Thy word is truth

June 20, 2009 12:28 am

— By Jerry Marcellino
Submitted

This is the inaugural article for a new column in this weekly Religion section, entitled, “Thy Word is Truth” (cf. John 17:17). It is based upon the conviction that God’s Word, the Bible, is objective Truth and that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Truth (John 14:6). My topic for each article will be undergirded by those truths, but centered upon the specific subtitle (e.g. as in this week’s subtitle - Do you Revere the Word of God?). Thus, my plan is to bring God’s Word and His gospel to you through practical Bible studies on a variety of Scriptures for your spiritual growth in Christ or for your need for Christ. My prayer is that these studies will not only increase your knowledge of God’s Word, but especially cause you to regularly and practically consider what kind of person the Lord looks upon with favor each day. Therefore, I begin this column with Isaiah 66:2 as a wonderful step toward my stated aim: “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My Word”.
When the prophet Isaiah penned those words, he was giving a final warning to ancient Israel about the danger of a merely external religion. They had been a national people, much-enamored with the temple and its external magnificence. But now the Lord points out to them that His people are to be a respectful people, a repentant people, and a reverent people, who tremble before His Word and not before His earthly temple. Keep this in mind as you read the following words which immediately precede the words of our theme passage, “Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist," Says the LORD” (Isaiah 66:1-2). No man-made edifice should ever be more than an outward symbol to God’s true people; but, as Stephen made so clear, it could become cherished above the reality (Acts 7:1-53)! This was the problem in Isaiah’s day, it was a problem in our Lord’s Day, and it is a problem in our own! So, how does a person move from this skin-deep faith that is knowingly or unknowingly concerned with external religion to a soul-deep, vital and expanding experimental (i.e. experiential) faith? Put another way, how does he move from a limping, half-dead, undisciplined faith to a consistently vibrant, inside-out, and persistent faith? He does so by pursuing an ongoing personal encounter with God Himself through His living Word. This text instructs us that God looks with favor upon such a believer: “But on this one will I look”. Whenever God’s people encounter God in this way and are truly impacted toward personal reformation, it’s always a humbling experience.
Isaiah teaches us that the Lord blesses those who revere His Word: “On him who is poor” - Jesus said, blessed is the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Our Lord meant that people who see what they really are (spiritually impoverished), in light of what God really is (holy and exalted), become the recipients of His daily favor. They are humbled by God, blessed by God, and ultimately exalted by Him. The sin of pride had once engulfed them, but now it is temporarily in check as they learn to daily draw strength from God’s Word in their war against this menace - for he knows that it is God alone who brings about this alien humility. Dear friends, is it not our prideful hearts that keep us from God’s Word and therefore God Himself? Is it not our own pride that keeps us in the shell of external religion? O how God loves to bless the humble, self-abasing and self-denying child of God. O how God loves to bless those who recognize His greatness and respect His person.
“And of a contrite spirit” - The man whom God favors is not only a man humbled by God, but he is also a man broken over his sin. The Hebrew original here describes a man who is smitten or stricken by his sin. The Word of God has come to him and has laid him bare. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. It does this work upon the believer because God has given him sensitivity to His Word. The Word has cut him and he is pained by his sin until it is pardoned (Hosea 6:1). This means that he is a man of evangelical repentance. The Word is revered by him and it thereby performs its work within him, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Such a tender heart before God will always be received, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart - These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Now this evangelical sensitivity and its partner, alien humility, have a common source - a reverent receptivity to the Word of God.
“And who trembles at My Word.” – When God’s people receive His Word with proper reverence, they become the blessed recipients of His felt presence because He looks upon them with favor. This language of trembling is full of shocking imagery. The original has the root meaning “to quake,” from which we derive the meanings of “fear” and “tremble.” More specifically, it denotes a reverent longing to obey the living Word of God. This response is exactly the opposite of Felix’s trembling before the apostle Paul (Acts 24:25), and very much like that of the response by the godly child-king of Judah, Josiah, to the public reading of God’s Word (2 Kings 22:11). The great British Bible commentator Matthew Henry described the worshipper who trembles before God’s Word, in this way: “Such a heart is a living temple for God; he dwells there, and it is the place of his rest, it is like heaven and earth, his throne and his footstool”. In Conclusion, “’Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at His word’, your brethren who

hated you, who cast you out for My name's sake, said, 'Let the LORD be glorified, That we may see your joy.' But they shall be ashamed’ (Isaiah 66:5).” Dear reader, Do you tremble before the Word of God?

Jerry Marcellino is pastor of Audubon Drive Bible Church in Laurel, MS. He can be reached by e-mail at pastorjerry@audubonchurch.org
ADBC is planting a church in the Meridian area. For more information about this church plant, please call: 601-553-3686 (or 601-527-3704) or visit: www.facebook.com and type “Meridian-Bible-Study-Fellowship”. For more information on Audubon Drive Bible Church, or to view Pastor Marcellino’s sermons online, visit: www.youtube.com/adbcvideoministry.