Isaiah chapter 6: Problem and solution

Last Sunday, I got convicted by my own sermon. :)
I preached at MEPC’s quarterly bi-lingual meeting, on Isaiah chapter 6 (I’m doing a series on Isaiah for the rest of this year). One thing really struck me. Well, actually lots of things struck me – the Bible tends to do that – but one thing in particular.
In most of his book, the prophet Isaiah speaks against God’s people. He tells them they’re rebels & God’s angry with them and he’s going to judge them. Most of the time, Isaiah does not see himself as the problem. He sees himself as part of the solution.
But not in chapter 6! Listen to what Isaiah says in 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.”

Here, Isaiah sees himself as part of the problem. The people have unclean lips – Isaiah has unclean lips – so he is just like them!
I’m sure if we compared Isaiah with the rest of the people he lived with, Isaiah would have been a good, upright, moral man. But in the light of God’s holiness, none of that mattered. God’s holiness lit up Isaiah’s filth – the filth of his own rebellion against God, his own rejection of God – just like the people. And so he is just as much in need of atonement – which he receives in verses 6-7 – as the rest of them.
As a professional preacher and Bible teacher, I can subconsciously distance myself from the people I am speaking to. I could end up talking to them rather than with them. But I can’t do that, if I remember my status before the most holy God! Before him, we’re all the same – rebels, in need of his merciful atonement in Christ.