A vision of the glory of God

It's a privilege to be here. I would like to read in the book of Isaiah. I'm working on saying various words properly, and Isaiah, I'm told, is Isaiah.

So I'll flip between the two, and you'll forgive me for that, hopefully. Isaiah and chapter number six. Isaiah six, and we'll read from verse number one.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 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 the other, 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 at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 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.

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 laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here I am, here am I, send me. And we look to God for his help as we have read this vision that Isaiah saw.

I want to really lift our hearts this afternoon. That is my exercise, to think in the discouragement and in the situation that we find ourselves in, to have a vision of God, a vision of his house, a vision of his holiness, a vision of his work, and a vision of his service. When we come to the book of Isaiah, we really have in some ways a mini Bible, because the first 39 chapters are taken up with the judgment of God, and the character of God is so clearly laid out in those chapters.

And then in chapter number 40, there's really the emphasis not upon the judgment of God, but the comfort of God, and the redemption of God. And we see, as we can compare different verses, we think of Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 says, The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And then we think of that in Matthew chapter 3 and verse number 3. For 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, make his paths straight.

And then as we go to the last chapter of Isaiah, we see in chapter 66 verse 22, For as the new heavens and the new earth which I shall make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And we think of the same truth that is brought out in Revelation 21 verse 1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. So we see there is many parallels as we see the character of God and the program of God brought out in the prophecy of Isaiah.

But I want to think really in two main sections of the verses that we've read. I want to think of the sovereign, and I want to think of God's house, and I want to think of God's holiness. But then I also want to think of the servant, and I want to think of his cleansing, and his call, and his commission.

But we'll just work our way through, and we can see some of these lessons. And in our situation, and in our society, we can lift our eyes to a throne. We can get our eyes off of discouragement.

We can get our eyes off of shame. We can get our eyes off of the politics of the world, and the discouragement of the world. And we can get a sight of a God who is unchanging.

And we can get a sight of his house, and of his holiness. So the chapter begins with a time reference. It tells us where we are in history in the year that King Uzziah died.

And King Uzziah, he was one of the good kings of Judah. He began to reign at the age of 16, and it was said of him that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. So he was a man that was good.

He was a man who built towers. He won battles. He looked after the land.

And we see there was a time where he became proud, and he went too far. And he went into the temple, and he offered incense to the Lord. And 80 courageous priests, along with Azariah, went in to correct Uzziah, and said to him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God.

So here was a man, and he persisted with the censer in his hand, and God struck him with leprosy. And often we think of that picture of leprosy as sin in the gospel, but I also wonder in Scripture if it has the idea of overstepping the mark, of going beyond what God had given for them to do. We think of Gehazi in 2 Kings chapter 5. He was the servant of Elisha, the prophet.

Naaman had been cleansed from his leprosy, and he offered Elisha a gift of silver and clothing, but Elisha refused it. And he was making the point that God's work, that God's miracles cannot be bought. And we see there's leprosy that is struck down because he was seeking material gain.

He was going beyond what God would have. The same would we think in terms of Miriam, another Bible leper, Moses's sister. She falls into a spirit of complaining, and she begins to question God's order and God's choosing of Moses.

And we read, has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. And when we speak of other brothers and sisters, the Lord hears it. He hears it.

And King Uzziah, he had overstepped the mark. He had taken on responsibility that was not his, and he was a leper to the day that he died. And we may say, wow, that judgment is so severe.

It is so heavy. But we see in Zechariah chapter 6 verse 13, even he shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule upon his throne.

And he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. So we see the king and priest is an office reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this context, the king had died, the priesthood had failed, and God is calling a prophet.

It's a nation in crisis. There was turmoil, and there was questions that were being asked. But the sight of the house of God and the holiness of God brought comfort to the man of God.

So we see in verses 1 and 2, we're thinking of God's house. And verse 1 tells us as well as the time, the location, he saw the Lord upon the throne. And we think of that temple, a place where God chose to dwell with his people.

Isaiah was not a priest, and so he would have remained, I believe, on the outer parts of that. And he was in the earthly temple, and getting a sight of the heavenly temple is how I see it. And maybe you say, well, you can't apply truth to the New Testament assembly.

The church is not in the Old Testament, and that is true. But the house of God has principles that transcend every dispensation. So we see when he got an appreciation for God, he got an appreciation of the place where God dwells.

I wonder this afternoon, do we have an appreciation for the house of God? For the local assembly, for the place where the Lord Jesus has placed his name? Because when Isaiah got a sight of the house of God, it changed everything. And when we appreciate afresh that the assembly is not just a place where we go, it is the place where the glory of the Lord Jesus is manifest. It is a tremendous encouragement to our hearts.

We see in this verse, time is touching eternity. As he gets a vision, a man getting a sight of God, and it changes him. And there are couplet themes in the verses.

We see there's time, and there's eternity. There's sin, and there's holiness. There's hearing and believing.

We think of the problems that we face, the difficulties that we encounter, and we think of the grand scheme of what God is doing. And it puts in perspective all of the world's problems, because there's a man that sits on the throne. There's one that will reign upon this earth.

I read a story, I think it was out on the west coast. There were 300 whales that washed up dead on the shore, and they wondered, well, why did they end up washed up dead on the shore? They were chasing small fish, and they were following these small fish so far that they just washed up on the shore. And so often in our Christian lives, we can dry up and wash up as a result of chasing small things.

The vision of God, the vision of the house of God, the big things in our Christian experience. So he gets a sight of the throne of God. He gets a sight of the throne sitter.

And John in Revelation, he gets a similar vision of things to come, and he sees the throne of heaven. And he says, before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal. The waters of the nations were raging all around.

But in heaven, there's a throne that is set. There's a sea that is calm. And may we appreciate the sovereignty and the steadfastness of our God.

The Lord Jesus, I believe, is who is upon the throne, because the New Testament tells us that. And John chapter 12 gives us a tremendous description of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, because we read these things Isaiah said when he saw his glory and spoke of him. So we see it's the Lord Jesus and his trains filling the temple.

It's really just that idea of the hem, the fringes of his garment. And over in chapter 7, we have prophecy in connection with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. And then as this is fulfilled in Luke chapter 2, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling bands, lying in a manger. What humility! The one whose train filled the temple, wrapped in swaddling bands.

A different location, a different garment, but the same person and the same power. The humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. As well as getting a sight of his house, he gets a sight in verses 3 and 4 of his holiness.

And above the throne stood the seraphim. We only read of angels standing in the presence of deity. Now it was our brother Jack Hay that pointed this out to me, so I'm not taking credit if you feel it's a good point, but he said in John chapter 20, Mary stands at the sepulcher and we read, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

Because in the presence of deity, angels stand, but they sat upon the tomb because there was no deity there. The Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead. So we see the seraphim, they had six wings, two covering their face, two covering their feet, and two flying.

So we see the covered face speaks of reverence, and the covered feet speaks of humility, and the wings that flying speak of service. So two-thirds of their wings are used in connection with their attitude to God, an attitude to their worship, and one-third in connection with their service. So their actions their words were consistent with what they did, because they covered their face, but in verse 3 they spoke, and we can learn from that two-thirds worship, one-third service, that our service must flow out of a heart of appreciation.

Our worship must be the main thing, and our service as a result of our appreciation of God. Because the big thing, the priority for the seraphim was the worship of God, and they used two sets to cover, and they used one to fly. And they cried unto one another saying, holy, holy, holy.

They emphasized the holiness of the Lord, and some have said, well is the Father, Son, and Spirit in view as they say holy, holy, holy? And that is true, but I don't believe that is necessarily what has been emphasized. We know the Lord Jesus is holy. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And we know that the Spirit is called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of life, but more than any other he is referred to as the Holy Spirit. But I think what is being emphasized here is the holiness, the emphatic holiness of God.

Now, I don't know a whole lot about English, and I don't know how the grades translate, but in my yearbook at school, a question was asked, where will Gordon be in 10 years time? And the answer was still trying to pass higher English. So I don't really know a lot about English, but I'm just going to say that we read that Hebrew language emphasizes by repetition. So we would maybe say something is great, something is greater, something is greatest, but in Hebrew they would say it's great or great great or great great great to emphasize the greatness.

And here they are saying holy holy holy to emphasize the holiness of God. And we have a passage similar in the New Testament. We see in Revelation chapter 4 verse 8 that the four beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God almighty which was as and is and is to come.

This truth affects our lives because Peter, he encourages believers who have been discouraged, scattered, persecuted, and he says be ye holy as I am holy as he quotes the scriptures. So the holiness of God ought to produce holiness in our lives. High thoughts of God will deliver us from living low and from speaking of him casually and casually approaching him.

As we see they cried the whole earth is full of his glory. Someone said we are perishing not for a lack of wonders but for a lack of wonder. Do we glory in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we taken up with his person and all that he is? Because we see there was effects of the presence of God.

The post of the door moved. Another translation says the foundations of the threshold. So we see there was manifestation of the fact that God's power was there.

Exodus 19. Moses ascends to the mountain and comes down and we see that Mount Sinai was altogether in 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. So we see there is evidence of the power of God.

Do we see that in our lives? Do we desire his presence and his power? But Isaiah, he begins to look around and he begins to look within and he says I am undone, a man of unclean lips and we see his cleansing in verses five and six because in light of seeing the vision he gets a truer sense of himself. In light of who God is we can see what we are. In chapter five there's a series of woes that are against the nation of Israel.

We see that they're guilty of greed and drunkenness, irreverence, pride, injustice and in spite of all that was around he looked within, he looked within and there's so much in the world to discourage. All of these things are characteristic of our day. Andrew Murray said that humility is nothing but the disappearance of self and the vision that God is all.

Isaiah's response just seems to be the normal response of a man who's conscious with contact with God because Exodus chapter 3, Moses as the Lord appears he said he hid his face, he was afraid to look upon God. Job in chapter 24 he says I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I bore myself and repent in dust and ashes. He got a sense of his self in light of the glory of God and he comes and he accepts the failure of himself in the chapter before that of others because he says I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips and in response to Isaiah's humility God reaches him in mercy.

We see the grace of God because it was in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah got a sight of the true king and when there's failure we can lift our eyes to God and see one who never changes and one of the seraphim they were crying in worship and they bring a coal from off the altar and they're crying in worship and they're moving in service and revelation speaks of a golden altar before the throne but maybe it is not that but either way the live coal comes off the altar and touches Isaiah right where his need is his mouth and God is a God who meets our need. Someone said how tragic it would be to have the throne without the altar to have the awareness of sin and the conviction but no cleansing and we have been saved we have had that cleansing at salvation but the scripture speaks of the cleansing of the water of the word pictured in the laver. We must be cleansed daily we see the Lord Jesus as he washed the feet of the disciples as they picked up the dust and dirt of the world.

God is a God who cleanses as we walk in fellowship with him but then in verses seven and eight we have Isaiah's call and I'll be very brief or I'll be getting called off of here but Isaiah hears the call and I wonder if we have an appreciation for the voice of God for the service of God because after he sees God he hears God he's cleansed and Isaiah he's almost listening in to conversation in heaven who will go for us you know both Moses and Jeremiah they had discussions with God about their call but it seems that Isaiah presents himself as available to serve God as available for God and maybe we look around and we see great need and we don't meet it because we don't have a high view of the service of God we maybe think well that is left to a delegated and select few we are called to serve God in every area of our lives we are called to walk with him we're called to walk in newness of life and here was something that Isaiah was going to go and experience as he would prophesy for God but there's so much in the Christian life that we do not need to wait to be called to we don't need to be called to witness to our friends and family we don't need to be called to give out a tract we don't need to be called to attend all the meetings of the assembly it is the expectation of believers that we do certain things that we serve our God in all of these areas but Isaiah he gets a call and he responds with promptness what is our attitude to serving God is it that of promptness Matthew 4 Simon Peter and Andrew they're called the Lord says follow me and it says straightway they left their nets Isaiah never went to God with his gift or knowledge of any of these things he just says here am I every single believer has a gift from God let us never fall into the trap of believing we're not needed or necessary in his assembly we have a part to play we have a gift to use we have a God to serve but if we are going to be effective in any way of serving him we must first get a view of who he is an appreciation of his person an appreciation of his house an appreciation of ourselves and then we'll have an appreciation of his work as we think thought of Isaiah his vision his vision of God let us lift our eyes and have a fresh appreciation of his house the assembly of his holiness his character of his work our service for him and it begins by seeing who he is upon his throne the unchanging God brothers and sisters we are privileged to be linked with one who does not change who will not change who sits on a throne that is set in heaven may God bless his word