Isaiah Sees The Lord

And please join with me, in prayer as we close. Our gracious heavenly Father, we just come before you and we thank you this morning, Lord, for your word. We affirm the fact, Lord, that you are holy. And we would ask, Lord, that you would graciously illumine the eyes of our understanding to more fully comprehend Your Holiness.

And how we do not measure up. And to know, Lord, that in Calvary we have forgiveness. Glory be to the Lamb who was slain. And we pray, Father, that you would so impact our lives to where we would be at a place where we would say with Isaiah the prophet.

Here am I. Send me Oh God, we pray, do your work in our lives, in this body. So that Your Holiness may find expression as your glory fills this place. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. I want to ask you guys to please join with me and let's, let's pray. Let's ask the Lord, to, to minister to our hearts over the next 45 minutes or so. Let's pray together.

Oh, God, we, Lord, we come before you this morning and Lord, we ask, God, that you would Cause us, To be profoundly aware. Of you. I pray, oh God, that you would illuminate, The eyes of our understanding, help us, Lord, to see. You Lord, as we come to you, we do confess to you the fact that our thoughts of you.

Are much less. Than what they ought to be. And we know that to whatever degree that we do think right about you. That is merely an expression of your grace in our lives, but we pray, Lord, give us more grace.

Remove the blinders. May we behold you in the pages of your living word, O God. Lloyd, there are some of us who are coming to you. With burdens.

And heavy hearts. Beyond our own ability to cope with. And I ask for those of us who fall into that category. That you might show us your glory.

So that we might gain perspective. And so that we might. Be encouraged, oh God. I pray, oh God, that the words of my mouth.

And the meditations of my heart. Would indeed be acceptable to you. Oh God, my rock. And my redeemer.

We pray these things for your glory and for our good. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I would like to begin this morning by asking you guys to imagine something, I want you to imagine that the Lord is standing right before you.

Imagine that you are essentially seeing, The Lord, you are seeing specifically the second person of the Trinity. You are seeing God the Son. And I want you to take this one step further, and I want you to imagine that as you are seeing him, he is speaking to you. And he is asking you to do something for him.

Now there are 1000 things that you could think of that he might possibly ask you to do. Let me give you a few ideas, and I realize that he may not literally be asking you to do any or even all of these things, but just, just imagine with me for a minute that he asks you. To invite that widow to your home today for lunch. Or perhaps he might ask you to adopt that orphan child from that third world country.

Or to buy a meal for that homeless person out there on the corner of Iowa. And university or he speaks to you and he says to sell your $500,000 home in a nice neighborhood and to move into a rougher part of the city in order to minister the gospel there or perhaps he would say to stay where you live in order to minister the gospel among new neighbors. Who are rougher around the edges than the previous neighbors were. Maybe he might ask you to, to move into a third world country and to minister in whatever way you can.

His grace and His mercy to the people who live in that country. He might ask you to give more. Of your finances. You may be blessed beyond measure financially, and he may ask you to dig a little deeper and to give more for the cause of Christ and for the advance of His kingdom, perhaps giving to the local church or even giving to some missionaries that of or perhaps don't even know of, but you have heard that they were good missionaries in need of support.

Or perhaps He might ask you to submit to your husband, even though he is a poor example of a man, let alone a spiritual leader. It might be that Jesus would ask you to love your wife. And to remain committed to her even though she has just confessed to an extramarital affair. Perhaps the Lord would ask you to babysit the children.

Of that couple who have been unable to have a date together for years or to donate one of your organs to someone who would otherwise die. This is just a small sampling of the types of questions that the Lord could potentially ask you, if he were to stand before you and ask you to do something. What would you say? OK.

Would you say, With your hands surrendered, here am I. Send me. In our passage this morning, we will learn of a man who was called into a very difficult ministry. This man was one of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel.

And he was a man who had arrived at a place in his life in which he was totally surrendered to Almighty God. He had arrived at a place in which he could say, Here am I stand me. Keane Send me. The question I would like to answer.

is what led the prophet Isaiah To get to that place in his life. What happened to the prophet Isaiah, so that he would arrive at that place where he would say, Here am I, do whatever you want, send me. By way of being more direct and more personal. What must happen in your life?

What must happen in my life? What must happen in our lives. If we are to experience surrender to Almighty God. What happened in Isaiah's life?

Well, we will begin with number 1. He saw the Lord. Turn in Isaiah chapter 6. The first thing that happens in Isaiah's life, that was absolutely necessary in order to get him to a place in which he could say, Here am I, send me, was that he saw the Lord.

Beginning in Isaiah 6:1, let's read together and as we do, I will make some running comments. Isaiah writes, in the year of King Uzziah's death, we do need to stop here to give a little bit of attention to King Uzziah. OK. Historically speaking, the United Kingdom of Israel, the golden age of Israel, the age underneath David and Solomon had come to an end.

And here we are with a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. And in the southern kingdom, we have Uzziah, who was the 9th king. In the southern kingdom. He was a king who had ruled for about 52 years.

His rule in his kingdom was considered a prolific rule. He is considered to be one of the great kings in the history of the southern kingdom of Judah. We have Uzziah. And as we study this man, we come to understand that, that he lived his life in such a way that he was actually pleasing to the Lord in many ways.

And because of the fact that he was pleasing to the Lord, the Lord blessed him significantly. The kingdom expanded, he had a great military. There was prosperity during his reign. However, later on in his life, We are told that he entered into the temple of Almighty God, and there in the temple, he took upon himself some of the priestly prerogatives.

He did that which was reserved exclusively for the priests, and in the process at that moment, God struck him because of his sin with leprosy. Tradition would tell us about that same moment that the ground shook and that there was a severe earthquake. And so this is Usah, the king. Note, he is dead.

He is finite. He is a creature. And Isaiah is saying, in the year that the king died, In that same year, a year in which no doubt people would have been discouraged, people would have been, wondering who is the next king gonna be thing. The people would have experienced a certain level of sorrow and sadness because this great king had died.

And Isaiah says, in the year of the king's death, I saw the Lord. You see, the king had died. But wait a minute, here is some perspective, that King is alive. He is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, prior to the incarnation.

Every commentator would agree that what we're dealing with when he says, I saw the Lord, the Lord would be the second person of the Trinity, it would be the pre-incarnate Christ. Theologians refer to this as an epiphany. He saw that Lord, the second person he saw Jesus. Implicit in what he says when he says, I saw the Lord is the fact that the Lord is alive, and the Lord is real.

He is affirming the existence of the King. The King had died, but the king is alive. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. You see, the Lord here is not pacing back and forth, worried and Stressed out over the affairs of the world, but here he is in a relaxed posture sitting upon the throne, and the fact that he is on the throne would suggest his kingship, the fact that he rules, the fact that he is overall, and Isaiah goes on to say that I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted.

Now, I don't know if it's the Lord that he is saying who was lofty and exalted or the throne. But whatever it is, the Lord was on the throne, and the throne or the Lord, he was in a very high position. Speaking of the fact that he is above all. He is the sovereign one who rules over everything.

I saw the Lord, sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. You see what Isaiah is beginning to see is a vision of who God really is. Specifically, the second person of the Trinity. He sees him.

And then he goes on in his description, and he says, with betraying of his robe. filling the temple. Now in his day, dignitaries would wear a, a train flowing from the robe. It was a sign of, of authority, a sign of leadership, a sign of prestige, and Isaiah is saying, I saw the Lord.

And this Lord was, had the, the train of his robe, this glorious magnificent, just majestic robe is trailing behind him. 10+ years ago. July 20, 1996, I stood here in this building. We had a center aisle with the white carpet rolled out.

And Pastor Milton was by my side and Pastor Mike, one of my best men, and a number of other men and, and the court is up here on my wedding day and some of you remember that and, and when the doors open, And I was able to see my wife. That was just a wonderful day. She was just exquisite. She was sparkling, bright and beautiful.

Her, her wedding dress was just, was beautiful and, and the train that, that, that, that, trailed her dress was, was equally beautiful, very long and flowing, and, and it, it, it seemed to me as if on that day, she, she just glowed, she just sparkled. What a beautiful day. Been married for 10+ years now, and as I look back over the years, my estimation of how beautiful she is and how perfect she is for me, I underestimated that because in being married for 10+ years, And seeing the ways in which he has had to put up with me, a sinful man, and being responded to with grace and humility and mercy and compassion and kindness, I am even today more blown away.

By her beauty.

And yet what Isaiah sees when he sees the Lord, blows away what I have just described to you. When Isaiah sees the Lord, he sees someone way more beautiful, way more majestic, way more glorious than what I have described to you. He says, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted with the train of His robe, filling the temple. Though Isaiah may have been in the earthly temple, what he sees transcends the earthly.

God's throne is in the heavenly temple, and Isaiah is brought to a place where he is experiencing that. After describing his vision of the Lord, Isaiah goes on to describe the creatures that stood above him. Notice what he says. Seraphim, fiery ones, stood above him, each having six wings.

With 2 he covered his face, and with 2 he covered his feet, and with 2 he flew. Now, All of God's creatures were created by Almighty God in order to inhabit the environment in which they were to dwell. When we read through this description, we're not supposed to conclude by saying, well, God made some freakish creatures here. No, he did not make freakish creatures.

These are creatures that were created by Almighty God to inhabit his presence. And so we read that they were created, the seraphim were created with six wings, and 2, they covered their eyes. These are sinless creatures. These are creatures who had no experience of the fall.

They were pure in that sense. And yet these pure creatures were created to inhabit the presence of God, and with two wings, they're covering their faces. Because even they could not stand to look upon the bright and glorious splendor of the Lord and survive that. They're covering their faces.

And they are covering their feet and in Isaiah's day, this would have been understood as a sign of respect. This would have been understood as a way of showing honor to someone who is greater than oneself and the seraphim are demonstrating by covering their feet that sense of honor and respect to the Lord. And then perhaps because they dare not stand in the presence of the Lord. On the ground where the Lord was sitting, they are flying above with the other two wings.

You see, God created them in such a way that they could inhabit the presence of a holy God. And note, What it is that the seraphim are proclaiming. It says in verse 3, and one called out to another, and he said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.

Nowhere in Scripture will you find God being described 3 times in reference to one of his attributes, not to underscore the importance of his love, but you don't find anywhere in Scripture where it says, love, love, love. Just, just, just. But you do find. In this portion of scripture, that the seraphim are saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

He is seeking to communicate in the superlative, just how holy the Lord is. What do we mean? When we say holy, what is the seraphim trying to communicate in this Trihagion, this rice holy declaration of God? Well, no doubt, Wholly involves the idea of separation, separation, the idea of being set apart, being distinct.

Isaiah In recording what the seraphim are saying is acknowledging the fact that God is transcendent, that he is above all, that there is no one or nothing like him. He is in a league all his own. He marches to the beat of a different drum. He is totally foreign in the sense that he is altogether unique.

He is other, He is transcendent. He is holy. And this idea of him being holy would capture all of the other attributes that go into the makeup of who he is. And when you consider all of the attributes that go into the makeup of who this God is, he is totally holy in each of them.

He is unique in each of them. There are what theologians call incommunicable attributes. Those are things about him that are true about him, and we don't even have anything to do with those things. Like he is infinite.

We're not infinite. But there are other attributes communicable that are true about God, but true about us too, in a smaller sense, and that we are creatures created in His image. And so when we read that God, is love, there is a sense in which we can be loving too. But even then, he is holy.

His love is way above and beyond what we could ever dream of being like. And so when you consider all of the attributes of God and love them under the category of His Holiness, what the seraphim are declaring is a great and awesome, majestic God. He is a God who is incomprehensible. There is no way that any of us could ever fully comprehend the ultimate reality of this God, this holy God.

He is self-existent. You see, we are creatures made by the Creator, dependent upon him, but he is not dependent. He is self-existent. He has no need of us, self-sufficient.

He is eternal, without beginning, without end, existing outside of the boundaries of time. He is altogether unique. He is infinite, immutable, meaning unchanging. You see, we are fickle people.

I change my mind 1000 times a day. But the Lord Himself, he is immutable, unchanging. He never changes his mind. He is omniscient.

He knows everything. There is not a thing that he is not aware of that has ever happened throughout all of the course of history, and even beyond that into eternity. He is completely knowledgeable of every single little detail ever. And in this regard, he is holy as well.

He is omnipresent, present everywhere at once. In every single time of history, he is omnipresent. He is sovereign, totally in control of everything. There is absolutely nothing that has ever happened or will ever happen that escapes his sovereignty.

He is the Lord sitting on the throne, high and exalted. Sovereign king of the universe. He in His Holiness is faithful, good, just, perfectly pure, bright, and resplendent to such an extent that we can't behold him because we would go blind in seeing him, like the apostle Paul did when he saw the Lord. In the New Testament blinded by His glorious splendor.

He is merciful and gracious and loving and kind. And you see, when seraphim are saying, holy, holy, holy. Underneath that banner includes all of the attributes that go into the makeup of God, and he is totally Unique and separate from us. He is transcendent above all.

Isaiah is aware of this as the seraphim are proclaiming this, but they continue on in their proclamation. And they go on to say that the whole earth, the whole earth is full of his glory, and glory is the expression of His holiness. When God wants to express his holiness, the expression of that holiness, I believe is His glory, being manifest. And we have the ability as his creatures, believe it or not, to manifest his glory.

And to serve as a reflection to this world of His Holiness. But the Seraphim are saying that the whole earth is full of His glory and no doubt, There are traces in this world of the glory of God. Take a step outside and look at the flower. And examine it and study it and contemplate it and realize that that flower suggests the glory of God.

You gaze at the stars at night, and look at the heavens, and they proclaim the greatness, the glory of God. And so there are no doubt traces of his glory as we examine the world in which we live. But There also seems to be places in which his glory is not being expressed. In this fallen and sinful world in which we live, sad to say that there are places in this world, there are things that happen in this world in which his glory is not being expressed.

We live in a world. A prime. Divorce. Abortion.

Murder. And earlier this week, to our horror. We heard of the gunman who went to the campus of Virginia Tech and he killed some 32 students and professors. We hear of war and poverty, sickness and disease that ravages bodies and bring lives to an end.

And every time that you and I manifest deeds of the flesh, we in effect, fail to give to God the glory, and we fail to express the glory that he wishes to give expression to. Every time We think a sinful thought, or we do a sinful deed, or we say sinful words. Surely, we fail to be instruments through which his glory. Is made known, is manifest.

And so what do the seraphim mean then? When they say, the whole earth is full of his glory. When as we observe the world in which we live, we see traces, but it is not full. Consider these passages with me.

Numbers 14:20. So the Lord said, I have pardoned them according to your words. But indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. All of the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

That clearly speaks of something that is going to happen yet in the future. Another passage, Psalm 72:18. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders, and blessed be His glorious name forever, and may the whole earth, may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen.

And amen. In these passages, we discover that there is a sense in which this world is not completely full of his glory. Yet the day is coming, sometime yet in the future in which we can take it to the bank, the whole earth will be filled with his glory. And I believe what the seraphim are saying.

would serve as a source of encouragement to Isaiah, because what they are saying to Isaiah when they say that the whole earth is full of his glory, they're directing him to the future in which it is such a done deal. It is something that you can take to the bank, it will happen that the whole earth will be full of his glory, to where you can speak of it as if it were already true. And for Isaiah, in his day, observing a southern kingdom falling away from Yahweh, and the discouragement that would come along with that, and eventually being called to preach to these people who every single one of them in essence would reject, except for the small remnants.

This would be a source of encouragement to be able to face the future and smile with the certainty, knowing that in the end, God wins.

In the end, the whole earth will be totally and completely encompassed in the glory of Almighty God. And as Isaiah continues to describe what he sees, he sees the Lord, he sees the seraphim, and he hears their proclamation, and he goes on to say, and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. A couple of weeks ago, when Milton, Mike and myself went to Maryland to the Sovereign Grace conference, it was very late at night.

I was soundly asleep, enjoying intimacy with my pillow, and then all of a sudden, my bed began to shake pretty hard.

And as my bed is shaking, I wake up and there's nothing that can wake me up except when the bed shakes. Earthquakes will wake me up. You can yell at me and you're not gonna wake me up, especially if you yell through this ear. You're not gonna wake me up.

But you shake my bed and I will do a flip, and I will be on my feet and I'll be like, what what what what. Anyway, my bed is shaking at night, and, and I wake up I'm like earthquake, earthquake, and, and stinking milking, he's sleeping. And Mike, he's sleeping too. And I'm wondering, don't these guys feel it?

The, the earth just quaked, but mysteriously enough, I didn't hear any of the shattering that would accompany a genuine earthquake. So that morning, the next morning, Pastor Mike says, did you feel the earthquake last night? I said, Yeah, I felt it. Didn't you feel it, Milton?

Didn't you feel the earthquake? And Pastor Mike says, you were snoring really loud, bro. And I needed to find a way to shut you up, so I shook your bed. When Isaiah says that the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him.

This is no Pastor Mike Berry shaking the foundations of the temple. OK, Mike Barry, as buff of a man as he is, he could not cause these huge inanimate stones to shake, even if he used all of his strength. I might be able to shake him, but he couldn't. Here we have.

Something more than a Mike Barry, we have the, the thresholds, the foundations of the thresholds trembling. Why? Because God comes along and starts shaking the foundations. No, at the voice of Almighty God.

Inanimate objects are shaken. What a powerful And majestic picture of Almighty God that Isaiah is painting for us. And then he goes on to say, while the temple was filling with smoke, the smoke represents the Shakinah cloud, the, the, the Shakinah glory of Almighty God. Listen with me at First Kings 8:10, and it came about when the priests came from the holy place that the clouds filled the house of the Lord.

So that the priests could not stand to minister. They could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Ezekiel 10:4, then the glory of the Lord, Remember, glory being the expression of His holiness. His holiness is being expressed in the glory of the Lord.

It says the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the clouds, the glory cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And so in Isaiah's vision and what it is that he is seeing as the temple is filling with smoke, what he is essentially experiencing is the very glory of Almighty God at the proclamation of the seraphim saying, holy, holy, holy, the glory clouds fills the temple. And Isaiah sees the Lord.

What must happen in our lives, in order to bring us to the point of total surrender to Almighty God.

Number 1, we must see the Lord. Isaiah sees the Lord. What this world needs, what we need is a clear vision of the Lord. We must have an accurate concept of who the Lord is.

I am not talking about mere intellectual head knowledge. I am talking about an experience of Almighty God, the living God of this universe in which we can say not through the hearing of the ear, but through the seeing of the eyes, we can say that there is a Lord, and he is almighty, great and glorious. He is holy. Think about what Job says, and the story about Job.

He went through the wringer big time. God gave Satan permission to attack him, and here was a man whom God said is a righteous man, but over the course of time, at some point along the way, Job slipped into the realm of sin. And in slipping into the realm of sin, eventually, the Lord will reveal Himself to Job in the midst of the ashes. And notice what Job says in 42 5, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.

This is what I'm talking about. When I ask, do you see the Lord? Do you see? The Lord.

To what degree does the reality of God press upon your life? Do you see all of life's events surrounding you through the sovereignty of God? What happens once Isaiah Received the clear vision of the Lord. This is the thing that must happen to all of us if we are to join Isaiah later on when he says, here am I, send me.

He sees the Lord, and then against the backdrop of the splendor of Almighty God, he sees himself. He sees himself. Notice what Isaiah says. Then I said, woe.

Is me. Now, if you look at the earlier chapters of Isaiah before chapter 6, there is a lot of woe language. And there are countless times in which Isaiah is pronouncing woe upon sinful kingdoms and sinful people. Woe is you, woe is you, woe is you, woe is you.

But finally, here in chapter 6, he sees a vision of the Lord. And he is going to pronounce that curse upon himself, seeing the Lord caused him to take his eyes off of everything that was around him at the moment, and he saw himself clearly, and he proclaims a curse upon himself when he says, woe is me. For I am ruined against the backdrop of the splendor of Almighty God. He sees Himself.

And he concludes that he is ruined. He is expecting to die because he knows that no man can see the Lord and live as a general rule of thumb. And so he has seen the Lord and he would expect to die. And in the New Testament passage, we are told that he felt totally unraveled and undone in the presence of Almighty God.

He says, woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips. And of course, out of the lips or out of the mouth comes the overflow of the heart. And so, essentially what he is saying is that my heart is wicked. And amazing because Isaiah.

Of all men is the one confessing his guilt. If you would have asked people in his day, who is the holy man? who do you think of when you think of a, a, a righteous man? Isaiah the prophet.

But here we have a holy and a supposed righteous man in the presence of God, proclaiming a curse upon himself, because he finds himself to be sinful. And he sees that there is a vast distance between a transcendent God and himself. There is a huge gulf between the Creator and himself, part of the creation. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the king. The Lord of hosts. No excuses, no blame shifting? No woe on the people all around him, but that woe gets directed inwardly.

And then beyond that, he acknowledges the depravity of the people of God as well. And I believe that to some degree, that was part of the weight that he felt that not only was he sinful, but there was not a righteous man around him. Everyone was sinful, and no one gave God the glory that he deserves. Earlier I asked you if you are seeing the Lord.

Are you seeing the Lord? A way that you can know that you are seeing the Lord is if you often experience a profound awareness of your sin and filth. Do you find yourselves in the presence of God, totally broken over the fact that as, that, that, that compared to this great God, you have fallen short. Do you find yourself with an inward moan?

Do you find yourself at times grieving inwardly to where you're crying before the Lord uncontrollably, because, it's as if you are in this body that you can't escape and that the only way to be able to properly glorify the Lord is if you could escape this body, but you can't, you feel like a prisoner entrapped by this body in which you dwell, and inwardly, you're just groaning. Oh, God, I wish, I pray that you could give me a heart to praise you, but I can't. To where you feel yourself inwardly undone.

If you do.

That is a good sign. That is a manifestation of God's grace in your life. That is, that is, that, that, that is perhaps proof that you have seen the Lord. That you see the Lord, that your concept of the Lord is right.

And as a result, you see yourself, As sinful. You see, this is actually a sign of sanctification. Remember what Job said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee. Therefore, I retract and I repent in dust and ashes.

Remember Simon Peter in Luke chapter 5 verse 8. Fishing all night, expert fisherman fails, doesn't catch a single fish. Jesus says, hey, it's early in the morning. He's fishing, Jesus says, hey, Peter, why don't you catch him on the other side and, you'll catch some fish, thing.

Oh, gosh, Lord, give me a break. Well, he doesn't literally say that, but OK, Lord, if you're, He cast his net into the water. What happens? Oh my gosh, he has so much more fish than he even knows what to do with.

He is totally blown away by the fish that he sees. And then what happens as he gazes upon the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, away from me. Master. Away from me I am a sinful man.

In Revelation 1:17, what happens to John, the beloved disciple. It says, when I saw Jesus, I fell at his feet as a dead man. Consider Peter. and, and with all of these men, they see the Lord and they see themselves.

Peter, early in ministry, of all of the apostles, I am the least. Years later in his ministry of all of the saints, I am the least. And then as an older man, of all of the sinners, I am chief. Why?

Because these men see the Lord, and they're seeing him more and more for who it is that he truly is. And they are, they are moving in the direction of a lesser view of self and a greater view. Of Almighty God. So much more could be said, but the bottom line is this.

Isaiah saw the Lord. And he saw himself, and we're moving closer to that place of total surrender. Notice what else happens. He experiences forgiveness for his sin.

We must be deeply aware of the forgiveness of our sin in order to get to that point of surrender. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hands which he had taken from the altar with tongs, and he touched my mouth with it, and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. This is absolutely astonishing that our God, the transcendent, glorious, majestic God of the universe would stoop down and enter into the space of this man named Isaiah and be willing to extend to him through the seraphim the forgiveness for his sin.

And he says your iniquity is taken away, and all of your sin is completely forgiven, that this transcendent God of the universe would stoop down in order to enter into relationship with sinful man.

And that is exactly what he has done for us too. You see, at this point in Isaiah's ministry, he doesn't even see the cross. But he is so blown away by what he sees, so blown away by his own sin, so blown away by forgiveness of sin, that when the Lord comes along and says, who will go for me? Who shall we send?

Isaiah says, I'm here I am, Lord. Send me. I will do whatever you want me to do. I will go wherever you want me to go.

I am yours. You have total ownership over every last detail of my life. He says, Here am I, oh God, send me. And you see, he gets to that place.

And he has yet to experience the cross. And in fact, if you continue to study Isaiah, you begin to realize that he's going to see more and more, and he's going to be actually given more reason as to why he should submit his life to Almighty God. So much more later on, the Lord is going to show him visions of the future. And some of these visions are yet future for us as well.

The Lord is going to show to Isaiah the eternal state. And we can look forward to that with anticipation knowing that the. The, the, the Lord is gonna, is gonna have Isaiah look into the future and see the millennial state, that millennial kingdom which Christ will reign on the earth for that, the Lord's gonna help him to see that. And all of those things are yet future even for us, and the day is coming when the whole earth will be full of the glory of the Lord.

But the Lord is also eventually gonna take Isaiah to a future event that for you and I is no future event. It is a done deal. It is a historical fact that 2000 years ago, we see the Lord, we see ourselves, and we experience forgiveness. On the mountain of Calvary.

Where Jesus Christ's bloodied body. was hanging from across. And where at that cross he took upon Himself all of the wrath of Almighty God for us. Isaiah will eventually be given a glimpse of that.

And here we are, we can look back and we see it. And in Isaiah chapter 53, listen to what Isaiah records as he predicts the suffering of the one who he said he saw high and lifted up. Notice what Isaiah says. He has no stately form.

Or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him, he was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and like one. From whom men hide their face He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed. For our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by his scourging we are healed. All us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.

His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him. Putting him to grief. If he would render himself.

As a guilt offering. He will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands. As a result of the anguish of his soul.

He will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured himself out to death. This is another vision of the Lord that Isaiah sees.

Yet future we look back and we can join with Isaiah in saying, I see the Lord poured out Himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. So the question that I asked, what must happen in our life in order to bring us to a place of surrender? We have got to see the Lord. We have got to grab hold of a clear view of who our God is.

We have got to experience our own inward depravity, sinfulness. The vast gulf between us and Him. And yet we need to experience and to feel deeply the fact that all of our sin has been atoned for. At the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and against the backdrop of these things, we ought to be able to join with Isaiah the prophet, where when the Lord said, Whom shall I go?

Whom shall I send? We with Isaiah would raise our hands and surrender to Almighty God, and we would say, Here am I. Send me Whatever you want, Lord, I am open. There were 2 young men.

Who no doubt experienced these things in their lives. Two young men, they looked back at Calvary, they saw the Lord, they saw themselves, they experienced forgiveness. And these two young men said, Here am I, Lord. Send me.

These two men heard. that there were a bunch of slaves on an island, African slaves on this island. And they also had come to know that there was no one there to minister the gospel to the slaves. And that the only way for an outsider to be able to get in on the island is to actually become a slave.

And so these two young Moravian men decided that they would sell themselves into slavery. So that they could join these slaves on the island and minister the gospel to them. And these two young men on the boat bidding farewell to their loved ones. And as, as the distance between the boat and the shore increased, the last words that were heard from the Moravians, the last words that the people on the shore heard, heard these two men say is, is one of them as he locked arms with the other, he said, May the lamb that was slain, may the lamb that was slain.

May the lamb that was slain receive the reward for his suffering. You see, these young men saw the Lord. They saw Themselves, they had experienced forgiveness. And at the end of the day they said, Hi.

Here am I. Send me Are you at that place? In your life to where you can. With judgment they honestly say.

I am totally open to whatever the Lord has for me. Here am I, O God. Send me. If not, you need to see the Lord.

And then against that backdrop, see yourself. And then, no. That in the cross in Christ, you have been forgiven a tremendous debt. And to rise from that place of humiliation, to stand before the presence of a holy God.

And say, here am I. Send me.