"WHOM SHALL I SEND, WHO WILL GO FOR US?"

TEXT: Isaiah 6:1-13  

INTRO: Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own need to ask God questions that we have never come to realize that God has some questions of His own, ones that He cannot answer but we can!

Usually our relationship with God focuses on what God can or will do for us. We think in terms of what we need, or what we need to know...yet God has a need to have some answers that only we can give.

When was the last time you heard God ask you a question? Over the next several

Sundays we are going to explore some of the questions God has for us...and of course He is still waiting to have an answer from us! 

The Bible teaches us that a real relationship with God involves our answering some questions that God has.

 I. Holy! Isa 6:1-5

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!"  And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.  

A. Woe! 6: 5   

"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."  

1. Isaiah was a man of education, this can be deduced from the very high language he wrote in.  

2. He probably had a good future ahead of him, Israel had just come through a relatively prosperous time.  

3. In the midst of all this God seeks him out and gives him a vision of Himself

            a. King Uzziah overall had been a godly king, well loved by Isaiah

            b. Now that his dear friend the king was dead, God gives him a fresh vision

            c. This vision is one of a Holy God!  

4. This is an aspect of God not emphasized like it once was...and should be again!  

5. Notice the strong hint at the trinity in this section of Scripture:

            a. Seraphs were crying "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty!" - it is no accident that they shouted this 3 times, didn’t have adjectives, emphasized by repeating

            b. God's Holiness is in view here!  

6. Isaiah was no stranger to God, but this fresh vision of God's holiness will have a huge impact on him...as                     well it should!

            a. it will do the same for us today too!

            b. God is not just some old man in the sky above!.....

            c. the picture here is one of majesty, in light of King Uzziah's death, Isaiah sees the real KING...the                    Holy one of Israel!

7. Everything shook in the presence of a holy God.

            a. This was reminiscent of Solomon's dedication of the Temple when God's glory so filled the temple that the priests could not even minister

            b. The tabernacle too had the awesome presence of God over it. 

B. Humbled! 6:5  

1. Note Isaiah's reaction to this fresh vision from God!

            a. rather than make him arrogant, it humbled him greatly!

            b. His first thought reflects Jewish thinking of that time, the Jews believed that if any man ever saw                      God they would immediately drop dead!

            c. The sense of God's greatness was so powerful as to set man very far apart from God.

2. Isaiah's thought here is that he is "ruined"...that he will die!

            a. When a man or woman has a real experience with God, it makes him or her more humble, not                                    arrogant and cocky about their own deep sense of spirituality!

            b. In light of God's greatness, Isaiah realizes how really small he is! 

ILLUS: When an English labor leader was elected to Parliament, he proudly took his daughter to see the great buildings where he would help make England's laws. The little girl was silent

until he asked her, "What do you think?" She said, "Daddy, you look so big in the kitchen at

home, but you look small in this great big room." 

3. In light of his life against God's holiness...Isaiah sees himself as he really is

            a. a man of unclean lips

            b. a man that lives with other unclean people!

            c. there is no pretense here of greatness on his part...he cannot help but himself as unclean in the                                     backdrop of a pure Holy God!  

4. His sense here is "WOE"....

            a. The very presence of God humbles man!

            b. God's presence in the Holy Spirit brings conviction on a sinner.  

5. No preacher should ever have to whip up people's sense of sinfulness, just allow for God's presence to break through in our lives and our service and God will do the rest.

            a. Brokenness for sin has always come when people have sensed and experienced God's very real                     presence

            b. God's presence changes the entire atmosphere! 

II. LO! Isa 6:6-7 HELP!!!!! 

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."   

1. Isaiah's sense of being unclean could not be solved by his own effort here!  

            a. notice that it is God that sends the Seraphs (a special type of angel, the word Seraph interestingly                   enough literally means, "Burn" or "Burning Ones") to bring a coal from the altar of sacrifice to                 touch Isaiah and make him clean!

            b. Isaiah was helpless to do anything to remove his unclean condition!

            c. No human can save themselves...it takes something from the altar of sacrifice to bring purity to our lives!  

2. God provides the means necessary to make Isaiah clean in His presence.

            a. the coal was taken from the altar...used for sacrifice

            b. this prefigured the great sacrifice of Christ...and the application of Christ to our lives in order for us to be pure too!  

3. Isaiah stands ready to receive, he can do nothing but cry out for help!

            a. this is true for us too...

            b. salvation comes not by our works, but by our confession of need!  

4. Isaiah's sins and guilt is removed as soon as the coal from the altar of  sacrifice is applied to him!

            a. all this precedes any call God makes on His life!

            b. We cannot do God's work without God's cleansing power first! 

B. Honor! 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" 

Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." 

1. With Isaiah in a proper relationship with God, God now has a question to ask...one that applies to all those    He has cleansed today too!

2. "Whom shall I send? And who will go for US?"

            a. God more than anyone is aware of the great need of mankind in all their sins!

            b. God does not wish to ignore the plight of man....but for whatever reason  

God has chosen to use us humans to take His message to others!  

            c. God has a question here, one that He cannot answer, only we can!  

3. Note here again the hint at the trinity...the last pronoun in the question is plural: "WE".

            a. God is not indifferent to Israel's needs

            b. God is looking for someone who is willing to go for Him!

            c. how amazing that the all powerful God has put His message at the hands of us sinful people!!!

            d. God is still asking this question...still waiting for answers from us too!  

4. Sometimes it is easy to think that this kind of call is for the preacher, or that there are so many others that can go...I'm not important!  

ILLUS: It was Dwight Moody who said, "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but

I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do!" With that simple

commitment, God used him to bring revival to England and America! 

5. It is becoming all too easy in our compartmentalized society where we have people paid to do special jobs to think that sharing Christ is just not "my gift" or responsibility!...but this is wrong!  

6. We have come to identify ourselves first with WHAT WE DO and only secondly WHO WE ARE:

            a. We tend to think of our occupations as defining our main responsibilities in life

            b. We would do better to first identify ourselves by WHO we are, then what we do! 

IlLUS: A generation ago there was a wealthy man in the midwest who was an outstanding Christian layman. People used to ask him what he did. He would reply, "I am a witness for

Jesus Christ, but I pack pork to pay expenses." This man had the right concept of his salvation and his callings! 

7. Isaiah responds immediately, "HERE AM I, SEND ME!"

            a. What would this country be like if this was the heart cry of every Christian in America to God's                      question!?

            b. Too often today we pray for God to send somebody else to take care of the work of the                               kingdom....we might even tell ourselves we are too busy with our "job" to get involved!

            c. These excuses are unacceptable to a jealous God!

            d. Isaiah didn't check his calendar first to see if he was too booked up to get involved!

            e. He doesn't look around to see if someone else is available to answer! 

III. GO! 6:9-13 

A. Hard! Isa 6:9-12

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."  

11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?"  And He answered: 

"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.

1. Now that God has a volunteer, He simply says, "GO"!

            a. God will give Isaiah the message

            b. All Isaiah has to do is go and deliver it!  

2. God makes it clear to Isaiah that in going, there will be little fruit for his obedience!

            a. This must have been a tough pill to swallow!

            b. You enthusiastically tell the Lord you are willing to go for Him and He tells you that the job will not only be hard, but it will bear little fruit!

            c. God's call on our lives to share the Gospel is not based on whether we have great results...it is based on our obedience to follow through with the call and the message!  

3. In a result oriented society that judges everything by what productivity it can see...this is a tough pill to                        swallow!

                        If we had not grown in a year.  How about the next year? How would you judge me?

            a. Preaching even when people reject serves a function...it judges the sinner of their sins...

            b. in the judgment day they will not stand without knowledge of their sins.  

4. Too many don't like to serve if they don't get the results they want!  

5. Isaiah asks 'HOW LONG O LORD?" will there be this lack of fruit from his ministry!

            a. The answer wasn't too encouraging either... "until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant,      until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent         everyone far away, and the land is utterly forsaken!"

            b. This couldn't have been encouraging...it meant hard work with little to show for it positively!
            c. How many of us are willing to serve when there is little glory in it for us?

            d. How many of us are willing to do the more glamorous jobs, but not some of the dirtier jobs?

            e. How many are willing to serve when they can be up front, but don't follow through when the job is hidden and nobody will see it?  

6. The call to "GO" for God is many times a hard call, not an easy one!  

7. Real ministry has only small moments of glamour, but takes lots of guts!  

8. We are setting the pattern for our children to follow in obeying God...what are they learning? 

ILLUS: They have a custom in certain parts of Africa of asking every chief for his "LOSAKO"

or "life motto". A missionary one day met an old chief who asked him for his LOSAKO which

he shared as "LOVE GOD WITH ALL THY HEART"...and learned a very important spiritual

lesson from the chief when he shared his LOSAKO, it was, "WHEN YOU PASS THROUGH THE

JUNGLE BE VERY CAREFUL TO BREAK A TWIG, THAT THE NEXT MAN CAN FIND HIS WAY!"  

Are we doing this with our children in our service to God?

9. Most men and women called by God had a tough road to follow...their work was hard, and many times the rewards were few...at least here that is, for our greatest rewards yet await us for faithful service now!

            a. Isaiah is not discouraged from ministry by the word of it being hard!

            b. God will sustain us in the work He calls us to do for Him! 

B. Hope  Isa 6:13

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."  

1. So that Isaiah doesn't lose heart completely, God does share with him that his ministry will not be                               completely fruitless.

            a. Though a tithe would be preserved, even they will go through deep waters...but like a stump that is left, life will spring from the few who remain faithful!  

Just like I have been saying, while the rest of the world is seeking entertainment, someone has to remain faithful so when the pendulum swings back, we are there to provide the way

            b. Isaiah's preaching will eventually bear fruit, if not in his own lifetime, then in another generation!  

2. Ministry cannot always be judged by the here and now...  

3. we must always be ready to go one more time, even after repeated failures! 

ILLUS: A noted Evangelist was once holding meetings in a Church where the minister was well noted for his experience and had great influence. One night as they sat on the platform together the minister pointed out to the evangelist a man in the audience and said, "For 12 years I have tried to win that man to Christ; I have preached to him so long that I sometimes find myself doing it almost unconsciously!" The evangelist asked him, "you mean from the pulpit?" He answered, "Yes". Then the evangelist asked the Pastor, "How many times have you gone to him with the love of God in your heart and said, "I want to see you become a child

of God!"? The Pastor answered, "I must confess, that I have never spoken to him personally and directly about his salvation." That night after the service the evangelist went to the man personally and with only a few words spoke to him. His few words were sincere and loving, and the man with tears confessed his need of Christ...it was the personal touch that worked!  

Sometimes fruitfulness in ministry comes in "ones"...rather than in groups! 

4. The question of "Who will go?" is still there today, God is still asking the same question...and waiting for our answer!

            a. Will you go?

            b. will you go only if you get spectacular results?

            c. will you go only if you the work isn't hard?

            d. or will you go simply because God asks for us to go!?  

CONCLUSION: There is a question God asks that He cannot answer...but we can!  

God has a plan to save the lost, but HE NEEDS personnel to meet it!  

God has a MESSAGE, but HE NEEDS MESSENGERS to deliver it!  

Today god is still asking the same question...and he awaits an answer, one that can only come from us.  

What's your answer to God?