I hope this message this morning
is instructive. I do know that it will be interesting. I'd like for you to open your
Bibles with me to the book of Isaiah, chapter 6. And I'm going
to be speaking to you on the subject, What Isaiah Saw. And incidentally, it's what I
need to see, what you need to see, some things that God revealed
to the prophet Isaiah. Now, reading verse 1 of Isaiah
6, let's just take this for a text. He said, In the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne
high and lifted up, and his train, his glory, filled the temple. Now, I don't know a great deal
about this man Isaiah. There are a few things I know
about him. And I'll pass them along to you. First of all, he
was a prophet. He was a prophet of God. He was
a prophet of God who prophesied in the days of Uzziah and Jotham
and Ahaz and Hezekiah, and most of those names I'm sure mean
nothing to you, but they were kings of Judah. And he prophesied,
he spoke for the Lord in the days of the reign of those gentlemen
And then secondly, he lived about 120 years. And he prophesied
or preached the word of God for 85 years. And another thing that's
interesting, this man Isaiah lived about 700 years before
Christ. And someone has pointed out that
his writings, the book of Isaiah, is quoted more. This is interesting. His writings are quoted more
in the New Testament than any other book except the book of
Psalms. John the Baptist, the forerunner
of Christ, when he began to preach, he selected a passage of scripture
from the book of Isaiah to begin his ministry. When our Lord Jesus
Christ went down to Nazareth, where he was brought up, and
as his custom was, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath
day, And he stood up to read the scriptures. What scripture
did he read that morning when he was going to reveal his mercy,
his sovereign mercy, to that crowd of people at Nazareth?
He chose Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He said,
this day, this scripture is fulfilled. This day, this scripture written
700 years ago by Isaiah, this day, this scripture, this is
the first time it's been fulfilled. for the purpose for which it
was written. It was written about Christ. I talked about that last
week, remember, how the Old Testament is Christ in promise and picture
and prophecy and type. And the New Testament is the
Old Testament revealing. It's revealing what Christ fulfilled.
And then when Philip was led out into the wilderness to preach
to the Ethiopian unit, what scripture was that man reading? When he
was riding along in the chariot, he was reading Isaiah. Isaiah
53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.
I think Isaiah is fitly called by one of the old-timers, the
gospel of the Old Testament. Well, that's Isaiah. That's the
man. Now, what did Isaiah see? Well, the Lord God revealed himself
to this man Isaiah. God revealed himself to Isaiah.
Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. Now, God reveals
himself to every person whom he saves. Men aren't born knowing
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
the religious people in his day, ye neither know me nor my Father. He said eternal life is to know
God. He said no man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. So men
do not know God. But every man whom God is pleased
to save, he's pleased to reveal himself to that person. See,
salvation is not only regeneration, but salvation is revelation. Let me show you that in the scriptures.
One day our Lord was talking to his disciples, and he said,
whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, well,
some say you're John the Baptist, and some say you're Elijah, and
some say you're one of the prophets. And he said, but whom do you
say that I am? Peter immediately replied we
know who you are You are the Christ the Son of the Living
God. You are the Christ the Messiah and I Lord said Peter blessed
art thou Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my father
which is in heaven You see that a man can receive nothing except
it was given him from above And then the Apostle Paul said, God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, was pleased to reveal his
Son in me. And one day our Lord lifted his
eyes to heaven, and he said, Father, I thank you, Lord of
heaven and earth, because you've hid these things from the wise
and the prudent, and you've revealed them unto babe, because, Father,
it seemed good in your sight. And then in 1 Corinthians 2,
verse 8 and 9 and 10, it says, As it is written, eye hath not
seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath the inner of the heart of
man the things God prepared for them that love him, but he hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God." So God reveals himself
to sinners. God revealed himself to Isaiah. And I want us to find out what
Isaiah saw. And my friend, it's what I need
to see. And you need to see. He that
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life.
And we need to see some things. Well, the first thing Isaiah
saw, he said, when King Uzziah died in that same year, I saw
the Lord. I saw the Lord. Now, the old-timers
used to say this. They used to say Isaiah did not
see God essentially considered, for God is a spirit. whose essence
is not to be seen. And we have that verified throughout
the Word. No man has seen God at any time. No man has seen the Father. No
man can see me, God said, and live. Well, who did Isaiah see? Isaiah said, I saw the Lord.
He saw Christ. He saw the Lord. He didn't see
the Lord. He saw the Lord, Jesus Christ. He had a pre-incarnation
glimpse of Jesus Christ. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he saw. Well, how
did he see him? Now this ought to be interesting. Isaiah saw
the Lord. 700 years before the Lord Jesus
came to the earth. 700 years before Peter, James,
and John saw him. 730 years before Paul saw him
on the road to Damascus. 700 and some odd years before
John saw him on the Isle of Patmos. Isaiah saw the Lord. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, I'll tell you how he saw
him. He saw him like you're gonna have to see him and I'm gonna
have to see if we're saved if we come to appreciate his glory
Like Isaiah did he said I saw him on a throne. I Saw him on
a throne Our Lord is in throne The scripture says that having
finished the work that he came to do having offered a perfect
sacrifice and redeemed his people He ascended back to the father
where he seated on the right hand of God seated the right
hand of the majesty on high. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's King
of kings and Lord of lords. He's Lord by the Father's decree. Him hath God exalted to be both
Lord and Christ. He's Lord by purchase. He died
and rose again that he might be Lord of the dead and of the
living. Isaiah saw him high and lifted
up on a throne. High and lifted up on a My friend
Isaiah didn't see his throne high, he saw him high. The power
and glory is not the throne, it's the person on the throne.
I wish we could see that. He said, I saw Christ high and
lifted up. Well, we go back to Calvary,
the Son of Man must be lifted up to save his people. The Son
of Man is lifted up to reign and to give to his people eternal
life. And the Son of God doth reign
in his church. He's the head of the church.
And his glory fills the church. And when he saw Christ, he said,
I saw the Lord on a throne, high and lifted up. And he said he
saw the holiness and righteousness of Christ. He said above the
throne were the seraphim. And they had six wings. And he
said with two they covered their faces. Ashamed to look upon his
glory and his holiness. And with two, they covered their
feet, ashamed of their walk and their conduct and conversation.
And with two, they did fly forth to preach his gospel, to carry
out his ministry. Nearly all of the old writers
agree that these seraphims are pictures of the prophets, the
ministers of the gospel. As they stand before the awesome,
holy presence of the Lord of Glory, they cover their faces
because they're not worthy to look upon his glory. They cover
their feet because they're ashamed of their walk and conduct and
conversation. But with two wings, they fly
forth in haste to carry out his will and to preach his glorious
gospel. But the thing he's talking about
here is those seraphims cry, holy, holy, holy, Lord God of
hosts. Our Christ is holy. He has a
perfect holiness and a perfect righteousness which he gives
to us, which he imputes unto us who believe on his name. And
then in the fourth place, he saw the Lord on a throne, high
and lifted up. His glory filled the temple,
filled the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw his holiness
and righteousness, and he saw the earth full of his glory.
He saw the Lord. Now my friend, the heavens declare
the glory of God. And every believer in his heart
knows something of the glory of God. And the church is filled
with the glory of God. But our Lord said to the people
of his day, you haven't seen anything yet. Wait till you see
the Son of Man ascend up where he was before. Wait till you
see the new heaven and the new earth. Wait till you see his
righteousness. Covering the land as the water
covers the sea. Oh Wait till you see the glory
of the Lord. We're gonna see it someday one
of these days. We're going to see his eternal
infinite everlasting unchangeable glory the glory of the Lord Jesus
his Glory fill the temple his glory fill the heavens and my
friend one of these days his glory will fill the earth when
the last enemy death shall be ultimately put under his feet
and destroyed forever. I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. All right, notice the second
thing. Isaiah said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord. And then what'd he say? He saw
himself. And he cried, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. My friend, look at other men.
may lead us to say, I thank you God, I'm not like other men.
If you are restricted to comparing yourself with other people, you
may come up looking pretty good. You may be like the old Pharisee
in the temple who looked at the publican down there praying,
you know, and he said, God, I sure am thankful I'm not like that
fellow. And he was telling the truth. He was glad he wasn't
like that fellow. And if we compare ourselves with
others, we get a look at other people's sins and their words
and their deeds, and we say, well, we're glad we're not like
them. And we go off in our self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude and
spirit. And a look at the law may lead
us to say, like Saul of Tarsus, I'm blameless. I never killed
anybody. I never killed anybody. I never
stole anything. I never have taken God's name or anything.
And a look at the Ten Commandments may lead us to say, like the
rich young ruler, I've kept these from my youth up. What do I lack
yet? But I'm telling you, Isaiah,
on this eventful day, he didn't see some other fellow and start
talking about how good he was. He didn't see the law, the rules,
the ceremonies, and the statutes and standards of the churches.
He saw the Lord. And he cried, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. When
a man gets a glimpse of the holiness of God, I'll tell you what it
does. It reveals his corruption and his vileness and his sins. Oh, his love reveals our hate,
doesn't it? His submission to God reveals
our disobedience. And his holiness and righteousness
reveals our sin and depravity. And his truth reveals our lies. When I saw the Lord, he said,
I cried, oh, woe is me. Listen to what these words mean.
I am undone. I am undone. The Amplified Version
says, I'm ruined. I'm ruined. He saw the Lord,
the holiness of Christ. He saw the triumphant majesty
of Christ. He saw the glory of Christ and
the righteousness of Christ. He said, I'm ruined. And then
another translation says, I've sinned. And another one says,
I'm reduced to silence. My mouth is soft. That's what
Paul said in Romans 3. Let every mouth be soft and all
the world become guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty before
God. He says I'm forced to be silent
because of my bowels, my corruption, my sin. I cannot even speak the
name of God. I'm a man of unclean lips. You
know, Isaiah didn't say anything up here about his heart. He's
talking about his lips. I'm a man of unclean lips. But
you know, his lips are the outlet of his heart. Out of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So he just
said, I'm a man of unclean lips. I speak what's in my heart. And
it's unclean. And he said, I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. Our whole race, he said, is a
fallen race. All its tendons come short of
God's glory. All we like sheep have gone astray.
Turned everyone to his own ways. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. All of this, I, woe is me, I'm
undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm
put to silence because of my vileness and my corruption and
my sin. This, this is one of the most
righteous men of his day. This wasn't a town drunk talking.
This was a town prophet. I'm undone. And all of this as
a consequence of seeing the Lord. He says, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm
ruined. For mine eyes have seen the Lord
of Hosts. Now you want to convict me of
sin? Quit talking about the products of sin and the results of sin
and all that and start talking about the Lord of Globes. And
let men, let your congregation get a glimpse of the glory of
Christ. And they'll see their sins. It'll
shut their mouths. It'll whittle them down. It'll
knock their foundations of flesh out from under them. It'll strip
their self-righteous rags off of them. It'll throw them down
in the depths of the deepest pit of repentance, crying, God
help me. I'm ruined. I'm ruined. Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord. And when I saw the Lord, I saw
myself. I saw myself. We're too busy
following preachers. We're too busy following church
leaders. We're too busy upholding the
church's standards. We're too busy doing all that
and claiming how good we are and how holy we are and how righteous
we are and how worthy of heaven we are. And we've never seen
the Lord. It may be he'll pass this generation by. I don't know.
But it may be he may be pleased to Let us see what Isaiah saw. Isaiah was in religion a long
time before he saw the Lord. But when he saw the Lord, he
saw himself. But here's good news. He saw
something else. He saw pardon and mercy. Read
verse 6 and 7. He said, then flew one of the
seraphim. And remember, we made that the prophets of God, the
preachers of the gospel. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand. which he had taken
from the altar, and he laid it on my mouth, and he said, Lo,
this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away,
and your sins purged. Now here Isaiah said, I saw the
Lord. I saw him in his holiness and
majesty and awesome righteousness. And when I saw the Lord of hosts,
I saw myself in my corruption and depravity and flesh. But
good news, one of the seraphims came from God, from the throne
of God. And he came to me, and he had
in his hand a live coal that he'd taken from the altar, and
he laid it on my mouth. And he said, your iniquity, your
iniquity is taken away, and your sins are purged. Now I said a
while ago, the seraphims may be a picture of a prophet of
God, a minister of the gospel. What does he bring? He brings
a live coal. That's the gospel of Christ.
That's the living truth. That's the living word of God.
He brings a live coal. That's the gospel of Christ,
the gospel, the good news of how Christ died for sinners.
And he brings that live coal from the altar itself, from the
cross of Calvary. That's where it comes from. That's
where the good news comes from, from Calvary. Good news doesn't
come from Sinai. The good news doesn't come from
Sinai. It comes from Calvary. The good news doesn't come from
the temple in Jerusalem. It comes from Calvary. The good
news that there is a Redeemer, that God will show mercy, that
God will put away our sins. And the prophet of God brings
the living message. It's not a dead orthodoxy or
a dry, dead letter. It's living proof. Right from
the cross of Calvary itself and he touches our mouths. That's
the sins we confess He said if we confess our sin, he's faithful
and just to forgive us and when he touches our lips, you know
Paul said in Romans 10 The gospel is not do this and live the gospel
the word of faith is in your mouth. I It's in your mouth. Christ died for our sins. If
you'll confess Jesus Christ to be Lord and believe in your heart
God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. That message
is right there in your mouth. And God's prophet put it that
way, right from the cross. If you'll confess Christ. That's
good news. And then he saw something else. And this is one of the
most interesting things in the world. Isaiah said, when King
Uzziah died. Now, I don't know the significance
of that. I could put some significance
on it. I don't want to stretch the point, but but there's some
folks that are not going to see the Lord till their azaz dies.
The people they're putting before the Lord, the jobs they're putting
before the Lord, their ambitions they're putting before the Lord,
their their blueprints for life they're putting before the Lord,
all their fame and fortune and honor and materialism, those
things die. Then you see the Lord. Those
things move out of the way that have been your Lord and your
God. And when King Uzziah died, I don't know what Isaiah was
to Isaiah. I just know when he died, Isaiah
was able to see the Lord. Maybe God will have to kill you
before you'll see him. Maybe he'll have to kill some
precious something that's too dear to you before you'll see
the Lord. But King Uzziah died and Isaiah saw the Lord. He saw
him in his true reigning lordship and character. He didn't see
him as an infant in Bethlehem's manger. He didn't see him as
a pitiful carpenter in Nazareth. He didn't see him as a healer
on the Judean hillside. He didn't see him as a frustrated
reformer by the Sea of Galilee. He didn't see him hanging on
a crucifix. He saw him on a throne. That's
where he saw the Lord. And when he did, he saw himself
vile and sinful and corrupt. And he cried for mercy. And that's
when the Lord sent the good news right from the cross. And said,
this is the way sin is purged. Sin is not purged by your going
to a place called purgatory and spending a few years. Sin is
purged with Calvary. There's no such thing in the
Bible as purgatory. That was invented as a money-making
scheme, you know. My son fell a long time ago,
so the church kind of got in trouble back then, you know.
And they had to get some funds to build a new educational building,
so somebody invented purgatory. And they've been selling that
idea ever since to people. But our sins are purged at the
cross. They're purged. The iniquity's
taken away. And he saw, what's the fourth
thing? He saw human nature as he'd never
seen it. The Lord said to him, in verse
9 and 10, he said, now you go tell these people what you've
seen and what you've heard. You go as my preacher, Isaiah.
He said, whom shall I send and who will go for me? He said,
him, I'll send me. And the Lord said, all right,
I'll send you. But I got something to tell you before you go. They
got eyes, but they're not going to see. They got ears, but they're
not going to hear. And they got hearts, but they're
not going to understand. And you know, Isaiah found that
out. Our Lord Jesus said, let a man come in his own name, and
him you will receive. I come in my Father's name, and
you receive me not. You can just about tell this
world anything you want to, religious, and they'll believe it, and they'll
receive it, and they'll support it, except the truth. You tell
them the truth, the truth about God, the truth about themselves,
the truth about Christ, the truth about salvation, and they grow
angry with you. But he said, Isaiah, look at
verse 9 and 10. He said, I'm going to sing to
you these people, but these people have ears and they won't hear
you. And they won't see what you're saying. They won't perceive
at all. They won't understand. And Isaiah wrote a little later
in Isaiah 53. He said, who have to leave my
report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Not many. Not many. But what
did Isaiah do? Let me tell you something. He
saw the glory of the Lord. And he went forth to speak of
him. Turn to John chapter 12. Here's a scripture that I have
underlined in my Bible several times. I think it's one of the
most beautiful scriptures in all the Bible in reference to
this man Isaiah. In John 12, 41, it says this. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory, he spake of him. My friend, you can't tell
what you don't know. Anymore you can come back where
you haven't been and Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord And after
he saw the glory of the Lord, you know, what was his message
the glory of the Lord? He'd never seen anything like
it God revealed to Isaiah his gospel and it was so magnificent
and so wonderful It met his need that that's all he wanted to
talk about He preached the gospel of Christ. He went forth to sing
the praises of the Lord. When he saw the glory of the
Lord, he spake of him. You know why so many preachers
are talking about themselves? Well, they've never seen the
glory of Christ. If they ever saw his glory, they'd never talk
about themselves again. Except to say, woe is me. I'm
undone. I'm ruined. I'm sinning. You
know the reason so many preachers talk about their denomination?
That's all they've ever seen, the glory of their denomination.
If they ever see the glory of Christ, they'll speak of Him.
You know the reason a lot of preachers speak of the glory
of the American government and all these different things, you
know, and they declare war on this, that, and the other, because
they've never seen Christ's glory. When Isaiah saw the Lord, He
spake of him. You couldn't show him anything
else more wonderful. You couldn't give him a message
more wonderful. You couldn't give him a message
more personally consuming. It consumed his Lord very deep.
He was eaten up with the glory of the Lord. That's all he wanted
to talk about. He talked about it in the daytime and dreamed
about it at night. The glory of the Lord. Listen
to what he wrote in Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me and be you saved. All the ends of the earth. I'm
God. There's none else Just God and a savior and my friend. That's
God's order of grace. That's God's method of grace
first death and then life First judgment and then grace first
stricken and then closing and that's what he did Isaiah He
brought him down. He saw the glory of the Lord
and he's ready to preach He went out to tell others about the
glory of his Lord. He's sake of him