Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6
You can turn back in your Bibles to Isaiah 6. So we continue to explore this particular passage of Holy Scripture. We began this morning to look at it, and we'll continue this evening, Lord willing, to finish our examination, our observation of verses 1 through 7. I'm going to read again the entire chapter.
Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 1, the Word of God. 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. 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. And 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. Well, let us ask the Lord's blessing upon the Word preached.
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you again that we can now engage in this act of worship, the preaching of the Word. Once again, God, we would pray for your blessing upon this act. And we pray that you would be with preacher, strengthening him as he brings your word. Be with hearer, Lord God, as they listen, as they follow along in the Holy Scriptures.
And might this act of worship be unto the praise of your glorious name, unto the instruction, the edification, the encouragement, and the equipping of your gathered saints. And might it be, Lord God, by your grace and for your glory, unto the salvation of sinners. And it's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.
Introduction
Well, you'll recall if you were here this morning. If you weren't, you won't recall, so I'll remind you. What we looked at this morning was, we started to look at two things from verses 1 to 7 of Isaiah 6. We started to look, first off, at the vision of the unrivaled majesty.
This glorious vision that the Lord God gives to Isaiah. Condescending, if you'll remember, to the meekness, the frailty, the finitude, the creatureliness of Isaiah. Accommodating himself, if you will, to his creaturely capacity. God discloses himself.
He manifests himself in his glory and in his majesty. peculiarly in His holiness. We as well looked at the appropriate response by the Son of Amoz, getting through two points that we brought out from verse 5, where we see in the face of this glorious vision this response by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, and we noted that it was an appropriate response. When someone is confronted by the glory of God, there is an inappropriate response, and there is an appropriate response. And the appropriate response comes by Isaiah when we read in v. 5, 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. A wonderful confession, a wonderful self-recognition and maybe even a self-imprecation, woe is me, with the following assessment of his own condition and the condition of his nation. Now what we didn't get to, we noted the cry of alarm, woe is me, We noted the assessment of the condition, that is, he is a man of unclean lips and he dwells amidst or amongst a people of unclean lips. And now we want to note, as we continue, the reason behind the alarming assessment.
The reason behind this alarming assessment, when he says, woe is me, when he acknowledges himself in wholesome self-recognition, we find this language, the reason for the alarming assessment, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. This is, in a sense, verses one through five. Verse five here, and the end of it, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. It's like the crescendo has mounted to this point.
It builds from verse 1 and it arrives here, and we are to be confronted yet again with the stuff of verse 1. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. A glorious vision. Glorious disclosure of the glory of God.
Leopold writes, at this point, speaking of Isaiah, at this point, he may have lain on the ground, crushed in contrition. He makes this confession. You see, this is the reason for his self-recognition and self-imprecation. The recognition of his state of being wholly destroyed, wholly brought to oblivion, as it were, before the exalted majesty of so glorious a God. for confessing the uncleanliness of his lips and that too of his nation, the reason is for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Leopold is right.
At this point, he may have lain on the ground, crushed in contrition. Yes, by a sense of and detestation for and sorrow over his own sinfulness, his own frailty, his own inadequacy, but more to the point and more grandly by the glorious disclosure of the unrivaled majesty. That is why we can wholesomely suspect that Isaiah may have lain on the ground in contrition. He fell as a dead man most probably before the majesty and the glory of this One who is unrivaled in His majesty.
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. You see, a knowledge of our God is to cast down. Our knowledge of God being, you know, whether with eyes of sight, in this case by the vision of Isaiah, or whether confronted by the word preached and brought to bear by the weight of the testimony of the Holy Spirit, we are to be cast down by a knowledge of our God. We're to be humbled.
We don't march into the throne room with a charging vigor and demand that God recognize us for whatever reason. God makes a disclosure of himself, and we are to be cast down. We are to fall as dead man before the unrivaled majesty of the king, the monarch, the potentate of heaven and earth. We have reason to suspect, as Leopold does, that Isaiah lay on the ground in contrition, a detestation over sin, a detestation over his own state.
Why? Because his eyes had seen the King, the Lord of hosts. It's a wonderful language of our God we ought to use as often as we find ourselves speaking of our God, the King. He is the King.
It's an interesting language if you'll turn with me to 1 Timothy. If you can't turn there for whatever reason, you can just listen as I read it. But in 1 Timothy, relative to this language, relevant to this language of kingship, notice what 1 Timothy 6 says. how 1 Timothy 6 reads at verse 15. You'll remember we read this this morning at the point of the invisibility of God, that His purity of spirit, that He cannot be seen.
Notice in verse 15, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Interesting language, isn't it? The blessed and only potentate. Potentate is simply, it's an interesting word that just means king.
It means monarch or ruler. But it says the blessed and only potentate. Isaiah, as we find our way back to Isaiah 6, he says, for my eyes have seen the king. There is truly only one king.
Yes, earthly kings may rise and earthly kings may fall. But truly and really, there is only one king who is such originally. essentially and in derivatively, and that is the Lord God Almighty. Every other king that ever was is given their rule, is given their kingship by the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Isaiah says, for my eyes have seen the king.
I don't believe we are to see a contrast. in verse 1, between Uzziah and the Lord sitting on a throne, but I believe it's wholesome to observe a contrast. You see, King Uzziah died. Well, in fact, Isaiah's vision may not have come after King Uzziah died. Notice the language says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.
He may not have seen the Lord in this vision after King Uzziah died, it was just in the year that King Uzziah died. But on this point of kings, Isaiah is brought to utter lowliness and despair and contrition, to utter oblivion. I am dissolved. I am undone.
I am ruined. Not by the majesty of an earthly king, but solely and alone by the exclusivity of the majesty of the only king that there truly and properly is, and that is the Lord God Almighty. It is proper, brothers and sisters, to use the language of King when we talk about our God. He is the ruler.
He is the monarch. He is the potentate. He is the Lord of hosts. He is the Lord Sabaoth.
We sing that song, that Martin Luther hymn, and we have the language right here, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. He's the God of the armies of heaven. He's the Lord of the armies of Israel. And Isaiah is brought to his knees, brought to his face upon the ground as he considers, as he is confronted with. the unrivaled majesty, the triune God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Maybe we might even speak more properly. We don't want to misstep. No doubt He is brought to bear before the reality of a triune God, but we're gonna read John 12 later. This is most likely and most probably a vision of the second of the blessed triune, the Son of God, the Son or Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate glory.
We need to remark at this point again, though, that there is a surpassing and exclusive uniqueness to the Lord our God. He is the King. He is the Lord of hosts. And He is to be honored as such.
Who is it? Who is it that is puffed up in themselves? Who is it that's puffed up as a Christian? Surely, Surely we ought to expect that an unbeliever is going to be puffed up as they worship all that is not God, including themselves.
But are any one of us going to be puffed up before so glorious a majesty, before so glorious a God? Where then is boasting? I know that's spoken in the category of soteriology and justification, but it applies with regards to God. We ought not to tear away theology proper from the doctrine of salvation, soteriology.
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. Why? Because the only one that we are to boast in is the Lord God Almighty, the Triune Majesty, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world, sinners to save, God forbid. that I should boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For of Him we are in Christ Jesus. Isaiah is brought low by this view of the unrivaled majesty of God.
Atonement from the Altar
We want to move on now then to our third point. Remember our three points were these. The vision of the unrivaled majesty, the appropriate response by the Son of Amoz, and now thirdly and lastly, the blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord. the blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord. Notice after this cry of alarm, what we read beginning in verse 6, 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. What beautiful words. Hopefully you can notice this, brethren.
What glorious words to follow this self-recognition and cry of alarm on the part of Isaiah. He cries out, Woe to me, for I am dissolved, I am brought to oblivion, I am undone by the majesty of my God. And then yet, what comes swiftly? but the grace and the mercy of our great God. 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.
Yes, it is good to repeat ourselves when such a blessed, grace-filled, and mercy-filled verse follows. And he touched my mouth with it, and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged. What ought we to see here? in this portion of this section of Isaiah 6.
Well, the first thing we want to note
Atonement and Isaiah Specifically
first, specifically, is with respect to Isaiah. What does this mean concerning Isaiah? Surely this isn't an account of his conversion. This isn't an account of his conversion.
He has already been in the ministry of his prophetic office. Some for silly reasons, see Isaiah 6 as the beginning, as if it's misplaced, and it should have been placed by the collators of the inscriptured canon at the beginning of the letter. We have a call, we have here Isaiah called to be a prophet. Well, many have noted that this is probably, in a sense, a punctuated and revived call after he had already been called to the ministry of a prophet.
We might get a glimpse of that reality when we read in verse 9, and he said, go and tell this people, keep on hearing. but do not understand, keep on seeing, but do not perceive. They had already heard the words of the prophet. And there is this sense in which God comes to Isaiah and brings something of what Calvin says here. It was because this is this touching of the of the live coal to the lips by the seraphim upon the lips of Isaiah.
It was because the Lord intended to enlarge and extend his favor towards him and to raise him to higher dignity that he might have greater influence over the people. that he might have greater influence over the people. He had been proclaiming that they would hear, he had been proclaiming that they would see, but they were not hearing, and they were not seeing. So God brings this glorious and condescending vision to the prophet, that he might be in his prophetic office, revived, and brought to greater influence over the people of his ministry. Do we have anything else like this in our Bibles? where what appears to be sort of language of salvation and conversion isn't really that in the first place, but is sort of a confirmation of that which already exists, and a revival of sorts to lift up the individual to greater things in his ministry.
Turn with me to Psalm 51, because we do have that there. In Psalm 51, in this case, with David. Notice in Psalm 51, beginning in verse 5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners.
We have the occasion of a revival of David. He asks that the joy of that salvation that he already had would be returned to him. Verse 12, that he would be upheld by God's generous spirit. And then notice what follows.
And this is quite relevant to the occasion of Isaiah. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. In Isaiah 6, what do we have after this sacramental inappearance, touching of the live coal upon the lips of Isaiah? We have the sending and the commissioning of him to go and tell his people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Is there an instance like this in the New Testament? I believe there is in John 21. In John chapter 21, notice what we find there.
We have the re-commissioning, if you will. John Peter, who was called even Satan by God, or by the Lord Jesus Christ, who had denied the Savior thrice. And yet in v. 15, notice what we find here. The kind words of the resurrected Christ.
So when they had eaten breakfast, this is John 21.15, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?
He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me?
And he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. What we have in David, what we have in Peter, is what we have in Isaiah. God meets Isaiah with what he needs in order to invigorate him unto a proper service unto God. We have something of this in our confession.
In our confession at 18.4, listen to this language, because in our own lives we have something of this Isaianic renewal. Chapter 18, paragraph 4, true believers may have the assurance of their salvation diverse ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted, as by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the spirit, by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God's withdrawing the light of his countenance and suffering, even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light. Yet are they never destitute of the seed of God and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, now notice, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the meantime, they are preserved from utter despair. Isaiah is brought to utter despair.
He's shown the unrivaled majesty of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Hosts. He's brought to the place where he pronounces, in a sense, a curse upon himself. Woe is me, for I am undone. I'm ruined.
I'm dissolved. I'm brought to oblivion. And yet, mercy and grace comes from the throne of God. And notice what happens is this grace-filled and from God gift comes, and it answers Isaiah's peculiar problem.
Remember what Isaiah had said, I am a man of unclean lips. I'm a man of unclean lips. What happens? The seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongues 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. If the Isaianic problem was that his lips were unclean, then his problem has now been remedied by the Son of God sending the seraph to deliver this live coal to his lips. God answers us in our plight. God answers us where we need to be answered.
It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful picture. Isaiah is brought to despair. Isaiah is brought to the point where he lain on the ground, crushed in contrition, because he's a man of unclean lips. And having acknowledged the reality, the terror that his eyes had seen the King, the Lord of hosts, these unclean lips are remedied by the seraph flying from the altar with the live coal to touch his lips.
So let's move then naturally We looked at, first, specifically with respect to Isaiah, what that means.
Atonement: The General Truth
Now, secondly, generally, observe the truth of atonement. Hopefully you see that here. Hopefully you see the truth of atonement as Gil says, the doctrine of pardon founded upon the sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ. Let's notice three things here in verses 6 and 7 with regards to generally the truth of atonement.
Atonement Comes from the Lord Alone
That first thing is this, atonement comes from the Lord alone. Simple statement, it's a simple proposition. But, Atonement comes from the Lord alone, from Christ alone. See what's going on here?
Isaiah sees the pre-incarnate Christ. He's given a vision of the Son of God, and it is the Son of God who sends the seraph to deliver atonement, to deliver the remedy, to bring grace, to bring mercy, to bring pardon founded upon the sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ. Atonement comes from the Lord alone. We don't have a narrative record of Isaiah recounting his grand ascent up some calamitous trial of a mountain in order to merit and to earn and to win and to be triumphant unto his own atonement.
He didn't climb up, day upon day, this massive mountain in order to grab tongs and to grip the live coal and to press it against his own lips. Then one of the seraphim flew to me. It's God. It's God alone.
It's by grace alone, through Christ alone, that this atonement comes, that our atonement has come to us. in Christ alone, from the Lord alone. This is something that we need to press time and again. And I want to say this, because this is the stuff of Isaiah 6, that we need to glory in time and again, and often fly to. It's a point of application for later, but it's not going to be now.
It's going to be delivered now. The point of application is this. Don't find comfort, confirmation, and fitness in yourself. Why?
When we are brought to despair, when we are brought to the point where we think ourselves undone, when we are brought to the point where we are just brought low by whatever it may be, where do you look? Where do you look for revival? Where do you look to be brought back to that blessed place of the joy of your salvation return? Do you look inwardly at the motions of the Spirit upon your own soul?
Do you look at the outward fruits and evidences that you engage in for the cause of Christ and the gospel? Do you reflect upon better days when you read your Bible more, when you went to church more faithfully, when you didn't reject the Lord's table? Do you look back, oh, you know what, I did such and such, and I did X, Y, and Z, and you know what, I was good for a time, and I just need to look upon that and return to that? Or do you look to that time where the Son of God sent the seraph to bring with tongs the live coal to touch your lips and to have your sins purged?
In other words, to say more clearly, do you look to Christ Jesus in salvation by Him? Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The long list of deeds that I have done.
No. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. I fear too often, sometimes because of the religious environment that we were brought up in before we came to Christ, those sorts of things, that we can find ourselves seeking to atone for our own sins.
You can see this, it's as if we are like that man from that bad movie so many years ago, I can't remember the name of it, but a Jesuit priest who wears a sack of something upon his back and carries it along for season after season until he can atone for his own transgressions against God. You can never do it. You can never do it. The burden that will fall off your back does not fall off by deeds of righteousness which you have done, and the joy that you rehearse that dropped that burden off is not the stuff that you have done for God in the service of Christ and truth.
When you are brought to utter despair, you look to Christ. Very simply. I could have just said that three and a half minutes ago. When you're brought to despair, you look to Christ.
In Christ, we have comforts. In Christ, we have confirmation. In Christ, we have and we are made fit. In Christ, we have fitness and are made fit for the service of our blessed God.
Atonement Comes from Sacrifice Alone
Notice, secondly, atonement comes from sacrifice alone. It comes from the Lord alone, it comes from Christ alone, and it comes from sacrifice alone. Having in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the tongs, note, from the altar. What do altars speak of?
What are altars for? Altars are for sacrifices. This is an interesting picture, brothers and sisters, and hopefully you see this and hopefully you get this, and hopefully it puts a little bit of a skip in your Christian step. Very interesting thing here.
It is the pre-incarnate Son of God, who in the fullness of the times would become incarnate to render sacrifice for the sins of His people, that in His pre-incarnate state sends a seraph from the altar in order to deliver this picture of blessed atonement. You see the interplay between theological truths and soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. This is a picture beforehand of the sacrifice of Christ that would happen later. This is a blessed picture of the sacrifice of Christ.
And understand, like Gill says, Atonement is the doctrine of pardon founded upon the sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ. Sacrifice. You see, what do sacrifices do? But they take away iniquity and they purge sin.
Hopefully you can connect verses here. We read in Isaiah 6 here, your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged. harkens you back to reflections upon Hebrews 1. There we have this language concerning the Christ who has now come and has rendered His perfect work. We read in verse 3, "...who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High." Christ has always been in the business of purging sins.
You know what purging means, and hopefully, I know you've heard this before, hopefully you know what purging means. It means a thorough cleansing. It's getting late, it's on a Sunday night, and oftentimes our mouths can't do that when the preacher's preaching. Can't smile, but smiling inside, I hope.
Because we're reflecting upon the fact that we have, by our God and through His Christ, our sins, brothers and sisters, thoroughly cleansed. When He had, by Himself, purged our sins. This is, and I think Spurgeon had Isaiah 53 in mind when he spoke these words, when he preached these words, but no doubt it's relevant to the point of Isaiah 6. Let us seriously peruse the diary of our memory, for there the witnesses of our guilt have faithfully recorded their names." You see, it is a wholesome exercise not to dive into an overbearing and inordinate reflection upon all our sins in some sort of sick fascination.
However, Isaiah is an example that we are to seriously peruse the diary of our memories, to see that the witnesses of our guilt have faithfully recorded their names. But you see, what we then immediately fly to is the atoning, the perfect atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the sacrifice of himself, he gave himself up upon that tree. He took, for Christians, he took in his own body our sins. that we, having died to sin, might live unto righteousness.
By his stripes we are healed. Brethren, atonement comes from sacrifice alone, and there is only one sacrifice for sin, and that is that of the perfect Christ. Hopefully you find yourselves daily, day in and day out, reflecting on the blessed reality. Christ has brought atonement for us.
Christ has brought the iniquities, the reality of our iniquities being taken away, and he has brought to us the reality of sin purged. You know, John the Baptist uses this language as well. Speaking of the coming Christ, he being the forerunner, the coming Christ would do what? This is judgment language, but he would thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor.
Carries the language of a burning, of a purification, a purging, and this is by the sacrifice of himself. Blessed sacrifice, blessed atonement, blessed pardon from iniquity. We've already noted that
Atonement Fits for Service
atonement comforts and confirms and fits for service, and that's what we see here for Isaiah That's what we see here for us as well. How are we fit for service? We're fit for service by virtue of the finished work of Christ. Notice for Isaiah here that this reality of the purging of sins, the iniquities, his iniquities being taken away, we see that this Comforts, confirms, and fits him for service.
You see, because no more does he cry out here now, woe is me, for I am undone. Why? Because the blessed peace of the reality of God's gracious and merciful salvation is brought again to bear. And it's peculiarly at the point of the use of his lips in the prophetic office and perhaps the improper use of his lips for the prophetic office.
He's restored, he's reinvigorated, he's revived, and we see that he says, here am I, send me. Likewise for us, brethren, that by the atonement of Christ we are made comfortable, we are confirmed, and we are made fit for service in the kingdom of our God.
Application
A couple things that we want to note before we close We've already noted one of them, but we'll work through the other ones.
Reflect Often on God's Greatness
First off, reflect often upon the greatness of our God. It seems simple, doesn't it? Reflect often upon the greatness of our God. Thanks, preacher.
You know, we've probably heard that before. Hopefully you don't say it like that. But you see, it sounds easy, but remember that we are prone to wander, prone to leave the God that we love. We can be found so often in a coldness and in a languor, reflecting on so many other things and not reflecting upon the greatness of our God.
Remember Spurgeon's words in a preaching on the Lord's Supper. He says that we are to chase away the demons of base ingratitude. How do we do that? By reflecting upon the greatness of our God and the greatness of our conquering Christ.
Just look at the words of Isaiah. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. It's a short number of words, but hopefully a solemn reflection upon it brings you and arouses and stirs up your soul to high thoughts of a God who is to be highly thought of. Reflect often upon the greatness of our God.
Remember what we said this morning. If we take that latter understanding that what's in view is just the hem of the garment of His robe filling the temple. Our God is so great. He cannot be confined.
He can't be circumscribed anywhere. Remember, He is repletively unconfined, unbounded, immense, eternal. Great. Even in the Incarnation, the words of Calvin are absolutely right.
He descended from heaven in such a way that without leaving heaven, he willed to be born in a virgin's womb, to go about the earth, and to hang upon a tree. The Son of God in the Incarnation didn't leave heaven. The essential glory of God cannot be so disturbed that there is a relocation of the immensity of the divine to something that can now be circumscribed. Christ descended from heaven, yes, but without leaving heaven, He willed to be born in a virgin's womb.
The Son of God that Isaiah sees here, glorious, what a glorious one. We are to reflect often upon the greatness of our God. Again, we don't follow after, we don't worship, and we don't come in here on the Lord's Day to worship the God of the weekday comic books with a gray beard, with a cane, with comical eyes. There is to be no depiction of our God, that's the second commandment.
But you see, our God has no form. Our God is without body, parts, and passions, a most pure spirit. If you ever read, when you find time, chapter two, paragraph one of our confession, and see how it tries to encapsulate, in the multiplication of superlatives, the glory, the essential glory of our God, and therein marvel, because it brings out the scriptural testimony to his unrivaled majesty. reflect often upon the greatness of God. And not just but surely upon, not just though upon his exalted and unrivaled majesty, but on the fact that he meets the creature in his creatureliness to give a vision of himself, to manifest himself, to disclose himself, and to show forth his glory.
What a God. And what a colossal error it is for the saint of His to not reflect often upon His greatness.
Do Not Forsake God's Ministers
Secondly, don't forsake God's ministers. Now, you might be saying, well, what do you mean by that? Is that a plug for everyone to not forsake Pastor Butler and Pastor Porter? Well, sort of.
But an application is, don't forsake God's ministers. What do we have here? The ministers of God come, and they bring good things to God's people. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with tongues 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. How many times have we transgressed the Lord? How many times have we broken His holy law?
How many times have we turned our backs to Him? How many times have we neglected the means of our preservation? The gathering together on the Lord's day where the Word is preached and read, where prayers are given, where hymns are sung, where the Lord's table is spread that we might not cry, oh my leanness. How many times have we transgressed against our Lord?
And yet, what is the answer when we come to the place of the acknowledgement that we are undone, unraveled, and justly stand under His chastisement? He comes to us, and He doesn't berate us. He doesn't beat us up. But rather, He says, behold, this has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged. And don't forsake God's ministers because they bring to you good things from God. A minister, a right one, sent by God to bring the truth is a good thing to his people. And hopefully they bring the stuff of live coals that you might reflect upon the blessing of iniquity taken away and the blessing of sin purged.
Do Not Forsake God's Sacraments
And lastly, don't forsake God's sacraments. We're not to forsake God's ministers, and we shouldn't forsake God's sacraments. What do we have here but something of sacramental imagery? This bringing of the coal with the tongs from the altar to the lips of Isaiah is sacramental in its presentation.
It's emblematic. It's a sign of the reality that his iniquity is taken away and his sin purged. Come to the Lord's Supper. You know what?
Hopefully you do know this, but the Lord's Supper is not some empty ritual. God help the one whoever says that. The Lord's Supper is a blessing given by God. It is an ordinance of sovereign and positive institution given by the Lord Jesus Christ, the only lawgiver, to be observed in his churches until the end of the world.
And we don't come like this to the Lord's Supper and wait for the bread and the wine. Heaven forbid. Well, hopefully we come in the first place. If you're a Christian, why aren't you at the Lord's Supper?
You're all here, I know we don't have, I'm pointing down here, there's no Lord's Supper here, that's the first Sunday in February. But brethren, God uses the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, in order to signify the taking away of iniquity and the purging of sin. Don't forsake God's sacraments, because by them we are strengthened in our walk with Him. By the sacraments of God, we are made to be reminded of the blessings of our so great a salvation and of our so great a God.
This is Calvin on this, and then we'll close. Here the angel administered the cleansing, but was not the author of it, so that we must not ascribe to another what belongs to God alone. This is expressly stated by the angel himself, who claims nothing as his own, but bringing forward the sacred pledge which he had received from God, laid it as a sacrament on the lips of the prophet. Not that he could not be cleansed without the coal, but because the visible sign was useful for the confirmation and proof of the fact.
And such is the use of sacraments to strengthen us in proportion to our ignorance, for we are not angels that can behold the mysteries of God without any assistance, and therefore he raises us to himself by gradual advances. Brethren, we are to reflect often upon the greatness of our God, we are not to forsake God's ministers, and we are not to forsake God's sacraments. And if you're here tonight and you are a Christian, praise God. Because you have made to known, not in the way of Isaiah, by eyes of sight, casting upon a disclosure of God, his majesty, his unrivaled majesty, but by God's grace, by his power, in bringing you from deadness to life, you have been made to know that unrivaled majesty, our blessed God, who condescends to save sinners and make himself known.
If you're here tonight, though, and you don't know Christ, you're not a believer, you're outside of saving faith, Hopefully you have been in some sense confronted by a knowledge of this God. You already have it by conscience. God has revealed himself in creation, in providence, and he has impressed upon you by virtue of you being made in his own image. Though that image is marred by the fall and by your own sin, you know that there is a God.
You know that there is a king eternal, immortal, God only wise. You know that there is one who in the expanse above us flies as it were his starry flag to show that the king is at home. And yet you continually reject him. You continually oppose him.
Hopefully you've been given a small glimpse of this one. tonight, this one who disclosed himself to Isaiah. And hopefully you're brought to the place where you do say, woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips. You see, there will be that day coming. If you weren't here this morning, I'm gonna say it again because you're here tonight.
There will be that day coming. where your knee will be forced to bow and acknowledge the greatness of the unrivaled majesty. Don't tarry, and don't dangle, and don't wait, and don't put it off, and don't laugh, and don't mock the one who is king alone, the one who has an exclusive, unique hold upon the title of potentate, the king of kings and the lord of lords. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and you will have that live coal, as it were, put upon your lips, your iniquities taken away, and your sin purged. No greater blessing then iniquity taken away and sin purged and a knowledge of our blessed God, the unrivaled majesty.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We rejoice in Isaiah 6 and what it discloses to us concerning our blessed Christ. We would ask God that you would help us to reflect upon you often as we find ourselves in your word.
We find ourselves perhaps not with your word before us, but reflecting upon the word that we know and our knowledge of you. And we pray that we would so often praise you and honor you and think about you and have those high and heavy thoughts of so great a God, so great an unrivaled majesty. We pray, God, that you would help us to reflect upon our salvation. We rejoice that in due time, as it were, you pressed those live coals upon our lips, saving us, applying the atoning perfection of Jesus Christ to our souls.
And we do pray that you would help us in this lower world to live rightly, to live in a manner worthy of our calling, knowing that we're not saved by what we do, but having been saved by grace through faith in Christ, that what we do would be befitting the sons of God. We do pray that you would save sinners tonight, that you would cause those who do not know you to know you by grace and for your glory, that they would leave these two doors singing the praises of Christ, singing along with all his saints. Hallelujah. What a Savior.
And it is in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.