So I hope you know a lot about the fear of the Lord now or perhaps you just showed up this morning, but if you've been here for the conference so far I'm sure you have had a lot to think about and I know I have I've appreciated the speakers the set of speakers that we've had and the I am amazed that I was the last speaker to be asked to speak, so everybody else got the first shot at their passages. And I was sure that someone would already have picked my passage, because I didn't know what the others had picked. And everybody thinks they got the best one, I'm sure. But I think I got the best one actually I don't know what those other guys were thinking but Isaiah chapter 6 is one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible and if you've ever studied something to teach it. Sometimes when you're studying a particular passage it becomes your favorite for at least the time that you're in it.

That certainly I experienced that also but but this is one of my favorites. Isaiah is the Apostle Paul of the Old Testament and this is in some ways like Isaiah's Damascus Road experience. The two things usually people think of when they think of Isaiah chapter 6 is the seraphim and the cry out, holy, holy, holy. And if you have thought of Isaiah chapter six or you've had much experience with the book of Isaiah, that's usually what people think, but there's another part of it that people like a lot. And that is when God says to Isaiah who will go for me and Isaiah's response is here am I send me and so many people have had that question put to them and I can only imagine being in a conference center like this probably a hundred times every year that question is put to people in some form or another.

And of course the response, who wouldn't want to do God's business, right? Who wouldn't want to do something, some sort of ministry, some sort of action that is working towards the glory of God in the kingdom of God and so everybody wants to say here am I send me the problem is is most of the times when people ask that question they don't first ask the question Who here would like to be undone? And that of course is the first thing. Now if you have been paying attention through the different sessions, you might be here am I, send me, I'm ready to be undone. And if that's where you're at, praise the Lord, because that's where you need to be.

Isaiah chapter six, interestingly, as you probably already realized, is in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. So it's kind of interesting, unlike most of the calls to ministry, Paul did not write any epistles before the Damascus Road experience. We don't know what he was thinking, what he was doing, except the picture we see in the Book of Acts of him going directly in the wrong direction, and for some people, that is their experience. They were going the wrong way. Isaiah was going the right way.

He was a prophet of the Lord going to the temple of the Lord to just do his Jewish prophet thing. He was expecting, I'm sure, as many of you were expecting when you came into this session this morning, something related to God at the temple. Maybe he brought a sacrifice. Maybe someone had asked him to be the special speaker that morning. And what did he get?

He got something completely different than I'm sure what he was expecting. I'm sure his iPhone for several reasons did not go off that morning and say today you're going to meet with God himself. He just thought another day and so I want to I want us to look together at this this process of how God uses his fear to prepare us to do what he wants us to do. So With that long introduction to what we're going to be talking about I want to introduce my family. There we are That is 12 if you count them all And we're very thankful for what the Lord has done in blessing us with 10 children with a beautiful wife.

My oldest son is here today as well as my wife Carol and that is the old church building what we call it in behind us that's kind of me as family and as pastor. We have another building that's not quite as picturesque but is larger. So that is, that's us. I just wanna let you know, for those of you who have large families, sometimes you know there's a certain fear of the Lord that comes with that. Those of you who are in ministry, especially if full-time pastoring, feeding the flock week after week, you know there's a certain amount of the fear of the Lord that goes with that because really you think shepherding the flock of your family, shepherding the flock of the church, I don't think there are any more awesome jobs in the world today.

I would take either of those two over President of the United States for sure. And so what a privilege that is. And I wish I could bring them all with me and introduce them all to you but I just just to well three if you count me so fear of the fear of the Lord what is the fear of the Lord you have probably heard at least 20 definitions of the fear of the Lord if you have been diligent in your attendance of seminars. You've probably heard many different famous people give their definition. You may have seen or heard this one so far this week.

Spurgeon is one of my favorite. He's kind of a Puritan born out of due time. I'm a great man of God, one of my favorites. I've read countless of his sermons, his autobiography, a couple biographies from other people by him. I just love him.

I love how he just breathes God's word to God's people. And what he says, he says pungently. He says in a way that helps us to understand. And here is his definition. What is the fear of the Lord?

It is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law. His wrath is so bitter, his love so sweet, and because of the dangers of coming short from his own weakness and temptations, a holy watchfulness and fear, quote, that he might not sin against him this enters into every exercise of the mind every object of life I think anybody that spent much time in Scripture and trying to understand what God's word means has some sort of go-to definition of the fear of God. Because there's two dangers that happen in the fear of God. One is to say you know what you think of when you think of the word fear that's not it at all. God is this lovey-dovey, oozy-goosey fella up there that he just wants a big hug.

Okay, that's not our God. And Isaiah, if he had that concept before Isaiah 6, he did not have it afterwards. The other danger though is to say he is a harsh rigid disciplinarian that is more full of hate than love and even his love is tinged with hate because we're such bad people. Neither of those are the personality of God and the attribute of having the fear of the Lord is to understand who God is. As I prepared for this, I came up with my own definition.

So this is probably the only time in your life where you will see C.H. Spurgeon replaced by David Eddy. But there it is. The overwhelming awe of an all holy, all powerful God that leads the true believer to worship and obedience but the unbeliever to abject terror and a dread of judgment. An easy definition of The fear of the Lord is not just something that the believer has.

The fear of the Lord is what the unbeliever has. The day will come when every knee will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ in fear of Him. For the saints, For the elect, it will be the first form of this fear. But for the lost, the rebels, it will be the second form of this fear. There will be plenty of fear to go around, but what a difference between those fears.

And we need to have that overwhelming awe of an all-holy all powerful God that leads us to worship and obedience and if you have a little bit more of that after you leave this session I will be happy with what happened in this room. That's really the goal of this conference, that we will increase our fear of God. Now you might ask, what's the ministry? Because some may be here because they think well I'm preparing for ministry or I'm involved in ministry and they think of ministry as something that pastors do. I hope there aren't too many out there that that's their version of ministry.

The role of the elder in the church is to teach God's word and to pray for God's people that the church would minister for God. And so when I'm talking about ministry here I'm not talking about going to seminary and get ordained and made pastor of some church I'm talking about doing whatever it is that God wants you to do with your life and the fear of the Lord is how you will do that whatever it is well for him and not for yourself. It's a type of ministry that Paul talks about in 1st Corinthians 12 4 through 6 where it says there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit there are differences of ministries but the same Lord your ministry is going to be different than my ministry But we all need the fear of the Lord, don't we? We all need to have that respect for God that drives us to do what He wants us to do because our greatest desire is pleasing Him. So we're going to be looking at Isaiah 6 and I've divided into three parts what we are looking at here.

The background, which I think is important to this passage, as I alluded to, Isaiah chapter 6 is already five chapters into the book. The encounter itself, which I love. I love this encounter between God and Isaiah and then the call what happens what actually is the the call and response and the command that's given to Isaiah in this chapter so first we're going to look at the background Isaiah would say in chapter 29 13 this is the word of the Lord these people speaking of Isaiah and Isaiah's day draw near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips but have removed their hearts far from me and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men. Isaiah lived in a day very much like ours. There were vestiges of holiness, some outward forms, but the decay of the nation was very quickly to come upon them.

Hezekiah, one of the kings during Isaiah's prophecy, was one of the last good kings of Israel. It was about to go from okay to very bad. Manasseh would be the next one. And after that, it seems like everything begins to fall apart it's interesting that Jesus would quote this as appropriate to his time they just build a huge beautiful temple well a godless king who wasn't of the line of David, while priests who weren't even of the tribe of Levi were officiating at the altar, but they were all worked up about God and doing God's thing, but they were so far away from God with their hearts. I'm afraid that if Christ were here today, he would say of our country, or if Isaiah were here today, he would say of our country, these same words.

I hope that I hope that this conference is not this, that we're not drawn near to the Lord with our lips, but our hearts are far from him teaching the commandment of men rather than the commandment of God and having a fear towards God that is a fear instilled by commandment of men and I've known many people where that's the case. They're afraid of what people will think and so they toe the line instead of caring what God thinks and what a problem that is And it was a nation that was on the brink of disaster. Also, as we see at the very beginning of Isaiah chapter six, it was in a particular year, the year that King Uzziah died. And I know that some perhaps in this room were like, oh yes, Uzziah. And some of you are Uzziah.

Who is Uzziah? So in case, If you know all about Uzziah, great. If you don't, you ought to know so that you can put this part of this chapter in context. Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king. And he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem.

We have a hard time imagining someone ruling for that long. We think eight years is too long for the most part. You know, talk about term limits. They had none. It was you were there until you died and he reigned for 52 years.

Most people that lived during Isaiah's time weren't born before Uzziah had taken on the throne. The famous story, so the 52 years to put it in perspective was 52 years before now is 1964. So I anybody remember 1964? So maybe a couple yeah that's a that was it was it was a good year the the Beatles toured America for the first time in 1964 and it was the year after JFK was shot I remember growing up I was born in 1971 so 1964 was before my time they I remember always talking to hearing from people oh where were you when when you heard that JFK was shot and people would be like, oh, I was here, I was doing this, I remember that moment. Imagine if after JFK was shot, just to put it in American political context Bill Clinton became president and he was president all the way up until 18 years ago.

Now in case you're having a hard time remembering how long 18 years ago it would be like Bill Clinton was president all the way up until the Monica Lewinsky scandal and then Hillary took over And as you'll see from the story, Uzziah ends up getting leprosy until his death and so it would be like Bill suffering a terrible disease out in the, you know, a portable building on the west lawn while Hillary's doing all of the work and then finally all this time later Bill dies and Hillary's now in charge. This is the national, this is the national backdrop for Isaiah going to temple that day and we have a hard time. Maybe as our culture slides further and further into the abyss of immorality, we will have an easier time, but we have a hard time really understanding that. What happened at that time when Uzziah was struck down? Uzziah was in some ways a good king.

He was a good king politically but not morally. That's kind of an interesting thought. Can someone be a good king politically but not morally? Well, there we are. That's something that's confronting conservative Americans throughout our nation.

Is it possible to untie politics from morals? He was a strong king, but his strength lifted his heart up. His strength was in this world instead of in God's kingdom. And it lifted his heart up to his destruction. And here's how it worked.

He transgressed against the Lord by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. And this was the thing that Zachariah, for instance, was doing when the angel appeared to him to prophesy that John the Baptist was going to be born. This is the closest place that priests on a daily basis got to the Holy of the Holies in the Ark of the Covenant. It was just right outside that curtain that was torn in two when Christ died. He thought why should the priests be the only ones to do God's business?

And so he went in. He said I'm the king, I should be able to do whatever I want to do and what's interesting and and here a condemnation to that era and to our own he said I will do God's business but I will do it my way not God's way. Way. The incense needed to be burnt. Why should someone else burn it for me?

I will burn it myself. So, Azariah the priest goes in after him. Here's a man of God who cares about the ways of God and he's going to confront the most powerful man that he knows and he brings 80 priests with him and I love this valiant men if you're gonna throw the king out of the temple you're gonna get the strongest guys you know and I don't know how they did this whether they all gather down they're like can you but what's the king doing he's got the sensor he's he's going into the temple what are we gonna do and they're like looking around the courtyard and they're like all right if you're like over five foot ten and 200 pounds go to that side of the courtyard and then they're like okay you you and you go back over there let's go get the king you know because when we bring him out we may have a fight on our hands with people that are trained warriors but we're going to get him out of the temple of God and verse 18 it says they withstood King Uzziah and said to him this is not for you Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord but for the priests the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense get out of the sanctuary for you have trespassed you shall have no honor from the Lord God and then says Uzziah became furious in fact what this is a picture of is this is a picture of a lack of the fear of the Lord.

If you've ever had to confront someone in the midst of their wayward, willful disobedience to God, maybe you've had similar situations where they don't repent, they just get mad. He's angry with the priests and it says the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar. Azariah the chief priests and all the priests looked at him and there on his forehead he was leprous. So they thrust him out of that place and it goes on to say indeed he also hurried to get out because the Lord had struck him and King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord.

For 18 years, Israel had had two kings, the leper king and the other king the king who was politically strong and then the next one who was not politically strong was very weak both physically and spiritually and then King Uzziah dies What do you think is on Isaiah's mind when he goes to the temple? I'm guessing similar to what's on many of our minds as we go to church in a troubled land that's turning away from God. Lord, how long? Lord, are you going to do something about this Lord? I mean, we're your people, help us.

So he goes. And what happens? He sees the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. What a picture and when you get pictures of God in his temple, God on his throne, I always get the picture like people don't really know how to describe it they're trying to they're trying to show you I mean I saw this thing but but but how do you explain that to people I'm like trying to explain a sunrise to a blind person. You know, you've never seen anything like this before and I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna tell you what it's like.

It's like really shiny and there's like lots of lights and there's lots of things going on. There's these crazy angels and there's God and it's smoky and shaky and things are filling things and there's a lot of things that are colored like burnished brass. And usually people are falling down on their face at this point. Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up. I think this moment of Isaiah seeing the Lord is an important moment for us to look at.

The beginning of his undoing that is the beginning of his of his call to amazing ministry for God. And I like this verse. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much I don't think now I could be wrong but I don't think any of you are going to go to church anytime soon and see the throne of God instead of the normal service But perhaps you've had moments where God has really spoken to your heart. You've had moments, I hope that most of those who are here today have had at least that moment where they realize I am a sinner and I need a savior and I need to get myself right before an all holy God and accept his provision of Jesus Christ on the cross. And I'm guessing that many of you that took place in church or in family worship time.

Why was your heart responsive to the Word of God in a life changing manner? It's often because you're just doing those little faithful things and I really want to encourage you be faithful in the little things and we for those of you who are in the room we just had a seminar on Joseph and you know there's a man who was faithful in the little things And he was not unjust in the little things. And so often you see people who should have been great in ministry or who are currently great in ministry and somewhere the little things went sideways and instead of using the faithfulness in little to prepare us for the faithfulness and much the unfaithfulness and little slowly rots out the root of the ministry and then it comes crashing down much to the destruction of those around. We need to be faithful. Isaiah was faithful and God's response to a faithful heart is to show himself.

I love the example of David, and by the way, David is an example of both of those things. Early in his ministry, when he goes and he's gonna fight the giant, what kind of, you know, how do you prepare for a fight with a giant right? Well David had actually prepared for a fight with a giant. He didn't know it but that's what he was doing. You go out and you shepherd sheep and you're faithful with the sheep and when a lion or a bear comes you protect the sheep from the lion or the bear you have your heart right before God so that when Goliath is mouthing Blasphemy against the God of Israel and and and is terrorizing God's people David instead of thinking I'm just a little fella and he's really, really big says he's got Dagon.

I've got the Lord God almighty. And then of course the opposite. You see one of the time of kings to go to war David stayed home and sent his armies out into the field. And while he's kind of resting on his spiritual laurels, he goes up to his rooftop and sees a lady next door taking a bath. Please, please be faithful in what is least because God blesses that.

God blesses that. The encounter. What happened when Isaiah saw God? There he is on his throne high and lifted up the train filling the temple above it the seraphim you probably know this picture they have six wings everybody tries to picture this I don't know what this looked like but I think it would have looked cool whatever it looked like They had two wings just for covering their face, because God is too holy. Two of them to cover their feet.

And with two, they would fly. The word seraphim means the burning ones. And I think it's a picture of the appearance of these angels, Either real bright or actual flames of fire coming off of them and artists have tried both of those as depictions. I'm guessing they've all missed the mark somewhat. They're crying to one another.

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." Yeah, surprise! You came, you just thought it was going to be a normal day. No, today is the day you see God.

What is the glory of the Lord? The glory is the outward exhibition of God's inward attributes. It's to see how God, it's a presentation of how big God is, how powerful God is, how holy God is, how important God is. Probably no one in the Old Testament knew the glory of the Lord better than Moses. He was someone that lived really in the glory of God much of his later career.

He gets to see the burning bush, he gets to go up on the mountain and get the commandments. He's the guy that goes into the tabernacle of meeting with the Lord and when he comes out he's glowing as a response to God's glory And people are like, Moses, please put a veil over your face because it's kind of freaking us out to see the glory of God shining back at us. I mean, so people that are like, you know, we want God's glory at several removes. And yet he lived in its midst. So the book of Hebrews talks about the consuming fire that actually comes from the time when God is bringing his people around, a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, the flame and the smoke on top of Mount Sinai.

In Exodus 24 17 it says the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain and Moses said we're gonna draw a line around the base of the mountain and nobody is going to go up on the mountain except for me. He's up in the consuming fire. This is one of the reasons why the children of Israel made the golden calf is because he's gone for 40 days and they're like you know I'm just guessing he's dead. I don't know what happened to him. I mean he's it's a consuming fire and yet remember that moment later and this is after he's been doing a lot of this glory stuff when Moses says to the Lord, please show me your glory?

I mean, it's like he knows God isn't showing him everything. And the Lord says, You cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live. He had seen God's glory so much, yet God said, That's not for you. In these mortal bodies, we are unequipped for the full glory of God one of the reasons why we'll be given a glorious body for our time in Christ's presence is because these moral bodies aren't equipped for that kind of thing. He says here's what I'm gonna do you know and this is the the famous part of this passage he puts Moses into the cleft of the rock verse 22 and covers him there while he passes by.

And God says, I'm going to take away my hand, and you will see my back. Some have translated this, you will see the after effects of my glory, but my face, the full effect of my glory, shall not be seen. The sight of the glory of God is too terrible for us. Here was Isaiah's reaction. Woe is me, for I am undone.

Why was he 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. Isaiah was a, Isaiah had the privilege of being one of the greatest writers of Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament. And with it being the Old Testament he was one of the greatest writers of Hebrew poetry of all time so he he he had this was what God's ministry was going to be to say thus saith the Lord and when he saw when when he approaches God's holiness God's glory that's where he feels the hurt I might dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips he comes up to the Lord and he realizes not so much I'm so much better than they are but I am no different than they are. And isn't that one of the responses that we have when we really see the glory of God when we really have an encounter with the holiness of God.

Instead of looking around and comparing ourselves with ourselves and saying, oh, well, you know, we're better than those people because they dress like that or they talk like that or they act like that or they do have that kind of church service or they have that kind of theology or, You know, well, we're so good. We see God, and we're like, never mind about us being good. You're good, and we're bad. Because I'm a pastor, I have lots of white shirts. Because I have 10 children, my wife uses handmade soap.

I don't know if any of you do that, but that's like you can save lots of money if you do that. But handmade soap does not get white shirts clean, like the stuff that is going to kill you and the environment. So what happens is when I have special occasions, I try to get my whitest white shirt. Any of you ever done that? Maybe you're not a pastor, so you don't have to wear a button-up white shirt.

So maybe for you it's socks. You know, get the whitest of the white socks. But for me it's shirts. And I'll be like, you know, this one's, this is the whitest of the white shirts. Sometimes it gets so bad I say, you know what?

I've got like two shirts that they just need to go into the OxiClean bath. We're going to kill some trees today and probably harm the health of those within a 30-foot radius. But I do like white shirts that are actually white. Here's when I throw away shirts when I buy a new white shirt. You bring that new white shirt in the closet, and you're like, oh, dear.

That one has got to go. And we compare ourselves with ourselves, and we're like, you know what, I am more white than that fellow over there. I am more clean than that person over there. I have had the oxy-clean bath more recently than anybody in this room. You come before God Almighty and it's that's not how we process things.

His righteousness is whiter than snow and it's whiter than the most talented launderer in the world can whiten things. Isaiah suddenly realizes I'm not just a good temple goer, one of the few who still believes in Jehovah. He says, woe is me for I am undone. And you can see this a little bit in his writings. So Habakkuk 1.13 gives a picture of this.

You're pure of eyes to bold evil. You cannot look on wickedness. And Isaiah sees the wickedness in himself. Oh yes, Job, he's a good example. Job, remember the arguments of Job, and a lot of people like to defend Job, what does Job do when God shows up?

Does he say to his friends, now, this is what I'm talking about, right? I mean, and you would think he could. They're like, you're bad, something's gone wrong, you're messed up and we're gonna tell you the things you probably did wrong to get yourself so punished by God. And he's like, I didn't do anything. And in a sense, Job is the righteous man of his generation.

He is whiter than all the other white shirts. And yet, when God shows up, what's Job's response? God says, Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God let him answer it." And Job answers and says, Behold, I am vile. He's been defending himself for the last 38 chapters.

God shows up, he's not defending himself anymore. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth. I mean that's kind of the same response Isaiah has. Later on in this back and forth between Job and God, he says, I've heard you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. What a transformation. In a sense, it's almost like, and here you think, was this Satan's doing that got Job into such a bad spot? No, it was God's doing. Satan was just a tool that God used to get God's glory further more deeply into Job's heart.

Job probably was thinking he was doing pretty well But it took an encounter with God to realize that he still needed to repent before the Almighty. So Isaiah cries out. And of this story, this is one of my favorite parts. You've got this flying angel. I mean, yeah, the flying angel, you've got this burning flying angel.

And he takes a live coal from the altar. And he takes it with tongs. I mean, you would think a burning angel wouldn't need to use tongs. If a burning angel placed his finger on your lips, what do you think that would do? And that burning hand is too tender to take the coal from the altar.

God doesn't play light with Isaiah's unclean lips. He doesn't say to Isaiah, you know what, really your lips are pretty good. You know, I really appreciate how much you've done for me so far. No he says this is a problem and and we are going to take the utmost care to provide for your problem. And if you're a believer today it was the blood of Christ that was the coal for your soul.

It wasn't a little sacrifice. It wasn't a little solution. When God solves our problems, he pulls out the plugs, he pulls out the stops, he does things perfectly because he's perfect, powerfully because he's powerful. He takes a coal from the altar, too hot for the angel, and touches it to Isaiah's lips. Behold this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.

Look at the difference before and after Isaiah's encounter. In Isaiah 2.8, so this is before, he says their land, this is the land of Israel, is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And is idolatry bad? Absolutely idolatry is bad.

People that bow down, each man humbles himself. Therefore, he says to God, Do not forgive them. Enter into the rock, hide in the dust. And here he's speaking to his own people, the people of the Lord who have gone their own way. He says run and hide from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty.

In Isaiah chapter two, Isaiah is saying, I wish this people would just see God's glory. And then in Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah sees God's glory. In Isaiah chapter one, This is what Isaiah says, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. He's talking to God's people. To the nation, God's nation.

Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. He lived in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. Come, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, and this is a famous passage, they shall be like snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. But notice what he says, though your sins are like scarlet they shall be white as snow though they are they are red like crimson they shall be as wool now is this true we know it's true because it's in God's Word it was absolutely true The people of God needed to come before God and those who are living as if they lived in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah and are still calling themselves people of God. They need to get things straight in their head.

And Isaiah says, you all need to know that. But what does he say afterwards, after his encounter with the thrice holy God? Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Do you see the difference there? It's not yours.

It's ours. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. I wonder if his lips were feeling a little bit of the leftover, the residuals from the searing of the coal. The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. We desperately need to have this heart. When we stand in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah it is so easy to say you people need to get yourself straightened out what is the matter with you. But you know what Christ died for our sins.

We need to be right. Our transgressions, our iniquities, our chastisement, our due punishment, and what a change you see there. A result of the fear of the Lord, a transformational result in the ministry of Isaiah, and then the call. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

If you fear God There's no other answer and and and really at this point has been made throughout the the seminars The fear of the Lord drives our obedience That the natural result of the fear of the Lord is to do what God wants. To say to your father, I respect you but I'm not going to obey you, is to say I don't really respect you. But to God, what can you say? In the presence of His holiness, with your lips cleansed by the coal from His altar, all you can say is, Here am I, send me. Ephesians 2 10 says, We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Sometimes and you know more in circles that take more seriously the sovereignty of God we kind of don't like the word good works because it almost sounds like it has something to do with us instead of something to do with God. Here's what we need to know is good works are a thing and it's a thing we should be doing. It's just a thing you can't do before you're saved. But after you're saved it should be exactly what you're doing because God prepared them beforehand that you should walk in them. There is something according to Ephesians 2 10 that if you are a believer this morning that God has for your life and he will call you to it, will your response be Isaiah's response?

The answer to that question will be probably based on whether you fear God or not. Will you be successful in doing what God asks you to do? Probably again the response to that question is whether you truly fear God. Romans 12 another famous verse. I just got a pick on some of my favorites today.

You know this. I beseech you by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. If God has cleansed your soul with the blood of Jesus Christ, how could you do anything else but serve him? To not serve him, to not obey him, to not do the ministry, whatever that is that he's laid before you is probably an indication of not really understanding the glory and grandeur of God. And now can you be a believer and not really understand it?

Isaiah didn't really get this, the strength of this until he had already been in ministry, so to speak, and I know many people that They become a believer and they love the Lord and they want to follow the Lord and they just struggle, struggle, struggle and it's because they're doing it on their own strength and not on God's strength. But Christ died. That we could do good works. That we could live a living sacrifice life which is holy, which is acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And here is Isaiah's charge.

Go tell this people, keep on hearing but do not understand keep on seeing but do not perceive poor guy there's a message Make the heart of this people dull, their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they would see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed. What a desperate, What a depressing ministry. But you know what, Jesus said, actually that's my ministry too. It's to speak the glory of the Lord to a land where most people will refuse to hear it. They'll be like Pharaoh of old, where miracle after miracle, plague after plague only hardened his heart further against God.

I don't want this ministry. I'd rather have the ministry of open their ears that they would hear, open their eyes that they would understand. But that wasn't what God gave Isaiah. And yet, what was the ministry God gave Isaiah? God gave Isaiah a ministry of writing a book, and believers from that time on have used that book.

In his life, it was hardness of heart and blood spiritual blindness and and spiritual death in a nation that was dying. But. In writing this book. He did one of the greatest he wrote one of the greatest books that have been used for the kingdom of God. Jesus quoted the book of Isaiah more than he quoted any other book in the Old Testament.

When Jesus goes to his hometown to preach who he is, what does he open up? The book of Isaiah. When the Ethiopian eunuch is on his way back and God has appointed this moment for his salvation and there's Philip, one of the first seven deacons of the church, And they're meeting each other, what's he reading? Well, by God's appointment, he could have been reading anything. But God's like, well, what better book could you have than the book of Isaiah?

Romans hadn't been written yet. And as you look in the history of the church the Book of Romans kind of took that place as so often again and again that book which broke people's hearts. A difficult ministry but a ministry that would bear much fruit despite at that moment being a ministry of fruitlessness what was his response and I'm gonna just skip ahead a little bit here because we're pretty much done he said how long Oh Lord If your ministry is a ministry of speaking the truth to hard-hearted, hard-headed, unbelieving, intransigent unbelievers, you might have this response too. But if you've seen the glory of your God, your response will not be, oh, if that's it, never mind. And let me just say, here is one of the banes of any kind of ministry for the Lord is the bane of fruitlessness.

God calls you to parent your children and your children aren't following in the ways of the Lord. I've seen this happen where one kid early on in the you know, the the the slope of children and and they're like the parents throw their hands up in the air. Well, I couldn't do it. I tried. I can't do it.

I'm just going to give up. A pastor gathers around him a small church and and and and it's like they lose more people than they gain, and they're like, well, God must not have called me. God calls you to tell the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ as an evangelist to your friends, your family, the people around you, and the first two or three you talk to, and they're all just, don't talk to me about that. Is your response, oh, I must not have heard God correctly when I thought he called me to this? Or is your response, Lord, how long?

I will obey. I can't help but obey. My question is not if, my question is when. And so many powerful ministries, that's the question. Not if, but when.

And here's God's answer. Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitants the houses are without a man The land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away. The forsaken places are many in the midst of the land You know God's about to take the northern tribes into captivity. A couple hundred years later he's going to take the southern tribes into captivity.

They're going to come back. Their hearts still not really going to be right and they're going to be scattered. The land will be forsaken. But there will yet be a tenth in it. Isaiah you may not see it but there will be those who hear the Word because Isaiah chapter 55, my Word does not go out without effect.

It will always return with a harvest. It may be small, but it will be what I want and they will return and sadly the tenth the return won't be for blessing but they'll return for consuming. Even those who hear and listen and obey they're going to have a hard time as a terebinth tree or an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump and I believe in that holy seed which shall be at stump. God is pointing forward to the day that would come when there would be a new branch that grew off of the stump of the tribe of David of Jesse and the kingly line the day would come when there would be a new seed and that was the day that Isaiah looked forward to.

So many passages in Isaiah are So glorious that he spoke to a people who would not hear. But I want to say to those of you who are blood bought believers in Jesus Christ, read the book of Isaiah and thrill again to the descriptions of this seed. They would not, could not see it. But as we open God's word and look at those passages where the servant is extolled, where Christ is proclaimed, those great passages that are so famous because they are about Christ, we think, wow, this was a message that God gave hundreds, hundreds of years before Jesus Christ even came, And they were so accurate and so precious. And Isaiah, we might say, didn't get to see it in his time.

But you know what? God didn't call Isaiah to faithfulness to be good for Isaiah. He called Isaiah to faithfulness for his glory and Isaiah was faithful because in his encounter to God and his fear of God he knew that's what mattered not him the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we are grateful for this passage in Isaiah and Lord we're grateful anytime you really get ahold of someone's heart and for such a man like Isaiah what a blessing and a privilege to have that brought into scripture Lord I pray that you would help us to fear you like Isaiah did, and we know for that to happen, we need to have an experience of your greatness and your glory, of your perfections, and we realize that what Isaiah saw was the one that would come to save us.

That he would see in part and certainly in a fabulous manner, But we have so much more truth than he did. We have four Gospels which show Christ in the flesh and then all of the epistles and the book of Revelation that show us what that means. What that means. Lord, if we have hard hearts like the children of Israel did in Isaiah's day, we humbly beg you that you would soften those hearts. Take out the heart of stone, give us a heart of flesh, and Lord, help us to know you so well that disobedience is no longer an option.

We pray these things in Jesus name. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org