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And the Bible reads Send you the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sila to the wilderness unto the mount of the daughter of Zion For I shall be that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest So the daughters of Moab shall be at the forest of Arnhem take counsel Execute judgment make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday hide the outcasts Pray not him that wandereth Let mine outcast dwell with thee Moab Be thou covert to them from the face of the spoiler for the extortioner is at an end The spoiler ceaseth the oppressors are consumed out of the land and in mercy shall the throne be established And he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David judging and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness We have heard of the pride of Moab He's very proud even of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath but his life shall not be so Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab everyone shall howl for the foundations of Kirher Sheth Shall ye mourn surely they are stricken for the fields of Heshbon languish and a vine of Sibmah The Lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof there are come even a jazer They wandered through the wilderness her branches are stretched out. They are gone over the sea Therefore I will be well with the weaving of jazer the vine of Sibmah I will water thee with my tears Oh Heshbon and a lady for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen and Gladness is taken away and joy out of the plentiful field and in the vineyards there shall be no singing Now there shall there be shouting the treaders will shall tread out of out no wine in their presses I have made their vintage shouting to cease Wherefore my bow shall sound like in harp for Moab and mine inward parts for Kirher And it shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is worry on the high place That he shall come to a sanctuary to pray but he shall not prevail This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning Moab since that time but now the Lord hath spoken saying within three years as the years of inhiraling and the glory of Moab shall be Contemned with all that great multitude and the remnant shall be very small and feeble. Let's pray Thank you Heavenly Father for the King James Bible you've given us your God we thank you for his wonderful Church We thank you for our pastor. Please bless him tonight as he preaches your word on to us in Jesus name we pray Amen, okay We're continuing this evening with our Bible study on the book of Isaiah and let me go ahead and stir up your memory a little bit by Reviewing what's taking place over the last couple of chapters because from chapters 13 up until now and even just a couple chapters after this It's all centered around the same theme of Judging the nations. They are essentially sermons that are Maledictions towards the surrounding nations initially God focused on Israel and Judah He's judging them for their sin for their rebellion and their idolatry But now that Judah has been taken care of in the sense of the judgments gonna come upon them They know what's gonna happen Now God is turning his focus to the surrounding nations and in chapters 13 to 14 We have Isaiah preaching against Babylon right and that was a pretty significant section there because chapter 14 highlights the sermon against Lucifer who is the spiritual Principality that oversees Babylon then you have him preaching against Assyria Philistia and now his Focus is on Moab and these last two chapters Have been about Moab and Moab is pretty significant because of the fact that it's a it's a nation That we can call a cousin nation to Israel they were they have history with Israel They know of the God of Israel, but of course throughout the years throughout the history of Israel we know that Moab was very much pagan and there constantly had conflict with Israel and Last week we talked about some of the sins that they're involved with in the sense of they were trusting in their treasures They were very wealthy, right and they were settled on their leads. They weren't moved about they weren't seeking the Lord and therefore God's judgment was gonna come upon them But this evening in chapter 16 We actually see the main reason why God is gonna judge Moab and really it's the main reason why God judges everyone Regardless of what sin they have and that is pride Pride will always cause God to judge you to judge me to judge a nation Because God hates pride and when we look at Moab we see that that is The glaring weakness of this nation is Arrogancy and pride and this is why God is gonna bring down the hammer on them via the Assyrians Now, let's go ahead and look at these a couple verses here It's a short chapter, but we're gonna spend a couple a good amount of time on a specific section here First of all, we're gonna look at them The fact that Moab is essentially seeking asylum from Judah And the reason we know that is because we see in these first two verses that they are paying tribute Essentially as a last-ditch effort now keep in mind the Assyrian army has come plundered Destroyed the Assyrian the Moabites and we see that God is instructing the Assyrians to kill them To you know, slay them with the sword And so now you have refugees fleeing Moab and they're trying to escape the sword But even then God says like if you escape the lions are gonna come and get you So he's doing a very thorough job and his execution of Moab But this is the imagery that we get here is that the men are being destroyed. They're being killed They're being slain and many of the women and children are just fleeing right? They're refugees from Moab from the the invasion of the Assyrian army Now look at verse number one It says send ye the lamb To the ruler of the land from Sila to the wilderness unto the mount of the daughter of Zion For it shall be that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest So the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnah Now that's seems kind of cryptic you kind of wonder like what is this referring to send you the lamb To the ruler of the land from Sila to the wilderness to the daughter of Zion. What is that referring to? Well, as I mentioned, you know when you look at Moab in the history of Moab they've always had conflict with Israel and You think of a couple instances you have the Moabite-ish woman or women enticing the men of Israel and Seducing them to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed into idols, right? That was via the agenda of Balak right who hired Balaam son of Bozor to curse the children of Israel He was incapable of doing so So what they ended up doing is using the Moabite-ish women to entice Israel to commit fornication Thereby and curing the wrath of God upon them. And so God plagued Israel because of their disobedience So you have that particular event there later on? You actually have King David Who ends up subjugating the Moabites along with other surrounding nations? And he basically made it somewhat of a vassal state in the sense that they were allowed to Essentially be subject under Israel and and still exists, but they have to pay tribute to Israel Okay, they would give gifts and so David did a really good job. It just kind of you know subjugating them. So they're Subordinate to the Israelites but with the catch of you know, you can live peaceably however, you have to make sure you pay tribute via livestock money, whatever it may be and That continued for a pretty long time up until the Philistines would later remove that yoke from off the neck of Moab But then later on King Ahaz would subjugate them once again and then the tribute continued thereafter Well, you see here that that's pretty much what the state that it's in and we don't necessarily know if that tribute stopped if it Ceased but as they're fleeing God's telling them hey pay the tribute send the lamb to Zion referring to Judah and What I believe is taking place here it's kind of like a last-ditch effort because obviously the Moabite-ish women and The children they need refuge of some sort. They need protection. They need coverage of some sort They're they're on the run from the Assyrian army And it even says there in verse number two the latter and it says as a wandering bird Cast out of the nest. What's that referring to? We think of a mama bird Removing her children from the nest. They're kind of vulnerable, right? They're just kind of vulnerable to predators They're weak and so this is the picture that God is painting of these refugees that are fleeing Moab You know just anybody could just pick them off And so, you know, he's telling them send a tribute because maybe Judah will take mercy on you and help you This is the situation that they're in now. What is the principle that we can learn from this? Well a principle that we can learn is that obviously when we look at nations in the Old Testament God addresses them as though they're an individual right and I think he does that on purpose because When we read this in the New Testament we can make application to ourselves even though God is talking to a specific nation We know that these things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come and so we could look At God dealing with Israel or Moab or Babylon and make direct application to our specific lives And the application that we can make with Moab is that you know when you sin against God when you are living wickedly you rebel against God and You are Unrepentant, you know the options you have are limited Right on what can happen thereafter when you're suffering the consequences of your actions your options are limited and it's almost as if you have to kind of like, you know, hope that people or You know institutions people family can be merciful with you because you're suffering the consequences of your actions You think to yourself well, that's not fair, you know, they're women they're children they're fleeing for their lives Yeah, well, they should have thought about that when they were offering offerings to key mosh the Falls God and So it may seem unmerciful it may seem. Oh, man. What is why is God allowing this? These are the consequences to people's actions You understand? Your options are limited when you're serving God you have a lot of options. You can eat of all the fruits of the trees You can serve God at different capacities You have God's hand upon you But when you're unrepentant in your sin and you find yourself being chastised of God via the devil Via your circumstances in life the cause and effect of life, you know, your options can be limited And it's one of those things. There's just like pay tribute. I don't know you will see what happens and You know one thing that's frustrating sometimes is that when people? Rebel against God and they want all the good options It's like all of you, you know, what about the good options? Well, then here's the thing there is no good options There are instances where the will of God is multiple choice and they're all bad All the choices are bad You understand what I'm saying? It's like you go to a restaurant and You know, you look at the menus like all the options are bad But you chose to go to that restaurant What's a what's a good restaurant to just listen let's just do water burger cuz we all hate water burger, okay Sorry, do you guys have water burger over there? Oh, sorry about that. I Just thought if I was like wait, they're from, you know, Florida. You guys like water burger. All right, good Good, man You know, he chose to serve the Lord and being God's grace. So, you know you go to a Restaurant like water burger or whatever other restaurant, you know, and all the options are bad It's like all this sucks. How about this? You know, you choose to go to India. Let's just do that one instead You go to India To go get food on the street. All the options are bad They're all gonna kill you They're all gonna give you diarrhea and you know, you're gonna vomit projectile vomit. You're gonna get all kinds of parasites There is no good option, but you chose to go to India See what I'm saying? I'm you know, no illustrations. Perfect. The point that I'm making here is that when you sin And you choose not to get right with God you choose to be unrepentant You can't be surprised when the options you have of that which works to your benefit are all bad I mean think about when David numbered the people and the plague came upon Israel all the options were bad It's like do you want to be chased by your enemies? Or do you want the plague to come upon the people or you want all your soldiers to die? Which one you want? It's like they're all bad You want my hand against you? It's like no, where's where's the fourth option? Can I call it in? Can I can I can I phone a family member it's like no matter what someone's gonna die and Of course David in his wisdom because he walks with the Lord He said, you know, it's better to just fall into the hands of the living God Right because I know that he's merciful. He's gracious, you know, if I fall into the hands of my enemy They're not gonna be merciful to me So I rather just fall into the hands of my God because I know he'll be lovingly kind and gracious And so this is the example that we see but with Moab is like they kind of have to take what they can get Understand because of their rebellion for so many years their constant Idolatrous practices, you know send a tribute. I mean, we'll see what happens type of a thing. Look at verse 3 Says take counsel Execute judgment make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday hide the outcast Beret not him that wandereth now. I was kind of racking my brain trying to figure out. What does this mean because it seems Cryptic it seems a little obscure whatever it's referring to because you know in our minds as we're reading this It's like Moab is the outcast, right? They're the ones who are wandering. They are the refugees. So why would God instruct them? Hey Make sure you hide the outcast make sure you don't be raid them There are wandering be Ray means like don't reveal if they're hiding from The oppressor don't just reveal who they are so they can get captured or whatever and it says in the beginning take counsel and execute judgment and This is what I believe it's referring to Because of the fact that I think this is what this is talking about is Moab's tendency to just kind of be Selfish and just give up their own people. Okay, as They're wandering about as they're like being refugees. You say well, how do you know that? Well back in numbers 21? You have an instance where you have the Ammonites defeating Moab and When they conquered Moab, they're being scattered and God says this of Moab He says woe to the Moab and he says he had given his sons that escaped and his daughters Into captivity and to sign on king of the Amorites So the picture that's being painted here is that once they're defeated It's just like take my sons and my daughters as long as you know, you don't do anything to me They're willing to sacrifice their own people Just to kind of save themselves Which is pretty wicked think about it, right? And so, you know, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Moab of what we're looking at here in Isaiah 16 You know, they're refugees They're scattered and they can have the tendency to just give up the weak people Just so they could be safe. You like you really think that's what it's talking about. Well, think about this Okay, cuz who are we talking about here Moab and who's Moab? Well Moab is a descendant of Lot and what did Lot do? He was willing to give up his daughters to the Sodomites to be violated and raped Just to save his skin or even the skins or who he thought were the men who were visiting the city And so this is kind of something that's already in the gene pool I'm just kind of giving up their own people just for the sake of protecting themselves and You know, this isn't right, you know a principle that we can learn from This is the fact that even when we're in dire straits and we're having a hard time We can still help somebody to a certain degree Don't ever have this attitude. It's just like well, I'm kind of struggling right now So I don't want to help anybody, you know if you want help Do what you can with what you have? Be a blessing to someone else to some level of degree because you may have it bad But you don't have it that bad and you always find someone who has it worse than you Just remember that there's always someone who has it way worse than you then you can you may not be able to reach up to help somebody but you can reach down to help somebody and In fact, that is Christian virtue that no matter what situation we're in We should seek to be a blessing to someone who is in a worse state than we are In a worse condition than we are and you like well, I can't do much but yeah But you you do something though, you can do something and in fact the Bible says in Proverbs 24 verse 11 if thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and Those that are ready to be slain if thou sayest behold we knew it not doth not he that ponder at the heart consider it and He that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works In other words God is saying, you know, if you say you make excuses Why you don't want to help somebody because you're in a bad situation you know, you don't think God really sees the heart of the matter though and Sees, is that really the reason why you don't want to help somebody you really you really think that you're just at the bottom of the barrel If you're alive today, if you're breathing today if you're in church today, you know, you're you're doing better than most people are That's just fact, okay, and if you've had meals today and I think Everyone's had meals today You know if you are in church tonight, you're a pretty good situation Despite how bad of a situation you might have it and you know what that means There's still someone out there that you can help and here's a good principle to live by when you're going through a hard time And that is the principle of the law of sowing and reaping Sow good seeds Why you're in dire straits sow good seeds when you're in a bad situation So that you can reap the benefits later on Understand and at the end of the day, you know, God ponders the heart. He sees what the real situation is and You know, he can he can he can determine if you if that's really what it is Oh, man, you know, I just I don't have enough money. Yeah, but but here's the thing you have something though Well, I don't have the time we all got 24 hours in the day though you know and You like well, I don't have any resource to give anyway Yeah, but you have words that you can give somebody you can encourage someone you can spend time with someone You can give them a word of exhortation a word of wisdom you can bless someone and So what he's saying here is like hey Take counsel Execute judgment if you find a wanderer Don't just say hey, he's over here Just so you can get away yourself So he says be Ray them be Ray means to reveal them Like hey, don't tell the Assyrians. I'm gonna hide right here. And then you're just like hey, if you let me go I'll let you know where like five of them are or something like that. And this is this is good By the way, this is good instructions for the tribulation. Amen Don't be that little buster who rats us all out You know cuz you're hungry or whatever You're like, I can't take it anymore. You promised me canes, you know, I'll tell you where that hurts a whole church Is that you know? Just just from just review brother Marcos's, uh, I think he has like a meme on that or something But anyways, you know, the point is is that we need to make sure that we favor other is better than ourselves Right, and I know that's hard to do when you're going through a hard time. It requires a level of discipline It requires a level of just thought to say, you know what? Lord I need you to bless me so I can bless someone else because you know I don't really got nothing much to work with here But help me to see what I do have or give me something so that I can bless someone else with Look at verse 4 Verse 4 says let mine outcast dwell with thee Moab Be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler from the extortioner For the extortioner is at an end the spoiler sees that the oppressors are consumed out of the land Now when you look at the what's taking place here, is that really true though? Like is it happening at that time is the oppressor ceasing? No, it's not right So this is the way you interpret the Bible when you realize that this is not taking place yet. What is God doing? He's casting vision Regarding the future Okay, and you know The greatest hope that he tends to cast as we've seen in the book of Isaiah is the hope of the millennial reign the fact Jesus Christ will return one day that is ultimately when the oppressors will cease and they will stop and they would no longer exist He said well, how do you know that's what it's referring to though well Look at verse 5 and in mercy shall the throne be established and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David Judging and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness. That's how we know that is a prophetic statement About the millennial reign in Jesus Christ and you think yourself like man, but that's so far into the future though How can that provide a level of comfort for these people right now during this time? If like we're in 2024 and that still hasn't been fulfilled What kind of goes to show you that God has always expected his people to set their affections on things above? Not on the things of this earth, even if the promise is given to us in the Bible don't happen in our lifetime You know, God always wants us to be eternally minded and Remind ourselves of his promises, you know when you think about the millennial reign For example, you think about the new heaven and the new earth you think about eternity? You think about the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come and helps you to be less temporal minded More eternally minded it helps you to sacrifice more to serve God more and it helps you to realize that What you're suffering through is a light affliction in comparison to what you will experience in the future and Here's the thing folks, you know, you think yourself. Yeah, but it's so long from now. Yeah, but what about for them though? it was even longer for them and Yet they still didn't receive the promises. They didn't receive the promise of that millennial reign But what he's doing is he's just reminding them like hey one day everything will be fixed. The oppressors will cease The king will reign and every wrong will be made right now look at verse 6 here. We're gonna get into Moab sin He says in verse 6 we have heard of the pride of Moab He is very proud even of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath But his lies shall not be so Now it's pretty ironic that Moab is prideful He said why because they're so small Right Like, you know Babylon was just a mighty empire The Assyrians were like mighty in warfare. They're a mighty empire Egypt. We're gonna cover Egypt in a couple weeks You know, they're a mighty empire But Moab is just like they're just they're smaller than Israel You know, they're not very large not very vast and not a powerful nation They're very small but it proves the point that you don't have to be big rich and famous to be prideful It doesn't matter what size you are it really matters what's in your heart right And we see that a country like Moab with very little military might Yeah, they're wealthy But they don't they're not necessarily a nation of conquest They can't even defeat Israel They're small But yet in their hearts, they're big you see what I'm saying and One thing you'll notice as a Christian is that Pride is the culprit for a lot of problems in this world Pride keeps people from getting saved Pride is the main reason people don't get saved, right? you know you knock on the door and it's just like you talk to this person and they're just unwilling to just repent of their own of their unbelief Repent of what they're trusting them for salvation, right and place their faith in Jesus Christ because of pride I Mean the vast majority of people do you meet online? You talk to on social media. You just show them what the Bible says and they just reject it. Why it's because of pride Because it requires humility To believe what the Bible says you're gonna split hell wide open because you're a sinner. I Mean no one can get saved unless they get unless they humble themselves and Come to the recognition of their sinful condition before God that they deserve hell. That is what they deserve and That the only way they can be saved is by their faith in Jesus Christ plus nothing minus nothing Not by their works not by their deeds, but the person who says well, no No, you have to you know faith without works is dead Well, go ahead and pull up James chapter 2 in the Bible for me if you could find it first and foremost Well, I just think you got you can't we're trying to say you could just believe and just live however you want That's not what I said But people who think that you know You have to do works or keep God's commandments or do this that and the other just translate it as this pride They think they can make themselves qualified for eternal life They think their works qualify them to be saved to have favor with God Folks is just pride Because it requires humility to recognize that my righteousness are as filthy rags in the eyes of God There's none righteous. No, not one and I'm included in that. There's none righteous You know you run into some really prideful people online sometimes and You and I think virtually everyone in here unless you're just not on social media at all. You've all spoken to someone online Who you've sincerely try to win over by giving them verses or even in person and it's just like, you know Catholics for example Just pride you just want to finish the conversation and say you're just prideful. You're just an arrogant prideful Kathy Not willing to just humble yourself You're subverting the Word of God to be saved right but you know pride is not though you know pride is the culprit in keeping people from getting saved but you know pride is also the culprit in Christians from getting right with God Or from just like receiving correction from the pulpit You know, they hear like a hard truth, maybe something that they heard on Sunday night, I don't know something something like that And it's just like Just say you're prideful You can't deny it And folks, you know, you didn't come to Candyland Baptist Church. This isn't like cotton candy Church or something like that You know you come into a church where you're gonna hear the truth and you're gonna hear it loud sometimes And it's to get your attention. So you don't forget it. Don't be prideful Just receive the message and and folks, you know, it's it's it's always a good thing and you say why I just felt embarrassed Though when you preach on Sunday night good Good Good, you're supposed to I Mean think about this, you know the Bible God condemned people for not blushing Says neither could they blush He was angry at that. You should be bothered if it didn't bother you if you're just like I'm still gonna dress like a homo I'm still gonna dress like a hoe. I don't care what anybody's shame is a good thing. Amen Shame is a virtue that God exalts because it it indicates that you know You still got something in there and you care about what God thinks about you You care about what the Bible thinks and you know, you're like, well, I also care about what other people think about me Well, yeah, that's part of shame. You should So the Bible says and So, you know never have this attitude of like well, you know, that's just for other people. It's not for me I don't really agree with all that. You're just being prideful Because at the end of the day if we sparred with the Bible you'd lose You would lose You would give me some liberal interpretation with some line from a devotional book or something or some emotional answer Pride keeps people from hearing the preaching of God's Word. I'm talking about Christians There's say people that yeah, it's safe. There's there are safe people that reject the principles of God's Word They won't say it's not you know that it's heresy. They'll just say well, that's your interpretation What it is is your pride Causing you to say that But also it just keeps people it keeps Christians who are backslidden from getting from getting right with God Because there are instances when People backslide to get out of church They're involved in sin and their pride is impeding them from just getting right with God Getting back into church getting back into the swing of things getting back into the Bible Humbling themselves because you know what? Let me just be honest with you It is humbling to come back to church when you've been out of church for a while Of course it is and I commend every Christian who has ever come through our doors After they've been gone for quite some time because yeah, it is a little humbling But you know, we do try to soften the blow though And not be like well, well, well Look who we have here Well, you know, it's been a while brother done sinning Yeah, I'm just messing with you You're not fornicating anymore. Are you? you know that obviously that's an exaggeration, but I guarantee you that's out there somewhere I Guarantee you You know, we try to soften the blow I'm look my Disposition when someone gets right with God and they come back to church. I literally love to pick up where we left off Cuz it's embarrassing, you know, I understand it's like man everyone's gonna wonder like where have I been What's going on? And you know why I haven't invented I've been in church and I have to just repeat the same story to every single person No, you don't just say, you know, I've been out, but I'm back in and it's just like amen brother Let's let's go soul winning. Let's go out to eat. Let's go hang out. Let's pick up where we left off That's my disposition Let's just pick up and and look that's like a switch for me I just want to pick up where I left off. Just act like we could just move on with our lives And we don't even have to think about that Certain era of your life where you backslid or something Understand but you know pride will keep someone from just even making that decision It's just like well, what are people gonna think about you? you know, what are they gonna say though and There you you're you're just gonna be so embarrassed and you know you've missed out on so much and look at all the new people and look at so-and-so that he stayed in church and all these Thoughts that come in at the end of the day is just pride. Just humble yourself and come back to church And often once the band-aid is ripped off you'll realize like it wasn't even that bad I've already like assimilated once again into the Christian life. I'm back in church. I'm so winning. I'm reading the Bible I'm like serving God All I have to do is just humble myself and just come and I'm talking about humbling yourself just to come to the doors But pride will keep people from coming back to church Every single time pride will keep people from admit Christians from admitting that they're wrong. I mean have you ever talked to someone and You just trying to tell them like you're wrong about this and they're just like unwilling to admit that they're wrong Every one of us have talked to someone and it's just you know It's what you ever have a checkmate moment You do like a checkmate and you can see it in their eyes they they know that you know that you got them And they're just unwilling to admit it They just will not admit that they're wrong, you know the thought that pops into my mind this guy's prideful This woman is prideful Pride will keep people from just receiving correction admitting that they're wrong Why because they feel like they have something to prove or they don't they don't they don't want their superior Their pastor their supervisor their boss their fellow brother or sister in Christ to think that they were wrong about something Folks, we're all wrong about something at one time or another myself included I've been wrong before and you know, I'll be wrong again in the future. Obviously. My errors are very scarce They should be as a pastor, but that doesn't mean I'm just completely immune to error But when I make a mistake just you know, I made a mistake That's it. Yeah, but what are people gonna think? Well, yeah, you're on like the social media. You're on the internet I mean, I mean, what do you what do you want me to do? There's nothing you can do And in fact, let me do let me just say this people have more respect for you When you're willing to admit that you're wrong then when you just resist and show yourself just Stubborn and prideful and arrogant people Look less think less of you when you're unwilling to admit that you're wrong They think more of you when you're actually willing to admit that you're that you're wrong If you say, you know, I'm wrong. It's just like okay cool. This guy's humble this this lady's humble They're willing to admit it. They have the maturity to actually admit that but when they're just constantly resistant, it's just like This guy's a clown That one's admit it And we've all had conversations with with a person or people Where whether it's it's a major deal or a small deal where they're just unwilling to come to grips with the fact that they're wrong happens all the time And you have like all the evidence You have like the boards you have the receipts You have the text messages You have the transcripts you have everything and they're just the numbers don't add up and it's just like No, I'm so right about it. It's just like you are so arrogant and prideful And you know what? You know what it makes you want to do resist that person You know what God does he also resists that person, too Good because God resisted the proud I mean if it frustrates you imagine how it makes the God of heaven feel who's perfect who's justified There is no error within him. He knows all things. He knows the inner recesses of the heart to see people behave proudly against him What am I saying? I'm saying, you know as a church and as a Christian as an individual check your pride Okay Stay humble be humble Make sure you maintain humility You're like, well, how do I do that? Well, first of all, here's a good way to just maintain humility Just recognize whatever successes you have are because of God and other people who have invested in you You know, don't let let let another man praise thee and not thy known lips Okay You know someone compliments you on your gifts your talents your achievements Automatically say well, you know, I thank God for that and you know, what my parents just I just had awesome parents Or you know what brother so-and-so helped me achieve that if it wasn't for people's investment in my life I want to be able to attain to that Don't have this attitude. Yeah, I'm just built different I'm just built a little bit. That's just it I'm just I'm him Because that's the attitude that a lot of young people have today, right? I'm him It's like that that's not even proper English Humility is lacking in this generation and I get it, you know, we joke around or whatever But you know at the heart of the matter We should have a virtue of humility and and and here's the thing It's something that we have to work on because it doesn't come naturally to us Myself as a pastor there is a tendency there is a temptation to become prideful Because it's just a temptation for everyone So it's important. Look here. Here's good motivation to be humble Humble yourself or God will humble you And I rather like humble myself than have God humble me because he can embarrass me bad He can embarrass you really bad. So either shame yourself and say you know what? My Parents is it's they just did a great job Even though they weren't Christians. I learned a lot of things from them or you know My pastor helped me or the church members, but for sure God helped me and I really appreciate the compliment, you know I'm thankful for I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve or I'm thankful for this opportunity You know, it's just the people that I'm surrounded with they just helped me a lot because there's no such thing as a self-made man Deflect the praise Right and then also Just when you're thinking about yourself Don't think yourself more highly than you want to think Because it's easy to like verbalize humility. It's another thing to actually believe it in your heart To think in your heart like I'm Him You know, but in your heart, you just have to be like Lord. I'm struggling with pride That's the one of the best ways to do it Lord I'm just struggling with pride and you know that I'm prideful You know that I have a tendency to become arrogant or take credit for these achievements And I just want to say thank you for allowing me to do these things And I know that at any moment you can just remove all these capabilities for my life So, thank you That's a way to be to humble yourself before the Lord is like give thanks unto God for those things and you know Obviously we can't just will ourselves to not be prideful and be humble But we can we can pray unto the Lord and just the mirror the mere communion with the Lord like it invokes humility in our lives because we realize like God is big and You know He can just take all this away from me at any given time and that alone humbles you, right? So we see that Moab is extremely prideful for God to say very proud. It means that he was very prideful He said well, how do you know when God has to put a very? Think of egg long, right? What does the Bible say? He was a very fat man? He didn't just say like he was just he was overweight He's just like he wants you to know he was very fat We're like, how do you know because the blade went all the way in and ate that ate the handle It's like cartoon status So it's like one, you know, God doesn't exaggerate so when he says he was very fat or very prideful It's kind of showing you. Oh, man, this this nation is very arrogant things very highly of itself And in fact, let me just say this also regarding this particular passage This was obviously prophesied long before Jeremiah came on the scene and when you read Jeremiah 48 About the judgment of Moab from Jeremiah himself he seems to call back almost word-for-word a lot of the stuff that's being said here in Isaiah 16 and So it's almost as if he went back to those Scrolls and just kind of Revisited them or just kind of integrated him into his preaching But this happened, you know about a hundred years prior and yet you have Jeremiah Preaching the same exact thing Jeremiah 48 14 says how say ye we are mighty and strong men for war Referring to Moab Moab is spoiled and gone up out of the her cities and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter Sayeth the king whose name is the Lord of hosts. So they're they think that they're mighty They think that they're powerful and they also think that you know, they have all these treasures This is causing them to be puffed up arrogant because they have treasures they think that they're strong They think that they're powerful and God's gonna have to humble them using a more powerful nation and just remember this guy's You know before you decide to get into a fight one day Because you're so good at fighting. Just know this. There's always someone who's just better than you Talk to the experienced fighters in our church and I guarantee every single one of them there. There's always someone better always there's a tendency in young guys to want to just prove themselves and Just kind of like be macho or you know think that they can whoop everyone and You know, and here's the thing is, you know, I was like that in my teenage years. I think every red-blooded American is You know, you just have a desire to prove yourself and not to be a punk Not to be a little buster But let me just say this is that eventually you will run into someone who is stronger than you and who will humble you And Especially as a Christian you said why don't you get in fights now? Well number one. I'm a pastor Okay So, you know, I can't I can't be a brawler Number two, you know or should I say number one is because I'm a Christian I should say number two is because I'm a pastor but number three is because God is my Savior and he will just allow me to get my rear end kicked just to teach me a lesson Even I guarantee you, you know, if I'm just so prideful that I'm just gonna beat up some 120 pounder or something like that, you know, I almost think like God would like endow him with Samson's strength and just Just whoop me just to teach just to humble me Say you would fear 120 pounder. No, I fear God that he would let 120 pounder beat the crap out of me You said that would happen. I believe so Because you know, what God is more concerned with than your reputation is your sanctification And So he's more concerned with you Not being prideful and arrogant and thinking that you're just all that and you can you can take on anybody he's more concerned with keeping you humble so you can be usable right and Therefore, yeah, he would cause you to lose a fight You Know oh, yeah, but I don't fight though. I got all these guns, you know, I Got all these weapons and stuff he could cause the guns to jam and Embarrass you or just cause you to lose your cognitive function. So you don't even know how to use a freaking gun You just make you stupid and right in the moment. I Don't think I'll do that. Yeah, cuz you don't fear God Like I fear the Lord and I feel like that would happen to me And I don't want that to happen. So obviously I don't get into confrontations with people You know and and by the way, I'm not saying like, you know be a sissy be a wimp and a pacifist or whatever You know, obviously if someone's attacking your family you have a duty to Protect your family, right? But let me just be honest with you like That is like my last Resort though. So what's your first the Lord to just protect me and my family? That's just it well, that's just not enough it is for me You know, I just expect the Lord to take care of my wife and my children and I'm the earthly protector of my family And God knows that you know, I'll get down to protect my family. You know, I'll do what I can I'll give my life to protect my family And he knows from the bottom of my heart I will give my life for my children my wife in a second if need be But I don't think that's gonna happen because I don't put myself in stupid situations That's just at the end of the day and if I find myself in that situation That means God allowed it and if he wants me to die that I'm gonna die plain and simple and So it's important for us to realize that you know, don't be like Moab Oh, we're mighty strong and and you know I got you know strength and fighting ability and armory. Yeah, you know It's all good to have those things Cuz I think God's fine with us having those things But just don't let it get to your head though Okay. Hey, I'm thankful I could deadlift 400 whatever You know, but if I become prideful the next lift he just makes me pull Slip a disc or something just because I'm being prideful and I'm just like this is a punk weight easy and just And then I'm just like stuck like this for like two weeks just so God can humble me It can happen That's why anytime I lift every time every time I lived and I'm about to pull ahead anytime I always pray right before I do it I'm dead serious. I said Lord Help me to lift this and help me not to injure myself. Give me the strength to lift this every single time Because I don't want to go I don't want to approach the bar with pride Like watch this how much is this? Easy Lightweight I May say that a couple times but in my heart, I'm like, I'm just kidding Lord Just kidding Cuz you know at any given time he can just cause me to just injure myself for six months You know I can I can run into one of my church members playing basketball and And tear ligaments in my middle finger and then just not live for six months, you know Yeah, you think God was trying to humble you probably And in fact now that I think about it He probably was trying to humble me during that time because I was making so much progress and thinking that I was all that So he just took me out for six months What are you saying I'm saying just don't be like Moab Moab literally had so much destruction come upon them only because they were just prideful They weren't willing to humble themselves before God and let me just say this when it comes to the Lord Obviously, I've only been walking with God for about 17 years, but in my experience Sometimes it only requires just a little bit of humility for him to give a whole lot of mercy Like he just wants you to just like correct it just a little bit You know, I mean like go just start like even if you don't turn completely in the right direction just give it a couple degrees and Often God is just exceedingly gracious with us. Even if you do that That's how he operates and So you know, he's able to abase us he's able to humble us and Eventually Moab suffer the consequences of his pride look at verse 7 therefore shall Moab howl for who for Moab He's just like he just grieved over himself Folks I'd rather grieve for others Right. I'd rather lament for the pain of others For The abasement of others not for my own Woes because God is punishing me since therefore shall Moab howl for Moab everyone shall howl For the foundations of kir hareseth shall be more and surely they are stricken For the fields of Heshbon languish and the vine of Sibma the Lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants There of their come even unto Jazer they wander through the wilderness or branches are stretched out They are gone over the sea. This is reiterated in Jeremiah 48 and it's basically saying that you know, God is removing the joy of Moab and So when it talks about him removing these vineyards and these trees It's almost as if like Moab was found their joy in The fact that they had lush gardens and vineyards. That's where their joy is like. All right, well, I'm gonna remove all that joy You know because that's what pride does and you know There's a great principle for us to learn that you know, if you want to keep enjoying the things that God gave you Keep giving glory to God keep being humble, right? I Mean, I think all of us could say I love the stuff that I have. I love where I'm at I love you know, my family. I love my church. I love the possessions I enjoy the things that God has given to me, but Stay humble So you can keep enjoying them You guys God is telling Moab. Oh you like all this stuff? All right It's just all gone, how about now you like it you like it now now someone else is enjoying it That was my commentary on how I How it went about look at verse 9. It says therefore I will be well with the weeping of Jezre the vine of Simba I will water thee with my tears O Heshbon and Elilah for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for the harvest is fallen He says in gladness is taken away and joy out of the plentiful field and the vineyards there shall be no singing neither shall there Be shouting the treaders shall tread out no wine in their press presses I have made their vintage shouting to cease now I want you to notice the balance that Isaiah has but also God because he's judging them What does he say? He's like he's weeping for them to though You Know sometimes when God punishes God's people He's he's definitely righteous and just in doing so but you know, he does hurt for it though I mean think about the fact that when we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit of God and So this is a good print This is a good lesson for us to learn that if someone is suffering the consequences of their actions don't become callous towards that either That's what they get Huh? That's true, but you know, we should also weep for them though, too And kind of mourn and think man you're gonna suffer some of the most horrific consequences of your actions Cuz we're not for the grace of God. We'd be in that position, right and So don't lose the quality of empathy in your life for others Learn to have empathy for others, you know, they're like, well, I don't really know what that's like Well, then ask God to kind of show you what it's like though without you having to go through that Ask God to increase your empathy towards people who have you know are being destroyed by Satan because of their their decisions Yeah, you know it's what they deserve for sure. And you know what? That's what they get Yes, but you know, I kind of heard a little bit Because I wish it wasn't so You know, God is themes justice, but he also steams empathy. He steams compassion He steams love and he wants us to have like a soft spot and still like weep with them that weep and mourn with them that more Well, you know Let's say to just destroy them. Well, I hope it doesn't get to that point And it should break our hearts when if it does Because that's not God's will right? and So the harvest is gonna fail them The Lord will put Will be forced to put an end to their harvest and their joy rebelling against the Lord will force God to withdraw his blessings from our lives and So it's important for us to realize, you know When when God chastises you sometimes he just goes all the way and he removes things to kind of get your attention He does allow the the bank account to drop. He does remove your possessions He does crash your car. He does crash your boat. He does allow something that happened to your home He allows something to kind of get he allows health issues to get your attention Look at verse 11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab and my inward parts for Kirarash It shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place That he shall come to the Lord God of Israel Nope to his sanctuary to pray but he shall not prevail. So even in spite of all this They're still gonna go to the high places and seek out false gods for solace and comfort. What in the world? and Whether that whether this means that they're gonna go to their false gods or they're gonna go seek the God of the Bible The end result is still the same because it says but he shall not prevail What is this talking about? You know, there is a sin unto death. I do not say you shall pray for it There are instances where people could go so far in the Christian life Where you know what no amount of anointing can help you No amount of prayer can help you like God has already said like you're done. I'm gonna destroy you Because you've already gone too far You become a castaway not a reprobate because you Christians can't be reprobate, but you can become a castaway Where God says enough is enough. You're not getting it go to Proverbs chapter 1 and we'll finish off here Proverbs chapter 1 So why are you saying this we know to kind of prevent you from ever going down that path Ever going down the path of an unrepentant heart where you just refuse to get right with God You just refuse and you refuse you don't want to listen. You don't take correction Maybe the brothers in the church are trying to get to you and say hey, you need to correct your ways You need to come back you need to do this and you just refuse refuse refuse folks You don't know when your deadline is everyone's deadlines different and There can come a point in your life as a Christian where just God just says All right, it's time to come home You just become a saw Like yeah, but that's like you're just getting really far. I don't know how really far is though Yeah, do you want to find out I don't Because you're really far might be different from my really far I don't know. I Really don't know and you know what? I don't care to find out and I hope you never have to find out either I hope that when you if God forbid that you should get out of the ways of the Lord you Backslide and you're involved in sin that you get right with God as soon as possible Because you know what? That's one thing that God doesn't do he doesn't say hey by expiration date right here Best to be used. What is it best used by? You know, whatever date he's like, all right, cool. I still got a couple more months Sorry, it doesn't work that way and You know what? He can take you tomorrow and he'd be justified in doing so and you're like in every like well I thought I had like a year or at least it's like, you know God's not obligated to give you a timeline. He can just destroy it right off the bat. I Don't want that to happen to me I don't want that to happen to you, but it can happen to people and obviously, you know It's far more severe for the unsaved but you know, it can happen to us. We die with dishonor The greatest fear that you should have is to die with dishonor dishonoring the Lord Jesus Christ. So how so you know like saw I Mean it's in the Bible forever His he's been pretty mad so many sermons have been Solving used for so many sermons I'm sure he's just in heaven like Sucks You're saw I'm saw you help me so much I appreciate that Look what it says in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 24 because I have called and he refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but you have said it not all my counsel would none of my reproof Here's the rough part. I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear come in That's powerful Why would God laugh at my calamity because you're a joke to him Because you were unwilling to listen so just as you mocked and Laughed at the council you didn't you took it lightly God says okay. I'm gonna laugh at you when you when you're destroyed And I always look at that verse and say, you know, God doesn't have a sense of humor It's kind of crazy though a sense of humor is pretty wild But you know, I think he's trying to convey something here and that is you know, don't how about this don't make God laugh Hey here if you get anything from the sermon get this don't be God's punchline He Says when your fear cometh as a desolation your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish come upon you Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer Moab. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the turning of the Way of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them But who so harkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Hey harken Listen, don't be prideful. Don't be arrogant get right with God as soon as you can Don't be like Moab. Oh, oh help us from the Assyrians crickets crickets No one's coming to save you you can send the lamb though if you want You can send some tribute to Judah, maybe that'll help I don't know I don't not want to be in that position You know, I want to be able to call upon God to deliver me from the hand of my enemies To deliver me from anguish and trial and the Lord is just right there Because I'm right with the Lord Here's the last thing he says this is the word that the Lord had spoken concerning Moab since that time But now the Lord had spoken saying within three years as the years of an hireling and the glory of Moab should be condemned With all that great multitude and the remnant shall be very small and feeble I don't believe that's saying that he's gonna destroy them in three years Three years respective to where Isaiah is preaching this from I believe he's saying that in a span of three years Moab would be made desolate and how do we know that because Jeremiah's preaching about Moab long into the future and that hasn't been fulfilled yet And so that's obviously referring to the span of how long Moab is gonna be destroyed for what's the sermon tonight? The sermon is simply this, you know Listen in church, right? Listen to your Bible reading Don't take the correction lightly Take it to heart Get right with God Don't allow yourself to stray too far Come back as soon as you can Cuz I don't know where your deadline is, I don't know I don't I don't know where the border is I don't know where the crossing of the line is and I don't want to know and I don't want you to know It's better to just you know, travail To stay right with God Than to wonder how far can I take this before God slays me? Call upon God now, you know Isn't it great to just have the confidence you could just pray right now and know that the Lord is listening You can commune with the Lord now you can get God's blessing now Whereas when you're outside of God's will we're just serving the lust of the flesh People out there they're praying. They just don't know they're like man. I don't even know if God's even listening right now that sucks Stay right with God. Amen Let's pray father. We thank you so much for Isaiah 16 and for the Example that Boab gives us here Lord. I pray that you would help us to learn from them and To be a humble people and obviously we have the propensity to become prideful to become arrogant to think highly of ourselves Lord and I pray that when we have those foolish thoughts that we would Immediately commune with you and give praise to you and think upon those who have invested in us whether it's our family our friends our church members our leaders and Lord help us to remain humble so that we don't have to suffer like Moab did Lord and may we rejoice and enjoy The privilege and the freedom that we have to be able to call upon you now in Full confidence knowing full well that you're pleased with us that you're happy with us. You can bless us Lord This is where you want us to be and I pray that you bless us as we go on our way Give us a great weekend protect us as we go to Mexico on Saturday. Give us a fruitful trip there and Bless us as we come back on Sunday. We love you. We thank you pray these things in Jesus name. Amen Please turn your songbooks of song number 413 song number 413 stand up stand up for Jesus Song