FBC Morning Light – May 26, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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A good Thursday morning to you. I hope your week has gone well thus far. When we think about the

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United States of America and compare the United States of America with other nations of the world, we tend to feel like we've got lots of problems.

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We've got all kinds of problems and we're certainly not the paragon of virtue. But compared to other nations of the world, we're pretty good.

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We're a pretty generous nation of people. We're more righteous than a lot of other nations.

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We at least tip our hat to God, unlike some of these countries that are totally godless.

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We can feel fairly good about ourselves when we play the game of comparison -itis and compare our nation and its righteousness with other nations like China or Russia or North Korea and so forth.

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When we do that, it can give us a false sense of security.

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It can also tend to make us feel like God wouldn't judge our nation.

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He wouldn't bring judgment upon the United States, not when there are such other really bad nations like China or North Korea or Russia and so forth.

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But that doesn't square with what the

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Word of God reveals. If you play the game of comparison -itis with Old Testament Israel and the nations surrounding

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Israel, certainly Israel would have been more righteous.

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Did they keep God's law perfectly? No, but there was at least a stab at it.

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The nations around them, they didn't pay any attention to God's law. Did they worship

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God, Yahweh, the God of Israel? Yes.

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Did they do so perfectly? No, because they set up idols and idols to bail and so on and so forth.

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But they still had the temple and they still offered the sacrifices and so on and so forth. But the surrounding nations, they didn't pay any attention to Yahweh.

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They didn't care who Israel's God was, the one true God. They Israel could feel pretty confident that God's not going to use these wicked nations around us to destroy us, to bring judgment upon us, is he?

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In Isaiah 10, the prophecy of Isaiah has been talking about the fact that God is going to bring judgment on his people.

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Back in chapter 9, he spoke about punishing the northern tribes of Israel, the capital of which was

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Samaria, and the Lord is going to send judgment upon Israel. And he warns

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Jacob, the house of Judah, that as it has fallen upon Israel, it's going to fall upon them.

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Ephraim is going to know, Samaria is going to know in the pride of their heart that God sends judgment upon them, and so on and so forth.

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That's in chapter 9. Then in chapter 10, he says he's going to bring his punishment, his judgment, on his people, and he's going to use the

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Assyrians. He's going to use the Assyrians? The Assyrians are far worse.

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They're more violent, they're more vile than Judah and Israel, God's people,

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God's faithless people, his unfaithful people, though they're bad, they're not nearly as bad as the

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Assyrians. But this is what God says. He says, I will send Assyria against an ungodly nation.

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Who's that? Against his own people, and against the people of my wrath.

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The people of Judah and Israel were the people of God's wrath. I will give

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Assyria charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

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Yet the king of Assyria doesn't mean so. In other words, the king of Assyria doesn't mean to be an instrument of God's wrath.

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He doesn't even acknowledge God, he goes on to say. It doesn't even enter into his heart. It's in his heart, it is simply in his heart to destroy and cut off not a few nations.

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For he, Assyria, says, are not my princes and altogether kings?

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And so on and so forth. And he says, as my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall

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I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols? Yes. That's what

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God says he's going to do. He's going to use the Assyrians to bring judgment upon his people.

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How can this be? This is the way

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God will often bring his judgment. He will use the hands of wicked men or wicked nations to bring punishment upon nations that are far less wicked.

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But, lest we think this is terrible injustice. That's not the end of the story.

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Because it goes on to say, in chapter Isaiah 10, verses 12 through 19, that the

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Lord is then going to bring punishment and judgment upon Assyria. Listen to what he says.

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Therefore, it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem. That is, when

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I've used Assyria to punish my people on Mount Zion, on Jerusalem, that he will say, the

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God will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks.

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I will bring judgment upon Assyria. On the one hand, let's not be so naive and foolish as Americans to say that we're too virtuous, we're too righteous for God to send his judgment upon us.

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I don't think we can make that claim, and I would not be surprised if a lot of what we're seeing in our world and in our nation today is the hand of God's chastening, his judgment upon a nation that used to be at least accommodating to God and acknowledge him and give lip service to paying attention to his law, to his word.

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We don't do that anymore as a nation. Maybe what we're experiencing is the wrath of God at the hands of wicked people, and yet, let's be confident in and take comfort in knowing

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God's going to deal with those who are wicked as well. Let's not be cocky, let's be trusting, confident in our sovereign

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God and in his working, in the way he works, and how he works, and why.

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Our Father and our God, I pray that we as your people would be a faith -filled people.

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We wouldn't be so arrogant as to say that our nation is so righteous that we're above the judgment, the wrath of God.

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At the same time, may we not be so fretful and fearful to think that you won't take care of and deal with those who are wicked that inflict great pain and hardship on those more righteous than they.

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You are the righteous judge, and the God of all the earth shall do right.

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We will take confidence and comfort in that. Help us to do so, we pray, in Jesus' name and for his sake.

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Amen. We'll have a good rest of your Thursday. May the Lord bless you in it.