This morning I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 19 and we're going to be looking at verses 18 to 25. We're in our 26th session on what it means to be reformed and I have been trying to, in your mind, link together the subject of election, which is the focus of our study, with the Holy Spirit's being poured out upon many nations so that we have been seeing over the past five or six studies that the doctrine of election is not simply that God chooses a people and that he saves them individually, but that he can, if he so wills to do so and purposes to do so, that he can call many into the kingdom and save many people in a very short period of time. Now the reason that I link this with what it means to be reformed is because we really need this. We really need to see the power of God in terms of His purposes, that His purposes will most certainly be accomplished in years to come. It's not as though any good thing that the Lord has purposed to do will fail. But every word that he has spoken and every purpose of his, not one of them will be thwarted. And whether that is the conversion of individual people or whether it is the conversion of nations, that it will all come in his time. It will come in due time. It will come in his time. It will come at the right time. And it will be brought about in a way that will bring glory to him. Now I want to read these verses here. They're amazing verses and we can think about them together as I read them. This is starting in verse 18 of chapter 19 of the book of Isaiah. 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 border. And it will be for a sign and 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. 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 the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. 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." Wow, these are incredible verses, aren't they? Now some commentators in the past have tried to say that these verses were all fulfilled in the Ptolemies, some of the reigning kings of Egypt years ago. And no doubt in one sense they were, and there is, if you do not know and you should know, a law of double reference in prophecy, whereby one thing may be fulfilled in the Old Testament in its time, and then another thing may be fulfilled in the New Testament in its time. I hope that you understand that because when it says in that day it means in this present evil age that we're living in now. It doesn't mean another age or another time. It means in the church age. It means that in this present age and in the latter part of it at a certain particular time that Egypt as a nation is going to come to know the Lord and in fact Assyria is also going to come to know the Lord and Israel is going to come to know the Lord. They're all going to be brought into the church of Jesus Christ. Now, I believe that this is important for all who are Reformed, lest we get sort of a funny view of election. That God is going to just simply have a few people who are saved. And as the age goes on, that actually things may get so dark and difficult that the Lord Jesus Christ will have to come back and set things to rights. And then some have falsely concluded that there will be a millennium following Christ's second coming. That cannot possibly be. And the reason that it cannot possibly be is because when the Lord Jesus returns, when He returns, as it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, will be the resurrection of the dead. There's no time for a millennium. There's no time for Christ's kingdom to rule upon the earth. There's no time for large numbers of people to be saved and nations to be brought into the kingdom of Christ. No, no. The day that they're talking about here is the millennium, all right, but it's going to be the day before Christ's second coming. I hope that you can see this because really it's very important that you understand this based upon what will probably come over the next few years, which is great darkness to the Church of Jesus Christ. Sometimes people have falsely thought that men who are post-millennial believe that the world is getting better and better somehow. This is a very sad state of affairs, isn't it? Because we still have to deal with Antichrist, don't we? Antichrist. And not many Reformed are teaching on Antichrist anymore, which is the Roman Catholic system in the West, and Mohammedanism in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. Now, if we as Reformed would have studied these things, as we ought to have, over the past few years, we would not be so ignorant of what I'm talking about here this morning, but we really are very ignorant of it. And we really do need to go back to the Bible and just do a plain reading and understand what's being talked about here. is not a millennium which encompasses the entire church age or something that will come after Christ's second coming, but which is going to take place in this present evil age when God stretches forth His hand and almighty power, as He's done in the revivals and the Reformation and times in the past, and sweeps these people into the kingdom. He's going to strike Egypt, it says, but He's going to strike them and heal them. I mean, that is a mighty thing. It's a very mighty thing. It says in verse 18, in that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts. Now he's speaking here not in terms of people learning Hebrew. He's talking about, metaphorically, about being able to come to know the Lord. So that they'll be able to speak Bibles. So that they'll be able to understand the gospel. so that they won't be in the dark any longer. Sometimes this word strike is used in the Bible. It's used to refer to God's work of judgment on a person or a nation. Psalm 110 verse 5 says, the Lord is at thy right hand. He shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. King James Version. But here we see God's sovereign and merciful purpose and election to save an unworthy nation. Do you notice how it's worded here? This is really quite amazing. In verse 18, that one of these five cities will be called the city of destruction. What do you think that that means? There, can you tell me? Do you have any ideas? Well, let me tell you what I think it is, that the sinners in that city were so bad, that were it not for the Lord stretching forth His hand to save them, they would be utterly destroyed, because they were so sinful. And by the way, we've talked about total depravity before, and how this is the reason for election. This is why men have to be chosen. This is why men have to be called by God and brought into the kingdom rather than they're just making decisions themselves about all these things. If their eyes are not opened, if they do not understand, come to understand the convicting power, by the way, I think that's what it means here when it says the Lord will strike Egypt and heal it. He's not going to strike them with judgment. So in what sense does he strike them? He strikes them with conviction of their sins. No doubt in reference also to the preaching of the gospel to them or someone sharing the gospel. You know, sometimes I think that we don't understand just how much a little witness makes to a person. Just some little word that you might speak to them about Christ. And that may cause a chain reaction spiritually according to the power of the Spirit where that person comes to know the Lord and they tell other people about it. Look at the Samaritan woman in John 4. She went back and told all the people in her city, all the leading men, is this the Christ? After Jesus talked to her. You and I need to understand that God can do absolutely tremendous things in power and glory if He chooses to do so at a moment's notice. He doesn't need a lot of time if He wants to. That's not God's way usually. We know that, don't we? That's not the way it's been for this whole church age most of the time, has it? No, it's been very slow, and things don't take place in the way that we would expect or want them to. We might want great things to happen, and yet instead there's persecution. Instead there's darkness. Instead there's backlog. Instead men do their utmost to try to destroy other people, Christian people, who try to tell them about Christ. That's been the history of the church. We need to go back and read it. been horrible. Horrible history in terms of people dying, people being persecuted. And we need to read that. All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. What I'm trying to say to you, it ought to be a great means of encouragement to you. This old world, as I've said to you before, is not going to come to an end with a whimper. And there's going to be a glorious period of time where God's going to stretch forth his hand and do wonders for Christ's sake. That Christ is going to see the travail of his soul, as it says in Isaiah 53, and he will be satisfied with it. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet, the father says to the son. So Jesus is going to sit there until his enemies are made his footstool. There's a lot of conversion work that's got to take place in this world before Jesus comes back. And we need to know that and we need to understand that and not to play little games with ourselves with the rapture and other things like that. As though the Lord is going to take us out of here in a moment's notice, which He will do when He does come back. He will. What's amazing here is that a lot of these truths that I'm talking to you about have been largely lost to our church. Largely lost to the Church of Jesus Christ. Let me read you the Savoy Confession of 1658. As the Lord in his care and love toward his church hath in his infinite wise providence exercised it with great variety in all ages for the good of them that love him in his own glory, so according to his promise we expect that in the latter days, he means the latter, they mean the latter days of this present age, that Antichrist being destroyed, the Jews called and the adversaries of the kingdom of his dear son broken The churches of Christ, being enlarged and edified through a free and plentiful communication of light and grace, shall enjoy in this world a more quiet, peaceable, and glorious condition than they have enjoyed." Wow, that is powerful stuff, but that's exactly what I've been trying to tell you. So the Reformed were standing on the shoulders of the Puritans and handing truth to us. Down through the generations, first and second great awakenings expanded the kingdom of God. They expected that the millennium would come in sometime in the 1800s. It didn't. You know what came? Theological liberalism at the end of the 1800s. It came into our seminaries and it utterly overthrew them. so that Princeton, Harvard, Yale, all of the major seminaries that were training men for the ministry were overthrown by theological liberalism. And it was only among some of the Baptists and some of the more conservative evangelical churches that truth was preserved through that whole time period of the early 20th century. C. H. Spurgeon, who was the greatest Baptist preacher of the 19th century, I think I could easily say that, he preached to 6,000 people on Sunday morning in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And theological liberalism came in, and he was a part of the Baptist Union. He warned the Baptist Union that they were being overthrown from within by theological liberalism. He was censured by his own denomination 2,000 to four. Only four people sided with Spurgeon. Now if that isn't scary, I don't know what is. But that's scary. When you have a man as great as Spurgeon as a preacher, and God's owning his preaching and his message, and then suddenly Within a very short period of time, most of the men in the Baptist Union in England were overthrown by theological liberalism. In other words, they didn't really believe that the Bible was the Word of God. They didn't really believe that they needed an atonement. They didn't really believe that there was such a thing as hell. And many other major doctrines of the faith were entirely eroded or thrown out. And it's only the mercy of God that we have a strong Reformed Baptist denomination or association of churches, even as much as we have at this day, because of theological liberalism. I grew up in that, in theological liberalism at First Presbyterian Church in Davenport. I think that maybe a handful of people there knew the Lord in those days, wonderful people. The whole church was full of wonderful moral people, but very few knew the Lord. Now why am I saying all these things? I'm saying all these things because you and I need to have the expectation that since God is sovereign in election, that He can save a great number of people at a very short period of time if He so desires to do so. He did so on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 at one sermon. A few days later, then 5,000 at another sermon by Peter. A few verses later, it says, and multitudes were being brought into the kingdom of God. So you can see what was happening here. What an amazing thing was happening. Let me read you a few things that are written by commentators about these verses so that you can get the gist of what I'm trying to say here from their vantage point and maybe not just mine. This is a commentary by a man named Joseph Benson. He says, But though this prophecy concerning Egypt might have its first accomplishment in the deliverance of the Egyptians from the Persian yoke by Alexander the Great, and in that knowledge of the true God and of his revealed will, which many of the Egyptians received under the government of the Ptolemies, through their intercourse with the Jews and the translation of the Jewish scriptures into the Greek language. Yet doubtless this prediction has a further and higher aspect as commentators in general, this man was writing in the middle of the 1800s, have understood it and refers to that spiritual redemption and salvation which the Egyptians, among many other ignorant and idolatrous Gentiles, were to receive, and actually did receive, by the coming of Christ, the great and only Savior, of lost mankind, and by the publication of his gospel to them. He says, this appears still more evidently from the verses which follow, but the full and final accomplishment of this, he says, as well as of many other important prophecies shall not take place till Mohammedanism and idolatry shall be completely overthrown and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Joseph Sutcliffe, another commentator, Isaiah 19.21, Isaiah saw that Egypt would be a sanctuary for the Jews who would escape the sword of the Chaldees. And at one time the number of the refugees was so great that five cities literally did speak the language of Canaan. Alexander the Great was a savior to them, and the Ptolemies were their patrons. God blesses the nation that receives his exiled people. He says this prophecy may, however, have a reference to the future conversion of Egypt to the Christian faith. Charles Spurgeon. who is premillennial by the way, but not dispensational. He says in Isaiah 19.21, this is a very remarkable prophecy. Attempts have been made to explain it as if it were already fulfilled. I believe all such attempts to be utter failures, he says. This promise stands on record to be fulfilled at some future day. In those bright days for which some of us are looking, when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, So the waters cover the sea, then shall this word to Egypt be verified, yea, and God shall be glorified both by Egypt and Assyria as well as in the land of Egypt. He says this ought to be an encouragement to carry on missionary operations with great vigor. Here is a distinct promise for Assyria and for Egypt. Let not the missionary, he says, be afraid, even if for thousands of years to come. There should be little apparent success to the preaching of the gospel if the Lord should tarry another 6,000 years, Spurgeon says. Aye, 60,000 years. And he may. We are still to go on working and still go on laboring, looking for his coming and expecting it, but not relaxing our efforts because he pleases to delay it. For the Lord has sworn that all flesh shall know his glory, and you may depend upon it. There is no spot of earth shall be left to Satan's dominion. It shall be conquered for Christ. And in truth, he shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And I don't have any more time to go into all these things. But think about, for instance, in the immediacy of what the Lord can do very suddenly in conversion, the Apostle Paul. Now he's a good instance of a man who was struck and healed. I've got other examples that I can give you here, but the Apostle Paul is really the most dramatic of all of them. The Lord just simply took a man who was persecuting Christians and he struck him with blinding light. The man fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, is it hard for you to persecute me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he was led blind into the city, blind for three days. And then a man came to him and said, receive your sight back. And the Lord healed him, not only spiritually, but healed him physically of his blindness. At that point in time, he struck and healed. That's what he'll do in a coming day with certain nations that we've just studied about here this morning. And I wish I had more time to go into this, but I really don't. And so let's pray together. Lord, we ask that You would bless us with a good understanding of these things. And we would be an expectant people, expecting things, the great things that You shall do because of Your electing love and power and grace. Lord, we know that people are totally depraved, that they really don't want Christ unless You work in their heart. And Lord, we thank You so very much for common grace, and the preaching of the gospel, but we pray for you to stretch forth your hand in almighty saving power and grace in the days to come so that we would see your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you for this time. Do bless us with this truth in Jesus' name. Amen. You are dismissed.