Pastor Olson

Feb 10, 20198 min read

Who will go?

Tell others about the mercy of God. God does not treat us as our sins deserve. God has

forgiven all your sins. He has forgotten all the times you have misused your tongue. He did not

sweep your sins under the rug. No, he laid them all on Jesus. Your heavenly Father punished

Jesus for your sins and allowed him to suffer and die as our substitute to endure the punishment

we deserved. When Jesus rose from the dead, God was announcing to the world that Jesus

completed and succeeded in his mission. You are all recipients of the mercy of God.

God has touched your heart with the gospel to assure you of his mercy and forgiveness.

You are not going to die, but live! So, he has also touched your lips so that you are eager to share

his Word with others. He has touched your life so that you volunteer all that you are and have in

service to him. You echo the words of King David and pray: “Unseal our lips to sing your

praise!”

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted,

and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With

two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were

flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with

smoke.

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a

people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with

tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips;

your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Dear Friends,

Prince of Peace wouldn’t be here without volunteers who give their time to serve our

Lord. Consider all the people who make worship services possible: those who prepare bulletins,

musicians, people operating the audio/video equipment, ushers, greeters, maintenance men

replacing light bulbs, cleaning the building and on and on. Or consider those who clean the

parking lot, mow the lawn, invite friends to church, handle the finances, and so many other

things. Where would we be without the free will gifts of those who generously support our work.

Volunteerism is essential for the successive of the ministry.

Finding volunteers isn’t always an easy venture, especially when the task is an unpleasant

one. For instance, if I told you that I’m pretty sure there is something dead in the attic because

something smells rotten up there, would you volunteer to go up there, find whatever it is and get

it out of there? At the time when these words of Isaiah were written, God was looking for a

volunteer for a difficult task. This volunteer was to harden the hearts of the people of Judah

against God himself! God was so tired of the incurable rebellion of the people of Judah that he

was determined to reject them. He needed a volunteer who would, “make the heart of this people

calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.” This volunteer would also have the joy of

upholding the hope of salvation for a small remnant of this wicked nation who still listened

attentively to God’s Word, those whom God had reserved as his own people.

Would you volunteer to be hated by people? Would you volunteer to tell them they are

going to go to hell for rejecting God’s Word? Would the few people who listen and believe

God’s promises of forgiveness and salvation be enough to compel you to volunteer to do this

difficult work? In our text, we hear about a man who said:

“Here am I! Send me!”

1. to tell of God’s majesty

2. to tell of God’s mercy

The man’s name was Isaiah. Was he crazy? What would ever compel a man to do such a

thing? The same person who has compelled all of you to volunteer so much of your time, your

energy, and your life in serving your Lord here at Prince of Peace - God! God convinced Isaiah

to volunteer for such a difficult assignment by giving him a glimpse of his majesty and his

mercy. Isaiah wrote, “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his

robe filled the temple.”

What a sight that must have been! He saw Jesus in his splendor and majesty. The gospel

writer John said, “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (Jn 12:41).

Our Lord Jesus was there on the pages of the Old Testament too. What a sight to behold! Heaven

was open and Isaiah saw Jesus himself reigning in heaven’s glory over the whole world

symbolized by his kingly robe filling the temple. Isaiah saw a glimpse of Jesus’ majesty and he

was struck with awe.

He saw seraphs. Seraphs are a particular brand of angels mentioned by name only here in

the Bible. Like all angels, these seraphs were God’s holy messengers whom God uses to do his

bidding. Isaiah described what he saw: “Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two

they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.”

Covering their eyes? Could it be that these heavenly beings weren’t even fit to look at the Lord

seated on his throne in heavenly glory? Could it be that their wings covered their feet because

they were unfit even to stand in God’s presence? The picture of seraphs flying around is a

beautiful picture of God using these angels as his volunteers to travel about doing God’s

business.

The LORD on his throne, high and exalted, is the commander of the armies of heaven.

He is the God who has thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand angels at

his disposal. You begin to realize that Jesus doesn’t need our help to get his work done! He has

plenty of angels to do his bidding! But he gives us the privilege of serving him with our lives!

Jesus once said to his disciples who want to fight to prevent his arrest, “Do you think I cannot

call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

The Lord Almighty does not need mankind’s help. He is the LORD of free and faithful grace. He

is the LORD who speaks and then carries out what he says. He is majestic in holiness.

Seraphim were gliding above the throne singing back and forth to one another, “Holy,

holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Holy means absolute

moral perfection that is striking, brilliant and radiantly pure. The majesty of the holy God and his

court was a breathtaking scene that Isaiah would never forget.

Isaiah wrote, “At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the

temple was filled with smoke.” Isaiah saw God’s majesty as did his ancestors who beheld the

glory of the Lord as they stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive God’s holy law. Isaiah saw

God’s majesty as did the shepherd on the night Jesus was born as the “glory of the Lord shone

round about them and they were sore afraid.” With a powerful display of fire, smoke, and

sometimes both God announces his presence to his people and reminds them of his holy and

indestructible will.

Who will go and tell others of the majesty of God? Jesus’ disciple Peter along with James

and John had seen such majesty on a day when Jesus was transfigured in glory. Peter wrote about

it in his first epistle: “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” But, like Isaiah, these men were not

ready to go and tell about the majesty of God until they could also speak of God’s mercy.

Seeing God’s majesty and holiness doesn’t’ compel us to rise to our feet and shout “here

am I! Send me!” No, it wasn’t that way for Isaiah, or Peter, or you and me. The majesty of God

only makes us afraid because we are unholy and ill equipped to be in God’s presence. God’s

mercy must touch our hearts. Let Isaiah tell you why.

He said, “Woe to me! I am ruined! … and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD

Almighty.” He wasn’t overjoyed to see the majesty of God! Fear and grief and despair gripped

his heart. He thought he would surely die now that he had seen God’s majesty. The Bible clearly

says that no man can see God and live. God is holy and man is unholy. Man has no right to be in

God’s presence. The holy god has every right to condemn us! Sinners like us, need the mercy of

God.

James lamented the fact that “the tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It

corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell

… no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

Like Isaiah, we are people of unclean lips. Our tongues condemn us. We speak hurtful

and unkind word to others. We have disgraced others and brought disgrace on ourselves as well.

We have harmed the reputations of others and brought sorrow into people’s lives by the things

we have said whether they are true or not! Whenever our tongue does not speak in love to or

about others, we sin. We would be better off without a tongue than to use it as Satan’s tool. We

too are ruined. Our tongue brings grief and sorrow into our lives. We pray, “God be merciful to

me, a sinner.”

“Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with

tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips;

your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” What a picturesque way of assuring Isaiah of

forgiveness. When the cleansing heat of that coal touched Isaiah’s mouth, he was purified from

his sin and guilt. He was assured that the sins of his mouth were taken away, the guilt of his sin

was removed. Now his mouth could be used to proclaim to others the amazing mercy of God.