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Will I please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word, and we continue our study and
consideration of the book of the prophet Isaiah, and we are in Isaiah chapter 29 today. Our focus
will be on verses 9 through 16, especially verses 9 through 14, but to kind of fill out the context
a little bit, I’m going to begin reading at verse 1, and I’ll read through verse 16 of Isaiah chapter 29.
And friends, you will find that beginning on page 700 in your pew bibles. This is God’s Word,
hear it with reverence and awe. Isaiah 29 beginning at verse 1.
Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped, at year to year let the feasts run their round,
yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me
like an Ariel. And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers,
and I will raise siege works against you. And you will be brought low, for the earth, from the earth
you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down. Your voice shall come from
the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. But the multitude
of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with
earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind, and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
And the multitude of the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her,
and her stronghold, and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied.
Or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint with his thirst
not quenched. So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
Astonish yourselves, and be astonished. Blind yourselves, and be blind. Be drunk,
but not with wine. Stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured out upon you a
spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.
And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.
When men give it to one who can read, saying, read this, he says, I cannot, for it is sealed.
And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, read this, he says, I cannot read.
And the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth, and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder,
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall
be hidden. Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who
say, who sees us, who knows us, you turn things upside down. Shall the potter be regarded as the
clay that the thing made should save its maker? He did not make me, or the thing formed, say of
him who formed it, he has no understanding. Amen. The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word.
Our Lord and Father in heaven, your word is compared in scripture to seed. Lord, we would ask
that you would cause the soil of our hearts to be good soil, that we might receive the seed of your
word in such a way that it bears fruit in our lives, that it indeed takes deep root and bears
much spiritual fruit in our lives unto salvation and sanctification. And we would ask Lord and
Father in heaven that you would drive far from us all distracting thoughts and help us to be
diligent and attentive to your word this morning. And we pray that you would set a
guard over my lips once again, grant me the grace to speak forth your word with clarity and power
for the edification of your people, for the salvation of the lost, and for the glory of
the name of Jesus our Lord. For it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen.
You may be seated.
The title of my sermon this morning is Hearts Far from God and Children. There’s three
key words that you’re going to be listening for in my sermon today, the words stupor,
heart, and savior. Just a little challenge for the children. I’d be interested to know how many
times I say those three words, so be listening for those words. Well, dear ones, back in the day
I went to a seminary located on the north shore of Boston. Some of you I know are familiar with
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. One time during my seminary days back in the 90s I was
contacted by an old friend from college named Don. And Don told me that he was going to be in
the Boston area on a business trip and asked if I had some time and would like to get together and
kind of catch up on things. And of course I was thrilled to hear from him and so
I scheduled a time to go meet him at his hotel. Now, it’s important to understand Don, this
friend of mine, is a fellow Christian, a fellow believer. In fact, we had gotten acquainted
through our mutual involvement together with the college’s Christian Fellowship Group. We had also
briefly been involved together in a Christian musical band. But in any case, I met up with Don
at the hotel where he and one of his business colleagues were staying for their business trip.
And so I parked, I go up to his room, I knock on the door and Don is in the room. His business
partner was out and so I went into his room for a few minutes. We were chatting and we were about
to head out and all of a sudden his business colleague showed up at the room. And he showed
up in a deeply drunken state. You see, he had returned to the room from a bar that he had been
at. Now, after a brief introduction, I was trying to be polite so I introduced myself and was hoping
that we could get out of the room and leave this gentleman to sleep off his stupor. But
having introduced myself before we were able to leave the room, this gentleman proceeded without
our invitation or encouragement to describe to us in great exquisite detail the exotic dancer that
he had witnessed at this bar where he had drunk himself into an inebriated stupor. Now, of course,
my friend and I, we’re Christians and we were not interested at all in hearing what this fellow had
to say. And so we were trying to find out, we’re trying to think of a way, how do we extricate
ourselves from this rather unedifying conversation. But again, this fellow just kept groaning on and on
about with his description of this dancer that he had seen. And so Don and I kind of look at each
other. We’re kind of thinking, signaling to each other, how do we extricate ourselves from this
conversation? And in an awkward attempt to change the subject, I started to share the gospel of
Jesus Christ with this drunken man. I don’t know how wise that was, how wise it is to try to share
the gospel with someone who’s drunk, but I figured this fellow needs to hear the word, so I started to
talk about Jesus. And it’s interesting, all of a sudden this drunken man completely changed his
tune. And he began to tell us both about how much he loved Jesus. With deeply slurred speech,
he said things like, oh, me and Jesus, we’re like tight, we’re like this.
Think about it. He went from lustfully describing the beauty of a stripper
to describing his professed love for the Savior. He was certainly honoring the Lord
with his lips, his speech as slurred as it was. I mean, he was saying some wonderful things about
Jesus and expressing his love for Jesus. But my suspicion is that based upon how he had begun the
conversation, that his heart was in reality far from the Lord. He honored the Lord with his lips,
but his heart was far from him. Well, dear ones, similar to my friend’s drunken business colleague,
the people of Jerusalem and their religious leaders in Isaiah’s time honored the Lord with
their lips and by their meticulous external religiosity. But through his prophet Isaiah,
the Lord exposes them as spiritually blind and hardened rebels whose hearts were in reality
far from the Lord. You might not have been able to tell it on the outside. They looked like very
pious religious people. They were meticulous in keeping the ceremonies and observing the
commandments, at least externally. But through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord confronts them
that their hearts are far from the Lord. They honored God with their lips, but their hearts
were far from God. Well, dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day morning is found within a
section of Isaiah that is dominated by the theme of Yahweh’s judgment against his faithless professed
people. Although I will say that this judgment section, like many of the judgment sections that
we see in Isaiah, is also interspersed with passages that point to the hope and restoration
that would come to the people of God with the arrival of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ and the ushering in of the Messianic age. This section extends basically from chapter 28
through chapter 33, and the judgment theme is brought out by the word woe, or it’s translated
in the ESV as ah. This is a formulaic word that points to God’s judgment and curse against the
unrepentant wicked. And so that draws us to consider the opening verses of this passage for this
morning as we consider, first of all, Jerusalem’s spiritual stupor, Jerusalem’s spiritual stupor.
Verse 9 says,
astonish yourselves and be astonished, blind yourselves and be blind, be drunk but not with
wine, stagger but not with strong drink, be astonished, blind yourselves, be drunk but not
with wine. What’s he talking about there? He’s talking about the wine of God’s wrath that was
going to come against his unfaithful people. Here Isaiah pronounces these words in particular
against the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem. And you say, well, how do we know that he’s talking
about Jerusalem? The name, the city name Jerusalem is not explicitly mentioned in this passage. Well,
Jerusalem is described in this particular chapter by the mysterious term Ariel. I would remind you
the opening verses of this chapter where Isaiah writes, ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David
encamped, that’s the clue. This is the city of David, the city where David encamps, in other words,
Jerusalem. Add year to year and let the feasts run their round. You know, they’re very observant of
the annual feasts, the religious feasts and the ceremonies. Yet, verse 2, I will distress Ariel
and there shall be moaning and lamentation and she shall be to me like an Ariel and I will encamp
against you all around and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siege works against you.
Now, the term Ariel, scholars debate what it means and how it should be translated. Some suggest
it could be translated as lion of God or hero or even alter hearth, but however it is to be
understood. Yes, it’s a mysterious term, but it’s a term that’s clearly being used to point to
Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in particular, the religious leaders in the city
of Jerusalem. So, what we have here in verse 9 is the Lord describing the spiritual state
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and he describes their spiritual state as one of blindness
and drunkenness, blindness and stupor. In other words, they’re spiritually blind. They are in a
spiritual stupor. They are unresponsive to Yahweh’s word coming to them through the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah had spoken the word to them and they had hardened their hearts against it. They had refused
the word of the Lord and so now the Lord declares that he will judge them. And then it goes on to
say this in verse 10, for the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep and has closed
your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers. This is interesting. Prophets and seers
are different terms describing the same kind of individual. A prophet is a seer and a seer is a
prophet because a seer is one who sees the revelation of the Lord. Oftentimes, the Lord
gave his word to the prophets in Old Testament times through visions and so they were called
seers. But prophets are those who speak the word of the Lord. And so these two terms,
while slightly different in their emphasis, are talking about the same individuals.
And what do we learn here in verse 10? Well, not only are the inhabitants of Jerusalem in a stupor
of spiritual blindness, they’re also spiritually asleep, spiritually unresponsive. And not only that,
even their prophets, their seers, who should have known better, who should have given them the pure
word of God, even they are likewise unresponsive and therefore they are blind guides of the blind.
And we know what the Lord Jesus says about the blind leading the blind. They both fall into a
ditch. Now notice that even though the people themselves are held responsible before God for
their spiritual condition, that’s why God is pronouncing judgment against them because of
their unrepentant unresponsiveness to the word of the Lord. At the same time, did you notice
the wording here in verse 10? Did you notice that their spiritual blindness and incomprehension,
their inability to perceive and understand the message of God’s word, this is ultimately a
judgment that is imposed upon them by our sovereign God. As it says in the beginning of this verse,
For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep. The Lord has given you over to
your spiritual unresponsiveness. The Lord is imposing this spiritual stupor upon you as a
judgment. And so friends, this is what some would describe as a judicial stupor imposed by our
sovereign God upon his faithless spiritually unresponsive people. As one commentator puts it,
the divine mystery blinds all who prefer not to see. And then closely connected with verses 9 and
10 are verses 11 and 12, where it says this in verse 11, and the vision, the term vision,
is speaking of a divine revelation. It’s speaking about the word of the Lord coming to them through
prophets like the prophet Isaiah. The vision of all this, the vision of this judgment and this
call to repentance, the vision of all this has become to you like what? Like the words of a book
that is sealed. Imagine you have a book, I don’t know about you, I love books, I enjoy reading
books, but how frustrating it would be if you had a book and it’s sealed up and you can’t open it.
This is how the vision, the word of the Lord to the people is described here. The vision of all
this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can
read, in other words, when men give this book to someone who’s educated and literate, what’s the
response? When men give it to one who can read saying, read this, he says, I cannot for it is
sealed. I can’t penetrate the message here in this book because I can’t open it up,
or the scroll. It’s the seal on the scroll. Verse 12, and when they give the book to one who cannot
read, in other words, one who is illiterate and uneducated, what’s the response? Well, predictably
saying, read this, he says, I cannot read, can’t help you with that. And what is the point of all
of this? The point of all this, friends, is that God’s Word is a closed book to those who are
spiritually blind, not just to the illiterate and uneducated, but even to the literate and educated.
You can have all kinds of degrees hanging on your wall. You can be one who has spent years in study
and research. You can be highly intelligent and yet be a fool, biblically speaking, because your
heart is hardened against the Word of the Lord. It takes the sovereign intervention of the Holy
Spirit of God to open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from God’s Word.
So a couple of points of application I’d like to make at this point.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this passage of God’s Word, which is referenced and pointed to
and sometimes quoted in various times in the New Testament, this passage reminds us of the overall
testimony of Holy Scripture to fallen man’s spiritual blindness apart from the intervention
of God’s grace. Apart from God’s grace, we are spiritually blind. We are spiritually in a stupor
we are spiritually asleep and more than that we are dead in our trespasses and sins.
Let’s consider just a couple of passages as we compare Scripture with Scripture that reinforces
the truths that are being taught in our passage for today. Let’s go all the way back
to Deuteronomy chapter 28. That chapter contains the blessings and the curses of the Mosaic covenant.
Deuteronomy chapter 28 and look with me if you would at verses 28 and 29.
Deuteronomy 28 verses 28 and 29. This passage found in the midst of this lengthy section where
the Lord through Moses describes the curses of the covenant and he says this verses 28 and 29.
The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind
and you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness and you shall not prosper in your ways
and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually and there shall be no one to help
you notice especially in verse 28 it says that the Lord will strike
the unfaithful with what among other things he will strike them with confusion of mind or
as some versions put it astonishment of heart. The Lord threatens to strike them with spiritual
blindness confusion astonishment of heart and stay in Deuteronomy and just
let’s go to the next chapter Deuteronomy 29 verses 2 to 4.
In this context where the Lord through Moses is renewing the covenant with the people and it says
this in verses 2 through 4 of chapter 29 and Moses summoned all Israel and said to them
you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt in other words remember
you folks you witnessed with your very own eyes you witnessed the mighty signs and wonders that
the Lord did in the exodus event the great plagues that he poured out upon the Egyptians and how he
with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm had split the Red Sea and brought you through the
Red Sea on dry land you saw that you witnessed it he’s saying to them you have seen all that
the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to
all his land the great trials that your eyes saw the signs and those great wonders but notice verse
4 he says but to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears
to hear they saw it with their eyes you know many folks in Jesus’s day they saw Jesus do miracles
they saw him heal the sick and raise the dead and multiply the loaves and the fishes and so forth
and yet many who witnessed his miracles they saw it with their eyes they heard him with their ears
but they refused to believe what makes the difference between the one who sees and believes
and the one who sees but does not truly see does not truly believe the difference is the
grace of God as Moses says and he’s he’s talking to the people of Israel he says to this day the
Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear the point is
that God’s word as clear as it is as perspicuous as it is
you won’t see its significance you won’t embrace it you won’t see its relevance or
importance unless the spirit of God opens your eyes and your heart to understand the Lord has
to give us a heart of understanding and the reason for that is because of because of the fact that
apart from his grace our natural fallen unregenerate inclination is to hold down to suppress the truth
in unrighteousness we’re reminded of this by the apostle Paul let me just read Romans chapter 1 verses
18 through 20 Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 20 and I know in this particular passage the
apostle Paul has particularly in mind the Gentiles who have not been exposed to the word of God
he’ll speak about the Jewish situation later on in chapter 2 for example but nevertheless this
applies to every unbeliever whether they be Gentile or Jew and he says for the wrath of God
is revealed not will be but is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who by their unrighteousness do what suppress or hold down the truth for what can be
known about God is plain to them it’s right before their eyes it’s plain to them because God has
shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have
been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world you know sometimes folks will say
well what evidence is there for God the answer to that question is everything everything outside of
you everything that you see as you look out the window as you see that your brothers and
sisters here in the church everything outside of us bombards us moment by moment day by day
with the reality that God is because if God is not we would not be either external facts
and internal facts as well our conscience also bears testimony we suppress that truth however
we lie to ourselves that is our natural instinct as fallen sinners in Adam and it takes the
intervention of divine omnipotent sovereign grace to change your heart and mind to open
our blinded eyes to be to receive the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ just one more passage
consider what Paul writes in Ephesians 4 verses 17 and 18 Ephesians chapter 4
verses 17 and 18 and he’s calling the Ephesian Christians to walk in newness of life not to
walk or live their lives in accordance with their former pagan gentile ways and he says this
now I this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the gentiles do
in the futility of their minds they are darkened in their understanding alienated from the life
of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart notice how he
describes the unregenerate the unbeliever the unbeliever is darkened in his or her understanding
they might be highly intelligent and able to plumb the depths of of scientific facts or what
have you but when it comes to spiritual things they are darkened in their understandings they’re
alienated from the life of God why because of the ignorance that is in them well how can God blame
them for their ignorance well it’s a culpable ignorance the ignorance is due to their hardness
of heart they’re willfully ignorant and getting back to our passage for today this is precisely
the situation with most of the inhabitants in the city of Jerusalem during Isaiah’s time including
even the religious authorities they were darkened in their understanding they suppressed the truth
in unrighteousness and so our passage for today joins with the rest of scriptural testimony
to declare that only the intervention of God’s sovereign grace can save us from our spiritual
stupor and bring us into God’s light only God’s amazing grace can cause us to say in the words of
that beautiful classic hymn amazing grace what are we singing that hymn amazing grace how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I’m found was what was blind but now I see
I don’t know about you folks but looking back in my own life and
seeing as in so far as I’m able to see the Lord’s work in my heart and life I know that there were
many times I heard the gospel of Jesus many times before I was converted but it just didn’t click
because my mind was darkened my heart was hardened the light was off but then when God’s grace
intervened he turned the light on he illuminated my mind and then I finally said aha now I get it
now I get it I’m a sinner Jesus is my savior he’s my only hope it’s by grace through faith
apart from works but sadly the folks in Isaiah’s day did not see that but does that mean they were
irreligious no but their religion was an external religion not a heart religion that brings me to
my next and final point as we concentrate for a few minutes on verses 13 and 14 let’s consider
externalism versus heart religion externalism versus heart religion in these stinging stunning
words Isaiah conveys the word of the Lord to the people it says in verse 13 and the Lord said
because this people draw near with their mouth oh they’re outwardly religious they
they say all kinds of wonderful things about the Lord they draw near with their mouth and honor me
with their lips well while their hearts are far from me that is deeply offensive to God
God is not interested in merely formal worship that doesn’t mean that the forms and and ceremonies
of worship as as revealed in the word of God and in accordance with the regulative principle
of worship that that’s not important that’s very important but if you go through the motions but
your heart is not in it then that is an offense a deep offense to the Lord because this people draw
near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me their fear and
their fear of me is a commandment taught by men they exalt their own traditions to a level of
equality with the word of God whenever that happens tradition tends to trump the word of God
therefore behold verse 14 I will again do wonderful things with this people the term wonder there is
referring to miracles and we think of the again the mighty miracles that God performed in rescuing
his people from their slavery in Egypt and bringing them to the foot of Mount Sinai and
bringing them into the promised land but this is a different kind of wonder that is being spoken
of in verse 14 do wonderful things with his people with wonder upon wonder and the wisdom
of their wise men shall perish and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden this is not
the wonders of mercy but wonders of judgment friends in these verses Yahweh confronts his
faithless covenant-breaking people for their shallow externalism in religion it’s understandable
that those who are characterized by spiritual blindness and hardness of harden and living in a
spiritual stupor would also be guilty of practicing externalism guilty of going through the motions
practicing an external religion but devoid of a heart for God now verse 13 is the direct
accusation the Lord brings against his faithless people and our Lord Jesus appropriately applied
this passage to the Pharisees of his time because they like Israel’s contemporaries in Jerusalem they
nullified the word of God by their human traditions human traditions that made void the word of God
again let me just have you go back to I know we read this earlier in the service but Matthew 15
let me read verses six through nine it says this so for the sake Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees
he says so for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God you hypocrites Jesus
didn’t mince words he was very direct you hypocrites well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said and
this should be familiar because he’s quoting from our passage for today this people honors me with
their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the
commandments of men and so because of this formalistic externalistic religion that they
practiced God was going to bring his judgment upon them and one of the aspects of his judgment is
that he would give them over to folly to false wisdom for they had devoted themselves not to
godly wisdom as found in the word of God but to false pseudo wisdom I will again do a wonderful
thing the Lord says in verse 14 God indeed he had done wonderful things miracles for his people
through redeeming them by his grace from their slavery in Egypt but now he will act we are
told with wonder upon wonder he will act with supernatural judgment the people relied upon
false wisdom rather than godly wisdom and it’s interesting that the apostle Paul references this
passage in first Corinthians chapter nine to one verse 19 let’s turn there first Corinthians chapter
one verse 19 let me start reading at verse 18 to fill out the context a little bit
says for the word of the cross that’s the gospel the good news of salvation through the death and
resurrection of Christ our Savior the word of the cross is what folly to those who are perishing
but to us who are being saved it is what it is the power of God for it is written I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of this discerning I will thwart friends the
ultimate folly the ultimate in spiritual stupor is to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ
but the ultimate wisdom is the wisdom of the cross again if you’re still there in first
Corinthians chapter one let me read verses 20 through 25 the apostle Paul writes where is the
one who is wise where is the scribe where is the debater of this age has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world man’s idolatrous autonomous wisdom is declared by God to be folly has not God
made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God
through wisdom it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe
the unregenerate the worldly wise view the gospel as utter folly oh you Christians how can you
believe that garbage but if the Lord has opened your eyes open the eyes of your heart to behold
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel then the gospel is the very
power and wisdom of God and the folly of the cross you know you Christians you believe in a
crucified Messiah yes we do but he didn’t stay crucified he rose from the dead
since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom it pleased God through the
folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom
but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles but to those who
are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men my friends true godly wisdom
is the wisdom of the gospel the wisdom from above which is grounded in the cross and resurrection
of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior do you rely on that wisdom do you ground your life
your worldview your thinking and your living on that cross on that message of the gospel
the world’s going to look at you and me and say those those are a bunch of fools
but it is the folly of the gospel that is true wisdom we learn my friends in closing
that biblical religion is not a religion of empty ritualism and ceremony or mere human tradition
no dear ones true Christianity is a religion of the heart but it’s important to understand what
the Bible means when it talks metaphorically about the heart see in our culture today when
someone talks about the heart and they’re not talking about that physical organ in your chest
that pumps blood through your system but they’re using the term heart metaphorically what does
that usually mean in our culture oh you know my heart is with you what do we mean when we say
things like that in our culture well we mean my empathy my my emotions are with you but in the
Bible you need to understand friends that in the Bible the heart refers not merely to the emotions
though it does include them rather the heart is the control center of our entire being intellect
emotions and will and biblical faith involves the whole person biblical faith involves true
reverence trust and love for God so in talking about their hearts being far from God it doesn’t
you know Isaiah is not saying well these these inhabitants of Jerusalem and their religious
leaders they’re just you know they don’t have enough you know they don’t get enough tingles
when they praise God they don’t get the they don’t experience what what some have called
the liver shiver you know it’s like the gooey gooey emotionalism when they’re coming to worship God
you know there are different personalities among believers some are more emotional some are a
little more intellectual the point is not do you have a deep emotional experience when the work
when you worship God the point is is your entire being in the worship that’s what God wants he
wants your heart he wants all of you mind body will emotion biblical faith involves true reverence
trust and love for God not mere externalism not just going through the motions friends
it is only by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior that we can truly draw near to God not
only with our lips but with our hearts with the control center of our entire being do you know
Christ is your Savior is your heart far from God or by the grace of God do you draw near to God
from the heart if you draw near to God through faith in Jesus you draw near to God from your
heart may God give us the grace not to merely honor the Lord with our lips but to give the Lord
our hearts let’s pray heavenly father our sovereign and eternal God we thank you and praise you
that you sent your son Jesus and Jesus is the heart of your love for us
Jesus God incarnate is the one who displayed your amazing grace and love for us on the cross for
as we’re told in scripture you demonstrate your love for us in this that while we were
yet sinners rebel sinners Christ died for us praise you God for that give us the grace oh
Lord open our eyes soften our hearts and draw us through Christ evermore into your presence
as the curtain has been torn in two from top to bottom may we live in union and communion with
Christ our Savior by faith entering moment by moment day by day into the heavenly holy of holies
in Jesus name we pray and all of God’s people said amen as we close our time and worship today
I’d invite you to rise and let’s sing together hymn 446 be thou my vision 446