Let's look again at Isaiah 6. While I was reading the Scripture
a moment ago, a phrase caught my attention that I had not considered earlier. I looked at some of the rest
of this chapter, but while reading the Word a moment ago, I saw
this phrase in verse 8, Isaiah 6. Also, I heard the voice of
the Lord." Brother Barnard said when he was a young preacher, there was a statement which he
read by another minister that changed his entire ministry. And he carried that statement
around in his Bible. It went something like this.
If my voice is the only voice you hear, there will nothing of any eternal
value be accomplished in your heart or in your life. You must
hear another voice other than mine. You must hear Him speak,
who speaks from heaven through His word. Isaiah said, I heard
the voice of the Lord. The biggest mistake that a man
can make in regard to his soul, the biggest mistake that a man
can make in regard to his soul is to listen to the wrong voice.
And there are a lot of voices to be heard out there. There
are a lot of voices claiming to speak for God. There's so
many of them, it's confusing, but there's only one voice that
can do the sinner any good. There's only one voice that can
help man out of the mess he's in, and that's the voice of the
Lord. I've got to hear Him speak, who
speaks from heaven. He said in Hebrews 1, verse 1
and 2, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake
to our fathers by the prophets, He hath in these last days spoken
to us. God has spoken to us. You say,
I'd like to hear the voice of God. You can. If you're ever
saved, you will. If you're a child of God, you
will. He hath spoken to us. How does God speak to us? By
His Son. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation which was spoken to us by our Lord and
confirmed by them that heard Him. There's a Scripture I want
you to look at yourself. Hebrews, just hold Isaiah 6 and
turn to Hebrews chapter 12. These are powerful, powerful
statements because they come from the Word of God. We need
to dwell upon these a whole lot more than on what I've got to
say. But here in verse 25 of Hebrews 12, see that you refuse
not Him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not they escape, or
we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven."
Now, Eve listened to the voice of the serpent. She listened
to another voice, the wrong voice. She listened to the voice of
the serpent used by Satan, or the subtlety of Satan. the craftiness
of Satan. Paul said, I'm concerned about
that church at Corinth, lest Satan, like he deceived Eve,
lead them away from the simplicity of Christ. But she listened to
the serpent and took the forbidden fruit. And then Adam. Adam listened
to the wrong voice. He listened to the voice of Eve.
He listened to the voice of Eve, his wife, and plunged the race
into darkness. Solomon listened to his wives.
and built, compromised his faith and built
places where idols were worshipped. Abraham listened to the voice
of Sarah and brought trial and confusion upon his home and brought
great agony to his own soul when he had to, by the orders of God,
send away a 14-year-old son to whom he was deeply dedicated.
He listened to Sarah. Aaron listened to the voice of
the Israelites and made a golden calf and brought the wrath of
God upon them. Judas listened to the voice of
greed. It seemed a reasonable thing
to do. It didn't look like this kingdom was going anywhere anyway,
so he made a little profit out of it and he perished by his
own hand. Pilate listened to the voice
of the people and delivered the Lord Jesus Christ be crucified. We'll have ample opportunity
to listen to the wrong voice, but by God's grace, by God's
grace, it may be that the opportunity will come for me and for you
to hear God speak. Wouldn't that be something, to
hear God speak through His Word, to hear God speak to us Himself. God spoke to Isaiah. He said,
I heard the voice of the Lord. I heard the voice of the Lord.
And God dealt with this man in a very special way, in a very
unusual way. God is still dealing with men
today. We were talking in the study a few moments ago about
the experiences of different men and being brought out of
The captivity and bondage of fleshly religion and the knowledge
of the grace of God. God spoke to you. You didn't
figure that out for yourself. We're talking about running some
of these experiences in our paper. Not that we want to major on
experiences or seek someone else's experience, but we just want
to tell how God has dealt with some of us. Deals with us like
He did with these men. We're but men. They're but men.
God is the same. The gospel is the same. The need
is the same. God speaks through His Word.
He still speaks through His Word. God dealt with Isaiah in a very
special way. I don't know a great deal about
Isaiah. I know he was very religious.
I know he was a prophet. I know he prophesied in the days
of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
I know he, at least I think I know, I've been told that he lived
120 years and that he prophesied 85 of those 120 years. I think I
know, I've been told, that he lived 700 years before Christ
came. I do know this, that his writings
were quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament
book, except the Psalms. I know when John the Baptist
began his ministry, he began his ministry by quoting from
Isaiah. Did you know that? Turn to Matthew
chapter 3. In the third chapter of Matthew,
he's a very special man in a way, a very special book. This book,
Isaiah, is quoted more than any other book in the Old Testament,
in the writings of the apostles in the New Testament, with the
exception of Psalm. In Matthew 3, verse 3, here's John the Baptist,
the forerunner of Christ, beginning his ministry, and he begins it
with a statement from the book of Isaiah. He said, verse 3,
This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord, and make his path straight. Our Lord Jesus Christ
went down to Nazareth, to begin his ministry there among his
own people, and he chose a passage from Isaiah, Isaiah 61. The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. It was Isaiah that the Ethiopian
eunuch was reading when Philip was sent down to intercept him
in the wilderness, in the desert, and preach the gospel to him.
Someone called the book of Isaiah the gospel of the Old Testament. The gospel of the Old Testament.
But God revealed Himself to this man. He said, I heard the voice
of the Lord. And God revealed Himself to this
man. Now, I'm interested, as I say,
experiences are not salvation, but salvation is definitely an
experience. And it may be that as God reveals
Himself to Isaiah and speaks to Isaiah, it may be by His grace
that He'll speak to some of us and reveal Himself to us. But
let's see first of all, beginning with verse 1, what did Isaiah
see? Now, I think we're talking more
here of a vision of faith. I think we're talking here more
of a vision of faith than something like Paul had when he was taken
to the third heaven. I don't hear Isaiah saying that
he was taken to the third heaven or anything of that sort, but
he saw some things by faith. God revealed some things to him.
And it says here in verse 1, in the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord. Who did he see? You know, all
my life, and this is the reason we must never stop going to school,
we must never stop studying. I've been preaching for 19, let's see, 48, 31 years. I've been preaching 31 years.
I've preached a whole lot of sermons, I guess 14,000 or 15,000
sermons, counting radio and everything. But you know, I've always just
accepted this as being Isaiah, so God, a revelation of God. But Isaiah didn't see God. essentially considered it all.
Not at all. He said, I saw the Lord. No man
can see God and live. No man can look on God. God's
a spirit. God's a spirit. They that worship
Him, worship Him in spirit and truth. Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's who he saw. You're going
to see that in a minute. As I say, I've been preaching
a long time. I've preached from this passage and I've always
just gone through. Isaiah saw the Lord, you know,
and just went on. The Lord in His glory, in His
power, in His sovereignty, in His majesty. But here he's talking
about Christ. And the reason I know that, one
reason I know that, among many, turn to John 12. Isaiah saw Christ. In John chapter 12, It says here,
and this is the passage that it refers to, John 12, 41. Listen. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory and spake of him. And spake of him. He saw his glory and spake of
him. Now read the preceding verses. Verse 38. That the saying of
the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled when he said, Lord, who hath
believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said
again, he blinded their minds and hardened their hearts, lest
they should see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,
and be converted, and I should heal them. Turn back to Isaiah
6 now, down here in verse 9, and he said, Go and tell the
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, make their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their
hearts, be converted, and be healed." This is the same place
he's talking about. The same place. And he says in
verse 41, "...and these things said Isaiah when he saw his glory,
and spake of him." Who did Isaiah speak of? He spoke of Christ.
He wrote of Christ. Philip sat down with the eunuch
and he began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
Isaiah saw Christ. He got a pre-incarnation view
of Christ, just like Moses did. Moses wrote of me, just like
Abraham did. Abraham saw my day and was glad,
just like David did. David said unto my Lord. You
see, when Christ said, What think ye of Christ? And they said,
Why, he's the son of David. Then he said, Why David call him Lord?
Why David call him Lord? The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand. These men saw Christ. Nobody
ever saw God essentially considered. Nobody ever saw God. No man can
look on God and live. God told Moses to get there in
the cleft of the rock and he'd pass by and he'd see his hand
parts, but he could not look upon Him. But thank God we can
look on Christ. We can look on Christ. He said,
I saw the Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord by the Father's
decree. He's Lord by His purchase. He died that He might be Lord.
And God hath given Him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and confess that He's
Lord. And God hath made this same Jesus
whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Isaiah said, I saw
the Lord. Now look on, read on. Where did
he see the Lord? On a throne. He didn't see Him
in a cradle. He didn't see Him in a stable. He didn't see Him in the Madonna's
arms. He didn't see Him in the Garden
of Gethsemane weeping by a rock. He didn't see Him hanging on
a cross. I saw Him on a throne. That's where I saw the Lord.
I saw him on a throne. Having finished his work as our
great high priest, having purged our sins, having made a suitable,
sufficient, effectual sacrifice, having entered into the holiest
of all and put his blood on the mercy seat of glory, having done
all that, he sat down Exalted at the right hand of the majesty
on high to be king of kings and Lord of lords That's where he
is Turn with me to Hebrews 10. That's where Isaiah saw it Let's
go to Hebrews 10 now in Hebrews the 10th chapter Let's read verse
11 through 14 Now Paul's talking here about the Old Testament
priest And he said every one of them stand daily. Every word
here means something. They stand. Why don't they ever
sit down? Their work's never finished.
No Old Testament priest ever sat down about his work. There were no chairs anywhere
in the tabernacle. There were seven pieces of furniture,
but no chairs. Because no priest ever sat down. Because no earthly priest work
was ever done. It was one sacrifice right after
the other. And every priest, there are many
of them, they succeed one another as they die. You know, there
are many of these earthly priests and they stand and they daily
minister and offer the same sacrifices over and over again. Why? They
can never take away sin. They offer the atonement every
year. They offer the morning sacrifice, and the evening sacrifice,
and the sacrifice of the first fruits, and all of these, all
the time, over and over and over again. But, this man, and he
was a man, the God-man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins, forever, one priest, they many he won. They stand,
he sat, day daily, he once for all. They offered many sacrifices,
he only one. Theirs could never take away
sin. After he had offered one sacrifice forever, sat down on
the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. I was shocked beyond reason when
I, and I absolutely, I mean shocked beyond reason, I thought how
far we have come from the days of our old forefathers when one
of the local churches in our city opened their doors to the
Catholic Church to have their services in when their church
burned down. Well, you say I thought that was a kind gesture, did
you? Now I'd open my arts service here for them to come preach
the gospel. But not to offer Mass. Not to offer Mass. It's the same thing as coming
in here, see some of those old Jews and splitting the neck of
a lamb and pouring the blood right out here and claiming that
we're putting away sin. That's what the Mass is. It's
a sacrifice. It's sacrificing Christ all over
again. The wine is changed to the blood
of Christ, and the bread is changed to the body of Christ, and the
mass is the sacrifice all over again. It's denying what Christ
did on the cross. It's a public denial of what
Jesus Christ did. It's a public denial of this
priesthood of Christ, of the sufficiency of Christ, of the
finality of Christ, of the sanctification by His atonement of every believer. That's exactly what it is, and
it's shocking that men don't know enough about God's Word
that preachers in this town do not know enough about God's Word
to see that this is a denial. You can't be nice and deny the
gospel. Paul, that's one place he wouldn't
tolerate compromise. He'd compromise with me on a
day or what to eat or these things, but he said if anybody preaches
any other gospel, let him be a curse. I don't care, Paul said,
if it's an angel from heaven. Brethren, the work of Christ
is our foundation. The offering of Christ is our
hope. The sufficiency of his sacrifice is our refuge. If his
death on the cross is not sufficient, we may yet be lost. He saw Christ
on the throne. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord.
Sitting, sitting. Every word is so significant.
Not leaning over the banister's head and trying to see how things
are going down there. Not standing at the church door
knocking. He's not standing at the church
door knocking trying to see who let him in. He's sitting on a
throne. King of kings and Lord of lords. Look at the next line. And I
saw him high and lifted up. That's not talking about his
throne being high, but him being high and lifted up. God hath
highly exalted him and given him a name which is above. Higher. That's what we're talking
about. His name is higher. than any other name. There is
no name so sweet on earth, so dear. There is no name so dear
in heaven. That's Christ's name. I saw the
Lord sitting, sitting. It is finished. Having finished
His work, He sat down, expecting. Christ isn't hoping. He's expecting
till His enemies be made His footstool. And I saw him high
and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." You know
what that's saying? His train denotes the effects of his kingly
and priestly office, the effects of it. The monarch's train is
his rule. His train is his glory. His train
is the effect of His power. His train fill the temple, that
is, His glory fill the church, which is the temple of the living
God. Ye built up living stones are
made a temple, a dwelling place of the living God. And His presence,
and His glory, and His train, and His power, and the effects
of His priesthood, and His lordship fill the church. Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ fills that church and then verse 2 Above
it stood the seraphims Who are these? Boy, I'll tell you that's
that's problem But out of all eliminating all the different
things I come to this And I believe this is it they're ministers
of the gospel And ministers of the gospel These seraphims represent
ministers of the gospel. The six wings, I can't do anything
with that except this. With two, he covered his face. Covered his face in humility.
Ashamed of themselves in the presence of their Lord. Not shepherds,
under shepherds. Ashamed of themselves. Paul said,
I'm not worthy to be an apostle. I'm less than the least of all
the saints. I'm the chief of sinners. And
in the presence of the living God, the presence of the Lord
Jesus, I cover my face in shame. And then he covered his feet
in humility and shame for our walk and our conduct and our
conversation while even representing our Lord is not commendable. It's not on the plane it should
be. doesn't bring him the glory it ought to. And with two wings
he did fly, ashamed of his sinfulness, ashamed of his walk and conduct,
but ready in haste to deliver the glad tidings, to deliver
the word of God, and to declare who he is. And who do we declare
he is? We declare that he is holy, holy,
holy. He is righteous, righteous, righteous. He is the Lord of hosts. That's
what we declare. His righteousness is a perfect
righteousness. His righteousness is a sufficient
righteousness. His righteousness is a righteousness
accepted by God himself and approved of. His righteousness being accepted
and approved means that we are accepted in the Beloved. And
we declare also that the whole earth is full of His glory. He
is a sovereign Lord. He's sovereign over heaven and
sovereign over earth. He said all authority is given
unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and preach the
gospel. He prayed to his father, and he said, thou hast given
me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given me. Christ is their message, these
seraphims, unworthy, humble, ashamed, and yet ready in haste
to take the word that our Lord's righteousness is sufficient,
that his glory fills the earth. He saw the whole earth full of
His glory. You know, David Brainerd said
this one time. He said, before God saved me,
I discovered four things that made me very angry. I'm not always
disappointed when people get angry at what we preach. I'm
not always disappointed. I'll tell you this. I had rather
a man come in and hear the message and get angry than to be indifferent, to be indifferent and unaffected. At least if he's angry, he's
heard something. If he's angry, he's disturbed.
If he's angry, he may be angry enough to find out if what you're
saying is right. But David Brainerd said, I heard
and learned four things. God taught me four things. And
they made me angry. But I found out later they were
all true. And brought me to repentance and faith. Number one, the first
thing God taught me, David Brainerd said, David Brainerd was one
of the greatest preachers that ever lived. One of the greatest
missionaries that ever lived. He died of TB. He died. He's 29 years old. He lived in
those 29 years more than most people do in 100. He ministered
to the Indians. He rode his horse all over the
northeastern part of this country preaching the gospel to Indians.
He knew the gospel. He preached the gospel of grace.
He died in Jonathan Edwards' home. And Jonathan Edwards said,
the gospel that produces a man like David Brainerd is worthy
to be studied. But this is what he said. He
said, I saw, number one, that God didn't demand the best that
I could do. God didn't demand a pretty good
life. God Almighty demanded absolute,
immaculate, perfect holiness. And I didn't have it. He said,
that made me mad. God demanded what I couldn't
produce. God demanded what no man could
produce. And that made me angry, but I
knew that God could require no less than perfection, no more
than perfection, could be satisfied with no less than perfection.
Secondly, he said, I saw, I learned that God demanded and required
faith, and I couldn't produce it. God demanded that I believe,
believe his word. Not accept it, not understand
it, believe it. believe it. Actually believe,
this is the word of God, actually believe the record God has given
of his son, actually believe what God said. And he said, I
just, my faith, I just couldn't produce it. I couldn't come to
an unquestionable faith in this book and in God Almighty. And
then he said, I saw in the third place, and made me very angry,
that God could give me that faith. That it was in the power of God
to give me that faith. He gave Noah that faith. He gave
Abraham that faith. He gave David that faith. He
gave Paul that faith. And God could give me faith.
But it was in the power of God to do it. To give me faith. Faith's the gift of God. He saw
that, he said, and that made him angry. It wasn't in his power
to produce it at all. Only in the power of God. And
he said the fourth thing he saw, and this made him angry too,
but you check it in the Word of God. You check all four of
these with God's Word. Don't come around, well I thought,
it's what Nagelman said, he liked to die out of leprosy. And if
he hadn't have shifted gears from I thought to whatever God
said, he'd have died of leprosy. You better quit doing the thinking.
God says your thoughts aren't my thoughts. God didn't call
on us to think, he called on us to believe. Well, I thought
this is what I think. No, I don't even really want
to know what we think, because I know there's a way that seems
right to man, and it ends up in debt. It ends up in the cemetery
of debt religious soul. David Brainerd saw forthly that
God could save him or damn him. If God saved him, it'd be by
grace. If God damned him, It'd be what
he deserved. And he said, I got angry. I fought it, despised it. But he said, it finally broke
me. And I submitted to God. And I said, like the publican
in the temple, God, have mercy on my soul. Be reconciled to
me through the blood of thy son. That's where you are tonight.
You may kick against it, you may war against it, you may seek
to stone those who declare it, you may seek to put out of business
those that preach it, but that's where you are. I hear preachers
say, what will you do with Jesus? Another fellow said that one
time named Pilate. What shall I do with Jesus? You
know what the Lord said to him? Why, he said, I got the power
to crucify you and let you go. Christ said, you don't have any
power over me at all. except it be given you from above.
And that's all the power you've got to do anything. We're in
the hands of Christ. Christ's not in our hands. Christ
is not up for acceptance or rejection before this generation. He has
been accepted of His Father, and that's all that matters.
His Father has accepted Him and exalted Him and made Him Lord. And He's your Lord. God has given
everything into the hands of His Son. Everything belongs to
Christ. That's right. And everyone is
going to bow and confess that He's Lord. Everything belongs
to Christ. It's all been given to Christ.
All authority and all glory and all power. I'll tell you where
we are. We're like that old leper who
met Him when Christ came down from the mountain. There was
a leper who ran and met him and fell at his feet. And he said,
Lord, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And that's
exactly where you are. You're the leper. And you're
powerless. You're diseased. You're dying. You've got no hope. You're helpless. You're without hope. You're without
help. You're without strength. You're at your wit's end. And
Christ is Lord, and he's got something to give. He's got benefits
which are already bought and paid for. And he'll distribute
them where he will. And the best thing you can do
is come and say, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole.
And it just may be that he will. You remember when Brother Barnard
preached in the park? He made some Baptist preachers
fighting mad, but what he said was so. I was leading the singing
in 1950. Some of you remember it. He'd
preach his sermon. He'd come to the end of the sermon.
And he'd say, let's sing a song, Henry. I'd announce the hymn.
Jesus paid it all or something. And then he'd look out over that
congregation. He said, sinner, seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. I don't guarantee you God will
save you, but you better seek him. Oh, wee! Make some preachers
mad. See, they'd been guaranteeing
folks they'd come down to the front, or if they'd pray the
sinner's prayer, if they'd shake my hand or join my church, they'd
guarantee I'm God-safe. Guarantee you're God-safe. You
do thus, thus, and thus. Barnard was the only honest preacher
in town. He'd stand there and say, sinner! I don't know whether
God saved you or not. He don't have to. He don't have
to. He's not obligated. But I'll
tell you this. You better seek Him. It may be
He'll have mercy. Now that's a good invitation,
because that's so. What did the man say on the cross? Lord, I'm getting what I deserve. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Remember me. What did the woman
say, the Canaanite woman who came to Him on behalf of her
daughter? Why he said it's not right to give the children's
bread to dogs, he said that's a true statement. But Lord, you're
the Lord, you're the master, and the dogs eat crumbs that
fall from the master's table. I'm not asking you for the children's
bread, I'm asking you for the dogs' crumbs. My Lord, he loved
that. He loved that. We're too proud.
Oh, our pride's going to send us to hell. And we're just too
proud to see it. But Isaiah saw something else.
Look at verse 5. He saw the Lord and then he saw
himself. He said, verse 5, Then I saw
the Lord, then I said, Woe is me. Brethren, you may look at
others and say, I thank thee God, I'm not like other men. You may look at that old drunk
down there. And he's mistreating his family, and you might say,
I don't see how he can do that. You really mean that? You really
don't see how he can do it? That's what you'd be doing if
it wasn't for God's grace. You're looking to thieve. Come on now,
we're all guilty of this. We're all guilty. We pick up
the newspaper, and some fellas raped a little old 10-year-old
girl or something. We say, that rat, they ought
to hang him. Well, that's so too, but that rat could be you
if it wasn't for God's grace. because you got the same potential.
That's not nice, is it? That's so anyway. We're proud. We're just like that old Pharisee,
I thank you God, I'm not like other men. You would be if it
wasn't for his restraining hand. You would be. You may look at
other people and get the prides and the self-righteousness and
all of this uplifted feeling, how good you are and how holy
you are and how righteous you are and how moral you are and
how clean you are, but the only thing that keeps you from being
the public enemy number one is God's restraining hand. That's
right. God's restraining hand. So you
may look at others and thank God you're not like other men.
You may even look at the law as Saul of Tarsus and say, I'm
blameless. He did. You may recite the Ten
Commandments and say, all these have I kept for my youth up.
But I guarantee you, if you ever have the experience of Isaiah,
you'll say, woe is me. What brought this out of him?
He saw the Lord. He saw the Lord. He didn't see
a law. He didn't see the Ten Commandments. He wasn't looking at others.
He was looking at the absolute holiness of God. And he cried,
Oh, woe is me! Woe is me! I'm under a great
Judgment! Wrath is upon me! Woe is me! Look at the rest of this. I'm
undone. You know what that's saying? I'm ruined. I'm ruined. You know, one thing
I note about this man in chapter 5, you might go back and read
it. It may not even be significant, but it's there anyway. In chapter
5, five times he says, Woe is them. Woe is them. This kind of bothers me when
preachers preach this way. They say, you this and you that
and you the other. We is the right word or me or
I. Isaiah, after he saw the Lord,
he said, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm ruined. Here's another interpretation.
I'm reduced to silence. I'm reduced to silence. You know
what God will do to every man before He saves him? I'm always,
listen to me, I wouldn't be harsh here now. I'll say something
that ought not to be said if I could help it. But I'm always
afraid of a fellow that makes too much noise. Too much noise. A fellow that's trying to learn
the gospel, or a woman that's trying to learn the gospel, that
learns it too quick. Got too much to say. Got too
many answers. I always detect this, when God's
teaching a man himself and he's getting a view of God, if he
really is getting a view of God, he shuts his mouth. That's what
the Bible says. What does the law say? It says
to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped.
And Isaiah is saying here, according to one great old preacher, woe
is me, I'm reduced to silence. I am forced to be silent. I hate
for my voice to even speak the name of the Holy God. I cannot
speak because of my corruption and my violence. I am a man of
unclean lips who wants to blabber all of this corruption around
everywhere. I am a man of unclean lips. See
that there? I'm ruined. I'm reduced to silence. And I'm going to be silent because
I'm a man of unclean lips. My jabbering is going to say
things that aren't so. Bring reproach upon God and shame
upon me. He doesn't say anything about
the uncleanness of his heart. You know why? Because his lips
are the outlet of his heart. All sin starts here. And it's
produced here. If we could stop it right here,
nobody would know about it. But no, we've got to let it all
out, you know. That's what he's talking about. I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst of a people. Our whole rotten
race is a fallen race. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. Everybody's got unclean lips
because they've got unclean hearts. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Why did he come to this conclusion?
He says, verse 5, the last line, I've seen the King. I've seen
the King. I've seen the Lord of Hosts. I believe our preaching would
be more effectual if we'd quit taking men to Sinai and start
taking them to Calvary. I believe it would. I believe
it would be more effectual if we'd quit taking men to rules
and regulations and start taking them to the throne of God and
preaching the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Maybe somebody
will see the Lord. Get a glimpse of His holiness. His perfect love reveals my hatred. His perfect obedience reveals
my rebellion. His perfect faith reveals my
unbelief. His perfect wisdom reveals my
foolishness. His willing mercy reveals my
unforgiving spirit. I can't study the life of my
Lord without being deeply shameful concerning my own. His words
are so perfect, mine are so imperfect. But last of all, and I quit,
Isaiah saw pardon. Ben flew one of the seraphims,
one of the ministers, one of the messengers. When he had confessed
his sins, Ben flew one of the seraphims to me, having a live
coal in his hand. The seraphim is the minister,
the live coal is the word, the gospel. The gospel of Christ. You see, you don't have to have
actually, I don't have to bring you the wine transformed into
the blood and put it in your mouth. All I have to do is put
the word in your ear. Don't say Christ has to come
down again or bring Christ up from death. The gospel is now
unto thee, even in thy mouth. The power of the gospel to save
sinners is the word of faith. And Isaiah said, when I confess
my sins, when I own my undone and sinful and shameful condition,
one of the messengers came to me with the good news of pardon,
with the word of God, with the gospel of Jesus Christ, right
from the altar, the fire from the altar which he picked up
with the tongs, that's the sacrifice of Christ. He brought me that
word. He brought me that promise. He
brought me that good news. And he laid it on my mouth. right
where the sin was, right where the trouble was, right where
I'd confessed my iniquity, the sinfulness of my mouth, the wickedness
of my words, the uncleanness of my lips, and he took that
sanctifying word and put it right on my mouth. And he said to me,
Lo, this has touched thy lips, this has touched thy heart, this
has touched thy life, your iniquity is taken away, and your sins
are all forgiven. They're all purged. This destroys the doctrine of
purgatory right here. If my sins are purged, they don't
need to be purged again. I don't need any purgatory. It's
already been purged. That's the good news. You see,
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of
God unto salvation. We're handling dynamite. That
word power is dunamis, dynamite. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It is the dunamis, the power, the dynamite of God to salvation
to everyone that believes.