Go ahead and turn back to Isaiah
chapter 66. So do that. Earlier this week, I was reading
the Proverbs, and I came across a familiar one that most of you
probably know. It's Proverbs 14, 12 that says,
there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death. I want you to consider just for
a second what that means, because I hadn't really before. There
is a way that seems right to us in our natural state. We are born in this world thinking
that there is a right way by nature. We have natural thoughts
about who the Lord is. about what he favors, about who
he favors, and about how that favor is obtained. But they're
all wrong. And if we follow that way, that
path that seems right to us, that we're convinced is right,
it leads to a devastating end. That's death. And not a physical
death. That's an appointment old men
are going to keep. It's a spiritual death. It's a death that's accompanied
by these words, depart from me. I never knew you. I don't want
to hear those words. So if that's the case, if I can't
trust myself, what I naturally think, what the natural man thinks,
where can I go to find who and what to believe? The answer is
found in the first four words of verse one. Thus saith the
Lord. That exact phrase is found over
a thousand times in the scripture, but in all actuality it prefaces
every single verse inside this book. Every single word spoken
in this book is a thus saith the Lord. This is the Lord's
declaration to this generation of who he is. And folks, there
is only one story told in this book, just one. It's just told
over and over and over again. It's a story of Jesus Christ,
the God-man, and what he has accomplished for his people.
And I don't know that I have another topic or theme for this
message tonight, other than I just want to tell that story. Just
one more time. Let's read it again. Pick up
in verse one. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house
that you build unto me? And where is the place of my
rest? For all those things mine hand
made and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to
this man will I look." And folks, that word look there means to
look with care and with favor, and it even means this, you can
look up if you want, respect. To this man will I look, even
to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.
The title for my message tonight is The True House of God. In verse one, there's a statement
of fact. The Lord says, the heaven is
my throne, and the earth is my footstool. This is the Lord declaring
his immensity, how large and overwhelming his person actually
is, and he gives us a measuring tool of sorts that we would have
some understanding of how overpowering and large his person actually
is. He says, the heaven, the universe, that's just where I
sit down. That's just my chair. I read
a bunch of articles in preparation for this, a lot of physicists
talking about how big men think the universe is, and all of them
came to this same conclusion. We don't know. We have no idea.
As far as we can tell, it's infinite. It's ever-expanding. It just
goes on and on, and it never ends. And folks, no doubt it
takes a throne of infinite proportions to support a God who is, he himself
is infinite and eternal and everlasting. He never had a beginning. He
will never have an end. He is the uncreated one. He is
completely and utterly independent. He's the only entity that is,
and we should stand in all that. But keep in mind, God is spirit.
He's spirit, and in that sense, he is omnipresent. He is everywhere,
all at once. When we're talking about the
immensity of the Lord, we're talking about the immensity of
his attributes, those things that make up who he is. And I
want to spend just a few minutes talking about the immensity of
his attributes, just a few of them. I want you to consider
this first. I want you to consider the immensity of his mercy, chiefly
for his people. David said this in Psalm 23 in
verse 5. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Now David's enemies, these were
not men who were seeking to challenge him to kick him off his throne.
David had the same enemies you and I have, David's sins. David
was in the constant presence of his sin, just like you and
I are. Legions of them got us all surrounded. Sometimes we
see him real clear, sometimes not very clear at all. But we're
always in the presence of them. But I love to think about this.
For the Lord's people in the presence of all those enemies,
he prepares a table. And with all the anxiety and
all the fear that accompanies seeing those enemies, he says,
sit down. You sit down and you just rest.
You see all those enemies out there? You see them? Those are
all defeated enemies. They were defeated when my song
hung in his head and said, it is finished. They can't hurt
you. Take your eyes off them. Look
here at my cup. Watch it. Watch it as it overflows
and overflows and overflows. That's the cup of my mercy. Now
here's what you're going to do. You're going to sit here and
you're going to drink. And you're going to drink, and you're going
to drink, and you're going to draw off that cup, and you're going to draw off
that cup, and you have this promise, that cup is never going to run
dry. And folks, I'll make no excuse for my sin, and I'll make
no excuse for yours. But I rest in this. All those enemies, they're
defeated enemies. And there's more mercy in that
cup than there are enemies. The immensity of his mercy, it
never runs dry. I want you to consider the immensity
of his wisdom. Isaiah 40 verse 12 says, he meted out heaven
with a spam. Now we said a minute ago, no
man knows how large the universe is. We have no idea. You know
who does? The Lord does. He knows exactly how large the
universe is. You want to know why? Because
he purposed it. And he designed it. And he created
it. And being pleased with his purpose
and his design, he hung it just as easily, just as simply, as
a man hangs up some grapes in his living room. It was that
easy for him. And we marvel that the wisdom
it took to create everything we see, the universe, trees outside,
this earth, your body right now, your heart's beating, your breathing
air, all subconsciously, the wisdom it took to create all
that, we should marvel more at this. He knew what it took to
save a sinner, the very sacrifice of himself. And knowing the cost,
he did not hesitate to make payment. That's the wisdom of God, that
he knew how to be just and justify somebody like you and me. I want you to consider again,
this time, the immensity of his wrath. I dislike greatly talking
about hell. I don't like it. But there is
a place called hell. And that is a place where the wrath of
God never ends. It is on those people who are
there forever. It never ends. You want to know why? Because
man can't satisfy God. We can't satisfy his holy law,
and even in our suffering, we cannot satisfy his holy justice.
That's why hell must last forever, is because man is so impotent
that he can't even suffer appropriately, that the justice of God will
be honored. But for his people, we have this promise. Isaiah
53, 11. Claire, you read it last week.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. He even did that right. When
the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, he suffered perfectly. He suffered
unto satisfaction. He actually honored God's holy
law. And for everyone he suffered for, God is satisfied with them. And finally, the immensity of
his sovereignty. I was looking through this this afternoon.
I had a bunch of points, a lot of things I wanted to say, but
how about we just get to the point, get right down to it, and let's
talk about election. But folks, I want to talk about
the election of grace. The fact that before time began. God loved Jesus Christ. And he
loved everybody in him. And because he loved them in
Christ, he chose them unto salvation. He gave them to Christ in the
covenant of grace. He said, these are my people and they're your
people. You're going to go, you're going to live for them. You're
going to die for them. and I'm placing the sole responsibility
of bringing them back to me, safe and sound, without a scratch
on them, that's in your hands." And Christ said, I will. Now,
the natural man is always going to have problems with election.
He's going to say it's unfair. He's going to say it excludes,
it excludes men who want to be saved. It does not. This has
been said time and time again. I'm going to say it again. Election
does not exclude men who want to be saved. It includes men
who would otherwise be damned. I want to tell you this story.
I have a good friend, he was raised in what we probably call
hyper-Calvinistic religion. And he said when he was growing
up, before the Lord revealed the gospel to him, he couldn't handle election. Every time he heard of it, it
made him cringe, made him afraid, made him terrified. He said he
was given this illustration, and I'll give it to you. Six
lepers come to Christ, and the Lord says, I'll take you, and
you, and you, and not you, you, and you. I can tell why he's terrified.
That's a terrible illustration, but if you want to use that illustration,
here it is. No lepers come to Christ. Not
a one. And we all stood afar off, shaking
our fist, saying we will not have this man to reign over us.
Disdaining his person, hating his grace, because if salvation
is by grace, that means there's no glory in it for us. And we
turned tail and we ran the opposite direction. But because of electing
love, for some of us, the arm of sovereign fetching grace reached
out and said, not you. You will go no further. I loved
you. I sent my son to die for you.
You will go no further. And he turned to us, and he drew
us to himself. Don't think for a second that
the sovereignty of God and salvation holds you off, folks. It is the
only thing that will pull you in. Right now, folks, if you
were looking to Christ, if he is all you got and he's all you
need, that is the very evidence of your election, because you'd
be running the other direction if he didn't. Now, and having some understanding
of the immensity of the Lord's character, let's answer the questions
in verse one. Where is the house that you build unto me? Where
is the place of my rest? The answer is you can't. Where
are you going to build a house to contain the almighty, eternal,
everlasting God? Are you going to build him in
heaven? That's just his chair? You can build on the earth, that's
where he props up his feet. What are you going to use? Use wood? That's his wood. The design for
the building, who would give the wisdom for the design? All
these things my hand hath made. And all these things have been,
saith the Lord. The answer is, you can't. We cannot contain
the almighty living God in a building. And this is actually an issue
that comes up a lot in the scriptures. Paul addresses it with the Athenians.
Turn to Acts 17, I want you to look at this. Paul's preaching to a bunch of
Athenian intellectuals. And if you pick up in verse 24,
Let's hear what he has to say to them about the Lord. Verse 24, Paul says, God that
made the world and all things therein, he's the creator. Seeing
that he is Lord of heaven and earth, he's the sovereign. Dwelleth
not in temples made with hands. Neither is worshiped with men's
hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth all life and
breath and all things. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. Why would Paul have to tell these
people this? Look up at verse 16. Now while Paul waited for
them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, means he was
provoked, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. That's why he had to tell them
this, because they were idolaters. The historical records at Athens
in this point say that there were more than 30,000 just public,
not private, just public monuments and statues and shrines and temples
to various false gods all over the city. There's a politician
that's quoted in a bunch of commentary as saying this, if you come to
Athens, you're more likely to find a god than you are a man.
They had idols all over the town. Now, what is idolatry? I think
sometimes when we think of idolatry, we think immediately of things
that we can touch, things that we can see, things that we can
manipulate. Statues, monuments, crosses, things like that. That
is a symptom of idolatry, but that's not really it. Idolatry
is simply this, it is any false view of the Lord, any wrong view
of him, any view that is not grounded and settled in the scriptures.
And the motivation for idolatry is always the same. It is hatred
for the Lord as he is, particularly his sovereignty. That's what
the motivation is. Now, that's the case. We can also give this definition
to idolatry. We can simplify it even more.
An idol, simply enough, is anywhere a man would look for hope of
salvation outside of Christ. That's it. A simple definition.
I'm going to give you some examples of that. We're going to start
with some things that we can touch, that we can see, and work
our way from there. Think about this. What about
my church? A man says, I attend a church where the gospel is
preached. I must be saved, right? If that is a man's hope, he's
not looking to Christ. He's looking to his church. His
church has become his idol. What about his family? My wife's
saved. She believes the gospel. My mother,
my father, my brother, they all believe the gospel. I must be
saved, right? That's my hope. I'm not looking to Christ. My
family's become my idol. What about when we start looking
within? What about this? Somebody says, I feel terrible about my
sin all the time. Just beat up about it all the
time. I feel terrible about it. I must be saved. Number one,
you don't feel bad enough. And neither do I. Number two,
if that's where a man's looking, if his hope is in his sorrow,
he's not looking to Christ. He's looking within. And this
is an easy one. This one always comes up. What
about my will? Man says, I've made the appropriate choice for
Jesus. I've opened my heart's door. I've allowed him in. I've
allowed him to be my personal savior. If that is a man's confession,
if that is his hope, number one, he knows nothing about God and
he knows nothing about himself. Number two, if that's his confession,
that's his hope. His will is his idol. He is his idol. He's become his own God. We go
on and on all night. One thing I do want you to pay
attention to is this, what these people were engaged in, this
idolatry, this sums up man's religion perfectly, just in a
nutshell. Think of this for a second. These people did not like, they
hated the true and living God, so they created their own God
in their mind, one they were more comfortable with. Now somebody
says, hold on a second. These were a bunch of Gentiles.
What if they had never read what was there for the Bible at the
time? What if they'd never heard of Jesus Christ? How could you
hate someone that you've never met? Folks, the light of creation
alone tells us that God is, and that he is eternally powerful,
that he is in control, and he should be sought. And the problem's
with us that we won't. We won't. They had a disdain,
a hatred for the true and living God, so they created their own,
one they were more comfortable with. And after they created
it in their own imagination, they built a shrine. They built
a statue. They built a temple, whatever
you want to call it. And they said, this is where my God lives.
I've brought him into this cell, into this captivity. I've created
him. Now I've got him. I've got him cornered right here.
And here's the next thing they did. They made an offering. They
brought the best that they could bring. And in the God of their
imagination, he could accept that. And once he created them
and they brought him into their captivity and offered their best,
now he was indebted to do whatever it is they told him to do. And
that is man's religion in a nutshell. Hatred for God, creating their
own. And they build a nice church
with a big steeple and a large cross on the wall and said, this
is where he lives. And they offer their will. They
offer their experiences, their sorrow, whatever it may be. Now
he's indebted. Now he has to save me. But Paul
is real clear. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. Folks, we are not in control.
You cannot place the Lord under your thumb. You're under his
thumb. He's in control. He dwelleth
not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship with men's
hands. He's not impressed with us or anything we could possibly
bring to him. It's all vanity and he needs
nothing. We're the ones who are in need.
Now, if he dwells not in temples made with hands, where does he
dwell? Where does God dwell? Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10
answer that question. For in him, speaking of Christ,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. First and
foremost, that is where God dwells. He dwells in that temple. He
dwells in Christ. But don't miss verse 10. And
ye, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power. This is the house of God. This
is the temple of God. It's Christ and everybody who's
in him. And verse two of our text gives
us a threefold description of number one of Christ and number
two of everyone that's in him. If you want to turn back there,
you can see him. The first description is poor.
Poor, number one, we're speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
number two, about his people. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9 says,
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich. The Son of God, who is rich in
all blessings from his Father, was made poor for our sakes. He left the immediate presence
of his Father, and the constant praise and worship of the holy
angels, and he condescended, he humbled himself to be born
the God-man on this earth. He was born a born. He lived
a life of relative obscurity until he reached his mature age.
The God of glory dwelled on this earth and no one knew he was
there. He took on the occupation of a carpenter, just a blue collar
worker. When he began his public ministry,
he had no home. He lived every day, hand to mouth, by the provisions
given by his father, and that does not begin to describe his
poverty. His poverty is seen at the cross.
At the cross, he was stripped. At perfect righteousness, which
he worked out, he was stripped from. All favor and communication
with his father, he was stripped from. He was left with nothing
but the sins of his people, which he bore in his body. which he
was made, his father's awful frown, and the punishment, the
wrath, that God poured down upon him. That is a poverty you and
I will never know anything about. But because he was made poor,
or made rich, rich in justification. Right now, folks, if you're in
Christ, you have no sin. You're justified. You're not
guilty. It's gone. It's been removed
as far as the East is from the West, so much so that the Father
doesn't remember it. And the only way God can't remember
something is if it's not there. You're rich in righteousness.
That perfect righteousness that was established by Jesus Christ,
that really is your righteousness. You were in him. And when he
walked the paths of righteousness, you walked them too. in him,
that really is yours. You're rich in sanctification.
He took a bunch of common and ordinary sinners, no different
than anybody else, if anything worse, and he took us out, he
set us apart, and he made us holy. We are partakers of the
divine nature. We actually have the spirit of
God dwelling in us. Men build houses, they drive
fancy cars, Folks, we're the richest people anybody's ever
known. All because he was made poor. It says he was of a contrite
spirit. That word contrite, when it's
used there, it's not the word that's commonly translated, contrite.
What it actually means is lame, unable. Somebody says the God
of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, what was he unable to do? What
was it? That question is answered by
what the chief priests and the scribes said while he suffered
on the cross. He saved others. Himself, he could not save. When they said that, they were
mocking him. But yet, true words were never spoken. Truly, he
saved others. He saved his people. But this
is the one thing he could not do. He could not spare himself. Because God is holy. He's absolutely
holy, and he's absolutely just. And when he sees sin, the only
thing he can do is punish whoever he sees it on. That's it. He
can't sweep it on the carpet. He can't overlook it. All he
can do is punish it. That's it. And somebody had to
bleed. Somebody had to die. Sin demands death. It was either
going to be us or it was going to be Christ. And he willingly
took our place as our substitute. Thank God that he was made of
a contrite spirit. The third descriptor is trembleth at my
word. Hebrews 5 verse 7 and 8 says this, who in the days of his
flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears unto him that is able to save him
from death and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the only man who has ever lived who actually
feared God perfectly. That fear led to obedience. That
obedience led to the cross. And understand this, folks, there
is a direct link between trust and fear. And on that cross,
he never stopped believing his father. He never stopped trusting
him. From the cross, he shouted, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. He never stopped trusting him.
Trusting him to do what? To keep his word. That the father
would be satisfied with his sacrifice. and having made satisfaction
that he would raise him from the dead, and not just him, everybody
who's in him. Somebody had to have perfect
faith. Somebody had to trust God completely, and he did. Now
that's the temple right there. But this is also the temple.
This is everybody in Christ, and we can go back to the beginning.
Poor, what does poor mean? It means destitute. It means
you don't have anything. I've got no righteousness. I've
got no good thoughts. I've got no good intentions.
I've got no good motivations. I look inside. I can't find a
reason God would be merciful to me. I look around. I can't
find anybody that I'm better than, that I can sit in judgment
on. That's what it means to be poor.
I had an interaction while I was preparing this message, and I
want to share it with you because it illustrates a point. I was at work one night,
and I was pumping gas in my car. A homeless man came up to me,
and he said, I'd like to talk to you about one of your Normally
that's a bad thing. Normally means somebody wants
to complain. He actually had something good to say. He said it was Christmas
Day. He said, I've been evicted from
my house. Didn't have any money. I didn't have any friends. Nobody
I could turn to. He goes, so I was just down on
the street. Not down to my name. So he just starts walking the
streets. He doesn't know what to do. He's cold. He's hungry. He sees a
police cruiser sitting on the edge of the street. So he walks
up to the window. He knocks on the window. Looks
at the cop. He says, listen, man, I hate
to do this, but I'm a little down on my luck. You have just
two dollars. Two dollars you can spare for
I can get a cup of coffee after one month. He said, the cop looked
around, he said, you're down on your luck. Need a little help?
No problem, I got two dollars for a man who's down on his luck.
And he hands him the two dollars. The homeless guy said, he goes,
you know, he goes, this is a perfect stranger. He goes, there's no
one who's tried to help me out. There's no one who's tried to
be kind to me up to this point. This guy doesn't even know me, just
freely gives me two bucks. And he said he was just really
thankful for that, so he felt compelled to tell the cop everything that
happened to him about being kicked out of his house and about how
he didn't have any money, didn't have any place to go. I mean,
he was broke. He said, man, he goes, listen,
this just means everything to me right now. Thank you. And he
turned to walk away. He says he was walking away. The cop
hollers out the window. And he says, hey, come here. So the guy turned
around and goes back. And he says, give me my money
back. The homeless guy said, he goes, I thought that I had
offended him. So I handed him the money back and said, listen,
if I offend you, I'm sorry. And I'm going to leave. And he
turned to leave. The cop hollered again and said,
hey, come over here. Get back here. And so he goes
back up to the window, and the cop gets in his wallet, and he
pulls out all the money he has in his wallet. He says, a good
stack. And he puts it with the $2, and he hands it to the homeless
guy. He says, listen, man. He goes, when you first walked
up to my window, what you said is you were a little down on
your luck. You just need a little help. He said, for a man who's
a little down on his luck and just needs a little help, I got
about $2. He said, my friend, you are not down on your luck.
You're poor. I don't have anything. He said, if I got $2 for a man
who's down on his luck, for a man who has nothing, he gets everything
I have to give. I told you that story to illustrate
this point. The blessings and the mercy and the grace you will
receive from the Lord will be measured out to you in the container
you bring. And if you come needing just
a little mercy, you won't get any. This is an all or nothing
proposition. If you come needing just a little
grace, I've sewn a decent garment, I've established a decent righteousness,
just got a few holes in it, need to be patched up, and you will
get no grace. But if you come just as you are,
bone dry, empty, five gallon barrel, he will fill you with
everything he has to give. And everything he has is exactly
what you need and not a drop more. but only for the poor. The Lord's people are poor and
they're of a contrite spirit. I told you before that word means
lame. You know who my favorite Old Testament character is? It's
not David. It's not Samuel. It's not Elijah.
You know who it is? It's Mephibosheth. Y'all remember Mephibosheth?
David, when he sat on the throne of Israel, Completely uncontested,
the most feared man on the face of the earth, he made this statement.
Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? One of his servants piped
up. He said, yeah, yeah, there's
one. He ain't much to look at, King. He's lame. You see, when
he was five years old, his nurse, she was carrying him, she dropped
him, and he fell. He's lame through a fall. He's
lame on both his feet. Keep this in mind, King. He's
down in Lodibor. He can't come to you. If you
want him, you have to go down where he's at. You have to go
where he's at. Keep this in mind, King. Everything
he needs to live, it has to be provided for him. He can't provide
for himself. And keep this in mind. He can't do anything for
you. He can't fight a battle for you. He can't work a field
for you. You have to do everything for
him. He is a complete charity case. You want to take that guy
on? You know what David said? Go fetch him. Go fetch him. Elaine, apart from the enabling
grace of God, you can't come to Christ. You can't repent. You can't believe. You can't love God. You can't
provide those things you need to live. You can't keep the law.
You can't honor God's justice. There's nothing you can bring.
There's nothing you can do for him. You're just a complete charity case.
Everything has to be done for you. If that's you folks, you're
lame. You're contrite of spirit. That's a good thing. Because
he goes down to the load bar and he fetches everybody who's
lame. And finally, he trembles at the word of God. For years,
I struggled with that concept, the fear of the Lord. I knew
it had something to do with reverence. I knew it had something to do
with respect. I knew it had something to do with love. I knew it had something
to do with just plain old fear. Let's be honest, folks, the Lord's
character is terrifying. It's not a slavish fear, it's
a loving fear, but yet his character is terrifying. If you're not
afraid of him, you should be. But finally, Todd Niebuhr stood up
here one day and he said this, he goes, I'm gonna make it real
simple. This is the fear of the Lord. It's being afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. I can't look behind to what's
happened in the past, the past experiences. I don't know if
they're real, and none of it was any good anyways. I can't
look in here. There's no peace in here. I can't
look to the future, because as much as I hate it, I know what
lies there. It's sin. The one place I can look and I can find
peace, I look to Christ. And my hope is that the Father
looks to him for everything he requires of me. That's the fear
of God. The house of God is Christ and
his people. And folks, if you are poor, if
you have nothing, if you're lame, contrite of spirit, if you're
afraid to look anywhere for Christ alone, you're in that house and
you are that house. You are where the Spirit of God
actually dwells. You are in that house with the
blood over the door. And you have this promise. He
says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. I'm going to leave
you there.