All right, Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah has a vision, and his
vision that he's writing of here in chapter 2 is a vision of the
church in the last days. He had a vision of us now, and
he tells us here how God's going to build his church. Now, verse
1, he says, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem. Now that beginning phrase just
really struck me. The word that Isaiah saw. You
don't see a word. You hear a word. But Isaiah says
he saw it. And the word that he's speaking
of here is the commandment. It's the law. Isaiah saw the
law of faith. He saw the law of justification
by faith. And it's that law of faith that
God uses to build his church. It's the law of faith, the law
of justification by faith that God uses to establish his church
so that it won't be moved. See, if we're under the law of
faith, we're looking to Christ, right? Well, that's how God builds
his church, by us looking to Christ. And he goes on to describe
that established church here in verse 2. It shall come to
pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established in the top of the mountains. and shall be
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it."
Now, when Isaiah is talking here about in the last days, he's
talking about us here now. He's talking about all those
days since Christ ascended back on high. All those were the last
days. And these are the days that Isaiah
saw 700, 800 years before Christ was born. And he says in those
last days, the church is going to be established. It'll be fixed. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. It's established, safe on top
of the mountain. So if you're going to move the
church, you're going to have to move the mountain first. That's
how established it is. And he says that God's church
is going to be exalted above the hills. Now, this is interesting. I got some help here. Mount Zion
is the smallest mountain in that range around Jerusalem. All the
other mountains are bigger. They all look down on Mount Zion.
Nobody thought Mount Zion was anything special. It was little
compared to everything around it. But God said it was special. He made it special. That's where
he establishes his church. Mount Zion is a picture of God's
church. And it's going to be exalted.
Right now, it's below all the other mountains. It's smaller
than all the rest of them. But it's going to be exalted
above all those other mountains. God's going to make his church
something to see. It's special because that's where
he dwells. Mount Zion is going to be exalted
above Mount Sinai. Now, the laws given at Mount
Sinai, the gospel is going to far exceed that in glory. Mount
Zion is going to be bigger and excel. Mount Carmel. Now, God
did some wonders at Mount Carmel, didn't he? Remember, that's where
Elijah met all those false prophets. He had them prepare the sacrifice. He had them cover with all the
water, dig a trench around it. And he prayed that great prayer.
And fire fell from heaven. Consumed the sacrifice. Consumed
the water. Consumed the altar. Consumed
everything. That's pretty spectacular. Mount
Zion is going to exceed that. The glory of the gospel. What
happened there is just a picture of Christ. Christ in person in
his church is going to far exceed that. The gospel of Christ will
be exalted above every other so-called religion. Now, I know
it's not that way today, but there's a day coming. Isaiah
is also seeing the last day, the day when Christ returns.
There's a day coming, everybody's going to see that, that Mount
Zion, the gospel, far exceeds every other so-called religion.
And this gospel day, the last days, people from all nations
are going to flow to this church that's established in the mountain.
People from every nation are going to be drawn to the church
through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They'll just flow
to it. They won't be able to help themselves.
They'll just flow to it. Water flows downhill, doesn't
it? You know why water does that?
Because that's the nature of water. It flows downhill. Can't
help it. God's people will flow to Christ. for the exact same reason. They've
got a new nature God gave them in the new birth, and they'll
flow to Christ. They won't be able to help it.
Now, it's not the nature of water to flow up the mountain, is it?
It's the nature of water to flow down. It's not the nature of
men to flow to Christ. So God gives his people a new
nature, and they just naturally flow to Christ. They can't help
it. They're not going to be driven.
They'll flow to Christ. And there's going to be many
of them. That's not going to be a trickle. There's going to
be many flowing to him, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles, too,
from all over the world. There'll be one fold and one
shepherd. They're going to all flow to
this one fold. At verse three, many people should
go and say, come ye, let's go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob, and he'll teach us of his ways.
And we'll walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth
the law. and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now, the
people you find in God's church, they preach the gospel. They
don't preach down to people. They preach to people. They say,
come ye, let's go together. Let's go to the Lord together.
We're all sinners in need of the Savior. Come ye, let's go
together. Let's go to Christ together.
It's not we preach, no, you all need Christ and you need to go.
I'll stay here. I'm just fine. You all go. No,
come ye. Let's go together. Let's go to
him together. The gospel is never the message
somebody else needs to hear. The gospel is always the message
I need to hear. I think about that every week.
I'm preparing these messages. This is not a message somebody
else needs to hear. This is what I need to hear. The gospel is
always for me. So let's go together. Let's go
to Christ together. We'll encourage and help and
strengthen each other along the way. Let's go together. And the
house of God is also called the house of Jacob. You see that?
The house of Jacob. What's that mean? God's church
is a place for sinners. God saves sinners. He saves Jacobs. Jacobs are the ones that flow
to Christ. And in the church, God communes
with his people by teaching them. God's the teacher. I love what
Brother John says. He said this once. It's stayed
with me forever. Christ is the teacher and Christ
is the lesson. That's what God teaches us. He
teaches us Christ. He teaches us what Christ has
done and teaches us what we ought to be doing. But what is it that
Christ has done? He's done it all. He's done everything. Well, what ought we to be doing?
Believe in Him, rest in Him, trust in Him. Christ teaches
us, and if He teaches us, He's the lesson and He's the teacher.
If He teaches us, we'll walk in His path. If He teaches us,
we'll preach His gospel. The gospel will sound out from
the people that God has taught Christ to. In verse 4, that place,
that God's church that He's established, it's a place of peace. And he
shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people,
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." In
God's church there is peace because the battle is over. The warfare
is finished because Christ has defeated every enemy. They are
all vanquished. Then we have peace. God has made
peace with God for his people. So they're at peace. I mean,
Christ made peace that lasts. They have peace. Peace with God. And God's elect don't even have
to learn to go to war against sin. They only have to learn
war. Sin's been paid for. It's been put away. Peace has
been made. When we got all these instruments
of war, what are we going to do with them? We're going to
turn them into farm instruments. We're going to turn our spears
into plows and into hoes and pruning hooks. And we're going
to go to firemen because we don't have to defend ourselves anymore.
Christ has made peace because when Christ enters the heart,
the war is over and we have peace. In verse five, O house of Jacob,
come ye, let's walk in the light of the Lord. Now, it is so pleasant
to walk in the light of the Lord when you feel like you have the
Lord's presence, he's lighting your path and you know the way
you ought to go. That means it's just so pleasant.
You have His presence, His light. Oh, it's so pleasant. Christ
is the way. He's the path. And He's the light
that lights the path, that shows the way. So come, let's walk
in Him. We'll do this together. We'll
walk in Him. But now there's a problem. Men
by nature won't walk in Christ. Men by nature don't want to live
in this city. They don't live in it and they
don't want to live in it. Look at verse 6, Therefore thou
hast forsaken my people, the house of Jacob, because they
were planted from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they pleased themselves in the children of strangers. Now
here's the fall of man. Adam was in the garden. Everything
is perfect. God took care of everything.
Perfect. But Adam rebelled against God. Adam forsook God. So God forsook him. Isn't that
right? Now, whose fault is this separation? When Adam fell, there
became a separation, a gulf between God and men that man cannot cross. Whose fault is that separation?
It's not God's fault. God didn't forsake us, then we
forsook him. It's the other way around, isn't
it? Man forsook God. So God forsook men. It's our
fault. But you know what God did? He
still gave us his oracles. He gave us his word. He gave
us the prophets and the apostles. He gives us pastors. But men
refuse to hear them. Men refuse to hear their message
and they turn to soothsayers. Now, they know they don't have
the answers, but rather than listen to the oracles of God,
they turn to soothsayers. People who say they can predict
the future and tell the signs and talk to ghosts and all these
things, you know, it's what Balaam did. Balaam is the preeminent
example of a false prophet in Scripture, and he sought the
rewards of divination. He sought the rewards of a soothsayer.
Men by nature won't follow the way of the Lord. They won't come
to Christ. Instead, they seek their own way. God's given us
His oracles, but we refuse those and seek our own way. Verse 7,
it's not that we're not religious. Their land also is full of silver
and gold. Neither is there any end of their
treasure. Their land is also full of horses, neither is there
any end to their chariots. God gives rest and eternal security
in Christ, just like God when Israel came in the promised land,
he gave them rest, he gave them security. But what did they do?
They sought out their own defenses, they sought out their own riches.
God gives rest in Christ and men seek rest and security in
the riches of the world. God told Israel when they came
into the Promised Land, I'm going to fight for you. In every battle,
I'll fight for you. But they'd write, he told them,
it was a commandment. Don't you gather up horses and
chariots. Don't do it. I'll fight for you. But what
did they do? Gathered up horses and chariots.
We'd rather have a bunch of horses and chariots as our defense rather
than have God fight for us. And I'm telling you, there's
no rest. There's no security in any of
that stuff. If you're seeking security and
riches, I'm telling you, I've seen this. You think you've got
security and riches. Boy, wouldn't you like to have
that perfect NCAA bracket had a billion dollars. Every one
of us would like to have it, but I'm telling you there's no
security in it. None. If Roland Browning had
won that billion dollars, come up, his wife's got cancer. No
security in it. He'd trade every penny of it.
No security in it. And no matter how much riches
you gather, it'll never be enough. Because you know somebody can
outspend you. You know something can happen
that could take it all. You'll never have enough. You
can seek security in horses and chariots all you want to. And
when you start seeking security in that stuff, you know what
you've done? You've entered into an arms race. It'll never be
enough. Somebody's always got more. In
the Cold War, we built enough nuclear weapons to destroy this
world a thousand times over. And what are we still doing?
Developing more. Because there's no security in
any of that. Men will trust in their own wealth to pay for sin,
and they'll never trust in the riches of God's mercy in Christ.
Men will trust in their own strength to keep the law. does trust in
their own strength to do what God requires, rather than rest
in the Mighty One of Israel who has accomplished it all. It is
their dead, depraved nature. Verse 8, Their land also is full
of idols. They worship the work of their
own hands, and that which their own fingers have made. And the
mean man bows down, and the great man humbleth himself. Therefore
forgive them not. God has revealed himself to us
as God. When the children of Israel came
into the promised land, they'd already been given the law. No
idols. God said, don't you have an idol,
don't you make a graven image, don't you bow down yourself to
it. Now the land's full of them. They're just everywhere, full
of idols. Why? God's revealed himself to
us as who he is. There's none beside him, a just
God and a savior. There's none to be compared to.
He's the sole object of worship, but man has filled our land with
idols. Man will never trust in the finished
work of Christ. But you know what we love? The
work of our own hands. Now, that's idolatry. Our problem,
typically speaking, is not bound down to a wood statue or ceramic
statue or something like that. Typically, that's not our problem.
Here's a problem. Trust in the works of our own
hands. Now, that's idolatry. Isn't it? It's just, oh, and
whether you're a great man or you're a mean man, a common man,
there's no difference. All men will not bow to Christ. They'll bow to a statue. You
know, they'll bow to the works of their own hands. They'll trust
in their own righteousness. They'll kiss the ring of a man,
but they'll never kiss the sun lest he be angry. Wrath is kindled
but a little." Now, that's just despicable. But that's what we
are by nature. This is what's happened to us
because of the fall of man. And it shouldn't surprise us.
God's not going to let that sin go unpunished. So, you'd better,
verse 10, enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust for
fear of the Lord, for the glory of his majesty. Now, we'd better
enter into Christ's rock. We'd better hide in Him. Because
God is coming to judge the earth. Isaiah saw this in his vision,
the end of time. God's coming to judge the earth.
And it's going to be a terrible sight. He's going to shake the
earth. And every sin, without exception, will be punished.
Every sin will be destroyed. And at that day, the only hiding
place from the overflowing scourge of God's wrath is going to be
Christ. Enter into the rock. Well, men won't do it by nature,
will they? So how's God going to build His
church? How's God going to establish His church in this mountain when
men won't come to it? How's God going to establish
His church and have men from every nation flow to it when
men by nature want to go the other way? How's the church going
to be at peace when all we love is war? When the car of mine
is enmity against God? How's God going to teach us when
our mind's dead? Our understanding is darkened.
How can we be taught when our understanding is darkened? I
can tell you how. By exalting Christ. The title
I've given this message is Church Building by Exalting Christ. And I'll tell you why I titled
it that way. Church Building by Exalting Christ.
Because men today are so interested in church building. They want
to build bigger crowds, bigger buildings, bigger everything,
you know. And they've got a lot of methods
to do it. Somehow, my name as pastor has gotten attached to
it, and I get advertisements. I got an advertisement of a seminar
somewhere, weekend, I don't remember where it is, but it's all weekend.
I mean, classes taking up the whole weekend. On church building. How to build your church. How
to get more people to come. You get somebody, you drag them
in the door, how are you going to get them to keep coming back?
Church building. They've got a lot of methods. I couldn't
believe all the classes of them. My goodness. Men today are so
interested in church building. But I've got a question. How
does God build his church? Now, if we can find that out,
maybe we ought to do it that way, don't you think? How does
God build his church? By exalting the Son, that's how
he does it. That's the one tool. That's the
only method. Exalting Christ. If we're going
to build up God's people, and the people of the church, never
mistake this building for the church. This building is not
the church. You all are the church. The people of God are his church. If we're going to build up God's
people, you know how we're going to do it? By exalting Christ. If I could be a soothsayer and
tell you the future, it'd just gum you up. It'd mess you up. You wouldn't do what you had
to do today if you knew what was going to happen in the future.
That's not going to build you up. But if God will enable me
from his word to exalt Christ, that'll build you up. How are
we going to call a loss to Christ? There's just one way. You're
not going to trick them. Exalt Christ. They'll come. They'll
flow to him. They won't be able to help it.
Now how are men going to give up their idols? How are they
going to give up their false religion? The land is full of
it. How are they going to give it up? How are they going to turn to Christ?
How are men going to give up all these things that they think
are their security and rest in Christ? How are men going to
be humbled enough? How are they going to be humbled? How is God going to break us
so that we quit trusting the work of our own hands and trust
in Christ? There's just one way. by exalting
Christ. Look at verse 11. 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.
Now man's view of himself is far too lofty. We see ourselves
as a whole lot bigger and a whole lot higher up than we really
are. And I tell you what, we'll get a right view of ourselves
when we see Christ exalted. When we see what Christ had to
suffer for sin, we'll be humble. Guaranteed. And man is too full
of himself. We're born too big for our britches.
We just refuse to bow. We're just so full of pride.
And I can tell you when that pride and that starch will be
taken out of a man. What will make us bow in the
dust? When we see King Christ exalted,
we'll bow. Every knee will bow. When we
see Christ high and lifted up, we'll bow. When we see Him as
the Sovereign, we'll bow. And you know, everything man
has to be proud of, and everything man sees that he should put his
trust in, when he sees Christ exalted, he'll see it for what
it is. He'll see it as nothing. Look at verse 12. For the day
of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and
lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be
brought low. and upon all the cedars of Lebanon
that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are
lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced
wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the
pleasant pictures. 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." Now, do you think
you're one of those tall stately cedars of Lebanon, one of those
giants. You're one of those big oaks
like Basian has. If you think you're that great
big oak, that cedar of Lebanon, when you see Christ high and
lifted up, you see yourself as you are. You'll say, oh, I'm
nothing but tumbleweed. You think you're one of those
tall mountains towering over Zion looking down on God's church?
When you see Christ exalted, you'll see, oh, I've made a mountain
out of a molehill. I'm just a bump in the road and
I've made myself a mountain. When I see Christ exalted, I'll
see I'm nothing. Are you one of those big painted
ships of Tarsus? They go and trade all over the
world, big ocean going trips, bring back items of trade, everything
the heart can desire. Once you see Christ exalted,
you'll want none of those things. They'll all lose their luster.
And a man will turn to God from his idols when he sees Christ
exalted. Look at verse 18. And the idols
he shall utterly abolish, 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 ariseth to shake
terribly the earth. And that day a man shall cast
his isles of silver and his isles of gold, which they made, each
one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to
go into the clefts of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged
rocks, for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." If you ever see Christ exalted,
those isles will be thrown away. We'll throw those idols into
the deepest, darkest hole we can find. Because we're ashamed
of ourselves. Ashamed we ever worshipped them.
And again, I'm not talking about a little figurine now. I'm talking
about our righteousness. That's what we worship. And we're
not throwing these things away because we're afraid we're going
to be caught with them in our possession. We'll want to get
rid of our righteousness as fast as we can. And rest in Christ
our righteousness. If by God's grace he ever lets
us see Christ exalted. And we'll quit trusting in the
will of man and the works of man and the power of man only
when we see Christ exalted. Look at verse 22. See she for
man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted
of. There is no reason to trust in man. I know we get impressed
with them, but there's no reason to be impressed with them or
trust in them. His breath is in his nostrils.
You notice he doesn't say his breath is in his lungs. You know,
the lungs, that seems, I've never seen them, so that seems kind
of impressive to me, how they keep filling up with air and
push out carbon dioxide. That seems pretty impressive.
Your nostrils are not too impressive. You know, it's just sticking
out there. It's just a puff of air in your nostrils. That's
your life. What separates a man's life from
death is a puff of air that's in his nostrils. Choke off that puff. That puff
of air you just took could be your last. That's all that separates
us. We're so weak and frail and insignificant. What are we to be accounted for?
When we die, what's the accounting going to be? It'll soon be forgotten. Just nothing. And the only way
I'll ever know that is if I see Christ exalted. Because until
I see Christ exalted, I'm going to think too much of myself.
I'm going to think I'm something special until I see myself in
comparison to Christ exalted. And if we see Christ exalted,
we're going to cease from trusting in man, and we're going to trust
in Christ alone. If we see Christ exalted, we're
going to quit the ways of man, which are death, and we're going
to rest in the life of Christ. And if I see Christ exalted,
I'm going to see, I'm going to understand my physical life. Now, I'd kind of like to, you
know, take care of it, but it's nothing more than a puff of air
in my nostrils. So I'm going to quit putting
an excessive amount of effort into my flesh. I'm going to put
some more effort and more devotion into worship and some more effort
into seeking Christ, because no matter how good a care I take
care of this flesh, one day a puff of air is going to be held from
it and it's going to die. But Christ won't. What's in Christ
never will. Now these fallen sinners that
we've read about, they're the people that God uses to make
up his church. He builds his church with these
people. Now do you see how they got into God's church? There's
a phrase that's repeated here twice in this chapter. The Lord
alone shall be exalted in that day. Verse 11 and verse 17, the
Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. That's how God builds
his church. In the day that God builds his
church, he does it by Christ alone being exalted. And I want
to give you just a few days that the Lord is talking about here.
I don't know if I should tell you this. There's 13 of them.
It won't take long. I've done all this to get to
these points. It won't take very long, I promise.
Christ alone was exalted in the day before creation. Before creation
wasn't Christ daily the delight of his father, the glory of that
time. Lucifer tried to arise in competition. He was put down. Christ alone
was exalted in that day. Secondly, Christ alone was exalted
in the day of creation. All things were made by him and
for him. Without him was not anything
made that was made. And creation was made so that
the glory of Christ could be seen. That was God's purpose
in creation, that the glory of Christ could be seen. And in
creation, we see God's wisdom. We see his power. We see the
beauty of his creation. What we see is beautiful. I mean,
it's marvelous and it's still beautiful. We see the power of
Christ. He governs his creation and holds
it together by the word of his power. Christ alone is exalted
in creation. That's why rebels have to come
up with this theory of evolution. They can't stand Christ being
exalted. Christ alone being exalted. So
they come up with this theory of evolution. But Christ alone
is exalted in the day of creation. Christ alone, thirdly, was exalted
in the day of the fall. Now you might ask, that's a horrible
day. How was Christ alone exalted
in the fall of man? Because man was not destroyed. He was not obliterated when Adam
fell. You know why? Christ already
stood as the Savior of sinners. Man fell and man spiritually
died, but he was not obliterated because God had already provided
life in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and man never would have
known that. unless Adam fell. And God came
and promised, the seed of woman is going to come and crush the
serpent's head. The seed of woman is going to come and he's going
to put away all this sin and all this guilt that separates
you and me and we'll be one again. In the day of the fall, Christ
alone was exalted. Fourthly, Christ alone was exalted
in the day of the Old Testament. All the Old Testament scriptures
speak of Christ. Now the law, Moses gave the law,
and that law exalts Christ. I was reading through that today.
And that law exalts Christ because he came and kept everything it
requires. The law exalts the obedience
of Christ. And the law requires many ceremonies
and days to be observed. Every one of them exalts Christ.
The day of the Passover. exalts Christ. He's our Passover,
sacrifice for us. When God sees His blood, He passes
over the sin of His people. The Day of Atonement exalts the
blood of Christ, that blood of Christ that atones for sin and
enables a holy God to be one with men through the blood of
the Atonement. The Sabbath exalts Christ. The Sabbath day doesn't exalt
men to say, you know, we only picked up a certain number of
sticks today. We didn't go to the store today. The Sabbath
exalts Christ, who is our rest. You know, the Sabbath day was
no rest for anybody. I've never tried to keep one,
but it looks to me like. You don't have any rest when
you're trying not to work, I can't I can only walk so many steps
and I can only pick up so many sticks. I'm all the time counting
everything, looking at everything. It looks to me like it would
be exhausting. Come, let's rest together. The
Sabbath exalts rest we have in Christ. He finished the work.
All the Psalms and the Prophets, they're all written to exalt
Christ. They all wrote of Him. Fifthly,
Christ alone was exalted on the day of His birth. God sent the
heavenly host. to sing to announce the birth
of the Lord Jesus. Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. God hung a star over the
place of his birth. This kind of works in reverse,
but everybody here knows the saying, Elvis has left the building.
God hung a star over that place. The kings come into this building.
The kings here. Christ alone was exalted in the
day of his birth. Christ alone was exalted. in
the day of his earthly ministry. During his earthly ministry,
our Lord Jesus fulfilled every prophecy, every picture, every
type of the Old Testament scriptures. The blind received their sight.
The lame walked. The lepers were cleansed. The
deaf heard. The dead were raised. And the
poor had the gospel preached unto them. And when they heard
it, what did they say? Never may I speak like this man.
This man speaking is one that has authority, not like the scribes
and Pharisees. We never heard anything like
this. We never heard grace like this. No man can do the miracles
he's doing unless God be with him. Well, yeah, God was with
him because he is God. That's what you read in the study. He is God walking on earth as
a man. Christ alone was exalted in that
day. Then Christ alone. was exalted
in the day he was crucified. At Calvary, Christ exalted every
attribute of the Father. When Christ was crucified, the
holiness of God was exalted. God spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, because he is made guilty, and
God's holiness required it. When Christ was crucified, God's
sovereignty was exalted. I know men did exactly what they
wanted to do, but men did what God determined before to be done. They did what they did in His
sovereign direction. When Christ was crucified, God's
grace was exalted. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich. He died that His people would
live. When Christ was crucified, the
wisdom of God was exalted. Now we see God found a ransom.
Only God and His wisdom could find the way to be just and justifier,
and it's by believing the Lord Jesus Christ. At Calvary, Christ
alone was exalted. That death, that substitutionary
death, is what draws His elect to Him. That death, that substitutionary
death, It's what makes His people flow to Him. Isn't that what
He said? And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all unto me. I'll draw all my people unto
me. But now, before God saves anybody,
He's going to strip that person. He's going to take away their
pride. He's going to take away their strength. He's going to
take away their defense. He's going to take away all their
idols. And it will be a painful day. But hey, Christ alone is
exalted in the day of conviction. In that day of conviction, when
God takes away everything we have and strips us naked and
lays us bare, Christ alone is exalted. When we are stripped
of our own righteousness, then the righteousness of Christ is
exalted and becomes mighty precious. When we are stripped of our own
strength, then the strength of Christ is exalted and precious. When we're stripped of our idols,
Christ alone is exalted. You won't think about worshiping
anybody but Him when He's exalted. When we're stripped of all of
our hope, Christ is exalted and we have a good hope in Him. Ninth,
Christ alone is exalted in the day of salvation. When Christ
is revealed to our hearts and God gives us faith in Him, then
Christ is He's all you see, He's all you care about, He's exalted
above all. When we see Christ saving us
from our sin by suffering the penalty that we deserve, when
we see Christ suffering and dying the death that we deserve, when
we see Him shedding His blood, His precious, pure, holy blood
to pay for our sin, then Christ alone is exalted. Don't give
me anything but Him. He's exalted above all. When
we see no one else could save me and nobody else would save
me, then Christ is exalted. Christ alone will be exalted
in the day of His return. I know there's a lot of rebels
now. They refuse to bow now. The land's full of idols and
silver and gold and horses and cherries as much today as it
was in Isaiah's day. But in the day Christ returns,
every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And in that day, the glory of Christ will be seen. Every eye
will see him as he is and Christ alone will be exalted. There'll
be no rival. Then Christ alone is exalted
in the day of judgment. Christ will be the judge. He'll judge the quick and the
dead. But it's not just the thing that exalts him in that day.
It's not just that he'll sit as judge. It's this. All men will be judged by that
man, Jesus Christ. all judgments relative to Christ. That's how he's exalted in that
day. Judgment's not going to be based on whether you did enough
good things or bad things or whether your good deeds outweigh
your bad deeds. That's not the judgment. The
judgment's relative to Christ. What think ye of Christ? He's the only thing that'll matter
in that day. He will be exalted in the day of judgment. Twelve. Christ alone is exalted in the
day of resurrection. Look over at 2 Corinthians 15,
we've got a minute to read this. You know, I don't believe that
the miracle on the day of resurrection is that we're suddenly alive.
We've been in the grave, now we're alive. That's not going
to be the, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 15. I knew that because there's
not 15 chapters in 2 Corinthians. The miracle in that day is not
going to be, well, here I've been in the grave and now I'm
alive. You know what the miracle in
that day is going to be? I came out of the grave just
like Christ. That's the miracle. Look at verse
51, 1 Corinthians 15. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment. in the twinkling of an eye at
the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death
is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting?
O Grave, where is thy victory? The strength of sin is the law,
but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ alone will be exalted
in that day. The hope of the resurrection
is not that we are going to be raised from the dead. Everybody
is going to be raised from the dead. The hope of the resurrection
is that we are made just like Christ. It would be awful disappointing
to be resurrected in a body just like the one I have now. That's
a bummer, but to be raised in a body like Christ, oh, Christ
alone will be exalted in that day. And last, Christ alone is
exalted in that eternal day of glory. Just one day there, never
nights, just one. And that day, the redeemed sing
to Christ, thou art worthy, not us, Thou art worthy to receive
glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and they were created. Thou art
worthy, for Thou hast slain, and You have redeemed us by Thy
blood to God. Worthy is the land that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing, the only theme of our song. will be the
Lord Jesus Christ. He will be exalted in eternity
by everyone. Now, I just mentioned those in
heaven singing His praises, but Christ alone will be exalted
in eternity by everyone who has ever lived. For those in heaven,
Christ is exalted in His grace, in His mercy, in His power to
save, in His power to cleanse from sin. And for those in hell,
Christ alone will be exalted. He'll be exalted in his justice. If I was more of a smart aleck
than I am, I think I'd like to write a letter. Those folks sent
me that advertisement about this seminar and church building. You decide this for yourself.
It could be. We should be a whole lot less
concerned about ourselves. We should be a whole lot less
concerned about our programs, the size of the crowds, the size
of the buildings, the size of everything. It could be we should
be a whole lot less concerned about all these other issues
that all take our mind off of Christ, and we should be a whole
lot more concerned about exalting Christ alone. I believe this
is right. I'm determined we should be a
whole lot more concerned about preaching the glory of Christ,
exalting the Lord Jesus Christ in the eyes of the people, in
the ears of the people, and we should be a whole lot more concerned
about seeking his glory because in that day, Christ alone is
exalted. Maybe God would be pleased to
do it today. Maybe he would. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We
thank You for Your promise that You'll build and establish Your
Church, that it will be exalted. And how we thank You that in
Your mercy and Your grace, You break Your people. You humble
us. You put us in the dust. You cause
us to give up our idols. to give up our righteousness
and the works of our hands. You cause us to give up all those
things that we think give us security and make us rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That can only happen by your
sovereign power. And Father, we pray that individually
and as a congregation that you will cause Christ alone to be
exalted in our day. That Christ alone would be exalted
in our heart. That Christ alone would be exalted
in our preaching. That Christ alone would be exalted
as we go through our everyday life. Help us as Enoch of old
to walk with God. Cause us to come together and
go to the house of the Lord. The house that's established.
Established by your power, by your mercy, by your grace. And
teach us. Teach us by exalting the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let our affection, our minds,
our hearts, all of our senses be filled with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And cause us to be humbled. Cause
us, Father, to quit caring so much about me and mine. And cause us to look to Christ.
cause Christ alone to be exalted in our day. It is in His precious
name we pray. Amen.