Turn your Bibles this morning
to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. It's very fitting what Rob read
this morning from John. I'll actually be elaborating
on that as we go through it this morning. Isaiah 6 is a very precious Gospel. Gospel account that Isaiah had. And we find that in the volume
of the book, it's written of Christ from Genesis to Revelation.
He's on every page. And that's why I've titled this
message this morning. I saw also the Lord. I saw also the Lord. That's what
Isaiah says in the very first verse. 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. Now Uzziah was the
king of Judah and he had went to war with the Philistines.
He became the king of Judah at age 16 and the scripture says,
and he did that which was right before the Lord. And the Lord
blessed him and the Lord caused by his hand them to be able to
overthrow the Philistines. And the scripture says that he
built walls and towers in Jerusalem and he put engines is actually
the word, the words that the Lord uses is engines. And so
that would more than likely mean something like a catapult or
something like that. But it was something that had not been really
devised before or made before. So the Lord was really blessing
everything around Uzziah and Uzziah's name means strength. As he was in his strength, his
name meaning strength, he thought it would be okay for himself
to go up into the temple of the Lord after the Lord had done
all these things and offer up incense before the Lord. Now
we know according to the law in Leviticus that only those
that were Levites were able, were acceptable, and were fit
by the Lord's word to offer sacrifice and burn incense unto the Lord.
I'm reminded of another story whenever Uzzah and King David
and the men that went down to fetch the ark, every one of them
was of the tribe of Judah. They were not Levites. And as
they put it upon a cart and tried to bring it back from the Philistines,
the same one that Uzzah was warring against, it was starting to fall
and Uzzah retched up and he touched it and the Lord killed him on
the spot. Well, David repented of that and left it there for
the space of three months. And when he found out that it
was actually blessing the man's house that it was staying in,
he says, okay, we're going to go down and get the ark, but
this time we're going to do it God's way. The Levites carried the
ark and David was dressed in ceremonial robes of priesthood.
Every six steps that they would take, they offered up sacrifice
unto the Lord. signifying their six is the number of men. They
were acknowledging what they were and that God, he saw God
the same way Isaiah did here as high and lifted up sitting
on a throne. And so we see Uzziah was wrong for trying to offer
up incense unto the Lord. This is us by nature. We believe
by nature that we are strong enough, that we are good enough,
that we have a righteousness of ourself, which is of the law.
And it's not true, brethren. We do not. We are lepers. And
that's exactly what happened to Uzziah. Eighty priests come
in and try to convince him to leave the temple at that time
or leave the place of worship there. And they did not no sooner
get the words out of his mouth as he becomes angry and starts
defending himself. God smites him with leprosy.
And he was a leper until the day that he died. He had to live
without the camp. And his son became king in his
stead. This is us by nature, lepers from the top of our head
to the bottom of our feet. We need a substitute. We need
a savior. There's nothing good that we can do. In chapter five
of Isaiah, we're seeing that when Uzziah died, Isaiah was
beginning to describe under the children of Israel the reason
that he felt this had happened. And he kept saying, woe unto
you, woe unto you, woe unto you. But when Isaiah saw the Lord
in chapter six, he said, woe is me. And that's what the gospel
does, is it reveals that we are the leper, that we are the sinner. Wednesday, I preached a message
to you all titled, Fear Not For I Have. And I have a confession
to you. I thought that I knew what that
meant. And I was confident that I did. And I absolutely am still
confident that I knew enough about what it meant to declare
the gospel unto you. But Thursday, I found out what
it means to be afraid of circumstances all over again. And I was left
to this resolve. Believing God is not a one-time
thing. Asking to be saved from our leprosy
is not a one-time thing. The Lord says, fear not for I
have, and we constantly need to be reminded of that because
we're constantly afraid. When I was made to be afraid,
I realized I don't know anything. I don't know anything unless
the Lord has caused it to be revealed and made me to believe
it. The Lord certainly does that
for his people. He gives us the fear that may
be our flesh, that may be circumstances that drives us to Christ. That's
what the fear does. Isaiah feared God had left them
utterly desolate. That's where this account begins.
He was concerned in Isaiah five, who's going to take up the crown
of Uzziah and defend Israel against their enemies. And he's talking
in this regard in five. He was afraid that they were
going to be left utterly desolate because they were kingless because
and felt that they were hopeless. There was no hope. And so he
begins to complain. He begins to talk about because
you're a stiff neck people, as another prophet had said, it's
the same type of of mentality as he's speaking. And we come
to this realization when the Lord reveals himself that our
complainings, our complainings, brethren, are no more than self-justification. That's all that it is. If I grumble
or I complain based upon a circumstance, all that I'm doing is saying
I deserve better than this. Think about that. You know who
never complained? The Lord Jesus Christ. Not one
time did he complain. Regardless of his circumstances,
he constantly believed God. Because of what the children
of Israel had done, Isaiah began to bring up his petition unto
them and prophesying to them. But it says in chapter six, in
verse one, he sees the Lord. It says in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up. Now this begins with I saw, and
that has to come and can only come through and by the faith
of Christ being bestowed. If you see God, it's because
he's given you eyes to see him in this life. Every man, every
woman is going to see the Lord one of two ways, either in mercy
or in wrath. It's that simple. If you are
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will see him in mercy. He will
say, enter in thou good and faithful servant. You know why? Because
when your name is called the Lord Jesus Christ, will be your
surety even in that hour, even in that moment, because He was
your surety on the cross of Calvary. You are His and all that the
Father sees for those whom He died is the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw by faith the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up. Now seeing our Lord this
morning is our desire in being here because seeing is the only
peace that we have in this world. I think I've said that about
every time I've stood before you, but it's the truth. The
only time that I'm content, the only time that we're not complaining,
the only time that we're really not murmuring or being upset
about circumstances or desiring something different is when we're
sitting under the sound of the gospel at his feet and his face
is revealed unto us. Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord. He saw that Uzziah had saw the
Lord in judgment. He saw the Lord in wrath. He
saw the Lord as holy without substitute, without any hope
of salvation because he was offering himself up. And he says, I also
saw the Lord, but I saw him different than Uzziah saw him because of
the grace of God, because of the faith given unto Isaiah. So who did he see? The scripture
says no man has ever seen God and lived. Whenever Adam and
Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden, their sin had separated
them from God. It says they heard the voice
of God walking in the garden. They heard the voice of God walking. Well, who is the voice of God? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
If they were to see God at that point, the father, he would have
executed him because sin was upon them at that moment. He
would have saw that sin. They had sown fig leaves together
as they're trying to cover themselves with the works of their hands.
That's what that represents. But what happens whenever they
hear the voice of the Lord walking in the garden? The Lord takes
a lamb, the Lord takes a covering for them and sacrifices it unto
the Lord and covers them with that skin as evidence as their
righteousness that belongs to Him, not having their own righteousness. So who did he see? He saw the
same thing that Adam saw when the Lord robed him in the righteousness
of that lamb. That's who he saw was the Lord
Jesus Christ. He saw the mercy of God. The same as Moses, whenever
Moses said, Lord, show me your glory, the Lord said, no man
has seen my face and live. He said, yet there is a place
near me. There's a place nigh unto me,
beside me. And he said, I will put you in
the cleft of the rock that when my glory passes by, you will
see my hinder parts. This is where we are, brethren,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the cleft of the rock, so
that we may see the finished work of God, which is his hinder
parts from the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
was slain. So everything that we're going
through, we're just seeing the hinder parts of the Lord, what
he's already accomplished for his people. Isaiah saw this and
he saw none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. So how did he see him? And this
is the same account for all believers. He saw him seated. He saw the
Lord seated on his throne as God. He saw him seated. He saw that salvation is accomplished
for his elect. And as we heard a few minutes
ago from Rob, I'm gonna read it to you anyways, even though
we've already heard it, but John chapter 12, verse 39 says, therefore
they could not believe. They could not believe, this
is Christ talking. Therefore they could not believe
because that Isaiah said again, he hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their hearts. Men do not see Christ as seated. Men
see Christ as pacing the floor, as trying to do something. But
he can't unless you allow him. That's how men sees God by nature.
That's not how Isaiah saw God. And that's not how the believer
sees God. We see him as seated, crowned, prophet, priest, and
king for his people. That's how we see the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord said they could not believe because Isaiah said
he had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they
should not see with their eyes, nor understand what their hearts
and be converted. And I should heal them. These
things said Isaiah when, when he saw the glory and spake of
him in Isaiah six, verse one, this is what Isaiah was saying
in this chapter. The Lord's telling us the same thing, that salvation
is of the Lord. We cannot see with our natural
eyes nor understand with the heart of stone that we have from
birth. He has to give us a new heart that looks unto Him. He
has to give us eyes of faith. He has to give us ears to hear.
And He does that for His people. We have no hope in the flesh.
We have no hope that we can produce any of these things I just mentioned,
that we would be able to please God. And the scripture tells
us why, in 1 Corinthians 1.29, that no flesh shall glory in
his presence. Romans 3.20 says, no flesh shall
be justified in his sight. Seeing Christ high and lifted
up, we see him as the Savior and us as the sinner. And he's
telling us here, the way that he saw Uzziah was seeing him
high and lifted up. John said in 12, chapter 12,
as we've already heard, Verse 32, and if I, I be lifted up
from the earth will draw all men unto me. This saith he signifying
what death he should die. This is the Lord being lifted
up as surety on the cross. This is what Isaiah saw. He saw the Lord seated. He saw
the Lord high, which is his deity, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He saw his position. He saw his power. He saw him
as the Lord Jesus Christ, not a little Jesus, but the Lord
Jesus Christ is being seated, lifted up. And he saw him, When
he saw him lifted up, he saw him as our surety on the cross. The Lord said, if I be lifted
up signifying what death he should die. So what did Isaiah see?
He saw him high in his glory. He saw him seated as God. He
saw him lifted up as the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. And in verse five, which is, I love the fact that
it's verse five of this chapter. After he's seen all this verse
five is the number of grace. Verse five is the number of grace.
And what does he say in verse five? Woe is me. Woe is me, I
am undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. When he seen Christ as
Christ is, he said, woe is me, I'm the sinner. Not that they
have unclean lips anymore, I have unclean lips. When you see God
as God, by faith that he given you, you have repentance towards
God, your mind's completely changed about who he is, and you just
have to cry, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. The Lord's death, it was not
an attempt. It was not an attempt. He justified
His elect. He satisfied the demands of God.
He accomplished the salvation. And when He gives you the heart
to cry out, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner, He's given
you faith to look to Christ simultaneously. We just look to Christ because
of what He has done. Scripture says He was delivered
for our offenses, and He was raised again for our justification.
This is what it means to see him high. This is what it means
to see him seated, to see him high, to see him lifted up. In
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11, it tells us, and every priest
standeth daily. Did you know there's one interesting
piece of furniture not in the temple, the place of worship?
It's the chair. There is no place for the priest
to sit down and rest because their work is never finished.
And so he says, the priest standeth daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin.
But this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, sat down on the right hand of the majesty of God. This is
what Isaiah saw. He saw a successful savior of
sinners. He saw the successful redeemer
of his people. He saw the covenant fulfilled
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw him seated, not
trying to do anything else. It is finished. That's what Isaiah
saw. He saw him high in his glory. He saw that Christ is the glory
of God. He saw that he was lifted up
as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world and says,
not woe is them, but woe is me. What else did Isaiah see? Well,
if you look at verse one again, in the year King Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up And
his train filled the temple. His train filled the temple.
Now in olden times, men of power were recognized by how much power
and what position that they had was determined by how long their
train was. Normally the last one that would
walk into the room would be the king and their train would have
much length to it compared to everyone else. In some cultures,
when a king would kill another king or take over his kingdom,
he would chop off his train and sew it onto his so that his train
would become longer. I'm reminded of a bride whenever
she enters into the room and her train, it's definitely much
longer than any other train in the room because the object of
the wedding is focused on the bride. It used to not be that
way. Actually, it used to be the groom. But the Lord being,
it's a great example of how the Lord has given us His righteousness
in that. So what is the Lord saying here? His train filled
the temple. This is the place where God said He would meet
with us. This is the place where He said He would meet His people
at the mercy seat. So what does He mean that the
train filled the temple? Well, there's zero room for anything
else. This train represents His glory.
This represents His power. This represents His position.
This represents His finished work on the cross of Calvary.
And there is no room for anything else because it fills His temple,
the place of worship. All the glory, all the honor,
all the praise goes unto Christ. And there is room for nothing
else. So what is our hope in the Gospel
here? What is our hope in the Gospel
here? Our hiding place is under His train. That's where we're
found. Our hiding place is found in
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are under the shadow of His
wing. We are under His righteousness,
robed in His righteousness. We are under His train. Now,
did the Lord put everyone under His train? Certainly not. but
those whom he did, he washed them in his blood. And when the
father looks into the temple, he sees his son's work accomplished,
seated upon his throne. He earned it, he merited that
position, and the Lord hath highly exalted him. He sees him, his
son, successfully saving his people, and all that he sees
is the train, and we're tucked underneath it, his glory. We're
covered by his works. The Lord came to Noah and he
told Noah, build an ark or I'm going to have, my wrath is going
to come upon the earth. He said, I want you to take the ark and
I want you to pitch it on the inside and I want you to pitch it on
the outside. That's the atonement. Same word as the covering, same
word that we're talking about here. And you know the story,
the, the, the account that happened, the winds and the waves begin
to roll and the thunder, it crashed and the rain fell down and the
wrath of God came upon the entire earth. But every one that was
put inside that ark came forth in the end, didn't they? The
Lord kept His people from the wrath of God. All those that
were placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who are under
His train, under the shadow of His wing, under His protection,
all those who have been pitched within and without with the atonement
covering are presented perfectly righteous unto the Father. He's
already brought us into the Father and presented us to Him. The Lord told the children of
Israel and Egypt He said, yet one more, one more plague will
I bring. And this one will affect you
if you do not follow what I'm telling you to do. And it was
the death angel, wasn't it? He said, I'm going to pass by.
And if I don't see the blood, I will kill the firstborn in
the house. And they took a lamb and they
put the lamb's blood on the lintel and on the doorpost. And the
Lord said, when I see the blood, not when I see your works or
your effort, not when I see what you've tried to do in keeping
my law, but when I see the blood, I will pass by you. You're covered. You are covered. And the Lord
did, he passed by all those who have the blood applied, his people. I mentioned this the first hour
and I thought of this just now, whenever Moses was put into the
cleft of the rock and the Lord passed by, he said, I'm gonna
show you my hinder parts, where is the train always? It's in
the hinder parts, isn't it? It's the goodness and mercy of
the Lord is what David called it, but it's His glory. That's
what we see is the glory of the Lord that is behind Him. Hebrews
2.9 says, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man, for His elect bride, for all those whom He were dying
for, for all those he was dying for, everyone who the father
had given him." Brethren, we have a hiding place in the Lord
Jesus Christ. David said in Psalm 17, verse
eight, keep me as the apple of the eye. You know, if you've
ever had an eye injury, It's one of the most worst pains,
I think. Every time you blink, it just hurts. It hurts when
you don't blink. But the apple of your eye is
the most sensitive place of your eye. It's the very center of
your eye. And if you get a scratch on that, it's much more severe
than if you get it on the extremity part. What is David saying here? Keep me as the apple of your
eye. The Lord As much as you see that that would cause you
harm to have a scratch on your eye and you're going to start
working and put goggles on maybe to prevent it from, you're going
to keep your eye. The Lord's telling us here that the Lord
values us more than the way that we keep our eyes, the way that
we the way that we would try to protect our eyes from being
harmed. Keep me as the apple of your
eye. Keep me from, don't allow any harm to come unto me, is
what David's saying. And he says, hide me under the shadow of thy
wings. That's our affirmation that that's what he means by
that. Hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Hide me in the
shadow of that pavilion. Psalm 36, verse seven says, how excellent
is thy loving kindness, O God. Therefore, the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. We are hid under
the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, under his blood,
under his protection. Being made perfect by his blood.
In verse one again, it says 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.
Isaiah saw the Lord God as holy, executing His judgment upon Uzziah. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
as seated as prophet, priest, and king. He saw Him seated higher
than the heavens. He made Isaiah low. He abased
Isaiah and showed him that he was nothing but the sinner. And
he saw the Lord high and lifted up. He saw Him lifted up as Christ
who was crucified for His elect, crucified for His people, He
saw His glory filled the temple, the place where His people are
able to hide underneath. His glory, this train that He's
mentioning, that's the mercy seat. That's where the Lord will
meet His people, at the mercy seat. Christ Himself is the mercy
seat. And this train is the glory of
Christ, the salvation that He wrought for His people. The Lord
gets all the glory in salvation. The Lord gets all the glory and
everything. He owns everything. It all belongs to Him and it's
all been given to Christ. He glorified His Son. As He mentioned
in John 17, glorify the Son that the Son may glorify you. He owns the earth and the fullness
thereof. And no man can reply unto Him or say, why doest thou?
Hath not the potter power over the clay to make one lump unto
honor and another unto dishonor? He does whatsoever He will. And
you know what the believer says? Truth, Lord. But I want to be
your dog. I want to be your center. I want
to be found in Christ. Make me yours. You own me. Lord calls me to come to you
and keep me. That's what we beg unto Him.
Turn with me to Isaiah 48. Just a few pages over. We'll
hear the account in another place of Isaiah. tells us why the Lord did all
that He did for His people right here. Everything in this earth
is the Lord's. The earth's rotation is because
God's purpose. Because of the cross of Calvary,
the salvation of His people, everything has been ordered and
it's been done for His glory and for His honor, for the salvation
of His people. And He tells us in chapter 48
of Isaiah, in verse 11, own sake, even for my own sake, will I
do it? For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give
my glory unto another. If he would have given us the
responsibility of anything, any microscopic detail to produce
anything, it would have polluted his name because he's perfect
and we are not because he's holy and we're not good in any way.
He could not pollute it. So therefore, he did it for his
own sake. He said, I will give my glory.
I will not give it to another. Hearken unto me, O Jacob. And
Israel, my called, I am he. I am the first. I also am the
last. My hand also hath laid the foundation
of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens. When
I call unto them, they stand up together. The Lord is telling
us everything that needed to be accomplished for the salvation
of his people. He did. And how wonderful it
is to think he owns everything. Yet he had compassion upon a
sinner like me. He had mercy upon a dead dog
sinner when he calls out to the heavens. They do stand up. When
He speaks to the sea, do they not obey His voice? And yet,
He passed by and He saw me polluted in my own blood. He saw His people
polluted in their own blood and said unto them, live. And He
robed them in His righteousness and gave them a place in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to Isaiah chapter 6. He will not share this glory
of His salvation with anyone. He gets all the glory and salvation.
The Gospel is so clear here, brethren, in just the very first
verse. I'm going to read it one more
time. It says, 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. I've spent this entire time,
we haven't even got out of the first verse yet. The Lord's glorious
gospel throughout all of scripture is past finding out, past explaining. We'll never exhaust it by preaching
it, but yet it must be preached according to the Lord's purpose.
In closing, I want to read a few more verses here. And in verse
two, it says, Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six
wings, and with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered
his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another,
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved,
and the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. And I want you to notice a few
things about these seraphims here, these heavenly beings that
the Lord created. They had they had six, they had
three sets of wings, six wings total. And with two of them,
they flew. And with two of them, they covered
their face. And with two of them, they covered their feet. The
angels, brethren, think about this. The angels cannot look
upon the glory of God. They must hide their face from
his glory. And yet he hath bestowed his
glory unto his people in the person of Jesus Christ. These
created sinless beings, they cannot touch the mercy seat.
They must fly above it. They cannot touch it. Brethren, when the Lord reveals
himself, we must hide our face from him and flee to Christ.
We do not come to Christ in our own merit, but we, like these
seraphims, must cover our face and flee unto the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he would have mercy upon us. No man can look upon
God and live as we have already heard. but we have been given
access to the very throne room of God by the blood of Jesus
Christ. We can enter boldly unto the
throne of grace. God, we can approach a holy God,
the holy God, the creator of the universe. The one that I
just mentioned has the fullness of the earth and everything in
it that controls all things and has purposed all things. We can
call out to him and he hears us. He hears me whenever I pray. Because of the blood of Christ.
Because we have this covering of his train, we cleave unto
Christ, we have access to God. That's why the scripture says,
Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins
Be like scarlet, they shall be made whiter than snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. The Lord Jesus
Christ, when He said, reason, let us reason together, we have
no reasoning with the Lord, we just cry out truth. Truth, Lord. We've just believed God because
He's made us to do so. We can enter boldly into the
throne of grace, having obtained mercy, to find grace to help
us in the time of need. Now I want us to notice, they
did cover their face. They did fly. And with Twain, they covered
their feet. They covered their feet. Why
was it necessary for them to cover their feet? Their very
creature-ness, their very creature-ness must be covered from His glory. Whenever Moses approached the
burning bush, what did the Lord tell Moses? Take thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place thou standest is holy ground. If you're going to approach the
Lord, you must approach Him as naked. You must have a covering
that is not your own, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
talking about holy ground. The Lord Jesus Christ, did He
not wash His disciples' feet? That's what he does for his people.
They gathered in the upper room together and the Lord goes around
and washes, physically washes their feet, signifying that he
washes us of our very creatureness before the Lord and gives us
his righteousness. Just the same as he has given
these seraphims these wings to cover their feet, the Lord's
given us his wings to cover our faces from him and to fly above
the mercy seat, if you will, to be under the shadow of his
wings. He washes his disciples' feet.
He washes the dust of the world that they had been walking in,
just like he's doing right now for us. Time and time again,
we gather together. He washes our feet over and over.
But he washed the disciples' feet, didn't he? It was signifying
that he was washing them. He would wash them in his own
blood is what that was signifying. And Peter said, Lord, you ain't
gonna wash my feet. Well, we're just like Peter,
aren't we? Every time, I know myself whenever
every time Uh, well, I'm ready. I'm, I'm, my guns are blazing
kind of attitude. And then whenever it all comes to it, we, we talk
to Ellen, just like Peter, we need a substitute. When we're
sitting here, we're thinking about, and we're worshiping the
Lord and we're resting in his faith. The very moment I get
in the car and I make a left or a right out of here and somebody
cuts me off, my mind's not resting anymore on the things of Christ.
were just like Peter. Lord, you're not washing my feet.
And whether it was self-righteousness or whatever it may have been
that drove Peter to say those things, what did Christ say?
If I wash not your feet, you have no part with me. Peter repented
immediately. He said, well, in that case,
Lord, wash my hands and my head too. And that's what the Lord
does for His people as He washes our hands, our head, our feet.
We are no longer polluted and putrefying sores. We are beautiful
before the Lord, being fashioned, likened to the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. Once we are made to see these truths, once we are
made to see these truths, we stay with Isaiah, verse five
of our text. Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king,
seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim
to me, having a live coal in his hand. which he had taken
with the tongs of the altar, he laid it upon my mouth and
said, Lo, this has touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken
away and thy sin is purged. Now, iniquity, brethren, is what
we try to bring into God in order to fix our sin condition. It's the keeping of the law.
It's trying to work some kind of righteousness before God.
Our sin is what we are. And the two things where the
Lord, in our transgression is our trespasses against the law.
That's the three things. We're completely incapable of
pleasing God because of these three things, iniquity, trespass,
and our sin, what we are. Isaiah was made to see this.
And as soon as he saw that, the Lord in mercy takes a coal from
off the altar and touches his lips. He changed his lips. He changed his confession. He
changed his heart completely. He no longer had the same confession,
did he? He said, woe is me. He didn't
say woe is them. He said, woe is me. He saw the
Lord and his confession was completely changed. He had been given repentance
towards God. This coal represents the fire
of God's wrath that fell upon his son for his people that he
endured, that the Lord Jesus Christ endured. Christ is the
only one that could touch man and not be defiled and touch
God and not be destroyed. He does the same thing to us
whenever He shows us through the preaching of the gospel,
He touches us with that coal. And we see with the eyes of faith,
when He touches us with that, this is His flaming sword, the
word of God. This is His gospel. This is the
coal that touches our lips. And we see God as high and lifted
up. And our opinion about God completely changes because we're
giving repentance to look unto Him. The Lord Jesus Christ touched
man as a man, and He touched God. And the fire of God's wrath
fell upon Him. Everything we touch is sin. But
everything He touches is good. He makes it good. Everything
that the Lord Jesus Christ ever touched, He said, will thou not
be made whole? The woman had the issue of blood. She knew
that if I could just touch the hem of His garment, I'll be made
whole. And she pressed in the crowd just to get to Him to do
so. Everyone that the Lord touched, He made them whole. He made them
good. He made them right. He made them
perfect. He gave them His righteousness. Notice that He says that His
iniquity is taken away and His sin is purged. Well, how does
the Lord purge our sin? How does the Lord purge our sin?
By His own blood, He purged our sin. Our substitute, who knew
no sin, became sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And by this man's blood, He entered
once into the holy place, having obtained mercy, having attained
eternal redemption for His people. And let's read a few more verses
here. It says, Also, I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, Whom shall I see in verse eight? And who
will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send
me. And he said, go and tell this
people, hear you indeed, but understand not, and see you 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 the
Lord, how long, how long shall I tell them this? How long shall
I make them fat? How long should I tell them they're
blind? He said, He answered, until the cities be wasted without
inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly
desolate. The preacher has one job to do.
It is to preach the gospel, and that will make fat the heart
of the believer. That is what the Lord uses to
save his people, to draw his people to the knowledge of Christ,
through the foolishness of preaching. That's how the Lord has ordained
it. How long do we preach it for, brethren? Till the earth
be utterly desolate, till the mountains be laid waste, until
the Lord comes back for his people. We continue to proclaim. There
is a covering, there's a hiding place in the temple. The Lord
is high and lifted up. He is other than we are. He is
seated as prophet, priest, and king, and he saved his people
from their sin. In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up. His train filled the temple.
Amen. Father calls us to see the Lord.
Calls us to not see ourself or to put any confidence in this
flesh, but calls us to see Christ high, lifted up, sitting upon
his throne, put us under his train. Give us Christ as our
portion. In his name we ask, amen.