Latest / THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together / 2004 Ligonier Conference There Is No Other The Holiness of God John MacArthur

Transcript

2004 Ligonier Conference There Is No Other The Holiness of God John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: One is compelled to say that this great.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Subject of God's wrath, about which we heard last night
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: from Ligon Duncan, this great reality of divine judgment, about
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: which R.C. has written in his exceptional book, Saved from What?,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: is certainly absent from preaching today. Perhaps this will help
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: us all to re-grip this most essential reality. I have
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: been asked to speak on the holiness of God, and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I think that R.C. finds some delight in giving me
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: subjects that he has mastered. I'm not sure why he
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: does this, although once when he asked me to speak
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on election, I said, why would you at your conference,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: have me do that. And he said, because I want
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: to hear what you have.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: To say about it.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: It was sort of a test, I think, to see
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: if I got it right.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: All of us who have known R.C.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: For any time at all are profoundly indebted to him
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: for his treatment of the sixth chapter of Isaiah, which
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I think for all of us who are his students
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: will forever and always be the portrait of God's holiness,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: which is most memorable. And I understand why, because it
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: is so critical to an understanding of God's holiness, and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: we will get there hopefully at the end. In speaking
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: of the holiness of God, it is good perhaps to
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: begin with something of a definition.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It was A. A.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Hodge who said, the holiness of God is not to
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: be conceived of as one attribute among others. It is
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: rather a a general term representing the conception of God's
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: consummate perfection and total glory. It is His infinite moral
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: perfection crowning His infinite intelligence and power. He said it
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: is infinite moral perfection as the crown of the Godhead.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Holiness is God's total glory crowned. It was Thomas Watson
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: who said, holiness is the most sparkling jewel of God's crown.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It is the name by which he is known.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: R.L. Dabney wrote, holiness is to be regarded not as
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: a distinct attribute, but as the result of all God's
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: moral perfection together. They are recognizing what the prophet Isaiah
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: wrote in Isaiah 57, verse 15, when he said, for
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: thus says the high priest, And exalted one who lives forever,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: my name is holy.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Holy is his name. It is something along the lines
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of what we just heard as.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: R.C.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Spoke upon God's being.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: His self-existence, his being is utterly divine. separate from ours.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And he made that so clear. His is being and
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: ours is becoming. He is utterly distinct from us. The
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Hebrew is kadash.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: The Greek, hasios, meaning distinct, separate.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: He is other than we are as to the essence
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: of his existence, his nature. Therefore, nothing in the creation,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: no one in the creation, even man created in the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: image of God, compares to God in essential nature. He
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: is incomparable. He is infinite perfection. That is why His
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: name is separate, distinct.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Or holy.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: And thus does Exodus 15, 11 say, who is like you, majestic.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: In holiness?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And there, I think, is what those medieval theologians were after.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: To add majestic to utter distinction somehow is an expression
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: of worship. 1 Samuel 2, 2 says, there is no
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: one holy like the Lord.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: There is no one beside you.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: No one exists in your category of being but you.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Psalm 111, 10 says, holy and awesome is His name.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: When we think of God's holiness, we think of His
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: utter separation from sin because He Everything in the creation
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: is affected and influenced by sin. But there's more to
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: His separateness than that. However, that for us is the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: graphic illustration. It's hard for us metaphysically to comprehend the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: difference between being and becoming, but we see clearly God's
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: distinction from us in the matter of His creation.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Moral perfection, and sinlessness.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: As Habakkuk the prophet wrote, your eyes are too pure
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to approve evil. You cannot look on wickedness. Job 34.10 says,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: far be it from God to do wickedness, to do wrong.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: In Revelation 15.4, it says, you alone There are many
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: other statements. That gives you sort of a broad picture
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: across Scripture. We could talk about those statements, but I
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: want to go a little bit beyond that, if I may.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: There are more than statements regarding God's holiness in Scripture.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: There are revelations of His holiness. In fact, every revelation
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: of God, every disclosure of God, every manifestation of God
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: is a revelation of His moral perfections. every one. You
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: can study any of God's revelations of Himself, and you
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: will find there His moral perfection.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Let me give you some illustrations of that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: We could study God's holiness by studying creation. You will
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: remember that at the end of His creation, Genesis 131,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: it says, God saw all that He had made, and behold,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: it was very good. This is a reflection of His
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: essential nature. It couldn't be anything else. On the previous days,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: it was said that it was good, and that was
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: applied to all the specific details of His creation. But
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: in the end, when He saw all of it, the
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: whole creative complex in its totality, it was not just good,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: it was very good. In fact, Ecclesiastes 7.29, speaking directly
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: of man, says God made man upright.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: He could do no other. Whatever came from his hand,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: from his being, had to be.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Made in his image, man was free from sin. You
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: could also look at the law of God. And you
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: would find revealed in the law of God His absolute perfection.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Psalm 19, 7, the law of the Lord is perfect.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Romans 7, 12, the law is holy, the commandment is holy, righteous,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: and good. Everything that comes from God, every manifestation of
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: God's nature comes is a reflection.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Of His moral perfection.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: You could also see the holiness of God manifest in
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: His judgment. All His verdicts, all His adjudications from the
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: divine bench are holy.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Shall not the judge of all the earth, Genesis 18, 25,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: do right?
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: 2 Timothy 4, 8 says, the Lord, the righteous judge.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: You could get a glimpse of heaven and maybe it's
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: a good thing to do for just a moment. In
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the fourth chapter of the Revelation, we are taken into
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the heaven of heavens. And in verse 2 of Revelation 4,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: John in the Spirit, that is being given a revelation
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: by the Holy.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Spirit in the form of a vision.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Sees a throne standing in heaven and one sitting on
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the throne and he who was sitting was like a
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: jasper stone and a sardius in appearance and there was
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: very much like Ezekiel 1. And around the throne were
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: 24 thrones. And upon the thrones I saw 24 elders
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: sitting in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I take it that this is a reference to the redeemed.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: And from the throne... Proceed flashes of lightning and sounds
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: of God. Sevenfold spirit as mentioned in Isaiah 11. Before
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: the throne there was, as it were, a sea of
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: glass like crystal. And in the center and around the throne,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: And the first creature was like a lion and the
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: second like a calf. And the third creature had the
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: face like that of a man. And the fourth creature
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: each one of them having six wings, are full of
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: eyes around and within, and day and night they do
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: the Almighty who was and who is and who is
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: to come. You see, in heaven, this moral perfection, this
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: utter holiness and the trihagion, which can, of course, even
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: be a Trinitarian reference, but certainly is multiplied to emphasize
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: the utter and absolute distinction of God's moral perfection. And
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: by the way, what you have happening here in Revelation
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: 4 is very similar to what was happening in Ezekiel 1.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: It is the cranking up of the divine war machine
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: as God in His holiness begins to move toward the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: judgments that break loose after the heavenly vision is completed
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: in chapters 4 and 5. God then is holy in
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: His heaven where He dwells. God then manifests His holiness
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: in everything that He does, whether it's in creation, the
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: giving of the law in His judgments, and you can
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: take it from there. God can only manifest that which
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: is absolutely holy. And thus does James say, every good
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: down from the Father of light's with whom there is
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: no variation or shifting shadow. You cannot cast a shadow
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: on the absolute goodness of God, the perfection of God.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Every representation of God, every manifestation of God, every revelation
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: of God indicates this perfection. To think any other than
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: that is, says James, to be deceived. You can see
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: glimpses of God's holiness in the tabernacle, even in the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: instance that was to be used to be offered before God,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: the recipe for which was never to be used by
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: anyone else for any personal use. And if they did,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: they were to be killed because that which belonged to
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: the Lord was so distinct from His creation.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Having said all of that by way.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Of possibility, let me take you where I want to
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: take you to look at the holiness of God. And
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: we could go into any of those, but I want
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: to take you to another place. I believe that the
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: most clear, the most discernible, the most understandable manifestation of
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: the holiness of God seen in the boldest way against
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the blackest backdrop, therefore making it the clearest, is the
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: revelation of God's holiness in the incarnation. In the incarnation.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Because I am a human becoming, I live in this world.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I can't get outside of it. I can think rational thoughts.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I can follow the gift of reason that God has
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: given to me, and I can comprehend at least intellectually
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: the idea of God's perfection and God's holiness. I can,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: like John, get some kind of an idea of the reality.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Of the vision in heaven.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I can to some degree understand the perfection of creation in.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Its initial form. I can understand.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: to some degree, the perfection of God's law, and to
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: some degree, the perfection of His justice. But nothing is
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: more clear to me than the holiness of God as
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: manifest in the incarnation, because this is the world I
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: live in, and this is the.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: World you live in.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: John tells us that when Jesus came, He declared, Verse
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: 18 of John 1, no man has seen God at
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: any time. The only begotten God who is in the
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. Whatever you
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: want to know about God, Jesus explains. Certainly that's true
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: of His holiness. In Hebrews 1, we read God, after
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: in many portions and in many ways, in these last
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: days has spoken to us in His Son whom He
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: the world, and He, the Son, is the radiance of
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: His glory and the exact representation of His nature. So
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: if I want to know anything about God, the clearest
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: representation of that that I will ever be able to
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: comprehend is manifest in Jesus Christ. And we could look
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: at Jesus Christ with regard to His entire life.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: For example, Luke 1, Gabriel comes.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: To Mary, who was espoused to Joseph, and he makes
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: the great announcement about the birth of the Son of God,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the Christ. Verse 30, And Mary said to the angel,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: How can this be since I'm a virgin?
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Listen to this.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the what spirit? The Holy Spirit will come upon you
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: And for that reason, the Holy Offspring shall be called
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: the Son of God. The Holy Spirit and the Holy
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: God sent the Holy Offspring, the Son of God. Contrast
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: that with David's statement in Psalm 51.5, In sin did
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: my mother conceive me.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: We could look.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: At the Gospel of Luke, for example, in the third
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: chapter and see another glimpse of the holiness of Christ.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: At His baptism.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: And again, the Father is present and the Spirit is present.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: And as I said, all that emanates from God, all
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: that comes from God, is holy.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: And the affirmation of that is here.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Verse 22, Jesus was baptized, and while He was praying,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I am well pleased. That's an affirmation of the Son's
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: moral perfection, is it not? Contrast that with Acts 2.38,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Which is said of us. We could look at His death.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And certainly we have.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: It's been commented on numerous times.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: In looking at His death, we see again the revelation
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: of His holiness, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made Him
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: who knew no sin, sin on our behalf, that we
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: might become the righteousness of God in Him. Fifteen Greek words,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: the great statement on imputation. But the identification of Christ
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: with these words.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Him who knew no sin.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Indicates again His holy perfection. In 1 Peter 1, you
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: but with precious blood as of.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: A lamb unblemished and spotless. The blood of Christ.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Again, whether you're looking at His birth or whether you're
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: looking at His baptism or even looking at His death,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: His holiness is manifest. In fact, in Hebrews 9.14, a
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: verse that just came to mind, it says, How much
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: When I hear these.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: People say that on the cross, Jesus became a sinner.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: It is a grievous blasphemy, really. He only was made
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: sin in the sense that He bore the wrath of
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: God for us. But even God couldn't look upon Him
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: and abandon Him in that moment. Now, we could look
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: at all of that. We could look at any of that.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: and see and do see His holiness. But I want
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: to look at His life. And not all of it
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: by any means. I am obviously fascinated with the person
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ, the most compelling person by far, whoever
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: walked this planet. I cannot, it seems, at any point
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: in my ministry, be not teaching one of the Gospels.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Or if I'm not teaching one of the Gospels, I
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: need to be in Hebrews or Colossians, somewhere where Christ
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: is exalted. I happen to be now about five years
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: into the Gospel of Luke, and I'm in chapter 11.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: This is something of a triumph for me.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: And it isn't that I'm missing Sundays. I'm not.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: It's that I just cannot let go of the riveting,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: compelling glory of Christ. But I don't think we always
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: understand how much His life is a manifestation of the
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: holiness of God. He was in all points tempted like
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: as we are yet without sin. He was in all
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: points tempted. At all points simply means that. At every
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: point chronologically. At every point socially. He was at all
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: points tempted like as we are yet without sin. I
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: was reading some old things from Augustine a week ago.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: And I found an interesting comment.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Somebody asked Augustine to comment on the sign of the fish.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: You know, the little acrostic from Icthus, Jesus, God's Son, Savior.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: And this is what Augustine said. It is a suitable
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: sign for Christ because he was able to live without
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: depths of water.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: He literally came.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Down and sunk himself in this wretched world. And I
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: think that the truest test of holiness.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Is not how it holds up in heaven. But the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: truest test of holiness is how it holds up here.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Not how it holds up in a perfectly holy environment,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: but how it holds up in an utterly sinful environment.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: And thus, we look at Jesus.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: To see this most interesting view of God's holiness. In
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: John 8, 23, he said, you are from below.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I'm from above. You're of this world, and I'm not.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: In the 46th verse of that same 8th chapter, He said,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: which of you convicts me of sin? I've come from
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: another world. I'm another kind of being. I cannot be
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: convicted of sin. In the 14th chapter of John, in
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: the 30th verse.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Jesus said, the ruler of this world is coming, I
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: love this statement, and he has nothing in me. He
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: doesn't say he has nothing on me. There was nothing
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: in him to even respond to Satan.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Or to the world. Theologians want to make a distinction here,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and rightly so.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: They want to say that he was non passe pecare,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: not passe non pecare.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: That is to say, he.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Was not able to sin rather than he was able
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: not to sin.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: See the difference? He was not able to sin.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: He was a completely different kind of being. You know,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: when I read my Bible and it tells me about
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: living in this world, it's just loaded with warnings. I
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: am so susceptible to this world, even though I am redeemed,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: even though I have been walking in the faith for
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: a long time, many years I have been studying the Bible,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I will tell you this world is a threat to
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: me at every turn. There is something in me, in
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: my remaining flesh that responds to Satan and the world
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: And I have to be reminded not to love the world.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I have to be reminded of Psalm 1. I have
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: to go back and remember that I must not walk
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: in the counsel of the wicked. I must not stand
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: in the path of sinners. I must not sit in
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: the seat of scoffers because that has devastating effect upon me.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: And the difference is clearly laid out, I think, in
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: the 7th chapter of Mark. You remember this passage, or
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: you will when you hear it. Listen to what Jesus
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: said in verse 18.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Are you so lacking in understanding?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: from outside can't defile him? It didn't matter what came
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: at Jesus.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: It couldn't defile him.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Because it's not what comes from the outside that defiles you.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: He says.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: From the outside it doesn't defile because it doesn't go
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: into his heart, but into his stomach and is eliminated.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: That's a rather graphic analogy.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: It is that which proceeds out of the man that
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: defile the man. There's a rottenness, there's a corruption on
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: the inside that makes us susceptible to all these wicked influences.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: And that's why the Bible warns us. Proverbs warns again
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: and again, and I went through Proverbs one time and
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: just listed all of the warnings to stay away from
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: angry people, lying people, murdering people.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Godless people, etc., etc., etc., because of the influence they
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: have on you.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Don't you know, says Paul to the Corinthian church, you've
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: got to get that sinning man out of your church
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: because a little leaven does what?
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Leaven's a whole lump. You allow sin in your church,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: it'll corrupt the whole thing.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: That's why we have to do church discipline. 1 Corinthians 15,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: 33 says, bad company corrupts.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Good morals.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Jude 23 says, look, when you're going over there to
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: snatch those brands from the burning, when you're going over
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: there to rescue those people from the corruption in your
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Evangelistic enterprise, when you're going over there to pull the
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: people out of the apostasy there and be very careful
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: that you don't get your own garment stained.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: We live a very fragile.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Existence in this wretched world. I have to watch my life.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I have to beat my body to bring it into submission.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: I have to guard my eyes against I have to
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: guard my ears. I have to keep my feet from
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: going certain places. I have to keep my distance from
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: certain people. I have to live a circumspect life in
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: this world so that I do not put myself in
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: a position to be devastated because even in my preaching
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: to others, I have the potential to be so badly
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: corrupted that I would be ad hoc disqualified from ministry.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: When people ask me what appeals to me about heaven,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: it isn't transparent gold streets.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I can't get too turned on about that. It's nice.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: I'm glad it'll be there. I'm sure I'll enjoy it
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: when I arrive. It isn't pearl gates and precious stones
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: in the foundry. I'll tell you what appeals to me
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: about heaven, the absence of sin. I don't know about you,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: but I'm tired of it. Yet when Jesus Christ came
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: in the world, he said, which of you convicts me
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: of sin?
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: He said, Satan has nothing in me.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: There was nothing in him of corruption. He didn't have
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: to protect his holiness by taking a monastic vow, going
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: into a cave and contemplating his navel for the rest
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: of his life. castrating him like some ill-conceived monk. There's
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: no such necessity for him.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Quite the contrary.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: I spend most of my life trying to be isolated
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: from sinners, don't you?
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I really do.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Bad company corrupts good morals. I don't mind preaching at them.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: I don't mind giving them the gospel, but I don't
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: want to.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Be where they are. I don't want to go where
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: they go. I don't want to go to their parties
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: because I, yay. Satan does have something in me. Look
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: at the contrast. Turn to Luke 5.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Now, my control factor needs to kick in here because
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I've been in Luke so long, I'm tempted to just
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: go on and on and on. Luke 5, 27, after that,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: he went.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Out and noticed a tax gatherer.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Named Levi. This is Matthew, and he was a small-time
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: tax gatherer. He was a mocus, not a goodbye. A
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: goodbye was a big-time tax guy who owned a regional
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: tax franchise from Rome and hired these little mocus guys
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: to do the dirty work. They sat at the crossroads,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: and they taxed the wheels on the cart. They taxed
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: the beast of burden that pulled the cart. They taxed
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: the letters you were carrying to give to someone else.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: They taxed the goods that you bought. And every time
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: you crossed the intersection, they took.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Money from you.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: And extorted all they could not only to give what
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: the prescribed rate was to Rome but to make the
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: the rest of their own fortune of course extortion was
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: great they were the more hated of the tax collectors
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: and the big guys because the big guys nobody saw
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: you began to despise that guy sitting at the crossroads.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Well here's one of them named Levi and of course
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: in order.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: To collect taxes he had to have a a group
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: of thugs and scum balls and riff-raff around him who strong-armed.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: The people to get them to pay up.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: And if they didn't pay up, then they had to
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: be treated like the mafia treats people, you know? You
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: have the guys go around, beat them up a little bit,
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: and get what they want to get. This was the
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: scum of all scum in the society, not only because
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: of the low-life extortion that they engaged in, but because
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: they had become the... basically the agents of a pagan, invading,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: occupying Roman government which was despised and hated by the Jews.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: And so they were all un-synagogued. They were booted out
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: of the synagogue. They couldn't worship there. They had literally
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: traded their birthright for a mess of pottage. And so
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Jesus comes to Levi, the last person on the planet
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: you would ever choose to be an apostle of the
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Messiah if you were on the Jewish Apostle Selection Committees.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: He said to him, follow me. You're my man.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: And he jumped up from his tax table. And it
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: was like taking a hand out of water. Believe me,
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: there was no gap because somebody was in line. Whoever
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: had the strongest right arm in the gang that surrounded
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: him sat down and said, I'm in charge, guys. So
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: he couldn't go back. He left everything behind. He rose up,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: began to follow him. And Levi gave a big.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Party at his house.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: And there was a great crowd of tax gatherers. That
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: must have been some event. This is a meeting of
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: the mafia. And you know the kind of people that
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: associate with the mafia.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: And it says, I love this, and others. Others of
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the riffraff.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: And they were reclining at the table. You know, they
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: didn't do the fast food thing. They did the slow
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: food thing. You actually sort of got prone on your arm,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: and you just dropped the grapes one at a time,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: and you talked, and you conversed, and this went on
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: and on.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: One can only imagine what they were talking about.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't have been the most edifying group, and the conversation.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Would have been a little racy.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: And the Pharisees, with all their scrupulous perspective, verse 30,
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: and the scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, why
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: do you eat and drink with the tax gatherers and
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: sinners and there you have the word that describes the.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Other all the rest of the social scum what are
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: you doing in there and.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Jesus answered and said to them it's not those who
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: are well who need a physician but those who are
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: sick and you see the amazing thing about him is
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: he could go into the most contagious ward.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: On the planet and catch nothing Catch nothing.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: I haven't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: This is frankly one of the great illustrations of the
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: holiness of Jesus. He could hang around the most wretched
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: people in the society. Sinners probably and surely embrace as prostitutes.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: And it says.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: This was an extended event. Not only this event, but
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: there must have been many others like it because in
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Matthew 11, 19, it says, Behold, a gluttonous man and
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. So,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: you know, when these people got together, it was about gluttony,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: it was about drunkenness, it was about extortion, and it
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: was about iniquity.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: What else would they talk about?
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: And the Pharisees who knew their own wretchedness, who knew
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: their own corruption, who knew their own hearts, kept their distance.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: It's hard enough being a hypocrite without hanging around those
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: kind of people. Turn to the seventh chapter of Luke.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Seventh chapter of Luke. I wish I had time to
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: unpack this whole story. One of the Pharisees, verse 36,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: was requesting him to dine with him. So he entered
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: the Pharisee's house, and he didn't mind being with the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: self-righteous hypocrite. And he reclined again, prolonged event. And the
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: way they used to do it from the history that
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: I've read is that the houses tended to be somewhat
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: open and there would be this meal going on with
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: the dignitaries. And people in the community were allowed typically
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: to stand around the outside and listen to the conversation.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Apparently that's what happened.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: And behold, there was a woman in the city who
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: was literally an immoral woman, a prostitute. And when she
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: learned that he was reclining at the table in the
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. Some
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: historians say that small, thin alabaster bottles containing perfume were
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: sealed up at the top, and they were actually carried
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: around the neck of women.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Now, for a prostitute, this was a part of her operation.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Sounds like Proverbs, doesn't it? I'll perfume my bed.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: And so she must have been a fairly successful one
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: because hers was an alabaster vial. And she brought this
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: vial and standing behind him, verse 38, at his feet.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Now, wait a minute.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: On the outside, you know, you could stay. She's moved in.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Jesus is there reclining. His feet are up here. And
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: his arm perhaps like this. She comes up behind him.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: And weeping.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: She began to wet his feet with her tears. This
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: is outrageous.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding?
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: And then she is wiping his feet with the hair
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: of her head.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: And kissing his feet.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: And then she breaks the neck of the alabaster bottle
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: and she starts.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Pouring the perfume on him.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: he said to himself, if this man were a prophet,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: he would know who and what sort of person this
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: woman is who is touching him.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: This is just too touchy. that she is an immoral woman.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: And the Pharisee, of course, is operating out of his
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: own heart, right? What sinful man is going to have
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: a prostitute doing that to his feet without having an
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: illicit thought?
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Well, the way the story ends, you can read the middle.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Verse 48, instead of the woman corrupting him, he says,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: your sins have been what? Instead of sin corrupting him,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: holy grace reaches out and justifies her. And they said
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: in verse 49, who is this who forgives sins?
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Go in peace. Go in peace. She was an hamartolas,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: especially wicked, immoral woman.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: And filthy is how that word is used.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Is translated in lexicon. But she was on a mission.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Luther says.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: The only water she had was heart water. And so
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: she used her tears. The only cloth she had was
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: her hair. So she used her hair. And the only
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: gift she could give. was what she used for her
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: immoral relationships. It had no effect on him at all,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: except to draw out of him.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Forgiveness. That's because.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Hebrews 7, 26 says, says this, we have a high
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: priest who is, listen to this, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: need to offer up sacrifices for his own sins. He
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: is a son, verse 28, made perfect forever.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Jesus could go to hell and be holy. He did.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: He did.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: 1 Peter 3, 19. He could go into the teeth
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: of a demoniac with a legion of demons and And
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: purify that man. And leave him clothed and in his
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: right mind. Now I have to close. So go to
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: Isaiah 6. In respect to my friend R.C. And that
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: wonderful passage. I want to show you something. Isaiah 6.1
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: In the year of King Uzziah's death.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Why is that important? Well, first of all, it's important
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: if your name is Mrs. Uzziah.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: But apart from that, this is a sudden act of
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: God in which Uzziah is killed by God, according to
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: 2 Chronicles 26. after reigning for 52 years and sort
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: of being a symbol of God's continuing blessing, and when
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: he's gone, it really looks bad. Chapter 5 laid out
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: six curses for grasping materialism, drunken pleasure-seeking, moral perversion, corrupt leadership, etc.,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: and promised the coming of the Great enemy army and
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: the captivity of Israel.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Things look bad.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: And I believe Isaiah goes to the temple and seeks God.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: And it says here, I saw the Lord sitting on
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: six wings. With two He covered His faith. With two
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: He covered His feet. With two He hovered like a
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: celestial helicopter. The angels just hovering in motion, ready to
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: be dispatched and go immediately to minister to the saints,
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: as Hebrews 1.14 says.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: And then in an antiphonal pattern, one.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: the Lord of hosts.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: The whole earth is full of His glory. And you
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: know the rest of the story.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: The foundations on the threshold trembled at the voice of
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: Him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: And the response to this vision of the holy, majestic
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: glory of Of the one on the throne. Produces a
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: sense of guilt.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: And devastation.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: And he says woe is me. He used that word
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: six times in chapter five. He knows exactly what it means.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: It's damnation curse. He sees himself as cursed. Because seeing
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: this holy vision. He then sees his own sin.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: He is overwhelmed.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: He says I am in the Hebrew disintegrating. Because I
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: have a dirty mouth. Why does he say that?
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: He has the best mouth in the land. He's a prophet.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Because one's depravity is most frequently manifest through one's lips.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: He is affirming his depravity, the depravity of his people.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: He feels this way because he has seen the King,
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: the Lord of hosts. And in that contrast, feels the
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: horror of his own sin. And you remember the account,
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: coal in his hand, which he had taken from the
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: altar with tongs. He touched my mouth. And there you
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: have the picture of atonement and the application of the
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: atonement personally applied.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: He is purified.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Then the Lord says, whom shall I send and who
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: will go for us?
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Then I said, here am I, send me.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: I think he said it meekly, humbly, probably with the
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: possibility that he would, and having said that, been cleansed.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Struck by God for such audacity. Having just confessed his wretchedness.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: But the Lord says to him. Go and tell this people.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: keep on listening do not perceive keep on looking do
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: not understand render the hearts of this people insensitive their
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: ears dull their eyes dim lest they see with their
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: eyes hear with their ears understand with their heart return
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: and be healed you go and know this you're.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Going to meet resistance.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: Their hearts will be hard, their ears will not hear,
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: their eyes will not see, they will not understand.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: He says, how long do I do that?
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, that sounds like a rather unproductive way to
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: spend the rest of my life.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: How long?
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Until the cities are devastated without inhabitant, houses are without people,
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed everybody away,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: nobody's left, keep doing it.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Because verse 13, there is a holy seed, there is
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: a stump, there is a tenth, there is the elect.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: That's a fast trip through here. This magnificent vision of
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: the Holy, Holy, Holy One on the throne. With that
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: in your mind, let me close by drawing your attention
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: to John chapter 12. John chapter 12.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: And verse... 36, middle of the verse.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: These things Jesus spoke, and He departed and hid Himself
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: from them. But though He had performed so many signs
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: before them, they were not believing in Him.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Listen to this, verse 38.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: In order that the word of Isaiah the prophet might
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: be fulfilled, which He spoke... And it's right out of
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: chapter 6. Lord, who has believed our report? To whom
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: has the arm of the Lord been revealed? That part
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: taken from chapter 53.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: For this cause they could not believe.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: For Isaiah said again, and here comes Isaiah 6.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: He's blinded their eyes. He's hardened their heart.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: Lest they see with their eyes, perceive with their heart,
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: and be converted, and.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: I heal them.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: And then notice this amazing statement in verse 41. These
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: things Isaiah said because he saw his glory.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: And he spoke of him. Whose glory? Christ. Who is him? Christ.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: Back to verse 37. They were not believing in him.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: And when Isaiah saw His glory and spoke of Him,
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: he was speaking of Christ. There is a Christophany. There
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: is the heavenly vision of the Holy, Holy, Holy Son
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: and Lord who manifests Himself in this world. Jonathan Edwards said,
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: God only appears in human shape in the Son.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: It is Him we love and Him we serve. Father,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: we do commit to You this truth.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: We are overwhelmed by the glory of our Christ and
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: His utter holiness. We thank You that we come to
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: a high priest who sympathizes with our infirmities, but who
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: in it all triumphed and whose perfection has become our salvation.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: To Him we give all the glory.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Amen.