The last two messages that I
brought from her Sunday occasion were on the call of God, calling
men to, I believe we'd say service in both cases there, rather than
salvation and service. I think there is such a thing
as God calling men into salvation unto himself, at the same time
commissioning them right then. But I dealt with two characters,
and one of them was Jeremiah. And the other was Ezekiel. And
I noticed the tape, for the sake of time, there was one thing
in particular I wanted to say, and it will be on tape here,
concerning Ezekiel, why the Lord told him plainly, and kept on
telling him, and telling him, that the people I send you to
do not go listen to you. And you are not going to have
a fruitful enterprise like you hear so much today if the man
is right, And the situation is right, and everything is right,
and you're the right person in God's redemptive purpose at that
time, well, you're going to get a hearing. But the Bible doesn't
teach that. You may get everything but a hearing. The Son of God
Himself didn't get much of a hearing in this old world. So I've measured
on that. But one thing in particular there
in Zeke, I think it's the second chapter, one thing in particular
was, that he did say, the Spirit of God said to Ezekiel, he said,
now one thing they are going to know, that there was a prophet
passed their way. Now why would he leave that hanging
and say, well, they're going to know that you were a prophet
of God, for when life's ended, when it's all over with, and
every human being is drawn to Christ, every one of them, Those
who never knew him are going to be aware of some things that
took place, and that is an acquisition against them. You were confronted
with a man called Ezekiel. You were confronted with a man
called Jeremiah. And you simply had your day with
him. You treated him like he was just the scum of the earth. So that was the man I sent your
way. That's sad when you think of
it, but that will make punishment greater for a person. For as
far as I'm concerned, there are degrees in punishment. I would
tell anybody, whether in Christ or out of Christ, if you can
refrain from breaking God's commandment as such, refrain from it. For
eternity will renown with the fact of effort, disobedience
shall be brought to a place where you'll recognize that fact. That's
eternity. That's just it. So the child of God is freed
from those things, thank God. He does throw in this life for
us. So there'll be no accusations against us when life's over with.
But he did say, he said, they'll remember one thing, that a prophet
came their way. Now, in this 21st chapter of
Matthew then, I want to go further with this subject matter this
morning on God calling men to service. And I use two words
that some of those people were rather enthusiastic. I use the
New Testament there where one man said, I'll go, and the Lord
just stopped him in his tracks for just a moment. Another, he
said, he asked to be followed. The Lord did. And somebody said,
I'll follow you, but let me first go bury my father. And he stopped
him. He said, if you go follow me, follow me. Just two contrasted
views right there. And then when I went further
in that, I mentioned the fact that there are places in the
Scripture, and possibly in this particular place concerning Isaiah's
call, where you have a reluctance to obey God And then a rather
enthusiasm to go ahead and obey Him after you see what God is
doing for you, enabling you to go, you might say. So here in
this 21st chapter of Matthew, we have a man having two sons.
And that particular occasion we have, beginning with verse 28. Excuse me, I'm having
a little problem with my throat and to hold it coughed down.
It will certainly stop me. I will sure try to do that. Verse
28. But what think you? What do you
think? That's a pretty good way to approach a person. What do
you think? A certain man had two sons, and he came to the
first and said, Son, go work today in my venue. We don't understand and cannot
fit in and weave into the fabric of God's purpose His absolute
sovereignty and persons who are commanded to do something and
say, well, I'm not God. And one went and one didn't go.
So much for that. There is the will of God that
is carried out by everyone. Nothing happens contrary to the
will of God. That's exactly what you're dealing
with this morning. And then there is a good pleasure of His will
directed only toward His elect people. So here we go. Go work
in my venue today." He answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and
went. And he came to the second and
said likewise, and he answered and said, I go sir, and went
not. Now there's one thing that you might notice here. In everything
that I can find through the Scriptures, we who are the chosen have the
preeminence. He'll deal with the sheep on
his right side, Matthew 25, for he does so with the reprobate
on his left side. In all things we have the preeminence.
So here he's dealing with a son who repented and went, also dealing
with their sons, and we're all the sons of God by creation.
But we're not the sons of God by recreation. So that's what
Brother Gill is doing with us this morning, trying to get a
hold of something that will help us to express ourselves, although
it's utterly impossible to get much satisfaction from such. So, he asks a question again. Whether of them Twain did the
will of his father? Well, they've got to answer him.
They say unto him, the first. Well, Jesus saith unto them,
Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go
into the kingdom of God before you." Now the question comes,
whether he says, I'm not dealing with this parable here. The question
comes, are you saying then that the one who repented and went
only went in ahead of the other? Both of them went in. No. I don't
think so. I think he's dealing with one
who went one way and one who went the other. And what this
word before here means, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." That means
right in your presence. Before doesn't always mean ahead
of time, in point of time. God told Abraham, He said, walk
before me and be thou perfect. Well, He didn't tell Abraham
to get up in front of Him and walk. He meant in my presence. And I think possibly you'll find
that to help you interpret the Scripture in John 10 all that
ever came before me with thieves and robbers, he sang there that
all that ever came in point of time before me. I'm the good
shepherd. You're talking about Old Testament
false prophets and New Testament false prophets. So the Word is
to be looked at from the context and from a diligent study, and
then come up with your position. And if somebody differs with
you, say, well, I'm not dead sure I'm right and you're wrong.
That's a good way to look at it. But the thing that helps you
to study is a person comes along and says, well, I want to put
what I believe the Spirit of God is teaching me on this passage
here, and somebody else who has studied the same things, I've
never heard that before. That's a good thing. That's the body
of Christ. That's the working of the body of Christ. Let every
man abide in the calling wherein he is called. For example, the
hand, the foot, the eye, on we go. One can't be the other. So
the hand may be able to reach farther than the eye could even
see with some people. I couldn't see as far as he could
reach. And I could see farther than he could reach. That's the
way it goes. And I've said this before and I say it again at
conferences across the country. And as I get to preaching those
conferences, I hope I can do more along this line. We shouldn't
just pat each other on the shoulders and say this is a cracked troop
from various communities and states, the tri-cities and tri-states
and on we go. So, we got the best here, but
we should preach those messages that are provoking and make a
man think. So, you know, I thought I had
that verse of Scripture settled, and if that's all I had on my
playhouse, it's torn all to pieces. Now, that's the way to study
the Scripture. That don't bother me because I've had few people
ever agree with me. I started off, people come, you
know, the Armenian camp because of, I don't believe what you're
preaching. Well, you're not unusual. You're
not by yourself. You've got a lot of friends with
you. So I sort of turned out to be a John the Baptist to begin
with. I don't mind you differing with me. I said one time that
people who differ with me, I have no problem praying for them. I said this in a public gathering
once. I wouldn't do you all like this.
But I have no trouble praying for the folk who differ with
me. There's two kinds of people who differ with me, half-wits
and idiots. And I can pray for them. So that's
terrible when you make a statement. I took that back. I repented.
On I go. So here we go in the sixth chapter
of Isaiah this morning. That's exactly right. He said,
you never did repent. It's clear there. It's helpful
to study the Scripture. Word study, like you say. It'll
put you down where you won't get very far in the folk and
the crowd. As you listen, you won't get too much out of it.
But if you take time and take a concordance and settle down
and look at some of these words, you'll come up with some fathomless
depth that will even help the speaker. Alright, let's look
at this in the next few moments right here. Concerning a man
who God has called into a peculiar service, having already been
affectionately called." Now, we don't have six chapters in
the book of Isaiah of a man who's lost, an alien sinner, and then
suddenly God decides that he better call him to salvation.
He's already a prophet, and much of the prophecy of Isaiah, if
you'll study that closely, will teach us that six chapters are
true. There's no question about it. Five chapters there to encompass
the sixth chapter. Then, here comes an unusual occasion. I'm going to take time to read
the chapter, since it's a short chapter, and look at it with
you and see if we can find some things here that are a little
uncommon today. I emphatically declare to this
generation of preachers who keep preaching that everything's a
fruitful enterprise unless you've got somebody on your hand that
you led them to Christ and on to go. I doubt whether you're
saved or not. I view the thing exactly opposite
from that. I doubt whether you're saved
if you've got a whole bunch of people you got saved. You're
just like them. The Scripture doesn't teach that,
brethren. It teaches men don't get hearings. It teaches the
unusual. It teaches 5,000 people listen
to a man by the name of Peter, and Peter's preaching is just
as simple as simple can be. I can preach it verbatim. I've
got every bit of the message right here. But I may not have
any results. And the results were not because
Peter preached the said message. It can't be that Peter preached
a said message and that caused the results. The results came
from 5,000 of God's elect people being gathered together by the
secret work of the Spirit of God for Peter to preach to. Boy, you preach your eyeballs
out. in a congregation of 5,000 people want to elect in that
crowd. Now, you can get them to make decisions and make moves,
but they're not going to make the thing right unless they're
God's people. And they may not do it under
your ministry. What difference does it make? We recently had,
I hope, to be an unusual conversion. We were speaking of this conversion.
And that's the young Gatewood boy, Eric Gatewood. He's a very
brilliant child. He's now in school up in Appalachia, and it just stripped
the whole thing to haze. I'm just saying it behind his
back here. And God apparently has moved upon the scene. Well,
the boy came here. I better tell you this. The boy
came here, son. In fact, this is not the only
place he ever did go with his mother. And then because of no
reason that would be obnoxious toward us, she took a more a
direct route, maybe going up to Appalachia and stopped over
to church where Brother Lane is preaching this morning, tried
to find a place somewhere where you could make connection with
the truth without driving by yourself a 40 mile, 30, 40 mile. So that happened to be the case
in his life. And then while up there, he came
by my house to tell me what had happened. And while there, some
A program was put on, and they asked who wanted to be saved,
and he said he walked to the front and told them he'd like
to confess Christ as his Savior. He said there wasn't nothing
more to that until he began to dwell on it. And then he went
over to Rosemont Baptist Church, and there was an invitation given. He went to the door and met the
pastor and told him he'd like to have a word with him, that
he was troubled at soul, and on you go. So the boy made a
profession of faith, and he was baptized. Well, the night Brother
Groover was here, Brother Groover was over there, and he came by
our house after that. And I said, well, tell me about
it. But it made sense what he saved, not only God knows, but
it made sense as to what he's trying to tell me. Now, you see
what I'm talking about? It doesn't matter to old 2 before Harry
Graham, whether he walks the aisle here or meets me at the
door or meets Brother Lane or meets you or somebody else, and
we say, well, he has saved under my ministry. Not at all. Well,
you know what? One man sows and another reaps. The Lord Jesus told His disciples,
He said, don't get the big head now. He said, you reaped where
somebody else sowed. Who did the sowing? The Son of
God Himself did the sowing. So we rejoice in the fact that
it is true that men come to know the Lord. And they do keep coming
to know the Lord here, yonder, and everywhere. But has it ever
been under just normal circumstances? One year. and one yonder, and
one here, and one yonder. That's the way he saves them.
He doesn't save all people. He just sets out to save them.
So here we go concerning Isaiah and his call. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. What did I leave out? Anybody? Oh, did I leave that
out? It's immaterial to the context,
I think, don't you? I guess I just left it up and
no thought in what we needed. Well, let me read it again. In
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Uzziah must
have been on a throne, people. He must have been a king. He
must have seen somebody else sitting upon a throne. I saw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne. I lifted it 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, and the voice of him that cried, And
the house was filled with smoke. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of them, no, of him that cried, this happened
to be brought down after the singer, 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 said
the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
from the 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. What a message. And see
ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people
fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see
with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and convert and be evil. Then said I, Lord, how long? That's a pretty good question
to ask, isn't it? How long must I endure? And he answered, until the city be wasted
without inhabitants, and the houses without man, and the land
be utterly desolate. I'm going to make a clean sweep.
And this points prophetically on into the New Testament as
you're speaking this morning here, and that to the desolation
of the house of Israel. This here is actually pointing,
I think, to the Babylonian captivity, as well as the spiritual analysis
right here that we're gleaning from. And the Lord hath to remove
men far away, there it is, and there be a great forsaking in
the midst of the land. Well, here's fathomless language.
But yet, in it shall be a tent, and it shall return and shall
be eaten as a tale tree, or oak tree. Most say that is the same
thing as the next statement. And as an oak whose substance
is in them, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof. So the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof. As I look at this for the next
few moments again with you, an attempt to unfold the passage,
the first thing I would say, if I were dealing with an outline,
I possibly could deal with an outline, and not too great an
outline, but it would possibly be a three-point outline, and
you would see here within the chapter, at least you'd see this,
there's more too, you'd see a setting. You've got to look at it from
a standpoint of just what's going on in your setting. And secondly,
in that setting you'd see a person, you'd see a servant. And thirdly,
you'd see a service for that person, a call to service. So
within the environs of the first and possibly the second and third
as well, let's see the sovereignty of God. Now see, you can't have a setting
year without God being absolute and solemn. And this particular
occasion right here, the arraignments are so pre-arranged that we begin
right like this. In the year that King Uzziah
died. And if we were to study the death
of King Uzziah, I think possibly at the second book of Chronicles
in the 27th chapter, you needn't turn to it there, but if we were
to study the death of Uzziah, he did something that's been
referred to this morning in respect to offering sacrifices. He was
determined to go in and act as a high priest, as well as I recall.
And some of the folk took issue with him and went in to get him,
and he was just rebellious about it, brother. He just wanted to
use the tools that he was offering with on their head. And lo and
behold, the Lord didn't strike him with leprosy. And Brother
Gale here was asking that question as a phrase on my memory this
morning, that the closing portions concerning that man's death was
that he was a leper until the day of his death. It seems to
me like that Uzziah is contrasted, certainly this is so, that Uzziah
is contrasted with some other king here, and that king is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The word LORD here. We set a study here on one occasion
concerning that word in the Old Testament. And when you find
the word LORD capitalized, the King James Version in your Bible
will do this for you. I like this. When you find the
word LORD capitalized, and you should have it in your writings
right there, all of the letters there, L-O-R-D, are capitalized. Anybody's Bible different from
that? L-O-R-D. You've got capitalization on
all of it. I'm reading the first verse of Isaiah. It's not capitalized? Oh, well. I find in this particular word
study here that the word Lord right here, maybe all Bibles
don't do that, that the word Lord is referring definitely
to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you get into the New Testament
and pick up a passage like this, I won't have any trouble with
this particular passage, for one of the commentaries on this
particular occasion is that of John 12. And over there, the
commentary on this Old Testament passage, Authorized by the Spirit of God
tells us that it's the Lord Jesus Christ that's in view there.
We'll get to it in just a little bit right there. So, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne. So he sees the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the cradle, beyond
the birth, beyond the death, beyond the resurrection, seated
on high. He sees Him on a throne. So this
is what we're going to find when we get to the New Testament.
He sees Him sitting upon a throne. And his train filled the temple.
I think if you were to look at that, his train filled the temple,
you'd possibly go to the book of Revelation and pick up a passage
over there where he's seen in the 4th chapter of Revelation,
I imagine it is there, where he's seen with a flowing garment
down to his feet. And what he's saying is it's
not a train like we see trains today. But his train filled the
temple. It just simply, it flowed behind
him as that which followed him. And the significance here runs
high, as for that portion of the Scripture. You see, when
you see the Lord Jesus Christ, and see Him in a moving manner,
you see all of His people with Him. You see the whole event
taking place at one time. Now, above Him, and filled the
temple. I think you would say that the
filling of the temple right here, significantly speaking, you might
say that Shekinah glory cloud filled the temple. It did. It
was light. It filled that which was not
of the temple with darkness, and on we go. But I think to
carry this over into the New Testament, as we will in just
a few moments, it filled the temple of none other than Isaiah.
That's what you're going to see here just in a moment. We're
the temple of God. It simply ran into Isaiah's being with
a fulness. A fulness is the way the word
is pronounced. This fulness of the glory and
the kindness and the graciousness of God. So, above it stood the
seraphim. Each one had six wings. You know,
I used to go into details about these seraphims every year, except
one thing. If I understand correctly, these
angelic beings, the seraphim, are those who introduced the
Lord Jesus Christ. Though they did use their wings
to cover their faces, the angels veiled their faces, the Scriptures
say. Though they veiled their faces, if you look at this scene
and look in the Old Testament at the mercy seat, chose to be
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, again by implication.
The mercy seat, you see the seraphim and their wings spread, and at
the same time their heads bowed, this is a picture in Scripture,
they're looking down on the mercy seat right there. They're looking
at the mercy seat. These seraphim introduced the Lord Jesus Christ. The cherubims, bar the door to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me give you this. I think
this will hold true. I picked this up from someone else years
ago. And in the third chapter of Genesis, and I believe it
is the last verse of that chapter, when God drove Adam out of the
Garden of Eden, He set at the opening of that garden right
there, flaming cherubims, not seraphims, but cherubim, so that
there'd be no entrance to the tree of life. Now, if you read
through your scriptures, I think you'll find out that the difference
between seraphim and cherubim are this particular note, that
the seraphim introduce to you the person of the Lord, though
they veil their faces to do so, the cherubim guard against the
presence of God. Now, I say that for this reason.
For this is the thing that was taking place on this particular
occasion in this man's ministry. He spoke to them in parables,
he said, for one reason. So some people absolutely wouldn't
see and wouldn't hear. So in this particular occasion
right here, it's the seraphims who are unveiling the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as they did, they covered
their own bags. With wings, whatever you might
in your mental capacity see here. as though they were fitting that
of a bird covering himself with these wings. At the same time,
they veiled their faces as they looked upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
and one cried unto another. And I think if you read the verse
like this, and one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy,
holy, I think they all cried together. If one cried to another,
holy, holy, holy, they all cried the same thing. And one cried
unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
His glory. And the post of the door moved with the voice of
Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke." And I
don't think that's cigarette smoke. I think possibly, again,
it's the Shekinah glory cloud here that you're looking at.
Then, after you see this setting here, And on an occasion when
Uzziah, stricken with leprosy, is at least set aside, whether
he died at that particular time or not, some commentaries differ,
but he is at least set aside and set out as a leper to die,
and to die separate from the rest of the congregation, where
you see a setting here that is simply ordered by God Himself,
and in His sovereignty, He so ranges this that while Uzziah,
no doubt, Uzziah was somebody who Isaiah sort of had in his
eyes. So he has to die for him to actually
see the Lord as He is. That happens sometimes. That
happens sometimes. Many are the occasions, I've
seen this happen sometimes in my own ministry, many are the
occasions where a parent appears to be a fervent believer, a sound
believer, and a child isn't, That God moves the parent before
the child ever sees the truth. It's just a child. That's all
there is to it. And that happens lots of times.
So he moves Isaiah to quit looking at Uzziah, the king. And he started
off as a pretty good king, if you read him again. Well, in
the year that God removed him, this king is somebody who died.
I want you to see a king who never died. And he did. And then, in the midst of this,
listen to what he said. the servant of God saying, 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 eye hath seen the King, the Lord of hosts." I'm bearing
in mind the fact that he saw the King. He saw someone. And
when those folk that we would read of in the Scripture would
actually see the glory and the majesty, though this is a vision,
but the glory and the majesty of the Lord, and glorious is
His title, as we studied the words of God. When they saw something
like that, they capitulated. They folded. They said, oh, I'm
a sinful man, said Peter. Oh, Moses, what did he do? No, it was Elijah. The still small voice in the
cave, when the Lord spoke to him, he covered his face with
a mantle. And the Lord asked him, he said,
what are you doing here, Elijah? So those occasions through the
Scripture where men actually envision or what not, behold
the Lord, they simply fold at His presence like that and say,
I'm not sufficient within myself to look upon someone who is absolutely
holy, just blazingly such, no sin in him, and here's a man
who is just what he says to himself. Remember, here's the prophet
of God. giving us the writing that we have right here. Though
they prophesied they were holy men, but they were not sinless
men. This is a thing I've mentioned over and over. And he said, then
said, I woe is me, for I am undone. And the word undone right there
is a word that I think you should study, or let me give you a little
something about it. It simply says, I am despair. Here's a believer. This man is
a child of God. He's somebody who God is going
to cleanse. It's not a matter of him cleansing
him all over. It's a matter, to me, with the
cold being taken right off of the altar and put on his lips,
it's a matter of expressing what God would have him to express.
It seems to me like, again, that word reluctance that we're going
to be reading into this entire episode, the reluctance to go
to his people. They were rebellious. Hard-hearted
people who wouldn't listen to anything. And here, he's a prophet,
so it seems to me like his problem is when he says, I'm unclean,
I'm undone, I'm speechless, I'm despairing, I'm utterly at a
loss of words. I think that's what the word
means, if you study the word. And it seems to me like that's
just as fitting as it can be for what Isaiah's sin was. Then
said I, woe is me. For I am undone. I am despairing
of being able to utter the words that you would have me to utter."
He knows what he is calling his year before soul with. And the Hebrew word would mean, I
am not betwixt, but I am beyond. That is the condition he is in.
He saw the holiness of God. He's still not in a position
to say, well, the Lord's calling me, and yet he is aware of the
fact that there's something for him out there, and he's reluctant
to go. Then said, I woe, woe is me,
for I'm undone, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I'm telling you what they
said was contrary and obnoxious to what he's supposed to say.
That's what I'm saying. God would go commission him to
say something. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts." Even the seraphim, the angels,
veiling their faces as they look upon that which is symbolical
of the Lord Jesus Christ, shows that of a sublime occasion for
the presence of the Lord in them. Moses, I started to mention Moses
a while ago. when he's nearing the bush over there. Brother,
I'm going to tell you, he backs off. The Lord says, look, wait
a minute, Moses, you're approaching holy ground. The song, holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And one of the seraphim flew
one of the seraphim under me, having a live coal in his hand
which he had taken from the tomb off the altar. Now, you know
what we're talking about right here. This coal off the altar
right here. altar in the New Testament, none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. So the cure comes right directly
from that offering that you were speaking about this morning here.
And that's sufficient for God's erring prophet. I don't think
this is a lost man at all. I'm trying to reason with you
now. But an erring saint, and he's reluctant. You haven't been
put in this position to say, well, here's a message to preach.
I've been there over and over and will be there again. Preach
this message. It looks like that's awfully
hard. But anyhow, God says, this is it. And you just take your
time about thinking it through. Secondly, there are times, times
again, when you're not sufficient within yourself to preach to
somebody else when the light shines the brightest right at
home. I need the tongs. from some helping agent right
here to take a live coal off the altar and bring me to a place
where my praise and thanksgiving and message is real. I believe
that's so in Isaiah's life, from experience as well as interpretation. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin for it. You see what I'm saying?
It looks like it's just taken right straight from the altered
and taken right to the place of the cure, and that's necessarily
his lips. So let's see if this is... So,
let's see if it could have been... I'm just reluctant to say what
I should say to this ungodly, obnoxious people, call my own
people. Is that so with you? It doesn't
matter whether you call God or not, brother. You say, I need
something on my lips. I've said the wrong thing. Well,
I've listened to what they had to say. Also, I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And for us, right there, I think
the God is involved. Some of the interpreters of this
verse of Scripture will tell you that holy, holy, holy, that
those words simply mean that you've got three persons and
the God is. I'm sure that's so. Whether that
would be interpreted like that there, I do not know. And I heard
a voice of the Lord, heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom
shall I send and who will go forth? Then I said, here am I,
send me. You see, whatever took place,
this man called him to talk to him. I'm saying, and he first
said, oh, my lips are unclean. I dwell among a people with unclean
lips. I can't propagate what you want
me to say. In any sense of the word, call
somebody else. Don't call me. Then he said,
here am I, send me. Here am I, send me." And here
is the service of a servant who has experienced a setting like
I am bringing to your attention right here, where God Almighty
just simply moves upon the scene and not only makes that person
sufficient to go, but makes that person aware of the fact that
I am insufficient to start with. Now listen to the message right
here. And he said, go and tell this
people Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not." That's some message. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their
heart, be converted, the New Testament says, and be healed.
That seems like terrible preaching for a man to have to preach a
message like that. Today, the average person that you hear
preach does no more believe that Scripture than they believe that
they have so much land on their mind. They don't believe that.
They say, well, I believe in Jesus, I love the Lord, and we're
growing in numbers and all this stuff. Ask them. Say, do you
believe this right here? What's the criteria? concerning
God's servant. Is it the fact that everything
just got to be blossomed like a rose, or is it the fact that
he's just out there among thorns and the buds are falling off?
It doesn't look like anything. Listen to what he said. Then
said, I, Lord, how long? Oh, send me. I'm here. I'm ready to go. Send me. And
then the next moment he said, how long is this going to last?
Is it just one Sunday, or is it the rest of my days? Well,
what's going to take place? Well, it affects whatever takes
place out there with those people. Then said our Lord, how long?
And he answered, until the city be wasted with our inhabitants,
and the houses of that man, and the land be utterly deserted. The callings of God for His people. There will be somebody on the
scene when there's nothing left. He'll keep calling men to the
position that I've exercised this morning. until the last
one of his sheep comes in, and the whole shooting match will
be ready for fire. I don't know how close we are
to that now. I know one thing that, as for my portion of it,
I don't get much for hearing, in the sense of just great fruitful
enterprises, and I'm not sure that the folk who do say that
they are, in most cases they're not real. I'm not saying that
God can't gather a multitude of people together and give somebody
a landslide. I'm happy with that, whether
I get it or whether I don't. But in most cases, it's not true.
Read the Word of God. If you read 5,000 million slaves
at one time, read the New Testament, and the Book of Acts, and the
infant church, and see if that happens with the Apostle Paul.
See if that happens anymore with the Apostle Peter. No, it's unusual. Now, he says one more thing here,
and then I'll flip over and read that passage in Matthew and John
for you. And he says, this is going to
take place until everything is utterly desperate. But he said,
and I'll not get into this, but yet in it shall be a tent. It
shall return and be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose
substance is in them when they cast their leaves. So the holy
seed shall be the substance thereof. Some of the commentaries take
the position, and I'll possibly refer to that later with you,
that he's actually saying that he's dealing with the tent right
here, which is peculiarly the Lord. And you might get ahold
of somebody who will let you study. In the 19th chapter, I
guess it was, the 18th chapter of the book of Genesis, where
Abraham praying for Sodom and wondering, thinking, why did
Abraham ask for ten people if I find ten righteous people in
this place? He stopped at that, if you remember.
Ten seems to be a very significant figure as you study the Word
of God. And it could be that he's just using this right here
as my portion, those people which I definitely call my own. Whether
it's just exactly a ten out of a hundred, I'm not necessarily
saying that's true. But will they return? My people
will return. They'll come. They'll come to
me and they will return. So I'll leave that there with
you as I turn to the twelfth chapter of John for just a commentary
on what we're talking about. And by the way, I'm supposed
to bring The lesson this evening, and this that I'm bringing to
your attention right here now, dovetails right in to where I
left off last Sunday when Brother Meador wasn't here, and that
was in the study of the seed that was sown. So we'll fit it
in here as we are able to do so, again, the seed, and I'll
leave it here after reading it to you. Just have two or three
minutes here, and I'll move it on from there. So in this twelfth chapter of
John, And I think verse 40 will be okay for us. Well, let's go back just a little
bit. Now, this is a commentary on what I've been reading. But
though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. Now, a miracle did certain things,
but it did not necessarily make everybody believe. For there's
folk in there who believe because he did perform a miracle, and
those who believe who didn't believe because he did, and then
there were those of his elect who that was used to bring a
true belief out of. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. believe
not on him that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom
hath the arms of the Lord been revealed." Now, that's not the
quotation in Isaiah 6, that's in Romans 10. And we'll look
at it later here. For the very thing that these
folks try to get out of Romans 10 is refuted as clearly as can
be refuted in these two verses. For how shall they believe if
How shall they preach if God hasn't sent a preacher? And how
shall they believe without a preacher? And on they go. Then Paul uses
Romans 10 to show you that they had all these things and still
didn't believe. Instead of saying, well, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But they
didn't call upon Him. That's the whole thing. I'll
bring it to you so you can see it a little clearer. Therefore,
they could not believe because Isaiah said again, and here's
the verse that I read. He hath blinded their eyes, hardened
their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor
understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them." These things, said Isaiah, when he was sorted down
and out, and hoping that the Lord would come any moment, no
sir, brother. These things, said Isaiah, when
he saw his glory and spake of Christ, the word Lord back there,
However, you might follow through on the bold print right there.
After all, this commentary is telling us that he is the Lord
Jesus that he saw. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory, and spake of him. Nevertheless, among the
chief rulers, many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue. For they loved the praises of
men more than the praises of God.