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Ezekiel 24
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Alright. Father, just please bless, Lord. Please open the scriptures. Please teach us tonight, and thank you for the nice meal, the tacos, and everything, and the desserts. And thank you for Rob leading us as we worship you in the time of prayer. And and we just pray now that as we study your word, Lord, that you'd equip and strengthen us, that you'd speak to our hearts, that you'd give us ears to hear. Lord, that we'd apply these truths to our lives. And, Lord, we pray that those around us, our kids, our family, neighbors, coworkers, that many, many, many, many people, Lord, we'd we'd see a great harvest of souls being drawn in by yourself, Lord. So bless, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright. Parable of the boiling pot. So, again, on the ninth year, in the tenth month of the tenth day of the month, which is January fifteen five eighty eight BC, and it confirms with second Kings twenty five one, Jeremiah thirty nine one, and Jeremiah 52 verse four. Three other times, this is noted. And that's what's so cool about the Bible is a lot of these things are noted like that given specific dates. And then in many cases, you can look at historical records, and you'll see it coinciding. Like, for instance, if you were to find a record of the Babylonians or the Assyrians, you know, their their recorded history, you'd find that they would be saying the same thing. And so the Bible is confirmed over and over and over again throughout history as being correct, and and that's that's the uniqueness to this book. So son of man, write the name of the day, even of this same day, the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem, that same day. So write down that day, when the king of Babylon was gonna put a siege upon Jerusalem and utter a parable under the rebellious house and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it. So this is the rebellious house. These are God's people and they're just incredibly rebellious against God. Now they go to temple. They look like they're religious. They look like they're here. And, we, we see the same thing today with people attending church. But can they hear? Do they have ears to hear? Jesus said to the seven churches, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying unto the churches. And a whole lot of people just can't hear. We're in a time of apostasy, of turning away from the truth and departure from the truth. It also speaks of rebellion against God. So that's what his own people are going through, and it's gotta break God's heart when we have rebellious kids. And you spend a lot of time trying to get through them, and they they can't or they won't hear. They can't as in you can't hear? Can't you hear me? Or they won't hear. Sometimes it's, you know, it's both. And utter a parable unto the rebellious house and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God. So it's God's word. It's not Ezekiel's word. Ezekiel, you're just the delivery guy. And when you see thus saith the Lord, it's the Lord going to speak. This is the message you're to bring to this rebellious house. Thus saith the lord god, set on a pot and set it on also and pour water into it. Now in the past, these are called object lessons. In chapter in verse 15, he's gonna give them another object lesson, is a very, very difficult one where God's gonna smite his wife dead. Ezekiel's wife's gonna be smitten dead in verse 15, And Ezekiel's gonna be told, and don't weep or cry. Don't mourn. Imagine how difficult that would be? And here, it's a boiling pot, and the city is the boiling pot. And the contents of the boiling pot is the people. The people are gonna be put in a boiling pot when the siege is put around Jerusalem. There's no escape for you guys. And so God in the past had used an object lesson of where Ezekiel eighth scroll. Remember? He also laid on his side for over a year. Object lessons. He cut his hair. Causes people to say, why is Ezekiel cutting his hair? Why is Ezekiel laying on his side, dad, mom? Why is he eating the scroll? He cooked Ezekiel bread with cow manure. I still don't eat Ezekiel bread. Everybody thinks it's so great. It's got all these grains in it. Well, it's got some other stuff in it too, you guys. It's been smoked. It's got that smoke flavor. Another one is he had to move out of his house. And here we got the boiling pot and the death of his wife. And so God communicates to us in Hosea 12 verse 10 through the prophets and also through similitudes. And similitudes are pictures. And so Jesus uses the picture of Jonah three days and three nights and belly of great fish to describe what? Jesus being reborn. His death, burial, resurrection. Yeah. Right? And so he uses it as a picture of of his death, his burial, and his resurrection. Baptism is also a picture of the same thing. Right? And so communicate in different ways. And sometimes people sometimes it clicks for him. He's he's speaking in parables or stories, things that might, you know, click click for him. You know? All I know is I was blind and now I see in John nine. That's where I was. I was blind and now I see. The lord quickened my heart and mind. Saul of Tarsus was angry at the Lord, wasting the church, the chiefest of sinners, and he didn't get it. He was walking in zeal, exceeded all of his contemporaries in his zeal. He thought he was serving God. But, the Lord appeared on the road to Damascus and poised Saul, Saul. And that's when he realized, I'm I'm away for a long time. The Lord just arrested him. And, he saw Stephen previously be stoned, and I believe he was tormented by that haunted by that vision of Stephen and all. And, he was kicking against the goats, but the Lord just, you know, just arrested him. So, on Sunday, talked about, skeptics, those who are skeptics and skepticism, people that have a hard time building faith. And so there's, resources and a need for patience and a need for people are questioning the authenticity of the Bible, then you can help them with some with some books, some means of teaching them where the bible came from if you don't know, if you can't explain it, and books on creation. People have a struggle with creation. If they've been immersed in school and they believe in evolution, you might have to, you know, help clean them off of a lot of the lies that they believe. I like when the Lord brings me someone, it just doesn't matter how pagan they are. I like the ones that come that have never been to church, that I get them before. I believe it once you lies. I guess now you gotta you gotta unwind all that stuff. You gotta unwind a lot of stuff that they think is true. And the Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, and the Jack Hibbs Church presently, and a lot of the Calvary Chapels, you have people come in, huge amounts of Catholics come in. And they come in with a lot of their doctrine. Like, they might think that there's a purgatory. They might think that Mary's a coredemptress, you know. And they've got a, you know, a lot of different things that they've been taught by priests and taught by the church, you know, the religious aspect of the church. And that they're very religious, but one of the things inevitably we find out is, you know, I'm not born again. So you're like Nicodemus, you're a religious guy, a leader, but you're not born again. And so we start with them with an emphasis upon the need to be born again. And they're like, well, what's that? That's the same thing Nicodemus said, what's that? How can a man that is old go the second time, you know, in his mother's womb? So you go through that with them. And once they're born again, once they come to Christ, then it's much easier to disciple them. Why is that? Yeah. So there's a there's a now they have their spiritual ears to be able to hear. Whereas before before that happens, you're trying to give them knowledge and information and facts and things like that, but they don't have the capacity to really hear or understand. And so when somebody's really struggling, really fighting, can do your best to give them information to help them through their skepticism. But really, you have to start with and analyze and and ask the question, you know, is this person really born again? And that's that's where we wanna make sure. That's the starting point because because first Corinthians two verse nine says what? The natural man natural is body and soul. Right? The natural man understands not the things of god neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. Right? So you're trying to talk about spiritual things with people that don't have the capacity to understand spiritual things. And sometimes using object lessons and pictures. So like my grandkids, they might not be able to read but maybe I can take them through a picture bible, cartoon bible, know. As remedial as I possibly can to get it down as far as I can, these that they can conceptualize biblical truths that are brought down to the smallest smallest means of of communication. And then we can build from there. Right? Pretty soon they're gonna learn the ABCs, and then pretty soon they're gonna, you know, read their first words, and then we get them a children's Bible and begin to read the Bible with them and help build them up in that way. And it's the same thing with adults, the concepts, these truths that we're learning, that we're teaching. You know, when a person's born again, as Rob alluded to, the Holy Spirit has been given to lead and guide us into all truth. And also the Holy Spirit's given to show us things to come, future. So the Holy Spirit's been given to us that we could be students of prophecy, that we would recognize and connect the dots of the times, you know, in which we're living. A lot of people don't understand the times we're in. So if a guy writes a book, 88 Reasons Why Jesus Come Back in 1988, What's that do for you? Means that person doesn't read his bible because I read mine and says we don't know. They have no idea. But they sold millions of copies. Right? Millions of people who are reading their bible. So Kathy and I questioned about getting married because when we got saved 1980, pastor Chuck wrote a book and you can't find this book anymore. And Chuck wasn't the one that did that 88 reasons, but he did write a book. And he wrote a book and he it was really strongly emphasized while we were there in 1980 that the parable of the fig tree. So how long is a generation? This generation won't pass away till all these things be fulfilled. And so 05/14/1948, Israel was reborn. And so Israel's the fig tree. So you go forty years ahead, '48, '58, '68, '78, '88. Alright. Jesus is gonna come back in 1988. So that means we're pre trib. So that means minus seven years, the rapture is gonna take place before 1981. That was the thinking. So Kathy and I are saved in 1980. We didn't even know if we had time to get married. Seriously. We're like, Lord, we wanna get married. We wanna have kids. Lord, we wanna buy a house. Now what's funny about that is there's a lot of young families that still think that way. They have their dreams. And if Jesus is gonna come back the rapture before the Antichrist signs the peace treaty, and we're watching a one world government develop and a one world monetary system and a one world governmental system, religious system, and we see these things begin to come to pass. How much time do we have left? So a whole lot of young people don't want to hear prophecy because that would interfere with the dreams they have. Right? And so it's scary, you know? And but once they have teenagers, they'll be praying that God come back today, you know? Come quick, you know, Lord. Right? And No. Nobody can make a mom cry like a teenager. The things that come out of their mouth. That's it. That's it, baby. So And now if you if you are in denial and don't want the Lord to come back right now, it may be that your capacity to identify signs of his coming is hindered because you don't wanna see it. You don't wanna hear it. You don't wanna see it. You know, you don't wanna admit it. And so it makes you uncomfortable. And and so that's why the majority of the churches what is it said only? 2% of the churches teach prophecy? Why is that? Why would that be? You'd you'd you'd keep, you know, 30%, 27% of the bible, you know, away. No, we're not gonna talk about that. And it's called as we call Colossians Titus two thirteen, you know, the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. But many don't wanna hear it. So these guys, in their case, the Lord gave them forty years of Jeremiah preaching to repent, and they just won't do it. And he keeps trying to get through to them, try to communicate, and the diagnosis here is their rebellious house. What's a leader to do with a rebellious house? What can Jeremiah do? What can Ezekiel do? What can Isaiah do? Isaiah was sawn in two by the king. What are you to do? That's my mission? That's what I'm supposed to do? Find somebody else. Why do I want to spend a generation, forty years, beating my head against the wall against the people that not only don't want to hear but can't hear. Absence of the body is present with the Lord. Yeah, just take me now. Take me now. Lord, just take me now. It's a thankless job. And these prophets are doing it because God's called them to do it, and they're obedient to him. But they're sure not building up big names for themselves and getting big churches and, you know, selling books that everybody's buying and having two, three houses and stuff. That's not happening. They're despised and rejected of men like Jesus. So a parable under the rebellious house and saying to them, thus saith the Lord God, set it on a pot, set it on and also pour water into it, and gather these pieces of flesh into it, and every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder, fill it with the choice bones. So this is picturing the people of the city, analogous to that. Take the choice of the flock, the best of the flock, and burn also the bones under it. So you're gonna take the bones and you use the bones to as wood, as fuel for this pot. And down in verse 11 it says it's a bronze pot and and put the the choice. The people are gonna be burned to the point their bones are even gonna be burned up. So take the choice of the flock and burn also the bones under it and make it boil well and let them boil its bones in it. And so in Revelation 19 verse 20, the choicest bones of the antichrist seven year period of time is the antichrist and the false prophet. And the angel grabs hold of them and casts them into the lake of fire. The choicest the choicest technocrats and all the wealthy, those that are trying to hide themselves from the wrath of the lamb, they're thrown into the pot of the tribulation period. The fire of the tribulation period. And so they're gonna be exposed. Verse six, wherefore thus saith the Lord God, woe to this bloody city. It's a very hot pot. And then this hot pot is exposing. It's been said, you've heard me say this a million times, Christians are like tea bags. You don't know what flavor they are until they're put in hot water. Right? Some are bitter. The trials in some will make you better. And for others the trials will make you bitter. And that bitterness can be turned to sweetness the moment we surrender to the circumstances God has ordained in our life. If we're fighting those circumstances and fighting the burning pot, then it's gonna it's gonna from the heart, the mouth is gonna speak, and inevitably this bitterness from your heart's gonna gonna spill forth. And that's an indication you're rebellious against God. You're rebelling we're rebelling against his will. So and and he's doing that to show us where our heart's at. So wherefore, thus saith the Lord God, woe be to the bloody city, speaking of Jerusalem. They've been killing babies. They've been idolatrous. And the Babylonians when they come it's going to be even more bloody. To the pot whose scum is in it and whose scum has not gone out of it, bring it out piece by piece, then not lot fall upon it. And so no one is going to escape piece by piece, bone by bone, each and every person's going to be in that that fiery, fiery trial exposing. And for her blood is in the midst of her. She set it upon the top of a rock and poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust. And so there's just blood everywhere. There's murder. There's death. There's when Jeremiah, when the siege finally did crank down, you remember we saw the book of Lamentations that the mothers were eating their babies, boiling their babies, and eating their babies. They were so famished. And the blood is crying out. When Cain slew Abel in Genesis chapter four verse 10, the blood of Abel was crying out. God said, Cain, where have you been? What are you doing? And and he slew his brother because he was jealous of his brother and that his brother understood Adam and Eve leading the garden in coats of skins in the Genesis three fifteen prophecy. And by Genesis four, Cain, who's a farmer, is offering to God the work of his hands and Abel's offering in faith a blood sacrifice and speaking future that Jesus would be the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And so so Cain being jealous of his brother because his his offering wasn't received with the Lord, but Abel's was. And so he slew his brother. He got an AK 47 and shot him to death. And yeah. That's why we've got outlaw guns. The gun killed him. It was a rock, wasn't it? It was a rock. Just picked up a rock. If you don't have a gun or a knife, people have always found a way to murder people. Just hit him on the back of the head when he's not looking. How about that? Alright. We've got to get rid of all the rocks. Everybody's got to get rid of the rocks. But what's the problem? It's the heart, isn't it? It's the heart. And the wages of sin is death. And so God after after Noah, when the ark reached the shore, God gave Noah as part of the government the sword to punish with capital punishment those that would kill somebody. So executing somebody that kills somebody blood for blood, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. So the blood's crying out. Job sixteen eighteen says the blood's crying out. And these are open crimes. Isaiah twenty six twenty one, I think it is, also speaks of the blood crying out. And then in Leviticus seventeen thirteen, if there is blood on the ground from a hunter shooting a deer or an animal, a person, whatever, it says here you didn't even cover the blood up in that you're supposed to take dirt and put it over the top of the blood that's on the ground. And probably a means of keeping all the flies on it, the maggots, and causing the blood to cause disease maybe. And so you take and you put the dirt over it to cover it. They And didn't even do that, that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance. I have set her blood upon the top of a rock that it should not be covered. So the blood is crying out and God's gonna cause fury to rain down upon them. He says, thus saith the Lord, God woe to the bloody city. And sometimes the city of Jerusalem is called Sodom and Gomorrah, the city where our Lord was crucified later in the book of Revelation. And so a lot of lot of evil things have happened in Jerusalem, and so this is the bloody city. I'll even make the pile for fire great. And so we're gonna make it hotter and hotter. And then later on, when the Lord returns in Revelation chapter 14 verse 20, Revelation six and nineteen, the blood's gonna be as high as the horse's bridle. Four and a half feet high, the blood is gonna cover the earth in the battlefield there. And the blood is the life is in the blood. So the bloody city, I will even make the pile for the great. It's gonna be hot, gonna be a pile of bodies, heap on the wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. And so it's gonna consume everything, the wealthy, the poor. The fire's gonna be so hot During the tribulation period, how many people die in a short seven year period of time? Most. Over over half the world's population, so 8,000,000 people. When the seal judgments first come out, one fourth of the world's gone, so that's 2,000,000,000 people. And then later at one third, so it's another 2,000,000,000 people of the 6,000,000,000 that are left. And so you got over half the world's population just in just just there. And it's gonna be gonna be a time of a lot of funerals, a lot of blood, a lot of carnage. Jesus said a time that the world has never seen before nor will ever see again. And so we've gotta be aware of what's coming. We've gotta let people warn people, let people know that with all these UFOs and all the drones and all the illness and the mask and all the wars and rumors of wars and all that, the most important thing that they need to know is Jesus. Amen. The devil's purposely trying to confuse people to to keep keep people from the main thing. The number one thing they need to know is Jesus Christ. They need to have a relationship with him. And we can't figure out all this stuff that's going on. A lot of it's designed to keep us away from the what the devil's trying to do to put together the globalist system. But we as Christians, we can be also sucked up into it and miss our mission, miss what we've been called to do, go and make disciples of all nations. So very, very corrupt. These set empty upon the coals upon the coals that the bronze may be hot and may burn and that the filthiness of it may be melted in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. And so gods want to, you know, meet out all the corruption, all the scum, all the wickedness. Let's burn it all. Let's get it all in there. People are thinking that when President Trump's finally sworn in that he's going to drain the swamp. That he's going to get in, start arresting people and get rid of all the corruption, you know. And I'd like to see that. And she so has wearied herself with lies and her great scum went not forth out of her. Her scum shall be in the fire. Have you ever seen such a time of tremendous lies and deception? At times that we're living and are filled with deception in the media, schools, churches, just lies everywhere. Lies in science, lies everywhere. Just just lies. Like Pontius Pilate said, what is truth? I like to know the truth. So in thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged. So three times he uses the word purged. And thy filthiness is lewdness, being lewd, the immorality, the sexual immorality. Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged, thou shall not be purged from the filthiness anymore till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. And so God's a consuming fire. And in the tribulation period, he's gonna purge, he's gonna purge, he's gonna purge, and a one third remnant's gonna survive. A two third remnant according to Zechariah thirteen eight and nine is gonna perish during that fiery trial of the tribulation period. God's gonna purify the wife of Jehovah. He's gonna bring them a place where they finally say, is he that comes in the name of the lord. I, the lord, have spoken it. It shall come to pass, and I will do it. So god's gonna do it. Mhmm. God's gonna complete the promises that he's given to the nation of Israel. The church does not replace Israel. We live in a time of a miraculous Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven, a nation being reborn back in the land, regathered in unbelief, blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And he says, I will do it. I will do it. So in Jeremiah 31, it's unconditional covenant. You have the old covenant, if you do, then I will. You got a new covenant where God says, I will. I will do it. I I'm going to purify a remnant, and I'm gonna write my word, my law in their heart. I'm gonna change them from the inside in Jeremiah 31. Unconditional covenant based upon God's will. God's going to save a remnant. So I, the Lord, have spoken it, and it shall come to pass, and I will do it. I will not go back, so you're not going to change his mind. Neither will I spare, neither will I relent according to thy ways and according to thy doings. So they judge thee, saith the Lord God. So is it possible to weary God? Is it possible to get him to quit or get him to stop or be so obstinate, so rebellious where the Lord washes his hands of you and says, you know, I'm done. You know? And the most tragic thing for a person to hear is God say it's not my will but your will be done. You know? So I'm thankful that the Lord saved me, gave me a measure of faith, and gave me a bible, gave me the holy spirit, just been given, given, given, given because of his grace, unmerited favor. I didn't deserve to be saved. I don't deserve to be to to continue to be saved. He's got a garrison around me. He's got a military garrison that keeps me, that keeps me in, that protects me, that keeps me from splitting, that keeps me from leaving. He's protecting me. Not just the enemy on the outside, but he's he's keeping me. And and I like that. I like how the lord has sealed us and that I have a confidence. Philippians one six, being confident in this very thing, that he that's begun a good work in us, that he's gonna complete it. That day of Jesus Christ, no matter how many times I fail, no matter how many times I fall, God's promises are yay and amen, and he's gonna keep his promises. It's not predicated or based upon my faithfulness. If I deny him, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. Somehow, someway he's gonna get me to the finish line, and I'm secure in him. Nothing can ever separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, and I don't wanna test it. You guys wanna test it? Oh, well, I'll see if I can get out of your hand. No. No man's able to pluck you out of my hand. And that's a comforting truth for you and I, that of eternal security, to know I'm secure. And I was going my own way, and he he arrested me, revealed himself to me. In in Ephesians two, Paul says, you know, I was quickened when I was an enemy of God, when I was when I was against him, you know, when I was dead in sins and trespasses, he quickened me. Means he raised me from the dead. And that's a fascinating, wonderful truth for us as Christians that the Lord changes us from the inside out. I don't know why kids that are raised in Christian homes don't appreciate it more. It's take it so much for granted. If they spend a while in an unbeliever's home, in that world out there, when they come to Christ and the scales come off their eyes and they finally have ears to hear and they begin to, you know, experience God's love and his forgiveness and his mercies and and all that, there may be a greater sense of gratitude and thankfulness and worship and praise and worship toward the Lord. But when something, in some cases, we we we take for granted, we take God for granted all the many blessings in each and every day that he bestows upon us. No matter what our bank account, no matter how our health is, no matter what, there's always so many blessings to count, so many blessings to thank God for, and the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. So he says now we come to verse 15 where he's gonna have him he's gonna send a hitman to kill Ezekiel's wife. How would you describe this? How would you write this out? Is there a way to make this sound better? Is there a way to make God seem like he's a bad god, unloving god? Do you think a person could use this and say, I can't I can't trust in a god that would do that, that would smite a man's wife right before his eyes. Is she a bad person? No. Has nothing. No. No. It's it's a it's a picture. It's an illustration. It's a sign. And must've been time for her to go. So that's why the reason I don't feel bad for Moses not going into the promised land because I know where Moses is. Right? Yeah. He's with the Lord. And we we look at, oh, poor Moses, but then I see him on the Mount Of Transfiguration. Yeah. And he's not around all those rebellious whiny people anymore. So so also the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, behold, I take away from the the desire of thine eyes. Boy, what a great way to describe your wife. That's a good way because the eyes of the wicked are never full. And what do you call it? A philanderer? A womanizer? His eyes are always looking at other women. Right? Mhmm. But Ezekiel, his eyes are only for one woman. The desire of thine eyes. Can't wait to see her. I've been out here with these filthy people all day baking bread with cow manure. I can't wait to get home and see my wife. You know? I mean, think about it. Think of that. I've been laying on my side. I lay on my side all day and I can't wait to get home and see my wife, you know. And with the stroke, yet neither shalt thou. With a stroke, I mean, she got a stroke. She was she was jabbed and she got a stroke and stroked out. Right there. Boom. Yet neither shalt thou mourn. Now it gets even harder and I don't even want you to mourn. You don't even get a hanky. At least I give people a hanky. Start whining. Neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. It's a brutal parable. What kind of God? You know? You start your head starts going that like that. He says, Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead. Bind thy turban upon thee, his hat, and put on your shoes upon your feet and cover not thy lips and eat not the bread of men. So hold it in. No mourning. Hold it in. I spoke to the people in the morning and the night my wife died. And I did in the morning as I was commanded. That's what we call radical obedience. And this is one of those where we would have you quote Proverbs three, five, and six. It's your life first, Shannon. Proverbs three, five, and six. This one, I want you to get this tattooed on your forehead. Forehead? Put it on my forehead. Are these are some of those lifelong script this was pastor Chuck's wife, Kay's favorite scriptures. Three five and six. Three five and six. Three five and six. Sorry. Now I get it. Five and six. Oh, it's it's highlighted here. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all the ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. So trust in the Lord with half your heart. Does that work? No. Trust in the Lord is when you can understand what's going on. No. Is that trust? No. Always. If you and I understand what's going on, where's the faith? Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen. Right? Mhmm. Abraham and Sarah were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Spent their whole life looking for it. Never came to it. Right? So that celestial city, that's what they're looking for. And so they're walking by faith. God's saying, hey. In your your seed, all nations of earth are gonna be blessed. And then Sarah goes through menopause. She can't get pregnant. And you're like, you know, twelve years into this promise, thinking, hoping, and then Sarah comes along and says, we better help God out. See, you're leaning on your own understanding, right? I'm gonna help God out. I figured the problem out. And Abraham says, well, what's what's that, dear? What do you think? And, well, I think you ought to go into my handmaiden Hagar and produce an heir that way. And so Ishmael, the work of the flesh, Ishiman, comes forth. And God didn't talk to Abraham for thirteen years, not till he was 99 and Sarah 89. Then he came to him and when it was impossible, This time next year Sarah's gonna conceive and if a son you can name him Isaac. And Sarah laughed incredulously like, oh, yeah, right. And the lord says, that's what we're gonna name him, laughter. You guys are gonna crowning moment of your life, Isaac's born. And then some say Isaac was 17 years old when the Lord told Abraham, get up early, real early, and take your son, your only son, Isaac, to a mount that I'm gonna show you and offer him there as a burnt offering. Again, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, all the way through, acknowledge him and he'll direct your paths. So you've got the submission, the radical obedience of Isaac. You have the radical obedience of Abram. And Abram's too smart to let Sarah know what he's gonna do. I'm not gonna let her know. I'm just kidding. But wouldn't that be hard if you had to tell your wife, hey, where are you guys going? We're going fishing. We're gonna go fishing tomorrow morning. What's that knife for? What's that what's all that wood for? What are you doing? Are you kidding me? God told you what? And then Sarah, if he did tell her, Sarah would say, Abbe, I want you to go see this doctor. They're gonna do a psych analysis of you. I think I think you're heading into the direction of senility. You're a little senile. You're you're not thinking right. And God says, my ways are not your ways, they're past finding out. As high as the heavens above the earth soar, my way is higher than your ways and my ways past finding out. Right? We can if we could figure God out, if we could outthink him or have an answer for everything, it wouldn't be a walk of faith. So Aaron had two sons in Leviticus chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu. And they're being groomed to be priests. They're in the ministry with dad, with Aaron, the high priest. And it says in Leviticus chapter 10 that Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire. What's strange fire, Rob? It wasn't normal. Strange fire. So you get the censor. Right? You get to as priests get to make the offerings. They were doing something they were called to do, that of offering the Lord, but they did it in a wrong way. So later on in the chapter, the Lord's forbidding the drinking of alcohol to the priests. So what many feel they were doing is they went in to do their offering to do their jobs drunk. They were drunk. So word to the wise, if you're gonna stand before God as a pastor or as a worship leader, don't offer strange fire. Don't come under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or anything else and stand there as a worship leader, pastor, priest, whatever, because the lord slew them, killed them both. Then he told Aaron, just like Ezekiel, don't mourn for him. Don't mourn for him. And hold it in. The psychiatrist will tell you if you hold it in, you're going to go crazy. You got to go through the grieving process. Which is true, I believe. I believe in normal cases it's true. This is abnormal. This is strange. This is going to take a dependency upon the Holy Spirit. You're going have to deny all of your emotions, all of your human makeup to be able to pull this off. But the lord will be there to help you fulfill the crazy things he tells you to do, you know. It's it's crazy to leave everything and to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and venture out with with Sarah. You know? It's a lot of what god calls his, the men and women that he uses is crazy what he's asking them to do. It doesn't make sense with the world. It goes beyond natural wisdom and natural thinking. And how does the prophet, how does the priest, how does the prophetess, how does the man, the woman of God do it? They walk moment by moment with the information God has given them by faith. Mhmm. You can only you can only move with what he's revealed. And what he hasn't revealed, you by faith trust him. I believe we're watching a phenomena of people claim that they believe in Jesus and we need to say to them, well, the demons say that they believe and they tremble. And I wanna ask them a question. Alright. You say you believe in Jesus, but do you trust in him? Do you trust in him day by day to live the Christian life? How can we know? Because when you have trials and things go wrong, who do you turn to? Who do you depend upon? Who do you rely upon? How do you get through another day? And when we watch you and it's through a dependency upon the lord, trust in him, we watch your faith muscle grow, we watch you grow, We know that know that you're a real believer. But if you bail, if you take off, then we see the seed that wilted. We see the dog returning to its its vomit and the pig returning to its wallowing in the mire. So the trials will expose who we are if we're going to continue. Now the emphasis here is upon being a sign. This is a sign, the pot. This is a sign Ezekiel's wife dying. There'd be no time for mourning. No emphasis upon mourning. They've gone so far. They've gone so far. How many many days of mourning does it take till you just can't cry anymore? You're done crying. God's been weeping. God's been crying. Wiped his face like David, weeping for his child that was sick and might die, the child that he had with Bathsheba, knowing the heart of God, knowing that God could change his mind, God could decide to save the child. And David's people are watching David fasting, praying, crying. And then when word came that the child died, David washed his face. They said, what's that about? You were crying and weeping while the child was sick. Why are you why aren't you crying and weeping now? Now you wiped your face and everything seems fine. Well, I can't be with the child now, but I'll be reunited with him later. So David let go of the child and knew that one day he'd be reunited with that child. And so he accepted God's sovereignty, accepted God's decision on it. And and so sometimes we have people in our life that we're the sign unto them, we're the heart unto them, we're the ears and the eyes. We're the voice. And when they hear us weeping, when they hear and watch the morning, were a sign unto them of God's heart. Jesus is looking over the city and he's weeping over the city of Jerusalem. How often are they gathered you as a mother hen does gather her brood under her wings, but you would not. Now your city's left you desolate. In seventy AD, Titus would surround the city and 2,000,000 Jews would be destroyed just like the Lord's describing here in the time when the Babylonians in May would put a siege upon the city of Jerusalem and destroy the inhabitants. So you've gone beyond mourning. It's beyond mourning. It's it's gone so far that we've wept and wept and wept till we can't weep anymore. In the case of Nadab and Abayu, their sin is so egregious, the Lord says, no, don't even mourn. They don't even deserve a mourning. They don't deserve it. So I spoke unto the people in the morning and at the evening with my wife my wife died. And I did in the morning as I was commanded, as I said, radical obedience. And the people said unto me, wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so? They don't have a clue. These people don't have a clue of how much they're breaking God's heart. Not a clue. Then I answered them, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, speak unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God. Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes. What was the desire of Ezekiel's eyes? What's the desire he's saying of these people's eyes? We'll we'll we'll analyze this. Profane the sanctuary, the excellency of your strength. You think Ezekiel had some strength being married to his wife? The two being one. The desire of your eyes and that which your souls pities and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword. So I'm going to remove the secret of your strength. What's the secret of their strength? I'll give you a clue. Somebody can read Judges chapter 16 verse 17. The secret of your strength. What's the secret of your strength, Sean? My what? Protein drinks? The lord. The lord? Yeah. Protein drinks? He was quick. Creatine, peds, my money. 16 what? Sixteen seventeen. Delilah was wanting to know the secret of Samson's strength. Hey, Sammy buddy. Tell me the secret of your strength. Well, if you weave my hair into six braids remember? Yeah. Oh, it says that he told her all his heart and said under her, there hath not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. Okay. So what's a Nazirite? What's that vow? Three things. Can't touch Say dead it again? Yeah. She was she was going there. Oh. Can't touch dead animals. Dead animal. Hair and cannot drink. Fruit of the vine. Yep. Mhmm. So did Samson touch a dead animal? Yes. Yeah. The dead donkey. And the lion's. The lion's jaw. Yeah. And the the honey out of the eater, out of the lion? Yeah. Yep. And drop one of a donkey. Did he drink and party? Yeah. Partier. Did he lose his strength when he touched the dead animal? No. Did he lose his strength when he drank? No. So we can go through the motions in our office, in our function, and not suffer the consequences immediately. We can wow people with our gifting when our character is inconsistent. Right? Mhmm. And we can get away with it for a time, but our sin will find us out. So we get a false sense of security in thinking, well, I can cheat on my wife. I'm just as strong in the pulpit as I was before. I can get away with this. I can get away with that. Oh, man. Nothing's changed. I can I can still lead people to Christ? I can still share the gospel. I can still go to church. I can still pray. Lonnie Frisbee is used mightily of the Lord in Jesus revolution. And he began to have trouble with homosexuality while he was married. And he could go preach on Sunday and go to nightclubs and stuff, you know, on Saturday nights, and then go preach on Sunday. And thousands of people come to Christ, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds people come to Christ. And God didn't take away that anointing from him. But the consequences of his actions, the consequences of his sin, led eventually to him getting AIDS and dying a miserable death of AIDS. So what's the secret of your strength? The hair? Is that why we grow long hair? Believe it or not. Obedience. Obedience. Yeah. Faith. Obedience. Faith. It's your relationship with Jesus. Even if you're disobedient, if you're just honest with him in your relationship with him, he's not requiring 100% obedience from Samson or you and I. Right? He just wants us to stay in that relationship. And Samson reached a place where he didn't value this incredible calling that was put upon his life from his birth, from when Manoah, when his mom and dad, were given this child, she wasn't able to have a child at first and the Lord gave them this child, a special child, you know, like Hannah having Samuel, the first last of the judges and the first of the prophets. And so here what the Lord's saying, I must take away the secret of your strength, which the sanctuary represented their relationship with God. They would come to the sanctuary. This is the place they would meet with God. And the Lord said, I'm gonna take it away. And I'm gonna take away the secret of your strength. I've been the secret of your strength. Then I answered them, the the word of the Lord came unto me saying, speak unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God, behold I will profane my sanctuary. So there you go. I'm gonna get rid of the sanctuary. It's gonna be torn down. It's gonna be invaded by Gentiles, by the Babylonians. The excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, that that look that newlyweds have for each other. I think Vicki could sing a song or Rob could sing a song. I've seen them I've seen them dancing before, and they could sing something along the lie lines of, I got eyes only for you. There's a song that goes that way. Right? I've got eyes only for you. It won't sound quite like it. Okay. We try. It's not my gift. Alright. But I am good with humor. Alright. That which your soul pities, so your strength, the desire of your eyes. And here here's a thing to remember, guys and gals. I'm able to look in my wife's eyes. I'm able to look in my daughters, my kids, my grandkids. As far as I know, I still have their affection, as far as I know. When Kathy's dad cheated on Kathy's mom many times over and over and over again, Kathy's mom forgave him. She put up with it. And then there came a day where he was he was cheating on her, and she knew about it with even girls that were younger than than his daughters. He was doing the bill check, you know? And Bill Belichick, 72 and he's got a girlfriend that's 24. Now, how do you go meet her parents? How do you do that? It's amazing. Anyway, they're happy. They're happy. That's all that counts. They're happy. And when Kathy overheard her dad in the living room tell her mom that he was divorcing her, Kathy couldn't look her dad in the eyes anymore. She wouldn't look her dad in the eyes. I don't ever want that to happen to me, Right? I can't look Kathy in the eyes, where she can't she's so disgusted she can't even look at me. Let's say it that way. I'm so disgusted I can't even look at you. Have you ever heard that said before? And that which your soul pities and your sons and your daughters saw, the pity, the mourning, your children, all that is precious to you is all going to perish. It's all gone because, number one, you didn't value your vertical relationship with me. God comes first. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things be added unto you. You don't appreciate. You don't value. You don't worship. You're just going through the motions, you're just playing church. And you shall do as I have done. You shall not cover your lips nor eat the bread of men. So there's gonna be no mourning. It's going be happening so fast and so severe you won't even have the time to bury the dead. There are going be heaps and heaps and heaps. There's not if if you survive, it it it would be better if you could just die because there isn't even be time to express the love that you had toward the person through mourning. When I've had to mourn for people that die, it comes in waves. Initially, there's this huge boom that's hit in the face, and you deal with that. And then you kind of clean yourself up and you think you're okay, and then boom, it hits you again. You know? And it can come with just the simplest little thing. Then it seems to go on for a period of time, everybody's different, and then it's like, okay, I accept that this person has moved on, you know? And your turbans shall be upon your heads. So you're going be moving. You're going to you're going to you'd be good if you could run out of the city, but there's not going be any escape. So your turbans shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet. You shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities and mourn one toward another. And so there's not going be any pity. And I see that remnant that's there in the area of Petra, that remnant during the tribulation period where they fled from the Antichrist and they're running away from Jerusalem and they're heading towards Southern Jordan, Old Moab area of of Petra, Basra, and they begin to mourn. The children of Israel begin to mourn. They they realize that they crucified their Messiah. They crucified Jesus. It comes into their heart, comes into their mind. And that's when they cry out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign. So Ezekiel's gone through losing his wife like that, just boom, is a sign. According to all that he has done shall you do, and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the lord god. And at this point, I would say it's not that bad. At this point, I would say, don't quit your day job. Tell the Lord to send somebody else, that you don't want this job. Who shall we send and who will go for us in Isaiah six? And Isaiah says, here am I, send me. Well, Isaiah, you ready to be sawn asunder by Manasseh? Jeremiah didn't wanna go. For me, if I if the Lord told me you ahead of time, all this kind of stuff that's gonna happen the next twenty, thirty years serving him, would you go? So it's good that he calls it a walk of faith. Catherine reminds me all the time, all the time. Rick, if I'd have known you were gonna be a pastor, I never would have married you. But she's so faithful. And you know what she said to me the other day? It was so sweet. She was really excited to tell me. She said, you know, Rick, I'm just so glad I married you. No. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. She said she said, this is so sweet. She says, Rick, I think I know why the Lord had me work in a nursing home before we got married. She's taken care of all these these patients, these people. You know? And, basically, it taught her how to minister to you guys. I'm just kidding. Minister to me, Betty? Yeah. That's true. But Kathy has some children in her Sunday school that are special needs kids. And she she connects with them. She connects with with the kids, and some of the parents have come up to Kathy and thanked her for that fact because it's a calling. It's not everybody is equipped and have a we all we all have different gifting. So, anyway, she was very, very thankful that the Lord had this planned all along. All along, the Lord was training her and equipping her. Now I can say with queen Esther or Mordecai, for such a time as this. And if you or I have a special needs child and they have people who are called of God, gifted of God, equipped of God to minister unto them, do know how espresso that is? And if you're God, where are you gonna send? Where are you gonna send the most needy? What kind of church are you gonna send the most needy? What place? What place would have the time for them? Permitent's got a lot of hurting people, broken people. When we were in the downtown, we had a lot of people from the mental health facility that would come by and make their rounds and be a part of the church. And I just always thank the Lord. What a privilege it is that the Lord would entrust to us some of the most needy people he has. Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes that upon which they set their minds and their sons and their daughters, the pain, the heartache of loss, the pain and the heartache of all that fills your heart with joy. Think of your kids, your grandkids. Think of the festivals, the feast, the times of dancing, the times of celebration. And now God's saying, I'm gonna bring a foreign army against you. I don't know if this is true. I'm just gonna throw it out there. This is part of conspiracy stuff. But, apparently, it's circulating a little bit. Maybe it's not even worth saying. But I better not say it because it's just speculation. The drones, what are they doing? You guys already know this. What's the speculation on the reason for the drones flying over New Jersey and all that whole area? What kind of sensory capabilities do those Department of Defense drones have? Quite amazing. They can see everything. Here Can they can they can they search out and sense isotopes? Is it possible of these 30,000 people that have come in across our border that one of them has an EMP or a nuke bomb? Would that be a part of the way for the globalists to totally blow our minds, is allow a nuke to go off in New York City, Jersey, that whole area? Anyway, that's some of what the military kinda guys are saying. It's these drones have capabilities of sniffing out isotopes. And now that could be a lie. It could get people worried, you know, whatever. But as I'm looking at this context, that's what this this here, that's what came into my head. The the Hiroshima, Nagasaki, all the places that we've bombed, all the places we've done stuff. Now what if it happened here? The shock and awe the shock and awe of something like that happening and how it would usher in the new world order, the great reset. It would it would be part of the whole economic collapse, the whole thing like an onion layer after layer after layer of things coming together, converging because this empire called America has to go down so that the great reset can rise. The Phoenix, the Rothschilds. I had the magazine on the kiosk for a long time, but it's it's one that I bought at Barnes and Noble about five or six years ago. You can pull it up online. But it's The Economist magazine, is owned by the Rothschilds. The Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland is is the number one bank in the world, and it's Rothschild run, and their dynasty. And it had a picture of a phoenix, And the phoenix had a chain around its neck with the global currency. And it's a phoenix that's coming up out of the ashes. That's the picture of the phoenix. So that's the great reset. They're going to reset the planet with a and they're telling me, this is this five, six years ago I I had that magazine. And so they're not hiding it. And but it's gonna take cataclysmic events to usher these kind of things in. Mhmm. And the nation of Israel has reached the end of their help, that God would help them. They're not being helped by God. They're being judged by God, and God's using a foreign nation to judge his people, to judge his very own. So they've they've reached the shelf life, but he's not destroying or eradicating them as a nation. The Babylonians are no longer. A lot of nations are in the ash heap of history. They're not gonna be reborn and brought back into the land and all. Iran is the land of the ancient Persians and Iraqis, Babylonians and such, but they don't have that identity per se. And but the Jews do. So the pain, the heartache that's coming, and I don't know that we in America have ever experienced this kind of pain, this kind of heartache nationally. We have individually. All of us have suffered loss, maybe not to this degree where you're forced to have to eat your baby. That seems to be way beyond anything in the scope that we could even imagine. Verse 26, that he that escapes and that in that day shall come unto thee to cause thee to hear with thine ears. Will they come help you to hear with your ears? Are you gonna be able to hear? In that day shall your mouth be open to him who has escaped? Thou shall speak and be no more dumb and thou shall be a sign unto them? They shall know that I am the Lord. Are you gonna be able to help those who are broken that escape that come to you? Will you reach a place where you can be a sign like Ezekiel is? And Jesus said in acts chapter one, that the holy ghost is gonna come upon you and you're gonna be my witnesses. You're gonna be a sign for me. You're gonna be my witnesses, my martyrs, when the Holy Ghost comes upon you. You shall receive power, dunamis dynamic power, when the Holy Ghost comes upon you. And you'll be my witnesses. You're gonna be a sign of me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the world. And he's given us the gospel. And do the people have ears to hear? Do we have a mouth to speak it? Do we have a heart to speak it? Do we have a relationship with the Lord? It's one thing to be a Catholic. It's one thing to be a Calvaryite or a Baptist or whatever denomination it is going to church. They say they believe, but in works they deny him. The character, the life, the lifestyle is not indicative of what it means to be a Christian, to be Christ like, to be a sign. Jesus said, it's by your love they'll know that you're Christians. They will never get it nor do they want to get it, these kind of people. They will never ever get it. All they want is the Happy Meals. And when Jesus says in John six, I know why you're following me, it's the prosperity, But you're going to have to come for me and not the Happy Meals. You're going to have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And he didn't call them unbelievers. He said, and many of his disciples no longer walked with him that day. They quit. Disciples. They started out and they quit. How many people did you start with? How many people you know are still walking with the Lord? And are you ready to be a sign to point him back to Jesus when the Lord draws him back? I saw where I saw where someone said, I've been such a failure today. And I wanted to write back, but I didn't. No? Some people feel like that. They feel condemned, like they're a failure. They failed today. They did everything wrong. And it's not that bad, Benny. It's not that bad. So I would say I'm a failure every day, but Jesus never fails. Then all the all that condemnation comes off you, and you know, but God, Jesus never fails. And that's where we get to rest. And here's his righteousness, our confidence and our faith in him, that he's gonna complete that work that he's begun in us. And he's the one that chose us, and he's the one that gifted us, and he's the one that has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and he's gonna complete that work that he's begun in us. And the only thing we need to concern ourselves with is our relationship with him. Just stay in that place of abiding, stay close to him, and he'll cause your life to be fruitful. He'll do the rest. Alright. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for the simplicity of your word, Lord. It just comes down to love. It comes down to a love relationship with you. And we love you because you first loved us. And Lord, we thank you that your love is so strong that you would never let us slip away. And Lord, you're you got your hand upon our our children, our grandchildren, friends, our family. Lord, you're working, you're moving on them, and we get to be a sign unto them. We get to be an example of what it means to be a Christian. And Lord, in our days of failure and our times of failure, we pray, Lord, that your grace would be sufficient, your strength would be made perfect even though we're so weak, that our sufficiency is of Christ, and that you'd anoint and use us, Lord, to say the right thing at the right time in the right way, and sometimes just be quiet. Just be quiet and allow you to speak, Lord. Allow you to give a mirrors to hear, hearts to receive. Give us the wisdom to know those who are ready and those who are not. But always, Lord, willing to obey you. Thank you for the example of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, these impossible jobs that you've given them, the calling you placed upon them. And yet, Lord, you brought them you brought them all the way through. You could use robots, you could use angels, but you've chosen, Lord, that we would be a part of your purposes, your plan and purposes to be used of you, that you would fill us and use us. These clay pots, Lord, fashioned out of the dust of the ground, but filled with you, Lord. So, Lord, we wanna yield. We wanna surrender. We wanna enter into all that you have for us, Lord, no matter how young, how old, how rich, how poor, how skinny, how fat. Lord, here we are. Lord, use us. No excuses. Use us, Lord, in these last days as your witnesses. The greatest privilege we know, Lord, is in knowing you and serving you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
