Keeping Isaiah Before Us - Book Summary

Turn to Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Isaiah 6.

Really grateful to Pastor Doug for choosing this book.

Today is our last message in the book of Isaiah, and we'll be starting up in Titus in a couple of weeks.

So we won't be only in chapter 6 today, but we want to use Isaiah 6 as a window into our review of the book this morning.

Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

This is God's word.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.

Seraphim were standing above him.

They each had six wings.

With two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

And one called to another holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies, his glory fills the whole earth.

The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.

Then I said, Woe was me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth with it and said, Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking, Who will I send?

Who will go for us?

I said, Here I am, send me.

And he replied, Go.

Say to these people, Keep listening, but do not understand.

Keep looking, but do not perceive.

Make the minds of these people dull, deafen their ears and blind their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back and be healed.

Then I said, Until when, Lord?

And he replied, Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants.

Houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate.

And the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land.

Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again, like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled.

The holy seed is the stump.

Lord, again, we just want to ask for your help.

We're so conscious that our words don't profit anything if the Spirit is not giving life.

So please, Spirit of God, we're weak.

Help us, help me as I speak, help us as we all listen to this word.

Thank you again for it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

When Doug introduced this book of the Bible, Isaiah, to us just over a year ago, about a year and a half ago now, he said, I hope Isaiah becomes your friend.

I think for many of us it has.

I hope it's become a lifelong friend.

And a year can seem like a long time to be in one book of the Bible.

If you're new to our church, or perhaps you haven't been in a church before that preaches through books of the Bible, let me just briefly explain that practice.

There's a lot of faithful ways to do a sermon series.

The most important thing is preach the word.

Don't add anything to it, don't take anything away from it.

We do have in Acts 20 Paul's example of preaching the whole counsel of God.

There are examples in the Old Testament of the priests reading sequentially from the law and explaining it for the people.

And preaching through books of the Bible helps us in some ways.

It helps us to make sure that we're staying on track and really getting the whole message of the book.

It helps us make sure that we're carefully considering the context of each passage so that we're not just sort of imposing our ideas on the text, but drawing out the sermon from the text itself.

And it does, it helps preachers.

Today that's me.

It helps us because we have to preach what the text says.

I can't just preach on topics I like or verses I like.

I've got to preach on whatever Scripture says so I can trust God in that.

So as we look back over Isaiah, 66 chapters, over 50 sermons, how do we summarize the book of Isaiah?

Here's our summary for today.

The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.

That's what Isaiah is all about.

The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.

I'll say it one more time.

The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.

And when we think about it that way, we see this is a book that's very relevant for us.

Has God's character changed since Isaiah was written?

Not at all.

Has our need of salvation changed?

No.

Has the glory of his servant diminished?

Not even a little bit.

Yes, there's some challenges in this book, but when we keep that big idea in mind, we're going to have so much that's there and true and good and necessary for us.

So I'm gonna break that main idea, that main theme, into three parts.

First part, the holy God.

Second part, the holy God who brings salvation.

And then the third part, the holy God who brings salvation through his servant.

So hopefully breaking it up like that will help us better understand and reflect on all that we've encountered here in Isaiah.

We can't actually encounter and reflect on all of it, but we'll hit some of the highlights.

So part number one, the holy God.

Isaiah's a prophet.

Prophets are given this task to speak on behalf of God.

They deliver his message.

And the God who speaks through Isaiah is the God.

Look again at verse number one here of chapter six.

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne.

Isaiah doesn't see one God among many.

He doesn't see a Greek or Roman pantheon of gods.

He sees the one true and living God.

Repeatedly throughout Isaiah, God contrasts his unique authority with all the so-called fake and phony gods.

Isaiah 44, verse 6.

Isaiah 44:6

This is what the Lord, the King of Israel, and its Redeemer, the Lord of armies, says, I am the first and I am the last.

There is no God but me.

Isaiah 40, verses 18 and 19.

Isaiah 40:18

With whom will you compare God?

What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?

An idol?

Something a smelter cast and a metalworker plates with gold?

Isaiah 44, 8 through 11.

Don't be startled or afraid.

Have I not told you and declared it long ago?

You are my witnesses.

Is there any God but me?

There is no other rock.

I do not know any.

All who make idols are nothing, and what they treasure benefits no one.

Their witnesses do not see or know anything.

They will be put to shame.

Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and the book of Isaiah calls us to reckon with the one living God, the supreme over all things.

You might say, well, yes and amen.

Okay, I believe that.

There's only one God.

Don't own any idols.

Not so fast.

An idol can really be anything that might functionally step in at times and take the place of God in our lives.

So Martin Lloyd-Jones says, an idol is anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone.

Anything that seems to me essential.

An idol is anything by which I live and on which I depend.

What do you hope most about?

What do you trust in?

Where do you go for comfort and refuge?

Those things can reveal the idols of our hearts.

And when we stop and think about it, the idols of our hearts are just as foolish as the idols of Isaiah's day.

You're working.

Work is difficult.

There are challenges at work.

And your mind is fixed on one thing.

If I can just make it to the weekend and binge watch my favorite TV show, things will be looking up.

Now, what is your favorite TV show?

How is that going to help you at work?

It's not going to help you a lick.

Say, well, yeah, but it kind of makes me feel a little better.

It makes me feel like things are looking up.

Yeah, alright.

And for other people, having a block of wood on the mantle makes them feel like, okay, things are in place, it's filling up.

It's a similar kind of idea.

God is the only one who can ultimately fill our tank with meaning.

There's only one God, and He is the holy God.

So here in chapter 6, when Isaiah encounters God, verse 3 says there are angels surrounding the throne, calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies.

This encounter must have impacted Isaiah deeply because throughout Isaiah, this book, he, the author, refers to God as the holy one of Israel.

Over 20 times.

The rest of the Old Testament uses that phrase less than 10 times.

But Isaiah encountered a God who was holy, holy, holy.

What does it mean that God is holy?

We sing about it.

We just sang today a song very biblical, drawn right from the pages of Scripture here, holy, holy, holy.

What does that mean?

Holiness has the idea of devotion, consecration.

Someone or something is set apart for a particular purpose.

So the objects in the tabernacle and the temple were holy.

They were set apart for that particular service of worship.

The priests as well were devoted to God and to his service.

Remember when God came to Moses and said, The place you're standing is holy ground?

And then he goes on to say, I'm going to take my people and bring them out to worship me on this mountain.

Like, Moses, you thought this was your father's father-in-law's shepherding mountain.

I've got another purpose for it.

It's going to be devoted to me and to my people.

So for God Himself to be holy means that he is devoted to his own name and his own glory above everything else.

R.

C.

Sproull said that the failure of modern evangelicalism is the failure to understand the holiness of God.

Here in Isaiah 6, Isaiah runs into a problem, and it reflects the problem of Israel throughout the entire book.

God is holy, holy, holy, high, and lifted up.

How can he be the holy one of Israel?

How can the holy God dwell with unholy people?

Verse number five expresses this problem powerfully.

Listen to Isaiah's words as he's inspired by God and truly confessing from his own soul.

Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies.

It's a problem.

And that very problem leads us to the next big part of the message.

The holy God brings salvation.

Look at verses 6 and 7.

God graciously responds to Isaiah's predicament.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth and said, Now this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed, and your sin is atoned for.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, saved us by his grace.

And when Isaiah shows us that this holy God brings salvation, Isaiah unveils to us the heart of God, the compassionate and merciful heart of God.

Isaiah 30, 18.

Therefore, the Lord is waiting to show you mercy.

Indeed, your husband is your Maker.

His name is the Lord of armies, and the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.

He is called the God of the whole earth, for the Lord is called you like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit.

A wife of one's youth when she is rejected, says your God, I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion.

God doesn't save grudgingly or sparingly.

God brings salvation not just for Israel, he brings it for the world.

Isaiah 12, 4 and 5.

And on that day you will say, Give thanks to the Lord, proclaim his name, make his works known among the peoples, declare that his name is exalted, sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things.

Let this be known throughout the earth.

God is saving people from every place.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, New Hyde Park, Richmond Hill.

This is a glorious God of mercy who brings salvation far and wide.

All the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Now, when Isaiah speaks of salvation over and over and over in this book, he speaks about salvation in different ways.

Let's try to keep in mind something that Pastor Dud brought out as a tool for us when we read through the book of Isaiah and we listen to it, and that's this idea of three horizons.

Or you could think of it as sort of successive mountain ranges.

The first horizon is the horizon or the mountain range of Isaiah's own day.

The people are going to be uh in trouble with Assyria, Babylon, they will come back from exile.

God will save them from exile.

That's that first horizon.

The second horizon from Isaiah's vantage point is looking forward to the coming of Jesus Christ.

That's the spiritual salvation that Israel and the world most need.

Salvation and restored communion with God.

And then the third horizon that's looking forward, even from our perspective, to a future where God's going to make all things new and finish his grand work of salvation once and for all.

So it can be difficult because when Isaiah speaks of this glorious salvation and hope, it's not always easy to see if he's speaking about that first horizon of his own day or that second horizon, that second mountain range of the coming of Jesus Christ, or the consummation of all things.

Or whether he's speaking about two of them or three of them compressed together.

But that is the way the Bible works at times.

Things that happened in Israel's history become a kind of picture prophecy of later history.

Events.

Types is a word that we would use.

But that just means a picture prophecy.

Something happens in Israel's life.

Think of all the lambs that were slaughtered year after year.

And then behold, the Lamb of God.

Ah, that was pointing me forward to something greater.

So keep that in mind when we think about Isaiah and his proclamation of God's saving mercies.

God's salvation doesn't come to the exclusion of his judgment.

Again, we find that throughout the book of Isaiah.

And even his smaller judgments throughout history, like his smaller acts of salvation, point to a great and final judgment to come for all who reject and refuse him.

So the last main part of our message today, how does God bring salvation?

The Holy One of Israel.

He's sure going to do it.

We see in this passage, he gives Isaiah this glowing coal, but that's that's not really sufficient.

Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.

So the Holy God brings salvation, he does it through his servant.

That's what we have to see.

There's many servants in the book of Isaiah.

So again, this is one of the things that's a little tricky for us to track, but to give you some examples, in Isaiah chapter 20, Isaiah himself is called a servant of God.

Isaiah 20 · chapter mention

In Isaiah 45, a foreign king is called God's servant.

In chapter 41, the whole nation of Israel is called God's servant.

Now, here in chapter 6, I said we were using this chapter as kind of a window into the book, we don't find Isaiah explicitly called a servant, but he does function that way.

Look at verse 8.

I heard the voice of the Lord asking, Who will I send?

Who will go for us?

I said, Here I am, send me.

The master calls, the servant answers.

But Isaiah, the servant, he's just the messenger.

He announces God's salvation, he himself can't bring God's salvation.

A foreign king, though used as God's pawn, can't bring ultimate salvation.

Even the nation of Israel can't ultimately bring salvation.

And though it's not spelled out in great detail here in chapter 6, you really need all of the book of Isaiah to start seeing how God's going to bring about this salvation through his servant.

There's a clue for us, even here.

Look at verse 13.

Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled.

The holy seed is the stump.

This is one of those verses that at first reading you're like, I'm not, I don't, I don't know why he says that, but let's give some attention to it.

It's gonna give some rewards here.

So what Isaiah is saying is God is gonna bring judgment, but it's not total judgment.

There's gonna be a remnant, a group of leftover survivors.

That's where he says a tenth will remain.

So you have a tree that's cut down, but the stump and the seed are still there.

And if you just got the stump and the seed, it could grow and blossom again.

There's some kind of hope for salvation here.

Let's keep working on this, right?

In the Bible, nations are often compared to trees.

So Ezekiel 17, for example, compares Israel to a tree.

But they're a tree that never seems to bloom properly.

They're pruned and pruned, and yet you get to John the Baptist and he says, Oh, you think you have Abraham as your father?

You brood of vipers?

Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.

That doesn't sound good.

Is Isaiah 6 13 this verse, is that all that Isaiah has to say about roots and stumps?

No.

Listen to Isaiah 11, verse 1.

Isaiah 11:1

Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

Jesse is David's father.

But Jesse's long dead when Isaiah gives this prophecy.

David's long dead when Isaiah gives this prophecy.

But Isaiah is saying, from the line of David, there's going to come another root, another branch that will yet grow again.

Righteousness will be a belt around his hips, and faithfulness a belt around his waist.

And there's even more.

Here in Isaiah 6, verse 13 ends with this phrase the holy seed is the stump.

Isaiah 6:13

Who did Isaiah encounter?

The God who is holy, holy, holy.

But if this is if this is talking about Israel only or exclusively, it's not going to be going well.

They're going to get uprooted and struck down.

And yet, God Himself can supply the holiness that he requires.

And we hear this language of oaks and stumps and seeds, and we've got botanical imagery in our minds, and we should have that in our minds.

But this word seed, it's a word that's not only used of plants or tree seeds, it's used of human beings, of offspring.

This is the same word when God promises Eve her seed will crush the serpent's head.

And the Old Testament traces the story of that promised seed.

And here's Isaiah so powerfully bringing together this hope of restoration of a promised seed that's going to be provided by God Himself.

He could pack a lot into one verse.

God's the ultimate author.

So it's going to take the whole book to help fill this out.

But what does all of this have to do with God's servant?

In the book of Isaiah, the language of a servant is more common than the language of seed and the language of stump.

But there's a connection here.

Israel's failure to be the righteous stump corresponds to their failure to be the righteous servant.

Isaiah's inability to be the ultimate holy seed and offspring of David, that corresponds with Isaiah's inability to be the final and climactic servant of God.

Isaiah takes up this message of the servant multiple times in the book, Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 53.

We looked at four different servant songs.

And this servant brings God's righteousness.

He showcases the compassionate heart of God.

So if the message of Isaiah 52, 7 is the good news that God reigns, then the message of these triumphant servant songs is that a glorious servant is coming and bringing salvation once and for all.

Let's turn over to Isaiah 53.

I know you've been here in Isaiah 6.

We've been listening to a lot of different verses from Isaiah.

Turn to Isaiah 53.

It's one of the most well-known passages in Isaiah, and it's the final servant song.

Notice verse number 2.

He grew up before him, this servant, like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground.

There's just further connection of this servant who is the root of David.

Look down to the middle of verse 10.

He will see his seed.

So Jesus is the ultimate offspring.

And those who are of faith are blessed together with the Lord Jesus Christ, part of this holy seed.

We become part of the family of God.

When Isaiah sings these servant songs, yes, they're songs of celebration, but they're songs of sorrow.

There's this sort of two-beat rhythm of these songs.

It's suffering, glory.

Suffering and glory.

And you can see that here in verse number five.

He was pierced because of our rebellion.

Verse 6, the Lord punished him, laying on him human iniquity.

Verse number seven, he is the Lamb led to the slaughter, suffering, suffering, suffering.

And it's vicarious suffering.

That just means he was suffering in the place of other people.

He himself committed no sin, no iniquity was found in his mouth, but he was suffering for the people of God.

That's how God accomplishes salvation through a suffering servant.

Now, what about glory?

But verse number 10 says he will prolong his days.

So death's not going to have the last word.

In verse 12, he will be given the many as a portion.

Psalm 2, he receives the inheritance of nations.

And I know I had you turn to Isaiah 53, but this servant song actually begins back in Isaiah 52.

Look back to Isaiah 52, verse 13 of how the song begins.

Isaiah 52:13

See, my servant will be successful.

There's doubt about Israel accomplishing the work.

There's doubt about David and Isaiah.

There's no doubt about God's servant's son.

Jesus will be successful.

The nations will bow down and worship him.

He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.

Yes, he was lifted up on a cruel cross.

Now he's lifted up to the highest heavens to receive all glory and honor and thanks and blessing and power.

Friends, brothers and sisters, this is the message of Isaiah.

The Holy God brings salvation through his servant.

This is how one writer puts it.

The prophecy spans the era from Isaiah till the final consummation as it unfolds God's plan for the redemption of his people.

The meaning of the name Isaiah sums up the prophecy.

Yahweh is salvation.

Over the last twelve plus years on Sunday mornings, we've been in New Testament books more often than Old Testament books.

And all scripture is given by God's inspiration.

You can't go wrong preaching any book of the Bible.

For some people, the New Testament is a little easier to understand, and it points maybe a little more directly and clearly to God's servant son, Jesus Christ.

But we have to realize you can't fully appreciate the New Testament without the Old Testament.

When Jesus began his public ministry in Luke chapter 4, he quotes from Isaiah 61 to say, well, just give me Jesus.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Well, Jesus himself says you gotta understand Isaiah if you're gonna understand me and my message and my work.

So we don't want to just go this far into the Bible.

We want to go farther and farther.

And because God is the divine author, I mean, there's a depth, there's an ocean of depth that we have yet to see in Isaiah, in Luke, in Philippians, and in every other book of the Bible.

So read and keep reading and pray that the Spirit of God would open your eyes to see the glorious things that are here.

Let me give you one final example of reading Isaiah in light of the entire Bible.

How can we meditate on this servant of the Lord who brings salvation?

And how can we meditate on him in this suffering and glory?

These two lenses that come up over and over in these servant songs.

Well, let's again try to think about those three horizons.

Yet God brought them back to the land.

Yet God allowed them to rebuild the temple.

He was going to do that.

There's impartial, but a measure of glory.

But God is urging his people to look forward to the day of the Messiah, the day when that true root of David grows from the tree.

And in the coming of Jesus Christ, we have a servant, the very servant from heaven.

He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

He knew what it was to suffer.

But what about glory?

The grave couldn't keep him from rising again.

Living, he loved us.

He's carried our sins far away.

So what about our lives?

You servants of God, your master proclaim.

God calls us to be servants.

And you know what that means?

There's going to be suffering.

Expect it.

Israel deserved their suffering.

We can't say about the suffering in our lives that we don't deserve it.

I mean, we're all unprofitable servants if we're going to be very narrow about it.

And yet, because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, suffering is not going to have the final word in our lives.

God may not save us from difficulties here.

But there's glory.

Tears are going to be wiped away.

Sorrow and suffering will be forever behind us.

I started to say the rear view mirror, but there's not even going to be a rear view mirror.

We won't have to look and see anything that caused those tears.

It's glory, glory, glory in Emmanuel's land.

This is because the Lord does it.

Romans 8.

Those he justified, he also glorified.

It's a done deal.

There's justification in the present, and there's suffering in the present, but there's full glory in the future.

I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

And Paul even says in Romans, quotes Isaiah all the time in Romans, but he talks about how all of creation is eagerly waiting for the revelation of the glory of the children of God.

Because when we get our final glory, then the whole creation gets its glory as well.

Isaiah gives us this vantage point to be able to take in all of life and history for the work that God is doing.

And that's a vantage point that we want to take with us into the world as God's servants.

Let me close with these words from Isaiah 45, verse 22.

Isaiah 45:22

Listen to this call.

Turn to me and be saved.

All the ends of the earth.

For I am God and there is no other.

Let's pray.

Lord, how can we do justice to the riches, the tapestry, the food, the building blocks, the sure foundation that's found in Scripture?

We can't do justice to it.

We can drink a little of this truth.

We can eat the bread that's the bread of life, and yet our souls are craving more.

And so thank you again that we've been able to consider this book for so many months now.

We pray that you would cause it to be changing us, that we would come back to it with eyes that are newly appreciative, newly eager to see how much more is here, how much your word ties together.

This glorious God who's designed all things.

We marvel at your wisdom.

We marvel at the plan of your salvation.

And we ask you, Lord, help us to suffer well.

Help us not to suffer with complaints.

And help us to be servants who are eager to proclaim good news, who are eager to tell people that we meet with love and with earnestness.

There's a holy God.

Oh, but but he brings salvation.

And it's not by works of righteousness that we've done, it's his mercy.

It's the mercy of his servant.

Thank you, O Christ, for serving us, for laying down your life for us, for living the life that we could never live.

And as we prepare to worship you now by remembering these wonderful and precious elements, give us hearts of meekness, hearts of renewed worship, and hearts that anticipate the glory that is yet to come.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand.