Day By Day

Our Old Testament lesson this morning comes from the book of Isaiah. The word that Isaiah, the son of Emas, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountains of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it. And many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to that mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his truths. For out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples and they shall beat their swords into plough shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty. The hotty looks of man shall be brought low and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and it shall be brought low. Against the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up and against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the lofty mountains and against all the uplifted hills, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish and against all the beautiful craft and the hottyness of man shall be humbled and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away and people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground and from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth. In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth. Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath for of what account is he, the word of the Lord. Looking at Isaiah chapter 2 this morning and there is a bit of an outline of verses 10 through 22. This chapter could be outlined as coming in three parts, the first part, verses 1 through 5 are something of a poem, verses 2 through 4 are repeated in the book of Micah. Verses 6 through 9 are a prayer, rather disturbing prayer. You can read it on your own, please don't read it right now. And then verses 11 through 21, I guess we could say 22 also are a poem. And the majesty of the writing of that poem just thrills my soul. I am not an English major, I'm not a linguist per se. And I fill my lack as I look at the beauty of that text. It's just amazing. Well, the little paper out there is my humble attempt to kind of outline it and see it in its beauty. So we'll be looking at the first five verses and then verses 10 through 22 this morning. And we could sum up everything I want to say in the words give yourself to God's vision day by day. Give yourself to God's vision day by day. And I hope to work this out in three points. The first one is this God's word for the latter days, verses 1 through 4. Verse 1 tells us the word Isaiah saw. It's God's word, God's word came to Isaiah. It wasn't Isaiah's word, it was God's word. This is the part I would call God's vision. I guess in a sense both sections that we're looking at are God's vision. But as we look at these first four verses, it's the word of the Lord. And it tells us, I call it God's vision because it tells us what God is committed to doing. He tells us in verse 2, it shall come to pass in the latter days. It doesn't say it might come to pass or I'm hoping this is going to happen or anything of that sort. The sovereign Lord says, it shall come to pass. It's his vision and it's what he's committed to making happen. That's an important thing for us to keep in mind. And here's how I would sum up what this vision of God is, what his word states. I would say the main point is this, that God is committed that he and his kingdom are exalted above all else. God is committed, this is his vision, that he, his name, his glory, his fame, and his kingdom be exalted. But especially his name, be exalted above all else. I think he talks about this in verse 2, in all of verses 2 through 4. But verse 2, the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains. And shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it. Now we'll see in the next section that two times God will make this comment, verse 11 and in verse 17. It's at the end of these. If you have your Bibles open, you can see that it's there. It'll end this way, these two verses in this way. And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. So there's the main vision of the Lord that when all things are said and done in the latter days, God alone will be exalted. Now he's got two minor premises that flow out of that. That talk about his vision of how he and his kingdom will be exalted in verses 3 and 4. Two key ramifications that flow out of that. In verse 3 it tells us that many people from all nations, the Gentiles, will come to God. They're not so much coming to Israel. They say, come, let us go to the house of the Lord to the temple of God of Jacob. But they're going to see God. I put in that idea that God wants his kingdom exalted because they're coming to the people of God. They want to hear the word of God from the people of God. God's word should be coming forward from the people from the temple, from the place where God's name is. And his mountain will be the greatest mountain. Now you need to know in biblical times or in Old Testament times. A lot of the nations thought that the gods came down to the mountain tops. And so they would build temples and shrines on the mountain tops because that's where the gods came down. Now it's also a place where if you want to build a city that's easy to fortify, you put it on a mountain or a hill. A city on the hill is easier to defend if you have a walled city than a city in the valley or some other place. And I think these ideas are in the mind of Isaiah, as he speaks, this poem which again is in Micah. It's probably something that all the people knew, maybe a hymn that they sang, something that they believed, that someday all the nations, lots of people, many people from all the nations would come to the house of the Lord. And it tells us why, that he may teach us his ways, verse 3, that he may teach us his ways that we may walk in his path. So God's vision is that he would be exalted to such an extent that many people from all the nations would come to his house, to his temple, that they may draw near to him and hear his word. They wanted to hear his word. God wants himself to be exalted to where people say, I want to know the ways of the Lord so that I can walk in his path. That's the vision God has. That's one of the ways he wants to be exalted. He wants many people from all the nations to have a hunger for what he has to say. What his ways are. They want to know what he says, but that's not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is they want to walk in his ways because he's exalted and glorious. Now the second ramification of this vision God has, this thing that God is committed to bringing about no matter what has to do with peace and conflict resolution. Verse 4, he shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many people and they will, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. One of the commentaries that I'm using points out that Isaiah is using language that should affirm implements plowshares and pruning hooks that should take us back to the garden. The part of God's vision is that there be a restoration of the people of God to such an extent that they go back to take care of the garden which God put man over. The whole vision that we made in his image would rule over the earth and have dominion over it and tend the garden and take care of it. That's the idea there. I want you to see that the God says my vision is that people will come to me that they'll learn my ways and they'll come to me to have their disputes decided. This is something that God's committed to that people will come to him will look to him for for his answer to their disputes that that in conflict resolution the glory of the God the glory of God becomes the chief aim the chief goal when we have conflicts. The chief aim isn't to win. It isn't to say who's right or who started it or our chief aim should be the glory of God and we should come to him and when we come to him it seems like what happens is we start to study peace. We seek peace and pursue it as it says both in the Psalms and in the New Testament. We seek peace and pursue it and we stop making implements of war. Now I know we live in an air force town with a lot of people making their money their livelihood from the fence and I'm not going to comment on that at all. I think other than to say there's an appropriateness for a nation, a government to arm itself and such. I'm not speaking in that category this morning but I am saying among the people of God the God's vision for us is that we would love peace. We would love peace because he's the Prince of Peace, the God of all peace and we would look to him to resolve our conflict and in looking to him we would assume a posture of peace of peace with him, a peace toward one another that we would love him with all our hearts, minds and souls and our neighbor as ourselves. There should be the vision of God and I would say God is fully committed to this vision and he will bring it about. There should be no doubt of the certainty of it. It's totally worth our understanding it and participating if you will or agreeing with God of saying yes this vision of God I'm committed to as well. Immersively and graciously offers you life and peace and being reconciled to him through the Prince of Peace through the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from where we stand that he brings us about through Jesus Christ where sins are forgiven by faith in him and that Jesus will rule Jesus will reign and there will be this day, this latter day when Jesus comes back. And he will separate the nation as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and there will be judgment and such but right now God is at work and we can be fully committed to this vision. In fact we're supposed to be right. I mean did not Jesus give us the great commission go into all the nation and make disciples so that there's many people from all the nations who are who are saying come let's go to the house of the Lord and learn from him. We want to walk in the ways of the Lord. Oh may that be our passion may we share the vision that God has he's committed to it and with the spirit of Christ dwelling in us we shouldn't be surprised that our hearts want to move that way that there's a sense of joy when we get to share the gospel with someone. A greater sense of joy when we see the spirit of work in their lives and their hearts begin to change and they say I want to know this God I want to know what he says I want to walk in his ways that that's joy and there's true freedom. As we come to him and to his word so there's the vision that God's committed to and I want to say that it's not safe not to be committed to this vision. We need to be committed to this vision because the flipside of it of God's mercy and grace the flipside of God coming a people coming to God by faith is God's justice God will be praised in two main ways right when he calls us out of darkness and into his light Paul says three times in Ephesians one that he saves us according to the praise of the glory of his grace. And there's glory in God's grace shown to sinners who come to him and say I want you I bow before you I love you you have first love me but there will be two all all believers will do that well all bow or shout to the praise of the glory of his grace. But all people all people in heaven and in hell will praise the justice of God that brings us to our second point God's work on that day God's work on that day the word the term that day is used three times in our text it's used in verse 11 verse 17 and verse 20 there's repetition that we may not recognize in the way our Bibles lay this out they very rarely do they lay it out in any kind of poetic form and if if you look at the the little out way I outlined the text if you want that you don't have to wanted or take it or anything but I've laid it out in such a way that like some of the red ink shows repetition and such as we look at the work that God is doing on on that day this repetition of the word that day is found in greater repetition as well but but he keeps speaking about that and what he's going to do and again he's he's committed to the Lord alone being exalted on that day but that's not to focus so much in this section in verses 10 through 21 and the focus seems to be God will humble the pride of man and so we have in verse 10 enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty verse 19 he'll use that same phrase or something very similar to it the people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground and before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth in verse 21 and this talks in much the same way in verses 11 through 17 we have this first aspect of this work of God that he will do on that day and it's it sandwiched between verses including verses 11 and 17 but verse 11 the hotty looks of man shall be brought low and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day so there it is the Lord alone will be exalted that day but but in the work of exalting the name of the Lord there's this humbling the humbling of the hotty looks of man and and bringing down his lofty pride verse 17 says the same thing slightly different wording and the hottyness of man shall be humbled and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day that tells us what this section is about right those two bookends right there God has committed the God has committed the humbling the pride of man and interestingly between verses 11 and 17 the word against is used ten times tells us what he's against it makes it real easy I mean even someone simple like making a simple like making count to ten right there it is ten times I'm against this I'm against this I'm against this and I believe it's in very poetic language and what he's saying is the pride of man the hottyness of man in anything he's trusting in and looking to an exalting above the name of God whether it be trade and commerce or you know the the exhibition and the other the other trees that are mentioned could be for trade they they built ships with this kind of wood they built temples with this kind of wood they built shrines and they built idols and such with this kind of wood it can talk about idolatry it can talk about the trades and craftsmen and I want the best of everything a government are mentioned with the mountains and such when we put our faith in our government and in our security in this country whether it's TSA or the Navy Seals or forgive me for mentioning the Navy Seals but I've done it twice now Navy Seals anyway any of these things we're not to put our trust in them we're not to exalt them but him he's to be exalted and it God is saying in very clear language I will humble the pride of man whether it has to do with pride in government or commerce in industry or arts and culture and entertainment or the Internet or you know information age I will humble the pride of men and I alone will be exalted in that day that's the work of God that's the work of God that he's committed to that work there's another aspect to he he talks about his supreme commitment to deal with idolatry we find this mentioned in in kind of the rubrics well I won't go through it let me just mention the two places where it's found verse 18 and the idols shall utterly pass away and then from 18 to 21 that's the focus dealing with idolatry and basically saying people will throw their idols away they'll cast them down and go run for cover in the hills and the cliffs and the you know crags of the rock this sort of stuff God is committed to humbling man to such a way that that everything he trusted whether it's business and commerce and government and all this stuff mentioned earlier or idolatry but whether it's rank idolatry with the little little images that we worship or any other kind God is committed to exalting his name by destroying the idols so that we cast them away we hide from them God is supremely committed to his own glory this is a by the way this is a very good thing because he's God by by very nature of being self-existent and from everlasting to everlasting independent not and maintaining and sustaining all things he he by the very nature of his transcended being is the best thing that there is above the universe and for him to be committed to anything less than his honor and glory would be idolatry and evil and his commitment to bring you to a place where that's your supreme joy that that your soul sings and rejoices in the glory of God that's your greatest good there there's no greater joy there's no greater fulfillment there's no greater life and finding that and here's the deal this is important to understand because this is true and it's what is what is good what is best God is supremely committed to it above all else and for us where his people the happiest safest best place for us is to be supremely committed to the glory of God above all else this is very important I'm going to say it again the happiest safest best place for us to be is supremely committed to God's glory above all else and when we share this commitment we indeed reflect the image of our creator and our soul is as it should be but our problem is that why we while we may share this commitment that some level it's not our supreme commitment it's not our supreme commitment and this is no small problem in fact it's it's treason it's it's dandable it's as our text would say it's haughtiness and pride for us to be committed to anything less than the supreme glory in the glory of the Lord God and his exaltation that's very sober if the Lenten season is a time for soul searching and reflection of turning to the Lord of seeing that our sins are very costly Christ died to take away our sins this really gets right at the heart at the core of pride and a virgin and a virgin God is committed to dealing with that now it uses this term that day uses it three times and it uses the term aday in verse 12 and and in the connection with that day and a day there's this terror of the Lord when he comes to reveal which by the way is interesting how does he humble the pride of man how how does he how is this terror manifest something by the just showing something of the majesty of his glory right the splendor of his majesty is the words we have in our text when we get to Isaiah chapter 6 you remember and there's the six winged creatures and they're flying and they're singing that song holy holy holy right how does Isaiah feel yeah what was me why why does he say what was me what's what's terrorizing him his son his son and here's a godly man but when he sees the splendor of his majesty he is undone this isn't God's mercy and grace you remember that story God's mercy and grace you remember that story ends well he saw his son he was he was disgusted by it he he called down a curse on himself what was me and the second he came into conformity in agreement with oh the glory of God is most important it's so important that I deserve to go to hell because of my said God touched God sent the angel and the burning cold touch of it their sins are forgiven and there's freedom and that's the gospel that's freedom that's where that's where we join in and sing his glory there's forgiveness of sins and and there's this purifying sanctifying work of God in our lives where we're not merely declared righteous praise God he declares this righteous for the work of Christ but he puts his spirit in us to begin this real and certain change that's what he's committed to it says that day going back to that that day we I think we know and I've already mentioned you know Jesus spoke about a day when he will come with glory and the angels and sit on a throne to judge but I think I fully committed to that but I think this idea of that day comes in some sense as to his people in various measures I'll tell you what I mean and Isaiah's day the big threat that was coming that was looming was Babylonian captivity when the when this Mount Zion would be devastated and the house of Jacob torn apart and the children of Israel carried off into captivity but that was a day of terror as God expressed his wrath I say we'll talk about it right comfort comfort ye my people our Lord Jesus came veiled the glory and the splendor of his majesty and did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves he maintained this supreme commitment to the glory and exaltation of God above all else even in his death what was his prayer father the hour has come glorify the sun that the sun may glorify you and your salvation your redemption your ability to stand in the presence of the majesty and splendor of the Lord has to do with being found in Christ he is the rock the cleft that you must hide in to be safe there's no place for idols in Jesus he is exalted in your life he is your safety he is your foundation he is your hope he is your life he is the one who died for your sin and rose from the death and we are thinking about this so that when we rejoice that eastern warning it's not just because we have pretty flowers and spring is on the way fresh clothes and all those goods maybe in Easter egg here there that our souls have life because God raises the death so what so how do we live how do we live for God day by day if there was been these days like the destruction of the temple and Babylonian captivity and I might add 70 AD when the temple having been rebuilt was destroyed how do we live how how is God's day manifest in our lives we can expect that he will humble us day by day that that he's committed not to our destruction unless we are outside of Christ but to our sharing his supreme commitment to the glory of his name so that our souls find their fulfillment and commitment in him so what how do we how do we live for God day by day it's interesting our text gives us a great clue on this the verses one through four this beautiful poem him song about God's vision ends with verse five and I think these are the words of Isaiah bringing application he says in verse five oh house of Jacob come let us walk in the light of the Lord it's a positive statement come let us walk in the light of the Lord let us let us walk in his light verse 22 kind of caps that second section it's in the negative it's a stop stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath of what account is he and and I think we have two things we have both we have what we've looked at really in its in summation form one is let's exalt in the Lord that's walk in the light of of his word and who he is in his glory and the other one is let's stop let's humble ourselves let's stop regarding man there's a there's a connection between the humbling of man and the idolatry and the fear of man of regarding man too highly that is mentioned let me show you how this works out I want to give you another diagram there's I think four slides to this diagram maybe only three so work with me on it and this was something from also world harvest mission uses the sonship week that I think maybe you've seen it before in other context either for me or others but let me let me walk this walk you through this this is again this is application so how am I going to grow in my passion to see God exalted above all that right and let me let me start by saying that the middle line there is a something of a timeline time is is moving and above the line is God's holiness and God's holiness is far greater than what our little slide can hold and the truth is what what's below that our sinfulness that's also greater than what the slide can hold and what happens it's kind of dark it's meant to be dark to show that our our view of God and of our sins before we are converted is well it's superficial at best and nonexistent in some cases we just don't see we don't see the glory and and majesty of the Lord and we really don't feel that bad about our sin but what happens when we're converted is I wonder if that was too nope what happens when we're converted yes the little cross were converted we begin to see and you see the light we see Christ and where we see Christ there's light and we see more of the glory of God we we begin to see notice it's not everything God's holiness is far greater but we begin to see something of the glory of God and we see something of our sin below the line and because of that we trust in Jesus Christ Jesus come into my life please God forgive my sins I acknowledge I've got sins I can see them it's not perfectly my God I think graciously darkens our eyes from the full weight of our sins we can bear it but we see something and we glory in the cross and there's if you've been converted later in life maybe if you've grown up always knowing the Lord that exuberance of freedom may not be as strong but for those who are converted like the apostle Paul who is persecuting the church or someone like that the joy is just fantastic the covenant kid has that joy too it just has been kind of long and growing it's a little bit different but nevertheless there's this joy in the presence of the Lord now what happens is if we are willing to see the glory of God it will expose our sins it's kind of like a mirror image right let me go back one for a second the more of the glory of God we see notice there they're supposed to be equal the more of our sins we see in fact we feel the weight of our sin commensurate to the way we feel the glory of God right the more we see the more we feel okay what happens is it's an unpleasant feeling to feel our sin right and we don't want to do that and so we we try not to it's our sinful nature it's not like we've lost our salvation and we still believe the gospel but we're trying to hide some stuff and what happens with our sin on the bottom of the line you see it there we start making excuses we blame shift we deny it we tell lies we don't deal with our sin now we're also aware of it and so we have to point out anything we do write but it works righteousness it's like I better do this so that people will see just how good I really yeah right now that's not a humble attitude right are you with me on that and notice it's dark starting to darken our view of God will diminish if we're living in sin we may start to doubt the reality of God it's a dark area and it's a miserable area in my life I have come to this place I don't know how many times more times than I care to admit part of my problem I guess and the question is what do we do how do I live for God day by day how do I enjoy the light of his glory well it's only safe in Jesus Christ it's only safe in the gospel you will never get it by boasting you will never get it by working harder the harder you try the more works righteousness you will develop however if you are honest if you if you are honest if you deal with your sins the surface sins the thinking and feeling that went behind it the areas of unbelief that are connected to that sin if you if you confess that to the Lord then in the same time you trust in Christ Christ paid for this sin and the cross grows in your life that's how we grow right Colossians 2 6 as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him and that's where the lights come back on if you will that's why we glory in the cross and look that's where real change happens not self righteousness not defensiveness not boasting but real change more of our life comes under the dominion of the cross of Christ and that's how we live for him day by day I go back to that little Valentine's thing it's not perfect but it's true as far as it goes and you preach the gospel to yourself day by day moment by moment Christ is our righteousness he's the one who can give us his deal for the glory of God and his exaltation because the more we see of him the more we see of our sin the more we see of our sin the more we see of the glory of Christ as we confess our sin the more we see the glory of Christ and the confession of our sins we have freedom and it kind of grows it's not a pyramid scheme it's a reality that's pray Lord Jesus we thank you for the gospel we thank you that you are our righteousness that that you supremely were committed to the glory of God in your perfect obedience and even going to the cross when you said to the father glorify me the hour has come glorify me that I may glorify you all the way you were supremely committed to the holiness of God's name to the just punishment of sin even win in your mercy it was for us oh the deep deep love of Jesus vast unmeasured boundless free may it be the ocean we swim in this day that the joy of the Lord would be our strength and the power to break the old habits and to live in the newness of life that you give make it so over Jesus Amen