Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2. The title of
this message is the Lord alone shall be exalted. The Lord alone
shall be exalted. I told someone before who would
ask me what I'm preaching and I said we emphasize that word
alone. the Lord alone shall be exalted."
And of course what we're talking about there is the glory of God. The glory of God. Everything
in creation, everything in God's good providence, His governance
of this world, everything in salvation, and even everything
in condemnation, is for the glory of God under the praise of His
glory and salvation under the praise of the glory of His grace. Now in this passage that I want
to just read through some passages here beginning at verse 6 of
Isaiah chapter 2 the prophet Isaiah is preaching the glory
of God in the condemnation of Judah and Jerusalem. It's an
amazing thing. God's bringing his judgment down
upon the people for their sin and their unbelief and their
idolatry. You see, God must punish sin. Most people don't understand
this. It is the, listen, it is the glory of God to punish sin. You see God's punishing of sin.
And the manifestations of God's wrath and judgment against sin
is not God being mean. It is not God throwing a temper
tantrum. It is not God being unfair. It
is not God being unjust. It's His glory. He's a holy and
just and righteous God and He must punish sin. And the greatest
manifestation of that was the fact that he sent his son into
the world to die on a cross. Christ didn't die as a martyr.
He didn't just die as an expression of love or an example. He died
as a propitiation. That's the New Testament word
for it. Mercy seat would be in the Old Testament form. What
is that? It's a sin-bearing sacrifice
that satisfies the justice of God. That's what a propitiation
is. So here's Isaiah the prophet. His message to Israel, to Judah
here in Jerusalem, is not smile, God loves you. His message to the people here
is not, oh, you've just made some mistakes, but God's such
a loving God, and He wants to save you, but you just won't
let Him. That is not the message of this book, folks. And I'm
not saying that just to be mean or critical. It's just so. He's
saying God's gonna punish this nation for their sin. God's gonna
give them what they deserve. You know, when God saves a sinner,
He doesn't give what that sinner deserves. That's mercy, that's
grace. When God loves a sinner, he doesn't
give that sinner what he deserves. It's mercy, it's grace. But when
God punishes sin and sinners, he's given exactly what we've
earned. And that's why I pray all the time and why you should
pray too. Lord, don't ever give me what I've earned. Don't give
me what I deserve. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. That's what you earn. If I have
salvation, it is a free, sovereign gift of His grace. Period. And I want to tell you something.
I'll put it, and I say this to put things in perspective. I
say this on the television program. I say it here in the pulpit because
I want people to see these things in perspective. You know, I was
preaching up in Ashland, Kentucky, a sermon similar to this, and
a fella called in and said, what's that preacher done? He thinks
he deserves hell. He must be a real bad fella and
all that. He must be doing something secretly.
Now here's what I want you to understand. If God were to judge
me right now while I'm preaching this sermon out of his book and
give me what I deserve, it would still be damnation. You say,
that doesn't sound fair. Oh my soul, it's fair. You say,
well, I don't understand that. Well, hold on and listen to the
word of God. Listen to what Isaiah says. Let me just read through
these verses. He says in verse six, therefore thou hast forsaken
thy people, the house of Jacob. Now he's talking about physical
Israel here under the old covenant. And he says, God's forsaking
them. That's according to the terms of the old covenant. That
was a conditional covenant that was based upon Israel's obedience
and Israel failed. So God forsakes them. He's giving
them what they deserve. Now, before we go any further,
understand that we're no better than them. We are no better. Don't look down and say, well,
those dirty Israelites, we would have done better. Oh no, we've
been just right. Listen, we would have failed
too. We have failed. If salvation
is conditioned on me or you, we'll fail. I had a fellow tell me one time,
he says, well, I'm no longer a sinner. And I said, well, let
me ask you this. I said, if we could just record
all of your thoughts throughout one day and flash them on a screen,
would you stay in the building? Do you realize that sin is to
come short of the glory of God? Well, what is the glory of God?
Well, hold on. Now, he says, you know, Jeremiah went this
far later on when Israel was about to go into captivity. He
said, God has written you a bill of divorcement. God's divorced
himself from you. Now, that's why we're not saved
under the terms of the old covenant. We're saved under the terms of
the covenant of grace, not conditioned on us, but conditioned on Christ.
And you know what God says to us? He says, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. No matter
what. And somebody says, well, that
means I can go out and sin as much as I want to. No, it doesn't
mean that. God's grace is not just in saving
us by the righteousness of His Son. And God's grace is not just
in what we claim in our doctrine. God's grace is a powerful principle
and dynamic of life. But I'll tell you what, we still
fail. I fail every day. I'm a sinner saved by grace. And God tells me, He said, I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Weren't
there times that he told the nation Israel he wouldn't forsake
them? Yes, but that was within his purpose of time within the
context of the Old Covenant until things changed. And when did
things change? It's called the Reformation in
Hebrews 9, and that's not talking about Calvin and Zwingli and
Huss. That's talking about when Jesus Christ came into the world.
Then it changed, didn't it? Remember the veil was ran into
from top to bottom? That means that Old Covenant
was over. Here's a new age. He tells the people of his grace
in Christ, I'll never leave you now. No, no forsaken David, even
under the old covenant, he looked his, he knew his salvation. King
David knew that his salvation was according to the terms of
a covenant of grace. And here's how he prayed in Psalm
37, 25. He said, I've been old, I've been young, now I'm old,
yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging
bread. Now, who are the righteous there?
That's sinners saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of
Christ, and clothed in his righteousness imputed. I count. You see, how's a sinner made
righteous? Not by his works, not by his
decision, not by his baptism, by the blood of Christ. You say,
I don't believe that. Well then why did you sing that
song we just got through singing? What can wash away my sins? What's
the next word? Nothing except what? The blood
of Jesus. I'm telling you, my preaching
cannot wash away my sins. My prayers cannot wash away my
sins. My tears of remorse and sorrow cannot wash away my sins.
Only the blood of Christ can wash away the sins of a sinner.
And nothing else. All of this to the praise of
the glory of His grace. God must and will punish sin
where sin is imputed. Where sin is charged. That's
right. 1 Corinthians 15, 56. Listen
to this. The sting of death is sin. In
other words, why do we die? It's the punishment for sin.
And the strength or the power of sin to condemn is the law. The law of God demands perfection.
I don't have it, but I know who does. I know where to find it. I don't have righteousness. You're
not going to find it in me. And if you do, your measure of
righteousness is way lower than what it ought to be. I know where to find righteousness.
Where? Romans 10, 4. Christ is the end,
the fulfillment, the finishing, the perfection of the law for
righteousness to everyone who believes. You see, my righteousness
is not even in my believing. It's not. God doesn't accept
my faith in place of righteousness. If he did that, he wouldn't have
had to send his son to accomplish righteousness by his death. My
faith is in Christ, the Lord my righteousness. Now look at
verse six again. He says, therefore thou hast
forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they replenished
from the east. They got their strength, not
by looking to God, but by looking to other nations. They put their
trust in man, not God. And they're soothsayers like
the Philistines. They deal in dreams, visions,
horoscopes. In other words, they're not depending
on the word of God. Just like I've told you, I saw
the sign outside of a church one time up in West Virginia,
and it said, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. That's wrong.
Here's what it should say, God said it, that settles it. Whether
you believe it or not, I hope you do, I hope I do. But God
said it, that settles it. I don't have to look in a crystal
ball, I don't have to go to Oprah Winfrey, I don't have to go to
the stars, I don't have to go to God's word. And they please
themselves in the children of strangers, that's foreigners.
In other words, they find their happiness in their alliances
with idolaters. Verse seven. Their land is also
full of silver and gold. That's literal silver and gold. Their hope is in their riches.
Neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land is also
full of horses. Horses back then was a sign of
wealth and strength and power. Remember, God told them that
the king of Israel should not multiply unto himself horses. In other words, the king of Israel
was to be the leader of the nation to lead the people to look for
strength in God and not in horses and chariots and vast armies. He said, is there any end of
their chariots? Verse eight, their land also is full of idols.
They worship the work of their own hands. Anytime a person believes
salvation is conditioned on himself, you know what he's doing? He's
worshiping the work of his own hands. that which their own fingers
have made, verse 9, and the mean man boweth down, that is, the
average person, the great man humbleth himself, that's the
prince of the land, therefore forgive them not. They've rejected
God's way of salvation by grace through Jesus Christ. If you
reject God's way of salvation by grace through Jesus Christ,
there is no forgiveness for you, for me or anybody. Christ is
the one way of salvation. Christ is the one way of forgiveness. Christ is the one way of righteousness. And let me say this. Preachers
can talk about the love of God till they're blue in the face,
and I love to talk about the love of God. But here's what
the Bible teaches. Outside of Christ, there is no
love from God. That's so. Verse 10, enter into
the rock and hide thee in the dust. Now, a lot of preachers
say, well, he's talking about Christ there because Christ is
the rock of our salvation. But that's not what he's talking
about here. What he's saying to these people, you can run,
but you can't hide. You can run, but you cannot hide.
For fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty. You cannot
hide from the glory of God either in condemnation or in salvation. And he says in verse 11, the
lofty looks of man shall be humbled and the haughtiness of man, that's
pride, shall be bowed down. Look here, and the Lord alone
shall be exalted in that day. In the day of his wrath and vengeance,
God will be glorified. He will be lifted up, exalted. He will be made high. His reputation
will not be tarnished. God will still be God. God will
be in his majesty. He says in verse 12, for the
day of the Lord of hosts, that's the Lord of a great army that
cannot be defeated, shall be upon everyone that is proud and
lofty and upon everyone that is lifted up and he shall be
brought low. Man lifting himself up in pride.
One of the first examples. A man being lifted up in pride
was a man named Cain. You remember him? And what did
he do? He brought the works of his hands
to the Lord to be saved, to be blessed, to be accepted. And
God rejected him. One of the first examples of
humility, Abel. What did he do? He came as a
sinner seeking mercy, bringing the blood of a lamb, which was
a symbol, a type, a picture, of Christ, the Messiah to come,
the Lamb of God. Here's what Abel was saying,
Lord, I have no right to earn or to deserve anything of your
mercy. Lord, I'm a sinner. I have no
hope. I'm at your mercy. I plead the
blood of the Messiah, the seed of woman. And Cain came saying,
well, I've worked hard enough. I've done enough. It ought to
be accepted. And God said, absolutely not. What Cain did, did not equal
righteousness. What Abel did, did equal righteousness. Not in Abel, but in the Lamb,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So they're going to be brought
low. He says in verse 14, upon all the high mountains and upon
all the hills that are lifted up, that's idolatry, high mountains
and hills. In the Old Testament under the
old covenant, that's a symbol of idolatry. Upon every high
tower and upon every fenced wall their defenses won't work, won't
shield them from the wrath of God. Upon all the ships of Tarshish
and upon all pleasant pictures." What he's talking about there
is the pictures of desire it has in your concordance. In other
words, whenever they seek help in their mercantile trade, the
ships of Tarshish and all that, and all those goods coming in,
all those imports, and all that they love, won't help them. Verse
17, the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, the haughtiness
of men shall be made low, the Lord alone shall be exalted in
that day. There it is again, the Lord alone
shall be exalted. He says in verse 18, the idols
shall be utterly abolished. 19 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 ariseth to shake
terribly the earth they're gonna you can't you can run but you
can't hide that's again he's emphasizing it verse 20 in that
day 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 they're going to see there's no hope in those
idols In verse 21, to go into the clefts of the rocks and into
the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and for
the glory of his majesty. You see, God's still glorified
in all this. Again now, this is not God throwing
a temper tantrum. This is not God out of control.
This is not God being unjust or unfair. And he says in verse
22, now here's the bottom line. Cease ye from man whose breath
is in his nostrils. What does that mean? That means
stop looking to, trusting in, depending upon man. Whose breath
is in his nostrils, what about his breath in his nostrils? Here
today, gone tomorrow. Isn't that right? Take your next
breath. Where'd that come from? Well,
I earned that, I deserved that, I've worked hard. That was a
gift from God that you just breathed in. What'd Hannah say in her
prayer? The Lord killeth, the Lord maketh
alive. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's right. That next heartbeat, God gave
it to you. You didn't earn it, you didn't
deserve it, neither did I. Stop putting your trust in man.
Quit man. And then the last line he says
there, for wherein is he to be accounted of? What account is
he? What value is he? Now listen to me. He's talking
about, if I'm going to avoid the wrath of God, and if I'm
going to receive and enjoy the blessings of God, salvation,
Stop trusting man, what worth is he? What good can he do me? Nothing. What is his account? In other words, you cannot save
me. And I cannot save you. So why
in the world I can't save myself? You can't save yourself. Why
are you putting your trust in it? Cease from man. Now in this
matter of salvation, here's what I'm telling you, rest assured,
God's gonna be glorified. Not only that, He alone, God
alone shall be glorified. What is the glory of God? What
is the glory of God exactly? How do you glorify God? You look
up and pray, throw a little dirt up in the air or what? I mean,
how do you do that? What is that all about? The glory
of God is the majesty, the honor, the revelation of both who He
really is and what He does. That's the glory of God. Who
is God? How do we know who God is? God
is as he reveals himself in this word. In other words, whatever
this word says about God, this is God's self-revelation of himself. God is describing in this book
from Genesis to Revelation who he is exactly. And what you see
in that revelation is this. And he describes here what he
does, his workings. And that's His glory. And what
you see in this is there's no one, nothing like God. He is
unique. In fact, there's nothing to even
compare with God. You know, we talk about the Trinity.
The Bible reveals God in the Trinity of His persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. And here's the bottom line to
that. We cannot explain that. And I've heard people say, well,
to me it's like water, steam, and ice. No. That would be one
God in three forms. The Trinity is not one God in
three forms. It's one God in three persons.
There is nothing that we can say or illustrate to describe
it and explain it. But you know what? That's okay,
isn't it? Such knowledge, Jobim said that
about providence, such knowledge is too high for me. Aren't you
glad you have a God you cannot explain? If you can explain him
and perceive him in those areas now, I'm not talking about what
he reveals of himself in salvation, because he tells us what that,
but if we could explain or perceive him in the glory and majesty
of his nature, He wouldn't be God, he'd be human. The glory
of God is the revelation and honor of his attributes. When
he brings judgment down upon sin, what is he doing? He's revealing
the majesty and the glory and honor of his justice, his righteousness,
his truth. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Yes, he will. God must punish
sin. If He didn't punish sin, He wouldn't
be God. His reputation would be tarnished.
His honor would be diminished. But He won't do that. God is
faithful to both His promises and His threats. That's right. If you don't have Christ, for
example, for salvation, you will die in your sins. Know what the
scripture says? God's faithful to that. He has
to be. God will not look over your sins. God will not pass
by them. He will not forget that they
ever happened. God must punish sin, either in
me and you or in the person of a God-appointed, qualified, and
willing substitute and there's only one God appointed substitute
there's only one able substitute there's only one willing substitute
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ who is in his glory God in human
flesh that's who Jesus Christ is. His name shall be called
what? Emmanuel which being interpreted
is God with us So to deny his deity or his humanity without
sin is the opposite of glorifying him. He's God. I mentioned this this morning
on the television program you were talking about, Robert, on
how righteousness comes. What is the main issue in God's
glory? A lot of people today would tell
you whether it's his love and his mercy. Oh no. Now listen
to me. And understand what I'm saying
and don't misquote me. Whenever we preach the gospel
of God's grace in Christ, we're preaching the love of God to
his people. We're preaching the mercy of God. We're preaching
the grace of God. But the main issue in his glory
is not love. The main issue in his glory is
righteousness. Righteousness. You see, God can
be righteous without love. That's what he's saying here.
When he brings his wrath down upon those who deserve it, he's
going to be exalted. But God cannot be loving without
righteousness. Did you know that? His holiness. What is that? That means he's
set apart. It means he's unique. God is a God of love. How do
you know that? God sent forth his son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. Herein is love, not that we love God. It wasn't God's
response to our love. It was God being the first cause
of love to his elect. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and what? Sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. You see, when God loves, it must
be in righteousness. When God shows grace, it must
be in accordance with righteousness. Romans 5, 21, as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life to everyone that believe it through Jesus Christ.
You see, God's love in Christ provides what his righteousness
demands. And that's what God requires.
God requires righteousness. How in the world can we meet
up to that measure? We can't. We've all sinned and
come short of what? The glory of God. We've missed
the mark. Romans 3.10, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. That's in God's
measure now. We're not talking about how we
see each other and how we relate and deal with each other. We're
talking about how God sees us. You see, in salvation, our problem
is not how we look at each other, but it's how does God see us?
I have to be righteous to be accepted with God. Where am I
going to find that? Not in myself, not in the church,
not in ceremonies, not in religion, I'll find it only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why Jeremiah two times
called him Jehovah Sid Canoe, the Lord, our righteousness. How does he provide righteousness
for sinners? Well, the main issue in the glory
of God is righteousness. The main issue in righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over at second Corinthians
chapter five. And we could go to a number of
scriptures on that. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and look at verse 21. Now what the Apostle Paul is
doing in this chapter under inspiration of the Holy
Spirit is he is describing both the nature and character of the
gospel ministry and the content of the gospel ministry, what
needs to be preached in the gospel ministry. He described it another
time back in Romans 1, but you stay at 2 Corinthians 5 there.
Remember Paul said in Romans 1.16, he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and the salvation
unto everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and the Greek
also. Verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
From faith to faith, from the content of faith, the gospel,
to saving faith given by God, faith the gift of God, to believe
in Christ. For it is written the just or
the justified shall live by faith. And then he, over in Romans 3,
he describes what that righteousness of God is. It's the obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, look at how
God does this in verse 21. He's talking about sinners being
reconciled to God. Now what does that mean? That
means believing the gospel. And here it is, he says in verse
21, For he, he there is God the Father, hath made Him, God the
Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. Christ was made sin. How? By God charging, accounting the
debt of the sins of His people to Christ. That's called Christ-suretyship. He's our surety. In other words,
from before time, He agreed with the Father to take my sins upon
Himself and become responsible to pay my debt. That's imputation. My sin imputed to Christ. Christ
who knew no sin, He was not a sinner, did not become a sinner, was
not corrupted, but He did all of this that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Now how am I made the righteousness
of God? His merits, His value, The merit
of his obedience unto death is imputed, charged, accounted to
me. I stand before God in Christ. I'm washed in his blood. What
does that mean? That means his death satisfied God's justice
for my sins. I'm clothed in his righteousness.
I'm justified before God. And let me tell you something.
I didn't have anything to do with it. He did it all. If I'd had anything to do with
it, it would have failed. Even at my best. The best works of men, at their
best moments, in their best times, cannot equal righteousness. Only Christ. You see? Now in that way, the Lord alone
is exalted in the salvation of his people. And whenever God
the Holy Spirit brings us to see that and bow to it, as Paul
wrote in Romans 10, to be submitted to the righteousness of God,
to be submitted to Christ, you know what happens? That's when
we cease from man. That's right. That's when we
learn that man's works are of no account. Now the Bible says
everybody's going to give an account before God. Doesn't it
say that? What is my account before God? Paul wrote it in Philippians
3, and let me just conclude with it. He said that I may know Him,
Christ, and be found in His righteousness, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but His righteousness, that which He
has accomplished on Calvary for my sins in His obedience unto
death. being found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which
is in him. When I stand before God, here's
my account. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
this is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.