"WHAT SERVING GOD REQUIRES!"

ISAIAH 6:1-8

Perhaps you can remember just where you were and what you were doing when President Kennedy was shot. Perhaps you can recall just how you felt when the somber truth dawned: the President of the United States had been assassinated! Across the nation people of both parties felt numbed, stunned, violated, vulnerable and enraged. Isaiah felt some of those things when king Uzziah died. Uzziah was basically a good king, but was stricken with leprosy for his disobedience and pride, 2 Chronicles 26:19. Hard times were coming upon Judah. Internally, the wealthy were corrupt, selfish and cruel; worship was pretense; and King Uzziah had died. On top of that, externally Assyria was threatening. So Isaiah went to the temple to worship, and there the living God revealed Himself in a vision. This was the beginning of Isaiah's real desire to serve Him. But I want to tell you about one young man who was not so eager to serve his king. Times were hard in his day, too. He was a young musician in the royal band of Hanover. He was a remarkable boy for his age, and his superior musical talent won him much praise. He liked to play moving march music at the head of the troops, but when actual war came and the French invaded Germany, and he had to lie in the trenches all night, he deserted and fled to England. Isaiah, on the other hand, was no deserter. He was a faithful worker for the Lord. If we want to be workers for God, if we want to labor at his task, if we want to serve him faithfully, we must meet the basic requirements:

• Serving God requires a sense of his holiness: vv1-4:
• The vision Isaiah saw, served four purposes at least:
• One was to show him that however exalted Uzziah was, however powerful he was, God is more exalted and powerful and that Isaiah should keep looking to Him.
• The second was to exalt Himself above the surrounding hostile nations, their gods and their kings. Eastern monarchs decked themselves out in gaudy apparel, seated themselves on high thrones, and surrounded themselves with special people. God surpassed all that in a heart-beat.
• The third was to show that He was a majestic, awesome and powerful God who was able to take care of all the petty problems of the kingdom; they were not too great for Him.
• The fourth was to set the stage for calling Isaiah into service.
• So the living God is revealed as higher than, separate from and superior to all His creation. The triple pronouncement of the seraphim emphasized and underscored His holy estate and being. He is not just holy; not just holy, holy; but He is holy, holy, holy! He is thrice holy! Completely and totally holy!
• Let's contrast two ideas now: the idea of diminishing God's holiness and the idea of exalting it.
• Many diminish His holiness:
• They call Him "the big guy!" or "the man upstairs!"
• They use His Name as an expletive or a curse!
• They tell jokes about God and use Him for humor.
• They replace Him with material, temporal things and pursuits.
• They attempt to supplant Him with self: be their own law, their own God!
• Many, however, exalt his holiness:
• They see God's hand in all the affairs of life and praise Him in good and in ill.
• They give Him credit instead of taking it to themselves, or transferring it to luck.
• They worship Him faithfully and regularly.
• They obey and serve Him with full and glad hearts.
• Until we, too, recognize who God is, how high and exalted He is, how He is to be worshipped, and glorify Him, we will never be able to serve Him as He demands and deserves.

Though he knew better, the young musician abandoned his military duty and failed to serve his king. Now for a soldier to desert, the penalty is death. But this man was not caught. He became a great organist and also a great and famous astronomer. He constructed a telescope, and scanned the heavens night after night until one night he actually discovered a new planet (Uranus) and received the applause of the whole world. He was sent for by the king of Britain, and went to Windsor Castle. The king was George III, the grandson of George II, elector of Hanover to whom his life was forfeit for his old desertion. What would the king do? Before the king would see him he was instructed to open an envelope containing a royal communication. He did so, wondering what the king was going to do with him. He knew the king's authority and power to condemn him to death and the summons reminded him of his guilt in desertion so he trembled. So did Isaiah when he viewed his life in contrast to the holiness of God. But that's another step in qualifying for service.

• Serving God requires a sense of our sinfulness: v5:

• Note the impact of God's holiness:
• The place was filled with smoke and the thresholds shuddered.
• Isaiah trembled in his sandals.
• There was no arrogance on Isaiah's part. No smug self-righteousness; no sense of personal adequacy. Instead he felt like a spindly little guy with muscles like a lump on a rubber band standing next to Arnold Swartzenegger; he was like a chihuahua bumping into a great dane. Isaiah recognized his puniness and his sinfulness next to the pure, awesome holiness of the living God.
• What possible responses are there to recognizing our sinfulness?
• Some refuse to acknowledge it at all!
• "There really is no such thing as sin."
• "I'm as good as some other people, so I'm okay."
• Some are overwhelmed by it.
• "There is no hope, I'll never be any better."
• "God won't ever accept or forgive or use me."
• Some are realistic and repentant:
• They know that if they claim they have no sin, the truth is not in them.
• They know there is no place for self-righteous, self-justifying, vainglorious pride or for hopeless, faithless despair.
• Our sense of sin ought not drive us from God in fear and dread, but to Him, on our knees in penitent confession. He has invited us to come in that way!

King George III commanded the musician to come into his presence after reading the letter he sent. He opened the communication wondering what the king was going to do with him. He knew he could still be put to death though years had passed. Much to his relief, it was his pardon as a deserter. "Now," said king George, "we can talk, and you shall come up and live at Windsor and be Sir William Herschel." instead of executing Herschel, he knighted him and put him on a lifetime pension. How like God in pardoning a sinner! He not only forgives him, but He honors him in making him a son of God and fitting him for service. So Isaiah was cleansed and forgiven and made ready for service!

• Serving God requires a sense of his cleansing: v6-8:

• Isaiah frankly saw the vast distance between what God is and what he was; he freely admitted his impurity and God cleansed him.
• The bible speaks clearly about God's cleansing:
• Psalms 51:2 wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
• Jeremiah 33:8 and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against me, and by which they have transgressed against me.
• Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
• This applies to all of us, because as Proverbs 20:9 reminds us, "who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'"
• Though it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us, and we cannot ever merit salvation, yet we, too, have some responsibility in this matter of being cleansed for service:
• 2 Corinthians 7:1 therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
• 2 Timothy 2:21 therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
• 1 John 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sin.
• 1 John 1:9 if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• I.e. we must forsake sin, make no excuses or provision for it, and confess it to the Lord.

Once Isaiah sensed God's holiness, his own sinfulness and God's cleansing, then he was ready to volunteer for service and he made a personal commitment. Each one of us must also make a personal response. Moses wanted God to send someone else; Jeremiah protested that he was too young; but Isaiah said, "Here I am. Send me!" Which is your model? Which is your response to God's call to serve? Serving God requires a sense of personal responsibility. God still asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" God still asks, God still waits, God still hopes you will say, "Here I am. Send me. I will work with the youth. I will help with the mailings. I will teach Sunday School. I will work with the shut-ins. I will help with the crisis pregnancy center or with Fish or with a soup kitchen. Wherever the Lord can use me, here I am. Send me." But if not now, when? If not you, who?

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