Isaiah - man of vision

… I'd like to read part of one verse which is a thread that runs through all the scriptures that have been read to us tonight. You needn't turn to it. It's a well-known phrase. It's found in Psalm 51 verse 6. Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts. Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts. I want to speak very directly with the help of the Lord tonight about having truth in the inward parts. For the sake of clarity I want to speak a little bit about visions. What are we talking about when we talk about visions? And then mainly to talk about Christ's holiness, Christ's intense love for the people he values, Christ's coming glory, and the character of those with whom he walks. I think most of us would probably say when we think about visions, if I had the sight that Abraham had of the God of glory it would make a difference to me. Or if we'd seen what Moses saw when he saw the bush that was burned and not consumed, we'd carry it with us all our lives and it would make an impact on us and it would change us. Or Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, the vision would never leave us, the impact of it would be felt. Or Paul when he heard the voice of the Lord from the glory and he saw the light that was brighter than the sun shining at noonday, the vision would never leave us. Or John when he saw the Lord in the character of the Ancient of Days in chapter 1 in the book of the Revelation. If we had visions like that the impact would never leave us, we'd be changed people. There are two verses that I'd like to direct to your attention which make it fairly plain, but when we're talking about visions we're not talking about something which is extraordinary, we're talking about something which is within the range of each one of us. These are well-known verses, let me read them to you. The first one is in Proverbs 29 verse 18, where there is no vision the people cast off restraint, but he that keepeth the law happy is he. On the other verse, which is probably better known, is right at the beginning of the first book of Samuel, chapter 3, verse 1, and it says, the word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no open vision. When we talk about visions what we're talking about is the truth of God being embedded in the heart and mind. Alongside visions in both of those scriptures it speaks about some particular truth of God. Where there is no vision the people perish, but, and it's a counterbalancing thing which occurs quite often in the book of Proverbs, he that keepeth the Lord happy is he. In Samuel's case, in those days, the word of God was rare, there was no open vision. When we talk about visions we're simply talking about God's truth being embedded in our hearts, our consciences, and our minds. And look again then at the vision. It wasn't just that Abraham saw the God of glory, what he saw lived with him. I remember Mr. Hull years ago saying, what he saw of the God of glory, it took the shine out of Shinar. He could well leave the advanced civilization of Ur of the Chaldees because he got a light of the God of glory and the impact of it never left him. When Moses saw the bush that burned and was not consumed, it wasn't just the sight that he saw, he got an intense impression of God's holiness. But at the same time, he got an intense impression of his undying concern for his people and the impact of it never left him. Think of the time, for example, when he said to God, God was saying to him, thy people get down the mountain, thy people have sinned. And Moses turns to God and he says, thy people. It was an impression that he took. The vision left the truth of God in his heart and his mind. And that's what we're talking about. When Paul heard from the glory the voice of the Lord Jesus, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. For the remainder of his days, he carried with him, firmly embedded in the center of his being, the fact that the people on earth who went through the mill in the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything they went through was felt by him on high. And he found it a little task, therefore, to devote all his energies to serving those who are so precious to Christ. Or John, in the visions of Patmos, when he saw him as the ancient of days, he carried with him, embedded in his heart and mind, the fact that he who walks in the midst of the candlesticks is intensely holy. When we talk about visions, we're talking about the truth of God embedded in conscience, heart, and mind. The verse that we read in the Psalms, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. I'm particularly addressing these remarks to those of you who are younger. Bernie Brown will well remember this, it happened often. When we were lads, we took every opportunity that we could to go around and listen to those who are full-time ministers of the word, about eight of them then. It's a matter for concern that we have so few today. Would to God that more were raised up. And we listened to them often, and we wrote down what they said, and we talked about it. And I don't think a meeting went by, but that one particular brother used to say, and he always had us in mind, he used to say, it's no good up there, it's in here that you want it. I think Ernie will remember the day when one brother said to us, after this had been said, he said, whilst you're young, use your time and your energies to get the word of God up there, because if it doesn't get up there, it will never get in there. I don't want to be mistaken. It's not just getting the truth of God in our minds that's important. I think the verse is clear enough, isn't it? Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. But when we're talking about vision, we're talking about something which is within the scope of every one of us. Getting the truth of God in our hearts and our minds, we need it in life. It's the kind of thing that forms us, it's the kind of thing which will give us a tenacious grasp on the things that we've been considering together in the Bible readings. It will make Christ living, it will make the truth of Scripture attractive, it will give the kind of character that will bring lives devoted to the service and the glory of Christ, as long as he's pleased to leave us here in this world. When we talk about vision, we're talking about the indelible impression of the truth of God in conscience, heart, and mind. It's worth just spending a moment looking at the times of Isaiah. If I can skip very quickly through, just pinpointing one or two things about the Kings, I think you'll pick up the kind of thing that I have in mind. I'm just spotting odd phrases and odd verses from the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th of 1 Kings. Isaiah was 16 years old. Verse 4, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse 6, he went forth and warred. Verse 16, but when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Verse 19, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead. Chapter 27, Jotham was 20 and 5 years old. Verse 2, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse 3, he built the high gate. Verse 5, he fought also with the king. Verse 8, he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. Verse chapter 28, verse 1, Ahaz was 20 years old. He did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse 3, he burned his children in the fire. Verse 4, he sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places. Verse 23, he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus. Chapter 29, Hezekiah, verse 2, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse 3, in the first year of his reign, in the first months, he opened the door of the house of the Lord. Verse 27, Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offerings upon the altar, and when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began. You've got threads there which are parallel to the kind of things that happen today. Young men coming to the throne, and from the very beginning, 16 years of age, heart set upon the service of God. A short life, 41 years taken out of this world. A king coming to the throne, who sets his heart on what is right before God. He carries out conflict to take again the territory of God. He's marvellously helped by God, and then he goes too far, and he's disciplined by God, and he lives the rest of his life as a leper. A man comes to the throne who has no concern for the testimony of God at all. He burns his children in the fire. He sacrifices to other gods. A king comes to the throne who begins to put things right. A young man again in his early twenties. He opens the door of the house of the Lord. He sets the Levites in order. The kind of strands that we face today. Young men setting themselves for the testimony of God. Young men being snatched away in early life. 25-year-old young man whose heart was set upon the Lord and the service of God. Taken away, his service in this world over. Evil men coming to ascendancy in the land. The kind of conditions in which we live. The kind of experiences which try the heart and which test the inward spirit. And in those kind of circumstances, and they're the circumstances of life which all of us will face, what we need to sustain us is the truth of God firmly embedded in the heart and mind. It's the only thing that will carry us through. Psalm 51 verse 6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. It's a background against which to look at the four things that I spoke about. Christ's holiness. Christ's intense love for the people that he values. Christ's coming glory and the character of those with whom he walks. Isaiah chapter 6. When Isaiah saw the Lord, verse 1, the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filling the temple. And he heard the cry, verse 3, holy, holy, holy. The effect that it produced in him, verse 5, then said I, woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. When Isaiah saw this sight, the glory of the Lord, the cry that was rung from his lips, woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips, said plainly that the impression that was left upon him was the intense holiness of the God with whom he had to do. A little earlier, chapter 4, he was pronouncing woe upon the nation for the things that they were doing. But when he got into the presence of God and he saw the glory of the Lord and he heard the words, holy, holy, holy, the impression that was left upon him and that he carried with him, the indelible impression was that of the intense holiness of the God with whom he had to do. I said to someone coming out of the prayer meeting this morning about Isaiah that I could appreciate just what the poet said when he spoke about the wild measure of Isaiah, threads almost intertwined and yet constantly coming to the surface again. Time and time again throughout Isaiah, the words, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, come to light. If I can just again pinpoint one or two verses in chapter 3, I think the same kind of thread is perceived. Chapter 3 and verse 1, For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. Verse 5, And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor. The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. If you look at those verses at your leisure, there emerges clearly from it the fact that when Israel, who had some knowledge of God, did not walk in the light of that knowledge, God disciplined them time and time again through the book of Isaiah, the God who is holy, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, spoke in a most poignant way of the painful experiences through which the nation of Israel would go, because they regarded not the holiness of the God with whom they had to do. If I can pick up again some verses from chapter 34. Chapter 34, verse 1, Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken ye people, let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world and all the things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter. If you read on with those verses, and for time I'm not going to read them on now, again the same picture emerges that when God picked out certain nations for disciplining Israel, and they went beyond the guidance that he gave, and they didn't act in the light of the way in which he made himself known to them, then again his government upon those nations was apparent, and a thread which surfaces again and again in Isaiah, is the anger and the government of God upon nations that fail to take account of the fact that the God with whom they had to do, is intensely holy. Now is that a thing which is found in the Old Testament, and I don't think there would be one place where you could go without taking that impression. Coming away a fortnight ago from our local Bible reading, Numbers 5, and thinking about the separate incidents which arise in that chapter, not the way in which we'd taken them up as we've been reading them, it impressed me again that the God who dwelt amongst Israel, told them in no uncertain ways that because he dwelt amongst them, holiness was required. If they were defiled by a dead body, then certain course of action was to be pursued before they came back into the camp. If they trespassed against their neighbor, a certain course of action was to be pursued. And if you recall in that chapter, the last incident is actually dealing with the spirit of jealousy. Even the suspicion of sin had to be dealt with. Are these things only, which were given by God to Israel, are they true today? Are their New Testament counterparts to the impression that Isaiah took when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, that the God with whom he had to do, was intensely holy? Think of a verse in Hebrews chapter 12. Let us have reverence that we may serve God with reverence and godly fear, for our God also is a consuming fire. Or think again about that very solemn and sober statement which is made in the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Making the breaking of bread like a common meal, some eating as if it were common bread, others drinking to the degree to which they got drunk. In the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians the words are found, for this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and many sleep. It's not just something that God was pleased to make known to the children of Israel, and to expect that the way in which they conducted themselves was consistent with it. It's not just something that was typical of the church at the beginning of the day, it's something which is needed in our day, something which we need to face. Perhaps you might be surprised that I didn't read any verses from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. On Tyne's side, for years we've had a beloved brother who said, Calvary the lesson book of the love of God for all eternity. I think every one of us would endorse that with our whole heart. But I think in the light of just some phrases we might pick out of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, it's clear also that Calvary is the lesson book of the holiness of God to all eternity. I just want to pick out no more than three expressions from Isaiah 53. Verse 10, thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul. Verse 12, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. I don't think anyone can take from the life of the Lord Jesus and the fact that the open heavens appeared in connection with him more than once, and the Father's voice was heard, my beloved son in whom I have found my delight, the intense love and the cloudless communion in which the Son of God ever moved down here in this world. But when he took up in his own person the question of sin, the phrases that we've read, poured out his soul unto death. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see of the travail of his soul. What the Son of God went through, tell us in the plainest possible way, that he who made himself known to Israel in such a distinct way, he who made himself known to Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and he said, woe is me, for I am undone. They leave us with the very same impression that the God with whom we have to do, the Christ with whom we deal, is intensely holy. What about the practical application of it? Doesn't please me to repeat one or two things that I'm going to repeat. I could weep when I have, when I repeat them. Holiness in our assemblies, holiness in our businesses, holiness in our homes, holiness in our individual lives. I knew an assembly where knowingly, for a number of years, a married brother and a sister carried on an illicit, if not adulterous, relationship. Little wonder that that assembly tonight is fighting for its life. A fortnight ago, a colleague came to me at work and he said, we've got a fraud on our hands. I was never very good at fraud and never very able, very much able to give guidance. I said, well I'm not very much good at it, but at least I knew this, that if you're handling a fraud, you try to find out the honest people, because you know you'll get reliable witnesses. So the first thing you do is go through all the people who are involved, and you identify the honest ones. And I said, well we better go down and see who's involved. So the first person said, no, you better knock him out. Second person, yes, he's all right. Third person, there's a brother in the meeting, and I said, oh he's all right. My colleague said, oh no, he's basically fraudulent. Things that would break your heart, the holiness of God in our assemblies, the holiness of God in our businesses, the holiness of God in our homes, the things that we read, the things that we see, the holiness of God in our individual lives. I gave someone recently a book, Flirting with the World. I'd read it before I gave it. It was pretty pointed and hard-hitting. They wrote back to me and they said, they thought that I'd erred in sending the book to them. Some parts of it were not very wholesome. I spoke to someone else who'd read it, and he said, they may not be very wholesome, but they're the things that Christians are doing today. You young people who are courting, and I would say with all my heart, make sure that you find a partner who belongs to the Lord and who sees things the way that you do, and that you're compatible spiritually, socially. But it was touching on this kind of thing, and I addressed these words to younger people. In your dealings with one another when you're courting, heed the words of Scripture. I'm particularly addressing this to young men. Heed Timothy's exhortation when he says, treat younger sisters with absolute purity. I don't wonder that when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord high and lifted up, the impression that it made upon him when he heard and he saw was, as woe is me, for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And would to God tonight, that was the indelible impression that was left upon every one of us, that would humble us to the ground and give us to desire to see holiness in our assemblies, holiness in our businesses, holiness in our homes, and holiness in our individual lives. A vision like that to carry us through life is absolutely essential. We have the words in chapter 35. Father, chapter 43 read to us. And again, it's a question of picking out some expressions. Isaiah 43, verse 1, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Verse 4, since thou was precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Fear not, for I am with thee. And then that verse that we read in chapter 49. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. I don't think when you read verses like that, you can do other than gain the intense value that Jehovah placed upon his ancient people. And it's a thread that emerges time and time again in the book of Isaiah. How precious the people were in his sight. Chapter 63, I think this verse is from. In all their afflictions, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them and bore them and carried them all the days of old. All the experiences through which they went, the Lord felt with them. The words that we've read, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hand. A mother might forget her child, but he would never forget his people. I read an account the other day when someone showed me it in a reader's digest about a girl whose mother had given her away at birth because she wasn't able to look after her. And then in later life, the mother married. I didn't wish any knowledge of the early child to be known, and so arranged, and it's so possible through American law that it's not possible to discover the parents of an adopted child. And the girl developed kidney trouble, and it was obvious her days were limited. And her adopted parents turned heaven and earth to try to find a suitable donor, and they were told medically the only suitable donor is her parents. It wasn't possible to find them. And through an amazing combination of circumstances, they found the mother, and the adopted parent phoned the mother. No thought about the shame of earlier years. The moment she heard, she pushed everything into a bag and she went, and within a day, a kidney was transplanted. Where does that kind of feeling come? Where the love of a mother for a child overrides everything? It comes from the heart of the God who created us. Even if a mother would forget, he would never forget his people. You can't fail to take out from words like these, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands, the intense value that Christ places on the people that he loves. I don't know whether any of you have ever heard or read any of the poems of Edward Denny. If you can get them, and they're not easy to obtain, get them, they're worth their weight in gold. There's a poem that he has which is called Zion, and I may not be quoting it accurately, but it gets the message over. In one part, he speaks to the nation and he says to them, he sprang, Christ sprang, he sprang from thy chosen of daughters. His star, all thy hills arose. He bathed in thy soft flowing waters and wept all thy coming woes. He wept who in secret yet lingers with yearnings of heart or thee. He whom thy blood sprinkle fingers once nailed to the accursed tree. Dark deed it was thine to afflict him, yet longs his soul for the day when thou in the blood of thy victim shall wash thy deep stains away. He died as a lamb, as a lion he spares thee, nor can forget his desolate exile of Zion. He waits to be gracious yet. Is that something again which is just an impression of the Old Testament, or can we bring it into the New Testament? And again, quickly flitting over expressions and verses in the New Testament. The very first words, on this rock I will build my assembly. Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself for it. Revelation chapter 3. If somebody said to you what was the saddest thing about Laodicea, what would you say? That Laodicea was miserable and wretched and blind and naked? It certainly would warrant being considered as one of the saddest things. But the saddest thing of all was they didn't know it and had not the one who later said, as many as I love, I rebuke and discipline, told them, they would never have known it. Surely the saddest thing about Laodicea, but in the very words, as many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. The same deep lasting affection for the people that he intensely values. What about the practical application of that? Well again, I don't think that you can escape when you hear words like these. I know that they're addressed to Israel. In that you did it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me. No ounce of service devoted to the saints of God will ever go unnoticed. A cup of cold water given in his name, a visit paid. A brother said to me a little while ago, he said, it seems to me if you can't minister the word from the platform or you can't preach the gospel, there's no room for you in gatherings. It's a very narrow view. Look at Romans 12, we will be doing later. Look at 1 Corinthians 12. Look at Ephesians 4, where the gifts are spoken of. They're wide, so wide that everyone can get in and every one of them is connected with the service of those saints who Christ treasures. It isn't just an impression of the Old Testament. The intense love that Christ has for the people that he values is as indelibly impressed upon the New Testament as it is upon the Old Testament. What a truth of God to have embedded in our consciences, our minds and our hearts as we go through this world. I'll read to you chapter 35, just to get a very brief but a very clearly defined impression again of the fact that in the world where he's being denied, Christ is going to be glorified. I'll particularly direct your words to your attention to verse 2 of chapter 35. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God, and at the end of the chapter verse 10, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Constantly coming to the surface in the book of Romans, they shall see the glory Constantly coming to the surface in the book of Isaiah is the fact that in the world where he was denied, Christ is going to be magnified and adored. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day as a recurring phrase in the early chapters. But alongside that, the fact that the people of God will return with everlasting joy upon their heads and with songs in their hearts. Is that again an impression which is just in the Old Testament? Is it something which is not amply confirmed in the New Testament? It certainly is beyond our time and beyond my ability to gather together the clear strand of teaching that runs through the New Testament. That in the world where he's been denied, Christ is going to be adored, and my heart leaps at the very thought of it. A just answer to the reproach and shame of the cross. And the people of God at last will be found with joy in their hearts, and not one voice silent in its responsive praise to him. 1 Thessalonians 4. So shall we ever be with the Lord. The fact that in the world where he's been denied, the Lord Jesus is going to be magnified and adored in them that believe. And the people of God at last will enter into their possessions, and a full unbroken response will reach him who has done it all. I don't want to do anything more than just refer this to the practical impact of it, bringing it again to lay against our life and practice day by day. Some little while ago, a brother in our meeting went into the CLC, and he saw a book, and on the spine it said The Puritan Hope. So he picked it down, and he opened it up, and lo and behold, it fell open, and the pages were quotations from JNDs, collected writing. And the more he looked, the more quotations there were. Good book, he said. I'll get it, and he took it home. When he got it home, he found that the passages that he'd read were from a chapter which was called The Eclipse of the Hope. What he was reading was a book which is generally representative of the evangelical view, which is there is no rapture, there is no millennium, but the thing that runs through it, whether they see things in a different way to the way in which you and I see it, is simply this, that in a practical way, the commitment to the fact that Christ is coming again, and in this world is going to be central and supreme, it carried them on. The brother gave me to read it, it was good to read. Carey in India, laboring for years, without seeing any fruit for his ceaseless toil. And he writes to somebody in this country, he says, but the day is coming when the whole world is going to be vocal with his praise, and in this confidence, we labor on, later to see fruit for his labors. And it's the thing which is to be taken into account today, laying it alongside our practice, the fact that Christ is coming again, and in glory in this world is soon to be manifested, and we shall be with him. And in that day, enjoying our inheritance, we shall praise him as we ought. What a vision to carry through this world, that no matter how difficult things get, the end is good, the end is assured, it's safe in the hands of the one who laid down his life for us on the cross. I read the 57th chapter of Isaiah, that verse, thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, will this man will I dwell, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. I've lived long enough to know that with nothing in which we can boast, pride comes naturally to us all, doesn't it? I've lived long enough to learn that God has humbled me in the things that I thought I was strong in. I'm learning very slowly and painfully, if anyone glory, let him glory in the Lord, that will never need to be taken back. The wonder of this, thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, with this man will I dwell. It's a parallel verse in chapter 66, to this man will I look, to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word, with nothing to boast in. Recently somebody had said to a friend of mine at work as a believer in a mission, the brethren have got all the truth. I said to him, well, when I hear words like this, I think about words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, when he said, brethren, high truth and low practice. When we read the word of God, do we tremble at it, as those who are responsible to obey it, and those who recognize that within us with nothing to direct us to obey it, we're totally cast upon him, and we can boast. It wasn't long ago that a brother talking about his home meeting said, I suppose in our meeting he said, we've got every gift that's spoken of in the scripture represented. That meeting is bleeding to death tonight. God humbles us every step of the way, but he says, thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, to this man will I look, to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word, and that is the character of those with whom the son of God walks, and with none other. I come back to the beginning again, time is through. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, vision, we're talking about the truth of God being embedded in conscience, heart and mind. What does it mean in a practical way? One of my dearest friends on Tyneside is an 84 year old brother. He suffers from Parkinson's disease. His wife in his lifetime, he told me, was little or no spiritual help to him. He nursed her through a long illness. His granddaughter committed suicide, and I knew him when his son committed suicide. I said to him, however can you carry on in the light of that? He said, early in my life, I took to myself the scripture, all things work together for good, and he said it's carried me through life to the present moment. That's what we're talking about when we speak about vision. It's the word of God, the truth of God, not in our minds, let's get it in our minds, but let's cry to God and earnestly pray and walk before the Lord that it gets right down into our moral beings, thou desirous truth in the inward parts. Last word, and I close. When I was first converted, I'd been in the Church of England, I didn't know where John 3.16 was, but God sent a very spiritual, godly Baptist lad into the barracks where we were, and I shall never cease to thank God for his good influence in dragging me out of bed at half past six in the morning to a prayer meeting. Who I refer to him as this, from the first time that he spoke to me, he said, find out what it is the Lord has for you in life, and then seek to fill it out for his glory. He said, I'll tell you what I've done, he said, when I was a lad of 14, I took to myself a verse of scripture, a verse about Levi. He, forsook all, rose up and followed him, and he said, I'm going into full-time service for the Lord. He said, that's the verse that I rest on. He said, I don't know what the Lord's got for me, but that's the verse that I cling to, that's my kingpin for life. He spent 14 years serving the Lord amongst a small, monolingual tribe of Indians in South America until the health of both he and his wife broke up, and he went into the Mato Grosso area of Brazil, and he labored in a Bible college until he could work on no longer, and recently came back to this country and is working in a missionary college. That's the truth of God embedded in conscience, heart, and mind. God grant that we take away from these meetings, from the things that we've listened to, those kind of living impressions, that's exactly what the word of God means when it speaks about visions. The word of God says, Psalm 51 verse 6, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. God grant that we go away from these meetings with truth in the inward parts. …