The latter half of Isaiah, beginning with chapter 40, has some fantastic promises for Christians. There are two parts in Isaiah, the first 39 chapters correspond to the first 39 books of the Old Testament, and the next 27 chapters correspond to the 27 books in the New Testament. The last 27 chapters of Isaiah are essentially new covenant prophecies - a lot of them referring to Christ and a lot of them referring to us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps - and so there are some fantastic promises in Isaiah chapters 40 to 66 which essentially relate to us in the New Covenant.

Isaiah 66:1-2 is a picture of building the true Church of Jesus Christ, against which the gates of Hell will never prevail. “Heaven is My throne and the Earth is My footstool, where's the house that you're going to build for Me? Where's the church that you human beings, you people who call yourselves born again Christians, are going to build for Me?”

When the Lord says, “To this one I will look,” He is describing the person that He will look upon with favor to build His church, against which the gates of Hell will not prevail. A church against which Satan cannot infiltrate with anger, lust, adultery, lying, stealing, and all the other wretched things that are found in the race of Adam.

“I will look at the one who is humble and contrite of spirit”(Isaiah 66:2). The number one quality He is looking for is humility and contrition, or brokenness of spirit. God looks at people who have a low opinion of themselves, not low self-esteem. Jesus did not have low self-esteem. He was the Son of God. He told His disciples, “I am your Lord and Master. You call me that, and so I am” (John 13:13). He had no doubt about Who He was. He knew He was the Son of God. He didn't have any low self-esteem. But he had such tremendous humility that He considered others as people whom He should serve, and He would wash their feet. Do you know that He even washed the feet of Judas Iscariot? That is humility, washing the feet of one who is going to betray you in a few hours. He had no low self-esteem, but took a low position. He had low thoughts about Himself. In our relation to others, Philippians 2:3 says, “Consider others as more important than yourself.” That is the number one quality, brokenness of spirit. A brokenness in sorrow because we’re not like Christ. God looks at that type of person.

The second quality in a person that God looks for in Isaiah 66:2 is, “One who trembles at My Word.” This is so important to consider in connection to Jesus' commands. When you read the Sermon on the Mount, do you tremble at God's Word? At the word that says that if you get angry and speak in that anger to a person, you're guilty enough to go to Hell? Do you tremble at the Word that says that if you don't take a radical attitude to cut off bodily members that cause you to lust with your eyes and commit sexual sin with your eyes or your hands, you must take a radical attitude, otherwise you will go to Hell? Do you tremble at that Word?

I find very few Christians who tremble at that Word, even among those who have heard me preach about this for years. I'm sorry to say that even in some of the churches where I have responsibility, where people have heard me preach against these sins for 25 years, they still do not tremble at this Word. That is the condition of a lot of Christians: they've got the knowledge, but they take it lightly. How can you take sin lightly when you see the price that Christ paid on the cross to deliver us from sin? There is a hymn that I often sing to myself, which says:

Ever when tempted make me see, Lord help me to see,

My God alone outstretched and bruised

And bleeding on the earth He made

And make me feel it was my sin

As though no other sins were there

That was to Him Who bears the world a load

That He could scarcely bear.

I sing that many times to myself to remind myself how my Lord, Who could bear the load of this universe on His shoulder, couldn't bear the load of my sin. It crushed Him on Calvary -- and that's what has helped me to have a tremendous hatred for sin, and has caused me to tremble at God's Word. And this is what makes me have a burden to educate Christians, to help them to know that sins like lusting with your eyes are worse than getting AIDS, or cancer.

The day you understand that, you will fight these sins radically. You wouldn't play the fool with syringes infected with AIDS. Why are you so careful about them, and are yet not careful about something far worse than AIDS? I’ll tell you why: because you don't believe that sin is worse than AIDS and cancer, you don't tremble at God's Word. I have learned to believe this, and that's why I'm extremely careful with these sins such as anger, lusting after women, and divorce. To enter Kingdom of Heaven, our righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees.

I find very few Christians who take this seriously, and very few preachers who preach it seriously. The Sermon on the Mount is the fundamental requirement that we need to have. Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

I believe this with all my heart. The Lord is expecting Christians to show a quality of righteousness that is way above the Ten Commandments. Idolatry is not bowing down before idols of wood and stone. It’s giving something other than God a place in my heart. The Sabbath is not just not doing work on a Sabbath day; it is an inner life of rest. Adultery is not just physical adultery; it’s lusting with the eyes. Murder is not just killing someone; it is anger. And so on with all the commandments, as we will look at later on.

Let us learn to tremble at God's Word so that God can use us to build His church. The type of person God will look for and use to build His House is what we saw in Isaiah 66:1-2. May God help us.