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[0:00] As we turn our attention to the preaching of God's word, we are going to read Isaiah chapter 47 in its entirety.! Go down, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Babylonians.

[0:19] No more will you be called tender or delicate. Take millstones and grind flour. Take off your veil. Lift up your skirts. Bare your legs and wade through the streams. Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered.

[0:37] I will take vengeance. I will spare no one. Our Redeemer, the Lord Almighty is his name, is the Holy One of Israel. Sit in silence. Go into darkness, daughter of the Babylonians. No more will you be called queen of kingdoms.

[0:54] I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance. I gave them into your hand and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged, you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, I will continue forever, the eternal queen.

[1:09] But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, I am and there is none beside me. Besides me, I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.

[1:29] Both of these will overtake you in a moment on a single day loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

[1:44] You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, no one sees me. Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you. When you say to yourself, I am and there is none besides me.

[1:58] Disaster will come upon you and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom. A catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.

[2:10] Keep on then with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed. Perhaps you will cause terror.

[2:24] All the counsel you have received has only worn you out. Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month. Let them save you from what is coming upon you.

[2:37] Surely they are like stubble. The fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. Here are no coals to warm you.

[2:48] Here is no fire to sit by. That is all they can do for you. These you have labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each of them goes on in his error.

[3:01] There is not one that can save you. I have seen an old barn leaning so badly that someone had propped it up with a beam.

[3:17] Now as long as the beam holds, the barn stands. But if the beam should collapse, then the barn would collapse as well.

[3:30] And what's true of propped up old barns is also true of people and nations. It's true of you and me and our nation. As true as it was of Babylon.

[3:42] Last week in Isaiah 46, we saw the idols of Babylon. In chapter 47, we witnessed the fall of Babylon.

[3:55] The link is clear. Idols lead to destruction and fall. The God substitutes that we lean on and trust in and expect help and satisfaction from cannot save us in this life or in the next.

[4:19] They fail us. The very things that we think we can't live without, that we lean so hard upon, are the very things that end up destroying us.

[4:30] Idols destroy us. God alone can save us. That's the message of chapter 46 and 47 of Isaiah. Babylon is the barn.

[4:43] And their idols are the beam. It's what they trusted in. And when what they trusted in failed, Babylon failed and fell.

[4:58] Now Isaiah was prophesying 700 years before Christ. About things still 140 years off in the future. Babylon had not even yet grown into a world empire.

[5:13] That would destroy Jerusalem and Judah and all the other nations of the world. But here was good news announced far in advance that Judah's coming destroyer would themselves be destroyed.

[5:30] It's all part of that message that began back at chapter 40 where the Lord says to his prophet, comfort my people. Comfort them.

[5:41] And this is part of the comfort. A destroyer is coming. He will destroy your nation. But that destroyer himself. will be destroyed.

[5:52] Now one other thing before we dive into chapter 47. Babylon. And it's this, that Babylon plays a significant role in the rest of the Bible.

[6:03] The entire Bible speaks about Babylon in a unique way. It's not just one of the many nations. Rather, what we find is that it stands on the pages of the Bible as the supreme symbol of what is evil and is against God and his people.

[6:22] It represents the whole unbelieving world system outside of Jesus Christ. Corporate flesh.

[6:35] You know your flesh and the nasty thing that that is. The world system is corporate flesh. It's all the unbelieving flesh gathered together in opposition of God and his Christ and his church.

[6:48] It's the world's wisdom, its counsel, its values, its priorities, its way of thinking, its worthless idols, its pride, its self-indulgence.

[7:00] And yes, it's destruction. It's all here in Babylon. And so the kingdoms of man are all wrapped up and illustrated in Babylon of old.

[7:11] We must not miss the application of this truth to ourselves and to our own world today. So we begin, first of all, with the fall of Babylon.

[7:23] The barn comes crashing down and down is the operative word. Verse one, go down. Sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Babylonians.

[7:38] How'd the last chapter begin? Turn back the page. Bell bows down. Nebo stoops low. They stoop and bow down.

[7:48] Verse two, together, unable to rescue the burden. They themselves go off into captivity. Do you see the message of the two chapters? Babylon's idols, chapter 46, fall down.

[8:02] And now Babylon herself falls. As goes the idols, so goes their worshipers. Now Babylon was once a very wealthy and powerful empire ruling over all the nations of the world.

[8:19] Its greatness was unsurpassed. It was an imposing empire. It was wealthy, luxurious, secure, proud, seemingly invincible. And yet here, Isaiah says, they're coming down.

[8:35] They'll be destroyed. Now notice how he portrays Babylon. Isaiah portrays her as a virgin daughter. A pampered, self-indulgent young lady, spoiled, living in the lap of luxury, who never worked a day in her life, who never broke a nail.

[8:54] Because all of the housework and the hard manual stuff, well, the slaves that we've conquered of all the nations, they'll do that sort of thing.

[9:05] And so Babylon, this young girl, spent all her time in entertainments and in beauty treatments and keeping her skin ever so soft.

[9:16] A dainty lady, tender and delicate are the words, living like a queen. But now, Isaiah announces, those tender hands are grabbing a rough millstone.

[9:34] And as she spends her days, it's grinding flour between those millstones, doing the hard labor of a slave in captivity.

[9:48] These are the harsh realities that are coming to Babylon, their own captivity. Verse 5, she speaks in utter despair.

[10:02] She now sits in silence with nothing to say. From being in the limelight of all the nations looking to her, she now sits in the darkness of obscurity and gloom.

[10:15] No more will you be called queen of kingdoms. No, your queen days are over, Jehovah says. And you who once ruled over all the kingdoms of the earth will now yourselves be ruled over in captivity.

[10:28] That's the message. But it's not just the hard labor and despair. It's the shame of it all that is emphasized in the text. It's the disgrace and humiliation of being stripped of all their former glory, of their throne, of all that she once boasted in, her wealth, her ease.

[10:53] She who once sat on a throne now sits in the dust and silent darkness. She lifts up her skirts and bears her legs as she wades through streams, perhaps making her way to the fields to work as a stream, or as she goes off into exile.

[11:10] And whenever they come to a stream, that's how she goes. And her nakedness will be exposed and her shame uncovered as exiles were often treated, stripped of their clothes as they went into captivity.

[11:26] But the point is, is that Babylon will be shamed, seen for what they really are, utterly helpless, with no strength of their own, and no help from their idols.

[11:37] Shame, shame, shame upon what was once all glorious Babylon. It's not the first time we've had that prophesied.

[11:48] Back in chapter 46, 45 and verse 16, we saw that all the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgrace. They will go off into disgrace together, while Israel will be saved from the Lord, never to be put to shame or disgrace to everlasting ages.

[12:05] You see, this shame that will come upon Babylon is the shame when everyone sees the worthless things that they lived for and trusted in, the trivial things that they traded God in heaven for, for these idols, the Savior gods that could not save them, and down they will go in everlasting humiliation.

[12:30] And it is this shameful destruction of Babylon that is the picture in which we see the future of the whole world without Jesus Christ.

[12:41] And you can read, if you'd like, Revelation chapter 18 to see how that is what is coming. Babylon is there mentioned. Fallen is Babylon. Fallen is the world empires.

[12:54] All the kingdoms of this world will be destroyed and become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. The fall of Babylon. We then come, secondly, to the destroyer of Babylon.

[13:08] Notice at the end of verse 3, the destroyer of Babylon speaks, I will take vengeance. I will spare no one.

[13:20] Now, who is this speaking? Who is taking vengeance? Who is it that will take vengeance on Babylon and spare none? Well, we don't have to wait long for the answer because Isaiah immediately sings as the representative of Israel in verse 4, Our Redeemer, the Lord Almighty is his name, is the Holy One of Israel.

[13:43] Who is the destroyer of Babylon? He is the Holy One of Israel, whom Babylon will have taken captive and squashed beneath their heel.

[14:00] He's the God of Israel who will destroy Babylon and he'll destroy it for Israel's sake. You touch his people and you have touched the apple of his eye.

[14:12] You mess with them and you'll have God's wrath to deal with. Folks, if you would understand history, you must know that at the center of God's rule of the world is his concern for his people.

[14:28] His people. The church. Jesus Christ is exalted above all things, has head over everything for the church.

[14:40] Ephesians 1.22 for the benefit of the church and he rules over it all for the good, the advantage of his people. He's our Redeemer.

[14:55] Notice. Our Redeemer. And that teaches us that Babylon's destruction is an act of redemption. Babylon's destruction is an act of God's redemption. God's setting his captive people free.

[15:08] And how does he do it? Well, he saves his people by destroying their enemies that held them captive. And here's the picture.

[15:19] We too were in captivity. We too were enslaved by our enemies that were too strong for us. Sin and Satan and the world and death.

[15:34] And Jesus, our Lord, saved us by destroying the things that would have destroyed us. And he destroyed them for the sake of us, his people.

[15:47] Oh, blessed destroyer of evil. Our Redeemer, the Lord Almighty. Oh, how's that for a title?

[15:58] The Lord Almighty. The Lord Omnipotent. You see, he has no lack of power to accomplish this destruction of Babylon. The Lord Almighty. No shortage of power.

[16:11] So Babylon's destruction is an act of God's redemption. He redeems his people by destroying Babylon. But notice, secondly, Babylon's destruction is an act of God's vengeance.

[16:23] The end of verse 3. I will take vengeance. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. I will get even with Babylon.

[16:34] I will do to them what they have done to others and especially what they have done to my people. I will give them a taste of their own medicine and I will spare none.

[16:48] The Holy One of Israel is a God of vengeance. And on the final payday, will he be your Redeemer? Will he be your Redeemer?

[17:01] He's Israel's Redeemer. He's the Redeemer of his people. Will he be your Redeemer or your enemy? He's the best of friends. He's the worst of enemies.

[17:13] But you see, if you are in Christ, then payday has already fallen. It fell at Calvary where your sins against a holy God were paid for.

[17:26] He got even with you. He paid you back at Calvary when Jesus, your substitute, stood in the way and took the full force of the payday, of the vengeance that you would have suffered for all eternity.

[17:43] Do you know in the day of payday, final payday, that you will be in Christ where there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Oh, blessed Savior who saves us from the coming wrath.

[18:00] Wonderful to know that all my sins have already had payday poured out upon them in my substitute, Jesus Christ. He took the blame. He bore the wrath.

[18:12] And so I stand forgiven at the cross. Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous one for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

[18:26] It's the only safe place to be when this world is going to be destroyed in that final judgment to be found in Christ where payday has already happened. So, the fall of Babylon.

[18:43] And secondly, the destroyer of Babylon. Well, what had Babylon done to deserve such destruction? We come then to the crimes of Babylon in the third place.

[18:55] The crimes of Babylon. The very first one is their cruel treatment of God's people. The cruel treatment of God's people. God is speaking to Babylon and he says in verse 6, I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance.

[19:10] I gave them into your hand and you showed them no mercy even on the aged you had, you laid a very heavy yoke. In passing, let me just say if your theology has no room for a God who is angry with his people, you need to adjust your theology according to verse 6 because the text says I was angry with my people.

[19:37] He was so angry with his people because of their idolatry and their law-breaking that here's what he did. He handed them over to the Babylonians.

[19:48] You Babylonians who were on a roll destroying the nations. Here is Judah. So God did. He just handed them over and why? He was so angry at them.

[20:01] Babylon was the woodshed where God in anger disciplined his children. I was angry with my people and I gave them into your hand. Oh, a loving anger to be sure because those whom the Lord loves he chastens.

[20:18] But don't bleed the anger out of the text. Don't domesticate God to make him to be someone that we can feel comfortable with in our sin and idolatry.

[20:35] No. It was God's invisible hand that gave them into Babylon's hand. Now, the newspapers would not have said you know what happened was that God gave them into Babylon.

[20:46] No, the newspapers said because of some foreign affair slip up and because of the superior nature of the Babylonian forces, Israel fell.

[20:56] Judah fell before them. But the news behind the news is that Almighty God was angry at his people and he says to Babylon, here, you punish them for me.

[21:11] You discipline them for me. And it's what Babylon did with them when God gave them into their hand that got them in trouble because they slaughtered many of the Jews.

[21:24] They reduced others to slavery and hard labor and they separated families by taking some of them into exile back to Babylon into the different places away from their homeland.

[21:40] They destroyed Judah. They burned their capital. They shamed them. They were treating them without mercy, without pity. Not even the elderly in Judah were spared.

[21:56] So, God is going to treat Babylon with vengeance instead of mercy. And no one will be spared.

[22:07] God is going to do to them what they have done to Israel. the cup of God's wrath that Israel had to drink is now going to come around to Babylon and they too must drink from that cup of God's wrath.

[22:24] Because as James says, judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. they showed no mercy, they will get no mercy.

[22:36] Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy, Jesus says. Not Babylon. But you say, didn't God know that the Babylonians would treat them cruelly?

[22:52] Well, of course he did. That's why he handed them over to the wicked Babylonians instead of to some friendly welcome wagon neighbors.

[23:04] He wanted them to hurt because of their sins. And so he turns them over to the wicked Babylonians.

[23:16] Now here we have the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man put side by side and we dare not reject either one of those truths. First, the sovereignty of God.

[23:27] God is the one ruling the nations. He is the one turning the heart of the king wherever he wants it to go. And this God who rules over all his creatures and all their actions all the time took his own people, Judah, and handed them over to the wicked Babylonians.

[23:48] He's sovereign. It's what he planned and it's what he accomplished. And he made them hurt for their sins.

[24:00] God meant for this discipline to hurt. Hebrews 12, no discipline is pleasant for the moment, but painful. God meant his discipline to be painful. Nevertheless, the cruelty that the Babylonians inflicted upon his people was not his fault.

[24:19] Do you see that? the fact that it was God's plan doesn't get the Babylonians off the hook. God lays the blame squarely at the door of the Babylonians.

[24:31] Here comes the responsibility of man. Your cruelty is your fault, Babylon. You showed them no mercy and you will pay for it.

[24:42] And he punishes them for their cruelty, even though he sovereignly planned it and used it, that cruelty, to discipline his people. But if God planned it, how can he hold them accountable for it?

[24:58] You say, I don't understand that. Well, here's the good news. You don't have to understand it. You just need to believe it. That's all. You don't have to understand.

[25:08] How could God plan and bring about his people being given over to such wicked people to do such cruel things to them? And yet, in the end, turn around and blame the Babylonians for what they did to his people Israel.

[25:22] You see, if you wait till you understand that, you will never accept God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. If you wait till you understand anything before you believe it, you will not ever believe in the Trinity, that God exists as one God in three persons.

[25:42] You will not believe that Jesus is at one and the same time, both God and man. You can't understand that, but you better believe it and bow before him, your mind down, his truth elevated.

[25:59] Here we have God's sovereignty, man's responsibility. It was the same thing that happened in chapter 10 where God used to chastise his people.

[26:18] And then after the Assyrians chastised his people, God turned around and chastised the Assyrians. You can read all about it in chapter 10. We came through there. Same thing now, only it's Babylon.

[26:30] But you see the sovereign God working in the nations as he will, and yet the responsibility of the man in those nations for what they did. It was that way at Calvary, wasn't it?

[26:44] God planned and controlled all the events leading up to and including the crucifixion of Jesus. Even the betrayal of Judas was planned by God.

[26:58] Yet he holds Judas accountable for what he did. Jesus says in Luke 22, the Son of Man will go as it has been decreed.

[27:11] It was all decreed by God. But woe to that man who betrays him. It would be better that he had never been born. Sovereignty of God. Responsibility of man.

[27:22] So why does God destroy Babylon? What are their crimes? The first is their cruelty, their inhumanity to God's people, Israel.

[27:33] Secondly, their proud presumption, their proud presumption. Just listen to Babylon, this self-indulgent pampered girl. Verse 7, you said, I will continue forever, the eternal queen.

[27:47] But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. Isn't it true that the one who is on top thinks he will always be on top? As it is, so it will always be.

[28:01] me reigning over all, the eternal queen. We see it in sports. We see it in politics. We see it in business.

[28:14] Pride distorts our thinking. It makes us feel invincible. No one can beat us. Pride comes before a fall. There's something missing in Babylon's thoughts.

[28:28] He says, you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. That the Lord Almighty is the one who rules. He is the eternal king, not you, the eternal queen.

[28:42] And your future is in his hands, not your own hands. You haven't considered that the Holy One of Israel is going to call you to account for how you've treated his people without mercy.

[28:54] And he's going to take vengeance on you and no one will be spared. Isn't it something, the things that sinners do not consider or reflect upon?

[29:08] Sinners think about a lot of things. Thousands and tens of thousands of thoughts go through the mind of a sinner in a day. But in his pride the wicked will not seek him.

[29:20] There is no room for God in all of his thoughts. He's not thinking about God. He's not thinking about the end. He's not thinking about judgment. The day of his own accountability to this God before whom he lives.

[29:37] That this judge is so holy that he's determined to punish sin wherever it's found, sparing none. And listen, my friend, if God didn't even spare his own son when he showed up in the place of judgment with sin upon him, not his own, but his people's, do you think for a moment he'll spare you if he did not spare his own son?

[30:01] They don't think about these things, that the judge is the holy one of Israel. And it's this proud presumption that just oozes out of Babylon in what they say to themselves.

[30:15] Verse eight. Now then, listen, you wanton creature. God is speaking to them. You self-indulgent creature, lovers of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, I am and there is none besides me.

[30:32] Where have you heard that before? If you've been here for the past month or two, you've heard God himself say that about himself, haven't you? 45, six.

[30:42] There's none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. And a dozen other places could be cited. God says that about himself.

[30:55] And yet here is Babylon boasting as if they were God. I am and there's none beside me. Now, this is far more common than we may at first realize.

[31:08] This has ever been the spirit of the world to make a God of ourselves, to put ourself at the center and everything in life is about me. No, it's all about God.

[31:19] He's at the center and you exist for him, not the other way around. But the world spirit and counsel is always man at the center, judging all things by his own thoughts.

[31:33] We make a God of ourselves and declare God-like autonomy. I'm self-sufficient. I make my own rules.

[31:43] I do what I want when I want. I'm answerable to none because there is none besides me. I'm the only one that counts. Proudly thinking, I control my own destiny.

[31:57] I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul. That was the bait Satan used on Eve in the first temptation.

[32:10] If you eat from this tree, you will become like God. God. And men have been claiming to be like God ever since. I am my own God.

[32:21] I call the shots. I make the decisions. I determine my future. You see, at issue is who really is God. The Lord says, I am God and there's none besides me.

[32:33] And the world echoes, I am and there's none besides me. such proud thoughts lead to destruction.

[32:45] Furthermore, Babylon boasts in verse 8, I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children. Here she is. She's now viewed as this queen. She's got a husband and she's got children and the two greatest calamities to come on a married woman, especially in war, was to lose her husband and her children in the same day.

[33:02] Won't happen. Never happened to us, Babylon says. That's the syndrome of pride. People who are at the top makes them feel invincible.

[33:15] I'm the exception to the rules. Others may get caught and have to pay. Never me. As if above the law, as if they have diplomatic immunity and can get away with anything.

[33:29] But God says in verse 9, both of these will overtake you in a moment on a single day. Loss of children and widowhood. They'll come upon you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

[33:43] The magic of your false religion won't make a hill of beans of difference. Your good luck charms can't keep away widowhood and childlessness. Your potent spells are powerless before the judgments of the God of Israel.

[34:00] Notice their proud presumption, oozing again in verse 10. you have trusted or felt secure in your wickedness and have said, no one sees me. No one sees me.

[34:13] That's a proud thought, isn't it? There's no moral policeman out there to see what I'm doing and to call me into judgment. No one sees me. There's no fear of God before his eyes, for in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or see his own sin.

[34:31] I can do whatever I want and get away with it. No one sees me. That's the world. That's Babylon. That's corporate flesh. And God says your wisdom and knowledge have misled you when you speak like that.

[34:47] Worldly wisdom puffs you up and distorts your thinking. You're not thinking straight. Here's the straight truth. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

[35:04] That's reality. And your pride has so puffed your head that you say no one sees me. No one sees me. Isaiah shows us that Babylon's destruction began not in a weaker army in Judah or a stronger military in Babylon.

[35:23] But Babylon's army before the Persians that came and destroyed them. Babylon's destruction started in the proud thoughts of their head when they spoke of themselves with pride.

[35:40] You see, all that pride gets you is God as your enemy. Because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The last point in this chapter is the failed religion of Babylon.

[35:54] Babylon's leaning upon that beam of false religion. religion and that false religion was saturated with sorcery and magical arts.

[36:05] Astrology was highly developed in these days in Babylon as it's seen here in chapter 47 and seen in the book of Daniel. Remember in Daniel how the king relied on his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, astrologers to interpret his dreams, to tell them the future, to bring continued prosperity, to ward off evil.

[36:26] But it was all sadly misplaced trust. Verse 11, Because disaster will come upon you and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall on you that you cannot ward off with a ransom.

[36:39] A catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you. God's going to judge you. And in that day all your hocus pocus won't be able to do anything for you.

[36:53] And what Babylon thought would never happen did happen. In 539 BC Babylon fell to the Persian king Cyrus whom God raised up. And he conquered Babylon effortlessly and by mourning every citizen in the empire was no longer a citizen of Babylon but was now a citizen of Persia.

[37:17] And all the charms of Babylon's religion failed to save it from destruction. In fact it only hastened the destruction bringing God's judgment down upon them.

[37:30] Now all of that was yet far off in the future. But for now Isaiah says to idolatrous Babylon keep on then verse 12 with your magic spells keep on with your many sorceries which you have labored at since childhood.

[37:42] Perhaps that you'll succeed perhaps you'll cause tear. Let's see whose word will win out Jehovah's word of judgment or your abracadabra. Verse 13 all the counsel you have received has only worn you out.

[37:55] So let your astrologers come forward those stargazers who make predictions month by month. Let them save you from what is coming upon you. We are in the midst of a surging fascination to know and control the future.

[38:12] And to do so through the occult through palm readers and dream readers and fortune tellers and tarot cards and psychics clairvoyance mediums channelers power crystals numerology good luck charms astrology horoscopes it's everywhere and I'm teaching you nothing new by saying so.

[38:36] 70 million Americans read their horoscopes every day. Some of them just curious but others actually believe it.

[38:48] Two years ago an astrology app providing horoscopes was ranked as the most explosive Facebook app. One out of every four Americans believe that the position of the stars and the planets can affect their lives.

[39:04] And so they try to get their life in line with in sync with the stars in sync with the good vibes that are coming on certain days of the calendar.

[39:16] And so they went on those days to ask the boss for the raise, to ask that young lady for a date, to go into business because that's what the stars say will be good for me on that day.

[39:35] It's nothing new folks. It was highly developed in the days of Babylon. the whole nation's politics and religion was wrapped around it and they were leaning hard upon it to save them from anything evil happening to them.

[39:56] But it's a failed religion. Do I even need to say it that a Christian has no business whatsoever dabbling with these things?

[40:07] our great business is not to get our lives in line with the stars, but to get our lives in line with the one who made the stars.

[40:21] The only one who controls the future. The only one, the one from whom all blessings flow, who can ward off eternal destruction, who can bring you everlasting blessing.

[40:40] The fact is these things cannot save. They cannot do what they promise to do. What they can do is wear you out. Verse 13, all the counsel you've received has only worn you out.

[40:55] And so men's great devotion to their religion only brings weariness as one failed remedy after another is sought. So let these astrologers and stargazers save you from what's coming upon you.

[41:09] And what's coming is God's fire of judgment. They're so far from being able to save you that they only add fuel to the fire. Verse 14, surely they are like stubble and the fire will burn them up.

[41:23] They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. Here are no coals to warm anyone. Here is no fire to sit by. Dry straw can't save you from coming fire.

[41:37] That's what he's saying. It will be consumed itself. So these astrologers can't even save themselves from God's flaming judgment that's coming. How much less can they save you?

[41:50] Here are no coals to warm anyone. Here is no fire to sit by. The cool nights of fall are upon us.

[42:02] Lovely times to sit around a fire and talk and warm yourself by the coals of the fire. You do that? We're probably in too much of a hurry to do that.

[42:14] But that's what Isaiah is talking about. But there's no such benefit from a burning stubble fire, burning straw.

[42:25] You can't sit around that fire and warm yourself by its coals. It's gone in a flash. In 30 seconds, it's over. And there's no coals to warm yourself by. There is no benefit whatsoever in it.

[42:39] And that's what Isaiah is saying about these astrologers and stargazers. No benefit. Verse 15, that is all they can do for you.

[42:49] A flash in the pan themselves in the judgment of God. These you have labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each of them goes on in his air and there's not one that can save you.

[43:00] Poor, poor Babylon is a religion that benefits none. And that's the world's counsel today.

[43:13] Poor, poor world outside of Jesus. Ever holding forth. This is the answer to life. If you only knew this secret, send in and for $2.99 I'll give you these videos and you can uncover that hope within.

[43:30] One failed remedy after another. They cannot save you and its counsel only wears you out. God's judgment is going to fall one day upon this world unexpectedly, suddenly, inescapably.

[43:47] Don't live for this world, my friend. It's doomed for the judgment of God. The barn is coming down. So what are you trusting in to save you?

[44:02] Jesus Christ says whoever comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Jesus never pushed away anyone who came to him.

[44:12] He says come to me all you who are weary and worn out. Maybe worn out because you've been following the world's counsel and you keep coming up empty.

[44:23] Maybe you're worn out because of your sins, your idols. Maybe you're just worn out from all your efforts to try to save yourself and make yourself good. Come to me Jesus says and I'll give you rest.

[44:38] Soul rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Here's our redeemer the Lord almighty is his name. The Lord Jesus ask him to save you.

[44:49] He will save you. No one has ever trusted In him and not been saved. Are you ready to have him be your God and savior?

[45:00] Are you ready to turn your life and your destiny and everything you are and want over to him? He's ready if you are.

[45:12] Right now he will have you if you come to him and give yourself up to him and ask him, trust in him, to save you. Our God substitutes will destroy us.

[45:26] None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. Let's sing of that in number 393. What a blessed Lord and savior is ours in a world that is lost.

[45:40] Sinners out there that found that Jesus was the only one that could help you if so say amen. Can I tell you what we just sang dear sinner friend? We sang that we are the barn and we're leaning under the weight of God's judgment.

[45:59] It is coming. It is coming. And we didn't even realize how flimsy were the saviors that we trusted in.

[46:11] Our own goodness, our own righteousness, this counsel and that. It was so flimsy. And all the while we didn't need such props.

[46:23] We had a savior, Jesus, the only one who can do helpless sinners good. When we cried out to him, we quit trusting in our props, ourselves or anyone else, and we just fell into the arms of Jesus.

[46:40] And what did we find? We find that he is the savior. of all who come to him. Fall into his arms this morning. Let's pray. We must confess, O God, that we sought refuge in things that could not save us.

[46:59] When we first learned that we were guilty and under condemnation, we didn't run to you first. We ran from you and looked for salvation and all sorts of other things.

[47:12] God, we to you opened our eyes to show us how futile our search was. You opened our eyes to show us the Lord Jesus who was there all along, seeking, calling, pleading, come to me.

[47:29] Thank you for that gracious work in our hearts. Thank you that when we called, you answered us. Thank you that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. we rejoice in such a savior and such a great salvation.

[47:45] Draw others this day into those same arms of Jesus. We ask for their eternal good and for Christ's eternal praise. Amen.