On Eagles' Wings Pt 509 — Don Courville

God's Holiness and Revival Through Humility

Well, we're glad that you've joined with us today on Eagle's Wings. Isaiah 57, verse 15 says, 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 humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

There's a lot in this verse talking about God and His business of working with us is to revive us if we will confess our sin, confess our pride, and bow ourselves before Him. You know, the Lord is not impressed with our works.

We're not saved by our works, for by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves is a gift of God and not of works. The reason for that is that nobody can boast. We can't boast that we were saved by doing this.

We all have one song, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Well, we're going to continue on our subject today. We started last week in part one of the eternity of God. We'll back up the message and let you hear a little bit of last week's and then go on into some new areas.

But before we do, let me encourage you to receive Christ as your Savior if you haven't done so. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God's in the saving business. The devil's in the business of getting us to hell.

Whoever we line up with is who we will spend eternity with, basically. So to say, I want to spend my eternity with God. If you want to spend your eternity with God, then you have to follow His ways. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes unto the Father except by me. Well, here's part two of last week's message. Now the people that I had you pray for this morning, I believe they're religious people. But I don't believe they have eternal life.

Humanity's True Business Before God

When we go up and we meet somebody, say in the airport or in the store or whatever, what is your business? Are you there in the store to shop or in the airport to make a flight? What is your business?

As a matter of fact, we might come back and ask the same question that Job asked. I was reading this and I thought, that's really interesting. In Job chapter 22, he had this question. He didn't put it like that, what is your business?

But he said this, in Job chapter 22, in verse 2, can a man be profitable unto God? While you're there at the airport or in the mall shopping, what is your business? Well, I'm here to buy a dress. Is that your business?

Well that's something you've got to get done, but is that your business in life? To do all these things? Is there a deeper meaning for us in knowing Jesus Christ than just to know, oh well, I've received Christ as my Savior, I get to go to heaven.

Or is there more to it? See Eliphaz is answering the question of Job. Job had asked this, what is my business? He didn't say it like that because in 2115, Job had said, what is the Almighty that we should serve Him and what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?

Eliphaz comes back and he says, can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? What is your business? Well we know that our business is to reveal Jesus Christ. So as you're shopping for your dress, you're getting on your plane to fly, your business, I must be about my Father's business.

Remember Jesus said, I must be about my Father's work. I also and you also must be about our Father's work. But our problem I think sometimes is we get a little bit too attached to all the stuff around us.

And so God is continually teaching us and drawing us to be in the world but not of the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

Can you be profitable to God? You can and you are. I can as we reveal this eternal God. Now eternity, how long is eternity? Let's get back to God. How big is God? We don't know. The universe can't contain Him.

He made this universe. How long is eternity? We're going to live for eternity. Let me give you this. This was given out many years ago. Suppose we had a big rock. It's a pretty big rock. It's 1 ,000 miles wide, 1 ,000 miles this way, and 1 ,000 miles.

It's a 1 ,000 mile cube rock. Suppose that every 1 ,000 years a little yellow canary flies over, lands on that rock, sharpens his beak, he's ready to go off for a sword fight, and flies off. 1 ,000 years later he comes back, lands on the rock, sharpens his beak again, ready to go off again.

He's going to cut them worms up. Every 1 ,000 years he shows up to sharpen his beak. After that little bird wears out that rock by sharpening his beak, one day in eternity will not even have passed, to give you some kind of a concept of eternity.

Living in the Presence of the Eternal God

Now we have an eternal God. We have an eternal God that we worship. As you meditate on Him, of His eternity, He will draw us away from the cares of this world, just like Martha in the kitchen. You see, she loved Jesus, but her domain of existence was more with the pots and pans than with the eternal God.

And our point of contact of existence will be revealed in how much temptation affects us, how much worries and anxieties and all of this affect us. And what affects the world is that when they see us living in this environment, and they come along and they say, there's something different about you.

You're going through the same things of life that I am, but there's something different. And then you reveal to them the eternal God that is your life. In looking at the Scriptures, there are some really neat Scriptures, but I'm not going to take all the time to take you through them, but I do want to take you through a few verses.

Go back to 1 John, because there are some really neat verses back in Deuteronomy. Isaiah, where does God live? Isaiah 58, 15. You remember that one? While you're there, I'm going to go back. I don't think I got it marked.

Yeah, I do. I do. In Isaiah 58, 15, listen, For thus saith the High and Holy One, One that inhabiteth eternity. Here's God. He inhabits eternity. Where does He live? Well, He lives at 36 Kent. Have any of you ever been to 36 Kent Street?

That's where I grew up, down in Louisiana, 36 Kent Street. It's not there anymore. Well, 36 Kent is there, but the house burnt down. But does God live there? No, it says, God 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. If you think about that, this is why Paul said that, Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

It's the Holy of Holies. God lives. This God of eternity lives in your heart. Now, we're going to go through 1 John and look at some verses. Now, I want you to think about this thought. Here's the God of eternity.

He's big, but yet He says, I live in your heart. He said, God says, I live in your heart. He lives in your heart, He lives in my heart. We've been born again. This God who lives in my heart created me and He adapted me and He fit me just like if we would do something to this red bird to come out of the red bird's environment and to go in with the goldfish.

When He saved you, that's what He did. He adapted you to come into His environment. There is this world and there is the spiritual world. This is why scientists have so much trouble. They're trying to figure all this stuff out with their mind and they can't do it.

It has to be done with the Spirit. Now, look at 1 John chapter 2. Let's just go through some verses. Look at verse 3, 4, and 5. What is eternal life? Verse 3, 1 John 2, 3, And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Notice the word know. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments. Why is it that unbelievers continually reject the Word of God or like to change the Word of God? I read something about Origen that I'd never noticed before because Origen is one of the main perpetrators of the versions that we have.

He may have been a Christian. I don't know. He may have been. I hear different stories. But one historian told this about him. That one day he went to visit a man that was going to be martyred for his faith.

And while he was there, the officers noticed him and came and grabbed him too. And said, we're going to do with you what we're going to do with him. Unless you will deny Christ. You know what Origen did?

The one man was martyred for his faith. Origen denied Christ and they let him go. Now, Origen may be a Christian, but Origen has been a great instrument of Satan to destroy the Word of God. And the Bible says, he that saith, in verse 4, 1 John 2 verse 4, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.

Origen had trouble with keeping the commandments of God. The things he didn't like, he was changing. And now that has come along down to today. We got these versions that have changed the Word of God and they're still doing it.

And then it says in verse 5, but whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby, know we that we are in him. I've got another thing to show you. Let's take this goldfish and let's put him over here on the table, okay?

He'll be a nice guy there. You might flop around a little bit. But I've also got something else over here. I've got this. You know what that is? It's green, right? It's soft, right? You squeeze it, right?

What is it? It's a sponge. You're very observant. Now if I take this sponge and I'm going to put this sponge back here, right here. Don't let me forget about it, okay? Keep your eye on it. Don't let anybody steal it because it's going to ruin the punchline.

We've got the fish out of the way. That's okay. He'll be all right. But we don't want him in the way of what we're going to do with the sponge. Now let's go through the scriptures and we'll come back to the sponge and we'll be done, okay?

Don't let me forget about it. Look at verse 20. First John 2 .20. But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. You kids ever have trouble with your schoolwork? Any out here ever have trouble with your math?

All of us that have trouble with math will confess up. Do you know that as you're there, you're trying to do your history or math or English, whatever you have trouble with, and if you will say, God, would you help me to understand?

You know all things. I don't understand this. But it says in your word that you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. Will you help me to understand? You'll be amazed how much God will help you to understand your studies.

You have to want to understand too. But He helps you to know all things. Look at chapter 3 .14. We're talking about what is the definition of eternal life by Jesus Christ? It's knowing the true God, knowing Jesus Christ, okay?

Knowing. Remember? Look at verse 14. 14 .19 and 24 in this chapter. Okay, 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Look at verse, what did I say, 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. And 20, he said, for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.

Look at verse 24. I'm looking at the word know. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. Notice that he said, hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit.

We're in him and he's in us. Look at chapter 4, verse 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit. Come back over to chapter 5, 19. And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

Quickenings from Psalm 119 and Ephesians

And you remember where we began in verse by that same passage. And so I underline quicken because as I went along, I prayed that the Lord would teach me good judgment and knowledge. And so I began to notice quicken.

154, I noticed this, that David had said, plead my cause and deliver me, quicken me according to thy word. Quicken me according to thy word. Then I noticed in 156, he said, quicken me according to thy judgments.

Well in Psalms 166 was it I said, I had noticed God's judgment. Teach me good judgment, Lord you teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy commandments, he said. And so I noticed this, well his quickening had to do with God's judgment too.

He said, quicken me according to thy judgments. And then 159, he said, consider how I love thy precepts, quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness. I'm not going to take the time to go on out into these three areas, but I said, okay, Lord, you quicken me, teach me, teach me judgments.

And so then I went on. We had our family devotions that morning. As I was reading a passage of scripture in Ephesians, the Lord quickened me when I hit a verse. You ever have that happen? It's just that God speaks to you, or that stands out.

And so I was reading through in our family devotions, and I remember I made this comment. I said, wow, I'd really never noticed that before. And it was Ephesians 4. We all know these verses. I was reading, I started in verse 1.

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And then there was a quickening. And so I noticed it's the Spirit, the unity of the Spirit. And I noticed I had other passages marked where I had underlined Spirit. I went back over the beginning, and I noticed, just to give you a few, that in chapter 2, verse 18, it's by one Spirit, for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

And then I underlined in verse 5 of chapter 3, which in other ages was not made unto the sons of men as it is now revealed, unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And so I began to meditate on this and think about, well, Lord, you quickened me on this verse, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So peace will keep the unity of the Spirit. We all have one Spirit. And so our business is to listen to what the Spirit of God is saying. And so by the Spirit, He speaks to the apostles and prophets. He already said that He would build His church.

The primary building tools of the church were the prophets and the apostles, still is. God uses them. He's given different ones. In verse 16, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit.

So I was just noticing these things. That's just some of them. We're going to cut in again on the program that we started last week, and I don't think we're going to have time to finish today, so we'll try to finish up next week on eternity, the eternity of God.

Shame, Repentance, and the Church's Drift

You know, I think that we are moving away from God so fast in our churches that many do not even see the move that they are making, or maybe their church. One of the evidences, I believe, of moving away from this holy God, this eternal God, is that there seems to be no shame for sin.

We can go to church and sing holy, holy, holy on Sunday, but yet then on Monday or maybe even Sunday night after church, go home and watch something on TV, or we can go to a movie where it's just really ungodly.

Is shame an ingredient of repentance? The doctrine of repentance, Thomas Watson, he said, is shame an ingredient of repentance? If so, how far are they from being penitents who have no shame? He says, many have sinned away shame.

The unjust knoweth no shame, Zephaniah 3 .5. It is a great shame not to be ashamed. The Lord sets it as a brand upon the Jews. Were they not ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush, Jeremiah 6 .15.

I believe the devil has taken away from our hearts this ability to blush, to be ashamed of sin. As Watson said, the devil has stolen shame from men. When one of the persecutors in Queen Mary's time was upbraided with his bloodiness to the martyrs, you know what he said?

I see nothing to be ashamed of. Many are more ashamed of their sin than King Nebuchadnezzar was of his being turned to grass. When men's hearts of stone and foreheads of brass, when we have hearts of stone and our foreheads are hard like brass, it is a sign that the devil has taken full possession of us.

So we have this in our church. We have no shame. We can bring in ungodly music, ungodly people, ungodly standards of the world. We have no shame. Those who cannot blush for sin do not much resemble the beast, Watson said.

The brute beast are capable of fear and pain but not of shame. You cannot make a beast blush. Those who cannot blush for sin do too much resemble the beast, becoming like animals. He goes on to say there are some so far from this holy blushing that they are proud of their sins.

They are proud of their long hair. These are the devil's Nazarites. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a shame unto him? First Corinthians 11 .14. It confounds the distinction of the sexes.

Others are proud of their black spots of sin of some kind and what if God should turn them into the spots that they are proud of just totally. Others are so far from being ashamed of sin that they glory in their sins.

Whose glory is in their shame? Philippians 3 .19 Paul said. Some are ashamed of that which is their glory. They are ashamed to be seen with a good book in their hands. They are ashamed to be seen walking to church even with their Bible under their arm.

Salvation Through Repentance and Faith in Christ

Oh God help us. This God of eternity, this holy God, do we know him? Are we living in the spirit of eternity? Well we are going to close up now. Let me encourage you again to cry out to God to save you if you are not saved.

You may be as religious as a hound dog. However religious a hound dog can get but it is not going to get you into heaven. You must be born again Jesus said. We must repent of our sins. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We are here to encourage you. We want to encourage you to receive Christ your Savior. Encourage you to walk closer to the Lord. To seek to follow him.

Till next time may the Lord continue to bless you my friend.