The Blessedness of a Humble and Contrite Heart - Isaiah 66:1-2

Here at Grace Fellowship, ever since the very first Sunday in 1999 when five families gathered to discuss the possibility of starting a brand new church from scratch, we have subscribed to a theological position often referred to as Calvinism.  The word “Calvinism” is loaded with all kinds of baggage.  In some cases if you admit to being a Calvinist, you will be considered a heretic before you even have an opportunity to explain what the term means.  Calvinism has become the theological position many believers love to hate.

Sometimes however, you can stem the tide of criticism a bit (or the tsunami, depending on who you’re talking to) if you don’t immediately use the “C” word.  I am not a follower of Calvin.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  And if someone wants me to be more specific about my doctrinal convictions, I usually tell people I believe in the Doctrines of Grace.  If you use that phrase, it will give you a few more minutes to explain what you’re talking about before the insults and the flaming arrows are hurled.  The phrase “the Doctrines of Grace” is a much less volatile way of referring to the Five Points, the five most prominent doctrines of Calvinism.

All five of these biblical doctrines of the grace of God deal with soteriology, or salvation.  For those of you who may not be very familiar with these teachings, I want to run through them very briefly.  The five points are commonly remembered by the five-letter acronym TULIP:

1. Total Depravity (or some prefer the term Total Inability which is more accurate) - Man has no inherent interest in, nor does he have the ability to pursue salvation on God’s terms.  “There is none that seek after God; No, not one.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  The preaching of the gospel is to them that perish foolishness.”  Romans 3:10 & 11, 8:8; 1 Corinthians 1:18.

2. Unconditional Election - God has chosen to save some men.  His choice is based solely upon His own good pleasure to do so, and not upon any merit on the part of the person saved.  No one earns the right to be saved.  “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:4-5 ESV)

3. Limited Atonement (or Particular Redemption) - All who will be saved are those for whom Christ died.  They were redeemed by Him upon the cross.  The sacrifice of Lord Jesus upon the cross actually secured the salvation of all those whom He came into the world to save.  “. . . [Y]ou shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 ESV).  There will be none in Hell for whom Christ sacrificed His life and died.  He gave His life for the sheep, not for the goats.

4. Irresistible Grace - While all men naturally resist the work of the Spirit of God, ultimately, God will not and cannot fail to save all those for whom Christ died.  Jesus WILL save all of His people from their sins.  The Holy Spirit will succeed in drawing all the elect to God through Christ.  Not to do so would make God a liar, and it would make the human will superior to the will of God.  (Matthew 1:21)

5. Perseverance of the Saints - Every believer, upon their repentance from sin and faith in the work of the Lord Jesus upon the cross on their behalf is granted eternal life.  This is, by definition, a permanent state.  To the one whom God has granted eternal life, his place in Heaven is secure forever.  A genuine believer cannot forfeit this salvation because God will keep him by His grace  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, [5] who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5 ESV).

One of the things that appeals most to me regarding these five doctrines, in addition to being thoroughly biblical and entirely God-centered, is that these truths are incredibly humbling.  They have the wonderful effect of crushing any sense of pride, and they cause us to bow the knee and the heart in humble thanksgiving to a sovereign God who alone is entirely responsible our salvation.  He is our Savior, we are the recipients of His grace, and we contribute nothing to His work of saving us.

If you are a Christian, it is solely because of God’s mercy and grace toward you.  He gets all the glory for saving us.  We get all the glory for . . . well, . . . we don’t really get any glory.  God has done it all, and He has done it in spite of us.  “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9 ESV), and that He would grant His salvation to us has the powerful effect of humbling our otherwise proud hearts.

God places an extremely high priority on humility.  He abhors pride.  In Proverbs 8:13 God says, “Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13 ESV).  In the Scriptures God speaks against the king of Tyre, against Egypt, against Moab, against Babylon, and many others, and the prophets tell of the destruction of these nations specifically because of their pride and arrogance toward God.  Pride is the response of an evil heart toward God.  Humility is the response of a forgiven heart toward God.  We read of it in our text today in Isaiah 66.

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? [2] All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.  But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:1-2 ESV)

Whenever we see the words “heaven” and “earth” used together as they are here, they are indicative of the entire universe.  Heaven and earth constitute all of creation.  So when God says heaven is, figuratively, the throne from which He rules over His creation, and the earth and all that is in it are in complete subjection to Him because it is as a footstool for His feet, what He means by this is:

1. God is other than, and separate from His creation.  He does not exist within His creation, He is not a part of His creation, nor is He subject to it in any way.  God reigns as a king upon a throne over all that He has made.  The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:19 ESV).

2. God is larger than the entire universe He has made.  This terminology speaks to God’s immensity.  His vastness is such that He stands, as it were, outside of the entire universe and looks upon it objectively.  It is at His disposal specifically because He has created it for Himself for His own purposes.  “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”  (Psalm 19:1 ESV)

So when God says all of the starry universe serves as the throne upon which He sits and the place from which He sovereignly rules over all that He has made, and that the entire earthly realm upon which all of us live is like a lowly footstool for His feet, that is the lead-in to God’s question to us:

“What is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?”

In other words, “Since I am greater than the entire expanse of all the universe, and since I rule and reign over it all perpetually; And since all of Planet Earth where you live is an ottoman for My feet; . . .You’re going to build me a house to live in and a room where I can take a nap when I get tired?”  The intent of this is to show us God’s place in the universe in contrast to our place in the universe.  Therefore, we would be wise to humble ourselves before such a great and awesome God.

From ancient times until today, men have built temples for their gods to live in.  Even Solomon built a magnificent structure in which the presence of God could dwell.  In the wilderness, God commanded the children of Israel to build a Tabernacle in which the Spirit of God dwelt.  But these things cannot contain God.  And for men to think that the transcendant God, the Creator of everything, would limit Himself to dwell in some structure made by the hands of sinful men is ludicrous.

But there is a place where God does dwell with His people: But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.  This infinite Deity who dwells in Heaven and rests His feet upon Earth, takes notice of men who are of humble heart towards Him.  He dwells in the hearts of His people.  That, my beloved brethren, is infinitely astounding.  God is pleased to dwell with those who rightly understand who He is, and the demonstration of that correct understanding of Him is seen in their demeanor toward Him: they are humble, contrite in spirit, and they tremble at His word.

[15] For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “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”. (Isaiah 57:15 ESV)

[15] The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. [16] The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. [17] When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. [18] The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:15-18 ESV)

It has been my observation that atheists are not particularly humble people.  How could any creature be so arrogant as to declare his own Creator to be non-existent?  The Bible presents fools as being arrogant and prideful and self-sufficient and in need of nothing; Not even God (except in national emergencies).  The Scriptures specifically state that God resists the proud, but He helps those who help themselves.

NO!  The Bible does NOT say that.  God resists those who think they can handle things by their own strength and by means of their own spiritual and mental prowess.  He resists those who think God would certainly be pleased to dwell in the little temples they build for Him.

But God gives grace to the humble, to those who fear Him and tremble at His word.  A right perception of who and what God is ALWAYS produces a humble dependence upon, and submission to God and His will.  When, by His grace toward us, God opens our minds so that we begin to grasp the hem of the train of His magnificent robe, that not only produces great humility in us, but it also produces an unshakable faith in the God who has committed Himself to such people.  God loves the man or woman of a humble and contrite heart.

Jesus expounded on this whole concept of the kind of person God draws near to.  The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  Turn with me to Matthew chapter 5 and let’s look at  the most famous sermon of all time, The Sermon on the Mount.

[5:1] Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

[2] And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

[3] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[4] “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

[5] “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

[6] “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

[7] “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

[8] “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

[9] “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

[10] “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[11] “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. [12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:1-12 ESV)

One thing is obvious in this text: Jesus is not talking about proud, self-sufficient, self-righteous people here.  Nor is He speaking of different kinds of people who are blessed in various ways.  He is talking about those characteristics that mark the humble people of God, those who have been blessed by God to know Him.

When a person is awakened by the Spirit of God to know who God is in salvation, these are the characteristics He works in them.  God’s saved and forgiven people are poor in spirit, mournful, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peaceful, persecuted because they bear the name of Christ, . . . and they are greatly, greatly blessed.  Their reward is in heaven and it is great!

Each one of these beatitudes is a promise of future blessing for God’s people:

• • They shall be comforted in their mourning
• • They shall receive mercy in their afflictions
• • Their hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied
• • They will not only see God, but they shall be called the sons of God, and finally . . .
• • They shall inherit the kingdom of heaven and earth.

They inherit heaven and earth.  The humble inherit it all.  God bequeaths to His humble and contrite people everything He has made.  That is the great heavenly reward that awaits the man of humble and contrite heart who trembles at the word of God.

But men aren’t naturally humble.  Men in their pride want to contain God.  They want to make God into their own image.  They want God to fit neatly within the confines of their own imaginative theological systems.  They want to fully understand God and explain God and reduce God to understandable human terms.  They want to build temples in which to place God so they can control who He is and what He does.  They want to limit God’s reach and constrain Him so that He does their bidding when they pray, “My will be done, not Yours.”  They want to rob God of His sovereignty by making such ridiculous statements as, “The most sovereign thing a sovereign God can do is give up His sovereignty”.  And the reason for that supposed abdication of His sovereign rule is to grant men the freedom to choose whether they want to love Him or not.

Beloved, men never choose to love God by their own free and uninfluenced wills.  If God were to say to the human race, “OK, I’m going to step back, I’m going to withdraw My Holy Spirit, I’m going to stay my own hand and leave your salvation up to you so that you may decide freely and without any influence from Me if you want to repent of your sins and bow the knee to me”; if God were to do that, not a single person in the entire population of the earth would ever choose to be saved on God’s terms.  Not a single knee would bow.  No, not one.  Very quickly, we would return to the days of Noah:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5 ESV)

That is man’s natural state.  Man is inherently and incurably proud of himself.  One of the worst examples of this in a Christian setting is the occasion when a person responds to the invitation at the end of a church service to walk the isle and “get saved”.  Then, after the person does this, the members of the congregation congratulate him for his “decision” to become a Christian.  Who gets the glory for that?  The person being congratulated for making the decision.

The natural man does not and cannot see the extent of his own spiritual problem.  He universally believes he does things that commend him to God.  He believes he can choose to repent, he can choose to believe the Gospel, and he can choose salvation any time he pleases.  He believes he can build temples suitable for God to dwell in, and that he himself IS a suitable temple for God.  He constantly thinks he is more impressive than he is, and he constantly thinks God is not nearly as great as He is.  But the Scriptures teach us that the natural man has no ability, no capacity, no inclination to understand and embrace the God of the Bible and the biblical Gospel message.  It is foolishness to him.

So how does such a person ever “get saved”?  The answer is, “He never will.”  The natural man, left to himself, totally uninfluenced by God, totally un-convicted by the Spirit of God, left totally to the desires of his own fallen depraved nature, will always and without fail reject the true God and the biblical Gospel.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8 ESV).  No one understands, no one seeks for God.  Not one.  (Romans 3:10 & 11)  The self-worshipping pride of man prevents it.

This is where the doctrines of the grace of God become so precious and so beautiful and so humbling.  How do people with no capacity to grasp their own spiritual deadness, who are prideful at heart, “get saved”?  God saves them.  God draws them to Himself, God enlightens them to their condition, God convicts them of sin, God provides the sacrifice of His Son for them, God breaks their stubborn wills, the Spirit of God crushes their foolish pride, He causes them to repent of their sins, and He grants them faith to believe all of this is true.  God does it all.  Salvation is of the Lord.  We contribute nothing.

It is that single fact, that salvation is by the grace of God alone, that makes for a humble . . . and contrite . . . and thankful . . . and submissive . . . and loving heart toward God which He loves.  The Scriptures tells us God loves those who love Him.  But we love Him only BECAUSE He first loved us!

The one who is humble and contrite and who trembles at the word of God has been made that way by God.  It is called regeneration.  That is the new birth.  It is an act of God by which He takes out the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, and He writes His laws upon our new hearts.

Otherwise, because our hearts are truly hard and desperately wicked, we would be saying, “God, aren’t you impressed by my humility?  Surely you are pleased that I am not like other men, those proud, arrogant boasters and braggarts!  But as you can see, surely I am the most humble of all your servants, and I thank you for recognizing the obvious.”

A person in whom God has worked His work of salvation is a humble person.  Of course, the temptation to be proud is always in the wings and sometimes we ridiculously entertain prideful thoughts.  But a man or woman who grasps the graciousness of a great and holy God in saving them out of their depraved state and granting them totally undeserved forgiveness of ALL their sins cannot help but be humbled by that.

That person is moved to willingly and gladly submit themselves entirely to such a gracious God and such a kind Master as the Lord Jesus.  Regardless of what may happen to us in this life, no matter what our circumstances may be, knowing that God has loved us to such an extent as to grant us deliverance from an eternal wrath when we weren’t even looking to escape it, that kind of love gives birth to humility.  It causes us to humbly bow before Him and submit to His will for us.

But also, what makes all of this even more astounding is God’s continuing care for us.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “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”. (Isaiah 57:15 ESV)

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18 ESV)

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17 ESV)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3 ESV)

Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor [or grace]. (Proverbs 3:34 ESV)

There is hope for the humble.  The Lord is near to them, He heals their broken heartedness.  He saves the crushed in spirit.  He grants them grace and favor.  Turn to Luke 7 for a moment.

One of the Pharisees asked him [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. [37] And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, [38] and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. [39] Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” [40] And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

[41] “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. [42] When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” [43] Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” [44] Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. [45] You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. [46] You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. [47] Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” [48] And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [49] Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” [50] And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50 ESV)

It is because of our sin that we have no reason to be proud.  It is because of our sin that we should be humbled in the sight of a holy God.  It is the guilt and the humiliation of our sin that drives us to bow at Jesus feet because there is no hope for us anywhere else.  And it is in that humility that Jesus “revives the spirit of the lowly, and . . . the heart of the contrite.“  Turn with me for one closing thought to the book of Revelation, chapter 7.

17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of living water,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17 ESV)

That is the sure and blessed hope of the lowly, the mournful, and the humble and contrite heart.