The sermon 'The Christian Nationalism of Isaiah' by Peter Allison focuses on Isaiah 19, where the prophecy highlights God's judgment upon Egypt due to its idolatry and rejection of God. The sermon explains that this judgment manifests through civil strife, environmental degradation, economic collapse, and foolish leadership. However, the prophecy concludes with Egypt's conversion to worshiping Jehovah, symbolized by an altar and pillar dedicated to the Lord. Allison draws parallels between the ancient judgments and modern societal issues, emphasizing the consequences of abandoning God's laws. The sermon asserts that every nation has a duty to worship Jehovah, and that civil government is not religiously neutral. It stresses that acknowledging God publicly is essential for national deliverance and blessing. The narrative of Egypt's transformation serves as a template for how Gentile nations can be integrated into God's covenant through the gospel.

Our scripture reading is from Isaiah chapter 19. This is the word of the Lord. The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and will come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

I will set Egyptians against Egyptians. Everyone will fight against his brother and everyone against his neighbor. City against city, kingdom against kingdom, the spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy their council, and they will consult the idols and the charmers, the mediums and the sorcerers. And the Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and dried up. The rivers will turn foul, the brooks of the fence will be emptied and dried up. The reeds and the rushes will wither. The papyrus reeds by the mouth of the river, and everything sewn by the river will wither and be driven away and be no more. The fishermen will also mourn, and those will lament who cast hooks into the river, and they will languish who spread nets on the waters.

Moreover, those who work in fine flax and those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed, and its foundations will be broken, and all who make wages will be troubled of soul. Surely the princes of Zon are fools. Pharaoh's wise counselors give foolish counsel. How do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they?

Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now. And let them know what the Lord of Hosts has purposed against Egypt. The princes of Zon have become fools. The princes of Naf are deceived.

They have also deluded Egypt. Those who are the mainstay of its tribes the Lord has mingled with a perverse spirit in her midst And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Neither will there be any work for Egypt, which the head or the tail, palm, branch or bulrush may do. In that day, Egypt will be like women and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of Hosts, which He waves over it. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt.

Everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the Lord of Hosts, which He has determined against it. In that day, Five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts one will be called the city of destruction. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its borders. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors.

And He will send them a Savior and a mighty one and he will deliver them and then the Lord will be known to Egypt and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and will make sacrifice and offering Yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it and the Lord will strike Egypt He will strike and heal it they will return to the Lord and he will be entreated by them and heal them in That day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and Egypt Egyptian into Assyria and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. And in that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria. A blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed is Egypt, My people, and Assyria, the work of My hands, and Israel, my inheritance. Let us lift up our hands to His commandments, which we love and meditate on His statutes. Almighty Heavenly Father, Make Your Word a swift word this morning, passing from our ears to our hearts, and from our hearts to our lips, through our conversation to our countenance.

We pray that as the rain does not return to your void, so as you have sent your word to us this morning, may it accomplish its purpose. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that through a vessel of clay, the riches of your gospel of grace may be brought to us this morning. Lord, may you increase in our midst through Jesus Christ, we ask. Amen. Please be seated.

Please be seated. This oracle starts out a lot like every other oracle against pagan nations that we have looked at in our study of Isaiah and in the other prophets that we have looked at in past years. But it ends very differently than the oracles that we have looked at so far. It ends with Egypt being converted and becoming a part of the church of Jesus Christ. But the oracle begins with these series of judgments.

It begins with the declaration of civil war in Egypt. Setting Egyptians against Egyptians. Everyone will fight against his brother. Everyone against his neighbor. City against city.

Kingdom against kingdom. Where do wars and fights come from? They come from the lust that people have. They lust and cannot obtain. They desire something.

And they can't have it. They fight for it. This is the condition of all natural men. This is the condition of our children when they are born. That's why They fight with their siblings and they need to be taught.

But if they aren't taught, they grow up and they fight with one another. City against city. This is what happens when people reject the Lord. This is what we're seeing in our nation today. It is city against city, state against state.

We have red states and blue states. We now have violence in the street as people fight against one another. They're shooting on their own brothers. Brother against brother. You see the rise of the occult.

They will consult idols and charmers. Saul resorted to a medium when the Lord no longer answered his prayers. People resort to the occult. When you see the rise of the occult, it is another sign of a nation that has rejected the Lord and the knowledge of the Lord. So all the things that you see in our land, the tarot card readings, The things in the newspaper that they what do they call it?

The. I forgot what they call those, but they print them in the newspaper, the horoscopes. Yes, All these things are seeking knowledge from the occult, from means that ways that God has not allowed us to seek knowledge. See, when all knowledge and wisdom is hidden in the Lord, But if you reject the Lord, then people turn to knowledge in other ways. You see the rise of tyrants.

Give them into the hand of a cruel master and a fierce king will rule over them. If people reject God from being their king, then the state becomes God often. And God gives them over into the hand of tyrants. It's oppressors That make it hard for us to obey the law of God. And so David prays in Psalm one team deliver me from oppressors that I may keep your statutes.

So the very sin of rejecting the law of God becomes the judgment itself. There is the environmental destruction. Isaiah describes the loss of the environment. The papyrus reads, wither, dry away, they are no more. The rivers turn foul.

Again, this is like a commentary on our nation. If you look at the lands that are being fouled and polluted, polluted by us, By factories and by people who do not have a care for the creation to preserve as a steward the creation that God has given us to steward We see our farmlands being turned into barrenness and so that they are not able to produce crops without massive amounts of chemicals added to them. That's not the way the land should be. That's a sign that the land is barren. God is turning a fertile land into a desert.

But God also turns deserts into oases when when When people are obedient to him The fish are gone They're not there There is the collapse of the economy. The foundations are broken. Those who make wages are troubled of soul. And the means through which these happen are varied. And many experts can wax eloquent and long about all the secondary causes for why this happens.

Why is our textile industry not here anymore? Why are all our clothes made in some other country by other people? Why are they so poor in terms of quality, in terms of their suitability? Isaiah is saying here this is a result of God's judgment on the land. Why have we lost the middle class because all the jobs have gone overseas everything that we buy is made in China That's a lot.

That's exactly what it's saying here The foundations are broken those who make wages are trouble you can look at city after city Throughout the Midwest where there once was a prospering city built around an industry Whether that be a factory that made something a lumberyard It's all gone It's gone The foundations have been broken. Surely, there is a descent into folly. The rulers become fools. They're very learned. They have great degrees from great institutions, but they become fools.

Why are we fighting a war in the Middle East? What good does that do for us? No, it hurts us. It causes our fuel prices to go up. It's money that we can't afford to spend.

But why would intelligent people do this? Because God has made them fools. The princes of zone are fools. Pharaoh's wise counselors give foolish counsel. The princes are deceived.

They don't even get the truth. So there's a descent into folly and that results in a descent into fear. People become afraid. And that day Egypt will be like a woman afraid and Fearful because of the wavering waving of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which he waves over it People are afraid for their future. They're afraid where they're going to eat.

They're afraid. You know, I just read the other day that sales of bomb shelters skyrocketed ten, of a company here in Texas, Atlas something or other, skyrocketed ten times this year. Why? Because people are afraid they're buying bomb shelters, expensive ones. But this is where the story changes.

Because in that day, Five cities will speak the language of Canaan. The gospel is publicly proclaimed. Canaan is the land that God promised to give Abraham and his descendants a thousand years earlier. In 1897, BC, this is seven hundred and fifteen, twenty. And he gave it to them 750 years later.

Canaan is now the land of God's people and has been for 750 years. So Egypt is speaking the language of God's people of the church. You might say, well, Why would Isaiah call it the language of Canaan? If Canaan has been occupied by Israel for the better part of a thousand years, why doesn't he call it the language of Israel? It's only been three or four hundred years that Western Europeans have occupied North America.

We don't speak the language of Indians. Well, one reason, according to Eusebius of Sestiria, is that Egyptians called Hebrew the Canaanite language. So Essentially, Isaiah is using the Egyptian word for Hebrew in this oracle about Egypt. But another reason I think more significant is to emphasize that the Egyptians are still a separate and distinct people. They will be saved as Egyptians, not Egyptians who become Israelites.

Five cities in the land are speaking the language of God's people. That doesn't mean they learn Hebrew. It means they are speaking the same thing as God's people. They are testifying to Jesus Christ, professing His name. They are in doctrinal agreement with God's people.

They are of the same mind as God's people. It's the same sense in which Paul urged the Corinthian church, which was plagued, you remember, by sectarianism. One said, I'm of Paul. Another, I'm of Paulus. I'm of Cephas.

And Paul rebuked that. He said, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. That's the church, the ideal for the church. And Isaiah is saying Egypt, this pagan nation, will speak the same mind and the same judgment as Israel, God's people. Egypt is joined together In the same judgment as the church the gospel is being proclaimed in Egypt five out of six cities are Christian cities Only one is named the City of Destruction.

Now you may have a note in your Bible that says it's the City of Righteousness or the City of the Sun, which would of course be the opposite in meaning from city of destruction. And the difference between these two words in Hebrew, these two sentences in Hebrew, is less than the difference between the letter L, the small letter L, and the number 1. It's less than that. It's very slight. And so this idea comes from a translation of the Septuagint, which is very old, several hundred years before Christ.

But in the text that God has preserved And remember he promises to preserve every jot and every tittle of his word in the text that he has preserved It is clearly the city of destruction So it's tempting as it might be, and this I say is very old. You can go all the way back to all the way back to Eusebius in the third century. And he's still commenting about this about this translation issue or difference. So As tempting as it is to see this as the city of righteousness, the text clearly says this is a city of destruction. Five speak the language of Canaan.

One is the city of destruction. Five, six of this nation is professing the Lord Jesus Christ. And a hundred years later, Zephaniah gives a very similar prophecy regarding all the nations in Zephaniah 3. He says, Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, until the day that I rise up for plunder. My determination is to gather the nations to my assembly of kingdoms to pour on them my indignation, my fierce anger.

All the earth shall be devoured With the fire of my jealousy for then I will restore to the people's a pure language That they may all call on the name of the Lord to serve him with one accord that was Zephaniah's prophecy the Lord would Restore to the people a pure language So they all can call on the name of the Lord and serve him together with one accord That's what Isaiah is describing here five of these cities Five six of the nation of Egypt is serving the Lord, speaking the language of Canaan. But they, secondly, Egypt not only officially is preaching the gospel, but they are covenanting with Jehovah. Isaiah says they are swearing by the Lord. They are swearing in the name of Jehovah Sabeoth, the Lord of hosts. They speak the same language and they swear by His name.

Swearing is an act of worship. To swear by His name is to testify that He is the one true God. It's to invoke God as our witness to what we assert or promise. And it's calling on him to judge us according to the truth or falsehood of what we swear. It's calling God as a witness to what we assert or promise.

Two times in Deuteronomy 6 13 and 1020, God commands his people to fear the Lord your God to serve him and to take oaths in his name, to swear by his name. This is very heavy stuff. Swearing in the name of Jehovah is a very significant act. It's not to be taken lightly at all. This is a very significant statement.

When the chief ruler of a nation places his hand on the Bible and swears in the name of Almighty God, he is acknowledging that God is greater. He is acknowledging that God is the sovereign, that he, the king or the ruler, is subordinate to Jehovah. He's acknowledging that he is the king of this nation. It owes his allegiance. To the greater one, Jehovah said that.

So when it so for Isaiah to say that this nation of Egypt swears to the Lord of hosts, that nation is making a public profession that Jehovah, the creator, the ruler of all the armies of heaven and earth is the only true God. And that he is their God. And that all their life is pledged to his service It's in the same way that you remember in the feudal days the vassals swore allegiance to their lords and The Lord swore allegiance to the king. To swear by the Lord could equivalently be translated swearing to the Lord. They have the same.

They both are there. And to swear to the Lord, of course, is to make a solemn promise of obedience and submission to his government. It's in essence to covenant with Jehovah. Whenever God establishes his covenant with us or when he removes covenant breakers from the covenant, it's always with an oath. Hebrews says that the Lord swore in his wrath that the apostate generation that fell in the wilderness would not enter into his rest, he swore.

And but in covenant with Abraham, God also swore by his own name that he would be God to him and to his children, blessing those who blessed him and cursing those who cursed him. The entrance to the covenant is always with an oath. A vow. And Isaiah is prophesying to Judah that this pagan nation, that at one time was their oppressor, would one day join with them in covenanting. To be the Lord's.

So clearly. These commands in Deuteronomy six, where the Lord commands Israel to swear in His name and to take oaths in His name. They don't just apply to Israel under a theocracy. They apply to every nation that God has raised up. There isn't a nation that ever exists or will ever exist that God has not raised up.

And there will never be a nation that does not have an obligation to swear by the name of the Lord, to swear to the Lord. So The gospel is preached in Egypt. Egypt covenants with the Lord. Egypt officially acknowledges Jehovah in verse 19, B and 20. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, the pillar to the Lord at its borders, and it will be for a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.

So putting an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt is to publicly acknowledge Jehovah as the king of that nation. Putting a pillar to the Lord at the border is to announce to every person who enters that this nation serves Jehovah. This country is the Lord's. That this is a Christian nation. And we worship and we serve the Lord Jesus Christ and that we recognize his laws as the only standard of what is true and what is just.

That's what Isaiah is saying Egypt will do. And if you enter this border sign, this this Ebenezer, this pillar at the border proclaims to everyone who enters, if you enter, you will be expected to outwardly conform to our laws. You know, man can't see what people do in their heart, but we do see what they do outwardly. And this is this pillar announces to everyone that comes, you will be required and expected to conform to the laws of Jehovah. If you visit Singapore, you have to live by their laws, which include not being able to import gum, chewing gum, or sell it.

It's a fine. You can even go to prison if you sell chewing gum. But that's the law of the land. If you go there, you're expected to live by it, as some of our citizens have found out when they tried to break their laws, one of whom even was cain. Their laws can be repressive, but God's law is a law of liberty, and those who walk in it walk in liberty.

So. So the fact that Egypt as this Gentile nation. Descendants of Misraim. Set up an altar to the Lord is acknowledging that this nation as a civil society. A civil nation, a civil society has a duty to worship Jehovah.

Egypt is not a theocracy like Israel was. People can't say, well, you know, when you tried to talk about the laws, they said, well, that's it's well, their theocracy. Now, every nation. As a civil society has a duty to worship Jehovah. All nations are under God's law because all people in those nations are created by God and as His creatures are represented in the covenant of works and obligated to worship and obey Him.

All civil magistrates from whatever nation, from whatever people, all civil magistrates receive their authority from God and are his ministers who owe their allegiance to him and are accountable to the Lord for their use of the authority that he is entrusted to them. There are no exceptions. There are no civil magistrates who have authority from somewhere else. Jesus told Pilate, all authority is mine. You would have no authority except that we're given you from the Father.

And the fact that some people don't believe in God doesn't in any way remove their obligation to worship and obey Him. It doesn't really matter if the public worship of God makes them angry. What matters is what pleases the Lord And what brings his wrath upon a land or what brings his blessing on the land? You know, Christians, as Christians, we shouldn't be acting like guests in someone else's country. Afraid to testify to the Lord Jesus Christ, afraid to pray in public for fear of offending somebody.

We're not a guest in somebody else's country. Our Father owns The land. He owns the cattle on the hills, and he owns all the gold in its ground. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And he has promised the nations to his son.

The nations of the earth belong to him. He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords. This is his land. We have every right and every obligation to publicly profess that. Now, you might say, Or some might say, but aren't Christians as we as Christians, aren't we just pilgrims and sojourners and we look for a better city, a heavenly city?

Well, yes, that's that's in the Bible, too. We are just pilgrims and sojourners. We look for heavy a heavenly city. But, you know, you can live as a citizen in one nation and inherit land in another, can't you? Our citizenship is in heaven.

But it's the saints that inherit the earth. Psalm 37 verse 9, for evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Or in verse 29, the righteous shall inherit the earth and dwell in it forever. And on the sermon on the Mount, Jesus said the same thing, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. In summarizing the covenant that Israel renewed as as they prepared to enter the promised land.

Moses told them in Deuteronomy 26, today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God and that you will walk in his ways and keep his statutes, his commandments, and his judgments, and that you will obey his voice. That is to sum up all of what it means. Covenant with the Lord. This was actually the practice of the English long parliament during the years from 1642 to 1649 England. Not not Israel, not some theocracy of the Old Testament.

It serves as an example, a recent example of a Christian nation following the example laid out here in Isaiah 19 of what a Christian nation looks like in official practice. The long parliament observed a public fast on the last Wednesday of each month. During which they would ordinarily hear on that day two sermons, not one, but two, And their sermons were typically an hour long. But we know that sometimes they were longer. We know at least one went two hours.

Maybe more. Maybe more sermons went. And in addition to the sermons that day, that day also included lengthy prayers and psalm singing. And it was a day in which they suspended the ordinary business of Parliament. Members of Parliament nominated the ministers who would bring the messages, many of whom were members of the Westminster Assembly.

And if you read the the minutes of the Westminster Assembly, it will make reference to so and so minister being asked to deliver the sermon. These are the same people that produced the Westminster Confession and catechisms that some of you are learning. And these sermons, you know, were not puff pieces for a political show. They were Puritan sermons, an hour long, that mined the depths of scripture. And Parliament then would often direct these sermons to be printed and published.

One such pamphlet is entitled, Two sermons preached to the Honorable House of Commons at two public fasts, the one March 30, 1642, the other April 30, 1645, the former opening the necessity and benefit of washing the heart, the latter discovering the vanity and mischief of a heart unwashed. This is a civil assembly. Who is publicly worshipping the Lord? Notice, though, that this this pillar and altar are a sign and a witness to the to the Lord of hosts. When he looks at these signs, they witness to him that this is a Christian nation.

And in the same way that the rainbow is a witness to the Lord to remind him not to destroy the earth with a flood again, or the blood of the Passover on the doorpost was a sign to the Lord to pass over that house and not destroy the occupants when he struck Egypt. So this altar, Isaiah says, in this pillar are signs to the Lord to bless and protect this nation, to send the rain in its season, to have food, to protect them from violence, to give them peace on the streets. This is a test, a sign to the Lord. Because of the altar to the Lord in the middle of the land and the pillar to the Lord on the border, when Egypt is oppressed and cries out to the Lord for deliverance, the Lord seeing these signs will recognize that these are His children that are being oppressed. And He will hear their prayer and send them a Savior and a mighty one who will deliver them.

This is, Of course, a picture of Jesus Christ. But it's because of these signs, Isaiah says, when the Lord sees these, then when they pray to him. The Lord will deliver them, he will send the Savior, a mighty one. The nation that doesn't have these signs forfeits those blessings. They forfeit his protection.

They forfeit his peace. See, we can't tear down the altars and the pillars that are dedicated to him. We can't abandon the official public worship of Jehovah in our civil courts and legislatures. We can't hide our witness and never publicly acknowledge that we are God's people and belong to him and then turn around and expect him to hear our prayers for deliverance when some national calamity arises. We have no right to expect that.

The prayer of the wicked is, Jesus said, or the Proverb says, is an abomination to the Lord. Of course, we can't call on the Lord unless he in his grace first calls us and draws us to him. Now Romans 2 teaches us that it is a goodness of God, goodness that we don't deserve, that leads to repentance. And apart from this goodness, we would never repent. We would never cry out to him.

What a picture here of salvation. So Egypt. Is a Christian nation. Egypt, in verse 21, officially worships Jehovah. The Lord will be known to Egypt, knowing the Lord consistently means.

Knowing more than knowing facts about God. It means a real personal relationship with him. To know the name of the Lord is to set aside all false ideas, all ideas that we imagine in ourselves and To know him from his word How he reveals himself It's not to imagine God according to our own fancy, you know, we hear people say well I worship God, you know in the forest Well We can enjoy the forest but God calls us to worship him in the assembly of saints and to gather together where he that's where he puts his name. This relationship. That's described or subsumed in knowing the Lord is something that's deepened through communion with him.

It's deepened through obedience and it's even deepened through trials. But no one, as I said, can know the Lord unless the Lord first reveals Himself to us. This is the heart of the gospel. A gracious God has revealed Himself to sinners who are not worthy of such a revelation. Jesus said in John 6, no one can come to Me unless The Father who sent me draws him.

No one can of ability. And so when God reveals Himself to Egypt, Egypt will come to Christ and be converted. That's why you and I were converted. There was a time either before or after our birth when God revealed himself to us and you became a Christian. If God had not revealed himself to you, you would never have become a Christian.

And so to know the Lord is to be known by Him. It's to trust and commune with Him. It's to obey Him in everyday life. It's to increasingly love Him. It's not just knowing more facts about Him.

And Of course, to love Him means to obey Him. It's a growing obedience. But there certainly is an affection. We delight in that obedience. We delight in knowing Him.

And They will make sacrifice and oblation. This is describing the confession of faith called and calling upon God. Everything that we offer to God. In the Old Testament, in the Sermon of the Old Testament, point forward to us offering our bodies as living sacrifices. A reasonable worship, Paul says.

And they shall vow to the Lord and perform them. That's a part of the worship of God too. The Jews were accustomed to express their gratitude to God by vows. They would vow something for him and they rendered thanksgiving by a solemn vow if they had received something from God. Here here Isaiah speaks of two nations.

That were that one time were enemies of each other. Egypt was an oppressor of Israel. And God brings them together. In verse 22, God chastens Egypt as a son. This is.

If God doesn't chase in us, then we are illegitimate children. The striking that God does here, he says he will strike, strike Egypt. But it's the striking of a son, the striking that God does can be identical. It can be the identical affliction. In one case, it is the striking of a child.

He strikes to sanctify, to grow us, to purify us. Hezekiah could say, indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness. It was for my own good that I had this affliction. For you have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption and have cast all my sins behind your back. David could say many times in Psalm 119, before I was afflicted, I went astray, But now I keep your word.

It was good for me, he said, that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. I know, O Lord, your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. This is This is how God says he will strike Egypt. He will strike them in order to heal them. He will strike them in faithfulness.

But when God strikes the reprobate is to bring his wrath on them. And when God strikes finally in death, because everybody dies, We all bear that affliction. But for the believer, the sting is removed. And it is a blessing because we are ushered, God strikes us to Bring us into his presence to to enable us to perfectly enjoy him. But for the unbeliever, that striking is the exact same thing.

It's the exact same death, but it's to the opposite effect. It's to bring his eternal wrath upon him. Jehovah unites Jew and Gentiles in his church. There's going to be a highway between these nations such that they will have conversation with each other. There'll be a mutual coming and going.

These two people who were once enemies are now friends. They do commerce together. They have fellowship together. Their strife is gone, their quarreling is gone. It ceased because God has brought peace and God then blesses his people.

This is the singular blessing of God's people. God's blessing carries the fulfillment and completion, entering into a state of wholeness, of unity, of a restored relationship. God's blessing is all encompassing. It flows to every part of our lives, our relationships, our bodies, our health, our finances. This all happens in that day.

You notice it says in that day. In that day, verse 16. Verse 18, in that day. Verse 19, in that day. What day is that?

Well, that's the day the gospel came to Egypt. From Isaiah's time, it was far future, hundreds of years in the future. But according to Acts 2, there were Egyptians present at Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. And they would have taken the gospel back to Egypt around 30 A.D. This is when that day happened.

Mark wrote his gospel about 41 A.D. And according to early church historians like Eusebius of Sestiria, Mark was the first missionary to Egypt going about 42 A.D., bringing his gospel, and he established that first church in Alexandria, the great city of Egypt. And that became a very significant and mighty church. It became a center that interacted with the Greek intellectuals. It became ground zero for the Aryan controversy, and it was this time that Athanasians, God raised up Athanasius, who served as a bishop of the church in Alexandria for 47 years.

And he stood like a rock there defending the deity of Christ against the Aryans. Of his 47 years there as the bishop of the church, he spent 20 of those in captivity. This was the church that God established in Egypt that Isaiah prophesied about. So we can say today that civil government is not religiously neutral. Every government worships some God.

And the question is, who should be the God of that nation? See, the culture is always defined by the God that they serve. And the God of that culture is whoever or whatever is acknowledged as a source of life and the source of law. These two, the source of life and the source of law, are inextricably linked together. You can't separate them.

Because the lawgiver of a culture is the one who by a creator's right of ownership has the prerogative to define those laws. And conversely, the laws of a society will always reflect who or what is acknowledged as the source of life by that society If if a nation believes they evolved from primordial soup through random processes of chance then they are attributing to matter their life. And so all wisdom to make life is then hidden in matter itself. And of course, it's not. The Bible says all wisdom is hidden in Christ.

The other problem is that matter is not a person. It doesn't speak or do anything. It's helpless. And so when a nation no longer serves the true and living God, the state then becomes the God. They become the mouthpiece and the interpreter of this lifeless inanimate matter.

Follow the science. They become the interpreter of what that science is. Of course, the laws of men are tyranny and they lead to destruction. People become what they worship. So first, no nation, no civil government is religiously neutral.

But secondly, every nation is obligated to worship Jehovah. Egypt and Assyria worshiped Jehovah as one people with Israel as one nation. This is God's command to every nation. This is what Cyrus and Darius did when they decreed the building of the temple. Should a Christian magistrate do any less?

Isaiah says for thus 4518, for thus says the Lord who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited, says, I am the Lord and there is no other. There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Look to me and be saved. All you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.

Heavenly Father, we pray that our land might turn to you and acknowledge, look to you and be saved and acknowledge that you are God and that there is none beside you, none like unto you. We ask, Lord, that we might be faithful in professing our knowledge of you, in owning that you are our Lord, and in our public affirmation that we that our nation must acknowledge you