Isaiah 57:15

I dwell in the high and holy place, and also, with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

The same great and glorious God who is beyond us, who can't be comprehended, dwells with us, lives with us. More specifically, he dwells with the lowly, those who have absolutely nothing in themselves. He dwells with the contrite, those who are broken and repentant. He dwells, most importantly, with the lowly and contrite, not to condemn them or to defeat them or to destroy them, but to revive them, to give them life itself. Take what is dead, the human heart, and make it alive. And obviously, those of you who are here tonight are for the most part Christians and you understand exactly how God has done this. He's done that through his son Jesus, who Isaiah calls Emmanuel. God dwells with us. And through the coming of Jesus Christ, who came and lived and died as a man, we are able to have access to this revived life that God gives us. We also sometimes, however, forget that although Christ came to dwell with us, he also is God above and God holy and God beyond us. We see this in Colossians 1, 15 and following where these two streams are brought together. Jesus's greatness and the work that he did here on earth in the cross.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him, Jesus, and for him, Jesus.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. And in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.

So in him we have access to the great glories of God through his work being with us here on earth. Again, we could have many applications from these ideas, but just to pick a few for this evening. What do we do with the idea of God's distance and his glory and his greatness? First, to be blunt, do not toy with God. Do not toy with God. He deserves and can demand and ultimately will demand the worship of every creature. and he deserves your worship. He deserves it continuously, not just on Sunday for an hour, but all day, every day. He deserves it with consistency in good times, in bad times, when you feel like coming and when you don't feel like coming, when you're feeling glorious and when you're feeling broken and downhearted. He deserves your worship. And he deserves it with reverence and awe. He deserves your full attention. He deserves your entire focus, not just going through the motions, but with your whole heart and your very being. He also deserves your obedience. You can't toy with him by just ignoring him and doing your own thing. How can you ignore your creator? How can you ignore the one who controls every atom in the universe? How can you ignore his power? How can you ignore his power of what he can do to you, both good and bad? How can you ignore his word? This God who is beyond us gave us a great gift. He chose to communicate with us those who are lowly and not like him. He made himself available to us through his word, through his spirit, through his son, and we can't ignore that. First, do not toy with God. Accept that on this side of glory, you will not understand everything. You need to learn to accept the mystery and to be humble. You're not going to come to an understanding of every minute doctrine. You may come up with an idea, but you're not really gonna come up with full understanding on this side of glory. There are going to be things you're just going to have to accept because God tells you and it's God's right to tell you. And you need to be humble in that. When you're working with a Christian brother or sister, understand that you do not understand everything. You are not God. God is different from you. God is beyond you and you cannot claim to be God in their life or to tell them that your way is God's way and the only way. You need to have the humility to know that Each of us is fallible and broken and to the extent we understand, to the extent we have the necessary knowledge and faith, it's only through the gift of God. So do not toy with God and accept that you will not understand everything. Regarding his nearness, there are two obvious applications for this. First of all, to the believers, be comforted. The God who made everything, the God who controls everything, the God who does not need us said that he will be there for us. He has promised that he will be there for us. He makes it, he has communicated to us that a very part of his being, a very attribute of his godliness is that he loves and that he shows grace. So as a believer, you should be able to live in that love and grace day by day, whether times are difficult or good, knowing that you are in his hands. You can't escape him. You don't have the power, he does. He will take care of you. You may not understand, going back to the first part, what's going on every day, but you need to trust that He has you and is caring for you. You need to have comfort and joy, as we see throughout Paul's letters repeatedly, even as he writes from jail to people who are under persecution. You are to have joy and comfort in knowing that you have God in Christ. And finally, the application for non-believers. The almighty God who inhabits eternity graciously dwells with the repentant sinner. How can you refuse to respond to this great offer from the great God who is willing to lower himself to care for you and love for you and offered up his very son for you? This great God has ultimate power over you. You can refuse him, you can ignore him, you can rebel against him, and you can go to your death claiming your rights and your individuality and your own goodness, and God will judge you. And he can judge you because it is his right, he has the power to do it, he is your creator. And he's promised that he will condemn and judge those who are not repentant. But right here in the midst of this sermon on judgment and his great power to judge everyone, he says, but. He says, for those who are broken, for those who come to me repentant of their sins, repentant of their rebellion against us, I bring a revived life. change your lowly spirit and your lowly heart when that is in Christ and gets all the rewards that Christ as God's own son, as also the creator and ruler of the universe, all the gifts and goodness that he gets as God's son, we also get as his children that he's reached down to give with us. So I beg you, if you're here tonight and you are not a believer, do not ignore God. hear his plea to you, see the great gift that he offers you in offering himself. He literally is offering you the greatest thing that can be imagined, and it's great beyond what you can imagine. Let's close tonight with a prayer to this great and gracious God. Most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, You are the creator of the universe. You are omnipresent. You are omniscient. You are all powerful. You are perfectly holy. And we are none of those things. We are sinners in need of salvation. But you condescended to lower yourself, to come down and live among us that we might have life. The grace and love that you have for your fallen and broken creatures is ultimately beyond our imagination. We have earned nothing. We have earned nothing but your ire and your wrath, yet you offer yourself. Father, we pray that we would live out the implications of that in the way that we live our lives, that we would be thankful for what you have given us, that we would be thankful that you are the kind of God that you are. And Father, we pray that your word would go out and that many would be saved, that you would call many to be your very own and to take this gracious offer. so that you could be gloried, that you could be glorified, that your name would be even further exalted because of your goodness and your greatness. And we pray all this in the name of our indwelling Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.