Let's turn back in our scriptures
with me to Isaiah chapter 6. We looked a little earlier at
the fact that this is the Lord Jesus Christ and none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ that Isaiah saw. both in the wonder of His holiness
but in the wonder and glory of the salvation that He wrought
for sinners. Sinners like Isaiah and sinners
like us. As I said earlier, there is absolutely
no No question in my mind that the esteem that people have for
the Lord Jesus Christ is directly proportional to the sense in
which they are made by God to feel themselves unworthy. Those
that see themselves as nothing but sin will delight in the salvation
as in a saviour. But all this must must start
with God revealing himself, which is exactly what happens in verse
1 of Isaiah chapter 6. In the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord. I saw also the Lord sitting upon
a throne. If you ever see God, you'll see
him sitting on a throne, not wandering around wondering how
he's going to get things done, not pleading and trying to save
people. Sitting on a throne. The resurrected
Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and he's sitting on the
throne. It means that his work is done. It means that he's complete
and utter repose. He is sovereign over all things
and he's sitting on a throne and if you ever see God you'll
see him high and lifted up. You'll see him high and lifted
up. We say the words, God alone can
make it a reality for him to be high and lifted up. How high? As high as the heavens. How glorious
is the Lord Jesus Christ! All of eternity is necessary
for us just to glimpse the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
his train filled the temple. The train was the robe that,
as it does today behind royal brides, they have a train that
that flows behind them and the train of kings in those days
flowed behind them to signify the majesty of their office and
the dignity of the position that they held and the person that
they were. But the Lord Jesus Christ's train
fills the temple. The glory of who He is, the glory
of His power and His omnipotence, it fills the temple. And if the
temple's full of Him, then all of Him is pictured. All of the elements of the temple
are picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the altar. He is
the sacrifice on the altar. He is the showbread. He is the
light of the world. He is the candle. He is the mercy
seat. He is all of it, every little
bit of it. He is the doors, everything about
the temple is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like that
tabernacle, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, so amazing
that wasn't it? On the outside was just brown
badger skins. Didn't look like anything much
at all from a distance. What's inside? Glory and beauty
filled it all. His train filled the temple.
And above it, verse two, stood the seraphims. Seraphims means
burning ones, and we'll see something more of that in a little bit,
Lord willing. Each had six wings. With twain he covered his face,
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. He covered his face. It's a picture
of humility and reverence. Even the perfect, sinless creatures
are humbled. How much more man ought to be
humbled in the presence of God? These angels show no pride nor
presumption in the presence of God. His eye was proud and presumptuous. He had 50 years of faithful service,
as it seemed in him, and his heart was made proud within him.
The Jews before the Lord were proud and presumptuous, weren't
they? They stood in judgment of God Almighty in human flesh.
And as John chapter 12 said, even though he'd done many miracles,
and he'd done miracles that only the Messiah could do, their own
scriptures testified to him. His own activities testified
of him. His own words, the words of all of God's revelation testified
of him. And yet they were so presumptuous
and proud that they could stand in judgement of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's exactly what people are doing today. Nothing
has changed. if the Lord will allow us to
see these pictures as pictures of what's happening today. The
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ meeting with the Jews of His
day are pictures of what happens today. The Lord Jesus Christ
meets with people in and through His people and in and through
the preaching of His gospel and the response of people to the
gospel today is exactly the same as the response of the people
to the gospel it was in those days in Isaiah, is a picture
of it. Men are presumptuous. Which is why we have in this
beautiful story the fact that these creatures have a reverence
and humility before God. covered their faces, they covered
their feet. Their feet in the Scriptures
are representative of our walk and our service and the best
that we can do, our ways and our paths. You might recall that
the Lord Jesus Christ on that night that he was to be betrayed
and handed over to the Jews and the Romans to be crucified, he
said to Peter, he washed his disciples feet. Your feet need washing. If I don't wash you, you're not
part of me. People believe that somehow they
have in their walk something that esteems them in the presence
of God, esteems them above other people. The sinless seraphims
didn't do that. The sinless seraphims didn't
do that. God's children cry out to him,
not because they are good, but because they are not. Not because
they can save themselves, because they need a saviour. The Lord
Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And
with two, so they covered their face in humility and reverence,
they covered their feet, and with two they did fly. They were
swift to do the will of God and Isaiah 6 verse 6 says, then flew
one of the seraphims unto me. God's gospel flies with the power
from on high to the hearts of sinners. Paul was ready to go,
wasn't he? He said, I'm ready to go to Rome,
I'm ready to go to Jerusalem, I'm ready to die. God's messengers,
God's angels are willing to go wherever. And what were they
crying, these angels who were humbled and covering their own
creatureness before this high and holy God? And what did they
cry? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The Lord of hosts is Lord of
the armies of heaven, Lord of the multitudes of heaven. Our
God is not short of power. You might recall later in Isaiah's
life, Hezekiah was troubled by Sennacherib. One angel came to
Jerusalem and 185,000 men died outside there, outside Jerusalem. One angel. Holy, holy, holy. It's obviously the most extreme
emphatic we have in the scriptures in a sense. isn't it, when God
repeats something, it's emphatic, when he repeats something, raises
something to the third level of repetition, it's incredibly
significant. He doesn't say, don't cry out,
love, love, love, is God. The modern day, Preachers would
say that is the one characteristic of God that needs to be Brought
before people all the time love love love. They don't they cry.
Holy holy holy God the Father is holy. He's holy in his being
he's holy in his will He's holy in his purpose. God the Son is
the Holy One the Holy One that was crucified God is called God
the Holy Spirit they are holy holy that's their cry the
cry of the angels of heaven is a cry about the holiness of God
and it's hard for us in this state and in this world to get
a grasp of what holiness is and probably the best that you can
describe it is as other than you It's completely separate. It speaks, obviously, of the
purity of God. It speaks of the fact that he
is set apart. It speaks of his sacredness.
It speaks of the otherness of God. It is the characteristic
of God which rides over, in a sense, it covers all of his other attributes. God's love is holy love. His grace is holy grace. His
mercy is holy mercy. His wrath is holy wrath. We read Psalm 99 at the beginning
of our service. If you turn there again, we'll
just look at some of the extraordinary descriptions of our God. Verse 1 says, The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble. That's
what Isaiah was to do. Let the earth be moved. Verse
2, The Lord is great in Zion. He is high above all the people. Let them praise thy great and
terrible name, for it is holy. His name is holy. His name is holy. God is love,
according to scriptures, and God is light, according to scriptures,
but His name, the very essence of the character of His being,
is holy. His name is holy. Exalt, verse 5, exalt ye the
Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy. Verse 9, exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy. He is holy. If God has revealed himself to
you, he's going to reveal himself as holy. as he did to Isaiah,
high and lifted up, sitting upon a throne, and holy. God may or may not love you. He may or may not forgive people. He may or may not be gracious
to people. That was Isaiah's commission. But the one thing you can absolutely
guarantee is that God will be holy. God will be holy towards
you in all that he does. His wrath is holy. Verse four
of Isaiah, of Psalm 29, the king's strength also loveth judgment. God will have his son honoured. the proclamation of the Gospel
began with Psalm 16 and Psalm 2. It's a glorious description
of our great God and Saviour, isn't it? He says, Why did the
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings
of the earth set themselves, and the ruler take counsel together
against the Lord, and against his anointed, against his Christ,
saying, Let us break their bands asunder. That's exactly what
we did in the Garden. That's exactly what we do in our rebellion
against God all the time. We won't have this one to rule
over us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his shore of displeasure. Yet
have I set my king upon my holy hills of Zion. I will declare
the decree the Lord has set unto me. Thou art my son this day.
Have I begotten thee? Ask of me and I'll give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the other modes past for
thy possession. He possesses everyone and everything
in this universe right now and he always has. Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a pot of vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings." We're all kings. We came out of Adam. We came
from Adam, born as kings. We mightn't have the kingship
that Uzziah has, but we have a kingship over our own lives.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. We stand in judgment of
God. We stand in judgment of other people. Serve the Lord
with fear and rejoice with trembling, kiss the son lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Bow, bow, bow, bow. Come before this God and bow. That was Isaiah's problem, wasn't
it? He said, I'm the king. I'll serve
and I'll worship God as I see fit. May the Lord protect us
from such pride and presumption. That's why verse 11 of Psalm
2 is so important. To serve the Lord with fear.
The God that Isaiah met, the Lord Jesus Christ that Isaiah
met, is a God that is reverence because of who he is. And rejoice
with trembling. Rejoice with trembling. Rejoice that there's a way into
the presence of this Rejoice that there is a blood atonement.
That's the lesson of desire, isn't it? Everything is about
the Son. Everything is about the Son and
blood atonement. There's no other way into God's
presence. Substitution and satisfaction are the two glorious words that
represent so much of what the scriptures are about. Christ and God's satisfaction
with him. Someone must go into the presence
of this holy God for you and on your behalf and take you in
there. You don't go in there presumptuously
as Uzziah did. Chapter 6 verse 3. And the whole
earth is full of his glory. The whole earth is full of his
glory. The whole earth is full of his
glory. The only reason we don't see it is because we don't see
him as glorious and reigning and ruling over all things. The
whole earth is full of his glory. The beauty of his creation is
just a picture of it, but we see it in so many other ways. as he sees fit. And as much as
this earth and this western civilization, this whole world has been shaken
in so many ways, there is one that has shaken it and has shaken
it with a purpose. And we don't know what unfolds.
We began last year without a notion of what we are dealing with right
now, and we begin this year without a notion of what befalls us.
that we know that God's on the throne and everything that's
going to happen in this year to all of us is going to happen
exactly according to the will and purpose of our great God
and Saviour. The whole earth is full of His
glory. The whole earth is full of His glory. Can you sing that
with the angels? in saving his people, the glory
of his judgment in hiding himself from people in this world. Can we rejoice with trembling? The seraphims did. Verse 4. And the boast of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. have the decency to tremble in
the presence of God. This earth will tremble in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the smoke, the smoke is a
picture of that incense alder, which is the intercession of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's interceding for his people
right now. Do you realize that he's praying for you right now
in heaven, brothers and sisters in Christ? And the Blessed Holy
Spirit is taking the very groans of the people of God. We're groaned
because we can't understand why there is such wickedness and
such rebellion. We're groaned. We're groaned
because of our sins. We're groaned in so many ways. we groan, we cry. The whole intercession
of Christ just fills the temple. That's what the temple was all
about. It was all about the Lord Jesus Christ and his intercession.
And it's a contrast, of course, to the presumption of Uzziah.
Uzziah went in with incense that he was going to burn on his own
behalf. He was going to worship God as
he saw fit. He was going to worship the God of presumption. And then, this is
a glorious, glorious verses, aren't they? Then said I, see
when you make God High, when you meet God lifted up, when
you meet God sitting on a throne, when you meet God whose train
fills the whole temple, when you meet God who is holy, holy,
holy, then you'll say, woe is me. If you go back to the previous
chapter, Isaiah chapter five, six times Isaiah proclaimed woe
to other people. Woe to these rebellious people. the scriptures. Now he says,
woe is me. Basically he's saying, woe is
all of us. Woe is all of us. Woe is all
of us. He says, I'm undone. Woe is me
for I am undone. It's exactly the same. It's not
exactly the same word, but it's the same expression that's used
of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. He's cut off. See, Uzziah is
now putting himself, because he has met God, in exactly the
same place that Uzziah was with his leprosy. What a great mercy
from our God to stop you becoming as Uzziah. God to reveal himself as he is
that we won't come into his presence with pride and with presumption. We won't dare come into his presence
with our works and our worth. We won't dare come into his presence
proclaiming that we have at times sinned in our lives and mostly
we've had mastery over it. I tremble when I hear people
say those sorts of things, that they sin occasionally. They have
little slip-ups. What a mercy to see the holiness
of God. Isaiah put himself in the same
place as Uzziah. He sinned with his lips. in so many ways are out of the
heart precede these evil thoughts. And they are expressed, aren't
they? How quickly we dethrone God in his absolute sovereignty.
How quickly we dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ when we talk about
luck and silly words like that. The glory of the gospel is that
when God meets with his people and reveals himself to be holy,
and he puts his people in the dust as he did Saul of Tarsus
on the road to Damascus, as he does all of his people throughout
time and history, verse 6 is glorious, isn't it? But I'm sorry,
let's go back and finish the verse 5. He says, Because I'm
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. So he's not putting himself above
anyone else. He hasn't raised himself up like
King Uzziah in some sort of pride. And it says, Because mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. If you have seen the
King of the Lord of Hosts, the first cry that will come out
of your mouth is, woe is me. That was exactly what happened
on the Day of Pentecost when Peter said that you have the
blood of God's Messiah on your hands, you are murderers of God's
Christ. And they cried out, what must
we do to be saved? It's a similar cry, I'm undone. on undone. And it's the only
ones who cried out, the only ones who cried out on the day
of Pentecost and the only ones who cry out until the Lord Jesus
Christ returns are the ones that see him. God has made this King,
this Jesus whom you crucified, said Peter on the day of Pentecost.
God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. He rules absolutely sovereign
over all of you. And he's the anointed one of
God, and if you're going to come into his presence, you'll bow
before him, you'll fall down before him, and you'll be so
extraordinarily thankful that God has provided a saviour who
perfectly fits every need of someone who cries out, woe is
me. I love the fact I love the fact that the seraphim
flew, verse 6. Then flew one of the seraphim. There is no holding back with
our God, is there? When he reveals himself, when
he reveals what we are, when he reveals himself, he flies. The seraphim fly. They fly with
a live cull from off the altar. We don't have time to go and
look at the passages, but you might recall that in Leviticus
chapter 9, when the tabernacle was set up and the altar, the
altar on which the blood sacrifice was brought, they set it all
up and then the fire was lit from heaven. The fire was lit
from heaven, and when in 2 Chronicles 7 Solomon had finished building
the temple and they had that altar set up inside the temple,
the fire was lit from heaven and the smoke filled the temple.
The fire is a picture, isn't it? The live coal from off the
altar. The altar is a picture of the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The fire on the altar is a picture of the holiness
of God. I love the fact that it's Seraphims are burning ones and
they hold these burning coals. They take them with tongs. They
take them in the due order. They don't touch them themselves. It's still burning. Our great
Saviour is the land slain from the foundation of the world. We enter. Hebrews 10 verse 19
and 20, we enter into the presence of God by a new and living way. We enter into the presence of
God by a new and living way. It says in verse 19, having therefore
brethren boldness, freedom, to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he has consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. That new,
the word new there means freshly slaughtered. The blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ is ever-present, isn't it? The holiness of God is what ignites. The holiness of God in wrath
against sin is what ignited that altar. The holiness of God consumed
the sacrifice and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that is
in his sacrifice. The sacrifice consumed the fire
of God. And why was the Lord Jesus Christ
put to death? He asks the question in Psalm
22 and he answers in verse 3, doesn't he? Why have you forsaken
me? Why, my God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? And the answer is really simple
and it's there in the text in verse 3. Because you are holy. Holy. Holy. God placed, made the Lord Jesus
Christ to be seen for us. And he crushed him. He crushed
him. The glory of the gospel, isn't
it, is the very fire which consumed the sacrifice. is the very salvation
of all the people who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
7 is a glorious picture, isn't it, of the sacrifice being applied. And he laid it upon my mouth,
this man of unclean lips, in the place where that sin was
most evident in the things that he said. Our words express our
ignorance of God and his being. He laid it upon my mouth and
said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin purged. This hath touched thy lips. We stand here, and I don't mind
if we have to stand alone here against all this world, we stand
here to proclaim the particular personal and satisfactory work
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the successful work. And we'll
have nothing to do with doctrines that speak of universal redemption.
Because the scriptures never speak of it, they don't ever
hint. You cannot imagine that Isaiah
would think that this God that he's met on this temple and this
God who is high and lifted up in his train and his robe fills
the whole temple, and you would never think of this God to whom
the seraphims are crying, holy, holy, holy, would try and fail,
would be put to death for the sins of all mankind. as religious
ignoramuses say in this day. There's nothing that hints at
that in the scripture. Do you see the personal pronouns?
He laid it upon my mouth and says, Lo, this has touched thy
lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. When God reveals himself as holy
and puts you in your right me. This same God will cause his
people to cry out, cry out, to call upon the name of the Lord,
and they, they in particular will hear these glorious words.
This has touched your lips, your lips, your unclean lips,
your That word iniquity means to be
unequal, isn't it? It often speaks of the fact that
we try by our righteousness to make up for the fact of our sins.
But iniquity is taken away. It means it's removed. It means
that your sins have come to an end. They've been put away. Your sins purged. That means
to propitiate. They've been covered over. An
atonement has been made for them. your sin purged. That holiness, that fire of God's
holiness that consumed the sacrifice, is the very same holiness with
which we are saved by, isn't it? See, if we have our sins
purged and our iniquity is taken away, then we are Our sins have come to an end. The fire that consumes the sacrifice
cures us. It takes away our sin. It's a
payment for our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah
53, he was the one that was cut off. Isaiah saw himself as cut
off and the Lord Jesus Christ was cut off from the land of
the living. cut off from the land of the
living because our God is holy. It's interesting that Paul who
was speaking to this Jews said to the Corinthians If I preach not the gospel, he
says necessity is laid upon me. The least of the apostles, the
chief of sinners. He has, like us, a glorious gospel
proclamation, a gospel proclamation of the great and glorious holiness
of God, a gospel proclamation of sins, not just a possibility
created, not just a door open, not just an opportunity, but
your sins put away, Isaiah. And that was the message he was
to go and proclaim, wasn't it? For want of time, I'll just read
these next verses and we'll look at them, Lord willing, a little
bit more closely next week. Then I, verse 8, also I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will
go for us? Then said I, Here I am, send
me. Now that I've been made to be
an absolute nothing and undone in the presence of the holiness
of God, now I'm fit to go. Now that I have nothing to proclaim
of myself, now I'm fit to go. Now that I have seen God as holy,
holy, holy. Now that I've seen the glory
of sins taken away because of an activity completely outside
of me. Isaiah did nothing. Salvation
is all of grace. Isaiah's got no message to proclaim,
but this message here, see. You go, I'll go, says Isaiah. Send me. Send me. And we know that Isaiah, like
Paul, and like all gospel preachers, said to people who generally
will ignore what he says, and generally will find themselves
hardened. The very same sun that melts
the wax hardens the clay. Let's go down to verse 13 and
close. The great glory of the gospel
is that the seed, there is in this world a seed. And all of that seed is a seed
inside of a seed. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
seed, and inside of Him is all of this seed. Yet in it, in this
world that will be forsaking the Lord, in this world that
will be presumptuous as Isaiah was, in this world that will
remain as presumptuous as those religious Jews will, there shall
be a tent, there shall be a remnant that shall return, and they'll
be as the teal tree and as the oak. We have oak trees at home
and in the dead of winter they look dark and you wouldn't have
a hint that there was any life in them whatsoever. And such
as it is with the children of God, isn't it? I love how Isaiah
6.13 finishes, the substance is in them. It's in them. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. So the Holy Seed shall be the
substance thereof. So the substance of all of God's
children is the Holy Seed that's in us. It's Christ in us that
believes. It's Christ in us that repents. It's Christ in us that is faithful
and trusting of our God. It's Christ in us that causes
us to look away, look away again. It's Christ in us that causes
us to see the high and holy place. He dwells with his people. He
meets with them. And they see him as holy. They cry out that they're unclean. They pronounce a woe upon themselves. And they find that there's a
sacrifice. It's a sacrifice. And because
God is holy, And because of his holy activities in the life and
the death and the resurrection and the exaltation of his holy
son, he must be holy and he be revealed as holy in the salvation
of all of his people. And his holiness, his holiness and our satisfaction and our
peace in this world that a holy one has gone before us into the
very presence of this holy God and he takes all of us with him
all the time. And he has put away our sins
by blood sacrifice, a broken body and shed blood. And the Gospel is simple, isn't
it? God says, the Holy God says, when I see the blood, not when
I see your faithful, not when I see your works, not when I
see your activities, not when I see anything of you, when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you might cause us to rejoice in your holiness, to rejoice
in your justice, to rejoice in your righteousness, that we might
also rejoice in your love and your grace and your mercy. And
Father, we do thank you that you come and reveal yourself
as you really are to us, that we might know you, the only true
God, and that we might know Jesus Christ whom you have sent into
this world to save sinners like us. Heavenly Father, we pray
that we might have something of your holiness revealed to
us, that we might commensurately find the shed blood of your dear
and precious Son, precious and life-giving to us. Father, help
your people to know that their sins are purged, their iniquity
is taken away completely and perfectly forever in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And because of your justice and
your holiness, your people are, will, and must be saved, our
Father. Give us rest. Give us the rest
of simple faith in your dear and precious son. For we pray
in his name and for his glory. Amen.