You can turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6. Hopefully a familiar passage to all of you. A wonderful vision of the glory and the majesty of the triune God as the prophet is called to be a prophet. in this particular context, Isaiah recounting his visionary experience with the manifested God, and that same God setting him into his mission as a prophet of the Most High God.
We'll get to this, but we'll also remember that in John chapter 12, we have there John speaking with respect to the fact that Isaiah 6, and there in addition to Isaiah 53, Isaiah wrote these things when he saw the glory of Christ and spoke of him. And so we see here the glory and the majesty of the Son of God in addition to a glorious manifestation of the God in His triune glory. So I'm going to read Isaiah 6, 1-7, and then we'll have a look at this passage. This is the Word of God.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. And the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings.
With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, 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 my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, Well, let's go to our God in prayer.
Opening Prayer
God, we thank you for this time together now in this central act of worship, the preaching, of your Holy Word. We do pray that you would bless us, both preacher and hearer. We pray for the ministry of your Holy Spirit, that we might be lifted up to high thoughts of our God and precious thoughts of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that we have that promise of the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation that he walks amongst his lampstands, his churches.
We thank you that our Christ is here by his spirit in our midst and we do pray in this act of worship you would be honored that you would be glorified and that our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted upon the praises of this gathered assembly and it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.
Introduction
Well, if I was to ask you the question, what is the greatest thing that you could ever see, I'll answer for you. The greatest thing that you could ever see is the manifested glory of Yahweh, the manifested glory of the triune God. Ask yourself, what is the greatest thing that you should want to see? It is the manifested glory of our creator, our sustainer, and the Redeemer of God's elect.
And Isaiah recounts this vision of the manifested glory of God as he's commissioned to be a prophet, but as we'll note, as he receives the forgiveness of sins by virtue of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. that Isaiah is prophesying about 700 years prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the design of the book of Isaiah, if we could summarize it, is simply to announce the righteous judgment of God and to set forth the coming Christ as the glorious Savior and the comfort of the faithful. Throughout the book of Isaiah, there is the pronouncement and the promise of judgment. Israel, the North and the South, has violated the law of God.
They have broken covenant. God promised them blessing upon obedience, but cursing upon disobedience. We see that in Deuteronomy 28. And so the prophets, in this case, the prophet Isaiah, comes, as you've heard before, as a prosecuting attorney, pronouncing judgment by God upon those who have broken the law, who have sinned, who have transgressed, who are wholly defiled in all the parts of body and soul.
But he doesn't stop there. He sets forth the glory of the coming Messiah, the suffering servant, the servant of Yahweh who would come, in the fullness of the times to give himself a ransom for guilty sinners. And we see here this blessed vision that Isaiah has 700 years ago. So we're going to look at this passage under five things, and those five things are these.
First, the introductory contrast. Secondly, the sentinels of the divine majesty. Thirdly, the glory of the exalted Lord. Fourthly, the fitting confession, and then fifthly, the gracious purification.
The Introductory Contrast
Notice first, then, the introductory contrast. We see this contrast that Isaiah makes, and it's seen in verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Now, you might ask, where is the contrast?
Well, first it's seen in the death of earthly kings contrasted with the eternal reign of the High King of Heaven. King Uzziah was reigned in Israel for, I think it was five decades or something like that. So Israel, on David's throne, had a king for a great number of decades. And we see something of a comfort given here because Israel does not want the throne of David absent.
Israel does not want the throne of David empty. And so there's a measure of encouragement that is brought here. Yes, Isaiah has died, but fear not, because the High King of Heaven is exalted above the nations. And so there's a blessed comfort, but there's also a contrast.
The death of earthly kings, as contrasted to the everlasting reality of the High King of Heaven, who reigns for His glory, and who brings a multitude of sinners to the knowledge of him. So it's a wonderful contrast. Turn with me, and actually we sang that not too long ago, but turn with me to Psalm 146 for a moment, because there we see the blessed contrast as well, as the psalmist is giving a contrast as he honors and praises the God of heaven and earth. Notice in Psalm 146, at verse 3.
Psalm 146: Kings Pass, God Endures
Do not put your trust in princes, we could say of course kings, nor in a son of man in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth, in that very day his plans perish. So this is an introduction of the one side of the contrast. and the proclamation, the preaching, the exhortation, the commandment to not put our trust in earthly kings. And then comes the blessed contrast.
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. And notice this emphasis upon glorying in the Creator rather than in the creature. This is the God, verse 6, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps truth forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry, the Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. And so we are to see back in Isaiah 6 this contrast between the death of earthly kings and the eternal reign of the Glorious One. the God of heaven and earth, the High King of heaven.
It wasn't just a happy accident that we sang, Be Thou My Vision, specifically chose that because of the blessed vision that we have here in Isaiah 6. We are to, the Israelites here were to, in reading Isaiah and in hearing Isaiah read, they were to behold their God, they were to sing, Be Thou My Vision, O Lord of my heart. Do not put your trust in earthly kings, but put that trust in the eternal high king of heaven. With regards to change and the departure of an earthly king, but the everlasting reign of the heavenly king, Alexander McLaren says this.
He was a good Scottish Baptist around the same time as C.H. Spurgeon. On this he writes, when the leaves drop from the forest trees, we can see the blue sky which their dense abundance hid. It is well for us if the passing of all that can pass drives us to him who cannot pass.
If the unchanging God stands out more clear, more near, more dear because of change. You hear that language, it is well for us if the passing of all that can pass drives us to him who cannot pass. That's what Isaiah is saying here. That the reign of kings may change, the reign of earthly kings may change, but praise God Almighty that we have the high king of heaven, and that high king of heaven visits Isaiah with this blessed vision and scene.
We ought to notice as well the lowest state of man, of even heavenly beings, as we see here with the seraph, but the low state of man contrasted with the high station of the Lord. I think very often it is the nature of the case with humanity that we do think the universe revolves around us, that we're kings of our own station, that we're the lords of our own destiny. But the Bible constantly brings us back to that place of the lowliness of humanity in contrast to the greatness of our Creator, the greatness of our Redeemer, the greatness of the Lord of providential governance. We are to see our own estate and to magnify then the high station of the Lord God Almighty.
Psalm 89.6 reads this way. Psalm 89.6. For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord?
The angels in their manifested glory. The seraph as the burning ones who fly. The sentinels and the guardians of the throne of God. the cherubim, all of the hierarchy of angels, as glorious as they may be, who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord?
Who among those noble ones of the earth? Who among the mighty ones of the sons of men can be compared to the High and Exalted One? And we see this language, getting back to our text, this language of glory captured in, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. In the ancient Near East, a monarch's robe, a king's robe, the hem of the garment or the train of that robe, the length and the breadth The thickness, the characteristics of the robe marked authority.
It marked majesty. It marked the glory of the earthly king. And so, utilizing that reality, the Lord our God manifests himself to Isaiah, or takes Isaiah away in this vision of him, and we see that the train of his robe filled the temple. And as you've heard me say before, with regards to this particular passage, it's not that God himself is in that temple, and that train as well fills the temple, we can envision with not vain imaginings, but with the words of scripture and the eyes of faith, a monarch who's in a temple. and this train of the robe filling that same temple.
It's God above the temple seated on the throne, and simply the hem of the garment that fills the temple. That's to mark His glory. That's to mark the reality that the Lord God of heaven and earth cannot be contained. He fills the heavens and the earth.
He is above even the presence, the divine presence, in the sanctuary, in the temple. The train of His robe fills the temple. He's the high and lofty one whose hem of the garment fills the temple.
Sentinels of the Divine Majesty
Secondly, we want to see then the sentinels of the divine majesty. That speaks to the seraph, the seraphim who are flying before the Lord God. And the first thing we want to see here is their exemplary posture. Notice what we see here regarding their exemplary posture.
That means a disposition, a characteristic that demonstrates or serves as an example for us or for any creature under the rule and the majesty of the triune God. Notice the language here in verse two. Above it, that is, above the throne, not above God who sits upon the throne, but above either the temple or the throne itself, above it stood Seraphim, each one had six wings, notice, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
The Exemplary Posture of the Seraphim
This is exemplary language for a proper posture before the God of heaven and earth. And what is it? We see that with two wings these seraphs cover their eyes. What is that indicative of, or what does that reflect?
What does that communicate to us but the glory and the majesty and the unapproachable light of our precious God? No one has seen God at any time. In fact, God announces throughout the Old Testament that the one who sees me will surely die. No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten of the Father.
He has declared Him, the Son of God incarnate, has seen the Father, being the second of the Blessed Trinity, the one who, along with Father and Spirit, receive eternal praises. So, they cover their eyes because of simply the glory of God. They cannot look upon the glory of God, or they're in such a posture of humility in the recognition of unrivaled majesty. They were the burning ones.
They had an element of derived glory, not essential glory, but derived glory. They're seen in the scriptures as those who are sometimes robed in glowing white, a brightness attends the messengers of God. But only true glory can be ascribed of the triune majesty of heaven and earth. And so in their flying, they cover their eyes for the majesty, the burning glory of the God of heaven and earth.
We see as well they cover their feet. One of the things that you would read a lot, if you read in the Old Testament, it's in the New Testament a little bit, but more so in the Old, that when men or women are in the presence of holiness, they recognize that it's holy ground. I stand on holy ground. You see that repeated throughout the Old Testament.
And so why do the angels, these seraphs, cover their feet? It's because they realize, they know that they are in the presence of holiness. They don't have their hands in their pocket, or they don't have their left hand in their pocket and their right hand holding a latte. They're flying and they're covering their eyes and they're covering their feet for the exalted majesty and the glory of our God.
That's exemplary. That's an exemplary posture. That ought to mark us. This church doesn't have in and of itself an inherent holiness.
When we come into these doors, we're not so much entering a holy place because of the building itself, but note most surely we are entering a holy place because it's here in the sanctuary that God communes with his people. The same God who showed himself in manifested glory to Isaiah, the same God who manifested himself before whom the angels had to cover their eyes for his glory and cover their feet For His glory, that same God communes with us by His Spirit in the gathered assembly. And so when we come through those doors, not for the place, but for the reality of the gathering place of the people of God, there's to be something different when we enter into the sanctuary. We don't stroll in as if strolling into a Starbucks.
We don't stroll in as if strolling into a movie theater or a grocery store. We stroll in, or we should say, we walk rejoicingly into the doors of the house of God because it is a delight for the people of God to gather in the name of God for the worship of God in his house. What a wonderful thing. And these seraphs, in their posture of recognizing the holiness of God and therefore acting in accordance with that recognition of his holiness, cover their eyes and they cover his feet.
And
The Antiphonal Praise of the Seraphim
notice, secondly, under the sentinels of the Divine Majesty, their antiphonal praise. Verse two again, above it stood Seraphim, each one had six wings, and with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And then this antiphonal praise, and one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. What a wonderful exclamation of the glorious majesty of the triune God.
Holy, holy, holy. is the Lord God of hosts. The first thing that we can derive, that we can gain from this antiphonal praise, is the fact that their praise is Trinitarian. Is the holy, holy, holy an emphatic declaration of the glory and the majesty of God, such that it's as if to say one holy isn't good enough? Yes, that's most certainly the case, but it is also Trinitarian.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one divine and infinite being who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Their praise is honorific.
That is, because of the subject, because of the object of their praise, they're rendering honor to the One who ought to be praised. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And we'll have a look at what this means in a moment, but their praise is Trinitarian.
Their praise is honorific. The ascription of ultimate reverence. And their praise is also instructive for us. That this God is thrice and emphatically holy, holy, holy, holy.
We'll have a look at what holiness means in a moment. And then this name, this description of a name to God, the Lord of hosts, and then this reality of the ultimacy of his unbounded presence. The whole earth is full of his glory. But this is instructive for us.
How ought we to think of our God? We ought not to think of him lightly and lowly. very often in our modern landscape in the pseudo-religious ambiguity of modern spiritualism, that God is envisioned as a, you know, an old man with a gray beard and a cane who, you know, can kind of bless every now and then, who serves as a genie to the men and women who think they deserve his blessings. God is brought down to someone who's maybe just a superman, or a super angel, or as one person has described him in this negative way of mockery, the uber Santa Claus. Our God can be reduced to something that is far below His deserved station.
Far below His honor. Far below His praise. The God who created all things. The God who providentially sustains all things.
The God who redeems His elect by virtue of the perfect work of the Son of God incarnated. He is great. He is majestic. He has ultimate or should be shown ultimate reverence.
He is awesome in the proper sense of the word. And so we are to be instructed by these angels, again, we're not to stroll around with, you can have your hands in your pockets, this is just an image that I'm trying to create as far as a posture that can be visited to the high king of heaven. We don't stroll around with our hands in our pockets, with our lattes, casually talking about the subject of God as if he's also, or as if he can be put on par with the latest color of Skittles. God's majesty can so often be reduced and be transgressed against in our modern era.
And this is some language from A.W. Pink that some of you may have heard before. It's a wonderful quote on the greatness of our God in contrast to the so-called God that modernity seeks to put upon us. The God of this 20th century, we could say now 21st century, no more resembles the supreme sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle, the glory of the midday sun.
The God who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday school, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences is the figment of human imagination and invention of Maudlin's sentimentality. The heathen outside the pale of Christendom form gods out of wood and stone, while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their own carnal mind. In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God and no God at all. A God whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits not but contempt.
Our God is glorious. The seraphs, if they could, would agree with A.W. Pink, I'd like to think, that this God is majestic. He's not like the God of nations.
He doesn't have eyes but cannot see, a nose that cannot smell, arms but they cannot move and pick up things. He doesn't need to be propped up when he's fallen down. He doesn't need to have his head glued back on when his head falls off or his arm. He's not a half man, half fish.
Speaking of Dagon, of the Philistines, he's the one who has created all things, who upholds all things, the one who fills the heavens and the earth, who is located nowhere, but fills every place with the replete of reality of His glorious essence. He is everywhere. He is glorious. He is majestic.
His will cannot be frustrated. His designs cannot be stymied. He is the Supreme Lord of heaven and earth. Their antiphonal praise.
It's Trinitarian. It's honorific. And it's instructive for us. How are we to approach this holy God through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ?
It is with the most high honor and praise that we can with our remaining corruption render. We are to have high thoughts of our God. When we think of our God, we are to think of the One who is holy, holy, holy. The One who is the Lord of hosts.
The Glory of the Exalted Lord
to some of that now with thirdly, the glory of the exalted Lord. The glory of the exalted Lord. This is in verse 3 and 4. So repeating verse 3 but also moving into verse 4, the first thing that we see is His superlative holiness.
It's interesting to note that Holiness is the only divine perfection that is thrice repeated in successive praise in the Holy Scriptures. His holiness. In fact, turn with me to the book of Revelation and chapter 4, because there we see something of an echo of the Isaianic vision, an echo of the words of Isaiah and the vision of God, and the singing of the angels in Revelation chapter 4. Notice what we see beginning at verse 8.
And the four living creatures each having, notice, six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. You see the You see the foundation or the cause, or in this context, the reason for this praise? You are worthy, O Lord, for honorific praise, for instructive praise, for remarking after your triune majesty, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, notice, for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. because of the creating majesty of God, the one who brought all things into existence, the one who spoke all things into existence out of nothing in the space of six days and all very good, and who upholds all things by the word of his majestic power, he's worthy of honor and praise.
So we see, holy, holy, holy, it is this superlative exclamation or this exclamation of superlative holiness It is an unmatched holiness. It's not somehow just 10 times better than man's, 10 times better than the elect angels. It is an other holiness. In fact, we'll look at that now as we move to what holiness is.
These angels are crying out, these seraphs are crying out, holy, holy, holy. And
Superlative and Transcendent Holiness
the first thing that we should say is that, yes, this would include God's moral perfection. And I think that's often where we stop with holiness, that we simply think it to be moral purity or moral perfection. And it's not wrong to say that a definition of holiness ought to include that, and especially with God, who is most holy, who is most just, who is most righteous, there is, of course, no iniquity, no capriciousness with the thrice holy one of heaven. But His separateness or His otherness, that is the key reality of His holiness. his separateness, his otherness, his transcendent separation from his creation in the reality of his glory and in the reality of his majesty.
Again, McLaren, on this reality, we must ever remember that the root meaning of holiness is separation and that the popular meaning of moral purity is secondary and derivative. What is rapturously sung in the threefold invocation of the seraphs is the infinite exaltation of Jehovah above all creatural conditions, limitations, and, we may add, conceptions. Just listen to that for a moment because in our human minds we can very often conjure up conceptions of God. We can think of God as perhaps limited.
That He does actually physically dwell in a place called heaven and is not present here on earth. We can sometimes conjure up a God who is bounded by creaturely conditions, that he can only do such and such, that he can only be here and not there, or there and not here. What is rapturously sung in the threefold invocation of the seraphs is the infinite exaltation of Jehovah above all creaturely conditions, limitations, And may we add conceptions. His separateness or his otherness is in view.
And we see this by virtue of the seraphs covering their eyes and covering their feet. And we'll see it in a number of minutes here with regards to the response of Isaiah. In accordance with this antiphonal praise, we also see His glorious majesty. He is the Lord of hosts.
You've often heard this, you often see this description of God in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. We sing it in many hymns. In some hymns, it's the word sabbaoth. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right.
We sing that in a mighty fortress is our God, Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. He is the one who is the majestic one, the Lord over the angels. The hosts of angels, 10,000 upon 10,000 are under the glorious and gracious sway of the majestic one of heaven and earth, who created them as those ministering spirits unto the throne and unto the people of God. He is the Lord of earthly armies.
Some of the commentators will get really granular, but gloriously so with regards to this Lord of Hosts language. He's Lord even of the host of locusts that consume the crops. He's the Lord of earthly armies, whether wicked or good. He is the King, and the kings of the earth are in His hand and according to His sway.
He is the Lord of Hosts.
The Lord of Hosts: Judgment and Grace
We see also His righteous judgment in that language. the Lord of hosts. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. He is righteous then to judge those who transgress His law. He is righteous to judge and condemn sinners who have violated the holy precepts of Almighty God.
But as we'll see, He's also gracious in His condescension to save those who have sinned against Him and their fellow man. We also see, so in addition to his superlative holiness, we also see his unbounded presence.
The Unbounded Presence of God
We see that in the clause, the whole earth is full of his glory. We see a movement here from shadow to substance, from temple to cosmos, to the whole earth. In the vision, Isaiah is seeing the hem of the robe filling the temple. That's simply a microcosm of the macrocosm reality that the glory of the Lord fills the heavens and the earth.
The whole earth is full of his glory. The whole cosmos, the whole world is full of His glory. This reaches back to the promises of God made to wilderness Israel. If you want, you can turn with me.
You don't have to, but to Numbers 14. In Numbers 14, notice there that this praise, the whole earth is full of His glory, reaches back to the promises made to Old Covenant Israel. In Numbers 14, notice at verse 21, Back to verse 20, actually. Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.
But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. It's a gracious covenantal promise, not to earthly covenant Israel, but to the church, that in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of the Lord would fill the heavens and the earth. Not his essential glory, because that already does, but the manifested glory through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel goes out, in fact, that's the movement in Isaiah 6. the vision of God, the declaration that the whole earth is full of His glory, and then the sending of the prophet out to proclaim the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. glorious thing we have in the reality that this, the Lord fills the heavens and the earth, His glory, again it reaches back to the promises of God made to wilderness Israel and it stretches forward to fulfillment wrought in and by Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah 11 at verse 9 we read the following, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What a glorious thing that we can have the confidence that the Lord God Almighty will be victorious in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can look upon the world and with human eyes sorrowful and in despair, look upon the the face of the earth and see the wickedness, see the madness, see the political upheaval, see the wars and see all of these things. But what Isaiah wants us to see, in addition to many other things, is that there is a high king in heaven.
God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. As Psalm 2 says, he laughs and looks at derision upon the kings of the earth and the judges of the world who would seek to cast down and try to pull down the reign of his anointed one. the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who sits in the heavens shall laugh.
Kiss the Son. Kiss the Christ. Lest He be angry and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. But, blessed are all those who put their hope and their trust in Him.
We have this blessed reality that the whole of the earth will be filled with the glory of God. And where I was going with that is as we look upon the world and as we see the wickedness, as we see the evil, as we see tumult and upheaval and affliction and oppression and tyranny, we ought not to despair because holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts and the whole earth is full of His glory. We can look away with eyes of human despair and with eyes of faith and look upon the glory of God. And there we find our hope that the righteous one will judge the earth and he who has graciously brought us forth from the deadness of sin to life in Christ will bring us into the everlasting bliss of Emmanuel's land.
His unbounded presence, He is not confined to temple, but rather He, by His essential glory, fills the heavens and the earth, and by His manifest and covenantal presence, He will bless His people with the knowledge of Christ. We see this movement in the Bible. We see this movement in the Bible itself. The movement from a localized manifest glory to the glory of God filling the earth, as the angels here sing.
If we look at, for example, first the redemptive historical progression of the glory of God in filling a dwelling place, we see it first in Eden. The presence of God is seen there in the unmediated walking with Adam in the garden. The glory of God manifested to Adam in the cool of the day as he walks with Adam. We see the Garden of Eden as a temple wherein God was communing with the first man.
We see the movement then after the fall of sin. Remember that God's glory fills the tent, the tabernacle of meeting. In Exodus, God's glory fills the tabernacle. As we move forward in redemptive history, God's glory fills the temple.
So once the temple is built, no longer a transient movement of an erected tent wherein the glory of God is manifested, but a built structure where the glory of God was manifested. We see the anticipation of God's glory filling the earth in the Old Testament, the long-expected arrival of the glory of the Lord, and then the expansion of the glory of the Lord in Acts 1-8. In fact, turn with me. to the Gospel of John for a moment. Speaking of the glory of God, we ought to draw a wholesome connection to this verse in the Gospel of John.
In John chapter 1, in the prologue, where we see The unmitigated deity of the Lord Jesus Christ in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then in verse 14, notice with respect to glory, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so what is Isaiah ultimately seeing here? He's seeing a vision of the progress of the gospel by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That when that Messiah comes, when the servant of Yahweh that I am prophesying about comes in the fullness of the times, born of a woman and born under the law, he will bring in salvation and everlasting righteousness and the gospel will go out beyond the borders. of Jerusalem. And that's what we see in Acts 1-8. You are to be witnesses to me first in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is filled with His glory. And notice, getting back to our passage, we also see His purity and the provision of atonement. his purity and the provision of atonement. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
And now notice and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke. Now, it's it's implicit. But let's just pause for a moment at this particular verse, and the house was filled with smoke. And while we're saying that this is the purity of God and the provision of atonement, what happened in the Levitical sacrifices?
God's presence was mediated through the presence of smoke from the sacrifice given on the altar. In fact, if you may, turn to Leviticus with me, The Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16, which is, remember, ultimately and finally about the glorious sacrifice of Jesus Christ. rendered upon Calvary's cross, what were all of these washings? What were all of these ceremonies? What were all of these sacrifices but signs and signals that pointed to the real and true and only lasting sacrifice that given by the Lord Jesus Christ upon Calvary's cross?
Notice in Leviticus 16 at verse 12, Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire, we'll see coals of fire in a moment, from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, lest he die. So, we see that connected to the Day of Atonement, there is this reality of incense, the fires of coal, and smoke that communicates mercy and access to the living and true God. And so, getting back to our passage, and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice that is the seraphim who cried out. and the house was filled with smoke.
This is the provision of atonement, and we'll see that here in a moment in the next verses. This is to point us to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are these coals from the altar, taken from tongs, how are they to be efficacious? How can they be applied to the lips of Isaiah if there is no sacrifice, if there is no atonement made?
That's why we see here the house was filled with smoke.
The Fitting Confession
And now we see the fitting confession, fourthly, the fitting confession of Isaiah. the language of a man humbled before the majesty of the triune God, we first see the recognition of our condition before God. Notice the language of Isaiah here, and this is exemplary as well. This ought to instruct us as well. When we can think so highly of us, when we can often think so highly of humanity, maybe not always, but sometimes we can think mankind better than he is and we can think ourselves better than we are.
And Isaiah instructs us here with this recognition of our condition before God. Verse 5, Then I said, that is Isaiah, 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 my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. You see this connection here between what he confesses as his condition before God and the vision of divine majesty.
The foreclause at the end of his confession, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." What is a vision of our God supposed to be, or supposed to bring? That is not ourselves receiving a vision of God, but with eyes of faith, as we behold the Word of God, read and proclaimed, with our eyes of faith, we cast those eyes upon an exalted God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and our response is not to be casually walking around the sanctuary with a hand in the pocket and a hand on a latte, it is to be like Isaiah here, woe is me, for I am undone. We're all sinners.
If you're a Christian here this morning, you're a saint saved by God's grace alone, not by deeds of righteousness, which you have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit by virtue of the perfect life, death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. but you still sin. We have that remaining corruption. The flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. We do not always do what we ought and what we ought to do we don't find ourselves doing.
But praise God, as we'll see in a moment, that he has condescended to bring us salvation through Jesus Christ, and that as Christians, we can behold the majesty of God, not for our goodness, but because of His goodness, and we can rejoice in Him, and hopefully sing with the antiphonal praising angels, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. This comes, this woe is me, for I am undone, and specifically, for I am a man of unclean lips, Notice that this comes immediately upon the lips of the holy seraph proclaiming God's holiness. The angels sing, the angels praise, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. And then Isaiah says, I am a man of unclean lips. In other words, not worthy not maybe too prideful, but not worthy to proclaim, not worthy to behold, not worthy to be the recipient of divine blessings. His lips were not marked by antiphonal praise.
His lips were not marked by the beholding of Yahweh and then the singing of Yahweh's praises. His lips, rather, were unclean. This ought to hearken back to Moses' language when he says that he is a man of uncircumcised lips. And he asks God to bless him for his mission as the leader in Israel.
To be, if you will, a proclaimer of the holiness of God. To be a prophet of the righteousness of the coming Christ. One of the old commentators on this book, I can't remember if it was Ambrose, but they gave a prayer sort of in the midst of their exposition of the text. You see, for a preacher of the word of God, the preaching of God is in one sense easy because of the glorious subject matter.
What a wonderful thing to proclaim, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one and only living and true God who has created all things, who upholds all things, and who redeems sinners from death and condemnation. What an easy thing in that sense. But what a difficult thing, what an exceedingly difficult thing, because holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. And so the prayer of this commentator was something like, oh, Lord God Almighty, the Holy One, may I receive as well coal upon my lips that I might not be unclean, but well prepared and equipped to proclaim the glories of the triune God and Christ Jesus whom he sent.
And so we see here the righteous, the proper response, the recognition of Isaiah's condition, and the thing that ought to humble us, which is, my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Do you prepare yourselves for Lord's Day worship? Do you get enough sleep so that you don't have to sleep here? Do you get enough food so that you're well-equipped to be here to attend unto the worship of the triune God?
Do you prepare your mind through prayer? Because your eyes of faith behold the living and true God through the worship of that God. When we are gathered here and we read the scriptures, When we are gathered here and we pray to God, when we're gathered here and we preach this Holy One, God is with us. We don't have a God who, you know, perhaps is on the other side of the world right now and is present with the Eastern Europeans because he's so bounded and so limited in creaturely conceptions that he can't be here as well.
We worship the one who is holy, holy, holy, and the whole earth is filled with his glory. We're to prepare ourselves so that attentive in worship, we can receive the Holy Spirit who lifts our minds, who lifts our illumination, so that we might with eyes of faith behold the Holy One. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
The Gracious Purification
And we close now with this, the gracious purification. Lastly and finally, the gracious purification. Notice first we have divine action in salvation. Notice what we see here.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. Remember, the house is filled with smoke because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the coal is coming as that which is symbolic of the forgiveness of sins. But it's not Isaiah approaching Yahweh.
We don't have a scene here where the Lord Christ Almighty, where Yahweh is knocking with a limp wrist upon the door of a sinner, pleading with him to open the door. That's not our God. Our God is glorious in His sovereignty, glorious in His condescending grace, and the nature of man is so wicked that he is wholly defiled, remember, in all of the faculties and parts of body and soul. He needs to be made alive.
He needs to be regenerated. He needs to be born again so that he might behold the glory of God with saving eyes of faith. And so it's divine initiative. Then one of the seraphim flew to me.
It is divine movement towards the man, not manward movement towards the divine. And we also see the divine application of atonement. Notice this wonderful language. Having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, that sacrificial altar, and he touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.
It's hot, it's 1215-ish, if the clock is right, 1217 and 25 seconds. And man, we got lunch waiting. You know, we got things we gotta do on Sunday. But just pause with me in the moment and glory in the reality that God graciously applies atonement.
Isaiah recognized his sinfulness before a thrice holy God. And the answer is seen in atonement that must be given. And we know how that atonement comes, not by virtue of man moving towards the divine, but the divine coming to the man, that one who is God, condescended in the assumption of our humanity that he might live a holy life of obedience unto the law of God in our place as our righteousness that avails with God, and then he died upon Calvary's cross. Not an atonement of maybe, not a sacrifice of perhaps, but a sure and certain death upon Calvary's cross so that he might secure the salvation of a multitude that no man can number.
What a glorious gospel that we have in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the living coal, who is the burning coal, the application of atonement. This is Cyril of Alexandria on this. One of the seraph is sent to Isaiah with the burning coal which he took from the altar with tongs. This is clearly a symbol of Christ who on our behalf offered himself up to God the Father as a pure and unblemished spiritual sacrifice with the most pleasing fragrance.
This is Christ applied in his atoning work to Isaiah, both unto salvation and unto his commissioning as a prophet, because he cannot have unclean lips when he proclaims the riches and the excellencies of Jesus Christ. He must have lips purified by God himself that he might go forth and proclaim the excellencies of our blessed Savior. And then the declaration of purification What glorious news we see here in verse 7. Behold, this has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is taken away and your sins purged. If you're here this morning and you know yourself, you know that you're a sinner. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. If you're here and you're a Christian, you know that it was not you Dead men, dead women, dead boys and girls can't reach out to the divine.
God conquered your dead heart by amazing and victorious grace and brought you forth to behold with eyes of faith his glory. And so you know this blessed reality. Your iniquity was taken away and your sin purged. John the Baptist speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He uses the language of purgation, of purging. That the one who comes, Christ will thoroughly cleanse or purge the threshing floor. And that same language is used of Christ in Hebrews 1. The one who sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high was the one who has purged our sins by himself and his sacrifice.
What glorious news that we have in our Savior.
Application
Just to close in a brief conclusion on three things. First, the divine action in salvation, or excuse me, first, our confidence and comfort in a crooked and perverse age. Our confidence and comfort in a crooked and perverse age. As we see the madness of the world, the sin, the transgression, the tyranny, the oppression, in every sphere, the madness of sin, We can rejoice that though, in the words of Isaiah, though kings die, the eternal king reigns.
Though there is change, though there is tumult, though there is affliction and all of these things, we can look with eyes of faith upon the high king of heaven and know that he has us and know that he has his creation through his providential governance as he works out his glorious plan to save a multitude of sinners to the praise of his grace. Spurgeon on this point says, We still believe in the conquest of the world because we believe in the omnipotence of God. Nothing short of dominion from sea to sea dare we ask in prayer or seek in service for our Lord Jesus. The idols must be utterly abolished.
Error and sin must fly before the light of the truth of God. and holiness. The ends of the earth must yet see the salvation of our God, and the whole earth must be filled with His glory. This isn't a wishful must, but Spurgeon resting upon the promise that the glory of the God of heaven and earth will fill the earth from sea to sea. Glorious reality.
Our confidence and comfort in a crooked and perverse age is not legislation. It's not the passing or non-passing of laws. It's in the High King of Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is King of the Nations. Secondly, an example for man's posture before God.
Both the angels and Isaiah instruct us in what our posture ought to be before the Holy One of Heaven. It ought to be prostrate. It ought to be humble. It ought to be a recognition of our humanity, which is low in station, and the otherness and separation of divinity, which is glorious in its exalted majesty.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And lastly, we ought to note the gracious God of our salvation. Behold, this has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. You're a Christian here this morning. Reflect with great joy upon what God has done to you and for you. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, following after the allurements of the world, following after the assailments of the devil. following after the lusts of your own flesh, and yet God condescended by amazing grace to bring you forth from deadness and darkness to life and light in Jesus Christ.
What a glorious and gracious God. And if you're here this morning outside of Christ in unbelief, know that there is a Holy One in high heaven. who is worthy of praise, holy, holy, holy. And that holiness will be visited upon those who reject the gospel, upon those who reject Christ. That holiness, instead of the goodness of it being found in Jesus Christ affecting your salvation, the holiness will be found in the righteous flaming eyes of Yahweh and His justice in casting you into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels.
The clarion call of the gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And you will with eyes of faith then sing with the angels. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
God, we thank you for your word. We rejoice in your truth. We thank you for this passage as it speaks to the glory of our Savior. We know that as we read in John chapter 12, Isaiah wrote these things when he saw the glory of Christ.
We do pray that you'd help all of us because it's possible only with you. Every single tongue would leave this place singing the praises of our victor and our redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do go with us. Help us to honor your day.
Help us to honor you, our God, and help us to reflect with sweet reflections upon so great a savior. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.