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Isaiah 57:15, For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Have you ever watched a car go down the road with the front end clearly not in line with the back end? We called it running “doggie” or dog tracking. The car is seriously out of alignment. That’s often our view of God – seriously out of alignment. We exaggerate the aspects of God that make us feel good about ourselves and ignore the stronger, sharper edges of God. Over the next several weeks we’re going to dive into the Scriptures to realign our thoughts about God, Scripture, Christ, the gospel, and the church.
THE IDOLATRY OF A LOW VIEW OF GOD
A. W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” And we need a biblical, high view of God. That’s the opposite of a man-centered low view of God. What does a high view of God mean? It means understanding, knowing, and worshipping God as He really is, as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, not how we would like Him to be. The essence of idolatry is to entertain wrong thoughts about God.
Our culture would like to sand blast every remaining of evidence of God out of our society. But it’s not just our secular culture. Even our view of God naturally corrupts and lowers unless we fight for a biblical, high view of God. People are going to church to have their ears tickled rather than be confronted by God as He really is. Irwin Lutzer wrote, “We prefer a God we can manage, not an omnipotent God, but an accepting deity committed to helping us fulfill our human potential.” We have so corrupted God. He is now promoted as the god of our health and wealth, the god of our emotional needs, and the god of our self-chosen gender identity.
People do church like consumers to get what they want, the biggest bang for the buck – entertaining music, cool preachers, and exciting youth programs. Make me feel good, give me a lift. It’s called pragmatisim; if it works it’s good. Churches are retooling God according to cultural fads. If we’re not lamenting our whiteness, we’re affirming same sex attraction and looking for a relationship with God that “works for me.” This is the idolatry of a low view of God.
No prophet wrote more about a high view of God than Isaiah. For 66 chapters Isaiah exalts the name of God and exposes Israel’s rebellion and wickedness. Isaiah 40 says God calls all the stars by name and the nations are like a piece of dust on the scales. Isaiah declares God’s sovereignty, majesty, and holiness, but also mingles with God’s exalted person His amazing grace, mercy, redeeming love, and saving purposes for His people.
God has packed a ton of truth about Himself in this one verse, Isaiah 57:15. Before focusing on this verse, let’s get the context leading to this verse, which is basically Israel was guilty of the idolatry of a low view of God. Isaiah calls them out as spiritual and physical adulterers, deceitful rebels, baby murderers, prostitution, no fear of God, and idolaters. Then he declares:
For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)
Notice, this description of God is given by God Himself, “Thus says….” We only know God based on His revelation. The true God gives us truth about Himself. He gives us five descriptions of Himself.
GOD IS HIGH – HE IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL HIS CREATION
God has no equal, no rival, there is nothing above Him. He is the sovereign Creator and rules the universe from His high and holy place! This is your God. He isn’t in competition with the devil. He rules over all flesh. He has determined the end from the beginning. He created everything out of nothing and rules it all. There is no chance happening in His world. Everything that happens, I mean everything, happens by His decree. No one moves a finger apart from God’s sovereign providential rule.
Do you like that kind of God? I do! I’m glad He’s in charge because if He wasn’t, who would be? Look at Isaiah 46:9-10 –
Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.
God is sovereign over creation, history, nature, all mankind, sin, evil, good stuff and bad stuff. This is why you can trust Him. Nothing happens but at His word.
Lamentations 3:37-38, Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?
And we delight that He is sovereign over our salvation or we would have never believed in Christ. God has sovereignly chosen a vast multitude of sinners to spend eternity with Him before He even created the universe, and I’m thankful He did!
2 Timothy 1:9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
GOD IS EXALTED – HE IS MAJESTIC
He is the sovereign majesty! King of Kings! Psalm 103:19, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, His sovereignty rules over all.” In Revelation 4 He is sitting on a throne! Just think of the majestic sovereign God at Creation, at the Flood, at Mt.Sinai coming down in His glorious, awesome majesty, and ruling from His throne as His Son was crucified by wicked men. The Bible presents our God as exalted and worthy of our praise, honor, and worship. Nothing pushes Him around. Nehemiah 9:5-6 said,
Arise, bless the LORD your God forever and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.
He is exalted above all! We should stand in awe of Him! He should dazzle us! John Calvin says all creation is “God’s dazzling theater.” Tedd Tripp counsels parents to dazzle their teens with God in all His exalted glory! Teens want to be dazzled. So do I. They are dazzled by sports, technology, cool stuff. But teens, as well as all us, need to be dazzled by our majestic, sovereign God, who is exalted above all and glorious! Tripp also wrote:
“The greatest beauty, the highest value, the deepest satisfaction, the longest lasting joy, the most satisfying delights, the most fulfilling pleasures, the most wonderful friendships, the most satisfying experiences are not found in going places, doing things, and owning things. They are found in knowing God!”
Are you dazzled by the high and exalted, majestic One? James Boice wrote, “Not one in a hundred churchgoers actively thinks about God or stands in awe of Him as part of an average Sunday service.” How about you?
GOD INHABITS ETERNITY – HE IS ETERNAL
This is truly a dazzling truth about God. As far back as you can imagine, before the vast universe even existed, God was there. He inhabits eternity. You ask, where did He come from? Who made Him? Nobody made God. He is self-existent. Now think about this together. Our God never began. He is not dependent on anything outside of Himself. He is self-existent, also known as His aseity. R. C. Sproul asked Carl Sagan what caused the big bang. Sagan said, “I don’t go there.” Nothing proves the existence of God more than creation.
God told Moses His name is Yahweh, ”I am who I am.” Jesus identified with Yahweh when He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Paul described God in 1 Timothy 1:17 as “the King eternal!” Psalm 90:2, “from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Tozer wrote, “That God appears at time’s beginning is not too difficult to comprehend, but that He appears at the beginning and end of time simultaneously is not so easy to grasp; yet it is true. We wait for the sun to move from east to west or for the hour hand to move around the face of the clock, but God is not compelled so to wait. For Him everything that will happen has already happened.”
His eternity means He is infinite, timeless and immutable, which means He never changes, gets better or worse. He is present everywhere in His entire essence. He isn’t divided up or stretched out, part of Him in India and part of Him in Mars. All that He is, is in India and all that He is, is in Mars. He is infinite, without any boundaries or limitations in His eternity. He’s not just good, but infinitely good. He is omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing). He knew all about you before you were even conceived. He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). And then Psalms 139:13-14 says, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” Our bodies are part of that “dazzling theater.” Each human being’s genetic strands of DNA are 67 billion miles long – enough to go to the moon and back 150,000 times or circle the solar system twice.
And let’s not forget Bruce Ware words, “God’s whole and undivided essence (or quiddity – essential being) belongs equally, eternally, simultaneously, and fully to each of the three distinct Persons of the Godhead.” So the triune God inhabits eternity. Do you like this about God? I do! Thomas Watson the great Puritan wrote, “The thought of God’s eternity should make us have high adoring thoughts of God.” God’s eternity is a huge comfort to His people, but will be a terror to His enemies! God’s people find comfort in Psalm 16:11, “In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore!” If there were the least suspicion this glory would cease, it would embitter heaven! But God says heaven is forever!
But so are the torments of the damned! They are without intermission – no rest day and night. They are without mixture – no mercy. And without end! The pleasures of sin are for a very, very brief season, but punishment is forever! Watson describes it like this. “If all the body of earth and sea were turned to sand, and all the air up to the starry heavens were nothing but sand, and a little bird should come every thousand years, and fetch away in her bill but the tenth part of a grain of all that heap of sand, what numberless years would be present before that vast heap of sand would be fetched away. Yet, if at the end of all that time, the sinner might come out of hell, there would be some hope, but that word “Ever” breaks the heart!” You can either deny eternal punishment or submit to Christ and escape it.
Darrell Harrison recently noted, “One of the most disheartening things about the state of society today, is that people are living their lives with absolutely no concept of eternity. All that they are and have is the here and now—with no thought that God is awaiting them on the other side.”
A high view of God sees God high, exalted, and eternal, and this is the way God truly is. Friends, do everything in your power to come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and justification and be accepted by God, right now! God is sovereign, majestic, eternal, and holy.
GOD IS HOLY – WHOSE NAME IS HOLY
Isaiah refers to God as “the holy One” at least 27 times. Sovereignty is the most important thing that can be said about God, but holiness is the fundamental character of God. Thomas Watson says holiness is “the most sparkling jewel in God’s crown.” To be holy is more than being pure. It means set apart. God is set apart to His own glory and you are set apart to Him in Christ. God is holy. Everything about God is holy. Holiness is the atmosphere of heaven. No one gets to heaven unless they are holy, and the only way to be holy is to be in Jesus Christ because He’s the holy one! I love what David Wells said about God’s holiness, “A vision of God’s holiness should inspire his people and evoke their worship, sustain their character, fuel their passion for truth, and encourage persistence in efforts to do His will and call on his name in petitionary prayer.” Out of God’s holiness comes His love and justice and wrath. Today there is more concern about the color of people’s skin or the identity of people’s gender or the melting of the ice caps than about God’s dazzling majestic holiness.
God’s holiness compels our fear and drives us to Christ. “Who would not fear You, and glorify Your name, for you alone are holy!” (Revelation 15:4). God’s holiness should not only dazzle us, but make us stand in awe of Him! What have you been stunned by lately? The view out over the Grand Canyon brings responses like “Wow! Awesome!” Even pizza gets with the word “Awesome!” We need another word! Only God is stunning and awesome in His glorious holiness.
Psalms 99:5, Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool; Holy is He.
God’s holiness demands utmost reverence or fear. Don’t take God lightly. Remember these three situations. Leviticus 10:1-3: Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, thought they could play games with God. They got a little tipsy, took the wrong kind of incense into the tabernacle, and God instantly struck them dead with fire! God said, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored!”
Here’s another in 2 Samuel 6. David brings the ark up to Jerusalem. But instead of having priests carry it like God had told them, they built this really cool cart and put the ark on it. As they were going over rough ground, the cart bumped, the ark was about to fall out, and Uzzah reached out his hand to stop it. God instantly struck him dead! God is carrying out the same basic principle: Do things God’s way or pay a heavy price!
Then remember Acts 5. Everybody is bringing money and laying it down before the church leaders. So Ananias brings some money, tells a little fib about how much, and God instantly strikes him down and he dies. A little later here comes his wife Sapphira who tells the same little fib, and they carry her out to bury her beside her husband.
Listen, ladies and gentlemen, and you young people. God is sovereign; He rules over all. He is majestic, eternal, and holy, and means business. In God’s universe you will never get away with sin, ever. Every sin will be punished. That’s why you need Jesus Christ more than lunch today, more than a paycheck this week, more than AC that works in 99 degree weather.
GOD IS MERCIFUL
“I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit.” God has two addresses: a high and holy place, and with people who have crushed, humbled hearts! God is awesomely high, but God is sovereignly merciful to poor lost sinners. Heaven isn’t too high for God and a human heart is not too small for Him to dwell in. How good God is!
First, what is a contrite and lowly heart? When you see yourself in the light of God’s awesome glory and holiness you are dismayed, shocked, overwhelmed, intensely aware of your sinfulness, your corruption, and how ugly and wicked and hateful of God your sin is. Your sins, every one of them, are ultimately an attack on God’s holiness. So like Isaiah in Isaiah 6:5 you cry out, “Woe is me, for I am crushed.” You are crushed, brought low, down in the dust! Contrite means crushed to powder! It is used of Christ in Isaiah 53:5, 10, ”He was crushed for our iniquities.” The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief. Your sins weighed heavily on Him!
When you see who God really is, you no longer crow, swish, and rattle your peacock feathers about how great you are. You stop all blaming, arguing, and justifying by talking about all the great things you’ve done for God. You confess you’ve got nothing to contribute except sin, that you deserve nothing but wrath, that you truly do have a sin-cursed heart, that you are helpless, hopeless, an enemy of God, a sinner without any good. But you are now trusting in Christ for taking your punishment for your sin. That’s a heart where God in Christ lives!
What does God do for the crushed and lowly soul? He revives you, raises you up, gives you new life, and brings you mercy and grace. Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ, by grace He saves us!
Isaiah 57:18-19, ‘I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, 19 Creating the praise of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,’ Says the LORD, ‘and I will heal him.’
God seeks and saves His people. No one ever yet sought God in their own sinful heart. Scripture says our hearts are so corrupt we would never seek the true God as He really is unless He sought us. His mercy is sovereign. God draws us to Himself. God turns on the light so we can see our corruption. God gives us new hearts that are crushed and lowly before Him. It is all of God. This is a high view of God. God gets all the credit and we get none. What we get is an eternity in His glorious presence, forever blessing heaped upon blessing! What else would you want?
Now notice how this chapter ends. God doesn’t dwell with rebels who refuse to repent. Isaiah 57:21, “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
SO WHAT?
This has been a meager effort to present a high view of God. As a church we are committed to a high view of God. Knowing this sovereign, majestic, eternal, holy, merciful God should compel you to love, fear, obey, trust, and delight in Him. Be ravished by the biblical display of the true and living God in all His glory!
If you have this high view of God and He has gripped your heart, you will be daily pursuing God and desiring to be holy in your behavior. Costi Hinn wrote, “It is impossible to have a high view of the glory of God without a burning affection for Jesus Christ.”