SERMON II – Isaiah’s Vision (Discourse ii) – William Elbert Munsey
Isaiah’s Vision (Discourse ii)
” 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 twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he 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 posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the whole house was filled with smoke.
“Then said I, woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of un- clean 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 thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
” Also 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.
” And he said, go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
” Make the heart of this people fat, and make their eyes heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and un- derstand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” — Isa. 6:1-10
ISAIAH’S commission was to the “people.” The one God, the one origin of every intelligent creature in the universe, the one government and system of God, gives such a oneness and identity of interests to the whole universe, that the cause of the ” people ” — the cause of humanity — was the cause of the angels as well as God, and the commis- sion of the preacher to the people begins, ” who will go for us ? ” But the whole sentence is, ” Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? ” while the cause of humanity is the cause of the angels, and the commission reads, ” who will go for us ? ” yet God can only send a preacher, and save a sinner, therefore He says ” Whom shall I send ? “
The Bible being so true in its revelations, and therefore conforming so exactly with all the parts of the one system of God, scarcely has a revelation but what that revelation will apply with force and truth to several facts in God’s system. Perfect symmetric truth has many sides to it, and all its sides fit in with the great surrounding facts of the universe. Not so with error, being a forged thing outside of the facts, it can only be made to fit in on one side. It can only have a single application. God’s system includes all truth, and truth harmonizes in all of its parts, and what is true to one part, is true with reference to other parts. So while ” I ” and ” ur/’ in this verse may apply to God and the sera- phim, it also includes the idea of the Trinity — the ” I ” the one God, the “us” the three persons. So says John and Paul. John in his gospel alludes to this vision, and recog- nizes the presence of God the Son, with God the Father, when he says, ” These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him.” Paul teaches that the Holy Ghost was present in this vision ; when alluding to the message given to the prophet in the ninth and tenth verses of this chapter, he says, ” Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet, saying ” — so the Son, the Thou, the Spirit, the He, are included in the Father, the I of this vision. The first, second, and third persons are included in the one God. The persons are so different that they will admit of a plural form, and the “us ” is used ; they are so essentially one, that the plural of the second and third is dropped, and the plural of the first employed, ” us ” — it is all ” I ” — ” us.” There is something sublimely awful in the “I,” the “us,” the tri- personal one God. God is not simply a trinity with refer ence to creation, the atonement, or to any of His relations, but eternally threefold in person. He is from all eternity, from the necessity of His being, threefold in person.
Now, when God calls for a messenger to the “people,” it is the call of every person in the Godhead — “Who will go for us?” — the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost. Our cause is God’s cause, and every person in the Godhead has a part in redemption, and every person in the Godhead sends the preacher, and every person in the Godhead sends the church, and every person in the Godhead invites the sinner. ” Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? ” God wants agents for the dissemination of His glory ; messengers to carry the message to the people. He does not call on Isaiah, but makes the call in a general way. God loves a volun- teer service. He loves for the will of man to choose His service. But who does God want ? A book ? no : a news-, paper ? no : armies ? no : civilizations ? no : the elements of nature ? the lightning’s shaft ? no : He wants a person, a live person, to deal with persons. Who does He want? a regenerated person to go and deal with unregenerated per- sons. God calls for volunteers.
” Here am I; send me.” Who is this ? why, he is the same man who was crying awhile ago, ” Woe is me ! ” What a change regeneration makes in a man. He is anxious to do something now. Religion is a grateful thing. God had done so much for him, now he wanted to do something for God. Religion is essentially missionary. But stop, Isaiah, God has not told you yet what He wanted you to do. It makes no difference, ” Here am I ; send me.” But the work may be something which you cannot do at all. If so I never would have heard the voice — no man ever hears God’s call to another — God would never call me to do impossibilities, ” Here am I j send me.” But stop, Isaiah, you do not know where God wants you to go ; He may want to send you to the north pole. I cannot help it, that is God’s business; ” Here am I ; send me.” He may want to send you into the house of your enemy, or into the most dangerous and disre- putable alley in Jerusalem, you know not how great the cross. “Here am I; send me.”
Isaiah asks no questions. He does not say that other persons are better qualified to do the work, all this was God’s business. Isaiah asks no questions and was ready to go. Religion asks no questions. How personal religion is. Isaiah takes the matter to himself instantly. ” Here am I ; send me ” — not Brother Wilson — but me. Where are you, Isaiah? ” Here” — just ready to go. “Ifere,” in the very place and at the very time of my pardon. Some Christians must wait a week or two after their conversion before they go to work. It is all-important that you commence at once. Rise from your knees and begin.
Now, what does the Lord want Isaiah to do ? God did not want Isaiah to help him make worlds ; to dance with the evening star to the music of the spheres on the azure pavement of the sky ; to gird on the belt of Orion and keep him company around the universe ; to lead fair Silene by the hand along her orbit ; to comfort the six daughters of Plione for the lost Pleiad, and to hold up their mourning train ; no, God wanted him to go and preach to the people. Not to prepare his own message, not to discourse on poli- tics, ethics, philosophy ; not to retail his own wares ; no, God gives him his message as He gives every preacher, and every Christian whom He sends out to work — ” Go and tell this people ” — and his message is recorded in the book of his prophecy.
And God tells him what will be the effect of his preaching, that he will ” make the heart of the people fat, their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; ” and that while his message was intended for the people’s benefit, by resisting it they would grow harder and be injured. And such is the effect of every gospel sermon, and every appeal you make to the sinner — if not heeded, will harden and destroy more terribly in hell. Each minister — and all are ministers in their spheres — is a minister of death as well as life. Everything which is used by God to do the sinner good, if misused does him harm. If he resists a good influence, it but hardens and makes him more incorrigible. Also he will have to account for the misuse of the intended good. The preached gospel saves or hardens. The preacher will be an instrument in saving or damning you. You cannot avoid the issue by staying away from church. The refusal to honor God by this means of grace will equally condemn you. Your only hope to be saved at all, almost, is to come to church. You may be saved if you come, you are almost certain to be lost if you do not. But is it true, that if the means appointed to save, if they do not save, if they are disappointed in their intended effect, but turn themselves into curses ? Yes, they certainly do ; such was the effect upon Israel when rejecting God’s prophets.
The prayers which are offered up for you, ascending like incense from the altar of devotion, — unless, like the ascend- ing vapors they return in fructifying showers upon your heads — will gather into a cloud of darkness, instinct with fires, charged with thunder, and borne along upon the hot breath of Jehovah’s wrath, will shut out the light of day, and discharge from its awful reservoirs, tempests, and floods, and hail, and wo — while the disturbed air will generate whirlwinds which will blow you into Tophet — pitilessly pelted by a storm which will never know any abatement. The tears of the father, the mother, the child, the friend, dropped in the closet, in your behalf, if you remain incorrigible, bottled up by God in one of the apocalyptic vials, will be emptied upon your naked soul, and strange horrors will seize you, and untold agonies will shake you. These tears will form a lake of un- quenchable burnings for all the wept for, yet lost sinners.
Every gospel sermon you have heard, if unheeded, will stand at the Judgment as your accuser. The sermon of this morning will be with them. I will testify that even in this regard you were faithfully warned. Every sermon I preach, and every sermon you hear, will be at the Judgment before us. But I dare not quit, and you dare not refuse to hear. Every opportunity you have slighted will be your accuser. Every moment of time you have not used for the saving of your souls, or you have let pass by without repentance, is a moment murdered, and its ghost also will be at the Judg- ment. The murdered moments of all your murdered years will be there — evoked at the instant God calls your name, they will thicken the air, and a million of hollow eyes will glower at you, and a million of shadowy fingers will point at you, and a million of ghastly heads crowding together will environ you — and each armed with a whip of fire, at God’s bidding, will lash you from the Judgment seat down the steeps of death, and the rustle of their wings will fill hell, and the Babel of their voices will madden you forever.
All blessings here, if abused, will be curses in eternity. I would rather see the ugliest face of the ugliest fiend in hell, than the accusing face of an injured friend. O, to stand and see the face of Jesus in that day — the accusing face of incarnate love. Is my message to-day, like the message of Isaiah, ” Go, tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but under- stand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert, and be healed”?