HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD ALMIGHTY

Isaiah 6:1-13

Key Verse: 6:3

“And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’”

Happy New Year again! This week we’ll hear one more special New Year’s message before returning to Luke’s gospel. It’s from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is called “the Prince of the Prophets.” He was used greatly by God to speak God’s words and reveal God’s sovereign purpose for world salvation, even though he lived in corrupt and decadent times. This chapter shows us how the prophet Isaiah received his calling from God, probably while he was still a young man. Isaiah started his ministry with a vision of God’s holiness. Then, he received God’s grace of forgiveness and mission. He received power to speak God’s words even to hard-hearted people. When we start the year 2010 with the vision of the Holy Almighty God, we can also be used greatly by God in the upcoming year. May God grant us his vision through his word in Isaiah.

First, the times of Isaiah (1a). In what year did Isaiah see the vision recorded in this chapter? Verse 1a says “In the year that king Uzziah died...” I looked it up on Wikipedia and saw that this date was somewhere around 740 B.C. Many verses from the earlier chapters of Isaiah vividly describe the condition of the nation of Israel at that time. And it is scary how similar it sounds to our own time. Listen to Isaiah 2 verses 6-8: “ You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines

and clasp hands with pagans. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.”

As these verses indicate, the times were actually very prosperous, like our times―our chariots are all parked outside. King Uzziah had a very successful reign, expanding the borders of Israel and rebuilding cities and building a large and powerful army. However, though the nation was rich, it was also full of corruption and oppression. Isaiah 3:14-15 says, “The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: ‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’ declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.” That kind of economic success could never please God.

 The book of 2 Chronicles says that Uzziah became prosperous because in the early years of his reign, he sought the Lord with his whole heart. But when he became powerful, Uzziah became proud. Once he tried to enter the temple and burn incense on the altar himself, though God had said only the consecrated priests could do this. Basically, Uzziah had begun to think that because he was the king he could make his own way to worship God in his own righteousness. Some courageous priests and servants of God warned the king that what he was doing was not right. But Uzziah only got angry at them. Then God struck Uzziah with leprosy and the leprosy broke out on his forehead at that moment. From then on, Uzziah lived hidden away in a separate house and remained a leper until the day he died. His pride destroyed his relationship with God and led to his downfall. (2Ch 26:16)

Also in Isaiahپfs time, society was in a state of moraldecay. Isaiah 3:16 says, پgThe LORD says, پeThe women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.پh Isaiah 5:11-12 say پgWoe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.پh These were the times in which Isaiah was called to serve as a prophet. How difficult! Judahپfs degeneration reminds us of America over the last 50 years. It has been a time of prosperity unparalleled in the history of the world. Yet, during this time, we have seen prayer removed from public schools, rampant sexual immorality, the legalization of abortion, a skyrocketing divorce rate, and random acts of violence on campuses. Furthermore, there is empirical evidence that the American Christian church is declining in number for the first time since the Second Great Awakening. These facts, taken by themselves, can make us hopeless about the future and negative. But God has something different in mind.

Second  , the LORD seated on the throne (1-4). At that very time, the Lord showed Isaiah a vision that changed his perspective completely. Look at verse 1 again. gthe year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.h In order to call Isaiah into a new life as Godfs servant, the Lord gave Isaiah a vision. What did Isaiah see? Isaiah said, gI saw the LORD.h Incredibly, Isaiah saw the Lord. He saw God himself. God revealed his own glory and majesty to Isaiah. Isaiah described God as seated on a throne, in his holy temple in heaven, high and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. What does this vision of God on the throne mean? This is a picture of Godfs absolute authority and sovereignty. In a word, it means that our God reigns! He is ruling eternally over all creation. He never sleeps and he never forgets. Nothing in all creation happens without his permission. This is the reality behind the world that we see with our eyes every day.

What was going on in God’s throne room? Look at verse 2: “Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.” Flying around the throne room with God were seraphs―powerful angelic creatures that serve in God’s presence. Why do they cover their faces with their wings? It is because they are not worthy to look at God. But even though they are not worthy, they spend all their time praising God. I think we can learn a lot from the example of the seraphs.

How do the seraphs praise God? Let’s read verse 3 together: “And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’” The number one characteristic of God that the seraphs reveal is his holiness. Not once but three times they call out, “Holy, holy, holy.” What does “holy” mean? “Holy” is not a word that describes earthly things. God’s holiness means that he is perfect in every way and far above all low and dirty things. What we must know about God first of all is that he is holy. To lead people to meet the holy God, we must have God’s holiness burning in our heart.

The seraphs also said, “the whole earth is full of his glory.” How can this troubled world be full of God’s glory? We have to see from God’s point of view. God created the heavens and the earth. The oceans and trees, the stars and planets all reveal the glory of their creator God. What is more, to this day God is working in everything, even in troubles, to reveal his glory through world salvation. Wicked people try hard to ignore and cover up God’s glory in this world. But they can never succeed, because the whole earth is full of his glory. In Isaiah’s time, the national situation of Israel was so depressing. Maybe Isaiah once saw the world only as a seriously messed-up place where one depressing thing happens after the other. But now he saw the world as full of God’s glory, as holy God ruled absolutely over everything for his own good purpose.

Verse 4 says what happened when the seraphs praised God, “the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.” Have you ever been to a rock concert? I noticed that almost all rock concerts use smoke machines to fill the place up with smoke. And they make the volume so loud that it seems the place is shaking. But it’s such a pathetic attempt to imitate the glory of God in his temple. On the other hand, praising God really rocks the house.

To be strong and preach the word of God in our times, we must have such a vision of God’s lordship and holiness living in our hearts. As you may know, on Thursday evening Missionary Challenge Kim arrived back in this New Jersey mission field a17 long months of struggling alone in Korea following his wedding. He is so happy to be reunited. But he is facing many challenges. He is basically starting over with nothing. It will not be easy for him to make ends meet in this mission field and also preach the gospel to proud American students. What vision can give him strength? The vision of M. Faith Kim’s face? Maybe, for a while. But the only thing that can give him true and lasting spiritual strength is the vision of almighty, holy God ruling over everything.

To be God’s servants with a right spirit in this world, what we must see first is not all the problems in this world―we’ll be too burdened. To be God’s servants, what we must see first is holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. May God bless you in the year 2010 to see God, high and exalted, and the whole earth as made to reveal his glory.

Third, “Whom shall I send?” (5-8). What did Isaiah think when he saw God’s glory? Look at verse 5. “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.’” When Isaiah experienced the thermo-nuclear holiness of God, he looked at himself and found a great sinner. Sinful people cannot be together with the holy God. When we see the glory of God, actually we have to die. This fact is shown in many places in the Bible.

When Isaiah saw the glory of God in his temple, he also saw his own specific sin problem very clearly. What was it? He said, “I am a man of unclean lips.” What does it mean to be a man of unclean lips? Does it mean that Isaiah said a lot of dirty words? Well, maybe, but it also goes much deeper than that. Jesus said, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Mt 12:34) People have unclean lips when they have an unclean heart, that is, when they have no vision of God in their hearts. When people have no vision of God’s holiness and sovereignty in their hearts, how do they speak? They speak man-centered words, that is, words of complaining, blaming, benefit-seeking, anger, cynicism, and depression. We are meant to build each other up by speaking words of truth, faith, hope and vision. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” But with no vision of God in our own hearts, it is impossible to speak words that honor God. We have to pray about our deep “unclean lips” problem.

When Isaiah saw God’s holiness, he not only recognized his own sin; he also recognized the sin of his people, which he was a participant in. he said, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah saw that this particular strain of sin-sickness had infected the whole society of Israel in his time. For all the evil that we saw was taking place in Isaiah’s time, the main thing Isaiah said was “I live among a people of unclean lips.” Today, college professors speak so well in order to explain everything as if there is not God, planting the materialistic and relativistic world view in young people. They sound so knowledgeable and sophisticated. But to God, their lips are so filthy. Their influence spreads out to the whole society to turn a nation away from God. I believe God is very angry when young people only hear words that take away their vision and drain away their holy desire. young students cannot hear the living words of God, they will only become more hopeless and desperate and the society can only grow more and more corrupted. We have to pray earnestly to be different so we can be a godly influence among a people of unclean lips.

So what happened to Isaiah? Was he ruined, as he thought he would be when he saw God on the throne? Amazingly, he was not. Look at verses 6 and 7. gone of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, eSee, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.fh What good news for Isaiah! This reveals that the holy God is also a God of mercy, who will take away his peoplefs guilt and make them holy people so they can be a holy nation for him. The burning coal touched Isaiah exactly where his problem was\on his mouth. I guess it was very painful. The fire of the burning coal represents the word of God, which God uses to make his people holy. In John 15, Jesus told his disciples that they were clean because of the word he had spoken to him. Godfs word is like a cleansing fire for our souls.

God was too willing to forgive all Isaiah’s sins and cleanse Isaiah’s lips so he could be used to speak the words of God. Praise God that he will do the same for us! we hear the word of God as the word of God, God will take away all our sins by the blood of Jesus. He will set us free from our sense of guilt that makes our lips so critical and self-righteous. God can do his mighty work when even one person is healed and purified like this. He really wants to use us among a people of unclean lips. Let’s pray that we may have holy lips that can teach the word of God to this generation.

After the Lord cleansed Isaiah’s sin, he revealed the purpose for which he revealed himself to Isaiah. Let’s read verse 8. “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” Despite all the wickedness and corruption among God’s people, God was full of desire to send someone to give his people the word of God. To God the real problem of the people of Israel was that they were like sheep without shepherds. So God was looking for someone to go for him.

Was there anyone who was willing to go? When Isaiah heard the Lord’s invitation, he did not look around in the throne room to see if anyone else would volunteer first. He immediately volunteered himself. “Here am I. Send me!” Why was Isaiah so willing? It’s because he had a clear vision of Almighty God, and the grace of forgiveness of sins welling up in his heart. Once he was set freed from his sin, he could see God’s heart for his people and be willing to go. In the same way, by the grace of God, we can also become willing to go for Jesus Christ in our generation. Even though we are not willing, when the holiness and grace of God enters are heart, we become willing to go for the Lord.

Some of you know that God did something really great in my life through this verse. In the summer of 2002, God’s calling rang out: “Who will go from New Jersey UBF to the CIS International Bible Conference in Moscow?” I said, “Not me!” I was not willing to go. Do you know why I didn’t want to go to Russia? It was because I was lonely. I wanted to go on the journey to Boston with the New Jersey second gens, who were my best friends in the world. To me, going to Russia for the conference sounded like an appointment to go shake hands and smile at a bunch of strangers I couldn’t communicate with. I thought it would be a very lonely trip. This is exactly how I complained to Missionary John Park. M. John didn’t bother me about it, because he thought I couldn’t afford the plane ticket. But at the New Jersey summer Bible conference, we heard a message preached from this passage. When the messenger read the words, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Missionary John Park, who was sitting in front of me, turned around and looked me straight in the eye. He said, “Whom shall we send to the Russian conference?” I was cut to the heart. I said, “Here am I. Send me.”

Do you know what happened to me at the 2002 CIS Bible Conference? When I went as an act of obedience to God’s word, I found that God had prepared my most suitable helper to solve my loneliness problem―M. Anastasia from Kiev UBF! That journey was when I met and became engaged to M. Anastasia by faith, according to the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit. Nobody knew beforehand that this would happen. When it happened, I was totally overwhelmed by God’s grace. It wasn’t just because I was happy to get married. It was seeing how God wanted to work in my life to make me part of something bigger than I imagined. It gave me great hope in giving my life to campus mission. , when M. Anastasia says, “Who will go to the store to buy some milk and juice?” I remember God’s grace and I always say, “Here am I. Send me!” Well, most of the time.

Godfs desire has not changed from Isaiahfs time. He is still asking, gWho will go to the Rutgers campus for us?h Young people were meant to reach their true potential through offeringtheir whole lives to God, saying from the bottom of their hearts, gHere am I. Send me!h God wants to use people his world salvation work through his calling. Do you hear God asking you today, gWhom shall I send?h May God even raise the next million American missionaries one-by-one when students answer the calling of his word.

Fourth, Isaiah’s mission (9-13). Now it was time for Isaiah to receive his marching orders―where he would go and what he would say. Look at verses 9-10. “said, ‘Go and tell this people: “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, with their hearts, turn and be healed.”’”

God did not promise Isaiah outward success and people’s approval as his reward for speaking God’s words. In fact, it sounds like God sent Isaiah to preach purposely in order to harden people’s hearts. What a strange strategy! Sometimes we experience that our ministry also has this effect. Isaiah asked, “For how long, O Lord?” Sometimes we also wonder how long we will have to stand against the whole world. But this is the persistence that God wants to teach his servants. The Lord answered, “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” (11-12) God’s prophets need soldier spirit to overcome many obstacles, to not be deterred by outward circumstances, and preach the gospel until the end of the world.

Now look at verse 13. پgAnd though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.پh (11-13) God said that through Isaiahپfs faithfulness he would prepare and raise up the remnant of Godپfs people, even through many acts of judgment. This is the unsearchable wisdom of God to  make a holy and refined people for his glory. Romans 11:5 says, پgSo too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.پh We should make it our ambition to be found one of Godپfs remnant in this generation and to be Godپfs instrument of calling out his remnant from among college students. This is how he has promised to use us. To me, these verses describe the gloryof campus mission and the of being a one-to-one Bible teacher in the best way. Who can accept it? We donپft preach the word because it will make us popular or bring us outward success. We preach the word because it is Godپfs calling and best blessing for us. Godپfs mission calling is the means by which we may have a personal relationship with Jesus and live close to Godپfs heart.

In today’s passage we saw the beginning of Isaiah’s life of mission. The power source for Isaiah’s service to God was his vision of holy God on his throne, reigning over the whole world. This was the spiritual secret hidden in Isaiah’s heart. I pray that each of us may have such a secret in our hearts in order to do God’s work in our life. Let’s have God’s holiness and sovereignty in our heart and obey God’s calling willingly and thankfully in 2010.