Mark Gilmore: How many of you have listened to the GoMission podcast recently? Let’s see. Hands down, how many of you have never listened to the GoMission podcast?

Okay, all right. I got a good audience to advertise to here this morning. Recently, I have actually been amazed at the testimonies God’s given me, the privilege to take firsthand out on the field.

And I want to introduce, I want to just tantalize you to get back on that podcast. It’s the Thee Generation Podcast, Search for GoMission. Some amazing stories.

A man in India I was with recently introduced me and said, Brother Gilmore is a gospel journeyman. And I thought, wow, you know me well. That’s exactly part of my identity.

And I’ve been able to take firsthand testimony. The latest podcast is a man named Brother Sira. He’s planted 27 churches in Uganda, excuse me, in South Sudan, a very war-torn region.

He’s seen God protect him repeatedly, like 40 times. He’s walking down a trail, and just behind where he was walking, after he walks by, a dog blows up. Because the dog stepped on the mine that didn’t blow up when he walked past.

And he’s planted 27 churches, so you’ve got to hear his testimony. He actually was a Catholic lay leader that all the believers were afraid of. But one day he’s walking by the street.

Someone is preaching there. He said, I was arrested like this in mid stride. And he said, I listened and I got saved that day.

He was like an apostle, a little bit like Saul. He went towards the believers and the believers ran from him because they thought he was coming to kind of attack him. Guess, I met the one who was preaching the day he got saved.

Guess how old that preacher was that day that he got saved. The preacher was 15 years old. And that life, he led that man who was in his mid-40s got saved that day.

The podcast just preceding that is Brother Ben Steckman. Ben, where are you? Come right on up here.

Where is Ben? All right, Ben is one of our mission students here at BCM. He had the opportunity to go to Grenada this summer on a missions internship.

The podcast is his testimony. And in that testimony, he highlights the aspect of making disciples. So I brought him up as the model disciple maker here today.

And we have just made a GoMission shirt called Make Disciples, Not Excuses. Aren’t we good at making excuses? What if we got better at making disciples?

In fact, Matthew 28, 18 to 20 says, All power is given unto me, so is there any room for excuse there?

he said i’m with you to the end of the age does that leave any room for excuse no so we should be making disciples how’s that shirt feel it’s great pretty good yeah all right yeah this is comfortable it won’t shrink and there’s a couple different colors up there and we they’re for sale out there in the lobby invite you to go by and join ben in making disciples and uh so yes thank you very much ben um the um uh the

next podcast after before that is a man named Brother Deep Raj. He’s from Rajasthan, India. I interviewed him in Delhi.

He has been part of planting over 120,000 house churches since 2005. Over 600,000 souls saved and baptized. Just last year, they baptized 129,000 souls.

Would you like to find out a testimony from a guy like that? I sure did. I traveled around the world to meet him, and I connected.

Actually, it was a divine appointment for him because I connected him to another region of India that he was praying about. I’ll tell you more about him in just a minute. The next podcaster after that is one from Uganda, where our BCM missions team ministered in May, June, their own testimonies about what God did in and through them.

Fantastic opportunity God gave them. Then there’s one from Assam, India, from a man named Brother Afeng, who has trained scores of village evangelists in a region that’s persecuted. And his story of perseverance and faith is remarkable.

Then there’s one from Chaptisgarh, India. Brother Somatai, a personal friend of mine now for over a decade, he tells about how he was assaulted in a house church prayer meeting, taken off to the police station. And he says how that the entire time his heart was filled with joy and peace.

Absolutely no fear. He was, God released him and the work continues there. Then from Adam Awa Cameroon, Brother Godlove, whom I have partnered with since 2013.

And he describes the miraculous hand of God in gospel breakthrough among Muslims and pygmies in his region. So those are waiting for you on that channel. So please join us there.

Just search on Thee Generation Podcast. And then in there you can find GoMission happening about every five weeks and join us there. Let me just tell you about Deep Raj.

In fact, let me show you his picture. It’s the only one I prepared here. This is Deep Raj.

And Deep Raj, in 1999, Deep Raj, I was with him in March. And you can see him there. Man, his smile is just contagious.

in uh in uh he his story is this um when he was born into this world he was called an unholy child he was unholy because a wife in his culture a mother in this culture is not supposed to conceive within a year of a previous birth and he was conceived of sooner than he was supposed to be So immediately he was rejected while still in the womb. In fact, his mother took an abortion pill to kill him in her womb.

She didn’t take it once. She took 30 pills 30 days in a row trying to kill him and she did not succeed. So when he comes into the world, he’s already rejected by his mother.

His dad is a gambler, comes home angry. He beats up his siblings. When he beats up them, mom protects them.

When he turns to beat up Deep Raj, Mom doesn’t protect him. On three occasions, he’s beaten for stealing when someone else in the family did the theft. And at one point in one of those situations where he’s actually arrested for someone else’s theft, his dad’s, and he is taken to the police station.

He confesses because he has to to protect his dad. And they beat him. After the day’s over, they put him outside the police station.

Family’s supposed to come for him. No one comes for him. someone brings him home when he’s taken.

He’s got broken toes and bruised legs. And when it enters his family’s home where he’s been taking the beating for his dad’s theft, the family’s eating and they completely ignore him. They literally act as if he doesn’t exist.

He goes back into his bedroom and he cries out. He says, I broke. He says, God, what did I do in my last life to deserve this karma?

A complete outcast. On three occasions, he tried to commit suicide, cutting himself, jumping from a train, drowning in a river. He says, I don’t know how it happened, but I lived through all three.

So he’s a teenager, 13, 14 years old. He’s going up to the Hindu temple. He’s in search of peace, trying to find forgiveness because now he’s gotten involved in marijuana and drugs and other addictions.

he is participating in fairly radical anti-Christian Hinduism. He goes to hide some marijuana in his home and he discovers a dusty volume on a bookshelf high in his home. That dusty volume is the Bible.

He begins to read it and within he’s about he’s reading it he’s about 14 years old 15 years old. In the Bible he says he found the peace and forgiveness he was searching for. And without anyone ever witnessing to him, in the word of God alone, he came to salvation.

And this is his testimony. When he came to Christ, he said, I heard God say to me, he said, I never left you. I have been with you since you were in the womb.

And this is his testimony. in an instant, he was holy and unexplainably healed on the inside. All the pain of that kind of rejection was gone to this day.

Amen. What a miracle. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I doubt it’s on that level.

Can God heal you like that? Can the acceptance and the forgiveness that comes from Christ touch your heart with that same kind of healing? And you could just see the joy.

He says it continues to this day. So he’s at about 19, 20 years of age. He meets a missionary.

Now, this boy has never been loved by a mom or a dad. He meets a missionary. He’s already saved.

And that missionary has a fantastic approach to missions. He takes him into his family and he becomes like a son to him. And from 19 to 20, he says, the missionary who I’ve talked to says, I had to teach him everything.

His parents, I had to teach him how to hand his finances. I had to help him get character. I had to teach him how to take care of his room.

He says, I taught him everything. And then I took him with me as I went discipling, evangelizing, small group and so forth. That missionary is now off the field.

He was there for 20 years. That missionary put in place this multiplication that now Deep Raj is leading while that missionary is supporting him from America. Let me ask you this.

Who is God gonna use in greater ways, that missionary or Deep Raj? Let me ask you, what’s the greatest thing that missionary ever did in his 20 years in India? Disciple Deep Raj.

Amen? and where did deep raj come from an absolute broken inconceivably broken past and god had a plan for his life what an amazing story of how god wants to use you and each one of us if we’ll get involved in missions uh like this well i want us to turn towards isaiah chapter 6 and uh take a few key from that here in this session.

But Isaiah 6 came to my mind and my attention through my own Bible study in the past, but it was recently brought to my attention through the testimony of Charlie Kirk and his homegoing. I did not, I knew of him. I didn’t personally listen a lot to his podcast, although my sons did all the time in my household and we were talking about what he had to say often.

But you’ll remember that his wife, Erica, even on the day of his memorial, talked about this specific impact that Isaiah 6 had on Charlie’s life. In her memorial service, in the memorial service, she said two years ago at America Fest 2023, Charlie delivered a speech on stage for the TPUSA faith event. He chose to speak that day on his submission to the will of God and quoted one of his favorite Bible verses, Isaiah 6, 8, Here I am, Lord, send me.

After Charlie finished, I met him backstage and I spoke to him. And I’ll never forget, I said, Charlie, baby, please talk to me next time before you say that statement. Because when you say something like that, there’s so much power in that verse.

When you say, Here I am, Lord, use me, God will take you up on that. And she said, that’s exactly what God did. God accepted that total surrender from my husband and called him to his side.

More than anything, Charlie wanted to do, not his will, but God’s will. What did that verse mean to Charlie? It meant this, Lord, I here make myself completely available to you for whatever purpose you have made me for.

Amen. God, you’re Lord, I’m your servant. You have a plan for my life and a purpose, And I just want you to know, God, whatever that is, I’m available for.

Not my will, but yours 100%. Now, how do you get to that point of surrender? Well, I want us to look at that here in this passage of Isaiah 6.

How do you get to that point of surrender? Well, how did Isaiah get to that point of surrender? Let’s just look at Isaiah 6, verse 1.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings, with twenty covered his face, with twenty covered his feet, and with twenty did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved, shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and that iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.

Now look down at verse 11 for just a moment. Then I said, Lord, how long? And the Lord was telling him to go and to speak.

And he said, How long? And he said, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. So he’s talking about a messenger, a preaching time, At a time when there is a move of judgment from God happening in their culture, if you will, it’s going to be desolate, but I want you to be preaching at that time.

And then he says, look at verse 12, And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. All right, this was not necessarily a wonderful time to be called to preach. But look at verse 13.

but yet in it shall be a what? In it shall be a what? What’s a tenth?

What’s a temp? 10%. What if you reach 10% of your community?

Would that be a good thing? Would you maybe call that revival or something? How much of Jerusalem was reached in the time of Acts 1, 2, 3, 4?

The numbers actually come up to about 10%. Folks, we can call ourselves a remnant, but if you perceive of a remnant that small, you’ve got the wrong number in mind. Here in this time, a remnant was 10%.

What if we reach 10%? What if you reach 10% of your school? What if you reach 10% of your neighborhood?

What if you reach 10% of your community?

amen we’re making excuses when god wants us making disciples and you could say well that wasn’t going to be a good time actually you put 10 out there and that is a really healthy goal and and god has a harvest that’s waiting for this time and i want you to see god had an amazing plan for isaiah and he’s using this moment to prepare him for that plan how god wanted to use him now let’s look at some let’s notice this passage

here look at verse uh verse one in the year that king uzziah died why is that significant well isaiah is about 25 30 years old he’s a young man um and the king uzziah had been one of the good kings of of judah he had begun his reign at 16 and he did that which was right in the sight of the lord and he sought god in the days of Zechariah.

In that reign, Uzziah’s reign of about 60 years, Israel had prospered commercially, militarily. The second Chronicle says that Uzziah’s name spread far abroad for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. It was a time of economic prosperity and security, international respect.

It was a good time to be a young person in that day. It was a time of prosperity. Has it been a good time to be a young person in the last 20, 40 years in America?

Have we not had remarkable prosperity and peace? It’s been actually a great time to be an American. the most growth of wealth and technology and everything.

You have lived in a remarkable time of peace and prosperity. But now here’s Uzziah. He’s the king.

And something has happened. Uzziah, after Zechariah, the good high priest died, Uzziah did not have that spiritual influence in his life. And he did something that many other kings did in his day.

They took on themselves the priestly functions as well as the royal ones.

so he decides I’m king I can do what I want I’m going to go into that temple I’m going to offer the incense and all of the priests Azariah and the others are standing like some 80 of them saying king don’t do it that’s not your role but he just in his pride steps into that and he comes out a you know the story was he come out filled covered with leprosy and the king that had been their champion that had been

their you know their example comes out of the temple covered with leprosy and the tragic thing is not that he got leprosy that day the tragic thing is that he died a leper do you think god would have cleansed him if he had repented do you think god would have healed him if he had gotten right about it absolutely the sad thing was he died a leper and it showed one commentator says that showed the picture of the spiritual condition of the

nation along with power and wealth and luxury had come the sins of oppression religious formality corruption the social conditions which were prevailed were hopeless there was wealth alongside of poverty rich oppressed the poor the women were haughty drunkenness apathy the politicians and judges were corrupt. Does that sound like our day? See, Isaiah had his hopes in a realm that was ruled by a human king that had led them to great heights and that human king had disappointed them.

Are we not living in a time when human leaders and leadership is failing us time and time again? You as young people are probably, if you’re paying attention over and over again, the person who was supposed to be the one you were depending on, the leader that was supposed to bring truth and just protection to you is failing you. And this is par for the course when you come out of a time of prosperity.

There’s a weakness of character. Corruption comes and you begin to look at the human leaders and see them failing you. This could be in your home.

You could have parents that are failing. Maybe a dad that just completely walked away from you. You could have parents that are failing.

You could have pastors, church leaders are failing you. You could have in your community, politicians are failing you. you can become very cynical.

Who can I trust? And you feel like no one is trustworthy. Can you identify with that?

And that’s where Isaiah was. And God said, had to show him that though the earthly throne was empty and defiled and disappointing, the heavenly throne was secure. out of that incredible disappointment, God gets Isaiah’s eyes on another throne.

He said, in the year that the King Uzziah died, the year that my earthly king failed me, in that day, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Now there’s several things, there’s several dynamics here that changed the heart of Isaiah, that God introduced to the heart of Isaiah that led to that response of here am I? Here’s the first one.

God helped Isaiah understand the burning holiness of God, the burning holiness of God. Who did Isaiah see sitting upon that throne? Who was it?

John 12, 41 says, These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him, speaking of Jesus Christ. He’s actually getting a vision of Jesus Christ himself. And where is Jesus Christ seated right now?

Hebrews 1 says, When he by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Who is seated on the throne right now? our Savior Jesus Christ.

I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. On the throne of God is the Lamb of God. Amen.

And I want you to know I don’t care who is on any earthly throne.

There’s only one on the heavenly throne and his name is Jesus Christ we are not defined by what happens on that on the thrones of earth we’re defined by who’s seated on the throne of heaven and Ephesians 1 talks about that God would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him and it goes on and describes when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all

principality and power and might and dominion every name that’s named. I want to ask you whose vision is greater the one Isaiah saw or the one we see right now in this age. Which victory is greater?

Which throne has a greater dynamic? We don’t have to look back to what Isaiah saw we can actually see something far greater that is our reality. Jesus is seated on the throne and we’re seated there with him.

Now, what does it mean God’s holiness? Just a thought here. As we comprehend the burning holiness of God, God’s holiness separates him from all creation.

The essence of God’s existence is completely in another sphere outside of what he’s created. He exists in himself. He dwells in eternity.

He is all in all. He has no need because he himself is all that’s needed. He’s wholly engaged with this world, but he is essentially separate from it.

He is supreme in himself. He is wholly complete, standing outside of all else. He upholds all else, but nothing else upholds him.

This is our God. Amen. What a wonderful God.

Pantheism says that God is in and a part of everything. Holiness says God is completely separate from everything. And he does not depend on anything for his own existence.

Do you know what worldliness is? Here’s what worldliness is. It’s finding our identity and our existence in this present world.

Do you know what holiness is? It’s finding our identity in God himself. Do you see that the reason holiness is what it is, it’s because it’s who our God is.

Does our God find his identity in what he’s created? No. He finds it in himself.

Can you and I find our identity utterly in God himself? Can you? Is that possible?

Think about this. Enoch walked with God. and he was not because God took him.

What got Enoch up every morning? What got Enoch up every morning? God himself.

When he ended his day, who did Enoch end his day with? God himself. Abraham was called the friend of God.

Can you be a friend of God?

is that possible young people it’s true oh i wish i had a friend why don’t you make god your friend can god be your friend do you know that that’s holiness when you share what what do friends do they share they share the same values the same loves can you share the same loves that God shares can you I that phrase love not the world either things that will because um it says if you love those things the love what’s it say

of the father’s night doesn’t say the love for the father’s not in you it says the love of the father do you know that you can actually experience the love of God flowing out of your life. Like, do you know what’s real satisfying? When the love that’s inside of you comes from God and you’re sharing it with him.

Amen. That’s holiness. Holiness is not defined by externals.

It’s actually defined by what’s inside of you. And if you open up what’s inside of you, it’s a love of a sharing with God who he is and experiencing that. That’s what we’re made for.

Amen. to find our identity in God alone. That’s holiness.

Now there’s something here about God’s holiness here that’s in this passage. Above it, look at verse two. Above it stood the what?

Seraphims. Now these seraphims are very interesting because a seraph is actually a burning, well, to seraph is to burn. These seraphim are burning beings.

There’s two words for burning. One is qatar, another is seraph. So that word seraph is actually straight out of the Hebrew.

It means to burn. Now, when something is burned as a qatar burning, that’s a burning that would be dealing with like a burnt offering, which was kind of a love offering, a peace offering or a meal offering. It’s called a sweet savor unto God.

But the word seraph is never used that way. The word seraph is always a judgment type of burning. It is a literal flame that is a destructive burning.

It’s dealt with the sin offering. It’s that burning that happened outside the camp. This is very interesting.

There in Hebrews, our God is a consuming fire. So these seraph beings, and notice when you describe it, when you read it, the posts of the door are shaking. The house is filled with smoke.

Is this a scene that is comforting or terrifying? Like these seraph are burning and they’re burning. The word is a burning of God’s wrath towards sin.

Here’s a statement. God judges sin with fire. God judges sin with fire.

Can you agree with me on this? Sodom and Gomorrah, what happened to them? What came from heaven?

Nadab and Abihu, the first disobedient priests, what happened to them? Burned with fire. What did Jesus say?

Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting. What happens? God, listen to this.

This is out of the character of God. God judges sin with fire. It’s who he is.

I know for me, when I was just a young boy, I remember being genuinely concerned, frightened about the fact that I deserve to go to hell fire. Has anyone else ever identified with that? Let me just encourage you, if you’re sitting here and you’re not sure you’re saved, eternal fire and flame is your destiny.

And it should scare you. It should get you out of your seat and get you to someone and say, I don’t want to face eternal flame because our God judges sin with fire. It’s who he is.

And these beings are revealing that. so much more could be said, but the wages of sin is death. And one day death and hell are cast into a lake of fire.

It’s coming. This is the second death. Our God judges sin with fire.

And that’s exactly what Isaiah is being confronted with. And then he, as they’re singing out the praise, holy, holy, holy, it reminds us that there’s a praise of God’s holiness. and it says the whole earth is going to be full of his glory.

And just the thought here on this point, how much of the earth can be full of God’s glory or will be the whole earth? And I take a real encouragement in missions in this regard. Do you know missions is extending God’s glory to the ends of the earth?

And you can’t show up, or I could put it positively, you can show up anywhere in the world and know God’s glory belongs here. You can go to the ends of the earth. You can go to the darkest spot and inside of you is the light of Christ and you can show up and say, okay, God, shine your glory here because this is part of your earth and you deserve your glory to shine here.

Amen? Can that happen in your school? Can that happen in your workplace?

Okay, God, this is a dark place. Christ is in me, but you deserve your glory in this place. amen anywhere you have the right you don’t christ god has the right to make sure his glory shines there what an encouragement the whole earth is full of his glory and uh so we see the burning holiness of god a second thing we notice here then is the wretched sinfulness of man look up Isaiah’s response, verse five, then said I, what does he say?

Woe is me. So Isaiah’s here. Isaiah has, he’s preached to crowds.

And you look at Isaiah chapter five in the preceding chapters, Isaiah is a really good preacher at saying, woe is you, woe is you, woe is you. And he lists all these sins and he’s a preacher of righteousness. Woe is you, woe is you.

And then he gets this vision of God and he says, Woe is, woe is me. And this is a, it’s a remarkable statement. It’s actually expressed in a perfect tense, which is, it’s the idea of an action that is completed already.

And what he is saying is, I am, I’m not just about to be destroyed. I’m not just doomed to die. He’s seeing it as a foregone conclusion.

I am about ready to be completely condemned by this holy God. Criswell said, anytime a man feels he is worthy, good or righteous, he has not seen the Lord. Romans 3 talks about the law revealing the standard.

It says that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become what? Guilty before God. Job saw the revelation of God and he said, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Daniel said, my comeliness was turned in me into corruption. Ezekiel fell on his face. Peter said, depart from me for I am a sinful man.

Saul on the road to Damascus fell to the earth, trembling and astonished. John fell at his feet as dead. If you and I want to live in God’s presence, we must know deep within our hearts we don’t deserve to be there.

God is inviting Isaiah into an amazing relationship with him, but he’s got to deal with Isaiah’s opinion of himself. Do you know how hard it is to change the opinions we hold about ourselves? Do you know how hard it is to get honest with just how proudful we really are?

I’m actually comforted with the fact that God’s still stripping away things in my life regarding that I am stubbornly proud we all are we are all self-conceited in our opinions of ourself, aren’t we? like, I need God’s help to strip that away Amen? God, help me.

I can’t help but think highly of myself. Isn’t that true? It’s true.

You say, well, I’m a humble person. Well, you just revealed you weren’t right. God is being so good to Isaiah in this moment.

Look, if you’re going through something that’s humbling you, thank God for it. Like if God is helping you expose something, if God’s helping you, you know, if it’s a situation that’s just making you feel like so low, you know what? You need to say, thank you, God.

You’re going deeper with me. And that’s exactly what God’s doing here with Isaiah. He is aware how completely he is falling short and God’s stripping away from him all of his self-righteousness.

And this was not a bad thing. It wasn’t a bad moment. It was really, really good.

For all have sinned and come what? Short. Be ye holy for I am holy.

How holy are we supposed to be? The inescapable standard of holiness is God himself. And we fall so far miserably short of it.

And that’s what God’s doing in Isaiah’s life. He’s just literally like, there is no hope for me. It’s interesting here that he convicts him of a particular sin.

Woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of what? Unclean what? Lips.

We all recognize death and life are in the power of the tongue. If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. But the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

Have you ever sinned with your tongue? We all have. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And our lips, God wants to convict us of. And it’s interesting that Isaiah, who’s the preacher, says, I’m a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of what? Unclean lips.

Did Isaiah say, you know what, I’m the preacher. I’m a little more clean than the other people. What did he see himself in his sin?

the same. Preachers aren’t better people. Hopefully preachers are just honest people.

Amen. Look, don’t we all have the same sins? How many, anyone here not have unclean lips?

Anyone here not have unclean minds, thoughts? Don’t we all have the same sins?

don’t preachers have the same sins people have the same sins um just being honest about the sin that categorizes us all and i think it’s interesting that the sin he felt was the sin of the lips i’m sure there’s many other sins that we could that could have been exposed but isn’t it curious that a man who is supposed to be his preacher gets convicted about the misuse of his lips. How is that? You know what?

Probably the greatest, most significant part of who you are that God wants to use is your lips. How do you witness? How do you give the gospel?

With your lips. How do you communicate truth? With your lips.

Do you know what? God wants to cleanse your lips so he can use your lips. Amen?

Let God cleanse you because then he’s gonna, his truth is gonna flow through you. And that’s what God is doing here. He’s convicting him of his complete wretchedness.

Why? Well, let’s look what happens next. Number three here.

Then, look at verse six. Then flew one of the seraphims. Okay, these are these burning judgment beings.

They’re coming towards him. Can you imagine what would you expect to happen next? Well, he’s already said what he expects to happen next.

I’m undone. This burning being is coming to him. He says, I’m going to be a pile of ashes.

This is over. That’s what he’s expecting to happen. One of these burning beings flying towards me, having a live coal in his hand, taken with his tongs from off the altar.

Altar? Where’d that come from? Did you see an altar in there yet?

No, all of a sudden, an altar is there. It has been there. And wow, this is actually amazing.

Aren’t you glad there’s an altar? Aren’t you glad there’s an altar? Because this burning being, surrounded by burning beings, actually places himself on an altar and he becomes our sacrifice.

And now this coal that’s coming down is actually not the seraphim. Well, the seraphim’s coming, but the interesting thing or the significant thing is it’s not the burning seraphim that’s going to touch him. It’s the live coal in his hand that touches him.

And it’s taken from an altar and it’s laid upon his mouth. And instead of being consumed, Isaiah is cleansed. And he says, this is touch thy lips and thine iniquity is what?

Taken away and thy sin is purged. The sinner is not the one that’s burned up. The sin is what’s burned up.

Hallelujah. And the sinner is cleaned. What a moment.

This glowing coal is our Lord Jesus Christ. Not on just the throne high and lifted up, but he’s been lifted up on a cross. And he got off that throne and placed himself on the cross, on the altar.

And he is now our cleansing. Let me ask you this. To what degree have you been cleansed?

Hebrews 9 describes this because this is parallels. Christ did not enter into the holy place made with hands. In other words, the earthly tabernacle.

But there’s something, the veil is just lifted a little bit here in Hebrews 9, that Christ has entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Nor yet, it says that if it was an earthly setting for Christ’s sacrifice, it would have had to have been over and over as repeated as all the sacrifices were but then he says no but then it says but now listen to this once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself if you are cleaned by the sacrifice of the blood of Christ how clean are you?

if the sacrifice is God himself how accepted is the sacrifice? If the justifier is God himself, how complete is your justification? If Christ is your righteousness, how righteous are you?

Amen? It’s complete. I want to ask you this young person, are you clean?

Are you clean? Are you saved? Are you saved?

Are you saved? If you’re saved, you’re clean. Are you saved?

Are you saved? Then you’re clean. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.

You know what we’ve forgotten? We’ve forgotten how clean we are. You are clean.

Did you clean yourself? You don’t clean yourself. Who cleans you?

Who is your cleanliness? Who is your righteousness? Have you forgotten how clean you are?

Can you remember the day you got saved and feeling you were clean? Can some of you remember that? How clean you felt?

Do you know that that reality has not left you? You are clean. You say, I messed up.

Well, did you not messing up get you saved? Did you get saved because you quit messing up? Is that what saved you?

You’re clean because you saw Christ as the one who’s your cleaner. And you confessed your sin and you asked him to clean you. Did he clean you?

Yes. Are you clean? You say, well, yeah, but some stuff is coming to my life.

I don’t think I’ve, you haven’t lost your cleanness, but you have lost the reality of it. You’ve not let it actually become a part of your, you’ve not put on the new man who is created in true holiness. You’ve hidden him.

You’ve stopped letting him come out. And you say, well, how do I get clean? You just get honest before God and call sin.

If we, what? Confess. Confess is just to agree with God.

If you confess your sin, he is faithful. Faithful means every time. Just.

That means it’s the right thing for God to do. Do you know it’s the right thing for God to do when you confess your sin to make you know you’re clean? God does it every time.

Are you clean? Are you clean? How extreme is God’s holiness?

Utterly pure. How extreme is our sinfulness? Utterly woeful.

and how extreme is God’s cleansing? Utterly pure righteousness. Cleansing so complete that it’s imputed to us the very holiness of God himself and the very person of his Holy Spirit.

God has so cleansed us that he’s torn the veil, hiding his holiness, separating us from his essence. There was a day that Uzziah died and tragically he died a leper. There was a day Isaiah died and it was the day of his cleansing.

George Mueller said, there was a day when I died. And as he spoke, he bent lower, almost touching the floor. He said, I died to George Mueller.

My opinions, preferences, taste, and will. I died to the world, its approval and censure. I died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and my friends.

And since then, I have studied only to show myself approved unto God. Folks, wasn’t there a day where you died? 2 Corinthians 5, Then if one died for all, then we’re all dead.

And he died for all, but they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Isaiah’s vision was an altar. Our vision is a cross.

Are you letting God change your identity from those things that were crucified at the cross? And our cleansing is so complete that we have that righteous standing, that complete forgiveness. And then our cleansing is so complete that the spirit of God now lives within us.

Our body is now the temple of the Holy Ghost. Now we can glorify God in our body and our spirit. We are a new creature.

Old things are passed away. Everything has become new. And this is a moment of that surrender that God is leading to Isaiah’s life.

And finally, look in verse eight, as he’s experienced this moment, this cleansing, then he hears the voice of the Lord. And it really wasn’t until this cleansing has taken place that now he hears the voice of the Lord saying, whom will I send and who will go for us? And then he’s a volunteers.

Here I am. Here am I. Send me.

Do you know that you’re here now on this world for the same reason Christ came? The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was? Do you know you’re now here for that same reason?

The same reason Christ came is the reason you’re still here. He’s not willing that and he should perish. He hasn’t come back yet because he’s still seeking and saving the lost.

Who’s doing that? He is through us. Your reason to be here is the same reason Christ came here.

So let me say, if you’re living a holy life, what reason are you to be here? Are you here to be holy? Well, you’re here to be holy by being what Christ was here for.

What is our holiness? Our holiness is seeking and saving the lost. Can you live a holy life without being on mission for Jesus Christ?

You can’t. Well, I’m just going to try to be holy. I’ll shut myself in the four walls of my house or my church, and I’ll live a holy life.

No, you won’t. because holiness is going it’s actually being here for the reason christ was here that’s holiness think about christ’s command go teach all nations go preach the gospel power to go can you be holy and disobedient at the same time you can’t okay the mission is the holiness of god the holiness think of the heart of Christ. Forgive them.

He’s moved with compassion. He would have all men to be saved. If you get close to the heart of God and your heart is filled with his holiness, his love for the lost world will be there and you will join him in the mission.

Let’s put it this way. You cannot be holy without surrendering your life to the mission. See, I got to get this out of my life.

I got to get this out of my life. Yes, good.

get that stuff out of your life but what does God want to put into your life it’s his mission what was God doing with Isaiah he was humbling himself getting him down on his face I’m through my sin has made me so wretched I deserve judgment instead of being judged God cleanses him he lifts him up and God says I’m looking for a volunteer I’m looking someone who will go and speak for me and he said oh I’m your man why because

God has now transformed Isaiah’s opinion about himself opinion about his cleansing and he’s ready to go and be that messenger amen and we come to a conference like this where is god going with this conference well tonight we’ve got outreach but i want you to think god’s got a mission for your life young people amen he wants you to be a mouthpiece of truth and he wants you to go to the unreached he’s got a plan and purpose for your life what

do you do with your life well if he loved me enough to die for me i love him enough to live for him to join the mission. This is true holiness. I am with you always.

His presence in us is for the mission. And that mission, God intends for us to live out with an incredible sense of fulfillment and also an incredible sense that we are here for such a time as this. And we are in a world of 8.2 billion souls.

And I believe that right now is the greatest age to surrender to the gospel ministry. I believe our God is doing the greatest works he’s ever done. This is the greatest time to be called into missionary work.

It’s the greatest time to engage the harvest of the world. God has not abandoned 8 billion souls. In fact, we know he’s not willing to let any should perish.

And until the church is lifted out of this world, the church is to assault the gates of hell, amen, and advance the gospel to the ends of the earth. And I invite you as young people to be part of this mission.