Well, so it sounds like anybody who has made it here has already encountered a victory.
It was precious to gather together tonight and to hear our hearts—ten thousand voices. Well, not quite ten thousand, but here to praise right at the beginning, worshiping our God. It is a good way to begin, isn’t it?
We want to share the Word of God tonight from three portions. You know the theme is the King and the kingdom. Of course, they go together. I have been asked to share on the matter of the King: the revelation of the King.
So we want to begin tonight with the revelation that Isaiah received of the King in Isaiah 6. It is a very familiar passage, and we will begin reading there.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
And then we would like to turn to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 12. We will begin in verse 37.
But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.
This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke:
“Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,
“He has blinded their eyes, and He hardened their heart,
So that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart,
And be converted, and I heal them.”
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory; and he spoke of Him.
And then to Psalm 24. We will begin in verse 3.
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
And who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood
And has not sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face—even Jacob. Selah.
Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah.
Let us just have a further prayer.
Lord, as we come to You tonight, we already see that there is a way and a door into the throne room of the King of glory. That door brings unto us life, refreshment, blessing, calling, purpose, anointing, and the vision of our Lord.
We pray, as we are together in these times, Lord, that You would grant us by the Spirit to enter, as it were, into His presence and to see the King of glory. Isaiah saw Him. John spoke of Him. David speaks of Him. We want to speak with the same knowing as those who have experienced and been before the King of glory.
Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, our King. Even as we are gathered together tonight, we pray that You would open our eyes afresh—open our eyes more deeply. Open our hearts to receive the King, even the One we know.
We commit all of these things and our time together into Your hands. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
It is only right that we begin a conference on the King and the kingdom by speaking of the King. Because in the proper understanding of the kingdom, the kingdom is nothing more than the expression of the King.
We have kingdoms about this world today where there is a king and he has a kingdom, but sometimes the kingdom is in rebellion from the king. Sometimes the kingdom looks completely different from what the king wants. But in the reality of the King and the kingdom, the kingdom in the end comes out of the King and is an expression of the King.
Back in the ancient days to which this has reference, kings determined what they wanted, what laws they wanted, how people would act, how they would converse, what art they would do, what colors they would use, what they could say, what they could do, and what the protocol was in the kingdom.
This is the spiritual reality that we are dealing with today as we talk about this King. Surely anyone who truly is a servant in the kingdom of God will have to reflect the pleasure of our King.
We are talking about the Lord Jesus. Tonight we want to focus especially on this revelation of the Lord Jesus as the King of glory. This phrase, the King of glory, is introduced to us in this wonderful song of David in Psalm 24.
Evidently, this psalm was written by David for the time of procession when they brought the ark of the covenant up into Zion. You will remember that occasion. They had begun some time before, and then they had trouble: Uzzah died, and they laid the ark aside for a while.
Now, understanding the will of the Lord and placing the ark upon the shoulders of the Levites, they proceeded to go to Zion. David wrote this song for this occasion, as is supposed by Bible scholars.
If you read 1 Chronicles 15, you will see quite a list of those who were in the procession: separate choirs led by various singers, those who played trumpets and lutes and lyres and drums and cymbals, elders, chiefs of the tribes, and priests. There was this huge, wonderful procession as they marched.
It is believed that this psalm is one in which you hear one choir ask a question and another choir give an answer. This is the idea behind the psalm. As they began to ascend toward Zion, the Levites perhaps said:
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
And the answer came:
He who has clean hands and a pure heart.
They sang this song as they approached and approached. But they came to the moment when they reached the gates in Zion. At this point, with trumpet sound—and oh, I wonder how this song sounded! It was a huge procession, not to mention those in Zion, up on the walls, the gatekeepers, and all who surrounded them.
They came to the gates and said:
Lift up your heads, O ye gates.
Be lifted up, ye ancient doors.
Let the King of glory come in.
What a wonderful proclamation. Oh, that we could hear the Spirit saying that, and that we could respond as God’s people in the church and really allow the King of glory to come in.
Then the choir said, “Who is the King of glory?” Perhaps these were the gatekeepers—not going to allow anybody in, you know. “Who is the King of glory?” Maybe they were the ones up on the wall of Zion shouting down, “Who is that?” Of course, it was all in a song, as it were—a beautiful song.
Those down in the front, with David leading the way, did not say, “King David,” of course. No, no, no. David knew he was just a prince of Israel. But behind him was the ark, upon which their invisible God sat.
So, to the question, “Who is the King of glory?” they said:
The Lord of hosts—strong and mighty in battle.
He is the King of glory.
They opened that ancient gate. I do not know whether it went kick, kick, kick, kick up with chains, or whether it opened like a door. But in came the procession.
And you know something? It changed the whole kingdom of Israel. God began to bless David and all his ventures. As he began to fight against the Philistines, who immediately attacked upon hearing that David had come into Zion, David received his orders from the throne room.
“What should I do? Attack or wait?” Listening to the Lord, the King of glory, they found victory after victory. God began to prosper the kingdom. They began to build and close in and make Zion into the larger Jerusalem. Blessing, anointing, and enabling began to come upon the people of God because they had let in the King of glory.
Is that not a beautiful song and a beautiful picture? That indeed should be our picture.
So I want to begin tonight by asking this question: Who is the King of glory?
Now, I know that all the children who just went out—even those pre-K, post-K—know the answer to that question. Every one of them would get that star. Of course, it is Jesus, right? Who is the King? Of course, we all know that.
But this question goes a little deeper than that. We sing this all the time. The King of glory has become a very popular phrase in many modern worship choruses today. We want the King of glory. We want to see His glory. We want to know the King face to face. We have all kinds of songs about the King of glory. It is a very popular theme.
But if we understood the consequences of truly letting the King of glory in, would we be so quick to sing the song?
We might rightly ask the question: Have we really seen the King of glory?
I sometimes fear that in our worship parlance, we begin to think we have actually done the things we are singing about. But it is one thing to sing about seeing the King of glory, and it is another thing to see the King of glory.
It is a life-changing moment, seeing the King of glory.
It confuses me sometimes when I hear the saints singing about the King of glory, and I wonder which king they are talking about. They seem to be talking about a king and worshiping one who can barely save, who somehow saves us but barely saves us, and does not have the power to sanctify us.
So, well, we are Christians, but we are just hopelessly worldly, and there is no way we are ever going to really make it because our king is not quite strong enough. Neither can he protect us.
There is a king being sung about today who is quite a weak king. Do you know who that one is? He surely cannot be the King of glory. It must be some other king, barely gathering some religious people, while most of them are falling away as quickly as they are gathered.
But this cannot be the King of glory. No, if this King of glory comes in, there is a change.
When you read in the Scriptures of those who saw the King of glory, it changed the course of their lives. It changed their vocation. It changed their perspective. It changed their burden. It changed their center at the core.
To see the King of glory was a transforming experience in their lives.
Tonight I want to begin the sessions simply by looking at the life of Isaiah, to see what happened after he encountered this Lord of hosts, this King. Remember, he said, “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up.” Then, after hearing the seraphim’s song, he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone. For I have unclean lips, and I live among a people who have unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
We all know this story in Isaiah, I think. It is good to look at the tradition regarding Isaiah. There is really not too much known about him outside his prophecies, but tradition says that Isaiah actually grew up in the royal court.
Tradition says that he was related to King Amaziah, who had come previously—that his father was related that way. So he grew up with privilege. He was obviously very literate. We see that he loved the law of God.
There are two passages in 2 Chronicles that seem to indicate that Isaiah, at a certain point in his life, was a court recorder and historian during the reign of King Uzziah, and perhaps even Jotham.
We know by internal evidence that Isaiah knew all about the political side of Jerusalem. He saw the emissaries coming in from Egypt and Assyria, the two mighty empires of that time. He saw traders coming in and doing commerce. He saw intrigue, conspiracies, lying, duplicity, and all the things that go on in the royal court.
He saw the whole thing. Evidently, he was familiar enough with these emissaries and had talked with enough of them that he could basically portray and give us a picture of the topography and life in Egypt, Assyria, Syria, or Tyre. He knew all the area around him. He grew up with intelligence, privilege, and insight. He was a very insightful person.
We have an interesting difference of opinion here. If you go back to Isaiah 1:1, we read:
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Now, we read in Isaiah 6 that in the year King Uzziah died, he was praying and saw this vision of the Lord, high and lifted up. Many think that this was actually the beginning of his prophetic ministry, although it is in chapter 6. It speaks of his foundational calling and experience of seeing the Lord of glory.
We could certainly understand that. But Isaiah 1:1 seems to imply that he was already sharing his visions and burdens as a prophet during the reign of Uzziah, before he died.
There are those who believe that at least Isaiah 1–5 gives us a picture of the young Isaiah as a prophet coming into his own, beginning to sense the burdens of the Lord and beginning to pronounce them and prophesy, even before Uzziah died. Now, that is what I believe.
When you look at those first five chapters, there are many famous verses there: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” We see that Isaiah immediately was a righteous man. He knew the law of God. He loved the Lord.
He was very patriotic. That is to say, his prophecies were primarily regarding Jerusalem and Judah, because Jerusalem and Judah were what he saw as the testimony of the kingdom of God. This was his primary concern.
He was aware of Israel and the northern tribes. At that point Israel was divided. He knew their situation in the northern tribes, but he was mostly concerned with Jerusalem and Judah.
If Isaiah was in the court of the king and served King Uzziah as a historian or court recorder, somewhere along the line his eyes opened. He saw something that threw him for a loop. Basically, he saw that the kingdom of Judah was no longer the kingdom of God.
Just exactly how this happened is not recorded. Perhaps it was when Uzziah became leprous.
During Isaiah’s lifetime, Uzziah was a great king. He ruled for over fifty years, loved the Lord, built up Jerusalem, strengthened the outposts, and was a marvelous administrator. As always, the kingdom reflected the authority and strength of the king, and King Uzziah was a great king.
But it went to his head. He thought he could be a priest as well as a king. As you know, he went in with the incense before God in the holy place. As soon as he did it, he became leprous from head to foot.
For the rest of his days, he could not really be king anymore. He was in exile. He had to be quarantined in his house. Most believe that Jotham began to serve as de facto king during the remainder of Uzziah’s life.
Imagine if you were patriotic, a young man wanting God’s righteousness and God’s kingdom, and suddenly the king of Judah became leprous because of sin. It was a shock to Isaiah. He trusted in this king. He was his recorder, whatever it was. Suddenly, he saw the leprosy of this king.
It is also a known fact that at this very period there was a huge earthquake in the area. It actually changed the topography of the Gulf of Suez. According to archaeologists—it was, I do not know how they figure it out, probably by cockroach count—an 8.2 on the Richter scale.
It is recorded in the Bible in two places, though not in Isaiah, that this great earthquake happened in the reign of King Uzziah. According to Jewish tradition, it was when he offered incense and became leprous that the earthquake came. It shook the whole of Judah. Walls toppled in some of the smaller cities. Things were shaken up.
There was a shaking, and it began to shake the young Isaiah.
As patriotic as he may have been, obviously he loved God more. So he began to prophesy of the righteousness of God and the unfaithfulness of Judah and Jerusalem. This cut him to the quick, but he had to do it for love of God and to speak the truth.
In Isaiah 1, in his initial prophecy, he speaks about this revelation of Judah—leprous with sin and uncleanness. In Isaiah 1:5–6, you can hear leprosy in the background of the picture:
Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in your rebellion?
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is nothing sound in it,
Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,
Not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.
Indeed, the kingdom had become leprous. What a terrible judgment—an assessment to make. But Isaiah had to speak it.
When he spoke about Jerusalem, his beloved city, he had the revelation that Jerusalem had become a harlot. We see that in Isaiah 1:21:
How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.
What an indictment: Judah, Jerusalem, leprous, harlot, rebellion on every hand. This is God’s kingdom. Where is the King of glory? Where is the king? Leprous and quarantined.
Isaiah began to see with a burden for righteousness. He began to proclaim, in these first five chapters, this tremendous parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5. God planted a vine, took care of it, watered it, loved it, gave it sunshine, and protected it. Now the vine has grown up bitter and fruitless. God says, “What more could I have done for you?”
Isaiah was burdened, and he preached these things with all his heart. He preached repentance. He preached the recovery of Judah and Jerusalem: “If you would only repent and listen to the Lord.”
But you know what happened? Jerusalem did not listen. Judah did not listen.
I do not know if it was complacency about being in the kingdom. I do not know if it was presumption that thought, once you are in, there is no way out. But somehow the prophecies not only of Isaiah, but of Micah and others, fell on deaf ears.
I suppose Isaiah was discouraged. You know, when you are young and you preach your best sermon and nothing happens, what do you do next week? We cannot say for sure, but we know he came to a point of—I do not know whether you would call it desperation.
The whole vision begins, “In the year King Uzziah died.” Something in that little phrase seems to imply that the outward plan, the outward understanding of the kingdom, died that day.
Now there was no great king. What was going to happen to Judah if there was no great king? He already knew Jotham, and Jotham was no great king. How can you have a kingdom when there is no great king?
This young man prophesied with all his heart—prophesied righteousness, according to the law and according to the heart of God. But he had never seen the King of glory until this day.
As good as his prophecies were, and as righteous as they were, those early prophecies cannot compare with the vision, depth, clarity, and comprehensiveness of the prophecies he spoke after the vision.
How important is vision? In Isaiah, it was absolutely what was needed.
That vision of the King of glory, as far as we know, was a one-time event. We do not have any record of him seeing that same vision again. But even though it was a one-time event, it opened a gate of understanding into the further amazing revelations that Isaiah received.
I am fully persuaded that if he had not seen that King of glory in that moment of vision, he would not have understood the things that unfolded later and made him, as they say, the gospel prophet. Because he saw the Lord Jesus.
It started with this vision, and it speaks an important principle to us as well, brothers and sisters:
We need to see the King of glory.
It is not merely a one-time event, but a door that opens to further revelations and further revelations of who the Lord is. It is just like the apostle Paul. That initial vision on the road to Damascus was only an opening to that fuller revelation when, as he said, God was pleased to reveal Christ in him.
That became the seed of all that he later revealed regarding the body of Christ, Christ in us, us in Christ, and all those things Paul later saw.
This is a very important issue: this matter of seeing and having these eyes. We should ask the question, and I think it is fair to ask—we have some younger people here tonight—why do we need such a vision of the King of glory?
Now, understand what I am saying. I am not saying we need to see the Savior. Thank God, probably almost everyone in this room has seen the Lord Jesus as Savior. Praise God for that.
But is it enough to see the Savior? Or perhaps even to see the Savior and see the Father?
You remember John writes in his letter, “I write to you, little children,” and he mentions two things: that you might know your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. A young Christian—you know, that is always the biggest issue, isn’t it? “I have to be sure my sins are forgiven.”
John says, “I write to you, little children, that you might know your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.” Then he repeats, a verse later, “I write to you again, little children, that you might know the Father.”
That is the beginning of our Christian life. How wonderful that we can enter into that. Then not only to see Jesus as our Savior and God as our Father, but to worship the King of glory. We have some great songs and great hymns: “Worship the King.”
Is it enough to know Jesus as our Savior and sing and say that we look forward to seeing the King of glory one day when He comes back? Is that enough for us? To know the Savior, maybe not see the King of glory, but believe that we will see Him one day—is that enough?
Well, I think that in these last days there needs to be a further vision of our Lord.
In these last days, as things become almost indescribably complicated, we need this vision. Jerry mentioned tonight regarding the conference that everybody has their own story. I have mine. I went off on a retreat for three days to study the Word and get ready for this.
During those three days, my car ended up on the side of the road with my grandchildren in it. I had to drive hours to get them and tow the car to a place, only to find that the engine block was cracked. It is still in the shop to this day, a week and a half later.
You do not reckon there is anything worth the enemy’s fussing about. But we are talking about the King and the kingdom, and there seems to be something vital enough to cause all these things. Just add your story to the list. I think Jerry will take them all down here.
It is amazing what happens. But think of it: in these last days, how the Lord wants to raise up a prophetic generation that understands the times and knows what to do—that tribe of Issachar. We need that among us.
We need those who can intercede, but not merely intercede for intercession’s sake. We need those who can intercede according to God’s purpose and plans in the kingdom of God. Do we even know the King’s maneuvers? What is next? Where is the war? Where should we stand for victory?
All of that is predicated upon seeing this King of glory. We need to proclaim and testify and be able to say, “The King is coming. He is coming. But we proclaim to you, He is here.” Because in our midst there is an open heaven and the presence and authority of the King.
This is something further on in the Christian life, I think. I do believe some people were saved under a vision of the King of glory. If you know such a person, or have read a biography of such a person, you saw that at that very moment their lives were turned completely upside down.
But we also know that just as many Christians lived serving the Lord, trying to be righteous, and doing all kinds of things for a period of time. Then they saw the Lord of glory, and something fundamentally changed in their lives.
This is what we are talking about this weekend: the King revealed to us, the King of glory revealed to us.
It does seem sometimes as if we have a pretty small king. But there is something wrong with what we see. This is the King of glory, and seeing Him changes us.
I want to speak of three ways Isaiah’s life was changed when he saw the King of glory. This is just to encourage us, and perhaps to grant us a desire that we may see the King of glory.
First, not only did Isaiah see the King of glory on that day, but with increasing clarity he continued to see this King of glory worked out in fuller revelation as he went along.
There in Isaiah 6, he saw the Lord high and lifted up, this King of glory. Who was this King of glory that he saw?
This brings us into one of the great mysteries. Even in the Old Testament, it is speaking somehow of Someone. His name is the Lord. Isaiah says, “Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” There is no doubt that he saw the Lord upon the throne.
The Lord is the great “I AM.” The Lord is God. He saw God sitting on that throne. Yet at the beginning of Isaiah 6:1, he says, “I saw the Lord,” the Master. He saw One high and lifted up, sitting on the throne.
Now, we know that you cannot see God. You do not actually think that God, who is Spirit, is sitting on a throne somewhere just north of New Jersey. God is Spirit—omnipresent Spirit. Then who was this whom Isaiah saw?
I bet you after that vision, although he was probably too shaken to say anything, if you had interviewed him and asked, “Now, who was that? Was it God or man?” he would have said, “I do not know. I cannot explain this. It was God, but I could see Him. When I saw Him, I was undone because I knew it was God. I cannot explain it.”
“Well, was He in human form?” Ah, one of those epiphanies in the Old Testament, where God shows up before His incarnation as an angel or one of His manifestations? We might think that—except when you look at John 12:41.
John says there is no doubt about it: Isaiah saw the Son of God, the Lord, when he saw that glorious vision.
I cannot imagine anybody more dumbfounded by this vision than Isaiah himself. “Lord, okay, I saw You. My whole life is now willing to serve You. Lord, show me the way.”
After some period of time, when evidently he did not prophesy much, came the reign of Ahaz, one of the worst kings of Judah. During the reign of Ahaz, the Lord said, “Now you go to Ahaz and talk to him. Here is what I want you to say.”
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and His name will be God with us.
Wait a minute. That is connected somehow to the vision—God with us. This King of glory has become God with us. This God, this Lord, has become God with us. There is something incarnational being prophesied there: born of a virgin.
But a mystery is now unfolding in Isaiah’s heart. He could not have gone up to Ahaz and said these things if he had not seen the Lord, the King of glory. There was no way he could have understood what Emmanuel meant: the Son born of a virgin.
Then you come to Isaiah 9. In the midst of Galilee being under the shadow of Syria, and then Assyria bringing darkness upon that land, suddenly Galilee has seen a bright light:
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder,
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of His reign there will be no end.
Where did that prophecy come from? Now he is obviously talking about a Messianic leader coming in Galilee. The government is upon His shoulders, and His name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Do you say that about a man who is a ruler?
Then, in Isaiah 11, he prophesies that a sprout will come from the stem of Jesse, and a branch will come out of the root. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon Him—the Spirit of wisdom, might, fear of the Lord, counsel, and all of those things. Who is this, who comes from David’s line and has such an anointing upon Him?
These prophecies are all a further, “Oh, I see. Oh, I see.”
How do we describe all the other things? “Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone.” Then you get to Isaiah 40, where Bible scholars get so confused that some say there must be two Isaiahs. “How could he possibly see this?” they ask.
Then suddenly he proclaims, “Comfort My people.” Somebody has paid double for your iniquities. He begins to talk about a servant of the Lord who would come, delight to do God’s will, and bring recovery of sight to Israel.
This servant was not merely coming to restore Israel. Isaiah 49 says it is too little a thing for Him. This servant of the Lord would also bring salvation to the Gentiles. My, my, my, my—who is this servant of the Lord?
Here we are in 720 BC, 710 BC, and Isaiah sees the cross of a suffering servant who would give His life, and by His stripes we would be healed. He speaks about things—how could anyone know, unless he had seen something and been led into further understanding?
He goes on to speak about the Messiah who would come back to set up His millennial kingdom—the Messiah who would say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel,” and all those things in Isaiah 61.
Do you see the point? We are not saying that we need to see a revelation of the King of glory tomorrow, and then it will be only a one-time thing. Years later, you can say, “Yes, I remember. It was July 2nd. I had my revelation of the King. Oh, it was wonderful. I wish I could go back.”
We can become sentimental about a mystical experience. “Oh, I did not know whether I was in heaven or on earth. Oh, it was so wonderful.” Sometimes that is what Christians want: a real hair-raiser on their arms, a real goosebump experience, and then they will tell people about it the rest of their lives.
No, this revelation was more than that. It was an undoing and a reconstituting, and Isaiah was being given eyes to see a whole other realm.
This is something the Lord wants today among His people—not merely people seeing things as they are down here in this three-dimensional world, but seeing what is really going on.
The kingdom is here. Jesus says, “Do not let people say, ‘We want to see a sign. Show us a sign.’” He says, “I am not going to show you a sign.” And do not believe people who say, “Look over there. Look over there.” He says, “Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst now.”
Imagine: the King is standing right there, and they are saying, “Where is the kingdom of God?” This is the blindness of those who do not see.
But it is the privilege of those who enter into such a revelation to discover God deeper, fuller, and richer. Can you imagine? I would love to see Paul’s notes. I am sure he was a journaling guy. Some of you people who do devotional journals every day—I am sure Paul must have journaled.
Can you imagine some of those journals when he began to see that everything was created in Him and through Him and by Him, that all things hold together, and that He reconciled the whole world? Can you imagine the scribbling as he started writing all that out? It is in Hebrew, but then it is in Greek, and he crosses that out and puts it in Latin.
But it all started on the road to Damascus, when he saw this glory that struck him down.
The first thing I want to say, brothers and sisters, is that we do not need to see the Lord of glory, the King of glory, only one time and then go home. Having seen the King of glory, we might see Him more deeply, more fully, more richly, and more blessedly.
I cannot get over the sort of euphoria I almost sense Isaiah was in during his last days. There he was, an old man, up on the walls of Zion with his now-old son, Shear-jashub—“a remnant will return”—and they are praying there: “I think He is coming. He is coming. Father, send Him, send Him. We see Him coming. Give Zion no rest. Keep on praying until He comes.”
There is Isaiah, strengthened with the strength of God, waiting for Messiah to come. Even when Manasseh took him away and sawed him in two, he was waiting. He was seeing. The Lord was opening more and more.
How the Lord wants to open up His vision to us. That is the first thing: a seeing of the Lord Himself in greater and deeper ways. This is surely entered into by seeing the King of glory.
The second thing we see in Isaiah’s life is this: when Isaiah had been reconstituted and spent some time, people think, in retirement—or let us say off in the desert for a while—when he came back and began prophesying, he had a whole new perspective on his prophecy.
It was no longer merely an exhortation of man to man and heart to heart. Isaiah 13–27 is a section of judgments. But God was showing him the countries around Judah with global vision.
It is the difference between seeing Egypt from the wall of Zion and seeing Egypt from the heavenly point of view. Isaiah began to look around: first at one country, then another, and so on. He looked first at Babylon.
It is strange because Babylon was a small empire in those days. It was an emerging nation. Assyria and Egypt were the big boys. You would think God would say, “Here is the first prophecy,” concerning one of the great empires. But no, he saw Babylon.
When Isaiah saw Babylon, standing on the walls with the eyes of God, he saw Babylon from a heavenly point of view. What did he see in that little emerging empire? In Isaiah 14, he saw the pride of a spirit behind Babylon that wanted to ascend into the mountain of God and become like God.
He saw the ascendancy of that small empire because there was a spiritual force behind it. This is where we see an insight into what Satan’s mind is thinking. You read it; you will see it. It is amazing.
Isaiah saw Babylon spiritually from the heavenly point of view. Then he looked at Philistia—you know, the Philistines, always a bother to Judah. Whenever Judah became weak, the Philistines came in, stole cities, and took over people.
He saw them according to the eyes of God. Here is the point: when you see that the Lord is the King of glory, you know that He reigns over all the nations, not just Judah.
Could I say this? I am sorry, Isaiah, if I am wrong; you tell me. I think in Isaiah’s earlier days, like all of us who are narrow patriots, he basically thought that the Lord was the God of Israel.
But after seeing this vision, he came out with prophecies that made it very plain that he saw the Lord ruling the whole world.
When he was looking out at these nations, the Lord was looking out at all these nations from the throne. That makes quite a difference. If you look at a nation that is attacking and you just see the nation, you say, “Oh no, what is going to happen?” But if you see that nation from God’s perspective, you see that it is nothing.
He went around and looked at Babylon first, then Philistia, then Moab right next door, then Syria in the north making great claims, then Egypt, then that little island nation of Tyre, and Assyria. As he looked at all these places, he prophesied their judgment by the Lord.
But not only did he prophesy the judgment of the Lord. He also took each one of these countries as a warning to the people of God concerning what would happen to them if they did what the world did.
It is a very powerful section. But the whole point is this: brothers and sisters, how is your prayer meeting?
Have we got anybody up on the turret, seeing things from the heavenly point of view?
Sometimes we gather together where I live, and everybody who comes to the prayer meeting deserves an A because they have been through a lot of flak just to get to the meeting.
But having said that, sometimes we are so aware of the upheavals of nations and the shakings—the Arab Spring, these things happening—that you cannot hear the news without sensing, “Wow, there is something spiritual going on back there.”
So the brothers get in the back room and say, “Okay, now we have to pray about some things. Egypt—right, right, check Egypt. What else? Syria. Oh, yes, that is—wow, we have to pray for Syria.”
Then someone asks, “Brothers, what are we going to pray about Egypt?” Well, hmm. “What should we pray?” How about Syria? “We know there is something—I do not know. What should we pray? Let us just pray for Syria. Let us pray for Egypt.”
I am not trying to criticize people who come to pray. I am simply saying that we need some people with a prophetic vision who understand what to pray about Egypt and what to pray about Syria. You know what I am saying?
We need Isaiah. Can we get him back?
Brothers and sisters, I do not believe that what God is saying today is that we need some special person up on the wall day and night, seeing all these things. I think He is talking about a people of God who can see these things.
Oh, if we only knew what to bind and loose, we would bind and loose. If we only knew what to pray, we would jump right in. When you get together in a prayer meeting, the people there are there in obedience, but they need some kind of direction.
Whether it is brothers or sisters, there need to be some who have spiritual cognizance of what is going on. I say this was true of Isaiah, and I say it came out of this vision of the King of glory.
We must look at the situation in this world through the eyes of the Lord who sits on the throne, not through the angst and anxiety of nations that see themselves dwindling.
We have so much going on in the United States that we cannot even keep up with our undoing. Our undoings are getting undone. What do we pray for? Do we intercede or say, “Let her fall”? What do we do?
We need to lay hold of a King who knows what the times are and what we need to do to gain this kind of amazing perspective.
There is another perspective we see beginning in Isaiah 40 and going through Isaiah 49 or so. Have you ever seen a higher revelation of “I AM”?
Theologians call this the high-water mark in the Bible regarding theology:
I AM.
I AM; there is no other.
I, I only—I only.
This is what the Lord is saying. “There are no other gods. Why are you messing around with idols? I AM the I AM. Bring up your idols. Let us have a little chat. Let us see what you can do, idols; then I will show you what I can do.”
“I can tell you things that are going to come to pass before they come to pass. Now, what can you do exactly? I, I only am God.”
Of course, this was the wonderful witness of the remnant church in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost. They proclaimed that the great I AM was Lord and Christ and ruled.
Have we lost that sense of the exclusive sovereignty of the great I AM? This is something that, I think, would assuage our fears and needs to be seen.
The third thing we see is the simplest, but it is true: Isaiah, more than gaining this prophetic perspective, was fundamentally changed in the core of his being.
One cannot see the King of glory and remain the same. The life changes.
It is not necessarily that you have to stop your job or move to another location. But even while you are doing what you are doing, something fundamentally has changed because you have seen the Lord.
We know this wonderful picture of the glory of the Lord in Isaiah 6. Perhaps we should briefly spell it out.
Isaiah came to the temple, perhaps in the court of Israel. When King Uzziah died, he was there praying, longing, and thinking what would happen to the kingdom of Judah.
Suddenly, as he looked perhaps at the entrance to the holy place—with the brazen altar out in front and smoke rising from the sacrifice—he saw smoke begin to fill the inside of the temple.
Was it the smoke of incense? Was it the smoke from the brazen altar? He began to see something filling the temple. Then, as it were, he was brought in the Spirit into the Holy of Holies—not merely the Holy of Holies, but the actual throne room of the living God.
The Holy of Holies was symbolic of the throne of the living God. But the Spirit of God moved Isaiah past the symbol into the reality of the throne where the living God dwells.
Instead of seeing the cherubim covering the mercy seat, the throne, he saw seraphim alive, floating, flying, singing, speaking, and saying:
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of His glory.
It was full of glory. The train of the King—His robe—filled the temple with glory.
It is as if, having known the pattern, having known the type, having known the shadow, he saw the reality.
Many Christians have seen the pattern and the shadow, or in the Word of God have knowledge. But to see the real thing—that is what Isaiah saw. He saw the real thing: the living God and real worship going on.
The place was shaken. I suppose when it talks about the foundations, it means the temple was shaken. Imagine those huge pillars in front of the holy place shaking because of the glory he saw.
As Isaiah saw that glory, he saw this Master, and he saw the Lord. He was the Lord. He was God. He was Master. He was enthroned there. John says Isaiah saw the Son of God, even Jesus.
When he saw that—and this is what I mean about being changed fundamentally—he said, “Woe is me. I am undone.”
I do not know how else that can be translated, but if that is not a picture, and indeed a type, of the cross—seeing the King of glory and immediately sensing the cross completely touching our lives—I do not know what is.
I am undone.
Mine eyes have seen the King.
It is similar, is it not, to what John said in the book of Revelation and to what Job said when God showed up: “Forget it. What have I been talking about? I have been asking God all these questions, quibbling with Him about things, and now that I see Him, I have no more questions. I also have no more answers. I do not need answers. I have seen Him.”
There was a whole fundamental change. For Isaiah, “I am undone.”
We use this phrase often as Christians: “Our righteousness is as filthy rags.” That comes from Isaiah—Isaiah 64. When Isaiah says that our righteousness is as filthy rags, he is not saying it as a doctrinal statement in some placid theological tone.
When he saw that he was undone, he was undone from top to bottom. There was nothing. His theology was nothing. His previous knowledge was nothing. His righteousness was nothing. His service was nothing. He was before the Lord of glory.
When we see the Lord of glory, there is such a tremendous contrast between Him and who we are. That is why, when the Lord of glory shows up, you never have to tell a person that they are a sinner. It is so patently obvious.
The only thing left to say is, “Lord, what can I do? I am undone. If You do not cleanse me, Lord, there is no cleansing.”
Of course, immediately the seraph came with that coal, cleansed his lips, forgave his sins, and he could live. Who can see this and live?
Brothers and sisters, in one sense nobody can see God and live. Isaiah was not done away with. Of course, Isaiah did not see the fullness of His glory. He just saw a little taste.
It was like Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw something glorious. That was just a taste, an hors d’oeuvre. If they had seen Jesus in the fullness of His glory, they would have fallen down dead, not said, “Let us make three tents.”
Isaiah was undone and fundamentally changed at the very core.
If it is possible for a servant in the kingdom, or a servant of God, or a prophet to grumble—is there such a thing? Do we servants of God grumble? Oh boy, you can hear murmuring right now.
But when we see the Lord of glory, there is nothing left to murmur about. We are just so grateful to be alive. By the mercy and grace of God, we faint not.
This assessment of our very being at the core is something we see when we see the Lord of glory.
You know how Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2, “I do have wisdom to tell you, but it is wisdom for the mature.” It is wisdom in a mystery, which none of the rulers of this world knew, or else they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Then he says, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man.” You remember that? That is Isaiah 64.
Isaiah saw things eye had not seen, ear had not heard, and that had never entered into the heart of man. But Paul could say, “The Spirit now is revealing them to us.”
Imagine this amazing privilege that comes out of seeing the Lord of glory: seeing things eye has never seen and ear has never heard. It is tremendous what all of these things open up.
We may say, “Well, Isaiah was one of the Babe Ruths of the league, and we are just in the minor leagues or the farm team.” But the Spirit has been given to us, and He desires to open our hearts to see some of the height, width, breadth, and depth of who Christ really is.
He is the Lord of glory. We need to be found undone in the midst of this.
If this is not the case, and if the Spirit does not want us to enter in, then we are doomed to a life that gives the lie to the all-sufficiency of our King.
Do we believe that Jesus is the Lord of lords and King of kings? That has necessary consequences in our lives. There is a submission in that.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates.
Be lifted up, ye ancient doors,
And the King of glory will come in.
Do you know the consequences of that King coming in? He will change everything in Zion to the way He likes it. There will be nothing but His orders given in Zion, and the rest of us are servants.
We all have a part in the kingdom, but He is the One who is the King and the Lord. This is the Zion where there is an open heaven, where the presence of the Lord is real. Of course, it is not perfect, but there is a submission there.
I know our brothers will speak on the matter of the kingdom, but without submission and obedience, there is no king and kingdom.
To see the Lord of glory is to come to a place where we say, “Lord, what would You have me to do?”
There are two final things I want to share from Isaiah that help us understand what the Lord is doing. I hope you are not deflated or discouraged, saying, “Gee, I do not know if I have ever seen the King of glory.”
Who will see the King of glory? The first thing we see in Isaiah is that God raises up a remnant of people and shows them the King.
Isaiah invested his whole life in the fact that God would have a remnant of people. He named his son, “A remnant shall return.” Now, that is a lousy name unless you believe it is true.
All of his life he said, “Shear-jashub, my son—‘a remnant shall return’—will be a sign and a wonder for all Israel, telling them that the King of glory is still enthroned in Zion.”
That is the testimony of Shear-jashub. He is a sign and a portent to all Israel: in Zion, the King is still on the throne. Here is the proof. He has raised up a remnant who stand there and believe it.
A remnant stands up on Zion and calls out, “Here is your God.” Do you remember that wonderful passage in Isaiah 40? “Who shouts and says, ‘Here is your Shepherd. Here is your God’?”
This is the remnant, and God raises up a remnant. Who is this remnant? Who can ascend into the hill of the Lord?
It is those people who are serious about sanctification:
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood.
There is an ascending walk. The remnant is an ascending people, walking up into Mount Zion.
But Psalm 24 says, “This is the generation that will seek Your face, O God of Jacob.” A generation of people raised up for the King of glory, submitted to the King of glory, desiring to testify of the King of glory’s presence in their midst.
This is one of the themes throughout Isaiah: the remnant that shall return, the remnant that shall be faithful, the remnant that is praying and waiting, and the remnant that believes in Emmanuel before Emmanuel ever came.
Precious remnant. There is a remnant today, thank God for that. There are those who have seen the King, and the highest motive of their lives is for the King to reign and rule in all the affairs of their lives.
Finally, consider something the seraphim sang in Isaiah 6. In verse 3, they were calling out one to another in worship:
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory.
I have a New American Standard Bible, and it has a footnote concerning the literal Hebrew of “The whole earth is full of His glory.” It says literally that the seraphim said one to another, “The fullness of the whole earth is His glory.”
That is worth meditating on: The fullness of the whole earth is His glory.
This is not saying that one day His glory will be across the whole earth. It says the fullness of the earth is His glory.
Let me put it this way, to make it simpler rather than confusing. When you look around right now, what do you see? You look out here at the school, Longwood; you look at Farmville, Richmond, New York, Jerusalem. What do you see? Do you see His glory?
Most of us would say, “I see nasty people in New York. I see Newark Airport closed down. I see a whole lot of other trouble out there. But the one thing I do not see is glory.”
Okay, wait a minute. Just wait a minute. Look up at the King of glory.
Now what do you see?
The whole earth is full of His glory.
Do you understand that? Well, it is something to meditate on. Because if nothing else, it means there are things going on, unseen, that are glorious. There are things the Lord is doing that are glorious.
Oh, that we might not only see them, but be part of what the Lord is doing in this day.
Isaiah would agree with Paul that as we go through our various trials, they are nothing to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. Then what does Paul say? We look not at the things which can be seen, but at the unseen things.
The things which can be seen are temporal, but the things that cannot be seen are eternal. There is something about seeing the Lord of glory that begins to enable us to see these unseen, glorious things that the Lord is doing.
Do you see Christ being built in that person next to you? You need eyes—eyes of the King—to see that. There is a whole other perspective here.
It is all entered into when we open up to the King of glory and He enters in.
I cannot believe the potential of what will happen if we see the King of glory. What a reviving it will be to our assemblies. What a refreshing it will be to our own spiritual lives.
Imagine seeing everything from a glorious point of view. What a change it would be in our whole outlook. How discouragement would flee. How our sense of wanting to quit and not carry on would just vanish.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates.
Be lifted up, O ancient doors,
And the King of glory will come in.
Who is the King of glory? That weak king who can hardly save and cannot sanctify or keep any of his promises? No.
The King of glory shall come in.
The Lord of hosts—
He is the King of glory.
If we see Him, there is no telling what could happen in His recovery and in His remnant in these last days. May the Lord help us.
Let us pray.
Lord, we just rehearse together how You change a life. We see the life changed in Isaiah, and down through the centuries we know of many testimonies of those who have seen the King of glory and whose lives have been fundamentally changed.
Lord, all we can do is make our appeal to You, by the Spirit of God, that You would open up the heavens and fill this place with glory. Enable us to see the King of glory and be undone and reconstituted with a new calling, a burden, a sense of destiny, an understanding of what is going on around us, and a deeper and more wonderful revelation of all that Jesus is.
Lord, we are not content merely to know these things according to the Word of God, as it were, from an outside source. But having seen them in the Word of God, we want to apprehend and lay hold of these things in spiritual reality, in the true understanding of who the Lord Jesus is.
Lord, we realize we are just at the threshold of what You desire to do. Oh Lord, we come to You in that same desperation that Isaiah had. How can we go forward, Lord? We have seen King Uzziah die. We are watching our nation in the throes of death.
Lord, we cannot put confidence in anything but You. Could we just see the King of glory ruling and reigning, even over our country, even over our assemblies?
Lord, we know that we are just as narrow and patriotic and colloquial as Isaiah was until he saw that fuller vision. Lord, we need such fuller vision to open up the vistas of what You are doing as You bring in Your kingdom even now.
We want to pray in a living way:
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
We want to understand what this means, praying, cooperating, and serving You as the enemy is made the footstool for Your feet. Oh Lord, we want to be in that and in the reality of it.
But we come knowing that it comes from knowing the King. We bow before You, Lord, and say, “Show us Your glory.”
In Jesus’ name we pray.