How God brought revival to Isaiah

How God brought revival to Isaiah

1. Read Isaiah 6:1-9 first.
2. It is important to understand that Isaiah was already a believer and that this pattern is not just a ‘salvation’ pattern, but one of intense spiritual renewal.
3. Vv 1-4.  –  Isaiah sees God in His glory thru divine revelation (today this revelation is captured for us in scripture). More specifically, he sees God in his holiness and exaltation.  
4. Vv 4-5 –   Isaiah, then in response (this is key-that the response comes after seeing God in his exaltation) sees the depth of his sin and moral pollution (and not just brokenness – which seems to vary in meaning in modern evangelicalism) in light of who God is. Sin is never biblically understood in isolation from the character of God. Sin is specifically defined in light of God’s character: for all have sinned and fallen short of “the glory of God”. Romans 3:23  And take note: it only comes after a divine revelation of God. Today, it would be produced by God’s word, the Bible.   
5. Vv 6-7  –  Only after Isaiah sees the depth of his sin before God does God bring relief to him in the gospel. Where is the gospel in these verses? The coal was from the altar of sacrifice where the blood atonement was offered up. This is Christ in gospel shadow who shed his blood on the cross, as the sacrifice who dies in our place, that we can have his saving benefits of escaping God’s wrath due to our sin before a holy God. We can only stand in the presence of God with blood atonement.
6.  vv 8-9 – Revival happens. The missional God calls for a response in light of the gospel freshly applied to Isaiah. His response? It is an exuberant, willing, and immediate yes to the open call.  He has experienced biblical revival.
7. Concluding thoughts:
   1. Revival doesn’t start with me responding, but with God revealing himself to us in his word. A biblical response only happens after a biblical revelation of God and from God to us.
   1. A call to repent will fall short of bringing revival without first God being exalted in the eyes of people. A contextualized preaching of repentance will be in light of the character of God compared to our character before him. A generic call to repent of sin will not move people to long for the gospel but sin that is seen in light of the glory of God will move the soul to long for God’s gospel deliverance.
   1. An isolated preaching of the gospel will not work either to bring about revival. The gospel has to be contextualized as it was for Isaiah. God did not start with the coal from the sacrificial altar. This point cannot be stressed enough.  The gospel in the form of the coal from the altar would never have moved Isaiah to revival. Today, with all the focus on gospel centered preaching, gospel centered teaching, etc., let us make sure it is biblically contextualized. It has to be set in the context of our sin and our sin has to be set in the context of the holiness of God, most often shown through the law of God and God’s revealed wrath against sin. And yes, Isaiah did sense the justice he deserves from the wrath of God even as a believer. Note his words of “woe” which means a pronouncement of just judgement upon himself.
   1.  Isaiah, a believer most often for many years, was revived. He was transformed radically and reawakened to God himself and being on mission with and for God. But it didn’t happen by him having the gospel only applied to him. It didn’t happen by him seeing his sin and the depth of his corruption. It began when God opened Isaiah’s eyes to see who this amazing, triune holy God was. This was the start and the foundation of Isaiah’s revival. The revelation of God’s character in his word to Isaiah opened to Isaiah, a believer, seeing the depth of his sin before God. The realization of the depth of his in led him to cry out to God about his sinful and corrupt state. Isaiah was now prepared for the gospel. It would find fertile soil to take root and bear fruit. He received the gospel upon his lips and was pronounced clean. Then, and only then was Isaiah radically changed by the gospel. Then and only then was Isaiah revived and ready to take on the world for the glory of God!
   2. When evaluating a revivalistic movement, ask if the above content and patterns are in the movement. Let God’s word guide you.