Isaiah 6:1-11
What is it that makes a man who is going one way, on his OWN way, TURN completely around and submit to the authority and Lordship of Christ? What was it that made Abraham leave UR, made Moses leave Egypt, and make Saul of Tarsus preach the Gospel? What was it that made Isaiah say, “Here am I, Send me!” It was that they saw God as He really is. HOW CAN WE SEE GOD ? Has anyone here ever seen God? No, not physically! Did not Jesus say, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God?” (Matthew 5:8)
The world says “If only I could see God, I would believe.” They want Him to come down physically, they say, and prove to them that He is real!
Before I was saved I used to think, Well why doesn’t God come down and show Himself to all people? Then we will believe! But Jesus Christ left the beauties of heaven--He left his throne, and God was incarnate--robed in human flesh, we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14). And what happened when the human race saw God physically?
Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm. Look at the words of Jesus from the cross in Psalm 22:7, “All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn.” When the world saw God in the Person of Jesus, they crucified Him and laughed Him to scorn! Oh, we don’t need to see God physically! We need to see God as He really is.
Let us turn to Isaiah 6:1-8. How can we see God?
Today we are going to briefly look at three ways we can SEE THE LORD.
I. First, we must SEE THE LORD’S MAJESTY (vs. 1-4).
The world today wants to make God like a man. He wants to take God down from heaven, and make Him one of us. God is NOT LIKE US!
Deut. 4:39, “Know therefore this day, and considerate in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.”
A. God is HIGH--He is on the Throne!!
Ex. 15:18, The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
Isaiah 57:15 speaks of Him as “The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy.”
Speaking of Jesus we see in Phil. 2:9-11: “At the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW. . . and THAT EVERY TONGUE SHOULD CONFESS that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, to the glory of God the Father.”
B. God is HOLY.
Imagine if you could go up to heaven, and listen to what the angel’s had to say! Wouldn’t you want to know what Micheal was saying to Gabriel? Well, here was a man who heard what the angel’s said. Listen! “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory!”
Yes God is mercy, He is kindness, He is goodness, and He is love! Yet above all that God is, He holds one attribute higher than all the rest--HIS HOLINESS!
I John 1:5 “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
1 Peter 1:15-16 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Transition:
C. God is HERE. "The whole earth is full of His glory"
It is absolutely amazing that anyone can believe the lie of evolution! You want to see God--look around you!
Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
II. Next, we must SEE THE LORD’S MERCY (verses 5-7).
A. Man’s DESTINY. “Woe is me, for I am undone.” Literally he says, “I am on my way to destruction, I am perishing.” Like to undo a building you destroy it.
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
B. Man’s DEPRAVITY. “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
MAN IS UTTERLY DEPRAVED!
Look at Romans 3:10-18:
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Every part of man is sinful and wicked: his throat, his lips, his mouth, his feet, mind, his heart, his eyes. We are UTTERLY WICKED outside of Christ!
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Proverbs 21:4 An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
I John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
C. Man’s DELIVERANCE. “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.”
This altar is the altar of burnt offering which was kindled by the Lord, and burnt continually day and night. Our only hope for deliverance is in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Leviticus 9:24 And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
I John 2:2 “And he is the propitiation [substitue for] our sins: and not for ours only, but also, for the sins of the whole world.”
III. Finally, we must SEE THE LORD’S MISSION (verses 8-13).
A. Be SENSATIVE to His Voice. “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
B. SURRENDER to His Call. “Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah sees God and realizes his condition, and he says, "Here am I Lord, you saw me--I’m a man of unclean lips, I am perishing, Here I am--I don’t have much talent, but HERE AM I LORD, SEND ME!"
C. SERVE Him to the End. Verse 11 “Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.”
