Taken and modified from multiple sources
Continued From Yesterday
We’ll finish up with a look at Isaiah 6, in respect to R.C. Sproul and that wonderful passage, I want to show you something. Isaiah 6:1, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death,” why is that important?
Well, first of all, it’s important if your name is Mrs. Uzziah. But apart from that, this is a sudden act of God in which Uzziah is killed by God, according to 2 Chronicles 26, after reigning for 52 years and sort of being a symbol of God’s continuing blessing. And when he’s gone, it really looks bad. Chapter 5 laid out six curses for grasping materialism, drunken pleasure seeking, moral perversion, corrupt leadership, etc., and promised the coming of the great enemy army and the captivity of Israel. Things looked bad. And I believe Isaiah goes to the temple and seeks God and it says here,
“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with the train of His robe filling the temple, seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he hovered like a celestial helicopter.”
The angels just hovering in motion ready to be dispatched and go immediately to minister to the saints, as Hebrews 1:14 says. And then in an antiphonal pattern, one called out to another and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
You know the rest of the story, the foundations on the threshold trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke and the response to this vision of the holy, majestic glory of the One on the throne produces a sense of guilt and devastation. And he says, “Woe is me,” he used that word six times in chapter 5, he knows exactly what it means, it’s damnation curse. He sees himself as cursed because seeing this holy vision, he then sees his own sin. He is overwhelmed. He says,
“I am...(in the Hebrew)...disintegrating because I have a dirty mouth.”
Why does he say that? He (Isaiah) has the best mouth in the land, he’s a prophet, and being Isaiah, he one of the best of all time!? It is because one’s depravity is most frequently manifest through one’s lips. And note that he is affirming not only his own depravity, but also the depravity of his people. He feels this way because he has seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
And that in contrast to what he has seen in that great throne room, feels the horror of his own sin. You remember the latter part of the account.
“One of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs, he touched my mouth…”
…Here, BTW, you have a marvelous picture of atonement and the application of the atonement personally applied. He is purified. Then the Lord says,
“Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me.”
I think he said it meekly, humbly, probably with the possibility that he would in having said that been struck by God for such audacity, having just confessed his wretchedness. But the Lord says to him,
“Go and tell this people, keep on listening, do not perceive, keep on looking, do not understand, render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, their eyes dim lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, return and be healed.”
You go BUT know this, you’re going to meet resistance. Their hearts will be hard. Their ears will not hear. Their eyes will not see. They will not understand. He says, “How long do I do that?” I mean, that sounds like a rather unproductive way to spend the rest of my life.
“How long until the cities are devastated without inhabitant, houses are without people? The land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed everybody away, nobody is left. Keep doing it.”
Why? Because, verse 13,
“There is a holy seed, there is a stump, there is a tenth, there is the elect.”
That’s a fast trip through here.
This magnificent vision of the holy, holy, holy one on the throne, with that in your mind, let me close by drawing your attention to John chapter 12. John chapter 12 and verse 36, middle of the verse,
“These things Jesus spoke and He departed and hid Himself from them. But though He had performed so many signs before them, they were not believing in Him.”
Listen to this, verse 38,
“In order that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke,”
It’s right out of chapter 6:
“Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
That part taken from chapter 53.
“For this cause they could not believe, for Isaiah said again...(and here comes Isaiah 6)...He’s blinded their eyes, He’s hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them.”
And then notice this amazing statement in verse 41:
“These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory and he spoke of Him.”
Whose glory? Christ. Who is “Him”? Christ.
Back to verse 37,
“They were not believing in Him. And when Isaiah saw His glory and spoke of Him, he was speaking of Christ.”
There is a “Christophany”. There is the heavenly vision of the holy, holy, holy Son and Lord who manifest Himself in this world. Jonathan Edwards said, “God only appears in human shape in the Son.” It is Him we love and Him we serve.
Father, we do commit to You this truth. We are overwhelmed by the glory of our Christ and His utter holiness. We thank You that we come to a high priest who sympathizes with our infirmities but who in it all triumphed and whose perfection has become our salvation. To Him we give all the glory. Amen.
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