Well, I want you to turn back
to Isaiah chapter 2 this morning. Isaiah saw visions from God. We see that right at the very
start. He saw visions from God. And it was about 800 years before
Christ was born, before Christ came into the world. 2,800 years
or so ago is when Isaiah wrote these words that we read earlier
on. He saw visions from God. So what he wrote is God's word. God's word to us today. You know
that? In this book is the word of God
that speaks to people today. Speaks to us today. Do you believe
that? Do you? He's a prophet and he's
spoken God's word. Do you believe that? Oh, I'm
a bit skeptical about that. What, do you know what the test
of, God gives a test of a prophet. Do you know what the test of
a prophet is? that what he says, speaking as God's mouthpiece,
comes true. It comes true. It comes true
as God has said. So what did Isaiah write that
came true? Isaiah wrote in chapter 45 at
the start, he mentioned a king who was to come in the history
of the world, who would See to it that the people of God, the
Israelites, were released from their captivity and went back
to Jerusalem. And that king was Cyrus. And
Isaiah, 800 years before Christ, wrote about it some, what, I'm
not absolutely sure, 250, 300 years before it happened. And
it happened. And you know, the skeptical theologians
say, well, he can't have written it then. The book of Isaiah can't
have been written 800 years ago, because how on earth could he
have got that right? He can't have known it. Some other historian
must have, some other scribe must have written it after it
happened, and altered it, because it's impossible for it to be
true. Not if God writes it, it isn't. The things he wrote about
Christ coming. You read Isaiah 53, and not only
Isaiah 53, but throughout, but Isaiah 53. The description there
of the crucifixion of Christ. and why he was being crucified,
and what it was for, 800 years before it happened. And it's
exactly as it happened. Exactly. He passes the test of
a prophet, doesn't he? No argument there. What Isaiah
wrote is the Word of God, because it passes the test of a prophet. The case is quite straightforward. There's no argument with it.
You think about how easily society believes things. I don't know
if you watched the Blue Planet series, the BBC Blue Planet series,
showing the oceans and the one absolutely wonderful photography,
absolutely marvellous. It was mind-blowingly superb
photography. Made over about five years, that
programme. And the last programme was particularly about plastic
pollution in the oceans. And there we saw it, we saw the
bits of plastic floating around and getting into the wildlife
and infecting and affecting everything. And society has believed it wholeheartedly,
100%. So now you see people saying,
oh I'm changing my approach to what I do with plastic. You see
how easily society has believed the message of Blue Planet regarding
plastic. And I'm not saying there's anything
wrong with that at all, that's good. But why don't people then Why
don't clever people, why don't successful people, why don't
your friends, the people you come across, why don't you, why
don't you believe God who has proven himself to be true? If
we so readily believe what we see on the television, why don't
we believe God when he has proven himself to be true? The answer
is in verse 22. See she from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,
for wherein is he to be accounted of?" What's his worth? What is he to be accounted of?
Wherein is he to be accounted of? You see, having rebelled
in Adam against the true God, having rebelled against that
relationship with the true God that Adam had at the beginning
in the Garden of Eden, having rebelled, all You, me, everybody,
we're all sinners. We're all corrupted in judgment. The way we judge things, the
way we assess things, we're corrupted. From God's judgment of things,
from God's view of things, from God's precepts on things, we're
corrupted in our judgment. You say, well, we've got our
reason. Our reason is corrupted by sin. Ah, well, we know the
things that we like and we don't like. Our affections, the things
we like and don't like, the things that we want to do and don't
want to do, those affections are corrupted by sin. The actions
that we do, actions they say speak louder than words, the
actions that we do are corrupted by sin. We are all together in
the flesh sinful, you and me. in our natural born condition.
All of us without exception, not even the best of natural
men, not even the best of natural men with the clearest light of
God can act upon what they see. What do I mean by that? Look
at verses 6 to 9. This is speaking about Israel.
the people of God. Paul says in Romans chapter 3,
right at the start of it, what advantage then is there in being
a Jew? And he says, much every way.
Why? Because to them, as opposed to
any other people on earth in those days, to them was given
the oracles of God, the word of God, the truth of God. They
walked in the light of God. They were brought out of Egypt.
They were led and fed miraculously for 40 years. They were led and
guided in all things. They were shown by divine revelation
what it was to be in a right relationship with God and how
to be in a right relationship with God and how it must be that
there must be blood looking forward to the blood that the Son of
God would shed for his people. There must be blood, there must
be blood, for without blood there is no remission of sins, none
whatsoever. They had this light, they had
the temple sacrifices, they had the priesthood, the Levites,
to teach them and show them the things of the living God, and
yet again and again when you read the Old Testament, these
men with the clearest light from God acted according to their
sinful nature. Look, therefore thou hast forsaken
thy people, the house of Jacob. God has. Why? Because they be
replenished from the east. They've taken on them the customs
of what's called in Ezekiel and then in the book of Revelation,
the lands of Gog and Magog, where there's no influence of the gospel.
They be replenished from the east. They are soothsayers. They've gone over to a sort of
a witchcraft kind of dealing with things of the spirit. They're
soothsayers, like the Philistines. They pleased themselves in the
children of strangers, which means that they've gone over
and practiced the occult and the world of evil spirits. This
is the people who had the light of God's knowledge brought to
them. Their land also is full of silver
and gold. They're covetous for these things.
Neither is there any end of their treasures. They haven't laid
up treasure in heaven with the light they've been given. They've
laid up treasure on earth. The land is full of it. The land
is full of horses. They're not a people of peace.
They've pilled up their land with the weapons of war. They're
full of horses. There's no end to their chariots.
Their land is full of idols. This was the key sin that they
were punished for in the exile. They worship the work of their
own hands, that which their own fingers have made. Do you know
what that is? Of course you do. It's idolatry. It's worshipping idols. What's
an idol? It's that which takes the place
of God. It's that which isn't a God.
It's that which is false. And they worship idols. Things
that they have made, either with their hands or in their minds,
they've formed idols. And the mean man boweth down,
and the great man humbleth himself. Therefore forgive them. You see,
the indictment is clear against them. That even with the clearest,
as the people of God, with the clearest light from God, They're
sinful. They're sinful. The majority
of the Jews of Isaiah's day treated the revelation of God, his word,
with contempt. Oh, what a thing. To treat the
word of God with contempt. So judgment is pronounced. Judgment
is pronounced. Verses 10 to 21, judgment is
pronounced there. He talks about bringing down
pride, and in that day the proud and the lofty will be brought
down. And those that think they're tall and strong like the cedars
of Lebanon, and those that think they can go where they want like
the ships of Tarshish, and those that think they're in control
of everything, they're all going to be brought down. The idols
he shall utterly abolish. They shall go into the holes
and the rocks. 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'll be worthless,
in other words, to go into the clefts of the rock. You see,
judgment is pronounced. God, who is revealed in the Bible,
in all the Bible, who speaks through his prophets, is holy
and just. And his character demands retribution
for sin, punishment for sin, a payment for sin. So judgment
is promised. Firstly, here, on the Jews of
800 BC, of Isaiah's day, judgment is pronounced. And you know,
it came about exactly as prophesied. It came about. They were taken
away a couple of hundred years later into exile. Nebuchadnezzar,
The king of Babylon came and absolutely overran their land
and took them away into exile as captives. The captivity, the
70 years of captivity that Jeremiah prophesied and that came to pass
exactly as said. Judgment was promised and it
came about on the Jews 800 years before Christ came. Judgment
is also prophesied and certain at the end of time. At the end
of this world, you read Revelation. You read throughout Revelation,
but particularly as it intensifies in the later chapters of Revelation,
you see very similar language, especially in Revelation 18.
This chapter here is talking about the cessation of normal
everyday life of that society. And you read Revelation 18, it's
very, very similar language. Judgment. Judgment is coming.
Because God will judge sin. God will exact the penalty that
sin demands. But also, thirdly, judgment is
brought home and applied to individuals by God's grace. And this is what
I want to focus on today. You see, here in this, which
sounds so much like a listing of the judgment to come, is actually
a call to God's true people, a call to elect sinners, to flee
the judgment to come and take refuge in the Savior that he
has set forth. So the first point is at the
start of verse 10, enter into the rock and hide thee in the
dust for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty.
There's a call there, a call to come to Christ. Hide thee
in the rock. You see, as I and other preachers
declare the gospel of grace in Christ, you who listen, you hear
the words with your physical ears. Is that not right? You're
hearing now. I hope those out on the internet
are hearing. I hope the microphone's working
and the transmission's working. You hear the words with your
physical ears. And many people are completely
unmoved. Many, completely unmoved. But some are strangely awakened
to really listen. Some, you know, it's just the
voice of a man. The gospel is treasure, but it's
in earthen vessels, in common pots. That's all this preacher
is and any other one. Just a common pot with the treasure
of the gospel in it. And most hear and are completely
unmoved, but some are strangely awakened to really listen. Jesus
said this in John 5 verse 25, Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say it to you, the hour is coming, and now is, it's here
now, he said, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God. You know what a dead body can't do? Anything. And amongst
the anything it can't do is hear. A dead body cannot hear. The
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. The dead in trespasses
and sins. People in general, the dead in
trespasses and sins, shall hear the voice of the Son of God through
the word preached, and they that hear, listen, shall live. They that hear shall live. John 6, 63. How has it come about? It is the Spirit that quickeneth. It's the Spirit of God that gives
life. The flesh profits nothing. This
thing of eternal life and the Spirit of God, this is not something
that you get by being cleverer than anybody else. It's the Spirit
that quickeneth, that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. It's
entirely of God's sovereign grace. Entirely. I don't care what level
of intellectual stature you have, how clever you are in the reckoning
of the world. This is nothing to do with how
clever you are in the world. This is to do with sovereign
grace and the revelation that comes from God. Because those
who are given ears to hear this call to enter into the rock and
hide in the dust. They're born, says John 1 verse
13, they're born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
that's how you're born naturally, nor of the will of man, they're
born of God. It's of the will of God that
you are reborn, that you are born again with the spiritual
life of God. In Psalm 65, we read this in
verse 4, Listen to this. What's the message of the Scriptures?
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Blessed
is the man whom you choose, God. The Lord God chooses whom he
will, has chosen before time, and causes in time to approach
you. under the sound it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. To
save them, He brings them to believe, dead in trespasses and
sins, but He gives that life of God. He is the God, as I often
quote Psalm 110 and verse 3, He is the God who makes His people
willing to believe. What makes one willing and another
not? The Spirit of God. He makes His people willing in
the day of His power. What does this mean here? The
fear of the Lord for the glory of his majesty. It's having a
sight of who God is. Having a sight of who he is,
how lofty, how majestic, how holy, what a dreadful thing it
is to fall into the hands of the living God. But hear the
good news. Hear the gospel. There is a place
to hide. There is a rock to shelter within. enter into the rock. This is
a call. This is God calling his people,
as well as pronouncing judgment to come, this is God calling
his people from judgment into the safety of the rock which
is Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse
4, the New Testament shines explicit light on passages of the Old
Testament which are implicit. And in 1 Corinthians 10 verse
4, Paul writing to the Corinthians talks about the Israelites in
their wilderness wanderings. And he says, you know in the
wilderness wanderings they were crying out because they were
thirsty and there was no water. And God told Moses to take his
rod and there was a rock there and he was to strike the rock
and the rock split and water gushed out and those people had
their thirst completely satisfied. And Paul says the Israelites
drank of that spiritual rock and that rock was Christ. It was a physical rock that gave
them water, but it was symbolical of a spiritual rock. This is
the rock here. Enter into the rock. We read
of him in Isaiah 32 and verse 2. A man, a man, shall be as
an hiding place from the wind, and a covet from the tempest,
a shelter from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place
as, listen, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Who is
that man of Isaiah 32? Who is that man? That man is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, God who became man, that his
people might be saved from their sins. When Moses said to God
in Exodus 33, he said, Lord, show me your glory. Please show
me your glory. And in Exodus 33, I'll read it
to you from verse 18. He said, I beseech thee, this
is Moses, show me your glory. And God said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. And because the name of the Lord
is the character of God. in all of his holy saving majesty. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. This is it, his grace, the greatest
attribute of God. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. Show me your glory. That's the
glory of God, is the grace of God. And he said, this is God
still speaking, you cannot see my face, for there shall no man
see me and live. That's what God says. God, the
Father, says, no man shall see me and live. And the Lord said,
behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.
There's a place by God, who is God, which is Christ. In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God. This is God, you shall stand upon the rock and it shall
come to pass while my glory passes by, look, I will put you in a
cliff of the rock, a break in the rock, a crack in the rock,
and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. The cleft
of the rock, rock of ages. Rock of ages, cleft for me, broken
for me. Let me hide myself in thee. That's what that's about. Have
you learned the fear of the Lord, verse 10, and the glory of his
majesty? Have you learned anything of
that? Do you know that's the beginning? The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom and of knowledge. Because the fear
of the Lord shows you your sin, and shows you what you are in
relation to the Holy God. Shows you the guilt of your sin.
Shows you the justice of your condemnation. Shows you the certainty
of hell, if you stay as you are. causes you to cry out as the
Philippian jailer, what must I do to be saved? Where can I
go? Where can I flee? How should
a man be just with God? Where can I hide? Where can I
hide? Hide thee in the dust of the
rock. Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust. In the
rock, stand in this cleft of the rock, who has satisfied justice
for his elect people. That is it. God became man that
where man could not satisfy the justice of God because of his
own sin, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah,
the Anointed One, he came to satisfy justice for his elect
people. How do I know, you say? You say,
oh right, okay, I can see how he's done it for his elect people,
but what's the point of me believing if I don't know whether I'm elect?
Well, the thing that proves you're elect is this. You believe it.
Simple as that. Believe it. Ah, I do believe,
said that man to Jesus. Do you believe? He said, I do
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. That's a good prayer. Lord, I
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. This
is Christ. The rock that God has set forth. The rock that religious folks
of all types stumble over. Do you know if I tell you that
the rock which is Christ is the rock of particular redemption,
that Christ came only to die for the elect, the innumerable
multitude that the Father gave him before the beginning of time,
and not for everyone without exception. If I tell you that
the Christ of Scripture did not die for the whole world to make
it possible for everybody to believe, if only they would believe
they would be saved, No, that's not true. So you go and examine
those who call themselves Orthodox, the Reformed folks, the Orthodox
folks, the ones who not very long ago stood solidly for the
truth. You go and examine what they say, and they'll talk about
a Christ that made salvation possible for everybody. They're
talking about a different Christ. And there's only one Christ that
saves, You know what Paul said, don't you, about those who preach
another gospel in Galatians 1? Let them be accursed, for it
will not save you from your sins. No, they stumble over the Christ
of Scripture, but if you hear his call, you will come, and
you come humbly pleading for mercy. As Saul of Tarsus, who
was going to Damascus to destroy this sect called Christians,
the followers of Jesus, and he saw the shining light on the
Damascus road, and it blinded him. And he heard this voice,
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he replied, who are you,
Lord? You see, he's already down in
the dust. Who are you? Who are you, Lord? Who are you,
Lord? I am Jesus, whom you persecute. It's hard for you to continue
doing this. You're not going to be able to. But I've chosen
you for my purposes. Lord, what would you have me
to do? What a transformation. You know, I find the conversion
of the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, the conversion of that
man who was a vehement hater of the Gospel of Grace, I just
find that one of the most convincing evidences in Scripture of the
truth of it. You know? Even as another example, Daniel,
the prophet. In the Scriptures, I think Daniel,
as far as I can make out, Daniel's about the only one of whom there
was never anything said. of a negative nature. And yet
when Daniel had his vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the
manifestation of God, of God displayed, you know, no man's
seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who's in the bosom
of the Father, He has made Him known, He has declared Him. When
Daniel saw Him, he said, my life drained out of my body. You can
imagine, I'm standing up here in the strength of my body, my
muscles are holding me together. And Daniel, when he had that
vision, his life, he became as one dead. His life drained out
of him. And you flee. You flee. Hebrews
6.18 talks about believers having fled for refuge to Christ. Having fled for refuge to Christ. Like those cities of refuge.
In the Old Testament, you know, they set aside as they came into
the land, of Israel, finally with Joshua, Joshua, Jesus, as
they came into the land, they set aside cities of refuge, where
one who had accidentally killed another person could flee to
that city. And those cities of refuge are
such a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom you have fled
for refuge, with the judgment and just judgment of God coming. You need somewhere to flee, flee
to the rock, to the cliff in the rock. And have your pride
broken. When God calls his people under
the certain knowledge of his judgment, when he calls his people
to enter into the rock, he breaks your pride as well. In that day,
yes, in the day of judgment, he'll break all outstanding pride.
But for each individual, if you believe the gospel, he will break
your pride. Verses 11 to 17. the lofty looks
of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed
down. You, sinner, coming to Christ in faith, you, sinner,
your haughtiness, your pride, your lofty looks will be bowed
down. What will matter to you is the Lord alone. The day of
the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty,
and everyone that is lifted up, he shall be brought low. And
all the cedars of Lebanon, they're the tallest, strongest trees.
People who think they're like tall, strong trees, and strong
oaks of Bashan, and as tall as high mountains. You know, we
see them in society all around, don't we? Those who think that
they're so strong and upright. They're all going to be broken
down. And if you're an object of God's grace, you will have
that pride taken from you. Every high tower, are you a high
tower spiritually in your own strength? It will be brought
down. Are you a fenced wall that can protect yourself? Are you
a mobile person, the ships of Tarshish, that can go where they
want? They were noted for being those
that could go wherever they wanted. You're going to be brought down.
You're going to be shown what you really are. The loftiness
of man shall be brought down. The haughtiness of men shall
be brought low. In that day, in the day of the
Lord, in the day of his judgment, but also in the day of his salvation.
You as an individual, if this is the day that you are saved,
your haughtiness will be brought low. You will be humbled. The
day he calls you by his grace, he will humble you in that day.
He will strip away the confidence that you have in your own strength.
in your own stature, in your own ability to look after yourself,
in your self-righteousness, religious folk. Listen, all will be brought
low. Those God raises up to the plane
of his salvation, he first brings low. Psalm 116 verse 6, the psalmist
writes, I was brought low and he, God, helped me. Is that not
the experience of the true believer? When the body is brought low
by physical illness, you seek medical help, don't you? You
feel strong and fit. But then something comes along
and makes you question, is my body really as fit as I thought
it was? When your body's brought low, you seek medical help. So
in the Spirit, Jesus said, I came not to save the righteous. They
don't need a physician. It's the sick that need a physician,
not those that think they're well. The prodigal son is a good
example. He was brought to the stage where
everything that he had, his friends, his wealth, his social life,
his happily going along with no thought of his father and
his family, all of that was brought to nothing. And he was brought
as low as this. He was living in the fields,
keeping pigs, and he was so hungry he ate the horrible mess that
the pigs ate, because he was so hungry. He was brought low. And that bringing of him low
caused him to say, I will return to my father and beg him to make
me a hired servant. And we need to be brought low.
We need to be brought low by God to feel that our pride, our
religious pride, Our confidence in self is what Isaiah 28, 15
calls a refuge of lies. We need a refuge, but don't go
to a refuge of lies. Don't go to a covenant with death,
as Isaiah 28 calls it. Come to the rock which is higher
than I. Through circumstances that happen
to us in life, God strips us of confidence. He strips us of
health and wealth. And by grace, he speaks the gospel
and its truth in our soul. And that gospel is this, redemption
accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's paid the price of
offended justice. That's what redemption means.
Repentance granted. He's shown me what I am in the
sight of God. And he's given faith to see and
hear and to heed the call to come. Enter into the rock and
hide thee in the dust. And trust Christ alone. When you come to a knowledge
of the truth, everything else becomes irrelevant. There's one
thing, you must have Christ and Him alone, for only He will save
you from your sins for all eternity. In verse 11, it says, the Lord
alone shall be exalted in that day. And if you didn't hear it
first time in verse 17, it says, the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. The Lord alone. Why? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ alone is a perfect fit for my soul's desperate
need. My soul desperately needs a payment
of its sin debt, and Christ perfectly fits that need. My soul desperately
needs the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I
need to be made the righteousness of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ
perfectly fulfills that need, because He who knew no sin was
made sin, my sin, that I might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. What more righteousness do I
need? He is my acceptance with God, because I am accepted, where? In the Beloved, in Christ. He
is the one by whom I am able to come to this holy, fearsome
God, this God of justice, who is angry with the wicked every
day, into whose hands it is a terrible thing to fall. And I am able
to come as a child saying, Daddy, Daddy, Abba, Father. In Him is
the promise of eternal life. In Him is the hope of glory. As Colossians 3, 11 says, Christ
is all and in all. He is made unto me. Wisdom from
God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. What more do
I need? Psalm 73, verses 25 to 26. Whom have I in heaven but
thee? My Lord Jesus Christ, whom have
I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. He is Lord of all. He is Lord
alone. He's exalted alone in that day,
in that day of salvation, which is what we're talking about particularly. In the day you see your need
and you see it met in Christ. My flesh and my heart fails in
myself, but God in Christ is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. I haven't mentioned him for several
weeks and I'll mention him briefly. Happy Jack. Remember him? You
know, what was his qualification to be a church member? What have
you done? What have you read? What theology
can you teach us? I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. But Jesus Christ, he's the Lord
alone who is exalted in my life, in my heart. Jesus Christ is
my all in all and you reject all false religion read verses
18 to 21 the idols he shall utterly abolish and they shall throw
them away in verse 20 in that day a man who is being saved
shall cast his idols of silver and idols of gold to the moles
and to the bats they're just worthless they're not worth clinging
on to They'll go into the clefts of the rocks and the tops of
the ragged rocks for the fear of the Lord and for the glory
of his majesty. When you believe the Christ of
Scripture, that he's a perfect fit for your soul's eternal need,
all other idols are put away. Your family religion, the ideas
of society around us, the mood of the day, the thing that everybody's
going along with. It's an idol. It's false religion. And you just get rid of it. You
just don't rely on it, you don't trust it. You enjoy things in
this world, in this life, but you just do not, you just do
not hold on to these as idols. All the evolutionary, materialistic,
rational thinking of our day that is so godless, the religion
of today, you get rid of it. You know when The Philistines
captured the Ark of God, and the Ark of God was that box which
symbolized the gospel of grace in Christ. And they captured
the Ark from the Israelites, and they took it back to their
temple, and they put it next to their idol god, Dagon. The idol, Dagon, standing there.
They put the Ark of the Covenant next to it. And the next morning,
there's Dagon, flat on his face. And they stood him back up. And
the next morning, not only is he flat on his face, but various
bits have been broken off him. You see, whatever your Dagon
is, whatever your idol is, it cannot stand beside the Ark of
God, the Gospel of Grace. Every idol, every false hope,
every false Christ, for example, the Christ that's peddled in
publications that used to be trustworthy, but now you cannot
rely on them. Evangelical Times the other day
refused our advertisement for the new Focus conference, and
in that they just prove exactly where they stand in relation
to the truth of gospel grace in Christ. It's a lying spirit,
and It's presumed standing and righteousness, all of that is
rejected, because what does Paul say to the Philippians? We are
the true circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in anything of
the flesh, any fleshly idols, any of the refuge of lies that
we once trusted. And finally, cease from man,
verse 22. When you come to know Christ,
when you heed that call, you cease from man. whose breath
is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? In
the day you are called to trust Christ alone, not only are you
called to reject false religion, but also all confidence in man."
All confidence. Yes, we trust man. For what? For medical care? Yes. I go and
see my doctor and dentist and other things. We trust man for
transport. I trust the guy that flies the
plane I'm in to do the right thing. We trust people in engineering
to build the bridge so that when I drive my car over it, it won't
fall down into the water. We trust the lawyers to rightly
divide the law and come to fair judgments. But this is talking
about your eternal needs. Don't trust man. Cease from man
regarding your eternal needs. Man who is made in the image
of God but is so defiled by sin, who is so unrighteous compared
with the holiness of God, who is so corrupted, who is so sinful,
who is made of dust. God said of dust you are and
to dust you shall return. He's destined to return to dust.
You and I are destined to return to dust. The day you die, a few
weeks later, that's all that will be left is a pile of dust.
We're untrustworthy. We're changeable. We've got flawed
thinking and flawed theories. We're fragile. Look, it says
his breath is in his nostrils. I can deprive you of food for
several weeks and you'll die. I can deprive you of water for
a day or two and you'll die. But if I deprive you of the breath
in your nostrils for more than about three or four minutes,
you'll die. His breath? That's how fragile
he is! Cease from man! Don't trust him! His breath is
in his nostrils! He's so close to death! Cease
from man! Not only from other men, but
from yourself! Trusting yourself! No confidence
in the flesh! Wherein is he to be accounted
of? We're in. What can you trust
him for? Can you trust him for the wisdom
of eternity? No. For redemption that must
be paid? No. He hasn't got the means.
It's too much for him. For the righteousness and sanctification
required by God? Absolutely not. Cease from man. Enter into the rock and see the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Savior God, exalted above all. The Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. Amen.