I invite your attention back
to Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 17. What prompted this message,
or what prompted me to think about this particular verse of
Scripture, is I was talking to Brother Jim Byrd, and they are
having local elections up there in his, in the Almont Township. And one of the men who is running
for office, a lawyer, well known in the community, saw Jim at
the mall or some store or something and started talking to him. He
knew Jim. He said, I'm planning on coming
to worship with you all Sunday. Jim said, I'd be glad to have
you. He says, now when I go to these different churches, they
sometimes recognize me by having me stand up or raise my hand
or something like that. He said, you can decide however
you want to do that. And Jim says, you're welcome
to come worship with us. You will not be recognized. The
only name we recognize in this building is Jesus Christ. And
that's it. That's it. And I began to think
about this passage of Scripture over here in Isaiah. The loftiness
of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall
be made low. and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. This passage tells me, if we
read the whole passage, that everyone is going to be humbled. Everyone is going to be humbled. And it's not necessarily going
to be voluntary. And what I know about humility,
I've found in my own case, it's never voluntary. It's always
an act of God to bring me down where I need to be when my head
gets too big for my shoulders. Everyone who came to Jesus Christ
for salvation, for help, for whatever, they came to Christ
humbled, except for a few that were turned away. But they came
humbled. The leper in Matthew chapter
8 was humbled by his disease which God gave to him. Saul of
Tarsus was humbled on the road to Damascus before he was made
a preacher of the gospel. The Syrophoenician woman was
humbled by the sickness of her child. You and I are going to
be humbled by God. Everybody is. People by nature
are not willingly humble. They simply aren't. Being humble
is a product of being humbled by God. People enjoy being honored. That's what we like. We like
to be honored even if it is for something ridiculous. That's
why churches have things like Mother's Day prizes when they
give a prize to the oldest mother and the youngest mother and maybe
the ugliest mother. I don't know how many mothers
they do, but they do that. But at any rate, it's a foolish,
stupid thing to do. But what it does, it makes mothers
feel good about themselves. They have Father's Day and Preacher
Appreciation Day. You just imagine they have every
kind of day possible. They do that for one reason.
First-time visitors. They recognize first-time visitors
and such. The teaching of the religious
world are measured to puff up the flesh. They're measured to
puff up the flesh. They are calculated to assign
to men a delusion of power and merit and importance. Sovereignty and omnipotence are
ascribed to man's will in the day in which we live. For they
willfully tell men that God can't do anything unless they let Him. Now, who's got the power in that
equation? It ain't God. It's man. It's man. The dead works of the
flesh are declared to be merit before God. Salvation, it seems,
is little more than a cooperative endeavor between God and man,
and the entire matter, however, is ultimately attributed to the
power of man and not of God. That religion that permeates
today's society, that religion that caused that lawyer to want
to be recognized in a place where God alone is worshipped, That religion is man-centered,
man-exalting, and man-pleasing. The Bible lays the axe to the
root of the entire false notion. God, by the prophet Isaiah, speaks
in no uncertain terms when he describes what happens when he
saves sinners by his grace and what he's going to do finally
in the end of the world. The loftiness of man shall be
bowed down. The haughtiness of man shall
be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
God's design no matter the event or category is to humble the
pride of man and to exalt the glory of His great name. That's
what He's doing in this world. Now He's saving His elect and
He's doing that the same way by putting down the pride and
the haughtiness of men and raising up the Lord where He alone receives
the glory in that day. Whatever God's purpose will be
fully and finally accomplished, you can rest on that, man. All
of mankind, whether elect or non-elect, all of mankind will
be humbled. God alone will be exalted. You mark that down. You can mark
that down. Every child of Adam will wind
up in the dust. Every one of them. Your pride
and my pride will melt before His gaze. Human history is but
the tale of men and women of every degree and every station
being brought down. Read your history book. Read
them. Not just for facts. Look at what
happens in your history book. Men and women, nations and hills
and powers are brought down. That's the story of history.
What nation has lasted? None of them. They're all brought
down. You think this one's going to
last? I hope it lasts a little longer. But you think it's going
to last? No, it's going to be brought
down. All the nations are as a drop of the bucket and sands
of the balance. God alone in Jesus Christ will
be exalted. Spurgeon wrote this, If a man
should say to me, What is God doing? I would answer, He is
lifting up the lowly and He is casting down the proud. That's
what God's doing. He seemeth always to be engaged
in this as though it were His natural work and He delighted
in it. Men erect altars to themselves. God tramples them underfoot.
Then in grace and mercy the Lord condescends an unconditional
love to lift the beggar that He has cast down from the dunghill. to set him among princes. You
see, God knows how to humble the proud. Nebuchadnezzar stood
one day over Babylon and said, look at this great city that
I have built with my own power and my own hands. And while the
words were coming out of his mouth, God smote him and turned
him into a beast and had him grazed with the cattle for A
full amount of time that God had ordained. He knows how to
get honor for Himself. God knows how to get honor for
Himself. He raised up Pharaoh. He raised up Pharaoh to punish
His people. That His people would cry unto
Him and He raised up Pharaoh just for the purpose of making
His great name known by putting Pharaoh down and drowning His
army in the bottom of the Red Sea. God knows how to get honor
for Himself. He knows how, and I'll tell you how He's going
to do it. He's going to humble every proud look and every haughty
spirit. He's going to bring it down.
He's going to bring it down. Just mark it down. If you haven't
been humbled yet, you're going to be. You're going to be. Everybody
is. And God will continue this great
work until the pride of man ceases to exist in the universe. It's going to be gone. The majesty of the King of Kings
is the only rightful honor in this world. 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.
Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of the Father. Things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth, and things in the sea
are all going to be bowed down and declare Christ to be Lord
over all. The Lord alone. The Lord alone. shall be exalted
in that day." Now, words of Isaiah are a description of what God
does for His elect. This is what the description
is. It's a description of what God does for His elect in the
day that He brings them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this has happened to you if you're a child of God. This has happened
to you if He's brought you to Christ. I'll tell you what He's
done. Your lofty looks have been brought
down and your haughtiness has been cast into the dust and Jesus
Christ alone is exalted Jesus Christ alone this is God's method
of grace in Christ where it always works always works that way to
humble man and exalt the Lord above all that's his method God's eternal purpose humbles man and exalts the Lord
alone. God's eternal purpose. To believe
God's sovereign purpose of grace in Christ is to acknowledge man's
utter depravity and inability. If God is absolutely sovereign
in purpose, as the Scriptures declare Him to be, then man is
utterly depraved and ruined before Him. This grand purpose of grace is
humbling to men because it's unconditional. God's purpose
is God's purpose. He does it as His will. He does
His will in the arms of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. He does not counsel with anyone. He does not give
account of His matters. He just sort of operates in this
realm of sovereignty and absoluteness, doing exactly what He pleases. I know men think things. I know
men have high notions of themselves. Why, they think that they can
change a carburetor to a fuel injector and a fuel injector
to an electric car and change the climate of the earth. How
stupid is that? How audacious is that? This is
God's earth. He set the winds and the circuit.
And this thing will run on this time table until it's done. And man ain't going to affect
it a bit. People say, well, the earth is our mother. Show me
the womb from which you came. I want to see the mother's womb.
I want to see where you was birthed from. You're a lying dog. The
earth ain't your mother. It ain't your daddy neither.
The one who made the earth is your God. And He's going to be
exalted. And you're going to be humble. Our Lord said this, All things
work together for good to them that love God. To them are called
according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of the Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, Him He also called. Whom He called, Him He
also justified. Whom He justified, Him He also glorified. Now where
are you in that pile? What did you do in that? Nothing.
That's ugly. I strip you. You mean I have
nothing to do with it? Not a thing. God's eternal purpose
humbles a man, humbles a man. Mark out any doctrine of God
in Scripture. Love, love of God, passive understanding,
the love of God, greater than we could ever imagine, the love
of God, totally and completely unconditional, has nothing to
do with anything you are, do, or think. whatsoever. It seems like God just said,
out of this fallen race of humanity, I love that one. How come? Because
I love that one. Well, we all know why. I ain't
got to tell you why. I love that one. That's the group you wanted. Election. Why did God choose men? Because
He would. Who did He choose? Who He wanted
to. Why did He choose them? To save them. Didn't they have
anything about them worth choosing? No. That strips you. Well, what can I do to be saved?
Nothing. Do you want to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well, I can't. I know. But with the commandment comes
the permission So you can if you want to. Isn't that right? The problem is you don't want
to. Just admit it. And the reason
you don't want to is because God wiggles your wander. Predestination. What a glorious
theme throughout the Word of God. Throughout the Word of God,
predestination. God is ordained and ordered all
things as they will ultimately end. God has ordered the salvation
of His people. Paul said to Timothy, God who
has saved us, called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began. I know
people have difficulty with eternal salvation. I don't. I have no
difficulty with it at all. I just don't. Because I don't
believe God changes. He doesn't change. In Ephesians
chapter 1 verses 3-14 where that glorious work of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit occurs. In verse 6 it is to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Verse 12 it is to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Verse 14 to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Salvation is by grace alone.
And if you ever see that, by God's grace, you know what it
will do? It will knock down your loftiness and your haughtiness
and cast you in the dust where you belong. And in that day,
and in that hour, and in that moment, the Lord alone will be
exalted in your eyes. The Lord alone. The revelation
of grace is designed to strip men of all pride and all self-righteousness
and to exalt the Lord alone in that day. That's what its design
is. If any doctrine, and listen very
carefully here, if any doctrine you hear preached from any pulpit
causes you to look to yourself for hope in any way, that doctrine
is not of God. Now I want to make that very
clear, it's simply not of God, not of God whatsoever. Any teaching
that puffs up man, any teaching that diminishes God is not of
God and is not the gospel. You say, well, you're putting
a lot of people in jeopardy. Listen, I didn't make this book up. It's not my
book. It's God's book. I just repeat
what He said. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. If
a man preaches that it's your will that is the deciding factor
in salvation, listen to me very carefully, that person is not
a gospel preacher. He's a man preacher. He's a man-centered
preacher and a man-pleasing preacher. God doesn't talk like that about
men in Scripture. God says, I'm going to humble
man, I'm going to cast down man, I'm going to knock down his high
looks and his hearty thoughts, and I'm going to exalt God. I'm
going to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in that day. The gospel
abases the flesh and glorifies God. How so? First of all, the
gospel of grace is always addressed to men and women as sinners. The Gospel is not addressed to
righteous folks. Grace means nothing and does
not compute to good men. It doesn't compute. It makes
no sense whatsoever. Mercy is not for righteous people.
Our Lord looked at the most righteous men alive. In fact, a group of
people that our Lord has said, except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no way attain eternal heaven, which is a condemnation of the
best human righteousness you can have. Not a commendation,
a condemnation. And our Lord said to them, I
came not to call the righteous, but bring sinners to repentance.
I didn't come to call the righteous. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Their sins. One man said Christ came to save
everybody except the self-righteous. Everybody except the self-righteous.
If you're not a sinner, There is nothing in the gospel
for you. Nothing. But if you are a sinner, there's
good news in the gospel for you. Christ died for sinners. Christ
died for the ungodly. Christ redeemed sinners. I've
said this many times in these 30 years I've pastored. Your
sin will not keep you from Christ. Your righteousness will. Your
righteousness will. There is a pristine robe, but
it's for naked people. There is bread, but it's for
hungry people. There is water, but it's for
thirsty people. There is rest, but it's for weary
people. There is grace, but it's for
needy people. There is cleansing, But it's
for filthy people. There is help for the fallen,
but there is nothing in the gospel. There is not even a hint of good
news for a good man, or a righteous man, or a great man. Not one hint of good news. Not
one hint. Think about that. The gospel
humbles men because it addresses sinners as dead. Paul said, we preach the gospel
of dead men. We do. We do. You had thee quickened
who were dead and trespasses and sin. What does that mean?
Just exactly what it says. Spiritually dead. Talk about
not being able to do anything. Ever tried to get a dead person
to do something? They just don't listen. They won't respond. You ever tried to push a dead
person? They just fold up. They got to be pulled. They got
to be drugged if you're going to take them anywhere. You ever
tried to push a dead thing? I had an old dog out here one time
I had to shoot during a conference. Big old dog named Monty. Most
of you remember her. Big old sweet dog. Weighed about
125 pounds. She got hit by a car while we
was having conference and was in a mud puddle over here. She's
trying to keep her head out of the mud puddle. She was drowning
and broken back in bad shape. So I took my .22 out and I shot
her twice in the head and killed her. And I tried to just push
her over out of the water. It was the hardest thing in the
world to do and she's just dead. Next morning I had to take her
by her front legs and drag her and then I put her I laid the
wheelbarrow down and rolled her over as far as I could and set
the wheelbarrow up to go bury her. What good would it have been
to me to call her name? To tell her to do something? All I would
do is attending her funeral. That's all I was doing. That's
who we preach the gospel to. People who cannot of themselves
respond, who cannot of themselves hear what we're saying. And yet
we continue to preach the gospel. Why? Because God told us to.
And we know somehow, miraculously, God uses that word and creates
life in men by His Spirit through the gospel. And I don't know
how it works. But it works real good when it works. We preach
the gospel of dead men. To dead men. One person said
about Donny Bill, one lady said, you just preach men too dead.
He said, I can't preach them dead enough. They're deader than
a bag of hammers. Deader than a doorknob. Twice
dead and plucked up by the roots. Plum dead. Graveyard dead. However
you want to say it. Man is incapable of rising from
his dead condition. In the Gospel, that's what it
tells him. You're dead. Wait a minute. I
don't like that. It don't matter. You are. You're
dead. Dead. is bad. Death is helplessness. Death is hopelessness. The dead
can do nothing. The gospel humbles men because
the sinner's only hope of salvation is in the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute. It's the only hope of man. Christ. What He did. Not what He's doing. What He did. Did He redeem you
on Calvary's tree? Did He save you on Calvary Street?
Did He justify you on Calvary Street? Did He do that? Then you're okay. And sooner
or later, God's going to send His Spirit to tell you that.
Not what you can do, but what has been done for you. The Lord
Jesus Christ. He's going to reveal to you your
salvation. We had nothing to do with our
salvation. Salvation is the gift of the free grace of God. It's
given only to helpless, hell-deserving sinners entirely based upon the
merits of Jesus Christ. I want to be saved. Well, are
you willing in your heart to be saved totally upon the merits
of someone else? If you ain't, you'll never be
saved. If you're going to put your finger in it, leave your
fingerprints on it, put your two cents' worth in, You ain't
going to be saved. Salvation is humbling because
it brings a person to realize, my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and right. Nothing less than that. And nothing
else than that. Christ is our only righteousness.
Our only one. Our only one. There ain't no
other righteousness than Him. Imparted righteousness. People
talk about, and I really believe they're talking about imparted
life. I believe they're talking about
regeneration. The way they sound, how they describe it. But there
is no imparted righteousness. That's an add-on. We are righteous
by Jesus Christ. His righteousness is charged
to our account. He is our righteousness before
God. How do I stand before God? Well,
I've got this internal goodness that's been infused in my body,
and I've got an account in heaven
that God says, I am righteous by what His Son did, and so I
am righteous by what His Son did. That's righteousness. Imputed, charged to, that's my
righteousness. Christ is our only righteousness.
Christ is our only redemption. Christ is our only acceptance.
Christ is our only sanctification. He's all of it. Also, the experience
of grace humbles man and exalts the Lord alone. The experience
of grace. Holy Spirit conviction is an humbling thing. You know
why? It speaks of Christ. I know people
like to think Holy Spirit conviction is when you start to think, oh,
I shouldn't write no more. Or lay down them cigarettes. Or
not go to them movie shows and mess with that internet porn
no more. Quit that. That's your conscience bothering you. Because it pointed you to you
and what you do. What does Holy Spirit do? He
glorifies Christ. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto you. You know what He's going to convince
you of? You're not a believer. That's what he's going to convince
you of. Righteousness, because Christ sits at the right hand of the
Father. Judgment, because the prince of this world is judged to have. Cast
out. He's not going to convince you about you. About what you
do and what you don't do. That's not what he's going to
worry you with. That's the law and conscience doing that to
you. Listen to me. If you're a child of God, he's going to
convince you about Christ. He's not going to convince you
about your sin, except for the sin of unbelief. The Holy Spirit takes the things
of Christ and reveals them unto us. He will not glorify Himself. He will not speak His name. He
will speak the name of Jesus Christ. And that humbles a man. Strips
him. You mean it ain't about me straightening
out my stuff? Getting my ducks in a row, getting my life straightened
out, that ain't what it's about. No, it never has been about that.
It's always been about this. The lofty looks of man are cast
down, the haughtiness of man is cast down, and the Lord alone
is exalted in that day. Repentance is an humbling experience.
When the Holy Spirit works repentance in a man's heart, he suddenly
realizes that nothing he does or doesn't do, recommends him
to God. That's hard news. You see, we
really think, we really do, down where we live and nobody knows
but us, and we don't want to admit it to anybody because it's
so embarrassing to us to do so. We really think that what we
do, like reading and praying and attending worship, has to recommend us to God. We're
not out in the bars and the bordello, not living like propagandists.
Surely, I know we don't want to talk about it. We don't want
to admit it because it's embarrassing, isn't it? But it's true. What recommends you to God? The
Lord alone is exalted in that day. Say, well, I quit drinking. God likes me better. My sister
actually told me that one time. Bless her heart. Back before
she knew the gospel real well. She didn't like me smoking. She says,
you know, if you lay down them cigarettes, God, I'd like you
better. I said, not my God wouldn't.
He wouldn't like you better at all. Not what goes in the body
defiles the body. What comes out of the heart defiles
a man. But people think like that. I
thought when I stopped drinking after I got out of the service,
that would recommend me to God. I really felt like I was a better
person because I stopped drinking. I said, well, you probably were. As far as society goes, I was
a little less dangerous on the highways and stuff. That had
nothing to do with how God felt, how God viewed me, nothing whatsoever.
Nothing you do or don't do ever recommends you to God. Jesus
Christ recommends you to God. And if He recommends you to God,
we're talking a serious recommendation. We're talking a recommendation
that God accepts, and gladly so, fully and completely. Repentance is tough. Reformation
is easy. Repentance is tough. It humbles
you. Lord, you mean nothing I do?
Yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. Conversion
is an humbling business. When you're stripped from this
life, and you start looking at the life you live, and you realize,
I don't want this anymore, it's an humbling experience. Faith
is an humbling experience. To believe, just to believe.
Just to believe. It makes no sense to the world.
The world says you're crazy. It can't be that easy. It ain't
easy. It's impossible to just believe. Now, one day we'll do
it right when we die. We'll actually believe without
sin. Believe. Faith is tough. You who have it know what I'm
talking about. Just to forget everything else about you and
look to Jesus Christ. There's my hope. There's my salvation.
There she is. The rich young ruler came to
Christ one day and said, what must I do to inherit her whole
life, good master? The Lord said, why callest thou
me good? There's nothing good but God.
My Lord was saying, I'm God. If you're going to call me good,
I've got to be God. The Lord said, well, you know,
what the commandments say. Love your neighbors as yourself.
Do as you know. So forth, so on. That guy said, well, I've
done that since I was a little boy. He says, as a matter of
fact, you love your neighbors as yourself? Well, I've done
that since I was a little boy. Well, here, take half what you've
got. Sell half what you've got and
give it to the poor. That man walked away sorrowful. He walked
away sorrowful. Why? No repentance. No faith. He felt like he was somebody. Perhaps the thing about grace
that strips us most is the fact that grace, the grace
of God does not change or improve our flesh. It doesn't make us better natural
men. It doesn't. Grace gives us peace and life
and righteousness. Grace gives us hope and joy Grace
gives us a new life and a new hope and a new will. But grace
does not change the old man. And I'll be honest with you,
I've not been able to draw a dotted line down the middle of myself
and figure out which is the old and the new man yet. Just can't
figure it out. I know it's so and I'm thankful
it's so. And I cannot look at anything I can do and attribute
it and say, well, that must be the new man. Can't do that. Oh, that's surely the old man.
Because I don't know. And I know this. The old man still hates God. The old man still wants to strip
God, rip Him off His throne and set himself in His place. I know
that about the old man. And I know the only thing that
keeps that from happening is not that the old man has suddenly
become better. The old man is subdued by the sovereign Spirit
of God. That's the only thing that keeps
me safe. The only thing that keeps me out of the penitentiary.
We grow in grace, but our growth is humbling to man and honors
God. The whole concept of growing
in grace is downward growth. We grow more in unmerited favor. What does that mean? That means,
however the growth is, it has nothing to do with our merit.
In fact, the opposite is true. The more I see my sin, the more
I see grace abound to the chief of sinners. We'll persevere in grace, but
we'll find out we'll persevere because we've been preserved.
by grace, being confident this very thing that God which began
a good work in you will accomplish it or will perform it to the
day of Jesus Christ. God said I'm going to humble
man and I pray for us all that he will humble us here in grace,
by grace, through the gospel, that he will indeed cast down
and make to bow down my loftiness. And that He will make to bow
down and make low my haughtiness and lift the Lord up so He alone
will be exalted in my eyes. You know what that is? That's salvation. Plain and simple. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.