Right, Amen. We're in Isaiah chapter 2 now and last week, obviously, we're in Isaiah chapter 1.
We started off the book of Isaiah. We looked at the time period that Isaiah was preaching during.
We went through that last week. It was during the reigns of Kings of Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.
And these first five to six chapters are during the reign of King Isaiah, who we saw having a good reign but then having a bad end.
So we looked at that and what happened with that and obviously with him eventually getting the leprosy after going into the house of the Lord and trying to do things himself there.
Isaiah was preaching toward the end of his reign and warning of judgment to come, which we saw come during King Ahaz reign.
He said that had there not been a small remnant, they would have ended up like Sodom and Gomorrah and we looked at that.
And the importance of having a remnant of believers in places because that could be the difference between getting sort of raised in one way or another like Sodom and Gomorrah were.
Isaiah went on to rebuke Judah, telling them to get saved and get right.
He told them that after the judgment coming, things would be set right and we saw how that seemed to happen in the reign of Hezekiah.
Verse 27, it said this back in Isaiah 2.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and are converts with righteousness, and the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together.
And they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed, for they shall be ashamed of the oaks which he have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden it hath no water, and the strong shall be his toe, and the maker of it is a spark, and they shall both burn together and none shall quench them.
And then we go into Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 1, we're kind of, we get a reset here with sort of a new prophecy here.
It says, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and I'm going to pray before we get started with this chapter.
Father, thank you for your word, thank you for this chapter of the Bible and, Lord, a chapter which goes into some pretty, well, some pretty clear detail about things to come, Lord.
And I pray that you just fill me with your spirit as I preach this, and help me to just preach this in a way that people will be able to really pay attention and kind of get that understanding of things to come, Lord.
And for me to just do that clearly and accurately and boldly, full of your spirit, please.
I mean, just don't pray. Amen.
OK, so Isaiah 2 verse 1 said, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
So where chapter 1 for me was prophesying of more imminent events.
Now Isaiah is going to prophesy of things much further in the future.
He said in verse 2, and it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it.
Now, the last days here being the second coming and the millennial reign of Christ.
We're going to see that in a minute.
It says in verse 3, and many people should go and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways.
And we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
So this passage might be more familiar to you than others, because it's actually repeated elsewhere, pretty much verbatim.
Turn to Micah chapter 4, Micah chapter 4, which is near identical to this passage in Isaiah 2.
Micah started prophesying, by the way, a little after this point at the end of Uzziah's reign.
Okay, so so here we're at the end of Uzziah's reign.
Micah, it says in 1,1, while you turn to Micah 4, says the word of the Lord that came to Micah, the Morathite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
So we're at the end of Uzziah's reign.
Micah seems to start preaching in Jotham's reign, who follows Uzziah or Azariah, as he's also known, said kings are due to which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
So Micah here is preaching just a little after, after Isaiah preaching at the point that we're in in Isaiah chapter 2.
So we are ourselves just before Jotham's official reign, although he seemed to be co-heir during his father's leprosy.
So how that crosses over, you know, I'm unsure, but clearly here we see that he wasn't preaching during Uzziah's reign.
So he's a little after Micah.
Micah says in Micah 4, verse 1,
So that was almost identical to Isaiah's prophecy that we just read, wasn't it, okay?
You know, Isaiah's prophecy, it clearly said it shall come to pass in the last days, and then we just read the same thing.
So if you go back to Isaiah's prophecy, the reason, and we've just read it kind of twice now,
what it's talking about here is that the Lord Jesus Christ will be ruling and reigning from Jerusalem, okay, that's what it's talking about.
And that's a great time to come. We're talking about a time to come. This hasn't already happened.
I mean, sometimes when you think about these preterists and their views, you think,
how do you, like, where on earth did that come in your world, you know?
But I don't even know what they believe there.
But no, it's a time that's going to come, okay?
And just to give you a reminder of the timeline that's going to happen at some point in the future,
there's going to be a three and a half year period of tribulation, okay?
Now this is half of that Daniel 70th week,
this seven year period that we see constantly prophesied about in the Bible.
There's a three and a half period of tribulation,
and at the midpoint of that we're going to see a great tribulation,
where it's going to be a time like no other, okay,
where God's people are going to be getting hunted down, persecuted beyond belief.
Then we get the rapture, which is also the day of the Lord, okay?
So Jesus Christ returns and gathers up his saints, gathers up the believers at the time,
but same, everyone that's died in Christ throughout history will meet those believers in the air,
and that's the rapture that we're not going to go into depth with that today.
That's Christ's second coming, then there's going to be three and a half years of God's wrath after that.
So Christ returns, raptures the believers, and then there's God's wrath,
followed straight after, after God's wrath by the millennial reign,
where God's people will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, okay?
So that's the timeline, that's what's still to come.
And according to Micah and Isaiah here in verse three, it will be from Jerusalem,
that ruling and reigning of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse two there, where it said,
And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains,
shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
It's referring to the whole city being the Lord's house really here, isn't it?
Okay, that's, and if you think about it,
there's going to be a lot of people coming to the Lord's house.
It needs to be big, it can't just be a little place like a little church or something.
Jerusalem being on a mount, and apparently it's quite remarkable in that way.
So if you look at that, you think, what's it talking about?
Top of the mountains, exalted above the hills, etc.
Well, apparently, if you approach from east or west to Jerusalem,
it's literally almost straight upwards, okay?
Where you're coming from the lower ground, it's up on the top of a mountain,
it's a very high area.
All nations, it says, will be coming to that, to that, the top of the mountains.
That's how it looks when you approach it.
Apparently, it's quite a vivid picture when you go there.
It's up high, it's a high mountain city.
And then in verse 3, it says this, it says, where are we?
Verse 3 then explains, it says,
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.
So again, talking about Jerusalem there.
To the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways.
We will walk in his paths for out of Zion,
another name for it, shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
So look at what they will be coming to learn, okay?
And I want to make this clear, just because there's a lot of false teaching about this,
or a lot of people just aren't really aware, okay?
So we're talking here of the millennial reign to come,
we're talking of a time when the Lord Jesus Christ be ruling and reigning from Jerusalem,
that hasn't happened yet.
And when that happens, the people will be coming up to the house of God,
and it says this, and he will teach us of his ways, okay?
His ways, and we will walk in his paths
for out of Zion shall go forth the law.
It said the Lord, didn't it?
Shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
So when it comes to the ruling and reign, the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's not as maybe a lot of the sort of liberal churchy types, you know,
who like to kind of go on about the free grace and everything.
And don't get me wrong, we believe in free grace, okay?
You're saved by grace through faith, if you're saved.
However, after that, look, God said be ye holy for I am holy.
He wants us to live right.
And how do we live right?
Do we just take a wild stab at the dark and just hope we don't have?
No, because we have a Bible with the law of God telling us how he wants us to live, right?
Now I'm not talking about the meats, drinks, and divers, washings, and carnal ordinances.
No, that stuff's been done away, okay?
That was only until the time of reformation.
However, the moral law, the way God wants us to live,
the way he wants us to do things, nothing's changed, okay?
Not one jot, not it all shall pass.
The law is there for each.
And here's another thing, along with the law will be the punishment
that a righteous government was supposed to give for breaking the law.
He's ruling, he's reigning, he's judging.
Turn to Leviticus 20, Leviticus chapter 20.
Like I said, Hebrews 9-10 says that the meats, the drinks, the divers, washings, and carnal ordinances
were imposed on them until the time of reformation.
Until the time of reformation.
No, there's no dietary law anymore, okay?
For all these, you know, people who obsess over,
and usually the people that go on about the dietary law,
all they seem to fixate on is pork,
because the rest of it's a bit difficult to remember.
But it's easy to go.
But no, there's no dietary law, okay?
It's sanctified by the word of God and prayer, okay?
All food is sanctified by the word of God.
Bread, clear as day in the New Testament.
The different washings of things.
Again, some of them are some, look,
it's not like none of that was just completely arbitrary.
There were some good reasons,
although obviously some of it was pictures of being cleansed,
of being holy, of being set apart and stuff,
but some of that stuff was interesting stuff.
But you're not under the law with that.
The carnal ordinances, all the processional stuff.
It was until the time of reformation which came
with Jesus Christ's death on that cross, right?
The renting of that veil into the New Testament.
But let me tell you how the Lord Jesus Christ
will be ruling and reigning in the millennial reign to come.
That millennial reign that Christians should be
looking forward to and going,
I can't wait for the Lord Jesus Christ
to rule the reign, will be by the law.
It'll be by the law of God.
And that would include, for example,
the death penalty for sodomites.
That's the law of God.
Leviticus 20, 13 says they should be put to death.
So no, we don't enact that in this church.
No, we're not called to government at this point in time.
But you know what?
We'll be ruling and reigning with Christ
in the millennial reign to come,
and that will be one of the laws.
But amongst others.
Because there's also, for example,
look at Leviticus 20, verse 2,
there will be the death penalty for child sacrifice,
AKA abortion, AKA baby murder, okay?
There'll be the death penalty for that.
Do right, okay?
Because ultimately what's our goal as Christians
is to get right with God,
to get in tune with how God sees things,
to the punishments that God thinks are appropriate.
And if you're looking at going,
I just can't believe this,
how could you put someone to death?
Well, then you're not right with God.
Because this stuff is wicked,
and that should deter that.
And in the millennial reign,
I'm hoping there's not going to be
200 and something thousand babies murdered
per year in the UK alone.
And wouldn't that be a good thing?
Well, it says here in Leviticus 20, verse 2,
Again thou shalt say to the children of Israel,
Whosoever he be of the children of Israel,
or of the strangers at Sojourn in Israel,
that giveth any of his seed unto Molech.
That's basically talking about sacrificing to a false god.
And let me tell you, that's what abortion is.
It's sacrificing to the false god of money,
to the false god of body image,
to the false god of popularity,
to the false god of free and easy life,
boozing pubs, whatever it is,
their idols, whatever they put above God,
above human life, basically.
Well, he shall surely be put to death.
The people of the land shall stone him with stones.
And I kind of get a feeling that's probably
how people will be getting put to death as well.
Because it brings everyone else in on it as well.
Cursing parents. Leviticus 20, verse 9 says this,
For everyone that curseth his father or his mother
shall be surely put to death.
He hath cursed his father, his mother,
his blood shall be upon him.
So kids growing up in a millennial reign of Christ
better be respectful to their parents.
They better not be cursing their parents.
Cursing isn't being a bit kind of rude or something else.
It's basically trying to put a curse,
saying, you know, you go to whatever you can imagine, okay?
You get the idea.
But basically, it's going to encourage a better, stronger,
more respectful family unit, won't it?
Adultery. Leviticus 20, verse 10 says this,
And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife,
even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife,
the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death.
No, God doesn't see it as a little affair.
He doesn't see it as just, well, these things happen,
they must have fallen out of love.
No, God sees it as a death penalty sin.
And that's exactly how it'll be,
because we've just read in Isaiah chapter 2,
and verse, where are we, and verse 3,
that he will teach us of his ways,
that we will walk in his past,
for out of Zion shall go forth the law.
The law shall go forth in the millennial reign to come,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,
and that's what I'm reading to you now, the word of the Lord.
Different types of incest will be punished by death.
Verse 11 says,
and the man that lieth with his father's wife
hath uncovered his father's nakedness,
both of them shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law,
both of them shall surely be put to death.
They have wrought confusion, their blood shall be upon them.
By the way, that's not connected by blood, per se, as we call it.
That's by law, that's by marriage,
and that sort of incest as well is punishable by death.
Sodomy, obviously, clearly,
contrary to the world, contrary to the wicked nonsense
being pushed and promoted,
where people are somehow now bending to that stuff.
What does the Bible say?
If a man also lie with mankind as he lieeth with a woman,
both of them have committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
That is coming in the millennial reign.
That's how the world will be run,
by the Lord Jesus Christ with the law of God.
Nothing's changed.
That's not a meat, that's not a drink.
That's not a diverse washing, that's not a carnal ordinance.
That's the moral, the holy law of God,
and that's how he wanted his government to run things back then,
and nothing's changed.
He hasn't got it old in the world,
I've changed my mind now because, you know,
there's been enough Will and Grace shows promoted now,
and because, you know, all those sodomites in Hollywood,
in Hollyweird,
they've kind of changed my mind a bit about that now.
Yeah, I've got a bit more relaxed on that
because, you know, there's more and more sodomites now.
No, that's exactly how it'll be,
and that's how he wants us to view it.
That is a death penalty sin.
Weirdo freakery, verse 14.
I couldn't really think of a better word for that.
And if a man take a wife and her mother,
it is wickedness.
They shall be burnt with fire, both he and they,
that there be no wickedness among you,
and that's probably half of your Hollywood gang
and everyone else would be getting burnt with fire.
Bestiality, said in verse 15,
If a man lie with a beast,
he shall surely be put to death,
and you shall slay the beast.
And if a woman approach unto any beast,
and lie down there too,
thou shalt kill the woman and the beast.
They shall surely be put to death,
their blood shall be upon them.
Yeah, same with the animals, by the way, okay?
It's like, oh, the poor little animal,
it didn't really matter, he better kill it.
It's just an animal, okay?
Don't get your mind skewed by that nonsense
with this animal worship that you see nowadays as well.
And the thing is that most people nowadays
would agree that most of the stuff on that list
is pretty sick.
Now, most people have probably been
brainwashed and conditioned enough
and pulled away from God's Word enough
to maybe say, oh, well, I don't think
it should be the death penalty, though.
Maybe we could like educate people or whatever.
Well, you educate them by giving the death penalty, okay?
People would quickly be avoiding these sins
when they saw that that was how God wanted to deal with them
and that's how God was dealing with them.
Most people would agree with most of that,
apart from what?
Sodomy.
Apart from sodomy.
Why is that?
Hmm, let me think.
Hmm, I wonder.
Is it because sodomy is being pushed on us
from all angles, in all areas?
In most nations.
But you know what?
There's many nations in Africa
where they still think it's absolutely vile
and where they at least...
Okay, they don't go far enough.
Most of them aren't putting them to death.
But they're at least arresting them.
They're at least making a big prison sentence
in many nations.
It should be more if they were right with God,
if they got it completely right with God.
But still here we're led to believe
that somehow we know better.
Oh, yeah, we know better than God.
No, God was wrong.
What a load of nonsense, right?
No, well, when Jesus Christ returns
the rule of reign from Jerusalem,
it's going to be a bit different
to what the liberal, so-called Christian thinks.
It's going to be a bit different
to what sort of NIV Christian
who never actually reads the Bible
and who just sits back
and kind of just lets the world
tell them what Jesus is going to be like,
who in their mind is probably
imagining the millennial reign
where Jesus is in this long, flowing dress
and floating around and going peace to everyone
and isn't this wonderful?
No, you know what?
The millennial reign of Christ
is going to be where he rules
with a rod of iron, with an iron rod.
It's going to be a bit of a shock to some, right?
Well, let's look at verse four.
It said back in Isaiah, in chapter two,
and he shall judge among the nations.
He shall judge and shall rebuke many people.
He'll be rebuking a lot of people.
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations shall not lift up swords against nations,
and neither shall they learn war anymore.
Maybe there are some pictures there within that.
Ultimately though, you know,
really the first application there
is that there will be no more war between nations
because the Lord will be ruling with that iron rod.
When the Lord's ruling from Jerusalem
and the Lord's ruling the world,
there's not going to be all these petty,
stupid little wars,
people trying to get richer by invading this nation
and pretending they have a good reason for it.
There's not going to be, you know,
mass sort of genocide going on in places like Palestine
and other places and whatever else,
and excuses and a media machine trying to convince everyone
that it's a good idea
and that we should just send a load more money
to wherever to create more war.
All of that's going to end.
Isn't that going to be great, right?
And we might not feel it here so much
because we're in a nation
where we're not dealing with bombs
and gunfire and everything else.
But you know what?
There's a lot of people out in the world
where that looks like just a dream to them.
Just a dream to them, doesn't it?
Where they're not worried about getting killed,
getting bombed, getting destroyed,
getting invaded and everything else.
And there's a lot of nations
where that's still a daily worry, isn't it?
Well, that's going to end.
He said, our house of Jacob,
come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
So as I was saying that with all of that to come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
And I believe he's just telling them to get saved.
He's saying, look,
come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
You don't have to turn a bit.
In John 12, 35, Jesus, the light of the world,
said to the unbelievers,
then said Jesus unto them,
yet a little while is the light with you.
Walk while ye have the light,
lest darkness come upon you,
for he that walketh in darkness
knoth not whither he goeth.
And I believe he's ultimately there
talking about salvation.
I think here it's probably talking about salvation.
On the back of describing a millennial reign,
I think he's just saying, look, just get saved.
Get saved and ultimately you could be ruling and reigning
with Christ in a millennial reign.
However, the majority of the physical nation
rejected salvation
and the result was being forsaken.
Look at verse six.
Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people,
the house of Jacob,
because they be replenished from the east
and are soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they please themselves and the children of strangers.
So they welcomed in the Assyrians and others,
okay, and other surrounding nations.
They got into dark arts
and all of that sort of stuff
like the Philistines before them.
They mixed and merged with the other nations
in various ways as well.
And this is what still destroys God's people now,
doesn't it?
This is what destroys the local church.
Mixing with the others, mixing,
pulling in and trying to be more like the unsaved,
trying to get more and more unsaved in
and not really preaching hard on the gospel
and other things.
You don't really want to offend them.
We just want to get them in
so we can just have more and more people in here.
We can just have a bit of a kind of party in here
and everything else.
And this is what destroys churches.
This is what destroyed the physical nation
at the time as well.
He said, therefore thou hast forsaken thy people,
the house of Jacob,
because they be replenished from the east
and the soothsayers like the Philistines
and they please themselves and the children of strangers.
So it's worldliness.
It's the bringing in of the world, okay?
The world's ways, the superstitions,
and there's a lot of believers out there, believe me,
that still are pulled into the superstitions of the world.
The soothsayers want to combine a bit of the yoga
and a bit of the this and a bit of the that,
all the different worldly sort of spirituality into Christianity.
They're not compatible.
But as mentioned last week, it's also the money as well.
The money's a big one.
Verse seven says,
their land also is full of silver and gold,
neither is there any end to their treasures,
end of their treasure, sorry.
Their land is also full of horses,
neither is there any end of their chariots.
So what happens with wealth?
Well, whether it's as a nation or as individuals,
it works both ways.
Pride, a hardness towards God,
rejection of the Lord
because you feel so powerful with your wealth.
You feel like, well, you don't really have to worry about God,
whether that is a nation or an individual.
Even saved people themselves cannot deal with wealth
because a lot of the time they stop relying on the Lord.
And then what happens, they happily choose the idols instead.
And as the unsaved, this happens a lot as well.
So the wealthy, and it's hard,
and look, there are wealthy people that get saved,
but it's hard because so often they would prefer to choose an idol.
It says in verse eight,
their land also is full of idols.
They worship the work of their own hands.
That which their own fingers have made.
And there are plenty of rich idolaters around, aren't there?
So if you've ever noticed this,
when you're knocking doors,
sometimes you go to a very wealthy area
and you start knocking doors
and half the street are just very wealthy Catholics.
A lot of them are Roman Catholics.
I noticed that just up the road from here
where we were knocking a fairly posh area
and suddenly it's rich Catholics.
Or in the world you might see,
what are some of these celebs into?
Like these weird cults like the Scientology
and other things like that.
And some of them are very wealthy.
And in fact, it's pretty much the same
with a lot of these places.
A lot of their congregants,
a lot of their people are very wealthy people
with a lot of these cults,
a lot of these idolaters.
Because what are all those idols?
Well, like here, the work of their own hands.
Now firstly, that's of course,
that's what graven images are.
So graven images and the idols they were setting up,
they were the work of their own hands.
They were basically a god of their making.
And that's basically what all false gods are.
They're a god of someone's making.
Someone's made this god, someone's created this god,
created the so-called personality, characters,
everything else of this false god.
Because it's not the god revealed through the word of God.
But it is also synonymous with work salvation religions as well.
So it's the other religion.
A god of your own choosing,
a god basically which is a work of your own hands.
So you've chosen, you've made that god,
or someone else has and you've gone,
yeah, I'll go with that god.
I'll go with that religion.
Whether you've been brought up in it or not,
people make a choice.
They make a choice for that god
that is the work of men's hands
that's not the god revealed through the word of God.
It's a work of their own hands.
Then on top of that,
what ultimately they are as well is
linked with that, the work of your own hands
is obviously what basically pleases that god enough
for eternal life in its various ways.
It comes back to work salvation.
It's a work of men's hands.
And whether that's a holy cow type idol,
and the various forms of those in the world now,
and you can think of obviously religions like Hinduism
and obviously the fat Buddha idol,
the graven image, et cetera, as well as Buddhism,
but also the unbiblical Jesus.
The unbiblical Jesus is a work of men's hands.
Now they might have taken a lot of the word of God,
but then they've just shaped it a little bit,
just turned him a little bit,
added a little bit of works to the salvation of their Jesus,
and suddenly it's a work of men's hands.
It's still an idol.
It's idolatry.
You've chosen, you've changed,
you've chosen a god which isn't the god of the Bible.
They're created by man,
and they always require the work of men's hands
for salvation, don't they?
So that idol Jesus,
that Jesus where you can lose your salvation,
where you have to work your way to heaven,
that Jesus where you had to repent of your old sins,
that Jesus where you had to make him Lord of your life,
or whatever else, it is not what the Bible says.
Where the Bible says,
so by grace you say through faith,
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,
not of works that any man should boast.
Any other Jesus is an idol,
and it's idolatry,
and it's a work of men's hands,
and of course salvation goes with it
being the work of men's hands,
or at least it doesn't go with it really,
but at least that's what they think.
Well, it said in verse eight,
their land also is full of idols.
They worship the work of their own hands,
that which their own fingers have made,
and the mean man boweth down,
and the great man humbleth himself,
therefore forgive them not.
Now, this is talking about worshiping idols,
hence the colon at the end of verse eight there.
It's the images that they've made,
and it's a mean man bowing down towards these idols,
a great man, you know, the very wealthy, the rich,
humbling himself for the idol,
bowing down, bowing down before idols in one way or another.
And look, there are some wealthy, some powerful people
that will bow down to idols in this world, right?
And think about those that are bowing down
before their statue of Mary and other things,
and all the different idols they have in their home,
and it's all idolatry.
They're great men in the world's eyes.
Well, he said in verse 10,
enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust,
for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
What day is he talking about?
Well, look at verse 12,
for the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone
that is proud and lofty,
and upon everyone that is lifted up,
and he shall be brought low.
And you know what?
Just straight away, whenever you read that,
it always just makes me think
of just how proud and lofty works salvationists are.
Doesn't it wind you up?
They're always so far away from what they think,
at least from biblical works.
They often do so little of the works
that they think that at least they claim they do.
They're always so proud and haughty, aren't they?
Trying to talk to them, trying to explain to these people.
Look, it's funny, isn't it, these people,
because they're so proud, when you say to them,
well, you know the Bible says something different.
I had someone earlier today.
You know, you've got to follow the commandments,
these kids going, you've got to follow the Ten Commandments.
They went to some wicked Pentecostal church around the corner.
You know, you've got to do this, you've got to do that.
And it's like, yeah, well, you know,
the Bible says something very different.
In fact, the Bible says this, the Bible says that.
Oh, yeah, I know.
Yeah, I know.
Really? Okay, you know, that's why you just told me
that you've got to be good, you've got to follow,
you've got to follow the commandments,
you've got to do X, Y and Z.
Now you know that the Bible says it's grace through faith, do you?
Yeah, I know, but yeah, yeah.
But of course, you know, with grace comes the works that we do,
and it's like, but you didn't say that.
You know, and it's like, and it's just,
they lie, the pride, it's like,
you can never tell me something that I don't know.
How could you tell me about the Bible
because I am working my way to heaven?
The proud man, the lofty looks of man shall eventually be humbled
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down
and the Lord alone shall be exalted that day.
Not them, not their works, not their so-called works,
not any of that stuff, not their intellect.
None of that, it will be the Lord alone exalted.
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone
that is proud and lofty and upon everyone that is lifted up
and he shall be brought low.
Now Isaiah, like I said,
he's prophesying in the day of the Lord.
This is the second coming of Christ.
Now turn to Matthew chapter 24.
This is when the Lord comes back to gather up the believers,
okay, and unleashes wrath upon the unbelieving world.
This period of time is also described as Daniel's 70th week,
being, like I said, this seven-year period.
It begins with that three and a half years of tribulation for God's people, okay.
It says here in verse 29 of Matthew 24,
immediately after the tribulation,
after this three and a half years of tribulation,
immediately after the tribulation of those days,
shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give a light
and the stars shall fall from heaven
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn
and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet
and they shall gather together his elect,
that's a rapture from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.
Okay, so we see the rapture there after the tribulation
and it's at this time that he then rains down his wrath on those remaining,
which is ultimately what he's talking about here.
The coming of the Lord and then the wrath that's going to come with that.
Now turn to Revelation 16
and we're just going to see some of the things that are included in God's wrath
with the first five vials poured out on the earth.
We're just going to look at them for sake of time tonight.
Revelation chapter 16.
So Revelation 16, you're turning to verse 1.
Revelation 16, 1 says,
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels,
Go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth,
and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men
which had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshipped his image.
Okay, so these are the majority of people there in the world at this time.
They've taken the mark of the beast.
Now, you can turn there if you want, it's up to you.
You can put something in Revelation 8 if you want
because I'm going to show you the corresponding trumps as well at the same time
so we get an idea of what exactly is going to be going on with each of these vials and these trumps.
So we just saw a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast.
Revelation 8, 7 says of the first trump,
The first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood,
and they were cast upon the earth and the third part of trees was burnt up
and all green grass was burnt up.
Okay, that sounds pretty horrific, doesn't it?
That's number one.
Back to Revelation 16, let's look at vial number two.
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea
and it became as the blood of a dead man
and every living soul died in the sea.
Revelation 8 and verses 8 to 9 says,
And the second angel sounded as it were,
a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea
and the third part of the sea became blood
and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died
and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
So the creatures in the sea are dying, at least a third of them as well.
We've seen that the people in the sea are dying,
that the ships are getting destroyed.
Back in Revelation 16, we see the third one.
Verse 4 says,
The third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of water
and they became blood.
Revelation 8 and from verse 10 talks about the third trump.
We've just seen that it's now the fresh water.
The rivers and fountains of water have become blood.
Revelation 8 and verse 10 says,
And the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven,
burning as it were a lamp and it fell upon the third part of the rivers,
upon the fountains of water and the name of the star is called Wormwood
and the third part of the waters became Wormwood
and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.
So basically there's no more fresh water.
They're unable to drink water.
Back in Revelation 16, verse 8, it says,
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun
and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire
and men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed in the name of God,
which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory.
Revelation 8 and verse 12 says this,
And the fourth angel sounded and the third part of the sun was smitten
and the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars.
So as the third part of them was darkened
and a day shone not for a third part of it in a night likewise.
So at the same time we've got issues with the sun,
with there being parts of it darkened.
Then back in Revelation 16, let's look at the last one
and this is kind of, you know, the crowd favourite, I think.
Back in Revelation 16, it says in verse 10,
The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast
and his kingdom was full of darkness
and they gnawed their tongues for pain
and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains
and their sores and repented not of their deeds.
Now, just quickly, you're going to turn to Revelation 9
to see some detail of this,
but you look at this guy, how are they not repenting?
How are they not getting right?
Shall I tell you why?
Because the vast majority of these people are reprobate.
They've taken the mark of the beast.
They have no rest day or night.
They cannot be saved.
They're done.
They've taken the mark.
They've worshipped the Antichrist.
They've chosen him.
They've rejected the Lord.
They've taken the mark.
They can't be saved.
That's why they're still cursing, blaspheming,
because they've been given over.
That's the mark of the reprobate mind, obviously,
or at least the example of it.
But back in Revelation 9,
let's have a look at this fifth trump.
It said,
In the fifth angel of sand,
I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth,
and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
And he opened the bottomless pit,
and there arose a smoke out of the pit,
as the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air
were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
And they came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth,
and unto them was given power,
as the scorpions of the earth have power.
So we've got these locusts,
but they're given basically this sort of,
seems to be a sting or something like scorpions,
a power that scorpions have.
And it was commanded them
that they should not hurt the grass of the earth,
neither any green thing,
neither any tree,
but only those men which have not the seal of God
in their foreheads.
And that's talking about the 144,000 there, obviously.
And to them it was given that they should not kill them,
but that they should be tormented five months.
And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion
when he striketh a man.
So this is some sort of paralysis and pain with it, right?
I mean, this sounds horrific.
And in those days shall men seek death,
people who just want to die and should not find it,
and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them.
And the shapes of the locusts
were like under horses prepared under battle,
and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold
and their faces were as the faces of men,
and they had hair as a hair of women,
and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
And they had breastplates, as it were, breastplates of iron,
and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots,
of many horses running to battle.
And they had tails like unto scorpions,
and there were stings in their tails and their power,
that was that power that we just saw earlier,
was to hurt men five months,
some sort of paralysis,
some sort of going on for five months after a sting.
And they had a king over them,
which is the angel of the bottomless pit,
that was the one that just opened it,
whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon,
but in the Greek tongue had his name Apollyon.
Go back to Revelation chapter 6 quickly with that in mind.
So what happened after this?
It finishes with the Euphrates drying up,
four angels leading an army of 200 million fire-breathing horsemen after this,
and then thunderings, lightnings, huge hailstones.
So you can understand,
when it starts in Revelation 6, this is a reaction.
It says in verse 12 of Revelation 6,
I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal,
and lo, there was a great earthquake,
and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair,
and the moon became as blood,
and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs,
when she was shaken of a mighty wind,
and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together,
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth,
and the great men, and the rich men,
and the chief captains, and the mighty men,
and every bondman, and every free man,
hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains,
and said to the mountains and rocks,
Fallen us, and hide us from the face of him
that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
for the great day of his wrath is come,
and who shall be able to stand?
Wow.
I mean, that's some...
I don't even know how to describe that.
That's some exciting stuff, that's some scary stuff,
that's some emotional stuff,
which is exactly what is being described
by the way in Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 10,
where it said in Isaiah 2 10,
Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust,
for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,
for the day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty,
and upon everyone that is lifted up,
and he shall be brought low.
And that's what fire, brimstone, blood, seas, poison waters,
and horsey, locust, scorpion things out of hell
do to someone.
If anything's going to bring you low,
going to bring your haughtiness down,
I would say that final one,
the horsey, locust, scorpions,
straight out of hell,
that's going to make you humble yourself, isn't it?
Well, that's what it said.
It said that all these proud and lofty,
they're going to be brought low.
It said, and upon all the seeds of Lebanon
that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of basin,
and upon all the high mountains,
and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
and upon every high town, upon every fenced wall,
and upon all the ships of Tarshish,
and upon all pleasant pictures.
So the image being of all high things being brought down,
clearly it's just anything high will be brought down.
Anything you can think of that's high
will be brought down by the day of the Lord,
by the Lord coming back,
by his wrath being spilled out upon the earth,
and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down.
He's repeating it again, okay?
And the haughtiness of men shall be made low,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,
and the idols he shall utterly abolish.
And can you imagine trying to argue for the truth
of the elephant gods still at this point?
Seriously.
Can you imagine going, well, I still believe it.
Which one is the elephant one, Krishna, Hishna?
I don't know, something like that.
It's like, well, I think I might be wrong about that one.
Or whichever rat god or whatever
of the million gods of Hinduism, right?
Or the moon god, Allah,
while all the Muslims are getting wiped out.
Yeah, we might have been that idol.
I don't think I can really convince people
about that one right now, right?
Or the hippy Jesus god.
The hippy Jesus god that's a creation
of the Catholic church sodomite artists
and being run with over time
to even a kid's book artist and everyone else.
The hippy God, the hippy Jesus,
I think that idol's gonna be completely smashed, isn't it?
When people are looking up and seeing the real Jesus
coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory, and then seeing the wrath of Jesus,
the lamb of God, the wrath of the lamb poured out
upon the world, you can imagine people thinking,
okay, yeah, yeah, the idols have been abolished,
done, smashed.
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks
and into the caves of the earth
for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty
when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Now, some might say, how could God do that, okay?
Jesus Christ, isn't he love?
You know, where's the love of God?
Yeah, I thought God was love.
What's going on here?
Well, there are a few things to note here, okay?
The wrath of God is poured out on what is,
like I said earlier, predominantly a reprobate world.
Okay, it's vast majority reprobate at this time.
He's causing all both small and great, rich and poor
to take that mark, right?
So, you know, yeah, it's not that,
there'll be some that don't, obviously,
because otherwise there'll be no one to reign over
in the millennial reign, right?
But at least he wants everyone to take it.
A lot of people are taking the mark of the beast.
So there's this reprobate world,
at least probably majority,
those that have rejected Christ
and chosen to worship the Antichrist.
Revelation 14 and 11, you don't have to turn this is,
and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever,
and they have no rest day nor night,
who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Now, just to make it clear,
some people get confused about this,
and obviously during COVID,
there was a lot of false doctrine going out there.
You don't just accidentally get the mark.
So, oh, man, I went in for like,
I went in thinking I was getting a vaccine,
and next thing you know, I've got a mark.
Oh, well, now I'm worshipping the beast by default.
Got one over on me, should have read my book.
Got one over on me, should have read my Bible.
Okay, that's not reality.
That's just a load of clowns out there in the world
trying to pretend that they know things,
biblical things when they don't, okay?
No, you have to worship.
It's worshipping the beast.
It's choosing to take that mark.
And in a way, it's kind of like any other form of reprobation.
They reject God, and they choose ultimately the devil
in one way or another, don't they?
And it's the same thing here, really.
They're choosing the Antichrist.
It's said here that they worship the beast's image,
and they receive the mark of his name, okay?
So it's not by accident.
However, you know, do they really accept?
Well, you know what people are like, really.
A lot of people, even when they accept
that they're making a deal with the devil in one way or another,
they still do it anyway, right?
And these people feel whether it's, and again, look,
there'll be reasons that they justify.
A lot of people justify reasons to reject God
and choose that way in various other areas,
and for many it will be food.
It will be famine.
It will be whatever else.
It will be able to trade.
It will be able, I mean, people were willing to take
some ridiculous injection just to go on holiday.
I mean, people will do anything for pretty useless and bad reasons.
So, but they still choose it, okay?
They've made that choice.
Well, okay, for those that maybe don't or won't, okay,
but aren't saved, the wrath of God alongside,
by the way, 144,000 soul winners with the mark in their forehead
and the two witnesses who it seems will be in the public eye a lot
because everyone's going to see them die and everything else.
So, you know, and again, whoever you believe the two witnesses are, okay,
regardless, they're going to be basically witnessing as well.
You're going to have 144,000 witnessing
on probably a more personal level as well.
For me, that's as good a time as any to get saved, isn't it?
If you didn't get saved before when God's people were enduring
until the end by preaching the gospel,
you didn't get saved during the tribulation,
you didn't get saved with the, you know, the famine,
with the war, with the death, with all that stuff going on,
you know, at the beginning, at the beginning of sorrows,
you still not got saved.
You got God's people getting hunted down.
You're going, wait, these guys, look, they seem to still believe the gospel, right?
They're still going, these people, and, you know, they're not denying Christ.
And then, those people disappear, right?
Whether or not they're going to, I don't know how many are left
for that to be a public spectacle or not.
The Lord Jesus Christ returns,
for those that haven't taken the mark of the beast,
with the wrath pouring down as well,
I mean, that's as good a time as, if you're not going to get saved then,
well, you might as well have taken the mark of the beast.
And I think that's a good opportunity for a lot of people
because sometimes, maybe it might take, you know,
the Lord Jesus Christ raining down all sorts on you
for you to just finally accept that, no, God isn't a joke.
The Lord Jesus Christ isn't some sort of joke.
He's not a comedy character.
And to see him raining down wrath, you might think,
yeah, eternity doesn't sound too fun.
Like these fire and brimstone coming down,
that's going to be forever for eternity for the majority of people.
Maybe I need to get saved.
God's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
You could even argue that during the wrath,
even those that are still left there that haven't got saved,
there is still a chance, maybe,
if they survive all of the stuff coming down, right?
But you could even argue that anyone that makes it through that,
watching the wrath of God for three and a half years,
maybe at the early point of the millennial reign,
might get saved or something as well.
So whatever.
And there is at least that example for people to remember.
You'd hope it wouldn't be necessary
with the Lord Jesus Christ ruling and reigning from Jerusalem,
but it's amazing, isn't it,
how people look.
It's amazing even, you know,
I often think this when I preach the gospel to people,
and you're preaching the word of God,
and they know it's the word of God.
And they might say,
well, I don't really know much about it.
I may be ignorant to the word of God,
or maybe whatever, right?
Even worse, the ones that claim to believe the word of God.
And you're just showing them,
clear as day,
what's going to come
that you're going to be tormented day and night,
forever and ever in the lake of fire,
and you show them all that you can even,
sometimes you're showing them Luke 16.
It just looks horrendous.
And you're showing them all you've got to do is believe.
Put your faith in Jesus Christ,
and it's like, yeah, well,
I'll think about it.
Well, thank you.
You know, I'll go away and got other things to do.
Well, that's been an interesting chat.
Yeah, it's just, what on earth, right?
And maybe it will take, for some people,
for the hardest cases,
three and a half years of
fire brimstone and horsey locust scorpions
for them to eventually go,
yeah, I want to get saved.
Yeah, actually, yeah, this is serious.
Well, said in verse 20,
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver
and his idols of gold,
which they made each one for himself to worship
to the moles and to the bats,
to go into the clefts of the rocks
and into the tops of the ragged rocks
for fear of the Lord
and for the glory of his majesty
when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
So, think about those mega-rich fools out there.
Think about them,
when they're casting away their wealth,
their idols,
when they're basically just hiding in the clefts of the rocks,
those intellectual fools out there,
those people that lift themselves up so much
that claim that they're so,
they're just too clever to believe the Bible.
Those intellectual fools,
those influential fools,
in various ways that are just so popular, so famous,
they can never be told anything by anyone else.
No, they just need to just keep influencing
and keep, you know,
all those types of people
will all be ditching their treasures
and hiding like rats.
They'll be hiding like vermin in holes in the rocks.
Therefore, verse 22 says,
Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils,
for wherein is he to be accounted for?
Do you know what he's saying here, Isaiah?
Stop trusting man.
Stop putting your trust in man.
Stop putting,
stop holding man in this high esteem
that so many do in various places.
He's saying,
what on earth, these people,
the greatest men in the world today,
the richest, the most famous,
the most whatever they are,
the most good looking men and women,
the most famous men and women,
the richest men and women,
the most talented men and women,
the greatest sports stars,
the greatest whatever,
great whatever your flavour is,
the greatest people in this world
are all going to be hiding,
if they don't get saved,
like rats in holes in the rocks.
He's saying,
Cease ye from man,
they're nothing,
for wherein is he to be accounted for?
He's saying,
put your trust in the Lord
who will bring all men
and all their works of their hands to nothing.
That's what he's saying.
He's saying,
stop caring about what these people say.
Stop hanging off every word
of the social media influencer,
whoever this clown is,
the latest clown,
stop caring about the latest fashion
from whatever horror or horror,
stop worrying about whatever, you know,
the latest sort of brainwave is from this,
stop caring about the riches of this,
how I could get richer and everything else,
stop caring about all these people
and all their ways
and all the world's ways
and just trust the Lord
because these people will be brought to nothing.
They'll be brought down low,
lower than anything
and by the Lord.
So when it comes to your life
and who you're going to put up there
and who you're going to put down there,
well, eventually,
it's going to be the Lord up there
and them down there.
You might as well get that right early.
You might as well just remember
that it's the Lord you need to trust,
it's the Lord you need to hold in high esteem,
it's the Lord and it's the word of the Lord
and the word of God
and how he wants us to live,
how he wants us to do things,
how he wants us to behave
and everything else
that should be important,
not the rest of that junk
and that filth
and that nonsense out there.
He said,
Cease ye from man
whose breath is in his nostrils,
for wherein is he to be accounted of?
And that was Isaiah chapter 2
and, wow, I mean,
he's gone straight into the millennial reign
and the wrath of God
and the millennial reign, sorry,
and let's see what we're going to be
getting into in chapter 3
and on that,
we're going to finish in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for,
well, the book of Isaiah
and the examples we're seeing so far
of not just the hard preaching of Isaiah, Lord,
and obviously God speaking through Isaiah,
but, you know,
the truth, the reality of the God of the Bible,
the God of this world,
yeah, he's a loving God, Lord,
he loves,
he loved the world so much
that he sent his only begotten son
to die on the cross,
to go to hell,
to be resurrected for the dead,
to do all of that
for sinners such as us, Lord,
and we thank you for that,
we thank you for that gift,
but alongside that love
is also a world of fearsome God, Lord,
it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God
and, Lord, we need to respect that,
we need to have a healthy fear
and we need to also be able to encourage others
to have that to then put their faith in you,
to understand that you are a righteous judge
and you're a scary judge with that, Lord,
and help us to encourage people to get saved,
help us to do that with the rest of our week
where the opportunity arises, if we can,
to make that Thursday night soul-winning,
but then also to return on Sunday
for another day in your house
and a soul-winning time after the service as well.
Lord, help us to all get home safe for sound tonight
and do so and pray Amen.