Cease from man (Quality: Average)

[0:00] help we will speak again from the last verse in the second chapter of the prophecy by Isaiah. Second chapter of the prophecy by Isaiah verse 22.

[0:16] Sees he from there whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? He spoke the story mainly, as you know, from the latter clause, for wherein is he to be accounted of?

[0:37] And I trust saw something of the vanity of trusting in an arm of flesh, especially our own. In the previous verses, the prophet speaks on the way that the Lord brings about this, he said from there.

[0:56] And he says concerning this, that in that day the 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, and go into the cliffs of the rock and into the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty that he arises to save terribly the earth.

[1:30] Sees he from there. Sees he from there. If the butterflies Get down to wood are pronounced to be ripe.

[2:01] They are, or were, in the time of Israel, general public properties. But they were not allowed to be touched until the time came that they were ready.

[2:14] Then they were shaken down, not fixed. Children and adults would climb into the trees and shake the branches.

[2:25] The fruit would fall, and it wouldn't be injured by falling. That was the nature of the olive. That it did not hurt, like perhaps other fruit, falls and is bruised and eventually rocks.

[2:46] Not so with the olive. And so there is in this a lesson for us that there is to be a time of shaping. When the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth.

[3:05] The two such great times in the history of Israel, one of them was when the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai, as this twelfth of Hebrews tells us.

[3:21] The mouth that might not be touched. And God shook. And Moses himself said, I do exceedingly fear and quake.

[3:36] The majesty of God was heard, not seen, only by the prophet Moses himself. but the voice of the trumpet.

[3:46] But the voice of a trumpet. And that which instilled fear into the hearts of the multitude to such an extent that it became a proverb, that the Mount Sinai was a place of terror.

[4:04] From this, there came the voice of God in his command, as you know, and the children of Israel were ever reminded how the Lord came down on the Mount.

[4:21] So that this time of shaking, one would think, would be a time that would be accompanied with a tremendous amount of religion or worship. And that the people would be so prostrate in their fear that they would do nothing else but bow before this mighty tumult and this quaking earth.

[4:48] In fact, the exact opposite resulted. And the leader, Aaron Millow, is found making a golden calf.

[5:06] As for this Moses, we know not when she is. So that this shaping, quite clearly, did not bring with it vital approach to God.

[5:22] There was nothing at all but slavish fear. And that slavish fear was the outcome of God's kneeling stats at Mount Sinai.

[5:38] But nevertheless, it stood as a permanent reminder in the purposes of God that the day would come. and as we read in Hebrews, would shake not the earth only but heaven also.

[5:56] The firmament, that is, the star, the sun, the moon. Heaven and earth shall pass away that my word shall not pass away.

[6:10] Seeing then that all these things shall be removed, says Peter and others with him, giving the further proof of the great day of Christ's second coming.

[6:27] And there shall be such a shaking that everyone will be affected thereby, not to give them the Bible Godliness, not to instill it to them some fear that will provoke in them an earnest prayer.

[6:46] They shall fly to the rocks for the hills to hide them. John saw this in his revelation.

[7:02] And they shall call upon the mountains to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the Lamb.

[7:14] The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world. They will want nothing to do with it. They will know him not. They're not crying to him. They want to be hidden from him.

[7:27] This shaking will be a complete disaster for all who are out of Christ. The Lamb of God will be nothing to them.

[7:39] His precious blood they will never have known. His justifying righteousness will be anathema to them. But they will be a tremendous shame.

[7:53] So says God and as I said this morning the infinite kindness in giving us warning and so we are just like children you see.

[8:04] We can't grasp what this will be. We cannot really even mentally picture to ourselves what this great day of judgment will be but that it will be is a certain and yet as the children of war so are we.

[8:33] God's warnings are used of him as blessings so that the word is received tremblingly.

[8:48] This man will I look as poor and of a contrite spirit and a trembling at my word.

[9:00] And this is one of those great words of Jehovah which make his people tremble. I receive the truth of this in their hearts it is to be preached to them they are to be warned thereby that the day shall come when there shall be a tremendous change and it shall be instantaneous.

[9:28] There are several measures of speed in the scripture to give us some idea of that which is rapid quick fast and this one in particular is one of the most outstanding and that is this in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and you children can't even measure that and no instrument can but this is God's word to us of the change the great change now we are prepared therefore by these things by the changes in our lives and changes in our lives can come very quickly yes change as in the twinkling of an eye in a moment

[10:32] Joe felt that his life was faster than a weaver shuffle and that was I suppose one of the fastest things known now we would not like to mention in the pulpit measurements of speed today that are known and proved they are tremendous compared with the weaver shuttle but we've got these speeds the rapidity of his movement is tremendous so that that day shall come that unawares in the twinkling of an eye he will gather together his elect from the four corners of the earth and it will be accompanied with shaking this is related therefore to the first part of the teaching from that what shelters my dear friends are we going to do and we had for warning of the last great war what preparations were made for shelter and in the early stages of it what strange shelters from others were found in underneath the stairs many times did we shelter underneath the flimsy stairs yes what a shelter oh how friled and weak the course of time they became concrete steel reinforced and these shelters even proved kind they are still in this city closed in and all who perish in them what kind of shelter shall we need in the great day of hiding things as you said this morning shall we really need one that is the question perhaps you are asking is it true shall I really be in such a position as to need a shelter safe she from man is absolutely helpless it will be like sheltering underneath the stairs fragile proven to me futile not under your own righteousness and works lord we have done many things in thy name and in thy name we have cast out rebels to this jose and this piece of picture even the great blessing pronounced in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me even that falls short of the covering righteousness of pride that is set as a noble and gracious example to us all the cup of cold water always stands prominently in time no it will be a tremendous test and that test will be when

[14:43] God arises to shame terribly the other when the apostle comes over to the chapter that we read he speaks thus this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain and what are they idols for one thing silver idols beautiful silver idols the joy of Ephesus in her great day the great Diana the silver city it's not just a rough stone but something better silver valuable work of men's hands they shall suddenly cast them away what else gold even even more precious more valuable the greatest value that man knows upon earth and ever has now that they shall so regard them in that day that they shall cast them away they made them to worship that was their intention they have worshipped them the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the vaultiness of man shall be made low and the

[16:37] Lord alone shall be exhorted in that way let me say again it's a sweet thought to me how blessed thee the apostle Paul must have found these scriptures opened to him when God opened his eyes it recurs again and again in my preaching and I would continue with it that this dear man so versed in the Old Testament when grace began in his heart he saw it as an entirely different light in the meaning the spiritual meaning of it and it is this that he quotes from here as well as others he says that there shall something that shall remain what is wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace let us have grace look at the sweet gospel world look how the simple humble tossed tried guilty unworthy feeling and only feeling graceless sinners says lord give me that grace what a magnificently what gloriously does it compare with the silver idol does it compare with the idol of gold and is it not true to say that once you get a view of this sacred grace of god like

[18:31] Paul you cast your idols to the moles and to the bats they are as dumb and gross as he says in the third of Philippians I count them but down that I may win Christ there's a parting with these things you see under the shaking not a consternation not a making of a golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai not a finding some way whereby you can make some visual object to worship let us have grace see she from man this is the antidote this is god's blessed remedy for unworthy sinners grace more grace daily grace wonderful grace grace for every need and the

[19:37] Lord alone shall be exalted in that day is not that what grace does it never can possibly exalt the creature the possessor if you grace if I grace we cannot exalt in ourselves the very nature of grace is to humble the soul and exalt the saint the very nature of it it is this that brings the haughty city and the lofty tree down and strange though the experience is it is a consoling experience that ye through patience and comfort of the scripture the consolations of the gospel are found in such scriptures as these and the painful part is ceasing from man yet as I said this morning it is not a question of just leaving us there and saying well if you cease from man all will be well the

[20:56] Lord doesn't leave a vacuum now there is something far greater or blessed in its place and that is the unfolding of the realities of the Lord Jesus this ceasing therefore from man is not something to be feared but the lessons to it and the bringing down of the lofty looks of man and the life are all found in fact had I read the whole of this 12th of Hebrews as you know we have the way the Lord brings down our lofty look no chastening for the present seem as to be joyous but grievous than it is delightful oh how grievous our air of friction what bitter hearts grief sorrow anxieties we have each heart knoweth its own bitterness it cannot be put into words expressed it has to be carried felt

[22:28] God's trials are very marked in this particular way that his people have trials that they can't talk to anyone about I've long marveled at that over the years to see the peculiar nature of trials that you cannot confide in anyone immediately you can get a confidence or tell someone of your peculiar trial immediately you lose the keen edge of it but whilst that is carried in your own heart and each heart knoweth its own bitterness and you carry it alone as you will do how do you know how bitter it is and this is so true of

[23:29] God's correction the way that he brings man to cease from not only others but from himself it is grievous and the Lord doesn't say anything else and this great mystery of correction and discovering to you what you are and making it clear as the days go on bringing you into places where you are astonished at yourself and where you flee from self if you could and you understand the old puritan when he said oh that I had not of myself this trying position where one would gladly flee out of their own sinful selves are so clear as to its nature ultimate end death the same time these corrections and changes which the

[24:50] Lord brings are for their very purpose to make you sick of self and fond of him this must go together never divided any more than does this scripture from which we are quoting now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby here's the shaking in the exercise this is almost a denominational word I don't like the term altogether but really you know you don't hear a great deal about exercise outside of our little denomination exercise exercise what is you hear one say exercise you hear a young person say

[25:59] I'm exercise or perhaps they never say it they are her mind is tossed to and and concerned it's really a word very difficult to handle in the pulpit you older ones can remember when you first began this or this peculiar experience first began in you and you will know that far better found than spoken there is an exercise and this exercise is set out in this scripture nevertheless afterwards it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised their lives and this peaceable fruit of righteousness is the discovery of the

[27:15] Lord's purpose in this addiction in this testing in this trial and the Lord brings strange things into the lives of his people young and old and very bitter things sometimes that they may be exercised and that it may be a matter not merely in their own hearts no but between them and the Lord oh this is good exercise isn't it so you can't take everything to the Lord can you oh I can look back to those days when there were things in my life pleasures that I wanted to stick to hold to I used to say well they're not wrong and I once heard a very excellent test on this and it was this if you cannot cry about a matter there's something wrong with it and if you cannot take your exercise to the

[28:29] Lord something wrong with it there is an exercise therefore within and the outcome of this is the peaceable fruit of righteousness it's right it's ready but it's festive as I said of the olive berries they're not touched until they know to be ready and then they're shaken though with any of these blessings which the Lord gives his people they're trying shaken they're put the test the divine test you don't test it yourself you do not think of means and ways whereby you can test your own religion you'll be quite content just to sing as you've just sung brethrenly not too secure or let us ask the important question well you've sung it but if anyone said to you tomorrow what was that hymn you sung yesterday in chapel about the important quest you might have forgot by the while what is the important quest these things therefore are put in the sea and shaken which again brings to our mind another feature of God's shaken sifting

[30:18] Peter did realize this when Jesus said to him Satan has desired to have thee that he may sift thee as weak he neither grasped the significance of Satan's intention the divine foreknowledge that told him of it nor did he grasp the fact that he would be the very person that would be sifting and he passed the night clock but until it came about then then he realized the simple nature of that shaking and yet the terrible outcome of it God doesn't have to redhead and earth you know and make an earthquake to sift his people he can sift you with a very simple trial and a very simple circumstance oh you may say to yourself of the circumstance

[31:23] I didn't think that would do this to them and yet it's the stift and it shakes and it shook Peter he'd forgotten that there was something else too and that was this and when they were converted strengthen thy brethren there's going to be something in this sifting Peter that's going to be useful to other people and there was and you could read it in his own words you who are kept by the power of God there it is that strengthens the brethren that takes them off of all false hope and hiding vases you who are garrisoned as the margins heads garrisoned by the power of God the word comes from the psalm the angel of the

[32:30] Lord in campes there's the garrison round about those that fear it and when the Lord permits a breakthrough of that heavenly host of guardians as he did in the case of Peter Peter well he was sifted he was lost he was shaken be not surprised therefore at those things which bring you down into the dust to humble try you and exercise you but look for a good issue this is the great test everyone has trouble you can't look over your neighbor's wall or meet any friend in the street talk to them a little while without you find they've got some trouble the world is full of trouble but oh the great question is shall

[33:34] I come out of this affliction better than when I went in it shall I have gained some blessing profited by it this is where the reality of it comes although those who are exercised thereby the people whose hands need to be lifted up they hang down and the feeble need seize ye from man seize ye from man when you come to the personal experience of it then what good are you why you can't keep alive your own soul in you can't bless your own soul you can't bring a drop or a grain of comfort in your own heart you cannot form one good desire what good what use are you or am

[34:39] I in the matter of our own soul salvation cease from yourself as the hymn says cease from your own works bad or good is he right ought he not to have said cease from your own works bad and let the good out of it quite right the good works and on an equality with the bad ones when it comes to the righteousness of Christ there's no difference there is something superior to either good works or bad wash your garments in my life the apostle therefore looks to the feeble face and the hands that hang down solemn plight solemn plight so that those of us that know something about it know they are impotently helpless he called me as he said who is a

[36:04] Christian for these things as I quoted this morning the life that I now live I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself all me I am crucified with Christ he said that's the complete obliteration of Saul of Tartan and it was crucifixion neither was a slow lingering death to flesh and the being brought off of all arms of flesh and all creature health as you sang in your hymn he that trusts in his own heart acts a raw and foolish part and who's going to give us the grave let us have grave doesn't it sound like a thirsty soul isn't it the very desire of the hungry let us have grave daily grave that all that is promised all that is needed grave sufficient for the day this remarkable provision of

[37:33] Jehovah grave let us let us a favorite expression of the apostles let let us or let this mind be hidden or let us therefore fear this is the gentle approach of the gospel exhortation and for what purpose are we to have this grace whereby we may serve God except and how why with reverence and godly fear this is the point the purpose see she from man whose breath is in his nostril for wherein shall he be accounted of he wanting to have served god with reverence and godly fear he knows nothing about you know by nature reverence yes reverence in raw reverence wherein the lord works this greater reverence in the heart this careful approach this reverential fear let us have grace see she from man but look at the blessed reverence look at the exhortation which this is something to lift you up that's what an exhortation means suffer the word of exhortation the apostle says in the next chapter suffer the word of exhortation don't be offended listen to me teacher don't take it a bit

[39:40] I'm only declaring it for your good I know I'm setting you a task as if you could say but listen to me suffer bear with me that suffer the word of exhortation it needs some listening to you've got to live in this daily path in this world bear these crosses and losses these infirmities these deep afflictions but listen listen to me he says let us have grace whereby we may serve God who will arise one day to shake terribly the earth and not the earth only but also have a day of tremendous as man would say come out and as he said out in the revelations indescribable unthinkable almost but fair warning has been given by the

[40:57] Lord in the new testament as he gave in the old and we know that the old has come to pass so that the grand word stands over all creature efforts see she from man even yourself trust no longer in your own religion and the vanity of your own mind and the remedy is in divine grace now the living soul will see this it won't just glance off and be forgotten it will touch a cord in their heart and I doubt not with God's blessing some of you will be found even tonight praying just for this Lord give me more grace and it will comprise the temper of your heart's desire and it will be everything all that you will need for the pathway this will take you effectively won't it off of all your own efforts and determination you may have decided tonight that you're going to do something tomorrow that you're going to shall I say just to put it simply be dependent either are you are you asking for more grace you perhaps have got to mingle with the world tomorrow are you going to resolve this night that you'll keep yourself separate from it that you'll close your ears and eyes that you'll avoid that which you know to be wrong are you going to trust himself it may well be that this resolution is going to be shattered at your feet ere tomorrow evening come you're going to prove the palatty of it but if your heart is led into this scripture to cease from self and self resolution and to seek more grace there's every livelihood that your heart's desire will be fulfilled but you will not be the primate it will be grace so that this reverence and godly fear is associated with

[43:51] Paul's solemn ending for our God is a consuming fire again linked with this again as he speaks even Isaiah I mean of God's consuming fire in these days of prophecy when there shall be a burning up parting with oh the Lord help us who seek from their own works bad or good what our garment in his blood amen