Isaiah 6:1-13 - Prepared to Serve

welcome to morningstar christian chapel if you're watching on youtube please remember to hit that subscribe button like button and the notification bell so you can find out when we go live or we post a new video and be sure to leave a comment about what god has shown you in this message thanks and enjoy the study all right let's open our bibles this morning to isaiah chapter 6 verse 1. isaiah was a prophet of god sent to the southern kingdom of judah about 7 40 or so bc which also happened to be the year that the king the good king king uzziah died uzziah it means god is my strength he's also called in the bible azari maybe a nickname god is my help but he was one of several really good kings that the southern kingdom enjoy once called into ministry isaiah would start here but he would go on for the next 52 years calling the southern kingdom to a relationship with god he would eventually be killed by king uh wicked king manasseh had in 686 beheaded for his faith 18 years after isaiah began his ministry the northern kingdom of israel would fall to the assyrians because of their idolatry and their rebellion against god they would never be allowed to be restored as the northern kingdom but it was a lesson to the south that look if you continue on this road you too will face god's judgment and eventually they would in 606 bc the babylonians would come in three different assaults and take out jerusalem and take the keep people captive and for 70 years or so they would be kept by the lord in a captive place till they learned that god was god and there was no other gods however that southern kingdom lasted for quite a long time because of their faithfulness had some really good kings like this fellow uzziah or his son jotham in chapter 6 which we are wanting to look at this morning isaiah shares with us how he was called by the lord to be a prophet at a time when very few people were walking with god and a godly leader had just passed away through the first five chapters isaiah gives us the big picture if you will of his calling but here he looks back at a specific time a specific day a pacific a specific day of his calling that he remembers so clearly and it is that which we would hope to look at this morning verse 1 says this in the year that king uzziah died i saw the lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up and the throne of his robe filled the temple uzziah the king started his reign when he was only 16 years old his father was named amazing he had ruled almost 30 years in the south godly man godly king had really led the people in the right ways of the lord he would eventually be killed by some members of his own court when uzziah came to power following in his father's footsteps like i said he would go on for 52 years until 7 40 and then his son jotham would take over and continue that legacy as well so the southern kingdom had a good long time several generations of godly leadership even though the people themselves were not doing that well the the leadership itself brought a lot of god's blessings upon them from the historical books and you can find this guy's reign in 2nd chronicles 26 and 27 we learn a lot about his accomplishments he built the military up like it had not been built before there was some 310 000 soldiers in the army in judah at the time he was instrumental in developing a new water system for the crops he founded quite a bit new weaponry he developed agricultural strides forward that really enabled them to grow a lot more crops he he was a significant reason that the philistines were out of the area even though they were on the borders they they really didn't have much skirmishes with their perennial enemies over those 50 years and he had even took took tooken he'd even taken most of the wall down around the major capital city for the philistines of gath everyone loved this man he was supported by tribute from the surrounding countries they they knew his name his fame had spread all the way down to egypt he really was a folk hero that everyone could depend upon people felt safe under his leadership and his care and and the southern kingdom had peace unfortunately like other folks who get into power he had some trouble with it and some arrogance as well we read in second chronicles 26 about one time he decided to go to the temple and he wanted to offer instant incense to the lord now that might not seem like a big deal to you but the incense which represented the prayers of the saints were only to be offered by the priests and so you know he had gotten popular and well known and all of a sudden i guess he didn't think that applied to him and so the priests confronted him in the temple hey you're not supposed to do that hey who's the king well you're the king but that doesn't mean anything well leave me alone it says he was furious but as he was yelling at the priest leprosy began to break out on his forehead eventually covered his whole body and the priest put him out of the temple he was isolated for the rest of his life his son and he ruled together for quite some time he was a godly man a good man god used him greatly but he had some flaws like everybody else and this is certainly one that he had to deal with jotham his son was not the same kind of man that he wasn't in terms of the people trusting him or looking up to him in the end when king uzziah died as we read here for the nation it meant the demise of their hope this was a guy that had kept it all together for them and now the future looked pretty bleak the enemies were still on the borders the cultural outlook was was fear and folks didn't know where to go and what to do what are we going to do now it is into that picture verse 1 that we are told that isaiah in the year that king uzziah died had a vision of the lord on his throne in that vacuum of leadership it caused isaiah to seek the lord in a way he hadn't before from everything we learned about isaiah he knew the lord since a young being a young man but this changed him and with a sense of urgency and with a sense of concern his eyes were now off the man that everyone had been depending on for years for half a century we are not told where isaiah received this vision but we do know that it came to him in the same year that the the throne of of rulership was left vacant our calling as christians might not be as spectacular as this but it certainly should be as profound and unforgettable and sustaining because you find isaiah here searching for the lord with his whole heart because he has lost the ability to trust someone else that may have been able to replace the lord in his life a great king had left the throne on earth but a greater king was still ruling in heaven and he was still very much in control and and isaiah is shown by the lord as he begins to see god at this difficult time the glory of god he saw the lord for who he was in fact in chapter 12 of john verse 20 41 john applies this glory that isaiah sees to jesus and he says isaiah wrote these things when he saw the lord's glory he was speaking of him in other words god's power god's delivering capacity god's faithfulness to to redeem he saw for the first time maybe in his life and and when did he see it he saw it when god removed every earthly confidence and trust that he had isaiah found that to be true in his own life for years he had trusted in a man who was a good leader but in the year that he died isaiah had to get his eyes off that man and under the lord and then he saw the lord high and lifted up and it moved him it changed him we are told in verse 2 as he saw the glory of heaven above the throne of god he saw seraphim each one of them had six wings with two which they covered their faces to their feet and with two they flew and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the posts of the doors were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke the vision of isaiah's of heaven is very reminiscent of the one john sees in revelation chapter 4 and 5. you notice the word their seraphim the word sarah means to to burn the i m at the end means it is plural and and like the comments that you read in ezekiel chapter 1 and 2 10 and also in revelation these are apparently angels of a very high order that were used by the lord to worship around his throne the vision of the angels and this whole throne floored old john the apostle in the new testament he thought for sure he was dead isaiah pretty much comes away with that same experience some places the seraphim are called cherubim if you will but they seem to be the equivalent equivalent of the living creatures in revelation i'm pointing them out to you because i don't want you to show up in heaven and freak out what are those things no you should know [Laughter] just act like you belong there for the folks living in judah the outlook was tremendously bleak for the people of israel it looked like you know there was danger ahead but isaiah found himself looking up and he saw the glory of the lord and from heaven's point of view and with that point of view the glory of god was still filling the earth and isaiah realized god's power and his holiness and his experience with the lord changed him when he saw the lord for who he was we read in verse 5 that isaiah's immediate response was woe is me i am undone because i am a man of unclean lips and i dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips my eyes have seen the king the lord of hosts up to this point it seems that isaiah felt like life was fine the king was good i mean 52 years his dad 29 years before him his son after him it'll be almost 100 years of just good godly rule even though the people didn't always listen i mean the direction from the top down was good but now the king is gone the one he trusted in is gone and he has to look to himself and realize he is standing before god and his only hope is the lord and so he looks up and then he sees the lord but he also sees himself and he doesn't feel near so comfortable anymore this view of god brought this saint to his knees with an overwhelming conviction of his sinfulness and an immediate confession that followed in seeing god i isaiah saw himself in an entirely different light woe is me isn't that usually not a good thing i am undone i've been found out as you read through the bible you will find certainly that the first result of seeing god clearly is a conviction of your own sinfulness when that light goes on you see yourself completely different than you've ever saw yourself before when daniel met with the lord there in chapter 10 and the lord disappeared in that vision that he was given he said after the vision i was left alone no strength remained in me my vigor was turned into frailty and it just shook him to the core when job argued with god for 38 chapters about what had happened to him trying to figure out what the lord was up to even sometimes seeking to make a case for himself he didn't deserve it when the lord began to question job about who he was in relationship to who god was he asked him a series of questions that job had no answer to where you where were you when i created the world where were you you know when i set the the boundaries for the seas where were you and george okay and by the time you get to chapter 42 job will say to the lord i have heard of you at the hearing of my ears but now i've seen you with my eyes and i hate myself and i repent in in dust and ashes when peter was asked one morning by the lord to go fishing after he had been gone out all night with the boys in the boats and they'd caught nothing and the lord said i want to go fishing and he was all bright and cheery and they were tired disappointed peter said to his partners i got this i'll take the lord out and we'll take a net he used a singular term i'll just take one net what are we gonna he'll he'll see what we know we're fisherman after all he should stick to preaching he'll stick to fishermen and they got into the water and the net immediately began to fill with with fish so much so that the boat began to sink and peter had a revelation this is god in my book and like isaiah he saw the lord in a different way than he had seen him before and the only thing peter could say luke chapter 5 verse 8 depart from me lord i'm a sinful man get out of the book i i don't want to be standing in your presence when john the old 90 year old apostle in revelation chapter 1 had the lord appear to him in all of his glory you'll read in verse 17 of chapter one that he fell down at his feet as if he was dead and if it hadn't been for the lord's right hand laid upon him he might have died he said look you don't need to be afraid what happened to daniel and job and peter and john was now happening to isaiah and will happen to you when you really see the lord for who he is you can't help but see yourself for who you are and every one of them was leveled and it changed their life if you find a proud and arrogant man know this they don't know the lord yet not like they should because it left every one of them very humble when jesus was speaking to the disciples in the sermon on the mount he began with the words blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven it's really where life begins right here where isaiah recognized the god that he was serving in and who he was and who he was before him it is from that that poor in spirit that i mourn over my sin and find his comfort it leaves me meek hungry for his righteousness and as a result i find myself becoming more merciful and pure in heart a peacemaker because god has begun a work in me but it all starts in verse 1 with a clear vision of the lord so that you can see yourself in the true light of his light we certainly have a tendency in our own lives to see ourselves through those proverbial rose-colored glasses to support our view of ourselves we usually find people we think we're superior to and we compare ourselves with them well you know that you know old bill yeah i'm better off than he i feel better and move along but when you go to stand before the lord the cure is go stand next to jesus and when you do what happened to isaiah and daniel and job and peter and john will happen to you if i walk into my bathroom in the morning and don't turn on the light and don't put on my glasses i am convinced i'm still pretty good looking just don't turn on the light and don't make me look at myself through glasses or the horror begins same thing with the lord you can feel all kinds of good about yourself then you go stand before him and in the year that king uzziah died i saw the lord what happens he immediately said woe is me i'm a man of unclean lips isaiah all of a sudden felt incompetent to speak before he realized the lord knew his heart out of the abundance of his heart his mouth had spoke for years and i think was james who said if a man can bridle his tongue you know then he's he's a religious man but don't be deceived it's hard to do david one time prayed that the lord would set a guard over his mouth so he wouldn't sin against him isaiah in god's presence quickly learned that god knew all about him and said i don't belong here i don't qualify the people around me don't qualify woes me this can only lead to trouble but then we read in verse 6 that one of the cerebrum then flew to him having in his hand a live coalition had been taken from the tongs with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth he said with it and he said behold this has cleansed or touched your tongue your iniquity has been taken away and your sin has been purged god never brings you to a place of realization and despair to a knowledge of your condition without offering you help to deal with it the revelation of god's person led to confession which brought cleansing we repent god restores if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin cleanse us from all unrighteousness that's his promise we read it this morning in psalm 32 blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered who who to whom the lord doesn't impute his iniquity in his spirit there's no guile and david said i tried to hide my sin did it for a year with bathsheba a year it killed him inside i was dried up like like water disappears in the summer and then i acknowledge to you and i confess myself and i said i won't hide it anymore and the minute he confessed god responded look at the process here the the anything that he could trust and accept the lord was removed he sees the lord he sees himself he sees who he is he cries out in his despair and god immediately has a cleansing for him before you can ever minister to others you must first be ministered to by the lord before you can give them all god has given you you have to be able to receive for him what he has given you can't give out what you haven't taken in i think was paul who wrote in first corinthians 11 verse 23 i what i received from the lord i delivered to you you first have to be a partaker of the fruit and here's the deal ministry is always the the outgrowth of overflow ministry is not a place you go to get your needs met ministry is where you go and god has given you so much that you can give out and minister to the needs of others the prophetic ministry of isaiah would flow from this vision of the lord this view of himself the repentance that that was causing him by seeing that he didn't have qualification and then god forgiving him and cleansing him then he was ready to be a prophet we read in verse 8 that it is at that point that isaiah hears the voice of the lord saying whom can i send and who will go for us and he responded here i am send me and so the lord said go and tell this people but i want you to notice the order see the lord see yourself be cleansed and restored through confession of your sin and then allow the lord to cleanse you and then respond to a voice that you can finally hear through all of that all all that noise or otherwise you can always tell those who god has spoken to by their i think consistent commitment to him because now it's more than lip service it's it's a response to what has been given to them but the order is the same and you can write it in your bible it's conviction that leads to confession that leads to cleansing which leads to commissioning or sending if you will it is only now that isaiah is able to hear god's voice and god's voice is i want to send you to talk to my people who wants to go in isaiah is well i'm ready now i'm the product of your work god has a critical message for the nation he wants to deliver it but first he's going to get a messenger to warn them to call them to help them it's really the same for us today god has an eye out for the world he wants to share with them his love he he raises up messengers to a lost and dying world and his calling always begins with this you've seen the lord i mean you've really seen the lord and in that seeing you've seen yourself isaiah found himself at wit's end the king was gone the hope was gone there was no one around to look up to and so he looked up and seeing the lord in his glory he was convinced of his own inability and god's goodness and watched god cleanse him who'll go for me i'll go lord now he goes out of love out of out of dedication out of thanksgiving if you haven't seen the lord high and lifted up you can certainly be a believer but there'll be plenty of reasons for you to give up but if you see the lord high and lifted up you'll never give up where can you go what can you do well the lord says to isaiah go and tell this people that they will keep hearing but they won't understand they'll keep seeing but they won't perceive make the heart of this people dull their ears heavy their shut their eyes let they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and their return they're healed and isaiah said well how long is that going to go on lord and he answered until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitants the houses are without a man in them the land is utterly desolate when the lord has removed men far away and forsaken places are now in the midst of the land but yet there will be a tenth who will go through it and will return and will be for consuming as a terabyte tree or as an oak tree whose stump remains on the ground when it is cut down the holy seed will be like a stump it's not exactly an encouraging word lord you want somebody i'll go what am i going to tell them well you can talk to them but they're not going to listen and you're not going to see very much success there's no assurance here at all from that but you're going to have to go tell them about my love and and be at it though most will not listen this commission was not an easy calling go preach maybe someone will get saved and for the next 50 years isaiah would do just that and not give up though the fruit to be honest with you was less than impressive and within 80 years of him dying the whole nation would be carried into captivity because they didn't listen but isaiah was faithful to represent the lord the fruit was slim the true conversion's hard to find but he was faithful because he had seen the lord high and lifted up verse nine and ten are interesting verses because they're repeated six different times in the new testament all of them to say if you resist god's word over time your heart just grows a little bit harder and it becomes more difficult to listen so you're dealing with the people that in in many ways don't want to hear i i think that's the truth of the church in the in the world in these last days we're sent out to the highways into the byways but only few listen and the question becomes well if no one's listening why bother preaching and the answer is some do listen you did some will respond and for the sake of the few god wants a faithful witness for himself but it is this experience in the year that the king died where isaiah looked up and saw the lord for who he was that prepared him for the ministry that he would then undertake sometimes the lord needs to take out of your life the king uzziah that you've always trusted in someone who's been able to have faith for you to whom you could always turn your mom your dad grandpa a friend your wife or husband and you're left to kind of have to look up painful as it can be it can also lead to a place where god can greatly use you because now you have nothing except to trust god and though the work will be hard and the fruit will be slow and coming you can't really stop because you've seen the lord high and lifted up you realize what he's done for you and so regardless of the response of the people you're going to be faithful to him but it all started on that day the king died and isaiah looked up and he took the message of the lord to his generation and he carried the message to a lost and dying world and though few would listen he would speak the question is have you seen the lord high and lifted up has that changed the way you lived because you can certainly know all about the lord but until you know him that way not much you're going to be able to accomplish and you'll find plenty of reasons to to sit on the sidelines but the minute you see him and you see you you meet his grace and his immediate response to your confession you'll find yourself being able to be commissioned conviction confession cleansing commission and the world could certainly use to hear from some folks like that father thank you this morning for your word to us we are so glad that you have come and you see us in our condition and yet you love us and sometimes lord we realize that you take out of our lives the very things that we were used to trusting in you remove for us those the easy way of life for many of us and now we find ourselves forced into a situation where we can only trust the lord and look to him so lord may this be the day that we see you high and lifted up that we recognize that lord who we serve and who we stand before is an amazing god whose glory fills the earth and though it looks difficult and challenging in the world you are more than able to accomplish much to those who would look to you but lord thank you for showing who we are and what you can do with the likes of us because of your mercy and of your grace to hear the angel say you've been purged your sin has been cleansed oh what can you do then more than go out and tell others what god can do and that's his desire [Music] if you're looking to anyone or anything but him that's going to weaken your walk but the minute you see him high and lifted up you'll be ready to answer lord send me when he calls and that's my prayer for you you'll be out there doing his work in these last days shall we stand you

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Length: 32min 48sec (1968 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021