Called into Service
(10-25-15 www.LifeChurchSpringfield.org)
Our text this morning is in Isaiah chapter 6. Please turn there in your Bibles.
I want to talk about the call of God on your life. God’s calling on your life is more important than your career. Your career may have something to do with it; but when life is all said and done—you want to have finished the work He has given you to do. Your personal bucket list of the thing you want to do in life may or may not be part of it. It’s important to make sure those coincide with what He wants you to do. What has called you to do? And are you occupied with doing that? When Paul came to the end of his life, he was able to say with confidence, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course….” (2Tim. 4:7 KJV). I sure would like to be able to say the same thing at the end of my journey. Wouldn’t you? That’s why we do a lot of what do: that we may be pleasing to the Lord and finish our course with joy.i
So we will walk through Isaiah 6 this morning. The chapter has three natural sections: (1) Verses 1-4 deal with what Isaiah saw. Notice in verse 1 Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord….” (2) Verses 5-7 deal with what Isaiah said. That section begins with the words, “So I said….” (3) Verses 8-13 reveal what Isaiah heard. Verse 8 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying….”
Follow with me as we read Isaiah 6:1-4.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.”ii
I. What did Isaiah SEE in this vision?
First and most importantly he saw the Lord. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord ….”
There is a pattern in the Bible as to how God equips people for service. There is something very fundamental that has to be in place. You see it in Abraham’s calling; you see it in Jacob’s life; you see it in Moses, in Peter, James, John, Paul.iii It has to be there. What has to be there?
A personal revelation of God and who He is—who He really is: not just who our society thinks He is. Society’s understanding of God is often a consensus of who they want Him to be rather than who He really is. People create an image of God in their minds and then hold Him accountable to be that. It’s really quite absurd; but how many people today are angry at God because He is not behaving the way they think He should. How many people will not come to God on His terms; they have imaged what those terms ought to be and they expect God to conform to that.
Isaiah saw the Lord. The way that happens for one person may be different than it is for another. But it has to be personal; and it has experiential. It can’t just be an intellectual knowledge about God. I’m sure Isaiah had that from his youth. But here God opens Isaiah’s eyes to the greater reality—the kingdom of God that is operating above and beyond the activity we can see with our natural eyes.
The first thing we learn in Isaiah 6 is the timing of this revelation. “In the year that King Uzziah died….” (740 BC).iv That is significant for Isaiah at a personal levelv and at a national level. The king’s death was particularly painful because of the way it happened. Uzziah became king of the Southern Kingdom when he was 16 years old. He was one of the greatest kings that had ever ruled the nation. Under his father’s rule Judah had been defeated and plundered by the Northern kingdom.vi Uzziah reigned for 52 years (2Chron. 26). During his reign he led the nation into restoration and prosperity. He was a godly, successful. But the success went to his head and he decided to step into a role God had not given him. The king was not to function as the priest. The combination of those roles is reserved for Messiah. In his pride Uzziah entered the temple to offer up incense to God in the Holy Place. The priests tried to stop him, but Uzziah went into a rage against them. Suddenly God struck Uzziah with leprosy. He had to withdraw and died a couple of years later.vii
King Uzziah died, the king who led us from poverty to prosperity, the king who has led us for half a century—and the most disconcerting thing for Isaiah is that his king has died under the direct judgement of God. The haunting question is what happens now? The king is dead! I remember when the news story broke that JFK had been assassinated. Many people went into a panic. The nation was apprehensive because people were not sure what was going on or what would transpire next. There is a similar national anxiety here.
So the connection in verse 1 is this. King Uzziah has died. There is an absence of this earthly king’s leadership. Then the heavens open and Isaiah sees that the King of King is still on the throne! He is the eternal sovereign. On the surface it might look like everything is out of control; but it is still under the control of the Lord of hosts. His kingdom stands firm and that is what really counts. We are moving toward a national election in the coming year. As citizens of this country we will do what we can to elect godly leaders with Christian values. We care about the leadership of this country. But at a higher level, it doesn’t matter who becomes President or what direction this country takes—God will still rule over my life and your life. He is not subject to the ups and downs of earthly kingdom. “Therefore,” Heb. 12:28 says, “since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” We will serve the King of Kings in whatever environment we find ourselves; and He will take care of us in any and every kind of circumstance.
Notice the posture of the Lord in this revelation. He is sitting on His throne. He is not standing there ringing his hands with anxiety; He knows the end from the beginning. He sits on the circle of the earth and brings His purposes to pass—regardless of what the kings of the earth do or don’t do.viii He is “high and lifted up.” That is an understatement of His exaltation. But Isaiah wants us to know something of the glory surrounding our king. The train of His robe filled the temple: another indication of His glory.
We know from John’s gospel (12:41) that it was the Lord Jesus that Isaiah saw. In John 12 the apostle makes applies Isaiah’s words to Jesus and then in verse 41 says, “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”
Isaiah saw the seraphim hoovering near the throne giving honor and obedience to the King.
This is the only place in the Bible we see seraphim. They are a different order of beings than the cherubim seen in Ezekiel.ix Both are a high order of being because both seraphim and cherubim dwell near the throne of God. We don’t know all the different kinds of creatures in heaven. We know there are angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, and probable others. The root word “seraph” means “to burn.”x These creatures glow with the holy fire of God! They honor the holiness of the Lord with passion and zeal.
Notice in this vision, Isaiah doesn’t have to be told these are seraphim. He knows that by revelation. On the Mt. of Transfiguration, Peter knew Moses and Elijah by revelation.xi In heaven we want have to go through our gray matter to know and understand. I Cor. 13:12 says, “…Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
We know a couple of other things about these seraphim. (1) They are standing, not sitting. They stand in the presence of the Lord to do His bidding. (2) The have six wings. With two they cover their faces. As glorious as these beings are, they cannot stand face-to-face with the Lord, nor do they presume to do so. It is not their own beauty or identity nor the identity of their fellow seraphim that is of importance to them; but the identity of the Lord of hosts on the throne.xii With two wings they cover their feet. This too is symbolic of their modesty and humility. There is no arrogance around the throne of God. People who think they’re going to tell God off someday don’t have a clue who they’re dealing with. With the other two they fly. They are quick to do the bidding of the King. They are there to worship Him and do those things pleasing to Him. In a moment we will see them respond to Isaiah’s need for cleansing. They will not even have to be told to do it. By revelation they know the King’s will and immediately do it—they fly quickly to the task. (3) Isaiah 6:3 says they cry one to another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” To say a word three times is designed to communicate intensity, “Holy, Holy, Holy…”xiii With each declaration there is a building of that intensity as they echo the theme: Holy—Holy—Holy!
The emphasis in heaven is on the holiness of God. It is the greatest of all compliments. God’s holiness sets Him separate and above all creation. Yes the earth is full of His glory but His person and honor exceeds all that. What does the cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy” declare about God? It recognizes His moral excellence. He is pure and right in all that He does. He is full of grace and truth. His love is expressed in the most perfect balance of justice and mercy.
Isaiah often speaks of “The Holy One of Israel.” I counted 25 times that Isaiah uses that exact reference to the Lord in addition to others that are similar. It is a title packed with emotion and meaning for Isaiah. It communicates revelation about the Lord that he gets here in our text. The cry of the seraphim is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” That is their declaration and description of the Lord of hosts.” That is their song of worship toward Him. “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.”
I find it painfully sad that heaven continually celebrates holiness and the church on earth avoids it as if it were a bad word. Legalism is not holiness; but neither is lasciviousness. Isaiah confronted Israel with “The Holy One of Israel.” They wouldn’t have been so upset if the word “Holy” had not been attached to the message. They would not have minded much if he had just told them God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. But when you talk holiness it sounds like I’m going to have to do what God wants even if it’s different than what I want.
So in Isaiah 30:10 Israel is saying to Isaiah, “…Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things.” Verse 11 “…Get off this path, Stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.” But that is exactly the mission God gave Isaiah in his commissioning. Isaiah has seen the Lord and He must declare Him as “The Holy One of Israel.” 1 Peter 1:15-16 “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." Like Israel in Isaiah’s day there are a lot of people who take the name of the Lord but actually celebrate getting as worldly as they possibly can and still make it into heaven.
Secularismxiv stands in contrast to the devotion and dedication to the Lord that is holy. There is a god in America that is very intent on shutting you and me up concerning the Lord. Secularism is worshipped and served in this country just as fervently as any other religion. I have recently found myself hesitant to speak up about the Lord because it has become so politically incorrect to do so. The god called Secularism insists that I be quite or be thought a fool. In the world out there I have to virtually live down being a preacher. Under the deception of secularism there is the assumption the psychologist who worships at the feet of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung must be more competent than the man who worships at the feet of Jesus. “After all we must be careful to preserve separation of church and state.” Well, I think that’s a bunch of non-sense to begin with. But, if we’re going to separate my ideas from the public arena, let’s also do it for the humanist religion and the atheist’s voice. If we’re going to remove freedom of speech from the Christian, let’s remove it from the people who worship the creature rather than the creator.xv
When the seraphim declare God’s holiness the power of their voice shook the posts of the temple door and the glory of God flooded the place like smoke. The smoke is the Shekinah glory of God—the
same glory that filled the temple when Solomon dedicated it to the Lord; the same glory that was on the Mt. of Transfiguration.xvi
II. What does Isaiah SAY when he sees all this?
Verse 5 “So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."
It wasn’t seeing the seraphim that alarmed him. It was seeing the King. A vision of His holiness immediately revealed to Isaiah his own depravity. Isaiah by human standards was probably a very godly, moral man. But our best is as filthy rags in the light of God’s purity and righteousness.xvii A revival that manifests the power and glory of God must begin with the conviction of the Holy Spirit that reveals sin. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t have our sin and the glory of God at the same time. The glory of God carries with it a revelation of the holiness of God. And that revelation exposes unrighteousness. In the presence of a holy God, man must fall in contrition. You see that in Job, Daniel, John at Patmos, and Paul on the road to Damascus. xviii
The closer you get to the thrown of God the more aware you are of your own depravity. "Woe is me, for I am undone!” God cannot use the man who has never said that. That is the precursor to cleansing. That is the direct effect of getting close to a holy God. I used to be amazed in church that when I gave an altar call for repentance; the most godly of the group would be the first to the altar. I thought, “This is very strange. Did I say that right? Did they understand that I was asking people who need forgiveness of sin to come forward?” Yes, I said it right. But people who have distanced themselves from God don’t think what they’re doing is all that bad. After all everybody else is doing it. People who have drawn near to God are acutely aware of grieving the Holy Spirit even in the little things and want to get it right and keep it right.
Why so much emphasis here on the lips? Why didn’t Isaiah say, “I am a man of an unclean heart and I dwell in the midst of people with impure hearts”? The abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.xix If the heart is pure the lips will be pure. If the heart is defiled the lips will be defiled. The lips in this passage are representative of the condition of the whole man. The evidence of uncleanness is found on the lips. So here Isaiah is stricken with conviction, broken by his own rottenness and openly confessing his need.
This is a marvelous place in our story. For the moment Isaiah acknowledges his need, God sends the remedy. The seraph flies to his rescue with a live coal from the altar.
Verses 6 & 7, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged."
What is the symbolism here? Coals were on the brazen altar.xx The brazen altar was where the blood sacrifices were offered. The coals symbolize the atonement.xxi Isaiah’s sin problem was not resolved by sincere resolution or forty stripes of punishment or 30 days of penance. Only the blood of Jesus cleanses sin. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission or forgiveness.xxii But the altar of Calvary is available to any and all sinners who will fall before the holiness of God and confess their need, their helplessness, their undoneness. Is there a sinner here today whose heart is crying out, “Woe is me, for I am undone!?” God has provided the perfect solution for that person—the perfect sacrifice is Jesus—one touch from the hot coals of His sacrifice and your sin is purged. "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged."
III. What does Isaiah HEAR in this vision?
Verse 8 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?"
The call is not to the seraphim? They are holy and dedicated to God, but they have never cried “Woe is me, for I am undone!? They were created holy and kept their first estate. No, Isaiah is being sent to people who need to walk down the same path he has walked. They need a preacher who is touched with the feelings of their infirmities. The creature qualified to preach the grace of God is one that has experienced the grace of God. Isaiah has been qualified by a holy touch from the brazen altar of God. So the question is for Isaiah’s ears to hear, "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?"
Can you sense the Meekness of the Omnipotent in that question? The one who commands the seraphim and cherubim could certainly command Isaiah. But He does not issue a command; He poses a question. He is looking for volunteers; only volunteers. God will not bully you into His service. He simply raises the question and waits for your response. If you don’t respond, the moment passes and with it the opportunity of a lifetime. "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Does anyone here hear that sound from heaven? If you do, you are being given opportunity—opportunity to say “Yes, I am here fully available to you.”
“Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." I’m so glad I said that when I heard the call of God on my life. I have certainly stumbled around and done the task with much imperfection on my part. But oh how glad I said, "Here am I! Send me." I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey now; and I am glad to tread a few more miles in service to my King. What a privilege it is to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What a privilege it is to serve the one who captures the attention and worship of the seraphim and all the host of heaven. Have you thought about the privilege? I don’t have time to live for money; I don’t have time to live for pleasure or comfort. I have found the ultimate privilege: serving Him whom my soul loves.
There is a subtle wisdom in Isaiah’s response that we might miss if we go too fast over this verse. "Here am I! Send me." I hear a pause between the two sentences. "Here am I! I am at your disposal. In the same what Mary said to Gabriel, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38), Isaiah says, Here am I!” Then he waits. He waits to be sent. He has truly come under the command of His Lord. If there is no sending, there will be no going on my part. I don’t presume to send myself. I wait for your command. “Send me." On the road to Damascus Paul responds to Jesus in this way, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Is your heart crying out to the Lord, "Here am I! Send me." If God does the sending, He picks the assignment. Are you good for that?
There are some assignments the most selfish of sinners would accept. “Your assignment is to become a marvelous success; people will honor you; you will have plenty of money and prestige, you will not have to work very hard; and all you person goals will be met.” Would you accept such an assignment? “Oh, yes, Lord here am I.” But what if the assignment were not so appealing? What if the assignment brought you no personal glory or comfort? What if it were a difficult task that looked to be a failure?
God only tells Isaiah the assignment after Isaiah has made himself fully available to any assignment. The servant does not cherry pick assignment and tell his lord what it’s to be. The servant simply does his master’s bidding.
So now comes the assignment in verse 9 & 10.
“And He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' 10 "Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed."
That is a strange assignment. I’m sending you; but from a human perspective it will be an utter failure. Instead of your message being well received and turning all these people to the Lord. The opposite will happen. The message will produce even more hardness of heart and spiritual blindness.
The hardness of heart will not be because the message was wrong, or the delivery was wrong, or that God consigned them to this fate.xxiii It will be because of their rejection of the message. No one can hear the gospel and stay the same. The hearing will either produce repentance or it will produce a hardening of the heart. In 2 Cor 2:14-16 Paul writes, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life….” (NIV). The same sun that melts wax will harden clay.xxiv The same message that melts the heart of one person may get a resistance from another.
In John 12:37 the apostle says that even after the miracles Jesus did, the Pharisees would not believe in Him. Then John quotes this passage in Isaiah and applies it to Jesus ministry. Those people hardened their hearts to the message to such a point that they conspired in the crucifixion of Jesus. At the same time there were people in the crowd who put their faith in Christ. One group was saved by the message; one group was hardened. A judgement that accompanies rejection of the truth is a deafening and blinding of the hearer. The person becomes more deceived than ever.xxv
So Isaiah is being sent to a gospel-hardenedxxvi people who refuse to accept the true message that God is sending them. They want to hear pleasant things; they want smooth, positive talk. They do not want to hear about “The Holy One of Israel.”xxvii
Isaiah’s response to this difficult, discouraging assignment is to ask in verse 11 how long he’s going to have to do this.
God says, "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, 12 The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.”
It’s going to be a very long assignment and everything is going to go to pot. It’s going to get worse rather than better. The nation will go further into apostasy. The land will become utterly desolate because of God’s judgement on them. The Lord will take the people into captivity far away.
Let me just say something about this assignment. First, Isaiah does it in faithful obedience to the Lord. Second, Isaiah does not try to get out of the assignment; he does not complain about the assignment; he just does what he is told.
I wonder how many people would even know that an assignment like that could come from the Lord. Most church goers think God has the same definition of success the world has. They could not accept this assignment because they would probably think it was from the devil himself. They could not conceive of God sending somebody without the end result looking good. Why is that? It’s because their mind is as carnal as any sinner out there in the world. By their standards, Isaiah was a failure. By God’s standards he was a success. Jeremiah was a flop. By God’s standards he was a man of God. John the Baptist had good initial success. But he ended up in a cold cell by himself waiting to be beheaded. Today we celebrate Peter’s ministry; but I’m not sure it was very glorious to be hung upside down. The apostle John sat alone on the Isle of Patmos. And how did it all end for Isaiah? Tradition tells us he was cut in half with a saw—bloody and messy.xxviii
The vision does end on this encouraging note in verse 13.
“But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump."
God says out of it all I will give you some positive results. Out of all the fiery judgement, a remnant will be saved. A few in proportion to the whole will respond in a positive way and I will bring restoration to Israel through that remnant.xxix
So what has happened in this chapter? Isaiah saw the Lord. He got a profound revelation of the majesty and holiness of our King. God’s revealed holiness brought him to deep repentance and cleansing. Then he hears the question God is asking; the question that bring him to further decision and consecration. "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" I think I hear that question being asked even this morning. Can you hear it? "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Yes, I believe I do hear that call. Perhaps you hear it too. Perhaps your response is like Isaiah’s “Here am I! Send me." Let’s wait on the Lord for a few minutes as process that.
Footnotes:
i Acts 20:24
ii All Scripture quotes are from New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
iii Gen. 12:7; Heb. 11:27; Luke 5:8; Matt. 17:1-3; Rev. 1:17.
iv The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan) p. 1019. Keil & Delietzsch set the date at 758 BC. The passing of Uzziah represented the passing of an era for both Israel and the world. Jerome identifies this as the time when the city of Rome was founded. Isa 6:1 (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
v Tradition says that Isaiah and Uzziah were cousins: ISAIAH (from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft). We can see Isaiah’s easy access to the elite in Isaiah 7:3 and 8:2.
vi 2Chron. 25:17-24.
vii In comments on 2 Chron 26:16-22 Keil & Delitzsch wrote, “For the rest, we cannot exactly say how long Uzziah continued to live under the leprosy; but from the fact that his son Jotham, who at Uzziah's death was twenty-five years old, conducted the government for him, so much is clear, viz., that it can only have lasted a year or two.” (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.).
viii Isaiah 46:10-11; 40:21-23; Psalm 2.
ix Ezekiel 1 and 10; Gen. 3:24; and possibly Rev. 4.
x OT:8313 saraph (saw-raf'); a primitive root; to be (causatively, set) on fire: (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.). The brazen serpent (Num. 21:8) glowed in the dessert sun in a similar appearance; but that’s the only similarity with seraphim.
xi F. C. Jennings, Studies in Isaiah, 7th printing (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1974) p. 61.
xii Ibid., 62.
xiii NIV Study Bible, p. 1019.
xiv Secularism is defined as “indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10 ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1993) p. 1056.
xv Romans 1:25.
xvi 1Kings 8:10-11; 2Chron. 5:13-14; Ex. 40:34; Mark 9:7.
xvii Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:10.
xviii Job 42:6; Daniel 10:8; Rev. 1:17; Acts 9:4.
xix Matthew 12:34.
xx The seraph probably took the coal from the brazen altar with the tongs, although it is possible the coal had been transferred from the brazen altar to the altar of incense. Either way, the atonement symbolism prevails.
xxi From Lev. 16:11-12 we know that the High Priest would take a censor full of coals from the fire into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. The setting of Isaiah’s vision may have been on the Day of Atonement as Alexander Whyte assumes ( Bible Characters from the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1990) p. 389).
xxii Heb. 9:22; John 1:36; 1Pet. 1:19; 1John 1:7; Rev. 1:5.
xxiii 2 Peter 3:9.
xxiv Jennings, p. 68.
xxv 2 Thess. 2:10-12; Rom. 1:23-24. Compare Ex. 8:32 with Ex. 9:12 in which God reinforced the direction Pharaoh chose.
xxvi The nation had already been rejecting the Lord’s commandments and living double lives (Isa. 1:12-17). As was the case with Moses’ message to Pharaoh, Isaiah’s message simply brought them opportunity to turn or to become more confirmed in their rebellion. The choice was always theirs to make (Isa. 1:18-20).
xxvii Isaiah 30:9-11.
xxviii Hebrews 11:37.
xxix The shadowy fulfillment of this came under Ezra’s leadership after the decree of Cyrus. However, the greater fulfillment for the nation of Israel will happen in the last days. Do not miss the principle which has application in many situations, not the least of which is the church in America today.
