Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Have you ever been so overwhelmed by God's holiness that you suddenly became painfully aware of your own sin? Not because anyone pointed it out, but because the contrast was simply undeniable.

That's exactly where Isaiah found himself. Swept into a vision of the throne room of God, he heard the Seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts."

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues his message from Isaiah 6, where we'll discover what God did next, and why Isaiah's confession became the turning point of his entire life.

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: He spontaneously understands how distant he is from the one who is holy.

He says, "Woe is me, I am ruined."

"Why, Isaiah? Why do you feel finished? Ruined?"

Well, look. He tells us, "I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

"I live in the midst of a people who curse and I curse."

I went to a high school where the kids cussed. I never heard cussing at home. I thought for the first time in my life, "Hey, this is pretty cool." I think I'll try some of those words. My sister heard me. And in great sisterly fashion, she says, "I'm going to tell Daddy." All of a sudden, my lips were sort of clean all over again.

I got in the Marine Corps and I heard familiar words again. Because in the Corps, that's what's part of a lifestyle. There isn't a sentence said without a cuss word. It's remarkable. I don't know why that makes you feel like a man, but for some, their vocabulary is so limited, they got to rely on those kind of words.

If this is too shocking for you, I apologize, but I honestly believe that's Isaiah. I believe that's his struggle. I believe Isaiah is saying, "Lord, I say things when I shouldn't say them." "Lord, I use words I shouldn't use." "I lack control verbally." "I am impatient with my tongue."

"And so when I hear these angels, and when I see how separate you are from this lifestyle, being holy, I'm not worthy. I'm finished. You're done with me, I'm sure."

The thing I appreciate about this is the spontaneity of it. There is no shaming statement from the throne of God. There is no wagging of a finger saying, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

The man expresses his inadequacy, his lack of holiness, his filthy language, perhaps his habit of exaggerating, or gossip. There are a dozen different ways we can have foul mouths. And he's standing guilty before a holy God. He's literally on holy ground. And he's exposed to the Holy One.

Watch closely. Look at what happens. "Then!" I love connectives like that. Little four-letter word, "then." Verse 6 begins, "When." When? When you see "then," ask "when?" Right after Isaiah's confession. "I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the Lord, the Lord of hosts." "Then."

There isn't any hesitation. There isn't even a word spoken. "Then one of the Seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs." Picture it in your mind. It's hard to imagine, but picture it. The Seraph picks up this coal and reaches over, verse 7, and touches Isaiah's mouth with it. Listen.

[Sound of sizzling]

Does that help? All of a sudden, the moisture of his lips and the hot burning coal meet. Do you find it intriguing, as I do, that the coal touches his mouth? Why, of course. Why? That's where his sin is.

I think it's magnificent how the Lord pinpoints things in our lives as we're in the presence of his people and a gathering of worship like this. All of a sudden, truth be told. You who have really entered into this message today, you're already turning over in your mind your area. And you know it, I don't know it, and that's good.

I've got my own stuff to deal with. And they're going over in my mind. And I long for the coal to touch me at that area. I invite it. David wrote in Psalm 51:17, "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." I urge you to be as broken as Isaiah. I urge you to say, "Lord, this is my struggle."

"This is the unholy part of my existence. I've picked it up from the world's system and I've begun to perfect it. I'm around dishonest people and Lord, I have become a little, no, a lot dishonest. I don't tell the whole truth. Sometime I hold back because it's a little easier to compromise. Lord, I am almost almost pure, but not altogether."

By the way, speaking of that, I came across a very interesting bit of research. Let's say that something is 99.9% perfect, okay? That's pretty good, huh? 99.9%. Okay? Would that be a problem? Well, according to this research, this year alone, the IRS would lose 2 million documents if it were 99.9% accurate. You say, "Well, some things are true, aren't they?" And the next.

Do you know that 12 babies every day would be given to the wrong parents at birth? I mean, if 99.9% were accurate, the .1% would be 12 babies a day would go to wrong parents. You're thinking, "Maybe that's what happened to me." No, that's not fair. Look at, look at this next one. 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly. 291 this year would be performed incorrectly. 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions would be written and filled. 99.9.

Is there any question why God is altogether, completely holy? There's no room for anything less. Otherwise, he'd be unjust .1% of the time. And there'd be reason to blame and doubt and question. But there's none here. He touches my mouth, this holy God touches my mouth.

Now, what is interesting, and hold your place here, is that Peter, who walked with Jesus, in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 14 writes a word of exhortation to his readers. 1 Peter 1:14. "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. But like the Holy One who called you, look at the words, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy."

When you misinterpret that, you think that has to do with the clothing you wear, or the music you prefer, or the car you drive, or the vacations you enjoy, as different from someone, it has nothing to do with the externals. It has to do with the inside part of our lives. It all starts with a transformation. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds, and you'll recall from that section in Romans 12, it is our holy act of worship.

Look closely. Back to verse 7. This is from the Lord. "Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven." Oh, is there any line better than that? "My son, I've heard your confession."

[Sizzling sound]

Count on it. I've forgiven you that. Your iniquity from these many, many days and months and years of this of this habit. Taken away. Taken away. Only God can do that. How wonderful.

Now, he's not through. "Then." See the next one? Verse 8. "When?" "Then." After that statement is made, "Then I heard a voice of the Lord saying." This is not an angel speaking. This is the Lord speaking. "Whom shall I send?" "I have a vast amount of work to do that you have no idea about." "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"

Made me smile when I read that because Isaiah is the only one in the temple. Reminds me of when I had my minor heart attack, thank goodness it was minor. I never really had chest pains, but I felt it in my jaw, my teeth, down my neck and under my arm. And I said to Cynthia early that Saturday morning, "Honey, I I'm uh got funny feelings. I've kind of broken out in a sweat, something's wrong." She said, "Where does it hurt?" And I said, "Right here, what's that?" in the left side.

"Boom!" She said a new record for getting me in the car, and then she was in the car and we drove quickly to the hospital. They checked my blood pressure and it was out of sight, and they said, "You're having a heart attack." And uh I I couldn't believe it. I to this day I've never had chest pain, and including then. I thought everybody has a heart attack, has chest pain.

In fact, when I go to Dr. Cooper, and he's done my exam, and maybe thinks I'm not thinking seriously enough, he says, "You know, I've had seven people die in that chair you're sitting in." And I say to him, "I'm changing chairs." I'm going to that next chair.

Well, this was no laughing matter. There I was. Flat down on the gurney, all alone in this room. The doctor is there. They poked this thing up my groin and, well, I probably shouldn't have put it quite like that. But not not being a physician, they jammed this thing into me, and all of a sudden, said, "You may want to watch it on the monitor." "Oh." "Yeah, let's see what's on TV this afternoon." "Hmm. And then I say, 'Is that me?'" The doc goes, "There's nobody else in the room." Which I thought was a rather smart remark. "I'm the only one in here getting this thing jammed in my heart." This little stent. By the way, it's doing great. Thank God.

"Who will go for me?" "Whom shall I send?" I'm the only one in here. And Lord, if you can cleanse my mouth, if you can take care of something that's been a plague most of my life. I want you to know I'm available.

The magnificent thing about the holiness of God is it prompts us to be like Him. "Lord, I want to be your spokesman." "Lord, I want to be your servant." "Lord, I want to be one who teaches this class." "Lord, I want to be one who works with children." "Lord, I want to serve you." "I want to teach this Bible class." "I want to have one in my home." "Lord, if you can use an imperfect vessel and if you can cleanse me and forgive me." "Lord, I I want to use my voice to sing for you." "I want to play my instrument to your glory." Here am I, use me.

And that's exactly what happened. He said, verse 9. "Go." Isn't that great? First two letters of the word gospel. One of my mentors used to say, "You can't take the 'go' out of the gospel." You don't take the gospel if you don't go. You don't share the gospel if you don't speak. You're not available to do the work of the gospel without involvement. Go.

And for the record, the book is full of Isaiah's going all the way through chapter 66 before he dies a martyr. God's word is a two-edged sword. See it on the front of the pulpit. The Bible is open and the pulpit represents the declaration of God's word, the two-edged sword. It penetrates where no surgeon's scalpel can go. A surgeon can operate on the brain, but he can't do work on the mind.

A surgeon can do surgery on the lips, but she can't do work on the words that come from the lips. A cardiovascular surgeon can do work inside the heart of all things. It's going on right now around this city, right now. But there's nothing the surgeon can touch that would affect our morals. Our minds, our mouths, our morals. Why? Only the Spirit of God can address those things.

And that's where this passage touches us. So, allow me to go there with the assistance of the Spirit of God. I'm not even asking you to turn to it, but listen to another rendering of Romans 12:1 and 2. "Take your everyday ordinary life." Listen closely. "Take your everyday ordinary way of life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering."

"Your everyday life, place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him." I love that line. "Embracing what He does for you is the best thing you can do for Him." "Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking." "Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out." "That's it." "That's it."

He simply expects us to live a holy life, by that I mean separate from our culture. That is, separate from the lifestyle, the thinking of our culture. That's what it means to be holy. Remember? To be separate, to be set apart. We live in it, but we're not a part of it. In lifestyle and thinking.

To be authentic in an inauthentic world. To be honest in a dishonest culture. To model a wholesome lifestyle in an unwholesome context. Where we find ourselves. To be free of corruption and addictions and compromise in a corrupt and addicted and compromising society. That's it. That's it, folks. That's what Peter had in mind when he says, "Be holy."

There's a reason God left us here. I've often thought how easy it would be as soon as we're saved if we could just go to heaven. What kind of witness would we have on this earth? None. So he leaves us in a corrupt world to live an incorruptible life.

And so I I'm going to offer a simple three-part prayer. Just listen to it with your eyes open, okay? "In my mind, I must counteract my depravity with godly thoughts." "So Lord, provide those godly thoughts." "In my everyday workaday world, start my day with godly thoughts." "Replace envy with understanding and acceptance." "Replace jealousy with encouragement." "Replace selfishness with a desire to help others." "In my mind, I must counteract my depravity with godly thoughts. So, Lord, provide those godly thoughts."

"From my mouth." Here's the second area. "From my mouth." "I should be free of all unwholesome words." "Lord, prompt those wholesome words." "Just as you provide godly thoughts, prompt wholesome words." "Put a check on my tongue when I would lash out in profanity." "Guard me, Lord, from rushing into a statement that I should not say." I have a good friend who puts it so well, "I never felt sorry for the things I did not say."

"Lord, keep me from saying what I'll later regret." "Prompt wholesome words." "And through my morals," "Through my morals, I need to be cleansed from every compromise." "Purify me from compromise." "From compromise."

You know what's interesting? We never get too old for any of these prayers. Mind, mouth, morals. Let's be vulnerable and unguarded. Like Isaiah, let's not attempt to hide our depravity or ignore our area of great need or deny our weakness or tendency toward erosion. Let's not do that. Let's make God the promise that when we walk into a place like this, we're going to expose ourselves to Him without reservation, hesitation, or reluctance.

I urge you to do that right now. Will you bow with me please? You've listened so carefully and well and I commend you. But listening is only part of the process. I urge you to search your heart. To see if there be any way of pain, the psalmist writes, "Any wicked way in you."

How about it, teenagers? You're sitting here among us. Any area that needs to be corrected? You know them better than anyone else. Are you sure you know the Savior, young man, young woman? Sure you've met the Lord. How about an adult in a very responsible position, and you're right on the verge of compromising? You know it, God knows it, but nobody else knows it.

This is a day to say, "Lord, may I be holy in motive, in thought, in action today." If you've never met the Lord Jesus Christ, meet Him today.

Father, thank you for the morning of worship and thank you for the occasion of this glorious beginning. How appropriate that our focus is on your holiness, separateness from all iniquity. Remind us of Peter's words that we are to be holy, even as the Savior is holy. Help us with that. Begin today. May this message never be forgotten, as we realize that the angels are present and the living God has never left us. You see it all. So cleanse us, Father, from those things that have separated us from you, that we might be separate from the world around us that's lost its way. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Everyone said, "Amen. Amen."

[Music]

Bill Meyer: Isaiah walked into the temple broken and unworthy, and walked out forgiven and commissioned. That's the trajectory of every life that encounters the holiness of God. You're listening to Insight for Living, and if today's message from Chuck Swindoll has stirred something deep within you, we want to help you go further. You can easily access the Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for this 12-part series. It's spiral bound with plenty of room to jot down your own notes and reflections. It's called How Great Is Our God. To purchase the workbook, go to insight.org/offer. Or call us at 800-772-8888. After we hear a word from Chuck, I'll explain how you can receive a booklet that was inspired by our current series. It's brand new and it's called The Cross We Proclaim. Chuck.

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: The first Monday in July 1979, that's when Insight for Living aired its very first radio program. I had no idea what was beginning that day. None. If someone had pulled back the curtain and shown me what God was about to do, I'm not sure my heart could have held the thrill. We were naive, we were stepping out in faith with a national program, and frankly, we had no business being that bold. But we were, and we did. And men and women responded in droves, not because we were clever, not because we had some sophisticated strategy or a slick marketing plan. They responded because we heralded the only thing that has ever actually changed a human heart, the cross we proclaim.

Nearly five decades later, nothing has changed, not one thing that matters. Yes, the reach has grown, the platforms have multiplied. We go places now that would have seemed like science fiction in 1979. Into phones, into earbuds, into languages and nations we could never have imagined on that first Monday morning. But the message, identical, it's the cross, always the cross. Look around at the world around you. Bodies failing, relationships fractured, public discourse that sounds more like a brawl than a conversation, pain in every direction. And right in the middle of all of it, we get to be dispensers of truth, God's truth. The kind that doesn't shift with the headlines or bend with the culture. That's an extraordinary privilege.

As we approach June 30th, nearly 46 years after that very first broadcast, I want to invite you to join what God is already doing. Your gift to Insight for Living carries the light into dark corners we haven't even reached yet. From our very first day until now, let's keep going together.

Bill Meyer: Your gift, no matter the size, will make a tremendous difference as we proclaim the life-changing power of the cross. To express our gratitude, we're going to send you a brand new booklet from Chuck Swindoll. It's called The Cross We Proclaim. This powerful message from Chuck was inspired by our current study on God's attributes, because the cross is the centerpiece of the gospel. And when you give a gift to Insight for Living, we'd be pleased to send you a copy.

You know, we live in a world that's obsessed with image, credentials, and making impressions. In his booklet, Chuck says there's a better way to live, and it begins at the foot of the cross, where all the ground is level. By reading The Cross We Proclaim, you'll find the freedom that comes when you stop managing your reputation and start resting in what Christ accomplished. To give a donation and request a copy of The Cross We Proclaim, call us at 800-772-8888. Or to send a check in the mail along with your request for the booklet, just address the envelope to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. You can also go to insight.org/donate.

[Music]

Do you ever find yourself trying to earn God's favor? I'm Bill Meyer. Don't miss Chuck Swindoll's surprising message about the love of God. Tuesday on Insight for Living.