Hope with me to Isaiah chapter
6. Isaiah chapter 6. Got a prayer request this morning
for Albert Lowe's sister. Lost her youngest son yesterday. We want to remember her and of
course remember Joe and Patsy. I'm going to read the first 11
verses here and hopefully by God's grace preach from it. 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. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain or two he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 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 post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone. Because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me. having a live coal in his hand,
he had taken with his tongs from off the altar. And he laid it
upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 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. And he said, Go. and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, make their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long is
this going to happen? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted, without the inhabitants, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. Look back with me now in Isaiah
chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. I want to talk today about an experience
of grace, an experience of grace. I know we that believe in the
grace of God don't make much of experience, but yet you cannot
experience the salvation of the Lord and the grace of God and
not know something's taking place in you. You can't do that. You
cannot You cannot have God break in on a man, and that's what
has to happen. God has to break in on a man.
He has to invade a man's heart, invade his will, invade his understanding. And it can't happen without you
having an experience. And we've been afraid to use
that term, but I believe that if you look into the Scriptures,
you'll find that men and women chosen of God and called of God
all experienced grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He found grace. What did he call,
what happened to him when he found grace in the eyes of the
Lord? God said, it's gonna rain. It didn't rain for 120 years,
but you know what he did? God said, prepare an ark. And
he experienced grace and did what God called him to do. He
prepared an ark to the saving of his house and his household.
Abraham, Acts 17 too says, when the God of glory appeared under
our father Abraham, when he dwelt in Mesopotamia, was called to
go out. What did he do? He went out.
Where is he going? He didn't know. He just said,
I'm going. God said, go. And he went. Never
owned anything in this world but his own grave. And Jacob,
that worm Jacob, God wrestled with him. changed his name, and
changed his walk. Would you say that he had an
experience of grace? Huh? That woman at the well,
after our Lord Jesus Christ exposed her to be what she was, and He
made Himself known to her, she went and ran into town, left
her water pot, went to get water and forgot about getting water.
And she ran into town and said, ìCome see a man!î Told me all
things that ever I did. That caused her to move. And
oh, that man born blind, he came to the Lord Jesus Christ when
our Lord said, I am Jesus, the one who gave you your sight.
And the first thing he said to him, What wilt thou have me to
do? What would you have me to do? And then on the day of Pentecost,
when Peter preached to the saints there and all those folks got
converted, the Scripture says they were pricked in their hearts.
It says, Men and brethren, what must we do? They were shook up. They didn't just say, well, listen,
I'm going to walk the aisle and accept Jesus. They didn't say,
I'm going to get on an altar and pray through. They said,
men and brethren, what must we do? And it's been a long time
since anybody said, what must we do? And then Paul on the Damascus
road, listen, he was on his way with warts in his pocket to arrest
people. And a light above the brightness
of the sun shone round about him and put him in the dust.
And he was struck blind for three days. Would you call that an
experience? Would you call that an experience? I believe I would. I believe I would. And let me
tell you something about these people. They didn't learn a systematic
order of doctrine. They didn't learn a systematic
order of doctrine and then come to faint after they learned so
much. Their little self-satisfied lives and call them, God entered
their little self-satisfied lives and called them to a lifelong
commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what God does
when He breaks in on a man. He brings him to where he has
a lifelong commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he cannot
live without Christ. He cannot live without trusting
Christ, looking to Christ, leaning on Christ, believing on Christ,
coming to Christ, and hopefully one day see him face to face.
And have you experienced the grace of God? Huh? It's an indisputable
fact that God in grace, when He reveals Himself to a soul,
He teaches him some truth, and that truth is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And grace, when it comes to a
man, breaks him. Breaks him. I mean breaks him. It broke Paul. It broke Abraham. It broke Jacob. It broke everybody
that's ever come to. It empties him. And he has to
be emptied. A man so full of himself that
God has to slay self. And oh listen, he strips him.
Shuts his mouth. He gets bragging about what he's
done for Jesus. Quits talking about all the things
that he's done. Quits talking about all the souls
he's won. Quits talking about how dedicated
he is to Christ. Oh, my. Now, I know that there's
a lot of people that haven't experienced the grace of God,
for they talk too much, talk too much, do too little. But, oh, how can God call you
from His darkness, from the darkness, from darkness into His marvelous
light and call you from the kingdom of darkness into His, the light
and the kingdom of His dear Son, and you've not experienced Him?
Oh, now let me tell you something. I read the scriptures before,
but we're going to go down through them here in a minute. There's
two kinds of knowledge. Two kinds of knowledge, and see
if you don't agree with me on this. There's acquired knowledge.
That's book learning. Acquired knowledge. You can go
to high school and get some book learning. You can go to college
and get some book learning. You can go up and take a profession
and get some book learning. And then there's the learning
that you get by living. You know, you get all this stuff
in your head and then you have to go learn how to do it in practice. And that's what there's acquired
knowledge and people can get it up here. And then there's
the knowledge that not only comes from there, but comes down and
put it into experience. And that's what God does. He
enters our mind. fills our mind with the things
of God and the things of Christ and His Word, and then we experience
that. Even when we come to a service
like this, we experience the gospel. You experience it in
your heart, you experience it in your thinking, you experience
it in your emotions, you experience it with joy, you experience it
with peace, and sometimes you experience it so much you want
to jump up and holler. Now, ain't that right? But you don't. But
you don't. But look what it says here. Isaiah
saw the Lord. He had a vision of God's glory.
And Isaiah, speaking of the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse one. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord, the Lord, sitting upon the throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the triple. And I know
this. The Scriptures tells us in Proverbs
29, 18, where there is no vision, people perish. Now what kind
of vision is he talking about? He's talking about with no vision
of Christ. No vision of the truth. Not visions
that you have an angel appearing to you. Not a vision that you
have that you're going to see something take place way on down
out in the future like a lot of people have. But if people
have no vision, people perish. And if they have no vision of
Christ, and this is what Isaiah saw. Without seeing Christ, this
is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son, and believeth on Him, hath everlasting life. And this
prophet had an experience of grace, of God's sovereign grace. Let's look at it and see if you
and I have experienced this in our own lives. The first thing
I want to say is this, I got four or five little old points
and I hope I don't take too long with them. A soul who has experienced
the grace of God and has seen the Lord when all of his idols
have been torn down, when all of his idols have been torn down.
You know, Isaiah, look what he said, in the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord. Now, what did he say in the year
that King Uzziah died? He idolized King Uzziah. He set
King Uzziah above the Lord. He thought King Uzziah was the
greatest thing that ever was. And so he had this great affection
for King Uzziah. And when Paul told the Thessalonians,
he said, brethren, I know your election of God. Why do you know,
Paul? You turn from your idols to serve
the living God. And what kind of idols are we
talking about? Idols of all sorts. And you know
what the greatest idols, two great idols that man has. First
of all, he has a religious idol. Everybody's got a religious idol.
I mean, I don't care if I just believe God or I believe the
Bible or I attend church or one of these days I intend to. That's
what Paul, he had a religious idol and it was his own righteousness.
And he says, I count everything that I trusted in one time but
done that I may win Christ and be found in Christ. And there's
the idol of morality. and goodness. People say, well,
he's really, really a good fellow, he just needs Jesus. If a man's
a good man, he don't need Christ. Christ didn't come to save good
people, he come to save sinners. And when a man, God teaches a
man he's a sinner, he sees being good in his eyes, in his own
eyes. Now, that's what he says, you
know, morality and goodness six times, six times. Isaiah pronounced woe upon men
in chapter five. And then when it comes to chapter
six, look what he says down here in verse five. Then said, woe
is me. I'm the one in trouble. I'm the
one undone. He's crying out, woe to everybody
else. And then he saw the Lord and he said, woe is me. And that's
what happens, you know, no matter what else is going on around
you, it's woe is me. And oh my, there's the idol of
self-righteousness. Nothing's worse than the sight
of God than self-righteousness. There's the idol of self-confidence. The idol of self-reliance. And all this has to do with the
love of self. And one of the greatest marks
of the last days is that men would be lovers of their own
selves, proud, bolsters, heady, and high-minded. And that's one
thing about a lover of his self. You know what he's going to talk
about more than anybody else? His self. That's why I call the
lovers of their selves proud and boasters. Who are they going
to boast about? Me. And lovers of their self, they
love self-ease. And the only reason they're living
is, is they're looking for happiness. Happiness, happiness, like that's
the only thing worth living for, is trying to find happiness.
But what about happiness? Listen, happiness is, if you
make happiness, and I've said this so many times, if you make
happiness your goal, you'll be a miserable creature. If you
make happiness your goal in life, you're going to go through life
miserable. But if you make something else your goal, if you make Christ
your goal, Christ to be one, Christ to know, Christ to submit
to, then you'll find peace and you'll find joy. And every once
in a while you'll have a good day and a happy day. But you
may be happy one day and miserable the next. So what's this idea
of making happiness your goal in life? People ask you all the
time, are you happy? Are you happy? What's that got
to do with anything? What we need to be asking, do
you know Christ? Do you have peace of God? Oh, and then self-justification.
And this is one thing that people who justify their selves always
have an excuse for their self. No matter what self does or how
self acts, they always got an excuse for self. And I'm pretty
bad for that myself. I've always got a reason for
what I did, whether it makes any sense to anybody but me.
Do y'all ever have that happen to you? And that's why our Lord
Jesus Christ says, I know you, I know you, I know you have not
the love of God in your heart. And he said it like this, he
says, you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men,
but whatsoever is well-pleasing in the sight of men is an abomination
in the sight of God." And then there's the idols of silver,
idols of gold, idols of family, idols of houses, idols of lands,
false Jesus, false professions. And if we have a profession of
faith, it's got to come in line with the Scriptures, not make
the Scriptures come in line with our profession. And that's why,
you know, most folks, they could tell you, you know, I got saved,
but they don't know what they're saved from, don't know what they're
saved to, don't know what it means to be saved. Our experience
has to come in line with the Scripture. Let me tell you a
second thing. So a soul that has experienced
grace has seen the Lord when all of his idols has been torn
down. And Isaiah said, woe is me. Second
thing is this, a soul who has experienced God's grace and seen
the Lord Jesus Christ, you know how he sees Him? He sees Him
high and on a throne and lifted up. Can you see God and see Christ
any other way than high and lifted up and sitting on a throne? Do
you see Him as a doormat named Jesus that you wipe your feet
on? You see Him as an insurance policy to keep you out of hell?
But no, no, I tell you what, that's what people, my dad said
this, oh, he's been gone now since 1993. My dad said this,
and I witnessed to him, and he said this, he said, oh, D.B. said, don't worry about it, don't
worry about me and Jesus, we've got this thing all worked out,
we negotiated, and we're in good shape. Now, he never saw the
Lord I saw. The Lord I saw, the Lord that
I worshipped, the Lord that we're looking at this morning, He's
high! He's above the heavens! He's
so high, He sits at the right hand of God on the throne of
majesty and power and glory! Huh? He's high and lifted up. Who lifted him up? God lifted
him up. God gave him a name that's above
every name, that at his name, every knee's gonna bow and every
tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. And oh, beloved, when a soul's
experienced grace, he's seen the Lord high. He don't see him
down here. Would you let me in? I want to
come into your heart, please let me in. Oh, listen, Jesus
is just exactly what you need for your marriage. No, He's what
you need to be saved from sin. I'll tell you how He comes in. He comes in and
He breaks down, busts down the door. In the day of His power,
His people are made willing. Oh, they see, when they've seen
the Lord high and lifted up, when you've experienced God's
grace, you see and believe God as He is, not like you want Him
to be, not like you thought He was. He's God, and I mean we're
in His hands, He's not in our hands. He, we're in His hands
to do with us as He seemeth good. And it's not, we're not, we're,
He's not in our hands. Can you imagine somebody saying,
let God, won't you let God? God would do this if you'd do
that. God would do this if you'd do
another thing. I got a newspaper article and
put in one of these times and it, and I've mentioned it to
you before. God's a checker player. God is a checker player. You
know what checker players do? The one wins that makes the best
move. The one wins who can get most of the checkers off the
board. Well, that's the way people do with God. They say, well,
God will do this if you'll do that. So I'm going to move this
checker here. God's going to move this checker.
And then God said, well, then I'll move, you know, I'll move
this way. And God said, well, if you'll do this other thing,
and the next thing you know, you're all over the board playing
checkers with God. But God's not a checker player.
God is in the heavens and he done whatsoever he hath pleased
in the earth and the sea and all deep places. They said to
David, said, David, where is now your God? We've got ours. We carry them in our saddlebags.
We put them in our tents and set them up and worship them.
He said, where's your God? We can see ours. David said,
our God is in the heavens and does as he pleases. Oh my. I tell you what, you know when
you see the Lord, that's what I mean about shutting your mouth.
When you've seen the Lord, you see that His will will be done. His will is accomplished. He
has a purpose in this world. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. I was talking to a fellow I've
known for years over at Tansy the other day, and he's lost
79 pounds, had a bout with cancer, and he's in pretty bad shape.
Used to be a big old boy, and man, just lift weights and things.
And he goes to another place, but we've got along good for
years. And he'd always come in and ask me questions. We was
talking the other day. And he says, you know, at least I'm
still alive. And I said, yeah. I said, you know, whatever God
does, whatever God wills, and my time and my appointment comes,
whatever he puts in our lives, that's fine with me. That's fine
with me, by God's blessed grace. And he said, yes, yes, that's
exactly so. I would not, would not ever,
I've not, I've got nothing against God and all that he's done to
me and done in this situation, not one thing. Now that's somebody
that knows something about God. Said, I'm not going to, you know,
those who have experienced God's grace know he's God. No, He's
God. No, He's the Great I Am. No,
He's the Great I Am. Isaiah 55. Look in Isaiah 55.8. I want you to see this here. Isaiah 55.8. Look what He says
here. This is the difference in God
and us. You can't even make any comparison. He says, My thoughts,
for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
My 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. As the heavens higher above the
earth, that's how higher His thoughts are. And over here in
our text where we read in Isaiah, Isaiah said that he saw the Lord
and he saw these angels and these seraphims who called him holy.
They said there in verse 3, he cried, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. And the whole earth is filled
with his glory. He is thrice holy. What does
that mean? He is the Holy Father, the Holy
Son, and the Holy Ghost. God is holy in all three persons. infinitely holy and the one issue
that's going to be settled is this that God is holy and that
issue and God is sovereign that issue will be settled in regeneration
when God gives a man a new heart that issue settled once and for
all who's going to be God and a man won't listen to me now
a man won't argue or bargain with the God if he ever sees
him Now until you see him, you'll argue with him, you'll bargain
with him, you'll make deals with him. But if you ever, ever see
God, like Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, you'll never
bargain with him. You'll do like Job said, though
he slays me, I'm gonna trust him. And after God took everything
that Job had, you know what he said? He neither charged God
foolishly or with sin, never did it. Now, let me give you
three things here quickly. We worship at a throne of glory. We worship at a throne of glory.
Now, you know, before I go to the next point, let me show you
something. It's Ecclesiastes. We're in Isaiah 6. Song of Solomon
is right before Isaiah. Ecclesiastes is the next, right
before Song of Solomon. Look in Ecclesiastes 5. We worship
at a throne of glory. We worship at a throne of glory.
And look what he said here. Chapter five, keep thy foot when
thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God,
for God is in heaven, and you're upon the earth. Therefore, let
thy words be few. tell you so we worship at a throne
of glory we submit ourselves to a throne of government God
governs this world be still and know that I'm God and we come
boldly to a throne of grace three thrones throne of worship throne
of glory throne of government God governs us we're glad for
it and a throne of grace we come to to find help in the time of
need When kings die and idols vanish, God's still on the throne. When this world's over and done
with, God'll be right where He always has, on His throne. When
you and I are gone and been gone for decades and decades and decades,
God'll still be on His throne. When the apostles have been gone,
God's still on His throne. God's Word still has the same
meaning. But the God of this age is so
easily manipulated, easily and arrogantly approached, His power
is at the beck and will and commands of men, but not souls who have
experienced and seen him and experienced his blessed grace.
Oh, no. You know what men who saw his
grace said? When John saw him, he felt that before him as a
dead man. Peter said, Lord, depart from
me. I'm a sinful man. Job said, I
abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. God's going to empty
us. He puts us down. And I tell you
what, I'm going to tell you something. Everybody here that's a believer.
Wouldn't you agree that just where you know, Scott used to
say, make your headquarters in the dust. Just make them in the
dust. Don't get up. And ain't that the most wonderful
place to be? All right, let me move on. Here's
my third point here in verse three and four. 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 post of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke. That's the Shekinah glory of God. Then said I, Woe
is me, for I am undone, undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts. That soul who has seen the Lord,
and that's what he says, for mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. And I have experienced the grace
of God, has seen the glory of God in one place, and that's
in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the face of Christ. And that's what he's talking
about here, he says, for mine eyes have seen the king. And
here's the question, if I don't get to say another thing, listen
to what I gotta say right now. How can God, how can God, who
we just described as holy, holy, holy, how can God, who sits on
his throne, high and lifted up, and his glory fills the temple,
how can a God, stay God, and put away sin. How can He stay
holy and just and righteous and on His throne and come and put
away sin? How can He magnify His law? Uphold
His law? Those ten commandments that everybody
likes to put on their wall and likes to put in their yard. How
can He magnify that law? Make it hold it up there before
us even while we were in our sin? and at the same time make
us righteous before Himself. How can He do that? He said He
charges His angels with folly. The heavens are not pure in His
sight. I'll tell you how He can stay God, stay holy, stay righteous
and put away our sin and uphold His law and make us righteous
all in the same time. How can He do that? In Christ,
in Christ at His cross with our Lord Jesus Christ when He came
into this world He came into this world to manifest the glory
of God, to honor God, to uphold His law, and to fulfill it. That's
His redemptive glory. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world, made flesh. He is God before He came here.
He is God when He got here, but He became something He never
was. He became a man. And in coming here, he lived.
He lived a sinless life, a holy life, a life before God that
pleased him. And then when he died, who was
he dying for? Why did he die? If he was sinless,
if he was perfect and he was holy and he is harmless and undefiled,
why then must he die? I'll tell you why. The Lord God
laid on him the iniquity of a son. He, Christ, was wounded for our
transgressions. It pleased the Lord to make Christ
His soul an offering for sin. And God saw the travail of His
soul and was satisfied. So our Lord Jesus Christ died
not for anything He did, but He died for what we did. He died
for our sins. He died for our iniquities. He
died for our guilt, for our shame, for all the sins we've committed
against God and all the sins we'd ever commit against God.
And so the justice of God punished him justly when he found sin
on him. But it wasn't Christ's sin, it
was our sin. And our Lord said, I'll die for
him. Not only that, beloved, but he was buried. They put him
in a grave. And they put this great big huge
stone around it to make sure nobody could come get him. But
the third morning, third morning, Mary came down to the grave to
see where he was. She said, why are you looking
for Jesus among the dead? He's not here. Behold, he is
risen. He is risen. And oh my, not only
did he rise again, But after 40 days, he ascended up to glory. And the angels were standing,
the disciples were standing there watching him go when the gravity
lost its hold on him. And they said, and the angels
appeared to him and says, why, you men, why standing here gazing
up into the heaven? Said this same Jesus going away,
he's gonna come up again, just like he went away. And oh, and
he sits now at the right hand of God. But I tell you what,
now His obedient life and His righteousness, He took our sin,
we get His life, His obedient life. He took our death, we get
His life. He took our sin, we get His righteousness. He took our disobedience, we
get His obedience. Is that not right? That's what
you call, and here's the thing about it. It was done before
any of us ever existed. How did we find out about it?
Some preacher told us. And that's what happened to Isaiah,
experience grace. And oh, listen, bless his holy
name. He put it, look what he says
down here in verse seven, verse five, excuse me. Here's what
happened to him. He worked for out us this righteousness.
And oh, look what he said. Then said I, woe is me. Oh my. I tell you what, he said,
I'm undone. Well, how's he going to get,
how's he going to get clean? How's he going to get, because
I'm a man of unclean lips. And not only me, but everybody
I know is in the same boat. My eyes have seen the king and
the Lord, then flew one of the seraphims under me, having a
live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from
off the altar. And listen to this, and he laid it upon my
mouth, where all that uncleanness was, where all that filth come
out of my mouth. All these lies on God and all
the things that I said, it was so wrong. He laid it upon my
mouth and said, lo, this has touched thy lips, and listen
to it, thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin. That makes me happy. Oh, sins
put away. Thy sins, thy iniquities taken
away and your sins purged. How was they purged? He by himself
purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. Oh, that makes me happy. Oh,
that best blesses my heart so. Let me give you another point.
I've got two more little old things to say. A man has experienced
grace. We're talking about experiencing
grace now. Has seen the Lord, has some understanding
of his own awful guilt. You know, has some understanding
of his guilt, some understanding of his sin. Isaiah said again
in verse five, then said, I woe is me, I'm undone. And not only
am I undone, but everybody around me is in the same shape. And
he said, I dwell in the midst of a people like this. he said
when he saw the king, not just woe to somebody else, but he
said, woe is me, woe is me. The old hymn writer said, was
it for crimes that I had done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing
pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree. You know, this
is the thing that we have, we, we, we, I said this Wednesday
night, This is two things that the only the Lord's people know
this the Lord's people know these two things nobody else does Until
they till they've seen the Lord God does something for them.
They're the only ones know anything about the love of God Nobody
else knows anything about it. They talk about it talk about
how much God loves everybody But Christ having loved his own
he loved him unto the end God loved us even while we were yet
sinners And the second thing is, God's people's the only one
to know anything about being a sinner. And once God makes
you a sinner, you never be anything else before God. Now you know,
I know we're to grow in grace, listen to me, I know we're to
grow in grace, I know, but I tell you what, no matter how much
you attain, you go right back where you started, Lord, I'm
a sinner, and I need you, I've got to have you. We never get
about, you know, people say, having this confidence. You know,
I have this confidence that Christ come to save sinners. And I'll
tell you what, if He come to save sinners, then I'm going
to be saved. I'm going to be saved. Sinful
man in the building. I'm going to be saved. And tomorrow
I'll be a sinful man again. And what do you do? I don't do
anything. I don't have to do anything.
It's just what I am. And this is one of the great
mysteries of the Scriptures. We're righteous before God and
have no sin before Him. But our sin's ever before us.
We know we have no ability. We know we have no strength.
And oh my, I'll tell you what. George Whitefield said this.
A man has not repented until he has repented, first of all,
his sin. That's what he is. Secondly, of his sins. That's
what he does. Or he doesn't do. And his righteousness. Now, that's the hardest part
for a man to repent of is his righteousness. He'll talk about,
I've made a few mistakes. I've failed in a lot of ways.
But boy, to repent of your righteousness. You know what Isaiah said our
righteousness was? All of our righteousness are
as a filthy rag. Huh? That's what he said our
righteousness was. And he said a man's got to repent
of his righteousness. Paul said he counted his righteousness
but done. And then he repents of his unbelief.
And what I mean by that? His false notions of God and
the false notions of himself. And I tell you until a man knows
he's against God, he'll never be for God. And to share in his
glory, we must share in his death and his guilt. And then here's
my last point. Those who have seen the Lord
and had a work of grace begun in their hearts. Now here's the
key right here. Those who have seen the Lord
and had a work of grace began in their hearts, begun in their
hearts. They walk in the light of the
revelation that God gives them and confesses Christ to be Lord.
We walk in the light that God gives us. We can't walk in somebody
else's light. That's where people really mess
up. I'd like to see, I'd like to understand the way he understands.
I'd like to know what he knows. I'd like to walk like he walks.
And I'd like to believe what he believes. But listen, you
can't, you gotta walk in the light that God gives you. You
gotta walk in that light that God gives you, huh? And oh, listen,
what, and this is, this is the thing about it. John said this,
to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become
the sons of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
said, fear Him, not that can kill the body, but fear Him who
can kill the body and send the soul to hell. But oh beloved,
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And here's the
thing, when God begins to deal with us begins that work of grace
he starts giving us light and as he gives us that light we
step up to that light he don't get he just don't give it all
at one time he don't do it i've been i've been pastored here
now over 38 years 38 years last march and you know what this
bible's bigger to me than it's ever been i just you know I get
frustrated with myself. How could I read this thing all
these years and dealt with this so much and done so much preaching
and still don't feel like I've touched the hem of the garment?
What in the world's the matter with you, Donnie Bell? I get
so discouraged and disgusted with myself over my lack of understanding
of the things of God that I thought, well, I ought to just tell them,
get them a preacher that knows something. But oh, listen. But
we walk in the light, and if God gives you that light, you
walk in the light that he gives you. If it's just a little bit,
if it's just a glimmer, go towards it. And he gives you a little
more, go towards that. Gives you a little more, walk
in that. Gives you a little more, walk in that. And one of these
days, he'll take you from walking here in the light to where you
are, a place where the lamb is alive. Let me tell you, Our Lord, our
Lord has no secret disciples. He has no secret disciples. If
you don't confess him and you don't talk of him, it may be
you don't know him. And it may be that you've never
seen him. And if you've never seen him,
you don't know him. But if you've ever seen him,
you won't spend your life wanting to know more about him. Don't
you? You spend your life. And that's
what I've told you, like that woman at the well. Boy, I tell
you what, she said, I'm just going to keep this to myself.
I'm going to go home and not tell anybody. No, no, no. She
thought I walked out of the way and said, come see a man. Come
here and look at this fella. Come here and look at this man.
God has no secret disciples. None at all. And I pray that
the Lord would, you know, I pray that God would use this
to his glory and our good. Our Father, thank you for the
gospel. Thank you for the truth as it is in our Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed, how glorious you
are. God, meet the needs of every heart, every soul. And oh Lord
Jesus, please give us tender hearts, give us loving hearts,
give us gracious hearts, give us hearts that tender towards
you, tender towards sin, tender towards us, our brethren, tender
towards sinners who ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.