Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me again to the book of Isaiah. I started to say Hebrews. Turn to Isaiah. Isaiah 1. We are continuing in our study
of the book of Hebrews. And I want to read again that
verse that we've been in now for quite a while, Hebrews 11. And verse 32 says the Apostle
Paul saying, And what shall I more say? For the time would fail
me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of
Jephthah, and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. Let's pray together. call this evening upon your holy
name. Lord, we know that we are what
we are by your grace. Lord, that outside of Christ
we have no hope. Heavenly Father, I ask you this
evening to bless your word as we look into the blessed grace
that has been shown your people, the faith, of your elect. We ask you now, cause us to hear,
help us to worship. For it is in the name of the
Lord Jesus we pray, Amen. Well, having considered the faith
of the judges, those that were raised up as governors during
the time before the Lord sent a king unto Israel, he would
raise up judges. And tonight, we want to begin
in that portion of Scripture that Hebrews 11.32 deals with,
and it says, and the prophets. And I'd like to, this evening,
begin with the first prophet that is actually labeled a prophet,
though Samuel was. But we want to deal with the
prophet Isaiah. Now, Isaiah, his name means salvation
of the Lord, or the Lord will save. In Isaiah's ministry, if
you look in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 1, it covered the reigns
of four kings. The Scripture says, "...the vision
of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem
in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah." Now, the summary of Isaiah's ministry may be found, and I
say may be found, there's a lot of scriptures, a lot of chapters
in these books, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, There
is a lot of revelation that has been given concerning Israel
through the Spirit of God preaching through these men. But the summary
of Isaiah's ministry may be found in this verse right here, Isaiah
42.4, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ shall not fail nor be
discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth. That is
to say, he's not going to fail until he has absolutely, completely
satisfied the justice of Almighty God for the sins of his people. He's not going to fail to establish
righteousness for his elect by his perfect obedience to God's
law. And He is not going to fail to
atone for their sins. He is not going to fail to bring
every object of God's mercy to the Father. Matthew 1.21 says,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Isaiah prophesied. of the absolute surety of the
salvation of God's people. Now, I want us to look concerning
the faith of Isaiah. I want to look first of all at
the vision. Now, I'm going to actually deal
in the study of the faith of Isaiah basically in mostly two
chapters. Chapter 1 and chapter 6. We go
to Jeremiah, And then to Ezekiel, I will go through more of the
chapters in this. But for the book of Isaiah, I
want to deal with chapters 1 and 6. Now I want you to turn with
me to chapter 6, Isaiah 6. And here's the vision of Isaiah. Let's read verses 1 through 4
of Isaiah 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. And above it stood the seraphims,
and each one had six wings, and with twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke." Now here we see Isaiah being given a revelation, a vision,
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest, the King, sitting
on His throne. Now, Isaiah said that this particular
time that he saw this vision was in the year that King Uzziah
died. Now, King Uzziah reigned with
honor, the Scripture says, before the Lord. 2 Chronicles 26.16
says this about King Uzziah. And you go back and you read
the record of Uzziah. And he was a faithful man. He
walked, he did that which was pleasing, the Scripture says,
in the sight of the Lord. But 2 Chronicles 26.16, when
he was strong, His heart was lifted up to his
destruction. For he transgressed against the
Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense
upon the altar of incense." Now, that which pictured the intercessory
merit of the Lord Jesus Christ the prayer, the pleadings of
Christ our great High Priest. That is what is pictured. Whenever
that priest would go into that tabernacle, into that place that
was reserved only for the priest, a picture of Christ, And he would
go in and he would put incense upon that altar. And that altar
then, because of the fire that was on that altar, would just
produce smoke from the incense. And it was a sweet-smelling savor,
a picture of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that could only be performed by the priest. They pictured Christ and no one
else had the right or the power or the ability to be able except
for the Lord Jesus Christ to approach the Father and plead
His own merit. Well, King Uzziah, he got to
be strong and lifted up in pride. He put his hand. to do what was
only reserved for the priest. The priest tried to stop him.
King Uzziah, you know, it appertaineth not unto thee to do these things. And the Scripture says that he
was determined, bound and determined. And he did it anyway. And while
they sat there and looked at him, God struck him with leprosy. And He took him out. put him in a house that was reserved
for lepers, and he died that way. Now he was saying in his
actions, because I'm strong, because I think I have the right,
because I think I have the ability, I can approach and appease God
on my own merit. I can approach the Lord and I
can approach God in my ability and my wisdom, according to my
will and my pleasure. And Almighty God struck him. And he died an outcast. In that year, Isaiah said, I
saw the Lord. With eyes to see, I saw the Lord
Jesus Christ." I brought this up a week or so ago. Looking
at the wording of that in the year that King Uzziah died, I
saw the capital L, little o-r-d. That is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Isaiah said, I saw Him. I saw
the Lord Jesus in His mediatorial glory. He saw the One that visibly
spoke with Moses face to face. Now this was before He actually
came, Mark, into this world, made of a woman, made under the
law. This is the One that came and visited Abraham. before the
fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. The one who Proverbs 8 says was
ever before the Father. He had not always taken upon
Him flesh. When He pleased God, a body was fitted Him. But He's always been. He's always
been the Lord. And Isaiah said, I saw Him. Here was Almighty God. The triune God that no man has
seen being declared by the Son. And Isaiah said back in Isaiah
6-1, he said, I saw the Lord sitting. The King finished work. reigning, sitting upon the throne,
high and lifted up above all other, and his train, his skirt
of the priest, whenever the priest would enter in, the priestly
garments, the skirts that would go down to the ground. He said that was his train. And
his train, his skirt, filled the temple. The glory of his
priesthood. Priesthood is kingship. Fill
that temple. And then above that, he said
in verse 2, the seraphims, ministering spirits, these seraphims, these
glorious creatures that I truly believe, having looked at that,
I've mentioned this to you before, but the seraphim, The same thing
as the cherubs there. One plural, one singular. But
these seraphims, these glorious creatures, these were that which
represent and declare the glory of Jehovah. The capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D. They describe the glory of the
triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit through and by the mediatorial
office of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had four heads, four faces
on these seraphim. The face of a man. The face of
an ox. The face of an eagle. The face
of a lamb. And it says that these seraphim,
they had six wings. And with two of them, they covered
their face. Now, so much can be said symbolically,
I know, of this, but I truly believe that these wings covering
their face, now these are the divine symbols. They are divine symbols of these
angelic These burning ones is what the Scripture calls them.
And they are setting forth the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
who alone declares the triune God that no man can see. These
were the creatures that were on top of the mercy seat, those
golden cherubim. And their wings touched each
other. And the Lord told Moses, He said, I'll meet you between
the cherubim. That's where I'll meet you. Inside
the temple when it was built of Solomon, there were big cherubs
inside that temple. Palm trees. These cherubs were
Amazing, and as you read in the book of Ezekiel, you'll find
them again. The first chapter of Ezekiel, when Ezekiel, he
said, I was by the river Kibar. And he said, I saw this vision,
it was an enfolding fire that was coming toward him. And he
saw the cherubim and the wheels of God's providence. But these
cherubim, Their wonderful descriptions, setters forth of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But they were above. And they
had six wings. And two wings, they covered their
face. That is to say that no man can
look upon God or know His ways. He must be declared. No one can
see. No one knows. Two of them, they
covered their feet. What does that say? No one knows
the way of God. We walk by faith. And with two,
they did fly ever swift in the way of salvation and the guiding
protection of God's own. And these seraphim engaged in
a solemn worship. And they cried, they called out
or they proclaimed unto one another, Holy, Holy, holy is the capital
L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Holy, holy, holy is the triune
God, the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And so excellent, so glorious
is the worship of these seraphim. that the Scripture says that
the door of the temple was moved, and the whole temple was filled
with the smoke, with the divine intercession, the worthiness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Isaiah, in his vision, this
is when the Lord revealed Himself to me in the year the king of
Zio died. Almighty God, in the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He was sitting upon a throne
high and lifted up. And the train, the skirt of His
worthiness, His priesthood, filled the temple. And then the conviction. What happened to Isaiah? In Isaiah 6, verse 5, it says,
Then said I, When I saw it, 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, the prophet Isaiah. He knew something. concerning
man's depravity. Turn back, flip back to chapter
1. Let's look at verses 2-6. He
knew something of the general state of mankind as he's born
in Adam. This is what he knew. Chapter
1, verse 2, Here, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the
Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they've rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know,
my people doth not consider. O sinful nation of people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors,
they have forsaken the Lord. They provoke the Holy One of
Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward.
Why should you be stricken any more? ye will revoke more and
more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head. There is no soundness in it but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isaiah knew. Isaiah knew that man by nature
is an evil creature born in sin. comes forth from his mother's
womb, speaking lies. A hater of God. One left to himself
that doesn't know God. Not an ounce of goodness in him
from his foot to his head. Just sores. Spiritual. Spiritual. Death. Depravity. But the Scripture says, when
I saw the Lord, I said, woe is me. You know, it's one thing to know
that the whole earth is bound up in wickedness. But boy, it's
a revelation from God when Almighty God reveals that I'm the sinner. I'm the one. I tell you, my biggest
enemy is myself. How many times have I said this,
and mean it again and again and again, how it grieves me to see
the inconsistency of my heart. How it grieves me to see my lack
of sincerity in prayer. The lack of attention in reading. How many times have I read? I've been trying to read these
chapters right here. Mike, I'll get down and all of
a sudden I'll think, wait a minute. Let me just back up about 10
verses here and start this over. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me
for my lack of attention. I know that man by nature is
an evil creature, but Isaiah said in the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord, and then I said, woe is me! I'm undone. Isaiah saw himself a sinner. Isaiah saw himself a rebel. And Almighty God gave him a heart
to readily admit it and to believe, I'm just like everybody else.
When a man sees himself as a sinner, unable, Unable to do anything
to merit, to produce, to reconcile himself back to God. That man,
right there, has been taught of God. Isaiah was just overcome
with a sense of his own unworthiness. Brethren, that's a wonderful
place to be. It's like a catch-22. You just feel so dejected. You just feel in yourself. I
tell you what, that's the way a believer is, but there's just
nothing there to find any comfort in, in yourself. I was listening to a message
about Brother Henry the other day. He said he was listening
to a fellow A few years ago, now this tape was probably 10,
12 years old. And he said, I was listening
to a guy the other day, and he said, I could tell that he just
didn't have any comfort at all. He had no comfort in salvation. And he said, I got to listening
to what he was saying. And he said, I just considered my ways. And he said, I just realized
that there was just nothing in me that merited any hope, any
salvation. He said, I just grieved over
my lack of prayer and I grieved over everything that I've been
saying. Just about that. And Brother Henry said, I realized
why he didn't have any hope. He just kept looking at himself.
He said, you're never going to find any hope in yourself. He
said, you're never going to find any comfort in you. Look inside
and there's nothing. There's nothing but darkness,
sin, just strivings and commotion. Isaiah said, woe is me. I am undone. I'm cut off. That's what it means. I'm undone.
I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. But mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. But here, the Lord is merciful. Almighty God was mercy to one
that He had brought down in Himself. Look at verses 6 and 7. Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me. having a live coal in his
hand, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And
he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy
lips, and thine iniquities taken away, and thy sin has purged."
He's purging. Isn't that some good news? Here's some good news. Here's
what I am of myself. As long as I look at myself,
And I know it woe is me. I know that I am undone. I know
that I'm a man of unclean lips. I know that I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. I've seen the Lord. I've seen
something of His glory. But Almighty God, in absolute
mercy, sends one to take that coal off of that altar and touches
Isaiah's lips. He tells him, he said, listen,
thine iniquity is taken away. Not that you're not in yourself
a man of unclean lips, you are. Not that you're not a sinner
in yourself, you are. But Almighty God has not charged
you with that iniquity. Thy sin is purged. Thy sin, it's
yours. You did it. That's what we are. There's no doubt about it. Anybody
that says he's not a sinner makes God to be a liar if we say we
have no sin. But your sin is purged. Here
was Isaiah, made sensible of sin within, a man of unclean
lips, but the Lord has purged him. Almighty God is taken away,
sends that seraphim, touches him, takes that word, that's
what that coal was, that's a picture of God's Word. Upon his confession,
the application of pardon was rendered afresh. God's preachers,
sinners in themselves, preaching to sinners, and they need some
comfort. They need some help. They need
to be reminded of the assurance of their pardon, that live coal,
the whole Word of God. Jeremiah 23, 29 says, It is not
my word like a fire, saith the Lord. Does it not purge? Does it not set afire our very
heart? I think about those two on the
road to Emmaus when the Lord was speaking to them and says,
in the beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, the law
and the prophets, and He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
those things concerning Himself. And I love that when they said,
did not our hearts burn within us as He opened unto us the Scriptures? Almighty God had mercy upon this
sinner right here. Sent that seraphim, took those
tongs, took that coal of God's Word. It was alive. spoke of
the sacrifice and the pardon. That's why Isaiah's sin was purged. That's why there was no iniquity
charged to his account. God Almighty laid it on his mouth,
not to harm him, not to cauterize him, but to cleanse him. To tell
him, to teach him that your mouth is now clean. Almighty God has given you a
new heart. to speak of the glory of Christ. This has touched thy
lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Oh, the comfort of knowing! Though
I see myself a sinful man, one unworthy, who is sufficient for
these things? Who is sufficient to stand in
a pulpit? What sinner is sufficient in himself? to stand and preach
to other sinners and tell them what Almighty God has to say.
Who is sufficient? Nobody in themselves. Almighty
God calls. Well, that's what He did. Look
at the commission of Isaiah. 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. What a beautiful picture. First
of all, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Almighty God's servant who has
ever stood from before the foundation of the world, ready, who answered
the call of Jehovah. But as a beautiful picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, here's Isaiah. When the Lord said, the
voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
the voice that the sheep hear. My sheep hear my voice. I heard
the voice of the capital L-o-r-t. I heard the voice of the Lord
Jesus saying, Whom shall I send? Men don't put themselves in this
position. God sends them. God raises up
a pastor, rightly has it been said, and men that aspire to
be preachers and to promote themselves. I'm telling you, God's preachers
are not men that elevate themselves to this position right here.
Moses, the Lord called him. A slower speech. Why did Isaiah
absolutely, willingly submit? He had already confessed what
he was. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I'm undone. I dwell in the midst
of a people. The Lord says, I called you.
I called you. Almighty God gave this man a
heart. Almighty God placed within Isaiah
a willingness to obey, to follow. My sheep hear my voice. And they follow me. Who shall
I send? Isaiah said, I am. I will. I'll
go. Send me. I want to. You know
why I came to Katie Baptist Church? Because I wanted to. I wanted
to. This is where I believe Almighty
God gave me a heart to come. I didn't know it for a while. It took a while, but there was
a time when I knew this is the place for me. This is how God
Almighty sends ambassadors of Christ. It gives them a heart. It gives them a desire. They
hear the voice of the Lord. And that call came with the revelation
of the message. God Almighty gave Isaiah not
only a call and a willingness to go, but He gave him a message. Now I want you to listen to this
sovereign message. This is God's sovereign prerogative
concerning salvation. Now you listen. Who shall I send? The Scripture says, send me. I'll go. Verse 9 and 10. And you listen to this message.
Now, this is a message that I'm telling you cuts cross-grain
from the natural man. I'm telling you from verse 9
to verse 13, Buddy, I'm telling you, this is a message that man
by nature will not preach. Man by nature will not stand
up and say this. And I'll tell you why, Mitch,
because he hates what we're about to read. Man by nature hates
what he's about to read. Who shall I send? Send me! Verse
9. Here's the message, verse 9 and
10 first. And he said, Go and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of 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 heart, and convert, and be healed." Those verses that I just read
are so important to the understanding of God's sovereign purpose that
they are quoted no less than six times in the Gospels, Acts,
Romans, Dictalations. I'm going to read you three of
them. The first one was quoted by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
you to turn to Matthew 13. Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verses 10-15. Here's the message. Here's the
message. You go tell them. Hear, but don't
understand. See, but don't perceive. Make the heart of this people
fat, gross, dull. That's what that means. Make
their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with their
eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart
and convert and be healed. You say, that's the message?
That's the message. That's the message. Listen to
what our Lord said, Matthew 13, verse 10. And the disciples came
and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto
them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven. But to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance. But whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore speak
I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing
they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear,
and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see. and shall
not perceive." I want you to look at Acts 28.23. Acts 28.23.
Acts 28.23. And when they had appointed him a day, there came
into him, into his lodging, this is Apostle Paul, to whom he expounded and testified
the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out
of the law of Moses, out of the prophets from morning to evening.
And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed
not. And when they agreed not among
themselves, they departed. After that, Paul spoke one word.
Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers,
saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing, ye shall hear,
and shall not understand. And seeing, ye shall see, and
not perceive. For the heart of this people
is white, gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed. Yes, lest they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." One
more, Romans 11, verse 8. Romans 11, verse 8, according
as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes
that they should not see, ears that they should not hear unto
this day. Here is the truth of God's Word. Unless God Almighty gives life,
unless Almighty God gives faith, unless Almighty God gives understanding
to His people, They are not going to hear. God Almighty has been
pleased to reveal, I am going to send the gospel and there
are going to be many that are going to hear and not going to
understand. They are going to resist. They are not going to hear that. That is a hard saying. When the
Lord sends the gospel, when men hear that gospel, and refuse
to walk in the light of that gospel, that light is darkness
to them. If the light that be in thee
is darkness, how great is that darkness. Doesn't that say that?
How great is that darkness. Verse 10 back in Isaiah 6. Make
the heart of this people fat. How? Make the heart of this people
gross, dull. Paul the Apostle interpreted
those words back in the book of Romans. How? How is the heart revealed? How is the heart of the rebel
revealed? How is it revealed? Not by the
preaching of morality. The heart of the rebel is not
revealed by the preaching of morality and man's goodness. Everybody, Chuck, will go along
with that. Everybody is good with that. I'll tell you how
the heart is revealed. When the gospel is preached. When the gospel is preached.
Here is the gospel set forth, and that gospel If it's blessed
by God's Spirit, it's life. If it's just heard by the natural
ear, man hates it. He refuses to hear. This is God
talking. This is God talking. Isaiah,
who shall I send? Send me! And here's your message. Here's your message. You're going
to be hated for it. They're going to hate you. You
say, they hated me before they hated you. I'm telling you, it
goes so... I mean, here's man's nature and
here's the gospel. It's just sideways. My Word is
not going to return unto me void. It's going to accomplish the
purpose for which it was sent. Isaiah asked in Isaiah 11 and
12, then said, I, Lord, how long? That message you give me, how
long, Lord? How long do I preach that? And
he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
and the houses without man, the land be utterly desolate, and
the Lord, have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking
in the midst of the land." Isaiah did not question God's Word. He merely asked, how long must
this state of things continue? How long, Lord, concerning that
message? How long do you want me to deliver
that message? How long shall this message be
attended to with these effects." How long, Lord? And the Lord
said, until everything else is gone. Until the land is completely
destroyed by divine judgment. Until God Almighty burns it all
up, Mitch. How long is this gospel to be
preached? Until there's nobody else there. How long? But though God's judgment
shall surely be found toward those who hear and refuse to
believe, God has a people that for the
sake of Christ and according to election is not going to perish. Look at this last verse, verse
13. Oh, how thankful. Oh, how thankful. Pat, I could read that. I tell you what, if I'd had to
stop with verse 12, man, there's not a lot of hope there, is it?
But yet, in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall
be eaten as a teal tree, as an oak, whose substance is in them,
when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof." The Jewish nation, the nation of Israel,
you know this, is a type of God's elect. And the scripture sets
forth, in type of Israel, that they are not totally going to
be destroyed. I've still been receiving some emails
this week. And I had somebody tell me this
week, say, you're just preaching half the gospel. I emailed him
back and I asked him, I said, which half am I leaving out?
Let me tell you something. Here's the way it is. In the
garden, man rebelled against God. God is not a tyrant. God Almighty is not a tyrant
sitting up on a throne and saying, I'm just going to see how many
can I just destroy. Man rebelled against God. God put man in paradise, in the
garden. Gave him everything. There was
bliss. There was wonder. There was peace. He walked with
God. Man walked with God. And Almighty
God set bounds on man. You can eat of every tree except
this one. It's one. It's mine. And don't
you take that fruit and don't eat it. Man rebelled against God. Man chose. God told him, in the
day that you eat thereof, Adam, you're going to die. And Adam with his eyes wide open,
wide open, rebelled against God and took that fruit and said,
I'm going to do what I want to do. And he died. He died spiritually. Now man, from that time, you
take Adam, and all of the posterity that came after, you cut a tree
off right at the ground. Let me tell you what's going
to happen to the rest of the branches and all the leaves and
everything. It might not happen in that moment that you see it,
but you just give it a little time. And everything else is
going to die. Man rebelled against God. Man wants to rebel against God. Man is bent on rebelling against
God. And Almighty God sent Isaiah
to say, this is what you're going to do. You're going to hear and
you're not going to believe it. You're going to look at it and
you're not going to see it. Why? Because man is dead. He's dead. God Almighty told
Isaiah, you tell men what they are. Tell them what they do by
nature. But Almighty God is merciful. God is merciful. When someone
declares that God is a tyrant, God is being unfair, God is being
unjust, God ought to give man a chance, man blew it. And he comes forth from his mother's
womb blowing it again. And that's all he'll ever do. But Almighty God, not for your
sake, not for your sake, but for my sake, He said, According
to my mercy, according to my covenant of grace. Because I
love the order of man. And I'm not going to let man
perish. I'm not going to let him perish.
I'm not going to let him do what he'll naturally do. You can't appeal to a man's deadness
any more than you can appeal to a corpse. and expect it to
do anything. It's not going to do it. Life
has got to be imparted. Yet, but yet. In that natural
man, I'm going to have mercy. Show me your glory, Lord. I'm
going to have mercy on whom I have mercy. I'm going to take man
And this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to choose to show
mercy to some. I want some out of every nation
and kindred and tribe and tongue. Every family is going to be represented. I'm not going to let any family
be without representation and glory with me. Every people, every nation, every
tribe, every blood, every tongue, everybody, there's going to be
some out of your family. There's going to be something.
And I will have mercy. And this is what I'm going to
do. I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to take that
old stony heart out of you and I'm going to give you a heart
of flesh. And I'm going to give you a new will. One that wills
to come to me, made willing in the day of my power. I'm going
to give you a new desire and a new love. I'm going to be your
God. You're going to be my people. And I'm going to have you. And
you're going to dwell with me. And you're going to be seated
in the heavenlies. Beholding the glory of my blessed
Son, there shall be a tent. It shall return. And it shall
be eaten. It shall be consumed. Accepted
of God as the tithe was. It's going to be taken, that
saving grace of God in the keeping of that remnant. That's going
to be the meat, the food, the faith and the hope of God's elect
in Christ. That's going to be consumed as
a teal tree. I looked it up. A terebinth. I don't even know if I'm saying
it right. A turpentine producing tree. And as an oak whose substance
is in there, is in them when they cast their leaves. What
he's saying is though the remnant may be stripped of all of their
outward prosperity like a tree when the leaves fall out, yet
they're going to be recovered. There's life within. The life
of Christ. The life of God's grace. So the
holy seed shall be the substance thereof. That remnant is not
going to perish. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Holy Seed, is their substance. All that the Father has chosen,
all that Christ redeemed, the Holy Ghost, shall save, shall
preserve. So Isaiah knew something of man's
condition. He knew something. He knew that
the whole head is sicked. The whole heart is faint. He knew that God had a remnant. Just in closing, look at Isaiah
1.9. When we talk of the mercy of
God, the choosing grace, the election, predestinating grace,
oh my friend, please always look on that as mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Look at Isaiah 1.9. Except
the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom,
and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Isaiah knew that
man is totally incapable of doing anything. He knew that God had
a remnant. He had an elect. He had a people.
He knew that God's sheep needed some comfort. Isaiah 40. How
many times have we looked at this one? Isaiah 40, verse 1
and 2, comfort ye. And we need some comfort tonight,
don't we? Comfort ye, my people, sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably.
Speak to the heart, to Jerusalem, and cry unto her. Her warfare
is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. For
she is received of the Lord's hand double for all of her sins. And he knew the absolute source. of all of her comfort. I'll just
read this to you. Isaiah 53, verse 46. Surely He hath borne our griefs,
carried our sorrows, and we did esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Oh, the faith of Isaiah is the
faith that God gives every one of his elect. He teaches them
what they are in themselves. Woe is me. He teaches them that
Almighty God is going to have his people. Except God left us
a seed, a remnant. We'd all just been like Sodom
and Gomorrah. God would have just completely
destroyed us, but it's the mercy of God that we're not consumed.
Lord, teach us that afresh tonight, for Christ's sake.