Let's go back to Isaiah chapter
6. Isaiah chapter 6. What a faithful servant of God
Isaiah was You know, his name means Jehovah
has saved. What a blessed name to have.
Jehovah has saved. Not merely Jehovah will save,
but he has saved already. And for those of us who believe
the gospel, who love the Lord Jesus, who see Him to be our
wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption,
let's be assured of this, the Lord has saved us with an everlasting
salvation. I know that salvation can be
set forth as that which has already happened, and that which is happening,
and that which shall yet happen. because now is our salvation
nearer than when we first believed. But make no mistake about it,
in God's eternal purpose of grace, we were saved in Jesus Christ
before the world began. We read in 2 Timothy chapter
1, who had saved us and then he called us. So that's backwards,
preacher. We have to be first called by
God's grace, and then we're saved. No, the Apostle Paul got it just
right. He said it just like the Spirit
of God would have Him to say it. Who had saved us in God's
eternal purpose of grace, and therefore sometime during our
lifetimes, through the proclamation of the Gospel, God does indeed
call us by His grace. Isaiah's name means Jehovah hath
saved, or salvation has already happened by Jehovah. Now one thing we know about Isaiah
is this. He was a seer. He saw a lot. Go back to chapter 1, and I'll
get to chapter 6 in a minute, but look at chapter 1. Look at verse 1. The vision of
Isaiah. The vision of Isaiah, the son
of Amos, which he saw. The Lord graciously enabled Isaiah
to see some things. In this reference, he sees judgment
is going to happen to Judah and to Jerusalem. This judgment was
due to idolatry. It was due to their religion
that had no heart and it had no truth. And in years down the road, the
Assyrians would invade Judah and Jerusalem and take them away
in the captivity. And God enabled Isaiah to see
that. This is a man who saw judgment
in the future. Blessed is that man, blessed
is that woman who sees and understands that the God of the Bible must
punish sin. Blessed is the man and the woman
or the young person who sees judgment will surely arrive. Blessed is that individual who
understands God will either judge your sins in yourself or in a
suitable substitute that He alone must provide. Isaiah saw judgment
is going to come. We read and we sang of the Lord
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. And as surely as
God is holy, He must punish sin. You see, sin is against His character. It's against God. It's rebellion
against Him. It's resistance against Him. It's lifting up your fist in
the face of God. It's defiance of God. Sin is
the transgression of God's law and every sin, every iniquity,
every transgression must receive judgment. Thanks be unto God, the sins
of all of God's people, the sins of all of those who've been brought
to believe the Son of God, the sins of all of the Lord's children
have already been judged in Christ Jesus. He took our indebtedness. All
of our sins were charged to Him. And then the windows of heaven
opened up, the wrath of God opened up against him and flooded into
his soul. So much so that he cried out,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And in Psalm 22
and verse 3, we know the answer why God forsook him. For thou
art holy. That's why God forsook him. Isaiah saw in vision, God will
judge sin. Look at the second chapter in
verse 1. The second chapter in verse 1.
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem. He saw the word. He saw what
it meant. He saw the reality of it. He
saw the certainty of it. The fulfillment of the Word of
God. And then I want you to look at
another reference, and this is in the Gospel of John chapter
12. And then I'll come back to Isaiah
6. I want you to look in John chapter 12. The Gospel of John chapter 12.
And this is at the end of our Lord's public ministry. In fact,
you read in verse 36 of John 12, these things spake Jesus
and then He left them. He departed. John 12, 36. Look
at the last statement. John 12, 36. These things spake
Jesus and then He departed and did hide Himself from them. And if He hides Himself from
anybody, then those folks that He hides Himself from, they won't
find Him. Here's the sovereignty of His
mercy and of His grace. He doesn't have to reveal Himself
to everybody, and He doesn't reveal Himself to everybody. He reveals Himself to whom He
will. And from others He hides Himself. Look at verse 37. But though
He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on Him. that the saying of Esaias, or
Isaiah the prophet, might be fulfilled which he spake, and
this is in Isaiah chapter 53 where he spake this, he said,
Lord who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Now look at verse 39. Therefore
they could not believe because that Isaiah said again, and he
said this in the sixth chapter, and interestingly enough, this
passage of scripture is used in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Acts, and Romans. These words of Isaiah. It's what
Isaiah said, verse 40, He hath blinded their eyes, and He hath
hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw, when he saw, not the judgment, though he did see the
judgment that was going to come. He saw what God would do to Judah
because of their sin. But he didn't say these things
when he saw the judgment that was to come. These things said
Isaiah when he saw His glory and spake of Him. In that passage that our brother
read to us back in Isaiah chapter 6, that's when Isaiah saw His
glory. And that's our subject today.
Isaiah saw His glory. Isaiah saw His glory. And I'll say this to you. Let
me give you two or three things by way of introduction. Whenever
people see the glory of the Lord Jesus, they will speak of Him. I mean, the Scripture is so very,
very, very clear there in John chapter 12. When He saw His glory,
that's when He spoke of Him. So I think we can draw this conclusion
Those who do not speak of Him, they have not seen His glory. Doesn't that make sense? It is only when we see the glory
of the God-man, when we see Him as God, and we see Him as man,
when we see Him as the Sovereign Master, when we see Him as the
Savior, When we see Him as the substitute, when we see Him as
the sacrifice, it is only when we see the glory of who He is
and what He did, only then will we speak of Him. You listen to
a preacher preach, and he doesn't preach the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, you can easily draw this conclusion He hasn't seen His
glory. And the sinner who still tugs
on his self-righteous rags, who still thinks he can work himself
into God's favor, who thinks he can do something to impress
a holy God, A sinner who is working and striving and laboring and
trying to keep the law and making a decision and going into the
baptismal waters thinking he can do something for God, he
hasn't seen his glory. Otherwise, he'd speak of Christ
Jesus. You see, it's not us. You know
this. This is not us. It's not about
what we've done. or about what we're doing. It's
about who He is and what He's already done for us. And we will
speak of Him whenever we see His glory. I think of the woman
at Jacob's well in John chapter 4. You know, the Scripture says
he must needs go through Samaria. And you know why. One of his
lost sheep was there. One of His elect ones was there.
And He must need to go through Samaria because in old eternity
it was ordained this was the hour of confrontation. This was
the hour of conversion. This was the hour when the Savior
would raise her from the spiritual grave. And He identified Himself. He
spoke of the water that He would give her. And she ran away into the city,
and you know what she said? She said to all of her friends,
to all of her relatives, Oh, come see a man that told me all
the things that I've ever done. Is not this the Christ? When
she saw His glory, she spake of Christ Jesus. She spake of
Him. And when you see His glory, and
when I see His glory, here's what we'll say. Oh, come see
a man! Is not this the Christ? Is not
this the Christ? We'll stop talking about our
religion, about our church attendance, about how much we pray, how much
we give, and how dedicated we are, and how consecrated we are,
and we will brag on King Jesus. but not until we see His glory. And I do think that's the problem.
Folks have not seen His glory. Oh, may God the Spirit give you eyes to see, to behold,
to gaze upon, to be thrilled with Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. to rejoice in Him as God and
as man. And to rejoice in what He did
for sinners. Listen, all that He did, He did
for sinners. Isn't that good news? All that
He did, He did for sinners. He did for folks that couldn't
do for themselves. Folks like you and me. That's
good news. That's good news. And when we
see His glory, the glory of His work, the glory of His accomplishment,
the glory that He finished that which God the Father gave Him
to do, the glory of His blood, the glory of His righteousness,
the glory of the forgiveness of our sins through His merits,
that's when we'll speak of Him. And a second thing, when folks
see the glory of Christ Jesus, not only will they speak of Him
to others, But when they speak to God, they'll speak to God
about His Son. They'll come in His name. When you draw near to God, just
what is it that is your plea before God? What do you plead?
What do you bring up? Upon what basis should God do
anything for you? Whose name do you mention? Do you speak of what you've done?
Oh, Lord, I've tried to be faithful this week. Lord, I've tried to
do the right thing. You know, I've made a few mistakes
this week, Lord, but you know, Lord, you know that I've done
the best I can do. You don't pray like that, do
you? If you pray like that, you're
not even praying. You're just uttering words. When
you come to God, if you would have a holy God hear you, you
come to God through the blood and the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You plead only God's Son. Oh God, hear me for Christ's
sake. Oh God, forgive me for Christ's
sake. Oh God, bless me for Christ's
sake. And your desire within your heart
is, Oh Lord, may I see more of His glory. Because I'll tell
you this, the more you see of His glory, the less you will
glory in yourself. The less you'll brag on yourself.
When we see His glory, we'll stop bragging on ourselves, we'll
stop bragging on the church, we'll stop bragging on the preacher,
and we'll brag on King Jesus Christ. And we'll tell folks, oh, what
a wonderful Savior I have. Let me tell you what He did for
me. He washed all my sins away. I was so in debt to God. I was
head over heels in debt. In fact, I don't even know how
much in debt I was. I just know it was a debt I couldn't
pay. And you know what my Savior did? He came and Jesus paid it
all, all the debt off. I'm going to brag on Him. Tell
you what, if you love somebody, you're going to brag on them.
You're going to talk about them in a real positive way. That's
why we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. And folks say, you know,
all you guys do is preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Yeah,
do you have a problem with that? So what is your point? Somebody said to a preacher one
time, those very words, all you do is preach Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He said, put it on my tombstone. I had a couple that said they
were going to try our church out. That's the expression they
used several years ago. And they didn't stay. They said, well, all you do is
preach the gospel. All you do is preach the gospel.
Well, excuse me, I thought that's all I was supposed to do. Do
we not read in 1 Corinthians, woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel? The fact of the matter is we
have nothing else to preach. We brag on the Lord Jesus. Oh, there's an astonishing glory
in His person and in His work. Do you know what it is that prevents
people from seeing His glory? And even God's children. There
are times when we don't see His glory like we ought to. I'll
give you the reason. John chapter 11 and verse 40. John chapter 11 and verse 40. You know, I forgot to set my
stopwatch this morning until right now. Okay, I have 40 minutes
from now. Look at John chapter 11. Verse 40, this is our Lord speaking
to Martha. Jesus saith unto her, that is
to Martha, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God. You know who sees the glory of
God? Those who believe. Those who believe. I'll give
you another passage. I won't take the time to turn
this, but this is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James,
and John were up there with the Savior. And you remember Moses
and Elijah appeared? And they spoke about His decease
that He would accomplish at Jerusalem. This is in Luke chapter 9. The
32nd verse says, But Peter and they that were with him were
heavy with sleep. They went to sleep. Here is the
Lord Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah about redemption. And Moses and Elijah, to them,
this is the only subject they want to talk about. Redemption
by the blood. But Simon Peter and they that
were with him, they were heavy with sleep. They went to sleep. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
such a thing? Here is the Savior being glorified,
being magnified. Moses and Elijah speaking with
him about redemption that he would accomplish, and Peter,
James, and John go to sleep. And then we read, And when they
were awake, they saw His glory. When they were awake, they saw
His glory. You know, sometimes even the
children of God, we fall asleep. I'm not talking about literally.
Nobody is sleeping near this more literal. Hey, wake up if
you are! Here, catch this song book. Okay, you're awake now. That's
not the kind of awake I'm talking about. That's not the kind of
sleepiness I'm talking about. We get spiritually asleep. We
get dull. Right? You know. We get dull
and lifeless. And when we get like that, we
don't see His glory. Oh, God the Spirit, wake us up. We need a shaking, don't we?
Wake up! Wake up! I remember when I was
a little kid, I hated to get up in the morning and go to school.
And I'd sleep and my mother would come in and she'd shake me and
she'd say, Wake up! Wake up! You've got to go to
school! We need the Spirit of God to come and give us a good
joke. Wake up! See the glory of the
Savior. Wake up! Wake up! View the Master! Wake up! Study Him! Wake up! Focus on Him! Wake up! Wake up! Center! Go back to Isaiah 6. Isaiah chapter 6. Let me give
you several things here briefly. Number one, here are six things. First of all, here is Isaiah
and his contemplation. Here is Isaiah and his contemplation. Now remember, back in John 12,
it says these things about Isaiah. When he saw his glory, he spake
of him. Now when did this happen to Isaiah? Well, it was in the year that
King Uzziah died. He said that I saw the Lord,
the Master, the Sovereign, sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Isaiah and his contemplation. You see, this man Uzziah was
Isaiah's king. He was also Isaiah's cousin.
This man reigned in Jerusalem for 52 years. And Isaiah loved
him and perhaps even idolized him. It's a dangerous thing when
you idolize somebody. It's a dangerous thing when you
esteem someone to be more than they really are. Because you
put that person in a dangerous position. Because God might just
show you that they're just a man after all. God had to show Isaiah and others
as well that King Uzziah was just a sinful man. And you can
read about this in 2 Chronicles chapter 26, but Uzziah goes to
the temple and he decides he's going to burn incense. He's not
satisfied to be the king, he wants to be a priest. And they said to him, you can't do
this. Well, he said, well, I can do anything I want to, I'm the
king. God smote him with leprosy. And he was a leopard until the
day he died. Now learn this. God took away
a king so that Isaiah might see the king in his beauty and in
his glory. Every other object must be removed
from our sight. Only then will Christ Jesus be
all in all to us. This is when the prophet of God
saw the Lord, and the one He saw was Christ Jesus, the Master,
the Sovereign of the universe. He saw the enthroned Christ,
the Sovereign Christ, sitting upon a throne. He saw Him high
and lifted up. He saw His glory. For you see,
Jesus Christ, He is the glory of God. He is the glory of God. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. You know, when Isaiah walked
among the people of Judah, he heard them speaking against the
Lord. It troubled him. Some were contending
for one deity. Others were contending for another
deity. Some were leaning on the arm
of the flesh. Others were leaning on one of
these dung-heeled deities. And I know it was greatly troubling
to the heart of Isaiah to see the nation in a mess. Even as
it's troubling to our hearts to see what's going on in our
day. But, when Isaiah went into the sanctuary of the Lord, that's
when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, still reigning,
still glorious, and undisturbed by all of the
opposition. God's throne is set. It is fixed. It is immovable. Isaiah said
he saw the Lord sitting. He sits there, no anxiousness. I get anxious about things, don't
you? Every once in a while I'll even worry. I get aggravated. I get agitated. But not the Lord. He sits on
His throne. because He knows all that's happening
is the fulfillment of His sovereign will. I wish we could remember
that. Everything going on in the world. Now listen, whether it's right
or wrong, whether it's good or evil, it doesn't make any difference.
Every single thing going on in the world is under the sovereign
control of King Jesus. Do you believe that? I believe
that. Well, then let's not get so disturbed when things happen
that we don't particularly like. It's alright. It's alright. See the Lord sitting upon His
throne. See Him holler and lift it up. He'll give you some peace in
your heart. Our Lord Jesus is exalted to
the throne by virtue of His successful work of redemption. And He sits
there undisturbed, unagitated. He's not anxious because everything
is going right on schedule. You who are the children of God
in your life, you say, oh, this trouble, this trial that I've
got, this affliction, this difficulty, it's all right on schedule. See His glory. See Him for who He is. See Him
reigning over all things. And then rest in Him. Rest in
Him. You notice the next thing it
says, His train filled the temple. In other words, His kingly garments
filled the sanctuary, so then in the temple there was no room
for anything else. The glory of our Lord Jesus fills
all of heaven. Oh, that His glory would fill
this place. If His glory would fill this
place, there would be no room for anything else. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? Think about your dad in heaven's
glory right now. The glory of Jesus Christ fills
the place! How thrilling! How majestic! Oh, how glorious that is! I say what a glory God has put
on His Son. Christ died to save us. The Father
raised Him from the dead and ordained that He would be all
things to the church. And He has ascended up far above
all the heavens that He might fill all things. Look at the
second verse. Above it, above this great throne,
stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
two, he covered his face in meekness and humility. With two, he covered
his feet in unworthiness. And with two, he did fly." Who
are the seraphim? Well, I know some believe these
are some sort of angelic creatures. I don't agree with that, and
I wouldn't want to get into a fuss with you. This is not a gospel
issue here, but I'll tell you who I think the seraphim are.
I think they represent gospel preachers. We see them in Revelation
chapter 4. In Revelation chapter 4, we find
out about these heavenly creatures, these beasts, as they're called
there, that they're bold as a lion, they're meek as a calf, they're
still just men, they're swift like the eagle to go where God
sends them. Note these messengers, they cover
their faces in modesty and humility. They are less than the least.
They cover their feet. They are aware of their own sinfulness,
their own imperfections. And with two wings they did fly. In other words, they are always
ready to go preach the gospel. You say, well, why do you think
these are not angelic creatures? Why do you think these are preachers?
Because angels are not gospel preachers. Does God preach the gospel through
angels or does God preach the gospel through men? He uses men,
is that correct? He uses men. Well, then one of
these seraphim preached the gospel to Isaiah. Look down at verses
6 and 7. then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hands." This is the Word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. "...which he had taken
from the tongues of the altar, the altar of sacrifice, of burnt
offering. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and he said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, thine iniquity is taken
away, thy sin is purged." This is a gospel preacher. preaching
the Gospel. You see, it's Gospel preachers
who go forth declaring this. Verse 3, Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. We read, holy and reverend is
His name. We read God is light and in Him
is no darkness at all. Everything that God is and everything
that God does must be in agreement with His holiness. Exodus 15,
11, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like the
glorious in holiness? Our Lord, in that model prayer
that He gave to His disciples, He said, After this manner, therefore,
pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy name is holy. Thy name is
separate. There is no other name like God's
name. You be careful how you use His
name. I hear people all the time saying
things like, oh my God, and I just cringe. You don't say that, do
you? If you do, don't say it anymore.
Or they just say, OMG. Don't use that. That's taking
God's name in vain. God's name is holy. You be careful
how you use God's name. His name is holy. There's a majesty
about God, a glory about God. The psalmist said, let them praise
thy great and terrible name, for it is holy. What is His holiness? It's the beauty of the Lord. It's that which makes all of
the other attributes glorious. Holy, holy, holy. The Father
is holy. He's the Holy Father. He's the
only one who deserves this title, Holy Father. Don't you ever call
any man on this earth, Holy Father. That's a title for God. That's
how our Lord Jesus used it in John chapter 17 in His high priestly
prayer. Holy Father. The Son is holy. The angel from God said to Mary,
that holy thing in thee shall be called the Son of God. The Spirit of God is holy. You
are sealed with that Spirit of holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. God sends His seraphim, He sends
His preachers to preach His gospel throughout the whole earth. Because
He's got a people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. And I'll tell you the power of
the gospel. Here's the power of the gospel, look at verse
4. When this voice cried out, holy, holy, holy, verse 4, the
posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and
the house was filled with smoke. Hey, something happens when we
start preaching God in His holiness. The very posts of the door start
shaking. Sinners start shaking. The conscience
is shaken. will be filled with fear. The whole house was filled with
smoke. The smoke of the incense that
arose from the altar of incense, the mediatorial work of Jesus
Christ. And I'll remind you, the hot
coals on that altar were taken from the brazen altar. That's
where sacrifice was offered. That's what gives validity to
the mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ, to His intercessory
work, His substitutionary work. Now look, secondly, Isaiah and
his confession. Then said I, woe is me. Woe is me. You know, before this,
Isaiah has been pronouncing woes on everybody else. What does
the word woe mean? It means cursed, condemned, judged. In chapter 3, he pronounced two
woes on others. In chapter 5, he pronounced six
woes all on others. But in chapter 6, after he saw
God in His holiness, God in His glory, he said, woe is me. You know, it's easy for us to
woe everybody else, isn't it? We woe everybody else practically
every day during the week. Did you hear what so-and-so did?
I can't believe somebody would do that. We woe everybody else. If we ever get a sight of who
He is, then we'll get a sight of what we are. See, it's only
in the light of God's glorious holiness that we see ourselves. And then we'll say, woe is me. The preacher of the world is
in bad shape. I'm in bad shape. Isn't that
right? I'm in bad shape. So I tell you
this world is going to hell in a handbasket. So are you by nature. Huh? It's easy to talk, it's
easy to woe everybody else. Woe is me. Woe is me. I tell you the Apostle Paul said
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. He didn't say I used to be the
chief. He didn't say I was the chief. I am the chief right now. But brother Paul, you're an apostle.
Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. Oh, we're such sinful people.
full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Isaiah says,
I'm a man of unclean lips. What he's saying is, I'm a man
with a filthy mouth. I'm a man with a filthy mouth.
Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. That's what Scripture says. And
he says, I'm unclean and so is everybody else. So is everybody
else. Chapter 1, he describes Zion
as being full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. I tell
you, when we fell in Adam, we fell with such an awful crash,
it broke every spiritual bone in our bodies. It left us wounded
and bruised with putrefying sores. The understanding, the conscience,
the affections have been fearfully maimed. The understanding was
blinded, the conscience was stupefied, and the affections were alienated
from God. Every mental faculty has become
perverted and distorted through the fall. Like a ship that's
crashed on the rocks, And those rocks knock all these holes in
the ship. The water runs in through every
leak. I tell you, the water has run
into us. The water of sin and depravity
and iniquity and wickedness has run into every leak. We're just
full of sin. God help us, we're full of sin. But we won't see that. till we
see the glory of God. We won't see that till we see
God's holiness. Well then, thirdly, Isaiah and
his cleansing. What can relieve the guilt and
the fears of a sinner convicted by the Lord? Only the gospel
applied to us in power. And Isaiah, oh thankfully one
of the seraphim flew, having the live coal, the live Word
of God. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Oh God, burn
it into us. And the messenger says, this
has touched your lips, Isaiah, your iniquity, It's been taken
away. It's almost too good to be true,
isn't it? It's been taken away. Well, who took it away? The One
who bore it for you. The One to whom it was charged.
The One to whom it was imputed. God hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all and He bore it away. Like that scapegoat bore the
sins of Israel into a land uninhabited, and the man who took Him out
there, the fit man, came back without Him. That's our Savior.
He bore them away, and He came back without them. Your sin is purged. You've been
washed. Hey folks, we need a bath. We
need a bath. in the blood of the Savior. I listened to a message the other
day. I so wanted to speak to the man who brought the message,
and God prevented me from doing it, but I was going to ask him,
in your message, where was the lamb? Where is the blood in your
message? Where is the blood? Tell me about
the blood. Tell me about remission. Tell
me about redemption. Oh, tell me my sins are washed
away in the crimson fountain that poured forth from Calvary.
Well, then here's Isaiah and his commission real quick here. Look at verse Eight, also I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go
for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. I'll go. I'll go preach your
gospel. Well, what's happened to you
Isaiah? I've seen His glory. I've seen His glory. I've got
to tell somebody. I've got to tell somebody. I'm
like that, who was that, Eliphaz, was it? I hope I didn't get the
wrong one there. In Job the Younger, you know,
the three friends of Job had talked to him and busted him,
told him he must have done something awful bad for God to put this
on him. And I think it was Eliphaz. Eliphaz
said, hey, you guys, I'm just full of the matter. I've got
to say something or I'm going to bust wide open. That's the
way the preacher of the gospel is. He's got to preach Jesus
Christ and Him crucified to you, or you'll just bust wide open
and that wouldn't be a pretty sight. I've got to tell you what
I know, because I've seen something of His glory. And I want you
to see His glory. And I can't show you His glory. I can't make you see His glory.
But I know who can. The same one who took the blinders
off me. The same one who gave me a new
heart. I want Him to do that for you. I pray that He will. And here's His commission. Look
at verse 9. He said, go and tell this people. Well, what am I supposed to tell
them? God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life? No. He said, go tell this people,
hear ye indeed, but understand not. And see ye indeed, but perceive
not. And through your preaching, Isaiah,
make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy and
shut their eyes. In other words, your preaching,
Isaiah, it's not going to be received by the masses. They are not going to believe
you. They are not going to receive what you say. You preach though. Make their
ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they should see with their
eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart
and convert and be healed. What a commission! You go preach! But they are not going to believe
you. But you preach anyway. You preach anyway." Then said, I, Lord, how long? You've given me this commission,
how long am I supposed to preach to these people? The Lord said, to the cities
be wasted without inhabitants. Not houses without man, 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, till
they're all taken into captivity." Wow! How would you like to have
that commission? That's tough. But, here's the last thing. Isaiah
and his confidence. Don't overlook verse 13. Because
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. But, but yet in it shall be a tithe,
or a tenth. And it shall return, and shall
be eaten, shall be consumed as it were. And they won't even
look like they are my people. They won't even look like they
have any life in them. just like a teal tree, and like
an oak tree, whose substance is in them when they cast their
leaves. So the holy seed shall have the
substance thereof." A teal tree. It was an unusual tree. It didn't
grow in a forest. It wasn't a bunch of trees growing
together. It was one here and one there. They'd grow where
they looked down on scrub bushes. That's the way it is with God's
remnant. One here, one there, one over there. They don't grow
in the forest. Sovereign grace brings them out
here and there. And like the oak tree, that in
the wintertime loses all of its leaves. We've got a big oak tree
in the backyard of the parsonage. Somebody said it's the second
biggest one I don't know, the county or the city or whatever.
But in the dead of winter, you go out there and look, it didn't
have a leaf on it. And someone might say, well,
there's no life in that tree. But substance was in it. Sap
was in it. It didn't look like it, but it
was there. Let me tell you something. In
this old world, God has a remnant. They're right there. Here's some
of them here this morning. The world looks like leafless
teal and oak trees. No life. Oh, what a miserable
place this world is. And we can just talk about the
immorality and the perverseness and all of that is correct. But
wait. There is a remnant. There is
yet a tenth. And even those people, even us,
sometimes folks might look at us and say, well, they don't
have any life in them. Look, they don't have any leaves. Oh, locked down in Sodom? He
looked like a leafless tree. When King David committed adultery
and then murder to cover it up, he sure looked like a leafless
tree. When Simon Peter denied the Lord
three times, I guarantee all of us together would have said,
that's a dead tree right there. But substance was still in it. Because they all had the sap
of grace. I know the world is in bad shape. There's nothing in the world
to encourage us, everything to discourage us. Look from top
to bottom. Look in every country. Say, oh,
man, we just shake our heads. Oh, this world is so bad. It's
so vile. Yes, it is. But wait. God has His people. And He uses preachers of the
Gospel to preach this blessed message of glad tidings of grace
for the sinners in Jesus Christ. And this Gospel will find them.
Because there's life out there. There's substance out there.
Notice this last statement. So the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof. There is a holy seed. It's His
seed. We're separated by His grace
and we're His. And He'll find us. In fact, He
might just find you this morning. Do you see His glory? Oh, His glory. Show us His glory. Well, let's sing a closing song. What is the number? Number 205,
once for all. Number 205. Please stand.