Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. Now it's evident, at least to
me, from the Word of God that if we hear from God, and that's what we want to do,
Paul said, You receive the gospel not as the word of men, but as
it is in truth the word of God. You received it. But from whom
did they receive it? Well, they received it from a
man. Isn't that true? And then he said that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. But from whom did they receive
that message? Didn't they not receive it from
a man? That's so. So it's perfectly evident to
me that if our generation hears from God, if we hear from God,
now you can just decide whether you want to hear from God or
not, but if we hear from God, we'll hear from God through a
man. I don't see or I never have encountered any royal telephones. I've heard folks sing about them,
but I've never seen one. I've never seen a royal telephone.
And I've never heard any voices. Never have. I've been a believer
for 30 some odd years, and I've never yet heard any voices. God
never has spoken to me audibly. And I don't... Has anybody in
here heard God speak? What does God's voice say? What
language does God speak? I'd be interested to know, Hebrew
or Greek or... How does God speak to people? God told me this,
and God told me that. When did He tell you, and in
what voice did He tell you, and what language did He speak? I
just don't believe it. When God would speak to Israel,
he spoke through Moses. Is that correct? Always. When
God would speak to Saul, he spoke through Samuel. Is that not correct?
You know it's so. The king couldn't get a word
from God except through the preacher. When God would speak to David,
he sent Nathan. When God would speak to Cornelius,
he told him, he said, send some fellas up here to a certain place. There's a man called Peter. You're
not going to hear a word from me until Peter comes down and
preaches to you. Not a word. And when God would speak to the
eunuch, here was a man who had been to Jerusalem to worship,
was on his way to Ethiopia. And what I'm saying is that what
God has done, he is doing. If you want to find out what
the living God is doing, find out what He did. He doesn't change.
I am the Lord, I change not. So when God would speak to this
eunuch who had been to Jerusalem and was reading a Bible, he had
a Bible, why send him a preacher? That's what people tell me. Well,
I got my Bible, I don't need to hear a preacher. Well, the
eunuch had his Bible too. And he was reading it also. That's
what most folks don't do. They have their Bibles, but I
don't notice many of them reading them. I heard somebody say one
time, if we served God with as little enthusiasm, or if we served
our employer with as little enthusiasm as we served God, we'd be fired. We'd be flat-fired. If we served
God with as little enthusiasm as we serve Almighty God, if
we were late to work as often as we are to worship, we'd be
fired. If students sat in the class
with as little enthusiasm as they sit in church, they'd flunk
every last one of them. And this man was reading his
Bible, but God sent him a preacher. He sent him a preacher by the
name of Philip. And he said to Philip, how can I understand
except somebody show me? Somebody show me. When God would
speak to Saul of Tarsus, now here's a man that the Lord had
ordained to be a prophet to the Gentiles, a preacher to the Gentiles,
and he sent him a messenger called Ananias. We rarely hear from
that man again, but God sent him to Saul of Tarsus. And when
God would speak to the Gentiles, He sent Paul. Now let me enforce
that with a few verses of Scripture. Turn to Luke 10. Luke chapter
10. Luke the 10th chapter, verse
1 and 2. Luke 10, 1 and 2. And here's
what I'm saying. Here's the point I'm making and
the point I'm establishing. This is God's order. This is
God's way. When He speaks to men, He uses
men. Now this is God's way. The sons
of Korah rebelled against it, and they said to Moses, who do
you think you are? God uses everybody. God speaks
to everybody. Everybody is God's child. Everybody
gets a message from God. There was some truth to that,
but not a whole lot of truth. God has a voice of authority.
God has a man who speaks for him. And God dealt with those
men in judgment. In Luke chapter 10, our Lord,
in verse 1, after these things, the Lord appointed other seventy
also and sent them out two by two before his face into every
city and place where he himself would come. Therefore said he
unto them, Sure, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers
are few. Pray ye that the Lord of the
harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. He's
the one that sends them. He's the one that sends them.
Turn, if you will, to Romans chapter 10. Of course, you know
this by heart. I use it so often, but I think
it carries such power. Romans 10, verse 13. Listen to
this. Whosoever, verse 13, Romans 10, shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Now, here's what I want you to see. And how shall
they preach except they be sinned? If God speaks to people, He sends
a messenger. If God speaks to this congregation
on Sunday morning or to this city, He'll send a messenger. Now, I know that's contrary to
what most people think today. Most people in religious circles
are their own pastor, their own preacher, their own teacher,
their own interpreter of Scripture and everything else, but that's
not the order in the Word of God. It's just not. Let me show
you that in Ephesians 4. I know that's the general trend
today and that's the general thought, but it hasn't been in
the Scriptures. It hasn't been in the Scriptures.
In Ephesians 4, verse 11, now listen, and it's talking about
our Lord, and He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists,
missionaries, traveling missionaries, and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
unto a perfect man, unto the measure, the stature, the fullness
of Christ, that is, completed in Christ Jesus. Is this not
what he's saying in 2 Corinthians 5? And let's not lose sight of
the point that I'm making. And like we had in our Sunday
school class this morning, we have this treasure, this rich
treasure in earthen vessels, that the power and the glory
might belong to God and not to the vessel. But nevertheless,
that's where God puts it. And in 2 Corinthians 5, verse
18, all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and he hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead. Not be reconciled to us, be reconciled
to God. That's our message. We preach
not ourselves, we preach Christ. Be ye reconciled to God. To God. Now that's evident. It's clear
to me from God's Word that if God speaks to a people, if God
speaks to a generation, if God speaks to a community, the Lord
God will do so through a man. I think this is a classic scripture.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And the
messenger stood and cried out, Behold the Lamb of God. That
was his message. The messenger was a man sent
from God, and his message was, Behold Christ. Now then, that
puts a great responsibility upon those who preach. That puts a
great responsibility upon those, and I'm not talking about just
from the pulpit, I'm talking about wherever we speak for God.
The Apostle Paul said this, Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing
to glory of. Why should a man feel taken to
himself some special name? Why should he feel that he has
some special place or position? He said, though I preach the
gospel, I've got nothing to glory of. My gifts are borrowed. My understanding is given. I
preach not my message, his. I got amused that a lady came
in the gallery one time back when Bob Coffey was putting the
these scripture verses on the bulletin board out there. We
always try to put something on there from the scripture, nothing
but the scripture. I don't know why these preachers in town feel
they can improve on God's Word. They always got to put some catchy
saying on there, you know. But we put scripture. A lady
came in the gallery and she told Bob, she said something about
religion, wondering where he went to church. He said 13th
Street. She said, well, I always read those things you all have
on the bulletin board. I go by there and I read them.
And Bob said, well, as a matter of fact, I put those out there.
Oh, she said, you're so clever. You make all those up. I said, what did you tell her?
Did you tell her you made them up? We have nothing to glory. It's
his word. Nothing new under the same. Nothing
originates in here or in here. It originates up there. We just
pile parrots. That's all we are. We're just
God's messengers. That's all. You needn't brag on a man's message. If it's his, it ought not be
bragged on. If it's God, God ought to get the credit, you
know. What a great responsibility upon those who preach. But wait
a minute. What a terrible responsibility upon those who hear. I tell you this. If God is speaking
this morning, Somebody's got something to give an account
of, if he is now, if he happens to be. Somebody, I know this,
if we hear from God, we're going to hear it through a man. Somebody's
speaking for God. That's exact, I know that. I
know that from these examples I gave you. He sent certain men,
certain men. And what a responsibility upon
those whom he sends. But under God, what a responsibility
upon those to whom that man is sent. Listen to Luke 10. That's what I'm saying. Luke
chapter 10. You say, well, I don't believe
you are God's servant. I don't believe God sent you.
Then what are you doing here? Won't you go somewhere where
God is as a man who speaks for God? Well, if I didn't feel like
that the man I was listening to spoke for God, I'd ski-daddle
out of there before the roof fell in. I would. I'd get out of there right now.
Wouldn't waste five minutes. I sure wouldn't sport him. I
sure wouldn't sport him. Now, I tell you this, you and
quick tricks are rockin' a hard place. You just, if I am speaking
for God, you better hear me. If I'm not, you better get out.
That's a fact. That's just the way it is. In
Luke chapter 10, verse 16, listen to this. He that heareth you,
heareth me. That's what he said to this 70. I read you about these 70 a while
ago. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. He doesn't despise you, he despises
me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth
the Father. Despiseth the Father. I tell
you, this preaching business is something else now. I said
the other day to Scott Richardson, I said, I can understand two
things. One, I don't understand, and
one, I do. I don't understand why anybody
wants up here, and I perfectly understand why the fellow wants
out of it. I certainly understand the responsibility
is too great. That's the reason Paul said,
who's sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is God. And you
know when our Lord said, He said, He that heareth you, heareth
me. And then he said to his disciples when he sent them out to preach
the gospel, he said, He that believeth, believeth what? What
you say. You go preach the gospel to every
creature. They're going to hear you. They're
going to hear God in hearing you. And he that believes what
you say will be saved. And he that doesn't believe it
will be damned. What a responsibility. All right,
now my purpose here this morning is to try to show, since God
does send a man, God sends him. I know that's so. And he sends
him to people, and he sends him from him to people with a message,
his message. And if they hear him, they hear
God. If they don't, they don't hear God. God prepares that man. God doesn't
send just anybody and everybody he prepares that man Whom he
is pleased to sin with his message and there are five areas that
God touches Five areas here in Isaiah chapter 6 and I'll give
them to you. First of all, he opens his eyes
Secondly he breaks his heart Thirdly he opens, touches his
lips. Fourthly, he opens his ears.
And fifthly, he sets his face in one direction. That's the
way God deals with those who... First, he opens their eyes. Secondly,
he breaks the heart. And thirdly, he blisters their
lips. And fourthly, he opens their
ear, and then he turns their face. And that's what I'm saying.
That's five things God does for man if he uses him. Now, first
of all, verse 1, it says, In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord. Now, I'm not going to spend my
whole message on this, but if you want to read about King Uzziah,
you can jot this scripture down. It's 2 Chronicles 26. 2nd Chronicles
26. Now who was Isaiah? I got to
tell you briefly. Because there's some connection
between Isaiah's death and Isaiah seeing the Lord. Well, Isaiah
was a king. Secondly, he was a great king.
He was a king, thirdly, whom God used And fourthly, he was
an idol of Isaiah's. Isaiah loved this King Uzziah. In fact, it says everything he
did from first to last, Isaiah wrote it down. That's exactly
right. But King Uzziah was a proud man. I think the pride came later,
and too often this is true. A man gets a little authority
and has a little success, he gets proud. I don't know why. But it's just so. He gets cocky
and proud and arrogant. God took him from nothing and
made him something. God prospered him and blessed
him, gave him influence and power, and he got proud. And that's
when he came to the temple and was going to sacrifice a sacrifice,
isn't that right, Charlie, to the Lord. He took the censer.
And 80 priests were there, and they begged him not to do it.
They said, it appertaineth not to thee. to offer sacrifice to
the Lord. Now what that is showing is this,
that God has ordained, God is holy, man is a sinner, and God's
ordained between men and God a priest. And that priest is
Christ. And that priest has a sacrifice,
a blood sacrifice, an atonement. which he brings to God for men,
and that priest is Christ and designated as such, and no one
else, not even a king or a prophet could offer a sacrifice, only
the priest. That's what God said to King
Saul. It's better to obey than sacrifice. King Saul did the
same thing. Samuel wasn't there, so he just
came and offered a sacrifice. He said, I won't accept it. I
won't accept it. It has to be through the right
sacrifice, through the right priest. Well, Isaiah went on
into the tabernacle, temple to offer the sacrifice, and God
turned him into a leper. God killed him. And they came
and told Isaiah, Uzziah's dead. Who? Uzziah the king. What on
earth? God killed him. God killed Uzziah? What'd God kill him for? Well,
he transgressed the law of God. He destroyed the priesthood and
the sacrifice. God killed him. God's holy. You
see, my friend, listen to me. God is so righteous that the
angels, the seraphims, have to hide their faces in his presence.
God is so righteous that even the angels can't look upon him.
God is so holy that even the best man God had on earth, Moses,
couldn't look on him and leave. God is so holy that when his
son was hanging on a cross bearing our sins, God turned his back.
That's how holy God is. He spared not his own son. And
here when this king, influential, powerful, well-beloved king,
went into the temple to offer a sacrifice, God destroyed him,
utterly humiliated him, turned him into an unclean leopard and
killed him. What is that demonstrating? Holiness
of God. And I know sometimes we think,
well, you know, that man can't be lost. He goes to church. He
doesn't believe in Christ. He doesn't believe in the blood.
He doesn't believe in the sin offering. But he serves God. I'm sorry, he doesn't serve God.
He's unholy, Cecil. He's taken the place of Christ.
He's trying to come before God. King did the same thing. He tried
to come before God without the blood of Christ. The Zion tried
to come before God without the blood of Christ, without the
priestly sacrifice of Christ. And I know we all want to get
our mamas in and our daddies in and our brothers and sisters
and our kinfolks and everybody into heaven. When we all get
to heaven, we all ain't going to heaven. Only those washed
in the blood. Is that so? What keeps us from
it? The holiness of God. We say, well, he's not such a
bad fella. He's not a bad fella compared
to a lot of other fellas, but God is holy. It's not just your
sins that keep you out of heaven, it's God's holiness. I wish we
could see that. It's not the level of sin. Well,
he's terrible. He'll go to hell for sure. Well,
he's not too bad, but he's a good man. I hear people say, well,
he has a good heart. That's what he don't have. That's
the one thing, he doesn't have a good heart. But his sins aren't
the only thing that keep, it's God's holiness. God's holiness
has got to be honored. God's holiness has got to be
exalted. His holiness has got to be dealt
with. And the only one who can deal
with his holiness is Christ. with his sacrifice, righteousness,
and sin offering. And that's what Isaiah did. He
said, I saw, boy, I saw the Lord. When Uzziah, when he had that
experience, and when he died, when God killed him, I saw the
Lord. What did you see, Isaiah? Holy,
holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy,
holy. We hadn't got that on our bumper
stickers. We got God is love. Smile, God loves you. God loves
you and I do too. Love, love, love. That's not
what this says. It says holy, holy, holy. Holy,
holy, holy. God can't say, even God's love
can't be expressed at the expense of His holiness. You say, I don't
understand what you're talking about. You better learn. God's love
cannot be expressed at the expense of God's holiness. You say, God's
merciful. You better bet your boots He's
merciful, and I'm glad. He's plenteous in mercy and delights
to show mercy, but not at the expense of His holiness. Now,
God's gracious. I know He'll be gracious. He
will, for a fact. Aren't we glad? But not at the
expense of His holiness. That's what Isaiah saw. The Lord
is holy. And this is where it all begins,
the holiness of God. We're starting at the wrong place.
Our so-called gospel today is starting at the wrong place.
We're starting with man. The gospel doesn't start with
man, it starts with God. The Bible starts with God, in
the beginning God. All right, here's the second
thing. And Nebuchadnezzar found that. He showed this to Moses,
his holiness, his glory. He showed it to Job. Read Job
40, 41, 42. God showed Job his glory, see,
his glory. Before he sent Moses, he showed
him his glory. Before he sent Job, he showed
him his glory. Before he sent Paul, he stopped
him on the road to Damascus and blinded him with his glory. All right, secondly, God broke
his heart, verse 5. Then said I, when I saw the holiness
of God, then said I, woe is me, I'm undone. Woe is me. Back here in chapter 5, you want
to look at it just a moment, I'm taking too long, but chapter
5 verse 8, this is the same prophet writing, Isaiah, he wrote in
chapter 5 verse 8, woe unto them that join house to house and
so forth. Verse 11, woe unto them that
rise up early in the morning, follow strong drink. Verse 18,
woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity. Verse 20,
woe unto them that call evil good and good evil. Verse 22,
woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine. So, oh, he just
woe unto everybody. But I tell you, when he saw the
Lord, what did he say? Woe is me. Woe is me. Woe is me. What a lamentation. Woe is me. And did you notice
when he saw himself? I know, I know the law of God
is a schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. I know that by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But I'm telling you this, a man
will be convinced of sin as it really is. The indescribable
sinfulness of sin, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. what it is,
against whom it is, when he sees the Lord and the glory of God
and not the law. I know a lot of preachers say,
well, we're sent to preach the law and the gospel, the law to
strip men, the gospel to clothe them, the law to slay them and
the gospel to make them alive, the law to humble them and the
gospel to exalt them. There's half a truth there. The
man will never cry woe is unto me, I am undone, looking at the
law. He'll cry that when he sees even,
even, even the glory of God's love and grace. He'll see it
when he sees Christ crucified. It's the gospel that really convinces
men of sin, not just the law. I'm telling you the truth. Theology and doctrine and law
and rules and regulations won't strip sinners. It'll make Pharisees,
but it won't strip sinners. It has its place, and it serves
its place. But I'll tell you, when men say
the glory of God, the holiness of God, the character of God,
that's when they cry, woe is me, woe is me. Now watch this.
He said, I'm a man of unclean lips. Why lips? Why didn't he
say, I have unclean hands? Why didn't he say, I have feet
that are swift to walk in mischief? I'll tell you why. It's out of
the heart that the mouth speaks. And his unclean lips were because
his fountain was unclean. In other words, here I go and
turn on a fountain and water comes out and it's dirty. It's
dirty. Well, that's dirty water, that's
a dirty opening there. Yeah, it's dirty because down
underneath dirty. And what comes out of our mouths,
you know, that which is evil is because our hearts are evil.
That's what he's talking about. I'm a man of unclean lips, the
fountain is evil, therefore the water is evil. You see what he's
saying? I'm a man of unclean lip because
my heart is unclean. And I also dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lip. Everybody around me is in the
same shape I'm in. But the main thing I'm saying
is this, that the man whom God blesses and uses, first God reveals
to him his glory, and then he reveals to him the man's uncleanness,
unworthiness, and inability. vanity, corruption. Even Paul, after he'd been preaching
for years, said, I'm less than the least of all the saints.
He said, I'm the chief of sinners, oh wretched man that I am. No
man has the calling of God to preach down to anyone. He has
the calling of God to preach to himself along with those to
whom he preaches. And then thirdly, look at verse
6, God blistered his lips. God blistered his lip. Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me." Now notice he said, I'm a man
of unclean lips. And then one of the seraphims
flew having a live coal in his hand. This live coal has to be
the sacrifice of Christ. I looked at this verse again
and again and again, the next two verses, and it has to be
a picture. This seraphim taking from the
altar, from Calvary, from the cross with tongs, that which
is burning, that which is alive, that which purges. Fire purges
out evil and germs. That's right, the doctor takes
the instruments and sterilizes them in a hot thing. Years ago
we used to take a needle and prick a boil, but first you'd
strike a match and burn the needle. to burn off all the germs, you
know. And he takes that burning coal
from the altar and comes down and touches him where the problem
is. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me having a live coal in his hand which he'd taken with
the tongs from the altar and laid it, laid it on my mouth. Oh, he did it. I didn't do it.
He did it. He did it. And this has to be
the gospel of Christ, has to be the sacrifice and sin offering
of Christ. It can't be anything else. The
live coal from off the altar touched to the place where the
problem is to purge. It says your iniquity is taken
away and your sin is purged. And notice this, Isaiah didn't
do it. Isaiah didn't go somewhere and
make a decision or go somewhere and make a profession or go somewhere
and go through some kind of ritual. He took the live coal from the
altar and he touched his lips and he purged him. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's the work of God's grace. And I'll tell you this, there's
several reasons why he touched his lips. One, that was where
his problem was. He touched his lips and blistered
them. Scott said he went out preaching
with blistered lips and blistered them with the gospel. I'll tell
you this, another reason why he touched his lip is if ever
his lips is touched with that message of substitution, nothing
else will ever come out of his lips. He's branded. His lips are foreign. by that
cold. His lips are formed in that position. He can't speak anything else
at one message. And that's substitution satisfaction.
That's where God deals. A man whom God sends, he sends
to preach with his lips the message, and that's where he deals with
it, with the message. Notice this now, then God opened
his ears, verse 8, and then I heard. Then I heard. And I heard the
voice of the Lord. I heard the voice of the Lord,
and He said, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? You know,
a friend and I were talking yesterday. Turn to Philippians 2. Philippians
2. This is a thing that... And you may feel that I preach
a little harshly. Maybe so. Maybe so. I'm going to keep on, too, because
I see a crack in the dam in this day. I see a phoniness in religion
like never existed. I see self-seeking, self-glory. It's wearisome, tiresome. Paul
had it. He had the same problem. Look
at Philippians 2.19. Now, listen to this. I was talking to a friend
yesterday, and I showed him this. And I said, I want you to think
on that a little bit. We need to think on this. Paul said in verse
19 of Philippians 2, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy,
Timotheus, shortly to you, that I also may be of good comfort
when I know your state. Now watch it, listen to this.
For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your
state like Timothy. Timothy and I have the same mind,
we have the same objective, we have the same beat of heart,
and that is the glory of God and your good. For, here's the
problem, all seek their own and not the things which are Christ's. Isn't that sad? That was in the
day of the apostles. Paul's sitting down here in prison.
Wasn't the Philippian letter a prison epistle? It was a prison
epistle. Sitting down here in prison.
And there was a church down in Philippi, and he said, I'm concerned
about you. I want you to hear the truth. I want you to follow Christ.
I want you to be taught the truth. But he said, I don't have anybody
to send you except Timothy, because everybody else is seeking their
own glory. Everybody else, he's not concerned
for the glory of Christ. He's not concerned for the kingdom
of God. He's not concerned for the honor of Jesus Christ, he's
concerned for himself. His own praise and self-glory
and attention and his salary and everything else that comes
to bear on these things. That's the reason so many churches
split. The people who split them are not interested in God's glory,
they're interested in proving their point. That's exactly right. That's the reason a lot of preachers
resign and they tear the church up before they leave because
they want everybody to say, well, it won't go without him. That's
exactly right, pride. They don't seek the things of
Christ, they seek their own glory. That's the reason people who
sing or don't sing get in squabbles, because they're not singing for
God's glory, they're singing for their own glory. And if they
don't get to sing, they don't want anybody else to sing. Teaching
classes and everything else, it all comes down to the same
ball of wax. Paul says they're seeking their
own and not the things of Christ. They can't get lost in Him. They
can't lose their life for His sake that they might gain it.
They can't become swept up into that great host that sings with
one chord and one note and one harmony to God be the glory.
No, he's over here singing his tune, he's singing his, she's
singing hers, somebody else is singing theirs. And Paul said,
I ain't got a soul to send you but Timothy. Because he's the
only one like-minded. The rest of them are interested
in himself. Well, I'll tell you this. When God sends a man, he
opens his ears and he says, who will go for us? Son, you don't
have any ministry. You're mine. That's what he said.
You want to go? Will you go for us? Will you go for us? And don't
ever forget, you're on business for the king. The stower is his
stower, the gospel is his gospel, the sheep are his sheep, the
vineyard is his vineyard, the rain is his rain, the seed is
his seed, the result is his result. That's all you are. You're just
a sharecropper. Your share is his that he gave
you. Touched his ear, that's so. Opens
his eyes, sees his glory, breaks his heart. over his sin, touches
his lips with that live coal, the blood, the sacrifice, the
burning message, Christ died for our sins. And then he opens
his ears and said, do you want to go tell that? Do you want
to go? He said, I'll go. I'll go. You
know what he said next? Then he sets his face, because
he knew he was headed for trouble. He said, all right. All right,
you go, verse 9, and tell this people But they're not going
to hear you. That's right. He says they hear,
but they don't understand. And they got eyes, but they can't
see. And you know what Isaiah said? Turn to Isaiah 50. Isaiah
50. Now, I happen to know that he's
talking here, this is Christ speaking. I happen to know that.
I happen to know these are the words of Christ. But Isaiah wrote
them, so he's speaking about himself too. Isaiah 50. Isaiah 50, verse 5. The Lord hath opened mine ear,
and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back
to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
I hid not my face from shame and spitting. But the Lord God
will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore
I set my face like a flint. And I shall not be ashamed."
Now, I know that's Christ, but that's Isaiah too. That's Isaiah
speaking. It's at my face. He said, you
go and preach to them. And though they don't hear you,
don't you veer to the right or to the left. Don't you compromise
the message one way. You keep preaching the same message.
I'm determined, Paul said, to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's my message. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. And that's... Our faces are set like a flint. God has spoken in our ears and
will not be rebellious. God, our face is set like a flint.
You can't move that man with God's message. You can't move
him. You can't buy him. He won't sell
out. He's got one message. Christ
in him crucified. I believe those are the areas
where God deals with those whom he sends. Our Father in heaven, oh, upon anointing, not, Lord, of just feelings and
spiritual atmosphere, But Lord, for an anointing of
your Spirit, to have our eyes opened to behold your glory,
your holiness, and our hearts broken constantly before thee
with a knowledge of our sinfulness, and our lips touched with the
good news of Christ. the live coal from the altar
of Calvary to purge our iniquity and our sins, to cleanse us,
to purify us, to burn out all the dross and the evil, to create
within us a new man, a new nature. And, oh, to have our ears opened
and touched by your hand and alert to your voice and our faces
set in one direction the gospel of thy grace and thy glory through
Christ Jesus our Lord. For the privilege of speaking
the truth to our generation in compassion, with boldness, fearlessness,
sympathetically, with affection, give us a balance not only of
truth but of spirit. Give men ears to hear, and eyes
to see, and hearts to comprehend. But Lord, in all things, you
always cause us to triumph in Christ. For we are unto those
who believe a sweet fragrance of Christ. And yea, even in those
who do not believe, death upon death. And who's sufficient for
these things? Use this message wherever it's
heard for your honor and glory. For Christ's sake I pray. Amen.