Isaiah chapter 33. Isaiah chapter 33. I'm titling this message, The King is Coming. On my Bible here, I have a verse that's written down here, you know, how they stamp it in. And it's Isaiah 33, 17, which says, Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. They should behold the land that is very far off. That's a verse that has just, it's spoken to me over the years many, many times, and when I wrote a couple of books in the last couple years, and you do your self-publishing thing, and I titled the publishing company The King and His Beauty Books, which comes from Isaiah chapter 33, verse number 17. So turn with me there, and then we're gonna look at this entire chapter, but I just wanna show you here this verse, then we'll have a word of prayer. Isaiah 33 17 thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty they shall behold the land that is very far off let's pray Lord God we thank you for this night that you've given to us and we continue to pray for a pastor and his wife for healing and strength recovery Lord be gracious to them today thank you that we could gather together in your name thank you for my brothers and sisters who came out tonight and And thank you for Alicia coming to lead us in song to praise to you, our living God, our Savior. And now I pray, Lord God, that you'd be with us. Teach us through your word something tonight that we could grab a hold of. Give every one of us something, Lord, that we could leave here tonight with, whether an encouragement, an instruction, a rebuke, whatever it may be. Lord, we just pray we invite you here tonight to be with us, to continue to be with us through your Word as we open it up and look at it. I thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. I'm going to go through this text here one time very quick. Then we're gonna slow down a little bit, go through it again, and then we're gonna go through it one more time. I'm not gonna read it through each time, but we're going to look at this account here in Isaiah chapter 33. We're gonna look at it historically. The king is coming, that's the title of the message. And we'll see historically, they were praying for the king to come and the king came and he rescued them, as we'll see. And prophetically, The King is coming. There's a future doctrinal application to this chapter that says that the Lord is going to come when the Jews are praying during the tribulation, and he's going to come, the King is going to come. And there's a third application to that, a personal or spiritual application. The King, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes to rescue people today and deliver people from this dark and dying world, as he's done to many, if not, I hope, all of you, rescued us. So the king is coming and we want to take a look at it. So I'm going to read here. So bear with me as we read through it. Follow along. We're going to read this chapter. Then I'm going to go back and kind of talk again. Historical, doctrinal and personal. So it starts off, it says, Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled. And when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. O Lord, be gracious unto us. We have waited for thee. Be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. At the noise of the tumult, the people fled. At the lifting up of thyself, the nations were scattered. And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar as the running to and fro of locusts, and shall he run upon them. The Lord is exalted, for he dwelleth on high. He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness, and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times. And strength of salvation, the fear of the Lord, is his treasure. Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without. The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. The highways lie waste. The wayfaring man seeth. He hath broken the covenant. He hath despised the cities. He regardeth no man. The earth mourneth and languisheth. Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits. Now will I rise, saith the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble, your breath as fire shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, and what have I done? And ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surpassed the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with a devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly. He that despiseth the gain of oppressors, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoopeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil. He shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given Him. His waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? Where is the receiver? Where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of deeper speech than thou canst perceive, of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation. tabernacle that shall not be taken down. Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken." But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us. Thy tacklings are loosed. They could not well strengthen their mast. They could not spread the sail. Then is the prey of a great spoil divided. The lame take the prey, and the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick. The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Big chapter, a lot to it. Isaiah is a big book. As you know, if you've studied your Bible at all, read your Bible, the human author of this book is Amos. We read that in Isaiah 1, verse 1, right? The prophet... I'm sorry. There was a prophet, Isaiah, who was the son of Amos in Isaiah 1, verse 1. He was a contemporary with a couple other prophets, Hosea and Micah. And historically, which is what we're going to talk about briefly first, historically, he wrote to Judah in Jerusalem. So these were historical events taking place. I want to talk a little bit about that. We know the approximate timing because he wrote, as it says at the beginning, to King Uzziah, who would have been around 790 BC, and then King Jotham and King Ahaz, and King Hezekiah, 715 BC. So we know that's about the time this took place, this historical event. And again, he's speaking to Judah in Jerusalem about the Assyrian attack that's going to take place. And this is who he's talking to. If you remember, The history of Israel, there was a united kingdom, remember? Solomon, you had, well, before Solomon, you had Saul, David, and then Solomon. And then after the death of Solomon, the kingdom split. Ten went to the north, two went to the south. Those two of the south were called Judah in your Bible. And it was Solomon's son, Rehoboam. This happened around 900 or so BC. it was split and you can read about these things when you're reading Kings you know when you're reading the prophets you know there many times they're prophesying to those Kings to the people that you know are in charge of the nation of Israel whether it's the northern tribes Israel or the southern tribes Judah or to the whole of Israel the twelve tribes also called Israel So the account of chapter 33 here pronounces a woe upon the spoiler. It says, woe to thee that spoilest. Historically, this woe is pronounced against the Assyrian king by the name of Sennacherib. And you can read about that in Isaiah chapter 36 and chapter 37. There was a real king from Assyria, and you read about this also in 2 Kings, and I'm going to read for you here just to give you, again, a little bit of the historical before we look on. In 2 Kings 18, verses 13 to 15, that last king I mentioned, Hezekiah, we learn of his unbelief and he struggles a little bit. And when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sends his man, Hezekiah kind of falters in his faith a little bit. And so I read from 2 Kings 18, verse 13 to you, it says this, now in the 14th year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended. Return from me that which thou puttest, return from me, in other words, leave, that which thou puttest on me I will bear. So in other words, whatever you want, Sennacherib, I'll give it to you in terms of tribute. He says, And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house. Now we see in Isaiah chapter 33 that there was a small remnant though who were faithful. who were trusting that God would do what he said he was going to do, and that was that he was going to come and deliver them. And look at Isaiah 33, verse 2. It says, Oh, Lord, be gracious unto us. We have waited for thee. But we know that the king himself, Hezekiah, did not wait. He gave over these things to Sennacherib the Assyrian. But some waited. Some, it says in verse 2, be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in time of trouble. See, God had promised them that he would deliver them. But again, the king lost his faith a little bit, but there were some that held out. There were some that were holding on. Look at Isaiah chapter 30 right over there to the left a little bit. Verse number 18. He told them, wait for me. And these few here in Isaiah 33 too were waiting for Him. They were faithful. It says in Isaiah 30, verse number 18, and therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you and therefore will He be exalted that He may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for Him for the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem thou shall weep no more he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee and these over here in Isaiah chapter 33 verse 2 they were waiting patiently on the Lord they were waiting for him Now the Lord does indeed deliver them. The King, Jesus, the King, the Lord, shows up, and he does indeed destroy the Assyrians. You probably know the story. Look over at, well, verse 5 of this chapter. Right here we can look at it. The Lord is exalted, right there. But look over at Isaiah 37. We're coming right back to where we are. Isaiah 37, the end of the chapter, verse 36. And you can also read about this in 2 Kings. Again, these things go together, they're not separate. So let's see, 37, 36, Isaiah 37. Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 104 score and 5,000. And then go down to 37. So Sennacherib, the Assyrian, the king that they were worried about, he that spoilest, okay, that's who we're talking about, King of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh and it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisrach his god that Adramalek and Sherezar his sons smote him with the sword and they escaped into the land of Armenia and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. So the king showed up historically and he took care of the Assyrians. They needed to wait, but again, they had some issues there, but the Lord showed up just the same. But there's a bigger picture here, and we get a little idea from, look at some of the words that show up here. And those of you who read your Bible, especially in the book of Daniel, will recognize a few words. Look at verse number two, right at the end of that. See that, time of trouble? Look at verse number four. You see, this will be from Joel, the caterpillar? the book of Joel. And you see in also verse 4, running to and fro of the locusts, that's Joel and that's Daniel. So we're getting the idea there's something bigger going on than just a historical account. Look at verse 8. He hath broken the covenant. That's Daniel chapter 9. We'll talk a little bit about that as we go on. So what you have here that the Lord layered in, in addition to telling us historically what was going on with the kings and with Judah at the time, he said, I wanna show you something doctrinally, something prophetic that's gonna take place. So now let's take a look here at that one more time this way, looking at it prophetically to the time when the king is gonna show up during the tribulation to rescue his people. So the king will come, those days that are just ahead of us, not that far ahead of us. Looking at everyone out here, if the Lord, you know, wills, we'll all see the day of the rapture of the Lord, and we'll be out of here, and this day will begin, this day that he's talking about here. Now, so let's take a look here. It says here in verse number one, woe to thee that spoilest. So he's the Assyrian. And we know that there is one coming in the future, the Antichrist, who is a, this man, the Assyrian, is a type of the Antichrist. And he's coming and he's going to rule the Gentile worlds. He's gonna rule the kingdoms of the world. We learn about that in Revelation chapter 17, Daniel chapter 2. Remember, there's gonna be 10 toes. Revelation says 10 kings. It's a confederation of nations, a confederation of kingdoms that are gonna come about pretty soon. And you can see the beginnings of it, you know, the Great Reset. That's the beginning of this stuff happening, leading us to the New World Order that you've heard talked about now for many years, actually decades now, that's been thrown out. Perhaps it'll be a technocracy, which is what they're really trying to establish now with all of this business, with all of their fancy devices to track people and stuff. That's a technocracy. They've been trying to establish that for control purposes. But this man, the Assyrian, the Antichrist, is gonna come and rule over all of this. He will be the one that's going to come to spoil. And what you have then in verse two, Looking at it now prophetically, it describes the prayer of the Jewish remnant during the tribulation. There are many places in the Bible where you will find that, including like Revelation 6, when they're praying under the altar, how long, O Lord, that type of thing. But you'll find that they will be praying for the Lord to return during the tribulation. This is gonna be a time like never before, the book of Joel says, never happened before in the nation of Israel. What happened under Hitler was just, little warm-up to it so this is what's coming here it's the so verse 2 that would describe the prayer of the Jewish remnant during the tribulation praying for the salvation during the time of trouble as it says in verse number 2 and then if you look at verses 3 to 6 now prophetically what you see here is in verse number 3 the nations will be scattered During the tribulation and at the battle of Armageddon, God's going to scatter all the nations. He is going to disperse the invading army that's going to armies that are going to come against Israel. And that's what we have pictured here for us. And in verse number four, if you look at that and your spoil. He's going to spoil or plunder the Antichrist and his army, that confederation, that ten-toed monstrosity that's coming. And in verse number five, he promises, he says, the Lord is exalted. So what he's promising here is that he's going to be exalted. In other words, he's going to not only is he gonna come and spoil the spoiler, he's gonna set up a kingdom, a millennial kingdom. And that's the picture you're getting here when it says, the Lord is exalted, for he dwelleth on high. He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. That happens when he sets himself up as king. The king is coming. He's coming in the future, He came for the Israelites, and He's coming again for the Jews. Verses 7 to 9, as you look at that again prophetically, it describes the condition of the nation of Israel during the time of the Gentile invasion, during the time when the Antichrist, now in the future, is going to come against Israel. If you look at verse 7, It says, the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. In other words, there won't be any peace. Peace, peace, but there will be no peace, because that's what's gonna happen during that seven-year tribulation. And if you look at verse number eight, it's gonna be so bad, it says, the highways lie waste. In other words, the travel is gonna become unsafe for the people of Israel to even go about traveling. It says, the highways and the wayfaring man sees it. All the travel's gonna stop. during this time when the Antichrist is coming against Israel. And if you look at verse number nine, the earth mourneth and languisheth. That's the destruction of the land that takes place really, I think, when verse number eight happens. What's that? When he, the Antichrist, has broken the covenant. remember in Daniel chapter 9 verse 27 he confirms the covenant with many it says that he in the context of Daniel chapter 9 is the Antichrist the prince of the people that shall come it says and he will break the covenant and here he has broken the covenant And all this terror breaks out upon the people of Israel as he breaks his covenant. That's what Daniel chapter 20 or Matthew chapter 24 says, such shall be a time shall never, never been before. Joel says the same thing. It's never been like this before. when the abomination of desolation is established, when Antichrist sets himself up as God in the temple of God, being worshipped as God. That takes place during the middle of that tribulation. That's what's taking place here in verse number 8 and verse number 9. But in verse number 10 to 12, the Lord comes to save his people in the future. In verse number 10, the enemies of the Lord and of Israel shall be destroyed. Look at it. Now will I rise, saith the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff. In other words, you're gonna reap, the enemies of God's people are gonna reap what they've sown. Ye shall conceive chaff. Ye shall bring forth stubble. Your breath as fire shall devour you. This'll take place. Verse number 12. They shall be burned in destruction. And the people shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut up, shall they be burned in the fire." Never forget, the Bible says that our God is a consuming what? fire. His eyes are as a flame of fire. Revelation chapter 1 verse 14 says the Lord sitting, the king sitting on his throne is going to scatter people with his eyes and the sword of his mouth and the fire that comes out. He's going to literally burn these things up. Now we know eventually he's going to burn up the whole earth and he's going to start all over. All the heavens are not clean in his sight it says. And in verse 13 to 16 it describes the state of the people at the time of the invasion. Look at it, verse 13 to 14. It says, here are ye that are far off. And it goes on, verse number 14, the sinners in Zion are afraid. They're fearful. So some have put their trust in the invaders. Some have put their trust in the Assyrians. And those are the ones that are fearful. Those are the ones that are not waiting on the Lord. They're the ones that will be fearful during the tribulation. Remember, the Lord is going to save all of Israel, but it's gonna come by faith in Jesus Christ as the gospel goes out during that tribulation period. And the indication from the book of Zechariah is that two-thirds will be burned and only one-third are going to make it. And that, when you read in Romans chapter 11, that all Israel shall be saved. Yes, that third that come by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved. All of Israel will be saved. But you're reading about this. But now in verses 15 and 16, there was a faithful remnant. Who? He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly. He, in verse 16, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense of the munitions shall be the munitions of rocks. and bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure." So what that is a picture of in the future in the tribulation are the faithful remnant of the Jews and God brings them into the wilderness and it's called here the munitions of rocks. Now we know from Micah chapter 2 verse 12 that that place is called, well you know what I've got I'll read it to you. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. That's what you're reading about here, the munitions of rocks. I will put them together as the sheep of Basra, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. This place is known as today Basra as Petra, Selah Petra, Selah Petra. And when you read in the Psalms and you run into that word Selah, Now, I know that I've heard that it's a musical thing. It means pause, reflect, that type of thing. But if you look a verse or two before or a verse or two afterwards, you're gonna find something prophetic. Selah gives you a picture that there's something about the latter days that's taking place in those Psalms. And so what you've got here is you've got the Lord taking His people, Israel, into the wilderness. That's Revelation chapter 12, where He will nourish them. It says here that He will give them bread. See it? Bread shall be given him. Remember how the Lord rained down bread before in Exodus for His people as they wandered? I think the Lord is probably going to rain down manna again for them. I don't know that for sure, but I think perhaps he will. Where's that verse? Is it in Job, which is a picture of the, I know, Job, your pastor's probably taught you, Job, 42 chapters, is a picture of the Jew in the last half, the 42 months of the Great Tribulation, this period of time we're talking about here, and it says, hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? the snow, the manna, which rains down from God. God is going to bring forth, I believe, manna. He's going to hide them in this, in the munitions of the rocks, while He deals with the things on the outside, when He deals with the Antichrist and his people. Now, verse 17 and 19 speaks of the people of the restoration that will take place after the tribulation. And that's what's going on when it says, Thine eyes shall see the King and His beauty. Who? those that waited upon the Lord. The remnant shall see the King in His beauty." When He comes and He rescues His people, they will see the King in His beauty. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. They will now enter into the promised land, verses 18 and verses 19, that kind of thing going on right there. And in verses 20 to 24, we see the state of Israel during the restoration in the millennial kingdom of Christ, fulfilling his office as king of kings and Lord of lords, the king sitting upon the throne of David. In verse number 20, It talks about solemnities, which means is it will be a place of appointed feasts, of solemn feasts. It's going to be the Lord resurrecting his feast days again. In verse number 21, it will be a place of confidence in the Lord. They will be resting in the Lord finally. And in verse number 22, we see the state of the government. Look at it. That's government. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. You know, once upon a time in this country, we had a U.S. Constitution, and it was based on this right here, right? Lawgiver, king, king being the presidential, okay, what's it called? Executive, thank you, that was what I was looking for, the executive branch, and then the lawgiver being our court system, and then, I'm sorry, the judge being our court system, the lawgiver being the Congresses, the House of Congress. So this is what the Lord's gonna be. The Lord is our king. He will save us. Now I wanna take one more swing at one verse. That verse, which, as I said earlier, I have written here on my Bible, Isaiah chapter 33, verse 17. And it's right there in the middle. I want to look at that thing spiritually and make application. Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. Now, for whatever reason, I don't really know why, that verse got a hold of me many years ago. It's just been dear to my heart for years. And I think about it often. I come back to it often. And I want to talk a little bit about it this evening. So let's take a look. Let's break it down a little bit. It says, Thine eyes shall see the King and His beauty. Thine eyes. You know, everything about your salvation is personal. I can't get saved for you. You can't get saved for your grandchild. Everybody's got to do it on their own. Thine eyes, it says. It's a personal step of faith. No one can get saved for another person. It is a step of faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, Marvel not that I said indeed, ye must be born again. So, thine eyes salvation is personal. Everything about our salvation is personal. Everything about our Savior is personal. He is a personal God who longs to have personal relationship with you. At work sometimes somebody would come up to me and say, I hear you're a religious man. You know, what do you do with that kind of thing? Well, you try to explain. Once in a while, somebody would come up and say, I hear you're a man of faith. I go, okay, what's going on? And so they'd come into my office and we'd talk for a while. A personal relationship, not a religion. Religion will just condemn you. Religion condemns. But a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ through his gospel will save. He's always been a personal God. Remember how he walked in the cool of the garden with Adam? He's always been a personal God. He calls and He speaks, and He speaks to us through this Word that we have right here. God speaks. He comes to us through this Word, and we have a Holy Spirit within us. He speaks to us through His Word. He longs in a personal way to hear us call Him, Abba, Father. So as we think about this verse in the context of something personal, nobody answered here, but let me ask you. How is your walk of faith tonight? How is your relationship going with the one that loved you and died for you? See, everything about this is personal. Thine eyes, my eyes, your eyes. Shall see the king. He is coming. We shall see him. How's it going now? How's your fellowship with him? Is it still sweet? I know what life can do. I know what, you know, busyness and work and problems and health, and I know what they can do. But do you still have fellowship with the Lord through His Word? Is it fresh? Is it new? You know, His mercies are new every day. Is it new to you or do you need a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life? You know, the Lord will give it to you if you ask Him. Don't fear. Don't hold back. If you're struggling in that area, ask Him. Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty. Our Savior is a personal God. When He returns at the rapture, does anyone know where you find that? The Lord returning at the rapture? Give me a verse. What is it? Yeah. Very good. 1 Thessalonians. That's what we're looking for. 1 Thessalonians 4. It says, For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven. Who's going to descend? The Lord. He's a personal God. He's not going to leave this to anybody else. You know, we just read about an angel that killed 185,000 Assyrians. Pretty powerful, right? He could have sent the angels, but he's not. He's coming himself. For the Lord Himself shall descend because He's a personal God. He's a personal Savior. He knows every one of our names, every one of your names, He knows. Every one of your struggles, He knows. Every one of those things that you think no one else, gee, I just did this, no one knows what I just did. Well, yeah, the Lord knows. He will reward you for what you do for Him. I love how Job puts it. He says this, Job 19, For I know that my Redeemer liveth, no doubt in that man's heart was there. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, he says. whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me." Job was looking to see the king and his beauty. Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. Though, as Job says, though worms destroy my flesh, Though my reigns be consumed within me, mine eyes shall see the King." Don't you want to see Him? Don't you want to see Him? I know some Christians who, yeah, you know, maybe, you know. I'm serious. I know some Christians like, well, things are going okay, so I don't need to see Him. I want to see Him. I want to see Him. Go ahead, brother. Treasures of the snow. Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Is that what it says? Pretty close? How close? Oh, that's all right. Never mind. I don't want to know. I think it's right. I think it's correct. I don't know. The memory isn't what it used to be. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. These eyes want to see him. You know, I know how it will be when I see him. It'll be just like the Apostle John. Remember Revelation chapter 1? He fell at his feet, he's dead, till the Lord lifted him up. And he said, fear not to him. But I want to see him. I've been talking about him for a long time. I've been reading about him for a long time. I've been praying to Him for a long time. I've been singing to Him for a long time. I've been telling others about Him for a long time, and I want to see Him. See, I got saved a long time ago, and I want to see Him. And we will see Him, the King in His beauty. Now, our text says, take a look at it one more time with me. Thine eyes shall see, and it says, the King in His beauty. You know, there's a book of Isaiah. Take a look at Isaiah 53 for a second. Just take a look at Isaiah 53. Remember what we just read, the king and his beauty. Look at Isaiah 53 and we'll come back to where we were. Isaiah 53 and verse number two. Now you know this is the great chapter on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as is a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. But the Bible just said in Isaiah 33, the king and his beauty. Here it says there's no beauty. It's not a contradiction. Right? So what is it? The king in his beauty, no beauty. See, when the Lord came the first time, okay, no beauty. In other words, he came just like you or me. No particular beauty. When he's coming back again, it's gonna be the king in his beauty. So there's no contradiction. One is talking about the first advent, the other's talking about the second advent, or the first coming and the second coming. The Bible says in Isaiah 4 too, in that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. That's the second advent. And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. Now, it says also, thine eye shall see the king and his beauty. And it goes beyond just looking at the first coming and the second coming. Because back in Isaiah 53, it says that he was rejected of men. In other words, that's why they saw no beauty in Him, because they rejected Him. You see, that's a difference between what's in my heart and what isn't in my heart. If I've got the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart with expectation of Him coming back to get me, He's beautiful in my eyes. If I don't have Him in my heart, like the world, there's no beauty in Him. You talk to people, there's no beauty in Him. If they even know who He is, there's no beauty in Him. Until He's your Savior, you look at Him just like anybody else. So it's, thine eyes shall see the King and His beauty. It's the difference between, again, what's in my heart or what's not in my heart. So how's your heart? Brothers and sisters, how's your heart? Is He beautiful in your eyes? Can you see the beautiful King in the Word of God? Do you see Him? Remember, Jesus said, low in the volume of the book it is written to me. He said, search the Scriptures, and then you think you have eternal life. Then they are they which testify of me. Find the Lord Jesus Christ. Find your Savior. Find your King. He's there in the Word. So is He beautiful in your eyes tonight? When you consider the thorns that were placed upon His head or His back that was marred for our sins or the side that was pierced, the whips that plowed over his back, those wounds that he carried into heaven. Remember in Revelation, he was seen as a lamb as it were slain. There was something about him that still had those wounds. Look upon him in his word, see the beauty of your king tonight. There's a third aspect to this thing, to this king in his beauty. It's beauty on that which is on the inside and not the outside. Right? Look at Psalm 29 for a second. Psalm 29. It's not far away. It's back over to the left a little bit. Psalm 29. The king and his beauty. Psalm 29 verse 2. It says, give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 96, verse number nine. Turn there with me for a second. We'll see the theme. Psalm 96, verse number nine. Same thing essentially that we just read in 29. It says, Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. There is a beauty of holiness. You know, when the Lord looks upon us, he looks not on the outward man, but on the inward man. And the Lord is beautiful in his holiness. The Lord is beautiful on his inside, if you will. So whatever was on the outside, he looked like another Jewish man. On the inside, there was the beauty of holiness. And that's what the Lord would like for us today. He would like to see the beauty of holiness in each one of us. What do I mean? Holy, consecrated lives. The beauty of holiness in service and worship to him. the beauty of holiness you know doesn't the bible say that how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace the beauty of holiness on our feet the gospel of the lord jesus christ that's what the lord wants to see in us he doesn't care what we look like on the outside he wants to see the beauty of holiness on the inside thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty they shall behold the land that is very far off." It says there's a land that's very far off. Heavenly now, not earthly. They were talking earthly then, now we're talking heavenly. In some respects, it's not very far off at all. A few years, a year, a month, a day, a moment. I don't know how long I have. That land, in some respects, is not very far off. None of us know the hour of our passing. But our passing is but a promotion. When we leave this body, we get promoted into glory, waiting for the redemption of our bodies according to Romans chapter 8. So even though that heavenly land seems so far off, some days I can see it. Some days I can see it pretty good. You know, there's a hymn, we didn't sing it tonight, it was written by Sanford Bennett, who was born in Eden, New York, by the way, and music by Joseph Webster, and it's called, let's see, where is it? In the Sweet By and By. And it says there is a land that is fairer than day. That's it. That's what we're talking about. And by faith, we can see it afar. That's from this here. For the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. It is through the eyes of faith that we get to behold that land now. All those people that you read about in Hebrews chapter 11, They desired, it says, a better country. That is a heavenly one. And it says that he had prepared it for them, and it was by faith that they could see it already. And the same thing with us today. We can see that land by faith, and that's the only way you can see it today. There are no portals that open up. You can see it through the Word of God. You can see that land by faith. And by the way, that's the only way anyone will ever see it. ever, even physically one day in our new bodies. The only way is by faith. The Bible says, for we are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's the only way. There is no other way. So many people confuse the gospel in so many ways. It's not a confusing thing. It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the scriptures. That's the gospel and nothing else is, nothing else ever will be. There are so many people trusting so many things, but without that faith, they will never see this land, which is very far off in some respects. Some Christians barely ever see it because they lack faith. Some Christians have forgotten that they've seen it because they're caught up in the cares of this world and it chokes out our faith. And yet some Christians seem like they see it all the time, don't they? Haven't you ever met those kind of people? It just seems like they see it all the time and you go, wow, let me have some of that stuff rub off on me. The King is coming. What does He want from us? Well, He wants us to live victorious. He wants us to live productive. He wants us to live fruitful. He wants us to be able to give account of what it is that He gave to us. He did not necessarily give everybody equal anything, but He gave us what we needed to please Him. And that's all really that we need, is that which He gave to please Him. Remember, He called the ten servants and delivered unto them ten pounds, and He said unto them, Occupy till I come. Occupy doesn't mean, some of us think it means occupy the couch. Right? Some days it's okay. It feels good to occupy the couch. I might do that later on when I get home tonight. I'm trying to wind down a little bit. Occupy the couch. But that's not what he's talking about. It's not lying down. Occupy is to be active. Occupy is to be working for the Lord. Occupy is like, I've said it before, but it's, you know, occupying enemy territory. That's what we're doing. We're occupying enemy territory. You see, this world here has a God, little G-O-D, Satan. He's the God of this world. He blinds the minds of people lest they should believe the glorious gospel, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But our job is to occupy. Maybe we take a little space, maybe we just hold that which we have, but contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Be good soldiers of the Lord. That's what he wants. Find your place in the field of battle and occupy. I don't know what that is for each of you. Listen, we're all called to preach the gospel. That's not it. The will of God is the same for me as it is for you. but He may give us different places to occupy, different places in the battle, but His will is still the same for us to be productive and to occupy. See, occupy isn't just for me or for your pastor, it's for each one of us to occupy. Fight against the forces of evil through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit of God, through that Word which is sharp and powerful. The Bible says, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Let's live like we're on the winning side, because we are on the winning side. With the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God, I say it often, but you are far more powerful than you may realize. Not you, Christ living in you and Christ coming out from you. Very powerful. And remember, thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for this time together. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Lord, I pray that you would empower them to occupy that space which you've given, whether it's a little space or a broad space. Lord, I pray help them to occupy for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, lift each one of them up in their families, in their workplaces and in their friendships, to be a candle in the midst of darkness. Lord, we bless Your name, we praise You, and indeed, You are our King, and we can see You now through the eye of faith, and Lord, You're beautiful to behold. But we look forward to that day when we see You face to face, and we can bow down and fall at Your feet, our King in His beauty. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.