The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. Is available at www.ncfic.org. The most helpful thing in my entire journey with the Lord Jesus Christ began right at the very beginning. And it was that somehow the Lord allowed me to read that he was the bread of life.

He was the light of the world. That he was living water. And I could not get that out of my mind. And it was the love of God that I was so struck with. You know, I had very little sense of the judgment of God when I was converted, but I had such a distinct sense of the love of God.

And that has been from the very beginning until this very moment, the thing that has sustained me the most. It was the beauty of Christ that won me. And it has been the beauty of Christ that has kept me. And we've tried to paint that picture in so many different ways, from earth to heaven and back, to try to declare the beauty of the Lord, to try to explain these various facets of this. It's not even a diamond, it's so much infinitely more beautiful than anything in the world that we'll never ever really able to grasp.

We've talked about the fact that we're not seeking a system, but Christ, and that knowing Christ actually reorders everything according to the system of the kingdom of heaven. We've talked about the simplicity of the journey. Delighting yourself in the word of God and prayer. Repentance and obedience, there it is. You know, what's the big formula?

What's the formula for the mortification of sin? There it is, it's as simple as a child can understand to be captivated by Christ. And when that happens, the Lord Jesus Christ is a true delight. I'd like you to open up your Bibles for a final text to consider and it's Isaiah chapter 57. And I'd like you to find verse 15, Isaiah 57 verse 15.

Isaiah 57, 15, in many ways tracks the whole progress and logic of this conference that you've just experienced. Verse 15, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place. So it begins with this almost incomprehensible picture of God in His holiness inhabiting eternity. How do you inhabit eternity?

It's too vast for the human mind even to grasp. Your mind, your brain just shuts down. You can't, you can't fathom it. How does a person inhabit eternity? The creator of eternity is inhabiting eternity.

I don't understand that. And so Isaiah begins with this proposition of God who is so high, so holy, absolutely, unutterably, indescribably pure like nothing you have ever experienced and ever will on this earth. This is your God. He is absolutely sovereign. You think He's sovereign.

He's more sovereign than you think He is. He's greater. He's more pure. He's more beautiful than you can even consider. We really are like those sand fleas on the beach of California trying to find out about the Himalayan mountains.

But God in His kindness, He even shows us the edges of it and it absolutely grips our hearts and we're never the same when we see his beauty. Even the smallest parts of it. And so all of these small beauties that you see in the world. Every time you see one, every time you look at something and say that's beautiful, just remember this one thing. That so-called beautiful thing by your corrupt inadequate mind is designed to bear witness to the greatest beauty in the universe, the high and the holy one who inhabits eternity.

And it's so wonderful that God has placed so much beauty in the world, but why? It all points to heaven. It all points to this high and holy God who inhabits eternity. But then, remarkably, from this high place, he says, I dwell in the high and holy place. And then an astonishing statement is made.

I dwell with Him, who has a contrite and a humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. And here you have a holy God, and He condescends to unholy men, men and women who are broken, they are humbled, and He dwells with them. And it's this humility and brokenness that opens the door to the high and holy God in the heavens. When you finally see how poor and naked and blind you are, how much you need Him, how desperately your soul needs His food and how all the cells of your spiritual body need his water to nourish it. And you finally come to that place and you say, not my will, but thine be done.

And when that happens, a holy God condescends. And it says here that he dwells. He dwells with these profane jackals and ostriches and owls of the world and he puts his living water around them and he sustains them their whole life long. He never leaves them or forsakes them. And he cares for them until he takes them to heaven.

This is the highway of holiness. One of my favorite pieces of writing in the world was written actually by J.R. Miller. And we'll close with this. What are some of the secrets of happy home life?

The answer might be given in one word, Christ. Christ at the marriage altar. Christ on the bridal journey. Christ when the new home is set up, Christ when the baby is born, Christ when the child dies, Christ in the pinching times, Christ in the days of plenty, Christ in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the parlor, Christ in the toil and in the rest, Christ along all the years, Christ when the wedded pair walk toward the sunset gates, Christ in the sad hour when farewells are spoken, and one goes on before the other, and the other stays. Bearing the unshared grief, Christ is the center, is the secret of happy home life.

And Christ is the center of every kind of happy life. There is no happy life without Christ. And that's why we've tried to say in so many ways, happiness is holiness. And that holiness is beauty. And it's that beautiful road that God puts his children on.

And so we've tried and with so many illustrations and words and various outlines and passages of scripture have tried with all of our hearts to declare the beauty of holiness so that you would never think about trusting in any of your own righteousness or having any hope in any other thing in this world about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Him. It's Him alone that we need. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank You for Your word.

I thank You for these men who have just shared so tenderly with us about these matters that are so practical. And, oh Lord, that you would give us such happiness in this heavenly journey that you placed us upon. And that you, oh Lord, would give us such love for the beauty of your holiness. And that that beauty would fill our hearts, our homes, and our churches. And that you would make us a beautiful people.

Lord, we ask these things in the name of your matchless Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. At www.ncfic.org, where you can keep up to date on what is new, as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge. The NCFIC exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life. You