Three sights of Isaiah

The book of Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. Now the prophet Isaiah could have been a contemporary of Amos. He certainly at least was in the days of Uzziah, as is Amos, as in his Isaiah. Chapter 6, while it occurs after the first several chapters, likely, very likely, is the precursor to the first several chapters of Isaiah's book.

So that it was in a sense a, people call it an awakening, a recommissioning, but it certainly was that which occurred in Isaiah's heart to motivate him and it was the basis of the burden of his message, and it is great. Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Now that word Lord there is not the normal word for Jehovah or Yahweh, it is the word Adonai, and when you read that word it carries the thought of the sovereign Lord, but it's interesting that it is in the plural here as well, and so it is really embracing the aspect of the triune God who is absolutely sovereign.

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train, or the idea is there his skirts, filled the temple. Now you can imagine if his skirts filled the temple in its entirety, how majestic, how large was the very presence of this God that Isaiah saw. Above it stood the seraphims.

Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, we're speaking about fellowship and the enjoyment of fellowship, here are angelic creatures that are clearly in fellowship one with another, they're speaking the same thing, they're saying the same thing, and what they are doing ultimately is they are ascribing honor to God.

And so they are crying out, one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved, they shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Now put yourself in this position. Stand alongside Isaiah as you are witnessing this and trembling in the presence of the eternal God. The house is filled with smoke.

Heavenly fire beings are flying above the throne, moving. We're not told how many. We take it for granted that there are two of them because we like symmetry, but there could have been dozens of them.

These seraphim flying above, and as he sees this now he begins to tremble in the presence of God. Then said I, woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

There is that expression again that my brother William read from Amos, the unique expression, the Lord of hosts. It is often introduced in situations of weakness. And so the Lord is making his presence known even as ultimately as the sovereign singular one, yet nevertheless making us aware that there are a multitude of hosts that he controls, similar to these fire beings that Isaiah is seeing.

And he says this, then, then, then. You know the Lord, it's touched my heart to read that. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

And he laid it upon my mouth and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged. We are often so long in our response to God. We are often so long, so delayed, so retarded, as it were, in our recognition, in our return to God and our response to him.

And yet when we respond to him, he is immediate. He is not delayed. It's touching there.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Again, the support of the triune God in this situation. Who will go for us? Then said I, hear my, send me. And he said, go and tell this people.

Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not, and 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, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and so on. Isaiah.

According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was actually of royal blood. The Talmud, which is Jewish writings, tells us that Isaiah's father, Amoz, was actually the brother of King Amaziah. So that is interesting.

That would make him then a cousin to Uzziah. And while we think about this, and the sorrow that Isaiah was going through as he writes this, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled the temple, and so on.

It is obvious that Isaiah is impressed with far more than family relationships. Sometimes we're very taken up with family relationships, and the connections, and who we're connected to, and my father is this, and my brother is this, and we align ourselves, we align ourselves with relationships, and even there's duplicity, and there's allowances, and Isaiah will allow no such. And his gaze is lifted up, even though he's sorrowful.

Uzziah has been a good king for the most of his life. For 52 years, one of the longest reigns of any of the kings, and yet at the end, sadly, he is corrupted, he is defiled, he intrudes upon the priesthood office, and he dies a leper. And Isaiah gets beyond that, and he sees the Lord.

When you hear the Lord, and when he's going to listen to what the Lord is going to say to him to commission this man, it's significant that Isaiah then goes back to write, in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, about all the things that God did for his people. All the grace and the mercy that he extended to them. And chapter 1, as he addresses the people, and he speaks about them, how they've gone wayward, and he says, I have nourished and brought up children.

I have brought up and nourished children. You know what the idea there is? That God says, I brought you to a point in your infancy, in the nation in its infancy. I brought you up to the point of maturity.

I fed you, I taught you, I led you, I guided you, I preserved you. But he says, once you reach that point now, you're not children anymore, you're mature, and you've made your own choices. And the choices you've made have taken you away from me.

And he is leveling the charge against the nation. And Isaiah is the one that's carrying this message, this burden. So if you put chapter 6 before chapter 1, makes an interesting thing.

Because Isaiah is taking a message that is not a very palatable one, not a very comfortable one. We like to preach messages that, and people like to hear messages that will make them feel comfortable, and give a little more to God, and make a little more space in your room. How would you feel if I got up here on this platform and preached a message like Isaiah did? If I told you that the people here, God is very disappointed with us as people.

The sacrifices, the worship you offer, it's distasteful to God. He will not have it. Your lives, all of our lives, have been so defiled and corrupted by the worldliness that we have experienced and embraced that God says, I am tired, I am sick of your sacrifices.

I don't think you would be sitting here and saying, we've got to get that man back. In fact, you know how Isaiah winded up. Tradition says that they sawed him in half inside of a hollow log.

I want you to get three sites here in the passage. I want to just work my way down the passage. I want you to notice first of all the sight of the Sovereign here, the sight of the Sovereign.

Isaiah gets that. And when he sees the Lord, the one thing that impresses him with the presence of God is holiness. Holiness.

It's not so much, it's interesting, it's not so much his association with, but it's actually Yahweh's separation from that is impressing the prophet. And as he views one, he sees one that is higher than the heavens. One whose august, majestic presence demands that he confess his sin.

Holiness. The Lord's seated. You know, I want to address one thing because there is a tendency today for people to think somehow, and I think we heard earlier about our Old Testaments, to leave our Old Testament.

People don't read the Old Testament and so on. And we gravitate toward the New Testament. And it is true that the New Testament does reveal our Lord Jesus Christ in his person.

We see his footsteps. We hear his words. We actually see him moving among men.

And when it comes to doctrine, we come to our New Testament for the bulk and basis of our doctrine and what we do. And it tells us the truth of the assembly. Wonderful things.

But the Old Testament was designed as volume one of that. So that the two are connected. Don't disassociate them.

And for some reason, there has come into the thinking of people, of brethren, of Christians today, that somehow the Jehovah of the Old Testament in passages like this in Isaiah 6 is somehow not the same person as the Jesus of the New Testament. He is. He is.

He is holy. In fact, if I could ask Isaiah and John to stand together, the apostle of love, the one who leaned on the Lord's bosom, the one who was so close to him, the one who gives us, for God so loved the world. If I could ask these two men to stand together and give a report of their work, they would agree that the one that Isaiah saw and the one that John saw on the island of Patmos are one and the same person.

When John saw him, he says, I fell at his feet as dead. He saw one with eyes as a flame of fire, girded about the paps with a golden girdle, one who walked in the midst of the seven churches, the Lord of the churches, the Lord Jesus of the churches is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. He is the same person.

The difference is this, especially for you younger believers, take this into account. When you look at the man on the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ, when you see him interacting with men among men, you are getting a view of how we need to treat one another. You are getting a view of the perfect man, of God's man.

You are getting a view of how we are to respond to one another, how we are to behave. We are to mirror our lives like him as he was on earth. But we cannot do that as he is ascended on the throne.

He is far above all principality and power. He is the Lord of glory. And when we refer to him, when we when we think about his position and his presence in the assembly, in the midst of his people, this is not now the one who walked in Nazareth.

This is not now the one in the sense of character, in the sense of his behavior of how he moved amongst men. This is now one who is ascended and seated at the right hand of God. There is a distinction in terms of how he made himself known.

And how he makes himself known to Isaiah is how he makes himself known today as the ascended Lord. I'm saying that because there is a crying need for reverence, for respect, for our willingness to fall down before him and cry out, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. And so he sees the one who is seated on the throne.

He sees one whose skirts, whose train filled the temple. That's an interesting statement. The skirt of the Lord.

It literally means that the wings or the flaps, the hem. So Isaiah is actually getting a sight of the edge of his garment. You can picture that.

It's often referred to in the Old Testament. The psalmist refers to it numerous times when he talks about the shadow of his wings. In the book of Ruth, there's a chapter 2 verse 12, when Boaz is speaking to Ruth and he says, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

There's a reference to the covenant keeping God and the wings of God that are spread out. I think there's also a veiled reference to that. That woman with the issue of blood understood when she said to concerning Christ, if I can but touch the hem of his garment, if I can but touch the skirt, the wings of his garment, he is Jehovah.

He has come with healing in his wings. Oh yes, Malachi speaks of that in a future day for the nation. But she says, right now he's got that for me.

And she reaches out to touch. She recognized who he was, who he is. And Isaiah did the same thing.

Isaiah says, I saw also here. It's interesting too. I saw also.

Now listen, don't get the idea that this is the idea of an additional sight. Oh, I saw also the Lord. We talk about people and we talk about things that we see and we say, yeah, I saw this, this.

Oh, I also saw that. No, no, no. This is not an additional sight.

Isaiah is reminding us of an ascendant sight. He's saying that I saw so many things I saw, but he says, I saw the Lord. Now it's a different word than the normal word that Isaiah uses.

In fact, in chapter one, he talks about the vision which he saw. That's not the same word here. The word here literally means to see clearly, to see clearly.

I want to ask everyone here, do you clearly see the Lord? You say, well, how can we do that? Through his word. Through his word. The more you read the word of God, the more you will see the truth of God in it because thy word is truth.

And so Isaiah saw that. It says to see clearly. I want you to think of these symbols here before we move on to the next point.

Each of these symbols, the title Adonai, the throne that he sees, the lofty position of the Lord, and the all-encompassing robe, as well as the smoke that filled that house. All of those things reinforces the sovereignty of the Lord over the universe. Over the universe.

Over all its kings. So he begins with the universe and he funnels down in the year that King Uzziah died, over all the kings. Then as he works his way down, it's over all the nations.

He speaks about the nation of Israel. And then it's over all the people. And then it's over all men.

For Isaiah himself bows. In other words, there is no sphere where his sovereignty is not exhibited. And Isaiah sees it.

Holiness. It is the only attribute of God. I believe it is an attribute.

And people have said, no, it's a character. It's not an attribute. Well, holiness, to be holy simply means to be set apart.

God is set apart from all things. He is unique. He is singular.

Therefore it is an attribute. But it is interesting that it is the only attribute of God that is ever given to us in the Bible that is given to us in the superlative. Angels never cry love, love, love.

Light, light, light. Life, life, life. But they do cry holy, holy, holy.

In the absolute recognition of the total sovereignty of God, he stands unique. He stands alone. And now Isaiah gets a sight of him.

So I want you to think of now the sight of the seraph for a moment. Isaiah cries out, woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips.

What made him say that? Well, the first thing that made him say that was, I saw the Lord. That's the first thing. The second thing that made him say that though was this.

He is listening to the seraphim. These seraphim that had an absolute concern for the person of Jehovah. They are flying, look at them, as they move in their activity.

And there is one word, it's perhaps the shortest sermon in the Bible, holy, it's one word, holy. Holy, holy, holy. And that so drives a nail into the conscience of Isaiah.

And he says, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I read a commentator one time that was saying that likely from this, Isaiah may have had a problem with cursing.

I don't believe that for a minute. He's written a sixty-six chapter book in the Bible, he has a problem with cursing? And if that is the case, then the whole nation had the same problem. Because he says, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

You know what I think happened? He hears, first of all he sees the Lord. His conscience is smitten. He's convicted.

Who can be in the presence of God without experiencing some aspect of conviction? There must be some, if there is, listen, if you get into the presence of God and you come before Him and there is no aspect of conviction of some kind, we really need to examine ourselves. Because He is holy. And that in conjunction with the word by the seraphim, holy.

Listen, they were saying it. They were saying it. They were speaking it.

And they kept saying it. That's the idea. Holy, holy, holy, holy.

And one to another, in a cacophonal, as it were, altercation between them as they were saying it. Holy, holy. And they were flying.

And Isaiah heard this. And he knew there is a vast difference between how angels speak of God and how men speak of God. And there was the awareness that his speech needed to be brought to a higher level.

What I am saying is this. Isaiah became convicted and aware by his commonness that he was certainly not what he should be. And we need to be convicted of that and awaken that.

Why is it that when it comes to individuals, when it comes to assemblies, we are so often willing to accept the common instead of being willing, raise the bar. Raise the bar. He saw also the Lord high and lifted up.

And the angels were above that. Not in the sense that they were above God, but in the sense that they could not come alongside of him. That if they were to touch down.

Did you read that? With two they did fly. With two they covered their face. With two they covered their feet.

In other words, four are passive. Four wings are passive. Their wings stand in contrast to the wings of Jehovah.

The wing of Jehovah, as it were, was the hem of his garment. The wings of these creatures, these seraphim, was what they employed for their entire activity. Four are passive.

Two are active. Do you know what that is showing? That is showing the importance of worship. Four are active, rather.

Four, they cover their face, they cover their feet. And two they did fly. Four are passive.

Two are active. Sometimes we are engaged in far more activity than we are worship. The importance of worship.

We leave it for the last moment. Studying our Bible to get something of Christ. Reading the scriptures to get something that we can present to the Lord.

Because we so value what we have been brought into and we value him. Do you know that is actually the true core of worship? It is valuing who he is in himself. That is the meaning.

It is not just the idea of worship. It really is the idea of worth-ship. It is the worth of the Lord.

The value of the Lord. So you have the seraphim and you do have different types of angels in our Bible. And it is different how they are categorized and what they do.

You have the cherubim and you have the seraphim and you have the archangel and then you have rank and file angels. There are different associations, different administrations. You have military angels.

You have those that are in charge of battles. You have managing angels. Those who are linked with the affairs of God.

You have messenger angels and they are communicating messages from God. But angels have never known what it is to be touched with a live coal. Even though they dwell in the presence of our God who is a consuming fire himself, not one angel has ever known what it is to hear and that iniquity is taken away.

But we have. We have as a redeemed people. I want you to think as we move a little further.

I want you to think now of the sight of self. Lastly, Isaiah gets a sight of self. We cannot have a sense of what it is to have a sight of the Lord's holiness without a sense of your own sinfulness.

Do you get that? We cannot have a sight or a sense of the Lord's holiness until I get a sense of my own sinfulness. And that is what produced Isaiah's words. He got a sight of self.

His conviction, his confession, woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips. I am undone. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

And now as he thinks, now there is a cleansing that takes place and cleansing will be needed if there is ever going to be a responsibility given, a work done. And so Isaiah has experienced this cleansing. Then there is a commission and I want to get to this at the very end.

There is a commission that is given to him. But it is interesting that this commission, you read of other men's commissions in the Bible. Men that are directly and divinely called, specifically and personally.

Yet as far as I know, this is the only prophetic call in the Bible that is not of a personal nature. He is on the throne and he is asking, whom shall I send? Who will go? And Isaiah says, here am I. Send me. God didn't speak and say, Isaiah, I want you to go now.

He sends out the question, whom shall I send? But you know what happened? Isaiah's experience here prompted this response from his heart. The reality of his iniquity being taken away. The reality of God communicating with him.

The sovereign God of the entire universe communicating with Isaiah, revealing himself to him, singling him out to give him this display of himself. Listen, King Uzziah was king, but a lot of people didn't see the king. Just like a lot of people don't see President Trump.

He is surrounded by bodyguards. He is in the White House. He is traveling here.

The majority of people in the United States will not see the President of the United States. And the majority of people in Israel, in the nation, would not get to see the king of the nation. But you know what Isaiah says? I saw the Lord.

I saw the Lord. You ever get a good sight of the Lord? What has it done to you? That's what it comes down to, when it comes down to this. We need a blazing sight of the white hot purity of God himself to shake us, to awaken us.

We become so complacent. We hear messages about the assembly, and we listen to them, and we say, I have to get the recording. I have to do that.

And we go home, and you know what happens? It really produces little change. If you were to be in that temple that day, if I were to be there, and God revealed himself to you, and the building shook and filled with smoke, and burning beings were surrounding us right now, holy, holy, holy, we would feel so small and insignificant. And if God sent out a request, how could we not respond when he has taken away our iniquity, when he has saved us, when he has given of himself to bring us to himself? And Isaiah signs up, but he doesn't know what he's signing up for.

And you know what? He didn't care, because it was what God wanted. Is there someone here today, God is telling you to do something, and you're just holding back. You know it's right, and it's not being done.

Get a sight of the holiness of God. Get a sight of the goodness of God. Get a sight of the power of God.

And Isaiah responds with that. Now Isaiah took this upon himself, and like I said, if Isaiah would have been a different person, if Isaiah would have been the kind of man that would think, well, you know, I'm going to do what other people have done in the writings, in the prophetic writings. I'm going to speak smooth things.

I want to be a popular preacher. I want to be invited to all the youth conferences. I want to have the young people eating out of my hand.

And the old people, you know, well, they're just, listen, they're off to the side. They really can't do much now anyway. You know what Isaiah did? He gave a message from God, regardless of the audience, regardless of what he thought.

It was a message from God. And I can guarantee you this, if Isaiah had given a message to speak smooth things, to titillate the people, to scratch their itching ears, we would have never heard of that Isaiah. But we did hear this one.

How many centuries later? My brother was saying about blessing. I just want to clarify something. Absolutely right.

If you obey God, you will have his blessing. That's the way it works. But what do you expect by blessing? What do you think it means to be blessed by God? Well, I'll have more money in my bank account.

I'll be more accepted by the people. I'll have a better relationship with my brethren. Here's Isaiah.

Lost everything. You know, isn't it interesting that in a day and age in the Old Testament, when materialism was the signal of God's blessing, I don't know what prophet I read of that had a mansion. I don't know what prophet that had a bunch of friends.

I read of a lonely path. I read of a costliness. I read of an abandonment.

But you know what I do read? God was with them. God was with them. That, my dear brother or sister, that is ultimately the blessing of God.

Fellowship with God. Not materialism. Not popularity.

Isaiah was killed. The Lord Jesus even says, which of the prophets? Name me one. Can I paraphrase it? Name me one of the prophets your fathers have not persecuted and killed because of the messages that they delivered.

Listen, brethren, we need to wake up and understand that the blessing of God and the delivery of the communication of God is a means to call the people of God mostly to repentance and change. Paul is writing to Timothy. The first three things that he gives in description in his last epistle is this.

Timothy, I charge thee, he says, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. Why? Because we are a people that are so prone to go astray.

We need to constantly hear the message, return, repent. We need that. So Isaiah takes the challenge, his recognition, his responsibility.

When he takes on this responsibility, and then I notice his refusal. His refusal is found in the question, how long? You know what he's asking? He's not saying, you know, I'm very busy. I have a lot of plans for the next couple of years, so I just want to know how long is this going to be? No, no, no.

You know why he's asking that? Because he's willing to take it to the end, and he wants to know how long. You know, it's the same way a little bit with David, you know, that he took the five smooth stones and put them in the sling. People say, I've heard people say, you know, why do you think he took five stones? Oh, because Goliath had some brothers.

He was going to take care of them, too. I don't think so. I don't think so.

You know what I think? I think he took five because if the first one didn't do the job, he was going to stand there until it did. He was going to keep going. He wasn't leaving.

In other words, David says, I'm going down there to kill that giant, and he's going to die. And Isaiah says, and I'm going to take this message, Lord, and I'll take it as long as you want me to keep it, as long as you want me to preach it. How long? And then can you imagine Isaiah's reaction when he would have thought likely, how long? Well, Isaiah, you tell them how I feel, and until they come back to me.

No, until the land lies waste, until it's desolate, until the house is, oh. Well, he says, Lord, I'm in. Some of you brethren, you better be in for the long haul.

Assemblies for life. Isaiah was willing to take that challenge. And one more thing I would like to add to as well.

We heard before, excellent message, Brother Stan. He was saying about taking principles and teaching from the unregenerate and bringing them into assemblies. Do you know what? I find another problem.

The problem is not taking them from the unregenerate. It's taking them from those who profess to be, and may actually be believers. Evangelical circles.

The big boys. The megachurches. The church down the street that seems to be growing and so on.

How am I bringing, you say, how did he get that into Isaiah? Okay. I got that into Isaiah by this. Uzziah, if he was his cousin, and he certainly was king, as a man who was not only part of the nation, but a leader of the nation, wanted to bring in unscriptural practices.

As a king, he had absolutely no right to intrude upon the priest office. But he did. Now Isaiah could have said, you know what? He's our king.

And he's the big man. I think we should all do that. I think we should all do.

And he could have been willing to introduce principles that were actually part and parcel of a regenerate group, but was still wrong. Isaiah said, no. No.

And so the refusal is this. I will not give up, and I will not give in. I will stand alone if I have to.

Dear overseer here, I hope you stand with your brethren. And I will tell you this. I have seen it more than once.

The devil will use one man in that oversight to split it up. He will come in among the brethren, and he will drive a wedge between them, and he will seek to divide an oversight. A man who becomes sympathetic with wrong principles.

A man who will accept a more casual, easy path. Who will not see the Lord high and lifted up. Holy, but will seek to take the holy and make it common.

And if we do that, we detract from the singularity and holiness of our God. From the place of his name. The danger today is actually looking at places that really, where there are believers there.

And there are professed believers there. And taking those practices, and bringing them into the assembly. Taking those attitudes, and bringing them into God's assembly.

Taking those ideas of the casualness, the easiness. Some men are actually teaching, there is no such thing as the seat of the unlearned. Why? Because they don't see it anywhere else.

And the head covering, that's an Elizabethan, and we don't have to wear that at certain times, and we don't have to do this. And God's assembly, it should be a user friendly place. I say this reverently.

God's assembly must always be a Lord revering place. And Isaiah recognized that. His reward? God didn't tell him, did he? Isaiah never knew what he was going to get.

God didn't tell him, Isaiah you do this now, you've undertaken it, you've accepted this mission, then I will give you this reward. You will have this for doing. He never had that.

You know what he had? He had the Lord. That's all he had. We know, we know what we'll get.

We know the reward that will come. He got that reward. The fire of Isaiah, the fire hasn't touched our lips so we can eat candy.

The fire has touched our lips so we can recognize that we've been purged of iniquity. That there's no place for that. And we need to keep this up and we need to maintain this.

Even if you think nobody else is following and nobody else is listening. I'll close with a story. Somewhat of an apocryphal story.

There was a man, he was in Sodom, and he was telling the people of their wrongness. And as he told them and told them there was a young boy and he was listening to the old man preach about righteousness. Just one man, poor lot, he wasn't even preaching it.

He was only vexed. And the boy said to the old man, he said, Sir, what are you doing? He said, you keep preaching and you keep going out day by day and living the way you're living and talking the way you're talking. He said, look at them.

He said, you're not going to change anybody. They're not listening. You know what the old man said? He said, you know, you're right.

He said, but at first, he says, I used to do that and I would preach and I would live, I would teach in the hopes that they would change. He said, but you're right. He said, but now I live and I preach it and I teach it so that I don't change.

There's a lot of change going on, brother. Men that are changing and compromising for their families. Men that are changing for acceptability and popularity.

Men that are caught up in just the stream of the world and the evangelicalism and the bigness and people that are leaving and people that are, listen, if anything by my message today and by what really by what the word of God says is this, God help us, each of us to be an Isaiah.