Good evening. All right, we're
going to be in Isaiah 9. Isaiah 9, and we're primarily
looking at verses 11 and 12. Now, let me just say by way of some
introduction that we'll cover a little bit of what we've been
looking at since verse 7, actually, and even in this entire chapter,
but our very history That is all mankind's history stands
in the light of the cross, the light of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Because without what Christ did, without Christ coming and doing
what he did, we could have no fellowship with God. And were
it not for salvation provided in Christ, then God would have
just destroyed us all in Adam. When we sinned in Adam in the
garden, that would have been it. We would have all been destroyed
in him. Now, we've been looking, however,
at Isaiah 9-7, which declares the kingdom of Christ. We saw
that Christ came, and this declares the promise that his kingdom
shall increase. And it says in Isaiah 9-7, the
increase of his government, that is, in Christ Jesus, we have
peace with God the Father. And of this glorious fellowship
that we have with God, it's in the light of Jesus Christ. And
there shall be no end to this fellowship and to this light
and kingdom and this inheritance that we have in Christ. It says,
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it
and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this." And then we saw how the way that the Lord
grows this kingdom is through the establishment of sending
forth His gospel to make known His salvation in the face of
Jesus Christ. He says in verse 8, The Lord
sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. And so this word goes forth and
it tears down those vain works of religion and the vain imaginations
of man who's trusting in his works and his own righteousness,
and it delivers many out of the kingdom of darkness and brings
them into the kingdom of light in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
we also saw how there's many who don't hear and refuse to
hear, and they go right back to work. That's because this
revelation, to understand these things, it's not a natural thing.
It's not something that we're born with, this ability to hear
reason and logic of godly things and therefore understand what
God is saying. It's a spiritual work that must
be done in us, which we're born dead in trespasses and sins,
we don't have the Spirit to know the things of God, and so God
must do this for us. But what we understand for natural
man, Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians 2.14, where he says, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. but we who have the Spirit of
Christ and who now know Him and are awakened to these things
and see the work in the hand of our Lord, especially in our
own salvation, how he's done this work of grace in us, for
us, to deliver us out of that. We see these things, and he goes
on in verses 15 and 16 of that same chapter, for he that is
spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him. But we have the mind of Christ. The purpose, one of the purposes
there is just that, not only to save us, but to give us understanding
that we're not offended when others are offended in the word
that we're speaking to them. And what we're declaring, we
understand why they don't hear it, why they don't receive it,
why they don't believe what we're saying. And so we're not put
off, and we're not offended then, and then turn away ourselves.
We understand what's going on. We understand that this world
isn't going to receive that gospel. They're not going to hear it.
and many are going to go on that broad way. And that's good for
us to understand that, because if we didn't understand that,
we'd be thinking, you know, if we thought a majority had to
believe this or something like that, we'd be offended or confused
and perplexed by why so many don't hear this. And we saw this
in verses 9 and 10 of Isaiah 9, verses 9 and 10. And all the
people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria,
that saying the pride and stoutness of heart, the bricks are fallen
down, but we will build with hewn stones. The sycamores are
cut down, but we will change them into cedars. And without
a doubt, this certainly has a particular reference to the church in that
day when Isaiah was sent there to preach to them and to make
this word known. But it also is relevant to the
church in our day, as it's been relevant to the church in every
age. The Lord is revealing this and
showing this to us that we might understand what he's doing and
that natural reaction of man who rebels and pushes back and
then how God deals with that throughout history. So the wicked
are not going to hear. They're not going to be moved
by the judgments of God. They just push on and they go
right back to their sinful works and their ways. So no matter
what happens, in the world or in their locality or to them
they just find an excuse for it and it doesn't mean anything
and they just go right back to their ways. So tonight I want
us to see that as the Lord reveals his truth in the Lord Jesus Christ
through this gospel as we've looked at and we saw a wicked
man goes right back to his works of wickedness thinking that he's
righteous through his religious deeds or he just goes into those
carnal works of the flesh Whatever it is that man hears, he goes
right back to those things, but the Lord, he continues to pour
out more judgment and to make this known to the people, and
they continue on in their unbelief until it comes to an end. It comes to an end, and we see
this pattern. That's what I want to show you
tonight, that it comes to an end, but The thing that we see,
and this is the most important thing for you, brethren, to see
is that always, always, the Word of God, the Gospel, is established
in the hearts of His people. His Kingdom is established and
it expands and grows as the Word goes forth and the sheep hear
it and they're brought in to the fold, they're called out
of darkness and brought into that fold of Christ. It's because we have the promise
that it's an everlasting kingdom and that's what the Lord's doing
and he's showing us that through it, as much as Satan and his
army attacks, the kingdom of Christ always continues and lasts
and expands and grows and his sheep are brought in. We see
this even when Peter declared that gospel foundation that we
hold to, when Christ said, upon this rock, not upon Peter, but
upon the confession that Peter made, that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God, which we know confesses and is saying,
I'm a sinner, I can't save myself. the Lord God had to send his
own darling son into the world to do this work of salvation
for me, to deliver me from my death, to do for me what I could
not do for myself in providing salvation through his blood. And he says, upon that, I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." Because Christ's blood is mighty to save. He's mighty to
save and he cannot fail, he shall not fail, so don't be discouraged. Our title is, The Pattern We
See. The Pattern We See. Let's first
look at this here with Israel and Judah and what's going on
here. So after the Lord exposes the dead works of man through
the preaching of the gospel, a man responds to that in pride
and in stoutness of heart to these early warnings, he just
goes right back doing what he does. He explains it away as
just some coincidence, or it doesn't mean that, and he doesn't
hear what's being said, or even pause and consider that his works
are corrupt and false. they go right back to rebuilding
that which they were working on and trying to implement either
their system or their religion or their government or whatever
works it is, they just go right back to doing it and they seek
to do it better the next time. But like James said, God resisteth
the proud. but giveth grace to the humble."
And man doesn't consider that. He feels like, he thinks that
it's by his fervency and his determination and his pride that's
going to cause him to succeed in whatever it is that he's doing.
But the Lord, you can see this throughout history. He deals
with this in this passage, or these passages, these scriptures
that we've been looking at, you saw with Judah he's dealing with,
he's dealing with Israel, he's dealing with Syria, he's going
to be dealing with Assyria in the future, and then Babylon,
and then they're gonna have to be dealt with, and then Persia
and the Medes, they're gonna have to be dealt with, and all
these kingdoms rising and falling, but which kingdom always continues
and never goes away? The kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ, always advances and continues. All right, so turn to Isaiah
8, Isaiah 8, and look at verse 6. And we'll look at a number
of passages, so have your Bible ready, but I'll try to do this
in a way that is helpful. Isaiah 8.6, so the Lord told
Judah previously, so this is Judah now, for as much as this
people refuse it, the waters of Shiloah, that go softly and
rejoice in Rezon and Remeliah's son. Rezon being the king of
Syria, Remeliah's son, he won't even call him his name, which
is Pekah, he was the king of Israel, but he refers to him
as Remeliah's son, so he must not have been much of a person.
But now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the
waters of the river. strong in many, even the king
of Assyria, in all his glory, and he shall come up over his
channels and go over all his banks." He's going to expand
out beyond his own country and he's going to go out with his
army to conquer as he will. Yeah, and verse eight, and he
shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, he
shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of the
wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel. Associate
yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces,
and give ear, O ye of far countries, gird yourselves, and ye shall
be broken in pieces, gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. And so through all the vain confidence
of man, the Lord God is going to deal with and he's going to
punish the wickedness of man. They're going to come to account
for the things that they do. And he says, verse 10, take counsel
together and it shall come to naught. Speak the word and it
shall not stand for God is with us. And when he says for God
is with us, what What the Lord is doing there is He's putting
a difference between His people and all the other people of the
world. He's putting a difference there
between those who refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly,
that refuse Christ, and those who look to Christ because He's
their only hope of salvation. They understand that's who God
has provided to deliver them from their sins. There, when
they refuse those waters of Shiloah, they're refusing the mediator
that God has provided between God and men. And they're just
going to do what they're going to do themselves. And they will
not hear what the Lord is saying. So the Lord unfolds this destruction
that's coming upon this confederacy between Israel and Syria, just
as he says. So if you look now in verses
11 and 12 of chapter 9. Therefore, the Lord shall set
up the adversaries of reason against him, and join his enemies
together, the Syrians before and the Philistines behind, and
they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his
anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. So you see this turning of everyone
against everyone. As Assyria comes out, Assyria's
going to destroy, and the enemies of Israel are going to destroy
Israel, and it's even going to impact, as we saw in chapter
8, Judah's going to be affected, and they're going to be impacted,
because they don't hear and believe. So, look now, this holds a place
there in Isaiah 9, but look over in 2 Kings 16. So 2 Kings 16, and we'll just
step through a couple of verses here. Look at verse three. Now this is speaking of Ahaz,
who's the king of Judah. I'm trying to make it clear so
you know who's who here. But he, Ahaz, walked in the way
of the kings of Israel. Yea, and made his son to pass
through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen
whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. And now, drop down to verse 5.
Then Reason, king of Syria and Pekah, son of Ramaliah, king
of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to war, and they besieged Ahaz,
but could not overcome him. And we understand that each came
up separately, but then they understood there was going to
be a confederacy where they would come up together, and that's
where this fear and this worshipping, if you will, by Judah and Ahaz,
they were glorying in them because they were basically saying, We're
afraid now that this confederacy is going to overrun us. It's going to bring us to nothing.
It'll destroy us. So they're looking at man and
his works and they're thinking, all right, this is going to be
our undoing and our end. And the Lord sends to Ahaz Isaiah,
and Isaiah prophesies to him and tells him, the Lord's gonna
provide for you. But Ahaz didn't, he refused.
He would not hear what Isaiah was saying, and here in this
verse seven, we see what Ahaz did in turning to his own wisdom.
It says, verse seven, so Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser,
king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son. Come
up and save me out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and out
of the hand of the king of Israel which rise up against me." Now,
he should have called upon the Lord God. He should have confessed
his sin and his concern and his fear to the Lord. And the prophet
was there saying, I'm going to provide for you, but he didn't
hear. And so Ahaz, entrusting in his own wisdom and in his
own riches, turns to the wealth that's in the house of God, and
he gives that over to Assyria. It says in verse 8, Ahaz took
the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord
and in the treasures of the king's house and sent it for a present
to the king of Assyria. And the thing is, when we look
to this world for wisdom and for deliverance, for it to be
our deliverer and we're looking for salvation in the things of
this world, What we're doing is we're taking the fruit and
the calves of our lips and we're giving praise to the world and
to these idols and to other things when we should be giving them
to the Lord and confessing our sin to the Lord and confessing
our concern to him and going to him for deliverance and for
mercy and for kindness and to deal with our enemies. And the
king of Assyria, verse nine, he harkened unto him, for the
king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried
the people of it captive to Kerr, and he slew Rezan, that's the
king of Assyria. He slew the king of Assyria,
so that ended that. And the Lord permitted it, he
allowed this to happen, but Ahaz goes even deeper into idolatry
as a result. Because he didn't look to the
Lord, now he goes deeper into idolatry, and you see that in
verse 10. King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king
of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus. This is
an altar of an idol god that had just been defeated by the
Assyrians, or the Assyrians set up the altar, one or the other.
Either way, it was a false god. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the
priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according
to all the workmanship thereof. We see that just in looking to
this world and luring in the things of this world, this man
went deeper into his idolatry. He was just taken away in that
deception and that idolatry. His heart was even hardened more. I did find it, finally, in 2
Chronicles, It shows how that, well, it declares just what Isaiah
said, that Assyria troubled them. His banks, when they overflowed,
it wasn't just to take out Israel and Syria, but it even affected
Judah, because it says, I'll just read it to you in 2 Chronicles
28 20, And Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came unto Ahaz, and
distressed him, and strengthened him not. So they weren't buddy-buddy,
they weren't friends. It didn't work out for him. It
took out his enemy, but now all his riches were gone and everything.
So he was also chastened and affected by this. And so the
problem is that man goes through these and they have these experiences
and yet it doesn't affect them. They still say in their pride
and stoutness of heart, hey, these things are impacted now. the bricks are torn down, well,
you know what, we'll just build with hewn stones. And the sycamore
trees, well, they were kind of weak and flimsy. We're just going
to use cedars next time. So they're always just finding
excuses of how they're just going to do better next time, even
though this destruction's come upon them. So it doesn't affect
them or alter them or change them at all. So in the text,
the Lord's wiping out Israel, and Judah should take note. They
don't. And so what do we learn from
this as a church? And how does this affect us? What does this say to us in our
day when we look at this and we see the foolishness of man? And our brother actually read
from 1 Thessalonians, but let me just read a couple others
like that, what Paul wrote in 1 Peter 4, 7. It says, But the
end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. We should be watching. We should
understand, yes, there are things coming up upon this world. There
are destructions and chastenings for, well, For them, it's punishment. For the wicked, it's punishment.
It's judgment against them. And we'll see these things and
many things that are concerning to us. But Peter says, yeah,
the end is near. Watch and pray. Be in prayer.
Know that these things are coming. In Romans, Paul wrote in Romans
13, 11, and 12, and that knowing the time, that now it is high
time to wake out of sleep For now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. So the Lord declares to us that
all the works of man are burned up. They come to nothing. They're just fuel of the fire. As it says in Isaiah 9, 5 at
the end, this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. And He's made
known to us, as we saw in verses 6 and 7, He's made known to us
the way of salvation, that it's in Christ. It's not going to
be in the things of this world. It's not going to be in the armies,
the strengths, in our preparations. It's not going to come through
that means. He said, For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. And of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end." So we see it's in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But man, natural man left to
himself, he continues to look to his own works. And I see it in my own heart,
and I'm reminded of it when I see these scriptures of the foolishness
of Israel, the foolishness of Judah, and not hearing what the
Lord was saying, and not trusting Him, and looking to Him only,
and in believing that he will provide for his people. But his
people, they do see, and we are awakened, and we are reminded
through this gospel that Christ is our all, and that he's made
provision for us. Both he's our righteousness to
stand before God, so whatever happens, we have our inheritance
with the Lord, but we also know that, as we've seen together,
how that the Lord, our days are in the Lord's hands, and we're
going to be preserved to bear that fruit that he's purposed
and ordained that we should walk in and bear that fruit in his
kingdom. You needn't fear, He'll provide
for you. When you're afraid and worried,
He's gonna be the one that sustains us and keeps us till we bring
forth that fruit. And in that day, when that day
comes for us to lay down our lives, He'll give us that dying
grace in that day. We don't feel it now because
we're not dying now. But in that day, He'll provide
and trust Him and believe Him. And you'll never be ashamed.
He says, you who believe me will never be ashamed. And remember,
we see this. The Lord wakens us up to this.
He makes us to know these things on purpose. And it says, In Isaiah
9, too, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. So the
Lord reveals Christ, that we might know him and understand
and believe our salvation. And we're going to know him,
for God had commanded the light to shine out of darkness. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He makes known to us the Lord
Jesus Christ, because Christ is all, and he is sufficient
to save us. But we see this pattern throughout
history where man willingly believes and submits to the lies and the
deception and the fear that Satan works in the people and among
the people. That's because he's always continually
seeking to destroy the people of God, and he hates God, hates
his Christ, hates his people, and he's always seeking to destroy
the people and the kingdom of God, but he never succeeds, and
that's because the Lord God is God, and he prevails, and he
shall preserve and continue his people so that they will not
be exterminated and they will not perish until the end, when
the Lord determines it's the end and he takes his people out
of the world. So this pattern is witnessed
throughout. And I just want to show you a
few examples of this so that you can see this pattern. We
saw it here with Israel. And I want to show you actually
in leading up to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, where
the Lord is speaking in Matthew 24. So if you go to Matthew 24,
we see how the Lord is showing He speaks of what the church
is going to see leading up to the destruction of the temple,
and he calls it an end. He refers to it as an end, but
he says first in Matthew 24-2, and I want you to make sure you
put a marker here before I forget, because I'm going to take you
to Revelation, but make sure you have a marker here so you
don't forget, because we're coming right back. Verse 2, Jesus said
unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you,
There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall
not be thrown down. Now, we understand that after
the cross, when our Lord ascended to the Father, when He stood
there before the throne, it says, if you go now to Revelation 5,
we'll look at this one, two verses here, Revelation 5, 6 and 7.
I can't cover everything, but I just want to at least show
you that this pattern is here throughout Scripture. Revelation
5, 6 and 7. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent
forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
what this signifies to us is that all authority and all power
is Christ's. What he accomplished on the throne,
he is now the Prince of Peace, and all authority has been given
to him, and he's establishing the Kingdom of God in the earth. He's bringing in his people,
and he's establishing the will of God now, there. So, hold your
place there in Revelation, because we're coming back. But, look
at Matthew 24, verses 4 and 5. Mind you, these aren't punishments
that are coming upon the church. This is trouble that's coming
upon Jerusalem and Israel, and it's a type and a picture of
the trouble that shall come upon the world and does come upon
the world throughout history and you see this over and over
again and it says in verse 4 and 5 Matthew 24 and Jesus answered
and said unto them take heed that no man deceive you for many
shall come on my name saying I am Christ And Luke adds, and
the time draweth near, and they shall deceive many. And he tells
us in Luke also, go ye not therefore after them. Don't be led away
by all these false Christs and false Gospels. All right, hold
your place there and go to Revelation 6, 1 and 2. And I saw when the lamb opened
one of the seals. Now look at verse two. And I
saw and behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a
bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering
and to conquer. And I'm just showing you how
this lays right over Matthew 24. perfectly with each of these
seals that just lays right right over there and what we see there
is just a picture of Antichrist doctrine that goes out always
appearing always looking like the truth because that's what
Satan always does he wants to appear as an angel of light his
ministers appear as an angel of light and so he goes forth
conquering with his deception now look at Matthew 24 verse
six and seven. Christ continues, he says, and
ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled,
for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom. All right, hold your place, go
back to Revelation six, three, and four. And here he opens the
second seal, and the second beast say, come and see. And there
went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him
that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they
should kill one another, and there was given unto him a great
sword. All right, and then once more,
back in Matthew 24, 7, there's the phrase, he says,
and there shall be famines. There shall be famines. Now look
at Revelation 5, I'm sorry, Revelation 6, 5 and 6. And when he had opened
the third seal, I heard the third beast say, come and see. And
I beheld and lo, a black horse, and he that sat on him had a
pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst
of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny, and three
measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not thou the
oil and the wine. All right, once more, back in,
Matthew 24, 7 and 8, Christ continues, and pestilences, he says, and
earthquakes in diverse places, all these are the beginning of
sorrows. And then we see back there again
in Revelation 6, verses 7 and 8, when he had opened the fourth
seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see.
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat
on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. and power was given
unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword,
and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
And so you see all this destruction that comes upon Jerusalem and
upon the land of Israel as it's being described, but did they
repent? Did it turn them from their works
and were they turned to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, no, we know
that they weren't turned to the Lord. Through all this, it didn't
move them, it didn't turn them from their own vain works, because
Christ says back in Matthew 24 9, we're done with Revelation,
but back in Matthew 24 9, Then shall they deliver you up to
be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of
all nations for my name's sake. And Luke even adds, and ye shall
be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends,
and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And that
was happening in Israel all leading up to its destruction of the
temple in AD 70, just right there. Now, if you hold your place there,
Matthew, and look back in Isaiah now, Isaiah 9, and look at the
end of the chapter there. Isaiah 9 and go to verse 19.
And he says that through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is
the land darkened and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire.
No man shall spare his brother. And he shall snatch on the right
hand and be hungry, and he shall eat on the left hand, and they
shall not be satisfied. They shall eat every man the
flesh of his own arm. Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim
Manasseh." Now these were two very brothers. They had the same
father and the same Egyptian mother. They were the sons of
Joseph. And they together shall be against
Judah. For all this his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." And so
I show you that this is going on back then in that day, this
pattern, when Isaiah was the prophet. And then we see how
this pattern goes on in Jerusalem leading up to 70 AD. And you
look throughout history, it continues to our day, where we continue
to see these patterns throughout the world. It's happened, I'm
sure, back when World War I and World War II were going on. It
was a fearful time, and people really thought this is the end. And there will be a time when
it's the end, and certainly we can look at things that are going
on in our day, but you see this pattern. But the thing is that
the kingdom of our Lord is never overthrown. Whatever happens,
no matter how awful it gets and the world suffers and they're
punished and dealt with in various ways as the Lord says and has
showed that it happens. His kingdom is always provided
for and he always preserves it and keeps us in the Lord. As he says in Matthew 24 verses
13 and 14, It says, but he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of
the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations, and then shall the end come. And so that end
did come for Jerusalem. They were destroyed and Israel
was scattered. But we see that the kingdom of
Christ wasn't destroyed. And it just went out and it grew.
and it expanded and the Lord brought in his sheep more and
more and it continues to this day through all the persecutions
of the false church, through all the sufferings that the brethren
went through and the spilling of their blood for the truth
and to see this go on, the Lord always preserves the church. It never has been snuffed out
and extinguished. And there's been frightful times
when it seemed like it would, but it never is destroyed because,
like he says in Isaiah 9, 7, of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. It's never going to end.
Don't fear, and when you see the sight of the horsemen, and
what is going on, and you see that destruction, don't fear,
and don't lose hope. Look to the Lord, because this
pattern shall always be seen and witnessed, but it's the Lord
is in control, and He's destroying the wicked, and He's making it
known to them that what they're doing is wickedness and evil,
And they won't hear it, but the people of the Lord, they will
hear it. And the Lord says, all these are the beginning of sorrows,
because then it comes an end for them at that time. So what
should we do? Well, Christ said in Luke 12,
and we'll close with this, in Luke 12, 31 and 32, he says, but rather seek ye the kingdom
of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear
not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom." So it's his good pleasure to give you
and his people the kingdom. So that's what he's establishing
there. So when we look at what's going
on in Israel, because there is a lot of of judgment being dealt
out, I just want you to see and understand that always His kingdom
is expanding. It's always growing and His people
are being saved and brought in and brought out of that darkness.
So, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank You that in Your wisdom, You've provided salvation through
Your Son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank You that You've
shined light into our dark hearts. Lord, help us to see when we
recognize these things in the world, not to get worked up or
anxious or worried, but that Lord, we would see your hand
in it and that you would strengthen us and establish us in this gospel
and the kingdom of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And Lord, that
you would call your people out of darkness and bring them into
the kingdom of your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray this, Lord, that
your will be done here on earth, even as it is in heaven. We pray
it in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray
for our brethren that are sick and fighting illnesses or that
are traveling. Lord, that you would have mercy
upon us here, that you would bring your people back here safely,
and that you would Strengthen those that are ill and weak and
not well, Lord.