Our text for this evening you'll find in the chapter we read, Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 19. Isaiah 59 and verse 19. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west. and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him. For this, my final sermon to you as your minister, I would like us to deal with the subject the great future that there is for the church. Last Sunday night, you'll remember that I dealt with the promises of God to the Christian. We saw that there are 16 wonderful things that God has said concerning his people, great blessings, that come to the children of God. I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. Great blessings for Christians. Well, tonight, instead of looking at the individual Christian, what I'd like to do is to look at the promises for the church, for God's people as a whole. At this time in world history, and particularly in the history of Scotland, things are at a pretty low ebb regarding the church. It's a dark time spiritually. The church is declining. I've seen a huge declension in my own lifetime. I think of the early days when I was preaching sometimes to over a thousand people, and nowadays how rare it is to have a congregation like that coming together to hear the simple preaching of the gospel. Just about all churches are declining in numbers. The church is declining in influence. Secularism has taken over our country. Men and women have no thought about God. And sometimes you and I can become really discouraged, and we can think, well, things are just gonna get worse and worse, and eventually, that'll be the end, as far as there's a church in Scotland. Well, maybe there'll be church in Africa or China or South America, but here in the West, things are at such a low ebb. But friends, there's great promises in the Scriptures. And it's right for us to think about these promises and so to encourage ourselves. Yes, one ministry has come to an end here, but who knows, maybe the next ministry in this place will see massive blessing. Who knows how soon God can come in a wonderful way to Scotland and turn the tide, the tide that has been flowing out for so long, that tide, God can bring it in with a great flood of blessing to Britain and to Western Europe. Yes, and to the whole world. So looking at this passage then tonight, I want to see how the enemy has come in like a flood. That's our first point. Our second point, the spirit of God is promised. And so the third point, a great future for the church. So first of all, as we see here, the enemy is come in like a flood. When the enemy shall come in like a flood. Not if, but when. Israel was God's church in the Old Testament. And from time to time they experienced invasions of the enemy. Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yet there was the promise. There was the promise there, and God from time to time would raise up deliverers. But it's the same now in the New Testament. We see this same flood coming in, this flood of wickedness coming in upon our land. we see that there's a threat to the future of the church. This land was greatly blessed, blessed shortly after the time of Christ in that the gospel came, brought here by sailors and traders and soldiers who came to this land, and then there were missionaries, and the gospel was well established in Britain. And then came the Reformation, when there was a radical change, a grasping of the truth, a deepening of understanding, a return to the Word of God, and a rediscovery of the great doctrine of justification by faith alone. And our land was blessed with John Knox, and the other reformers and martyrs and translators of the scriptures like William Tyndale. Blessed in many ways. But today, things seem to be so different. Iniquity and the enemy coming in like a flood. Let's think about how it's come in. 150 years ago, liberal theology came in, particularly from Germany. A great wave of unbelief, but some of it was homegrown. Doubt being cast upon the authority of scripture. Human reason being exalted. Rationalism. You can't believe this. or that. It doesn't seem reasonable. Human logic, human reason said, no, that's old fashioned. That's primitive. We've got beyond that. So doubt placed upon the scriptures. And if the foundations be destroyed, what then? And the scriptures is the foundation of God's church. Once you cast doubt upon the scriptures, Where are you? What authority do you have? Great professors, can you trust them? Great minds? Puny little man in all his foolish wisdom. And so the, sadly, the big churches in our land were undermined. The Church of Scotland, the Church of England, the Methodist Church, various Baptist churches and so on. Liberal theology came in, a rejection of the Bible as a solid foundation and also and particularly a rejection of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. That's vital for us. But the liberal theologians didn't like the blood, didn't like the idea of sacrifice. They rejected it, they thought it was ridiculous, pre-Christian, something to be thrown away. And yet for us, Jesus Christ dying on the cross, shedding his blood for us, is vital. It's vital for the holiness of God. It's vital for the justice of God. It's vital in displaying the wisdom of God and the love of God. But substitutionary atonement was denied. Stress was laid upon the love of God. God loves everybody. And everybody in the world is a child of God. And so from that, the idea grew that the end of the day we'll all get to heaven. God couldn't send any of his children to hell. And so from that came the undermining completely of the good news of the gospel. The church lost its way. Liberal theology, another thing that came in, iniquity coming in like a flood, evolution. What a huge impact it has had. You see, the heavens God's glory do declare, the skies his hand works preach, and man and woman by nature, from the world around us, looking at the starry sky, looking at the beauty of the creatures and the flowers and the trees, man recognized that there was a creator. And if there's a creator, there's a judge. But now, evolution, Charles Darwin, somehow or other, this world came into existence, chance, a big bang. And from all this, bit by bit, from somehow or other, life began, and these little creatures gradually developed more and more, became animals, and eventually developed into man. And if there's no creator, there's no judge. Just this last week, I was sitting in the dentist's chair getting a repair to a filly. And I was looking around me at the very sophisticated apparatus in the dentist's surgery. Man has developed these things. And I thought, what difference there is between man and the most sophisticated monkey or ape. What a vast gulf. Man, man studying technology, engineering, science, philosophy, history, reflecting, theology, consciousness of God, all these things. Man is so vastly different. from the animals. And yet, this is a commonly believed theory. Man is just a developed ape. Evolution. The next part of the flood of wickedness that has come in upon us is the sexual revolution that came in in the 60s. along with the development of the contraceptive pill, and then you've got the pop music, the Beatles and others, and this kind of premarital sex, and then lots of different partners, and marriage itself being undermined, and the idea of faithfulness and marriage undermined. And from that sexual promiscuity that developed in the 60s, we've had further developments. Homosexuality, lesbianism, transsexualism, transgenderism. And now nothing is taboo. And we look at Scotland today, and it's worse than Sodom. with its pride in its immorality. And if it were not for the remnant of the faithful, the godly people that are in this land, God would have destroyed Scotland. And then there's the luxury that has come. And with the luxury, has come forgetting of God. My grandparents, they were born in black houses made of stone and turf with a fire in the middle of the floor, no running water, And we've come on from that to beautiful houses with all kinds of appliances. Life has developed so much. Our comforts are so great. People talk about poverty in Britain. But what poverty is there? I'm used to going round some of the poorest parts of Glasgow with the gospel, and when I see poverty, I know the cause for it. drugs, gambling. That's the cause. People smoking and they've got no money for food. People complain it's a choice between putting on the heating and eating. And you look at them there and they're fat. And you think of people in other countries of the world and you look at them and they're starved and dying of starvation. People complaining about poverty. And yet we've got so much, so much. We've got a National Health Service that's looking after us. And in our health and our wealth, we do need God. Why do you want God? Why do you need God? Everything's provided for you by the state. And then there's the problem of Islam. Islam has come into this country. Two or three million Muslims have come into our land. Now, most of these Muslims are nice enough people. There's no problem there. Kind people, good living enough, just as good living as the people who are here. There's a large minority amongst them, a minority, but a substantial one that is violent, that wants to have Sharia law in this country, to turn the whole world into a caliphate with its barbarous cruelty, beheading and stabbing and killing and members of parliament and blowing innocent people to pieces with our bombs. Nothing. They'll stop at nothing because they have this idea of God, Allah, that if you go around bombing people and killing people, you'll get straight to heaven and you'll have a wonderful heaven. A wonderful, sensual heaven. Islam come in like a flood. But that's not just Islam that's a problem today. Now we've got the latest religion. You know what the latest religion is? The worship of Mother Earth. A hundred thousand people have come to Glasgow protesting about climate change. And this new religion has its saints, people like Sir David Attenborough. And it has its child saints, just like the medieval church, people like Greta Thunberg. And it's so important to people. They're so committed. and they're calling us to give up our modern way of life, to turn back to the uncivilised past, to get rid of all the things that have led to comfort in our life today, and to live as primitive savages. Because if we don't, they say, God's going to, God's going to, well, Somehow or other, it's going to happen that this world is just going to be destroyed. Within the next 10 years, climate catastrophe. The world will pass out of existence, become uninhabitable. But even in evangelical circles, sadly, there's been an influx of detrimental religion. The charismatic movement with its anti-intellectualism, its entertainment type of worship. All that matters is that we feel happy and that we sing songs and feel good. And there seems to be no concern about godly living and repentance and faith and the sort of things the Apostle Paul spoke about, godly sorrow that worketh repentance not to be repented of, no consciousness of the holiness of God or the judgment of God, but just having a good time singing pop songs, choruses, and it's undermined true biblical Christianity. The enemy has come in like a flood. But in the second place, I want us to know and to notice the promise that is given to us here. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. God made this world and made it for himself and made it to glorify him. And God does not abandon the world. He won't. He never will. And the spirit of the Lord, we're told here, will raise up a standard against this wickedness. You and I are tempted to think that things are just going to get worse and worse. We're part of the post-Christian era. Christianity belonged to the 19th century, maybe the early 20th century. But now, today, we're in a new age. We've left Christianity behind. Secularism, humanism, atheism, all sorts of things have taken over. and God is forgotten. We're maybe tempted to think that God is going to leave Scotland, leave Britain, leave the West, take his candlestick away, as it were, that the church is finished. Maybe it'll continue in Africa, in Asia and South America, but it's finished here. But we must remember what we're told in the Bible, the history of Israel. And the history of Israel is one of highs and lows. You read through a book like the book of Judges, and you see Israel serving the Lord and all going well and blessed, and then they turn to idols. And iniquity comes in like a flood and surrounding nations invade them and destroy them and persecute them And then they turn to the Lord, God convicts them and brings them to repentance, and they cry to the Lord, and God raises up a deliverer. The spirit of the Lord comes upon an Othniel or a Gideon or a Samson, and God restores his people. That was the history of the Old Testament. Time and a time again, going astray, chastised by God, brought back by God. And so it is today. And God has made great promises. We have the great promise for the New Testament church in Romans chapter 11. We're told there about the Jews cast off. His blood be upon our head, they said, as they crucified Christ. Well, his blood came upon their head. Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple destroyed. Many Jews massacred. And the rest sold as slaves, scattered throughout the world. And for 2,000 years, the Jews have been scattered throughout the world and oppressed. But God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham. And that covenant, you have it in Genesis chapter 17, and there we're told that God gave to Abraham the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. An everlasting possession. And the amazing thing, the miracle that has happened in the last hundred years is that the Jews from around the world have been returning back to Israel. There were only a handful of Jews left in Israel, but now There's 8 million Jews in Israel. Half the Jews in the world have returned back there to that country promised to Abraham as an everlasting possession. God has a plan, you see. God has a plan for this world, an all-encompassing plan which will glorify himself. He has his elect and he is gathering in his elect. And in the day when he makes up his jewels, not one of them will be lost. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he said when he was on earth, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Today in Scotland, it seems that the gates of hell are prevailing against God's church. Satan and his demons seem to be winning the war. But they won't. I will build my church. And here we're told that God gives a spirit, and the spirit raises up a standard against the flood of wickedness. Wickedness coming in like a flood, like the floods of the heathen invading Israel. but the spirit of the Lord raises a standard, a gathering point, a flag is raised up. Gather to the flag, fight on the side of Christ, stand for Him. Let there be resistance against the flood. And the Lord inspires people to resist against this flood of wickedness. When it seems to us too late, It's never too late with God. God never gets his timing wrong. When iniquity comes in, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him, him, Satan and his hordes. Let us remember, friends, it's often darkest before the dawn. God has his time. And God says to the enemy, so far, but no further. So far, but no further. The spirit of the Lord convicts, converts, sanctifies. God's Spirit is the one who takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. The Spirit of the Lord is the one who exercises God's irresistible grace in transforming, converting men and women, and bringing them from unbelief to faith and repentance. Let us remember The Spirit of the Lord is mighty. And that, of course, is what we need today, isn't it? My grief over these last 15 years has been that the Spirit has been so much withdrawn. Indeed, it's been a grief all my life. I remember shortly after I became a minister, 45 years ago, a man came to my church. And he said, I'm looking for preachers with power. He stayed for a few weeks and then he moved on. Preachers with power, that's what we need, the power of God, the mighty, convicting, converting power of God. From time to time, that power has been revealed in the past. The Reformation was a great revival. In the times of the Covenanters in the 17th century, again, there was a great time of mighty power from God. And then there was a great awakening of the 18th century. And then the 19th century, great revivals in the 1830s. and 1860, wonderful revivals. But today, everything is so dead. But God, God is mighty. The promised spirit, God is promised. He's promised a spirit when iniquity, when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. So that leads us then thirdly to consider the great future that awaits the people of God. The great future of the church. Look at the beginning of verse 19. So shall they fear thy name, the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. They shall fear the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. Now, it's interesting that the west is mentioned first. Why the west? Normally, we would think maybe from the Middle East, or maybe we would use the term from the rising to the setting of the sun. But no, it seems to start in the west. Why the west? What do we know from church history? We know that the gospel began in Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the area called Turkey today, and to Greece and Italy and Spain. And the area that has been particularly blessed for the last 2,000 years has been the West. Europe, and then over to America. So shall they fear the Lord from the West. And then in the 19th century, the 20th century, what happened? From the West, missionaries went out, bringing the gospel to the East. And so the gospel came, to India and China. I don't know if you've heard of the Back to Jerusalem movement in China. Over the last 30 years, Christians in China have been speaking about this Back to Jerusalem movement, prayer and evangelism for it. Again, the idea is that the gospel has come, as it were, gone round the earth and come to China. And God has done a wonderful work in China. It's reckoned with something like 100 million Christians in China. And these Christians in China feel a burden to continue, as it were, bringing the gospel back to Jerusalem. And as they make their way back to Jerusalem, what do they find? They find the three great non-Christian religions of the world, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. And the Chinese feel their duty to reach to the Buddhists and the Hindus and the Muslims with the gospel, bringing that gospel back to Jerusalem. They shall fear thy name from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun in the east. God's purpose, God's plan, not just for a few people here and there, not just for a few nations, but for the whole world. from west to east, from the rising to the setting of the sun, not just a tiny remnant. Remember the promise made to Abraham, in thee shall all the families of the earth, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Did that mean that all the families of the earth, there would be just a handful of folk amongst them? as has been up till now, just a few here and there, a tiny minority of Christians. Then these shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Surely that's a universal promise, speaking of great blessing to all the people of the world, to multitudes. Remember the promise made to Christ in Psalm 110. Verse one, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foodstool. Well, for 2,000 years, there's still plenty of enemies to Christ, isn't there? So many enemies. But these promises are going to be fulfilled. The enemies shall be made his foodstool. We made reference to Romans 11 and the Jews, and the Jews being converted, the Jews as a nation being brought to Christ. Blindness has affected the Jewish people for so long. There's been a veil over their eyes. They were cut out of the church for 2,000 years, as it were. They rejected the Messiah, and they in turn were rejected. But the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God's gifts to Abraham and his seed and his calling to the Jews is without repentance. And so all Israel shall be saved, a deliverer shall come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness. From Jacob, you have it here, don't you? And it's quoted in Romans 11. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever. Turning from transgression in Jacob, there's a promise for the future of Jacob. They will be grafted again into their own olive tree. They will be incorporated again into the church. And when that happens, what will it be? Life from the dead for the Gentile world. A time of great blessing. Ezekiel 37 sets before us a great vision. Ezekiel is brought out into a valley full of dead bones. Can these dead bones live? He's asked. And he replies, O Lord, thou knowest. Wisely, he says that. Prophesy to the bones. And he prophesies, and the bones start coming together. And there's all these bodies being formed all around him, a valley full of dead bodies. prophesy and he prophesies and as he prophesies the Spirit of the Lord comes down and breath enters into these bodies and they rise up a mighty army, a great army of Jews. What's this referring to? When did it happen? It never happened in the past. True, they came back from captivity in Babylon, but it was only a few thousand of them. Yes, there was some progress, and there was blessings on the day of Pentecost, and many Jews converted then, but as a nation, the Jews rejected the Savior. However, think of the promises. Think of the mighty army that will be formed when all these Jews will be converted. These Jews who have in their genes, as it were, the scriptures, the Torah, the law written into them, understanding of God and of the things of God trained in it, as it were, for centuries and thousands of years. and these Jews with this understanding, and now with our eyes opened, beholding the Messiah, a mighty, glorious army to go out across the world as missionaries in the great movement of men and women to Christ. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed, not just a few handful of people, Think of the words we were singing from Psalm 72. All kings shall fall before him. All nations shall serve him. Has that happened? Has it ever happened in world history? Yea, all the mighty kings on earth before him down shall fall, and all the nations of the world who serve him shall. It hasn't happened up till now, but we're waiting for it, aren't we? There's a great prospect before the church. You and I become discouraged. We're so aware of the darkness and the spiritual flood of Satan that has come in upon our land, but God's going to do great things. In all things, he shall have the preeminence, Christ, Satan, the prince of darkness, won't be able to say, I managed to conquer more people than you, Jesus. Oh no, the Lord Jesus shall have the preeminence. Let's be optimistic. We've got a great God and a wonderful future. Look at chapter 60. Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Well, yes, to some extent at Pentecost. But oh, we're looking for it still, aren't we? For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see. Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see and flow together. And thine heart shall fear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Not just a little persecuted minority here and there, but the forces of the Gentiles gathered in to this mighty church. Blessed days ahead. The kingdoms of our Lord, as it says in Revelation, the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. My ministry has been in days of decline, days of spiritual darkness, increasing darkness, but the tide will turn. There's great days ahead. We're on the winning side. Christ shall be glorified on earth, as well as in heaven. Sit at my right hand, till thine enemies shall be thy footstool, and then he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father. God is going to do great things. You and I have to look for these things and pray for them. and seek them. But be sure, friends, that you're on the winning side. Be sure you're in Christ. Repent and believe the gospel. Be sure that you're a Christian. The Christian, we're told, is sure to be victorious. But those are not Christians. No matter how good-living they might be, alas, alas, Jesus, more than anyone else, spoke about the place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. The place of weeping, of wailing, and of gnashing of teeth. Make sure that none of you end up there. Seek the Lord while he is to be found. Call upon him while he is near. Flee from the wrath to come. And when I meet you on the judgment day, may it be on the right hand of Christ. Saved. Saved by the grace of God. Saved from the wrath to come. And may we be together throughout the endless ages of eternity, singing the praises of Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Let us pray. We thank Thee, O Lord, for the promises that there are for individual Christians of a blessed future. But we thank thee too that there are many promises in thy word concerning thy church, concerning the future of thy church, the gathering in of the Jews, and the blessing that that will be to the Gentiles. And so all Israel shall be saved, a deliverer coming out of Sion, turning away ungodliness from Jacob. Oh, what a wonderful day that will be when the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. May thy church be revived and quickened. May it grow and flourish. May the kingdom of Satan be trampled underfoot and destroyed. May Christ be glorified. And may each one of us be found in Christ on the great day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.