The Beauty of Our Creator

Episode notes:

Today's program was taken from the following episodes:

"The Never-Ending Wonder."

"In the Throne Room: The God of Holiness and Hope."

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Dannah Gresh: I’ve got a new word for you today—resplendent. It means magnificent and radiant. And here’s Pastor John Piper using it for you in a sentence.

Pastor John Piper: He is lavish in His beauty, lavish in His creativity, and lavish in His splendor. He is resplendent.

Dannah: Resplendent. Today we’re gonna talk about God, our Creator, being resplendent and beautiful.

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh. 

We see beauty all around us. You don’t have to have a trained eye to recognize it. We see it everywhere, in all of creation: the mountains, the birds, my peacocks. Every single thing we lay our eyes on is filled with beauty because of our Creator. 

What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever laid your eyes on? I love watching my granddaughters run and play. It never fails to take my mind back to who created them. God put such detail in them . . . and in each one of us. Such beauty. 

You know, for Him to spend time on beauty in and for us, He must be beautiful Himself. How often do you stop and think of God the creator as beautiful? 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth spent some time on this topic when she taught out of Psalm 27. You know, David had a chance to ask for anything, but he had one simple request of God. In fact, listen to what he asked for. I’ll read it to you, Psalm 27, verse 4. 

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: 
   that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, 
   to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. 

Are you wondering why David asked for this: the chance to see the beauty of the Lord? Yeah, I’m sure many people have wondered the same thing. But listen to what Nancy has to say about David. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: David He goes on to say in this verse that he has two motivations or two reasons for wanting to dwell in the house of the Lord. The first is, “to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” The second is, “to inquire [or to meditate] in his temple.”

So he says, “I want to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I want to look upon the beauty of the Lord, and I want to learn from Him. I want to inquire, meditate in His temple.” So let’s take those two motivations, those two reasons, and just meditate on them a little bit over these next moments.

He says, “I want to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. (I want to look upon the beauty of the Lord.)” That word, “to gaze” means, “to behold; to contemplate with pleasure; to have a vision of.” He says, “I want to be enthralled with a vision of God—not a vision of my enemies, but a vision of God. I want to be in proximity to Him. I want to be close enough to Him that I can get up close and see the beauty and the wonder of Who He is. I want to enjoy His beauty!”

Now, again, he said in the first three verses all this awful stuff is going on around him. Why is he concerned at this moment about looking at the beauty of the Lord?

Because when you “turn your eyes upon Jesus, you look full in His wonderful face, all the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace” (lyrics by Helen H. Lemmel).

Here’s the problem: we spend so much time looking at our problems, looking at our circumstances, looking at our challenges, that they become humongous in our eyes. Then they eclipse our view of God, and God seems to be very tiny . . . if there at all!

And he’s saying, “I’m going to switch that around. Instead of gazing on my enemies, gazing on my problems, gazing on the challenges, I’m going to gaze on the Lord! I’m going to turn my eyes upon Jesus; I want to look full in His wonderful face. I’m going to contemplate with delight, with pleasure, His beauty.”

When you get a big vision of God, then all those other things of earth . . . It’s not that they aren’t there, it’s not that they’re not real, but they get put in perspective!

I love that quote of (and here I’m wandering off my notes, so I hope I can remember this quote) by G. Campbell Morgan who was a Bible teacher of the last century. He said,

The supreme need in every hour of difficulty and distress is for a fresh vision of God. Seeing Him, all else takes on proper perspective and proportion.

That’s what David’s talking about here. “I want to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord!” And so, David says, “I want to see the beauty of the Lord.”

Now, we know that God is righteous. He is holy. He is just. He’s powerful. He’s sovereign. He’s true. He’s almighty. But I want to remind you that He is also beautiful. Beautiful! He is lovely; He is desirable; He is good! So when you gaze upon Him, this is not a stern God who is ready to pounce on you if you don’t measure up.

This is a vision of God that some of you have. I don’t know where you got it, but I think you’ve got to change it! You’ve got to go to God’s Word to get your vision of who God is, instead of some other men you may have known—who maybe weren’t good men—or some way you were taught. Get a vision of God that is not only righteous and holy. All of that is beautiful, but He is beautiful! He is lovely! He is desirable!

Now, as I was meditating on the beauty of Christ, another passage came to mind from the prophet Isaiah where he says of the Messiah, in Isaiah chapter 53:2 (this will be familiar to you), speaking of the Messiah:

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him . . . as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not (vv. 2–3).

So, how do those two passages align? We’re supposed to gaze upon His beauty, but Isaiah says, “He had no beauty; men hid their faces from Him.” Well, Isaiah is speaking of the incarnate Christ—God in the flesh—who laid aside His glory, His majesty, and His beauty and took on the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men—the incarnation.

As a man, Jesus took on the commonness and the limitations of our humanity. There was nothing, humanly speaking, extraordinary about Him. And, in fact, in His crucifixion and in His death the Scripture tells us that sinful men marred His physical appearance so He was not even recognizable.

It was hard to look on Him. This is a picture of the crucifixion, the death of the Messiah. Men hid their faces from Him.

But in His resurrected, ascended humanity at the right hand of the Father where He sits today and makes intercession for us as our Advocate, He is glorious; He is radiant; He is beautiful! Still has His human body, but He is glorious and beautiful. Psalm 96 says, “Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”

Dannah: Our God is beautiful, so beautiful. Psalm 96 states it so well, “Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”

If God would grant you anything, what would you ask for? I’m not going to fill in those words for you. But think about it, would your prayer be the same as David’s?

Maybe don’t answer it for yourself. Maybe ask an older person in your life, someone who’s walked with God for a while. Ask them what they’d wish for and why. I know you will have a great conversation. 

John Piper is a preacher who would probably ask to gaze at God’s beauty. He spoke at a women’s conference several years ago. What he had to say left many women in awe of their Creator. I want you to experience a little of that today and hear what he had to say about God, but first let's hear him read from Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1–4.

Pastor John Piper:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, seated upon a throne high and exalted; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: With two wings [they] covered [their] face, with two [they] covered [their] feet, with two [they] flew. And one cried to the another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook and the house was filled with smoke. (Isa. 6:1–4)

Dannah: I’m breaking in here really quick to let you know that there are seven glimpses of God in these 4 verses. 

The first one is God is alive.
Number 2: God is authoritative.
Number 3: God is omnipotent.
Number 4: God is resplendent.
Number 5: God is revered.
Number 6: God is holy.
And the last one: God is glorious. 

For today, we’re just going to look at God’s resplendence—what a big word to consider—and His glory. Here’s Dr. Piper.

Pastor John Piper: Glimpse number four: God is resplendent. “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” So He has a robe, and it has a train.

You’ve seen brides, you’ve been brides. Some more in past days than presently, I suppose, had incredible trains so that when the photographer does the pictures, they take a half an hour to arrange the train. It flows down over the steps and up on to the platform. You’ve all seen them.

Well, picture it flowing down the aisle, covering all the pews, going into the choir loft, up over the balcony.

When I preached on Isaiah 6 about twenty years ago—thirty years ago—I took it out the windows and over the skyscrapers in downtown Minneapolis. I said, “So I challenge one of you: Paint me a picture, do me a stitch work of the throne of God over Minneapolis with His train filling the city.” And Julie Morgan did. It hung on our wall for years and years—a stitch work that she did, needlework, where she had the skyline of Minneapolis and the feet of the throne—you can see it—and the legs of the One sitting upon the throne, and the train of His robe covered the city. That’s what we’re supposed to feel. He is resplendent.

Now, there about a thousand different kinds of self-illuminating fish at the bottom of the ocean. Some of them have a little dangling lamp hanging out in front with a little light at the end of the lamp to attract food into the mouth. And some of them have a little lighted chin. And some of them have beacons under their eyes that send out little beams. And you wonder: Where do they plug this in? How can light be produced at the bottom of the ocean without any batteries? And why didn’t the Lord just make one of those instead of a thousand?

Because He is lavish in His beauty, lavish in His creativity, and lavish in His splendor. He is resplendent.

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We said He’s holy, and now the last glimpse is, God is glorious. 

Why? Why didn’t they say, “Holy, holy, holy; the whole earth is full of Your holiness.” Because—this is my best effort to understand the glory of God—in God’s mind and Isaiah’s mind, and in most places in Scripture, I believe is the manifestation of the holiness of God.

God’s holiness is His incomparable perfections, His intrinsic infinite worth. When that goes public—when that goes on display—it’s called, in the Bible, the glory of God. “God is glorious” means God’s holiness has gone public. His glory is the open revelation of the secret of His holiness.

Here’s Leviticus 10:3: “I will show myself holy among those who are near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.” Interesting. “I will show them My holiness, and their response—‘glorious!’” Because in the move from the intrinsic, infinite, eternal worth and perfection and purity and transcendent wonder of God; in the movement out, what we see is the radiance of God. That’s called “glory” in the Bible.

The glory of God is the radiance of His holiness. When God shows Himself holy, we see glory. The holiness of God is concealed glory, and the glory of God is revealed holiness.

Dannah: Oh, the beauty of the glory of God. Just sitting with you today and thinking of God this way, in all His splendor and radiance, brings tears to my eyes. 

I love to hear about God’s power and might, wisdom and holiness. Hearing about His beauty leaves me with a softer heart, and tears on my cheeks and well, it leaves me more in awe of Him. I pray that is true of you, too.

We have John Piper’s entire talk on God’s holiness at our website. Simply go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and look for today’s episode, "The Beauty of Our Creator."

Friend, I hope that our time together stirred you to want to spend more time with our Creator and gaze at His beauty. You know, there are women all over the world who join you in that longing. Revive Our Hearts continues to take this message of God’s goodness and beauty into many corners of our world . . . including Brazil and Romania, Turkey and South Africa. 

If you’d like to join us in bringing this good news to women around the world, please help us by giving financially. You can make a gift by calling 1–800–569–5959, or go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on today’s episode. It’s called "The Beauty of Our Creator."

Next week we enter February. Good job, you’ve made it through January, my friend. It was hard, but we did it. Now, are we going to have an extended winter to get through? I guess we’ll have to check in with Puxatawny Phil’s weather reports, won’t we? Well, let’s not let the doldrums of winter get us down no matter what he forcasts. In fact, join me next week when we’ll do a little study of weather to find out what God could be teaching us through snow storms and raindrops. 

Thanks for listening today. Thanks to our team who is working hard through these cold months. Phil Krause is sporting some fancy ear muffs. Blake Bratton, he looks pretty good in Carhart knit cap. Rebekah Krause has on her scarf today. Justin Converse keeps winter at bay by dreaming of the beach. Michelle Hill has her electric blanket on high. And for Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh! I don’t mind a good snow day as long as I don’t have anywhere to go and I have my tea pot boiling!

In fact, while I make some tea, I’m going to meditate on what we heard today. God is beautiful; He is resplendent. Won’t you join me? Keith Green’s gonna help us do that, with his song, “Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful.”

Oh Lord, you're beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.
 

Oh Lord, you're beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.

 

I want to take your word and shine it all around.
But first help me to just, live it Lord.
And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown.
For my reward is giving glory to you.
 

Oh Lord, please light the fire,
That once burned bright and clear.
Replace the lamp of my first love,
That burns with Holy fear.

 

I want to take your word and shine it all around.
But first help me to just, live it Lord.
And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown.
For my reward is giving glory to you.
 

Oh Lord, you're beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.

Keith Green, “Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful.” Keith Green. The Greatest Hits ℗ 2008 Sparrow Records.

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