"Without the Spirit" Sermon: Isaiah 6:8-13

“Without the Spirit”

[Isaiah 6:8-13]

May 20, 2018, Second Reformed Church

            Last week, we looked at the first part of Isaiah’s call to the ministry:  Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up in the Temple.  He sees the authority and the holiness of God, and Isaiah is undone, he is devastated by the guilt of his sin and that of the people in view of God’s holiness.  And if you have never felt like you could do nothing other than disintegrate before God, reconsider the holiness of God and the heinousness of your sin against Him.

            Then God, in His mercy, sends one of the seraphim, who brings a coal to the lips of Isaiah and says his sin and its guilt are forgiven – through the suffering life of Jesus – God the Son Incarnate – His death and resurrection – Isaiah – and anyone who believes the Gospel – the historical truth of Jesus – Isaiah is purified and saved from the Wrath of God.

            We continue this morning with Isaiah before the throne of God – in a state of amazed thanks for God delivering him from his sin.

            And we see, first, God looks for a messenger.

“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.’”

God asks what is surely a rhetorical question – God knows the answer – He has just saved Isaiah, and God asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Who understands that until one is confronted with the unplumbable depths of their sin, they can never be saved?  Who understands that the holiness of God must be brought before a person so he will understand that he is totally depraved?  Who understands that until the bad news of eternal torture is understood as the just sentence for sin against God, they cannot want to be saved?

In some sense, we must truly understand that sin has corrupted every part of our being, that we are inclined towards sin – and of ourselves don’t want God, we don’t want salvation – until that is firmly planted in our minds and hearts, the Gospel – the Good News of salvation through the Incarnate God cannot make sense – and it will not make sense.  If you think you are fine, if you think you are not that bad, if you think that your good will outweigh your evil, you will never believe savingly in Jesus.

But, here we have Isaiah, who felt as though he was coming apart cell by cell, and God knows that Isaiah is the man.  God knows Isaiah is the messenger to send “for us.”  And yes, that is a correct translation – we have a tiny glimpse into the fact that God is the Triune God in this question.

So, Isaiah, full of thanksgiving and zeal says, “Send me!  Here I am!”

And God sends him – God prepares him for his ministry.

Second, God tells Isaiah to preach repentance.

“And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people: “‘”Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’” Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’”

God tells Isaiah to preach to the people, but know that they won’t understand.  Preach to the people, but know that they won’t perceive.  Preach to the people, but their hearts will grow dull.  Preach to the people, but their ears will grow heavy.  Preach to the people, but they will not see.

Have you ever talked with someone, and they didn’t want to hear or understand what you are saying?  So, they start talking back to you or even just say, “no, no, no,” and finally put their fingers in their ears and say, “la, la, la, la, la.”

God tells Isaiah to preach to Judah until they put their fingers in their ears and say, “la, la, la, la, la, la, I can’t hear you,” because in so doing, they will seal their fate and justify God’s discipline.

Calvin writes that it is as though God tells Isaiah, “You will indeed teach without any good effect; but do not regret your teaching, for I enjoin it upon you; and do not refrain from teaching, because it yields no advantage; only obey me, and leave to my disposal all the consequences of your labours.  I give you all this information in good time, that the event may not terrify you, as if it had been strange and unexpected” (Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 1. 214).

Does this sound like a call to the ministry you would want?  “Preach the Gospel for the next sixty to eighty years and, basically, not one will repent, no one will believe, and things will generally get worse.”

We don’t know how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be met when it comes from our lips, do we?  But we are all called to tell everyone – if we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will tell that that God is angry with them and their sins and burning with an eternal wrath that can only be quenched by His Son.  Some people are clergy – like me – but all of us are called to tell others Who Jesus is and what He did.

Hear what Jesus says about preaching the Gospel:

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.  And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.’”

“Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ And he answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “’You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.’”  For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

“’But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.’

“’Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’”

Jesus says that He usually taught in parables to make sure that the people would not understand what He is saying.

Notice a few things about this parable:  in it the sower of the seed does so faithfully.  It is not a matter of the sower being unfaithful that the people do not understand and believe or that he is faithful and they do hear and believe.  People do not understand when the soil that the seed falls on is not good soil, and they do believe when the seed falls on good soil.

So let us ask ourselves, is Isaiah a faithful preacher – a faithful sower of seeds?

Is Jesus a faithful preacher – a faithful sower of seeds?

In Genesis, as God curses our first parents, we are told that the whole Creation is cursed along with us.  All of the soil is “bad” soil, and it will be difficult to work it and bring a crop to fruition.  So, how is “bad” soil made “good”?

How does the wicked heart of stone of a human ever receive the Good News of Jesus Christ?

Do we remember what Jesus says to Nichodemus?  “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:7-8, ESV).

In other words, without the work of God the Holy Spirit, no one will ever believe the Gospel.  Unless God the Holy Spirit intercedes and changes the bad soil to good soil, unless He changes the heart of stone to a heart of flesh, unless He opens their ears and eyes, they will neither hear nor see.

In other words, being a faithful preacher of the Gospel does not mean anyone will ever believe.

In other words, we are called to faithfulness, we are called to obedience, we are called to trust, we are not called to save anyone.  You can I cannot convert anyone.  You and I cannot cause a person to believe.  The greatest evangelist or preacher is merely faithful, the results of that faithfulness is God’s – whether many or few people heed the call to repentance and believe is up to God, not us.

This is important for us to understand for a number of reasons:

First, if we tell people about Jesus day after day and see no results, we can become discouraged and want to give up.  So, understand, we are called to faithfully, always proclaim the Gospel, but what happens after that is God’s work, not ours.

Second, we may never see results with any given person or even in our lifetime, but, if we are faithful in proclaiming the Gospel, God will use that faithfulness to accomplish His plan on earth.

Paul writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building” (I Corinthians 3:6-9, ESV).

Third, it should free us up from any sort of works righteousness based on our telling others about Jesus, or guilt about those who do no convert when we call them to.  We are called to faithfully tell others.  “God gives the growth.”

Jesus prays, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12, ESV).

You and I are responsible to be faithful; we are not responsible to save anyone.  Jesus has already secured the salvation of everyone who will ever believe and not one will be lost – that is Jesus’ word!

Not long ago, a pastor was asking me about our church and my ministry, and he said to me, “Do you want to know why you are a failure as a minister?”

I can imagine him coming before Isaiah, “I’ve noticed you are not making converts, you don’t have a big following, you don’t have any money, people even hate you – do you want me to explain why you are a failure as a minister?”

Isaiah was faithful to God’s call on his life.  Isaiah faithfully lived out his call to ministry.  What God did with that is God’s business.

Isaiah understood that as God gave him his very heavy call to the ministry, still Isaiah loved his people.

Third, Isaiah asks, “How long?”

“Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?’ And he said: ‘Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.’”

“How long will I preach the Gospel to such a barren response?”

“Until the cities are uninhabited – a wasteland.  Until the homes are uninhabited – a wasteland.  Until the land is desolate.  Until the people are taken off into captivity.  And the Babylonians will come back multiple times taking more people into captivity, burning the land, until there are so few people left in Judah, it will be like a stump amidst the scorched earth.”

Isaiah is to preach until Babylon has finished slaughtering the people and taking them into captivity; Isaiah is to preach until God has disciplined Judah to the extent in which He intends.

How much to you love your family and friends and neighbors?  It is worth it to you to tell them the Gospel?  Even if their response is the response of Judah?  Will you lovingly tell them again and again, even as they put their fingers in their ears and say, “la, la, la, la, la”?

Will you faithfully tell people that they need Jesus to save them – to cleanse them – to free them from their slavery to sin – and then trust God to send God the Holy Spirit as He wills?

Because there is hope:

Fourth, there is always a remnant.

“The holy seed is its stump.”

Have you ever cut down a tree or a big bush at the stump, only to find new growth coming up out of the stump?  I have.

God tells Isaiah that despite the true picture of doom and gloom that God is painting about the response to the ministry of Isaiah – and, after all, it is really about the response to the message of the Gospel – as Isaiah looks across the scotched land and sees one lone stump in the land – that stump with send up new shoots – God will always keep His promise – there is always a remnant.  There will always be a few who believe – who return.  Until Jesus returns, there will always be a few who truly believe in Jesus for salvation.

There is always hope, brothers and sisters – there is always hope in Jesus.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, when we hear the call given to Isaiah to preach for decades, largely be rejected, and to see the nation slaughtered and taken into captivity, it is easy to become depressed and miss the point that salvation is God’s work, while we are called to be faithful.  O Lord, raise us up and fill us with the Holy Spirit that we would be faithful and “tell the old, old story” that each one on this planet would hear that Jesus Alone is the Way to salvation.  And keep us trusting in You, knowing that You will always keep Your promises, that You will save to the fullest, and there is hope – always and forever there is hope, because You are the Sovereign God.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.