Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had 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 posts 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 I 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. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then
said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go, and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tenth. and it shall return
and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance
is in them when they cast their leaves so the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We often remind ourselves how
all the scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
not simply a theological perspective, but it is the clear teaching
of the Word of God. Having met the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus, we are told in Luke chapter 24 that
the Lord, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, and that's
what we've been thinking about already today, how the law was
given by Moses, and here in the prophecy of Isaiah, how that
through Moses and the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ expounded
unto those two on the road to Emmaus in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. What a sermon that must have
been. You know it's a sermon that we
have nothing recorded of except that it took place and yet what
a preacher preached it and what a message he preached. So that
we learn thereby that we should not only look for Christ in all
the scriptures, but we should expect to find him there. Now I grant that sometimes it
will be easier to find the Lord Jesus Christ in a particular
passage than in one passage than in another. but the testimony
is true of scripture that seek and ye shall find just as much
as searching for Christ in our heart and searching for Christ
in the scriptures. However, there can be no mistake
of where to find Christ, when the New Testament writers explicitly
and clearly tell us that Christ is being spoken of in a particular
passage, or when a prophecy from the Old Testament is applied
directly to the Lord Jesus Christ or to his ministry, or to some
aspect of the gospel work. In these cases, it is eminently
clear. And this is the case here in
Isaiah chapter six. It is Christ who is sitting on
the throne here. It is Christ whom Isaiah sees
and of whom he speaks in this passage. And there need be no
doubt about this. Indeed, as we have seen in the
Old Testament, the invisible God God is a spirit and has no
form as such. God is a spirit and is invisible,
so that the invisible God was manifested to the eyes of men
and women, was represented to men and women by the eternal
word, the Lord Jesus Christ, in physical form. So that when
we read of Abraham seeing and speaking with the Lord, it is
the Lord Jesus Christ that he deals with. When we speak of
and read of Jacob wrestling with the Lord, it is with the Lord
Jesus Christ. When Moses speak to the Lord
face to face as a man speaks to his friend, It was with the
Lord Jesus Christ. When Aaron and the 70 elders,
when Manoah and his wife saw the Lord, when Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego were there in the fiery furnace and there was with
them one that looked like the Son of God, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ that is being presented to us. They all met the Lord
and it was the Lord Jesus Christ that they rejoiced to see. The
Lord told the Pharisees in John chapter 8 and verse 56, your
father Abraham, because they claimed to be the children of
Abraham, he said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and was glad. These Pharisees knew exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ was saying. He said, before Abraham
was, I am. And they wanted to kill him.
They wanted to slay the Lord Jesus Christ there and then because
he told them that Abraham and the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken
together. And this is how the Old Testament
visitations are explained to us by John, who tells us that
no man had seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him. and later John confirms that
it's Christ that is here in this Isaiah prophecy, this chapter
6 of Isaiah when he says, these things said Isaiah, when he saw
his glory So Isaiah says, in the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. When Isaiah saw the glory of
the Lord and spake of him, it was the Lord Jesus Christ, says
John, of whom he spoke. So there is no doubt or question
that the Lord in this passage is our Saviour Jesus Christ. And therefore we draw attention
to the fact that when Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ, In
this passage, he's going to describe him in other ways in other passages,
but when he saw him in this passage, he saw him high and lifted up. He saw him in victory. He saw him in honour, he saw
him glorified. And what I'm going to do today
is take seven headings, we're going to be brief, we're not
going to be too long, but I'm going to take seven headings
and just look at some of the things that Isaiah saw in this
vision. The first one is this, that he
saw the Holy Lord and Saviour high and lifted up. Now knowing that Isaiah's vision
is of the ascended Lord, we may assume that Isaiah and the believers
of his time who heard this prophecy given and saw it written down,
they saw something and knew something of the sovereign, successful,
and seated in glory Lord Jesus Christ. They saw something of
the humanity of Christ. They saw something of the work
of Christ. The Christ that Isaiah saw was
high and lifted up. And just as the Lord Jesus Christ
had been lifted up on the cross as a mark of his great humiliation,
now he was highly exalted in heaven and lifted up on the throne
of his majesty and power. Now Isaiah doesn't mention it,
but I wonder if Isaiah noticed the nail prints in the hands
and feet of the Saviour that he saw. I wonder if he noticed
the pierced brow of the Lord high and lifted up. He surely
knew that the Lord had to suffer because we find that in other
portions of this prophecy, the suffering servant is revealed
to us But here, he sees the Lord exalted. Brothers and sisters,
this is our God. This is our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. He, this very day, is seated
upon his throne of dominion and power, just as Isaiah saw him
in visionary form. This world is not out of control
because the Lord Jesus Christ is seated on his throne high
and lifted up. Our lives are not random experiences
because the Lord Jesus Christ is seated on his throne high
and lifted up. Our future is not doubtful and
uncertain. Isaiah didn't see Vladimir Putin
high and lifted up. He didn't see Joe Biden or King
Charles or some other great personage of this world high and lifted
up. He certainly didn't see Satan high and lifted up. He saw the
Lord. And God tells no lies. Christ is high and lifted up. And if you are a believer, your
God is on the throne of universal dominion and holds absolute power. He's in control and he is working
all things together for your good and mine and for the accomplishment
of his glory and purpose. He is your father and friend. He is your brother and bridegroom. He is your Lord who loves you
and your shepherd who leads you. He is your saviour. He is your
king. So the Lord that Isaiah saw was
the Lord in his dominion, high and lifted up. And another thing
that Isaiah saw, this is number two, is that he saw Christ's
train fill the temple. Now the train of the Lord was
his people, was his entourage, was that that he had with him.
And we can either think of the temple itself as being the church
and elect people of Christ, In which case, the train is all
the gifts and the graces and the goodness, the glorious attributes
that the Lord Jesus Christ fills his church with so that he supplies
our every need. He does us good in this world. Now it may be in part on this
earth, but soon it will be in its fullness and in its wholeness
in heaven. such that when our risen, victorious
Saviour ascended into heaven, we are told that He gave gifts
to men. Our Jehovah Jireh, our great
Provider, did not leave us comfortless, but His goodness and His grace
filled the temple of His people. He's not abandoned us or forsaken
us, but He supplies our every need here on earth. He sent the
Comforter. He gives good gifts. He nourishes
and ministers to us constantly, as typified in the Old Testament
journeyings of the children of Israel with the water of life
that was provided from the rock and the bread of manna that was
given to nourish and to feed the people. Christ fills and
fulfills our every need as our God. Or if we consider the church
itself to be the train and the following of the Lord Jesus Christ
into the temple of God's presence, which is a very suitable interpretation
and application of these words. then what do we see but that
Christ is pleased to bring into the temple of his Father's house
all the people who follow after him? The church fills the temple. We fill the temple of the presence
of God. And we fill it perfectly. Heaven
will not be overcrowded and it will not be sparsely occupied. It will be filled precisely and
exactly as the train filled the temple. Christ has prepared mansions
for his people, for his church, and those mansions will be occupied
by specified named individuals according to God's elective decree. There will be no double bookings
in heaven and there will be no vacant lots. There will be a
precision, there will be a definiteness and there will be a particularity
as the train of the Lord Jesus Christ fills the temple. The
train fills the temple as a perfect fit. The elect fully occupy their
beautifully prepared heavenly mansions. And when the great
congregation get to heaven, why, it will almost be as if the Lord
knew exactly how many were coming, which of course he does. And
here's the third thing which we find in this vision of Elijah. I'm sorry, Isaiah. He saw fiery
seraphim burners. Now, if you read the little note
that I put out as the introduction yesterday, you'll know that while
sometimes these are thought of as angels, it isn't necessarily
so that they are indeed a form of angel or a level of angel. We mentioned that yesterday.
They may be angels, and that is usually what is said, but Remember that Isaiah's vision
here is about the risen exalted Christ in the presence of his
church and people and in the entirety of that vision. I wonder
if perhaps we might not see something about that great fulfilled covenant
purpose of God. And if this is the case, and
as those seraphims were over the throne of the Lord Jesus
Christ, sitting in his glory, and these seraphims are over
that, might not we see these seraphims as a representation
of the triune God that first conceived and put together this
covenant plan of redemption? It may be these fiery burners,
which is what the word suggests, the name Seraphim suggests, is
a representation of the eternal, invisible Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. So that their presence around
the throne of Christ signifies this glorious unity of purpose
within the Godhead. working towards the redemption
that is given and granted and secured in the everlasting covenant
of peace. Our salvation is a work of the
covenant God in his triune persons. The Father loved and chose and
justifies sinners according to his own good purpose and pleasure. The Son humbled Himself, took
on Himself the form of man, took on Himself our human flesh and
came into this world to die in our place, redeemed His people
with His own precious blood. All those that had been placed
by the Father into His charge. And we find that the Holy Spirit
also engages in this work in the covenant purposes of God. For He sanctifies and applies
the blood of Jesus Christ to the hearts and minds of men and
women. He cleanses our conscience. He shows us our forgiveness. He leads us to the Lord. And he brings us that conversion
experience, that awareness of forgiveness and atonement that
Isaiah here expressed when he saw the glory of the Lord. It is the Holy Spirit who comes
and applies the blood of Christ to the spirits of just men made
perfect. And if we wonder why the faces
and the feet of the triune God might be covered, it is because
no man can see the face of the invisible God and no man knows
the ways of the Lord in the providences of this world. The psalmist says
the way of the Lord is in the sea and thy path in the great
waters and thy footsteps are not known. And yet we see that
those two wings quickly flew to deliver the salvation for
the loved ones of God's grace and mercy and the beloved elect
who are saved by the blood of Christ. Or maybe it is that the
seraphims are best thought of as gospel preachers and attendants
who surround the throne, ready to do Christ's bidding and to
minister to his church here upon earth. If that is the case, then
the seraphims would be like the apostles and the preachers and
the gospel ministers sent to gather in the elect through these
gospel days, these last days, preaching the word of Jesus Christ,
lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ, drawing the elect men and women,
boys and girls, to an experience of sins forgiven. This is the
great work of the gospel preacher. to take the Lord Jesus Christ
and to set Him in all of His accomplishments before sinful
men and women and say, look and live because there is life in
the crucified Christ for those who are given faith to trust
and rely upon that forgiveness that His blood alone can give.
There is cleansing power in Jesus' blood. There is righteousness
to be had in seeking forgiveness in Him. Then the wings of the
preacher come to show. Their faces are covered for their
humility, for preachers know their own failures and faults. They know that they travel only
at the discretion and direction of the Lord Jesus Christ and
God the Holy Spirit, taking their message to those that the Lord
is pleased to call out in this world. and yet they too fly with
wings speedily and urgently to bring those who are the Lord's
people to a knowledge of the truth in his time and in his
way, made willing in the day of his power. And then Isaiah saw something
else. This is our fourth point. Isaiah
saw redemption accomplished and applied in this vision of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his glory. When the prophet beheld the Lord
Jesus Christ, his reaction was one of woe and fear. He cried out, I am undone. You see there was an overwhelming
sense of his own unworthiness. To be undone means to be slain. It means to die. He says I'm worthy of death.
He was fearful that he was about to die there and then. Such was
the majesty and the glory of the vision that he had seen.
Such was the purity and perfection. Such was the righteousness and
holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ and that train that filled the
temple, the people. He said there's no place in that
for me. How could I be like them? And yet this is the great wonder
of the gospel of truth. It is in that glimpse of the
holiness of God that a sinner truly sees his need of a saviour. He was filled, Isaiah, at once
with a sense of his own sinful state. And he cries out in fear
for himself and for the people with whom he lives. A people
of unclean lips. And when someone truly glimpses
the holiness of God, all pretense of self-righteousness flees away. We can have no hope in the presence
of holiness. when we are fallen creatures. And no matter how much and how
able we are to kid one another, or to kid ourselves, or to be
deceived by Satan, there is no place in heaven for self-righteousness. It is only sinners who can come
to Christ. And yet too, there is no woe
for those who trust in Christ. And what follows Isaiah's confession
of sin and uncleanness is a clear statement of grace and forgiveness
through the sacrifice of Christ. The bringing of a coal from the
altar with tongs and it touching Isaiah's lips speaks of the atoning
work for sin by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our altar, he is
our sacrifice and he is our great high priest that ministers at
the altar on our behalf. We're going to learn in the coming
weeks perhaps a little bit about the tabernacle and the altars
and the way in which the Ark of the Covenant and the sacrifice
of the lambs was all conducive to the people's understanding
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Our Lord
was typified in the Old Testament by the altar of the burnt offering,
and Isaiah having been touched with the effectual redeeming
work of Christ, is told that his iniquity is taken away and
his sin is purged. What a blessed state for any
man or woman to find themselves in. What a word to hear And if
we're right in thinking that these seraphims are representations
of the triune God, then this was the Holy Spirit himself who
told Isaiah that his iniquity was taken away and his sin was
purged. If God justifies us, brother
and sister, if God justifies us, then who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Here's the fifth thing that we
see in Isaiah's vision. Isaiah saw, he learned the need
of a sanctified ministry. He was to be sent to his people,
to his nation. Now I mentioned yesterday in
our little notes that there is perhaps a beautiful picture here
of the eternal covenant of grace and how the Lord Jesus Christ
took that role as the servant of God and in his humiliation
came and served in that great covenant purpose of grace. but
there is also truly here an element of Isaiah's commission. But what
this shows us is that there are many in the ministry who run
uncalled and many who say peace, peace, when there is no peace. It is only as a coal from the
altar touches a man's lips that he has anything of value to say
to fellow sinners. It is only as a man feels the
woefulness of his own sin that he can ease the burden of fellow
sinners. May the Lord raise up preachers
whose lips have been touched by the coal from off the altar,
and whose hearts have been warmed by a vision of the crucified
and exalted Christ, who know their own sins forgiven and their
iniquities purged, for it is such a man that can say a good
word, a word of grace and a word of peace in the ear of a troubled
sinner. And sixthly, Isaiah saw the true
nature of the gospel. Now I mention this a lot, I guess,
in my preaching, so I'm not going to dwell on it too much today. But the message that Isaiah was
given was to preach a message that would not fill the ears
of his hearers with peace and happiness and joy. He was told
to say, hear ye indeed, but understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive
not. He was told, make the heart of
this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Now far be it from us to deny
that there is a come and a welcome in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
that there is a welcome, an invitation and an openness in grace from
God. But make no mistake, the Gospel
is a double-edged sword. Paul tells the Corinthians, we
are unto God a sweet savour of Christ to them that are saved
and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death and to the other the saver of life unto life. And so it was with Isaiah. He understood the nature of this
gospel that he was called to preach. It wasn't a free for
all. but it was a message that was sent with power to the heart
and to the soul of specific individual sinners who thereby were given
hope to lean on Christ and to find in Christ and in his sacrifice
a salvation that would do them good. What? Blessed the elect,
hardened the reprobate. And there is a great testimony
to this prophet Isaiah that he carried this message to a generation
that would not see, that would not hear, that would not understand,
and yet he preached it faithfully nevertheless. Because he knew
that gospel success is not measured in the number of souls saved,
but in faithfulness to the message that is given and in dedication
to the Lord who sends the messenger. He knew because the Lord told
him. We know that the Lord told him
because he tells us in Isaiah 55 verse 11, the Lord told him,
my word shall be that so shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper
in the thing whereto I sent it. The gospel goes forth in power
and we believe that it is a powerful message to constrain and recover
and redeem those to whom it is sent in the day of the Lord's
power. And finally, the last thing that
I want to show us here that Isaiah saw was this. He saw, or perhaps
I should say he heard, God's reassuring promise. He asked
the question, how long, Lord, how long? How long will this
deadness be upon the people? and he received a promise concerning
the Messiah. And this was indeed the great
hope of the Old Testament saints. Despite the dark message in many
ways that Isaiah had to convey to the people of his age, the
Lord would not rob his people of any age. of their comfort
in the promise of Christ in the covenant. And Isaiah is given a delightful
similitude of a tree and a tree in wintertime. Yes, the nation
will perish. Yes, Jerusalem and Judah will
perish. Yes, there will be an end to
their sin and to their rebellion and to their wickedness. Yet
God's covenant promise of the coming holy seed would not be
compromised. A tenth, a remnant will remain. though all looked dark and dead,
yet life would be preserved. The Messiah, the branch, would
come forth and through him the elect from all nations will be
called and gathered and brought to life and to the experience
of salvation. And this was true for Israel
and Judah. Though the nation was destroyed
at the time of the Romans, yet the true gospel kingdom was established
and enlarged and prospered. And it is true in a spiritual
sense for us all. How frail these bodies are. How subject this, this frame,
this flesh is to decay and to death. and yet for the Lord's people
there is life in them. A tree looks dead when the winter
comes and the tree casts all its leaves. but unseen, undetected,
as a teal tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when
they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance
thereof. This holy seed is Christ, this
holy seed is the life of Christ, and your body might be spent
Your time on earth might be short. Your frame may be breaking down. Your green leaves withered and
falling. but the spiritual substance endures. The spiritual substance is in
it. You shall not die. When you close
your eyes to sleep, there will be a regeneration, a new beginning,
a continuation of the holy seed of eternal life forever and ever. We become preoccupied, do we
not, with the wood and the bark. the outside appearance, the physical
frame, but it is the holy seed that is the substance. What a
joy that is, what a beautiful presentation that the holy seed
is the life, the holy seed is the substance. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Brothers and sisters, I'm wrapping
it up now. The glory of the vision, of Isaiah
will be brighter in the reality than what we have before us here
in this passage. Soon we too shall see the Lord
high and lifted up. We shall see the majesty of the
one who sits upon his throne and it will never be dimmed and
it will never decrease. The promises of God and the gift
of grace will not be prevented or hindered. Isaiah's vision
was of the Lord. the sovereign Christ seated in
victory, the sovereign God who went forth conquering and to
conquer, Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and we shall
see him too. Isaiah saw Christ's blood-bought
church filling the temple, and we shall see it too. Isaiah saw
Christ and he saw us who believe. We are the trophy of Christ's
labour. We are they whom the Lord will
take back into his holy temple and into the presence of the
triune God. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.