(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Father in heaven, please fill the pastor's spirit, and please give us all ears to hear to receive wisdom from the sermon this night, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Man Isaiah chapter 26 here is a really interesting chapter because it has a lot of significance to the time in which it was preached. There's also a lot that we could learn and apply to our daily lives right now, but then it also has a lot of end times significance and a lot of really cool prophetic things tucked in here. Although we're in the book of Isaiah, which is a prophetic book, the genre of this particular chapter is poetry because at the beginning in chapter 26 verse 1 it says, in that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. So as you go down through this chapter, it is poetic in nature, it is a song. And there are other poems actually found in the book of Isaiah and elsewhere in other books of the Bible like this where it'll kind of cross over into that genre. So that's what we're looking at is this poem or song in Isaiah 26. It says in verse 1, in that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Now when you look at this at first and you see the strong city being described, you might think to yourself, well, you know, this is Jerusalem. This is talking about how well fortified it is. But actually if you go down just a little bit to verse 5, it says, for he bringeth down them that dwell on high, the lofty city, he layeth it low. So when we talk about the strong city in verse 1, it's not actually referring to any literal physical city because the Bible says we have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. So our strong city consists of salvation. Salvation is the wall. Salvation is the bulwark. Trusting in the Lord, having our faith in God is the protection, not a literal physical city. The literal physical city, according to verse 5, can be brought down, whereas those who trust in the Lord will never be confounded. So the Bible says we have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted the knee. Trusting in the Lord, having your mind stayed on Jehovah and, you know, being righteous, keeping the truth, this is what provides an impermeable wall of protection around you. It's similar to the idea in the New Testament of the whole armor of God allowing us to stand against whatever the devil throws at us. And of course, verse 3 is very famous, that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted the knee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Now one thing I want to point out is that in verse number 2 it says, Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Now back when this was originally sung or preached, obviously that nation at the time is sort of an idealized view of what the nation of Israel is supposed to be. They're supposed to be the righteous nation which keeps the truth. What does it mean to keep the truth? Probably it means that they're the custodians of the truth. You know, the Bible tells in Romans chapter 3, it says, you know, what advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision, much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. So the oracles of God were entrusted unto them. And he's saying, you know, there's no spiritual advantage really to being a Jew or being circumcised except for the fact that, you know, really the big advantage is that you grew up with the word of God or the word of God was entrusted to them. So they had a lot of exposure to God's word. So you'd rather be born, if you were being born in the Old Testament, you'd rather be born into an Israelite family than to be born to the Philistines or to be born in India or something, right, because you want to have proximity to the word of God. You're more likely to get saved because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so the Bible says here, the righteous nation which keepeth the truth, in the Old Testament, unto them were committed the oracles of God. So they were the righteous nation, at least they're supposed to be, and they're supposed to be custodians or guardians of truth. But in the New Testament, that nation is Christianity. That nation is Christendom or Christians. You don't have to necessarily turn there. You can if you want to. But 1 Peter chapter 2, really famous passage, you might already be familiar with it. But 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 says, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him which called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 1 Peter 2 is clear that this new nation, in time past were not a people, but now they are the people of God. This is because it is made up of all believers, whether they be Jew or Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond free. It doesn't matter what the ethnicity. In the New Testament, God's chosen people, the elect, is a reference to believers. So it's not a specific city. It's not a specific geography. It's just believers, red, yellow, black and white. We are God's chosen people. We are, in Isaiah 26 2, the righteous nation which keeps the truth. That's referring to us as Christians. We have a strong city. So don't read the Old Testament and say like, oh, it's our, you know, it's obsolete. It's null. Today, in 2022, we need to apply these truths to our lives because, you know, this is us. This is us. We're the righteous nation that keeps the truth. We, if we have our mind stayed upon God, we will be kept in purpose, peace, perfect peace. If we trust in him, we will be kept in perfect peace. Therefore, verse four, trust ye in the Lord forever in the Lord Jehovah's everlasting strength. Did I mention that this is a poem? What is poetic about this? Well, poems are crafted in different ways. Today, when we think of a poem, we just automatically assume that things rhyme or we might automatically assume that it's following a certain meter or rhythm. Whereas the poetry in the Old Testament is often not based on either of those things. It rarely rhymes or follows any given meter. Some of the poetic devices that the Hebrew Old Testament uses are just repeating everything. So basically, it's called parallelism. Like you'll notice this if you read Job, that basically they say everything twice. So they say it one way and then they say it another way. Say it one way, say it another way. That's the way the book of Psalms is as well. You'll see that a lot in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, that's called parallelism. Another type of poetry that's often used in the Old Testament is where everything starts with a certain letter. You know, for example, the virtuous woman, Proverbs chapter 31, the whole part about the virtuous woman is basically the Hebrew alphabet. So the first verse about the virtuous woman starts with aleph, the second one starts with bet, the third one starts with gimel, down the list. So that's what's called an acrostic poem. Well, what's poetic about this particular song is that there are all of these statements or phrases given where the end of one phrase is identical to the beginning of the next phrase. So what you'll see as you read through this is that there's a lot of repetition like that where it'll end on one thing and then start on that same thing. So like, uh, for example, in verse five, just where it's real obvious, it says like, for he bring it down them that dwell on high, the lofty city he layeth at low. And then now the next statement starts with that same phrase. He layeth it low, even to the ground. He bringeth it even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, the steps, the needy. So if you go down, you're going to see a lot of just repetition like that because it's a poem. And so you'll end one line. The next line starts with the same word. Okay. Now, obviously it's not going to work out exactly that way in English, just like the virtuous woman's not going to go A through Z, okay, in English, but you could still even reading it in English, you're not losing any of the meaning, you're not losing any of the truth and you still get that effect of the repetitions if you pay attention to it. That's why I'm pointing it out so that as I preach through this, you'll kind of be able to pay attention to that and see that. So the Bible says in verse five, for he bring it down them that dwell on high, the lofty city. So the alternative to having all of your trust in the Lord and your mind being stayed on him and letting that be your piece would be to try to find security in carnal things, right? Like, oh, I've got the big bank account and I've got the diversified portfolio or I've got this major security system in my house or I've got all these weapons or whatever. There's nothing wrong with having money in the bank. There's nothing wrong with having weapons and things at your disposal. The Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. We need to make sure that ultimately we're trusting in God to keep us safe and we are at peace not because we have all of our ducks in a row in our physical lives, but rather we're at peace because our mind is fixed upon the Lord and we trust in him and salvation is our strong city. Salvation provides the walls and the bulwarks. Why? Because God can tear down the physical city anytime he wants to. You know, if God wants to punish you or if God wants to mess with you, then it doesn't matter what kind of security system or financial portfolio you have, he can just blow on it like that and you're toast. So at the end of the day, God holds your destiny in his head. He can bring down one and lift up another. He often brings down them that dwell on high. Verse five, the lofty city, he layeth it low. He layeth it low even to the ground. He bringeth it even to the dust. The foot shall turn it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness. Most upright or thou most upright does weigh the path of the just. So what is he saying there? He's saying look, the high city, the lofty city that's exalted, basically this represents pride or thinking we're invincible, nothing can stop us, nothing can bring us down. He'll bring it down and the feet of the poor, you know that's someone who the world would look at as somebody who's not on top of things but at the bottom, he's saying they're going to tread upon it. So he's going to lift up the poor and he's going to bring down the arrogant and the proud and he says the way of the just is uprightness and it says in verse eight, yea in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee and the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night, yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. So after he talks about this idea of, you know, our defense, our strong city, the walls, the bulwarks, it's all spiritual. It's not physical because God can tear down the physical buildings but the spiritual wall is impenetrable and it will keep us at perfect peace and perfectly safe. Then he starts to talk about how, you know, the way that the righteous lives his life, that's the right way and don't go in the way of the unjust and so forth. But here's a powerful phrase at the end of verse nine, it says, when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Now again, we're going to start getting into some of the end time stuff in this passage that I want to talk about now that we've kind of laid the foundation at the beginning here. But in some ways this has already been fulfilled right now in a sense. Because if you think about it, the Bible is available everywhere in the world. It's been translated into just virtually every language, numerous languages. It's on every continent, it's in every country. So the word of God has gotten out there. So God's judgments are in the earth. They're more widespread in 2022 than they were when Isaiah preached this. You see, Isaiah is preaching this many hundred years before Christ. And so the religion of ancient Israel is not necessarily what we would think of today as like a global religion or certainly not as famous as it is right now. Now I do believe that in the Old Testament, prophets did travel throughout the world and preach God's word. We have evidence of that. Jeremiah himself was commissioned to go to all these foreign countries and preach the word of God all over the world. So I guarantee you that there was a witness for the Lord going around the world all throughout history. I get that. But we also need to acknowledge the fact that there is a lot more knowledge of the Lord in our world today. There's a lot more access to the word of God and it's certainly a lot more spread out today than it was back then. Back then it was more concentrated with this physical nation of Israel. Now it's spread out more evenly throughout the whole earth to where you just, you don't just have pockets of people in Asia or Africa or Europe believing the word of God, but you have giant masses of people in all of those places that do believe and preach the word of God. Even people that aren't saved because even if people aren't saved, they could still have God's judgments influencing them and God's judgments around them and surrounding them. They could still learn righteousness from God's judgments as far as just what is right and wrong. You know, an example of that I think would be Europe because Europe has become very apostate when it comes to actually believing the Bible, preaching the gospel. It's not exactly a hotbed of soul winning and sound Bible preaching throughout the continent of Europe. But yet it's hard to ignore the profound influence that Christianity has had on Europe to where we could look at countries that the world would look at and say like, oh, these countries are really atheistic. You know, Scandinavia they'll throw out there or something, Sweden. But yet Sweden has had a heavy, heavy influence of Lutheranism and even today, like 60% of the population is Lutheran or something. So even though those Lutherans don't believe the Bible, if we were to go to Sweden and start questioning these Lutherans about what they believe, we're going to find out they don't believe the Bible, but yet culturally they have the word of God in their culture. They have the Lutheran church in their culture. It's a big part of their culture. They're hearing Bible verses, whether or not they're saved, they understand the commandments of scripture. Even if they don't know about salvation through Christ, they still have a culture that is heavily influenced by Christianity. And so all throughout the world, there's exposure to God's word in that sense. So the Bible is saying that when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness because you learn righteousness from God's judgments. God decides what's right. God has enumerated what is right in his law and in the word and the law of God is a lot more widespread today than it was when Isaiah said this. So in that sense, you know, this has already been fulfilled. You know, back then people might've looked at Israel and their God as just one of many local gods, right? Like, oh, this nation has their God. This nation has their God. The Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites have their God. And Jehovah is just another God. Whereas the Bible is constantly saying, no, God's unlikely. God created everything and these other gods are just idols. But I don't see 2.3 billion people today claiming to worship the God of the Philistines. I don't see 2.3 billion people today acknowledging any of the Greek gods or acknowledging any of these ancient tribal local deities. But yet today 2.3 billion people, I'm not saying they're saved, but 2.3 billion people would say, I believe in Jesus. And so they're basically on some level acknowledging the word of God. So that shows, that's a big difference from, you know, Isaiah's day to now where it's just, it's everywhere, right? But I do not believe that that is the ultimate fulfillment of this. Because the Bible prophesies that still yet in the future there's going to come a time when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, the earth is going to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. To where there's just going to be universal knowledge of God's word. Even more so than there is right now. And that period is known as the millennium. During the millennial reign of Christ, they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord. Hey, meet the Lord, let me tell you who the Lord is. Because he says, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. So there's going to come a time when basically everybody knows about the Lord. Everybody knows the word of God. The knowledge of God's word is going to be even more widespread than it is now when Jesus Christ is literally ruling and reigning on this earth. So I think there's been a shadow fulfillment of this or a partial fulfillment of this in the sense that, you know, the world has learned the righteous judgments of the Bible. Whether or not they're obeying them, whether or not they're believing them, this world knows what the Bible says. And the Bible's out there. The Bible's everywhere and it has become global in every sense of the word. But I believe in the millennium there's going to be a more literal fulfillment of this. That's clear from scripture. But here's what's interesting. He says this statement, when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. But then he gives this caveat in verse number 10. Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Now let's stop and think about the millennium for a moment, right? The millennial reign of Jesus Christ is going to be a time where Jesus Christ physically, literally is going to be ruling and reigning on this earth. Don't listen to these, ah, millennial people or post millennial people. That is a garbage doctrine. We are premillennial. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ will return before the millennium and that he will rule and reign on this earth. And I've done lots of sermons on the millennium. I'm not going to re-preach those sermons right now. But there is going to be a literal, visible, thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on this earth where Jesus Christ will literally rule and reign from Jerusalem. That is what's coming in the future. This doctrine is known as premillennialism and this is what we believe and it's very clear from scripture and it's a whole sermon in and of itself to prove that, although proving it is like taking candy from a baby because it's very easy to prove. But a lot of people, when they hear about this, they say, well, you know, if Jesus is physically on this earth, ruling and reigning, isn't everybody going to believe in him? Well let me remind you of something. Jesus has already been physically on this earth one time. And everybody didn't believe in him. And he did incredible miracles such as raising Lazarus from the dead. And there were literally people who were at that miracle and they went to tell the Pharisees and get with the Pharisees so they could figure out how to destroy Jesus. And then the Jews started conspiring to kill Lazarus. They said we don't even want to just kill Jesus, we want to kill Lazarus. Because Lazarus walking around is just reminding everybody of the fact that Jesus rose him from the dead and we don't want to, we don't want the Romans to come take our nation away or whatever. So look, people could sit there and see Lazarus raised from the dead and see Jesus do all these other incredible miracles and still walk away not believing in him. So how is it hard to believe that in the millennium when Jesus is on this earth, people will also not believe in him? Plus we don't really necessarily know what kind of miracles or how many miracles Jesus is even going to be doing when he's here for the millennium. He may not have a ministry that's just characterized by doing a bunch of miracles. And the fact that he's literally on this earth, well he's already done that before and most people didn't believe him. He came unto his own and his own received him not. And the Bible says though he had done all these miracles before them, yet still they believe not on him. And what did the Bible say in Luke 16? They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And if they be not persuaded by Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one were raised from the dead. And so in the millennium, not everyone is going to believe on Jesus. There are going to be unsaved people who survive all of the pouring out of God's wrath. In fact, a very significant number of unsaved people who survive the outpouring of God's wrath. And so when you look at who's being killed in those plagues, it's like a fourth of the population or a third of the population. It's still the majority surviving at the end of the day. And so you're going to have a lot of people that go into the millennium. Now the people who take the mark of the beast are all getting destroyed. But again, that program is cut short of issuing the mark of the beast. So there's going to be huge numbers of people, majority of people that have not yet received the mark of the beast. And so there are going to be a lot of people that are going to roll into the millennium and they're going to have to either be saved or not be saved. And let me explain something to you. Salvation has always been by faith. It's by faith in the Old Testament, it's by faith now, and it always will be by faith. But then again, somebody will come along and say, well, I mean, you know, in the millennium it can't be by faith because everybody's just going to believe because he's here. Well, everybody didn't believe the first time he was here. And remember, at the end of the millennium, the devil is going to be released from his prison. He's going to be put in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. But after that thousand years, the devil is released from prison and he'll go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the battle, the number of whom is in the sand of the sea. So does it sound like just a few refractory people that don't want to get on board with Jesus? The devil is going to be able to deceive people of so great a number that the Bible describes it like the sand by the seashore. That's how many people are going to rebel against Christ at the end of the millennium. And don't miss this word deceive. The devil will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. What does it mean to deceive someone? It means to get them to believe something that isn't true. Isn't that what it means to deceive someone? It's to lie to them and get them to believe something that's false. So there's going to be some kind of a lie that the devil tells to where the people who come to rebel against Jesus, they're not going to come thinking, oh, well, we know this is the son of God and we know we're all about to get smoked, but, you know, we just want to do this. They're going to be deceived. They're going to think that they can win. They're going to think that Jesus is not the son of God. I mean, isn't that what the devil has set out to do all along is so that people would not believe that Jesus is the son of God? Because the Bible says, who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God. To believe that Jesus is the son of God is to overcome this world and the God of this world and the prince of the power of the air, the devil is wanting to deceive this world into not believing that Jesus is the son of God. So these people that are gathered together against Christ, they don't believe he's the son of God. They're going to believe he's a fraud. They're going to believe he's an imposter. The devil's going to deceive them. Just because he's physically here doesn't mean that someone can't deceive themselves or be deceived. Hey, he's not for real. He's not really the Messiah. He's not really the Christ. He isn't really the son of God. And so there's going to be that mass rebellion at the end of the millennium, a huge number of people that they're not going to like Jesus ruling and reigning with a rod of iron. They're not going to like his rules, even though it's going to be a beautiful system, even though it's going to be a wonderful time of peace, even though the world is going to be filled with righteousness and justice, the courts will be more fair than they've ever been. The laws will be the best laws ever, best government ever. Does that mean everybody's going to like it? No. And here's why. Because of verse 10, let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. You know what the Bible is saying is that there are certain people that just can't be fixed. You could show them all kinds of favor. You could give them all kinds of grace because favor and grace are similar words. We often will define grace as unmerited favor, how it's often defined. So showing grace unto the wicked isn't necessarily going to cause him to learn righteousness. Showing him favor, being nice to him, overcoming evil with good, it's not always going to work because some people just can't be fixed. It's important to realize that in life, a lot of people today, they don't believe that they think everybody can be fixed. You know, they think just because Darth Vader got straightened out at the end of the whatever, they think that that's going to work on in real life. Well, that's a fairytale, my friend. I still sense some good in him. That's garbage, my friend. There are people out there who are reprobates. Maybe they do have a little good in them, but you know what? They can't be saved. They can't be fixed. And they're going to split hell wide open. A little bit of good isn't going to cut it. The Bible says, let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness. Will he deal unjustly? So you can't just make this, this argument that says, well, people are basically good, but it's their environment. And I'm telling you, that is the liberal logic today in 2022 is that whenever someone does something bad, it's their parents' fault. It's because, oh, we didn't treat their ethnicity right or the school system didn't treat them right. The school didn't diagnose them with ADD fast enough or ADHD or dyslexia or Asperger or autism spectrum disorder. You know, if we would have just caught it in time or if we would have just gotten them the right counselors and the right teachers and the right intervention at the right time. Let me tell you something. There are certain people where no matter what you do, they will be wicked. It doesn't matter what you do. They can't be fixed. And it's not a certain nationality. It's not a certain demographic folks. Let me tell you something. These rotten people who will never be straightened out, they come in all ethnicities. They come from the rich. They come from the poor. They come from the middle class. They come from every nation under heaven. There are just people who have gone down that dark path and they're just wicked people and they're just not interested in doing what's right and they're never going to do what's right. They're not like, well, if I would have just done something differently, maybe they would have turned out right. Folks, in the land of uprightness, the wicked man is still going to do unjustly. You can put someone in the perfect environment, the perfect school, the perfect church, perfect family, perfect country, perfect laws. And folks, if they are wicked, sometimes they're just going to be wicked. Now obviously our environment affects us and there are lots of people that are going to be swayed by their environment. People where if we can get them out of a bad environment and get them into a good environment, they could become great people. You believe that? I for sure believe that there are tons of people that if we could just get them in our church, get them under some sound preaching, get them around some Christian friends, boy, their whole life would be turned around. You could be wrong. I also think that we could put a lot of good people in a bad environment and they would become super wicked just from being in a bad environment. And we could take bad people, put them in a good environment and they could become a great person. I get that. But what I'm saying is that it doesn't work for everybody. There are certain people that are good, godly, righteous people to the point where you could stick them in any environment and they will not bow down to the golden calf. They will not forsake their Christian faith and morality and lifestyle. They'll be faithful to death. It doesn't matter what you do to them. Amen? There are examples of people like that in the Bible that there are just people that are going to be good no matter where they're at. And then there are going to be other people who are going to be rotten no matter where they are. And it's not anybody's fault but their own. You can't blame it on ethnicity, demographics, finances. You can't blame it on necessarily upbringing or school systems or government or environment. But let me tell you something. The liberal logic though is that nothing is anybody's fault. It's just all society's fault. So I couldn't even believe it today. My mind is just blown by the homeless bums. I couldn't even stinking believe it on the way to church today. It was like this is the first time and look we've had a problem with this for a long time. But today it was worse than it has ever been. I kid you not. I was just on my drive to church, my short drive to church. It was like every intersection was 100 percent saturation. I've never seen it where every single intersection was just all four corners. And then they were in groups of twos and threes now. And then right here on 48th Street literally you know a quarter mile from where we're standing right now this bus stop has just been commandeered into a little homeless camp. It's a quarter mile from here because it's like halfway to Vineyard and it's just all this trash and junk and just stinking up the place, junking it up, trashing it up. And it's so funny I was out soul winning on Wednesday. It might have been the Wednesday before last but it was either last Wednesday or the Wednesday before. I'm talking to this guy and he's talking about like oh why don't the churches do something to help all these homeless people and I'm just like dude are you, what? What? Everybody's hiring. Everyone is hiring. Everyone. They're giving like sign on bonuses. It was like somebody told me who lived in California it was like a thousand dollar sign on bonus. Don't quote me on that number but it was some huge amount of money to work at El Pollo Loco. This janky fast food Mexican place that's like a step below Taco Bell or something and they're giving you like a sign on package. They're like recruiting and head hunting because and look I can't even count how many restaurants you go to now and it's like oh dining rooms closed because we're understaffed. Oh we're not open for lunch anymore it's just dinner because we don't have the staff. And then like even at Chipotle there were signs of saying like hey bear with us we're understaffed. You know bear with the long lines we're understaffed and it's not just fast food I mean literally everybody is hiring. And it's just and then but yet why do we have twice as many of these homeless derelict bums who refuse to work as we had before. The better the economy gets the more bums there are because the more libtards have extra money to give them. And they're giving them free money to refuse to work. You know I was thinking about that this is the thought I'm just going to share with you my inner thoughts on the way here. I wanted to get out of the car so bad and walk up to this bum and this is what I wanted to say to him. I'll give you a doll I want you to drop and do push ups I'm going to give you a dollar for every push up you can do. If you can do 20 push ups I'll give you $20. That's what I was going to say to him because I guarantee you that the guy could drop and do 20 push ups and then I'll hand him the $20 bill and then I say to him now explain to me why you can't go to work because you just showed me that you apparently are able bodied because you just dropped and did 20 push ups. And in fact I think I'm going to do that because it will make a better sermon illustration if I start actually doing it. Just carry a bunch of small bills with me and just do an experiment go up to some of these young lazy jerks and say I'll give you $1 for every push up you can perform right now drop and give me $20 drop and give me $30 you want $50 bucks $50 push ups and I'll gladly hand over the $50 bucks because it'll be a sermon illustration purchased for $50 and then I'm going to say now you lazy jerk you just did $50 push ups now explain to me why you can't work. Think about that for a second because these people are able bodied they're young they're like in their 20s they're like in their 30s and they're able bodied why don't they work because it doesn't matter what environment you put them in they're refusing to work because they're lazy you could put them in the greatest this is the greatest time to enter the job market in the history of America. I'm not exaggerating you young you kids right now that are 16 17 18 19 20 you should get on your knees and thank God every day that you were born the year that you were born what a great time to be 16 people are fighting to hire you what a time to be 17 what a time to be 18 you can start like whatever career you want and you could be a superstar just by showing up for work having a pulse peeing into a little cup and passing a drug test you probably don't even need to do that I mean folks what a time you know you know thankfulness you young 16 17 18 19 20 year olds you ought to be thanking God every day I'm not I'm look I'm not up here just saying that I'm saying literally start thanking God every day for that because that's something to be thankful for like like you're entering the job some people enter the job market they're 16 it's a recession and they can't get hired man you guys can eat wherever you can you can work at any of these places right I mean what do you want to do it's the world is your oyster but then you have these idiots who just want to be homeless and make no mistake they want to be homeless they want to be there they want to be there ask them and you know the bible says the righteous man considers the cause of the poor why don't you consider their cause go up and ask these people what their excuse is they never have a legitimate excuse they're able-bodied by the side oh yeah well um um yeah yeah uh yeah they have no answers for you ask them have them do the push-ups and then ask them no I'm just kidding I don't want you to waste your money like that but the point is it's not society's fault it's not like but I guarantee you libtards right now are sitting around thinking like I wonder what's wrong with our society that's you know that's creating all these homeless people I wonder what we're doing wrong and they'll come up with some solution about how like we didn't give them enough free stuff and we didn't give them enough affirmation and pats on the back and tell them I wonder maybe they just didn't feel comfortable at the jobs or maybe they didn't feel comfortable get you know at the school or whatever maybe that's why they dropped out because they just weren't appreciated enough we didn't get appreciated in school when we were growing up we showed up because our parents would have punished us if we didn't show up I'll tell you what's wrong with our society and what's wrong with uh the situation where we have all this this uh this complete breakdown of any kind of control of of these bums just junking up every sidewalk and park and every nice place it's a lack of the bible being preached and parents disciplining their kids you know we need the word of God we need Christianity because the problem is in that guy's soul it's in his heart and this speaks to the heart the word of God but what what do we see you know in the land of uprightness he'll deal unjustly you put people in a perfect environment in the millennium and people are still going to be cheating stealing lying there's going to be all kinds of crime and and all kinds of bad things going on that's why Jesus is going to have to rule with a rod of iron he's not just going to put the rod of iron in a display case and go I don't need this you know here let's put it in a museum we used to need this no Jesus is going to be executing some judgments during that millennium because he's going to have to even without the devil on the loose he's going to have to because you can put the unrighteous man in a perfect environment and he will remain unrighteous and showing him favor will not always fix it either and so you could also expand on this and say in the land of plenty in the land of opportunity in the land where everybody's hiring he still won't have a job he still won't go to work even though he can have a great job and then I love this last phrase this is this is my favorite part of the verse and he will not behold the majesty of the Lord so they're going to be people in the millennium where not only are they in the land of uprightness and they're still being a crook and being an idiot but they won't behold the majesty of the Lord even when Jesus is on this earth physically ruling and reigning they're not going to see it it'd be like if I read to you God's people who love the word of God if I read to you Psalm 23 you'd be blown away by its awesomeness you know if I read for you 1st Corinthians 13 if I read for you Hebrews chapter 11 you're blown away by the awesomeness of God's word right you know we wake up every day and we read our Bibles and we marvel you know we read that proverb of the day and we love the wisdom and we're like wow this is great we we see every day that we read our Bible we see the beauty of the Lord the majesty of the Lord the excellence of the Lord is awesomeness but you know there are people out there who just don't see it they could hear the same Psalm 23 the same 1st Corinthians 13 they could get the same John chapter 14 and it's just whoop just right over their head they don't get it and when Jesus ruling and reigning on this earth people in the millennium they're going to be people they will not behold the majesty of the Lord they will not see it the Bible says in verse 11 Lord when the hand is lifted up they will not see they're not going to see it and what did Jesus say these people have eyes but they see not they have ears but they hear not they don't get it some people get it and some people don't it's what the Bible saying here I got to hurry up because I'm running low on time here but it says in verse 12 Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also has wrought all our works in us Oh Lord our God other Lords beside thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy name they're dead they shall not live they are deceased they shall not rise therefore has thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish and again all the false gods of this time they're all gone no serious person is worshiping any of the gods from back then right what are the big religions today big religions today are Christianity and all of its variations Islam Hinduism Buddhism that's really it other than that they get way smaller after Buddha Buddhism has like 500 million people and then it just drops dramatically so really the only big real big religions are pretty much you know what I just said Christianity Islam Hinduism Buddhism atheism I mean you know those are the big numbers you drop down it you get down to Judaism it's it's a few million that are actually practicing you know even if you just want to everybody who calls themselves a Jew it's only like 16 million people or something you know Sikhism is like 13 or 14 don't quote me on that number but it's somewhere in that on the order of you know 10 million somewhere around there Jainism is even lower than that and you start just getting into just obscure religions and whatever so where where Zeus's worshippers right I mean you might get some trendy who pretends to be into worshiping Greek gods or something just because he thinks it's fun some some nerdy guy or something but like nobody's really seriously serving Apollo and you know Hermes and these different gods or what about Baal how many worshippers does Baal have right now how many worshippers does Molech have well okay the entire Congress or whatever no I'm just kidding I know I know a lot of our government goes to the you know to worship Molech at the Bohemian Grove you know but hey it's still a very tiny number okay the point is who's worshipping Chemosh right now who's worshipping Ra you know these gods have been forgotten I mean their remembrance has pretty much perished from the earth they don't have any followers nobody is following them and even many of these nations that God judged don't even exist anymore you couldn't point to a nation of the Edomites or the Moabites or the Ammonites or the Philistines or you know they're not even a thing anymore okay and God is predicting that his word and his judgments are going to go throughout the whole world and he's saying this you know in 700 BC or whatever you know it's going to the whole world and all these other lords and gods and false religions you know they're all going to die they're all going to be gone and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters come at sea of course that's what happened and in a greater way will happen in the future so far there's only been a shadow of that and that's why he says thou has visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish and by the way the gods that I'm calling the names of a lot of them the only reason we've even heard of them is because they're in the Bible otherwise you know without the Bible very few people would ever have heard of Baal you know obviously people are into Greece and Rome and kind of keep that alive as far as those names but not as a god but more just as an object of studying the past or history but as far as like you know Molech and Baal you know they only exist day gone they pretty much exist just as a byword just in the Bible as a bad example God has made all their memory to perish both the false gods and the people who worship them thou hast increased the nation verse 15 thou hast increased the nation thou art glorified thou hast removed it far into the ends of the earth Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them like as a woman with child that draweth near the time of her delivery is in pain and crieth out in her pangs so have we been in thy side oh Lord we've been with child we've been in pain we have as it were brought forth wind we've not wrought any deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they awake so let's get into some more end time stuff at the end here this is interesting thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for thy due is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead so this is a prophecy of a resurrection of the dead and he says that those that are dead that are the righteous God's dead the dead in Christ they will rise now earlier in the chapter we had a statement that said the opposite didn't we because the Bible said in verse 14 they're dead they shall not live they're deceased they shall not rise but the contrast here is with God's people they will rise again God's people will be resurrected someday the earth shall give up her dead together with my dead body Isaiah says they will rise and really anybody who's singing this song would be saying together with my dead body shall they arise and then look at verse 20 so right after we talk about well let's look at the order the order is interesting because first we have the woman in pain travailing with child then we have the resurrection of the dead and then in verse 20 we have come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed so after the resurrection of the dead we have God's people being brought into the chambers and the door shut and then in verse 21 for behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity the earth shall also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain and so the order here is basically if we were to take a New Testament lens and look at this is you know the travail the woman with travail that could be seen as the tribulation those pangs or pains of the tribulation and then we would see the dead in Christ rise first and then in verse 20 we which are alive and remain caught up together with them right because in my father's house there are many mansions Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and will receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also so enter thou into thy chambers that's in your mansion in heaven because in my father's house there are many mansions and being basically concealed or protected or shut up or preserved while God is pouring out his indignation on this earth and punishing the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity so it's a great picture of the timeline now I've heard some people use this passage in Isaiah 26 to try to teach a pre-tribulation rapture like we're up there protected while God's pouring out his wrath well you know what that just has a pre-wrath rapture amen to that amen to a pre-wrath rapture but it's not pre-trib it's post-trib pre-wrath and that's another sermon of course but then if we roll directly into chapter 27 verse 1 it says in that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea now remember after the dead in Christ rise and then right after that is when we're caught up together with them in the clouds the rapture we go to heaven where the father's house has many mansions God pours out his wrath on this earth his indignation is poured out he punishes the world what happens after that after that God actually punishes whom Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet okay that happens in Revelation 19 after God has poured out his wrath right when he's about to set up the millennial reign then he punishes Leviathan the piercing servant and it says and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea and remember what is the Antichrist called the beast that rises up from the sea right so so the beast of the sea is a code name or another reference to the Antichrist and so this is a punishment of Satan because it says he'll punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea notice that the threefold destruction here because there's sort of a satanic trinity in the book of Revelation isn't there because you've got the beast and the false prophet and the dragon and the devil right so this triple punishment of Satan not just Satan himself but also you could you know if you wanted to you could say Leviathan the piercing serpent represents Satan the crooked serpent represents the false prophet and the dragon that is in the sea could represent the Antichrist the beast of the sea you know and I think the crooked serpent is perfect for the false prophet because he's a liar he's a deceiver he's a fraud in that sense of course they all are but in that day sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine of course that calls to mind the great wine press of the wrath of God and the blood that comes out of it and so forth and we could go on and on that this whole section of Isaiah from like chapter 24 to chapter 27 is an interesting section that has a lot of end times stuff in it but it's a beautiful picture there at the end of the timeline and so what do we learn from this passage what you know what's the takeaway here well you know back to the beginning of the chapter just to just to do a quick review is that our safety is of the Lord the horse is prepared against the day of battle we might have the the security system the guns the money the the storeable food it doesn't matter what you have at the end of the day the bulwark and the walls are spiritual in nature okay we're protected by the Lord and the fact that we're saved is the main thing because I mean no matter what anybody does to the body don't fear those who can kill the body because they're not able to destroy the soul they can't kill the soul they can only kill the body that's a bulwark and a wall right there and God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Jehovah because he's trusting in the Lord the proud the arrogant are going to be brought down to the ground false gods other false lords and deities will be destroyed and forgotten and will cease to exist false religions they eventually go away isn't that a blessing you know I've joked about or well I've been serious about how man I would just love to see Mormonism just die and cease to exist but you know you know what it will if because if every false religion you give it enough time it goes away now other false religions spring up to take its place but notice how all these false religions of the ancient world nobody's into them anymore now they got some new bogus religion to be into Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism whatever and I don't believe this garbage that Hinduism is the oldest religion or whatever yeah I mean worshiping Satan is old worshiping idols is old what was that yeah it goes all yeah you could go back to Cain with a lot of this stuff but the point is though that you know the Hinduism that we have today there's no evidence that it goes back you know before Christ thousands and years you know who knows I'm sure I'm sure aspects of it have always gone all the way back to Satan in the Garden of Eden but these false religions are constantly changing and evolving and adapting and being rebranded because they're bogus they're not real the Word of God endures forever here we are 2022 AD still talking about Jehovah and isn't interesting that about 700 years before Christ it's already being predicted hey there's gonna be universal knowledge of God's law and his judgments there's an end times coming that end times is gonna be the tribulation the rapture God's wrath poured out on this earth and then the millennial reign of Christ where Christians will rule and reign with Christ a thousand years and even in that wonderful environment there will still be wicked people doing wicked things even in that perfect environment because he said when thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness but don't get the wrong idea we're not saying everybody cuz there's always gonna be that guy who can be put in any environment he's always gonna be an idiot he's always gonna be wicked he's never going to see the majesty of the Lord it's just gonna go right over his head but we those of us who are saved those of us who love the Lord we see it we get it we are going to enjoy it we're gonna love it it's gonna be great other people not so much because of their wickedness their eyes are blinded to the Lord's majesty I mean how many times have tears come to our eyes just contemplating how wonderful God is and and just contemplating the majesty of the Lord some people have no concept of that though it's like they just so they they could read the most awesome passage description just be like yeah whereas think about how many verses when you hear a verse it's just like it's like BAM like it's just like doesn't the Bible just have like a punch to it like it's just like yeah right just like it's like that that verse just kind of hits if you don't know what I'm talking about shame on you you need to be you need to be reading the Bible you need to be praying you need to spend more time in church because I'm telling you this Word of God hits a certain way it's sharper than any two-edged sword it's like a fire that burns inside you it's like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces but you know some people they can't hear it they don't see it have you ever shown someone something really cool and they just didn't think it was that cool or you presented them with some awesome food and they're just kind of like it was okay you're sorry maybe you play them some piece of music and they're just like yeah they don't get it and that's how it is with the Word of God a lot of people just they don't get it but those of us who are saved those of us that have tasted we've seen that the Lord is good let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Father we thank you so much for this great chapter Lord I pray that these words will sink down into our ears Lord and that we would seek to preach your word to a lost and dying world and and get the gospel to as many people as we can Lord because so many people would get saved if they would hear your word and so many people's lives would be changed if they got in the right environment and around the right friends Lord we know there are these guys out there that just are incorrigible and there's nothing we can do for them but Lord the majority of people can be reached and so Lord help us to reach people and help us to be thankful every day for all the blessings that we've been given and and be thankful every day that that we see Lord and and that blessed are our eyes that do see and bless our ears that hear because other people out there they're blinded Lord thank you that we are not blinded and please bless us as we go our separate ways this evening and in Jesus name we pray amen.