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  THE HOLY PRESENCE OF GOD
  by Yorrie Richards
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Summary: This sermon delves into the profound encounter of Isaiah with
the holiness of God, highlighting the transformative power of
encountering God's purity and the necessity of recognizing and repenting
of our own impurities. It emphasizes the importance of presenting Jesus
as the holy Son of God and the need for personal revival before praying
for a widespread revival.

Duration: 1:33:09

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the profound encounter of Isaiah with the
holiness of God, highlighting the transformative power of encountering
God's purity and the necessity of recognizing and repenting of our own
impurities. It emphasizes the importance of presenting Jesus as the holy
Son of God and the need for personal revival before praying for a
widespread revival.

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CONTENT
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You will not know what's going through my heart right now. I'm not going
to start with my testimony but I'm going to say something of the early
workings of God within my life which took place not too long after my
conversion. I was converted in the town of Maisté.

Some of you will know it. I was converted in October of 1959. I had a
shocking stutter.

I stammered chronically and I was converted in the apostolic movement
and I attended the apostolic church and not long after one Easter time I
met my wife at Neath, one of the conventions, at an Easter convention
and within about 11 months we were man and wife. Perhaps I'd like to say
something about that. When on the Sunday following the Saturday that I
met my wife at Neath, I spoke to my pastor in the church, Pastor Ivor
Davis.

Now Ivor Davis looked a very stern man but he wasn't. Underneath was a
fatherly figure and I said to him in my innocence, I said pastor oh I
met this beautiful girl yesterday and he said oh that's God. Who is she?
And I said Irian Carr and he didn't smile much but his face dropped even
lower and he put one hand on my shoulder and looked me straight in the
face and said stay close to God and he will lead you to the wife of his
choice because some of you here might well even know my wife and she had
been nurtured and brought up within the church.

She knew far more of scripture than I knew and she read her scriptures
like a book through the Bible and she had read it more times than she
could count and I had this dreadful stutter. It seemed even to mock me
and then my pastor, Pastor Davis bless his heart, he came to me one day
in church and said Yori I am convinced that you have got a preaching
ministry and that the church are going to need what you have to give and
I said pastor that is how I spoke in those days. I said pastor I'll sing
for you but don't ever ask me to preach for you but Pastor Davis did not
take no for an answer.

Anyway let me cut out a lot there. In 1961 I attended the Apostolic
Church Bible College at Pennygrose, perhaps about 11-12 miles away from
here and it was while there that the principal, a certain Pastor Ian
McPherson arranged a visit for the students to Moriah Chapel. Now this
brings me up to this very emotional point in time.

When we entered into the church we were met with the resident minister,
I don't know his name, but first of all he took us around the minor hall
and told us that when the revival began at Lacher it began in the minor
hall on a Thursday night and I came in here, I wandered in by myself and
all the pills and seats were empty and I came up these steps in 61. I
stood here, I clutched this rostrum just the way I am clutching it now.
I'm living a memory and I said to Greg, I said I'm not going to come up
these steps until I come up to bring the word because I want to begin my
message with what God did in my life as I stood on this very spot and I
was looking out at the empty pills and seats and I was trying to conjure
up in my mind certain scenes that might well have happened in the days
of revival and I stood here just like this looking up at the empty pills
and I burst out crying as God was beginning to do a work of grace in a
stutterer's life, not converted, hardly one year and I stood here and
the resident minister walked in through that side of the hall, he came
down here, he stood about by the step and looked up at me crying and he
came across here, he went into a little hatchway door underneath where I
am standing and he took out a hard-covered book, a very old book, quite
thick and passed it up to me right here like this and I said to him,
Evan Roberts' Bible? He said the very same.

That was the Bible that Evan Roberts preached from in those days of
glorious revival. I clutched his Bible and in my heart I thought as I
wrote it in my book, I felt I was holding David's letter slain which he
brought down Goliath with or perhaps the jawbone of the ass that Samson
used to slaughter a thousand armour-clad Philistine troops. That's how I
felt when I held his book.

Not long after that, when I came out of the Bible College, actually it
was Gareth Evans that met me at the college and he took my clothes, the
things that I had in his car and we went home together. It was Gareth
and I wish he was here tonight. God bless you Gareth, bless you my
brother.

But it was not 18 months following coming out of Bible College that God
began to do a mighty work in my ministry. I hired the Mystic Town Hall,
a 500-seater hall to conduct a three-day gospel crusade and I stuttered
chronically. I know now that it was God.

I didn't know then. This was a deep in the dark. And at that hall on the
second night and Gareth was there, in that hall I stammered my way for a
certain while and then something took place.

I am telling you exactly what took place and I don't exaggerate because
an exaggeration is a lie. I stopped my preaching, well some sort of
preaching, and I lowered my head and a certain stillness came across me
first of all. A certain presence came into that hall.

I began to feel 10 foot tall and I began to speak with total fluency.
And that night the Holy Spirit, and I hadn't even got to learn his voice
then, my sheep hear my voice, but I didn't know his voice at that time.
But he said to me, stop your preaching and wait upon me.

So I called the whole hall to silence. Now this is going to launch me
into what I want to say from the Word of God. I called them to silence.

It became so silent you could hear the whirring of the mechanics of the
clock that stands on top of that town hall. You could hear the whirring
of the cogs. It was so silent and my flesh began to tingle.

I knew that something was happening, but I was a learner. I asked
somebody else to take over for me because I knew that something was
going to take place. And right then God seemed to say to me, to see that
young teenage girl in that seat.

She was in the second row of seats back from the stage. And God said,
watch her. She's your key.

So I watched her. And someone, as we tend to do within Pentecostal
meetings, we don't like silence. We've got to fill it with a song.

And it was no different then. Someone struck up, I am coming, Lord,
coming now to thee. There's nothing wrong with the hymn, but it cut
across spirit like a knife.

I knew it was not what God was wanting. So I called him to silence and
he didn't hear me. So I shouted for silence and he heard me.

No sooner have the silence began to take over again that that young
teenage girl fell from her seat. She had been there wringing her hands
like this. And it was good old, good old fashioned conviction of sin.

You don't see much of that today. And she dropped out of her chair onto
the floor. I am not talking about carpet time.

I'm not talking about people that fall from their chairs in swoons and
then go back in the next meeting for another dose. This was good old
fashioned conviction of sin. And she fell to the floor, sobbing.

Now this is what took place. Starting right from the stage, just like a
gentle breeze, something was moving like that across the congregation.
And as the presence of God was moving back slowly, it was like a
cornfield that I know most of you will have seen when walking out in the
countryside.

You see a field of ripened corn and you see a gentle breeze wafting over
the top of the corn and you see the result of an invisible wind. As the
presence of God was moving back, people were falling over in their
chairs. Young people and older people.

I don't lie, I don't exaggerate. People began falling out, others crying
on God. And it was, I have called it a Holy Spirit carnage, because
there was bodies laying everywhere.

Sobbing bodies. And I had to call for Christian people to help us to try
and deal with all these that were crying out on God. And we literally
carried them, hands and feet, into the dressing rooms behind the stage.

I didn't know how to cope with this. I was out of my depth. I'm looking
for some water.

Perhaps I expected myself to be on the floor by now. But at the third
and final meeting of that three-day crusade, a young lady came to the
man who was convening the service for us, and she asked him, could she
give a little testimony? Of course, he said, fine. So she came up onto
the stage and she said, I am a school teacher in the school on the top
of the hill.

Now I know the school that she was referring to. And she said,
yesterday, I invited some of the pupils at school to come to this
crusade. And a whole crowd of them came.

And she said, yesterday was my birthday. And she said, God gave me a
birthday present such like I have never seen before. He gave me the best
birthday present ever.

And I saw 60 of my school pupils surrender to Christ last night. And she
said, today in school, when we came to the dinner break, she said, we
stopped in the classroom. And I was reading the scriptures to them.

And we were praying in school. If that's not the hallmark of a revival,
then I don't know what it is. But I know what it is.

And I have seen three visitations, one more powerful even than my state.
And that was at Lincoln Prison. When a revival broke out in Lincoln
Prison, I've never seen anything like it.

Don't ask me, do I know something of the presence of God? I know the
presence of God. He's with me nearly every day. I wake up with him and I
take him to bed with me in my prayers.

Preaching, preaching one day at my own church. I was doing a Bible study
on the 144,000 of Revelation. And when I was reading the portion of
scripture for the second 144,000, it talks, John is saying, and I heard
peals of thunder.

And the evening that I was preaching was a beautiful evening. And yet as
soon as I had read about the thunder, a clap of thunder rolled across
the church. And the pastor, Ken Calder, said to me, that's thunder.

I said, I know what it is. I was shaking, shaking. Who knows what God
wants to lead you into? If you surrender, you will.

I had a stammering, stuttering tongue, but I gave it to God. He asks you
for your heart. If he's got your heart, he's got you all, including your
tongue.

And what had happened in that town hall had its roots right here. That's
why it is a very emotional moment for me to be standing on this very
spot. I don't know what God plans to do here tonight, but I do know that
some of you are going to hear his voice.

Now let's go into the word of God. That leads me in to what I've got to
say. I'd like you to turn, please, to Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 6. I know that most of you that know your word know where
I'm going tonight. Isaiah chapter 6. It's interesting to note what was
uppermost in the heart of this prophet of God. You can find out what is
uppermost in his heart by what he starts the chapter with.

When you read the book of John, what is uppermost in John, that loving
apostle's heart, he begins his book with, in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God. Now, no one can preach on John chapter 1
without starting at chapter 1, at verse 1. It's the same with this book
of Isaiah chapter 6. What is uppermost in Isaiah's heart? In the year
that King Uzziah died, that's what is uppermost in his heart. The
temple.

Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two, he covered
his face.

With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one cried to
another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door were
shaken by the voice of him who cried out. And the house was filled with
smoke.

So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the Seraphim
flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the
tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your
lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. In the year that
King Uzziah died.

Well, we can't begin to speak from the chapter without saying something
about King Uzziah. Can't skip that over because Isaiah begins the
chapter with it. So who was this King Uzziah? He is one of the most
godly kings.

He came to the throne when his father Amaziah was assassinated. And he
came to the throne. He was crowned king when he was 16 years of age.

And he reigned for 52 years. And they were 52 glorious years. 52
glorious years.

And he performed within Jerusalem tremendous feats of agriculture. He
sank wells. He planted vineyards.

He fortified the city on the towers. He had experts in warfare,
inventing various machines that would make them very powerful in battle.
He did a lot for Jerusalem.

He did a lot for Judah. And his fame began to spread from the north,
south, east and west. Everybody began to hear about King Uzziah and the
way that he was following God.

They were God-blessed years. 52 years. And I suppose that Isaiah was a
very happy prophet at that time.

But King Uzziah got to such a state of greatness, perhaps you could say
he became a celebrity king. And I can't stand the word celebrity. Flesh
dressed up.

But he became so powerful that he thought that he could even take over
from the God-instituted priestly system of offerings. And so one day he
entered in to the holy place where the golden altar of incense was. And
he went in there to offer incense on the altar of incense.

And he was just about, I don't believe that he actually did it. But the
high priest, together with 80 priests, went in after him. This was a
dreadful, a dreadful crisis for the priesthood.

And they ran in after him. And if you note the way that they spoke to
the king, if they had spoken to the king outside of the temple, they
would have been executed. Because they said, well the high priest said,
what are you doing in here Uzziah? You are usurping what God has
ordained for the priesthood.

And he began to resist them. And something happened inside that holy
place. Something appeared on Uzziah's forehead.

Now it's very interesting. I searched one time the trends of leprosy
because I wanted an answer why it appeared on King Uzziah's forehead.
And what I learned from that was, from my research, that leprosy is one
of the most organized, predictable diseases that one can catch.

Leprosy never, never, ever begins in the forehead. It always, always,
but always starts in the extremity of the human body, fingers, toes,
nose. It always begins there, but always.

But with this king, it began in the forehead. Why the forehead? Well, my
searching of scripture is that the forehead on the priest's turban,
there is a golden plate fixed with a blue sash to the turban. And on it,
engraved in Hebrew, is holiness unto the Lord.

And it was placed on the priestly turban and placed upon his head. So
holiness unto the Lord was above the head of the priest. It was on his
forehead, which is actually medically called the central lobe.

But even if the king had, if he had the audacity to put on the high
priest turban to offer incense, that would not have helped him one bit
because he was not called, he was not ordained by God to offer incense.
That was the priests. What did Korah try to do? Those of you that know
your scriptures, he tried to usurp the authority of Aaron and Moses.

He wanted, he wanted to be Mr. Big and he organized a spiritual coup.
The amazing thing is Moses didn't know anything about this. It's amazing
because God used to tell Moses if anything was stirring within the camp,
Moses always got to know about it.

But this time there was no sign from God that anything was wrong. Only
when Korah actually faced Moses on that day and said, we are all as holy
as you are. And Moses fell to his knees.

I asked myself, was he frightened? No, he wasn't frightened. That wasn't
the reason that he fell to his knees. Moses was a man taught by God not
to do anything of his own volition, but he fell to his knees because he
was seeking God.

What do I do next? I'm leading up to somewhere tonight. I'm leading up
to somewhere. In this chapter, one thing, one overriding subject that
pervades through this six chapter is that of holiness.

Now there's a word you don't hear too much of today. Holiness. But I
tell you this, unless we are holy, unless we are doing things right with
God in holiness, forget about praying for revival.

One man put holiness like this. Holiness is the opposite of sin. Not
merely the absence of sin, not even the hatred of sin, but a total
otherness from sin.

It is an uncompromising purity, a terrifying dedication to what is
right. When I typed my notes, I wrote into my notes regarding holiness,
I wrote this holiness, the sheer terrible perfection and majestic
essence that is God. The events of chapter six were going to bring to
Isaiah, first of all, a crippling crisis point.

And then we're going to introduce him to an understanding of the
holiness of God that he didn't understand before. Listen, I heard you
this morning praying for revival. Yesterday I heard you praying for
revival.

Someone said, bend me Lord, like you bent Evan Roberts. The theme of
this conference is dedicated to revival. And I like the way that a
writer of this and other conferences says, this is a genuine searching
whether God will send another revival.

No, I like that. But in every revival, when I heard you praying, I sat
there and I heard and understood with the heart that some of you have
not got a concept of holiness by the way that you pray. At the Bible
college, I came under the teaching.

You know, I've left my notes already. I don't know where I am with these
notes. When I came into the Bible college, I came under the teaching of
a certain Pastor W.L. Rowlands.

Would anybody here know W.L. Rowlands? You know him. Now I became
friends with this man of God, this very unusual man of God, very
unusual. Perhaps, I don't think it's cruel, but I mean it with the best
intentions of my heart.

Perhaps, slightly eccentric, because he was not the norm of men. But I
tell you this, when Pastor Rowlands opened up the scriptures, I was
hooked. I got more teaching and more experience has come from what that
man has implanted within my heart than any other man I know, and I know
some beautiful characters.

But one thing Pastor Rowlands said to me, and I want you to get this, be
careful when you ask God for a revival, lest he answer your prayer. Some
of you have got that. What he meant was, and I'm not afraid to repeat
what I said in Scotland last year in Grenoble, because I spoke on this
theme.

It's an act of mercy on God's part, not to send a revival until we are
ready for it. And the way you hear some people pray, I know, I know, you
haven't got a concept of revival, you haven't got a concept of the
holiness of God. If you had a concept of the holiness of God, you
wouldn't refer to God as him upstairs.

King Uzziah, it was a tragic death. I'm trying to find my way back to
these doors. I'm back to explain the predictability of leprosy.

In the year the king Uzziah died, his death would have left Isaiah in a
state of perhaps not panic, but he would have been grossly hurt. Because
I believe that he loved King Uzziah because God loved him. And how
tragic he would think, how tragic.

My friend, King Uzziah, why did he do such a thing as to usurp another
man's ministry? Oh, haven't you seen many usurping ministries within the
church? Men that are posturing churches who would be better off sitting
in the pills. This tragedy would lead Isaiah, now I'm going to speak
about this vision because there's something here. Which is quite
amazing.

Isaiah would be in crippling despair and so would the nation. They had
lost a godly king, a king who had done so much for them. But now he is
locked up in his own dwelling and the affairs of state are being run by
his son, Jotham.

This is what Isaiah says. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the
Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe
filled the temple. Above the throne stood seraphim, each one had six
wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and
with two he flew.

And one cried to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the
whole earth is filled with his glory. Do you know, a friend of mine said
to me a couple of hours before we left home to come to Wales. We were
talking about the seraphim and how they covered their faces with two
wings and covered their feet with another two.

And John said to me, and I jumped in my chair, he said, why did they
cover their faces? They are not equal with God. Only those that are
equal with God can face God face to face without covering his face, and
there is only one, there is only one. Do you think Jesus covers his face
when he comes into the presence of God? Holy, holy, holy, the only
attribute of God which is spoken of three times in succession, holy,
holy, holy.

There is no other attribute of God. We read in scripture that God is
mighty, but we don't read mighty, mighty, mighty. We know that God is
merciful, but do we read merciful, merciful, merciful? No, but we do
read holy, holy, holy.

And Isaiah, where he was, by location, when he received this vision, we
are not told where he was, but God granted him this vision. And Isaiah,
Isaiah was known by many Bible teachers as the Shakespeare of the Old
Testament because of his understanding and command of classical Hebrew.
What Shakespeare was to English, although I don't like Shakespearean
English, but what Isaiah was to English, what Shakespeare was to
English, Isaiah is to Hebrew.

And you only have to read through his book and see the use of classical
Hebrew, and his education comes absolutely shining through. He's a very
educated, perhaps upper-class class of person, comes from a well-
structured family background, but he is a tremendously educated prophet.
Now he's looking at this vision, and he sees a king sitting on a throne,
and he remembers that his friend, Uzziah, was on a throne, but is now in
his grave.

And he sees this king with the train of his robe flowing down into the
temple. The length of robe deciphers the amount of authority, like the
long sleeves. You know Joseph's coat of many colors, well the colors
didn't matter much, it was the length on the sleeves.

The length, the longer the sleeves hung down, the more authority they
had, the wearer had. And that is why the brothers couldn't stand Joseph,
because he'd got a coat with longer sleeves than them. But Isaiah is
looking at this, woe is me, is his response, woe is me, I am a man of
unclean lips.

This Shakespeare of the Old Testament is reduced to a man crying out and
saying that he's got contaminated lips. You wouldn't think so when you
read his book, but he knows exactly what he's on. He wouldn't need you
to tell him what his heart is like.

The very penetration of the holiness of God reduced him to this verdict,
that he is a man of unclean lips. Now I looked up in my strongs, undone,
Hebrew, domo, to be destroyed, to be cut down, undone, brought to
silence. The Greek equivalent means to be utterly at a loss, to be
utterly destitute of measures or resources, to renounce all hope, to be
utter in despair.

R.C. Sproul speaks of Isaiah's encounter with God as reflecting the
normal trauma that occurs when a person meets the living God. Oh I like
what Sproul says here, God shocks our system, he traumatises us with his
holiness. Have you ever been put in a corner by God? You only have to
live close to him to find out what happens then.

I've been there a few times and it's not very nice. When God puts you in
a corner. Pastor Rowlands said to us at Bible class at the college one
day, he said one day God said to me, Willie, you are dust.

And he had this little gasp when he said that, oh I thought I was a
little more value than dust. But God said to me a second time, don't be
frightened my servant, it was out of dust I made the first man. But it
takes a lot of pulverising to become dust and you're either squeezed
into shape or out of shape, it all depends on your reaction to a time of
testing.

That's why I say, has God ever cornered you? That there's no way out but
God. And when Pastor Rowlands, he was very ill and I went to see him one
day at his house. I knocked on the door and a very tall, gaunt figure,
he was about six foot three perhaps, answered the door and beckoned me
in.

We sat together in his living room and he sat opposite me and this is
what he said to me. And he traumatised me as well. He said, Yori, are
you holy, are you holy? I didn't know where to put myself.

I began to feel hot under the collar. And he just sat there, almost
motionless in his face and wanting an answer. I didn't know how to
answer him.

But he looked at me then and said, I frightened you, I frightened you, I
didn't want to frighten you. But he said, do we need holiness to come to
God? Yes, we need holiness. Is it righteousness we need? Oh, most
certainly righteousness.

And he said, whatever a man stands in need of, Christ has provided that
in his Son, Jesus Christ. For he has made him unto us wisdom,
righteousness and redemption. And put me off the hook.

But I tell you this, not long after I got converted, let me tell you
what happened. I was at my first apostolic convention at Penedrose. And
I was stopping at a school because the movement hired the schools when
they were on holiday and conducted their conferences in school holidays.

So I was housed in a classroom and I call this in my book, the classroom
experience. And I had come home and come to the school from the service.
And at half past ten, a call goes out, lights out everybody.

Now this is what happened and this is another dealing of God within my
life. Some of you are shuffling. I hope I'm not overdoing it here.

I lay in my bunk bed. I was on the lower layer of a bunk bed. My friend
was on the upper layer.

And the lights went out at half past ten. But I lay in my bunk bed, the
room in darkness, but for the orange glow of the lights outside shining
in through the school window. This is what I refer to as a one-off
experience.

Anzal had it, Moses had it, Ezekiel had it, John on the Isle of Patmos
had it. A one-off experience. But it satisfies you what the holiness and
the purity and the glory of God is what it's all about.

And I lay in my bunk bed thinking, thinking of how I lived outside of
Christ. I had my head in my hands like this, laying back in the bed and
thinking about it. And then something began to stir in my heart.

And I felt the presence of God come into my room, into this school room.
And I felt I wanted to worship. Have you ever felt that you want to
worship God simply because he is God? I rolled out of bed and lay on the
school block floor.

I lay on the floor face down and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. And I
literally felt gentle. This is the only way that I can describe it.

I felt gentle waves of glory wafting up and down my body as I lay on the
floor. I cried and sobbed and sobbed and I felt, I felt cocooned in God,
cocooned in him. Have you ever felt cocooned in God? He's so intimate
with you, you feel that you can reach out and touch him.

That's how I felt. I lay on that floor for a long, long time until I
could cry no more. And then I went back, I crawled off the floor and
crawled into the lower part of the bunk bed.

I'm glad I wasn't on the top one. I don't know how I would have made it.
But I crawled into the lower part of the bunk bed and lay down like
that, like a little boy that had been spanked.

And the presence, the presence of God, the presence of God bursting,
bursting out of my heart. Let me tell you, I'm no special person. It's
only that God has ordained to treat me this way.

Isaiah cried out, I am a man of unclean lips. What does that mean? Do
you know that chapter 1 of John, in the beginning was the word, the
logos. Do you know what the logos is? It's the Greek word for word, but
it means word spoken and word expressed.

Thought spoken and thought expressed. Jesus, Jesus is the logos of God.
He is the very heartfelt expression of God.

Some people ask me, will we ever see God the Father in glory? And I have
got a stock answer. I say, need we? Will we see any more in the Father
than we have seen in the Son? Well, in the same way, an unclean heart, a
man of unclean lips, as the heart is, the mouth will speak. Jesus said,
out of the heart proceeds adulteries, fornications, blasphemies, all the
impurities.

And Paul even gives a long description in the book of Galatians. The
works of the flesh are these, and they all come from the heart. Do you
know, the way that you speak, the way that I speak, we project
personality.

We shoot the contents of our heart towards those that are listening to
us. Solomon said, even a fool is wise until he opens his mouth. As the
heart is, so the mouth will speak.

And Isaiah cried out, I am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have
seen the Lord. I know, but this is talking to some of you now. Isaiah
cried out.

The amazing thing is, the one who he sees on the throne doesn't speak to
him. Have you ever thought of that, when reading Isaiah 6? The being on
the throne doesn't speak to him. You read Revelation 4, and it's the
same with John.

When he looks into the throne room, he sees a throne set in heaven. And
he who sat on the throne, holding a scroll. Now he can't describe the
face.

So he talks of him who is seated on the throne in terms of precious
stones. But when he saw the Lord Jesus in chapter 1, he recognized him.
But he'd never seen him as that before.

He had never seen him as standing amongst the lampstands, holding the
seven stars in his hand. And he describes him, his hair is as white as
wool. His eyes are a flame of fire.

And out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, two-edged sword. And when I saw
him, I fell at his feet as dead. Have you fallen at the feet of Jesus as
dead? And he said, let me tell you, I can only speak the truth.

I came home from work one night. And my pastor came on the phone. And he
said, please come over the church, quick.

And I said, what? Has there been a break-in? Has there been a fire? And
the phone went dead. And I hurried across the church. I came to the
outer doors.

I put my hand on the handle of the door to open it. And I got an
electric shock. So I opened it gently.

I'm only telling you what happened. And I went in through the second set
of doors. And then I turned right into the, which is now the minor hall.

But it was the main hall then. And there, hovering above the pulpit, was
a cloud. A cloud.

I can only say what happened. It was a cloud. And as soon as I entered
that hall, I smelled an amazing aroma.

Amazing perfume. And I knew God was there. My pastor was there by
himself.

He was flat out on the floor. So I went in very sheepishly, very slowly,
not to disturb anything. And I lay down beside my pastor and bathed
myself.

And the thing that struck me was, I felt contaminated. I felt my heart.
I felt the dirtiness and the filthiness of my heart.

And I, a professing Christian, how do you think Isaiah felt when he saw
this crushing purity of the holiness of God? Oh, I'm a man of unclean
lips. This Shakespeare of the Old Testament is reduced to a man of
unclean lips. And the response didn't come from God, but the response
came from one of the seraps.

And one of the seraps flew and came, took a live call from off the altar
and placed it upon my lips. And said, behold, this has touched your
lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged.

Now I'm coming to a finish. Isaiah, I don't know whether you thought of
this. Perhaps you haven't.

I did when I was reading through the scriptures. Isaiah, because of the
emphasis in his ministry, the emphasis is upon the Son. If anybody is
going to write a book on the life of Jesus, in his research, he wouldn't
have to look further than the book of Isaiah.

Because he's got everything he wants to know about the Son of God. So
Isaiah is the prophet of the Son. Ezekiel is the prophet of the Father.

And Joel is the prophet of the Holy Ghost. Behold, I will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh. Very emphasis of the prophet.

I'm finishing here. Notice, there is no cry for mercy from Isaiah when
he sees this. Do you know why there is no cry for mercy? Because he
didn't think he was going to come out the other end alive.

He thought he was going to perish as many thought in his day. You read
of the mother and father of Samson when they met the angel of the Lord.
And they were going to prepare the angel of the Lord a meal.

And they asked the angel of the Lord, what is your name? Because
character is known by the name. And the angel of the Lord said to
Manoah, why do you ask my name? When it is wonderful, wonderful. And
later, when the angel of the Lord didn't appear again to Manoah or his
wife.

He said, we are going to die now because we have seen the Lord. And
Isaiah thought the same thing. He didn't think he was going to come out
of this alive.

But now, let me just finish here. I really could go on, but I don't want
to. I really could, I'm thinking of the time.

When Moses saw the glory of God in Exodus 34. When he saw the names of
God shown him. What happened with Moses? He fell upon his face.

Unworshipped. Now I'm going to say something here. That perhaps you
won't quite agree or perhaps you won't understand.

But do you know what? I searched the scriptures prior to Exodus 34. And
there is no clear statement that Moses worshipped God prior to Exodus
34. Do you know the word holy is not in the book of Genesis? My father,
tonight I pray.

As Moses collapsed to the ground. And worshipped you. As Ezekiel saw
you.

Enthroned above the cherubim. He fell to his face. And John on the isle
of Patmos.

When he saw his friend, the son of God. He had leaned upon his breast.
When they sat at a meal.

He knew the heartbeat of Jesus. I want to ask you here tonight. If
you're not prepared to accept that God is holy.

Two of the four sons of Aaron. Nadab and Abihu. Brought a sacrifice.

A wrong sacrifice to God. And fire came out of the temple. And destroyed
the two of them.

And Moses went to Aaron. And said, Aaron. This is what God is saying all
along.

To those whom I allow to come near me. I must be regarded as holy. If
the Savior that the church is presenting to the world outside.

If he is not presented as a holy son of God. We've got no other God to
preach. And God criticized Israel, the priesthood.

And this is one of my last statements. In Jeremiah. He said, my priests.

My priests have violated my covenant. And have made no difference.
Between the unclean and the clean.

No difference. You can't decipher purity from the unclean. And the
priests have done that.

And the church is doing that to a great extent. Don't tell me that the
Holy Spirit can anoint Christian, Christian rock groups. What is flesh
is flesh.

And will always remain flesh. When we present a Jesus. Who is the holy
son of God.

Perhaps we'll be coming close to presenting a gospel. Which is pure.
That preacher last night.

Wow. What a man of God. Paul Washer is.

Do you know. What I said. To God.

Personally. For I was a little confused. As what to speak here.

Tonight. I said Lord. If it is your will that I preach this message.

I want you to let Paul. Mention. Certain parts of it.

And that's exactly what he did. He even spoke. Holy.

Holy. Holy. I want to leave you with those words.

But I want to leave you with this. Brothers and sisters. I appeal to
you.

I'm not a great orator. I never have been. A good preacher.

Because I don't. Cross my teeth. Nor I don't.

Dot my eyes. And I put my H's where they shouldn't be. But I tell you
what.

You've had my heart tonight. You've had my heart. And I don't want you
to throw.

My heart back at me. And say I don't want it. That's going to break my
heart.

How do you think God feels. When he sends his servants. To this pulpit.

And preaching. As we have heard. This week my brother precious.

Brother David here. Wow. What he spoke on that.

On that. Opening. Message.

And I admire. David. I tell you why.

In any series of meetings. I can't stand being the first preacher.
Because it's a time.

When I'm analyzing you. When you're analyzing me. Am I going to like
him? He's all right I suppose.

Taken with a pinch of salt. I trust. That I have said.

Something tonight. That's going to stir. Within your heart.

A desire. To seek God. Perhaps not for.

A revival. But for. A personal revival.

And when God. Grants you. A personal.

Revival. You can then pray. For.

A more widespread. Revival. But I advise you.

I advise you. Find out. What a revival is.

And what it costs. Before you ask. God for it.

Lest he send it to you. God bless you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/veaRZw6KkiI.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/yorrie-richards/the-holy-presence-of-god/
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