In this sermon, the preacher begins by describing a wedding scene where the bride is being attended to by her bridesmaids. He then relates this to the concept of the holy garment of God mentioned in Isaiah chapter 6. The preacher emphasizes his passion for preaching on revival and the need to understand the majesty of God. He highlights the importance of personal revival and shares principles for achieving it, using the example of Isaiah's encounter with God in the Bible.

If you would turn there, the book of Isaiah, and chapter number 6, please, in your Old Testament Bible tonight. Thank you for all of the singing staff and counselors. Appreciate everybody that has had a part. Thank you, Brother and Mrs. Robertson, for working so hard all week long, in the midst of the tragedy of Brother Dole losing his mother and then them having to go down south. As we've said, I appreciate everything that's been done. Appreciate them so very much. Thank all of you for singing. It was wonderful. And we praise the Lord for what we've heard tonight. Isaiah, chapter number 6, we must get right into our message tonight. We've got a lot of ground to cover. I'd like to ask you to stand, if you would, please, out of respect for God's Word. I've thoroughly enjoyed myself the three services last week, and then also this being the third service this week. I wish that you'd pray for me in the morning. I'll be going to Minneapolis, flying to Nashville, Tennessee, and I'll be doing a count Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Tennessee, outside of Shelbyville, Tennessee. And then I'll be in two different churches on Sunday, and then be flying back on Monday to get ready for our revised schedule, which will start Wednesday with junior missions. And I'm looking forward to all the opportunities that I have to preach in the various teens and junior camps that we have this summer at Camp Shittek. Always enjoy my time here, my wife and I. We appreciate so much the privilege that has been afforded us to be at this camp for the past few years. And I've had it an honor to be able to preach this special service tonight. Isaiah, chapter number 6, a very familiar portion of Scripture. Please look at verse number 1, if you would, please. Isaiah 6-1, where the Bible says, 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 twenty covered his face, and with twenty covered his feet, and with twenty did fly. One cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And the pulse 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 lying pole in his hand, which he had taken with a tongs from off the altar. He laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I sin, and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. Tonight from Isaiah, chapter 6, I bring you the simple message, Principles for Personal Revival. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads and hearts, and let's pray and ask the Lord to bless our time together tonight. Principles for Personal Revival. Thank you, Lord, for what we have heard tonight. Our hearts have been stirred, and our hearts have been touched by the music from heaven tonight, and for that we're grateful. But Lord, we realize that the music just kind of sets the pace for the atmosphere of the preaching of the Word of God. And so, Lord, we pray tonight that You would help this congregation as they listen to the message. And Lord, that You would empty me of myself, and You would fill me with the blessed Spirit of God. Lord, I would be a very proud, foolish, and haughty preacher to stand in this pulpit and try to preach in the flesh. And so, Lord, I announce to these people, and I announce to You tonight, humbly, that I am nothing, I am a nobody, and I need the aid and the intervention, the guiding of God's precious Spirit. So, please help me tonight as I preach. I pray that I would preach the Bible boldly, unashamedly, without apology. But yet, Lord, when we leave, I pray that we would not be stirred because of song and sermon, but, Lord, we would be changed because of song and sermon. And I pray that You would use Isaiah 6 as a deep challenge to convict our hearts. And we'll thank You for what You'll do. For it's in Jesus' name that we ask it and pray. Amen. If you know much about your Bible, it will not take you very long to figure out that the book of Isaiah is not only a very long book in your Bible, it's one of the most fascinating books in your Bible. I believe it was D.L. Moody who rightly said that the book of Isaiah could no doubt be considered the little Bible of your Bible. You see, there are 1189 chapters in the Word of God. There are 31,101 verses and there are 791,328 words from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21. But of the 66 books of the Bible, you have the first 39 books of the Old Testament which would correlate with Israel's history, if you will. But then you have the 27 books of the New Testament which begin with the voice of one crying in the wilderness, a man by the name of John the Baptist. The Bible says in Matthew 3, verses 1 and 2, And in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand. And basically, the 27 books of your New Testament Bible deals with the subject, the central figure of Jesus Christ. The book of Isaiah is the same way. As the Bible has 66 books, so the book of Isaiah has 66 chapters. You study your Bible, you will find out they are broken in two parts as your Bible is broken in two parts. The first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah deals with Israel's history. But yet when we have Isaiah 40, guess who we open up with? The same fellow that we open up with in the book of Matthew, the man by the name of John the Baptist. And the Bible says in Isaiah 40, verses 6, 7, 8, The one that is crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord and make straight his path. And so then the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah correlate with the 27 books of your New Testament Bible. It is a wonderful book. He begins to preach through chapters 1 and chapter number 5, and he woes just about everybody in town. But in chapter number 6, something turned around in the heart and mind of Isaiah that I would like to bring to your heart and mind tonight. As an evangelist, I greatly enjoy preaching on the subject of revival. The past five years that my wife Melissa and I have been traveling in evangelism, we have been privileged to be in many churches, in many colleges, many schools, and many camps. Now, there are basically two types of evangelists that preach the Bible. There are those who would major more on evangelistic preaching. Those who would, per se, preach more along the lines of salvation. And I do that a lot. But if I were to fall on one side or the other, I would be on the other camp of an evangelist that more than not doesn't necessarily always preach on evangelistic messages, but more or less has a burden and a fire, I guess, in my step for the revival aspect, because I believe that evangelism is a proper outflow when God's people get revived and right with God. But when we get to the book of Isaiah, we see something very interesting. Now, I still believe as a preacher that Almighty God is big enough, He is holy enough, and He is majestic enough to still send America revival. I realize we've come a long ways from God. I realize that we are getting a little less free and a little less brave, if you know what I mean. And I realize we are losing religious liberties, but I still remember that the Bible says in Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord and I change not. Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So I do believe that God is big enough to revive America. Now, I'm not foolish nor presumptuous enough to say that He will revive America. That's His plan. That's His timing. But I do believe that He can. But you know what? I also believe that God can revive a home. I believe that God can revive an individual. I believe that God can revive a local church. I believe that God can revive a city, a state, a nation. I believe He can revive a county. But I say all that to say this, we hear much about revival in the day and age in which we live, but we see very little revival. But can I please set your mind at ease tonight? Did you know if America never sees a quaking, shaking revival from the sovereign hand of God, if the local church in which you attend or the churches that are represented here tonight, if your local church never sees a heartfelt, heaven-sent, Holy Ghost revival, if your family never sees a real revival, if the community of Shattuck and Barron and Bloomer and the other towns around, if they never experience community-wide revival, did you know according to the pages of the Word of God that you and I as individuals can experience revival on a daily basis? And here is a man by the name of Isaiah who writes this book, who shows that to us in chapter number 6. There are three things that were affected and three things that were completely dynamically changed in the life of Isaiah when he had this glorious vision of God. We get right into the message tonight. Somebody said that a short pencil is better than a long memory, so you might want to write these down. Number one, I want you to see, first and foremost, his sight was affected. His sight was affected. Say, preacher, what do you mean? Look in your Bibles if you would, please, as we study tonight Isaiah chapter number 6. Verse number 1, notice what it says. It says, "...in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw..." Now, that's Isaiah. "...I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple." Now, the Bible opens with an interesting statement. It begins talking about a man by the name of Uzziah. You study your Old Testament chronology, you study history, and you will find out that Isaiah and Uzziah were first cousins. Obviously, Uzziah was the older of the two. But yet your Bible says, and you can tell just by the storyline in the Word of God, that Isaiah had a great deal of respect and admiration for Mr. Uzziah. Nothing wrong with that at all. But yet I believe the reason the Bible tells us that Isaiah saw God after Uzziah was removed is simply for the Bible fact that Isaiah's eyes were fixed upon a man. Isaiah's eyes were fixed upon King Uzziah. As good a king, perhaps, as he was. As good as a first cousin, perhaps, as he was. Because God had to remove the man-centered idols that Isaiah had set up in his heart and set up in his life. I believe what we should do is simply this. I believe in modern-day Christianity, we should worship God and appreciate man. But I think in American Christianity, we have flipped the coin, we have flipped the rules, and we now appreciate God and we worship man. And we will never see God in all of His holiness. We will never see God in all of His authority until we break down our man-centered idols, get our eyes off of man and fixed on Jesus Christ and be Matthew 6, 33 Christians. And so the Bible says that in the year that King Uzziah died, what did Isaiah see? Why was his sight affected so deeply? I believe yours and mine would be affected if we see what he saw. Look in your Bibles, verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. Now, the word throne in your Bible all the way through, from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21, it will not take you very long to figure out, ladies and gentlemen, that the word throne always has one connotation. It has the idea of authority. I believe the reason we have such weak, spiritually anemic and carnal Christians filling the pews of church after church is because we have lost the ability to understand how authoritative, how majestic, how holy and how righteous Almighty God is. And you know it's the truth. The reason our churches are filled with teenagers who can sit on the back row and pop their bubble gum and they can put their shoes on the back row and instead of taking notes, they can pass notes and they can laugh and giggle. And the reason why we've got such a lack of standards and such a lack of morale and such a lack of convictions, I believe, is because we have lost the real meaning of the majesty of God. But here's a man that saw God like few people have seen Him. He's seen Him, the Bible says, upon His throne, His authoritative throne in heaven, and then it even gave two more words. It said, Hi, and lifted up. Sometimes we have these silly little ideas, these little silly southern gospel songs. Put your hand in the hand of the man that steals the water. And we've got this idea that we've got some little, small, insignificant, little bitty, tiny pea on God, but nothing's further from the truth. My Bible tells me in Genesis 1-1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light. Stepped off of His throne, He slipped on the heavenly light bulb, and the Bible says there was light. He then began to raise the mountains and lower the valleys. The Bible says He flung the fowls into the air. He flung the beasts into the sea and the beasts into the earth. He made the lions, the tigers, the bears. Oh my, but yet the Bible says there was still something that was missing. The Bible says in Genesis 2-7, Now the Lord God formed a man out of the dust of the ground. The next time we thank ourselves to be big shots, just remember you're a glorified mud ball from the hand of God. Amen? And the Lord God formed a man out of the dust of the ground. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Get it? And man became a living soul. But according to the Bible, although he was a living soul, most assuredly, he was a lonely soul. And God said, That was not found in help meat. He had all of the tigers, and He had all of the dogs, and all of the giraffes, and the hippos, and the pythons, and whatever you call them things. He had it all, but He didn't have somebody to help meet his needs. And so the Bible says that God performed the first anesthetic surgery. He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. And I'm sorry to tell you men, the Bible never says we woke up from it. But nonetheless, he fell asleep and God reached down with His sovereign providential hand. He pulled out Oriel from the side of Adam. And as B. R. Lincoln says, Adam provided the spare parts for the first loudspeaker that God ever made. But nonetheless, the Bible says that God reached down, and He created a man, and He created a woman in His own image. Psalm 19, verse number 1, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show of His handiwork. Day unto day utter His speech, and night unto night show of knowledge. There is no language where their voice is not heard. Their lying has gone out throughout the world. The Bible says in Psalm chapter 8, David said, I consider the work not of thy hands, I consider the work of thy fingers. But it is man that thou wert mindful of him. David said, I was sitting out on the rowboat, if you will, and I noticed the waves that God had made. He said, I looked into the starry sky above, and I noticed the stars that were all in their place, and another one had fell out of its socket. He said, I noticed that everything was in its proper order. Everything was in its proper orbit, if you will. And he said, then I looked at myself in the mirror, and I thought to myself, David, who are you that God would see fit to love, and to adore, and to cherish, and to help, and humble himself down to be the friend of something so minuscule? And David said, I'll never understand that. The Bible says in Colossians chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, and by him, speaking of Jesus Christ, and by him, for him, and through him were all things made, and by him, for him, and through him do all things consist. Fancy New Testament word, you know what it means? It means held together. And if it were not for the holy, righteous hand of Almighty God, every atom, every molecule, everything that we know tonight would completely explode into oblivion, and I'm telling you tonight, we've got a big God. Now sometimes we act like we don't, and sometimes we act like we've got a small God, and we've got the Hollywood God, and we've got the Charlton Heston God, if you will, but yet I'm telling you, Isaiah saw God as few people have ever seen Him before. He was high, He was majestic, He was holy, He was lifted up, and I believe in modern day Christianity. The devil has caused us to swallow a lie that we should closely follow the world and bring God down to man's level, but you know what? You know why the devil wants God's people to so-called be contemporary? Because the devil knows good and well that contemporary Christianity is not biblical Christianity. And ladies and gentlemen, I believe with the music, I believe with many of the things that have happened in modern day America, I believe we have taken a holy, righteous God on His throne, and we've pulled Him down to the common level of a man. Let me tell you what I mean. I saw a shirt just the other day. I was walking through a shopping mall. One of the worst things I like to do in all this world is walk through a shopping mall. I can't stand it. Every time my wife and I go to a mall, I hold her hand and I say, even so come Lord Jesus, I can't stand to shop. I've never liked to shop, and I'll probably never will like to shop. You say that's unspiritual. That's fine. You try it all the time, alright? But nonetheless, I don't enjoy it. I believe I've been to every shoe store in the face of God's earth, and if that's what my wife likes, I take her. She likes this place down south. I don't know if you have them up here. They're called Goody's. There's nothing good about this place. It's Batty's is what I call it. And I tell myself all the time, I'm going to buy a burial plot in the basement of Walmart so my wife will visit me about six times a week. But nonetheless, I was shopping not too long ago, and this guy won't buy me out of shirt on. Bothered the stew out of me. Here's what it said. Across the front, it had a great big Budweiser slogan. A great big Budweiser theme, like a little ribbon. And here's what it said. For all that you do, this blood's for you. And on the back, it had a picture of Jesus Christ open, bleeding, and bruised for His people. Now, I've got news for you, ladies and gentlemen. You don't tell me, and you can't tell me, that we've brought God down to the level of man when we can put Him akin to Budweiser. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we are weak and anemic in modern-day Christianity because we do not so-called serve a holy God as we should. Hey, as I quite so last night, Joe feared God. He said, I considered His presence, and I was afraid of Him. When's the last time you were afraid of the great holiness of God? My Bible tells me He was high. My Bible tells me He was lifted up. Furthermore, keep reading in verse number one, look what it says. It says, and His train filled the temple. You know, for a couple of years, I'd preach through Isaiah chapter number six, you know, difficult things, or I'd be giving it for a devotion. And every time I got to the word train, I would just kind of glibly run through it. I would say that word train means glory until I began to study my Bible. It's amazing to me. A lot of preaching would be fixed if preachers would study their Bibles. And so I went back into the Word of God, and I found that it doesn't mean glory at all. The word train means exactly what it means, exactly what it says. You know, this lady, I performed my first wedding not too long ago, I suppose the first week of April, first night of April. My wife's sister Melanie was fixing to get married, and Melanie and Lee were there, and we went to this great big Baptist church in Chattanooga, and I just closed the revival meeting on Wednesday and got there, did all the things. And my brother-in-law and myself were going to be doing the wedding. I was going to be doing the challenge, and I was going to be doing, who giveth this woman to be married to this man? And I was going to be doing the verses, and he was going to be doing the vows. I'll be honest with you, I don't usually get real nervous when I'm going to be speaking in front of people, but I thought for sure I was going to end up saying something dumb and ruin the whole thing, you know. He kept putting it in my mind, don't mess up, don't mess up. I was scared I was going to get up there and say, dearly bow-legged, we are gathered here today. And so, you know, I was nervous as a cat, you know. I didn't know what I was going to say. And so my heart just a-pounding, my heart just a-beating. And old Lee's standing up there, he's looking at me, he's got a big old possum getting on his face like this. Boy, he's got that old necktie on. Everybody's standing there, and they start playing the march. And the back doors fly open. Boom! Everybody stands up and turns around. And they're all looking at the bride. And she comes walking, she's got the veil, she's got on the pretty white dress, and she comes up. You know what them bridesmaids do? They follow behind her, and they grab the train of her dress. And they make sure it's fixed, they make sure it don't fall, make sure it don't get in the candles, and she goes up in the poop of smoke right there at the wedding. And what they're doing is they're following her around to make sure the train is in place. Now, some are longer than others, but that's the same word that is used here in Isaiah chapter number 6. It's literally talking about the very garment of a holy God. And Isaiah said, this God was so big, this God was so authoritative, He was so majestic, that the very back half, the very train of His garment, filled the entire temple. Now, friend, that's not the message that we hear in modern day Christianity. We hear just about a little, small, insignificant God. But yet, I'm telling you, Isaiah saw something, and it affected him. I mean, it grieved him over his own sinfulness, and he saw the holiness of God like never before. Did you know, in the 1700's and in the 1800's, do you know why we had the first great awakening? Do you know why we had the second great awakening? Do you know why, at the turn of the century, in 1904-1905, Evan Roberts and Seth Joshua, 26-year-old young man and a 28-year-old young man, do you know why they saw a great revival in Wales? Do you know why George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards and all those men saw great moves of God? I'll tell you why. They had one central message. You read every message those men preached, it was permeated with one thought. The holiness of God. The sinfulness of man. The holiness of God. The sinfulness of man. The holiness of God. The sinfulness of man. And when we got away from preaching the utter holiness of God is when we got in trouble in modern day Christianity. That's when the loose living came in. That's when the modernism crept in. That's when all of this fighting and all of this fussing and all of this bitterness and all of this wickedness got us all when it began to creep in when we got away from preaching the holiness of Almighty God. And Isaiah said, listen, I've seen something I've never seen before. Look in verse number 2 if you would please. The Bible says above it. Above what? Above this great throne where God is sitting. Above this temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain or with two he covered his face. And with twain he covered his feet. And with twain he did fly. Notice what they said. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Did you know if you go to Revelation 13 sometimes you will find these same angels doing the very same thing around the emerald, rainbow throne of God. Now there are different angels in your Bible. There are messenger angels. There are angels that are sent to battle or to combat if you will. But there are two angels in your Bible that are made primarily for one purpose and that was for the purpose of worship. One of those classifications or groups if you will were the cherubims. Do you remember the golden cherubims that was on the Ark of God? The mercy seat where the very Spirit of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies. But the others were seraphims. Literally having the idea that they had one main job and that one main job was to flutter and fly around the throne of God and the only thing they could say from eternity past to right now all the way to eternity future is holy, holy, holy and they're doing the very same thing when you get to the book of Revelation. God is so holy that all these angels can do around the emerald throne of God is scream and proclaim the utter holiness of God. A thrice holy God. And that's what these angels were doing. And it moves the very heart of Isaiah. He's never seen anything like that before. The Bible says that these creatures, these seraphims, had six wings. And it's a lot different than the angelology, the angel worship that we have in the day and age in which we go down to Wal-Mart and see some half-naked little baby flying around with a diaper and got little pink wings on, got a little bow in his hand, something like that, you know. And we've been touched by an angel much. And everybody's, angel, angel, angel. That's not angels in the Bible. These angels had six wings. With Twain, the Bible said, they covered their face. A picture of humility. With Twain, they covered their feet. You study Middle Eastern cultures, you'll find out that people covered their feet when they went in people's homes. It was the thing to do. It was the custom. It was a custom of humility. Yet the Bible says, with two more, they did fly. And that's interesting to me for several reasons, but let me share one and we move on. Here there were four wings that were used in their humility. Four wings that were used for the worship of God. But two wings were used for the service of God. You see, they had twice as much worship as they did service. And I believe what we have done is sold ourselves short in modern day Christianity because yes, we should serve God, but we've got the cart before the horse, if you will. And we've let that thing snowball and run all the way down the hill. And all we preach now is service, service, service, service when we should have twice as much worship as our service. And then maybe our service will be more effective than what it is. And I believe worship is a lost art in the day and age in which we live. Most people do not worship God. Here's what they do. They get on their knees. They say, Dear God, please, I confess all my sins to You. I pray that You'd forgive me. Bless all the missionaries on the far-flung corners of the world. And I'll read Psalm 117, shortest chapter in the Bible, two verses. I've done my duty to God and man, and I'll have You no friend. That stinks in the nostrils of a holy God. What's your worship like? By the way, what your worship is like will determine what your service is like. Keep reading in your Bibles if you would, please. Now look at verse 4. The Bible says, And the pulse of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Have you ever seen a picture of the temple that Isaiah is talking about? I mean, we're not talking about a little rinky-dink rat-tat building, friend. We're talking about a big place. And the Bible says, Because of the great glory of God... You remember many times in the Old and New Testament God is likened to a consuming fire. The Bible says here that the room, that the entire structure of this place was filled with smoke as if they were in a furnace from the very glory and the very holiness of God. And the Bible makes an interesting observation. It says, And the pulse of the door... The pulse of this place... I mean, what's holding it up? The Bible says that they moved at the voice of these seraphims that cried day and night, Holy, Holy, Holy. Here these angels are declaring the utmost holiness, the utmost majesty, reverence and fear for God. And the Bible says the whole place shakes. Now that excites me, but on the flip side it also bothers me because modern day we can get up and preach and preach and preach and preach and preach. Those angels can say God is holy and the whole building shakes. We can get in the pulpit and say God is holy and you can't move most badly with a ton of dynamite. And I believe we become so cold, so lethargic and so carnal we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, Revelation 3, verses 14-17. And Jesus said, oh, no, no, no, there's a whole lot of things you need. He said, no, it's not that you're poor. You're wretched. You're blind. You're miserable. And you are naked. Didn't you know what He said in verse number 20? The verse that most of us take out of context and we always preach it to lost people. Behold, I stand at the door now. If any man open the door, I will come into him and supplicate him and he with me. And we always preach on salvation. Is there a salvation application? Oh yes, most certainly. Because a sinner does have a responsibility to respond to the convicting power to the knocking, if you will, of the Holy Spirit. But in Revelation 3, verse 20, He's not talking to lost people. He's talking to His people. And He says, listen, these people were so busy preaching. They were so busy singing. They were so busy praising, if you will. They were so busy doing the work on the church on the inside, they didn't even realize that God was on the outside knocking, trying to get in, open up the windows of heaven, give them a blessing that they cannot contain. And I'm telling you, that's exactly where we are in modern day Christianity. We are working, working, working. Our sight has never been affected by the holiness of God. And if we ever get a real good vision of God's majesty, that will be the day we quit messing around with this world. The day you get filled with God's Spirit is the day you will quit running your mouth about this world's music. The very day somebody gets a real good vision of the holiness of God is the day they will filter out their video cabinet. The day we see God's holiness as we should see God's holiness, not only will it affect our sight, but number two, it will affect our sensitivity. Say, what do you mean it will affect our sensitivity? Look in your Bibles, if you would please, now at verse number five. Verse number five, the Bible says, Then said I... When is the word then referring to? Obviously, after he saw this great vision. 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. Why? For by my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Would you flip back to chapter number three in your Bibles, please, to the book of Isaiah. Chapter number three, I want to take you on a progression. I want to show you something here. Eight times in your Bible, Isaiah woes seven groups of people. Now, although there are eight woes, there are only seven groups of people there because he woes the drunkards twice. And they probably need to be woed twice. Alright, look what your Bible says. Isaiah chapter three and verse number nine. The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Chapter number three and verse number eleven, please. The Bible says, Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Then you skip chapter four and go to chapter five. Chapter number five and verse number eight, please. Isaiah chapter five and verse eight, where your Bible and mine says, Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field till there be no place that there may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. In mine ears, said the Lord of hosts, of the truth, many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair without inhabitants. Yet, yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield one ephaph. Verse eleven, Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, till wine inflame them. Chapter number five, verse eighteen. The Bible says, Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope. Verse twenty, please. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Verse twenty-one. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and put it in their own sight. Next verse. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink. Eight times. The prophet Isaiah with no doubt a sincere heart for the things of God. No doubt wanting his people to sense and to see revival. He opens his heart. He opens his Bible. He opens his mouth like the front door of his house and he says, You people need to get right with God. Eight times. He said, Woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe. And I mean, he woe'd everybody. But look what happened in verse number five, if you would. Then said I, Woe is me. Not only was his sight affected, his sensitivity. God began to melt him. God began to soften him, squeeze the vice grip as we preached on last night from Job chapter number 23. But did you notice in verse number five what his response involved? Number one, it dealt with himself. Notice he did not say, Woe is you. Notice he did not say, Woe is everybody. When he saw God like never before, he said, Woe is me. And it's kind of like the old song they sing. Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. And here's a man who was utterly and ruthlessly brutal upon himself. He said, Lord, it's not their fault. It's not this group's fault. It's not this race's fault. It's not this camp's fault. It's not this college's fault. It's not this church's fault. He said, Lord, it is my fault. It is me. And his sensitivity caused him to have a response that dealt with himself. But number two, his response dealt with his sin. Notice what he said. He said, Then said I, woe is me. Why? For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. Do you notice how he named his sin? We're living in a day, you preachers know this good and well, we're living in a day when everything has just about been reclassified and renamed in the book. People say, well, I'll tell you what, brother Locke, the reason I scream at my kids and get mad and get all upset is because I'm choleric or because I'm a sanguine. No, because you're mean. You need to be filled with spirit. That's why you scream at your kids and that's why you get mean. Someone says, well, it's just an alternative lifestyle. God called it sodomy. God called it abomination. Someone said, well, it's a woman's choice. God said it was abortion. In Psalm 127.3, the Bible says, well, children are a heritage of the Lord. And then people go on and they say, well, it's just a habit. And the reason so many people in our churches are consumed with habit is because that's exactly what they call them. They say, well, it's a shortcoming. It's good in the making. It's just a hardship that I'm going through. It's a habit. But if we would see God's holiness and a lot of His holiness, see our sinfulness, we'd quit calling it a habit. We'd quit calling it something stubborn. We'd call it a dirty, rotten, filthy, wretched sin in the eyes of God and we would deal with it. And if we're not willing to confess sin and get right with sin, you can forget about the subject of the Bible. We might as well close our Bibles and go to the house tonight. Because God's interested in people that are sensitive. God's interested in people that are willing to fall upon their face and not just confess their sin glibly. But as the Bible says in Proverbs 28, 13, he that covers his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. So it dealt with himself. It dealt with his sin, but notice also it dealt with his surroundings. Say, what do you mean? Verse 5 again, please. Then said, I will with me, for I am undone. He said, 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. And not only did it deal with himself and deal with his sin, but all of a sudden, Isaiah began to see those around him in a different light. You see, the holiness of God has a way of burdening God's people like no other doctrine in the Bible. And when he got this glimpse, I call it the vision of decision. When he got this glimpse, this vision, this glory of God as Moses said, Lord, show me Thy glory. When he got this glimpse, all of a sudden, he quit seeing those people as numbers. He quit seeing those people as statistics. He quit seeing them as names and as faces and he started seeing them as people and it overwhelmed him and he began to see it burdening him and naturally an outflow of this great burden as you read the rest of the book of Isaiah and you will find out that he preached with much more vigor the rest of the book than he did the first two chapters. The first two chapters he was a little overly zealous. Woe to everybody but the electrician and the plumbers in town. But then, after he saw God, his message was still a message of judgment, but you see much more fire in his heart because he now begins to look at these people as never dying souls, as lost people for some, as backslidden people for others and it gave him a great burden for the community that was around him. And I believe when we get an old-fashioned dose of the holiness of God, it will burden us like never before for the community around us. And the Bible says that his sensitivity was overwhelmingly affected. Somebody asked me not long ago, Brother Locke, what is one of the tell-tale reasons we are not having revival in America? Basically, what I think what they were asking me is not really the reason we're not, but how can I prove to them we're not? One simple way. Because of the lack of sensitivity among God's people. If you'll be honest about it, most of the people we shake hands with are heads just about as hard as that little bit right there. God's got to bend us and God's got to break us and God's got to put us in the fire and put us in the vice grip and one tell-tale reason that we are not having revival and one sure dead sign that we're not having revival is the lack of humility and the lack of sensitivity that we see in the hearts and lives of God's people old and young alike. But seeing God in a new light has a way of putting a hunger in your mouth. And you know what happened with Isaiah? If you'll allow me to say it reverently this way, it's almost like God stepped over and just poured a great big heap and spoonful of salt on his tongue and he made him thirsty for the power of God. He made him thirsty to want to know more about God's majesty, to want to know more about God's holiness and want to know more and see what more he could do and it burdened him deeply for those to whom God gave him in the ministry. And he said, Dear Lord, not only am I in a mess, all of these people around me are in a mess. And that is why we have the next few verses. Sometimes we just use these verses at a missionary conference or a Bible conference or a Bible college or something like that and we think to ourselves, Well, big deal. That's what God said. And Isaiah said, Well, here am I. Send me. Why did he say that? Well, look at verse number 6. Right after he has now been completely overwhelmed with his sin, he's been overwhelmed that he's the one that's most of the problem. He's been overwhelmed with his surroundings and he's seen these people lost and with a great need. Look what happens in verse number 6. Then flew one of the seraphim, one of these worshipful angels unto me, having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with a tongue from off the altar. And he laid it, that great coal in his hand, upon my mouth and said, Lo, this is touched by my lips and that iniquity is taken away and I sin purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I sin and who will go for us? Notice, Then said I, Here am I. Send me. Number one, this principle of personal revival, his sight was affected. Number two, his sensitivity was affected. God broke him. But number three, his surrender was affected. You know what happens in real times of revival, whether it's national, local church, community-wide, family, or personal? All of a sudden, God begins to get the will of His people. And God now says with a bold, declaring voice, Who will go for us? Who can I send to this lost and dying rebellious nation of people? And after seeing what he saw, his heart was so overwhelmed, so burdened, and so greatly grieved for what he saw without hesitation, without a breath, without a bat of an eye, he threw up his hand and said, Enlist me. Here am I. Send me. Now, here is what I believe is a great, great problem in churches by and large. We have saved all. We have saved all of our messages on Romans 12, 1 and 2 for teenagers. We've saved all of our sermons about surrendering to be a preacher and surrendering to give God your life and everything that you have. We have saved in camps, in colleges, in schools, we have saved all of the sermons about surrender for teenagers. And I've got news for you. I think if a bunch of adults could use a good, old-fashioned dose of the surrender of their will to God's will as well. I know a family right now that I went to Ambassador Baptist College with. Name's not important. But they were called to go to the mission field. I mean, they were on fire for God as missionaries if there's ever been a family on fire for God as missionaries. So they came forward to the Bible conference or the mission conference there. They began to pray, Lord, I know you want us to go here. We've got a couple little kids. We felt like you wanted us to pass in the state, but if you want us to go, we will go. Went to their father. Went to their father. By the way, they're still living in Shelby, North Carolina. Went to their father and said, Dad, God's called us to go to the mission field. He was a deacon in a fundamental Baptist church. You know what he said? That's wonderful that God stirred your heart, but you know what? You can use your gifts and talents over here. You can use your gifts and talents for the Lord right here in your local church. You can use your gifts and talents at Ambassador Baptist College. You know what? There is a missionary couple right now who should be on the foreign field, but it's not because of their lack of dedication and surrender. It was because of a lack of Mama and Daddy's dedication and surrender who wasn't ready to cut the apron strings and let Johnny Jr. and Susan and the rest of that crowd go to the mission field. And I'm telling you, friend, like no other thing, when we really see God as God wants us to see Him, it will affect our surrender. Nothing will be too difficult. Nothing will be too unreasonable. That's why Paul said, it is your reasonable service. Two thousand years ago, He gave His life for you and for me, and it's just reasonable that tonight we give our lives to Him. And my Bible tells me that there's nothing unreasonable that God will ask me to do. Where God guides, He will provide. And I believe like no other time when we have a vision, when we have a good old-fashioned dose of what Isaiah got in Isaiah 6, it will break our hearts, it will bend our wheels, and we will be willing to do what He wants us to do, go where He wants us to go, say what He wants us to say, wear what He wants us to wear, no questions asked, because He is Lord, period. Philippians 2, 5-11, let this mind be in you. Which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, made of the likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, because of this, wherefore God also exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth. And the Bible says that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, and those will be the ringling, wrangling verses during times of revival. Whatever you want, you are the Lord of my life. Listen, I'm through. Jim Elliot, you know, to be one of the five missionaries who were slain many years ago by the Indians, as they went over and began to work with that Aborigine tribe, they found that there was a little landing strip where they could land, right there close to the edge of the jungle, and they could go in and begin to talk to these Akka Indians, these people that have never known the Gospel before. And so they landed their little plane in there several times, but yet one day they told their wives that we're going to get out and spend some time with these people. They'd already talked with them according to history. They'd already got out and talked with these people before, but they were going to spend a little more time trying to pick up some of the language, a little bit of the words and the dialect, and try to get the Gospel to these people. Well, you know the story as well as I know. They landed in, the five missionaries got out, and I've seen some of the most horrid, gruesome pictures in all the world just a couple of weeks ago. As a matter of fact, I was going through a little album and somebody had this life story about him that was written by his wife who's still nationally known on the radio and this, that and the other. But nonetheless, I was flipping through some pictures and one of the pictures was somehow they had snapped a shot and the edge of the picture is just smeared with nothing but blood. You can see the red all over the side of the picture and the bodies and the carcasses that are floating during the water and we think to ourselves, what a tragedy that these men gave themselves to Christ and they said we will go out and we will give you our lives even unto the death and before they could ever share the gospel. All five were dead at four o'clock in the morning. We know the story well that their wives eventually went in within the next few weeks, within the next few months and right this very moment, the very island in which they were killed, there are five good Bible preaching churches because those ladies stuck with it and other people began to come and other missionaries came in and love offerings were taken and many people were saved and will be in the kingdom of God because those five men laid down their lives. There were two missionaries that were flying over that particular area about ten years ago. One of the missionaries was going over to help in one of these churches that had been started years earlier and when they flew by that little landing strip area where they had dumped off that food and landed their plane and got out where they were slain with great excitement, he leaned over to the side of the window and he said, lookie there, sir. He said, there's the bend of the river. He said, right there is where Jim Elliott died. He said, I've read the books, I've seen the video. He said, I've stood in his life many, many times and he said, there's the bend of the river where Jim Elliott died and the guy that was flying the plane kept on flying and never even looked his way and he said, no, sir. He said, that's not where Jim Elliott died and he said, sir, I don't want to argue. I don't want to get in the flesh about this thing, but I've read many books. I've seen the video. I know this is where Jim Elliott died. He said, right there, that's the bend in the river. Is it not? And he said, oh yeah, that's the bend in the river, but that's not where Jim Elliott died and he said, sir, would you please explain to me exactly what you mean? He said, I was with Jim Elliott the night he died. He said, we were fixing to enter into Bible college and a little old evangelist got up in the pulpit of a little old country backwoods Baptist church and began to preach on Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. He said, the Spirit of God gripped Jim Elliott's heart like never before. He said, he went forward and knelt down on a little altar and said, dear God, tonight I give you my life. Not some of it, but all of it. You can have it even unto the death. And he turned as he was flying that plane and he said, sir, that is where Jim Elliott died. I'll tell you what we need. If we're ever going to have a revival in this camp, in your church, in your family, in your life, you're going to have to get to the place where you die to what you want. And until you do, you can forget about living for what God wants. Principles for personal revival. Every head bowed, please. Every eye closed. No one's looking. No one's talking. Is your will dead tonight? Are you willing to do, go, be, whatever it is that God wants you to be?