Romans 30 - 04 - தேசம் தேவனை நிராகரிக்கும்போது யாரை தேடுகிறார்? Isaiah 6:7-13.
Romans 1:18
God’s Judgement.
Wrath of God revealed.
Romans 1:18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Why?
Romans 1:19, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. No excuse.
Romans 1:20-23, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Judgement of God is been revealed.
Romans 1:24-32, Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil- mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
What is the judgment? On nations that turn their back on God. Nations that having known the truth, reject it, and suppress it. Verse 24, “Therefore God gave them over.” Verse 26, “For this reason, God gave them over.” Verse 28, the middle of the verse, “God gave them over.”
What is the judgment? The judgment is abandonment. When God looks at a nation, they have the truth, and they suppress the truth, and they turn from the truth, God gives them over. The first thing that happens is immorality dominates. God literally gives them over to the fulfilment of their lusts.
The second step is the sexual revolution, and a homosexual revolution. V 27-28. And then comes the reprobate mind V29. So God gave them over. Paul and Barnabas preaching at Lystra.
Acts 14:15-17, and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, 16 who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
We will look at the nation of Israel. Isaiah chapter 1.
Isaiah 1:1-15, 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. The Wickedness of Judah 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; 3 The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” 4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. 5 Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the
whole heart faints. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. 7 Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city. 9 Unless the Lord of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah. 10 Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah: 11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts?
13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. With this background come to Isaiah chapter 5. The nation of Israel is under tremendous amount of prosperity by God through the reign of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah was reigning as monarch for 52 years! Longest serving monarch. Isaiah chapter 5 is the Parable of the vineyard.
Isaiah 5:1-7, Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.” 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. 1. Justification Portrayed.
God did everything He could do for Israel. God loved them and nurtured them as vineyard and expecting a good fruit.
- a. Prime Location
“My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.” Real estate – it is all about Location, Location, Location Canaan = Promised Land
- b. Careful Cultivation
Preparation of the Soil: “And He dug it all around,” Laborious work is involved.
2. Removal of Obstacles
“removed its stones,” These stones would be piled about the perimeter of the field as a wall to keep out marauding animals. Those left over from the wall could be used later to build a watchtower.
3. Planting the Best Vine
“And planted it with the choicest vine.” The best kind
Jeremiah 2:21, Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? Strong Protection “And He built a tower in the middle of it,” Where God can keep watch to protect it Great Expectations “And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes,” Two year waiting process before you realize the fruit of all your hard work. So confident is he in the harvest that he expects to be able to make his own wine, rather than simply selling his grapes to others. At Gibeon, the winepress is close to the storage caves for the wine. Privileges of the Jews detailed.
Romans 9:4-5, “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” Inexplicable Results “But it produced only worthless ones.” Tree is known by its fruit! Worthless grapes will be further defined in the 6 woes.
When the vine owner returns to inspect your fruit, what will He find? 2. Judgement God Invites Evaluation of His Performance!
What More Could He Have Done? God Invites Evaluation of His Expectations.
Is He Wrong to Expect Good Fruit? God asks rhetorical questions – not because He needs answers, but He wants to wake up His people to realize their sinful condition. What more could God have done to produce good fruit in our lives?
God pronounce the judgement upon the guilty vineyard.
- a. Right of Ownership
“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:” We are so quick to try to tell God about,
- what He should be doing,
- what He is doing wrong, and
- why our lot in life is so harsh and unfair.
He is the Creator and we are the creatures. He is the Potter and we are the clay. He is the owner and we are His vineyard. It is His vineyard!
- b. Complete neglection.
Exposing it to Devastation No more hedge of protection No more wall of protection Exposing it to powerful enemies Exposing it to denial of nourishment
Hosea 5:15, “I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE
- a. Identification of the Vineyard
“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,”
- b. Identification of the Choice Plant
“And the men of Judah His delightful plant.”
- c. Lack of Justice and Righteousness
“Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;” God expected justice but they committed bloodshed. He expected righteousness but in their oppression by their enemies they cried for help. This clear prophetic warning was not heeded but ignored.
Six impending Woe!
Isaiah 5:8-23, V 8, V 11, V 18, V 20, V 21, V 22,
1. Materialism
V 8-10, Woe to those who join house to house; They add field to field, Till there is no place Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land! 9 In my hearing the Lord of hosts said, “Truly, many
houses shall be desolate, Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant. 10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.” The sin that corrupted Judas was true of Israel. Insatiable greed of landowners, accumulating land and more land, and fields and more fields, and houses and more houses. Wealthy men ruthlessly acquiring all the property, squeezing out the poor and the helpless and making them buy things at an inflated price.
Every seventh year they were supposed to let the land rest. Every fiftieth year, everything that they had acquired went back to its original owner. That was called the Year of Jubilee. Started the economy all over again and prevented continual amassing and passing on and squeezing out everybody. So, every fiftieth year, everything went back to the original owner. If you knew that, you wouldn’t pay too much for something if you had to give it back in a few years. God had designed that. But sad to say, they violated those Sabbath years. They continued that grasping materialism.
10 acres of land gave only less than 10 litres of Wine. About 150 kilogram of seed yielded only 1.5 kgs of harvest.
2. Pleasure seeking
Drunken and pleasure seeking. V 11-17, That they may follow intoxicating drink; Who continue until night, till wine inflames them! 12 The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute, And wine are in their feasts; But they do not regard the work of the Lord, Nor consider the operation of His hands. 13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge; Their honourable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst. 14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself And opened its mouth beyond measure; Their glory and their multitude and their pomp, And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it. 15 People shall be brought down, Each man shall be humbled, And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. 16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness. 17 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.
Characteristic of an alcoholic. They start drinking in the morning. People who are consumed with drinking. They don’t have any interest in the things of God. They are running at the party as fast as they can run. They are filling it up as fast as they can fill it up.
When they are done, they are hungry and thirsty. They have nothing.
3. Rebellious Sinfulness
V 18-19, Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope; 19 That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work, That we may see it; And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, That we may know it.”
Imagery
So much sin, so much iniquity they can’t carry it. So, they have to get a wagon to put it in and pull it around like an ox. The cords that they pull with are the cords of deception or the cords of falsehood. They are liars dragging around a wagonload of iniquity like a brute beast, filled with sin.
V 19 is the height of mockery against God. They are mocking God with sarcasm.
4. Moral perversion
V 20, Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! This is that sin for overturning everything. Fornication is good and restraint is bad.
Homosexuality is good. Lesbianism is good. Divorce is good. The reversal of everything. It doesn’t even matter that you tell the truth anymore. Lying is better if it achieves your goal. Loving God is bad because it’s politically incorrect. Believing in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation is bad because it’s unloving and narrow.
Twisting and perverting of everything. Lifting up the wrong standard.
5. Arrogance
V 21, Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight! Everybody is clever in their own sight, wise in their own eyes, giving their own opinion.
The only right or wrong we understand is whatever the poll tells us. So it was in Israel.
6. Corrupt Leadership
V 22-23, Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, 23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man! The leaders were corrupt. They were drunk.
They abused people. There was no equity and there was no true justice. People were buying offices, buying positions, taking bribes. They weren’t even in control of themselves because they were drunk. Perverse leaders. Drunkenness, bribery, corruption, perverting of justice. These were the leaders.
Isaiah 5:24-30 judgement/punishment on the nation. V 24, Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, And the flame consumes the chaff, So their root will be as rottenness, And their blossom will ascend like dust; Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the transition.
They rejected the Law of the Lord of Hosts, and the word of the Holy One of Israel, and God’s judgment will fall. How fast it comes. Because on the surface, everything looks like it’s okay, as it did in Israel. V 25, Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people; He has stretched out His hand against them And stricken them, And the hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.
The Lord’s going to lead the Babylonians. That bitter and hasty nation, as Habakkuk called them, that Chaldean nation, that pagan nation is going to be the judge of Israel, God’s people. V 26, He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, And will whistle to them from the end of the earth; Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly. 27 No one will be weary or stumble among them, No one will slumber or sleep; Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed, Nor the strap of their sandals
be broken; 28 Whose arrows are sharp, And all their bows bent; Their horses’ hooves will seem like flint, And their wheels like a whirlwind. When a soldier is finished with his day, he takes his belt off, because attached to his belt is the apparatus with which he fights. When he unlooses his belt, and his garment falls, and he’s at rest.
But they are never going to take the belt off. This standard appears to be the invading Persian army that will come and take away the people into exile. This nation will come speedily when the Lord draws it to the nation to judge her.
The invading nation will be focused, for they will come swiftly and will not get weary, stumble, sleep, and they won’t even change their clothes on the way. The invading army will be treacherous for their arrows will be sharpened and their bows strengthened, their horses feet will be hard like flint, and their chariots will travel as fast as the whirlwind which comes against a city.
V 29-30, Their roaring will be like a lion, They will roar like young lions; Yes, they will roar And lay hold of the prey; They will carry it away safely, And no one will deliver. 30 In that day they will roar against them Like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks to the land, Behold, darkness and sorrow; And the light is darkened by the clouds.
God’s judgment against Judah and Jerusalem was complete, for they destroyed the temple and the city by fire and then took all but the poor to captivity in Persia. God in His mercy gave the nation a chance to repent and to turn to Him, for He told them of the judgment that was coming, however they did not take heed, and so now because they refused to repent the Lord will remove His restraining power and give them over to their sinful passions.
Let us move into Isaiah chapter 6 with this background information.
Isaiah 6:1, 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.
The year that King Uzziah died was 740 B.C. We are about 150 years or 140-something years away from the Babylonian invasion. So, they had plenty of warning. God was very merciful, and God was very gracious to allow a century plus to go by before the judgment actually fell. But the seeds of that destruction were already in place, and God has His own timetable.
But what makes it significant is that Uzziah had been king for 52 years. That’s a long time. Uzziah was a very strong leader. He had brought peace, military strength and brought prosperity. On the surface, everything looked good. As long as he was there, it was as if God had a stamp of blessing.
Everything went well and God is blessing, because Uzziah was essentially a good ruler. Uzziah didn’t die a normal death. He died an extremely unusual death. God executed him. God struck him with a disease that killed him because he was feeling so confident about himself and who he was as king, that he tried to invade the priestly office and function as a priest.
Uzziah stepped across the Law of God and violated that Law, and God killed him on the spot. Serious. Isaiah understood. He had been preaching judgment. He knew the judgment was coming. He was well aware of the sins of his people.
Isaiah had just chronicled them in the fifth chapter. He was well aware that Tiglath-Pileser was already on the horizon of the northern kingdom to come and destroy that kingdom. He knew full well that the Babylonians would eventually come with their horde to destroy the southern kingdom of Judah. He knew what was going on, and yet there was this one lingering hope on Uzziah. Uzziah was still there, and it was a like the stamp of God’s approval. Then he died, executed by God.
Now Isaiah is confused. So he goes to the temple. V 4 also states that he went to the temple. We can know why he went there.
- He knew Israel was a covenant people.
- He knew Israel was the vineyard of the Lord.
- He knew what God had invested in that vineyard.
- He knew what God expected from that vineyard.
- He knew that Israel was the people of covenant, promise.
But everything was going wrong. Now divine judgment was going to fall, and he was much like the prophet Habakkuk who couldn’t understand how God could punish Judah with a pagan nation.
Isaiah just wanted to check in at the temple and find out if God was still on the throne. Maybe everything had unravelled. Maybe the power of Satan had overcome God. This just didn’t make sense. This was a reversal of everything he had hoped for and everything he had anticipated. He went to the temple.
“I saw the Lord.” God wasn’t lying under the throne, having been knocked off by somebody else. He was sitting on the throne. He was still sovereign. He was still in charge. This is as high as you can go. This is the throne, and there was God.
“And God was on the throne, lofty and exalted.” Those words are very important. Nobody had usurped His authority. Nobody had usurped His sovereignty. It wasn’t going the way Isaiah thought it should go. God is sovereign. He’s still on the throne as He was then. He is on that throne as sovereign. He is lofty and exalted. That is the throne of God is above every other throne so that no one can usurp or impinge upon His absolute sovereign power and authority.
Isaiah 6:1, 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. That is the emanating glory of God. He sees the true and living God in all His glory, still sovereign. How critical this is. He sees God at the height of His glory and His sovereignty.
Isaiah 6:2, 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.
God is not only sovereign, but He still has His angelic force. He still has the power of all the 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands of holy angels. He still has a greater force than any man. If one angel can slay 185 Assyrians, and the angels of God are still surrounding the throne, then God still has His power, as well as His sovereignty.
He sees these angels with six wings. The six wings are described as two for covering the angel’s face.
Why is that? Because angels are created beings. If they are in the very presence of God as created beings, they can’t look upon the glory of God without being consumed. They can’t see the full blaze of God’s glory. This is emblematic of the fact that they have to cover their faces as Moses did in Exodus 33 when he saw God’s glory.
With two other wings they cover their feet. This is humility. The place in which they stand, as they were, is holy ground. With two it says they hover like celestial helicopters in motion. Ø Two wings for reverence, Ø Two wings for humility, and Ø Two wings for service.
Here are the angels viewing God with reverence, in His presence with humility, and waiting to serve. God is still on His throne. He does not have diminished sovereignty. He does not have diminished glory, and He does not have diminished power. He still has His sovereignty. He is still lofty and exalted. He is still aided by the vast multitude of holy angels.
Can God be comfortable with sin?
Isaiah 6:3, And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” Triple use of holy, the only time any attribute of God is repeated three times – and this occurs a number of places in Scripture – is to show the immensity or the immeasurability of His holiness. He is not just holy, He is holy, holy, holy, as if to say it cannot be conceive and it cannot be measured.
The edge of it cannot even be discovered. God is not only sovereign, God is not only powerful, but God is holy. Nothing has changed. He has not made any kind of peace with sin. He is still of pure eyes, and behold, evil cannot look upon iniquity, as Habakkuk realized in his dilemma. God is still holy so that whatever He does is absolutely right.
God’s nature hasn’t changed, His power hasn’t changed, and His position hasn’t changed.
Acts 14:16, that God has permitted all the nations, in the past, to go this way. Your view of God is the foundation of your life. If you don’t believe God is sovereign then you must worry. Fear is a reasonable response.
But the Bible presents God as sitting on His eternal throne, lifted up and exalted above all others as the sovereign, with mighty power as expressed in the presence of holy angels, and with absolute holiness. He is the sovereign, He is powerful, and He does what is right.
“‘The whole earth is full of His glory.’” He extends His person, and with His person comes His sovereignty, and comes His power, and comes His holiness to the whole earth. Nothing is going on, in this planet that’s outside His sovereignty.
Isaiah got what he needed. God is looking for a man in Israel or Judah. God is looking for people today. What God is looking for is not brilliance, creativity, education, oratorical skill. What God is looking for today are those who have a strong foundation. That foundation is a true and right view of himself.
Isaiah 6:4, And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. “Holy, Holy, Holy” elicits an earthquake, and the whole temple, in this vision, begins to shake, and smoke begins to fill the temple.
Does this remind you of any other historical event? Do you remember when God came down on Mount Sinai to give the Law early in the book of Exodus? The mountain began to shake and was filled with smoke. This is the presence of the holiness of God.
It’s a terrifying presence. It is terrifying even to Isaiah, and it is designed to be so, because while we, on the one hand, will celebrate the sovereignty of God and celebrate His almighty power as El-Shaddai, and we will celebrate the wonder of His perfect holiness.
At the same time, to be in His presence is a frightening reality. Why? Because God is holy and we are sinful.
Hebrew 12:28-29, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. While we rejoice that He is sovereign and that He is powerful, and we rejoice that He is holy, at the same time that has a traumatizing effect.
Isaiah 6:5, 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.” Isaiah used “woe” six times in chapter 5.
What does it mean? Damned, cursed, punished. “I’m damned,” The Hebrew, “I am going to pieces.” The word is, “I am disintegrating; I am crumbling. This isn’t an unusual response; this was essentially what happened to Ezekiel. Ezekiel the prophet, in chapter 1, saw a vision of God and fell over like a dead person.
This is essentially what happened as well to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus pulled back His flesh and revealed His glory, and all three of them fell over in a coma like dead people. This is essentially what happened to John the apostle in Revelation 1 when he had his first vision of the glorified Christ and fell over like a dead man. This is traumatizing.
Any true vision of God is a traumatic reality.
Why? Because the clearer you see God, and the more you see his holiness, the more you expose yourself to Him, the more aware you become of your sin and the more that holiness frightens you. Nobody is going to run to God for forgiveness and grace if they haven’t been traumatized by His holiness.
Manoah, the father of Samson, who came home one day and said to his wife, “we are going to die.”
Remember the story of Uzzah, who tried to stop the Ark of the Covenant, transported on a cart, from falling off. You were never to touch it but he did and he was dead. The story of Leviticus 10 of Nadab and Abihu. The ground opened and swallowed them up. Coming into the presence of God reveals sin. The sinner has a reasonable and healthy fear.
Isaiah sees his defilement. “Because I’m a man of unclean lips”
Why did he say that? Isaiah was the most gifted and useful to God, even in that place, because he was a prophet. His mouth was used to speak the Word of God. He saw his own wretchedness, to say nothing of everywhere else.
Here is a man who’s come to grips with the reality of his sin. What he deserves is to be damned. “I’m a man with a dirty mouth.” Just listen to what comes out of your mouth and you will know how depraved you are, because it’s out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
People may feel Isaiah was the greatest but he knew who he was in front of God. It was a frightening thing for many people to see Jesus. Luke chapter 5. Peter saw Jesus one morning on the shore, and he said, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I’m a sinful man.”
The disciples on the boat in Mark 4 they were out on the water, and the storm comes up, and Jesus stops the storm and it becomes silent. It says during the storm they were afraid. When Jesus stopped the storm, it says they were exceedingly afraid. Because it is far more frightening to have God in your boat than a storm outside your boat. A devastating effect.
Isaiah has seen God, and seen himself. God is holy, and he is not. Isaiah in the presence of God.
Isaiah 6:6-7, 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. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” In the temple there is an altar for sacrifice. On that altar were burning coals where animals were laid as symbols of the great sacrifice that Christ would one day offer for sinners. There was the altar of sacrifice with its burning coals.
We are introduced to atonement here. The altar was the place of atonement. Here is a sinner; here is a self-confessed sinner, a man who knows, before holy God, that he is sinful.
He confesses that sinfulness, and he confesses that that the very highest point, his voice, his mouth where he speaks for God, he is wretched and deserving of damnation. In that moment of deep and honest penitence, in that moment of confession, the seraphim flies – in the vision – with a coal from off the altar, taken with the tongs.
Repentance is painful. That’s the imagery. Purging is necessary. His mouth needed to be cleaned, purged. In that image of that vision, that penitent, heart-broken, contrite, self-condemning prophet, in the midst of his brokenness, was forgiven.
The altar of atonement was applied to him. His iniquity was taken away, and his sin was forgiven. He pronounces a curse, realizing his utter sinfulness and unworthiness and immediately is forgiven. That was the purification.
Isaiah 6:8, 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.” What is God looking for in a nation in crisis? For the very first time he hears the voice of the Lord, until now he was hearing the voice of the angels. Send to this nation on the brink of judgment. Somebody has to go to them. Somebody has to preach to them.
Isaiah 6:9-10, And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 “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.”
What kind of person is God looking for in a nation in crisis?
- A person who has a view of God that is accurate.
- A person who understands that God is sovereign.
- A person who understands that He is powerful, almighty, nothing is beyond His power.
- A person who understands that He is holy.
- A person who understands that His glory extends to all the earth.
Somebody who not only understands and has a glorious view of God, an accurate view of God, but God is looking for someone who has an accurate view of himself, who knows himself or herself to
be nothing but a sinner, worthy of judgment, who has, in true repentance, cried out to God and been forgiven. God isn’t looking for perfect people! God is looking for purified people.
Are you one of those? Do you have a true view of God, a true view of yourself?
Have you been atoned for? Has the coal been placed in our mouth so that you have been purged and purified and your sins forgiven by your faith in that sacrifice offered once for all on that altar of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
The Lord says, “This is exactly who I am looking for.” There were some other kings in Israel after Uzziah, before the captivity came. They played a role, but the kings weren’t the important people.
Who are the important people? The people who have a right view of God and the people whose sins have been cleansed. We are! We are the ones who have to answer this cry in verse 8. V 9, is quoted in four gospels, Acts, and Romans.
It is a very important passage. How would you like that as your ordination mandate? You go out there and you tell them the gospel, but you tell them also that they will hear it, but they won’t understand it. We would ask the question Isaiah asked in verse 11.
Isaiah 6:11, 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, 12 The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. “Lord, how long?” You just do it! Keep doing it until there’s nobody left to do it to.
The judgment’s coming, but just keep doing it. Preach the message. The implication here and it’s expanded in the New Testament. The more you preach it harder their hearts will become. It’s part of the judgment.
Isaiah 6:13, 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.” Not literally, but there will be a representative group. This is what we often call the “doctrine of the remnant.” Most won’t listen and hear. But there is a remnant there. A nation that has abandoned God, turned its back on God, walked away from the truth, literally subverted the truth, that has rejected the Law of the Lord and the word of the Holy One of Israel. I don’t have any illusions that all of a sudden, as the nation has been abandoned by God and plunged into immorality, homosexuality, and a reprobate mind, that we’re going to go through this nation and the whole nation is going to repent. But there is a remnant. There is a holy seed. There is a stump. There is a tenth out there. And that’s our promise, that the Lord is going to use us to bring the saving gospel to some, to that – I love this phrase – that “holy seed.” And when the tree has fallen, the stump is still there, that holy seed. And there’s life in that stump, and it’s our great privilege and responsibility to bring the message of salvation to them.
Who was God looking for? God is looking for you.
Do you understand who He is?
Do you understand who you are?
Have you been cleansed? Then God is asking you the same question He asked Isaiah, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Your answer is, “Here am I send me.” And, you know, you’ll beat your head against the wall, and you will run into difficulty, and you will run into resistance, and you will run into rejection.
There is a holy seed.
Conclusion
Isaiah 1:16-20, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall
be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Salvation is free! God has spoken and as He promised He raised a stump from the root of Jessie.
Isaiah 11:1-3, There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 3 His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah 9:6-7, For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
God has been always faithful to what He had promised. Jesus did come and fulfil the plan and purposes of God. Jesus commanded us to go and preach the whole world.
Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
What is topping you??