THE KING’S BUSINESS
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have found nothing in it so far as scholar ship is concerned. Scholarship without the power of the Holy' Spirit in the life, is sounding brass and clanging cymbal. I have heard an ignorant old Negro preacher thrill an audience because he knew the Lord, and had been annointed by the Holy Spirit! Brethren, let us put first things first. The glory of God was so powerful in the temple that day that “the posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried and the house was filled with smoke.” Isaiah was face to face with the holiness of God; with the majesty of God; with the power of God. The effect of the vision is recorded in the fifth verse. He saw him self after having seen the Lord. The con trast was irresistible. He said, “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.” The honesty of the man is as extraordi nary as it is refreshing. So many times the element of personal honesty does not appear when you deal with a sinner. In his confession, although it was a short one Isa iah makes five references to himself. When the angel wrestled with Jacob, he was asked to tell his name. When he confessed his name he confessed his sin. The word Jacob means supplanter, swindler or grafter. God changed his name because he was honest enough to confess his sin. Israel means Prince of God. David had the personal element in his prayer. He said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” There are six personal pronouns in the prayer of David. He was honest enough to look at himself. The dishonest man will invari ably answer, “I am as good as the church member.” And always count on it—such people pick out the worst little frost-bitten nubbin in the corn pile when they compare themselves with church members. They refer to some swearing deacon or liquor
drinking steward or rascally elder. When I was preaching in a. town iff Missouri the pastor of the Baptist church came to me and said: A TOUGH BUNCH “I have the toughest bunch here in my church I ever saw. One of my members i's over here in the county jail for stealing. Another lives down here in a disreputable little shack on the river bank and she is liv ing a life of shame. I have another mem ber who has enough liquor in his basement to make half the town crazy drunk.” I said to him, “Why ori earth don’t you turn them out of the church ?” He said, “I came over to tell you that we have just turned seventy-five out.” I said, “Thank God. I believe we will have a revival now.” If every church in this city would clean house by turning out the Godless and unconverted element of their membership, God’s work would be revived and I believe hundreds would be converted. So long as the Godless people outside can say truthfully that there are people in the church who are guilty of gross immorality, the work of God in every community will suf fer violence at the hands of its enemies. One of the greatest tricks of the devil is to get unconverted people-to join the church and then have unconverted people outside of the church stumble over the Godless lives of such church members into hell. A church made up of unconverted members is ■literally a trap door into hell. It does not matter how sinners out of the church meas ure with sinners in the church. The great question is this—How do you measure with Almighty God? Isaiah saw the Lord: then he looked at himself. He said, “I am a man of unclean lips.” His next complaint against himself was this: “I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” He was not any better than the people he dwelt with. Let me see the associates of your son or your daughter and I will tell you in which direction they are traveling, heavenward or hellward. Isaiah was not gossiping about his neigh bors when he said they were a people of
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