IN A DAY OF MINUSES, continued…….

1 -   CRISIS BROUGHT CONFRONTATION

     Isaiah was not galloping from Dan to Beersheba when he saw the Lord.  He was in the temple, the place of prayer, of meditation, of worship.

Contemplation is a lost art today, even in the ministry.

A lack of meditation becomes a robber of renewed hearts. 

To believe is to see the cool waters in the cup, but to meditate upon it is to drink.

Reading gathers the clusters of fruit, contemplation squeezes out the juices.   Meditation is of all things the most soul fattening when combined with prayer.

In the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, the spouse meditates in that chapter, for how else could she speak in detail concerning her Lord.

Therefore, we should meditate on the cross, the sufferings, the spotless character of Christ, the grave, the resurrection, then on to the throne.

ISAIAH was already a prophet.  He was in full time service, pronouncing woes in all direction before he got around to "WOE IS ME".

Isaiah was not the only man who met God in a new way when he was already a devoted servant to the most high God.

1. Joshua did it.  After the death of Moses, God spoke to Joshua.
   

2. Job did it.  To be tried.  He lost all.  He abhored himself.
   

3. John did it.  On the isle of Patmos.  Fell at his feet as one dead.
   

In God's work there is always the great danger of trafficking in unfelt truth.  Working in the bakery until we lose our taste for the bread.

Many a tailor goes in rags who makes costly garments for others.  Many a cook scarcely licks his fingers when he has dressed for others the most costly dishes.

2- CONFRONTATION WAS FOLLOWED BY CONVICTION:

    "WOE IS ME"!   Too often we try to persuade men and women to say,  Here am I, when they have not first been brought to say;  "WOE IS ME".

JOB said in chapter 42:5-6, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

POINT:  F.B. Meyer was visiting in a Scottish home,  It was wash day, and the clothes

              were on the line.  It began to snow, and soon the clothes did not look so white

              against the background of the snow.  When Mr. Meyer remarked about it, the

              old Scottish landlady cried,   "Mon, What can stand against God Almighty's

              white."

             When Isaiah saw the Lord in His Holiness, he saw himself in his sinfulness, and

             the people in their wickedness.

             A sense of God brought a sense of sin.  Makes one realize how unclean we really

             are.

3- CONVICTION BROUGHT CONFESSION:

Verse 5.  I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

There is a growing tendency these days to:

1. Excuse the evils of this generation.
   

2. Gloss over the rottenness of our evil doings.
   

3. Minimize it's corruption.           Please continue Here
   

Wayside Baptist Church - 2002

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