Isaiah 6ISA 6
In the prophet Isaiah we have a beautiful and touching instance of the way in which the renewed heart responds to God's desires concerning others. All questions between the renewed heart and God are settled, not merely according to man's sense of need, but according to the claims of God's holiness.
Servant and prophet of Jehovah as Isaiah was, the revelation of His glory according to the claims of His holiness paralyzed all action in him, and left him with nothing but the sense of his own uncleanness, as well as that of the people of God among whom he served and prophesied. Until the "live coal" from off the altar that stood before the holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts touched his lips, he had not properly realized the relation in which Jehovah stood to His people, and to himself as one of them.
That relation was one of sovereign grace founded upon the sacrifice that was always under the eye of Jehovah, a sacrifice that would once for all meet every claim of God against His people. The efficacy of that sacrifice had now reached the prophet's conscience, and it set his heart free to serve the One whose perfect grace he tasted.
We must come as sinners to the cross to get peace, and start as saints from the cross to serve. When fully ready in conscience for the glory, we are then truly ready in heart for service.
C. Wolston