Thank you.
O tell of his might, and sing of his grace, whose road is the light, whose canopy's face,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form, and darkest is the thunder waves of the storm.
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite, it breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Pray, O children of dust, and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find need to fail,
Thy mercy's outender, our firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.
Let's pray.
Our heavenly Father, we thank you for another week.
We get to gather in your house to hear the preaching of your word.
Thank you for giving us another day to live.
We thank you for our salvation, and thank you for all the brethren that are here.
We pray that you may bless this night and this service.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Our next song is 126.
126.
126 anywhere with Jesus.
126.
106.
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go.
Anywhere He leads me in this wall below.
Anywhere without Him, He's fierce voice would fade.
Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone
Other friends may fail me, here is to my own Though His hand may lead me home by dreary ways
Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus over land and sea
Telling souls in darkness of salvation free Ready as He summons me to go or stay
Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep
And the dark and shadows round about me creep Knowing I shall walk and never mourn to roam
Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
Alright, our third hymn is 327, 327 Higher Grounds, 327
I'm pressing on the upward way New hearts are gaining everyday
Still praying as I'm onward bound I'll bend my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith for heaven's stable land
A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay Where doubts arise and fears display
Though some may dwell where these abound My prayer, my aim is higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith for heaven's stable land
A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground
I want to live above the world The saints' gods and beyond
Oh, bring us forth, the joyful sound The soul of saints on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith on heaven's stable land
A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground
I want to scale the utmost high And catch a beam of glory bright
Yes, Lord, I pray to heaven outbound Lord, lift me up to higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith on heaven's stable land
A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground
Song number 18
The name of Jesus with you Child of sorrow and of old
It will joy and comfort give you Take it and we'll hear you go
Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven
Take the name of Jesus ever As a shield from every stand
If temptations round you gather Breathe that holy name and pray
Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven
Oh, the precious name of Jesus How it fills our souls with joy
When His love He does receive us And His songs our tongues employ
Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven
At the name of Jesus' valley Holy cross, turn at His feet
King of kings and heaven will crown Him When our journey is complete
Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven
Thank you.
Isaiah 31 was it?
Yes.
Isaiah 31, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots
because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong
but they look not onto the Holy One of Israel neither seek the Lord
Yet He also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back His words
but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of them that work in equity
Now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit
When the Lord shall stretch out His hand both He that helpeth shall fall
and He that helpeth shall fall down and they shall fail together
For thus has the Lord spoken unto me like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prayer
when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him
He will not be afraid of their voice nor abase himself for the noise of them
So shall the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem defending also He will deliver it
and passing over He will preserve it
Turn ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted
For in the day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and the idols of gold
which your own hands have made unto you for a sin
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword not of a mighty man
and the sword not of a mean man shall devour him
But he shall flee from the sword and his young men shall be discomforted
and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear and his princess shall be afraid of ensign
saith the Lord whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem
Let us go in a word of prayer
Thank you Father God for bringing us together
Thank you that you fill the preacher with your Holy Spirit
and thank you that you edify us that we not be only the hearers of the word
but be also the doers of the word
In Jesus' blessed name, Amen
All right
Was I here last week? I wasn't here last week
Anyway, good to see you guys
I did miss you guys even though it's only the one week
The two weeks of not seeing you but I do
I definitely do miss you when I don't see you on the regular basis
But we are going through Isaiah
We're up to Isaiah 31 and you can see there
that it's not a very long chapter
It's not a very long chapter
Now, well, before I get straight into it
We also, as we go through the chapter by chapter study for the book of Isaiah
We've also been corresponding the number of the chapter of Isaiah
with the book of the Bible
So if we're looking at chapter 31
What is the 31st book of the Bible? Does anyone know?
Obadiah
Okay, so what I want you to do
Keep your finger there in Isaiah 31
and come with me to Obadiah which is one chapter
It's a very tiny, tiny book in the Old Testament
In fact, this is the one that I was kind of dreading the most
Because when I think about the Old Testament prophets
Probably the one that I feel that I'm less aware of
or I spend less time thinking of is Obadiah by far
Partly because it is a very small book
Partly because it's only the one chapter
But also partly because Obadiah, he writes to the Edomites
To the nation of Edom
You know, we're more familiar usually when the prophets are preaching against Israel or against Judah
We're more familiar with those kinds of preachers
Because they often associate a lot of the judgment that comes from God to these nations
Also, we see some similarities with end times events
And so we often are going back and forth and comparing
When we're comparing scripture with scripture, we're comparing many times the old prophets
But we barely ever really turn to Obadiah
And so when I was thinking about Obadiah, I was thinking
Man, this is going to be challenging
Like we're going to really see whether the chapters correspond with the numbers of the chapters of Isaiah
And yet when I read for Obadiah just as a refresher
I'm like, this is kind of Isaiah 31
You can almost see immediately the connection from chapter to book
But we're not going to read Obadiah just yet
I just want you to turn there so we're not wasting time
Like I said, I know it's a book that we barely maybe turn to
But at least you've got your finger there
And come back with me to Isaiah 31
Come back with me to Isaiah 31
And then we've got verse number one
It begins by saying
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help
Now as I was going through Isaiah 31
I was thinking about when God speaks of woe
He's speaking of sorrow and grief
And obviously as God is speaking to these that go down into Egypt
He's referring to those that are in Judah
And just to bring you back to the historical context of what this chapter is about
This is when the Assyrian army took into captivity the northern kingdom of Israel
And they were taken away
And of course then the Assyrian army attempted to come and take over Judah
And they had a brief attempt of success
They even got as close to the gates of Jerusalem
But then God, you may recall, an angel comes during the night
And slays with a miracle the great army of the Assyrians
And the Assyrian captain turns around and heads back home
But what we have here is that when the Assyrians were threatening the southern kingdom of Judah
Some of those people went back to Egypt
They went to Pharaoh and said,
Pharaoh, help us against the Assyrians
If we come together, if we join forces, if we make a national allegiance
You'll be able to help us against the Assyrians
And we'll be able to help you against the Assyrians
And so from the very beginning, verse number 1
God is saying woe to them that go to Egypt for help
This is going to bring you sorrow
This is going to bring you misery
This is not going to help you at the time of the judgment of God
And as we continue going through this chapter
You'll see that God is showing them where they are misplacing their trust
Number 1, we see they're misplacing their trust on Egypt
But then we see other places where they're misplacing their trust
And so the title for the sermon tonight is
Trusting in the wrong things
And the very first wrong thing that people are trusting in is in Egypt
Why have people turned to Egypt for their help?
It continues in verse number 1, it says
And stay on horses and trust in chariots
So the reason you're trusting in Egypt is because of their military strength
Because of their military might
They've got the horses, they've got the chariots, they've got the armies of Pharaoh
But that's the wrong place to place your trust
But then, not only is there horses and chariots, it continues
Because they are many
So Pharaoh had a great army
He had a big army, he had an army with many soldiers
And again the Jews are misplacing their trust in the wrong things
There's a great army, there's a powerful army, there are many soldiers
Surely we can trust in them
And then it continues, and in horsemen
Because they are very strong
So not only is there a large army with many horsemen, with many soldiers
But it's also known as a very strong army
This might be known as the strongest army of this region at this point in time
But then look what God says at the end of verse number 1
So God is showing them where their heart is, misplacing their trust
You're trusting in the most powerful army on the earth
But you're not seeking the Lord, you're not looking upon the Holy One of Israel
You're not trusting the Holy One of Israel to be your hope in a time of trial
You know, the first point I have for you in this chapter
The wrong place to place your trust in is in national allegiances
That's the wrong place to place your trust
And you know, we live, and sometimes
One of the reasons we live in a very peaceful country in Australia
You say it's not that peaceful past, I know sometimes it's not
But, by and large, when you compare it to much of the rest of the world
It's a peaceful place to live
And if you ask the average person, why is Australia a peaceful place to live?
They'll often say, well we've got allegiances with the United States of America
You know, if some country were to attack us
Not only would they have to deal with the wrath of Great Britain
Potentially, I don't know, I don't know if they really care about us
But also, they'll have to deal with the wrath of the United States of America
And how dare some country, you know, dare try to affect us and hurt us
So what I'm trying to say is just in general
Even though we're a small population
And we're a young nation, we're only 27 million
I don't know what we are
Truly, I think Manila in the Philippines is like 27 million
Like Manila Metro
The one city in the suburban area is pretty much the population of Australia
Something crazy like that
But, you know, even though we're a small nation
I often, when we talk about, you know, with people
You know, why is there safety and security
It's why we're being supported by the United States of America
And that might sound like a nice thing
And in some ways it is kind of nice
Because when you think about who has the most powerful army
Who's got the most powerful military might
It's clearly the United States
You know, who's got the most ships out on the seas
And who's got the most, you know, the fastest planes
And the most powerful weapons and the atomic bombs
Ready to go at any notice
You'd say, well, it's the United States
They've got the technology, they've got the science
They've got the wealth, they've got the power
And you can kind of see that
Yeah, you know, as Australians
We might start to lean toward that
And go, that's why we're at peace
That's what we're trusted in
But we see here, as a parallel
That is the wrong place to place your trust
And truly, look, it is, I suppose, a blessing to some extent
You know, you may say it's not really a blessing
But I guess someone is a blessing
That we won't have other nations trying to just overtake us for our resources
Because Australia is a country of great resources
And it's kind of nice to know that there would be a fear of a takeover of Australia
Because of the allegiances we have
Truly, what we see here
That if we are trusting military might
If we are trusting national allegiances
God says woe to you
This is grief
This is sorrow
This is not a sure way
To have trust and support and confidence and peace in
Rather, our trust ought to be on the Holy One of Israel
The one that we ought to be seeking is the Lord
Now, whether in Isaiah, come with me to Isaiah 40 please
Come with me to Isaiah 40
Come with me to Isaiah 40, verse number 14
Isaiah 40
And verse number 14
Isaiah 40, 14 says
With whom took he counseled?
The he that is God
So, if God needs counsel
Who would he go to for counsel?
These are rhetorical questions
Obviously God doesn't go to anyone for counsel
God has all wisdom
God has all knowledge
And then it says
And who instructed him?
Well obviously no one instructed God
And taught him the path of judgment
And taught him knowledge
And showed to him the way of understanding
Obviously no one has
It's God that gives us knowledge
It's God that gives us the way of understanding
It's God that teaches us the path of judgment
Nobody taught God those things
And look how it continues in verse number 15
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket
And are counted as the small dust of the balance
Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing
I love that
Counted, the nations are counted as the small dust of the balance
So when you take a balance and you want to weigh
Maybe you're buying apples
And then you take a balance and you go
Well I want to buy one kilo of apples
So you get a kilo of apples
And on the other side of the scale
There's a kilo so you can balance
I've got about a kilo of apples on this side
Well the nations, the power of the nations
The wisdom, the knowledge, the judgment of the nations
Is like on that balance
A little bit of dust
It has no effect on the balance whatsoever
This is comparing the wisdom, the might, the power of God
Compared to all the wisdom, power and might
And wealth of all the nations
It is incomparable to the great God that we serve
If we continue in verse number
Sorry, before we keep going there
But also in verse number 15
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket
I mean think about that
If you're trying to fill up a bucket with water
You know what the nations add to that water
Would just be one drop
One drop again
You know for us to go
Well we must be supportive
You know it's so good to be an Australian
Because we've got military bases from the United States here
You know protecting our safety and security
You know all that is, is a drop in a bucket
You know this is what God is teaching us
Why would we, if we're trying to water a garden
How could we possibly think with one drop of the bucket
We're going to be able to successfully water our garden
Because that's ridiculous
We need all of the water in the bucket
But what fills up the bucket with water of course
Is the power, the strength, the peace that comes from our Lord God
So if we ought to be praising anybody
And any situation
For the blessings and the wisdom
And the great privileges
And the opportunities that we have in Australia
The great peace we have in Australia
It ought to be direct to our Lord God Almighty
And Him only
Him only
And not the nations that we have allegiances with
Look you're also there in Isaiah 40 drop down to verse 17
It says
All nations before Him are as nothing
Well that's what it is
We saw it's a dust
A bit of dust on the balance
A bit of dirt
A tiny little bit
It's nothing God says
As they accounted to Him
Less than nothing and vanity
Less than nothing
We know what nothing is
Nothing is nothing
God says the nations are less than nothing
And vanity
What's vanity?
Emptiness
It's unprofitable
You know to put your trust in the nations
To put your trust in national allegiances
You know praise God we live in a country like Australia
I know it's a wicked country
I know there's great wickedness every single day
And I know things are getting worse
And things are getting more difficult
But still we live in a country
That is very blessed compared to many other nations of the world
And the one I'm going to give thanks to for that is God
So if we want peace to continue in this nation
If we want to be able to continue coming to church without persecution
We want to be able to continue to knock doors and preach the gospel
Without the government trying to stop us
We're not going to call President Joe Biden
We're going to call out to God
And say God can you continue to allow us to serve you faithfully in Australia
You know be merciful to our nation
I know our nation has turned our backs against you Lord
But we've not
Blessed our Baptist Church has not
Can you please allow us to continue to serve you faithfully
Be at church to go so willing to have access to Bibles
That we will not be persecuted as we seek to serve you
You know with our lives and with our church
So trusting in national allegiances
Is the first wrong place to place your trust
So come back with me to Isaiah 31 please
Isaiah 31 and verse number 2
Isaiah 31 verse number 2
So again God is saying to the Jews
Woe is your trust in Egypt, your trust in Pharaoh
Wrong place to put your trust
Then he says in verse number 2
Yet he also is wise
Again God is wise here
God is wise
And will bring evil
Now people get confused about this
Does God do evil?
Yes
It says he will bring evil
But people don't understand what evil means
So usually when you ask someone what evil is
They think of something sinful
Now sin can be evil
Because evil means harm
Something that is destructive
Something that is harmful
And of course when you commit sin
That is harmful to you
Or it is harmful to all those
That you are sinning against
But not all evil is sin
Because sometimes we do need to cause harm
You know for example
We're talking about military might
You know Australia has a defence force
It would be right for Australia
If under attack of a foreign nation
To protect itself
And as it's protecting its borders
And it's protecting its nation
It may obviously cause harm
In a time of battle
There might be soldiers of the other side
That lose their lives
That have destruction
And that harm that is caused is evil
That is caused
But that's not sinful
Self defence in the Bible
Is not a sinful thing to do
It is the right thing
It is in fact the right thing
For a defence force to do
Is to protect its borders
And that's why it's called the defence force
It's not known as an attack force
Okay
But hey in the last couple of decades
You know our military might
Has been used as an attack force
To pre you know preempt
Preempt you know
Enter into other people's countries
And take their resources
And try to bring democracy into the world
That is not why you know armies exist
Armies exist to be a defence force
And in the process of defence
If you cause damage
To the other opposing force
Yeah there's evil
That is being done
But that is not sinful
That is the right place
And proper place
For the defence force of a nation
And so when God brings evil
He's going to bring harm
To the Jews
Okay
And the process that he brings harm
Once again
Is through the Assyrians
He's going to use the Assyrians
To chastise the Jews
For their weakness
And so let's look at verse number 2 again
He
Yet he also is wise
And will bring evil
And will not call back his word
So God's already decided what he's going to do
He's not going to change his mind here
But will arise against the house of the evil doers
And against the help of them
That work in equity
Okay so
He says alright you've gone to Egypt
For your help
Well I'm going to bring evil upon you
Okay
And I'm not going to change my mind about this
It's going to happen
And then verse number 3 he says
Now
The Egyptians are
Men
And not
God
So what else have we learned
What's the second thing we are not to trust in
Men
Because men are not God
Alright the Egyptians are men and not God
And brethren every single brother and sister
In this church right now
Is but man
We are not God
And this pastor behind this pulpit right now
Is but man
With weaknesses
With failings
I am not God
We don't want to trust man
Alright we don't want to put our confidence in man
But the Egyptians are men and not God
He says
And their horses flesh
And not spirit
When the Lord shall stretch out his hand
Both he that helpeth
Shall fall
The one that helpeth is Egypt
They're going to fall
And he that is hoping
Or being helped
The Jews
Shall fall down
And they all shall fall together
He says the Assyrians are going to cause you to fall
And he's going to cause the Egyptians to fall
So they're going to be no help to you
Cause the Egyptians are just men
What I love about this as well
Is that we learn something very interesting
When it comes to a time of help
When we're having difficulties
When we're having troubles
And we seek God for his help
We see here that
If we're just looking for men to help us
In a tough situation
They cannot help us spiritually
Cause when it says that the Egyptians are men and not God
Look at this
And their horses flesh
And not spirit
See God has shown us that many times
Some of the difficulties and challenges that we face in life
Is in the spiritual realm
But we're seeing it play out in the physical realm
There might be forces of the devil
Forces of darkness that are persecuting our walk with God
Trying to discourage us
Trying to turn us against the Lord God
Also the nature that we have
The simple nature where we have
We come short of the glory of God as sinners
And we're trying to fight this spiritual battle
We're trying to walk in the spirit
And so many times
The battles that we face
Are not flesh
In fact they're not flesh and blood
We're not fighting against flesh and blood
We're not wrestling against flesh and blood I should say
But against powers and principalities
And we may think that
If we just have physical help
You know we're going to be able to overcome our problem
But we're unable to see
The spiritual battle that's taking place behind the scenes
And so if some of our battles
Some of our difficulties are spiritual
The horses of Pharaoh aren't going to help us
You know man can't help us
The only one that I know operates in the spiritual realm
That I can speak to spiritually when I go and pray before him
Is my Lord God Almighty
And so what can man do?
Okay he might help you with some physical needs
But he can't fight the spiritual battle
You know that must be by the hand of God
And the angels that he sends
To protect you
And you know we read about this in the Bible
Sometimes we see the battle between
God's angels and the devils
That are in the world
And we don't get a lot of it in the Bible
But we get enough to see there is a spiritual warfare
Taking place
And so what can man do
What can Pharaoh do to help you in a spiritual battle?
So the second point that I had for you there Brethren
Is that we are not to trust in men
Number one was we are not to trust in national allegiances
But secondly we are not to trust in men
Cause when we talk about national allegiances
We're just talking about in general nations
But when the second part of this is trusting in men
Is much more personal
Because we do build friendships
We build you know connections one with another
We may feel that
Pastor Kevin he must be trustworthy or whatever it is
I mean I hope so
I hope I can be that person
You know in your life
But I also know that I'm not always going to succeed
You know I'm going to let you down
I'm going to fail you sometimes
And I'm ready to accept that
Cause I know I'm a human being
And I know that my church members are going to fail me sometimes
And let me down and whatever it is
And I kind of expect that to just be the case
But the one that will never leave me
Never forsake me never fail me
Is of course our Lord God Almighty
And so our trust ought to be upon him
Come with me to
Let's go to Psalm
No you know what
Come with me to 1 Corinthians
Come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1
1 Corinthians chapter 1 please
1 Corinthians chapter 1
And while you're turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 1
I want to read to you from Psalm 118 verse number 8
You guys know these ones
It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man
It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes
All nations compast me about
But in the name of the Lord
Will I destroy them
I love that confidence
You know where the Psalm is there to say
And I don't know if these are the words of Christ
Maybe when he comes to set up his millennial reign
I don't know if there's a further extension to that
But when you feel like all the nations
Are against you
Or every single nation is out to hurt you
Well if I just put my trust in the Lord
He's going to be able to destroy all the powerful nations that exist
So why are we going to put our trust in princes
Why are we going to put our trust in men
In fact
I want to remind you here in 1 Corinthians chapter 1
Verse number 23
1 Corinthians 1, 23
But we preach Christ crucified
Unto the Jews they stumbling block
And unto the Greeks foolishness
You know when we go out
And we do the great commission
We do the great work that God has led us to do as a church
We're not there to boast of ourselves are we
We preach Christ crucified
You know there are churches
There are pastors that basically
Expect you to preach
Your conversion story
I was like this
And now I am something
All different
Like that's going to convince somebody
And yet everybody knows that you're not perfect
And everybody knows you're still a sinner
And everyone knows you're still going to make mistakes
And not everybody has a story like that
To say boy I used to be some drug addict
You know I was in jail
And I stole cars
And then now look at me
I'm a model citizen of society
I got saved when I was 4 years old
Simple faith and trust on Christ crucified
That's what it says
For we preach Christ crucified
Simple faith on what Christ has done
Paid for my sins
And given me the free gift of salvation
I've got no story to tell
I'll tell you this though
I've committed more sins
Since I've been saved from 4 years old
Than the sins that I did when I was 1, 2 or 3 years old
What kind of story is that?
How's that going to convince anybody?
That's not going to get anybody saved
Show us your change of life
Pastor Kevin since you've been saved
I've been worse
I don't think I did that many horrible things
When I was 1, 2 or 3
So what do we do when we go out
We preach Christ crucified
We don't put confidence in man
And uphold man
Look at this man
Look how much I've changed in my life
That's pride
Self-righteousness
The Pharisee that prays to himself
Thank you Lord that I'm not like these other men
Man if that's your gospel
There's something wrong
You're still trusting in your works
You're still trusting in your performance
Rather than trusting
Christ crucified
Look at verse number 24
Continue there
But unto them which are called
Both Jews and Greeks
Christ the power of God
And the wisdom of God
Because the foolishness of God
Is wiser than men
And the weakness of God
Is stronger than men
So pastor is the Bible saying here
That God is foolish or God is weak
Well it's just giving you a hypothetical
Obviously God is not foolish
And he's not weak
But if he were foolish or weak
He's still stronger than man
And his foolishness is still wiser than man
So why put your trust in man?
Right?
We put our trust in our living God
Verse number 26
For ye say you call him brethren
How that not many wise men
After the flesh
Not many mighty
Not many noble
Are called
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
To confound the wise
And God hath chosen the weak things
Of the world
And things which are mighty
And base things
That's the lower things of the world
And things which are despised
Have God chosen
Yea and things which are not
To bring to naught things that are
That no flesh
Should glory in his presence
You see there's a problem
With a gospel presentation
Or a gospel message
Or an evidence of salvation
When you're trying to glorify in your flesh
And you're checking glory in the presence of God
You know sometimes people get this so messed up
And I don't know why
To me the gospel is so simple
Say pastor what standard
Do we need to reach to go to heaven?
The standard is perfection
You've got to be perfect to go to heaven
So I've got to try hard, no no no, wrong
You go to heaven based on Christ's perfection
Not your own
Not glory in your flesh
You glory in Christ's perfection
Not only did he take his sins
Upon his body
And pay for them but in exchange
He gave you his righteousness
So we're clothed in the righteousness
The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ
I'm perfect
When God the Father looks at me I'm perfect
Not because my flesh is perfect
But because Christ is perfect
That's how he sees me
That's how he accepts me
So there's no glory in the flesh
We don't put confidence in man
Because man is flesh
Man is not spirit
Man fails
Man makes mistakes
Even the wisest and strongest man
That there is
Doesn't even match to the foolishness
And the weakness of God
That we saw layered out there
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1
So trusting in man is the wrong place
To put your trust
Come with me to Obadiah now
You've got a finger in Obadiah
Obadiah
Well he'll turn to Obadiah
I just want you to remember in Isaiah 31
When God spoke about them trying to put their trust in man
Or in the Egyptians
He says
When the Lord shall stretch out his hand
Both he that helpeth shall fall
And he that is hope and shall fall down
And they shall fail together
Well when you look at Obadiah
Verse number 4
God in Obadiah is preaching not against the Jews
But he's preaching against the Edomites
Ok?
He says in verse number 4
Though thou exalt thyself
As an eagle
Isn't that what men do?
Praise themselves
Lift themselves up
An eagle is known as a bird that flies
Obviously at a very high altitude
And it's like men lifting themselves up full of pride
Though thou exalt thyself
As the eagle
And though thou
Set thy nest among the stars
Think about how high the stars are
Thence will I bring thee down
Sayeth the Lord
And so it's just like God told the Jews
You want to put your trust in man?
You want to put your confidence in flesh?
Ok, well he's going to knock you down
He's going to cause you to fall
And what do we see here with the Edomites?
Same thing, they're lifting themselves up
Praising man, praising their flesh
Seeing themselves as the stars and the eagles of the sky
God says I'm going to bring you down
Sayeth the Lord
And so brethren there's no need to ever
Elevate yourself
Fill yourself with pride
Even the best
Even when you're reaching your most spiritual high
The most powerful level
Walk in this earth
You're still coming short of the glory of God
Thank God for Jesus Christ
Thank God that our trust is upon him
When we talk about putting our trust in the right things
We're talking about in this light of this chapter
Just the day by day life that we go through
To put your trust
It sounds simple but I know it's hard
Because there are times I forget to trust the Lord
There are times that things turn up and happen
And I'm like what am I going to do?
I forget to pray to God
I forget that God's in his hands
That's just how we are
A bit silly like that sometimes
But I'm always reminded that
The way you got saved
The way I got saved
When we say we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ
We know that the word belief means to trust
You know we've trusted in Jesus Christ
We've trusted his death
Burial and resurrection
And that's a little bit easier because
That requires a one time trust
One time that I place my trust on Christ
I call upon his name
I seek his salvation
In faith alone not by my works
Not by my efforts
And I'm born again in Christ Jesus
And it's eternal, it's forever
Nothing's ever going to change that
That's kind of easy but that's how easy
Trusting God is
But what's hard is that
That's how God wants us to trust him
Every day of our lives
Every situation, every problem
Whatever is bothering your mind right now
God wants you to put your trust in him
And whatever's going to bother your mind tomorrow
You may not even know what it is
Something might turn up tomorrow that surprises you
And you're like what are we going to do?
You have to put your trust in the Lord
Just the same way you put your trust in him
The moment you were saved
And so again
It's always easier said than done
And so when people
You know call me, pastor I'm concerned
I'm worried can you pray for me
And I'm like reverend just trust in the Lord
It's in his hands and it's so easy to say
But I want you to understand this
That I know how hard it is
Because I know how weak man is
That's why we don't trust men
That's why we don't trust nations
We don't trust allegiances
We don't trust these things
Our trust must solely be on our Lord God
Every day of our lives
We have every problem and situation
That God allows us to face
Again easier said than done
And you're like pastor I know that
But when that surprising thing happens tomorrow
You'll forget
And so this is why we have these stories
In the Bible to remind us
Hey when we forget to put our trust
Once again in the Lord God
And not to trust in man
But come back with me
Come back with me to Isaiah 31
Isaiah 31 please and verse number 4
Isaiah 31 verse number 4
For thus have the Lord spoken unto me
Like as the lion
And the young lion
Roaring on his prey
So God is saying he's like the lion
Who's about to attack his prey
He's roaring
On the prey he's about to lash into that prey
And then it says here
When a multitude of shepherds
Is called forth against him
So okay the shepherds means there's a sheep
Alright so the lion's about to attack the sheep
God's saying he's like the lion in this illustration
And then you've got a multiple of shepherds
Going go away lion
Leave the sheep alone
It says here
He will not be afraid
Of their voice
The lion's not going to
Spare that sheep just cause some shepherds
Are shouting okay
Nor abase himself
For the noise of them
So shall the Lord of hosts come down
To fight for Mount Zion
And for the hill thereof
So God now is
Speaking that hey your trust
Will not be on me
I'm the one that's going to defend
Mount Zion
And of course Mount Zion is a reference to Jerusalem
Again remember the historical setting
The Assyrians are being used
By God as judgement
Has been used by God
As judgement against the northern kingdom
Now God is using that nation
To chastise the people of the Jews
And God is waiting
As he's judging them
Are the Jews going to put their trust in me?
No they're putting their trust in man
No they're putting their trust in Pharaoh's armies
And he's telling them
I'm the one that's going to fight for you
If you need protection
Against the Assyrians
The reason I'm allowing you
To go for this chastisement
The reason I'm allowing you to go for this judgement
Is so you can learn
To trust in me
And he's telling them if you put your trust in me
I'll fight against them
Like the lions
Taking out the sheep
And it doesn't matter how much voice the shepherds make
The shepherds being the armies of Assyria
Like he's still going to overcome them
Like God's telling them
I'm the one you need to trust
I'm going to deliver you
I'm going to help you
And brethren right now
Whatever difficulty you're going through
And you've got doubts
Is the Lord going to come through?
Yes he will
He's got the answer to your problem right now
Are you going to trust him?
You better go before the Lord
And seek his face
And say Lord sorry that I haven't put my trust in you
I haven't been dependent on you
Lord this problem came
And I got sidetracked
I sought help from this place
Or that place
And I just forgot to seek your help
Now I don't know if you're like that
Maybe you're not, maybe you're not like that
Maybe you're a better Christian than I am
And when my problem comes
The last thing I think I better pray about that
Well not always
It just depends
But it happens
And the Lord's just showing them
I'm ready to fight for you
I'm ready to turn my hand of judgement against you
But you've got to trust me
He continues in verse number 5
As birds flying
So now he's describing himself as a lion
Now he's describing himself as birds
As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts
Defend Jerusalem
Defending also he will deliver it
And passing over he will preserve it
Remember God did do this
He did deliver
It was a miracle remember
The angel of the Lord came into the army
Into the barracks and wiped out
Killed tens of thousands of soldiers
Without the Jews having to lift a single sword
God did deliver them
And he's describing himself as a bird flying
And what I love about that is
Obviously birds have a high level view
And so we're stuck in this problem
In this mire here on this earth
But God is above
He's got a helicopter view of our problem
He sees the situation over here and over there
Like we kind of don't see that
We just see our immediate surroundings
And our immediate problems
But God has a high level view and can see everything
You know he's got the strategic map all
You know figured out
God knows exactly how he's going to deliver you
From a time of difficulty
Verse number six
So God says
Turn ye unto him
From whom the children
Of Israel have deeply revolted
So again what's the solution to your problem right now?
Turn ye unto him
Okay
Verse number seven
For in that day
Every man shall cast away
His idols of silver
And his idols of gold
Which your own hands
Which your own hands have made
Unto you for a sin
So this is the third thing that we pick up
In this chapter that they've been misplacing their trust in
What have the Jews been trusting here?
Their gods of idols
The idols of gold, silver
Things that their own hands have made
Again they've put their trust in the wrong things
Now if you can
Keep your finger there, come with me to Psalm 115
Come with me to Psalm 115 please
Psalm 115 verse number three
Isn't it amazing that
Would we say every false religion has idols?
You say well Islam doesn't
But they do, they've got their little square
They've got their cube
That they worship
And idols
More so than just an object
Represents a false god
So the fact that Islam
Served their Allah
That's a false god
Cause that god has no son
And we know that god has a son
We know that god is a triune being, father, son and holy ghost
So the god of Islam is a false god
It's an idol, it's a false thing
But Psalm 115 verse number three
Speaking about our god
But our god is in the heavens
He has done whatsoever he has pleased
That's our god
Our god is the one in the heavens
Verse number four
Their idols
They're not our god
Their idols are silver and gold
The work of men's hands
They have mouths but they speak not
So what do we see?
We see about their idols
They've got mouths but they don't speak
So what does that mean for our god?
He's got a mouth
He's given us his word
We can communicate with our god
Unlike these idols
It says here, eyes have they, the idols
But they see not
False gods don't see what these people are going through
But our god, his eyes are open
To the righteous and the wicked
He sees all things that take place
Heaven, earth and hell
Verse number six
They have ears
But they hear not
Our god has ears and he hears
When we go before him in prayer
He's hearing us
As we sung praises tonight
Lifting our voices to him
He's heard that
He's hearing my preaching
I hope I'm serving him faithfully
I hope he's pleased with what he's hearing
As I teach god's word
He's got ears and he hears
It says here, noses have they
But they smell not
We know that our god smells
Of the sacrifices going to god
I mean our god has all these qualities
But these idols don't
They have hands
But they handle not
The hands of my god would crucify for me
Feet they have but they walk not
Neither speak they through their throats
And so their idols are stupid
False gods are stupid
Allah is stupid
The buddhas and all the other gods
The gods that are out there that people look up to
And want to be like and want to be calm
They're all stupid
But not just that
You know the bible also warns us of another
Jesus in the bible
There are people that speak of Jesus
But it's not my Jesus
The roman catholic Jesus
With his blue eyes and long blonde hair
Is not my Jesus
My god's not
My god's not walking around with long hair
And other Jesus
The JW's have a Jesus
It's not my Jesus because that's not god
They don't believe that their Jesus is god
My Jesus is god
There's other Jesus's
But they're stupid
Other gods they're stupid
Compared to the lord god
Almighty of heaven
You know sometimes
We've got to be careful of this ourselves
Please read your bibles cover to cover
God is showing us in his word
Who he is
He tells us what he loves
God tells us what he hates
And you know there are churches all across Australia
That will never tell you that God hates
They'll never tell you that God hates things
God hates people
God, I don't believe that
Well you don't know the god of the bible
If you don't believe that
We can create gods of our own imagination
That gods not going to help you
Only the god of the bible will help you
The holy one of Israel
That's the one that we trust
That's the one we look up to
Get to know your god
Read his word
That's why he's given us 66 books of the bible
That's why he's given us Isaiah 31
That's why he's given us Obadiah
So we can know him further
We can have a deeper walk and knowledge
Of who our lord god almighty is
That's the god who we are to trust
Are you still in Psalm 115?
Let me just show you verse number 8
I love verse number 8
Cause we know how stupid those gods are
It says they that make them
Are like unto them
So those that make these idols
Are stupid like those idols
And then so is everyone
That trusteth in them
Just as stupid as the idol is
If you put your trust
In some false god
You're stupid also
You can't see
You can't hear
You can't understand
You don't have the knowledge of the almighty
We've already seen that
The wisdom of the world
Cannot compare to the foolishness of god
What a great god that we have
He's given us his word, he's given us his wisdom
He's given us everything we can have
To know our lord god better
So we can trust him
I love god
He reveals to us who he is
He shows me how much he loves me
By sending his son to die in my place
He tells me that I can be sure of heaven
Not because of my works, but because of what Christ has done for me
His works
I know what the future holds
Even if this world becomes so corrupted
And this world begins to worship some Antichrist
Who cares, we're going to win in the end
I'm going to be with god for all eternity
The new heavens and the new earth
The new Jerusalem
Seeing my heavenly father face to face
In my new resurrected bodies
It's good for us
Praise god
He gives us this wisdom and this peace of mind
And when he reveals all this great truth to us
We can say, boy, this is a god that we can trust
We don't need to trust in the allegiances of nations
We don't need to trust in men
We don't need to trust in false gods
And idols like these people did
Can you come back to Isaiah 31
Isaiah 31 verse number 8
Isaiah 31 verse 8
So God is telling them, right?
Trust me, don't trust your idols
Verse number 8
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword
Not of a mighty man
And the sword
Not of a mean man
Shall devour him
But he shall flee from the sword
And his young men shall be discomforted
That's exactly what happened
God got rid of them
He wiped them out
And so they fled
Right?
And it was by the sword of the lord
They fled away from Judah
And then verse number 9
And he shall pass over to his stronghold
For fear
And his princes shall be afraid of the ensigns
Save the lord
Whose fire is in Zion
And his furnace in Jerusalem
So God is saying, boy, if you Jews just trust in me
At this point in time
He says, look Jerusalem, Zion
Is like this furnace of fire
Anyone that wants to come close
They're going to burn, they're going to hurt themselves
They want to come and cause harm
They're going to harm themselves
By the fire
And the furnace that's in Jerusalem
Come back with me to Obadiah
Obadiah please, Obadiah
And verse number 17
Obadiah
Verse number 17 please
Just to show you another parallel
Obadiah 17
But upon Mount Zion
Shall be deliverance
And there shall be holiness
And the house of Jacob shall possess
Their possessions, look at this
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire
And the house of Joseph a flame
And the house of Esau
For stubble
Esau, the Edomites, the same people
And they shall kindle in them
And devour them
And there shall not be any remaining
Of the house of Esau
For the Lord hath spoken it
So God is warning the Edomites
Or the people of Esau, the children of Esau
If you come and you want to attack Jerusalem
You're going to burn yourself, you're going to get burnt
You're going to be like stubble
You're going to catch on fire
And you're going to be wiped out
And not a single one of you are going to be left
Living from the house of Esau
I just want to show you another parallel of Obadiah
And Isaiah 31
Psalm 62 please
Psalm 62
In conclusion
Title for the sermon was
Trusting in the wrong things
So obviously we want to trust in the right thing
Which is our Lord God
And in Psalm 62 verse number 7
Let me just end with this
Psalm 62
Psalm 62 verse number 7
The Bible says
In God is my salvation
And my glory
The rock of my strength
And my refuge is in God
Do you think that Psalmist has his trust in God
When he says those words?
So true isn't it
God is my salvation, is my glory
The rock of my strength is my refuge
I love God as a refuge, that means we can be refugees
That means when we get afraid
And we get scared
And we don't know what to do
We can like refugees run to a place of refuge
Which is our Lord God and he'll protect us
Sometimes we need to go to the battle
We are soldiers of the Lord
Sometimes you just need to retreat in the hands of God
You know he'll defend you
And then verse number 8 is where I want to end with
Trust in him
Look at this
At all times
Ye people
Pour out your heart
Before him
God is a refuge for us
Trust in him at all times
The Bible said, ye people
Do we trust in you and me?
Do we trust in him all the time?
I wish, I know I'm supposed to do that
And you know you're supposed to do that
Don't you?
We know it, but when the problems come, why do we forget?
It just reminds us how weak and foolish we are
And we try to make the solutions
And we try to trust in man
And we try to trust in everything else
I don't know if it's a financial problem
We're trying to trust in our finances
To figure things out exactly
Trust in the Lord at all times, ye people
We need to wake up to ourselves
And know that our God, our living God
Is a refuge for all our problems
For all our concerns
Like I said, trust in the wrong things
This chapter gives us three different things
That are wrong things
Allegiances of nations
The powers of nations
Men, idols, false gods
But there are many things that we can sometimes
Put our trust in which are the wrong things
Look, if you're putting your trust in anything else
That's not God
You've got it in the wrong place
Your faith is in the wrong place
That's the easiest way to determine
Am I trusting the wrong things?
Am I trusting my employment?
I'm glad you've got employment
It does give you a level of confidence
That I've got to work tomorrow
But you never know, that business could shut down next week
Or something like that
Don't put your trust in one area, we'll put our trust in God
Say, God, my trust is in you
And Lord, if I'm trusting you, I know you're going to take care
Of my employment, I know you're going to take care
Of my finances, my resources
But our trust must always be upon him
Alright, brethren, let's pray
Heavenly Father, God Almighty
Thank you for being a God that we can trust
Thank you for being a place of refuge, Lord
That when we're fearful and concerned
And worried
And Lord, we're just too weak to fight
That we can run to you, Lord, and be protected
And you can fight the battles for us
And Lord, thank you that we don't need to fight for victory
The Bible tells us that we already are fighting from victory
That Christ has already defeated the affairs of this world
He's already given us eternal life
Lord, we are guaranteed to be with you for eternity
And Lord, help us to live
As though, Lord, we already have caused
You know, we do have victory
Lord, just give us that reminder
And allow us to put our trust upon you
Lord, whatever burden, whatever trial is
Upon the minds of your brethren
Sorry, upon your children here tonight, Lord
I pray you give us the peace
Of knowing that our trust and support
Must be upon you
Help us not to trust in man
Lord, we're sorry for the mistakes that we make
When we put our trust on anything else but you
We love you, Lord, thank you so much for being a God
That cares for us, in Jesus' name we pray
Amen
Alright, let's take our hymnals
The number is, I think, 149
If my memory serves me right
Yes, 149 please
149, trust in Jesus
149
Trust in Jesus
Thank you Adela, thank you Diane
149, 149, trust in Jesus
Simply trust in every day
Trust in through a stormy way
Even when my faith is small
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Trust in as the moments fly
Trust in as the days go by
Trust in him, whatever befall
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Brightly does his spirit shine
Into this poor heart of mine
While he leads I cannot fall
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Trust in as the moments fly
Trust in as the days go by
Trust in him, whatever befall
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Third, singing if my way is clear
Praying if the path be dream
In danger for him call
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Trust in as the moments fly
Trust in as the days go by
Trust in him, whatever befall
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Trust in him, while life shall last
Trust in him, till earth be past
Till within the jasper wall
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Trust in as the moments fly
Trust in as the days go by
Trust in him, whatever befall
Trust in Jesus, that is all
Great singing
Now when's that soul winning marathon, is it coming up this Saturday?
Next Saturday, okay, don't forget, soul winning marathon, not this coming Saturday, but the Saturday after.
And then we've got our six year, oh our lunch, yeah.
But on Sunday we've got our six year church anniversary, so please be there.
And if you have anyone that you'd like to invite, that's a great time to invite.
I need someone to tell me, what are we doing for dinner? Not dinner, what are we doing for lunch after church service?
Can someone find us a place, it would be nice to go somewhere else, instead of just organizing food here.
Brother, what do you think?
There's this new place at Wetherill Park that opened up, it's called, I don't know what it's called now.
Anyway, it's a really good charcoal chicken place.
Charcoal chicken, Lebanese charcoal chicken, Portuguese, Lebanese.
There's kebabs too.
Kebabs too, so Ramsons will be happy.
Maybe, if you find out the details.
But if we find a location, we just need to make sure that we book ahead, so we tell them.
In fact, I'm going to send a message out to everybody maybe tomorrow.
And if you can just come back with me, if you're planning on coming to the church anniversary,
and how many within your group or your family, let me know, so we've got some numbers.
And then, if no one can think of a better plan than what Brother Tim has shared, we'll do that.
And maybe Brother Tim, if you don't mind, you can ring that place up and book some tables for us with the numbers that we have.
So, but let me know if you've got any other thoughts.
I'd rather, like I know we've done sometimes food here, but just cause it's the anniversary, let's go somewhere else.
Let's change the scenery a little bit, and it would be a great time together.
If anyone needs to get baptised, also let me know, I mean it's very cold, but I'll do it anyway.
If you need to get baptised, let me know, we can do that as well.
Alright, that's pretty much it for the announcements.
Thank you for, who covered last week, was it Brother Tim, was it you Brother, no it was Ramson.
You covered last Thursday? Yeah, thank you Brother Ramson, I was in too much pain guys.
I'm much better now, my stomach is still quite sore, especially in the mornings,
but I can at least function, I can do pretty much everything I could do before, but thank you for your prayers.
And thank you Brother Ramson for covering last week as well.
Alright, Brother Nathan, if you don't mind, could you close us on a word of prayer? Thank you.
Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for your word, I thank you that we can come together like this at the church, Lord God, and in the preaching of it.
Lord, we just thank you for the description of your character and the promises that are in your word, Lord God.
We know that you are trustworthy, Lord, we just pray that you would help us to trust you
the way that we ought to, Lord God, to look to you for all things,
but please just watch over us now as we go and bless the fellowship that we have in Jesus' name.
Amen, you're dismissed, thank you all.