Alright, Isaiah chapter 6, I'll read the entire chapter. 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, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one 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 the burning coal that he had taken with tongues 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? And then I said, Here I am. Send me. Up until this point, it'd be the fine text for a missionary sermon, but it's not where it ends. 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. And then I said, how long, oh 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. five points to the sermon this morning this introduction to uh... the prophets first of all the purpose secondly the persons of the prophets themselves the periods that is the time periods in which they prophesied thirdly the proclamations that they brought to the people from god and fourthly some concluding points of application so the purpose the persons the periods the proclamations and the points of application First of all, the purpose. We're in the midst of this series, as I said, and the purpose of this series is so that you might know the Word of God and the God of the Word better. I mentioned at the outset, and I want to remind you, that it's been my pastoral experience, not only throughout my almost 30 years in pastoring, but in the life of this congregation as well, as people have come to this congregation throughout her life, that I have found it surprising, if not shocking, how many people have not read the entire Bible from cover to cover. And in an attempt to address that omission in people's lives, I undertook this series to go through every book of the Bible from somewhat of a bird's eye view, in order that you might know the Word of God and the God of this Word better. And hopefully with that passing bird's eye view familiarity you might be encouraged, you might be motivated, you might be provoked to dig in deeper and to actually read the Bible on your own. And of course the elders will follow up on this as we have been doing in house visitation. However, having said that purpose of this series, I want to spend time here on these unique persons in the Bible. Persons referred to by God as my servants, the prophets. So that brings me to the persons then. What are the prophets and who were they? Well, if you look at verse eight and nine, we see a little bit. The prophets were men, all right, called by God and sent from the presence of God to proclaim the word of God. All right, let's read verses 8 and 9, then I'll repeat that. Isaiah, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Another reference to plurality there. Then I said, here I am, here am I, send me. And he said, go and say to this people. So the prophets were men, called by God, like Isaiah here, and sent from the presence of God to proclaim the Word of God to the people. They were men, first of all. Yes, there were prophetesses in the Old Testament, but they were not writing prophets, all right? Only men were writing prophets, all right? And these prophets were different from prophets that we find when we get to the New Testament. And what those differences are, I will deal with when we get to them at that particular point some 3-4 months on. So the prophets were men called by God, sent from the presence of God to proclaim the Word of God. We have gone through 22 books of the Old Testament thus far. And of course, there are 39. And if you can do your basic arithmetic, that means that we have 17 books left to go. There were 16 prophets. Jeremiah wrote Lamentations in addition to his prophecy. So we have 16 prophets and 17 books, all right? That will get us through the 39 books of the Old Testament. Those sixteen prophets, those seventeen books, are broken down into two major categories, or two big categories. That is, the major prophets and the minor prophets. You should know that this does not mean that the major prophets are more important than the minor prophets, as if they were less important. It's a reference to the size of the book, all right? So Isaiah is a major prophet because it is a large book, as is Jeremiah and Lamentations and Ezekiel, all right? And then we have, and Daniel, and then the minor prophets. There are 12 minor prophets, all right? So we have major prophets, minor prophets. They're called by God, sent from the presence of God to proclaim the word of God to the people. What about the periods in which they wrote? Remember that the Bible is 66 books, over 40 different authors, written over a period of hundreds of years. This was not a book that dropped from heaven. It is unique in the annals of religion in that regard. In that, it is a historical book, and it records for us history. The history of God's dealing with a particular people, the people of Israel, and then later, the church. But as a historical book, it's important that we recognize that these men, these prophets, wrote at particular periods of time in history. And they wrote at particular periods of time in history for a reason, all right? There were three particular periods of time. Look at verse 1 in our passage. in the year that King Uzziah died. This was the eighth century before Christ. This is what's known as the pre-exilic period. You'll recall, if you're a good student of the Bible, that Israel for their sins was sent into exile. The majority of the prophets write to Israel in the north and Judah in the south before they go into exile. Very important that we recognize that, all right? God didn't just wake up one morning and lower the boom on his people and throw them into exile. God repeatedly, over the course of decades and generations, sent prophets to Israel and to Judah and proclaimed his word to them and spoke to them, revealing his will to them in order to avoid the exile, calling them to repent. More on that momentarily, all right? So Isaiah is writing in the 8th century. He is a pre-exilic prophet. Prophets are sent to the north, northern tribes of Israel, warning them that if they do not repent, they will be overtaken by Assyria, a foreign invader. And then the other prophets are sent to Judah, the southern tribes, warning them that if they don't repent, they'll be overtaken by Babylon. And there are two exiles. The northern tribes are taken into exile by Assyria, and they're never heard from again. uh... very interesting and then judah is taken into exile in babylon while they're in exile we have two prophets ezekiel and daniel that are sent by god to prophesy or to speak to the people of god while they are in exile ezekiel and daniel and then after the exile we have three prophets haggai, zachariah and that italian prophet malachi i think he was from uh... sicily and uh... They come and they speak to Israel after the exile. So you have pre-exilic prophets, the majority of them, right? You have two prophets who speak to the people while they are in exile and three who speak to the prophets after they come out of exile and return to the promised land. There are four different audiences for the prophets you would say hold on a minute you just said israel and judah that's one people north and south well yes there's israel hosea and amos preach prophesy to uh... israel the northern tribes the rest preach to the southern tribes in judah but jonah and nahum two of the minor prophets the smaller books preached to Assyria, the nation of Assyria. Very interesting, all right? God's word is not confined to the nation of Israel. And then Obadiah preaches to the nation of Edom. And if you're a very good Bible student, not just a good one, but a very good student, you would recognize that the Edomites are the cousins of Esau. So they're related to Israel, all right? So we have four different populations or people groups to whom prophets are sent. Israel, Hosea and Amos, the rest of them to Judah, except for Jonah and Nahum are sent to Assyria, and Obadiah is sent to Edom. We'll look more at what their messages are to those populations when we get to them individually. So we have the prophets, we have the periods of time in which they spoke, and their proclamations there are four major themes in the prophets that we're going to see as we go through them first of all look at verse five uh... in our text the first theme which we see in the prophets is that they exposed the sinfulness of the people to whom they went verse five Isaiah's response at this vision of the Lord, Woe is me, for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. The prophet is sent from the presence of God to proclaim the word of God to the people of God. First of all, to expose their sinfulness. Prophets are prosecuting attorneys for God's covenant. We'll look at this again under our point of application when we see our theme of covenant. But consider that the prophets were the prosecuting attorneys for God's covenant. They were students of the law of God, which was the covenant of God with his people, and go to the people of God, calling them back, calling them to repent, exposing their sinfulness, how they had strayed from the demands and the responsibilities of God's covenant, how they had wandered away from the Lord and from his requirements, from his precepts, and from his laws. In order to do that, they exposed their sinfulness. And second major theme is calling them to repent. Calling them to turn from their sins and to once again return to the Lord and to trust in Him. Very important that you understand this theme of repentance. Why? Because over and over in the course of my pastoral ministry, when I ask people, what is repentance? People tell me it means to be sorry for your sins. Well, gag me with the spoon. That's not what it means. All right? It's certainly to be sorry for offending God with your sin. But repentance is much more than just sorrow. It's much more than just this subjective sentiment or feeling. Repentance is actually turning. Repentance is you're going this way, away from the Lord, disregarding the Lord, disobeying the Lord. And repentance is turning back and returning to the Lord, walking in the ways of the Lord, and following the Lord. according to every word that proceeds from his mouth. That's repentance, all right? And the prophets are calling the people to turn, to turn from their sin, to turn from their wayward ways, and to return to the Lord, to turn back to Him. Third major theme is that if they fail to do that, they are warned of coming judgment. Look at our text, verse 11. 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 then a reference to the exile. 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 turban or an oak. whose stump remains when it is felled. God not only exposes the sinfulness of his people and calls them to repent, but warns them what's going to happen if they fail to do that. That there will be consequences to pay. That there will be something that will happen that will be dreadful. fearful and something which was intended to turn them, to dissuade them, to discourage them from the path that they had set themselves on. That they would be judged for their disobedience. And if you'll recall, This is preeminently covenantal. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 and Leviticus chapter 26, when God establishes a covenant with His people and proclaims His law to them and calls them to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to live by every word that proceeds from His mouth, He says there will be blessings for you if you do this. If you love Me, and if you follow Me, and if you are faithful to Me, and if you walk in My ways, then blessings will come upon you. And the blessings are enumerated, one verse after another. But God says, if you turn away from Me, if you forsake Me, if you follow other gods, if you commit these sins, if you disregard Me and disobey Me, know that these judgments and curses will come upon you. And verse after verse are listed the curses of the covenant that will come if the people do that. And it was the prophets job then to expose the sinfulness of the people to call them to repentance and to warn them about judgment. Now listen to me. This. Was gracious. That God didn't just, as I said, wake up one morning and lower the boom. That God wasn't arbitrary. That God wasn't capricious. That God wasn't heavy-handed in dealing with His people. He warned them over and over and over again. And when we go through the prophets, you'll see His pleading with them, His beseeching them, His telling them. In Hosea, for example, Just look at Hosea 11. It's such an amazing passage. Look at Hosea 11. Hosea 11. Just a couple of verses here. I could preach on this text. I can't wait to get to the book of Hosea. Verse 5, they shall not return to the land of Egypt. Assyria shall be their king because they refuse to return to me. They refuse to repent. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, devour them because of their counsels. My people are bent on turning away from me. And though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all. And then look at God in verse 8. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I do this? God comes and he tells them, there's judgment coming. You're going to be in trouble big time. You are not going to like what's going to happen. And it's as if God just turns on a dime and says, how can I give you up? How can I hand you over? How can I make you like Alma? How can I treat you like Zebaim? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. What's he doing? In his warning, he's being gracious. He's beseeching them. He's pleading with them. Don't do this. My heart within me recoils at the thought of this. But as a just and holy God, he must. He is a God who is faithful to his covenant. And then the fourth theme we find in the prophets. He exposed their sinfulness. He calls them to repentance. He warns them of coming judgment. But fourthly, verse 13, we see there's always a message of hope. There's always a message of hope. And it's the hope of a Messiah, a hope of the coming King of love, a hope of a Savior, a Savior of the people who will save them from their sins and the consequences of the sins. and a Messiah who will usher in and inaugurate his kingdom. And we see that at the end of verse 13, the holy seed is its stump. that holy seed, that seed of the woman from Genesis chapter 3, that seed which we have followed throughout the 22 books of the Bible thus far, that seed which was the seed of the woman, the seed of the promised Messiah, the seed of the man would be the Savior of the world, the seed which would be God Himself come to rescue His people from the consequences of their sins, the holy seed is its stump. And there's always that message of hope, that God is a just and holy God, is a faithful God, must and will judge his people. There is yet hope in the future for them because he's going to send his son. He's going to send a savior. He's going to inaugurate his kingdom and his kingdom will be established. It will rule over all and it will never end. And of course, that's what we see in the coming of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. An interesting aside here. It's a unique perspective of Christianity in the Bible that history is linear. It's not cyclical. Last night we were watching some slides my daughter brought back from Thailand. And somebody asked the question, what's the religion in Thailand? The predominant religion in Thailand is Buddhism. History for Buddhism is cyclical, as it is in Hinduism. And if you're not familiar with the history of world religions, think Lion King, the circle of life. that cyclical view of history. We see in the Bible, though, that the Bible's perspective on history is linear. It's going somewhere. It's going towards a goal and it's going towards a glorious future. It's going towards a glorious kingdom that the Son of God will inaugurate and upon his return bring to final conclusion and consummation a heaven and earth wherein righteousness dwells. It's goal-oriented. So what is the proclamation? What are the proclamations of the prophets? The sin of man and the grace of God. The sin of man and the grace of God. The prophets come to comfort the afflicted, but they come to afflict the comfortable. Which brings us, finally, to some points of application. As we launch into these prophets, We want to once again return to our recurring themes of Christ, Covenant, and Mission. Let's look at those first of all. The prophets proclaim the coming Christ, the coming Messiah, the coming Son of God, the coming Savior, who will inaugurate His kingdom. Look in Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 53, for example, a passage I trust is familiar to most of you, where Isaiah tells us of the one who is to come. We'll just look at a couple of verses. Verse 5, But he, this person, this coming, promised, prophesied one, he was wounded for our transgressions. All right? He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. We see here that the person spoken of, the promised and prophesied Messiah, will be the one who is a substitute He is going to be a sin-bearer. He will take our transgressions, our iniquities. And with His stripes, He will be punished in our place. And He will take our sins. Verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. The Lord has laid on Him, the promised and prophesied Messiah, the iniquity of us all. God is going to do something in this person, in this Jesus. He's going to count him as sin. He's going to take the sins of his people and give them to his son. And his son will be punished for their sins in their place. Look at verse eight. by oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people he is punished for our sins and then verses eleven and twelve he shall bear their iniquities and verse twelve he was numbered with the transgressors Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Over and over again through these 17 books we will see various promises and prophecies of the one who is to come. who is to be the Messiah of Israel, who is to be the coming King of love, who is to be the Savior of his people, who is going to go to the cross and bear the punishment for their sins. And he who knew no sin was made sin in order that they might be the righteousness of God. It's very interesting, just an aside here. Again, I mentioned in the previous sermon about Psalm 110 is very instrumental in witnessing to unbelieving Jewish people. So also is Isaiah chapter 53. It's unmistakable that it's talking about a person, and yet many Jewish people think it's talking about the nation, all right? But it's personal pronouns that are referenced here. It's speaking of a person. So clear in a description of Jesus is it, that often this is not even read in Jewish synagogues today. Years ago, when I attended a messianic congregation in Brooklyn, we made up, for evangelistic purposes in the Jewish community, wanted posters. Kind of like you'd see in a western movie. And at the top it was in big bold letters, wanted. The person described below. And then we had Isaiah 53 printed. And at the bottom we had reward. It was a mansion in glory. And when we distributed these, we were actually attacked. attacked by members of the Jewish community because they recognized in the description that we were saying this was Jesus. So incensed were they at that. So if you want to witness to an unbelieving Jewish person, Psalm 110, Isaiah 53, because of course all the prophecies and all the promises are yes and amen fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but some are much more explicit than others as this one is. Covenant. I've already mentioned to you. that the prophets are the prosecuting attorneys for God's covenant. There are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience in the covenant. And as we go through the prophets, we will see over and over again that that's what's being referenced by them. You need to understand this, that they're not just arbitrarily quoting passages, but they're actually making references back to the law. over and over again. And then of course, missions. Turn to Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2. The prophets, as they proclaim the hope of a glorious kingdom to come and of a savior to come, They proclaim that that is the day of salvation, when all the nations will come, not just Israel, but all the goyim, all the nations. And we see such a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 2, verse 2. and it shall come to pass in the latter days uh... and by the way we've been in the latter days since pentecost if you look in acts chapter two when this holy spirit is poured out on the day of pentecost and everybody thinks the apostles are drunk uh... they say no this is what was prophesied by the prophet joel in the last days god will pour forth his spirit So we're told that on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is poured out, that's the inauguration or the initiation of the latter days, all right? So we've been in the last days since Pentecost. And what are we told about that? Well, it shall, back to Isaiah 2, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills. And all the nation shall flow to it. And many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn any war anymore." This is what would happen in the latter days. And of course, as Christ commissions his church to go and make disciples of all nations, that's exactly what we've seen. And the evidence of that is not just take Murphy at his word, but the evidence is look around you. There are 18 nationalities represented in this congregation. All the nations have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and are belonging to him. So we see Christ, covenant, and mission. Some further points of application as we conclude this morning and begin this section of our series on the prophets. The prophets, as we'll have occasion to see, were responsible to proclaim God's word particularly to kings and rulers and those in authorities. There was to be a prophetic voice preached to power, as the saying goes, speaking to power. And we see this in the Kings. This is very important for church-state relations, all right? A few of the young men in our congregation were having a political discussion before our first service this morning about libertarianism and about politics, all right? Well, God's word, all right, was to be proclaimed to positions in authority. uh... not that the church was to rule but that the rulers were to rule according to the word of god alright and they were responsible uh... to do so many thoughts and implications just a provocative seed there secondly uh... i mentioned to you that jonah and nahum uh... were sent to preach to assyria and obadiah to edom and as we'll see in other prophets My point is that nations surrounding Israel were being held accountable to the word of God. that nations surrounding Israel were being held accountable to the word of God and the law of God. All nations were held accountable and all nations will be judged by the word of God. It's an important message there for rulers as well. Something very interesting in all of those prophets, the only example in the Old Testament of a nation that repented, anybody? Stephen? Exactly. Nineveh, if you didn't hear him. Assyria. Very interesting. Israel didn't repent. Tribes went into exile and never heard from again. And Judah was punished for their sins and the curses of the covenant come down upon them in the New Testament. But the only nation in the Old Testament that repent is Nineveh, is Assyria. Very interesting, which brings me to my last point this morning. It's a tried and true saying that if we don't learn from history, we're doomed to repeat it. And that's true with respect to the message proclaimed to the nations by the prophets. is that as we go through the messages of the prophets, all right, and as we hear them expose the sinfulness of Israel and Judah and Assyria and Edom, and as they're called to repent, and as they're warned of coming judgment, that's a message that's spoken to you and to me. And there are a number of places in the New Testament where we're actually told that, such as in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. to learn from history and to not repeat the same mistakes. So I mentioned to you that the prophets are men called by God, sent from the presence of God to proclaim the Word of God in history. But please, as we go through these 17 books, do not sit here and make this a history lesson. Do not sit here and make this a Bible study lesson, as if somehow you can be detached and you can be distant from the Word of God and just say, well, isn't that interesting? Back in the seventh century, God said this and the people did that, and whoa, wasn't that a sad state of affairs? The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and has spoken to you and has spoken to me today. if you hear the voice of God today. Be like Isaiah. Elsewhere, Isaiah says, this is the one I esteem, the man who trembles at my word. I warn you, as your pastor who loves you, Don't make the mistake of listening to these messages and making them a detached, distant, dispassionate, disinterested history or Bible study lesson. Take the word of the Lord as God speaking to you here and now today and hear and heed the voice of the Lord and tremble at his word that God might esteem you and that God might esteem me and that we might find favor and grace in his eyes. Let's pray.