Podcasts about before him

STRIVE TO ENTER HIS REST!This passage reminds us of the promise of God's rest—a rest that remains available to those who believe. It warns us not to harden our hearts, as Israel once did, but to respond in faith. God's Word is described as living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, discerning our innermost thoughts. Before Him, nothing is hidden.

In Him, Before Him, Through Him

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ...    The Day of the Lord:  The second coming of Jesus    The primary signs of the nearby coming of Jesus will be the signs in the sky and the shaking of the heaven and the earth by God:  

It's Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson Pakistani Muslims killed two Christians Random killings of professing Christian believers continue in Pakistan.   Last month, one man was killed by Muslims when he had attempted to stop them from stealing his guava fruit. And now, a Catholic father of six, Emmanuel Masih, was beaten to death by a Muslim landowner who falsely claimed he took oranges from his grove, reports Morning Star News. Pray for Emmanuel's family which has lost its only breadwinner.  Pakistani teen girl abducted, forcibly married to 60-year-old Muslim And here's yet another story of an abducted Christian girl in Pakistan. This time, a 15-year-old daughter was abducted and forcibly married to a 60-year-old Muslim, reports Morning Star News.  Saira Arif was kidnapped on December 15 by Rana Tayyab in the Yousafabad area of Faisalabad, Pakistan. After nearly two months of appeals, the Pakistan police finally registered the case.   Forbes Magazine has reported that at least 1,000 women from religious minorities are forcibly converted and married annually in the country.   Will there ever be any justice served in this dark and evil land of Pakistan? According to Open Doors, it is the seventh most difficult country worldwide to be a Christian.   Pray for the Christian Gospel to make it to this poor country. Hindu mob in India attacks Christians, leaving 2,500 homeless Things are getting tougher for Christians in India as well. Violent attacks by radical Hindus over the last two months have left 2,500 Christians homeless. And the government is doing little to address it. According to International Christian Concern, a Christian leader from the north said, “No worship service on Sunday is taking place in the villages of Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts.  Christians are traumatized and constantly living under fear and intimidation. Their survival is looking very grim on the ground; they need prayers and a helping hand.”  Canadian pastors vindicated for in-person services during COVID Here's good news for Christian churches in Canada.   A Canadian court has dismissed charges against pastors in Ontario and New Brunswick for holding in-person church services during the COVID-19 crisis.    Pastors Phillip James Hutchings of His Tabernacle Family Church in Saint John and Pastor Aaron Rock of Harvest Bible Church in Windsor have been vindicated.  Earthquake fatalities in Turkey/Syria soar to 35,000 The fatalities resulting from last week's earthquake in Turkey and Syria now exceed 35,000. That's the deadliest earthquake since the Haitian earthquake of 2010 where 100,000 to 300,000 people died. An estimated 800,000 people have died in earthquakes thus far this century. 163,000 have died in hurricanes and cyclones.   Meanwhile, 30 million died of HIV/AIDS in this century; 7 million of COVID 19 according to Worldometers, and about 30 million have died by tuberculosis. These have been the most serious pandemic diseases and causes of death by acts of God since the turn of the century.  Habakkuk 3:3, 5 declares that “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. ... Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet.” Winning Super Bowl quarterback gives glory to God In Super Bowl 57 on Sunday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the Kansas City Chiefs to a 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, reports The Associated Press. That's the second Super Bowl win for Kansas City in four years.   Mahomes, the youngest quarterback to start three Super Bowls, was given the MVP award for the game. It turns out he is an outspoken Christian, reports SportsSpectrum.com. Listen to part of his testimony he gave shortly before playing the Super Bowl in Phoenix. MAHOMES: “My Christian faith plays a role in everything that I do. Now, I always ask God to lead me in the right direction and let me be who I am in His name. So, it has a role in everything that I do. And obviously it will be on a huge stage and a Super Bowl that he's given me and I want to make sure I'm glorifying him while I do it.” Mahomes discussed his strategy. MAHOMES: “It's about just playing for your teammates, just trying to do whatever you can to win the game for your teammates beside you. And, in that moment, God gave me the strength to run and get that first down and get us in the field-goal range.” Few Gen Zers are conservative, yet nearly 20% attend church A recent report on Gen Z-ers produced by the Walton Family Foundation found only 10% of young people between the ages of 15 and 25 years old call themselves conservative, compared to 26% of older adults over 26 years of age.   But 18% of Gen Zers still attend church regularly, and that's similar to the rest of the population.   A slightly higher percent of Gen Zers claim to be Evangelical compared with the older population.  Yet only 9% claim to be liberal Protestant, while 23% of the older population claim to be liberal Protestant.  And 16% of Gen Zers identify with some kind of perverted sexuality, compared to 4% of the older population.  Is revival breaking out in Wilmore, Kentucky? Kentucky Today reports on an extended revival service taking place at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. It's gone on now five days longer than initially scheduled. Asbury College was the site of another revival in 1970. How do you know if this is a true, efficacious work of the Holy Spirit?   The article quotes Tim Beougher, the pastor of West Broadway Baptist Church and a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He said, “It's not how high you jump, it's how straight you walk when you land. It's the fruit that comes from it.”  Psalm 85 brings out this prayer: “Wilt thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee? Show us Thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation.” Penguin fossil from 7-foot, 350-pound bird before worldwide flood And finally, paleontologists have found the remains of a huge penguin, probably a species that existed before God destroyed the world in Noah's flood. This beautiful creature was about 350 pounds and stood some 7 feet tall, reports Cnet.com. Now, that's a big bird! Close And that's The Worldview on this Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14th, in the year of our Lord 2023. Check out the love story that I wrote about my bride, Amy, and I at AdamsWedding.net.  Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ

January 11, 2023 Daily Devotion: "Hear the Voice of Your Father" Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for All God's people. If you read through the four Gospels you can't help but notice how people and crowds were drawn to Jesus. If He Went up a hill to pray alone, the crowds would be gathered below awaiting His return (Luke 4:42). If He jumped into a boat to slip off to the other side of a lake, word of His movements would race Him to the other side (Matthew 14:13). He interacted non-stop with military officers, widows, children, the seriously ill, the demon-possessed, religious leaders, close friends, prophets, and sinners. At the beginning of His ministry at age thirty, despite having so much to do in such a short amount of time, Jesus pulled away from everyone to spend forty days in the wilderness to pray and fast. While alone, Jesus was tested three times by Satan, but each time answered the challenge with Scripture and a profound sense of His purpose in life (Matthew 4:1-11). Again, at the end of his earthly life, Jesus pulled away from the crowds to pray alone in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:35-36). It was there, with the agony of the cross just Before Him, that He reaffirmed His most earnest desire: “Not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42 NKJV). If Jesus Christ sought solitude and quiet, how much more important is it for us? We can come to the end of the day-or week or even month-and discover that we made no time at all to be alone with God. Television, radio, meetings, chores, and a cacophony of other “noises” crowd out prayer and silent reflection. You don't have to take a forty-day trip to the desert to create ways to spend quiet time alone with God. In fact, once you recognize what distracts you from hearing God's voice, it's just a matter of giving yourself some quiet time. Your soul will thrive as you pull away from the noise to hear the voice of Your Father. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gerzon-etino/message

Cf. Mal 3: 1; 1 Chr 29: 12 Behold, the Lord, the Mighty One, has come; and kingship is in his grasp, and power and dominion. Responsorial Psalm 71(72):1-2,7-8,10-13 All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord. O God, give Your judgement to the king, to a king’s son Your justice, that he may judge Your people in justice and Your poor in right judgement. All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord. In His days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails. He shall rule from sea to sea, from the Great River to earth’s bounds. All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord. The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts shall pay Him tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring Him gifts. Before Him all kings shall fall prostrate, all nations shall serve Him. All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord. For He shall save the poor when they cry and the needy who are helpless. He will have pity on the weak and save the lives of the poor. All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord. The English translation of Psalm Responses from Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved. The music for the psalm is an original QOP composition. Sing Psalms to the Lord podcast can be found at all your quality podcast providers. Sing Psalms to the Lord YouTube channel can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELS1iG5t0qjs20JFugwdeQ Musical performance by the Choir of Our Lady of the Rosary RC Church, Verdun, St. John, Barbados. Music (c) 2008 Evelyn Lee. All rights reserved. Please feel free to each out to us at singpsalmstothelord@gmail.com

My favorite church experience is singing “O Holy Night” at a Christmas Eve service. Many churches will turn off the lights and pass out candles that are lit as the song begins. It's quite moving. Today's episode is about the interesting and surprising history of “O Holy Night.” But first this: Welcome to You Were Made for This If you find yourself wanting more from your relationships, you've come to the right place. Here you'll discover practical principles you can use to experience the life-giving relationships you were made for. I'm your host, John Certalic, award-winning author and relationship coach, here to help you find more joy in the relationships God designed for you. To access all past and future episodes, go to the bottom of this page, enter your name and email address, then click on the follow or subscribe button. The episodes are organized chronologically and are also searchable by topics, categories, and keywords. "O Holy Night" The words to “ O Holy Night” were written in 1843 by Placide Cappeau, a French wine merchant and poet. Although he was never particularly religious, Cappeau was asked by a local parish priest to write a Christmas poem to celebrate the recent renovation of the church organ in his hometown. The poem was entitled “Midnight, Christians.” Four years later in 1847 his friend, Adolphe Adam, wrote music to accompany the lyrics creating the song initially titled, “Cantique de Noel,” or “Christmas Carol” in English. Adam was a French composer and music critic who wrote mostly operas and ballets. Alongside the opera Giselle (1841), “O Holy Night” is one of his best-known works. “Cantique de Noel” (i.e., “Christmas Carol”) became popular in France and was sung in many Christmas services. But when Placide Cappeau left the church to join a socialist movement, and it was discovered that Adolphe Adams was a Jew, the French Catholic church leaders decided “Cantique de Noel” was “unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and total absence of the spirit of religion.” But even though the church no longer allowed the song in their services, the French people continued to sing it. An American perspective on “O Holy Night” Then in 1855, an American minister and writer, John Sullivan Dwight, saw something in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse of the song “Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love, and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.” He published his English translation of “O Holy Night” in his magazine, and the song quickly found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War. Back in France, the song continued to be banned by the church for almost two decades, while the people still sang “Cantique de Noel” at home. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve 1871, in the midst of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, during the Franco-Prussian War, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of his muddy trench and began singing “Cantique de Noel.” Then a German soldier stepped into the open and answered the Frenchman's song with Martin Luther's “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.” The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next twenty-four hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day. There is no proof that this ever happened, but that's why it's a legend and a good story, never the less. One thing I couldn't find is how or when the title of this Christmas carol became “O Holy Night.” "O Holy Night" is a first Years later on Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden–a 33-year-old university professor and former chief chemist for Thomas Edison–did something long thought impossible. Using a new type of generator, Fessenden spoke into a microphone and, for the first time in history, a man's voice was broadcast over the airwaves. And what did he say? He recited the beginning of the Christmas story found in chapter 2 of Luke's gospel, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed… After finishing his recitation of the birth of Christ, Fessenden picked up his violin and played “O Holy Night,” the first song ever sent through the air via radio waves. Starting as a poem requested by a local parish priest in 1843, which morphed into a song 4 years later, “O Holy Night” has a most interesting history. Written by a poet who later left the church, then given soaring melodies by a Jewish composer, and then brought to America and used in the anti-slavery movement, this beloved Christmas carol is sung by millions around the world today. Lyrics to “O Holy Night” O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn; Chorus
 Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices! 
O night divine! Oh night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine. Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming; With glowing hearts by his cradle we stand: So, led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here come the wise men from Orient land, The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our friend; Chorus
 He knows our need, To our weakness no stranger! Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend! Behold your King! your King! before him bend! Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is Love and His gospel is Peace; Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, And in his name all oppression shall cease, Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we; Let all within us praise his Holy name! Chorus Christ is the Lord, then ever! ever praise we! His pow'r and glory, evermore proclaim! His pow'r and glory, evermore proclaim! Sources https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/occasions/christmas/o-holy-night-original-lyrics-composer-recordings/ (Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas”  Zondervan) https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/what-is-the-meaning-and-story-behind-o-holy-night.html What does all this mean for you? “O Holy Night" reminds us of God's relentless creativity in pursuing all of us. Using a man who left his faith in God to write the lyrics, and a Jew who rejects Jesus, God uses this song, over 200 years old, for the purpose of drawing us to himself. "O Holy Night" isn't just about one night, Christmas night. It's about all the nights and days that follow. Nights where you are offered reconciliation and forgiveness for your sins. Nights of faith made possible by the birth of Jesus who knows your needs and weaknesses, and who teaches us to love one another. It's about nights of hope for the future because Christ entered our world to save us from ourselves. It's about nights of worship for all that the Lord has done for us. Here's the main takeaway I hope you remember from today's episode “O Holy Night" shows God's passion for making himself known. He uses music written by people who don't believe in him to comfort people who do. Closing Well, that's it for today. If there's someone in your life you think might like to hear what you just heard, please forward this episode on to them. Scroll down to the bottom of the show notes and click on one of the options in the yellow “Share This” bar. Merry Christmas everyone! Other episodes or resources related to today's shows 082: A Christmas Gift of Anticipation 136: Make it a Merry Christmas this Year 021: The Most Important Relationship of All Last week's episode 188: Joy to the World - The Unintended Christmas Carol The place to access all past and future episodes JohnCertalic.com Our Sponsor You Were Made for This is sponsored by Caring for Others, a missionary care ministry. The generosity of people like you supports our ministry. It enables us to continue this weekly podcast and other services we provide to missionaries around the world.

Merry Christmas and thanks for checking out Chapelgate Church's 2022 Advent Series. We hope these episodes are a blessing to you and your family, and that you might even consider sharing that blessing with others. We'd also love to invite you, your family, and your friends to join us on Christmas Eve for either of our two services: 6pm or 8pm. For details, please click here.   As always, if you need anything, please reach out. We would be honored to serve or pray for you!   To learn more about Chapelgate Church, please click here. To support the ministries of Chapelgate, please click here.   For questions or comments, please contact Rob Gicking: rgicking@chapelgate.org   LYRICS O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn; Chorus Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine! O night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine. Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming; With glowing hearts by his cradle we stand: So, led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here come the wise men from Orient land, The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our friend; Chorus He knows our need, To our weakness no stranger! Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend! Behold your King! your King! before him bend! Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is Love and His gospel is Peace; Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, And in his name all oppression shall cease, Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we; Let all within us praise his Holy name! Chorus Christ is the Lord, then ever! ever praise we! His pow'r and glory, evermore proclaim! His pow'r and glory, evermore proclaim!

Ephesians 1:4 — Why are Christians elected to salvation? In this sermon on Ephesians 1:4 titled “Holy and…Before Him in Love,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explores this doctrine that believers are chosen by God to be holy. Echoing the apostle John, Paul says the purpose of God in Christ for His people is to undo, remove, and rectify completely the effects of sin and the fall. By making His people holy and without blame before Him, Christ destroys the work of the devil. The ability to be in the presence of God and communion with Him is the goal for Christians. In Christ, the believer has a new love and affection for God. Salvation is nothing less than a new relationship with God whereby the Christian can stand before Him in His presence. If this is the end for which God has chosen His people, they must be concerned with preaching holiness to others. Holiness is not an addition to be added after someone is saved. Because they have been chosen, God will make them holy.

"This better be worth it,” I muttered through gritted teeth. The straps of my backpack bit into my shoulders, making each step feel heavier than the last. "Malik said it would be just around this bend. If he's wrong, I'm gonna tell him to carry this stupid weight all this way." I knew it didn't actually work that way—nobody could carry somebody else's weight—but the thought made a wry smile stretch across my face. If Malik was right, soon I'd finally be able to put this weight down. I'd been carrying it for a long, long time. I followed a bend in the trail, and a gasp escaped my mouth. I saw it. "This. This has to be the place." Straight in front of me stood a glorious building made of precious gold, shimmering silver, and glittering gems. It seemed to shine in the afternoon light. I pushed open the heavy wooden door, and inside I found a man. While His simple clothing wasn't nearly as glamorous as the building around Him, He still seemed radiant. Before Him sat a large basket. “Welcome, Dominic.” He smiled. “I'm so happy to see you.” He glanced at my backpack. “That looks heavy. Would you like to put it down?” He asked, waving a scarred hand at the basket. I remembered Malik's words when he told me that He would take whatever I put in the basket. “Y-yes, I think I would.” “Here, let me help.” He gently lifted the bag from my back and opened it on the floor, exposing its contents. Inside, I saw my life. Rocks of various shapes and sizes, each one labeled—mistakes, regrets, and hurts mingled with my talents, achievements, and prized relationships. I knelt to the floor, and one by one, I placed each rock in His basket. I expected to feel lighter, and I did, but a heaviness remained in my heart. I just couldn't shake it. Giving Him the contents of my backpack didn't feel like enough. Confused and desperate, I began to panic. "Why do I still feel this way? What else do I have?" In my desperation I looked up at Him, and in His eyes I saw...love. And suddenly, the answer was clear. Before I quite knew what I was doing, I got to my feet. He seemed to read my mind and beamed as He held out a hand to help me balance. Then, I got into the basket. • Taylor Eising • What is weighing heavily on you today? Consider taking a moment to imagine all these things as heavy objects. What are these objects, and what do they represent? Do you feel like you can give these things to Jesus? Why or why not? • Because God cares about us, we can cast all our burdens on Him (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus, in His grace, gives us the faith to drop all our worries at His feet and rely on His love. How can the truth that Jesus cares about us—and every part of our lives—make it easier for us to entrust our troubles to Him? • What do you notice about Jesus in this story? Why do you think the author depicted Him this way? • Why do you think Dominic got into the basket? You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. Psalm 51:16-17 (NLT)

The things we do, the prayers we pray, the worship we offer, the relationships we maintain… When we stay BEFORE HIM and let His light shine on them, do our REASONS for them hold up… or do some of them need to change? "Reasons" by Worship Pastor Tommy Faulk was recorded on Sunday, June 5th, 2022, during service at The Anchor Church in Rockport, Maine. SERMON NOTES Read sermon notes from other great sermons: https://theanchor.me/sermon-notes/ Subscribe to The ANCHOR Church podcast on iTunes to receive automatic downloads of new episodes and listen to previously recorded sermons. https://apple.co/2u1UBkj

Filth described her very well.  While it was an apt depiction, it failed to embrace the fullest description of what she was.  Some lives seem to be nothing more than a brutal manifestation of the accumulated slag and scum that is leftover in the wake of some departed tragedy.  These people become the thing that life has done to them, being so irreparably identified with their own tragedies that they themselves are a living manifestation of all those assorted tragedies.  Sometimes we become what life has done to us.  Hers was a life that was already an abysmal collection of untold catastrophes that resulted in filth nearly indescribable.  She was only fourteen. Susan was of little note as she stepped off the bus that first day of summer camp.  She was one of over one hundred campers swirling in an arriving mass of anticipation.  Gathering tattered bags and a tattered spirit, her eyes were set hollow with the effects of a life lived in hatred.  Filth and a pervading stench drew her apart from the rest almost instantly.  Her soul seemed to reek with a putrid odor that handily eclipsed the smell emanating from her skin and clothing.  There was about her an inner ugliness that permeated everything else about her, that had consumed her and had digested whatever shred of good there might have been.  It all seemed to have effectively left the fragrance of any human goodness now consumed in the sludge of whatever it was that seemed to define her. Her defense mechanism was so refined that she immediately repelled all who drew near, thrusting others so far away that she guaranteed her own isolation.  Her own woundedness was so utterly complete that the poison of the pain she felt spewed in venomous rages at anyone who drew near.  Her self-hatred was effectively projected outward onto anyone who dared draw near physically or emotionally.  She seemed as something less than human, something abominable; something terribly horrifying within which any shred of humanity was consumed and utterly lost. The following week of camp was to be marred by ugly confrontations.  She devolved into assorted rages that were wild, brutish, entirely unprovoked and profuse.  She refused to shower.  Ferocious outbursts were filled with anger distilled into lethal poison that devastated other hearts, young and old.  Physical assaults and violent rages had an insane wildness and a touch of insanity about them.  There emerged at times something animalistic about her, something very primal that raged unrestrained by either reason or rationale.  At times the line between that of a visceral animal and a human being was blurred and terribly ill-defined.  In the end, Susan was isolated in a lone cabin.  Her parents refused to come and get her.  Her pastor was unwilling and unable to deal with her rages as her life did not fit neatly into some clean theological rubric that he could manage.  The camp staff gathering to pray for her, but found their prayers as ineffective.  Some sort of spiritual possession was questioned, and rightly so.  She was a monster; a raging pathetic monster that we waited to relieve ourselves of at the close of camp.  Such was our judgment of her.   Judging From Fear Judging is, I think, a manifestation of our own fears.  We judge so that we might have some sense of control and some feeling of superiority.  If we judge that which is before us, we assume we will not become whatever it is that we are rendering judgment upon.  We set ourselves apart as distinct from that thing or that person with that distinction somehow convincing us that we are different.  Judging places us above that which we judge, meaning that we will not succumb to it from our supposedly elevated position. We judge because we fear, and because we fear we are not prone to look deeply into the person that we're judging.  For if we look deeply, we might see ourselves.  We might be forced to surrender to the reality that that which we are rendering judgment upon is as much a part of that person as it is a part of us.  Superficial judgment allows us to bypass our own humanity and live in the lie of superiority.  The person whom we judge is then sacrificed to our thin self-serving judgments and whatever is it that God wanted to do in our lives through that person is tragically lost.        Judgment Revealed It was to be that final night of camp.  The next morning a mass of buses and cars would invade the gravel parking lot, snatching up sun burnt campers filled with the wild tales of a week's adventures.  But that would be tomorrow.  For now, night had fallen, drawing up a warm blanket of thick summer air across the camp and out beyond the wooded expanse, tucking the world in at each horizon.  Crickets sang in a chorus of the night from the deep woods, lulling the day to slumber with their mesmerizing notes.  Frogs bellowed thick from a stream that meandered through a wooded ravine down a slight ridge.  Their chorus hauntingly rolled up the rise and across the slight meadow.  Lightening bugs cast dancing pinpoint pigments of yellow across the shadowy landscape and deep into the tall stands of sleepy timber.  The moon had only shaken a sliver of itself awake, mingling with the starry minions.  It was the perfect night; soft and subtle.  God's creation was melding into perfection. With the campers bedded down for that final night, I strolled down to the chapel now bathed in the soft shadows of night.  A few moments with God at the end of a long week seemed so right.  Drawn, I descended the winding dirt and gravel path with the soft crunch of each step muffled by night's thick softness.  Slight shadows cut from the thin pastel light of a sleepy moon seemed to whisper something about reverence and what it is to be alone with God. Another person had thought the same.  The outdoor chapel was framed by a wall of river rock that extended muscular granite arms around an expansive gravel floor.  Across the gravel expanse there stood a rock and timber altar with a muscular, rough-hewn cross as a shadowy sentry.  Thick timbers supported a vaulted wooden roof spread with broad knotty pine boards.  The woods beyond were alive with the night.  And Susan was there. A shadowy figure knelt at the altar.  Her aloneness was poignant, an isolated life kneeling before an altar in a desperate hope of somehow breaking that isolation.  The crying was soft and indistinct, being defy muted by her fear of vulnerability.  The moment was a manifestation of a broken heart and deeply wounded spirit which had somehow collided with God enough to strike a spark of hope.  She was kneeling there, her fingers embedded in the rock altar, hoping that this hope would not fail her as had everything else. We had all seen her as ugly, despicable, the slimy scum of humanity that teetered on the savagery of a wild animal.  We wanted nothing more than to see the sun break on the final day of camp and watch her leave both the camp and our lives.  We could not wait to be rid of her, to relegate this vermin back to the hole from which she had crawled.  To say we hated Susan was likely excessive.  To say we despised her was likely true.  And yet, here she was, broken.  The wounded humanity she so vehemently lashed out from was pouring out across that rock and timber altar.  Her core was exposed and for the first time I saw a slight glimpse of her humanity.  I had errantly judged it not to be there for fear that I would recognize it in myself.  Now I saw her brokenness and in it, I recognized my own. I feared her, not knowing in that moment what to do; not wanting to do anything out of the fear of behaviors I'd observed and the hatred I'd seen spew from her.  But I found myself walking toward her anyway.  Having made no conscious decision to do anything, I stepped, my footsteps dictated by something wholly other than me.  Suddenly I was beside her in the thick dark, in the thick of night; in the thick of her night.  Without a word spoken, she reached up and took my hand and drew me down to her side with a force that buckled my knees.  Putting a trembling arm around me as if the whole of her spirit was leaning its weight on me, I felt for that brief instance the intolerable hell of her life.  And in that moment I understood why she was what she was. Her words were to silence the night that surrounded us.  Nature drew down into the moment, stood on tiptoe so it seemed as God reached out from the expanse of that starry night and changed a life. Her next words set me back, instantly slicing through all the things that had caused me to judge her so harshly and revealing who this really was.  She said, “would you pray with me?”  Without a word from me her heart ruptured open in prayer.  I never uttered a word.  I didn't have to as such an action would have been only an intrusion in that transforming moment.  Massive floodgates surged opened and a enormous reservoir of pain that had accumulated over the incalculable expanse of years and events deluged the darkened chapel.  I knelt . . . stunned.  I had arrogantly diminished her in my judgments, and I experienced my own cleansing in hers.  It was a marvelous and privileged moment. In the end, we spent over an hour kneeling in the gravel, cloaked in a deep summer's night. Her prayers, a lifetime tidal wave of events and circumstances kept coming; of abuse and neglect and drugs.  The assorted maladies such as hunger, too few clothes, empty birthdays, numerous evictions and the rejection of society that abject poverty brings to a young life.  There was a devastating abortion and a fathomless litany of other terrifying choices that shredded her soul.  A father's alcoholism, a brother's suicide, and a mother's incessant marital unfaithfulness layered in it all.  Things that I could have never have comprehended.  Hers was a devastated life beyond description; a human holocaust. And it all poured into the night, across the rock and timber altar, down the gravel floor, out into the deep woods and into the expanses of heaven itself.  When it was done, she was free and her core was cleansed.  Likewise, I was free.  In that chapel God gave me far more than I had ever expected as I had trod the dirt and gravel path earlier that night.  I saw bits of me in her, and they were likewise swept away in her own release. The next sunrise may have actually been her very first sunrise, the day dawning over a new life.  With the sun barely warming the eastern horizon, she went to the shower.  Her clothes were deposited in the washer.  She combed her hair into long translucent waves, brushed her teeth bright and put on fresh clean clothes.  A touch of borrowed make-up and a slight sprits of perfume rounded out the transformation.  Arranging herself in the mirror, she gently primped herself to perfection. Susan walked into the cafeteria for that final breakfast wholly new.  Silence fell over one hundred campers.  Its power was deafening.  All of our superficial judgments had defined her for all of us.  So complete were they that we all sat there trying to somehow make them fit this new person for, sadly, we knew no other way to define her.  The old judgments of a monster melted away in the light of their gross insufficiency and a fresh understanding of this remarkable young woman seized the room.  A litany of miracles walked in with her. At that final breakfast she went from table to table to table.  Asking for forgiveness from those she'd hurt.  Weeping with those lives she'd scarred.  Holding the faces of so many in her hands, looking intently into their eyes and telling them how sorry she was.  Hugging and holding and crying with an endless array of campers and counselors.  No one ate breakfast that morning because sometimes life becomes bigger than food and larger than any agenda.  Sometimes life intersects us so powerfully that the only thing we can give attention to is that which intersects us.  And Susan intersected us all. A revival broke in that cafeteria.  Clusters of young lives gave themselves to God over eggs, bacon and a radically changed life.  Busses and arriving cars were asked to wait until the surge of one life changed had fully raced and run through the hundreds of other hurting lives that morning.  The vast gulf between what we were and what we could be was searingly highlighted in Susan.  And in the end, God ravaged the work of Satan and the deep pain of innumerable adolescents through the life of a single young lady who chose to see her core and live differently because of it.  It was the most remarkable thing I have ever seen.  A wretched and putrid life detested by those around her changing the very lives that had hated her, thereby leaving a legacy of life with those very lives.   An Errant Judgment The rocks had dropped; one by one.  Each thud stirred a slight wisp of talcum-like dust that quickly settled.  With it, a slight wisp of hope and of life spun gentle eddies in her heart.  Garbled whispering rose from the gathered cluster of angered religious leaders.  Cutting glances rendered razor sharp with hatred were slung across the courtyard toward her.  Righteous indignation wrapped itself like a robe around pious bodies.  And then, a slow dispersing of those gathered in their robes and finery with the old leaving first.  The sound of feet on departing gravel built and then gradually lessened as the courtyard was emptied.  Soon silence drifted in, leaving the scene littered still with lifeless rocks that attest to hatred halted and judgment deferred.  All that was left was a prostitute and the Son of God.  What remained was a broken woman human groveling in the acidic guilt of promiscuity . . . and Jesus.  Wholeness and hollowness stood one on one. Half naked, the hours had been truncated with deception, discovery, detainment and deliberation.  Deep in an illicit sexual embrace, eyes were watching it all happen, peering past slightly parted curtains.  A door stood ajar.  Shooing away curious passer-byers, they collected visual evidence as to the unfolding offense under the guise of a righteous action while hiding the feeding of their own sensate passion by vicariously engaging in the heat of passion themselves.  The trap was sprung.  She was seized, a few loose garments were thrown around her naked body, heckles of debauchery were hurled at her and she was dragged away.  Her partner somehow vanished as his purpose was fulfilled. The religious leaders had now departed.  Jesus slowly stood.  His eyes, contemplative and soft, shifted from the marks scrawled in the dirt and were drawn across the empty courtyard.  It is painful that people condemn in others that which they cannot accept in themselves.  That somehow the act of condemning it in others supposedly frees them from that very same thing in themselves.  They had in some way proven themselves invincible to whatever they were confronting because they had identified it and confronted in it another.  In doing so, they somehow viewed themselves as insulated from that same thing. In the oddity of facing our own filth, judging is most often not a necessary action, but an action initiated out of the fear that those judging might themselves engage in such horrific actions.  Judging is too often a self-centered act designed to free the one judging from the belief that they will ever be consumed or controlled by that which they are judging.  The sense of love that one might possess for another human being had succumbed to the fear of what oneself might actually do and the narcissism of self-preservation that arises out of that fear.  It had all resulted in their judgment of this woman.  The rocks that littered the court yard yelled it loudly long after those who had dropped them had exited.   Jesus drew a slight breath, paused and then turned.  Before Him there now knelt a scathingly hollow human being.  Few turn to the profession of prostitution unless there is wounding emptiness.  There are few people in life who are so relentlessly hollow and hold such an unyielding self-hatred as those who ply her trade.  She had likely arrived at this moment in time hollow and empty; in desperate need of a touch, of some slight affirmation.  Receiving even a morsel of someone's heart and life might have been just enough to pull her up and out of the life that she lived.  Empathy instead of judgment; compassion instead of condemnation; love instead of legalism; someone who might look just a bit farther beyond the putrid exterior to see the wounded and bleeding person inside.  Men had used her, violating her for a few scant coins.  They saw her only as an object upon which to release their sexual tensions and live out their distorted fantasies.  They had been unwilling to see the person who died a little more after each illicit rendezvous.  They didn't care to see.  They had judged her too, but they judged her differently.  They had judged how she might be used by them and how the assets she possessed could be abducted in the vandalism of another human being. Then there was the disgust of other men that was thrown out in taunts and heckling as she made her way through tight streets.  Vendors refused to sell her goods.  Still other men wanted to stone her, to kill her; to rid the world of her without understanding why she was who she was.  All of them rendered their sordid judgments, each colored by their place of proximity and point of orientation to her life.  It was the very same thing I had done to Susan. Yet, here was a very different kind of man, the kind of man I would like to be.  His example prompts and prods me to grapple with my inadequacies rather than judging those in the lives of others.  His example convinces me that something human resides in even the most destitute of persons and that I must be diligent in seeking it out even when I can't see it.  I must do these things so that I might do the same as He did. Jesus had no need to judge.  He did not need to judge her to feel insulated against her atrocities.  He had no need to elevate Himself over her to feel safe from that which had destroyed her.  He was not concerned with advancing Himself or His interests at her expense.  He simply saw her humanity, He protected it, and then He allowed it to be released rather than condemned by the rendering some sort of self-serving judgment.  He stood in the breech and turned the condemnation away.  ”'Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?'” (John 8:10), he said to her.  A life of condemnation was suddenly still and hauntingly absent; she was entirely free of the condemnation that had satiated her life and shackled her heart.  It was an odd and alien experience for her.  She was no longer suppressed by the judgments of others that were designed to elevate them.  She was not sacrificed out of the need of someone else to feel superior.  She was not used so that someone else was satisfied in the using.  She was freed to be different and to do different. Often God intervenes in ways that are outside of our realm of experience.  Often the very thing we need, we cannot conceptualize.  But it is these very things Jesus brings to us.  And in the perfect freedom of the moment that Jesus brings we find ourselves frozen.  She was frozen and unable to look up.  Her silence makes it clear.  This man had turned away the wrath that had followed her all her life.  The stones of judgment lay still in the dust.  Their voices had been muted and she had no idea what to do in a relationship where she would not be judged. Caught in the void, she attempted to somehow acclimate to what had happened.  She floundered in the freedom because freedom is the place where judgment is absent.  She was free to be who it is she truly was without the proclaimed judgments of others forcing her to remain who she was.  She stammered with the words forming in the midst of mental groping and said, “‘No one, sir'” (John 8:11, NIV).  It was just the two of them.  Face to face with this man; alone in the courtyard of her life.   Our Courtyards “‘Then neither do I condemn you.  Go now and leave your life of sin'” (John 8:11, NIV).  It is not about judgment or punishment.  There was no recitation of sins.  No lengthy exposé on the spiritual and psychological implications of sexual sin.  There was no need.  All that stuff was clear.  It was known.  Her choices were not the point of discourse for they were only the manifestation of pain, not the pain itself.  The lacerated core of this woman that had been heartlessly bludgeoned by so many others is what defined her.  Not the outward appearances as they are only a product of those wounds.  Not the manifestation of behaviors that are a part of all of that as well.  Not her acts of sexual promiscuity.  But the terrified and bloodied inner self that intentionally repulses all others at all costs so that wounded self will not incur further damage.  It's about refusing to judge as judgment only sentences others to that which we're judging them for.  Rather, we need to take a wholly different tact and attempt to see past the behavior to the person behind the behavior so that we can release them from the wounds that so bind them. Likewise, I have stood in many of my life's own courtyards.  There, in those places, inherent in me is the fundamental knowledge regarding my own nature and the manifest actions of that nature.  I often pretend that to not be the case, rummaging forward through the accumulated filth of my life pretending not to know the reason for its accumulation.  Playing dumb.  Feigning ignorance.  Judging others ruthlessly so that I think myself superior and insulated from being what they are, thereby escaping accountability and the possibility of their fate.  But I know.  I know full well. But, those that condemn me have departed.  The rightful punishment that I deserve is suspended.  Justice as I perceive it has been placated and postponed.  All that should be happening to me is not.  And in the absence of judgment is freedom.  God renders all judgment void because the cross consumes it all and renders it all as all gone.  The distractions, demands and declarations of the world as it rails against my sin is rendered silent.  Any judgments are unable to shackle me to my sin because all judgment has been suspended.  Everything that would give me pause to defend defenseless actions is absent for there is no judgment against which I must defend myself.  Every voice that would legitimately and rightly describe the repercussions of my behaviors have fallen silent.  Justice is suspended in silence.  And it is only God; my sin and God and the freedom to be different.   A Choice Freed from Judgment What was her choice after Jesus turned and left?   She stood there, aghast and in paralysis.  The sunrise would likewise dawn an entirely new day for her.  In the months and years ahead she would wash Jesus' feet with her tears.  She would attend to Him; push through the crowds that hailed Him and then condemned Him; follow Him through the pressing mobs and winding streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha.  She would endure the eternity that seemed those three and a half hours on the cross.  She would watch Him die, wait through that Saturday with angst indescribable, and be the first in all of time to see Him risen.  Her life would be radically new in ways incomprehensible to her, being wrenched out of the bed of prostitution and propelled to partnership with the Messiah.  All because Someone refused to bind her with His judgments and instead, sought her freedom.   The End Product The bus had rumbled up the long gravel road of the camp, dust and diesel leaving a path attesting to its journey.  The dust and diesel was now dissipating and thinning in a slight summer breeze.  Clusters of birds raised a cacophony of song in the dense foliage of the surrounding woods.  Golden sunshine rained from a generous sky of blue.  Hundreds of sunburnt campers with suitcases, duffle bags and rich memories gathered in clusters around a myriad of cars, busses and vans that inundated the parking lot.  In the departing mayhem there was a tug on my shoulder.  A transformed face greeted me.  This was not the girl that came off this same bus six days ago. Instantly I was in the grip of hug dripping with the love of a grateful heart.  Long and rich, the hug was one of life and living.  In the midst of the embrace, she whispered, “thanks so much.  I'll never be the same again.” Her bus rolled off down that driveway, leaving a trail of dust and diesel as it had when it had arrived.  On board was a miracle.  God had gotten to the core of her courtyard and suspended judgment.  There she seized the second chance.  And it changed her forever.   Pondering Point We judge based on externals.  It's easy that way.  There is no expenditure of energy attempting to ascertain that which we cannot see.  Seizing and evaluating the obvious is easy, convenient and simple.  It allows us to render rapid judgment and avoid encountering a life at the core of that life.  It's cheap living that is superficial and thin.  We do the same with ourselves.  We are distant from our own cores.  That however, is where Jesus meets us.  Here, at the core of our courtyards we are afforded two things.  Genuine repentance centered in the acknowledgment of our core, and then the chance to do something radically different; a wild departure into the fullness of life and the fullness of God.

Behold, the Lord, the Mighty One, has come;and kingship is in his grasp, and power and dominion.Cf. Mal 3: 1; 1 Chr 29: 12Responsorial Psalm 71(72):1-2,7-8,10-13All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord.O God, give Your judgement to the king,to a king's son Your justice,that he may judge Your people in justiceand Your poor in right judgement.All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord.In His days justice shall flourishand peace till the moon fails.He shall rule from sea to sea,from the Great River to earth's bounds.All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord.The kings of Tarshish and the sea coastsshall pay Him tribute.The kings of Sheba and Sebashall bring Him gifts.Before Him all kings shall fall prostrate,all nations shall serve Him.All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord.For He shall save the poor when they cryand the needy who are helpless.He will have pity on the weakand save the lives of the poor.All nations shall fall prostrate before You, O Lord.Responsorial psalm lyrics and Entrance Antiphon taken from the English translation and chants of The Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.The music for the psalm is an original QOP composition.Sing Psalms to the Lord YouTube channel can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELS1iG5t0qjs20JFugwdeQMusical performance by the Choir of Our Lady of the Rosary RC Church, Verdun, St. John, Barbados.Music (c) 2008 Evelyn Lee. All rights reserved.

IT IS THE ONLY WAY: YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST IS NECESSARY. WHEN YOU ACCEPT CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR, YOU RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT INTO YOUR HEART THAT PRODUCES UNIMAGINABLE CHANGES AND A UNDESCRIBABLE POWER TO DO THE WORK THAT GOD HAS FOR YOU TO DO. JUST SAY YES!INTRODUCTION: SERIES: FEAR IS NOT A FACTOR, BUT FAITH IS! YOUR LIMITATIONS ARE NOT A REASON TO BE FEARFUL!JEREMIAH 1:6-96 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can't speak for you! I'm too young!” 7 The Lord replied, “Don't say, ‘I'm too young,' for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 8 And don't be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 9 Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth.”He is known as the “weeping prophet” crying about the disobedience of God's people, idolatry, the greed of the priests, and false prophets. His name means “appointed by God”! He is a man who was able to endure some cruel punishment for speaking the truth, words given to him directly by God.  Jeremiah said that the word of the Lord came to him. Saying, before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Amen! Long before we were thought about it, God was making plans for our lives. When we feel discouraged or inadequate, we have to remember that God has a purpose for our lives. Jeremiah was appointed by God, and if you are a Christian you are too.  To be appointed means to be put in an office in order to function fully and accomplish a task. It also means to be “put in charge” it means to be assigned, designated or selected, for a specific task. We as Christians have a specific task to accomplish and that task is to do whatever God has commanded you to do. Jeremiah 1:17-18- God tells Jeremiah “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them! He told him “Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land against the kings of Judah, its officials, the priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you. Declares the Lord.Most of us struggle with challenges, because we lack self-confidence, feel that we're inadequate, don't have the ability, the training, or even experience to be successful at what God has told us to do. We don't know what we are capable of, Bible God does. Haven't y'all heard the phrase, given to right circumstances, we're capable of doing anything. That's normally a negative exhortation. In the same sense, with God, you have the ability to do anything. Don't y'all know that all things are possible when God is involved? We should not allow the feeling of inadequacy to keep us from obeying God's command. If God gives you a task, know that He has already provided all you need to accomplish it. God has touched you in a special way, He has enabled you to do things unbelievable to man, so he can get all the glory.  SCRIPTURES TO LIVE BY:Jeremiah 20:11- But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior. Before Him, my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonor will never be forgotten.”Deuteronomy 18:18- “I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.”NEXT WEEK, WE WILL CONTINUE THE SERIES: FEAR IS NOT A FACTOR, BUT FAITH IS! FEAR DOES NOT STOP THE FAVOR OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE!Next week read LUKE 1:26-38REMEMBER MY SISTERS AND BROTHERS, IT TAKES GRACE TO MAKE IT!

The work of Christ on earth was hastening to a close. Before Him, in vivid outline, lay the scenes whither His feet were tending. Even before He took humanity upon Him, He saw the whole length of the path He must travel in order to save that which was lost. Every pang that rent His heart, every insult that was heaped upon His head, every privation that He was called to endure, was open to His view before He laid aside His crown and royal robe, and stepped down from the throne, to clothe His divinity with humanity. The path from the manger to Calvary was all before His eyes. He knew the anguish that would come upon Him. He knew it all, and yet He said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.”

What though my joys and comforts die? The Lord, my Savior, liveth; What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night He giveth. —Robert Lowry Over the course of the previous two chapters, the prophet Habakkuk has cried out to God in despair over his people's condition. The Lord answers his cry with a vision of judgement, both for the faithless Jews and for those who come to pillage their land. Humbled by this not entirely welcome answer, what does Habakkuk do? He sings. Just as the repentant prophet recounts the great deeds of the Lord (“I have heard the report of You and Your work…”), hymns like God, Thy King, Thy Might Confessing and Great Is Thy Faithfulness help us to confess God's providential hand in history. Like Habakkuk crying “in wrath remember mercy,” so we will give thanks for His compassion with the hymns Jesus, Shepherd Of Thy People and There's A Wideness In God's Mercy. Habakkuk can rejoice even when famine wastes his land and invaders are sure to come (vss. 16-18), because he knows what Cowper says in God Moves In A Mysterious Way is true: “the clouds you so much dread are filled with mercy and shall break with blessing on your head.” In a world that seems ever more filled up with fear, uncertainty, and doubt, I pray that we all follow the prophet's example, taking joy in the God of our Salvation. —Henry C. Haffner Key Words: Heard, Wrath, Mercy, Rode, Marched, Pierced, Rejoice Keystone Verses: O Lord, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2) Bulletin Habakkuk 3:1-19 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 2 O Lord, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power. 5 Before Him went pestilence, and plague followed at His heels. 6 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 8 Was Your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was Your anger against the rivers, or Your indignation against the sea, when You rode on your horses, on Your chariot of salvation? 9 You stripped the sheath from Your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw You and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of Your arrows as they sped, at the flash of Your glittering spear.12 You marched through the earth in fury; You threshed the nations in anger. 13 You went out for the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of Your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 15 You trampled the sea with Your horses, the surging of mighty waters. 16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِبه نام خداوند رحمتگر مهربان الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ الظُّلُمَاتِ وَالنُّورَ ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ ﴿۱﴾Praise is due to Allah, who has created the heavens and the earth and made darkness and light. Yet the unbelievers make (others) equal with their Lord. (۱) هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ طِينٍ ثُمَّ قَضَى أَجَلًا وَأَجَلٌ مُسَمًّى عِنْدَهُ ثُمَّ أَنْتُمْ تَمْتَرُونَ ﴿۲﴾It is He who has created you from clay. He has decreed a term for you and another one set with Him. Yet you are still in doubt. (۲) وَهُوَ اللَّهُ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَفِي الْأَرْضِ يَعْلَمُ سِرَّكُمْ وَجَهْرَكُمْ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَكْسِبُونَ ﴿۳﴾He is Allah in the heavens and earth. He has knowledge of all that you hide and all that you reveal. He knows what you earn. (۳) وَمَا تَأْتِيهِمْ مِنْ آيَةٍ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَّا كَانُوا عَنْهَا مُعْرِضِينَ ﴿۴﴾Yet every time a sign comes to them from the signs of their Lord, they turn away from it. (۴) فَقَدْ كَذَّبُوا بِالْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِيهِمْ أَنْبَاءُ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ ﴿۵﴾They belied the truth when it came to them, but there shall come to them news of that they were mocking. (۵) أَلَمْ يَرَوْا كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِنْ قَرْنٍ مَكَّنَّاهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَا لَمْ نُمَكِّنْ لَكُمْ وَأَرْسَلْنَا السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْهِمْ مِدْرَارًا وَجَعَلْنَا الْأَنْهَارَ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهِمْ فَأَهْلَكْنَاهُمْ بِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَأَنْشَأْنَا مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ قَرْنًا آخَرِينَ ﴿۶﴾Have they not seen how many generations We have destroyed before them whom We had established in the land in a way We never established you, sending down for them abundant water from the sky and made the rivers to flow underneath them? Yet because they sinned, We destroyed them and raised up other generations after them. (۶) وَلَوْ نَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ كِتَابًا فِي قِرْطَاسٍ فَلَمَسُوهُ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ لَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُبِينٌ ﴿۷﴾Had We sent down to you a Book on parchment and they touched it with their own hands, those who disbelieved would say: 'This is nothing but plain magic. ' (۷) وَقَالُوا لَوْلَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ مَلَكٌ وَلَوْ أَنْزَلْنَا مَلَكًا لَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ ثُمَّ لَا يُنْظَرُونَ ﴿۸﴾They ask: 'Why has no angel been sent down to him? ' If We had sent down an angel, their fate would have been determined and they would never have been respited. (۸) وَلَوْ جَعَلْنَاهُ مَلَكًا لَجَعَلْنَاهُ رَجُلًا وَلَلَبَسْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ مَا يَلْبِسُونَ ﴿۹﴾If We had made him an angel, We would have given him the resemblance of a man, and would have as such confused them with that in which they are already confused. (۹) وَلَقَدِ اسْتُهْزِئَ بِرُسُلٍ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فَحَاقَ بِالَّذِينَ سَخِرُوا مِنْهُمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ ﴿۱۰﴾Other Messengers have been mocked before you. But those who scoffed at them were encompassed by that they had mocked. ' (۱۰) قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ انْظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ ﴿۱۱﴾Say: 'Travel the land and see what was the fate of those who belied. ' (۱۱) قُلْ لِمَنْ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ قُلْ لِلَّهِ كَتَبَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةَ لَيَجْمَعَنَّكُمْ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿۱۲﴾Say: 'To whom belongs that which is in the heavens and the earth? ' Say: 'To Allah. He has written for Himself mercy, and will gather you on the Day of Resurrection in which there is no doubt. Those who have lost their souls, they do not believe. ' (۱۲) وَلَهُ مَا سَكَنَ فِي اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ ﴿۱۳﴾His is whatever is at rest in the night and in the day. He is the Hearing, the Knowing. (۱۳) قُلْ أَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ أَتَّخِذُ وَلِيًّا فَاطِرِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ يُطْعِمُ وَلَا يُطْعَمُ قُلْ إِنِّي أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ أَوَّلَ مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ﴿۱۴﴾Say: 'Should I take any but Allah for a guardian? He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. He feeds and is not fed. ' Say: 'I was commanded to be the first to submit to Him. ' Do not be one of the idolaters. (۱۴) قُلْ إِنِّي أَخَافُ إِنْ عَصَيْتُ رَبِّي عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍ ﴿۱۵﴾Say: 'Indeed I fear, if I should disobey my Lord, the punishment of a great Day. ' (۱۵) مَنْ يُصْرَفْ عَنْهُ يَوْمَئِذٍ فَقَدْ رَحِمَهُ وَذَلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْمُبِينُ ﴿۱۶﴾From whomsoever it is averted on that Day, He will have mercy on him; that is a clear triumph. (۱۶) وَإِنْ يَمْسَسْكَ اللَّهُ بِضُرٍّ فَلَا كَاشِفَ لَهُ إِلَّا هُوَ وَإِنْ يَمْسَسْكَ بِخَيْرٍ فَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ ﴿۱۷﴾If Allah visits you with affliction, none can remove it except He; and if He touches you with good, indeed, He has power over all things. (۱۷) وَهُوَ الْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِ وَهُوَ الْحَكِيمُ الْخَبِيرُ ﴿۱۸﴾He is the Conqueror over His worshipers. He is the Wise, the Aware. (۱۸) قُلْ أَيُّ شَيْءٍ أَكْبَرُ شَهَادَةً قُلِ اللَّهُ شَهِيدٌ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكُمْ وَأُوحِيَ إِلَيَّ هَذَا الْقُرْآنُ لِأُنْذِرَكُمْ بِهِ وَمَنْ بَلَغَ أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَشْهَدُونَ أَنَّ مَعَ اللَّهِ آلِهَةً أُخْرَى قُلْ لَا أَشْهَدُ قُلْ إِنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ وَإِنَّنِي بَرِيءٌ مِمَّا تُشْرِكُونَ ﴿۱۹﴾Say: 'What thing is greatest in testimony? ' Say: 'Allah is a witness between me and you. This Koran has been revealed to me in order that I can warn you and all whom it reaches. Do you indeed testify that there are gods other than Allah? ' Say: 'I do not testify! ' Say: 'He is only One God, and I am quit of that which you associate. ' (۱۹) الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمُ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿۲۰﴾Those to whom We have given the Book know him (Prophet Muhammad) as they know their own children. But those who have lost their own souls do not believe. (۲۰) وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا أَوْ كَذَّبَ بِآيَاتِهِ إِنَّهُ لَا يُفْلِحُ الظَّالِمُونَ ﴿۲۱﴾Who is more wicked than he who invents a lie about Allah or belies His verses? The harmdoers shall never prosper. (۲۱) وَيَوْمَ نَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ نَقُولُ لِلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا أَيْنَ شُرَكَاؤُكُمُ الَّذِينَ كُنْتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ ﴿۲۲﴾On the Day when We gather them all together We shall say to the idolaters: 'Where are your partners now, those whom you claimed? ' (۲۲) ثُمَّ لَمْ تَكُنْ فِتْنَتُهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ قَالُوا وَاللَّهِ رَبِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِكِينَ ﴿۲۳﴾Then it was not their trial, but they will say: 'By Allah, our Lord we have never been idolaters. ' (۲۳) انْظُرْ كَيْفَ كَذَبُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُمْ مَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ ﴿۲۴﴾Look how they lie against themselves, and how that which they were forging has gone astray from them! (۲۴) وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَسْتَمِعُ إِلَيْكَ وَجَعَلْنَا عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ أَكِنَّةً أَنْ يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِي آذَانِهِمْ وَقْرًا وَإِنْ يَرَوْا كُلَّ آيَةٍ لَا يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَا حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءُوكَ يُجَادِلُونَكَ يَقُولُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَذَا إِلَّا أَسَاطِيرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ ﴿۲۵﴾Some of them listen to you. But We have cast veils over their hearts lest they understand it and in their ears heaviness; and if they see every sign they do not believe in it. When they come to you they argue, the unbelievers say: 'This is nothing but the tales of the ancient ones. ' (۲۵) وَهُمْ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنْهُ وَيَنْأَوْنَ عَنْهُ وَإِنْ يُهْلِكُونَ إِلَّا أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ ﴿۲۶﴾They forbid from it (the Koran) and keep away from it. They destroy none except themselves, though they do not sense it. (۲۶) وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذْ وُقِفُوا عَلَى النَّارِ فَقَالُوا يَا لَيْتَنَا نُرَدُّ وَلَا نُكَذِّبَ بِآيَاتِ رَبِّنَا وَنَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿۲۷﴾If you could see them when they are set before the Fire! They will say: 'Would that we could return! Then we would not belie the verses of our Lord and would be believers. ' (۲۷) بَلْ بَدَا لَهُمْ مَا كَانُوا يُخْفُونَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَلَوْ رُدُّوا لَعَادُوا لِمَا نُهُوا عَنْهُ وَإِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ ﴿۲۸﴾Indeed, that which they concealed will appear to them. But if they were sent back, they would return to that which they have been forbidden. They are indeed liars. (۲۸) وَقَالُوا إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَبْعُوثِينَ ﴿۲۹﴾They say: 'There is only but our present life; we shall not be resurrected. ' (۲۹) وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذْ وُقِفُوا عَلَى رَبِّهِمْ قَالَ أَلَيْسَ هَذَا بِالْحَقِّ قَالُوا بَلَى وَرَبِّنَا قَالَ فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْفُرُونَ ﴿۳۰﴾If you could see them when they are made to stand before their Lord! He will say: 'Is this not the truth? ' 'Yes, by our Lord' they will reply, and He will say: 'Taste then the punishment, for that which you disbelieved! ' (۳۰) قَدْ خَسِرَ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِلِقَاءِ اللَّهِ حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَتْهُمُ السَّاعَةُ بَغْتَةً قَالُوا يَا حَسْرَتَنَا عَلَى مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِيهَا وَهُمْ يَحْمِلُونَ أَوْزَارَهُمْ عَلَى ظُهُورِهِمْ أَلَا سَاءَ مَا يَزِرُونَ ﴿۳۱﴾They are lost indeed, those who belied the meeting with Allah. When the Hour overtakes them suddenly, they will say: 'Alas, for us, that we neglected it! ' On their backs they shall be bearing their sinful loads; how evil is what they sin! (۳۱) وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَلَلدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿۳۲﴾The life of this world is but playing and an amusement. Surely, the Everlasting home is better for the cautious. Will you not understand? (۳۲) قَدْ نَعْلَمُ إِنَّهُ لَيَحْزُنُكَ الَّذِي يَقُولُونَ فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يُكَذِّبُونَكَ وَلَكِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ يَجْحَدُونَ ﴿۳۳﴾We know what they say saddens you. It is not you that they belie; but the harmdoers deny the verses of Allah. (۳۳) وَلَقَدْ كُذِّبَتْ رُسُلٌ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فَصَبَرُوا عَلَى مَا كُذِّبُوا وَأُوذُوا حَتَّى أَتَاهُمْ نَصْرُنَا وَلَا مُبَدِّلَ لِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكَ مِنْ نَبَإِ الْمُرْسَلِينَ ﴿۳۴﴾Messengers indeed were belied before you, yet they became patient with that which they were belied, and were hurt until Our help came to them. There is none to alter the Words of Allah; and there has already come to you some news of the Messengers. (۳۴) وَإِنْ كَانَ كَبُرَ عَلَيْكَ إِعْرَاضُهُمْ فَإِنِ اسْتَطَعْتَ أَنْ تَبْتَغِيَ نَفَقًا فِي الْأَرْضِ أَوْ سُلَّمًا فِي السَّمَاءِ فَتَأْتِيَهُمْ بِآيَةٍ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَجَمَعَهُمْ عَلَى الْهُدَى فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ ﴿۳۵﴾If their turning away is hard upon you, seek if you can, a tunnel in the ground or a ladder to the sky by which you can bring them a sign. Had Allah willed, He would gather them to guidance. Do not then be among the ignorant. (۳۵) إِنَّمَا يَسْتَجِيبُ الَّذِينَ يَسْمَعُونَ وَالْمَوْتَى يَبْعَثُهُمُ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُونَ ﴿۳۶﴾Those who listen will surely answer. As for the dead, Allah will revive them. To Him they shall return. (۳۶) وَقَالُوا لَوْلَا نُزِّلَ عَلَيْهِ آيَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَادِرٌ عَلَى أَنْ يُنَزِّلَ آيَةً وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿۳۷﴾They ask: 'Why has no sign been sent down to him from his Lord? ' Say: 'Allah is Able to send down a sign. ' But most of them do not know. (۳۷) وَمَا مِنْ دَابَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا طَائِرٍ يَطِيرُ بِجَنَاحَيْهِ إِلَّا أُمَمٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ثُمَّ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ يُحْشَرُونَ ﴿۳۸﴾There is no crawling creature on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are nations like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book. They shall all be gathered before their Lord. (۳۸) وَالَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا صُمٌّ وَبُكْمٌ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ مَنْ يَشَإِ اللَّهُ يُضْلِلْهُ وَمَنْ يَشَأْ يَجْعَلْهُ عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ ﴿۳۹﴾Those who belie Our verses are deaf and dumb, in darkness. Allah leaves in error whom He will, and guides to the Straight Path whom He pleases. (۳۹) قُلْ أَرَأَيْتَكُمْ إِنْ أَتَاكُمْ عَذَابُ اللَّهِ أَوْ أَتَتْكُمُ السَّاعَةُ أَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ تَدْعُونَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ ﴿۴۰﴾Say: 'Do you see yourselves when the punishment of Allah smites you or the Hour overtakes you, will you call on any except Allah, if you are truthful? (۴۰) بَلْ إِيَّاهُ تَدْعُونَ فَيَكْشِفُ مَا تَدْعُونَ إِلَيْهِ إِنْ شَاءَ وَتَنْسَوْنَ مَا تُشْرِكُونَ ﴿۴۱﴾No, on Him alone you will call, and He will remove that for which you call upon Him, if He will. Then you will forget what you associate (with Him). (۴۱) وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا إِلَى أُمَمٍ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ فَأَخَذْنَاهُمْ بِالْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَضَرَّعُونَ ﴿۴۲﴾Before you We sent forth to other nations, and then seized them with misery and hardship so that they might humble themselves. (۴۲) فَلَوْلَا إِذْ جَاءَهُمْ بَأْسُنَا تَضَرَّعُوا وَلَكِنْ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۴۳﴾If only they humbled themselves when Our scourge overtook them! But their hearts were hardened, and satan decorated to them what they were doing. (۴۳) فَلَمَّا نَسُوا مَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَابَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَتَّى إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا أُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا هُمْ مُبْلِسُونَ ﴿۴۴﴾And when they had forgotten that with which they have been admonished, We opened the gates of everything to them, until just as they were rejoicing in what they were given, We suddenly seized them and they were in utter despair. (۴۴) فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿۴۵﴾As such the harmdoers were annihilated. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds! (۴۵) قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ سَمْعَكُمْ وَأَبْصَارَكُمْ وَخَتَمَ عَلَى قُلُوبِكُمْ مَنْ إِلَهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُمْ بِهِ انْظُرْ كَيْفَ نُصَرِّفُ الْآيَاتِ ثُمَّ هُمْ يَصْدِفُونَ ﴿۴۶﴾Say: 'What would you see if Allah took away your hearing and your sight, and set a seal upon your hearts, who is a god, other than Allah, to bring it back to you? ' Look how We make plain to them Our verses, and yet they turn away. (۴۶) قُلْ أَرَأَيْتَكُمْ إِنْ أَتَاكُمْ عَذَابُ اللَّهِ بَغْتَةً أَوْ جَهْرَةً هَلْ يُهْلَكُ إِلَّا الْقَوْمُ الظَّالِمُونَ ﴿۴۷﴾Say: 'What do you see yourselves then, if the punishment of Allah overtook you suddenly or openly, would any perish but the harmdoing nation? ' (۴۷) وَمَا نُرْسِلُ الْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلَّا مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ فَمَنْ آمَنَ وَأَصْلَحَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ ﴿۴۸﴾We send forth Our Messengers only to give glad tidings to mankind and to warn them. Those who believe and mend their ways shall have nothing to fear or to be saddened. (۴۸) وَالَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَمَسُّهُمُ الْعَذَابُ بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْسُقُونَ ﴿۴۹﴾But those who belie Our verses, punishment shall touch them for their misdeeds. (۴۹) قُلْ لَا أَقُولُ لَكُمْ عِنْدِي خَزَائِنُ اللَّهِ وَلَا أَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبَ وَلَا أَقُولُ لَكُمْ إِنِّي مَلَكٌ إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَى إِلَيَّ قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الْأَعْمَى وَالْبَصِيرُ أَفَلَا تَتَفَكَّرُونَ ﴿۵۰﴾Say: 'I do not tell you that I have the treasuries of Allah or know the unseen, nor do I claim to be an angel. I follow only that which is revealed to me. ' Say: 'Are the blind and the seeing alike? Will you not think? ' (۵۰) وَأَنْذِرْ بِهِ الَّذِينَ يَخَافُونَ أَنْ يُحْشَرُوا إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ لَيْسَ لَهُمْ مِنْ دُونِهِ وَلِيٌّ وَلَا شَفِيعٌ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿۵۱﴾And warn with it those who fear to be brought before their Lord that they have no guardian or intercessor, other than Allah, in order that they are cautious. (۵۱) وَلَا تَطْرُدِ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُ مَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ حِسَابِهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ وَمَا مِنْ حِسَابِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَتَطْرُدَهُمْ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿۵۲﴾Do not drive away those who call on their Lord morning and evening, seeking only His Face. Nothing of their account falls upon you, and nothing of your account falls upon them, that you should drive them away and so become one of the harmdoers. (۵۲) وَكَذَلِكَ فَتَنَّا بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لِيَقُولُوا أَهَؤُلَاءِ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ بَيْنِنَا أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِالشَّاكِرِينَ ﴿۵۳﴾As such We have made some of them a means for testing others, so that they should say: 'Are those whom Allah favors amongst us? ' But does not Allah best know the thankful? (۵۳) وَإِذَا جَاءَكَ الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِنَا فَقُلْ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ كَتَبَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةَ أَنَّهُ مَنْ عَمِلَ مِنْكُمْ سُوءًا بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ تَابَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَنَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ ﴿۵۴﴾When those who believe in Our verses come to you, say: 'Peace be upon you. Your Lord has decreed Mercy on Himself, if any one of you commits evil through ignorance, and then repents, and mends his ways, then He is Forgiving, the Most Merciful. ' (۵۴) وَكَذَلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ وَلِتَسْتَبِينَ سَبِيلُ الْمُجْرِمِينَ ﴿۵۵﴾As such We make plain Our verses, so that the path of the wicked will be clear. (۵۵) قُلْ إِنِّي نُهِيتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ قُلْ لَا أَتَّبِعُ أَهْوَاءَكُمْ قَدْ ضَلَلْتُ إِذًا وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُهْتَدِينَ ﴿۵۶﴾Say: 'I am forbidden to worship whom you call upon instead of Allah. ' Say: 'I will not yield to your wishes, for then I should have strayed and should not be of those guided. ' (۵۶) قُلْ إِنِّي عَلَى بَيِّنَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّي وَكَذَّبْتُمْ بِهِ مَا عِنْدِي مَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ بِهِ إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ يَقُصُّ الْحَقَّ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ الْفَاصِلِينَ ﴿۵۷﴾Say: 'I am upon a clear proof from my Lord, yet you belie Him. I do not have that which you seek to hasten; judgement is for Allah alone. He narrates the truth and He is the Best of deciders. ' (۵۷) قُلْ لَوْ أَنَّ عِنْدِي مَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ بِهِ لَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِالظَّالِمِينَ ﴿۵۸﴾Say: 'If what you seek to hasten were with me, the matter between you and me would be decided, and Allah knows very well the harmdoers. ' (۵۸) وَعِنْدَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا إِلَّا هُوَ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِنْ وَرَقَةٍ إِلَّا يَعْلَمُهَا وَلَا حَبَّةٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الْأَرْضِ وَلَا رَطْبٍ وَلَا يَابِسٍ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ ﴿۵۹﴾With Him are the keys of the unseen, none knows them but He. He knows that which is in the land and sea. No leaf falls except He knows it, and there is no grain in the darkness of the earth, fresh or withered, but is recorded in a clear Book. (۵۹) وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَتَوَفَّاكُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا جَرَحْتُمْ بِالنَّهَارِ ثُمَّ يَبْعَثُكُمْ فِيهِ لِيُقْضَى أَجَلٌ مُسَمًّى ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۶۰﴾It is He who makes you to die by night, knowing what you have gained by day, and then resurrects you so that an ordained term is realized. To Him you shall return, and He will tell you of what you have been doing. (۶۰) وَهُوَ الْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِ وَيُرْسِلُ عَلَيْكُمْ حَفَظَةً حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ تَوَفَّتْهُ رُسُلُنَا وَهُمْ لَا يُفَرِّطُونَ ﴿۶۱﴾He is the Conqueror over His worshipers. He sends forth guardians who watch over you until death comes to one of you, when Our messengers take him, and they are not neglectful. (۶۱) ثُمَّ رُدُّوا إِلَى اللَّهِ مَوْلَاهُمُ الْحَقِّ أَلَا لَهُ الْحُكْمُ وَهُوَ أَسْرَعُ الْحَاسِبِينَ ﴿۶۲﴾Then, they are returned to Allah their Guardian, the True. Surely, the judgement is for Him, He is the Swiftest of reckoners. ' (۶۲) قُلْ مَنْ يُنَجِّيكُمْ مِنْ ظُلُمَاتِ الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ تَدْعُونَهُ تَضَرُّعًا وَخُفْيَةً لَئِنْ أَنْجَانَا مِنْ هَذِهِ لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الشَّاكِرِينَ ﴿۶۳﴾Say: 'Who saves you from the darkness of the land and sea, when you call out to Him humbly and in secret, (saying:) "If You save us from this, we will be among the thankful." (۶۳) قُلِ اللَّهُ يُنَجِّيكُمْ مِنْهَا وَمِنْ كُلِّ كَرْبٍ ثُمَّ أَنْتُمْ تُشْرِكُونَ ﴿۶۴﴾Say: 'Allah saves you from them, and from all afflictions. Then, you associate (with Him). ' (۶۴) قُلْ هُوَ الْقَادِرُ عَلَى أَنْ يَبْعَثَ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابًا مِنْ فَوْقِكُمْ أَوْ مِنْ تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِكُمْ أَوْ يَلْبِسَكُمْ شِيَعًا وَيُذِيقَ بَعْضَكُمْ بَأْسَ بَعْضٍ انْظُرْ كَيْفَ نُصَرِّفُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَفْقَهُونَ ﴿۶۵﴾Say: 'He is Able to send forth upon you punishment from above you or beneath your feet, or to divide you into discordant factions, and to make some of you taste the affliction of the other. ' Look how We make plain Our verses, in order that they understand. (۶۵) وَكَذَّبَ بِهِ قَوْمُكَ وَهُوَ الْحَقُّ قُلْ لَسْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ بِوَكِيلٍ ﴿۶۶﴾Your nation has belied it (the Koran), although it is the truth. Say: 'I am not a guardian over you. (۶۶) لِكُلِّ نَبَإٍ مُسْتَقَرٌّ وَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ ﴿۶۷﴾Every news has its appointed time; you will surely know. ' (۶۷) وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَ الَّذِينَ يَخُوضُونَ فِي آيَاتِنَا فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ حَتَّى يَخُوضُوا فِي حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِ وَإِمَّا يُنْسِيَنَّكَ الشَّيْطَانُ فَلَا تَقْعُدْ بَعْدَ الذِّكْرَى مَعَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿۶۸﴾When you see those who plunge (scoffing) into Our verses, withdraw from them till they plunge into some other talk. If satan causes you to forget, leave the wrongdoing people as soon as you remember. (۶۸) وَمَا عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ مِنْ حِسَابِهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ وَلَكِنْ ذِكْرَى لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿۶۹﴾Those who are cautious are not accountable for them in anything, but it is a reminder in order that they be cautious. (۶۹) وَذَرِ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَهُمْ لَعِبًا وَلَهْوًا وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَذَكِّرْ بِهِ أَنْ تُبْسَلَ نَفْسٌ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ لَيْسَ لَهَا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلِيٌّ وَلَا شَفِيعٌ وَإِنْ تَعْدِلْ كُلَّ عَدْلٍ لَا يُؤْخَذْ مِنْهَا أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ أُبْسِلُوا بِمَا كَسَبُوا لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ وَعَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ ﴿۷۰﴾Avoid those who take their religion as playing and an amusement and are seduced by the life of this world. Admonish them hereby lest a soul be taken by what it has gained, for it has no guardian or intercessor before Allah, and though it offers every ransom, it shall not be taken from it. Those are they who are taken for that which they earned. For them a drink of boiling water, a stern punishment for their disbelief. (۷۰) قُلْ أَنَدْعُو مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ مَا لَا يَنْفَعُنَا وَلَا يَضُرُّنَا وَنُرَدُّ عَلَى أَعْقَابِنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَانَا اللَّهُ كَالَّذِي اسْتَهْوَتْهُ الشَّيَاطِينُ فِي الْأَرْضِ حَيْرَانَ لَهُ أَصْحَابٌ يَدْعُونَهُ إِلَى الْهُدَى ائْتِنَا قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَى وَأُمِرْنَا لِنُسْلِمَ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿۷۱﴾Say: 'Are we to call, other than Allah, what can neither help nor harm us? Are we to turn on our heels after Allah has guided us like him, who, being bewitched by devils, blunders aimlessly in the earth, although his friends call him to the guidance, (saying) 'Come to us! ' Say: 'The guidance of Allah is the Guidance. We are commanded to submit to the Lord of the Worlds, (۷۱) وَأَنْ أَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَاتَّقُوهُ وَهُوَ الَّذِي إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ ﴿۷۲﴾and to establish prayer, and fear Him. Before Him you shall all be assembled. ' (۷۲) وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِالْحَقِّ وَيَوْمَ يَقُولُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ قَوْلُهُ الْحَقُّ وَلَهُ الْمُلْكُ يَوْمَ يُنْفَخُ فِي الصُّورِ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ وَهُوَ الْحَكِيمُ الْخَبِيرُ ﴿۷۳﴾It was He who created the heavens and the earth in truth. On the Day when He says: 'Be, ' it shall be. His Word is the truth. His shall be the Kingdom on the Day when the Horn is blown. The Knower of the unseen and the visible, and He is the Wise, the Aware. (۷۳) وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ لِأَبِيهِ آزَرَ أَتَتَّخِذُ أَصْنَامًا آلِهَةً إِنِّي أَرَاكَ وَقَوْمَكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ ﴿۷۴﴾(And remember) when Abraham said to his father Azar: 'Will you take idols for gods, surely I see you and your people are in clear error. ' (۷۴) وَكَذَلِكَ نُرِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ مَلَكُوتَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَلِيَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُوقِنِينَ ﴿۷۵﴾And so We showed Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, so that he might be of those who are certain. (۷۵) فَلَمَّا جَنَّ عَلَيْهِ اللَّيْلُ رَأَى كَوْكَبًا قَالَ هَذَا رَبِّي فَلَمَّا أَفَلَ قَالَ لَا أُحِبُّ الْآفِلِينَ ﴿۷۶﴾When night drew over him, he saw a planet. 'This, ' he said: 'is surely my Lord. ' But when it set he said: 'I do not like the setting ones. ' (۷۶) فَلَمَّا رَأَى الْقَمَرَ بَازِغًا قَالَ هَذَا رَبِّي فَلَمَّا أَفَلَ قَالَ لَئِنْ لَمْ يَهْدِنِي رَبِّي لَأَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْقَوْمِ الضَّالِّينَ ﴿۷۷﴾When he saw the rising moon, he said: 'This is my Lord. ' But when it set, he said: 'If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be amongst the astray nation. ' (۷۷) فَلَمَّا رَأَى الشَّمْسَ بَازِغَةً قَالَ هَذَا رَبِّي هَذَا أَكْبَرُ فَلَمَّا أَفَلَتْ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي بَرِيءٌ مِمَّا تُشْرِكُونَ ﴿۷۸﴾Then, when he saw the sun rise, shining, he said: 'This must be my Lord, it is larger. ' But when it set, he said: 'O nation I am quit of what you associate (with Allah, the Creator), (۷۸) إِنِّي وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِي فَطَرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ﴿۷۹﴾I have turned my face to Him who has created the heavens and the earth, uprightly, and I am not among the idolaters. ' (۷۹) وَحَاجَّهُ قَوْمُهُ قَالَ أَتُحَاجُّونِّي فِي اللَّهِ وَقَدْ هَدَانِ وَلَا أَخَافُ مَا تُشْرِكُونَ بِهِ إِلَّا أَنْ يَشَاءَ رَبِّي شَيْئًا وَسِعَ رَبِّي كُلَّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا أَفَلَا تَتَذَكَّرُونَ ﴿۸۰﴾His nation argued with him. He said: 'Will you argue with me about Allah, indeed He guided me! Except by His will, I do not fear those you associate with Him. My Lord embraces all things in knowledge, will you not remember? (۸۰) وَكَيْفَ أَخَافُ مَا أَشْرَكْتُمْ وَلَا تَخَافُونَ أَنَّكُمْ أَشْرَكْتُمْ بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَانًا فَأَيُّ الْفَرِيقَيْنِ أَحَقُّ بِالْأَمْنِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ ﴿۸۱﴾And how should I fear what you have associated when you yourselves are not afraid that you have associated with Allah that which He did not send down for it upon you an authority. Which of the two parties is more deserving of safety, if you know? (۸۱) الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُوا إِيمَانَهُمْ بِظُلْمٍ أُولَئِكَ لَهُمُ الْأَمْنُ وَهُمْ مُهْتَدُونَ ﴿۸۲﴾Those who believe and have not confounded their belief with harm security belongs to them; and they are guided. ' (۸۲) وَتِلْكَ حُجَّتُنَا آتَيْنَاهَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَلَى قَوْمِهِ نَرْفَعُ دَرَجَاتٍ مَنْ نَشَاءُ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ ﴿۸۳﴾Such is the argument that We gave Abraham against his nation. We raise whom We will to an exalted rank. Your Lord is Wise, Knowing. (۸۳) وَوَهَبْنَا لَهُ إِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ كُلًّا هَدَيْنَا وَنُوحًا هَدَيْنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِهِ دَاوُودَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ وَأَيُّوبَ وَيُوسُفَ وَمُوسَى وَهَارُونَ وَكَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُحْسِنِينَ ﴿۸۴﴾We gave him Isaac and Jacob and guided both; and We guided Noah before them, among his descendants were David and Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses and Aaron as such, We recompense the gooddoers, (۸۴) وَزَكَرِيَّا وَيَحْيَى وَعِيسَى وَإِلْيَاسَ كُلٌّ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ ﴿۸۵﴾and (Prophets) Zachariah, John, Jesus and Elias, each was of the righteous, (۸۵) وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَالْيَسَعَ وَيُونُسَ وَلُوطًا وَكُلًّا فَضَّلْنَا عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿۸۶﴾and Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah and Lot. Each We preferred above the worlds, (۸۶) وَمِنْ آبَائِهِمْ وَذُرِّيَّاتِهِمْ وَإِخْوَانِهِمْ وَاجْتَبَيْنَاهُمْ وَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ ﴿۸۷﴾as We did their fathers, their descendants, and their brothers. We chose them and guided them to a Straight Path. (۸۷) ذَلِكَ هُدَى اللَّهِ يَهْدِي بِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ وَلَوْ أَشْرَكُوا لَحَبِطَ عَنْهُمْ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۸۸﴾Such is the guidance of Allah by it He guides whom He will of His worshipers. Had they associated (others with Him), their labors would have indeed been annulled. (۸۸) أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحُكْمَ وَالنُّبُوَّةَ فَإِنْ يَكْفُرْ بِهَا هَؤُلَاءِ فَقَدْ وَكَّلْنَا بِهَا قَوْمًا لَيْسُوا بِهَا بِكَافِرِينَ ﴿۸۹﴾Those, We have given them the Book, judgment, and prophethood. If these disbelieve it, We have entrusted it to others who do not disbelieve in it. (۸۹) أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ هَدَى اللَّهُ فَبِهُدَاهُمُ اقْتَدِهْ قُلْ لَا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرَى لِلْعَالَمِينَ ﴿۹۰﴾Those were whom Allah guided. Follow then their guidance and say: 'I do not ask you a wage for it. Surely, it is a reminder to the worlds. ' (۹۰) وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ إِذْ قَالُوا مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَى بَشَرٍ مِنْ شَيْءٍ قُلْ مَنْ أَنْزَلَ الْكِتَابَ الَّذِي جَاءَ بِهِ مُوسَى نُورًا وَهُدًى لِلنَّاسِ تَجْعَلُونَهُ قَرَاطِيسَ تُبْدُونَهَا وَتُخْفُونَ كَثِيرًا وَعُلِّمْتُمْ مَا لَمْ تَعْلَمُوا أَنْتُمْ وَلَا آبَاؤُكُمْ قُلِ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِي خَوْضِهِمْ يَلْعَبُونَ ﴿۹۱﴾They have not valued Allah with His true value, when they said 'Allah has never sent down anything to a mortal. ' Say: 'Who, then sent down the Book which Moses brought, a light and guidance for people? You put it on to parchments, revealing them and hiding much, you have now been taught what neither you nor your fathers knew before! ' Say: 'Allah. ' Then leave them, playing in their plunging. (۹۱) وَهَذَا كِتَابٌ أَنْزَلْنَاهُ مُبَارَكٌ مُصَدِّقُ الَّذِي بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَلِتُنْذِرَ أُمَّ الْقُرَى وَمَنْ حَوْلَهَا وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْآخِرَةِ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ وَهُمْ عَلَى صَلَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ ﴿۹۲﴾And this is a Blessed Book which We have sent down, confirming what came before it, in order that you warn the Mother of the Villages (Mecca) and those who (live) around it. Those who believe in the Everlasting Life believe in it and preserve their prayers. (۹۲) وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا أَوْ قَالَ أُوحِيَ إِلَيَّ وَلَمْ يُوحَ إِلَيْهِ شَيْءٌ وَمَنْ قَالَ سَأُنْزِلُ مِثْلَ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذِ الظَّالِمُونَ فِي غَمَرَاتِ الْمَوْتِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ بَاسِطُو أَيْدِيهِمْ أَخْرِجُوا أَنْفُسَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ تُجْزَوْنَ عَذَابَ الْهُونِ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ وَكُنْتُمْ عَنْ آيَاتِهِ تَسْتَكْبِرُونَ ﴿۹۳﴾Who is more harmful than he who invents a lie about Allah, or says: "It has been revealed to me," when nothing has been revealed to him? Or he who says: 'I will send down the like of what Allah has sent down! ' Would that you could see the harmdoers when death overwhelms them! With hands outstretched, the angels (will say): 'Yield up your souls. You shall be recompensed with a humiliating punishment this Day, for you have said of Allah what is untrue and you grew proud against His verses. (۹۳) وَلَقَدْ جِئْتُمُونَا فُرَادَى كَمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَتَرَكْتُمْ مَا خَوَّلْنَاكُمْ وَرَاءَ ظُهُورِكُمْ وَمَا نَرَى مَعَكُمْ شُفَعَاءَكُمُ الَّذِينَ زَعَمْتُمْ أَنَّهُمْ فِيكُمْ شُرَكَاءُ لَقَدْ تَقَطَّعَ بَيْنَكُمْ وَضَلَّ عَنْكُمْ مَا كُنْتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ ﴿۹۴﴾Now you have returned to Us, alone, as We created you at first, leaving behind all that We have bestowed on you. Nor do We see with you your intercessors, those whom you asserted to be your associates. The ties which bound you are broken, and that which you asserted has gone astray from you. ' (۹۴) إِنَّ اللَّهَ فَالِقُ الْحَبِّ وَالنَّوَى يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَمُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتِ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ذَلِكُمُ اللَّهُ فَأَنَّى تُؤْفَكُونَ ﴿۹۵﴾It is Allah who splits the grain and the datestone. He brings forth the living from the dead, and the dead from the living. So, that is Allah; how then are you perverted? (۹۵) فَالِقُ الْإِصْبَاحِ وَجَعَلَ اللَّيْلَ سَكَنًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ حُسْبَانًا ذَلِكَ تَقْدِيرُ الْعَزِيزِ الْعَلِيمِ ﴿۹۶﴾He splits the sky into dawn. He has ordained the night for rest and the sun, and the moon for reckoning. Such is the ordinance of the Almighty, the Knowing. (۹۶) وَهُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ النُّجُومَ لِتَهْتَدُوا بِهَا فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿۹۷﴾It is He who has created for you the stars, so that you can be guided by them in the darkness of land and sea. We have made plain Our verses to a nation who know. (۹۷) وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْشَأَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ فَمُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمُسْتَوْدَعٌ قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَفْقَهُونَ ﴿۹۸﴾It is He who originated you from one soul, then a lodging (place), and then a repository. We have made plain the verses to a nation that understands. (۹۸) وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِ نَبَاتَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَأَخْرَجْنَا مِنْهُ خَضِرًا نُخْرِجُ مِنْهُ حَبًّا مُتَرَاكِبًا وَمِنَ النَّخْلِ مِنْ طَلْعِهَا قِنْوَانٌ دَانِيَةٌ وَجَنَّاتٍ مِنْ أَعْنَابٍ وَالزَّيْتُونَ وَالرُّمَّانَ مُشْتَبِهًا وَغَيْرَ مُتَشَابِهٍ انْظُرُوا إِلَى ثَمَرِهِ إِذَا أَثْمَرَ وَيَنْعِهِ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكُمْ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿۹۹﴾He sends down water from the sky, and with it We bring forth the plant of every thing. From these We bring forth green foliage and composite grain, palmtrees laden with clusters of dates within reach, vineyards and olive groves and pomegranates alike and unlike. Behold their fruits when they bear fruit and ripen. Surely, in these there are signs for a nation who believe. (۹۹) وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ شُرَكَاءَ الْجِنَّ وَخَلَقَهُمْ وَخَرَقُوا لَهُ بَنِينَ وَبَنَاتٍ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ ﴿۱۰۰﴾Yet they regard the jinn as the partners of Allah, although He created them, and without knowledge ascribe to Him sons and daughters. Exaltations to Him! He is above what they describe. (۱۰۰) بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ أَنَّى يَكُونُ لَهُ وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ تَكُنْ لَهُ صَاحِبَةٌ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ ﴿۱۰۱﴾He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have a son when He had no female companion? He created all things and has knowledge of all things. (۱۰۱) ذَلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَاعْبُدُوهُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ ﴿۱۰۲﴾That is Allah, your Lord. There is no god except He, the Creator of all things. Therefore, worship Him. He is the Guardian of all things. (۱۰۲) لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ ﴿۱۰۳﴾No eye can see Him, though He sees all eyes. He is the Subtle, the Aware. (۱۰۳) قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ بَصَائِرُ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَمَنْ أَبْصَرَ فَلِنَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ عَمِيَ فَعَلَيْهَا وَمَا أَنَا عَلَيْكُمْ بِحَفِيظٍ ﴿۱۰۴﴾Clear proofs have come to you from your Lord. Whosoever sees clearly it is for himself, and whosoever is blind, it is against himself. I am not an overseer for you. (۱۰۴) وَكَذَلِكَ نُصَرِّفُ الْآيَاتِ وَلِيَقُولُوا دَرَسْتَ وَلِنُبَيِّنَهُ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿۱۰۵﴾As such We make plain Our verses, so that they can say: 'You have studied, ' in order that We clarify it to a nation that knows. (۱۰۵) اتَّبِعْ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ﴿۱۰۶﴾Therefore, follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord there is no god except Him, and avoid the idolaters. (۱۰۶) وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكُوا وَمَا جَعَلْنَاكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَفِيظًا وَمَا أَنْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ بِوَكِيلٍ ﴿۱۰۷﴾Had Allah willed, they would not have associated. We have not made you an overseer for them, nor are you their guardian. (۱۰۷) وَلَا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْوًا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ كَذَلِكَ زَيَّنَّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ مَرْجِعُهُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۱۰۸﴾Do not say crude words to those who call upon other than Allah, lest they use crude words about Allah in revenge without knowledge. As such we have made the actions of each nation seem pleasing. To their Lord they shall return, and He will inform them of that they were doing. (۱۰۸) وَأَقْسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَانِهِمْ لَئِنْ جَاءَتْهُمْ آيَةٌ لَيُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهَا قُلْ إِنَّمَا الْآيَاتُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ وَمَا يُشْعِرُكُمْ أَنَّهَا إِذَا جَاءَتْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿۱۰۹﴾They solemnly swear by Allah that if a sign is given to them they would believe in it. Say: 'Signs are only with Allah. ' And how can you tell if it comes they will not believe. ' (۱۰۹) وَنُقَلِّبُ أَفْئِدَتَهُمْ وَأَبْصَارَهُمْ كَمَا لَمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهِ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَنَذَرُهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ ﴿۱۱۰﴾We will turn away their hearts and eyes since they refused to believe in it at first. We will leave them in their insolence wandering blindly. (۱۱۰) وَلَوْ أَنَّنَا نَزَّلْنَا إِلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَكَلَّمَهُمُ الْمَوْتَى وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلًا مَا كَانُوا لِيُؤْمِنُوا إِلَّا أَنْ يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ يَجْهَلُونَ ﴿۱۱۱﴾Even if We sent down the angels to them and the dead spoke to them, and assembled all things in front of them, they would still not believe, unless Allah willed it. But most of them are ignorant. (۱۱۱) وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَا لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ عَدُوًّا شَيَاطِينَ الْإِنْسِ وَالْجِنِّ يُوحِي بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَى بَعْضٍ زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ غُرُورًا وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ مَا فَعَلُوهُ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ ﴿۱۱۲﴾As such We have assigned for every Prophet an enemy; the satans of humans and jinn, revealing varnished speech to each other, all as a delusion. But had your Lord willed, they would not have done so. Therefore leave them and what they invent, (۱۱۲) وَلِتَصْغَى إِلَيْهِ أَفْئِدَةُ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْآخِرَةِ وَلِيَرْضَوْهُ وَلِيَقْتَرِفُوا مَا هُمْ مُقْتَرِفُونَ ﴿۱۱۳﴾so that the hearts of those who have no belief in the Everlasting Life are inclined to it and, being pleased, persist in their sinful ways. (۱۱۳) أَفَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ أَبْتَغِي حَكَمًا وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكِتَابَ مُفَصَّلًا وَالَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ مُنَزَّلٌ مِنْ رَبِّكَ بِالْحَقِّ فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْمُمْتَرِينَ ﴿۱۱۴﴾Should I seek a judge other than Allah when it is He who has sent down the well distinguished Book for you? Those to whom We have given the Book know that it is the truth sent down from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters. (۱۱۴) وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ صِدْقًا وَعَدْلًا لَا مُبَدِّلَ لِكَلِمَاتِهِ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ ﴿۱۱۵﴾Perfected are the words of your Lord in truth and justice, none can change His Words. He is the Hearing, the Knowing. (۱۱۵) وَإِنْ تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ إِنْ يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ ﴿۱۱۶﴾If you obeyed most of those on earth, they would lead you astray from the Path of Allah. They follow only supposition and they are but conjecturing. (۱۱۶) إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ مَنْ يَضِلُّ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ ﴿۱۱۷﴾Your Lord knows best who stray from His Path and the guided. (۱۱۷) فَكُلُوا مِمَّا ذُكِرَ اسْمُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ بِآيَاتِهِ مُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿۱۱۸﴾Eat then of that over which the Name of Allah has been mentioned (when slaughtered), if you truly believe in His verses. (۱۱۸) وَمَا لَكُمْ أَلَّا تَأْكُلُوا مِمَّا ذُكِرَ اسْمُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَقَدْ فَصَّلَ لَكُمْ مَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِلَّا مَا اضْطُرِرْتُمْ إِلَيْهِ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا لَيُضِلُّونَ بِأَهْوَائِهِمْ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُعْتَدِينَ ﴿۱۱۹﴾And why should you not eat of that over which the Name of Allah has been pronounced when He has already made plain to you what is forbidden, except when you are constrained? Many are those who mislead through ignorance on account of their fancies, but your Lord best knows the transgressors. (۱۱۹) وَذَرُوا ظَاهِرَ الْإِثْمِ وَبَاطِنَهُ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْسِبُونَ الْإِثْمَ سَيُجْزَوْنَ بِمَا كَانُوا يَقْتَرِفُونَ ﴿۱۲۰﴾Forsake the revealed and hidden sin. Those who earn sin shall be recompensed for what they have committed. (۱۲۰) وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا مِمَّا لَمْ يُذْكَرِ اسْمُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَإِنَّهُ لَفِسْقٌ وَإِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ لَيُوحُونَ إِلَى أَوْلِيَائِهِمْ لِيُجَادِلُوكُمْ وَإِنْ أَطَعْتُمُوهُمْ إِنَّكُمْ لَمُشْرِكُونَ ﴿۱۲۱﴾Do not eat from that which the Name of Allah has not been mentioned, for it is a sin. The satans will reveal to their guided ones to argue with you. If you obey them, you shall indeed become idolaters. (۱۲۱) أَوَمَنْ كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ كَمَنْ مَثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا كَذَلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۱۲۲﴾Is he who was dead whom We have revived and given a light with which he walks among people to be compared to him who blunders about in darkness from which he will never emerge? As such what the unbelievers have done appear decorated to them. (۱۲۲) وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَا فِي كُلِّ قَرْيَةٍ أَكَابِرَ مُجْرِمِيهَا لِيَمْكُرُوا فِيهَا وَمَا يَمْكُرُونَ إِلَّا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ ﴿۱۲۳﴾And as such we have placed in every village its archtransgressors to scheme there. But they scheme only against themselves, though they do not sense it. (۱۲۳) وَإِذَا جَاءَتْهُمْ آيَةٌ قَالُوا لَنْ نُؤْمِنَ حَتَّى نُؤْتَى مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيَ رُسُلُ اللَّهِ اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُ سَيُصِيبُ الَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا صَغَارٌ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ وَعَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَمْكُرُونَ ﴿۱۲۴﴾When a sign came to them they said: 'We will not believe in it unless we are given that which the Messengers of Allah have been given. ' But Allah knows best where to place His Message. Humiliation with Allah shall befall the sinners as well as a terrible punishment for what they devised. (۱۲۴) فَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ وَمَنْ يُرِدْ أَنْ يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ كَذَلِكَ يَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ الرِّجْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿۱۲۵﴾Whomsoever Allah desires to guide, He expands his chest to Islam (submission). Whomsoever He desires to lead astray, He makes his chest narrow, tight, as though he were climbing to heaven. As such Allah lays the scourge on the unbelievers. (۱۲۵) وَهَذَا صِرَاطُ رَبِّكَ مُسْتَقِيمًا قَدْ فَصَّلْنَا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَذَّكَّرُونَ ﴿۱۲۶﴾This is the Path of your Lord, a Straight Path. We have made plain Our verses to a nation who remember. (۱۲۶) لَهُمْ دَارُ السَّلَامِ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَهُوَ وَلِيُّهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۱۲۷﴾Theirs is the abode of peace with their Lord. He is their Guardian for what they did. (۱۲۷) وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًا يَا مَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ قَدِ اسْتَكْثَرْتُمْ مِنَ الْإِنْسِ وَقَالَ أَوْلِيَاؤُهُمْ مِنَ الْإِنْسِ رَبَّنَا اسْتَمْتَعَ بَعْضُنَا بِبَعْضٍ وَبَلَغْنَا أَجَلَنَا الَّذِي أَجَّلْتَ لَنَا قَالَ النَّارُ مَثْوَاكُمْ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ ﴿۱۲۸﴾On the Day when He assembles them all together, 'O company of Jinn, you have seduced mankind in great numbers. ' And their guided ones among the humans will say: 'Lord, we have enjoyed each other. But now we have reached the term which You have appointed for us. ' He will say: 'The Fire shall be your lodging, and there you shall remain for ever except as Allah will. ' Your Lord is Wise, Knowing. (۱۲۸) وَكَذَلِكَ نُوَلِّي بَعْضَ الظَّالِمِينَ بَعْضًا بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ ﴿۱۲۹﴾So We make the harmdoers guides of each other for what they have earned. (۱۲۹) يَا مَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنْسِ أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِنْكُمْ يَقُصُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتِي وَيُنْذِرُونَكُمْ لِقَاءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا قَالُوا شَهِدْنَا عَلَى أَنْفُسِنَا وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَشَهِدُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا كَافِرِينَ ﴿۱۳۰﴾'Jinn and human, did there not come to you Messengers of your own who narrated to you My verses and warned you of encountering this Day? ' They will reply: 'We bear witness against ourselves. ' Indeed, the life of this world beguiled them. They will bear witness against themselves that they were unbelievers. (۱۳۰) ذَلِكَ أَنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ رَبُّكَ مُهْلِكَ الْقُرَى بِظُلْمٍ وَأَهْلُهَا غَافِلُونَ ﴿۱۳۱﴾That is because your Lord will not destroy villages unjustly, while their inhabitants were inattentive. (۱۳۱) وَلِكُلٍّ دَرَجَاتٌ مِمَّا عَمِلُوا وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿۱۳۲﴾They all have their degrees according to their deeds. Your Lord is not inattentive of their actions. (۱۳۲) وَرَبُّكَ الْغَنِيُّ ذُو الرَّحْمَةِ إِنْ يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ وَيَسْتَخْلِفْ مِنْ بَعْدِكُمْ مَا يَشَاءُ كَمَا أَنْشَأَكُمْ مِنْ ذُرِّيَّةِ قَوْمٍ آخَرِينَ ﴿۱۳۳﴾Your Lord is Rich and the Owner of Mercy. He can destroy you if He will and replace you with whom He pleases, just as He raised you from the offspring of other nations. (۱۳۳) إِنَّ مَا تُوعَدُونَ لَآتٍ وَمَا أَنْتُمْ بِمُعْجِزِينَ ﴿۱۳۴﴾That which you are promised is sure to come. You shall not frustrate Me. (۱۳۴) قُلْ يَا قَوْمِ اعْمَلُوا عَلَى مَكَانَتِكُمْ إِنِّي عَامِلٌ فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَنْ تَكُونُ لَهُ عَاقِبَةُ الدَّارِ إِنَّهُ لَا يُفْلِحُ الظَّالِمُونَ ﴿۱۳۵﴾Say: 'Work according to your station my people, for indeed I am working. ' You shall know to whom will be the good end of the abode. The harmdoers shall not be triumphant. (۱۳۵) وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ مِمَّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ الْحَرْثِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ نَصِيبًا فَقَالُوا هَذَا لِلَّهِ بِزَعْمِهِمْ وَهَذَا لِشُرَكَائِنَا فَمَا كَانَ لِشُرَكَائِهِمْ فَلَا يَصِلُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَمَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ فَهُوَ يَصِلُ إِلَى شُرَكَائِهِمْ سَاءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ ﴿۱۳۶﴾They set aside for Allah a share of what He has created of tilth and cattle saying: 'This is for Allah so they claim and this for our associates (gods). ' The share of their associates never reaches Allah, but the share of Allah reaches their associates. How evil they judge! (۱۳۶) وَكَذَلِكَ زَيَّنَ لِكَثِيرٍ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ قَتْلَ أَوْلَادِهِمْ شُرَكَاؤُهُمْ لِيُرْدُوهُمْ وَلِيَلْبِسُوا عَلَيْهِمْ دِينَهُمْ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا فَعَلُوهُ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ ﴿۱۳۷﴾As such their associates made it attractive to the idolaters to kill their children so

What will it take for the Lord to win the nations and cities to Himself? What kind of Authority is needed to bring the arrogance of the nations to their knees? What is capable of breaking the hearts of stone and turning them into hearts of flesh? What weapon do we need to use in the day and age that seems so complicated and technologically sophisticated? What does God use? See in this episode and hear - God uses His word, He has proved that He has one weapon in His arsenal. The Word is supreme just as God is supreme. The nature of the Word cannot be divorced from the character and the nature of God. The supremacy of the true and living God might well be argued from the infinite distance which separates the mightiest creatures from the almighty Creator, He created everything by the power of His Word (Heb.11:3). A. W. Pink Would say; He is the Potter, they are but the clay in His hands, to be molded into vessels of honour, or to be dashed into pieces (Psa 2:9) as He pleases. Were all the denizens of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth to combine in revolt against Him, it would occasion Him no uneasiness, and would have less effect upon His eternal and unassailable Throne than has the spray of Mediterranean's waves upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High. Scripture itself tells us that when the Gentile heads unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” (Psa 2:4). The absolute and universal supremacy of God is plainly and positively affirmed in many Scriptures. “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the Kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as Head above all...And Thou reignest over all” (I Chron 29:11,12)—note, “reignest” now, not “will do so in the millennium.” “O LORD God of our fathers, art not Thou God in heaven? and rulest not Thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in Thine hand is there not power and might, so that none [not even the Devil himself] is able to withstand Thee?” (II Chron 20:6). Before Him presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers. It is before this God that the King of Nineveh was brought down from His throne, and the Lord was exalted above the sin of the people of Nineveh, the pride of their hearts, and the pomp of the Kingdom, nothing would stand the Supreme Word of God!!

(2Kgs.4:8-11,14-16a;   Ps.89:2-3,16-19;   Rom.6:3-4,8-11;   Mt.10:37-42)  “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”       The Lord encourages us today to “take up [our] cross and follow [Him],” to place Him first in our lives to find the reward He holds. And in our second reading Paul says the same, reminding us that “we were indeed buried with Christ through baptism into death,” that we have “died with Christ… to sin once and for all” – this is our cross – and that laying down our lives before the Lord we now find ourselves “living for God in Christ Jesus”; we now find ourselves “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father [that] we too might live in newness of life” with Him who is Life itself.      And Jesus sends us forth as His disciples, saying, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Thus, by our lives we call others to die with Christ that they too might live with Him in eternity, that they too might be blessed as we. Others should see in us the Lord and be prompted to give of themselves as we do, as He does – that in Him all might rejoice.      In our first reading we find a woman who has proven the truth of Christ's statement, “Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.” Quite literally does she give her “cup of cold water” to the great prophet Elisha, feeding him “whenever he passed by” and even making a place for him to stay in her home. She has recognized “that he is a holy man of God” and is drawn to him, desiring to have his godliness near her life. And by sharing her food and her home, she is laying down her life; by serving this “righteous man” she is serving God, and so she will know the blessing of God.      “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son,” is the holy man's promise to the woman; and no greater blessing could she hope for. Here is life to her. Here is that “newness of life” of which Jesus speaks so well exemplified in our sight. And we should know that the same will be our own. “In the light of [His] countenance” we shall “know the joyful shout.” “At [His] name [we] rejoice all the day.” “The praises of the Lord [we] will sing forever,” for His Son has been born in our midst; our life has come to us, has suffered and died, and now sits with the Father on high. And to Him do we come with all we are. Before Him do we lay down our lives… and all we give freely He blesses. Written, read, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Coat of Warmth" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, if we lose our lives for your sake, we shall never die.       YHWH, let us receive your Son into our homes, and all those He sends; thus we shall be receiving you and have your Word alive in us. Thus we shall come to newness of life in your eternal kingdom.      And how do we receive your Son, O LORD, but by laying down of our lives and taking up the Cross He bears? Only by giving what little we have to Him for your sake will we find ourselves so blessed as to rejoice forever in your presence.      We are blessed insofar as your Son dwells with us. We are blessed insofar as we die with Him. For having died with the Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him, and what should we desire but this eternal life? O let us live for you alone, dearest LORD and God!      This day, dear God, let us give all we own to those who come in your Name; let us put all our lives at the service of your kingdom. Leaving this world behind, we shall be exalted in Heaven.

(2Kgs.4:8-11,14-16a;   Ps.89:2-3,16-19;   Rom.6:3-4,8-11;   Mt.10:37-42)  “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”       The Lord encourages us today to “take up [our] cross and follow [Him],” to place Him first in our lives to find the reward He holds. And in our second reading Paul says the same, reminding us that “we were indeed buried with Christ through baptism into death,” that we have “died with Christ… to sin once and for all” – this is our cross – and that laying down our lives before the Lord we now find ourselves “living for God in Christ Jesus”; we now find ourselves “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father [that] we too might live in newness of life” with Him who is Life itself.      And Jesus sends us forth as His disciples, saying, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Thus, by our lives we call others to die with Christ that they too might live with Him in eternity, that they too might be blessed as we. Others should see in us the Lord and be prompted to give of themselves as we do, as He does – that in Him all might rejoice.      In our first reading we find a woman who has proven the truth of Christ's statement, “Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.” Quite literally does she give her “cup of cold water” to the great prophet Elisha, feeding him “whenever he passed by” and even making a place for him to stay in her home. She has recognized “that he is a holy man of God” and is drawn to him, desiring to have his godliness near her life. And by sharing her food and her home, she is laying down her life; by serving this “righteous man” she is serving God, and so she will know the blessing of God.      “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son,” is the holy man's promise to the woman; and no greater blessing could she hope for. Here is life to her. Here is that “newness of life” of which Jesus speaks so well exemplified in our sight. And we should know that the same will be our own. “In the light of [His] countenance” we shall “know the joyful shout.” “At [His] name [we] rejoice all the day.” “The praises of the Lord [we] will sing forever,” for His Son has been born in our midst; our life has come to us, has suffered and died, and now sits with the Father on high. And to Him do we come with all we are. Before Him do we lay down our lives… and all we give freely He blesses. Written, read, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Coat of Warmth" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, if we lose our lives for your sake, we shall never die.       YHWH, let us receive your Son into our homes, and all those He sends; thus we shall be receiving you and have your Word alive in us. Thus we shall come to newness of life in your eternal kingdom.      And how do we receive your Son, O LORD, but by laying down of our lives and taking up the Cross He bears? Only by giving what little we have to Him for your sake will we find ourselves so blessed as to rejoice forever in your presence.      We are blessed insofar as your Son dwells with us. We are blessed insofar as we die with Him. For having died with the Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him, and what should we desire but this eternal life? O let us live for you alone, dearest LORD and God!      This day, dear God, let us give all we own to those who come in your Name; let us put all our lives at the service of your kingdom. Leaving this world behind, we shall be exalted in Heaven.

REFLECTION QUOTES “If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity.” ~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer, lay theologian and Christian apologist “Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts.” “The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.” ~ Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), Christian missionary, author and speaker “Hope for the Christian isn't just confidence in a certain, glorious future. It's hope in a present providence. It's hope that God's plans can't be thwarted by local authorities or irate mobs, by unfriendly bosses or unbelieving husbands, by Supreme Court rulings or the next election. The Christian hope is that God's purposes are so unassailable that a great thunderstorm of events can't drive them off course. Even when we're wave-tossed and lost at sea, Jesus remains the captain of the ship and the commander of the storm.” ~ Elliot Clark, contemporary author specializing in cross-cultural church planting “Money and machines anesthetize neediness. They put us in charge, in control. As long as the money holds out and the machines are in good repair, we don't need to pray.” ~ Eugene H. Peterson (1932-present), American clergyman and author “…it is faith and hope in the midst of suffering, not miraculous deliverance from it, that display most clearly the all-sufficiency of God to a despairing world.” ~ Scott Hafemann (1954-present), American professor of the New Testament “My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.” ~ Mizuta Masahide (1657-1723), Japanese poet and samurai SERMON PASSAGE Habakkuk 2:20-3:16 (NASB) Habakkuk 2 20 “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” Habakkuk 3 1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 2 Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy. 3 God comes from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise. 4 His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power. 5 Before Him goes pestilence, And plague comes after Him. 6 He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered, The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress, The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. 8 Did the Lord rage against the rivers, Or was Your anger against the rivers, Or was Your wrath against the sea, That You rode on Your horses, On Your chariots of salvation? 9 Your bow was made bare, The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah. You cleaved the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw You and quaked; The downpour of waters swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice, It lifted high its hands. 11 Sun and moon stood in their places; They went away at the light of Your arrows, At the radiance of Your gleaming spear. 12 In indignation You marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations. 13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For the salvation of Your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil To lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah. 14 You pierced with his own spears The head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us; Their exultation was like those Who devour the oppressed in secret. 15 You trampled on the sea with Your horses, On the surge of many waters. 16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.

Deeper Christian Bible Study in Ephesians • Study 10 Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that we have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless BEFORE HIM. Interestingly, this statement "before Him" not only reveals our sinful condition but also gives the solution – that the only way we can live holy, blameless lives is to get nose-to-nose with God Himself … for it is in embracing the Holy One that we find ourselves holy. This is not a call to legalism or to certain activities as much as it is to become different – to have a different nature – which will change everything in our lives. Join Nathan Johnson in this expositional study in the blessings of God found in Ephesians chapter one. Download the shownotes for this episode and get other Christ-centered teaching and resources at: https://deeperchristian.com/ephesians-study-010/ (deeperchristian.com/ephesians-study-010/) Support this podcast

Speaker: Nathan JohnsonSeries: Ephesians Bible StudyStudy: 9 – Holiness Nose-to-Nose (Ephesians 1:4) Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that we have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless BEFORE HIM. Interestingly, this statement "before Him" not only reveals our sinful condition but also gives the solution – that the only way we can live holy, blameless lives is to get nose-to-nose with God Himself … for it is in embracing the Holy One that we find ourselves holy. This is not a call to legalism or to certain activities as much as it is to become different – to have a different nature – which will change everything in our lives. Join Nathan Johnson in this expositional study in the blessings of God found in Ephesians chapter one.

1 Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Great David's greater Son! Hail, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, To set the captive free, To take away transgression, And rule in equity. 2 He comes with succour speedy To those who suffer wrong, To help the poor and needy, And bid the weak be strong; To give them songs for sighing, Their darkness turn to light, Whose souls, condemned and dying, Were precious in His sight. 3 He shall come down like showers Upon the fruitful earth, And love, joy, hope, like flowers, Spring in His path to birth; Before Him on the mountains Shall peace, the herald, go; And righteousness in fountains From hill to valley flow. 4 Kings shall bow down before Him, And gold and incense bring; All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing: To Him shall prayer unceasing And daily vows ascend, His kingdom still increasing, A kingdom without end. 5 O'er every foe victorious, He on His throne shall rest, From age to age more glorious, All blessing and all-blest: The tide of time shall never His covenant remove; His name shall stand for ever; That name to us is Love.

This week Basil sits down with Julio! They talk paranormal activity, life in the military, and dont forget the swarm of bees! Joy Joy Joy! Also! Make sure to check out his new youtube channel all about life before Christ and the transformation after! Before Him youtube channel: https://youtu.be/GihPPEFNY2I   Facebook.com/thejoyspiracytheory Patreon.com/thejoyspiracytheory thejoyspiracytheory.com

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Isaiah 40:18-31. The main subject of the sermon is how God faithfully gives strength to His weary saints. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Are You Weary Today? While studying this morning the text, going over it again, thinking about it this morning, I can make this true statement about every one of you. Either you are weary right now, spiritually weary, physically weary, or someday, perhaps even soon, you will be. If you look at verse 30, it says, "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall." Even the strongest and the mightiest among us get weary and weak, and need sustaining, renewing grace. Some of you may be weary and weak because you're outside of Christ. The Bible in other places says that you're dead in transgressions and sins, and I am so thankful that God brought you here today because I believe that God speaks, in this text, a word of comfort, a word of encouragement and strengthening. In effect, in this text, almighty God is saying what Jesus says to us so plainly in Matthew 11, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest." He is saying that in this text, and this is a magnificent text. For the third week, we get a chance to look at this. If I had my druthers, we'd just keep on going, and going, and going in Isaiah 40. The problem is Isaiah 41's so awesome, and Isaiah 42's so awesome, and on and on we go. But what I want to urge you very practically to do is take your Bibles and open to Isaiah 40, and look along with me. If they're electronic, that's fine, scroll up. We'll assume you're doing Bible, and not something else. Alright? We'll just make that judgment of charity that that's what you're doing with your iPhone. Alright? But the rest of you pick up, and just... I'm going to be walking through Isaiah 40:18-31, and my desire is that you would know this incredible, this majestic God found here in Isaiah 40, and that God would speak a word of strengthening and encouraging to each one of you. That's my desire, that's my prayer because that's what He did for me this morning. We all need it, the text says all of us need it, no one's exempt. You may not feel you need it right now, and I understand that. There's some times that just so many good things are happening, and you don't feel weak and weary, you feel strong, and that's good. That's... We have times like that, and we need that. But there are going to be those times that you just need to be refreshed in the Word, and I would commend for the rest of your lives Isaiah 40 to do precisely that. This chapter has the power to present to you the greatness and the majesty, the infinitude of almighty God in the service of your own refreshing and renewing. That's what the whole chapter is about. We have this majestic, infinite God, who can't even barely be described, tending his flock in verse 11 like a shepherd, and carrying them close to His arms. At the end of the chapter, in effect saying, "Come to me all you who are weary and weak, and I will renew your strength." That's the scope of the entire chapter. What a great, great God we serve, and what an incredible universe that He's made. All of these things point to the might of God. We're going to be looking again at the cosmos, at the universe, and what it shows us about God. Did a little research on this this week. Do you know that there's a star out there somewhere that is so large that if it were at the center of our solar system, its diameter would reach somewhere between Saturn and Jupiter in orbit? That's how big the thing is, it's absolutely massive. If you flew around its equator in an airplane at a normal airplane speed, and wanted to go one time around the circumference of that star, it would take you over 1,000 years to make the trip. That's one star, and yet it is so far away from us that it cannot be seen by the naked eye. That star is dwarfed by the cosmos. The Bible reveals that God sustains that star at every moment of its existence. This massive, powerful ball of burning gas needs God to stay alive, in effect, to keep on burning. That's the God who is ready to minister to you today. All of these infinite thoughts are to be applied in that way. This God is ready to strengthen you today, and to minister to you. I. The Context: The Good News is God Himself (vs. 1-17) Let's get a little bit of context here. The context here, verses 1 through 17, we've already had two sermons, and just go over it very, very quickly. God here is speaking the Gospel, a timeless message of good news to the human race, in verses 1 through 17. Now there's an immediate context. The Jewish nation was raised up as a priest nation to the world, and in the midst of that would be special people, prophets like Isaiah, and God gave them special visions about the future and of Himself. Isaiah was an incredible prophet. At a certain time, 7th century BC, he is speaking about the future of the Jewish nation, and he's... We're going to talk more about this, God willing, in subsequent weeks; but the Jewish nation, called out by God, given the Ten Commandments, the covenant, were violating that covenant, disobeying God's laws, going after idols. In due time, after the time of Isaiah, God would cast them into exile by the Babylonian Empire, which wasn't even an empire when Isaiah was speaking these words. But after that, He would judge the Babylonian Empire, and restore a remnant, a very small remnant of Jews back to Judah and Jerusalem to rebuild the city, rebuild the temple. This, Isaiah 40, is, immediate context, speaking a word of encouragement to the Jewish nation, to Judah and Jerusalem, to those people, for what they're about to go through, and you could imagine even a direct word to the exiles in Babylon, saying God is powerful enough and strong enough to keep His promise and restore you back and rebuild the city of Jerusalem. That's the immediate context. But friends, you must know, as you read these words, that that's not enough. It's too small a thing to quote Isaiah 43, too small a thing for Isaiah 40 to just speak to the remnant of Jews in exile in Babylon, that he's going to bring 'em back. That's just too small a thing, these words soar above that in redemptive history. God Speaks a Timeless Message to a Sinful Human Race I believe this chapter speaks to every generation of God's people, in all of the circumstances they would ever face, a word of encouragement and strengthening. It starts right away with just the good news of the Gospel, verses 1 and 2, "'Comfort, comfort my people,' says your God. 'Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her warfare is completed, that her sins have been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.'" What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There is no reconciling power, there is no atoning work that there is in the universe, other than the cross of Jesus Christ. Immediately for me, as a Christian, I read verse 1 and 2, saying, "There is comfort in the cross of Christ, and there is infinitely enough atonement for all of my sins. There is forgiveness for me," and that is incredibly comforting. Then he talks about this messenger John the Baptist, who's going to come verse 3 and 4, "A voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.'" Now we know that that was fulfilled in space and time by another prophet, John the Baptist, who came. These words are ascribed to him over and over in the New Testament. John the Baptist came immediately before the ministry of Jesus Christ, and got everything ready. He just leveled things, and raised up these valleys. He got human hearts ready for the grace of God. Before the grace of God can come into a heart in a saving way, God must first prepare that heart, and so there was a preparatory work of grace going on through John the Baptist. So it is with each of us, before any of us comes to Christ, God must humble us, and God must convict us and show us our wickedness and sin, and that we need a savior. John the Baptist went ahead of Jesus and prepared the way and got everything ready, and then the beautiful message of the Gospel in verse 5, "And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." The glory of the Lord revealed, that's the Gospel. Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word, as it says in Hebrews 1:3. The radiant glory of God is clearest on display in the cross of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1, it says the cross of Christ is a display of the power of God, and the wisdom of God. In Romans 5:8, it's a display of the love of God. In Romans 3, it's a display of the justice of God. All of these attributes radiating out from the cross of Christ. But I bring them back to verse 5 of our chapter here. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, be unveiled in Jesus, and all mankind together will see it for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. We need this message, don't we? Because we are mortal sinners. Every one of us is mortal, we are going to die. We're under Adam's death penalty. Verses 6 through 8 talks about this. "A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.'" Oh, we need to hear that. You may be in your prime, you may be in the strength of your life physically in terms of your beauty, your intellectual prowess, in terms of your achievements, of your careers; but just know this text stands over all of us. Some day, God's breath will blow on you, and you'll wither, and you'll shrivel, and you will die. If the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, we will all die. Therefore, we must have this good news. Amen. Because it is appointed to each one of us to die, and after that, to face judgment. Some day, we're going to die, and we need this eternal word that stands forever speaking a word of forgiveness and life to us, and so we've got to have that verses 6 through 8. Then the glory of God, the centerpiece of this good news is God Himself. God is the Gospel. He's what we get by coming to Christ. He's what... You get God, forever and ever. And God gets you, as we heard earlier about the inheritance. Isn't that amazing? Why would God want us? But he does, and he loves us. The Glory of God is the Centerpiece of the Good News But look at verse 9, "You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, 'Behold... your God!'" As I preached on that, I said this is how you do it. You pick up the Bible, and you ask the Holy Spirit to take the scales off your eyes, and to give you the eyes of faith; and then you look in the text, and you behold God. Behold your God. That's the good news of the Gospel. We see the glory of God spanning an astonishing range. In Verse 10 he is the powerful judge of all the earth. He comes with power, and His arm rules for Him. His reward is with Him, and His recompense also accompanies Him. This is the sovereign God of the world, the judge of all the earth. That's what God is in verse 10. But then as I've already mentioned, he turns right around and says in Verse 11, "He tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in His arms, and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads those that have young." We need that. We are frail, we are weak. We are like flickering flames ready to be extinguished. We are like bruised reeds ready to be severed, and to fall to the ground. We are fragile and weak, and we are assaulted every day by powers that are too strong for us in the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every day. We must have this sovereign God tending us and carrying us and picking us up, and he does that for us in this Good Shepherd Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd. Verse 11 points to me immediately to Christ. Last week, we looked at verses 12 through 17. The infinite magnitude, the staggering majesty of Almighty God in these verses. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?" We talked about how those who questions, who, are humbling to the human race. They show that infinite separation between God and us. Which one of us has enough wisdom to tell God anything, or give Him any advice? Who was there when he spread out the heavens, and stretched out the earth, and laid its foundations? None of us was there. We're meant to be humbled by this, and also encouraged because this is our God, who has done all of these things. Verse 15, "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket, they're regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor all its animals for burnt offerings. Before Him, all the nations are as nothing. They're regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing." That's where we're at in Isaiah 40, 1 through 17. II. The Absolute Folly of Idolatry (vs. 18-20) Now in verse 18, the prophet addresses immediately a theme that we're going to see again and again, as Isaiah 40 through 49, and that is the utter folly of idolatry. Again and again, we're going to come face-to-face with this issue of idolatry. You look at it in verse 18 through 20. "To whom then will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? As for an idol, a craftsman crafts it, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashion silver chains for it. A man too poor to present an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple." He addresses this issue of idolatry. We're going to see this again and again, God challenges the idols. He takes them on and challenges them. He comes after them. He's aggressive towards these idols. He's fighting against the idols that are luring his chosen people away from their faithful devotion to Him. A constant pull, a gravitational pull of idolatry away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. God is going aggressively after these idols. He's in bitter warfare for the affections of His people. He wants your hearts, and my heart. He wants us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The idols are a very grave threat, and so He's going after these idols hard. The idolatry of His people is the very reason why they would be going into exile in Babylon. Even before that happened, God was exposing the wickedness of idolatry. "God is going aggressively after these idols. He's in bitter warfare for the affections of His people. He wants your hearts, and my heart. " What exactly is “idolatry”? Now what is idolatry? What do we mean by that? We hear about it over and over. It is an issue that still stands before us in the New Testament. 1 John, final verse, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." It's an issue for all of us. What is it? I go again and again to Romans 1:25 as a good, strong, clear definition of idolatry. It's a root essence. There it says, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things, rather than the Creator, who's forever praised. Amen." That's the essence of idolatry, is an exchange of truth for a lie. There's this lie being told about all the false religions. They're all idolaters, or about secular materialism, it's idolaters too. That we would put as an ultimate goal for our lives something created, that's the essence of idolatry. It's a lie. Anything that... What Tim Keller calls functional saviors. Anything you turn to, to save yourself from sickness or depression, anything you would turn to save yourself from ultimate damnation, that is not the God of the Bible, is an idol. Anything. It could be money, it could be pleasure, it could be power, it could be achievements or attainments, whether academic or in professional life. It could be sports, it could be beauty, it could be sex, it could be possessions or entertainment, it could be fun or food, or anything that's lower than God that you put ultimate value on, and that you pursue and go after as a functional savior. That's an idol. Now in Isaiah's day, as in ours and other places of the world especially, but we could argue that it's going on in factories here in our country too, there are idol makers shaping and crafting idols that become the focus of people's worship. They use their imaginations to come up with artistic representations of deity. They'd look around at the world, and think about what aspect of the god or goddess they were trying to capture, and they would make some artistic representation of that, and shape it and mold and put it in a statue. They would use perhaps a bull to represent the god's strength, gold to represent the god or goddess's worth or purity. Or they would sometimes reach for a conglomeration of animals or animalistic virtues, like eagle's wings, or fish scales, or lion's teeth, or bear's legs. Who knows? They would put together a conglomeration representation of the god or goddess they were trying to worship. That's idol making. Now the artist's activity is being highlighted here, and Isaiah will do it actually again and again in these chapters. He's going to go into the craftsman shop, and watch him while he works, will do this again and again. He's going to ridicule it, he's going to make fun of it. "What can you make that compares with me?" He's saying, the God of Isaiah 40. "What can you shape and craft that actually even comes close to me? What are you going to compare me to?" He's mocking this. Now he looks for this craftsman, the woodworker. He looks for a certain kind of wood that won't rot. You don't want your god or goddess to rot. That would be bad. You're looking for a kind of wood, and you're an expert in the types of wood. Some are more expensive than others, etcetera, and so if you could... If you've got the cash, you can get an idol that will last a little bit longer. Or you're going to cover it with gold or silver. Silver, if you can't afford the gold. Not only that, but he's adept at a kind of the mechanical engineering of idolatry. You need some chains to be sure it won't topple, or maybe you'll need to nail it to its platform. Moving on it like Dagon that falls over, or gets decapitated, that would be really bad symbolism. We don't like that. So we need to have a chain to set it up so it won't topple, so it won't rot, it won't topple. God’s Absolute Forbidding of Idols Now God has absolutely, adamantly forbidden all idolatry. In the 10 Commandments, He said, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them and worship them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God." God is jealous for your heart, affection, and you can't make any representation of God. There is nothing in this universe that's like God, nothing. Now we are the closest. We humans, created in the image of God, are the closest created thing to God; but there's nothing that perfectly captures the essence of all that God is. Now in scripture, God uses comparisons in language to teach us what He's like, but no one of those verbal images completely captures God. God is mighty and fearless like a lion in Isaiah 31:4, but he's vastly more powerful than any lion. He isn't only mighty and fearless, he's other things besides. A lion's not enough to capture God. God is tender and compassionate like a nursing mother, Isaiah 49:15. He is protective like a mother eagle over her young, Deuteronomy 32:11. But He's vastly more compassionate than any nursing mother, infinitely more so, and He's more protective than any eagle. He isn't only compassionate and protective, He's other things too. God is a warrior, but He's greater than any warrior you can possibly imagine. And He is so much more than just a warrior. God is a refuge, He is a strong tower, He's a solid rock, He's a mighty wind, He's a spring of water in the desert for the weary and the thirsty. He is a father, He is a king, a singer. He is light. God is love, God is Spirit. He is all of these things, but He's not any one of them all by itself. Scripture's full of such language, but no one image fully captures all that God is. That's the beauty of the Word of God. But no representation, no idol can fully capture God, and we're forbidden from even trying. To whom can you compare God? The answer is no one. There is no one like Him. This is the infinite holiness of God, the uniqueness of God, the infinite separation between God and all of the universe. III. The Supremacy of God over Earth and Heaven (vs. 21-26) Now in verses 21 through 26, we see the supremacy of God over earth and heaven. He makes an appeal twice in this text, in Isaiah 40, to their theology. He appeals twice to what they already know. Look at verse 21. "Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?" I am not going to tell you anything categorically that you've never heard before today. I'm not here to rock your world with some new ideas of God. There may be images you haven't heard before, there may be logical connections you haven't made before, but these are things you've already known. God has been telling them to the human race for millennia now, through his prophets. Little by little, line upon line, book upon book, with greater and greater clarity, as redemptive history unfolded, God made Himself clear to the human race, what He's like, line upon line. He says, "Do you not know? Have you not heard?" So go back to your theology. I just want to stop here and give you a point of application. Alright? You need to go back again and again to Isaiah 40 and to other scriptures, and feed yourself on theology. Go back to what you've already known. When you are weak and weary and struggled, go back and feed on God's word again. That's where the strengthening comes from. You already know these things, I'm not telling you anything new. Then he establishes God's position as sovereign over all the earth. Look at verse 22, "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers." From time to time, members of my household will get afraid, inordinately afraid of insects. I'm not saying who, I'm not describing that, I'm just saying it happens. I want to say, "Look, let's look at this logically. Do you know how much you outweigh that spider by? It's not even close, it's not fair. Here, watch." Squish. "Ugh, gross." They don't want to see that, they don't... They just want me to take care of it, while they're out of the room. They don't want to hear the thing... Never mind, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, we just outweigh these spiders by more than you can imagine. God uses the image here of grasshoppers. All of its people are like grasshoppers to Him. That's what He's saying. He's not impressed by human power at all. Now He's already declared for us that the nations are like a drop from the bucket, and dust on the scales, the nations taken as a whole. But now in this section, he zeroes in on the mighty men, the rulers, the kings, the leaders. Those powerful ones in society. Look at verses 23 and 24, "He brings princes to naught, and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." Deism Destroyed Now verse 23 and 24 completely rejects the concept that appeared in church history called deism, the idea that God the Creator, God set up the universe like a vast complex clock with all of its sprockets and its springs, wound it up and just lets it run, and He just stays out of it. The God of Thomas Jefferson, the God of other deist, he just stays out of it. No, he doesn't stay out of it, not at all. God gets actively involved in raising these princes and kings up to their position. He plants them, he establishes them in their position. Like God says to Pharaoh, "I raised you up, I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and My name might be proclaimed to the ends of the earth." But God raised Pharaoh up, He established him. He raises up every prince, every king, every mayor, every select... Or woman. Every ruler, everyone in authority, in every society, God raises those people up, all of them. Good and evil, all of them. He establishes the rulers of the earth in their position, He lets them flourish for a very short time, and then He brings them to an end. He blows on them, and they wither and die. It isn't an accident. He has raised them up, He has measured out the span of their time of rule, and then He brings it to an end. How apt are we to forget this, how apt are we to stand in awe of human achievement, human intellect, human glory and power. Don't do it, God rules these rulers with absolute power, including the day of their installation and the day of their death. Here, Isaiah focuses on the brevity of their reign. "No sooner, no sooner, no sooner," He says. As soon as they're established, it seems, they die. But God, His Kingdom, lasts forever. Nebuchadnezzar understood this in Daniel 4. After God humbled him, and changed his mind to the mind of an animal, and then restored him after seven years, Nebuchadnezzar said this about Almighty God in Daniel 4:34-35: "Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'" God’s Power Extended Vastly Beyond Anything Man Can Reach Now God's power extends vastly beyond anything that man can reach. Verse 25, "To whom then will you compare me?" And he says, "Who is my equal?" The scope of God's immeasurable power reach is not merely to the ends of the earth, but to the ends of the cosmos itself. Verse 22, "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in." God created and controls the atmosphere of planet earth, the air that we breathe. Since the space program and all that, and satellites, we now have those pictures of this blue planet against a completely black backdrop. It's this bubble of air in which the perfect mixture of oxygen, not too much, so things just don't ignite all the time. He just measured it out. In that life, it's flourishing. God is the one that did that, that stretched out the heavens, meaning the immediate earth and atmosphere that we breathe. But then he goes beyond that, in verse 26, to talk about outer space. Look at verse 26: "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens, who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." You could spend hours thinking about Verse 26. Have you ever been out on the mountains, in the mountains at night, and gone out and looked at the stars? You may even be up maybe several thousand feet, so you're up above. The atmosphere is a little bit thinner, away from the city. Air is clear. Wow, night sky. Maybe until that day, you'd never really seen the Milky Way, but now you can see it. There it is, this white, blurry cloud going across in a narrow band, and they tell us that that's our home galaxy, 104,000 light years across. The Milky Way. The Milky Way has over 100 billion stars. If Abraham had begun counting them, and had continued until he was done, all the stars in the Milky Way would have taken him 3,000 years. In recent years, the Hubble Space Telescope has greatly expanded our sense of the incomprehensible immensity of the cosmos. There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in outer space, and a number of stars. It just boggles the mind. It just goes beyond any effort I could put to put words to it. Just... There's just a lot of stars out there. That's an understatement, if ever there was. That's just rhetorical technique, use understatement. I can't help but use understatement when it comes to the number of stars. But look what the text says. The text says that God calls each one by name, one at a time. Now naming in the Bible shows power and understanding, so He's in charge, and He understands the difference between this star and that one. That's amazing. Now the only difference to us is the size of the star, its location, and its color. That's what they're working with out there. There's just not enough difference between those three things, from dot to dot to dot to dot to dot to dot to dot, to name them. Instead the cosmologists name sectors of the sky. They just give them boring names with numbers and letters in them. No, no, God names each of these stars. Not only that, He says because of His understanding and his power, none of them is missing. Would you notice if one of them were? Wait a minute now. Wait, wait now. You say, "Actually, Pastor, what if it were in the Big Dipper? If one of the stars in the Big Dipper were missing, I would notice. So would you and the whole world, I think." But this text tells us why that won't happen. Because God knows and understands those stars, and what it's going to take to keep them burning; and because of His power, they're still there. They depend on God to continue to exist. It's amazing. You know what that says to me? If I can just speak to you who are the elect children of God, He's not going to lose track of any of you. Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me…and I will raise him up at the last day." He's not going to lose you. If He can do the stars, He can do you, and He will not lose track of you. IV. The Lesson Applied: The Majestic God Gives Strength to the Weary (vs. 27-31) Let's take all of this, and apply this lesson. Now look at verses 27 through 31. Isaiah takes this amazing chapter and presses it home to the hearts of God's people. It comes in three stages, and we'll cover these quickly. First, our despair. Secondly, God's greatness. Third, our renewal. Our Despair First, our despair, our discouragement. Look at verse 27. "Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my God'?" Friends, this right here, right now is where the rubber meets the road. You may not use this language, but I know that circumstances can be crafted that will get you to say similar things. "God is tired of me. He's weary of my sins, He's tired of bearing them. He's sick of me, and He's going to throw me out. He's weary of carrying my load. He's bored with me. I'm going through this right now, and it seems that God doesn't even notice. Been praying for months, some could say been praying now for years, and God hasn't answered my prayer. I've looked at my prayer, it looks biblical, it looks right, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with it, and yet God will not answer it. I don't understand it. Why? Why, Oh God? How often do human beings say that three-letter word up to God, 'Why? Why are you doing this to me?'" But here, the tables are turned, and God is saying that to us: "Why have you forgotten me? Why do you think that I don't know you? Why do you think I don't notice what you're going through?" Now I know that there are some dire circumstances that many of you are going through. I'm aware of some of them, I will not say I'm aware of all of them, but I'm aware of some of them. Some of them are just flat-out heartbreaking, heartbreaking. Some of you have been crying out to God in regard to that, and you just wonder, "Why isn't God hearing my prayers?" Extend your imagination going out to other places in the world. Think about, let's say, a house church pastor in China that's been arrested, and been held now for months. Or in Iran. He's been praying and praying to be released, and be able to resume his ministry, and go back with his wife and kids. They're praying the same thing. God said in Luke, that he's going to hear the cry against the oppressor, and He will not make them wait long, but it's already gone longer than they thought it should have. They don't understand why God hasn't answered their prayer yet. They're apt to say, "God has forgotten me, God doesn't see my suffering." Or it could be some of you going through extreme pain through medical situations. The pain is just day after day, and you're like, "God, all You have to do is just alleviate the pain. I may not even be asking for healing now, just a reduction in the pain. Why won't You do that?" People are tempted to say this, "My way is hidden from God, my cause is disregarded by God. Why don't You care about me?" But God is saying this to you now, "Why won't you trust me? Why won't you love me? Why won't you live for me? Why don't you cast all your burdens on me? What more do I have to do to prove my might and my power and my love for you than the creation, and also the redemption in Christ, at the cross and empty tomb? What more do I have to do? Why are you saying these things to me?" Every generation of His people, and every nation on earth, there will be times that every individual Christian is tempted to say these kinds of things to God. If you're not being tempted right now to say them, sometime soon, some circumstance will come, and you'll be right here, verse 27. You will be tempted to despair, you'll be tempted to be discouraged. It's the language of despair. "God doesn't see, God does not know, God does not care. Or if He does see and know and care, He's not powerful, He can't do anything about it." God is turning around, saying, "Why are you talking to me like this, oh my people?" God’s Greatness Step two, God's greatness. Verse 28. "Do you not know? Have you not heard?" Again, notice, let's go back to your theology. "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. His understanding, no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak." God goes back to the theology, and he teaches them who He is. "You've already... You know me. You already know enough." What have you learned? You've learned God's eternity. The Lord is the everlasting God. He has no beginning, and no end. He's not trapped in time as we are. For us, we're always in now, we're always in today, for God is the everlasting, the eternal God. Yesterday, today and forever, all equally in front of God all the time. Yesterday, He remembers that He promised to be a God to you, faithful to the end. He remembers that promise, like a husband remembering his marriage oath. He's not going to forget his oath to you. Now He knows what you're going through right now, and He knows where you're heading. You know where you're heading? You're heading to a perfect world of resurrected people where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. He knows that. And that your present sufferings are light and momentary compared to that, and they're actually working out that eternal glory. He's the everlasting God, and He is the Creator of the ends of the earth. He made all things. There is nowhere you can go that God is not there. It does not matter what you're going through, He is the Creator of the ends of the earth. Whether God's people are in exile in Babylon, or whether they've been captured in a raid by Vikings, and hauled away as captives, or whether they're homesteading in the deep woods of Kentucky during the French and Indian wars, or maybe they're lying in a hospital bed during an influenza epidemic in 1919 in which thousands, even tens of thousands have already died, or maybe running through the streets of London during the blitz, looking for a bomb shelter before the bomb comes to kill them or destroy their home. Or waiting in a hospital here in Durham for a pathology report that probably might change your life. God is the Creator of the ends of the earth. He's in all of those places at all of those times. He's the everlasting God, and He never grows tired or weary. God's arms don't get tired of holding you up. Isn't that awesome? As I was going over the sermon this morning, this is what moved me the most. I sometimes feel that God is weary of carrying me because of my sin, just weary. God said to me in the text today, I believe, "I will never grow weary or tired. Ever. I just don't get tired like you do. I will never grow weary." God isn't tired of you, dear friend. He isn't weary of saving you. He isn't worn out with your sin. He's not suffering from battle fatigue in defending you from Satan's attacks, or restoring you. God's as fresh in the battle as the day He started. You may not be, but He is. He's ready for more, and he always will be. He does not grow tired or weary. "God isn't tired of you, dear friend. ... He's not suffering from battle fatigue in defending you from Satan's attacks, or restoring you. God's as fresh in the battle as the day He started. You may not be, but He is." Then lesson four, God is wise, and His understanding is unsearchable. He is working out an unsearchable plan that is infinitely wise; and everything, dear friends, is right on schedule. He knows exactly what He's doing. This is our God. Do you not know these things? Haven't you heard this? Hasn't it been told you from the creation of the earth? This is our God. Our Renewal Now it's time for our renewal, dear friends. Let's be renewed, amen. Look at Verse 30 and 31. "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." Isaiah brings up the strongest among us. Back then, it was the warriors, alright? Now we would think perhaps Olympic athletes. Really at the absolute fringe of the bell curve, the best that there is, honed and shaped through years of training. Or perhaps you could think of Navy SEALs, or special ops guys. They're just absolutely the best, strongest people there are in the face of the earth. Even they grow tired and weary, and the young men stumble and fall. All of us get weary. All of us have what Spurgeon called "fainting spells." We're not always equally strong, we're not always equally mighty. Some days, we just get flat-out worn out, discouraged, and down. The journey seems so long, and the enemy seems so strong; but those who hope in or wait for the Lord. Some translations go one way, some... I'll give you both. Alright? Hope in the Lord, and wait for Him. While you're waiting, hope. Okay? Wait on the Lord, and hope in Him. Let the scripture renew your conception that the future is unspeakably bright. That's what hope is, a sense of feeling in the heart that the future's bright. Immediate future, long-range future, eternal future, all of them bright. God's at work in all three, and He will give you hope. As you hope in the Lord, your strength will get renewed. What does that mean? You'll start feeling more physically energetic. You just have more energy. God did that to Daniel, and Daniel was just wiped out on the ground. He touched him, and he got strength, and he stood up. Just how does God do it? I don't know how He does that, but He does that. "God, I'm really weak and weary right now. Give me emotional, physical strength." And he will renew your strength, and all of it's in Christ. He is the vine, we are the branches. As we abide in Him, He will renew our strength, and then you will be able to do just supernatural things. Look at verse 31. You're like, "I would love to do this." "They will soar on wings like eagles." That's amazing. "They will run and not grow weary, and they will walk and not faint." We will... You are able to do infinitely wise and powerful things through the Gospel. We're going to come now to a time of celebration of the Lord's Supper, and this is a time also of renewal. As we come to the Lord's table, I'd like to ask that you meditate on the things that we talked about. Know this, that God is calling on us in the Gospel to repent and believe in Christ, and trust in Him. If you are an unbeliever, and you have never trusted in Christ, we're going to ask that you refrain from the Lord's Supper, but just look to Christ crucified and resurrected. Believe in Him, and trust in Him. Then when you receive the ordinance of water baptism, you'll be welcome to come; but all of... Those of you that have testified your faith through baptism, come to faith in Christ, you're welcome to the table. I'd like to ask the deacons to come now as we celebrate the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

Summary of today's show: Everyone has a favorite hymn from church and a reason why it moves them, whether from a cherished childhood memory or how it moves the spirit to contemplate God, and so on today's show Scot Landry, Fr. Chris O'Connor, and Rick Heil share with listeners their lists of their top three favorite hymns and count them down like Kasey Kasem. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor Today's topics: Our Favorite Church Hymns 1st segment: Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor greeted all listeners. Scot noted that Fr. Chris has just been inducted into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. They discussed that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre have the right to ride a horse into any church in the world, although they don't know where it came from. Fr. Chris said it started in the Crusades to protect the tomb of Christ and they continue that work today, providing funding and assistance to protect the religious site there, but also to bring Muslims and Christians together in the Holy Land for peace. Fr. Chris said about 70 men and women from around New England were inducted into the order in a special ceremony. Fr. Chris also said that they had the seminary Thanksgiving dinner this week before the seminarians return home to their families. They reflect on God's goodness and the many ways he blesses their vocations. Scot noted that tomorrow will see the broadcast of interviews with Cheverus Award winners from this past Sunday. He also noted that Cardinal Seán published his second pastoral letter of 2011 one year ago today on the Sunday Mass participation. Today, Scot said they're counting down their favorite church hymns. He said the idea came from a discussion with his 10-year-old son this past weekend about how he's preparing for Advent at the Archdiocesan Boys Choir School. Scot encouraged listeners to make their own list of their favorite hymns and email them to us at Live@thegoodcatholiclife.com or post them in the comments on our website or on our Facebook page. Scot's favorite church hymn of all time begins. Rick played a clip: . He first heard this at the Pontifical North American College and later it was the recessional at his wedding. Fr. Chris said that Msgr. James Moroney, the rector of St. John Seminary, said this is his favorite hymn as well. Fr .Chris said one of the Eucharistic Prefaces reminds us that God doesn't need anything so all we can offer Him is our praise. O God beyond all praising, we worship you today and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay; for we can only wonder at every gift you send, at blessings without number and mercies without end: we lift our hearts before you and wait upon your word, we honor and adore you, our great and mighty Lord. Then hear, O gracious Savior, accept the love we bring, that we who know your favor may serve you as our king; and whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill, we'II triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless you still: to marvel at your beauty and glory in your ways, and make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise. Fr. Chris said it reminds us to open ourselves to the Lord in both our Easter Sundays and Good Fridays. Now to one of his favorites: . “Lord, have mercy. God our Father in heaven, God the Son, our redeemer, God the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, One God Holy Mary Mother of God, Saint Joseph, Spouse of Mary, Saints Peter, Paul and Holy apostles, Saint Isaac Jogues and Holy Martyrs, Saint Patrick, Bishops and Priests, Saints Dominic and Catherine, Saints Francis and Claire, Saint Theresa of Jesus, Saint Peter Claver, Saint Juan Diego, Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, Saint Thérèse of Lesieux, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Saint John Neumann, Saint Teresa Benedicta, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Blessed Edmund Rice, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Lord, show us your kindness Draw young people to serve you, in priesthood, and religious life. Inspire the people of our world with respect for human life that there may be an end to the culture of death. Guide and protect the dioceses of Baltimore, Boston, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia and all your Church. Keep our Holy Father, our Bishops and all clergy, in faithful service to your Church.” Fr. Chris said it reminds us that the Church is not just the Church we see and touch, but also the spiritual reality of the holy and blessed ones who intercede for us. Scot said when this is prayed during ordination, the men are prostrate before the altar as the people pray for them. Fr. Chris noted that most of the saints in this specific litany are saints from the Americas. He said the litany often changes the names of the saints prayed for to include, perhaps the patron saints of the men preparing for ordination or the patron saints of a religious order of the like. Scot said the various litanies have basically the same lyrics. Fr. Chris said he picked this one for the peaceful music. Rick makes his first choice: . This version was chanted by Fr. Jonathan Gaspar of the Office of Divine Worship for the Archdiocese. Rick said he chose it because Fr. Jonathan sang it on the show a couple of years ago and it stuck with him for 3 months afterward. Scot said when music moves you, it's usually a five sense experience. The first time he heard it at the Easter vigil, seeing the church in darkness except candlelight, smelling the incense and lilies. Taking it all in, the sense of darkness and joy that Christ has conquered death. Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King's triumph! Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all comers of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness. Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, arrayed with the lightning of his glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples. (Therefore, dearest friends, standing in the awesome glory of this holy light, invoke with me, I ask you, the mercy of God almighty, that he, who has been pleased to number me, though unworthy, among the Levites, may pour into me his light unshadowed, that I may sing this candle's perfect praises). (V. The Lord be with you. R. And with your spirit.) V. Lift up your hearts. R. We lift them up to the Lord. V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. R. It is right and just. It is truly right and just, with ardent love of mind and heart and with devoted service of our voice, to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten. Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father, and, pouring out his own dear Blood, wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness. These, then, are the feasts of Passover, in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb, whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers. This is the first section of the Exsultet They then discussed the difference between hymns and other music. Fr. Chris said hymns are usually music that everyone sings and this is music sung only by the deacon or priest or cantor and it's a very difficult piece of music. The next song from Scot is . Let all mortal flesh keep silence, And with fear and trembling stand; Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing in His hand, Christ our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand. King of kings, yet born of Mary, As of old on earth He stood, Lord of lords, in human vesture, In the body and the blood; He will give to all the faithful His own self for heavenly food. Rank on rank the host of heaven Spreads its vanguard on the way, As the Light of light descendeth From the realms of endless day, That the powers of hell may vanish As the darkness clears away. At His feet the six wingèd seraph, Cherubim with sleepless eye, Veil their faces to the presence, As with ceaseless voice they cry: Alleluia, Alleluia Alleluia, Lord Most High! Scot said the first time he heard this experienced well he was in the choir of the Pontifical North American College during the Liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica for the ordination of deacons. He talked about how the song built up from silence to a triumphal Alleluia. Rick said he also chose this hymn because he loved a Gustav Holst arrangement of this hymn. Next for Fr. Chris is the Taize chant . He said it almost sounds like breathing in the rhythm. It translates as “Come Holy Spirit.” Fr. Chris said the chant is sung in successive different languages and it symbolizes Pentecost and how the Apostles were enabled to speak in many tongues. It also reminds us of the universality of the Catholic faith. Scot said it's a simple hymn to sing along to and to pray for a long time as it's sung. You don't need a hymnal, singing experience, or a singing voice. Everyone can participate in it. Fr. Chris talked about how the Holy Spirit is sometimes spoken of as the breath of God and how the hymn invokes the sense of breathing. Rick's second hymn is . He said it's one verse that's repeated over and over with slight changes. Sing to the Lord a new song: sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name: proclaim his salvation every day without end. Tell his glory among the nations: in every land tell his marvelous deeds. Cantate Domino canticum novum: cantate Domino omnis terra, Cantate Domino et benedicite nomini ejus: annuntiate de die in diem salutare ejus. Annuntiate inter gentes gloriam ejus: in omnibus populis mirabilia ejus. Rick said he tends to like happy music, that have a lot of harmonic movement. It's joyous praising. The words aren't ambiguous and there's not a lot of hidden meaning. He said as he was learning Latin in high school after having learned this, he began to appreciate it more. He encouraged others to learn the meaning of the Latin words. Fr. Chris said they do a fair bit of Latin at the seminary. He has a strong belief we should know what we're singing, saying, and praying and is always grateful to see the English translation. The Latin helps us to transcend the here and now. Scot said there's something about the use of language to bring our minds to God and to bring heaven to earth. Scot's third hymn is All People That on Earth Do Dwell, also sometimes called the Old One Hundredth. . All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell; Come ye before Him and rejoice. The Lord, ye know, is God indeed; Without our aid He did us make; We are His folk, He doth us feed, And for His sheep He doth us take. O enter then His gates with praise; Approach with joy His courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless His Name always, For it is seemly so to do. For why? the Lord our God is good; His mercy is for ever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure. To Father, Son and Holy Ghost, The God Whom Heaven and earth adore, From men and from the angel host Be praise and glory evermore. Scot said he loves big organ hymns, but loves all types of music too. But no other instrument cranks as hard as the organ on this song and you can sing as hard as you'd like. He said the interlude before the last verse makes him joyful. Fr. Chris said it's based on Psalm 100. Rick said the first time he'd heard this song on a big organ was it was played on the giant organ at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Fr. Chris said the next is a Christmas hymn and it will be jumping the gun a bit to hear it now: . O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born; O night divine, O night, O night Divine. Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming, With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand. So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here come the wise men from Orient land. The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger; In all our trials born to be our friend. He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger, Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend! Behold your King, Before Him lowly bend! Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever, His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Scot said it's his favorite Christmas hymn as well. He and Fr. Chris said they broke the rules by playing it before Thanksgiving. Fr. Chris said it was a French poem written by a layman at the request of this priest. Scot said it's the kind of hymn that can be sung by both men and women equally. Fr. Chris said his Christmas Eve tradition when he leaves his sister's home as he drives through Brighton is to play this song very loudly. Scot repeated his request for listeners to send their list of three to Live@thegoodcatholiclife.com

Introduction This morning I am going to resume a sermon series in the Book of Isaiah, which I left about four years ago. Some of you were here at that time. We’re parachuting in, right in the middle of the book, to Chapter 22. As we come to Isaiah in general, as you heard a little bit in my prayer a moment ago, one of the challenges you have as you look at the Old Testament, as you look at Isaiah, is the question of relevance. How is this connecting to me, what’s happening in Isaiah and what’s happening in my life? Is there an unsurmountable gulf between the two? The answer is, of course not. All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. This chapter in particular has a powerful message to us. It’s important for us to hear. You heard, as Blake was reading, this rather familiar phrase: “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” So the issue in Isaiah 22 has to do with a sinful, wicked happiness, a wicked feasting that seeks to avoid the real spiritual issues that are going on. It seeks instead to get quickly to the party, to get quickly to a frivolous joy that doesn’t address the deeper spiritual issues. There’s nothing wrong, and I say there’s everything right, with the God-given desire to be happy. There’s nothing wrong with that. To be happy, to celebrate, to eat and drink and be merry, these things are wired into us. Jesus did it a lot in His ministry, didn’t He? He seemed to go from one feast to the next, from one banquet to the next. Think about when Matthew turned from his sins and followed Jesus, leaving his tax-collecting booth. That evening he had a big party with all of his friends. They happened to be what were known as tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was there feasting with them. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining about this, saying to His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32) He did it in the context of a banquet. But they spoke wrongly about him. Jesus says this, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” (Mt 11:19) The first half is wrong. The second half (Amen), is true. Jesus is a friend of sinners. What a joy that is! There’s nothing wrong with desiring to feast. Jesus actually told a parable in which He described an aspect of our heavenly experience as a wedding banquet, a banquet spread by a king. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” (Mt 22:2) And then a few verses later, he sends out messengers, saying, “’Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off...” (Mt 22:4-5) The great sin of the people in that parable is that they didn’t come to the banquet. They didn’t come to the feast. They had other things they wanted to do. So the desire to eat and drink and be merry, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s perfectly fine if you seek it in the hands of God, by His holy means. Absolutely. But Jesus was also called a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. The paradox, then, of the Christian faith is that it’s only by dealing properly with our sinfulness that we will be able to sit at the table with the perfect source of happiness, who is the Holy God. It’s only as we have our sins addressed and atoned for. Therefore, Jesus said, “Blessed [or happy, richly happy] are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Mt 5:4) The yearning for happiness is built into the human soul. Blaise Pascal put it this way, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views of what will make them happy. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” We seek happiness all the time. This sermon, this text, is not against happiness. It’s not against eating and drinking and being merry. That’s not it. Rather, the whole message of scripture points to a higher banquet, a higher feast, an eternal banquet, a heavenly banquet of joy in the presence of a holy God. Because this God is holy, we must have our sins atoned for. We must be atoned for. Our sins must be covered. The scripture says that the atonement for sins is only worked by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. God sent His Son into the world to atone for our sins, that His blood shed on the cross might be full atonement for our sins. But in order to access that atonement we must repent and believe the good news. Jesus said, in Mark 1:15, “The time is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Now, repentance always involves the true sight of sin as it really is. We see it by faith. We see at last, sin, as the grotesque, wicked thing it is. We see it in ourselves and genuine repentance always involves some sorrow for sin. Jesus’ blood is, in some mysterious way, mingled with our tears to produce our own salvation. We have that woman, of course, who was a harlot, a prostitute, who comes in when Jesus is at one of those banquets. I think it was at the home of Simon the Leper. She’s weeping over Jesus’ feet and rinsing His feet with her tears, drying them with her hair. That’s a picture of her brokenness over her sin, her weeping those tears. Now, they’re not equal value, those substances. Jesus’ blood, our tears, both equally important, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that when the Holy Spirit works genuine repentance and faith, then sorrow for sin is going to be part of your life. It’s part of the healthy Christian life. At the very beginning, sometimes you have such an overwhelming sense of your own wickedness. That’s why you’re running to Jesus. In the same way that woman just couldn’t stop crying. She’s bathing Jesus’ feet with her tears. In Isaiah 22, we have pictured some people who want to feast and celebrate rather than weep and mourn over sin. They’re the ones that are saying, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” I think the lesson that Isaiah the prophet gives us here in 21st century language is, “When God calls on you to mourn for sin, don’t party instead.” It’s not time for partying. It’s time for mourning. There is a time for that in Christian life. Jerusalem Besieged Like Any Other Sinful City (vs 1-8a) Context: God’s Sovereign Power Over All Nations Let’s look at these verses in an orderly way. First, in verses 1-8, we have revealed for us through the vision of Isaiah the prophet, that Jerusalem, the City of David, will be besieged. And it will be dealt with like any other wicked city. Now, the context here is that Isaiah is presenting a God who is sovereign over all nations. Later in Isaiah we will be told He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and all its peoples before Him are like grasshoppers. The nations are like dust on the scales. They’re like a drop from the bucket. He is reigning on a heavenly throne over all of these things. Before Him, all the nations are as nothing. They’re regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing. Later in Isaiah, in Chapter 34, it says, “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.” In Isaiah chapters 13 through 35, we have one chapter after another after another presenting God as the master of all nations, the ruler of all nations. He’s king over all the earth. There’s one oracle after another against all of these Gentile nations. They just come one after the other: Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus (the capital of Syria), Ethiopia, and Egypt. Chapter after chapter in Isaiah, we see oracles of judgment against Gentile nations. In Chapter 21, as a matter of fact, three nations get it. Babylon gets it, as well as Edom and Arabia. God’s wrath is against these three different Gentile nations. Such a view of a single, all powerful God who rules over all the earth was in some ways, or at least to some people, new and foreign. They believed in national deities, the god of the Moabites, the god of the Assyrians, etcetera. They had national temples that would be set up. When one nation went to war against another, it would be their gods, god, or goddess against the other nation. They would see whose gods or goddesses were stronger. No, Isaiah has a whole different vision. It’s not like that at all. God rules over all the Earth, and He’s against sinners in every nation. Bitter Surprise: Judah and Jerusalem No Different than Gentile Sinners Such a view of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Jews, wrath-filled towards wicked pagans, bringing judgment on wicked pagan nations, would have brought delight to any patriotic Jewish heart. They would have looked at that and said, “Go get them, God! Go whip up on those wicked Gentile nations!” But we have a shock in Isaiah 22. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed like any other wicked city. God turns his oracle, through Isaiah, against the Jews of Jerusalem. In one sense, they’re no different than any Gentile. In another sense, they’re worse because they live in the Valley of Vision and they should have known better. They should have lived better. They had God’s word proclaimed to them in every generation. They should have lived at a higher level, and they didn’t. The Valley of Vision: Jerusalem More Accountable Because of Prophets So in one sense, it’s worse. Jerusalem is more accountable because of the prophets. Look at verse 1. It says, “An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision.” There’s a well-known book of Puritan prayers that takes its title from this chapter, “Valley of Vision.” “Valley” because Jerusalem is surrounded by three very significant valleys, and itself, in some sense, can be looked down upon from the Mount of Olives and some of the other immediately surrounding mountains. So it is a little bit lower. That’s the valley part. Valley of Vision. “Vision” because Isaiah had one vision after another. He’s not the only one. The fact is that God has communicated with Jerusalem in every generation, generation after generation, through the prophets. He gives them visions. He gives them the word. The word of the Lord comes to this or that prophet, and they proclaim God’s will, God’s words to the people. Valley of Vision. But they have not responded. They have not received the word. They have rejected it so much so that Jesus, looking back over the whole history of the city of Jerusalem, weeping over it, says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” (Mt 23:37-38) Or again, look at Stephen when he was about to be killed. As he’s getting to the end of his incredible sermon in Acts, Chapter 7, he says, “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers, you always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute?” (Acts 7:51-52) The Siege Described Jerusalem is the Valley of Vision. God gave them the gift of visions, but they did not listen. They resisted the prophets in every generation. So Isaiah describes the siege. Look at verses 1-3. Speaking to Jerusalem, he says, “What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away.” The city, Jerusalem, is filled with tumult and revelry, a city of laughter and lust, of eating and drinking and making merry, a city of bloodshed, wickedness, covetousness, greed, and sexual immorality. It was a party city in some ways, but now no longer. Now it’s a city of the dead. Isaiah mentions, “Your dead were not slain in battle.” They have dead people there, but why are they dead? Because of the siege. They’re dead because of starvation. They’re dead because of plague, disease. A city in which the leaders of outlying towns and cities have fled to the final citadel of Judah, Jerusalem, to save their lives. They didn’t fight out there. They had no courage, no strength to face the invader. No, they run to Jerusalem for protection from Jerusalem’s walls. But there will be no protection there. The invaders have now come and surrounded Jerusalem and there will be no escape. This, in verse 5, is the Day of the Lord. It’s a theme that’s brought up again and again in the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord. The Lord Almighty has a day in store. Do you see it? It’s the Day of the Lord, it’s His day. “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and crying out to the mountains.” (Is 22:5) This is a Day of Judgment, this day of wrath. There have been many of them in redemptive history. Again and again God brings a temporal judgment on a people. It’s a picture of the final Day of the Lord at the second coming of Christ, in which judgment will come finally in the end. It says in Romans 2:5-6, “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done.” So that’s the final Day of the Lord, what we call the day of judgment. But there are smaller Days of the Lord that happened along the way. Isaiah says, “This is a day of tumult and trampling and terror.” He says, “It’s a day of battering down walls.” Do you see that in the text? “Battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains,” looking for a place of refuge, calling or crying out to the hills, to the mountains. “Fall on us and cover us!” But there is no refuge. So what is this? What is Isaiah talking about? This is the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. This is not the invasion under the Assyrians. He covers that in other places in his prophecy. There, God said plainly to Sennacherib and to the Assyrian army, “You will not even approach the walls, and you certainly won’t build a siege ramp against it, and you will not batter them down. You’ll die before you even get there.” One hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians died in one night. Well, that’s not what this passage is talking about. No, because godly King Hezekiah, when he heard the reports of the Assyrians coming and when he saw what was happening, he humbled himself in sackcloth and ashes, cried out, and grieved over his sin, as did the city of Jerusalem. They pleaded with God to forgive them. They asked for mercy and God granted it to them. But in this chapter, there’s none of that going on. No, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian invasion, the king was Zedekiah, a wicked man. All he sought was escape. He actually went out with some of his nobles, through the openings in the wall, and ran at night, trying to escape. What a coward. That’s somewhat included in this chapter. “Your leaders have all fled. They didn’t fight. They didn’t have the strength to take up bow and arrow or shield. They didn’t do that. They ran for their lives. That’s the kind of leaders you have, O Jerusalem.” Well, those are the days of Zedekiah, the days of Babylon. That’s what Isaiah’s talking about. Isaiah’s Overpowering Reaction In verse 4, we have Isaiah’s overwhelming reaction to this prophecy. This is the prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, the city of his own people. Look what he says in verse 4. “Therefore I said (this is Isaiah speaking) Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet, but I think Isaiah did plenty of his own weeping too. Isaiah is overcome with grief for the destruction of Jerusalem, overcome with grief over his own people. It’s a grievous thing when God’s own people break the covenant, the holy covenant. When, through their wickedness and sin, God brings final judgment on them. God himself is highly emotional about sin. He’s an emotional being. You get your emotions from Him. You’re created in His image. God has emotional reactions to our sins. We’re told in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Grief is a serious sadness, a deep-rooted sadness that comes. Think about some of the tragedies that happen in life, even someone getting hit by a car and almost dying, or maybe a toddler that actually does get killed, and the grief that come over that. It’s frequently associated, I think, with death for the most part. The Holy Spirit is grieved when we sin. It’s an emotional reaction. Later, God will say in this text that He called on the people to grieve too. “I’m grieving,” God is saying, “You should grieve too. We should be in unity on this, because of the sin.” Isaiah’s already doing it. He’s grieving over the destruction of his people and over the sins that brought it about. He’s weeping over it, saying, “I can’t be consoled.” What’s really amazing about this is that this is a prophecy one hundred and fifty years before this even happens. Think about that. This is about a century and a half before this stuff will even happen, and God gives Isaiah this vision. Maybe he’s writing it down on a scroll and puts down his pen, and starts to weep over it. He’s already doing it. Elam and Kir: Distant Enemies, Well-Prepared for Conquest Now, he mentions Elam and Kir in verses 5-6. These are distant enemies, Gentile nations, who are going to come and do the job. “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and crying out to the mountains. Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horse; Kir uncovers the shield.” Isaiah is a stunning and amazing prophecy. It’s just incredible to me. He moves back and forth from section to section across centuries of time, without even stopping. I think of an eagle that’s on the peak of one mountain and wants to go to the peak of another mountain. It flies there in about three minutes. Whereas if we try to climb, we’d have to descend one slope and go up another. It would take us all day, or maybe two. But Isaiah, with the eagle eye of prophecy, can go from one century to the next and back again, no problem. Elam and Kir, they actually are the very people that God, in Chapter 21, is going to raise up to destroy the Babylonians. They are the Medes and Persians, ultimately. But before that ever happens He’s going to use them to destroy Jerusalem. They’re going to come with chariots and siege instruments and all that. They’re going to be victorious. They’re going to win. Jerusalem Stripped Verse 7 says, “Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates.” Verse 8, “The defenses of Judah are stripped away.” They are defenseless. The walls are broken down. They have nothing left. They’re going to be destroyed. The siege is devastating. All of Judah’s protection is gone. Judah is stripped and laid bare, ready for the plundering. That’s verses 1-8. What Jerusalem Should Have Done: Faith and Repentance (vs 11-12) The Visions of the Prophets Had Warned Jerusalem of This for Centuries All right, now what should Jerusalem have done? None of this has happened yet, when Isaiah gives the word, when he gives the prophecy. He’s just predicting what’s going to happen. What should they have done? Well, they should have had faith toward God and repentance toward their sins. It’s a double vision. It’s two sides of the same coin. Toward God you look. You look toward God. It’s a look of faith. You’re going to look to God and trust in Him. You’re going to look towards your sins and grieve over them. It’s the same thing, really. That’s what they should have done. The visions of the prophets had warned the people of Jerusalem that this was coming. They knew it was coming. I already told you that this is one hundred and fifty years before the fall of Jerusalem. Plenty of warning. The Valley of Vision, one hundred and fifty years ahead of time. Isaiah himself had said, “God is not pleased with the Jews. He’s not pleased with your religious system, your animal sacrifices.” “What are they to me?” says the Lord. “I don’t care about this river of blood, animal after animal that you’re sacrificing. I’m sick of it, frankly. I have more than enough of the blood of fattened rams and lambs and all that.” “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’” Isaiah 1:16-20 I think that’s very clear. In Isaiah 5, he actually tells them a variety of their sins: their drunkenness, their social oppression, their taking of widows’ houses and adding house to house till no space is left in the land, and all of the wickedness. It’s very, very plain in Isaiah’s prophecy. They know exactly what God thinks about the way they’re living. So that was warning enough. Isaiah is enough. Major Warning: The Exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to Assyria Then as time goes on, Assyria invades. The Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes, they get destroyed and swept away into exile. That’s a pretty strong warning, don’t you think? It’s warning to Judah, “This could happen to you.” Even Clearer: The Babylonians Were Coming It’s even clearer when these events actually start happening and you’re in the city of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar starts conquering some of the little kingdoms north of you, one after the other after the other. Assyria falls to the Babylonians. Tyre falls to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar is coming. And at that same time you have Jeremiah the prophet saying plainly what’s going to happen. He’s using exactly the same language as Isaiah did. You can read about it in Jeremiah 4:4-8. “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds. Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, ‘Blow the trumpet through the land; cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!’ Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, stay not, for I bring disaster from the North, and great destruction. A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.” Listen to this, this is Jeremiah 4:8. “For this put on sackcloth, (Do you hear that?) lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us.” It’s the same message, before it happens. Isaiah Spoke to them 150 Years Ahead of Time, Telling Them What to Do When, in our text, it says, “The Lord Almighty called you in that day,” that’s Jeremiah doing that. Do you see that? He’s going to send Jeremiah to go say, “Put on sackcloth and cry and wail.” God spoke to them. So what should they have done? First, they should have looked to the Lord. Verse 11 speaks of all the military preparations they make. More on that in a moment, but look at verse 11. “You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look (Do you see the word “look?”) to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.” What’s that “look?” It’s faith, friends. It has to do with what you trust. You looked to this, but you should have looked to God. Does that make sense? As Isaiah 45:22 says, “Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.” The KJV keeps the “look.” All the others say, “Turn to me,” but KJV has “look.” So it’s a look of faith, right? Look to God. Trouble is coming. Look to God with the eyes of your heart, which is faith. By faith, see Him who is invisible. Second, look to your sins and grieve over them. Look at verse 12. “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.” This is an expression of great grief over sin. Grief! Grief! You look and you see your sins. They call you to cry out against yourself. I don’t know that it’s literally that you’re going to rip the hair out of your head, but there’s this sense of intensity. “God, how could I do this against you? How could I sin against such a God as you?” There’s a crying out against yourself. You put on sackcloth because it’s rough, and you’re like, “I don’t want comfort. I don’t want earthly consolations now. I don’t want an earthly party. I have sinned against God.” That’s what it’s calling on you to do. Take your sins seriously. Grieve over it. That’s what they should have done. The New Testament version is in James 4:8-10. “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” That’s what they should have done, looked to the Lord, looked to their sins, and grieved over them. What did they do? Well, they made faithless military preparations and they had a party. That’s what they did. What Jerusalem Did: Faithless Preparations and Feasting (vs 8b-11,13) Avid Military Preparations I mean, they got ready for the Babylonians to come. They shored up their defenses as best they could. They made preparations, first described in verse 8. “You looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.” That was their armory. So they went and counted their weapons. “All right, we have X number of swords, X number of shields. We have bows and arrows. All right, good. We’re ready.” Look, there’s nothing wrong with making military preparations. The Old testament has a lot of examples of godly people who made military preparations. That’s not the issue. The issue is that they did that but did not look to the Lord. It’s a contrast. They were trusting in the weapons, trusting in the military. They were not trusting in God. You’ve heard the World War II saying, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.” Well, this was just “pass the ammunition.” They skipped the Lord part. So they were trusting in the weapons. Verses 9-11 says, “You saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses, you stored up water (You’re going to need water) in the Lower Pool.” You need water for the siege. “You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.” You need some more building materials for the gaps in the walls, so you tore down the houses that weren’t needed. You took the rubble and the wood, and you shored up the defenses of the wall. “You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool.” There’s nothing wrong with that. But they did not look to God while they were doing it. Fleshly Celebration Secondly, they had a fleshly celebration. They had a party. Look at Verse 13. “But behold, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! ‘Let us eat and drink,’ you say, ‘for tomorrow we die.’” Having done their military preparations, they felt secure. It was time for a feast, time to have a party. It’s a bit odd when you’re about to go through a siege. You really should be conserving food when people are going to be on rations for a while, don’t you think? But it’s an arrogance, a confidence, a hubris. “Hey, we can have a feast.” It’s what they did in Daniel 5, remember? Babylon, the night they fell, they had a big banquet, a big feast. They were confident. Or maybe the deeper issue was they were revealing that their god was their stomach. This is what they lived for anyway. This is why they were in the problem they were in. Their god was their stomach, all the time. It’s how they lived. “Might as well just do it again, because we don’t have much more time to have a good party.” The apostle Paul quoted this exact verse in speaking of what life would be like if there were no resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, he said, “Suppose there were no resurrection from the dead. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” So like they say, you only live once. I guess it’s YOLO these days. I’ve heard that before. Very trendy. I think what’s connected with it is, “You only live once, so do stuff on your bucket list. Go out and have a good time. Do stuff you want to do before you die. Have a party, whatever. That’s the mentality I’m sensing from my culture. Do you get that? You only live once, so have a party. Jerusalem Was Spiritually Bankrupt Well, I think you only live once. That’s true. So live for the glory of God. Amen? You only live once, so go on a mission trip. You only live once, so share the gospel with your neighbor. I think that’s the right answer to “you only live once.” Don’t go have a party. But that same spirit is alive today. Do you see it, friends? Do you see it in yourself? I’m so glad that Eric read that parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. It’s like, “Oh, I’m glad I’m not like those Jews back then. I’m glad I don’t have a problem with not repenting of my sin.” Friends, don’t fall into that trap. Jerusalem was spiritually bankrupt. They were completely hardened in their sin, unaware of God’s passionate hatred for their sin. So they went over and they celebrated and had a feast. God’s Solemn Response: This Sin Will Never Be Forgiven (v 14) Is Feasting When You Should Be Grieving an Unforgiveable Sin? Now comes, in verse 14, God’s solemn response. Sometimes I have a hard time reading it without tears coming to my eyes. This is what God thought about that feast. He looks down and He sees this party going on. I mean, think about spiritual repulsion. It’s just disgusting to Him. And He said, “Isaiah, I want to tell you what I think about that feast.” “The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: (this is Isaiah speaking) ‘till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,’ says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” Is this the unforgiveable sin? Throwing a party when God calls on you to wail for your sins? Well, in some sense, the answer must be yes. How is it unforgiveable? Well, here’s the thing. God gives a means of grace. He gives an avenue of grace, the working of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy against the Spirit was called unforgiveable. God does these things to bring hearts to repentance. What is happening here? Repentance and faith in Christ are the way by which sins are forgiven. What these people are doing is openly scorning repentance. They are mocking repentance. It reminds me of what HIV does to the body’s immune system. It goes after the helper T-cell and destroys it, so the body is defenseless against diseases. This sermon is going after that virus. This sermon is going after the thing that destroys the soul, so that godly repentance can stand and do its work. Does that make sense? I’m hunting it down right now, this spiritual virus that says, “Hey, mock repentance. Have a party if God’s calling on you to weep and wail.” There is a kind of godly sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7. Frankly, if you want to know, James 4:8-10 and 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 are the parallel verses in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” So there is a godly sorrow that I’m after today. I think the Spirit is after it in Isaiah 22. But worldly sorrow brings death. “See,” says Paul, “what this godly sorrow has produced in you; what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” That’s what godly sorrow does. It brings about repentance and energy. Do you see? There’s a drive. It’s not emaciating and depressing. It causes you to say, “I have got to change. I want to bring about these changes in my life by God’s grace. I’m done with that sin.” That’s what it does. So when God calls for sorrow and mourning and repentance, and we feast and celebrate instead, there’s nothing left but judgment. Jesus Christ: Our Sovereign and Immovable Savior (vs 15-25) Shebna: Arrogant Official Seeking Worldly Security I’m not dealing equally with the rest of the verses as I’ve done with the first fourteen verses. Verses 15-25 are very interesting though. We go from this situation, the fall of Jerusalem, to this direct prophecy against an individual, Shebna the steward. I just want to mention in passing, as I compare these two passages: what’s going on? Who is Shebna? Well, he’s a wicked man who is living for himself and his own glory. And God tells him in verses 15-16, “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, says: ‘Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace: ‘What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?’” He’s presumptuous and powerful, using his position of power to elevate and exalt himself and prepare for his death. He wants to have a mausoleum and be thought of as a wealthy, successful man. In verses 17-19, the Lord says, “The Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, O you mighty man. He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there your splendid chariots will remain – you disgrace to your master’s house!” Verse 19 says, “I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.” So God’s going to take hold of this individual, this Shebna, and He’s going to throw him like a ball somewhere. He will not get to die where he hopes he’s going to die. Now, the weird thing is, Shebna was a contemporary of Isaiah. He’s not going to die in the siege of Jerusalem. But what’s going on, and the juxtaposition is, “We’re moving from a nation, a whole nation, to a single individual. I know you by name. This is what you think. This is what I’m going to do with you.” Do you not see the relevance of that? Don’t just step back and say, “God is looking at the whole earth and we’re all like grasshoppers to him.” He knows Shebna. He knows exactly what he’s thinking and what he’s doing. He’s going to do something exactly directed toward him. So, what that means is that the text comes right at me. Does that make sense? Verses 1-14 come and talk to me. And they tell me not to make my own preparations for the grave. Don’t make my own lifestyle, my own religion. Go to the Lord and allow Him to prepare me for death. Don’t live for my own glory. Don’t use my position to elevate myself, as Shebna was doing. Eliakim: Humble Servant Exalted by God He’s going to bring instead this Eliakim, a humble servant who’s going to take Shebna’s place. Look at verses 20-24. “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe (Shebna) and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.” Now listen to this, this is interesting. Verse 22: “I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots – all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.” Christ: The Fulfillment of the Promise Let’s cut to the chase. Eliakim was a real man who took Shebna’s place. He’s also a type, or picture, of Jesus Christ. It’s so strong that John the apostle, in writing the book of Revelation, picks up on these themes from Isaiah and he ascribes them to Jesus Christ. He says to the church at Philadelphia, in Revelation 3:7-8, “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘These are the words of him who is holy and true (Jesus) who holds the key of David.” Here’s the key of David. Jesus holds it. The key is power. I can open and shut locked doors. The one who holds the key of David, “what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.” Then he speaks to the church at Philadelphia, “I know your deeds.” This is Jesus Christ. He has sovereign power over the nations. He’s the one in charge. He is likened to a firm peg driven in and everything hangs on Him. Nothing will fall. Do you see? It’s a picture of Christ. Ultimately, the key speaks of Jesus’ total power over death. Revelation 1:18 says, “And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” So the second half of the chapter points to Jesus Christ. Yes, God speaks to every individual, like Shebna, and accuses us of sin through scripture. But then He immediately points toward Christ as a firm foundation for your life. The one who holds the key of death and Hades, that’s Christ, the one who died on the cross and rose again on the third day. The one you can hang your whole life on. Some of you know that I built a tree house in my yard a couple of years ago. As I was doing the initial main boards that were going to hold up the whole tree house, I had to figure out what kind of hardware I was going to use to attach the 2x8 boards to the trees. So I chose 5/8 diameter steel lag screws that were six inches long. I looked it up and did the calculations, the last mechanical engineering I have done or perhaps will ever do. I found that they could hold 150,000 pounds each. Four of them, that’s 600,000 pounds. Friends, that thing’s not shearing down. It may come off another way, but I’ve had six, eight people in there. “Can it hold the weight?” I said, “Yes, it can hold the weight. It’s all right.” It might not survive a hurricane. It might not survive the trees falling down. But it’s not going to shear down like it’s made of butter. It’s going to hold. All right? It’s definitely over-designed. But that’s it. That’s who I am. The fundamental thing is, these lag screws are a picture of Jesus. You can hang your life on Him and He won’t shear off out of the wall. See what I’m saying? He’s the one that can face death on your behalf. He holds the keys of David, of death. And He can face it. Don’t be like Shebna, making your own provision, carving out your own grave, doing your own religion. That’s the second half of the chapter. Application Come to Christ Now, application. Simply, clearly, run to Jesus. Flee to Jesus. Look to Him and trust in Him. He shed His blood on the cross for sinners like you and me. He rose from the dead. He now has the key of death and Hades in His hand. Trust in Him. Learn to Mourn for Sin Secondly, and briefly, I want to teach you, please mourn for your sins. Take the time to be holy. Can I just say that? Slow down. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, stop. Pull aside. Go into your room. Close the door, when you have the chance, and go over it with the Lord. Don’t go too quickly to the party. Do you see what I’m saying? Don’t go too quickly, “God forgives me, everything is fine.” And then you never dealt with it. There’s a healthy way to deal with it and an unhealthy way to deal with it. The healthy way is to take Jesus’ nail-scarred hand and walk down into the depths of your own wickedness with His blood. Understand that you’re forgiven the whole time, but see how much you need salvation still. That’s a healthy way. The unhealthy way is forgetting that Jesus died or thinking it’s insufficient or doesn’t count for you, getting depressed and stripped and emaciated spiritually. That’s the sorrow that leads to death. In the 17th century, a Puritan pastor named Thomas Watson wrote a book called “The Doctrine of Repentance.” He said that true repentance has six elements. I’m going to list them. One of them is sorrow for sin. He said it’s sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin, and turning from sin. Those are the six elements of genuine repentance, according to Thomas Watson. One of them is sorrow for sin. And I think we’re too much in a hurry, friends. We want to turn K-Love back on and be positive, uplifting, or positively uplifted. Hey, look, I’m up for positive. I like uplifting. But I actually would rather be exalted than uplifted. Amen! God will exalt those who humble themselves. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with uplifting one another. That’s good. And I’m not dinging on K-Love. Please, I’m not. But if all a church and a pulpit ever try to do is be positive and uplifting, that’s doing you no favors. I was watching a wartime movie recently in which the corpsman, a medical officer, got hit with shrapnel. He’s laying and he’s bleeding to death. He’s trying to determine the level of his wounds. He’s basically doing an examination on himself with his buddies around him. He’s laying there, bleeding out, bleeding to death. Finally, after having felt his own wound, getting a sense of it, he knows he’s going to die. No doubt about it. So after a pause, he says, “I’d like a little morphine please.” And with that statement, everyone around him knew that he knew he was dying. Well, the morphine is just for pain, right? To cover it over. That’s not why we’re here, friends, for a little morphine every week. We’re not here for a little morphine, we’re here for genuine healing. Amen! That healing is available through the blood of Jesus. Don’t short circuit. Don’t go quickly back to the party. Take time to be holy and grieve over sin. Close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank You for this time we’ve had in Your word, Isaiah 22. There’s more here than we can handle in ten sermons. Lord, I thank You for the message. Lord, You have called on us to weep and wail over sin, when needed. It’s not going to be needed every day. Some days we’ve been faithful. Our conscience is clear. We’ve served the Lord faithfully. There’s nothing to say. We just praise You. But sometimes, Lord, we know we’ve violated our conscience and Your laws and we have sinned against You. Help us to take You, O Lord, by the hand and go down into the dark pit of our own wickedness, not to morosely linger on the past, but to understand who we are and what our weaknesses are, so that we don’t sin again. O Lord, help us to do that. Thank You for Jesus. I pray, O Lord, for any that are lost here that they would find Jesus as their savior today. In His name I pray.

For the second week, we're looking at Colossians 3:22 up through 4:1. As we come to today's topic, in which I'm really going to be stepping back from just a verse by verse analysis of these, which I gave last time, to look at a larger issue, and that is the issue of slavery. And slavery in the Bible, I am amazed how rich this theme is biblically. And here we come to somewhat of a paradox, as I have studied church history, it is my conviction that one of the crown jewels of the church, in terms of its impact on the surrounding culture, has been the complete abolition of slavery around the world. It really is an astonishing feat, and I bring it right back to Jesus Christ, and to the doctrines He taught, and the effect He had in the world. We're called on to be salt and light, and in this way, the church has had an incredible impact on the world, and yet, it is the greatest accomplishment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, within the lives of an individual person, in the life and the heart of an individual person, to teach us how to be a slave of Christ, gladly, willingly laying down on our lives for His will and His purposes, and that seems to be a paradox. The Heroic Fight Against Slavery’s Wicked Abuse 2007: A Two Hundredth Anniversary of Wilberforce’s Triumph How can it be the glory of the Church to abolish physical slavery in the world, and yet, the glory of the Gospel to make us cheerful slaves of God? And yet, so it is. And that's the paradox we're looking at today. We're going to try to understand slavery biblically and it's not going to be easy. Now, last year, 2007 marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, under the influence of evangelical Christians led in Parliament by William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce was an evangelical Christian in England, came to faith in Christ, he was also a member of Parliament. A physically small man, but with a tremendous heart, and a tremendous intellect, and amazing gift of speech, very persuasive. With a buoyant personality, kind of like a big chunk of cork, you just couldn't keep him down. And he is a hero for me, in that regard, because he needed all of that. It was an 18-year struggle. From the first time that he got up to address Parliament on the issue of the slave trade, until the abolition of the slave trade, was 18 years. And during that time, he was struck down, again and again. He was mocked, he was vilified, he was opposed, he was threatened. He was seen to be a traitor by his own people, but he tirelessly persevered, until, at last, success came through his efforts and the efforts of many others in 1807. But that was just the first step. That was the abolition of the slave trade. It took another 26 years for the British empire to free all the slaves throughout the empire. 1833, it happened a few days before he died, and that was just the second step. Then there was the abolition of slavery all over the world, so that every nation would come to that same conviction, and that didn't happen until 1981. Mauritania was the last country, finally, to abolish slavery within its land. And that was just the next step. Then there's the abolition of illegal trafficking of human beings, which still goes on to this very day. And some agencies estimate that there are as many as 27 million people in some kind of involuntary servitude today, and so the battle goes on. But William Wilberforce focused on the slave trade to begin with, and that was the ending of that infamous Middle Passage. Estimates go as high as 15 million Africans crossed the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved in the Western Hemisphere. African kings, and warlords, and private kidnappers sold captives to Europeans, who held several coastal forts along the west coast of Africa. The captives were usually force-marched to these ports along the western coast of Africa, where they were held for purchase by European or American slave traders. Ships contained as many as 300 slaves with 30 ship hands, a crew of 30. Male captives were usually chained very close together, the right leg of the one to the left leg of the next, while the women and children may have had a little bit more room. The captives were fed with beans, and corn, yams, rice, and palm oil. They were fed minimum amount of food, just to keep them alive. And if any were deemed as not probably going to survive the Middle Passage, they weren't fed anymore, they were allowed to die. That mentality reached its low point in 1781. The captain of a slave ship, Zong, threw overboard over 130 chained slaves living, so that he could get insurance money from them. It was called 'The Massacre of the Zong' by abolitionists; it was called 'The Incident of the Zong' by non-abolitionists. Well, it was in that backdrop that William Wilberforce spared nothing in making the horrors of the slave trade known to the people of England, and to the Parliament, and last year marked the 200th anniversary of their successful fight. Now, as I read history, I've done some research on it this past week and learned a lot. Abolition really is a flowering of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You don't find any strong abolitionist movements in any land not saturated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and even in those lands saturated with the Gospel it is quite a fight. At the time the Apostle Paul wrote Colossians, it's estimated between a third and a half of the human inhabitants of the Roman Empire were slaves. They were seen to have no legal right; they were not seen to be people in the eyes of the law. They couldn't even give testimony in a court of law, unless they were tortured first, to be sure that they were telling the truth. That was slavery in the Roman Empire. Islamic nations have resisted, stubbornly resisted abolition, and only eventually yielded, when they wanted to do business with Western nations who demanded it, required it. Or if they wanted a military alliance with Western nations who required it. And so, therefore, it's really right to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it's a flowering of the Gospel of Christ, that there is no legal slavery anywhere in the world today. Questions Still Linger About the Bible But yet, for all of that, questions still linger about the Bible itself. Now, someone once said in the ministry, "You just need to know the Bible is a lion. It doesn't need any defending, it will defend itself." And so, it is true. The Bible's the Word of God. “Heaven and Earth will pass away,” but yet, I feel a zeal today to reveal the glories of the Bible's handling of this difficult issue. And the reason that we need to do this, is because some slaveholders in the American South, and other places, defended their actions based on texts of Scripture. And so it's left people in modern life questioning the Scripture, to see if maybe it's a time-oriented book whose time has passed it by. And I think the closer you look at this issue, the more wisdom you see in the mind of God, in dealing with it just the way He did. Now, what do we mean by slavery? What are we talking about? Well, as I was reading the article in Encyclopedia Britannica about it, "It is the social sanction that permits one person or group to compel the involuntary labor of another person or group. Now, whether slave, or serf, or indentured servant, or otherwise, that bonded person is obliged to perform personal service for his lord or master, under conditions that make him socially inferior and are restrictive of his freedom." Now, I filtered through all those words and I got out some key issues. Issue number one: Involuntary labor. You don't have a choice in the matter. You're compelled, legally and physically, to do work that you wouldn't want to do. Conditions, living conditions that speak to your essential inferiority as a human being, and perhaps, even a denial of the fact that you are a human being, somehow subhuman. And a taking away of personal freedom. The Gospel of Jesus Christ attacks and transforms each of these topics. It doesn't just seek to abolish slavery, but it seeks to transform the way we think about all of these things, and there is the glory of the Gospel. Slavery in the Old Testament Overview of Slavery in the Old Testament Now, as we look at the Old Testament, we find slavery in the Old Testament. It's first mention is in Genesis 9, when Noah's son, Ham, saw him drunk and uncovered in his tent, and went and told his brothers, in a way that seems that he was mocking them. When Noah woke up and was aware of what had happened, interestingly, he didn't curse Ham for what he did, he cursed his son, Canaan. He said, "Cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." That's the first time you have a mention of that. Now, of course, the verb is found way back in Genesis 2, when Adam was told that he would serve the ground. You remember, we already covered that, but here's the first time, in which you have the issue of slavery brought up. Abraham had male and female slaves. Hagar was one of them, a maidservant to his wife, Sarah. You remember, after she became pregnant by Abraham, she was somewhat abused by her mistress, Sarah, and ran away. And the Angel of the Lord came and found her in the desert, and commanded her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." Amazing, the consistency of Scripture, isn't it? The very same thing that the Apostle Paul commands, and so, she did. Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt by his brothers, trying to get money from his body, basically. But then, ironically, he threatened his brothers with slavery if one of them was discovered to have stolen a silver cup. And so this becomes an interesting little paradigm for what happens with Israel, because after Joseph died, they become enslaved in Egypt, and they're put to bitter bondage in Egypt. God then delivers them, and then, in the Laws of Moses, there are laws regulating slavery, how they are going to be masters to their slaves. Quite interesting, and therein is the trouble. And so some people try to find defense for slavery, right there in the puzzling Laws of Moses. The Puzzling Laws of Moses Now, Moses consistently reminded them that they had been slaves in Egypt, and therefore, they should deal well with the aliens and strangers in their land. He says in Exodus 23:9, "Do not oppress an alien. You, yourselves, know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt." You see, there's generally a heart of compassion there, and yet, slavery was not abolished, but rather regulated in the Laws of Moses. One key text that I find in the Laws of Moses, that just expands out into the New Covenant, and frankly, on into the New Heaven and the New Earth, and it has to do with a slave in a Hebrew household, who has served his time, six years, and the time has come for him to be set free, but he doesn't want to go. He loves his master so much, he loves living with his master so much, that he doesn't want to leave. He wants to be with him forever. And so the master is commanded to take the slave to the doorpost, and to put an awl through the ear. The piercing of the ear was a symbol of being a lifelong slave of a good, beloved master. He had the freedom to go, he didn't want to go. What's so amazing, is that this piercing of the ear, I believe, is picked up on in Psalm 40, speaking of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, I know there are other interpretations of this, but I think this is the right one. If you look at Psalm 40:6-8, the verses there say this, "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears, you have pierced." Now, one translation will say, "My ears, you have opened," but I think a better translation here is, "My ears, you have pierced. Burnt offerings and sin offerings, you do not require. Then I said, 'Here I am. I have come. It is written about about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, oh, my God. Your law is within my heart.' " Here is the attitude of a servant or a slave, saying to the master, "Your law is in my heart. All I want to do is serve you. I just want to do whatever you command me to do." Well, the author to Hebrews picks up this quote and applies it to Jesus. And in effect, before Jesus entered the world, I guess He had His ear pierced, metaphorically, in reference to His Heavenly Father. And in effect, He said, "I am entering the world as your servant. I will do anything you command me to do." And so Christ came into the world, as the perfect slave of a perfect Master. He entered the world to do the will of Him who sent Him. John 6:38-39, He says this, "I have come down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day." In effect, He said, "I live for the will of the one who sent me," and that is a slave mentality. Jesus came to be the slave of His Heavenly Father. Now, the pinnacle verse on this, is on the cover of your bulletin, and that's Philippians 2:5-8. You know the Philippian Church was bickering and arguing, like the disciples tend to do, about who's the best. And they did not have a servant heart toward one another. There were divisions and factions, there was pride. And that's just in the human heart all the time. Frankly, that's why the whole issue of slavery got corrupted to begin with, because of human pride. Christ a Perfect Slave, Christ a Perfect Master Christ the “Very Nature of a Slave” But Jesus Christ is given as an example, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being, in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a bond-slave," basically ‘doulos’, "Being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Now, this is very powerful, this Philippians 2 passage. As I said, the word servant is 'doulos,' usually translated 'bond-slave,' sometimes translated 'servant.' I asked somebody this week, "What's the difference between a servant and a slave?" And they said, "It's the nature of the task, I guess, and of the relationship." Well, the more I studied the life of Christ, the more I saw that no slave in all of history was asked to do a harder thing than Jesus. No one has ever had a lower task than Jesus, so let's stick with 'slave,' that's what 'doulos' means. And notice the parallel Greek construction here, "Who being, in very nature, God,” “very nature God," NIV gives us, "Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave." It's exact same in construction. If you put it together, you're going to say, "Jesus was as much slave, as He was God." And that's a powerful thought, isn't it? He didn't play at it. It wasn't an act. Christ’s Slave-like Demeanor to Others It was who He was, when He took on a human body. Christ, therefore, carried Himself in a slave-like demeanor toward other people, didn't He? If anybody came to Jesus for a need, He stopped what He was doing, and got up, and went. I find that, as a pastor, incredibly challenging. Jesus seemed to be infinitely interruptible. I'm not sure that I meet that qualification, but it seemed anybody came to Jesus got what they wanted, except, you may say, the Syrophoenician woman. Well, she got what she wanted too, it just took a little longer. And she had to have a discussion with Jesus, as He challenged some thoughts. It was fascinating, that encounter, but she still got what she wanted. And so the Roman centurion sends a messenger, saying, "My servant is at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." By the way, I think He was a good master. He had tremendous compassion. He was a godly man. And he cared about him, and he humbled himself to go to Jesus, an itinerant Jewish preacher, and said, "Could you come and heal him?" Jesus gets up and goes. And he said, "Look, you don't need to come, because I don't deserve to have you in my house, but just say the word and my servant will be healed." But you see, Jesus, He just gets up and goes, willing to go. Or Jairus comes and says, "My daughter is sick." And Jesus gets up, and goes. Or huge throngs of people are coming, and He stays there, and heals them all with a touch, with a word, with a personal encounter. It took all day, it must have been exhausting. He could have healed them all with a word, just like that, but that's not how He did it. He wanted to touch them, He wanted to pray for them, He wanted to heal them. He was a servant of everybody. And that's especially displayed in that beautiful image of the foot washing, which I prayed about, and you heard Eric sing. What a beautiful song. Eric, thank you for singing that. I was so excited to hear that you were going to sing that today. And it fits beautifully on New Member Sunday, doesn't it? How we're called to be a community of servants to one another, and how Jesus gave us that example, by getting down and washing the feet of His disciples, something no menial slave would have been asked to do, at that point. A jarring image, to be sure. Peter didn't like it. He didn't like it. Jesus washed their feet. Christ’s Ultimate “Bondage”: The Cross But I'll tell you, the ultimate bondage for Jesus was the cross. It was the cross of Jesus Christ, that was His ultimate bondage as a slave. Now, why do I use that language? Well, you don't have to turn there, but in Luke 12:50, there's a statement there that's really not going to come across very well, in any translation, except the King James version. But there are times that the King James version just shines, and this is one of them, because it just gets so close to the original Greek meaning. Well, Luke 12:50, Jesus is giving a rare glimpse into His heart and His emotions, and He says, "I have a baptism to undergo and how distressed I am, until it is finished." Well, that's not speaking of a literal baptism. He had already been baptized by John, He's talking about death. He's talking about His death on the cross. But what's so interesting, the NIV word translated, "How distressed." The KJV gives us, "I am straightened," like a straitjacket. "I'm bound in," and that's what the Greek word means. Basically, "I'm tied up, until I die on the cross." And you know what occurred to me? That He'd been so tied up, since before the foundation of the world, He'd been bearing that, knowing He would die some day for David's sin. When David committed that sin with Bathsheba, Jesus would pay that price. He'd been bound up, in his mind, knowing it would be He that would pay the price, He would shed His blood, as a slave for David. And He just gives us that glimpse, He says, "I'm in a straitjacket. I'm bound up, until, at last, I'm free from that task. But I can't go anywhere, I can't do anything, until I accomplish that." And He wrestles with it, of course, in Gethsemane, the depths of which, we will never be able to plumb. And woe to us, if we get heresy and bad doctrine from Gethsemane. You take off your shoes, for the place is holy ground, when you go to Gethsemane, and try to understand what's happening there. As He says, "Father, Abba Father, all things are possible through you. Let this cup be taken away from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Not my will, but yours be done." That is a slave statement He's making to His Father. Jesus, therefore, was willing to drink the cup of God's wrath. And I say to you, there is no servitude, there's nothing that has ever been asked of any servant, that's greater, or more torturous, or more miserable, or more wretched, than the Father asked His own Son to do on our behalf. And in this way, He fulfills the beautiful role of Isaiah's suffering servant, or shall we say, 'suffering slave,' who entered the world to take on our infirmities, and our diseases, and to bear them to the cross, where they would be punished by a righteous God. And therefore, it says in Isaiah 53:11, "After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied by His knowledge. My righteous slave will justify many and He will bear their iniquities." Now, this is a sermon on slavery, and I'm going to talk, in a minute, about the slavery of sin, but Jesus shed His blood on the cross, in our place. He died for us, in the place of God. This is the Gospel. And I don't know how you came here today, I don't know who invited you today, I don't know if you're saved, but this is your only hope for surviving Judgment Day. Look to Christ. Look to His blood shed on the cross. All you have to do is simply ask Him, "Lord, serve me, serve me. Wash, not just my feet, my hands, my head, my whole life. Wash my guilty conscience. Save me from my sin," and He will do it. He will not refuse. "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many," and that could include you, if you just simply repent, and trust in Christ. Don't leave this place in a lost condition. Simply trust in Him, and then we'll get to servanthood after that. But let Jesus serve you first or you will never survive Judgment Day. But Jesus was not only the ultimate servant, He is also our Master, the ultimate Master. And so in the passage that Matthew read, in Chapter 4:1, it says, "Master, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in Heaven." Jesus is the slave who is a Master. No one has ever gone so low and no one has ever been raised so high as Jesus, "Before Him, every knee bows. Before Him, every tongue swears that, 'Jesus Christ is Lord, the Master, the King.' " Slavery in the New Testament: Some Observations Spiritual Slavery: Every Human Being a Slave Now, I want to make some observations on slavery, the theme of slavery from the New Testament, and apply them to our Christian lives. First of all, let's talk about spiritual slavery, spiritual slavery, and I make this contention based on the Scripture. Every single human being that has ever lived, or lives now, or ever will live, is a slave to a master. There is no avoiding it. You will serve God, or you will serve Satan. You will serve righteousness, or you will serve sin. There is no third option. You have a master. It's either Jesus or it's Satan. It's either righteousness or it's the flesh. You have a master. Now, Satan is a liar on this very point. He comes and offers us freedom. He comes and tells us, "You can be free from all authority. You can do whatever you want. You don't need to submit to anyone. You can do what you want. You can choose and no one has the right to tell you what to do. You can eat what you want and no consequences." Do you believe that one? Some of us know better. "You can do what you want with your time. You can spend your money however you want. You can live for yourself. You can do what you want." Friends, it is bondage, it is a lie, because at the core of it, is slavery to sin. Jesus said in John 8:34, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." There it is, that's what our Savior told us, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin." And Romans 6:17 says, "You used to be slaves to sin." Praise God for 'used to be,' by the way. Praise God for that emancipation, but you used to be slaves to sin. We walk around every day, surrounded by people who are still enslaved to sin, because they don't know the Savior. That's the real emancipation that matters. I'm not saying the physical one doesn't matter, we'll talk about it in a moment, but I'm saying that that's the one that lasts for eternity. Conversely, every Christian is a slave of Christ. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." You know the next part, don't you? "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I've said before, that His is a kingly yoke. He's the Master, He's the King. And if you say, "I will have you as my Savior, but I don't want you as my Lord, I will not have you as my Master," then you can't have Him at all. As a matter of fact, that's the essence of the sin. It was rebellion, independence, doing your own thing. He wants to save you from that. And he says, "If you'll just bow that stiff neck of yours under my yoke, I will give you true freedom at last. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, your heart will be set free at last." Paul uses slave language about Christians quite boldly. In First Corinthians 6:19-20, he says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price." Stop right there. You are not your own? You were bought at a price? That sounds like slavery to me. Well, it is. Of course, it makes a big difference who the master is, doesn't it? But we have been told as Christians, "If you're truly a Christian, you were bought at a price. You serve at the will of a master. You're not your own. You don't get to do whatever you want." And the context there is sexual immorality, you can't do whatever you want with your body, it's not just your body. The Holy Spirit shares it with you and He will not have you be sexually immoral, that's what he's saying there. But more generally, just whatever the topic is, you're not your own. “You're bought at a price, and therefore, glorify God in your body.” That's what he's saying. Many Christian leaders have taken, as their most exalted title, "I am a bond-slave of Christ." We tend to prefer the tamer version, "I'm a servant of Christ, a servant of Christ." The word 'slave' is a bit jarring, but I think it's good to be jarred on this one. We'll get to that in a moment, but, "Paul, a bond-slave of Christ Jesus, and set apart for the Gospel of God," Romans 1:1. That's how he starts, "I'm a 'doulos' of Christ." Epaphras was a bond-slave of Christ. James, the brother of the Lord, was a bond-slave of the Lord. Jude, also, a bond-slave. Simon Peter calls himself a bond-slave. Tychicus, a bond-slave. It's an exalted title used again and again. Bottomline then, every human being on the face of the Earth will either serve God through Christ, or serve Satan through sin. You have no choice in that matter, in terms of whether you'll have a master or not. You will, you do. Question is, is it Christ? Therefore, this week, if you're ever talking to somebody who says, "You know, I don't agree with that. I'm free. I can do whatever I want. I really am not accountable to anybody. I've got my own free time, I can do what I want with my money, etcetera." Be assured that they are in bondage, they just don't see the chains, and it's your job to tell them the truth. Freedom and Slavery Both Redefined by Christ The second point I want to make about slavery, is that freedom and slavery are, therefore, both redefined by Christ. They're just redefined. Freedom is redefined by Jesus. It is not that sinful mental attitude I just shared with you, "I can do whatever I want." I fear that too many Christians still need to be instructed on this issue. I know I still struggle with it. I still behave like an employee of Christ, rather than a slave of Christ, you see? The employer has you from 9:00 to 5:00, when 5:01 comes around, we're done. Remember Flintstones? "Yabba dabba doo!" And you know it's quittin' time, and you're free, and you can go home, and do what you want. Just about every Christian struggles with the lie that there's a quittin' time in the Christian life. There isn't a quittin' time. That's the whole thing. Freedom is redefined. Well, what is freedom then? Well, how about this one from the Psalmist, Psalm 1:19, Verse 32, "I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free." Now, that's a different kind of freedom. There's a defined narrow road, a path, and the Psalmist runs in it, like a little child playing in the path of God's commands, with delight and joy. Now, that is freedom. It's joyful obedience to the commands of the King, that there is. And there is a King, and there will always be a King, whether you think there is one or not. And therefore, freedom is acknowledging, "There is a King. He sits on His throne, and I'm glad about it, and I'll do anything He tells me to do. I run in the path of His commands." And where are His commands? They're in the written Word of God. And the written Word of God just sets me free. It's a different kind of freedom. I already quoted John 8, but look at it again. You don't have to turn in the Bible, just listen, "To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, 'If you hold onto my teaching, then you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' " It bothers me when secular libraries put that up. You know, where you walk in. It's like, "I don't mind the quote. I'm glad to have the Word of God out there, but you misunderstand. It's the doctrine of Jesus Christ that is the truth. It's Jesus, Himself, who is the truth, and the truth sets you free. It sets you free from sin, it sets you free from the destruction of it, it sets you free from the disease of it, and from the death of it. You're free from sin." Paul teaches this kind of freedom as well. Romans 6:18, "You've been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Therefore, freedom is an internal hard attitude. It's totally irrespective of your external physical situation. You are free to be free, even if you're in chains. You can be like Paul and Silas, singing in the Philippian jail, in chains. You're the only free man. You're freer than the Philippian jailer, before he came to Christ. He's in bondage and he knows it. Here are Paul and Silas singing in jail, and they're free men. Oh, don't you yearn for that kind of freedom? To be free to rejoice in any and every situation, no matter what service, servitude the Lord calls you to, to be joyful and free, accepting what the Master has ordained for you. Oh, that's a freedom I yearn for. It's a freedom I'll have someday. But it says in 1 Corinthians 7:22, "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord, is actually the Lord's freed man,” even though he's still a slave. “And he who was a free man when he was called, is actually Christ's slave." See, it's just a redefinition of freedom, therefore, slavery, also redefined by Christ. Every Christian is now a slave to Christ, and therefore, to other people. We are free to serve both Christians and non-Christians alike. We serve Christians by washing their feet. As Jesus said, after He put His clothes back on, and sat down, He said, "Do you understand what I've done? I've given you an example, that you should follow in my steps.” “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so." By the way, he was always King, Teacher, Master, while He was being slave. He doesn't give up any of those roles. He said, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." So we serve other Christians, we serve them by bearing their burdens, by praying for them, by giving financially, to help them if they need it, by putting an arm around them when they're hurting, by confronting them in sin. We serve each other, other Christians. We're also called on to be slaves to the world, slaves to the world. The Apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 9, this is to lost people, we're to be slaves to lost people, non-Christians. This is what he says, First Corinthians 9:19-22, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews, I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law. Now, to those not having the law, I became like one not having the law, though I am not free from God's law, but I'm under Christ's law, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak, I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means, I might save some." Paul says, "I am willingly enbondaged to every person on the face of the Earth." He says, "I'm a debtor. I am obligated both to Jew and non-Jew, both to the Greek, the free, all of them, preach the Gospel." And so you get a doctor like Paul Brand, who's a missionary doctor in India, and he and his father both went, and used their medical skills to take care of lepers in India. And these people would come from miles around with filthy, putrid sores. And the missionary doctors would get down on their hands and knees, and wash those sores, not fearing what would happen to their own bodies, but would serve them. And why? Because they wanted Indians to come to faith in Christ, that's why. And they were willing to do, therefore, the most menial, disgusting tasks, in order to bring others to Christ. Now, are they really slaves? Is that involuntary servitude? Not at all. It's voluntary. You say, "Well, that really isn't slavery." I told you, Jesus redefines everything. They're willing to do, even the most disgusting task, as Jesus went to the cross, you see. Therefore, there is no task that would be involuntary, if the Master has commanded me to do it, and He commands those missionary doctors. Physical Slavery: Not Overthrown but Subverted What, then, about physical slavery? I'm talking about what we think of when we think of slavery, a legal or social condition that was in the world. One third to one half of all the human beings in the Roman Empire, slaves. What about that? It is true that in the Scripture, Jesus never commands, "Masters, free all your slaves." It is true that in the Scripture, none of the Apostles command, "Masters, free all your slaves." But it is not true that that kind of legal bondage could survive under the doctrines of the Gospel. The Gospel was subversive when it came to chattel slavery. You hear the stories about the settlers who go out West, and there's all these thick stands of trees, and all that, and some of them, they had to chop right down quickly, and clear a field, so that they could plant their crops, but it takes a long time to cut down a tree with an axe. Sometimes, all they would do, is they would girdle the tree by taking some of the bark 360 degrees around the tree, and if that happened to the tree, it was doomed. It was doomed. Once you take the bark 360 degrees off, that tree's going to die sooner or later, and so it did. Now, it took a while. You didn't do that, if you had to have that tree removed, to put your house there or field. But it worked, and it became rotten, and easy to deal with, right down to the stump and the roots. And so it is, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ subverted chattel slavery, and eventually won out. Now, it took a long time, it took 18 centuries and more, but that's what happened. Now, how was Scripture subversive? Well, there's the golden rule: "Do to others what you'd have them do to you." Abraham Booth, an English Calvinist Baptist, preached a sermon in 1792 about it, and he said, "Oh, how would you like it, if some foreign slave traders came to Liverpool, or London, and grabbed up your wife, and your kids, and maybe you too, and clapped you in irons, and sent you, would you enjoy that? Well, then don't do it to somebody else." It's just basic. There's the argument from the fact that we're all created in the image of God, and that dehumanizing is wicked and sinful. There's the argument that we've seen in Colossians, and also in Ephesians, that both master and slave are accountable to a higher master, and God shows no favoritism either side, and will judge either side based on how well they obeyed His commands. That has a subversive effect on slavery. There's the fact that, in 1 Corinthians 7:21, Paul urged slaves to try to get their freedom, if they could, because it's better. The whole ethos of 1 Corinthians 7, as Paul says, "I would have you be free from earthly entanglements, even marriage. If your gift is singleness, be single by all means, because I want you to be free from concern. I want you to be able to serve the true Master, Jesus. And so it's better, if you don't have to go, day after day, to the man, to the master, and say, ‘What do I do? What do I do?’ But if you can't get your freedom, don't let it trouble you. Your service to Christ is under the service you offer to that man. It's alright, the Lord will reward you on judgment day, because you couldn't get it. But if you can get your freedom, get it.” Well, that subversive. It means it's better to not be a slave, than be a slave, and therefore, to Christian masters, then it's better to set them free. Subversive. But then there's the Book of Philemon, which is very subversive. In the Book of Philemon, Onesimus was an escaped slave. Paul finds him, or he finds him, and leads him to Christ. And it turns out that his master was another man that Paul had led to Christ. Aren't there so many lucky things in the Christian life? No true Christian should ever believe in luck. There's no such thing. God is sovereign. He brought the two of them together. And he sent him a letter, and now, it's in the Scripture. It's called Philemon, and in it, he said this, he said, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while, was that you might have him back for good. No longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me, but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord." That is subversive. "Set him free. Set him free, Philemon." "Now, I could remind you," he says, "I could remind you, you owe me everything, but I'm not going to compel you, as I could, as an apostle. I'm just going to ask you to do the right thing." Well, what is the right thing? It's, "Set him free, so that he can serve the Lord." And then, finally, there is the condemnation of slave traders. Both in Exodus 21:16, it says, "Anyone who kidnaps another, and either sells them, or still has him when he's caught, must be put to death." Wow, that's in the Law of Moses. And then, in 1 Timothy 1:9-11, "We know, also, that the law is made not for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers, for perverts, for slave traders, and liars, and perjurers." Man-stealers, that's what they are. The image of wicked men lying in wait near some African village with a net in their hands. And someone strays too far from the village, and they jump up, and throw the net over them, and club them over the head with a club, and drag them to some West African port, and haul them across the Middle Passage to a life of bondage, is wickedness. It is clearly condemned in Scripture, and that also is subversive to slavery. Basically the Lord cut around, 360 degrees around that bark, and let it fall of its own weight, but with great deal of suffering and effort, because human hearts are so stubborn, and selfish, and desire to have easy, comfortable lives, on the lives, on the backs of others. Is this the end of slavery? No. You're actually going to spend an eternity in it. You're like, "Well, gee, I thought we'd be free from it." Well, first of all, just know you're not going to be called that, because Jesus said, "No longer do I call you slaves, but I call you friends, because I tell you everything I'm doing." And then, later, in John's Gospel, He says, "Go and tell the brothers." We're brothers. We have all kinds of titles, all kinds of titles. “Service” in Heaven: Redeemed from the Curse Eternal Rewards Based on Becoming Slaves But first of all, we come to Judgment Day, and I just think it's good for me, as a pastor, to let you know on what basis you're going to be rewarded. You're going to stand before Christ, and if your soul is clean through the blood of Christ, He then will proceed to reward you for anything done by faith in the service of the Kingdom. And do you remember the story, where James and John are bickering about who's going to sit at the right and the left, and they come to Jesus. Actually, they get their mother to do it. I mean, please, if you're going to do it, do it yourself. But they get mom to come and say, "Jesus, could it be alright, if one of my sons sit at your right and the other at your left?" And Jesus says, "You don't know what you're asking." Well, that is true. He said, "Are you able to drink the cup I'm going to drink?" What's He talking about? "Suffering? Are you able to do that?" "We can," they said. They didn't know what they were talking about. Jesus said, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. Those places belong to those for whom they are prepared by the Father." When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with James and John, and began to murmur against them, like people do. Jesus said, "Let's deal with this now." He gathers them together. He said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials, they exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant," 'diakonos,' from which we get 'deacon,' 'table waiter,' "And whoever wants to be first must be your slave," 'doulos,' "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." He said, "You want to be fit for greatness in the Kingdom? Then become a servant. You want to be fit for even greater greatness? Become a slave." It's a downwardly mobile trend in the Christian life. And so in 1 Corinthians 4, the apostles worried about that church in Corinth, because they're behaving and thinking like kings. He said, "Already, you have all you want. Already, you've become rich. You've become kings, and that, without us. Oh, how I wish you really had become kings, so we could be kings with you, for it seemed to me that God has put us apostles on display, at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have become the off-scouring of the world." In other words, "Corinthians, you don't go up, up, up. You go down, down, down, and then God exalts you. That's how it works." And I tell you, this is the hardest thing in my life. I'm telling you honestly. I know the principles. I just have a hard time living them out. In my marriage, in my parenting, as a brother in Christ, as a son, in every role of my life, I'm called to go humble. And it's a challenge, because my flesh wants to go up, and wants to become a king, and wants to dominate, and rule. And the Lord is saying, "Come down where I am. And if you do, I will exalt you on Judgment Day." That's how we're going to be assessed. That's how the positions are going to be given out in the Kingdom: How much you acted like a slave and thought like a slave in this world. Service Itself Will Be Redeemed in Heaven And then, finally, service itself is going to be redeemed in Heaven. Do you know that, right now, God is surrounded by servants, who will do anything He commands them to do? "Thousands upon thousands attended Him," Daniel 7, "10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him, eager to do anything God says." Revelation 22, John wanted to fall and worship an angel. You remember what the angel said? "Do not do it. I am a fellow servant with you. Get up." The angels are fellow servants with you. We are fellow servants. "Get up," he says. John Newton, the former slave trader, he said, "If two angels were sent to the Earth, one to govern an empire, and one to sweep streets, each of them would do with it the same zeal for the Master who sent them, and would not try to exchange employment." That's our future, friends. Some are going to rule more than others, but everyone is going to be content with the lot that's given them by God. And we're going to delight in those relationships, and we are going to serve Him. Revelation 22:3, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him." We are headed to our future of servant-hood. "And we will reign with Christ," it says, two verses later. But here's the real shock, and with this, I close: When we're sitting at a table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the other subjects of the Kingdom, in the Kingdom, and we're eating, someone may come, and tap you on the shoulder, and say, "Would you like something to drink?" And you're going to turn, and it'll be Jesus. And you're saying, "Do you have a Scripture for that?" I do. It's in Luke 12:37, "It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when He comes. I tell you the truth, He will dress Himself to serve, and will have them recline at the table, and will come, and wait on them." He's going to be our slave up there in Heaven, saying, "Can I get you something to drink? Is there something I can do for you?" And we're going to do that for each other too. Servanthood, itself, will be totally redeemed, and we'll spend eternity doing it, and we'll be glad to do it, and that is the freedom that the Gospel gives. Close with me in prayer.