Looking to the King

Turn with us to Isaiah chapter six. And I'm gonna

ask our brother to come and read our sermon text

for us. And while he does, be on the lookout.

Be on the lookout in this chapter for who hears,

who sees, and how they respond, and what the results are.

Who sees, who hears, how they respond, what's the result.

Thank you, brother Isaiah.

Chapter six. In the year that King Uziah died, I

saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up,

and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above

him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two

he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet,

and with two he flew. And one called to another

and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the

foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him

who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And

I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for

I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell

in the midst of 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 burning cold that he had taken with tongs from

the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold,

this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away,

and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice

of the Lord say, saying, whom shall I send, and

whom will go for us? Then I said, here I

am send me. And he said, go and say to

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 blind their eyes,

lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

Then I said, how long, o Lord? And he said,

until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste, And the Lord

removes people far away. And the forsaken places are many

in the midst of the land, And though a tenth

remain in it, it will be burned again, like a

terrabinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled.

The holy seed is its stump. This is a word

of the Lord.

Amen, there's a sense in which.

To see God, to perceive the glory of God is

simultaneously the most desirable thing you can imagine and the

most undesirable thing you can imagine. We actually see this

in several places throughout the scriptures. For example, when the

apostle Peter first gets some clarity about who Jesus is,

he doesn't say, oh, this is awesome. He says, depart

from me, for I'm a simple man. When Job is

confronted with some clarity with the presence of God in

some way, Job does not say, man, I've.

Been waiting for this.

He says, I despise myself and I repent in dust

and ashes. Something similar happens in Isaiah the sixth chapter.

Isaiah perceives, he hears, and he sees, and he understands

the presence of the Lord with some clarity, and his

response to.

That is woe to me. I'm undone, I guess. In

the ESV it says, I'm lost.

I really like the old translations of I am undone.

This is very uncomfortable. In contrast, the people.

That are described in this chapter of Isaiah, that is

to say, the people of Judah, they have the opposite

problem they aren't hearing, they aren't seeing, they aren't perceiving

the holiness of God with any clarity, and so.

They are very comfortable. In many ways.

This whole chapter is a study in contrast between those

who see and respond and those who do not, And

all of.

It has everything to do with who will actually have hope,

who will actually have redemption, who will actually have healing,

which is.

Pretty important for us, especially in a day in which

being comfortable, psychologically comfortable, existentially comfortable is so valued.

And so.

In Isaiah six, we have these two cases, let's say

Isaiah and the people perceiving, not perceiving, responding not responding,

And we're going to look at the contrast there and

what scripture really teases out about these two situations. And

in this chapter we're gonna work from the outside in. Okay,

so we'll work on from the outside in a piece

we'll call undone but with hope, And then then we'll

move from the outside of the chapter towards midway. We'll

call that piece perceiving and responding, And then finally we'll

get to the center piece of Isaiah chapter six, and

that piece I'm gonna also call undone but with hope.

But it's different.

And I want you most especially to understand the difference

between how we could be undone but with hope in

one sense, and then undone but with hope in a

different sense. Hopefully you're intrigued and not confused, and assuming.

The best, I will just go forward.

Let's start with the first sense, the first sense of

being undone but with hope. Undone but with hope. This

is a negative sense. We see it right away at

the top of the chapter. Isaiah already starts with an

undoing in the year King Uziah died. It's very typical, Isaiah.

I mean, you also have throughout here desolations, burning, chopping down,

forsaken places. Typical Isaiah. You've been with us for the

last you know, five chapters or so. And this is

how Isaiah chooses to mark the time of this vision.

He says, in the year King Uziah died. No other

prophet marks time this way. They usually say in the

year such and such of the king. So why does

he do this in the year King Uziah died. Well,

King Uziah had been at some points a good king,

but he grew proud and in his pride. One day

he barged his way into the temple, ignoring what God

had said about his glory and about his holiness, and

he insisted that he was going to act not only

as king but also as priest. And the moment that

he did, God struck him with leprosy. And from that

day forward that king Usiah lived in isolation, unclean and

presumably unrepentant, until the day he died.

He was undone.

But with the king dying, we now have hope because

once the king dies, what comes next.

New king?

Right the king is dead, Long live the king. For

the longest time, I didn't understand that, Like, how can

you say, long live the king? He's dead, Long live

the next king. Right the king is dead, Long live

the king. And the king, the right king was always

the great hope. The king led and represented the people.

As the king went, so the people went. And the

king in David's line, was the great promise that God

had given Someday the right king will come. And so

every time a king died there was an undoing, but

there was with the hope that maybe here.

Comes the right king.

That's how Isaiah starts chapter six. Similarly, that's how he

ends chapter six with an undoing, but with hope. You

see the tree verse thirteen. He gives us this picture

of a tree verse thirteen. A tree is chopped down

and burned, and yet the stump will nevertheless still grow.

The Holy Seed is its stump. It's not completely over

for them. And that.

Tree is like a parable of the people of Judah.

And by the time this was written, Israel had been obliterated.

Judah had been decimated. You can see it in verses

eleven and twelve. Right, cities lie waste without inhabitant, houses

without people, land desolate, forsaken places are many. There's almost

nothing but Jerusalem. By the time that this is written,

in Jerusalem, the city is there like a smoldering stump, undone,

but with some hope there may be a rebuilding. And

in fact, Isaiah says, the Holy Seed.

Is its stump.

There will be new life. There will be new life,

but not for them.

Right, there will be a new king, So there will

be new life.

But not for Usiah. He's undone and there is no hope.

There's hope for the people, but Usiah is gone. There's

hope for the stump, but not the tree. There's hope

for Judah, but not this generation. They're undone, and there

is hope, but that hope is for somebody else.

The question is, is there gonna be any change to this pattern?

Will the undoing ever result in hope that's not deferred.

Well, let's keep going, but before we do, let's make

sure we don't miss the message that Isaiah has been

proclaiming for five chapters, and now we get to chapter six,

and that message hasn't really changed the messages.

God will have a people who walk.

In holiness, Huzaiah, if you remain in your proud unrepentance undone, Judah,

if you remain in your proud unrepentance undone, I will

have a people who walk in holiness. My vineyard that

bears bitter fruit will lie waste, and the New Testament

that message is consistent as well. Christ will spit out

the lukewarm. This isn't about being saved by good works.

This is about those who are saved will do good works.

Hebrews twelve isn't.

Playing when it says strive for the holiness, without which

no one will see. The Lord's talking about a walk

of holiness. And you may ask, well, how will that

walk of holiness come about. Well, we've seen the outside,

the tiniest bit of verse one, and then we've seen

what verses eleven, twelve, and thirteen. Let's work our way

into the midway, and that might give us a clue

about how this walk of holiness may come about. Let's

move from undone, but with some hope in the negative sense, to.

Perceiving and responding. Perceiving and responding.

Notice the perceiving that Isaiah has of the glory and

the holiness of God.

You see it in verses one.

Through four, says I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne.

He's high and lifted up the train of his robe

filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim, which some

angelic being. If you literally translate surfim, it means the

burning ones, the burning ones.

I don't know if.

That's because they deal with fire or because they're brilliant.

But Isaiah is getting an eyefel and he hears. He

doesn't only see, but he also hears them call to

one another. Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is filled with his glory, and the

foundations shake, and the place is filled with smoke. This

is one of those instances in scripture where someone's ears

here and I see and heart understands some with some clarity,

the glory and the holiness of God. Notice any contrasts

with the other people. Well, I mean check out verses

nine and ten.

This is what.

Scriptures say of Judah, that they would keep on hearing

but not understand, keep on seeing but not perceive, that

their hearts would be dull, their ears heavy, their eyes blind.

And the interesting thing.

Right, so you can see it, Isaiah hears and sees

and understand. Judah does not see, does not hear, does

not understand. Right, we've gotten that far. This means, yes,

I knew when I was doing the outside.

End thing, I was gonna have to work hard.

The interesting thing, though, besides that plain contrast, is that

Judah's hardened response is actually to the preaching of Isaiah.

Isaiah hears and sees and understands, and he's commissioned by

the Lord go preach to this people basically that the

Lord is holy, be holy as the Lord is holy,

and as he goes.

Here's the thing, though.

They're not gonna listen as Isaiah preaches, they won't perceive.

Is this because he is a bad preacher, always an option. No, actually,

Isaiah is an extraordinary, extraordinarily clear preacher. In fact, there's

a passage in Isaiah where people are making fun of

Isaiah for being so clear. They're like, man, he is

impossible to misunderstand. He's so like line after line, precept

after a precepts. It's like he's teaching us like we're kindergarteners. Yeah,

and you don't get it. It's not like Isaiah isn't clear.

It's not like Isaiah isn't consecrated. You want a moment

of consecration before the Lord to go and bring this message.

He's got it.

And yet though he is consecrated, though he is clear,

the people harden under the message of God. As the

Puritans said, the same sun that softens the wax.

Hardens the clay.

The same glory and holiness of God that softened Isaiah

hardened the people. And his preaching had the paradoxical effect

of bringing a knowledgeable people more knowledge and bringing a

clarity so that that.

Heart could not do anything but accept or reject. And

they chose to and they chose to reject.

It's a little bit ironic that we choose Isaiah chapter six,

verse eight so often as a theme.

Verse for short term missions. Here am I send me?

You know how that lays out? I mean, I had

a friend who said he just saw it on a

T shirt this weekend. Hear my send me, keep on seeing,

but don't see. Keep on hearing, but don't hear.

You know.

I'm not suggesting that we stop using that as a

theme verse, actually, because it just goes to show that

you can be as consecrated as Isaiah and as clear

as Isaiah, and yet the reponse to the message of

God is mysterious. But Isaiah, he perceives, and he responds.

How does he respond when he sees, when he hears,

when he understands? How does he respond? He says, woe

is me? And when he says woe, it has to

call back to chapter five, where he's already pronounced woe

six times over the people of Judah. In other words,

as as Isaiah said woe over the fruit of the people,

he's saying, now woe is me because I'm the same way.

I am lost, I am un done.

I can't stand before the glory and the holiness of God.

I should die like Usiah, I should be chopped down

like that tree.

I should be decimated like Judah I have.

I am a man of unclean lips among a people

of unclean lips, Which is not to say that the

only part of him that was unclean.

Was his lips.

He is representative of the whole, like the mouth of

the jar and everything in it.

Because my eyes have seen.

The king, My eyes have seen the king. I think

that this raises an obvious question. Is Isaiah receiving an

unfair advantage with this vision?

Right?

I mean, Judah is not hearing, not seeing, not understanding.

But they didn't get this. Does Isaiah have an unfair advantage?

Or to put it in another way, what chance do

others have of perceiving and responding this way? Well, let's

consider a whole bunch of people. Let's consider Judah the

subject of this particular text. What God says about Judah

is I gave them the law and the prophets. I

gave them everything they needed. I gave them provision, and

I gave them protection. I sent Isaiah to them. And

what he says about his vineyard is what else was

there to do for my vineyard?

Is nothing left in other words.

I gave them everything they needed to see and to hear,

and to understand and to respond. What's left is for

me to lay them waste. No, they had everything they needed.

It reminds me of the parable of Lazarus and the

rich Man. Remember this parable that Jesus tells. He says,

there were two men, a young a beggar named Lazarus

who died, and a rich man who died.

And Lazarus went to heaven. The rich man went to hell.

And in the parable, the rich man from Hell calls

to Father Abraham and says, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to go.

Tell my brothers that God is real and this is

nothing to mess around with. And Abraham says, they have

what they need. They have the law, they have the prophets.

Let them listen to them. And the rich man says no,

but if someone goes back from the dead, they will listen.

And Abraham says, no, it doesn't work like that.

They won't. They won't.

The human heart doesn't work like that. God has given

them what he knows they need, and they've hardened instead.

Reminds me of a movie.

I'm gonna laugh at me. Guardians of the galaxy too.

There's a character.

It's a dumb movie. I mean, it's not a dumb movie.

I really like it, but that could just mean I'm dumb.

There's a character in this. It's like a comic book

sci fi movie. But this character is he's been doing

something that's immoral and unethical, and he's chosen to look

the other way when it comes to the implications and

the results of his choices. He hoped that things wouldn't

turn out for the worst, but of course they had.

But he didn't know, and he defended himself to his friend.

He says, I didn't know what the results would be.

I didn't know what would happen because of my choices.

And his friend just shoots right back and he says,

you didn't know because you didn't want to know. You

didn't know because you didn't want to know. And the

same thing is true of Judah, and the same thing

was true of first century Israel. Flip with me to

John chapter twelve. You need this flip.

This is one to turn to John chapter twelve.

Still on the subject of not knowing because you don't

want to know, the gospel writer John says this verse

thirty seven sorry, Chapter twelve, verse thirty seven of John.

Though he, that is, Jesus, had done so many signs

before them, they still did not believe in him. So

that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord,

who has believed what we heard from us? And to

whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore

they could not believe. For again, Isaiah said, He's blinded.

Their eyes, hardened their hearts, lest they see with their

eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I

would heal them. Now.

Get this, Isaiah said these things because he saw his

glory and spoke of him, of Jesus, of the Christ.

It's the second person of the Trinity, who's sitting on

this throne, whose robe is filling this temple, who is

high and lifted up, and the king has come and

walked amongst his own people. And they didn't know because

they didn't want to know. That's the one Isaiah saw.

Consider first century Rome. If you flip to isa to

Acts chapter twenty eight, and you don't have to, you

just need.

This one flip.

But I'll tell you it's in Acts chapter twenty eight.

Paul now brings the same message to Rome, to people

who should know enough to understand from the law and

the prophets, who the Christ is, how atonement may be made.

And he brings the message, and they reject it. And

guess what passages quoted to them? Well did Isaiah say

of you, keep hearing but not understanding, keep seeing but

not seeing? Paul preached with clarity. Paul was a consecrated messenger.

But again the message had this paradoxical effect. They had

all the knowledge they needed.

It was made so clear.

And yet the sun that had melted Paul's heart, the

son that had melted, did Isaiah's heart.

Hardened? Hardened the hearers? What about you?

You have all of the scriptures at your fingertips. You

have more theological resources than any generation from the dawn

of time in your pocket. This king has been high

and lifted up on a cross, and he is proclaiming

himself to you through the scriptures and through his people.

What will perceiving and responding look like for you? Will

it be my eyes have seen the king or heart

ears heavy eyes blind.

Whichever it is, it's not because.

You have not received a clear enough message.

Let's get to the middle, the center of the whole chapter.

And to do that, I just want to ask this question,

what else turned out to be different? If this is

a study in contrast between Isaiah, who perceived when Judah didn't,

who responded when Judah didn't, and the differences between the two,

what else then turned out to be different? Well, Verses

six and seven lay it out for us And we'll

call this piece undone but with hope. Undone, but with hope.

But this time it's different. This time it's different. We're

not talking about like with Usiah who dies, he's undone,

but there's hope for others. Or the tree that's felled,

it's undone, but there's hope later. Or Judah that's decimated.

They're undone, but there's hope for other generations. For Isaiah,

he's undone, and he receives his hope. He receives a

different sort of cleansing. You know, cleansing cleansing fire has

like both negative and positive connotations. Right, if you're the

impure one, if you're the impurity, cleansing fire has a

very negative connotation that means you're gonna get burned up

if you're the dross, if you're the impurity, if you're

the precious metal. Cleansing fire has a positive connotation.

You're gonna be purified. So here we are.

A burning one comes with a burning coal from the altar,

and he's coming at Isaiah's lips, which I'd be backing up.

And as he does, although Isaiah has seen that he

is impure, he knows it I am unclean. He's pronounced pure.

Your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for.

Notice that that coal comes from the altar. A right,

that's that's representative of like the altar is a representative

of sacrificial atonement. Right, animals are sacrificed on altars. God

has designed a whole sacrificial system to demonstrate what atonement

looks like for the people it. This points to God's

design for taking away guilt. When when Isaiah says, woe

to me, I am undone. I should be dead, I

should be chopped down, I should be decimated, what does

the burning one say.

He doesn't say, that's all right.

You're kind of an okay guy. He doesn't say, hey,

you know what, you shouldn't feel guilty in front of

the holiness of God. The burning one says, in essence

You're right, you should be undone, but your sin is

atoned for that's his only hope. That's the only hope

for the people of God, that God would design a

way to see the King and still have your guilt

taken away. And that's exactly what God did. This king

high and lifted up, became a person and walked amongst

those who should have heard and should have seen, and

should have understood, and instead became the King who was

high and lifted up on a cross, an altar of

sacrificial atonement, completely of God's design, and now draws all

kinds of people who say, woe is me, I'm undone,

for my eyes have seen the King. And the message

of the gospel is, yes, you should be undone, but

the King was undone for you, and so you are clean.

That is the gospel way of being undone, but with hope.

To paraphrase John Piper, the love of God has taken

the wrath of God by the death of the Son

of God, to vindicate the glory of God.

That's the hope of the people of God.

And so I ask you, have you seen and heard

and understood his holiness and said, woe is me?

I am undone.

Have you bent your knee in repentance and faith? Some

of you here haven't. And when I say that, I

don't mean that you haven't heard things about God. Every

person whom this passage has been pronounced over in scripture

had heard more things about God than you have.

They knew enough.

But if you are sitting here and you say, you

know what I think, I really haven't bent my knee

in repentance before Christ, then this is the morning to

look to the King in prayer. This is the morning

to ask that he would open your eyes, and open

your ears and soften your heart. This is the morning

because I cannot guarantee you that after this morning, this

same message won't harden you. Don't be afraid. Don't be

afraid that you don't deserve cleansing. That's the point if

you don't. But you see how quickly Heaven responded to

the man who said, woe is me?

Out came the cleansing fire.

Your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for.

Don't be afraid to know that you should be undone.

Some of you here have in fact taken exactly that step.

You have heard and seen and understood and turned and.

Have been healed. Keep looking to the King.

If you mean to walk in that holiness without which

no one will see the Lord, you will need to

keep looking to the King. If you would have all

of the comfort and the encouragement that fits the people

of God.

You.

Must keep looking to the King. How he has cleansed you.

You didn't do it, He did it.

How he has grafted you in Not because you're a

natural fit. You are a very unnatural fit for the

people of God. How the King continues to meet with

you in his word and in prayer, not because of

your self discipline, but because he is committed to you,

and he sanctifies you, and he leads you along the way.

Look to him as he challenges you, Look to him

as he encourages you, look to him.

As he reminds you. So if you're not sure that

you have trusted.

Him, or if you are sure that you have the call,

this morning is roughly the same. Look to the King,

ask him for open eyes and humble heart, and keep

looking to the King.