Isaiah 57
A Spirit of Humility—28 Days of Prayer
14 And it will be said: “Build up,
build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
15 For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives
forever, whose name is holy “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him
who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to
revive the heart of the contrite. 16 I will not accuse forever, nor
will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me—
the breath of man that I have created. 17 I was enraged by his
sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his
willful ways. 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will
guide him and restore comfort to him, 19 creating praise on the lips
of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the
Lord. “And I will heal them.”
20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose
waves cast up mire and mud. 21 “There is no peace,” says my God,
“for the wicked.”
Why
are we still renting the Landmark instead of worshipping in our own building? Is
it because we don’t have any money? What if William Carey had said, “I would
have gladly brought the gospel to India. I would have willingly transformed
their entire society. It would have been a joy to have launched the modern
mission’s movement, but I did not do any of those things because I didn’t have
any money.” Is that what William Carey actually said? What if Hudson Taylor had
said, “My goal was to recruit 800 missionaries and start a new mission’s
organization in order to bring the gospel to the unreached millions of inland
China. That was my goal, but I failed because I didn’t have any money.” Did
Hudson Taylor ever say such a thing? These men did accomplish these amazing
things and they forged ahead in the power of the Spirit, but it was never about
the money. When it comes to doing God’s will in India, China or even Viroqua, it
is never about the money—it’s about the heart. If God can get our heart, our
pocketbooks will easily follow. If God can capture our heart he automatically
captures our money. Despite what this man was attempting to do during his
baptism, a genuine baptism of the heart does not hold your wallet above the
water line.
Some would say the answer to a lukewarm heart is revival.
What we need is a revival like the Great Awakening or the Welsh Revival. If God
will not bring revival to the entire country, maybe he will give us a localized
revival like the one that broke out on the campus on Wheaton College in 1995 and
spread to dozens of other campuses; or like the small revival last year on the
campus of Asbury College in Kentucky. In order to capture our hearts, perhaps we
need a local revival similar to these. Many of you know Pastor John Eumarian.
John has been faithfully praying for revival in Viroqua for at least two
decades. I am told that Viroqua was a spiritually alive town thirty or forty
years ago. Maybe what we need is for the Holy Spirit to bring a new revival.
A hundred years and three months ago, another great revival
broke out. The week of January 8, 1907, 960 men registered for a men's winter
Bible study conference. That week the study grew to about 2000 as several guest
missionaries spoke to and prayed with the group. At the end of one meeting, a
spontaneous group prayer broke out. Listen to what happened next.
The effect was indescribable—not of
confusion, but a vast harmony of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls
moved by an irresistible impulse of prayer. The prayer sounded to me like the
falling of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God's throne. It was
not many, but one, born of one Spirit, lifted to one Father above."
At the official end of the service,
missionaries dismissed those who wanted to leave, but more than one-third of the
congregation stayed, many wailing in repentance as if in terrible pain. [In
their] tradition [they did not] confess things, [but this] revival began with
the confession of sins. One man said, “This is what revival does. It tears away
your sins and sets you free.”
Do you care to guess
the country where this revival took place? It was Korea, in the city of
Pyongyang, what is now the capital of North Korea. Here is a nighttime satellite
photo of Korea. You can see that South Korea is lit up with millions of lights
but North Korea is almost completely dark. Because of their oppressive communist
regime, the country is so poor they are forced to shut off all electricity at
night. The only bright spot where there is any electricity is in the capital
city of Pyongyang where the dictators live. One hundred years ago this amazing
revival broke out in what is now the epicenter of communism. This darkness is
symbolic of the spiritual darkness in North Korea, but the bright lights in the
south are also symbolic of the spiritual life of that country. The revival that
broke out in Pyongyang was not a mere flash in a pan, but it began a powerful
church planting movement that led to millions of converts and has transformed
South Korea from a Buddhist dominated country into the second highest sender of
Christian missionaries in the world. Historians trace the spread of Christianity
in Korea to this revival in Pyongyang. But did you notice what started the
revival? It started from a confession of sins. It’s not just the Pyongyang
revival, but the center of every revival has always been the confession of sins.
Not surprisingly, this
is exactly what our passage teaches. In verse fifteen God said,” I live…with
him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and
to revive the heart of the contrite. If we desire that God dwell in our
hearts, we must first have hearts which are contrite and lowly. What is a
contrite and lowly heart? A contrite and lowly heart is a heart that confesses
sins. A contrite and lowly heart is a heart that is poor in spirit; a heart that
knows it has a severe case of spiritual bankruptcy. The word “contrite”
literally means to be bruised. A contrite heart is bruised and broken. A
contrite heart is lowly and humble. According to this verse, what does God do
with a contrite and humble heart? He lives with such a heart and he revives such
a heart; that is, God brings revival to a humble heart that confesses its sins.
This is quite a
revelation and it shows that when we pray for revival, in one sense, we are
praying for the wrong thing! God has promised to bring revival to a humble heart
that confesses sins, so instead of praying for revival, we should be praying for
a conviction of our sins leading to confession and repentance. This is just what
we propose to do. The elders would like every person, young and old, to pray for
conviction and confession of sins for 28 straight days. I don’t care if you
spend five minutes or five hours praying each day, but we are asking that you
consistently pray every day for the next 28 days. We are calling this prayer
emphasis “A Spirit of Humility.” I first thought of calling it a spirit of
contrition because the word contrite is the key word in this verse. However, the
word humility is probably better understood. But please understand this, when we
say a spirit of humility, the type of humility we mean is a contrite heart.
Biblically speaking, the various aspects of humility are a contrite heart, a
spiritual bankruptcy and a conviction and confession of sins. On the back table
I have half-sheet pages where you can check off each of the 28 days of praying
for humility. I will be on vacation for half of that time. Chris and Rod will be
preaching in my absence, but the 28 days of prayer will still go on. I commit to
praying all during my vacation, so I am not taking a vacation from prayer. Can
we get each person in our church, young and old alike, to commit to praying for
this spirit of humility for 28 days?
But before we can get
to that, I hope you noticed that I left off the first half of this verse. God
does indeed live with the person who is contrite and lowly in spirit. God dwells
with the contrite. Our Lord literally has his “tabernacle” among such people.
But our perfect God also has another dwelling place. The first half of verse
fifteen reads, For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives
forever, whose name is holy “I live in a high and holy place. The true
character of God is the only thing that puts our lowly and contrite hearts in
proper perspective. If God was not the high and lofty One who lives forever and
lives in a high and holy place, then we would have absolutely no need to confess
our sins. If he is not a perfectly holy God, then we have not offended anyone by
our sins. If there was no holy God, I suppose we could still apologize to each
other just to maintain peace in the relationship, but it would not be the same
as being contrite and humble before the blazing holiness of the Creator.
This dual aspect of
God—his holiness and his nearness—is unlike any other so-called god in any other
religion. The Muslim god Allah is a holy and fierce god, but he is completely
distant from his creation. A worshipper of Allah can submit to this god, but
Allah will never come down and dwell with the contrite and lowly of heart. If he
were to come, he would capriciously destroy everyone. Allah is holy, but he is
not near.
On the other end of the
spectrum you’ve got the New Age religion where people are actually gods. This
religion has not only removed God from his high and lofty throne, it has made
him equivalent to humans. If you and I are god, we cannot sin against ourselves
and we certainly do not need to confess any sins to ourselves. That would just
be silly and unnecessary. The New Age god is very near, but he is not holy.
Sadly, aspects of this New Age religion have crept into the church. Even though
no respectable Christian would claim to be a god, unfortunately, many Christians
have adopted an overly familiar stance with God, kind of a “God is my boyfriend”
relationship. Such people like the part of God where he is near, and dwells with
us and comforts us, but they really don’t care for the all-powerful, wrathful
God who lives in a high and holy place and sits in sovereign judgment on the
world. For many Christians, God is near, but he is not very holy.
But this verse, which
is backed up by the remainder of Scripture, tells us that God lives “in a
high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.”
In other words, God is holy and God is near. God dwells in utter perfection but
he also dwells with his sinful creatures. How is it that God can be both holy
and near? The answer is the cross. Only the cross can bridge the gap between
perfect holiness and intimate nearness. Only the cross can bring a high and holy
God to live with the contrite in spirit. Only the cross can pay the price for
sins so that God can come near. That’s why every other religion can only have
one aspect of God or the other. In every other religion, God is either holy or
he is near, but he can never be both because there is no cross in any other
religion. Therefore, right in the middle of verse fifteen we see the cross of
Jesus Christ.
Why is it then that we are so averse to cultivating a
spirit of humility? I think one of the main reasons is because we are so
insulated by our American culture and westernized Christianity that we really
don’t need God all that much. In reality, each of us is spiritually bankrupt.
Unless God fills us with his Spirit and works through us, our spiritual
bankruptcy remains. It’s just that we can’t feel our spiritual poverty. We have
all of the basic necessities of life provided for us by our own paychecks and by
the government so we cannot easily feel our true need for God. Our seeking after
comfort prevents us from seeking after contrition. Our wealth keeps us from
weeping over sin. And we continue to seek more and more comfort.
A
perfect example of this is the House bill H.R. 1592 that was plastered over the
Christian airwaves this past week. HR 1592 is a hate crimes bill which has been
mired in controversy because it considers gays and lesbians to be a protected
class. This past week, several Christian broadcasters railed against this bill
calling it a “thought crimes bill,” meaning that Christians will be arrested and
jailed merely for preaching against homosexuality. The Christian opponents of
the bill claim that this law could effectively shut down all Christian
broadcasting and send churches underground to avoid persecution and prosecution.
One group went so far as to design a wanted poster for Jesus because this law
will silence his teaching.
I have two comments about this position. The first is that
I just don’t buy it. I have read the entire bill and I have read both sides of
the arguments, for and against the bill. I am not at all convinced that this law
would do any of the things they claim it will. It is my opinion that the
opponents of this bill have overly politicized it by scaring Christians into
sending them hundreds of thousands of dollars so they can defeat this bill. I do
not doubt the heart and sincerity of people who are fighting against this bill,
but I do think they are wrong on this issue.
But what if I am wrong and they
are right? What if this bill, which is scheduled for a vote next week, actually
does shut down Christian broadcasting? What happens if this new law either
silences the pulpit or else throws pastors who speak up into jail? Do you know
what my answer to that is? Bring it on. BRING…IT…ON! If that is what it takes to
remove the comfort of our insulated lives, then bring it on. If this is what it
will take for us to cry out to God in contrition and humility, then bring it on.
A reporter for the Southern Baptist Mission Board met
with a prominent leader in the rapidly expanding Chinese house church movement.
The reporter asked this church leader how American Christians could pray for
house churches in China. “Stop praying for persecution in China to end, for it
is through persecution that the church has grown,” the Chinese Christian leader
told him. “We, in fact, are praying that the American church might taste the
same persecution, so revival would come to the American church like we have seen
in China.”
If the Chinese believers are praying for American
persecution that will lead us to revival, then who are we to work against their
prayers?! I can tell you this much; I think this Chinese church leader is a lot
closer to the truth than the Christian broadcasters. I am not looking for
trouble and I do not have a martyr complex, but I would rather seek after
contrition than seek after comfort. If you want comfort, then by no all means,
do not take up this 28 days of prayer. But if you want a God who is high and
holy and has come near to us by the cross, then are you willing to pray for a
spirit of humility in your life and in our church? We cannot tell God when he
should bring revival, but we really don’t have to, because he has already
promised that he will bring revival to the hearts of the lowly and contrite.
What will God do at the end of 28 days of prayer for
humility? Will he send us a building similar to the one in La Crescent? Will he
tell Bill Gates to send us some cash? I am not able to predict these kinds of
things, but based on the authority of the eternal word of God, I can tell you
that if your prayer of humility is genuine, God will bring true revival to your
heart.
Rich Maurer
April 22, 2007
