I SAW THE LORD
Tommy Robbins is pastor of Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, Alabama.
Isaiah 6:1: In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
To see the Lord Jesus Christ in a vision as Isaiah did surely would be a wonder to behold. The vision refers to the exaltation of Christ, after His humiliation here on earth. Although we do not see Him in a vision, we see Him exactly as Isaiah did, on the Throne of His glory, high and lifted up, worshipped by the innumerable company of saints being accompanied by the host of heaven.

We see Him by faith in His glorious reign as He is revealed in His Word by the preaching of the gospel. For the child of God to ‘see Him as He is' initiates worship and adoration. Peace and comfort flow from Him to us like a river because we see ourselves gathered with Him there. His love, mercy, grace and omnipotence preside over all His loved ones to their good, to the destruction of every foe, and to His glory. Because He is there and we are there with Him everything will be all right. Every one of His sheep see Him exactly the same because He is the same - "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" Hebrews 13:8.

We see Him having accomplished eternal redemption for us, having purchased us with His Own blood, having put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself, having raised from the dead proving our justification, having ascended to the throne of His glory ever living to make intercession for us. The sight of Him there assures our hearts before Him here.

The believer's desire is to see the Lord, and He has promised to give us the desire of our heart. - "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple" Psalms 27:4. Of all the wonders there are to behold there is nothing that compares to beholding the Lamb in the midst of the throne. How do you see the Lord?

THE RACE THAT IS SET
Hebrews 12: 1: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Everything about the believer's race is set by God.

Our Lord determined before the foundation of the world those whom he would put in this race when he chose his people in Christ. The love of God for his people is as eternal as God is. It existed before time; it shall exist when time is no more. The everlasting love of God in Christ Jesus gives the believer great cause for patiently running this race.

Our God set the precise moment he would cross our path with the gospel. He determined the pastor he would raise up, gave him the heart to trust Christ, and the unction to preach his word in truth and in spirit. In that hour of love he made Christ our Wisdom. We beheld something of the righteous skill with which Christ Jesus honored and magnified God's law on our behalf. We beheld his faithfulness and graciousness in satisfying justice on our behalf. In the light of Christ we heard the law condemn our sins and our sins were more than we could bear. But the Spirit revealed in our hearts that all our sins have been forever put away by Christ's one offering. In love and power Christ was made our Perfection, our Completion, our Righteousness, our All. When we behold God's all-powerful hand in all providence which brought us to Christ in spite of us, the believer finds great comfort in knowing that the God who provided and is our Righteousness will continue to be our Strength to run this race.

Our God set every hurdle on this course which we must run and declares plainly to us that we must suffer much tribulation in this race. Yet, the God who set the course also reveals in us that he is the God who supplies the grace. That is what he teaches us as he carries us through every dark vale.

Our God set the length of our course. He has appointed the hour our race will end. By his grace we will find the finish line to be the most glorious hour of all the hours of our lives for then we shall enter into the presence of Christ our Redeemer. What a joy to know that our race ends where it began, in Christ our Lord.

ALL SCRIPTURE
By A. W. Pink
2 Timothy 3: 16: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Imagine forty persons of different nationalities, possessing various degrees of musical culture, visiting the organ of some great cathedral and at long intervals of time, and without any collusion whatever, striking sixty-six different notes, which when combined yielded the theme of the grandest oratorio ever heard; would it not show that behind these forty different men there was one presiding mind, one great Tone-Master? As we listen to some great orchestra, with its immense variety of instruments playing their different parts, but producing melody and harmony, we realize that at the back of these many musicians there is the personality and genius of the composer. And when we enter the halls of the Divine Academy and listen to the heavenly choirs singing the Song of Redemption, all in perfect accord and unison, we know that it is God himself who has written the music and put this song into their mouths.

IT PLEASED THE LORD THROUGH PREACHING
Acts 13: 1-3
In this text, we have the account of how the Lord faithfully sent forth Barnabas and Saul to the Gentile world.

God has an elect people whom he has determined to save OUT OF all corners and people of this world in Christ Jesus. This was the Lord's word to Abraham Genesis 22: 17: In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18: And in thy seed (Christ the Seed-Gal. 3: 16) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. The gospel of Christ the Seed was preached to Abraham (Gal 3:8, 9.)

This same gospel shall be preached to all God's elect scattered throughout the entire world. God uses his church to do so. The very wisdom of God which chose his people in Christ, the very wisdom which accomplished the work whereby mercy and peace have met in harmony in Christ our Substitute, is the same wisdom of God which chose that the instrument he would use to proclaim his gospel would be his church in this world. The believer--who is perfectly complete in Christ to enter glory right now--remains in this world because God choose to use saved sinners to carry his gospel to his elect and save them through the gospel of our glorified Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:21.)

Just as the work of election, of redemption, and of regeneration is the work of our triune God even so the work of raising up and equipping his vessels of mercy is the work of our Lord. God's ambassadors' are called of God; God gives his saints a heart to recognize his messengers and to support them in God's work; God separates them to the work he would have them to do; God's messengers are filled and led by the Spirit of God. Thus they go forth preaching the gospel of Christ and him crucified.