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Message given on April 13, 2008
(link to audio version)
Trembling at the Word
- Isaiah 66:2 For all those things
hath 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.
Isaiah 66 is speaking to Israel. Israel
always took pride in their temple, they gloried that they were God’s
chosen people and took pride in their religious observances. Yet in
verse 2 we see that God never emphasizes outward religious
observances, fancy buildings or great entertaining services. He
looks for those that tremble at His word.
A poor and contrite spirit is one that is
willing to admit they are helpless to go it alone. They recognize
their need for God. When the word is preached to them, they are
quick to receive the word, tremble at the word and apply that word
to their own lives. When he or she discovers by the preaching of the
word that they are in need of God, they turn to God. This type of
person never takes the word of God lightly and when the Holy Spirit
convicts them of sin, they will respond and not fail to change.
To those that do not tremble at the word
and they take the word lightly they will fall for every doctrine and
precept of men that may come down the pike in the name of
Christianity. Their Christianity becomes "in name only" and their
worship is turned into rituals, ceremonies, form and tradition
rather than true worship in spirit and in truth.
- Psalm 138:2 I will worship
toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy
lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy
word above all thy name.
There are some translations that
translates or comments on this verse differently. I see this as God showing us His
word is so important that it is exalted above His name. Other
translations explain this as equal to His name but which ever the
meaning, the word is exalted to a high position. Since Jesus Christ
is the word made flesh, it is very important and we are to literally
tremble at the word of God.
Much suffering and death has occurred over
the centuries for us to have this word in written form. This book
contains the words that could mean our eternal death or eternal
life.
Our fear of God must come from the word
itself or from a faithful pastor, preacher or teacher who is also
faithful to the word. We need to tremble at the word and delight in
its teaching, correction, conviction and comfort; for the word does
all those things. We can't pull out all the comfort scriptures and
neglect all the ones that rebuke and correct. We need both the
negative and the positive parts of the word.
Notice that a battery will not work if its
not hooked up to both a negative and a positive connection.
If a preacher preaches all that
is wrong with the church but fail to tell us how to correct the
problem and get turned around the right way, the message would not
bring forth much fruit. I want to hear the
messages that are truth and not just
hear ear tickling sermons that make me feel comfortable.
After hearing the warnings and judgments of God
though, I want to hear how
to make things right with God and be restored. If I'm in trouble and
my soul is in jeopardy, I want to know how to get things fixed. So
we need the correction of the word but we also need the comfort and
assurance of that same word. Once we repent and make things right
with God after the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, we need to maintain
the assurance of salvation which is what brings us the joy the Lord. We
need to get to know who God is, what Jesus really did to save us and
keep seeking His presence in our lives more and more.
We do need though to hear both the
correction and the assurance. To constantly hear that
God loves us and wants to bless us with both spiritual and material
blessings with no preaching of repentance, correction, and warnings
would cause the worst sinner among us to think they are okay because
they believe in God but they may be bound by besetting sins and need
to hear a message that will bring change into their lives.
If all we hear is feel
good preaching, we might begin to think that God loves us too much to
judge our sin and we go along comfortably thinking we are okay while
we slowly slip back into the same sins that Jesus once saved us
from. We need both the positive and the negative
teaching of the word.
- Psalms 119:9 Wherewithal shall a
young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to
thy word.
- 10 With my whole heart
have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
- 11 Thy word have I hid in
mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Also in Psalms 119 are these words:
- 103 How sweet are thy
words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
- Through thy precepts I
get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
- 105 Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
I heard a preacher once say
that if pastors and teachers stop preaching against sin, they will
most assuredly return to sin. I could add to that. If pastors stop
preaching the word, people will return to sin.
This is why the church is here. This is
why God sets up pastors and teachers in the word. If we are just to
get people saved and then leave them on their own before they can
grow in the Lord and learn to seek God for themselves, we are missing something. First of all we
need the word preached under the power and anointing of the Holy
Spirit to get people to be saved in the first place. We preach the
word and the Holy Spirit takes that word and brings conviction to
the heart of the one that needs salvation. The word and the spirit
is needed to save a lost soul. After salvation though the word is
needed to bring us into a life of holiness and a life filled with
the spirit.
All of us need to be taught and reminded
to study, to worship and to help one another. If we fail to do this,
we will not be strong in the word and are more easily deceived by
influences of the world around us. We are here for a purpose. We are here to
learn, study and increase in the knowledge of the word so that we
can teach others this good way.
- Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add
unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish
aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD
your God which I command you.
The importance of obedience to the word
in the Old Testament was so important that it was a death penalty to
break it, change it or use it to deceive. Obedience to the word brought a
blessing while disobedience to the word brought forth a curse.
We must be very careful not to be deceived
by those that misuse the word or change it to mean something other
than what was the original intent. I do realize there are different
interpretations of the word and not everyone who disagrees on the
word is necessarily a deceiver. Name calling must be avoided unless
one is proved to be one that deceives on purpose.
Usually the motive for reading God’s word,
will usually indicate whether or not one is going to understand what
he reads. For instance. If we study the word to find out what God
has to say to us, how to please God or because we really care about
what God has to say to us, we will be more likely to eventually come
to understand it more than the one who reads the word just to be
able to say to himself, he did his part and read the bible today.
Some may search the word to find justification for something he
wants to do that his conscience is telling him not to do. Our
motive counts. Sometimes though the word alone can change us by
accident.
My dad use to argue the scriptures with
those he worked with or came in contact with because he knew some of
the bible by being taught at church, yet he was not really what we
called saved or born again at the time. By further studying and
trying to convince his friends, he eventually became born again
himself just by studying the word to convince others of the truth.
Here are some examples of the need to
study all the word and not just pick out certain parts.
Concerning Israel.
Both these passages were written by Paul:
- Acts 13:43 Now when the
congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious
proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them,
persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
- 44 And the next sabbath day
came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
- 45 But when the Jews saw
the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against
those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and
blaspheming.
- 46 Then Paul and Barnabas
waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from
you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we
turn to the Gentiles.
- 47 For so hath the Lord
commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the
Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of
the earth.
- 48 And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord:
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
If we stop at this and do not read
other scriptures by the apostle Paul one might assume that the
gospel was taken permanently from the Jews and given to the
Gentiles. Not so.
- Romans 11:24 For if thou wert cut
out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted
contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall
these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own
olive tree?
- 25 For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come
in.
- 26 And so all Israel shall
be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
- 27 For this is my covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
- 28 As concerning the
gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the
election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
So we see that God has not cast away
Israel. All during the Middle Ages the Jews were persecuted by
the churches that no longer were really representing God. Martin Luther
who did right by bringing the church out of error and back to the
bible, yet some have claimed that Luther wrote a document just
before he died condemning the Jews. I'm guess he was offended at
them because they rejected his teaching. Hitler quoted Luther’s writings
to justify the Holocaust. How much of that is true, I do not
know but if we persecute and misuse the scriptures to justifying
being cruel to the Jewish people, it is very evil and will be judged
by God. The promise He originally made to Abraham still stands:
-
Genesis
12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto
a land that I will shew thee:
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2 And I will make of thee
a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing:
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3 And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.
This is an example of how we need the
whole word of God and not just part. Another example concerns our
salvation:
The verse, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved." If we quote that and do not study
the rest of the scriptures on salvation, we could get the idea that
all we have to do to be saved is to believe that Jesus Christ
exists. Yet we know that there is more to the message of salvation
yet the message is still simple. It is not a complicated message.
Lets look at that verse again. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If we look at it
closely we can ask ourselves. Saved from what?
We know our physical lives are not saved
for they eventually will die if the Lord does not return before that
day. So we have to search other scriptures to find out what we are
saved from.
- Matthew 1:19 Then Joseph her
husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public
example, was minded to put her away privily.
- 20 But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a
dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Ghost.
- 21 And she shall bring forth
a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his
people from their sins.
Now we see that when we are saved, we
are saved from sin. Jesus died for our sins so we know that we are
saved from sin. Without the written word, we would not really
understand how to be saved or what we are saved from. So we see that
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but we believe in Him to the
point that we allow Him to cleanse us from sin. True saving faith
causes us to turn from sin and turn to Christ. That is how we are
saved and born again by the spirit of God.
There is no accepting Jesus in our hearts
without being saved from sin. To be saved from sin, we believe in
Christ but we turn away from sin. Every time we read about being saved, we
should remember what we are being saved out of and then the
salvation message is easier to understand.
Without the study and teaching of the
word, we will get only half the truth and not the whole truth.
I do not believe the bible ever
contradicts itself, I believe careful study will reveal that every
word confirms another part of the bible in some way.
- Luke 11:27 And it came to pass, as
he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up
her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare
thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
- 28 But he said, Yea rather,
blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
When someone was proclaiming a blessing
upon Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus said, yes but rather than major
on that, blessed are they that hear the word and keep it. Jesus
Himself proclaimed a blessing upon all those the not only hear the
word but keep the word.
First we read or hear the word, then we
believe the word but we can't say we believe the word if we do not
go on and keep the word. We see both Old Testament and New Testament
examples of the importance of keeping the word of God. It is the
Holy Spirit that draws us to Jesus. We hear the word and the Holy
Spirit begins to draw us into saving faith so that we begin to
believe and receive what we hear. What a difference it will make in
our lives when we first come to Jesus as the Holy Spirit draws us
to Him. We pass from death into life.
- Revelation 3:7 And to the angel of
the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is
holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that
openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
- 8 I know thy works: behold,
I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for
thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not
denied my name.
- 9 Behold, I will make them
of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not,
but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before
thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
- 10 Because thou hast kept
the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of
temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them
that dwell upon the earth.
Because this church kept the word, they
were promised to escape the hour of temptation which is to try the
ones that dwell upon the earth. Keeping the word seems to be important
to Jesus Christ who gave this prophecy to the church so it
must be pretty important.
I personally love the teaching and
preaching of God's word more than the song service. I don't want to
put down any song service where the whole congregation joins in
worship. Not just singing but actually praising and rejoicing in the
Lord. That is necessary and awesome. I enjoy them, but if I know there
will be no
preaching, it would be very hard to get me to go to a service if I know
ahead of time that its all singing and no preaching. Remember this
is just me and I am not sitting in judgment upon those that love all
singing services. But the word is the part I look forward to.
I feel robbed if there is no preaching
or teaching. I love a good bible teacher as much as a preacher.
Verse by verse study is the delight of my soul. The study of the
word reminds me who I am singing about. To me praise and worship is
all about worshipping the one we have studied about from the written
word.
Praise and worship is greatly needed
because it gives the audience a chance to be part of the church
service and not just spectators, but if we do not study the word and receive
it, we will not really understand the one we are worshipping. We
will not know who we are worshipping fully without the study of the
word or in hearing anointed preaching or teaching of the word.
Without the preaching of the word down
through the centuries we wouldn't even know who Jesus was and how to
be saved from sin.
The first thing I see in reading church
history that may have caused them to stray from the truth was to
start suppressing worship in the spirit among the congregation and
try to take complete control over the services with their own form
or ritualistic practices. In other words they threw out any
dependency upon the Holy Spirit. They really didn’t have as much of
the written word of God as we do today so people had to depend upon
the church leaders for instruction. If the church leaders could get
people to depend upon them for salvation, their jobs would be secure
and the people could be kept in control. Without the Holy Spirit any
proper understanding of the word of God would cease to exist because
the Holy Spirit is the true teacher of the word.
When the church began to forbid the
common people from reading the word, the doctrines of men became the
doctrine of the church. The way of salvation became dependent upon
outward religious observances instead of individuals getting to know
the Lord and receiving Him into their lives on a one on one basis.
When the word stopped being preached
and taught, we had Christianity in name only. There was no changed
lives. That is why they could burn people at the stake. They didn’t
even know the God they were supposed to be representing because they
forgot the word and just had religion.
Today we can have the same thing but it is
a little different.
If all we do is go to a church where
one has only a ten minute sermonette on how to have a successful
life or how to have a good day, we will not see many souls saved and
entering into the kingdom of God. So in a way our modern church has
the danger of departing from the truth just like the middle age church did, not by
forbidding the word but by preaching stuff that has nothing to do
with our eternal souls or repenting from sin yet they use just
enough scriptures to justify what they say.
I don't know what these prosperity
blessing preachers are going to do if the economy crashes and
everyone loses their riches. Some will give up on God altogether but
I hope some will return to the word and allow God to bring them back
to the right way. If I miss a couple of days without the study of
the word, I miss it. This is food for the soul just like we need
food for our bodies.
- Psalm 119:103 How sweet are thy
words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
How awesome is that?
So how can we learn of the true way of
salvation, how to obtain holiness and how to be filled with the
spirit? By taking heed to the word of God. Without the written word,
we would never have known all these things. As I said before the
word was removed from the common people during the Middle Ages. Now
we have the word in every bookstore. I hope we are not letting it
lie dormant on our shelves when within its pages, we see our eternal
destiny. Where we spend eternity will depend on what we do with the
word of God. Thank God for the invention of the printing press
so that the written word can be spread over the entire earth.
This is what is grievous in today's
world. So many do not realize the importance of God's word. In Psalm
138 written above, it
says that the word is even above His name. We must never attempt to
change the word to fit our particular lifestyle. We must never water
it down so that the meaning changes. Look at the way Jesus' own
words concerning divorce is ignored today. We want to divorce anyway
so we look for a way around it excusing ourselves. We need to repent
of these things that we do. God will forgive but we must change and
stop going in the wrong direction. The word will judge us in the
last day if we do not repent. Once we genuinely repent though, we
must not keep grieving over our sin but move on. The devil tries to
bring our past back if we let Him. God forgives, so we must move on.
In Acts 8 we shall see an example of
how reading the word, led to a man’s salvation. He was even reading
from the Old Testament which was the only bible they had at that
time.
- Acts 8:26 And the angel of the Lord
spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto
the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is
desert.
- 27 And he arose and went:
and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority
under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all
her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
- 28 Was returning, and
sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet.
- 29 Then the Spirit said unto
Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
- 30 And Philip ran thither to
him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said,
Understandest thou what thou readest?
- 31 And he said, How can I,
except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him.
- 32 The place of the
Scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he
not his mouth:
- 33 In his humiliation his
judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation?
for his life is taken from the earth.
- 34 And the eunuch answered
Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this? of himself, or of some other man?
- 35 Then Philip opened his
mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him
Jesus.
Let I said before above, my own Dad was saved by the reading of
the word. Even before he was saved, he liked to argue over the
scriptures. Dad had lots of friends and they would argue over
scriptures and dad would always try to prove his points by looking
it up. Eventually he was saved by the study of the word. God
works in marvelous ways.
This is powerful stuff. It is enough to
save a soul and grant them eternal life. I remember when I was
seeking the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, I would read every
scripture I could find on the Holy Spirit. If someone seeks physical
healing, reading the word where someone is miraculously healed helps
their faith.
The word strengthens our faith. When we
come together to worship God, we need the word to abide within us when
the music stops, when the pastor is not speaking and when we are in
school or on our jobs. Praise and worship is important and we need
to this, but like I said before, if we do not study His
word, we will not really appreciate the one we are worshipping. The
more of the word that enters our hearts, the more true worship can
come from within us.
When I remember His word, it makes me
all the more ready to worship when its time to worship. The word
will help us to know who God is, what God has to say to us, why
Jesus had to die in order for us to have eternal life, what true
holiness is, whether or not the gifts of the spirit are for today or
did they die out with the apostles. If we are not rooted and
grounded in the word will may open ourselves up to deception.
Holiness is not wearing the right
clothes, to look holy on the outside, although it is good to dress
in a manner that does not cause offense. We should dress modessly
because we belong to the Lord. That alone though has no power to
save our souls though. I’m not making fun of the Amish or people who
dress in a way that is modess. In fact I admire them. In saying that, we can look holy
on the outside and be filled with bitterness, hate and not even be
saved. By the study of the word, we will know what holiness is. The
Lord requires holiness so we need to study the word to find out what
it really is.
There is a couple of religions that
teach that a woman’s salvation depends on her husband. I’m so glad
God gave the Holy Spirit to women as well as men for it refutes all
false religion that oppresses women.
By the study of the scriptures we will
avoid confusion, deception, getting bogged down with tradition,
ritualism, the wrong kind of fear and many other things but by the
study of the word will come into an awesome love and respect for God.
- Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled
thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he
might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth
man live.
Jesus repeated this when he spoke to
Satan when Satan was tempting him in the wilderness.
- Matthew 4:4 But he answered and
said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The importance of the word.
- Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like
as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces?
- 30 Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from
his neighbour.
- 31 Behold, I am against the
prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He
saith.
- 32 Behold, I am against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and
cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness;
yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall
not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.
The word is like a hammer and beats and
crushes. Take heed of how you use the Word of God. It must not be
used to deceive or teach false ways.
God is pictured here as being very
angry at false prophets and teachers who misuse the word or who say
things like, "God says," when He didn't say it. We must be very
careful not to add to or take away from the word of God. We must be
careful also not to claim that God says something or revealed to us
something unless it is really so. God takes it very seriously when
we teach something as His word when it is really our own word.
I do fear doing or saying
something that may cause a soul to be lost or to mislead anyone the
wrong way. I take this so serious. I hope that we all can learn to
tremble at the word of God because many deceivers are in the world.
Jesus warned of these.
- Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered
and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
- 5 For many shall come in my
name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
- 6 And ye shall hear of wars
and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these
things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
- 7 For nation shall rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be
famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
- 8 All these are the
beginning of sorrows.
- 9 Then shall they deliver
you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name's sake.
- 10 And then shall many be
offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one
another.
- 11 And many false prophets
shall rise, and shall deceive many.
- 12 And because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
- 13 But he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Matthew 24 seems to be speaking to the Jewish
people who live in Israel here. If we read history that has come
to pass and still is coming to pass throughout the world,
believers in Jesus that are not Jews have suffered persecution
because of their faith in Jesus.
Just before the 2nd coming of Jesus
though, the attention is centered around the area of Israel and many
false prophets shall arise to get them to follow the wrong one who
comes to deceive before the literal 2nd coming of Jesus. They don’t have to just claim to be
Christ but claim to represent Him. The study of the word diligently
will help us and them not to be among the deceived. It's okay to check all
that I say, and all that any pastor says by the word. If a pastor feels
threatened by someone measuring his words up with the written word,
then he is no pastor I want to have.
I know of a pastor who did feel very
offended because I questioned something about what he was teaching.
He expected me to trust him just because he was the pastor. No way
am I going to do that after those words I read by Jesus just now.
I’m not advocating finding fault with the pastor, talking behind his
back and having roast preacher for Sunday dinner. What I’m saying is
that we have to measure the words they say with
what "thus saith the Lord". If they conflict, ask questions. Don’t
call up sister so and so, but ask the pastor directly in the spirit of
meekness of course.
Remember the Lord is looking for people
who have respect to His word. He is looking for those who care what
the word says. I cringe when I hear someone say that they don’t care
what the bible says, they are going to do what they want anyway. Or
they accept the words of Jesus but not the apostle Paul. That scares
me also.
- John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
- 31 Then said Jesus to those
Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are
ye my disciples indeed;
- 32 And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free.
A good transaltion of the bible contains powerful words. It
is more important than all the highest education one can attain. If
I had a choice between obtaining the highest degree in education
possible or knowing the word of God, I would pick the word.
His word is a lamp unto our feet and a
light unto our path. There is an audio version of this but I've
proofread the written version.
Dorna
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