We continue our reading of the prophet Isaiah coming today to Isaiah 6. We'll read the chapter. It's found on page 726 using your Pew Bible. Now you could do a pretty fair systematic theology just through the sixth chapter of Isaiah in which the prophet receives his commissioning as a prophet. You see here the doctrine of God because he's going to deceive the sovereignty of God. This event takes place in the midst of a crisis of kingship. King Uzziah has died after 52 years. Imagine a president who served for 52 years and he was one of the best you ever had. He was one of the best kings and they were blessed and they were strong. and Uzziah was dead and his son was not all that promising and Isaiah staggers as it were into the temple seeking a place to stand and God gives him a vision of the Lord as sovereign. You see there was not a crisis of kingship. The throne was always occupied by the Lord. In fact, John 12 tells us that it's the second person of the Trinity. It is Jesus that he sees, pre-incarnate in his sovereignty as God. It also shows the holiness of God. The seraphim are there and there's all these indicators of holiness. The building's shaking and there's smoke and the train of his robe fills the temple and the burning ones, that's what seraphim means. Those high angels are crying to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Now you may know that there are no exclamation points. In ancient Hebrew, you exclaim by repeating. And if you say something, if you say it twice, that's putting an exclamation point. But there is only one attribute of God that is handled that way with a triple exclamation. Holy, holy, holy. If you said what is the chief of God's attributes, you would have to say he is holy. And Isaiah sees God. But it's also a doctrine of man and of the fall, because Isaiah, who's really a top Israelite, but he sees God and he sees himself. He says, woe is me. He went in as an integrated man, a man who more or less had it together. He sees God and he is disintegrated. He realizes not only his creatureliness, but his sinfulness. But you also have the doctrine of the atonement and the redemption because an angel flies to the altar where the atoning sacrifice was made and a coal is taken off that altar. It's pressed to his lips. Your sin has been atoned for. It's looking forward to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of vocation is here. Because Isaiah shows if you really understand the sovereignty of God, you realize that all of our little agendas are nothing compared to his. And when he says, who shall serve me? You will want to say, I will. What a privilege that I can consecrate my life and pour myself out in the service of the holy sovereign God. Isaiah says, here am I. And yet you also learn the trials. of serving him in a fallen world. The actual mission he's given is one of the hardest in the whole Old Testament. God does not say you're gonna be the great preacher who leads a revival in Judah. Oh, he's a great, great preacher, but because of the nature of their sin and of God's judgment on their idolatry, Isaiah is going to be the instrument of the hardening of their hearts. Isn't that remarkable? Is there a more eloquent Old Testament writer than Isaiah? And you think of the beautiful things he writes, the pictures of Jesus. God says, I'm going to use you to harden the people. And Israel is going to be cut down. God prophesies to him the Babylonian exile and the destruction, the exile of Jerusalem, the destruction of the people. All that will be left in the end is a tree stump. But then Isaiah is going to say in future chapters, out of that stump's going to come a shoot. And this time of the year, we're celebrating the birth of Jesus. He's anticipating the need for and the provision of God for a savior. What a chapter is Isaiah chapter six. Well, let's have ears. Let's ask God for his blessing as we hear the reading of his holy, inerrant, and life-giving word, beginning at verse one. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two, He covered His face, and with two, He covered His feet, and with two, He flew. And He called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me. And he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed. Then I said, how long, O Lord? And he said, until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. The grass withers, the flowers fall, and the word of our God abides forever and ever. Amen.