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Isaiah 6:8-13 - The Promised Rejection of God’s Message · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in the last half of
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  Isaiah chapter 6 and last episode we saw Isaiah sees a
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  glimpse of the throne room of God.
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  He sees the angels, the seraphim that are flying around God's
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  throne. They're proclaiming holy, holy,
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  holy is the Lord of armies. The His glory fills the whole
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  earth. We saw that even the foundations
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  of the doorways shook at the sound of the Angel voices, and
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  the temple was filled with smoke.
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  Isaiah recognized his state before God.
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  He says, what was me for I am ruined because I am a man of
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  unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips.
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  When we encounter God, truly our response is we are sinful, we
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  are unworthy of this incredible, good, holy, just, perfect,
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  loving God. But we then read in verse number
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  six. Then one of the seraphim flew to
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  Isaiah and in his hand was a glowing coal that the Angel had
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  taken from the altar with tongs. He touched Isaiah's mouth with
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  it and said, Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity
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  is removed and your sin is atoned for, if you will, from
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  the altar of God. From that place of forgiveness,
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  forgiveness was extended from heaven to Isaiah.
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  It wasn't that Isaiah earned it, but that he received it, same as
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  we have today, that from that altar that Jesus supplied his
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  blood to as he ascended into heaven, as we read in Hebrews 9
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  and 10, we receive forgiveness from heaven.
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  Now verse #8 Isaiah has a purpose, a responsibility.
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  He has excitement as he has encountered God and has received
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  forgiveness from him. It leads him to do, to believe,
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  to say something. And we can see this in verse #8
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  Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking, who will I send?
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  Who will go for us? I said here I am, send me.
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  So God is wanting to send a messenger out to the world and
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  those that have truly experienced the forgiveness and
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  the grace of God, those who have seen God's grandeur will want to
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  tell other people about what they have found.
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  If you go. I have no desire to ever talk
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  about my relationship with God or what God's done for me or how
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  God is moving in my life. I have no desire to talk to
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  anyone else about that. My friend, I want to challenge
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  you. It may be that you are not a
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  Christian. Those that truly do encounter
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  God cannot help but talk about what they have seen and heard.
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  That's what we read the apostles telling, telling the Sanhedrin,
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  the ruling Pharisees and Sadducees there in Jerusalem in
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  the 1st century, even as they were being beaten for saying
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  what they believed about Jesus. They say we cannot help but
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  speak about the things that we have seen and heard, the women
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  that went to the empty tomb of Jesus.
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  As we'll celebrate on Sunday, those women couldn't help but go
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  and tell the disciples about what they had seen.
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  If it is real in us, we will want it to be real for others.
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  Does that mean that we won't experience fear?
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  No, we'll definitely experience fear.
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  Does it mean that we will have no situational awareness about
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  how we say it, or when we say it, or where we say it or how
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  loudly we say it? No, there are many, many things
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  that will play into what that looks like in our life.
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  But do you have any desire to tell other people about the Lord
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  here? Isaiah says, here I am, send me.
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  I will be the one that speaks on behalf of God to the people.
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  Verse #9 And God replied, Go say to these people, keep listening
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  but do not understand. Keep looking, but do not
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  perceive. Make the minds of these people
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  dull, deafen their ears and blind their eyes.
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  Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their
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  ears. Understand with their minds.
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  Turn back and be healed. Hear what God is instructing.
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  Isaiah is I want you to go and I want you to preach to these
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  people, but I want you to know they will not listen to you.
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  They are not going to listen to my words.
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  And though I am giving you a message from this heavenly
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  throne room, it is only going to result in them turning more deaf
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  ears to what God is saying. This is like with Pharaoh.
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  I think I've mentioned it several times on the podcast.
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  It it's a helpful word picture for me that God hardened
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  Pharaoh's heart, that this same sun that melted the heart of
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  Isaiah, that his heart was like ice, that when the sun shines on
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  the ice it melts. That was Isaiah's heart versus
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  the heart of Pharaoh, that when God commanded him to do things,
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  he did not listen and obey. Instead, he insisted on his own
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  will, his own way. And so his heart was like clay,
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  that when the sun shines on the clay, it hardens up.
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  And so here that's what God is saying for Isaiah.
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  These people are not going to believe, they are not going to
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  obey. And so actually John the Apostle
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  quotes this particular portion of Scripture for Palm Sunday as
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  Jesus comes into Jerusalem. We would read this in the end of
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  John 12 and verse #39 says This is why they were unable to
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  believe. The people that heard Jesus's
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  preaching but did not respond in faith to it says This is why
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  they were unable to believe. Because Isaiah also said he has
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  blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would
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  not see with their eyes or understand with their hearts and
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  turn and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because
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  he saw His glory and spoke about him.
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  And so here John the Apostle draws this picture from the Old
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  Testament to say Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of all of
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  the rest of Scripture. And so if this was true in the
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  ministry of Isaiah, it would be even more true in the ministry
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  of Christ that as Jesus preached all across Israel for three
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  years that it did not result in widespread like revival and
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  turning to God. Some people certainly did.
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  And what a joy. You can think to the apostles.
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  You can think of the 70. You can think of even that group
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  of over 500 that saw him at one time post resurrection.
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  You can think of all of the women that followed Jesus and
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  tended to needs that there were people that followed, but many
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  people they they turned to deaf ear.
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  They would not receive what God had said.
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  And so Isaiah then asks in verse 11, until when Lord, like how
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  long am I supposed to be preaching to these people that
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  will totally reject everything that I am saying that even as
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  I'm preaching a great wonderful message of redemption and hope
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  that God says, no, all this is going to do is seal their fate
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  as a result of their lack of desire to listen to me.
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  And God says, and they're in verse 11, So Isaiah says, how
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  long am I preaching this message of it's a good message, but
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  everyone's turning a deaf ear to it.
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  And he says, and God says, you were to preach this until cities
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  lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without
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  people, the land is ruined and desolate.
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  And he always drives the people far away, leaving great
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  emptiness in the land. Though a 10th will remain in the
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  land, it will be burned again, like the terebinth or the oak
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  that leaves a stump when felled. The holy seed is the stump.
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  So here God says Isaiah, you're going to keep on preaching this.
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  This is the message from God to Israel.
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  This isn't a message for one week.
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  It's not for five years. Isaiah would preach this message
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  until his death, and then even after his death, you'd still
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  have 50 to 100 years before the prophecy would come true.
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  Isaiah preached all his life a message of a coming judgment
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  that would not come during his time, but would come after his
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  time. It was a message that was not
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  popular. Even history would tell us that
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  Isaiah would likely have been sawed in half by the very Last
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  King of Judah during Isaiah's lifespan.
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  That he would be sawed in half as a result of the hatred of
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  that king for the message of Isaiah.
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  Many people think Isaiah's, specifically the man mentioned
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  in Hebrews 11, that some of the prophets that had faith in God
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  were in the words of the old King James.
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  Saw and asunder were cut in half as a result of their faith in
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  the Lord. And I want to ask you, if you
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  never saw God's promises take place within your lifetime,
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  would you still believe in Him and follow Him?
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  Would you repent and turn to the Lord even if the prophesied
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  judgement did not come during your lifetime?
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  So much of what I hope to accomplish as a Christian and as
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  a pastor is planting seeds for trees that I will never see.
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  I want. My prayer is that Tabernacle.
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  We're 76 years old right now. My prayer is that Tabernacle
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  would last at least another 76 years.
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  I want it to far outlast me. And again, this is probably not.
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  Actually, no. This could be practical for some
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  of you. One of the very first things
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  that we did as a church when I came here was to do an update of
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  our constitution and bylaws. It really needed a work over and
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  the the church knew that they had already voted on the
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  constitution review committee and all of that.
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  But so much of what we worked through together as a
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  Constitution review committee was setting up systems for
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  someday, setting up the system for what that process looks like
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  to get a new pastor, what the process looks like if a pastor
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  sins and fails and the church has to deal with it, how to deal
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  with abuse within the church. And my prayer is that all of
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  those things that I set up will be wonderful for a someday that,
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  you know, I won't ever have to vote in the new pastor of
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  Tabernacle, like I won't have to be the one that finds him.
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  But my prayer is that what I planted will then help and
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  benefit someone else later. Can I ask you in your Christian
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  life, are you planting seeds now for someone else's someday?
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  This is what Isaiah is doing. He's warning them because there
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  would come that day of judgement, and so he needed to
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  be faithful now to warn them so that they wouldn't have to
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  experience the judgment later. Maybe if you are listening to
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  this, you're not really sold out on the whole Christianity thing.
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  You're not really sold out on the whole church thing.
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  I want part of my ministry to be to warn you, though I may not
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  know every single one of you personally.
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  I want to warn you about the coming judgement that one day
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  Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead.
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  And that could happen, you know, even as I'm recording this, or
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  it could happen 2000 years from right now.
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  I don't know when the day is, but I want to faithfully preach.
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  That might make me look stupid. In the meantime that people go,
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  well, where, where is this Jesus?
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  And for 2000 years people have been saying, Oh yeah, Jesus will
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  come back. Well, where in the world is he?
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  He hasn't told me the day or the hour.
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  No one on earth knows the day or the hour in which the Son of Man
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  will return. But I want to be faithful to
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  proclaim that coming Judgment Day.
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  And I want to be faithful to love and care for others now so
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  that hopefully one day my son or my daughter's spouse are the
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  recipient of seeds that I planted now of kindness, of
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  love, of respect, of generosity, that then their spouse is
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  changed or they're, they're, let me rephrase my sentence real
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  quick because I got lost. And as I was saying it, I want
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  to raise my kids to be good spouses and planting that seed
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  so that one day, Brian or Evelyn's spouses, they will
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  experience a better life as a result of what I have input into
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  my kids. Or, you know, if you're someone
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  you know at a church, I encourage you, if you have the
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  ability, have the desire serve in kids ministry.
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  And it could be that that kid that you teach about the gospel
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  or about kindness in Sunday school, one day they might be
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  able to teach someone else, or they might be able to lead
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  someone else to the Lord as a result of the fact that they saw
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  Jesus's love and his kindness. Be so real in you.
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  Are you willing to plant seeds for trees that you will never
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  get to sit under the shade of? I think there's just a lot of
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  wonderful truths in there from Isaiah's preaching.
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  Also, don't measure the effectiveness or the
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  faithfulness of your ministry. I what other people do in
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  response to it, so you can take that in a bad way.
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  I could be the most obnoxious, annoying, unhygienic, worst
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  speaker in the world and then try to say, OK, well, I'm being
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  really faithful just to preach the gospel.
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  And so not my fault if no one wants to come to my church and
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  if no one wants to be around me like I'm I'm just preaching
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  faithfully. Well, there could be some things
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  that I'm doing that are actively deterring people from the
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  gospel. But here is with Isaiah.
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  He's preaching the message that God gave him and God tells him
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  people will not respond well to it.
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  You can think about Jesus that there were the times all
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  throughout his ministry where people rejected him and it was
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  not as a result of any imperfection in Jesus.
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  Just sometimes God's message is not received by those that hear
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  it. It always accomplishes what God
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  sends it out to do. Sometimes God sends His word to
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  change people. Sometimes God sends His word to
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  harden people's hearts that they would have a just condemnation
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  as a result of the fact that they received the message of God
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  or that they heard the message of God but did not receive it.
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  So don't think, OK, I I've genuinely been faithfully
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  witnessing to this person for 20 years and I must be doing
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  something wrong because they're not saved yet.
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  No, it could be that the purpose God has you in sharing your
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  faith is that they will one day receive a righteous a just
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  condemnation because they were told the gospel and did not
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  receive it. Or it could be that in God's
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  time, in God's way, they might eventually accept it.
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  But don't. Don't base faithfulness off of
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  fruit because you don't know what kind of fruit that God is
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  going for. That doesn't excuse us to be
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  ungodly in the way that we interact with others, and it
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  doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to avoid deterring people
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  from the gospel through failures or flaws in US.
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  But don't base faithfulness on fruit.
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  Then the very last thing that I want to mention from this
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  passage is in verse #13 Though a 10th, a tenth of the nation will
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  remain in the land. It will be burned again, like
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  the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled.
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  The holy seed is the stump, and so this seed here, much like the
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  branch that we heard about a couple chapters ago, is a topic
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  that will pop up a couple more times in Isaiah.
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  And even in Chapter 7, we're going to see a manual being
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  talked about God with us. And so this branch of Israel
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  that is left, a surviving portion of the Kingdom is going
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  to bring out life. And that eternal Kingdom that
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  God promised to David, it will come through the Messiah.
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  And so here the Messiah's line would not be snuffed out.
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  There's only a stump left of this great tree that was once
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  the southern Kingdom of Judah, but in that stump is the holy
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  seed, that seed of the woman that will crush the head of the
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  serpent, the seed of Abraham who would receive the blessing and
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  who would be a blessing to all the nations of the world.
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  This is the one that Israel is looking for, that even though
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  there is harsh judgment that is coming, even though many people
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  will not receive the message of God yet God is still working for
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  the redemption of mankind through the descendants of
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  Judah. This is a well, I got to tell
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  you guys, over the last like 3 episodes, it's all been really
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  tough, really heavy stuff. But what a joy that God does
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  forgive, that God does have hope even in hard circumstances.
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  Next episode we're going to look at Isaiah 7.
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  I'm really looking forward to this.
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  I preached a message on Isaiah 7 several years ago.
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  Now I'll probably end up linking the sermon in the show notes on
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  that particular episode, but looking forward to that.
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  Have a wonderful Easter. If you are listening to this on
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  the day it comes out, it's Good Friday and looking forward to
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  seeing what the Lord does during this Easter time.
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  God bless.