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Dear friends, please remain standing
for the reading of God's word as we continue our consideration
of Isaiah, the book of the prophet Isaiah. The title of my sermon
series is Gleanings in Isaiah. We're going to go through various
passages in the book of Isaiah. And today we are in Isaiah chapter
two. I'm gonna read, starting in verse
five, although the sermon text is verse six through 22, I'm
gonna begin reading in verse five. especially today on verses
6 through 11. Isaiah chapter 2, beginning at
verse 5 and reading to the end of the chapter, you'll find that
reading beginning on page 674 in your Pew Bible. Dear friends,
this is the Word of God. Hear it with reverence and awe. O house of Jacob, come, let us
walk in the light of the Lord. For you have rejected your people,
the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east,
and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike
hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver
and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land
is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.
Their land is filled with idols. They bow down to the work of
their hands, to what their own fingers have made. So man is
humbled, and each one is brought low. Do not forgive them. Enter into the rock and hide
in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor
of his majesty. The haughty looks of man shall
be brought low. and the lofty pride of men shall
be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and
lofty, against all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low.
against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, and against
all the oaks of Bashan, and against all the lofty mountains, and
against all the uplifted hills, against every high tower, and
against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish,
and against all the beautiful craft, And the haughtiness of
man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought
low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. And the
idols shall utterly pass away, and people shall enter the caves
of the rocks and the holes of the ground from before the terror
of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty when He rises
to terrify the earth. In that day, mankind will cast
away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they
made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,
to enter the caverns of the rocks and the cliffs from before the
terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when
he rises to terrify the earth. Stop regarding man in whose nostrils
is breath, for of what account is he? The grass withers and
the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Once
again, let's seek the Lord's blessing upon the preaching of
his word. Heavenly Father. We do thank you that you have
raised up prophets and apostles to convey your infallible word
to us, and we thank you, Lord, for the prophet Isaiah. We thank
you for this portion of your holy word, and we ask that by
your Holy Spirit, you would illuminate our minds and open our hearts
to behold wondrous things from your word this day. Cause your
word to find a lodging place in our souls, and by the supernatural
power of your spirit, cause your word to bear spiritual fruit,
in our lives unto salvation and sanctification. And be glorified
this day, Lord Jesus, be present in the proclamation of your word
by your spirit this day. In your name we pray and all
of God's people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon today
is Yahweh Exalted, Mankind Humbled. And that word Yahweh, that is
the covenant name for God. In your English translations,
when the translators use the word Lord, and it's in all capital
letters, that's an indication to the English reader that the
translators are translating this Hebrew word Yahweh. Sometimes it's transliterated
as Jehovah. And that is the covenant name
for God. And it refers to God as our gracious
covenant redeemer. And so again, the title of my
sermon is Yahweh Exalted, Mankind Humbled. And if you're following
along in your sermon outline, you'll notice the children, I'd
like to point out to the children, there's a number of key words
that you can be listening for in my sermon today. Well, dear
ones, one of the biggest challenges for pastors and sessions when
it comes to their responsibility in spiritually shepherding God's
people is to discern when it is appropriate to offer comfort
and encouragement on the one hand, and when it becomes necessary
to confront and rebuke, on the other hand. Jesus himself, the
good shepherd of God's elect sheep, Jesus of course did this
with perfect wisdom and perfect discernment. If you're familiar
with the gospel accounts, you will notice that Jesus does not
address everyone in exactly the same way. Jesus rather tailors
his words to his audience and to their spiritual needs as well
as their spiritual state. And so, for example, let me ask
you, how did our Lord speak to that broken, humbled, sinful
woman who wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with her
hair? How did Jesus address her? Did
He speak harsh words of rebuke to her? Did He denounce her for
her sins, which were many? The answer, of course, is no.
He spoke to her words of comfort and assurance because he saw
not only her heart, he saw in her behavior that she was broken
and crushed and humbled over her sin. And so he spoke gospel
words to her, words of forgiveness and encouragement. And likewise,
think about the gracious and hopeful words that our Lord spoke
to that rich but repentant tax collector, Zacchaeus. You remember
little Zacchaeus who climbed the sycamore tree? How did Jesus
speak to Zacchaeus when Zacchaeus indicated not only that he was
seeking to see the Lord, but that he was repentant and was
willing to bear the fruits of repentance in making restitution
for those whom he had cheated. Consider our Lord's word to Zacchaeus
in Luke chapter 19, verses eight through 10. Let me just read
that passage very quickly to you. Luke 19, verses eight through
10. It says, and Zacchaeus stood
and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I
give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything,
I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today
salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek
and to save the lost." Oh, what precious gospel words he speaks
to repentant Zacchaeus. But on the other hand, consider
the sharp and confrontational language of judgment and rebuke
that our Lord spoke to the hypocritical, self-righteous religious leaders,
those leaders who opposed him and who rejected his messianic
authority. There are many examples of these
words of confrontation and rebuke coming from the lips of our Lord
Jesus throughout the gospel accounts. But let me just read a brief
passage, Matthew 23, verses 25 through 28, to give you a sampling
of these kinds of words that Jesus spoke to his contemporaries. Matthew 23, 25 through 28, Jesus
says this, woe to you. That term woe is a term indicating a curse. Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and
cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law,
justice and mercy and faithfulness. These things you ought to have
done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out
a gnat and swallowing a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate,
but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You get
the picture, don't you? Friends, like the church's Lord,
the church's under-shepherds, the pastors and elders of the
church, are to exercise wisdom and discernment in giving appropriate
counsel and speaking appropriate words that are tailored to the
various circumstances of God's people. And so, for example,
it would be inappropriate for a pastor or a session to speak
sharp words of rebuke to a broken, repentant church member who confesses
his struggles in overcoming a besetting sin. On the contrary, under such
circumstances, the member in question would need gospel comfort
and encouragement. But on the other hand, it would
be equally inappropriate for a pastor or session to offer
words of comfort and assurance to church members who have proven
themselves over time to be spiritually insensitive, unteachable, arrogant,
resistant to authority, contumacious, and backslidden or hardened in
their sin, especially if such sin is of a publicly scandalous
nature. In such circumstances, confrontation
and sharp rebuke will likely become necessary. Now, at this
point, I'm sure you're probably thinking, okay, Pastor Jeff,
I get it, but aren't we here in Isaiah today? What does all
of this have to do with our passage for this Lord's Day morning from
the book of the prophet Isaiah? Well, the reason I bring this
up is to connect us with the kind of language that we find
throughout the book of the prophet Isaiah. The reason I bring this
up is because if you are a careful student of the book of Isaiah,
you'll notice that Isaiah's prophecies alternate between, on the one
hand, oracles of judgment and doom, which involve the use of
sharp and at times even harsh and shocking language. But on
the other hand, Isaiah's prophecy also includes numerous oracles
of hope, and comfort and restoration. And it depends upon his audience. It depends upon who he is speaking
to, who the Spirit is inspiring him to speak to. And so, for
example, even in this very chapter, chapter 2, we see that alternation
taking place In the previous passage, the text that immediately
leads up to our passage for today, in the first five verses of Isaiah
chapter 2, we find a prophecy about the glories of the new
covenant messianic era, and therefore a revelation from God that is
intended to bring great comfort and hope and assurance to the
faithful and repentant among God's professed covenant people. But friends, if you were listening
carefully, you will notice that in our passage for this Lord's
Day morning, starting at verse six and going not only through
the end of this chapter, but into the following chapters as
well, you will notice that this morning begins a lengthy judgment
section of Isaiah, a judgment section in which Yahweh, Israel's
faithful covenant-making, covenant-keeping God and sovereign Lord, Yahweh
confronts the proud idolaters and the unrepentant, worldly-minded
hypocrites within the ranks of his professed covenant people
at that time. And he confronts them with harsh
words of doom and divine judgment. just as the Lord has spoken words
of comfort and hope that were intended to be encouraging to
the humble, repentant, and believing among his people. So, friends,
in this passage, he assures the haughty and the arrogant among
his professed people that there is coming a day when Yahweh,
the true and living God, when Yahweh alone will be exalted,
and when wicked, idolatrous, proud, impenitent humanity, including
the impenitent hypocrites among God's professed people, will
be utterly abased, utterly humiliated, utterly humbled to the dust. This morning our special focus
will be on verses 6 through 11. And as we consider the first
three verses of our passage for today, verses 6 through 8, I
want you to notice the Lord's rejection of His people. We learn here, shockingly and
disturbingly, of the Lord's rejection of His unfaithful people. It
says this, beginning in verse 6, Well, let me just, let me
again start at verse 5. Verse 5 ends the opening section
of chapter 2, which is a section filled with hope and comfort
pointing forward to the messianic age. And then Isaiah writes,
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. He addresses God's professed
people as the house of Jacob and he calls upon them to walk
in the light of the Lord. In other words, to walk in true
faith and the obedience that springs from that faith. But
then in the very next verse, the beginning of this judgment
section, we read these words, these shocking words. For you
have rejected your people. Who are his people? Well, the
same people that were addressed in verse 5, the house of Jacob. You have rejected your people. Now, for those of us who are
Reformed and Calvinistic in our understanding of salvation, passages
like this can be a little bit troubling because we think to
ourselves, how can we understand this passage? God doesn't reject
his elect, does he? I mean, how are we to understand
this reference to God rejecting His people? After all, doesn't
it say in passages like Romans 11, verse 2, doesn't that passage
say, God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew? Well,
friends, That might seem like a contradiction, but it's not
an actual contradiction. You see, in passages like the
one that we are considering this morning, where it tells us that
Yahweh has rejected his people, the house of Jacob, it's important
for us to understand that there is a distinction between the
people of God considered as a visible community on the one hand, and
the true people of God meaning the elect who demonstrate their
election by exercising true faith in Christ and repentance unto
life. In other words, it's important
for us to understand that there is a distinction between covenant,
at least broadly considered, and election. Now, the two concepts
and the two principles, these two truths are closely connected
in scripture, but they can be distinguished. And so, friends,
in the Romans 11.2 passage, that passage is talking about God's
elect people, those whom he foreknew in his everlasting, sovereign,
predestinating love. Whereas in our passage for today,
this passage is speaking of the visible covenant people of God. When Isaiah says of the Lord,
when he says to the Lord, for you have rejected your people,
this means not all of those who are identified as his people,
for God has always preserved for himself an elect remnant
in sovereign grace. But rather he is speaking, he
means the visible covenant community, the visible church of that time. It is speaking here of the people
on the whole. For the people as a whole at
that particular point in redemptive history, they had refused to
fear and trust the Lord. They had refused to walk in the
way of His covenant. And this was evidenced by their
idolatry and syncretism, as well as their worldly-mindedness.
And so this passage and passages like it remind us that it is
possible to be in the covenant externally. It's possible to
be in the covenant externally, but not in the covenant in a
saving sense. All who possess true saving faith
will indeed profess that faith, but not everyone who professes
faith in Christ actually possesses that faith. And so it's from
passages like this one that we derive the distinction between
the invisible church and the visible church. The invisible
church doesn't mean the church of the saints who have departed
into heaven, or it's not the church of ghosts. It's rather
referring to the church as God sees it, whereas the visible
church refers to the church as man sees it. And so here, again,
The Lord through Isaiah is addressing the visible church, the church
as man sees it. And it says, you have rejected
your people, the church in this sense. Well, why has God rejected
his people? What is the basis for it? Well,
it's explained in this passage. The Holy Spirit explains it in
this passage. You have rejected your people, the house of Jacob.
Why? Because they are full of things from the east. and of
fortune tellers like the Philistines. The Philistines were the coastal
peoples. They were the Gentiles who lived
on the western coast by the Mediterranean. And so basically what this is
saying is that the people of God at that particular time,
instead of being a light to the nations around them, instead
of shining the light of God's revelation, instead of spreading
the knowledge of the true and living God to the Gentile nations
that surrounded them, instead of being a witness and light
For the truth of God's Word and the truth of the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, instead of that, they had adopted the practices
of the nations around them. Instead of leavening the nations
around them with the leaven of God's holy law and holy truth,
they were leavened with the leaven of wickedness, sin, and idolatry
as adopted from the nations. This is basically getting at
the fact that the people had been guilty of covenant breaking. They had been guilty of covenant
breaking through such things as occultism and participation
in pagan idolatry, basically syncretism. Syncretism is when
you combine the true faith, the revealed faith given to us in
the word of God with false religion and false theology and false
worship. God had been very clear to his
people that they were not to do this. They were not to consult
fortune tellers, for example. Consider with me, if you would,
let's turn to Leviticus 19, verse 26. Leviticus chapter 19, verse
26. We read these words in that passage.
It says, you shall not eat any flesh without blood in it. And
that was one of the practices that set Israel apart from their
pagan nation, neighbors, and pointed them to the fact that
they needed blood atonement, for the blood belonged to the
Lord. But notice next what it says. You shall not do what? You shall not interpret omens
or tell fortunes. God makes it very clear. You're
not to consult fortune tellers. You're not to be engaged in occultic
activities. And this is brought out even
more explicitly and clearly in Deuteronomy 18, verses nine through
14. And let me just read those verses
to you, friends. The Lord there says through Moses,
when you come into the land that the Lord your God has given you,
you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those
nations. There shall not be found among
you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering.
That was a horrific wicked practice of the Canaanites who lived in
the land before the Israelites were sent by God to conquer the
promised land. And by the way, as an aside,
the people who lived in Canaan at that time were a tremendously
wicked immoral, idolatrous people. And so God used the Israelites
to judge them, bring his holy judgment upon them. But God is
saying, you're not to do as they did. There shall not be found
among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,
anyone who does what? Who practices divination or tells
fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer, or a charmer,
or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead,
for whoever does these things is what? Is an abomination to
the Lord. You want to give yourself over
to pagan cultic idolatry, to give yourself over to occultic
practices, you make yourself an abomination unto the Lord. God is very clear and very explicit. Whoever does these things is
an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations,
the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall
be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which
you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and
to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed
you to do this. Occultic activities involves
seeking after secret knowledge, knowledge that isn't accessible
to your senses or accessible from the word of God. And it
shows a lack of reverence for and trust in the Lord because
when you consult astrology, when you consult Ouija boards, when
you consult fortune tellers and so forth, when you engage in
those practices, you're basically saying, God, your word isn't
enough. I need more knowledge, I need to know the future, poems
or tell my future. It's not a joke. It's an abomination
to God, my friends. And the people of God, those
who claim to belong to Yahweh the Lord, those who claim to
be His worshipers in the days of Isaiah were consulting fortune
tellers. They were adopting the superstitions
and the pagan practices of their pagan neighbors. It goes on to
say they strike hands with the children of foreigners. We're
not exactly sure what this striking of the hands refers to, but it
probably refers to some kind of pagan ritual or pagan practice. And so friends, Covenant breaking
was their, the reason, the ultimate reason for their rejection by
the Lord. And then it goes on to say in
verse seven, their land is filled with silver and gold and there
is no end to their treasures. Their land is filled with horses
and there is no end to their chariots. Is God saying that
it's wrong to have riches or wealth? Is God saying it's wrong
to have military strength as represented by horses and chariots? That doesn't seem to be what
the problem was. The problem was that they were apparently
trusting in these things. Instead of trusting in the Lord,
they were trusting in their riches. They were trusting in their military
might. instead of trusting in Yahweh,
their faithful God. They had wealth. They had silver
and gold. They had prosperity, as we see
in the reference to their treasures. They also had military strength,
horses and chariots. Today's equivalents, of course,
would be things like military resources, such as guns and bazookas
and missiles and bombs and drones and tanks and so forth. It's
not saying that it's wrong in and of itself to have those things,
but to multiply them and to trust in them. The Lord had made it
very clear to his people they were not to do so. But not only
did they have these things, verse eight goes on to say, their land
is filled with what? Their land is filled with idols. Idolatry is supremely blasphemous
and offensive to God in whatever form that idolatry takes. and
their land was filled at that time. Their land was filled with
idols. He says, they bow down to the
work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. They were guilty of idolatry
and of trusting in the works of their own hands. Now, I want
to point out here in verse 8, The Holy Spirit through Isaiah
says their land is filled with idols. What land is that referring
to? That's referring to the promised land, the holy land, the land
that God in His grace had given to them as a gift. God, remember,
God had redeemed the children of Israel from their slavery
in Egypt and He brought them through the Red Sea on dry land.
He brought them through the wilderness having given them his holy law,
his Torah, his covenant instruction from Mount Sinai. And they went
into the promised land and he gave them the land as a gift.
And that land was intended to be a type, a picture, a foreshadowing
of the ultimate promised land, the new heavens and the new earth
wherein righteousness dwells. But that very land, that land
that belonged to the Lord, Yahweh, in a special way, that land that
was consecrated to the Lord and whose people were to be consecrated
to the Lord. That land that was to be a picture
of heaven had become darkened and saturated with pagan idolatry
and with the works of their own hands. There's many lessons that
we can learn from this opening passage here, but just a couple
points of application before we move on. I've talked about
how this passage addresses the visible church, the state of
the visible church at that particular time in redemptive history, and
that the Lord had rejected his people on the whole for their
covenant-breaking, their unfaithfulness. And this may tempt us to think
that, well, if that's the case, the visible church doesn't really
matter that much. I mean, as long as you belong to the Lord,
you don't really need to belong to the church. As long as we're
in the invisible church, then the visible church is not that
important. But friends, that's not the conclusion
that we should derive from a passage like this. It is truly a great
privilege to belong in membership to the Visible Church of Jesus
Christ. There are great spiritual advantages in being a member
of the Visible Organized Church. The scriptures indicate that
to be the case. Indeed, friends, Christ has entrusted his means
of grace, especially the Word and the sacraments, to his Visible
Church. Christ has not entrusted the
means of grace to parachurch organizations. There are many
fine Christian parachurch organizations. We prayed for the Rorbas this
morning. They work for Wycliffe Bible Translators. And that wonderful
organization helps to support the work of the church in translating
and disseminating the Word of God to the nations. And that's
a good thing. But Christ hasn't trusted the
preaching of His Word and the administration of the sacraments
to His visible church. But friends, it is possible to
be a member of the visible church without being a member of Christ.
Only by the sovereign grace of God and through the regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit and by personal faith, personal trust
in Christ as your very own Lord and Savior can you belong to
Christ. Do you belong to Christ? Is He
your Lord and Savior? Have you trusted Him? Christ,
the Son of God incarnate, came to this earth to pay the penalty
for sin. He died on the cross for sinners. We're told in Romans 5 verse
8 that God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we
were yet sinners, rebels against God, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. He paid the penalty for sin.
And He rose from the dead three days later proving that the Father
has accepted his sacrifice. And we're told in passages like
John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son that whoever believes in him. might not perish, but
have everlasting life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
trust in him and him alone for your salvation, and then you
can be assured that not only do you have membership in the
visible people of God, you are a member of Christ, clothed in
his righteousness, forgiven through his blood, renewed by his spirit,
and sealed by that spirit unto the day of eternity for life
everlasting. So this is something that I would
encourage us to consider. The visible church is important,
but make sure that you're trusting in Christ by the grace of God.
We also learn in this passage that idolatry is supremely offensive
to God, and idolatry can take many forms. Of course, in the
ancient world that Isaiah is addressing, idolatry was typically
in the form of crass idolatry, people bowing down to statues
of gold, blocks of wood, literally the works of men's hands. But
today, though we are in a very secular society, we are equally,
if not more so, idolatrous in comparison to the ancient Israelites.
It's just that our idolatry is much more subtle. You see, whatever
is the most important thing to you, that is, in practice, your
actual God. You may claim to be a believer
in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the true and living
God, but as John Calvin rightly put it, the human heart, our
sinful, fallen human heart, is a factory of idolatry. Our hearts
are always cranking out new idols to bow down to, and that idolatry
can take many forms. It might take the form of your
career. If your career is the most important thing to you,
that in practice is your actual God. Relationships, even good
relationships, if they become more important to you than your
relationship to Christ, that is an idol. And today, it seems
to me today, the biggest idol of all is the idol of self, self-identity,
creating your own reality. There's this idea out there that,
hey, you're your own person, you can create your own reality,
do your own thing. This idolatry especially comes
out when it comes to the area of sexual ethics. Consenting,
it's fine, no problem. That's not what the word of God
says. if it is not within the context of marriage. It is forbidden. God knows what he's saying. He
knows what is right. There are many, many idols. What are the idols of your heart?
I have idols that I wrestle with in my heart, and so do you. By
the grace of God. Let us flee idolatry and let
us plant ourselves at the foot of the cross and look to Christ
and Christ alone for our salvation from all sin, including the sin
of the idols of our hearts. We also learn in this passage
that we must not mess with the occult. Let us not seek the forbidden
knowledge that the occult promises. Let us instead search the scriptures. Let us know the word of God. And so we've considered that
the Lord has rejected His people, but next let us consider briefly
the abasement of proud humanity. How is the Lord manifesting this
rejection of His proud, impenitent people who refuse to repent?
Well, He promises to humble them, to abase them. Look at verse
8. It says, The land is filled with idols, they bow down to
the work of their hands. Now let's pause there. Do you
see how irrational, really how stupid this is? Idolatry is both
irrational and it is dehumanizing and degrading. Idolatry leads
an otherwise rational man, an image bearer of God the creator,
to bow down to the work of his own hands. How irrational to
bow down before something that you yourself have made and to
trust in that thing that you have made or to bow down to something
that has been made by the imagination and skill of sinful man. and how degrading for an image
bearer of God to bow down in worship before and to trust in
not the true and living God who created him, but before an idol
that has been created for him by either himself or another
human being. It's degrading. It's irrational. And then verse 9, it goes on
to say, So man is humbled, and each one is brought low. Do not
forgive them. Now the New King James Version
and translations like it read, People bow down, and each man
humbles himself. What's this referring to? In
the context of this passage, it's possible here in verse nine
that the humbling or being brought low would seem to be referring
to the way that idolaters grovel and humble themselves before
the objects of their worship, namely the dead idols that they
reverence. But this could simply also be
referring to the effects of idolatry. idolaters in their pride, they
humble themselves, they bow down before worthless dead idols so
God will humble them and bow them down, in other words. But
however we are to understand what this is saying, again, this
seems to highlight the degrading and dehumanizing effects of idolatry. Because they persist unrepentant
in degrading and humbling themselves before their idols, Isaiah cries
out, do not forgive them. Now this may seem harsh. Isaiah
is not saying here, the Holy Spirit is not saying through
Isaiah that there's no forgiveness for the repentant idolater. Not
at all. Many of God's people, no doubt,
had heard the message of Isaiah and by the grace of God had repented
and received pardon. But Isaiah here has in mind those
who are hardened and settled in their sins, those who have
dug in their heels, if you will, in pursuing their idolatrous
ways. And he says, do not forgive them.
We're told in scripture that while our Lord is slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness, nevertheless,
God says of himself that he will by no means clear the guilty. And so this is a warning. here. And what will be the result?
We'll look at verse 10. Enter into the rock and hide in the
dust. The terrain of that area of the
world boasts many caves, many rocks that you could seek to
take refuge in, and the picture here is that the terror of the
Lord, the wrath and majesty of the Lord is coming to enter into
judgment with sinful mankind, and it is such a distressing
event that people seek to escape the majestic presence of God,
and they seek to hide from the Lord. They enter into the rock.
They seek to hide themselves in the dust. This, too, speaks
to the abasement and terror of the divine judgment, but it also
tells us that there will be no escape for those who persist
in their proud rebellion against the Lord. Well, what are we to
do with all of this? Well, friends, in James 4, verse
6, where James is quoting from Proverbs 3, verse 34, it says,
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The humble being those who by
sovereign grace have come to recognize their sin, to feel
their depravity and their need for a savior. God opposes the
proud, the self-righteous, those who rest in themselves or their
own works, their own accomplishments for salvation. He opposes the
proud, but gives grace to the humble. How then should we respond
to this prophecy of judgment against the proud? Well, by the
grace of God, may we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. Let
me read what James writes in James chapter four, seven through
10. says this, Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he
will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and here's the promise,
and he will exalt you. By the grace of God, may we humble
ourselves before the Lord. trusting that he in Christ will
exalt us. And that brings me to my final
brief point based on verse 11. We see here in this passage the
exaltation of Yahweh on the day of the Lord. Those who humble
themselves will be exalted and we will be exalted in the Lord
because the Lord himself and the Lord alone will be exalted
on that day of the Lord. Look at verse 11. God says, the
haughty looks of man shall be brought low. The haughty, proud
looks of man will be brought low. And the lofty pride of men
shall be humbled. And the Lord alone will be exalted
in that day. What is that day? Well, ultimately,
as we will see as we continue to work our way through this
passage in future referring to that final eschatological day
of the Lord, the final judgment day at the end of history, when
the Lord will pour out his consummate wrath upon the wicked reprobate,
but will bring his saved ones to the final consummation and
blessing of their eternal salvation. On that final day, the first
shall indeed be last, and the last shall be first. All wrongs
will be brought to rights. The pride of wicked idolatrous
men will be ultimately abased and humbled, the redeemed children
of God will be openly acknowledged and vindicated, and the Lord
alone will be exalted in that day. Soli Deo Gloria, to God
alone be the glory. Now friends throughout redemptive
history there were many lesser days of the Lord. There were
many historical judgment events that were predicted by the prophets
and which pointed forward to that final day of judgment. Events
such as the fall and exile of Israel to the Assyrians and the
fall and exile of Judah to the Babylonians and so forth. These
historical judgment events can be regarded as proximate and
initial fulfillments of prophecies like this one. But they all pointed
forward to that greater, ultimate day of the Lord. There is a final
day of the Lord coming, and that is the day when Jesus, the Messiah,
the Son of God, will return in glory. Dear listeners, May God
in his sovereign grace grant that we may be ready to welcome
that day. May we humble ourselves in the
sight of the Lord, resting in Christ and Christ's righteousness
alone, for only in him will we stand on that day. And he alone
will be exalted on that day, and the proud will be abased. But in the meantime, may the
Lord see fit to be glorified in our lives and in his church,
and may we all seek to fulfill our chief end. And what is our
chief end, brothers and sisters? Our chief end is to glorify God
and to enjoy him forever. May God make it so, amen. Gracious
Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you. that you are
holy, that you are just, that you are righteous. We know, Lord,
that you will indeed abase the proud among mankind. But we thank
you, Lord, that you give grace to the humble. We ask that we
might be humbled by your grace, that we may know your forgiveness
and exaltation. Grant us the grace to trust in
Christ and Christ alone and to walk in union with him in our
day-to-day lives. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that we would walk in the confidence of knowing that as you've promised
in your word that there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, and that you have sealed us in Christ
by your Spirit unto the day of redemption, we ask, Lord, that
we would live day by day in covenant union and communion with our
Savior and in great confidence, knowing that we need not fear
that final day, but that we may welcome it, because we will be
welcomed at that time. to our final home. In Jesus'
name we pray and all of. Amen. Let's reply, let's respond
rather to what we've heard by rising and we'll sing as our
closing hymn number 387, Day of Judgment, Day of Wonders 387.
Yahweh Exalted, Mankind Humbled
Series Isaiah
A sermon based on Isaiah 2:6-22, and preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during the morning Worship Service on Sunday, July 7, 2024.
| Sermon ID | 72724192241545 |
| Duration | 43:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 2:6-22 |
| Language | English |
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