Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 2:11

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 2:11. Be humbled — "שפל ושח shaphel veshach, read שפלו שח shaphelu shach." - Dr. Durell. Which rectifies the grammatical construction. No MS. or version confirms this reading.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Jerusalem as it should be and as it is (2:1-22)

God’s people always looked for the day when Jerusalem would be the religious centre of the world, where people of all nations would go to be taught the ways of God. In that day there would be no more war, but contentment and prosperity (2:1-4). (A note on the new Jerusalem is included in the introduction to Chapters 40-66, where the subject of Jerusalem’s future glory is considered more fully.) Such hope for the future is all the more reason why Judah should walk in the ways of God now (5).
But the people of Judah, instead of leading other nations to know God and enjoy his peace, follow the idolatry and superstitious practices of those nations. Instead of trusting in God, they spend much energy building up their wealth and increasing their fighting force (6-8). Because they proudly trust in their own achievements, God will bring them low. God alone is to be exalted (9-11).
Israel and Judah had always hoped for the time when God would give them victory over all their enemies. Isaiah warns them that before God acts against their enemies, he must act against them (12). All the things they proudly trust in for security, whether natural resources, defence fortifications or prosperous trade, will be destroyed (13-16). Neither arrogant self-confidence nor devotion to idols will save them (17-18).
People will see the worthlessness of the things in which they have trusted, and will flee in a last desperate effort for safety when the day of God’s judgment comes (19-21). They will at last see the uselessness of putting confidence in anything of human origin (22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"O house of Jacob, Come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. For thou hast forsaken thy people, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. And their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not. Enter thee into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah, from the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day."

This paragraph, despite its being addressed to the "House of Jacob" with an appeal for them to walk in the ways of Jehovah, is principally devoted to a recital of wretched apostasy into which the whole nation of Israel had fallen.

"Customs from the east" These were largely the idolatrous customs imported and adopted from foreign nations.

"Strike hands with the children of foreigners" This is a reference to business partnerships, marriages, and other types of fellowship with sinful and idolatrous nations. The extensive wealth, the reliance upon military strength, as indicated by the mention of horses and chariots, and the widespread idolatry of the people were all earmarks of Israel's apostasy; and the words "forgive them not" show that the apostasy of the chosen people had, at this point in their history, reached a status of hardening. This judicial hardening of Israel introduced here by Isaiah was a subject to which he would return later in the prophecy.

"A proud look," cited in Proverbs 6:17 as something that is hated by God Himself, is mentioned here in Isaiah 2:11, along with the haughtiness and arrogant looks of sinful men, such an attitude being common to sinful and rebellious men of all generations. Isaiah then referred to the fact that there would be a "day" when only Jehovah would be exalted. The mention of that day in Isaiah 2:11 seems to have set the tone for the third paragraph of this chapter.

As Hailey exclaimed with references to the last few verses, "What a lesson this should be to the godless, materialistic world of today."Homer Hailey, op. cit., p. 51.

"Their land also is full of idols" Isaiah used a word here for idols (Isaiah 2:8) which Cheyne translated not gods.T. K. Cheyne, The Prophecies of Isaiah (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1886), p. 18. It is the Hebrew word [~'ililim], which has also been translated "nonentities." Kidner also commented on this, saying that, "The word is a favorite of Isaiah, perhaps because it is identical with the word worthless."Derek Kidner, The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 593.

There is no reason to trust the guesses of scholars as to the date when various prophecies of Isaiah were written, because there is practically no agreement among the participants in such futile activity; but we do like the opinion of Payne who placed the date of this prophecy, "very early in Isaiah's career."David F. Payne, The New Layman's Bible Commentary, p. 771.

The mention of "that day" (Isaiah 2:12) has been recognized for ages as, "The world's judgment day;"T. K. Cheyne, Prophecies of Isaiah (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1886), p. 19. but there were to be many typical fulfillments, much more immediately, each of them in turn being a type of that eternal and cataclysmic morning when Almighty God in righteous anger will at last terminate the rebellious race of Adam in the final judgment, when he will arise and cast evil out of his universe! Archer understood this as follows:

"Here the immediate reference is to the historical judgments of the Assyrian and the Chaldean invasions. Not only Israel and Judah, but all the heathen nations of that age as well were to experience the crushing blows of disaster, as each successive empire rose and fell."Gleason L. Archer, Jr., op. cit., p. 614.

Throughout history, God has repeatedly judged and destroyed apostate, heathen, and degenerate cultures; and in each instance, whether stated or not, there is a foreshadowing, a type, for that terminal judgment of the Great Day, prophesied in Genesis 2:17. This lies behind the Saviour's prophecy of (1) the end of the world and (2) of the destruction of Jerusalem with one set of prophecies, the latter most certainly being a type of the former (Matthew 24). Furthermore, there is no need to doubt that, as time progresses, God will further execute his judgments upon excessively wicked and rebellious cultures until, at last, when the cup of human iniquity is full, there will fall upon wretched humanity the terminal judgment of Zephaniah 1:1-3, in which prophecy God said, "I will wipe this Adam off the face of the earth."

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The lofty looks - Hebrew ‘The eyes of pride,’ that is, the proud eyes or looks. Pride commonly evinces itself in a lofty carriage and supercilious aspect; Psalms 18:27.

Shall be humbled - By the calamities that shall sweep over the land. This does not mean that he shall be brought “to be” humble, or to have a humble heart, but that that on which he so much prided himself would be taken away.

The Lord alone ... - God will so deal with them as to vindicate his honor; to turn the attention entirely on himself, and to secure the reverence of all the people. So terrible shall be his judgments, and so “manifestly” shall they come from “him,” that they shall look away from everything else to “him” alone.

In that day - In the day of which the prophet speaks, when God would punish them for their sins, Reference is probably made to the captivity at Babylon. It may be remarked, that one design of punishment is to lead people to regard and honor God. He will humble the pride of people, and so pass before them in his judgments, that they shall be compelled to “acknowledge” him as their just Sovereign and Judge.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

11The loftiness of the looks of man ⁽⁴⁴⁾ shall be humbled Wicked men, relying on the wealth and quietness and prosperity which they at present enjoy, regard the threatenings of the Prophets with haughty disdain, and thus harden their hearts against God, and are even led to indulge in wantonness. 0n this account, Isaiah here determines, as we have already said, to repress their arrogance; as if he had said, “The time will come when this pride of yours, by which you vainly and madly contend against God, shall be brought down.” For wicked men, though they pretend to have some religion, are yet so daring that they raze against God himself, and imagine that they are higher than God. On the other hand, by thundering against them, he lays low their haughtiness, that he alone may be exalted.

And this is what we have already said, that when crimes are allowed to pass unpunished, it is a sort of cloud held before our eyes, which hinders us from beholding the glory of the Lord; but when he takes vengeance on men’s transgressions, his glory shines forth illustriously. This is also the reason which Solomon assigns why wicked men are hardened against God: it is because they think that bad and good men are equally happy in this world.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil, (Ecclesiastes 8:11;)

for all of them grow more insolent, and are more and more blinded.

But here he shows that, when proud men shall have been brought to their proper level, there will be nothing to prevent God from being acknowledged to be what he is. It was indeed highly becoming that the people should, of their own accord, humbly behold the greatness of God, under whose shadow they were defended; and for this purpose the posterity of Abraham was so remarkably distinguished by numerous blessings, that it might be the mirror of the glory and holiness of God. Isaiah now threatens that, because the Jews have risen up against him, God will employ a new method of exalting his glory, that is, by their destruction. When he speaks of lofty looks and loftiness, he employs an outward gesture to denote the inward pride of the mind; for sinful confidence almost always betrays, by the very looks, a contempt of God and of men. In the same sense does David describethe man whose eyes are lofty. (Psalms 101:5.)

(44) The lofty looks of man. — Eng. Ver.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

Now chapter 2 is introduced again.

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem ( Isaiah 2:1 ).

And now God takes him off to the future.

And it shall come to pass in the last days [or in the latter days], that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it ( Isaiah 2:2 ).

So Isaiah goes from the dark, bleak history and now he jumps forward to a day yet future when Jesus Christ the Messiah comes and establishes the kingdom. And the Jews, as the scripture said, will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they will recognize Him and they will weep over Him. Weep over their national blindness and their failure to recognize that He was their Messiah. And He will establish His kingdom there on the top of the mountains in Jerusalem.

Traditionally, it is felt that the top of Mount Zion will be the place of the throne of Jesus Christ in the Kingdom Age. And this is going ahead now to the Kingdom Age. All nations show flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he shall teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem ( Isaiah 2:3 ).

So the Bible tells us in other passages that the kings of the earth will come to Jerusalem to offer their gifts unto the Lord and to just have celebrations there.

Now who are the kings of the earth that are referred to here? Now you're looking at King Charles. In Revelation, chapter 1, as he speaks of Jesus Christ he said, "Unto Him who loved us, and gave himself for us and hath made us unto our God kings and priests," and we shall reign with Him on the earth. To the church he said, "He that overcometh will I grant that he shall sit with Me on the throne of My kingdom, even as I have sat down at the throne of my Father's kingdom. And they shall rule over the earth with a rod of iron." And then in Revelation chapter 5, as the lamb takes the scroll out of the right hand of Him who is sitting upon the throne when the prayers of the saints are offered before the throne of God, the golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of the saints they sang a new song saying, "Worthy is the lamb to take the scroll and loose the seals, for He was slain and He has redeemed us by His blood out of all the nations, tribes, tongues and people and hath made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign with Him upon the earth."

So actually, it's talking about you when it says, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths." Wouldn't it be exciting to go to Jerusalem and just sit down and let Jesus teach us for a while? You know that sounds so exciting to me. And that's just thrilling to me the concept and the whole idea to realize that we'll be having annual trips to Jerusalem just to sit there and to listen to the Lord expound the love, and the grace, and the goodness of God unto us. The law of the Lord. He will teach us of His ways. "For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD ( Isaiah 2:4-5 ).

Looking forward to that glorious day when Jesus is reigning and the military budgets are used for agricultural development, beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Last year over one trillion dollars were spent throughout the world forging swords and spears, weapons of war. Military budgets of the world totaled over a trillion dollars last year, and this year we're expanding our military budget. There are many who are warning that war is imminent. I have a personal friend who is a high-ranking officer who has kept in touch with me. He's back in the Pentagon right now going through briefings. And he said, "Chuck, we've never been closer to war before. We're on the verge." And he said, "Everybody is scared."

But a day is coming when no one is going to have to fear war anymore. We're not gonna have to fear mass destruction. You're not going to have to fear the exotic poison gases, neutron, hydrogen bombs. They'll study war no more; the war colleges will all be closed. The Lord will reign. Now this is the blessing that is to come, but before the blessing can come there is going to be some rough times.

Therefore thou has forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made ( Isaiah 2:6-8 ):

So the idea of man worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator is brought up here. Men worshipping the works of their own hands more than the Creator. What an apt description of humanism. And really, the materialism of the present day where man has placed his value upon the material objects, the works of his own hands rather than upon the Lord. God speaks of this time.

And the mean man bows down, and the great man humbles himself: therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low ( Isaiah 2:9-12 ):

Now this could very well be referring to the time after the exodus of the church, for when the church makes its exodus out of the world, it's gonna be a time of great world prosperity, for a time. At the beginning of the reign of the man of sin, people are gonna be singing, "Happy days are here again," because this man is gonna come in with a program of peace and of economic prosperity, and they will move in to take the wealth of the church that has departed. So they're gonna have this twenty acres and these buildings, my house, my car. They can have it all. And suddenly they're gonna have all this extra thrown in to the whole economy and you won't have the housing shortage in Orange County. There will be a lot of empty houses for people to move into. People can grab a second car, and they're going to really get into a real materialistic kick because of all of these things that have been left. But then, after three and a half years, then God is gonna bring down the proud; God is gonna begin to smite the earth.

For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and they will be brought low; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, those that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon the pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD ( Isaiah 2:12-19 ),

Remember in Revelation in the sixth seal it said and they cry unto the rocks and the mountains, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the Lamb, for the day of His wrath has come and who shall be able to stand"? Going into the holes of the rocks and the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord.

and for the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the eaRuth ( Isaiah 2:19 ).

God said, "Once more I'm gonna shake this earth until everything that can be shaken shall be shaken until only that which cannot be shaken shall remain." And all of these lofty works of man... Man, I wouldn't want to be in downtown Los Angeles when this shaking takes place; all of these lofty works of man brought low.

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; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the eaRuth ( Isaiah 2:20-21 ).

You read how that in Athens and Italy there after the earthquakes the people were living outside. They were afraid to go back into the houses because of the shaking and all. It would be the same experience only on a worldwide basis where people will be afraid to move back in the houses. And they would get a cave or something to live in for a while for fear of the shaking that is taking place as God once more shakes the earth terribly.

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils ( Isaiah 2:22 ):

In other words, don't trust in man. He has to breathe just like you do. Better to trust in God and put your confidence in Him.

for wherein is man to be accounted of? ( Isaiah 2:22 ) "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The results of trusting in people 2:5-22

This emphasis is a major one in Isaiah 1-39, and the prophet introduced it at this point. Many in his day-and this is still true today-preferred to trust in strong people, especially nations, rather than in the Lord.

The prophet’s first exhortation 2:5

In view of what the nations will do eventually, Isaiah appealed to the house of Jacob (Israel) to do the same thing immediately, namely: walk in the Lord’s light (presence and truth). Commit to following the Lord. This motivation is also applicable to present-day Christians (cf. Ephesians 5:8-20). Virtually all the commentators recognized that this verse is transitional. Some make it the end of the previous section and others the beginning of the next.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The proud and lofty people would eventually try to hide from God’s judgment of them when He exalts Himself in the day of His reckoning (see Isaiah 2:12). Having boasted in earthly resources (Isaiah 2:6-8), they now have only the earth to turn to (cf. Isaiah 1:24). Contrast the nations that the Lord will accept in the future (Isaiah 2:4).

"In preaching as he does here, Isaiah is going contrary to modern psychological theories which assert that it is unwise and even wrong to use fear as a motif in preaching and teaching. How different God’s appraisal of preaching! . . . The only way to run from God is to run to Him." [Note: Young, 1:122.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The effect of the problem: humiliation 2:10-21

Isaiah 2:10-21 are a poem on the nature and results of divine judgment. Note the repetition of key words and phrases at the beginnings and ends of the sections and subsections. This section breaks down as follows:

The Lord is exalted over man and the world (Isaiah 2:10-17)

The fact that the Lord is exalted and man is humbled (Isaiah 2:10-11)

The demonstration that the Lord is exalted over every exalted thing (Isaiah 2:12-17)

The Lord is exalted over idols (Isaiah 2:18-21)

The fact that the Lord is exalted and idols and man vanish (Isaiah 2:18-19)

The demonstration that the Lord is exalted and idols are exposed (Isaiah 2:20-21) [Note: Adapted from ibid., p. 57.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,.... Particularly of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, assuming that to himself which belongs to God; looking down with contempt upon, and behaving haughtily and insolently to all below him; blaspheming the name of God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven; he shall be humbled, consumed, and destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming, 2 Thessalonians 2:4

and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down; of the followers of antichrist, who have boasted of their wisdom and knowledge, of their number, power, greatness, and authority, of their wealth and riches, and of their merits and works of supererogation; their pride will now be stained, and all their glory laid in the dust:

and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day: in his divine Person, and in all his offices, and especially in his kingly office; he shall be King over all the earth, the kingdoms of this world will become his, he shall be the one Lord, and his name one, Zechariah 14:9 this will be in the spiritual reign of Christ, in the latter day, or last day of the Gospel dispensation, when the church will be exalted, as in Isaiah 2:2 and in the personal reign of Christ it will still more appear, that he, and he alone, will be exalted by and among his people, among whom his tabernacle will be, for then he will have no rivals; not only all rule, power, and authority among men, will be put down, and the beast and false prophet will have been cast alive into the lake of fire; but Satan, the god of this world, will be taken and bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and so remain during the time of Christ's thousand years' reign with his saints on earth: this passage is referred by the Jews u to the end of the six thousand years the world according to them shall stand.

u T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 31. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 92. 2. & 97. 1.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.   11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.   12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:   13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,   14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,   15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,   16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.   17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.   18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.   19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.   20 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;   21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.   22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

      The prophet here goes on to show what a desolation would be brought upon their land when God should have forsaken them. This may refer particularly to their destruction by the Chaldeans first, and afterwards by the Romans, or it may have a general respect to the method God takes to awaken and humble proud sinners, and to put them out of conceit with that which they delighted in and depended on more than God. We are here told that sooner or later God will find out a way,

      I. To startle and awaken secure sinners, who cry peace to themselves, and bid defiance to God and his judgments (Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 2:10): "Enter into the rock; God will attack you with such terrible judgments, and strike you with such terrible apprehensions of them, that you shall be forced to enter into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust, for fear of the Lord. You shall lose all your courage, and tremble at the shaking of a leaf; your heart shall fail you for fear (Luke 21:26), and you shall flee when none pursues," Proverbs 28:1. To the same purport, Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah 2:19. They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, the darkest the deepest places; they shall call to the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and rather crush them than not cover them, Hosea 10:8. It was so particularly at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (Luke 23:30) and of the persecuting pagan powers, Revelation 6:16. And all for fear of the Lord, and of the glory of his majesty, looking upon him then to be a consuming fire and themselves as stubble before him, when he arises to shake terribly the earth, to shake the wicked out of it (Job 38:13), and to shake all those earthly props and supports with which they have buoyed themselves up, to shake them from under them. Note, 1. With God is terrible majesty, and the glory of it is such as sooner or later will oblige us all to flee before him. 2. Those that will not fear God and flee to him will be forced to fear him and flee from him to a refuge of lies. 3. It is folly for those that are pursued by the wrath of God to think to escape it, and to hide or shelter themselves from it. 4. The things of the earth are things that will be shaken; they are subject to concussions, and hastening towards a dissolution. 5. The shaking of the earth is, and will be, a terrible thing to those who set their affections wholly on things of the earth. 6. It will be in vain to think of finding refuge in the caves of the earth when the earth itself is shaken; there will be no shelter then but in God and in things above.

      II. To humble and abase proud sinners, that look big, and think highly of themselves, and scornfully of all about them (Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 2:11): The lofty looks of man shall be humbled. The eyes that aim high, the countenance in which the pride of the heart shows itself, shall be cast down in shame and despair. And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, their spirits shall be broken, and they shall be crest-fallen, and those things which they were proud of they shall be ashamed of. It is repeated (Isaiah 2:17; Isaiah 2:17), The loftiness of man shall be bowed down. Note, Pride will, one way or other, have a fall. Men's haughtiness will be brought down, either by the grace of God convincing them of the evil of their pride, and clothing them with humility, or by the providence of God depriving them of all those things they were proud of and laying them low. Our Saviour often laid it down for a maxim that he who exalts himself shall be abased; he shall either abase himself in true repentance or God will abase him and pour contempt upon him. Now here we are told,

      1. Why this shall be done: because the Lord alone will be exalted. Note, Proud men shall be vilified because the Lord alone will be magnified. It is for the honour of God's power to humble the proud; by this he proves himself to be God, and disproves Job's pretensions to rival with him, Job 40:11-14. Behold every one that is proud, and abase him; then will I also confess unto thee. It is likewise for the honour of his justice. Proud men stand in competition with God, who is jealous for his own glory, and will not suffer men either to take to themselves or give to another that which is due to him only. They likewise stand in opposition to God; they resist him, and therefore he resists them; for he will be exalted among the heathen (Psalms 46:10), and there is a day coming in which he alone will be exalted, when he shall have put down all opposing rule, principality, and power,1 Corinthians 15:24.

      2. How this shall be done: by humbling judgments, that shall mortify men, and bring them down (Isaiah 2:12; Isaiah 2:12): The day of the Lord of hosts, the day of his wrath and judgment, shall be upon every one that is proud. He now laughs at their insolence because he sees that his day is coming, this day, which will be upon them ere they are aware, Psalms 37:13. This day of the Lord is here said to be upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up. Jerome observes that the cedars are said to praise God (Psalms 148:9) and are trees of the Lord (Psalms 104:16), of his planting (Isaiah 41:19), and yet here God's wrath fastens upon the cedars, which denotes (says he) that some of every rank of men, some great men, will be saved, and some perish. It is brought in as an instance of the strength of God's voice that it breaks the cedars (Psalms 29:5), and here the day of the Lord is said to be upon the cedars, those of Lebanon, they were the straightest and statliest,--upon the oaks, those of Bashan, that were the strongest and sturdiest,--upon the natural elevations and fortresses, the highest mountains and the hills that are lifted up (Isaiah 2:14; Isaiah 2:14), that overtop the valleys and seem to push the skies,--and upon the artificial fastnesses, every high tower and every fenced wall,Isaiah 2:15; Isaiah 2:15. Understand these, (1.) As representing the proud people themselves, that are in their own apprehensions like the cedars and the oaks, firmly rooted, and not to be stirred by any storm, and looking on all around them as shrubs; these are the high mountains and the lofty hills that seem to fill the earth, that are gazed on by all, and think themselves immovable, but lie most obnoxious to God's thunderstrokes. Feriuntique summos fulmina montes--The highest hills are most exposed to lightning. And before the power of God's wrath these mountains are scattered and these hills bow and melt like wax,Habakkuk 3:6; Psalms 68:8. These vaunting men, who are as high towers in which the noisy bells are hung, on which the thundering murdering cannon are planted--these fenced walls, that fortify themselves with their native hardiness, and intrench themselves in their fastnesses--shall be brought down. (2.) As particularizing the things they are proud of,in which they trust, and of which they make their boast. The day of the Lord shall be upon those very things in which they put their confidence as their strength and security; he will take from the all their armour wherein they trusted. Did the inhabitants of Lebanon glory in their cedars, and those of Bashan in their oaks, such as no country could equal? The day of the Lord should rend those cedars, those oaks, and the houses built of them. Did Jerusalem glory in the mountains that were round about it, as its impregnable fortifications, or in its walls and bulwarks? These should be levelled and laid low in the day of the Lord. Besides those things that were for their strength and safety they were proud, [1.] Of their trade abroad; but the day of the Lord shall be upon all the ships of Tarshish; they shall be broken as Jehoshaphat's were, shall founder at sea or be ship-wrecked in harbour. Zebulun was a haven of ships, but should now no more rejoice in his going out. When God is bringing ruin upon a people he can sink all the branches of their revenue. [2.] Of their ornaments at home; but the day of the Lord shall be upon all pleasant pictures, the painting of their ships (so some understand it) or the curious pieces of painting they brought home in their ships from other countries, perhaps from Greece, which afterwards was famous for painters. Upon every thing that is beautiful to behold; so some read it. Perhaps they were the pictures of their relations, and for that reason pleasant, or of their gods, which to the idolaters were delectable things; or they admired them for the fineness of their colours or strokes. There is no harm in making pictures, nor in adorning our rooms with them, provided they transgress not either the second or the seventh commandment. But to place our pictures among our pleasant things, to be fond of them and proud of them, to spend that upon them which should be laid out in charity, and to set out hearts upon them, as it ill becomes those who have so many substantial things to take pleasure in, so it tends to provoke God to strip us of all such vain ornaments.

      III. To make idolaters ashamed of their idols, and of all the affection they have had for them and the respect they have paid to them (Isaiah 2:18; Isaiah 2:18): The idols he shall utterly abolish. When the Lord alone shall be exalted (Isaiah 2:17; Isaiah 2:17) he will not only pour contempt upon proud men, who like Pharaoh exalt themselves against him, but much more upon all pretended deities, who are rivals with him for divine honours. They shall be abolished, utterly abolished. Their friends shall desert them; their enemies shall destroy them; so that, one way or other, an utter riddance shall be made of them. See here, 1. The vanity of false gods; they cannot secure themselves, so far are they from being able to secure their worshippers. 2. The victory of the true God over them; for great is the truth and will prevail. Dagon fell before the ark, and Baal before the Lord God of Elijah. The gods of the heathen shall be famished (Zephaniah 2:11), and by degrees shall perish, Jeremiah 10:11. The rightful Sovereign will triumph over all pretenders. And, as God will abolish idols, so their worshippers shall abandon them, either from a gracious conviction of their vanity and falsehood (as Ephraim when he said, What have I to do any more with idols?) or from a late and sad experience of their inability to help them, and a woeful despair of relief by them, Isaiah 2:20; Isaiah 2:20. When men are themselves frightened by the judgments of God into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth, and find that they do thus in vain shift for their own safety, they shall cast their idols, which they have made their gods, and hoped to make their friends in the time of need, to the moles and to the bats, any where out of sight, that, being freed from the incumbrance of them, they may go into the clefts of the rocks, for fear of the Lord,Isaiah 2:21; Isaiah 2:21. Note, (1.) Those that will not be reasoned out of their sins sooner or later shall be frightened out of them. (2.) God can make men sick of those idols that they have been most fond of, even the idols of silver and the idols of gold, the most precious. Covetous men make silver and gold their idols, money their god; but the time may come when they may feel it as much their burden as ever they made it their confidence, and may find themselves as much exposed by it as ever they hoped they should be guarded by it, when it tempts their enemy, sinks their ship, or retards their flight. There was a time when the mariners threw the wares, and even the wheat into the sea (Jonah 1:5; Acts 27:38), and the Syrians cast away their garments for haste,2 Kings 7:15. Or men may cast it away out of indignation at themselves for leaning upon such a broken reed. See Ezekiel 7:19. The idolaters here throw away their idols because they are ashamed of them and of their own folly in trusting to them, or because they are afraid of having them found in their possession when the judgments of God are abroad; as the thief throws away his stolen goods then he is searched for or pursued. (3.) The darkest holes, where the moles and the bats lodge, are the fittest places for idols, that have eyes and see not; and God can force men to cast their own idols there (Isaiah 30:22; Isaiah 30:22), when they are ashamed of the oaks which they have desired,Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 1:29. Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel,Jeremiah 48:13. (4.) It is possible that sin may be both loathed and left and yet not truly repented of--loathed because surfeited on, left because there is no opportunity of committing it, yet not repented of out of any love to God, but only from a slavish fear of his wrath.

      IV. To make those that have trusted in an arm of flesh ashamed of their confidence (Isaiah 2:22; Isaiah 2:22): "Cease from man. The providences of God concerning you shall speak this aloud to you, and therefore take warning beforehand, that you may prevent the uneasiness and shame of disappointment; and consider, 1. How weak man is: His breath is in his nostrils, puffed out every moment, soon gone for good and all." Man is a dying creature, and may die quickly; our nostrils, in which our breath is, are of the outward parts of the body; what is there is like one standing at the door, ready to depart; nay the doors of the nostrils are always open, the breath in them may slip away ere we are aware, in a moment. Wherein then is man to be accounted of? Alas! no reckoning is to be made of him, for he is not what he seems to be, what he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be. Man is like vanity, nay, he is vanity, he is altogether vanity, he is less, he is lighter, than vanity, when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. "2. How wise therefore those are that cease from man;" it is our duty, it is our interest, to do so. "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest and mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived and depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds. Let not him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are subject and subordinate; dread his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your help, and let your hope be in the Lord your God."

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

Infallible Sign of Revival

November 12 , 1876 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Isaiah 2:11

In the eternal past the Lord alone was exalted. When He dwelt alone of ever the earth was, and when He commenced the mighty works of His creation, and the universe sprang into being at the fiat of His unhindered will, He alone was exalted. He made multitudes of creatures; perhaps we have no idea how many of them there were, and in what varied forms intelligent beings were created; but the Lord alone was exalted. Every angel adored Him: every creature knew its Lord. It was an ill day when there broke out a rival spirit, and when evil began to set up its throne in opposition to the God of good. The leader of the angels-- the light bearer, sought to erect a rival throne. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning" Isaiah 14:12 . Then, by and by, in process of time, upon this world God's glory was dimmed; here, too, another spake and was believed, and God was doubted. Another claimed man's love and gained it, and God was disobeyed; on earth no longer was the Lord alone exalted as He had been in the quiet glades of Eden when our first parents worshipped none but God, and counted it the very cream and flower of their being that they might serve the Most High who had made them what they were. New, look where we may in this poor, fallen world, the Lord alone is not exalted; but there are lords many and gods many-- spiritual wickednesses and principalities of evil-- which set themselves up in opposition to the great King of kings and Lord of lords. Yet as surely as Jehovah liveth, He will win the victory in this conflict. Ere the drama of the world's history shall come to a close, it shall be known throughout the entire universe that the Lord, He is God; and the Lord alone shall be exalted. It is a part of the work of grace-- nay, it is the main object of the work of grace, and it is an object also of the work of providence to subserve this great end-- that the Lord alone shall be exalted. For your comfort and for your instruction then, first, notice the occasions when my text has been true. I shall take the text out of its connection, not, I hope, unduly, and show that on a large scale there are several days in which the Lord alone has been exalted, and then we will come back to a little quiet meditation and look into our own experience to see whether there have not been days with us when the Lord alone has been exalted. I. Come then, first, and notice WHEN THE LORD ALONE HAS BEEN EXALTED ON A LARGE SCALE. The Lord alone has been exalted among men whenever He has been pleased to reveal Himself in the plenitude of His power. The revelations under the law were mainly revelations girt with terror. Under the Old Testament dispensation you find God coming out of His place to shake terribly the earth. When He bows the heavens and comes down, the mountains flew at His presence. The Lord alone was exalted in those days when He vindicated His justice and displayed His power against His enemies. Remember the flood when, after so many years of warning, the ark being prepared for the salvation of the believing few, God was pleased to draw up the flood-gates of heaven and to bid the cataracts of earth leap upward instead of downward, till over all the face of the world there was nothing but one mighty all-devouring wave. When in majestic silence the ark floated over the bosom of the world which had become the grave of Jehovah's creatures, then the Lord alone was exalted in that day. And when men had multiplied again upon the face of the earth, and His people had gone down into Egypt; you know well the story, how proud Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" Exodus 5:2 . Then Moses came and with many strokes of his mystic rod he afflicted the fields of Zoan, he turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. He spake and the flies came, and the frogs and the locusts, and that without number; yea, the Lord smote all the first-born of Egypt, the chief of all their strength, and in that night, when a cry went up from every Egyptian household, and the people of Israel were led forth like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron, the Lord alone was exalted. Then the nations knew that Jehovah wrought His will among the sons of men. Nor was that all. When in their desperation the Egyptians pursued the Israelites into the very depths of the sea, the Lord burned and looked upon them and troubled the host of Pharaoh and took off their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily, when the sea returned in the fullness of its strength, and the depths had covered them until there was not one of them left, then Miriam's song, "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously" Exodus 15:1 ,Exodus 15:21 , was but an exposition of our text, "The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" Isaiah 2:11 ,Isaiah 2:17 . Time would fail me to tell forth all His mighty works, nor is there any need for me to recapitulate the records of the book of the wars of the Lord, "for the Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name" Exodus 15:3 ; and when He cometh forth to battle, then the Lord alone is exalted in that day. May we never live to see a pestilence sweep through this land! But should such a visitation of God come upon us, then will our houses of prayer be thronged and men will begin to cry unto the Most High. May we never hear the noise of war in our streets! If such a calamity should befall us, and the Lord take the sword of war out of the scabbard, men will begin to learn righteousness. May He be pleased to have mercy upon us and lead us by gentle means to glorify His name. Were He to come in judgement then would the spirit of atheism and of idolatry, which now with brazen faces dare confront the gospel of Christ, betake themselves to darkness in which they were begotten. When the Lord comes forth in terror then is He alone exalted. Let us change the theme now, and see, too, how whenever God comes forth in his great mercy His name alone is exalted. The day when the infant Church of Christ gathered in an upper room and sat there, all its members being of one heart and of one soul, and the Lord revealed His grace by the baptism of the Holy Spirit - when was heard the sound of the rushing mighty wind, when the tongues of fire sat on the disciples-- when they began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance, and thousands were added to the Church, that was a day when the Lord alone was exalted. Was there any whisper on that day of honour to be given to Peter, or to John, or to James, in the Church of God? Think you there was any trace of the spirit that could say, "I am of Cephas," and "I am of John"? Ah, no. The name of the Lord was very precious to His people that day. They gave glory to the Lord both in the temple and in their own houses, eating their bread with gladness of heart. Only let the Lord show Himself in great blessing, then He alone is exalted. Behold, His enemies fly before Him because of His grace. Well, brethren, it will be even so by and by also "in that day" of which we were reading just now with so much delight, when "the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it" Isaiah 2:2 . There is to come a day when Christ shall be known and loved of every land. When the dwellers in the wilderness shall bow before him and His enemies shall lick the dust. I am not going into any details or prophetic descriptions of the millennium, but we do expect a day when the gospel shall win its way over this whole globe, and the poor world, instead of being swathed in mist and fog, shall come out of the cloud of her unbelief and out of the darkness of her sin, and shine like her sister stars at the feet of her great Creator. In that day the Lord alone shall be exalted. You will hear no more of the name of Pope, or Patriarch, or great religious leader receiving the chief honour; no great name set in the front of a section of the church shall be shouted in that day; the Lord alone shall be exalted. So again it will be when yet 'farther on in human history the end shall come, when you and I and all of woman born shall stand before the dread tribunal of the last great day; then shall the Lord alone be exalted. There shall be no pomp of kings before that great white throne: there shall be no glare of riches there before the prince of the kings of the earth: honour and fame were so feverishly sought and so highly prized by the sons of men, shall melt away then like the fat of rams. Kings and their serfs, princes and their subjects shall stand together. There shall be no idol gods in that day, nor shall men receive homage of their fellows, but while the earth shall be reeling to its doom, and the heavens themselves dissolving, the Lord alone shall be exalted. Jehovah's great and glorious name shall fill all ears and His majesty shall impress all hearts. May we be found in Christ in that great day! The Lord grant it for His mercy's sake. II. Now, in the second place, I am going to talk to you on humbler topics, endeavoring to bring our subject down to our own experience and to see WHEN THE LORD ALONE HAS BEEN EXALTED ON A SMALLER SCALE. When it is written, the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, we may understand that what is true on a great scale is equally true on a little scale in God's kingdom. He works according to rule, so that if you split up some great crystal of His providence into as small fragments as you please each fragment shall be found to be crystallised in the same form. So, if in the grand events of history God is to be exalted, you will also find that in the little world of your own experience-- in the history which is only recorded in your own pocket-book-- in the story of your own life-- that God is exalted too. Brothers and sisters, many of you already know, and I pray that others here who as yet do not know it may be brought to know it, that there have been red-letter days in your life when the Lord alone has been exalted. One of the earliest of these blessed days was when you first had a sense of sin. Ah, I had no thought how black I was until that day. I had never dreamed how corrupt was my heart, how vile my nature, how desperate my condition, how near the borders of hell I stood, till then. There came at length that day, in which the light of God shone into my soul and I saw the evil of my state, the danger of my condition, and the horrible rottenness of my whole nature even to the very core. Do you remember such a day in your experience, beloved brethren? I know you do. Oh, what a withering day it was. Your flesh is grass, and do you not remember when the grass withered, and when the flower thereof faded away because the Spirit of the Lord was blowing upon it? Surely the people is grass. Do you recollect when you perceived in your heart a new rendering of that old passage, "And we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away, when you found your righteousness to be only a fading leaf and the strength of your passions to be like the wind that took you right away and carried you-- you knew not whither? You seemed to be like a sear leaf blown away in a tempest of sin. Before that, you had thought yourself to be very fine; very few were more respectable or honourable than you; if you had not many glittering virtues, yet you felt you had no degrading vices; there was much about you that others might imitate, and if people did not respect you, you felt very angry; you felt they ought to pay great deference to such a one as you were, But you did not feel like this on that day-- not on that day! No. In that day you threw your idols to the moles and to the bats; you wanted to forget that you ever thought you were righteous; you felt ashamed of even your most precious golden idol-- your self-righteousness; you wanted to disown it, and you were afraid anybody should remind you that you ever worshipped it. It seemed such a horrible thing that you should ever have talked about acceptance before God by your good works. Good works! The very thought seemed a sarcasm on God, an irony of the devil. Good works indeed! Your prayers, your tears, your church-goings, your chapel-goings, all seemed like so much dung.' You understood Paul's strong language that day, your own righteousness was as offensive to you as his was to him. You put all your old hopes away with abhorrence. Oh, I know what happened to you, the Lord alone was exalted that day. If anybody had preached a sermon that day about the dignity of human nature, you would have been inclined, like Jenny Geddes, to throw a stool at his head. If anybody had talked that day of the great things man is capable of, and of virtue that still remain in him after the slight mischief of the fall, you would have felt indignant at such infamous falsehood, for God had stripped you bare of all your glory. In that day you felt yourself to be cast into a ditch, and your own clothes abhorred you. But, oh! if any one had preached of the splendour of the great God that day, of the infinite majesty of His holiness, and of His justice, you would in silence have bowed your head and shed tears of contrition which would have been the best form of adoption from your penitent heart. If they had begun to preach the amazing mercy and the love of God in Christ, your heart would have leaped to hear the very sound of it, for there are no two things that ever so sweetly meet together as an empty sinner and a full Christ. When a soul sees itself it has got the eye with which to see Jesus. He that can see his own deformities, shall not be long before he sees the Lord's unspeakable perfections. In that day of self-humbling, and cutting away, and casting down, I know the Lord alone was exalted in your soul. Well, then there came another day in your experience which is very sweet to remember, the day when you saw Jesus hanging on the tree; when you put your trust in him and knew that he had taken away your iniquity and blotted out your sin. Oh, I do remember that day, it was my best marriage day and birthday too; the day when I knew that sin was gone and gone for ever. How bright the cross shone that day! How bright were the eyes of Jesus, and how fair his wounds! Ah, the Lord alone was exalted that day. Had anybody preached to me of the power of sacraments and the magic of priests, I had abhorred them in my inmost soul, and I would have spoken my horror of the thought of giving the glory of the Lord to another. When the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin, where is the dastard that dares ask me to let him wash me and to let him put away my sin for me? The blood, the blood of Jesus hath taken all our guilt away, once and for ever; and woe betide the man that dares to stand up and put himself side by side with the all-cleansing Christ! That was how we felt. The Lord alone was exalted in that day. We fell just the same today. I am sure if people knew the power of the blood of Christ they could never become slaves to the superstitions of men. If they felt the force of being justified by faith in Jesus Christ they would be like Martin Luther when he sprang from his knees on Pilate's staircase, never to go another step in the weary round of man-made ordinances. What have we to do with these beggarly things when Christ our Lord has set us free and saved us for ever from the wrath to come? A sight of thy cross, O Jesus, makes the priests topple down like Dagon before the ark, and the sacraments that once were trusted in, to be despised if placed side by side with thee. Thou alone are exalted in that day. Since then we have had some other very happy days. The life of a Christian has many illuminated letters in it. Our roll is not written within and without with lamentation. We have high days and holidays, and there are times of nearness to Christ which hardly dare to describe here. I could venture to talk of them to two or three choice friends that know the secret of the Lord, but these things are not for all ears. These are days when we realise the meaning of the Song of Songs, and bless God that ever the book of Canticles was written, else there would have been in the Bible no expression for our ardent love to Christ. On such days we say with rapture, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth" Song of Solomon 1:2 . "Thy love is better than wine" Song of Solomon 1:2 . "He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love" Song of Solomon 2:4 . "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love" Song of Solomon 2:5 . "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me" Song of Solomon 2:6 . "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please" Song of Solomon 2:7 ; Song of Solomon 3:5 . Read Rutheford's letters if you know the secret beforehand; if not, they will be an enigma to you, even as the Song of Solomon must always be. This much we may say, when Christ draweth us near to him, "The Lord alone is exalted in that day." When he wraps us in his crimson vest and shows us all his name and saith, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I have graven thee on the palms of my hands" Jeremiah 31:3 , O brethren, "the Lord alone is exalted in that day." Then self has gone. We cry, "I am black but comely;" and the blackness strikes us as much as the comeliness that Christ has put upon us. We sink into nothing at his feet. The manifestation of his glorious love makes us cry like Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" Job 42:5 . The Lord alone is exalted in that day. Well, you know, brothers and sisters, that after some of those high flights, when we have been on the top of the mount of transfiguration, we get exalted above measure, and then we have to be humbled. It is a wretched confession to make, but God's people know how true it is. We wander from the Lord, and for a while He leaves us to ourselves, when we exalt ourselves. But return from our wandering, then the Lord alone is exalted in that day. You know how, perhaps, there have been weeks of estrangement between you and your Lord; He has been jealous of your heart, and you have been cold to him; you have gone perhaps into the world with too worldly a spirit, and the sweetness of His word has departed from you, and His voice is no longer heard in your soul. Then you begin to cry, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit" Psalms 51:12 . You know what it is to cry:

"What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, How sweet their memory still; But now I find an aching void The world can never fill." "Return, O holy Dove! return, Sweet messenger of rest! I hate the sins that made thee mourn And drove thee from my breast."

Ah! when you get your prayer answered, then the Lord alone is exalted in that day. Do you know what it is to go creeping to the mercy-seat where once you used to go so boldly; to go there with many tears and with much shame when you used to go with a radiant face, and yet to find your Jesus waiting there? Do you know what it is to turn to the grand old book that once you used to read with sacred glee, and look there for a sinner's promise such as might suit a broken heart, and to find it come home with just the old power, tall the bones which had been broken began to sing again, and your heart once more was joyous in the presence of your Lord? Ah, then I know your own beauty has been turned to ashes and all your comeliness has disappeared, for when the Lord restores a soul that soul also restores the Lord to His proper place, and the Lord alone is exalted in that day. But at this rate my time will all be gone before I am half through my story. Let me therefore hasten to say, dear brothers and sisters, that the Lord is exalted when a church begins to sigh and cry for the Lord's presence. I hope that the power of the Lord is not forsaking us in any measure here, but it is my fret, my jealousy, lest He should in any wise depart from us-- lest the spirit of prayer should go from us-- lest love to souls should leave us and there should not be abundant conversions in the School and in the ministry, and everywhere around our borders. Should such a time of dearth over come to us, it will be a grand thing when a church can get together and begin to groan and cry for the Lord to return in power. When a church fools it, must get a blessing - I hope we are feeling it now - in proportion as that desire grows into an agony, the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. The preacher will feel, indeed he does feel every day more and more, his own unworthiness and inability for such a work; every other worker will, in proportion as the desire for God's glory shall increase, feel himself to be less and less and still less and less in his own esteem. Oh, when we once come to wish for souls, nobody cares about being important, nobody wishes to be in the front; everybody wants to be there if he can serve God, but he does not want any place of honour, or court any badge of distinction by which he shall be known. A church in agony for souls wants only to see men converted, and she does not care how or by whom the work is done so long as the people are but brought to Christ. Then is the Lord alone exalted. When the blessing comes; and it is a notable day when it comes-- when the word is with power and men are stricken down and begin to cry for mercy-- when the inquirers are many and the converts are multiplied, and God blesses each brother and each sister with success in soul-winning-- oh, then at such times the Lord alone is exalted. I do believe that whenever God sends prosperity to the church and of the members of the church begin to ascribe the success to themselves, the blessing is almost sure to go. God will not bless proud workers. If you are going to have a part of the fish for your self, you may cast the net where you like but you shall take nothing; but when you are fishing for your master he will fill your net to the full. I often think - and therein am I glad in days of sorrow-- that when God means to bless any one of us, He generally lowers us into the very dust. When we are willing to be nothing, then the Lord alone is exalted in that day. If you that are cooks were about to serve a dinner, you would not use a dish, I am sure, until first of all you had cleansed it. You would first wipe it right out, then you would set it on the shelf, and when you wanted a goodly dish with which to serve up goodly meat, you would reach down the empty dish that you had well wiped, would not you? Some of us do not get quite wiped out of our last success, and so we have no more. We still retain a flavor of our last self-congratulation, and so the Master will not use us. When He puts us in hot water, makes us see our filth, and then wipes us right out, and we perhaps are inclined to say, "Lord, I am good for nothing now," we shall be more likely to be of some service to Him. Perhaps He will put us on the shelf for a while. He can easily do that with some of us; a little twinge of pain and sickness, and we are useless. We seem to say, "Lord, what am I but an empty, cracked dish?" Ah, but then he comes and takes us down and use us, and that is worth waiting for. I always expect a greater blessing when there is greater soul-humbling among us. Would not you be glad to be humbled, dear brother, if God would use you more as a consequence? Today I saw as I went home sores old crocks and broken bricks and pieces of all sorts of earthenware put by the side of the road because the road is going to be widened, and I thought to myself, "If the Lord would only use me as an old broken crock to help to make a roadway for Him to ride through London, so that He might be glorified, I would be glad to be thus honoured. Do not you feel so too? Well, perhaps he will take you at your word some of these days. Brother, if God humble you in order to use you, you may not like it as much as you think you will, but still that is how we should demean ourselves. We should be willing to be anything, or to be nothing, according to His will. When Christian men feel they must live to the glory of God somehow, I know there is a blessing coming-- ay, that the blessing has come, for then the Lord alone is exalted. When the man of God says, "I must not live any longer for saving money or simply to bring up my children respectably, or to get a subsistence for myself," then the Lord is exalted. And when Christian men feel that they cannot live for a party or for a section of the church, but that they must live for God and Christ, and for the pure word of the gospel, and that everything else must go overboard except that which is for the glory of God, then we may be sure that the Lord has amongst us, and that He is working mightily. Behold, these are the signs thereof. When He has insulted all pride, dimmed all human glory, and magnified Himself, then indeed we have times of refreshing from His presence and the Lord alone is exalted in that day. Now I have almost done. But I want you to notice that there is a day coming; it will come very soon to some of our venerable friends around me: it will come very soon-- perhaps quite as soon-- to some of us in middle life who are still in health, the day when we shall be called to go upstairs, because the Master has a message for us. When we read the message, it will say, "The time has come for thee to gather up thy feet in thy bed and to meet thy father's God." O brothers and sisters, the Lord alone will be exalted in that day if we be indeed His people. I fancy I see the dying minister when they bring up to him his sermons. Can he glory in them? He says, "I bless God that He enabled me to preach his truth. `Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,' but I cannot glory in these." If you shall bring up to him the number of his converts, and shall tell him of the churches that he built up, and the places that he has evangelised; I will tell you what he will say, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" Galatians 6:14 . There take the best saint among us and put him on the borders of Emmanuel's land, and let him hear the bells of heaven ring out the never-ending Sabbath: listen whether he will talk about himself or about the little church to which he belongs as if it were the whole Church of God. Oh no, no, no, a thousand times no. On the borders of Emmanuel's land all the glory is to the Lord alone. Redeeming blood, love, effectual calling, persevering grace,-- all these will be sung about, but there will be no songs about ourselves or aught else but God, when we come there. Mother, are you making an idol of that babe? You will not be able to do that when you come near your departing hour. Christian man, are you making an idol of anything you have in this world? It will be utterly abolished then. Anything wherein you are trusting and finding comfort will fail you then. The Lord alone will then be your stay and your song! The Lord alone then! If you feel the bottom as you wade into the river, you will feel that it is good. But, by and by, you will be where there is no bottom; the river will be a river to swim in, and then will you want to know that underneath you are the everlasting arms. If you are sure of this you will take that mighty plunge as when a swimmer stretches out his hand to swim, and you will be in glory in a moment. And, beloved, when we get into the glory, the Lord alone will be exalted there. What a difference will come over us in the matter of those little things wherein we glory now. Petty trifles sometimes lift us up very high. Oh, how loftily we carry our heads sometimes, poor fools that we are, because of this thing in which we are superior to some fellow worm, or that thing in which we have not erred as some other man has done. But oh, up there, up there, up there, all harps will be for Jesus! All the vials shall be full of odors for Jesus. Harps and tongues, voices and strings, all for the three-one God; all for the Lord alone. Free grace begins to teach. us here that God alone mush be exalted, and when we have learnt that lesson, well then, glory will come in to cap the whole and make us feel that it were absurd even to imagine that any person or any thing could share the glory with the infinite majesty of God. There, now, I have done. Only I would ask you this-- Is there one here that will not give God all the glory? If so, dear brother, you cannot be saved. Salvation may almost hinge upon this question,-- Art thou willing to be saved so that the Lord alone shall be exalted in thy salvation? Art thou willing no more to trust in thy good works, thy prayers, thy tears, thy feelings, or anything else of thine own, but to come and trust in the finished work of Jesus, and give thyself up absolutely and entirely to be his. Art thou willing to be his servant, his property for ever, that henceforth thy only glory may be in his dear name, thy only boasting in his cross? If so, he accepts thee and he will save thee, but if thou must have the glory then thou shalt not have the salvation. Where then will thy glory be? He that glorieth in himself shall perish, but he that will glory only in the Lord shall live for ever. God bless you, for Christ's sake. Amen.