God is the one who makes clean. I think this is ultimately the big issue about ‘Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.’ (Rm 9:13) This has nothing to do with destining (or ‘predestining’) one person for salvation and another to damnation, because that would directly contradict God’s expressed heart that is equal towards all mankind. (Acts 10:34-35; 1 Tim 2:4; Mt 18:14, etc etc.) No, the point about Jacob and Esau is the same as with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, and with you, me, and our lost world today. All salvation – like life itself – is ‘impossible for man’, only possible with God. (Matthew 19:26/Rm 9:16) God is the one who makes clean.
So what qualified Isaiah to be a herald for God’s word? It was not Isaiah’s willingness (‘Here I am, Lord, send me.’ Is 6:8) No. ‘Willingness’ or ‘desire’ in itself is not a guarantee of access or destiny. Remember there were angels that longed to look into things, but could not. (1 Pe 1:12) Isaiah’s qualification – his ‘unique’ authority and anointing – was not that he wanted to be sent, but that the Lord did send him. The Lord touched his lips and made Isaiah a spokesperson. Had the Lord not touched his lips and decreed identity and destiny over Isaiah, he could not have done even what he was willing to do. Was Isaiah more holy or less of a sinner than any other man? No. But God had not touched the lips of other men and decreed they speak, as he had done with Isaiah. What ‘clean lips’ has God given you? What destiny? What ‘gift’ that is already in you, but that he calls you to ‘fan into flame’? (2 Tim 1:6) You are not more holy or qualified than any other man – sinner or saint – to do God’s work. But He has touched your lips, and decreed you to do something. So by His Spirit (‘not by might or power’ Zech 4:6), you do it. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ (Isaiah 6:4-8)
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The kingdom of Jesus moves steadily and eternally across the land. He takes ground, and never loses it again. His advance is solid and ‘forever’. The gates of hell cannot stop it. (Mt 16:18) Hell’s gates resist, but they buckle, break, and his kingdom moves through… (Luke 20:17-18)
The moment Jesus said, ‘It is finished!’ (Jn 19:30), a new spirit movement began – the Holy Spirit. It began to move out across the earth, ‘healing the land’ (2 Chron 7:14), healing hearts, asserting authority, claiming territory, ‘making all things new’… (Rev 21:5) Death was dethroned. (2 Tim 1:10) The very essence of evil was judged and condemned. Jesus himself said, ‘The prince of this world stands defeated.’ (John 16:11) Remember, my friends, that ‘all authority in heaven and earth’ has been given to Jesus. (Mt 28:18) That is a stunning, empowering, consummate thought. All authority. It’s finished. It’s his. And now, day by day, deed by deed, his kingdom - the only Kingdom and only King – advances and advances… When by faith in Jesus you deposit ‘deeds’ or thoughts or seeds of his Spirit, his ‘gospel of peace’, his name, for the ‘glory of the Lord’ – you are part of the living water that rushes and flows and even now fills the earth… and will one day cover it completely. ‘The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’ (Habakkuk 2:14) |
AuthorPeter Walker. Archives
March 2022
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