Commissioned life begins with the gospel transformation of your life (Isaiah 6)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, June 13, 2010

I am going to begin my sermon by telling you a story about William Wilberforce who lived from 1759-1833 in England. I want to tell you little bit about him to show you what a commissioned life looks like, what it looks like when a person takes up God’s cause and go for it wholeheartedly.

This was said about Wilberforce, “No Englishman has ever done more to evoke the conscience of the British people and to elevate and ennoble British life.” When people of his time accepted and justified slavery as indispensible necessity for the economical wellbeing, he stood with few others for abolition of the slave trade. He wrote, “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequence be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.” In his early years in the Parliament, he was optimistic for a quick success to end the slave trade, but his legislative effort to pass the bill to end the slave trade was repeatedly defeated. From 1787 till twenty years later in 1807, he campaigned tirelessly to end the British slave trade. And, then for the next 26 years until July 26, 1833, he worked to outlaw slavery itself only three days before his death.

He didn’t give up throughout the years of failure to end the slave trade and slavery itself. Twenty years later the slave trade was outlawed, another twenty six years later, slavery itself was outlawed in England.

Do you wonder what motivates a person like Wilberforce to spend one’s whole life singularly to promote the great cause? Do you wonder how a person like Wilberforce perseveres against the tide of defeats without losing the courage to believe in the great cause? Do you wonder how you can too live a commissioned life to go after God’s cause?

As Wilberforce was commissioned to spend his whole life to end the slavery, Isaiah was commissioned for God’s cause. Isaiah 6:8-9 tells us Isaiah was commissioned to go and to tell people God’s message. As we will see from Isaiah 6:9-13, Isaiah would encounter long years of people rejecting God’s message to their destruction before seeing some turning to God.

• God is looking for men and women who will give their lives for the cause of the gospel.
• God is looking for men and women who will advance the gospel faithfully in spite of drawn out defeats and failures and rejections.
• God is looking for men and women who will advance the gospel without losing heart.
• God is looking for men and women to take the gospel to their neighbors, to their friends, to their coworkers, to the colleagues, to the families.
• God is asking, “Whom shall I send?” God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is asking, “who will go for us?” Isaiah 6:8.

I believe that it is you and me that God wants to commission to go and tell the gospel. But, before you can share the gospel to anyone, you must be exposed to the gospel and experience its power to transform your relationship with God. That’s how it happened with Isaiah and that’s how it happened with Wilberforce and that’s how it must happen with you and me. First is the experience of the gospel transformation daily in your own life, and then the daily faithfulness to the commissioned life to share the gospel with the world. Commissioned life begins with the gospel transformation of your life.

The gospel transformation in seeing God

Isaiah 6:1-8 tells the vision of this gospel transformation that took place in Isaiah before he was commissioned to go and tell the gospel.

Isaiah 6:1 tells a little piece of information that it was when the king Uzziah died he had his vision of God. Before I walk through with you of the vision of God, I want to stay and explore the significance of this information about the death of a king.

2 Chronicles 26:16-21 tells the story of Uzziah, the king of Judah. He was the tenth king. He became the king at the age of 16 and reigned next 52 years. It says in 2 Chronicles 26:5, “He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.” And, the passage goes on describing the success God gave him over the Philistines, building up the nation’s defense system of fortified cities, and a well-trained, supplied and equipped army. And, 26:15 tells us, “His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.” Then, there was the turning point to worse, “But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall.

He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.” When you read further you see Azariah the priest and other 80 courageous priests confronting the king for doing what was wrong. It says in verse 19, Uzziah became angry at the priests trying to stop him from assuming their priestly role. And, immediately God struck Uzziah with leprosy, visible on his forehead. And, there is the sad commentary about his reign in verse 21, “King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a spate house- leprous, and excluded from the temple of the LORD.”

Let me explain to you why this act of a king assuming a priestly duty amounted to unfaithfulness to God. When God instituted kings to rule Israel, he wanted make sure that the people and the kings knew very well that it was their God who was their true King. Another word, the kings of Israel were commissioned to serve the true King, their God under the ministry of the priests. So, Uzziah trying to assume the role of the priests was equivalent to him rejecting God as his true King. His action undermined God’s reign over him through the ministry of the priests. The king Uzziah who was commissioned to serve God his true King, instead became proud. He attributed the success to his own skill and ability and he saw no need to submit to the true King.

What does this have to do with the gospel transformation? It shows that the heart of the gospel transformation is about knowing, trusting and serving God as our true King. The gospel transformation is about living under God’s reign.

Although the earthly throne was vacated by the death of the king, God’s throne is never vacated. True King lives forever. So, Isaiah was given the amazing vision of God’s presence in the holy temple. It says that temple was filled with the train that is the hem of God’s robe by his ankles. The vision shows that God is so big that the temple itself cannot contain him. And, there are seraphs heavenly and mysterious creatures with six wings, flying two wings while covering their faces and feet with the rest of their wings. And, the vision shows them calling to one another. And, the sound of their voices shakes the temple and filling it with smoke. Their voice had the explosive thunder like the explosion of hydrogen gas.

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Holiness is God’s otherworldly character that sets him apart from his created order. As the Creator of the world, God’s otherworldly character is not stained by the sin, corruption, evil, lies, hatred in the world. Holiness unstained by the corruption of the world is like a light in darkness. As darkness cannot overcome a light, the darkness of the world cannot overcome God’s holiness.

So, here Isaiah writes for us his vision of God the true King as big beyond our imagination, fully worthy of our worship from the whole creation, and powerfully holy and uninfluenced by the darkness of the world but transforming it with his glory.

The gospel transformation of humility

When Isaiah was exposed to this unveiled vision of God who is big, worthy and holy, he was hurting. It was like the naked eyes staring at the fully glory of sun and feeling the scorching pain over his utter sinfulness. The pain he felt was like the pain felt when the purifying agent of salt liquid is poured over the exposed wound infested with infection.

“Woe to me… 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.”

I think Isaiah realized how he had tried to reduce God to be a small, unworthy, and compromising deity. And, God would not concede to men’s effort to box him to something he is not.

Contrast Isaiah’s response was to that of Uzziah. When the priests courageously told Uzziah the truth that it was not right for him to undermine God’s reign over him by assuming the priestly role, Uzziah responded not with humility but with the pride of anger. He probably thought, ‘I am the king. And, I can do whatever I want. You priests, who are you to tell me what I can do and what I cannot do. Get out of my way.’

The gospel transformation of forgiveness

Being exposed to the true vision of God, humbling himself to King’s reign, and now we see God doing that which Isaiah could not do, that which none of us can do.

We see the heavenly creature taking a live coal with the tongs from the altar and with it touching Isaiah’s mouth. And, the creature proclaims with the voice of thunder, “See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Cleansing, forgiveness is something God does on the basis of his provision. It was God’s provided sacrifice that took the place of Isaac under Abraham’s knife. It was God’s provided lambs that took the place of Israelites under their sins.

It is God’s provided perfect lamb, Jesus Christ who took our place of guilt, condemned, crucified to die on the cross.

Contrast this to that of Uzziah. Being confronted by the priest of his sin, his rebellion against God, the true King, becoming angry in self-righteousness and the attitude of I can do whatever I want to do, Uzziah was struck down with leprosy. While Isaiah received cleansing through Christ’s sacrifice when he humbled himself, Uzziah received the mark of unclearness fit for his heart that undermined God’s reign over him.

This morning, who do you see in yourself? Do you see Isaiah who was commissioned because he was humbled himself and experience God’s grace in Christ or do you see Uzziah who was shamed from participating in God’s work because of his pride?

William Wilberforce used to pray this way. “Oh Lord, purify my soul from all its stains. Warm my heart with love of thee, animate my sluggish nature and fix my inconsistency, and volatility, that I may not be weary in well doing.”[i]

As Isaiah was, as Wilberforce was, God wants to use you for his great cause of the gospel. Would you let God to shine his bright light on you to expose the sins? Would you let God shower you his grace to forgive and restore? Would you let God commission you to be faithful to share the gospel regardless of how people respond to you?

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[i] http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1492_Peculiar_Doctrines_Public_Morals_and_the_Political_Welfare/

Standing together for the next generation

Here is an amazing footage of a buffalo calf under attack from a group of vicious lions and how it was rescued from them... Envision the children's ministry through this footage.  The older generation collectively standing together for the next generation...

"The living, the living- they praise you, as I am doing today; father tell their children about your faithfulness." Isaiah 38:19 

"what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statues for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.  They would not be like their forefathers- a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not not faithful to him." Psalm 78:3-8

"Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come." Psalm 71:18

The fruit of the gospel (Isaiah 5)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, June 6, 2010

In this passage, I want people to understand who God is, especially of his covenant faithfulness, his love towards his people and the consequence of rejecting his covenant faithfulness, his love. Rather than rejecting this God of love, God of covenant faithfulness, I want people to respond to him and embrace justice of loving others. Call people to respond to the gospel and bear the fruit of righteousness and justice, loving God and loving people.

Few weeks ago, I brought our family van to Busse Automotive in Mt. Prospect to get break repaired. The great thing about this place is that I usually can have a loaner car if the job requires few days of work. That day, Mark Busse the owner didn’t have a loaner car for me. So, I opted to wait for the repair. I headed down to Caribou coffee

Shop across the Metra station. There were signs over the town. “Vote for Lee,” “Vote for Lee Dewyze.” The guy worked in the local paint shop. He would show up to work in the mornings and would belt things out in the back of the shop with his guitar.[i] He sang his way up to in American Idol to win it with millions of people voting for him. It’s crazy. Something about Lee, something about his sinning raspy voice has moved people to become his fan.

That’s kind of what we see here in Isaiah 5. Imagine Isaiah belting out with his guitar. He is not singing for himself. He is not singing to win a completion. He is singing for the one he loves a song about his loved one’s vineyard hoping that the Israelites would hear his song and be changed. But, the reality was people plainly rejected his song. I am praying that instead of rejecting the truth, we would listen to the song of the vineyard for transformation.

The portrait of God’s love

The song is an allegory about God’s love for Judah and Judah’s non-response to God’s pursuit. God in the song is the owner of a vineyard who works hard at it to provide just the right condition for the vines to yield abundant crop of good grapes.

But, in this case, the vines which represent the people of Judah, they miserably fail to yield good grapes; instead they yield only bad fruit.

In verse 2, we hear that the vineyard belongs to Isaiah’s loved one and that the vineyard is located a fertile hillside. It is a fertile hillside, but with many stones to be cleared. Here, we see the owner of the vineyard going out to the field digging out and clearing the vineyard of stones. It’s backbreaking work to rid of stones from a field. I am sure such work would leave the hands of the laborer blistered and bruised. Not only is the ground fertile and now cleared of stones, the owner plants the vineyard with the choices vines. He personally handpicked them, chose them. And, in order to protect the vineyard with the newly planted vines from the animals, intruders, the owner builds a watchtower with the cleared stones from the vineyard and guards it to ensure its safety. To be ready for the time when he can extract grape juice to make wine, the owner cut a winepress out of lime stones. There was no fancy breaking hammer, hammer drill or rotary hammer; it was all done by hands with crude tools to cut out a winepress.

We see the image of the owner of the vineyard going out of his way with his selfless hard works to ensure the best possible condition for his handpicked, chosen vines to yield good crop of grapes. The owner gave his best that he could give and nothing was held back to take care of the vineyard. In verse 4, God asks, “what more could have been done for my vineyard that I have done for it?” Nothing, there was nothing more he could have done for his vineyard.

What else God could do than to having sent his own Son, to work, to suffer, and to die in our place for our sins on the rugged cross and to raise hip up from the dead? What more could he have done to demonstrate his love for us? Nothing!

Having poured out his own sweat, his labor, his life, the owner of the vineyard having nothing more to give now expects fruitful yield from his chosen vines. But, instead of getting plum grapes, all he got from the vines are bad yield of wild grapes. I read that wild grapes only produce small fruit with large seeds and are often sour."[ii] Wild grapes are not the product for which the owner had planned and labored. The wild grapes of inferior quality were worthless. They were bad.

We learn from verse 7 clearly what this allegory means. The LORD Almighty is the owner of the vineyard. The vineyard is the house of Israel and the vines are the people of Israel, the chosen people of God’s own delight.

And, the fruit that the LORD looked for was justice and righteousness, but what he got from his people was the bloodshed and the cries of their victims from their self-serving greed. I really like what Dennis Bratcher had to say about righteousness and justice.

Righteousness is what is owed to God because he is God… not a moral category of perfection, but living a life… that acknowledges that God is indeed God. It is a response of faithfulness that is willing to accept the responsibility of being God’s people. It is a relationship in which the people “love the Lord” totally and completely.

And, when righteousness reigns that is when people love the Lord, it is manifested in justice. Bratcher says this about justice.

Justice is… a way to talk about equality and fairness arising from a concern for others that is willing to place human need and relationship as the highest priority of life flowing from relationship with God. In the fullest sense, to “do justice” is the same thing as loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

God is after the response of righteousness and justice that is love of God and love of people from you and me. Righteousness, love of God, justice, love of people is truly the fruit of the gospel. Anything else is bad yield unfit for the gospel.

God’s response to bad fruit

Verse 5 and 6 describes God judgment against the vines that yield only bad. To protect the vineyard, often throne hedge or stone hedge were built around its parameter. Here, in response to vines that only yield bad fruit, he would remove the hedge thorns and wall of protection. And, the hedge that thwarts away the wild animals and the invaders now gone, the vines would be trampled and destroyed; God withholding the rain, withholding work of pruning, cultivating, the vineyard would be reduced to a wasteland.

When God lifted his protective force shield around Israel, it became vulnerable to the surrounding nations and would face devastating invasion from Assyria and exile. James Mead said that this judgment didn’t mean Israel lost its election status, but instead what they lost for many generations was the blessings of that election.[iii]

Read Isaiah 5:25-30, we see the devastating effect of God removing his hedge of protection over Israel. In his righteous anger, we see God lifting up a banner for the foreign nations, giving them permission to be the rod of his anger against unfruitful, unfaithful Israel. 5:27-30, we see how fierce these forces against Israel… mighty strength, readiness to attack with their destructive weapons, and the sound of battle cries, their roar that sends chills to bones, even the light will be darkened by the clouds. That’s quite depressing.

Colossians 1:16 speaks of Jesus as the image of the invisible God… all things were created… by him and for him. And, verse 17, “in him all things hold together.” This hedge of protection from God is too often unappreciated and unnoticed by us. It is chilling thought to imagine what could happen if God lifts up his hedge of protection over us. And, if God lifted up his hedge of protection over Israel because they didn’t love him and love people, should you and I be alert by the tragedy of history and turn to God?

We too face the same warning from Jesus. Jesus warned against unfruitfulness in Matthew 21:43, “the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”

How do we make sense of this chilling warning against unfruitfulness? God’s goal is not to just to plant choice vines. His goal is to grow vines that would produce the fruit of righteousness and justice, the fruit of loving God and loving people.

The nature of bad fruit

If we are not growing in righteousness of loving God and justice of loving people, we are bound to produce the bad fruit. Isaiah 5:8-24 identify the specifics of the bad fruit.

• Greed (5:8-10)

for bigger houses and more land… they violated God’s ownership of the land and the spirit of stewardship…  In verse 9-10 we see that the greed of possession would meet the consequence of dispossession and unfruitfulness. C. S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce…he likens hell to an enormous city with mansions set off at vast distances from one another, because nobody likes anybody else and they end up living alone.[iv]  “a ten acre vineyard will produce only a baht of wine, a homor of seed only an ephah of grain”… this is an image of ineffective and unproductiveness (5:10). 10 acre = 10 yoke (each yoke equals the area of land where a single pair of oxen can plow in a day); “bath” liquid measure = “ephah” a dry measure of grai = between 4.5-9 gallons.  “homer” a donkey load, the amount of grain a donkey can carry = 1/10 of an ephah.

• Self-indulgence (5:11-17)

… is the preoccupation with worldly stuffs, worshiping the object of God’s blessing instead of worshiping the Giver of all good gifts in life.  It shows “no regard for the deeds of the LORD and no respect for the work of his hands” (5:12)

• Cynicism (5:18-19)

… talks like this to God, “bring it on God… whatever judgment you have against me, go ahead and bring it on because I am just going to go on doing whatever I feel like doing.”  The cynicism about God emerges as it becomes clear there is a conflict between what I want and what God’s revealed will is. If there is no submission of my needs and myself to God at that moment, cynicism about him is the logical next step: “If God doesn’t like what I am doing, let’s see him stop it.”^[v] 

• Rationalization/justification… Moral perversion (5:20, 21)

Rationalization is calling sin not as sin, evil not as evil… conscience is seared.   It assumes their own personal moral authority over God’s moral authority.

It is like the way synsepalum dulcificum works. A slightly tart “Miracle fruit” West African berry can turn sour to sweet by altering taste buds about an hour after you eat it. So, you may see people eating up lime wedges as if they were candy. Straight lemon juice tastes like lemonade, goat cheese tastes like it is covered in powdered sugar, beer tastes like milkshake, rhubarb tastes like a sugar stick… physiology behind it… the fruit’s protein polyphenols binds to taste buds and altering the tongue’s sweet receptors to activate when they come in contact with sour foods.[vi]

Greed breeds self-indulgence. Self-indulgence dulls and clouds the spiritual faculty making it easy to rationalize sins.

• Social injustice (5:22-24)

Social injustice is born out of greed, self-indulgence, cynicism, and rationalization.  “The astounding truth of the covenant is that how we treat each other is perhaps the most significant indicator of our relationship to God… If we are to be in a relationship with him, we must agree to treat one another fairly and with fundamental respect, recognizing that a person’s life, possessions, reputation, and marriage are inviolable. This is so because God is a person and this is how he treats persons”^[vii]  There cannot be social justice until some persons decide that the meeting of their personal needs must be secondary to having the basic needs of others met. This will never happen until such persons come to the realization that God wishes to meet their needs and can do it better for them than they themselves can.^[viii]

So, what can you do to stop the growth of these sins? Simply trying really hard not to be greedy, self-indulgent, cynical, not try to rationalize, not to become unjust is not going to go too far. The best way to retard and rid of the growth of bad fruit is by producing the good fruit of loving God and loving people.

Righteousness and justice, loving God and loving people begins with responding to Jesus who calls us to remain in him. “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” The gospel points us to relationship with Jesus. It is in relationship with Jesus we see clearly to what extent God went to care for and to protect his vineyard. It is in relationship with Jesus we understand we are created to produce the fruit of righteousness and justice. And, it is only in relationship with Jesus that we are empowered to produce the good fruit.

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[i] http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/06/american-idol-lee-dewyze-sang-in-the-paint-shop-all-the-time.html

[ii] http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cproper15ot.html

[iii] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=10/5/2008&tab=1

[iv] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. pp. 20-22.

^[v] Oswalt, J. (2003). The NIV Application Commentary: Isaiah (117). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[vi] http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=81

^[vii] Oswalt, J. (2003). The NIV Application Commentary: Isaiah (117). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

^[viii] Oswalt, J. (2003). The NIV Application Commentary: Isaiah (118). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.