Dr. Rick Flanders is the staff evangelist for First Baptist Church, Bridgeport, Michigan. Since 1971, he has been in full time ministry and has preached all around the country. Over the next couple of days, enjoy and glean from his teachings from Isaiah 6.
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.–Isaiah 6:5
Scofield and other Bible students have called the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the prophet’s “transforming vision.” The account of his experience seeing God’s glory reminds us of Simon Peter’s transforming experience in Luke 5. When Peter realized Who Jesus really was, he could see how sinful he was, and said to the Lord, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” In response, the Lord said to him, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
When Peter saw the Lord as He is, and himself as he was, he was transformed and made more useful to God than he had ever been. The same thing happened to Isaiah for the same reason. When he saw the Lord as He is, high (“high and lifted up,” verse one) and holy (“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts,” verses two through four); he was profoundly surprised by the discovery in the light of his vision that he was “unclean.” And it was only the first surprise he got that day.
In total, there were three surprises that purged the prophet that day. This happened after he had already been preaching in Judah for five chapters (Scofield estimates two years). Many preachers have been surprised by the Lord in a similar way, and after the troubling experience, have known much greater blessing from God. The surprising facts that transformed the prophet were these:
- That He Had the Problem
In the fifth verse he pronounces a “woe” that stands as the seventh woe he had pronounced as a prophet. In chapter five we find him proclaiming “Woe unto them” six times. He said “woe” to the greedy, “woe” to partiers, “woe” to the mockers, “woe” to the perverted, “woe” to the self-conceited, and “woe” to the lawless.
But now the “woe” was “Woe is me!” It was not only the wicked of Judah to whom he had been preaching that were in trouble. He himself was in trouble with God. And this became crystal clear to him when he saw the Lord on His throne.
He recognized that he had “unclean lips.” The meaning is that his sins (whatever they were—not necessarily sins of the lips or the tongue) made it impossible for him to respond to the chant of the seraphim who cried to one another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts” as the saints do in Revelation chapter four,
God works in a preacher’s own life just as He works through his ministry in the lives of others. This is evident in many of the books of the prophets. These books are generally made up of sermons, but there is biographical material, too. And the accounts of their lives include records of how the Lord purged and grew them. How many times does Jeremiah tell us God was growing him and purging him while he was preaching! Such accounts are recorded in chapters 11, 15, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 45, and other places in the book of Jermiah. Especially note what God said to the prophet while he was being persecuted in chapter 15.
If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.—Jeremiah 15:19–20
The trials of Jeremiah would bring him to a new day of usefulness to the Lord if he would “take forth the precious from the vile.” It is hard for us to imagine anything vile in the life of this devoted, tender-hearted, and bold servant of God to whom the Lord Jesus Himself was compared (Matthew 16:14), but God was calling him to take the precious from the vile in his life.
God often brings a preacher to the point where he must deal with the inconsistencies of his Christian life. Think of the precious things God is doing in your life and through your ministry. Then pay attention to the thing that God is calling “vile.” The prophet was told that if he would remove the vile from the precious, the Lord would speak through him and stand with him. What a promise! And what a surprise for Isaiah that the preacher actually had the problem of sin in his life that was blocking the blessing!
Malachi chapter three speaks of a time when Israel will be revived—a revival predicted in both the Old and New Testaments. “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3).
The first thing God will do as the Kingdom age begins is purify and purge the priests. The leaders must be purged and cleansed first. So it is now. When the pastor gets an appreciation of the glory and holiness of God through preaching he hears or the study of the Bible, he is sometimes struck and surprised at how unclean he really is. It is a jolting experience, but it will do much good if he will let God have his way.
Evangelists also experience the surprise of finding out that the problem is not mainly with the people who hear them preach, but rather in their own hearts and lives. The evangelist is the one in need of revival first. (to be continued tomorrow)
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Let me leave you with this verse that goes along with Flanders’ last point. Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
https://ministry127.com/christian-living/3-truths-that-transformed-isaiah
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