“Woe is Me, for I am Undone”

Review: God's Revelation of Himself to Isaiah

0:01 Will you turn with me, please, to the sixth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6.

0:20 This is the second in a very brief series of two studies in this very familiar portion of the Word of God. And briefly, by way of review and introduction, I would remind you that we are directed to this passage in a very special sense because of the special circumstances in which we find ourselves as a body of God's people. One of the things that is very, very evident in the teaching ministry of our Lord is its occasional nature. That is, instruction was called forth by the specific occasions of need.

1:05 When our Lord overheard the disciples arguing about who's going to be big shot in the kingdom, he gave them a lecture and a lesson on humility.

1:14 And that's but one of many illustrations of this principle. And so I have sought, as a teaching elder in this assembly, to be sensitive to what God was doing in the occasion of separating Pastor Blaze from us for the work there in East London, and have endeavored to bring to bear upon yourself your consciences and upon my own those aspects of God's truth which speak with peculiar relevance to our present circumstances. And I think the previous hour, for those of us who were there, was a good example of this. Truths that, in isolation, you wouldn't have been turned on to.

1:54 But in the light of our present circumstances, we found our minds predisposed to reach out and to wrestle with the aspects of truth that we grappled with in the past hour. Likewise, I trust that our study of this portion will have peculiar relevance and that we may reach out to the God who speaks in this passage and be willing to receive with unusual eagerness what he says because of the peculiar circumstances in which we find ourselves. Needless to say, there are certain things in Isaiah's call to the prophetic office that can never be repeated. Things peculiar to Isaiah, as an individual, things peculiar to Isaiah, as a prophet. And God no longer comes by way of direct revelation to call and commission his servants, but his call and commission is nonetheless real and that call and commission comes to us with principles that find tremendous parallels in this portion of the word of God. And I suggested last Lord's Day that what God did, essentially, and primarily to Isaiah in this vision recorded in the sixth chapter of his prophecy, was to reveal to Isaiah truths that break down into three major categories.

3:18 First of all, God revealed some foundational truths about himself, certain things about God the sender or God the commissioner. Then secondly, God revealed some fundamental and foundational truths to Isaiah, about himself as a man or about the one sent. And then thirdly, God revealed some very, very strange, yet again, fundamental and vital things about the people of God or the people to whom the prophet is sent. So you have a revelation of the sender, God, a revelation of the one sent, the prophet, and a revelation of the people of God, those to whom the prophet is sent. And I suggested that what is revealed about God, last week, in our study, I suggest what is revealed in the passage is something about God as the God of absolute sovereignty and unrivaled supremacy. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he saw him seated upon a throne, his royal garments filling the temple. And it was a throne that was in a place of exaltation, it was high and it was lifted up.

4:34 And in this revelation, in this vision, God is telling his servant that the God who sends him is the God of absolute sovereignty and unrivaled supremacy. And then in this matter of the chant of the seraphim and the smoke that filled the temple in the trembling of the threshold, God is revealing that he is a God of transcendent majesty and of burning purity. And then he hears the chant of these seraphim, a chant that declares that God's glory fills the earth. He's the God of manifested glory.

5:13 And then this same God who shatters the prophet with this revelation of his glory comes to him, recorded in verses 6 and following, in the way of forgiving grace and of pardoning mercy. And then he's the God who, though high and lifted up, the God from whom...

5:31 Whom all comes, he condescends to incorporate the prophet into his own sovereign purpose and introduces the prophet into the very councils of the triune God. Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And this almighty God is revealed as the God of condescending purpose. So much for a review of what we covered last week.

Introduction to Isaiah's Self-Revelation

5:57 And now we focus our attention this morning upon the two final categories. Of revelation given in this portion of scripture, what God revealed about his servant and what God revealed about the people to whom he was sent. I simply remind you that God did not begin by showing Isaiah something about the people or something about himself as a prophet. He began with the revelation of his own glory.

6:25 For nothing is more fundamental to any child of God. And certainly it is intentional. And nothing is more intensified in its fundamental significance to a servant of God. Nothing, I say, is more fundamental or vital than his vision of who God is.

6:42 This regulates everything else. And it's true of every person here this morning. If you have false notions of God, you have false notions of yourself. And if you have false notions of God and of yourself, you'll have false notions of salvation, of your purpose in life.

6:59 Everything must begin with a right understanding. A right understanding of God. But the immediate and reflex reaction to any right understanding of God is a right understanding of ourselves. The psalmist said, In thy light we shall see light.

7:18 And it was in the light of this brilliant and blazing revelation of God that the prophet received a shattering and undoing revelation of himself. And for the truth, for the true servant of God next to his knowledge of God, nothing is more vital than an accurate knowledge of himself. And we read the beginnings of this revelation of himself in verse 5. 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.

7:57 For mine eyes have seen thee, King, Jehovah of hosts. When God revealed himself to Isaiah, Isaiah came not to an initial understanding of these things, for there is no indication that this is the record of his conversion, but it is the record of his peculiar commission. And at his commissioning, Isaiah received a heightened sense of these things, an intensified revelation of certain things, and I would like to suggest that the foundational truths about himself which Isaiah received are three. First of all, he had a new and intensified revelation concerning his creaturehood as a man. Secondly, his sinnerhood as a fallen man. And thirdly, his servanthood as a forgiven sinner. First of all, then, he received in this vision an intensified revelation of his creaturehood as a man.

Isaiah's Intensified Revelation of His Creaturehood

9:11 Look carefully at verse 5. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone,

9:22 because I am a man of unclean lips. E.J. Young, that godly and great, scholar who understood the nuances and the subtle tones and overtones of the Hebrew language, suggests that this phrase could properly be rendered, Woe is me, I am undone, a man unclean of lips, am I.

9:52 So that the emphasis is first of all upon Isaiah's intensified awareness of his creaturehood, as a man. For remember what he has been gazing upon. Having gazed upon the high and the lofty one, the uncreated, the eternal, I am Jehovah. Having heard the declaration, the whole earth is full of his glory, everything that is created reveals the creator himself uncreated, dependent upon nothing but all, dependent.

10:32 Upon him, deriving its life and its significance in reference to him. Furthermore, having beheld seraphim, creatures of God, but not earthly creatures, creatures who, as far as we can glean from the biblical data, do not need to rest as we rest, do not need to eat as we do. They are not dependent upon the earth for its yield. They are not weary with the return of the sun.

11:02 They are not weary with the return of the sun and the moon in the cycles that we find ourselves waking and sleeping. Having then gazed upon the eternal God, the uncreated, holy God of Israel. Having gazed upon seraphim, creatures, yes, but not earthly creatures. Man was made a little lower than the angels.

11:26 Seeing himself in comparison with God and with the seraphim, there comes home to the heart of this godly man, Isaiah, this intensified awareness of his creaturehood as a man. And he cries out, A man! Woe is me! I'm undone!

11:50 I feel something of what I am as a man in the presence of God and in the presence of the seraphim. Now, why in the world? Did God give to his prophet an intensified realization of his creaturehood as a man? Well, for the simple reason that no man serves God effectively who does not carry with him the consciousness of what he is as a creature.

12:25 You remember the apostle Paul stated it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 8. But we have this treasure in earth. It says, And you see, our safety is in the constant and conscious awareness of our creaturehood as men. For as men, that which characterizes us even before sin entered is our dependentness upon God.

13:01 Adam in the garden of Eden, when he came from the hand of God, was no sinner, but he was a dependent creature. Dependent upon the mercy of God in causing the ground to yield its fruit. Dependent upon the love and favor of God to reveal to him his will and to tell him what he should and should not do. It is part and parcel of creaturehood to know dependentness that has nothing to do with sinnerhood.

13:34 And it's when we embrace our humanity, our creaturehood as men, that we then understand what the scripture means when it says, Cursed be he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. We understand what the scripture means when it says, Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and courses through the nostrils in terms of the sovereign purpose of God. For Acts 17 says, He gives to all life and breath and all things. The only safe posture for any child of God, and this is intensified for a servant of God in the work of the ministry, is constantly to know and to feel, I am a creature utterly dependent upon God the Creator.

14:31 You see, humility is not convincing myself, I'm not quite as great as sometimes I think I am.

14:39 Humility is not telling lies to myself. Humility is simply facing the facts. God says, your breath comes from me. You're dependent upon me for all that you are and you have.

14:54 Pride says, I get something from myself or from some other creature. Humility, or one essential element of humility, we're not talking about contrition now, but true humility. Our Lord never knew contrition for his sin. He had no sin.

15:11 For which to feel contrition. But he was meek and lowly of heart. It was the recognition of what he was as a man. And in our Lord Jesus Christ, dependentness is stamped upon every phase of his life.

15:24 I can of myself do nothing. That's why he prayed. That's why he often spent lengthy periods of prayer. His prayer was the constant pronouncement of his awareness that he was man.

15:39 And never forget this, as man, our Lord took the posture of dependentness before his God and Father.

Practical Implications of Creaturehood for Ministry

15:50 Therefore, I call upon you, my beloved brother, constantly to remember that you're a man and that as a man you stand in the place of constant dependentness upon your God. And also another very practical implication of this, when we understand we are men, we'll not be embarrassed. We'll not be embarrassed about that which is peculiar to us as men, that is not true of seraphim and is not true of God. We read in the 40th chapter, and I keep referring to that chapter in the exposition because it's an extended commentary upon this passage.

16:31 Isaiah says, Have you not heard? Have you not known? The everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth, he fainteth not, neither is weary. Then he goes on to contrast man, the creature.

16:44 He fainteth not, neither is weary. He fainteth not, neither is weary. He fainteth not, neither is weary. He fainteth not, neither is weary.

16:45 He says, even that which is the epitome of energy, he says, even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. Why? Because they're creatures. Because they're creatures.

16:59 And the servant of God who does not face realistically his creaturehood as a man will be prey to the work of the devil in driving him beyond what God requires of him. The scripture has said, if the devil cannot freeze us out, with indifference, he'll burn us up with fanaticism. And the essence of fanaticism is to forget what I am. Oh, may God help you, Mrs. Blaze, to be a Nathan to your beloved husband when all of the pressures and responsibilities are upon him that could consume 48 hours of a 28-hour day to be his Nathan, to remind him he is but a man. And the Son of Man said, Let us come apart. Let us come apart. Let us come apart.

17:47 Let us come apart. Let us come apart. Let us come apart. Let us come apart.

17:47 Let us come apart. Let us come apart. Let us come apart. Let us come apart.

17:47 Let us come apart. But God has said, if we do not come apart, we'll come apart because we are men. We are men. And God revealed this to his servant.

17:56 And he further went on to say, And as a man, your strength is to be found not in kidding yourself that you're some superhuman creature who does not grow weary and discouraged and faint, but that latter part of Isaiah 40 says, The youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew, renew their strength when they take the posture of dependantness. God comes as the giving God and causes them to mount up with things that are not human now. They shall mount up, young men, with wings as eagles.

18:31 You ever see men with wings? You see a man who waits upon God and you're looking upon a man with wings, who when he owns his dependantness as man is then in the posture where God is pleased to endow him with measures of strength and quickening power that go beyond his natural resources. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

Isaiah's Intensified Revelation of His Sinnerhood

18:59 They shall walk and not faint. Well there is a second aspect of what God revealed to Isaiah about himself. Not only his creaturehood as a man, this intensified awareness, but secondly his sinnerhood as a fallen man. Look again at verse 5.

19:17 Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. It's the language of an impending calamity. Something has happened. He said, I've seen something that has utterly disjointed me.

19:31 I'm undone because I am a man, but rendering it as E.J. Young does, a man unclean of lips am I. And here was this intensified revelation of his sin.

19:48 His sinnerhood as a fallen man. Now get the setting. He has beheld the thrice holy God seated upon a throne, his royal garments filling the temple, no peer, no one standing with him, alongside of him, exalted above all. And he's heard the antiphonal chant of the seraphim, holy, holy, holy.

20:13 The smoke of the living presence of God. In scripture smoke is often a symbol of the divine presence. You remember the pillar of fire and the cloud and there are references in the Old Testament to this. And having seen this revelation of God and then having beheld these sinless creatures, the seraphim, who in the presence of this God veil face and feet, but have no problem speaking forth that essential characteristic of God, his holiness.

20:43 They have no problem. Isaiah finds he cannot open his mouth. No thought here. No thought here of preaching for God.

20:50 He finds himself utterly unfit even to praise such a God. He's beheld seraphim praising him. Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

21:03 And Isaiah's words get stuck in his throat. And he says, I can't even praise so holy a God. Why? And at that point it was only natural that his sense of sinfulness should terminate upon the organs of speech.

21:17 I'm a man. I'm a man of unclean lips. Was he simply aware of the sins of the tongue? Of course not.

21:27 But it was in that setting that the sinfulness would find its focused concern. I'm in the presence of this God. It is only right that his creatures, who are in utter dependence upon him, should praise him. Look at these creatures, seraphim.

21:42 They continually praise him. But I cannot. Why? There was this intensified revelation of his sinnerhood, as a fallen man.

21:52 And Isaiah knew the human heart well enough, and his book is a revelation of this, to know that the activity of the lips is but an echo of the state of the heart. For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed all forms of sin. And Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And here, then, was a fresh revelation to the man of God, a revelation that shattered him, of which, of what it meant to be a sinner.

22:23 Now, this revelation that shattered him, that caused him to cry out, I'm undone, a calamity is fallen, or is about to fall upon me. I'm about to die. Why was this necessary? Remember, this is God dealing with his servant to prepare him for his ministry.

Necessity of Deep Discovery of Sinfulness for Communion and Ministry

22:41 Now, why was this necessary? May I suggest two reasons? Number one, if the prophet was to be taken into Moriah, he would be taken into Moriah. Number two, if the prophet was to be taken into Moriah, if he was to be taken into more intimate communion with God, he had to be taken into a deeper discovery of his own sinfulness.

22:59 Let me give it to you again. If the prophet was to be taken into more intimate communion with God, he had to be taken into a deeper discovery of his own sinfulness. Why? I go back to Isaiah 57, 50, another verse that is a commentary upon this passage.

23:17 Thus saith the high and the lofty one, a direct reference to this passage, that inhabiteth eternity, the uncreated one, whose name is holy, the transcendent, majestic, ineffably holy God. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. What is God saying? He's saying, I dwell in experimental communion with the one who is humble.

23:52 What is humility? That's accepting my creaturehood. And he says, with the one who is contrite. And what is contrition?

24:00 That's the response of owning my sinnerhood. And God says, I hold fellowship only with those who take their place as creatures in dependantness upon me, and those who take their place as sinners in contrition before me. And each new demand of responsibility. If it is to be discharged in the power of the spirit is a new demand upon the growth of the inner life of the servant of God.

24:32 And some of the things I say only Pastor Blaise will understand. The rest of you will just have to believe we're not mouthing meaningless words. None but the servant of God knows what this means. That with each new dimension of privilege and responsibility comes a demand for the deepening of the inner life of the man of God.

24:59 Without that every widening circle of influence as far as quantity is a neutralizing and a thinning out of the quality of a man's ministry. That's why the men who have been most used of God have been most powerfully wrought upon in their own hearts, so that we read some of their biographies and we say, Lord, that man's living in a realm. I know nothing of. That's why I can only handle a few pages a day.

25:32 If I'm reading Rutherford or David Brainerd, I'd say, Lord, those men walked in paths I know nothing of. And I'm not surprised to see that their circle of usefulness also brought them into areas that I know nothing of. And that's why God dealt this way with his servant. You think God delighted to look down and see this holy man?

25:52 Remember, this was no bum. This was no alcoholic dragged off the streets. This was no lecture drawn from the paths of whore houses and red lights. This was a holy man of God.

26:04 And God so shattered him that he said, God, I'm undone. I can't even speak to praise you, let alone preach for you. Why? You think God is some kind of a sadist?

26:14 No, no. May I say it reverently? It pains God to afflict his servants with this sight of themselves. But it's necessary.

26:23 It's necessary. He must see his sinnerhood as a fallen man if he's to be taken into more intimate communion with God. And as we pray for Pastor Blaise and we say, Lord, may he continually know communion with you, we're asking God to deal with him in such a way that there will be intensified and periodic insights to his own heart that will shatter him, that will humble him, that will undo him. But then there is a second reason as to why God gave this intensified revelation of Isaiah's sinnerhood as a fallen man.

27:02 It was in order that the prophet might be a true spokesman for God. What are the great themes of this evangelical prophet Isaiah? They're the themes of the glory of God, the sinfulness of man, the grace of God, the favor of God in the sending of the servant of Jehovah. Many have called Isaiah the evangelist of the Old Testament.

27:25 Anyone who has the idea that Old Testament religion had no warmth of the gospel, they're just speaking ignorance. You read the prophet Isaiah, and this book just bristles with gospel warmth and overtone. Oh, everyone that thirsteth, oh, thou tossed and afflicted. And Isaiah comes and pours in the oil of comfort.

27:48 And then in Isaiah 58, he probes the conscience like on Nathan. He does it in chapter 1 where he says, in the name of God, I'm sick and tired of your feast days and your fast days and your new moons and your assemblies. He's learned to preach to the human conscience like that. Did he go to some school of elocution?

28:10 In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord. And seeing him, I was brought to this awareness of what I was as a sinner. And I was brought to own and to feel my sinnerhood. And out of the crucible of his own experimental acquaintance with the great issues of sin and grace, he spoke as the prophet of sin.

28:35 Amen. And of grace. And in the light of our discussion in the previous hour, whatever place the seminary or any formal academic structure may have in teaching a man, young or old, Greek and Hebrew and church history and systematic theology, and there may be a place for many men for some of these disciplines to be absorbed and acquired in an academic setting, but whatever place they may have, hear me, young preacher, aspiring to the work of the ministry, your ministry will be done. Now, I am not going to ever be the death incarnate if it does not grow out of continuous inner experimental acquaintance with the issues of sin and of grace.

29:19 And they only come in such a way as to shatter you, to undo you, to humble you, to crush you. And there will be times when you will say I am undone. How in God's name can I ever preach when I feel unclean even to praise him in secret, in his name? presence you want to be a preacher you see what you're asking God for now if you usually want to be a professional little parrot and the outlines your teacher gives you and those you can get from Matthew Henry or Adam Clark John Gill John Calvin then you go right ahead my friend but you'll never be an instrument in God's hands who will be used to pour in the oil of comfort to the distressed to peel back the veneer and the sham of the deceived religionists and oh how desperately do we need a brand of ministry in our day that throbs with that experimental warmth and reality that can only come not by reading experimental theologians and parroting their words but by having heart-shattering dealings with God and though I almost feel remiss to charge you my brother because in many ways I feel you should be

Isaiah's Servanthood as a Forgiven Sinner

30:44 recharging me i do so not on the basis of my personal qualifications but on the basis of my ministerial responsibilities that god will help you with the passing of the time and with the increase of responsibility never never never to cut corners on those disciplines that god will use constantly to remind you of your sinnerhood as a fallen man but then the third thing god revealed about his servant was this his servanthood as a forgiven sinner and the way this is done to me is absolutely beautiful beautiful in the truest sense not the present sense when anything you know beautiful is just used so so carelessly but i'm choosing the word purposefully look now at verse six then flew one of the seraphim unto me the divine initiative that we underscored at the close of last week's message having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongues from off the altar and he touched my mouth with it and said lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin forgiven or expiated here is the work of god revealing himself as the god of forgiving grace

32:05 and pardoning mercy he takes the initiative the prophet is left shattered god comes to pick up the pieces the He does so in the way of forgiveness. And when Isaiah has both had the symbol and the word indicating divine forgiveness in conjunction with the altar, it had to do with God's manner and appointed way of expiation. Forgiveness through sacrifice. That which is the basis of any man's forgiveness.

32:36 There must be forgiveness through the blood of Christ, through the sacrifice that he offered. Then it's as though God ignores his servant and turns aside to consult with himself. And this again is one of those passages where it may be what is called the plural of majesty or it may be, and I believe it is, an Old Testament hint of the doctrine of the Trinity. Notice the way in which the record is given.

33:07 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Now he doesn't say, The voice of God spoke to me, saying. There is an intense personal element in the preceding verse.

33:27 He touched my mouth and said, This has touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken away. Thy sin forgiven. Here's the intensely personal application.

33:36 But now it's as though God turns aside from the servant. And God speaks and says, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? As though there is an inquiry in the councils of the triune Godhead.

33:52 There is no pathetic description of the need of the nation. There is no holding up of the licorice stick of special standing in heaven. If Isaiah will go, there is no appeal to carnal motivation. There is simply a hearing of the voice of God making an inquiry.

34:12 Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send?

34:14 Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send?

34:14 Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send?

34:14 Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Now look at the response.

The Coercion of Grace and Obedience

34:20 Then I said, Here am I. Send me. What do we learn from this? No sooner is Isaiah forgiven by sovereign mercy, than he hears the voice of God making an inquiry.

34:37 Again, I remind you, not a demand, but an inquiry. And the reflex response of his heart, now suffused with the wonder of grace and pardon, is simply, Simply this, O great God, exalted upon a throne, infinitely holy, God before whom I feel my creatureliness, God before whom I have felt the pain of my sinnerhood, but God of forgiving mercy, if you stoop from that throne to touch the lips of this poor sinner, what can the heart of the poor sinner thus forgive and do but run out and say, Here am I! Send me!

35:21 May I state it this way, here is the coercion of grace. Grace has a coercive power.

35:30 It doesn't coerce by external force. Grace coerces by giving such a sight of the glory of God as the God of forgiving mercy that the heart of every soul that thus appropriates that forgiveness runs out. It runs out in unquestioned obedience to its God. Do you think of the call of another man?

35:57 He saw no vision in the temple, but he had a revelation on a road to Damascus. And when he cried out, Who art thou, Jehovah? There's the blaze of Shekinah glory. And steeped in Old Testament truth as he was, Saul of Tarsus knew that a light that was so bright that it could outshine the brightness of the Palestinian sun at noonday, he knew.

36:21 He knew that this was a supernatural light. And so he cries out in his blindness, Who art thou, Jehovah? The voice had said, Why do you persecute me? Who are you, Jehovah?

36:32 Identify yourself. And Jehovah says, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And what was his response? What wilt thou have me to do, Lord?

36:46 Having beheld the glory of Jehovah in the face of Jesus Christ, there's the coercion of grace. He didn't need to have an appeal of the great need of the Gentile world. He didn't need to be threatened with the fact that he'd lose some rewards. All he needed was the coercive power of grace revealed to say, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

37:12 You see, Isaiah was going to have the peculiar privilege of speaking much and in great detail about the servant of Jehovah, who would come as the Savior of God's people. He would come as the Savior of God's people. And he who would speak of the servant of Jehovah with power, with unction, and with a note of experimental reality, must himself be the loving bondservant of the servant of Jehovah. And isn't it interesting that that's the title Paul delights to give to himself?

37:44 Paul, a doulos, a bondslave of God's bondservant. A bondservant. A bondslave of Jesus Christ. He gloried in the coercive power of grace.

38:02 And we have precisely the same revelation here in this passage. And it is only when the servants of God sense that coercion of grace that they are prepared to walk in that kind of explicit obedience to Jesus Christ, which is so essential for the servant of God. You see, there are times when, in faithfulness to God, the work of the ministry is the most delightful work upon the face of the earth. What can be a greater privilege than to say to men and women, boys and girls, as I say to you this morning, regardless of what your past has been, your present involvement in sin may be, turning from sin and casting yourself upon Jesus Christ, Almighty God will forgive and pardon all your sins and accept you into his family. That's a blessed task, to preach the gospel to every creature. But as we shall see as we move on shortly into the charge given to Isaiah, there are times when the work of the ministry is an awfully negative, heavy work. And for Isaiah it was that.

39:23 Isaiah was told at the very beginning of his commission, you're going to preach. In such a way, and with such influences brought to bear upon your preaching, that you're going to make hell all the hotter for your hearers. You're going to be an instrument of hardening their hearts. Now what is it that enables the servant of God to administer the difficult, the ominous elements of his ministry with equal fidelity as the glorious elements?

39:53 It's the realization that God has forgiven. And having been forgiven by so greatly. It's the realization that God has forgiven. And having been forgiven by so greatly.

40:01 I am his bondservant to do his bidding. And Isaiah was brought to feel and to own his servanthood as a forgiven sinner. And that's always God's way of making servants. Paul could say the love of Christ does what?

40:22 It constrains me. Literally it holds me in its grip. And he says, in essence, as long as I keep my eye fixed upon the immensity. The glory, the grandeur of Christ's love to me, I'm coerced to do his will.

40:37 It holds me in its grip. But you let your eye lose sight of the glory of Christ's love to you. And then your lust will begin to hold you in their grip. Then the fear of man will begin to hold you in its grip.

40:51 And then expediency and religious pragmatism will begin to hold you in its grip. But let the eye feed upon the measure. And the amazing measure. The great measure.

41:01 The measure of God's love to us in Christ. Then we sense with the servant of God in this vision, here am I, Lord, send me. In the totality of what I am as creature, as sinful, and yet wonder of wonders as forgiven, here I am, Lord, in the totality of my redeemed humanity, Lord, take me, send me, do with me what seems good in your sight. You see, when the church lacks men.

God's Way of Making Servants

41:32 Stand in store, do all your work. You know, others just as well. And here I depend upon the Yes land, a było and pious land. And you are like me.

41:55 You are like me. But every moment will differ depending on your power and your grace. Who does our power? Does our charm.

41:59 Do us greatly. No one shares the same power as mine. Who do we delightful? Grace purveyed a congregation.

42:05 There will be those saying, here am I. Send me. I go back to Thornwell. You forgive me if Thornwell keeps coming out because he's been coming in all week over a couple of days.

42:19 And when people said, why, Mr. Thornwell, if we don't have special agencies to raise up laborers, we won't have them. And Thornwell's answer was, look, what one means did Jesus give to raise up laborers? Pray, the Lord of the harvest, to send forth laborers.

42:35 And he says, if laborers are not forthcoming from our churches, it's an indictment of God that Ichabod has written on our churches. And rather than launch a scheme to raise up laborers out of such decadent churches, let us humble ourselves until God comes to our churches with power. Then there shall be those whom the Lord constrains by His grace. And oh, may God help you, my dear brother.

43:00 In the coming days when all the powers of hell will conspire to undermine the establishment of a biblical church, and when pressures will be brought to bear even from good men to walk in a path of expediency and convenience, may the Lord bring you back again and again to this revelation of Himself that you may feel the constraining power of His grace and seal, as it were, again and again, your vows of utter servitude to the One who has called you and is sending you forth.

God's Revelation of the People: Their Utter Sinfulness

43:40 Well, then there were some wonderful truths that God revealed about the people to whom He has sent. And again, time has crept up on my back. And I can only suggest the headings to you. Let's look at the passage very quickly.

43:54 Verse 9, And He said, Go, and tell this people. Now look at the message. Hear ye indeed, but understand. Understand not.

44:04 See ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy. Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn again and be healed.

44:20 Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste. And the Lord hath removed men. Far away in the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.

44:37 And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up as a terebinth and as an oak, whose stock remaineth when they are felled. So the holy seed is the stock thereof. You see, God was concerned that the prophet have no romantic ideas about the mission upon which he is sent. And having revealed himself to the prophet, having revealed to the prophet something of his own heart and need as creature, sinner, and forgiven sinner, he now says, Isaiah, I want to give you a realistic view of the people to whom you're going.

45:16 And God reveals essentially three things about the people, and I can only give you the headings and the thought or two under each. First of all, their utter sinfulness. And he got this up in verse 5. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he said, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of the world.

45:33 I am a people of unclean lips. Lord, when I acknowledge my sinnerhood, I am but one of a nation of sinners, and I have this affinity with the very ones to whom I am being sent. I with them am a sinner. He had a realistic view of their utter sinfulness.

God's Revelation of the People: Their Impending Judgment

45:54 Secondly, he had a realistic view of their impending judgment. Verses 11 and 12. God told him when he asked the question, how long must I preach? This message that will make their ears heavy and their hearts fat.

46:07 He said, you keep preaching it until the very cities that now stand as monuments of my faithfulness to Israel are leveled and waste without inhabitants. So he looked upon the people as standing under a cloud and canopy of divine judgment. He did not regard them according to what met his eye when he preached it. He saw the stately temple.

46:28 He saw the tangible evidences of the days of glory under Solomon, and under the other good kings. But God says, Isaiah, you're looking upon a people who are not presently under the canopy of my smile. They're under judgment, and it's only a matter of time. Preach until.

God's Revelation of the People: Their True Worth and the Holy Seed

46:46 It's only a matter of time. And so Isaiah was to look upon them in their utter sinfulness, in their impending judgment. But blessed be God, he was to look upon them in their true worth. In their true worth.

47:00 For though they are under the judgment of God and slated, for his discipline, they are still creatures made in his image. And God will come again with the prophet to give them further warning, treating them not as dogs and sheep or cattle slated for slaughter, but as creatures made in his image. Creatures privileged to be within the orbit of that nation that had peculiar privileges, the nation of Israel. And their true worth was seen primarily in the fact that in the midst of all those slated for judgment, God says, I have a holy seed.

47:36 Look at that last verse. So the holy seed is the stock thereof. And God uses an illustration that was very understandable to every Hebrew person. There were certain types of trees which, even when you cut them down, the life remained in them sufficiently to support limbs.

47:54 A year ago I cut down our willow tree. And to my amazement, two years ago, a year afterwards, I saw fresh green streets grow, uh, fresh green. Shoots growing out of hunks of the willow tree that were sitting there in my backyard. Somehow they found something to support its life system.

48:15 And he's using the illustration of trees which, though felled, remain, at least for some time, manifest that they are still alive, still living. Whose stock remaineth when they are felled. So is the holy seed. So what God is saying is this, Isaiah, as you go to preach, though judgment is slated for the nation as a whole, God is saying, Isaiah, as you go to preach, though judgment is slated for the nation as a whole, God is saying, Isaiah, as you go to preach, though judgment is slated for the nation as a whole, there is a tenth, there is a remnant.

48:39 And even though that remnant be oppressed and battered in the midst of the other judgments, the holy seed is that seed which I will call to myself and preserve by means of your ministry. And that's the glory of the work of the ministry. It's a heartbreaking thing to have to tell men how bad they are. There may be some of you here today who've never been once told honestly how bad you are.

49:05 You think a preacher takes any delight, in telling you that your heart is a sink of iniquity? The Bible says it's desperately wicked. You think it's pleasant to tell you that the best things you do are a stench in God's nostrils? But that's what the scripture says.

49:18 You think it's pleasant to tell men that they're helpless to save themselves, when they're so full of pride and self-sufficiency? But God says that. No man can come to me except the Father draw him. You can no more save yourself than a corpse can quicken itself in its own tomb.

49:38 But in faithfulness, to men we must declare their utter sinfulness. We must believe it in our hearts. It is no pleasant thing to pronounce impending judgment, and to believe that a canopy of divine judgment hangs over the head of every unregenerate man. But the Bible says he that believeth not is condemned already.

49:56 The wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not. That's not my word. It's the very word of Jesus in John 3, 36. But thank God it is a glorious thing to know the true worth of sinners, and not just the sinfulness of others.

50:12 Oh, dear sinner friend, listen. In all of your sinfulness and spiritual death, you are of such worth that God has preserved your life to this hour. He's commissioned us to come and declare to you that God has sent his Son for sinners such as you. That if you will repent and believe, you will be saved.

50:34 And thank God for the confidence that through that proclamation, God will call out his holy seed. that seed is in the midst of a people who themselves nationally will go down under judgment as did Israel God will take that holy seed and call it to himself and preserve it and one day bring it home to stand with him in the presence of the Lord Jesus when he says father here am I and the children whom thou has given me and I tell you that's the glory of the ministry and as our brother leaves us that's his confidence and that is ours we have no mistaken notions that something is going to happen to men in their utter sinfulness that will all of a sudden dispose them to embrace by the multitudes a gospel that humbles them and cuts them to the quick no no but we have this confidence that God has his holy seed whether they be few whether they be many in that particular place we don't have to worry about it we don't have to worry about it do not send our brother forth on a fool's errand the head of the church sends him forth in fulfillment of his own promise other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring there shall be one fold and one shepherd in those times when it seems as though there is nothing but

51:59 judgment and nothing but the feedback of men's sinfulness may god sustain your heart my brother with the confidence that the holy seed is like that tree though felled it cannot die and may the lord as he comforted his servant paul at carl remind you again and again i have much people in this city well i trust you're convinced with me now that there is much in this vision of isaiah attendant upon his call that speaks to us as god's people and understand our grace what we and the Lord's servant need constantly to hold before us as we face this new opportunity, this new challenge, this new responsibility. May God give us an ever-increasing understanding of what he is in himself, what we are as his servants, and who it is to whom we are sent with the message of his truth. Let us pray.