Three Questions About God Answered

Q: What does the Bible say about who God is?

The Bible describes God as the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, holy, supreme, and gracious. According to Isaiah 57:15, God is revealed as the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. This description emphasizes God's supremacy over all creation, His holiness, and His grace towards humanity. God is not simply a deity defined by human imagination. Instead, the Scriptures declare that He is the ultimate source of all holiness and righteousness, existing beyond time and without limitations. His character is consistent across the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all reflecting these divine attributes. Thus, understanding who God is fundamentally shapes a believer's reverence for Him and comprehension of His sovereignty.

Q: How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

God's sovereignty is affirmed throughout Scripture, revealing His ultimate control over all creation. Scripture repeatedly asserts God's sovereignty over all aspects of existence, as reflected in passages such as 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, which states that God's is the greatness, power, and glory, and that He reigns over all. His sovereignty is an essential aspect of His nature, ensuring that nothing occurs without His authority or knowledge. Contrary to modern views that limit God's power or sovereignty, the historic Reformed perspective firmly holds that God is sovereign in every sphere of life and action. This sovereignty shapes not only the natural world but also the hearts and wills of men, affirming God's control and purpose throughout history.

Q: Why is God's grace important for Christians?

God's grace is foundational for salvation, providing unmerited favor and restoration to humanity. God's grace is vital for Christians because it highlights the unmerited favor He extends to sinners. As revealed in Micah 7:18-19, God delights in mercy and pardons iniquity, demonstrating His desire to restore His people. This grace is not only essential at the point of salvation but is also necessary for ongoing spiritual life and revitalization for believers. It reassures Christians of their standing before a holy God, promising that despite their failings, His compassion and love remain constant. Understanding grace transforms a believer's response to God, fostering humility and dependence on His power rather than their own efforts.

Let's turn to Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Our text speaks only about the Lord our God. It is an assertion of his greatness and his glory. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit. to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Now the title of my message this evening is three questions about God answered. The questions are mine, obviously. The answers are God's. I want to show you something of the character and work of the Lord our God. The first question is quite simple, but it's so basic, so vital, we dare not pass over it lightly. In fact, I will spend the bulk of my time dealing with it. Here it is.

Who is God? We talk about God a great deal. The scriptures talk about God. We have folks everywhere speaking of God in terms that appear to be familiar terms, and yet what they say about God is totally contrary to what the scriptures reveal about God. The God revealed in Holy Scripture And the God that I hear men talk about, both preachers and politicians and entertainers, the God I hear folks talk about, and the God I read about in this book, are not even vaguely, vaguely alike. They're not in the least degree similar to one another.

So the question needs to be understood, who is God? Now there are many, many answers given to that question in Holy Scripture. But the answers that are found in our text here, Isaiah 57, 15, will be enough to keep our brains occupied for eternity. God himself declares himself to be the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, and yet he condescends to take up permanent residence with and in the hearts of sinners who recognize themselves to be altogether unfit for and unworthy of his presence. This is our God.

Now, there are several things said here concerning our God. And what is said here is not in reference to one person in the Godhead alone, but everything that's spoken here is true of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So that whenever we talk about God, whenever we think about God, whether you're talking about the Holy Spirit, or whether you're talking about the Son of God, or we're talking about the Everlasting Father, we're speaking concerning the character of God now, and in his character, God is altogether the same. So that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in all things equal.

Now in this text, there are five things I want you to see about who God is. I'm going to spend the bulk of my time on the first one, but I want you to see all five of these. First, There is this thing of supremacy, and then the scripture speaks of his eternality, and then his infinity, and then his holiness, and last of all, his grace. All right, let's look at these five things.

First, God is described here in his supremacy. The Lord, our God, is the high and lofty one. He is high above the earth and the nations of it. He is higher than all the kings and empires of time. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is higher than the heavens and higher than the angels of heaven.

He is exalted infinitely above all the praises of his saints, so that we have not even begun to imagine how great God is. I talk about God's greatness and I try to emphasize and stress God's greatness and declare his greatness, but we haven't even begun to imagine how great God is.

He is able to destroy all our enemies and his. He is able, because he is the high and lofty one, to save his people to the uttermost, as you mentioned back in the office in your prayer, Larry. The Lord our God is one whose knowledge is too wonderful for us. His perfections are too glorious for us to see them. His thoughts are infinitely higher than our thoughts and His ways infinitely higher than our ways. The Lord God in the length and breadth and depth of his love is altogether beyond us.

God is simply too big, too great for us to comprehend. His greatness and his supremacy demand that we bow before him with reverence always, that we reverence his holy name, reverence his word. a mark, an indication of our age, it's a lack of reverence. And the lack of reverence of children for parents, the lack of reverence of men for those in authority over them, the lack of reverence that we see in all society is that there is a lack of reverence for God. For men have been told a lie concerning who the character of, or what the character of God is, therefore there has been no reverence for God. Compare the God that is here described.

This one I've been reading about here in Isaiah 57, 15. The God described in scripture compared him with the God of this day. The God of this modern religious age in which we live. The God that is portrayed and described in pulpits all across this city and all across this country. The God of this religious world in which we now find ourselves so much on the outside. The god of this religious age is a peanut god. He's a peanut god. He's a god that's not worthy of the least esteem, but only of our content.

Yes, I hold the god of this age in utter contempt. I hold the god of modern religion in total contempt, and all things with regard to him I hold to be in contempt. As much as any form of idolatry, I hold to be contemptible modern free will works religion and the god of this age. His will, his power, his grace, his love, all his works are meaningless. altogether meaningless, because he can do nothing.

He can do nothing without the permission and the assent of man. What's the use of having a god whose hands are tied, whose legs have been cut off, and is just a stump that folks shove around and use him like a good luck charm? Rex Humbard, that Preacher, you don't hear much about it anymore. I don't know what happened to it, but I'm not interested in what happened to it. He said years ago, he said, God has no eyes, but your eyes. And God has no ears, but your ears. And God has no hands, but your hands. And God has no feet, but your feet. My soul, God's just a stop. He's just useless. If everything God is and everything God does depends on you, well, it's nonsense.

In one of his letters to Erasmus, Martin Luther said this. He said, Erasmus, your thoughts of God are too human. I think Luther's words for my own. And I lay this charge against the vast majority of preachers and religious people in our day. Your thoughts of God are too human. To countless thousands in churches across this country and around the world, The God of Holy Scripture is totally unknown. Many women are not even slightly acquainted with the God of Holy Scripture. I know people are religious. I know folks are raised in church houses. I know folks give their money and give their time and send folks to the mission theater and they're zealous in all their religious works, but the God of Holy Scripture is an unknown God in this religious world. Men today imagine that God is moved by sentiment rather than principle. Can you stop thinking about that? Folks think that God, like us, is moved by sentiment, by emotion, rather than by principle. But not so.

They talk about omnipotence. I hear fellows use the word omnipotence now and then, not much, but once in a while. They talk about omnipotence and they talk about God Almighty. But they declare that Satan thwarts the designs of this one whom they call God Almighty. Where is his might? Where is his omnipotence?

They acknowledge, at least some of them do, not many, but some still acknowledge that God has a plan. Yes sir, God has a plan. But they imagine that his plans are like ours. Always subject to change. I've had some of you fellows who are involved in building talk about doing things by contract with these dear ladies who hold it to be their prerogative to change their mind. And you must build in certain buffers financially because they're going to come along and say, but I want this. And you're going to go back and change your plans because what they want or what they think they can afford to do, they find out can't be done. And so they change their plans. But God doesn't change his plans. God doesn't run into obstacles. Do you understand that? God doesn't run into obstacles. Nothing is an obstacle to God. He's not a man. He's not, he's not some teeny little creature like we are who has no power.

Openly religious idiots talk about restricted sovereignty and restricted power in God. They speak of God's sovereignty Sort of like our politicians talk about their sovereignty. You know, the fellow who is head of the biggest committee in the Senate, he has a certain realm of what he calls sovereignty. And the fellow, he's the big shot in the Congress, he has a realm of sovereignty. And the President of the White House, he has a realm of sovereignty.

And they talk about sphere sovereignty in the religious world. God is sovereign in this sphere, but not in the other sphere. Will you hear me now? This sphere, all of it, is God's. And he's sovereign over the whole thing. He's sovereign over, not over a little thing here, and not over a little incident there, and not over just good things. God's sovereign over everything.

But men speak of God's sovereignty as though it were just restricted to a certain area, to a certain realm, and there's a reason for it. They don't want anyone to come to the conclusion that God might possibly reserve the right to invade the sacred shrine of man's free will and destroy their God.

For the God of this age is man himself. The God of this age, that which men really worship, is themselves. They're called will-worshippers by the Apostle Paul in Holy Scripture. Men are scared to death. We're going to reduce man to a robot, to a machine or something of the kind. Would to God we were nothing but robots without any will except God's will. Without any heart except God's heart. Without any purpose but God's purpose.

The effectual blood of Jesus Christ today, his atonement for sin, is openly asserted. in churches all across this country, in churches throughout this city, in churches throughout this state, liberal and conservative, Protestant and otherwise, it is constantly asserted to have less to do with the salvation of sinners than the decision of man.

Now you tell me who's being worshipped. You tell me who's being worshipped. Folks say Jesus died for everybody, but now, now that doesn't really determine anything. Salvation's in your hands. Salvation's in your decision. They're declaring that man's decision has more to do with salvation than Christ's blood.

The invincible work of God the Holy Spirit is reduced these days to an offer of grace, which the sinner may choose to accept or reject just as they please. This time of the year everybody gets talking about Christmas presents and you hear pictures. They try to wax so eloquent. And they say salvation's like a big present. God's got it all wrapped up. God's done everything.

Now here it is. You can take it or reject it. Oh, is that how scriptures describe salvation? Would you show me where that's described in scripture? I challenge anybody, show me where God says, here is my salvation. You can have it or you can reject it.

It's up to you. Why, that's nonsense. That's blasphemy. God's complaint to the apostates of Israel is a word from God himself addressed to lost religious apostates today. He says in Psalm 50, 21, thou thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thyself. And it's just not so. God's not like you. God is not like me.

Arthur Pink was exactly right when he wrote, The God of this century no more resembles the sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering candle, the glory of the midday sun. The heathen outside the church used to go cut them down a tree or dig them out a rock and they would whittle out a God from their tree. or they would carve out a god from their rocks. Today, the heathen inside the church, who would not be caught dead worshiping a stump or a stone, have gone into the dark forest of their own depraved minds and whittled out a god of their own imaginations and bowed down to worship something that is more worthless than a god made of wood and of stone. Yes, I'm saying exactly what you think I'm saying.

The God of this age is no God at all. It is nothing but the figment of man's imagination, the invention of man's sentimentality. A God whose will can be resisted, whose purpose can be frustrated, whose work can be thwarted, is not God. Such an imaginary God, far from being a fit object of worship, merits nothing but contempt.

He's despicable. The Lord our God, the God of this book, is the high and lofty one. Exalt his name. He's high and lofty, supreme over everybody, supreme over everything. Let's look in the scriptures and see how he is described. Turn to 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles 29. Let's just, let me read you a few texts of scripture here. 1 Chronicles 29. When David brought his gifts to the temple and the gifts that the people offered willingly, he came before the Lord and he said in verse 10, Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation.

And David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our father forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thy hand is power and might, and in Thy hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious name.

Oh, how different that is from religious gatherings in our day. Turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 6. Here is a great leader in Israel, Jehoshaphat, about to go out to battle. And he calls upon the name of the Lord in verse 6.

And he said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? Isn't that wonderful? God, you rule over the heathen, not them. Not Satan. God rules over the heathen. And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Nobody can withstand me, my boy. Nobody's going to stand as an obstacle to you. Nobody's going to hinder the progress of your work. Nobody's going to thwart your will. Turn to a text I read the other day, and I hadn't really noticed this before, in Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34.

What's the practical application of this thing of God's sovereign supremacy? How do you make this practical? Write down where you live. I mean write down where it meets with everyday life. God gives his commandments in scripture. And it's our responsibility to obey what God says. Lindsay was talking this morning about folks marrying and building their homes according to the word of God.

And I hear folks all the time, we can't do that. You can't put God first. You've got to put your job first. You can't put God's worship first. You've got to put family first. You can't put God first. You've got to put your property first. Oh, no. You put everything else first, I'm telling you, you're going to hell. You'll perish with your stuff. I promise you, you will.

Well, how can you just go back and worship God and subject everything else to his will and his purpose? Here in Exodus chapter 34, God commanded all the males in Israel, every one of them, I mean there were no exceptions, God commanded all the males in Israel to go up to Jerusalem three times a year. Three times a year.

Well now you can't do that. Go up to Jerusalem and spend a week in a hostile enemy territory? where folks will come in and destroy our wives and destroy our children and take our property? Who's gonna take care of that? How on earth can we go out and worship God and leave our families down here in this land of Canaan?

Read what God says. Exodus 34, verse 23. Thrice in the year shall all your men and children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. Remember now, he's the one who, What did David say about it? Jehoshaphat I mean? He said thou reignest over all the heathen. He said you go up and worship God three times every year.

For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders, neither shall any man desire thy land, underscore this next word, when, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year. Who's going to take care of that? God says, I'll change the desire of the wicked when you go worship me. I will not allow them to desire your land while you go worship me.

I'm telling you, you can worship, trust, and serve this God who controls even the will and the desire of men to accomplish his purpose and the good of his people. And I've deliberately emphasized God's supremacy. More than I shall the other attributes in our text this evening. And I do so continually for this reason. God's supreme sovereignty is the point of man's enmity and rebellion.

That's where folks, man when you meet them, they're at war. I promise you. You go talk to your neighbor. Talk to mom and dad, talk to son and daughter, talk to religious folks anywhere. Anywhere. When you go to the store next time, I guarantee you somebody in there is religious. Just ring up conversation, talk about God. Everybody's got something to say about God.

And tell them God rules everything down to the thoughts and intents of your heart. I mean so that you don't wield anything except what God has wielded for the glory of his name and the saving of his people. Those are fighting words. Now you can talk about God being holy, amen, God's holy. And you can talk about God being good, whoo, yes, the good Lord. He sure rules over everything. I woke up and the good Lord has been so good to me. You can talk to folks about God's infinity, they'll say yes, God's great. And you're talking about God being eternal, and God being triune, and you get no fuss.

Adam did not rebel against God's holiness, his goodness, his infinity, or his eternality. Adam rebelled against God's sovereignty. He said, you've got no right to tell me what to do. You've got no right to rule over me. That's the point of man's rebellion. That's the point of rebellion in all the sons of Adam.

Because if you take away God's supremacy, as the religious leaders everywhere in our day try to do, if you take away his sovereignty, God's eternality, his infinity, his holiness, and his grace are all meaningless things. What's the significance of eternity if God's not sovereign? What's the significance of holiness if he's not in control? What's the significance of grace if he can't exercise grace when and where he will? The first thing then is God is supreme. The supreme sovereign of the universe, the high and lofty one, that's our God.

Secondly, our text speaks of eternality. He inhabiteth eternity. God is forever. God is forever. How can I speak like this? God is the only one and the only thing that is forever, nothing else. He's eternal. Our text describes him as one who inhabiteth eternity. He is from everlasting to everlasting, without beginning and without end, the first and the last, who only hath immortality, dwelling in life in himself.

You say the pastor are not angels, immortal? Yes, sir. But God made them immortal. They're creatures and God made them so that they live forever. But does not man possess a living soul? Is man not an immortal soul? Oh yes. Yes sir. We shall all continue to live forever, either in heaven's glory or in hell's torment. But God made man immortal. Only God is immortal. You understand that? Only God is that one who hath immortality. His being is from eternity to eternity. John Gere wrote on this, with regard to this passage of scripture, God inhabits one undivided uninterrupted eternity to which time is but a mere point. for a moment.

All of this, all of this, been going on now for a few thousand years. Contrary to popular opinion, not a few million years, a few thousand years. Been going on a little while. All of this in time is just that with God. Just a point, just a small dust of the balance, he calls it. God is eternal. Shoot, we can't even think like that. Much less describe it, God's eternal.

And he who is eternal, who inhabiteth eternity, is also the God of infinity. I like that word, infinite. Infinite. Infinity simply means that God is not and can never be contained, limited, restricted, comprehended, or controlled, not by time, not by space, not by his creatures, not by demons in hell, not by satan, and certainly not by man. God's infinite. God is spirit. the infinite incomprehensible eternal spirit. That's our God.

When folks talk about things being infinite, they speak foolishly. There is nothing infinite but God. Now that which is infinite is also immutable. and change is not. So whenever you think about God, always remember that he is sovereignly supreme, eternal, and infinite. That means God is immutable. Everything about the triune God is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable. Everything. In his being, God's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God doesn't change. No time doesn't change God. Man doesn't change God. Prayer doesn't change God. Nothing changes God. God's eternally the same. God's covenant of grace is always the same. It never changes. His love is from everlasting to everlasting. It never changes.

His salvation is an infinitely, eternal, immutable salvation which he bestowed upon us before the world began. Eternality, infinity, and immutability go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. God is supreme. God is eternal. God is infinite. The fourth attribute described in our text is holy, holiness. He is the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. Now I could spend the rest of the evening telling you why I don't call any man his holiness, or any man holy reverend, or any man most holy reverend, or any man reverend. Because God's name is holy and reverend.

Don't address me as reverend, I'm not. Don't address me as holy. I am not. Address me as Don. That's good enough. Just Don. Brother Don if you want. But I'm just one of you. Just like you. And don't address any other man as holy and reverend. Don't do it. Well, it's just a term of respect. Don't respect folks who want you to call them holy and reverend.

Name of the Lord God is holy and reverend. When the scripture says that God is holy, it is declaring that God is naturally holy. That is his nature. His nature is holy. God is light. And in him is no darkness at all. Can you grasp that? No darkness at all.

God is originally holy. That is, he is the origin of all holiness. So he's the source of holiness. And anything or anyone that is made holy is made holy by God and not by something that man does. God is holy. God is essentially holy. That is, holiness is essential to him. And holiness is seen in all his works.

God created the heavens and the earth. and created man upon the earth, and he demonstrates his holiness even in the creation of man. So that even though sin entered into God's creation, even though Satan and man have rebelled against God, there is yet within fallen man this thing that he cannot erase, and that is a consciousness that God is, that God is powerful, and that God is holy, and he cannot escape from it, no matter where he goes. In the giving of his law, God declares his holiness, for he is holy and just and good in all the revelation of the law.

And in his redeeming grace, by the sacrifice of his son at Calvary, he sent forth his son to be a propitiation to show forth his righteousness, that he may be just and the justifier of the ungodly. When Moses looked upon God's grace, he looked over Israel, while sitting dry on the shores, and he looked back over the Red Sea that had been made to engulf every one of his armies, he saw God's righteous goodness in salvation. And he saw God's righteous justice in judging his enemies.

And this is what he sang. He is glorious in holiness. That's our God. He's holy, holy, holy. Who is God? He's the high and lofty one, supreme, that inhabiteth eternity, eternal and infinite, whose name is holy. He is holiness. But I can't move on to the next thing without telling you also that this great, great God of supremacy, eternality, infinity, and holiness is the God of all grace. He is gracious. for he describes himself here as one who condescends to take up his abode with fallen sinful men to bring fallen sinful men to dwell with him forever he said dwell in the high and holy place and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit oh let me never get over the wonder of this This is amazing grace indeed.

God Almighty, God Almighty dwells here. Right here. Right here. And lad, God Almighty, it's gonna take me to dwell with him forever. And he's not gonna change at all. But what a change he's gonna make in me. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound to save a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. God is great in his grace. Turn over to Micah chapter seven for a minute. Hold your hands here in Isaiah. Turn to Micah chapter seven. And listen as Micah describes the greatness of God's grace and mercy.

Verse 18, who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, that passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage, he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. There's his grace. He will not turn again. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou shalt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Who is God? He is the High, Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. who dwells with the contrite and the humble. But where is God? Where is God?

Give me a minute to tell you that. This great, supreme, eternal, infinite, holy, and gracious God declares, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. When God says I dwell in the high and holy place, this is what he's saying. He's pointing back to the tabernacle and to the temple. You remember that he commanded Moses to make the holy place and then to make the holy of holies, the most holy place. God said that's where you'll find me, that's where you'll find me, in the holy place. It was pointing to the holy place in heaven above.

God dwells in heaven. God in this place. God doesn't reside in temples made with hands. God dwells in heaven. More than that, when he says, I dwell in the holy place, he is saying, I dwell upon the mercy seat, upon the sacrifice, upon the throne of grace. That's where I dwell.

That's where Isaiah saw it. God commanded Moses to build the ark of the covenant. And he said, now you put in there Aaron's rod that budded, and you put in there the tables of the law, and you put in there the golden pot containing manna, and then you put a lid of pure gold on that thing. And you set it in the most holy place.

And over it, the cherubims will be looking down right on that lid, the mercy seat. And Aaron will come in once a year with the blood of the Paschal Lamb and he'll sprinkle the mercy seed. Seven times he'll sprinkle the mercy seed in the perfection of holiness and in the perfection of grace.

And he says, I'll meet you at the mercy seed. I'll meet you at the throne of grace. I'll meet you there in mercy and in grace. I'll meet you in the blood of my son. I'll meet you there in the blood of Tomer and there God and man. come together in perfect reconciliation. And God no longer has calls for anger with the man who meets him at the mercy seat where blood atonement had been set forth. I'll meet you there.

God says, I dwell in the high and holy place. He dwells upon a throne, deal with him with reverence. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And he said, I cried, all the world is me. Learn to deal with God and the things of God with reference. But he dwells in the high and holy place upon a throne of grace. Come to him with hope. God sits on a throne. He rules everything. But his throne is a throne of grace. He's full of goodness and mercy to the sons of men. And then he says, I dwell also. with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. David said, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Over here in Isaiah 66, listen to what he says. Isaiah 66, verse one. Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord.

But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, not poor in money, but poor in spirit. and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. I'd sure like to meet up with some men who are so conscious of God's glory, and his infinite majesty, and the power of his word, and their sin, that when the word is read, their hearts tremble and quake at his word. Today, folks, take it or leave it. Oh, for those who are a contrite, humble spirit, they tremble at his word. They tremble at his word. They reference God. To be contrite.

You look at that, and I know the world has its opinion of contrition. And the world has its opinion of humility. Will you listen to me now? Whatever your natural opinion of contrition and humility is, it's dead wrong. It's dead wrong. Did you get that? Whatever your natural opinion of contrition and humility is, it's dead wrong. Well, what is it, Doc?

To be contrite is to be broken with a sense of guilt and sin before God. Contrition of heart is the beginning of repentance. It has nothing to do with my attitude, thought, or behavior before you. It has everything to do with my attitude, thought, and behavior before God. Understand that?

A humble spirit is a spirit that is overwhelmed with a sense of undeserved grace and mercy before God in Christ the Lord. That's humility. with the sense of undeserved mercy and grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. The contrite and humble spirit is one that has been made righteous and made to be a fit residence for God Almighty. For that man who is contrite, that man who is humble before God, is one to whom the Lord God has impeded righteousness, whom God will not charge with sin, and he only dwells in the holy place.

He only dwells in the holy place, for his name is holy. Well, here's the third question. What does the Lord God do? What does he do for those in whom he dwells? God says, I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Now underscore the next word, to. To. I dwell for this purpose, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Initially, he comes to spiritually dead sinners to regenerate his chosen by the power of his sovereign grace. That's what the new birth is, it's a regeneration. You see, you were alive once in your father Adam, but you sinned and died in Adam. And so you were born in the death of sin. But when God comes in sovereign grace, he comes to regenerate, to make you alive again before him spiritually. That's what the new birth is.

It's God coming to a dead center, giving him life, raising him from the dead. It is God dwelling in us that continually sustains in in grace and mercy. He dwells in us and continually sustains us in life and in faith by reviving us, reviving our languishing spirits, reviving our souls, reviving our hearts with his goodness and grace.

I've come to revive the contrite and the humble. so much talk about revival. I've read a good bit of the histories of revival, and I'm convinced what I've said concerning other things is true concerning this as well. Whatever the world says about revival is dead wrong. It's just dead wrong. Revival is not a worked-up frenzy of religious excitement.

Rather, it is a blessed realization and assurance of grace by the manifest presence of God in us, with us, and for us. While we live in this body of flesh, our spirits often decline. Oh God, I need your help. In this sense, the words of that hymn we sing are so very, very real and true. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love, here's my heart. Oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.

How often we find ourselves in a lifeless state, uncomfortable, So that we say I sleep, but my heart wakes. This lifelessness, but there's something in there that makes this lifelessness a miserable state of existence. But seemingly we're incapable of rousing ourselves. When grace is weak, and sin is prevalent, and unbelief assails, When the Lord God hides his face from us and our souls languish in fate.

Thank God he does not leave us. He will not cast off forever. But he comes dwelling within us to revive the spirit the heart of the contrite ones, the spirit of the humble, and the heart of the contrite ones. You see, revival is a work of God's spirit. It is God the Holy Spirit coming with the word, directing us to Christ, assuring us. Do you hear me now? Not, not threatening us, not upbraiding us, not scolding us, but it's God coming to us when we're utterly fallen, and our hearts empty, cold, and dead, assuring us of his everlasting love, his absolute pardon, his unconditional grace, and his infallible preservation because of Christ. That's what it is. That's what it is. Let me read Psalm 85 to you and we'll wrap this up. Psalm 85 verse 1.

Thou has been favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou has forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. Thou has taken away all thy wrath. thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Amen.

Three Questions About God Answered

What does the Bible say about who God is?

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

Why is God's grace important for Christians?

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Three Questions About God Answered

What does the Bible say about who God is?

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

Why is God's grace important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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