Isaiah Lesson 59

We come to you with excitement because we are in your presence, we're with brothers and sisters of the

Lord, we're in front of your Word and we know that the Holy Spirit will teach us. We pray,

Father, that the Spirit just speaks through Pastor Jeff. We know that we're in this section, this trial of false gods and the message from the world would drive us into bad confusion, but the truth of Scripture, turn to me and be saved all ends of the earth, for I am

God and there is no other, verse 22. Give us that vision today as we consider the folly of false and the promises of true.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. He was absolutely miserable.

His father was a pastor, his grandfather was a pastor, but this 16 -year -old boy was miserable.

Although he had read much of the Puritan literature, although he had heard the truth of the gospel growing up his whole life, he was miserable because to him it just felt like a weight commands that he couldn't keep, the burden of trying to please a

God that he could never live up to, and the Christian faith to him was condemnation.

So one snowy morning in 1850, he went for a walk, aware of his sin, burdened by guilt, and the snowstorm that was about kept him from going as far as he intended.

So he decided just to turn into a little Methodist, a primitive Methodist church along his walk.

Normally he would never have visited that particular church. That morning there was just a group of this size, not a huge group gathered, but he sat down and the preacher began to speak and he said, my text has but few words today, but if you will heed it, you will be saved.

And he turned to Isaiah 45, turn with me to Isaiah 45.

And the preacher turned to that young man in the middle of his sermon and said, you look miserable, pointed him out.

And he went on to say, and you will always be miserable unless you obey my text. And reading from Isaiah 45, 22, he said, that was amazing.

I chose that. Yeah. Oh, what's that? My prayer. You chose Isaiah 45, 22?

Yes, I did. When? Just now. He wasn't listening. I was thinking about what

I was going to say. That's funny. I admit it.

So the text said, look to me and be saved, all you nations of the earth.

And that primitive Methodist preacher, who himself was actually filling in for the pastor, said to Charles Spurgeon, you will always be miserable until you look.

And it doesn't take much to look, doesn't take any effort. You just look, you don't have to lift a hand or a finger, you just look.

And then he pointed him to Christ on the cross. And that morning,

Charles Spurgeon felt the weight of his sin lifted off his shoulders. At age 16, shortly thereafter, he began to teach the

Sunday school in his church, a Reformed Baptist church. And then he began to preach.

He was invited to local gatherings of believers and wherever he went, the blessing of God was on him.

And people began to come, that first, I think it was called Watertown or Waterford or something like that, where he first taught, and the whole town started to come.

And the whole town was transformed by the power of the gospel. So he received a call to go to London, New Park Street Baptist Church.

And there the crowds came. Every time he preached, the place swelled, thousands upon thousands, to Surrey Gardens, the biggest outfit in all of London, filled to capacity as they built the new

Metropolitan Tabernacle. And for 40 years, he would preach that way. And his ministry, even since his death, has not stopped increasing in terms of the amount of his sermons going to the ends of the earth.

Look to me and be saved, all you nations of the earth. That passage was the power of God unto salvation for Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Let's read where we left off last week, which is, we left off at verse 13, and we'll pick up at verse 14 on our way to 22.

So Laurie, would you mind reading for us verse 14? And before you do, let me just set up kind of the main thing that we're seeing here.

Again, it's the trial of false gods. Isaiah 40 to 48, again and again, we say it's the trial of false gods.

Yahweh holds himself up against the gods of the nations and any other idols that people make and demonstrates himself to be the one true

God. Beside him, there is no other. He stretches out the heavens alone. He is God, and there is no other.

In the trial of false gods, he upholds his word as evidence of who he is.

And that's what we'll get to today. His word is what sets him apart from the gods of the nations.

He can tell the past and the future, and he speaks those things through the mouths of prophets. So, Laurie, would you read for us verse 14?

Thus says the Lord, the labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush and of the

Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and they shall be yours.

They shall walk behind you. They shall come over in chains and they shall bow down to you.

They will make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is in you and there is no other.

There is no other God. Okay, from where is Isaiah prophesying these words physically?

Where is Jerusalem? He's a southern prophet to the kings of Judah, and he's speaking in Jerusalem, often in the king's court, sometimes just on the streets.

He is there in Jerusalem. What are the circumstances facing

Jerusalem in these days? The Assyrian threat, which will then be put down by the angel, which has been at this point, the angel of the

Lord rode out and eliminated that threat. But then the Babylonian threat comes just shortly thereafter.

And who is the king at this point? It should be still Hezekiah. Yeah, I would think.

I'm not sure that Isaiah functions chronologically from 1 to 66. It's possible that it's more arranged thematically at times.

So if you look at Isaiah 1, 1, you'll see there are four kings during this prophecy.

And I don't think we should be too dogmatic that it's moving chronologically all the time, because it seems like it's more thematically arranged, especially like in 40 to 48.

So there could have been doesn't necessarily mean that it's Hezekiah, but throughout his prophesying, it's

Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Yeah. So, yeah.

So here we have in verse 14, a promise, and it's not the experience of Jerusalem, at least since the days of Solomon, right in the days of Solomon, the heyday of Israel's kingdom.

He received that kingdom from his father, David, and the kingdom enjoyed peace under Solomon, whose name means peace.

Right. And in that time, the kingdom expanded. There were no threats from the outside.

In fact, the faraway nations came and paid tribute to Yahweh to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And most famously, where did the queen come from? Ethiopia from the queen of Sheba came as far away as Ethiopia to pay tribute to Solomon and to listen to his wisdom.

And she even brought gifts, all kinds, as many nations did, as we learned in that passage.

So look at verse 14. This actually is the inheritance of Jerusalem, although they haven't experienced it since.

It's now promised for the future, the wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, Ethiopia and the

Sabians, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours. They shall follow you.

Here, Jerusalem is the leading city in the world and other cities would come and pay tribute.

Of course, we won't see that finally fulfilled until our king is in Jerusalem and he rules and reigns the world during that reigns over the world in the millennium.

I was going to say that Jerusalem is the first king of Ethiopia. Menelik I was the son of Solomon, the queen.

Oh, interesting. That's a tradition. Oh, wow. Yeah, well, Solomon had many wives, so he probably had princes in many countries.

Only 700 wives, it's a problem. So surely

God is in you and there is no other. It is kind of funny. No, it's a one is a blessing.

Two is a problem. Yeah, there you go. Well said, sir. So they're recognizing at the end of verse 14, surely

God is in you and there comes a day when that is literally fulfilled in the incarnated

Christ God with us in Jerusalem. There is no other no

God besides him. Now, verses 15 to 17 show that this eschatological hope is sometimes clouded from our sight.

So Kristen, would you mind reading verses 15 to 17? No problem.

Verse 15, surely you are a God who hides himself. Oh, God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded.

The makers of idols go in confusion together, but Israel is saved by the

Lord with everlasting salvation. You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

So here we are. Our perspective is broadened to the eternal because in the near term, it sometimes doesn't look like God is confounding the enemies, especially when

Israel is being trampled underfoot by foreign nations. And the idolaters often seem to prosper.

Remember Habakkuk's complaint? Somebody want to read that for me? Habakkuk one, two to four, it's in your notes.

Barbara, would you like to read that? Oh, Lord, how long shall

I cry for help and you will not hear or cry to you violence and you will not say, why do you make me see inequity and why do you idly look at wrong destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise.

So the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth for the wicked surround the righteous.

So justice goes forth to prove her burden. This complaint of Habakkuk, he can't understand what he sees with his eyes.

And if you look back at Isaiah in verse 15, I think the answer is there. Truly, you are a

God who hides himself in this world.

You will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. You see, in our experience, as we look at the circumstances around us, sometimes it doesn't look like God is winning or that he will always win.

He hides himself. Anybody here ever had a vision and seen the father?

No, no man has seen the father. Now, Jesus has come into flesh and made himself visible and walked among us, but we serve a

God that we cannot see. He hides himself. And yet the teaching here in verses 15 to 17 is he, in fact, is the savior.

All of them are put to shame and confounded that the gods, the idols of the nations. But Israel is saved by the

Lord. Do you see the certainty in that sentence? Israel is saved by the

Lord. It's done. God is saving his people, the remnant that is true

Israel with everlasting salvation. The word everlasting there indicates an eternal time frame, something that doesn't end.

You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. So though it look to the outward eye that Israel and here

Jerusalem is confounded and overcome by enemies. In fact,

God will save his people and he is saving them. So look at verses 18 to 19.

And Bob, would you mind reading that for us? Notice here that where circumstances hide him, there is one thing that he always leaves for us that is visible, something that we have so that we can't see him.

But he's the invisible God. He has not left us here without testimony. And that is his word.

Bob, would you read it? For this is what the Lord says. He who created the heavens, he is

God. He who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it. He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited.

He says, I am the Lord and there is no other. I have not spoken a secret from somewhere in a land of darkness.

I have not said to Jacob's descendants, seek me in vain. I, the

Lord, speak the truth, I declare what is right. This is the God who speaks the expression that Tim heard from Bible thumping wingnut often uses as God exists and he has spoken.

Those twin realities are both visible here in verse 18 and 19, though God hides himself.

He says in verse 15, we can't see his form. Yet he exists and he has spoken in verse 18, he appeals to the creation were to notice the things that are made and from that understand his eternal power and divine nature.

Romans 120 and 21. It says, for thus says the Lord who created the heavens, he is

God. When you look up at the heavens, you are to declare he is

God. It testifies he is God. Psalm 19, verse one and following the heavens declare the glory of the

Lord and the skies are pouring forth speech. There is no place where their speech is not heard day after day.

The same testimony is given from the heavens. It's preaching to us. The creation declares the glory of God.

The sun runs its circuit like a bride or is it a bridegroom?

Yeah, it is chambered. Yeah, and it's speaking. It's pouring forth speech, declaring he is

God. That's what it says in verse 18. He is God who formed the earth and made it. He established it.

He did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited. So though we serve a God who hides himself.

He speaks through creation, then in verse 19, I did not speak in secret.

God exists and he has spoken. He sends prophets. And all of Jerusalem knows who

Isaiah is, he stands and says, thus says the

Lord, he speaks specific revelation in a land of darkness.

So though darkness surround us and the circumstances look bleak, his word is like a lamp.

Somebody read for me Psalm 119, 105. Rich, it's in your notes. You probably already know.

Come on, you can sing, but you got to if you're going to do it, you got to do it right. That's right.

See, the thing is, you're trying to half sing it. You got to go one or the other, you can just belt it out and put things to music.

It helps you. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Accuse your mind. But we love this verse and it is a good reminder here.

Psalm 119, 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Be reminded, church, that as dark as the world gets and as troubling as our circumstances get, you could be laid up in a hospital with covid and given by the doctors, no chance to live.

You know, say someone has that. You have his word and they refuse to give you ivermectin.

Yeah, there's that. Yeah, you have his word.

You have the lamp to your feet, the light. You are not in darkness. You are not alone. The God who hides himself, you can't physically see him, has spoken.

And here what we hold is the very word of the living God. How many saints have been suffering and open to Psalm 119 or another

Psalm and found comfort? Charles Spurgeon, when he was on his deathbed, turned to his wife and said, read me the shepherd song.

And it was Psalm 23 just spoken over him in his dying that just gave him comfort right to his last breath.

The song, the word, it sustained him for all those years, and it will do the same for us.

We have nothing to fear, although we cannot see him, he speaks. That's what I love about this verse.

Let's read it again. Verse 19. I did not speak in secret in the land of darkness.

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, seek me in vain. I, the Lord, speak the truth.

I declare what is right and glorious. It reminds me of Francis Schaeffer's book,

The God Who Speaks. Yes, The God Who Speaks. And that's where Tim Hurd got that from. Yeah, that was the teaching there.

He he is not silent. He is the God who speaks. Yeah. All right.

So whereas circumstances hide him, his word is not hidden. So here you have

Isaiah preaching in Jerusalem, a people that have been trampled and they're no longer in their heyday.

They're promised that, again, there will be the nation streaming to Jerusalem and they will be victorious, but they don't see it with their eyes.

And yet they have his word. One thing is certain for all of those thousands of years of Israel's history, with all the changing circumstances, one thing never changed, his word.

They always had the Torah and after the prophets with Elijah began to come, they always had prophets.

Now, there were 400 silent years before the coming of the Christ, but even then they had his word.

And that's why they would hide it in places like the Dead Sea Scrolls that that we discovered. These were believers who were holding on to his word and they were never without.

He always protects his word. He always sends his word to the ends of the earth.

So 20 through 21, Ivan, would you like to read that? There is no other

God who speaks. Gather yourselves and come, draw near together, you fugitives of the nation.

They have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idols and pray to a God who cannot save.

Declare and set forth your case. Indeed, let them consult together who has announced this from of old, who has long since declared it.

Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a savior.

There is none except me. Amen. So here again, we recognize we're in the trial of false gods.

And so look at verse 20, assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, you survivors of the nations.

They have no knowledge. Who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a

God that cannot save. There are false gods among the nations,

Allah, Buddha, the fake

God of Joseph Smith. All of the gods of the nations are.

They have no knowledge. They're false. But how do we know that? How do we know that our

God is true and theirs are liars? Mainly for full promise.

Yes. And that more broadly, his word. He holds his word beside his name.

And it says in verse 21, declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. I was out witnessing in front of the

Planned Parenthood in Philly this last week. And a guy named Hassan came walking by and I just said, hey, would you have one minute to take this track?

And can I share something with you for one minute? Give me 60 seconds. And I shared the gospel with him in 60 seconds.

And that provoked conversation. So we ended up talking for 40 minutes. His choice. I didn't have him strong.

He was a Muslim and very devout. Yeah, 20 year old kid.

But we began to discuss his scripture. And I said, your scripture says in Surah 4, 157, it is supposed that Jesus was crucified.

But really, he was crucified. Not it only appeared that way to them. Your scripture says that Jesus was not crucified.

Your prophet also claims that Jesus is a prophet. But Jesus prophesied that he would be crucified.

So you've got a conflict. So we have a conflict. And I said, he said, well,

I respect everybody's holy book. I respect you for your holy book. I just have my holy book.

But what about when one supposedly holy book repudiates what was already written in the prophets before?

And so we began to go through the prophets, Isaiah and David and the whole Torah, just prophecies of how the

Christ must suffer and rise from the dead as he foretold.

And I showed him scripturally how prophet after prophet foretold these things.

Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and Jesus himself giving the analogy of Jonah, who for three days was in the belly of the fish.

So the son of man must be three days in the heart of the earth. And he recognized, although he wasn't ready to repent, he said he needed more time and needed to think he recognized that what

I was saying was true. The seed was planted. The seed was planted. But he was confounded by the word.

He could not argue that Isaiah, even in the Quran, they say Isaiah is a prophet. But what does

Isaiah prophesy? The Christ who would suffer and rise after the anguish of a soul would see the light of life and be satisfied.

He couldn't argue with the words of the prophet. And so it is. We have a light to our feet.

And here it's a sword to the idols. Do you see that in verse 21?

He is challenging them. Present your case. Let them to take counsel together.

Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not

I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous

God and a savior. He is a savior.

He comes to save. Allah never came to save his people.

Allah has never described his love in the Quran. No other

God is a savior. There is no other savior besides Jesus. There is none besides me.

Isn't that beautiful? It is his word that he holds as evidence of who he is.

In Romans 3, 21, who hasn't read that would like to?

Karen, would you want to read? But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. Okay. There is again a verse that declares that the

Old Testament, the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Christ. Although it says the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness that is by faith. This righteousness that is by faith was foretold by the law and the prophets prophesying of Christ and the things that we now know on this side of the cross declare and present your case.

Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not

I, the Lord? This is a reminder church that the prophecies of Christ are the grounding of faith in Romans 3, 21, in first Corinthians 15, three and four, again and again, you see the ground for our belief.

First Corinthians 15, three and four. I want to remind you of the gospel. What is it? That Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture that he was buried, that he rose from the dead according to the scripture.

And then he appeared to Cephas and all of the 500. The ground that he died and that he rose is according to the scripture.

It's the word that forms the foundation here in Romans 3, 21. It's as the law and the prophets had foretold, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

When Jesus is on the road to Emmaus in Luke 22, he opens the scripture to them and their hearts burn as he's walking along the road.

He's showing them. And this, I talked about it on Sunday. This is the epistemology, the way to know that what we believe is actually true.

Sadly, we live in a generation that's so it's postmodern. It's just so touchy feely that whatever a person feels to be true is what they say is true.

It's my truth. That's my truth. Right. But the Bible is actually grounded in objective truth.

And that is God's word that he spoke it before. And then he brought it to pass. And we need to bring that back together in our preaching yet.

In Genesis one, one, yes, in the beginning, God. And then in John one, you have in the beginning was the word.

The word was with God. The word was God. It goes back to the beginning.

Every other religion, as I see it, had seems to have dating as to when there was a revelation or so what so what of those quote religions of the generations that went before that were those individuals not included in quote this this plan or this revelation.

Whereas with Christianity or God's word, the great I am. He says,

I am. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is all inclusive of all of time and any individual soul that has ever lived.

Whereas everything else seems to have an arbitrary starting point somewhere in history.

Yeah, now they would. The imposters would claim that they go back to Genesis one, one.

So when Mohammed comes, he's calling himself the seal of the prophets and he appeals to the earlier prophets.

But it's this vague appeal. I don't think that Mohammed ever read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I don't believe he did.

I think he had interaction with some of the Gnostic Gospels that were prevalent at that time. So you find in the

Quran in Surah 19, the myth of Jesus as a baby making playing in mud puddles by the kind of like a slum and he makes a bird and he blows on the bird and it comes to life and flies away.

Well, that comes from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which is hundreds of years after the true Gospels.

But that's what Arabia had at the time of Mohammed. So he's only familiar with the

Gnostic heresies. He didn't have the true knowledge. So he's claiming himself to be the final prophet and he's appealing to the

Injil, the Gospel and saying Jesus was a prophet. But he doesn't know what

Jesus actually prophesied and he's never read Isaiah. And yet he says, oh, and Isaiah was a prophet, but he doesn't know what

Isaiah prophesied. So he's just an ignorant camel trader. And he goes into a cave and he thinks he's being tormented by a demon until his wife

Khadijah convinced him, no, this is Gabriel, the archangel, giving you revelations. Oh, for sure.

So he would appeal to our book without having knowledge of it.

In the same way, Joseph Smith sees himself as the restorer of the first century church and he's still appealing to the

Bible, but he now has this new revelation that then colors what you read in the Bible. You know, it's sad to think that he thought it might be a demon, you know, deluding him.

Yeah. You know, he was, he could have possibly gone saved, you know. Oh, sure. Yeah.

Yeah. But that's a great point because our, our

Gospel starts in the beginning. And we have from the very, and a great witnessing verse is

John 1, 1 to begin there with people. Yeah. And with reference to Genesis 1, 1.

Okay, so let's move on finally to verses 22 to 25.

Here's where Spurgeon got saved. Verse 22. Joyce, would you like to?

Sure. All right. Amen.

Amen. Those last two, two phrases in verse 25, last two ideas, justification and glorification.

Justification is a forensic declaration from God in a legal sense that guilt is no longer credited, but rather righteousness is credited.

So it is a, it's a fixed and final thing. Glorification is something that Christians await.

So there is coming a day when we will be glorified. But then you got the sanctification, middle part.

Sanctification is that kind of that process. And it's that, it's also, yeah, it's also positional.

We're set apart the moment we're saved and then it's the process of growing. So there's that progressive sanctification as well as positional sanctification.

But here we see in the text, justification and glorification. Israel as a nation has a remnant within it.

That's justified. Isaiah is justified. Remember in chapter six, you kind of see a picture of his conversion experience with the cold to the tongue and it says, your, your sin has been removed and now he's a prophet to the nations in the same way.

Every Israelite who has genuinely been convicted of sin turned to Yahweh for salvation in hopes of the coming

Messiah. They're looking to Christ. They don't have their, have the perfect picture of what it's going to be like.

It's dim. They, they're looking to him. It's dim to them. But through the death of Jesus, imputed back through time to them, they're already justified.

And yet they're not experiencing the glorification of Israel. It looks like everything, like they're losing.

Here in verses 22 to 25, you have this beautiful gospel call. It's what saved

Spurgeon turn to me or otherwise translated. Look to me in the

King James. Look, look, all you have to do is look. It reminds me of the serpent in the wilderness.

Moses lifted up the serpent and all they had to do was look. How could it be so easy? Well, looking according to John 3 15 or 3 14 is a allegorical way to understand faith.

It's believing looking is believing when you're looking to Christ. What we're saying is you're looking to him to save you.

You're helplessly here, but you're believing that he's the one that can save you. And you're believing that he will.

You're looking. You don't have anything in your hands. To bring him down or to lift him up.

All you can do is look no work. You bring nothing to the table. That's what you're turning to him to be saved.

You're looking to him. That's what's in view in verse 22. And the promise, interestingly, here broadens out beyond Israel.

All the ends of the earth. God has always envisioned a people from all over the world to call upon his name.

And that promise we can offer. We can preach this gospel to anyone. If you will look to him, you will be saved.

No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, look and be saved. And here's why.

For I am God and there is no other. The true God is offering this. And so we can offer it in his name.

We can preach forgiveness of sin and eternal life in his name. Because he has said that this is how we'll do it.

He'll turn, repent, look, believe by myself. I have sworn from my mouth has gone out in righteousness.

The issue here is righteousness. How to be right before a holy God. And that is not by being good enough.

That God would infuse us with some of his righteousness. And we would then have to maintain that and live in what?

No, it's an imputed righteousness. It is a righteousness that is credited you because it's not your righteousness.

It's a foreign righteousness, an alien righteousness. It is the righteousness of Christ, the law keeper, the true

Israel. Who himself obeys the law perfectly and is declared righteous because he is.

And then passively lays down his life in our place in our union with him.

His righteousness is credited to us. That's the righteousness in view in verse 23 from my mouth has gone out.

It's declared it's a declared righteousness. He pronounces us righteous because the righteousness of Christ is declared over us.

That's Romans 321 and following a righteousness from God has been made manifest.

Although the law and the prophets couldn't bring it, they testified to it. They pointed us to Christ.

And then it goes on to say that he's the propitiation for our sins. In verse 23, it says a word that shall not return, shall not return later in chapter 55.

He comes back to that like the snow that falls. It's good. We're talking about Spurgeon getting converted on a snowy day.

We're supposed to have snow here today, although I haven't seen it. His word, the gospel goes forth, and he then credits righteousness to those who believe.

To me, every knee shall bow. Where do we see that in the New Testament? Yeah, in Revelation and in the

Philippians. Philippians 2. Yeah, 11 to 15. The Carmen Christi, the hymn to Christ as God, where we're reminded we need to serve because Christ himself was humbled to the point of death on the cross.

Therefore, God has given him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is

Lord to the glory of the father. To me, every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear allegiance.

I think the Carmen Christi of Philippians 2 is drawing from Isaiah's language and now crediting

Christ as God. That's why it's the hymn to Christ as God confessing that he is

Lord, that he is God to the glory of God. The father is not taking away from the glory of the father. It's declaring that Jesus is

God. Jesus is Lord. That's our confession. And then in verse 24, only in the

Lord, it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength to him shall come and be ashamed.

All who were incensed against him, which is the majority of the world.

We say Jesus is Lord. They say, no, Caesar is Lord. And they worship government. They look to government to be their savior.

But Jesus is Lord and all those who hate him, who rail against him. Psalm 2, he shall break them to pieces like pottery.

The rock with the rod of iron to him shall come and be ashamed.

All who were incensed against him in the Lord. All the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.

So the promise that is justification and glorification. There's coming a day when we will be exalted with him.

He receiving the glory and us basking in that light like reflections of his glory.

Glorification. When our sin nature is removed, when we're in glory with him and we see the glory of that place, streets of gold, but the king in our midst.

Israel has that promise. The true Israel will see Richard Wormbrae was arrested by the communists in Romania.

The in Sabina. Well, her later. Yeah, but for preaching, he actually stood before this council of pastors that were all praising the communists, and his wife was provoked and said, you need to say something.

And he went forward and he spoke against communism and upholding the true

Christ. And days later, they came and arrested him. And he was tortured for Christ for 14 years in a communist cell.

But he saw the glory of God in that cell. He said since then he had been to the California coast and to the

Alps. And he said there were times in that cell where the prison walls were more glorious than anything he saw on the

Pacific coastline, because God drew near to him and he could see the glory of God just drawing near in that presence.

But in this life, circumstances can feel like a prison cell. God hides himself, but he's not absent in that time.

Wormbrae would quote scripture and the word was the light to him in that dark cell. Sometimes they would give him hallucinogens to where he couldn't even say the

Lord's prayer. The Lord couldn't even get it out. Our Father who art in heaven, and he'd stop there.

So finally, all he could pray is, I love you, Jesus, and then just say the name

Jesus. And then finally, his mind couldn't pray, but he would come back to him and always

Christ was there. They never could break him until finally he converted the prison guard who happened to be number two in the

Secret Service, who then brought the papers for Wormbrae when the commander was signing off a hundred papers that day.

He didn't even read it. He released Wormbrae, went on signing papers. So he went home and then eventually they brought him out of the country so he could go speak about what communism really is.

He found a voice of the martyrs. Really? He found a voice of the martyrs? Yes. Doesn't that sound like Paul in prison?

Yes. The guard, you know, was converted. That's how he got out. I think a new movie about Sabina just came out.

Yes, and then later they arrested her and she was in a work camp. Got to see her little mija like one time through the fence, only enough to tell him, do not turn away from the

Lord Jesus Christ. Be strong. And eventually she got back to him and they grew up. He was able to grow up with his parents.

All this to say the circumstances outside can look like Jerusalem surrounded by enemies and God can seem hidden.

But even in all of that, we always have his word. Hide it in your heart so that even if you're, if it's taken from you, you have that land.

And God's shall be's are a guaranteed certainty. Yes. Yep. So there's coming a day when we'll be glorified with him.

We're already justified. We have the imputed righteousness of Christ. Nothing to fear. We're just waiting on the day.

We have the eternal perspective so that we're not caught up in the here and now. Let's pray. John, would you close us?

Lord God, it is with, with just lifted up hearts of joy. We, we are not constrained by this world.

We are, we are merely sojourners here. We are citizens of the kingdom of God. We know

Lord that in this world there will be difficulties, but yet we rejoice in you. We know

Lord that you prayed to your father, don't take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one.

So here in this world, where there are idols and where there is falseness, there is difficulty, but we got

God and there is no other. And we profess, we turn to you to be saved along with all of the earth because you are