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Ezekiel 25
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Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. And so we're here at Rob and Vicky's home, studying Ezekiel 25, and, we wanna sing happy birthday to Vicky. She's, has a birthday on Christmas day like Jesus. So we're gonna sing happy birthday first and get that over with. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Vicky. Happy birthday to you. Oh, they I'll come in. Oh, there he is. There it is. Yeah. Everybody loves Vicky. And so, let's pray. Father, we come before you, and we thank you for this night. We ask that you bless and part your holy spirit afresh. We pray that you'd be with, Julie's mom, Susan, at the hospital, finding out that she has terminal cancer. Didn't know about that, Lord. That's a new one. And I just pray that they'd reconsider the way they're gonna treat her, that they would treat the pneumonia, and that'd be a horrible way to die, Lord. I pray that they would intervene and make it as as smooth as possible, Lord. And I just pray you help them to reconsider. And Lord, I pray ultimately, God, that you would intervene and you would heal her, that you'd heal Susan. We saw her do really well last week, and this is a huge surprise today. But, lord, we know that you're on the throne. You're in control, that you hear our prayers now. And, lord Jesus, we ask that you would be the great physician we know you are and to heal Susan's body. And, also, lord, Jules wants confirmation that her walk and relationship with the lord for for Susan just confirm, beyond a shadow of a doubt that, Susan is a lover of Jesus and that she knows the real Jesus and, that she knows you, Lord. So so bless, we pray, and use this sickness, Lord, to administer to other family members and doctors and nurses and all that, Lord. And we lift up Brooke, Lord, and we pray that you find a suitable place for her to be moved to and that she'd have a good physical therapist that could help her to walk again. I pray that you give Ray and Betty wisdom at this time time of the year, especially at Christmas, and just help the doors to open for transferring Brooke to a new home, a new facility, Lord, and just be with them. Be with Al and Cora as they battle a lot of different sicknesses, and be with Sally, Lord. Heal her from her cancer. And we thank you, Lord, that we can be a body of believers, especially at this time of year, that we're not alone, Lord. That we have you, we have your Holy Spirit, that we have each other, that we're a body of believers in Jesus Christ. In your name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Draw me close Alright. Thank you, Rob. Okay. Let's let's start with James chapter one. James chapter one, a young lady on our Facebook feed shared with me this verse today in James one seventeen, and I never would have thought it was so pregnant with so much there. And at Christmas time, every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights. Right? Right. So how do you interpret that? What do you what do you say there, Thomas? He's the Christmas light. He's the Christmas light? The Shekinah glory? Shekinah glory. So let's read it. Father, please help us. Please open the scripture to understanding and teach us, Lord. Help us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And so like Thomas is saying, when the wise men came from Babylon, they followed the star of Christ, the king of the Jews. And, many feel that that was the kind of glory of God, the same shining that that shown to the apostle Paul in acts nine, a light brighter than the sun shining there. And then also the children of Israel when they're coming out of Egypt, that huge fire, bright light that, guarded them during the night and then a cloud by day. And and so the the wise men who were astronomers, they saw his star and they followed that star and they came over, you know, and it it hovered over two years later over there in Bethlehem and all. So that's one aspect of it. It says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning. Okay? Now, we have a new friend on our Facebook, and not everybody on our Facebook is friends, and I apologize for those that are jumped on board and trying to poison people with flat earth doctrine. We'll get them blocked pretty soon, but I just wanted people to be able to see when they're accusing me of beating a dead horse, they in fact are beating the dead horse. They won't stop. So I have a responsibility as a pastor to earnestly contend for the faith. Contending means fighting. There's a spiritual battle that's taking place. It's ugly. I don't like it. I didn't want it. And, but it keeps persisting. It won't stop. So I have to address it because what's at stake is young believers get sucked into this, seduced by it, and then they begin to doubt god's word. They begin to doubt his word, and they begin to look at the Apocrypha and the book of Enoch and, you know, things like this. And and it it's you can stumble somebody. And Jesus said if you stumble somebody, it'd be better for you to take a millstone, put it around your neck, and cast yourself in the sea to stumble one of these little ones. And so it spread from one person forcing this on me on a Saturday, and I told her I didn't want it at all. And then it spread to another person, and unbeknownst to me, they've been spreading it. And then and then, you know, close to five people being sucked in by this. And then on our feed yesterday, they're still trying to sell people on this. They're still, you know, putting their videos out there and all that stuff. So, anyway, we're trying to counteract that heresy of of a flat earth by providing a reason for our faith, and a reason for the biblical creation. We believe that it denies the lord the glory that's due his name from the standpoint of his creation, and it confuses people because it undermines that of creation. If you can't trust god on, you know, creation, if you can't trust god on what you're seeing, you're up there looking at a moon that's round, and you can't trust that. I mean and you see a shadow on that moon with a lunar eclipse and, oh, there must be a bigger ball behind it that's causing that that shape. You know? I mean, the you take a a step a piece of wood and you make a sundial, and you wait forty five, you know, minutes or whatever, and the sun the sun the sun is causing the shadow to cast. So, anyway, so a lady named Nancy Morris, she said, how about this verse? And, I don't know Nancy, but a shout out to Nancy. Thank you so much. And, I so this verse, one seventeen, she says, what about this verse? So I looked at the verse, and I then I pulled up a commentary, David Guzik's commentary a few. And the reason I'm doing so many commentaries and I'm doing, like, Martin Luther and I'm doing Chuck Smith and I'm doing, you know, John MacArthur calling out these big name pastors, none of them believe in a flat earth. So if you don't believe me, go to these heavy hitters, these big guys, and see if you can convince them that the earth is flat. You can't. And case in point, if I were to become a flat earther, I wouldn't be a Calvary Chapel pastor because it's so heretical. Alright? I wouldn't be allowed to be a pastor. And I'm already a whackadoodle on where we are here. And if I become a flat earther, you know, now I'm a cult leader. And I'd be the biggest whackadoodle ever, and I don't wanna be a whackadoodle, you know, and I don't want my kids or grandkids to be whackadoodles either. So not to hurt anybody's feelings, but that's where it talks about contending. You don't always use words that everybody has warm fuzzies. When Jesus is looking at the pharisees and they're leading people astray, he calls them a brood of vipers. He calls them white walled sepulchres. He uses vernacular. He uses words to call them out so that other people can see them for who they are and and people get their feelings hurt. So, anyway, I'll read this the commentary here. And it says, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning, god's goodness is constant. There's no variation with him. Instead of shadows, god is the father of lights. Now watch in the Greek. I keep telling people do a word study. And what I mean by that is the rules of grammar. So what these flat earthers do is they take a word like fixed and they say that the planet's not spinning because it's fixed. Well, grade English class would say that you have to take that word fixed, and you have to look at the context of it. My heart could be fixed in that, you know, figuratively, and that I'm not gonna change. There's no variation. I'm not gonna change. But then my heart could be fixed in that it stopped beating. So which is it? You know? So they're saying the Earth is fixed. It's not rotating. No. You're misinterpreting that word. What god's saying is that in his in his creation order, you know, it's fixed and that it's not gonna change. He's not gonna change his order. In a time with Hezekiah, he allowed it, you know, to go forward 10 degrees, you know, to extend the day or whatever to to prove a point for Hezekiah. But, anyway, I'll get onto this. According to Hebert, the ancient Greek is actually so he's going to the Greek word. The ancient Greek actually and it's a much power more powerful word. So if I do a word study on love, in the English, it's love. In the Greek, you have four words for love. You have phileo of brotherly love. You have eroserotic love. You got family love. You got agape, a spiritual a spiritual love. So you have to take these words. So if you go to Isaiah forty twenty two and you see the word circle, you do a word study. You do a word study and look at it in the Hebrew. You look at it in the Latin. You look at it in the Arabic, and and you'll find that it's globe. It's a sphere, three-dimensional. Alright. So that's just one point. So anyway, he says according to Eber, the ancient Greek is actually the father of the lights. So what are those lights? The father of the lights. There you go. Those all that that's out there. Now the flat earthers, they have a 12 set video that Rob listened to, and they tried to lie to people and say, the stars out there are actually angels. They're not they're not the sun and not the, you know, stars. Can you believe that? They say there's no gravity. No gravity. So I told them go jump off a roof. Prove it. You know? But but that's they they can't handle that. So so then the only the only star I know out there that's an angel is if I watch it's a wonderful life and I see it blinking on the TV screen and Clarence got his wings. That's the only one out there that I'm aware of. So that that's how crazy this is. So the father of the lights. Okay? And he says, the specific lights are the celestial bodies that light up the sky. So they don't even say there's a celestial body. They got a bubble over us and there's no second or third heaven like Paul alludes to a man whether in the body or out of the body caught with third heaven. So the first heaven is where the birds fly. The second heaven is space. The third heaven is God's throne. But they don't even say there's a heaven. So I don't know how much longer I have to deal with this idiocy, but here we go again. I'm gonna try again. So the specific lights are the celestial bodies that light up the sky both day and night. The sun and stars never stop giving light. Do they, Rob? No. Okay. They never stop giving light even when we can't see them. Even so, there is never a shadow with god. When night comes, the darkness isn't the fault of the sun. So I'd like to take that word sun and in that verse now you could say I'm a heretic here. S o n. So watch this. So so even so there's never a shadow with God. When night comes, the darkness isn't the fault of the s o n. Right? You got darkness in your life. You've turned your eyes off of God. You you can't hear. You're past hearing. He's shining light. He's wanting to reveal. He's wanting to show you. It's clear. But you're living in darkness. So let me let's go back to the to the cosmos, you know, the the natural order. Even so, there's never a shadow with god. When night comes, the darkness isn't the fault of the s u n. It shines as bright as before. Instead, the earth has turned from the sun and darkness comes. You see that? See that verse? That that's proving a that's proving a a globe earth with a sun and an earth that that rotates around the sun. Right? That rotates each day, twenty twenty four hour a day, and a three hundred and sixty five around the sun in orbit, And that's that's the universe that our god created and our scientists and such. And and this is not a new thought. This is something that's gone back thousands of years. The flat earthers have revamped a thing in the last hundred years, but especially now. Now this flat earth stuff, it's not it's it's not people that are unbelievers. This is infiltrating the church. So doctor Danny Faulkner, it's called Flat Earth, a refutation of Flat Earth Claims. This is from answers in Genesis, Ken Ham. This is down in Kentucky. You know, they got the big arc and all that. These guys have dedicated their lives to being scientists and explaining biblical creation. Much smarter than me. Way smarter than me. So if I don't have the scientific expertise, I'm gonna count on them to show me in the bible and then back it up. You know, if they wanna proof if they wanna say something about the way the universe works or whatever, you know, you gotta show me in the Bible. So I try to stick with the Bible. Where's the Bible prove that the earth is a globe? Okay? So where's the Bible prove the earth is flat? It doesn't. It doesn't prove it's flat. You can't build a case unless you butcher language and and apply language literally when it's supposed to be taken figuratively in that like the word fixed, we would look at it as entrusted. You know, there's a trust there rather than fixed as in immovable. You know? And so, anyway, this book here is a is a good book. And then there's a DVD here, the heavens declare, 12 episodes here, and it's gonna be the origin of the universe, challenges to the big bang, the light travel dilemma, amazing solar system, the incredible sun, the wonderful moon, the law of gravity. Oh. Oh. The amazing stars, the wonder of magnetism, asteroids and comets, the space race, searching for alien life. So interestingly, you got these drones out there. There's gonna be people out there saying aliens are invading us. You know, we know that. But the Bible says they're demons. So when that happens, we'll have an explanation. The demons are being loosed in Revelation chapter nine. Alright. Here's another DVD, faith on the edge, exploring the biblical and scientific case against the flat earth. And so that's another way. Now what Danny Faulkner said is that typically today, people don't read. And because they don't read, they don't have the ability to comprehend a paragraph or a page or whatever. They they watch videos. They go on YouTube. So when they go on YouTube, a lot of their thinking and capabilities aren't there, and they're they're watching videos of people that put stuff out there. And he said years ago, the the reason we're seeing the proliferation of this stuff is years ago, a person that would want to bring forth an ideology of a flat earth, they would have to spend their own money. They would have to find a publishing company that would take the book if if they could give them enough money to get it produced and and to be it to let it get dispersed. And he said, so instead, nobody needs to write a book anymore. They can just be a YouTube pastor or a YouTube, you know, expert. Now here's one for the children. Awesome facts about space. So I'm gonna give this to my grandkids on Christmas. And why? Why would I do that? Cause I want them to fall in love with creation. I want them to fall in love with the God of creation. All through the Bible, God reveals himself and identifies himself as a God of creation and a God of redemption. And so you can't deny or diminish the glory that's due his name. A kid looking up at the sky and seeing the stars and the moon and all that, it's just natural for them to say, mommy, daddy, what is that? What's going on out there? You know? And, well, there's a real hard real hard dome up there, and you can't go there, and you can't go this way because you're gonna fall off the edge, son. You know? It's ludicrous. And so it's it's demonic. It's a very demonic thing. And he said, typically, it's Christians that are buying into this, And I believe it's a result of twenty five years of Rick Warren's purpose driven where the church has been not taught the Bible. They haven't gone from Genesis to Revelation. They lack discernment because they don't know their Bible. And so something like this comes along, and it in it it intoxicates them. The apostle Paul dealt with this. They called it Gnosticism. The Gnostics, like the occasion of Paul writing the book of Galatians, he had to write a book because this church that started out was being infiltrated by Judaizers and also Gnostics. And the Gnostics would present a different Jesus in a different gospel and their different Jesus was one that could walk. You'd see him walking on the sand, but he wouldn't leave footprints. So there was an emphasis upon the spiritual and these guys were super spiritual. They had super spiritual knowledge, secret knowledge, and that's what they're doing with this flat earth thing. They got the secret knowledge that they've discovered. So I would just encourage, you know, you to raise Christian kids. You don't want them to be flat earth space cowboys. You know? Don't raise them as cowboys, flat earthers. So and that I hope that really cheers everybody out. Merry Christmas. We're we're not gonna back down. In fact, next week, we're gonna double down. We're gonna have pastor Kevin Lee here. We're gonna have pastor Mark Dinsmore, Rob, and myself, and we're gonna do a podcast on refuting the flat earth. And yesterday, there was a a person displaying a follow Jesus diagram, And Brandon immediately saw it and said it's demonic. And then Mark Dinsmer will be here knows a lot about Masonry. So just that just that picture that we copied, we're gonna analyze that and show the demonic aspects of that. And why? Because we don't want anybody to fall for this. And so we're gonna do our job to put a bulwark up in our church because I never wanna deal with this. We're gonna establish a bulwark where it's like a wall, and then anybody new or whoever's in the church that wants to be a flat earther, you can be a flat earther. I don't care. But anybody that's concerned about the truth, flat earth or whatever, we're gonna have some materials for you so that you can educate your kids, educate yourself if you don't already know. And, you know, my main concern is I don't want people losing confidence in the word of God. That's my main concern. And one of the ladies in the church began to question the word of God, began to question creation and how and she's a new believer. And she got into this flat earther thing, and once she got in it, you couldn't turn her. You couldn't get her to reason. And so she listened to a twelve hour tape set that I refused to listen to and be a part of. Rob listened to it, and it was incredibly, incredibly moronic from a scientific standpoint and heretical from a biblical standpoint. So I we're living in a time of great deception, and these kind of things are coming in. And I never ever ever thought I'd have to deal with something like this. I don't wanna deal with something like this. But as a pastor, I wouldn't be a pastor if I was passive about these kind of lies. I have to I have to be able to provide a reason for the hope that's in us. And, yeah, these are peripheral things, but creation is not a peripheral thing. That's not a peripheral thing. You go to Romans one and when you begin to worship the creature rather than the creator, God says, you know what? You've suppressed the truth. You've suppressed the truth. And he says you're without excuse from that revelation of creation because you can go out and from nature, you can see who God is. So when you make him a flat earth maker and a little bubble and an edge where people are gonna fall off and a big wall of Antarctica, you're taken away from his glory. And the devil's standing back laughing because he's diminished the glory of god that god gets from his own creation. Do you see what I mean? It's a serious affront. And and I can't imagine people persisting in it, but it intoxicates them as agnostic. They're smarter than everybody else. They're the smartest people in the room. So Jesus said, you know, or Paul said, Romans one, they're professing themselves to be wise. They become fools. And fools, part of it's a word is moronic and so ignorant. And so we're talking to people about natural things. We're also trying to help them understand spiritual things. And if they're not saved, if they don't have the faculties of the holy spirit helping them, there's no way the holy spirit's gonna lead somebody into being a flat earther. So if you hear somebody saying my walk with the lord's deepening, you know what? The demons know the bible. The demons believe in god and tremble. Mhmm. So, I mean, be careful because the bible says be not many teachers because the judgment is gonna come harsher against you. So that's the best I can do for tonight. And one comment, Thomas. Okay. Doesn't Job talk about the spirit spirit of the earth, the spirit Being hung on nothing. Jocelyn, where's that verse? Read that for him. Job twenty six seven through 10. She posted that last night. Okay. He hangs the globe on nothing. Right. Right? Right. Can I ask real quick while she's looking at what's the author of that book? The kid's book. The kid book? Oh, you did? Oh. Yeah. I found it. Kids. Here. You can look at it. Sorry. I don't You don't wanna raise a space cowboy? Alright. Okay. You just Alright. 26. Isn't it twenty six ten through '10? Yeah. Yeah. He stretched stretched stresses out the North into the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He breathes up the waters in his thick clouds, and the clouds is not rent over them. He holdeth back the face of his throne and stretcheth his cloud upon it. He has compassed the waters with the bounds until the day and night come to an end. He's a god of order. Thank you very much. Well, that's my revival. Amen. Amen. So you take that word in Job. You take the word in Isaiah, and and you look at it in the Hebrew, and then you can follow it with other translations in the Septuagint. It'll have it in Greek. You can look at it in Latin. Apparently, there's even a means of Arabic. All of them, it's a globe. It's a globe. Okay? It's a sphere, not just a flat circle. Alright. So if you can't understand that, you just don't want to understand. It's it's just so basic. It's it's so remedial. It's just so incredibly remedial. And it's interesting. The unbelievers aren't buying into this. It's these Christian groups. Alright. Let's pray. Father, we come before you again. We just pray that maybe we reach one or two people. Maybe we've purged 20 people angry. I can't help that, Lord. People are angry at you, people angry at Paul, people angry at Timothy. Anybody that tells the truth, people get angry. And so, Lord, I pray that the truth will prevail. And if just one person is saved from this idiocy and going down a rabbit hole for six, seven years chasing after this stuff, one thing after another, Lord, I I thank you. I pray that those that are truly safe would approach you in a simple manner. There's only one Jesus, only one gospel, one holy spirit, and we just thank you, Lord, that you've made it simple so that even we as children can understand. May we never complicate it and make it sound like it's only for the super spiritual gnostics or whatever. So bless, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright. The word of the lord came again unto me saying so the word of the lord, god's word. Over 860, sometimes the bible describes basic you know, this word as god's word. Is this the word of man? No. It's the word of god. And and then you need that's where you establish. They have to establish that what we're reading here in the original autographs, the original documents, are inspired of god. They're inerrant. Inerrant. There's no errors in the original documents inspired of god. And in the translations, you translate the the text before printing press and all that. There can be textual errors, but we can fix those. But in the original documents, the original autographs inerrant, all scriptures given by inspiration means God breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration god and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of god may be equipped thoroughly furnished every good work. So we stay with the scripture. We don't we don't go to psychology. We don't go to pseudoscience. We don't go to skits and plays and and entertainment, you know, per se. We have to stay with the word of god. So the word of lord came again unto me saying, son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites. So now from chapter 25 to 32, Ezekiel is going to prophesy of god's judgment against some of the nations surrounding Israel that were gloating in the fact that Israel's being judged. They were you know, like the Ammonites, they're going, you know, and they're crying out to the Moabites raise it. Raise it. So when they're watching the Babylonians begin to take down Jerusalem, their enemies that surround them are are mocking them, gloating, making fun of them and all. And the lord's saying, you know what? It's it's soon it's gonna be your turn. So five years after after Nebbe destroyed Jerusalem, that's about the time he came through and he dealt with Ammon and Moab, and he went after Egypt. And and so we're gonna continue the lord giving prophecies of, from 25 to 32 of various Gentile nations. So in Luke's gospel, we're in what's called the times of the Gentiles, Luke 21. Right? Times of the Gentiles. Times of the Gentiles is when the world is ruled by Gentiles, where the nation of Israel, because of their disobedience, they've been dispossessed. They've been kicked out of the land. They're all over the world. So Daniel's vision Nebuchadnezzar's vision in Daniel two describes a golden head, a statue with a golden head. And so a golden age where Babylon would be the most powerful, strongest world empire. And then after after that golden age, after a little over 70, there's a knock at the door in Daniel five where you have Osiris and Darius, the Medes. So the Medes and the Persians, present day Iran, the Persians, and the Medes are the Kurds that are in the northern part of Turkey, which, you know, they're they're hopefully, they're gonna be supported by The US because the Turks hate them. So so you so you see you see after that the Medo Persian Empire. And then after the Medo Persian Empire and next week, we're gonna see with Tyre and Sidon how how incredible this is. But Alexander the Great comes on the scene, and he first goes after the Medo Persian. He gets all that wealth that the Medo Persians were able to take from king Solomon that the nation of Israel had. The Babylonians got that. And Hezekiah made a huge mistake early on. He allowed the Babylonians to come in and see his treasuries. You know? And, uh-oh, that's a bad thing. And so, anyway, very wealthy. Alexander the Great died, I think, what, '33. And and as he was dying, as he was walking along, he was given out his wealth just all over the place. You know? And so extremely successful, died at a young age, and god used him to fulfill the prophecy that we're gonna look at next week where Tyre and Sidon were sieged, but they had an outlying island area that nobody could get to. They were they were mariners. They were sailors. Part of their economy was such that they had a city on the land part, but they also had a outcropping, like, a little island area. And so you couldn't entirely wipe them out because of that. And so Babylonians weren't able to do it, but Alexander had an idea. He'd take the rubble of one part of the city. It was all left in rubble by Nebuchadnezzar, and he'd build a causeway to go across it. So the soldiers are able to go across it and then destroy that. And god says that'll never be rebuilt. It'll be a place where it'll actually be scraped and that fishermen will be drying their nets. So it's a very, very clear prophecy next week in regard to Tyre and Sidon and in the times of the Gentiles, the third world empire was the Greeks. Then after the Greeks was the Romans, and that's the fourth world empire, and the tribulation period is a rebirth of that fourth world empire. So that seven year period of time the Antichrist is gonna rule over the whole world. It's a time of Jacob's trouble and the lord's regathered Israel into the land, but it's important to understand that god has judged his own people. He's gonna judge the Gentile nations. Then ultimately, you're gonna telescope this, this judgment that's coming on the Gentile nations into the tribulation period where he's gonna completely subdue them because some of these nations are going to continue later and and, you know, regrow. And so that times of the Gentiles is present in that we have a Gentile world empire. It when we what we mean by that is Israel's not world dominant. Israel doesn't have the ability to be, you know, the fifth kingdom, which is gonna be Jesus' kingdom, where he's ruling and reigning from Jerusalem, and that's a dominant global world empire with Jesus as king of kings and David as his prince and you and I rule and reign with them over the Gentiles as kings and priests. Ain't that amazing? So that's the telescoping forward. And so now turn to first Peter four seventeen and eighteen. So the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. So if we look at that today and we're looking at, hey. We're the church, the house of god. Right? In this time, judgment begins at the house of god. Where's his house? The temple's there in Jerusalem. So God's beginning this judgment with Israel, judging Israel, but that doesn't mean the Gentile nations aren't also gonna be judged. And watch the watch the escalation here. Watch the seriousness. So for the time has come that judge judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us so in seventy AD in seventy AD, Titus is gonna surround the city of Jerusalem again and destroy it again because the Jews are so disobedient. Right? So what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? So if it first begins at the house of God, what's gonna the end be of those that aren't his own? The Gentile nations. Right? So pretty you know, just just because, you know, for you and I as a Christian, one of the ways we know if somebody's a Christian is when they're disobeying God, when they're having sex outside of marriage, and they think that they can make up their own rules and do whatever they want, When they're playing around in sin, living in sin, not just falling and falling as a sinner like we all do, but persisting in a in a rebellious attitude of sin. One of the ways you know if they're saved or not because they went forward, raised their hand, they prayed the sinner's prayer, they say to me pastor Rick, I don't know if they're saved or not because Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit, you know, and this is a very good fruit. And I'll say yeah. And I'll ask them a question. Is the Lord spanking them yet? Are they getting spanked? Because Hebrews 12 says whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son or daughter. But he doesn't spank the unbeliever. I don't expect the unbeliever to live like the Christian. That's right. Neither does god. So they don't have the capacity to live like a Christian until they have the holy spirit inside of them. Right? But in the church, I expect people that profess to be Christians in the church to simply love. Just love. That's all you want. Just love. Could you love? Can you forgive and love? You know? But you gotta the devil's so sly, he wants to divide a church. He wants to destroy by getting the Christians to bite and devour one another. You know? So it doesn't it shouldn't make me passive where I'm afraid to confront somebody because if I truly love them, I'm gonna confront them and say, hey. You got cancer. This living outside of marriage goes against God's design, and he hasn't changed his mind about it. He's not winking about it. It's a bad foundation to build a relationship upon. If you truly love her, then you'll get a hotel and not be sleeping in the car with her. You know? You'll you'll stay well stay away sexually till you guys get married if you truly love one another, and more importantly, if you truly love God. And that's the most important. Joseph said, how could I do this great evil against God? That's what kept him clean. It was his relationship with God. So we all fall. We all make mistakes. But the person that can sin with a brazenness and an arrogance and not even care the ramifications, that's a person the lord would describe as a stiff necked people that Jeremiah dealt with. They're stiff necked. They're stubborn. You just can't get through to them. And Jesus said these people do draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. He couldn't get to their hearts. He couldn't reach them. So this this judgment against, first of all, the Ammonites, he says face against son of man, set your face against the Ammonites. So who are the Ammonites? Descendants of Lot's daughter. Exactly. Genesis 19. Right? I love that, Shannon. Look at she's so excited to hear that. She loves the bible, doesn't she? She loves god's word. A new believer. Three years in the lord, and I just gave her a big oh. Oh, the dot connected. Was an incestuous relationship. Okay. Started it. Yeah. Okay. Now wow. That's pretty bad. Pretty bad. Yeah. Wow. What's God gonna do with that incestuous relationship? Gonna bring forth a whole nation. Right? And that nation is the Ammonites. Right? And where are they presently? Jordan. Jordan. Jordan. Yeah. And notice this. There's their capital city in Jordan is Amman, the capital city of of Jordan. Short for Ammonites? Ammonites. Yep. Now Jordan Jordan can also encompass the Moabites. Who are the Moabites, Jim? The other daughters. The other daughter. Yeah. Second daughter. Yeah. So two daughters. You gotta tell a story. Tell a story. Sodom and Gomorrah's bombs bursting in there, you know, and all that. And Lot hangs onto the hands of the angels, then get them out of the city. And what did Lot ask his wife? Because I leave the light on. Right. And so she turned around and turned into what? All of yourself. And what did Jesus say about Lot's wife? Remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's What's that mean? What's he saying there? Don't look back at the world. Don't look Don't look back at the world. That's all. He's there. So no man hood putting his hand to the plow No. Looks back. Looking back Yeah. Is fit for the kingdom of god. Right? The biggest problem we're having today to getting through to people is quit looking back to Egypt. Egypt's another example of the world. We're trying as hard as we can to get people to let go of the their love of the world. And once you let go, Jesus said, except a man lose his life, he won't find his life. You're gonna find out the greatest freedom ever is when you realize your citizenship is in heaven and that this earth is not your home. And that's where you really start to move, you know, in your walk with the lord. And there's no fear when you live like that. Right? To be asking about to be present with the lord. But if you're in love with the world, you're always afraid you're gonna lose everything. They're gonna take it. And so they manipulate manipulate in that way. It's like we said during COVID, the way that you catch a monkey, they won't let go of the of the rice, you know, in the tree. You let go, the monkey could be free. Alright. So the Ammonites, Genesis 19, incestuous relationship, and that relationship escalates, and they they wind up becoming a a nation. So cousins cousins, you know, of of the Israelites and prophesy against them. I don't want the Lord prophesying against me. Like we talked about Sunday, you know, I like the idea of of the lord prophesying peace for me, my future being peaceful, not destruction, not the destruction of hell. I like, you know, call unto me and I'll answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which you know not. Or I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. I'm excited about biblical prophecy where I'm going. You know? Heaven and the millennium and the marriage supper of the lamb and all those things ahead. That's the Lord prophesying my future, and that's that's what he says. Fear not little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So there's a short reprieve here from Ezekiel twenty one twenty eight through 32 where this was pronounced. And so a few years later, this is actually going to happen, this judgment. And say unto the Ammonites, hear the word of the Lord God, thus saith the Lord God, because thou said, So you know what? I I can't say to the flat earthers. That would that would wouldn't be nice. And you're gonna see here where you're actually supposed to according to Proverbs seventeen five. I'm a have Shannon read that. Proverbs? Proverbs seventeen five. And Jim could pull out the the Matthew 25 where Jesus is describing the sheep and the goats, and their judgment was based upon, and you could read that Matthew 25, Jim. I'm I'm bad with numbers. You said seventeen five? Proverbs seventeen five? I'm there. You're there. Go ahead and read that. Whoso maketh the poor reproach the reproach of his maker and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. So when we hear about somebody in the church, did you hear that so and so got caught at a hotel committing adultery? How fast does that spread in the church community? Sorry. And if you don't like that pastor or that person, it spreads even further. And people begin to here's the word. People begin to gloat. They gloat. They love it that their enemy fell. God's saying, that's not my heart. That's not my heart. My heart is that you love your enemies. Amen. Right? And one of the things I've discovered is we as Christians, she said if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. So when you sign up to be a truth teller, to tell the truth, and wanna live the truth, the devil's gonna hate you. The devil's gonna want you to compromise. If you compromise, then you're neutralized, and you're no threat to the king of darkness, and the devil leave you alone. But if you have a boldness that the Lord gives you and they tell you don't speak in this man's name anymore, don't meet anymore, you know, wear your mask and all that, if you go against that and you stand up to proclaim the gospel and continue to worship the lord and give him the glory that's due his name, they'll beat you, they'll throw you into jail in acts chapter four, but when they release you because they realize they can't stop you, they say, you know, you go away from there rejoicing, you know, rejoicing because you are accounted worthy to suffer for his name's sake. Amen. Your mind's totally changed. It's not, god, god's beating on me. This is bad. I was doing the right thing. Why you get me beat on? No. You're you recognize that living as a Christian, all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's a reality. Mhmm. And we, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It goes against the prosperity gospel, but it's it it describes what's gonna happen. So anyway, these people that are beating on you, these people in the church that are demonizing and you know, getting so angry at you and all, you have a choice to make. You can harbor that resentment and bitterness and, you know, let it smolder. Let it let it grow. A root of bitterness is is gonna it's gonna hurt you. It's gonna create the wrong kind of chemicals in your stomach, you know, and they're gonna get ulcers over all that. Or you can pray with Jesus, father forgive them for they know not what they do. Right? You can pray with Stephen, Lord, lay not this into their charge. So what I've discovered, it's real hard to hate somebody if you're praying for them. Right, Thomas? Yes. If you're praying for their salvation, if you're praying for them to to come to the truth, the knowledge of the truth, even when they hate me and they go to another church, I pray Lord help them to click, help it to click, help them to fit right in. Help them to have a whole new season of growth and help them to be able to listen to this pastor and and, you know, because sometimes people come up to me and they say, no. I'm not getting anything out of your message. I'm not getting anything. I can't I I'm not getting anything out of it. You're you're a loser, man. You're a loser. And I say, alright. Well, there's other churches. You you might like this church. Maybe maybe you should try this church and maybe you'll connect with this pastor. And and I don't take it as a as a, oh, they're my enemy now. I actually, you know, you pray and you wanna see that family grow, wanna see these people grow. And Jesus has taught us this, it's impossible for the devil to quench the Holy Spirit in your life if you're praying for the people that wrong you. In Matthew 18 when they wrong you, if you don't forgive them then you're gonna be given over to the tormentors. Right? You've got to forgive people that wrong you, people that mistreat you. You gotta forgive them. It's it's not an option. So anyway, the the Ammonites were gloating. They were gloating over the demise of what was happening to Israel and then later to Judah. And so in the tribulation period, the lord, when he comes back, when he gets into Jerusalem, there's gonna be a seventy five day interval there. And that seventy five day interval before the marriage supper, blessed is he according to Daniel 12 that comes to the thirteen hundred and thirty fifth day. So that's seventy five extra days from the twelve sixty from the midpoint of the of the tribulation period, and many feel that this is where this judgment's gonna come, the sheep and the goat judgments, and listen closely to what the judgment is, how the lord judges Gentiles who've come through the tribulation period and god's going to judge them now. Okay. Start at thirty one on down. Sure. Is that enough? Yeah. When the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You wanna keep going? Or And so what was the criteria? Some treat them good? Yeah. Tell them. I was naked and you clothed hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer and say, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink, when you saw a stranger and took in or naked and clothed, or when you saw the sick or in prison and you came unto and and came unto thee. And the king shall answer them and say, verily I say unto you, insomuch as you have done it to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. Praise the lord. Alright. So there's the criteria. There's gonna be gentiles that are allowed to enter into the millennium. Those are gonna be the ones in the human bodies that escaped getting the mark of the beast in the right hand of the forehead, and the criteria is gonna be of how they treated the nation of Israel during the seven year tribulation period. Right? The goats are the ones that didn't believe. The sheep are the ones that believe. So just like World War two with the Nazis, lot of Christians hiding Jews, helping Jews get into America and all. Then you also have others that are anti Semitic that hate that hate the Jews. So the Lord's saying a believer as a believer, we should love the nation of Israel. We should Jim's gonna quote Genesis twelve two. I'll bless those that bless thee. Oh, bless those that bless thee. I'll curse those that curse thee. That's it. So God spoke that to Abraham. Yeah. So So you bless you bless the Jews, you know, and it doesn't mean they're moral. It doesn't mean they're perfect. Nobody's perfect. They're gonna they're gonna sin. They're gonna do bad things. But as a whole, god wants you to bless the nation of Israel. He doesn't want you to be anti semitic. He doesn't want you to be a Jew hater. He doesn't want you to believe the lie that the Jews crucified Jesus. The Jews didn't crucify Jesus. Neither did the Romans. Who crucified Jesus? Our sin. Our sin put him there. And if we go a little bit further, it wasn't even our sin. It was his love. Right? But it's our sin that made it so he had to go there. Alright. So thank you. And then behold, therefore, I will deliver thee to the men of the East and for a possession and they shall set their palaces in thee and they shall make their dwellings in thee and they shall eat thy fruit and they shall drink thy milk. Sounds like the Chinese are coming, man. Buying up all of our farmland and taking everything from us. Right? Why isn't anybody stopping them, man? We haven't even been overcome. But, man, they sure are buying up all the farmland, buying up America. And so one of two things. It could be that Nebuchadnezzar, according to Josephus, a Jewish historian, said that Nebuchadnezzar five years later came in and destroyed Ammon, Moab, and Egypt. Or this is men of the East or the Bedouins. The Bedouins came in as the Ammonites were weakened, and these are the these are the Arabs, Ishmaelites, that travel and move about with their sheep, with their livestock in tents, kinda like Abraham and Sarah lived. They didn't have one stationary place that they stand. So behold, therefore, I will deliver thee to the men of the East for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee and shall make their dwellings in thee, and they shall eat your fruit. They shall drink your milk. And I will make Rabba so that this time of the writing, presently it's the area of Jordan and the city of Amman is the capital city, but this sign is Rabba. Rabba is the capital city. I'll make Rabba stable for camels, so it's gonna be livestock. You can go from being a city to a to a a barn. And and the Ammonites, a a couching place for a flocks and ye shall know that I am the lord. Sometimes the lord uses judgment to get people's attention and they give him the glory that's due his name. You're gonna know that I'm the lord. You're you're gonna have respect. You didn't you didn't acknowledge me in good times, but now in a time of judgment, you're gonna say uncle. And he says, for thus saith the lord god because thou has clapped thine hand and stomped with your feet and rejoiced in your heart with all thy despot against the land of Israel. So in July, a hundred years before, the Ammonites were gloating in that the Assyrians destroyed the 10 northern tribes. So because you enjoyed that and gloated, according to Proverbs twenty twenty four seventeen, he says, rejoice not when thine enemy falls and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbles. So we're told in Galatians six one, our attitude in the church as Christians. I'll start it and you guys finish it. If any man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted. There you go. So that's the proper attitude. It's not the gossiping. Did you hear? Did you hear? Because it could come back to bite you too. You know, you don't want that. So he says here rejoice not when the enemy falls and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbles. Lest the Lord see it and it displeased him and he turned away his wrath from him. And so the lord said I might just stop whooping on him if I see you enjoying it too much, you know. And Jonah enjoyed too much the message of forty days and you're gonna perish. He enjoyed that message way too much. He was gloating in that message. You know? Right? Right? Little too much. You know? And he was angry when the lord brought that that the Ninevites to repentance. I knew you were a god god like that, you know, a loving god. You know? And so funny. What a prophet. What a what a revival. Wow. Mhmm. You know? Amazing. Yeah. People don't appreciate the good news till they hear the bad news sometimes. Right? In a hundred years. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Over a hundred. Yeah. Okay. So, man, I don't wanna be an enemy of god. I don't wanna be a rebel. So rejoice in his heart with all thy despot against the land of Israel. Behold, therefore, I will stretch out my hand upon thee and will deliver thee for a spoil to the nations and I will cut thee off from the people and I'll cause thee to perish out of all countries and I'll destroy thee and thou shalt and and thou shalt know that I am the lord. So you don't meet any Ammonites anymore. They're gone. No more Ammonites. You have Jordanian people who are presently on that on that real estate, but no more Ammonites. Alright. So verse eight. Now we're gonna deal with Moab, the Moabites. And as Jim was pointing out, Rob and everybody, this is interesting because Ruth is a Moabites. Right? Mhmm. And you guys know the lineage in Matthew one, and you know the story that Moab met our kinsman redeemer, a type of Christ. Right? Mhmm. And and he paid the Goel price, the price of redemption to redeem Ruth, a Gentile bride, by the way, the bride of Christ. And she went to the where he was sleeping on the threshing floor and by his feet in submission, and there was another person that was a closer relative, and he would take the field of Elimelech and all that, but didn't wanna marry Moab, cause trouble with his wife. And so so couldn't do that one. So Boaz, what a great name for a boy, Boaz. That's a great name. Bo. Hey, Bo. So Boaz Bo Bodrey. Hey. That sounds good. I didn't get to have a son, though. Alright. But I got grandsons. Okay. So you know the story. People today are saying I need medication. I don't know. Maybe they're right. I'm off my meds, man. Alright. I sure have fun with Jesus people. Alright. So so they they get married and and Ruth and and Boaz begat Obed Obed begat Jesse. Jesse begat David, and David's the root and the offspring. Jesus the root and offspring of David. Root as in David, you come through the lineage and offspring, Jesus comes through that that same Davidic covenant Davidic covenant lineage. Okay. Related. And Seir do say, behold the house of Judah is like unto all the nations. And so Lot comes out of there, same sort of thing, and just like all the other nations. Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities from from its cities where on its frontiers in the glory of the country Bethchish, Amam, Belamam, and Kiryatham unto the men of the East with the Ammonites and will give them in possession that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations. And and I will execute judgments upon Moab and they shall know that I am the lord. So Josephus says that Nebuchadnezzar handled the Moabites also and dealt with them, all their different cities, and others think that nomadic tribes came in there when they were weakened just as before with the Ammonites took them down. And so now we come to Edom, the Edomites. And the Edomites originate from Esau. So what happens with Esau and do you guys know the story of Esau and Jacob? Mhmm. So you got twins. Right? Mhmm. And two nations inside of Rebecca and Rebecca and Isaac and two nations inside there, they're warned they're fighting from. One is called heel catcher. Which one's heel catcher? Jacob. Jacob. Jacob. Which is a picture of his character, a a conniver. Right? Mhmm. And the the midwife, she noticed that hand came out her foot. I forget what it was. What was it? You guys remember everything? Hand come out of the womb. And they take and they put a red, like, little string on it. Right? That's the firstborn. The first one to breach the the womb. Right? And then the arm goes back in there and, you know, they're fighting and all that. And then Esau comes out eventually first. Right? So he's the firstborn. His name's Esau in that he's a reddy. He's real hairy and red haired. He's the red haired stepchild and and then and he's the favorite he's the favorite of his dad. He grows up being a hunter and he has this, really good venison that he can make in some chili and everything, deer chili and all that. But Jacob was a mama's boy and he watched all the cooking shows and he knew how to make some really good stew and all that kind of stuff. And you know the story because God had prophesied that the elders shall serve the younger. Mhmm. And Jacob, rather than allowing the Lord to to let it play out, his mother and him were conniving because Esau was Isaac's favorite. And and so there came a point where Esau came in from the field from hunting and was super hungry fam you know, like a famine hit him, and and he asked for a bowl, you know, bowl of stew that Jacob was making. And and Jacob's a conniver. He's a he's a negotiator. And so he says, alright. I'll give you the bowl of stew, but I want your birthright. And and Esau, he doesn't value spiritual things. So he who cares? Give it up. So he got the soup. But it kinda shows where where Jacob valued it to a certain point. And then later on, you know the story as he's as they're getting older, Isaac's eyes are getting dim. He can't see very well. He's he's blind. And and so Rebecca and Jacob come up with the plan. It's more Rebecca. And she never got to see her grandkids again because Jacob's gonna be gone for seventeen years, and it's gonna be ugly. And so now what he does is he takes some wool or goat skin and puts it on his arms because Esau's hairy. Mhmm. And then they take and try and make him smell like a hunter, you know, and all that. And then they send them over to the dad, the dad's gonna give them the blessing. The blessing upon the blessing's gonna go upon, you know, Esau. And Jacob knew that the elders supposed to serve serve the younger that, hey. I'm supposed to get this. Doesn't look like God's gonna give it to me, so I gotta help God out. So they go and they lie to Isaac, and Isaac does it. He prays over. By that time, Esau comes back, and Esau's crying and crying and crying crying. He's so mad, and he's saying, put a blessing on me. Put a blessing on me, you know, and all that. But it's done. It's over. It's it's it's done. And so he put a hatred in his heart that he was gonna not rest till he could kill his brother. So then Rebecca had to send him to the to her hometown and and sends him away, and then he meets, you know, Rachel and Leah, and she sent him to her brother's house, Laban. And Laban was an even greater conniver than Jacob. So God put God put Jacob there with Laban so that Laban would get the better him the whole way through. But then the Lord always blessed Jacob anyway, and and so they're button heads. And then he finally gets away from there, and they're leaving. Spent twenty years there, twenty years working. And what was it? Seven years for Rachel's hand. And then Levin Levin did the switcheroo in the wedding night. You remember that? Yeah. And he wakes up in the morning, and it wasn't Rachel in bed with him. It was Leah. And her name means sore eyes. It hurts your eyes to look at her. And and but she was prolific. She she brought forth a lot of kids. Then they began to have handmaidens help them out. So they got all this kinda like Wayne and Brittany, this big group of kids, you know, and 12 tribes. And I heard that they could fit in the bus. Well, they got a car that fits 12. They could do that. 14. Yeah. I love Lost my train of thought thinking about my kid. So so then he works another six for all the livestock and everything. So 20, and you changed my wages, you know, several times. And they're having this big fight, and Rachel steals their god. It's this idol underneath the saddle on the camel she's at. You know? And Laban runs after him. But unbeknownst to Jacob, Esau is out there, and he's gonna run into Esau, you know, tomorrow. And he's, like, so scared so scared that it's gonna happen because of that threat, that that anger. And so Jacob's Jacob, the Lord's got his attention. So he crosses over the brook at night so that he can get a good night's sleep because you can't sleep with all those kids in your bed. And so he goes over there and he he's trying to get a good night's sleep, puts head down the rock, and the angel of the lord shows up. Mhmm. And the angel of the lord is there to fight. We're gonna fight. We're gonna wrestle because you're a conniver. You're always fighting in the flesh. I'm gonna change you. I'm gonna break you. I've gotta break you. A w Tozer said before, god uses a man greatly. He must hurt him deeply. So you'll watch a pattern where the lord breaks those he's gonna use and makes it impossible for them to do what he's called them to do so that god gets the glory. So they wrestle, and we're told in Hosea that Jacob won. But how did Jacob win? He won because he lost. Yeah. And the angel of the lord dislodged his hip, and and that's very, very painful. And so with strong crying and tears, there's Jacob crying out to god and god changed his name to Israel and which means governed by God. So he's rebellious toward God, now he's governed by God. And and he walked away from there limping, but he walked away from their changed new man and and he was able to reconcile somewhat with his brother Esau, gave him gifts and everything. But there was an animosity that permeated the whole nation, the Edomites, and and it just festered. And that's again, that's the that's the kind of thing that we as parents, we as leaders, we need to set the example of forgiving people so that the other people watching us don't continue to hate them and and it be passed on. We've been told that prejudice and hatred is something that's passed on to generations. The kids look at you and you're teaching them to hate somebody because they're black. You're teaching them to hate them because they're, you know, whatever, poor, whatever it is. Nowadays, they're teaching the kids to hate old fat white men, you know, and I don't like it. I don't like it. And somehow we're the ones every everyone wants to hate. You know? What did I ever do to you? Alright. So so he he's able to get away from there, but that animosity within the nation is there. And then it carries over in the time of Christ because of king Herod the Great. Who's king Herod the Great? I'm making someone snoring there. Are they snoring? You're nowhere from here. That was a great story. How could you sleep through that? Is that my wife? If you're gonna snore, keep it down. Alright? Merry Christmas, flat earthers. Alright. You're gonna fall off the edge. You're gonna fall off the bed, man. Good lord. Alright. So in the time of Christ, you have the religious leaders and they're priding themselves on their pedigree, but you got a king that's named king Herod the Great, and he's about four and a half feet tall, and he's very, very insecure man. And one of the reasons he's very insecure is because he's not really a Jew. He's. Which means he's from Esau, and he's not he's not Hebrew. So he the Herodian family were Idumayan, so they're they come from the side of Esau. So the Jews wouldn't ever accept him as a legitimate, you know, heir to the kingdom, but he's a prolific builder, prolific architect, prolific holding on to his power, and his power was extended to him through the Romans. And and he was a butcher. He'd kill his own sons out of fear that they were plotting against him, and he butchered a lot of his sons. And so anyway, that's king Herod the Great. Remember, he's the one that wanted to butcher all the babes of Bethlehem, and that story is coming up. Right? So saith the lord god because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance and has greatly offended and revenged himself upon them. Therefore, thus saith the lord god, I will also stretch out my hand upon Edom and will cut off man and beast from it and I will make it a desolation from Teman and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. So Dedan is Saudi Arabia Arabia area. Teman is the area that we call Petra today in Southern Jordan. And in Isaiah sixty three one through three, it's Basra, and that's the place that Jesus returns. Right? And the blood is gonna be all over his outer garment, and he's gonna trample out the vintage when he returns at Armageddon. And why does he return to Teman? It's called Mount Seir. It's called Teman. It's called Basra. It's also called Petra today, Southern Jordan. Why does he return there, Vicky? Because that's where the one third remnant of the of Israel will be That's where they fled. And Daniel says, I think it's Daniel 11, that Moab is off limits to the antichrist. Yeah. He's not allowed to go there. And so all over the world, they've got their surveillance cameras and all. But but the that one third remnant's able to flee Jerusalem, and the antichrist finds out where they're at. And so he begins to pursue them, and then that's when the remnant cries out what, Vicky? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord. And that's where Jesus comes. Right there. Right? That's right. Yeah. And except those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for what? The elect's sake. The elect's sake. That's the nation of Israel right there. So that's the place. That's the location. And blood as high as the horse's bridle, Revelation fourteen twenty, and huge battle. He says verse 14, and I will lay my vengeance upon Edom and by the land of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury, and they shall know my vengeance, sayeth the lord god. And so in I in Psalm a hundred and thirty seven seven, the these guys, the Edomites were crying out, raise it. Raise it. They're screaming when the Babylonians were destroying the temple. They were enjoying the prospect that the temple was being destroyed. Raise it. Raise it. And god didn't like that. And so you can read about that in Obadiah, the book of Obadiah, and and also Psalm a 137 verse seven. So they shall know my vengeance saith the lord god. Who's the who does vengeance belong to? The lord. Vengeance is mine. I'll repay, saith the lord. We there's something about me. I don't know about you, but if I wanna watch a good movie, a good theme, it starts out by somebody being victimized, somebody being mistreated, somebody somebody just somebody does something not nice. You know? And Kathy says, that's not nice. And I said, I know. And and you're wanting so much for Bill Gates to get it. You know? You're wanting so much for them to finally get it. You know? And you gotta wait and wait and wait and wait. I mean, some people actually pray for the guy. You know? And and ain't that funny? And so anyway, you're you're just waiting for some of these very evil, evil people to get what's coming to them. You know? And some people wanna take it into their own hands. They wanna if they're wronged or somebody does them wrong, you know, it's it's we gotta get even with them. And and the lord says, hey, vengeance is mine. I'll repay, saith the lord. And when the lord does it, he does it much better than we do it. And the other thing is we as men, the wrath of man works not the righteousness of god in James. And the reason is we can't handle that kind of power, that kind of anger. It it carries over into a selfishness. When god punishes, when he exacts vengeance, it's gonna be perfectly done. Right? And and holy and true are your judgments, o lord. Everybody, the angels, everybody are watching holy and true. This is this is this is this is perfect the way that these globalists are getting what's coming to them, you know, in the book of Revelation, and the lord will do it. So and he's gonna deal with the devil. You know, he's gonna deal with the antichrist, the false prophet, all these guys. Everyone's gonna stand before the great white throne judgment, give account of what they did while they're in their body, good or bad. God is gonna exact perfect judgment, you know. And the good news is you and I have mercy. We don't get what we deserve. Right? And so when you're whining, don't don't dare say I deserve. God what if God were to say to you, do you want what you deserve? You want me to be just? Do you want me to be fair? This isn't fair. Right. Right. Esau gets this and Jacob is, you know, and you're whining and whining. You want what's fair? You get nothing. Alright. You get hell. So thus saith the lord god, behold, because the Philistines have dealt by revenge and have taken vengeance with despiteful here to destroy it, their old hatred. So you need to let that hatred go. You need to let it go. I mean, you have to forgive. You have to forgive. And all of us have had people that have abused us, victimized us, done bad things or whatever, and you don't wanna go the rest of your life being their dog, them having dominance over you. You want to be set free. And the way to be set free is to forgive them, to send to send the sin away from them, you know, and forgive them. Doesn't mean they're gonna be you're gonna be best buds with them, but it means you're free. And as much as lies within you, seek peace with all people. It doesn't mean that you can be at peace with everybody. Some people, they don't allow you to. It's just not possible. But you and your heart, you release them from it. And in Luke seventeen three, it says if they repent, you know, forgive them. So in that standpoint, you've already forgiven them in your heart. And now if you see a true change, you might be able to start to restore, you know, somewhat of a relationship. So let's say you've been estranged from your mom or your dad or sister or brother and haven't talked to them in four years because of something they've done. You know, they call you up, they write, and they say they're sorry. You might be able to actually go fishing with them, you know, do something with them. But, you know, obviously, relationship based upon trust, so you're gonna have to develop, you know, trust over time to let them back in. But how many times should I forgive? Peter asked. Times seven. How is it what's that? 70 times seven in one day. There you go. So you just keep forgiving them. They ask for forgiveness. You gotta go beyond seven times seven too. That's right. That's right. That's that's the way I roll. That's why I roll. Alright. Thomas, will you forgive me? I don't know what you did against me. Oh, okay. Alright. If you did, I forgive you. Okay, buddy. Maybe you didn't pray for me today. I don't know. No records of wrongs. Well, anyway. So when the devil comes and he accuses you, the lord says there's no record of wrongs. There's nothing in the ledger because Jesus said it is finished, paid in full. Right? Amen. Alright? So there's no condemnation for you and I. There's no fearful looking to of judgment for you and I. None of it. It's it's gonna be glorious. We're gonna go to the award ceremony at the at the be be be seat judgment in heaven. Alright. Thus saith the lord god Man, sometimes they just speak in tongues like that. Thus saith the lord god, behold, because the Philistines have dealt by revenge and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart to destroy it in the old hatred. Therefore, thus saith the lord, god, behold, I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. So the Philistines are the ancient mariners from the area of Crete, the island of Crete, the Crete the Cretans. Cretans. Lazy gluttons, those Cretans. And and and it and it's so, Paul says, and it's true. They are lazy gluttons and, you know, and you're Cretan. And so they're probably flat earthers, you know, those Cretans. And They like that they're so afraid they're gonna go over the edge, so they go over to Israel. So they come in from Europe from Crete, and Amos nine seven has a has a verse pertaining to them. And these are the ancient Philistines. Now who's the most famous Philistine you ever heard of? Goliath. Goliath. How many brothers did Goliath have? Five. Five. Five? No. No. Four. Four. Four. Four. Four. And what are the six finger guys? They work for The giants. The Nephilim. Oh, yeah. Right? Goliath's the giant. Right? So the DNA shot down. Some of these giants had six fingers. Six finger guys, they they call them. So Goliath's what? Nine feet six tall, at least. Right? Ugly. Real ugly, dude. And god used David to take him down. And you, you know, you you uncircumcised Philistine, David's calling him. You know? And I've tried that before. That don't work. But It's not the size. Is it? And the battle belongs to the lord. Right? So I've seen it on VeggieTales. I remember on VeggieTales. And and so he's he's just a big bloated dude, and then they he's taken down by a guy with a slingshot, David, and cuts his head off. David didn't even have a saw you know, sword. And he couldn't wear king Saul's armor because it wasn't suited for him. So he went out there by faith and he had five smooth stones because why? Because Goliath had Four brothers. Four brothers. So bring it on, boys. Bring it on. Right? And so he takes out takes out Goliath and all the rest of them are poisoned with fear, permeated with fear, and and so David goes over there and cuts off Goliath's head. You know? And so this word here, Cherithites, notice how he says cut off the Cherithites. The Cherithites were the ones that cut that cut off. So it's a play on words that the lord's bringing there. And I will cut off the cut offers, you know, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. So these guys are mariners. They come to the area of of the Gaza Strip area, and they one of the things that plays currently is Yasser Arafat years ago, the Egypt Yasser Arafat was Egyptian, and his dad was a part of helping Hitler in the whole thing of the World War two. And so Yasser Arafat, who was, you know, part of the coined the phrase, you know, the Palestinians. He didn't coin it, but he claimed that they had right to the land because they were the ancient Philistines and that they had had right to this area. And so the Romans were so angry at Israel in all their their disobedience and all that after seventy AD when Titus destroyed the city and all, they renamed the area Palestine, and in the Latin, Palestinia, and that was a play on words for the Philistines. So that's it was a derogatory term. It's no longer this nation, this land gonna be known as, you know, Israel or Judah. It's gonna be called Palestinia, and so it's a means of of removing the identity of the Israelites there. Still still Jews, you know, were living there, but just in small groups and stuff. But by and large, Arabs, Arab nations, and Yasser Arafat was their leader getting money from the UN, and so they began to clamp down and say, we have right to this land because we're the ancient Philistines, you know, which is a bold faced lie. Wasn't true. And but that's the way they tried to play it. And so the Philistines came in and they would be along the Gaza Strip. They'd be along more, like, right now where they're cleaning it all out, and they were like I said, they were they were mariners, sailors. So they sailed from Europe over. They weren't the word I'm looking for, they weren't indigenous to this region. And alright. So and I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall lay my vengeance upon them. And and you're gonna know according to Psalm nine verse six. Let me read that. Psalm nine verse six. Psalm nine verse six says, and the earth is a globe spinning around the sun. No. It doesn't say that. It says, oh, thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end and thou hast destroyed cities, their memorial is perished with them. So obliterated. Completely obliterated. God's gonna wipe them out. And next week, if I'm still a pastor and we're still here, we're gonna look at Tyre and chapter 26. First one that comes up is the city of Tyre and Tyre and Sidon, and it's an amazing amazing prophecy. Just so amazing you think of Alexander the Great. And the reason these things are so fun that way is because people that aren't Christians, they can't deny the historicity. They can't deny that Alexander the Great wasn't there and didn't do that. You know what I mean? And our Bible tells it before it happens. So then what they do is they wimp out and they say, well, you guys wrote it after the fact. No. We didn't. This is the date of the writing. We got evidence that it was written before it happened, and and they they just they just hate to admit that our book is prophetic, that god, the true and living god, is eternal, and he sees the beginning and the end. He's the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end. Amen. Alright. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for the time that we could spend together, that great, great food tonight, fellowship, laughter, and and time in your word. And we do pray for Susan, Lord, for Julie's mom. We pray that miracles are happening. What a horrible way to die with pneumonia like that. Lord, they can treat it. They can do something to alleviate it even if she's gonna pass because of cancer, Lord, please, Lord, please let them not be cruel. Don't let them be cruel, Lord. But Lord, you just show them, heal her body. She really wants to live, Lord, and I pray that you'd heal her, that you do it for your glory and your kingdom. You comfort Julie and her sister and her brother and give them wisdom. And, Lord, all that the enemy means for evil, Lord, you turn it around for good. And be with Brooke again, Lord. Help her get a suitable place and be with Sally. Heal Sally of her cancer and help James with his niece that hurt so bad. And be with Alan Cora, Lord. Give them the strength, Lord, to have some stamina and help him with his back and all the other things that are going on. Thank you that Christie only has a cyst, and we pray that it would be dissolved. Help her foot to continue to be healed, Lord, as nine months out, and just continue to bless the little Calvary Of Bremerton, Lord. Your will be done concerning this church. Lord, you set upon this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it, Lord. If if the gates of hell are allowed to destroy Calvary Bremerton, then we were never a part of your church, Lord. So, Lord, your will be done, and, Lord, grow your church. Help us to mature. Help us to be loving and kind, and but Lord also intolerant of evil, intolerant of heresy, the immune system that would reject heresy, Lord, that would reject the poison that has potential to undermine people's faith, Lord. Help us to stay on that straight and narrow. Make us Bereans, Lord. Train us that we would search the scriptures to see whether those things be so. 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.
