I serve a holy God
Key Passage: Isaiah 6:1-8
Date: June 7, 2024
Isaiah chapter number six. Let me encourage those online: it is tougher when you’re online to get something out of it. So, Kenna, just encourage you to maybe find a place alone, put the dogs out of the bedroom, or try to get things where you can focus a little bit. If you do that, that’d be so helpful, and it just makes it so much more effective.
Isaiah chapter number six of God’s Word. If we had to put a title on it tonight, we’d put on there, “I Serve a Holy God.” And I serve a holy God. Isaiah chapter number six, a very familiar passage. It’s a wonderful passage in the book of Isaiah. If you’re there.
Would you please stand tonight? Isaiah chapter number six. I trust those online, you’re standing in your living room, on the coffee table or somewhere, and have the Word of God out. If you’re there in Isaiah 6, would you say amen?
Isaiah chapter number 6, verse number 1. The Bible says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, sitting upon a throne high, lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory!’”
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, “Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.”
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then said I, “Here am I. Send me.”
Would you pray with me that God would help us just get a glimpse of a holy God this afternoon? Would you do that? Father, I wish I had a better vocabulary, Lord. You know, I don’t have a broad vocabulary. Lord, I’m not the most articulate person. So, Lord, I’m just trying to express our need of you if we’re going to get a glimpse of your holiness, your righteousness, and your majesty and your power and your might. Lord, it has to be you. Father, I do ask that you see in your spirit, as we’re trying to follow your plan of preaching your word. And, Lord, you said you take that and save them to believe. And, Lord, I preach you take the preaching tonight and salvage our lives, and give us a good glimpse of you, Father, please. And we’ll thank you, Lord, for what you do. We’ll brag on you for it, Lord. And, Father, we ask for all these things in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
It was a little bit of a sad thing in our day and time, in our society, how society and much of Christianity, especially in the United States—maybe elsewhere, I’m not an expert on there—but how it just seems like we’re trying to bring God down a little bit to our level. We are having a casual, almost like a cool type, a hip, a preppy, whatever word you might have, a type of Christianity. It’s almost like we’re trying to bring down God a little bit. And I just want to remind us, by God’s word tonight, that we serve a holy God.
Isaiah saw the Lord, and these seraphim said, “Holy, holy, holy.” Frank, can I remind you, He is a thrice-holy God. Jesus is the express image of the Father, and even society has tried to bring down the image of Jesus Christ to a long-haired, hippie-type, cool-type God in flesh. And friend, that is so far from what the Bible portrays of Jesus. Jesus was holy, holy, holy.
Friend, it’s a good day in America when we realize we serve a holy God. Yes, God’s a merciful, loving, gracious God, but He is also a holy God. If God Almighty would turn His back on His only begotten Son when He took our sin on Him and Jesus had to cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” That’s a holy God. Surely a holy God would turn His back on His sinful mankind apart from the blood of Jesus Christ. We have no chance. We serve a holy God, friend.
Exodus 33. It’s amazing to me. God is meeting with Moses, and He said, “Now Moses, I’m going to let you see a little bit of my glory.” And God says, in order for me to do that, I must put you in the cleft of the rock, the little kind of hollowed-out part of the rock, in a little height. And I’ll put you in there. And my majesty, my glory, is so mighty that before I pass by, I’m going to take my—I’ll put you in the little cleft of the rock, then I’ll put my hand over you, and then I walk by. And as I walk by, I’ll pass you. I’ll lift my hand and let you catch just a little glimpse of God’s glory.
And Moses, after he was inside that rock, and God covered him with His hand, and God passed by, and His glory was just about gone, and God lifted His hand. And the glow on Moses was so much so that when he came down off the mount and the children of Israel saw him, they said, “Whoa, look at that glow! They said, Moses, it’s more than this. The glow of a bow-headed man, your glow was so bright, Moses. We must put a veil over you because God passed by and you got a little glimpse of His glory.”
That’s a holy God, friend. And woe is me, and shame on mankind when I try to bring a holy God down to our sinful level. Shame on us. Shame on me many times when I want to just so casually worship Him or serve Him. He’s a holy God.
It’s always interested me in the book of Daniel, four times. Those people in the Babylonian kingdom, they had gods there. They had their little ‘g’ gods and people they served and all that, worship—excuse me—their little gods. But they said about Daniel four times in that book, “Hey, that man there, the spirit of the holy gods is in him.” It was different. So Daniel’s not just one of these religious people; he’s serving a holy God.
People ought to be able to say, “Hey, those people are different. Their God’s not just some casual acquaintance and some little bitty thing. They serve a holy God.” It makes a great difference. It doesn’t matter if our God is holy and high lifted up or not. You see, when I catch a glimpse of a holy God, it changes me. Everything’s different.
Would you look back? Let’s just read those first five verses again. Would you do it one more time? And let’s just try to grasp it a little bit. It’s so hard to do it. But verse number one there: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, sitting upon a throne high, lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With twain, he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one crying to another—can you imagine? They’re crying to one another—‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory!’”
The posts of the door moved. You talk about a powerful voice. The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Here’s a very important word: then. After he saw the Lord high and lifted up, after the seraphim had said, “Holy, holy, holy,” after those voices were so powerful it shook the pillars of the door, then said I, “Woe is me! I am undone.”
You see, when I get a glimpse of a high, lifted up God, the holy God, you know the first thing it does? It humbles us. We don’t go around saying, “Look at me,” you’re trying to get up, “look at me,” and all the rest of that, and worried about me, me, me. The first thing we do is, “Whoa. Woe is me.”
Can I just say this? Pride and being close to God are polar opposites. Polar opposites. I’ll never be close to God with my pride. Twice the Bible says, “God resisteth the proud.” Friend, I’ll never get close to Him with my pride. An old sinner, the first thing he must do is humble himself, and many a sinner can’t save himself. That’s the first step of him getting saved. The first step of me getting close to God is humbling myself.
Friend, if you get a good glimpse of God, it will not be, “Well, why can’t I do this? Why can’t I go there?” and my rights and me and my. It’ll be all that will be laid aside. It’ll say, “Man, I’m so far from being what ought to be. So far from the Christianity.” It will take all that critical mind and critical thoughts out of our mind and our hearts. It will be no longer all that. It’ll be, “Well, I’ve got no reason to look at anybody else’s back porch. What about my front porch? It’s got too many problems.” Man, it’ll change us.
But say the Lord, high and holy. Psalm 138:6 says, “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off.” What a sad thing. I’ll never get close to Him by pride. If I get a good glimpse of Him, it’ll change me for Him.
I mentioned, I think it was Sunday school maybe, but I had the privilege to go into a political event Friday night. It was in Nashville, and it was a fairly large event, at least for me. I’ve been to a lot of those things like that. Afterwards, Ben Carson was there, and Carol Swain was there, and they were selling their books and signing books, and all that was going on. And the man that was a fundraiser for—I’d seen him raise his hand. So I went and just said, “Hey, thank you for doing your work, making it happen, you know.” And very kind man. And I got to know him, and I really enjoyed speaking with him. I realized real quick—couldn’t I—this is the same man, godly man.
And we just talked. And he mentioned he retired about a year ago from Vanderbilt. He was Vanderbilt’s fundraiser. And he said, “Well, I was hired, really. The goal was to raise $200 million.” And he just kept going. And in my mind, I thought, “What did you just say? Two hundred what?” No, you know, $200 million. Hey, can you come work for our church for a little bit?
But he does do that. But here’s the thing that—I mean, in the last year or so, he’s been really reading his Bible, getting close to the Lord. And you could tell; he’s wonderful speaking with him. Just a good man. And he kind of wanted to get out of the environment anyway, and he doesn’t want to support liberal universities, whatnot. Just a good man. But he said this: He said, “You know, it’s amazing that God would use a sinner like me.” Those may not be exact words, something like that. Maybe he said, “Such a sinful man as me.” And I thought, “This man really knows God right here.” He’s been used in the world and given him accolades and all that, but his comment was, “I’m amazed that God can use such a sinful man like me.” I thought that man’s probably got a good glimpse of God.
You see, when you get a real glimpse of God, it’s no longer about, “Look at me, and I got the issues.” You see how high He is. You know, you get exposed to light; it exposes the flaws. And it’s all the Lord. The first thing he says is, “Whoa. Woe is me. I am an unclean man.”
Notice this. Notice this. Go back to verse number five, would you please? Verse number five: “Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips.” When you get a glimpse of a holy God, it will change your conversation.
Can I just say this? It’ll clean up the cursing and the foul language and the sinful jesting and the suggestive comments and all. It’ll clean up all that. Your tongue will change when you get a glimpse of God. You won’t be criticizing everyone, talking about everybody else. You won’t have a potty mouth. You say, “Hey, man, I’m a man of unclean lips.” He’ll change that.
Let’s keep going here. What does he say? Verse number five there. Then, after he saw the Lord high and lifted up, then said I, “Woe is me,” for I am a man of unclean lips, “and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips.”
There’s a song been out for years, I think, the Macaemies that kind of made it popular in the last bit, but it’s been around for years. The title of it is “Getting Used to the Dark.” It goes like this: “Christians live erect by sin, and we blame it on the world we’re in. We’re saying there’s nothing we can do. Instead of being a shining light, we’re just doing right in our own eyes. As Christians, we’re not doing our part. We’re just getting used to the dark. We’re getting used to the dark, we’re getting used to the dark. We’re not praying to change any hearts. We’re just getting used to the dark. Sin’s all around us, yet we don’t think this world is really as bad as it seems. We just close our eyes to what’s going on. We’re not burdened for the sinner. Man, won’t give a brother a helping hand. It’s time we show this world a little spark instead of getting used to the dark.”
And friend, I’m saying, “Well, I just kind of blend in with this world.” But if I get a true glimpse of God, I’ll say, “Wow, this world is a sinful world. It’s so far from what it ought to be.” When you get a good glimpse of God, television is not quite the same. That old cursing and immorality and drinking and all the rest of that field—it doesn’t bother you. But if you get a glimpse of God, you’ll say, “Whoa, how sinful this thing is.” It’ll change your view of the world. Instead of just blending in, getting used to it all, you say, “Wow, we are so far from what ought to be.” It’s what a glimpse of God will do for you. You say, “Wow, man, you’re a sinful world.”
Did you notice that last part of verse number five? It’s interesting. There’s something to it when he says that last part of verse number five. He said, “Mine eyes have seen the King”—that’s capital K, King—“the King, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.” Now, remember how to start it off in this chapter? “In the year that King Uzziah died.”
Well, he was a good king for the most part. Very good king. Towards the end, he got proud and had a very sad ending to his life. But he’s saying this year, Isaiah was a young man, this year that the king died. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe Isaiah had his eyes so much on the good king. But the good king’s out of the picture. He’s gone. And he said that year when the king died, that’s when I saw the real King. That year I saw the King. He’s not just a king down here; He’s the Lord of Hosts. It changed when he saw the real King.
Well, when I see the real King, the Lord of Hosts, God Almighty, the Holy God, it changes me. Can I say this vision here that Isaiah, I believe as a young man when he had this vision, it changed him for the rest of his life? I mean, this is the calling of Isaiah, calling to the ministry, and when his life just transformed as a young man, and it changed him. We don’t know—some say 63, some 65, 75—when he passed; we don’t know for sure, people argue about that. But all these years, this vision when he saw the Lord, it changed his life, it seemed, for eternity.
When it’s all the real King. Can I just say a word here about that? If we’re not careful, we’ll get so caught up in seeing the kings and the presidents, the politicians. And I’m for all that. A Christian must be involved in that arena. But if I get my eyes on all the kings down here and I don’t see the real King for Him, they don’t change my life for eternity. But I see the real King, and I say, “Hey, listen, that’s transformed me. I’m marching to a higher drumbeat, the heavenly drumbeat.” And I’m not saying don’t be involved in it, but we must see the King. He’ll change us.
Now let’s keep going. Would you look down in verse number six as we’re just kind of going through this, and we won’t be much longer tonight? Verse number six starts the same way verse five started it. Then, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Then once he saw, “Man, I’m sinful, woe is me, my lips are unclean, I dwell in a sinful world.” Then after that, verse number six: “Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.”
Now let’s just stop and think about this. It’s an altar. There’s a fire going. What would they do? What would they do on the altar? They would offer sacrifice. You see, the ultimate sacrifice—I studied in the Son’s—called the ultimate sacrifice is Jesus Christ.
And friend, when I realize, when I realize, “Wow, I’m serving a holy God and I’m so far from what ought to be for Him,” and I go back and realize it was an altar where Christ laid down His life. That’s the only reason I can stand before God and I can stand redeemed. And there was a day and time when Jesus’ blood washed away my sins. And it takes me back to my salvation.
Praise the Lord for every person who gets saved at a young age. Most people that get saved get saved at a young age, and I was one of those. And I’m grateful. No tribute to me for the most part. Just my mom and dad had me in church, and I’m so thankful for that. And they gave me many, many opportunities as a young person to be exposed to the gospel, and that helped my chance to get in at a young age so greatly. I had to make a decision. The Holy Spirit worked on me and gave me a decision, but I had such a welcome opportunity. And praise the Lord for my parents like that. And praise the Lord for everyone.
I look out and see Brother Joshua and Ms. Giselle; they have a little one in the nursery, little Rose, got another one on the way. And praise the Lord for people like that raising their kids in church. Wonderful. I love it. Praise the Lord for it. So we had all of them—it ought to be all across America, it ought to be like that.
But sometimes I’ll see someone. I’ll take Brother Fontaine; he’s already in heaven. And I can see sometimes in Brother Fontaine, he got saved later on in life. And he had had enough time in his life, if you will, to live out some sinful things in his heart. And the Bible talks about the prosperity the fool shall destroy it. And he had lived, oh, as a lost man, long enough to realize, “Man, my sinful ways are messing my life up.” And they began to grasp a little bit, “Man, how hopeless and how messed up my life is without God.”
And it was a glorious day when he got saved. And then when he sold out for the Lord and began to serve Him and see Him, man, it was just life-changing. And sometimes I would see the gratitude in him. And I thought, “I never”—I mean, I was eight, nine years old when I got saved. I hadn’t gotten drunk. I hadn’t done any heroin or, you know, crack or, or, or… Anyway, I was eight, nine years old.
And so if I’m not careful, I can take my salvation, maybe just a little casual—“Well, no big deal.” But, friend, it’s a good day when I realize I want the same love for God that he has. He sees, “To whom little is forgiven, they love little, and to whom much is forgiven, loveth much.” And it’s a good day when I realize the iniquity in my heart, if it had been shown, if I had a chance to live that out—if I didn’t have a godly appearance making me do right as a boy—all that sin in my heart, I was just as wicked, probably more wicked than Brother Fontaine, because I had pride to go along with him. And shame on me if I’m not as grateful that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed away my sins and the iniquity in my heart. And all those wicked desires, He cleanses me of all that.
And when I realize my sinfulness and I was headed to a lake of fire, going to burn forever and ever, every second of eternity, I would be suffering in the flames of hell. And Jesus paid my hell for me. And I’m going to heaven because of the blood of Jesus Christ. It ought to change my heart because of that altar over there where Christ laid down His life for me. It’ll change you. When you realize, “Man, I’m just as sinful as some drunk on some—some person in some prison itself.” If I’d have lived out all the iniquity in my heart, I’d probably be worse off than that man. But these coals off this altar—I don’t want to ever get where, “Well, yeah, I got saved when I was a boy. Praise God, I’m going to heaven.” Man, I don’t have to suffer the flames of hell for a second. And all the iniquity in my heart—my goodness! I’ve said this a while here later, but it’s so true. I’ve got a flesh about ten miles long, and He paid all that, all of it.
When I get a glimpse of that, I see how high, how holy, and how high I should have been, and how it’s just so far from that. And yet the blood of Jesus Christ takes me to that level. It’ll change me. It’ll cleanse me.
Notice this, would you please, about that verse, verse number six? Would you please look at that just for a moment here? “Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal.” It wasn’t something that happened ten years ago. Now, I believe this was a life-changing moment for Isaiah, but, Frank, can I say there needs to be a live coal?
When I was twelve, God really worked in my heart in a great way, and that changed my life. I believe that. But I need to experience at least some of that occasionally. Ten years ago, praise the Lord, you know, God did this in my life, whatever it may be, or however long ago. But sometimes we need some live coals. Leftovers are good, amen. I like some good leftovers. Put them in the microwave. Praise the Lord, I like it. But every once in a while, we need something fresh. Or you have a meeting where you get a hold of God, God gets a hold of you, and you see Him. A live coal.
If it’s just Christianity that I experienced ten, twenty, thirty years ago, after a while, I become like a—I’ve got the ritual down. I’ve been around it long enough, everybody here tonight, you know, we know how to do everything, play everything right, but I become hollow. I got the outward shell, I got all the outward where I look all this to everybody else, but inside I’m just hollow because it’s been so long since I’ve met with the King. And it needs something live, something up to date. God did something to me last week or last month, and daily you’re seeking Him, but sometimes where God Almighty just comes down and says, “Hey, let me reveal myself to you a little bit.” A live coal. Ten years ago, only last old moment—much needed. And we all—we don’t want to become just kind of leftover Christianity.
See, when you meet with God and you go to work the next day, they’ll say, “Wow, something different about him. I mean, I think maybe he’s been with God.” I like—I’ve heard Tony Hudson talk about his dad, Brother Curtis Hudson, back in the day. And he said, “Saturdays, Saturdays—you know, every preacher in the world tries to get thoroughly right with God on Saturday. Now, the rest of the week where sinfulness can be, you know. But Saturdays is our time, you know, we’re trying to get right with God.” And Brother Tony, I’ve heard him talk about it. He said, “Mom says, ‘Y’all be quiet. Dad’s in there studying, trying to get right with the Lord, get close to the Lord.’” And she said, “Y’all be quiet. Dad’s over there meeting with God.”
Every Christian in the world needs sometimes where they have a meeting with God. Get a glimpse of Him. It’ll change you, friend. It’ll make everything different.
Notice what he says here. It’s the altar. It’s a live coal, up to date, if you will. Look at it, verse number six: “Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth.” It’s interesting how much it talks about our mouth and our lips in this passage here. And said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away.” Iniquity. Help me out if you would. Psalm 61:6. If I regard in my… Yeah. It’s that iniquity in your heart, iniquity, sin.
You see, when I get a true glimpse of a holy God, it changes my heart. One Jesus over the Matthews and several of them out, he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And sometimes I’ve not got a glimpse of God. I’ve not seen God because my heart’s just so sinful. We all on our own have a sinful heart. It’s deceitful and desperately wicked; who could know it? And a man must ever once in a while through the blood of Jesus and the altar break through and get a glimpse of God. And when I get a glimpse of a holy God, it changes even my heart. I’m no longer going to point the finger to everybody else. My heart’s different. The inside’s different. My iniquity—oh, I’m not there like I ought to be, but I long to have my heart. “God, would you give me a pure heart?” He’ll get my heart straight and out a little bit, and I’ll go right back to it quick. But if I get a good glimpse of God, He’ll make my heart right. Well, when a heart gets right, then I get to see Him more. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Wonderful thing.
And let’s keep going. What does He say in the bottom of verse number seven there? “That iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.” I used to weld for years and years. Brother Bill—not Brother Josh, but Brother Bill—he’ll know about it. But we would weld maybe mild steel or stainless steel or aluminum or whatnot, and with a MIG gun or wire-feed gun, and you have certain gases you use. And you’d have a tank, you know, and you hook your welding machine up to that, and it runs that gas in to kind of shield the weld, you know. And if you’re changing from one metal to the other type metal, you’ve got to change the bottle of gas out, and you put it. And here’s the thing: when you change it out, don’t just start welding because you still have that old gas in the system.
And here’s the thing: welding, if you weld with the wrong gas, for about three seconds, that equals 30 minutes or so of grinding because your weld gets these little bitty air pockets and a little bit of holes all in it. And you’ve got to grind that out. And nobody likes to grind with the grinders. Amen, Brother Bill? Is that good preaching a while? We’re going to preach the Bible, man. You know, if you weld for a while with the wrong kind of gas, you’ve got a lot of grinding to do. And, friend, that’s just—that equals a bad day. I tell you what, it’s kind of like if your horn gets stuck behind the Hell’s Angels. It’s just a bad day. You don’t talk about that, you know.
And so, you know, they teach you: once you change the gas bottle out, you purge the system. You get all that old gas out of the system and make sure you’ve got the new gas in there before you start. Well, you must purge it. See, when you get a good glimpse of a holy God, it purges the sin out of your system.
You don’t get this type of Christianity where you want to just be so close to sin and you want to flirt with sin and you want to look like the world and talk like the world and act like the world and use music and everything just like the world. And you get these undercover Christians, and only every time you realize they’re a Christian if you talk to them about the Lord, then they’ll say, “Oh, I’m a Christian.” But you never know that by their vocabulary, by where they go, or what they say. You never know that because they never have the sin purged out of the system. But you don’t get it purged out of your system. See a holy God lifted high up, and you say, “I don’t want to talk like the world. I don’t want to act like the world. I’ll be different.” It gets it purged out of there when I see a holy God. It’ll change my heart and my outside also.
Now look at this. Verse number eight. We’re nearing the end. Verse number eight, if you would, please, right there. “Also, I heard the voice of the Lord.” Oh, that’s wonderful. I’ve not heard it as much as I like, but it’s wonderful. Every once in a while, I’m going to get to hear the voice of the Lord. He said, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’” That “us”—that’s the Trinity, friend. “Who will go for us?” Then said I, “Here am I. Send me.”
You see, when you see Him high and lifted up, it humbles you. Oh, my goodness, I’m so far from what ought to be. And this old world, it’s so tainted. Our dog, Dixie, I mentioned this morning, Dixie’s white, and Dixie’s just a beautiful dog. But when fresh snow comes and she goes out there in the snow, it shows you she’s dingy. And when you see God and how pure and white He is, well, you see the whole world so dingy. What a difference.
And then you see that, and that God sends us seraphim, if you will, and He takes that live coal with the tongs off the altar, and you realize all the blood of Jesus. That’s the only reason why I’m saved; it’s because of that. And it takes that live coal, and He touches it to your tongue, and it takes away the iniquity of your heart, and then it purges the sin out of your life. And then God calls you to His service. And He says, “Well, I’ve got something for you to do. I’ve got a lot of jobs, a lot of tasks for you to do.”
I mentioned it earlier that ushers were up here, and it’s been a blessing, and I mean that since COVID and all that. And we’ve had to shift so many gears around here. But man, it’s such a blessing. So many people said, “Hey, can I do this? I can’t do this.” And so many times it’s proactive there. So I’ve already taken care of this, and I’ll do this, and I’ll do that. And man, it’s been such a blessing. And friend, here’s the thing: these people want to serve. It’s not a matter—it’s not a matter—it’s not a matter, “Well, they don’t serve Brother Forney Baptist.” So they want to serve. They want to serve Pastor Pollett. If I understand it right, they’ve got a glimpse of God. And when you get a glimpse of God, you say, “I want to serve. Tell me anything I can do for God. I want to serve. I want to be used by my King. I’ve seen Him high and lifted up. Here am I, Lord.”
And such a blessing. It seems like maybe some of our folks have been seeing the Lord, and they say, “I want to serve. What can I do? You need somebody to ride home, whatever—I’ll do it.” That’s when you get a glimpse of God. And you get a group of people that’s got a glimpse of God, this man, “We want to do something for Him. I want to serve Him.” I’m not sure how old Isaiah was here, but a young man. You had caught a glimpse of God. It changed him forever.
I thought about my dad. My dad smoked and drank, cussed, and all that. He was a functioning alcoholic, but all that. And praise the Lord, at a revival meeting, he met the Lord. He saw the Lord. Sunday. I’ve heard my dad say many times. He said, “I went to work the next day.” He worked at Continental Can in Tampa, Florida. And he walked across the factory, and his job was collecting scrap, and he could just kind of—and so he said, “I could kind of do whatever I wanted to do a lot, you know.” And he said, “By that day, I wasn’t planning on—it wasn’t like he was trying to. He said, but I just—I went all across it, and I was just telling everybody, ‘Hey, got saved last night. Are you saved? Let me tell you how to get saved.’”
He said, “I got home that night. He said, ‘I was worn out. I was tired.’ Usually, I was kind of relaxed. And, you know, he said, ‘I was so tired that night.’ And he said, ‘Why am I so tired?’ And he said, ‘Man, I didn’t even realize. I went over across the whole factory and told everybody trying to get people saved today.’” And honestly, he spent his life doing that. I had the privilege just watching his whole life long trying to get people saved there. Why? Because they saw the Lord. It changed him. You see the Lord high lifted up; it’ll change you. You won’t be the casual, ho-hum. He said, “Lord, here am I. Send me.”
Isaiah, a young man, God calls him to be a prophet. He spends his life, spends his life as a prophet to Israel. Was he successful? Did he have a big, huge church? Not really. In fact, tradition—this is not biblical, but tradition says he was martyred. I’m not sure how old—65, maybe 70. Tradition says they found a hollow tree and they stuffed him inside of that, and they cut the tree down, cut it in half with Isaiah inside of it. I mean, as a young man, he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and it changed him. They said, “Lord, if it costs me my life, here am I.” Oh, it matters if we see a God high and lifted up, holy, holy, holy, or just a casual God.
Oh, when you see Him high and lifted up, you say, “Lord, here am I. Send me.”
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes tonight? I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand. I’m going to ask what we need to tonight, yes, tonight right now, but throughout the week, let’s say, “Lord, I need to see you. I need to see you.” Would you do that? Would you stand where you are? We’re going to have a word of prayer, and we’ll have instruments to play here in just a moment. Would you just spend some time? “Lord, I need to see you.” Friend, if I don’t see Him occasionally, I get cold, and it becomes a ritual, and I become hollow. Oh, would you say, “Lord, I need to see you. Help me to see you, holy, holy, high and lifted up.” Would you let Him know that?
Father, Lord, again, would you reveal yourself to these people? Lord, I know it won’t be my preaching; all that it’ll be you. And would you give them a glimpse of you? Lord, would you give us a desire to see you high and lifted up? Lord, let us see the difference when we see you as you are. Lord, I pray you to help us to not let the world taint our vision of you. Help us to see you as you are tonight throughout the week. And, Lord, we’ll thank you for what you do. By the way, I ask for this in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Would you ask them, “Lord, I want to see you”? Did you do that? Altar, old-fashioned altar, a great place to do that. Wherever you may be at your house, all week long, be one of us in church family. “Lord, we’d like to see you. We need to see you.” Thank you. I remember years ago when you just revealed yourself, and it was—it would change me. It was awesome. But I need a live coal. I need a fresh glimpse of you.
This old kind of bringing God down to our level, just a casual God—friend, it doesn’t produce Christians that are sold out and willing to lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. You get a Christian that truly gets a glimpse of a holy, holy, holy God, and he’ll say, “Oh, Lord, what can I do for you? How can I serve you? Here am I, send me.”
Oh, let’s just go through the week saying, “Lord, I need to see you.” And the times of refreshing come from His presence. And the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy. When you get in His presence, you see Him high and lifted up. It makes a difference for Him. And the end product: what could I do for you, Lord? And it’s just wonderful. And I hope the Lord’s kind of put that desire in the heart. Let’s seek the Lord just to get a glimpse of Him, a real glimpse of Him. It’ll bring your joy and happiness and refreshment.
And the pastor’s got to be quiet because we’re trying to get out of here before it gets dark, amen.
And thank you everyone this evening. Thank you, and I mean that. I know it took extra effort. Thank you for doing that. I know many of you at home, you could not, and I get that. And I understand. And many of you live in different places and all those things. I get all that. And older folks—I was thinking about a year ago, a very icy day, and we had, I think, about four people fall in the parking lot. Praise the Lord, no one was hurt. But as far as I know, no one fell in our parking lot or anything like that today. And I heard someone who fell this morning, not at their house, not here. But praise the Lord, as far as I said, no one hurt. And praise the Lord for that. So we do want to be wise and careful the best we can, and go home. You got some extra time; maybe just spend some extra time with the Lord. “I want to see you, Lord.” A little football doesn’t hurt a little bit in there every once in a while, and it’s some extra family time, too. And let’s just enjoy that. And so thankful for church family. Praise the Lord for a great week in God’s goodness to us, and He has been so very, very good to us. Praise the Lord for it.
Brother Bill, can I get you—I’m going to get this that way because the people online won’t be able to hear. Could you—would you come just dismiss us in order prayer, please, brother? I sure would appreciate that. That would be great. Thank you, brother.
Original File: I Serve a Holy God - Pastor Paul Chisgar 11622 Sunday PM