Transcript | Ezekiel 23

Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. We've got a bible study in Ezekiel 23 tonight. And as we're opening, for worship, I wanna read Psalm, eight verse three. When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visits him? Father, we come before you. And, we thank you that you're God of creation, God of redemption. And, Lord, we desire to glorify you tonight as we study your word. We pray that you'd teach us, that you'd edify, build us up, strengthen us, and that we would be led by the holy spirit. As you said, you give the holy spirit, and the holy spirit would guide us into all truth. Lord, we pray that we'd stand that straight and narrow and that, you'd give us ears to hear, hearts that are pliable, and willing to receive that which you have for us tonight, Lord. So build us up, strengthen us, bless those around Facebook, and we pray that you'd be glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Alright. We are in Ezekiel chapter 23. We got the snow globe here in the Christmas spirit, and we had a wonderful Christmas party, Jesus' birthday last night, and I wanna thank everybody for helping, everybody setting up cleanup and all that. You guys brought so many gifts, so much food. It was just overwhelming. Everything was just like the loaves and the fishes, man. And just thank you all so much. A lot of people wiped out. It was a lot of physical work on on Kathy. Her legs are really tired. And so, anyway, one for the I love all the pictures. Everybody's posting pictures and stuff, and so that's what the Christmas season is supposed to be about. It's family and about Jesus and celebrating his birth. And so I just pray here's December 9. We got a few more weeks before January. And and so just cherish every minute of this season, this Christmas season. And, oh, god, it was a lot of fun. I thank the lord. I hope the kids tuck away a lot of good memories and all, and the lord built people up and encouraged them. And, oh, it's so nice to be a Christian. I'm so glad that this season doesn't just fly by me with no meaning, you know, that we know the reason for the season. So alright. So Ezekiel 23. Father, please be our teacher. Once again, open the word. Thank you that we can study the Old Testament here, Lord. We pray for the peace of Israel. Lord, we pray for, the nations there, the Christians that are, in Iran and so many flourishing areas where the gospel's going forth. And, Lord, we pray that it doesn't swing back toward persecution to killing them there with with Al Qaeda and ISIS there in in in Syria and Assad having fled. And we don't know. We don't understand the whole ramifications of it all, but, Lord, we know where your people are. You know where each each one is, and, Lord, we pray your hedge of protections about them tonight. Pray that, you give the government's wisdom and that your perfect will be done, Lord. You're sovereign. You're in control. We're looking. We're watching up, knowing prophetically, Lord, time is very short. So bless now in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. The word of the Lord came again unto me saying, son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother, and they committed harlotries in Egypt. They committed harlotries in their youth. There were their breasts pressed and they were bruised and breasts of their virginity. So the Lord's gonna use a picture here of the nation of Judah, the 10 northern tribes of, Israel, and how unfaithful they were. And so their unfaithfulness is described as spiritual adultery as they were engaging the idolatry of the Egyptians, the golden calf, and then later the idolatry of Assyria, the Assyrians, and also the Babylonians. And so the Lord's saying your unfaithfulness to me are like a couple harlots, and and you guys are, you know, two sisters, he's saying. And so remind them the golden calf and the exact Exodus thirty two one through six that, you know, Aaron fashioned at Sinai. And then when when Rehoboam and Jeroboam, when the nation of Israel was cut in half when they had a division, Jeroboam took the 10 northern tribes, and they went with him, which was called Ephraim or Israel. And he was concerned, according to first Kings twelve twenty six through 37, that the people would wind up going back to Judah because when they go to temple, when they go to the the feast and all, that it would kinda draw them back. So what he did was he fashioned two golden calves, and he put one in Bethel and one in Dan so that the people, the 10 northern tribes, didn't need to trek all the way back to Judah to, you know, to worship the lord and all. So they're divided, but they're still know, all of them wanting to follow Judaism. But in the interim, they're they're getting sucked into they're being seduced by the gods of the Assyrians, which would be Ashoreth and Baal and all. So these are fertility goddesses. So they're they're being drawn or seduced into very carnal, fleshly, kind of activity that not only is a spiritual adultery but a physical interaction with one another that led to just incredible corruption, unwanted pregnancies, child sacrifices, and all these things. And so the Lord is trying to give a picture here and try and show them, you know, what it is you've done. Now in second Corinthians chapter 11, Paul said, I'm jealous over you, church of Corinth, with a godly jealousy because I've espoused you to one husband. But I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve, so you'll be seduced, that seduction, from the simplicity of Christ. So if a false prophet comes along with a different Jesus, a different gospel, a different spirit, don't put up with it. So he's worried that idolatry will will creep back in to the church of Corinth. And, and I'm jealous over you, he's saying. So he's like a father giving the church of Corinth to the Lord as as his bride, but he doesn't want that bride to be sullied or to be seduced or succumb to false doctrine. So that's why he he he's warning them, letting them know, be careful. You've got, keep it simple. Keep it real simple, the simplicity of Christ. Don't, don't allow people to come along and complicate it and confuse you. And so and they committed harlotries in Egypt. They committed harlotries in their in their youth, so they've been doing this for quite a quite a long time. When they were in Egypt as a young nation, they were already involved in these harlotries, and, they were given into idolatry. And the names of them were and the elder, and their sister. And so and they were mined, and they bore sons and daughters. These were their names. Samaria is Ohola. So the 10 northern tribes, had their capital city be that of Samaria, and so these capital cities for their for their name. And then Oholabah speaks of Jerusalem or Judah, the the southern tribe, the nation of of Judah. And the name the name means she has her own tent is for Judah, and then the other one, Ahola, is, my tent, is in her. So excuse me. In reverse. So my tent in Iser is Judah, meaning they have a place to meet with god, the sanctuary. They have a a temple there in in in Jerusalem. The other one, that says, she has her own tent is what we said with Jeroboam. They've made their own religious system there with the two golden calves, and they meet on their own. They don't come all the way back to Jerusalem, to meet. So it's a place of meeting is what he's alluding to here. And it says, my tent in her is and she has her own tent. So my tent in her is Jerusalem, Olaba, Oholaba. And, Ohola played the harlot when she was mine, and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians, her neighbors. And so she was mine, but she was unfaithful to me, and she was doting. And notice the word doting in verse seven, the words doting in verse 12, and also verse nine. And so she's she's kind of flirting. She's flirting around with these other belief systems of the Assyrians, and the Assyrians are catching her eye. She's it's gonna go on and show that they liken it to men. You know, she's attracted to Assyria. She's attracted to these things. And what can we do if we're being attracted to things other than what god has already revealed will unto us? We gotta be so careful to not act like, hey. I'm thinking out of the box. No. He's he's made it real clear to you what you're what you're to do, and you he'll never violate his word in that way. You wanna know god's will? Follow his word. In in Isaiah, the lord says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So this whole idea of I'm thinking outside the box, you can't think out the box. You don't have the capacity. You you don't know the mind of god. There's so many secrets. There's so many things that he hasn't revealed unto us, and you start venturing outside of god's word, you're in a dangerous place. And it's an existentialism. Pretty soon you're saying, well, I think, I think, I think, I think. I don't care what you think. What's the Bible have to say about it? And so we're tired of it. And so for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and returns not there but waters the earth and makes the it bring forth and and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth and it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing thereto I sent it. So stay with God's word. He will reveal his word, his will for your life through his word, and that word's not gonna come back void. There's other things out there he hasn't revealed yet, and we have to wait for more information, and, and we continue to learn. But, so often someone will say, well, you know, I think I'm I'm gonna I I think I wanna marry this guy, and, I think this is God's will for my life because, you know, I think we're in love. I'm attracted to this person. Well, is the person a believer? Number one. Are you no. Or no. Number one, are you a Christian? Yes. I'm a Christian. What's that mean to be a Christian? Well, I ask Jesus in my heart and light. I receive Christ. I believe that he died for my sins, that he's buried, that he rose again, he ascended to the right hand of God, and he's coming back again. Alright. Well, that faith is imputed unto you for righteousness. Now, how do we know you're a Christian? Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit. Okay. So in your decision making process, you want a husband, you want a wife. Now you met this guy. Is he a Christian? No. Well, the bible says here we go. God's will. The bible says that you're not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. Oh, but I think I think I I think that's pretty narrow. That's pretty narrow. You know? We're in love. We're adults. We're adults. And so now we've gotta deal with people that just wanna do whatever they wanna do. And then you go down that path, there's ramifications. There's there's consequences. As we go through here, you're gonna see the consequences of acting in that manner. And so you don't want to act outside of god's revealed will for your life. Now there's other things that are unrevealed. It's it's gonna be a discovery. It's gonna be through prayer and comparing god's word. And when when you think you have a direction from the lord, one thing that's an absolute is he will never contradict his word. You're not the exception. So you're never gonna be able to say, well, I think we're married in the eyes of God. Oh, yeah? Where's that at? You you just made that up? That sounds like a couple teenagers in the back of a car, you know, that said, hey. We're in love, and we're married in the eyes of God. You know? I've heard that one before. And, the other one is, we didn't have sex. We didn't have sex. Really? But she's pregnant. I don't know how that happened. Now we got another immaculate conception. You know? Oh, wow. You know? And, I mean, it just never stops once you start going down that road. You know? You're lying to yourself. And I had a guy actually say that to me. He he got the pastor's daughter pregnant, and he was in trouble. And they were they were emphatic that they didn't have sex. And I'm like, wow. You know? And boy, he got a lot of trouble, man. They got in a lot of trouble. What Isaiah was that? Isaiah 55. Thank you. Yep. And so God's word doesn't come back void, that's why I always have confidence in God's word. There's a lot of things I don't know, a lot of things I don't understand. But if I stay with god's word, I know god's word is going to bear fruit in your life and my life. Psychology can't it can't be said in that way. And evolutionary theory, no. If we stay with god's word, it's gonna bear fruit in our lives. So there has to be content in the sermons. There has to be students who will study god's word, and, and that's what it means to be a disciple is you're gonna study the word of god. Now a lot of people get into reading books. I love to read books, especially books that help me understand the bible better. But there's been times where I'm hearing about people, the books they're reading. I tell them, stop reading those books. And, well, why? You know? Read the bible. Read the bible. Well, I think the Shack is pretty good. You know? And and they're going through all these latest top 10 Christian books, and they're heretical books. They're heretical, and it skews your thinking. In the book, The Shack, there's a presentation of god being a woman. K? That's not accurate. And there's no female angels either. They're masculine. So you're gonna go in there and think God is an Oprah. Oprah said that, you know, she said God, and you're gonna change the pronouns to she. It's a waste of my time. It's gonna get you off track. Don't do it, but nobody listens to you. So then the other one is what's that devotional all that everybody uses? The Jesus. There you go. So this lady, she's waiting there to write it down. You know, god gave me this, and then she's not staying with the word of god. It's what she thinks the lord's telling her. She's writing these things down, and you don't stay on track when you do that. Okay? So it sells a lot. It sells like crazy. But people get off track when they allow these, whether it's a Beth Moore contemplated prayer, and you're gonna you're gonna start to go into this mode of, like, a meditation and contemplative prayer, and the Lord show me. So when when the ladies ministry at Calvary Bremerton, when several of the ladies came to Kathy and said, hey. We wanna implement Beth Moore. It was early on when she was just getting started, and people were enamored with her and all that. Kathy said, no. We're gonna stay with what we know. We're gonna stay with Kay Smith and her teaching of the bible, the Joyful Life bible studies. Kathy's so glad she did because as time goes on, Beth Moore gets so off that she thinks she's a pastor now, arguing about how women can be pastors. You know? And a lot of other things associated with it. So if you're not rooted and grounded in the word, these people come along and take advantage of you. And a lot of times, it's through their books, their tapes, their YouTube things, things like that. And so you wanna be grounded in the word of God before you venture out. And I have a huge library. Got a lot of books I read. Sometimes people will ask you, hey. What book are you reading? I'm reading the bible. Oh, aren't you reading other books? No. Nothing wrong with it. But don't think that you're intelligent because you're reading the 10 New York Times bestsellers. Okay? Don't put that trip on us Christians. If what I wanna read is the bible or I wanna read a commentary, if I were if you were to say, what are you reading, Rick? Well, I'm reading six or seven commentaries a week. They're books. They're teachers. There's history. There's context. There's interpretation, application. I'm not smart enough to just read the bible myself, and and, I need teachers. I need to be taught. Best way to learn is to teach, so I have to study myself. So when I when I used to have a office and a lot of my comment, I'd have books everywhere. And as I go through to teach the book of Romans or first Corinthians or this book, there might be six different books this thick that over the course of a year, I've read six books this thick now. How many of do that? You know? So it's it there's a lot of reading involved. There's a lot of study involved. But I don't I don't want to get off track with what Jonathan Cahn thinks, you know, or all these different all these distant peripheral peripheral blood red moons. You know? I never got sucked into that, and I tried to help people not get sucked into it. But so many Christians did, and then it never happened. And you know what else? They never come back and say they're sorry and give their money back to everybody that they sold the book on. So stay with the word of god. Don't be influenced by the Assyrians or the Babylonians or this looks good, that looks good, the psychology thing looks good, and, you know, stay with the word of god. I mean, these guys you know what these guys would do? They had the word of god. They would engage in idolatry. They'd get pregnant. In the morning, they'd call Planned Parenthood and abort the baby. And in the evening, they go to the evening service at the temple. That's the kind of people you're dealing with. That's the kind of unbelief and apostasy you're dealing with here in this chapter. These are the facts. They could observe Assyria in July, god judging them. The North 10 northern tribes were judged by the Assyrians came in and destroyed them. And as we go through this chapter, the lord's gonna say, you saw the way that I judged your sister, but you guys kept going and did even worse. How do you get through to people like that? How do you get through to them? Sending all these prophets, all all of you know, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, all the Hosea, all these prophets that try and teach them, you know, bring them back to god's word, but they don't do it. So part of this is in that seduction, there's a there's a spell. Cathy and I have noticed that sometimes there's this, like Paul says to the church of Galatia, who has bewitched you? It's like a spell. It's it's like, I'm trying to understand logically how can this be, and the explanation is it's doctrines of demons. It's it's a spell. It's a it's a demonic force, you know, a seduction that they're under. And, when I when I had when we had Judah and the kids were really young, you know, we used to I haven't been doing it a long time. I don't know why they don't let me, but I'm gonna bring that back up. But I love to I love to watch the jungle book with them and a lot of good singing in there and all. But but there's a snake there's a snake in there that tries to seduce, you know, the man and gets his eyes going, oh, look at my eyes. You know? And it's like they come under a spell, these people. It's it's a satanic spell. It's bizarre. It's just bizarre. So here it says you doted. So you're you're you're flirting. You don't just go out one day and go out and have an affair. You don't go out one day and, oh, I'm gonna be a drunk today. You've been thinking about it. You've been flirting. You've been flirting with the idea. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So you sow a thought, you're gonna reap what? An action. An action. How long before you actually act upon those thoughts you're entertaining? It varies, doesn't it? But I don't wake up this morning and say, you know what? I'm gonna go out and be a meth addict today. You know? I'm I'm gonna go ruin my life. You know? No. You've been drawn to it over a period of time, and there's people in your life that are tempting you, that are lying to you, and now you're thinking about it. Boy, you better take that stuff and flush it down the toilet and get rid of it and get it out of your mind and heart. I told you about the pastor that that, had a guy come in for counseling, and he was a drug addict. And the pastor was a former drug addict that had twenty years like, twenty years sobriety, a Calvary Chapel pastor. This is a real story. And this drug guy come in and thank the pastor that he got saved and all, but he had some paraphernalia. He had some drugs. And he said to the pastor, what do I do with this pastor? I'll get rid of it for you. The pastor took the bait, totally went down the drain. Marriage, ministry, everything. Once he I mean, the devil is so slick. The devil is so slick. He's such a destroyer. Oh, we can't let it back in. We can't let the idols of Egypt back in of your past life. You can't let it back in. And, verse three says, the harlotries of Egypt. Well, that's in your past. That's a long time ago. Why are you letting those back in? Don't let that back in. You're better than that. And I have no desire to let back in the stuff the Lord's delivered me from. I'm so thankful that he that he's delivered me. And and not that you don't get tempted, you get tempted, but he's given you something so much better. Why would you go back to the pigpen? You know? But some people, for some reason, think that they're they're the exception, that they're so adults that they can do it their way, and I fear god. I know that if I get off track, it's gonna destroy so much of my life. And it's because I fear god. I know that he's not mocked, and I don't I don't wanna go down that path. And so Hola played the harlot, verse five, when she was mine. So she was mine. This is my girl. You know? My daughter, or if you look at in the marriage thing, this is my wife, the wife of Jehovah. And she doubted of her lovers on the Assyrians, her neighbors, on foreigners. The neighbor who have different belief systems, who are clothed with blue captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men horsemen riding upon horses. So she's looking at these guys in their uniforms. Oh, god. Look at these guys in their uniforms. All the the blue there. This this guy riding on that horse, he's got Wrangler jeans on, you know, and he's got a real nice cowboy hat and, oh, he just looks so good decked out in that. Oh, wow. And he can dance and he can dance like Rob. You know? He can dance like Sean. And, oh, man. Look at him wiggle. Look at that. Look how nice his starch, nice shirt, and that chin that comes out and everything and all the testosterone. Oh, man. And these women are attracted to them. Look at these guys. A man in uniform. You know? Whoo. It's getting hot in here. Right? It's so much fun. Gotta gotta go with it. Right? Gotta get into the story. Like, that's never happened to any women. Right? The women never been attracted to the sailors and their their whites or the marines or whatever you're into or how about this one? This is the one that cracks me up. So many women like firemen. They like the fireman in his uniform. And then the firemen go and make calendars because the firemen get to do a lot of weightlifting while they're waiting for a fire. And so these women oh, he's a fireman. Woah. Did you see him with his shirt off yet? Oh, man. So it's true. It's true, Jim. It's true. The women are always saying that, oh, he's a fireman. What's that mean? He doesn't have a dad bod yet? Oh, yeah. Just wait. Yeah. Yeah. Him. Thus, she committed her harlotries with them with all notice the word all three times here. Thus, committed her harlotries with them, with all those who were the chosen men of Assyria and with all on whose whom she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. So, you know, she she went for it all. She wanted them all. She's a heartland. She wanted them all. I want them all. I've got an insatiable desire to to engage in all of this all of this all of this. The word all that I like is all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All. We've all sinned. I don't know what your appetite is for sin, but this gal wanted it all. Near the left, she her harlotries brought from Egypt. So she not only has influence with the Assyrians, she's got her harlotries, her idols from her past life in Egypt. Egypt represents your past life. The Amalekites represent your flesh. And, and so you get in the promised land that represents the life of the spirit. But, the life of Egypt, the picture there, the people always whining to Moses that we wanna go back. We wanna go back to Egypt, to your BC days. I wanna go back to my BC days before Christ days. And they fought with Moses and they said, we got we're tired of manna. We're tired of Jesus. We're tired of bible studies. Well, I don't like bible studies. I don't like the worship. I don't like the the festivals and feasts and all. You know? I wanna go back to, you know, the desert, and I wanna I wanna do man on fire. Is that what they call it? No. Burning man. Burning man. I wanna do burning man. I wanna get all pagan. I wanna get all old pagan and do all the pagan rituals and all the stuff and get people frenzied in sexual activity and stuff and orgies, and that's what they did. It was it was it was frenzied, and and that's what they were doing with it. He says neither left she so no repentance. She should have left these idols. Should should have left them behind. Near the left she her harlotries brought from Egypt. For in her youth so Paul tells Timothy, flee youthful lusts. Flee them. There's youthful lusts. There's things we do when we're in our youth that are really stupid. And as you get older, flee those youthful us. So if you're teaching a youth group, you would wanna teach the youth group and give examples of Joseph fleeing from Potiphar's wife. This fled. You know? You'd wanna give it examples of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in a foreign country, and they purposed in their heart ahead of time. Ahead of time, they prepared that they wouldn't defile themselves with the king's meat. You know? You gotta think ahead of time. Hey. I'm going into battle today. And I I used to have to think this way sometimes when I knew I was being set up. But there was a time where I was being set up by a customer I had when I was carpet cleaning. And this guy liked a lot of people do this to me. They like to try and get me to fall, see if they can me to fall. So in this particular case, the guy was an art teacher at a local college, I think Orange Coast College. And I did some work for him, and he called me and said they they had a spot on one of their cushions. And could I if he brought it to work, could I meet him at work and clean that cushion for him? So I said, sure. Well, it was a trap. So I had this guy named Jimmy that worked for me, young buck guy. And not that I want a stud too, but anyway, I said to Jimmy, I said, you know, Jimmy, I think this guy is trying to embarrass me. Could you could you take this cushion to him, to his to his class? I said, he's an art teacher, and I think he's got a naked girl in there. And Jimmy's eyes got real big. I'll do it. I'll do it. Yeah. I'll do it. And Jimmy really wanted to go. And Jimmy went, and sure enough, it was exactly what the lord was gave me the sermon on. And there's no way that I wanted to be in that situation, embarrassed like that, or whatever, you know, and and and defile myself. So so that was one of the times I got victory. There's other times where you don't get victory, you know, and it grieves your heart. It's you're filled with shame and, you know, you repent real quick, but you gotta be on guard. There's people hunting for you. There's these kind of women that are hunting for you. And you left home. You're a long way from home, Joseph. And you're a long way from home in a port, a port city, and these harlots are coming down, and they know that you guys got money. And and you're gonna start drinking, and you've never been a drinker, but the guys, the peer pressure is such that it pulls you in. Now there's some guys in that group that are looking for the Christian servicemen center, and they wanna be around some like minded believers so they don't get pulled down. Right? And, and that's a good ministry, you know, of the past. And others will say, no. I'm staying on the ship. I'm just gonna read tonight. I'm gonna spend some time with the Lord or whatever. No. I'm not going in. And, but you gotta be ready. You gotta you gotta think about it ahead of time of, am I gonna spend four years sowing wild oats? You know? And I've never lived like that before. You gotta be ready. And David, in a time when kings go out to battle, got a good marriage, you're in your fifties, you go through a midlife crisis, they're there to trip you up. They're there to pull you down. So you gotta be careful. So neither left she her harlotries, brought from Egypt for in her youth, she lay with her and they bruised her breasts and her virginity and poured their harlotry upon her. So she's experienced from her youth. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians upon whom she doted. So the very thing that you think is liberating, that you wanna do outside of god's will, that you think is so hip and cool, And the devil is a marketer. He's gotta market it through Disney and through Hollywood and through all kinds of media to make it look like there's something you're missing out on. And they'll make it look very attractive. Sin looks attractive from the outside. And so there's happiness in sin for a season. Right? For a season. So when Adam and Eve are looking at the forbidden fruit, Adam knows. Hey, this is a trick. Eve doesn't. It looks good. It looks like some looks like that cake out there, that birthday cake for Jesus. On the outside, it looks really good. But she doesn't understand on the inside of that cake is poison. You know? It's it's gonna cause her to die. So she indulges, and, boy, it tastes good. It looks good. It tastes good. It'll make her wise, you know, the whole thing, And but it brings forth death. And so that's how sin is packaged, and it it it looks real good. But then the that which you're overcome by, then you become a slave to. And so watch this. We're gonna look at this principle in the New Testament. Who wants second Peter two nineteen and twenty? Anybody? Okay. Jim's gonna take it. Then first John four four and five. I'll take it. Okay. And then, John sixteen thirty three. Paul, take it. Okay. Revelation seventeen fourteen. I'll do it. Okay. And first John five verse five. First John what? Five verse five. Alright. Now I'm gonna read it again. Neither left she her harlotries, so she didn't repent. She's going back to her old life brought from Egypt. So she she going to church for a while. She's sober. She's a virgin. She's doing good. Not a virgin. She can't redo that. But but she's but she's feeling like one. And so she's brought from Egypt for in her youth she lay with her and and bruised and breasts and whatever. And then it says, wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lover. So correction, the Lord's correction is the very thing that took you away from me is gonna be the thing that you go into bondage to. Right? You're gonna go into bondage. And same sort of thing in Romans one. When they don't glorify god and they suppress the truth, he gives them over to their desires, men with men, women with women. So the very thing they're they're in rebellion against God with becomes their enslavement. Right? Becomes their judgment, god's judgment upon them. And so so I delivered you over to to the Assyrians whom they went into bondage with. So second Peter two nineteen and twenty. Alright. 19. While they promised them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage. Okay. So let's oh, go ahead. Oh, you want 20? Yeah. Okay. For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome. The latter end is worth with worse with them than the beginning. Okay. So there's a seduction there. Right, Jim? They, you know, the somebody's speaking to them. Right? Somebody's enticing them. So what are they promising them? How are they how are they selling the sin? Liberty. They promise them liberty Promise them. That it turns into bondage. There you go. Exactly. So So they're promising something. Hey. You're missing out. You're really missing out. This is a lot of fun. So you can picture my grandson Judah and Evie. They're getting to that age where, when I was their age, some of you even were younger, but a lot of your school friends and people are starting to dabble with drugs, marijuana, things like that. And, you're growing up in a home where dad says, no. Don't do that. Don't do that. You know? And, they gotta they gotta make it look like you're missing out on something. Like, if you wanna be cool, you wanna be a part of the crowd. So there's peer pressure. There's mocking. There's ridicule. There's a number of different ways the devil tries to sell sin. And and so second Peter two nineteen and twenty. Yep. While they promised them liberty so it's like Christianity's a set of rules, regulations. Here's the one that they like to use. You are suppressed or you are you've repressed. What do you call that word when you're trying to teach your children to be virgins? You've repressed them. You've the psychiatrist would stifled them is another word. Yep. Yeah. But the psychiatrist would say you're so suppressed or repressed or stifled. Basically, you've been held back. You've been held back. And, and god's made you I don't even know if they'll mention god, but you've been made in such a way that these appetites you have are good and normal, and somebody has a puritanical attitude toward these things, and they've suppressed you. They've suppressed your expression of your womanhood or manhood or whatever. They painted such a huge picture like God's keeping you from something that's that's so good for you. You know? And where the error comes in is how? You take it outside the design. Sex is good. It's god's idea, but it's in the context of marriage. So it's not to be that fire is not to be outside the context of marriage. So the devil comes along and corrupts. The devil confuses. The devil takes something that's good. Now he's gotta corrupt it. And so he's gotta make it so that, it's fornication. It's adultery. It's all the different words that you have that describe aberrant sexual behavior, and the devil sells all of that as fun, as something you're missing out on. So they've gotta they've gotta market it with Playboy or whatever else it is. And so they themselves are the servants of corruption, so they're very corrupt. For of whom a man is overcome so here's our verse. Of whom a man is overcome so you've been overcome by the Assyrians. You've been overcome by your illicit sexual activity, your idolatry. Now you're brought into bondage. It's the Assyrians that are gonna bring you into bondage. They're gonna destroy you. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, so you escaped the pollutions of Egypt, I delivered you a great deliverance. You know? You're in the Christian life now. So for if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, Egypt's the world, through the knowledge of the lord, savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled. So now you go back and you get entangled in it and overcome. The latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them if they had not known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from, the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog has turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. So what does that mean? Let's use the word nature. Was there a change in nature? There's a change in behavior. You're not doing that stuff anymore, but there wasn't a change in nature. What's that mean? They had to be born again. So they're attending church as a reform kind of a person. Hey. I wanna clean my life up. I want god to bless my life. Guy said if I go to church, you know, god's gonna bless me. But these guys are religious. They're going to temple, but they're committing such heinous sin that sin brings them into bondage. And so the problem is the nature hasn't been changed. How do we know? We know because the dog has turned again to his vomit. So you clean the dog up. Remember how we talk about Hillary? We clean the pig up. We wash the pig. Put a bow on the pig's head. Right? Now as soon as you turn your back on that pig, what's the pig wanna do? Wallow the mud. Wallow back in the mud. Go back to the bars. Go back to the drinking. Go back to the sin. You can't you can't seem to correct them. Right? You can't and and we're we're running around trying to trying to get an alcoholic to not drink. As soon as we're not with them, they just have a huge desire to go back to it. You know? And, so I wonder, alright, were they even saved? You know, what what or are they saved and they're still struggling? I I don't know. But, some of this has to do with, as Kathy points out to me all the time, Rick, they're not saved. Rick, they're not saved. Because I look at the behavior and I say, how can they keep doing that and still say they're a Christian? So in some cases, the bible explains it for us. First John four, four, and five. First John four, four, and five. Yep. For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God? Amen. And so we we overcome through faith as believers. Now in James four four, it says, you adulterers remember, we're talking about adultery here. You adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with god? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of god. And also we're told in first John two, love not the world. The problem is these guys still love the world. They wanna go back into the world. So we have the world, the flesh, and the devil as our three enemies as Christians. So you gotta love love god supremely, far greater than your love of the world, the flesh, and the devil. So the flesh has impulses. The world is being not conformed to the world. The world wants to conform you into its image, you know, into its pattern, and you have the devil tempting. Devil can't make you do anything as a Christian. If you're a Christian, the devil needs permission. So that's where the marketing comes in. That's where the temptation comes in. The devil has to sell you on sin that god is a monster. He's keeping you from something good. Right? And and then you begin to get an appetite for these things. You begin to go more and more, and, then pretty soon, it overwhelms you. Now you're addicted. Now you're back in bondage to it. So faith, first John four, we overcome because of our belief and trust in the Lord. John sixteen thirty three. Oh, god. It's me. These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world, ye ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So Jesus has overcome the world. In him, we'll have peace. The reality is in the world, you're gonna have pressure. You're gonna have tribulation on you. But my peace I give unto you, not as the world give give I unto you. So it's a special kind of peace that only comes to the believer. Revelation seventeen fourteen, Jesus can be fighting against the globalist. Seventeen fourteen, for they shall make war with the lamb and the lamb shall overcome them for the lord of lords and the king of kings and they that are with him are called the chosen and faithful. So we don't need to be worried about the globalist, do we? The devil, the antichrist, the false prophet, all of the Elon Musk stuff, and this whole thing that's coming together. Ultimately, we know how it ends. Jesus whoops on him. We overcome. And then first John five verse five. Pardon me? I thought you said Peter too. Oh, I'm sorry. This is a good one. They're all good. Four four, you said? 55. First John five verse five. Alright. And Who are they that overcome? The night is treated? And a certain man was there, which had an imprimony 30 and Oh, you're in John. We're we're talking first John. First John. First John. Didn't I just read? You read? First John five five? I thought you read first John four four and five. You did? Yeah. Four four and five. Excuse me. You got dyslexic? How what am I dealing with here? I have a hearing problem. Yeah. It's alright. I'm just teasing you. Who is he that overcometh the world and he said liveth just Jesus is the son of god? So who who is he that overcomes? I want Sean to read it too. What's that? He that overcometh. Yeah. He that overcomes overcometh. Who is he that overcometh? He that believes. But he that believeth that Jesus is the son of god. Son of god. So it's your faith in Jesus that makes you an overcomer. Right? Right after John. We're more than conquerors through him that loveth us. Right? Right there. That's right. It's the next Alright. So I wanna be an overcomer. I don't wanna be in bondage. I don't wanna be a victim. I don't want sin to dominate me. And a lot of it has to with my free will if I'm willing to yield to the spirit. Do you guys hear that? Do you have a free will? And in your free will, as you decide, as we choose, we choose whether we're gonna yield to the spirit or yield to the flesh or give into the pattern of the world. If we give into the flesh, we're gonna lose. If we give into the world, we're gonna lose, and the devil's gonna, can, in many cases, bring us to that place of bondage that we once that we were once in and that we returned to. So we don't we don't wanna do that. We don't wanna backslide like that and trash our life and become shipwrecked. So first John First John five verse five. Alright. It is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God. Thank you. Is that it? That's it. Yeah. Thanks, bro. Thank very much. Okay. We are overcomers. Alright. Back to our text now. Verse 10. So in July, Samaria fell. They fell to the very ones they were emulating. So you got the 10 northern tribes, and, their their, headquarters is in Samaria, and the Assyrians come and destroy them in July. So these uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters and slew her with the sword, and she became a byword among women for they had executed judgment upon her. Now what's interesting about this is I didn't I didn't talk about this. Back up here in verse four. Look at verse four. So you got these unfaithful sisters who are harlots, and their lifestyle, their influence is such that now they are they bore sons and daughters. So these these these that aberrant behavior as influencers can produce other, you know, mean, followers. Now they got more people doing it. They're producing sons and daughters with their idolatry. It's a cult. It's it's a means of getting a greater and greater following. They're producing they're they're not they're not stopping the slide and coming to Christ, you know, in repentance. It's expanding. It's growing, in its influence, and, and it's not going in a good way. So then when it comes down here, down to verse 11, those sons and daughters, that crowd of people, that congregation of people that are living this way, now they're all going into bondage. They're being taken by the by the Assyrians. So these uncovered her nakedness. So when they grab hold of them, they're gonna they're gonna expose them. And, so they uncovered their nakedness. They took their sons and their daughters, they slew her with a sword, and she became a byword among women for they had executed judgment upon her. So the shame that overcomes them, incredible shame, the nakedness, the being pulled through the streets. And, when her sister, Aholabah, saw this so now we're talking about Judah. That was Aholabah, the the, 10 northern tribes. Now now Judah. So when Aholabah saw this, she was more corrupt. So remember remember how I talked about so many times how I was raised in an unbelieving home? I'm in an unbelieving home. Right? 20 years old, I get saved. What do I learn in an alcoholic home? A mom married seven times. What do I learn in that home? Nothing. No. You learn you get some big lessons. Yeah. Big lessons, but not Huge lesson. You know what the huge lesson is? How not to do it. Yeah. No. These guys don't do that. You can watch your bigger brother. You watch your bigger brother, and he's doing drugs. He's messing around. He's going to jail. He's getting arrested. The younger brother looks at that and says, I don't wanna be like that. Right? Or or the younger brother says, oh, I wanna be like big brother. Yep. And now the sons and daughters are all doing it. You know? It's crazy. So me, I wanna learn. If I don't know the right way, I can look at what my mom is doing, and I I'm not judging her. I sure learned the wrong way. She was demonstrating the wrong way. And that whole thing that was going on was just it was crazy. And did the best we could. We didn't know anything else. We didn't know any better. But when the Lord got ahold of me, now I began to learn the right way. And I I did not want to perpetuate what I saw in my mom. You know, the Lord spoke to me one time early on in my Christian experience when I first got saved and Kathy and I were broken up. And I I wasn't really plugged in yet. I I I was still transitioning, and, it was just the early weeks there. And, I tried to go back and, you know, witness to my friends at a party and had on my party clothes and all that. I can still remember it. And two girls were aggressively pursuing me, and then it happened again. And I I I didn't mess around with them, but I could've. I could've fallen. And the Lord spoke to my heart. I sat down on the bed. And I remember when I went to Calvary Chapel and I got saved, they gave me a bible. And I was in a in a bible study correspondence course with them. The Lord spoke to my heart. Rick, if you don't put me first, you're gonna wind up like your mom. So that was what I was afraid of. I was really, really afraid of not having, you know, my best friend be my be my wife and have a family and and all that. So he made it clear to me the only way was to put him first, that if I continued to play games on the fence, if I were to do that I didn't do that. I was trying to understand how this works. And even after I got married, before I got my dad bod, at church, there would be girls that that were trying to pick up on guys. You know? So that temptation was there, and and you can't go back to your old life. You can't go back to that. You gotta stay on that straight and narrow, keep doing it God's way, and and there's blessings that come. There's huge blessings. You develop better trust. Marriages are based upon trust. You know? And and God has such a better way than that way of discarding partners. You know? Alright. So it's a it's it's a slippery slope. So anyway, the older one didn't didn't learn. It says that when her sister, Oholibah, saw this, she was the more corrupt in her in her inordinate love than she and in her harlotries more than her sister and her harlotries. You learn nothing. Why didn't you learn anything? The time we're living in is a time of lawlessness. People don't have the fear of the Lord that we need to have. That's why this girl's doing this. She doesn't have a fear of the Lord. And she's lawless. She's not following god's god's word. And so how am I supposed to help people that are living lawless lives that just do what they wanna do? Not a whole lot I can do. I I just here. Here's what the Bible says. It's up to you now. Do you wanna apply it or not? I know that I wanted to apply. There was something going on inside of me that wanted to do right, and that's because I got saved because the holy spirit was helping me putting the will in there for me to do it. So she doted upon the Assyrians, verse 12, her neighbors, captains and rulers. And so what happened was there's a hundred year of submission paying tax to the Assyrians. The Assyrians tried to destroy Judah but were unable to. 42 different 40 some different forts they destroyed. But, ultimately, it was the Babylonians that raised up later in May that destroyed, Judah. But in the interim here, the Assyrians were strong. They were powerful. So she doted upon the Assyrians, went right back to the same guys. Her neighbors, captains and rulers, clothed most gorgeously. Here we got those cowboys again, those firemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. So she lusted. She lusted in an idolatrous fashion after the little g gods of the Assyrians, which would be Astereth, which is a fertility goddess, and then a bell. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took one way, and the way they went was the wrong way. Wrong way. And defilement. Defilement, they're unclean. They're not unholy, and we lose sight of the glory of god. We lose sight of his glory. And now you've just brought everything down to a gutter level and of darkness. You suppress the truth in Romans one. And because you suppress the truth in second Thessalonians two, because you suppress the truth, he gives you over to a strong delusion. And so you don't have discernment anymore. You can't choose what's right and wrong anymore. And that she increased her harlotries. So now you're gonna increase. For when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, so the images of pornography and this is a weird statistic. Someone told me these guys at the gym, some of these Christian guys, they they tell me this stuff. But apparently, in regard to pornography, women watch as much or more pornography today than men. So you look at pornography, it's supposed to be a man thing. Men are involved in it, the looking. But these women, these guys are all everybody's into it. And so the pornography is designed to stimulate the fleshly lusts. And and the lord's made us in this way with with these drives, with these appetites, but they're to be exercised in the context of marriage. So a safe society, a society that honors god would be a society that covers up a little bit more. I it's getting so bad. There's hardly anything you can watch anymore. Everything's mixed with decadent sexual innuendos and and and stuff. It's just so filthy. It's just so filthy. They can't even make a Santa movie. They make that Nacho Libre guy in to be Satan rather than Santa. You know? And there's something going on called wicked right now that everybody's into. And, know, when you see Kathy Kathy has got Britney and my grandkids hooked on Hallmark shows right now. So they're watching these Hallmark things, and they're all really I guess there's a bunch of them. They're, like, mysteries. They're mystery shows. And so Kathy's always been very, very good at censoring out, and Britney's really good at it too, censoring out things that are inappropriate is the big word around our play. In that's inappropriate, papa. That's inappropriate. Alright? Well, it's just Tom and Jerry, but you gotta get the Tom and Jerry that's not the Tom and Jerry with witchcraft, I guess. I guess there's some witchcraft. You know? So you gotta be discerning. You can't just say Tom and Jerry. And, otherwise, Papa gets in trouble and they can't come up the sugar shack to get to get a chocolate milk. I get I get spanked. But, anyway, I try. I am the fun papa. Alright. So the defilement. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took one way, the wrong way, and that she increased in her heart of the trees for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall the images the Chaldeans portrayed, with her vermilions. So that of Babylon. The Babylonians were really good at at at idolatry. The Jews in their bondage in seventy years there saw so much idolatry that it cured them of their idolatry. You're gonna eat this till it comes out of your nose. So girded with belts upon their upon their loins. Again, men in uniforms. Following turbans upon their heads, all of them, princes to look to after the manner of the Babylonians. So now they're getting they're getting into the fashionistas of the of the Babylonians. Wow. Look at their look at their turban. Wow. That's a cool turban and and the clothes and all. And and I'm watching I'm watching Judah and Evie be more concerned about their clothes now, you know, the shoes and the shirt and the way it matches or doesn't and their hair and all that kind of thing. And so they're they're getting into that they're getting into that age where you're more conscious of how how you look when you go out in public. You know? And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them and sent messengers unto them under Chaldea. So, hey, I want you to, you know, lie with me. I wanna be a part of your your belief system. I wanna dabble in your occultic activity. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their harlotry, and she was polluted with them, and her mind, was alienated alienated from them. So she went she was seduced, and she was defiled. Now I didn't have sons. I had daughters. And boy, I'll tell you, when they're little, you're thinking to yourself, I'm never gonna let anybody defile them. I'm never gonna let anybody go near them to seduce them and all. And you wish you could be there and control every decision, everything they do till that marriage day. You know? But life is not fair. It doesn't work out that way. People have free will. They have free will. But the pedophiles, the school, the influences in the world. You you do your part as a parent to protect them from all that. But ultimately, they go to youth groups. They go to activities. They start to get away from your visual watching them, what they're doing. And, the devil sends. The devil sends people to seduce them into the youth group, into the churches, into the places that you think that are safe. So don't ever allow yourself to be disarmed. Make sure that you know like like, it's so dangerous when I think in terms of, alright. They're gonna go spend the night at somebody's house. Well, how do you who are these people? How long have known them? What stuff are they you know what I mean? Why don't you learn from my mistakes? Learn from my mistakes. Okay? Not everybody can be trusted that calls themselves a Christian. So it only takes once. You know? So just be very, very discerning. And again, youth groups and churches are some of the most dangerous places because we are disarmed. So she uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness. Then my mind was alienated from her as my mind was alienated, from her sister. So the sin penetrates. The sin penetrates her, permeates, defiles her, corrupts her. And as one of my friends said, sin makes you stupid. As you're sinning, you're getting real stupid, doing some real stupid things. Think of the stupid things, those of you that drink alcohol. Once your your level of inhibitions are overcome and now you're drinking, think of the stupid things you say and do. As an adult, when I go back or I've tried to go back to a couple of reunions and I'm around people drinking, it's so stupid. It's just so imbecilic. It's just it's just stupid. You know? It's like it's like a return to high school. But now they're and it's funny because the girls were trying to wear bathing suits like they were in high school, and guys were trying to act like they were in high school. It was just it doesn't fit, you guys. It doesn't fit. It's not working. Don't you see yourself? Let me take a picture of you. Let me show you what you look like. You know? It's just so sad, though. It's just really sad. Ugh. Ugh. It's painful, sad. It's just painful because the lord the lord has matured us. You know, the lord has helped us to grow up. We're not one of my friends said that when you smoke pot and you do drugs, that your personality, your development as a as a man is stifled at that age that you start doing that. And then when you stop doing it, you start to grow again. So that's why you act like a nine year old. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No. He's very mature. He's very mature. I'm just kidding. The holy spirit can the holy spirit can really help us to bypass that notion. The holy spirit can really help us to mature. And, I mean, a lot a lot of guys that become Christians at Calvary Chapels, they can't even read. They can be 30, 40 years old, and they they don't know how to read. They can hardly read. Now they're reading the bible. You know? Now they're interested, and they're learning to read. They're learning about I mean, that's that's a common thing. That's a common thing with with a lot of guys. Oh, I didn't finish school. I I didn't like school. Blah blah blah. Now they get saved. Yeah. I really wanna read. I I wanted to learn how to read my bible. You know? And and the lord is just so faithful, isn't he? And a lot of them become pastors. So funny. Mike McIntosh down in San Diego, he was such a drug addict that his friends did a thing on him with some LSD, and they put a gun in this room. Apparently, when you're LSD, you're not supposed to have a mirror or light or something. And and so they did the mirror, the light, and a gun, and he something snapped. And he was actually out in public like this thinking half his head was gone. And when you're looking at him, there's only half of his head there. And that's the condition he came into Calvary Chapel was like that. And the Lord healed him, made a pastor out of him. He got his head back. He got the whole thing. Right. Alright. So yet the multi yet she multiplied her harlotries calling to remembrance the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. So a couple things here. Remember Lot's wife. She's yearning for Sodom and Gomorrah as they're as they're turning into a pillar of salt looking back. Right? Jesus said, remember Lot's wife. And no man have him put in his hand to the plow looking back as fit for the kingdom of God. But what happens when you join Facebook? When you join social media? How many people do you know that wind up having an affair who are married and it's a high school sweetheart that they got reacquainted with from their past? That is a common story. Happens all the time. So that's what she's saying here is that yet she multiplied in her heart trees and calling to remembrance the days of her what? Youth. Oh, god. I remember oh, I can remember the first girl I kissed. Oh, you know? First guy or whatever. Oh, I I'm really not in love with my husband. I I remember my first boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. And you haven't talked to them in thirty years. Now all of a sudden, friend. You know? And I know a pastor that fell that way. I know a pastor that fell that way. Crazy. Just crazy. It's dangerous. And you can't go back like that. Why would you want to? It's crazy. It's so painful being a human being, I'll tell you. For she doted upon their paramours whose flesh is like the flesh of a donkey and whose issue is like the issue of horses. So disgusting. Just disgusting sexual drive toward beasts and animals and just things that people are doing that we can't even talk about, you know, as adult. We we don't even wanna talk about it, how disgusting the things are happening. Thus thou called to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth and bruising your breasts by the Egyptians for the bosom of thy youth. And so you're backslidden. You're looking back to Egypt and you're you're thinking, how can I regain that what was there in the past? And, yeah, you wanna regain what? Waking up in a pool of vomit, you know, going to jail, not able to keep a job. You're out of your mind. You're crazy. Don't go back there. Therefore, Judah, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, so same kind of thing, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I'll bring them against thee on every side. And so God's gonna use the Babylonians now to discipline, those of Judah. The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekkod and Shoah and and Koa and all the Assyrians whom when all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords, and renowned all of them riding upon their horses. So your lovers become your enemies. They turn on you, and they're allied together against you. And they shall come against thee with chariots and wagons and wheels and with an assembly of people who shall set against thee a buckler and shield and helmet roundabout, and I will commit judgment unto them and they shall judge thee according to their judgment. So, God's gonna judge. It looks like a Western, you know, a Western movie. It's going crazy. The chariots and the wagons and the wheels and the horses and all that kind of stuff. Bullets flying. And I'll set my jealousy against thee and they shall deal furiously with thee and they shall take away thy nose and thine ears. The Assyrians and the Babylonians thought nothing of disfiguring people when they conquer them. They would put hooks in their noses, hooks in their jaws, feel like a fish hook, and then with a chain make you stay up. You stay up or it's gonna pull your cheek off. You know? So you you're walking with these these hooks and also disfigurement. Just, well, you're a beautiful woman. You're a harlot. I'm gonna cut your nose off. I'm gonna cut your ear off. So big scar on your face, that sort of thing. So they're gonna beat you with an ugly stick is what they're gonna do and, gonna take the sparkle away, gonna take the pride of, what you what you, managed was your looks. You went a long way with your looks and now your looks are taken from you. And it's really sad watching a lot of these Hollywood people lose their looks. They never developed a personality, and now their their looks are going and they look like aliens, man. They look like it's so sad. It's so sad. Their lips are you know, they got all this collagen. Kathy says they put Botox and they put stuff in their cheeks. And even like Tom Cruise's cheeks are all puffy, and they do they do that because otherwise she said they'll they'll have they'll have wrinkles. So to overcome the wrinkles, they fill it up with filler, and then the filler starts to move around later and, you know, and everything. And then they're like this. You know? Some of those ladies, you know, they they can't tuck enough back behind their ear anymore. You know? They look like a little rat. This is so strange. You know? She never got old. Who? Sure. Sure. I can't I haven't seen her. I haven't seen her. But I don't know, man. You'd be better off having a clone double or something. You know? Just send some send a model out there that looks like it because it ain't working anymore. You know? And a lot of the Hollywood people now, they're apparently they're trying to get old by no makeup anymore and letting their hair go gray. Others of them can't embrace it, and so they've gotta keep trying. And Mhmm. Boy, what a what a sticky thing. You know? Vanity. Yeah. And my life my wife loves me fat. I don't have to worry about it. She she just loves me no matter what. No matter what my weight is, no matter what happens. She just always loved me and I'm not insecure about, oh, well, if I gain some weight, she's not gonna like me anymore. You know? Don't have to worry about that. Don't worry about that. We're fat and happy, me and Kathy. We are fat and happy. Alright. Kathy, if you're listening to that, not just me. Just me, fat. Not you. Not you. I would never use that f word around Kathy. That's that's deadly. Alright. Shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. So just total devastation. They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes and take away thy thy fair jewels. So naked slaves, imagine Jesus upon the cross stripped naked, the humiliation. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee and thy harlotry from the land of Egypt so that thou shall not lift up thine eyes upon them nor remember Egypt anymore. So God's gonna bring correction. For thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of those whom thou hates, so your enemies are gonna get get the upper hand over you, into the hand of those for whom thy, mind is alienated. So it's not funny anymore. Our sin will find us out. Now God is so incredibly long suffering. He's so patient. It it he's waited and waited and waited and waited and you're you're obtuse. You're beyond feeling. You you don't hear anymore. And now he's got a Wayne likes to say pain's a good teacher. So now God's gotta use pain. He's gotta he's gotta bring the hammer and just just not not the best way. And It works, though. It works. Pain will definitely drive you one way or the other. Yeah. Yeah. I say uncle. I don't like to be in pain. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. For thus saith the lord god, behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of those whom thou hates and thy hand, from whom thy mind is alienated. So, again, it's not funny anymore. We as parents, we talk about how, don't be an enabler. Don't be an enabler. Well, let the consequences of your prodigal, let their actions be the correction. You know? If you keep intervening, if you keep enabling, they're never gonna stop. So like I said on that Sunday, do you have have you ever come to the place where you say, Lord, whatever it takes. Keep your hands off. Lord, whenever it takes. That's a hard prayer for any parent to pray. But if you trust that the Lord loves them more than you do, then there you go. So they shall deal with thee, hatefully. They shall take away all thy labor and shall, leave thee naked and bare and thy nakedness thy harlotries shall be uncovered both thy lewdness and thy harlotries. Why? Why is he doing this? Verse 30. I will do these things under thee because thou has played the harlot with the nations and because thou art polluted with their idols. So this is this is what you left me for. Well, I'm gonna give you so much of it. Your enemies are gonna be your lovers. Thou has walked in the way of thy sister. Therefore, I will give her cup into thine hand. And so the way that I dealt with them in July, my wrath that came out upon your sister that of the 10 northern tribes. Thus saith the lord god, thou shall drink of thy sister's cup deep and large, thou shall be laughed to scorn and had an derision contains contains much. So you're gonna be filled with shame and the shame and and the anguish of judgment of getting what what you deserve. There was a CEO of a pharmaceutical company or, excuse me, a medical insurance company. The guy was assassinated in broad daylight. You remember that? Mhmm. And I read today why the assassin did it. Do you know why? Do you hear? Because he, the CEO, put AI in place to determine who gets treated and who doesn't. And apparently, he had family members and there's a whole lot of people that aren't being getting the treatment they need. They gave it over to AI. They removed the human side of making those decisions. So that's why whoever this person was took them out. That's gonna happen more and more and more. The human Jesus said iniquity is gonna abound. The love of many is gonna grow cold. How do you how do you program in the human side of love? You know that or bring if the whole bottom end is box money, you know, then all of a sudden you've got Bill Gates and all these guys removing you useless eaters in the with COVID shots, you know, in the nursing homes and stuff, and you have a genocide of people dying because they assume there's too many people on the planet. You know? And so, anyway, I I don't know if I should have said it, but somebody put that on the Facebook. And my comment was, it's a good start. Right? There's a whole lot more of those guys that need some pain because that's all they're how else are they gonna get it? Right? They're they're untouchables. Biden can just pardon his son. He can just pardon anybody he wants. You know, any of the criminals, they can just all be pardoned. They're not gonna learn till there's some pain. So thou hast walked in the way of thy sister, and so this wrath that's upon upon the sister is gonna be upon you. And you and I, Jesus drank that cup of wrath. Jesus drank that cup of wrath so that we don't have to face the cup of wrath that we deserve, and that's the beauty of the cross. And, father, have been willing to remove this cup from me, but nevertheless not as I will, but thy will be done. And so he drank that cup for you and I. And and laughed to scorn. That's the that's the shame turn to Romans one. It's been a while since we've been to Romans one. But the world doesn't like Romans one. They don't they don't want any accountability. Verse 18. Just talked about the cup of wrath. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. That word hold means to suppress. So you're suppressing the truth. Now what kind of truth? Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it unto them. And so tonight we started out with reading Psalm eight about the stars and, the heavens declare the glory of God. Well, you deny the glory of God. You deny the glory that's due his name. You're suppressing that truth. And in our culture, you're saying there is no God. We all evolved. It was just by accident and all. So you're you're stealing, you're dishonoring God the glory that's due his name because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead so that they're without excuse. And so in the beginning, god created it's the word bara. He created everything we see and don't see out of nothing. He didn't need to go to Home Depot and get any building materials. Everything in this universe he created with just by speaking it and and so clearly seen. So because when they knew god so they knew god based upon the revelation they have is not Jesus came and went to the cross. They don't have that kind of revelation. It's the revelation of creation. So when I go to the Grand Canyon and I see the Grand Canyon with Rob, Vicky, and Kathy, I have a choice. I can say, well, this Colorado River cut this out. I could say it happened over billions of years. Or I could believe the Noahic flood. And the Noahic flood takes a lot less faith to believe in the Noahic flood than to believe in the alternative theories. Right? Take a lot of faith to believe in that and take a lot of faith to believe in evolution, the billions and billions and billions of years. And just by accident, everything happened. How about, you know, intelligent design, a designer and all? So you have a choice when when you look up at the sky, when you look up at creation, you have a choice of are you gonna believe? Are gonna give the glory to God as the creator? Or are gonna suppress that truth and attribute it to a lie. Because when they knew god, they glorified him not as god neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. So by suppressing the truth, your heart gets darkened and now you don't have discernment. And now you're going down down down down down. You're going deeper and deeper and deeper into sin. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. And then they change the glory of the incorruptible god into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four footed beasts and creeping things. There's your idolatry. Now you're taking and you're carving images and making images and you're taking the incorruptible god and you're dishonoring him by saying this is my god. So if I'm in Egypt and I'm worshiping the sun, you know, Isis or whatever, I'm gonna you know, hey. I'm worshiping. God is Isis. There's a god of the sun. There's a god of the moon. There are myriad of gods, a plurality. And and then you've got the idols depicting that for each one. And so your foolish hearts darken and like corruptible men, four foot obese and creeping things. So the idols, lowering god down. You're bringing god down even lower than your level because at least you can see, you can hear, but these little idols you're making, they can't see, they can't hear, they can't talk, mouths they have. So you're even lowering god lower than you. You're the god. You're gonna be god. So wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. So the judgment that comes against those who reject God when they get to a place where men with men, women with women dishonoring God, how? In this design for marriage. In this design for the family. Now you've come to a point where boys aren't boys anymore. Girls aren't girls anymore. Pronouns for everything. You're dishonoring God. You're going against the God of creation. He's a God of order. You're you are following the devil who corrupts everything, who is ruining the order, and he's causing confusion and it takes away the glory from the Lord. You exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature, the devil, more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So it's occultic. It's like I'm racking my head like, how could they believe this? Because it's demonic. It's demonic. That's that's what's behind it. For this cause, god gave them over to vile affections. So here's your judgment. This is what you guys are meditating on. This is what you're doing. Now your judgment is gonna be shame. I'm gonna shame you publicly for this cause because you're not giving me the glory that I'm due. You're not worshiping me. So God gave them over unto vile affections for even their women did exchange the natural use for that which is against nature. So now your society, you've got women who don't even like men anymore. You got women with women. Vile affections. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman. Now they're burning in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was fitting. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not seemly. So your judgment you persist in suppressing the truth. You persist in not giving God the glory that's due his name. You are and were made for his pleasure. It's your decision. But you're gonna worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. So God says, alright. I'm gonna give you over to that. I'm gonna give you reprobate mind, and I'm gonna make you look abnormal. You're gonna go against my design. You're gonna go against my design in marriage. So being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous, malicious, full of envy, murder, strife, malignity, whites, backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud boasters, inventors of inventors of evil things. I mean, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant breakers without natural affection. So affection, there's natural affection, unnatural, implacable, merciful, who knowing the judgment of god that they who commit such things are worthy of death not only do them, do the same but have pleasure in them that do them. So you you're gone. You're gone. And part of the whole gay, lesbian thing in our culture, LBGTQ and all that, is an effort to counteract God's judgment of them, which is shame, and they want to normalize their behavior as as normal. If they're normal, God says, no. I'm gonna shame you. That's that's the way that I'm gonna judge you. That's what you wanna do. You wanna deny my order. You wanna deny my design. You wanna act like this, then I'm gonna give you over to it. And you're gonna be doing things that you never thought you were capable of doing that are so heinous and so despicable. So thou shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow with the cup of horror and desolation with the cup of thy sister Samaria. I I don't wanna shame god. I I don't want to see how much beer I can drink before I sin. I don't want to go down that path. I don't want my kids to ever smell alcohol in my breath. I don't want them to see grandpa that way. Instead, I wanna be being filled with the holy spirit. If you're not drunk with wine, we're in this excess, but be being filled with the holy spirit. I've discovered the holy spirit, The be being filled is far more satisfying than anything that I ever did in my past. Why would I wanna bring it back in? It has the potential to destroy me. I fear how stupid I am and that if I were to revisit any of those things, I know I'm stupid enough to let it hurt me. I'm not one of those guys so smart and so confident and so prideful that I can be a spirit filled drunk. You know? How do I do that? So thou shalt even drink it and suck it out and thou shalt break the sherds of it and pluck off all thy own breast for I have spoken it, saith the Lord, the Lord God. Therefore thus saith the Lord God because thou hast forgotten me and has cast me behind your back therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy harlotries. So our sin finds us out, the effects of sin. The idolatry verse 36, judgment on Hola and on Holaabah. The Lord said moreover unto the son of man, will thou judge Oholah and Oholabah? Yea, declare unto them their abominations. So now the indictment. Here's here's the indictment against you. That they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands and with their idols have they committed adultery and have caused notice caused their sons whom were born unto unto me unto me to pass for them through the fire to devour them. So you've got unwanted pregnancies. You're promiscuous. You're pregnant. You don't want to get married. You don't want to have a family. You don't want a child, but you still want to engage sexually. So let's burn the baby. Let's kill the baby. Let's abort the baby. Let's murder the baby. So they'd offer the babies on the Baal and the Valley Of Hinnom. They'd get rid of these unwanted pregnancies. So now you're hardened by sin. Sin is so hardened to you. A mother. I look at Britney. I look at Shannon. I look at the moms in here, the moms at church. Can't imagine a mother taking little Ruthie. Can you imagine? I don't even wanna finish the phrase. You know? It's just so the thought is just so, she's there with little Tobias yesterday. What mother? And what I like about some of the Christian ministries that try to help these young girls, not so much the guys, but some of the guys, is the ultrasound machines. They used to be able to put an ultrasound machine outside of the clinics that they could get these little mothers or the pregnancy centers, you know, around around Kitsap County. They should have an ultrasound there where these moms can come in and have an ultrasound and see that it's a baby. See the little baby. Hey. It's a boy. Hey. It's a, you know, it's a girl. Look at this baby. Look look at his feet. You know? And then that helps them to realize, hey. This is little baby. You know? It's not just a blob of tissue. You know? And it's it's been remarkable in helping many women determine not to go to the dark side like that. Moreover, this they have they have done unto me, so done it unto me. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same. So so they do this killing of the babies, then they go to the sanctuary. They're all defiled. They're filthy, and they're bringing that filth into my house. You know? And, and it's hypocrisy. They are the white they whitewashed sepulchres, but inside they're filled with dead men's bones, Jesus said. And they have, profane my Sabbath. So the corruption that comes in, that which was once holy, like, holidays, holy days, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birthday, and, and the way that it gets corrupted. You know? Take away the beauty of it, the glory of it. For when they had, slain their children, their idols, then they came the same day into the sanctuary to profane and to lo, thus they have done in the midst of of my house. I mean, you're talking people that have no their reprobate. You can't get these people convicted. They don't feel bad about anything. It's mind boggling that you could on the same day, the very same day. And furthermore, you have sent for men to come from far. So now you're looking for foreign allies onto whom a messenger was sent and lo they came for when they did did this wash thyself, painted as the eyes and decked thyself with ornaments. So, you're you're looking for some political political adultery, you know, with other nations. You're getting political. And sat us upon a stately bed and a table prepared before it upon which thou hast set thine incense and your oil. So you're wanting to seduce even foreigners, other people. I it breaks my heart to think of all the children being trafficked in the last couple years, and there's enormous amounts of them missing. Where do you think they're missing to? They're they're being fed to pedophiles. They're being fed to politicians and people that have an appetite for these kids. They're being trafficked. It's horrible. And a voice of multitude of being at ease was with her and with the men of common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness who put bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crown upon their heads. So now you got clowns, got wild drunks, you got people that basically you brought drunks into the sanctuary and dressed them up and it's degrading. It's very degrading and you made them up. Then said I unto it's kind of like Mardi Gras. You see these people all made up and all wearing costumes and they're just drunk and they're naked and they're running down the streets and they're playing music and they're it's occultic and drugs and alcohol and it's just a horrible, horrible, horrible public display of decadence. Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries. Oh, yeah. That's the one I want. Yeah. Wow, honey. Will they now commit harlotries with her and she with them? So as one guy described it, I I hate to say this phrase because it's so mean. I don't I don't wanna be mean. I mean, what a life. What a they say it's the oldest profession there is, and, apparently they can make a lot of money nowadays in Vegas and places where they do this. I don't know. But there's also those on the lower level. When I was first going to the downtown in Bremerton, they they had a girl that was working the downtown, and she was working the parking lots and stuff. And, anyway, the guys told me I I I they called her $5 Diane, and I thought, oh my gosh. My daughters, my wife, my family, anybody I know, that's just so degrading. That that's just just and and a lot of the guys that work in the downtown knew about $5 Diane, and and they would let her whatever. So, anyway, this is a person who's, she's worn out. There's a lot of mileage on this woman. She needs a new tranny. I don't know. But I can't even can't even think of it. I man. Ugh. Yet they went in unto her as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot. So they went in there Ahola and under Ahola, the lewd women. And so it's a place of shame and ruin. And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses and after the manner of women, that shed blood because they are adulteresses and the blood is in their hands. So, if there are some righteous men still around, they might judge these actions and stone them. But also, if there are some righteous guys, supposedly righteous guys, that are doing this because there's none righteous, they're gonna be judged the same way. And so the abortions. For thus saith the Lord God, I will bring up a company upon them and will give them be removed and spoiled. So loss of everything. And the company shall stone them with stones and this dispatch them with the swords and they shall slay their sons and their daughters and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease from the land that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you and you shall bear the sins of your idols and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And so Psalm thirty two eight through 10, we'll finish there. Psalm thirty two eight. David wrote this Psalm after his repentance with Bathsheba. And so we we the payday, the the pain that comes, pain is gonna teach you, he's saying. So in Psalm 32, the holy spirit is speaking through David. God says, I'll instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shall go. I'll guide thee with my eye. So I've got daughters. I don't want my daughters to learn by pain. I'm their father, mother. We're instructing them. We're trying to help them. We're trying to show them the straight and narrow path, the path where God will lead and guide them. If they keep their eyes on Jesus, he'll lead and guide them. They follow his word. Right? Then he goes on to say, be not like the horse or like the mule that have no understanding whose mouth must be held in with a bit and bridle lest they come near unto thee. So you horse people, you donkey people, what's he mean by that? Pain. So what's the bit do, Vicky? Takes and gets in there. So if you want that horse to go left, you pull on the rein. Puts pain there. The horse isn't looking at god like, go left, go right, stop, sit. You're the one. The horse yields to pain. Back way. Stop. Whatever. So, and he says, don't be like that. I don't want to resort to pain to direct your life. You know? Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and he scourges every son or daughter. So fathers, our heavenly father, at times needs to spank us, take us to the woodshed, and he uses some pain to stop us. Why? Because we'll destroy ourself if he doesn't because we're so stupid. Right? So it's the most loving thing we could do to bring correction. We bring correction not because we don't love these people but because we do. And we don't want them to be destroyed and hurt themselves. So we're trying to stop them or don't go down this path. You know? Don't go any further. Listen to the Lord. And Yeah. The the train horses can be turned by Oh, okay. You know? So they don't need it. They don't need it. They're cooperative then. Yeah. They've Yielded. Trained. So god would want us to be cooperative, yielded. So we talk about free will. I have I have a will to yield or to resist. Right? Yeah. Mhmm. Kathy said that one of the things when she used to go horse riding in California where you rent those horses, whatever you do, don't fall off them because if you fall off them, they're gonna run back to the pen. Right? They're trained to run back. You know? So you you you know, they're smart, and you don't even need reins with them. They they just do their own thing. They it's like rope form. But that's a good point you bring there. And so now he says verse 10. Watch this. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. I mean, the wicked, the rebellious, they bring it on themselves. Now all of us have adversity in our life. Okay? The devil's after us, wants to destroy us. We all have tribulation, adversity, trials, you know, heartache and stuff. But the kind that I don't want is the kind because I'm a rebel. As far as I can tell, I've never been a rebel toward the lord because I know he just pinched my head right off. You know? Yeah. I mean, you don't mess with god. You just don't mess with him. But there definitely is stupidity in me and things I've done that he's had to, you know, spank me and humble me and and deal with me and get me to, you know, think clearly and to yield and to quit conniving and stuff. But you don't wanna be so blockheaded. I remember on Gumby, they had the blockheads. You know? You don't wanna be so blockheaded. Many sorrow shall be to the wicked. You're inviting it. You're always bringing it on yourself. But he that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. So you're forgiven, you know. You're not in rebellion to God. You're not fighting with God. So what's rebellion? Rebellion is I'm gonna take that woman Bathsheba. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. And I'm gonna kill her husband. And I'm gonna cover it up for a year. You know? And that's rebellion against God. And God in his love confronts David with Nathan the prophet. David, you're the man. And David goes through a time of restoration, repentance and restoration. So he's able to as a result of his mistakes, he comes back and writes Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51 for us to learn from, you know, so that we don't learn the hard way. I don't wanna learn the hard way, and life is too short. It's just too short. We we can waste so much time and miss out on what god has for us. So alright. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for the time that we can spend in your word tonight. And, Lord, we we know that we're, we're like sheep, Lord, that are just so stupid. We need a shepherd. We need someone to, protect us from wolves and protect us from famine, hunger, cold, drought. The sheep are completely dependent upon you, Lord. Without you, we can do nothing. And so, Lord, we desire to enter in evermore to what you have, to mind the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus, to know you more and more, to not live lives from afar or on the fence or in the world or any of that stuff, Lord. We wanna live the life of the spirit. You said that you've come that we we might have life and that more abundantly. We want the abundant life of the spirit, Lord. We wanna be filled, be being filled with the holy spirit. We don't wanna be carnal Christians. We don't wanna be marginal, living in the gray. We wanna be on fire, lord. Effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much. Lord, we wanna finish well. We wanna bear much fruit for your kingdom and for your glory. And we Lord, we do pray for discernment in these times in which we're living, evil evil times. And, Lord, we pray that you you would help us to not succumb to the lies and the deception and the trickery of the devil with the flesh and all the world and all the things going on. Help us to continue to walk that straight and narrow path with our eyes upon you, looking for Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, Lord. So blessed, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Transcript for:
Ezekiel 23

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Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

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Transcript for:Ezekiel 23

About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen Anywhere

Transcript for:
Ezekiel 23