Well, turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66. And as you’re turning there, I would just say that when Andrew asked me to preach, I thought, okay, yeah, glad to preach. I’ll just pick a nice easy passage; I know Isaiah 66:1-2, a nice passage on God’s character and humility, and I’m excited about that.

And as I began to study it, I realized that these verses, verses 1 and 2, really couldn’t be taught faithfully in my opinion apart from the context of what God is saying in verses 1 through 6. And so as I continued to study, I realized that what I thought was going to be a really easy sermon was instead what God wanted me to say. So, I hope you came to hear God instead of me.

I have a confession to make. I forgot my breakfast this morning. I’m actually a really forgetful person. Some of you can relate to this. Last night before bed, my wife knew that I’d be leaving to go to the office early in the morning before she was awake, and so she reminded me where my breakfast was in the fridge, and she put the Tupperware containers all together there for me. And I did leave without my breakfast, but I didn’t leave without my Post-it note that says, don’t forget breakfast in the fridge. So I took this with me at least. But I did forget my breakfast.

I’m sure you can relate to this. You know, I don’t think it’s okay to be forgetful. I don’t just accept it; I battle against the evils of my forgetfulness, but I am forgetful often. Each morning when I go out the door there’s a little basket with the rest of my stuff that my keys and my wallet and all my pocket stuff goes into, and somehow I always get to my car and don’t have my keys.

Some days are worse than others. I lose my sunglasses when they’re on my head. I misplace my phone to discover after searching for twenty minutes that it’s in my pocket. I drop stuff in the parking lot on my way to the car. I forget to stop at the store on my way home. I forget to put the potatoes in the oven. The list goes on.

It drives me crazy; I always feel like I’m forgetting something because of this, usually because I am. You ever have those days? Or those weeks? Maybe you have that life too. You just feel like you’re forgetting something.

Unfortunately, sometimes it’s not just random unimportant things. Sometimes it kind of feels that way in our spiritual life too, huh? You ever feel like that in your walk with the Lord? Like, I feel like I’m forgetting something or maybe I’m like missing something.

I mean, maybe you’ve got it mostly figured out; there’s just kind of something missing. It doesn’t feel like it just snaps the way that it’s supposed to. All the pieces don’t totally fit. Like, I know I’m living the way that God wants me to. I think I’m doing all the things I’m supposed to. It just, I don’t know, it just seems a bit disconnected. I don’t feel super close with God all the time.

Well, this can be a symptom of a deeper issue, and that brings up a good question. What does God want from me? I mean, so that I can make sure that I’m not missing anything, exactly what does God want from me? What’s God looking for?

And people have ideas all over the place about this, even within the church, even within healthy churches, even within our church. Isaiah’s gonna help us this morning though. In Isaiah 66, it’s the final chapter of a book of 66 chapters. He’s writing to the Israelites who possessed both the temple and the Torah. They become so distracted in their walk with the Lord, so distracted by many of the things about their religious culture and their spiritual activities, that they had forgotten what God truly wants.

So the book of Isaiah is written by the prophet Isaiah whose ministry spanned the exile of the Israelites to Assyria, and Isaiah is in many ways holding out to them the need for repentance so that they would inherit the promises of the new heavens, the new earth. Having dwelt on the coming glory of these new heavens and the new earth that the Lord will one day create in the chapters leading up to this, now here in chapter 66 Isaiah turns his attention to the lives of the people. And he tells them, there are some of you who are going to inherit the coming glory, inherit the promises of the new heavens and the new earth. But there are some of you who could have—who can—but who will not.

So here in this passage Isaiah gives the Israelites a lesson on how to view their religious lives with clarity. Isaiah gives them a lesson on what God is looking for, and he pleads with them to make certain that their calling and election are sure.

So look with me. Isaiah 66, starting in verse 1.

¹Thus 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? ² All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

When God says here in verse 1, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool,” he’s not communicating where he sits or what he does with his feet. He’s communicating who he is and what he’s not looking for.

This is kind of like this little reality check for the Israelites here who are so proud of their temple, so proud of their own achievements for God. They would have said, wait, Isaiah, hang on. Look at all that we’re doing. Look at the temple and the religious system. Look at the religious sacrifices we perform, Isaiah. They thought that they were spiritually healthy because they had big accomplishments for God, but that’s not what God was looking for.

Notice the repetition here in verse 1. “[W]hat [or where] is the house that you would build for me, and what [where] is the place of my rest?” It’s hard to resist the irony here. God is like looking around for the temple, and he can’t seem to find it. It’s like he doesn’t notice it. I can’t find it, because that’s not what God is looking for. It’s almost like the Israelites are saying, but look at our temple, look at all we’re doing for the Lord! And God’s like, yeah, yeah … where is it? I can’t … where is that temple? Can’t seem to find it among all these things my hand has made.

The temple is a good thing—God blessed the temple—but by Isaiah’s day many of the Israelites had their confidence in the temple and in the formalities and rituals of the temple, not in the Lord himself. So God is saying to them here, listen, I don’t need your fancy temple and your rituals. You think I’m impressed by that? I own everything. I made everything. What do you think you’re gonna do for me, Israelites? There’s nothing that you can do for me that I need.

This is like Paul preached on Mars Hill in Acts 17. Right? “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25).

Good for us to remember, right? We serve God. We do great deeds for God in his name. We work hard. We organize church programs and events, and all of these are good. We can multiply ministries and boast in our Bible studies; we can build broad buildings for God made by man and human hands and striking steeples and praiseworthy pillars of pomp. But then we can sometimes stand back and look at all our accomplishments and think, surely God is with us because look at all we’re doing in his name.

But when we say, look at all that we’ve made for you, God, he says, I’m sorry; can’t seem to find your little playdough project among all these things my hand has made, because that’s not what God is looking for. One author says, “The proliferation of religiosity in the form of meetings, prayer, singing, and religious talk will not promote or sustain spiritual life.”

Solomon understood this when they originally built the temple. Right? You can read about that in 1 Kings 8. In Solomon’s prayer of dedication in the temple—listen to this—this is the grand opening of the temple, right? Day one, the ribbon cutting ceremony. Solomon says in front of all of Israel, it says: “Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, and said, ‘O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you … But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!’” (1 Kings 8:22-23, 27).

“Will God indeed dwell on the earth?” Solomon asks, standing on the front steps of the temple, as it were. And his question seems to be rhetorical. Moving towards the answer, no. No. Heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain him; he will not dwell on the earth. But the answer that the whole prayer is based on is yes. Yes. And that is remarkable. God will indeed dwell with his people.

Solomon continues, “[Lord] have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, … that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place” (1 Kings 8:28-29). Heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain him, and yet he will dwell with men.

Here in our verses, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what [where then] is the house that you would build for me, and what [where] is the place of my rest?” Will God indeed dwell on earth with men? You would think it’s a question that could only be answered, no! How could he? He’s God! But the answer is yes. Throughout Scripture, the answer is yes. This God whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is earth indeed will condescend to dwell with men.

And we ought to be staggered by this. In Isaiah’s time, God came to dwell among his people in the temple. When Jesus was born—Immanuel, God with us—he walked the earth himself, and now God comes to dwell in his people when the Spirit takes up residence in all who humble themselves before the Lord. 1 Corinthians 6:19: “[Y]our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”

So God will come to dwell with men. But then, what is he looking for? Well, Isaiah continues:

¹Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what [where then] is the house that you would build for me, and what [where] is the place of my rest? ² 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.”

The word “but” there in your Bibles—“But this is the one to whom I will look”—I mean, you can see the contrast just in the English. This preposition “but” is actually three words in the Hebrew, a fascinating, awkward, crazy grammatical construction, literally translated, “there there there.” As though there are three different words for “there.”

And it’s a play on words, you see in the context. Before God’s saying, where’s your temple? Where? Where? There! There! There is the one to whom I will look, to him who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. God found what he was looking for.

One commentator says, “One object in all creation amidst sun and stars secures the gaze of the great Creator.” What object is it? It’s a person—the one. It’s a representative, the one. There is one kind of person to whom God pays attention, and what are the defining characteristics of this one kind of person? Three things, he says. He’s humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

This is really just three things to say the same thing. Right? To be humble means to be socially at the bottom, to be intentionally low.

To be contrite in spirit literally means lamed in spirit. This is someone who understands that at the core of who they are, they have broken legs. They are lamed in spirit. Spiritual inability. Damaged sinful failure. Incompetence, inability, powerlessness. Contrite in spirit. Broken.

Someone who trembles at my word, he says. This is really the resulting response of true humility—fear of hearing God speak. Trembling before our Creator and his words to us.

So what does that look like in the life of a believer? I think Ezra, chapter 9—listen as I read. They’ve just come to tell Ezra about the sin among the people, and this is Ezra’s response. He says, “[A]ll who trembled at the words of the God of Israel … gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice” (Ezra 9:4). He’s appalled by their sin collectively.

“And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying: ‘O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens’” (Ezra 9:5-6)

He ends this prayer in verse 15: “Behold, we are before you in our guilt [Lord], for none can stand before you.”

This is the heart attitude where it all begins. The way up is down. We always say we want revival. We want spiritual renewal among ourselves. We want the gospel to spread. We want there to be a fresh, clear spiritual life and vitality among our church. This is where it all begins. When the people of God are so broken over their sin that all they can do is go low before God.

Our elders are reading a book together on revival. In it, the author describes historically what has happened before every massive revival. We were so struck by this, I put it in our elders meeting notes, and we prayed that this would be true in our church. The author describes the revival in Jonathan Edwards’ day, and he says:

Those within the church suddenly became aware that their problem was not isolated acts of conscious disobedience to God but a deep aversion to God at the root of their personalities, an aversion which left them in unconscious bondage to unbelief, selfishness, jealousy, and other underlying complexes of sin. Some were in agony, even being convicted that they were not more convicted, until they broke through to the realization that the only righteousness that could reconcile such depravity to a holy God was that of Jesus Christ, and the new lives that they began to live issued out of hearts thoroughly broken because of their sin.

God’s not looking at all that we do for him. He’s looking for us to recognize and admit that we can’t do anything for him. But more than that, he’s looking for us to recognize and admit that we are spiritually broken, lame in spirit. Broken legs.

You might think, yeah, I mean, listen, I don’t know about the broken legs thing—that’s weird—but I mean, I am doing everything that God has told me to. I know the Bible. I’m living an obedient life. I think I’m actually doing pretty good. So what does God think about people who, you know, maybe have this attitude of humility, maybe not, but, you know, they’re still doing all the right things, all the things he says to do, going to church, doing all the right things, reading their Bibles, not divorcing their spouse, loving their kids. Right? It’s kind of like, I’m doing all the right stuff here.

Well, let’s see what God says to the Israelites about religious people like that. Verse 3. Read along with me in your copy of God’s word. Verse 3:

³He 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.

Slaughters an ox, sacrifices a lamb, presents a grain offering, makes a memorial sacrifice—these are actually the things that God had told them to do in the temple. This is what they’re supposed to be doing, right? This is all the acts of obedience. They’re actually doing all of the right things, right? Offering sacrifices, presenting grain offerings, memorial offerings of frankincense. You notice how God—this is God speaking through the prophet Isaiah—lines those things up and says, you’re doing all of the right things, but this is how it looks to me. It looks to me like someone who kills a man, breaks a dog’s neck, offers pig’s blood, and worships an idol.

You can see why I would have been really happy to just preach verses 1 and 2 like I planned, until I studied the rest of this and realized it really all needed to go to together.

This is the same reason Amos told the people of Israel, go to Bethlehem and sin. Wait, what do you mean, go to Bethlehem? They’re going to the temple to offer sacrifices, and you’re telling them to go to Bethlehem and sin?

His point? You’re so far off in your heart that when you go to worship, you’re sinning. God is not pleased. He’s offended. It’s as though God is saying to them, how dare you? You do all this stuff for me when you won’t do the one thing I’m asking you to do.

These religious people are further described in verse 5. Look at it. Now, this verse 5 is meant to be an encouragement to the humble who tremble at his word, but listen to how God describes the religious people as he’s encouraging the faithful people. He says:

⁵ Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name’s sake have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame.”

Here these people who seem to be doing all the right things are actually characterized as conflict creators. They’re creating conflict among the brethren. The lack of humility in these religious people plays itself out in criticism of the truly faithful people. The religious people—the religious people—are actually attacking the faithful people on their own turf.

Notice the religious people are referred to as “your brothers.” Notice what they say: May the Lord be glorified. You see that? These people are in there. They’re doing the deal, living the life. They know the routines; they’ve got the church lingo down. They’re using it all though as a means to look better because they’ve never truly been broken over their sin. And the primary activity that characterizes the life of this false worshiper in these verses is conflict with the people around them.

This passage is showing us, people who create conflict often do that because they’re not broken over their sin. People who are not broken over their sin are shown here in these verses to be false worshipers.

It’s almost like conflict is a yellow penalty flag. Whhhpp! Hits the field, and everybody’s like, eerrrrt! Time out! [attempts to whistle] Oh, I can’t whistle. Time out! Right? The penalty flag hits the grass, and everybody stops, and the guy who got a penalty called is like, what did I do? And the ref says, you’re not humble. Right? Conflict is the penalty flag that gets thrown so that we can see. It’s God alerting us—time out. You got conflict with other believers? It might be because you’re not humble.

Friends, play close attention to your life. Isaiah is saying—Yahweh is saying through Isaiah—that you could be doing all the right things and still be a false worshiper without humility. So what is one of the ways then that you can tell if you’re a false worshiper?

Well, as in this passage in Isaiah 66, true humility in Scripture is so frequently found connected with the way you treat other Christians. The underlying assumption is, if you’re just kind of having a really hard time in the church and you’re not experiencing peace and unity with other believers, it might be because you aren’t one. Paul warned Timothy that there would be people in the church who hold to a form of godliness but deny its power. And so they resist godliness in its true form.

I’d say, be careful if you find yourself constantly criticizing the religious activities of other believers. You say, well, Jesus said we’re supposed to confront sin, you know. Yeah, I know it looks like I’m involved in conflict, but it’s because I’m trying to help people to see their sin. But don’t forget that confrontation passages in Scripture nearly always include the requirement of humility.

In Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). “[F]irst take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

Galatians 6:1-2. If anyone is caught in sin, you would say, we who are spiritual are gonna go and restore him. I know it looks like conflict; I’m just trying to restore my brother. Well, don’t forget Galatians 6:1 also says, “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

You say, well, you know, we’re supposed to be passionate for good doctrine. I know it looks like conflict, but I’m just trying to help people correct their doctrine. I think these are the kinds of things the Israelites would have said to Isaiah here.

I’m just trying to help people correct their doctrine. You know, I’ve been taught so well; I just know the Scriptures so well, and I just want to help others too. Well, that’s a great desire. But recognize that for all of us who know the word, there becomes a temptation towards pride. We need to start low, start with humility.

Paul understood this. That’s why after eleven chapters of doctrine, maybe the richest doctrinal section of the entire New Testament—Romans, chapters 1 through 11, this massive unfolding of doctrine—we’re familiar with the hinge on which the book turns in Romans 12:1-2. Don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed. That’s very general, right?

In the very next verses, Paul gets very specific about what he means by that. He says—here’s the first thing he’s concerned about—“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think … as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function” (Romans 12:3-4).

So you notice he says, don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to—doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine … humility. And humility in the context of the body. In how it plays itself out, “individually members one of another.” After eleven chapters of doctrine, the first thing Paul wants to make sure they get is humble hearts and the way it looks within the church.

One author says, “As the Holy Spirit opened the eyes of their hearts and illuminated theological concepts, the opaque orthodoxy of the laity suddenly becomes a transparent medium for vision through which they saw the glory of God.”

What does all of that mean? It means our theology shouldn’t be opaque. Right? Theology shouldn’t be something that we hold up and we can’t see past it. Our theology ought to be transparent. Through our doctrine and our theology, we see through it to the glory of God. And it humbles us. And we stay low. And the more theology we know, the more of the glory of God we see. True followers of God, true worshipers, are characterized by this humility, and the primary way that humility expresses itself is towards other people in the church.

Again, Paul highlights the same thing in his letter to the Ephesians. Right? After spending half the letter on doctrine—chapters 1, 2, and 3—chapters 4, 5, and 6 are going to be the practical application of that doctrine, and he says right out of the gate in chapter 4, verse 1, “I therefore … urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” General. Now specific: “…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit” (Ephesians 4:2-4).

So, it’s okay to love theology and doctrine. That’s fantastic. Paul wrote three chapters of it to the Ephesians. But then the immediate application was humility, and unity from that humility. So it’s not okay to love theology and doctrine more than unity. Good doctrine creates unity because it creates humility.

So be careful if you feel you need things in your church to match up with all of your personal preferences and everybody needs to agree with you about everything, especially if those personal preferences cause you to speak ill of other believers. Be careful not to find yourself in this category, of people who, in the name of the Lord, are criticizing other believers.

Ray Ortlund says, “When we want to find fault, we can always discover something, but the eyes of negative scrutiny are an offense to God.”

So as we see here in Isaiah 66, this characteristic of the truly humble worshipers of God contrasted with those who will not humble themselves before the Lord but they’re doing all of the right things—we’re seeing that these people create conflict among the body.

And so I would say based on that, beware if you repeatedly find yourself concerned about how bad that other person’s doctrine is. Beware if you find yourself offended by other Christians all the time. Beware if you’re always wounded by what they did. Beware if you feel you constantly need to defend your reputation because they misunderstood me. Beware if you never seem to have anything to repent of. Beware if you can’t remember the last time you said to somebody, you’re right; please forgive me.

These are symptoms of pride. Pride is a symptom of unbelief. And unbelief in our passage here this morning is a symptom of being a false worshiper. One of the very characteristics of these false worshipers is they think that they’re true worshipers. So beware.

You might be in there, living the life, knowing the routines of the church, the Christian lingo. You might have the best doctrine in the room. But if your heart is not broken before God, if you’re not humbled by your sin, then all of your acts of worship are just an attack on God.

Friends, we have to remember as you walk through the pages of Scripture, it’s Aaron and Miriam who most strongly opposed Moses. Judas was one of Jesus’ disciples. When God came to earth as a man, it was the religious people who killed him. The people who have the greatest potential to do damage in our church are not out there.

What I want you to get from these verses is that for all of our external rule keeping, if it does not flow from a humble, genuinely repentant heart, it is worse than useless; it is offensive to God. And it often manifests itself in conflict with people within the church.

So what does God say then to these people? Well, his response to these religious people is found in verses 3 and 4. God says:

These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; ⁴ 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.

Notice the bracketing theme here: These have chosen, their soul delights, I also will choose, and (at the end) that in which I did not delight is what they chose. All of this bracketing here is driving home the central theme there. God says, “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.” This is judgment language for people doing all the right things but lacking brokenness and humility before the Lord.

Verse 5 says they will be put to shame. This is ironic because earlier in Isaiah, it was the Israelites accusing God of being silent and unresponsive, and here God says, I’m not the one who’s silent. I have spoken to you. It is you who have been unresponsive, Israel.

When he says, “These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations,” it sounds like, and we think immediately, he means those unbelievers out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they choose abominations and sexual immorality and greed and things like that, so God’s gonna punish them.

But these are the people who are coming to the temple, doing the things God commanded in his word. These are people who are sacrificing lambs and offering burnt offerings. These are people who, by all external evaluation, everyone else would have said, yeah, they’re a follower of the Lord.

Jesus knew this was gonna be the case too. He knew it was the case in Old Testament Israel; he knew it would be the case in the church. Jesus was deeply concerned that people in the church would be deceived by their own good doctrine and obedient track record and never realize that they’re on their way to hell.

That’s why in Matthew 23—and all over the place in the New Testament—but in Matthew 23, Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees [these are the religious people], … For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28).

And so he says, “Woe to you … hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25). He says—listen to this—here’s his instructions to those religious people: “First clean the inside of the cup” (Matthew 23:26). Then the outside will be clean also.

So many people hear that and think, yes, I’m gonna work harder at cleaning the inside of the cup. That’s not the right response. The right response is, clean the inside of the cup? Lord, I can’t! Help me, God, I can’t clean my heart. No matter how much I try to change all of my behaviors, I see within myself something waging war within my members, this sinful flesh that still wants all the wrong things; God, I can’t change myself! Help me!

And that’s when God says, you got it. That’s exactly right. You can’t. If you’ve ever thought that God was silent, he’s not silent right now. God says, I’m talking to you loud and clear through my word. If you’ve ever hoped that God would help you, he’s showing you the way here in this passage this morning.

This is the one to whom I will look, he says to you this morning, to the one who is humble and broken in spirit, who trembles at my word. God wants you broken over your sin, ruined and humble, not just trying harder. The only truly humble man who’s ever walked the earth was Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. We have to say, even when we come to a passage on humility, and we say, yes, I want this; I want to be humble! And I’m not. God, change my heart.

Christ walked humbly to the cross to forgive your arrogance, to wash away my arrogance, to cleanse us of our self-righteous pride. Entrust yourself to him this morning. Humble your proud, religious heart before him and receive his grace.

Smash your doctrinally accurate arrogance over the Cornerstone. Nail your well-informed preferences to the cross of Jesus Christ. Let him cleanse you of all sin, that it would be that your sin is scattered as far as the east is from the west. Run to him this morning. Because Jesus also said, in that same context in Matthew 23, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).

And that’s why Isaiah really does the same thing, or really the Lord writing through the prophet Isaiah does the same thing in Isaiah 66. In these next few verses, verses 5 and 6, it’s precious. God turns again now to speak to the truly humble followers.

There’s been this harsh rebuke of the self-righteous, and now he turns to the truly humble followers, and notice the repetition of their primary characteristic again. Verse 5:

⁵Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name’s sake have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame.”

God wants to encourage the humble here, because if you’re truly humble, like these Israelites, you will get walked on by some of your brothers. You will get taken advantage of. You will get mocked. He describes the attackers here as “your brothers who hate you.”

One commentator says, “The humble and contrite are often not welcome among religious people, because longing for God to come down and change everything isn’t what religious people want.”

See, if you’re truly broken over your sin and longing like this deeply for revival from God—spiritual renewal—if you’re willing to sacrifice your religious culture and pseudo-spiritual preferences for the sake of the true kingdom of God, then you will be persecuted by some of those within the church who love their religious culture and are unwilling to see it altered for the sake of anything.

You’ll be accused of legalism. You’ll be criticized for not finding a way to accommodate everyone’s opposing preferences. They’ll go tell other people how wrong you are. You will be told that it’s your fault because you didn’t spend enough time with them. And they’ll do that, by the way, because their hope is in you, not in God; and so when you don’t follow through and fix them, they’ll be mad at you about it.

Your words will be taken out of context. They’ll be used against you. You will face persecution. If you’re a true believer, if you are a word-trembler, then you will face persecution, not only from the world—yes—but also from some of the tares among the wheat.

Humble people will get stepped on and taken advantage of and spoken ill of, and you might think, man, that doesn’t sound worth it. What are we doing here? Are we crazy? The Lord wants to encourage you this morning, you who tremble at his word. Endure for the sake of his name. Your reward is great in heaven, Jesus says.

Matthew 5: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

You’re in good company. If you’re facing persecution for your faithfulness to the Lord, even from other believers, you’re in good company and your reward in heaven is great. Because humble people have one very powerful thing going for them. God!

Those who accept his ways in humility and brokenness over sin will enjoy fellowship with him in the new heavens and the new earth forever; that’s the whole context of the book of Isaiah. The new heavens and the new earth are coming; don’t live for this old world! So come what may, the future is ours!

One final encouragement to the humble word-tremblers here in Isaiah this morning, and honestly it’s a shocking one. Again, I just wanted to end the sermon here. But that’s not how God wrote it.

God says to the broken and humble, you will be persecuted, but I will look to you, and you will be with me. Then, as though suddenly interrupted by the screaming sound of destruction and eternal punishment—verse 6: “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the Lord [Yahweh], rendering recompense to his enemies!”

And in the original it’s, listen! An uproar from the city! Listen! An uproar from the temple! Listen to the Lord repaying his enemies! As though he can hear it from where he’s standing.

The Lord holds out to believers the encouragement of a great coming eschatological reversal. Those who are humble in this world will be exalted, and he says to the encouragement of all of the humble, those who exalt themselves over you and trample all over you—they will be humbled. Forever.

If they will not tremble before his word today, they will tremble before his wrath forever. The city and temple will be gone. Your enemies will be exposed as divine enemies. They will receive eternal wrath, while you are welcomed into the presence of God in the new heavens and the new earth.

The old story is told of three siblings who were orphaned. The parents were killed in an accident. They were left alone, just the three of them.

A king from a distant land heard about their predicament, how hard life had become for them, and he wrote a letter, saying, I am coming to adopt you. I am gonna bring you to my kingdom. I’m gonna bring you to my domain, and you will be my children.

And so they run all over town with this letter. Look! The king is coming to adopt us! And do you know what everyone says? You’d better get ready. You’d better prepare yourselves. You’d better look good when he shows up. You’d better have gifts ready for him.

So the oldest sister immediately gets ready preparing herself. She runs and begins to brush her hair and put on all the makeup she can. She’s doing everything she can to make herself presentable. She can’t wash enough. She can’t clean herself enough. She can’t do enough to prepare herself, because the king is coming.

The middle brother gets busy preparing a gift. He gets to work in the shop. He’s making something for the king because the king is going to adopt him, and he wants to be ready for it. So he’s preparing this gift.

And the youngest sister looks up to her older sister, her older brother, and says, I don’t know what to do. I need your help getting ready. I can’t get myself ready. I need your help preparing a gift. I have nothing to offer him; I don’t know what I’m gonna give him when he gets here. I’m afraid. I have nothing. I can’t do this.

The oldest sister is too busy preparing herself to help her little sister, the older brother too busy preparing a gift to help his younger sister. The youngest sister wants their help, but they’re too busy, they’re rude to her, and they send her away.

Then the king comes. To make the children feel more comfortable, he comes dressed as a peasant. He didn’t want to overwhelm them when he walked in the door, and so he comes dressed in peasant clothes.

And as he walks from room to room, this peasant walks in and the oldest sister says, sir, forgive me, I’m far too busy preparing myself. You’ll have to come another time. He goes out to the shop, and the older brother says, sir, forgive me, I’m far too busy preparing a gift for the king. You’ll have to come another time.

The king walks back to the bedroom, finds the youngest sister lying in her bed, crying. And he says, sweet child, what is it? Why are you so upset? She says, the king is coming to adopt me. I have no gift to give him. I have nothing to offer him. I can’t even get myself ready for his arrival, and they won’t help me!

The king says, it is I. I’m the king. Dear child, be not afraid. I own everything. I don’t need a gift from you. And I already knew you were helpless; that’s why I sent the letter. That’s why I came for you.

The king takes the little sister to live with him in his kingdom. And the older brother and the older sister are left to prepare themselves and prepare their gifts. And so they do for the rest of their lives.

Father, we have nothing to offer you. No gift to give, no way to make ourselves right, no way to make ourselves even the slightest bit presentable. We have nothing.

And so, Father, we simply come to you, throwing ourselves at your mercy. We need your grace, God. And we exalt, we boast in the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Lord, at the cross you took all of the disgusting filth of our sin, and you put it on your Son, on yourself. And he took our sin to the grave so that when he rose again, he offers new life, true life.

And Lord, we confess we have nothing; you have everything. We put our faith entirely in you and not in our own efforts. And Lord, we’re asking that that would make us, the people in this room, the most humble people, that we would show each other so much patience and grace, that we would bear with one another in love, that we would forsake our preferences for the sake of unity. We want to be the kind of people characterized by this kind of humility because we’ve seen our sin, and we’ve been broken by the reality, and we’ve humbled ourselves before you.

Lord, you’ve given us your Spirit so that you would empower us to live and to walk in this way. Father, as we seek to obey the truth of your word, let it be from humble hearts. Let it be in obedience by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the flesh, so that we may live.

And let your gospel rule and reign in this place, that you would look to our prayers and answer, that you would spread your gospel here in Prescott and in Chino Valley and in Paulden and Prescott Valley and Dewey-Humboldt. Lord, let people see that the name of Jesus Christ is great above all things. And let them see it in the way that we come in humility. Let them see it in the unity that you give us.

God, we’re so grateful for the depth of unity that you have wrought among this body of humble believers. And we know it’s all your grace, not our own doing. So we give you the praise and the thanks and the glory and honor, forever. Amen.