In this sermon, the preacher discusses the commission given to John the Baptist to preach about Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that John fulfilled this commission by proclaiming Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, just as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah chapter 40. The preacher also highlights the transformation that occurs when one encounters the presence of God, using the example of Isaiah's trembling and realization of his own corruption. He emphasizes the importance of humbling oneself before God and seeking revival through the Word of God. The sermon concludes with the reminder that God works salvation and revival in the midst of His people, and that Christians should allow the Word of Christ to dwell in them and transform their lives.

Let's just pray shall we? Father, you said my house should be called a house of prayer for all nations. And yet you didn't call it a house of preaching, a house of singing, a house of good works, a house of fellowship. You called it a house of prayer. And Father, we want it to be that because if it's not that, then O God, we know the rest like you, not your accomplishments either. You invited us here, Father, to come very near to the throne of grace, and so we do. Because we're very needy people. Father, we ask you to draw very near to us in this time of thinking like the Word of God. Dear Teacher, O God, for you stood on every person here. And guide us, Father, into those truths that we need to know. For thy will be done in Christ's name. Amen. Well, we have either a singer or a preacher going at it, I don't know which. I want us to speak this morning on the subject of the Fifth Gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and what? The Book of Isaiah has sometimes been called the Fifth Gospel because there are so many references to Jesus Christ in that particular book. There are more references to Christ in the Book of Isaiah than all the prophetic books of the Old Testament put together all the way from Jeremiah to Malachi. There are far more references to Jesus Christ in the Book of Isaiah than all those books put together. That's why it has been called, then, the Fifth Gospel. The critics used to say it had a too recent event to be, you know, something people actually thought was written after the days of Christ. Nobody says that anymore because they found a copy of the Book of Isaiah dating back to over 200 years before Christ. So nobody perceives the old arguments anymore. The historical date for the writing of the book was 750 B.C. And we have no reason for doubting that particular date. Whether it was 200 years or 700 or 750, doesn't really matter. If it had been written one year before Christ came, it would still be an astonishing book. And it is. Isaiah had a meeting with God. And if he hadn't had this dynamic meeting with God in chapter 6, we might never have heard of him. I doubt very much that we would have had the Book of Isaiah as we have it today. I don't think we could have had it. That's not to say that the first five chapters aren't important. Some great truths there are, too. But in chapter 6, he saw the Lord. A vision. Indeed, the book is called The Vision of Isaiah, Son of Amos. He saw a vision. He saw the Lord sitting on a throne. And in John 12, we are told that he saw the glory of Christ and spoke of Him. He spoke of Christ after he saw this glory in that particular vision. And when he saw Christ, the first thing that happened was he saw his own sin. Remember that? He cried out, he said, Where is me, for I am undone? Because I am one of unclean lips, and my brethren are used to the people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. You know, he wasn't dismayed by telling the people at the conference. He wasn't dismayed by reading the book. No preacher talked him into it. He saw Christ. And when he saw Christ, then he saw his own sin. I don't think it's any different today. Luke chapter 5, if you recall the events there, Jesus Christ preached on Peter's boat. Peter heard what he said. We don't know what he said, but Peter heard it there. And afterwards, Peter saw Christ work a tremendous miracle. And his reaction was immediate. He fell down at Jesus' knees, right in front of him, and he cried, Depart from us, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Amen. Nobody talked Peter into that. But he was in the presence of Christ. And when you're in the presence of Christ, you see your own sinfulness. That's why it says in James 3, Draw near to God. And what happens? He will draw near to you. And what happens? Cleanse your hands. You see your sin. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you better minded. Be afflicted in all you do. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. As you draw near to God, God then draws near to us. And God talks to us about our sin. That's how it works. Daniel never saw Christ. But he saw an angel of God. And when he saw this angel of God, he said that his comeliness was turned into corruption. And he retained no strength. He couldn't even stand. Until the Lord touched him, and gave him strength to stand. And even then he stood trembling. But he saw his corruption. When he was in the presence of a holy angel of God. Someone said, If you want to make a law, see if he's a law. Talk to him like he was a lamb. And you'll see the difference. And you'll have to think that too. So Isaiah met Christ, cried out about his sin, and was purged by a loud call from after all to purge from his sin. Then he heard the voice of the Lord. Between God the Father was talking to the Son of the Spirit. They were talking. Whom shall I sell? Who are those to us? And Isaiah said, Well, here am I. And the Hebrew said, Behold me. Look at me. Look at me. And the Lord said, Well. And Isaiah said, How long? And God said, Until. Until sins are wasted with unhappiness. I belong to that man. Purge him till there's no more left to preach to. And he didn't promise him any success. As a matter of fact, he told him, The people's hearts wax gross. And the ways of God ruin. Their eyes are closed. But you preach. You tell them anyway. That's our business. And then. Right after this meeting with God. You can call it a revival, because that's what it was. After this meeting with God. Then came all these scrolls and scrolls of beautiful prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ. First thing the Lord tells us, that the Spirit of Christ was in all these Old Testament prophets. I never did like these Bibles. You know, they have the words of Christ in red or blue or some other color. Do you have one of those? I have one of those at home too. But I never read it. I don't like them. You know why? Because the Christian impression that all that Jesus said is what you'll find in red or blue or some other color. Which is not true. The Spirit of Christ was in all the Old Testament prophets. He was in Moses. And Isaiah. And John. And Malachi. And so when Peter said, that the word of Christ was illicit in all of them. He was talking about Jonathan, Micah, and Revelation. It's all in Christ. And, as I said the other day, I obviously could come to a place where we stop speaking in terms of 66 different books. Because the Bible is an indivisible unit. It's a whole. You can't understand one book by itself. You only have one author. The Spirit of God. Who would have thought to be removed by the Holy Spirit. And Paul said, the things that I run into in the 13th epistles of the New Testament. The things that I run into are the commandments of the Lord. And he said, if your spirits are right, you'll understand this. So then in chapter 7, right after being cleansed and purged and commissioned, called and sent, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin should be seen, and bear a son. And shall call his name Amaliel. A virgin. Some Bibles say that Hebrew word Amalek is used there just simply means young woman, doesn't mean virgin. But Dr. Gershon Mason has written a tremendous book. He's written a number of books. He's dead now. But a great deal has already been changed. And he wrote a book simply with the title The Virgin of the Lord Christ. Out of my library. Bible critics admit it's the greatest thing ever written on a virgin birth. And it says conclusively that the word God means in this context, a virgin. And you know, even apart from what he said, if you look at the context, the Lord himself will give you a sign. What sign is there about a woman having a child when it is? I mean, this happens very, very times. But then what sign would it be if a virgin should have a child? That would be a sign. That's what it said. The Lord himself should give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son. And this shall call his name Immanuel. And Matthew 1 tells us that the meaning of Immanuel is God with us. God with us. No wonder Christ said in Matthew 28, where I am with you always. It can't be otherwise. Immanuel. God with us. Then in chapter 8, it says, Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. 1 Peter 3.15. Maybe Peter has it in mind when he wrote, Sanctify the Lord of God in your hearts. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. And of him be all fear. And of him be all dread. He must have been for a sanctuary. But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense. For both the house of Israel. For a gym that is a trap. And for a slayer. For all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among us who stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. And so the preaching of the gospel has always been a stumbling block to Israel. And it is today. They tell me that 30 years ago or even less, 20 years ago if a rabbi was to mention the name Jesus in the synagogue the entire congregation would let them storm out their beds. Today they talk about Jesus in the synagogues and nobody leaves. But they don't talk about Jesus as being God. They talk about him as being our greatest prophet. He was a pride element there. A great prophet but not God. Emmanuel, Godliness. Power of a vision. You don't believe that. They said to Christ we were not born of fornication. But in the same chapter Christ said and effectively what he said was alright you convicted my mother of sin which of you convinces me of sin? Nobody tried. Because nobody could. He was such a high priest and became us. That means he was a high priest the kind of high priest we needed who was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. Our savior Jesus. Then in chapter 9 the people that sat in darkness have seen a great light. Those that sat in the region in the shadow of death upon them has the light shined. A great light. Never a light like it. Einstein drew though he was. Probably one of the world's greatest scientists not a Christian said about Jesus he said he's the most luminous personality in all of human history. Oh yes he was. And more than that. John 8.12 Christ said I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. Jeremiah 13 says give glory to Lord your God before he caused darkness and your feet stumble in the dark mountains. He's talking about the death experience. You look for light and behold you're turned into darkness into the gross darkness it said into the shadow of death. But in all righteousness there is life in the path where there after is no death. If a man kept my saying Christ said he shall never see death. He would die physically but he would never see death when he descended on us. God is angry with the wicked every day. And so the people that sat in darkness or walked in darkness had seen a great light and it was associated with dying in Isaiah 9. Then it goes on to say that there is going to come a day when warfare will end for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called and please remember this that in the Hebrew language there are no commas so it doesn't really say and his name shall be called wonderful comma consular comma it doesn't say that in Hebrew. His name shall be called wonderful consular the mighty God the everlasting father and the prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end upon his throne and upon his kingdom and upon his kingdom to order and to establish it with justice and with judgment from henceforth even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this unto us a child is born unto us a son is given the father sent the son to be the savior of the world the government shall be upon his shoulder and that's why no political system can ever be stable at last in the future God said I will overturn overturn overturn it until he comes he loves it and I will give it him and when Christ comes back God will give to him the meaning of the word the kings of Israel Revelation 11 are becoming the kings of our Lord and his Christ and he shall reign forever and forever forever and forever when the Bible calls that a friend went there years ago I don't know if they do that today but they did then and I'm not sure if it was the first year second year third year or what but the students in this particular year were required to read the book of Isaiah through fourteen times that year that's how they looked at the book of Isaiah because they saw so much of Jesus in it and so should we today the fifth gospel we have a practical application to make before we close so chapter nine chapter eleven it links Messiah with Jesse the father of David this will be a reading out of Jesse itself twice verse one and I think verse ten of chapter eleven then emphasize that Messiah was the father of God's spirit and it talks about righteousness and faithfulness and then chapter twenty-two we hope that that only means touching on all the prophecies in Isaiah but in chapter twenty-two it talks about a man called Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Eliakim means the God of resurrection and in John eleven Christ said I am the resurrection and the life now Jesus Christ said the life not in theologians he did it in the wrong truth I was explaining resurrection but he never did that no Bible editor did that he simply said I am the resurrection and the life you know keep that in mind sometimes Christians get a little bit afraid that maybe in the resurrection morning they'll be forgotten no Christ is the resurrection and if he lives in your heart how can you be forgotten resurrection is a guaranteed fact because resurrection lives in your heart I am the resurrection and the life heaven believes in me that he was dead yet shall he live and who ever lives and believes in me shall never die and then he said do you believe this do you believe this until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart arise in your heart not from outside in but from inside out when Christ comes the power will be inside us it will explode from the inside out in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump of the trumpet shall say the son of the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed from the inside out by the power of the indwelling Christ it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is then we go on in the book of Isaiah and we find for example chapter 26 trust ye in the word of the Lord for the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages that is what the word is the rock of ages rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee let my water and blood from thy riven side which flowed bless the double cure save me from its guilt and power O Indian when the Indian dialects it runs like this thy oil stones split for my benefit let me absent myself underneath your fragments and the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages cleft for me O God let me hide myself in thee forever forever then in Isaiah chapter 32 he talks about a man being a hiding place from the wind so there was only 17 people in the church and he was sitting over to the right underneath a beam and so one of the men came just a lay person they call him exhorter in the Methodist church and he didn't know how to preach he said I read this text from Isaiah look after me and do your service all the way and God knows none of us he kept repeating it over and over again and he kept repeating repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over and and he kept repeating it over and again and kept repeating over and again and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating over and again he repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over he kept repeating it over and he kept repeating it over again and he kept repeating it over and again kept repeating it over and he kept repeating it over again and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating and again he kept repeating over and again and he kept repeating it over and again and kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over kept repeating it over and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it and again and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over and and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over and he kept repeating it over and again kept it over again and he kept repeating it over and again and he kept repeating it over and again and So then Harry told him, Harry, it's from your Bible. It's from Isaiah 53. And you should have seen it change. Just like that. Harry said, Harry, you are a Jew? He said, yes, I am a Jew. And you married a Jewess? I married a Gentile. A Gentile! And so Paul said, even unto this day, when Moses is dead, the veil is on their hearts. They don't see it, and people have nothing to pray for those people. That the blindness might be taken away. They say there are 8,000 Jews a year following Christ in North America. That may not be true. I think the figures are a little bit inflated. But even if there's only 4,000 following God every month. Do you know that in the land of Israel, do you know how many Christian Jews there are? There are 200. Do you know how many Christian missionaries there are in the land of Israel? There are 200. There's one missionary for every convict. Their work is so difficult, so hard, so slow. And it's no kind of a standard, because the same missionary leads a Jew to Christ in Israel. Every missionary in Israel tries to get them into the mission. A Jewish convict over there, late in time, lives over there. This is called Stonehart Meadow area. And it turns out the standard is in Israel. And the various missionaries try to get those convicts into their particular group. But you do need to pray. Well, Isaiah 61. Luke chapter 4. Jesus Christ was at Nazareth. They gave him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He had to get to this place. And he read the scripture, Isaiah 61. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord is among you to preach the gospel. And he read a few verses. Then he closed this letter. He rolled it up. Then he said to the people in the synagogue, This day is the scripture fulfilling your ears. So they all went into gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. And then he said something that infuriated them. And they tried to kill him. And just in a second, their attitude was totally different. Go to chapter 66. We are coming now to an application. We saw something of that in Isaiah chapter 6. When Isaiah saw Christ. Well, I can't see Christ. Well, yes I can. Why can't I see Christ? 2 Corinthians 3 puts it this way. But we are of an open face. It means an unveiled face. Moses had a very rich face, and it came down from the mountain, because the glory of God shone out of his face. The people were afraid and ran away. But when Moses went back to God, it says he took the veil off. Twice it tells us that. So, but we are a veil. A mask. When we went before God. We are of an unveiled face. Behold, he has no grasp. That's in the word of God. The glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. People, it's by just saturating themselves with the word of God, opening their hearts up to the word of God, spending time. We beheld his glory, John said, the glories of the Lord, the doctrines of the Father, full of grace and truth. And were changed by the power of God. Christ led the church and drove himself forth, that he might sanctify and convert by the word. By the word. Turn to the word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you literally. In all wisdom. I remember in Eastern Canada, through the ministry of a friend of mine who met God in revival. This woman, she sold books for a Christian bookstore. She used to travel in the world and sell books here and there to other bookstores and so on to people. And she met God. And she had such a dynamic and powerful experience that for six solid months, they said, she was kicking the clouds out of the sky. It was hell in it, praying to live, happy in it, praying to have it all day long. And then, she woke up one morning and there was no joy there at all. She was as flat as a floor. And she thought she'd committed some terrible sin that the Spirit had left her. You know, it was for three solid weeks she melted and she cried And she cried, and she begged God to come, which was wrong, and nothing happened. And I came into the air with Mary, and she came to see me, and oh no, she was sad. She knew the air was filled under her chin. And I said, let's look into the book of Isaiah, shall we? And we went on to Isaiah chapter 50. I said, I want you to read this. Who is among you that fears the Lord? I said, do you fear the Lord? Yes, she said, I do. That obeys the voice of his servant, you obey Christ? Yes, I do. That walks in darkness and has no light? She said, what does it say? I said, you read it. Who is among you that fears the Lord? That obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? What then? She read on. Let him trust in the name of the Lord. The name of God stands for the faithfulness of God. And stay upon our God. Rest in God. It's exactly what Henry was saying a few moments ago. We walk by faith, not by sight. You are highly valuable if you go by feelings, but not if you go by the word of God. God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Psalm Isaiah 66, God said, What sayeth the Lord? The heaven is my frame, the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build up in me? Where is the place of my rest? For all those things is my own being, and all those things will be. But to this man will I look. To who? Actually, the word man is not in the original Hebrew at all. What he really is saying is this. You can build a temple costing a hundred million dollars. And it will not interest me in the slightest. I sometimes say, it can sometimes be an exaggeration to have people to see it too. I sometimes say, if you could build a temple big enough to which clearly in the word, God couldn't do his thing. Where is the house that you build up in me, God said? Where is the place of my rest? And then he says, to this will I look. Here's where I look. To him it's full, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word. You want God to look at you? How do I qualify? To him it's poor, quesadilla of the poor in spirit. He's not talking about dollars and cents. He's talking about a person who is nothing, and knows it, and recognizes it, gives a cent to the word of God. It's a God in absolutely nothing. Poor, trembles at God's word. Contrite in spirit, broken at me, and trembles at God's word. We sing, then I tremble at the Lord's spoon, then my guilty soul in pouring turned to Calvary. And what of that? In Isaiah chapter 57, it's a great revival chapter. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in a high and holy place with him also, those of a contrite and humble spirit. That's Christ. Who dwells with God but Christ? He's called my foe. In Zechariah, God called Christ my foe. The shepherd, who was wounded. In Zechariah. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in a high and holy place with him also, those of a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Who does God revive? The humble. Why don't I experience revival? Because I'm too proud. I'm too proud to be revived. I don't want anybody to know I've got any problems. I'm too proud. So God can't revive me. I remember a pastor one time, he experienced revival. Pardon me, his people experienced revival, and he didn't. You know, he was so desperate for personal revival, and it never came. Until one day he completely humbled himself, went to a fellow pastor, confessed the whole thing, asked for help in prayer, and then he met God. As his people had done. And he was able to walk in the Spirit. As a matter of fact, he revived a book in his church that went on for 11 solid weeks. They had to have meetings every night of the week for 11 weeks. And they prayed with around 3,000 people before the movement subsided. God dwells to revive the humble. That's part of the message of the great book of Isaiah. Come now, let us rise up together and say a prayer in Isaiah 118. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. A sign of revival at that time was at the Council of the Stewards. And as she knew, God broke her heart. She forgot we were there. And she began pulling out the wickedness of her heart and life. All the sin that came on that woman confessed before the throne of God, with all the intensity of her being. And she met God. And just broke out into a pain of praise. And then, after she was gone, my son and I said, Bill, let's pray and ask God to take all we've heard out of our minds. I can't remember anything that woman confessed. Not a thing. God took it all away. But he met her, because she humbled herself under his hand. And I think that God dwells to revive. Two things that I close. One is, God is my King of all, David said, working salvation in the midst of Europe. So he's going to smile at any honest effort to share Christ with somebody else. And the other thing is, God dwells to revive the humble. And the heart and spirit of the contract of the broken ones. Do I qualify? The fifth gospel? Well, really, you know, there's a sixth gospel, and that's the gospel according to you, because you're the only Bible that the average person will ever read. The only gospel most people will ever see is you. You. And I close with that thought. 2 Corinthians, again, chapter 3. Paul says, You are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And do you remember when Paul said in Titus that we are to abide the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things? Do you know what the word of God is? It's the word from which we get the English name, cosmetic. We are to cosmetic the gospel. We are to dress it up. We're to make it look as atrocious as we can. Not by lying about it, but by living a godly life. And I've sometimes said, If Jesus Christ is the gospel, and He is, Christ is the gospel. But you and I, if He's a picture, we're to frame Him. Now you see, believe it or not, if a picture frame is caught by reverting, war-meeting, cheap, worthless, mud on it, it sure isn't going to enhance the value of the picture in the eye of the beholder. Do you know, there are many sinners out there that are not rejecting the Christ of the Bible, they're rejecting the Christ they see in you, or the Christ they see in me. Because it's not the Christ of the scriptures who said, I am weak and lowly in heart, and I shall find rest unto your souls. And Isaiah said, His rest shall be glorious. And so we sing, we shall have a glorious rest. The fifth gospel is Isaiah, and the sixth gospel is you. What is the gospel according to you?