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Is God Calling Me to Missions? An Inquiry into Divine Preparation · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. You know, when you think about a
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massive recruitment Dr., let's say for a top tier military unit
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or maybe a massive global tech corporation, there is this
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expectation of measurable objective criteria.
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Oh absolutely, you have to check the boxes.
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Right, you check the boxes, you have the right university
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degree, you pass the physical examination, you show the right
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amount of enthusiasm in the interview, and boom, you are
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hired. Yeah, they hand you the uniform,
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point you toward the frontline or the cubicle and basically say
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go get them. And that makes total sense in a
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corporate setting. It is a system built entirely on
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human capital and, you know, observable metrics.
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We like measurable readiness. I think it feels safe, it is
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clean, it is binary and it gives us a sense of control over the
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outcome. But then you step into the realm
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of global missions, or I mean even just local church ministry,
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and suddenly that entire corporate recruitment model just
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shatters. It completely falls apart.
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It does. We are looking at a landscape of
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preparation that is honestly terrifying.
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It doesn't fit on a resume. And when we tried to force that
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corporate metric driven model onto spiritual work, the results
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aren't just bad, they are catastrophic.
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Yeah, catastrophic is the right word.
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There so welcome to this deep dive.
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Today we are taking a massive look into two theological
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treatises concerning divine preparation for missions, and
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this is specifically centered around a very famous, very
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intense passage of Scripture, Isaiah chapter 6, verses 6:00
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and 7:00. It is such a heavy text.
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It really is. But before we get into the
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ancient history, I want to hit you, the listener, with a
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jarring statistic straight from the sources we are looking at
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today. This one is hard to hear.
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Yeah, the World Evangelical Alliance compiled data on global
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missionaries, and they found that anywhere from 47% to 50% of
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all missionaries leave the foreign field within their first
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five years. Half of them gone.
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And we really need to clarify the 'cause there, because the
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immediate assumption is usually financial.
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Oh for sure. People hear that statistic and
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think, well, the donor support dried up.
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Right. Or perhaps they think they just
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couldn't adapt to the local culture.
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You know, the language was too hard.
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The food was, too. Different, which is a real
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struggle, obviously. It is, but the research points
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to something far more alarming. Nearly 1/4 of this massive
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attrition stems directly from internal spiritual crises.
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Internal spiritual crises, Not a lack of funds, not a lack of
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cultural training. Right.
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It stems from an inadequate grasp of objective
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justification. The missionaries are collapsing
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under the weight of the work because their own spiritual
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footing was never secured to begin with.
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They go out to preach a gospel they haven't fully absorbed into
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their own consciences. Precisely.
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OK, so let's unpack this. Our mission for this Dee dive is
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to contrast 2 very different approaches to ministry.
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OK, lay it out. On one side, we have the modern
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evangelical rush to, you know, just go to the mission field.
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This is the mindset that relies heavily on raw human capital,
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emotional enthusiasm, and marketing savvy, which is super.
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Common right now. Very common.
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And on the other side, we have the unyielding biblical mandate
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of divine preparation. Yes, the biblical standard is so
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different. It is so sit back as we look at
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how genuine ministerial readiness begins not with a
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clever marketing strategy, but with a terrifying encounter with
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divine holiness. I mean, the prevailing
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assumption in modern missiology treats global missions as a
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problem of raw numbers. Just get bodies over there.
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Yeah, it demands emotional yield and organizational Dr. above all
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else. Missional agencies often operate
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as though God's decrees are held hostage by human recruitment
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speeds. Meaning.
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If we don't hit our quarterly quota of new recruits, God's
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plan is failing. That is the mindset.
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The thinking is if we don't get bodies out there immediately,
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the whole system falls apart. Wow.
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So aspiring candidates are pushed to bypass any heavy
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searching self examination. If a young person raises their
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hand at a conference while the band is playing, the immediate
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response is to hand them a plane ticket.
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It is a frantic, pragmatic rush. If you have a pulse and a
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passport, they want you on an airplane.
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That is pretty much it. I look at this and I can't help
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but think of a military analogy. Sending unregenerate
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individuals, or individuals who have no firm grasp of the gospel
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they're supposed to be preaching to the mission field, Well, it
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is like sending soldiers to a frontline without armor or
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weapons. It is completely reckless.
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Right. You stand them out there in the
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line of fire, armed only with a motivational speech they heard
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in a conference. It isn't just useless, it is
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highly destructive to the soldier and to the cause.
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You're guaranteeing casualties. And what stands out here is that
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this is not a new problem, this specific pathology sending the
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unequipped and the unregenerate out in the name of religious
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zeal. It is vividly illustrated in
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Church history. OK, let's look at that history.
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We can look at the early lives of John and Charles Wesley as
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the perfect case study. The Wesley brothers, Yeah, most
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people know them as the founders of Methodism, the guys who
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sparked massive revivals. Yeah, they are historical
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giants. But we are talking about their
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early years right before all that.
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Yes, the year is 1735. Both brothers sailed from
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England to the colony of Georgia in America.
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They were sent by the Society for the Propagation of the
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Gospel in Foreign Parts. And from a purely pragmatic
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standpoint, if you were a mission board director today,
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they were the absolute ideal candidates.
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Oh, they looked flawless on paper.
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They really did. They were highly educated at
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Oxford. They were fiercely religious.
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I mean they literally started a group at Oxford called the Holy
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Club. The holy Club, yes.
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They woke up at 4:00 AM every day.
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They fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays.
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They visited the prisons. They took communion constantly.
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Their schedule was rigidly structured around religious
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duties. Right.
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They were driven by this noble, intense desire to evangelize the
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Native Americans. You would put the Wesley
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brothers on the front cover of your brochures.
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They checked every single box on the external metric sheet, yet
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the mission was an unmitigated disaster.
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A total failure. Completely, they found 0 success
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with the Native Americans. They incurred the intense
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hostility of the colonists because John Wesley was so rigid
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and legalistic in his pastoral care.
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He was rubbing everyone the wrong way.
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He really was. They ended up fleeing back to
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England, utterly defeated, facing lawsuits and spiritually
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shattered. And why did that happen?
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Because there was a total lack of saving preparation, they
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possessed all the external metrics of religion, but
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internally they were spiritually dead.
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They had the discipline, but they didn't have the.
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Life. That is a great way to put it.
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There's a story from their voyage over to America on a ship
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called the Simmons that always sticks with me.
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Oh, the storm story, Yeah. They hit a massive storm and the
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English passengers on board, including Wesley, were
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absolutely terrified. Right.
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Ifiably so. The Atlantic in the 1700s was no
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joke. Right, the mainsail split water
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was pouring in, but there was a group of Moravian Christians on
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board who were just calmly singing psalms through the
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whole. Thing in a contrast.
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It was, and Wesley realized in that moment, looking at death,
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that he had no peace. He was terrified of God.
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That storm exposed the reality of his soul.
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He had religion, but he had no assurance of salvation.
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I want to read John Wesley's agonizing journal entry from
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1738, written while he was on that miserable voyage home from
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Georgia. It is a sobering read.
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It gives me chills every time I read it, he wrote.
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I went to America to convert the Indians, But oh, who shall
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convert me? Who?
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What is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of
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mischief? I have a fair summer religion.
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Fair summer religion. He goes on, I can talk well,
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nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near, But let death
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look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled, Nor can I
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say to die is gain. That phrase, a fair summer
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religion, is devastating. It really exposes the shallow
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nature of his faith at that time.
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He realized he was attempting to export a system of moralistic
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cultural improvement while remaining entirely dead in his
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own trespasses and sins. Yeah, a few days later he wrote
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I who went to America to convert others, was never myself
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converted to God. He was a missionary who didn't
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know the Savior. It's the tragedy of trying to
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give away something you don't actually possess.
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You can't offer living water if your own well is completely dry.
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You just can't. So how do we fix this modern
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crisis? How do we avoid the Wesley
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disaster in our own lives and churches?
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Well, we have to go back to the text.
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We have to look at how God actually prepares a messenger.
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OK, let's go there. To answer that, we pivot to the
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precise historical coordinates of Isaiah's vision.
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We are going back to 740 BC. The text explicitly roots this
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vision in time, in the year that King Usah died.
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And that specific detail isn't decorative, right?
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No, it is highly interpretive. Because when you just read that
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verse casually, you might think, OK, a king died.
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Happens all the time. It's just a time stamp.
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But Uzziah's death was a massive, destabilizing
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earthquake for the nation of Judah.
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Set the stage for us. What was Uzziah's reign like?
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Well, Uzziah had reigned for 52 years.
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For the vast majority of the population, he was the only king
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they had ever known. 52 years is a lifetime back then.
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It really was. If you were a 50 year old man in
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Judah, King Uzziah was the only political reality you had ever
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experienced. And under his leadership, Judah
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experienced a golden age. We are talking about absolute
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military dominance over the Philistines.
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He exacted heavy tribute from the Ammonites.
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He rebuilt the strategic ports of Elath.
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I was reading through the historical accounts in Two
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Chronicles and the level of his success is staggering.
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It was unparalleled since the days of Solomon.
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Right, It says he built towers in Jerusalem and fortified them.
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He had an army of over 300. Thousand men, a massive force.
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And he even had engineers invent machines to shoot arrows and
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large stones from the walls, like early.
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Catapults. They were technologically
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advanced for the era. And there was economic
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expansion, massive agricultural development, because he loved
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the soil. Externally, the nation looked
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entirely secure. They were living in an illusion
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of permanent stability. It was an era of unprecedented
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national confidence, but there was a hidden cost to all this
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prosperity. It usually is.
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Usually when a nation gets that comfortable and that powerful,
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something rots on the inside. That's human nature, isn't it?
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Success breeds arrogance. Always there was a deep systemic
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in a rot. A book of two Chronicles details
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Uzziah's downfall. What happened?
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It says that when he was strong, his heart was lifted up in
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pride. He decided that being the
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supreme political and military leader wasn't enough.
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He wanted absolute religious authority as well.
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Oh boy. So he usurped the unique,
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divinely ordained role of the Aaronic Priesthood.
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He marched right into the holy place of the temple to burn
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incense upon the altar of incense.
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Wait, let me stop you there. Why is that such a big deal?
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It is a massive deal in the biblical context.
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I mean, he's the king. Doesn't the king have the right
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to lead worship in that culture? You look at other ancient Near
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Eastern kings in Egypt or Babylon and they were always
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considered divine, or at least the chief priests of their
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national gods. That was the norm in surrounding
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nations, yes. Why does Yahweh react so
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severely to Uzziah doing something that every other king
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in the region was doing on a Tuesday?
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That is a brilliant question, and it gets to the core of the
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covenant. God had established A strict
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separation of powers in Israel. How so?
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The king was from the tribe of Judah.
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The priests were from the tribe of Levi, specifically the line
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of Aaron. The king handles the civil and
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military realm. The priest handles the mediation
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between a holy God and a sinful people.
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So the roles were completely distinct, yes.
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For the King to blur those lines was to say I don't need a
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mediator. I am holy enough to approach God
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myself. I see it's like a modern CEO
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walking into a hospital operating room, grabbing a
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scalpel and trying to perform open heart surgery just because
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he runs the hospital board. That is a perfect analogy.
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It's a massive violation of boundaries and it's incredibly
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dangerous. Yes, the high priest Azariah
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along with eighty other crease actually confronted him in the
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temple. They stood up to him.
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They did. They told him to get out, but
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Uzziah became enraged and right there, while he was holding the
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censor of incense raging at the priests, God struck him with
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leprosy. Just.
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Instantly. Instantly it broke out right on
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his forehead. The great powerful king who
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built cities and conquered armies was suddenly ritually
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unclean. What a reversal.
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He spent the rest of his life in shameful quarantine isolation
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until he died. So Uzziah's leprosy essentially
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functioned as a living parable for the entire nation of Judah.
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Exactly. It was this outward glittering
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religious and economic prosperity completely concealing
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a lethal in a rebellion. They look healthy on the
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outside, but they were sick to the core.
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That was the spiritual state of the nation.
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And meanwhile, while all this internal rot is happening, the
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political horizon is getting very dark.
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The geopolitical threat was massive.
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To the north, the brutal Neo Assyrian Empire was rising
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rapidly under the aggressive leadership of T Glac Pilisa the
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Third. And the Assyrians were
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terrifying. Syrians were known for
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psychological warfare and unspeakable cruelty.
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They would flay their enemies alive.
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Awful stuff. So when Uziah finally dies in
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740 BC, that whole 52 year illusion of political and
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military security shatters overnight.
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The bubble pops. The people are staring down the
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barrel of impending invasion, vassalage and exile.
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The throne in Jerusalem is suddenly very vulnerable.
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And that is the exact moment Isaiah is called into the
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temple. The earthly king is dead, the
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nation is terrified, but Isaiah sees the true immortal king
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seated on a throne high and lifted up.
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It is a stunning visual but. Before we get to the Seraphim
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and the flying coals, we have to look at the literary placement
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of this chapter. The context is everything here.
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Because normally when you read a prophetic book like Jeremiah or
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Ezekiel, the prophet's call happens in chapter 1.
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It's the introduction to the book.
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Right, it establishes their authority.
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But Isaiah's call doesn't happen until Chapter 6.
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He spends the first five chapters acting like a
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prosecuting attorney against Israel.
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The courtroom context is vital here.
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In chapters one through 5, Isaiah is systematically laying
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out Yahweh's covenantal indictments against Judah.
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He's bringing the charges. He is exposing their
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formalistic, ritualistic religion.
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They are constantly in the temple courts.
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They are offering countless animal sacrifices, but they are
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simultaneously engaging in systemic social injustice,
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bribery, drunkenness and sexual immorality.
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He goes so far as to compare them to Sodom and Gomorrah.
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That is a heavy prosecution. He holds nothing back.
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And this all builds up to a terrifying climax in Chapter 5,
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the Song of the Vineyard. The Song of the Vineyard is a
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masterpiece of prophetic literature.
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Walk us through it. God essentially sings a love
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song about his vineyard, Israel. He says he planted it on a
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fertile hill, cleared it of stones, planted the choicest
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vines, built a watchtower and hewed out a wine bat.
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He gave them every advantage. He did everything possible to
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cultivate. It, But instead of producing the
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sweet fruit of righteousness, it produced wild grapes, stinking
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rotten grapes of bloodshed. The Hebrew word play there is
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striking. Let's talk about that word play.
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God looked for justice. The Hebrew word is mishpat, but
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behold bloodshed, which is mispa.
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Mishpat Mispa. Wow.
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Right. And he looked for righteousness,
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Sedaka. But behold a cry of distress,
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which is Sedaka. That is brilliant and tragic at
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the same time. Which leads directly into a
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series of 6 devastating judicial woes pronounced upon the
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community. A.
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Woe is a strong word. A.
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Woe in the Prophets isn't just a generic complaint.
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It is a covenantal curse. It is the language of a funeral
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dirge. He's basically reading them
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their last rites. Yes, Isaiah stands up and says
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woe to those who join house to house in greedy land grabbing,
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creating monopolies until there is no room left for the poor.
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Woe #1. Woe to those who rise early to
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chase strong drink, partying from dawn till dusk while
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ignoring the work of the Lord. Woe to those who draw iniquity
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with cords of falsehood. That's three.
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Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute
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darkness for light. Woe to those who are wise in
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their own eyes. And woe to the corrupt judges
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who acquit the guilty for a bribe.
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He is hurling these covenantal curses down on the people
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because of their hypocrisy. So picture the psychology of
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Isaiah right here. He is the righteous preacher.
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He is the guy pointing the finger at the corrupt society.
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He is the moral voice of the nation.
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He has just dropped 6 heavy woes on his neighbors.
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He probably feels pretty justified.
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He feels separate from the sinners.
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You would naturally think so. And then the literary and
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psychological pivot happens. Chapter 6 opens and Isaiah is
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suddenly transported into the heavenly courtroom.
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He gets a glimpse behind the veil.
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He. Sees the Lord, He hears the
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burning seraphim crying, holy, holy, holy, so loud that the
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doorposts shake and the temple fills with smoke.
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And what does he do? It is the great turning.
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Point He doesn't pronounce the 7th woe on the wicked nation he
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pronounces is the 7th wool upon himself.
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He screams Woe is me for I am undone.
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It is a total collapse, he says. I am a man of unclean lips, and
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I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes
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have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
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He realizes his own mouth, the very instrument he has been
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using to preach and prophecy and judge others, is defiled.
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It is a shocking realization. I hear that, but practically
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speaking, let me push back a little.
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Wasn't Isaiah already a dedicated righteous prophet?
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He certainly was faithful. He's the guy delivering God's
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mail for five chapters. He's telling the truth.
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Why does he certainly feel so intensely condemned the second
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he sees the throne? Is he just being dramatic?
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Not at all. It is because the law must do
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its terrifying pedagogical work. The law's pedagogical work
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explain that. This is a core theological
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principle. The absolute holiness of God
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strips away every single layer of human self righteousness I
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see standing next to the corrupt land grabbers and drunkards of
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Judah. Isaiah looked pretty good.
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He graded himself on a curve. We all do that.
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We find someone worse than us and feel better.
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Right. But standing in the blinding
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light of Yahweh's infinite purity, the curve vanishes.
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Isaiah realizes he is an active participant in the rebellion.
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The word he uses for undone mid medi in Hebrew means ruined, cut
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off, silence to death. It is the language of execution.
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It's the sudden realization that you are standing on the tracks
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and a free train is a foot away. You are dead.
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The law silences every mouth and brings the Sinner to a state of
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absolute self despair. He doesn't try to defend
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himself. He doesn't say, well, at least
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I'm not as bad as the guys taking bribes.
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He just accepts the guilty verdict.
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That is the necessary prerequisite for grace.
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You cannot be saved until you realize you are lost.
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So true. You cannot be cleansed until you
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agree with God's verdict that you are filthy.
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So the question is, how does he recover?
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If the Prophet is ruined, lying face down on the couple floor
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waiting for execution, how does he get back up to do the
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ministry? He doesn't get back up on his
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own. He is completely rescued by
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monarchistic grace. Monarchistic grace.
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Let's break that word down for the listener.
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Monarchism versus synergism. It is a vital distinction in
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theology. If synergism is like a doctor
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tossing a life preserver to a drowning man who then has to
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swim to grab it, meaning God does a part and man does a part.
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Monarchism is a diver going down to the bottom of the ocean to
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retrieve a corpse that is already dead.
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Yes, the corpse doesn't help the dire.
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All the working energy comes from one side.
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That hits the mark perfectly good.
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If we look at the structural diagram of verses 6 and seven,
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it showcases this monarchistic transition from judicial
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condemnation to full justification.
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How does the text show that? It begins with a sovereign
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initiative from heaven. The Hebrew text uses a wah
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consecutive, specifically the word weyatap, which denotes a
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rapid, uninterrupted chain of events.
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It translates to then flu. The speed of grace The moment
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Isaiah confesses his ruin, the action shifts entirely to.
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Heaven. The serif flies toward him.
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Isaiah does, absolutely. Nothing doesn't think at all.
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He doesn't meet the Angel halfway.
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He doesn't perform a ritual to clean himself.
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He doesn't promise to do better next time.
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Heaven initiates the rescue and Heaven completes the rescue.
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Man doesn't make the first move toward God.
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God actively intervenes to rescue the spiritually dead.
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And the provision God sends is highly specific.
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The serif has something in his hands.
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Yes, the object is very important.
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Let's dig into the details here, because the sources we're
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reviewing highlight a fascinating lexical distinction
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about the specific object the serif brings.
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It's a Ritz BA, not a Gee Hall. What is the difference and why
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does it matter? A Gee hall is ordinary domestic
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charcoal. It is the kind of coal you use
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to warm your hands on a cold night or cook a meal.
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Like a campfire. Yes, it's the kind of charcoal
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fire Peter stood next to in the courtyard when he denied Jesus.
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It has heat, but it has no sacred significance.
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Right, but the word used here, ritzpah, refers to a glowing
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stone or a pavement tile specifically taken from the
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bronze altar of sacrifice. The bronze altar.
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This is the misbe, the place of propitiation.
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This is the exact spot where the blood of innocent substitute
21:51
animals was daily shed to satisfy the wrath of God.
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Let's paint a picture of that altar for the listener.
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This isn't a clean, sterile fireplace.
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Not at all. It was gruesome.
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The bronze altar was a place of slaughter.
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It had a grating blood, was splashed against the sides, and
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it contained A perpetual fire that originally fell from heaven
22:12
in the book of Leviticus. It was a continuous display of
22:14
judgement and versi. So this stone, this Ritzba,
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isn't just hot. It is saturated with the blood
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of substitution and the holy fire of divine justice.
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It represents the perfect synthesis of God's wrath against
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sin and God's mercy toward the Sinner.
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And notice how the serif handles it.
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He uses tongs. Tongs.
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Why is that significant? The serif is a sinless, burning,
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angelic being, yet even he does not touch the elements of God's
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atoning justice with his bare hands.
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He takes this ritzvah with tongs and brings it to the paralyzed
22:42
prophet. Wow.
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And then we see the surgical strike of grace.
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Verse 7 says he touched my mouth.
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The application is direct. A surgical strike.
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I love that phrasing. Because grace isn't just a broad
22:53
generic cosmetic cover up. It isn't God just spraying some
22:57
spiritual air freshener over the room and say you're fine.
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No, it deals with the specific offense.
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Isaiah confessed a highly specific sin.
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I am a man of unclean lips. That was the point of his
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duppest moral corruption, the instrument of his self-righteous
23:11
preaching. So the burning stone is applied
23:13
directly to his lips. It is painful, direct physical
23:18
contact with his exact area of failure.
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True gospel preparation is always an intense, highly
23:24
specific application of atoning grace to our hidden sins.
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It has to hurt a little. You can't just have a generic
23:31
head level orthodoxy where you agree that all have sinned.
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The corruption of your own heart must be confronted and dealt
23:37
with by the burning holiness of the altar.
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Let's unpack the judicial declaration that follows the
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physical touch. This is the climax of the
23:45
passage. The serif speaks 2 crucial verbs
23:48
in verse 7. The grammar here is a gold mine.
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I was reading through the grammar notes on this and what
23:54
caught my eye is the tense of the first verb Sir.
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It's written in what scholars call the call perfect tense.
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That is correct. If I understand this correctly,
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that implies A definitively completed action in the past,
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right? It isn't something that happens
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gradually. You're completely right, Sir.
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Means the legal liability for sin.
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The cumulative guilt is permanently and definitively
24:15
severed from your account. Definitively severed.
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Because it is in the perfect tense, it is a completed action
24:20
that stands forever. The guilt doesn't slowly fade
24:23
away over time through good behavior.
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It is instantly turned aside the moment the altar touches you.
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Incredible. And the second verb.
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The second verb is take a par which is translated as atoned
24:34
for or purged. It is in the pool imperfect.
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The pool imperfect. What does that signify?
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The pool stem in Hebrew is the intensive passive voice.
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It is the ultimate divine passive.
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It means the sin is completely covered and wiped out.
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But it stresses that the atonement is performed upon
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Isaiah. Ah.
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So he is entirely passive. He doesn't cover his own sin.
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The work is accomplished entirely outside of Him by God
24:59
and simply applied to Him. So what does this all mean for
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how we view our standing before God?
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If Isaiah's guilt is definitively severed and his sin
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is passively atoned for by God's action, that completely destroys
25:13
certain religious dogmas we see today.
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It absolutely destroys the dogma of continuous Sacramento
25:18
penance. Which is the idea that you have
25:20
to constantly work off your guilt through religious rituals.
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Yeah, as if the altar wasn't enough.
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Yes, it also refused the subjective emotional instability
25:28
of modern decisionism. Elaborate on that.
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What do you mean by decisionism? Decisionism is the prevalent
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modern idea where a person's assurance of salvation is based
25:37
on how sincere they felt when they prayed a prayer 10 years
25:40
ago, or how hard they walked down an aisle at a revival
25:42
meeting. Right.
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If your assurance is based on your own emotional sincerity,
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you are going to collapse the second things get hard because
25:51
our emotions change constantly. Emotions are a terrible
25:54
foundation. But Isaiah's assurance is based
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on an objective forensic declaration from the throne of
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God. You deal is taken away.
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It is a legal verdict. The judge has spoken.
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The gavel has dropped in the heavenly courtroom.
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It doesn't matter how Isaiah feels about it. 20 minutes
26:10
later, the verdict stands. This gives Isaiah a rock solid
26:13
confidence. He knows with judicial certainty
26:16
that he is cleared. That is huge.
26:18
That is the only foundation that can sustain a person in
26:20
ministry. When you face hostility, when
26:23
you face failure, you don't fall back on your own sincerity.
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You fall back on the objective reality of the altar.
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Now, as incredible as this Old Testament sanctuary scene is, we
26:31
have to ask how it connects to us today.
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As modern believers, we do need to make that connection.
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Because we don't have a physical bronze altar in Jerusalem
26:40
anymore, there are no animal sacrifices happening.
26:43
The temple system is gone. And we certainly want to avoid
26:46
fanciful allegorizing where we just make the coal mean whatever
26:50
we want it to mean, like saying the coal represents a warm
26:52
feeling in your heart. How do we interpret Scripture
26:54
with Scripture here? Where does the New Testament
26:56
take this? We look to the Apostle John.
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In his gospel. In John chapter 12, Jesus has
27:02
just been speaking about his impending death on the cross,
27:04
and the crowds are rejecting Him.
27:06
John quotes from Isaiah chapter 53 and Isaiah chapter 6 to
27:10
explain their unbelief. He ties those passages together.
27:14
And then in verse 41, John makes this breathtaking Christological
27:17
declaration. He writes.
27:18
Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of
27:21
Him. Wow.
27:23
He saw his glory, He saw Jesus, Yes, so the King of glory high
27:27
and lifted up, surrounded by Seraphim, the one whose holiness
27:30
completely ruined Isaiah. That was the pre imparted Lord
27:34
Jesus Christ. Yes, the holiness that ruined
27:37
the prophet was Christ's holiness, and the grace that
27:41
cleansed him was Christ's grace. That changes how you read the
27:44
whole chapter. This entire scene in Isaiah 6 is
27:47
a magnificent, redemptive historical shadow that finds its
27:51
absolute substance on the cross of Calvary.
27:54
The altar is the ultimate shadow of the cross.
27:56
The fire is the infinite holy wrath of God against sin.
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The blood on the Ritzpah points to the blood of the Lamb.
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Beautifully stated. And just as that glowing stone
28:07
physically delivered the benefits of the altar to
28:09
Isaiah's lips, we have a delivery system today.
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We do. The proclamation of the Gospel
28:14
is the median the Holy Spirit uses to take the benefits of
28:17
Calvary and deliver them directly to our wounded
28:19
consciences. We cannot physically touch the
28:21
cross of Christ today. It happened 2000 years ago.
28:24
Right, it's a historical event. But when the Gospel is preached,
28:27
the Holy Spirit applies that fiery reality of substitutionary
28:31
death directly to us, granting instantaneous regeneration and
28:35
forensic justification. The preaching of the Word
28:38
functions like those angelic tongues, bringing the fiery coal
28:42
of Christ's finished work directly to our hearts.
28:44
That is a wonderful way to understand it.
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And we have a better high priest than Isaiah did.
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Jesus didn't just send a seraph to do the heavy lifting, He came
28:52
himself. He was the priest and the
28:54
sacrifice. He didn't take a coal with tongs
28:58
from a stone altar. He offered his own unblemished
29:01
body upon the altar of divine justice to satisfy the wrath of
29:05
the Father. He took the fire of the wrath of
29:08
God so that we could be cleansed.
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Which renders the moralism and legalism of human effort
29:13
completely bankrupt. Utterly bankrupt.
29:16
Think about it. If a holy prophet like Isaiah, a
29:19
man who literally wrote scripture, couldn't be cleansed
29:22
by his own prophetic works but required a blood bought pull
29:25
from the altar, how on earth can we expect to be prepared for
29:28
ministry through our own ethical efforts, our academic
29:30
achievements, or a cultural adaptability?
29:33
It's impossible. We're putting our faith in
29:35
resumes instead of a Redeemer. A deadly mistake.
29:38
Which brings us to the application of all this.
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What does this mean for you, the listener, right now?
29:44
Especially if you are considering any form of
29:46
ministry, whether that's packing up your family to move overseas
29:49
for global missions or just volunteering to teach a Sunday
29:53
school class at your local church.
29:54
We have to return to John Wesleys warning about fair
29:58
summer religion. Yes, back to Wesley.
30:00
We live in an age where theological information is
30:04
abundant. It is very easy to cultivate a
30:07
superficial, highly intellectual faith.
30:09
You just download it all. You can listen to hundreds of
30:12
hours of deep theological lectures on your daily commute.
30:15
You can master the vocabulary of reformed theology.
30:19
You can get academic degrees, but none of that can sustain you
30:23
when the raw, grueling reality of spiritual warfare hits.
30:26
Having the right answers in a theology classroom isn't the
30:29
same thing as having an objective forensic standing
30:31
before the throne of God. It definitely isn't.
30:33
When the winter comes, when you are isolated in a foreign
30:37
culture, when your language learning stalls and you feel
30:40
like an idiot every time you try to buy groceries, when the local
30:43
population is hostile to your message, when illness strikes
30:47
your family, intellectual orthodoxy won't keep you warm.
30:50
You will freeze. You must have that solid rock of
30:53
justification. You have to know that your guilt
30:55
is severed. This text is a thunderous rebuke
30:58
to the pragmatism of our day. It really is.
31:01
We must confront the missiological agencies that
31:03
focus entirely on psychological logical assessments, personality
31:07
typing, Enneagram numbers, and cultural adaptation techniques,
31:11
while completely ignoring the fundamental question and.
31:14
What is that question? Has this candidate ever been
31:16
undone by divine holiness? Have they seen the King?
31:20
We are sending spiritual corpses to fight spiritual battles.
31:23
We are evaluating administrative needs instead of looking at the
31:26
altar. We prioritize the wrong things.
31:29
We ask are you passionate instead of asking, are you
31:32
pardoned? Passion burns out, a pardon
31:35
lasts forever, and that leads to the crucial distinction in how a
31:39
justified believer lives and works.
31:42
In theological terms, this is often referred to as the third
31:45
use of the law. Let's define that for anyone who
31:48
might not be familiar with the term.
31:50
The first use is to restrain societal evil, right?
31:53
The second use is to drive us to Christ by showing us our sin,
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which is what happened to Isaiah.
31:59
So what is the third? Use.
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The third use is that the law becomes a guide for Christian
32:03
living, but the motive completely changes.
32:06
The motive changes how? The believer doesn't obey God's
32:09
commands, including the command to go to the nation's in order
32:12
to earn God's favor or avoid his wrath.
32:15
They obey out of a state of grateful union with Christ.
32:18
Because they are already accepted.
32:20
Yes, they are already fully accepted, so their obedience is
32:23
a responsive love, not a mechanism of earning.
32:26
The true missionary isn't going out there to prove their
32:29
spiritual worth. They aren't going out there to
32:31
rack up points with God, or to satisfy a lust for adventure, or
32:35
to appease a guilty conscience. They are totally free from all
32:38
that. They go because they simply
32:40
cannot keep silent about the Savior who legally removed their
32:44
guilt. The overflow of grace dictates
32:47
the mission. The sequence is vital.
32:49
After Isaiah is cleansed, then he hears the voice of the Lord
32:52
saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
32:56
And Isaiah says here I am, send me.
32:58
Notice the order. He is humbled, then he is
33:01
cleansed. He's cleansed, then he is
33:03
commissioned. Modern pragmatism tries to
33:05
Commission people before they are cleansed.
33:07
The sources we're reviewing highly recommend a book by JD
33:11
Greer called Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart.
33:14
Have you read this one? Yes, it is incredibly relevant
33:17
to this discussion. Why is that?
33:19
Greer tackles the intense anxiety many Christians feel
33:21
about their salvation, especially those raised in a
33:24
culture of constant altar calls and reciting the sinner's
33:28
prayer. Oh.
33:28
Right, the constant fear of did I mean it enough?
33:31
Did I see the right words? Maybe I should pray it again
33:33
just to be safe. It creates a lot of spiritual
33:35
neurosis. Greer challenges the reader to
33:38
deeply examine the object of their faith.
33:42
Are you trusting in Jesus alone, or are you trusting in your own
33:45
sincerity when you prayed that prayer?
33:47
Are you trusting your feelings or the cross?
33:50
Are you trusting in your own missionary zeal?
33:53
Are you looking at the finished work of the cross?
33:56
Or are you looking at your own track record of religious
33:58
activities? It forces you to stop looking
34:00
inward at your fluctuating emotions and start looking
34:03
outward at the objective reality of the cross.
34:06
Because looking inward is a trap.
34:08
If you are constantly checking your own spiritual pulse, you
34:11
will always find reasons to panic.
34:13
You have to look at the altar. It's a terrifying thing to
34:16
realize. You might be trusting in your
34:17
own enthusiasm instead of Christ's blood.
34:20
It is the great deception. You have to stop and ask
34:22
yourself, have my lips actually been touched by the fire of
34:25
Calvary or am I just echoing the religious culture around me?
34:28
Am I just playing the game? That is the essential diagnostic
34:32
question for anyone in ministry. A call to missions is not
34:35
answered by evaluating your own talents, your administrative
34:38
skills, or your emotional desires.
34:41
Where is it answered? It is answered by looking at the
34:43
altar of Almighty God. The world says if you have a
34:47
passion, just go. Don't let anything hold you
34:49
back, just do it. But the biblical pattern says
34:53
something else. It says stand still until you
34:56
have been cleansed. Do not run before you are sent.
34:59
Which brings us to the final verdict of our deep dive today.
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Genuine ministerial readiness requires our lips to 1st be
35:07
silenced by divine holiness and then cleansed by sacrificial
35:11
blood. You don't speak until you have
35:14
been spoken to by the grace of. God, the order is non
35:17
negotiable. I want to leave you with a final
35:19
provocative thought to chew on. We've talked a lot about
35:21
overseas missionaries today. We've talked about the Wesley's
35:24
in Georgia and Isaiah in the Temple.
35:26
We have covered a lot of ground. But think about your own daily
35:29
life. Think about the way you interact
35:30
with people right now. If genuine readiness to speak
35:33
for God requires our libs to be silenced and cleansed by the
35:36
altar, how much of our everyday evangelism, casual religious
35:40
conversations, and especially our online theological debating
35:43
is just noisy uncleansed speech? We live in an era of constant,
35:48
instant communication. Everyone has a platform,
35:51
Everyone has an opinion. We fire off tweets.
35:54
We leave long arguments and comment sections.
35:56
We debate our coworkers, but are we constantly running to speak
36:00
before we have stood still at the altar?
36:02
It is so easy to do. Are we throwing theological
36:04
arguments at people without ever having been broken by the
36:07
holiness of the God we claim to defend?
36:10
If you haven't cried out, woe is me, you have no business
36:13
pronouncing woes on anyone else on social media.
36:15
He has a sobering thought. We must be people of the altar
36:19
before we are people of the argument.
36:21
Yes, if the coal hasn't touched your lips, your words will just
36:23
be smoke without fire. Thank you for joining us for
36:26
this conversation. On this deep dive, we encourage
36:29
you to examine your own foundation.
36:31
Take the time to do it. Don't take another step into the
36:34
mission field, the pulpit, or even the comment section until
36:37
you are absolutely certain that your soul rests entirely upon
36:41
the rock of salvation. Let the law do its work.
36:44
Let the grace of Christ heal the wound.
36:46
And then, and only then, say, send me.
36:50
We'll catch you on the next deep dive.