Let's open our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 2. We've heard this morning in our prayer requests some reports of chaotic situations around the world. And the world of Isaiah's day was a world of sin, corruption, violence, and more. The southern kingdom of Judah lived in constant fear of the local superpower, which was the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and much of the southern kingdom of Israel, southern kingdom of Judah. They had rulers, they had leaders, but they were unqualified men. Basic necessities were in short supply, and disaster at the hands of the Assyrians seemed imminent. It was a chaotic and a confusing time for the people of Judah. and it was the experience of a nation that had turned from God. The many, many problems that Judah was experiencing had a single cause, and that single cause was the fact that they had turned from God, and not just turned from God, but expelled Him from their national life. Now, the days of Isaiah were much like our times today. How do we live with confidence in a world that is chaotic and confusing as our world is today? That's an important question for us this morning. Well, Isaiah chapter 2 and chapter 3 gives us four principles to guide us in these uncertain days. Back in the day when I would hike around in the peaks of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, we called them mountains there. The highest one was 6,000 feet. Today you can drive to 6,000 feet and eat at a nice restaurant on the western side of the country. But these were real mountains, and you would be above the tree line and easy to get lost. And so people put up these small piles of stones, they were called cairns, and you could go from, if it's foggy, which a lot of times the weather would change while you were up there, visibility was poor, and you would navigate from cairn to cairn to keep from getting lost, or worse yet, sliding off the side of the top of the mountain. And so what we have here are waypoints, cairns, trail markers to guide us as we go through these really chaotic times in our world. And number one, number one, principle number one is this. Believe the promise of God. Believe the promise of God. Now, as we saw last time, Isaiah chapter 1 paints a vivid picture of some of the darkest days in the life of the people of the kingdom of Judah. This is a nation that has turned from God and is now reaping the bitter fruit of that willful and rebellious decision. Someone has said, you can choose your decision, but you can't choose the consequences. And that is absolutely true. We have freedom to make decisions, and we make decisions freely all the time. God created us with the ability to choose. But when we make that choice, we can't determine the outcome of that choice. We cannot guarantee the consequences of that choice. Think of the old game show where you had door number one, door number two, door number three, and you could choose whatever door you want. but you could not guarantee what was behind that door. Decisions are that way. We can make a decision, but the outcome is not something we can always control. And so as you think about the people of the Southern Kingdom, they had made the decision to turn from God, thinking it was the best thing they could do. And now the consequences are coming their way, and they're finding out it was the worst thing they could do. And so as we think about this section here, chapter one again, paints a picture of what happens when a person or a nation turns from God. When we come to chapter two, Isaiah takes us fast forward into the things that are to come. So in chapter one, Isaiah was involved in the prophetic ministry of forth telling, forth telling. He was addressing the current situation in the kingdom of Judah. Now we come to chapter two, and he is involved in the ministry of foretelling. He is making predictions now about the future. And the message of chapter two, verses one through five, is this. In this chaotic world, believe the promise of God. The best is yet to come, and it is the promise of the coming kingdom and the coming king, Jesus Christ. Let's look at this promise. Chapter 2, verse 1, the word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. So this is a promise for the people of the southern kingdom, which has really been diminished. A lot of the cities there were destroyed by Assyria. Judah, Jerusalem was really like an island now in the midst of all this desolation and the promises made to them. And it is a prediction about the future. Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established. And the first thing we see about this promise is the certainty of this promise. It says here that it will come about. It doesn't say we hope that this will happen. It doesn't say it might happen if all goes well, but it may not. There's no fine print to this promise, but in fact it is guaranteed. It will come about. It doesn't say we think or we hope, but it says it will come about. So in these confusing and chaotic times, be confident. The King is coming. The Kingdom is coming. The Lord Jesus is going to return as King, and we just need to believe God's promise and to know that that promise will be fulfilled. Well, we have the time of it. Now, the kingdom has not arrived yet. And I read different Bible students, theologians, and Christians have different points of view concerning the kingdom. Some people have believed that we're in the kingdom today. And I just say, well, frankly, I was expecting something more than this. But actually, when you look at this discussion of the kingdom, it's talked about as something in the future. It will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. And so these words give us the time of the coming kingdom. It's going to be in the last days the last day. So what are the last days? Well, the last days began when the Lord Jesus Ascended into heaven. So the last days is a long period of time. We're in the last days now John said this in 1 John 2, children, it is the last hour. And from the days of the early church to today, we have been living in the last hour, the last days. We're living in the time when the Lord Jesus can return. We're living in a time period when our time, the church age, can end at any moment. And the Bible tells us again and again, the Lord Jesus has told us again and again to be ready for his return. The church age will end at the rapture, and the Lord Jesus will come into the heavens, call his church out of the world, and we'll be with him forever. And that day can happen at any time. When the rapture takes place, the church age, the time that we're in now, comes to an end. And then 7 years of tribulation follow where the judgment of God is poured out. And the gospel is also preached to a world that has said no to Jesus Christ. And then at the end of these 7 years, the Lord Jesus returns. and we will return with him and he will reign as king and we will reign with him in this world. And that is the program for the last days. But we are in the last days and we're in a time period where things can change very, very quickly in a short amount of time. In fact, according to this timeline, if the rapture were to occur today, and it could happen at any time, if the rapture were to occur today, that means the kingdom is only seven years into the future. So everything is very, very close potentially. And we live at a time where the kingdom may only be seven years away if the rapture were to take place today. And so we're living in the most exciting time in history. The people in the years before Jesus' birth were looking for the birth of the Messiah. We're looking for the return of the King who will reign. And this can happen really at any time. And so for us, now is the time to tell as many as possible the good news that Jesus died for our sins, rose again, that he's coming back to reign as king. And now is the time to trust in him. Tomorrow might very well be too late. And in the place of the coming kingdom, where will the kingdom be located? You know, there's a lot of places that you might want to have as the world capital. place where I lived back east, I thought that would make a good place for the world capital. In fact, I used to talk about our town as the center of the universe. It was the center of my universe, all 2,500 people of it, actually all 150 in the second place I lived. But, you know, there's actually, God has a world capital all picked out. and it's going to be Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a remarkable city. It's a city that is at the center of God's purposes here on earth. And Jerusalem is truly centrally located. It's located at the crossroads for three great continents, Africa, Asia, and Europe. To get to any of those places from another one of them, you had to really go through Jerusalem. So it really was at the crossroads of the world and really is today. It's a city with a long history, and it's a city with an eternal future. The Bible tells us there will always be a Jerusalem. Stop and think about that. And throughout our time and in years past, there have been groups and individuals committed to the elimination of Jerusalem. And yet the Bible says that Jerusalem will endure, and there will always be a Jerusalem. And it's going to be home to the coming kingdom. Verse 2, It says, The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. Now this mountain of the house of the Lord is the Temple Mount, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And it is the place where the temple once stood. It is the place where the king of Israel once reigned. Now today the temple is gone. Today there's no king reigning in Israel. However, the day is coming when all that's going to change. The Lord Jesus will return and He will reign as king. He will minister as our high priest in Jerusalem, and his world capital is going to be Jerusalem. Now, one of the things we see is that the topography, the lay of the land, is going to be dramatically changed. It says in verse 2, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. So you might say, oh, that just means it's the most important mountain. No, there's more to it than this. If you look at the rest of the verse, it will be raised above the hills. and all the nations will stream to it. topographical, geological changes that will take place when the Lord Jesus returns to reign as King. What's going to happen is Jerusalem today is located on a hill. The Temple Mount is on a hill in Jerusalem, and it's in the mountains. It's a mountain town, but it's not on the highest mountain. It's on one of the hills there in that area. But the mountain of the house of the Lord will become the highest of them all, of all the mountains. And in fact, we find out elsewhere that the land around Jerusalem will be turned into a plain. And so you'll have this one mountain sort of dominating the whole landscape there. And that'll be the mountain of the house of the Lord. That'll be the new temple mount when the Lord Jesus returns to reign as king. And there'll be a new temple there. It's all described in Ezekiel. It is gigantic, enormous. The city is going to be enlarged as well. It's going to be an amazing, amazing place. And it will be the world capital of the coming kingdom of Christ. And then we have the administration of it, and the Lord Jesus will reign as king. And people say, we would never want a king. And I would say, it depends on who that king would be. The Lord Jesus is going to reign as king, and he'll be the best of all rulers, the best of all leaders, the best of all possible kings. Take a look at verse four. It says there that he will, verse three, Many peoples will come and say, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways. And then verse four, he will judge between the nations and render decisions for many peoples. And so the Lord Jesus is going to reign with perfect justice and his every decision will be wise and fair. As our coming king, he will rule over the capital of worship and government. It says here in verse 3, many peoples will come, that is, the Gentile nations. There will be Gentiles, saved Gentiles, coming into the kingdom who will want to make the ultimate Holy Land trip, to go and see the Lord Jesus and hear him teach in person. Think about that. Think about going to the Holy Land and seeing the Lord there in person. We're going to be there assisting him in the administration of the kingdom and he will be teaching from there and also reigning as king and ministering as priest in that temple that's going to be built. And so again, it says he's going to judge between the nations and render decisions for many peoples. I think you like to watch those judge shows, you know, where two people come up to this judge and the judge says, I'm fighting for the plaintiff. Get out of here." And they just sort of make a decision. And I don't know what I think about these shows. I think it kind of downgrades our legal system and reduces our respect for it in some ways, turns it into entertainment. But the point is, you have someone who's the last word on the issue. Once the judge decides, that's it. And the Lord Jesus will govern as king, and he will judge and settle disputes that will arise. He will judge sin. There will be a zero tolerance for sin and crime in the coming kingdom. He will judge between the nations and render decisions. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And so the weapons of war Very prominent during the days of the tribulations, seven years of chaos and war and judgment, all those weapons will be recycled and repurposed into other things. They'll be turned into plowshares and pruning hooks, things for agriculture and farming, good purposes. You know, the B-24 was an aircraft that did not exist before the Second World War. During that time, there were more B-24s built than any other plane that had ever existed. That fleet was the largest fleet of planes in the world. Well, today, or at least when the book was printed that I read, there were only two B-24s left. Where are the others today? Well, next time you have a can of pop, it could be part of a B-24 in that can, that aluminum can. Next time you start your car, that aluminum engine could be part of a B-24. They've been repurposed, maybe not into plowshares and pruning hooks, but into cars and cans of pop and other things. And so the weapons of war, the tools of war are gonna be eliminated and repurposed in the days of the kingdom and the Prince of Peace is going to reign over a world where war will be no more. Think about the threats of war today. I just read today about another country that may have a nuclear weapon. So there's always the threat of war and that's going to end when the king comes. But what is our response to this promise? Verse five, come house of Jacob and let us walk in the light of the Lord. The King is coming, and the Lord Jesus will reign as Prince of Peace over all the earth. That's our hope today in this chaotic and confusing world. How do we respond to this priceless promise? Well, what we do is this. Walk in the light of the Lord. Walk in the light of the Lord. What does that mean? Well, that means live in the will of God. And the way to know if we are on the right road, which is the will of God, is to consult the map. which is the Word of God. We need to spend that time in the Word of God, looking to the Word of God, reading it, studying it, meditating on it to see how it impacts our lives, how our lives measure against it, and make sure that we are living in the will of God as we anticipate the return of the Lord Jesus at the rapture and the return of the King to reign over this earth. So as we think about living with confidence in this uncertain world, and it is becoming more uncertain all the time, we need to remember God's promise and believe God's promise that the King is coming, the kingdom is coming, and we will be part of it. And because we believe this promise, live every day in the will of God, in the light of the Lord. And then number two, trust in the person of God, trust in the person of God. Now the kingdom of Judah had turned from God. And as a result of this, they had real, real trouble. I think I told you about the radio I built. was from a kid, and it had great instructions. But you know, you have to read the instructions, and you have to read all of the instructions. And so I'd been working on this radio for about a month, which is a pretty long amount of time for somebody to be doing this little radio. But I was just about done. There was one last piece to put in there, and I thought, I don't need the directions for this. I've got so much experience. So I put this thing in there, and almost right away, I realized it was completely wrong. So this was during COVID. So I was building this radio over the phone with a friend of mine who was doing the same radio. And he said, Oh, man, I said, Yeah, don't tell me that. He goes, Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Oh, wow. Oh, man. Oh, no. So the first phone call, that's all it was. And I said, what about this? And, no, that won't work. So eventually, I had to take it to a guy who knew what he was doing to take care of the last step and got it fixed. So it was kind of a team effort. But the point is that I had done very well following the directions until I didn't. And when a nation or a person says, you know, I'm not gonna follow the will of God. I'm not even gonna allow God in my life. Bad things start happening almost right away. And that's what happened in Judah. They turned from God. They had all kinds of trouble. They had sin, corruption at every level of society. We heard about this today. When a nation becomes corrupt and you can't trust the government, this can happen. You have unspeakable immorality. They had an invasion from the Syrian army. coming in and destroying their cities. Poverty and war threatened this once great kingdom. So the people said, we have to do something. And they took action, but they never turned to God. They were busy trying to solve their problem, but they were not willing to solve the problem with God. They were trying to solve it without God. They trusted in everything, but God, they didn't turn to God. So what did they trust in? What did they look to to solve their problems? Well, number one, they look to the occult arts, things like fortune telling, black magic, things like that. Verse six, for you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the East and they are soothsayers like the Philistines. And so they didn't look to God and his word, but they look to mysticism. They look to fortune tellers. They look to sorcerers, black magic, these kinds of things, trying to discern their direction in life. And again, it wasn't working for them. And then also, They didn't turn to God, but instead they turned to partnerships with the world. They thought they could form an alliance with Egypt or even with Assyria and solve their problems. So verse six, they strike bargains with the children of foreigners, godless nations. They tried to make these partnerships with nations that did not know God. And again, that wasn't working out. And then they trusted in their wealth. Verse 7, their land has also been filled with silver and gold. There's no end to their treasures. And so they trusted in their money to save them. They said, you know, we can buy our way out of this. Or today they might say, we can borrow our way out of this or print our way out of this by printing money. They say, money is the answer to our problem. We can buy our way out of this. It didn't work. And then also they trusted in their military. They built up their military hoping that they could solve their problems. Verse 7. It says their land has been filled with horses and there's no end to their chariots. Now the horse and the chariot, this was the super weapon of the ancient world. Think of yourself as an infantryman in David's army or Solomon's army or an army of the days of Isaiah. You're fit, you're strong, you've got your bow, you've got your arrows, you've got your sword, you've got your spear. You're ready to go and you're fearing nobody. And then all of a sudden you hear this noise over the hill, and you look and here's a half a dozen horses pulling a half a dozen chariots. You have one guy driving and two guys throwing spears and shooting arrows, blanketing everything they can see with pointy weapons designed to kill, scare you half to death. That was a super weapon of the ancient world. And they bought and built as many of those as they could afford to do, thinking that this powerful weaponry was going to help them. So, and then also false gods. They turn to false gods of every kind. Verse eight, the land has also been filled with idols. They worship the work of their hands, which their fingers have made. Now an idol doesn't have to be a statue in a shrine or a temple. An idol is anything that takes the place of God. And so the people of Judah were turning to things other than God to solve problems that only God could solve. And that's what was going on. And again, they didn't turn to God. They turned to, again, these false gods that replaced him with something else. Judah was a failing nation that did not turn to God for the help they desperately needed. Instead, they turned to everything but God. Their strategy was guaranteed to fail. And Isaiah now unveils the future and says, here's what happens if you try to solve your problems as a person, or a nation without God. You will have a chance to see the day of the Lord, the coming judgment. You won't see success, you'll see failure and judgment. Verse 12, excuse me, verse 12. It says, the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty, against everyone who is lifted up. And this is all about pride. When a person or a nation says, we're good enough, we're great enough, we can solve our problems, that's pride. And so they may be, what's going to happen is they will be abased. And so again, this is going to be a day of reckoning, the day of the Lord. No one can escape. Verse 18, the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks, into holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble. In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship. And so again, the day of the Lord is coming, and it's going to be a terrifying time for the person or the nation that has turned from God and says, we can solve our problems without God. And that's what's going on. And so the example of Judah stands out. as the example of a nation that is doomed to fail. They're faced with an existential crisis. They're faced with a crisis concerning their own survival as a nation, just looking at the destruction of their nation at the hands of Assyria. What did they do? They continued to reject God and attempted to solve their own problems in their own way. They were doomed to fail. And the lesson here is this, don't trust in man when you face major problems, trust in God. And it says here, verse 22, stop regarding man whose breath of life is in his nostrils, for why should he be esteemed? It's kind of a strange expression. We don't really say things like that today. I had a friend who used to say to me, don't take that guy too seriously. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. Okay, that's true. But listen to this. He says, don't take man too seriously because he lives from breath to breath. You heard of living from paycheck to paycheck. That's happened quite a lot. He lives from breath to breath. That is, a man inhales, there's no guarantee he's going to exhale. A man exhales, there's no guarantee he'll take another breath. That happens all the time. And so why would we trust in someone who may not be here five minutes from now? Trust in the Lord who is forever. And so he says, stop regarding man, but instead trust in God. Psalm 118 says this, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than trust in princes. You know, in these chaotic and confusing times, it's tempting to trust in man as the answer to our problems. Don't trust in man, trust in God. God uses people to solve great problems, but we need to trust in God. And then number three, rest in the protection of God. Rest in the protection of God. The kingdom of Judah was living in a chaotic and confusing world. Their neighbor to the north, the 10 tribes of Israel, had been destroyed and the people were deported. Now their own kingdom had lost 50 of their own cities at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. Jerusalem is like an isolated island in the midst of this disaster of a landscape. Judah itself was a land filled with the worst of sin, corruption and violence. Yet there was a faithful remnant of believers. How would they live in a dangerous world like this? How would believers live in an uncertain and dangerous world? How would we do that today? We trust in the protection of God. Well, let's look at the situation. They're going to be facing a crisis in resources. We talk about supply chain. Well, this is a resource crisis, shortages. Chapter 3, verse 1 says this, Behold, the Lord of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water. Judah's going to face shortages of the most basic necessities, not just luxuries, but actual necessities, food and water, and the most basic food, bread, wheat, they're not going to have that, and water. We're seeing this today. Think about the grain problems related to the war in the Ukraine and all of that. We wonder, will there be enough grain for the world? We think about water in our part of the country. There's a tremendous drought going on, especially to the south of us. Farmers don't have enough water. Crops can't grow. It's an amazing thing that's going on. And when these things happen, a person, a nation needs to ask themselves, Have we turned from God? Is that's what bringing this about? There are many causes for drought, many causes for shortages, but when a nation or a person turns from God, that's the primary cause. And so when a nation turns from God, and we see this today, we see the drought to the South. How many times have you gone to the store looking for something and the shelf is empty? That's new, that is new. I mean, time was when people come here from another country, they would see our supermarkets and just about pass out. You know, when you get a box of cereal, what kind do you want? We have 200 different kinds. How about butter? Oh, 20 different kinds. You know, we had tons of everything. It's different now. And when these things happen, we need to ask ourselves, have we turned from God? Have we turned from God? Today, people are showing new interest in Depression-era recipes. I read about a guy this week who has discovered the whole chicken. And a whole chicken is a lot cheaper than parts, but some disassembly is required. There's a big difference between a whole chicken and that nice, neat little bag of parts that you just cook. There's something to that. You've got to have something called a chicken scissor, chicken shear. I've got one of those. We make something called a spatchcocked chicken. which I call it actually Freightliner Chicken. Looks like the chicken that didn't make it across the road. It's open like a book and it's flat. So I call it Freightliner Chicken. It had to run in with a semi. But it tastes really good. But you have to have, you know, little tools to take that chicken apart. So people are saying, oh yeah, and then there's something called garbage soup. And people are learning how to make garbage soup and things like that because, well, things are in short supply. You know, when you're looking up for recipes for garbage soup, It's a good time to ask, have we turned from God? Do we need to come back to God? And that's what's going on. Shortages, a resource crisis, and then also a political crisis. When a nation turns from God, competent leaders are in short supply. There's a shortage of competent leaders. They're hard or impossible to find. Take a look at verse two. The mighty man, the warrior, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, and the elder, the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, and the expert artisan, the skillful enchanter, I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed. Qualified leaders are going to be virtually non-existent, and the ones who will be leading will be like children, acting like children, talking like children, doing things that foolish children do. When we see things like that and we say, how did that person ever get into office? Well, we can say to ourselves, have we turned from God? When a nation turns from God, it is hard to find qualified leaders. That can happen. And then also there is a social crisis, a social crisis. When a nation turns from God, the social order will disintegrate into anarchy. Verse 5 says this, the people will be oppressed, each one by another and each one by his neighbor. And so this is neighbor versus neighbor type of violence going on, not you know, part of the country versus part of the country, but neighbor versus neighbor. Youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable. When a man lays hold of his brother in his father's house saying, you have a cloth, you shall be my leader. And so what you find here is that the dignity of age and experience won't be respected. They're going to assault and attack older people, people who we would look to as wise leaders, and then the inferior against the honorable. Angry mobs will attack those in high positions. We see this today as mobs gather outside the homes of our government leaders, trying to threaten them, trying to intimidate, trying to frighten them, trying to do those things. Again, this is not anarchy, but it's moving that way. One man said this, all the forms of respect in life would be broken up. All the proper rules of deference between man and man would be violated. Neither dignity, age, nor honor would be respected. And when a nation begins to show the signs of anarchy, it's good to ask this question, have we turned from God? The nation that turns from God will exchange peace for anarchy. Now God makes this promise to any nation that finds themselves in that position, Come now, let us reason together. Settle out of court. Come back to God today. He'll forgive, he'll forget, and he'll give us a new start. And then also there will be a moral crisis. Shameless, unrestrained, and open sin will be not the exception, but the new normal in a nation that turns away from God. Look at verse 10. It says they display, excuse me, They display their sin like Sodom. They display their sin like Sodom. And verse nine, they do not even conceal it. Woe to them for they have brought it evil on themselves. So sin once concealed behind closed doors is practiced openly, publicly and proudly. And this is what happens when a nation cuts itself loose from the moorings, the restraints that are the will of God and the laws of God. A nation that is turned from God is a dangerous place in which to live. Yet we need not fear. Think about that. We do not have to be afraid. God has promised to protect His own in a nation that is turned from Him. Say to the righteous, that is to the person who has the righteousness of Christ, is saved by grace through faith, say to that person who has believed and is saved, it will go well with them for they will eat the fruit of their actions. We will be blessed and rewarded for the good that we do. We're not saved because of it, but we will be rewarded for it by the fruit that comes from those good things that we do. it'll go well with him. God can trust his own in a chaotic and confusing world. Psalm 55 says this, as for me, I shall call upon God and the Lord will save me. I was out on a hike years ago with our youth group up on Mount Hood. We're doing the whole trip all the way around. And we got to one point, we're in a climber's hut about 8,000 feet, and we're running into some trouble. Some of the guys were not feeling good. And we thought, we're going to have to get taken out of here. We're going to have to get extracted. And so one of the guys had a handheld CB radio. Any good buddies remember those things? Well, he had a CB radio, and he stood on the roof of this hut, and we were able to reach a CB-er down in Hood River, down, you know, way down below us. And he set up a phone patch, anybody remember those, where you could make a phone call with the radio? And he had some name for his mom, some handle, like some Mama Mama or something, so he was calling Mama Mama on the radio, and said, we need to go home. And so they came and got us and they got us out of there. So we made a call, not to the Lord we had prayed, but then we also made a CB radio phone patch call and we got rescued out of there and went home. And so that's how that went. And so again, we don't need to fear, the Lord will take care of us. We all know that hymn that we sing, God will take care of you. Remember that one? Well, that was a hymn that was written by a husband and a wife together. And it was a fellow who was a well-known preacher, conference preacher and Bible teacher. And he had a preaching engagement, but his wife was not feeling well. And he thought, you know, I think I better cancel and I'll stay home with you. And she said, no, no, we'll be fine. God will take care of me and he'll take care of you. So he went and preached that night, came back, came back to find her much better than she was before he left. And together they sat down and wrote this hymn, God will take care of you. And we know the words to that, do not, Fear whatever be tied, God will take care of you. And there's all the promises there that we sing. And again, it's a great hymn that was written from personal experience that God took care of them. And we have God's own promise, say to the righteous, it will go well with them. Woe to the wicked, it will go badly with them. For what he deserves will be done to him. That says a lot in a very few words. The person who insists, the nation that insists on turning from God, bad things will happen. And then number four, received the salvation of God. I got a warning like that once. When I put my wire antenna up at the house, I had an electrician come by to help me put in an outlet. And I said, hey, what if I put the wire near the power line? He goes, don't do that. I says, well, why? Just don't do that. I said, well, why? Just don't do that. So that's all he said. And basically, he's saying like this, bad things will happen. If your antenna wire touches that power line wire, bad things will happen. And that's what he's saying here. Bad things will happen. If you insist on rejecting God's offer to settle out of court, be forgiven, have your sins forgotten, wiped away, bad things will happen. That's all he needs to say. And that's the message there. So again, number four, receive the salvation of God, number four. And really, Isaiah chapter two and chapter three presented Judah with two options, and these are the same two options for every person today. First, believe in Jesus Christ, receive that offer of salvation, and be born again. Or option number two, expect bad things to happen. John said this in 1 John, the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. He who has the son has the life, he who does not have the son of God does not have the life. And in these chaotic and uncertain times, Jesus Christ is the answer. So really two things we should be doing today in these days and one of them is of course trusting in the Lord and walking in the light of his word. And the other is to invite as many as possible to receive that gift of eternal life today while there is time. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and how it shows us the way things really are and the way things really are going to be. Help us to walk in the light of your word each day. Help us to believe your promises, to trust in your care, and to share with others the good news of the gospel, the message that people need to hear, the message of hope, that people need today. In Jesus name, Amen.