The True House of God

Now this, I'm speaking tonight, and I think this, I hope, I pray
this will be a teaching message. I hope we can,
when we finish looking at these two verses for the next few minutes,
that we shall have learned something. This is going to be a teaching
message. I'm speaking tonight on the true house of God. the
true house of God. I look carefully at the text,
Isaiah 66, 1 and 2. Let's read it carefully. Thus
saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool. Where is the house that you build
for me? And where is the place of my
rest, or abode? 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. Our text begins with a solemn
declaration, often read. In fact, I don't know how many
times this statement is in the Bible. innumerable times, I guess,
and we read it without thought, most of the time without comment.
But I'm going to say just a word about it. The first four words
in this text, Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Now, Paul commanded Timothy to
preach the Word. He said, Timothy, preach the
Word. Be instant in season and out of season. There's no season
for preaching the Word of God. Every season is the season for
preaching the Word of God, reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all
long-suffering study to show thyself approved unto God a workman
that need it not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of
truth. Preach the Word. Jeremiah pronounced
a woe upon the pastors that did not preach the Word of God. He
said, they seek not a message from me. I hate to speak words
of condemnation, but I think that true servants of God and
true prophets of God not only should preach to the people of
their day, but they should have a word for the preachers of their
day. And I think one of the condemning words for the preachers of this
day is they do not seek a message from the Lord. They do not prepare,
they do not study, they do not seek a word from the Lord. You
know, Zedekiah the king calls Zechariah in secretly, and this
is what he asks him. Is there any word from the Lord?
Have you gotten me a message from the Lord? What if next Sunday
morning that the people stopped the pastor at the door as he
came to church to unlock the door and come in to preach, and
all of them were there waiting on him? And one at a time they
came up to him and said, Now, how have you spent your week?
How have you spent yesterday and the day before and the day
before that? Have you found a word from the Lord for us? Have you
sought the Lord and asked Him, Lord, is there a message for
these people? Now, if you haven't, why don't
we just get in our cars and go back home? What's the need of
coming here? What's the need of sitting here?
If you don't have a thus saith the Lord. Now if you're going
to entertain us, we'll go where we can get professional entertainment. We don't need to listen to you.
Is there a word from the Lord? Thus saith the Lord. In Acts
13.44, the Scripture says the whole city came together to hear
the Word of the Lord. They didn't come to hear me or
you, they came to hear the Word of the Lord. And it said as Paul
preached to them, the Gentiles were glad and they rejoiced,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed that
Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. We can't emphasize that enough. The scripture that Jack quoted
in his prayer a moment ago, I have jotted down here in my introduction.
God said, My word shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish
that whereunto I have sent it. It shall accomplish that which
pleaseth me. My word, he said, will not return
unto me void. And Isaiah, or rather, Isaiah
writing here in chapter 66, begins his message with this comment. Thus saith the Lord. I'm not
presenting this to you for approval or rejection. I'm presenting
it to you as the Word of the Lord. I'm not presenting this
to you by way of personal argument. This is the Word of the Lord,
whether you believe it or not. That's what Isaiah said. These
prophets didn't stand before the people seeking their approval.
These prophets did not come before the people seeking their approval.
They came to deliver God's message. If you want to hear it, fine.
If you don't want to hear it, then don't listen. But this is
what God said. Now let's see what thus saith
the Lord is for us tonight. Here in Isaiah 66, verse 1 and
2, this is the word of the Lord, and we'll do well to hear it. We'll do well to hear it. Our
Lord said, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Everybody
does not have ears to hear. Take heed how you hear. Thus
saith the Lord. And this is what the Lord is
saying. Number one. He's saying that he's rejected
material temples. That's what he's saying. Thus
saith the Lord. The heaven is my throne, and
the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build
for me? Where is the place of my rest?
God has rejected material temples. Now, let me pause and say this,
right here. There was a time when it could
be said that there was a house of God on earth. David said,
I was glad when they said unto me, let's go into the house of
the Lord. David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house
of the Lord than to dwell, that is, as a person inhabiting or a person accepted
in the tents of the wicked, the rule in the tents of the wicked.
And there was a time when it could be said there was a house
of God on this earth, at least in symbol and type. There stood the tabernacle, the
tabernacle with its sacrifices, with its types, with its pictures,
with its symbols. There stood, with which you are
quite familiar, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, with
its Ark of the Covenant, its furniture, its mercy seat. There
stood the priest, clothed in his white linen, with the mitre
upon his head, with the sacrifice in his hand. There stands the
priest with the blood atonement. God was teaching the Church the
ABCs of salvation. God was teaching the Church the
pattern of heavenly things. But then, even then, even then,
the enlightened among the Israelites knew that God could not and did
not dwell between curtains or behind a veil. The enlightened
of the Jews knew that this tabernacle, this house of God, was a symbol,
it was a pattern. That God actually, it was not
possible to encompass God in the skins of animals. It was
not possible to encompass God in a tabernacle forty feet long
but twenty feet wide. It was not possible to encompass
God in a building. It was a symbol of God's presence. You see what I'm saying? It was
a symbol of God's presence. Well, the term of symbols is
past. The times of types is now past. The dying hands of our Savior
grasped that thick, heavy veil by the top and tore it in two
from top to bottom, and all these secret symbols, the ark, the
mercy seat, all of these secret symbols were made bare to the
gaze of everybody. No longer did God have a place
on earth that would be called the house of God. My friends,
it's sheer nonsense, it's idolatry, and it's legalism to say of any
place, this is the house of God. Where is the house that you build
for me? Where is the house that you...
It's nonsense, it's idolatry to say of any chapel, church,
building, or temple, this is the house of God. It's sheer nonsense to say of
any shrine, this is the altar of God. I used to pass this building
out here on 13th Street and had that big sign, God's Rescue Mission. It's foolishness to name a place
on this earth, made out of bricks and stones, the house of God. It's nonsense to see any man
decked out in ribbons and robes and rubrics and say, that's the
priest of God who ministers in the house of God, who kneels
at the altar of God. This is done away. Our Lord was
talking to the woman at the well, and she said, Why, you worship
in Jerusalem, our fathers worship in this mountain. And Christ
said, The time is coming, and now is, when they that worship
the Father shall neither worship him in Jerusalem nor in this
mountain. God's a spirit, and they that
worship him worship him in spirit and truth. The time of symbols and types
is past. Our Lord ripped that veil in
two from top to bottom, tore it in two, exposed to the gaze
of all men those things that served as types and symbols and
pictures and patterns. Our text gives us reasons why
there can be no house of God built by human hands. First of
all, he says, where is the house that you build for me? You architects
and contractors and builders, look about you and find a place
to put this house of God. He said, will you put it in heaven?
Would you build a house for God on his throne? The heavens are
my throne. Would you build a house for God
on his throne? Would you build it on the earth?
He says, the earth is my footstool. Would you build God a house down
on his footstool? Where would you build a house
to contain God? Turn to Psalm 139. In Psalm 139,
beginning with verse 7, listen to David. Whither shall I go
from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I make my
bed in hell, that's the grave, behold art there. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall
hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness
will cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea,
the darkness hideth not from thee. But the night shineth as
the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
For thou hast possessed me, possessed my reins, thou hast covered me
in my mother's womb." Where, God said? Pick a place and build
God a house, will you? Will it be in the heavens built
on His throne? Will it be on the earth somewhere
on His footstool? Where will you put God the house?
Space cannot contain God. Time cannot contain God. Well,
what kind of house would you build him? What kind of house
shall we build for God? If you take me to the lowest
hovel and the worst ghetto in the huge city of London and tell
me, now preacher, this is the royal palace of Queen Elizabeth,
you don't expect me to believe that, do you? Take me to the
lowest hovel, to a cardboard shanty, or somewhere in a city
dome and tell me that that's the dwelling place, that's the
abode of Queen Elizabeth, royalty dwells there, I will say impossible. Royalty does not dwell in poverty. And neither will I believe you
if you take me to the grandest cathedral with its gold domes
and with its precious stones erected of the most gorgeous,
expensive material, neither will I believe you if you tell me
that's God's house, because deity does not dwell in poverty." One old preacher said one time,
you might as well hold up a snail's shell and say, this is Gabriel's
house, as to point to one of man's mighty, gorgeous cathedrals
and say, that's God's house. Where is the house you're building?
Where will you put it, God said? And what kind of house will you
build? And what kind of material will you use for God's house? On some of my trips to Mexico,
I've passed by, out in the Pueblos, a stone building. old, many,
many years old, big, thick stone walls. Go inside. It's a little place painted in
gaudy colors with old dusty statues and old broken pictures and half-burnt
candles and toys and dolls everywhere. and a statue up front in honor
of a woman, a blessed woman, but nothing but a woman. And
there in the front is a little old basin full of dirty water,
which is called holy water. This is God's house? This is
where God dwells? Preposterous! Absolutely preposterous! The notion is not only preposterous,
it's wicked! It's wicked. That's what he's
saying here. Thus saith the Lord. The heaven
is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Space
cannot contain God. The heavens cannot contain God. Time cannot contain God. And
you're going to build me a house and put my name on it and say
that's where God dwells, that's where we keep our God? And then they take me, and I
hear these preachers on the radio and television advertising this,
and the notion is not only, as I say, preposterous, I think
it's wicked. They take me to a little old desert country way
over yonder in the bottom of Europe, a place of religious
relics, a place of warring tribes, a place of dirty streets, a place
of terrible commercialization, a place of tradition, and they
call that the holy land. Impossible. One poet says, wherever
I seek him, he is found, and every place is holy ground. Heaven is my throne, God says. Heaven is my throne, and the
earth is my footstool. Where is the house you're going
to build me? Where is the place you're going
to erect for my resting place? Let us shake ourselves of this
idolatry. Let us rid ourselves of this
superstition. Let us rid ourselves of materialism. I've gone into these places called
houses of God and I've seen the coldness and the deadness and
the ritualism and the ceremonialism. I've gone into these little old
idolatrous cathedrals with their statues and their moaning, groaning
priests, and their toys and dolls and their gaudy colors, and I've
come out of them and looked at the sunshine and the blooming
trees and the fruit-bearing trees and the rippling streams, and
I say, God's out here! He's not in there! He's not in
there. This is God's house. This is
where my God dwells. God of power and the God of wisdom
and the God of glory and the God of creation, God who is a
spirit, let me out of that place. Free me, liberate me, let me
get out of that place, out of the confines of those dusty walls. With its ritualistic idolatry
and legalism, let me out of it. Let me get out here and walk
with God. That's what Isaiah is saying
here, Thus saith the Lord, Heaven's my throne, and the earth is my
footstool. Oh, ye materialistic idolaters,
ye legalistic religionists, where are you going to build me a house? That's for our convenience. We'd
like to think that God dwells down there so we can go down
and meet Him whenever we want to. We can get away from Him
whenever we want to also. I make bold to declare unto you,
this is not God's house." All right, let's see where God's
house is. Let's see where God dwells. Let's see where God's
resting place is. If it's not in the place of bricks
and mortar and stone, where is it? He says in verse 2, all these
things my hand made, all these things have been, you just accumulated
and brought them together, saith the Lord. But to this man will
I look. With this man I will dwell. God's
a spirit. God does not dwell in material
houses. He dwells in men's hearts. Christ
said that if you believe on me, my Father and I will come to
you and dwell with you. We'll take up our boat in you.
We are the temples of God, God's a spirit, he dwells with our
spirits. I will look, he said, to this
man will I look. Now note carefully, he didn't
say, I will dwell with the man of high rank, nobility, and royalty. And notice, he did not say, I
will dwell with a man of high office, the special clergy, the
theologian, the ecclesiastical leader. He did not say, I will
dwell with a man of great intelligence. He did not say, I will dwell
with a man of poetic mind or philosophy. He did not say, I
will dwell with a man of high morality and personal piety. He says, to this man will I look. even to him that is poor. Our Lord said, blessed are the
poor in spirit. To those who are bankrupt, to
those who are destitute, destitute of all merit, who have no goodness,
who have no merit, who have no works, to those who've been emptied
of every ounce of human strength and spiritual capacity, to those
who can cry from the depths of a broken heart, God be merciful
to me, the sinner, in my hands no price I bring, empty-handed,
without money, without price, without help, without hope, without
strength. Simply to thy cross I cling,
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor. To him that is poor, spiritually
poor, Arthur Pinck said to him who has nothing, is nothing,
knows nothing. Thank God for Holy Spirit conviction. Thank God for not leaving us
in our pride, but bringing us down to see our poverty. Thank
God that all who've been convicted of His Holy Spirit know that
they're naked, miserable, poor, and blind. Poor. Where is thy throne, O God? Where
is thy house? Where is thy dwelling place?
Where is thy abode? To this man will I look, even
to him that's poor. And to him that is of a contrite
spirit. What is a contrite spirit? It's
a humble spirit. How God rejects the proud heart. He says six things doth the Lord
hate. Yea, seven are an abomination
to him. Number one, a proud look. God resisteth the proud, he gives
grace to the humble. Pride goeth before destruction,
a haughty spirit before the fall. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, and yet made himself of no reputation, took
upon himself the form of a servant, became obedient even unto death,
the death of the cross. Let this mind be in you. This
is the contrite heart. We're such proud people. We're
so bent on preserving our reputations. We want people to think of us
more highly than they ought to think because we think of ourselves
more highly than we ought to think. God says, to this man
will I look, to the man who's poor and to the man who is of
a contrite spirit, a broken heart. a humble spirit, like the publican
who would not even lift his eyes to heaven but smote upon his
breast. And then the third characteristic
of this man who is God's own, where God dwells, who trembleth
at my word. God says, I'll dwell with a person
who trembles at my word. We tremble before the holy law
of God. We tremble. We tremble when that
law is read because that law sits in conviction on everything
we think and everything we are and everything we do and have
done and shall ever do. We tremble at the love which
gave Christ to die. How awesome! How awesome! He was in the world. How awesome!
God was in Christ reconciling the world under himself. How
awesome! How magnificent! We tremble at
the cross. It wasn't some silly emotional
happening. It was redemption. It was redemption
being accomplished. Tremble. We tremble at the judgment which
God threatens upon the lost. This is His Word, His solemn,
sacred, holy, awesome Word. This is God's Word. People sometimes wonder why that I put so much importance
upon reverence in the place of worship. But I'll tell you why, and this
is the main reason. It's not, as some may think,
that I am nervous and can't speak when somebody's moving or someone's
talking or someone's manifesting an irreverent spirit. It's because,
brethren, we're in the presence of the Lord. We're in the presence of the
Lord. We're worshiping God. We're reading His Word. How can
anyone get up and walk around while someone's reading the awesome,
terrible Word of the Living God? This is God speaking. Thus saith
the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Be still, and know that I am God." How can you manifest? How can anyone, while a preacher
is reading God's Word, open a door and start walking down an aisle?
How can you do it? I don't know how. I tell you how, it's no regard,
no reverence, no feeling of trembling at the Word of God. I tell you,
when someone stands up here to sing as Jack did, he's delivering
a message from God. He's singing about, My Father
planned it all. He's singing about the Lord Jesus
Christ in His redeeming grace. How can anybody move? I was in
a church preaching a few days ago. A man was up, a preacher,
a pastor of a church was up preaching. He read the scripture, he started
bringing the message, a message he said God gave him, a message
God gave him for us. And the telephone rang. And the
pastor got up and went and answered the telephone. I thought, this is not happening.
And the pastor talked on the phone, I could hear him and hear
the preacher too. In a few moments he came back and sat down, the
preacher was preached, it rang again. He went and answered the
telephone. I couldn't believe it. Three times he answered the
telephone. It might be important. Under
God, what that man was saying was more important. This is first
the Word of God. Let the dead bear the dead. This
is first Zedekiah says, Jeremiah, is there
any word from the Lord? Do you have a word from the Lord?
Is God going to pass us by? Is God going to say something
to us? Have you got anything to say from God? Well, let me
tell you something, Bud. If I do, you better sit still
and listen to it. And it better be first. I don't mean to be hard, but
it's your business. If you think entertaining people
is more important than listening to God's Word, you stay home. If you think you've got something
more important to do than to hear what God has to say to you
in this particular hour, well, now, that's your business. But
I tremble at the Word of God. This is God's Word. this thing
of praying, this thing of singing, this thing of worshipping. This is the man, he said, you
needn't try to build me a house. You needn't try to erect one
of your gorgeous, magnificent temples and call it God's house. I'm not dwelling there, God said.
I'll tell you where I'm dwelling. To that man who's poor, needy,
sinful, guilty, poverty-stricken, to that man who is of a contrite
heart, a broken heart. He knows who he is and what he
is. God's broken his heart. God's
humbled him. He's less than the least of all
the saints. He's the chief of sinners. He's
broken-hearted. And he trembles at my word. He
trembles at my presence. He trembles at my law. He trembles
with eager anticipation at my presence. He trembles at my cross.
Just to hear somebody sing about it, I've been to Calvary. Makes
cold chills go up his back, he trembled. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me. Out in the darkness, no light
could I see. Wonder of wonders, He found even
me. Can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me, who Him to death
pursued. Depths of mercy, can there be?
Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners, spare? Why should He love me so? Love
sent my safe. I tremble, don't you? Look at this next word here.
He says, to this man will I look. I look. Think about it. The God of glory,
to this man I'll look. You know what a look is, what
he's talking about here. It means, the word here is consideration. Suppose that at the inauguration,
Mr. Carter's being inaugurated January
the 20th, whenever it is, all those people are there, all those
people, thousands from Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
New York, visiting dignitaries from Canada, Russia, England,
China, everywhere. There, the huge throng, and he
is standing there before that throng, and there's an expression
on his face of, it's just a mass, a sea of faces. And he looks
over that, without expression, he looks over that crowd. Most
of them mean nothing to him. In a moment, you see his eyes
stop, and a smile comes across his face, and there's a knowing
look in his eyes. It's a total change of expression.
It's a look of affection. It's a look of warmth. It's a
look of consideration. It's a look because his eyes
have met someone special. It's his son, or his daughter,
or a real close friend. to him will I look. And our Lord
Jesus Christ came down to this earth, and walking there one
day through that mass of people thronging about him, he stopped
and it says he looked up, and a certain expression came across
his face, and he said, Zacchaeus, come on down. I'm going to dwell
at your house. Walking, always a crowd following
him, and he looks about, there's no change of expression. One
day he stopped, looked over here, and he said, Matthew, follow
me. And one day there, they brought
him a woman and cast him at her feet, and he looked at those
Pharisees. His look was of reproach and
anger and rebuke. And then he looked at her, and
there's a special look. And he said, Woman, thy sins
are forgiven thee. and there hanging on a cross
in agony between heaven and earth, forsaken of all men, even his
disciples, and even deserted by his Father because he was
made sin for us and was taking our iniquity. He looked about,
and there's no change of expression until he looks over here at a
thief. And he looked to him with consideration,
and he said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Oh, I
tell you, there's no treasure in all of
this earth, there's no treasure that can ever come to a human
being that can be compared with this, to this man. Well, I look. Lord, look my way.
Lord, look my way. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Don't pass me by with that look of rebuke and condemnation and
ignoring me. Pass me not. While on others
thou art calling, don't pass me by. But if you want God to pass you
by, you keep on building your cathedrals and chapels and temples
and dwelling places and calling them the house of God and playing
with your rubrics and relics and religion and ceremonies and
going about your motions of worship when you're not worshiping, calling
him Lord with your lips while your heart's far from him. Keep
it up! But when he finds that individual,
who is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at his word,
he said, I'll look. I'll look with consideration.
And I'll tell you it's not a one-way street. I'll look to him, and
he'll look to me. And he'll look to me. There's life for a look at the
crucified one. There's life at this moment for
thee. Then look, my friend, look unto
Him and be saved, to Him who died on the tree. It's not your
tears of repentance or your prayers, but the blood that atones for
your soul. On Him, then, who shed it on
Calvary's cross, the weight of your iniquity rolled, we're healed
by His stripes. Would you add to this word? He
is our righteousness made, the best robe in heaven. He bids
you put on. Could you be better arrayed?
then doubt not your welcome. God has declared there remaineth
nothing to be done. Once in the end of the world
he appeared and he's finished the work he'd begun. It's done,
the great transaction's done. I'm my Lord's and he is mine. He bid me come and I followed
on, charmed to confess his voice divine. The true house of God,
thus saith the Lord. Where is the house you build
me? To this man will I look, to him who's poor, who's of a
contrite spirit, who trembles at my word. I look to him. I look to him. Our Father in heaven, Lord, give us a broken heart
and a contrite spirit. We are poor, but help us to know
it. Help us, O Lord, to shed these
false fig-leaf aprons of self-righteousness that we may be clothed upon with
that precious spotless robe of His holiness. O Lord, give us
a reverence for Thy presence, for Thy Word. Lord, teach us
to pray. Teach me to pray. Lord, enable us to lay the things
of this carnal fleshly life aside when we profess to come into
Thy presence, when we profess to call upon Thee, when we profess
to commune with Thee. O Lord, give us a single heart. Thou hast said in Thy word that
the double heart is despised. O Lord, give us a fixed heart.
My heart is fixed, O Lord, my heart is fixed on Thee. What
shall a man profit if he gain the whole world and lose his
soul? Deliver us from playing at religion,
playing at worship. Help us to gather together in
thy name. And Lord, what a blessing, what
a blessing to hear from thee. Speak to us. Manifest thy presence
among us. For it's in the name which is
above every name, the name before which we do tremble. And yet
we tremble with an eager affection and an eager joy. We tremble
with an anticipation of more of his revelations, more of his
fellowship. We tremble. We're excited. It's in his name we pray for
his glory. Amen.

The True House of God

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