Rejoice with Trembling - Glenn Conjurske

Rejoice with Trembling

by Glenn Conjurske

A Sermon Preached on July 2, 1989, Recorded, Transcribed, & Revised

I’d like you to turn in your Bibles to the second Psalm. I’m not going to read it all, but just one verse. Verse 11 says, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” Let’s pray. Holy Father, we do pray that this morning this verse might be written in our hearts. I pray, God, that you will give me help by the Holy Spirit of God, and give me unction. Give me the power to deliver your message this morning. Amen.

Two things here: serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Obviously the trembling is the result of the fear. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. How long? I preached to you just a little bit ago on the fear of the Lord, and we are told in the Scriptures, “Blessed is the man that feareth always.” We are also told to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. You may say, “Why is that? I thought that the grace of God was sufficient, and I thought that it would secure all things for us”—-and you thought a lot of things. Well, let me just say this: instead of thinking a lot of things, just do two things: read what the Bible says, and look around you. Now the Bible does say, in the first chapter of I Peter, “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” The Bible does say, “Blessed is the man that feareth always.” And it says here, “Serve the Lord with fear.” Read what the Bible says.

The other thing is, look around you. You know it’s as though we are in the midst of a voyage across the ocean, and we see wreckage strewn everywhere, from other ships that were once engaged in a similar voyage, and if we could scan the bottom of the deep we would see wreckage strewn everywhere on the bottom of the deep. Therefore he says, “Serve the Lord with fear.” What are you different? What is your sailing vessel different from all those other sailing vessels that set out from one shore to the other, and never made it across? How are you different? They had as much access to the grace of God as you do.

Now, you come to the book of Philippians in the New Testament, the second chapter, and the twelfth verse, and Paul says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” The very two things that it speaks of in the second Psalm. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” In Philippians he says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” And you know that I am perverse enough, or deluded enough, to believe that this scripture means precisely what it says. It means to produce, bring about, or accomplish your own salvation with fear and trembling. That’s the only thing that the Greek can mean, by the way. Of course, you’ve heard the foolish notions which are squeezed out of this verse. They tell us that this is “working out into our life the salvation which God has worked into us.” Indeed! And with fear and trembling, too? Such an explanation is false on its face. It is nothing better than a play upon words, and at that a play upon the English words. The Greek cannot be forced to mean any such thing, and neither could the English if common sense or honesty were consulted. Where does “work out” ever, anywhere, have such a meaning? I heartily wish that all of my fellow-dispensationalists—-whose cry is always “Paul, Paul, Paul”—-I heartily wish they had half as much confidence in Paul as I do. They honor him with their lips, but their heart is far from him. They wrest him, while I believe him. They ignore half his words, while I preach them.

But why “with fear and trembling?” Well, because there are many that set out on the narrow path to everlasting life, or who to all appearances set out on the narrow path to everlasting life, who never reach the goal. How are you different from them? Do you have a corner on the grace of God? The Son of God says, “Many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (Luke 13:24). How are you different from them? Jonathan Edwards speaks in one of his works on revival of the results of the great awakenings that they had, and he says, The proportion of real converts, who held out, to the number of professions that were made in the time of the revival, is like the proportion of apples on the tree in the Fall, compared to the blossoms that were on the tree in the Spring. For that reason the Scripture says, Rejoice with trembling, and serve the Lord with fear.

Some people don’t like the idea of fear, because they think it implies some mistrust of God. If the grace of God is all-sufficient for my every need, then why should I fear? Well, the same Bible which teaches you of the grace of God, teaches you also to pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, and that settles the matter for anyone who has faith.

But isn’t it somehow casting reproach upon God, or upon his grace, if I fear, or if I rejoice with trembling? Shouldn’t the grace of God, and faith in his grace and power, take the trembling out of my rejoicing? No, because you can receive the grace of God in vain. Paul beseeches men that they “receive not the grace of God in vain.” (II Cor. 6:1). For every one who receives the grace of God to good effect, there are many who receive the grace of God in vain. Therefore fear. Not because you don’t trust God, but because you don’t trust yourself, and because something yet depends upon you. If there is one thing which the Bible doctrine of fear teaches beyond cavil, it is that something depends upon you. Those who deny this are directly in the teeth of Scripture at every turn of the path. Something depends upon you, and you don’t know what kind of temptations you may have to face tomorrow. You don’t know what kind of storms are going to come upon you tomorrow, and therefore you should serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Now, rejoicing implies that you actually have something to rejoice over. God really has saved your soul. God has delivered you from the power of sin that once possessed you. God has given you peace in your heart. God has given you a clear conscience, and peace with God. He’s given you joy in your heart, and he’s given you a place among the people of God, and filled your heart with love for the people of God, and you really have got something to rejoice over. So he says, Rejoice. But he says, Do it with trembling. And that implies just this: you rejoice with trembling because everything here is insecure. Everything here is apt to change, including your own heart, including that strong faith which you now have, or think you have. Will you have it tomorrow? And therefore the Lord Jesus Christ, from his place at the right hand of God, exhorts you to hold fast what you have You have got something, but you’d better hold it fast. That’s about the same thing as to say, Rejoice with trembling. You have something, but tremble because you may yet lose it.

As I said, it’s like setting out on a voyage across the ocean. Anyone who has sailed the seas, I would think, would set out on such a voyage with trembling. Many ships have set out on such a voyage, and have never been heard of again. Many have been strewn on rocky shores—-just a pile of scattered wreckage. Many have gone to the bottom. I think often of the sinking of the Titanic. Here was the largest boat that sailed the seas, and it was thought to be unsinkable. And on its maiden voyage with two thousand two hundred people on board, it sank, and fifteen hundred people went to the bottom with it. What was the problem? Well, the people on this boat were rejoicing in the strength of that vessel, and they rejoiced without any trembling. A carnival atmosphere prevailed. They were told that there were icebergs in the area. Other ships informed them of it by radio, and they didn’t even slow down, but continued to plow through the high seas at full throttle. No concern, because they said, “This vessel cannot sink”—-and it sank on its maiden voyage. Well, you only get one voyage for your soul, and you had best rejoice with trembling, or you may sink also. They didn’t have enough life boats on board. They didn’t think they needed life boats. The people wouldn’t get into the lifeboats when they were launched. They said, “The lifeboats may sink, but this ship cannot.” Overconfident. Rejoicing a plenty, but no trembling.

Now I believe there’s a reason why people rejoice without trembling, and I do not believe that that reason is faith. I believe it is pride. Turn over with me to Romans, the eleventh chapter. Paul gives you a warning here, and in that warning he incidentally indicates what it is that keeps men from serving the Lord with fear, or from rejoicing with trembling. Beginning at verse 17, he says, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Boasting is the fruit of pride, and it is pride which excludes fear. You look at all the branches that were broken off, and yourself graffed in, and you get puffed up. You say, “They all fell, but I will not.” That is not faith, but pride and presumption. Verse 19: “Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.” This scripture leaves no possible doubt that fear is perfectly consistent with faith. “You stand by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.” The two go together, belong together. The sort of faith which excludes fear is only presumption. I’m not saying that you should go through life uncertain of your standing before God. He doesn’t say, Don’t rejoice, but he does say, Rejoice with trembling. Now to rejoice implies that I do have something, and know that I have it. But precisely because I have it, and know that I have it—-precisely because I stand by faith—-he tells me to fear.

Now if you’ll turn back to the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” This is precisely why you should be not high-minded, but fear. The man who fears doesn’t fall. But the proud man doesn’t fear. He says, “All these branches were broken off, but I’m not going to be. All those ships went to the bottom of the sea, but mine isn’t going to.” And he has no reason whatever—-either doctrinal, or practical, or personal—-to think so. If he says, “The grace of God will keep me,” I ask, “Why didn’t the grace of God keep the others who fell?” If he says, “I have faith, and they had none,” then Paul says, “Thou standest by faith: be not high-minded, but fear”—-lest he also spare not thee. You have no more corner on the grace of God than the others had who fell. Some will tell me, of course, that this passage has nothing to do with individual salvation. Well, what of it? It certainly must apply to something—-and to something individual, too, if “thee” and “thou” mean anything—-and whatever you apply it to, the principle which it sets forth is the truth of God. That principle is that those who actually stand—-and do so by faith—-ought to stand in fear, for they may yet fall. They ought to rejoice with trembling.

As for the application of the principle, let me suggest that this rejoicing with trembling is something which ought to characterize our whole life, and everything in it. Whatever you have got in this life to rejoice over, you ought to rejoice over it with trembling. For example, you have children. The Bible says that a woman is in pain and in travail, but as soon as a child is born she forgets her pain for joy that a child is born into the world. But, oh, the trembling that ought to be mixed with that joy! The trembling is precisely the thing that will preserve and secure that joy. The man who doesn’t tremble for his weakness, for his inexperience, and for his ignorance, the man who doesn’t tremble for the power of Satan and the snares of the world, the man who doesn’t tremble for the awfully precarious state of his precious child, in the midst of snares and temptations which have taken millions of others to hell, he may have all of his joy turned into the most bitter sorrow. If you want to rejoice over that little life that God has given you, and rejoice for ever, you rejoice with trembling, because you know that there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of little babes born into godly families, in the present day and throughout history, who in eternity are going to inhabit the flames of hell. I believe one big reason for that is that their parents did not rejoice with trembling, but were too confident of their own abilities, and maybe too confident of the grace of God.

Can a man be too confident of the grace of God? He certainly can. Any faith which ignores or shirks its own responsibility, and expects God to do what he requires you to do, is no true faith at all, but only presumption. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” That is a precious promise of God, and we can have faith in the promises of God. But if I trust God, while I fail to train up my child in the way he should go, this is no faith, but presumption. Faith without works is dead. David is in heaven, but he has children in hell. So have a good many many others that you could name throughout the whole history of the world. You had best rejoice with trembling over that little soul that God has committed to you. If you rejoice with trembling, and serve the Lord with fear, then you can have real faith—-not presumption, but real faith.

Now let me mention another thing in which I believe people ought to rejoice with trembling. There is probably no greater occasion of joy on earth than a wedding. Yet you know that half of the marriages in this country end in divorce, and many of them in a few months. You say, Well, you’re talking about ungodly people. No, not only ungodly people. I know many Christians who are divorced. I know Christians who were raised in the straitest sect of our religion, with some of the holiest, most zealous parents on earth, who are divorced. I know students with whom I went to Bible school, that were apparently full of zeal and freshness to serve the Lord, and found themselves a beautiful bride or a prince charming with whom to serve the Lord, and went out into the world to serve the Lord, and I heard a few years later, Well, they’re not together any more. They’re divorced. How come? What happened? I don’t know the details of what happened in most of those cases, but I do say that there are dangers on the sea of life that we may know nothing about. And therefore if you have got something good from God, you’d better rejoice with trembling. You’d better not be high-minded, like some whom I’ve heard say, “I can’t figure out how these marriages fail. It couldn’t happen to us. We’re in love, and we don’t have to try to make a good marriage. It just couldn’t be anything but good.” Yes, and so said they all. So said they all, who are now divorced.

And by the way, I’m not just talking about divorce, either, because there are a lot of people who have enough character that they would never so much as consider divorce, who nevertheless have marriages which are little better than drudgery. All the romance has dried up. All the spark and spice that they once had are gone, and all they have is an empty shell of marriage. But oh, the joy, the overflowing abundance of joy which was theirs on their wedding day! It’s all gone now, though they would never think of divorce. If you want to keep that joy, rejoice with trembling. Look around you at all the marriages which began with a love just as deep and just as thrilling as yours, and today they have none of it left, and they may be in the divorce court. Look around you, and rejoice with trembling. And while you tremble, put a look-out on the deck of the vessel, and watch for the icebergs. Watch for the coldness which may come into a marriage almost imperceptibly. Strive against the bad character which destroys good things. Cry to God for the grace you need to preserve the treasure he has given you. Rejoice with trembling.

Another occasion of great joy is the conversion of a sinner. The Bible says that there is joy in heaven when one sinner repents. The angels of God are singing for joy when one sinner repents. There is seldom occasion for greater rejoicing than when you see a sinner come home to God. But you had better rejoice with trembling. And oh, I hope if you don’t get anything else this morning, you’ll get this text into your soul. The church today seems completely unaware of its existence. It cuts across the grain of popular theology. There isn’t much trembling in the rejoicing of the church today. I spoke to a woman just after the baptism of one of my children, and told this woman I rejoiced with trembling, and she seemed offended at it. But oh, how many whom we once thought to be on the narrow road to eternal life, are now obviously on the broad road to destruction.

I knew a fellow when I was a student at Bible school, who was also a student there when I was. Now, I should tell you that the fact that a man goes to Bible school does not prove that he is spiritual, or even that he is saved. My one great disappointment when I went to Bible school was with the student body. I went there expecting a little heaven on earth—-expecting a body of students who were spiritual and devoted to Christ, but that is not what I found. I went to Bible school in 1965, and twenty-one years later, in 1986, I had a talk with the man who was the president of the Bible school which I attended, and I told him then that my great disappointment at Bible school was with the student body. And he said, “You would be a whole lot worse shocked if you came back there today. We have to start from zero with these kids.” They go to Bible school knowing nothing of Christianity. That, of course, is a reflection on the state of the churches that those kids come from. But when I was at Bible school, there was a small nucleus of students—-men students—-eight or ten of them, who were solid and spiritual. These men usually stuck together, and whenever there was a free hour you would usually see them together, speaking of the things of God, and of the work of God. It wasn’t any preconcerted thing, and certainly wasn’t designed to exclude anybody else, but these few just had common zeal and faith and diligence, and were just drawn together to each other. And this man that I am thinking of was one of the number. He was one who was chosen to speak at graduation, and I often thought, Here’s a man who means business for God. Here’s a man who has got some zeal. I can honestly say that I really didn’t expect most of the students to amount to much. The most of them had so little devotedness to the cause of Christ that my thought was, I would be surprised if they did amount to anything. But this man I expected to amount to something. He was different. He really did have something.

Well, I lived out in Colorado for a couple of years, I lived in Madison for six years, and then I moved back to Grand Rapids, and I ran into this man when I moved back to Grand Rapids. I found him to be totally fallen, not only from his former zeal and diligence and spirituality, but fallen even from his profession of Christianity. He was living just to make money. Living without God—-smoking, using profane language. And I assume he is still in the same condition, because I talked with him various times while I was in Grand Rapids, and I never could move him. Never could convict him. Never could make him thirst. Never could make him hunger. Never could make him resolve. He was resigned to staying where he was. How did he get from where he was to where he is? I’m not sure of all the steps that took him from the one place to the other, but I know there are many others like him, and when you look out there and see examples like that, who went from the height of zeal and devotedness and diligence to the place of giving up even their profession of Christianity, I say, You’d better rejoice with trembling. Those people who are glib in their professions, and glib in what they call faith, which may be only presumption, who rejoice without trembling, I tremble for them.

I knew of a couple who were apparently converted in a church in another state. Before these two were converted, the ungodly used to taunt the Christians concerning them, and say, “If you want to make any impression on us, you convert those two.” And they picked two of the most hopeless cases in the town. And one summer those very two were converted. I was at that church preaching shortly after those two were converted—-a young man and a young woman. I thought this young man was a little too confident, but he had joy, and was basking in the light of God’s countenance—-basking in his acceptance with God. But he seemed a little too confident, and I tried to temper his confidence a little—-to teach him to serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling—-but he wouldn’t listen to what I had to say. He wasn’t exactly cocky—-but was very sure of his state, and I think he kind of pitied me that I would think that he needed to rejoice with trembling. I cautioned him about numerous people, who professed to be saved, and in a little while were back to their old life of sin. He just got this kind of knowing smile on his face, and he said, “No, I’m saved. I know I’m saved.” He was rejoicing, but without a scintilla of trembling, and I couldn’t move him to rejoice with trembling.

I went back to that church a few months later, and he was gone back to the world, and had given up his profession. And, you know, it happens all the time. But there is a way to prevent it, and that is “Rejoice with trembling.” I’m not saying this young man never had anything. I’m not saying that what he had wasn’t real. It certainly seemed real. But I know that if he did have something he didn’t keep it, because there wasn’t any trembling in his rejoicing. He didn’t have any idea of what kind of reefs and icebergs and storms were ahead of him. He was just rejoicing in the strength of the vessel that he was in, and didn’t have any idea that the thing could ever sink, but it did.

You know, I have to tremble when I look forward, but I tremble even when I look back at my spiritual experience. When I look at my conversion, and I see how absolutely weak it was, how absolutely precarious it was, I tremble even when I look back. I had been a very ungodly youth. I smoked, I swore, took the name of God in vain. I was obscene in my talk, filled with the lust for every evil thing, even though I didn’t have the opportunity for every evil thing. I worked two summers at a Jewish boys’ camp up in Eagle River, the two summers before I was saved, and there I just abandoned myself to ungodliness. Everybody else there was ungodly, and I didn’t have any parents around keeping track of me, or pretending to keep track of me. No authority over me, and I just abandoned myself to ungodliness. Well, I was planning to go back there the next summer also, after I was converted. But you know, when I contemplated going back there, I trembled. I knew I was saved, and by the way, I was filled with a lot of zeal, and a lot of joy, and I had very strong faith. I guess I could say my faith was so strong that I didn’t even feel my trials. We set out to go to Bible school just a little while after the time I’m referring to. We left in our old ’55 Chrysler at 10 o’clock at night. We were supposed to be in Grand Rapids in the morning. We made it as far as Elcho that night—-about twenty miles from home. Generator went out on the car. Now I was with a couple of other Christians, or professing Christians, and, of course, it was a trial to us, but I smiled a big old grin, and I said, “It’s just another opportunity to walk by faith.” And I meant it, too. I didn’t even feel the trial. So I didn’t tremble because I didn’t have faith, but I trembled because I knew what I was. I talked to some of the people in the church, when I was contemplating going back to that camp to work for the summer. I was planning to go back, though it was really stupidity for me to go there. I was too weak. But I didn’t know a whole lot then, and I didn’t have anybody

to sit down with me, and tell me, “Don’t go back there.” I didn’t know much, but somehow I did know enough to rejoice with trembling.

I rejoiced for the grace of God that was given to me, but I trembled for my own weakness. I said, “I don’t know how I can stand there. I’m afraid that if I go back there into that old atmosphere, I’ll fall from where I am.

I won’t be able to resist the temptations. I’ll start smoking again. I’ll start swearing again. I’ll live like they do. I’m afraid, and I want you to pray for me.” I talked to different people in the church, and told them this. None of them had enough sense to tell me not to go there, and I didn’t have enough sense to know it, but I was trembling. Well, I never did go there, though I had my application in, and wrote to them, and asked them why they had not responded. Time was getting short, and I needed to know if I could have the job. And at length I got a letter back that told me that after twenty-two years of operation, they had determined to close the camp.

I don’t know what their reasons were, but I believe God closed it. He saw my weakness, and he saw my trembling, and he had mercy on me. But what multitudes walk into such situations with no trembling at all.

Trembling is the one thing missing from the evangelical church today, and the difficulty lies much deeper than the natural pride and self-confidence of the human heart. The church has a theology which excludes trembling, a theology which breeds self-confidence. It may go under the name of faith, but it’s self-confidence after all. It is neither more nor less than presumption. It is a plain necessity that we should rejoice with trembling throughout our sojourn here, for everything under the sun is unstable. What thousands who once set out on the road to heaven have gone back to the world! What flaming zeal has been cooled! what fine gold tarnished and dimmed! How many who did run well have been hindered, that they should not obey the truth!

Oh, but you have a theology which says that is not possible—-that is, you have a theology which gives the lie to Holy Scripture. You say, they never did run well—-only thought they did—-only pretended they did. But Paul says, “Ye did run well.” Yet they ran well no longer. And what are you better than they? Do you have some grace of God to which they had no access? Do you have some innate strength which they did not possess? If not, you had better rejoice with trembling.

The plain fact is this: everything under the sun is unstable. Everything here is yet in the hands of man, and subject to corruption. I believe in the blessed reality of the grace of God, but I believe just as surely in the awfully solemn reality of the responsibility of man. Your own responsibility is the great determining factor in your own eternal condition. If that is not so, the Bible is nothing but a string of myths, for the Bible assumes it, teaches it, and enforces it on every page. But most of modern evangelicalism is so steeped in false and presumptuous notions of the grace of God that it pays little or no regard to the responsibility of man. It either ignores it, or systematically denies it. It rejoices without trembling, which is the surest way to lose the grace of God, or receive it in vain. If you don’t believe the doctrine, look around you. What broken homes, broken marriages, broken vows, broken hearts, broken lives, ungodly children, fallen preachers, and apostate believers flow out of the very church of God! Here is the legitimate fruit of a theology which is all security, and no fear and trembling—-or is it the grace of God which has failed in all of these cases?

But there is a better way. “Rejoice with trembling.” An old proverb says, “He that is too secure is not safe,” and to this agrees the doctrine of Scripture. He that is too secure takes no precautions, and so he falls.

But oh, beloved, the day is soon to come when all our fear and trembling will be over. The day of our probation will end, and the day of our sweet rest begin. Then the weapons of our warfare may be laid down. Then we may cease to watch and pray. Then we may cease to strive against sin, and to fight the fight of faith. Then all our rejoicing may be pure and free, without any mixture of fear and trembling. But we have not reached that state yet, and those who think they have are the most likely to fall. Now we may rejoice indeed, but “rejoice with trembling.” And if we mix all of our joys here and now with a holy fear and trembling, then will we preserve all of our joys intact to that blessed day when the fear and trembling may all be laid aside for ever. But the warfare is not over yet. Here and now it is our wisdom, our strength, and our safety to cling to our fear and trembling as to our sword and shield. When the battles are all over and the victories all won, then we may lay them aside, and rejoice, and laugh, and sing for ever, and never tremble again. But through all of this pilgrim pathway, in a world filled with powerful temptations, with a corrupt heart within us and strong foes around us—-while we view the failed and the fallen on every side of us—-we had better “rejoice with trembling.”

Glenn Conjurske