ISAIAH 62007 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Isaiah 6

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007. Isaiah chapter 6, starting in verse 1 it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Verse 3. Verse 4.

Here as we begin in Isaiah chapter 6, we have this incredible scene, this awesome scene that Isaiah describes of this vision that he has of being in, or actually the Lord taking him into, the throne room.

And he sees the Lord high and lifted up. And he describes this incredible scene with these seraphim, these angels flying about and crying out to one another. And crying out with such a voice that the doorpost was shaking. The whole room was shaking because of the magnitude of their praise.

The whole place, it says the whole temple was filled with the glory of the Lord and his train filled the temple. This incredible scene of God Almighty and Isaiah standing before him.

He begins in verse 1, letting us know that it was the year that King Uzziah died. Now, we know by this that this was early in Isaiah's ministry. It possibly is the first time that he was really called by the Lord to minister as a prophet, or perhaps he had been ministering, just as we've been reading chapters 1 through 5, and here now, still early in his ministry, he has this incredible experience with God Almighty.

King Uzziah was a very interesting king. I would encourage you to check him out in 2 Chronicles 26 this week, as you have time. He was a very prosperous and successful king. He did what was right in the Lord's sight.

until he was very successful and then he began to be lifted up in pride and he goes into the temple to burn incense to the Lord, which of course was a job that was only for the priest. And the priest tried to stop him and he became angry and decided, no, I want to do this anyways. And so the Lord actually struck him with leprosy as a result of going into the temple where he was not supposed to be as king to serve as priest.

And so he was isolated for the rest of his life. But overall, he was a good king. The Bible says that he was a good king. He did what was right, except for that lapse at the end when he began to be lifted up in pride. His son, Jotham...

began to reign as he was isolated and then, of course, took the throne as his father died. And he was a good king as well. He followed the ways of the Lord. But what's interesting to me, and this is the context of where Isaiah is as this is happening, King Uzziah has died. Now Jotham is on the throne. King Uzziah was a good king. Jotham was a good king.

But the scriptures tell us in 2 Kings 15, verse 3, during Uzziah's reign, it says that the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. So they had a good king, Uzziah,

But the people still did not follow the Lord as Uzziah did. They still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, which meant that they were worshiping these other gods. They were worshiping false gods.

And then in 2 Chronicles chapter 27 verse 2, under the reign of Jotham, it tells us that he as well was a good king and followed the ways of the Lord. But it goes on to say, but the people still acted corruptly. The people still acted corruptly. And I point that out to give us insight to where Isaiah is at and the people that he was ministering to.

There was godly leadership. They had a godly heritage of these men who followed the Lord. Of course, they had the scriptures with them. Not the complete scriptures that we have today, but they had the law, the writings of Moses and some of the other prophets. They had all of these advantages in a relationship with God or as being the people of God, but the people...

And it says,

And it leads me to question you and I as well. Where are we today? As I've been sharing in the book of Isaiah, it's a call to holiness for you and I. Isaiah is a call back to holiness. We've been through Song of Solomon, which we talked about so much, the love relationship that God desires with us and the intimacy that we can have. But

that is not the limit of the relationship that we have with God and the limit of God's character. He is a holy and just God and He desires and requires for us to be holy. And just as Isaiah was calling Judah back to holiness,

The Lord has us here in this portion of Scripture, in this book for this season at Living Water, and He is calling us to holiness. He's calling us to right living. He's given to us godly leadership. He's given to us a godly heritage. We have the Scriptures before us, but are you still acting corruptly?

Are you still worshipping other gods and sacrificing in the high places? We have all the advantages. We have everything for us. We need to be called back to holiness. We need to live according to God's standards.

That's what's taking place here. That's the backdrop of what Isaiah is experiencing. He looks around and he sees the people corrupt, and then he's caught up into heaven, and he sees the contrast, this incredible scene in the majesty of God.

and holiness of God as He is high and lifted up. He's not down low and just kind of common and nothing real big about, but no, He's high and lifted up. He's exalted. He's lifted high. He's set apart. There's miles of difference between Him and us. That's what holy means. It means to be set apart. God is set apart. He's not anything like us.

In a good way. He's way better than we can imagine. He's far more infinite than we can understand. In good things, in love and in holiness. And so he's high and lifted up. And there's these seraphim there that represent that for us. They cover themselves completely in his presence.

They're not worthy to be in his presence. They're covering themselves from head to toe, covering their face, covering their feet, flying about and praising him, crying out, holy, holy, holy. Why three times do they cry out holy? You think it was just so that it would rhyme? You know, they could sing this song and it rhymes. Every line ends with holy. That's easy.

No, the emphasis here is that He is holy. It's repeated because He is holy. We could look and talk about the triune nature of God, perhaps commenting on the triune nature of God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, holy, holy, holy. But it's simple enough just to know it's repeated for emphasis.

He's not just holy, he's holy, holy. And he's not just holy, holy, he's holy, holy, holy. Completely far above and better and beyond what we can imagine. He is completely set apart. There is no darkness in him. And it says in verse 4 that the posts of the door were shaken as they cried out in praise. Have you ever had those times where you felt that you just could not praise God loud enough?

You know those times where there's just those times where you're in worship, maybe on your own or with the congregation, maybe on a retreat or doing a service, but it seems God's doing such a great work and He's revealing Himself to you in a way that you just cannot praise Him loud enough. That is how these angels felt, I would imagine.

It's just not loud enough. The best that they can do, it doesn't do justice to how great God is and how good God is. As you imagine the scene, you know Isaiah must have been completely blown away. Just at the overwhelmingness of God being high and lifted up. The overwhelmingness of Him filling the temple. The overwhelmingness of the seraphim shouting and praising God to the point that the temple was shaking.

It would have been overwhelming as he stood there seeing God high and lifted up. And I would challenge you with that. How many of you have had this type of experience where God has revealed himself to you? Have you seen the Lord? Now, that doesn't mean you have to have this experience like Isaiah had, but I would... Well, let's do it this way. I just want to remind us that God is real.

And so if you would bear with me for a moment. If you have had an experience with God similar to this, a time where He has revealed Himself to you that beyond a shadow of a doubt, you know that He is real, that He is alive. You've had the similar experience which has caused you to praise Him with all of your heart. Would you please stand if you've had that type of experience with the Lord that you know He is real? Would you stand?

This is the reality of the God that we serve. He's not far and distant. He's not just some unknown God, but no, he is alive. He is real and he reveals himself to us. All right, you can be seated. Thank you. Just like Isaiah had this experience. Now, we don't live by experiences, but there's those times where God reveals himself to us in such a way that it's this powerful, that it...

marks our hearts and our minds that it stands out that man, God was there and he was speaking to me and he was revealing himself to me. And it's awesome that so many of you stood up. I'm glad that you know that God is real, that he is alive. But I would also continue to challenge you and me as well. When is the last time that we have had this type of relationship or experience with God?

Where God has revealed to us himself that powerfully to the point that we have worshipped him with everything that we have, that it was so powerful and so real that it was life-changing just as it was life-changing in Isaiah's life. I don't believe that every time, you know, every day that we're supposed to have this out-of-body experience with God.

Much of our life, we do walk by faith. We don't have the feelings and the emotions, and we don't have these types of experiences. But throughout our life, more than once, God desires to reveal himself in this way, with this magnitude, with this power. Sometimes I wonder, why do we not have more of these close encounters with God that change our life? Man, we need them. And there's three things that I think we can see here from...

The experience that Isaiah had as God was ministering and dealing with him. And that's what we'll look at in the rest of our portion together. First of all, we may not have these encounters with God because we do not want to deal with the sin in our lives. Again, it's a call back to holiness and we need to deal with the sin in our hearts. The second reason is

We may not have these type of encounters in relationship with God. It's because we're reluctant to be available to God for him to use us.

You know, it's those times where you know what God has spoken to you and you don't want to do it. So you don't really enter in and spend time with him. You don't really draw close to him because you know what he's going to tell you and you don't want to hear it and you don't want to do it. So you just kind of go through the motions and kind of keep your distance from the Lord and you don't draw close to him and allow him to use you the way he wants to. You don't want to make yourself available to him.

Maybe because you know he's going to deal with that sin in your life, or maybe because you know he's going to ask you to do something that he's already asked you to do that you don't want to do. Or the third reason we may not have these type of encounters with the Lord is because really we are not seeking the Lord. We're not seeking him with all of our hearts. The first one, I would encourage you this evening, let's deal with our sin and look at verses 5 through 7.

Isaiah's response to this whole scene, this incredible scene, he says,

And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. Isaiah, in seeing this scene in heaven, seeing the Lord high and lifted up, seeing this marvelous praise going forth, his response is, Woe is me. Woe is me. It's a cry of sorrow and despair.

Really, what's going on? He says, I'm undone. Isaiah thinks he's a dead man. He thinks he's going to be judged right now. He's saying, woe is me. I'm a dead man. I'm standing in the presence of God. Something's not right here. He's there in the presence of the Holy God. And as a result, he sees his own wretchedness. In him is light. There is no darkness at all. And so as he steps into his presence, he steps into the light and he's able to see that

The dark corners of his heart. He's able to see the issues in his life. He's able to see his own wretchedness. It's much like Job when Job saw the Lord. In Job chapter 42 verses 5 and 6, he tells us that, "'Hey, I've heard you talking to God by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.'"

So you cannot really see the Lord without seeing your own wretchedness, without abhorring yourself and causing you to repent. Peter also demonstrated this in Luke chapter 5 verses 8 and 9. When they caught this incredible catch of fish at Jesus' word, he kneels down before him and he says, "'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.'" He recognizes who Jesus is.

And he recognizes who he is, a sinful man. And so Isaiah thinks, this is it for me. Look at me. I'm wretched. I abhor myself. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. There's wickedness in me. I have a wicked heart. Wicked lips. There's a connection between the lips and the heart. Jesus tells us that it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

James tells us that if anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body. Isaiah realizes, I'm a sinner. I fall short. He steps into the light and he sees his own sinful condition. And it's interesting, as he cries out,

Woe is me. I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips. What he is really doing is agreeing with God about his sinful condition. He's agreeing with God about who he is and the sin that's in his life. And you know what happens when you agree with God about your sinful condition? The scriptures tell us quite clearly. He's faithful and just to cleanse you when you agree with him about your condition.

That's what the word confess means. It means to agree with God. Yes, Lord, I am a sinner. I live in violation to you. I rebel against you. I walk in uncleanness. And so Isaiah agrees with God about his condition. And a seraphim goes, one of those angels goes and grabs a coal from the altar with tongs and takes it to Isaiah and touches his mouth with it. And he tells him, your sin is taken care of. It's purged.

Just like 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. One of the reasons that we do not stay close to God, one of the reasons why God is prohibited really from speaking to us or limited in His relationship to us is because we oftentimes are unwilling to deal with our sin.

We're unwilling to confess our sin. Now, he doesn't require us, and some religions will require very heavy penalties for sinful activity. You may have to walk on your knees for a couple of miles or beat yourself or crucify yourself, or you may have to do this or do that and do these difficult things because you've fallen short and you have sinned. But that is not the way that God deals with us.

He says, you want to take care of your sin? It's easy. It's not the difficulty and you've got to torture yourself. What you need to do is bring your heart into agreement with mine. Confess your sin. Confess that you sin against God. And as you confess, as you look to Him, as you put your faith and trust in Him for forgiveness, believing Him at His word, He will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. He will forgive you as you agree with Him about who you are.

And the sin in your life. The angel tells Isaiah, your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. His sin is purged. Now, this is the Old Testament. This is before Jesus Christ died upon the cross. And this word purged literally means to cover. It means to cover with pitch.

Or perhaps you could think of it this way. If you went to have dinner at someone's house and they had on the table a white tablecloth and you were a little bit clumsy like I am and knocked over your soda and now there's this big dark stain in the middle of the tablecloth.

Well, if you were to take one of the white napkins that matches the tablecloth and just lay it right over the stain, you wouldn't see it there. It would be covered. And that's the idea of this word purged here. The sin is covered. It's hidden. It's taken care of. But it's a temporary condition of being covered until the finished work was accomplished, which was Jesus Christ upon the cross.

The sin issue was ultimately dealt with when Jesus there on the cross said, it is finished or paid in full. And now this side of the cross, now under the new covenant with God, not only is our sin covered temporarily, but if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's taken care of. It's washed away. We need to deal with our sin.

By standing before God honestly, letting Him reveal to us our own hearts and then agreeing with Him and confessing our sin to Him. And as we put our trust in Him and believe Him at His word, He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's one of the reasons why we don't have these times with the Lord. Why our time with the Lord is limited in the way that He speaks to us and ministers to us.

If we're not willing to deal with our sin. Let's come to the Lord and allow Him to do that work. Let's deal with the sin in our hearts. Secondly, let's make ourselves available for God to use. Look at verse 8, what Isaiah says, Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me.

Immediately after this, this is interesting, and this requires faith on Isaiah's part. The angel comes and brings him a coal and touches his lips and says, your sin is taken care of. Immediately or just before, just prior, he says, I'm a dead man. I'm a sinful man. I'm unclean lips and I live among people with unclean lips. I am undone. I'm going to die.

But as that angel touched him, as that angel brought that cold to him, he believed God at his word. He believed him and said, my sin's taken care of. And so when God presents the opportunity, saying, who will I send? Who's going to go for us? Isaiah doesn't say, not me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, I live among people of unclean lips. He doesn't give the same story. Now he says, here am I, send me.

This is faith. This is believing God at His word, saying, yes, my sin is taken care of. Lord, I'm ready. Use me however you want. I'll go. I don't even know what it is, but I'll do it. Send me however you want or wherever you want. He makes himself available for God to use. As we've often heard, God's not looking for your ability, but your availability. And that's what Isaiah does. He says, I'm right here. I'm available. Send me.

Essentially saying, Lord, you know who I am and you know the condition of my heart. And this is something that you and I can say as well. As we come to God, as he reveals our hearts to us, as we confess to him, we make ourselves available to him saying, Lord, you know who I am and you know the state of my heart. You know my struggles. You know my strengths. You know my weaknesses. You know my weaknesses.

You know my victories and you know my defeats. You know I'm not worthy, but if you want to use me, here I am. I'm right here, Lord, whatever you want to do. And what is it that God wants us to do? What is it that he wants us to be available for? Well, we have the general instruction, the great commission in Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20. As Jesus tells us to go into all the earth and make disciples. That's a call to every one of us.

It's what God desires to use you for, to make disciples, to reach out and minister to the people around you. But more than just the general command that's given to everyone, I believe also that God will speak to you specific commands.

Not only as you make yourself available to God, will he use you and speak to you generally in the Great Commission and use you in that general sense, but very specifically in your life and in your workplace and the specific street that you live on and the areas that he has you and the people that he places in your life. He will speak directly, share with that person.

Go over here and minister in this way. Bless them with groceries over here or minister in this way and wash their feet over here. And very specifically, God will lead you and guide you as you make yourself available to him. I like to think of the example of Philip in the New Testament.

In the book of Acts, we find Philip. He's not a disciple in the sense of he didn't walk with Jesus those three years. He wasn't one of the 12 that Jesus picked. He wasn't an apostle. He wasn't like the apostle Paul or Barnabas. He was a man that they chose. They picked him to serve tables in Acts chapter 6.

There was an issue where some of the widows were not getting the same amount and same portions as the other widows of the food that they were delivering and giving out. And so they needed some guys. And so they picked seven guys. And he was one of those seven guys. He had some good qualities and good characteristics about him, yes. But essentially, he was picked. He'll be a good waiter, guys, is really what they were saying.

He's not, what I mean is, he's not the spiritual giant that perhaps we could think of with the Apostle Paul or Peter or James or John that we disconnect ourselves and say, oh, we're not like them. I mean, that's the Apostle Paul. No, this guy's Philip. We can relate to him. And in Acts chapter 8, it tells us that an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Arise, go to the south, go to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. And then in verse 29, it says, The Spirit said to Philip,

Hey, go near and overtake that chariot. Very specific. It wasn't just general. It was, hey, there's a chariot right here. There's this road right here. Go take that road. Okay, there's that chariot. Overtake that chariot. And so Philip goes and he overtakes that chariot. And he hears this guy reading from the prophet Isaiah. And he says, do you understand what you're reading? And the guy invites him in. And he begins to share. And he becomes a believer. He gets baptized right there. See, that's the Lord working.

Philip being available, God speaking specifically and directly, and then God using him to plant seeds, to water, to reach out and to make disciples. I want to encourage you. God wants to have that type of relationship with you. He has that type of relationship with us, that he can speak to us directly and specifically. Now, I'm not saying that every moment of every day that is like that, but there's those times and those who have been around for a while

they can share with you, "Yes, I remember those times. God told me to take a different freeway than I normally take, and it gave me an opportunity to minister where I wouldn't have had that opportunity before." Make yourself available to God. Listen to His voice. Allow Him to use you, and you'll be blown away at how God will use you. So number one, let's deal with the sin in our lives. We need to take care of that. Jesus took care of it at the cross.

Number two, let's make ourselves available for God to use. As we make ourselves available, he'll give us those opportunities to reach out and minister to those around us. Number three, let's seek the Lord. We need to seek the Lord. Look at verses nine and 10. This is the Lord replying to Isaiah. He says, and he said, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.

This is an interesting portion right here, these couple verses. It seems like God's saying...

Make sure they don't repent. Make sure they don't turn back to me. Remember the state they were in? These are the people. They were worshiping other gods. They were still acting corruptly. They had good leadership, godly leadership. They had a godly heritage. They had God's word, but they're still acting corruptly. And he tells Isaiah, go and tell him this. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make sure that this happens. Otherwise, they understand with their heart and return and be healed.

What is this passage talking about? Jesus used and quoted this portion at least twice. We find it in Matthew chapter 13 and John chapter 12. Paul used it twice as well in Acts chapter 28 and Romans chapter 11. But in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus uses it to explain to the disciples why he uses parables in his teachings and ministering to the people. His disciples say, hey, why is it that

Whenever there's a crowd around, you use parables in your teaching. You tell these stories and you don't say things directly. And it says in Matthew chapter 13, verse 11, that Jesus says, I tell these stories because they haven't been given the mysteries of the kingdom. But then he goes on in verse 12.

For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. He says, they don't have the mysteries of the kingdom. You have the mysteries of the kingdom. Whoever has, more will be given. And whoever doesn't have, even what he has will be taken from him. What is Jesus talking about? Essentially, I'll bottom line it, something like this.

God helps you in the decision that you make. The decision that you make regarding him, he will help you and strengthen you in that decision. If you don't seek the things of God, then he will keep the things of God hidden from you. But if you seek the things of God, he will reveal to you and give to you the mysteries of the kingdom. It's somewhat like the relationship that God and Pharaoh had in the book of Exodus, chapters 8 through 11.

Pharaoh refused to let the people go. It says that he hardened his heart there in Exodus chapter 8. And then he hardened his heart again. And then God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He strengthened him in his decision. He said, okay, you don't want to follow me? You don't want to be obedient to me? I'll help you with that. If you choose to follow me, I'll help you with that. But if you choose not to follow me, I'll help you with that. Either way, God is strengthening the decision that Pharaoh is making. And in the same way, with you and I,

The decision that you make regarding God, He will help you in that decision. If you decide, no, I don't want God in my life, He'll help you and He'll strengthen you in that decision. But if you decide, I want God in my life, I want to live in obedience to Him, He will help you and strengthen you in that decision. The principle is, seek Him and you will find Him. God promised that in Deuteronomy 4, verse 29.

It says, you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. If you seek God with all your heart and all your soul, God says, it's a promise, you will find him. Not maybe, not hopefully, without question, without fail. If you seek him, you will find him if you seek him with all of your heart. It's a promise of God. He gave it again in Jeremiah 29, 13.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart, Jeremiah 29, 13 says. See, the point is, the disciples...

Those that he shared, those who had been given the mysteries of the kingdom, were the ones who were seeking God. They were the ones who were seeking God with all their hearts, and so God was ministering to them and speaking to them. Those who heard the parables and didn't have the mysteries, those who didn't understand, it's not that they were complicated, it's not that they were meant to deceive, but they were given in parable form so that if they were not seeking God, they would not receive.

If you seek him, you will find him. Understand that. If you do not find the Lord, if you don't have relationship with God, if you don't have those times where you know that he is real, that he is alive, that he is working, you are not seeking him. Because if you seek him, you will find him if you seek for him with all your heart.

The people of Isaiah's day, the people of Judah, they were not seeking the Lord with all their hearts. And so God sends Isaiah with this message. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. You're going to hear the message, but you're not going to understand it because you're not seeking me. Oh, they came to the temple and they were very religious and they performed sacrifices, but their heart was divided. It was ritual and religion divided.

And they were not seeking God with all their heart. They were worshiping other gods and focused on their own lives and what they wanted to do without caring about what God had said. So when they heard the message that Isaiah brought and all the things that we'll continue to study throughout the book of Isaiah, they did not understand. And we would go, why didn't they understand? Why didn't they get it? Why didn't they repent? Why did they go on to be destroyed by the nation of Babylon?

Because they weren't seeking the Lord. They saw, but they did not understand. And their hearts became dull. Seek the Lord with all your heart and you will find him. God will reveal himself to you and he will reveal yourself to you. And then you'll say, woe is me. And as you agree with God, he'll cleanse you and forgive you. And then he desires to use you to reach out and minister to others. Those who seek him will hear and understand these things.

But those who do not seek the Lord will not understand. And we read about their fates in verses 11 through 13. Isaiah responds and says, Lord, how long? And he answered, that is God answered, until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitants. The houses are without a man. The land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away. And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

Here God is telling Isaiah what's going to happen. He tells Isaiah, deliver this message. You're hard-hearted. You're dull of ear. You're not going to pay attention. You're not understanding. And so Isaiah says, well, how long is this going to go on?

And God says, they're going to be that way. They're going to be rebellious until they force me to bring judgment upon them. They're going to continue to be stubborn until the judgment comes. And God brought the judgment. 150 years later, Babylon conquered Judah and carried the entire nation captive to the city of Babylon, a thousand miles away. It happened again as the people continued to rebel against God and be stubborn, and Rome conquered Jerusalem.

The same thing will happen again during the tribulation period as men's hearts will be stubborn, refusing to seek the Lord, refusing to be obedient to Him, refusing to receive His Word and His Messiah. And they'll be stubborn to the point of judgment until they receive really the penalty and the result and repercussions of rebelling against God and running from God, not allowing Him to work in their life as He wants to.

Now, God always gives hope. In verse 13, He says there's going to be a remnant. Just like when you chop down a tree and that stump remains, there's going to be that stump, that small remnant, that tenth that will remain there and be faithful to the Lord.

He said the holy seed will be the stump. The holy seed, right? It's a call back to holiness. Those who seek the Lord as a nation, they were not seeking the Lord. They were completely in rebellion to Him. They were running from Him. But there are those individuals, those few who continue to seek the Lord and they will be like that stump. They'll remain and they'll flourish. God will continue to work with them. But as a whole, the nation will be judged.

And the same principle goes for you and I. Again, this is a call to holiness for you and I. Will you seek the Lord? Will you meet with Him? Will you spend time with Him? Will you allow Him to reveal Himself to you and allow Him to reveal your sinfulness to you? And when He does, will you agree with God and confess regarding your sin? And will you make yourself available to Him? You don't have to. It's a choice. It's a choice.

But if you will not seek the Lord, if you will continue to harden your heart against the Lord, then we could say, Lord, how long? Until there's utter destruction. Until the judgment of God is complete in your life. You can run from God and resist and be stubborn and be rebellious and not deal with the sin and not live in relationship with God. But you'll find out the way of the transgressor is hard, the Bible says.

And if you don't walk with God, things are going to get tough. Life is going to get more difficult. Judgment will come because God is a holy God. He's a just God. But if you will turn, if you will seek the Lord, if you will deal with the sin, if you will make yourself available to God and seek Him with all your heart, you'll still have trouble, but He'll be right there with you. And He'll be using you to reach out. He'll be using you to impact the kingdom of God.

He'll be using you. You'll be sowing seeds that will be reaping fruit for many years to come. You'll be storing up treasure for yourself in heaven. As Paul said, making for yourself an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. And so this evening, I want to end. God wants us to get right with him. The worship team is going to come up and lead us in a couple last songs. And during this time, I challenge you.

We need to see the Lord. We need to know that He is real. We need to have this type of relationship with Him where He works in our hearts and we praise Him with all of our heart. As they lead us, let's make the doorposts shake as we praise God.

Let's deal with our sin. Whatever God's been speaking to you about, whatever's upon your heart, whatever He reveals to you, as you worship Him, confess. Agree with God and He'll be faithful and just to cleanse you and forgive you. As we worship the Lord, make yourself available

For the Lord to use this night and tomorrow and this weekend and your whole life. Make yourself available to God. He won't necessarily send you to Okinawa, but there's lots of people that you can minister to that are in your life right now that he desires. He loves earnestly and he desires for you to reach out to them and share with them the gospel message and meet their needs and minister to them. Make yourself available to God. Ask God to use you.

And if there's been something on your heart that you know God's been speaking to you about, but you've been running from, hey, He knows who you are. He knows everything. And He wants to use you. Let Him use you. Make yourself available to God. As we worship the Lord this evening, let's seek the Lord wholeheartedly. Let's be consumed by Him. Fill our lives completely with Him. Pursue Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. After we're done worshiping, there'll be people up here. You'll be dismissed, but...

But if you need prayer, we'll be available. We'll continue just to seek the Lord together and allow Him to do the work in us that He wants to do. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.