We'll be in Isaiah chapter 14 this evening. Isaiah 14, we'll
be looking at the first 20 verses. Isaiah 14, 1 through 20. Now chapter 14 is a continuation
of the burden that Isaiah is pronouncing against Babylon.
And we saw last week how that the Lord delivers his church,
his people, from false religion. And that was pictured in Babylon,
who pictures the horror of Babylon, who represents all false religion. And now this week we're going
to see how the Lord delivers us out of the hand or from the
accuser of the brethren, that one who is the oppressor, the
oppressor of all people upon the earth. In Revelation 12,
12, we'll look at this verse again later, it says, Woe to
the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil
has come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth
that he hath but a short time. But we don't have to fear, brethren,
you who are the children of God, because that's why Christ came.
He came to deliver us out of the works that the devil has
worked upon the earth, and to deliver us from him who would
devour us. It says in Hebrews 2.14, For
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
Christ also himself likewise took part of the same, so that
Christ, he willingly came down to the earth to be the sacrifice
to put away the sins of his people, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. So our title
is Delivered from the Oppressor, Delivered from the Oppressor.
Alright, let's first look at the fall of man. Turn over to
Romans 5, Romans 5, and you should probably leave a marker there
because we'll come back to Romans and be looking in Galatians and
a few of the books there in the New Testament a little later.
But in Romans 5.12 we read this, wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And when Eve gave to Adam. When she gave that piece of fruit
to Adam, we read that he did eat. Adam in all his posterity,
he did eat that fruit. And the eyes of them both, Adam
and Eve, were opened and they knew that they were naked and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. So
that already we see that death worked in them. They died spiritually
because they went right to man-made works religion and making aprons
to cover their nakedness. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst
the trees of the garden." And that again shows us just how
weak man-made religion is and that in the day when we stand
before God, if that's all we have is our own works, man-made
religion, we'll be terrified and fearful Justly so, because
we shall receive the wrath of God. But Adam, just as God said,
he died spiritually. In Genesis 2, 17, the Lord had
told him in the margin, it says it this way, dying thou shalt
die. And so that was speaking of the
Lord's declaring to him, you will die immediately spiritually. You will die spiritually immediately. And that disease of sin, that
death, was worked in his body so that immediately his body
became polluted and he began to die physically. So death began
to come about in his body and he ceased immediately to be immortal. He ceased to be immortal right
then and there and the Lord saw to it because he threw him out
of the garden and protected the way to the tree. of life so that
he can no longer take of his own hand and take life to himself
because no man can take life to himself. So Adam heeded the
voice of the wicked one and the wicked one was the one who lied
to Adam and Eve when he said, ye shall not surely die. He called God a liar, straight
out. He said, you won't, you won't die. For God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. But the fact is
they did die because they are not gods. And that is they had
no ability to deliver themselves out of the bondage that they
just subjected themselves to. They became debtors to sin. They became corrupt and wicked. they weren't able to deliver
themselves, and they had many enemies now that they could not
deliver themselves from. And the devil is said to have
the power of death, as we saw there in Hebrews 2.14, that he
has the power of death. And that's because he was the
introducer of sin. And when Adam sinned, as we saw
in Romans 5, death entered in. And that's why our Lord said
in John 8.44, He was a murderer from the beginning. Speaking
of the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning and abode
not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father
of it. And so man became oppressed by
these enemies, by fear, by wrath, by fear of wrath, by fear of
death. He was afraid to die and stand
before holy God, and he became subject to that wicked one. And we all, in him, became subject
to that wicked one. Paul, when writing to Timothy
in the second letter, 226, reminded us that before Christ delivered
us, before Christ gave us life, we are taken captive by the devil
to do his will, by his will. When he pleases, he can take
whomsoever he will that does not know Christ and do his bidding
so long as the Lord permits it and allows it. And in Ephesians
2 verses 1 through 3, this is familiar but I'll read it, in
the sense of when we were yet dead in our trespasses and sins. Paul says in you who were dead
in trespasses and sins wherein ye walked or we walked according
to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of
the air the spirit that now worketh and the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." So even Paul, who was a Pharisee, puts them in that
same lump. So whether you were just practicing
lasciviousness, that just reckless abandonment in the sin of the
flesh, or you were doing the sin of the flesh in religion,
like Paul. We were all children of wrath,
all children of disobedience, all under the power of the prince
of the air, and our captivity seemed to be sealed forever,
because there was nothing we could do, and nothing that we
could do to set ourselves free until something wonderful happened.
Something wonderful happened, not of us, not by our works,
but in spite of our works, in spite of what we do and who we
are and the fact that we are enmity against God, we find that
the Lord sent to deliver a savior. It says in Ephesians 2, 4, but
God. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. So that that quickening from
the dead, that is our new birth, brethren. That's the new birth
by the Holy Spirit so that we are, by the new birth, given
life, given sight to see the kingdom of God, given sight to
see the Lord Jesus Christ. given ears to hear so when Christ
says he that had an ear to hear what the Spirit saith let him
hear so that we can actually hear what's being said and we
don't have that spirit of the world and that spirit of men
now to believe like this world believes with this great fog
and darkness and a veil over their hearts and over their minds
that they don't see and know or understand the things of the
Lord. They look at the burning of of Notre Dame over there in
Paris and think that that's this great attack on Christianity.
And they don't understand why someone who hopes in Christ isn't
moved by that. Sure, it's a terrible thing to
see an artifact that old burn, and we don't take delight in
that, it's a great tourist attraction. In our faith, it means nothing. We're not moved or affected by
that. We understand that the world hates the true and living
God, but there's attacks against all religions, against the Jews,
against the Muslims, against the Christians, so-called. It's
all over and that doesn't move us because we understand that's
just the spirit of the world and they say things about it
being an attack against Christianity, but we know that that's not even
an attack against the truth. So the Lord does this work, and
he gives us life so that in that life through the Lord, we worship
him now, in spirit and in truth, as our brother read there in
John 4 earlier. Had we no advocate, had we no
promise of a surety, The Lord would have just ended it right
then and there and that would have been the end of us and immediately
right there we would have been destroyed. But because the Lord
has a people, we have the promise of a continuation because he
must save his people. He must save and redeem that
which was lost and restore us to himself. All right now. Our
next point, the Lord will yet save Israel. So this salvation
is what has been foretold to us in our text. That in spite
of the rebellion of man and everything seemingly being lost, God is
determined to show mercy. For by grace are you saved, through
faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. He gives us all things, all spiritual
blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in our text, in Isaiah 14
verse 1, we find this word of salvation is spoken to us. For
the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and
set them in their own land, and the strangers shall be joined
with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. The psalmist
writes of the Lord, saying, Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon
Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come. Now Israel and Jacob, they are
the church in the Old Testament. Israel and Jacob are the church
in the Old Testament, and they were a picture of the church
today, which is now made up of Jew and Gentile. They're one
in Christ. Turn over to Galatians 3. Galatians
3, and then we'll come back to Romans. Galatians 3, verse 7. I just want to show you that
the Jew and the Gentile make up the church, and always have.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. And we see there, brethren, that
Abraham was saved by the same gospel that were saved. Those
patriarchs, they weren't saved by the law or some works of the
flesh or some covenant of works. They were saved by the same gospel
that the Lord saves us by. They looked unto the coming of
Christ. We now have the blessing to see
and know that the Christ has come and how he put away our
sins in being crucified. They knew that he would shed
his blood, that he would give his life for their life, but
they didn't necessarily know perhaps that it would be on a
cross necessarily, but this is made known to us more clearly. All right, so he had that gospel
preached unto him, that is that in him all nations should be
blessed. And because Abraham was saved by faith, we who have
been given faith to believe like Abraham, we're actually called
the children of Abraham. Anyone who comes by faith to
the Lord Jesus Christ are called the children of Abraham. Turn
over to Romans 2. Romans 2 and verse 28. For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." So that, as we saw there in Ephesians 2.4, these scriptures
show to us that it's the Lord who makes the difference in His
people. Look over now in Romans 5. Romans
5. And in verse 10, Romans 5, 10 and 11, for if when
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life, and
not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. And so, brethren,
In Adam, we died spiritually and are unable to work a salvation
for ourselves, unable to work a righteousness to bring before
God and say, Lord, have mercy on me for the works that I've
done. Show me kindness. Show me eternal
life by the works that I've done. We couldn't do that. We were
dead in trespasses and sins. But the Lord Jesus Christ took
upon Him that work to do Himself, and laying aside His glory, took
upon Him the flesh of His brethren, was made like unto them, yet
without sin, and He came being submitted under the law, and
became obedient to the law, and fulfilled the law in every jot
and in every tittle, and He fulfilled all the requirements of God as
Father, he became obedient to Him, and he suffered, he learned
obedience through the things which he suffered, and he became
obedient even unto death, so that he went to that cross willingly
to lay down his life for the people. and he bore the sin of
the people, the payment that was theirs, that wage that we
could never pay, or that we could never bear, because the wages
of sin is death, that which we could never bear, that which
we could never pay off, that debt that was ours, the Lord
Jesus Christ took that debt upon himself and shed his precious
blood to wash us of our sins, to cleanse us, to deliver us
out from the wrath of God to deliver us from that wrath that
was our just due, that he might justify us before God and sanctify
us before God and redeem us unto himself, that we might have an
inheritance in him and know him and dwell with him, him being
our eternal inheritance forever. so that we might know the true
and living God, and that He redeemed that which was lost. He did that,
and then He didn't just do it, but He sends His Spirit, whereby
we are made alive, and Christ is revealed to us, and shown
to us what He has done for us, and how He accomplished it, and
that our salvation is completely, entirely done, and wrapped up
in what He did. Christ is our Savior. He is our
salvation, and there's nothing more for us to do and he's put
that faith in our hearts because he gives us all things that are
necessary for life and godliness in himself. He gives us even
that faith so that we too are with the apostles who have obtained
like precious faith with all of Abraham's seed, the children
of faith. So in spite of the wickedness
of man, the Lord was not turned from his purpose. He is determined
to have mercy upon us. He said to Jeremiah in 31.3,
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. All right, turn over to Galatians
4. Galatians 4 and verse 3. Paul here gives a summary of
what we've been speaking about. Galatians 4.3. Even so we, when
we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
We were children of disobedience, children of wrath, who were dead
in trespasses and sins. But, he says, when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. so that by his work
we are adopted but it pleases him to make us to know what he's
done here in this flesh that we might know Him and know what
He's done for us. He didn't just adopt us and we'll
find out that we're His in the end. No, He makes it known to
His people now. That's what He's saying in verse
6. Because we are sons, because we are adopted through the work
of Christ, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so that we confess that which
He's shown us. Lord, I'm a sinner. Lord, I can't
do anything to save myself. And that faith which he's put
in the heart to look to and to lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ,
what he's done there, we confess that which he's worked in our
heart. To confess him by faith, hearing that gospel of what he's
done for us to put away our sins. And he gets all the praise and
the glory for it. Turn over to Colossians 1. Colossians 1, verse
12. We give him thanks for what he's
done. Colossians 1.12, giving thanks unto the Father, which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins. That's what Christ has done,
and that land that he is delivering us, delivering the people from,
that he might bring them into the land, that land that he's
taken them out of is the land of their captivity. There, when
they were in Babylon, and that pictures that captivity that
we are bound in, in false, dead, vain, man-made works religion,
and that land that he delivers us into is Canaan, which is a
picture of spiritual Canaan, that inheritance that we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, now look back in our
text, in Isaiah 14 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. And I was thinking about that,
and I thought of Paul, the Apostle Paul, because he was an oppressor.
of the church. He was an oppressor. It says
in Acts 8.3, talking of Saul, that he made havoc of the church,
entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed
them to prison, so that he oppressed them until the Lord arrested
him and converted him, made him his own vessel. And he said to
Ananias in Acts 9, 15, and 16, that Paul is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he
must suffer for my name's sake. So that in that sense, brethren,
we who oppress the church of God are made to be servants of
the church of God, that we might serve them and that they might
know the true and living God and hear of his name. Now the
Lord, he delivers his people out from their oppressors and
he brings the Gentiles who didn't know the truth to cleave unto
Jacob and to serve with them now. They serve in the church
as fellow laborers with the brethren. In Romans 8, 29-31 it says, he did foreknow he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. so that it doesn't matter where
we're scattered, or where we're coming from, or where we are
in the four corners of the earth, the Lord is able to draw us all
by faith into that one family of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called,
then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. And what shall we say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And that's
good news because we have many oppressors. We deal with religious
zealots who hate the truth. They hate the gospel of grace. They persecute those who preach
and declare that we are saved completely and entirely by the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have our own our own sinful
flesh to deal with, and we see how that itself is just a burden
and a weight upon us and causing us to look to earthly things
and to not believe the Lord God and what he says concerning us,
that which was made in Adam's image and has fallen. And then
we have the enemy of our souls, the accuser of the brethren. And that brings us to our final
point, the oppressor ceased. Look here in Isaiah 14, 3, where
we see that Christ's work, His work, defeated all our enemies,
including that oppressor. Isaiah 14, 3. 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, right, because that's what we were subjected
to when we submitted ourselves to Satan there in the garden,
that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon,
and say, how hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased,
the king of Babylon being a type of the enemy of our souls, of
Satan. The Lord hath broken the staff
of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. He who smote the
people in wrath with the continual stroke, he that ruled the nations
in anger is persecuted and none hindereth. And that, brethren,
is one of the grand results in what we see, what Christ worked
on the cross. He worked our deliverance out
from that bondage. He was there accusing the brethren
day and night. He would tempt us to sin and
then he goes right to the throne and accuses the brethren to show
what they've done and that we were to be punished and destroyed
for that. But we're now set free in Christ. We are set free from that bondage,
and we're set free from the fear of death. We don't fear to stand
before God. As John said, perfect love casteth
out fear. When the Lord has given you faith
to rest in him, and you're not trying to work any more righteousness
for yourselves, as he's growing you and settling you there in
that gospel, that fear goes away. When we were in religion, And
if you still have that baggage of religion, keep sinning under
the gospel, because all that baggage goes away. Because in
man's religion, we're always still somehow taught to look
back to the flesh and something that we need to be doing better.
And so there's always that fear, have I done enough? But when
the Lord settles you in the gospel and reveals Christ, that He is
a sufficient Savior to the uttermost, and that His blood cleanses from
all sin, And he gives you that faith, then that fear goes away,
because there's nothing more to fear. You don't fear that
death. Our Lord said to his disciples, I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven, so that when Christ did his work, it was quick and
immediate, and the accuser of the brethren who stood before
the throne of God was cast out of heaven. And our Lord said
in Mark 3.27, So that when we were bound in sin, Even though by election, by predestination,
we were the Lord's people, we were His goods, because we were
lawbreakers. We did that which was wicked.
But Christ paid the price of His blood to the Father. He satisfied
justice, so that the law is satisfied. There's nothing more that Satan
has to accuse us with. It's over. And Christ spoiled
him of the goods. that which was lost, his sheep,
his chosen precious vessels which was his from eternity, his promised
bride, he delivered them out of the house of the strongman. He delivered us out from that
prison and that abuse and that oppression that he laid upon
the people of God. So that when he was, there was
a time when he could stand there, when he could go before the throne
of God, before Christ did his work, and he could accuse the
brethren, and he could argue over the body of Moses, over
the law, because we're all lawbreakers, but once Christ satisfied our
debt to the law, once he's satisfied what we owed, and once his blood
cleansed us from our sins so that we're not lawbreakers, we're
dead to that law, and that law has nothing to say to us anymore.
We're not bound by the condemnation of the law. Once delivered of
that, then there was nothing more for him to say, and he was
thrown out. It says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption. There's that word again, that
blood purchase of Christ, that is in Christ Jesus, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation a means of forgiveness through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Satan may have bruised Christ's
heel in the crucifixion, but he crushed his head there when
he died on the cross, because he paid, he put away the sins
of his people. Now turn over to Revelation 12,
and we'll be back in Isaiah 14, but I want to show you some verses
in Revelation 12. Because this gives us an insight,
verse 7, this gives us an insight as to what occurred in heaven
after Christ had accomplished our redemption, after he ascended
to the Father, as he stood there in the midst of the Father as
a lamb that had been slain from the foundation of the earth.
You can see that in Revelation 5, 6. tonight if you want to
read it but here in Revelation 12 7 it says and there was war
in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and
the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not neither was
their place found any more in heaven And the great dragon was
cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. He was cast out unto the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and
they loved not their lives unto the death." So that now we have
confirmation from heaven that the accuser, he's defeated. He's
been defeated. He's thrown out. He has no more
audience with God the Father because there's nothing to accuse
the brethren with. There's nothing more to say. We're cleansed before
God. We are righteous before the throne
of holy God. We have no fear to stand before
Him who is holy and wonderful and perfect and created the heavens
and the earth, that you brethren, this flock here is going to stand
before the Lord in that day, accepted of Him because of the
Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done. It says back in Isaiah
14, 7 and 8, the whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They
break forth into singing, yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee
and the cedars of Lebanon saying, since thou art laid down, no
feller has come up against us. And that speaks of the great
peace that we have in Christ. When the Lord sent Christ into
the earth, that's why the angels declared, glory to God and peace
be unto men. was declaring his willingness
and that he had sent peace. He did that first work to establish
peace between God and men. It was all in the Lord Jesus
Christ and we're safe and protected. That's how we overcome the evil
one. Now, Revelation 12, 12. It does show that we do war against
him. There's still a war here on the
earth. And it says in 1212, Therefore
rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto
you, having great wrath, because you know it that he hath but
a short time. But before the throne of God,
there's peace. There's nothing more to say to
the brethren, so that he may bruise your heel in killing of
the body through persecution, but that's all that he can do.
And Paul said, the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your
feet shortly. So Christ has delivered us through
his work. And the devil, he makes war against
the church, but we see how the church is protected of God, how
she's provided for of the Lord and made to seek him for these
things. It says in Revelation 12, 17,
And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war
with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ." And just to remind
you that keeping the commandments of God is what Christ said to
believe on me. Believe on me and love your brethren. That's his commandment, faith.
That's the commandment that the Lord writes in the hearts of
his people. faith toward him, and we don't leave him. And because
it's in the gospel, in faith, we don't want to sin against
one another. We don't want to offend one another, and if we
do, we're sorry about it. And we want to make it right
and be at peace with one another. But that's the commandment, is
that faith, that faith. So don't be looking back to the
Ten Commandments. Now, it's going a little long, but let me just
read Ephesians, or you could turn there to Ephesians 6, 11.
And I'll read a couple of verses. Paul says to us, because we're
here on the earth and because there's a spiritual warfare going
on, he says, Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore."
And then Paul begins to outline those spiritual blessings that
the Lord gives us. He gives us, he says, "...having
your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints. Now, let me just say that there
will be a final end to our enemy. It says, don't turn there, but
in Revelation 20, verse 3, that he must be loosed for a little
season. And then in verse 10, it says, the devil that deceived
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and
night forever and ever. And that's what we see back in
our text. Turn over there to Isaiah 14. I'm not going to read
the whole thing, but I'll read a few of the verses just to give
you that sense. It says in Isaiah 14, 9, Hell
from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It
stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the
earth. It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of
the nations. All they shall speak and say
unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like
unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the
grave. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations? They that see thee shall narrowly
look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man
that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that
made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof,
that opened not the house of his prisoners? And then it says
this word in verse 18, All the kings of the nations, even all
of them lying lowry, everyone in his own house and that verse
speaks of us who are made of Christ kings and priests as stones
in his house that he builds up in his house and he says they
rest safely in the habitation of Christ but that wicked one
He's destroyed, and his land is destroyed. And 1 John 3, 8,
we see that Christ has prevailed. He's prevailed over our enemy,
over the accuser. It says, he that committeth sin
is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For
this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil." So that's exactly what Christ
did. He destroyed the works of the devil. That darkness that
was upon our heart, that confusion, that being subject to the false
religion, being subject to Him at His will and doing His works
and being children of wrath and children of disobedience, Christ
delivers us from that. He's the one who works life in
us by the Spirit. He's the one who gives us faith.
He's the one that equips us with all things necessary for life
and godliness so that we rejoice in Him. And unlike that evil
one who didn't open the prison for his prisoners. Christ says
to his prisoners, he actually says, go forth and to them that
are in darkness, show yourselves. And he brings us out and causes
us to feed in that green pasture of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He brings us out into the light
and into the truth and into the life and into the way, which
is Christ. So he, Christ, delivers us from
the oppressor. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we ask that You would bless this Word, that You would
call Your people out of darkness, out of the prison, Lord. Give
them faith to believe and to lay hold of Christ, to hear His
voice, calling them out of that darkness, lifting that veil of
darkness and dimness and evil which is in the heart of every
man until You save them, Lord. Father, we ask that You would
do this for Your people, and for the young people, Lord, and
the old. And Father, that you would bless
this work. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.