The sermon text provided below is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

In that day, the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of Hosts shakes over them.
And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians.
Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of Hosts has purposed against them.
In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of Hosts.
One of these 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.
It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt.
When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, He will send them a Savior and Defender and deliver them.
And the Lord will make Himself known to the Egyptians.
And the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering.
And they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.
And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing.
And they will return to the Lord and He will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.
In that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.
And Assyria will come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria.
And the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria.
A blessing in the midst of the earth whom the Lord of Hosts has blessed saying,
Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.
Friends, let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of His Word this morning.
Our Lord and our God, Your Word is powerful. Your Word is deep.
Your Word is rich. Your Word is food to our souls.
We pray, Lord, that this morning as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture,
that Your Holy Spirit would take this portion of Scripture,
take the truths that we consider this day and cause these truths to find a lodging place in our souls.
We pray, Heavenly Father, that what we consider today from the Word of God
would indeed be spiritual milk to those who need the milk of the Word.
May it be meat to those who need the meat of the Word.
And for all of us in Christ, may it be manna from above.
We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.
Amen. You may be seated.
This morning, the title of my sermon is Speaking the Language of Canaan.
And I’d encourage you to follow along in your sermon outline
and to keep your eyes or keep your ears open for the following words,
the words judgment, mercy, allegiance, unity, covenant, and citizenship.
Well, dear ones, as many of you probably know if you follow the news,
the issue of immigration is a hot button triggering issue in our nation’s current political climate.
Now, don’t worry. I’m not going to preach a political sermon on the topic of immigration.
You’ll be relieved to know.
Not only do I lack the necessary expertise to address that topic competently,
but it’s my job as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to preach God’s Word,
not to share or promote my ideas and opinions on political ideology or public policy.
But the reason I bring up the subject of immigration this morning
is because I found myself curious about whether various nations around the world,
including our own nation, have language requirements in the case of immigrants
who wish to apply to become legal, naturalized citizens.
And so I did some quick research online, nothing exhaustive, of course,
but I did some quick research online and I found that numerous nations
throughout the world require you to learn the official language of their nation
or at least they require you to demonstrate some degree, some level of language proficiency
in their official language in order to become approved as a naturalized citizen of the nation.
This is not just true in the case of legal immigrants wishing to become naturalized citizens of the United States,
but it is also true in the case of many nations, probably the majority of nations throughout the world,
including, for example, France, France has language requirements, Mexico, Germany, Egypt, Brazil, Japan,
and probably many, many others as well.
Now, when you think about it, that makes sense, doesn’t it?
After all, a case can be made that a willingness to learn the language of a nation
can indicate and demonstrate a willingness to adopt and assimilate into the culture and values
and national identity of the nation where one is seeking the privilege of citizenship.
So, again, what’s the point of all of this?
You may be wondering, Pastor Jeff, what does this have to do with our passage for this morning?
Well, dear ones, what is true when it comes to immigrants seeking to become naturalized citizens of their host nations
is also true in a higher and spiritual sense when it comes to citizenship in the heavenly kingdom.
Citizenship in the kingdom of God, the Church of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
You see, in order to become a citizen of God’s kingdom,
meaning God’s reign of grace and salvation in union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
in order to become a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom,
by the grace of God, one must first learn to speak the language of faith.
In a manner of speaking, you must first become proficient in speaking the language of Canaan,
the language of the promised land,
before you can be assimilated into the covenant people of God and become a citizen of the heavenly kingdom.
Well, pastors, does that mean that we have to learn Hebrew as a condition for entering the kingdom of God?
Well, of course not. That’s not what Isaiah is saying. That’s not what I’m saying.
But you do, in a sense, need to learn gospel-ese, if I could call it that.
You need to learn. We need to learn and have a basic understanding of who Jesus is and what he’s done for us.
A basic understanding of our sin and our need for Christ
and how the gospel of Jesus Christ provides for our spiritual need for salvation.
The amazing thing about this prophetic passage from Isaiah
is that it is a passage that envisions and predicts a time
when even Israel’s historic oppressors and enemies, the Egyptians,
would, as it says in verse 18, they would speak the language of Canaan
and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts, to Yahweh of hosts.
This passage envisions and predicts a time when both Israel’s ancient enemies,
namely the Egyptians, and Israel’s more contemporary enemies in the days of Isaiah,
namely the Assyrians, when those nations would pledge their allegiance to Yahweh,
the true and living God, and thus would become full, equal members with the Israelites
in the one covenant people of God.
So this is a very significant and important portion of the book of the prophet Isaiah for us to consider.
Now, dear ones, this passage follows on the heels of a series of judgment oracles,
a lengthy series of judgment oracles, against various idolatrous gentile nations
that either bordered Israel or at the very least often proved to be hostile towards God’s covenant nation.
And so, for example, as we saw in the Last Lord’s Day back in chapter 14, verses 3 through 23,
we have a judgment oracle against Babylon.
In chapter 14, verses 24 to 32, we have a judgment oracle against Assyria.
In chapters 15 and 16, we have a judgment oracle against Moab.
In chapter 17, we have a judgment oracle against Damascus.
In chapter 18, there is a judgment oracle against Cush.
And at the beginning here of chapter 19, we have a judgment oracle against Egypt.
And in the section of chapter 19 that immediately precedes our passage for this Lord’s Day morning,
we have, as I mentioned, we have a judgment oracle against Egypt.
Yet here, what’s amazing about this passage here, in the midst of this judgment section of Isaiah,
we have a passage that predicts a future time in redemptive history
when even Israel’s historic enemies, Egypt and Assyria, would unite with Israel,
not against Israel, but would unite with Israel in the worship and service of Israel’s God,
Yahweh, the one true and living God.
This passage, beloved, uses old covenant language and concepts
to point God’s people forward to the Messianic New Covenant Age, the age in which we now live.
This age of redemptive history when both believing Gentiles and believing Jews unite together
in the worship and service of the true and living Triune God and swear allegiance to Yahweh.
And we swear allegiance to Yahweh. How do we do that today?
How do we swear allegiance to the Lord in this New Covenant Age?
We do so by confessing that Jesus Christ is Messiah and Lord.
And so let’s dive into our passage for this morning.
And the first thing that we need to consider from this passage
is a section of this passage showing judgment giving way to mercy.
Judgment giving way to mercy.
Look at verses 16 and 17.
Again, the opening section of this chapter, the first 15 verses,
are a judgment oracle against Egypt.
But then begins this bridge passage, this transitional passage.
Verses 16 and 17, it says, in that day the Egyptians will be like women.
Speaking of the Egyptian army, ancient Egypt being known for its military might and power.
But there will come a time when the Egyptian army will be like women, which is a depiction here.
This is not meant as an insult to women,
but this is meant to depict the weakness of the Egyptian army.
And will tremble with fear before the hand of the Lord of Hosts shakes over them.
And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians,
just as the Lord had put the fear of his people upon their enemies in the Exodus event and also in the conquest.
So the hand of the Lord would again bring fear upon the Egyptians.
Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of Hosts has purposed against them.
But here’s something different.
See, when God judged Egypt during the time of the Exodus, it was a judgment unto destruction, a judgment unto wrath.
The people feared the hand of the Lord, but the fear was the fear of his wrath.
But here there’s going to be a change.
If you skip down to verse 22, it says this.
And the Lord, Yahweh, will strike Egypt, but he will not strike Egypt to crush it or destroy it.
There will be judgment, temporal judgments against Egypt, but those judgments will pave the way for healing.
As it says, the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing.
And they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.
When the Lord struck the Egyptians with the plagues and poured out his plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, what was the result?
The result was terror on the part of the Egyptians, but that terror led to them hardening their hearts.
But now it is envisioned that the Lord’s judgments against Egypt will soften their hearts and lead to their conversion, their returning to the Lord.
And it says that the Lord will hear their pleas for mercy and heal them.
Again, as I mentioned, verses 16 and 17, these verses act as a bridge between the judgment oracle of verses 1 through 15 and the glorious announcement of God’s grace to Egypt that follows.
This passage serves to underscore, beloved, the glorious truth that sometimes God’s temporal acts of judgment and chastisement serve to pave the way for God to manifest his grace and mercy to a humbled, repentant people.
The ancient Egyptians were a proud, mighty people, and the Lord had to humble them.
But having humbled them, they would be humbled to the point where they are ready for him to work in sovereign grace and mercy in their hearts and lives.
Here, again, we see an example of judgment not leading to ultimate destruction as it does in the case of the unrepentant wicked, in the case of the wicked reprobate.
But here we have judgment giving way and leading to mercy.
Now, if you were listening carefully when I read through this passage, there is a phrase that gets repeated over and over and over again that you probably were clued in on.
And that is the phrase that opens verse 16, the phrase in that day, which should lead you to ask a question, in what day is Isaiah talking about here?
We see this term in that day hits here in verse 16, but it’s also in verse 18, in that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt.
And then again, verse 19, in that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt.
And then skip down to verse 23, in that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.
And then finally, in verse 24, in that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria.
In that day, in that day, in that day, what day is he talking about?
Well, this is the day of the Lord. This is a day that is, from Isaiah’s vantage point, still in the future.
It is a day that will unfold further, God’s redemptive purposes.
It is a day that anticipates the New Covenant.
Ultimately, this day that is being referred to throughout this passage is the New Covenant Day.
The day when the good news about the true Messiah, the promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah and Savior,
when that good news would spread beyond the borders of Israel and go out into the nations of the world.
Beloved, one of the glorious truths that this passage highlights is the truth that God’s amazing grace
has the power to turn even the most hostile former enemies of God and his people into friends.
God’s sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to convert the hearts of even his most hardened enemies.
He has the power to convert the hearts even of the proud ancient Egyptians and Assyrians.
And here in this passage, the Egyptians and the Assyrians, I believe, these nations are being used representatively.
They represent the idolatrous Gentile peoples who had historically resisted the true and living God
and resisted and been hostile towards God’s people.
But here we see Gentiles coming into the covenant people and kingdom of God,
becoming citizens of God’s kingdom through faith in the promised Messiah.
However, sometimes the Lord will humble his enemies to the dust in holy judgment
before raising them up in grace to be his friends.
And that’s sometimes the way that he deals with us as individual sinners as well.
Dear listener, has the Lord humbled you through the terrors of his law?
He humbled the Egyptians. Look again at verse 22.
And the Lord, Yahweh, will strike Egypt, striking, striking in judgment, at least in temporal judgments,
but then striking and healing with the result that they will return to the Lord
and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.
If you know the law of God, if you know what the holy law of God requires of us,
that we love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength,
that we love our neighbor even as we love ourselves,
if we understand that the law of God doesn’t merely speak to our outward behavior,
you know, you can outwardly conform to the law of God, but in your heart be far from him.
That means you’re a good Pharisee. That doesn’t make you a Christian.
Conforming outwardly to the law of God while inwardly being in rebellion to God,
Jesus says, no, if you even look at a woman to lust for her,
you’ve in a sense already committed adultery with her in your heart.
If you have sinful anger in your heart and you wish that annoying person were dead or what have you,
that’s equivalent to murder in the heart.
The law of God speaks to the state of our heart, and if we’re honest, the law of God condemns us.
The law of God should terrify you if you are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s what it’s intended to do.
The Lord strikes sinners through his law.
He strikes them. He brings them down to the dust.
But in the case of those whom he is graciously planning to save, he doesn’t leave us in the dust.
He humbles us through his law that he might raise us up through his gospel.
And as a result of being raised up through the gospel, what do we do?
Well, we return to the Lord in repentance and faith,
and we have the promise that he will listen to our pleas for mercy and bring us healing, spiritual healing.
Maybe the Lord through his law has struck you and brought you down and humbled you.
I hope he has.
But don’t lose hope.
He has you right where he wants you, because it is to sinners that Christ shows mercy.
Christ did not die on the cross for good people, for worthy people, for people who can merit his grace.
No one can, by the way.
Christ died on the cross to save rebel sinners.
Have you recognized, as the Lord struck you with his law, making you recognize yourself as a rebel sinner?
Recognizing that your only hope of salvation is in this promised Messiah that our passage speaks of.
Well, dear friend, if the Lord has struck you, it may be so that he might heal you ultimately with the balm of his saving grace.
And if he has struck you with his law, what do you do?
Plead for mercy, cry out to him for mercy, and he will have mercy upon you as you come to Christ and rest in him.
Praise be to God.
And so we see here in this passage an instance of judgment giving way to mercy.
But we next see international gospel allegiance foretold.
This is the second point in your sermon outline.
And this is the center of this passage, verses 18 through 21.
Here we have international gospel allegiance foretold.
It says this in verse 18.
In that day, in that eschatological new covenant day that is being spoken of here, he says there will be five cities in the land of Egypt
that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts.
One of these will be called the City of Destruction.
Now, if you read this passage, you might react by scratching your head and saying, what’s he talking about?
Five cities in Egypt, where are these cities?
What’s he talking about?
Well, it’s quite possible that these cities are not to be understood in a literal sense.
These cities are not identified, and it’s quite possible that the number five here is given as a symbolic number.
It’s symbolic of significant conversion among Israel’s ancient enemies, namely the Egyptians.
And so this foretells a time when there will be a significant ingathering of the former persecutors,
former gentile persecutors and enemies of God’s people.
But then there is this mention of the City of Destruction.
One of these five cities will be called the City of Destruction.
Some of your versions may translate it, and I think this is probably more accurate, as City of the Sun.
You see, the Hebrew words for destruction and sun are almost identical.
And so I agree with one commentator who writes that this is probably a reference to the City of On, O-N,
a famous center of sun worship near Cairo, which the Greeks called Heliopolis.
The Hebrew words for sun and destruction are almost identical, as I said.
This commentator says, a wordplay may be intended so that when the citizens swore allegiance to the creator of heaven and earth,
veneration of the sun was abolished, was destroyed, if you will.
For this reason, it received special mention. Think about that.
If the peoples of a city that had once been known for its entrenched worship of the sun,
not the son of God, S-O-N, but the sun, S-U-N, the orb in the sky that we observe,
if those folks are brought to faith in the true and living God, what an amazing conquest of grace we have displayed before us.
And then Isaiah goes on in verses 19 and following to say the following.
It says in verse 19, 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.
If you know your Old Testament, these references to altar and pillar will be bringing to mind
altars and pillars given to the Lord in the land of promise, the promised land.
Such altars and pillars are pictured as being set up even in the land of Egypt, even as they were set up in the promised land.
It will be a sign. Verse 20 explains the significance of these altars and this altar and pillar.
It says it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.
When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender,
and the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering.
And they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.
Now, what is the significance again of altar and pillar here mentioned in verse 19?
Well, altars were obviously witnesses to the true and living God.
When an altar to the Lord was set up, it was intended not only as a witness to the true and living God,
but they also represented a meeting place between the deity and the worshiper.
It was a place where a worshiper could commune through sacrifice and offerings and prayer with the deity.
And in Scripture, altars represent the intersection of the heavenly spiritual realm and the earthly temporal realm.
Altars were a place where heaven and earth meet and God comes to dwell in his gracious presence among his people.
One commentator explains the significance of the pillar this way.
He writes, the pillar monument here, situated on the border of Egypt,
probably symbolizes the claiming of the land for the true and living God, the Lord Almighty.
Now, in other words, God would dwell among Gentile Egyptians who believe,
and he will dwell with them in their own land just as he dwelt among the Israelites in the promised land.
Now think about how this passage would have struck you if you were an ancient Israelite
living in the days of Isaiah who hears this or who reads this.
This would have been mind-blowing, the idea that Israel’s ancient enemies and oppressors, the Egyptians,
that their land would be like the promised land where God’s presence dwelt in a special way.
Again, this points forward to a time in redemptive history
when Gentiles and Jews who believe in the true and living God and his promised Messiah
would be on equal covenantal footing before the Lord.
And in verse 20, it mentions this, it says, when they cry to the Lord because of their oppressors.
Now think about this, the Egyptians were the ancient oppressors of God’s people, the Israelites,
but now Isaiah envisions a time where the ancient oppressors would themselves be oppressed.
They’ll be oppressed. He will send them, we are told, a savior and defender and deliver them.
This is, I hear Isaiah is using language that reflects the book of Judges.
What happened to God’s people in the book of Judges?
Well, God’s people would often, they would go astray from the Lord and the Lord would raise up oppressors,
allow oppressors to come in and conquer his people and oppress them,
and then the people would finally come to their senses and cry to the Lord,
and the Lord would raise up to deliver his people, he would raise up what?
He would raise up saviors, judges, to deliver his people.
And that’s the kind of language that’s being used here of the Egyptians in verse 20.
And then verse 21 is so amazing, it says, and the Lord will do what?
He will make himself known to the Egyptians.
Now, in the days of Pharaoh, in the days of the Israelites’ enslavement by Egypt,
the Lord made himself known to the Egyptians in wrath, in judgment.
But the implication here is that now the Lord is going to make himself known not in wrath and judgment,
he’s going to make himself known in mercy.
And that’s seen, as you continue to read on in this verse, the Egyptians will know the Lord.
They’ll know him not just in wrath and judgment, but they’ll know him in mercy and grace.
Why? Because they will worship with sacrifice and offering,
which is an evidence of their faith in him.
And they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.
The making of a vow before the Lord is a swearing of ultimate allegiance to the Lord as your God.
The Lord in his grace would reveal himself to the Egyptians,
and they would know and worship him just as was the case with believing Israelites.
Again, do you see how this points forward to this new covenant age in which we now live?
What about the fulfillment of this passage, though?
It mentions five cities, it talks about the Egyptians turning to the Lord,
and we know that the land of Egypt today is a majority Muslim nation.
But how then was this passage fulfilled, or how is it being fulfilled?
Well, as I mentioned again, here I believe that the Egyptians and the Assyrians
are representative of Gentile nations that turn to the Lord in the age of the New Covenant.
So in the sense that the Egyptians represent Gentiles in general who come to faith in the Lord,
this is fulfilled in the New Covenant through the Great Commission.
As disciples of Jesus are made among all of the nations of humanity.
However, I also believe that to an extent,
this prophecy was indeed fulfilled in a literal sense within the history of early Christianity.
You see, friends, in the early church, there was a flourishing Christian community.
And guess where that flourishing Christian community was?
Well, friends, in the early church, there was a flourishing Christian community
in North Africa in general, and in Egypt in particular.
In fact, the city of Alexandria in Egypt was one of the major centers of early Christianity
in the Eastern Roman Empire.
And one of the greatest orthodox theologians in the early church,
known to us today as Saint Athanasius, guess where he was from?
He was from the city of Alexandria in Egypt.
Athanasius loved this passage because he believed that this passage was fulfilled
in his own time, in his own city, in his own context.
And of course, Athanasius, you may recall, he was the great defender of the deity of Christ
against the heresy of Arianism, which was a heresy that had denied
the full co-equal deity of Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
So Athanasius defended the gospel truth that Jesus is divine, fully, 100% God.
So praise be to God that his word in this passage has been and continues to be fulfilled,
for God always keeps his word.
Praise God that his promises to bless all of the nations through Abraham,
that promise given all the way back in Genesis chapter 12,
that promise is being fulfilled in Christ.
Let me ask you, have you sworn your allegiance to the true and living God,
as the Egyptians are here depicted as doing?
Have you done so by trusting Christ as he has offered to you in the gospel?
As the Bible says, that if you confess with your lips Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
But finally, as we wrap up our time in the Word today,
we notice, we consider in verses 23 through 25,
we see here in this passage Jewish and Gentile unity among God’s covenant people.
Jewish and Gentile unity among God’s covenant people.
It says this in verse 23.
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.
This depicts a highway, a trade route, if you will.
There will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria,
and Assyria will come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria,
and why are they traveling to each other?
Is it just to conduct international trade?
Is it just to engage in political dialogue or what have you, diplomacy?
No. It says they will travel to do what?
It says the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
Now the Egyptians and the Assyrians were arch enemies.
They were hostile toward each other in Isaiah’s time,
but there will come a time when they will be at peace with one another.
And how will they be at peace with one another?
They will be at peace with one another because of their common allegiance to
and worship of Yahweh, the true and living God.
Again, one commentator says of this passage that it is an unsurpassed vision
of the Gentiles’ full inclusion in the kingdom.
Israel will have only an equal part, and her distinctive titles, as we will see,
will be shared out with her cruelest enemies.
In verse 23, as I mentioned, this passage depicts a highway
that runs from Egypt to Assyria.
That would be a very lengthy highway.
But such a highway would certainly encourage international trade
and communication and peace between those nations.
But the focus of this passage appears clearly to be a higher focus.
It appears to be spiritual.
This is a highway that brings about spiritual unity between these former rivals
and these once hostile nations as they join together in worshiping the true God in unity
as full and equal citizens of God’s kingdom along with believing Israelites.
And so it closes off, this passage closes off in verse 24,
and following it by saying this.
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria.
Israel will only be the third.
There won’t be a special place, an exalted place for Israel or for the Jews as Jews.
No, there will be a high, in that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria.
A blessing in the midst of the earth.
Gentiles and Jews who believe in Jesus the Messiah will be on full covenantal equal status.
They will be one in Christ.
And then verse 25 it says,
whom the Lord of hosts has blessed saying, notice the language here.
Blessed be Egypt, my people.
And Assyria, the work of my hands.
And Israel, my inheritance.
My people, the work of my hands, my inheritance.
That’s language that is used elsewhere in scripture to describe Israel, the covenant people of God.
But here this language is applied to Egypt and Assyria.
The same language that is used to describe Israel as God’s covenant people is used to describe Egypt and Assyria.
And what is the implication? Well the implication is clear.
When this prophecy is fulfilled, and again from the vantage point of Isaiah’s time it was not yet fulfilled,
but when this prophecy is fulfilled as it is being fulfilled in this new covenant era,
both Jews and Gentiles who believe in the promised Messiah will share equal standing as citizens of God’s kingdom and church.
Not just believing Jews, but believing Gentiles as well will all speak the language of Canaan.
They will all speak the language of faith.
They will all speak gospelese, for they will all confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And thus they will all be full and equal citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
In closing, the Apostle Paul provides language that shows the fulfillment of this in the new covenant era.
In Galatians 3 verses 23 to 29, and I’ll close my sermon with this passage.
In Galatians chapter 3 we read these words, beginning at verse 23,
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
And that would apply even to Egyptians who believe in Christ and to the descendants of the Assyrians who believe in Christ.
If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Are you Christ’s? Are you a child of Abraham through faith in Christ? Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel.
We thank you for this new covenant era in which we are privileged to live.
We pray, Lord, that you would help us to see the glorious unfolding of the truth of your word throughout the scriptures.
Help us to see how Jesus is revealed in all of scripture.
And help us, Lord, to see the great unity of the scriptures.
That we might see our unity together as brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever our backgrounds or heritage may be.
We pray that you would bless us now and cause your word to find a lodging place in our soul.
We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen.