Peter Allison's sermon, "The Wrath of God on the Rod of God's Wrath," explores the themes of divine sovereignty and human accountability through the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 10. He explains how Assyria, a powerful yet wicked nation, serves as an instrument of God's wrath against Judah, God's chosen people. Despite Assyria's intentions for conquest and destruction, their actions fulfill God's purposes. Allison emphasizes that God's judgments are just and are intended to purify His church, preserving a remnant for the coming of Christ. He draws parallels to Jonah's mission to Nineveh, noting the power of God's word to transform even the most disobedient nations. Through these examples, Allison urges believers to trust in God's justice and sovereignty, even when His ways are beyond human understanding, and to recognize the dangers of pride and false confidence. Ultimately, God's judgments serve to sanctify His people and establish His kingdom on earth.

Isaiah chapter 10. I'd like to begin reading at verse 5. Isaiah 10, 10 chapter, verse 5. I say it in 10 chapter 5. Woe to Syria, the rod of my anger, and the staff in whose hand is my indignation.

I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of my wrath. I will give him charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like mire in the streets. Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so. But it is in his heart to destroy and cut off not a few nations. For he says, Are not my princes altogether kings?

Is not Calno like Kharkhameish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols? Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks.

For he says, by the strength of my hand, I have done it. And by my wisdom, for I am prudent and also I have removed the boundaries of the people and have robbed their treasuries. So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people. And as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth.

And there was no one who moved his wing or opened his mouth with even a peep. Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it as if a rod could wield itself against those who lifted up or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood. Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of hosts will send leanness among his fat ones and under his glory, he will kindle a burning fire like the burning of a fire. So the light of Israel will be for a fire and his Holy One for a flame.

It will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day, and it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. And they will be as when a sick man wastes away, then the trees of then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them. May God revive our hearts according to his word. Almighty Father in heaven, your word is truth. Grant us faith to believe your word above all of the words of men and above the thoughts of our own heart and the ideas of our own mind.

Feed us this morning, Lord, with your word, with the riches of the bread of heaven, and sanctify my sinful lips to come as your messenger, with the gospel of the grace of God. In Jesus Christ we ask. Amen. In the news today. But the land of Assyria, where Assyria was, is very much in the news today.

You have a map on the back of your outline that gives you some picture of the land, of the country, of the nation of Assyria. This is a country that occupied what today would be the middle east iraq and iran Palestine all the way down into Egypt as well briefly at the height of their kingdom but they they were the kings for a number of centuries just there were some ups and downs, but they were the kings of a number of centuries in the Middle East there. They started in the city of Asher shortly after the flood. Asher was the son of Seth. So along with Aram, that's also called Syria, and Persia, the Assyrians are Semites, descendants of Shem.

They were a very, very, I said, powerful nation, but they were also a very cruel nation. In the days when Jeroboam to was the king of Israel, God sent the prophet Jonah to evangelize Assyria. And as a result, you remember of his very simple message, repent for in 40 days, God will destroy this city. Nineveh repented. And Jonah is an example of a disobedient prophet, but he learned and he didn't alter his message.

And that's an important lesson, Jonah's lesson. The power of preaching is not in the speaking ability of the messenger or in the ability of the message to appeal to the masses. Nobody could say that Jonah's message was in any way appealing to anyone in Nineveh. Repent for in 40 days, God will destroy your city. But the power.

Of preaching is in the power of God. And the conversion, the conversion of Assyria by the remarkable supernatural power of God through the disobedient turned obedient, repentant prophet Jonah. Through that conversion, they entered a remarkable period of restraint. Now, unbelieving scholars will say, well, that was due to internal weakness. But I think the scriptures would tell us that that was due to a repentant nation.

Assyria paused their empire building for probably two generations. And this allowed a long and prosperous reign of Jeroboam in northern tribes and of Azaya in the southern. Both of them had very long reigns. Azaya, I think, over 50 years. But after a couple of generations, the people slid back into their former ways And the city of Nineveh, although it was sacked in about 747 BC, and the kingdom that had controlled Asia at that time was essentially split for about 500 years, was a southern empire.

And the city of Nineveh, although it was a southern empire, was a southern empire. And the city of Nineveh, although it was sacked in about 747 BC and the kingdom that had controlled Asia at that time was essentially split for about 500 years was essentially split into two, but it would be another hundred and twenty years from that point before the king was killed and the And so in this period, Assyria reached another zenith in terms of military power and and kingdom building empire building I mean they had a they had a professional standing army they were skilled blacksmiths which gave them iron weapons which were far superior to the other softer metals that were more common. You remember in the days of Saul, only Saul and Jonathan had swords. So to have iron was an advantage. They had civil and military engineering expertise that enabled them to quickly build roads, bridges and siege equipments against cities, battering rams, siege towers and the like.

They replaced chariots with cavalry, which were faster and more nimble. And they also had a network of spies that they had established throughout the land. So they were the dominant Asian power just prior to the rise of the Babylonian empire. They conquered Babylon. They conquered Syria, even Egypt, in the peak of their power during the reign of Manasseh, which would be after this period that we're looking at today.

It was in this time frame, in this hundred twenty years where they reached this zenith that they that they conquered Samaria in seven twenty two and deported the Northern tribes that we've been calling Israel to distinguish them from the Southern tribes, which we call Judah. And so this prophecy in this section that we read was given in this very narrow window between the fall of Samaria in 722 BC and the invasion of their invasion of Judah about 10 years later. It's right in here. You know, from this text, Samaria has already fallen and they have not yet invaded Judah. So it's a very narrow window there, less than 10 years in which this prophecy was given.

And it begins, this great nation, Assyria, Isaiah says, is an instrument in God's hands. This sovereign, in earthly terms, powerful, mighty nation that has ruled the Middle East is an instrument in God's hands. He's using them for His purposes. And specifically, they are the instrument through which God is bringing his wrath. Our civil magistrates don't use rods.

He's a rod of a series of Rod of God's anger. They don't use rods anymore as the primary instrument of bringing wrath. They used to even in our country. And there still are a few nations that continue to use the rod, physical rod as an instrument of judicial punishment. It's actually a biblical form of judicial punishment.

Romans 13 tells us that the civil magistrate is God's minister to bring his wrath on those who do evil. And we typically think of that in the sense of bringing wrath against individual offenders. But in this case, God is using the nation itself as the instrument to bring his wrath against another nation, an ungodly nation. God commissions Assyria to go against the people that are under his wrath. They are to seize the spoil, take the prey, and stomp on this nation like dirt in the street.

And there's a little bit of literary elegance in that sentence that's in Hebrew that's lost in English, because seize and spoil, they come from the same Hebrew root word and take and pray. They're in verse six also come from the same root. So it's saying it'd be like saying in English, produce the product or sing the song. There's an alliteration there in that sentence. The nation that Assyria has been commissioned to go against is Judah.

They are the ungodly nation. The second thing we see is that in coming against Judah, God's people, these are God's own chosen people. This is his church. Astiria is doing exactly what God wants them to do. They are going exactly where God has sent them to go.

He is the one who gave them their charge. The seas, the spoil, take the prey and trample them down like dirt in the street. He's the one who is doing the sending. God is. It's God's plan that's being carried out on God's authority.

Now, some people today would say that the Jews are God's people and we must support them, not just should but we must support them. That they have been blessed by God. And anyone who would dare to go against them or condemn them would bring God's wrath on themselves for daring to lift a hand against the Jews, God's chosen people. But notice, that's not what God is saying here. God says that in seizing the spoil, taking the prey and stomping on this nation like dirt in the street, they're doing exactly what God wants them to do, what God has called them to do, what He's ordained to happen.

It's those who disobey God that bring judgment on themselves. It's not those who carry out God's commands. The woe is to anybody who would dare to disobey. God has commanded us to do. In fact, there's greater guilt on those who sin when greater light has been given to them.

And these Jews have been given much light. Many advantages. Many, many advantages. They have the word of God. No other nation was given the word of God as they were.

They have been taught how to worship God. They've been given the covenants. They are they are God's chosen people. He has shown them favor. They have seen his deliverance time and time again.

Great privilege has been given to them. They see God is not a respecter of persons. Those who rebel against him and sin, he brings his judgment on, And even if even his own chosen people. And he uses, he can even use a wicked nation as his instrument. But notice that this passage opens with the pronouncement of woe on Assyria.

That's the first word, woe to Assyria. Now why would God pronounce woe on a nation that is doing what he wants. The reason is that Assyria themselves were a wicked nation that was also under God's wrath. God said the king of Assyria was proud and arrogant. He had a proud heart and haughty looks.

And so God is using a wicked nation as his rod to accomplish his purpose of bringing his wrath, God's wrath, on his own people. God is using a wicked nation as his rod to bring his God's wrath, his own wrath, on his own people. Now if that's a little troubling or puzzling to you, you're in good company. It was also troubling for the prophet Habakkuk. In this case, in his case, it was the Babylonians that God was using as an instrument of his wrath against Judah.

And Habakkuk wondered how a just God could use a wicked nation to punish a more righteous nation. That was the second question. He had another one for that. But that was the second question. Lord, how can you use this wicked nation to punish a nation that's more righteous than the wicked nation?

How can that how can you how can you do that? And God's reply to him was essentially hebeckuk. The just shall live by faith. God is just in everything he does and the righteous shall live by faith. And he said, God, I know you are fair.

You are just. How can you do this? And God's reply to him was essentially Habakkuk. The just shall live by faith. God is just in everything he does, and the righteous trust in the Lord to be just, even when they don't understand what He is working.

The righteous trust in the Lord to be just, even when we don't understand what he is working. What's the other alternative? What's the only other alternative? To trust in man, to trust yourself or some other person. So it's really the epitome of arrogance to think that we know more than God, that we can better assess the situation and decide what is right or wrong more accurately than what God does.

God requires his ministers who rule over his people with his authority to be just, willing in the fear of God. That's what God commanded David and what David spoke by the spirit of the Lord. In Second Samuel. But God is still perfectly able to accomplish his just and holy purposes, even when the civil magistrates or the nations that he's using are not just and not noble or not righteous. God himself is never unjust.

God himself is never unjust. The unjust punishments that wicked rulers and nations inflict, the unjust punishments that wicked nations and rulers inflict do not involve God in any injustice. Because you see, because while many people can justly complain that they have been unjustly treated by human judges, that they've been unfairly treated, Many people can bring that complaint. No one can ever complain that God has treated them unjustly. Because God is always just and always righteous in his judgments.

And there isn't one person alive on the earth today that isn't alive because of God's mercy of his grace that is giving us life when we deserve death. Joseph's case is another example Joseph's case is another example of this. Joseph's brothers, remember, sold him into slavery. That was unjust, cruel, completely unjust on the part of his brothers. Wicked, selling their own brother into slavery in another nation and then lying about his what they did and deceiving their father that he was killed by a wild animal.

But there was no injustice with God toward Joseph in that was there. Joseph was a sinner just like every other person who has been conceived and he's under the sentence of death. We see what Joseph's brothers intended for evil. What they did was evil. They intended to do it.

What they intended for evil, God intended for good. God worked through their evil to bring about his good purpose. It was the goodness of God toward Joseph and toward his brothers that Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt because God's purpose in ordaining this evil act by Joseph's brothers was holy good. God's purpose was to save many people alive and he did. But there's another twist in this account in verse seven.

Assyria doesn't intend to be God's instrument. They don't have the least desire to be God's instrument and carry out God's purposes and to bring his wrath on this nation of Judah. Their only purpose in life was to destroy as many cities and conquer as many nations as they could, because that's what they loved to do. That was their heart's desire. That is how they decided to spend their life and their wealth.

And that decision was not made under any coercion. They made it of their own volition. They just loved seizing spoil, taking the prey, stomping on nations like dirt in the street. That's what they excelled at. They weren't even aware that they were God's instrument in carrying out His purposes.

They thought They were the only ones calling the shots because no one forced them to do what they were doing to destroy nations and build an empire, they chose that freely. Entirely of their own volition. But you see, at the exact same time, at the same time, they were doing exactly what God ordained them to do. Now, some people would say, well, that's impossible. It's impossible for the same act to be both a voluntary choice freely made according to the desires of our heart.

And at the same time, that same act be ordained by the sovereign will of God from before the foundation of the world. Some would say that can't be. But we would say, who says? Who says that both those things can't be true? Some man with finite knowledge who doesn't even know how God laid the foundation of the earth on nothing or doesn't even know what exactly it is that holds up the earth.

Men, some man who has thought many things were not possible only to learn later that they were possible. You see it's the height of arrogance again to think that just because we can't explain something just because we don't understand how something could be true that therefore it can't be true. Now yes God has given us minds and logic God is the creator of logic it's it is his nature and we are to think logically We are to think his thoughts after him. But we are never to think his thoughts against him. And, And we need to believe what God's word says.

Jesus told his disciples it was harder for a rich man to be saved than for that man to go through the eye of a needle. Now how hard is it for a man to go through the eye of a needle? We would say that's impossible. You can barely fit a thread through that. I mean How hard do you have to work to get that to happen?

And so the disciples, when Jesus said that, the disciples replied in what they thought was a very rational way. Well then how could anyone be saved? Because they realized that was impossible to go through the eye of a needle and to be saved would be harder. And so what did Jesus say? The things that are impossible with man are possible with God.

Yes, it may be impossible for a man to understand how the same act can be at the same time, their voluntary choice, acting according to the freedom of their will and predestined by God too. But it's not impossible for God. He does it. That's what he says. To his word and to his testimony, if they be not according to them, there is no truth in them.

Now, it may also seem rational to think that if a human has the ability to freely choose or to do or not to do something that God must therefore be powerless to control the human will or that or to put it more in a more refined way that must mean that God chooses to limit his power so that man can have this freedom of will this ability to choose according to his own desires. But that too, brothers and sisters, is completely contrary to the scriptures because that view takes God off the throne and it puts man on the throne. And that God says that he will never do. God declares in Isaiah 42, I am Jehovah. That is my name and my glory.

I will not give to another nor my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass and the new things I declare before they spring forth. I tell you of them. God says he's not going to abdicate. He's not going to step off his throne for one moment to give man some autonomy.

No, when God gives us the liberty of a will to choose according to our own desires, He is not abdicating one iota of his power. He remains the sovereign God. He is not choosing to limit his power in any way. He says, I won't do it. I will not give that glory to any other.

And Isaiah 48, God declares again, I will not give my glory to another. Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel. My called I am he I am the first. I am also the last. Indeed, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand is stretched out the heavens.

When I call them, they stand together. They stand up together. So God will never share his glory with anyone, and he doesn't limit himself so that some man can be king for a moment beside him. You see, to do that would be to deny himself and God cannot deny himself that God cannot do We see these two things put together in many places in the scripture God's sovereignly ordaining and man choosing according to the desire of his own will. Speaking to the Jews on the day of Pentecost in Acts two, Peter said that Christ being delivered by the determinant purpose and foreknowledge of God you have taken by lawless hands have crucified and put to death.

He combines those two in the same sentence. In Acts 4 the Apostles spoke to the Lord in prayer saying both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles And the people of Israel were gathered together against Jesus to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. So as chief priests and those scribes and elders of the people were freely acting according to their own will. No one was forcing them to do something against their will, but their actions were exactly what God ordained predestined from before the foundation of the world. Jesus says of Judas in Luke 22, truly the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to the man by whom he is betrayed.

See, in deciding to betray Jesus to the Jews, Judas acted according to his own will. He was not being forced to do something he did not want to do. He did exactly what he wanted to do and he is fully accountable for what he did. See, it's to the law and to the testimony. They speak not according to them.

There is no truth in them. But as Syria. Is not only ignorant of the fact that they are an instrument in God's hands and acting according to God's purpose. They've also deceived themselves into thinking that everything they have done has been entirely by their own power, by their own superior intellect and military genius. And it's a fool's errand.

The Syrian king says in verse eight, Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hameth like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? Those are cities in Syria that Assyria had conquered.

If you look on your map, I've underlined those cities there, and they car-chem-ish-es off to the more east, then you come around to Arpad and Hamath, and then farther on south, Stamascus, and farther on south, off the map actually, is, or down the way at the bottom would be Samaria. These are all cities that Assyria had conquered. Kalno isn't on the map, but it's thought to be about six miles from our pad. Amos puts it north of Hamas in Amos, too, where he tells Israel who thinks they are safe from the Syria. Go to Kelner and see and from there go to Hamas, the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory? He seems to start from the north and work south there. Yet here's the same message to Judah. You're not better than these cities.

So the Assyrians had what the king of Syria is referring to there is the Syrians had besieged these cities broken down the walls and carried the people away as slaves and they did so in the most dehumanizing and humiliating ways possible. In in warning Judah not to trust in Egypt or Ethiopia. Israel, Isaiah points out what's going to happen to Ethiopia and Egypt. Under Sargon, king of Assyria, He says in Isaiah 20, so shall the king of Assyria lead away Egyptians as prisoners and Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt and Micah also mentions the inhabitants of Shafir going out naked and in shame. This was how the captives were treated to complete this complete dehumanization was intended to shatter the cultural cohesion and bonds of the concrete city clothing is an They were trying to destroy all of them.

They were trying to destroy all of the cities. They were trying to destroy all the cities. They sought to destroy all that before they were settled in some strange city. And so as Syria is pointing to all these victories where they are completely triumphant over these cities, dehumanizing them, utterly destroying them, breaking any will to resist cruelly killing torturing anybody that that that refused to submit to them. They are willfully ignorant of the fact that these victories were all accomplished by the decree and the will of God.

And so they think that they can conquer Jerusalem in the exact same way. And that false confidence in the arm of flesh. Leads them right into blasphemy. As Syria. Through their king thinks in verse 10 that just as my hand has found the kingdoms of idols whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?

And he said, I have destroyed these other cities who had better idols, more powerful gods, if you will. And they've had more powerful gods than Samaria and Jerusalem. They're not as strong as the idols I've already conquered. So I should have no trouble conquering Jerusalem. And so they in their pride and arrogance, Assyria thinks they will conquer Jerusalem and desecrate the temple of the living God and the Ark of the Covenant and all of the thing, the consecrated holy things.

They think they're going to do that just like they conquered every other city. And so they've fallen into the exact trap that Moses warned the Israelites about in Deuteronomy 8. They've fallen into the pride trap. Moses said that to the Israelites he warned them when you've come into the promised land and you have your barns that are bursting with plentiful harvest you have flourishing flocks and beautiful homes and you're feasting on foods and wines. So then beware that you don't begin to think that my power and my might have gained me this wealth.

And forget the Lord who protected and guided you through many dangers in the desert. You provided your food for you and the clothes that didn't wear out. Because that's the temptation, isn't it? It's so easy to slip into this pride trap and think that we have what we have because we're a little bit smarter, we work a little bit harder, we work a little bit faster than anybody else. That's what Syria thought.

They didn't realize the Lord had raised them up and given them their great military genius and power. And the Lord wasn't just the one who enabled them to defeat all these countries and the cities that comprise them. The Lord was the one who sent them. He was the one who decided which city they would destroy and which cities they would not destroy. This is also a lesson in the difference between unrighteous lust and godly desire.

The Assyrians lusted for power. Power, power in it of itself is not bad. King David and all the other good kings of Israel exercised power. Other kings that descended from David exercised power. God gave them victory over their enemies.

He gave them many military victories. At one point, Israel was a very powerful nation that nobody would come against. But the difference between unrighteous lust and a godly desire is besides the object is that lust is insatiable. Godly desires are not When lust is gratified, it immediately wants more and more. And the more it gets, the more it wants.

But when the object of a godly desire is obtained, then there's contentment, not an immediate desire for more power, more money, more food, because you see, a godly desire is ultimately focused on the giver, not on the gift. And on receiving the gift, then the heart is immediately drawn in gratitude to the giver, to bless and thank the giver of every good and perfect gift. But an unrighteous desire is focused on the gift and not the giver. And in receiving a gift, then unrighteous lust desires is focused on getting more. More of a gift, more gifts.

See, when God blessed David and promised him that his throne would never depart from him, but that he would never, he would never lack a descendant to sit on the throne, David went to the Lord and blessed the Lord. He went and sat down before the Lord in prayer, acknowledging that he wasn't worthy of all the good that God had promised him and the good that God was going to do for him. But Assyria here only wants more power, more. And so God says he will punish him, that they are under his wrath. And this is one more example where we see throughout the scriptures where the sovereignty of God and the liberty, the sovereignty of God and the accountability of man are placed side by side.

God is sovereign. God ordains everything that comes to pass, but man is fully accountable for everything that they do. Even though Assyria was doing God's will. They are accountable to God for their sin. And the Bible doesn't try to reconcile these two things because they don't need to be reconciled.

It simply says, here they are, believe them and the just shall live by faith. The life that we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. God predetermined that Assyria would punish Israel and then after it punished Israel, God punished Assyria for doing the very thing he'd predetermined that they should do because they sinned voluntarily of their own choice. God is totally sovereign and man is totally accountable. And we can't diminish the sovereignty of God in order to uphold the accountability of man and we can't diminish the accountability of man in order to affirm the sovereignty of God.

We don't have to water one down, one side down for the sake of the other. They're both taught in scripture, side by side. Now, why is that? Why is it that all individuals are totally accountable for everything we think, everything we do before God? The animals aren't.

Animals don't sin. The answer is because God has made us in his image and made us moral agents. He's made us accountable. God is the sovereign one and he's made us accountable and so we are. It's in my hand as simple as that.

God has determined, ordained that we are accountable for the things that we freely, voluntarily choose to do. And everything we do, we have chosen to do according to our will, according to the liberty of our will. See, Assyria is only an instrument in God's hand. And so God says in Isaiah 15, Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it, or the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it or the rod wield itself against those who lift it up? Of course not.

Assyria is the rod in God's hand. They're the axe that he's chopping with. They're the saw that he's sawing with. But because they have thought that they're doing all this by their own power, by their own ability, God says he will destroy them, punish the fruit of their arrogant heart. And so in verse 16, God says, therefore, therefore, because Assyria has lifted itself up in pride, because they are a wicked nation, because they have sinned against me.

Therefore, the Lord of hosts will send leanness among his fat ones and under his glory. He will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. So the light of Israel will be for a fire. The Holy One of Israel for a flame. God is a consuming fire.

God is a God of vengeance, and he promises to take vengeance on all those who do not obey him. The fact that he's taking this vengeance on Assyria tells us that Assyria is accountable just as much as Israel was. They are accountable to obey and serve the Lord. God says that he will he will burn and devour all of Assyria's thorns and briars in a day. In other words, it's not even a big oak tree that takes a while to burn.

This is thorns and briars that all burn in a moment. And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful all of the things that they looked out at and thought that they had gotten by their own cunning and ingenuity. Their military genius Gus is going to be gone in a day. A day. He will consume the glory of his forest and the fruitful filled both soul and body, and they will be as when a sick man wastes away than the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them." Syria is only an instrument in God's hands.

God is a consuming fire. And we need to hold to both of those aspects. We need to preach the doctrines of grace that God is sovereign, that we are wholly unable because of our fallen nature to come to Him, but we are also fully accountable. We are totally depraved in every aspect of our nature. We can't claim any excuse to diminish that can't claim that we're dyslexic or crazy or lost our mind or that we're sick or some other thing.

We are all accountable before God. But the beauty of all this, and this is what we'll get to next week, Lord willing, is that God's purpose in this judgment is a good purpose, just like his purpose in Joseph was good. His purpose in these judgments is to purify his church, to remove the impurities, to sanctify his people, to be a zealous people. And it is through this godly remnant that he preserves after all the impurities are stripped away. It's through from this remnant that Jesus Christ, the Messiah comes.

And so God's judgments here on all of these nations are first to preserve the remnant, to purify his church and preserve the remnant for Christ to come but also to remove every nation that will compete or conflict with his kingdom that he will establish across in the earth where in peace and righteousness dwell. So we will pause there till next week and pick up in our new building, our new hall, this remnant that God preserves through this judgment. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we marvel at your wisdom that over centuries, over millennia, you are working out your purpose, a purpose that you established before the foundation of the world to preserve a remnant, to raise up a church, a people, of every tribe and nation, to bring every enemy under your foot, to bring every need to confess that you are the Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Father, may you cause us to see your great purpose as you have revealed it in your word and as you are working it out in our lives, in our day-by-day lives.

May we not lose sight of your grand and glorious purpose. That. You are able to do above all that we can even ask or think According to the power that now works in us And that's in him You are working glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. May your name be forever praised. In Jesus' name we ask, amen.