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Hallelujah.
Let me pray.
Father, we thank you tonight as we just
raise our hands towards heaven that Lord Jesus,
you are here meeting with us because you
want to speak to our hearts.
Lord, I acknowledge tonight my total dependency upon
you that Lord, your word stands alone.
And God, our words fall to the ground,
but yours are eternal.
They are powerful, and Lord, they change lives.
Now tonight I'm asking that you hide me
behind the cross and let your eternal word
do its work in every heart tonight, I
pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
Turn with me in your Bibles to the
book of Isaiah.
And I had a title for this, and
I hope they got it changed, but I
changed it when I went to go and
get mic'd up.
And I changed it to Meeting God Face
to Face.
I think it's more appropriate for what I
want to share with you tonight as God
has been speaking to my heart all week,
and I believe that God will just minister
to us through his word.
Now, by the time, as I mentioned a
couple of Sundays ago, when you get to
the book of Isaiah, it's broken up into
two sections.
There's a lot of things going on in
Isaiah.
Isaiah is one of the clearest prophets that
there is concerning Christ.
But when you go all the way through
to chapter 39, it's on one segment, and
he's dealing with idolatry.
He's dealing with the nation.
He's talking about the consequences of sin.
He's dealing with what is going to be
taking place because of their sin and their
rejection of God.
But when you start from chapter 40 onwards
all the way to chapter 66, you see
a significant change.
Yes, he still deals with some of the
issues and the idolatry and things like that,
but you see a significant change has taken
its course.
And from 40 onwards, we see that the
prophet begins to talk about the reconciliation that
God has in his heart towards his people.
So all the way through from 40 to
66, God is speaking clearly and concisely about
reconciling to his people.
This is the heart of God.
He doesn't want anybody to be estranged from
him.
It's his heart that he wants to be
reconciled.
He wants to walk with his people.
And sometimes it's the hardest thing in the
world for us to understand that the God
of the universe actually wants to walk with
us.
He wants to be with us.
He wants to go with us into the
workplace.
He wants to go with us to our
homes.
Sometimes it's the hardest truth to believe that
God actually wants to walk with you, that
he loves you and cares for you.
How many tonight would put their hand up
immediately and say, Oh, I know God walks
with me and loves me and just I'm
so confident in this.
Probably a few hands would go up, but
there'd be probably a vast majority of us
would put our hands up and say, Well,
I'm not exactly sure whether I'm a favorite
with God.
I know he loves Pastor David and Pastor
Carter, but I'm not sure whether he loves
me.
And see, there's a lot of people who
haven't got that settled in their heart, how
God loves them, meeting God face to face.
So when you get to Isaiah chapter 63,
verse 1, down to just verse 6, let's
just read it together.
It's a strange portion of Scripture and people
are varied in the understanding of it.
I read several commentators on chapter 63, 1
through 6, and they've got their own thought
lines.
But as I began to pray on this
portion of Scripture, God began to reveal who
this is.
And we'll touch on this tonight as we
get to meet God face to face.
Isaiah 63, verse 1, Who is this that
cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra?
This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling
in the greatness of his strength.
Now, a lot of commentators speak about this
as being Assyria, that this is the Assyrian
nation.
And probably historically, that could be correct, that
this was the Assyrian nation coming in and
taking Israel captive back into Assyria or Babylon.
So we can see it could be the
Assyrian people.
But let's keep reading here.
I that speak in righteousness mighty to save,
wherefore art thou read?
So here's the person again who's asking the
question.
So the person again is asking, saying in
verse 2, Wherefore or why art thou read
in thine apparel?
Why is your apparel so red?
And thy garments like him that treadeth in
the wine vat.
He says, how come your garments are so
stained?
Why are they so red?
It's so red like you've been standing in
a wine vat.
And in verse 3, the person who's coming
towards him, as Isaiah sees it, he says,
I have trodden the winepress alone, and of
the people there was none with me.
For I will tread them in mine anger,
and trample them in my fury, and their
blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and
I will stain all my raiment.
See, these are the kind of scriptures that
kind of befuddle the mind of the commentators.
Well, is this Assyria?
Are these the Babylonians?
Is this the enemy coming in?
Who is this speaking to us?
For the day of vengeance is in my
heart, and the year of my redemption is
come.
And I looked, and there was none to
help, and I wondered that there was none
to uphold.
Therefore my own arm brought salvation unto me,
and my fury it upheld me.
And I will tread down the people in
mine anger, and make them drunk in my
fury, and I will bring down their strength
to the earth.
Now, let me make three statements before we
get into this portion of scripture tonight.
Let me make three statements.
Number one, God never abandons man or men
to the result of his sin or his
folly.
You've got to understand what I'm saying tonight.
God never abandons us.
Even when we sin, even in our folly,
when we do dumb stuff, God never abandons
us.
You've got to put that down in your,
if you're making notes, write those things.
These are the kind of statements that ultimately
we don't believe.
We believe that if we sin, that God
is like a scared rabbit, He leaves us
immediately.
But I want to make three statements.
Number one, God never abandons man to the
result of his sin or his folly.
If He did, there would never be a
Calvary.
There'd never be a cross.
There'd never be a Savior.
If He said, I'm just going to abandon
you and just leave you to your sin
and your folly, there would never be salvation
that Jesus gave to us at the cross
of Calvary.
But see, the heart of God is that
He doesn't want to abandon us.
He wants to walk with us in reconciliation.
He wants to walk with us in a
love relationship second to none.
Number two, God will interfere, He will arrest,
He will change, and He will restore that
which was lost or stolen by the devil.
I believe that with all of my heart,
that my God, He will interfere in my
life.
He will interfere.
He's not going to just let me go
on my way.
God will become like a mother-in-law.
He will interfere in my life.
He will arrest us.
He will change us.
And He will restore that which was lost
and stolen by the devil.
That is the heart of God.
He says, I will restore that which the
canker worm has eaten, that which the farmer
worm has eaten.
And He goes all the way through in
Joel.
He says, all these that have eaten.
God says, I will restore the years that
have been eaten by the locust and the
canker worm.
He'll take any single life, and you can
take a look at the past history of
your life and see all the years that
have been wasted.
And God says, I will restore every single
year that you've been lost.
And God will do it in a moment
of time.
And He'll restore it.
He'll bring it back to your life.
This is the hope of Christianity.
It doesn't matter what the devil has stolen
from you.
It doesn't matter how he's come into your
life and made havoc.
God says, I will restore you.
I will bring restoration back into your heart
and life because I want to walk with
you.
See, this is all in God's heart.
He says, I'm not going to abandon you.
And number two, I will interfere.
I will arrest.
I will make changes.
And I will bring restoration to the soul,
even when we are not walking with Him.
Folks, I want to tell you the greatest
thing about God.
He is determined to interfere with your life.
It's a tough thing to come to the
gospel of Jesus Christ because the moment you
come to Jesus, you are finished.
He will interfere and work on you.
He'll give you the Holy Ghost, miserables.
He will do anything that He needs to
do to arrest your life from where it's
going.
Then number three, and I love it, number
three, He will then request men and women
to participate with Him.
See, beloved, when God does that work in
our hearts and lives, it's not just to
get us to heaven.
It's not just to get us cleaned up
from a life of sin.
But God says, I want you to participate
with Me.
There is a walk with Christ that He
will come and anoint us.
God is no respecter of persons.
He will raise up a woman.
He will raise up a man.
He will take any person anywhere, restore them,
and then give them an invitation to work
with Him.
And God can take your life and through
you can touch thousands of people.
Listen, we are not touching thousands of people
because we are so myopic.
We don't believe that God will do it
through us.
But I want to tell you that He
gives you an open invitation tonight to join
Him in ministry and to touch people's lives
because it's His heart.
He wants to touch men and women.
Like I shared with you tonight, we're just
going to a dentist appointment, sitting in that
chair waiting for Him to finish His last
patient who came out looking like death.
And I've got to go in there.
But here is this woman just sitting in
the chair next to me.
She's got to have a tooth pulled.
But beloved, it might be a tooth that
needs to be pulled, but God loves her.
And God wants to reach her heart.
It just takes somebody to see that.
You just pray.
I just sit there and I just start
talking.
It's okay.
I just start sharing and talking.
I don't have to push Jesus on anybody
because they ask the questions themselves.
If it is a God moment, this is
how you know.
If it's a God moment or you're pushing
it into someone's face, it's real simple.
You travel along, they ask you the question.
At the very second, I've always determined in
my heart, if somebody asks me a question,
they're going to get an answer.
I mean, how simple is that?
I mean, that's the most profound thing you're
going to hear all tonight.
Someone asks you a question, they deserve an
answer.
Amen?
All right.
So those are the three questions.
God never abandons man to the result of
his sin of folly.
He will interfere, arrest, change, and restore that
which is stolen.
And God will then request of a man
or a woman to participate with him in
eternal purposes.
So here we see this scripture here.
Now Isaiah is referring to this person as
a watchman.
In chapter 62, verse 6, it says, I've
set a watchman upon my walls.
And so the person who is seeing this
is a watchman.
So he's standing on the walls of Jerusalem
and he's looking out, as it were.
And so Isaiah is talking as though he
was a watchman standing upon the walls of
Jerusalem and he's looking out.
And as he looks down the hills and
the mountains and the valleys of Jerusalem, he
looks down and he sees someone is coming.
Who is this that cometh from Edom with
dyed garments from Bozrah?
Now, Bozrah is the capital of Edom.
The word Bozrah there is the capital city
of Edom.
Now, Edom, as we know, is the lineage
of Esau, whom God hated.
Esau is the type of the flesh.
Edom is that, listen to Psalm 108, it
says, who will bring me into the strong
city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
Edom has always been a type of the
stronghold of the flesh.
So here we're seeing that Isaiah is saying,
who is this coming from Edom with dyed
garments from Bozrah?
Who's coming from the capital city of Edom?
This word Bozrah literally means stronghold.
It can either be sheepfold or stronghold.
But we understand from the context here that
it is talking about the stronghold.
Who is this coming from the very stronghold
of the flesh?
You see, God wants to take us, Psalm
108 verse 10 says, who will bring me
into the strong city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
In other words, the psalmist is saying, then
verse 13 of Psalm 108 says, through God
we shall do valiantly, for it is He
that shall tread down our enemies.
So the psalmist is saying this.
Now understand what Isaiah is saying.
The psalmist is saying, who will take me
into the strong city?
Who is strong enough, in other words, to
take us into those areas of our life
that are too strong for me to overcome?
Who will take me there?
Who's going to take me into those areas
that are so big or maybe so painful?
Those areas that are so deep that you
will not visit yourself.
Who is it that can take me there?
Who is it that can take me to
those areas of the flesh that are like
walled cities?
And you'll have them.
Every last one of us sitting here tonight,
there are areas in our lives that we
do not allow God to go near.
Strongholds.
So the psalmist is saying, who is it?
Well, Isaiah is saying, there is somebody who's
come from Bozrah.
There is somebody who's coming from the very
stronghold, from the very city of Edom itself.
See, the magnificence of Isaiah 63 is this.
The psalmist has said, Edom, from days, from
Esau's day.
Esau, have I hated?
Why?
Because he was a man of the flesh.
He was a man who God hated because
he didn't desire the things of God.
He's always linked to the things of the
flesh.
And so when the psalmist picks it up,
he's recounting this.
And he's saying, this Edom is such a
walled city.
It's those areas that hold us captive that
we cannot escape from.
But Isaiah sees something different.
See, the psalmist says, who can take me
there?
Isaiah says, there's somebody coming from the capital
city of the flesh.
There's somebody, I see, coming out of the
very center, the capital, the very center of
the flesh.
I see somebody coming from Edom and from
the capital itself.
The very stronghold of life.
Who is this person?
This is what Isaiah is saying.
This is why Isaiah chapter 63 is probably
one of the most exciting chapters in the
whole book of Isaiah.
We've got some exciting chapters that we understand.
But this particular chapter is one that is
saying, I see somebody who is coming from
the very capital of the city of the
flesh called Edom.
Somebody's coming out of that place.
Who can take me there?
See, the question in Psalm 108, who can
take me there?
This is so strong in my life.
There is no freedom from some of the
strongholds in our lives.
Sometimes our personalities are so strong that they
hold us captive.
Who can deliver us?
So the psalmist is asking, is there anybody?
Well, Isaiah sees someone coming out of the
very center of the very capital of Edom
called Bozrah.
And he's dyed his garments from Bozrah.
He says, look at this, in this glorious
apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
So in other words, here is somebody that
Isaiah is saying that somebody has come out
of this capital of Edom and coming out
in strength.
Most of us, when we are captivated by
the power of the flesh, we come out
in weakness.
When the flesh gets a hold of our
lives, it destroys us.
It breaks us down.
We feel discouraged.
We want to serve God.
It's like the apostle Paul.
He says, when I want to do good,
I really want to do good.
But I find myself always doing wrong.
The very things that I don't want to
do, I find myself always doing them.
See, when we come out of the flesh,
we're weakened.
We don't like it.
How many of you have got into intense
fellowship with somebody in your family?
Here you are, the Christian in your workplace.
And you've been giving this great testimony of
smiling every day because I'm a born again
believer.
And you've got this big old mug, coffee
mug on your desk that says Jesus saves.
And you've got this great testimony.
And all of a sudden something happens and
you just get so angry, so mad.
And you fly off the handle and you
let them have it.
How do you feel?
You come out from the stronghold.
When you come out of the stronghold of
the flesh, you come out miserable, defeated.
You come out discouraged.
The flesh is always ugly.
There's never a time that you, it's never
a win-win situation when you get into
the flesh, folks.
Never a win-win situation.
It's always ugly, it's always hurtful.
Somebody gets hurt and you walk away with
condemnation as big as the world on your
shoulders.
See, this is what he's talking about.
Who can take me into the strong city?
Who can take me into the strong city
and bring deliverance?
I've tried.
I can't.
And beloved, none of us can.
We can't come out of this in our
own strength.
We can't do it.
The flesh likes to sleep, never get up
and pray.
The flesh likes to read quickly.
If you're on a reading program, we see
how fast we can read it.
We don't meditate on what God is speaking
because we're on a time.
Read this chapter.
We've done our devotions.
Praise the Lord.
Let's go on our job.
God protect my day.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
And the next thing, someone bumps us.
Hey, what are you doing?
And then by the time we get on
the job, we're discouraged.
The devil is there.
He's yelling at you.
And you're just saying, yep, this is me.
But see, Isaiah, Isaiah, he's a watchman.
And he's standing on the ramparts of Jerusalem,
which is symbolic of life and the presence
and the glory of God.
And he's the one that's looking out.
He's saying, hey, I see somebody.
I see somebody coming out of the, not
just out of the area of the flesh,
but coming out of Bozrah, which is the
very center, capital of the flesh.
I see somebody who's been in there and
coming out.
Nobody comes out victoriously out of the flesh.
Nobody.
But I see somebody who is coming out,
coming out in strength, in greatness of his
strength.
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
So here is somebody who is coming out
of this place in absolute victory.
So Isaiah, who's emulating this watchman on the
watchtower, looking out over this whole thing that's
taking place, it's like the Song of Solomon.
Who is this that's coming up out of
the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?
Song of Solomon saw, it was this wedding
feast as the watchman saw, looked out into
the desert places as they made their way
up to Jerusalem.
And the writer of the Song of Solomon
says, who is this coming up out of
the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?
Obviously the natural was Solomon with his bride
and this entourage of all these people.
It was a huge big venture as Solomon
was coming up to Jerusalem with his bride.
But the writer says, who is this?
But for us spiritually, it's Christ.
He's coming up out of this wilderness.
It's Christ and we're leaning on Him.
You can't come out of the wilderness in
your own strength.
You can't come out of the captivity of
the flesh in your own power.
You can't do it.
So who is this coming up out of
the wilderness, leaning on His beloved?
It's us.
And so this is what Isaiah sees.
He takes a look at this.
He says, so he's asking the question as
the watchman one more time.
He says, wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine vat?
He says, I don't understand it.
You're coming out of the very center of
Edom, Basra, the capital of the flesh.
You're coming out.
But why are your garments all red?
It's like you've been standing in the wine
press.
It's like somebody who got into the vat
and been squeezing the grapes, trampling on the
grapes.
Your garments are all splattered.
Why are thou red?
And in verse 3 he says, I have
trodden the wine press alone, and of the
people there was none with me.
And I will tread them in mine anger
and trample them in my fury.
Now you see, when you read this and
you take it just historically, you've got to
understand that the Assyrians came in.
And there was a slaughter.
There were people that were killed.
And the garments were splattered with blood.
Yes, that's true historically.
But when we understand it now that we're
looking this side of the cross, we begin
to understand that he's talking about Christ.
He's talking about Christ.
He's talking about the wine press of sin.
Beloved, the picture of this is so amazingly
powerful.
He says, I have trodden the wine press
alone.
In other words, this person went into the
very center of humanity, into the very capital
of the flesh of self.
Jesus came from heaven and he came and
dwelt among us as a man.
He came into the very center of all
humanity.
And the Bible says that he trod the
wine press alone.
Now, the wine press in those days, it
was, they would hew this big old vat.
It would be about this deep, maybe a
little bit deeper, about a foot and a
half to two feet deep.
But they would dig it out, a huge
round part, and they would dig it out
of solid stone.
And so this would be rock.
It's not made out of wood or anything
like this.
This is cut out of solid stone and
then it's made with a little angle and
then a little spout.
And then it goes down into another vat
that they dig into deeper rock.
And that's going to be a little bit
deeper to capture all of this juice that's
coming out.
And so what they would do, they would
bring all these baskets of grapes, all these
big red juicy grapes, and they would just
dump them into this huge, the first one,
the big round one, dug out of stone.
And then what would happen is that they
would wash their feet and then these men
and women, they would climb into this dugout
area called a wine press.
And in order to get the juice to
come out of the grapes, they had a
trump on these things.
And as they trumped on them, the grapes
would burst and splatter onto the garments.
And so this is what Isaiah is seeing.
He's saying this garment that you're wearing is
looking like it's been splattered with the juice
of grapes.
It looks like you've been walking in this
vat that they've just dumped all these grapes
and you've been trampling down all of these
grapes.
And see how important it is, is that
every, the life is in the grape.
And so all the juice, unless that thing
is trodden down and all of that stuff
is broken down, the juice doesn't run out,
but then the juice goes down into the
second vat.
Let me tell you what Jesus did for
us, beloved.
This sounds like a history lesson, but let
me tell you what Jesus did.
The world came along and he took the
basket full of grapes, every sin known to
mankind, and they dumped it into this big
old wine vat.
And this is what is being declared in
Isaiah 63.
This is exactly what he is saying.
He said, I tread it.
He said, I have trodden the wine press
alone.
So there was no help.
But every sin known to mankind was dumped
into that one vat.
And he said, every single one of them,
I began to trample them underfoot.
I began to break every grape down.
You see, you only get juice when the
foot is placed upon the grape.
And that thing is crushed and all the
juice begins to run out.
And see what Jesus is saying, that every
single sin known to mankind was underfoot.
I was trampling every single one of them.
There is nothing where the life of that
thing can continue to hold you.
See, this is what he is saying.
He said, I trampled, I got into that
wine press alone, and every stamp I took
and walked around, everything that would hold any
body captive, I crushed that thing underfoot.
And all of its juice, all of its
life ran out into another place, never to
hold you captive again.
See, that's what he is talking about.
He says, that's what I've done for every
single human being.
It's so hard to even begin to believe
that that's what he would have done.
But this is what he has said.
This is what Isaiah is saying.
Who is coming out of the very center
of life, where the stronghold is, with his
garments dipped in blood, he says, in red,
he says, I have gone in and I
have trampled every single sin that can be
named, everything.
There is nothing left that I haven't crushed,
destroyed, and the life of it has run
out and gone into another place, never to
hold you captive again.
Beloved, that's what he's done for us.
This is what Isaiah is seeing.
This is what he sees when he sees
this man coming out, and when he says,
and I will tread them in mine anger.
See, you've got to understand that God sent
his son, and in anger.
It's not just anger against people.
We're not talking about physical warfare yet.
He says, God was so, Jesus was so
angry that any single sin would hold you
captive.
He said, in my anger, in the wrath
of God.
He said, I was going to take the
wrath of God on every single thing that
can be destroyed in your life.
You've got to see that the emotion of
God is to come against everything.
You might think God doesn't care, that he
hasn't dealt with these things in your life.
The Bible tells me that in his wrath
and his anger, he trampled them in his
fury.
When Jesus walked upon this earth and was
upon that cross, it was in the fury
of God.
He says, I will destroy everything that comes
against my people.
Hallelujah.
There is, God has an anger towards sin
like you wouldn't believe.
And he said, and the blood shall be
a sprinkle upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment.
For the day of vengeance is in my
heart, and the year of my redeemed has
come.
Now listen to what he goes on to
say.
Look at verse 7.
I will mention the loving kindness of the
Lord and the praises of the Lord.
So here he comes at the end of
this.
He's talking about, I tread down in verse
6, all the people in my anger, meaning
all the sin.
He's brought it down to nothing.
Now verse 7, this is Isaiah stepping back
and he says, I will mention the loving
kindness of the Lord and the praises of
the Lord according to all that the Lord
hath bestowed on us.
What has he bestowed on me?
What is he talking about?
What is the loving kindness of God?
What are the praises?
What has he bestowed upon me?
He says, and the great goodness towards the
house of Israel.
What is this?
That not one single solitary grape or sin
will remain behind undoubted by Christ.
Every single thing.
That's the goodness of God.
Isaiah steps back when he gets the revelation
of who's this coming out of Bozrah with
his garments all in red.
And then he says, I've trampled out every
single grape.
I trotted alone.
And he's giving them the hope.
He says, this is the goodness of God.
That he will place it upon us and
give us his life and his goodness.
Great goodness towards the house of Israel which
hath bestowed on them according to his mercies
and according to the multitude of his loving
kindness.
Out of absolute mercy now, I come and
bestow upon you freedom.
Absolute freedom.
That God says, I declare you totally free
because of my mercy.
For he said, surely they are my people,
children that will not lie.
So he was their savior.
In all their affliction he was afflicted.
And the angel of his presence saved them
in his love and in his pity he
redeemed them.
And he bared them and carried them all
the days of old.
So this is the vision that Isaiah sees.
Freedom from the power of sin.
Isn't that awesome?
You sound really excited.
You don't have to get too excited here
tonight.
But that's the truth.
That's what he saw.
And it thrills the heart.
God never abandons man to the result of
his sin and folly.
God always interferes, arresting and changing and restoring.
Then he calls men to become a participant
with him.
Now I was telling Elder Bill a little
while ago, I was walking with my two
grandkids home when they were up here during
the Christmas time.
And I had one umbrella and they had
another little umbrella and one was underneath there.
And the little girl was under mine.
Bronwyn was under mine.
Broderick had his own umbrella.
And we were walking and the rain was
coming down.
And so I had the umbrella really there.
Now understand why I want to give you
this illustration.
God never abandons man to the result of
his sin and folly.
He won't abandon us.
It's in the heart of God to fight
all of our enemies.
It's in the heart of God to interfere
in our lives until we come and we
know him in the capacity that he desires
and he calls us into ministry with him.
It's always been the heart of God.
So here I am walking now, kids close
to me, and I'm holding the umbrella real
close.
And all I can see is a few
feet in front of me.
And if I see some people walking to
me, I can see if they're going to
walk to the left or to the right.
And then I move the kids whichever way
they're moving to let them bypass and we
can keep ourselves under the umbrella.
And so I'm walking back to the apartment
and down the street here on 50th and
I'm walking down with them and we're just
singing a song and we're just talking and
having great fun and watching.
And suddenly I see some feet coming towards
me.
And I'm checking this out to see, are
they going to move to the left or
to the right?
They're not moving any which way.
And so suddenly they're coming real close.
And I thought, these people, this person is
not moving to the left or to the
right.
I don't know which way to move the
kids.
And so I lift the umbrella like this,
straight up.
And here is a guy, absolutely demon possessed.
He was in the air already.
By the time I lift this thing up,
this guy is in the air.
He's diving over my umbrella.
He's going to just dive upon us.
I don't know what he has in mind
at all.
But I got these two little grandkids with
me.
And I lift the umbrella up like this
and the guy goes flying by.
And he turns around, he swings around, he
looks at me with evil like I can
tell you only comes from the devil.
He looks at me with all this evil
in mind.
And I looked at that man and I
thought to one second, you come close to
these kids, buddy.
I might be a pastor at Times Square
Church, but I'm telling you, you come close
to these kids.
And there's going to be another person who's
going to react and respond.
Something else is going to take.
I'm not a pacifist when it comes to
my grandkids.
Touch my grandkids, you're touching me.
And I'm not saying I was going to
fight him or anything like this.
I might have just rebuked him in the
name of Jesus.
And the Holy Ghost would have come down
upon him.
And angels would have thrown him on the
ground.
And a yellow cab would have rode over
him.
And something like that would have happened.
A miracle would have happened.
I wouldn't have had to touch him.
But I'm telling you something.
Everything inside of me got stirred at the
thought that he can do anything to me.
I don't care.
But don't touch the kids.
That's the heart of God.
See, this is the heart of Almighty God.
He says, don't touch my kids.
And this is the fury.
This is why he went against every power
that holds us captive.
He went against that thing with a fury
to set us free.
This is the heart of God.
This is why David, when he says, I
hate them with a perfect hatred.
He says, I hate them that hate you.
I hate them that hate you.
And I hate them with a perfect hatred.
Listen, we're told not to hate.
How does David get away with writing the
Psalms that says, I hate them that hate
you with a perfect hatred.
He's not talking about people.
He might have been talking about his enemies,
yes.
But that's not for us.
He's talking about every single thing that is
against Christ.
He says, I hate.
And we should come to the same place.
God, I hate anything and everything that doesn't
like your way.
Anything inside of me.
And you've dealt with it, God.
You have got the victory over every enemy
in my life.
Everything that hates Christ.
You have given us the victory over that.
Hallelujah.
Now listen.
Turn with me to Jonah.
I'll take a couple of minutes in Jonah.
Let me tell you real quick.
Jonah.
Jonah chapter one.
Running from God.
Jonah chapter two.
Running to God.
Jonah chapter three.
Running with God.
Exactly what I said to you.
God never abandons man to the result of
his own sin of folly.
So here we have Jonah in chapter one,
running from the very face of God.
He says this in verse one, verse three.
But Jonah.
You got to find Jonah.
It's after Obadiah.
And it's between Micah.
And Mike goes by Nahum and Nahum I
got a marker so I know how to
get there fast If you can't find it
go to the front of your Bible, it'll
tell you what page it's on Jonah chapter
1 He's running from the face of God
He's running from the presence of Jonah says
this in verse 3 Jonah But Jonah rose
up to flee and to Tarshish from the
very present from the presence of the Lord
and went down a job now beloved It's
in it's within every single one of us
Don't think of Jonah as this man called
just to go to Tosh and go to
Geneva Don't think of him as a cold
man at this moment.
Just think of Jonah as Every single one
of us you see when God begins to
touch something in a heart we flee from
his face But God wants us to meet
with him face to face He wants us
to meet with him, but Jonah he says
he rose up to flee from the presence
of the Lord now The word presence there
literally means in the in the original language.
It means face It means the attitude the
sentiments or the feelings it means looking into
the face of someone who will reflect something
to you See Jonah isn't just running from
Well, we came to Times Square Church, and
we felt the presence of Jesus now I'm
running away because I don't want to stay
in his presence.
No, no, no He's not talking about the
presence of God that we enjoy here at
Times Square Church where we sense the Holy
Ghost here The literal Hebrew translation is saying
this I'm fleeing from looking God in the
face because I don't want to see what
he is saying to me because I don't
want him To deal with something in my
life That's what he's saying.
So when he's saying he fled from the
presence of the Lord.
He is fleeing from looking God face to
face It's an amazing thing the face that
is hard Jeremiah 5 3 says is defiant
So you always know somebody who's walking in
hardness towards the things of the Lord because
their face is a defiant look It's defiance.
That's what the scriptures tell us in Jeremiah
5 3 says don't be afraid of their
faces.
It's a defiant look The hard face is
also impudent and proud It's also a ruthless
looking face the face that is shining Shows
joy, you know, it's when you come into
someone's presence if someone's likes you it's like
the other day my two little grandkids They
three and gonna he's gonna be two and
these little guys love their Papa I Love
the grandma, but they love the Papa a
whole lot more That's because I've always got
candies.
I've always got marshmallows.
They love marshmallows I've always got marshmallows at
my house.
I can always get my grandkids on my
side I always have just pick up a
packet of marshmallows and I they are sold
So, yeah, we got these these grandkids now
listen They Fiona is three years old and
and little Hayden is two They know nothing
of my background They don't know what I
make they don't know what I do They
have some kind of understanding They just know
when they come to Papa's house and they
call me Papa because that's what they just
know That's what we've said.
Call me Papa Papa Papa, so they say
Papa so they don't know anything more They
see us occasionally and we have Fiona for
three days at a shot.
She doesn't cry when she leaves her mother
She loves coming to her house.
She'll spend three days with us and never
asked for her mother or her father and
I love that and She comes and she
stays with us and it's awesome Well the
other day we were on the 25th floor
and the other day my daughter-in-law
Was dropped off by my son and she
she called up and she said Meet me
at the bottom and you can help me
with the kids and all the luggages they
came up upstairs.
And so I Said okay, but I was
on the phone and and And I was
late so I rush out and I get
the elevator down but they caught the elevator
up and we missed each other up on
the up and down and So I went
to the doorman and the doorman said oh,
yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw a lady with
all these kids Yep.
Yep.
Lots of luggage and off they went so
I get back the elevator and I go
up I am like on the 22nd floor
going up and I can hear them yelling
On the 25th floor.
I hear them screaming My daughter-in-law
says she has never heard the kids yell
so loud in all their life and they
were just yelling There was screaming for me
and then when I opened the elevator opened
up and I stepped out These kids just
Jumped for joy and ran to me and
I had to pick up this one and
pick up this one in my arms and
carry them in as they were Papa Papa
Papa, you see I Share this with you
because I love my grandkids But I share
it with you because there's an importation.
They don't know anything about my background They
don't know where I come from.
They don't know what I do.
They don't know what I make They don't
understand hardly anything, but there is something that
emanates from me to them that they know
And I want to tell you that that
is the heart of God that regardless of
your struggle You might be calling out Papa
He is just as eager to meet you
and a hold you in his arms and
there is an impartation of God to you
It's by the Holy Ghost.
You see beloved when you come by faith
to Jesus It's not always do ten things
and he's gonna minister to you or touch
your life there's an importation of God to
us by the Holy Ghost just because he
loves us and There's something and if you
run into his arms, you see when you
read Isaiah I say it tells you what
he's done for us And then he says
he gives that to us and bestows that
goodness upon us just by his mercy And
so there's something that happens when you come
into the friends now This is what Jonah's
running from he knows that if he comes
face-to-face with God, he's gonna find
the God is merciful He hates the Assyrians
He doesn't want God to be merciful on
these horrid people.
He doesn't like him He's racist in his
heart He's got a problem with these people
rightly so because these people have hurt and
damaged and killed and destroyed They were wicked
people.
They have no conscience.
They they they torture they killed a man
without Any conscience at all and I and
Jonah knows this He knows what these people
are like.
He knows that they don't deserve God They
don't deserve God's love God's nothing.
They know no, I'm not going there.
I Can't go into his presence because if
I come into the presence of God, I'm
gonna see his face And his face is
gonna reflect mercy and love There's gonna be
an impartation of God to me and I
don't want it You see this is what
he's running for when you understand most people
run from God not because they think that
he's gonna punish them But because he's gonna
be merciful to those that we don't want
him to be merciful to How many of
you want a spouse to pay the price
you see mothers always know I Remember as
a kid.
I could lie to my dad.
I could lie bold-faced to my father
my dad He was a clerk all of
his life and he used to on the
weekends fix automobiles in those days they didn't
have computer chips and things like this and
you could you could fix those things manually
and so he used to fix cars for
other people just as a hobby and and
So he would do this and he wouldn't
charge them.
He'd just do it for fun And so
he'd fix these cars on the weekend and
he'd park him there and sometime during the
week These people would come get their car
But he didn't know that when he fixed
these cars I would hotwire these things I
used to hotwire those things and go driving
I was like 12 13 years old He's
a hotwire the car and then just to
go off drive you get with my friends
in and we used to drive erratically just
Drive these things couldn't change gears great them
constant John's just drive down the road And
then I would spray all the yard with
water so they wouldn't see the tracks.
I Was an expert liar and I could
cheat my dad I tell you I could
he could say did you take did you
did you drive the car?
Did you drive that car today?
I could bold life face him in the
face and lie here lie to him Baldy
He would he wouldn't know whether I'd he
wouldn't know nothing But I could never lie
to my mother For some reason mama's just
know They just know And you know what
it was you know why I couldn't lie
to my mother because in her face I
would see disappointment I Would see something in
her that always confronted me with my wrong
I saw in my mother something always stirred
me, so I I'd lie to my dad,
but I don't want to see my mom
Because in her face.
I would see something.
I don't want to deal with Does it
make sense That's why Jonah is running from
God.
He doesn't want to deal with it.
He doesn't want to deal with the God
who's ultimately merciful loving caring graceful full of
tender compassion This is what he sees And
see this is why he runs He doesn't
want to deal with it because in his
heart There's something that he's holding on to
he knows God's dealt with it, but he's
holding on to it So it's better not
to come into his presence because in his
presence.
I will see something Face to face you
know Jacob Jacob he writes in Genesis well
Moses writes it actually About Jacob and and
writes there, and he writes about Jacob.
He said you know Jacob met God face
to face and The end result of that
meeting with God face to face Jacob says
My life was spared My life was spared
meeting with God means My life gets paid
Moses spoke to God face to face Jonah
Runs from the presence of God because he
doesn't want to see the compassion of God
Touch something in him That he doesn't want
to deal with himself There's something in the
heart You see beloved That which is in
the heart is Bosra.
It's the capital city of the flesh But
there's somebody who's gone into the capital Destroyed
it and is now walking out in strength
And I want to tell you that Every
single thing that was a weakness in you
That was something that would destroy your life
and bring you down to a place of
weakness Discouragement condemnation Somebody went there for you,
and he is coming out in strength He's
not coming out discouraged.
He's not coming.
Yes.
There's red stains on his garments, but he's
coming out in strength This is what Isaiah
sees he's coming out in strength And he's
not coming to condemn you He said but
if you will meet with me face to
face If you meet me face to face
I'm not gonna condemn you I'm not gonna
say to you what a wicked person you
are you already know that But when you
come face to face That's what Isaiah says
He says what's bestowed upon me when I
meet God face to face His grace His
mercy Loving kindness Jacob says when I met
God face to face I came away with
life My life is spared.
I didn't die My life is spared face
to face You meet him you look upon
him and You will see the love the
compassion and the grace He's strong I'm weak
I Look upon him.
I walk in his strength And he bestows
upon me Amen Love kindness goodness For
the areas that you are struggling with Come
look tonight I'm giving you an invitation simple
invitation you come to this altar.
I Invite you to not run from God
But come and look at him Doesn't matter
what you've done Doesn't matter what's got a
hold of your heart You come and you
look him face to face and You'll see
the tenderness and the mercy and the grace
amen Let's stand don't move out of the
sanctuary just stand straight up where you are
and let me pray Lord Jesus I made
three statements tonight You never abandon us But
you do interfere in our lives You stir
us you corner us You allow things to
happen All for the purpose That you can
meet us face to face The Bible says
you prepared a whale For Jonah you prepared
it whether it was in a miraculous event.
I don't know, but you prepared it and
in that whale In that whale in that
circumstance in that dark place in that moment
of fear beloved This week has been a
very soul-searching week for me God has
touched something very deep in my life And
I thank him for it, but we're afraid
to let God touch us because there's fear
There's anxieties There's concerns But tonight I Know
that you're struggling the Holy Spirit has shown
me so clearly You want the blessing of
God we heard about the blessing on on
Tuesday night, and we want it But we
don't feel we deserve it because there are
things in Basra the strong city That we
can't deal with pains hurts difficulties sins Captivated
by the enemy But I want to tell
you tonight You come look in the face
of Jesus tonight and You are gonna see
love Forgiveness and mercy Now father I believe
that you're gonna do this in Jesus name.
Amen God spoke in your heart step right
out and you come you come to this
altar tonight Just step right out you come
on down and come meet Jesus face-to
-face.
He's gonna meet you tonight Not with anger
He was angry at some He's gonna meet
you with tenderness and care and love you
come tonight in Jesus name Let me just
go back to one illustration I can't explain
I Don't give much hold my grandchildren theology.
I don't go into the depths of Calvary
with them they three years old and two
years old I don't go into great depths
of all the the deep Theological discourses that
belong in the scriptures.
I don't do that But something they know
something that when they come close to Papa
Something comes from my heart to them and
they feast on it.
I can't explain it.
I can't explain What is transferred from my
heart to them?
That's what Jesus took up a little child
They came into his arms and There was
something that emanates from God and it's it's
the work of the Holy Spirit tonight We
can't explain the work of the Holy Spirit
I can't explain how it works I can't
explain this is what's gonna happen, but I
know one thing for sure That as you
come into his presence tonight, which you have
done There's gonna flow from God something so
supernatural to you into your heart that he's
gonna start to remove the pain He's gonna
remove the anxieties and you're gonna see love.
You're gonna see grace.
You're gonna see forgiveness.
You're gonna see God just giving and imparting
to you man can't give it to you
We can't we can shake your hand.
We can say I love you.
I'll pray for you God bless you, but
that's that's the limitation of who we are
and what we can give to you But
God gives you so much more when you
come into his arms now now listen to
the scripture I've got several here, but let
me read some scriptures to you and I
want to want to ask you to do
one thing I want you to close your
eyes and I want to just read some
scripture to you And I want you to
see the face of God as I read
scripture because God reveals himself in his word
And as you close your eyes, I'm gonna
read scripture to you And I want you
to see that this is God speaking and
imparting into your heart something tonight Exodus chapter
19 verse 4 says you have seen what
I did unto the Egyptians and How I
bear you on Eagle's wings and brought you
unto myself John 10 says this and I
give unto them eternal life and they shall
never perish Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand My father which gave
them me is greater than all and no
man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand I and my father are
One listen to Psalm 48 According to thy
name.
Oh God, so is thy praise unto the
ends of all the earth Thy right hand
is full of righteousness Listen to Psalm 16
verse 11.
Thou will show me the path of life
in thy presence or face to face is
fullness of joy and at thy right hand
There are pleasures forevermore Listen to Luke 11
20, but if I by the finger of
God cast out devils No doubt the kingdom
of God has come upon you listen to
Deuteronomy chapter 33 the eternal God is thy
refuge and underneath of the everlasting arms and
He shall thrust out the enemy from before
thee and shall say destroy them Psalm Isaiah
42 says this I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness and I will hold my
hand and will keep thee Listen to Isaiah
46 verse 4 and even to your old
age.
I am he and Even to the whore
hairs, which means the gray hairs.
Will I carry you I Have made and
I will bear even I will carry and
Will deliver you Isaiah 40 verse 11 is
the last verse.
I'm going to read He shall feed his
flock like a shepherd he shall gather the
lambs in his arm and Carry them in
his bosom He shall gently lead those That
are with you Lord Jesus tonight These scriptures
or your face and Lord tonight we look
into the face of God in the Word
We see the glory of God Corinthians Paul
writes to the Corinthians and says you see
the glory of God in the face of
Jesus He's the one who's come out of
Bozra Strong now pray this with me Lord
Jesus.
I look into your face, which is your
word and Tonight I see no condemnation.
I See love Kindness Forgiveness Gentleness I give
you my son and all my struggles And
I receive your mercy and your grace and
I know tonight Above everything I'm loved and
I receive it In Jesus name Now let
me pray for you Now Lord, I don't
know How it all works.
I don't understand it, but I don't think
you want us to know how it works
You want us just to enjoy it You
want us just to receive from your hand
That's What Isaiah said when he comes to
the end of verse 6 He says all
the loving kindness and the mercy of God.
He became a recipient Of what you've done
for us Lord I don't know how it's
important.
I don't know how the Holy Ghost works
in every heart at the same time But
I know one thing as we look into
your face tonight We're forgiven We free we
loved we clean We have found mercy and
We leave tonight blessed and like Jacob We
can say when I looked in his face
my life was spared and I give you
thanks in Jesus name amen Just give him
thanks This is the conclusion of the message