Here Am I! Send Me!

Intro:

Good morning! (Comment about parents being here)

How many can remember well the words: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it?” (Mission Impossible)

It’s actually an important concept when you think about it, that we can apply to our work in the church.

Our mission? (Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature … - Mark 16:15)

Will we choose to accept it? (We better! Souls are depending on it, and the state of the church is depending on it, too!)

Listen to the following lyrics:

“To Christ be loyal and be true; His banner be unfurled, And borne aloft till is secured The conquest of the world.

To Christ be loyal and be true; He needs brave volunteers To stand against the pow'rs of sin, Moved not by frowns or fears.”

Some of the lyrics of the song - “To Christ Be Loyal and Be True.”

Back to the idea of “he needs brave volunteers ...”

What do you think of when you think of volunteers? (Good connotation to that word, or bad?)

Do you think of Rocky Top? :D

Or “I volunteer as tribute?”

Or how about those who volunteer to protect and serve our country in the military and in law enforcement, etc.?

When we think of volunteers, we typically think of that as a good thing!

This morning, let’s think about those who volunteer in the utmost important sense — volunteering to serve in the LORD’S army!

Are you one of the Lord’s brave volunteers? (I hope so!)

And when we say that, are we truly volunteering?

Or are we relunctant and begrudging as if we’ve been “voluntold.”

I want you to think of someone in your O.T. who was not just ready to volunteer, but did so eagerly as the Lord called him to serve as a prophet!

He was READY AND WILLING!

Can you think of who it is?

What if I give you a hint? (“Here am I, send me!”)

The answer is … Isaiah!

Turn with me to the book of Isaiah in your O.T., and we want to look at chapter 6 this morning.

Intro to Isaiah:

The prophet Isaiah was an interesting prophet in that his message was one of doom and gloom — That’s not unusual in the messages of the prophets … because many of them preached doom and gloom.

But what’s interesting about Isaiah is that God is essentially going to tell him that he’s going to preach this, and his message is just going to push the people even further away in that they would NOT want to hear what he had to say! (We’ll notice that come v. 9 and following in a moment).

But don’t miss this when you study Isaiah as well — For all the doom and gloom, destruction and punishment found in Isaiah, there’s also a lot of hope!

In the same book that pronounces woes upon not only the Israelites but also various other nations that needed punishing …

You’ll also find the HOPE that the Israelites were going to come BACK after Babylonian captivity — There would be HOPE for backslidden Israel when they came back home!

Where was the ultimate hope of Israel?

In the eventual coming of the Messiah! …

The Messiah is predicted in the book of Isaiah many times — about 40 times just in Isaiah chapter 53 alone!

That’s the famous “suffering Servant” section.” (That’s the section that says “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and aquainted with grief.”)

So Isaiah is actually an extrememly important book, theologically speaking!

In fact, theological conservatism versus theological liberalism hinges to a LARGE degree on our understanding of the book of Isaiah.

How so?

Well … “Preacher, do you REALLY believe that one man, Isaiah, wrote the entire book of Isaiah?”

Yeah I do!

(The modernist alternative tries to split the book of Isaiah into 2 or perhaps 3 different authors, and when it does so, it does away with the belief in many of the prophecies in the book, such as the prophecy of Cyrus being the king that would send the Jews back home after the captivity - Isa. 44:28).

We said earlier that Isaiah was eager to fulfill his role as a prophet, saying “Here am I, send me!”

Well, do you remember reading in the book of Hebrews that some of the O.T. prophets were SAWN ASUNDER for the kingdom of God’s sake?

Hebrews 11:37–40 - “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

One of those prophets that was SAWN IN HALF?

Well, most scholars believe one of those was the prophet Isaiah!

How many of us would still say, “HERE AM I, SEND ME,” if you knew that was going to be your fate?!

Let’s get into …

The Text:

Verses 1-7 - A HEAVENLY VISION:

V 1 - You compare this verse with Isa. 1:1, and we can gather that Isaiah started prophesying late in the reign of King Uzziah.

Isa. 1:1 says that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

Scholars that are a lot smarter than me have done some figuring and conclude that Isaiah prophesied somewhere between 40 and 64 years. (That’s a long time either way!)

So he started as a YOUNG man, and finished as an OLD man!

Notice, Isaiah sees the Lord sitting on His throne in heaven …

Wouldn’t you like to have seen God on His throne like this?!

If you go to heaven, one day you will! :D

V 2 - Seraphim (a type of angel).

V 3 - We still sing this song, “Holy, holy, holy!”

This expression is found in Revelation, too!

(Revelation 4:8 - talks about angels who “do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!’”)

V 4 - This reminds me of the thunderings and the shakings that took place on Mt. Sinai when Moses went to receive the Ten Commandments (you can read about it in Exo. 19:16ff)!

Now you can imagine how alarming this would be — Hearing this loud booming voice, and seeing and smelling the smoke that accompanies what is about to happen next!

Isaiah is TERRIFIED!

V 5 - Essentially, Isaiah is like: “I’m a dead man!”

“How on earth can I survive THIS?!”

Notice Isaiah immediately knows that he has seen the throne of GOD!

And notice that he feels TOTALLY UNWORTHY to do so!

Isaiah knows that he is a man of unclean lips (He’s SINNED with his tongue, probably many times!)

And he’s not worthy to stand before a holy God!

… And yet! … And yet God chose him!

VS 6-7 - If you’ve done a lot of grilling before — picture taking one of those hot coals from a grill and touching it to your MOUTH!

This must have been quite the amazing sight!

“Purged” — Could also be translated “atoned for!”

Atoned for HOW?

Atoned for IN PROSPECT of the coming blood sacrifice of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who Isaiah would be prophesying about!

The next verse, we’re going to see this eagerness to respond to the Lord’s call that we’ve talked about.

V 8 - Now you think about this:

If YOU had just seen a glimpse of the throne of almighty God, and His angels bellowing “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord of hosts!” …

Then might you also be highly motivated to do what He wanted you to do?!

Listen, EVERY KNEE … SHALL BOW on the judgment day!

Wouldn’t it be better if you bowed before Him now?!

Wouldn’t it be better if you crown Him Lord of your life TODAY, rather than waiting?!

Because again you WILL bow before Him on the day of judgment, as will every atheist and agnostic that there ever was!

God has a mission — Who would accept it?

“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me!”

In this next section, we’re going to notice a most interesting sad fact about the message of Isaiah — THE PEOPLE WOULD NOT ACCEPT IT.

VS 9-10 - “Go, and tell this people!”

What have WE been told?

Mark 16:15 we mentioned earlier - “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!”

“GO, and tell this people!”

Here’s the particular message the people of Isaiah’s day needed to hear:

“Keep on hearing, but not understanding, and keep on seeing, but not perceiving!”

It’s as if to say: “You keep on being stubborn, you keep on refusing to heed God’s message, and see what happens to you!”

We could say the same today!

“Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ...”

Wait a minute … Does God WANT the people to dull their hearts, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes?!”

Well, no God wants all to come to the knowledge of the truth, which leads to obedience (1 Tim. 2:4)!

God doesn’t WANT these people to harden their hearts, but …

Do you remember what we studied recently from the lukewarm congregation at Laodicea?

We learned from that account (Rev. 3) that Jesus would rather us be hot or COLD, not lukewarm, and so here, Isaiah’s preaching is going to push the people away (those who really weren’t interested in the truth).

The Word of God discerns people’s hearts (Heb. 4:12), and this people’s hearts were waxed COLD (to use the expression Jesus uses in Matt. 24:12).

By the way, Jesus quotes from this very passage of Isaiah, when He explains why He taught in parables - Matt. 13:13-15! (Go read this passage if enough time).

V 11 - We already said that Isaiah prophesied for a very LONG time!

Somewhere in the ballpark of 40 to 64 years scholars think!

Notice, God intends for Isaiah to prophecy until the time would come when the Israelite cities would lie in RUINS because of the coming destruction from the Babylonians!

Micah 3:12 says: “Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.”

Read the book of Lamentations, written by the prophet Jeremiah, and you’ll see Jeremiah lamenting the fact that that’s exactly what happened to Jerusalem!

V12-13 - This is foreseeing that the people would go into captivity, BUT … there’s hope in the fact that a righteous remnant WILL return from the 70 year captivity in Babylon, and through that returning righteous remnant, guess Who would eventually come?

The Messiah!

Jesus Christ!

Application:

What can we learn from this text dealing with the call of Isaiah?

We can learn that God is ultimately holy, and we (by comparison) are not (but we should strive to BE holy, for He is holy - 1 Pet. 1:16)!

We can learn that there is a sense of urgency to proclaiming God’s message! (Mark 16:15)

And we can learn that, unfortunately, many people are going to reject the Gospel message, so that should not surprise us at all, unfortunately.

What about you? Will you accept or reject the message?

And will you take the message to your friends and loved ones?