Taking the Gospel across the Street and around the World! February 5th – March 5th Taking the Gospel across the Street and around the World!

We are blessed to bless others! Psalm 67:1-2, 4 May God be gracious to us and bless us     and make his face to shine upon us, Selah 2 that your way may be known on earth,     your saving power among all nations. . . 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. . . We are blessed to bless others!

The Letter to the Church in Rome: The Apostle Paul’s greatest work! Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

It is a message of power! It is a message of salvation! It is a message for everyone! It is a message to be believed! ASK God to help you to always remember this about the gospel and ASK the Holy Spirit to give you boldness to proclaim the gospel!

“Oh, what’s the use! Any time I try to talk to someone about Christ, they show no interest! Let’s face it! People just don’t care about what we have to say about Christ!”

Scripture teaches us that people are blind to spiritual truth. 2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Scripture teaches us that people dead in their sin!   Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins . . .

This morning … a look at an Old Testament prophet who was told by God that from the get-go of his ministry people would not respond! The Prophet Isaiah

Isaiah’s Call and Response And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 

Isaiah’s Commission Isaiah 6:9-10 And he said, “Go, and say to 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 blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah’s Commission Isaiah 6:11-12 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, 12 and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.

What was it that compelled Isaiah to respond to God’s call to GO and accept this rather dismal (humanly speaking) commission from God and remain faithful all those years? The Prophet Isaiah

Next Sunday sharing about our own call and commission from God! Kurt Miller

The Two Experiences of Isaiah (6:1-8) Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5)

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. “adonai” = “master” or “lord”

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  “flames” … seraphim are fiery angelic beings!

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Why the word “holy” three times? Repetition was used by the OT Jews for emphasis. So if you wanted to emphasize something and catch someone’s attention, you would repeat it.

“Truly, truly I say to you . . .” Jesus does this often in the gospel record. In fact in the Gospel of John alone he says: “Truly, truly I say to you . . .” (24 times)

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” God’s holiness is the only “attribute” of God that is raised to the third degree in Scripture!

So what is meant when God is called holy? Probably when most of us think of the word “holy,” the words that first enter our minds would be words like “pure” and “sinless”.

So what is meant when God is called holy? The word, “holy,” carries the idea of “separate.” In fact, to be holy is to be “set apart.” When the seraphs refer to God being “holy, holy, holy,” they are making the point that God is set apart in the ultimate sense!

God is distinct from them all! So what is meant when God is called holy? God is CREATOR. Everything else that exists, whether visible or invisible, under the earth, on the earth, above the earth, are mere creations of his hand. God is distinct from them all!

So what is meant when God is called holy? Or in other words, He TRANSCENDS (to climb above or beyond) the universe (both natural and supernatural) which he has made! How wide is the gap between us and this “holy, holy, holy” Creator God? It is INFINITE (without limit!!!)

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!”

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!”

Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!” Matthew 15:18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

Experience #1 – Isaiah was overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!” NIV/NASB – “I am ruined!” NKJV – “I am undone!” NLT – “It’s all over! I am doomed!”

The Two Experiences of Isaiah (6:1-8) Experience #1 – Isaiah is overwhelmed by God’s glory! (vv. 1-5) Experience #2 – He is rescued by God’s grace! (vv. 6-7)

Experience #2 – He is rescued by God’s grace! (vv. 6-7) Isaiah 6:6-7 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

(RC Sproul, The Holiness of God) Experience #2 – He is rescued by God’s grace! (vv. 6-7) “A second of burning flesh on the lips brought a healing that would extend to all eternity. In a moment, the prophet who had fallen apart, was whole again. His mouth was purged. He was now clean.” (RC Sproul, The Holiness of God)

Isaiah 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”  Having been overwhelmed by God’s glory and rescued by God’s grace, Isaiah is now ready to say, “Here I am! Send me.”

Today’s Takeaways 1. Have you ever been overwhelmed by God’s glory? Are your right now overwhelmed by his glory? Unless we are overwhelmed by the AWE of God, we will not be able to be all that God is calling us to be and do!

God’s Word in which he reveals himself to us! Today’s Takeaway We must regularly UNPLUG from the noise around us (which is often trivial and godless) … and PLUG INTO God’s Word in which he reveals himself to us! In the Scriptures we will see God’s glory! As you do this, pray and ask HIM to overwhelm you with his glory!

And read good, solid, books about God! Today’s Takeaway And read good, solid, books about God!

Today’s Takeaway 1. Have you ever been overwhelmed by God’s glory? Are your right now overwhelmed by his glory?

2. Have you ever been rescued by God’s grace? Today’s Takeaway 2. Have you ever been rescued by God’s grace? Have you ever realized (as Isaiah did) that before a holy God that you are lost . . . ruined? That your sin has broken you beyond repair!

2. Have you ever been rescued by God’s grace? Today’s Takeaway 2. Have you ever been rescued by God’s grace? At the very heart of the Bible is the Gospel. The Good News that God has already done everything required to rescue you from the guilt of your sin and rebellion against him! Salvation is by grace alone, thru faith alone, in Christ alone!

“Here I am, send me!” Today’s Takeaway It is only as we are overwhelmed by God’s glory and rescued by his grace that . . . We are able to say . . . “Here I am, send me!”