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This is one of those passages 
that the preacher often goes to when he talks about the Lord 
Jesus Christ and the glory of the pre-incarnate Christ, perhaps 
contrasted with the humility of the incarnate Christ. There's 
something here that we ought to notice, because John's testimony 
is true in the Gospel of John, that we have Isaiah seeing the 
pre-incarnate Christ. He sees the Son of God, has this 
vision of the second of the blessed triune. We have in Isaiah 6 wonderful 
language that hopefully we'll be able to explore, if only for 
approximately 51 minutes. perhaps shorter, perhaps longer, 
whatever the Lord has in store. But let's read Isaiah 6. Now, 
the portion that we're going to be focusing on is verses 1 
to 7, but we'll read the entirety of the chapter. Let's do that 
now, then, once again, the word of the triune God, Isaiah 6, 
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. 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. So 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 which he had taken with 
the tongs from the 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. Also I heard the voice of the 
Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then 
I said, here am I, send me. And he said, go and tell this 
people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, 
but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people 
dull, and their ears heavy. And shut their eyes, lest they 
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand 
with their heart, and return and be healed. Then I said, Lord, 
how long? And he answered, until the cities 
are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, 
the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed men far 
away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the 
land. But yet a tenth will be in it and will return and be 
for consuming as a terebinth tree or as an oak whose stump 
remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its 
stump. Amen. Let us ask the Lord's blessing 
upon our worship. Heavenly Father, we pray that 
you would help us now, as we have gathered to worship you, 
to be attentive in this act of worship, the preaching of your 
word. We would pray that you would help preacher and pulpit 
to proclaim well the things of your truth. Give him aid. We 
pray for those in the pews this morning, that you would strengthen 
saint, that you would save sinner, that because it is possible with 
you, Lord God alone, that you would cause each and every one 
to leave this place rejoicing in the King of kings and in the 
Lord of lords. And it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we 
pray. Amen. Well, perhaps you're like me, 
or perhaps you're not. You don't have to be. But whenever 
I come to certain passages in Holy Scripture, I'm reminded 
of chapter 1, paragraph 5 of our confession. You read certain 
texts, and you're confronted with the heavenliness of the 
matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style. There is a certain palatable 
a certain palatable cadence, if you will, to Isaiah 6, verses 
1 to 7. We read this language. It's absolutely 
glorious. In the year that King Uzziah 
died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up. 
the train of His robe filled the temple. What a blessed sight 
that must have been for the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz. What 
a wonderful and glorious day that was to see the Lord. But you see, it was wonderful 
and glorious, but it was also awful and terrible because of 
the immense glory, because of the immensity and the majesty 
and multiply the superlatives, the absolute glorious sight that 
He would have beheld. We want to navigate through these 
seven verses and consider them under three headings that we're 
going to examine this passage by. And those three are this, 
and then we'll get to a bit of an introduction. We want to look 
at the vision of the unrivaled majesty. Secondly, the appropriate 
response by the Son of Amoz. And thirdly, the blessed atonement 
from the altar of the Lord. Now perhaps a side note, if we 
were to generalize in a wholesome manner these seven verses, we 
could simply summarize them with God, man, and gospel. But because there are things 
peculiar to Isaiah and peculiar to this occasion, We want to 
look at them under those headings already stated. Now, Isaiah was 
a prophet in the 8th century in Judah, and he is prophesying, 
as verse 1 of chapter 1 says, the vision of Isaiah, the son 
of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days 
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. We come to verse 1 and we read 
here, "...in the year that King Uzziah died." King Uzziah reigned 
from 790 to 738. a 52-year reign. You can read 
about him on your own time from 2 Chronicles 26, the entirety 
of the chapter. He was installed as king at the 
age of 16 and reigned 52 years. Now, at the tail end of his reign, 
his son, Jotham, was the regent, if you will, active over over 
his particular rule, because if you read 2 Chronicles 26, 
it didn't really end all that well for Uzziah. He offered up, 
against the sanctions of the Lord, incense in the temple of 
the Lord, and the priests come in and indict him, and so he's 
given by God leprosy as a judgment for his opposition to the proper 
course of religious practice in the day. And so he's judged 
by God and given leprosy. But during his reign, his nation 
is brought, the dominion of Judah is expanded. There is political 
prosperity. There is, we may even say, a 
measure of military prosperity. But there was not a concordant moral character, there was not 
a matching godliness to any prosperity that they may have had. They 
were not walking in the old paths where the good way is. In fact, 
just before we move to point number one in Isaiah 2, we can 
read of the situation in the nation at that particular time. 
Notice just very briefly in Isaiah 2 and verse 6. The reason we read this is to 
see the plight of the nation, to see the condition that it 
is in, and to see why God grants to Isaiah this vision and commissions 
him on a peculiar preaching ministry. Notice in Isaiah 2 at verse 6. 
For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they 
are filled with Eastern ways. They are soothsayers like the 
Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners. 
Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end 
to their treasures. Their land is also full of horses, 
and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is also 
full of idols. They worship the work of their 
own hands, that which their own fingers have made. People bow 
down and each man humbles himself. Therefore, do not forgive them. 
Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of 
the Lord and the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man 
shall be humbled. The haughtiness of man shall 
be bowed down. And the Lord alone shall be exalted 
in that day. So this vision comes in chapter 
6, the Lord manifesting Himself, the Lord disclosing a sight of 
Himself to Isaiah, and then sending him out to preach judgment against 
this nation of idolaters, against this nation of wicked men. Isaiah, again, is a prophet preaching 
in the 8th century Assyria, the dominant world power of the day, 
gaining territory, gaining dominion. And Isaiah, while his name does 
mean and does signify Yahweh is salvation, nevertheless he 
comes with a preaching tongue to indict the nation and to set 
before them the only way of escape, the only way of salvation, the 
suffering servant of the Lord, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, 
let's look first then at the vision of the unrivaled majesty. 
What does that language mean? Kids, unrivaled simply means 
unmatched. There is no other that can compete. 
In the case of God against all others, no one comes close. The 
vision of the unrivaled majesty we see in verses 1 through 4. 
This vision of the Lord God Almighty. This sight that Isaiah casts 
his eyes upon. We want to note first the fact 
of the vision. Notice, in the year that King 
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. It's a wonderful thing. It's 
a wonderful thing and we need to ask a couple questions or 
we need to make a couple observations. The first is that Isaiah saw 
the Lord. This is an absolutely amazing 
thing. What is the nature of this seeing? Do we need to seek to mine the 
scriptures to find out what the nature of this seeing was? Was 
it with the physical eye? Was it a vision? Was Isaiah brought 
into a trance? Was it in a dream? Was it a Christophany 
like the many that we see in the Old Testament? Well, we need 
not explore vainly, but we do know this. Isaiah saw the Lord. Now secondly, what we need to 
say is that Isaiah did not see the Lord as He truly is in Himself. When we come to the Scriptures, 
we must conclude that God is invisible. God is invisible. When we come to the Scriptures, 
we find this in John 4, God is spirit. Perhaps you know the 
catechetical language, God is a spirit. Infinite, eternal, 
and unchangeable, etc. There's some that think that 
we should not say God is a spirit, but rather God is spirit. Because saying God is a spirit 
sort of seems to have the language of putting him in a category 
along with angels and men. He's just another constituent 
fellow in the order of being along with men and angels. He's 
the highest, to be sure. He's supreme to be sure, but 
he's nevertheless a spirit like angels. Just maximal instantiation 
of an angel, if you will. No, he is, God is spirit. He 
is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. He is the one who is above all. And so this seeing of the Lord, 
we must say, with the scriptures, with God's own self-revelation, 
that Isaiah did not see the Lord as he truly is in himself. Our 
confession says that the Lord our God is but one living and 
true God, whose subsistence is in and of Himself, whose essence 
cannot be comprehended by anyone but Himself, a most pure spirit 
without body, parts, or passions. He is immutable. He is invisible. God is a spirit. God is spirit, 
rather. You can turn to a place such 
as John 1.18. This language ought to be familiar 
to you in the prologue of John's Gospel. We have this confession 
clear in its declaration concerning the essential nature of God. 
Notice in John 1.18, no one has seen God at any time. the only begotten Son who is 
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." No one has 
seen God at any time. This language of seeing, if it 
is anything, we know what it is not, that someone actually 
casts their eyes upon the form of God, for there is no form 
of God, properly speaking. You can as well turn to 1 Timothy 
6. It's a wonderful doxology that 
we have there in 1 Timothy 6. You can begin reading at verse 
13. If your fingers have found yourself 
there quickly, let's read. I urge you in the sight of God, 
who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who 
witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate. that you 
keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord 
Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time. Now notice, He who is the blessed 
and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who 
alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom 
no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting 
power. Amen. The Lord, our God, does 
not have form. He is without body, parts, or 
passions. He does not properly wear a robe. He does not properly sit upon a throne, 
though the Bible uses this language. Gil, with regards to Isaiah, 
seeing the Lord, he says, not God essentially, but it is His 
essence, is not to be seen. So what do we mean then when 
we say, what is this manner of seeing? Whatever it is, we know 
this with Calvin. It is asked, how could Isaiah 
see God, who is a spirit, John 4, 24, and therefore cannot be 
seen with bodily eyes? Nay more. Since the understandings 
of men cannot rise to his boundless height, how can he be seen in 
a visible shape? But we ought to be aware that 
when God exhibited of the fathers, he never appeared such as he 
actually is, are below the heavens, there 
is no absurdity in supposing that God comes down to them in 
such a manner as to cause some kind of mirror to reflect the 
rays of His glory. There was therefore exhibited 
to Isaiah such a form as enabled him, according to his capacity, 
to perceive the inconceivable majesty of God And thus he attributes 
to God a throne, a robe, and a bodily appearance. Brethren, 
we're confronted with two amazing things. The first is clearly 
the glory of our God, isn't it? What do we mean when we say the 
glory of God? We say that a lot, don't we? 
The glory of God. We pray, and we rightly pray, 
and we refer to the glory of God. What do we mean when we 
say that? Well, there is a sense of the 
meaning where we are to ascribe to God a surpassing weightiness 
to His being and to His reality. The superlatives mount. The perfections 
of God mount. We cannot adequately mount adjectives 
and nouns upon each other to adequately describe the majesty, 
the perfection, and the glory of so great a God. We're confronted 
with the fact that when we speak of the glory of God, we're speaking 
that we are giving a high opinion of Him. He is not the stuff of 
casual contemplations. He's not the stuff of simple 
speech, but rather He's the stuff of surpassing majesty, glory, 
holiness, perfection. Infinite eternal and unchangeable 
and all of his beautiful attributes our God nevertheless Isaiah saw 
and that second great thing the glory of God is the first the 
Condescension of God is the second isn't it? What a glorious condescension 
to meet Isaiah in his frail and finite capacity, making himself 
known in a way that Isaiah can comprehend and understand. Well, 
maybe not comprehend, but know, because the living and true God 
is incomprehensible. He condescends to Isaiah's creatureliness 
and gives a manifestation of himself in such a way that Isaiah 
can receive it. our glorious God, and our condescending 
God. Whatever the manner of seeing, 
it is an instance of God condescending to our finite capacities, tending 
to our creatureliness in making Himself known. Notice then, besides 
the fact of the vision, we have the content of the vision. And 
the first thing is, the majesty 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. This is to 
cause us to reflect with high opinion upon the majesty of God, 
His surpassing glory, His royalty. He is regal. He is the unrivaled 
majesty. He is matchless. That's what 
the language is to speak to us. He's sitting on a throne, high 
and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. perhaps disagreement or different 
ideas as to what this means when we read, the train of his robe 
filled the temple. Some might see that we have this 
temple vision, the Lord our God again meeting Isaiah in his capacity 
as a creature. He's there in some sort of human 
form of a king, and the robe entirely fills the temple. And so there is this one seated 
on a throne in a heavenly temple, and the robe fills that temple. 
Others see it this way, that there is just a hem of the garment 
that is filling the entirety of the temple. So Isaiah's vision 
of the Lord is really just the hem of a garment that fills the 
temple. God is so immense. The Son of 
God, the second of the blessed triune, the brightness of the 
Father's glory, the express image of His person, who upholds all 
things by the word of His power, is so glorious that only the 
hem of the garment fills the temple. It's a picture of His 
majesty. In both instances, it's a picture 
of His majesty. In the latter, not that it isn't 
in the former, but in the latter, it's a picture of His immensity. God is immense. He is omnipresent. You see, we cannot confine God. As Christians, we don't worship 
the god of the pagans. He's not the god of, you know, 
weekly comic book strip gods. That is, grey beard with a cane, 
speaking, you know, wise sayings, or doing whatever he does in 
the folly of the comic books. There is no form to God. We cannot 
confine him. He is unconfined. There is nowhere 
that he is confined and there is nowhere where he is restricted 
from. He is omnipresent. He is immense. 
He does not move from one place to go to another, absenting himself 
of that place and coming to a place where he was previously absent. 
He fills the heavens and the earth. He is everywhere. He is omnipresent. His immensity, 
brethren, if you were to sit, if you were saved at the age 
of eight, and you were to sit daily to reflect upon and to 
search out and to discover His immensity, and reflect upon and 
meditate upon His omnipresence, By the time, let's say you live 
till you're 137, you would not have come close to exhausting 
even a minutia of the glory and the majesty of God in only one 
of the attributes that we can consider Him after. Our God is 
glorious. Our God is not a pagan conception. He's not some individual being 
that occupies some space and goes about to various places 
of His created universe. He is nowhere found, and yet 
He is everywhere found. You see, men are circumscribed 
by space. Angels are definitively located 
in a place in time and space. But our God, our majestic God, 
the Creator of men and angels, is repletively unconfined. He 
is everywhere, immediately present by the fullness of His essence. 
Our God is immense. Brethren, hopefully, hopefully, 
maybe not now as I'm preaching, but hopefully, well, hopefully 
now as I'm preaching, but whenever you find yourselves in your word, 
contemplating on our God, spend some minutes doing so. You see, 
kids, there are some glorious things in God's creation. There 
are some flowers. I'm okay in my madness to say 
there's some pretty beautiful flowers out there. My eye can 
land upon a flower, and I see God's creative beauty, his ingenuity, 
his genius in creating things to the beauty of the human eye. 
There's a certain majesty even in the smallest flower. You transcend 
a bit to a tree, some pretty cool trees out there, majestic 
trunks, you know, a multitude of branches and their flowers 
and their leaves and we can look upon trees and we can be amazed 
at the splendor of a tree. Transcend a bit further, not 
transcend, but ascend a bit further to mountains. Kids, you drive 
around in British Columbia and hopefully you haven't been here 
too long, where you just, you know, don't even look at the 
mountains. Sometimes we can become acclimated, you know, we adapt 
to our environment. Ah, yeah, there's mountains. 
Majestic. Majestic, God's creation is majestic. You can find yourselves contemplating 
earthly things and seeing an inherent beauty even in those 
things, but remember the one who made those. If a flower is 
majestic in its minuscule beauty, if a tree is majestic in its 
larger grandioseness, if the mountains are majestic in their 
massive appearance and in the seemingly boundless size that 
they have before our eyes, What about the God who made those 
things, who fills the heavens and the earth, who cannot be 
confined by anything of His creation, who is completely unconfined 
and yet not restricted from any place? He fills the heavens and 
the earth, and if that latter translation or understanding 
is right, in this vision, in order to communicate something 
of His glory and His unrivaled majesty, there's only a hem of 
the garment of the robe filling the entirety of the temple. Our 
glorious God. We need to move from wholesome 
and lawful, but small thoughts of flowers and trees and mountains, 
to high and heavy thoughts of the unrivaled majesty. Our blessed 
God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts. The angels cry, but we're not 
there yet. Notice secondly then, after the 
majesty of God, the seraphic attendance. The Seraphic Attendance. I typed Seraphic into Word and 
it didn't put a little squiggly red line under it, so it's a 
word. If Microsoft Word says it's a 
word, then it's a word. The seraphic attendance. Notice 
what we find in verse 2, and this is still under the content 
of the vision. Notice in verse 2, 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. We have these seraphic attendants, 
and if you think now that we've moved on from the majesty of 
God to these seraphic attendants, and then so we've put aside for 
a moment the majesty of God, you'd be wrong. Because this 
vision of the seraphic attendants isn't moving on now from the 
majesty of God, but it simply amplifies what was before stated. You see, these seraphim attend 
unto the worship of this unrivaled majesty, and they fly. With two 
he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with 
two he flew. Whenever you hear somebody preaching 
from the old King James, it sounds cooler, I think. With twain he 
covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with 
twain he flew. You see what's going on here, 
hopefully, and perhaps you've heard it before. These angels, 
glorious in their own being to a certain degree because they 
have the derived glory of God, they don't have the glory originally 
like God, it is derived, it's non-essential, but nevertheless, 
the angels in their appearance are glorious, they are the fiery 
ones who fly about the altar of the Lord, the throne of God 
giving him praise. But you see, they have to cover 
their eyes from the glory of God. These sinless, elect angels 
who serve God are flying about and they cannot look upon the 
majesty of God. They hide themselves from the 
glory of this glorious one by covering their eyes with two 
of their wings. You see, we haven't moved on 
from the majesty of God. We're only more deeply exploring 
the majesty of God when we see the sight of these seraphim, 
these seraphic attendants. Each one had six wings. With 
two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. differing interpretations of 
this as well. The most common one, I think, 
is they cover their feet as a symbol of modesty and humility. as a 
symbol of modesty and humility before the creator of Seraphim, 
before the creator of Isaiah, before the creator of all things, 
who made all things from nothing in the space of six days, and 
all very good. There's another interpretation, 
though, that has this covering of feet, meaning that they are 
blocking their angelic glory from Isaiah. They're blocking their own angelic 
glory from Isaiah by covering their feet. They're flying above 
the train of the robe, and Isaiah's looking at this glorious sight. 
And they have to mask, if you will, their own glory. Whatever 
interpretation you take, and I... I personally prefer the 
former because God is disclosing a measure of His own glory by 
this vision to Isaiah, so why would the seraphim need to be 
hiding theirs from Him? But nevertheless, what it shows 
is still the majesty of our God. As we get then to, under the 
content of the vision, the angelic refrain, because what are these 
seraphic attendants doing, but continually crying out to one 
another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole 
earth is full of His glory. The whole earth is full of His 
glory. As you've heard Pastor Butler say before in some versions 
this holy is repeated nine times, in others it's repeated six. 
Here it's repeated three. The force I imagine, not I imagine, 
the force is the same. God is holy. God is holy. And there is something very interesting 
about this passage. You've heard it before. These 
angels are holy. These angels are maybe more to 
what we want to say sinless. You see, we can take the definition 
of holiness as it pertains to God and bring it down to a lesser 
level. We can strip it of its full glory. Sorry about that. We can strip 
it of its full glory. If we only say that holiness 
is the sinlessness of God, or His ethical perfection, His impeccable 
morality. If we only say that that is what 
holiness is, then the angels have that too. The angels are 
sinless. They are the elect angels who 
do not transgress any laws of their creator. They are ethically 
pure, the seraphic attendants. So holiness must mean something 
else. One man describes it or defines it this way, as a predicate 
of deity, holiness, as a predicate of deity, it expresses, first 
of all, the awful contrast between the divine and human, and those 
positive attributes of God which constitute true divinity. So 
in the first place, we would want to say that holiness is 
that awful contrast between divinity and the nature of angels and 
humanity. You see, we have God and we have 
angels and men. There is a transcendent, unrivaled, 
and unmatched glory to God. There is an otherness. There 
is a separateness to our God. As we said earlier, He is not 
a constituent fellow along with us and angels in some order of 
being, but rather He is transcendently removed from any category of 
created being, and He stands alone as the one who is immense, 
invisible, eternal, a most pure spirit, without body, parts, 
and passions, whose subsistence is in and of Himself. He is that 
most pure Spirit, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any 
but Himself." There is this otherness to God, where He is not just 
a, you know, a better... He's just not a... He's not a 
super angel. He's not a sinless, higher, supreme 
version of men. You know, in His omniscience, 
He is not simply some uber Santa Claus. He is immense, eternal, 
glorious, majestic, wholly removed, if you will, from His creation, 
yet by His eminence, wholly present by His glory, because the whole 
earth is full of His glory. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts. We will not exhaust explorations 
of the holiness of our blessed God. We will not exhaust it. 
The angelic refrain, holy, holy, holy, is only used twice in the 
Bible. It's only used twice in the Bible. 
Here, and in Revelation 4. Notice in Revelation 4, something 
quite similar. And I would want to say, and 
we should want to observe, that there are great similarities 
between John and Isaiah. What does John see at the outset 
of his revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ to him? He sees 
the Son of Man, a vision of the Son of Man, this glorious one. The description that He gives 
is quite glorious. Notice in Revelation 4, though, 
with respect to the language of holy, holy, holy, notice verse 
8 of Revelation 4, the four living creatures, each having 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. Notice as well the song in 11. 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, this language 
of holy, holy, holy is only right. It's only proper. Brethren, if 
this section is to break, well, let's get to that point in a 
moment. Let's get to that point in a moment. But hopefully you 
sing with the angels, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Hopefully 
your contemplations, Christian, is at this point of blessed doctrine 
and reality. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts. His, the awful, contrast between 
the divine and the human. But let's not forget those positive 
attributes of God which constitute his true divinity. There's probably 
a two-pronged aspect, if you will, to the holiness that he's 
speaking of when he talks about positive attributes, if we could 
sum it up in two things. It would be the perfection, the 
impeccability, the absolute purity of his moral and ethical character. He is perfect. There is, of course, 
as well, the reality of His holiness, where we see its effect, the 
wrath of God, the exercise of justice. The holiness of God 
is seen in the destruction of enemies and in the judgment of 
those who oppose His Christ and reject His gospel. The book of 
Revelation, we saw that earlier. Holy and just is this one who 
renders the judgment upon the mother of harlots and of the 
abominations of the earth. So holiness is seen in His awful 
contrast compared with angels and men and everything else. 
It's seen in the perfection of His being, the point of His ethical 
and moral character, and it's seen in the fact of the hotness 
of His justice, the glory of His wrath. God is holy, always, 
infinitely, eternally, and unchangeably. Lastly, then, under the vision 
of the unrivaled majesty, we want to note the manifest terror 
of the vision. The manifest terror of the vision. We see this in verse 4. We're 
back in Isaiah 6 now. And the posts of the door were 
shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was 
filled with smoke. manifest terror of the vision. 
It has already been terrible because Isaiah has cast his eyes 
upon the Lord of hosts. He's already seen the Lord of 
hosts seated on a throne high and lifted up with the train 
of his robe filling the temple. He's seen these perfect angels 
having to hide themselves from His glory, having to cover their 
feet in absolute modesty and humility, flying with the other 
two, and now the posts of the door were shaken by the voice 
of Him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 
I'm not sure if any of you, it was just, I'm not sure how long 
ago, maybe a month ago, we had a little bit of an earthquake. 
I put it in quotes because it wasn't as immense as earthquakes 
in other areas, but my family and I were in our house and we 
were shaken. It disturbed us a little bit. 
You know, there's this shaking, and as far as I can remember, 
there were two instances of a shaking of this massive 4.2 earthquake. We were startled at the first 
one, and then the second one, and 10 seconds later, even more 
startled. At first, we thought maybe someone 
fell out of their bed. I was downstairs, so I don't 
know who was heavy enough to make a loud noise falling out 
of their bed. Nobody. But the second one came and we 
were shaken to the core of our beings. It was just a little 
bit of an earthquake. You know, when natural disasters 
come, when we hear the rolling of the thunder, When we hear 
the screaming of a storm, isn't there something in your soul? You're rattled. There's something 
going on where you're driven, as Christians, you're driven 
to be thankful to your God, and yet there is this sense as well 
of a reverential terror and awe at his majesty. You see, because 
it is God who raises up the stormy winds that shake you to your 
core. We don't have a God that has 
just created and now sits back and watches the winds roar, watches 
the hurricanes blow, and watches the earthquakes rumble. We have 
a God of unmatched sovereignty who has ordained these things, 
who brings them about for His own sovereign purposes. Hopefully, 
when you feel those things, or it is the case that when you 
feel those things, there is this sending of the contemplative 
mind to God. For the unbeliever, this is very 
often the case as well. The unbeliever has a knowledge 
of God, don't ever forget that. Romans 1, Psalm 19, the unbeliever 
has a knowledge of the unrivaled majesty. And when his soul is 
rattled, if it's even just an earthquake or the screaming of 
a storm that sounds like a steam train, there is something in 
him. that reminds him that there is 
a king in high heavens who has hung out his coat of arms bearing 
shield to show the atheist how much he despises their denunciations 
of him. And the posts of the door were 
shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled 
with smoke. This speaks to two things. The 
glorious majesty of the presence of the Lord and the wrath of 
that self-same Lord. The house is filled with smoke. 
Hopefully instances, this reminds you of instances in the Bible, 
that Exodus occasion of the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai. 
God giving himself a special, or bringing a special instance 
of his presence upon that holy mount. There were thunderings 
and fire and smoke. We go to the book of Revelation 
and there is something of the same thing in John's vision. 
We see, in fact, even in the book of Acts, and perhaps it's 
a little bit different, but the house where the disciples were 
gathered, it was shaken in Acts 6, confirming the presence of 
God. All of that to come back to this, 
the manifest terror here. This is only the doors being 
shaken, the threshold being shaken, by the song of the angels. You 
see, were this the exercise of the unmatched power of God, it 
wouldn't just be a shaking. It would be an utter destruction 
of whatever is going on here and whatever is in view. Only 
the song of the angels singing, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord 
of hosts to each other, rattles the place, and the house is filled 
with smoke. And we see then, now as we move 
to the appropriate response by the son of Amoz, our second large 
point, we see why this was so terrible, or we see what happens 
in response to this terrible thing. The appropriate response 
by the son of Amoz, notice in verse 5, So I said, this is Isaiah, 
he's the son of Amoz, 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." The appropriate response, isn't it? From everything 
we've just briefly explored, this is the proper response to 
the glory and to the majesty of God. How often do we come 
into church where we may not be confronted by the glory of 
God as Isaiah saw it, but nevertheless we ought to be confronted by 
the glory of God. God is present, and he is present 
peculiarly through the preached word. The hymn books that you 
open are hymns. The hymns that you sing with 
an open hymn book have glorious language that speak to the glory 
of our God. As we pray and as we read the 
scriptures, the glory of God is disclosed to you. How often 
do you come in thinking about your lunch sandwich and leaving 
thinking about your lunch sandwich? Not being confronted with the 
glory of our God. not being confronted by the glory 
of God and responding like the son of Amoz. Woe is me, for I 
am undone. Notice first the cry of alarm 
under the appropriate response, the cry of alarm. There is what 
we find here in this cry of alarm, and it is simply these three 
words, woe is me. Woe is me. Brethren, there is something 
in this language of self-recognition. In fact, this whole verse 5, 
we ought to note, first off, self-recognition. Generally, 
Isaiah is made acutely aware of his sinfulness, frailty, and 
inadequacy before such a glorious spectacle. Again, the Lord our 
God has not revealed Himself as He truly is. He has revealed 
Himself, make no mistake, Isaiah saw the Lord, and even in that 
condescension to Isaiah's capacities as a finite creature, nevertheless 
it elicits this response of self-recognition. Woe is me, for I am undone, etc. Notice Calvin on this point, 
and this is important to understand with regards to the response. 
Man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first 
looked upon God's face, and then descends from contemplating Him 
to scrutinize himself. The whole of our wisdom, wisdom 
that is which deserves to be called true and assured, broadly 
consists of two parts, knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves. That is what true wisdom is seen. If we could summarize it in two 
parts, knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves. Calvin in his Institutes, 
I think, begins the Institutes, not with only this, but with 
this particular portion, the statement, know thyself. Know 
thyself. In fact, the pagans even had 
that on their pagan edifices. In Delphi, for example, stamped 
or engraved, or however it was done back then, know thyself. Whatever the pagans meant by 
that, we know what the Bible means by that. Examine yourselves 
in the light of God and His revelation. What does God say about men and 
what does God do to men to whom He discloses Himself? What ought 
man's response to be in the sight of such a God and after contemplations 
of such an unrivaled majesty? It isn't hands in the pocket 
and just going to cut parsnips at home and not giving any thought 
about what we heard on the Lord's Day, what we heard in church. 
It's not just leaving, you know, getting in the car and turning 
on sports radio and moving on with your day. We are to take 
pause as Christians. We're to take pause. When we 
leave these doors, there's not really, you know, there is something 
absolutely special to the church and the gathering on the Lord's 
Day Sabbath, but when we leave that door, there's not some sort 
of invisible membrane that we walk through and now we can just, 
you know, talk about everything worldly and pagan and that sort 
of a thing. All that to say this, brethren, 
hopefully when you come in and you're confronted with the glory 
of the Lord here on the Lord's Day in the Church of the Living 
Christ, you're brought to a place like Isaiah, where you scrutinize 
and examine yourself, you explore the inner depths as much as you 
can as a finite being of your own soul, and you arrive back 
at God, and you say, God, cleanse me. Lord, clean me. Make me to 
walk in the old paths where the good way is. Give me the grace. If you're a Christian, and you're 
going through that exercise, and that's who I was specifically 
talking to, you leave this place with contemplations of your God, 
and you seek to glory in Him. You seek to sing with the angels, 
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Self-recognition is 
absolutely vital for the people of God. We should be welcoming 
of divine scrutiny, is how Dolezal puts it. When we come up against 
a knowledge of our God, when we grasp only the smallest picture 
of the glory of our God, we are to welcome scrutiny. We are to 
welcome divine scrutiny as His truth drills itself into our 
inner core. We are to arrive at the place 
where we're with Isaiah. We say, we're with you, man. 
Woe is me. Woe is me, for I am undone. Notice 
as well, we have something under this cry of alarm of self-imprecation 
or commiseration or an exclamation of grief in the face of calamity. Woe is me, for I am undone. You know, this language of I 
am undone has been translated I am lost, which carries a little 
bit of the meaning, but not enough. I am ruined. Is closer. I am undone. Is good. Carries 
the meaning of I'm utterly destroyed. I have ceased. God has caused 
me by His glory to cease. It is as if I have been obliterated. By the majesty of God, by the 
knowledge of Him, and no doubt, by the knowledge of my own sinfulness 
in sight of such an unrivaled majesty. Woe is me, for I am 
undone." The reason behind this alarming assessment, well actually 
not quite yet, because notice what we have in the assessment 
of His condition, Not only is He undone, not only is He ruined, 
not only is He destroyed by this glorious vision, but we have 
this language of unclean lips. He goes on, He's acknowledging 
something of the dirtiness, the uncleanness of His lips. And we make a mistake 
if we simply say that this means that Isaiah said bad words occasionally. You know, if we just occasionally, 
oh, he cursed when he spilled his coffee. A man of unclean 
lips, woe is me. You know, there's something to 
this largely where we are to see hypocrisy, deceit, even silence. I'm a man of unclean lips. Hypocrisy, 
deceit, and even silence. There might be something here 
peculiar to Isaiah that he did not cry out like the angels or 
does not continually cry out like the angels. Holy, holy, 
holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His 
glory. He goes on to say, for my eyes have seen the King, the 
Lord of hosts. And yet I find myself, perhaps 
Isaiah is rehearsing, I find myself not saying with the angels, 
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is 
full of his glory. Dirtiness of lips is seen when 
we don't use them aright in silence. There may be something as well 
here as not engaging in His prophetic ministry. And so in Isaiah 6, 
we have a peculiar and special recalling, if you will, or recommissioning 
by God for Isaiah to go and proclaim to the nation their wickedness 
and their covenantal unfaithfulness. I'm a man of unclean lips, because 
I was charged by God to go about my prophetic ministry, and now 
He must charge me again. He goes, in verse 8, remember 
what we read there, or sorry, yeah, at the end of verse 8, 
then I said, here I am, send me. He's confronted with the 
holiness and the majesty of God and it's designed to put Isaiah 
back out there to proclaim to this nation, to make the heart 
of the people dull, to make their ears heavy, shut their eyes, 
et cetera, and to proclaim divine judgment for their iniquity. 
There is something much, much more than saying bad words with 
unclean lips. There is something much more. 
And he dwells among a people of unclean lips. And I dwell, 
he writes, in the midst of a people of unclean lips. This is something 
that marked that nation. Hypocrisy, deceit, silence. Hypocrisy, you know, they render 
me service with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They 
give me service with their mouths, sure, but it's hypocritical service. Their hearts are far from me. 
It's a common refrain by God to the people, in other forms, 
but a common refrain. This people honors me with their 
lips, but their hearts are far from me. Christ himself uses 
that language in Matthew 15, doesn't he? When he's talking 
about those hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisees who come and talk about 
the disciples not washing their hands and eating with unwashed 
hands. Their hearts were far from the Lord. Their lips might 
confess superficially service to the Lord, but they were wicked 
and abominable." Deceit. It's throughout one of the illnesses, 
the sicknesses, the diseases of this people. Deceit. Deceiving 
neighbor. Deceiving family. Deceiving friend. 
Deceiving themselves. Silence. Not proclaiming, not 
singing unto the Lord, holy, holy, holy. You know, we have 
to move to a close now. I'm gonna pick up the rest tonight 
because we've gone on and the young preacher has not managed 
his time well. We need to take a few things 
from this. We need to take a few things from this. We're gonna 
look at the reason behind the alarming assessment tonight and 
then the blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord, our last 
point. But let's close with a few observations and the first is 
this, brethren. I think we've lost something. 
We've lost something at the point of Christian worship. What I 
mean by that is, yes, we are not to engage in the excessive 
pomp and circumstance and empty religion of, let's say, the Roman 
Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church and other churches 
where there is sort of this over-emphasis on liturgical externals and that 
sort of a thing. perhaps the popish Anglican environments 
around the world where there is much of this external religion. But you see, we shouldn't perversely 
overreact and just casually stroll in to the house of the Lord. 
Showing up, you know, three, five minutes late, strolling 
in, I'm not picking anybody. I'm not looking at anybody. You 
showed up late. If you showed up late, you might 
have a reason. Perhaps you don't have a reason, 
though. We treat worship as it's a visit to a seminar where we're 
going to hear about the latest Skittle flavor. I don't know, 
I can't think of any other example, but some worldly and casual and 
some sort of thing where you're just rolling into a meeting. 
Hopefully when you show up for a work meeting, you show up early, 
you find your seat, and you get ready for the person to pull 
down the little projector, kick up the laptop to bring out the 
fact that green has now changed to apple, it's no longer lime. 
Hopefully you're there on time. The church of the living God. 
This One who is majestic, this One who in this vision of condescension, 
the hem of His robe only fills the temple. This One who is holy, 
holy, holy. This One whose glory fills the 
whole earth. The whole earth is the fullness 
of His glory. We come in to worship this God. 
We are not to treat Him as a speaker disclosing the verities of candy. This is the King of all the earth. 
We'll look at tonight, this is the King, the Lord of hosts. 
Brethren, worship is an honor. We come in and we worship the 
triune God. We should approach it not with 
liturgical superficiality, but with a measure of outward respect. We should put on our best. We 
should be on time. We should come and sit, perhaps 
even a few minutes before the service starts, open up our Bibles, 
and prepare our minds for the worship of God. because we worship 
such a one. Think about it, the majestic 
one who created all things, who upholds all things by the word 
of his power. We don't even know what that 
means, but we know he upholds all things by the word of his 
power. To use borrowed language at the point of his holiness, 
when we say God is holy, one man has said something like this. 
When we say God is holy, we have not really known what we said, 
we have only intimated what we adore. We cannot comprehend Him 
in the fullness of His essence. This immense and glorious One 
has made Himself known in His holy Scriptures. Here to Isaiah 
He has disclosed His glory. And the response of us, the sons 
of Amoz, the response of us, the sons of men, saved by grace 
through the Lord Jesus Christ, is to come with a solemnity. 
with a sobriety, with the highest measure of respect for the King 
of Kings and for the Lord of Lords. And hopefully if you're 
here this morning and if you don't know this God, I pray by 
His Spirit and for His glory He would make known to you the 
severity and the weightiness of this passage. Note that you 
will one day be confronted with the glory of God. If you remain 
in your sin, if you remain in your rebellion against him, it 
will be too late. It will be too late. And that 
day, your knee will bend the force of the power of the unrivaled 
majesty, and he will say, depart from me, you wicked, into the 
everlasting fire reserved for the devil and his angels. Close 
with this Christ. Be confronted by the glory of 
our God. Understand that woe is you. Say with the prophet, woe is 
me, for I am undone. I am brought to oblivion. But 
then know what we'll see tonight, that in Christ Jesus there is 
atonement. In Christ Jesus, if you believe 
upon Him by grace, then behold, this has touched your lips. Your 
iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And you won't look with 
horror on that great day at this glorious unrivaled majesty, but 
you will look with peace and joy. And you'll sing with the 
angels everlastingly, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Let 
us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you 
for your word. We thank you for this vision 
of Isaiah. We thank you for what it discloses 
concerning you and concerning men. We thank you for what this 
shows us about your glory, about your majesty. We thank you for 
what it shows us concerning our own state before you. We do pray 
that you would help us to rejoice in you. We pray that you would 
help us to sing your praises. We pray that your saints would 
all the more be lifted up to diligence and walk, that we would 
know with whom we have to do, and that we would adequately 
respond to your glory with our own service in this lower world. 
And we do pray for those who do not know you, those who are 
here this morning outside of Christ, that you would confront 
them with your glory. that you would meet them with 
your grace, and that you would cause them to leave this place, 
singing the praises of our gracious God. We pray that you would go 
with us, that you would help us. We pray that you would just 
cause us to leave this place, reflecting upon your glory, and 
seeking to live in light of it. We pray in Christ's precious 
name. Amen.