Isaiah 1: 8-9
The Clarion Call Of God
INTRO:
A. These verses contain one of the many times God has called to man down through the ages.
a. These calls of God began with Adam soon after he and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit.
b. When they ate of the fruit their eyes were opened and they did come to knowledge of good and evil for they saw they were naked and went and hid themselves.
c. Here in these verses from Isaiah we find God again calling to man, His highest creation, to return to Him and the fellowship they had together.
d. Notice the verse says, Come now and let us reason together says the Lord.
1. This call is a general call and is extended to all mankind.
2. Isaiah makes this call to whosoever wills a little clearer in chapter 55:1 Ho! Everyone who thirsts come to the waters.
3. I call this The Clarion Call of God.
B. The word clarion means loud, clear, ringing, and inspiring.
a. When thinking of the definition of the word clarion think of it as clear and inspiring, for God always makes His desires for man clear and inspiring in an endeavor to draw them to Him.
b. There are some things I want us to note about this clarion call.
I. FIRST I WANT TO IMPRESS ON YOU THAT THIS CALL IS A LOVE CALL.
A. It is a call from God to man therefore it is a love call, for God is love and everything He does is based on His love for man whom He created.
a. God wants a people that will love Him in response to His love for them.
b. He doesn’t want people to serve or love Him out of fear but, because they love Him, because He first loved them.
1. Think of the book of Song of Solomon as God’s love song to you and me His beloved.
2. Notice the tender yearnings of His voice as He calls to His beloved.
3. However, Song of Solomon isn’t the only place we see the tender love call of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is calling His beloved to come to Him that He may nourish them, coddle them on His shoulder, and whisper sweet love songs to His beloved.
c. He has manifested His love to all mankind in so many ways that it’s a wonder all do not love Him.
d. But the sad thing is so many are so wrapped up in themselves and the pleasures of this world that they cannot see His wondrous love.
e. It is only as the Holy Spirit is able to get people to stop their endless rushing about that they can see the love God has for them.
1. He put me in the bed flat on my back for about two weeks to get my attention so He could talk to me and show me some things I was doing that was not only displeasing to Him but detrimental to the Kingdom
f. Therefore it places a tremendous responsibility on the Christian to pray that the Holy Spirit will be able to somehow stop people long enough and get their eyes off themselves and pleasurable pursuits that He can show them the wondrous love of Jesus.
II. THE SECOND THING ABOUT THIS CALL WE NEED TO NOTE AND REMEMBER IS IT IS A PERSONAL CALL.
A. Every time the call of God is recorded in scriptures it is stated in a personal tense.
a. The first recorded call of God to man is in Genesis 3:9, Then the Lord God called to Adam and said unto him, WHERE ARE YOU?
b. This is soon after he and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit.
c. Genesis 4 records the birth of Cain and Abel, and Cain’s rebellion against God that resulted in the killing of Abel, Cain’s brother.
d. Verses 6-10 records the calls God made to Cain before and after he killed his brother.
e. Notice they are in the present tense directed directly to Cain.
f. Isaiah 6:8 records another personal call of God to man.
g. Here He is talking directly to Isaiah when He said, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”
h. There are many more such references to the loving personal calls from God.
i. He called Sau, (later called Paul), on the Damascus road. (Acts 9:1-16)
j. Revelation 22:17 records the last of the personal calls.
III. THE THIRD THING TO NOTE ABOUT THIS CALL IS IT IS A CALL TO SALVATION.
A. Man needs saving because by his own choice he disobeyed God, thus is on the downward spiral to an endless eternity in a bottomless hell.
a. The only means of missing hell is the salvation plan provided and presented by an almighty loving God.
b. This salvation is provided and presented to lost mankind at a tremendous cost.
c. It cost God His only begotten Son, it cost the Son such mockery that you and I cannot imagine.
d. It cost Him such pain that no mere mortal man could endure.
e. It cost Him every drop of blood to fill the fountain with blood that whosoever will may plunge in and be made whiter than snow. (Naaman the leper in II Kings chapter five)
f. The song writer wrote “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing flow, are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are your garments white are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the lamp?”
g. Just as Naaman was washed of all his leprosy and his flesh was like that of a little child so the sinner can be so washed that even God the Father cannot see any marks on his record of life.
1. I pastored a man a number of years ago who often testified to the fact that when he was at the altar seeking forgiveness of sin he saw God the Father ask Jesus for the man’s record of life. When the Father saw the record He said, “Son there’s nothing I can do for this man look at all the things he has done.” The man said he heard Jesus ask the Father for his record of life and the Son then dipped it down before him and then handed the record back to the Father and asked, now Father what do you see? The Father looked over the record and said, “Son I don’t see anything, his record of life is clean with no spots or blemish.”
2. That my friend is what the blood of Jesus does to a record of life that is all marked up with charges of willful disobedience and scarred with the marks of sin.
3. It will be as the song writer wrote when he wrote “what sin are you talking about? I don’t see them anymore. From the book of life they’ve all been blotted out I don’t see them anymore.”
4. This is why God makes His call loud, ringing, clear and inspiring He wants to wash you in the blood of His only begotten Son and wash away all your sin.
IV. THE FOURTH THING WE NEED TO NOTE ABOUT THIS CALL IS IT IS A CALL TO HOLINESS.
A. Holiness the cardinal theme of the Bible because it is the scarlet thread that runs through the whole of the Bible.
a. The Bible begins by presenting to us a Holy God who made man in His own image and after His own likeness. (Genesis 1: 1)
b. It ends with a Holy people living in the presence of a Holy God in a Holy Heaven.
c. Make no mistake about it. It is either holiness or hell.
d. One may not be able to name what they have experienced but somewhere along the road of life as we walk with Jesus, He will lead us into the experience of Holiness.
1. Some years ago I heard an evangelist tell of preaching in a revival about Holiness endeavoring to explain what Holiness is. At the end of the service a lady came up to him and said, “Now I know what I have.” She went on to say, “For many weeks I had been seeking a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus. I didn’t know exactly what I was seeking but there was a hunger in my heart for something more. One morning just as the sun was coming up in the eastern sky as I was washing dishes looking out when something most wonderful happened. I didn’t know what to call it so I called it my sunrise experience. But now I know what God did, He sanctified me Holy.”
2. My friend if you will walk with Jesus just like this lady He will do something wonderful for you so you can enter Heaven’s gates.
3. Do as I have always told people, create a relationship with Jesus, maintain that relationship at all cost, and I promise you on the authority of God’s Holy word He will get you through.
4. This is what John was trying to tell us in I John 1:7 BUT IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER AND THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN.
5. That is God’s promise to fulfill His call to a sanctified heart that leads to endless bliss with Jesus in Heaven.
V. THE FIFTH THING WE NEED TO NOTE ABOUT THIS CALL IS IT IS A CALL TO PRAYER
A. John Wesley once said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”
a. Down through the ages people that have amounted to much for God have been men and women of prayer.
b. Abraham was a man of prayer
1. Noah was a man of prayer
2. Job was a man of prayer
3. Esther was a woman of prayer
4. Hannah was a woman of prayer
5. Peter was a man of prayer
6. Paul was a man of prayer
7. The list can go on and on of men and women who were men and women of prayer.
VI. THE SIXTH THING ABOUT THIS CALL IS IT IS A CALL OF GOD TO THE CHURCH
A. That call is a call to:
a. Transformation. (see Romans 12:1-2)
In these last days God is calling his children to be transformed.
b. The children of God cannot continue to remain in the same spiritual state.
c. The call of God comes to those who are sitting down or lying down and relaxing and doing nothing for God.
d. He wants them to arise and shine. He calls those who are sleeping to awake and receive the light that Christ is giving them.
e. He calls those who are practically dead in their spiritual life and service to arise from the dead.
f. This is the transformation that God wants his children to experience in these last days while darkness is covering the whole earth.
g. He wants his children to be the light of the world in the midst of the darkness of this present age.
1. Make no mistake about it many in our day are living in spiritual darkness, that’s why there’s so much evil going on.
B. TOIL (Psalm 90;14-17 ,Psalm 1;3 , I Corinthians 16;13, Hebrews 12;12 , Romans12;12)
a. The work of the Lord involves toil and labor.
b. It is not an easy “go lucky” life that men and women seem to be living for we are admonished to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)
c. There may be so many distractions, and disturbances, and discouragements trying to keep us from toiling in the vineyard of the Lord.
d. But the Lord wants us to stand fast and have a fervent spirit.
e. He wants us to abound and increase in the work of the Lord.
f. The Lord wants us to have a strong determination and dedication as we labor for the Lord.
g. Otherwise, we can easily get tired and discouraged by the obstacles and difficulties that we encounter as we serve Him.
John 9; 4, Ephesians 5; 16, Colossians 4:5
C. TIME CONSCIOUS
a. The Lord wants us to realize the time we are living in.
b. We are living in the last days and the time is short.
c. Jesus always lived with the realization that he must work while it is day before the night comes when no man can work.
d. Even today the night is about to engulf the world.
e. Many doors of evangelism are being shut as authorities are constantly framing new laws that make it more and more difficult to evangelize.
f. The Lord wants us to make full use of the time and opportunities available before they are taken away from us.
g. Let’s make every moment count for eternity in our lives. (2 Chronicles 15; 7, Proverbs 23; 18, I Corinthians 15; 58)
D. TREASURE
a. The Lord wants his children to realize that their work for Him will be rewarded.
b. The work of the Lord is the most rewarding work available.
c. The rewards pertain to this world as well as eternity.
d. All other work for which men labor so hard has reward only in this world.
e. But working for God has a reward which we can enjoy forever.
f. God wants his children to realize that their labor for him is not in vain.
g. He wants to encourage his children to get involved in His service.
E. Have you heard the clarion call of God, but most important have and are you answering that call?
a. I pray you will if you haven’t!
