Turning your copy of the Scriptures
to Isaiah chapter six. When we're looking in the Old
Testament. I've entitled this little series
is going to be around a lot of Old Testament stuff. So, like
I said before, service is very difficult to actually be able
to just preach through an Old Testament book effectively. Several reasons. One is that
if we do that to the neglect of the New Testament, we're missing
instructions to the church. And what happens when we see
that happen? is that we miss the context of
the Old Testament by avoiding the outcome of the Old Testament,
the New Testament. Secondly, when we do that, we
end up sort of placating to a natural desire to want to apply theologically
the Old Testament to us when a lot of times it doesn't apply. And I hope you understand what
that means through the series of this season of the series. I've entitled the series being
the face of Christ in the Old Testament prophets. Very simple.
What I want you to understand as we look at specifically the
prophets, we'll look at some of the wisdom literature, but
specifically some of the prophets, is that the prophets of God,
though effectively speaking to the situations at hand for Israel
and Judah, Also, in the same breath, in
the same words, speak to us today about what was to come that was
fulfilled at the cross, at the incarnation and at the cross
and the resurrection. And also what is to come as we
await the second coming of Christ. Because we have a real problem
with the Old Testament when we're not grounded in the New Testament.
Because we're looking for what we cannot see, which is revealed
and what's clearly seen in the face of Christ. So there's my
title. I want us to see the face of
Christ in the Old Testament. Now, what that doesn't mean is
that I'm going to go through some of these letters or some
of some of these some of this writing and point to the imagery
and point to the heights and shadows, though it will reveal
itself. I'm not looking in some sense
of these hidden things, which Paul says was hidden. But I want
to show you that now that we have revelation, that which is
plainly shown is revealed. And I also specifically want
us to see is that there is a redeemed people whom God has saved through
the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who also he
will come and take with him into his presence as he renews all
creation. There is one people, not two. There is a body. Not two bodies. Weeks ago, I preached in part
of the series, The Devil in the Pulpit, a specific sermon centered
on discernment that turned into more of a sermon on prophecy.
You remember that? We talked about what prophecy
is. Prophecy is the speaking of God through the oracles of
God through the prophet. The prophet speaks and what the
prophet says is God's words. And so we see the prophets of
the Old Testament, of which Moses and others would be included.
And then we see the apostles of the New Testament who undergird
the prophets of the Old Testament as the revelation of what the
prophets taught. And when the scripture of the
New Testament teaches and uses a reference to scripture, it's
always referring to the Old Testament. But we understand that prophecy
today is still actively enforced in the church and that when we
teach the scriptures, we are indeed being prophetic, not from
God's revelation to us in our inner being, though it happens.
It's God's revelation to us in our inner being through the Holy
Spirit of God as we understand his word. So it is the word of
God that is prophetic, is the word of God that is the prophecy
of God. We don't have prophets in the
sense of being foretelling something that's not already written. So we need to see the vital importance
of the Old Testament in the New Testament and in some sense that
we cannot discard either one. I've come to conclude years and
years ago, I came to a conclusion, you know, the Old Testament's
neat and all, but it's fulfilled. So let's just put it on a shelf.
I'd never say that during that season, but that's sort of the
way I felt. Let's look at it, and when the New Testament points
to it, let's go look at it. It's not a bad habit, but it's
an improper understanding of the vitality of the Old Testament
undergirding the apostles' teachings. And so, there's some problems.
with Old Testament reading. Number one is we have a problem
sometimes with context. There's a lot of history behind
it. For example, just in Isaiah 6, as we'll see today, there's
some imagery there, even with the coals and lips and things
of that nature that we're not going to grasp unless we understand
what? Assyrian and Babylonian and Egyptian,
specifically Egyptian idolatry. It's not, we're not going to
understand it. We can assume we know what it means. We can,
we get all the coal is the flaming fire of God. And that's not what
it means. God's cleansed his nasty lips.
He burned them off. So the old lips are gone. Well,
that sounds cool. And it, it plays to the old man,
the new man regeneration, it plays to it. And it indeed points
to it. But the context of that in that
scripture for the people of Isaiah's day for Judah and for Israel,
they understood very clearly what it meant when Isaiah said
these things. And so there's a context, there's a contextual
problem. We don't know the context in which it was being spoken.
Secondly, there's a literary problem in the Old Testament.
We like to read it as this narrative when most of it is written in
a sense of poetry. All prophecy is poetry. Every
time a prophet writes, Isaiah 6 is written in poetic verse,
in meter. It's not a narrative. Even the
latter part of Isaiah, the second part, chapters 40 through 66,
is written in poetic form. Isaiah doesn't say, and then
this God will do this, and then he'll say this, and then he'll
do that. It's poetic. These people are the rod of anger
in my hand. I mean, that's poetry, the language
of experience, the language of expression, the language of metaphor. And so we read the Old Testament
sometimes and we say, well, we've got to read it literally. You
literally have to read it for how it was literarily written.
That's what literal interpretation of scripture means. As you understand
it as it was intended to be understood. All the world's a stage. You've
heard that phrase. Really? Is there a light? A curtain? Is this curtain about to open
up and everybody's going to watch us? Or are we watching them?
So we've got to understand the expression of how the literature
of the Old Testament And it's also just as important in the
New Testament, but not as much because we understand prose.
The third problem we have with Old Testament study is that we
don't understand the language. Sometimes that we get confused
and I've got friends who are Hebrew scholars and they go to
the Hebrew and they go to the Hebrew and they go to the Hebrew.
They get really bogged down in the meaning of some words and
they get some mystery undergirding some words when all the reality
of the New Testament and the New Testament days, Jesus himself
didn't study the Hebrew Bible. He studied the Greek Bible. The
Septuagint was the Bible of the apostles. It was a Greek culture. So, yeah, the Hebrew is important.
I study Hebrew. I do my best to remember what
those little things are and when I need to look. But in reality,
sometimes the language can become a burden. We can understand from
the Greek and especially in good Greek to English translation
what the Old Testament is teaching. We don't have to we don't have
to be experts in Hebrew to understand the Old Testament. And finally,
I think there's a problem when it comes to reading and studying
the Old Testament is a problem of application. How do we apply
it? For example, I was talking with
Brother Neal this morning. I said, do we apply the Old Testament when
we read the account of Pharaoh in Egypt, the account of the
Exodus? I'm going to read that. Do we come to a place of saying,
OK, we'll see if we don't come to repentance and God's going
to send plagues on us. And do we and do we parallel?
Well, Egypt is like America or Egypt is like Israel. And we
play these games, we misapply. So we need to understand that
through all this stuff, there's problems when reading the Old
Testament, especially in our culture, because we love to play
the this is what it means game. And this is what it means is
usually 99 percent of the time wrong, because we need to ask
the question, What did it mean? And then we ask the question,
what difference does it make now? I'll go and tell you that
most prophecy found the Old Testament, most prophecy, as you read it,
had a dual full purpose and say our twofold purpose of dual.
It was duly prophetic. In other words, it had something
to do with the specific people of that day. and it had an inference
or looking forward to something fuller and larger, especially
in the sense of Messiah for the future, which is why Isaiah is
in sense two parts. Let's talk about that for a minute.
Let me give you a picture. What I'm hoping to do in some
of these prophets is to give you a picture of what it looks
like, to give you an overview of the construction of the letter,
and then to hit the key text, preach it, and then move on to
something else. Because if not, if we sit here
and just pick even Isaiah 6 apart, it would take us several weeks.
Today, I want to give you the crux of it. What I want to do
before we move to Jude, that's my next letter. And you might
think, oh, that'll be quick. It may not be. I want to introduce
you to the key Old Testament prophets and the Old Testament
literature. I want you to understand what
they mean, who they are. I want you to realize when you
hear the word Malachi or you hear the word Hosea or you hear
the word Isaiah or you hear the I want you to know who they are.
I want you to know what the importance of that letter is, or what importance
that prophet had to the people of that day, and most importantly,
what importance it has to the New Testament revelation of Jesus
Christ. So secondly, I want to show you how the New Testament
points to and affirms the Old Testament. I want you to see
that there are allusions. I mean, alluding back, looking
back, not illusions. That's like a magic trick, but
allusion. There's allusion all the way through the New Testament
to the Old Testament. And I want you to understand that it's important
that we see that the New Testament affirms the Old Testament. Jesus
himself says, not a jot and tittle of the word of God will pass
away. That I didn't come to abolish the laws of the prophets, but
I came to fulfill them. We see that in John six and other
places. And so if that's the case, Jesus wasn't referring
to scripture as the New Testament writing. Jesus himself was referring
to when he says scripture, he's talking about the Old Testament,
which was not the Old Testament that day. It was just the Testament.
And so we just it's just scripture. We've added the old new because
we have something new. We have a revelation of new. Thirdly, I want to I want you
to be able to I want to help us see how we are to look at
and interpret the Old Testament, not fully. We can't go through
everything, but I want you to get a I want to challenge in
your thinking of Old Testament understanding and interpretation,
because I'll tell you, there are a lot of Old Testament what
I call Old Testament preachers. And what they do is they try
to paint and pave over prophecy of Old Testament onto current
people. And they fail to see that the revelation of God's
judgment and always couples with God's salvation. And so that
the gospel is never you're dead. But the gospel is always, you
know, you're dead and I'm going to make you alive. And sometimes
you see the point. Fourthly, I want you to understand
how the Old Testament applies, and I've said this already, to
the only redeemed group of God. There's one group of redeemed
people, and this is where people start to be frustrated with me.
The redeemed of God is the Church of Jesus Christ, of every nation,
tribe, and tongue. We do not have two redemptions.
We do not have two saviors. We do not have two churches.
We do not have two peoples of God. Paul makes it very clear
in his writings of the Ephesians that where there were now two
men, there are one. Where there were two groups,
there are now one. He makes it very clear in Romans and other
places where there are not those who are the offspring of Abraham
who are Israel, but all who are in Christ Jesus. So, rejection
of Jesus Christ is a rejection of Yahweh. So anybody who rejects
Jesus Christ are not the people of God. They are apostate. So
now we need to think about Israel as a corporate nation. I hope
you'll be able to see that as we go through some of these things.
And finally, I want to try to help us dispel the errors and
the myth and the folklore behind Old Testament teaching and prophecy
and to correct some of that thinking in ourselves. I will confess
to you very, very openly. I am not an Old Testament scholar.
It is a frustrating journey for me. It is one of those things
that comes to a place of hindrance rather than happiness. It's worse
than topical New Testament preaching. It's frustration because it doesn't
preach the way I like for it to preach. It doesn't expound
the way I like for it to expound. But at the same time, the full
counsel of God's word gives an exposure to God's people. And
I've seen just recently, even amongst the fellowship here,
where people are misapplying and misinterpreting Old Testament
theology because of the continual decade after decade of misapplication
that they see on television and they hear in pulpits and read
in books. And every time the moon turns red or every time
an earthquake happens, somebody else writes a new book, makes
another million dollars on the backs of poor suckers like us.
And so if nothing else, the Lord has brought me to this place
and to couple in my own learning and my own expression of digging
deeper into the Old Testament, not to the neglect of the new
covenant of Christ, but to point to it. And so I'm not an expert. So I may know the basics of certain
things and certain aspects, but I'll tell you this, it'll always
end up in John. Every time I see something in
the Old Testament, it's going to land in John. It's going to land in
Ephesians. That's just the only place I know where to put it.
And and when I say John, I mean the writings of John. So we'll
we'll we'll we'll cross that bridge as we come to it. I want
to talk about the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is considered the prophet
of the prophets. When you think of the greatest
prophet of the Old Testament, a lot of people would just consider
Isaiah Isaiah in the context of Israel, especially in that
day. And even today, those who are Orthodox Jews, they hold
as Isaiah as the prophet and in such a way that the minor
prophets are actually referred to as Isaiah, sometimes in the
New Testament, because if it's not Moses, it's Isaiah. And I
think I talked about that to you a few weeks ago. And so Isaiah
is the prophet of prophets. Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah and
the writings therein reveals Christ more than any Old Testament
book. Isaiah shows it is Christ centric. It is gospel centered more than
any Old Testament book. Isaiah exposes the fullness of
the Old Testament as it points to Christ greater than any Old
Testament book. In the New Testament, there are
7,957 verses. One out of 17 of those verses
is influenced by Isaiah. Did you hear that? One out of
17 of the verses of the New Testament is influenced by the prophet
Isaiah. Influenced. What is that, about 460? 470? And in the New Testament, there
are 64 direct quotations or references to Isaiah alone. Now, Isaiah
is divided into two portions. Let me help you see this. I know
this is so clinical. Does this aggravate you? It aggravates
me. It's so clinical. Isaiah is divided into two portions.
Chapters 1 through 39 is part one, and chapters 40 through
66 is part two. Chapters, let's almost say part
one and part two. So part one deals with the Assyrian
issue. Part two deals with the Babylonian
issue. Both are the same people. Both are the people of God, Israel,
Judah. But the first section is dealing
with the Assyrian conflict. The second section is dealing
with the Babylonian conflict. And see, the Assyrian invasion
and the Babylonian invasion of Israel. The part one, the theme
of this first half of Isaiah is judgment. That's the theme. So when we read Isaiah 6, which
is the key to the whole letter, it's really the theme of the
entire thing. Judgment. But the first portion
of Isaiah really deals with the judgment of God against His people.
Because of their unbelief, because of their failure to follow His
commands, because of the failure to have a heart to seek after
Him, they sought after what? They sought after the understanding
of man. They sought after Egypt to help them defeat the Assyrian
people. And so they went, if you will, in an alliance with
the Egyptians without even, God says, without even praying for
wisdom in doing so. And so he says that he's sending
the Assyrians as the rod of judgment in his own hand to punish and
to bring discipline upon judgment, upon his people. In chapter one,
verse 21 of Isaiah, God calls Israel a whore. I mean, this
is a strong language. That's the actual translation
there you'll see in your Bible, too. He calls them that because they
have failed to love him and have gone after the love of the world,
the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of possessions.
They care more about their nation than they do their creator. They
care more about their establishment as a people politically than
they do about the worship of their God spiritually. And so
Isaiah, through Isaiah, God is saying, I'm bringing to you judgment.
I'm bringing you judgment because you thought you were wise in
your own eyes, chapter 30 teaches. That you've gone after Egypt
and you've aligned yourself seeking political outcomes that are not
yours to seek. In chapter 5, God calls Isaiah
an unproductive vineyard. He says, you've given me nothing.
I've planted you and you've grown and you're fruitless. You're
worthless. You're without any hope. You've got nothing for
me. So God sends the Assyrians as his judgment against Israel. But God is also the Redeemer.
And though the central part of the first half of Isaiah is judgment,
there's also a character in the second half of that who is what? The exalted Savior, the exalted
Messiah, Messiah. Christ, the anointed one of God,
who comes to redeem his people. So even though God brings judgment
on Israel, he also redeems them. Hezekiah, the king at this time,
prays to God as the Assyrians have encroached upon Jerusalem.
And there's an impending doom surrounding them, preparing themselves
for destruction at the hand of God. Hezekiah prays. He says, Oh, God, have mercy.
How are we supposed to stand upon this? And that's the whole
point for God's judgment, that they never sought him to begin
with. And so now what was impossible for even Egypt to help them accomplish?
God said there will not be one stone turned upside down in this
city. Not one foot of an Assyrian will
cross the borders of Jerusalem. Just watch me. And in the night,
he destroyed the Assyrians. God is a redeemer. God tells
Hezekiah, you trust in me and watch what I can do. I have not
forsaken you. And God is the savior of Israel.
So God brings judgment, but never forsakes his promise to say the
second half of Isaiah is a little bit different. It's placed 150
years in the future when Egypt Well, I mean, excuse me, when
when the Babylonians will invade Israel, it's about the Babylonian
conflict and it will come against them. And the theme of the second
portion, though God allows judgment, though God allows discipline,
the theme of the second portion of Isaiah is salvation. And so because of that, there
are two saviors listed in the second portion of Isaiah. There's
one savior politically named Cyrus, the king of Persia. And
God, through Isaiah, speaks very detailed in his expression of
that. In this time, this man, this
name, dates, times, peoples, names, and what the outcome will
be. It's so detailed that higher critics of this text say there's
no way that Isaiah wrote it. Someone wrote it after the fact
and accredited to Isaiah. That's how detailed it is. In
comparison to though there are prophecies in the first portion
and prophecies found, they're not that detail. What does that
show us? That shows us that God is sovereign over it all. That's
why I read that second, that 41st chapter there. God, you
will remember, you come to me in this court and you will express
your argument against me, but you are worthless. Nothing you
say is going to stand upon my judgment. And I want you to remember
that I am the one who spoke to Zion. Behold the words of God. You see that? That's the reality
that we see in the second portion here, where God reveals to Isaiah
that the Babylonians will come, but that God will send them a
savior. And Cyrus, the king of Persia, will be their political
savior. But there's a second person in the second portion
of Isaiah who is known as the suffering servant. That's all
you know. And so the savior of the first portion, is the exalted
Messiah and the Savior of the second portion spiritually is
the suffering servant. And we see that Isaiah says that
it's the same one. But the same true savior of Israel
today against the Assyrians is the same true savior that will
come and save them from the Babylonians. But it's more than just saving
them from these people. It's saving them from their own
selves and the sin and the judgment of God, who is the judge and
the king of them all. We'll see that in Isaiah 6. That's
why I think Isaiah 6 really reveals a lot. So in the end, we have to ask
the question, why does God say these things? Why does God say
these things to the prophet in the first portion to the people
of Israel during that day? Why not just do what he's going
to do? Because God purposes to actually teach us who he is,
that we might see him. And that when we see what he
is doing, we will worship him for it. And the question then,
why would Isaiah speak to people about what was going to come
a hundred plus years later? What good is that? All of them
will be dead because it is the exalted Messiah, which is the
suffering servant, which has ultimate importance, not just
to the people then for their hope. And as you'll see, Isaiah
believed in Jesus. But also for us today. And the
people of the days of Christ. God will do for you as he's doing
today. And one hundred and fifty years
from now, he'll do for his people the same thing. That's the message. God will save his people and
nothing will stop him, even when he himself brings judgment against
them. He will promise he will keep his promise to save his
people. And salvation is not about living
in the land of promise. Salvation is about living with
the Lord of promise. He teaches us about himself.
that God only can bring true salvation. So the key to the
whole book of Isaiah is chapter 6. Turn there with me. And I
printed it out because this Bible is a little small, so I'm going
to look at it here. Let's read it together. It's
13 verses. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord standing upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above him
stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and
with two he flew. And one called to another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds
shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled
with smoke. And I said, Woe is me. For I
am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king,
the Lord of hosts, that one seraphim flew to me, having in his hand
a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And
he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your
lips. Your guilt is taken away and
your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, who shall I send and who will go for us? Then
I said, here I am. Send me. And he said, go and
say this, say to this people, what people of unclean lips.
Say to this people, God speaking, keep on hearing. But do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people
dull, their ears heavy, blind their eyes, lest they see with
their eyes, understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.
Then I said, how long, O Lord? And he said, until cities lie
waste without inhabitants and houses without people and the
land is a desolate waste and the Lord removes people far away
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And
though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like
the terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump. Church, there is a lot to stand
and wonder. in all with the words of the
Lord here. But I want you to see this, and
let's just take the first four verses specifically, five verses,
and let's just look at them for a second in the context of this
issue. King Uzziah, under the direction
of the leadership of King Uzziah, Israel prospered greatly. Israel
had wealth. Israel had freedom. Israel worshipped.
And the first thing that we see is that the vision of Isaiah
is that he is. In the year that King Uzziah
died. I saw the Lord. Now, think about
the king for a moment. The king sits upon the throne,
rules and governs with justice and integrity. The king sits
there and the people of Israel have their hope in their king.
And he died. But what does Isaiah see? Isaiah sees that Uzziah's death
signifies a great change coming for the people of God. A great
change for Israel. A great transformation. And in
some sense, it's not a good one. But in that sense, it is a perfect
one. Because in reality, though Israel may have been prosperous,
Israel had fallen into idolatry and fallen into worldliness. So they might have been prosperous,
but they weren't holy. So King Uzziah, in whom they
had their hope, was gone. What does Isaiah see? I see the
Lord. So there's something to take
away there that Isaiah has given a vision of God, of Yahweh. Who is Yahweh? You can't see
God. This is the Christ. This is Jesus. Isaiah is given a glimpse to
see Jesus, the Lord of Lord and the King of Kings, the risen
Savior, before he's raised. It's a great reality there that
we ought to keep our eyes on the true King. But where does
he see this King sitting? I saw the Lord sitting high upon
a throne. So though the throne of Israel
may have been vacant, the throne of heaven had never been vacant
and it's not vacant now. And Isaiah saw this in such a
way that it should remind us that here is this king, the king
of glory, sitting on the throne and he's not dead. The Lord of
hosts is not dethroned. He's not been usurped by death.
Never will he see the day of death. But, oh wait, Christ does
see death so that we might see life. And the Father exalts him
to the highest places above all things, where he sat before the
days of his incarnation above all things. The earthly throne is gone, but
the King of heaven is sovereign. He is high and he's lifted up. He doesn't sit on equal planes
with other nations. The king of heaven doesn't sit
with working international affairs and politics to keep peace. The
king of heaven doesn't have to negotiate with Egypt to defeat
Assyria. The king of heaven doesn't have
to worry about his foreign affairs. The king of heaven sits above
the kings of earth. The king of heaven, according to Paul,
sets in place the kings of earth and that nations rise and fall
at his will and that kings come and are destroyed at his word. And he's not just a king that
sits above all kings. He's the king that sits high
and lifted up. That means he's above all. That means he rules
all. That means he sees all. That means he rules with absolute
omnipotence, which means all powerful. That the kings of the
world have their reign because God in heaven empowered them
to do so. The holy kings and the wicked
kings, no matter how they stack, have been given their thrones
by the power of the most powerful. And it is his power to take and
to give. And he took it. You might say, wow, that's pretty
impressive, it's pretty awesome, but then we see something else
there and his robe, not just the robe, the train of his robe
filled the temple. What is that? We've got a wedding
in a few weeks. I don't know about you. Most
brides have something dragging the floor behind them called
a train. Why? Because it's to represent
glory and splendor. It's to drag that even though
the bride has entered the room, she's got to get on in there
before she can get all the way in there because she's glorious
and beautiful and to be awed. And you've got to look for a
little bit longer to see the fullness of all that she beholds.
And the train drives behind the bride and fills the aisle. But the train of the Lord's road
fills the temple. There's nothing that you can't
even see the Lord for the glory of His beauty. And oh, Israel,
you looked at your king and the glory of his power to keep you
safe from your enemies. But oh, what a worthless, small,
insignificant gnat train this man's robe had. My robe fills
the fullness of my presence and you will stand in all of me. His robe reflects his rule and
his beauty and his glory. and His splendor. He, all this,
fills all things. I go to Ephesians. I think of Ephesians 1 and that
Christ will fill all things as He puts all things under His
feet. Isaiah saw Christ. And he sees the Lord. And above
the Lord, he sees the seraphim, the fiery angels. What that means? The fiery ones. And they were doing something.
They were covering their eyes. They were covering their face.
They were covering their feet. They were flying. What's the
significance of this? They were cowering and covering
and humility. There they are beholding the
beauty of the Lord, which they could physically look upon. They
chose not to. Not just the covering their face,
but covering their feet as a sign of respect. The Lord's feet are
sovereign here, not mine. Where I go and what I do is not
vital to be seen. Don't look at me. Look at him.
They hold the beauty and the glory and the majesty and the
splendor of the King Jesus. They humble themselves. Oh, what
a contrast, Church, of the kings of Earth. Whose court stood near to be
seen, whose subjects stood and although they bowed, There's a big difference in the
rule of their king and the rule of this king. The subjects of
the court of heaven cover themselves. Humbly before the greatness.
Why? Well, these seraphim express
why they express why. When they say these words and
one of the seraphim called to another, holy, Holy, holy, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Holy. Who are the hosts? They are. They are. They are his subjects. He is
their king. He is their Lord. He is Yahweh. He is God. Holy is the Lord of
hosts. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Not just the temple, just the
world, the cosmos, the creation, the fullness of all that can
be seen is the glory of God seen within it. The question sometimes
comes in the circles of unbelief, if God is so big, And if God
is so majestic and if God is so powerful, why did he only
put people on such a small, minute, minuscule spot in this infinite
universe? Because when we look at the spot
called Earth with us in context of the universe, The universe
is a spot in the context of the glory of God. And I believe the
emptiness of infinity expressly identifies the vastness of the
fact that God fills all of it with his glory ineffably. So when we look at the sky and
we wonder, we should think, oh, how boring. For what it's filled
with is the glory of heaven, who is Jesus Christ. I do believe,
church, that sometimes though we exalt Christ, we exalt Christ
a little lower because he's the son. He is God. It is Christ
who is seen by the prophet. You look at the Grand Canyon.
It's nothing. It's a minute space in the air
of the molecules of the hair follicle of God. And that's weak. These hosts of heaven cover themselves
in humility because they see the holiness of God. The glory of God fills the world
because His holiness displays His worth. The holiness of God
is a display of his intrinsic worthiness. Holiness of God is a display
of his power, his might, his worth. And if the angels of heaven. Who are eternally in his presence
to glorify his glory. Humble themselves before him,
you know, when we spend time together, we become more relaxed
with each other. Don't we? First time somebody comes over
to your house, you clean for days. You straighten up, then they
drive up a few times, months later, and you pick up, you clean
the front room, make sure the toilet doesn't look funny. And
by the time you've known them for a few years, they just come
in and sit with you, and if your shoes get kicked off of the floor,
it's no big deal. And it becomes very familiar. In all of eternity, these hosts
have been worshiping God in the presence of the glory of his
majesty, the king. And they weren't familiar, though
they were intimately intertwined. Because the holiness and the
glory of God is not something that can ever be fully embraced
in understanding or in presence so that it's always formally. There's no word. It's always intimately, but formally
just in wonder. And when Isaiah, who was sinful,
saw this, his response was not even, oh,
wow! Look at God! Look at, look at
you! He doesn't say worthy, worthy,
worthy like we see in Revelation. He doesn't he doesn't sing a
new song. He says, woe is me. Woe is me, I see the beauty of
heaven and his holiness is the fullness of his glory and all
he could see was his sinfulness. Woe is me. For I am a man of unclean lips. I've been speaking about God
through unclean lips. I've been praying to God through
unclean lips. I've been worshiping God through
unclean lips. And I'm of a people in the midst
of these people who are unclean. I don't think Isaiah was living
in idolatry. He's in the midst of idolaters, yet he recognizes he's one and
the same in comparison to the holiness of God. Woe is me. I'm lost. You see that? There's the key. I'm lost. I'm lost because I'm sinful. He's broken in the image of holiness
seen by the grace of God, the fullness of his sinfulness, and
that if it were not for God and his justice and mercy, he would
perish at the midst of the righteousness of God's holiness as he sat sovereignly
over the thrones of earth. I'm lost. This is the grace of God. This
is the gospel of Jesus. Look at Jesus and see. Come to me, he says, all who
are thirsty. Drink, be satisfied, never hunger
again. Labor for the bread that endures
to eternal life. I am that bread. Look and see. If you knew, it's always John
for me, who it was who was asking you for a drink, you would ask
him for a drink and he would give you living water. I am the
resurrection. I am the life. No one comes to
the Father. I am the truth. Except by me. You search the Scriptures daily. But they speak of me. I will not condemn you before
the Father, but Moses will condemn you, for he wrote of me." John
12. While you still have the light. John says, Isaiah spoke these
words, and it's fulfilled in your presence today, O Israel.
You can see, but not perceive, hear and not believe, for he
has hardened your hearts, blinded your eyes. John says Isaiah spoke of him
because he saw the fullness of his glory. Who is the fullness
of the glory of God? Jesus, the Christ, John 1. God is revealing by grace the
sin of Israel. The sin of Isaiah. And that if they trusted themselves
in their worship or in the politics of man, in the ways of man, they'd
rather do that than him, they are condemned. And it says in the foundations,
verse four, of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who
called and the house was filled with smoke. It takes me to Sinai. When Moses went into the mountain
to receive the holiness of God through the written words by
the hand of God and smoke surrounded the mountain. The writer of Hebrews says we've
not come to that mountain, to a tempest, to be fearful. And
Israel begged not to hear another word. They couldn't bear the
instructions that even an animal, if it touched the holiness of
God, should be stoned. A sinless animal. But we've come to this mountain,
to Mount Zion. to the gathering, to the festal
gatherings of angels in celebration of the one who comes and who
has come and who has died and who has propitiated for us and
who has satisfied God's judgment against us, who has been raised
and exalted and intercedes, whose blood cries out greater than
the blood of Abel. It is finished. And it says, And God will shake
the heavens and the earth once more, in Hebrews, so that what
remains after it's shaken, that it would shake away that which
is temporal and that what remains is eternal. And at the holiness
of God, at the proclamation of God, the foundations of the thresholds
of the throne of God shook and did not falter. Though the throne
of Israel had fallen. I'm an unclean person. Israel at this time had fallen
prey to idolatry and idol worship. And as idols were kept, the large
gods were kept. In temples to be worshipped,
idols were made by the hands of men. And the altar of the
gods, of the false god, was always brazen with fire. They would
take the coal from the altar of the god and sear the lips
of the man-made idol so that the essence of the god would
be given to the man-made image. And in this imagery, the altar
of heaven, the God of gods, fears the lips of Isaiah, the prophet
of God, that he may be healed of his infirmities of sin. You may have spoken and the people
that you are representing may have spoken and preached and
worshipped and lived for other gods, the God of politics, the
God of nationalism, the God of Egypt. You have been atoned for. by the Christ who sits on the
throne. Now, your words are in his mouth. Go preach them to
these people. God is the holy treasure. He's not an idol made by hands,
Christ. Is the untouchable and the unforgettable
treasure. He is indeed the glory of God. As I write this week in my own
thoughts, I say these words to you, church, Jesus is the reward
of heaven. His grace allows us to see and
enjoy His glory and His might that exudes from His holiness,
from His holiness, from His holiness. God allows us to rejoice in the
removal of what can be shaken so that what remains is glorious. He saves our hearts from wasted
affections and in his just discipline, he prunes us and prepares us
for an incomparable eternal weight of glory that is the reward of
heaven, who is Christ, the treasure of glory. Oh, that the God of
heaven would see in his glorious mercy to remove dead things that
live in me. The weak. and the temporal joys
of this life that eat away at the fullness of my joy, would
He prepare me to see the greatest reflection of His perfection
and certainty that my worship would be free and would be true
beyond all comparison. Oh, the wonder of God in Christ,
who one day will be mine forever to behold, because I belong to
Him and He is my eternal hope that bought me, who bought me
and brought me to life, from the decay of my soul. God has declared that all men
are guilty, church. And he is true in that judgment.
No one stands in the court of God and gives a defense for themselves
against his perfection. Therefore, it is a gracious act
for God to reveal himself and his holiness through Jesus Christ
to his people so that they may see first their eternal need
for a great savior and that they may also see their eternal need
and a heavenly king and not an earthly king. God redeems Israel's
heart by touching them with his holiness. And that's what he's done when
he births us anew by the Spirit and we see Christ. Sin is atoned for. Israel heard, I mean, Isaiah
heard the voice of God, who shall we sin? Who shall go for us? And he says, I'll go. Send me. Why? Because in Isaiah's atonement,
in his awe and splendor, he sees, I am lost and I'm among a lost
people. Oh, send me God that you might
save them. Is that not the heart of the
gospel? Is that not the heart of the
apostles? Is that not the heart of the church? Is that not the
heart of our Christ? Though God may send a chilling sermon their way, keep on listening,
you will not understand. Keep on looking, you will not
perceive. I make your hearts dull and your
eyes blind. and your ears deaf so that you
cannot turn. I'm bringing judgment against
you. But we know that God also sends
the exalted Messiah to save them. Do you see the gospel given in
the prophet Isaiah? This is the key to the whole
book. Even the gospel in the proclamation of judgment, do
you not see the gospel in the judgment of God? God is just to let us live our
lovely lives and throw us into judgment for all eternity without
once an inkling of expressing the need. God is worthy and holy and just
to blind our eyes forever and never even give us a glimpse
of the back of the robe of his holiness. To never allow us to see God
is just and never revealing his holiness through the law that
we might see that we are trespassers thereof. But do you see the gospel given? Your sins are atoned for. Because judgment like this came
on the Christ. So the holy ineffable, awesome
King of heaven, high lifted up on a throne above all things
with all power, put himself under the judgment so that he could
save those who were destined to be judged. Do you see the gospel going?
Send me. Send me. And do you see the gospel
is guarded? I will not let you see. I will
not let you hear. I will not let you believe until
I let you believe. Judgment is coming, Israel. And their natural response will
be, oh, we need to turn to God. God didn't want them to turn
yet. So he blinded their hearts that they could not see. This is Jesus. Holy, holy, holy. Jesus referred to Isaiah when he says this in John 12. And John says, Isaiah said these
things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Do you see the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ? Friends, no matter what we see
in the prophets, we must see Christ. Not hidden. The message of all is the message
of Christ. It's the message of redemption.
It's the message of the gospel. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for
your glory. Thank you for touching our lips. Through the suffering of your
son, Jesus, we can be called holy. Let us strive for that
in this world as we await the day when you will surely bring
us fully to your holiness. Help us to be in awe and in wonder. Help us never forget we are a
sinful people made righteous because of Christ. We exult in
Him We exalt in You, O Lord of Heaven, King of all kings, in
Jesus' name, Amen.