Remember Your Commission to Be On Mission: Knowing Who We Are In Light Of Who God Is

Andrew Slay

Stand Alone • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Introduction

Use Lion King Illustration of Simba forgetting who he was…losing focus of misson…but needing to be reminded who he was to fulfill his mission.

FCF: Why do we struggle to be on Mission for God in everything we do? Why do we often not have a desire to share the Gospel with our friends, family members, and co-workers? Why are we apathetic in pursuing the Lord and seeking to make disciples for His glory?

Sermon Idea: Through remembering our commission by God in Christ, we will have the grace to fulfill the mission He has given us.

PRAY

Main theme and purpose of Isaiah:

God does all things for his glory and will declare the good news through glorifying himself through the renewed and increase glory of His people. This will result in attracting and drawing all nations to himself which will increase his glory.

In the first five chapters, God declares his judgment against Israel because they have rejected him and worshipped other gods.

Isaiah 6 sets the stage for the rest of the book by God revealing his holiness to Isaiah and commissioning him to proclaim his judgment and glory to the people of Israel.

This text gives us four things we must do if we are to be on mission for God, and it is all based upon remembering the commission God has given us in our salvation...

1. Who God Is: Holy (vs 1-4)

If we are going to be able to fulfill our mission from God, the first thing we must do is remember who God is…and verses 1-4 make clear that God is the Holy King of the Universe!

Verse 1 reads, “In the year that King Uzziah died...”

Isaiah gives us the context in this first phrase.

King Uzziah was the King of Israel who reigned faithfully for fifty-two years.

However, at the end of his life 2 Chronicles 26 tells us that Uzziah became prideful and instead of remembering God’s holiness, he exalted himself to the place of God.

As a result, God struck Uzziah with leprosy and he was banished and secluded from all people until the day of his death.

This historical event sets the stage for the need for Isaiah, and us as well, to recognize that God alone is the King, He alone is holy, and we should never seek to take the place that only God can inhabit.

So in the midst of Uzziah’s death, Israel was without a king, the Assyrians had already began to attack them, the nation was in utter ruin because of their sin in rejecting their God and worshipping the gods of the nations… yet Isaiah continues to say in verse 1...

“I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple.”

Even though Israel’s king had died…the Lord...who is the true King, was still on His throne…even in the midst of chaos…the Lord continues to reign!

Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

Isaiah was having a vision of the Lord’s glory and majesty in the throne room of heaven…the Holy of Holies where the Lord’s glory dwelled.

Notice the way that Isaiah describes the Lord’s throne in verse 1…it is high and lifted up…it is exalted and lofty.

These two words communicate that God is literally higher physically than anything else...and that his status and rank are exalted above all things.

God’s throne is unattainable…it is unreachable… no one compares...basically Isaiah is saying that God’s throne is on a whole other level.

After describing the glory of the Lord, Isaiah continues to depict the majestic vision in verse 2 through describing the angelic beings.

“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.”

The Seraphim were fiery angelic beings as the word seraphim literally means “flame”....but as powerful as the Seraphim were, notice what they are doing with their wings in the presence of the holy king of the universe...hiding their faces.

Even though the seraphim were not sinful...and were exalted created beings...they still had to cover their face before the holiness of God.

Not even the angels could behold the full splendor of the Lord’s majestic holiness and survive…again, the Lord’s glory and throne are lofty, and on a whole other level.

These angelic beings then began to cry out to one another in verse 3: Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”

The word Holy literally means, “to cut,” or to be “set apart.”

Wayne Grudem defines God’s holiness to mean that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor....“Holiness refers to God’s essential nature; it is not so much an attribute of God as it is the very foundation of his being.”

And this is the way the angels describe the Lord…but notice they repeat themselves three times…why is that?

Anytime the Bible repeats words, normally God is telling us we need to pay attention to something… and In Hebrew, Jews used repetition of a word to demonstrate importance.

There is only one time where is God described by the same word three times and it is in this verse as He is proclaimed as...HOLY, HOLY, HOLY.

RC Sproul says of this verse, “The Bible never says that God is, love, love, love, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or mercy, mercy, mercy, but only HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, and the whole earth is filled with his glory”

1 Samuel 2:2 proclaims God’s holiness that “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.”

The Seraphim not only extol the Lord’s holiness but they also call Him the LORD of hosts, which means that God is the LORD of all the armies of the angelic beings…essentially He is the King of the universe....and because He is king, his glory fills the whole earth!

So the angels respond to the Lord’s holiness with fear and praise, and verse 4 tells us that even the foundations of the temple give reverence to God’s awesome glory.

The call of God’s holiness shook the very hinges and foundations of the temple. When God’s Holiness is displayed, not even material things can stand still, but shake in God’s presence.

To help us see how God’s holiness is high and exalted above all other things…we can think about the different skyscrapers of Dubai...

Princess Marina: 1,300 feet

-only second tallest though...

Burj Kalifa: 2,700 feet

Ask yourself some of these questions...

How do you view the Lord?

Do you see him as high and exalted on the throne?

Do you have a holy and reverent fear of him like the angels?

Is He the King of your life?

Does He rule and reign on the throne of your heart?

Do you place him high and lifted up above all other things in your life and see them as rubbish compared to his awesome glory?

By remembering that the Lord alone is God and that He is seated on His throne, we can be reminded of who is...who is in control of our lives...who we should submit to and serve...and who we can trust even in the midst of the chaos that is surrounding our life and our world.

We must seek to have a proper vision of God and His glory, we must remember that He is the Holy King of the Universe and He alone is the only one we should worship and obey…He alone is the only one who should sit on the throne of our hearts.

2. Who We Are: Sinful (vs 5)

So If we are going to be on mission for God, not only do we need to remember who God is but the second thing we must do is see who we are in light of who God is, as sinners in need of a savior.

After seeing the glory and holiness of the King of the Universe, Isaiah responds and confesses in verse 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!”

We must understand that the way we view ourself is directly tied to the way we view God… RC Sproul said, for the first time, Isaiah understood who God was and as a result, Isaiah really understood who he was.

After beholding God’s holiness and glory Isaiah essentially pronounced a curse on himself in saying “woe is me.”

Isaiah was calling judgment upon himself because in the presence of the Lord he was lost....This phrase means that he was ruined, he was disintegrated, he was literally coming apart at the seams.

Think about what happens when you throw paper or a newspaper into the fire

Isaiah was being disintegrated before the Lord because He saw his sin and filthiness in light of a holy God.

Notice what Isaiah saw that was unclean before the Lord...His lips, His speech, His mouth. Why would Isaiah say out of all the parts in his body, his mouth was unclean?

Matthew 12:34 says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” By saying his lips were unclean, Isaiah was testifying to the corrupted nature of his sinful heart.

But how did Isaiah know he was unclean and his heart was not pure? Because His eyes had seen the KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS!

Isaiah probably saw himself as a good and upright person…especially when he compared himself to other people. Yet, when his eyes looked upon the perfect holiness of God, Isaiah saw himself as utterly filthy.

Likewise, for us today, we often can compare ourselves to other people and see ourselves as righteous and even holy compared to most. After all, when we compare ourselves to Adolf Hitler or any other serial killer, corrupt leader, or politician, we look like saints.

Yet, do we compare ourself to God’s perfect righteousness? What do we look like in light of his holiness?

Do we see the wickedness of our sinful hearts like Isaiah did or like Peter did when he saw the glory of Jesus after performing a miracle?

Blacklight illustration

James 2:10 says that if we have fallen in one part of the law, we are guilty of breaking all of it.

Our sin is not just breaking rules, but is outright rebellion and spiritual adultery against Our Holy and Righteous creator.

Every time we have that angry thought, or say that nasty word to tear someone down, or disobey or not honor our parents, or indulge one too many times in that piece of cake, or entertain that lustful thought on a screen, or allow anxious thoughts to effect our day…we are committing spiritual adultery against our creator and worshipping gods made in our own image.

Do we view our sin in this way?

If we want to be used by God and be on mission for him, we must see our depravity and desperate need for a savior. We must see that unless God wipes us clean, we are nothing and will disintegrate before him like that piece of paper that is thrown into the fire.

We must recognize that, death is ultimately what we deserve…to be consumed by his righteous judgement in hell for eternity…

BUT...

Praise God that he does not leave Isaiah in his sin, and praise God he does not leave us in ours…but provided a way for our sin to be atoned for!

3. God’s Response to our Sin: Grace (vs 6-7)

Which leads us to the third thing we must do if we are to be on mission for God....we must remember how the Lord has responded to our sin in grace by means of atonement.

Look at verse 6, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

God responded to Isaiah’s confession and repentance of sin with grace.

He is the one who initiated a way for Isaiah’s sin to be atoned for…as the coal came from the alter of the Lord....Isaiah did nothing to earn God’s atonement.

It is the same for us, we do nothing to earn God’s salvation in Christ but are freely saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

Just as the burning coal purified Isaiah, the pure and spotless blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

The result of this purification...was that Isaiah’s guilt was taken away...it was removed...never to return.

His sin was atoned for...there had been a payment made for his sin...God’s righteous and holy wrath had been satisfied…this picture of atonement ultimately had its fulfillment through the atoning death of Christ.

So, just as God graciously provided atonement for Isaiah through the burning coal, He has provided atonement for our sin through the blood of Christ.

If we are to be on mission for God and call other people to follow Jesus, we must remember how God graciously saved us in Christ. We must remember that we were wallowing in our own blood as Ezekiel 16 says…completely helpless…dead in our sins…with no hope…Yet God demonstrated His great love for us in that while we were still sinners…CHRIST DIED FOR US! Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, Christ saved us from the pit of hell!

God did this not just because he loved us, but he saved us for His glory for the purpose that we would be clean and able vessels to be sent on mission to proclaim his glory to the nations!

4. Our Response to God’s Grace: Worship and Obedience (vs 8-13)

So what was Isaiah’s response to the grace God had shown him…and what should our response be to the grace God has shown us?? Worship and Obedience!

Look at verse 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.’”

Isaiah’s only natural and right response to the grace and forgiveness that had just been shown to him is worship and obedience.

Isaiah did not know what God would tell him to do or where He would tell him to go, but Isaiah responded immediately in obedience....HERE I AM, SEND ME!

Is that the response of our heart this morning?

Look at the transformation that took place in Isaiah’s life…as Ray Ortlund said, Isaiah went from “Woe is me” to “here I am.”

Sproul continues in saying, “God was able to take a shattered man and send him into the ministry. He took a sinful man and made him a prophet. He took a man with a dirty mouth and made him God’s spokesman.”

Likewise, it is the same for us. God has saved us in Christ to make us a holy nation so that we could be set apart from the evil in this world and be fully devoted to God and His mission.

No matter how wicked and sinful you are, know that Christ has paid for all your sin and through faith in Him, you are forgiven, He has made you a new creation, He has made you holy through the perfect life of Jesus, and you can be used by him to spread his gospel to all the nations.

Notice that God calls Isaiah to do some hard work. In verses 9-13 he says...you will proclaim my word to people who do not want to hear...people that do not want to see...people who do not want to understand....in fact, the message you preach will harden their hearts even more!

Yet, despite proclaiming judgment and the people of Israel facing destruction, God gives a promise of hope in verse 13, saying that He will keep a remnant alive, that the “stump” of Israel will remain...he will not completely destroy his people because of the covenant he made with Abraham.

It is the same truth for us today, we are called to be lights and to bear witness for Jesus in the darkness, in the world, where people hate Jesus and want nothing to do with Christianity.

People will reject us, they will mock us, they will persecute us, and they might even kill us...but as Christians, this is the mission God has called all of us to...to Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded us...but don’t forget this...but I AM WITH YOU, and WILL BE WITH YOU UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE AGE!

This is our mission…but to be on mission for Christ, we must remember our commission…so the logical question is then…how do we do this? How do we remember the commission God has given us?

REMIND THEM OF THE GOSPEL IN THE SCRIPTURES…

SO, IN BEING REMINDED OF THIS THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL IN THE SCRIPTURES, WHAT WILL YOUR RESPONSE BE THIS MORNING?

UNBELIEVERS:

Repent and Believe in Jesus

BELIEVER:

Repent of forgetting our commission/apathy/not being on mission.

Respond in submission: Here I am, Send Me!

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