Bibles to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6. I believe I read more in devotional reading and just
pick up the Bible and turn to a passage of scripture. I read
in the Psalms more than I do any other Old Testament book. But next to the Psalms, I believe
I spend more time in the book of Isaiah than any of the Old
Testament books. Isaiah is quoted more in the
New Testament than any other book except Psalms in the Old
And when John the forerunner began his ministry, he began
his ministry quoting Isaiah chapter 40. In other words, chapter 40
of Isaiah foretells and prophesies the ministry of John the Baptist.
And then when our Lord Jesus Christ returned to Nazareth,
where he was brought up, and went to the synagogue and spoke
for the first time, to all of the townspeople, he turned to
the book of Isaiah, chapter 61, and preached from that scripture,
Isaiah 61. And then the eunuch, when he
was returning from Jerusalem to his home country of Ethiopia,
and God sent the preacher, Philip, to preach to him, he was reading
Isaiah. And Philip began at that same
scripture and preached unto him the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone
called the book of Isaiah the gospel according to Isaiah. And it is a clear declaration
and presentation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and
his substitutionary work. But you know there's a verse
of Scripture in John that sums up the writings of Isaiah. Let's turn to that just a moment.
John chapter 12. This verse, this one verse, which
John writes about Isaiah in John 12, verse 41, I think sums up
the book of Isaiah better than any other single statement. John said in John 12, 41, these
things said Isaiah, Isaias is Isaiah, when he saw his glory
and spake of him. When Isaiah saw his glory, whose
glory? The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What was his message? It was Christ. And when any man
sees Christ and the glory of Christ, that'll be, Christ will
be his message. No question about it. We talk
about what is most glorious and most wonderful to us, or most
beautiful. That which is most impressive,
we talk the most about. And when Isaiah saw his glory,
when he saw his glory, Christ became the theme of his ministry.
theme of his writings. Well, when was it that he saw
his glory? Well, here it is in Isaiah chapter
6. He saw his glory. Now, I don't have any confidence
in dreams and visions in this day, because the Word of God
is complete. But back here in the Old Testament,
God spoke to his prophets. He said, In different ways and
different times, God spake to our fathers by the prophets.
Well, how did he speak to the prophets? The prophets wrote
the scripture. How did he speak to them? He
spoke to them by dreams and visions. God literally spoke to them,
taught these prophets, and they taught the people. And here he
showed Isaiah his glory. Isaiah saw his glory. God spake to the prophets in
this manner. He doesn't need to speak to us
this way. In dreams and visions, we have
the Word, we have the Scriptures, the completed Scriptures, all
that we need to know about God, about salvation, about life,
about Himself, about ourselves, about redemption right here in
the Word. Isaiah said this himself. If
any man speaks not according to the law and the prophet, according
to the word of God, it's because there's no truth in him. So if
I come to you with a dream, Isaiah can come to us with a dream and
a vision and a direct revelation from God. But don't trust any
man today who comes to you with anything apart from the word
or in addition to the word. In fact, when John closed the
book of Revelation, he said if anybody adds to the words of
this book, God will add to him the plagues of this book. If
any man takes away from the words of this book, God will take away
from him his name from the book of life. So the word is complete,
the canon of Scripture. But Isaiah saw the Lord. Now
let's see in chapter 6. When did he see the Lord? When
did he see his glory? It says, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne. Who
was King Uzziah? King Uzziah was the tenth king
after David. And young people listen carefully
to what I'm saying here. Uzziah was the tenth king after
David. He began to reign over Israel
when he was just 16 years old. And he reigned 52 years. What
kind of king was he? Good king. A good king, a benevolent
king. Very impressive. A great king, one who loved the
people and one who loved God. I believe we'll see a Zion glory. Turn, if you will, for just a
moment to 2 Chronicles, chapter 26. And you can read all of this
later, but this chapter tells us a great deal about Uzziah
and the things he did for the people. He had an army of 375,000
men who defended the nation. He built things for the people.
It says here in verse 15, and he made in Jerusalem engines
invented by cunning men to be on the towers upon the bulwarks
to shoot arrows and great stones withal. His name spread far abroad. He was marvelously helpful. He
was strong. He was a great king, a benevolent
king, a good king, a beloved king, a powerful king, a strong
man. Verse 16, when he was strong,
his heart was lifted up to his destruction. Fine. For he transgressed
against the Lord his God, and he went into the temple of the
Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Now, look right
here just a moment. In the Old Testament, God gave
to Israel the temple and the priesthood, the tabernacle and
the priesthood, and the incense, which is a type of Christ's sacrifice
and prayers and the sacrifices, the atonement, the mercy seat.
And God ordained priests, a high priest and other priests, to
come before him for the people, to represent the people in things
pertaining to God. And these priests were pictures
of Christ. Christ is our high priest. I
read that for you a moment ago. Christ is our atonement. Christ
is our intercessor and our mediator. But until Christ came, these
priests stood as the representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, as
types of Christ. But here, Isaiah the king is
a proud man, and he's going to go around that priest. He's just
going to do away with the priest. He's going to bring a sacrifice
to God himself. He's going to burn insects. Saul
did the same thing. King Saul offered a sacrifice.
Don't you remember? And Samuel said to him, why'd
you do this? He said, well, you weren't here.
The ordained priest and prophet wasn't here, and we were going
into battle, so I offered a sacrifice. And Samuel said to obey is better
than sacrifice. And God destroyed Saul for that.
And I'll show you some more illustrations, but let's read on here a minute.
Verse 17, And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him
fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valued men. And they
withstood Uzziah the king. They said, It appertaineth not
unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but to the priest. the sons of Aaron. It appertained
not to me to offer a sacrifice. Christ did that. The cane came without the blood,
and God destroyed him, rejected him. And this is what they're
saying to the king. The priests, the sons of Aaron
that are consecrated to burning Go out of the sanctuary, you
trespass, neither shall it be for your honor from the Lord."
This is not something God will honor you for, for which God
will honor you. This is not something that will
be pleasing to God, for you to go ahead of the priest. And Isaiah
was angry, and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense,
and while he was angry with the priest, Leprosy even rose up
in his forehead before the priest in the house of God from beside
the incense altar. And as arrived the chief priest
and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous
in his forehead. And they thrust him out from
thence. Leprosy was the judgment of God. And they threw him out. Yea, himself hasted also to go
out. because the Lord had smitten
him. And Isaiah the king was a leper until the day of his death." Isaiah said, when
he died, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. Let's read on
here in chapter 6 now. I saw the Lord. I saw the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God. I saw the Lord. Now, who is this
he's talking about? It's not God. He didn't see the
Father. Not God. God is spirit. Not God,
who is absolute. No man has seen God, the Father. God said that to Moses. Moses,
you can't look upon me and live. No man can see me and live. God
dwells in a light to which no man can approach. He saw the
Lord Jesus. That's what he saw. He saw the
Lord Jehovah. And I saw him, listen, I saw
him sitting on a throne. Saw him sitting on a throne,
having finished his work, sat down. The Lord said to my Lord,
sit thou at my right hand. David wrote that in Psalm 110.
I saw the Lord Jesus, having finished his sacrifice, finished
his righteousness, finished his redemptive work, sat down. upon
the throne. What is His glory? I know that. But it's His priestly garments.
It fills the temple. What's the temple? His temple.
Universe. It fills the universe. His priestly
garments, His kingly garments, His glory fills the universe. Look at Psalm 19 a moment. Psalm 19. I think this refers
to to this scripture, Psalm 19. Listen to this, Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. No, not a place
in this universe where God's voice is not heard. where God's
glory is not seen. Whither shall I go from thy presence?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in
the deepest part of the earth, thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the othermost parts of the
sea, there your hand guides me. No speech, no language, no tribe
where the voice of God's creation is not seen, His glory. Verse
9, their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words
to the end of the world." Now watch, "...in them hath he set
a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out
of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run the race.
His goings forth is from the end of heaven, his circus to
the end of it, and nothing hid from the heat thereof." The whole universe is a tabernacle,
a temple for the sun. And there's no spot anywhere
in the universe where the sun's rays and heat is not felt and
seen. The sun is the center of the
universe. And the whole universe, he has
made a tabernacle for the sun. Even though a little leaf cast
a shade, the sun and rays are still there. Not a spot. And
that's what Isaiah saw here, the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw
the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his glory,
his presence, his train filled the universe. Now a place where
Christ is not preeminent. God has given him a name above
every name. He's given him all preeminence.
Christ. Christ Jesus the Lord. That's
who I saw. All right. Let's read the next
verse. And above it, above that throne,
stood the seraphim. What are seraphim? Well, these
are angels of fire, burning fire, heavenly creatures, heavenly
messengers. I do not know. But the heavenly
creatures, Isaiah saw these creatures above the throne, two of them
evidently. Because it says each one, and maybe there were more,
but each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face.
With two, he covered his feet. With two, he didn't fly. Why
did these heavenly creatures cover their faces? They covered
their faces before His glory. Indescribable, unspeakable glory. And even the heavenly creatures,
the glory, holiness of God, of Christ, covered their faces in
humility before His presence. And they covered their feet,
conscious of the imperfection of their walk. Covered their
faces, covered their feet, And with two wings they did fly rapidly
to declare his glory and his holiness everywhere. Whom do these seraphims represent? They represent his messenger,
all of his messengers, all of his ambassadors, all of his preachers,
all of those who minister his word. who also in his presence
cover their faces. They said to John, well, who
are you? Are you the Christ? Oh no. Are you that prophet? Oh no. Well, who are you? It's
the boys. Nobody. Paul says, who is Cephas? Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Nothing, just messengers by whom
you heard the gospel. We're nothing. They cover their
faces because they know themselves to be nobody, nothing. Doris was working a crossword
puzzle last night. She came up on a six-letter word. She had four
of them, P-H-E-R. She said, what is a non-entity? I said, how many letters? Got
any of them? P-H-E-R. I said, I think one
time I read a cipher. C-I-P-H-E-R is nothing. A non-entity. Entity. She said,
I haven't heard that word. I said, well, look it up in the
dictionary. There it is. Cipher. Zero. Non-entity. Nobody. That's us. Mr. Cipher, how do you do? cover your face. And listen,
they covered their feet. They don't leave any footprints
for anybody to follow. This bothers me a great deal
about all these biographies and autobiographies and diaries and
journals that preachers have kept, even recorded their prayers. I don't understand. These seraphims covered their
faces in his presence. and covered their feet. They
leave no footprint. We don't follow one another,
we follow Him. Don't leave any footprint. David
ministered to his generation, you minister to yours, and when
you're through, move on. God will raise up his picture.
And with two, they did make haste to proclaim the message. What
was the message? Listen. And they cried, verse
3, one to another. Whether anybody else believed
them or not, they told one another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. You know, this vision started
with the death of a king. God's going to show Isaiah his
holiness, his righteousness. This king, actually it says Isaiah
wrote everything that Isaiah did. He admired this man. And
it started off with the death of this king. And God killed
him when he was violating the person work of Christ. He didn't spare him. He didn't
spare the sons of Abram who brought strange fire. He didn't spare
Moses who smote the rock. Did you know that? Moses smote
the rock and God killed him for smiting the rock. He violated
the gospel, compromised the work of Christ. Uzzah, you remember
Uzzah who reached back and touched the ark? God killed him. And he spared not his own son
when sin was found upon him. Christ died because he bore sin. That's why he died. He died not
for his sin. He was wounded for sin. Our transgression,
our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. God spared not his own son when
sin was found on him. And here, God's declared that
message on earth. It's so hard for men to hear.
But the gospel will not be compromised. It won't work. Even the choice
men, Uzziah, Uzzah, Moses, even his son, will not be spared where
sin is. Sin must be dealt with and God's
holiness must be satisfied. Now here in heaven, that holiness
is declared. And here is a sinful man viewing
the Lord on his throne. Here's Isaiah. Here's the heavenly
creatures about the throne. Here the whole universe is filled
with his glory. And these creatures are crying,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of his glory. Now watch this. And the post
of the door. Matthew Poole says, the foundations
of the thresholds moved at the voice of him that
cried. The house was filled with smoke. Think of how awesome this vision,
this sighting is. The thresholds, the posts, the
foundations seemed to quiver, and the whole place was filled
with smoke. What does the smoke mean? Well,
you know, smoke as incense represents the mediation of Christ. When
the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, and offered the
atonement, he carried the censer, and the smoke filled the place.
But that's a pleasant smoke. That's mediation, intercession
of Christ. But over in Exodus 19, turn over
there just a moment. Exodus chapter 19. And it's a
different kind of smoke. Exodus 19, verse 17. And here they are standing before Sinai. Let's look at verse 16
of Exodus 19. It came to pass on the third
day in the morning there was thunders and lightnings and a
thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding
loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people
out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the nether
part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether
on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And
the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace. And the
whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet
sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and
God answered him by a voice." This is the smoke of wrath, judgment,
against these people, Israel. And I believe that's what Isaiah
is seeing here. I saw the Lord high and lifted
up, His train filled the temple, His glory, and the heavenly creatures
cried, Holy, Holy, Holy. and the whole earth was full
of his glory, and the foundation shook when he spoke, and the
whole place was full of smoke." Verse 5, and I cried. I fell back and I cried. Woe
is me. I'm undone. I preached on this
down in Mexico. Walter was translating. And I
came to verse 5. Isaiah saw the Lord, then he
saw himself and he cried, I'm undone. And Walter said in Spanish, in
our Bible, Spanish Bible, it says I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm a dead man. I'm a dead man. I'm reduced to silence. I'm cut
off. I'm ruined. I'm a dead man. He
saw the Lord. And he said here, because, I'll
tell you why I'm a dead man. Because I'm not holy. Because
I'm a man of unclean lips. Why do you say lips? That's not
our problem. No, our problem is the heart.
But out of the heart, the lips speak. Out of the heart, the lips speak.
The lips are the outlet of the heart. Out of the heart, the
mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so does he speak. The fountain
has a faucet, but it's not the faucet that's poisonous, it's
the water that comes out of it. That's what he's saying there.
He's saying, I'm a man with a wicked heart. I'm dead. I'm cut off. Everything that
comes out of my fountain is polluted and corrupted. You know, a fellow
can, we can look at other people like the Pharisee, we can pick
out some that are worse than we are. Pharisee looked at the public
and said, Lord, I thank you, I'm not like him. We may look at others and say,
I'm not like other men. The rules and regulations of
religion, like Saul of Tarsus didn't say, I'm blameless. But
I tell you, when an individual ever sees the Lord, when we see him in his glory,
in his holiness, in his righteousness, in his character, we'll say with
Isaiah, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm undone. I'm cut
off. That's the response from anyone
who has seen the Lord. It doesn't matter who it is. He said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. And not only that, he saw everybody
else in the same condition. He said, I dwell in the midst
of a people with wicked hearts and unclean lips. And I'll tell
you why I've come to this conclusion, for mine eyes have seen the King.
I've seen the Lord of hosts. I've seen the King. And when
he saw him, he spake of his glory. All right, let's look at verse
6. Then, now, then, I stopped right there, then, then. When he saw the Lord, and then he saw himself, and
he just cried, I'm dead, I'm undone, I'm and then. God's holiness is seen before
God's mercy is revealed. Guilt always precedes grace. Misery will always precede mercy. The disease will be revealed
before the remedy. The curse is experienced before
the cross. Our helplessness and hopelessness
will be revealed to us before his power and strength and grace
is revealed. Ben, now watch this, Ben flew
one of those 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, that live burning coal, on my mouth, and said, Lo, this
hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy
sin purged." Now, that may be difficult for us to interpret. And I looked at it and have looked
at it many, many times. But what is said in verse 7,
the last line of verse 7, clearly shows us what this is all about. It says your iniquity is taken
away and your sins are purged. There's not but one person who
can take iniquity away. That's Christ. This has got to
be talking about the gospel. There's not but one person who
can purge sin. It says he put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And it says in Hebrews 1 verse
3, by himself he purged our sins. So I know what verse 6 and 7
mean because it tells me that as a result of what happened
here, this man's sins were taken away and his iniquity was purged. So this has to be, has to be,
listen, the seraphim is God's preacher. He came from the throne,
he came from God. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. God sent this seraphim. The burning
live coal was taken off the altar. The altar is the cross, the sacrifice. The altar is where the lamb was
slain and his body burned, wasn't it? And that's what the cross
is. That's where Christ was slain.
That's where his body and his soul was made an offering for
sin. And this seraphim, he got his
gospel from the cross. But he didn't touch it. He used
tongs. Human hands can't handle the
gospel. Human hands can't touch it. We
make no contribution to it. We're not any part of it. It's
separate and apart. Honestly, a lost man could stand
up here and proclaim the death of Christ. That's right. Preachers all over the world,
some of them do not know Christ, but they stand up and they read
this, they read the Bible. They don't take away from the
glory of the gospel, and I don't add to it. You understand what
I'm saying? They don't take away. The gospel
is glorious. It's true. It's saving. It's
powerful. And he took it with tongs. He
didn't touch it. He didn't want to part it. He
didn't make it effectual. He couldn't touch it. But with
tongs, he took it off the altar. And that gospel, that burning
fire, that blood of Christ, that righteousness of Christ itself
touched Isaiah's lips. It came where the problem was.
It came where the guilt was, where the sin was. Touched that
place and sanctified it and purified it. And he said, your sins are
taken away. Your sins are purged. You're
clean. You're clean. That gospel, it's
the blood of Christ that cleanseth us from all sin. It's the blood
of Christ that makes us holy. Now he's dead no more. Now he's
cut off no more. Now he's brought, now he's clean
by the gospel. Your sins are purged and put
away. You see that? That's the gospel. The seraphim is the messenger,
the minister of the gospel. The live coal is the blood of
Christ our Lord, the righteousness of Christ our Lord, the saving
power of Christ, the gospel. And it's not touched. We don't
add to it, we don't take away from it. Demas may depart, but
the gospel goes on. Paul may preach, God use him,
but He doesn't make it effectual. It's the gospel. It's the power
of God Himself. And your sins are put away. Then,
watch this and I'll close. And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? We've
got a message to preach. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? How are they going to hear without
preaching? How shall they preach except they be sent? And who's
going to be sent? He said, Whom shall I send? Over
in Matthew 9 it says, Lift up your eyes and look upon the fields,
they are white already to harvest. Pray ye that the Lord of the
harvest, that He'll send forth laborers, Lord, send us a preacher. Well, whom shall I send?" Isaiah
said, Here am I. You can send me. What makes you
think you, what makes you think you're equipped
to go? Well, number one, I've seen the
Lord. I've seen the Lord, the true
living God. I've seen his holiness. I've
seen him, his preeminence. I've seen him high and lifted
up. I've seen him seated on the throne. I've seen his glory that
fills the temple. I've seen myself, what I am and
who I am. And I've seen the people and
what they are and who they are and their needs. And I've experienced
the gospel. I've experienced the live, living,
burning power of the gospel. It's changed my life and my heart
and my language. It's changed me. I'll go. I'll tell them. I'll tell them,
he said. And then God said in verse 9,
here's the sad thing. You go and you tell them. Hear ye indeed, but they won't
understand. See ye indeed, but they won't
perceive. They'll hear you. You'll go. By nature, they won't hear and
they won't believe. You can't convince him. You don't
have that kind of power. But he can. Who hath believed
thy report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? That's where we're shut up, just
like Isaiah was. He didn't know anything till
God showed it to him. He didn't know anything till
God taught him. He didn't see anything till God showed him. He didn't know anything about
himself till God revealed it to him. So we go and we preach
and we pray that he might make it effectual. This is the glory of God. When he saw
his glory, he spake of him. All right, might come later in
a closing hymn, if you will.