We're having a church dinner
next week after the morning services. Verse five. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. I'm cut off. 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. The response to seeing the king. No, not a response to seeing
the king, but the response to seeing the king. Everyone, without
exception, who has seen the king has this response. Somebody says, well, I haven't
had that response. Then you haven't seen the king.
All, no exceptions, all who've seen the king have the response
that Isaiah did. Look up in verse 1 of this chapter. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. There's great significance in
this when you turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 26. Verse 1. I'm sorry, it's 2 Chronicles. Beginning in verse 1. Then all of the people of Judah
took Uzziah, the man that Isaiah, he saw his death, who was 16
years old and made him king in the room of his father, Amaziah.
And he built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept
with his father. 16 years old was Uzziah when
he began to reign. And he reigned 50 and two years
in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jechaliah
of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord. according to all that his father
Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days
of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. As long
as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. And the middle
of the chapter goes on with all the good things he did. He was
a good king, blessed by God. But look in verse 15, the last sentence, and his name
spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped, till he was
strong. But when he was strong, his heart
was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the
Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense
upon the altar of incense. Now what's wrong with that? He's come into God's presence
on his own, in his own name, in his own works. All of a sudden
he doesn't need a priest. I can come into God's presence
on my own. Look how well I've done. He forgot
that he was marvelously helped. He was glorifying himself. Now
if I think I can come into God's presence without Christ representing
me, I proved by that I don't know God. He came in on his own. And look what happened. Verse
17. And Azariah the priest went in
after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were
valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the
king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, the burnt
incense, unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron,
who represent Christ. that are consecrated to burn
incense, go out of the sanctuary, for thou has trespassed, neither
shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was
wroth, he was indignant that they would talk to him this way.
And he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he
was wroth with the priest, you don't talk to me that way. The
leprosy even arose up in his forehead before the priests and
the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. And as arrived
the chief priests and all the priests looked upon him and behold,
he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from
thence. Yea, himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had
smitten him and he died. In the year The King Uzziah died. I saw also the Lord. That's when I saw Him. When I
saw even this man who I admired so much, and that I looked up
to so much. When he came into God's presence,
without a priest, without Christ, God smote him. Turned him into
a leper. In the year the King Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord. And look how he saw him. I saw also the Lord sitting upon
a throne. Now the Lord he saw was the Lord
Jesus Christ. No man can see God apart from Christ. The sight
would kill us. No man can see God apart from
Christ. All you and I are ever going
to see of God is Jesus Christ. Now hold your finger there and
turn with me to John 12. Let me show you this. John chapter 12. Actually the end of Isaiah chapter
6 is the most often quoted passage there from the Old Testament
in the New Testament. It's quoted six different times. And look at verse 37. But though
he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled
which he spake. Hear from Isaiah 6. Lord, who
hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and
hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should
heal them. These things said Isaiah, when
he saw his glory, and spake of him, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this one he saw sitting upon
a throne, is nobody less than Jesus Christ the Lord. And notice he saw him sitting
on a throne. Sitting. Settled sovereignty. Sitting. Not pacing back and
forth, frustrated and worrying because men won't let him have
his way, and they won't do his will, and he can't get what he
wants done because men won't let him. No. Sitting. Having finished the
work the Father gave him to do. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had
by himself purged our sins, he sat down. His work was finished. Nothing left for him to do. Sitting, not worried, not having
something else to do, sitting. Sitting on a throne, ruling and
reigning, and this speaks of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
Now let me tell you something about sovereignty. Sovereignty
means your will is done. No one controls you. Your will
is always done. No one can thwart your will,
whatever your way, if you're sovereign, if you're sovereign.
You can't be 99% sovereign, can you? If you're 99% sovereign,
you're not sovereign at all. Sitting on a throne signifying
his reign, his absolute sovereignty, his absolute control. The sovereignty of God is God
being God. Really, the only alternative
to this is atheism, when it comes right down to it. A God that's
not in absolute control is no God at all. You might as well
be an atheist. Any God that's not absolutely
sovereign is a weak God. a God that is not worthy of worship. And remember, you will only worship
an absolute sovereign, one you have no control over. One who
has complete control over you and you're in his hands and he
can do with you whatever he's pleased to do. Now if you ever
see that, you'll worship. You'll worship. And until that
scene, there will really be no worship. But when Isaiah saw
him, he saw him sitting on a throne ruling. And Jesus Christ, sitting on
a throne, He's the Lord of creation. All things were made by Him,
the scripture says. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. He rules in providence. That's talking about everything
that happens in time. That's what providence is. It's
everything that happens in time. He controls everything. He said,
I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do
all these things. Whatever happens, it doesn't
matter what it is. He's the first cause behind it because he's
God. This is who he is. Oh, how his sovereignty is demonstrated
in salvation. He said in John 5, 21, as the
father raises the dead and quickens them, even so the son quickens
whom he will. If you're quickened, if you're
given spiritual life, it's because he willed for that to take place
with you and he's the one who gave it to you. He sits on a
throne. And notice what is said next
about this sitting upon a throne. High. High. And lifted up. What we have among us, sinful
morals, is competition. We compete with one another in
order to get higher than somebody else. I can beat you, if I can
win, I'm higher than you are. Competition drives the marketplace. But you know, this is a throne
that has no competition. He has no peers. His throne is
high and lifted up. He sits by himself. undisturbed by opposition. He sits in regal splendor as
the absolute authority. Now this is who Isaiah saw, him
sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Now look at verse,
or the last phrase of verse one, his train. The skirts of his garment, the
hem of his garment filled the temple. Now, all Isaiah saw in
the temple was the train, the skirts of his garment. Now, obviously
this is all symbolic. All he could see, the Lord was
of such glory. of such transcendent excellence. He was so other that he said
all I could see in the temple was the hem of his garment, the
skirts of his garment. That's how glorious he is. He's so glorious that me and
you see the effects, the skirts of his garment. But you know,
there's something powerful about the hem of his garment in there.
You read in the New Testament, as many as touched the hem of
his garment were made perfectly whole. This is what he saw in
the temple, the skirts of his garment, the hem of his garment. And look in verse two, above
it, Above the temple? Above the throne? I don't know.
And, you know, I've looked at that and thought, how can these
creatures be above the throne? Well, the Lord's in such control
is if they're above the throne, it's because He put them there,
and that doesn't mean they're higher than Him. They had a message to bring,
these six-wings creatures, these seraphims. Now, who are these
seraphims? Look what it says. Above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six wings, and with twain he covered his face, With
twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." Now,
who are these seraphims? Well, I don't believe they're
the cherubims that we read of in the garden who kept Adam and
Eve out, and they were embroidered in the a veil, and they were over the
mercy seat. We read of cherubims, and the
reason I don't believe these seraphims are cherubims is because Isaiah
speaks of cherubims in Isaiah 37, and here he's speaking of
seraphims, and the word means burning ones, burning ones. What do we know about these creatures? Very little. As a matter of fact,
it appears that they don't want to be known because they cover
their face and they cover their feet. There's much of them that
we cannot see. They cover it up. But it's so
significant what they do with their wings, the six wings. With
two, they cover their face. They cannot look upon him who
sits on the throne. That's how holy He is. That's
how transcendent He is. That's how other He is. They
can't look. Can you look at the Son? No. They couldn't look at the Son
as He sat on the throne. And with two, they covered their
feet. They were ashamed of their walk.
Well, how could it be that way if they're seraphims? I mean,
they're innocent creatures. They'd never sinned. How could
they be ashamed of their feet? Scripture says he chargeth his
angels with folly. They might not commit folly,
but the only reason they haven't is because he's prevented it.
They would. You know, the angels are called
the elect angels in 1 Timothy chapter 5. The only reason they
didn't fall is because God prevented it. He wouldn't let it happen.
These creatures covered their feet. And if you ever come into
his presence, you'll be ashamed. You'll be ashamed. They didn't
want their works to be seen. They didn't want their feet to
be seen. They covered their feet. That's what people do who have
seen the king. They cover their feet. But with
two they did fly, ready to obey whatever command he gave them.
With two they did fly, and Hear what they said. Love, love, love. Forgiving, forgiving, forgiving. No. Holy, holy, holy. Three times with reference to
the Trinity. God the Father, holy. God the Son, holy. God the Spirit, holy. Now the only way we know that
God is one God in three persons is because the Bible reveals
it. This book is God's revelation of Himself. Let me remind you,
if God has the power to create the world, He's got the power
to inspire men to write a book and preserve it. And the only
way we know that God is holy, holy, holy is because the Bible
tells us, holy, holy, holy. What does holy mean? I think the best definition of
holiness is he's just not like me and you. He's other. He's not bound by space or time
the way you and I are. He's other. He's transcendent. Turn with me to Psalm 22. Psalm
22. Now this is David, and we know
that this is the middle saying of Christ from the cross. David
prophesied that he would make this statement. Psalm 22, verse
1. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Christ cried that from the cross,
didn't he? My God, my God. Why has thou forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring?
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you hear not. And in the
night season, and I'm not silent, you don't speak to me. But here's
the reason. Thou art holy. Now when God forsook God, God
did the most God-like thing God ever did. Every attribute of God is manifested
in God forsaking God on Calvary's tree. Here's holiness. God forsook
God. You see the sins of God's elect
became Christ's sins. He never committed sin. But my
sin, he took my sin. God did this. How can God do
this? I don't know, but he does it.
He took the sins of the elect and lifted them off of them and
put them on his son so that his son was guilty of those sins. And when God saw sin on his son,
God forsook him. God abandoned him. He suffered
the full equivalent of damnation on Calvary's tree, thus displaying
the holiness of God. Even when God sees sin in His
Son, He will not let that sin go unpunished. God is Holy, that
is who he is. And back to our text, verse three. And these seraphims, one cried
into another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Now listen real carefully. God does what he does for his
glory. And he's not going to change.
Deal with it. This is who he is. He does what
He does for His glory. This is the God with whom we
have to do. The Lord has absolute power, and He's absolutely good. The ones who benefit from this,
we're the ones. This is not a bad thing, this
is a good thing. That God does what He does for His glory. God
does everything He does for the great love He has for Himself. But I thought He did what He
did for me. This is not about you. This is about
His glory. That's why He does what He does. The whole earth is filled with
His glory. Now, I say to everybody in here,
me and you, and everybody outside of this room, you're going to
glorify Him. You will. You may glorify His grace, where
you're an example of just how much of salvation is by grace.
Or you may glorify His justice, when He sends you to hell. And
He'd be just in doing so. But whatever you will, I will
glorify Him. I'd whole lot rather glorify
His grace with you. I'd whole lot rather glorify
His mercy. Lord, have mercy on me. Let me be found in Christ.
But whatever the case, this is the way it is. He does what He
does for His glory. The whole earth is full of His
glory. He was sitting on that throne
before Isaiah ever saw it. He's always been sitting on the
throne. And whether you and I see it or not, it's still so. He
is glorious. Holy, holy, holy. Look in verse 4 of Isaiah chapter
6. This is another one of those
sermons where I feel I guess I don't feel this way
regarding them all, but I feel like an utter failure in trying
to present the glorious truth of this scripture. I guess if
anybody thought they did a good job with this, it wouldn't be
very good, would it? But here we go, verse four. And the post
of the door moved, trembled at the voice of him that cried,
and the house was filled with smoke. You know, when I'm talking
about, I feel like I'm in a smoky room and I can't really see the
way I wanna see. But Isaiah said the same thing.
The house was filled with smoke. All we saw were the train of
his garments. But after this revelation of
the greatness of God, then, not until then, but then, said I,
Woe is me, for I am undone. I'm cut off. He didn't even suspect
mercy at this time. He couldn't see why this holy
one could do anything but cut him off. And that's all he gathered
from this. I am cut off. off because I'm
a man of unclean lips. And what comes from the lips
is the index of a heart. The reason he had unclean lips
is because I've got an unclean heart. That's all that can be
said about my heart. Unclean! Unclean! I can't come into the presence
of this Holy One. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. How can he allow me to live? All sense of entitlement is gone. You and people bristle about
the absolute sovereignty of God. When people bristle about Christ
dying for the elect and God electing the people and say, how could
that be fair for him to do this for one and not do that for another?
When they bristle, it's because they don't really believe they're
a sinner. And the reason they don't really believe they're
a sinner is they've never seen the king. If you ever see the king, you'll
believe you're a sinner and all thoughts of entitlement will
be gone. He wasn't even suspecting mercy,
was he? He didn't see how God could look
in favor toward him. I'm cut off. I'm undone. I'm unclean. That is the response
to seeing the king. Now look at verse six. Then,
he's not ready for the gospel. He's now ready for the gospel.
And what I want us to notice about this verse of scripture,
there's nothing that Isaiah did. It's all what is done for him. There's not one thing Isaiah
did. It didn't say then he repented
and straightened up his life and tried to make it to where
God could accept him. It didn't say then he did this
so God could. No, he didn't do anything. You
see that? Let's read this verse of scripture.
He didn't do anything. It's all about what God has done
for him. Verse six, then flew one of the
seraphims unto me, having a live coal, a burning, shining coal
in his hand, which had been taken with the tongs from off the altar.
Now, what's the altar for? Sacrifice. Sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ.
That's what this represents. Won't you come down to the altar?
Christ is our altar. A man may come down to the altar
and confess, and you say, no, don't do that. That's the worst
thing you can do. Christ is the altar. The altar represents His
sacrifice. You see, on Calvary's tree, All
those animal sacrifices we read of in the Old Testament, they
all point to this one sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How amazing that God forsook God. How amazing that
He took my sins and my sorrows and made them His very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. How
amazing the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would
He do this? For His glory. for his glory. But this altar
represented where the sacrifice was made. The beast was put on
the sacrifice, killed as a pointing to the coming sacrifice. The
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there anything else worth
talking about other than the sacrifice of Christ, Christ crucified?
There really isn't. This is the theme of scripture. Verse 7, And he laid it upon my mouth,
that unclean mouth, and said, lo, this hath touched
thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin is purged. What did Isaiah do? Nothing. This seraphim comes
to him with the coal from off the altar, the living coal. You see, life comes only from
his death. This living coal came and touched his lips and two
things took place because of that. Read in verse 7 again. And he
laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips,
and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Now this is what the sacrifice
of Christ accomplished. First of all, my iniquity is
taken away. Taken away, where'd he go? In
the sacrifice. Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. Now, if he bore my sins, I don't
bear them. Sin can't be two places at once.
If he bore my sins, they were taken away from me, and made
his sins, he became guilty of them. That's what that sacrifice
was about. The wages of sin is death. That's
why Christ died. The wages of sin is death. My sin became his sin, and he
died. My iniquity is taken away. And what next? Thy sin is purged. Hebrews 1.3, I've already quoted
this once, that when he had by himself purged, that word purge
there is the same word that's translated atonement throughout
the Old Testament. He covered my sins, he atoned for them.
He put them away, he counseled them, he blotted them out. They
are no more! Now, I love to say this about
the gospel. False, antichrist religion, and
I'm calling it that too, antichrist. Anything that's not the gospel
is antichrist. Read 1 John 4, verse 3. Whosoever
confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist. When I confess He's come in the
flesh, He was before He came, He came and He did what He came
to do. Anything short of that is antichrist. Antichrist religion
puts the forgiveness of sins at the end of a formula. Here's
what you need to do to have your sins taken away and your iniquities
purged. You need to fill in the blank,
whatever it is. You need to do this, you need
to believe, you need to repent, you need to quit sinning and
start being holy and start reading the Bible and praying and you
need to get your life straightened out. Then you will have the forgiveness
of sins. If that's the case, me and you
are not gonna be forgiven. The gospel is seen in how God
dealt with Isaiah. He came to him without... Oh,
Isaiah said, I'm cut off. Your iniquity is taken away. Your sin is purged. Now that's the gospel. You don't
do something to be forgiven. You find out you've been forgiven. That's the gospel. Verse eight. Also, I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Now that's interesting. Whom
will I send? That's God's part. And if he sends somebody, you
know what? they're going to go for him.
And he said, here am I. Here am I. Send me. Now if God sends somebody, they're
going to be willing to be sent. If he sends somebody. Here am
I. Send me. Verse nine. This is the passage that was
quoted in John chapter twelve and this is the most often quoted
passage of scripture in the New Testament. And he said, go and
tell this people, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for
your life. Well, God's like me then, because
I love me. And I have a wonderful plan for my life. No, that's
not what he said, is it? Go and tell this people, hear
ye indeed, but understand not 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 our
Lord, how long, how long do you want me to bring a message like
that? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without
inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly
desolate, and the Lord hath removed men far away, and there be a
great forsaking in the midst of the land. But, that's the definition of grace.
But, but God, who is rich in mercy. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. But yet in it shall be a tenth,
a small number of these people that have forsaken and shall
return. And they shall be eaten as a
teal tree and as oak whose substance is in them. In other words, they're
gonna return as leafless trees. You look at them, they may look
dead, but their substance, their life is in them. when they cast
their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. Now though everybody departs,
a tenth will return. And you know who they are? The
holy seed. Those who have been born of God
and given a holy nature. The only one who sees his sin,
like Isaiah did. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. Everything that comes out of
my mouth is unclean because of the heart that brought the words
out. Everyone who has a holy nature
sees his sin just like that. And if you don't see yourself
like that, you've not yet been born again. You've never seen
the king. Lord, show me the king. You see the king. You'll have
the same view of yourself that Isaiah did, but he's going to show you how
your sins are taken away and how your iniquity is purged. And you're gonna say with Isaiah,
after the Lord said, who shall I send? And who will go for us? Here am I. Send me. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name, that we might be given eyes to
see the King, the Lord of hosts. And Lord, we know that if we
do see Him, we'll see ourselves for what we are and not until
then. And Lord, we know that if you
show us who we are, it's because you're gonna show us who He is
and what He did for us. in taking away our iniquity and
purging our sin. Lord, bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
amen.