People, Tremble at God's Word

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 66, and we read from verses 1 to 6. Isaiah 66, verses 1 to 6. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man. He who sacrifices a lamb as if he breaks a dog's neck He who offers a grain offering as if he offers swine's blood. He who burns incense as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations, so I will choose their delusions and bring their fears on them. Because when I called, no one answered. When I spoke, they did not hear, but they did evil before my eyes and chose that in which I do not delight. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy. But they shall be ashamed. The sound of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord who fully repays his enemies. Thus reads the Word of God. May the Lord bless it to our hearts and our understanding. The key to understanding Isaiah 66, verses 1 to 6, is to see that the prophet Isaiah is speaking to two distinct groups within the nation of Israel, the true worshippers of God and the false worshippers. To the false worshippers, God addresses two rhetorical questions in verse 1. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? And both questions expect a negative response, for God will not dwell in any earthly temple when the worshippers despise his word and worship as they will. What then were these people doing? God says, verse 3, the end, they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. That is, they worship both of God and of idols. But in verse 2, another group of people are mentioned who are poor and of a contrite spirit and who tremble at my word. And on these, says God, I will look that is, with favour. These are the true worshippers in whom God delights and who will go on in the next life to worship Him in the new heavens and the new earth that He says at the end of the chapter, verse 22, He is going to create. For worship in this life is preparatory to worship in the next life. Now, please note that in verse 5 these two groups are regarded as brethren. They both attended the worship of God in the temple and sat under the ministry of Isaiah. And yet, they are deeply divided. The false worshipers hate those who tremble at his word and they cast them out for his namesake. God's faithful remnant, in other words, were ostracized and ridiculed as being narrow-minded, as interpreting the Word of God or taking the Word of God too literally. And tradition has it that Isaiah, their chief spokesman, was cut in two with a wooden saw. Our Lord warns of the same danger in the Gospels. In Matthew 23, he says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! Behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. And, of course, they began by killing Jesus. Now, we need to remember these warnings in Scripture, for we often think that the greatest danger to the church comes from those who are outside the church. But God's Word tells us from beginning to end that the greatest danger and the most subtle danger to the life of the church is that which comes from inside its membership. The danger of false worship. the danger of a spiritual fifth column within our ranks that threatens to destroy the essence of true Christianity and its godly influence upon the world. And Isaiah 66 is one of those passages in the Bible that calls the church to greater discrimination between true and false worshippers. Now, as we turn our attention to the text, I want you to notice in the first place that false worshippers regard a man's religious acts as more important than the attitude of his heart to God. Isaiah is giving a warning here to a great number of people in the nation of Israel, the visible Old Testament church, who believed that the essence of worship was outward religious acts. As verse 1 makes clear, they were taken up with the temple in Jerusalem, and all the activities of worshipping God that went on there. We read in verse 3 that they were people who delighted in offering God animal sacrifices, as well as grain offerings and incense. Their diligence in doing these things, they believed, should make God happy to dwell in the temple of Jerusalem. And they believed as long as God dwelt in the temple at Jerusalem, Jerusalem would be safe. But God says, you're deluded. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool, where is the house you will build me, and where is the place of my rest? In other words, the fact that they had built him a magnificent house in Jerusalem did not automatically make God beholden to them. As Solomon said, rightly, when he built the first temple, will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built. So you see, it's not the splendor of the building or the beauty of the rituals that are conducted within its walls that make a worthy resting place for God, the creator of heaven and earth. My concern, says God, is with the hearts of those who worship me. It's not with what they do. It is with what they are. It's not with their actions primarily, but with their attitude of heart to me. And I want you to notice, if you will turn back one chapter to chapter 65, verse 11, that God says, you are those who forsake the Lord, who prepare a table for Gad, who is the Syrian god of luck, and who furnish a drink offering for many. who is the Syrian god of fate. And they did this in the house of God. They committed this idolatry in the hope that it would protect them from what they feared most, the destruction of Jerusalem and themselves by the invading armies of Babylon. They sought the help of Syria, because Syria was situated between Israel and Babylon. But Syria and its gods, which were no gods, would not protect them from the invading armies of Babylon. So God says in verse 4, You have chosen to worship me, just as you have chosen to worship me with false worship. So, he says, I will choose their punishments and bring their fears on them. Because when I called, no one answered. When I spoke, they did not listen. But they did evil before my eyes and chose that in which I do not delight. Friends, the debased mixture of Jehovah worship with idol worship that delighted them revolted and repulsed God. I say again, God is not concerned just with acts of worship, but with the attitude of every worshipper. But on this one will I look, says God, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. And the word contrite there literally means broken or crippled in spirit, handicapped, spiritually enabled to do what God wants them to do. I will look kindly, says God, on the heart of the man or the woman who is conscious of their spiritual poverty and of their utter inability to please me in this state of sin, who trembles at my word because he recognizes his need to obey it, but he knows that without my help he cannot do so. On this one, says God, I will look. True worship, I say, puts its emphasis not on religious activity, but on the attitude of the worshippers to God and to His Word. And you know, we are always in danger of forgetting this. Most of the mainline Protestant churches have gone over to liberalism and the social gospel in this very way. arrogantly denying the inerrancy of the Word of God, they claim that Christian doctrine is not important, and that our prime duty in the world is not to convert it, but to improve it. We build the kingdom of God on earth, they say, by feeding the hungry, building homes for the poor, educating the illiterate, healing the sick, and doing away with all oppression and injustice. Now, of course, these are good causes, but they are not the main thing God is looking for in his people. The person God blesses, says Jesus in the Beatitudes, is the person who is poor in spirit, the person who mourns over his or her sin, who is meek and hungers and thirsts after righteousness. God's primary concern, you see, is with our spiritual attitude to Him and to His Word. And so religious acts of worship today, like tithing, or fasting, or preaching, if they are divorced from a humble and dependent spirit upon God, are repulsive to Him. He will not accept them, however costly they may be in terms of time, or in money, or in energy. Now, isn't that what Jesus himself says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount? There were people who were serving him, and he says, On the last day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Friends, a true Christian never prides themselves in what they do for God. Rather, a Christian, a true Christian, speaks as Thomas Hooker, the Puritan, spoke when he was dying. And a dear friend, trying to cheer him, said, Sir, you are going to your reward. Oh no, said the old Puritan, I'm going to receive mercy. John Wesley, when he was dying, wished that his epitaph would read, Here goes an unprofitable servant. On this one will I look, says the Lord, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Well, that's the first thing we want to notice. The false worshipper is completely taken up with his or her works for God, whether religious or social. But works are not the things that God looks for in the first place. Indeed, says God, when people concentrate on beautiful buildings and outward ceremonies and social programs, this is how I look on them. Verse 3. He who kills a bull is as abominable as he who slays a man, who offers a human sacrifice. He who sacrifices a lamb is like he who breaks a dog's neck, that is, offers an unwanted sacrifice. And he who offers a grain offering is no better than he who offers swine's blood. He who burns incense is just as repugnant as he who blesses an idol. In other words, all worship divorced from a spirit that trembles in submission to the Word of God is as sinful as murder, as worthless as breaking a dog's neck, and as unacceptable as blessing an idol. Those are strong words. Our humble submission to God's Word, friends, is the key to forming, controlling our whole relationship to God. Which brings me secondly to say false worshippers do not value God's Word above all else. The very people who in Isaiah's day were so diligent in the offering of these religious sacrifices to God were those who at the same time did not have a very high regard for God's Word. The Bible was of secondary importance in their religion and that has inevitably been true of everyone whose religion is merely formal. They are attracted to the externals of biblical religion and the false comfort that you can derive from going to God's house and becoming engaged in the worship, while all the time there is no reverence and submission to God and His Word. And so, I want you to notice we read in Isaiah 22, and in that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and for mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth, but instead there was joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. The people to whom the word of God came by Isaiah were those who were unmoved by God's call to repentance and preoccupied instead with food and drink and enjoying themselves. Indeed, you know, about fifty years after the death of the prophet Isaiah, we read that the word of God had become so neglected that it was lost in some archive of the temple. It was forgotten and nobody missed it. But in the 18th year of King Josiah, scripture says, the word of God was rediscovered. And when it was read to King Josiah, the Bible says, he tore his clothes and wept before God. But you know, the great majority of the people of Judah continued to be unmoved by the truth of God's Word. They disregarded God's warnings in Isaiah and Hosea and Jeremiah that God would soon destroy Jerusalem and its temple. And you and I, my friends, can likewise know the reality of our religion by the place that God's Word has in it. Do we give much time to reading the Bible? Does it convict us of our shortcomings? Make us feel how imperfect we are? What a long way we still have to go to become like Jesus Christ. Do we tremble before its requirements? Does it create a hunger for righteousness? If we cannot answer those questions in the affirmative, then we have a religion that is not the religion of the people of God. For the people of God, I say, prize God's Word above everything else. I think now of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish preacher of the 19th century. He laboured for the first seven years of his ministry in Edinburgh as a man who was not converted. Of course, at the time, he didn't realise he was not a Christian, and he went and did all of the duties required of a parish minister. But the truth was that, because he was so brilliant, most of the time was engaged in literary pursuits. And when it came to the weekend, he would quickly put together a few thoughts for the pulpit. But an old saintly elder in that Presbyterian church who understood what a minister should be doing during the week was always pained when he visited his minister and saw that he wasn't reading the Bible. And in the year 1810, This brilliant young minister became convicted of his sin. He began to see himself in all his unworthiness and repented of his unbelief. And a few months later, the elder was coming around again and said to him, Mr. Chalmers, before when I came to your study, I never saw you reading your Bible. But now when I come, it seems as though you read nothing else. To which Thomas Chalmers replied, all too little, John, all too little. That's how a true Christian feels. Our love for scripture, because it is God's word, is all too little. We've come to see that a man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And our soul feeds hungrily upon that word. God's word stands supreme in our affections. We prize it above everything else. It is our rule for faith and conduct. The thing we fear most is to go against its precepts. Which brings me to the third lesson in this passage. The reason why all people should tremble at God's word. And the reason is given here in verse 1. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. That is to say, scripture is nothing less than the word of the living God, the creator and the sustainer of all things, whose majesty and glory fills the heavens, and the earth is just a stool on which to rest his feet. His hand, verse 2, notice, has made everything and nothing exists that does not owe its existence to him. And therefore, He is a God who cares for His creation. And so, when man rebelled at the beginning, God did not abandon mankind. God spoke to Adam, and God continues to speak to mankind today. He speaks first through creation, making us aware of His presence and of His power. Secondly, he speaks to us through our conscience, convicting us of our sin. But supremely, you know, God speaks to us through his own written, infallible word, calling us to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the reason why verse 1 begins, Thus says the Lord. Isaiah is not his own spokesperson. These are not his words. And so when God says to him in chapter 40, cry out, he asks God, well, what shall I cry? And God says, preach my word. For all flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Preach my word. And you know, God communicated his word to all of his servants. In 2 Samuel 23 we read, These are the last words of David, the sweet singer of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue. Again, God says, we read, to Moses, to Ezekiel and all the other prophets, you shall speak all that I command you. And as we read the Gospels, we hear the same thing. Jesus says, he whom God has sent speaks the word of God. And again, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. Indeed, when the Son of God spoke, sin and death were put to flight. You will remember when four men made a hole in the roof of a house to let down their paralyzed friend. Jesus was speaking in the house, and through that hole they lowered their friend for Jesus to heal. And what did our Lord say to him? He said, your sins are forgiven you." And the Pharisees were furious, saying, who can forgive sins but God alone? And Jesus replied, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or arise, take up your bed and walk? But Jesus said to them, that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he turned to the paralytic and he said, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and walk. And when the man walked, everyone knew that the Son of God has power to forgive sins. Then again, when he stood at the grave of Lazarus, you will remember Lazarus had been dead for four days, and Jesus called him back again to life. Luke says, John says rather, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And in that moment everybody knew. that the word of Jesus had power to raise the dead. And that's why we should tremble. I'm so glad all of the songs were chosen as they were today, and particularly the last one before this message. And the reading from Hebrews 4, which tells us that the word of God is living and powerful. so powerful that Peter says in his first epistle that Christians have been born again through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Those who do not tremble at God's word are surely ignorant of the God who spoke all the worlds into existence and still speaks through his word today. Oh, he may have to use things like bereavement or sickness or financial misfortune to get our attention and to show us how sinful and needy we are. But when God gets our attention, that word which was previously dull and uninteresting becomes to us life and joy and peace, and gives us faith to believe in Christ and serve Him from the heart. And then finally, the serious consequences that flow from regarding God's word lightly. When verse 2 says, on this one will I look, it means, as I have already pointed out, on this one will I look with favor and blessing. Conversely, however, there is no favour, there is no blessing, there is no acceptance for those who will not submit to God and tremble at His word, who hate and mock those who oppose their liberal and sinful innovations. And they say to evangelical conservative Christians, verse 5, let Jehovah be glorified by your simple faith. by taking the word of God so seriously, so that we may see your joy. The false worshippers, you see, were hedging their bets. against an invasion by Babylon, because they were seeking the favour and the support of Syria and its gods. And in scornful mockery they were saying to the evangelical Christians or believers of that day, as long as Jerusalem is safe, we will repudiate your beliefs and your criticism and we will have nothing to do with you. But God says, it is they who will be put to shame. Just as they have chosen their own ways, so I will choose their punishments and bring their fears on them. Because when I spoke, they did not listen. They did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not delight. When people lose their fear and their reverence for God's Word, they soon lose their fear and reverence for God and for disobeying God. And friends, I urge us this morning, let's learn this lesson from the churches that have gone completely liberal. Because the rot began in the fifties with denying the absolute authority of God's Word and the battle for the Bible heated up. It began when church members no longer feared questioning and doubting the Word of God. And so when it was suggested that women should be appointed as preachers in the church in violation of the Word of God, no one thought that it was a serious offence. And then, once the churches got used to that, there was no fear of admitting practicing homosexuals, not only into the membership of the church, but into the ordained ministry of the church. And now, liberal churches, who were silent when Roe vs. Wade came into being, have no hesitation in supporting the slaughter of 1.5 million helpless babies in their mothers' wombs every year. Does God delight in the worship of such churchgoers? I don't think so. Isaiah says they are just like the worshippers described in verse 3, whose sacrifice of a bull to God was as offensive as human sacrifice. Friends, when people do not tremble at God's Word, all restraint upon sin goes until even human life is no longer sacred. The unborn are killed, and be infirmed or euthanized. So let me ask in closing, are you, am I, one who trembles at God's Word? When we open our Bible every morning, as we should, are we contrite in spirit because we sense and feel our weakness, our feebleness, in obeying God's Word as we should obey it? Do we humbly pray for pardon for the commandments we have broken? Do we beg earnestly for the Spirit's power to keep God's Word? If that is our religion, beloved, let me say the Lord will look on you and me favorably for the rest of our lives. until he brings us safe at last to the new heavens and the new earth, mentioned in verse 22. If we are not among those who tremble at God's word, if we are still thinking about becoming one of God's people, becoming a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you this morning to repent of your rebellion and your pride, to cast yourself upon God's mercy and ask Him to make you a poor and a contrite believer today. For God's own Son has given you the assurance, truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes on Him who sent me has everlasting life. and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Let's pray. Our gracious God and Father, whenever we sit under your word, whenever we read it each morning, there is nothing else but us to be humble and contrite and to tremble before you because of all our inability to obey the Word of God as we should. And Jesus told us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments, we will obey Your Word. Thou, Father, we ask that you will have mercy upon the church today, which in so many places disregards and ignores your holy word, choosing their own kind of worship. Give us, we pray, a true love and reverence for the Bible that will prize it above everything else and meditate in its pages night and day, for it is only through the prayerful reading of that word, that we can draw nearer to you and grow more in our love for you. We pray, our Father, that your word today will increase and strengthen our reverent submission to the word. For by your precepts, your servants are warned and in keeping them there is great reward. Hear our prayer, Father. Have mercy upon us for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. Amen.