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I'll be preaching out of the
book of Isaiah, chapter 6. I invite you all to turn there
with me. We'll begin in verse 1. In the passage set before us by
the record of Isaiah, we have chronicled for us the vision
Isaiah has of the throne room of God. And in the course of
this vision, Isaiah receives his calling from God to go forth
as a prophet to the people of Judah. I want to focus tonight
on God's call for messengers, ambassadors, people to go forth
into the world to spread the message of God. The fact remains,
God does not use just anyone as his ambassador. Similarly
to how the president doesn't just send anyone off the street
to represent the United States before the United Nations or
pick whoever he feels like, regardless of qualifications, to go run
an embassy in another country, God has a specific criteria and
a process for the calling of his messengers. The interesting
thing about this passage, in my preparation I found a sermon
on Isaiah 6, 8 by Charles Spurgeon, which was a very big help to
me in my preparation process. And something that Charles Spurgeon
said in that sermon was that this passage has application,
yes, to specifically ministers, pastors, preachers, and there's
also an application for the Regular Christian if I could use the
term for the individual person of God who is called by the Lord
Jesus in the Great Commission to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature and It was with this twofold
application in mind that I set out to write this message I feel
like it's kind of preaching to myself if I'm specifically preaching
only to the people in the room who are called to preach and
to the few others who have been called to preach. And so I wanted
to have this application reach as many people as possible. We
know preachers also is a role that is set aside by God for
men. And I can't just cut half the
congregation out like that. You all have to get something
from this. So we're gonna be reaching to all believers tonight. And so keep that in mind as I
go through this. There's an application for pastors and an application
for each and every one of you personally. Let's look at the
text. 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 the 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 in 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. Our context this evening is kind
of multifold here. This vision takes place, we're
told, at the very beginning of the chapter, in the year that
King Uzziah died. It took a little bit of research
to figure this out, but from what I can tell, this was between
740 and 739 BC, about 745 years before Christ was born. This
is during the period of the divided kingdom, with Israel in the north
and Judah in the south. This separation of the nations
is mostly Rehoboam's fault, but that's a very interesting story
for another time. Importantly, this is a time when Judah is
focused on empty-vein sacrifice instead of true heart-motivated
obedience and service. The king of Assyria in this time
was also expanding his conquests, impacting the northern kingdom
of Israel and exacting a tribute from them. And in this time,
with all of this going on in the world, God saw fit to call
Isaiah as a prophet to Judah. This vision that we just read
about that Isaiah has is his call from God, and it contains
several important details I want to hone in on tonight as it relates
to God's calling of messengers in the current day. There is
a very specific correlation. Now, breaking down what we have
in front of us tonight, the initial vision of Isaiah has Isaiah seeing
God Almighty sitting on a throne in a temple. This throne on which
God sits is in a place of prominence. It's high and lifted up. It is
the centerpiece of the room, the focal point of the focus
of anyone who has entered into this room, this throne room.
This presence of a prominent throne seems like kind of an
obvious thing, but it implies and proclaims God's authority,
His sovereignty, His power, and His majesty. Even in visions,
God has seen fit to show himself as he is to Isaiah in all of
his revealed glory, all of his majesty, power, and authority.
He's not holding anything back for Isaiah in this vision. And
then above and around the throne, we see that there were an unnumbered
host of seraphims. It's one of multiple classes
of angel that we see described in the Bible. And the only description
given in this passage is that the seraphims have six wings
and assumably hands to operate the tongs that were used. These
wings are used to cover their faces, two of them, two to cover
their feet and two for flying. I think it's interesting that
the angels are covering their eyes and their feet with four
of their six wings. Even the angels in heaven do
not count themselves worthy to look upon God with uncovered
faces. Even the heavenly host must avert
their eyes from the glory and majesty of God. In my preparation,
I was reading a commentary from Matthew Henry. And he said in
his writings that in that time, the feet were also considered
a less honorable part of the body. And these angels were covering
those as well out of reverence for God. Now we think of a throne
room, the throne room of God, there's not gonna be any dirt
on the floor, there's not gonna be anything to harm feet, like
what we would have on earth. There's no reason for heaven
to have invented shoes. And so God has, in his divine
providence, seen fit to outfit the angels with the ability to
fully respect him by covering their feet with their wings,
even when there wouldn't exist a reason for there to be something
Like what we would use to cover our feet from the dirt, like
shoes. So God in his providence has arranged every detail of
the seraphims for their worship of him. God cares about his worship. He cares about the message that
is sent out. And then the seraphims are calling
out to one another. They're extolling the thrice
holiness and glory of God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory, says verse three. And then the doors and the doorposts
of this temple are shaking because of the intensity of the calls
of the angelic host. The whole room is full of smoke.
Isaiah is overcome. He is shaken to his core. I was
looking at the interlinear translation for what overcome, sorry, for
what undone means when Isaiah says, woe is me in verse five,
for I am undone because I'm 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. This word undone is such an interesting
one. According to Strong's, it's translated
also cut down, cut off, brought to complete silence, destroyed
even, the various ways that this can be translated. I think this
is interesting. We know that the Bible says that
no man has seen God and lived. Isaiah is having a vision. He
didn't look on God with his physical eyes. He was not immediately
struck down by the power and majesty and holiness of God because
of a desire, a disrespectful desire to look on God with his
own human eyes. Rather, He is, but he is still
acknowledging God's holiness, God's power, God's complete,
absolute power and his worthiness of being worshiped and Isaiah's
own unworthiness to look at God. Even in this vision, he's recognizing
that, he's seeing that he is undone because, because he is
a man of unclean lips. He is a man, a sinful man. He
dwells in the midst of a sinful people. The loose translation
of what Isaiah has said, I'm a sinner surrounded by sinners,
even as far as going to say that I am in a land living in sin
and unworthy to look upon God. Isaiah is shaken to his core
by the vision he sees of God in his glory and majesty. We
see something very important. The first thing I want to really
emphasize tonight, Isaiah in this vision is made aware of
his sin. He's made aware of his own sin.
He's made aware of all the ways he has transgressed the law of
God, all the reasons he is unworthy to look on God. He is made aware
of his sin with such conviction that it brings him to say he
is undone. He is completely distraught by
this revelation that he is so sinful and viewing such a holy
God. He's made aware also, not of
his own sin, but the sins of the entire nation of Judah. He
recognizes that his entire land is infected, filled with sin. The entire land is like is written
of the whole of humanity in Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter three,
verse 10, that there is none good, no, not one. There is none
that seeks after God. There is none that do with good. They've all gone out of the way
and become unprofitable. He recognizes this of himself
and of Judah. And now, Isaiah has seen the
glory and power of God with his eyes, his mind's eye, perhaps.
And this is an interesting thing. He has seen God, at least with
his mind's eye. He recognizes his own sin, the
sin of Judah, and he echoes a sentiment that we see in Hebrews. It is
a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And then God sees fit to not
leave Isaiah simply distraught at his own sin. He sees fit to
leave him, sees fit not to simply leave him where he is completely
undone, completely reevaluating everything because of the sin
that he's made aware of. He responds by dispatching one
of the seraphims to Isaiah who, by reading of this, stops by
the altar first on the way in. The seraphim grabs a live coal
from the altar, a live coal. It's still hot, glowing, burning,
on fire perhaps even. And then he brings this coal
to Isaiah to bring cleansing and to bring a message. The seraphim
touches Isaiah's lips with the live coal. He says that Isaiah's
iniquity is taken away and his sin purged by the touching of
his lips with the coal. He says, let's see here, which
verse was it? Verse seven. Yes. 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. Isaiah's sins were purged by
a sacrifice that was before God. Now we can go way deeper into
the differences and the details of Old Testament sacrifices and
how they were used to atone for the sins of Israel. And we could
look at connections from this sacrifice to the sacrifice of
Christ, which we will look at later, I promise. But suffice
it to say at this point, Isaiah's sins are cleansed by the sacrifice
that was offered before God. And then the voice of God comes
audibly to Isaiah asking, whom shall I send and who will go
for us? Now God is asking for messengers
here and God knows full well that Isaiah is right there. So
he is speaking to Isaiah in this exact instance, but the words
echo to us as well. But the fact that God is asking
for messengers and calling out to Isaiah tells us a couple of
things that I want to focus on tonight. First off, God has a
message for humanity as evidenced by his need for a messenger.
God has a message. He wants to give something to
humanity. Now, this message has not changed
since Isaiah's day. As we look at being messengers
of God's word, the message that God carries is very similar,
if not the exact same message, that we have sinned, fallen short
of the glory of God, and that salvation is possible through
the sacrifice. God has something that he desires
humanity to know. This is something that's so interesting
to me, so amazing to me, that God, the creator of the universe,
the thrice holy, omnipotent, all-knowing, creator of everything,
the sustainer of everything, wants us to know something. How privileged are we, like Isaiah,
unworthy to even look at God? How privileged are we to be the
recipients of a message? And how privileged are we to
be the proclaimers of the message of God? I was talking about Charles
Spurgeon's sermon on Isaiah 6-8. A quote from that sermon, Spurgeon
says, God has a message for humanity. And then God wants someone to
send this message. God has decided to use the means
of human messengers to send forth his message to humanity. Now,
many ask, sarcastically, why God doesn't simply write his
message in the sky? Why doesn't he simply give it directly to
men? I'm glad they asked that because the Bible says that he
already has. Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. The
firmament shows forth his handiwork. Hebrews 8, for this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them
in their hearts, and I will be to them a God and they shall
be to me a people. And Romans 1, for the invisible things of
him, God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead, so that they, humanity, is without excuse. However, humanity
is really good at ignoring what God does, what God says, and
what God wants. Since humanity is so good at
ignoring our consciences, individual and collective, and justifying
excuses even when we should not have any, God has decided in
His mercy to send forth messengers into the world, human messengers.
God is, by this decision to send forth human messengers to deal
with the most obstinate sinners who don't want to pay attention
to what God has to say, showing his mercy and his long-suffering
towards us. God is abounding in mercy, and
he is slow to wrath for the sake of his people. That's not to
say judgment won't come. We know judgment will come. And
when it does come, it will be swift. It will be sure. It will
be complete. It will be utterly devastating
to the enemies of God. But until that time, we have
something to be doing. Until that time, we have to be
proclaiming that message that God has for humanity. God has
ordained two distinct enterprises for the proclaiming of His Word.
The first is through preachers preaching the Word. Elders, bishops,
pastors, ministers, whatever word you'd like to use. They
have been called to preach and proclaim the Gospel to men. They
are, as the Apostle said, devoted wholly to the Word and to ministry.
The other agency is, simply put, the believer. The believer is
commanded by God to be a herald of his truth and salvation in
all things. We're told that whether we eat
or drink or whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory
of God. We're told to be living soberly
and righteously in this present time, knowing that the days are
evil. We're told to be redeeming the times because the days are
evil. Now we are to be heralds of the truth and salvation of
God in all things, even our secular workplaces, our places of enjoyment,
our homes, and the general public sphere. There is nowhere that
the general believer is expected not to be proclaiming the word
of God, no matter what your human boss says about putting religion
in the workplace. We obey God rather than men,
right? I will also be clear yet again, the office of the pastor
is reserved by God for men. Every time we see the requirements
to be a pastor, elder, bishop, we see it requiring men. First
Timothy 2, 12, Paul says he does not permit a woman to have authority
over him or to preach. We see that the requirement to
be a bishop, an elder, a pastor is to be the husband of one wife,
which tells me he's a man already, and that he is to keep his home
in order. Yet again, it makes me think we're thinking about
a man here and not about a woman. And while, like I said earlier,
I could preach exclusively to the men in the congregation who
have been called to preach, as this passage does have a strong
application towards the men of God, it has been impressed on
my heart to turn to the more general sense as well as the
specific. It has been placed on my heart
to explain to the general believer the requirements, the call, the
commission that all of us have to be proclaiming the word of
God everywhere. And thus, as I continue this
evening, like I said earlier, keep that idea in mind. There
are two specific applications here for two specific groups
of people. There's just one group of people
is very specific, but it's also a very broad category of all
believers. And then there was one interesting aside that I
saw here, a gospel-focused one. God asks who will go for us in
verse 8. My question is, would God be
conferencing with the angels who are unworthy to even look
at Him? Or would God be figuring out His message with the angels
for some reason? No, He would not be doing that.
God is speaking in relation to the Trinity, to the triune Godhead
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are all three
members of the Godhead present in this passage. And I'm going
to be careful because I don't want to try and explain the Trinity
and do a heresy. That'd be really bad to do in
the pulpit, or at all, even. So there are three members of
the Godhead present, just like we see in the book of Genesis, where
God says, let us create man in our own image. The Trinity is
present all over the Bible, and the gospel is present. Because
the message that God has for Isaiah We see this later on here. Go and tell this people, hear
ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. And he continues on. The message here is a similar
one to what Christ had when he brought it on earth, when he
spoke about hearing ye do not understand and seeing you do
not perceive. So Jesus has been integral in this calling of Isaiah,
as has the Holy Spirit. The entire Trinity is present.
I just think it's so interesting that the entire Trinity is working
in sync to accomplish the will of God in Isaiah and in all of
us. The sending of the message by necessary logical process,
the ordaining of the messenger is a work of the entire Godhead,
not just one member working as a free agent. God does not work
as a free agent apart from himself. The Trinity works to accomplish
the same purpose. God is united in his purpose.
He's a God of order, not a God of chaos. And then the gospel
of Jesus Christ is apparent even 745 years ish before he was born. And the whole Bible points to
him and his work. The Old Testament points forward
to his work on the cross and the Old Testament chronicles
that work on the cross and then the rest of it points back to
him again. And the whole Bible is interconnected
pointing at itself as Jesus fulfills prophecy and the Bible speaks
of itself. The Bible is entirely united in the message for humanity.
As Paul put it, that Christ has come into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. Then Isaiah's response is incredibly
important to this entire passage. His response in verse 8, here
am I, send me. And this response seems very
short. And if we were having this conversation
in more modern American English, it would have a lot more words
involved to accomplish the meaning that is being put across here.
Isaiah is doing several things with his response. The first
one, the most important part to see in the beginning, he is,
by his words of here am I, he is submitting himself to God.
Rather like Samuel in the temple, speak Lord, thy servant heareth.
Or my mind goes also to Jesus, where he says, I have meats to
eat that you know not of, that is doing the Father's will. Isaiah
is first and foremost, fully placing himself at the disposal
of God. He acknowledges God as his Lord and his master, the
one who has authority to send Isaiah wherever he wishes to
send him. And this is compounded by calling
him Lord. It's like Saul on the Damascus
Road. Who are you, Lord? What would
you have me to do? And then he asks God to direct
him. He says, send me. He is not rashly
jumping to conclusions about where he should be going since
God is looking for a messenger. He is not going and saying, God
wants me in a ministry and immediately jumping where he wants to go
himself. He's not calling himself into a ministry or a specific
service and you will not find any self-called two month vacations
to the Bahamas disguised as missions with Isaiah. Instead, Isaiah
surrenders fully to God's leading. He tells him by his words that
wherever God sees fit to send Isaiah, Isaiah will go. Isaiah
is not placing prerequisites on his usefulness for God, saying
that I'll go, but you gotta put me in charge. I'll go, but it
has to be a nice climate. I'll go, but the housing prices
have to be perfect. He says, send me. Like Paul said, I've
learned whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content,
even if it's one with really high housing prices. And then
the question is the application. Why is this section of the Old
Testament still relevant to me today? And what should our greater
response be to this call that is sent to us as well as to Isaiah? Well, for one, it's in the Bible,
so it's relevant, but God is still calling messengers. He
still seeks ambassadors to go for him, to go into all the world
and to teach all nations. The criteria and process of calling
was laid out in a lot of detail earlier. I'm going to shortly
summarize it one more time here. So as God starts the process
of calling someone to go into all the world and preach the
gospel, He starts by showing this person their sin and their
need for a savior. They must be fully aware of their own sin.
And this again seems like a rather expected first prerequisite,
right? If you're gonna be a messenger
for God, you have to be a Christian. But we have to be careful with
who goes to proclaim the message of God. If they aren't a true
believer, they are preaching what is to their own selves folly. And if they are preaching something
they don't truly understand, they're not going to preach it
properly. The entire proper teaching of the Word hinges on this person
who is teaching it fully understanding what God has for them to preach.
And an unbeliever will not understand what the Bible has to say. The
preaching of the cross is folly to those who do not believe.
The things of God are not revealed entirely even to believers sometimes,
but definitely not to unbelievers. And then God will affect their
cleansing based on the means of the sacrifice. For Israel,
for Isaiah, it was the sacrificial altar. Remember, the coal and
the tongs, the coal that was placed on his lips from an altar.
For the church, the sacrifice by which we are cleansed is Jesus'
sacrificial death on Calvary. Like I said, these two points
are kind of the same one. They must be a true believer
before they can effectively preach the word to anyone, even themselves. Now next, God will make his will
known to this person. God will make his will known
to the believer by some method, be it through the preaching of
the word, through their own Bible reading, through... hearing a
sermon on the radio. Whatever external work is used,
it will be accompanied by a direct inward call. They must be called
by God and not anyone else. Scripture is full of examples
of people who tried to do something that they weren't called to do.
First off, we think of Absalom who tried to call himself to
the kingship of Israel and how well that worked out for him
and everyone involved. Absalom was the one who was hung
by his hair and beheaded, if I'm remembering correctly. And
then we think also of Simon the Sorcerer, who tried to call himself
to be an apostle by bribing the rest of the apostles, and that
didn't go well for him either. And then we think of Aaron at
Sinai, who caved to the pressure of everyone around him and became
a priest to this golden calf, claiming that the golden calf
is their God that had led them from Egypt just a couple of days
after Moses had gone up Sinai while they were still seeing
the storm of the glory of God at the top of Sinai. Aaron was
called by his peers. Right? And then Simon and Absalom
called by themselves. And all of these instances ended
in disaster for those involved and for those around them. The
Israelites who were brought into idol worship by Aaron were forced
to drink the dust of the golden calf after Moses got down and
was very upset. The dust of the first 10 commandments
as well. And then Absalom met a very messy end at the hands
of one of David's soldiers. That's why we don't put long
hair in the military either. But this ambassador will, sorry,
I'm getting ahead of myself. So I want to elaborate here.
Every believer is called to something, right? We have the great commission.
Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. Ephesians 2.10 says that for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. God has planned something
for his people from a very long time ago, before the foundations
of the earth, Ephesians chapter one says. And so we have this
calling, can I say resting on us at this point already? Now,
the time at which God sees fit to give a further call, to give
more details, or to bring someone into a station of active evangelism
in their daily life depends on when He sees fit to draw them
out of their sin and into His kingdom. But a specific ministry, teaching,
preaching, missions, general evangelism, requires, demands
even, a specific calling, ordaining of God, especially outside of
the home. If we're trying to call ourselves into any sort
of ministry for God, we're not doing it properly. We're running
around masquerading, even, as an envoy of the Most High, saying
that, yeah, I'm a messenger of God, even if I'm not. Right? That is the issue with trying
to call yourself into a ministry, trying to force yourself into
a specific position of service. A specific ministry, any specific
ministry, any specific messenger duties requires and demands a
specific calling and ordaining of God, especially one that is
outside of the home. Now regardless of any specific
calling, like I said, the calling exists for all believers regarding
evangelism. We are told to go and tell the good news to others.
And then, after this and the master has been called by God,
they will, assuming all goes properly, acquiesce to the will
of God. We see here, God asks, whom shall
I send and who will go for us? It is entirely possible for someone
to feel a call into ministry, a call to go be an evangelist,
a missionary into all the world, even in their daily lives, and
refuse to do it. It's entirely possible for someone to switch
professions if they don't want to be a minister anymore. It's
entirely possible for someone to stifle their faith, to pretend
to have no real religious convictions in their workplace for fear of
getting into an argument or getting told off by their boss. It's
entirely possible for someone to, simply put, not do what they're
called to do by God for any number of reasons, be it the fear of
man, be it just rebellion, be it an unsurrendered heart, be
it any number of things. And so this person must acquiesce
to the will of God. And then assuming all goes as
it ought, this person submits as they should, the ambassador
will not commission themselves. This builds off of the last point
I had earlier. The ambassador does not pick
his embassy. If the president calls you up
and says, hey, I want you to be an ambassador to Canada, you don't
say, no, I'd rather be the ambassador to Poland. You don't get to make
that decision yourself. You don't get to choose your
embassy if you're an ambassador. The servant does not choose his
station. The commissioning and the destination of every believer
is simply the prerogative of God and nobody else. This is
God's standard. They must be surrendered to Him
if they are to be of any use to Him. The Bible says that a
broken heart and a contrite spirit God will not despise. Proverbs
says that God hates a proud look. We know that God will resist
the proud and give grace to the humble. If someone is not surrendered
to him, he will not use them, he will judge them. And I don't
wanna be on the receiving end of that judgment. And I would
recommend the rest of you don't want to be on the end of that
either. And then, after this person is surrendered to him,
they have, so this person is saved. This person, what was
my last point? This person is saved. This person
is called. This person is fully surrendered. God will commission his ambassador.
After these prerequisites have been fulfilled, God will commission
his ambassador, but the prerequisites aren't done yet. There's one
more. The obedient ambassador will not wander off on a whim
to go after their own desires. Like I said earlier, masquerading
as an envoy of the Most High. They will, with Isaiah, ask God
to send them somewhere, send them to do something specific
again, and then they will follow through with God's will. They
must be obedient all the way through. We speak of finishing
a race well. This is how an ambassador for
Christ, be it to a church, be it to a mission field, be it
to your workplace, your friends, your family, this is how the
ambassador finishes well. by being an obedient ambassador
all the way through until the end. We think of many of the
ambassadors that have been lost recently. We think of John MacArthur,
we think of Votie Bauckham, who were called by God into the ministry
and they finished well. They stayed true to their calling
the entire time. They didn't add their own messages
into what was being said. They didn't distort the scriptures
to say something other than what they said. They were surrendered
to God, and they stayed surrendered, and they stayed obedient the
whole way through. And that's why we remember them with the
honor that we ascribe to them. For the pastors and preachers,
for the evangelists, for the everyday Christian who abandons
what God has designed them to do, the one who abandons the
call that is on their life, We don't remember them, or if we
do remember them, it is not with honor. We remember them as an
example to avoid, a statistic that serves as a warning to how
many people are so easily drawn away from the faith that they
once knew. The church in, I want to say
Corinth, that Paul wrote to, no, my apologies, it was Galatians,
who were drawn away from the true gospel by outside influences. Paul wrote to them, I am surprised
that you are so quickly drawn away from the faith that you
once knew. Those are the Christians who do not stay true to God's
will. Those are the Christians who wander off doing their own
thing and are not remembered in a positive light. God will call His ambassadors
directly and specifically. The obedient ones will be called
directly and specifically, and it will be an unmistakable call,
an unavoidable, inignorable call if one is truly surrendered to
God. We think again of the Great Commission. Go ye therefore into
all the world, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then
God's call, God's will, His call for you It is based on his criteria
and his alone. We know that our works have nothing
to do with salvation, but our pre-existing qualifications,
our pre-existing conditions, and our pre-existing notions
are not the criteria off which God calls people to go and proclaim
the gospel to all nations, to all generations, to all tribes
and tongues. God's call is not based off of
your own abilities. And I've prepared a lot of evidence
for this. Now, before his call from God, Abraham was a pagan
idolater. That was an interesting realization
for me to come to in the preparation for this. But Joshua 24 talks
about Abraham's father and Abraham who worshiped false gods in the
land of the Chaldeans where he originally was. And then he was
brought out of that by God. But Abraham, before he was called,
was a pagan idolater. Moses was a murderer with a really
bad stutter and a speech impediment. He could not speak properly for
Israel in his own mind, in his own strength to save his life.
He argued with the burning bush about that. Now think about that.
God himself is manifesting himself before you in a supernatural
occurrence in nature. And you're stood there arguing
with a bush that's on fire that you can't speak publicly. How
absurd are you for doing that? God himself tells you to do something.
I think he knows what he's talking about. Now, Joseph, David, Josiah,
Jeremiah, Timothy, what do they all have in common at the very
beginning of when they were used by God? They were all young,
inexperienced, and afraid of what they were doing. Timothy
was told by Paul, do not let the elders despise him for his
youth. That tells me that someone was
despising him for his youth and it was getting to Timothy. Otherwise,
Paul wouldn't have had to say it. Joseph was a young man when
he was tossed into Egypt, and he was still used by God in Egypt.
David was also young, the youngest out of all of his brothers, the
weakest, the smallest, and he was used to be the greatest king
that Israel, the nation of Israel, ever saw. Jeremiah was, when he was called,
a shepherd. He was young. And he told God,
I'm not prepared for this. What are you talking about? I
can't do that. I can't speak publicly. And God said, before,
when you were in the womb, I knew you. When I knitted you together,
I knew you. Now, Elisha was a farmer. He
didn't have a seminary degree. Jonah ran away. Matthew was a
tax collector. Looking in a general evangelism,
think of the woman at the well, who was five times divorced and
living with a man who was not her husband, who was still used
by God to evangelize her entire village. Peter denied Christ,
not once, not twice, three times he denied Christ, and he was
still used as the head of the apostles. In a, not necessarily
in a Pope sense, we don't think Peter was the Pope, but we do
know that Peter was used by God to help lead the early church.
Saul, Paul, Saul at that point, was a literal terrorist to the
early church. He would drag people out of their
homes, into prison, killing some of them, and he was, when he
was called by God, he was on his way to Damascus to do more
terrorism, and he was stopped. Now the church in Corinth, it
is said, after a long list of various sins and heinous acts deserving
of damnation, and such were some of you. That's what I want to
look at tonight, what such were some of you. Now where would
the church be without this long list of people who were very
much less than perfect, underprepared and unqualified when they started
what they were doing? The church would be in a very
sorry state, assuming that Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Josiah,
Jeremiah, Timothy, Elisha, Jonah, Matthew, Peter, and Paul had
all thrown up their hands and decided that they weren't going
to help God because they couldn't do it by themselves. That's most
of the New Testament and a solid chunk of the Old Testament already
not written. And of course God would have provided other means
for the church, but assuming for just a moment that everything
was as it was, except for this long list of people doing their
own thing, we'd be in trouble today. We'd have a much smaller
Bible for one. But if Abraham had not left Ur
of the Chaldeans, how would Jesus have been born through the line
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? If Abraham had stayed, wandered
off, if David hadn't become king, if Joseph hadn't stayed in Egypt
like he was sent, how would Israel's family have survived the famine?
They probably would have been wiped out by starvation. In fact, where would the church
be without more modern men who have had various different issues?
Think of Martin Luther, a Catholic monk. If he'd stayed a Catholic,
we'd be in trouble. William Wilberforce, who was
so physically diminutive that some of his countrymen worried
he might be blown away by a good storm. That took him less seriously
by that metric. John Newton was a slave trader,
and D.L. Moody was the only man that Charles
Spurgeon ever heard pronounce Mesopotamia in two syllables,
which is a lot fewer syllables than you should be using for
Mesopotamia. Makes me think maybe he had a bit of Californian in
him the way he was speaking. Speaking of Spurgeon, his struggles
with depression are very well chronicled. They're very detailed.
Spurgeon's battled depression a significant chunk of his life.
George Whitefield was constantly exhausted. He battled health
complications most of his life. Jonathan Edward faced illnesses,
language difficulties, and powerful personal enemies. Now where would
the church be if these men called by God had allowed their physical,
mental, and other assorted struggles and trials to convince them that
God had no use for them? speech impediments, and improper
teaching received, and physical obstacles, all of these and more
can be made to be not a hindrance, but a means of grace in the life
of one God has called. God says, my grace is efficient
for thee, for in your weakness I am made strong. God is glorified
not when a human is able to do great feats all on their own,
so much as when a weak and feeble human is able to do great things
for the kingdom by the strength of God in him, not by his own
outward abilities. The idea that God doesn't call
the qualified, he qualifies the called is illustrated clearly
throughout scripture. With how often we repeat this
phrase, I fear we risk letting it lose its meaning. Do not let
your faith in your own inabilities and shortcomings overcome your
faith in God to see his work be done in and by you. Let me say that again. Do not
allow your own pride in your own inability. Do not allow your
own concern over your own inability allow you to stifle what God
has planned for you. It's by His power we do anything.
Paul says, yet not I, but through Christ that liveth in me, who
is able to get anything done. And whether or not this call,
this general call, means for someone pastoral ministry, missionary
work, teaching, specific full-time evangelism, or if your only means
of sending out God's message is by living faithfully for Him
and speaking of Him in your daily life, we still have that command
to go and tell the gospel. We've gone over the Great Commission,
what, four times this evening? Go ye therefore to all the world
and teach all nations. Even if God hasn't planned for you to
be a pastor, a missionary, or a teacher, you have a responsibility to
be calling others to God and to be preaching the gospel at
all times. Now, those of us who went to men's retreat, we just
got back, remember Steve's question, how am I sharpening others around
me? How are you sharpening others around you? As that theme is
iron sharpening iron. That question rings out to all
believers. Are you, in your daily life, sharpening, edifying, encouraging
other believers around you? Are you, in your life, not only
edifying other believers, but are you reaching out to the lost?
Are you proclaiming the good news of the gospel that says,
you're a sinner, yes, but salvation is available through the work
of Christ to the greater world that very much needs that call?
The mural on the back, John 435. Lift up your eyes and look on
the fields, for they are white already to harvest. Are you,
as one of the laborers God has called, believer, doing the labor
that you have been sent to do, or are you ignoring it? Are you earnestly laboring in
the field, or is the field sitting white and ready to harvest, and
you're hoping someone else comes and does it for you out of the
goodness of their heart? Regardless of the direction of
your call, the response from us should be the same. The effective,
full surrender of your life to God. Romans 12, 1 and 2 says
that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God,
and by holy living prove the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. Paul says that this is our reasonable service, that
this act of full submission and surrender to God, it is a lifelong,
all-consuming task as it correlates to our sanctification, but it
is our reasonable service to our Savior. Reasonable, it's
a great word, because it is not going above and beyond for God
if we submit our lives to Him. We're not doing Him a massive
favor by doing what we're told to do. He is worthy of that sacrifice. Should we not, like Isaiah, recognize
our sin and our unworthiness before God? Recognize what a
privilege it is for us to be permitted to assist in the spreading
of the gospel to all nations. Just as Isaiah was unworthy to
look upon or even serve God, so are we. And yet that privilege
to serve God is put to us by the sacrifice of Jesus and the
love of God. Furthermore, we're in the same
straight as Isaiah. We are a people of unclean lips, living amongst
a people of unclean lips. We have to look at the news for
what, maybe five seconds before you realize that this is truth.
We are living in a country that is dark, full of darkness, full
of sin and iniquity. And we ourselves are sinful people,
saved or not. How much more should this knowledge
that we are living in a land of sin motivate us to faithfully
proclaim God to the world? Any revival in our nation, if
we want it to happen, must start with us, with the church, with
believers. We can't expect the unsaved to
start turning to God all by themselves. How will they believe without
hearing? And how will they hear without someone telling them?
How will anyone believe anything if they haven't heard about it
before? If you've never heard the gospel before, how are you
supposed to believe it? We sing the hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous
Cross. That last verse, were the whole
realm of nature mine, that were present far too small. Love so
amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. We cannot allow ourselves to
fall into the trap of a rite and ritual-based casual Christianity
where we show up on Sunday morning and then act like Monday through
Saturday is our time for us to use as we wish. Judah was focused
on their sacrifices and ceremony, but their hearts were far from
God. I'll get that in a minute. God's
love should elicit in us a desire to give our all to him and for
him. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better than singing
songs. Obedience is better than handing
out tracts. And while our obedience to God
is singing songs and handing out tracts and coming to church,
God desires our heart more than he desires our outward actions. The heart is his concern. Man
looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. So our response, here am I Lord,
I am here for your use in your time for your honor and glory. Yours is the timeline and the
planning and the glory for the effects. Like we sang this morning,
spirit of the living God fall fresh on me, melts me, mold me,
fill me, use me. It is His prerogative to prepare
us. We are here to say, here am I,
Lord. Speak for your servant heareth. Send me. I'm not pushing this call off
on someone else. I'm not trying to get out of
it. I'm not trying to avoid it. You called me and I trust you
have a plan for me. And send me wherever you want,
whenever you can use me, wherever you can use me, however you can
use me, send me. And so far this application has
been pointed so much at believers. Spurgeon said that one should
never preach to both the saved and the unsaved at the same time,
lest you confuse everyone involved. And while I agree with that,
I believe it would be a disservice to not include a call to the gospel
at some point. How can I ignore the message
I am to send when I'm preaching about sending the message? If
you are here tonight, you're watching online, you know in
your heart that you have never been convinced and convicted
of your sin, you know that you have never truly repented of
that sin, you know that the Holy Spirit does not dwell within
you, that you are not a child of God, then all the rest of
what I've said tonight, the whole however long I've been speaking,
is made to little effect for you personally. Like I said,
if you're gonna be a messenger of God, you have to be a believer
first. So if you're not a believer yet, the rest of what I've said
is rather meaningless in this point for you. The message of salvation is that
God has sent his son, he sent his son to die for you. He has sent his son to die for
you, that the sins that you have committed are currently committing
and will commit. may be washed away, that you
may be spared from the eternal punishment for that sin. The
Bible says that today is the day of salvation, 2 Corinthians.
Now is the accepted time. Call upon God while he may be
found. The invitation is open to all, to everyone. Jesus says,
come ye burdened, ye heavy laden, and I will give you rest. God
says, Isaiah chapter one, though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow. So for anyone tonight planning
on being a messenger for God, planning to go to teach all nations,
or like myself, planning to go into pastoral ministry, the response
must be, Lord, I am here for you. My calling is not my own
prerogative. My calling is not my choice. My calling is your choice. My
calling is your prerogative. And because it is your choice
and your prerogative, yours is the planning, yours is the timeline,
yours are all the questions and the answers and the provision.
And because of all of that, yours will be the glory for what comes
of it. What more are our lives if not
a time spent that ought to be spent, a time graciously given
and unpromised to be used for the honor and the glory of God?
The last time I was in this pulpit, I was preaching a funeral for
Rick. That was an interesting evening.
It was a time spent focused on the brevity, the shortness of
life out of James 4.14. What is your life but a vapor
appearing for a short time and vanishing away? What is your
life It is a bit of smoke from a lighter that's on for a couple
of seconds, a bit of water vapor when you exhale on a cold day.
Your life is short, too short to be wasted, wandering around,
squandering your time while God has a plan for you. And for the
unbeliever, your life is too short to worry about what you're
going to do if you haven't accepted God yet. None of us are promised
tomorrow. None of us are going to for sure
reach the next hour. None of us are for sure going
to live 70, 80, 90 years. None of us are going to for sure
have perfect mental clarity up to the point of death so we can
take the risk of a deathbed conversion. The amount of people who try
to put off God until later, like Felix, is far too high for the
amount of people who managed to get that deathbed conversion.
The truth is, if you try to put God off until your deathbed,
you may not get a deathbed experience. None of us are promised a nice
comfy deathbed surrounded by all our friends and loved ones
and a minister to come help us get saved as soon as we're ready
for it. What we're promised? Nothing. We don't even know what
the next minute holds. And so for the unbeliever, you
don't have time to waste. Worrying about what you're going
to do if you haven't accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior
Your sin will send you to hell is the simplest way I can put
it your sin will send you to hell outside of Christ And then
for the believer Our life too while we have eternal life our
life on earth is just as short just as brief It moves just as
fast and we are promised just as much time for tomorrow as
the unsaved We're not promised any of it We do not have the
time to waste worrying about the little things of life when
we have a mission, a calling, a commission from our great King. We're on earth for one thing,
one reason only. The Westminster Shorter Catechism
asks, very first question, what is the chief end of man? The
answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Ecclesiastes
chapter 12, the whole end of man is to obey God and to keep
his commandments. What command do we have is more
important than to honor the Lord your God with all of your heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself? There's nothing greater, nothing
more I can even say on the matter. I feel like the chief end has
been reached. We're to honor and glorify God
with all of our lives, to praise Him, to bring Him magnification
in all things, and to be proclaiming the message of salvation to all
unbelievers who we have a chance to meet. It is appointed unto
man once to die, and after this, the judgment. All of us will
stand before a judgment of some sort. That judgment will be made
much worse if we have ignored the call of God. Believer or
unbeliever, ignoring a call of God will make that judgment day
significantly worse. For the unbeliever, it promises
an eternal destination of fire and brimstone. And for the believer,
ignoring God's call your entire life will lead to a judgment,
not into condemnation perhaps, but a judgment of lessened reward
because you were of lesser service to your king. The entire reason God has seen
fit to allow us to continue living on earth and enjoying His blessings
is so that we can point to Him and point others to Him.
God's Call For Messengers
Series Sunday Evening
| Sermon ID | 929252052556669 |
| Duration | 56:23 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 6 |
| Language | English |
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