Good afternoon. If you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 66? And we will find our text basically in the second verse, but I'll read the first six verses for context. And I'd like to set for you this afternoon the subject, the one to whom I will look. And the Bible declares, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
What is the house that you would build for me? And what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made. And so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
He who slaughters and oxes like one who kills a man. He who sacrifices a lamb like one who breaks a dog's neck. He who presents a grain offering like the one who offers pig's blood, he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense like the one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered.
When I spoke, they did not listen. But they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my namesake have said, let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy, but it is they who will be put to shame. The sound of an uproar from the city, a sound from the temple, the sound of the Lord rendering recompense to his enemies.
Our primary text, just one more time, back to verse two, please. All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Let's pray. Gracious God, great Father, Lord of heaven and earth, he who spoke and the universe leaped into existence, beginning and end, first and last, King of kings, Lord of lords, Master, we humbly beseech you to, to cause the impossible to happen, to cause a sinful man to preach your perfect word to sinful people and they both be changed.
Only you have the power to do that. And so we say, Spirit of God, come, do what thou wilt for your own glory. We want to be people to whom you look. In Jesus' name we offer this prayer. Amen.
Please be seated. I would like to pose just a few questions to you to kind of get the juices flowing and hopefully you had a nice lunch and Glad to be back. And I want you to think about these questions as we progress through the message because what we don't want to happen is for us to come and exalt the virtues of the fear of God and we not see the practical day-to-day holiness, the changes that God wants to institute in our lives as we grow in the fear of God. So by way of a couple of questions, I want you to think these through, even as we walk through our time together. Question number one is this.
When you read the Word of God, do you tremble? Are you moved by the Word of God when it is read, or as is often the case, have you allowed, I know I'm certainly guilty of this, have you allowed rote and tradition and day-to-day living to erode a sense of awe and grandeur when the Word of God is being studied and read. So the first question is, do you tremble when you read it? Are you moved when it is read? Question two, when you find yourself in opposition to the word of the Lord, does that particular revelation move you at all?
In other words, what is your response when a passage of scripture is read either in your personal devotions or from the pulpit or maybe instruction from your parents? But what is your reaction when you, when the Word of God is read and you hear the words of the King and you find yourself opposed or in opposition to what is being read, Is it an immediate sense of sorrow? Do you long almost instantaneously to be moved closer to the plan of God? Or again, as is all too often the case in the modern church, do we just chalk it up to grace that God is merciful and I don't really have to worry about this precept? Question three, what happens, friends, to a church that loses its ability to fear God.
What happens to the local church and indeed the church when we lose our ability to fear God, when God can speak to us and we are so smart that we actually think we know better than what God has said. What happens to that organization? What happens to that organism? What happens to that church? Question four, what happens to a people who are unmoved by the precepts of the King of Kings?
What happens, whether it's a family or a nation, what happens to a nation when the word of God can be read in power and in accuracy and it's barely a blip on our personal radars? And lastly, What happens to leaders in any sphere when they are no longer able to tremble when God speaks? This is my task and my text today to, in the vein of this conference, which by the way has been so unified in thought up until this point and I think you'll find it to continue to be so, my task is to speak to your hearts about This inability we have embedded in us in our sin nature to be unmoved when God talks to us. This sad testimony of a people who can study the word of God so often and sing great songs of Zion, and then God moves us to a scripture that we may not necessarily like, and we freeze, and we're unmoved, and we can't get past it, And we say something like, well, you know, God knows my heart. I guess it's going to be OK.
And just to make sure that you all are with me, because you all are looking at me like I have two heads right now, Raise your hands if you can think of at least one passage of Scripture that you struggle with. Let me see your hands. One passage of Scripture where if you would, if you could skip it in your daily devotions you'd skip it. Okay, so that's most of you, so at least we're being honest. Yes, friends, this is the problem that we all have, and I submit that this problem, this loss of holy love and reverence and fear is rampant in the modern church as in the days of Isaiah.
So I have pretty much a singular proposition for you today that we'll try to unpack in the next few moments. And I'll say it twice. If we don't learn to tremble at his word, we will lose the will to immediately, radically, and lovingly adjust our lives to scripture, especially when the scripture is contrary to our desires. Say it one more time. If we Don't learn to tremble at his word.
We will lose the ability because of the deadening effect of our sin nature, of our consciousness becoming seared when the law of God is read and it doesn't move us. We'll lose the ability slowly, maybe even imperceptibly, but surely we will lose the ability to immediately radically and lovingly adjust our lives to Scripture especially when the Scripture is contrary to our desires. This right now is absolute this this mindset that I'm describing right now is absolutely rampant in the modern church. There's no other way to describe the degradation of the church than a loss, almost total loss of the fear of God. There is no way that from Christian pulpits we ought to be preaching that two men should marry.
There is no way that from a Christian pulpit we ought to be preaching that two women should be married. There's no way that from Christian pulpits we're having to discuss whether or not It's okay for a man to use the women's restroom. There is no way that from Christian pulpits we are inaugurating the kinds of church leaders that God clearly has decided that he does not want. And so this loss of the fear of God, this loss of the ability to tremble, is evident by our lack of fruit, by the casual way in which we read, hear, and attempt to do what God has commanded that in some cases, we not only refuse to obey, but actually celebrate the refusal. We've come a long way from the humble contrite people that God moves towards.
Could it be that one of the reasons why we struggle with the thought of revival and certainly in seeing revival is because when God speaks we're not moved? In our circles we are people of the book and we are very smart and we're very informed, but friends I have come to understand that sometimes we're a little bit too smart for our own good. Sometimes it doesn't require a 32 page dissertation to describe why one plus one equals two. We just need to say it's two and then do what God has commanded. And I believe that revival is limited in our day because the people of God truly, simply won't do in certain cases and in certain areas what he has said And hopefully I'll make that case as we go forward a little bit more.
Now as we look at our text, as we look at Isaiah, William McDonald describes These opening verses of chapter 66 like this, he writes, the opening words of the last chapter of Isaiah were written to the unrepentant people of Israel. They need not think that in that unrepentant condition, they can please God by building a temple for him. After all, he is the universal creator and owner enthroned in heaven with the very earth itself as his footstool. The dwelling place that he requires and desires is in the heart of a person who is humble and contrite and who trembles at his word. Does that apply to us today, you think?
Despite the buildings we build and despite our worship practices, could it be that what God is actually looking for does not manifest at first on the outside, but what that manifests at first on the inside, and then what we do on the outside is an expression of changed hearts? Could it be that the God of heaven and earth wants more from us than form or ritual, but he's after hearts that beat and tremble for his commandments? William McDonald goes on to say, as he considers the next couple of verses, he says that those who are impenitent offend God by their religious observances. When divorced from practical holiness, their sacrifices and offerings are crimes and abominations. They can choose their hypocritical ways, but they cannot choose the consequences.
God will do that. Those who refuse his call to repentance and who go on in his ways that he hates will taste his wrath. And in the last couple of verses we read, just for context, verses five and verse number six, I think it's very interesting that the people who trembled at the Word of God were persecuted by the people who didn't. McDonald writes, those faithful God-fearing Jews who trembled at his word will be persecuted by their own brethren. They are so confused, friends, in their false worship and arrogance that they actually speak as if they're doing God a service by persecuting the people who are actually listening and trembling at the word of God.
I'm sure some of you may have even experienced that in your life where you moved to obey the commandments of God and you didn't get a party thrown for you by your friends and relatives. Some people look at you and said, what in the world are you doing? Well, that's almost to be expected. It's sad, but it's almost to be expected. In his commentaries on these verses, John Calvin writes this.
He says, the prophet, Isaiah, refutes the false opinion which men form about the worship of God by thinking that sacrifices and outward ceremonies are of great value in themselves. For the state of the question is this, God cares nothing about ceremonies, but they are empty and useless masks when men think that they satisfy God by means of them. He says, when he says that he made all these things, this must not be understood as referring solely to the temple but to all that were there offered to God now he says that he made all these things in order that men may know that God has no need of this external worship, as he declares in Psalm 50 and 10, that all the animals were created by him and are his own, though by sacrifices of them the Jews hope to obtain his favor. But foolish mortals have this disease deeply seated in them that they transform God, listen, according to their inclination. Though he appointed external worship, not for his sake, but for our advantage.
That is, that we might be trained by it according to the capacity of our flesh. We have similar problems today where we're deceived so often into thinking that our rituals will obtain favor from God, when in fact what God is actually looking for is a heart beneath the ordinances, heart beneath the tradition, the heart beneath the songs, And in our case, the heart beneath the homeschooling, the heart beneath the modesty, the heart beneath strong elder-led churches and regulated worship, the heart beneath our understanding of the doctrines of grace. So our focus is on this phrase which I hope to get to the heart with, but this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Again, Calvin writes this, he says, so far as it relates to trembling.
One, it might be thought strange at first sight that he demands it in believers, since nothing is more sweet, there's that word again, sweet or gentle than the word of the Lord, and nothing is more opposite to it than to excite terror. I reply, there are two kinds of trembling, one by which they are terrified, who hate and flee from God, and another which affects the heart, affects the heart and promotes the obedience of those who reverence and fear God. Hence, infer that true godliness consists in having our senses, I love this phrase, brought into a state of obedience to God and in making no boastful or wicked claims for ourselves. The nature of faith is to yield obedience to God and to listen to him attentively and patiently when he speaks. But when we're puffed up and carried away by vain confidence in ourselves, we have no piety or fear of God, for we cannot make even the smallest claim for ourselves without despising God.
Friends, I submit to you that it is the consistent testimony of scripture that our God loves humility and hates pride. He adores self-abasement and detests self-exaltation in his creatures. The references in Scripture are ubiquitous. Isaiah 57 and 15 declares, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
And so he moves towards the contrite to bless them and to encourage them and to revive them. Psalm 34 and 18 says, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted. He moves near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Obviously, if he saves the crushed in spirit, he knew that you needed saving. He looks upon those who are brokenhearted and tremble at his word.
Very familiar passage of Scripture, Psalm 51 and 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Jesus declared, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
In 2 Kings 22, after the book of the law was found, God sent word to a broken and trembling King Josiah. The Bible says in 2 Kings 22 and 18, But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord thus shall you say to him thus says the Lord the God of Israel regarding the words that you have heard because your heart was penitent. And you humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me. I also have heard you, declares the Lord.
May I interject a quick question? When was the last time you wept before the Lord? See, my fear in our gatherings and in other gatherings that I'm a part of where we are very studious and we know a lot and we write a lot of books, is that somehow, in some way, we were so smart and so intelligent that we lose our ability to be penitent before the Lord, to see ourselves in our right state as just humble creatures, wicked and sinful, with no hope and no chance, without the blood of Jesus laid to our account. When was the last time your own sin simply broke you and you wept before the Lord? Oh, we know there's lots of joy, don't get me wrong.
But Scott gave me Isaiah this year. So when was the last time you wept before the Lord? It goes on, the Lord says, therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. And they brought back that word to the king. And so King Josiah, because of his trembling before the word of the Lord, God saw, God moved, God blessed him.
Judgment still fell, but Josiah was spared the sight of it. The point is this, God looks upon the broken. God, there is something in the character and the nature of our all-powerful, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipresent God wherein he delights in broken hearts. We see it in our daily lives. We see the principle that I'm probably failing to unpack but trying to unpack.
We see it in our daily living. By show of hands, how many of you have children? How many of you are absolutely delighted when they move quickly when you speak to them? Some of you can't even raise your hands because you're still waiting for it to happen. But you know, it's an amazing thing where all you have to say is, little Johnny or little Faith or little whoever, go and do such and such, and you hear, yes, Mother, yes, Father, I'm moving right now, and what would you like me to do after that?
You're thinking I'm taking you out for ice cream, right? You're blown away. You're delighted. You're thinking my goodness. They're listening.
They're appreciative. They see my love for them. Something's... They're not on drums. Okay, no, no.
They're listening. They're looking. They understand. And you start devising ways to bless them. And many of the parents in the building are elbowing their children, they're going, listen to that right there.
That's what I've been trying to tell you. But God looks upon the broken. He not only observes them, But we see in Isaiah and we see in other places in Scripture that he moves towards them, to aid them, and to help them. The Hebrew word for look in our primary text, Isaiah 66 and 2, is the word Nabat, and it literally means to look intently at and by implication to regard with pleasure. Listen to that.
To regard with pleasure, favor, care. A father who looks at an obedient child, not a perfect child, okay, but an obedient child who moves quickly to surrender his own will to the will of his father or to surrender his own will to the will of his mother. And the look that you give that baby at that moment, or that teenager at that moment, or whoever, or that young person at that moment is a look of love, and a look of care, and a look of appreciation, and maybe even, in a good way, a look of pride. Wow, look at you growing up. Look at you.
Look at how quickly you're responding. And everything seems right in that moment. It's what we want from God. It's what I want from God. Oh, don't get me wrong, dear friends, I'm grateful for His grace because I blow it a lot and I'm so thankful that His grace catches me when I fall.
It's not an excuse to continue to sin, but rather he catches me with grace and love and mercy when I stumble and fall. But what I desire in my heart of hearts and what I want to grow more into is a desire to move quickly when he speaks, to not do what James talked about in James chapter 4, judging his law as if I know better, but rather I want to be the one who hears it and immediately moves. Because I love him, because he's God, because he's mighty to save, because he sent his son to die for my sin. Who am I but a pitiful, poor creature who was chosen by a love that I can't completely understand. And so when he speaks, son, I want you to do this.
I want my inner being to cry out, yes, sir, yes, Lord, yes, master. And when my flesh rises up and says, well, I can give you five reasons that may not be what the Bible says. We'll talk about that too here today. Because some of our, I mean, wouldn't it a shame that we could take something so wonderful like sound exegesis and the principles of hermeneutics, and then sometimes even in our flesh, twist them to not do what God has clearly said do. God looks upon the broken.
He observes them, he moves towards them to aid them. And again, this is the testimony of the word. I referenced James a minute ago, but here's another one from James, another thought from James. James chapter four, verse six says, but he gives more grace, therefore it says, God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Matthew Henry wrote on that very verse, James 4.6, that it signifies God setting himself in battle array against the proud, against those who won't tremble.
Get that. It's as if God is setting himself, listen to the words that Brother Henry uses, in battle array against the proud. He continues, can there be a greater disgrace than for God to proclaim a man a rebel, an enemy, a traitor to his crown and dignity and to proceed against him as such. The proud resists God in his understanding, he resists the truths of God. In his will, he resists the truths of God.
In his will, he resists the laws of God. In his passion, he resists the providence of God. And therefore, no wonder that God sets himself against the proud. Let proud spirits hear this and tremble. God resists them.
That's what we see in the day of Isaiah where there may have been elaborate rituals going on and plans for beautification for temples and so forth and God wasn't having any of it. He said I own all of this, all of this belongs to me. You can't build a building pretty enough to impress me. You can't design robes nice enough to move me toward you. I gave you those things more for you than for me.
What I'm really looking for is someone who will tremble when I speak. In other words, someone who will love me so much that they won't allow their interpretation of Scripture to become a fancy way to disobey. By contrast, again, our text paints a picture of the heart of God wherein he desires and approves of a certain posture in his people, one of contrite-ness over sin and one of holy fear wherein we tremble when he speaks. So what does it mean then as we... Our goal is to maintain a focus really in verse 2, because it's just so much in there that we can talk about, but it's so critical to maintaining the fear of God and to understanding the fear of God.
What does it mean to tremble? I mean, is he talking about we're literally shaking? Well, the word in Hebrew for tremble, chade, literally means, Don't ask me to say that again in the way a Hebrew person would say it. It literally means to be fearful and also to be reverential towards. So it's not literal shaking.
It's not the ungodly kind of fear that has been discussed in this conference, but rather it is an extreme form of reverence whereby our hearts talks to our minds and our mind talks to our bodies and we move quickly, simply because it's God. When I was growing up in church, we had a saying, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. As I got a little more mature, I took out the I believe it part. God said it. That settles it.
Because regardless of my feelings on it, if I believe that Scripture is sufficient, the answer has already been given. We tremble when he speaks to us because we love him and he loves us and he desires to move towards us. So as a quick aside, All of us are in some way most likely looking out at this nation that most of us love, some of us served and did other things. This nation that we don't make an idol of, but we love the country that we live and we're glad that we live here. And for many of us, it's been heartbreaking to see this increasing and ridiculous slide into immorality.
And I've often said, with some 300, 000 churches, How in the world can we allow this to happen? Why are we so ineffective? Well, I heard a brother in prayer today say, judgment starts in the house of God. And I just wondered that if God can speak to us and give us clear direction, and we go to Google and figure out why we don't have to do it, then what chance do we really have to operate in the kind of Holy Ghost power to see transformation in the land. Not much, not much of a chance.
This word for tremble comes from a root word that means to shudder, hence to fear. Also, to hasten with anxiety, to make afraid, to be careful, to fray, to tremble. And in context, again, it has to do with the heart of man moving quickly when God speaks. Indeed, I believe the fear of the Lord is essentially a trembling. It is the love, the reverence, the awe, the passion that prompt the believer to obey God, okay?
Which is why it's absolutely essential that we have it and that we grow in it. How much of the modern church is about God loving us and God having a blessing for us and prosperity, prosperity, prosperity, prosperity. But then when it's time for us to do what God has actually said, we're able to, in our sinfulness and in our wickedness, figure out a way that what he's clearly designed for us we don't like, and he's going to be okay with that. And I've seen this time after time after time after time again in the church. Okay, well, here's God's loving plan for us, and I'm in my pulpit.
How many of you would agree that God loves us? Amen. How many of you would agree that God's word is sufficient and inspired and infallible? Amen. How many of you would agree that God's plan is best?
Amen. Okay, now let's do what this verse says. Crickets. Sure. Well, brother, I think we need to take another look at that.
I think that essentially when God said that that was in a different day and a different era. Now as we look at this passage and away we go into our disobedience, although it sounds good. And I'm so afraid of that, I'm so afraid of being smarter than God. Oh, Lord, just let me be a simple preacher and a simple man who will just see it and do it. And if I get to heaven and I'm guilty of too much zeal, I think I'm going to be okay.
The fear of God, this ability to tremble when he speaks as it manifests, as we look at the word of God, is a necessary characteristic of Christian discipleship where total obedience to the commands of Christ, listen, is seen as a loving response to a loving God. And so often in churches when we're saying obey and obedience and so forth, you know, it just feels so Debbie Downer. But the truth of the matter is it's a loving response. Listen, friends, we ought to be picking up our Bibles going, okay, not how can I disobey this or how can I circumvent this, but how can I do this? What is the how can I don't want to get around it, Lord show me how to walk in it?
Because your word is perfect. The scriptures are clean and pure. The double-edged sword that divides the spirit and bone and marrow. Your word is sufficient, breathed out by you, profitable for doctrine and reproof and training and correction. Oh, let me do it.
Let me do it, God. Let me tremble. Pastors in the building, How different would your marriage counseling be if you had a husband and a wife who feared God? And let's say they're having a quick blurb, a quick problem, and you come into your office, Pastor, we really need us some counseling because something's going on here. Okay, So they come in and you go, oh, you fear God?
Yes, you fear God? Yes, you love God? Yes, you love God? Yes. The Bible says this, this, this, and this.
Wow, pastor, I find myself out of alignment with that. You know, honey, I find myself out of alignment with that too. You know, sweetie, we just need to go do that. Thanks, pastor. And amen.
See you Sunday. But normally, most of counseling is trying to convince people to fear God. We never actually get to, you know, well the Bible says this, well I know it says that but, and I know it says that but, and that was a different day, and this ain't 1950. And so we're exhausted because man can't give man another man the fear of God. The couple is exhausted because, I went to see our pastor, he didn't do any good.
All he did was read Scripture. Well, that's all he can do. You know, this word for tremble is used in other places in Scripture, and there are other words used as well. A great example that comes to mind is Ezra 9 and 4, when the people of God decided to intermarry with pagans, something our dear brother, Jeff Pollard was talking about earlier today about being unequally yoked. Ezra 9 and 1 kind of lays out the narrative this way.
It says, after those things had been done, the officials approached me and said, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites, but they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and their sons so that the holy race has mixed itself with peoples of the land. And in this faithlessness, the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost." In other words, the leaders were doing it too. And as soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled my hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. Verse, Ezra 9-4 says, then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles gathered around me while I sat appalled to the evening sacrifice. He knew that the people were out of alignment with the word of God.
They did not move towards it, but moved away from it. There was no trembling, and so he trembled himself. There are, again, additional words used throughout scripture to communicate this posture of trembling, the one that God moved towards, and that's what we want. We want him to move towards us. We want him to look upon us with care and love.
Don't get me wrong, he does that anyway because he's merciful, but when it comes to those of us who want to love him back appropriately. We want him to be pleased with our living. So there are other words that the Bible uses to describe this posture that I'm attempting to describe. Psalms 119 and 161 says, princes, persecute me without cause but my heart stands in awe of your words." Indeed, Psalm 119 is a case study of what it means to tremble at the word of God. Psalm 119 and 48 says, I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
Verse 127 says, therefore, I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Verse 72, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Verse 111, your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. Oh, I love that. Verse 15, I will meditate upon your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
Verse 16, I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. And by way of a negative contrast, there are many examples in Scripture of both people fearing God and trembling before him and people not. But I was, in studying for this message, I was struck by one particular example in the book of the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 36 where King Jehoiakim did something that would seem untenable to us and yet I think in spirit we're guilty as well. Jeremiah 36 and 1 says in the fourth year of Joiachim the son of Joash or Josiah rather, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today, so it may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them so that everyone may turn from his evil way and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord that he had spoken to him. Well, eventually, if we fast forward in the narrative, the king did receive Jeremiah's words. And if we look at verse 21 of Jeremiah 36, the Bible declares, Then the King sent Jehudi to get the scroll and he took it from the chamber of Alishama the secretary and Jehudi read it to the King and to all the officials who stood beside the King and it was the ninth month and the King was sitting in the winter house and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him.
As Jehudi read three or four columns, listen, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot until the entire scroll, i.e. The word of the Lord, was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Sad verse, verse 24 says, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments. What arrogance must it take for a king in Israel, a king in Judah, a king that represents the people of God, to have the word of God come to him. And because he doesn't like what's being said by the Lord of hosts through the prophet, He literally destroys the words.
That is about as opposite a mindset to trembling, to being the one to whom God will look in a good way, as I could find in the Bible, other than maybe Satan himself. Oh, friends, let us not walk in the spirit of Jehiaakim, where God speaks to us, and because it's uncomfortable, or because it's countercultural, or because it might even be counter to the culture in our church, we in the Spirit cut the words off and throw them in a fire pot, not afraid, no garments torn. Far from trembling, Frankly, there are words in scripture where the modern church simply wants to cut them out and throw them in a fire pot. Again, like James warned, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one law giver and judge he who is able to save and to destroy.
To refuse to tremble is to be like those in the days of Ezekiel who said, or who rather talked together about him by the walls and at the doors of the houses and said to one another, each to his brother, come and let's hear the word that comes from the Lord. And they went to him as people do, and they sat before him as God's people, and they heard what he said, but they did not do it. For with lustful talk in their mouths, they acted. Their heart was set on their gain. Money and worldly things were more important.
And behold, the prophet was to them like one who sang lustful songs with a beautiful voice and played well on an instrument for they heard what was said but they would not do it. Let us not be the kinds of people who name the name of Christ, who have been redeemed by Christ, who have walked in the blessings of Christ, who have been blood bought by Christ, that when Christ speaks to us, we cut the words and throw them in the fire pot. Or we say, that's a nice tune you're singing there, preacher, but I'm still not going to tremble. Truly, the level of our current sin and disobedience is frightening. There are commands that we literally disavow, precepts we detest, statutes we blaspheme.
I'll say this because Brother Jeff mentioned that he had said some things that would require some study. Well, I'm going in with him. I think all of us worship imperfectly because we're sinful. How many of you would agree? But has anyone else noticed that there are parts of the New Testament that we act like don't even exist?
Has anyone noticed that the didactic, you know, for the church, the epistles, there are things in them that we like, literally like one half of the chapter and not the other? Where we'll preach, 1 Corinthians 14 is a great example. Brother Jefferson, 1 Corinthians. I've got my 1 Corinthians battle scars. But chapter 14 is a great example.
The Bottom half of that chapter we like. Doctrine, boom, do it, we're gonna do it, bang. Yep, that's what the Bible's about. Top half of that chapter, not so much. No one deal with it.
Here's my 32 page dissertation as to why it doesn't apply. And I simply would say to you, be careful. We don't know better than God. Be careful that we don't put God in our own little theological box and that he is no longer able to move in his churches the way he literally has laid down in scripture. Be careful.
We do that. Chapter 11's another one. Last half of chapter 11, doctrine. Bang, bang, bang. Gonna do it.
First half, not so much. Did he just say that? I sure did. We all have blind spots here, all of us. And it's easy for me to maybe point out a few, but you guys could probably look at me and go, yeah, and I can see a few here, blah, blah, blah, and I'd have to go, yeah, I mean, yeah.
I miss that, I miss this, I miss that, I miss that. That's why we need each other, okay? And so the casual way that we read scripture and judge the precepts of God, judge the precepts of God, that sounds crazy even coming out of my mouth, but we literally do that. That's not trembling. Trembling is, Lord, here's my current understanding in God.
But you know, Lord, if I'm missing this somehow, never let me become so arrogant that unless you agree with my doctrinal statement, then I don't want to, I'm not even going to worry about it anymore. But rather, we're always reforming. We're always coming to a fuller knowledge of Jesus Christ and his church. OK? So have mercy on us, Lord.
Because even as I'm talking to you, there are areas that I've seen in myself that I'm like, Lord, I didn't tremble there at all. I just went and did my own little thing and used some spiritual language to cover it up. And how many of you know we can do that? We can use spiritual language to cover it up. Yeah, we can.
We can. And so how does one learn to tremble? Well, I told you before this conference has been so unified as I'm listening to other men preach, I'm going, that's exactly what I have written down. That's exactly what I...because this will sound very familiar to you. There are three quick ways that I think, and I literally would do them very fast, that we can learn to tremble.
The first one is recapture our awe of God. You've already heard that. Second one, cultivate humility before God. You've already heard that. And third, consider the coming judgment of God and you've already heard that.
And so maybe God's talking to us in a very uniform way. First of all, recapture our all of God. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. There's this part of who he is that we don't want to forget. So much of the church sees Jesus primarily as a meter of needs because that's the way we've been taught in our attempt to present Jesus as friendly and user-friendly in the modern culture, maybe we've inadvertently dumbed down His Majesty and His Holiness.
He's become small in our vision, our buddy and our pal, to the exclusion of being King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So in our homes and churches, maybe we need to preach again on the attributes of God, His omniscience and omnipresence, His eternal nature and His sovereignty. Maybe we need to do that. Maybe we need to lift up the immensity of the gospel and the authority of Jesus as mighty to save so that, yes, I'm so glad he's my friend, but I must never forget that he's my Lord. And when he speaks, it's incumbent upon me to quickly bow the knee, bow my head, as if royalty.
I mean, have you ever thought that we treat human dignitaries sometimes better than God? Right now, if those back doors open and some king or a president or something like that walked in the room, you know, hello everybody, you know. That was my best President Obama, I can't. I try to do a Trump, but never mind. But we would be, you know, people would pull out Never mind.
But wait a minute, people would pull out their cell phones And Scott would have a fit. Put your cell phones down. You know. But then God speaks and it's kind of, yeah, that's what it says, all right. That's what it says.
I need to go home and check 57 commentaries before I'll even think about obeying that one. Wow, how do we get there? Number two, cultivate humility before God. Scripture declares in Psalm 18 and 27, for you save a humble people but the haughty eyes you bring down. Oh, I don't want that.
I want him to look at me with pleasure. And so let us look at ways to cultivate humility. Andrew Murray wrote, and I'm almost finished, that the life of saved ones, of the saints, who must knees bear this stamp of deliverance from sin and full restoration to the original state, their whole relation to God and man marked by an all-pervading humility. I believe, friends, that intentionally pursuing humility is maybe the biggest key to revival in the church because then we tremble when he speaks. Most of our conflict would immediately go away because we're too busy trying to out forgive each other.
I forgive you, brother. No, I forgive you, brother. I love you, brother. I love you more, brother. I can't believe I was talking to you about you like that, brother.
Brother, I tell you what. I talked about you worse. You just didn't know about it. And we just, woo, And it just goes into this wonderful cycle, but that requires an all-pervading humility. Wish we had more time.
And then number three, consider the judgment of God, the coming judgment of God. Peter writes about it. A lot of the Bible authors in the New Testament write about it. Our Lord spoke about it. But Peter says in 2 Peter 3 verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? And I know there's some different eschatological thoughts on that, when that was, and so on, but the principles remain true. What kind of lives ought we to live in holiness and godliness when we consider that at any moment, at any moment, the sky could crack, the trunk could sound, the dead in Christ would rise, and we who are remaining will be caught up together. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh my goodness, hallelujah, to meet the Lord in the air.
So from the perspective of our soon coming king and the judgment that he will bring and the eternal glorification and rest that he will give to the saints of God, trembling when he speaks becomes an honor. As we've learned this week, the more we fear God, our fear of man goes down. So friends, I know it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day details of life, but there's coming a day where the Lord will return, a glorious day for the believer, and a day of terror for the lost. When we are tempted towards heartiness instead of wholehearted obedience, may we remember the mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus. May we remember that we've been purchased by the blood of Christ and redeemed by his holy sacrifice.
May we remember that the dead in Christ will rise and we who are alive will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. This earth is not our home. So let's pay the price that he calls us to pay for his own glory and tremble when he speaks. And may we allow the greatness of that vision, that heavenly vision of being with him, burn away any trepidation we have concerning quickly obeying the word of him who saved us. And may you, dear friends, continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work of this good pleasure.
May we all, in all of our frailties and faults, and forgive me if I'm sure I messed something up here, because we're all so sinful and all so mistake-prone, but all the good that was said comes from God. May we all learn to tremble when he speaks, for his commandments are not burdensome, they're actually for our own good. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end and all of God's people said amen. May I pray with you? Let's pray.
Father Thank you so much for the reading of the Word of God. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege to stand before your great people and forgive any mistakes on the part of the preacher and help your people forget those but remember that which you stated and which you ordained from on high. Oh Lord, we're in desperate need of you. We have so many blind spots. We want to be people who study to show ourselves approved.
That's good, but we don't want to be people who shut you down. That's bad. Open our hearts to your word. Show us how to tremble. Show us how to see Jesus in every precept, see the gospel in every command that you've commanded for our good.
As we continue on the process of learning how to repent and reforming, We ask for your continued grace and your great mercies to overshadow us because we are frail, but we do love you. We are sinful, but we're redeemed by you. Oh, Lord. If there are areas of obstinance, forgive us and change us starting this weekend. If there are literally scriptures that we won't turn to, much less tremble in front of, forgive us, show us how to do better.
And because we'll never attain perfection in this life, we are grateful for the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We give you praise, we give you honor, and we give you glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.