I want us to go home rejoicing
in the Lord and I want us to be mindful of what Isaiah saw and Isaiah saw the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ John chapter 12 verse 41 These things said
Isaiah when he saw his glory and spoke of him. what it was for Isaiah to see
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and for Isaiah to be sent as
a prophet and to be caused to write this glorious, glorious
gospel of Isaiah that we have before us. One of the few things
I remember from being at Bible College, I'm thankful I finished
early, was we were asked to do an assignment on Isaiah chapter
40 to 55. and I just had to read it and
read it and read it and read it again and we were on holidays
up the coast and I just remember sitting on the beach reading
Isaiah 40 to 55. I didn't do very well in the
essay but I loved it. I didn't fail, but it wasn't
very edifying. I was horrified at the mark and
the remarks I got, but I loved it and I've never forgotten it,
so it's a great exercise. But Isaiah speaks of the Lord
Jesus Christ with such glorious clarity and simplicity and in
such amazingly clear pictures. And we have in Isaiah 6 this
glorious description. that led this to be quoted, this
passage of scripture to be the most quoted New Testament scripture
and it's a wonderful, wonderful picture.
I wonder what it's going to be like, have you thought of what
it is to see the Lord Jesus Christ? You will see him, won't you?
The end of life for every human being is the Lord Jesus Christ. And for those of us who have
been brought by His grace to love Him, we just love the pictures
of Him in the Old Testament. We love the pictures and the
descriptions of Him in the New Testament. And this is one of
the most glorious ones of all. So let's just begin. Where God
begins, 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 having
six wings, with two. 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. Holy is God the
Father. Holy is God the Son. Holy is
the blessed Holy Spirit. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Now wouldn't that be an amazing
thing to think? Wouldn't that be an amazing thing
for God to cause us to see that this earth is full of His glory? His glory as a creator, His glory
as an absolute sovereign. If the whole earth is full of
His glory, and I'm in Him, then I can rest. The context in John
chapter 12 is a solemn context and the context in Isaiah chapter
6 is a solemn context, isn't it? We are in the face of a people
who are living in wicked disobedience. We are dealing with people who
have a religion that causes them to be presumptuous. A religion
that causes them to assume that they are right because of who
they are as Abraham's descendants. They had a religion that caused
them to have a confidence in their creaturely activities.
They had a religion that caused them to call out peace, peace
to each other when they had no peace from God. Isaiah's day
and our day are the same, brothers and sisters. They are the same. I want us just briefly to go
back to 2 Chronicles 26 and I want us to know the story because
this is a very significant story. in the life of nation Israel
and it's a poignant story in light of the verses that follow
in Isaiah chapter 6. in the year the King Uzziah died. So let's read about King Uzziah
and Isaiah in 2 Chronicles 26. In verse 3, 16 years old was
Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned 52 years. And so he, for most Jews, was
the only king they ever had, and he was about the best they
ever had. His mother's name also was Jecholiah
of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah
did. In verse seven it says, and God
helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians. God
helped him. He built towers, verse 10, in
the desert and digged many wells. He had much cattle, both in the
low country and in the plains. Moreover, Isaiah had a host of
fighting men that went out to war by bands. He was an extraordinarily
successful king. He made in Jerusalem engines
invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks
to shoot arrows and great stones with all. spread far abroad, for he was
marvelously helped till he was strong. What a solemn warning. What a solemn warning. Verse
16. But 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. And Azariah the priest went in
after him, and with him fourscore, eighty priests of the Lord, that
were valiant men, and they withstood Isaiah the king. And said unto
him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense
unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated
to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for
thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honour
from the Lord God. And Uzziah was wroth, he was
wroth. his ire, and he had a censer
in his hand to burn incense, and while he was wroth with the
priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the
priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest
and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous
in his forehead. That's where the cause of all
this problem was, in the hardness of his heart and his head. He was leprous in his forehead,
and they thrust him out from hence. Yea, he himself hasted
to go out. He couldn't wait to get out of
there, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was
a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house
being a leper. For he was cut off, just note
those words, he was cut off from the house of the Lord, and Jotham
his son was over the king's house judging the people. And Uzziah
slept, and they buried him out in a field. Let's go back to
Uzziah chapter six. You might recall that Isaiah,
this event of the judicial expulsion of this king who had served for
so many years and so faithfully, who presumed to come into the
very presence of God Almighty without the sacrifice. You don't
just march into the presence of God Almighty. You come in
the Lord Jesus Christ, or you do not come at all. And that's
exactly what the incense altar was about. That's exactly what
the priesthood was about. They were all pictures of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You come to God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
or you do not come to him at all. You need a priest. You need a priest with a blood
sacrifice. You need a priest who brings
what God is pleased with to have you in his presence, and the
only thing that he's pleased with in his presence is the blood
of his dear and precious son. And so Isaiah, despite all of
that, died. And what a sobering, sobering
event that must have been for Isaiah, who had known him all
the days of his life. And Isaiah was operating in the
very same place that Uzziah was struck down. Any of those priests
that didn't go in there with fear and trepidation would have been in a sad state. So that was the context of this.
The context is people like Uzair being presumptuous in religion. and taking upon themselves those
things that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and assuming that
he is not necessary and absolutely vital for everything before you
in the presence of God, of the Lord God. But the year the King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, and I love this picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is both sitting on a throne, And he is a priest in a temple. He's a priest and a king. And the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the Lord Jesus Christ enthroned in glory. And these
seraphim are creatures, and they had their six wings, and you
can read about them again in Revelation chapter four, but
the six wings, they covered their face. They're not worthy to look
upon the face of God Almighty. They covered their feet, their
walk. He charges these angels with
folly. Not that they act in folly, but they have the potential to
act in folly, so he charges them with folly. And with two did
he fly, they're always ready to fly to the will of God. And
that's the cry of the seraphim, isn't it? The cry of the angels,
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. You might recall that the smoke
that filled the house, it filled that tabernacle. When Moses erected
the tabernacle, the house was filled with smoke such as the
priests couldn't continue their duties. God lit the fire on the
altar. And when Solomon built the temple,
God lit the fire on the altar. And we'll see the significance
of that in a few minutes, Lord willing. The post of the door
moved at the voice of these angels. Even inanimate objects have the
decency to bow and tremble before God Almighty when He's revealed
in glory. Then said I. This is the response. This is
what Isaiah did when he saw His glory and was caused to speak
of Him. Then said I, Woe! is me, for
I am undone." And that's exactly the same word that was used with
reference to Uzziah. I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm
destroyed. I'm brought to silence. I'm cut
down. I am undone because I am a man
of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. Are you a man of unclean lips?
We can say that about ourselves. If someone else tells you that's
what you are, like the rest of us, you would rise up in offence,
wouldn't you? When will you say that you're
a man of unclean lips? And really say it? Look at the end of verse five.
For mine eyes have seen the king. If you have seen the king, you
have seen yourself. I have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts." Isaiah, if you read the previous chapter six times,
the number of man, six times Isaiah said, woe, woe, woe, woe
to them. Woe to them that call evil good
and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to them. Woe
to them that are wise in their own eyes. Woe to them that are
mighty to drink wine. Woe to them that are mighty in
their own eyes. Woe to them. When you meet God,
the seventh woe is the is a number of completeness in the scriptures.
There's no issue about what other people are doing. The only issue
is me. The only issue is me meeting
God Almighty. Woe is me. And I love the Lord's response
to the woe. Then, when you see yourself as
undone, a man of unclean lips, Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he'd taken with
tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin is purged. The gospel will be the
gospel to you when you hear the gospel as a sinner. The gospel
is something that you can play games with until you come and
meet God, and God makes you to be a sinner. That live coal was
taken off the altar, the altar of sacrifice, the place of sacrifice,
the place where that represents the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our altar, and upon that altar the fire of God's wrath
burned the sins of all of God's people away until they're gone
altogether. And this sacrifice and this altar
needs to be applied to us. So here's a man of unclean lips.
And the sacrifice is applied to the very place of his uncleanness.
It touched, he laid it upon my mouth and this has touched my
lips. There is not just a cross out
there and a blood sacrifice, but there is a washing in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is to know Him,
isn't it? It's to be washed in His blood. We can talk about
the blood, but have you been washed in the blood? Have you
heard God say, thine iniquity is taken away? Where is it taken
to? to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where it's taken to. And thy sin is purged. Don't you love Hebrews chapter
1 verse 3? He's sitting down on a throne.
Hebrews speaks of him in the same way that Isaiah does here.
high and lifted up and when he had by himself purged our sins
that means to wash them away what was red as scarlet is now
white now now an undone sinner can
be in the presence of God and now a sinner A real sinner, like
Isaiah now is revealed to be, can hear a voice of the Lord,
verse 8, the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and
who will go for us? Then said I, here I am, send
me. No servant of God ever applies
for a job. Not one in all of the scriptures
puts out a resume and says that. That's when God speaks. Whom
shall I send? And he said, this is God's judgment
upon these people. He said, go and tell this people,
hear ye indeed, but understand not. 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. make the heart
of this people fat. It means to be calloused, to
be sick, to be so hard of hearing that no longer does God's word
impact. It's God's justice upon a rebellious
people that we hear about in John chapter 12. And what does cause the heaviness
and the people to be fat and the people to shut their eyes.
Nothing other than the preaching of the gospel. That's an extraordinary
thing, isn't it? The same sun that melts the wax
hardens the clay. There are such people, sadly,
in this world as gospel-hardened sinners, where they have heard
the gospel so many times, and they say, in the words of the
psalmist, No, God. No, God. No. We will not have that man rule
over us. We will not have a God who operates
in this way. No one is challenged by the God
of their own imagination, but the God of the Bible is continually
coming to his people like he did to Isaiah and reminding them
of who he is and who they are and who is absolutely sovereign
and who is not. Listen to what he goes on to
say in verse 11. 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 have removed men
far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. He's talking about the expulsion of the people of Israel
from that land, which was promised. It was promised hundreds of years
before this. You keep preaching, Isaiah, until
there is absolute and utter desolation in that land. You just keep preaching. But, I want us to go home rejoicing. I want us to rejoice. That's
the glorious word of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
the midst of all of that desolation, in the midst of all of those
hardened hearts and those heavy ears and people shutting their
own eyes, There is, but in it shall be a tenth. The Lord's
portion, a tithe, there shall be a tenth. Listen to what the
tenth will do. It shall return and shall be
eaten as a teal tree and as an oak. He's speaking of what it
was for the Lord Jesus Christ. We read it in Isaiah chapter
53. He'll grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground was there anything of any beauty in him a tender
plant, rude out of dry ground, he had no form or comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. This is speaking of barren trees. Do you know what it's
like to look out on a garden where the trees have lost all
of their leaves and they just look absolutely dead? And there's
a little remnant, just a tenth, and they look absolutely dead
and they look so insecure. And you could walk past them
and completely ignore them. But listen to what he goes on
to say. They're like a teal tree or an oak. They're both deciduous
trees whose substance is in them. Where's the life? It's in them. Can you see it on the outside
in the wintertime when the trees are desolate? Can you see it? That's exactly it. What a great
picture of the children of God in this world. We look desolate
to the world, don't we? But where's the substance? It
is in them when they cast their leaves. So, and he's just using
the picture of deciduous trees and little twigs that seem like
they're lifeless. We have oak trees that grow all
the time at home. They're just little twigs and there's just
nothing to them and dead as dodo as they seem. And yet springtime
comes along and there's life. But listen to what he goes on
to say. So the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. The holy seed. The holy seed. Yet it pleased the Lord to breeze
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed
and shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in him. What is the hope of glory? Christ
in you. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3 and we'll finish with a lovely description
of the who that Isaiah saw and what he's doing in the hearts
and the lives of chosen sinners. Don't you love how 1 John 3 begins? Behold. Just look at it. Look
and study. Don't ignore this. This is something
to be examined and rejoiced in. Behold and keep on beholding
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not. We're just like a teal tree,
just like an oak tree, nothing there. The world knoweth us not
because it knew him not. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. There's a
seed in it, there's a substance in it. We shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. You'll see him as I saw him.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,
even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And
you know, you know, children of God, you know that he was
manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth has not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. It's the righteousness of faith,
not the righteousness of our doing. He that commiteth sin
is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Why? because for his seed remaineth
in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Because he is born of God. There's
going to be a tenth. They'll look like the sticks
of deciduous trees but they'll have a substance in them. And
so the holy seed shall be the substance. What's the substance
of all the children of God? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is the Lord Jesus Christ. What manner of love? We love
him because he first loved us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you. We thank you for your word. We thank you that it is truth. We thank you that it is spirit
and truth, and that the blessed Holy Spirit comes and reveals
the spirit and truth to us. Now, Father, we thank you that
the Holy Spirit has promised to come and take the things of
the Lord Jesus Christ, these glorious things that we've just
read, and reveal them unto us. Oh, our Father, we pray that
it would be done in such a way that we are caused to love the
Lord Jesus Christ and love all of the brethren who are loved
of him, that the world might know the world might know, Heavenly
Father, the glories of the wonder of our dear and precious Saviour. Heavenly Father, we thank you
that Christ in us, Christ with us, Christ dying for us, Christ
living for us, Christ reigning for us, Christ interceding for
us, Christ bringing us into your presence. is all of our joy and
all of our salvation. Cause us as we take these elements
to remember his death and to proclaim it with thankfulness
until he comes again. For we pray in Jesus' name and
for his glory, our Father.