prayer for you too,
that we might be given the gift, the grace and the mercy, the
blessing from on high that we might, by faith this morning,
see the Lord. He saw the Lord, and he saw the
Lord sitting down. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord sitting. That speaks of ruling and settled. It speaks of the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ, when Isaiah here saw this, was ruling His creation. And He was settled
in His seat of power. It's a lovely picture. But let
us not imagine that though the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of
to us now in these days as being seated at the right hand of God
on high, that he is in some way not concerned or engaged with
this creation of his. The Lord Jesus Christ has completed
His work. He declared on the cross, it
is finished. But that was the work of redemption.
That was the work of reconciliation. That was the work of atonement.
The Lord Jesus Christ is still active. The Lord Jesus Christ
is still engaged. Even in heaven, right now, He
is interceding for His people, for us. For those who have seen
Him, for those who trust Him, for those who know Him, He is
interceding in heaven for us with His Father. One God, one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And that activity, that engagement
is also spoken of in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was
seated. Perhaps some of us have had dealings
with law enforcement over the years, and you might have had
to go to court, and you'll see the judge there in the courtroom. And the gavel, is that what they
call it? The wooden hammer, he hits his
desk. What does he say? Bang! The court
is in session. What does session mean? It means seated. It means the
judge is sitting down, so he's in charge. And everything that
happens then is in his domain. Did you know that? That a judge
in his court has absolute authority. And that is why we can be accused
of contempt of court if we don't do exactly what he says. The
Lord Jesus Christ is in session. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated. The Lord Jesus Christ has absolute
authority. The gavel has been banged and
he who has ultimate authority in the court of his purpose and
his will will not be contemptuously dealt with. Oh, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man sows, that he shall also reap. And there is a day of accountability
coming in the courtroom of our God, when all men will give a
reason for the things that they have said and the things that
they have done, nay, the things that they have thought. Let us not be contemptuous. In
this courtroom of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ is in session. as I saw the Lord sitting upon
a throne. That throne speaks of his majesty
and his power. It speaks of his dominion. It
is a king who sits upon a throne. But it's not the throne that
makes the king. It's the king who makes the throne.
And it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is king. That seat upon which
he is seated is his throne, bespeaking the dignity that attaches to
his person. The Lord Jesus Christ has rule. He is King. And as He, as King,
sits upon His throne, so His majesty, so His dominion, so
His power, so His sovereignty extends to the ends of the earth,
to the depths of this universe, to the end of eternity. The Lord
Jesus Christ is in control. Who art thou, O man? Which one
of us could bear to stand before the glory of Almighty God, seated
there upon His throne? Do you remember what used to
happen when an individual had to go? So presumptuous was it
that we should stand before a monarch. that if we dared to go before
the king and stand before his throne, we did not know whether
we would live or die, depending upon the whim of that one who
sat upon the throne. Men didn't go and see the king
for no reason. They had to have such a cause
that they would rather die than not be heard before the king. And what did the king have to
do? He had to extend the scepter. He had to extend his scepter,
and if the scepter was extended, then the audience would be granted. Here Isaiah sees the Lord high
and lifted up. The Lord is seated upon his throne. The height, the view, The scale
and dimensions of this vision which Isaiah has speaks of the
glory of this King. He is high. He is glorious. He is honored by angels. He is praised by men. He is the
focus of attention of the church of the firstborn. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And He's lifted up. honoured
and praised, worshipped and adored, lifted up in the hearts of his
people, lifted up in the voices of those angelic choirs that
sing his praises and do his will day by day, moment by moment. And his train filled the temple. I saw the Lord seated upon a
throne, high lifted up, and his train filled the temple. His
train filled the temple. Four little words, and yet in
those words, simple as they are, there is a wonderful depth of
meaning. Five words. Is it five? His train filled the temple.
I just said train filled the temple. His train filled the
temple. Forget the arithmetic. The temple is the place of worship. The temple is the place where
the church gathers to honor its God. This temple, in which the
train of the Lord so occupies it, is speaking of God's people,
speaking of you and me. Those who love the Lord is speaking
about the church. What Isaiah was seeing here was
a picture, not of an ancient medieval monarch sitting upon
his throne, but he's seeing a picture of Christ ruling in his church.
He's seeing Christ lifted up in the midst of his people. He
is seeing the train of Christ filling the minds and the thoughts
of the temple or the church of his people. And Christ's train
is his holy works. It is all that he has accomplished. It is all that he has achieved.
All that he has done for his beloved people. The Lord Jesus
Christ existed from all eternity. He was the one who stood up in
that eternal court of the Godhead and said that he would enter
into covenant for the sake of the people that he loved. And
from the beginning of time, from that first moment when God said,
let there be light, from that first moment when the creation
took place, this was the voice of Christ speaking. This was
the voice of our God. And the Lord Jesus Christ created
all things. And He has lived all those years
and He revealed Himself to men. But one day, one day at the appointed
time, he came into this world. He breached those two different
realms. He came from that spiritual realm,
that holy realm, that heavenly place, and he broke through into
this material world. And he came as a little child
from the realms of glory, from seated high on those thrones,
being praised by angels. He came as a little baby and
he was born in a manger. And this, the creation The providential
unfolding of the purposes of God throughout all history. The incarnation that was praised
by the angelic hosts there at Bethlehem all those years ago. and the miraculous works which
he did, the words that he spoke, the redemption he accomplished,
the atonement that he secured, the salvation that he won, the
ascension, the resurrection and ascension that he accomplished. All these things, all these things
are the train of our Savior that fills the temple. The people
of God look on the works of Christ, the accomplishments of their
Savior, and they rejoice as they see the fullness of the accomplishments
of our God. Every act, every word, every
thought, every miracle speaks of the filling of the praise
of His people in the temple of God. train the procession of
Christ's accomplishments, thrill his church and thrill his people. Is it not so? Is it not so? We rejoice week by week to hear
of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has done and his train
fills the temple. But there's even a level beyond
that because In the olden days, it was the
king's attendants that were meant by his train. Yes, we know about
the idea of the robe that perhaps a bride would have her train
at her wedding, or the robe that a king would wear as he went
in procession, and we speak of that as being the train. But
in truth, the reality was that when this first was done, it
was those people who gathered around the king, his attendants,
that were first meant as the train. Last week we were travelling
through Dutton and we saw a surprising thing on our way. There was a
train in the middle of the village. It had its engine and we sat
at the lights and we watched this train with its carriages
passing. Do you know there were over a
hundred carriages in that train? I've never seen a train that
size before. We have three or four carriages
where I come from. There was over a hundred on that
one. And we look at it and we say,
well, that's a big train. But actually, it's not really
the proper use of the word. The word is, look at those engines
with the train of carriages behind them. We call it a train because
the engines draw the carriages behind them. And it's that drawing
That is the sense when we understand the train of the Lord that fills
the temple. It is those of his people, his
attendants, his followers that are drawn together. all united like the carriages
of the train and drawn by the power of those engines. This
is the picture that Isaiah saw, not of a train on tracks, but
of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ, gathering his people, drawing
them together, his retinue, his attendants. His train and bringing
them to Himself. He saw the church of Jesus Christ. He saw you and me. He saw our
brothers and sisters from other towns and cities, those who worship
God in spirit and in truth, from other lands and countries. wherever
the Lord's gospel has been sent, wherever the power of the Holy
Spirit has awakened and enlivened and quickened one and another,
shown them the gospel, shown them the Lord, granted the gift
of faith, wherever that has happened, and the Lord's people have been
drawn together, so His train has been united together with
Him. The Lord drawing His people behind
Him. Children of God, little flock
for whom Christ died, we are they who populate the temple. We are His train. And He has
brought us together. Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord
Jesus Christ surrounded by all His blood-bought people, worshipping
Him, praising Him for all that He had done. For did not He say,
I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me? And we see Him
here in Isaiah's prophecy, lifted up. And as the Lord Jesus Christ
was lifted up upon that cross, as the Lord Jesus Christ opened
His arms, extended His arms, and laid bare the palms of His
hand, as He was crucified, as He was set there between God
and man, so He was lifted up from the earth. And so by the
means of his sacrificial death, he has drawn his people to himself,
the train that fills the temple. In the year that King Uzziah
died, people that are smarter than me reckon that that was
around about 750 years before the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. the year that King Uzziah died. He's a historical character.
And Uzziah's reign amongst the Jewish people was a long reign,
comparatively, and it was a prosperous reign, comparatively. But Uzziah's
reign was characterized by one rebellious act for which he is
remembered. And this happened in his old
age. It happened when he was a mature
man. He entered the temple there in Jerusalem. And he entered
the temple in order to offer incense before God in the place
of the priest. That was Uzziah's crying. Lord, keep me faithful in my
old age. Keep me faithful. He'd lived
prosperously all his life and in his old age, in his old age,
he took incense into the temple and he did what was not his job. He did something he had no right
to do. God had set a pattern. These
priests that offered incense before the altar spoke of the
only way. People say there are many ways
to God. Many ways to God. You get as
many people and they'll find as many ways. Everybody finds
their own way. And all the religions have got
an equal say. Well, God doesn't say that. God
says that there is one way. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth and the life. And you may not like that.
And you may speak against that. That might cause the hackles
in your neck to rise and say, well, that's presumptuous. Well,
just be careful that you're not guilty of contempt of court. Because God has spoken. And He says there is one way.
And in the Old Testament dispensation, a priesthood was established
in order to speak in picture form of the Lord Jesus Christ's
priestly office. It is Christ and Christ alone
who is our High Priest. It is He alone who can go in
before the Father and speak on our behalf. It is only Christ,
and that's why we must come to Christ Because we cannot go to
God alone. We will die. That scepter will
never be extended to a sinful man who dares present himself
before the throne of God. Death accompanies the sinner
in the presence of a holy God. An advocate is required. An intercessor
is needed. A sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled that priestly office. For only the priest could
go before God in that holy place. And the Lord Jesus Christ, of
course, is also the sacrifice that was offered. And in that,
he performed a unique role. For he was both the sacrificial
lamb and the one who offered the blood upon the altar. Uzziah
ought to have known better, but in his pride, in his haughtiness,
in his own lifted up ideas of himself, he went before the Lord
with this incense, and he was withstood by the priests. And
at that moment when those priests put their life on the line by
standing between him and the altar and refusing to let him
pass, they were dead men walking at that stage. Josiah could simply
have said, sweep them out of my sight. But he didn't get the chance
because leprosy struck him there in the temple. and it broke out
on his head. Shortly after it, Uzziah was
separated from the people. He had to live, we're told, in
a separate house. And when he died, he was buried
in a separate place away from all the other kings. And I don't
doubt but that there is a connection here between the fact that this
was the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the Lord
high and lifted up. Because men will go to the grave
and men will go to their long sleep. Men will go to that place
that they are sent in separation from God. And the Lord Jesus
Christ will be vindicated and he will be honored. The contrast
is stark. Uzziah paid the price for denying
God's way and he fell in that moment. The Lord Jesus Christ
is lifted up as representing his people and fulfilling all
the obligations of the covenant of grace, that agreement between
the persons of the Godhead. Look at verse 2. Above it, that is the throne
in which the Lord Jesus Christ is seated, above it stood the
seraphims. This is a plural word, seraphim,
and it means burners, burners. So like something that a flame
comes out of. And it speaks of energy. and
it speaks of purity and it speaks of holiness. These were burners. These seraphim were burners.
Now, we often think about them as angels. That's probably incorrect. Rather, we should think about
it as a manifestation of the glory of God. The manifestation
of the glory of God. When these creatures if that
be what they were, were seen by men. They were a manifestation
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they surrounded the
throne of God. They were witnesses, as it were,
to that glory, declarers of the glory. They burned forth the
glory of God. Okay, so what have we said here?
We've said that The train filling the temple is a picture of the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who then are these burners? These
burners are those who declare the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the midst of his church. The seraphim are the preachers
of the gospel, the preachers of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what gospel ministers
do in the temple of God's people. They lift up the glory of Christ. They lift up the holiness of
the triune God. They declare His works and His
ways and His purposes and His ends. They declare all His accomplishments. and they show that he is the
only able saviour of sinners and they encourage men and women
to lay hold upon him by faith and to place their trust in the
completed work of this glorious saviour. Isaiah's vision was
an audio-visual experience. Isaiah both saw The Lord lifted
up and he heard the Lord speaking. And a true burner, a faithful
minister to the souls of God's people, declares the holiness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not our holiness, no point in
me coming here today and blowing smoke at you. There's no point
in me coming telling you how good you are and how well you're
doing and how proud I am for all your accomplishments, because
at the end of the day, I'm sorry to say, like it or lump it, it
doesn't amount to a heap of beans. But the Lord's different. The
Lord's different. And a faithful preacher preaches
up the Lord, and he preaches down the man. And this is what
the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. Christianity is not about our
happiness. It's not about us having fulfilled
lives. It's not about us accomplishing
our potential. It's about the way that God has
established for bringing sinners to himself. And if you're a sinner,
then you need to come to Christ, to God by Christ. It is the only
way we can approach the holy God and he is the one who has
secured that perfect salvation and access. We are called to
realize that the whole earth is full of His glory. And when we understand the nature
of His sovereign purposes, His dominion in all things, when
we see that particular grace being demonstrated, that definite
people being gathered in and drawn together, when we taste
the grace of God in our own souls, we understand The glory of God
fills the whole earth. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
try to save people. He saves them. He's the King. The Lord Jesus Christ isn't out
there fishing, hoping that he's going to catch somebody unawares. The Lord Jesus Christ draws them
together and he fills his temple. He fills his church with every
last one that is his own. We're told here that when these
burners, these seraphim spoke, that the posts of the door moved. And when the Lord Jesus Christ's
holy sacrifice for sin is declared by the ministers of the gospel
temple, the doorposts move. That's what happens. When the
gospel is preached faithfully, the doorposts move. What does
that mean? Well, have you ever seen doorposts
moving? What happens when doorposts move? The door opens. It has to open
because it doesn't have anything to hold it anymore. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing when the gospel is preached.
He has opened the door, the door of access into the temple, the
door of access into the church. When the gospel is preached and
the doorposts move, the door swings open. The Lord Jesus Christ
shows himself as a willing and able Savior. He draws his people
by himself through the door. He declares, I am the way, I
am the door. This is the Lord's description
of himself. Christ is the door into the church,
the entrance for sinners. And that entrance is opened when
the gospel is preached. What about the smoke that filled
the temple? Well, I say this, that while
the door is open in gospel preaching, nevertheless, no man can enter. That door remains hidden to sinners
who may not enter until the fullness of God's judgment against their
sin has been satisfied. In Revelation chapter 15, verse
8, we read these words. The temple was filled with smoke
from the glory of God and from his power. And no man was able
to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven
angels were fulfilled. Yes, the door is open. When the
preaching of the gospel goes forth, the door is open. The
Lord Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who
come unto Him. But the reality is that men don't
come. The reality is that people don't
see, they don't understand. There is a cloud, there is a
smog, there is a smoke, there is a density to their perception
which they cannot probe, they cannot perceive. and the men
and women in the streets around about us. They are going on blithely,
they are going on unconsciously, unaware that they are on the
edge of eternal destruction. And all it would take is a moment
in time and they've got an eternity in hell. The doors open. Let's be physical and practical. That door is open. The gospel
door is open. The preaching of the gospel is
still going forth in Great Falls today. And if men and women would
hear, if men and women could see through the smoke, then they
would understand that there is a door to be found. But it takes
a work of God to open blind eyes. It takes a work of God to remove
away all that cloudiness, all that rubbish, all that trash
which fills our lives. Were these things fearful to
Isaiah or comforting when he saw them? I tell you this, they
terrified Isaiah. When he saw the glory of God,
when he saw the church of Christ, when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ
lifted up in the midst of his people, when he saw and heard
these things, an open door, a redeemed people, the holiness of God,
an entrance concealed by the blinding smoke, there was a mix
of hope and despair. The Lord says in Matthew 7, straight
is the gate and narrow the way which leadeth unto life and few
there be that find it. Isaiah had to understand that
he was a sinner before a holy God. And that's what this vision
gave him. He saw the Lord. And his first
reaction was that he was as a dead man. He confesses his hopelessness. Look at verse 5. 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. Woe is me, I am undone. There is no fitness, there is
no holiness, there is no hope outside of Christ. When the Lord
God begins to save a sinner, he shows him first who he is,
and then he shows him who he is. And that great divide must
be part of our understanding. You've got to know that there's
a holy God to whom you are answerable and accountable. And you've got
to know that you're a worthless sinner who has no rights or standing
in the presence of such a one. There will be no fleeing to Christ. There will be no entrance by
the door until these things have been revealed to your heart and
soul. Confession of sin is the beginning
of grace in the experience of a sinner. Look at verse six. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from the altar. Then flew. I love the speed of
this minister of mercy. He flew. He didn't walk. He didn't even run. He flew. And that speaks of the grace
of God. When a sinner has an understanding
of his need, The Lord Jesus Christ flies to him. When the gospel
is needed to give peace and comfort and hope to a sensitive sinner,
to an undone sinner, the Lord flies to him. Flies to him like
the Good Samaritan, with balm and ointment and comfort and
peace. Do you know anything of that
comfort? You'll know nothing of the comfort if you haven't
experienced the opening, the cutting. The comfort comes when
we've been cut. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
pleased to come and bring alive coal, divine energy, spiritual
life from off the altar of his justice and grace. Isaiah speaks of his unclean
lips. Unclean lips betray an unclean
heart. What comes out of the man is
what defiles him. Our hearts are sinful and our
lips betray it. But the Lord took this coal and
he placed it upon the lips of this sinner. And the Lord's mercy
touches both our lips and our heart. Verse seven says, Thine
iniquity is taken away. Thy sin is purged. What words
these are for any needy sinner. What a wonderful thing to hear.
Thy sin is purged. Your iniquity has been removed. Who did this? Not Isaiah. Isaiah's cringing. Isaiah's saying,
I am done. The seraphim, the gospel minister,
takes the words of Christ. He brings it and applies it to
the heart of the sinner. And God justifies the ungodly. And he does it absolutely. He makes us justified before
his holiness. Iniquity is taken away when it
was carried by the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is purged when it
is washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
great things were accomplished on the cross. That's why we understand
it to be a particular redemption, a limited atonement for the work
is done, but it is applied to the lives, to the experience
of individuals in time through the preaching of the gospel. It is the death of the substitute
that we are here to remember today. The sacrifice that the
Lord Jesus Christ made, the Lamb of God taking away the sin of
the world. It is the fact that sinners are
delivered from judgment because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has accomplished. I'm gonna wrap it up here today
There are some other thoughts which could be taken from the
coming verses of this chapter, but I trust that we've said enough
to be reminded of the wonder of a glimpse of the Lord high
and lifted up. And I trust that the Lord will
be gracious to us and remind us of these things in our hearts
as we seek him day by day. Amen.