Revival and Worship

Psalm of the day: Psalm 89:19-37

What a wonderful portion of the psalms to start our morning with because it draws our attention to Jesus Christ. The anointed son of David, the promised one, our savior and Lord. I could say a lot, a whole sermon really, but I will just say this: how good it is to gather in the house of the Lord to bring glory and honor and praise to him, how good it is to be a child of god because of the work of King Jesus on our behalf. Lets begin with a time of silent prayer and reflection.

Scripture Reading: John 4:21-24

Sermon:

Well here it is, the LAST sermon IN Isaiah, though next week we will still be talking about Isaiah, we are finishing the book today. Our passage today is Isaiah 66 and after I read that right now we will have read through the entire book together, so that's pretty cool.

There is a phenomenon that I have observed that happens in church culture. We have verses that everyone really loves, but that, because everyone loves them we say them all the time, so much so that they begin to loose meaning and become some sort of platitude. we say: “God is love” which is from 1 John 4:16. however when we look at that whole verse there is a much different meaning. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” and there are more, but one I would like to think about today is John 4:23-24 “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” We have heard it, and we even say this verse all the time: We worship in spirit and truth. what what does that actually mean? what is true worship? does this mean there is such a thing as false worship? what marks true worship? how will I know? As it turns out these sorts of questions are not just applicable to this passage in John, this thought was an important one in Isaiah too. so today we are going to tackle this last chapter a little differently, we will not just walk directly through it but instead ask a question: what is the delineation here between true and false worship, what can we learn, and what messages of hope and/or/ warning must we pay attention to?

So today I would like to start just by reading Isiah 66

READ: Isaiah 66

These are the words of the Lord for us today, lets PRAY

PRAY

as we come to the final portion of Isaiah, it is beautiful to note that the ending here reflects the same rhythm and flow of the book. Isaiah will close for us with two paths, one filled with promise, hope, joy and salvation, this is the path of true worship. the other filled with dire warnings, and holy justice.

Lets first see what we can learn about true worship.

True Worship is seen two ways:

Before we dive into specifics what is really cool to see in this passage is that the worship language comes to us directly in light of temple worship. In verse 1 there is this declaration: God is powerful, he created the world and all that is in it, in light of that does he need anything that human hands can make? the answer is no, but then there is a thought, there is one thing that we can do to please God, there is one thing that will draw his attention.

one of my commentaries put it this way: When we contemplate the greatness and beauty of creation it can be overwhelming to thing of it in it’s scope and grandeur. but there is but one object in creation, amid the suns and stars, one thing that secures the gaze of the creator. that is a worshipper.

the second half of verse 2: this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit.

A Humble, Contrite Spirit

true worship is marked by a spirit of humility and contriteness. Worship like this realizes quickly that he is God and we are not. he is the creator, we are the creation. he is sovereign and we are NOT, we could go on. Lets first look at a humble spirit.

To be humble is to be those who are ready to take the lowest place before AND FOR God! two portions of this definition. It is willing to take the lowest place before God. it realizes that the best place we can be is bowing before God. there is a bit of a difficult thought here. On one hand we have been given access through the blood of Jesus to incredible places. he are, in christ, granted access to the throne room of God. And we, as Hebrews says, approach with boldness. but on the other hand, we would be good and right to remember who God is, we should bow in reverence and humility knowing he is God!

and if To be humble is to be those who are ready to take the lowest place before AND FOR God! the second part is that we take the lowest place FOR god. True worship is understanding that whatever God asks of me, I will do. No job is to small, nothing that he asks of me to humiliating. as David said in 2 Samuel 6:22 “I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.” it is a willingness to not think so highly of oneself that what God says is to low or beneath you.

but this is a humble and contrite spirit. so what is contriteness here. In one sense it is a feeling of repentance and sorrow for ones sins, but the word here has a deeper meaning. contriteness expresses a sense of inability in spiritual matters. this is much like the thought of the beatitudes when Jesu says: “Blessed are the poor in Spirit”. this contriteness says not just: I messed up, but I messed up and I can do no other. It is a contriteness that says, man, I messed up and I desperately need your help, because I am lost without you.

Together these show a proper view of self. but lets be careful. I don’t want you to go around think int the way to do this is to go around beating yourself up. True worship is not self deprecating in so much it is God glorifying, and in doing so our position as a FALLEN CREATURE is magnified. He increases and by necessity we decrease. All Glory be to God!

but there is a second half to this thought, and interestingly this is the one that plays out more in the rest of the chapter. it is a humble and contrite spirit, and a HOLY REVERENT FEAR

A Holy, Reverent Fear

these go hand in hand, I would argue that you cannot have one without the other, and in some sense they are two sides of the same coin. On one hand we have a realization that God is God and we are the creature, and so with that comes this realization that his words are worthy of fear and reverence.

Note here we often talk about Fear of God, but it is more focused here, for a purpose: it is one who TREMBLES AT HIS WORD. verse 2. this same thought is praised in Isaiah 66:5 “Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word:” his word carries a broad and beautiful meaning here.

in one sense it is what he is currently saying. This portion of Isiah in particular, but Isiah in general has been filled with the phrase: “thus says the Lord” So on the surface level there is a thought: you need to revere and fear what God has here, in this book, been saying.

but then there is a bigger thought: this is the words of the Lord IE, in Scripture. True worship has at it’s core a respect for the word of the Lord. What you think of Scripture tells me a lot about you. if you look to more liberal streams of Christianity, or read any of the more liberal scholars the first thing to go is a high view of Scripture. once we can doubt or cast aspersions on the words of God, then we can throw out the teachings we don’t like, or that make us uncomfortable.

but there is a final thought that bears mentioning, and I say this not to puff myself up, quite the opposite, this terrify me, but part of true worship is the ministry of the Word, ie preaching. Have you ever wondered WHY preaching takes the position of prominence in a church service, THIS is why, it is because there is a belief that preaching the word of God is important and right and truly this portion of the service is worship as much as singing any song or any time of prayer. Because what God looks at, what he sees is a people who tremble at his word, who have a high view of his word. If this sounds like I am building this up, I am, but lets look at a confession written now almost 500 years ago that builds the pastor up, but then quickly tears him down (rightfully so I think…)

Second Helvetic Confession 1 (1566) "When this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is preached, and received by the faithful ... and now the Word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches; who, although he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God abides true and good

But now we can turn out attention to False worship:

False Worship is seen two ways:

As has always seemingly been the case with Isaiah we can’t just have the people doing good, there is always the one who is rebelling lurking somewhere he should not be. the sinner is seemingly always present here in Isiah and this is still true as we turn form those who receive the approval and gaze of the Lord to the ones that receive his wrath and justice. We will look at two marks of false worship, and interestingly enough both have a tie to pigs...

first, from verse 3: false worship is marked by unclean practices

Unclean Practices

Isaiah 66:3 ““He who slaughters an ox is 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 one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations;”

this is in some sense a complicated passage, but really a pretty clear message. what we first have to note is that in the first half of each of these lines, something GOOD and RIGHT is being stated. True worship, worship following the laws of God would have: an Ox being slaughterd. lambs being offered. there was orders in the mosaic law for grain offerings, and for memorial offerings. these portions of their worship were not wrong because they were not supposed to do them. they were wrong for some other reason. that reason is the last portion of verse 3. “they have chosen their own ways”

So what we see here is doing what God asked you for your own reasons is not just wrong, it is an ABOMINATION (which is about the MOST wrong you could get to). so what Isaiah does here is set the items side by side. He contrasts the lawful with the sinful, the lawful with the meaningless, the lawful with the unacceptable and the lawful with the apostate because the truth is what God desires is NOT just the acts, but the heart.

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

and another prophet AMOS picks this thought up as well in Amos 4:4-5

Amos 4:4–5 ESV

“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God.

come to bethel, come to the house of God and transgress, do the right thing, but this is sin. What is crazy to think about is the right thing here, done with a wicked, unclean hear, is sin. SO the peoples unclean practices are not marked by what we might think of, their polluted heart has MADE their practices unclean

because ultimately it is unclean practices done by UNCLEAN PEOPLE

Unclean People

here our second pig reference Isaiah 66:17 ““Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the Lord.” .

note that these people seek to cleanse them self they are those who “sanctify and purify themselves” but this here is not what we usually think of. To sanctify is to set apart, in our modern church parlance we think: this is The act of sanctification, this is a good thing. but these people do this to “go into the gardens, they do this because they are following pagan ritual. we know this is what they are doing because they eat pigs flesh (a big no no according to the law) there is something with abominations and mice, no idea exactly what that is, but an abomination is never good and mice are disease carrying rodents and their end is sure.

heres the gist: these people think they have some sort of ritual purity, but in reality they are, to steal a phrase form Jesus: whitewashed tombs.

DISHWASHER EXAMPLE

they have tried to make sure that the external is clean, but in their sinful hearts they are fundamentally unclean people. so here is the rub: people with unclean hearts will offer unclean offerings, no matter how rigorously they obey the Law, and such offerings are an offense to God.

With God’s two responses:

Note the God who it is, he is great and immense. So much so that the whole earth is his footstool (verse 1)

“he not only dominates the whole universe, but everything is his workmanship and owes its being to him!” is the thought of verse 1 and 2

This God will look to people, and we could mark this corporately yes, but there is an individual aspect to this, he will look and see if you are a true worshiper, or not and he will act.

lets first look at how he will respond to true worship, and that is with VINDICATION AND COMFORT

Vindication and Comfort

verses 5-14

-note in verse 5- the same one who “tremble at his word”. the world - and in context here even their compatriots, the ones who claim to be like them their “brothers” are the ones that reject them, yet it is God who vindicates (renders recompense for their sins - verse 6)!

-how vile the jeering, they are attacking the faithful “word-tremblers” for doing what they should, stand for and on the name of the Lord -

modern thoughts- How can you think that the bible, such an antiquated outdated book actually has relevance, don’t you know how us modern critical readers know this, do you really thing God is glorified in your “hate”? “love is love and God is love” if jesus was alive today He would welcome (person or group defined by their sin as opposed to their standing in christ...).

-the miracle of painless childbirth (before the advent of Meds...) is just a portion of the picture of comfort. It reaches its climax in seeing the care and comfort of a parent nursing and “bouncing” their child upon their knees to see the loving comfort God gives to those who worship in spirit and in truth

And there is comfort in hearing and understanding the worldwide call of God, seen here in 18-21

Vengeance and Death

-verse 4- “harsh treatment” per Motyer - summary execution” is another acceptable translation. this is harsh as harsh!

-vengeance again in 14b-16

-and death is verse 24. “beside the city is a cemetery, and the people as they enter the holy city “go out and look upon the dead bodies.

-Motyer - Such grimness is not out of place in these final chapters of Isaiah. On one hand, they have been alight with the glory of the new creation, the new city and its new people. But equally, on the other, they have been solemnized by the note of vengeance, the winepress of the wrath of God, the fiery sword of judgement and the record that many will be those slain by the Lord. It is consonant with this that the worshippers constantly compel themselves to face the consequences of the last battle as they “look upon the dead bodies.” It is frivolous and wanton to think of the pilgrims as ‘gloating’. In the truest sense of the word, the scene is too awful in its ceaseless corruption (the worm will not die) and unending wrath (nor will fire be quenched). - Motyer

-Why would we speak of such harshness? Jesus did (Mark 9:48). and Isaiah did. again Motyer - But with the grandeur [of Isaiah in general] went a stern resoluteness, that if the glory does not win us to a life of obedience, if visions of the coming king, the sin-bearing servant and the liberating anointed conqueror will not suffice, then maybe the unmistakably horrible rewards of disobedience will drive our wayward hearts to tremble at the word of the Lord.

-Oswalt - although the promises of God are universal in scope, they are not universal in depth, No one should dare think that because hope is always the intended last word one may sin with impunity, therefore her we end on a solemn and terrifying thought!

So as we close let me end by reading a thought from another commentary, this one an oldie but a goody, the Matthew Henry commentary: May God grant, for Christ’s sake, that our portion may be with those who fear and love his name, who cleave to his truths, and persevere in every good work, looking to receive from the Lord Jesus Christ the gracious invitation, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.