Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 1, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 8

Transcript

May 1, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 8 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:01
SPEAKER_00: I can think of no better way to end this study, to wrap up this study on surrender, than contemplating the glory of God, the glory of the Lord, and how we bring him glory.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: I have pondered this ever since I stopped writing this study.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And so that means for years, I have been pondering the glory of God.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And um it is it is I don't think I was telling the Lord this morning on the way here that I I could ponder this for the rest of my life, and I will still be pondering it when I enter his glory.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: All of us can do that for our entire lives, and we will still be pondering it.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Because there is there is no end to us knowing all that there is to know about him and his glory.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: And as I wrote this study, there was just something so profound about it, and I couldn't wrap my hands around it, and I don't think I still can.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I will teach today for an hour, and uh it won't even scratch the surface.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's and that's okay because it's not supposed to scratch the surface, it's just supposed to scratch the surface, it's not supposed to be the whole thing, because there's not even a way that our physical bodies could actually take in the full glory of God.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have to have new rejuvenated bodies in order to even really receive the full vision of his glory, because we would just explode if we did here.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: I've thought hard about what Jesus says in John 17, and that was in day five of your homework, and I'm not sure that we could ever do this topic justice, but I'm gonna attempt it and make an attempt.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: God, God, your glory is just so incredible.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: It is so huge, it is so profound, it is it is just so amazing, and one day we will get to see it, and we everything, everything, everything that we have ever experienced will fall away in that instant, and it will only be you and your glory, and nothing else will matter.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: So Lord God, might you please just just give us a taste of that today?
2:43
SPEAKER_00: That's all, that's really all we can take, anyway, is just a taste of it.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: And so we just ask you to come and give us that taste of your glory.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Might you manifest yourself here with us this morning in Jesus' name.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: John Piper, who I respect so much and who's just so incredibly brilliant, says in the Bible, there is no other truth that is as fundamental fundamentally pervasive, sorry, than God's zeal to be glorified, which means his zeal for us to think, for us to feel, and for us to act, as to make him look as glorious as he is.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: We don't add to his glory.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: The goal of my life should not be that when people know me well enough, they will say, God is glorious.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Not John is glorious, but God is glorious.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God is the going public with his infinite worth.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: I define the holiness of God as the infinite value of God, the infinite intrinsic worth of God.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: And when that goes public in creation, the heavens are telling the glory of God.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Human beings are manifesting his glory because we are created in his image and we're trusting his promises, so we make him look gloriously trustworthy.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: The public display of the infinite beauty and worth of God is what I mean by glory.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: God's glory is manifis, infinite worth, value, and perfection.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Like many other theological concepts that we have in the Bible, the concept of God's glory is an awareness that we have of it, but we can never fully completely describe it or explain it.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: The word glory is translated heavy weight, meaning it's the heaviest, biggest, grandest thing about someone.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And because God is the biggest, the grandest, the most perfect entity in the entire universe, his glory has the heaviest weight to it.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: It is the best.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, his glory appeared to the people of Israel in a cloud of smoke by day and a fire, a pillar of fire by night.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And that was the visible manifestation of his glory and his power, and it was known as the Shekinah glory that followed them, that led them.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: And that is the Hebrew name given to the presence of God dwelling on earth, the Shekinah glory.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: That's how Israel experienced God manifesting himself to them.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: For believers in the church age, God's glory is inside of you through the Holy Spirit.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: It's in you.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Anytime you are caught up with how perfect, how holy, how majestic, how valuable God is, you are experiencing a demonstration of His glory inside of you.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And you know what that feels like.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: It just wells up in you, and you just, you just, there's just something so different about that than any other emotion that we have.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: When your worship of God, either in the privacy of your own home or in corporate worship, um, when when that takes place, it is a display of his glory that is that is inside of you and is coming out, bursting out in song or in worship, in praise of him.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: Every time you see some glorious display of nature, like a sunrise or a sunset or the majestic mountains or the heavens or anything else in all creation, when you see that and you are caught up in awe of that sight, that is because of the glory that is inside of you and that is out there and that is everywhere.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: His glory is everywhere.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, that glory was displayed in the portable tabernacle that traveled with the people in the wilderness for those 40 years.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: In Jerusalem, the glory of God manifested itself in the temple in Jerusalem, and that's where they would see it.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: But today it manifests and rests in this temple, in your temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit inside of you.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 3, 16, 3.16 says, Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?
7:57
SPEAKER_00: We are now the dwelling place, his temple.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Only this temple is no longer in a fixed location.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: This temple gets to move and travel and talk and tell other people about our glorious God.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: We get to, this temple gets to take the gospel to people who need to hear it.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Wherever, and it goes with us wherever we go.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: When the disciples and the believers, in in after Jesus' ascension, when they were gathered in that upper room and the Holy Spirit comes on upon them at Pentecost, they immediately spilled out into the streets.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: It was just like they're filled and they just take off and go.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Because the Spirit empowered them to do that.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And it was so important that people began hearing about the life, the death, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that the power, the spirit just empowered them to go out.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: And Acts 4 2 4 47 says, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: The glory just spilled out of them in a tremendous way.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: The early Christians are no different than we Christians are today.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: We have the exact same Spirit living in us, moving in us, enabling us to do what he wants us to do.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: When we receive Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: We are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and we have that power working in us.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Everything in this earth is made for the display of God's glory.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: When the angels announced the Savior's birth, they were joined by the heavenly host glorifying God.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: When the shepherds return after visiting the Christ child in the manger, they come back glorifying God.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Physical creation incessantly glorifies God.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Day after day after day they pour forth speech.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Night after night they reveal knowledge.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Their voices go out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Seldom in Scripture do we really see the unseen reality become seen.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: We become visible.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: We don't usually see that.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the book of Job when God pulls back the curtain and allows us a glimpse of heaven with Satan coming and accusing Job.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: We see it with the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus when he is transformed.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: We see it with John, the apostle, when he is exiled on the Isle of Patmos and he receives the book of Revelation.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And we see it, um we see it obviously with Jesus.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: But we most beautifully see it in Isaiah chapter 6, when God parts the heavens to reveal his glory to this prophet Isaiah.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And this amazing encounter with God completely changes Isaiah's life forever.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to look at that in detail.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: First, we get a revelation of God's glory.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: This is what Isaiah experiences.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Above him were seraphim, each with six wings, with two wings.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: They covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: At the sound of their voices, the door posts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Woe to me, I cried, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: With it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall we send?
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And who will go for us?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Here am I, send me.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: He said, Go and tell this people, be ever hearing but never understanding, be ever seeing but never perceiving.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Make the heart of this people calloused, make their ears dull, and close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: The setting of Isaiah chapter 6 that we just looked at here is the year 742 BC.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Uzziah, King Uzziah, had been a good king, and there were only eight good kings in the southern kingdom of Judah out of 20 kings.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: And there were no good kings in the northern kingdom of Israel, which had 19 kings.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Isaiah had been a friend of King Uzziah, and now he is dead.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: With this death, the hopes of many probably died too.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And now that he was dead, his evil son is going to take control of Judah.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: God uses Isaiah's grief and his sorrow to break through and reveal himself to Isaiah.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah probably was clearing up some things in the temple for the night and closing down the temple as they did back then when all of a sudden a shaft of glory probably broke through.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, Isaiah enters into the glory of the Lord, into the heavenlies.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: He looks past the curtain, he looks past the Holy of Holies, and he looks straight into the heavenlies.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: It says Isaiah saw the Lord, and that word for saw is the ordinary word to see.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: He is seeing the Lord God.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is very much aware of the physical that he is physically observing this site.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah looked up and he saw the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: When we read of men in the Bible who have a vision of the Lord from down here to up there, the Lord is always on his throne, high and exalted.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: He is the Lord Almighty, and he has all authority.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: There is no other with his kind of authority.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: The train of his robe fills the temple, and that is the symbol of his sovereignty, his train.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: It completely fills the temple.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: The robe of a king reflects his status, his wealth, his power, his influence, his majesty.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: And God's train that is on full display for Isaiah to see.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: It's the majesty that surpasses all human majesty.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: There is no one more majestic than our God.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: He is the King of Kings and He's the Lord of Lords.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: Above the Lord, Isaiah sees Seraphim, heavenly angelic beings like none he had ever seen before.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: And the word seraph means to burn or fiery.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: They are angelic burning beings and they are burning with a bright light above the Lord.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: The seraphim are attending him, and they are still surrounding him and above him, and they are ministering agents and servants.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: They have six wings with two they are covering their face.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: And even though they themselves are glowing and are radiant, they are not as radiant as the God they love.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And so they cover their eyes because of the radiance.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: They cover their eyes because of the humility that they have before their holy God.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: The seraphs hide their faces, expressing that humility.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: With two, they they cover, with two wings, they cover their feet, representing that they are not walking in their own will, but only in the will of God.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Unlike Satan, Lucifer, they are walking only in the will of their God.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: In their joy and to be in his presence, they call out to one another, giving praise to him, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: You would expect them to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his holiness instead of his glory.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: But the public display of his holiness is glory.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: The public display of his holiness is glory.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: When God's holiness goes public in the earth, the angels call it glory.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Not once holy, not twice holy, but holy, holy, holy.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: The highest degree of holy, there is no one holier than our God.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: The Father is holy, the Son is holy, God the Spirit is holy.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: The word for holy in Hebrew is kadash, and it means distinct, unique, set apart.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Much like the word sanctification, which means set apart.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: We use all of the attributes of God to explain what holy means.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: His love is a holy love, his mercy is a holy mercy.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Holiness is the nature of our God, and it is part of everything He is and everything that He does.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: We can say that the Lord is morally excellent, but that doesn't reach the heights of His holiness.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: We can say that the Lord is infinitely pure, but that doesn't reach the depths of His holiness.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: We can say that the Lord is perfect in righteousness, but that doesn't re reach the width of it or the length of his holiness.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: No one is holy like our God.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: No one.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: We get to experience that.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: And like the seraphim, it sometimes moves us to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God Almighty.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: The other key word here is glory, and in the Hebrew it's kavad or kovod, however you say that.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: And the the basic idea of this word has to do with weight.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Again, we've seen this being weight, a heavy weight.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: To describe God as glorious means that he is the most glorious person in the universe.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: No one is weightier than our God.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen it?
19:11
SPEAKER_00: We have seen it.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it in sunrises and sunsets.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it at night when he is displaying his glory.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it in the face of a child.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: We have seen his glory.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: God possesses eternal glory from all eternity, and he can never have more of it than he has now.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't grow in holiness or glory.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: The seraphim cry out, holy, holy, holy, first one and then another, kind of in response to one another.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Revelation, John, in John, in Revelation 5.11, John the apostle has a vision of the heavenly throne room, and he writes, I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: They encircled the throne, and in a loud voice they sang, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: A great multitude of angels praising God, praising Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah doesn't say how many, how many seraphim there were that were proclaiming this in his presence, but at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: The temple of God moved, it shook, it trembled because God was in the house.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Because God was there, and his angelic hosts are giving him praise that literally is shaking the room.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine this sight?
20:56
SPEAKER_00: The weight of his glory has just entered the house and it's and it's smoking and it's shaking.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: It's trembling because he's there.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: It's filled with the Shekinah glory of God, and nothing can stand before him.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle John experienced again experienced this in Revelation 15, 8.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: It says, and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Both the Apostle John and the prophet Isaiah experienced the glory of God as multitude of angels praise him, and his temple is filled with that glory.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: I can hardly wait.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: I can hardly wait.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: In the book God's Glory Alone, David Van Druam Drunen says the Westminster shorter catechism begins by asking, What is the chief end of men?
21:58
SPEAKER_00: and proceeds to answer the chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: The primary go primary goal and purpose of our entire existence is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: The confession begins by pointing God's people to the glory of God alone.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: While God's glory should indeed be a Christian's chief motive and goal in all our conduct, we must remember above all that glory is the Lord's and that in all his work he glorifies himself.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: With this truth at the center, we are able to recognize our call to glorify God for what it really is: God's work in us.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: So he manifests his glory through us.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: How astounding that the way God seems most delighted to glorify himself is by enabling his treasured people to enjoy him in the glory of the new creation.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: God's glory has everything to do with him from first to last, and yet by his grace, it has everything to do with his work in us and through us.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: In and of ourselves, we cannot contribute a single speck to God's glory, but in God's self-glorification, he manifests his glory unto us and upon us, such that he is glorified in us and through us.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: He himself is the origin and author of his glory.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: God needs no one and no thing to make him glorious.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: He glorifies himself by calling us, sinful as we are, to participate in his own glory.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: This is the thought that has kept me pondering this for so long.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: How is it that he cares enough to bring us into the fold and then say, I want you to be little lights for me.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go shine your light so that everybody can see the glory of God that is living inside of you.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: It's profound.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: It totally is profound.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard to grasp.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that we can truly grasp it.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: And it and it because it describes how beautifully God man has manifested through us.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but that's what I want.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't want or need for others to think good thoughts about me, but I want to bring my God that I love above all things.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: I want to bring him glory.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: I want to bring him honor, the honor that is due his name.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: This is the glory that Christ was desiring when he says, and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: He laid it all aside.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the could um he took the garments of his glory and he laid them aside.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And he took on human flesh when he came.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: And so now at the end of his life and the end of his ministry, he's saying, I can't wait for it again.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: I get to have it again.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Come on me, come upon me.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Everything that I had to lay aside, I'm gonna get back.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: And then in 1724, he says, Father, I want.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: I want those you have given me to be with me where I am to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me from before the creation of the world.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' last will and testament.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: This is what he is asking the Father for, knowing that in just a few short hours he's going to sacrifice everything for the will of the Father.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: How would the Father not give him that?
25:56
SPEAKER_00: There's no way the Father would not give him that.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: He's going to give him what he asks for.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: And what he asks for is for us to experience that glory.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: For us to get it.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: If you want it the way Jesus wanted it and the way I want it, then you will take your surrender very seriously.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Because that's an avenue, that's a road to get to that place where we get to experience more of God.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Next we see that the revelation of God's glory brings conviction.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: When Isaiah sees God's holiness, he responds, Woe to me! I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: The revelation of God's glory convicts Isaiah of his own sinfulness in the depths of his being, kind of sinfulness.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And he fears that he's going to die because he has been in the presence of God and he knows that anyone who sees God will die.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Woe in the Hebrew is the word oi.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Oi! I always picture it with oi.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Somebody hitting their head, you know, with oi in a very distinct Jewish accent.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: And it's an ex in it's an expression of distress.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: He's in absolute distress.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know what to do with himself.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: He's just like, I'm at the end of myself because I've seen God and I'm gonna die.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm toast.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: But in the presence of the Holy One, he cries out, Whoa! In the sight of the seraphim, with their humility before God.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: With the thundering sound of his praise, with the smoke-filled temple, with everything shaking.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: That would reduce you to oi, wouldn't it?
27:53
SPEAKER_00: That would be terrifying, terrifying.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And he cries out, holy, holy.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: He can't cry out, holy, holy, holy, like the seraphim do, because his lips are unclean.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: He is unclean.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: He's in a condition where he can't do what they can do.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: And an unclean lips are evidence of an unclean heart.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he knows.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: The closer we get to the holy one, the more we will recognize our unholiness and our need to be cleansed.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: It's only when we see God for who he really is that we can see ourselves for who we are.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: And when our view of God changes, our view of ourselves.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: If we want to be surrendered to the will of God, it would require us to look up and see the Holy One and catch a glimpse of his glory.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: And that will lead us to look in and see our uncleanness before him.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says, this is a critical section.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is probably the finest person in the land.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: People often can compare themselves with others and come out looking fine.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: The standard, however, is the glory of the Lord.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: There's an old saying, if you have never caught sight, literally or figuratively, of the sublime, you have never really seen yourself.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: One of the problems in our society is that we too often compare ourselves with others on the horizontal.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: We compare ourselves with ourselves.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: And we think, well, we're not so bad.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not so bad.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: I kind of have it together.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Kind of, maybe.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: But comparing ourselves with our peers doesn't accomplish what God wants us to understand.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't accomplish what He wants it to understand.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: Because if we want a more realistic picture of who we really are, then we have to see ourselves and how we measure up to our holy God.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Because you're never going to feel okay with yourself when you measure yourself by a holy God.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: You might feel okay with yourself if you measure yourself up to somebody else.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Because we can always find somebody who's in a worse position and condition than we are.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: But you will never find anyone who is in a more perfect condition than God.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: And so he's the standard.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: A vision of God will change how we see ourselves.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: And that vision of our true self will bring conviction and it will bring repentance, which leads to forgiveness.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Confession brings complete forgiveness.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah confesses his unclean condition and then the Lord acts.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And then the Lord acts.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: With it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says, We know this is symbolic because never in the sanctuary was sin removed by searing the lips from with a coal from the altar.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: This is a heavenly scene, and the heavenly correspondent to the coal is meant.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: The coals were the instrument of consuming the sacrifices that became the sin offering.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: The point is that the prophet was cleansed by direct divine intervention.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: The focus on the lips is on the lips because they represented the sinfulness of the prophet.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: The point here is that Isaiah's sins were forgiven.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: God will not bring them up again.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that the Old Testament believers did not know and could not know was how who would ultimately pay for these sins.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: But God knew.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: And based on that perfect sacrifice, which by the way was from before the foundation of the world, he could guarantee forgiveness.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: They had his word on it.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Nothing, notice the sequence here.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Confession precedes cleansing.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: His confession of his sin and his uncleanness prompted God to act.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: And then the Lord cleanses him.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: The seraph takes that burning coal from the altar of God, and that altar was a place of sacrifice, of cleansing, of purification.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: The perfect, righteous, holy Son of God would ultimately sacrifice himself on the cross, the altar, for the sin of the world, so that we could be forgiven of our uncleanness.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: How cool that God called a man with unclean lips to serve him as a prophet.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: To serve him as a prophet.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: And one of the finest men in the land.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And yet still he needed to be cleansed.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: That gives us hope, doesn't it?
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Because the same is true for us.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: When God calls us, he will prepare us for the work he calls us to do.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: When God calls, he equips.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Purification and cleansing is what I pray that we have been doing the last eight weeks of this study.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what I pray has been going on.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: Is that you have been catching a greater glimpse of your God so that you can see the uncleanness, the sinfulness in you, the things that need to be purified, given over to God, repented of, and cleansed from.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: That's what I pray has been going on.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: We have seen how important obedience is to that process and how that first level of obedience leads to greater levels of obedience.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see here.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness brings obedience to the call of God.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: Whom shall I send?
33:40
SPEAKER_00: And who will go for us?
33:42
SPEAKER_00: For us.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah responds, Here I am, ooh, ooh, here I am.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Send me, send me.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah wants to be the answer to God's question.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: No hesitation, no delay.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: God is looking for someone to send, and Isaiah instantly says, Here am I.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Bible.org says, Send me, not I will go.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: That would be presumptuous, but send me.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: An imperative is a request for the divine authority that goes with the mission.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah wants to be sent with the authority of his gracious God.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: He has seen and he has heard the angelic servants.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: He has seen the glory, the majesty, the holiness.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: He's been purified of his sins by the grace and mercy of the Holy One.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to serve the King, the Lord Almighty.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: One cannot hear the call of God until there is sanctification, until there's some cleaning up.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: And once we are forgiven and walking with God, then we can hear his voice and his word.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: We have to be on speaking terms with God.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: We've got to have that cleansing that we're submitting ourselves to all the time.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: So that when he says, do this, we do it.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: And we do it in obedience immediately.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: A.W.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Tozer says, God will unveil his glory before his servant's eyes, and he will place his treasures at the disposal of such a one, for he knows that his honor is safe in such consecrated hands.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: If we don't have consecrated hands, if we don't do the put forth the effort and do what we need to do to make sure that we are where God wants us to be.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: God is looking for people who will go and tell.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Go and tell this people.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: What Isaiah was going to tell the people was difficult for them to hear.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: It was very difficult for what he was going to say to them.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: The message was basically judgment is coming.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is on the horizon.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Captivity is coming.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Lancelot Andrews says, it is not our task to tell people what they want to hear.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: We must tell them what in some sad future time they would wish they had heard.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: What a quote.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: What a quote.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: It would be much easier if Isaiah had a positive message to proclaim, but the message that Isaiah and all of the prophets, including John the Baptist, including Jesus, was repent.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Repent.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: Turn from your sin, repent, or perish.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's not a popular message.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a popular message then, and it is still not a popular message now.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: But we must be willing to go where he sins, speak what he wants us to speak.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: It may not be popular and it may not be what people will want to hear, but we are to proclaim the Word of God to people that He leads us to.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: So what have we seen here?
37:36
SPEAKER_00: We've seen that revelation leads to awareness of sin.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Awareness of sin leads to confession.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: Confession brings cleansing.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Cleansing enables hearing.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: And the hearing leads to the commission.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: Awareness, confession, and cleansing.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: When we do that on our part, it shows God that we are open to him.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: That we're not defensive and that we're not self-protecting with him.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: It shows him that we're ready for him to do what he wants to do in us and through us.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Hearing implies that we've spent time listening to his word.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Commission means that we're prepared for a specific call that he might place on us.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: And all of this signifies action and responsibility on our part, right?
38:33
SPEAKER_00: On our part.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, many of us have approached our faith as something passive.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: We come to church or Bible study and get.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: And to experience more of him in a significant way implies more effort on our part.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Not legalism, but effort to get to that place.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: When we put forth the effort, we will be dramatically changed by it, and we will be very useful in his kingdom to go out and to touch others.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: From Isaiah's example, which God has graciously given us in his word, we must see that we need to look up and see our glorious God, the King, the Lord Almighty, in his holiness and glory, in his splendor and his majesty, high and exalted on his throne.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Continue to look up, ladies, every single day, day after day after day.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: Look up.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: Don't be tempted to look at others and compare yourself to others and to their spiritual lives.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: Make your spiritual life what God wants it to be with him at the center more and more and more.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: And then look in and see your sinful condition.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: Let him take care of it.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Let him deal with it.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: Confess it and repent it.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Keep your life pure from the people or the things that want to take the place of Christ on the throne of your heart.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Take care of it.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Make sure that he's at on the throne of your heart.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: So that then you can look out and see the needs of others and obey his call and his commission.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: And be determined to be obedient to any call that Christ gives you.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: Because he first gives you little calls, and then he gives you bigger ones, and then he gives you bigger ones.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Because he wants to grow you.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: And if you're faithful with the little, he'll bless you with much.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: And then go and tell people what they need to hear.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is coming.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: The end is near, so repent.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Christ for salvation and behold the King of Glory.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Always take every opportunity to say what someone in the future would have wished you had said and told them.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: When others catch a glimpse of God's glory, they will thank you for speaking truth to them.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: When we see the glory of the Lord Almighty, it changes the purposes of our life, just like it did Isaiah.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: Your surrender process is not over.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Most likely, it's just beginning.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: It is just beginning.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And it will continue until you cross over to the other side.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: More and more and more.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Keep that fire burning in your soul.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: To know God more and more and more deeply.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: To give him greater access, to see the uncleanness, and then deal with it.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: To repent, to confess, so that you can be healed, so that you can behold more and more and more of his glory.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 22, 1 through 21 says, Then the angel showed me the river of water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great city street of the city.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: There will be no more night.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: The angel said to me, These words are trustworthy and true.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Look, I am coming soon.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: And when I heard them and had seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: But he said to me, Don't do that.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Worship God.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Then he told me, Do not seal up the words of this prophecy.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: Do not seal up the words of this prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: Look, I am coming soon.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: I am the root and offspring of David and the bright morning star.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: And let the one who hears say, Come.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: He who testifies to these things says, Yes, I am coming soon.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Come, Lord Jesus.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: Come, Lord Jesus, in all of your glory.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: How we long for that day.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: When you will come and take our breath away.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: With how glorious, how majestic you are.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: Until that glorious day, Lord God.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Keep working in us.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: Don't be satisfied from us with the little that we can give you.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: Keep, keep, keep drawing us to more and more and more, giving us a thirst and a hunger for more of you.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: So that we can have those moments when the glory breaks through for us.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: In our homes, in your word, in church, in the car, in everywhere.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Just so that we get those glimpses more and more and more of you.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: It makes us long for heaven.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: It makes us so want to be there when we see those things.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for initiating this process of surrender and thank you, God, for maintaining it until you take us home.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that you are faithful and true.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: And that you will do all of this for us forever and ever.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: We give you praise and honor and glory.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: That is due your name, Lord God, Lord Jesus, and Lord Holy Spirit.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: And pray in your name and all God's girls said.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: Amen.