Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 239. I'm sorry, not 239. Let's open with number
145, number 145. And let's all stand together. ? Hail, thou monstrous, mighty
Jesus ? ? Hail, thou heavenly King ? ? Thou who takest away
the sin of the world ? ? Thou who release us from all ills
? Oh Oh Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to Ezekiel chapter 34. Ezekiel 34. We'll begin reading in verse
11. For thus saith the Lord God,
behold, I, even I will both search my sheep and seek them out as
a shepherd seek it out his flock in the day that he is among his
sheep that are scattered. So will I seek out my sheep and
will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from
the people, and gather them from the countries, and bring them
in their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel
by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of
Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie in a good
fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains
of Israel. I will feed my sheep, and I will cause them to lie
down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost,
and bring again that which was driven away. And I will bind
up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was
sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. and I will
feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus
saith the Lord God, behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between
the rams and the goats. Let's pray together. Oh, our Heavenly Father, how
we need for you to fulfill that promise in our hearts this evening. Lord, we've been scattered in
this world and you've gathered us together tonight. How we pray
that you would send your spirit and power. To cause us Lord. To find our rest. Our hope. all our satisfaction in thy dear
son. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Let's stand together once again,
and now we'll sing hymn 239, 239, out there weary. Alright, come on. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah chapter 14. Isaiah chapter 14. The last phrase in verse two
says, and they shall rule over their oppressors. There was a time when we were
oppressed. We were oppressed by religion,
oppressed by the law, oppressed by sin, oppressed by Satan, oppressed
by blindness, oppressed by the world, oppressed by flesh, and
oppressed by the grave. And the Lord says now they shall
rule over their oppressors. Our relationship with all eight
of those things that I just mentioned have changed. It has changed. Children of Israel are about
to be carried into Babylonian captivity. And they're going
to spend 70 years in bondage as slaves in Babylon. And now
the Lord is prophesying to them that when that 70 years is over,
you're going to come back here and the people that were oppressing
you are now going to serve you. Let's begin in verse 1. For the
Lord will have mercy on Jacob. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have
hated. God has promised to have mercy
to withhold from Jacob that which Jacob rightly deserves. The only
one who made Jacob to differ from Esau was God. He sovereignly
chose to have mercy on Jacob. Esau was a vessel fitted for
destruction. And the Lord says, now I'm going
to have mercy. The difference between mercy
and grace, grace is the receiving of that which we don't deserve.
That's eternal life. That's peace with God. That's
the forgiveness of our sin. That's hope and joy, all those
things that we don't deserve. God gives us by grace, union
with Christ, adoption, holiness before God. All of that is the
gift of his grace. Mercy, on the other hand, is
God withholding from us that which we do deserve. That's the
wrath of God, the judgment of God. And what he's saying here
is that I'm going to withhold from Jacob what Jacob rightly
deserves. He's really no different from
Esau, except that I have made a covenant of grace to withhold
from him that which he deserves. and execute my wrath and my judgment
on Jacob's substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the only way
that God can have mercy upon us is for him to expiate his
anger on Christ, our substitute. He said, I'll not allow one sin
to go unpunished. The sins have to be punished.
God can't just be merciful without satisfying his justice. And so he says, I will have mercy
on Jacob. Now I wanna be a part of Jacob.
How do I know if I'm a part of Jacob? Because that which was
once my oppressor, I now rule over. We'll see that in just
a moment. And will yet choose Israel. Now Jacob and Israel are the
same person. You know that. When Jacob was
fleeing from Esau or when he was about to meet Esau back after
having spent 20 years with Laban, Jacob divided up his family and
he wrestled with the Lord that night at the river called Jabbok.
And that's when the Lord Jesus Christ changed Jacob's name to
Israel. Israel. A prince. You were nothing but a supplanter,
you were nothing but a sinner, but now you're a prince before
God. And there's the two natures of every child of God. We are
Jacob's by birth and we are Israel by the new birth by regeneration
and by grace and so he says the Lord will have mercy on Jacob
it's Jacob that needs mercy and he will choose Israel he's going
to according to his own sovereign choice. You did not choose me,
I chose you. How foolish men are to think
that they can command God to have mercy upon them. I'll do
the choosing. I'll have mercy upon whom I will
have mercy, and whom I will, I'll harden. So it's not up to
him, therefore. that will if it's not of him
that run if it's a god that show of mercy and for this very reason
i raised up uh... pharaoh that i might show my
wrath towards him that the mercy that i have for the vessels of
my grace might might be exalted and so we're we're that we're
we're too god's the one that does the choosing isn't it And to be shut up to that is
a wonderful thing. That's a mercy. To be shut up
to the sovereign choice of God. Father, you have the right to
do with me. Do you believe that God has the
right to do with you whatsoever he wills? If he wills to cast
your soul into hell, he's got the sovereign right to do that. uh... that's that's that's god
and that's that's what he's saying here i'm going up i'm gonna choose
israel i'm gonna have mercy upon jacob and set them in their own
land i'm going to deliver them out of babylon that's where that's
where they've been and that's where we were born we're born
in babylon we live in babylon don't we and yet the lord says
i'm going to i'm gonna call them out of babylon No longer are
they going to have confusion of speech. No longer are they
going to be bowing to a false god, the god of their imagination. I'm going to bring them into
their own land. And that's what he's done for
us right now, tonight. The Lord has brought us into
our own land to speak peace to our hearts. And set them in their
own land, and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they
shall cleave to the house of Jacob. There's some of these
Babylonians that you were in exile with who were ruling over
you. Some of them are going to come
back to Israel and they're going to join with you and become part
of Jacob. That's a wonderful blessing,
a wonderful promise. Look what he says in verse 2.
And the people shall take them and bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the
Lord for servants and handmaids, and they shall take them captives,
whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. So the Lord's promise to his
people, Jacob and Israel, is that when I bring you out of
Babylon, those who were oppressing you, you're now going to rule
over them. No longer are they going to be
your oppressors. Now you're going to have rule over them. And it shall come to pass in
the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and
from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made
to serve. I'm going to give you rest. You're
going to have rest in the finished work and the glorious person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. who finished the work before
the foundations of the world according to Hebrews chapter
4. This work is completed. You're going to find rest in
Him. No longer are you going to be serving the master of Babylon
or the law. You're going to rest in Christ. I'm going to give you rest from
your sorrow. The sorrow of sin that has so
ravaged you and the bondage of the law in Babylon that you were
under, you're going to be delivered from it. I'm going to bring you
back and give you rest. And from thy fear, no longer
will you have to fear the wrath of God. You're going to hear
about how it is that God's fiery wrath was quenched at Calvary's
cross. And there's no more anger. There's
no more wrath. There's no more judgment. There's
nothing but peace. There's nothing but hope. There's
nothing but forgiveness and comfort now from the hard bondage wherein
thou was made to serve. They shall rule over their oppressors. How oppressive man-made religion
is. With all the commandments of
men, the touch-not, taste-not, handle-nots of man-made religion,
I'm going to deliver you from the oppression of that. That's what Babel is. You remember
that from Sunday. Babel started in the Tower of
Babel. Man seeking to build for himself a name and construct
a tower that reached up into heaven. And he said, let us have
bricks and put them together with slime. And God confused
their speech. And now we have a proliferation
of religious opinions all over the world. And the Lord said,
I'm going to bring you out of that. I'm going to bring you
out of it. Whatever flavor of religion you
might have been in bondage to, you're no longer going to serve
the oppressors of Babylon. You're going to be delivered
from them. In religion, we tried to prove
our righteousness. Oh, if you just do a little bit
more. if you just know a little bit more just acquire a little
bit more knowledge achieve a little bit more success and uh... and you'll be somebody and you
could never do enough and god says those who ruled over you
those who were your oppressors you're now going to rule over
them someone says well i i wasn't
brought up in religion Or our young people might say, well,
I grew up under the gospel. You know, I really wasn't a part
of that Babylonian religion. Self-righteousness is all it
is. It's just self-righteousness. And whether you grew up under
the gospel or whether you were irreligious your whole life,
man by nature is self-righteous. He's looking to something that
he can do to establish favor with God. And you can never do
enough. You can never do enough. So whether
it's in religion, or whether it's in your own conscience,
or whether it's in an irreligious lifestyle, the Lord says, I'm
going to give you the grace and the mercy to rule over your oppressors. We now know. We know that all
that was a lie. We've been delivered from the
bondage of it. We see the foolishness of it. We could never go back to it.
Could never go back to it. I hope I can say this with humility. I hope that the Lord knows my
heart. The greatest fear that I have
is that God would take his hand off of me or you and leave us
to ourselves. And if the Lord was to do that,
I know that there's nothing that you and I would not do. That having been said, I've been
in religion. Even if God was to was to lead
me to myself. I cannot see ever going back
to that. It was life of misery, wasn't
it? It was oppression. Rules and
regulations of men trying to achieve righteousness before
God and now we know that it was all a lie. It was all a lie. Why would you? I mean eat, drink
and be merry. Tomorrow you shall die. You know,
indulge yourself in the things of the world. But why would you
go back to religion once you've been delivered from that? It
was oppressive. We rule over religion now, don't
we? We do. We listen to what people say.
And we're not the least bit intimidated or influenced by it. We feel
sorry for people. Sometimes we laugh about how
foolish things are that people say. I got a text from Hector. Citroen
he Hector and Michelle attend the services over and over in
Sarasota and Hector texted me yesterday they're down in there
from Puerto Rico and they're visiting family down there and
he told me said he said the the church next to us near our house
all the members are standing out on the highway with big signs
saying please stop and let us pray for you Please stop and
let us pray for you. And I texted him back and I said,
there really is no end to the foolishness of man-made religion. And we now rule over that which
once oppressed us. We're not influenced by it. We're
not intimidated by it. We see the foolishness of it. We've been able by the Spirit
of God to try the spirits to know whether they be of God.
And we would never be tempted in any way to go back to it. When I bring Jacob out of Babylon,
he's going to rule over the one that once oppressed him. Has
God given you rule over the oppression of man-made religion? Second thing that he's given
us rule over that once oppressed us was the law. Was the law. It was a harsh taskmaster always
demanding more, and we were never able to satisfy its demands. Oh, if we just do a little bit
more, just work a little bit harder, run a little bit faster. And then we even said, well,
you know, we're really not under the law, we're under grace. But
then we made a law out of faith. And faith became the law that
we had to keep in order to activate the things that the Lord Jesus
Christ did for our benefit and uh... one way or the other we
we we look to the law as the hope of our salvation we went
about trying to establish our own righteousness being ignorant
of the righteousness of God we were oppressed by the law we
made a rule book out of the law of liberty The scriptures, which
were a revelation of the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus,
we turned it into a rule book for Christian living. And we
were oppressed. And we tried to impress one another
with how well we were doing. Now, now, the law is no longer
Something that we're trying to satisfy. The law's been silenced. The law, at one time, was screaming
at us. Judgment, and wrath, and condemnation,
and guilt. Do more. And now, now the law
has been completely silenced. The Lord Jesus Christ we know
now is the end of the law for righteousness. The law is now
our friend. We see it for what it is. It's
holy, just, and good. And we love God's law because
we understand now that the law was not given as a rule for life. The law was given in order to
expose the glory and holiness of the lawgiver. the one who
kept the law, Christ Jesus being the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth upon him. So we're no longer oppressed
by religion. We're no longer oppressed by
the law. Those things have become our...
we rule over them. We rule over them. We're not
afraid of the law anymore. We're not intimidated by the
law. We're not judged by the law. There's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. We're not looking to our fleshly
activities and behavior for fulfilling the law. We're looking at the
work of the spirit of God in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. they shall rule over their oppressors. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2. Has God given you the mercy and
the grace to rule over religion. And can you see how at one time
religion oppressed you? Has God given you the mercy and
the grace to rule in Christ over the law? When at one time that
law was something you were trying to satisfy. Has God given you the mercy and
the grace to rule over sin? rule over what do you mean by
that preacher well look at Ephesians chapter 2 and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins there was a time when sin
was so oppressive over me that I was spiritually dead I couldn't
believe I couldn't see I couldn't hear And now the Lord has given
me the mercy to rule over my oppressor because now I can't
not believe. I can't not believe. Why? Because
though I was once dead in my trespasses and sins wherein in
times past, I walked according to the course of this world.
I saw things just like everybody else saw them. I didn't know
the difference. According to the Prince of the
Power of the Air, I was influenced by Satan and the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience. Disobedience meaning
I couldn't believe. That's the disobedience. Unbelief
is the disobedience. Were you ever an unbeliever? The reason you were an unbeliever
is because of sin. Sin reigned over you. It oppressed you. It blinded
you. It kept you from being able to
see. And what happened? Look at verse
three. Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh. That's
all. We only had one nature. We're just looking at everything,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. There was no
difference between us and them. Not in ourselves. We were dead. But God. But God, who is rich
in mercy, with His great love wherewith He has loved us, God
made the difference. What did He do? He quickened
us together with Christ, for by grace are you saved. He broke the bondage of sin. He raised us from the dead. He breathed life into our dead
souls. And now, now we reign over our oppressor.
We do. We do. We, we can't, we can't
not believe. We once worshiped the creature
rather than the creator, and now we can't do anything but
worship Him. And that hope that we have in
Christ gives us the victory over sin, over our oppressor. We rule. We rule. They shall rule over their oppressors. Do you rule over religion? Do
you rule over the law? Do you rule over sin? Has the power of sin been broken? You know what I'm not talking
about. Our flesh has never gotten any better. Flesh is nothing
but sin. We have a holy nature now that
identifies that old man for who he is. And we're no longer blinded
by our sin. We're no longer kept from believing
by our sin. We're alive in Christ. We now
have rule over our oppressor. As I said, we can't not believe. I try it all the time, I can't
do it. Can't do it, I'm so thankful, aren't you? Who else was our oppressor? Satan himself. The God of this
world has blinded the eyes of them which believe not. There was a time when I didn't
believe. The reason I didn't believe is
because the God of this world was my oppressor. He blinded
my eyes. I couldn't see. Just like Eve
was deceived in the garden, so Satan deceived me into thinking
that my will was the final authority. I was the one who made the decision. I was the one who had the destiny
of my soul in my hands. And it came straight from the
pit of hell. The sad thing about it is that
we served Satan thinking that we were serving God. He's called a minister of righteousness.
Lucifer, which we're going to see, we're going to look at Sunday
from Isaiah chapter 14, Lucifer's name means, translated, look
it up, Light Bearer. That's what his name means, Light
Bearer. And he is very pleased with the
depictions that medieval artists gave of him in a red suit with
a pitchfork and horns. Because if that's who you think
the devil is, You don't know who he is. You don't know who
he is. He's the leader of religion. He's preaching from this book. He's speaking lies and speaking
them in such a way as to make people think he's talking for
God. you shall rule over your oppressors. Hebrews chapter two says that
Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. And first John,
the Lord tells us to try the spirits to see whether they be
of God. Now, what that means is listen
to the preachers because some of them aren't from God. and
see if whether they say is true from the Word of God. Ask yourself,
in listening to a preacher, who gets all the glory from the message
that he just preached? Has he given me something to
do? Or has he declared a message that's already done? Does Christ
get all the glory from my salvation? Or do I get to participate some
in that glory? And he says try the spirits to
see whether they be of God. you don't don't just don't take
my word for it I love what the what the scripture says about
the believers in Berea they received the Word of God with gladness
they didn't have a suspicious you know kinda self-righteous
attitude about see if you can teach me something I preach to
play folks like that over the years they weren't that way they
were hungry but then the rest that verse says and They searched
the scriptures to see if what I said was true. That's the spirit I want you
to have. To receive the word of God with gladness and search
the scriptures to see if what we say is true. God has given us grace to rule
over our oppressor. Satan was our oppressor. He had
blinded our eyes. He had deceived us. We believed
the lie. And now he's been exposed. Now we see him for who he is.
you know one of the big discussions in our in our amongst our governing
officials is identifying uh... the enemy you know some some
of our of our politicians don't want to call uh... radical islam radical islam and
the big talk is you know we can't really fight the enemy unless
you identify them for who they are and uh... and that's so true
You can't fight the enemy unless you know who they are. And so
it is with Satan. He can't be defeated if you don't
know who he is. If you think he's some fiend
that's dressed in a devil suit, then you can discard
him and be deceived by who he really is. Once you see him for
who he is, a robber of the glory of Christ in religion, talking
about God, and yet giving man some part to play in their salvation,
robbing Christ of his glory. Now I know who he is. Now I rule
over him. I'm not deceived by him anymore.
I know when he speaks. And he may speak with kindness,
he may speak with passion, he may speak with, but I'm listening
to what he's saying. And I can identify his voice.
Can you? We rule over the one who once
oppressed us. We were once oppressed by blindness. We couldn't see. We were like
Bartimaeus. just a beggar, a blind beggar,
unable to care for ourselves, completely disabled, unable to
see the truth of who we are, unable to see the truth of who
Christ is, unable to see how it is that God's pleased to save
sinners by His free grace. We couldn't see any of that.
We'd read the Bible and we didn't understand it. And then the Lord opened our
eyes And at first, when men began to question us about what we
believed, we had to say, with that man who the Lord healed,
you know, I don't know the answer to your question. All I know
is that once I was blind and now I see. And in time, the Lord
gives us more and more sight and more ability to be able to
give an answer to the hope that's within us. And to do it with
meekness and with fear. But what we can see now, We have
the light of the gospel shining in our hearts in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have truth and understanding. And we're no longer blind. We
rule over the one who once oppressed us. We understand now. We see. We see what it means. when the Lord Jesus Christ cried
from the cross and said, it is finished. We understand that,
don't we? We see it. They shall rule over
their oppressors. We rule over religion. We rule
over the law. We rule over sin. We rule over
Satan. We rule over blindness. And we
rule over the world. There was a time when we walked
according to the course of this world. We thought gain was godliness. We thought that God was blessing
us if we were getting bigger and better. Whether it be in
our own personal lives or whether it be in religion or in the church
or whatever, we thought gain was godliness. We thought we
were getting better and now we understand that That's the view
of the world. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, popularity, pleasure, and power. It all comes down to that, doesn't
it? And we were ruled by that. We thought that's where it was.
That was what it's all about. And now the Lord Jesus Christ
says to us, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. All the pleasures that the world
threw at me, and I remain faithful to the Father. All the temptations
for popularity that the world could throw at me, I remain faithful
to the Father. All the attempts that the world
made to try to influence me to have power over God and I remain
submissive to His will in everything. I have overcome the world. And now we don't think like the
world thinks anymore. Matter of fact, this world It's
not our home anymore, is it? We're not interested in putting
down our roots in this world and making for ourselves a name
in this world. We see this world for what it
is. They shall rule over their oppressor. flesh. Our flesh was our oppressor. We were in bondage to it. It's
the only nature we had. We're born with it. We're slave
to it. We couldn't do anything but that
which was of the flesh. It was the only thing we had.
When the Lord gave us a new nature, took out our heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh, we have a rule over our flesh now, don't
we? We really do. The flesh is no longer a Lord. The flesh is still there, but
the flesh is driving the new man to Christ, isn't he? And
the one who once was the complete oppressor is now ruled over by
the new man. We just read in Ephesians chapter
2 that we obeyed, we obeyed the lust of the flesh. That's all
we could do. Whatever the flesh said, that's
what was true. Now we know the truth. The Lord's
given us a new nature. And He's exposed that old man
for who he is. And the man that we once loved,
we now hate, don't we? We now hate him. Long for that day when he'll
be done away with. We'll not have him anymore. they
shall rule over their oppressors." Now, the last oppressor is the
grave. The final enemy is the grave. And I meet people all the time
who say, well, I'm not afraid of dying. One of two things are
true about those people. Unless they're a believer. One
of three things, I guess. Either they're a child of God.
God's delivered them from that. Or they're lying. Or they're
reprobate. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 2. It encourages my soul when I
hear a young person talk about their fear of dying. That blesses my heart. That gives
me so much hope for them. When a young person is just overwhelmed
with the reality and the inevitability and the insecurity of death. That's a good thing. That's an
evidence of the Lord's working in their hearts, because most
young people don't even think about it, do they? look here
what the scripture says in Hebrews chapter 2 look at verse 14 for
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood
he also himself likewise took part of the same that through
death he might destroy him that had power of death that is the
devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage One thing that God won't God
does to his children is he gives them a fear of death before he
saves them. He, he, he shows them the reality
of it. They, they, and they can't be
satisfied with the covenant of, with death that the natural man
make, the religious man. So I made a covenant with death,
with hell I'm in agreement, and God says I'm going to disannul
that covenant. So his fear of death might cause
him to be religious, but he's never satisfied with that religion.
And the person who is able to be satisfied with it and is able
to find comfort for their soul, I fear that that they're reprobate. So the Lord says, I've come to
destroy the works of the devil and to deliver them who all their
life feared death and were in bondage to that fear. It was
an oppressor. The grave was an oppressor. Now we say to live as Christ
all to die is gain to die is gain I'm won't be able to shed
this flesh I'm gonna be able to see him as he is and be made
like him I'm never gonna have a a sinful thought again and
all my thoughts are gonna be perfect and holy and righteous
all what a there's no fear death anymore for the child of God
we've we've we've we've been That which was our oppressor,
we now rule over. We rule over death. We're watching
and waiting for that day when the Lord brings this life to
an end and takes us home. What a hope. They shall rule
over their oppressors. Are you a child of Jacob? Were you once oppressed by religion? Do you now rule over religion?
Were you once oppressed by the law? Do you now rule over the
law? Were you once oppressed by sin in that you could not
believe and now you can't not believe? You rule over sin? Were you once oppressed by Satan,
deceived by him to believe a lie, and now you rule over him, you
identify him, you know what he looks like, you know what he
sounds like, you know what he says. Were you once oppressed by blindness,
you couldn't see. You couldn't see yourself for
what you were, you couldn't see God for who he is, you couldn't
see the truth of the gospel, and now you see clearly. You
see clearly. You have thoughts. How come other
people can't see this? It's so clear to me now. I can
see. I rule now over my oppressor. There was a time when you walked
according to the course of this world. You thought everything
was just like everybody else thought it was. Now you look
at this world with such disdain. This world has just become sad place, a sad place. You look at the way people think
and the way people live and things people believe and you think,
oh Lord, come Lord Jesus, even now come. There was a time when you were
oppressed by your flesh and now you reign over that. Your flesh is actually the very
thing that causes you to see your need for Christ. And there was a time when death
oppressed you, and now you look forward to it. And they shall
reign, rule over their oppressors. Let's pray together. Our heavenly
father, we're thankful for the work of grace that you do and
delivering us from the bondage of our oppressors and giving
us Lord rest, joy and freedom in Christ. We ask, Lord, that your Holy
Spirit would strive with us and keep us in Christ and looking
to Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen. 497, let's stand together. th th th th