2024-02-11PM- Sanctification and Reflection

The speaker expresses appreciation for Brother Tim's exhortation on holiness. They then turn to Isaiah chapter 6 and discuss the vision of the Lord in the temple. The speaker emphasizes the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. They also make connections to other biblical texts that highlight the need for sanctification. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of recognizing and focusing on the Lord. I appreciate Brother Tim. I appreciate you all, and most of all, I appreciate the Lord. Brother Tim certainly could have gone on with his exhortation about holiness at the beginning of the service, and Brother Tim, are you sure that you aren't the one that's supposed to preach tonight? Because that was a wonderful exhortation, and it really went along with the message well that I'm wanting to preach on tonight, and I'm thankful for it. And I just want to reverence the Lord. I want to reverence the Lord tonight, and I desire your prayers always, and I know you have been praying, and I appreciate that. So I'd like to turn here with you all to Isaiah chapter number 6. Thank you, God, for your blessing. Isaiah 6, starting here in verse number 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. 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 seraphims 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 purged. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray for the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Lord, as I minister to Gospel Light Holiness Church tonight, God, I pray, Lord God, for that great power, Lord, that you have promised in your Word. Lord, I pray that I will do your will in preaching this, Lord God, and that everything would be said that ought to be said, Lord. And I pray, God, that you would put a great desire in us, Lord God, for sanctification. A great desire in us for those who are not saved for salvation. Lord, a great desire for the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Lord, I pray, God, that you would use us. In Jesus' name, please meet us in the altar tonight. Amen. I exhorted the other night about sanctification. And God has put that back on my heart over the past several weeks, actually. And I preached about sanctification from this very text about a year ago. And maybe some of you all remember that. And I can't pull myself away from this great example in the Word of God of sanctification. So, I'm going to use the same scripture and talk about sanctification and reflection tonight. And in this chapter, we can notice the location. This location was a temple, the temple. And this temple was in what we would say is like their church. And so, this church is our temple. And the location was the temple that Isaiah had this vision of the Lord in. And Isaiah saw the Lord, and he had a sanctification experience. And that is what I want to talk about tonight. The Lord sanctified Isaiah in a temple. He didn't sanctify Isaiah in a bar. He didn't sanctify Isaiah on the street. He didn't sanctify Isaiah in a movie theater. And He didn't sanctify Isaiah in a tattoo parlor. He didn't sanctify Isaiah in any of those places. But of all places that God could have sanctified Isaiah, He sanctified Isaiah in the temple. And we can notice the man. Isaiah was a righteous man. If we lived in Isaiah's day, we would see Isaiah. And we would say, that is a great man of God. That is a faithful man. And I would sure like to just shake that man's hand, because that is a man of God. He is holy. That would be our perspective of Isaiah. And we can also notice the Lord. And I believe that is a very vital thing to recognize in this text, that the center point is the Lord. And that is the main subject here, is the Lord's message. And it's the Lord's holiness. And we've got to recognize that. And immediately, the Scripture points at the Lord, and it wants us to see the Lord. And that is what I want us to see at Gospel Light Holiness Church tonight. I want us to recognize the Lord and try to get our focus and our eyes on the Lord, because that is what the text immediately pulls our attention to, the Lord. And the Lord is fittingly high and lifted up. He is declared holy three times by angelic creatures. And we can also see in Revelation chapter 4, where the same angelic creatures cry holy three times. And you've heard, surely, how when they cried holy, holy, holy, a lot of people think, and I say I believe it too, that they were declaring holy three times as a representation of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Holy, holy, holy. They're all holy. And they're all one. And in this text, we see the description of God, and they describe Him as holy. They cry out that He's holy. And you can get the picture that they are straining their voices. These angelic creatures are straining their voices just to cry as loud as they possibly can that God is holy. They're trying to get a message across because that is their job. And they can only see that the Lord is holy. All they know is that the Lord is holy. And all they speak is that the Lord is holy. And that's fantastic. That's wonderful. That's an awesome job to have. And I'd sure like to be a seraphim if I was not a Christian. But I'm thankful that I'm a Christian over a seraphim. I'm thankful that I am a Christian. And I'd rather be an old-time Christian than anything I know. And they declare Him holy. And we see how powerful their voices are as they shout and declare the holiness of God that the posts of the door literally shake. We see how God's train or the border of His garment, His robe, is so long that it literally fills the building. Brother Anthony helped me understand what this could possibly mean after I preached about sanctification the first time about a year ago when he said that at the end of a king's victory in war that a portion of the defeated king's garment or robe would be added to the victor's robe. And we see how God's robe is so long and it is so broad that it surrounds the temple. It literally fills this building up because God has never lost a battle and He never will. Praise the Lord. And even Isaiah declares Him king. Amen. He does. And I'm thankful that we have this picture of the Lord here. And it's one of my favorite examples in the Word of God of God's glory and holiness. But we need to notice the sin. It was a... We can read in verse number five, 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. We notice the sin here. It was a man of God in need of sanctification. The sanctity of God reveals the sinfulness of man. That is exactly what happened here. That God's holiness revealed the unholiness of man. And as I gave that example about how we would see Isaiah as a faithful man and as a holy man, a great man of God, we would see that. But when we see God, we recognize that that reveals the unholiness in us because of the holiness of God. And in Numbers, you can turn with me. Numbers chapter 21. Numbers chapter 21 in verse number four, And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to come past the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore, have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. You don't have to turn with me, but I'm going to turn over to John chapter 3. John chapter 3 verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. We just read about that. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. In 2 Corinthians 5 and 21 it says, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God held a mirror up to us when he lifted up his only begotten Son on that cross. He held up a mirror and he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. 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And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he revealed to us our own sins. And he used the seraphim to do it. But of course, it was God's power that was able to purify him, to purge him from that sin and that iniquity. And we need to look at ourselves. We need to examine ourselves and see what is in our lives. Is there something that is right under our noses? Is it maybe our lips that are unclean? Have we been mocking? Have we been saying things that we ought not say? Have we been doing things that we ought not do? And Isaiah, a problem was addressed in Isaiah's life. And the problem was solved by sanctification in Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus 27 through 8. Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord which sanctify you. This Scripture lets us know that sanctification is a work of both man and God. I can sanctify myself while the Lord sanctifies me. Here in 2 Timothy 2 and 19, 2 Timothy 2 and 19, I had a question in my mind. And I wonder if we have that same question. Anybody here, how can we be sanctified? 2 Timothy 2 and 19 through 21 tells us that we can be sanctified by not sinning. 2 Timothy 2 and 19 through 21 tells us that we can be sanctified by not sinning. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. And if the Lord sanctifies Himself from these, He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. We can be sanctified by truth according to John 17 and 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth. And we can be sanctified by truth according to Acts chapter 26. And you've been here already this morning. Acts chapter 26 verses 14 through 18. We read this in Sunday school. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, but rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles under whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, listen to this part, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. We can be sanctified by God the Father according to Jude 1 and 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. We can be sanctified by the Holy Ghost according to Romans 15, 15 through 16. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort as putting you in mind because of the grace that is given to me of God that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. We can be sanctified by Jesus Christ according to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, 1 through 14. For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Brother Austin, will you come to the piano, please? Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering in burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. You may stand. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Praise the Lord. God is interested in sanctifying Gospel Light Holiness Church. God is interested in sanctifying you. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Praise God. God is interested in sanctifying you. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. God is interested in sanctifying you. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. God is interested in sanctifying you. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. 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Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification. Let us come and seek the Lord for sanctification.