Isaiah 6, this is one of those
passages of scripture that when we're done we will not have seen
a fraction of what is here and I will have fallen way short
of expressing the glory of this and you you will have fallen
way short of understanding it And yet I pray by God's grace
that maybe as we sing, we'll be a little nearer. We won't
have arrived, but maybe nearer. Maybe we'll see a little bit
clearer. I know there are messages that I've heard in my life that
by the world's standards wouldn't have been spectacular in any
way, but have caused me to see the Lord more clearly, to know
him a little bit better. And I know that was the Lord's
doing, not the man who was preaching. And so I pray to that end. And
let's actually do that. Let's bow together and pray the
Lord will meet with us. Our gracious Father, thank you
for your word. We come and open it, Lord, with
a great sense of our inability, of our inadequacy, and yet we
know that it's in our very weakness that your strength is made perfect.
And so we desire your presence, Lord. We desire your blessing
and favor, your power to both preach and hear. And Lord, we know that whatever
your will is shall be done, and we know that it's your will to
exalt your son, either in our worship or in whatever means, Lord. I know
your son will be exalted and will be abased, and that's just
right. That's the way it ought to be.
May we, by your grace, Lord, get a glimpse of the glory of
the Lord Jesus. And I know that all other things
that this flesh deems so important will grow so dim in his light. Bless us tonight and exalt your
son in his precious name. We pray and ask it. Amen. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne. Isaiah mentions the death of
King Uzziah not just as a timeline aid. In 2 Chronicles chapter
26 we read of King Uzziah. Let's turn over there together
because this is significant to the context. to the meaning of
this vision. 2 Chronicles 26 and we won't read
the whole chapter but I'll tell you that the first part of the
chapter we have a description of Uzziah he was a great king
in many ways an excellent and very popular king very powerful
man but As we pick up in verse 16, we'll see something that
happens. But when he was strong, and this is so often the case,
we just said, and it's in our weakness that God's strength
is made perfect. But when the flesh is strong, when we become strong in our
own might, when we become puffed up and confident, 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 four score priests of the Lord that were
valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah 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 has trespassed. Neither shall it be for that
honor from the Lord God. This is not good. Only the priest
now and you know what this signifies. You don't come into the presence
of God by you coming into the presence of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ said no man cometh under the father but by me. They didn't
come into the presence of God, but by that priest. And that
teaches us what our Lord was saying there when he said, but
by me, we tend to think that, and this is true, it's true that
because he went, that we will go into the presence of God.
But what he's saying is when he went into the presence of
God, we did go then. That's the sense in which we're
seated now on the right hand of the Lord on high in Christ. And so, That when that priest
goes in, that's you going in, Uzziah. You don't go in yourself.
You're bypassing God's way of communion and fellowship with
him through a mediator, through an intercessor, through a priest,
via a sacrifice. The high priest went in alone
into the holiest place, and he went not without blood. And here
he goes in there himself. He was strong in himself. He
said, I don't need the priest. I'll just go in and talk to the
Lord, you know, deal with the Lord. No, you won't. No, you
won't. Then Uzziah, verse 19, was wroth
and 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. It's significant here that something
happened in his heart. He wasn't immediately stricken
with leprosy. When he was rebuked, If he had
said, you know what, what in the world am I doing? You're
exactly right. What am I doing? And went out. That's one thing, but he was
mad about it. He really, he was told that you
can't come into God's presence except by Christ. And it made
him mad. People are told, now you can't
understand the word of God unless he reveals it to you. You can't
do anything. You can't even know up from down
unless God reveals it to you. You can't pray to God without
Christ. You can't come into his presence. You can't have any
fellowship. You say you're gonna, you announce weeks in advance,
we're gonna have a revival. Are you now? You can't do anything
without Christ. Without me, he said, you can
do nothing. And that makes people mad. I'm
a believer, I've been a saint for this many years, you know
my daddy was a Baptist, I'm a Baptist. You're nothing. You're shut up
to Christ. And that made him mad, and that's
when God struck him. While he was wroth, the leprosy
even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house
of the Lord from beside the incense altar, right where he stood in
other words. And Azariah, the chief priest,
and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous
at his forehead. And they thrust him out from
then. Shea himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had
spit in him." Oh, okay, now he wants to go. The Lord said, you're
going to realize, you're going to understand, and you're going
to cry to Me, and I'm not going to hear you. The Lord's, you know, He's speaking
to you now. You know better now, don't you?
And I do too. And Uzziah the king was a leper
until the day of his death and dwelt in a several house being
a leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord and Jotham
his son was over the king's house judging the people of the land.
Now this is significant. He was cut off You remember what
Isaiah, I know you've heard this passage of scripture before.
When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, Isaiah hadn't
come like Uzziah and broken the law and bypassed Christ. He just saw the Lord as he is.
And you know what he said? I'm cut off. I'm cut off. And this is why, this is no coincidence
now, that it was in the year that God did that to Uzziah,
that Isaiah said, I saw God on his throne in that year. Because
you see, that's a God that most people don't know anything about.
We're hearing about a Jesus that's just doing his best to try to
help and save and bless everybody. He just wants to bless you if
you'll just let him. And Isaiah said, I saw a different God.
I saw a holy God. I saw him on his throne. I saw
God that the God that you can't approach except by and through
and in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the basic truth,
the basic gospel that nobody has any idea about in our day.
Who God is. and what it takes to get into
his presence, what it takes to have his blessing and communion
and favor. When you see that you have no
business with God, but through a representative, through a priest,
by way of blood and incense offered for you, not by you. It's not
your prayers that get you favor with God, it's his. And when you see that in your
own righteousness, or what you call righteousness, you are worthy
of nothing but When you see that God is holy,
and this is what God revealed to Isaiah. The angels cried that
he saw around the throne, cried holy, holy, holy. Then you'll have the same reaction
that Isaiah did here. I see him on his throne. But
he saw also some heavenly creatures. This is a vision from God to
Isaiah to reveal his holiness. And God has already shown Isaiah
in the death of Uzziah that he is inflexibly just and righteous,
that he will punish sin. And the only remedy for sin is
not by us doing anything. It's not by us coming to God
even the right way. It's not our faith. It's not
our anything. It's something done by somebody
else. And that's what he was shown here. You can only approach
God in and by a priest, a representative. No man cometh but by me, our
Lord said. And this is what Uzziah ignored
and tried to bypass. You don't get to God that way.
You get destroyed that way. That's what happens. And God
in destroying Uzziah revealed to him why. by showing him what he was. The
way that God destroyed him is significant too, isn't it? This
is why you can't come into my presence. Look at yourself. You're
a wretched, vile, stinking, incurable leper. A wretched, vile, horrible, infectious,
legally banished from the camp of God, diseased creature. and
you dared try to come into my presence. This is about his son. This is about our hope is his
son. Our way is his son. Our life is his son. Christ and
him crucified. That's what the priest was. The
priest came in himself a picture of Christ. He came in with blood,
a picture of Christ's sin atoning, sacrificial offering unto God
for sinners. That's what Uzziah had no use
for. And God had no use for him. Now
God shows Isaiah his throne, and there were these creatures
around it with six wings. And with two of the wings, they
covered their faces. That's, I think, fairly clear.
That's humility. Even perfect creatures can't
look upon him without fear and reverence and humility. Sinners
question him. A sinner down here can do that,
can't they? Not without consequence. But
they can say, why God, why me? And you know, shake their fist
at God. Not without consequence. But
the angels can't do that. They dare not do that. They cover
their very faces in his presence. A sinner might mock him, might
blaspheme him, claim an unholy familiarity with him, but the
angels don't have that. You know why sinners do that?
You know why they shake their fist in his face and spit at
God and fume at God and read Psalm 2 again? In fact, I think
we're fixing to do that in a minute, I'm pretty sure. You know why
they're able to do that? Because they're not in his presence. Nobody does that in his presence.
Not even the angels dare to even look at him. And they covered
their feet. Now that this, with who they
covered their feet, some say that this is a sign That these
creatures aren't literal, that this is a figurative sign and
it's a vision of God's true gospel preachers. That these angels,
the word angel just means messenger. And this whole passage of scripture
has to do with God's gospel, doesn't it? He said, who am I
gonna send to tell who I am and how sinners actually are able
to worship me. And Isaiah said, I'm here, I'll
go. That's what this is about. And
some say that in that context, that this is what these angels
picture. They're humble, aren't they?
Paul said, I'm less than the least of all saints. A true preacher,
not gonna claim that unholy familiarity with God, you know, that so many
do. Me and Jesus got a good thing going, you know, things like
that. Nah. And they cover their feet. This
is the walk. Cover our feet, we're ashamed
of our walk, our service even. Even that, which is the best
of us, you know, our walk even for Him, we're ashamed of it. Our ways, that's what our feet
are, our ways, our paths. We want to cover that up. You
know, remember the Apostle Peter didn't want the Lord washing
his feet. Lord, my feet are dirty. You don't want to wash my feet.
But here's the thing, Peter, they got to be washed. And that's
why they got to be washed, because they're dirty. That's why you
come. You come not when you're good
enough, but you come because you're not good enough. Does
that make sense? He didn't come to call the righteous.
The righteous don't need their feet washed, or anything washed. Our feet are dirty, though. We
don't want the Lord to see them. And with two, they did fly. That
is, they're swift to do the will of God. Lord, you just say it.
His angels are ready, aren't they? And if this is ministers
of the gospel, by God's grace, they're ready too. Paul said,
I'm ready to go to Rome. They'll probably kill me there.
I know they will if the Lord doesn't intervene. If the Lord
allows it, that's what they'll wanna do. But I'm ready. I'm ready to preach the gospel
at Rome too, wherever. Lord, just say the word. And all the while they were doing
it, all of that, they were crying out, holy. Can you hear that? I can't either.
And I wouldn't attempt to imitate it. But you see what they cried. And they cried it three times
because there are three persons. God the Father is holy in his
sovereign will and purpose. God the Son is holy in his sin-atoning
sacrifice. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The thrice-holy God. They're
equally holy, they're coexistent, co-eternal, they are one God,
and he's holy. Three persons, one God. And there
are a lot of people in our generation in religion that want to talk
about the love of God, but you don't hear much about the holiness
of God. Very little. And the thing about it is, I
believe nobody knows anything about God's holiness. Because
they've never seen him. And I'll tell you this, when
you hear them talk about his love, you realize they don't know anything
about the love of God either. But they like the idea of God
loving us, you know. But not holy. Not this God who
says, you're not coming to me. If my son comes, on your behalf,
then all is well. But nobody knows anything about
the holy God, and the reason that they don't is because nobody
preaching him as he is. Look at Psalm 99. There's so much scripture that
we could look at. regarding the holiness of God,
but that's clearly the theme of this brief psalm, Psalm 99,
look at it with me. The Lord reigneth. Where did
Isaiah see him? On his throne. That's where you're
gonna see him. I'm happy and grateful and thank
God for all of his offices and all that he's done and he did
condescend, he came to this earth in humility. and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. But people like to picture
him helpless and defeated, what they call, because they think
that's him saying, I love you, and stretching out his arms and
saying, here's how much I love you, I love you this much, and
sentimental nonsense like that. But if you ever see God, you're
gonna see him on his throne. John saw the lamb, he saw the
lamb slain and where was he? He wasn't on the cross, he was
on the throne. That's where he is. The Lord reigneth, let the people
tremble. He sitteth between the cherubims,
let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion and
he is above all the people. High and lifted up, high above,
he is high above. Let them praise thy great and
terrible name for it is holy. His name is not love. God is
love, but his name is holy. And I'll tell you this, God is
love. If there's gonna be love for
you, it's gonna come from God. But I'll tell you this, God doesn't
love everybody. Just because God is love doesn't mean he loves
you. But I tell you this, he is holy
with regard to you, whether he loves you or not. He's always
holy now, whether he loves or doesn't love. His love is holy
and his hatred is holy. It is holy, the king's strength
also loveth judgment. Thou doest, dost establish equity,
thou executes judgment and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt ye the Lord our
God and worship at his footstool, for he is holy. Not because he
loves everybody, but because he's holy. Not because he loves
anybody, but because he's holy. Moses and Aaron among his priests
and Samuel among them that call upon his name. They called upon
the Lord and he answered them. He spake unto them in the cloudy
pillar. They kept his testimonies and
the ordinances that he gave them. Thou answers them, O Lord our
God, thou wast a God that forgave us them. Though thou took us
vengeance of their inventions, exalt the Lord our God and worship
him at his holy hill. For the Lord our God is holy.
The word holy means sacred, holy, and it means set apart. He's high, he's above us. Scripture said, let your words
be few before him because he's in heaven and you're not. You're
on the earth. He's high and you're low. God is to be reverenced and honored.
And the Lord Jesus said, he that honoreth not his son is not honoring
God. You know, the Jews say, oh, we
love God, God's our father, but this Jesus of Nazareth, we don't
want anything to do with him. You're honoring God with your
lips, but your heart is far from him. He that honoreth not the
son honoreth not the father. If you do not honor God's son,
God said in Psalm 2, let's turn over, we gotta look at Psalm
2 also. Because this is what happened
to Uzziah now. Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? What is this vanity of man's
imagination? Well, the kings of the earth
set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord and against his anointed. Now this was of course fulfilled,
this is a prophecy fulfilled, and remember the Jews and Gentiles,
the high priests, everybody took counsel against the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as the book of Acts says,
they did whatsoever God's hand and counsel determined before
to be done, but they were all against him. And this is a prophecy
of that, but that is just a picture of all of our enmity against
God by nature. What happened to him at Calvary
is just a picture of what all of us have for him in our hearts
by nature. Away with him, crucify him. They
all stood up together. They said, let us break their
bands asunder, cast away their cords from us, any kind of restraint,
any kind of control. We don't want God. We got free
will. We don't need God. He that sitteth in the heavens,
though, you see, he laughs at that. He laughs at that. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sordid pleasure. And here's what he's gonna say.
I've set my king on my holy hill of Zion. My holy hill. My king
is on my holy hill and you'll bow to him. And this rebellion
is laughable. It's a joke. I will declare the
decree verse 7 the Lord has said unto me thou art my son this
day have I begotten thee and his son is exalted listen he
said you ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for thine inheritance
and the son did ask that and the Lord did give it to him didn't
he? I'll give you the heathen and
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession You see we
belong to him whether we like it or not. But oh we want to
cast those cords off. We don't belong to anybody. We're
our own man. The Lord will laugh at you and
then throw you in hell. And that's what comes next. Look
at verse 9. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore O ye kings. Be instructed ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Serve Him, obey Him, bow to Him. Serve the Lord. That's what we
talked about this morning. You know how you serve? That's
a position of submission, isn't it? Serve the Lord, bow to Him
and His will. That's what service is. Bow to
Him and His will. And this is what Uzziah wouldn't
do now. God said, my priest will go in and he'll offer atonement. He'll offer the sacrifice on
your behalf and I'll either receive it or I won't. But as I said,
I'm the king, I'll do what I please. No, no, you won't. God will laugh
at your rebellion and drop you in hell. That's what'll happen.
Serve the Lord with fear. He didn't have any fear of God.
Use I didn't I'll just go in there. I'll burn incense myself
Rejoice with trembling rejoice Rejoice that there isn't sacrifice
that there is a priest Rejoice that there is a way to God but
do it with trembling Kiss the Sun He's our great high
priest Paul said we have a great high priest lest he be angry and you perish. That's what happened to him,
Uzziah. When his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all
they that put their trust in him. Bow to him, let's just trust
him. God said that by his son, we
can come to him and have fellowship and communion. Is that all right
with you? I trust him in that, don't you? That doesn't offend me by his
grace. But I can't come any other way. I'm just glad there's a
way, don't you? And what a glorious way. And
the word holy, I wish that the Lord, I pray the Lord would teach
us. But it's in these things. We won't learn it by trying to
define it with words. We'll learn it by seeing what
Isaiah saw. Seeing what he did to use I and
why he did it it has something to do with his son doesn't it?
It has something to do with coming to God by blood atonement only
by representation only through a mediator only And the next words in our text
I believe will help us Understand the holiness of God the whole
earth. It says this is the next phrase
here. The whole earth is full of his glory the whole earth
Now in creation you see, as Paul said in Romans 1, his eternal
power and Godhead are seen in the things that are made. In
catastrophes, what the world calls natural disasters, you see his judgment and wrath. You see the consequences for
sin, don't you, in this world in a million ways every day because
God is holy. And these are just pictures now.
What we see, we don't actually see the judgment of God. You'd
have to be able to see into hell somehow. You'd have to be able
to understand what our Lord suffered on the cross somehow. There's
the judgment of God on display. But we see, you know, an earthquake
happens and thousands of people die. That's just a picture. The
Lord talks about that. He says, I will shake the earth
terribly. And that's a that's a picture
of spiritual judgment. And people, you know, sentimental
people, they say, oh, God would never allow that to happen. God
doesn't send tornadoes and tsunamis. Then who did? Who in the world
did? Well, God wants to bless the
earth. He wants to do this and that,
but we won't let him. The scriptures have a little
different message for us. The scriptures say that because
we will not listen to God, he sends his judgment. We've seen
it in the scriptures so many times. When they tried to, a
big huge part of the whole nation of Israel said, we don't need
the priests. We'll just deal with God ourselves. We're spiritual.
And you know what God did? He opened up the earth and dropped
them in hell. And that's what we're seeing
in this world now. I wouldn't be a popular thing to say in
many places, but I'm telling you right now, what God will
do, because this world will not listen to God, he'll send a hurricane
or an earthquake or a tsunami and he'll drop thousands of people
in hell. And when you read the headlines,
just know that that's what happened. I pray there are some exceptions
in there. But I know what God's wrath looks
like in the scriptures. And we've seen a little bit of
it with our own eyes now. His glory is not just seen in
sunrises and sunsets. The whole earth is full of his
glory. You know what I'm saying? It's not just kittens and rainbows,
God's glory now. He rides upon the storm too.
And evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse just like
he said that he would, that they would. And this is God's righteous
judgment, much of it that we see in this world. But you know
what, he's told me to say to the righteous in this, and he's
always said this to his, any spokesman he's ever had, he said,
you say to my people, it's gonna be all right with them. It's
gonna be fine. God's judging this earth. But
it's gonna be all right with you, those of you who have taken
refuge in the ark. Rest easy. His judgment's falling,
isn't it? It's not gonna touch you. Not
gonna touch you. Those who have bowed to and believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, who are righteous in him and in him
alone, it shall be well with you. But behold, the holiness
of God is seen. You know what, if you wanna see
God's holiness, look to Calvary. Look to his son. And what happened there, and
when men reject him and what he did there, his holiness is
seen in that too. It's all, whether life or death,
either way, it's all about Christ crucified. You see that here?
Why did God display his holiness? By destroying Uzziah, the king,
well respected. A great king, an excellent king,
everybody loved Uzziah. He did that which was right in
the eyes of the Lord for a long time. Why did God do what he
did to him? To show his glory, to make his
power known, and in reference to what? Christ crucified. He
tried to bypass God's way, which is Christ. And when men submit to God's
way and bow to Christ crucified, God's glorified in that too.
Either way, it's Christ. God gives men over to a reprobate
mind. That's the display of his glory
too. The whole earth is full of his glory now. Just as sure
as the most beautiful sunset you ever saw. When you see his
wrath too, when you see his judgment against those who refuse his
son, will not honor his son that's his glory the whole earth is
full of it verse 4 and the posts of the door moved at the voice
of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke the moving
of the posts of the door seems to simply just signify the power
of that voice and this is one of those angels that when there's
when they spoke and said holy the door the posts of the door
were moved and that's power the power being in the message What's
the gospel saying? Holy. Every messenger of God
says holy. And in the year that King Uzziah
died, they said holy because in Christ, in him crucified,
and in what happens when he's refused, we see his holiness. And when that message goes forth,
it goes forth in power, doesn't it? Paul said that gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. to everyone that believeth. And the smoke is likely the incense
that is the true intercession of Christ because we seem to
see the result of that later in the text. When Isaiah is purged
and cleansed and accepted of God, he said the smoke is filling
the temple. You know what that is? That's
Christ saying, Lord, Father, keep them. Father, bless them.
They're mine, they're yours, and they're mine, they're one
in us, and we in them. That's the intercession of Christ. And that's, of course, as opposed
to the blasphemous attempt of Uzziah to offer incense unto
God. Isaiah's saying, now I saw his
temple filled with smoke, and it wasn't from Uzziah. It wasn't
from any earthly priest. It was the very intercession
of Christ. When Christ himself, our true
and great high priest, intercedes for his people, then the sin
atoning success of the sacrifice is applied to the sinner. Verse
seven. That's what we'll see in a little bit. But Isaiah's
reaction to what he saw first is instructive. Look at verse
five. Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone. Because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
How do you know, Isaac? Because I've seen the king. That's
how Job knew, too. He said, I see it thee, and I
hate myself. I'm unclean, I'm vile, I'm wretched,
I'm hateful. I've seen the Lord, the Lord
of hosts. You remember chapter five? We
didn't go verse by verse through the last part of the chapter,
but we saw briefly how that in the last part of chapter five
of Isaiah, as Isaiah was pronouncing judgment upon the proud religious
yet godless nation of Israel, he said six times in the last
part of the chapter, woe unto them, woe unto them, woe unto
them, Then, in our text this evening, he saw God high and
lifted up, and he's not saying woe unto them anymore, is he?
He said, woe is me. And here's the fact of the matter.
He said it six times in Isaiah chapter five. And this is number
seven right here, woe is me. Seven is the number of completion,
perfection or completion in the scriptures. And here's the truth
of the matter, woe is everybody. Without a true woe is you, unless
somebody can go in there for him, into the presence of God
for him with an acceptable sacrifice. Woe is Uzziah, woe is you, woe
is me, woe is everybody now. And that's the place we come
to when God reveals himself high. You see God in his holiness.
You're gonna say like Isaiah did here, we're all goners. We're all goners. He said, I am undone. And as
I told you a while ago, you know what that means? Cut off. The
very language it used concerning Uzziah, the Lord cut him off. Cut him off. We're all unclean and God is
holy and this ain't gonna end well. You're gonna have to come
to that place. And me too. And we must all see this too,
verse six, 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. Then, then,
when Isaiah said, I'm cut off, I'm cut off, I'm a goner. There's no hope for me in the
presence of a holy God like this. Then, flew. Peter was sinking, wasn't he? Sinking beneath the waves. I can't do what needs to be done
here. And because I can't, I'm gonna
perish. And immediately, the Lord stretched forth his hand.
Then he flew. Then God sent a messenger with
a message. When we despair of self, God
sends a swift messenger with relief, doesn't he? With relief.
And relief comes in a strange form that most would consider
a very strange form. This is not what many would expect.
The fire. a coal from the altar, the very
fire that burnt the sacrifice, the very fire that destroyed
the sacrifice. You know what that fire is? Holy,
holy, holy. The fire. And I know that we're
in deep water here. I know that this is beyond us,
but the best we can comprehend now and express in English language
or any language The fire that devoured Christ on the cross,
the fire that devoured the burnt offering, the true burnt offering
for sin, that's the holiness of God. That's the inflexible
holiness of God. Christ must, why hast thou forsaken
me? Holy, that's the answer, isn't
it? We know that's right. That's
why God crushed his son, because God's holy. And my sin was on
him. And that same fire now that burnt
the sacrifice, the very holiness of God, the fire that devoured
his own son, that's what cures us. That's what purges us. Because God is holy, we are undone,
and that word is cut off. It means to cease, to perish,
to be cut off. But because God is holy and merciful,
God cut off his own son. He was cut off out of the land
of the living, the scripture says. He crushed his own son
in our stead so that as our high priest, he would have somewhat
to offer. The only thing, he had to offer
the only thing that God will accept as payment for our sin. And now, because God is holy,
not in spite of his holiness, but because of his holiness,
he saves all whom Christ died for. Because our sins are gone,
and our righteousness is him. Our sin is purged. Look at it
in verse seven. He laid that upon my mouth. The
very character of God, the very necessity of God, the very How can I even express it? May he reveal to us what this
is that burns the sacrifice. But it also purges our sin. And that's when he burnt the
sacrifice, that was the purging of our sin. It's the same act,
really. You see that? In burning up the
sacrifice, he purged our sin. And that's what's pictured here.
The coal from off the altar he laid upon my mouth, and said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips. The sacrifice, just the fact
that Christ died, isn't gonna save you. But if he died for
you, you're saved. Your sin's gone. If God applies
that cure, that remedy, that relief, which is Him destroying His Son
for us. Substitution. Satisfaction. The burnt offering. That's the
purging of our sin. It's got to be applied to us.
It's got to be specific to me. Not just a general sacrifice
that applies to everybody. This hath touched thy lips, and
thine iniquity is taken away. He didn't take away everybody's
sin, but he took yours away, Isaiah, and yours if you know
him. Thy sin is purged. You see what
that coal represents? I know that it's impossible to
express, but I believe the Lord give us an understanding of that.
That coal, the blood, The very blood of the sacrifice had fallen
upon that coal. And he took it out with some
tongs and flew. Then he flew. He didn't walk. He flew. And touched his lips with that coal
that had the very blood of the sacrifice on it. The coal was
from the fire that consumed the burnt offering. It's the holiness
that the seraphim spoke of. Christ, the sacrifice for sinners
is consumed by the holiness of God, but we are saved by that
same holiness. Because once our sins are purged,
then we too are holy in Christ. And then God sends Isaiah with
a message. Look at verse eight. Also, I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will
go for us? Go do what? Go, what does he
mean go? Everything that Isaiah saw here. God's gonna send somebody to
tell all of his sheep about that. Every flat one of them. Who will go for us? And then
Isaiah said, who am I? Send me. Woe is me. Just a few, just a
little while before he said, woe is me. I'm cut off. There's
no hope for me. I'm undone. I'm undone. What does that word mean? To
cease, to perish. I'm perished from God. But now,
now that God said, God sent a messenger to say your sin is purged, and
here's why. A sacrifice was burnt. An offering was made that was
well pleasing in my sight. And your sin was on that sacrifice. And it's gone, it's purged. It's
put away, it's remitted. And now Isaiah said, well, I
guess I got something to say now. If somebody's got to go, I think
maybe I could go. I'll go. Who will go? You know, Paul said
the same thing. He said, necessities laid upon
me. I'm less than the least of all the saints. I'm not worthy
to be called an apostle. But woe is unto me, interesting
that he used the same language as Isaiah, that woe is unto me
if what? If I preach not the gospel. Send me, Lord. Send me. Thank God he sends a voice. He
sends someone to tell who he is. And when sinners tremble
at the sight of God in the gospel and they despair of self, Oh,
how swiftly he brings the message of the sacrifice, the burnt offering,
the purging away of sins, the glorious gospel of how iniquity
is taken away. And then what a terrible judgment
in verse 9. We won't look at it particularly,
but we'll look into this. Look at verse 9. He said, go and tell this people,
hear ye indeed, but understand not. And see ye indeed, but perceive
not. All of the judgments that have
been pronounced upon these people, these religious, godless, proud,
self-righteous, free will people in this book of Isaiah, of all
of them, perhaps this is the most terrible. They're going
to hear the plain, simple truth of God that is able to make a
sinner wise unto salvation. The truth of how sins are purged
and iniquity taken away, and yet they're going to be blind
as bats. They'll search the scriptures
that all through testify of Christ and yet they'll miss Christ. They'll have a form of godliness
but they'll deny the power thereof. They'll see God's holiness and they'll still go around saying
God loves everybody. Instead of saying like Isaiah
did, we're all in a heap of trouble. Can God's glory be seen even
in that? The whole earth, the angel said,
is full of his glory. Can God's glory be seen even
in the blindness, the judicial blindness? We see sinners here
and now. We've seen them in our very presence
here, the plain, simple, clear truth. We've seen them sat there and we've put one plus one equals
on the board and they said three. You know what I'm talking about? That's what God said would happen.
In fact, he ordered it. Can his glory be seen in that?
You better believe it. You better believe it. How can someone otherwise very
intelligent And very sharp and very, very thoughtful people
now I know. A lot smarter than me. And yet
how in the world can they believe the drivel that passes for a
gospel in this religious world? I'll tell you how. God said,
hear, but don't understand it. The whole earth is full of his
glory now. It's incredible, isn't it? It's
incredible. See and yet be blind. Oh, but bless his holy name.
Blessed are your eyes. For they see. His glory is seen in that too. Blessed are your eyes. Thank
God for eyes that see. Even in this terrible judgment
of judicial blindness, God sent Isaiah to say, don't see. Now
you talk about a God that most people don't know and never will. But even in that terrible judgment,
there will be a remnant who will see and understand verse 13. You see that? But yet in it shall be a 10th.
And it shall return and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as
an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves
so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. There's God's
farm again in God's garden. And in a great sense now, this
garden is a disaster, but he's planted some plants in it. That holy seed, the seed of Abraham,
which is Christ and all who are in him. They that are Christ's,
Paul said. Christ, apostrophe S, they that
are Christ's. are Abraham's seed, the holy
seed. We see God holy. I want you to
notice this finally. We see God holy in this vision.
If God revealed anything to Isaiah that day, he revealed something
of his holiness. And now in this verse, verse
13, he declares his elect to be holy. What does he call it? The holy seed. That's the power of his precious
blood right there. The coal from the altar has touched
our lips by his grace. The sacrifice, it wasn't for
everybody, but has he touched you? That's what that old sinner,
that old publican, he said, Lord, be propitious to me. Oh, be, I know you're merciful, but
be merciful to me, the sinner. Thank God for that mercy, for
that blood, for that offering, for that priest. Let's pray together.