Again, it's an honor to be here
to preach God's Word and proclaim the truth of Scripture. And it's
amazing that Brother Gene just mentioned about eyes being opened.
Today's message is, When I saw the Lord. When I saw the Lord. Isaiah 6-1 says, In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up. And his train filled the temple. Without a vision of the Lord,
no man is saved or can be saved. And not in the charismatic kind
of vision, but by faith seeing Christ. Seeing Him high and lifted
up. The Almighty God. Our Lord said
in John 6.40, And this is the will of him that sent me, and
every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have
everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Isaiah, speaking in our text of the Lord of Glory, the Lord
Jesus Christ, high and lifted up. John 12, 41, Scripture declares,
These things say Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spake of
Him. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29,
18. Where there is no vision, the
people perish. But he that keepeth the law,
happy is he. When we see the Lord, we have
a vision of the Lord in glory. Of His righteousness. Of His
righteousness. Of His holiness. Of His justice. Of His immutability. Of His power. Of His love. Of His grace. And of His mercy. And I believe this is a missing
note in preaching today. Who God is. Who He is. Who the God of the Bible is. Missing note, it's not repentance,
or faith, or duties, or morality, or the love of God. It's a vision
of who God is. Who He really is. Preaching in our day is without
the vision of the Lord Jesus and the awesome work that He
accomplished. But it's finished. With a vision of the Lord comes
a vision of the soul's own sinfulness. which cannot be seen unless the
Lord reveals that to us. Job had this revealed to him.
Turn with me if you would to Job chapter 42. The believer
had this revealed to him, his own sinfulness. Not just the
sinfulness of everybody else, because we naturally do that.
We point out everybody else's faults. But when the Lord shows
us His glory, and is pleased to reveal Himself to us, oh,
we see what we are. Job chapter 42, starting in verse
1. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, I know that Thou can doest everything, and that no thought
can be withholden from Thee. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that
I understood not. Things too wonderful for me to
which I knew not. And verse 4 says, Here I beseech
thee, and I will speak, I will demand of thee, and declare thou
unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eyes seeeth thee. And what does he
say? Wherefore, I have whorked myself,
myself, and repent in dust and ashes. A man who has seen the Lord,
he has seen the Lord when all his idols have been torn down.
His refuge of lies has been destroyed. The idols of works-based religion. Remember what Paul said? He counted
it all but done. Tore it all down. The idols of
morality or goodness. We think we're pretty good in
our natural state. We're not as bad as those that
are in prison. But when God is pleased to reveal
himself to us, look at verse 5 of Isaiah chapter 6. We cry as Isaiah cried here.
Then said I, Woe is me! Woe is me, for I am undone. I am undone. There is also the
idol of a false Jesus. A false Jesus. 2 Corinthians
11.3 But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguile thee,
so be so your minds, should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. Verse 4, For if he that cometh
to preach another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye
receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another
gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. The idol also of a false profession. These lies get torn down when
we see the Lord. The isles are a false profession.
Our profession must come in line with scripture. It must be scripturally. It must be salvations of the
Lord. It must be. Not our doing. Not walking an isle, or shaking
a preacher's hand, or as I've heard many people do, they sit
down there, oh everybody bow your head. Now repeat this prayer. Now you're a child of God. And
they're declaring them to be children of God. Instead of God
doing the work. Beloved, it's a revelation from
God. It's a revelation from God. Turn
with me if you would to Romans chapter 16 verse 25. I remember
talking with a guy on the job site. And he about lost it. When I just proclaimed what I
had heard. I'd be listening to Brother Henry
preaching. And he said, the gospel's a revelation. It's a revelation. But people want something to
do. They want something to do. Romans chapter 16. Now to him
that is of the power to establish you. To my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ. Verse 25. According to the revelation of
the mystery. It's a revelation. which was
kept secret since the world began, but now is manifest, and by the
scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, which made known to all nations from the obedience of
faith, to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever
and ever. Verse 25 says, according to the
revelation of the mystery. There's also the idol of money.
I get all I can, and look out for me, and money becomes an
idol. It's just a means. It's just
a means. The idol of family and friends.
Folks exalt family and friends over Christ. But when a man has seen the Lord,
all those idols are tore down. And Christ is all. He's all. That refuge alive is just torn
apart and shredded. And he says, what was me? I'm undone. A man has seen the Lord when
he sees Him high and lifted up upon the throne. Look at verse
1 again. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. A man who has seen Christ sees
Him in His sovereignty. How His will is accomplished
in all things. You want to know what God's will
was in the world? Yesterday, Read the newspaper
today. And we see it. And we see it. Most men today have a God of
their own imagination. They've carved Him out of their
own imagination. And He cannot do, He cannot do
His own will. Or accomplish all things without
their help. Or He's waiting on them. He's
a frustrated God. He's no God at all. He's no God
at all. A God who cannot accomplish His
will or His purpose is not God. The God of the Bible, the Almighty
says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my
ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. He's not like us. The man who has seen the Lord
sees him absolutely sovereign, reigning and ruling. Remember
Nebuchadnezzar? When he came to his right mind,
and at the end of the day's eye, Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine
eyes unto heaven. And mine understanding returned
unto me. And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored
Him that liveth forever. And honored Him that liveth forever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And His kingdom is
from generation to generation to generation to generation. Just like His title tells us
who He is and what He is, He is the Lord high and lifted up. The Lord God Almighty, the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. A man will not argue or bargain
with the Lord if he ever sees Him. He will bow, as Brother
Don bought that last one, he will bow to His sovereignty and
His will and His life. The man who sees God will not
charge God foolishly. And we have a picture of that
with Job. Turn with me again, if you would, to Job chapter
1. Remember all that Job went through? He lost all his servants,
and all his sheep, and his sons, and his daughters. But what's
Job's reply? Job chapter 1, verse 20. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved
his head and fell down upon the ground. Now imagine this. He's
lost everything. Everything worked. His sons and
daughters. His servants. His sheep. Then Job arose and rent his meadow
and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground. and worshipped. And said, Naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor
charged God foolishly. The man who sees the Lord who
has seen the Lord, sees Him on a throne of glory. We worship
Him and give Him all the glory and all the honor and all the
praise. We can take none of it for ourselves. And we don't want to. We don't
want to. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God and be more ready to hear. than to give the
sacrifice to fools, for they consider not that they do evil. The man who has seen the Lord
sees him on the throne of government. And we submit willingly, we bow
to his rule in our lives. He's king of kings. The Lord's
not a fire escape. He's not an insurance policy. He's king. King in the believer's
life. Man who has seen the Lord sees
him on the throne of grace which we can come boldly to in Christ
and in him alone. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, mercy and
find grace. find grace to help in time of
need. Do you need mercy and grace to
help in time of need? I sure do. Every second. Every second. And I pray that
God will show us our need of Him every minute, every hour,
every second. We need Christ. Yeah. Beloved, when kings die
and idols vanish, And there's been many kings through this
world. And there's been many idols.
When they vanish, God is still on the throne. Still on the throne. But our God is in the heavens.
And he hath done whatsoever he pleased. The God of this people is easily
approached. His power and His will is at
work in our lives, in the believers' lives. A man who has seen the
Lord, he has seen the Lord, who has seen the glory of God in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah 6, verses 3 and
4. He has seen the Lord, who has seen the glory of God
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. This is Him. This is the King
sitting upon His throne. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly, we may ask? Romans chapter 3, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness, not ours. his righteousness,
that he might be just in the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Job 9.20, if I justify mine own
mouth, if I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse. Perverse. What is a man that
he should be clean which, and he which is born of a woman,
that he should be righteous. Behold, he putteth no trust in
this saint, yea, the heavens are unclean, and the earth in
his sight. How much more abominable, filthy
as men, which drinketh iniquity like water. Remember before the
Lord saved us and how we just drank sin like it was we didn't
have a care in the And even still, we struggle daily
to sin. Daily. Now we hate it. Then we love it. Now we hate
it. As Brother Gene always said,
the love of Christ constrains us from sin. Constrains us from
sin. He is high and holy and lifted
up. He charges His angels with folly. Shall mortal man be more
just than God? Shall a man be more pure than
his maker? Behold, he put no trust in his
servants, in his angels he charged with falling. This is God. This is the God of the Bible.
High and lifted up on a throne of glory. How can He still be the one spoken
of as holy and holy and holy and put away sin and make us
rise before Himself? Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ
at His cross. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And let's look at our text in
Isaiah chapter 6. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a lot of coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Oh, forgiveness in Christ, sins
cleansed. the price paid for that God demands. So without a sight of God, a
man is without the salvation of God. But how can a man know
he has seen the Lord Jesus Christ? Here in Isaiah, the believer sees in Isaiah's
experience, his own. His own. We can tell as he did,
that we have seen the Lord. Many wonder, have I really seen
the Lord? Have I really been saved? Or have I just had a religious
experience? I had one of those. Thought it was my doing. So the Lord was pleased to reveal
Himself to me. Let's look and see if we have
seen the Lord. We are saved not only by his
death, but also by his obedient life. He died the perfect death. The death that we should have
been ours. We're the ones who have sinned,
he was sinless. But he also lived the perfect
life. We couldn't pay for one sin. Let alone billions and billions
and billions. He worked it out for his people
a perfect righteousness that is imputed to believe in sinners. A man has seen the Lord who has
some understanding of his awful guilt. Again in Isaiah 6, 5,
then said, I woe is me for I am undone. Because I'm a man of
unclean lips. So he sees within himself. And
then he also sees the depravity of all mankind. He says, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King. Seen him in his holiness. and seen his own sinfulness.
Is that not our experience? The Lord of hosts, my eyes have
seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. It's a level playing field. Everyone
is guilty before God. We come into this world born
dead in trespasses. There's no age of accountability
and all that. We're dead when we come into
this world. Dead spiritually. Physically alive, but dead spiritually. This is a faithful, sane, and
worthy of all acceptation and hope that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. Whom I'm chief. And as Brother Don brought up
last night, Isaiah was saying, woe is you, and woe is you, and
woe is you for the first five chapters. And now he says, when
the Lord reveals himself to him, he says, woe is me. Woe is me. Was it the crimes that I had
done? Yes. We never loved Christ before
we were saved. No. We had no interest in the Bible.
For Christ, for his people, most of us you wouldn't have found
us ever meeting here. But look at this. It's marvelous. Trophies of the grace of God.
Trophies of His grace. David said, my sin is always
before me. Psalm 51, 3 and 4 says, for I
acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
We acknowledge our sin where we never did before. Joseph said, now I abhor myself. Why did I, you know, just thinking,
but you know, you just know that it's sin in us. Against thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." George Whitefield
said a man has not repented until he has repented of his sin. What
he is, what he is. And in his sins, what he does. And his righteousness, which
are filthy rags. Through and through, beloved.
That's what God reveals to us. And this repentance is continuous.
Daily, daily we ask the Lord to forgive us all, Lord. Forgive
us for how we are, you know. How I think. How I act. But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we do
fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. But a man has seen the Lord when
he knows that he is against God and he will never be for God. To see Him, we must own our guilt
before Him. The believer takes sides with
God, against himself. He lays down his arms. He lays
them down before the Lord. A man has seen the Lord when
he walks in the light of revelation. He receives and confesses Christ. He's being drawn. The love of
Christ. He just draws us, right? Five
people shall be made willing in the day of his coming. He
wasn't willing before. Oh, but the Lord makes us willing. And
then we confess Christ. We receive Christ and confess
Him. Look at verse 8. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then
said I, Here am I, send me. Brother Henry used to say, When
the Lord saves you, it will leak out. It will leak out. It will. Whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before
my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven.
But as many as received him, to him gave power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. To the believer,
the Lord Jesus Christ is prophet, priest, and king. He is everything. The believer confesses that the
blood of Christ shed on Calvary's cross cleanses him from all sin. Turn with me if you would to
1 John. 1 John. And also put your finger in Romans
chapter 10 if you would. He confesses that the blood of
Christ and his blood alone cleanses him from all sin. He can't cleanse
himself from one sin. 1 John 1 5 This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son, cleanses us from all
sin. All sin. Not just some. A-L-L. All sin. Wonderful. Whosoever believeth on Christ
will not be ashamed. We confess him as Lord. He's
already Lord, but we confess him as our Lord. Romans chapter
10, if you would. Verse 5. For Moses described the righteousness
which is of the law. That the man which doeth these
things shall live by them. Want to live under the law? I
don't know. You got to live by all of it. Don't just leave the little things
out here and there. You got to live by it all. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on the wise. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ
again from the dead. Verse 8 But what sayeth it? The
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that
is, the word of faith which we preach. That thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart.
that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved
thou shalt be saved for with the heart men believe it under
righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation
for the scripture says whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed The Lord has no secret disciples. No secret disciples. If you don't tell about Him,
it may be that you don't know Him. And you don't know Him because
you haven't seen Him. Mark 5, 19 and 20, Howbeit Jesus
suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends,
and tell them, remember the demoniacs, how great things the Lord hath
done. for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. And he departed, and began to
publish unto Eoclopus how great things Jesus had done for him,
and all men did borrow. Here's this demoniac. He's in
his right mind. He's coming and publishing about
Christ. Remember the woman at the well?
The one that said, I must needs go through Samaria? One of his
sheep, not just one, there's a whole bunch of them over there.
I must needs go. The woman then left her water
pot and went into the city and said to the man, Come see a man
which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? When we can't keep from telling,
it is then we can say we have seen the Lord. We have seen Him.
And may God grant you faith to believe and to see Him. To see
Him. High and lifted up. God upon this realm. High and
lifted up. And sitting upon this realm.
Amen.