The Upside-Down World Put Right

Isaiah chapter 2, verse 6. You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob.! They are full of superstitions from the east.

! They practice dimination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. Their land is full of silver and gold. There is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses.

There is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols. They bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. So man will be brought low and mankind humbled.

Do not forgive them. Go into the rocks. Hide in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty. The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low.

The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted.

And they will be humbled for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains, and all the high hills, for every lofty tower, and every fortified wall, for every trading ship, and every stately vessel.

The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day and the idols will totally disappear. Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he rises to shake the earth.

In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold which they had made to worship. They will flee to caverns and the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he rises to shake the earth.

Stop trusting in man who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he? God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Suppose you woke up tomorrow morning and found that everything was upside down. So when you went out and you looked up, there you saw the green grass and trees and houses and cars and highways and people.

Where you looked down where the earth used to be, you saw a blue sky and clouds and airplanes and birds flying. You would say something is wrong.

This isn't the way it was supposed to be. It's upside down. And man's pride has done something just like that.

He's taken what is high and made it low and taken what is low and made it high. He's turned the world upside down. God, the high and holy one, who is high and lofty, exalted over all, whose thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways, higher than the heavens or above the earth.

And man's pride has brought that God right down. Isaiah will say, God will complain in chapter 29, you turn things upside down as though the potter were thought to be like the clay.

And so, you bring God right down in your world. And whereas man is low, what is he? He's just a creature with a breath in his nostrils. And a sinful one at that.

Rebellious against God, who now needs grace. And our rightful place is low. Prostrate before the Lord.

Walking humbly with our God. That's where we belong. But man's pride has turned things upside down. Not only does it bring God down, but it lifts man up to where he thinks more highly of himself than he ought to.

So we live in an upside down world with man up and God down. And all week long, you hear men use God's name in vain as if he's a nobody.

They bring him down. And they live lives as if he doesn't exist. And they bring him right down. And me, man, I'm right up at the top. And I live for myself.

Not for him. So the world is turned upside down by man's pride. But there's just one problem.

And it's that God is still on his throne. He's still high and lifted up. Man's pride cannot really bring God down.

That's only something that happens in his thoughts and in his behavior. But God is still on his throne and he has a day in store for man's pride when the pride of men will be brought low and the Lord alone will be exalted.

Now that's chapter two of Isaiah. And in this text today, God warns us of the folly and destructiveness of trusting in man, of human pride.

He's so kind. He's out to spare us the eternal humiliation and destruction that is coming to man's pride.

So we're back 700 years before the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. And the opening words of verse six tell us that God has abandoned his people, Judah.

As for this generation of Judah, they are abandoned. We've just seen in the first five verses, as you remember from last week, a glorious vision of what Judah will look like after her makeover by God.

But this passage jerks us right back into the reality of what she looked like in Isaiah's day. And we see here what was wrong with her.

Why God has abandoned Judah. God says it's because she's full of self-sufficient pride, trusting in their own insights and ingenuity and resourcefulness and achievements, relying on their own ability to control their own destiny.

All without me. Now, is this not man's proudest achievement to declare his independence from God? We've grown up.

We've come of age. We no longer believe those medieval thoughts about the world and God and man. No, we've got this, that and the other thing.

And so we don't need God. He is dead and we're getting on just fine without him. Well, that was Judah. Under King Uzziah's long 52 year reign, the nation had grown and been enriched.

She had known the glory years, great prosperity. They had amassed great wealth and power in the region. So here they are. It's a land full of three things.

Verses seven and eight tell us they're full of silver and gold. There's no end to their treasures. And there's nothing that money can't buy. So they thought we can buy our way to happiness.

We can get what we want in life by our wealth. We can get the best doctors, the best pleasures. The ease that we are after.

And they put their trust in riches. They thought riches will give us what we need. We don't need God. We have riches.

In money we trust. Sound familiar? And it was not only full of silver and gold.

It was full of horses and there's no end to their chariots. This was their military might. This was their defense, their protection. The latest in weaponry to defend against the threat of surrounding nations coming in and destroying their enjoyed way of life and their riches, their ease.

We don't need God to defend our way of life. We have a strong military. Sound familiar?

And the land was full of idols. Things their own hands and fingers had made. In other words, it's man-made religion.

The land was full of it. You see, these idols are just one more expression of this self-sufficient pride. It's just one more variation of trusting in man.

It was thought that through idol worship, the pagan gods could be manipulated to give the worshiper what he wanted. Did I want rain on my crops? Then I performed some offering of worship to this idol.

Do I want healing for my family? Then I performed some idol worship trying to manipulate the gods to give me what I want.

You see, if I do this, they will do that. So idolatry is just another way that man tries to be in control of his own destiny.

I don't need God. I've got idols to get what I want. A way to find the good life on my own without this God of Israel.

Verse six says they were full of superstitions from the east and they were practicing the divinations of the Philistines who were to the west. So think of this statement in the light of the opening prophecy of this chapter, what we saw last week.

That in the end, in that that the last days, God is going to have all the nations going up to Judah to learn from Judah the ways of the Lord. And now here is Judah in Isaiah's day going to the nations to learn their pagan ways.

The world is upside down with man on top and God on the bottom. They're conforming to the world that lives in proud self-sufficiency.

See, we don't need God. We have all that man can give. I have wealth to get what I want. I have a military to protect what I have and I have idols to control my destiny.

What more could a man need? And what they all have in common, wealth, military and idols, is that they're just variations of man. It's human wealth.

It's human defense. It's human religion. Man-made religion. It's all about man on top.

Man proudly trusting in himself instead of living humbly independence upon God. I'm the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

So man's pride declares independence from God. And modern man is no less adept at the ways that we try to control our own destiny, try to find the good life, try to protect my good life and do it all on my own without God.

Judah is full of the best that man could get. She had everything the world says is important, but she was without God. He had abandoned her.

He had abandoned her. Because they had put man in his place. So how will she get on? She's got everything the world says you need.

So how's it going to go for her? She's got the world's formula for success. How will she do? Well, she's headed for a great and humiliating fall.

Now, there's something we need to know. And it's this, that man's pride is obnoxious to God. It is. It's just downright obnoxious to God. Proverbs 6, 7, 16 and 17 says there are six things, even seven, that the Lord hates.

Things that he cannot stand. Things that are an abomination to him, that are detestable, that are obnoxious to him. And on the top of the list is proud looking eyes.

Proud looking eyes that come from a proud heart. You've seen them, those eyes that look so proud. God hates them. And they're even obnoxious to you.

You've been watching a movie and in that movie there's some obnoxious character. He's so arrogant. He's so proud. He thinks that the world ought to bow down to him and revolve around him.

He thinks that he is it. He lives with this high opinion of himself and he looks down on others. And as you watch the movie, something is happening inside of you. Something inside of you, perhaps everything inside of you is wanting to see him fall flat on his face and and eat some humble pie.

And if you find man's pride that obnoxious, what must it be to the holy, holy, holy God to see man put him down and himself up in his place?

It's obnoxious to him. It's offensive to him. There's something in the very nature of God that recoils against it, that when he sees a man lifting himself up in pride, he instinctively moves to bring him down.

Some of you, when you get around cats, you your eyes instinctively begin to water. You don't tell them to water. They just it just happens. They water and your nose starts running and you'd find it hard to breathe.

It's something that instinctively happens when God is in the presence of human pride. His very nature instinctively recoils against it.

It's something he takes very personal. And it's not hard to see why, because man's pride puts himself where God alone ought to be. It strikes at his own glory, it robs him of the praise and he will not share his glory with another.

So the Bible tells us God opposes the proud. He's against the proud. It's a military word of taking up battle for my formations. God sets himself in battle array against the proud.

If you're going to be proud, you're going to have a battle on your hands with me, God says. He's not indifferent to pride. He sets himself to bring the proud down.

And he knows how to do it, as we saw in the book of Daniel, that proud King Nebuchadnezzar, who would be the very instrument to bring Israel down. God brought him down.

And he tells us those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. When pride lifts a man up, God will put that man down.

So the Lord Almighty, verse 12, the Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted, that's lifted up, and they will be humbled.

Now, notice Isaiah speaks about a day in store, a day reserved on God's calendar, just like you have a date in a week's time or three weeks or five months, whatever, and you mark it on your calendar.

There's a day in store for the proud. Now, he refers to that day four times in this section. That day, that day. It's a reference to the day of the Lord.

It's a common theme of the prophets to speak about the coming day of the Lord. It's a day when God himself will appear in glory to judge and to put things right.

Now, the Israelites just presumed that when that day came, things would go well for them. After all, we are the children of Abraham.

We are the covenant people of God. So all the bad things that the prophets are saying about the coming day of the Lord, well, that must be for our enemies. It can't refer to us, they presumed.

And Amos, the prophet, had to get in their face and say, you're wrong. That day will not be a day of light, but a day of darkness for you. And Isaiah is saying the same thing here.

You will not escape destruction in that day. That day will be a bad day for you, Judah. Notice. Verses 19 and 21 emphasize that it will be for them a day of dread, of terror from the Lord and the splendor of His majesty when He rises to shake the earth.

And we look down and there's a hole in the ground and there's a man down in that hole. And we say, what are you doing down there? Oh, I'm scared to death of this glorious God, the one who is high and lifted up.

He's come in judgment. And they'll try to hide in the rocks and caves and holes in the ground from the dread of the Lord when He rises to shake the earth.

It's clearly man's pride that is God's target on the day that He is prepared. So, folks, if you are humble, you have nothing to fear on that day.

But even now, the proud have the red dot of God's laser on their forehead. He sets Himself against the proud and has a day to bring them down.

The day of the Lord. The self-sufficient are marked for judgment. Twice it says the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. So that means anyone else who's exalted themselves are not going to be there anymore.

The Lord alone. Man's exalted himself. But in that day, man will be low. God will be high. And that's the way it's supposed to be. The blue sky up there and the green grass down here.

God high, man low. He's going to turn the world right side up on the day of the Lord.

Now, this humbling day of the Lord would first come when the fierce Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar would come and demolish Judah and take them into captivity.

The remaining captives into Babylon. And these supposedly self-sufficient people would would try to hide in the rocks and and the holes in the ground, but they would find no refuge from the Lord.

Who was on the side of Babylon in that fight. And they would find that all their wealth. Was worthless in the day of wrath.

And they would find that the horses and chariots are mere flesh. And are no competition for God, who is spirit. When he lifts up his hand against them and they would find their idols to be the worthless nothings that they'd always been.

And so they would trash them in the caves. You say, but they're made of silver, precious silver and gold. These are the precious things for which they forsook God. Because through idols they could get what they wanted.

Where are they now? They fling them aside to the rats and the bats as they flee for their lives. Seeing that these things. Offered no help.

Nothing that they trusted in would be of any help in the day of the Lord. The day of God's wrath. Death. And then how their pride would be deflated. Now, as we read about this day of the Lord, if we're careful in observing, we notice that the language swells beyond just Judah being humbled.

And we realize that it's not something limited to Judah. But that the day of the Lord is also a day of humbling for the whole earth. Verse 12 says it's a day in store for all the proud and lofty.

Not just proud Jews. For all that is exalted. And the following list of either symbols of man's pride or illustrations of what man takes pride of.

These stated things are not restricted to high things found in Judah alone. Notice verse 13. It's a day in store for all the cedars of Lebanon.

Tall and lofty. And all the oaks of Bashan to the northeast. For all the towering mountains and all the high hills. Not just those in Judah.

For every lofty tower. Every fortified wall in which men trust. For every trading ship and every stately vessel.

We think of the Titanic which was boasted to be an unsinkable ship. Every stately vessel. There's a day in store for all that man takes pride in.

It's the pride of generic man and of all mankind that will be humbled in verse 9. And twice it says that on this day the Lord will rise to shake the earth.

God doesn't come and shake little Judah alone. He's coming to shake the whole earth.

In a cataclysmic universal humbling of all mankind. Yes, Judah will be humbled.

She will have her own localized day of the Lord. In 587 BC. Nebuchadnezzar's army came and destroyed Jerusalem. And the temple. And the Jews.

And took the remaining back into Babylon. And they did it. The Romans would do it again in 70 AD. Another day of the Lord. When the Lord drew near in power and glory to judge.

But those localized judgments of Judah are simply forerunners. And pictures of what will happen on the final day of the Lord. When the Lord appears in power and glory to judge.

Every high thing will be brought low. When he rises to shake the earth.

And that's why when reading Matthew 24. And we find Jesus talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. And the temple in 70 AD. And you keep reading. You realize. No, now he's talking about the end of times.

And the final judgment. And he mixes the two. Because the one is a picture of the other. The day of the Lord for Judah. Is a picture of the way it will be.

In the final day of the Lord. For all that are proud. And the prophets often speak of these two things together. The localized judgment upon Judah.

And its deeper fulfillment of the day of the Lord at the end of the age. They'll be running to the rocks.

Say, where do we read that? Isn't it Revelation chapter 6? That picks up this very theme. And speaks of a day. When those, not just from Judah.

But those from all the earth. Will hide in caves. And among the rocks of the mountains. And they will call to the mountains. And call to the rocks. Saying, fall on us and hide us.

What's so fearful? Why are you in the hole? Why are you so terrified? Hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne. And from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of their wrath is come. And who can stand? It's not just something for Judah. God is going to humble all of human pride.

Wherever it is found. And folks, that's what brings us into Isaiah chapter 2. That's what brings us into the picture. The Lord has a day in store for us.

And the important issue is not, how are you getting on today? Israel was fine. She was full of money. And horses and chariots. And idols. And you may say, I'm getting on just fine.

All on my own. Without God. I'm doing pretty good. That doesn't matter a thing. What matters is, how will you fare in the day of the Lord?

When the Lord appears in power and glory to judge and put things right. How will you fare then? When he rises to shake the earth.

And the thing that he's after is human pride. Human pride. That day, not this day, is the test.

Are you ready for that day when man's pride is targeted? When everything that can be shaken will be shaken. And everything that is high will be brought low.

Those who are low need fear no fall. Because they're already low. When God rises to shake the earth, it's the tall buildings that are in danger.

Not the sandbox. So humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. That he may lift you up. But Judah's problem is our problem.

Our pride is what turns this world upside down with us on top and God down. And that's never more clearly seen than when the high and holy God visited our planet in the person of his son.

Jesus is God in the flesh. And look what man did to him when they had him where they could get their hands on God. What did they do to God when they could get their hands on him?

Well, they rejected him. He's not worth living for. He's not worth having. He's not worth serving. He's not worth listening to. And they cried, crucify him. He's not fit to live.

That was our estimation of this high and holy, lofty king. We brought him down. Down to the shameful death of the cross.

There's many ways that we declare our own independence from God. Ways in which we say, I don't need him. I can handle this myself.

We show it by our own prayerless spirit, don't we? We just head into things leaning on our own understanding. Leaning on our own resources. But the deadliest of all self-sufficient pride is that which refuses to trust in Jesus Christ.

To save you. It says, I don't need this savior. I'm pretty good myself. I have enough good deeds to outweigh my bad deeds.

I'll be okay in the day of the Lord. I'm not so bad that it took the damning of God's own son to atone for my sins. That's somebody else out there.

That's not me. I'm a good guy. I go to church. And I try to treat my neighbor as I would want to be treated. And it's all just so much of reeking self-sufficient, self-righteous pride.

But on the day of the Lord, they'll find that all their works of righteousness are what? Like filthy rags. Obnoxious to God. And they won't have anything to cover them in the day of God's wrath.

When God's setting out to target self-sufficient human pride, those who trusted in their own good deeds will be the first to be ashamed, humiliated, destroyed.

How much that men cling to in religion today is nothing but man-made religion.

Their own works of their fingers. What they do. Totally unable to help them in the day of God's wrath. So I ask you, are you ready for the day of the Lord?

Have you totally renounced any merit of your own? Nothing in my hands I bring. I don't trust in what I've done. I trust only in what Christ has done. You see, that's to humble yourself.

And the Lord will lift you up. But man's unbelief is the height of arrogance. Maybe you've never thought of it that way. Just not believing in Jesus is the proudest thing you'll ever do in life.

God sends his one and only son into the world. Oh, what a son. He's my delight. He's the perfect Savior. And he lived a perfect life. And he died a death that you needed to be, that you would have died eternally.

And he's a perfect Savior. He perfectly meets your need. And God offers him to you. And you just say, no. What a proud thing. What an arrogant thing to say, no.

I don't need this Savior. I don't want this Savior that you sent. God has a day when pride is going down and every knee will go down and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

To the glory of God the Father. That's the way it's supposed to be. Every knee down. And God exalted. God lifted high. But say, you know, there's a gracious humbling that's going on now.

Before that final day of the Lord. It's a gracious humbling that happens through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wherever the gospel goes. What does it do?

It humbles man's pride. And it exalts God alone. Isn't that the way it happened with you? The gospel came to you.

Found you proud. Self-righteous. Going your own way. Enthroning yourself as God. God was down here. But the gospel humbles man's pride and exalts God alone.

In Acts 17, Paul and his missionary band took this man-humbling, God-exalting gospel to the Thessalonians. And the opposing proud Jews there threw the city into an uproar with the charge that these men have turned the whole world upside down and they come down here to do the same.

It would have been more correct to say that they put the whole world right side up. It was already upside down. Thessalonians. You had man on top and God on the Bible and the gospel came along and it turned the world right side up.

That's what the gospel does. Did you know that the gospel was intentionally designed to do this very thing? To lift God up and put man's pride down?

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. It's by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of works. So that no one can boast.

Salvation is not by your works, as we heard Pastor Jason tell us from Romans 4. It's by grace that you're saved. You don't deserve it. You deserve hell. It's an unmerited gift.

You can't work up to receive this gift. It's pure gift. And you receive it through faith. Faith is not some religious work that you do.

It's the empty hands held out to receive Christ and his salvation. As a free gift. There's no human works in that.

Why did God design the gospel to be by grace through faith? Well, he tells us at the end of that verse, so that no one should boast.

God wants to save sinners, but only in a way that humbles man's pride and elevates his worth. So he does it. By the gospel of grace.

And Paul says, if you had salvation by your works, well, then you would have reason to boast. But since you don't have reason to boast, there's nothing in you that merits this salvation.

And he says, look at those whom God has chosen to save in First Corinthians one. There weren't very many wise people in the world's eyes. Not very many influential power brokers of society.

Not very many of royal birth. The upper crust of society. No, God intentionally chose to save the foolish. Why?

To shame the wise. And he intentionally chose to save the weak. To shame the strong. And he chose to save the lowly and the despised nobodies to shame the somebodies.

All with this purpose in mind. So that no one may boast before him. Did you know that God planned the gospel? With that aim in view.

That it excludes boasting from every lip. It's all by his provided savior. And so the gospel finds men proud and self-righteous and self-sufficient.

Leaning on themselves. And it humbles them. With a sense of their hell deserving pride. And they take God's side in the argument. And they have nothing good to say for themselves. They condemn themselves.

I deserve wrath. My life deserves God's punishment. I cast myself completely upon mercy. God be merciful to me a sinner.

And if you save me. It won't be because of anything good I have done. It will be because of all that Christ has done for helpless sinners. And we're taking God's side you see.

We're humbling ourselves. We're exalting him. That's saving faith. That's the faith by which a man lives. And has the righteousness of God put to his account.

And so to be humbled now is to be exalted by God. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up. Isn't God good to humble the proud now?

And not just wait till the final day of the Lord? Isn't it good that he sends his gospel to bring men down now? That they might be saved everlastingly.

What obnoxious proud people we were. It's amazing that God didn't just consign us all to hell. Because of our pride. But he so loved proud obnoxious people.

Proud arrogant boys and girls. That he sent his one and only son. Who humbled himself. From God came down to earth and became a man.

Took our flesh. And humbled himself to go to the cross. Do you know what that means? That means he the humblest man who ever lived. Took our obnoxious pride on himself.

And then took our pride to the cross. The place where God in glory judges. The day of the Lord came near at Calvary.

And there God judged our obnoxious pride in his own humble son. That we proud sinners might not perish but have everlasting life.

And you know everyone that that happens to. Are stamped. With a new character.

They're humble. It's the humility of Christ. Haven't you seen that? Christians. Are stamped with a humility that is not their own. By nature they're proud.

As proud as anyone else. But there is a humility born. In the heart. That embraces Christ and the gospel. You see they can't get over the fact.

That they have sinned against this. Holy holy God. And yet he would have mercy on them. Yes. They're struck by. The fact that God is so holy. And they are so sinful.

But they're struck even more. By the gospel. That God so loved. Obnoxious proud sinners. That he gave his son. To be humbled.

To be humiliated. In order that we might be lifted up. To heaven itself. Well we come to the final plea. Verse 22.

The end of this section. Just as at the end of the last section. In verse 5. There's a personal plea. That's given to us. In the light of what has been said. Here's the personal plea. Verse 22.

Stop trusting in man. Right away we see what this whole section has been about. It's not been about idols. And money. And this and that. It's all been about man.

And trusting man. Instead of trusting God. So here's the word. Cease from man. Stop from man.

Be done with man. Give up on man. Why would you trust him anyway? He's not worth relying on. Man who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

He's a mortal dependent creature. He can't keep himself alive. Why would you trust him? He's only got a breath in his nose. And he'll only keep on living.

If God gives him his next breath. Did you know that? I'm going to die in a few seconds. Once my breath. Is done.

If God does not give me another. And now I have the breath in my nostrils. And I can speak again. And I can live again for a while.

But I'm going to die again in a few seconds. If God does not give me another breath. And he's given me another.

And what will I use this breath for? Will I live it for me? Or him? Will I put him up? Or me up? And I can only say I don't need him with the breath that he puts in my nostrils.

But he gives me another breath of grace. Says come on. Quit trusting in man. Stop it. Don't go that way.

It ends in destruction. I've got a day in store. I'm going to shake the earth. Every proud. High. Thing. Brought down. Come and humble yourself now.

And I will lift you up. Judah stands on the page as an example to us. Will we learn from Judah? To not put man where God belongs.

Will we learn from Judah to stop trusting. In man. And trust only in God. And in his son Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Oh Lord.

When we remember what we are. As we see ourselves in Judah. We see that we are the proud. We are the self-sufficient. And we thought we could live without you.

Thank you for your grace in the gospel. To wake us up in time. In this life. To our abject helplessness. That none of the things we trust in.

Will be able to save us from your wrath. On that great day of the Lord. Thank you for the Lord Jesus. That you've provided. Who can save us.

From your wrath. Because he bore that wrath. At Calvary. So that all who are in him. Are in the one place. In the whole universe. Where there is no more condemnation.

Teach us to treasure him. How good you are to us. Our father. How blessed we are. Are to belong to that kingdom. That cannot be shaken.

Thank you. For the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to make. Our boast about him. Help us to make. Our life. About him.

Indeed. Our breath. Whatever we do with the life you give us. To exalt you. Who alone is worthy. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Long. Long.