We'll be in Isaiah chapter 19. We're going to be looking at
verses 1 through 18 this evening. And we come now to the burden
of Egypt, and Egypt stands in opposition to God and his people.
There are people that walk in darkness, and so confused are
they that they don't know what troubles them, let alone know
what to do about fixing their problems. And with Egypt being
God's enemies, it's easy to understand why God would bring destruction
upon them. He said at the end of the chapter
in verse 22, Isaiah 19, 22, So we get that part. But it's more difficult to understand
why the Lord would have mercy upon Egypt. He said there, as
you continue on in verse 22, 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. Now, this is because the Lord
has a people. Even among the Gentiles, he has
a people. He said in John 10, 16, Other
sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. The Lord displays how he is able
to punish the wicked and he's able to do to them what they
rightly deserve, but at the same time he's able to show how he's
able to save and show mercy and be kind and gracious to his people,
even among that people that are being punished. So the wicked
of Egypt, they're going to be punished. They're going to suffer
the destruction that God says is coming upon them by the mouth
of Isaiah here, but there's a spiritual salvation which is to be witnessed
even in these very words, these 18 verses that are pronounced
in destruction of what's coming upon Egypt, we actually see spiritually
traced out how the Lord deals with his people and works good
for them. So we're going to attempt to
trace this that aspect of things out for the brethren because
we want to find that food that is nourishing and comforting
and that rest for the sheep of God. And so our primary focus
is going to be on the picture that we see of the Lord's salvation
for His people, even in the midst of the destruction that we see
coming upon Egypt. Now remember those words, as
we've been looking through Isaiah, we see this theme, this pattern
constantly coming up, that the Lord is using Isaiah throughout
many years across different kings to preach this word, yet there's
all the same theme of the gospel word going out to the Lord's
people. There's the destruction of the
enemies and this salvation being preached for the Lord's people.
And he said in Isaiah 3, verses 10 and 11, he said, Say ye to
the righteous that it shall be well with him. for they shall
eat the fruit of their doings. And then verse 11 says, Woe to
the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands
shall be given him. So when we're looking at the
destruction that's coming upon the land of Egypt and the troubling
of this people, these people that have earned this trouble
and this destruction, We know that there's a people among them. The Lord's going to work good
for His people, people that He would save, people that He would
be gracious to, and He's drawing these people out to Himself,
even through the midst of the destruction coming upon Egypt. Paul said it this way in Romans
11.5, Even so then, at this present time also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And that's what we see
here tonight. Our title is The Sinner Stripped
of Vain Confidences. The Sinner Stripped of Vain Confidences. So let's begin our study looking
at verse 1, Isaiah 19 verse 1. says the burden of Egypt, behold,
the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt. So here we read that it's the
Lord himself that's going to do this work upon his enemy,
Egypt. It's the Lord who's coming in
on a cloud. And he's said to be riding upon
a swift cloud into Egypt, which gives us the picture that he's
bringing darkness upon this people. These people are going to come
under the cloud of darkness. And when God does that, look
there at verse 1, the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence,
and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. So there's
a day for every sinner. There's a day for every sinner
where they'll be brought into the day of trouble. And what
will happen is, they don't understand or know why this trouble is coming
upon them. And so what they do is they begin
to turn to the idols, the idols of their heart, the idols of
their imagination to find some comfort. And having come into
this cloud of darkness and fear, few ever attribute it to, the natural
man never attributes it to the Lord. God is doing this work. The Lord is bringing this upon
me. The Lord is doing this for a
reason, for a purpose. But the reality is that it's
the Lord that works all things. Many in the world, they don't
see or understand when trouble or affliction comes upon a nation
or upon a people, they very rarely ever attribute it to God, but
the Lord is said to work all the details. So we see all these
different things, all these different wheels and gears turning and
various factors that all contribute to various situations that we
witness, both small and great, and yet all of them are under
the power and the control of Sovereign God. He's the One who's
Almighty. He's the Omniscient and the Omnipotent
One. So the point here to see is that
in this troubling, in this affliction, it's the Lord that's doing this
work upon the people. And so as we read through these
verses, we see that they're laid out in such a way that they're
just stripping away, just pulling down all the various trusts and
confidences that the people have, or that a natural man could find
refuge in, they'll be wiped out. And so for the wicked, it says,
woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him. But for the
child of God, every refuge that they would turn to and take comfort
in and find some rest or peace in those things, the Lord removes
them from them and takes those comforts and those confidences
away from them, but to the righteous it shall be well. for them. It's
going to be well for the righteous in this work that he does. He's
going to expose it and bring it to nothing, those confidences
that are very natural and favorable to our flesh. And it's painful
in the flesh, but it's always for our good. All right, Isaiah
9, 2. And I will set the Egyptians
against the Egyptians, and they shall fight everyone against
his brother, and everyone against his neighbor, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom. What this is speaking of is a
civil war is breaking out in Egypt. And so Israel, you can
imagine, they're feeling the heat and the threat of Assyria
coming upon them, right? They were up to the neck with
Assyria flooding through their land. And so naturally, they
would typically want to turn to a strong neighbor like Egypt
for some help, for some comfort and some deliverance. But the
Lord breaks out there in Egypt this civil war so that they're
in no position to mount a strong defense or offensive against
the Syria and help Israel in this thing. And so what we find
in this picture is that You know, for the sinner, when these days
of darkness come upon them, and this inner turmoil begins to
stir up within them, this feeling of guilt and shame for their
sin and the things which they've done to offend God, they're not
going to be able to find the Lord. If the Lord's in it, He's
not going to allow us to be able to turn to those comforts, those
things that used to bring us comfort, He's not going to allow
them to give us that peace and that comfort of soul so that
it all quiets down and we just forget about it. Because that's
not good. That's not good for us to just
forget. Just because you're not fearful
of God anymore and the Lord anymore, that isn't a good thing, necessarily,
if you don't know him. For the child of God, who has
peace through Christ, sure, that's a wonderful thing, and the Lord
will do that for his people, except they have need of chastening
or learning something new. But in the beginning, The Lord
is not about just to make peace with us still having confidence
in our own pride and arrogancy and being puffed up in our own
hearts and minds to think that we've done something for ourselves.
Now verse 3 says, and the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst
thereof. and I will destroy the council
thereof, and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers,
and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards."
So when they turn and they begin to run to their vain retreats,
these familiar spirits that normally bring them comfort, there's no
peace that they find in it. Now Job 16.2, this leads the
squirming sinner to cry out like Job who was brought through great
affliction and great trial when he said, miserable comforters
are y'all. Because we're going to see those
things that once brought us comfort and joy, they don't. They don't
anymore. and they're just miserable and
we find no peace and no lasting satisfaction or joy in them. That's because we've got to be
shut up to these things. We've got to be prevented from
gaining access to these comforts and these joys so that we could
be shut up to the Lord and seeking him and crying out to him and
begging him for mercy and deliverance. If we'll ever know the God that
is described in these scriptures, the God that the Apostle Paul,
for example, spoke of, the God of all comfort, if we're ever
going to know this God and be brought to know him spiritually
and to worship and serve him, then we've got to be turned from
finding relief and peace in the things of this world. He's got
to close them up and shut those things off so that we don't find
that relief there, but instead find our relief in the Lord himself. As Paul said, Blessed be God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,
and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. How are we going to know that
God if we find peace and comfort in this world? We'll never know,
we'll never understand that until all these things begin to wash
away and are taken away and stripped from us and we're brought low
to find that all our all in all and all our peace and all our
comfort and joy is in the God and Father of mercies through
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we're going to come
to know these things. So by allowing us to go through
this path, that's when all of our idols appear to us to be
deaf and dumb and unable to help us. It's by going through this
path, by the Lord stripping us away and exposing these things
for what they are, the folly of them and the sin of them.
All right, Isaiah 9-4, 19-4. And the Egyptians will I give
over into the hand of a cruel Lord, and a fierce king shall
rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts. So what happens
is, when the Lord is doing the work, The sinner is turned over
to the accuser. They know what a sinner they
are. All the things that once they were able to keep quiet
and weren't worried about, when they get turned over to that
accuser who accuses them of sin, they see and know I'm offended,
holy God. I've done wrong. I've done wickedly,
and nothing they can do, that they try to do, seems to make
it right, or to soothe their conscience, or to quiet it, because
the accuser is just constantly there, just putting their sin
in their face, and reminding them, you've done this, you've
done that, you've done this thing. Why were you so foolish over
there? Man, you were stupid there, and all these things, and points
out all this stuff, so that we're just terrified, and we're afraid. And we know we've offended holy
God. And often that turns a lot of
people to dead letter religion, to quiet their conscience and
to find some peace. They turn to religion because
they hear, well, I've got to get to God. Maybe that can fix
this and help me here in doing this. And so many people, they'll
start becoming very religious and very faithful in what they're
doing and they'll whip and beat themselves and try and keep the
law and they'll do all these additional things but what they
find is that the law too rules them with a cruel hand and is
a fierce king against them because they're not going to find any
comfort in the law if they're made honest before the law. Those
that can find peace and comfort in religion, that's not the Lord
doing that work. They may be troubled and guilty
for their sin, because many people are guilty for their sin and
feel guilt and shame, but they can find that comfort in some
other thing, some other dead, vain idol, or some worldly thing,
or some vain religion. But not the one that the Lord's
working on. When Job came into trouble, he
said, He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath
set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory
and taken the crown from my head. The Lord will strip his people
and bring them loathe. That crown that we naturally
have when we think that we're something. when we're nothing,
and the Lord will remove that and show us that we're not as
great and wonderful as we once thought we were. we need the
Lord in all things and in all ways. So many experience these
dark days in life and we know that there's many that will turn
to religion and they'll either find, they may find that comfort
in vain, dead religion or some satisfaction in the world and
we've seen that where many seem to be just suited and fine with
what they've found in this world and They go off into that and
they go away from the truth of the gospel, but the Lord's people
will keep on seeking and searching and hungering, even though they
don't know what to do, but all they know is, Lord, I can't go
away from you. You alone have the words of eternal
life. Where else can I go? I can't go anywhere but to you,
Lord. And so they'll continue to seek
him. And so what we learned about
the elect, that is the child of God versus the child of wrath,
the child of wrath there, it's not as though the word of God
had taken on effect, right? So when you see others falling
away, it's not as though the word of God has taken on effect
on them, but they are not all Israel, which are of Israel,
right? So there's many that can find
comfort in this world or in dead religion, but that's because
not all Israel is Israel. Not everyone that claims to believe
on Christ really believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. They can
find their God in some other thing than the true and living
God. Turn over to Romans 9.13. That
last quote was from Romans 9.6, but we're going to go to 9.13.
And this is where Paul begin saying, as it's written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, likely you
remember the account that we read of Esau, where Esau was
basically starving and his brother, Jacob, gets him to sell his birthright
to him for a potage, for a bowl of red stew. because he was so
hungry, because he hadn't eaten in, I guess, days, so he sells
his birthright. And he's angry after that. When he realizes
what he's done, he's very angry, he's very upset, because Jacob
tricked his father, got the birthright as well, he was blessed by his
father, and though he sought it with tears and weeping, he
found no repentance with his father. His father had no blessing
for him to give to him, because it went to Jacob, as though Jacob
were the firstborn. And so Esau was very, very upset
and troubled by this. He came into a day of trouble.
But we know that Jacob went away for many years. And remember,
when Jacob came back, was Esau still hungering and thirsting
and upset and sad? No, he was fine. He was happy. He had plenty. He had found plenty
of things in this world to soothe his conscience, to calm him down.
He had a great land there and he saw his mountain there. He
had much cattle and family and many servants. He was fine. He
was happy. That's what we see is that there
are many in this world that can find relief. And Paul says, what
shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So if we go back to our text
now, though, we see how the Lord continues this work on Egypt. He continues to strip them of
their confidences. Look back in verse 5 there. Everything
that Egypt was depending on is getting dried up. And this is
speaking of the river Nile here, which is very important to Egypt.
And it says, the water shall fail from the sea, and the river
shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers
far away, and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up,
the reeds and flags shall wither." So that aspect of the waters
which worked as a defense against their enemies, those things begin
to dry up. And now their enemies have access
to them. And then the irrigation of the
food, which they could cut channels that would go out and water all
the land and crop production across the land, that gets ruined. Verse 7, the paper reads, By
the mouth of the brooks and everything sown by the brooks shall wither,
be driven away, and be no more. And then that food that they
got from the river itself, the fishes there, that gets taken
away. Verse 8, the fishers also shall
mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brook shall lament,
and they that spread nets upon the water shall languish. Moreover,
they that work and find flax, and they that weave networks
shall be confounded, and they shall be broken in the purposes
thereof, all that makes sluices and ponds for fish. I'm sure there was many able-bodied,
very gifted and talented fishers and producers and farmers there
in Egypt, but if there's no water, what can they do? They had nothing.
It just dried up. The thing for us is that we provide
for ourselves and we do various things to provide for our families
and the things that we have need of. It's all by the Lord's hand. It's all of his goodness. It's
all of his mercy that we have the things that we have. When that natural man gets a
thinking, I've done this through my wisdom and my learning and
my hard work and my labors. I've produced and brought all
these good things for me. The Lord's able to take that
away and show us, no, it's not by your hand. It's by my blessing. I'm the one who gave you that
wisdom. I'm the one who gave you that health. I'm the one
who gave you that strength. I'm the one that lined up all
these things for you so things could work out for you and you
could profit and prosper. in your way because the Lord
can take that. He can sustain his people through
it as he's teaching them that, but they're going to know that
it wasn't by their hand and their wisdom and their intelligence. We see that it's the Lord who
controls the disposing of all things to us and all the good
that we have. and the trouble as well. So when
the Lord's done his work in the hearts of his children, that's
when we'll begin to hear the words of the gospel. That's when
we start to hear what is being taught and preached and shown
to us throughout the gospel and all things like Paul said to
Timothy in 1st Timothy 6 6 through 8 but godliness with contentment
is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and it
is certain we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment
let us therewith be content all right so We begin to hear all
the things that the Lord is teaching us, where he brings us to see
everything is in the Lord's hand. It's all by his goodness and
kindness and mercy to us. All right, now let's look at
verse 11 in our text, Isaiah 19, 11. Here he brings Egypt into confusion. Surely
the princes of Zoan are fools. The counsel of the wise counselors
of Pharaoh has become brutish. How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am
the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? He is saying,
I am going to so confuse you and destroy your wisdom, how
dare you even come before Pharaoh and say that you are a wise man.
you won't be able to boast of and speak of your wisdom and
how you're able to figure difficult problems out. He says, verse
12, Where are they? Where are thy wise men? And let
them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath
purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become
fools, the princes of Naph are deceived. They have also seduced
Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. The
Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof,
and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as
a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. And so the Lord can make
it that though we're feeling our way through, maybe we're
in some difficulty, some tough time, and we're doing things
that we think should help us and should work to get us out
of the trouble or difficulty that we're in, the Lord's able
to just frustrate all of it so that everything that you try,
everything that you do doesn't work. how hard you're trying
or praying or you think it's going to work out this time,
the Lord just keeps bringing it to nothing and He just keeps
bringing you lower and lower and lower in yourself. The prophet
Jeremiah cried out saying, my strength and my hope is perished
from the Lord. That's how dark it can get for
the Lord's people where It's dark and they really think I'm
done the Lord's cut me off He's he's come to get me and he's
got me finally this I'm getting now as my sins deserved I've
been a fake and a phony my whole life and now the Lord's finally
Bringing me to see it and put my face in it the way of you
stick a puppy's face right and it's poop on The floor there
to show them not to do it same thing. We're brought to see I'm
nothing and everything I do is just brought to nothing and falling
apart, but when the Lord's working upon his child, though we might
try very hard to make our way, we try very hard to be righteous
and follow the rule of law, follow the law of Moses, and we try
to do those things that we think will please the Lord, We found
that we made no progress in it. We couldn't do it. We couldn't
remain faithful. We didn't remain steadfast. We
weren't able to execute the law, even though we were really trying
and had our hearts set on it. We weren't able to do that, and
we seemed to grow worse. But remember, the Lord said unto
Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may
be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may
be felt. And so the Lord turns that darkness
so that the law shuts our mouth and we stop boasting of what
we're doing for the Lord and we see all I am is sin and the
more I seem to know the more sinful I seem to see and the
more sinfulness and sin I see in my own heart and more darkness
and more wickedness and the evil and things aren't right for me
and so we stop that boasting even while others in religion
are able to boast and go on talking about how great things are and
how well they're doing in the law, but the Lord prevents us
from doing it. And Isaiah 19.15 says, Neither
shall there be any work for Egypt which the head or tail, branch
or rush may do, And so we might use our head and try to figure
out how to do what we're supposed to do and use the seed of our
carnal wisdom to try and problem solve and work the problem, but
that doesn't work. Or we might resort to the tail,
which is those false teachers with that sting of poison in
their tail. But we find that there's no work
for us to be able to do. We just remain under this Egyptian
darkness and we find no relief. And Isaiah 19.16 says, In that
day shall Egypt be like a woman, and it shall be afraid and fear
because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which
he shaketh over it. And what he's saying there is
that he'll bring the wisdom of man to nothing so that we can't
prosper or We can't bring ourselves up to
that level of the Lord, and we'll find that nothing we do, nothing
we set our hearts to, our minds to, our hands to, helps us or
enables us to prosper in our way. It's all insufficient to
save us. We have no strength. And Job,
when he was under the stripping of the Lord, he confessed it
this way, he said, He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone,
and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. And hath also kindled
his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of
his enemies. His troops come together, and
raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. All right, so back in our text
now, verse 17, and the land of Judah shall be a terror unto
Egypt. Everyone that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself
because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath
determined against it. So that what it's saying there
is, as that sinner recalls of their mind, the things that they've
heard, under the gospel. Those things that they counted
as worthless and didn't think that they were necessary or would
be of any profit to them, that seed of the gospel went down
to seemingly fell to the ground and died and nothing happened.
until the providential rains began to fall and wet that ground
and the sun rose up and began to heat that soil and then that
seed through that persecution, through that trouble, through
that trial and tribulation began to awaken. and to spring forth
and began to grow. And even though the sinner themselves
didn't know it, and every stroke they felt from the stripping,
every tear and every ripping away of their confidences, all
they could say is, Lord, I deserve it. What you're doing is just
and right. I deserve it. I'm a sinner, and
I don't deserve your mercy and your grace. And so while that
sinner stands apart from the brethren, He won't go near them
because he thinks I'm just going to pollute them with the disease
of my own heart. And he can't even lift his head
up to heaven. And all he can do is smite upon his breast.
And he cries out to the Lord, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And then he begins to pray. He
begins to pray because he knows that plague of his own heart. And he spreads forth his hands
then towards the house, the house of God, the Lord, that he was
the cornerstone of the Lord's house. He who builds the house,
he cries out to the Lord for mercy and for grace and for peace. And though he doesn't even know
it, that's when he begins to take that first breath, that
life there, confessing, I'm a sinner. And Lord, I need you. I need
your mercy and your grace, so that the Lord shows us my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord. So the Lord doesn't need our
worldly wisdom. He doesn't need us to be great.
He doesn't need our degrees or our strength or our craftsmanship
or anything like that. He doesn't need greatness from
us. Everything we need He put into
His Son Jesus Christ. He sent Him and looks to Christ
for all that He requires of His people. He looks to His Son. And so it's really, the Gospel
is really, really very simple. Well, God is revealing to us.
It's contrary to all of this world's religion, because this
world's religion is about improving yourself and doing better and
trying harder and trying to please God by your works and what you
do. But the gospel is very simple.
It's the Lord revealing to us, I'm the sinner. I'm a wicked
sinner who can't save myself. And God isn't looking to me for
my help. and my participation and partnering with him to make
myself righteous. No, it's for me to be brought
down low. He's doing this. He's showing
me that I'm a sinner to bring me low on myself, that I don't
have confidence in myself, that we don't have confidence in the
flesh, but that he shows us the Lord Jesus Christ, that he gave
Christ because in Christ is our salvation. His blood is perfect. He is precious and righteous
in all He did, and He fulfilled all righteousness for His people.
And so as the Lamb of God, sent of God, He went up to the cross
as our sacrifice, as our fit sacrifice, an offering to the
Father to make us righteous. so that he bore our sin in himself
and put it away forever. He carried that sin away into
a land uninhabited so that it can never be found, so that you
and me, sinner, might go before God, who is holy and perfect
in all his ways, standing there without fault before him because
of the righteous, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe
on him. Trust Him. You who are sinners
and can't do anything right, trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why God sent Him. His blood is sufficient. He's
redeemed His people with His blood. Those who believe on Him
shall find remission of sins and the comfort for their souls.
He is our peace with God. And because God was pleased with
Him, He raised Him from the dead. And because he rose from the
dead and went up to the Father, now he sends the Spirit into
your heart to work all these things, to make these effectual,
to deliver us from our vain confidences, and to find our life, our all,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that makes us alive
to that. Vain religion. Can't make anybody see that,
but that's what he shows the sinner, that he's all, that Christ
is all, that that's why he came. So in his grace, he regenerates
us and makes us to know what God has done for us in his son,
Jesus Christ. So our God, he calls the simple
and he blesses them to know this gospel so that we see what Christ
has done. And Paul said it this way, turn
over to 1 Corinthians 1.26. He said, For ye see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught or nothing things that are. that no flesh
should glory in his presence. So you that are weak and worthless
and despised and cast off and ridiculed, don't fear God for
that. He calls the simple. He calls
the foolish. He calls the weak and the weary
and the ignorant to himself to seek him for their all and their
peace and their joy and their comfort because that's why Christ
came. to put away our sin and to make us righteous before God.
And God will provide all the other things. He'll bring everything
necessary that we need for our comfort and our joy and our peace
in Him. So, in closing, the burden of Egypt, it speaks to the darkness
of Egypt which comes upon the soul due to that indwelling sin
that is natural to us all, that keeps us, that prevents us from
coming to the Lord. And so dark are the days when
the feeling of hope that we can deliver ourselves, darker those
days and those confidences begin to be dried up under the hand
of a cruel Lord and a fierce King. He allows us to be stripped
and withered away by these troubling things that bring us low. That is until the day when the
Lord reveals Christ to us and what He's accomplished for us
in the Lord Jesus Christ and makes us righteous in Him. Turn over to Isaiah 49 and go
to verse 8. Isaiah 49 verse 8. Here we see that God has raised
up Christ, verse 8, for a covenant of the people to establish the
earth to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. And he's
given Christ all authority over heaven and earth so that he might
say to the prisoners, verse 9, go forth to them that are in
darkness, show yourselves. And then the promise is assured
to us in Christ, they shall feed in the ways and their pasture
shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst,
neither shall the heat nor sun smite them, for he that hath
mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water.
shall he guide them." So when that which is destroyed in our
flesh with all the vain confidence is being wiped away, that's when
we learn and find that Christ is our all, that He is our refuge,
that He is our salvation, that He is our peace with mighty God. And then how thankful we are,
when we have put our trust in Egypt and put our trust in all
the resources of Egypt and all these other things, how thankful
we are when we look back on them and see, Lord, you did that,
you wiped those things out, that I might know, that I might be
brought low, that I might know and see that Jesus Christ really
is my hope and my salvation, my Lord and my Savior. Thank
you, Lord. That's when we're made thankful
and made to rejoice in Christ, our salvation. All right, I pray
the Lord will bless that to our hearts. I'll close in prayer
and then Joe will close us in hymn. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you, Father, for your hand of might and power, for your wisdom. Lord, we would never choose this
way, but how thankful we are that you have brought us through
this way, that we truly do. We truly are given hearts by
you, by your power and your might to bow before you and to confess
that you are Lord and King, that you are Almighty and our Savior. Father, we pray that you would
continue to grow us in this grace, that you would continue to cause
us to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, that we would not
be turned back to the law, back to our flesh, back to trying
to please you and make up for some wicked thing we've done,
Lord, because we can never put away our sin. But we're so thankful
that you've put it all away in the Lord Jesus Christ. Settle
us, Lord, in this gospel. Lord, bless these people here. Bless our families. Cause us,
Lord, to hear the gospel. Cause our children and our spouses
and our friends and family to want to hear the gospel and to
want to worship and rejoice in the glory of your son, Jesus
Christ. Lord, make us truly thankful
for what he's done for us. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.