Isaiah Lesson 12

Gather together it is with joyful hearts that we can come together. Today is the day before Thanksgiving and tomorrow being able to reflect on the many, many blessings that we've had here in this country that we've had as your children.

And as we're now opening up your book of Isaiah, we've heard many proclamations from God about the impact of apostasy, about the reality of denying the sovereignty of God, and today we're going to be in front of the very, very throne room.

We ask, Father, that you open the words through Pastor Jeff, give him your spirit, open the eyes of our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So, today we go into that mighty.

Isaiah 6 and the Vision of the Holy God

Chapter six, beloved, one of the most beloved chapters of the Bible, certainly of the book of Isaiah. The first five chapters of Isaiah are rather harsh, right? I mean, it begins in chapter one with the comparison to Sodom, and by chapter six there's a comparison to a vineyard, but it's not any kind of vineyard.

It's a vineyard that never produces good fruit, only wild grapes, and then it's followed up by a number of woes. So, there's this very harsh introduction to the first five chapters of the book are very harsh, and I think as we look into chapter six and consider the holiness of God, we come to understand why that is, because the world doesn't understand the judgment of God.

They want God only to be loving, which of course God is love, but God is also holy, which is the reason for his justice and his punishment of wicked people. So, let's go into Isaiah chapter six. I wanted to just read it first, and then we'll comment and spend time in each verse.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then I said, here I am, send me. And he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

Then I said, how long, O Lord? And he said, until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away. And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.". The word of the Lord. So, Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 begins, in the year that King Uzziah died.

Does anybody know the other name given to Uzziah in the scriptures that would be used in 2 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 26? Answer, Azariah. So, Azariah is also Uzziah. Same guy, different term. Uzziah reigned from 791 to 739.

And his reign was triumphant. Meaning, when Uzziah was the king, Judah was doing well. They were prospering. It looked like things would just keep going on, and nothing bad would ever happen. Just things were going very well.

But at this time, King Uzziah dies. The year now is 739 BC, and Isaiah is prophesying in the southern kingdom. He sees the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Think about that expression. I saw the Lord. Isaiah saw God. According to that language, he says, I saw the Lord. That's amazing, isn't it? Turn with me quickly to John chapter 1 verse 18. Anybody not want to get called on, just slip your hand up so I won't call on you.

Okay, so I can call on anybody. John chapter 1 verse 18. Kimberly, you're first. Would you mind reading John 1 18 for us? Okay, so Kimberly just read, no one has ever seen God. Now, we have an inerrant Bible, don't we?

Meaning there's no error in the Bible. Flip back, if you kept your finger where we were in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Flip back to John 1 18. No one has ever seen God.

Isaiah 6 1. I saw the Lord. You see what I'm doing here? We have a problem. Isaiah is claiming to have seen the Lord, and yet John 1 18 says no one has ever seen God. Anybody want to take a stab at this one before we look more into the scripture?

Rich? Okay, that's a possible solution. That it's only figurative or it's a theophany, but Isaiah's not actually seeing God. It's just some aspect of his glory. It's a possibility. Any other ideas?

Well, you can add into that, Moses did see the backside of God. Yes. So, seeing God, to going to where Rich was just at, cannot be seeing him in his entirety.

Interesting. So, a similar answer there. It's maybe not the entirety, but you're still seeing him. Okay, turn with me to John chapter 12 verse 41. I know Kimberly has just recently taught John, so she knows where this is going.

John chapter 12 verse 41. I call on Deborah. When you get it. John 12 41. Interesting. And what version of the Bible do you have there? That's an NIV. Okay. Often what you'll have like in the ESV is just the word his, right?

The pronoun rather than Jesus, but the NIV there supplies Iesu in the Greek. But in any case, it's the same thing. I was going to make the point when it says Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory.

Who is the his in 12 41? Well, you look in the context of John chapter 12. His is exactly as Deborah read from NIV. Jesus. Look at the context of John 12 verses 38 to 41. I just find this so amazing. Well, you have a quote from Isaiah 53 and then a quote from this very chapter, Isaiah chapter six.

And then in verse 41 of John 12, it says Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory. Well, the antecedent there, what's being modified is Jesus. Jesus is the one that Isaiah saw. So flipping back to answer our question from Isaiah chapter six, I find this amazing.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He saw the second person of the Trinity, which makes perfect sense based on John 1 18. No one has ever seen God, meaning God the father, but the only begotten who is at the father's side, he has made him known.

Has anybody seen Jesus, the second member of the Trinity? Of course. He walked among us. He tabernacled. He became flesh. Our eyes beheld him. John says, we touched him. We saw him. First John begins that way.

So whenever we have a theophany, as you put it, Rich, in the Old Testament, where someone sees God, whether it's Moses or here in Isaiah, we can deduce from John 1 18 and from John chapter 12 that it was Jesus.

Jesus himself. You have a question? Yeah. Isn't that amazing though? It's a Christophany. Yeah. I think Isaiah physically sees Jesus. He doesn't see the father. The father, in fact, is spirit. God is spirit.

He doesn't have a human body. He doesn't have a back the way that Moses would have seen his back. I think that Moses and Isaiah physically saw Jesus. Now, would the entirety of the Trinity be present on the throne?

Yeah. But Isaiah at this point in time is not able to see the father. No one sees the father, I think is a consistent teaching. So that's how we harmonize and understand the scripture as it fits together as a whole.

So in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Now, what's this a picture of? Yeah, big guy. The glory of the king, right?

Kings have these long trains. We kind of picture in our culture a woman with a wedding dress and the train of her dress can go all the way out and then the maid comes and fluffs it just the right way.

Well, God as the royalty, as the honored one, as king, Jesus has a robe which just fills the entire temple, meaning it's just enormous and it's glorious. And the idea here, of course, is the majesty of the king.

And when Isaiah sees it, he's just overwhelmed. He's never seen anything like this before. It just filled the temple. Above him stood seraphim. The word seraphim means burning ones. Mark that in your mind, the burning ones.

Now, these are not the messenger angels. Like Gabriel, he's a messenger angel. You have Michael, who's the archangel. There's only one archangel, that's Michael. You have cherubim, who are described as guardian angels.

And we learn from Hebrews 1 .14, are not all angels ministering spirits sent to help those who inherit eternal life, to serve those who inherit eternal life? So, the elect. This is what angels do. But there's a particular class of angel called the seraphim.

These each had six wings. What do they do with those six wings? Right. And why? Why would they cover their feet? Protect them? Yes, in a sense, protect. Well, yeah. From the holiness of God, they're not even worthy to stand on that ground.

They cover their feet. They recognize their unworthiness. Why would they cover their face? It's too bright. The glory, the majesty coming from God, you have to cover your eyes. I mean, you can't just look into the sun, right?

Got to wear sunglasses. How much more the brilliance of the beauty of God. They need to use those wings just to cover their face. It's a glorious picture of who he is. And with two, they flew. So, they're just flying around, beautiful creatures.

And one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. What's that called, Rich? The three... You taught me that before and I still don't remember. Trisagion is the term for it. I'll trust you on that.

R .C. Sproul, the holiness of God. Yeah. Don't you love having a Bible dictionary present? So, holy... Oh, yes. But I love to point out that there's three holies, which again, is a picture of the Trinity.

So, all of the presence of God is there in the temple. Holy, holy, holy. Repeated again and again. You think the angels ever get tired? You think it ever gets old? Ever gets boring? No, not even a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. So, R .C. Sproul, I think is right to say that holiness would be kind of the preeminent aspect of God. I've described it as the sum of all of his attributes. So, the attributes of God, whether it's love or justice, goodness, compassion, long-suffering, these attributes of God can be summarized as holy.

And of course, the word holy means set apart, different, just other. He's just higher and greater. And in every attribute, he is unique. And there are aspects of his holiness that are incommunicable, meaning he alone has those attributes.

And there are other attributes that are communicable, meaning we can share in those to some degree, but never to the fullness that is descriptive of God. So, God is omniscient. He knows everything. None of us will ever be omniscient.

He is all-powerful. So, there's no limit. He's omnipotent. All of these things are his incommunicable attributes. But yeah, I like this concept that holiness is the sum of all of it. He's just God, the uncreated one, the holy one.

That's who he is. Holy, holy, holy. Now, this next phrase, the Lord of hosts. Interestingly, you will not see this phrase appear Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, the judges. The first place where you see the term the Lord of hosts is in the book of 1 Samuel.

Very interesting. And then you'll see it used quite a bit in the Psalms. For example, today, John, we were studying, you and I earlier, it was Psalm 46. And the term Lord of hosts is so prominent there because that's a Psalm where everything is shaken in this earth.

And we live in a time where, you know, the election, everything is up in the air. What's going to happen to America? There's a virus running loose and everybody's concerned. But God is God and everything melts before his presence.

And he's there called the Lord of hosts. He has command over the angel armies. So in the prophets, this term Lord of hosts becomes prominent. I put in your notes, it is used 60 plus times in the book of Isaiah.

It's a common usage to describe God. He is the God of angel armies. Haggai in those two short chapters uses the phrase 14 times. So very big in that, in kind of that scene of rebuilding the temple, they had become lazy, but the Lord of hosts stirs them up to do the work.

Jeremiah uses it 80 plus times. So this phrase, Lord of hosts, he is the God that commands not just the seraphim here, but all angels at his disposal. He is omnipotent in control. And you get this phrase, the whole earth is full of his glory.

Somebody want to read for me Psalm 72, 18 and 19. It's in your notes, or you can turn there. He deserves that the whole world would recognize and reflect his glory. To glorify God does not mean that we make him glorious.

It means that we ascribe to him what he already is. We reflect and acknowledge that. We look at him and see him for the glorious one who fills the whole earth. He's in control. So we see from these verses one to three, just the absolute holiness of God.

It's a beautiful display. Now, as we move into the following verses, we see the response of Isaiah. And it is, it's a separation because holiness means other, right? He's separate from, but here we are on earth.

And we're not just neutral, just small creatures. We're sinful creatures. Who would like to read for me verses four and five? I'll call on Barbara. When we see the holiness of God, the only response that a sinner can have is, woe is me.

At the end, when we make application, I'm going to mention, woe, lo, go. The first is woe, okay? Woe. Woe, lo, and go. Woe refers to a sinner in the presence of a holy God. Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

And he pictured there a spider dangling by a thread over a fire. And the only thing that's preventing him from falling is that little thread. And so it is that it's only the mercy of God that's kept us from the fires of hell.

If we saw the holiness of God, if we heard the voice of the seraphim shaking the temple in heaven, and the smoke filling, if we saw that with our eyes, we would be reduced to shambles. We would be humbled before him.

Remember that song, I Can Only Imagine? What it would be like, beautiful song, because it's for the redeemed. We can stand in the presence and dance. And would I fall, a sinner outside of Christ, in the presence of a holy God, would crumble and disintegrate.

Woe is me, for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. Someone read for me Luke 645. Luke 645, I'll give you a second to get there. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.

For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Does Isaiah see himself as a good person or an evil person? Evil. Because he says, ah, woe is me. I am lost. And his way of knowing that, for I am a man of unclean lips.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Oh, oy vey means, oh yeah, I've heard the oy vey. That means woe is me. Woe is. Woe is me. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. So Isaiah is reduced here to recognize his helpless estate.

Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Many people picture Jesus meek and mild. And the picture of Jesus in the gospel includes that image because he's tender.

He'll take a little child and set that child on his knee. And you picture Jesus going after the one lost sheep to bring that sheep back in. But don't forget that this is the same Jesus that stood in the temple and drove out the money changers.

This is the same Jesus that stood in Jerusalem and confronted the Pharisees and called them brood of vipers. In Matthew 23, just a harsh rebuke. And then we see Jesus at his return in Revelation chapter one.

And what images stand in your mind? For those of you, we've recently studied Revelation. What do you remember from Revelation chapter one about Jesus? What image? His face shining brighter than the sun.

Face shining brighter than the sun. Who else? I said, who else? You already went. Feet like burnished bronze. What else? I'll pretend I didn't hear that. You can't resist. Yeah, out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword.

His mouth, yes, is the sword of the spirit. What are his eyes like? Burning fire. What's on his head? Well, yeah, white wool hair and diadem, right? Crown of diadems. And a gold sash around his chest, which is a priestly garment.

The picture, though, is fire, power. And what does John do in the presence of Jesus the Christ? Exactly what Isaiah did. He falls down as a dead man until Jesus touches him. And that becomes a picture of redemption.

So let's see that. Verses six and seven. Who would still like to read? Oh, here goes. First point. What? I told you to remember this. What does seraphim mean? Burning ones. How hot must this coal be if a burning one has to use tongs?

Think of that. Having in his hand a burning coal that was taken from the altar with tongs, the burning one brings the fiery coal. Our sin was great. His grace is more. Yeah, it's a filthy mouth, but our sin as great as it is, his grace is more.

This burning coal from the altar represents what cleanses us. Ultimately, it's not a coal that can burn away our dross and our sin. The precious blood of Jesus. Redemption through his blood. That's what can wash away our sin.

But this picture is that redemption, atonement has to come from God. I like the analogy that Haggai gives. Haggai addresses the people of Israel, of Judah, as they're rebuilding the temple, and they've fallen into laziness.

And because of their sinfulness, the whole land is defiled and things aren't going well for them. Their pockets have holes in them and their money bags are always empty. Until they become obedient, and God stirs them up to do the work.

But even in that, there's not a reversing of the curse. Until God says, from this day forward, I will bless you. God had to atone for their sin. And then he gives this analogy. He says, if someone comes into contact with something that's unclean, do they become unclean?

Yes, they do. So if you touch a dead body, you're unclean. Okay. Does it work the other way around? If you are unclean, meaning you've come in contact with a dead body, or for some other reason you're unclean, if you touch something holy, does that make you holy?

No. You can't just touch a priest. Only a supernatural work from God can take away sin. Doing good things, going in contact. So a person who comes to church and starts to do that good work, does not thereby become holy.

A person who begins to do good works for their neighbor, loving the neighbor, going and feeding the homeless, helping, doing all of these good things, becoming the most righteous person on earth relative to others, none of that takes away uncleanness.

It is only the coal from the altar of God that can take away sin. God himself must provide atonement. And that's precisely what we see happening here. Look at verse 6 and 7. The seraphim does the work.

This is sent from God. The seraphim takes a coal from God's altar and applies it to the lips of sinful Isaiah. And the result is his sin is atoned for. In the same way, on the mountain of the Lord it shall be provided.

God provided a lamb of sacrifice. And that altar, that altar of God was the cross. The cross was the altar. The death of the lamb of God, Jesus Christ on the cross, atones for sins. And God himself applies that atonement to those upon whom he would give mercy.

This is a monergistic salvation. Anybody want to take a guess? What does monergistic salvation mean? I can call on Kimberly for this one. Kimberly, what is monergistic salvation? Yes. Yes. Awesome. Very well said.

So you have one active agent or one force, one energy. Mono, monergism, meaning that the energy or the force is coming from one. Salvation is monergistic. God himself provides the coal from the altar.

God himself applies that coal. Unless God touches your heart of stone with his fire and changes it, it becomes, and becomes a heart of flesh. You're still dead. There's nothing you can do to make yourself whole.

Isaiah is helpless. And here then is where the King James is a little bit superior than the ESV. Because it uses that word low. And it rhymes better in my schema. So I'm going to make an application at the end.

Woe, lo, go. Woe, that's where we start. Woe is me. I am totally depraved. I am helpless. Lo, I have touched your lips. Look what he says. In the King James, it says lo, but here in verse it says behold.

In other words, look, behold. Lo, this has touched your lips. Lo, the precious blood of Jesus atones for your sin. Your guilt is taken away. Forgiveness of sin under his blood. Your sin atoned for. Now we move on to the go.

Verses 8 through 13. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then I said, here I am! Exclamation mark. What a contrast from the woe is me. A sinner in the hands of an angry God.

I deserve the flame. I deserve to be punished eternally. But lo, the precious blood of Jesus has cleansed me. And so when God says who will go for me, I can stand and boldly say, send me. I'll be a preacher.

I'll be a missionary. I'll go. I'll go to my neighbor. I'll go to my co. I am delighted to go. What a transformation from the woe is me reduced to rubble on the floor. Do you see this? What a beautiful picture of salvation.

Now, what is he called to do? Whom shall I send? Who will go for? Oh, I have to point this out. Us. Why would God use the plural at this particular point? It's a picture of the Trinity. So we've seen this earlier, especially prominently in Genesis chapter one, verse 26 to 28, and Genesis chapter 11.

Let us make man in our image. Genesis 11, let us go down. Confuse their language. This is not God speaking to angels because angels are not made in the image of God. This is the Holy One speaking intra-Trinitarianism.

That's not a word. It's God speaking within the Trinity, Father to Son to Holy Spirit. Let us go. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me. Now, I love preaching Christ. I love to tell people the good story, the good news.

And that's our privilege, not just mine. That's your privilege, Luis. It's yours, Rich, Carol. We each as new covenant believers in Christ, we have the and proclaim good news. It comes with judgment. We do have to call sin for what it is and call for repentance, but it carries the good news that that sin is atoned for under the blood of Christ to those who will believe, to those who will repent.

Look at what Isaiah is called to preach, and yet he's still eager to obey. He said, verse nine, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

Then I said, how long, O Lord? And he said, until cities lie waste inhabitant, houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste. And the Lord removes people far away. And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

And though a 10th remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. There is in this judgment oracle a glimmer of hope.

We'll see just in a couple of chapters, a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his root will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will be on him. There still will be a remnant, but it's a very small remnant because even the great judgment, when the warring parties come down, first the Assyrians come, come right up to the neck of Jerusalem, but then they're driven back as Hezekiah prays, ultimately Babylon will overrun Jerusalem.

It will be reduced again and again by waves of judgment, 605 and then 597, then 586, again and again until people are just taken into captivity. There's barely anything left, but there will be a remnant.

So there's hope in this. There is some hope in this judgment oracle, but it's largely a picture of God judging. Will Isaiah be successful in preaching to this people? Yes or no? Will he be successful?

You better have been listening last Sunday. You're wrong for once. He will be successful. Why, Kimberly? Amen. Success is obedience. Successful is to be faithful. This is what I was preaching last Sunday.

He won't see a massive revival. Israel will not turn under his preaching. Rather, there's coming judgment. This is what he says. But he will be faithful, and that is his success. He will proclaim what God sent him to proclaim, and that is his success.

So Isaiah himself will be faithful, but it will look like a failure to the world. Looks like nobody's listening. Jeremiah will prophesy concurrently. I think they... Well, no, he prophesies later, but say the same thing.

And ultimately, Jeremiah will have pretty much no converts by the time things are all said and done. I don't know if he ever saw a convert, although there was, of course, was a remnant at all times in Israel and in Judah, but he never got to see it.

What if you preach to your nephew and your niece, your sons and daughters, your own spouse, parents, friends, and you're just not seeing any conversions? Will you fall silent? Did Isaiah fall silent? The point here is you see the iterations of this verse.

It's you keep coming. You keep preaching. I want you... He says, here I am. And the answer from God is go and say, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Isaiah is going to keep on coming.

And so we're called to keep coming with this gospel. Will most people believe? No. If we had time right now, I'm short on time, but we would go to Matthew 13. So that's your homework. In Matthew 13, you have the picture of the farmer.

He goes out scattering seed, and he is just throwing it everywhere, just spreading that seed. But four of the kinds of soil come up empty. Some of it looks like it's going to be good for a while, but really it's only the fourth soil that is commended.

And in Matthew 13, Jesus quotes from this very passage. So Matthew 13 verses 14 and 15. Again, at the end of Acts, Paul has a similar... Maybe I do have a minute for someone to read that. Acts 28, 26.

Kristen, while you find Acts 28, 26, we don't have time to get into the doctrine of judicial hardening and how it is that by preaching, people are more condemned in their sin through their rejection. As sinners, the light comes to them, and yet they're more hardened against it.

They're more accountable, and yet their dead heart is not responding. And therefore, they're incurring a stricter judgment. The big idea here is that a dead heart needs God to open, to grant new life into that heart, a new creation.

Second Corinthians 5. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. God must give the new heart, the new birth, to give new eyes, ears to hear. Otherwise, the dead sinner is only repelled by this good message.

And they turn away, and their judgment is only compounded as they hear. If Isaiah had never preached to them, their judgment would be less severe. But because they have this warning constantly, and they constantly reject, now they're even more hardened in their sin.

They're like that hardened soil. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Because you say you see, your sin remains. Yeah. So there's a lot here, and Matthew picks up on that. Kristen, would you kind of finish this up here with Acts 28, verse 26?

And that's new covenant. That's Paul preaching the good news, right? Paul is going to be kind of giving them this warning under the gospel. He's brought the good news, the light of the gospel. So it is that we're sent to be faithful.

And many will reject it, but we continue to preach. And we trust God to do the work of changing hearts. Let's close in prayer. John, would you mind?

Lord, woe is us, Lord. Without you, without the cleansing blood of the lamb shed on the cross, woe is us. We are a sinful people. There is a low. The cleansing blood has touched us, has brought us into a relationship, has made us this new creation in you.

And so now, Lord, we go in obedience to you, to a world. We continue to preach. We continue to be a light. It is your job to save souls. We are told to go. We thank you for the message and for this truth, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.