in perfect faith, took all the
sin of his people, like all those barrels of water, all the sins
of all his people, and bore the fierce fury of God's wrath, and
he consumed all the sin of his people, put it away, condemned
sin, and arose triumphant. And when He did it, He destroyed
every enemy of His people, just like those false prophets of
Baal were destroyed. And He shall save His people.
Amen. All right, Isaiah chapter six.
Isaiah chapter six. The Lord did two things for Isaiah.
In the sixth chapter, One, the Lord showed Isaiah his glory
in Christ Jesus. Isaiah said in verse 1, In a
year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
The reason the Lord did this had to do with the second thing
the Lord did for Isaiah. He was sending him forth to preach
the Gospel. Verse 8, he said, Also I heard
the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. Now Isaiah was already a prophet
in the king's palace. But the Lord gave him this new
revelation of Christ to send him forth to his countrymen.
He's going to use him in a greater way. Robert Hawker had an excellent
observation here, and it's truly what God's people know to be
so. When Isaiah heard this voice of the Lord, he heard God the
Father and Christ his Son speaking in covenant with one another.
Isaiah's going forth. Isaiah was willing. He said, Here am I, send me.
But he heard Christ speaking to the Father. The rest of the
chapter is the prophecy that I read to you out of John 12.
And Christ fulfilled all of that. Christ did all that. And He's
still doing it from His throne in glory through the preaching
of the Gospel. In John 8 41 it said, These things said Isaiah
when he saw His glory and spake of Him. That's the first thing
that happened when he saw His glory. And right here he's speaking
of Christ. You see, the only confidence
that Isaiah has to go forth and preach, he's seen the glory of
Christ. And he knows Christ is going forth with him. And he
will bless the preaching of the Word. So when you hear this,
you hear Christ speaking. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord, saying, Whom shall I send and who will go forth? Then said
the Lord Jesus. He said, Here am I, send me.
This is what God reveals to His elect. This is how He makes His
preacher, but it's what He reveals to His elect and continues to
reveal all our days to keep us believe in Christ, worship in
Christ, serve in Christ, our King. He shows you the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, so we depend only
upon Him. And the good news that through
the preaching of the gospel, Christ shall not fail to call
his elect and keep saving his elect through this gospel. That's
the only confidence we have is the Lord Jesus. Now let's look
at these two things. First of all, God revealed to
Isaiah his glory by revealing Christ Jesus to him. God showed
him his glory. He revealed Christ to him. Verse
1, 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. I saw the Lord, he said. I saw the Lord. Now Isaiah was
already a believer, and he was already a prophet in the king's
palace. But God is making him to know once again that Isaiah
must trust Christ alone. He must trust Christ alone. King
Uzziah was a near kinsman to Isaiah. He reigned 52 years,
Uzziah did. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord and God helped him. He was marvelously
helped. God helped him. Everything he
did, God did it, till he was strong. But when he was strong,
his heart was lifted up to his destruction. God gave him all
these blessings and did all this, and he began to think he had
some part in it. He did part of it. He put his
hand to that work. He did that. And he transgressed against the
Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense
upon the altar of incense. He looked at his works God had
wrought and began to feel confident enough that he had some part
in that, he could glory in that, so he was just going to bypass
Christ and he was just going to go to God on his own. Look
at all the works he had done. And when the priest tried to
tell him, you can't do this, Josiah, He tried to take the
censer and kill them with it. And the Lord spoke to King that
he was a leper until the day of his death and he dwelt in
a several house. Brethren, we don't do any good
works but by Christ and we cannot come to God in any time but by
Christ, by faith in Christ. When we start thinking we've
done the works, we're not trusting Christ. When we start thinking
we can come to God, and he's going to regard something we've
done. We're not trusting Christ. We can't come to God anyway but
Christ. But Isaiah, he's related to Uzziah. He admired Uzziah. He was a prophet
in the king's palace. Uzziah was like an idol to him.
He depended on him. He trusted him. He looked to
him. So the Lord removed his idol. God removed this earthly king.
And he gave Isaiah a revelation of Christ, the one true king,
the one king priest, the one king priest and king prophet
of his people, who alone we must look to. That's what the Lord
was showing Isaiah. Here's the lesson in Psalm 146.3.
Put not your trust in princes. A prince is just a man. Put not
your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in any son of
man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns
to the earth, and in that very day his thoughts perish. Verse 10 says, The Lord shall
reign forever. Leaven thy God, O Zion, unto
all generations. Praise ye the Lord. You look
only to the Lord. You only heed His word. You look to Him, trust Him. And
that's what Isaiah is being taught. Isaiah was taught this by revelation. He's taught this by revelation.
That's the only way we're going to know God and behold Christ
is by revelation. The vision of Isaiah. This is
the vision of Isaiah. It's the revelation God gave
him of the Lord Jesus. He said, In the year King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. And where did he see him? I saw
him sitting upon a throne. Christ the Lord was sitting upon
a throne. Scripture said, when he had by
himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high. In time, we think, well, he hadn't
come yet in Isaiah's day. He's eternal. He's sitting on
the throne victorious. That's where he saw him. When
He had by Himself purged our sin, He sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. Why? He finished the work. Christ's
throne is the throne of glory. It's the throne of sovereign
dominion. He saw Him high and lifted up. God's exalted Him
above all. He saw Him high and lifted up.
His throne is a throne of grace. Isaiah is being shown here that
really there was no difference in Uzziah and in Isaiah. Because by Isaiah having confidence
in Uzziah, he was doing the same thing Uzziah was doing in coming
and trying to bypass the priest. And yet the Lord smote Uzziah,
who died a leper, And the Lord had mercy on Isaiah. It's a throne
of grace. His people are being taught.
We come boldly with welcome to His throne of grace that we might
find mercy for all our sin and grace for all our need. For all our need. In His train,
His glory fills the temple. You who are born of Him, you're
the temple. He dwells in you. And he saw Seraphim, these were
living creatures in glory. With two wings they covered their
face, with two they covered their feet. Ezekiel 1.23 says that
that means they covered their whole bodies. They completely
covered themselves up. These holy creatures entirely
covered themselves because they beheld the perfect holiness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes his angels holy, he
makes his elect holy, but the heavenly host, as well as you
and me, we have to cover our whole selves. Christ alone is
holiness. And if we see him, when of God
he's made unto us sanctification, that word is the same word as
holiness, when he's made holiness to us, We are sanctified. We are holy in Christ and by
Christ, with Christ dwelling in us. And because we're one
in his holiness and he perfected us, he's not ashamed to call
us brethren. But when we see him and we see his glory, that's
how God humbles us. That's how he makes us cover
our feet and our whole bodies and say, not unto us, Lord, not
unto us, but to thy name be glory. And Revelation tells us that
these seraphim, these angels, represent Christ's preachers.
And that's what we're seeing here. Christ is taking Isaiah
to be a prophet. He's making him a preacher. He
trusted too much in man. He was leaning too much on the
arm of the flesh. He could be, at this point, if
God had left him like that and sent him and told him where he's
going to go, what he's going to face, He would have been swayed,
he would have compromised, he would have wilted. But he's sending
him forth to be his messenger, so he's showing him mercy, he's
showing him grace, and he's showing him Christ is the King. who did
all this and whose glory it all belongs to. And he did this for
the same reason that he took the priest from among men. The
Lord's doing this for Isaiah for the same reason Christ was
dwelt among his brethren and was made a high priest from among
his brethren. It's so that as Isaiah goes forth,
he can have compassion on the ignorant. And on them that are out of the
way. For he's compassed with infirmity. He knows he's a sinner. He knows
he's just a sinner. Nothing but a sinner saved by
grace. Continually being saved by grace. That's how he'll be
low. That's how he'll have compassion.
That's how he'll show mercy. This is what he learned. When
God didn't show mercy to Uzziah, but God showed mercy to him,
he learned God's mercy is distinguishing to his elect and it is undeserved and unmerited. And
that's how he brings you low. That's how he keeps you from
exalting self. Now, it said, and with two wings
they did fly. God makes his messengers willing
to go wherever God sends them. And it's not often a pleasant
place and a pleasant journey, but they go wherever God sends
them when God sends them. And that's what he's teaching
Isaiah here. And what's the message? Verse 3, And one cried unto another,
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole
earth is full of his glory. The triune God, holy, holy, holy,
in Christ, right here we see he's holy. He says, To whom will
you liken me? To whom shall I be equal, saith
the Holy One? the Holy One. God and His ways
and His works are perfect. He's purity without spot. He's
light without darkness. We can't say that. We can't say
that. But because He is so, He's gracious,
and He's merciful, and He's long-suffering, and He shows forgiveness, and
He by no means clears the guilty because He's holy. Christ came
as a God-man because God's holy. Christ came because God will
be just. He will kill, everybody saves.
Justice demands it. His holiness demands it. And
he came that he might save his people because he's a savior.
He will have mercy on his people. And the only way he could make
those two meet in harmony, justice fully satisfied and mercy freely
given, justly. The only way he could do that
was in Christ, his son, taking the place of his people and doing
all the works on our behalf. And that is what Christ did.
There is none holy as the Lord, Anna said. There is none beside
Thee, neither is there any rot like our God. Now, the result
of this revelation is always the same. Whether it is the first
moment the Lord is calling you, or whether He is humbling you
like He was doing Isaiah and sending him forth for greater
service, the revelation of this glory is always the same. Verse
4, And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke. This is what he does
in us who are his temple. The door shook at the voice of
him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. That's
when we cover our whole body. And how do you do that? Confessing
our sin, that is our nature, and confessing our righteousness
is our sin, they're iniquity, they don't measure up to God,
and confessing our sin. That's what he did. Verse 5,
Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of
unclean lips. See, out of the heart, the mouth's
gonna speak. This was the heart God put in
him. This was the new heart that put in him. He said, my nature's
sin. Woe is me. I'm undone. Before, he was woeing everybody
else for five chapters. Now he says, woe is me. Woe is
me. My sin. When John said, if any
man had said he have not sinned, that's speaking of the nature.
And if any man say he has not sinned, that's speaking of what
comes from our nature, the sins. And he said, I have sinned. I
have sinned. And he said, and I dwell in the
midst of a people of unclean lips. Before, he was depending
too much on man. He saw Uzziah as a good man and
admired him. Now he says, we're all sinners. He's not depending on man. And
what made him see this? Mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Hosts. That's when we know this. Only,
only when we see Christ the King, the Lord of Hosts. We'll never
know this except for a divine revelation. Never know it but
by divine revelation. When a man sees God in his greatness,
he sees himself in his weakness. He stops boasting that I've put
off the old and put on the new. And he says, I am utterly weak. He's been renewed in the spirit
of his mind. That is putting off the old and putting on the
new. When you're able to say, I'm utterly, totally weak. That's
keeping God's command. When a man sees God in his holiness,
he sees himself as nothing but a sinner in all that he's ever
said and done and thought as sinfulness. When a man sees God
in his majesty, in his power, he sees himself in his own inability,
his own corruption. That's how God makes a broken
heart in his child. That's how he keeps the heart
broken in his child. He keeps showing you him. He
keeps making you hear the angel speak and say, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord alone. The earth's full of his glory. And when God speaks that in the
heart, we hit our face. When Job saw the Lord again,
he said, Now mine eyes have seen thee, and I abhor myself. I repent
in sackcloth and ashes. That's God's command. God commands
you to repent. He commands you to abhor yourself.
But you'll never do it until you see the glory of Christ. When that Pharisee, I mean that
Republican, he stood afar off. He wouldn't even lift up his
eyes to heaven. He smote upon his breast, Lord
be merciful to me the sinner. Why? He saw the Holy One. He
saw the Holy One. John saw the Lord on the Isle
of Patmos. What'd he do? He said, I fell
as a dead man. And then Christ makes us know
the good news. He killeth and He maketh alive. He is going to kill all our goodness
first. And He makes us alive. He shows
you the good news. Verse 6, Then flew one of the
seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand. A live coal. This is a living word right here.
And it comes burning like a live coal. He took it with the tongs
from off the altar. Christ is the altar. Everything
we're looking at here is what He's done for us. His blood,
His righteousness, His sanctifying power, blood, sin-cleansing power. He laid it upon my mouth and
He said, this was the good news, Lo, this has touched thy lips.
Thine iniquity is taken away. All these works that don't measure
up to God's righteousness, it's taken away and your sin is purged. That's good news. Christ's blood
makes clean. He bore the fire of God's wrath
for His people, and He's the fire that cleanses. He's the
blood that cleanses. This Word's the living Word because
He's the Word that cleanses. He removes our woe. Woe is me. He takes away that woe by making
you know you're pardoned, you're justified, you're righteous,
you're clean everywhere. And now Isaiah ceased from man.
Now he's dependent on Christ the King. Now, by this grace and mercy
that's shown to him, the Lord is going to send him forth and
he can have compassion on sinners like himself. That's the first
thing the Lord showed Isaiah. That's what he does for his people.
Keeps showing us this, keeps showing us this, keeps showing
us this. You know, Moses saw his glory in the burning bush.
Hit his face. And a little bit later, Moses
is praying, Lord, if you don't go with us, don't send us forth.
And he asked the Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord showed
him his glory again. John and the other apostles, they said,
we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Then he took them
into the Mount of Transfiguration and he showed them his glory.
You know what they did? They were on their face. He keeps
showing us his glory. This is what keeps us humble,
trusting him. Now secondly, Then the Lord now is going to send
him out of this palace to declare the gospel to his countrymen.
Anytime the Lord is going to do a greater work using you,
his people, to do something in his cause, he is going to show
you his glory, show you your weakness, and he is going to
show you Christ is going forth doing the work. You are just
a puppet being used. We call you a computer, but the
computer has got moving parts, as John used to say. You're just
an instrument God's using. We have this treasure in earth
and vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God,
not of us. The emphasis is not we can do
anything. The emphasis is by His strength. Verse 8, Also I heard the voice
of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send who will go forth? Then
said I, Here am I, send me. But now watch this. Here is why
he is going to need to see that this was a prophecy of Christ
and know that Christ is going forth with him right now doing
the work. Isaiah is made willing. He is willing to go now because
he has seen the King. He knows the King is the one
who is doing the work. And here is why he needs to know
that the King is going to do the work through the preaching
of the Word. Because the Lord told him, nine out of ten people
that you preach to, Isaiah, they are not going to hear you. Nine
out of ten. Look here in verse 9. He said,
Go, tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and
see ye indeed, but perceive not, Make the heart of this people
fat, 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. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, 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. So, Isaiah knows right away,
this charge that he's given to preach the gospel, it's going
to involve a lot of hardship. It's going to involve rejection,
it's going to involve danger, it's going to involve shame,
it's going to involve scorn, flesh and blood. If it was just
a man being sent to do this, he wouldn't have any strength
to do it. He'd shrink from it. Moses did. Moses said, Lord,
I can't do this. I can't go forth and preach. That's the heart
Christ puts in you when you've seen him in the burning bush.
I can't go forth, Lord. I can't do this without you.
That's how come you know right here when you see this and you
hear my Lord send me, that's Christ speaking. Everything we
just read, John said Christ accomplished that. He's the one accomplishing
the work. He's the one accomplishing the
work. He experienced, Isaiah experienced the excellency of
Christ's power, and he knows Christ is with him, and Christ
is going to bear him up, and Christ is going to do this work
through the preaching of the gospel. Isaiah was a prophet. He heard Christ speaking. And
he knew this is the work of the prophet, priest, and king Christ
Jesus. And we know he did because John
12, 41 said, These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory
and spake of him. Go over to Matthew 13. I'll show
you the Lord said it speaks of him. Look at Matthew 13. And the Lord didn't just do this
work here in Israel. He's still doing it. Matthew
13. Look at verse 13. He had spoken to them in parables,
and they asked him why, and he said in verse 13, I therefore
speak out to them in parables, because they seeing, see not. They think they see, but they
don't, so they don't see. Hearing, they say they hear,
so they don't hear. Neither do they understand. And
in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, By hearing
you shall hear, and shall not understand. Seeing you shall
see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their hearts are dull of hearing, and their eyes they
have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Christ
did this work when he walked this earth. God sent him forth
to do this. He came in person and did it.
But that's showing you and me, brother, now he's risen, just
where Isaiah saw him on that throne. And in Isaiah's day,
he was working this work through Isaiah. And he's still working
this work through his messengers today, through his church, through
his people. His messengers are just earthen
vessels. Clay pots, just sinners saved
by grace like Isaiah was. You and me don't have the power,
the excellency of the powers of God, not of us. And he made
him know that by shining that glory into his heart and making
him behold the King of glory. Christ shall not fail, Isaiah
said. This is what the Lord taught
him. He shall not fail until he has set judgment in the earth.
Christ set judgment in the earth on the cross. He's going to set
judgment in the hearts of his people too. For those who trust their strength
like His eye did, this same gospel though, Christ is going to make
their heart fat and their ears heavy and He's going to shut
their eyes. Listen to this, Paul said, Thanks be unto God which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ. The gospel is never
going forth void. He maketh manifest the savor
of His knowledge by us in every place. We are unto God a sweet
saver of Christ. Unto God a sweet saver of Christ. Christ is well pleased when he
hears the gospel going forth, he hears his son magnified. We
are unto God a sweet saver of Christ. In them that are saved
and in them that perish. You mean in both? In both. Christ
is set in judgment and in the heart. To the one we are the
saver of death unto death. That's a saver unto God. To the
other, a saver of life unto life. And you know what God's preacher
says about that? Who is sufficient for these things? Every time you preach, somebody's
being called, they're being saved, and somebody's being damned.
Every time. Ain't a man on the top side of
this earth that wants that responsibility unless God gives it to him. Because
that's a serious charge. Paul said, we're not sufficient.
Our sufficiency is of God. That's what Isaiah is being taught.
You can't trust yourself. You can't trust Uzziah. You can't
trust an earthly king, an earthly prince, anybody. You've got to
trust Christ only. Because they're going to reject
you. God gave the children of Israel manna from heaven when
they were in the wilderness. Remember this? And then God made
the way really tough for the children of Israel, really tough. Moses had married an Ethiopian
woman, you know, and then the way was rough, everything was
tough. And the people spake against God and against Moses. And they said, wherefore have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There
is no bread, neither is there any water. Now listen, and our
soul loatheth this light bread. That was bread from heaven. Christ
said, I'm the bread from heaven. But they wanted quail. They wanted,
what does that mean? They wanted flesh. What's that
picture? Remember those that followed Christ after he fed
the multitude? They wanted earthly things and
they wanted to get it by the works of their flesh. And they
wanted to hear about the works of their flesh. And Christ said,
I'm the bread. The work of God is to believe
me. And they hated that gospel, they
hated Christ, they didn't want to hear salvation by Christ works
alone, they wanted flesh, they wanted to hear the works of flesh.
Here's what men whose eyes and ears have been shut, here's what
they say. Isaiah 30.10, they say to the
seers, see not, and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things,
speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, Get you out
of the way. Turn a side out of the path.
Here it is. Cause the Holy One of Israel
to cease from before us. Quit preaching Christ. Preach
something else. Preach flesh. Give us some flesh
we can eat. And God gave them quail to the
fool till they came out their nose. You know what? When they cried out in the wilderness
though, God immediately sent serpents to start biting them.
And they started dying. And you know what the cure was?
God told Moses, you make a serpent out of brass and lift him up
on a pole and tell him, look to that serpent and they'll live.
The answer and the cure, they may loathe the light bread, Isaiah.
you preach the bread more. They may love it, you preach
it more. Because the only cure is Christ, who knew no sin, made
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. As many as look to Him shall live. Shall live. Men that want flesh don't hear
the gospel in that, because they think you're not preaching practical
things. That's the cure. That's the cure. Practical things have come out
of it, but that's got to be continually wrought in the heart by God.
When God reveals His glory in the face of Christ Jesus, and
He makes you look, Christ puts judgment in the heart of His
child. Go to John 9. He puts judgment in the heart
of His child. Look at this. John 9. He makes His child see
Christ the King. He hears that He is holy, holy,
holy. He is the Lord of hosts. He is
ruling everything. And the whole earth is full of
His glory. He is doing exactly as He will. And He is going forth
with His people and He is blessing His gospel. When He makes you
see His glory, He gives you some discernment. We see this in the
blind man given sight. Look at John 9.35. Jesus heard
that they had cast him out. Pharisees cast him out, and when
he found him, he said to him, Does thou believe on the Son
of God? And listen to his answer. Oh, Lord, I see. Oh, Lord, I
know. I understand. The answer said,
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? That's God's grace. He confessed
he was blind. He confessed he was ignorant.
He confessed he needed to be taught of the Lord. And Jesus
said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he bowed down
and worshipped him. And then the Lord declares what
Isaiah prophesied. He declares what Isaiah heard
that Christ would fulfill what our text is saying. Christ said,
For judgment I have come into this world, that they which see
not might see. If you're a sinner, like this
blind man was, if you say you depend on Christ for sight, Christ
for understanding, Christ for power, Christ for righteousness,
Christ for everything, and you're constantly looking to Him to
teach you, He will. He will. And they would see. They think they see on their
own. They're doing some part of it. He said, I came to make
them blind. And here was the different response
from those that said they could see, that thought they could
hear and understand. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said to him, are we blind
also? You know, you've experienced
this, that have been born of God. You've experienced this.
We experienced this before God called us. Before God called
you, when you heard the gospel preach, you put yourself on as
the enemy of Christ, and you said, is that preacher preaching
to me? Is he saying I'm the sinner?
You know, it was okay for the preacher to say everybody's the
sinner, but when he started saying you're the sinner, that's when
we started going, are you saying I'm the sinner? But when God
puts you on Christ's side, and he says that, you say, I'm the
sinner. I'm the sinner. Child of grace, here's the gospel,
say you're blind and you're undone. And he says, Lord, I'm blind
and I'm undone. Who is he that I might know him?
The Pharisee says, are you saying we're blind? The child of mercy
beholds Christ's glory, hears all our righteousness, our filthy
rags, hears that Christ is the holiness and righteousness and
the author and finisher of faith, we're saved by Christ A to Z.
And he bows down before God and he says, I'm undone, I'm unclean.
He comes to like the Syrophoenician woman and says, yes, Lord, I'm
the dog, but can I just have a crumb from your table? But you remember when the Lord
declared that, when he said, the sin nature that's in you,
that's where you defile. And they were offended. You're
talking about us. You're saying we're self-righteous.
That's how you know. When you stop hearing the gospel,
as God speaking to you. Thessalonians received it not
as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God.
And when you hear the word of God coming to you, and you can
take your place as the sinner, undone, self-righteous, sinful,
God speaking to you, and He's made it effectual in you. But
if you ever find yourself saying, that's just a man speaking, and
he's calling me self-righteous, and he's saying I'm the sinner,
and he's saying this and that, you're in a snare. You're in
a snare. Only God can save you out of
it. Verse 941, Christ said, if you were blind, you should have
no sin. If you were blind, if you were
the sinner undone, you'd have no sin. You'd be just like this
man right here that I just saved. But now you say we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. But here's the good news. I gotta
hurry. Here's the good news. That wasn't the only thing the
Lord told Isaiah. He told him, there's a promise
he gave him that Christ would accomplish. Look at Isaiah 6.13. But yet in it shall be a tenth.
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. When
Christ came, Israel was cut down like an oak tree. You cut right
out here, we got it, it's still growing out here. I talked about
it when we first moved in here. There's an oak tree out here
that's cut down. It's stumped, but out of it there
comes, there came a tree. Well, the Lord cut down Israel,
but Christ is the root out of a dry ground. He is the branch.
He came out of that root, and He's the vine. He's the holy
seed that was the life within that nation Israel. He came forth,
and as an elect people, the tenth, one out of ten, The Lord told
Isaiah, there's a tent, His remnant, His elect that God chosen gave
to Christ. And what He's telling Isaiah
is, you go forth and preach. Nine out of ten are not going
to hear you, but there's a tent. There's one out of that tent
that's mine, and I'm calling them, and they're coming, and
they're going to believe Christ, and they're going to hear the
Word, and they're going to bow down just like I just worked
in you, Isaiah, and they're going to follow the Lord. That's the
promise. The Lord Jesus said, because
of this race right now, it's fallen, it's corrupt, it's like
a tree cut down. Why does he keep sending the
gospel forth? Because he has an elect remnant in this world.
And he says there's a blessing in it, don't destroy it. Just
like when there's some good grapes in a cluster, don't destroy it,
there's a blessing in it. The Lord's not willing that any
of His elect should perish, but they all should be brought to
repentance. That's why He's long-suffering. And His long-suffering always
results in the salvation of His people. And when He calls His
people, we'll get puffed up and we'll start saying, are we blind
also? He's going to keep us knowing. Just what he made Isaiah know.
Stop trusting the flesh. Stop leaning to the arm of the
flesh. He's going to take away our idols, take away our props,
take away our helps, and make us behold holy, holy, holy King,
the Lord of hosts, Christ Jesus. And he's going to keep us on
our face saying, woe is me. And keep us knowing I've purged
your sin. I've put your iniquity away.
Now go forth and preach my gospel. I'm with you. I'll bless it.
That's what he's going to keep doing. Those two things our Lord
never stops doing with His child, and it's Christ that works it
all. Amen.