that or begin looking in Ezekiel
chapter 25. Ezekiel chapter 25. So if you want to turn there
and just hold your finger there and I want you to go over to
the book of Jude to start off with. When we consider where we are
in the book of Ezekiel, Up to this point, Ezekiel had prophesied
of the destruction of Israel, the destruction of Judah, and
Jerusalem. But now we've come to a section,
it begins in chapter 25 and goes all the way over to chapter 32. Where God gives, it's a new section,
where God gives the prophet his word of judgment against the
nations around Israel. And it's because of their evil
treatment of Israel. And their attitude, their sinful
attitude towards the God of Israel. Now, why did the Lord punish
Israel? Well, it was because of their
unbelief. They dishonored God because of
their unbelief. Look at Jude and verse 4. It says, there are certain men
crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Talking about those who were
trying to overthrow or make shipwreck of the faith of the saints. And they're ungodly men, he says,
turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying
the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I will
therefore put you in remembrance Though you once knew this, how
that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
now that's the Hebrew children obviously, that's Israel, afterward
destroyed them that believed not. Now in studying these passages
of scripture over here in Ezekiel, I began to wonder now how would
I approach this? There's a lot of history there
and You know, we go verse by verse, but I'm going to deal
with about three chapters tonight in a survey. And I've entitled
the message, Because They Would Not Believe. They Would Not Believe. And what we're going to find
here is this judgment upon the nations that he lives. There's
seven nations here, Gentile nations, that surrounded Israel. that
God brings judgment against for various sins, but they can all
be summed up basically this way. They failed or refused to honor
the God of Israel. These nations. They did not honor
the God of Israel. And of course they did not have
any regard or respect for the nation Israel and Israel's place
in that area. In the world actually. Now, it's
true that the nation Israel had literally dropped the ball as
far as their responsibility to the nations. In fact, Ezekiel
is going to talk about that later on where God brings another indictment
against the nation Israel because he says, you have profaned my
name among the nations, among the heathen. That would be the
Gentile nations. In other words, Israel was set
up on earth for various reasons. We could talk about a lot of
reasons. The main reason, as we know, is God's promise to
Abraham to bring the Messiah through that nation according
to the flesh. And that way the Messiah can be said to be the
Savior of the world. Now that doesn't mean he's the
Savior of everyone without exception in the world. He's not because
everyone without exception in the world is not saved. But it
means He's the Savior of all of God's people all over this
world in every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation, the elect
of God that were given Him before the foundation of the world.
That's the nature of the covenant of grace. God chose a people
before the foundation of the world and He gave them to Christ. And He conditioned all of their
salvation upon Christ. and Christ came into the world
to save them by the redemptive work that he would accomplish
on Calvary as their substitute and surety. So Israel was put
upon this earth for that reason, but as being put upon earth for
that reason, Israel was to be a living testimony as a nation
from the king on down to the least of the citizens of the
glory of God in that promise, and they failed. They failed
miserably throughout their history. There were moments in time where
they, as a nation, could have been said to be obedient, but
those moments were brief, they didn't last. But as a nation
they failed and they were destroyed because of unbelief. They did
not believe God. So Israel dropped the ball. But
now these nations that surrounded Israel, who heard of their fame,
who heard of their worship, who heard things concerning them
and their God. And we know that many of these
nations had some revelation from God concerning His power and
His sovereignty. Remember Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel
chapter 4, how Nebuchadnezzar lifted himself up in pride and
God brought him down. You remember that. And he talked
about, he said, well Israel's God is God. Remember Cyrus, king
of Persia. It was revealed to him. I'm not
talking about the gospel being revealed to these men. I'm talking
about something of the majesty, the sovereignty, and the power
of Israel's God. So the fame of Israel and their
God got out among these nations. Yet what did these nations do?
They failed to honor the God of Israel, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. They failed to glorify
Him and recognize Him and seek Him and serve Him. and they're
held accountable. Now what is it to glorify God?
Well I always think about Abraham. As the Apostle Paul wrote of
him as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter
4. How it says Abraham glorified God. He gave glory to God. Now
how did Abraham give glory to God as it's written there in
Romans 4? You know what it says? It says
he believed God. He believed God. Do you know,
of course we know the Bible teaches us, that unbelief is basically
the mother of all sin. You know, and even in a believer,
we have to fight unbelief, don't we? We know if anybody believes
God, truly believes God, as he reveals himself in Christ as
a just God and a Savior, anyone who believes God, that person
is a miracle of God's grace and power and goodness. And when
we complain, when we have our bad attitudes, when things don't
work out what we want, you know what we're doing? Guess what?
We're disbelieving God. That's exactly right. And we
have to fight that. Sometimes we'll cultivate it.
But we should. We have to fight it with every
fiber of our being. And we have to look to the Lord
and trust Him and depend on Him. Well, these nations failed to
do that. And therefore that's why I entitled this message,
because they would not believe. They would not believe. Now after
the Lord, go back to Ezekiel 25, after the Lord finished with
God's judgments on Israel, He brings about these judgments,
prophecies of judgments for their evil treatment of Israel, and
their bad attitude towards the God of Israel. And all these
nations that we're going to read about have virtually disappeared,
And these prophecies have literally been fulfilled. Now Egypt is
one of the nations, and there's still a nation Egypt, but it's
not anything like what it was back then. It was a world power
back then. At one time it was a world empire,
but it's nothing like that now. So after he finished with God's
judgments on the nations, he'll prophesy, after this, from chapter
25 to chapter 32, then he's going to start prophesying of Israel's
future hope. And that's how the prophecy of
Ezekiel concludes. Israel's future hope, which will
be realized by the coming of Christ into the world and the
establishment of the new covenant with God's elect, both among
the Jews and the Gentiles. Now, of course, this all goes
back, as you know, to the promise that God, the covenant God made
with Abraham in Genesis 12. Remember what he said, I'll bless
them that bless you, I'll curse them that curse you. He told
Abraham, in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. And
the lesson of it is clear. The lesson of all this history
is clear. And that's this, that even though
Israel and the nations are destroyed, God still has a remnant according
to the election of grace. God still has a people. people
out of every nation Jew and Gentile which he will which he saves
by fulfilling his promise of the Messiah of Christ coming
into the world And so God is a merciful and gracious God,
but He's also a holy and just God, and He must punish sin.
There is no love from a holy God except as His holiness and
His justice is satisfied and honored and magnified. And that's
why Christ said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. So think about that as we
go. Let's just survey through this.
And I want you to notice that each time a verse begins with
the word because. Because. And he'll mention various
things that these nations did that kind of signified them as
their attitude. But it's all under that category
of unbelief. He starts off with the Ammonites. This is God's judgment against
Ammon, or the Ammonites. He says in verse 1, The word
of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face
against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them. And then he begins
his prophecy. The Ammonites were Israel's neighbors
to the northeast. And they were distant relatives.
You know how the Ammonite nation, the Ammonite tribe came about?
They were a product of the incestuous relations between Lot and his
younger daughter. You can read about it in Genesis
chapter 19. And these Ammonites were enemies of Israel. He mentions
their capital in verse 5, I will make Rabbi, that's their capital,
a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching place for
flocks, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And here's the
reason, look at it in verse 6. For thus saith the Lord God,
because. Now why is God bringing judgment
against the Ammonites? Well, again, it's because of
their unbelief. It's because they didn't glorify
and honor the God of Israel, but here's how he puts it. Look.
Because thou hast clapped thy hands, and stamped with the feet,
and rejoiced in heart with all thy despot, or despite, however
you want to pronounce it, against the land of Israel. You rejoiced
over Israel's fall. They had contempt for God, and
they had contempt for God's people. That's exactly what unbelief
does. when we fail to believe God, to believe that which glorifies
and honors God in the highest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and eternal
salvation by the sovereign grace and mercy of God, we show utter
contempt for the God of this universe, and for His people,
and for His people. And I thought about this, you
remember back during 9-11, and I remember this just like it
was yesterday, How offensive was it to us during 9-11 when
we saw on the local, on the newscast, the nations throughout the Arab
world dancing in the streets and clapping and rejoicing over
the destruction that happened here in New York City. How offensive
was that to you? That was offensive to me. Still
is when I think about it. Get angry when you just... Well,
that's the kind of thing that's going on here. Israel failed. Judah fell because of their sins.
They are in captivity. What did Ammon do? They didn't
sorrow. They didn't seek the Lord's will.
They rejoiced. They clapped their hands. They
stomped their feet. They rejoiced in heart at all
of this. Why? Because they hated Israel
and they hated the God of Israel. They would not believe God. Beginning
at verse 8, look here, now he goes to Moab. Thus saith the
Lord God, because that Moab, the psalmist called Moab God's
wash pot or God's waste pot. Moab was Israel's neighbor farther
south. And also they were the product
of incestuous relations between Lot and another daughter. Remember
Lot had three daughters. Well, Moab came out of the incest
of Lot and another daughter. And so we see two nations here
that had a sinful beginning. And, of course, that provides
a picture of all men and women by nature. That's our fall in
Adam. We had a sinful beginning in Adam, didn't we? We fell in
him. And Moab became enemies of Israel
when they aligned with the Midianites trying to hire a prophet, a false
prophet. Do you remember who it was? It
was Balaam. Balaam, the false prophet, and the king of the
Midianites hired Balaam to curse Israel. You can read about that
in Numbers 22. But you know, God prevented Balaam
from cursing Israel. He wasn't able to pronounce the
curse. So they listened to his plan.
Moab listened to his plan for causing Israel to stumble. And
then they tempted the men of Israel into idolatry and immorality
with their women. And that's what they did. And
look, here's the reason for their judgment. Verse eight, thus saith
the Lord God, because that Moab and Seir, now Seir, some people
say that's Mount Seir, some people say that's another nation near
to them, but it doesn't matter, it's all connected. Moab and
Seir do say, behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the
heathen. Now what was their sin? Well,
again, they didn't believe God. They didn't respect and honor
God. They didn't recognize that the people of Israel were something
special. Now, they said, Israel, Judah,
nothing special about them. They're just like all the heathen
nations. See there? And the thing about it is, We
need to understand that Israel was a special nation. They were
the chosen people of God and we need to recognize that. Now,
they weren't special or chosen because of anything good in them. They weren't chosen or special
or recognized by God because of anything powerful or because
they were greater than other nations. They were just simply,
by God's sovereign choice and decree, the way that God had
determined to bring Messiah through that nation. In other words,
their specialness, you might say, is mainly because the salvation
of sinners would come through them as Christ would come through
them. Remember, Christ told the woman
at the well in John chapter 4, he said, salvation is of the
Jews. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, he certainly didn't
mean that you have to become a Jew to be saved. Now, that's
what the Pharisees thought. That's what the Sadducees thought.
Well, you've got to become a Jew. That's what the false preachers
who showed up in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 thought. Remember,
they said that, well, we'll accept Gentiles, but they've got to
be circumcised first. But that's not what salvation
is of the Jews. It means that Christ, according
to the flesh, God in human flesh, that he came through the Jews.
He's our salvation. Jewishness has nothing to do
with it. That's just the people that God chose. But Moab didn't
recognize that. Nothing special about them. Turn
over to Psalm 86. Look at Psalm 86 and look at
verse 8. David here, in speaking of the
glory of God's people, ultimately is describing the glory of the
church. And he says in verse 8, Among
the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord. Now remember what
Moab said? Moab said, well, Judah is like
all the heathen. In saying that, they're saying,
well, their God's no better than our God's. But look at what David
says. He says, there's none like unto
thee, O Lord. Neither are there any works like
unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. Ultimately, that's his church.
There's something special about God's church. Not churches, and
what I mean by that, not just religious organizations out here
now, but I'm talking about that place where the gospel is preached,
where Christ is preached, where the people of God are met together
to honor Him, to express their faith in Christ, their trust
in the Lord. He says in verse 10, for thou
art great. and do His wondrous things. Thou
art God alone. Think about the salvation that
God has given us. Verse 11, Teach me Thy way, O
Lord, I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy name. I'll believe God. I'll trust
God. I'll praise Thee, O Lord, my
God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Thy name. For evermore
for great is Thy mercy toward me. Thou hast delivered my soul
from the lowest hell. You think about that. Moab scorned that. I think about
Moab a lot sometimes because of Ruth. Ruth came out of Moab. A Gentile woman. Not only that,
an idolatress. One who is mentioned in the earthly
lineage of Christ. Moab in that sense had a connection
with Israel according to the humanity of Christ. It was through
Ruth and Boaz. that Jesse was born, the father
of David, and then David came. And what an honor it is, but
they didn't recognize it. They said, well, look at them.
They're being destroyed. They're just like everybody else.
Look back at Ezekiel 25. Look at verse 12 now. So Moab
and Ammon both suffered under the judgment of God. These judgments
were not immediate for most of them. It came later. Some of
them it was pretty immediate. One of them was destroyed on
about the same day that Judah, Jerusalem was destroyed. But
here in verse 12, he brings God's judgment against Edom, verse
12. Thus saith the Lord God, because
that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking
vengeance, and hath greatly offended and revenged himself upon them.
Now you know who Edom is. That was Israel's neighbor to
the southeast. You see what God's doing here
in his judgment. He's working his way down north East, Southeast,
Northeast, East and Southeast. He's working his way around.
Where did Edom come from? Where did the descendants of
Esau? Jacob's brother. And you know what happened to
Esau. He scorned the place of honor in his family. That place
of honor being tied to him as the spiritual leader of the family
to honor God and to lead the family in worship and service
to God. Lead the family in the truth.
Teach his family the gospel. Teach his family about the promise
made to Abraham and the coming Messiah who is our hope. Our
hope of forgiveness of our sins. The Lamb of God. The sacrifices. All of those things you see that
were daily and weekly and monthly and yearly things in the Old
Testament. and he scorned that and look what he says what did
they do to israel they took vengeance upon israel what's the problem
there well vengeance belongs to the lord doesn't belong to
us and they were indifferent towards the promise and to take
vengeance upon god's people is to strike out at god himself
and eat them was destroyed. Look at verse 15. Here he comes
to the Philistines. Now they were neighbors of the
West. If you look on a map of what they call Palestine today,
you see the Gaza Strip. That's a place that's in the
news quite a bit, you know, when they talk about Israel and Palestine
and all that. Well, that's where the Philistines
were. They were Phoenician. They were
great traders and sailors and things like that. But they were
direct descendants of Noah's son Ham. And they were infamous
enemies of Israel. All through the book of Judges. Yet they had to deal with the
Philistines. David's beginnings as a young boy began with his
fight against Goliath, a Philistine. It was the Philistines, you remember,
who stole the Ark of the Covenant. Took it. They had to go get it. They were always a thorn in the
side of Israel. Why were they subject to the
wrath of God? Well, look again, verse 15. Thus
saith the Lord God, because the Philistines have dealt by revenge. Now again, there's vengeance.
And have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart to destroy
it for the old hatred. That's a hatred that goes way
back. Goes way back. It's probably the kind of hatred
that we read about when we read about the Hatfields and McCoys.
You know, they hated each other but they couldn't remember what
it all started over. But you know, I know why this started.
It's because of the Philistine hatred of the God of Israel. They felt threatened and they
took vengeance. Well, again, vengeance belongs
to the Lord. And now go to chapter 26. He
comes to the city of Tyre. You've heard about Tyre. The
Lord mentioned Tyre and Sidon. in Matthew chapter 11. Cities
that were destroyed because of their sin. And you remember he
told the cities, the Jewish cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin, and
all those cities, he said, look, he said, if the wonderful works
had been done in Tyre and Sidon that had been done in you, they
would have repented. And he is not making a statement of some
kind of a change in God's purpose there. He is just showing them
the depth of their sin against God. And this Tyre, they were
neighbors to the north along the shore of the Mediterranean
Sea. They had been allies of Israel
during David's reign, during Solomon's, but they turned against
Israel later on. And he says here, verse 2, here's
the reason for their judgment. Son of man, because that Tyrus,
that's the city of Tyre, Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem,
She's broken. That was the gates of the people.
She is turned unto me. I shall be replenished. Now she
is laid waste. Now the rest of this chapter
describes the glory of Tyre among men. And you can read it. And it's a description of her
destruction too. Tyre was a very well-known, rich,
honored city. very successful, very prosperous,
highly looked upon among men. And everything that men put their
trust in, everything that men by nature hold of dear value,
that's what Tyre represents. And it goes right on down and
describes her destruction. Everything that men by nature
trust and love. And then in chapter 27, it sets
forth a lamentation over Tyre. And it describes the natural
man in hopeless sorrow over the destruction of what he holds
valuable. Everything man holds valuable
by nature. In fact, if you read these chapters,
and you, like I said, I won't read all of it because there's
just so much here. But if you read these chapters,
it kind of reminds you, if you'll turn with me over to Revelation
18. Look at Revelation 18. Revelation 18 describes the fall
of Babylon. The destruction of the great
city, the great harlot. After God has brought His people
out of her. And it says in verse 9 of chapter
18 of Revelation, it says, The kings of the earth who have committed
fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and
lament for her. That's what Ezekiel 27 is showing. The lament of the world over
Tyre. The destruction of Tyre. The
king shall bewail her and lament for her when they shall see the
smoke of her burning. And of course you know mystery
Babylon represents false religion, false governments that are opposed
to God and His honor and His gospel. Men who put their trust
in her shall bewail her because their hope is gone. They're in
despair. Why aren't we in despair? Because
we have Christ. We're the bride of Christ. We're
the church of the living God. the people of God. It says in
verse 10 of Revelation 18, standing afar off for the fear of her
torment, saying, Alas, alas, the great city Babylon, that
mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come. And look,
it says, the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over
her, those who got gained by her false teachings. For no man
buyeth their merchandise any more. And I tell you what, I
believe that refers not only to physical merchandise, I believe
it refers to their false doctrine. Nobody is going to listen to
their false salvation by works doctrine anymore because they'll
see when she falls that it's no good. Look at it in verse
12. It says, and the merchants of
gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine
linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all fine wood and
all manner of vessels of ivory and all manner of vessels of
most precious wood and brass and iron and all those things
that religion presents, basically what it says is, look at verse
15, the merchants of these things which were made rich by her shall
stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing. You know Isaiah prophesied of
this too, over in Isaiah chapter 23. We won't turn there, but
read that sometime. But this is the lament of the
world, because everything the world by nature, man by nature,
holds dear, trusts in and values, is gone. That's why when the
Holy Spirit comes, turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. When the Holy Spirit
comes, and brings us to conviction of
our sin. What does he do? He convicts
us of sin because we believe not on Christ. What is he showing
us there? It's not just simply the sin
of unbelief. That's included. Remember that's
in John 16. You look at 1 Thessalonians 1.
We'll get there in just a moment. When the Holy Spirit convicts
a sinner, He begins by convicting that sinner of unbelief. because
they believe not on Christ. And that's not simply the sin
of unbelief. Again, that's included because
that dishonors every attribute of God's character. But here's
what he convicts us of. That the only thing that we really
have, the only one we really have who's eternally valuable
is Christ and Him crucified in His blood and righteousness alone.
Everything else is nothing. Everything else is really nothing.
Everything else is going to fade away. Everything else we hold
dear on this earth is going to fade away. It's all Christ. He's the only thing that's eternally
valuable. Our relationship with him. And
that's what he's talking about. And so when he convicts a sinner,
he turns that sinner. and turns him to what? Away from
self, away from everything by nature that we hold dear, away
from false hopes and idolatry in religion, and turns us to
Christ. You see an example of that in
Philippians chapter 3. Paul said, I was a Hebrew of
Hebrews. That was valuable to Paul. That
was something to brag about. That meant something to him. He said, I was circumcised the
eighth day. That's what the law said to do. The young male child was to be
circumcised on the eighth day. And that meant something to him.
That was valuable to him. That was part of his righteousness
before God. He said, I was of the tribe of
Benjamin. They were an honored tribe in Jewish culture and tradition. I'm not just a nobody from nowhere. I was from the tribe of Benjamin.
That meant something to him. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
I wasn't playing religious games. I wasn't an insincere person. I meant it. He said, as touching
the law, blameless. Outwardly, all accusations would
fall off of Saul of Tarsus. That meant something to him.
But when God revealed himself in Christ, and revealed the sinfulness
of man by nature, including Saul himself. What did he say? He
said, I count it all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of God in Christ Jesus. All these prophecies of God's
wrath against Israel and against the nations, you know what they
are in their essence? They're exhortations for us not
to go the way of the nations, not to go the way of unbelieving
Israel, not to go the way of the nations under the influence
of Satan and fallen human nature. And that's what we're going to
study. I'm going to take one message for Ezekiel 28 because there's
some interesting things there that we need to see concerning
the satanic influence that resides over man by nature and what that's
all about. But look here, 1 Thessalonians
1, we'll conclude with this. Paul says in verse 2, we give
thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in
our prayers. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and
labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the sight of God and our Father, knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God. You're God's elect, he says.
Now how do you know that, Paul? Well, here it is, verse 5. For
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power. In other words, it's not something
you just heard words. We hear a lot of words. We use
a lot of words. Do they really mean anything
to us? I was thinking about that Sunday night when I preached,
you know. Don't let these things just fall on your ears and deaf
ears and walk away unaffected. But has the Word, the Word of
Truth, the Word of Christ, Christ who is the Word, the living Word,
the incarnate Word, the preached Word, the subject of the written
Word, has it come to me in power? And that word power there is
the same word for power in Romans 1 16, the Gospel is the power,
the dynamite of God. And he says, well, how do you
know it's come to you in power? Well, look at this. He says,
and in the Holy Ghost, it takes a work of the Holy Spirit for
it to come to us in power. Just like these nations who scorned
Israel, scorned God, and even Israel themselves. They heard
it. I'm not going to say that everybody in these nations heard
the gospel, but they heard of Israel, they heard of the God
of Israel, they heard of his power. I know some people in
Nebuchadnezzar, he's going to talk about Babylon later on,
but I know some people in that kingdom heard about it through
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Ezekiel. Daniel was Nebuchadnezzar's
prime minister. I know they heard something of
the majesty and power of Israel's God. But did it come to him in
power? And he says, well, it takes a
work of the Holy Spirit for it to come to me in power. It's
a work of conviction. And then he says, and in much
assurance. Don't ever let any preacher tell
you that assurance is presumption. They're not. It's not. Not this
assurance. The assurance that the Holy Spirit
gives us is not presumption. Now the assurance that we give
ourselves or that Satan gives us or that man gives us, that's
presumption. You know the difference between
assurance and presumption? Presumption is any hope of salvation
that's not based solely upon the Word of God in Christ. Now
that's presumption. Somebody says, well I know I'm
saved. Why? Well I made a provision when I was 12. That's presumption. Somebody says, well, I was baptized,
or I gave my tithe, or I went on a missionary trip, or whatever.
All that's presumption. I know I'm saved. Why? Because Christ is my hope. My hope is built on nothing less.
Because He's on the throne. He's my advocate. I have nothing
to recommend me unto God, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I have no righteousness to plead before God, but the righteousness
of Christ imputed. My faith is not in my faith.
I'm not even going to tell you I know I'm saved because I believe.
I know I'm saved because I believe Christ. There's a difference.
And that is in much assurance Because He is my surety. And
then He says, as you know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake. We preached the gospel. That's
what He means there. We pointed you to Christ. We didn't point
you to ourselves. Paul is saying, I'm not your
hope. I'm not your assurance. Christ is. I'm not your peace
or your safety or even your joy. Christ is. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We rejoice in Him. And later
on he tells them, he says, you turn from your idols to serve
the living God. That's the hope that we have.
That's what distinguishes God's elect from the nations, even
Israel, in their unbelief.