Isaiah chapter 6, and I want
to read this chapter to us. Isaiah chapter 6, and begin reading
in verse 1 down through verse 13. Isaiah chapter 6. 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. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one having six wings. With twain he covered his face,
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 post 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 people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the
Lord, 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 tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away. Thy sin is purged. Also I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will
go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. And he said, Go, and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see you 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 their hearts, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, Until the cities
be wasted without inhabitants, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord hath removed man
far away, and there be a great forsaken in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tent, and it shall return and
shall be eaten as a till-tree, and as an oak, whose substance
is in them when they cast their leaves. So the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof." And the year that King Uzziah died
was the year that Isaiah saw this vision. He saw several visions
in this book. It's a book of the visions of
Isaiah, we're told in chapter 1. I'm not for sure why that
Uzziah's death is linked to him seeing this vision of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'll give you two or three reasons.
But the first thing I see in this is King Uzziah died. Everybody dies, don't they? Kings
die. If anybody is going to live forever,
you would think it would be a man who is a king who has been set
up to rule and reign over other people. But kings die just like
their servants, just like their peasants. A man may be exalted
to some great position in this life. He may rule nations, have
men to honor him, call him president or king. bow before Him, be ruled
by Him, but in the end that man will die just like everybody
else. Death is no respective person. There's no weapons of warfare
against it. The rich and famous, the kings,
the bankers, the lawyers, great men, mighty men, they die. Uzziah was a king. And yet, he
died. I sometimes wonder, as I've read
this, if this vision Isaiah saw here of the Lord Jesus and His
glory, I wonder if it wasn't to encourage this man of God. King Uzziah had ruled for 52
years. He tried to go into the temple
to offer incense. And they ran him out of the temple
and he became a leper. The judgment of the Lord fell
upon this man. And it so discouraged the people
because he was a good king. But here at his death, Isaiah
saw this vision. He needed encouragement. In the
time of wrath, the Bible says, he remembers mercy. When his
judgment falls, how often, right in the midst of that judgment,
does he show mercy. In the time of wrath, remember
mercy. That may have been why he saw
this great vision at this time. He needed to see this vision. We are told here about this man
Uzziah. You read about him in the book
kings and chronicles, that His reign was a time of prosperity. It was a time that the goodness
of the Lord was manifested to this nation through this great
King. They prospered. They prospered. Sometimes, before a great trial, great blessings come. When this man died, this nation
fell on some hard times. Tough times were coming. Boy,
I read that to you there in the last portion. Go to this people
and make their heart hard. There was going to be a great
forsaken in the land. Tough times were coming. This
man needed to see this vision for the time that was to come.
Somebody said the best time to pray against trials is when you're
not in one. That's the truth, ain't it? And
you've noticed this in yourself. Sometimes when the Lord makes
Hisself known to you and He blesses you, don't it sometimes make
you afraid of what's coming? When things go so well, you get
afraid because you know on the heels of almost every blessing
comes a trial. But sometimes that blessing helps
you get through the trial. This man, this prophet, had a
long time to prophesy. I bet you he never forgot this
vision when times got tough. When times got tough. David said it like this. He said,
In my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, in your
favor, You have made my mountain to stand strong." Boy, the Lord
must have really visited him to make him say it. He said,
I'm like a mountain. I'm like the rock of Gibraltar.
I just feel like I can't be moved. And then the very next line,
he said this, You hid your face, and I was troubled. Boy, I tell
you, we need blessings. We covet His blessings. And sometimes
we need them because of the trials that follow on the hills of these
blessings. Here in verse 1, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord setting upon His throne
high and lifted up. Now who is this that he is talking
about? I want us to see from the Scripture.
I want us to see two things especially, first of all, Who did Isaiah
see? Specifically, who did he see? Well, look over here with me.
I want you to hold Isaiah chapter 6. And I want you to look over
in John's Gospel chapter 12. It's important to understand
who he's talking about because whoever this was, I mean, he
was glorious. He was worshipped of angels.
They hid their faces and their feet. And when this great prophet
saw this vision, it so humbled him that he thought he was ready
to be destroyed. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm ready to perish. Who was
this? So important. So important to
know who this was. If you're in John chapter 12,
and this whole chapter here, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look in verse 23. John 12, 23. The hour is come
that the Son of Man shall be glorified. Speaking of the Son
of Man. Verse 27. He said, Now is my
soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour. But for this cause came I unto
the world. Father, glorify your name. And there came a voice from heaven,
saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. And look here in verse 35. Yet
a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the
light, lest darkness come upon you. And he, for he that walketh
in darkness, knows not whether he goeth. Walk while you have
the light. While ye have light, believe
in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These
things spake Jesus, and departed, and hid himself from them. But
though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. That the saying of Isaiah the
prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. Therefore
they could not believe, because Isaiah said again," and this
is quoted from the chapter that I read you, "...he hath blinded
their eyes, and hardened their hearts, that they should not
see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them." Now here it is, "...these things
spake Isaiah when he saw his glory, and spake of him." Who
is this that Isaiah saw? Jesus Christ, wasn't it? He spake
of Him. I saw the Lord. I lifted up. Who is that? That's Jesus of
Nazareth, the Son of God. He spake of Him. Moses wrote of Him. Isaiah spake
of Him. He said if you had believed Moses'
writings, You would have believed me, for he wrote of me." Brother
Mahan used to say the Old Testament is a hymn book, an H-I-M book. It's all about hymns. There were some fellows, that's
the pastor friend of mine one time, some pastors got together
and wanted my friend to meet with them. And one of the questions
they asked, was how do you preach Christ from the Old Testament? And he said they asked that in
sincerity because they never saw Christ in the Old Testament. And here Isaiah is speaking of
Him. Moses wrote of Him. From Genesis
through Malachi, it's all about Him. We see Him there in prophecies. A virgin shall conceive and bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, God with us."
Who is that? That's a prophecy of him, isn't
it? He's there in promises all through the Old Testament. He's
the promised seed that would come. Lo, I come, he said. That's a promise. I'm coming.
Where did he say that? In Psalms chapter 40. I'm coming. Why are you coming,
Lord Jesus? I'm going to do the will of my
Father. You've been represented by a
man back in the garden, and he let you down. He brought you
into sin. And I'm going to be another representative.
I'm going to do the will of my Father. I'm going to undo the
works of the devil. I'm going to bruise that serpent's
head. I'm coming. I promise I'm coming. We see Him there in pictures
and types and shadows. When you go to the Old Testament
and you see Aaron the priest, when he takes a little pan of
blood and he goes into the holiest of holies and he takes that blood
and he sprinkles the mercy seed and he makes atonement for sin,
who do you see in that picture? Who do you see in that type?
Don't you see Christ the High Priest? who by his own blood
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption? That scapegoat, they called the
scapegoat, and Aaron went and put his hands on his head and
confessed over him all the sins of Israel? Can you imagine how
long that took? What if you were there and he
confessed all of your sins? How long would that take? But
he confessed over that goat and laid all of the sins of the children
of Israel upon the head of that goat. And then a fit man took
him into the wilderness and left him there. And he never came
back. You know what the Bible says about the Son of God? That
He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And that by the
sacrifice of Himself, He put away our sins. You don't have to come to the
New Testament to learn these things either. It's in the Old
Testament. He saw Him and He spake of Him. He spake of Him. How do we preach
Christ from the Old Testament? Just like we see Him. And if you've got eyes to see
Him, He's everywhere. And all you have to do is preach
what the Bible says about Him. And that's what we're going to
look at just for a minute. Isaiah is fake of Him. He's fake
of Him. And notice what else he says
here in John chapter 12 and verse 41. Look what else he says. When he saw His glory. I tell you, if you see His glory,
you'll speak of Him. All of these other things. They'll
be put down. They'll be put away. And you'll
speak of Him when you see His glory. What did Isaiah see? If you want to hold chapter 12,
I may come back there in just a minute if you want to hold
that. But look over here with me back in our text in Isaiah
chapter 6. Look here in verse 1 again. How
did Isaiah speak of His glory? He saw His glory. What did he
see about it? Well, look at this. In chapter
1, look at His name. Look here in verse 1 how he addresses
Him. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord. You know what that word means.
It's a name that those who know something about words tell us
that this name is used to describe God only. It's never used to
describe any mere man. It's the national name for God
among the Jewish nation. This shows us the divinity of
Christ. He's speaking of Christ. And
who does he say he sees? I saw the Lord. I saw God. That's what he's saying. Listen
to Psalms 114 and 7. This word is used there at the
same place. Trembled thou, earth, at the presence of the Lord."
Very same word. At the presence of the God of
Jacob. This is His glory. It's His divinity. It's His name. It's who He is. He's the Lord. You remember when
Jacob was wrestling with the Lord? And the Lord said, Let
me go. He said, I won't let you go,
Lord. Do you bless me? And the Lord
blessed him. And how did Jacob identify him?
I have seen God face to face. Who did Jacob see? Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. Brothers and sisters, listen.
We cannot see God in His very essence. God is an eternal Spirit. He is a pure Holy Spirit. And no man has ever looked upon
Him and lived. You cannot see Him. The only
place God can be seen and known is in Jesus Christ, His Son,
who is God incarnate. Some folks asked me one day,
they said, do you think that we'll see the Father in heaven?
I said, well, sure we'll see the Father in heaven when you
see Jesus. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. If you've seen me, you've seen
God, because in Him dwells All the fullness of the God He had
parted in. He is God. He's the Son of God. He's the Son of Man. What a mystery
that is. But that's who He identifies
here. And here in verse 3, look in verse 3. We've always told
you when you see these words capitalized, capital L-O-R-D,
well, He uses this word here to describe who He saw. In verse
3, And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts. This word Lord here means self-existent,
the Eternal One. Many Jews, they wouldn't even
pronounce this name. They said this name is so reverent.
It is so awesome. It's so high, we will not take
it upon our lips. History has it, the Jewish history
has it. We're not told in this in the
Bible, but the Jewish history has it that Isaiah was killed
because they accused him of blasphemy because he said, I have seen
God. And they said, nobody's ever
seen God. You're blaspheming so they killed
him according to Jewish history. But he saw God, didn't he? He
saw God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look in verse 5 how he identifies
him. Just talking about him and his
glory. Look how he identifies him in
verse 5. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King." You know
what the early church went about preaching? That there was another
King. His name was Jesus. And it got
the leaders so stirred up, it made them afraid. that they went
about preaching there was another king. You know, we pray for our
leaders. We reverence them. Sometimes
we talk about them too much, I'm afraid. Lord, help us and
forgive us. But we do reverence them, don't we? And we do pray
for them. But we have them to know this,
that they have a king over them. They rule under King Jesus. and their heart is in His hands. He sent them where they are.
Our President is there because King Jesus sent him there. And someday King Jesus will remove
him and someday he will go up to heaven and stand and give
account of what he did and the laws he passed and how he reigned. There is another King. One Jesus. He reigns as King. One of the problems with preaching
today, it makes Jesus a beggar. Does it not? He's frustrated. He's wringing His hands. He's
hoping somebody will let Him do something for them. He's hoping
somebody will do something for Him. This Jesus is too small
and He's too weak. Even when you and I read the
Scriptures sometimes, brother, we don't read it slow and carefully
and prayerfully. When we read that He's King of
kings and Lord of lords, oh, do we even begin to understand
what that means? He's King, but He's King of all
the kings. He is King of kings. Can we get
this in our hearts? that he's the king? I want you
to look with me at another place. Look in Jeremiah chapter 10.
Old Isaiah. Look in Jeremiah chapter 10.
And look in verse 6. Jeremiah chapter 10. Look here in verse 6. Look here what the prophet said
about him, speaking of him. Forasmuch as there is none like
unto thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great in might,
who would not fear thee, O King of nations? What a name, what
a title. For to thee doth it appertain,
forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all
their kingdoms, there is none like thee." What a title! King of Nations. That means he's over the nations,
doesn't it? I had to go to prison yesterday
to visit some, and I was sitting there in a big waiting room,
These men kept coming in, and after a while, they filled the
place. I don't know how many there finally was. There was
a crowd of them. I got curious as to what they
were doing there. I suspected something, but one
of them sat down behind me, and I said, What are you fellows
about? And he said, Well, we're religious folks. I said, You're from the same
congregation? Oh, no. He said, We're from Catholics,
and we're from Baptists, and we're from Methodists, and we're
from Presbyterians. And he said, we're ecumenical.
You know, everybody, anybody and everybody. Totally ecumenical,
he said. I said, what are you going to
do back there? He said, well, they've got a bunch of guys waiting
on us and we're going to introduce Jesus to them. You always think
of things to say when somebody gets up and leaves. Are you like
that? Actually, I felt I've got nothing to say. God doesn't love
me. I went back. I thought, you know, how are
you going to introduce him? How do you introduce a king?
What are you going to tell those fellows? We get aggravated. Our president
went over to Saudi Arabia and bowed before the king there.
We got half aggravated at him, didn't we? But what do you do
before a king but bow? You just put your mouth in the
dust and bow, don't you? Before a king? How do you introduce
a king? What words do you use to introduce
Him? I just wonder if they read the
vision of Isaiah. We saw the Lord. We saw Him high
and lifted up. And His glory filled the temple. And these seraphims were singing,
Holy, Holy, Holy. And they're covering their faces
while they worship. How do you introduce a man like
this? The Lord of Glory, the King of
Kings, introduced Jesus. I just wonder how they introduced
Him. You remember when the Lord sent His service out to say the
meal was prepared, I've killed my oxen, come to the marriage.
The King sent out that command. And then the wedding was furnished
and all the guests come. The king came out. Remember that? The king came in to see the guest. And this one man was there without
a wedding garment on. And the king walks right up to
him and said, Friend, what are you doing in here without a wedding
garment on? Reckon somebody else asked him
that? They may have. But he didn't
listen to them. Man, this guy was having a good
time. He was checking out the food.
He was drinking and being so merry. He was lighthearted, laughing
with all the guests until the king came in. And boy, when the
king spoke, the Bible says he stood speechless. I may introduce Jesus to you.
You go on your merry way. But when the King speaks to you,
He gets your attention. He gets your attention. I may
tell you about the King, and I may read to you about the King,
but He has to introduce Himself to you. And when He does, bud,
it will affect us. What? The King. The King. Oh, the King. The King's heart is in the hands
of the Lord. The King of nations. He tells
us here in our text, in chapter 6, in verses 2 and verse 4, Above
it stood all these seraphims, and they were covering their
faces. These were holy beings, I imagine. I don't know who they
were. I take them to be angels. Others take them to be ministers. But man, they felt unworthy of
His presence. They were humbled in His presence.
They covered their faces as though they were ashamed and humbled
to be in His presence. They covered their feet in His
presence. And they said here, The earth
is filled with your The earth is full of your glory. Everywhere you look, they said,
in this earth, it's full of your glory. When you look around this
earth, do you see the glory of Jesus Christ? You know what His glory is that's
in this earth? He made it. That's His glory. He made it. Go out tonight and
look up in the sky at the multitude of stars that we can't number.
See the moon as it gives light of the night. Get up in the early
morning and watch the sun come up. And watch it give light to
this earth and warm the ground. Who made these things? Jesus
did. The Lord of glory. His earth
is filled with His glory. I look at His glory this morning.
Here's His glory. Because He made you and not you
yourself. He upholds you. He gives you
your being. You live and move by His energy
and His strength. You slept last night. You got
up this morning. You come here to this place of
worship this morning because He gave you His being. He not
only made all things, but He holds it all together. He keeps
everything in its course. You can't even leave these pews
and walk through that door except He gives you the strength to
do it. That's His glory. And boy, you think of 2,000 years
ago, the Creator, this Lord, this King visited this earth
in our humanity. This earth supported Him. He
walked on it. The Creator that made it was
in it and walked on it and lived in it and hung on Calvary's tree
in this world. The greatest thing that was ever
accomplished in this world, we know the exact spot where it
was accomplished, outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. on the cross of Calvary. There
is His glory, is it not? The earth is full of His glory. And now He has sent back His
Spirit, and the Spirit has gone into all this earth, calling
His elect people to Himself, giving them life, washing them
from their sins. Oh, His glory is seen. It has filled this earth. And someday, this same glorious
person is going to roll back the clouds, and heaven and earth
is going to see His face, and He's going to flee away, and
He's going to make all things new. And that new heaven and
new earth is going to be filled with His glory. Everything is for His glory.
Do we see it? Do you see it? As you go to work
tomorrow and as you visit and as you take care of your garden
and watch the farmers in their fields and look up in the sky
and see the mountains, it's full of Him. It's His. It's for His glory. It shows. It manifests in His glory. Look at His position. Look back
in verse 1 again. Look at his position that he
holds. I saw the Lord in verse 1. Where was He? What's His position? Setting upon a throne. That's His position. Well, a
man told me one time, he said, Yes, He is the King. He is the
Lord. He could reign if He wanted to.
Isn't this something, brothers and sisters, how careless some
people read their Bible? You would think a king of this might and glory, you would
think just being told that, it would stand to reason that he
does rule. But he has to go on and tell
people, not only am I king, but I'm the king on his I rule. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians
15 that Jesus Christ must reign until He has put all His enemies
under His feet. He is reigning today. He is the
King of nations. He is reigning over the nations.
He reigns in heaven and He reigns in earth. All power is given
to Me. were in heaven. He does according
to His will there, doesn't He? He reigns there. And in earth
He reigns. Isn't that comforting to you?
We talk about how bad things are going to get. They're talking
now, just read, they say it's just a matter of time. Our money loses its value here
in our country. And our money will be worth about
half of what it is now. That China's going to take over
the world currency and we're going to lose our privilege of
that and how this is going to affect us. We look at the moral
fabric of our country, the families are being tore up. And it's not
just the government passing laws. It's in men's hearts, leaving
their wives and wives leaving their husbands and children.
We're going downhill at breakneck speed, aren't we? We're seeing
this thing come apart right in front of our eyes, and there's
nothing we can do about it. But here's the conflict, brothers
and sisters. No matter how bad things get,
our Savior, our God, reigns in heaven, and He reigns in this
earth. And if we didn't know that, we
would be scared to death. It doesn't matter what comes,
then, does it? It may break our heart. It may
sadden us to see it all. We may shed tears over it all. But I tell you, in the long run,
here's the contract. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is the sovereign Lord upon His throne. He rules in heaven and
He rules in this earth. And David said, therefore, I
will not fear what man can do unto me. He set Him upon His
throne. I want you to turn to another
passage. Look over to Zechariah. I won't keep you for just a little
bit. Look in Zechariah chapter 6. If you go to Malachi, the
last book in the Old Testament, turn back to your left and you'll
run right into Zechariah. Look here in Zechariah chapter
6. Jesus crossed His reign in two ways today. He's reigning
in absolute power. He's the monarch. He's the King
of kings, the Lord of lords. He's reigning. All power is given
to Him in heaven and in earth. And He reigns another way. He
reigns in grace. He reigns in grace. I tell you,
you mix these two things together. You mix power and you mix grace,
and there's nobody that the Lord can't save. He has power to make
a man willing. He can get in a man's heart.
He can break it. He can make him willing in the
day of His power. And when He's made him willing,
He has grace to save him and forgive his sins. Power and grace. Look here at Zechariah. He speaks
of these two things in verse 12 and verse 13. The Jews still
to this very day cannot understand this passage of Scripture because
they never experienced it. They had a priest and they had
a king, but they never had a king who was the priest. And when
the prophets begin to describe Jesus Christ as both king and
priest, ruling and power, and as a priest to save, they cannot
understand who this is. But look what I say. Zechariah
7, verse 12, "...Speak ye unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the
Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the branch,
and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the
temple of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and he shall sit and
rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne."
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Here we've
got power because he's on his throne. But we've got grace because
he's a priest on his throne. Somebody wanted to know one time
why we talk about sovereign grace. Where do you guys get a term
sovereign grace? Sovereign is not even in the
Bible, they say. Why are you always using sovereign grace?
Well, the definition of sovereign. It's free. It's independent. It rules. It reigns. Isn't that what the Bible says?
By one man's sin, end of the world, and death by sin. Now
sin reigns. That's why we're all dying. But
grace reigns through righteousness by Jesus Christ. That's why we
call it sovereign grace. There ain't but one thing that
can reign over sin and death, and that's grace. And Jesus Christ
sits upon this throne of grace, and we're told to come boldly
to the throne of grace. We have a high priest that can
be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Therefore,
come boldly to the throne of grace. Jesus Christ is a sovereign monarch,
and He's full of grace. And you add those two, and He
can save you. He can save you. He can save
anybody. Do you believe that? He saved
you, didn't He? How much power did it save to
break in upon your bent to hell and stop you? How much grace
did it take when He did stop you to forgive you and wash you? Well, we have a good example
of that here in my text. Here this prophet, and he'd been
crying, woe is everybody else, woe is everybody else. The first
six chapters, woe is everybody else. And now he sees the Lord. And oh, he sees Him so high and
holy, and His glory filling the temple. And he says, woe is me,
woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm
undone. I'm undone. I'm coming apart. I'm ready to perish. Surely I
can't stand in His presence. I'm undone. And not only He said
He's undone, but do you remember what He said? Everybody else
is in the same boat I'm in. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. The poor Pope,
he dresses in all this garb, puts on his little sharp pointed
hat, rides around in his Popemobile, and he thinks he's something,
don't he? And you see these people, they think they're better than
everybody else because of the way they dress, the way they
present themselves, what they do and what they don't do. Oh,
there's nobody like me. You'll think that way if you
see the Lord of Glory. But you let Him reveal Hisself
to you, and here's the first thing you're going to say, Whoa,
it's me. Whoa, it's me. God help me. I'm
just like everybody else. I'm like those who are in hell
while I'm here on this earth. I'm as sorry and wretched as
they are. I'm undone. That's what men need to see.
That's what men need to see. They need to see Him. We've looked
at one another. We've looked at ourselves long
enough. And how is it effective? We need to see Him. Oh Lord,
give us a vision of Yourself, of Your glory, Your beauty, Your
highness, Your holiness. Let us see it. And boy, there He stood. And
what happened? This seraphim ran with his tongs
and he got a cold. off of the altar of burnt sacrifices. You remember what was on that
altar? The sacrifice was. And He came
and He laid it upon His mouth and He said, Your iniquities
are taken away. That word taken away means thoroughly
gone. They are gone. They are taken
away. Thoroughly gone. And He said,
Your sin is purged. What is sin? That's what we are,
isn't it? And the word purged there means to cover. Your sins
are covered. Your iniquities, what you're
doing, they're all taken away. They're gone. And what you are
is covered. Ain't that wonderful? I used
to, I didn't like that word covered, because I thought it was just
trying to hide something. I'm glad something's hid. Aren't
you? Aren't you glad you're hid? You
see yourself. You see your sin. You cry, oh,
wretched man that I am. But that's all covered. It's
covered. God can't see it. When He sees
me, He sees the blood of the Lamb. He sees me as perfect and
not as I am. Aren't you thankful for that? This is the King of Glory. And
then he says this, and one more minute, give me one more minute.
Back in our text, he says this. He says, you go to this people.
You go to the people. Here's the message. You go to
the people. And make their heart, make the
heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy. Make them shut their eyes, lest
they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand
with their hearts and be converted, and I shall heal them." How long,
Lord, do you want me to do this until there's nobody left? There's
nobody left. How does preaching Christ harden
men's hearts? He said, go and harden their
hearts. I read it to you over in John
chapter 12. He quoted this, and he said they
could not believe because Isaiah said he's hardened their hearts.
made their ears heavy and closed their eyes. How does preaching the truth
harden men's heart? How does it cause men to shut
their eyes and stop their ears? Here's the way it happens, brothers
and sisters. Don't forget this. Here's the
way it happens. When God sends the truth to men,
When men are made to face the truth, they see it, they hear
it, and God doesn't give them grace to submit and believe it.
The heart is hardened. The Lord said, Because I tell
you the truth, you won't believe it. Until you are faced with
the truth, you won't shut your eyes. You won't stop your ears. But let a man, an unregenerate
man, share the truth, and if God doesn't give him grace, what
does he do? That's a hard saying. I don't
like that. The Lord told those people in
John chapter 6, He said, I'm the bread that came down from
heaven. If you don't eat of this bread, you'll die. The man that
eats of this bread shall live forever. I am that bread." And
they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? The Lord said,
does this offend you? Did I not tell you that no man
can come to Me except My Father which sent Me draw him? And when
they heard that, they said, we don't like that. And they went
away and walked with Him no more. Though He had done so many miracles
among them, yet they believed not on Him. It's not enough for me to get
up here and preach to you. It's not enough for you just
to be confronted with the truth. If that's all, if that's all,
you'll rebel against that. You'll close your ears, you'll
shut your eyes, and you'll go on. And you say, I hate that. I hate that. That does me no
good. I go there and that man just
discourages me to death. I hate it. I hate the God and
I hate His doctrine. I hate Him. But boy, let grace
come with truth. Jesus Christ is not only full
of truth, He is full of grace. And when grace comes with truth,
And grace breaks the heart. Grace softens the heart. Then
the eyes are opened. The ears are unstopped. And truth
is received and loved. And aren't you glad He closed
this chapter and He said, Go, the most of them are going on
in their way until the land is desolate. Yet in it there shall
be a temple. which shall return." Oh, bless
God for His electing love. That's a hope of any man, ain't
it? Everybody's going. Everybody's closing their ears.
Everybody's stopping their eyes. But this sovereign Lord makes
this wonderful statement. He makes this prediction. He
gives us this promise. I've got my remnant in them.
I've got my sheep. Most of them are lost, but they're
going to return. When they hear the message, they're
coming. Mine are coming. I'm going to
find them. Oh, bless God for you. Aren't
you glad that you're one of them? When you were sitting just like
you are this morning, and somebody's sitting right next to you, and
he found you, and they got mad and left. Aren't you glad? Oh, I saw the Lord. I saw the
Lord. May He give you eyes to see Him
today. And though it bow your heart like it did this man, he'll
say to you, here's my blood. Your iniquities are gone. Here's
my righteousness. Unclothe the shame of your nakedness.