(The Word for Today) Isaiah 6:1 - Part 3 — Chuck Smith

To the word for today. The word for today is a continuous study of the Bible taught by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old Testament.

And for those of you following along in your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter 6 beginning with verse 1 as we continue with an in-depth message entitled The Commission of Isaiah. Now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck.

Isaiah’s Vision of God’s Sovereign Throne

Everybody was talking about Isaiah. He was popular and under his reign they felt very secure and very safe. People just didn't worry. He was a smart man, he was a good leader, and he brought the nation to a period of great prosperity and might.

And thus when Uzziah finally died and the reigns of government were turned over completely to Jotham, it was a tragic and sad day in Judah and people were feeling that sort of desperation and that feeling of near panic of what are we going to do.

Uzziah is dead. The throne is empty. Our great king has vacated the throne. But God gave a vision to Isaiah to show him that the throne was not empty. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and his glory filled the temple.

God removed Isaiah's idol in order that Isaiah might see the Lord. Many times we get our eyes upon men and because our eyes are upon men we fail to see God. We begin to trust in man and we fail to trust fully in God.

And so God removes our idols many times in order that we might realize that it is God that is upon the throne. It is God that is working. It is not the work of man. But God was more or less saying to Isaiah, I'm on the throne.

I'm in control. He's revealing that to him. And you know there are times in our lives when God needs to reveal that to us because we have a tendency of forgetting that God is on the throne. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne.

He was high, exalted. His glory filled the temple. And then he describes a little bit the throne of God. John gives us a description of it in Revelation chapter 4. Ezekiel gives us a description of it in chapters 1 and 10 of Ezekiel.

The Heavenly Throne and the Worship of the Seraphim

And I do recommend you reading these descriptions of the throne of God in heaven because one day you're going to be standing there looking at the throne of God. Now another place to get insight, interestingly enough, is in the book of Exodus when God gave to Moses the design of the tabernacle.

Because the tabernacle, in reality, was a model of the heavenly throne of God. And so the tabernacle gives to you a good idea of what the throne of God is like because it was a model. These things were all examples or models of the heavenly things.

And so he tells us about the throne of God. The seraph, which are no doubt an angelic form that they could be the same as cherubim or they could be different from cherubim. They could be a little different order than the cherubim.

Ezekiel describes the cherubim that are about the throne of God. They are a powerful angel that are declaring the glory of God, the holiness of God, the awesomeness of God. And here the seraphim, he describes them as having wings, six wings.

With two of the wings they cover their face. That is, God is so awesome that even the angels are not worthy to look at him, so they cover their face. With two they cover their feet and with two they fly.

So these are certainly interesting created beings of God, intelligent beings. I'm sort of curious waiting to see these seraphims and also the cherubims. And you remember in the tabernacle how he was to carve these two cherubim above the little Ark of the Covenant and all because the Holy of Holies was the dwelling place of God, the throne of God.

And there was that Ark of the Covenant and there were the cherubim, the two cherubim that were there. And that's all representative of what's in heaven. And the seraphim are saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

And the whole earth is full of his glory. In the book of Revelation chapter 4 the cherubim are again speaking of the holiness of God as they cry, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty which is, which was, and which is to come.

And so the heavenly scene. And Isaiah, the vision of God sitting upon his throne, he sees the the seraphim about the throne of God, he hears their worship of God. And as they are worshiping God, the power, no doubt, of the praise and the voices just sort of shakes the place.

The doors, the post of the doors, the doorposts sort of move like when an organ hits one of those deep bass notes and it just sort of reverberates through the whole place. The place sort of shakes, you know, the power of that.

And so the place sort of shakes. The voice of him that cried in the house was filled with smoke. Probably as the smoke of incense because we do know that there is an altar there with burning coals on it.

And in the temple they would take and put the incense on the burning coals. And the incense rising was representative of the prayers of God's saints that arise to the Lord. So the house being filled with smoke was probably the smoke of the incense that was placed upon the altar and the prayers that filled the dwelling place of God.

Conviction of Sin and the Need to Guard Our Speech

Then I said, seeing this, I said, woe is me for I am undone. That word undone is a difficult Hebrew word to translate into English. Unglued would be somewhat of a translation. Better would be I've had it.

That's the idea of it. When he saw the God and the throne of God, he said, wow, I've had it, you know. Because he became conscious of his own guilt. He became conscious of his sin and all. And so seeing this awesome glory of God, he said, oh, I've had it.

You know, I'm undone. I'm wiped out. Because I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. The thing that he became conscious of is his improper language. Oh, how we need to watch our language.

David said, put a guard over my mouth, oh Lord. James said, if a man seems to be religious and yet if he doesn't bridle his own tongue, his religion is vain. I've heard Christians use expressions that I feel are inappropriate for a child of God.

My wife says I hate bathroom talk. And I thank God that she does. And I have always. Lord, let my speech be coming of you. And as a Christian, watch your language. Don't pick up the idioms of the world.

I even have difficulty with slang. When I was growing up, I went through that period where I started to use slang. And my mother took me aside and said, son, those are just substitute words. When you go around saying heck, that's just a substitute word for hell.

When you go around saying darn it, that's a substitute word for damn it. When you say oh gosh, that's a substitute word for God. You say gee whiz, that's just a substitute word for Jesus. And so I quit using slang.

I want, as David said, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. And it is interesting that Isaiah became very aware of his words.

I'm a man of unclean lips. I've been using bad language, improper language. Because I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I hear it all around me. I'm exposed to it all day long. And oh my, I'm sure that any of you working out in the world can say, man, I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips.

I mean, it's terrible the way people talk. And our whole movie industry has done a lot to contribute to the filthy language. And oh how subtle and all is Satan. You know that I don't get on this much.

But I think that it's time that we need to ask the Lord not only to put a guard over our mouths, but put a guard over our ears. And be careful of what we're listening to. It's tragic what's happening to TV.

You know, it isn't now just going and seeing it in a theater, but it's bringing it right into your home as the major networks are deciding to go to more explicit filth. And I think that it's a tragic day and age in which we live when our children can come home and turn on TV and be exposed to all kinds of filth.

God’s Holiness, Confession, and Cleansing

The cry of the cherubim was, holy, holy, holy. You realize how holy God is. Our God is a holy God, absolutely pure. And there seeing God and hearing the angels declare the holiness, the purity of God, he became suddenly aware of his lips.

My, I've been saying things that are not proper. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king. Uzziah is dead, but I've seen the true king, the Lord of hosts.

Now with this confession of sin, there comes that instant cleansing of sin. And that's the wonderful thing. The Bible said if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. If you seek to cover your sin, the Bible said you won't prosper.

But if you will confess your sin, you will be forgiven. And so upon the confession of his sin, one of the seraphims took tongs and he took one of these glowing coals from the altar and he flew down to Isaiah having this glowing coal in his hand.

And he laid it upon Isaiah's mouth and he said, lo, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is cleansed. Upon confession, there is that immediate forgiveness and cleansing.

Lord, I'm a sinner. Be merciful. The immediate forgiveness and cleansing. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And then I said, here am I. Send me. He is now ready to go.

Isaiah’s Commission and the Cost of Gospel Ministry

Having experienced the grace of God, he can now teach the grace of God. Having experienced the forgiveness, he can now share the forgiveness. Sharing what God has done in his own life, he is now a personal witness of the grace and the mercy of God.

Here am I. Send me. And so the Lord said, go and tell this people. Now he's commissioned, but boy, he's given a tough commission. I like the honesty that the Lord has. When the Lord called Paul to preach the gospel, the Lord there showed Paul all of the things that he was going to suffer for his preaching of the gospel.

The Lord didn't say, well, Paul, it's going to be nice. You're going to have your own jet and you can just fly around and you'll have people waiting at the airport and they'll pick you up in a limo and they'll take you over and it'll just really be comfortable, Paul.

I want my servants to have the best, you know. No, the Lord said, Paul, they're going to throw you in prison. You're going to be stoned. You're going to be shipwrecked. Lord told him everything that he was going to face in the ministry.

It's not going to be easy. Paul's going to be tough. Jews are going to turn against you. They're going to hate you. They're going to try and kill you. They're going to beat you. And in spite of all of the warnings, Paul went ahead and accepted the calling and the commission.

Isaiah’s Warning to a Spiritually Hardened Nation

Now the same is so with Isaiah. God is saying, hey, it's not going to be easy, Isaiah. They're not going to really pay any attention. Your ministry is not going to be successful. Go and tell this people, you hear indeed, but you don't understand.

Indeed, you see, but you don't really see. You hear, but you don't understand what is being said. You see, but you don't really apprehend what you are seeing. I think that today we don't really understand what we're seeing in the world, the things that are transpiring in the world.

There's a lot of deception. So the Lord said, you will make the heart of the people fat and their ears will become heavy. God is telling the condition. He's not saying for Isaiah to make them. He's just declaring the conditions.

The heart of the people are fat. Then their ears are heavy and they have shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted and be healed.

They've turned their back. They won't listen. They won't see. Their hearts are covered with fat. Can't get through to them. Their ears are heavy. They won't listen to what I'm saying. They've closed their eyes.

And boy, talk about again the condition of the United States today as a nation. We've closed our ears to God. We've closed our eyes to the things that are happening. We won't listen to God. We won't take the warnings from God.

In order that God might heal our nation. We might turn back again to God. It seems like we're just getting worse all the time. Rather than seeing any omen or sign for change and revival and real returning to God.

Evil days are waxing worse and worse. And when the Lord told him this, he said, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities are wasted and are without inhabitants. Until the houses are without man and the land is utterly desolate.

And the Lord has removed men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. It shall be that only a tenth part of the people will remain and even they won't repent. It will be as a teal tree or as an oak whose substance is in them when they have cast their leaves.

The Faithful Remnant and the Coming Kingdom

So the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. Now at the end there is a promise and God says, hey dark, dark, dark, dark days. But yet there will be a remnant. There's going to be a survival of it.

There will be those that will come through. Like an oak tree in the winter when all of the leaves are gone. It's bare. It looks dead. The winter cold has just taken the sap out of the branches and the leaves just drop off and it looks dead.

Yet in the spring it's going to come back to life. There's still that that is there and there is that remnant and there will be that again blossoming forth out of what appears to be dead and hopeless.

And so God is promising that the nation will be scattered. The cities will be wasted. It will be without inhabitants. They'll be carried away captive and yet there will be that remnant that God will bring back.

That small remnant and there will be again like the oak tree, the budding forth, the new leaf, the new growth, the new work of God amongst the people. And so we have today the promise of a glorious new day that is going to come when he establishes God's kingdom upon the earth.

And we've been praying for that day. We've been praying, Lord, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And we look at the things today and God says, hey, testify and bear witness and warn them. And we say, Lord, how long?

And let them know, the faithful, that I'll bring them through and I'll start over again. The root and those who are rooted in me, they'll come forth.

Jack-o'-lanterns and trick-or-treat all have roots in sorcery and Satanism. We would never knowingly get involved with anything related to Satan, but many Christians don't understand what's really behind the pagan holiday.

The word for today would like to offer you a presentation hosted by Pastor Chuck Smith called Halloween Trick or Treat that traces the pagan origins and history of Halloween. This powerful movie uncovers the mystic rites and ceremonies of Satan and will forever change your opinion of Halloween.

Every year as the end of October approaches, we are faced with the dilemma of family and friends pressuring us to participate in the celebration of this pagan holiday. This documentary will definitely challenge you to decide whether or not you'll continue to participate in this tradition.

If you'd like more information on Halloween Trick or Treat, then simply write or call and ask one of our operators for the ordering details. Again, it's called Halloween Trick or Treat. And right now, if you place an order, the word for today would like to bless you with Pastor Chuck Smith's pamphlet, How Can a Man Be Born Again?

Absolutely free. Instead of just giving candy this year, the pamphlet is the perfect tool for Christians to share the gospel with loved ones and friends. Available in both English and Spanish. Again, it's free when you call right now.

To order Halloween Trick or Treat for yourself or for a friend, you can call the word for today at 1 -800 -272-WORD or write to us at P .O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628. Once again, that number to call is 1 -800 -272 -9673.

And for those of you that would like to visit our website you can do so at www .twft .com. Or if you would like to email us, you can do so at info at twft .com. Well, coming up next time on The Word for Today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his fascinating study through the book of Isaiah.

That's coming up next time on The Word for Today.

Prayer for Righteousness, Peace, and Christ’s Reign

Lord, we long for your righteousness to come. We long, Lord, to see a world of righteousness and peace. We long, Lord, to see the wars to cease. The oppression of man to cease. The powers of wickedness to be brought low.

And your kingdom come. Help us to take heart until that glorious day dawn, the day of our Lord and his reign over the earth. In Jesus' name.