All right, now let's take our
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. I'd like to look at verses 5
through 8 of Isaiah chapter 6. I've entitled this message, Those
Called of God. Whenever the Lord calls a man,
calls a woman unto himself, there's some characteristics that's revealed
concerning that person. Isaiah manifests those characteristics. So let's look at this precious
passage of scripture. Isaiah had actually seen, according
to verse 1 of Isaiah 6, Uzziah, King Uzziah, die. And he saw
the Lord high and lifted up. in a way that the Lord was pleased
to reveal himself to Isaiah. And he saw, he said in this vision,
the train of the Lord, the skirt of the Lord filled the temple,
the absolute setting forth of him who is the great high priest. And the seraphims, he saw these
angelic creatures, that were hovering over the throne of God. And they were covering their
faces, and they were flying, and it says that they were crying
one to another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of His glory. Now is that not the truth that
is set forth? We talk about the revelation
of Almighty God in His mercy and His compassion to His people. But that's only heard in the
gospel. That's the only way you hear that. That's the only way
you know that. But it doesn't change the fact that the whole
earth is full of His glory manifesting His power, His Godhead in nature. We look around in nature, we
see the changing seasons. The unity of all this universe
working together so 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. Now when Isaiah saw this, and
here's where we'll pick up, verse 5. Then he said, Woe is me. when the Lord is pleased to call
one of His own or bestow a renewed and powerful awareness of Himself. The first thing that that object
of God's mercy experiences is He's abased. He's brought down
in Himself. The Holy Spirit blessed the proclamation
and the sight of the Lord's holiness that message of the Lord cut
Isaiah to the heart. What he was saying is, oh lamentation,
woe to me, woe to me. He beheld as much of God which
was in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
way we can see God. God Himself is invisible. He's spirit. And everything that
we know or see or behold is in the person of Christ Jesus the
Lord. So Isaiah said, when he saw the
Lord, I saw also the Lord. If you look back in the first
verse of Isaiah chapter 6, in the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw also the capital L, lowercase o, lowercase r, lowercase d,
I saw the Lord Jesus. That's what he's saying. I saw
the Messiah. I saw God's Son as He permitted
me to see Him. And He said, I am undone. I'm cut off to perish. I'm reduced to silence. Why? Why, Isaiah? He said, because
I'm a man of unclean lips. God had called Isaiah as a prophet. And though the message that he
preached was a pure message. This gospel that we preach, it's
the holy word of God. It's the holy gospel. It's referred
to as a treasure in earthen vessels. But this message of the gospel
is God honoring. But Isaiah beheld something of
himself, something of his heart. He knew that there was an attitude
that was still in him that was unbecoming. He said, I'm a man
of unclean lips. He said, listen to Job. When
Job said, Job 42, 5 and 6, I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Behold, I abhor myself
and repent in dust and ashes. That was the same man that the
Lord spoke of, Job. When God said unto Satan, the
Lord said, hast thou considered my servant? Job, there is none
like Him in the earth. A perfect and upright man, one
that feareth God and escheweth evil, shuns it, hates it, despises
it. Every believer will tell you,
I see in me that is in my flesh there dwells no good thing. The
will is present with me, but how to accomplish that which
I would I find not. But that same person that says
that says this, I hate evil. I hate it. I hate it in me. I
hate seeing it in me. I hate seeing it. Oh, the wonder
of being seen by the Lord in the Lord Jesus Christ. The speech of a believer is so
consistent. I'm going to read a Psalm 51. Here's the words of David after
the Lord sent Nathan the prophet. David had fallen into sin and
rebellion against God. Bathsheba had her husband killed.
God sent a prophet. And here's what David said, have
mercy upon me, oh God. According to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity. Lord, don't charge me with it.
I'm guilty, I'm guilty. But Lord, don't charge me. Cleanse
me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions,
my sins ever before me. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned, and I've done. this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me." That's the heart of a believer. Every believer that you talk
to, Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Who shall separate me from the
sin that I see? Back in Isaiah 6, Isaiah said,
woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. And then he said, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He said, everybody in my
midst is just like me. There's none of us. None of us
by nature understand. None of us seek after God. We're all gone aside. None of
us does good. Not one. He said, I'm dwelling
in a wicked place. dwelling in a wicked world because
of sin, and I see it. And the reason for Isaiah's calamity,
he says in the latter part of verse 5, for mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord, Jehovah. There's a different word. I have
seen the King, and seeing the King himself, I've seen God. That's what the Lord said. He
said, you see me, you've seen the Father. The evidence of the
Godhead bodily. Isaiah had seen the Lord and
knew that He was a man of unclean lips, a sinner beholding the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he felt the weight of his unworthiness. Just like Peter, when he witnessed
the draft of fish that were caught after he had attempted to explain
to the Lord. Remember when the Lord told him,
He said, if you caught children, He caught any fish? No, we fished
all night. Hadn't caught any. And the Lord said, cast your
net on the other side. And then Peter, Peter, like all
of us, all of us, all of us, who opens our mouth before our
brain is in gear, he said, Lord, we fished all night. We're professionals. at your word. He says they couldn't
even pull him in. Nets begin to break. And what
did Peter say? Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord. That's a sight of the Lord. The sight of something of His
holiness. Isaiah said, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of people
of unclean lips, because mine eyes have seen the King." And
then Isaiah humbled and made to be honest about himself. Listen to this marvelous passage
here, the next couple of verses in which those called of God
are blessed with the knowledge of God's mercy to them in Christ. Isaiah knew what he was by nature.
But look what the Lord did for him, 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 has touched thy lips, and
thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. He said, I'm
going to show you something. I'm going to show you something
from this live coal. He applied the gospel. I'll show
you this. That live coal is a picture of
the gospel of God's grace. And he said that this seraphim,
a seraphim, a messenger of the Lord, but also a heavenly type
of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is the mediator. Those seraphims that set forth
the glorious Lord himself as the lion of the tribe of Judah,
the man Christ Jesus, the eagle, and the sacrifice, the ox himself,
four faces, and they all set forth Christ as the mediator
between God and man. And that one who is symbolic,
that seraphim, Symbolic of Christ Himself took that live coal. What is that live coal? I told
you it was the gospel. Let me prove that to you. Turn
to Jeremiah 23, verse 29. Jeremiah 23, verse 29. The Lord
said, Jeremiah 23, 29, Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord? and like a hammer that breaketh
a rock in pieces. How was Isaiah going to know
of the mercy of God in Christ? How was he going to know that?
God was going to have to take that live coal, His Word, that's
what it was, the Gospel Himself, and He's going to have to put
it and apply it to Isaiah just like He does all God's people.
He took it He touched His lips, those lips that said, woe is
me, I'm a man, I'm unclean lips. What's it going to take for Isaiah's
lips just like my lips or your lips? What's it going to take
for God to do something? He's going to have to apply the
truth of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and declare Him
in the heart. to be God's Lamb that has put
away the guilt of His people by His own shed blood. He took that live coal, that
fire. That's what Jeremiah, remember
Jeremias, one time he said, he'd been lambasted by everybody he
preached to and made fun of and he said, that's it, that's it.
I said, I quit. I quit. I'm not going to preach
anymore. I'm done, I'm done. But he said
his word was in me like fire in my bones. And I couldn't quit,
I couldn't quit. I had to preach. Here's what
happened to Isaiah. He took that live coal and he
touched his lips, those lips that were admittedly unclean. I don't know how to speak. I
don't know how to say anything honorable. I'm a man. I dwell in the midst of everybody.
And God said, I put away your sin. Touched him. Thine iniquity is taken away. And thy sin is purged. Only God can do that. Only God
can take... One that sees Himself, knows
Himself to be what He is by nature, a sinner. One that has felt and
feels today and every day the weight of His sinfulness. Oh,
but God who will never leave nor forsake His people. Now He's going to grant Isaiah
a renewed assurance of hope. and peace and comfort. Is that
not that which we need? I mean, we look at ourselves
and we know ourselves to be what God says we are. There's none
good, no not one. And in ourselves, we say just
like Isaiah says. But what does the Lord do? In
mercy and compassion, He takes and applies the gospel of Christ
Himself. And Isaiah being slain in his
heart because of his unclean lips, God who is rich in mercy
and compassion sends the truth of the marvelous grace of God
and applies it to him, just teaches him. Isaiah, he needed to be
taught again. Oh, we need to be taught. He
beholds the truth concerning himself. He beholds the truth
of God's holiness and then he sees himself In the midst of
his despair, God tells him, you're iniquity. You're iniquity, thine
iniquity. Yeah, Isaiah, you're right. You
are. You are, son. You are a man of unclean lips. You are a man that lives in the
midst of a people that's unclean, but I've chosen to show mercy
to you. I'm going to have mercy and compassion on whomsoever
I will. How many times do we need to
hear that again? And again and again, Paul said it's for me
to say the same things to you. He said, to me, it's not grievous.
I'll be honest with you, there's been times, so many times that
I've thought to myself, I'll listen to my messages, look over
my messages, and I think, you know, I'm saying the same thing
I said last week. I'm not really saying anything
any different than what I said last week. And I think, I'm so
glad for that. I'm so glad that the Lord would
give me a heart, whether I'm in Isaiah or Matthew or wherever
I am. There's only one message. It's
the message of hope and life and forgiveness to a needy sinner. We need to be told again. Right now, I need to be told
again. How many times have you heard
this? There is therefore now no condemnation. to them that
be in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Now you know the next time I
quote that scripture, I'm going to have to hear it now. Right
now. Right then. That's when you tell a believer
over and over and over what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in
bearing away His iniquity, that His sins have been atoned for. What does that mean? They're
covered. They're under the blood. They're cast as far as the east
and from the west. You're washed in the blood and
God remembers them no more. Will we ever get to a point where
we don't need to hear that? No. And then in verse 8, And
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. Now, in closing, without a doubt,
the Lord doesn't need to ask for information from men. He
said, I heard a voice say, who shall I send? Who will go for
us? You think he's looking for volunteers? You think the Lord
is left to be a beggar? He knows, he knows who he's going
to qualify, he knows who he's going to choose. He told Jeremiah,
he said, before I formed you in the belly, I ordained you
a prophet. And so whenever the Lord qualifies
a man, teaches him the gospel, saves him, teaches him the gospel,
gives him the message and sends him, God knows what He's going
to do. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. But here's one making a statement
out of a willing heart. Who shall I send? And Isaiah
ended up saying, here am I. Send me. You think He wanted
to go? Yeah, He wanted to go. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. looking past Isaiah. This voice
is not directed primarily toward Isaiah. Isaiah is the means.
I'll readily say that. He's the means. But that truth
right there, that revelation is for our understanding that
ultimately that statement right there was sent toward the angel
of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jehovah asked
for the benefit of Isaiah and for us the question that would
settle Isaiah's heart. He who is able and willing to
answer the demands of justice before God and establish the
righteousness of God by His own obedience, and then impute that
righteousness to every vessel of His mercy that believeth,
who is sent of God? Who truly can say, here am I,
send me? Only the Lord Jesus, only Christ
can say this. Aren't you glad that if I'm standing
here preaching the truth of the gospel and say that I I believe,
and I do believe, I do believe that 17 years ago, I believe
the Lord gave me a heart to come to Katie Baptist Church. I believe
that. But let me ask you this, who ultimately is the one sent? It's the one of whom I speak.
He is the prophet of God, not me. What did John say? When they asked John the Baptist,
They said, are you the one? Are you Him? John said, I'm just
a voice. I'm just a messenger. I'm just
a servant. The one that is sent is Christ
Jesus the Lord, the sent one. He alone is the one that every
believer trusts for life eternal. Nobody's looking to me. The one
of whom I speak is the one that every believer looks to. God's
prophet. And when he sends his word through
one of his messengers, it's not the Messiah. Paul said we are
ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. The word is not our word. We're
spokesmen. We say that which the Lord said.
So the sent one is the one who's everlastingly stood as the surety
of the sheep. Who'll go? Christ said, I'll
go. I'll go. And what he did? He went. He
went. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God.
And the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh.
Why? Because he went. He came. Walked
this earth 33 plus years. and has ascended into heaven.
And I'll tell you another thing, he's coming back. I pray that
the Lord be pleased to bless this word again to our hearts,
and that Christ be honored in God's people, made comfortable,
and find some joy and some peace for his sake and our good. Amen.