We will look at an event that took
place in Isaiah’s life and we will each need to ask ourselves if we ever felt
the same about ourselves. If not I pray God would be merciful allowing us to
examine our hearts, because I am convinced if we haven’t then it would be fair
to ask the question; “am I saved, am I truly born again”? If not we need to
seek out God’s forgiveness in earnest, not simply trusting that we will make it
to heaven but of a certainty know we are covered by the blood of the lamb; to know
beyond a question of doubt that God has forgiven us for our sin! If not, we
need to fall to our knees and cry out to the only true God, and not to the
false religions of this world, as they are just illusions, a deception of the
truth and will be found wanting on the day of judgment.
Let us put the scene into context…
Isaiah was a man whom God used to write
one of the books in the bible (the book of Isaiah), a prophet used by God to
speak to His people, who were at the time the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
the Jews were His people! But God in His grace and mercy has also afforded us (non-Jews)
the opportunity to be included into His family if we come through the only true
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; the true Messiah! Without their rejection of
Christ we who were never part of Abraham’s seed would never have been afforded
this marvelous opportunity. But the invitation has gone out far and wide, in
fact I doubt whether there are many places left in the world who have not
received the gospel in one form or another. However there are a lot of pseudo gospels
that will never save a soul. We must be sure!
Are you sure that you have been saved?
If not do not let the sun set until you are sure… Perhaps or maybe is a place
of instability, and who wants to live there?
Here is Isiah’s experience; “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe
filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And
one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with
smoke. And I said:
"Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the
King, the LORD of hosts!"” (Isaiah
6:1-5)
Do we see ourselves as Isaiah saw himself as a man in deep
trouble as he stood in the presence of the Lord? Do we echo the words “woe is
me”? Or do we think because we say we believe but live no differently to the
way we always have that that now qualifies us as Christians? Or do we say I am
not as bad as the next person. If so I would suggest that we believe a lie, we
have been hoodwinked! No one has the right to examine another; we must all
examine our own hearts before God. I would even dare to suggest that
there isn't a person alive today that could have claimed his own self-righteousness like Isaiah
and yet the first words out of his mouth when he saw the brilliance of God was “woe
is me”! This then in my understanding, we must all find ourselves having a
similar encounter, where we utter these words, “woe is me, I am a man of
unclean lips” before we can with any assurance claim to be the children of God!
Where do you fit in with that in mind?
Here
is a man who may help us understand what our next move should be…
“Ye
must be born again.”
-
Joh_3:7
Regeneration
is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation, and we should be very
diligent to take heed that we really are “born again,” for there are many who
fancy they are, who are not. Be assured that the name of a Christian is not the
nature of a Christian; and that being born in a Christian land, and being
recognized as professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless
there be something more added to it-the being “born again,” is a matter so
mysterious, that human words cannot describe it. “The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
Nevertheless, it is a change which is known and felt: known by works of
holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural.
It is not an operation which a man performs for himself: a new principle is
infused, which works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects the entire man.
It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature, so that I am not the
man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is
a far different thing from making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can
do the other. If you have then, been “born again,” your acknowledgment will be,
“O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, thou art my spiritual Parent; unless thy
Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life, I
had been to this day ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’ My heavenly life is wholly
derived from thee, to thee I ascribe it. ‘My life is hid with Christ in God.’
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who liveth in me.” May the Lord enable
us to be well assured on this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be
unsaved, unpardoned, without God, and without hope.” (Charles
Spurgeon)
Signing
off
Tyrone
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