as we continue now with our study of the holiness of God we recall that we have been looking carefully and closely at the record of Isaiah's call to the office of Prophet that he gives to us in the sixth chapter of the book that bears his name and we've seen the response of the angels the Seraphim to the unveiled splendor of the holiness of God as they sing there in tiffin I'll respond slowly holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and then we've looked at the response of
Isaiah to this display of God's character in which Isaiah pronounces a curse upon himself saying woe is me for I am undone we see Isaiah ruined crying out that he is a man of unclean lips and that he dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips but now we're left with the question what does God do with this man who is now cursing himself who is prostrate before God who is crying out about his own uncleanliness is filthiness does God respond from heaven looking at this one and saying yes you worm you are
unclean lie there in the dirt and rise forever I don't care about you it's not what he does but let me tell you difference what else God does not do God does not look down and I say and say Oh Isaiah don't be so melodramatic don't take yourself so seriously you have such a negative self-image don't you know what kind of a God I am I am the God who accepts you just as you are that my love for you is unconditional and it doesn't matter to me that you were polluted with this sin God
did not say that to Isaiah nor has he said it to anyone and somehow someway we've got to stop this gospel of cheap grace that goes out across the airways all over the world as if the kingdom of God were mr. Rogers neighborhood it pronounces to the world that God accepts people where they are God does not accept people where they are now the truth that's behind that distortion is the gospel the God does not wait for us to become pure and holy and perfect before he will enter into a saving relationship with us God
does not demand perfection God does not demand purity before he will redeem us it's while we were still sinners that Christ dies for us that's the gospel but let us not so overstate that gospel as to tell people they don't have to do anything they have to repent and if we do not repent God will never receive us into his kingdom and if we never repent he will leave us in the dirt screaming before his holiness and he requires that we put our faith in His only begotten Son trusting in him and in him alone
and his righteousness that we may have the forgiveness of sin yes in one sense God loves everybody unconditionally in the sense that there are no conditions that we have to meet before God will give us his common grace his love of benevolence by which he pours his reign upon the unjust as well as upon the just but we make a distinction in theology between God's love of benevolence and his love of complacency that love of complacency not in the sense of indifference but that love that is enjoyed by those who have been adopted into his
family there were deeming love of God and that love is not unconditional to receive that love which Esau did not receive but Jacob did receive requires faith it requires a response of acknowledgement of our sin and our desperate need of God's gracious forgiveness in order to participate in his family Isaiah receives the love of God the love of complacency the love of redemption when Isaiah receives the forgiveness for his sin but let me say something as we observe this record of Isaiah's cleansing that the grace that redeems this man who was on his face cursing
himself before God has no cheapness to it whatsoever it is a grace that comes with a weighty price and in the context of extreme pain beloved let me ask you something have you ever really repented of your sins there is something altogether sweet and liberating about truly repenting of our sins when we come before God in full nasty not hedging our bets not coming with a list of excuses before him but when we cry out oh god I have sinned against you it is against you and you only that I've sinned as David cried out
in Psalm 51 and by the way let me just say by way of parentheses that if you don't know what repentance is spend an hour reflecting on the fifty first Psalm where David pours out under the impetus of the Holy Spirit the utterances of a broken and contrite heart before God but when we do that there is something sweet something delightful something liberating about open confession before God but yet at the same time beloved there is always something painful that attends confession it is not fun to repent there's something extremely costly about it because we
have to stare ourselves in the mirror and realize that we were not as great as we'd like to believe that we are and so when Isaiah utters the curse woe is me for I am undone I am ruined I'm coming apart at the seams and he cries before God because he has seen God face to face in the vision the next thing that happens is that God takes the initiative for the Seraphim move now from above the throne of God from exercising their tasks and their duty of celebrating God in worship now in the service
of God the angel is directed by God to go to the altar now let me just say that's usually what in salvation that there's an altar involved in the Old Testament it was communicated through the imagery of the altar of burnt offering and of sacrifice there is no redemption in the New Testament save for the altar of Gaul Gotha where Christ was lifted up as our sacrifice made once and for all and on that sacred altar the atonement was made for our sins I say it tells us this one of the Seraphim flew to me
having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar these coals were white-hot they had been burning there in the sanctuary too hot even for the touch of an angel so the Seraphim must use tongs to pick up this coal well what does he do with it he's directed by God to fly to the earth to descend upon the prostrate Isaiah and to take this live coal from the altar and place it upon the lips of a man we have straight customs as human beings to express our affection
and our care what is romance without the kiss we don't rub noses to communicate affections we kiss and the instrument that is used for the tenderness of the kiss are the lips why because the lips which guard is it were the entranceway to our souls the lips that seal our tongues from expressing lies or falsehood the lips that may conceal the poison of ASPs as the scriptures say on their surface contains some of the most sensitive nerve endings that are found on our skin and so the lips when they touch another person's lips tenderly communicate
the depths of affection you've known the experience of biting into something that was too hot soup that was too hot and you dropped the spoon and you say well I've burnt my lips and and you know how excruciating ly painful it is to taste something that is too hot but can you imagine a burning coal that is white-hot being placed on your lips being put on your mouth the screaming pain that that would entail now we look at this text and we say what kind of a god is this who when a human being humbles
themselves in prayer in contrition in repentance why doesn't God say that's okay Isaiah I just forgive you why this act that seems to be cruel and unusual punishment what's the purpose of the coal the purpose of the coal is not to punish Isaiah the coal is brought for cleansing free see Isaiah's mouth is dirty it needs to be healed he is a wounded person and in antiquity right up until the 20th century the standard procedure for the cleansing and the healing of a wound is the process of cauterization by which the fire purifies the wound
less infection and poison be stored up and become fatal and so God Stoops in His mercy to cleanse his servant and directs the angel to come with the burning ember and to place it upon his lips and I don't want to get too graphic here but I'm thinking that every angel in the place could hear the sizzling of the seared flesh as that ember touched the lips but you notice I say it doesn't say anything about the pain I wonder if he even felt it because at the same time that the Angels acted to purify
God spoke and the words of God that fell upon the ears of Isaiah were the most wonderful words that I say or any human being could ever hear he touched my mouth with it Isaiah said and he said Behold this has touched your lips your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged now Isaiah here's an Oracle from the angel of God which is the supreme Oracle of blessedness behold this is touched your lips and your sin has been taken away let me say it again beloved your sin has been taken away what would
you give to be able to call a garbage truck to come to your house not to take the trash out of your attic or out of your garage but to take the sin out of your soul away bury it somewhere the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the announcement of the remission of sins and to have something remitted is to have it removed to have it taken away and what does God say through his people as far as the east is from the west so far will I remove your transgressions from you come
he says the prophet Isaiah in the first chap come let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be as crimson they shall be as wool how stain on your soul is it crimson is it scarlet Isaiah says we're all in that condition but I heard this voice sang to me behold look your sins have been taken away your transgressions have been removed and your sins have been purged not just a forgiveness but cleansing I've cleaning your dirty mouth I'm no longer holding against you the sins
that have come out of that mouth and I'm giving you a pure mouth and I'm putting in your mouth Isaiah my words so that now what will come from your lips is not blasphemy and curses and lies but you will now speak my word and while Isaiah is hearing this glorious announcement of his Redemption he hears something else God says whom shall I send who will go for us and the first thing says with lips that are blistered but pure is the response here and the hi not Here I am it's not a statement of
his location he's not concerned about geography God knows very well where he is but God had said who will go for me whom shall I send and Isaiah says here am I send me the incongruity of it two minutes before this Isiah had just announced that he has a filthy mouth why should he go and be God's spokesman he's the most unqualified person in the world to speak for God until what until he's forgiven the only real qualification that anybody has ever had for being a spokesman for God is that that person has experienced what
it means to be forgiven all the study in seminary can never qualify me to be a preacher the only credential any of us has is that we've experienced the forgiveness of Christ and so Isaiah said hey if you're looking for somebody to send don't look any further I will go wherever you want me to go I'll crawl over glass I'll tell the whole world because I've seen the king I have beheld the glory of God I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God I can't wait to tell the whole world about this experience about this
moment in my life yes it's painful yes I can hardly speak my mouth is filled with blisters but for the first time in my life I'm clean and now I understand who you are so send me you you
