WEBVTT 00:00:04.286 --> 00:00:13.929 Last Sunday morning, just after our afternoon, just after our service, we had our annual meeting and for all of us who are here, you know how that went. 00:00:13.929 --> 00:00:24.952 It was a beautiful time together, just rejoicing in God's mercies over the past year and looking forward to His mercies continuing on our lives and service to Christ in the coming year. 00:00:24.952 --> 00:00:38.453 After it was over, one of the men of the church, who's a recent member of the church, came up to me and this was his first annual meeting that he'd ever been to of the church. 00:00:38.453 --> 00:00:51.435 And he came up to me with tears streaming down his cheeks and he said I've never been anywhere in my life in a meeting like we just had. 00:00:51.435 --> 00:00:57.305 He said it was beautiful, it was wonderful, it was joyful. 00:00:57.305 --> 00:01:05.564 And he said why did I ever spend the bulk of my life wanting to be somewhere else and doing something else? 00:01:05.564 --> 00:01:17.585 It was just a beautiful testimony of joy in his heart by watching what God said would happen when he is the Lord of his people, right. 00:01:17.585 --> 00:01:21.474 So I just wanted to share that with you for your encouragement. 00:01:21.474 --> 00:01:35.007 It was something that filled my heart with a great deal of joy when I embraced him with tears streaming down his cheeks and wished all of you could have shared in that little testimony that he had. 00:01:35.007 --> 00:01:37.212 So let's pray together, shall we? 00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:57.173 Father, as we continue through this year and in light of all of the things that were settled and agreed upon last week, we continue to look to you, for you are the Lord of your people. 00:01:57.173 --> 00:02:07.894 We recognize that all of our energizing and all of our ability to care and serve and benefit one another comes from you. 00:02:07.894 --> 00:02:19.867 You tell us that you supply every bit of us for that purpose, so that we might be built up in Christ and that the glory might come to you. 00:02:19.867 --> 00:02:27.812 Who is the head, father, we are dependent people and we want to recognize that openly before you. 00:02:27.812 --> 00:02:32.127 And sadly, father, too often we are disobedient people. 00:02:32.127 --> 00:02:46.816 So we ask you, lord, save us from ourselves, save us from our worst tendencies, save us from selfishness and pride and arrogance and vanity and jealousies. 00:02:46.816 --> 00:02:57.414 May the fruit of the Spirit rule our hearts, not just individually but collectively, when we gather and when we meet one another. 00:02:57.414 --> 00:03:01.381 May you be on display, lord. 00:03:01.381 --> 00:03:19.606 May it not only be for the enriching of our hearts and the encouragement that comes by way of the peace of Christ that rules us, but may it be a living testimony to others who would exclaim that surely the living God dwells among them, for I cannot explain how they act. 00:03:19.606 --> 00:03:28.252 But through him and Lord, we pray that you would be the very one that they see, not us, but you. 00:03:28.252 --> 00:03:34.110 And so, father, we pray that your richest blessings would continue upon us. 00:03:34.110 --> 00:03:51.979 We know we don't deserve them and we know we can't earn them, but we pray for them, father, that you might be Father, that you might be exalted among us and through us in the lives of others. 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:58.514 And, lord, now we pray that your word might instruct us, give us eyes to see it and ears to hear it. 00:03:58.514 --> 00:03:59.539 We pray in Christ's name, amen. 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:05.290 Let's take our Bible and go over to the book of Isaiah, and we'll start in chapter 17. 00:04:05.290 --> 00:04:12.420 You find a pew Bible in front of you and right around page 610, you'll find Isaiah, chapter 17. 00:04:16.427 --> 00:04:28.788 Just a few blocks from Buckingham Palace in London and an easy walk from Big Ben and Westminster Abbey is a building which has been greatly used to influence London for well over 100 years. 00:04:28.788 --> 00:04:51.387 There's a name of the building is Westminster Chapel, and Martin Lloyd-Jones was a minister born in 1899 and became the minister of Westminster Chapel in 1939, right on the cusp of World War II, the people of Great Britain knew what was coming. 00:04:51.387 --> 00:05:06.569 It was right before Germany declared war against them and they knew the aggressiveness of the Nazi war machine and how they had no problems sweeping over people and taking them swiftly in Blitzkrieg. 00:05:06.569 --> 00:05:12.913 And they understood that war was imminent, near perhaps unavoidable. 00:05:12.913 --> 00:05:26.324 And in 1939, at the outset of his ministry there, as the senior pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones preached a series of sermons preparing the people for war, jones preached a series of sermons preparing the people for war. 00:05:26.324 --> 00:05:42.899 He told them that, whether the bombs kill them or not, that they were to be prepared to stand before a holy God and he urged them to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:55.706 And as the war did come and continued, and as people began to evacuate from London and the bombs began to populate and destroy London, martin Lloyd-Jones continued to preach at Westminster Chapel. 00:05:55.706 --> 00:05:59.413 There, close to Buckingham Palace. 00:05:59.413 --> 00:06:13.833 On one occasion a bomb landed and exploded just yards away from the building and it shook the building and plaster fell from the ceilings and landed on some of the folks during the service. 00:06:13.833 --> 00:06:17.428 At the time, martin Lloyd-Jones was praying. 00:06:17.428 --> 00:06:35.468 When the bomb hit he stopped and paused and then continued to pray and following that opened up the Word of God and preached, and the people sat and listened. 00:06:35.468 --> 00:06:38.788 Why didn't they run off in a panic? 00:06:38.788 --> 00:06:41.869 Why didn't they just scatter and run? 00:06:41.869 --> 00:06:55.725 Well, they were people that had been taught and understood that God was in control of everything, including those bombs that were whistling through the air on the very day they had gathered to worship. 00:06:55.725 --> 00:07:06.694 They understood that God was the beginning and the end, that he was the ultimate one in control of everything and nothing could happen apart from his plan. 00:07:06.694 --> 00:07:16.872 The truth is, god is in control of everything, and the passage of Scripture that we're about to look at unveils that for us. 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:22.728 We're in this section, the oracles about the nations, and we're going to look at chapter 17, 18, 19, and 20 today. 00:07:22.728 --> 00:07:29.608 So obviously we're not going to be doing 17, 18, 19, and 20 today, so obviously we're not going to be doing a deep dive through every one of these verses. 00:07:29.608 --> 00:07:43.569 But we'll understand as we go through these four chapters, just as the other chapters before it and after it, that the major issue it raises is the question who is in charge of all of this? 00:07:43.569 --> 00:07:46.216 Who rules the world? 00:07:46.216 --> 00:07:50.843 Is it the kings and powers of the day or something else? 00:07:50.843 --> 00:08:02.144 Is it the Lord, god or them, and we'll see two ways the Lord shows his sovereign power in these four chapters. 00:08:02.144 --> 00:08:12.692 He shows his sovereign power by way of his judgment and he shows his sovereign power by way of his salvation and mercy. 00:08:12.692 --> 00:08:24.673 This passage will show us that the revolt of the nations and their kings and their false gods against the living God is an utterly senseless undertaking. 00:08:24.673 --> 00:08:28.543 Gods against the living God is an utterly senseless undertaking. 00:08:28.543 --> 00:08:33.453 We'll also see that Judah and Israel's trust in those kings and nations and gods was also just as senseless. 00:08:33.453 --> 00:08:45.427 But we'll understand also just how sublime it is to trust this God, who not only can bring judgment but also offer salvation in a most surprising way. 00:08:45.427 --> 00:08:51.072 So let's take a look at this, and first we're going to look at God's sovereignty in judgment. 00:08:51.595 --> 00:08:58.090 God's sovereignty in judgment, and in chapter 17, we're introduced to two peoples. 00:08:58.090 --> 00:09:33.427 We've read about them before as we've gone through the book of Isaiah the people of Aram, which is modern day Syria, and the northern tribes of Israel, and so Isaiah revisits these people that he'd spent more time in several chapters, back where the king of Israel and the king of Aram had conspired together to attack Judah and King Ahaz, and in this chapter we see him focusing first of all upon the king of Aram and the people of Aram. 00:09:33.427 --> 00:09:48.822 In the first three verses, and then verses 4 to 11, going into a discussion about the futility and the destruction of the people of Israel, the prophet talks about the ferocity of the Assyrian army coming upon them. 00:09:48.822 --> 00:10:01.494 So ferocious would it be, so lacking in mercy, that there would be nothing, hardly nothing left, hardly anything left of Aram and Israel once Assyria had moved through them. 00:10:01.494 --> 00:10:05.326 Take a look at the first couple of verses and you can see that said very clearly. 00:10:05.326 --> 00:10:08.111 Damascus is no longer a city. 00:10:08.111 --> 00:10:09.695 It has become a ruined heap. 00:10:09.695 --> 00:10:13.022 The cities of Aurora are abandoned. 00:10:13.022 --> 00:10:16.873 There'll be places for flocks that will lie down without fear. 00:10:16.873 --> 00:10:22.827 The fortress disappears from Ephraim and a kingdom from Damascus. 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:37.279 The Assyrian army was going to come down with such force that he later describes it as sort of harvesters, when they go into a field and take all the crop out of the field. 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:49.731 Or when they go into an olive tree and beat off every single olive off of the tree as they harvest it and there's nothing left but a barren tree with no fruit whatsoever. 00:10:49.731 --> 00:11:02.711 And in verse 10, he gives the reason for this judgment, for you have forgotten the God of your salvation and you have failed to remember the rock of your strength. 00:11:02.711 --> 00:11:10.052 And here Isaiah brings them back to the imagery of God in the time of the Exodus. 00:11:10.052 --> 00:11:27.341 These two words very clearly the God of your salvation and the rock, are terms used in the season of the Exodus, when the people of God were found in bondage in Egypt and cried out to the Lord for mercy. 00:11:27.341 --> 00:11:36.403 And he came as the saving God and as the rock who supplied them and he took care of them and brought them into this land. 00:11:37.587 --> 00:11:39.754 But Isaiah's charge is you've forgotten him. 00:11:39.754 --> 00:11:44.909 You have forgotten him, you have failed to remember him. 00:11:44.909 --> 00:11:53.408 You have not taken into consideration who God is and has been to you in his supply and in his protection. 00:11:53.408 --> 00:12:02.027 And Israel could never say about him oh, he will never save because he is the God who saves. 00:12:02.027 --> 00:12:09.341 And they could never say he will never save us because he is your God of salvation. 00:12:09.341 --> 00:12:36.722 And the image of the rock is not some static analogy but a dynamic one, because it goes back to Exodus, chapter 17, in which the people were crying out in the midst of a barren wasteland, wanting water, and Moses strikes the rock, and the rock gushes forth with water and supplies the people with their need and quenches their thirst. 00:12:37.864 --> 00:12:51.517 This rock, this dependable, saving fortress-like protecting God, was the one they had forgotten in the time of deepest need. 00:12:51.517 --> 00:13:00.293 Surrounded by the nations of Assyria and Egypt, they had forgotten their protector and their supplier. 00:13:00.293 --> 00:13:10.581 Instead, they put trust in mustering their own armies, they put trust in making alliances with other nations. 00:13:10.581 --> 00:13:20.404 They had sought to find security through coalitions and power by way of number instead of trusting the living God. 00:13:20.404 --> 00:13:53.269 And so Isaiah says to them right after that, he said what you have done is you've taken a garden, you've sown seeds, you've cultivated the plants, you've watched over them, but on the day of harvest you're going to come to it and find it completely wasted away, and all of your energies and all of your efforts and all of that is going to be brought to simply nothing because you've put your trust in the wrong place. 00:13:53.269 --> 00:14:12.870 And he leaves with this tone of this pathetic loss of people who have expended resources and energy and time and effort into cultivating a crop that never materializes. 00:14:16.201 --> 00:14:28.789 Can you imagine investing all of your life into something that just vanishes away and it's gone, that just vanishes away and it's gone? 00:14:28.789 --> 00:14:45.333 One day, when I was a boy, my grandfather brought out into his sitting room a stack of papers that were stock certificates that my family had bought prior to 1929. 00:14:45.333 --> 00:14:49.267 And there were a lot of them. 00:14:49.267 --> 00:15:13.677 But when the Great Depression hit, in the waves that it brought into the economic catastrophe, that that was, all of that money and all of that labor and all of that investment was nothing but paper with no value whatsoever. 00:15:13.677 --> 00:15:24.081 They couldn't claw back the time and the energy and the resources that went into that and it was gone. 00:15:24.081 --> 00:15:25.485 Resources that went into that and it was gone. 00:15:25.504 --> 00:15:45.573 Imagine living your whole life seeking, grasping, clutching for things that you would call your securities, only to enter into eternity and find out that they were nothing but bubbles bursting in the air, with nothing left. 00:15:45.573 --> 00:15:50.350 This is what God is telling the people here. 00:15:50.350 --> 00:15:52.426 What have you done? 00:15:52.426 --> 00:16:04.289 You have forgotten the living God, the one who would be your deliverer, the one who would supply you as a rock, the one who would secure you like a fortress. 00:16:04.289 --> 00:16:15.009 Our Lord Jesus, to a lady sitting at the well, said to them I am a well of living waters. 00:16:15.009 --> 00:16:22.326 If you asked for me a drink from me, I would give you such a supply that you would never thirst again. 00:16:22.326 --> 00:16:30.342 Don't invest your life in the things that are worthless and wasteful and reckless. 00:16:30.342 --> 00:16:32.746 Give yourself to the living God. 00:16:33.870 --> 00:16:52.989 And at the end of this chapter, in verses 12 to 14, he culminates this section, which has brought us face to face with Babylon and Assyria, and Moab and Aram and Israel, and collectively speaks to the nations and summarizes all of these oracles in a short little poem. 00:16:52.989 --> 00:16:55.533 Take a look at these last few verses. 00:16:55.533 --> 00:17:00.582 Verse 12, the roar of many peoples. 00:17:00.582 --> 00:17:04.486 They roar like the roaring of the seas, the raging of the. 00:17:04.486 --> 00:17:07.209 This is imagery from ancient Near East religious literature. 00:17:19.161 --> 00:17:39.953 When they looked out and they looked for the most powerful thing that they could see, they would look at the sea and they would see the chaos of the Mediterranean Sea and they would recognize that there was no human power that could harness that chaos, that they were subject to it in their little boats. 00:17:39.953 --> 00:17:50.482 And so they looked for something that was the ultimate power that could calm that chaos called the sea. 00:17:50.482 --> 00:18:13.715 You might think of that when jonah is on a little boat running away from his duties to go to nineveh and as he's out there, the sea whips up a storm and all the people in the boat are crying out to the gods, asking for them to grab a hold of this chaos and settle it. 00:18:13.715 --> 00:18:23.349 But their gods don't hear until they talk to Jonah and Jonah says toss me overboard and my God will calm the sea. 00:18:23.349 --> 00:18:31.221 And they did, and he did, and they worshiped the God that Jonah was running from. 00:18:32.964 --> 00:18:58.737 And so here we have that emblem of the sea brought into the peoples, that the chaos of the universe, the sea and its emblematic descriptions, is brought into the chaos and the destructive roaring force of the peoples, the nations, the greatest manifestation of power on earth. 00:18:58.737 --> 00:19:06.493 It is us, they say, until God speaks. 00:19:06.493 --> 00:19:21.976 It says here, he rebukes them and they flee far away, driven before the wind, like chaff on the hills and like tumbleweeds before a gale. 00:19:21.976 --> 00:19:25.184 In the evening, sudden terror. 00:19:25.184 --> 00:19:28.153 Before morning it's gone. 00:19:28.153 --> 00:19:33.971 The fate of those who plunder us and the lot of those who ravage us. 00:19:33.971 --> 00:19:38.127 And that's exactly what happens. 00:19:38.127 --> 00:19:45.314 In a few chapters you'll read the story of Hezekiah and what happens to the Assyrian army that God mows down in a night. 00:19:45.314 --> 00:19:52.071 The Gospels testify the power of God to control everything. 00:19:52.071 --> 00:19:56.768 He controls the seas, he controls the people that seem like seas. 00:19:56.768 --> 00:20:09.221 There's no wonder, then, when Christ was on the Sea of Galilee and he looked at the wind and the waves and said peace be still that. 00:20:09.221 --> 00:20:18.173 The people in the boats wondered who is this one that even the sea obeys him? 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:24.672 In chapter 18, we're brought into the land of Cush. 00:20:24.672 --> 00:20:33.128 Cush refers to the land that's immediately south of Egypt and it's been known by many names throughout history. 00:20:33.128 --> 00:20:41.702 The Egyptians knew it as Cush, the Greeks and the Romans called it Ethiopia, but not to be confused with modern-day Ethiopia. 00:20:41.702 --> 00:20:44.989 This would be more like North Sudan. 00:20:44.989 --> 00:21:04.615 And during the mid-8th century BC which is right about the time that we're in right here in Isaiah, cush attacked and overthrew the dynasties of Egypt and took control of it and ruled as pharaohs in what is known as the 25th dynasty. 00:21:04.615 --> 00:21:17.327 And while they're in charge of Egypt and the regions to the south, they want to consolidate their power, and so look at chapter 18 and verse 1. 00:21:17.327 --> 00:21:28.987 Woe to the land of buzzing insect wings beyond the rivers of Cush, which send envoys by sea and reed vessels over the water. 00:21:28.987 --> 00:21:31.752 Go swift messengers. 00:21:31.752 --> 00:21:37.402 Vessels over the water, go swift messengers. 00:21:37.402 --> 00:21:37.762 Here they are. 00:21:37.762 --> 00:21:48.625 Having grabbed power, having gained descendancy, having taken over Egypt, they're now sending out messengers in order to consolidate power because of the threat of Assyria. 00:21:52.330 --> 00:22:05.933 And in the midst of all this buzzing movement that the prophet Isaiah likens to buzzing insect wings is something very quiet, something very still. 00:22:05.933 --> 00:22:16.734 But quietness and stillness should never be mistaken for a lack of power. 00:22:16.734 --> 00:22:21.248 Take a look at verse 4. 00:22:21.248 --> 00:22:35.663 For the Lord said to me I will quietly look out from my place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a rain cloud in harvest. 00:22:35.663 --> 00:22:52.512 Heat there, but not obvious, not looking, imposing a small little cloud on the horizon during the sunny time of harvest. 00:22:52.512 --> 00:23:06.434 The shimmering of a sun that's there, neither one of them coming with great fanfare or great pageantry, just simply present and yet so inescapable. 00:23:06.434 --> 00:23:14.594 And here is God saying that he is going to do something that is, to him, quiet. 00:23:14.594 --> 00:23:18.248 What is that that he's going to do? 00:23:18.248 --> 00:23:32.757 He's going to bring these buzzing, moving, maneuvering, conniving, rushing nations to nothing To nothing. 00:23:32.757 --> 00:23:47.790 Before the harvest, when the blossoming is over and the blossom becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and tear away and remove the branches. 00:23:47.790 --> 00:24:05.423 God's quiet but ever-present judgment will come just when he wants it to come, and it will accomplish everything that he wants it to perform. 00:24:05.423 --> 00:24:12.270 And in verse 7, they will acknowledge him in that judgment. 00:24:14.472 --> 00:24:17.096 Take a look now over at chapter 19. 00:24:17.096 --> 00:24:30.900 In chapter 19, we move chapter 17 from Aram and Israel to the end of chapter 17, to the nations, chapter 18 to Cush, and now we go to Egypt itself in chapter 19. 00:24:30.900 --> 00:24:34.348 A pronouncement concerning Egypt. 00:24:34.348 --> 00:24:43.983 Now, remember where Judah is in this situation To the north, northwest, but they come down through. 00:24:43.983 --> 00:24:56.436 The north is the mighty empire of Assyria, and to their south is the mighty power of Cush that controls Egypt and all of that region. 00:24:56.436 --> 00:25:15.263 To the south, these are the players of the day, and the goal of Assyria was to gain a hold of all of the trade routes that made their way down to the riches of Egypt and to control all of that commerce and to gain all of that wealth for themselves. 00:25:15.263 --> 00:25:22.762 They wanted control over the trade routes in and to and from Egypt to the rest of the world. 00:25:22.762 --> 00:25:33.000 And, of course, cush and Egypt are here resisting it and seeking to consolidate their power by way of alliances, like we looked at in the previous chapter, seeking to consolidate their power by way of alliances, like we looked at in the previous chapter. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:47.232 And so you've got this mighty power to the north and this mighty power to the south, and sandwiched right in the middle of that is little old Judah, this tiny little nation. 00:25:47.232 --> 00:26:03.817 They're caught in the crossfire of superpowers going after each other, and Assyria is moving itself and positioning itself to the very borders of Egypt. 00:26:03.817 --> 00:26:14.040 And Egypt is trying to buffer itself and trying to call these little nation states into an alliance so they might have a little bit of a buffer there. 00:26:16.263 --> 00:26:17.125 What's going to happen? 00:26:17.125 --> 00:26:30.424 Verse 1, a pronouncement concerning Egypt Look, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. 00:26:30.424 --> 00:26:33.567 Egypt's worthless idols will. 00:26:33.567 --> 00:26:55.135 And once again we're brought into the realm of ancient Near East literature, when the gods were considered those in control of the clouds, riders in the sky, riders on the clouds. 00:26:55.135 --> 00:27:10.965 So many different gods of the different peoples would be considered those who rode on the clouds and brought the rain and the harvest, and so they worshiped them because of their harvesting, producing abilities. 00:27:10.965 --> 00:27:18.132 So they thought the Mesopotamian storm gods, baal, the one who rides on the clouds. 00:27:18.132 --> 00:27:25.112 And someone said about Baal he will appoint the season of his rain a season for moisture to appear in snow. 00:27:25.112 --> 00:27:29.191 He will set his voice in the clouds as lightning bolts to the earth. 00:27:29.191 --> 00:27:32.262 But who's actually in charge here? 00:27:32.262 --> 00:27:36.289 It is God. 00:27:36.289 --> 00:27:58.913 It is God who rides on the swift clouds and is coming to Egypt, and the all-powerful God, sovereign over the nations, is also sovereign over the heavens, and he's going to come and demonstrate himself as more powerful and more mighty than these lifeless, powerless idols. 00:28:00.181 --> 00:28:04.990 And the ensuing terror that's going to come to Egypt is pervasive. 00:28:04.990 --> 00:28:14.513 In verses 2 to 4, this shaking of Egypt is going to settle them so much that it's going to lead them into anarchy. 00:28:14.513 --> 00:28:26.433 And then, in verses 5 to 10, we're going to see that he touches the Nile and disrupts the flows of the seasonal floods and going to bring economic collapse to Egypt. 00:28:26.433 --> 00:28:32.029 And then, verses 11 to 15, they're going to be brought to hopeless defeat. 00:28:32.029 --> 00:28:34.561 And in verses 11 to 15, they're going to be brought to hopeless defeat. 00:28:34.561 --> 00:28:47.874 And in verse 12, a taunt God gives them so victorious he is, he can speak as a Lord in battle, standing when all others have shattered. 00:28:47.874 --> 00:28:50.916 And in verse 12, where, then, are your wise men? 00:28:50.916 --> 00:28:55.987 Let them tell you and reveal what the Lord of armies has planned against Egypt. 00:28:56.808 --> 00:28:59.517 The princes of Zoan have been fools. 00:28:59.517 --> 00:29:02.362 The princes of Memphis are deceived. 00:29:02.362 --> 00:29:06.945 Their tribal chieftains have led Egypt astray. 00:29:06.945 --> 00:29:28.145 Why would Judah, why would Judah go to these people and make an alliance, a nation under wrath, a nation that, by the work of God, will become a divided people, a nation that will have a collapsing economy, a nation that looks for wisdom and only finds folly. 00:29:28.145 --> 00:29:36.221 Why would they give themselves to that nation instead of the living God, who's in control of all of it? 00:29:39.807 --> 00:29:49.032 Chapter 20, jumping over a section we'll look at in just a moment, we find that there's no help there, there's no help in Cush. 00:29:49.032 --> 00:29:50.617 There's no help in Egypt whatsoever. 00:29:50.617 --> 00:29:51.119 There's no help in Cush. 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:57.497 There's no help in Egypt whatsoever. 00:29:57.497 --> 00:30:04.118 And Isaiah is told to do something strange. 00:30:04.118 --> 00:30:06.806 The Lord said as my servant, isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot, three years. 00:30:06.806 --> 00:30:09.132 This is a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush. 00:30:09.132 --> 00:30:19.933 So the king of Assyria will lead the captives of Egypt in the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, stripped and barefoot, with bared buttocks. 00:30:19.933 --> 00:30:37.586 To Egypt's shame, isaiah walked around for three years with a bare backside and bare feet, as a living demonstration of what was going to happen to the people Judah was going to put their trust in. 00:30:37.586 --> 00:30:40.993 It's brought to nothing. 00:30:40.993 --> 00:30:51.148 And at the very end, in verse five and six, the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, look, look, look, look, look. 00:30:51.148 --> 00:30:59.405 What's happened to those that we have relied on and fled to for help to rescue us from the king of Assyria? 00:30:59.405 --> 00:31:05.480 And if it happened to them, how are we going to escape? 00:31:09.125 --> 00:31:19.890 You know, sometimes when we listen to the news and we watch what's happening in the world, it can be hard to believe that God is actually on the throne. 00:31:19.890 --> 00:31:24.065 But he is. 00:31:24.065 --> 00:31:46.433 Imagine a modern day Isaiah standing in the streets of London in the spring of 1942 and proclaiming that in three years time Germany and Japan would be brought to ruin. 00:31:46.433 --> 00:31:56.213 At that time, in 1942, germany and Japan literally controlled over half of the globe. 00:31:56.213 --> 00:32:16.589 What kind of fool must have Isaiah of 1942 must have looked like when he's standing in the midst of bombed out buildings and streets filled with rubble and says in three years' time, your enemy is going to be nothing. 00:32:19.481 --> 00:32:22.009 This is exactly what Isaiah is saying here. 00:32:22.009 --> 00:32:36.412 He's saying it doesn't look like God's in control, but he is, and we can look at our world and we can make wrong calculations. 00:32:36.412 --> 00:32:47.826 We can think that those that are in the news every day are the ones who are making everything happen, but they're not. 00:32:47.826 --> 00:33:04.170 Despite the energy and the intellect and the power of the great nations, in Isaiah's day they were all swept away and there was one reality that they had never taken into consideration. 00:33:04.170 --> 00:33:37.409 And that is the God who controls the heavens and the earth, and this is why we should reject all other securities beside him, because he moves mountains and shakes nations and brings mighty powers to nothing Out of the quietness of his position, without breaking a sweat, he brings them down. 00:33:37.409 --> 00:33:46.030 He shows his sovereignty by way of his judgment. 00:33:46.030 --> 00:34:07.193 But I want to show you something else here, in the middle of all of this chapter 17, chapter 18, the bulk of chapter 19, all of chapter 20, god showing his great power through these wasting away of the nations is something striking. 00:34:07.193 --> 00:34:10.347 Let's go to chapter 19. 00:34:10.347 --> 00:34:16.255 Let's go to chapter 19. 00:34:16.255 --> 00:34:24.340 Let's take a look at verse 16. 00:34:25.460 --> 00:34:29.652 On that day, egypt will be like women and will tremble with fear because of the threatening hand of the Lord of armies when he raises it against them. 00:34:29.652 --> 00:34:32.666 The land of Judah will terrify Egypt. 00:34:32.666 --> 00:34:41.423 Whenever Judah is mentioned, egypt will tremble because of what the Lord of armies has planned against it, and you think what utter destruction. 00:34:41.423 --> 00:34:43.507 But let's keep reading. 00:34:43.507 --> 00:34:53.492 On that day, five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear loyalty to the Lord of armies. 00:34:53.492 --> 00:34:56.869 One of the cities will be called the City of the Sun. 00:34:57.900 --> 00:35:04.039 And on that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord near their border. 00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:08.371 It will be a sign and witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt. 00:35:08.371 --> 00:35:17.152 And when they cry out the Lord, to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and leader and he will rescue them. 00:35:17.152 --> 00:35:22.847 The Lord will make himself known to Egypt and Egypt will know the Lord on that day. 00:35:22.847 --> 00:35:28.324 They will offer sacrifices and offerings, they will make vows to the Lord and fulfill them. 00:35:28.324 --> 00:35:39.050 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and then they will turn to the Lord and he will be receptive to their prayers and heal them. 00:35:40.213 --> 00:35:52.951 On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and Assyria will go to Egypt and Egypt to Assyria, and Egypt will worship with Assyria. 00:35:52.951 --> 00:36:00.800 On that day, israel will form a triple alliance with Egypt and Assyria. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:04.925 A blessing within the land. 00:36:04.925 --> 00:36:21.277 The Lord of armies will bless them, saying Egypt, my people, assyria, my handiwork, israel, my inheritance are blessed. 00:36:24.342 --> 00:36:25.163 What is this? 00:36:25.163 --> 00:36:29.010 What is this great wonder? 00:36:29.010 --> 00:36:30.014 We've just read. 00:36:30.014 --> 00:36:33.514 What is this great wonder? 00:36:33.514 --> 00:36:41.335 We've just read God is sovereign in judgment and he's also sovereign in salvation. 00:36:41.335 --> 00:37:16.836 He is the ways of salvation, and Judah, which was sandwiched between Assyria and Egypt, is one day going to be the very linchpin of worship among the people. 00:37:16.836 --> 00:37:25.233 No longer are they in the crossfire, but now they are the center place for it all. 00:37:25.233 --> 00:37:35.583 God here promises to bring salvation, and he uses the emblems of these nations Assyria and Egypt and Israel. 00:37:35.583 --> 00:37:38.090 And what is he telling us here? 00:37:38.090 --> 00:38:06.554 He's using prophetic pictures and patterns again to bring in this idea that something dramatic is going to happen by way of God's activity, by way of his sovereign displays of power in saving as well as judging, that there are going to be people that will be conquered by him and live and not die. 00:38:06.554 --> 00:38:20.235 And so the prophet picks up all the language and the practices of the people of Israel and uses them as emblems for his deliverance. 00:38:20.235 --> 00:38:43.224 And so he talks about altars and he talks about pillars and he talks about sacrifices and he makes allusions to the book of Exodus and talks about the promises to the fathers, to Abraham, and he takes all of these things to give us some understanding of what he's going to do in the future. 00:38:45.228 --> 00:39:04.565 The people of God today recognize the realities of those things which were shadows, types and figures, as the writer of Hebrews says, that speak of the living Christ and the people gathered in his kingdom who, from all nations, find themselves one in Christ. 00:39:04.565 --> 00:39:13.231 And here's the display of it, by the way of the grace of God given and promised to the people of Egypt and of Assyria. 00:39:13.231 --> 00:39:22.043 And I want us to notice a few things very, very briefly here, and the first is that the grace of God has come to the worst of people. 00:39:22.043 --> 00:39:27.271 Right, this is Assyria, this is Egypt. 00:39:27.271 --> 00:39:44.429 He's come to, this is the people that are emblematic of the enemies of God Egypt and Pharaoh that held his people in captivity for hundreds of years, in which Moses went to Pharaoh and said the Lord says let my people go, and Pharaoh replies with a stiff neck. 00:39:44.429 --> 00:39:46.572 Well, who is the Lord anyway? 00:39:46.572 --> 00:39:55.168 These are the chief enemies of the people of God, and yet the grace of God comes to them. 00:39:55.168 --> 00:40:07.650 He's come to the worst of his enemies and he melts them with grace and receives them. 00:40:07.650 --> 00:40:28.007 What a remarkable thing this is that a person so furiously opposed to God is the one that the Lord receives and embraces in Christ, takes a lion and turns it into a lamb, makes them lie down at the feet of the Savior. 00:40:29.036 --> 00:40:35.423 This morning I was listening to a sermon of an old friend of mine who's been in heaven for several years now, steve Fernandez. 00:40:35.423 --> 00:40:44.706 Steve was a pastor in Vallejo, a community Bible church, and when I met Steve he told me a story about how he was brought to Christ. 00:40:44.706 --> 00:40:46.739 They had never been to church. 00:40:46.739 --> 00:40:58.706 He and his brother were both drug dealers in the times of the hippie era in California, and his brother found a Bible, had never been to a church, found a Bible and started reading it and God saved him. 00:40:58.706 --> 00:41:05.920 And his brother came to him one day and to Steve and threw the Bible at him and said you need to read this because you're going to hell. 00:41:05.920 --> 00:41:18.335 And Steve started reading it and he said reading it. 00:41:18.335 --> 00:41:19.197 And he said I am going to hell. 00:41:19.197 --> 00:41:19.699 And God saved him. 00:41:19.699 --> 00:41:30.143 And he went and he gathered all of his drug-dealing friends and all those that were around him and he got up on a bench a picnic bench and preached the gospel to all of them and 50 of them got saved right there. 00:41:30.143 --> 00:41:46.043 This man who was running away from God, didn't know God, was an enemy of God, was pursuing pleasures and passions that had nothing to do with God and the Lord went to that enemy and delivered him. 00:41:48.007 --> 00:41:54.927 Here's Egypt, one of the most degraded of all nations, and yet the grace of God comes to it. 00:41:54.927 --> 00:41:58.001 I love what Spurgeon said. 00:41:58.001 --> 00:42:04.427 He said the devil can't color a soul so red in sin that the blood of Christ can't make it white as snow. 00:42:04.427 --> 00:42:05.809 Isn't that beautiful? 00:42:05.809 --> 00:42:12.916 Satan can't drive a person so far into the mountains of vanity or into the deserts of sin, but what? 00:42:12.916 --> 00:42:17.768 The great shepherd of the sheep can find that one and bring it home again. 00:42:17.768 --> 00:42:21.780 You see, there's hope for all of us. 00:42:21.780 --> 00:42:24.266 There's hope for the most sunken. 00:42:26.295 --> 00:42:39.666 And if you're here today and you don't know the Savior, let me just say this this word is for you the God who comes in grace to Egypt can come to grace, in grace to you, and I don't know what you might think about yourself. 00:42:39.666 --> 00:42:40.775 I've gone too far away. 00:42:40.775 --> 00:42:41.336 I can never. 00:42:41.336 --> 00:42:43.382 I just can't be a Christian. 00:42:43.382 --> 00:42:45.365 My dad used to say that to me. 00:42:45.365 --> 00:42:46.817 He said I can't come into church. 00:42:46.817 --> 00:42:47.820 I'm like why not, dad? 00:42:47.820 --> 00:42:54.815 He said the roof would cave in if I did and I said come on in, dad. 00:42:54.815 --> 00:42:58.882 There's a lot of us that would have made the roof fall. 00:42:58.882 --> 00:42:59.344 Come on in. 00:42:59.364 --> 00:43:04.777 The scriptures say that he is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to him. 00:43:04.777 --> 00:43:11.469 In Christ Jesus, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven you. 00:43:11.469 --> 00:43:16.099 All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven you. 00:43:16.099 --> 00:43:25.550 Jesus said here the scriptures speak so abundantly and superfluously about all the abundance of grace that comes. 00:43:25.550 --> 00:43:31.061 Look at the next one, in verse 20. 00:43:31.061 --> 00:43:36.806 In verse 20, it says here it will be a sign and witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt. 00:43:36.806 --> 00:43:42.688 They will cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors and he will send them a Savior and a leader. 00:43:42.688 --> 00:43:56.335 That is a direct allusion to the people of Israel in Egypt, in bondage, crying out for help, and God sends them, moses to deliver them. 00:43:56.335 --> 00:44:11.460 And here are the Egyptians who were once the captors, now feeling the oppression, calling out for help, and God says he'll send them a deliverer who will rescue them, a deliverer who will rescue them. 00:44:11.460 --> 00:44:23.769 They cry out just like the people they once captured, and they find deliverance, just like the people they once bound in slavery. 00:44:23.769 --> 00:44:39.327 He's come to save, he's come to deliver and he will rescue them. 00:44:39.327 --> 00:44:40.914 The Scriptures say Now take a look at verse 18. 00:44:40.914 --> 00:44:46.221 Not only does he deliver them, but he changes their language, which is a very interesting image here. 00:44:46.240 --> 00:44:53.786 On that day, five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear loyalty to the Lord of armies. 00:44:53.786 --> 00:44:59.019 What is this talking about? 00:44:59.019 --> 00:45:07.846 These people will be so aligned with the Lord, god and his people, that they'll actually learn a language completely foreign to them. 00:45:07.846 --> 00:45:13.914 Now that they'll no longer speak the language of their old country, egypt, they will speak the language of their old country, egypt. 00:45:13.914 --> 00:45:21.644 They will speak the language of their new alliances, the people of Israel who are in the land of Canaan. 00:45:21.644 --> 00:45:41.867 A new speech, a new voice, a new language speaking about the allegiances and the transfer of allegiance of these people to God, that they're going to take up his voice in the voice of his people. 00:45:41.867 --> 00:45:56.663 You know, there used to be people who would live their lives and not a word could be uttered without a curse, but now they can't and won't. 00:45:56.663 --> 00:46:15.318 There were people who would, in their speech, speak about their pride and their arrogance, and they would posture themselves in such an intimidating way in order to impose themselves on others by the force of their personality or the strength of their arms. 00:46:15.318 --> 00:46:17.682 But not anymore. 00:46:17.682 --> 00:46:27.266 They take up the language of humility, softness of speech and peaceableness of heart and gentleness. 00:46:27.266 --> 00:46:37.268 There are people whose language was full of lewdness and lasciviousness, but now they speak words of health and hope and peace. 00:46:40.215 --> 00:46:43.746 Verse 19, these people are set into a place of service. 00:46:43.746 --> 00:46:56.996 On that day there'll be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord near her border Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near her border. 00:46:56.996 --> 00:47:07.802 Once they would have worshiped the other gods, but now all of their worship is given to him and they set up a pillar on the boundaries of their land as an emblem of who actually owns it. 00:47:07.802 --> 00:47:18.568 There would have been a time they would have set a pillar up to themselves and said this is the land of Egypt and it is ours and it is under the control of our God. 00:47:18.568 --> 00:47:27.885 And now they set up a pillar on the boundary and said this is the land of God and we are his and we worship him. 00:47:27.885 --> 00:47:33.702 Verse 20 teaches them to pray. 00:47:33.702 --> 00:47:38.164 It'll be a sign and witness to the lord of armies. 00:47:38.224 --> 00:47:41.418 In the land of egypt, they will cry out to the lord because of their oppressors. 00:47:41.418 --> 00:47:47.916 He teaches them to call out to him of whom they had never once before called. 00:47:47.916 --> 00:47:52.646 That for me was the very first thing I ever did. 00:47:52.646 --> 00:47:55.380 And someone shared the gospel with me. 00:47:55.380 --> 00:47:58.007 And they asked me do you want to be saved? 00:47:58.007 --> 00:47:59.340 Do you want your sins forgiven? 00:47:59.340 --> 00:48:02.119 And I said yes, how do I do that? 00:48:02.119 --> 00:48:06.007 And he said you need to pray and ask the Lord to save you. 00:48:06.007 --> 00:48:07.114 And I balked. 00:48:07.114 --> 00:48:11.286 I said I've never prayed before, ever. 00:48:11.286 --> 00:48:12.496 What is prayer? 00:48:12.496 --> 00:48:13.440 I don't know how to pray. 00:48:13.440 --> 00:48:17.623 And he said just tell God what's on your heart. 00:48:17.623 --> 00:48:30.907 And what was on my heart was how much I needed God's forgiveness, because I knew I was a sinner and the very first time I ever prayed was a prayer of repentance for God to please forgive me. 00:48:32.034 --> 00:48:37.739 These people are taught to pray, to cry out, and in verse 21, they're instructed. 00:48:37.739 --> 00:48:42.268 On that day they will be instructed, it says in verse 21. 00:48:42.268 --> 00:48:44.860 They will offer sacrifices and offerings. 00:48:44.860 --> 00:48:54.045 They will make vows to the Lord and fulfill them, and he will make himself known to Egypt and Egypt will know the Lord. 00:48:54.045 --> 00:49:01.786 On that day, what was of no interest to them was now of greatest interest to them. 00:49:01.786 --> 00:49:07.606 In verse 22, even their trouble is turned to a blessing. 00:49:07.606 --> 00:49:16.061 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will turn to the Lord and he will be receptive to their prayers. 00:49:18.715 --> 00:49:23.748 You strike a person who doesn't know the Lord and they say why is God being so mean to me? 00:49:23.748 --> 00:49:26.403 Why has he gotten in the way of the good life I deserve? 00:49:26.403 --> 00:49:31.666 Why has he taken away the things that are precious to me, why, why, why? 00:49:31.666 --> 00:49:35.766 And their heart grows in anger and bitterness. 00:49:35.766 --> 00:49:46.686 But you strike one of God's people and they say that smarts and that hurts, but even in the wounding there's health, there's life. 00:49:46.686 --> 00:49:49.996 Verse 23,. 00:49:49.996 --> 00:49:54.248 This grace that comes changes their relationships with one another. 00:49:54.248 --> 00:50:04.726 On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and Assyria will go to Egypt and Egypt will worship with Assyria. 00:50:04.726 --> 00:50:17.811 The Egyptians and the Assyrians were in this feud, this war, this conflict that had ravished this whole area. 00:50:17.811 --> 00:50:25.027 Multitudes of people swept up in their animosity to one another and the clutching of greed. 00:50:25.027 --> 00:50:35.820 And now they visit each other and when they do, they don't war, they worship. 00:50:40.257 --> 00:50:41.824 What does the gospel do to people? 00:50:41.824 --> 00:50:45.485 What does God's intervention of grace do to people? 00:50:45.485 --> 00:50:49.264 It breaks down barriers. 00:50:49.264 --> 00:50:52.579 It breaks apart animosity. 00:50:52.579 --> 00:51:28.114 I wouldn't give a dollar for your professed faith in Christ if you can say about someone else, I'll never talk to that person, ever again, person ever again, because the gospel changes who you are on the inside and if God can make Egypt his, he can certainly give you a heart of compassion, even to those who don't ever turn to him. 00:51:28.114 --> 00:51:36.960 And if there is someone who turns to him and you have as well, you might say well, I'm not sure we could ever meet in the middle. 00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:38.945 Nobody said you had to meet in the middle. 00:51:38.945 --> 00:51:45.007 You meet at the cross and you can meet there. 00:51:45.007 --> 00:51:54.364 One last thing what does the grace of God do? 00:51:54.364 --> 00:51:59.300 It blesses these people and it makes them a blessing. 00:51:59.300 --> 00:52:11.802 The very last verse On that day, the last two verses on that day, israel will form a triple alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing within the land. 00:52:12.523 --> 00:52:21.009 The Lord of armies will bless them, saying Egypt, my people, Assyria, my handiwork and Israel, my inheritance, are blessed. 00:52:21.009 --> 00:52:31.929 There was a time when God stood in the midst of Egypt and said through Moses, let my people go. 00:52:31.929 --> 00:52:39.041 And said through Moses, let my people go. 00:52:39.041 --> 00:52:43.309 And now God is in the midst of Egypt and he's saying you are my people, he's embraced them. 00:52:43.309 --> 00:52:58.751 And Israel is here to see the scene as fulfilling its ultimate purpose to be a blessing to the world, not because it's good, but because God has acted among them to do something dramatic. 00:52:58.751 --> 00:53:07.509 Yes, israel is called my possession, but Egypt is now called my people. 00:53:07.509 --> 00:53:15.994 And Assyria is now called my handiwork and Assyria is now called my Handiwork. 00:53:15.994 --> 00:53:34.387 The goal of the Assyrian Empire was to bring Egypt under its control, but now they're joined together in a triple alliance An alliance of worship, an alliance of fellowship, an alliance of acceptance, an alliance of blessedness, an alliance of blessedness to others. 00:53:34.387 --> 00:53:47.588 Israel is fulfilling now its final purpose to bring a blessing to the nations. 00:54:00.315 --> 00:54:07.137 The apostle paul picked up this idea in the book of galatians when he said christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. 00:54:07.137 --> 00:54:09.239 And he said, the purpose? 00:54:09.239 --> 00:54:19.351 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus. 00:54:19.351 --> 00:54:25.925 So we have received the promised spirit through faith. 00:54:25.925 --> 00:54:49.199 And so, when Christ was born in this world, coming from the reaches of the east down through the north, was a group of people called Magi who walked their way from Assyria and stopped in the midst of Israel and said when is he who is born King of the Jews? 00:54:49.199 --> 00:54:52.224 We have come to worship him, king of the Jews. 00:54:52.224 --> 00:54:53.346 We have come to worship him. 00:54:53.385 --> 00:55:08.282 And later, in the proclamation of the gospel, stephen was sent out and he was met up by a man in a chariot who was an Ethiopian eunuch, a man who was dead in body and under the service of another king. 00:55:08.282 --> 00:55:19.664 And he finds the gospel in the book of Isaiah, and he finds himself given life and given hope and owns another master named Jesus. 00:55:19.664 --> 00:55:33.849 And there, bound in Christ, together, are Assyrians and Egyptians, those bound from the places of the north and the south, found in unison, and one in Christ. 00:55:33.849 --> 00:55:54.010 This is our Lord, sovereign in his majesty, displaying his power over all powers in heaven and on earth, controlling the destiny of nations and of people, his judgment spoken in quiet rebuke against the raging of the nations. 00:55:54.010 --> 00:56:10.112 Our Lord also sovereign in his mercy, able to turn the fierce enemy into a humble, joyful, delighted, blessed member of his eternal family. 00:56:12.096 --> 00:56:19.228 This is why the Gaithers wrote a song Jesus, jesus, jesus. 00:56:19.228 --> 00:56:21.597 There's just something about that name. 00:56:21.597 --> 00:56:31.840 Master Savior, jesus, like the fragrance after the rain, let all heaven and earth proclaim. 00:56:31.840 --> 00:56:39.117 Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but there's just something about that name. 00:56:39.117 --> 00:56:47.476 At the mention of his name, he can calm the storm, heal the broken, raise the dead. 00:56:47.476 --> 00:56:55.427 I've seen sin-hearted men melted their lives, transformed, the lights of hope put in the eyes of a hopeless child. 00:56:55.427 --> 00:57:01.405 At the name of Jesus, hatred and bitterness turned to love and forgiveness. 00:57:01.405 --> 00:57:12.065 Emperors tried to destroy it, philosophers have tried to stamp it out, tyrants have tried to wash it from the face of the earth with the blood of those who claimed it. 00:57:12.065 --> 00:57:13.860 Yet it still stands. 00:57:13.860 --> 00:57:25.387 And there shall be in that final day when every voice that is ever nuttered to sound, every voice of Adam's race, shall rise in one mighty chorus to proclaim the name of Jesus. 00:57:25.387 --> 00:57:33.025 For on that day, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is truly Lord. 00:57:33.025 --> 00:57:45.824 You see, it was not by mere chance that an angel, one night long ago, said to a virgin maiden His name shall be called Jesus, jesus, jesus. 00:57:45.824 --> 00:57:48.849 There's just something about that name. 00:57:48.849 --> 00:57:55.648 Kings and kingdoms shall all pass away, but there's something about that name. 00:57:56.074 --> 00:57:56.496 Let's pray. 00:57:56.496 --> 00:58:08.302 Father, we thank you for these chapters which cause us to shudder, to shudder with concern. 00:58:08.302 --> 00:58:19.378 If we were ever to be the objects of your judgment, if we were ever to be the objects of your judgment, so swiftly and completely could you take us down. 00:58:19.378 --> 00:58:38.304 And yet, lord, also in this section of Scripture, we find ourselves shuddering with wonder that you, who are a God of such fierce judgment, are also a God who can shine upon your enemies and make them your sons and daughters. 00:58:38.304 --> 00:58:54.646 Lord, we pray that each and every one of us might seek you and remember you, the God who saves, the rock, who delivers and supplies. 00:58:54.646 --> 00:59:00.708 May we not give ourselves to vain and worthless and tragic things. 00:59:00.708 --> 00:59:19.882 We pray that we might be found under the banner of your grace, one of your children, my people, my handiwork, my inheritance, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen.