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.