Sermon Central
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Where Do You Put Your Trust? Series
Contributed by Reuben Bredenhof on Jun 1, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: Keep yourself from idols because all of them will come to nothing. Don’t trust in something that’s going to fail you in the end. Remember that you have a better refuge, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The LORD God alone is the shade in whom we may dwell, in whom we may put our trust.
It’s a serious condemnation, and it confronts us too. Do we really listen honestly to the Word of God, to its correction and admonitions too? Do we let the Word shape us, and let it shape the things we trust in? Or do we prefer to hear pleasant things, only the reassuring truths?
Maybe we don’t read the Bible too closely, because otherwise we’ll have to read about our sin, the sin we know is deeply entrenched in our life. Or perhaps we look for reasons not to listen to the Sunday preaching—we find the sermons difficult, or we find the congregation loveless. We look for ways to carry on without the Word because we don’t want to be made uncomfortable, we don’t want to be challenged.
But we need to listen. In particular, we must listen to the Word when it calls out our misplaced confidence. We must listen when it exposes our lack of faith. The idols that we choose are pretty personal, they reveal something pretty deep about us, what is most precious to us. That’s painful, when the sharp double-edged sword of the Word does its work, cutting and ‘discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart’ (Heb 4:12). Maybe we’d rather not hear about our pride, or our love of money, or our fear of other people. But we need to hear it. Without this saving Word, we’re lost.
They’re so determined to take their own direction that Judah warns God’s messengers to step aside: “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path” (v 11). And then in a shocking request, they let slip what this lack of faith really amounts to: “Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” They no longer desire communion with the LORD God.
This was the tragic thing about their lack of faith in God—for us too. We fret and we worry, we grow anxious and search for our own solutions. Yet we already have access to the one answer that we need: ‘the Holy of Israel.’ We have all his promises in the Word, promises that are guaranteed in truthfulness, signed and sealed in the blood of Christ. In all fears and insecurities, we already know the One who is able to save our life and to hold us fast forever, “the Holy One of Israel.”
That name for God can remind us of that central chapter in Isaiah, chapter 6. Then the LORD revealed himself in the temple as ‘holy, holy, holy.’ This God is like none other. He is incomparable in greatness, He is unparalleled in power, He is unmatched in mercy. If there is one God and one Being who is worthy of trust, it is the LORD.
To turn aside from him is to turn aside from your only hope, your only life. But to go with the LORD, to put your hand into his, to humbly listen his Word, is to enjoy a confidence that cannot be threatened by anything in heaven or on earth. For He is our God in Christ Jesus, and in him we may always trust.
3) they were called to return and to rest: After everything Isaiah has said, the alternative is simple. He has urged God’s people to abandon our idols and to deconstruct our false confidence. And instead, very simply, we must repent and put our trust in God alone. That’s the age-old calling and most important activity of our life: trust God.
