Well good morning to all of you. Good to see you again. Now I will invite you now to turn with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 6. The Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 6. I’m going to read through verses 1 till 13, that is the whole chapter. Isaiah chapter 6, I’ll begin with verse 1.

Verse 1: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. And above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to 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 were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. And so I said: “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 my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; And your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell 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 shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.”

Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, and the land is utterly desolate, the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it, and will return and be for consuming, as a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.””. Now before we turn to this Word again, and let us turn to God in prayer.

“Our gracious Father in heaven, as we come before You we are mindful that You are holy and the righteous God and that we stand in Your presence, it is because of the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us. For without the Lord Jesus Christ indeed we are nothing and we will still be sinners under Your eternal damnation because of our sin. Father, therefore, we are indeed thankful for these grace of Yours that You have shown to us despite of our unworthiness. Father, we are conscious too that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Father, therefore, we look up to You and ask that You’ll be gracious to minister to us according to Your faithfulness. For all these, we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, let us turn, open up Isaiah chapter 6, the passage that I read to you just now. I’m going to approach this passage by asking three questions. Suppose you already know the title: “In Times Of Anxiety And Distress”. I’m going to as I say, I’m going to approach this passage by asking three questions. First, what happened at the time of Isaiah’s calling? And then we are going to ask the second question: What did he see in the temple? What did he see in the temple? And lastly, what did God say about his ministry? So these will be the three questions. What happened at the time of Isaiah’s calling, what did he see in the temple, what did God say about his ministry.

So let us look at the first question: What happened at the time of Isaiah’s calling? Well, I think verse 1 tells us very clearly, said: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne”. Now we can say that it was a time of great anxiety. Why? Well firstly, it says the good king, King Uzziah, died at this time. Now Uzziah was a good king. Now Scripture said: who did or he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. What a blessing to have a king like that or to have a prime minister where we can actually hear what God says that while he did what was right in the eyes of God.

Now two kings before King Uzziah, they were good kings but not thoroughly good so to say, Amaziah, for example. He did what was right but not with a loyal heart, the Scripture says. And Joash, he too was a good king but he became an apostate at the end of his life. And the king before these two was a bad king. Now most of us would know that the history of Judah was filled with good and bad kings. But what happened after Uzziah? Would they have a good king or a bad king? Now the anxiety at least for the prophet Isaiah was real. The common people may not feel the anxiety. But for the godly people like prophet Isaiah, it was a great time of anxiety because if you get a bad king or a bad prime minister, then the people suffer.

And I think we know what is it like to be under a bad government. We have gone through all that, and we are still going through. It is a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. And that’s the first reason why it was a time of great anxiety at least for the prophet Isaiah and the godly remnant. The second reason, the spiritual state of the people was very bad. And when the spiritual state of the people was bad, that means only one thing. It means the judgement of God. Turn with me to chapter 1 of Isaiah. Let me read from verse 2.

Isaiah 1:2- “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; And they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.”.

Now, these are the words of God. He pronounced or declared about the spiritual state of Israel. It was very bad. God actually said that from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness. In other words, the whole nation as it were from the head to the toe, it is filled with sin as it were. And you can see how God described their situation from verse 2 to verse 6. And to those who are spiritually discerning (and especially for the prophet), this is indeed the greater cause for anxiety because it means the judgement of God is over their head. Because when you sin against God, God is against you and nobody else can help you when you face the enemies. But if you have God with you, you don’t have to fear.

But when God is against you, you are finished. There’s nobody else can help you. So what can we say about the time of Isaiah’s calling? It was indeed a time of great anxiety and distress at least for Isaiah and for the godly who loved God. Now, what was the prophet’s comfort at a time like this? His comfort was that God was sitting on the throne. He had a vision of God, and God was sitting on the throne. God was still the one unchanged. Even though a good king had passed away and the future may seem uncertain, but God was still there. God was still in control of the whole situation. There were changes on earth, but God was still the same and still in control. And the change had come about because God brought the change.

Now we are going through this pandemic for almost two years now, and the scientists and the authorities in the world are still trying to figure out where did this virus come from. Is it from Wuhan or is it from somewhere else? Well, we don’t have to guess. We know it comes from God. God brought this about. There’s nothing, no event in this world that happened by chance. But everything happened according to God’s purpose because God is sovereign. Good things, bad things, big things, small things, everything. All things work for the good of those who love Him. All things, including the pandemic, the Covid-19 virus, and all the variants that we are facing. All these come about through God’s purpose. It has not come to us by chance.

So today we are still facing the Covid-19 pandemic. It has come to us like a storm. It swept through the whole world with such speed, and we are caught off guard. Millions of people have died. People are still dying today. Our health systems are overwhelmed. Our frontliners, doctors, nurses, and some others, they are overworked. Some have died. Our loved one perhaps, some of them have been affected, some perhaps have died. Our economies are near collapsing, and the whole scenario looks very green. Now as Christians in this situation, where is our comfort in such times of uncertainty, in such times of distress and anxiety? Where is our comfort? Well, Isaiah chapter 6 provides us the answer. Our comfort is in God.

When the world is filled with changes and sometimes these changes cause us to be anxious like this pandemic, as believers we need to look up. We need to look up. And not just looking at the numbers and the figures of death and people who are infected, and what happened. Yes, it is good to be aware about what is going on, but let us not forget to look up at a time like this. God gave Isaiah a vision of Himself that the prophet may be comforted because God is going to call him to do things for Him. And perhaps some of you may remember Ezekiel, another prophet. Turn with me to the book of Ezekiel chapter 1.

Ezekiel chapter 1, let me read to you from verse 1. “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” Now Ezekiel was one of those Jews that had been taken by King Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. Now he was trained to be a priest as we, if you look at verse 3: “the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest”. He was a young man. He was trained to be a priest. And of course, to be a priest, you need the temple because priests, they serve in the temple of God.

But where was this prophet, Ezekiel? He was far away in a foreign land, Babylon. And as he thinks about himself as a priest, when can I go back to the temple and serve God? But where? What happened to the temple? What happened to my country? The temple was burned to the ground. The whole city of Jerusalem was the same. If he were to go back to Jerusalem, there was nothing for him. The city was burned and the temple was gone. What is my future like? What is going to be like for my country, especially the temple of God and the worship of God? What is going to happen to all these? To Ezekiel, it was a time of uncertainty and great anxiety and distress, at least for him. It may not be for the rest of the people who were in exile.

But for him, he has great concern for the temple of God and the things of God. In that situation, where was his comfort? It was again in God Himself. God gave him a vision, a vision of the throne, a glorious throne. And the Apostle John at his old age he was exiled into a small island, Patmos. And the first century Christians like John, they were persecuted. The Jewish Christians especially, they suffered most. They were rejected by their own people, the Jews, and they couldn’t do their trade because they wouldn’t join the s0-called guild or the associations of their trade because they worshipped their pagan idols. And as Christians, they stayed away from all that, and they suffered.

And for John himself, because he preached the Word of God, he was exiled in the island of Patmos. What is the future like? Perhaps for him, he said: Well, I’d live a few more years and I die. But how about God’s people? What is the future like for them? Is there any hope? Is there any future? Of course, there is. And God gave John a vision, a vision of the throne of God in chapter 1 and chapter 4 of the book of Revelation. You see brethren, in times of uncertainty and distress, we look up. We must look up because that is where God is. God is still sitting on the throne. God is still in control. So we have looked at the first question: What happened at the time of his calling? It was a time of distress, uncertainty, and anxiety.

The second question we want to ask: Where was the prophet when he saw the vision, and what did he actually see? Of course, he was in the temple as we read. And what did he see? Well, he saw five things. Firstly, let us turn back to Isaiah chapter 6 to look at verse 3: “And there one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”. He saw the glory and the holiness of God in the temple. The God that he saw was extremely holy and glorious, so much so that even the seraphim that were without sin, they have to cover their eyes and cover their feet. They could not gaze directly into the glory of God. And this creature cried out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts”.

This is the God that He saw- glorious, holy. And in fact, what he saw was indeed the glory of Jesus Christ, that’s the second thing. John chapter 12 tells us that he saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in his vision. You know the greatest need in our worship of God today is not whether we are happy or we are entertained or whether we feel good after the worship of God but it is to see the glory and the holiness of God, the God that we worship. That is the most important thing that we should see in the worship of God when we listen to God’s Word. And that is what we want to see to be reminded that our God is indeed a glorious and a great God. Some of you may be aware.

You know a lot of churches and preachers, they are concerned about how many people will come to the worship service or the service that they have and that whether they can attract more people. And then when the people come, whether they feel good and that they feel happy and that they are not offended by the Word of God because they are afraid that if they are offended by the Word of God then they may not come back and our churches may shrink. That seems to be the concern, but Isaiah is telling us a different thing. What we need today in the worship of God is to see the glory of God- His beauty, His righteousness, His holiness.

That is what we need to see because when we see that God indeed is big, then we have comfort, we have hope, and that we know God is with us and that we should not be afraid and we should not fear because our God is a sovereign, mighty God. Now the third thing he saw was he saw his true self. What were the effects on him when he saw the glory of God? Well, he saw that man was indeed very small. Man was very small. It is not man who is in control of the world but God. He is the One who sits on the throne, not man. You know great kings, even godly kings come and go, just like King Uzziah. He was indeed a good king, a godly king. But still, a day comes, it was his last and he passed away.

But when he passed away, God was still sitting on the throne. God is still in control. The prime ministers, the presidents of whatever nations that we have in this world, men adore such people. But they are people who come and go, and they are nothing in the eyes of God. And when these people are gone, God is still there. He saw that man was very small. He saw that man not only was small but also very sinful, including himself. You look at verse 5: “So I said: “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 my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.””.

Man not only is small but man is very sinful, including himself. Of course, the prophet Isaiah was indeed a godly man. But even so, in the light of God’s glorious holiness and righteousness, he could see that he was indeed a very unclean man. Unclean lips are caused by unclean hearts, Jesus says. He was, now Isaiah was not exempted from this. He was indeed a mere man. What else did he see? He saw that God was near and merciful. Look at verse 6 and 7: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.””.

He saw that God was near and God was indeed merciful. God was there to minister to him when he cried out to God because of his conviction of his own sin. And God was there to minister to him. This holy God was not far away from him, millions of miles away from him. God was right there. God was right there with him. This God was not so holy that He was unapproachable to sinners. Of course, as sinners ourselves, we cannot approach God. We need the Lord Jesus Christ. But the fact remains that in God, there is mercy. There is mercy. God was there to minister to him when he needed God. God was willing to minister to him and show him mercy.

And thank God for that today we have the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Christ, we can come freely and boldly to the throne of grace. On our own, we are doomed, just like Isaiah said: “Woe unto me”. But thank God there is mercy in God that we can approach Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. What else did he see? Well lastly, he saw the great need of the people. And he was willing to serve God. He saw that the nation needed God. He said: “Woe unto me”. Let us look again. He said: “And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”. Not only himself. Not only himself is a sinner, but he said the rest of the people around him, they were just like him, unclean before God.

They were people who needed God as well, needed God’s mercy just as much as he needed. And God wanted to send someone to serve Him. If God wanted someone willing to serve Him, and he volunteered himself to serve God as His servant. He saw the great need of the people, and he was willing to serve God. Let me share with you a story, a true story I read somewhere. And this happened in 1665, hundreds of years before us. 1665 to 1666. During this period, there was this black plague in London. Some of you may have heard of that. In London at that time, the population was about half a million, and the number of deaths caused by this black plague, seventy-five thousand people died in that plague. It was something like fifteen percent of the population in London.

Now there was a Christian man, a rich Christian man. He lived in this period and he was in London. And when this happened, he was thinking about getting out of London to his cottage in the countryside to escape the plague. And on the day that he was about to leave, on his way to his carriage, he overheard a maid say to another maid. He said: Why is our master going away to his countryside, to his cottage outside London? Well, replied one of the maids: Maybe his God is a God of the countryside and can’t protect him here in the city of London. That was the reply from another maid.

Now on hearing this, this Christian man thought to himself: My God is a great God. No matter where I am, He’s able to protect me and keep me. So he decided to stay back in London. And not only stay back, but he also helped those who were infected with the plague. And at the end, he survived the plague. Now this Covid-19 virus, you know the virus is not the one that decides our last day here. It is God who decides, isn’t it? All our lives are in God’s hands, not in the hands of the virus. Now the point here of this story is this, how God is indeed a great God. And if it is His will to keep us, He will protect us because He is the One who is in control.

We know we need to see again the greatness and the glory of our God and especially at times like these like what we are going through. We need to remember that our God is indeed a great God. Let’s just be like the friends of Daniel. You know when King Nebuchadnezzar threatened to throw them into the burning fiery furnace because they refused to worship the golden image he made for himself and that everybody in Babylon should worship the golden image.

But Daniel’s three friends, they refused. And this was their reply to the king when they were threatened: “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”. They were threatened to be thrown into the burning fiery furnace, and these were their replies. Today, perhaps we can say something like this. Our God whom we serve is able to protect us and deliver us from this pandemic. But if not, we will not allow ourselves to be gripped with fear nor will we turn away from our God because nothing. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Our God is great.

We have looked at what happened at the times of Isaiah’s calling. We have looked at what had he seen. What did he see in the temple? Now let us consider the last question: What did God say? What did God say about Isaiah’s ministry? Let us look at verse 9: “And He said, “Go, and tell 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 shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.””. And Isaiah said: “Lord, how long?”.

You know Isaiah before he started the ministry, and if ever he preach his first sermon, he was forewarned that there would be little success to win the people. What a ministry he had. Imagine a young man coming to me. He said: Pastor, I want to be. I’m considering seriously about full-time ministry. I’m serious about that. And I, being a senior pastor and say to the young man: Yes, you can enter the ministry, but you are not going to see any conversion and there’s no baptism. Imagine. Would you still consider the ministry? And that was the situation. Isaiah was called to be the prophet of God. You are not going to see many success in your ministry.

Isaiah was one of the many whose ministry would see no success if you liked or very little success. And he knew it beforehand because God told him that this would be the case because the people he was to preach to were spiritually blind. Their eyes were blinded, their ears were dull deaf, their hearts were hardened. And as they listened, they would become more blind, more deaf, more hardened. Wow, imagine that. Now we know even in this pandemic not many people will want to listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But even so as God’s people, we must proclaim God’s words whenever we have the opportunity. And no matter how the people respond, we need to preach. We are called to be God’s witnesses. And therefore, let us be faithful as His witnesses, regardless of results. Regardless of result.

And apart from that, let us pray earnestly for them that God may open their eyes to see their true hope lies in this true and the living God you know, not in the vaccines, not in the scientists, not in the doctors. Though vaccines are useful, but there is a true hope in this life and purpose in this life. It is in the true and the living God. It is God who is able to give us eternal life, not the vaccine, not the well-known scientists and doctors. They can provide us temporary relief. And even the vaccine cannot a hundred percent protect us. And even if we can go through this pandemic, a day will come we still have to die. It will be our last day. One of the days will be our last day.

Our true hope and comfort is in God, the God of the Bible. Yahweh, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have looked at all these three questions, now let us conclude. What lessons? What lessons can we learn from this chapter? Well, when changes around us cause us to be anxious, uncertain, distress, we must look up and remember who God is. That is what we need to do. Look up and see that God is still sitting on the throne and He is still in control. He’s always the One sitting on the throne, and He is in absolute control. Everything will happen according to His purpose, and there is no accident in God’s plan. Let us remember what Paul tells us in Romans all things work for the good of those who love Him. All things- big and small, so-called bad or good, everything.

Secondly, when we see God and know Him, certain things will happen to us. We will see the holiness of God, and we will be convicted of our sin because God is indeed holy and righteous and that we are sinners. Secondly, we will see that God is near to us and that He is willing. He is willing to show mercy and minister to us, save us. And if we turn to Him in repentance, He will indeed cleanse us from all our sins and unrighteousness. Let me ask you here this morning: Are you still one living in sin without Christ, without knowing the mercy of God? This is the time I want to encourage you to turn to Christ.

The Scripture often shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful and just and that when you confess your sin, He will indeed cleanse you from all your sins and all your unrighteousness. Turn to the Lord, and you will find mercy and you will find hope. The third thing that will happen to us is that we will see that other people need Christ too and that we will be willing to serve God because we know the mercy of God. We know this God is gracious and merciful.

And fourthly, we will not be surprised that people will not listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ because they are spiritually blind. They are living in sin, in darkness. But we must preach anyway because God will use the gospel to save some sinners. So let us perhaps preach faithfully and let us pray earnestly for sinners and that they will come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

“Our gracious Father in heaven, we want to thank You indeed for being so gracious even though You are holy and righteous. And in You, there is no sin and there is no darkness. And even like the godly prophet Isaiah, when he saw Your holiness, he too was convicted of his sin and he cried out: Woe unto me. And that is what we are, Father. In Your sight we are indeed unworthy people, sinful. But at the same time Father, we are thankful that in the Lord Jesus Christ we receive mercy because You are a God who is gracious and merciful. And we are thankful indeed that You have shown Your grace and Your mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we come to You this morning, Father, we are mindful and that we are called to be Your witnesses, gracious witnesses in this world. Father, we ask that You will help us especially at a time like this that we ourselves will continue to have this quiet trust in You, mindful that You are indeed a glorious and a mighty God and that You are with us and that You are working out all Your purpose in this world for our good because You are a Father who loves us. And may You help us to be mindful of the needs around us that there are people who are perishing without hope in this life.

Father, we pray that You will give us boldness, give us wisdom that we may learn how to reach out to them, minister to them, and especially to point them to the Lord Jesus Christ that they may know that in Christ there is hope, there is mercy. Father, therefore, we commit ourselves into Your tender care. Be gracious to us. For all these, we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.