GODS CALL TO SERVICE

GOD CALLS INTO SERVICE THOSE WHO ARE CLEANSED FROM THEIR SINS BY HIM

By Aldwyn Lake

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GODS CALL TO SERVICE GOD CALLS INTO SERVICE THOSE WHO ARE CLEANSED FROM THEIR SINS BY HIM INTRODUCTION We looked at the first seven verses of Isaiah chapter six and considered the holiness of God as it is revealed in the first four verses. We saw that that holiness was so far beyond our understanding that there is no way to describe it in human language. We saw God, in the person of Jesus Christ, sitting upon His eternal throne ruling the world in unending majesty and glory and supreme power. We concluded that this is the God we must worship; praying that we would not be blind, deaf or make our hearts hard against Him. In verses five to seven Isaiahs recognition of his utter sinfulness and his inability to praise God as a result is presented. He saw himself as being silenced or totally destroyed by God as the only natural outcome. The section concludes with God cleansing Isaiah; making him fit to join in with the worshipping angels. Isaiah 6:1-8 (NASB) 1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, " Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory." 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven."

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8 Then 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!" OUR SINFULNESS PREVENTS US FROM SERVING GOD We will be considering verse 8 today, it reads: Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Isaiah is in the presence of God, he recognizes that he is not in a fit condition to worship Him. Thereupon God cleanses him and tells him what has been done. This could be a fitting place to end the story because Isaiahs problem had been dealt with and he can now worship God. It is a much better place to end than at the end of verse five when Isaiah pronounced a woe upon himself at the revelation of Gods holliness. This must be very encouraging to us that in the goodness and mercy of God He does not leave us in our sins. Although that is what we deserve from Him, He does not leave us in our inability to help ourselves; He comes to our aid and delivers us. Human beings only remain in their sins when they continue to rebel against God. Naturally we do not see our need to be redeemed. We are born sinnersGods enemies. We are haters of God, fighting Him and resisting Him with all thats in us. We promote ourselves in every way believing that we are equal with God and even when we are confronted with the fact that we need to be reconciled to Him, we resist it and continue in our way. The best we may do is try to make peace with God on our terms. It is when God in His mercy opens our eyes to see our true sinfulness that we cry to Him for forgiveness. This was Isaiahs day of redemption and reconciliation with God. When that time comes for us, as it did for Isaiah, we naturally want to turn from serving self to serving God.

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GODS CALL TO SERVICE On the day of Isaiahs reconciliation God makes a call to service. The way He did this is very interesting. It must be noted that that God did not commission or command Isaiah to stop serving self and start serving Him, now that he has been redeemed through His grace and mercy. He did not say to Isaiah now that I have cleansed you of your filthiness, you are totally indebted to Me; come and do my work, come and work for me. It is true that Isaiah was totally indebted to God for the forgiveness of his sins and if God had commanded him to do His work at that time He would have been in place to do so. God took a different approach which was to bring out from Isaiah a response or expression of true gratitude. God asked a question as if not speaking directly to Isaiah or to anyone in particular. Isaiah said that he heard God say, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" This was to provide Isaiah with the opportunity to demonstrate that he knew and understood what God had had done, and to cause him to give the correct response to the goodness and mercy of God. God does this to us; He creates situations where we would voluntarily and willingly give ourselves to Him out of gratitude. He creates the situations where we would, from our heart, without being compelled or commanded, give ourselves to Him totally and unconditionally irrespective of what else is taking place around us or who else might be there. God provides us with the opportunity to serve Him, not for our benefit, not so that we would receive rewards, not so that we would be recognized by others, but solely for Him, for His Glory. In the question asked by God He did not make any offer of reward nor did He state what the task was. He simply asked Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" This clearly indicates that God had work to be done and He intended to use his subjects to do that work. The call made by God is in the nature of calling and sending someone to proclaim His word; to say to a people thus says the Lord.

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Isaiahs response was the correct one; he said here am I send me. It showed that he understood what God had revealed and what He had done to him. He did not stop to wonder what the task was, what the conditions of service were or what the rewards would be. Isaiah did not stop to see if God would give a description of the task in order to determine if he was suited for it or to see if someone else would volunteer instead of him. As soon as God asked the question, Isaiah responded by volunteering himself. APPLICATION One of the lessons we should learn from this is that when a person experiences Gods redemption, a burning desire is created in him or her to serve Him. The joy and excitement in being liberated and being brought back to God created this eagerness to be in His service. There is another sad truth that may be attached to this, which is that soon enough self may take over and that eagerness disappears. We must not let that happen to us.

JESUS IS OUR EXAMPLE Our perfect example of total commitment in serving God is Jesus Christ. We must be like Jesus Christ whose entire life was given to doing the Fathers will and did it with eagerness and a constraining desire and determination to please Him all the time. The scripture teaches us that God the Father prepared Jesus to be the redeemer of mankind and that He was sent to earth to accomplish that purpose. We read this in Isaiah 49:1-3 (NASB) 1 Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me. 2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver. 3 He said to Me, " You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory."

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Verse 6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Once He came to earth, Jesus was totally consumed with doing His Fathers will; even from the time He was a young man. We read of this in Luke 2:41-50 (NASB) 41 Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; 43 and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, 44 but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45 When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. 46 Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. 48 When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for You." 49 And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" 50 But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. In the circumstances surrounding the beginning of Jesus public ministry the same thing is presented to us. This is seen in the way He dealt with the devil who tempted Him after His baptism. From that account the message we must get is that He was totally committed to doing His Fathers will, He had no interest in anything else and as such He couldnt be tempted by anything else. Further to that we are presented with the intensity that Jesus had in serving His Father in Luke 4:38-44 (NASB), for example. The passage reads: 38 Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon's home. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to

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help her. 39 And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and she immediately got up and waited on them. 40 While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them. 41 Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ. 42 When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. 43 But He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose." 44 So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. We see here that from morning to night and into the following day, Jesus was totally consumed with serving His Father and this continued through to the end of His life when . The evidence of this is recorded for us in Luke 22:39-44 (NASB) which reads: 39 And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42 saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. This is our example and this is what Isaiah expressed when in answer to Gods question: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" He answered, "Here am I. Send me!"

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ISAIAHS RESPONSE TO GODS CALL Isaiahs eager and unqualified response is childlike in nature. It did not matter to him what God needed to have done, he was ready to go and to work. His response demonstrates his willingness and readiness to serve the true and living God, not holding back anything whatsoever. The best way I can think of to explain the nature of Isaiahs response to God is to remind you of something that often takes place in the Sunday School. Whenever a question is asked the first voice you would hear and the first hand you would see going up is Jediaels. He would be shouting Me! Me! Me! This indicates his eagerness to answer the question. That is exactly what Isaiah did. He shouts look me! Behold me! Here am I, send me. APPLICATION Is there a call from God for service to Him? Has anybody heard that call? Is there an eagerness to answer the call to serve God? Is what God has done for us in reconciling us to Himself so fresh in our minds that we are burning with an unquenchable desire to serve Him? What is it for you? Gods kind and favourable dealings with us do not end with forgiving our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness; they do not end with Him reconciling us to Himself; they do not end with Him making us fit to worship Him. His kind and favourable dealings continue in that He calls us into His service; He provides us with the opportunity to express our gratitude towards Him. This favour only comes after we have been reconciled and we must never take it lightly or spurn it. We must with great fervor serve God with all that we are. This is how it is expressed to us in Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. May God help us to do that.