In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing the greatness of Christ and the impending judgment day. He describes a scene where the greatest creatures in existence are fleeing in terror from Christ's presence, while humans are being forced to march towards Him. The preacher challenges the audience to examine the language used in evangelism throughout history and highlights the call to repent and believe in Christ. He also discusses the concept of common grace and how it restrains the evil in individuals, even those who are not yet converted. The sermon concludes with a comparison between the Old Testament prophet Isaiah's encounter with God and Peter's encounter with Jesus in the New Testament, highlighting the transformative power of encountering God's glory.

...and fall down and worship. We ought to be able to just sit and listen to ourselves breathe and be beside ourselves in the power of God. The whole earth is full of His glory and that is the great crime of humanism and secularism and materialism. It denies this truth and it denies it when it knows better. People say, well, I'm going to try to prove to you God. I'm not going to try to prove to you God. I'm not even going to try to prove to you there is a God. Why? Because you already know that there is the God. You know enough about Him to know that you hate Him and you know enough about His law written in your heart to know you're going to rebel against it. If you're an unbeliever sitting here today, call yourself atheist, you are not. You are a wicked man who will not submit to what you know to be true and you suppose it. And the world, the universities, the school system, the books, the media, all are there as an encouragement group to keep you believing a lie. And the foundations of the threshold trembled at the voice of Him who called out. Now, it's either trembling at the voice of these angels or trembling at the very foundations of existence, the very foundations of the universe, trembling at the truth proclaimed. I want you to think about something. Those of you who are ministers, and those of you young guys who are thinking about going to ministry, those of you street preachers, everyone listen to me. You must always be Ezekiel. I've said this twice now, but I'm going to say it again. You must always be Ezekiel. You are not eloquent. You are not a movement shaker. You are not necessarily a people person. You are not culturally sensitive. You are a man who comes from the presence of God and you always, always stand in the midst of a bunch of dead bodies. And when you proclaim, you know it is by the force of that proclamation and calling upon the wind that dead bones are going to come together and men are going to live. It is always supernatural. We have a proclamation. A proclamation that can literally shake the foundations of the entire universe. And you say, then why isn't it happening? Because so few are proclaiming it. Instead of men coming from God, going to people and proclaiming their words of God, we are men who go to people to adjust the message of God before we give it to them. It is the force of the Gospel and the force of proclaiming God. It is like in apologetics. There is a very good place for apologetics. Especially Van Deerian apologetics. Presuppositional apologetics. But let me tell you something. When I get with someone, sometimes using apologetics to prove Jesus Christ, it is like pointing out the sun with a flashlight. How do you know Jesus is the Son of God? Just look at Him. I am going to keep proclaiming Him to you because either He is what He says He is, or someone greater than Him is required to invent somebody like Him. How do you know the Bible is the Word of God? Because I have read it. How do you know the pastor exists? I talk to him. I see him. The relationship with him. This whole thing of, when you ever get in a debate, a lot of times the atheist will look at you and say, now if I can prove to you that there is no God, will you accept the facts? And the Christian, a lot of times, to prove that he is open minded, not biased, will go, yeah. Now hold on for a second. Just think about this. There are men smarter than me. I know it is hard to believe, but there are. There is at least one woman a lot smarter than me. My wife. I mean, there are people smarter than me. There are people who can walk in there so brilliant that they could have the pastor leave the room and then argue with you and win the argument that he doesn't exist. So just because someone is smarter than me and their intellect is greater than mine, if they beat me in this argument, I am going to deny what I know to be true? So when they say, now if I can prove to you that there is no God, are you going to accept it? No. No, I am not. Because just because you are smarter than me doesn't prove anything. Well, then how do you know? Because I know Him. I can defend the logic of created order. I know the historical reasons for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but I want to tell you something. The little third world tribal guy who is going to die today, because of his faith in Jesus Christ, he doesn't know anything about any historical proof to defend his belief in the resurrection of the dead. Then why is he dying? Because, as John Calvin said, when the gospel was preached to him, the Holy Spirit came and regenerated his heart and the self-attesting glory of God came, and he knows. It's supernatural. It doesn't conflict with reason, and it can be shown to be reasonable through apologetics, but what I want you to understand is we need to be men who just stand up and proclaim, Thus saith the Lord. And God will work. Can these bones live? I will not presume upon God to say that these bones will live. I will not deny Him to say that they cannot. When He asks, Can these bones live? My only answer will be, Thou knowest, O Lord. Whatever you want to do in the heavens, earth, and hell, you can accomplish. Now, it goes on. I know we're really scattering out here, but this is my last shot. It says, And the temple was full of smoke, such a manifestation of His glory, and yet so limited, so small. When He filled His earthly temple with His glory so that the priests could not minister there, do you think that was a great thing? That was almost an act of condescension on God's part. It was an act of humility. I mean, the whole earth could not contain Him. The whole universe could not contain Him. So why should we think it a grand thing when smoke comes down from the Shekinah glory and drives men out of the temple? Don't think that's the greatest thing about God. That wasn't even a spark compared to the Son of who He truly is. It says here that the temple was filled with smoke. Then said I, Where is me? I am undone. A man of unclean lips, and I dwell among the people of unclean lips. And then what happens? The seraphim come, you know the story, and the coal placed to His lips. But I just want to show you something. This same thing happens again in the New Testament. Now look what happens. Isaiah, there is a manifestation of the Son of God, the glory of the Son of God to Isaiah. Isaiah falls down, and he proclaims his guilt. He is then in a sense cleansed symbolically, and then he is sent out on a commission. Now what does this happen in the New Testament? It happens to Peter on the boat with the great catch of fish. Look what happens, the identical thing. The Son of God manifests His glory in the great catch of fish. Peter on beholding something, just a glimpse, the glory of the Son falls down. And what does he say? I am a sinful man. What does the Son of God do? I will make you a fisher of men. The Scriptures just have to be inspired. They just have to be God's words. A group of fishermen just couldn't figure all this out. Now, I'm going to read some things for you. Let's see if I can find them. Oh, I've got here something just to let you know. For about the last 12 years of my life, I've been taking kind of a systematic manual and putting in it all the best things I've ever read. Excerpts, commentaries, everything to go along so that when you work through the manual, you can actually dialogue with all these guys. And hopefully in about another couple of weeks, it's going to be online free, so you can just download it if you want to use it. Because it's literally just spent years just tucked away alone in a little room looking at books all the time. It will enable you to read all sorts of Puritans and old gods and Augustine and everything without having to sit there and be a boring person like me all your life in a dark room. Just go online. It should be there in a couple of weeks. It's free. Just download the thing. And it will be coming out chapter by chapter as we go on because the first six chapters are on why did God send His Son? And then something of the glory of the Son. I want us to look at some things. I'm going to read you some of my notes. He says, Woe is me, okay? Woe is me, for I am ruined. Now, this is the cry of a man and filled with an overwhelming sense of despair. We don't hear about despair much in conversion anymore, do we? Maybe it's because we're not pointing out men's sin. Well, Brother Paul, I tell men they're going to hell. Listen to the wisdom of an old preacher one time told this. They asked him, Why don't you preach on hell very much? And he said, Well, I don't preach on hell very much because everybody believes in hell and nobody believes they're going there. So I preach on the law so that they all know they're going there. There is a sense in which a person, although it varies from conversion to conversion, we want to be very careful that we don't put conversion in our box, but there is a sense for every believer when they have this encounter with God, when they're the conversion experience, that there is a woe. There is a desperation. There is this idea of wrongness. There is, like Paul in the road to Damascus, a disintegration of the way they viewed everything. All of my reality is wrong. I've been wrong about everything. So Isaiah has an overwhelming sense of despair. The phrase, I am ruined, is translated from the Hebrew word, which means to cease, or to cut off, destroy, or perish. In the presence of the Son, the prophet Isaiah is reduced to nothing. As one who ceases to exist, who is cut off, or destroyed, he is broken into pieces by a glimpse of the glory of God in the person of the Son. This is amazing. It is TV evangelists talking about... One old preacher was telling me years ago about a TV evangelist that said, while he was shaving, Jesus appeared to him. And this old friend of mine asked him, he said, let me ask you a question. Did you stop shaving? And the answer was no. He says, I don't think it was Jesus. I don't think it was either. Oh my. What are we talking about here? God of God. The heavens and earth would flee away from Him. And here's a man. And no mean man as far as devotion goes. Jewish tradition tells us that Isaiah was sawed in two with a wooden saw for his proclamation of the truth, and while they were killing him, he was still proclaiming and prophesying the Word of God. This is not some wretched... Isn't it amazing? Men were so nonchalant about Jesus. Me and Jesus got our own thing going. Or the man upstairs, or Jesus is my homeboy. And yet, they did not walk with him. And yet, here's a prophet who dies for Him. And comes into His presence and cannot bear it. Now, in light of the seraphim's response, Isaiah's reaction is not extreme. Now, these seraphim, as I've said, are probably so glorious that if they came down and appeared to one of us, it would destroy us. And yet, they are covering their faces and their feet. Then, Isaiah's response is not extreme. But remember what we learned yesterday. Very important. And a proof that holiness is not just that God is morally pure. Isaiah had this reaction and mentions his sin. But the seraphim have a similar reaction that there's no sin in them. So the fact that God is holy makes the seraphim bashful and makes them cower in the presence of God. It does not mean that in His holiness they see their sin, but that He is so unique, so different, so God, and they are not. That's what holiness means. But Isaiah... Well, if seraphim can do these things, how much more pots of clay? Let me read something here from John Calvin. There was no feeling in him, in Isaiah, no feeling in him which was not overpowered by the presence of God. I mean, overpowered to the point of a word that just keeps coming to my mind, disintegration. Atomizing, pulverizing, presence of God. So that like one who had lost his senses... Let's stop there for a moment. Apocalyptic literature. That's what that's about. Apocalyptic literature. Ezekiel, wheels within wheels. And Abraham's torch and all these different things. What's going on there? It's when a man has a glimpse of something of the glory of God to such an extent that his mind cannot even begin to comprehend it. He's on the verge of madness. And then the frustration of that man when he seeks to use the weakness of human language to try to communicate it to others. If you ever go on vacation to the Grand Canyon or something, you take all these pictures, this marvelous thing, or the sunset, and then when they come out, you go, these pictures don't do this justice. And you're so frustrated. Or you try to explain to a friend something that has happened to you, and there is no way that you can communicate it properly. That's why preachers are two things usually. Mad men and frustrated. They see what they cannot comprehend, and it almost drives them mad. Their frustration is so great because even the small spark they comprehend, they can't communicate it. And so they walk away from a pulpit, oftentimes very downcast. Lost his senses. He willingly... Now look at this. Men don't talk like this anymore. He willingly plunged himself in darkness. Or rather like one who despaired of life, he of his own accord chose to die. Basically he said, just let me die. Then look at the nonchalant way that we handle the presence of God in modern day Christianity. It's terrifying. I think of the book of Job. When the Son of God returns with all His almost infinite number of holy ones, and He deals with evil men who have spoken evil things about Him. John Trapp writes... Now listen. Now, we're going on late, and I'll be like Leonard Ravenhill here. He said one time, it's late, and if you have to go, I understand. I understand you're carnal is what I understand. No, if you have to go, just go. John Trapp writes... Now listen. Infinite is the distance and disproportion between the high and holy God and me. A loathsome leopard. A sore wretch. The nearer a man draweth to God, the more doth rottenness enter into his bones. Habakkuk says this, Job says this, Now my eyes have seen thee, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. And Peter said, depart from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. Now, we've got to gain a balance here. This is very important. I walk up to believers sometimes. Men that just truly show such fruit. And they'll go, well, you know, Brother Paul, I'm just a wretched, sin-loving, evil-hearted... And I'll go, okay. Then tell me something. Just what happened to your heart when you got converted? I mean, when you took out that heart of stone that hates God and cannot respond to Him and replaced it with a heart of flesh, when He made you a new creature, just exactly what happened? I don't believe that language. I believe that true believers struggle with sin. And I believe that true believers are able to fall. But I no more believe that true believers are sin-loving, wickedly depraved people. Do you love sin? I mean, are you just chomping at the bit right now to break free and go do some wild sinning? You are subject to sin. You struggle with sin. But do you not hate it? Have you not been changed? Remember, Christianity is not doing all the right things you hate. And stop doing all the wicked things you love in order to save your own skin. There is an ontological change. You have become a new creature, re-created in the image of God in true righteousness and true holiness. And you say, yes, brother Paul, then why do I still struggle with sin? Because there is an unredeemed aspect of you called the flesh that we really can't define that well, but it's there. But you are a new creature, aren't you? Don't take as a promise something that the Scriptures declare to be a fact. You old man has been crucified. Your wicked nature has been dealt with. You have been given a new heart. Now walk in the reality of that. But he says, Who art thou, Lord, and what am I? Thou art an abyss of essence, truth, and glory, and I am an abyss of nothing, of sin, and of misery. This is when a man is confronted with God and confronted with himself. There is a reason why we see in judgments, and we see in the descriptions of judgments in literature, describing commentaries on the Bible, we see this often, that men stand naked before God. Does it mean just simply with no clothes on? No, it means without aid. Without help. Without supporting graces. You see, even the vilest man on the face of the earth is still restrained in his evil by common grace. And if God were to let him go free, you would see a monster like nothing history has ever seen. Not a six-and-a-half-year-old son that I love as much as life. He seems to be awakened in some things, but probably yet unconverted. If not for the common grace of God, if he were turned over to the depravity of the heart that he now has as a six-and-a-half-year-old, he would be a monster. The beauty I see in him, the kindness and other things that I see in him are a result of the restraining grace of God, restraining his evil and promoting goodness even in a creature that does not yet know him. Wow. Such is man. Well, let's finish up here. I love what Dalich says here. I want you to listen. We're going to end here. To stand here in front of Jehovah of hosts, the exalted King to whom everything does homage, and to be obliged to remain mute in the consciousness of deep uncleanliness, excited within him and the annihilating anguish of self-condemnation. He said, Whoa! Alright, for those of you who just said, Whoa! I don't understand that at all. He's using language far over my head. Then brace yourself for a rebuke. Is it not true that if for your job and a higher salary or a greater promotion you were required to master a certain language in your profession, you were required to study a book until you knew it so well you could enact it? Is it not true you would do everything in your power if your job depended upon it to learn that material? Yet you hear one difficult phrase regarding eternity and you say, Who can hear it? That's just too hard. I mean, he's just talking over my head. Your life depends on understanding it. You give yourself to understanding so many things. Will you give yourself to understanding this? Your life depends upon it. Let's just look at it. To stand here in front of the Jehovah's host, the exalted King to whom everything does homage. Now think about this. Everything that Isaiah says, basically all of everything that is pure in creation, everything that is holy, everything that is right, every created being that is right is covering its face and worshiping God in absolute perfect obedience. And then Isaiah walks into the room bearing his sin as a man. Now, to be obliged to remain mute. The moment he saw Him, he wanted to explode in explanation, in confession, in saying something. Kind of like a pillar. He didn't know what to say, but would go ahead and say something. What can I do? And obligated to remain mute. Those of you who think not much of Christ, on the day of judgment, realize this. As you are going through the corridor to approach the throne room, the greatest creatures, one of them alone so great that they could destroy a world of walls, are running past you the other way screaming, flee for your life! They can't bear His presence. And you're being made to march toward the very thing the greatest creatures ever created are running from in unspeakable terror. And then, as you're walking your way down that corridor, you notice that everything you've lived for, everything you held precious, is being burned. And then you're marched into His presence. You'll want to confess, and you'll be told, no room for confession now! You'll want to see Him, but you'll only see a throne because He hides Himself from you. Because the greatest mercy God can ever show a people is reveal Himself to that people. And the greatest judgment He can ever pour out upon them is to hide Himself. Now there's no choir singing. Now there's no thrones around His throne. They've all retracted. Now there's no clear sea of glass representing peace. There's no walkway to the throne. There's no rainbow because now He promises you nothing. Just the terrible, terrible reality of your doom. And your corn-fed, Baba-Tailgate Christianity that most people have isn't going to help you a bit. I could say, do you know Him? But it would be better said, does He know you? Does He know you? Or on that day, will He say, depart from me. I never knew you. And what does that mean? It means this. Now look. It means, because you've already said, but Lord, there must be some mistake. But Lord, I know you. Depart from me. I never knew you. And what is He saying? Now the word in the Greek there doesn't give us any hint except that this word is translating a Hebrew idea. Now, we didn't walk together. We didn't fellowship together. I wasn't the center of your life. You didn't live for me. You didn't just want to be with me for being with me's sake. I was your little ticket. What that little preacher told you about and gave you all that false assurance. To you, I was that little prayer you prayed. That little vaccination you took. Oh, I'm alright. Don't worry about me, preacher. I done did that. I've already prayed that prayer. I asked Jesus to come into my heart. But you didn't walk with me. You didn't talk with me. We didn't have sweet fellowship together in prayer. You didn't worship me. And then He says, worker of iniquity, He calls you. Which means literally. One who lives as though I never gave them a law to obey. You called my name. You called me Lord. But you lived as though I never gave you a law to obey. When you had to make a decision in your life, you didn't consult my will. As a husband, you didn't look in the Scriptures to see what I commanded of you. As a wife, you didn't do that either. And as a child, you didn't do that. And as a parent, you didn't do that. And your relationship with the world, as I clearly defined it in Scripture, you never sought that out. You did everything according to what was right in your own eyes. And you had just enough religion in a Baptist church or a Bible church or a Methodist church that had gone wayward and hadn't preached my Gospel. You had just enough religion to make you feel like you were okay when in fact you've been damned all along. I don't say this to do anything but save you. To save you. Think. Just please, for one moment, just one tiny second, listen to the language that's being used. Not in liberal churches, but in... I'm a Baptist. In Baptist churches, in Southern Baptist churches, in Independent Baptist churches, in Presbyterian churches, in Bible churches, in Seeker Friendly churches. Look at the language. You come down an aisle. Just come down. And pray and ask Jesus. It will only take five minutes. You hear people say that? Yes, you have if you've been in church. It will take five minutes. Sign that card. Have you prayed that prayer? Have you repeated these words after me? Look what we're saying. Just listen to that. You say, well, who are you to stand up against all of this? Somebody who studies history, I challenge you to go back into all the major conservative evangelical denominations. Go back a hundred years ago. And then keep going back and see if you can find any of the language we use today in evangelism. The call was repent and believe. Well, how do I know that I've truly repented and truly believed? Because you will continue repenting and continue believing and you will grow in Christ. It may be three steps forward and two steps back, but over your life you will grow and grow in Christ. And Christ will become precious to you. And Christ will become your confidence. And Christ will become Lord of your life. And Christ will direct your thoughts. And Christ will direct your family. And Christ, everything about Christ. You say, well, I don't read that. My preacher told me the Holy Spirit stands at the door and knocks. And if I just open the door, He'll come in and I'll open the door. I asked an evangelist a while back, I said, didn't you know that Revelation 3.20 is actually talking to a church and not to lost people? He said, yeah, I know that, but it works. If you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart. So what's happened, guys? What has happened? We take that passage in Romans 10 and what do we do? Just think. If you come down front and pray and repeat these words after me and ask Jesus to come in your heart, you're saved. So we take this passage in Romans 10 and turn it into that. You know what that passage means? Let me tell you. If you believe in your heart, you are saved. And the evidence that you believe in your heart is that you will be confessional. And he was riding to Rome and the Roman Christians were being killed every day for their faith in Christ. And this is how it goes. Imagine that you're working with me and we're all carpenters there in Rome and we're laying out for lunch, having a good time and several of us are Christians, secretly, and we're talking about the meeting together that we had the night before and we're just all excited and then all of a sudden we hear drums. And we get terrified because here comes a group of soldiers and they've got an altar that they're carrying on their shoulders. And they come and they put the altar down in front of us. And some of the unbelievers get up immediately, walk over to the altar, pinch a piece of incense, throw it into the fire, and they say that Caesar is Lord! And they walk away and go back to work. But then one of us, one of the believers walks up and stands in front of the altar and goes Iesus est in Kyrios. Jesus is Lord. And they kill him. And he falls down. And another one comes up and he goes Iesus est in Kyrios. And he's killed! And another one... That's what he means! If you truly believe in your heart that when emperor worship comes along and you're asked to declare that Caesar is Lord and not Jesus, you declare Jesus is Lord and you die! And we have taken that and reduced it down to a stupid little prayer that someone's supposed to repeat. And if they repeat it, they're saved! What has happened? You say, you're talking like a madman and how can I not? How can I not? Countless millions of people coined our wall because of conservative evangelical preachers who give them assurance and say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Let's pray. Let's pray. Father, I pray. Oh, Father. You are God. You are God. You alone are God. Your person's great and great. Your power is invincible. You will always be proven right in your judgments. The nations are as nothing before you. The multitude of armies and their combined strength coming against the throne of your Son is nothing more than a mite beating its head against a world of granite. But you are a merciful God. Your mercies endure forever. Man's days are like grass. As the flower of the field, so he flourishes. And when the wind passes over him, he is no more. And the place acknowledges him no more. But the loving kindness of the Lord is everlasting on those who fear him. Lord, I know that this day will be remembered in your books. And this day, for this day, men will be held in account. Whether it goes well with them or not before your throne, you will be justified in all your doings. I'll honor, praise, glory and bless them. Be ascribed to your God. In Jesus' name, Amen.