FBC Morning Light – October 1, 2022

I've got some crickets, I think, in the baptistery, by the way. Good Saturday morning, people of faith. I wonder if you heard this last line of a famous poem from the 1800s. But there is no joy in Mudville, for the mighty Casey has struck out.

Many times in our lives, we put our trust in people or things that we really ought not to put our trust in. And that poem is about people putting their trust in the mighty Casey who comes up and strikes out.

And maybe we've done this if we've been on a sports team, or maybe as Christians in a church, we put our trust in the leadership in a wrong way, where we look to people too much. Not that we shouldn't trust our leadership, because we should, and hopefully we do.

But we shouldn't put so much trust in our leadership that when our leadership fails, that we lose sight of the God behind that leadership. And so this can happen in many different contexts, and not just in a local church, but in the national church, we may come to find someone whom we thought was a solid believer.

And after they have died, maybe, or maybe before they die, we find out that they aren't the solid leader that we thought they were at all. Well, in Ezekiel, we're gonna be seeing how this was done on a national level.

Egypt’s Fall as a Warning Against Misplaced Trust

And at the time, the nations of the world were putting their trust in Egypt. Now, from a worldly perspective, there was a lot of good reason to do that. Let me give you some background to help you understand this.

A number of years ago, back in the 1920s, the tomb of King Tut was found. And there was much hoopla over the next century, over that discovery and all the riches and treasures that were found of the boy king of Egypt.

Well, when he was pharaoh in Egypt, the pyramids were over 1 ,000 years old. Now, think about that. And now think about this. King Tut was king of Egypt around 400 years before David, three to 400 years before King David.

And that's about three to 400 years before Ezekiel was around. And throughout all of this time, Egypt was a major world power. We're talking for over 1 ,500 years, thousands upon thousands of years, you would have no one who could remember what it was like to not have Egypt as a world power.

And what people throughout the world were doing was they were trusting in their alliances with Egypt, other nations were, they were looking to Egypt as a source of comfort and strength. Even Judah was looking towards Israel for hope of deliverance from Babylon.

And well, here we have in Ezekiel chapter 32, we have a promise from the Lord. It starts in verse nine. It says, I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction, that is the destruction of Egypt among the nations into the countries which you have not known.

Yes, I will make many people astonished at you and their king shall be horribly afraid of you when I brandish my sword before them and they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life in the day of your fall.

And then he goes, then the Lord goes on to explain how he will do this. He says, for thus says the Lord God, the sword of the King of Babylon shall come upon you by the swords of the mighty warriors, all of them, the most terrible of the nations, I will cause your multitude to fall.

So all these people throughout all the world who are trusting in Egypt at this time, they're going to be shaken to the core when this little upstart Babylon comes along and takes them out. Well, let's fast forward a little bit to the modern day.

At every moment of my life, now being 52 years old, the United States has been the main superpower in this world. For most of us alive today, that's probably true. Since World War II, the United States has been the main superpower.

And yet I would suggest to you that our days, like the days of Egypt, very well are numbered. And why are they numbered? Well, I would suggest to you also that our nation as a whole has forgotten who is the real king.

And we look to the power that is in our economy or in our military or in our political power and prestige throughout the world, and we forget that God alone reigns, and He will not share in His glory.

We have, as a nation, we have exported things of questionable character. We have exported ideas of dubious, just a dubious nature. We have promoted sexual promiscuity and sexual perversion throughout many nations, and we will be held to account to that.

And so I have a special challenge if there is, in fact, anyone who happens to be in authority in our land, you need to repent. The Lord is the Lord, and it is not you. It is not me. I come and just say this so that you have opportunity to repent.

And it is my prayer that you would listen to that warning. Let's pray to this end, people of faith. Heavenly Father, we come before you knowing that you rule and you reign. Help us to walk day by day and moment by moment in this truth.

Let us not trust in the power of our military or in our political power or in trying to win elections above what is doing right. Help us to walk faithfully with you, to understand the true power of your gospel, that you bled and died for us, that we might place our trust in you and live.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.