Isaiah, Here Am I, Send Me

Introduction

Oh, should we law like the two?

Please be pleased. Song after love with the number two hundred and fifty one. Two hundred and fifty one.

Well, several made the very hospitable gesture to keep me this week. It’s hard to be just an hour away from your own bed and not feel it calling each night, and so I elected to drive back and forth. And I tell you, one of the benefits of doing that, since Melissa won’t let me talk on the cell phone while I’m driving, is just the pure solitude of an hour one way to think about things and even talk out loud and I was thinking tonight as I made the trip for one last time about how this church has had such a profound impact on my life, not just as a gospel preacher, but at as a Christian. It was Martha Banning who taught my Bible class when I was just a young boy growing up.

It was Ernie Fraser, who was an elder at Clinewood at the time, who baptized me into Christ when I made the best decision I’ve ever made. It was Linda Parker, who at my last meeting here told me on the last night, and I quote, if you ever quit preaching, you’re gonna be sinning because she said you won’t be using your talents. That was the best preaching that was done all week was by her. And it was a phone call that I got on my cell phone a couple of summers ago from three young ladies over here to tell me that they had made the decision to be baptized into Christ. And I remember rejoicing with the angels that night.

So for all those who’ve been encouraging this week, who prayed for my family, who prayed for me, please know how much that means to me and how much you mean to me. I’ve been glad to be with Tony and Sherry this week. When Tony was at Eastside in Baytown, he asked me to come preach a meeting and then he moved. And so I’m glad we finally matched up together this time. He’s been a wonderful example to me as a preacher, and I count him a good friend because of all he does in the kingdom. So it’s been a joy to be with him. Thank you for the invitation to be with you. And I hope that from how much I’ve been built up.

I hope maybe just a small part can be left behind of the week we’ve enjoyed together. Well, we have one more character in our series of building character through Bible characters. And I want to ask you to turn to Isaiah chapter six if you looked at the announcement for tonight, the subject. You probably knew we were going to get there sooner. I want to start there and use that for our text for tonight, Isaiah chapter six, and I want to ask you to read with me in your Bible starting at verse one. Isaiah six, verse one begins. In the year of King Isaiah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.

Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with songs, and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.

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. Isaiah in his tenure as a prophet, he is often called by commentators the dean of the prophets. But he often stood before kings of the earth. You recall it was Isaiah who went to King Hezekiah and said to him, Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. But this time he finds himself not standing before an earthly throne, but standing before the king of kings. In as much as John said, Isaiah saw his glory, he saw with his own eyes the Lord, he said, lofty and exalted on his throne. He felt the trembling of the threshold.

He heard the booming voice from the throne that said, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? I must tell you that as I get ready to preach, I always like to read the passage out loud, so that I always want to get that part right. And I must say to you how inadequate I felt as I got to the part where I’m supposed to be speaking the words from the mouth of God. Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Can you imagine what Isaiah saw and heard and felt?

But I want you to know tonight, the voice of the Lord is calling all of us. Now he calls us, we are told, through the gospel, 2 Thessalonians 2 in verse 14. But still he calls us. We do not see him as Isaiah saw him, but we will one day. We will stand before his throne, and we will give an account as to how we’ve lived and use the things he’s given us. So the question I want to ask you tonight as we seek to bring this meeting to a close, what will your answer be? The voice of the Lord is calling you through his word. What will your answer be? I want you to see that we know how Isaiah responded, Here am I, send me.

1. Who Am I? Why Me?

But I want you to notice three different ways that he could have responded, other than saying those words that have been put into a hymn in one of the older song books, Here am I, send me. But how could the prophet have responded? Probably the way a lot of people respond, when they hear what God requires of them, when they see what God wants them to do with their life. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? I want you to see that Isaiah could have said, number one, Who am I? Why me. That would have been a common reaction. In fact, he would not have been the first Bible character to respond that way when they knew that the Lord had some purpose for them.

Keep your finger here, but look to Luke chapter 5. And notice what the apostle Peter’s reaction was when he saw the miracle that Jesus performed and the great catch or the quantity of fish caught there at the Sea of Galilee. In Luke chapter 5, notice starting at verse 1, it happened while the crowd was freshing around him and listening to the word of God. He that is Jesus was standing by the lake of Genezareth. And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats which was Simon’s and asked him to put a little way out of the land. And he sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But I will do as you say, and let down the nets. And when he had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. They came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. At first, that’s what Isaiah did. He saw the glory of God.

And it wasn’t just the thresholds that trembled. Isaiah fell and said, Woe is me. I am a sinful man. I’m not worthy to be in the presence of him who is holy, whose glory fills the whole earth. I’m a man of unclean lips, and I live among the people of unclean lips. But when the angel took the rock or stone, depending on how it says in your version, and flew and touched those unclean lips, and he said, Your sin is forgiven, your iniquity is cleansed. Then the voice of the Lord asked him, Whom shall I send? And he said, Here am I, send me. Peter did the same thing. Depart from me. I am a sinful man, O Lord. The others they couldn’t believe about the fish and the boats and the net.

But Peter saw his sin and said, I am unworthy to be in the presence of him who could work such a miracle. And Jesus did the same thing for Peter. He didn’t look past his sin. He didn’t ignore it and say, Oh, Peter, you’re not that bad. He said, Do not fear. You think you’re useless. I have use for you. You think this was something? You’re going to be catching men. You’re going to be a fisher of men. Remember John’s reaction in the book of Revelation? When he saw Jesus, he said, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. But the Lord said to him, Do not be afraid. Woe is me. Why me? The Lord wants to do the same for all men.

Sometimes this feeling of worthlessness or usefulness or you don’t understand. I’ve done some bad things in my past. I’ve done some horrible things. How could God ever make something out of me? How could I ever be some useful instrument that he could use and make a difference in the world? But he wants to say to you, your iniquity is cleansed. Your sins are forgiven. Couple of weeks ago, the song before the Lord’s Supper, we sang at the cross. And I usually keep the book open. And David, my son, was sitting next to me, and he looked and read the scripture that’s put at the top of that song. That actually was the original lyrics of the song, the phrase, for such a worm as I. We changed it to for such a one as I, but it has the scripture from the Psalms there, where it says, I am a worm.

And David pointed at that and whispered to me, Daddy, what does that mean? Have you ever felt like that? That in the presence of God compared to him who is sinless and holy, I am a worm. But do you know what God does? He says, I still have use for you. You’re still going to be somebody special because I have the power to cleanse your sins. Let me tell you tonight, if you have done something horrible in your past and God has forgiven you need to forgive yourself. You need to get the work. You need to take the gospel which calls you out of darkness into life and take that to somebody else who needs it. Instead of us saying, Whoa is me, why me?

Surely somebody more worthy than me could do this. We could see what God has done for us. And now what God can do through us. Because of who he is, he can make you who you ought to be. Jesus did that his whole life, didn’t he?

You look at the song of the twelve apostles, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Jesus, you’re going to start with poor fishermen? These are going to be your special ambassadors after you go back to heaven. These are going to be the people that take the gospel. Well, he made them fishers of men. He made them useful. They couldn’t believe that Jesus ate with publicans and prostitutes and sinners. But these were people who recognize him as the bread of life, the great physician who came to him for healing. He saw them as people in need of redemption. And thank God he sees us not for who we are, but who we can become. That a man who in the same chapter started with, woe is me, after the Lord got through with him, said, Here am I, send me.

2. Here Am I, Send Them

But Isaiah could have very easily started with, why me? God has forgiven you. Let him equip you. Let him use you. Let him build your character. Well, there’s a second way Isaiah could have responded. And we see this a lot among God’s people. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Isaiah could have said secondly, here am I, send them. Lord, don’t you have Amos’ phone number? Isn’t there somebody else? Are you sure you’ve got the right guy here? Isn’t there somebody better who can do this better than I can? One of the very first email attachments I ever remember getting. And I remember it not just because it was the first one, but because it was, I saw a sermon illustration in it immediately.

It had a road crew that was out striping the highway. They were putting the stripe right down the center lane. And they apparently came across some roadkill right in the middle of the road. Couldn’t even tell what kind of animal it was. But there the animal was right in the middle of the road, and he had this stripe right down his back. They just went right over him, and the caption above the picture said, Not my job. Well, they need to call the highway. They need to call somebody else to come get that dead animal. That’s not my job. I’m the striper. Here am I. Send them. I’m too busy. I’ve got all these other things going. Send them. Isn’t that what Moses tried to do in Exodus chapter 4 when the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush?

And the Lord said, I’ve heard the cry of my people in Egypt that we need someone to go tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And Moses tried different ways to get out of it. But here’s what he said in Exodus chapter 4 and verse 10. Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. Lord, you need a mouthpiece. Well, I can’t even put two sentences together. It’s as if he was saying, Well, I don’t think you thought this all the way through, Lord. I don’t think you know me as well as you think you do. Here am I. Send them. Sometimes I think we suffer from a faulty picture of what we think the judgment is going to be like.

We try to compare ourselves with other people, and we see that I can’t do what he does, or I can’t do it like she does. And sometimes it’s as if we think the Lord’s just going to line us all up and compare us on some sliding scale and grade us on the curve of who was the best, who had all the five tools, and who just didn’t have any. That has never been his criteria. He has never said he would do that. In the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25, the master calls his servants in, and he gives to one five talents, and to one two talents, and to one talent. But everybody got something. And nobody was expected to perform on the level of anybody else.

They were all judged individually. He called them in. He said, I gave you five talents. What did you do with those? Well, Lord, I gained five more.

He called the one in with two talents. What did you do? Well, you gave me two. I gained two more. Well, why didn’t you get five like him? That’s no. Well done. You were faithful with a few things. I’ll put you in charge of many. The one who received the one talent came in, and he didn’t have five talents. He had five excuses. Well, here’s why I didn’t do that. He was called wicked, lazy, and cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Some of our most frequent words are I can.

Can you do this? Well, I can’t. Do you have time? Oh, I can. What about Philippians 4 in verse 13? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We were putting in a flower bed on the back fence in the backyard, 60 feet long. And I started on one end and had to dig up all the grass that had grown from where we wanted the flower bed to be to the fence. I dig up all that sod. And when I started on one end, the soil was very soft, and I thought, well, this is gonna be easy. I’m gonna be done before lunch. And as I got back to the inn on the other side, there were clumps of clay and it was hard, and it was felt like I was digging out concrete.

And I thought about while I was doing this, what if I had started down here? It would have never gotten finished. I would have said, Well, if this is the way the ground is, we’ll just have grass. We don’t need a flower bed. But because I started on the other and worked my way through that, I could see the end and thought, well, I can make it just a little bit do it. Don’t you know that if the Lord showed you ahead of time what you were going to accomplish as his servant, we throw, I can’t. I could never do that. See, he didn’t start us down at the rocky end. He starts us at the other end. And one day we look back and think, look what he strengthened me to accomplish.

3. Send Me, but Not Now

Look what he helped me to do. Look where he sent me to go. But sometimes we say, Here am I. Send him. I can’t. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Send me is a personal recognition. What will your answer be? And I want you to see, number three, that Isaiah could have said, after hearing, Who shall I send, who will go for us? He could have said, Here am I, send me, but not now. Send me, but not now. He could have easily postponed his responsibility. And that’s kind of like what Jeremiah tried to do. When the Lord came to Jeremiah and said, I have appointed you to be a prophet to the nation. Jeremiah responded to Jeremiah 1 in verse 6 Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.

But the need was immediate. The same was so for Isaiah. When he said, Hear am I, send me. Look what the first word out of the Lord’s mouth was in verse 9. And he said, Go and tell this people. We don’t have time to wait, Isaiah. These people are floundering in sin. They’re following after other gods. They’re mixing with other people, and they need a prophet to go tell them that I’m coming. And I’m displeased with them, and I’m going to punish them if they don’t repent and turn. There was no time to say, Well, I’ll go, but not now. The need was immediate.

And we can often have many excuses as to why right now is just not the good time for us. Whenever Melissa asks me, When are you going to do something? Some project around the house. And I say, Tomorrow, she knows that usually means many tomorrows from present day. Other days she said, When are you going to put up those shelves in the laundry room? And I said, Well, I have that on the list for tomorrow. She said, That’s what I was afraid of.

But tomorrow has got to be the busiest day of the week. How many diets are going to start tomorrow? How many exercise programs are going to begin tomorrow? How many bad habits are going to be quit tomorrow? Can I ask you, is the need immediate for the Lord’s work? You ever wondered what would have happened if Isaiah didn’t go? Certainly the Lord would have got his message another way. When was the last time you were contemplating the death of Jesus during the Lord’s Supper? And you turned over to Isaiah 53. The suffering servant. He was wounded for our transgression. By his stripes we are healed. What if Isaiah hadn’t gone? Or how about the picture of God’s church in Isaiah chapter two that he paints as lofty and exalted above the hills?

For how many people have found comfort to keep to continue and keep going and pressing through? Because they read in Isaiah 40 that those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and shall mount up with wings as eagles, and they shall run and not grow weary, and they shall walk and not faint. What if Isaiah hadn’t have gone? What if he’d have said, not now? Send me later. Sometimes we’ll be driving in our minivan, and the kids will ask Melissa to pass something to them in the back seat. And she’ll say, No, you can’t have that one while we’re in the car. We might have a wreck. And I thought, well, what is she trying to say about my driving? But think about it.

Does anybody plan to have a car accident? Anybody leave the house in the morning and say, Well, I think I’ll get in a wreck today. Such is the uncertainty of life, the foolishness of waiting for tomorrow, the work that can be done today. You see, it was Isaiah who also said, seek the Lord while he may be found. Well, Isaiah could have said all of those and more. Let’s look very quickly at what he did say. Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I. Send me. And he said, verse 9, go and tell this people. Keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim.

Lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, until cities are devastated and without inhabitants, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning like a terabinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is filled. The holy seed is its stump. Isaiah learned what his task was, what he was supposed to go and speak on behalf of God. And it wasn’t good news, was it?

And they’re going to have eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear, and a heart that doesn’t care. Yet there is no record where Isaiah says, Well, hold on, can I change my answer? I’ve often thought about somebody inviting me to come preach for a meeting somewhere. And say, Well, we’d like for you to come and hold us a Sunday through Wednesday meeting. But I want you to know that nobody’s going to listen to a words you say. Go ahead, leave your family, come here. And nobody’s not only will nobody respond, nobody’s going to appreciate that you’re here. I tell you what I’d do. I’d say, Here am I, send D. Let him go. But I that’s not so with Isaiah. Here am I.

Conclusion

Send me. Maybe the Lord’s not calling you through the gospel tonight to stand before kings. Or even stand before a company of people and speak on his behalf, the words fit for eternal life. But remember, he is calling you. And there’s no such thing as a simple act of service. They’re all important. They’re all necessary. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus paints the picture of the judgment when all will be gathered before his throne. And he talks about a separation that will occur. As the shepherd separates the sheep from the ghost, the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. And you say, well, what was the criteria that was the dividing line? What caused the sheep to be sheep and the goats to be goats?

And the king will say, verse 34 of Matthew 25, come ye who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. They must have been doing some huge acts of service. They must have been doing the really important stuff, right? The stuff that gets in the church bulletin that gets announced at services. I mean, this must have really been good stuff. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me. You came to me when I was in prison. And the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you this way?

When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or stranger? We don’t remember we would have dropped everything, but we can’t remember a time when we served you this way. And the king will answer verse 40 and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us to visit the sick? Will you say, Here am I? Send me. Who will go for us to take food to those who are hungry? Who will go for us to send cards to those who are struggling? Who will go for us to take just a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name?

Here am I. Send me. Because Jesus said, When you do that, when you serve your brothers and sisters in Christ, you do that to me, he said. You serve him who made us family. The king will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed ones, into the everlasting fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you were just too busy. I was thirsty, and you were going to get around to that. As soon as everything in your schedule magically fell into place, you were going to start giving more time to spiritual things. But you didn’t get around to it. I was a stranger, you did not invite me in naked, and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.

They will say, Lord, when did we see you like that? And he will say to them, To the extent you did it not to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous into eternal life.

This is going to be on the test. Who will go for us? Who will say, Here am I? Send me. Brother Warren Berkeley, who preaches down in McAllen, Texas, wrote a book about his father called For However Brief a Time. Because his father died when Warren was just a very young boy. It’s a collection of memories he has in just nine or ten years of knowing his dad. But probably the most touching memory is when he and his dad went to a men’s training class at the local church where they were in Arkansas. And they went through about how to lead singing and lead public prayers. Our brother who led tonight should teach a class on that. And how to preach and all those kind of things, and they did these classes.

And then at the end of the class, each man was given a card, and they said, Okay, we want you to fill out the things that you’d like to do in the services, having been through this class. And they had a number listed there. Warren, as a little boy, said he looked over at his dad’s card. He wanted to see what his dad was going to check off, but he didn’t check any of them. He just wrote at the bottom, Here am I. Send me. There is much to do. There’s work on every hand. Heart, the cry for help comes ringing through the land. Jesus called for reapers. I must active thee. What wilt thou, O master? Here am I. Send me. One day we will stand before Him.

Having seen through the eye of faith, we will see Him face to face. Having heard the call for His Word, we will hear His voice as He calls us one by one. And He will say, Well done. Enter in to the joy prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Or depart from me, ye who work iniquity. What will your answer be? Let’s make certain we’ve prepared ourselves to enter His kingdom, to live a life of service, to be ready. Not in fear of His coming, but hastening the day as we see the day drawing near. We can assist you tonight in being ready. See the Lord. Won’t you come right now while we stand while we sing?