City against city, kingdom against kingdom. I think when Antichrist is going to hate Islam and everything else, he's going to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, and you've got a guard that you're not rooting for him because you share a sentiment against falsities and hostilities against the faith, just saying how it is going to be. Many of these Egyptians are going to turn from Islam, and they're going to turn to Christ. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 18 with this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. These peoples, especially the Iraqis in Syria and Egypt, they're going to be worshiping Christ in all their glory in the end times. In his day, there's no chance. The Iraqis are coming to conquer Egypt.
That's what they're going to do. But Isaiah looks beyond current events, and he speaks again to the end time, what's going to happen in that region of the world. We lose sight of just how many people live in just this part of the world. Maybe if you—I have a YouTube passport. I go anywhere in the world from my living room, and I go to these places.
I go, I want to see a ferry crossing some unknown river, and you see how many people are there. These are souls. God knows all of them. He knows all their thoughts before they do.
It's like he's electronically plugged into everybody. And so it is remarkable that he declares these enemies are going to be worshiping Isaiah's God. And Isaiah does not yet understand fully the meaning of Jesus Christ. He understands more than most, especially that 53rd chapter. And so they'll all be united, worshiping the Lord and sharing his blessings.
In this section, he uses this phrase six times in that day. He's talking about end times. So we come now to verse 1, the burden against Egypt. Behold, Yahweh 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. Well, as I mentioned, there were those in Judah that wanted Egypt and what she had to offer as far as protection. God through the prophets said it's not going to happen, and he brings the protection through the angel of the Lord in that one night. And we're about 715 years before the coming of Christ. So in another 45 years or so, the Assyrians will conquer Egypt, and Isaiah will probably be dead at that time. But these prophets, you know, they spoke with such assurance. This is going to happen.
I'm going to go die now, but this is going to happen. They all did this. I mean, Elijah says, you know what? If you ask a hard thing, you're a double portion. Greedy.
It wasn't. And he said, well, if you see me go up, how does he know that? That is remarkable. So the message to us is when God wants you to know what's going on, he had no problem telling you. What happens is we begin to insert our voice into God. We become a ventriloquist.
I say I'm going to bless you. No weapon formed will prosper. Well, tell that to the martyrs. Physically, they did prosper. Spiritually, they did not.
They didn't take their faith. So you know, the sobriety that the Bible brings to us in these lessons that abound from the pages, but they're hard to get. Well, what good thing comes? You know, if you get something good, aren't you suspicious? If somebody walks up to you and says, hey, I'm just going to wash your car because I know I never met you, but I just want to wash your car. You be suspicious. You're not touching my car.
I don't know about you. Where I'm from, if you're walking down the street and a stranger says hi, you're on guard. Why is he being friendly?
He's trying to, I'm serious. This is a good way to be. Anyway, it's not paranoia.
It's just street savvy in that context. But then you go to other places and people say hi. And you say, what are you looking at me for?
And they're like, what's wrong with you? Anyway, when in Rome, do as the Romans. I've not been to Rome. And if I get there, I don't know if I'm going to do like they do.
I just needed that little break mentally. Okay, coming back to this, this Assyrian conquest, as I mentioned, proved a failure. And their mediums, their wizards, they were unable to give them the counsel. Egypt was known for her wise men. In fact, in one point, Solomon is said to have been wiser than the wise men of Egypt.
And God has said, well, they're wise with each other, but they're not. Do you think when you get to heaven, God is going to say to any, refer to anyone as doctor? Dr. Gaston, how are you? It won't even be, hi, pastor. It will be, hey, I've given you a new name and you'll be so happy with that name. I can't wait. I've got a list that I've submitted. Tiger.
What's your name, Tiger? And of course, anyway, these mediums, these wizards, and all in between, which would be the mediums. I mean, anyone here wear medium?
Do you ever think about that when you go buy it? Hmm. I don't want to be a medium.
God deals with mediums. Okay. That's hysterical. You know it. All right. Someone said, be serious. We're talking about Isaiah here.
You haven't read him as many times as I've read him today. Anyway, this image of Yahweh riding on the clouds. We sing songs like that, you know, riding on the clouds at the trumpet's call. Well, some of this may be ridicule to the pagan gods like Baal.
There are ancient writings that talk about their gods on the clouds, but Moses way back when did this. Deuteronomy 33, there is no one like the God of Jeshurun, that's a term of affection, who rides the heavens to help you and in his excellency on the clouds. Well, that's a term of affection, Jeshurun. Later on, he says, Jeshurun has grown fat and he's all messed up now because he's just filled with things that have taken him away from me.
Bloated would be the idea. Anyway, so that's, you know, you got to just pay attention to these things. But in the New Testament, we read, then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. I wonder if he's going to take information that's in the, you know, the cyber clouds and just put in there every knee shall bow.
You go to look up your account and it says, every knee shall bow. I don't think he's going to do that, but if he consulted me and is serious, he would, but he's not. The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence. And that's, again, he's masterful at playing on words.
We wouldn't get through Isaiah if we stopped it every time he plays on words. But here he's talking about an idol that is manmade and set up and totters over. And so he uses that, the idols of Egypt will totter at his presence. And all the gods of Egypt were defeated by Yahweh in Moses' day. Well, they're going to be defeated again.
Idolatry is making up God, making up things about God. It would be the same. What if map makers just made it up? What if they just said, no, they're going to put the ocean, we're going to put the Pacific Ocean in Nebraska on the map? I mean, it just would be crazy. What if air traffic controllers said, yeah, you're sure you're clear? When they had no clue. Well, this is what people are doing with God.
It's that same rationale or irrational. By that illogic, gods are formed. We'll just make it up. Baal rides on clouds. What's he look like? Well, I'll show you. Well, did you ever see him? No.
What, 50 bucks for the image of him. It's what Demetrius was doing in Ephesus. And people are still doing it. Otherwise, highly intelligent people just making up stuff about God. Anyway, Christianity, of course, believes that all the religions, all the other religions of the world that deny the lordship of Christ are idolatrous in that they are man-made. And we don't ask the world to tell us the meaning of spiritual things.
We don't go up to the world, can you tell us what idolatry means? Because we're really struggling with this. We don't do that. We tell them. You know, you do preach the Lord's death until he returns.
That is a declaration that he's coming back because he's alive. And the communion table is a big deal. Well, only scripture writes our definitions, our spiritual definitions. And whenever Christianity steps away from that, you're going to get heresy.
It happens too often. Verse 2, I will set Egyptians against Egyptians. Everyone will fight against his brother and everyone against his neighbor. City against city, kingdom against kingdom. I don't know how this has really happened in ancient history.
I do believe it will happen in the end times is what I meant by he weaves in and out of things. Egypt's had her uprisings. But not that full-out civil wars, one on this scale, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. I think when Antichrist is going to hate Islam and everything else, he's going to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood and you know, you've got a guard that you're not rooting for him because you share a sentiment against, you know, falsities and hostilities against the faith.
Just saying how it is going to be. Many of these Egyptians are going to turn from Islam and they're going to turn to Christ and they're going to probably do it during this time. Civil war, when the Assyrians came, they were too busy with dealing with the Assyrians to fight each other. Verse 3, the spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy the council and they will consult the idols and the charmers, the mediums and the sorcerers. So they're going to look for their religion to save them, what they believe. It's not going to work and Yahweh's going to demonstrate that those are false gods. How many people have gone to their graves clinging to their gods that are false? Well, the Lord sorts that out. Verse 4, and the Egyptians, let me pause here. When someone says to you as a believer, you mean to tell me God's going to send people to hell who never heard of it?
And you go on, that's a boring comeback. You can say, it's fair to say that I am entrusted to preach the revelation of Jesus Christ. Everything else belongs to Him. Once you hear the gospel, you're now accountable to it. Jesus preached that.
He said, you know, if you didn't hear, you wouldn't be held accountable to what I'm saying to you. There are other laws of accountability that God has put in place. And so they try to weasel out by suggesting that the Christian God is unjust. Well, that's not fair. Well, God is no good. God is God of justice. He will be fair. And now that you've heard the gospel, the fair thing to do is you receive Him or you receive the judgment. Now, that's fair. Well, there we go. You know, all the arguments I hear against Christ, to me, every one of them are lame and now boring.
I've heard them repeat. So anyhow, and some people can be bully-like in there. They get loud and they start throwing and spewing out all these supposed facts like you're supposed to have the Britannica encyclopedia set right there at your hands to check everything. You don't have to do that. You just say you're messed up inside and out and you know it. You know.
And you try to hide it and you hide behind something you do or don't or some position you have or some lust that you have made your God. And at death, these things are going to, they're going to drop dead with you. And the Egyptians, I will give into the hand of a cruel master and a fierce king will rule over them says the Lord Yahweh of hosts. Well, the Assyrian Empire, again, they're going to be cruel.
They're going to rule. Also, the Ethiopian rulers that came in, they were cruel. But I think that, and this might be a stretch, but I feel comfortable with this stretch.
I think it's an educated stretch. I think Islam is their cruel master. There's nothing, compared to true Christianity, there is nothing compassionate about Islam. It's just they boast of their violence. And those who say it's a peaceful religion really are drunk with ignorance and don't know, and know nothing of history before or now.
Sure, peaceful, long as you're doing it their way. Anyhow, you say, am I Islamaphobe? Yeah, I'm a homophobe too. I'm a lot of phobes. I'm a crookaphobe.
I'm afraid of crooks. I figure if, you know, there's a lot of phobias I have that are justifiable. That doesn't mean I want to hurt them unless they're trying to hurt me. Maybe. I mean, on the circumstances, I turn the other cheek.
But on the other circumstances, you have to protect yourself. Anyway, verse five, the waters will, you can get in the flesh really quick talking about things like this. I saw the M19, the MK19. It's a machine gun that shoots hand grenades.
That's on my Christmas list. As a pastor, you say, you're not supposed to have that. Well, I wouldn't say I'm going to shoot my neighbors with it. But who, what guy wouldn't want that?
It shoots out hand grenades like machine guns. I don't know. I passed out after like five minutes of seeing this thing. Came to, hung him out. I'll have one. I'll have one. All right.
Well, I mean, we all have something we want. All right, the waters will fail from the sea and the river will be washed, verse five, and dried up. Now, from five through eight, even nine, he's talking about the failure of the, of the river Nile. That defines Egypt. Without the Nile, it's catastrophic. That Nile Delta region, Rome, why Rome took Egypt? They wanted the wheat that they could get from the fields of Egypt.
And they sent it off to Rome and their other parts of their empire. So what he is saying here, the farming is going to fail. The fishing is going to fail. And the textiles are going to fail.
You have flax. You won't, you know, all these, their economy, their society is going to go through a catastrophic period. So the breadbasket of the delta will go through this again, likely at, in the Great Tribulation period when these things really come into play. Because again, whenever you think about the survivors of the Great Tribulation, remember what Jesus said, such as the world has never known.
It's that the global catastrophes will just be off the chart. Verse 11, surely the princes of Zoan 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? Verse 12, where are your wise men? Let them tell you now and let them know that Yahweh of hosts has purposed against Egypt. So again, that element in Jerusalem that's looking to these wise men and so impressed with Egypt, the prophet comes along and he's the naysayer in the party. He's, you know, the party pooper. He comes in and says, well, those guys aren't going to help you.
It's going to be a failure. Verse 13, the princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Noth are deceived. They have also deluded Egypt, those who are the mainstay of its tribes. And again, here's a prophet that spoke so well about Yahweh and morality, that first chapter of Isaiah. What could they say against him that made any sense? There's nothing you could say, well, yeah, well, Isaiah, you know, his fingernails grow too long, you know.
There's nothing really they could say against him. Verse 14, Yahweh has mingled a perverse spirit in their heart, in their midst, and they have caused Egypt to err in all her work as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Verse 15, neither will there be any work for Egypt, which the head or the tail, palm branch or bulrush may do. Well, what he says, the Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst. Scripture language, that's it. God frequently has said to have caused that which he permits. If he permits, you're fine.
You want to be a, you know, you want to be stubborn like a mule, I'm going to let you be that. And then when the consequences call out, he calls them in advance, well, God did that. No, he did not. He let it happen. And he controlled it. If anything, if you say, well, he did let, you know, he turned them over to their own passions and lusts.
Yeah, he controls. But the initiation is with the individual, not with God. God did not say to Judas, you know, I see you're a cute little boy, you know, in the family, but I'm going to make you a betrayer of the Son of God. He didn't do that. Lord gave Judas every chance. He put him on his staff. He gave him every chance in front of everybody. And look what Judas did with it. And the Lord knew he was going to do it, but he didn't make Judas do it. But he controlled it.
He controlled all of it. And Judas was baptizing people and doing miracles. So when you see, you know, the news, you know, they salivate over when a pastor gets in trouble, soul news happens, grow up.
Not that it's good, not at all condoning it, but just be sensible. Well, Isaiah, he knows how to paint a word picture very successfully. And he says, it will get ugly.
You're going to be like a bunch of drunk men in that language, you know, slipping and sliding in your own vomit. I mean, this is bad stuff. Isaiah, what are you thinking about? He says, well, I'm creative today. And God did. He destroyed everything that the Egyptians trusted.
When he talks about the head, the tail, the palm, he used this language in chapter nine. And he's saying your political unity, the economy, your religion, your wisdom, it's all going to fall apart when the Assyrians show up. Verse 16, in that day, Egypt will be like a woman and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which he waves over it. Now, of course, you picture an ancient city and all the men are out to war. And yet another group of men come into that town and there's no defense.
Of course, they're going to be vulnerable and panic stricken. But for Isaiah to word it this way to present Egypt, they would have been quite insulted at that comparison. Well, he's not pulling punches. Again, in that day, verse 16 is the first of six of them. He uses 44 of them in his writings, more than anybody else in the Bible, because he sees into the future.
Well, that's not worded right. He doesn't see into the future. God shows him the future. We have to make sure that we understand anything this prophet saw was because God gave it to him.
And he didn't put, you know, line up chicken bones in a certain direction on a certain day and then guess about if a person was a large or a medium. All right, you say, stop making fun of other religions. No, they do it to me. Childish response. Look, if it's true and it's not meant maliciously, you have a choice. If you're on that bad team, if you're a Mormon, change teams.
Confess with the Lord Jesus and realize that the guy with the glasses. All right, Joseph Smith, you know, he got these good glasses and he puts them on and it's reruns of Abbott and Costello in 3D. A lot of archaeologists have searched for the things he said and not even close.
In the Bible, they're running out of space to put the things they find in the scripture. They, you know, mocking, well, there's no record of any Pontius Pilate. Then he finds a stone. Pontius Pilate, governor.
He's like, okay, well, all right, how about this guy? Who? Edgar McGillicuddy. Well, he's not in the Bible.
Yeah, but you haven't found his name anywhere. Anyway, verse 19. In the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt. Everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid of himself because of the counsel of Yahweh of hosts, which he has determined against it. Now this has already happened. Mark Gabriel's book.
I like it. I like, you know, you don't have many, you don't need to read 20 books on this topic. He does an excellent job and he opens up with, when he was a child in Egypt, how much fear and hatred they had of Israel and how much the fear of they were going to be attacked any day. And it was never the case. When Israel attacked Egypt, it was in response and retaliation. It was never initiated by Israel. And my point is, the prophet is saying the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt. Well, that has been fulfilled and probably other times in history too, but this is one that's very recent. So if you want to look for, there are quite a few books out there on Islam and the mentality of it that don't get enough airtime. Philistine is another one. I don't know if we still have that one.
It gives you just a solid education on what you're dealing with without having to read volumes over and over. Anyway, vast numbers of Muslims will come to Christianity, will be saved in the great tribulation period. Verse 18, in that day, five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by Yahweh of hosts, one will be called, one will be called the city of destruction.
So this is end times. He's saying the time's going to come where there are going to be converts in Egypt, in these five cities, and he's singling out. One of them he calls the city of destruction. Now he's probably taking a jab at the city of the sun. They worship the sun and the Egyptians.
It was one of their main gods. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
