Isaiah, chapter six, Isaiah,
chapter six will be our text this evening. Thank you, Scott. Verses one through seven. Isaiah, chapter six. Verse one through seven, that's
how the message is, the cry of the downcast. The cry of the
downcast. The scripture said in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims, each one having six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone. Because I am a man of unclean
lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. 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. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips And thine iniquity is
taken away, and thy sin purged." The cry of the downcast. Isaiah
says, Woe is me, for I am undone. This is the cry of every sinner
who by the grace of God has seen God as He is, the Sovereign God. Every sinner who has seen the
Lord by the grace of God, not with these visible eyes, but
with the eye of faith, with the eye of a spiritual understanding,
seen the holy God. This is our cry as well. Woe
is me. Woe is me. Isaiah saw the Lord
in this vision sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. Now, at this
time, Isaiah and all of Judah were in great sorrow concerning
the king that had died, Uzziah. He was a king that did right
in the eyes of the Lord. This was a king that we know
is sin. We know that he had went in and
offered that incense, and he became a leper. But we know this,
that most of his days were spent in obedience of the Lord, and
he was a good king. He was a good king, and Isaiah
and the people were no doubt in sorrow that this man had died. Their beloved king was dead,
and there was unrest, uncertainty, and confusion. Who would come
next? Who would come next? Would it
be a wicked king? You know, the Scripture says
that the nation that has has a godly man, godly rulers, is
a blessed nation. They were a blessed nation to
have this man as a godly ruler, but now who is going to take
his place? Will he be a godly king? There
was uncertainty, unrest. I know we can relate to this.
I know our lives, we deal with much uncertainty. We have much
unrest and confusion. It seems I spend more time in
confusion than I do in anything else. It seems like that it just
everything is spinning and it just doesn't seem to calm down. Everything seems to be in unrest. Regarding the God's divine providence. In these times, may God reveal
himself to us. May God reveal Himself as He
is to us as He did Isaiah, because this is the way God reveals Himself. God gives comfort to His people. This is how God comforts His
people, by revealing who He is. Revealing Himself. Revealing
more of His majesty and His holiness. I have not reached the bottom
of His majesty, have you? I have not found the end of His
infinite holiness and graciousness and mercy and kindness and all
of His attributes. I have not found an end to them.
May God reveal Himself to us as He has always been, as He
is right now, and as He shall always be. The immutable, sovereign,
unchangeable God who is high and lifted up. who is on his
throne. Earthly kings die. Men die. This is just a fact of life. Because of sin had entered into
the world, spiritual death passed upon all men, but also we began
to die the moment we are born into this world, we began to
die. Kingdoms rise and fall and we
by nature are always anxious and uncertain. And this is because
we're mutable creatures. We're changeable. It doesn't
take much to change us, does it? It doesn't take much. One small chemical imbalance
in our brain and we would lose our minds. One bubble of air,
of oxygen get into our stream and we could die. I think that
someone told me that there was a blood clot. A 42-year-old woman
the other day just died. There was a blood clot. It just
went right to her brain. It was over. We think that we are immutable. We think that it won't happen
to us. Surely it won't. But we're uncertain,
aren't we? We're uncertain. This world is changing always. It seems like just a constant
wave over and over and over and over, and it never stops coming.
The wave of sorrow and grief and despair, it seems to roll
over us constantly. How many times have we supposed
that something would continue just as they are? I looked at
some pictures today. I went through a photo album
and looked at some pictures. And man, how things have changed. I see some people in there who
were young and now they're old. I see some people in there that
were old and are now dead. I see some young people who are
now growing up. You see, it doesn't change. Everything
changes. It never stays the same. It's
always changing. We always see. How many times
have we seen our plans or our relationships or what we thought
would last forever just crumble in our hands and turn to dust
before our eyes? We thought they were such solid
plans. They were well organized plans. We had it all worked out just
the way we wanted it. And it turns around and the next
day it's gone. And there's nothing we can do
about it. Nothing but be anxious. Nothing but sorrow over it. We
get so caught up in this world and the things of this life. So when we got all the things
going our way, don't want it to change. We want it to stay
the same. It seems as though we're a vessel
tossed about in a stormy sea and every day something, some
water overflows our bark and we're troubled. It's just a little,
it'd be a little water, it doesn't even have to be a lot, just a
little and we're troubled. It's then that God reveals Himself. When we begin to stagger in fear
and unbelief, it's then that God comes. The Scripture says
that God is a very present help in trouble. In trouble. Haven't you found that to be
the case? Because I have. It's in trouble. When I'm in
trouble, I've always found Him to be faithful to come. and reveal
Himself again to me." God will reveal Himself as He truly is,
the sovereign King who sits on the throne, that He is God and
He rules over all things and all things move according to
His sovereign decree. There is not anything in this
world that moves without God's direct permission, without God's
eternal decree. Everything works according to
His will, according to His plan, not according to ours. Everything works after His will. Everything is to fulfill His
purpose. And everything that happens is
for His glory and for the good of His people. That is the Word
of God. Go over to Isaiah chapter 45.
Isaiah chapter 45, verse 5, God says this, ìI am
the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me.î How many years
have we lived before God revealed Himself to us by His Holy Spirit? He girded us every day with strength
to get up. gave us breath and all the pleasures
and joys that we've had in our lives before we knew Him, He
had given them to us. He girded us. And you didn't
even know Him and neither did I. All those years He sustained
us and kept us from falling off into hell. Because He had a purpose. He
had a plan. And His purpose and His plan
isn't moved. He said, I girded thee, though
thou hast not known me, that they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. We know that the Lord does not
sin, but we know this, that all of what we would call ill things,
what we would call evil things that happen to us, God says,
I did it. The buck stops here. If you have
any complaints, drop them off there. God does all things. He does
all things according to His purpose. David said that our God sitteth
in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. So what has happened to you or
me that causes us to be anxious? Let us understand that the Lord
says, I did it. I did it. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. What shall we say then, when we find ourselves like Job, and
Job said, my days are past, my purposes are broken off. Have
your purposes been broken off? Job, I'm sure when he was living
in luxury, and yes, he was serving God in this, and all of his family
was well, and I'm sure that was a joyous time for Job, and I'm
sure that he thought that would last. Do you suppose that there was
any reason for God to set Satan against him? There was no reason! As a matter of fact, God said there
was no reason. Why have you even tried to set me against Job?
There's no reason. But God had a purpose. God had
a plan. And it wasn't Job's plan. And
I'll tell you, our plans Most of the time are not God's plans
for us. Let us cease to look at our broken
purposes. Let us look unto God who has
broken our purpose instead. Let us remember that it is the
Lord who rules over all things. and does all things after the
counsel of His own will. And most of our purposes, what
are they but selfish? I mean, are they truly in service
to God? Are all of our purposes that
we plan, are they truly in honor for the glory of God? And yet,
think of how many things He's given us. How many things He's
given us that He's allowed us to do out of grace and mercy. giving us joys? And how many
times have we neglected to give Him glory and thanks for it? Our purposes are mostly sinful
purposes. The old man only seeks and thinks
what is best for the flesh. The old man only wants and desires
what's best for the flesh. But praise be to God that rules
and overrules our thoughts. Where do you think you would
be had you had your way? I would not be here. Had God
given me all my ways and all my paths that I thought was best,
surely I wouldn't be here. But God knew what was best for
me. He knows what is best for you. And He overrules all things for
His purpose, which is for His own glory. This is the purpose
of God who sits on His throne, to do all things after the counsel
of His own will. The purpose of God who created
all things, decreed that all things are for His own glory. He has purposed for His own glory
to redeem, to call, and to save an elect people. The amazing thing about grace
is that God had grace on us at all. It is simply astounding
that God would have anything to do with such feeble creatures
as we are and rebels. Yet God in grace chose a people
that he would save. Out of sheer grace, out of mere
grace, out of simply the sovereign grace of God for no other reason
but His own grace, but His own glory, did He ever choose to
save a people. He purposed to call and to save
an elect people. Look at Isaiah 43. Look what
God says. You who are believers in Christ,
notice what God says about you and me here in this passage.
What has God done for us? But now, thus saith the Lord,
that created thee, O Jacob, and that formed thee, O Israel. Were
we not created? Did God not create the spiritual
nature that we have so that we can believe in Christ, so that
we can have faith and life? Yes. We're Jacob. He created
us. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia, and Saba for thee, since thou wast precious in my
sight. Thou hast been honorable, and
I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather them from the
west. I will say to the north, Give up, and the south keep not
back. Bring my sons from afar, and
my daughters from the ends. of the earth, even everyone that
is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him." What a wonderful thing the covenant
of God's grace is because it is nothing but I will and you
shall. There's no ifs in the covenant
of grace. This is the wonderful message
of God's covenant of grace that He determined to do it. And who's
going to stop Him? If God does all things and He
promised, shall He not do what He promised? It is God who sits on His throne
and has decreed, whether through waters or floods, fires or famine,
whatever God has us to go through, He says, I'll be with thee. It
won't overflow you. My friend, God doesn't lie. God
does not lie. We do. But God said it won't overflow
you. Why then would we not believe God, who controls all things? And yet we're anxious like it's
going to overflow us at any moment, as though we'd be swept away.
And God says, I won't let it happen. It won't happen. When
you walk through the fire, not even your clothes will catch
scent of smoke. This is the promise of God that
has decreed. God has purposed to save His
church. And therefore, all things are
for this purpose. All things that move. This whole
world revolves around this plot, around this theme, that God has
purpose to save a people, and God will save a people. And everything,
the death of men, the life of men, the work of men, the labor
of men, even the blasphemy of men, is all used of God to bring
His people to Himself. Everything. And so when our plans
crumble, That was for the glory of God to bring His people. How? I don't know. I can't determine
how it's going to work out. That's not for me. It is for
me to bow down and submit to the only sovereign God. Thy will
be done. Thy will be done. Why then are we cast down in
our souls? Why do we feel discouraged or
think ill of God's providence? I may be the only one. You may
not. You may not have trouble with
what God does. You may be, you know, saying,
I don't know what this guy's saying. I never have any problem. But I do. I feel discouraged. I feel cast down. Even because we've taken our
eyes off of the Lord is the reason why we're cast down. If we become
cast down, then what God is doing is because we've taken our love,
our affection off of Him and put it on something else. We've
taken our eyes off of Him and put it on someone else. rather
than the Lord. Behold, that God sits upon His
throne. And notice this. Look in your
text. It says, train filled the temple. This is speaking of His
majesty. Train. This is speaking of His glory,
of His dress, of His holy dress, of His majestic dress that fills
the temple. His majesty, His glory is full. And He is holy. The seraphims
that cry out before Him must cry. They could not stop crying,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Lord of hosts, the whole earth
is full of His glory. In Revelation it says, Who was,
and Who is, and Who is to come, holy, holy, day and night, day
and night, day and night. They could do nothing but cry
this. See the holiness of God. And
I know when we take our eyes off of God and we are discouraged
and we are downcast, the first thing that God reveals again
to us concerning His sovereignty and His holiness is holiness. God who rules over
all things is holy. Now, this is very important.
The character of God is very important. If we had someone who ruled over
all things and had no compassion, we would call that a tyrant.
One that did only after the lust of his flesh. Not for any glory,
but shame. We've seen kings like that. We've
heard of kings like that. But God is not a king like that.
God is worthy of glory. Worthy of all that He has decreed
and demands of us. He's worthy of this. Because
everything He does is perfect. There's not anything He does
wrong. The character of God is permeated
with this idea of holiness. John says this about God. He
says, In Him is light and no darkness. In Him is no darkness
at all. He is perfect light. Perfect. Now, I just don't know
anything. I've not seen a light so bright
that darkness hadn't been there. You can have the brightest light
a man could make and there still would be darkness. Couldn't make
it light everywhere. But God is light and in Him is
no sin. If we despair so greatly when
our earthly plans and desires are crushed, how much greater
will be the anguish of those who try to approach under this
light in their own works. I tell you what, I know that
God has by His grace redeemed me and given me the righteousness
of Christ. But I can't imagine someone trying
to go before a holy God with his own works. What an anguish it'll be when
people die in their sins and go to God expecting to be received
and find out He truly is holy. Scripture says when a man dies
in his sins and he's cast into hell, it says
they're weeping and gnashing of teeth. That just means regret. Hell is full of regret. Have
you ever regretted something? It eats at you for years and
years. But think of the eternity of
regretting, never believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The regret. The sorrow. There will be a day
when the sovereign God will judge all men after this strict justice.
And the scripture says that whosoever is under the law that he must
abide by all things that are written in the law, or he's cursed. You must continue in all things.
If you're going to base your salvation on one work, on one
thing, plus the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you will die
in your sins. Paul said, if a man be circumcised,
Christ shall profit him nothing. Profit him nothing, because if
you're trying to obey the law, you've got to obey the law all
the time, and you've got to obey it all. You can't just take parts
of it. Who then is able to approach
unto a holy God? Have you seen the Lord as He's
revealed Himself in this light of holiness? How then could we rebut anything
he's done? Have you seen the Lord high and
lifted up? If you have, then surely you
have seen your sin. How could anyone see the holiness
of God and not say, woe is me? Who could do that? Only a person
who hadn't seen the Lord could do that. But one who's seen God
as He is must also see that He Himself is full of sin. When the Lord gives things, we
are happy, aren't we? What about when He takes them
away? Not so happy. Not so happy. But Jesus said
this in wisdom. He said, what does it profit
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
will a man give in exchange for his soul? This sight of God put the prophet
Isaiah into the dust, not crying for Uzziah. He didn't say, woe
is Uzziah! No, woe is me. And when God reveals himself,
I promise you won't be thinking about anybody else but you. Woe
is me. When God reveals himself to us
as he is, we won't be saying, woe is the
fellow next to me. Woe is that sinner over there
that's preaching a false gospel. Woe is me, for I am a man of
unclean lips." Now what does that mean? I heard
one man tell me that Isaiah was a curser. That's not what it
means at all. He's talking about leprosy. Do
you remember when the leper had to cover his lips? And he said,
unclean, unclean. He said, I'm a man of leprous
sin. Unclean before God. Woe is me,
for I am undone. I know when I distrust God, when
I fall into unbelief and God reveals Himself, I say, Woe is
me! How could I mistrust You? How
could I not believe Your words? When a sinner is quickened by
the Holy Spirit, he will cry, not for the need of the flesh,
but for the mercy of God, for the forgiveness of sins. And
I know every sinner who has been quickened by the Spirit of God
never stops crying this. We never stop crying for mercy,
forgiveness. Isn't that why John said that
if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins? I know this, that I'm righteous
before God in Christ. I know this by faith. I believe
this. I trust this. But I know this,
I've not experienced this in the flesh because all I do is
sin. All I do is sin. And my conscience
is always at odds against me. Is your conscience at odds against
you? Do you condemn yourself as I
do? Has the enemy come in and told
you how unworthy you are? Have you felt so low that you
don't think it's possible for God to think of you one more
second? Because we can't even stand ourselves. Woe is me, for I am a man of
unclean lips and I need mercy. I need mercy at this minute.
more than I ever have in my life. I need mercy now. I need His grace to cleanse my
conscience of dead works so that I might serve Him. When the Pharisee prayed, he
prayed with himself. He said, Lord, I'm just so glad
I'm not like this other fellow. I'm glad I'm not a sinner like
this man or that man that I've done well. But he prayed by himself. He didn't pray to God. He wasn't
seeking mercy. It was the publican who was seeking
mercy. He said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I don't know
if there's anybody else, but I know I am. And I need mercy
now. I need mercy now. Do you need
mercy now? I do. I have need of mercy and the healing of my uncleanness. Here then is the hope for sinners
in verse 6. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me. I am glad that the Lord is holy. I know that the Lord is holy.
And they cover their feet with two of their wings. Faced with
the other two. But I'm glad they got two to
fly. Because they were meant to fly to me. These seraphims. Now truly, when I say this, I
don't say this with full understanding. But I believe these are ministers
of God's gospel. I believe these are the ministers
of God's gospel of grace and mercy. That when we are crying
for mercy, it is the gospel message that is brought to us directly
from the cold from off the altar. Wherever there is a sinner that
cries for mercy, God always sends a man with the gospel. Always. Always. Think about that Ethiopian eunuch.
Traveled all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship. Come
back reading Isaiah. Had no idea what he was doing. No idea what he was reading. Do you think for one minute that
he thought Philip would come up to him and preach the gospel? Absolutely not. Wasn't expecting
it. Didn't know it. Didn't seek it.
Didn't desire it. And there it was. God sent a
man all the way in the middle of the desert to talk to a man
from Ethiopia on his way back home. Did you ever think that God would
meet you? I didn't. I already thought I
knew Him. I already thought I had everything
I needed until He met me. And he met me by the message
given by man. This is God's means. And I like
this, he flew to his relief. When Daniel, I'm thinking of
Daniel, when Daniel was praying and he was playing that prayer
and asking for God's forgiveness, he said, before you even began
to pray, I was sent. I was sent. You well beloved,
Daniel, wherever there's a sinner, there'll
be a seraphim to fly to his relief with this gospel message. And
this gospel, look at this, it says, having a live coal. A live
coal. You know, when you take a coal,
you may take it from a fire and it's red hot. But when you take
it out of the fire, it cools and it becomes a dead coal. This
is not a dead coal. The Word of God is a living,
breathing coal of fire that pierces the heart and affections, the
soul of man. The Word of God pierces through
all of the garbage and gets right to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is this. That God has loved me with an
everlasting love. That I was always accepted of
God. The Word of God comes to my pricked
conscience and my horrid unbelief, and it says, Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, He's risen again. When the enemy comes and condemns
you through your own conscience, the best thing to do is not defend
yourself, but point him to God. Go ask him. You go ask him and
see what he says. You take your case before him,
because that's where I'm taking my case. God justified me. Who are you
to condemn me? God loved me and he won't ever
stop loving me. We preach this message and it
is a living coal of fire. And it's taken directly from
the altar where Christ was the burnt offering for sin. You know
what the burnt offering was? The burnt offering was was an
offering that was holy unto God. It wasn't an offering that was
meant for the priest or anybody else. It was an offering that
was meant to God alone. They'd set that ram on there
and they'd burn it to a crisp until it had nothing but ashes
left. Nobody got any glory for that.
That was a sweet-smelling savor unto God. It was a burnt offering. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a burnt
offering. Were you there? Did you have any part in that?
Was there any part of that transaction between God and His Son that
you and I had a hand in? Not a bit. Praise God, we had
nothing to do with it. We could barely understand it
as it is. And yet God took our sins, imputed
them to His Son, and burned them up. Where are my sins? Burned up. How do I know that? Well, I got
a live coal from the altar where it burnt up. I got a living coal
that testifies right here that my sins are gone! Gone! You mean my unbelief? Gone. Finished. Done away. Now we see clearly The purpose
of God in all things is that God save His people from their
sin. This is all my salvation. This
is all my hope. When my soul is downcast, when
my soul is uncertain, when my soul is anxious, I know this,
God is sovereign. I know this, God is holy. I know
what I am by nature, but I know this, that God has provided Himself,
a sacrifice. Isn't that what Abraham said? God will provide himself. A sacrifice. Did he not provide himself? A
sacrifice. Jesus Christ, the sacrifice. Turn here and we'll close with
this. Psalm chapter 42. Verse 11, Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. That doesn't mean wish on a falling
star. It means have confidence and
trust in God. For I shall yet praise him. Who is the health of my countenance
and my God. Are you cast down? Why are you cast down? You beloved God, Why would you be cast out? My
sin is gone. God says, I will remember your
sins and iniquities no more. Does God lie? You bet He doesn't. Will He remember my sins? You
bet He won't. Praise God. if all my plans fall
to ashes, because His never do." And he said this, he said, I
know my thoughts toward you. My thoughts to do you good and
not evil. It's that kind of blessing. God
is gracious and merciful. I pray that the Lord would bless
this to your heart. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Zach, would you just...