Yfc National Meeting 1960 — Torrey M. Johnson

And time is rapidly running out. This morning I want for you and for me to share together in the measure that is possible the experience of this great prophet of old, because the entire pivot, the focal point of all the sixty-six chapters of the book of Isaiah is centered in these eight or nine verses of this sixth chapter.

Isaiah’s Vision of God’s Holiness

All of Isaiah's life prior to that time leads up to it, and all of his experience following upon that time finds its spring in the tremendous experience recorded in this passage. And as you and I are gathered together today here in the Billy Sunday Tabernacle, there can happen to us what happened to Isaiah as he stood long ago in contemplation in the temple of God.

I can see Isaiah as he approaches the temple and now enters within its portals and perhaps together with other worshipers, is seated there, and the Bible says, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, and the house was filled with a strange, wonderful atmosphere that the Holy Spirit describes in the likeness of smoke, so that everywhere that Isaiah looked in that room, and especially as he looked up toward the Holy of Holies, his eyes were filled with the strange wonderment of something that appeared to him in a form like unto smoke.

He saw the Lord in all of his majesty, all of his power, all of his glory, and all of the wonder of his impeccable, eternal holiness. And as he looked upon God, he saw also these shining ones whom the Scripture calls seraphim.

And as he looked upon them, they spoke out and they said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. I was glad for the hymn that we just sung. I am likewise reminded as I repeat those words, holy, holy, holy, how that so often you and I come to the house of God on this day of worship and we sing together with others, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Worship as the Redeemed Heart’s Gift to God

And I am reminded again this morning of this fact, that there is only one thing, there is only one thing that you and I can give to God that he cannot get in any other way. The Bible says the silver and gold is mine, saith the Lord.

The Bible reminds us again that a cattle on a thousand hills belong to him. And there isn't any one of all these other things that God cannot get in some other way. But there is one thing that God wants that he cannot get except from the redeemed heart.

And you find that mentioned to you in the words of our Lord himself in John chapter 24, verse 23, John chapter 4, rather, verse 23, where Jesus said, The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

There's only one thing that you can give to God that he cannot get entirely apart from yourself and that he cannot get unless you give it to him, and that is the worship of your heart. Sometimes people inquire at the close of the service, What did you get out of the meeting?

At the close of this hour, I'd want you to ask this question, What did I give to God? For what happens between 1130 and 12 o 'clock this morning is not so important in what you get, but it is desperately important in what God gets.

And God was here before this service began, and God shall be here when the benediction is pronounced, and all during this service, God is looking for one thing supremely, and that is the worship of the hearts and lives of men and women and young people, redeemed by faith in Jesus' blood, born again, regenerated by the power of the Holy Ghost, and now lifting their voices and powering their hearts in adoration, in praise, in worship unto God.

As Isaiah entered the temple that day, the glory of God filled that place. He looked and there was God himself upon the throne, and around the throne were the seraphim, these shining ones, and they were worshiping as they sang together, Holy, Holy, Holy.

And as you note in the scripture in verse number 2, you read that each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face as he worshiped, and with twain he covered his feet in self-sacrifice, and with twain he did fly, ready for the service of God himself.

Conviction Before the Holy God

Now as you look at this chapter, the very first words of the very first verse are as follows,. In the year that King Isaiah died, here was God upon the throne. Here were these shining, perfect ones, worshiping God in self-sacrifice and ready for service.

He who had saved the temple was he who had been killed, but now because of leprosy in his body, which was the result of leprosy in his soul, he was banished from the temple, he was separated from others, and he had no right to stand in the presence of Almighty God.

As Isaiah came into the temple, he saw God in his holiness, he knew that Isaiah could not enter the temple, he could not stand before the Holy God, but here were the seraphim, the perfect ones, and they were singing while Isaiah contemplated all of that, talking to men as was happening in his own soul.

A great and deep conviction came over his own heart. As you read in verse 5,. Then said I, Woe is me! Now if you turn to chapter 5, verse 8, you read, Woe unto them that join house to house in unholy covetousness.

Verse 11, Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink. Verse 18, Woe unto them that draw iniquity. Verse 20, Woe unto them that call evil good. Verse 21, Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes.

Verse 22, Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine. But now the second time, Isaiah repeats the same word, Woe. At this time he cries, Woe is me! And he identifies himself with all these that were sinners in the sight of Almighty God.

He stands in the temple. He sees a holy God. He witnesses while these bow themselves in the presence of God. He thinks of Isaiah, a spiritual and a physical leper. And he cries out, Woe, I am undone! And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. As you really are, you must see yourself in the light of a holy God in the face of Jesus Christ revealed on the pages of this holy book that I now have before me.

Research the scriptures, for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, and there they which testify of me. And when you see yourself in the light of the perfect holiness, the perfect righteousness, the perfect personality of Jesus Christ, you can do no other than, Isaiah, when he cried out, Woe is me!

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. As Isaiah contemplated this scene, there came conviction of his sin, of his moral and spiritual depravity, and of his desperate need of a touch from Almighty God.

And so you have not only his conviction, but you also have his confession. And it's a wonderful thing to bow yourself like Peter did on another occasion, in the presence of my Lord, when he said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

And as John did in the first chapter of the book of the Revelation, when he turned to hear the voice that spake concerning, he saw one like unto the Son of Man, and he fell at the feet of Jesus like one that was dead.

My friends, the holiest people on earth are the people who realize that they're the deepest sinners, at most greatly in need of the redemption in Christ Jesus. Those that walk closest to God know more perfectly than any others how far away, even at best, they are from God.

And Isaiah, under conviction, now cries out his desperate compassion, and he says, I'm unclean, I'm undone. And he knows it came to the Bible where the scripture says, All have sinned in Adam, and all are continually coming short of the glory of God, apart from Jesus Christ, our Savior and our God.

And he knows, for he wrote also in Isaiah 64, verse 6, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we do all fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

He knew he was unclean. He knew that he had nothing to commend himself to God. He knew that he had no right to the temple. He knew that he was not prepared like the ashamed seraphim to worship, to sacrifice, and to serve Almighty God.

Cleansing, Forgiveness, and Justification by Faith

Something had to be done. And when you turn to the sixth verse, you read, Then flew one of the seraphim unto me. I want you to note that first word, then. When was it the seraphim flew unto him? After he had seen the Lord, after he had bought and brought under conviction of his sin and of his need, after he had confessed his need, it was then that one of the seraphim flew unto him, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the dogs from off the altar of sacrifice, representative of the sacrifice of Christ on Golgotha's hill.

And he laid the live coal from off the altar upon my mouth, and he said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. When Isaiah had confessed his sin, then there was cleansing for his sin.

And I want you to notice three things in verse number seven. First of all, it says, Thy sin is purged. When you turn in your Bible to Isaiah 118, God says to his servant, Come now and let us reason together.

Go, your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Go, they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. How did Isaiah write that? How did Isaiah understand that? He knew that by personal experience.

He knew in his own heart that though a man was deep-tied like crimson, and though his man's sin had deep lore, that could be cleansed through faith in the promise of God in the coming of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, in that same verse, and thine iniquity is taken away. And when you turn to Isaiah 53, 6, you read, All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath made upon him, what?

The iniquity of us all. And the seraphim came to Isaiah, and it was just as though he said, Isaiah, what you are going to write in your first chapter, what you will repeat in the fifty-third chapter, and that which will make you the great gospel prophet of the Old Testament, is the experience that you now will have, when his sin was purged and his iniquity was taken away.

His sins being purged was subjective. It was the washing away of the fire within his heart. His iniquity being taken away was objective when he was justified in the presence of the Holy God. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He died for the guilt of his sin before Holy God, as he knew what it meant to be cleansed from the depowerment of his sin, in his own body and in his own personality. And then you notice in the same verse, Lo, this, now turn with me, if you will, in your Bible to the book of Leviticus, chapter 13, verses 46 and 45, where you read in 46, All the days wherein the plague of leprosy shall be in him, he shall be defiled.

He is unclean. He shall dwell alone. Without the camp shall his habitation be. Verse 45, the second half,. And he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, unclean, unclean. Had disobeyed God and more leprosy came into his soul, and physical leprosy came into his body, and he was separated from his throne, and separated from his people outlander, all alone.

Isaiah, as he stands there in the temple, hears that cry in his lips from the leprosarial one. The mind and the soul, those words echo and they re-echo. As Isaiah comes unclean, as Isaiah contemplates all of that, he says to himself, How can I be leprous?

As he cries out, I am undone. I am unclean. I am a more leper. I am a sinner. I am wretched. I am under condemnation. I have no rights in the presence of the Holy God. I am in need of redemption. And as he cries out and he confesses and he repents, one of these shining lungs takes that loud call from off the altar where the Lamb had shed His precious blood and the prize that had been set comes to him.

Isaiah, if you please, the church, the presence of the people of God and the God of the people. And what happened to Isaiah can happen to any man, any woman, any person in this room this morning. The other day in one of our campaigns, out on the coast, a young woman came forward at the close of the meeting as others were gathering at the altar of decision, but instead of going there, she found a way up on the platform and came to me.

I said, What is it, young lady? Oh, she said, Mr. Dawson, I don't need to come to make the decision. I made it while you were preaching, and I've come to tell you I'm already saved. I don't need to go to the room of prayer.

I say to you, my friends, you and I are in the presence of a Holy God and of His Holy Son, Jesus Christ, and of the Blessed Holy Spirit in this morning hour. And if you have years to hear, Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man open the door, I will come in to him. And as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe upon his name. I think it was last year during this convention, a woman came up to me at the close of the service.

She said, Mr. Johnson, you don't remember me, but I've got some good news to tell you. She said, I was in York, Pennsylvania, in your campaign down there in the prize state fairgrounds. And she said, one night when you gave the invitation, I didn't come forward, but I gave my heart to Christ, my bearer in the seat.

And she said, I've come to tell you this, that when I went home and I told my husband what had happened, God spoke to his heart. We knelt there in our home. He gave his heart to Jesus Christ, and now both of us are full time in county evangelism work down there in York County, Pennsylvania.

Isaiah was in the temple. He saw God. He saw those that stood before God. He saw the one that could not stand before God. He said, neither can I. I'm a sinner. I'm guilty. I'm depiled. I'm under condemnation.

All my righteousnesses are as guilty rags. I need to be purged and cleansed. And while he was crying out and confessing this one thing and touched him, now notice verse number eight, also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?

Isaiah’s Call to Serve Without Conditions

And who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I. Send me. My friends, you cannot do anything for God until, first of all, God has done something for you. You cannot serve him until you have been willing to let God serve you.

He touched his personal Savior's blood and it wasn't until after his sin was purged, his iniquity was taken away, and his lips were once again loosened that Isaiah could hear the voice of God crying out, Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us? And the reason some of you have never heard the voice of God is because you've never had an experience with God. The reason some of you will never receive a challenge from the Lord is because you've never responded to the invitation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But now Isaiah has been cleansed. Now he can join these shining ones and he can sing together with them, Holy, Holy, Holy. And as he bows in worship and in adoration, the voice comes, Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us? And then Isaiah responds, Here am I. Send me. And what I want you to note this morning is in that response of Isaiah was a tremendous decision of faith. He didn't know where God would send him.

He didn't know what God would require of him. He didn't know what the sacrifice might be that would be exacted. He only knew that God had done something wonderful and now he was ready to respond to what God has done for him.

And you know when you've been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and you know what it means to be made holy with the holiness of Christ himself, when you know all of that, then you're ready for the work of the Lord.

Isaiah said, Here am I, Lord. Send me. And as you read the verses that immediately follow, Isaiah was sent on a rather unfruitful mission. He was sent on a rather unresponsive mission. He was to be sent among people that would not appreciate him, that would not welcome him, and if possible they would have liquidated him.

But that mattered nothing. All that counted, no, was the perfect will of God for his life. Here am I, Lord. Send me. Here we are in this auditorium this morning, scores, hundreds, thousands of people, and multiplied thousands of others who are listening in, in their cottages, in their homes, in their cars, hospital beds and elsewhere where people are tuned in to this great radio station this morning hour.

The Gospel Commission and the Urgency of Mission

What God would say to your ear, what God would speak to your heart, what God would challenge your soul is this. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? It is waiting for hearts to respond. Lord, if you're not particularly concerned about talent, if you're not, Lord, qualifying people by personality, if, Lord, they do not need to meet certain high educational requirements, but you're looking for a loving heart and a willing spirit and a responsive person, then, Lord, I am a candidate.

Here am I. You can send me anywhere, all over the world, as long as you want, wherever you want, exact exploit anything out of my right. I am yours to do it as you please. And then you come to the last word, verse number nine, and he said, Go and tell.

And so you come, finally, not only to the call and contemplation, but you come now to the commission, to the servant of the Lord. As I look out over this multitude of people today and I visualize that larger crowd that are listening in and participating in this service this morning hour, my heart cries out when I think of the desperate need of the generation in which we live.

Listen to me. This service began at 1045 o 'clock this morning. Every minute that this service was going on, 1 ,200 people were born into this world. And out of 1 ,200 people being born every minute, 1 ,198, according to the present progress of the Church, 1 ,198 are doomed to die and to go into eternity without Christ and without hope.

And when I think of that, I have to say, Oh, God, where are all these people being born? Why do we have this tremendous population explosion? Why is the number of people on earth multiplying rapidly as never before when 1 ,198 out of every 1 ,200 are going into eternity without Christ and without hope?

Listen to me. This morning hour, here in these United States, there were born in 1956 4 ,100 ,000 babies, 57 4 ,350 ,000 babies, 58 more than 4 million more, and this year there will be more babies born in the United States than in any other single year in all the history of our democracy.

And these men who follow these statistics are revising their figures upward all the time, and they tell us that between now and 1980, which is just 21 more years of time, 1980, the next 21 years of time, over 100 million more babies will be born in the United States alone, which means that 100 million souls in the United States will have to be raised in one way or another in these next 21 years of time.

All the Bible schools, all the Christian colleges, all the theological seminaries combined, all the training institutes that there are all across our now 50 states don't begin to meet the challenge of the USA alone, apart from all the hundreds of millions of people scattered abroad in Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Orient, and the Isles of the Sea.

If you knew the heart of God this morning, then you would know and you would hear all over this room these words, Whom shall I send? Whom will go for us? But my friend, you'll never hear that voice until your ears have been unstopped.

You'll never understand that language until your mind has been made to know. And there'll be no response in your soul until first of all you receive Christ as your Savior, and then like Isaiah of old, there has been that dedication when you have responded, Where am I?

Send me. I have visited with someone of praise from India, and there are folk from other parts of the world here this morning, and I say the fields are ripe unto the harvest, the labors indeed are few, are few, are few.

Thank God I settled that in my soul many years ago, and I said, oh God, I don't care how many of my friends and how many of my associates are going on with God, I propose to go on, to keep on going on, to burn and burn and burn and burn, and keep on going on until there's nothing left of life, or until Jesus comes in the clouds of the air.

Isaiah had an experience 2 ,500 years ago in the temple that I could wish to God that every person within the sound of my voice might have today. Many of you are saved, so you don't need that live coal from off your altar in the sense of iniquity being taken away and sins being purged and your lips loosened, and yet every believer knows that he needs a new touch from God upon his life from time to time, and this is one of the times when we ought to have it.

And then this morning, those of us who are here this morning and received Christ and crowned him Lord, to hear his voice and to say, Lord, by my prayers I will go, Lord, by my foot and by my lips and by my life I will go, and Lord, by faithful stewardship of my substance I will go, and I shall go to the ends and to the last part of the earth shall have heard, and the multitude shall have had an opportunity, and souls shall have been saved, and the body of Christ shall be completed, and the head shall come, and the body caught up, and the jaw upturned, and we shall wait in the presence of our Lord, and in a nobler, sweeter song than now, we shall sing to the Father, and we shall sing to the Son, and we shall sing to the Holy Spirit, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity, my friends, God provided the salvation, Jesus Christ made possible the salvation, and the Holy Spirit would bring that salvation to each individual heart.

Invitation to Salvation and Restoration

In a moment of time we're going to bow our heads, let us do it now. While our heads are bowed, if you're here, and you've never received Christ as your Savior, this is the morning hour when the Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and you can know the joy of his salvation.

This is the moment of time when if you've drifted far away, and wandered astray, and you're no longer in touch with God, but you can remember the Bible says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and you can know restoration and renewal of fellowship with him.

This morning hour, as we hear the call, as we consecrate our lives, the commission comes, go and tell, and we respond, Lord, as long as my heart beats within my breast, as long as there's breath within my lungs, as long as I have energy to keep on, I'll keep on going, till Jesus comes, spreading the seed, bearing the good news, witnessing the gospel of the grace of God.

May the Lord bless our hearts to that end, that every life, in this holy moment as we stand before our holy God, may be holy years, shall we continue with our heads bowed.

This has not been only the voice of Torrey Johnson this morning, but it has been the voice of God to our hearts. Go and tell. This is God speaking. He says to you, teenager, to you, young adult, to you, mother and father, to all of us together, go, go and tell.

And I believe there are those this morning who would say, yes, Lorne, here I am, here am I, send me. We're going to close this service in just a moment, in a closing prayer, but I believe there are those who would like to tell God in your own heart first of all.

Yes. And then by standing to your feet to say what God wants for me, I want. When God tells me to go, I want to go. And all of my life I want to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and have him have his way in my life.

This, you say, is a cry way down deep in my soul. And God has spoken this morning. If this is what God has said to you, teenager or adult, I wish right now, just before we go our way, you'd stand to your feet and so, by so doing, say, this is what I want.

God will see your light. He will take your light. And you'll say, here am I, Lord. Send me across the street or across the world. I don't care. But my life this morning will be laid anew on the altar.

And if this is what God has said, right now, stand to your feet, all over the cabin. I go back in the choir. Yes, God bless you. All over the building, God speaking to hearts. Remain standing a moment.

All over the building, God is speaking. Now obey him. Take the step of faith. Say, here I'm ready.

I'm willing. Here am I, Lord. Here am I. Send me. The invitation continues this morning in the Billy Sunday Tabernacle. Under the direction of Ted Engstrom, President of Youth for Christ International, we take our leave of this morning Bible Hour, this worship service, on Sunday morning, held in the beautiful Billy Sunday Tabernacle.

Thanks for being with us. We give you a special invitation to join us this afternoon at 3 o 'clock for the great Sunday Afternoon Musical. This is Ted Seeley, along with Engineer Bob Kathimer, returning you to our Chicago studios.