My text this morning is found
in Isaiah chapter 2, if you would turn there with me. We'll concentrate
on verse 11 and verse 17, which are pretty much word for word
the same. Isaiah chapter 2. Moses sung in Deuteronomy chapter
32 verse 12, So the Lord alone, that's an important word. The Lord alone did lead him. And that's speaking of Israel.
And there was no strange God with him. Nehemiah proclaimed
in Nehemiah chapter nine, verse six, thou, even thou art Lord
alone. Only one Lord. And He, God Almighty,
the Lord Jesus, is the Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth, and all things that
are therein, the seas, and all that is therein. And Thou preservest
them all, and the host of heaven worshipeth Thee. Hezekiah, he
prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord, God of Israel, which
dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, thou art the
God, even thou alone. Of all the kingdoms of the earth,
thou hast made heaven and earth. And then Isaiah confirms here
in our text, Isaiah 2, verse 11, that the lofty looks of man
shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Look down at verse
17. And the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and
the Lord again alone shall be exalted in that day." Now, any
time that a verse is mentioned more than once in the same chapter
of a book, the writer is letting us know that this is very important. The Lord alone, we just read
this, the Lord alone leads His people. The Lord alone made,
created, and preserves all things. The Lord alone humbles and bows
down man. And the Lord alone shall be exalted. It says in that day. So I've
titled this message, The Lord Alone. The Lord Alone. We live in a day and we live
in a time when this world's religion has made the salvation of a sinner
Nothing more than a cooperative effort between the sinner and
God. You've heard the preaching and
so have I. It's false preaching. God is being portrayed today
as a helpless beggar who the sinner must let God save them,
give him their heart, and to make him their Lord. And when
a sinner comes to know God through the the revelation of God, we
see those things are absolutely ridiculous to believe. We don't let God do anything
God does. We don't give God anything. He
gives all things to us. And we do not give Him our heart. Our heart is deceitfully and
desperately wicked, and God doesn't want it. He doesn't want it. And we certainly don't make Him
Lord. God made Him Lord long before
you and I ever came into the picture. You see, the religion
of man, the religion of works, the religion of free will, they're
all the same thing. It's all the same thing. The
religion of man, his works, his free will, has exalted man to
be superior to God. And people will say, well, now
we just have a difference of opinion. I said in the first
hour, no, it's much more than a difference of opinion. It's
a difference of gods. Two, one's God and one's not. Man's not God. Man thinks he's
God. Man acts as if though he's God,
but man is not God. God is God. Men have made God
to be altogether such a one as man. But God's not gonna have
it. And we're told right here that
He is going to, well, let's read it again. Verse 11, the lofty
looks of man gonna be humble, and the haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
He's gonna reprove them. He's gonna set things in order.
The Lord alone is God. There's none beside Him. In Isaiah
45, verse five and six, God Himself tells us so. He says, I am the
Lord. There is none else. I believe
we looked at that last week. There's no God, no God, no God
beside me. No God beside me. That they may
know from the rising of the sun from the west and that there
is none beside me, I am the Lord, and there is none else. When
religion talks about man's choice and man's decision, when religious
men and women talk about their work, when religion testifies
to all that they are doing for God, when they exclude God in
their salvation, When they refer to their free will instead of
God's sovereign will, they have exalted themselves above God. That's exactly right. But the
word of God declares the Lord alone. The Lord alone, three
words. It says multitudes. The Lord
alone. Today it's advertised on billboards. I know you've seen them. Isn't
it ridiculous some of the things they come up with? but it's on
billboards, church signs, that God cannot spell the word church
without U, the letter U. Well, that's clever, worldly
speaking, but I don't find it a bit funny. It's not true. The truth of the matter, that
there is no church, not a single saved sinner, and all would be
in hell without Christ. And you know what? There's no
you in salvation. No you in salvation. The most
high dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the
prophet, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What
house will you build me, God says. And what is the place,
or what is the place of my rest? What are you going to do to cause
God rest? You can't do anything. God's
already at rest. He's God. He's in control of
everything. Nothing keeps Him up at night.
There's plenty that keeps me up at night, but not God. God
sovereignly declares, for every beast of the forest is mine and
the cattle upon a thousand hills. And I know all the fowls of the
mountains and the wild beasts of the field. They're mine. And
then this is what he says to you and I. If I were hungry,
if, he not, if I was hungry, I would not tell you. For the
world is mine and the fullness thereof. Everything belongs to
God. He's not in need of anyone or
anything. You know, men today preach just
that. They preach today as if God needs man. That God requires
our assistance. that the Creator is dependent
upon His creatures. How can that be? How can that
be? God said, if I was hungry, I
wouldn't ask you. Why? Because the world is His.
And the fullness thereof is His. You can't help me, God said.
I need no help. God was before we ever came along. Men glorify Him not as God. That's the heart of the matter. That's always been the case since
the fall of man. Neither were they thankful, still
aren't. They became vain in their imaginations,
still are. And their foolish hearts were
darkened, still so. Unless he alone intervenes. Men are vain in their imaginations
because they've imagined God to be altogether different than
who He really is. And the reason for these vain
imaginations are every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart
is what? Only evil and only evil continually. Paul told the men on Mars Hill,
who ignorantly worshipped an unknown God. They had God set
up for everything. Plaques and statutes and just
man-made idols is all they were. And they got the one that said,
the unknown God. And they put this one up because
just in case they missed one. We think we got them all covered,
but in case we missed one, we got one here for the one we may
have missed. The unknown God. And Paul said,
that's the one I'm going to preach to you. And that's what I'm gonna
preach to you today. He's unknown to most, but not
to his people. He's the God of heaven and earth,
who does what he wills, when he wills, how he wills, and none
can stay his hand. In the armies of heaven, among
the inhabitants of earth, none can stay his hand. They're saying
to him, what doest thou? Paul said he's the God that made
the world and all things therein, seeing that he's the Lord of
heaven. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands. That's talking
about man's hand. You didn't build God a place
of worship. Neither is he. God worshiped
with men's hands. And we see a lot of that today.
waving in unison to the beat of the music. It ain't nothing
but show. That's all it is. Nothing but
show. He's not worshipped with men's
hands as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all, all
His people, all His chosen, life, breath, and all things. All things you need. He shall
supply all your need. Not greed, but need. and hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face
of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord."
Are you seeking the Lord? He alone can provide what you
need. And there's only one thing needful,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We make the gospel and we make
salvation much more difficult than it really is. What must
I do to be saved? Nothing you can do. Mary chose
the good part, the one thing needful. The Lord Jesus, she
sat at his feet. Tell me more, Lord. Tell me more. I need to hear more. Isaiah chapter two tells us exactly
why the religious world is in the shape that it's in today.
It's in a mess. It's in a mess. And more importantly,
it tells us what the Lord alone is gonna do about it. Verse 11,
again, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled. Might not be humbled, could be
humbled if you let go and let God. No, it shall be humbled. and the haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Verse 17, same thing. Allow me to emphasize the words,
the key words here. And the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." First things first,
three things I have to give you. First things first, that being
man's lofty looks and personal Self-righteousness, whatever
you want to call it. Loftiness is all it is. The haughtiness,
a proud look of men is the first thing mentioned in our text.
And it's also the first thing on a list of things that God
hates. A proud look. God hates it. God
hates a proud look. Lofty is defined as an imposing
height. an exalted view of an exalted
nature. It means proud, it means arrogant,
it means self-important, one who is self-confident and high-minded. In Mark chapter seven, the Lord
described pride as an evil thing that comes from within man. He said, it's not what goes into
a man's mouth that defiles him, it's what comes out. It's what's
in there already. Out of his heart, that's what
devours him. That which comes out of the heart. The haughtiness
of man is also described as something or someone that is overly elevated. It speaks of highness. You know,
I find it funny, this is especially particular among men, but you'll
ask someone, say, how tall are you? And he's always an inch
or two taller than he really is. Well, I'm 6'5". You may be 6'2". I used to be
6'3", but I'm not anymore, so I'm not going to tell anybody
that. Anyway, that's a whole other story. But the only thing
about sinful, fallen, and depraved men and women that's high and
elevated is their fallen nature within them. What an oxymoron
that is. How could one be elevated, lofty
and arrogant when they are at their lowest possible state? How could one dead be lofty? How could one sinful declare
themselves to be righteous? How could one lost believe that
they are saved? How could one profess to know
the Lord when the Lord doesn't know them? Secondly, the Lord, who will
not share his glory with another. You know God said that. Why do
men do it? God said, I'm not gonna share
my glory with another. You didn't do anything to deserve
any glory. I did it all, and I deserve all
the glory. God's not arrogant, God's God.
It all belongs, the glory all belongs to him. Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. As we saw
in the first hour, His name is His attributes, who He is, what
He's done. He's not going to share His glory
with another. He tells us in this verse, very
plainly and directly, the lofty are going to be humbled. They're
going to be bowed down. They're going to be brought low.
They're going to be made to stoop. That's what the word means. Humiliated. cast down, abased, and the Lord
alone is gonna be exalted. When the Jews were led away captive
into Babylon, the great men of Israel, there were some great
men in Israel, and that's speaking of men after men. Not great compared
to God, but great compared to men. We compare ourselves with men,
and that's how we come up with our assessment. But they were made to march across
the weary wilderness just like every other man in Israel. The
great men were. They had arms not only on their
hands and on their feet, but also on their souls. It was then
that the lockiness and haughtiness of their heart, their spirit
and soul bowed down. Bowed down. When God shows you
who and what you are, I mean really shows you, you're gonna
bow down. You're gonna bow down. And what
are you gonna do? You're gonna take sides with God against yourself. You're gonna say, you're right,
Lord. That's what I am. I'm a dog. Woman, the bread that I have
is only for the lost sheep of Israel. She said, yeah, Lord,
you're right on that. Not fit to be given to dogs,
she said, yeah, that's exactly right, I'm a dog. But dogs get
the crumbs from the table. You'll become a dog if you can
get God's crumbs. I'm a... The reason that Israel
was brought into Babylonian captivity in the first place was their
disobedience caused by their ignorance, caused by their pride,
caused by their idolatry. It was God that brought this
bondage upon them. Bondage and slavery is a wonderful
leveler, if I can use that word, lofty and haughty man or woman. You know, just like very often
in the Old Testament Scriptures, God would send a famine. Famine
was a great leveler. It put everybody on the same
level. Hungry, thirsty, in desperate need. That's what all God's people
are or see that they are. That's what every man is, but
God only shows it to some. And today God sends another type
of famine, not a famine of bread, he said, or a thirst for water,
but a famine of what? Hearing the words of the Lord. There's a real famine going on
here. The bringing about of humility is a proud man or woman is a
great token to, let me say that, bringing about of humility to
a proud man or woman is a great token of God's grace to them. You know, it really is. It may
be painful, it may be difficult, but it's a great grace. He's
lifting up the lowly and he's casting down the proud. I hear
men say, today, you know what? What's going on in this world?
What's going on? Even believers say, what is God
doing? Whatever He wills. He's lifting
up the lowly and He's bringing down the proud. That's exactly
what He's doing. From the king upon His throne
to the pauper, the beggar, on the dunghill. You know what a
dunghill is, don't you? The Lord brings low and lifts
up. While the king's heart is in
the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water, he turneth it
whithersoever he will. Proverbs 21.1. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust. And he, God, lifted up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them,
listen to the language of Scripture, and to make them Inherit the
throne of glory, for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's. And He has set the world upon
them. Who has? God has. You haven't. You haven't
set nothing on nothing. Where is the King's heart? It's
in the hand of the Lord. Who raises the beggar from the
dumb? The Lord alone. The Lord alone. Men and women alike in the matters
of religion and all their dealings with God are proud, haughty,
arrogant, lofty, and in the worship of false gods, men will shamelessly,
as they did with the prophet, they'll cut themselves with knives,
they'll roll themselves in the mire, they'll kneel down to a
dead statue, inanimate statue, And pride's got to be removed when
it comes to dealing with the true God, the majestic God of
heaven and earth, a worm, a maggot in the dust. Should he thank
himself to be great? Well, I'm the greatest maggot
there ever was. It just don't sound right, does
it? You don't have anything to brag
about, you're a maggot. How can mankind, a mass of corruption,
that's what the scripture says we are, imagine themselves to
be good. There's no salvation, now listen
to me, there's no salvation at all for fallen sons and daughters
of Adam except that they come to God as a sinner. You've got
to come to God as a sinner. That's what you are. You've got
to come to God with need. Poor and needy. Poor and needy. And if you're not a sinner, now
listen, there is nothing in the Bible for you. I had a man one time several
years ago now, He said, well, I want you to tell me what you
believe. I said, well, I want to ask you a question first.
Do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God? The unadulterated
Word of God? And he said, no. I said, I don't
have nothing to tell you. I don't. If you're not going to believe
God's Word, then I don't have any comfort to give you. No, sir. If you're not a sinner,
according to this book, You're nothing I have for you. Christ
came into the world to save who? Sinners. Sinners. Those who are well have no need
of a physician. Who then gets the great physician?
The sin-sick sinner. If you're a sin-sick sinner,
I got something for you. That's who Christ came saying.
There's not a complimentary word to human nature in this book
from cover to cover. There's not. Sinful man says things like,
I know that I'm not perfect, but I do my best to treat people
good, performing random acts of kindness. I volunteer. I do community service. I support
others in need. You know, I recently read an
article that was titled, What Makes People Do Good Things?
And I was kind of interested, because the first thing I thought
was, eh, there's no good people. Well, how can a wretch, a worm,
do something good? Maybe this person can tell me.
He couldn't. He couldn't. The article went
on to try to answer that question. The answers were to feel good
about myself. I do good things to feel good
about myself. Well, you don't need any help
there. One said to appreciate our rewards. You don't get any reward. Christ
is the believer's reward. That's all you get and that's
all you need. Another said, I do good things
hoping good things will happen to me. And the article went on to say
in a nutshell, good people do good things. In whose eyes? Other men or God? That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible declares there is none that doeth good. None good, no,
not one. It puts a stamp on it, and it
adds, no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. Puts a stamp on it, none, not
a single one. There's none righteous, and the
same stamp's added, no, not one. Well, brother, if I understand
the Bible, stop right there. God says there's none that understand.
They are all gone, out of the way. That being God's way, which
is Christ who is the way. Well, how could you say that,
preacher? I didn't. God did. I'm not gonna take the
credit for it. God said that. We're all together
become unprofitable. Why are we unprofitable? To be
profitable is not unprofitable. That's not very flattering. Well,
why won't you tell me something that makes me feel good about
myself? You'll never have any need for
Christ if you only think about the good things that you supposedly
do. We don't need flattery. We're
too lofty and high on ourselves now. Well, preacher, I disagree. I may not be perfect, but basically
I'm a good person. You've heard it all before. Are
you? Who told you that? Who told you that you were good?
Oh, you convinced yourself, didn't you? What does God say in His
Word about you? He said your throat is an open
sepulcher, grave. From your throat and tongues
flows poison. Your mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Your feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
your way. The way of peace you have not
known. You know, it was a common thing
when I was growing up in high school and all, people hold up
two fingers and go, peace, you know, peace, peace. They cry, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. There's no peace the way you
and I are trying to obtain it by nature. So are these the good
things that you speak of and stand on? If it is, they don't
hold water. There's no fear of God before
your eyes if that's the case. You do not fear to look to yourself,
within yourself, into anything but Christ for salvation. That's the case with a believer.
There's no fear of God before my eyes. Oh, there is. I'm afraid
to look anywhere but to Him for my salvation. Now we, that being every saved
sinner, knows that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that this is the result of trying
to keep God's law to be saved. Every mouth is going to be stopped. And all the world, everyone in
it, is going to become guilty before God. Therefore, by the
deeds of the law shall there no flesh be justified in his
sight, for the law is the knowledge of sin." Now, men try to justify
one another. You're all right, I'm all right,
we're all all right. That's not what God said. Not
what God said. To think that you can keep God's
law in full, to believe that you can keep God's law perfectly,
is to be lofty, haughty, and lost. And only the Lord alone
can save. The Lord alone. No one but Him. Now my third and final point
is just that. The Lord alone can save. The Lord alone can save. The
Lord alone can forgive your sin. The Lord alone can make you righteous.
The Lord alone can give life. And the Lord alone is exalted
because of all those things. Why should that surprise us?
That's the teaching in this book from Genesis to Revelation. Cover to cover. Mr. Spurgeon
once said, God compares His Word in one place to a hammer and
another place to fire. Why are the two put together?
There's some rocks that after a line of fire representing the
Holy Spirit has crossed them, they easily crack when a hammer
hits. But when the hammer of God's
conviction and God's justice comes upon a cold, dead, heart
frozen with despair and guilt, before it'll truly break the
fire of the Holy Spirit as God's love and mercy and grace with
the hammer of the gospel truth and that hardened heart is struck
and it just falls to pieces. What a picture that is of you
and I that are saved by God's grace. It's then by the power
of God that man's stubborn will is busted to pieces, broken,
and God, He doesn't try to glue it back together. No, He gives
you a new heart. A new heart. And this is done
to break down the loftiness of man, the haughtiness of man.
If the deeds of God's mercy do not humble a man, the deed of
God's justice will certainly do so. They're condemning. There are some who've never humbled
themselves and bowed to the Lord Christ to be their only hope.
But thank God some have. Thank God He saw fit to cause
some to do so. Now, if that's you, please hear
me on this. I'm almost finished. If you will not come down by
grace, you will come down in judgment. And the sad thing about that
is it'll be too late. You will be humbled if not to
repentance, then to remorse. If not to a hopeful conversion,
knowing that Christ did for you what you cannot do, then in hopeless
despair when you stand before God and He says, depart from
Me, I never knew you. You're a worker of iniquity.
And you don't get in. You don't get in this door. Why is this so? Because the Lord's
gonna be exalted. He's gonna be glorified in your
salvation or in your condemnation, either way. God knows how to
humble the proud. Remember Nebuchadnezzar? And
God knows how to get honor to himself alone. Remember Pharaoh? For thou art great and doest
wondrous things. Thou art God. To him who alone doeth great
wonders, for his mercy endureth forever. Psalm 136, folks. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and heaven. Psalm 148, 14. Thou art the God,
even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made
heaven and earth. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
and He that formed thee from the womb. I am the Lord that
maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that
spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." God said, where were
you when I formed the heavens and the earth? Where were you?
How's our salvation accomplished? I bet you can answer it. By the
Lord alone. The Lord said, I've trodden the
winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me, for I
will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury,
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment, Isaiah 63. The Lord reminds us that
He is God, and He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not
left me alone, our Lord said. For I do always the things that
please Him." That's still alone. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Three in one. What kind of man
and woman believe these things? Well, I'll tell you who it ain't.
It won't be the lofty and haughty men and women. Not unless or until they're made
and brought low. And only God can do it. The Lord
alone can do that. Not unless they're made to bow
and made to be humble. Now in closing, I want you again
to look at verse 17 here in our text. And the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Verse 18, and the
idols he shall utterly abolish. There won't be any more idolatry
in that day when the Lord makes you humble. Verse 19, and look,
and they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves
of the earth for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His
majesty when He arises to shake terribly the earth. When the
Lord pours out His wrath and His vengeance upon those that
He did not make humble and bring low, all who He left to themselves,
to them, He's going to be a consuming fire. And before His glory, they're
not going to be able to stand. Verse 20, A man shall cast his idols of
silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for
himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats." Oh, me. They're going to cast
away their idols, they're going to throw them in the holes that
moles make, and they're going to throw them into the caves
where the bats dwell. Because they're no use, they're
no good. And this day is coming quick,
my friend. I think of Joshua's word, choose
this day whom you'll serve. That's what I'm telling you right
now. Choose this day whom you're going to serve. We're left with a divine revelation
given to proud and lofty men who are full of themselves. It's
found in verse 22. Very instructive. says, cease
ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein
he is to be accounted of. Now, looking into this a little
bit, this man speaks of Antichrist. I said this in a recent message,
not that Antichrist in the end times, People are deceived to
worship and show signs. This is speaking. There's many
antichrists. This is speaking to each of us
individually. This refers to every man and
woman of sin. You're antichrist. If you are
not for Christ, you're against him. You're antichrist. mere
men, sinful men, proud men and women, lofty and arrogant men
and women, poor, frail, mortal men, men who sit in their own
temple, their own frail bodies, as if they are God themselves,
showing themselves to be God, talking to themselves, that which
belongs to deity. You can convince yourself of
about anything. You know what? Cease from this
man. Meaning cease from yourself.
Cease from your will. Cease from your work. Cease from
your way. For man is alive today and tomorrow
he's not. How often do we see that? There's a great reason that he
is therefore accounted as nothing. Only those found in the exalted
Christ, Lord of Lords. will be exalted and accounted
as righteous and holy. Why? For the Lord alone is the only
one in whom a sinner can be accepted and redeemed. Do you believe
that? Well, I rest my soul upon it, ain't I? We are accepted in Christ the
beloved for the Lord alone. has made Him to be our only hope
of salvation. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. He, the Lord Jesus, is the Lord
alone. Amen. Amen.