I just thank you, many of you who
have a prayerful and spiritual interest in the
work of the Banner of Truth Trust.
We are conscious that the work that we
seek to do is upheld and supported by
Christians all around the world, and it is
chiefly spiritual, prayerful interest that we need.
Our needs are wonderfully supplied.
We are not appealing for help in that
regard, but there is, as Cecil says, great
opportunity in different parts of the world.
But it is dependent upon the work of
God's Spirit that a hunger for the truth
is given, and I do believe in this
regard that there is nothing more important than
the work of prayer.
And it's a great encouragement to know that
here in Grand Rapids, and in many parts
of the states, there are Christians who are
prayerfully involved.
Perhaps I might say that, quite contrary to
our expectations, when in 1957 the Banner of
Truth Trust was started in Britain, it was
intended as a non-profit-making publishing house
to publish the fundamental doctrines of historic Christianity.
Quite contrary to our intention, those books began
to sell in the United States, because we
knew that you already had a number of
publishing houses.
But the interest in the states has grown,
and I suppose at the moment something like
38% of our publications are sold in
the states.
And when you bear in mind that we
are not able to sell a number of
our books in the states, I say our
books, I mean books by Dr. Hendrickson and
Dr. Lloyd-Jones and others that are published
by other publishers in the states, which we
sell around the world, but not here.
And when you bear that in mind, when
I say that we sell 38% of
our books in the states, that's quite a
high figure.
It's a great pleasure to be at this
conference again.
I've been away for six years.
I've read eagerly the reports and heard from
friends of things that have gone on here.
As some of you know, we have been
in Australia for three years, from 1981 to
1984.
I was serving a Presbyterian congregation in Sydney,
and that was one factor which prevented me
coming to these conferences.
We were much encouraged in our time in
Australia.
We saw there and in Southeast Asia the
power of Christian literature.
There are many young people, especially, who are
reading, who have not perhaps ever been in
large congregations.
In fact, very few of them would have
been where these truths have been preached, Chinese,
Australians, New Zealanders and South Pacific islands.
And in that part of the world, in
all truth, one believes that there is a
recovery of historic Christianity.
And this is going on, as you know,
I trust, in different parts of the world,
and we must lift up our hearts to
God in thanksgiving.
I've been in Britain most of the last
12 months, and then next month we expect,
or I rather should say in July, to
go back to Australia for a further period,
but I expect to be concerned with the
work of the Trust there, and especially finishing
the second volume of The Life of Dr.
Lloyd-Jones.
It's been very difficult to make progress with
that, although I am making progress, and I
need time to finish it, and I trust
I may be given that in this next
year.
Some of my friends say, where can we
find you?
And if you write to any address on
the Banner of Truth magazine, that will quickly
find me.
Now, let us turn then, my friends, to
the Word of God, the reason why we
are here, and the words that we find
in the Prophet Isaiah, the 66th chapter, and
verses 1 and 2.
Isaiah 66, and verses 1 and 2.
Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my
throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that ye build unto
me, and where is the place of my
rest?
For all those things have mine hand made,
and all those things have been, saith the
Lord.
But to this man will I look, even
to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Particularly the words, to this man will I
look, to him that trembleth at my word.
We have been in this conference speaking and
thinking of the work and the ministry of
the Holy Spirit, and as I sought to
prepare for this evening session, it seemed to
me the subject that would be relevant would
be the nature of spiritual religion.
What is that religion of which the Holy
Spirit of God approves?
What is that saving religion which He imparts?
Now here, in Isaiah 66, at the beginning,
is the commencement of the last prophecy in
this book.
And to rightly understand the chapter as it
begins, I am sure that we need to
bear in mind that these opening verses are
addressed to two quite different groups of people.
Both of them are spoken of in these
first two verses.
The first group are rebuked and rejected by
God.
To them the question is addressed, where is
the house that ye build unto me?
And to this same group, God speaks at
the end of the third verse, and He
says, they have chosen their own ways, their
soul delighteth in their abominations.
There is a second group who are also
addressed.
And they are spoken of firstly in this
second verse.
They are those who are poor and of
a contrite spirit and who tremble at God's
word.
The same group is then spoken of again
in the fifth verse and addressed in verse
five.
Hear the word of the Lord, ye that
tremble at His word.
Your brethren that hated you cast you out
for my name's sake.
Now we have to understand that while here
we have two different and separate groups of
people, they were not physically separate.
They were both Israel.
They were both spoken of, or are spoken
of here, as brethren.
They were both involved in the worship of
the temple.
They both heard the words of the prophet
Isaiah.
They shared together in the public ordinances of
God.
They are not physically or geographically separate, but
spiritually separate.
In other words, what we have in verses
one and two is a description of the
difference between false external nominal religion and true
spiritual saving religion.
That is the distinction which is apparent in
our text and which is brought before us
here.
One group are the children of God in
name only.
The other group are the children of God
in reality and in truth.
So that you might say that in a
certain sense these verses are a warning against
false religion and they are a description of
true spiritual religion.
The characteristics of a believer.
Now of course to say that this is
the subject here is to say and to
remind ourselves at once that it is a
subject that is found throughout the word of
God.
I think it would be true to say
that there is no subject of more importance
according to scripture than the subject of the
difference between true and false religion.
It is not something that is just touched
upon occasionally in scripture, but it is an
ever present subject.
And it is ever present in the scripture
because this kind of thing is a danger
which is ever present in the world.
It was present in the world of Isaiah's
day.
It was present in the world of our
Lord's day.
How often do we hear our Lord saying
such words as take heed and beware of
the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees.
How often does our Lord say to one
or another of supposedly religious leaders ye do
err not knowing the scriptures nor the power
of God.
It was false religion that was the great
enemy of apostolic Christianity.
It attacked the churches not only from without
but also as an angel of light from
within.
From among your own selves, says the Apostle
Paul, shall men arise speaking perverse things to
draw away disciples after themselves.
The New Testament repeatedly and continually warns us
to beware of false prophets, to try the
spirits, to understand the necessity of discernment at
all points in Christian life and history.
Now I believe we live at a time
when that warning is greatly needed.
I am sure that you have in this
country as we certainly have in Europe and
in Britain an emphasis which says that the
great danger of this present hour is the
danger of materialism and secularism and humanism and
that those dangers are so imminent and so
present that it becomes all Christians, whatever their
profession be, to make common cause against the
influences of sheer pagan materialism.
But this is not a day when we
should be attending to any differences or little
attending to any differences among Christians but rather
we should understand that we need to face
a common foe and if everybody of religious
persuasion will only do that then we may
begin to impress the world and make an
impression upon governments and so on.
That is being said very commonly and of
course there is an element of truth in
it.
But when we come to the point of
saying that the greatest danger lies in that
direction I think we have already departed from
the warnings of the word of God.
Only this week I was reading a statement
by an evangelical leader who was saying that
today Catholics are among the most loyal and
virile brothers that evangelicals can find.
Well that is being said not once but
in many places and in many different venues
and the total impression that is being given
is, as I say, that it is the
world without which is our main concern.
Now I do not believe that with our
Bibles open that is true.
I believe the scriptures teach us that unrighteousness
and paganism are the result of ungodliness and
ungodliness is the result of false religion.
The problem with our modern world is not
the absence of religion it is the presence
of false religion.
It is false religion that has contributed to
the materialism and the paganism of the English
speaking world.
It is true religion which lies at the
foundation of all real righteousness and godliness.
This subject then is one of great importance
at this time and indeed as I say
at all times.
Now notice with me what we are told
here concerning the contrast between the possessors of
true and false religion.
The difference between the nominal and the real.
And I believe the first thing that we
may notice in our text is this that
nominal religion or false religion always puts its
emphasis in the first place upon what men
do, upon their actions, upon their activity.
The people who are described in the first
verse are those who are engaged in building
a house for God.
That is to say they were religiously employed
in beautifying the temple, in adorning the temple,
in building the temple.
And as verse 2 goes on to say
and verse 3, they were equally engaged in
religious sacrifices.
They were killing oxen, they were sacrificing lambs,
they were offering oblations.
In other words they were religiously active in
doing these things.
And these things and their activity lay at
the center of their religion.
Their disposition is summed up by the prophet
Jeremiah in another place when speaking of the
judgments of God upon his own professed people
he found the reaction of those who were
equally engaged in religion who said the temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord are these.
Now here God in Isaiah 66 1 speaks
scornfully to these same people and he says
where is the house that ye build unto
me and where is the place of my
rest?
And he goes on to reject the worship
that they offer in the third verse.
He says that their killing of oxen was
like the sin of murder.
He killeth an ox as if he slew
a man that is in the sight of
God.
That so-called act of worship was an
abomination to God.
And the sacrificial lamb that was offered was
as worthless as the cutting of a dog's
neck.
It is God's rejection of what they were
doing.
Now of course God had appointed worship.
God had appointed a temple for the time
of Israel's infancy to teach them not because
God needed a temple because as God says
here the heaven is his throne and the
earth is his footstool the whole universe is
filled with his majesty and power.
But false religion emphasizes what men do.
But true religion, says our text, makes its
emphasis upon man's inner spirit upon his disposition,
upon his attitude to God himself.
To this man will I look, to him
that is poor and of a contrite spirit
and that trembleth at my word.
Real religion is a religion of those who
are consciously poor and needy and empty and
ignorant.
Ignorant of God, conscious in contrition of heart
of their great unworthiness and crying to God
daily for help and grace.
And to this man will I look, to
him that trembleth at my word.
That is where real religion begins.
It is heart religion.
It is a man's disposition in the presence
of God himself.
Now I need hardly remind you today that
there are many influences contrary to that emphasis.
There have been in some parts of the
church for many years those who consciously or
unconsciously belittle Christian doctrine and they do it
supposedly in the interest of Christian action of
doing good, of loving our neighbor, of stopping
injustice, of building the kingdom of God.
And there are others who do not take
that view but who nevertheless speak very largely
as though Christianity is in the first instance
concerned with matters of church growth and evangelism
programs and teaching people this or that which
they must do and which they can do.
Now all these things have their place according
to the word of God but none of
them have first place.
The first place lies in a different point
altogether.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, says our
Lord.
Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
And that is what this text is teaching.
He that trembleth at my word.
It is exactly the same distinction of course
as our Lord makes when he describes to
us the Pharisee and the Publican who went
both to the temple to pray and the
one speaks of what he did.
I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess.
He was building the temple, he was engaged
as he believed in activity for God and
the other dareth not so much lift up
his eyes to heaven but smote upon his
breast and said God be merciful to me,
a sinner.
That is, says our Lord, saving religion.
That is the religion which the Holy Spirit
imparts.
That is why the saints of God as
they have departed this life have not gone
with any spirit of complacency, far less of
self-congratulation but like John Wesley dying they
have said here goes an unprofitable servant.
Or like Thomas Hooker the great New England
Puritan who when he was dying one of
his friends said to him Sir, you are
going to receive your reward.
No, says Hooker, I am going to receive
mercy.
That is Christianity.
Poor, contrite spirit that trembles at my word.
But you notice there is something further here.
False religion or nominal religion never gives supreme
attention to the word of God.
It assumes that it knows how God is
to be served.
Or if it acknowledges in word the need
for revelation it does not stand in awe
and in trembling before the word of God.
Nominal religion never speaks as Paul speaks when
he went to Corinth and he says I
was with you in weakness and in fear
and in much trembling.
That is the voice of true Christianity.
That is not how nominal religion speaks.
Nominal religion assumes that it knows how God
is to be pleased and served and if
it does not actually substitute human wisdom in
the place of the word of God it
never gives the scriptures and the word of
God the first, the supreme place.
It does not stand in awe before the
holy scriptures.
There is no harmony between the spirit of
the nominal Christian and the word of God.
He does not tremble at God's word.
And that is God's charge here in the
book of Isaiah.
Not only in this chapter.
You understand of course that these people were
not flippant, giddy worshippers as sometimes they be
seen today.
God says to them in Isaiah 29, Your
fear toward me is taught by the precept
of men.
They appeared to fear God.
But what was offensive to God was that
that appearance of fear was not the result
of inward filial devotion to God.
It was taught by the precept of men.
And therefore their spirits were out of harmony
with God's word.
In Isaiah 22, God says, In that day
did the Lord God of hosts call for
weeping and mourning and girding with sackcloth.
But behold, behold, instead joy and gladness, slaying
oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking
wine, a people who did not tremble at
the word of God.
And so the result as we know was
that in the days of King Josiah, when
the temple was to be refurbished and when
debris was to be cleared out, there was
found after years of apparent neglect, the book
of the law.
The book of the law lost to all
real usefulness in the very church.
False religion, nominal religion displaces the primacy of
scripture.
And it must always be our first test
in the judge of real religion to take
the standard of scripture.
I'm sure a number of you have read
the story of Thomas Chalmers who for some
seven years was a minister in the Church
of Scotland.
At the beginning of the last century a
man of great ability began his ministry in
the small parish of Kilmarney in Fifeshire.
He had many interests besides scripture.
He was somewhat of a scientist, mathematician, taught
in the University of St. Andrews, managed at
the weekends to get something together for his
people.
And all this went on I say for
seven years until he was converted and became
a man of poor and contrite spirit.
The first thing that was noticed by his
parishioners was his transformed attitude to the word
of God.
And that was not simply seen in the
pulpit, but it was seen in his home.
One of his old elders who frequently called
said to him a little after his conversion,
he said, Mr. Chalmers, I often used to
call and visit you and would never find
you reading the scriptures.
But now, he says, when I come I
find you doing nothing else.
To which Chalmers replied, all too little, John,
all too little.
And if one reads of any great period
of revival and awakening and we ask what
were the men doing who God put into
positions of responsibility and leadership, men like Whitfield
and Jonathan Edwards and many others, what were
they doing?
The answer is, they were very much alone.
They spent much time with the word of
God and with prayer.
And it was from out of that communion
with God they came to preach in the
way that transformed whole communities.
Let me read you some words of Jonathan
Edwards.
He says, I have many times had a
sense of the glory of the third person
of the Trinity in his office as a
sanctifier, in his holy operations communicating divine light
and life to the soul.
God in the communications of his Holy Spirit
has appeared as an infinite fountain of divine
glory and sweetness being full and sufficient to
fill and satisfy the soul.
Then he adds, and I have sometimes an
affecting sense of the excellency of the word
of God as a word of life, as
the light of life, a sweet excellent life
giving word.
And one more thing, he says, I have
had a vastly greater sense of my own
wickedness and the badness of my heart than
ever I had before my conversion.
Those things go together.
The conscious glory of the Holy Spirit, thirst
for the word of God and humility and
contrition before God himself.
I say these are the great distinctions between
true and false religion.
True saving religion gives supreme regard to scripture.
Now let us pass on quickly to say
a few words about why trembling is the
only proper attitude that is required of us
in these words.
And the first answer from our text is
because the scriptures are the word of the
true and the living God.
Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my
throne, the earth, this great earth in which
we dwell is but the footstool of God.
It is less than nothing and vanity, as
Isaiah 40 says.
All nations before him are as nothing.
And it is God, this God, who has
made his word ours in the holy scriptures.
The God against whom we have sinned and
rebelled.
The God who from the beginning of time
has given to fallen man communications of his
mind and will.
The subject of prophecy was before us this
morning.
The amazing truth that God gave to men
his very word to speak to others.
Isaiah and these prophets were not volunteers.
They were given the word that they were
to speak.
All flesh is grass and all the goodness
thereof is the flower of the field.
The word of our God endureth forever.
And in our Lord Jesus Christ we have
that final word given to us.
And I won't enlarge upon that wonderful and
amazing truth that God's very words are given
to us, but touch upon simply the fact
that the author of scripture is indeed the
God who rules the nations, who holds our
breath in his hand.
And it is not therefore simply the hearing
of scripture that men need, but it is
the attention to scripture in the consciousness that
the living God is here the author of
scripture.
And that is where the ministry and power
of the Holy Spirit come in.
It is as God attends his word that
men are pierced in their heart and tremble.
The God who spoke through Noah is the
God who sent the flood upon the earth
after 120 years.
The God is the God who smote Egypt
with the death of their firstborn.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Glory,
is the one who could command the fishes
of the sea, who could tell the disciples
to throw in their nets here, and as
they pull them out full and bursting, we
read Simon Peter saying, Depart from me for
I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For our Lord, when the woman, the paralyzed
man I should say, was let down through
the roof and who heals him at his
word, there was great fear, says the gospel
writer, great fear.
Fear at the word of the Lord and
fear of the consciousness that that word is
indeed the word of the living God.
And in this age in which we live,
of course, men suppose that they do not
tremble at scripture because of our advanced understanding
and our superior wisdom, whereas the truth is
the exact opposite.
But by reason of our pride and idolatry,
we have been smitten with blindness so that
the very glory of scripture is hidden from
men.
But the scripture that men may not sometimes
hear is the scripture of the God who
controls all nations, controls our economies, controls our
energy problems, controls war and peace, controls our
individual lives, and God in his grace and
power is able to bring us to attend
to his holy word.
And sometimes it may very well be the
things in the world that we most dread,
they may be the very means to bring
us to heed the word of God.
You know what wonderful things have happened in
China, for example, since 1950 when the church
seemed to disappear, when persecution was rampant, when
missionaries were banished, and when the veil is
drawn aside more than twenty years later, all
these events of history are seen to have
been in the hand of God to bring
people to attend to his holy word.
We are to attend to scripture because it
is the voice of God.
But, and my last reason why this trembling
is required of us, it is because, as
verse 2 says, it is only to such
as tremble at God's word that God will
look.
That is to say, his favor, his blessing,
his salvation is to those and to none
other.
Now, of course, that is not something commonly
believed today.
There are multitudes of people, alas, in the
very church who suppose that our attitude to
scripture is just one matter of opinion, one
amongst others, who have no concept of what
is said in the first psalm, that the
alternative to meditating in the law of the
Lord is to be among the ungodly, whom
the chaff, who are driven away as the
chaff.
That is the only alternative.
We bow before scripture and we fear God,
or we are as the chaff which the
wind drives away.
You know, this year, 1985, is reminiscent of
great events in church history.
One event is the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes in France, 1685, when the French
church, the Protestant church, was suddenly plunged into
persecution and almost every pastor was exiled or
imprisoned, and suffering began which went on for
many years.
Or that same year in Scotland were called
the Killing Times, because of the number of
Christians that were put to death.
And to refer to another time of persecution,
in the English Reformation, when after the reign
of King Edward, when it seemed the whole
country had become Protestant, then suddenly there was
a political reversal, and Mary Tudor, Roman Catholic,
came to the throne, and almost overnight those
who were willing to stand for the word
of God seemed to disappear.
273 or more people were burned to death,
some 13 ministers, but among those 13 ministers
there was amazement where their brethren had gone.
Where were all those who believed that it
was dangerous and blasphemy to attend the Roman
Catholic Mass?
They seemed to have disappeared overnight, and what
had made them disappear, you understand, was not
any fresh light upon spiritual questions, but it
appeared as though they had never trembled at
the word of God.
Trembling at the word of God is the
mark of the true people of God.
Now, before I close, let me attempt to
say a few words of application, and primarily
to our brethren who are ministers here at
this conference.
I believe that we need to understand ourselves
that handling the word of God, even the
orthodox preaching of the word of God, is
not in itself any indication of our own
salvation.
Something more is needed.
Our own heartfelt submission and love for Scripture,
our own fear of God, is necessary to
mark us out as God's people.
Some of you follow McChain's readings in the
Bible, and if you are doing that, you
have been recently going through the book of
Numbers.
I was very moved again reading those words
in Numbers chapter 22.
If Balak, let me quote Numbers 22.18,
if Balak would give me his house full
of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond
the word of the Lord to do less
or more.
What a wonderful testimony.
If Balak would give me all the gold
in his house, I can't go beyond the
word of the Lord to do less or
more.
It's orthodox, you see, isn't it?
But it's the words of one who perished,
the words of Balaam.
It is not enough to assert the truth.
It is actually being found, as Jesus says
in Matthew 7, doing his words, fearing his
words.
And therefore I believe as ministers of the
gospel, having first sought to make our own
calling and election sure, and not simply assuming
that we are Christians, but making our own
calling and election sure, then we need at
all costs to see that we are not
diverted from our true calling, which is handling
the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God.
The great thing that Satan is concerned to
do with regard to the Christian ministry is
to divert men from that duty.
And he has many, many ways of doing
it.
Many ways.
He may do it sometimes by flattery.
That's what he did with Balaam.
Balak said, I will promote thee unto very
great honour.
Plenty of people have talked like that today.
I will promote thee to very great honour,
but only if you are careful about what
you do and say in the church.
Flattery.
Or persecution, which I've mentioned.
What is the purpose of persecution?
It is to divert the preaching of the
word of God, to silence the truth.
But sometimes by our own sheer unwatchfulness, by
our busyness, we are far from such men
as Jonathan Edwards.
We allow our energies to be dissipated into
a hundred different directions, and instead of being
like what is written in Acts chapter 6,
we will give ourselves to the word of
God and to prayer.
We give ourselves to all these different things.
And it is no wonder then, that preaching
has fallen upon sad times.
I'm sure you've all read the various correspondence
in different magazines about the conversion of Thomas
Howard to the Roman Catholic Church.
Christianity today gave some prominence to it.
I suppose it is a subject that was
worthy of some prominence.
And if you've read that you will have
noticed that Thomas Howard said that one of
the things that had influenced him so much
was the sheer informality and flippancy and casualness
of evangelical worship.
That he longed for solemnity and awe and
something different.
The tragedy of that of course is that
that is not where true awe and wonder
will be found.
It is only found not with gorgeous apparel
and liturgy and vestments and choir and all
the rest, but it is found where the
word of God is held in supreme reverence.
And that awe and wonder which is indeed
the great need of the church today is
that which the Spirit of God Himself must
impart and give to us.
And let me mention one other point before
I pass to my conclusion.
I think ministers too in guarding their time
need to make sure they give little time
to books written by men who evidently do
not tremble at the word of God.
I am not, you understand, saying that we
confine our reading to men who tremble at
God's word.
But I do believe we should give very
little of our time to those who don't.
And I think it is a great tragedy
when men are supposedly trained for the ministry
in the church of Christ and they are
compelled to give great amounts of time to
people who evidently do not fear God's word.
That is a great tragedy.
When I was at university I was much
helped by a very sad truth.
I read the biography of H.E. Ryle
who was the son of John Charles Ryle.
John Charles Ryle is read today all over
the world although he died in 1900.
He wrote biblical Christianity.
I find all over the world people are
reading Ryle.
But his son is unheard of.
But his son in his own day was
a more famous man.
He was dean of Winchester and then a
bishop in the Church of England.
He became a great man and he wrote
many books.
And the last book that he wrote was
on the minor prophets.
And you know by the time that he
actually died the book hadn't been published and
it was out of date.
And he was put into the waste paper
basket immediately after his death.
That's what unbelief does.
It withers everything.
It's useless.
But those who tremble at the word of
God although in their own day they may
be cast aside in generations to come the
Lord is still honoring and blessing their word.
I close then with a final word to
all of us.
If we are members of congregations and the
Lord's people our great need is to be
in prayer.
In prayer for our pastors.
In prayer for ministers in different nations.
In prayer for those who are training for
the ministry.
Let it be understood that the truth of
God always revives.
It never finally is crushed.
Sometimes in some parts of the earth it
almost seems to have died out.
And then it rises with majesty and power.
And I do believe that in so far
as the truth is reviving in our own
day it is the result of prayer and
tears.
It may often be of people who have
died and gone before us.
And if we are to see a continuing
recovery of the truth let us pray my
friends.
Pray for our ministers.
And let ministers pray.
Penitential prayer.
For how often our own hearts have not
truly stood in awe before the God who
we seek to serve and love.
We pray for the Holy Spirit.
And we believe the word of Christ.
He will give his spirit to them that
ask.
Let us go on asking until God opens
the windows of heaven and pours out his
spirit upon us.
May God bless his word to us.