Isaiah 6

ME (A hook): Disney World Tower of Terror

This might be a terrible way to start,

But let me ask you to picture a time where you felt absolutely terrified.

For me,

One of my most terrifying experiences happened when I was a teenager.

I was in this packed elevator,

It was noisy,

Making all these loud banging sounds as it slowly moved up.

And it seemed like,

It kept going slower and slower,

Then, it started filling with smoke,

So, much smoke,

I couldn’t even see my own feet.

And while all of us were distracted by the smoke,

The whole thing suddenly starts violently shaking!

Until finally...

It just stops...

And after a brief pause,

The doors open...

And I am like 40 feet in the air,

Overlooking Disney World,

Then within seconds,

The elevator starts to free fall!

Now my terror is mixed with joy and gladness,

And I cannot wait to get back in line to ride the Tower of Terror again!

Terror mixed with things like joy and gladness,

Seems to be what it is like for those in the Bible who have been invited into the heavenly realms.

Last week,

Justin led us through the first 20 verses of Mark 4,

Where Jesus gives us the parable of the soils,

And teaches the meaning of the parable of the soils.

But in the middle of those two things,

He gave a brief rationale for why He teaches in parables.

In this rationale,

Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9-10.

So, this morning,

We are pausing in Mark 4,

And reaching back to look at all of Isaiah 6.

Where we see the holy and glorious nature of the One seated on the throne.

We will consider Isaiah 6 in three parts:

First, The Lord is Holy in vs. 1-4,

Second, We are Sinners in vs. 5-7,

Last, A Message of Judgment and Hope in vs. 8-13.

My hope this morning,

Is that by faith,

This passage will give each of us eyes to see the Lord anew,

And allow His holiness to search out our unholiness.

This passage can give our hearts a deep humility,

It is a powerful and eloquent chapter,

Where we get to stand with Isaiah,

And gaze at the glory of the Lord on His throne!

Where we can hear the questions Isaiah hears,

And consider our own response.

It is a passage that explores the reach of God’s sovereignty over wicked humanity.

It is the vision of Isaiah’s call,

Near the beginning of his service as a prophet.

And this is common.

Most prophets record when God calls them.

For example,

Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3,

Jeremiah hearing from God in Jeremiah 1,

And Ezekiel experiencing his own vision in Ezekiel 1.

But what is uncommon,

Is that this is not Isaiah’s original call.

He is already a prophet when he receives this vision in Isaiah 6.

But it is a pivot point for him.

It seems to shape everything for him from this point forward.

Isaiah models this spirit of uncompromising firmness and boldness.

It is really quite admirable.

He does not hold back out of fear of what people are gonna say or think.

He had a rock-solid reverence toward the holy Lord.

And he foretold some of the most beautiful prophecies about the salvation of God’s people.

But also told of some of the most difficult hardships as well.

So, he is a prophet of both judgment and hope.

WE (Why does this matter to us?): The Lord is Holy (vs. 1-4)

But let’s look more closely in vs. 1-4,

Where we see the Lord is Holy.

If you get nothing else from our time in the Word this morning,

My hope is that these verses will help you to think loftier,

More majestic thoughts of the Lord.

But first,

Vs. 1 gives us some context, saying,

Isaiah was a prophet during the reign of King Uzziah.

Which tells us this was eighth-century BC.

And Uzziah was a relatively good king,

Not perfect,

Especially near the end of his life.

But he is described as doing what was right in the Lord’s sight.

So, God blessed his reign with prosperity and military success.

He reigned for 52 years.

And the chapter begins the year of his death,

Making it a time of great uncertainty, and political instability.

It is against this background of the death of the human king,

Where Isaiah is in the temple,

And suddenly, he receives this vision from God.

The temple transforms into the throne room of heaven,

And he sees the true King,

Enthroned on a high and lofty throne,

Actively and sovereignly governing His people!

This awesome vision is the central reality of the universe!

And it is the reality that Satan seeks to blind our eyes to.

He does not want us to live in light of this throne.

He wants to deceive us about this reality every moment of our lives.

But the ministry of the Holy Spirit,

Gives us the ability to see this reality,

And to live accordingly.

This vision portrays the greatness and majesty of the Lord!

So much so,

That it is difficult to really put into words.

It should make us feel very small in our own eyes.

It should humble us.

The Lord is on His throne,

High and exalted!

This introduction is overwhelming!

In vs. 2,

Isaiah sees the Lord surrounded by these creatures called Seraphim.

It is the only place the Bible uses this name,

And it literally means “burning ones.”

These great and powerful angelic beings are on fire with the glory of God.

This is no coincidence,

Because fire symbolizes cleansing or purification.

It gives us this sense of terrifying holiness.

The angels are ministers of the Lord’s,

Using two of their six wings to fly around,

Ready to serve His every command,

While He sits on His throne.

But the other four wings are used to cover their faces,

And their feet.

Which is interesting for three reasons.

First, because these are perfectly holy creatures,

Who have never committed any sin.

There is no evil in them,

They are pure,

Always doing the will of their Creator.

And yet, they shield their eyes from the brilliance of God’s glory.

They cannot look directly at the face of God.

Second, covering their feet brings us back to Exodus 3,

When Moses is told to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.

So, in the holiness of heaven,

The seraphim worship the Lord by covering their feet.

Third, four of their six wings are used for worship,

While the other two are used for service.

Perhaps for some of us,

This can be a helpful reminder that while readiness to serve is good,

And we should.

Our serving shouldn’t be at the expense of our worship of the Lord.

Continuing in vs. 3,

As Isaiah is seeing all of this,

He then hears the seraphim calling out to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.”

What an awesome picture of heavenly worship!

They are praising the supreme holiness of God!

And I want to park here on the theme of holiness for a moment.

If you have been around church for any time,

You are familiar with holiness.

We often summarize it as being set apart.

But really, it is so much more than that.

Yes, holiness is separate from all that is sinful.

And God, specifically, is uniquely holy, other, and separate.

When we define holiness as merely being set apart,

We are defining our Creator’s attribute from the perspective of the creature.

So, it really only gives us part of the picture.

Consider the Holy Trinity.

Father, Son, and Spirit,

Three distinctly holy Persons,

But there is no separation one from the other.

In fact,

When it comes to holiness within the Trinity,

It is perfectly pure devotion of each member to one another.

So, the Trinity helps us get a better grasp on holiness.

The Godhead teaches us how holiness is personal and lovely.

The Bible states God is holy,

And God is love.

So, there is something equitable about holiness and love.

Hear what Sinclair Ferguson writes about this:

“Holiness is the intensity of the love that flows within the very being of God, among and between each of the three persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

It is this overwhelming intensity Ferguson speaks of,

That causes the seraphim to cover their faces,

And compels them to shout,

“Holy, holy, holy!”

Ray Ortlund explains why the threefold Holy:

“'Holy, holy, holy’ is not just repetition; it is emphasis. It isn’t one plus one plus one. It is perfection times perfection times perfection. The holiness of God distinguishes him absolutely, even above the sinless angels.”

And that is what is being emphasized here!

Holiness is the fullest truth about God!

It is like saying God is holy to the gazillionth degree!

In fact, God is so holy,

Exodus tells us,

That a human cannot see His face and live.

So, the fact that the sinless seraphim cover their face,

Supports the reality that there is more to the holiness of God,

Than just separation from sin.

His holiness is His goodness in all His attributes, works, and ways.

One of the greatest joys I have had,

Has been the privilege to officiating weddings.

Because there is this closeness with the couple right up to the binding of their covenant.

But at the end of a ceremony,

As I would announce,

“You may now kiss your bride,”

I would step back,

And step to the side.

Because the closeness of that moment of love is to be shared between those two people.

While the rest of us at the ceremony,

Celebrate from a distance.

And that is how I picture the seraphim celebrating the holiness of the Lord.

The closeness of the love being shared by the Trinity is perfectly pure,

So, they celebrate from a distance,

By covering their faces.

And this is where we get the idea of holiness meaning separation.

Because from a creaturely perspective,

There is distance between us,

And the intensity of God’s triune love.

So, the only way for us to look on the face of God,

Is for God to accommodate our creatureliness,

By giving us His Son,

To be our Bridegroom,

Covenantally inviting us into His perfectly, pure love.

And if this is what it means for God to be holy,

Then for us to be holy,

We must have a deeply personal, intense, and loving devotion to Him.

We must have a sense of belonging to God that is irreversible, unconditional, and without reservation!

To put it simply,

Being holy is being entirely God’s.

So, that all we do and all we have are His!

Once more, Sinclair Ferguson writes:

“To be holy, to be sanctified, therefore, to be a ‘saint’, is in simple terms to be devoted to God.”

The Bible often depicts holiness as bright and shining.

God’s holiness is this blinding brightness,

That is too intense for creatures to gaze upon.

So, being holy,

Being devoted to God,

Involves belonging to God,

But it also entails being influenced by Him.

We are His and we become like Him.

And as we become like Him,

We become increasingly separated from what is sinful.

Holy devotion to God will cause a bright holiness to shine in our lives,

As expressions of God’s grace and glory in us.

There is an attractiveness to holiness.

Because it is what we humans were originally created to be.

And since there is an infinite beauty in God.

Holy devotion to Him,

Results in His beauty appearing in us, too!

Our holiness is entirely a work of the Lord.

He first separates us from our sin nature,

To, second, transform us in such a way,

That our lives reflect Him and His character.

It is God restoring us to His image we were created to reflect.

And we call this sanctification.

He changes us into what He means us to be,

Which is,

More and more like Himself!

Let’s continue in our passage,

Looking at the second part of the seraphim’s chorus of worship.

The whole earth is full of the Lord’s glory.

Even though God is unapproachably holy,

He reveals Himself in the visible world.

His splendor fills the earth.

Creation shows us varying attributes of God.

Romans 1:20 says,

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

So, we can see God’s glory in what He has made.

Presently, the world is filled with His glory.

Listen to Psalm 19:1,

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

God’s glory is woven into every atom in creation,

Every blade of grass, every mighty animal, every flying bird, every powerful storm, and every star in the sky.

All of it proclaims the greatness and glory of the Lord,

Who is at the center of it all,

Seated on His throne.

And Habakkuk 2:14 predicts a day where the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

As water covers the sea.

In that day,

The redeemed will walk in resurrection bodies,

In a perfect universe,

Radiating with only the Lord’s glory.

Until then,

We see glimpses of His glory in this fallen world.

(vs. 4)

So far in these first three verses,

Isaiah has seen the Lord on the throne,

And heard the sounds praise.

Now, vs. 4 continues the assault on his senses,

As Isaiah feels the doorposts and thresholds shake,

And he smells the smoke that is simultaneously filling the temple.

We have already emphasized how holy the Lord is,

Infinitely more holy, glorious, and powerful than these seraphim.

Yet, it is the thunderous sound of their voices that causes everything to shake!

These are awesome creatures!

And they worship and serve an infinitely more awesome God!

As the smoke in the temple illustrates.

Revelation 15:8 helps us understand, it says,

“the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power,”

So, here in Isaiah,

These great and mighty angelic beings,

Are praising and worshipping the holiness and glory of God,

Causing everything to shake,

While the power and glory of God fills the room.

Isaiah is fully immersed in the holiness of the Lord.

GOD (Teach the text): We are Sinners (vs. 5-7)

(vs. 5)

As we turn to our second section,

In vs. 5-7,

Where Isaiah demonstrates that we are sinners.

The greatness of all Isaiah is experiencing wrecks him.

God wants us to be personally devoted to Him!

And as we have discussed,

Holiness is about more than merely keeping rituals,

Or outwardly obeying the law.

Holiness is about knowing God,

Reflecting God,

Expressing His character,

And having fellowship with Him.

It is why He calls us His bride.

And it is this reckoning of holiness that shatters Isaiah.

This heavenly worship service,

Causes the deep reality of God’s holiness to hit him,

And perhaps,

For the first time in his life,

To really see himself as he truly is.

This vision has shattered any pride, self-righteousness, or self-confidence he had.

Instead, he realizes how profoundly unclean he is.

He sees the infinitely stark contrast of God’s holiness against his own sinfulness.

And became keenly aware that he is a sinner.

Not just someone who has done sinful things,

But he is a sinner to his core.

And his sinfulness infects him,

His lips,

And the messages he spoke for God.

You see,

He wasn’t just broken over sinful things he had done.

No, he was devastated,

Because he knew his sinfulness contaminated the most sacred thing he was called to do,

Proclaim God’s message.

The very best he has to offer is filthy rags.

When this hit him,

He felt it deeply,

And he couldn’t bear it.

Yet, this is a good thing.

It would be good for you and I to be shattered like this today.

Because it is when he is in pieces,

In the presence of the holy Lord,

Isaiah, confesses,

“Woe is me!”

“I am ruined!”

“I am a man of unclean lips!”

“Living among a people of unclean lips!”

And he reached this conclusion because, he says,

“My eyes have seen the King,

The Lord Almighty!”

Friends, Isaiah is a sinner unmasked here.

He is stripped down to nothing in his own eyes.

Any inclination he might have had in his own ability to meet the standards of God’s holiness has evaporated.

The bright intensity of the Almighty King,

Made him feel unholy and unfit,

And he is undone!

But, it is important to note,

God is not shocked by Isaiah’s confession.

He already knows the depth of Isaiah’s sinfulness.

Just as he already knows the depth of your sinfulness and my sinfulness.

Hebrews 4:13 says,

“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

So, he knows each of us inside and out.

But we can certainly deceive ourselves.

We can hide our own sin from our own eyes.

We can see ourselves through this lens of pride,

Causing us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

It is when we come into the presence of the holy Lord,

That we are able to see ourselves for what we truly are,

Sinners.

But like Isaiah,

In the presence of the Lord,

We can also respond with repentance.

This repentance is the beginning of new things for Isaiah.

He has encountered the sheer unfiltered holy-love of the triune God,

And he will never be the same again.

He has seen what God meant when He said,

“Be holy for I am holy.”

The light of God’s beauty has revealed to Isaiah the nature of true holiness!

And it made him painfully aware of his unholiness and unloveliness.

So, he models how sinners must respond when we feel the weight of our sinfulness.

We see others examples as well,

When God spoke to Job at the end of Job,

Job confessed that he despised himself.

When Peter witnessed the miraculous power of Jesus firsthand in Luke 5,

He bowed down before Jesus and confessed that he is a sinful man.

Friends,

It is terrifying to feel the weight of your sinfulness,

In light of the Lord’s holiness,

Because He does not tolerate what is unholy in His presence.

So, we are dead in our trespasses and sin,

And only help from outside ourselves can change this.

I mean,

If a godly man like Isaiah felt this shattered,

What will judgment feel like for a sinner who never repents?

If that is you today,

Feel that judgment now,

And tremble.

Because there is an underlying hope that is even more powerful than death.

It is hope for a true relationship with God.

Psalm 51:17 says,

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

This is where a true relationship with God starts,

With repentance and faith.

When we see this holy God by faith,

We immediately feel our brokenness,

And our need to repent.

(6-7)

Notice how the Lord responds to Isaiah’s repentance in vs. 6-7.

He doesn’t just wipe Isaiah out to remove this sinner from His presence.

Nor does he put an arm around Isaiah and say,

“Hey, there, there, buddy, your not that bad.”

No, instead, the holy God of love,

Grants Isaiah a holy pardon.

He deals with Isaiah’s sinfulness in His grace and mercy,

And purifies Isaiah.

He does this by sending one of His angels to use tongs to pick up a burning coal from the altar,

And has it fly over to touch the coal to Isaiah’s mouth.

Now, the coal from the altar symbolizes the blazing holiness of God.

But it says the coal is burning,

It is searing hot,

Too hot for the seraphim to even touch.

Yet, the coal touches Isaiah’s mouth,

Cleansing him at his immediate point of need,

While also causing him to taste the refining pain of his guilt being taken away,

And his sins being atoned for.

This coal ultimately points toward the righteousness of Christ,

Who shed His blood,

To atone for our sins,

And remove our iniquity!

So, for us sinners today,

That is our hope!

To be able to see the holiness of God!

And have our guilt removed and sin atoned for!

Friends, may each of you, by faith, say like Isaiah,

“Woe to me! I am ruined!”

And in return, you will hear,

“Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for!”

This is my prayer for each person in this room today!

Only a holy God can make us sinners holy!

By the grace of Christ,

Through faith in Christ,

The gift of righteousness is given to you right from this throne in Isaiah.

And like Isaiah,

Once our iniquity is removed,

We become the Lord’s messengers,

Speaking holy words of conviction and power,

Of life and death and salvation.

When God makes us sinners holy,

He shines His holy beauty in us.

In one sense,

There is an irresistible attraction of this holy beauty.

It shows what life in the presence of God is like,

Life, they way its meant to be lived.

And yet, holiness,

Will also offend those who are repelled by God,

And live in rebellion against Him.

YOU (Response): A Holy Message to Unholy People (vs. 8-13)

But again, the Lord is not surprised by this rebellion.

In vs. 8-13,

He gives Isaiah a message of judgment and hope.

(8)

Look at vs. 8,

Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord asking...

“Who will go for us?”

This question shows the reality of the Trinity,

As the Godhead gives this general invitation.

In response,

Isaiah seems almost compelled to boldly offer himself.

What a beautiful sequence,

A vision of the Lord on His throne,

With overpowered heavenly worship,

Confronting Isaiah with his own sinfulness,

Leading to his repentance,

God’s atonement,

And now an open call from the Lord for a messenger,

In which Isaiah presents himself for service.

And what a glorious privilege,

To serve the Lord,

To have Him entrust you with something!

This general call is an opportunity for all of us to consider,

And respond by serving the Lord.

(9-10)

But for Isaiah specifically,

The message entrusted to him is difficult.

Isaiah struggles with it,

And many others have struggled with it for generations.

First, God commands Isaiah to go,

And to speak this message of judgment,

That will harden the hearts of people,

Deafen their ears,

And blind their eyes.

To be clear,

This is not Isaiah’s message.

He is simply the waiter bringing out the dish the Chef has prepared.

And the Chef knows what He is doing.

So, the message must be preached exactly as the Lord told him to,

And that is what Isaiah is going to do.

Despite it being a really shocking message,

Of the hardness of Israel’s heart against the word of the Lord.

Not only that,

This hardness is God’s judgment of His people.

They have consistently resisted His message from the beginning.

Back in Exodus 32,

God described them as stiff-necked people,

And they have continued to rebel against Him for centuries since then.

So, they have hardened their own hearts,

And also,

We can’t neglect Satan’s work in hardening hearts, as well.

But above all,

The message seems to be saying,

That this hardening is God’s work,

That He is ordaining the hardening of hearts against His word,

Preventing the Israelites from seeing, hearing, understanding, turning, and being healed.

I’ll be honest,

This feels troubling,

That God might send a messenger,

To specifically harden the hearts of people.

But that seems to be the case here.

Because of their sin,

Israel could only be healed through punishment.

So, God tells Isaiah to go and preach this to the people.

Basically,

Make sure they understand that they will not understand.

And that the message will actually only distance them even further from God.

This is what Jesus quoted in Mark 4,

As the reason for why Christ used parables.

So, that they wouldn’t understand.

This passage is also quoted four other times in the NT.

It is given as the reason why the Jews reject Jesus.

Meaning, seven hundred years before Jesus was born,

God had already determined to harden the hearts of the Jews.

Why?

Romans 11:32 says,

“For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”

This means,

In the same way He hardens hearts,

God’s glory is revealed in His mercy and grace in everyone He saves.

And it is such sweet mercy and grace!

To hear the gospel,

See Christ, your Savior,

Call to you,

And when you respond,

Knowing your softened heart is a gift of God’s grace,

Of which you cannot boast.

Oh, how sweet it is!

Salvation is only from the Lord!

(11-12)

However, the people Isaiah would preach to were not going to repent.

And this hurts him.

He cries out,

Asking God how long he would have to preach this message to hardened hearts?

And How long would it be true?

Understand, he will obey the Lord,

But he also wonders to the Lord,

Is there any hope?

God’s initial answer adds to his devastation.

The cities will lie in ruins,

The land will be desolate,

And the people will be deported,

By the sovereign hand of the Lord.

(13)

Ninety percent of them will be killed or exiled.

And the ten percent remnant would, in return,

Be subject to burning,

To further cleansing.

So, is there any hope at all?

Look at the end of vs. 13.

Like the stump of on oak tree that has fallen,

Life remains in the roots,

And there is potential to grow again.

By the grace of God,

There is hope.

Because by the sovereignty of God,

There is a remnant of believers,

A holy seed,

That will grow and have eternal life in Christ.

This hope is small at this moment in history,

But it will eventually burst into life.

God’s sovereign control over the hearts of the Jews,

Makes possible the full display of Christ’s glory,

Patience, power, wrath, justice, mercy, and grace.

This is by God’s design.

That all who are saved,

Are saved by His grace and mercy.

WE (Paint a picture of the future): Application

So, let me close with one final question,

And then some application.

First, who is the Lord Isaiah saw on the throne here?

John 12 gives us the answer.

After Jesus performs a bunch of miraculous signs:

Healing a man born blind,

Feeding five thousand,

Walking on water,

Healing demon-possessed people,

And raising Lazarus from the dead.

After all that,

It says the Jews still did not believe in Him.

It is truly astonishing!

So, John explains why,

By quoting Isaiah 6:9-10,

Then, in vs. 41,

John drops this bombshell,

“Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.”

Jesus is the One.

He is the Lord of glory Isaiah sees on the throne here,

High and exalted,

Whom the seraphim covered their faces because of His glory,

That is Jesus.

He is the Lord of heaven and earth,

The Creator of angels and insects,

The One who shaped the mountains,

And placed the stars in space.

Jesus of Nazareth,

Born in a manger,

Bled and died on a cross,

To provide the remedy for our sin.

He is God Himself,

The Lord,

Seated on the throne!

What an incredible and unthinkable reality!

This leads to my first application,

Understand the overwhelming glory of Jesus Christ and worship Him.

The same Jesus we are following through Mark’s Gospel,

Is the sovereign God of the universe sitting on the throne.

None of us will ever have too lofty a view of Christ.

So, worship Him!

Express true reverence in your heart towards Him!

Second, seek heavenly cleansing from your sin.

Friends, your sins are completely provided for.

The Lord of glory got down off that throne,

To come and die for our sins.

So, you are fully forgiven in Christ!

Trust in Him,

And continue to look upon His holiness to see your residual sin,

And hate it.

Plead with Him to remove it,

Fight against it,

And hunger and thirst for righteousness instead.

By the power of the Spirit,

Put sin to death,

And be holy as Jesus is holy.

Third, is God calling you to anything?

What a glorious privilege,

That this God, this Jesus on the throne would actually give you something to do today!

Ephesians 2:10 says,

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

So, answer the call of the Lord,

Take up the cross and serve Him,

Do those good works for His glory,

And shine bright with His holiness today!

Let’s pray.