If you would turn with me in your copies of God's word to Isaiah's prophecy, Isaiah chapter six. That's Isaiah chapter six and commensurate reading there at the first verse. the word of the living God. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and a house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. "'because I am a man of unclean lips, "'and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, "'for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth and said, "'Lo, this hath touched thy lips, "'and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. And he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, "'until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, "'and the houses without man, "'and the land be utterly desolate, "'and the Lord have removed men far away, "'and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. "'Yet in it shall be a temph, "'and it shall return and shall be eaten, "'as a teal tree and as an oak, "'whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves. "'So the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.'" The Word of our God. May He bless us and be under it this evening. The text in front of us this evening, of course, is a very familiar text. But friend, it's important, as we've said all along, to remember that it doesn't stand alone. This text is not isolated from what has gone before. You and I have heard that the Lord of the vineyard is coming. And he is coming according to chapter five, that he will take away the hedge of his vineyard. He will take down the wall. He will lay it waste and there will be briars and thorns that come and that choke it. He's already promised that he will come in judgment. And so friend in this sixth chapter, what you and I see is the heavenly courtroom where the Lord God is there ready to send the emissaries of his wrath to work his vengeance against the vineyard. This is a courtroom scene. We can't miss that. The one who sits enthroned, the Lord of hosts, is there described as wearing a train. He has a robe, and that robe, friend, is that both of sovereignty and of justice. And so he stands in the text as judge, and on either side of him and all around the throne are those ones, the seraphims, these ones are the burning ones. These are those who are the agents of his wrath. And as we saw in the fifth verse, there stands in the middle of this courtroom, before this judge and around these, the Lord's executors, there stands a criminal, a self-confessed criminal who cries unclean, unclean, undone. It's a staggering scene. And friend, it's staggering because in this text, what you and I notice is that, well, but here the expectation would naturally be that judgment would be executed. If you were to go to a human court and you were to hear the criminal confess to his crime, what comes next with the sentence and its execution. I know that we know the end of this text. But friend, the fact that the end is so contrary to what we might expect should surprise us as much as it should thrill us. Because what we find is here as Isaiah proclaims himself unclean and the people from whom he is drawn unclean. In that moment, the seraphim comes with a live coal taken with tongs from the altar. And as he presses that coal upon the lips of the prophet, he says, my iniquities are taken away and my sin purged. Friend, it's a wonderful text. And then what you notice friend, as well, a staggering change. It's found in the prophet himself. He, you remember, as he stood in this courtroom, as he heard the Seraphic praise of God, he, as it were, interjects to make his confession, to declare that he himself is unworthy to be in the presence of the Lord. But now, friend, you note, having that declaration that his iniquities are taken away, that his sin is purged, he no longer is the man mute in the praises of God, but now a man most willing to be commissioned by the Lord for his service. It's a staggering reversal, as much as it is a surprising intervention. As we look at these verses, verses six to eight, friend, you and I have there an emblem of one who has received grace and who's duly changed by it. What you have in the prophet in this text is really an example of how Israel and Judah ought to have responded when she was told that if she would just return to the Lord, he would save. But not only, friend, do you and I have an example for Israel and for Judah, but you and I have a picture here of any, in any age, who receive grace from the Lord, to whom the declaration is given, thy sins are taken away and purged. Isaiah stands, friend, as an emblem, what it means to receive the grace of God and to be duly changed by it. If we take Isaiah, so in this text, then friend, the theme that comes to us foremost certainly must be that grace equips and it heartens sinners for God's service. Grace equips and it heartens sinners for God's service. I want you to notice friend, how this text begins. As you look at verses six and seven, You're taken to the drama of the altar. But I want you to pay careful attention to the language of the declaration. An iniquity is taken away by sin purged. And here, friend, you have a clear answer to what the prophet himself has said in verse five. In verse five, he describes himself unclean. And so, friend, he describes himself as one who is undone. as he stands in the presence of the Lord of hosts. But in this declaration, all of that is answered. Because in friend, the fact that his iniquities are removed and purged, therein his uncleanness is dealt with. Therein you find a man who has his guilt removed. And so rather than being undone, he's purged. Now that word purged is an important word. And it's a word that occurs in the scriptures quite often. But most of the time in our authorized translations, the word in our text appears as atone or even to make atonement. In fact, 74 times in our authorized version, this word is translated to atone or to make atonement. The words purged and the idea behind being taken away, it occurs only outside of this text in two other places. Atonement and the taking away of something occurs only outside of Isaiah 6 in the fourth chapter of Leviticus. Allow me just to read to you what we find there. You remember these are instructions for sacrifice. And the scriptures say that the priest shall take away all the fat thereof. as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings, and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him." What you notice, friend, is that in just the very language that's used, you and I are taken to the idea of atonement. But even more than that, friend, the very scene in front of us is of atonement. Make no mistake, you and I are taken not, friend, for any other reason than to see that when we look at the altar. There, the seraphim, you remember, goes to the altar to pull that coal. Beloved, you and I see here atonement. That is the principle theme in these verses. Like the fact of the sacrifice, the prophet's sins have been removed. Atonement has been made. And friend, what is atonement? What does it mean in this sense, in the scriptural sense? The word atonement is from the word for covering. The idea, friend, is that atonement is propitiation. It covers, it averts from the wrath of God. And what we're told here in this text is that the prophet, his sins have been atoned for. He has a covering now, so that indeed he is not undone. Friend, it's important for us to remember that what we've seen thus far is a declaration from the prophet that he is undone. We've said before the idea that behind that is to be destroyed. And we recognize that he's not saying there that he is presently destroyed. He's saying that that is what should happen to him. As he thinks of God dealing with him again, according to the rigor of the law. As he thinks of God dealing with him personally, according to his own merit. He says, I ought to be one who is destroyed. I want you to notice, friend, that as you read this text, you don't find any contest, anyone contradicting what the prophet here has declared. Isaiah himself doesn't deny this fact. Neither is there protest from the throne or from the seraphim. It's important, friend, that you and I recognize this. Because what the prophet recognizes here is that he indeed deserved to be undone. If the Lord should deal with him according to his own merit, it would be right that he would be destroyed. Just for a moment, friend, I think it's right for us to pull ourselves back from the text and ask, do you know something of that? I don't want to ask, do you know, friend, in a cognitive sense, I'm asking, do you know really, and even experimentally, that this is true of you as well? The scriptures hold out that none, none can stand before the Lord. As we sang in Psalm 130 this morning, none can stand before the Lord in their own merit. If the law in its fullness and in its force is applied personally to you and to me, all of us with the prophet must cry, undone, because unclean, unclean. I know that we know this friend, but do you know it from the heart? Do you really know that this is true of you this morning, this evening rather? The prophet did. And friend, that made the intervention of God's grace in this text all the more staggering. Knowing that he ought to be undone. Friend, atonement in this text becomes all the more glorious. Atonement has been made, but it's so very important that we catch how it has been made. The prophet has just said that he deserves to be undone himself. But friend, what happens at the altar? What happens at the altar in the Old Testament? Friend, the idea behind the sacrifice was that atonement would come. A covering from the wrath of God would come in the undoing of another. Beloved, you and I can't leave this text without recognizing that when the Lord says through the seraphim, thy sins are atoned for, indubitably friend, the prophet would think just as the scriptures from the Old Testament all the way from Genesis three and following show, the atonement comes as another is undone. in the place of the one who receives grace. And so friend, go back to that scene just for a moment. He stands there in the courtroom and he confesses that he deserves to be undone. And the Lord says to him through the seraphim, atonement has been made. meaning that another was consumed on the altar for you. Beloved, that altar only ever pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. And so friend, when you and I see that atonement has been made, that we might stand before the living God, we need to remember what that means. It means that we were worthily under the sentence of death, but that that sentence came upon another. As I shared with me recently, Robert Murray McShane put this quite well. When the Lord Jesus was pouring out his souls and offering for sin, when he cried at Golgotha, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The believer should respond by saying, for me, for me thou art forsaken. You have a covering, you have an atonement because another was undone for you. There is the covering. But as you look at the eighth verse, you notice that that after the prophet has this declaration, the Lord asks a question. A question comes from the throne and it is, whom shall I send and who will go for us? I want you to notice, friend, that those two clauses there are important. Most exegetes really through the running centuries see here something of an allusion to the Trinity. You find the singular pronoun in the first clause, the plural in the second. And so in a sense, friend, you and I come and we see the triune God revealing in this question, his eternal counsel. And in this case, what is revealed is that the Lord would commission one to go for him. Our triune God would commission one to be for him. Who will we delegate to act for us? That's the question. Friend, I want you to notice how staggering the question is though. First of all, we need to recognize that it is a commission. That is exactly the idea. There is one who will be delegated to act for the Lord. But note friend, how broad the commission. It is just who will act for us. He doesn't stipulate what particularly is involved. He doesn't give here the remit. And friend, the sense of that is, who will do that which we command and all that we command? Who will act for us completely and in all that we enjoin upon them? Then I want you to notice this, the exclusivity of the commission. Who will act for us? Friend, there is an emphasis there that you and I could easily miss. The emphasis is who will be servant to us and us only. Not taking another master, but who will be our servant exclusively. It is a complete commission and it is a commission that is exclusive. What you see here, friend, is that the Lord is really setting before us the terms of service. The terms of His service, and that is that He demands that those who indeed would stand for Him, who would go for Him, would be entirely for Him. Who would endeavor universal obedience, and who would allow themselves no other master. When you look at the commission of verse eight in that light, friend, you recognize that it is a staggering commission. But it's not a commission unique to Isaiah. Yes, in its circumstances, certainly Isaiah had a vocation that was unique that you and I do not have. But in its substance, beloved, the Lord Jesus says that this is precisely the same commission for all of those who are his disciples. No man can serve two masters, says the Lord. And if any would serve him, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And moreover, friend, the Lord Jesus says that no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. There, the idea being that they will endeavor universal obedience. And so friend, as you look at this eighth verse, you recognize that in its substance, this is a call to discipleship. In its substance, this is simply service to God. But friend, note how comprehensive it is. The idea is you will be the Lord's and his only. The idea is that you will endeavor universal obedience to all of his commands. When you look at this text, friend, and you look at the force behind the question, you recognize that there are so very few who indeed serve God. We live in a land at the minute, friend, where many would say that they serve the Lord. When you contemplate how the Lord finds service to him, that it is a real resolution to endeavor obedience to Him and to be only the Lord's. Beloved, how few really serve God. The Lord Jesus, He calls us to come, to make Him our only master, to stand for Him and to act for Him alone. Therein is the commission. But I want us to close, friend, by looking at the prophet's reply. It's there in the end of that eighth verse where the prophet says, here am I, send me. I want you to notice first of all, that it's peremptory. There is no sense of delay between the first line and the last line of the eighth verse. And so again, as we said at the beginning, that there is something of a reversal in the prophet that's staggering. Before he said he was unworthy, even to engage in the praise of God, he must first confess his unworthiness, his uncleanness. But now friend, he speedily replies to a commission that will require all of him. A commission that is simply to be the Lord's and to do as God commands. I know that we know the end of this text, but don't forget friend that it's not until the ninth verse does Isaiah learn what the commission is. All that the Lord has said is who will act for us. All that he said is who will be for us. The prophet at this point doesn't know what specifically will be commanded of him. But note how ready and willing he is to be in the Lord's service. His remit's not given to him yet, but he's willing to go. And beloved, note how unconditional this is as well. The prophet doesn't lay conditions before the Lord. I will go only if it is such a command. only if it pertains to a certain part of my life, only if it requires a certain amount of time. He doesn't say any of that. He simply says, here am I. Literally, look at me, send me. Friend, what you and I see in this text then is a man who is not giving himself to a vocation. He's a man who's simply willing to give himself. As we look at this text, what you and I see here indubitably is that the grace of God here has induced him to be God's, to be for God, to act, to serve. This is given to us all throughout the scriptures. The apostle summarizes in a sense, this disposition and believers in Romans 14. He says of the church, he says, none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live under the Lord, or whether we die, we die under the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or we die, we are the Lord. He's not talking about possession. He's talking about intention. He's saying there that the believer, he intends, whether in life or in death, to be for the Lord. to indeed be for the Lord, just as the commission of verse eight has stipulated. To act for Him, to have no other master, but to be simply the Lord's. But how do you get there? How does the prophet get there in our text? Well, friend, he's not enabled to it until the words. are pronounced, thine iniquities are taken away, and thy sin purged. And we can go a step further, can't we? The scriptures show clearly that the soul that knows is sensible of the grace that has received. That soul is constrained graciously to obedience. The apostle says this of himself, it's the love of Christ that constraineth us, he says. And so friend, you find here a man having received such grace from God, that he is pleased to be himself, as it were a living sacrifice, to give himself to God's service, whatever that might be. My friend, as we close and we seek to apply this text to ourselves tonight, I want you to notice that your command and mine this evening from the text is indeed to comply with the summons to discipleship as we find it in the eighth verse. Are you willing friend to be only the Lord's? We've just left a communion season. in which we have solemnly renewed our vows to be His and His only. And so it's right for us to ask that question now. Are we willing not to be masters of self, but really to be servant to the Lord? Do we endeavor, friend, obedience to Him, really? Those are crucial questions. And you might say to me, and I suppose when we leave a text like this, it's often thought that preaching of this stripe is to encourage you to go to the Congo, to serve in Indonesia, to go to South America, perhaps. But friend, that's not at all. First of all, it'd be wonderful, yes, if the Lord indeed was calling you to that work, but it's far more basic. It's far more fundamental than that. The text is not asking of you to do great things, it's simply asking you to do all that God commands you. Beloved, including giving yourself more to prayer, including speaking to the things of God, of the things of God to your coworker, that person whose house you called in yesterday, your fellow student. That too is part of this commission. And furthermore, you and I will be able to evaluate how much we are indeed committed to be the Lord's by what we do tomorrow morning. Will you endeavor indeed to be His? But if you leave the text this evening, thinking that this is a command just to resolve to be better, Then friend, you've missed the point, not by an inch, but by a mile. That's not the point at all. Note, friend, why Isaiah commits himself to such a work. Why the apostle is willing to give himself over to all kinds of tribulation in the service to Christ. For the grace that he has received. He says he is no longer his own. For the love that he knows, he says it's the love of Christ that constrains him. And when the prophet is given such a wide commission, you notice he runs speedily to obey after receiving the declaration that another has been destroyed so that he might have a covering on the wrath of God. Friend, how you and I will become more and more from the heart of the servants of God is by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. It won't be by bare and naked resolution. It will be as we are more and more sensible of the infinite debt you and I owe to free grace. Your resolutions will ultimately be only willfulness. If friend, Your work is not out of thanksgiving and out of an acknowledgement that you are indeed indebted to free grace. And so as we close, beloved here, you and I do indeed have a picture of what it is to receive the grace of God and what that grace works in the hearts of those who are its recipients. And so beloved, as we close our time this evening, I suppose that is the question. Do you know, and how sensible are you, friend of what you owe to free grace? The more that you and I know that, the more you and I are going to be willing and from the heart to be the Lord's. May the Lord then fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ and make us indeed servants from the heart for him. Amen.