Now let's turn in our Bibles
to Ezekiel chapter 30. As we continue our study through
the book of Ezekiel, the prophecy of God through the prophet Ezekiel,
the prophet in captivity. We're talking about God's pronouncement
of judgment against the nations here. Because of their rebellion,
their failure to acknowledge Him and His people. their unbelief,
their idolatry, their sin. These Gentile nations that he's
talking about are a perfect picture of man fallen by nature, aren't
they? Of us by nature, fallen in Adam. In our natural state, without
God, without Christ, without his grace, left to ourselves. That's what these nations picture. And what I want to talk to you
about here in chapter 29, I said 30, but we're going to look at
29 is Jesus Christ the horn of Israel
Jesus Christ the horn of Israel and I took the title of the message
from the last verse of this chapter look at the last verse it says
in that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to
bud forth and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the
midst of them They shall know that I am the Lord." Now that
word horn, as you know, in the Old Testament, a horn signified
strength and power. And the horn of the house of
Israel, that's none other than a prophecy of the Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the horn of Israel, the horn
of salvation, the horn of His people. And we'll talk about
that. But first of all, go back to Verse 1 of chapter 29. The next four chapters of Ezekiel's
prophecy as he concludes judgment against the nations. Continue
God's judgment against the nations with His judgment upon Egypt
and upon Pharaoh. Look at verse 1 of chapter 29. He says, In the tenth year, in
the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of
the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, talking about the
prophet, set thy face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy
against him and against all Egypt." So this is a judgment upon Egypt
and Pharaoh, Pharaoh being the representative of the nation,
this Egypt, and he says, he shows us that like all tyrants, all
human tyrants, all human despots, under the power and control of
Satan, Pharaoh was drunk with pride. Look at verse 3. Speak
and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee,
Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon, that lieth in the midst
of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have
made it for myself. Talking about the Nile River.
That great river that ran through Egypt. That was the source of
their life. The source of their water. And Pharaoh lifted himself
up and said, This is my river. This is a river that I've made. See, Pharaoh, just like all these
ancient tyrants, claimed to be a god or claimed to be God. And
so what does God tell him? Look at verse four. But I will
put hooks in thy jaws, that great dragon, or some people say that
was referring to the crocodile, which was common in the Nile
River. So just like a fish getting hooked. He said, I'm gonna put
hooks in thy jaws. I will cause the fish of thy
rivers to stick into thy scales, And I will bring thee up out
of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall
stick unto thy scales. In other words, that's a prophecy
showing that Pharaoh is going to be subject to the judgment
of God, but also all the fish in that river representing the
whole nation of Egypt. Verse 5, he says, I will leave
thee thrown into the wilderness. thee and all the fish of thy
rivers, thou shalt fall upon the open fields, thou shalt not
be brought together nor gathered." In other words, there's not going
to be a conglomeration or a configuration or a union of people here against
God. They'll be scattered. He said,
I've given thee for meat to the beast of the field and to the
fowls of the heaven. So that's what God tells him.
I'm going to bring you down. Preaching this through the prophet
Ezekiel. as he's in captivity in Babylon,
speaking to the Jewish captives. Now, why is it so significant
that he bring judgment upon Egypt? Well, as you know, Israel had
a long history with Egypt. We all know the story about Joseph,
who was sold into slavery, went down into Egypt, and how, by
God's sovereign providence, how Joseph was second in command
to Pharaoh because God gave Joseph the gift of interpretation of
dreams. And all of that, all of that
wonderful providence that is recorded in the last part of
Genesis to show how God was going to save His people, how He was
going to, how He was going to preserve the Hebrew nation through
that. And how He brought out Joseph,
that type of Christ, Joseph was a type of Christ. Joseph who
went down into slavery and suffered and came out, you might say a
king in a sense, is a type of Christ, our Savior, who became
incarnate, who made himself of no reputation, who came to this
earth and subjected himself to the derision and the ridicule
and the and all the cruelty of sinful mankind represented through
both Jew and Gentile there. And he did it for the purpose
of dying on the cross to save his people from their sins. And
he was buried, he died, he was buried, he rose again. He rose
as the king of his people. And so we see that. All of that
is all connected, you see. Pharaoh, then later on after
Joseph died, there was another Pharaoh come along and he turned
them all into slaves. And he also introduced the Hebrew
nation to idolatry. Where do you think they got the
idea for the golden calf that they erected when Moses was up
on Mount Sinai? But what was strange about it
is that even though Egypt generally treated the Hebrew people cruelly,
for some reason the Hebrew people were always running back to Egypt
for help. And I think you have a perfect
picture there of the natural man's desire for bondage. The bondage of the law. Man loves
salvation. Man by nature now loves salvation
by works. That's bondage. Man loves the
law because he thinks he's better than he is. He thinks he can
be righteous by what he does or by what he chooses. That's
what the Bible teaches. But man cannot. Now that's bondage,
but man loves it. You think of the number of people
who flock to false religion. Even false religion that comes
in the name of Christianity today, that is no more than a cleverly
disguised system of works. They call it grace, but it's
not grace. It's Christ plus something. Christ plus baptism. Christ plus
their free will. Christ plus their works. Christ
plus their perseverance. Whatever it is, it's always Christ
plus something. It's never Christ alone. And
that's bondage. But man loves it. Well, here's
Israel. Look at verse 6. It says, And all the inhabitants
of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been
a staff of reed to the house of Israel. Now, if you're going
to get a staff, a stick to lean on, you're not going to want
one made out of a reed. Because it's bendable. And it
won't hold you up. And here the Hebrew people were
always running back to Egypt for safety, for help. And what God's saying here is
that they're going to know that you're a staff of reed. You're
not going to help them. And he says in verse 7, When
they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break and rend,
you broke, all their shoulder. And when they leaned upon thee,
thou breakest and madest all their loins to be at a stand. In other words, they couldn't
walk. They couldn't move. Now, this prophecy of Egypt's
destruction did not happen immediately. In fact, most scholars agree,
and I agree with this based upon what I've read. It didn't really
come about until about 17 years later after Ezekiel spoke this
prophecy. 17 years later, now that's what
verses 8 through 12, look at it. Therefore, thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off
man and beast out of thee, and the land of Egypt shall be desolate
and waste. They shall know that I am the
Lord, because he hath said, The river is mine, and I may see
God's bringing destruction. And what happened about 17 years
later, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took the Egyptians into
captivity. And he took him into captivity
for about 40 years. Look at verse 12. He says, I'll
make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries
that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid
waste shall be desolate 40 years. And that was the exact amount
of time that the Egyptians were brought into captivity. Beginning
there at verse 13, going through verse 16, there's something interesting
here. Now listen to this. After 40
years, the Egyptians were allowed to return to Egypt, but not as
a world power, not as an empire, but as what the Bible here calls
a base, a low people, a low kingdom. Look at it, verse 13. Yet thus
saith the Lord God, at the end of 40 years will I gather the
Egyptians from the people whether they were scattered. And this
took place when The Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes
and the Persians He said I will bring again the captivity of
Egypt. That means return them to their land. I Will cause them
to return into the land of path rose into the land of their habitation
and they shall be there a base Kingdom a low king you're gonna
bring them down and he said it shall be the basis of the kingdom
the lowest and Neither shall it exalt itself any more above
the nations, for I will diminish them. I'm going to take the starch
out of them. He says that they shall no more
rule over the nations. There won't be an empire. There
won't be a conquering nation, a powerful nation. And he said,
it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel. Israel
won't turn again to Egypt, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance. Bring up that bondage, their
sin, their idolatry. They turned to Egypt and that's
all it did. Was bring back up the sin and the idolatry and
the rebellion. When they shall look after them,
but they shall know that I am the Lord. I want you to turn
to the book of Isaiah. Chapter 19. I'll show you something
interesting. I start to say, you may remember
when I preached through Isaiah, this passage, but I know you
don't remember back that far. But here's what it is. He said
the Hebrew children, they turned to Egypt and all it is is a reminder
of their old sin, their idolatry, their bondage of the past. Not
that they weren't in sin and idolatry even now. That's why
they were in captivity. But his point is this, is that
for his people, their confidence, their hope is never to be in
man. Their confidence, their hope,
their safety, their security is never to be found in chariots
and horses and human kingdoms, especially one like Egypt, idolatry
and sin. Their confidence, their hope,
their security is always to be in the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob alone. It was our confidence today for
salvation. is not to be in anything, any
of us, anywhere but Christ and Him crucified and risen. Now
that's the point of this whole thing. But what's interesting
about this is you see God bringing this proud Pharaoh and this proud
nation who at one time was feared as a conquering nation a powerful
nation and he's bringing them down to the lowest of nations
and there's a prophecy in Isaiah and you may remember as we read
through this but just a few passages look at verse 18 of Isaiah 19
I want you to listen if this is a prophecy of God through
Isaiah and he says in that day shall five cities in the land
of Egypt speak the language of Canaan now In other words, they're
going to talk like the people of God. And swear to the Lord
of hosts. Now to swear to the Lord of hosts
in that sense means to worship the Lord of hosts. Lord of hosts
means the Lord of a great army that cannot be defeated. One
shall be called the city of destruction, and literally that's the city
of the sun. And verse 19, in that day there shall be an altar
to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at
the border thereof to the Lord, and it shall be for a sign and
for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For
they shall cry unto the Lord because of their oppressors.
He shall send them a Savior and a Great One, and He shall deliver
them." Look at And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians
shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto
the Lord, and perform it. And the Lord shall smite Egypt,
he shall smite and heal it, and they shall return even to the
Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. You see that? Now what was that
talking about? that's talking about god it's
talking about in the gospel age that's what he's talking about
is the future in Isaiah's time the gospel age when god's elect
will be called out of egypt even out of egypt you see god has
a people out of every tribe kindred tongue and nation and what does
he do when god calls his elect out of sin out of bondage out
of idolatry, what does he first do? He sends his spirit to do
what? His work of conviction. And what does it do when we are
convicted? We are brought down from our
pride, from our self-righteousness, from our claims of salvation
and brought down to the lowest of the low, just like this whole
nation was. What a picture of salvation you
have there. Egypt being brought down from
a proud self-righteous, idolatrous people to the lowest of the low. And then when you couple it with
that prophecy of Isaiah, you see that God has a people out
of that nation that He's going to bring to Christ. That's what
He's talking about there. He's going to bring them to Christ.
You mean even Egyptians? Yes, even Egyptians. You mean
even Americans? Yes, even Americans. God has
a people. out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. He chose them before the foundation
of the world. He gave them to Christ. He sent
the Son of God into the world to become incarnate, to walk
this earth as their substitute in surety, and that's who He
died for. And He redeemed them from their
sins. And He's sending the Spirit through the preaching of the
gospel to bring them to Christ. That's what He's talking about,
conversion of God's elect in gospel times, even those out
of Egypt. We'll go back to Ezekiel 29.
Well, beginning here at verse 17, God allows and enables Nebuchadnezzar,
after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Tyre, you remember Tyre or Tyrus,
we read about that in the last few chapters, to conquer Egypt. And He even calls Egypt the reward
of Nebuchadnezzar's labor in working for the Lord. Look at
verse 20. Listen to how the Lord puts it. I'm talking about Nebuchadnezzar
here. He said, I've given him the land
of Egypt for his labor wherewith he served against it because
they worked for me, saith the Lord God. Nebuchadnezzar, that
heathen, idolatrous king, was working for the Lord and he didn't
even know it. Now that's the sovereignty of
God. That's God working all things after the counsel of His own
will to accomplish His purpose. And it's not dependent upon man.
You see, today's religion presents God as being dependent in some
way on man. And that's the reason they have
a salvation that's conditioned on man. But that's not the way
of the gospel. That's not the way of the scriptures.
Listen, this man Nebuchadnezzar was serving the Lord and he didn't
even know it. Now, he didn't mean it for good.
He didn't mean it for God's honor. He meant it for his own selfish
purposes. Remember what Joseph told his brethren when he revealed
himself to them? They were afraid Joseph was going
to put it on them. Remember what Joseph said? He
said, don't fear. He said, you're fine. He said,
God has put me where God wanted me. Now, you meant it for evil. But God meant it for good to
save much people alive. Now Nebuchadnezzar, everything
he's doing here, he means it for evil, selfishness. He's trying
to get all he can get. He's trying to get all the power
and make a name for himself. But God's using him ultimately
for his glory. That's the sovereignty of God.
And God is not the author of sin. Now you can't explain that
and I can't either. But don't deny God's power and
sovereignty in order to get it focused in your puny mind or
my puny mind, because that won't work. The Bible says what it
says. God's working here. Well, right
at the end of this, he brings this prophecy in verse 21, in
that day. Now, what day is he talking about? Well, there's a lot of argument
about that. But he's talking about here a
day, it says, will I cause the horn, the power, the strength
of the house of Israel. Now anytime you see the house
of Israel in these days of Ezekiel the prophet, it's talking about
a united kingdom. Remember how the kingdom was
split after Solomon. And the northern kingdom Israel
had already been carried away before this by the Assyrian empire,
now Judah. But he says, in that day when
I caused the horn of the house of Israel. What does the word
Israel mean? Literally, it means those who
prevail with God. That's what it means. How does
a sinner prevail with God? Well, some people say, well,
he joins the church and turns over a new leaf. Is that how
a sinner prevails with God? No. I certainly agree that any
sinner saved by grace will certainly join the church and serve the
Lord. That's true. But that's not how
he prevails with God. Some say, well, he gets baptized.
Well, we believe in believer's baptism here. I'm going to perform
a baptism a week from this Sunday. A young man is going to confess
Christ publicly before the church. That's how you do that. Believer's
baptism. By immersion. That's what the
Bible says. But that's not how a sinner prevails
with God. Trying to live a good life? Well,
we should try to live a good life. We should try to be conformed
to the image of Christ. But that's not how you prevail
with God. How does a sinner prevail with God? I'll tell you how.
By pleading the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust
Christ alone for all salvation. for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness. Look at it again. In that day
will I cause the horn of the house of Israel. Who is the horn
of the house of Israel? That's Christ. That's who it
is. You remember back in the last
chapter, look at chapter 28 again, look at verse 25. Here he prophesied of Israel And he says in verse 25 of chapter
28, he says, Thus saith the Lord God, when I shall have gathered
the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered. Now, most scholars will say,
well, that's talking about their return to Jerusalem after the
70 year captivity. Well, there is a limited fulfillment
of that, of this in that, but it's very limited. And there's
language here that cannot be applied to that return. Let me
show you. He says, among whom they are
scattered and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen,
then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my
servant Jacob, and they shall dwell safely, and remember that
says with confidence therein, and shall build houses and plant
vineyards. Yea, they shall dwell with confidence
when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them
round about them, and they shall know that I am the Lord their
God." That is the bringing together of God's people under the headship
of Christ. And they're going to dwell securely.
They're going to dwell safely. And where does the scripture
in the prophecies talk about the people of God dwelling safely
and securely? Well, look back at Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Jeremiah, the contemporary of
Ezekiel, he spoke of the day coming. Verse 5, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. You know who that's talking about.
That's talking about Christ. A king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. That's
his crucifixion on the cross. having the sins of his people
charged, accounted, imputed to him. He was made sin. He died
under the guilt and penalty of the sins of his sheep, his church.
And he executed judgment and justice because all of the judgment
of God and the justice of God that was due under the sins of
his people fell upon him. And God was unable to be just
and justify the ungodly because Christ himself alone as our substitute
and surety drank damnation dry. And then it says in verse 6,
in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall what? Dwell
safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. We dwell safely
in Jehovah Sid Canute. Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousness. I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. It's not my righteousness
by my works. It is mine because God has imputed
it, charged it, accounted it to me and therefore I dwell safely. You want to dwell safely? I'm
glad that we have a country so far that we can say we dwell
safely in. But I'm going to tell you something,
that safety is temporary, isn't it? It's not going to last forever. If you want to dwell safely forever,
look to Christ as the Lord, your righteousness. Don't plead your
righteousness, plead Him. Who is your righteousness? You
see what I'm saying? Well, let me show you a couple
more verses. Look over at Psalm 132. Now, who is this horn of
Israel? The horn of Israel. Look at Psalm 132. Look at verse 13. Now it says
there, remember, that the horn of the house of Israel will bud
forth. That means he's going to come
forth like a bud, like a branch. The branch of David, he said.
Like a shoot. Well, Psalm 132, look at verse
13. He says, for the Lord hath chosen
Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation, this is my rest
forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it, I will abundantly
bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread, I will also
clothe her priest with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud
for joy, there will I make the horn of David to budge. Now there, the horn of the house
of Israel is called the horn of David. He's the strength of
the house of Israel. He's the strength of David. And
he's going to bud. That's Christ. He said, I have
ordained a lamp for mine anointed. That's Messiah. And he says,
his enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall
his crown flourish. King of kings, Lord of lords.
That's Christ. Look over at Luke chapter 1. This is Luke chapter 1, look
at verse 67. This is Zacharias, the father
of John the Baptist, prophesying. Just being revealed to him about
John and the womb of his mother. And how he will be the forerunner
of the Messiah. And verse 67, listen to this.
And his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Ghost and
prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he
hath visited and redeemed his people." Now, who are his people
whom he redeemed? It's not just one nation. The
Scripture tells us that. It's Jew and Gentile, God's people
out of every tribe. And that includes Israel, God's
people out of Israel. He calls them a remnant according
to the election of grace. But look at verse 69, it says,
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house
of his servant David. Who is Zacharias talking about
here? Talking about Christ. He is the strength of salvation.
And it said in verse 70, As he spake by the mouth of his holy
prophets which have been since the world began, like Ezekiel,
like Jeremiah, that we should be saved from our enemies and
from the hand of all that hate us, even the Egyptians. To perform
the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.
That's the covenant that he made with Abraham. Look at verse 73.
The oath which he swore to our father Abraham. That he would
grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies
might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before him all the days of our life. See who it's talking about? It's talking about Christ. You see the final eternal and
full fulfillment of this prophecy back here in Ezekiel 29, 21,
the horn of the house of Israel, in connection even with the fall
of Egypt, can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does
Egypt represent for us? It represents our former bondage
and slavery to sin. Well, we've been freed from sin.
How have we been freed from sin? Now notice, I didn't say we've
been freed from sinning. We're still sinners. But we've
been freed from sin. Well, first of all, we've been
justified by the blood of Christ. Sin can no longer be charged
to our account. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Righteousness is charged to all
for whom Christ died. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that does. We've
been freed from the power of sin to condemn us. We've been
freed from the power of sin to keep us deceived in unbelief. The Holy Spirit has come and
we've been born again. And what did Paul say in Philippians
3 and verse 3? We are the what? Circumcision. Now what does that mean? That's
the spiritual circumcision. That's spiritual Israel. He's
talking to the church at Philippi made up of both believers who
are both Jew and Gentile, and he says, we, not just the Jewish
faction among us, but all who are children of the promise,
who believe in Christ, who trust Him, we are the circumcision. We've been born again. We worship
God in spirit, not with the elements of the world, but from the heart
as God reveals himself to us. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice there means
to glory or to boast in Christ Jesus or to have confidence in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now why is that? Because Christ is the horn of
the house of Israel. Jesus Christ is the horn of our
salvation. His strength, His power is the
power to save me from my sins. His strength, His power is the
power to redeem me from all iniquity. His power, His strength is the
power to make me righteous before God. His strength, His power
is the power to give me life. I was born dead in trespasses
and sin. He gives me life by the Spirit. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
then he made it clear who he was talking about. That's the
Israel of God. Jesus Christ is the horn of the
house of Israel. And my friends, spiritually speaking,
if you're in Christ, washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness,
if you believe in Him by the power of God, you're a member
of that household, spiritual Israel.