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Ezekiel 44

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Bremerton. It's Hey, Brandon. I have to turn that Down. Put him on. Sorry. That's alright. We'll go to sleep. We'll go to sleep. Go. Oh, live from Bremerton. We're here in Ezekiel 44 tonight at Rob and Vicki's home, and we're gonna pray and ask the Lord to open the scriptures to our hearts and worship the Lord and be students of prophecy. And I hope that you're a student of prophecy, those of you that are listening on Facebook. And so here we go. Father, we come before you. Lord, we lift up this night unto you. We committed unto you. And, Lord, we thank you that Mike Goodson's doing better. We pray that you would help him to get home, Lord. What a miracle of getting him back in his body. And, Lord, we pray for Sally that you would heal her of her cancer that's come back. We pray for my dad that you would heal his body, We thank you for healing Gary. And, Lord, we just lift up anybody else that's that's sick, that's under the weather, that's having trouble, God, that your healing touch be upon their bodies, upon their lives. And thank you for the time that we have with each other, Lord, with fellowship. We look forward to an eternity of fellowship with you and each other. And so, Lord, we just remind ourselves that death is just moving out of this body and our new glorified body, but it still hurts to lose someone we love, Lord. So undergird and strengthen us tonight and help us to be looking to the future during the millennium, Lord, where you're ruling and reigning from Zion and David as your prince and, Lord, the nation of Israel in the land, and we pray for the peace of Jerusalem even now. And Lord, we thank you that we're gonna be ruling and reigning with you according to Revelation five verse 10 as kings and priests, Lord, upon the earth. Ain't that amazing? We just praise and worship you. So bless tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright. Thanks, Rob. Okay. Ezekiel chapter 44. That's the number for Jerry West, mister Klutch. And I set my alarm on Sunday morning to 04:44. So forty four. We got it. I guess you guys weren't Laker fans. We're not getting it. K. Not for me. People get it. Alright. Ezekiel 44, father, thank you. We ask that you be our teacher, open the scriptures to our understanding, lord, and cause your word to teach us your word that we not impose upon the text our ideas, and that we allow your word to speak and to say what it's saying, Lord, and give us ears to hear and to be able to discern and to prove your word by looking at other portions of your word and to make sure that we're following your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. The sound word. Okay. So then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary, which looketh toward the east, and it was shut. And so he's coming by way of the Kidron Valley up the Mount Of Olives, and this is the way Jesus is gonna walk into Jerusalem. The Turks, shut the gate in, 1517, some say 5030, and, 1967, the Jerusalem transitioned to ownership or sovereignty of the Jews and rather than the Jordanians who had a hold of it. And presently on the Temple Mount, there's a lot of struggle going on about the dome of the rock and the rebuilding of the temple and things like that. Some people say the solution is to give the Gentiles the make a wall and the Gentiles on the other side. And but in the millennium, the lord is gonna come in through this this gate, the East gate, and the gate's gonna be shut. We'll see that mentioned shut verse one and shut in verse two. And and it's never the Ichabod, the glory of the lord departing, is not gonna depart for a thousand years. So the glory of the lord, the Shekinah glory of god in the Jesus Christ, the messiah, king of kings, lord of lords, rule and reign from Jerusalem and David as his prince and one arm of the government, the global government, is going to be Jewish and another arm of the government is going to be from the church. And we're gonna rule and reign with Jesus as kings and priests according to Revelation five verse 10 and a part of the government rule over the earth. So you remember that all of the Jews entering into the millennium are saved. The one third remnant. They're all believers. The church that enters into the millennium, They return with Jesus as he returns in the clouds with 10 thousands thousands of his saints. And he comes back to Basra, area of Basra where that one third remnant according to Zechariah thirteen eight nine is fled Jerusalem, and they're secured in the area of Petra. And Jesus comes back and he tramples out the vintage according to Isaiah 63. And the blood's as high as the horse's bridle, and he comes across Armageddon up the Valley Of Jezreel, up the Mount Of Olives into the city. And there's a seventy five day interval where he judges the sheep and the goats. The sheep and the goats are the Gentiles of Matthew 25 who made it through the tribulation period, And the sheep are those that treated Israel, saw that they were naked and clothed them. They were hungry and thirsty, fed them, gave them drink, and visited them in prison and in hospital. And so those Jews or those Gentiles were favorable toward the nation of Israel. They didn't receive the mark of the beast. They made it through the tribulation period. And those are the Gentiles in their human bodies that are going to enter into the millennium, and they're going to begin to have children and repopulate the planet in the millennium. And many of their children are going to be natural. The first group that goes in are all believers. But as their offspring, they have many of them that are gonna be unbelievers. They're not gonna be born again. And we see that in Isaiah 65 that there's gonna be death, and that death is from those that refuse to Isaiah 65 verse 20, those that refuse to receive Christ up until the point in time they're a 100 years old. So at the end of the millennium, to prove that there are unregenerate human beings upon the planet, Satan is loosed. And Satan tempts those cities and those Gentile cities with unbelievers who have only obeyed because Jesus is ruling and reigning with the rod of right rod of righteousness. And many sin, many, you know, are disciplined in that way. If they don't, for instance, come to Jerusalem year by year at the feast of tabernacle, we saw where the lord withholds rain and, you know, causes famine to ensue, plague to ensue as a result of a certain region or a certain group of people that might, you know, disobey. So we see in Isaiah 11 that the curse is reversed. So the planet the the curse that's you see with carnivorous animals, the wolf and the lion, a little lamb, a little child leading them and all. And so presently, have predators. You have the animal world carnivorous in that way, and a little child's gonna be able to be near the adder's hole or the den of a snake and not be any trouble. And I I think I told you Sunday. I don't know if I did, but Ruthie was hiding underneath a table at the baseball field. And I looked around, and, man, I couldn't see her. And we were right there at the at the concession stand, and she's dancing around and all that. And I looked to the left. I couldn't see her. She kept saying she wanted to go to her mommy. I looked to the right to where mommy would be, and I'm looking all around. And we're always concerned at the baseball field about predators, people that might snatch the kids. And Gideon and Ezra and even Isaiah run around that whole field, that whole place all day long, you know, unsupervised. They got friends there, a lot of friends. And so anyway, I was just like freaking when you're freaking called Beacon, and I didn't have anybody to call. And I was looking everywhere, and these ladies over in line, they saw me panicking, and they pointed underneath the the table there. And there she was hiding from me. Now don't tell Britney that because I'll probably get in trouble. I won't be able to take her over there to get donuts anymore. But but in any event, in the millennium, we're gonna be as parents. We're gonna be secure in knowing that God's omniscient and God's ruling and reigning from Jerusalem, and there isn't gonna be anybody predator you know, any predators trying to take our kids or take our grandkids or people like that. They'll they'll be caught instantly. The world desires to be able to develop a precrime system, a system where they can somehow read your mind and determine who the criminals are, and that's what they're imagining. Not even the devil can do that. The devil who's a super, you know, angel, exalted cherub angel, and has a greater power than you and I as human beings, but he's still just a just a fallen angel. Only god is omniscient, knows all things. Only god can read your mind and know what you're gonna do before you do it. Devil can't do that. Devil has to listen to you, say what you're gonna do to and the demons listen. And the devil can only be in one place at one time. So if you think the devil's after you, then I know he's not after me because he's only one place at a time. So but the demons can be there, the principalities and the powers. The two thirds of the stars that fell with Lucifer, those demons have regions and principality, you know, areas. And so in this present world, in a fallen world where the devil's the prince, the power of the air, the little g god of this world, he has his minions and and he's able to he's still on a leash, but he's able to induce greater greater evil than when we're in the millenniums. When we're in the millennium, he's gonna be in the abyss. He's gonna be bound. But the problem when I was growing up, there was a comic show with a comedian on there named Flip Wilson, and he had a phrase, the devil made me do it. Now we like to blame the devil for our flesh. So in the millennium, the reason there's evil is not because the devil's seducing people or tempting people. It's because the fallen nature, the people's flesh is acting out in a selfish manner. So we have three enemies. The world wants us to be conformed in their image, the world system, and the devil's the one that that influences that world system. And then we have the devil, you know, and the demons that are against us, and and then our flesh. And I think our flesh is probably our greatest enemy because we we drop our guard in regard to the flesh. And so in Galatians five we learned that if we if we walk in the spirit we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh, but if we yield to the flesh then it brings forth corruption, you know, in our life. So there is a sin during the millennium but we're not gonna have to worry about Ruthie being taken by somebody and that sort of thing. And but people individually will will sin, and then collectively at the end of the millennium they're gonna try and do a coup upon God, and God's going to consume them with fire. You can read about that in Revelation chapter 20 and millennial reign, one thousand years. Now during the millennium there are sacrifices that are made. And Ramvik you were talking about sacrifice, everybody's like why are there sacrifices, you know. And basically we gave four different reasons the purpose of in the kingdom system of sacrifices. One is that of a memorial. When we partake of communion, the bread and the cup, Jesus said this do in remembrance of me. We have a tendency to forget. Can you imagine a thousand years how much people are going to forget in a thousand years? So there has to be the constant reminder. As a teacher, Peter talked about I'm going to remind you of these things though you know them, I'm going to remind you. So part of teaching is repetition. We we say things over and over and over and over again, especially our kids, that it gets through to them. And then we practice redundancy. We hit we back it up and back it up and back it up. And but repetition is a part of teaching. And so so there's times where we're gonna go through a basic scripture, basic premise, basic, you know, teaching to make sure that people are reminded of it. And so what is a memorial? This do in remembrance of me. So, basically, in those sacrifices, you'll have an opportunity as kings and priests to explain to people what happened at the crucifixion of Jesus. And you and I are looking back to it right now. They're gonna be looking back to it even further. And John the Baptist is gonna describe Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And so the types, the shadows of lambs and bullocks and animals, they typified Jesus who would have his body broken and his blood be shed. So those animals that are there are gonna communicate the gospel, god's love for humanity, and that he gave his only begotten son. So that's one aspect of it. The second aspect is that a fellowship. In order to have fellowship with these saints, the saints that are there upon the planet and these you've got Old Testament saints, you've got New Testament saints, you got tribulation saints, and you have millennial saints. And there's gonna be, as we said, the human beings that sin, they're not in their new glorified body, they have the old nature. And as a means of fellowship, they're going to be able to offer bring offerings to the priests and representative of if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So they'll have a means of confessing their sin and fellowship for purpose of fellowship. The third one is from a ritual standpoint, that of cleansing. An emphasis upon the temple was desecrated, idolatrous, even an altar under Baal brought into the previous temple. And so there's going to be a means of doing things separate from the common. Even the priests we're going read in this text here, chapter 44, how the priest is going to wear linen and take off the linen clothes before he goes leaves the temple precinct area to wear his common clothes. So a separation of common and holy. And I'm thinking about that. I'm like, you know, I wear jeans and I wear just a basic shirt and shoes each week. Maybe I should get a robe and a collar and and have some sort of a holy holy kind of a robe, you know, so I could have the common clothes and the holy clothes or whatever. Guys used to do that. Some some people do that, and it's an emphasis upon emphasis like the Levitical priesthood upon holiness. I am I like where god where, you know, he tells Samuel, god looks man looks on the outward, god looks on the heart. And Jesus Jesus had on, you know, a typical clothing of a Jewish man, and part of it had a blue tassel that would there would would speak of God's grace, you know, pointing to heaven. And the woman that touched the hem of his garment, she's touching, she's reaching for that that blue tassel, crying out for God's grace. So there there are things communicated in the clothing of the priest with the stones, you know, on the chest and all, and the turban. And so there there is there is God communicates through what his priests are wearing, you know, under the people. You got a white stone and a black stone, and they used to cast lots, and the white stone is favorable, the black stone is a no, but we have the holy spirit to speak to us now. So anyway and the the fourth one is the theocracy. During the millennium, if you obey the lord, according to Zechariah fourteen sixteen through 21, like I alluded to, part of god's blessing will be based upon your obedience. So if you disobey the lord and don't attend the feast of tabernacles, then there's going to be a famine and a what do you call it? It's not gonna rain. It's not gonna rain upon your part of the globe, if you will. I like the passage where the Lord says he causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. What that means is that these unbelievers right now, even though they're in disobedience on the God, the unbelieving farmer, the one that hates God, when it rains, God doesn't just make the rain fall on the Christians crops and the unbelievers don't get any rain. He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. God's merciful and gracious. So he allows the heathen, the unbeliever, to work and to get the rain and allow his crops to grow. That's God's grace. They may not appreciate it or whatever. But if God were to only allow it to rain and only cause Christians to prosper, guess what? Everyone would be a Christian. And you wouldn't know who the real ones are because everyone would sign up. So the trials that you and I go through prove who the real ones are. Right? You see what I mean? The trials prove you. The trials prove that that you belong to the lord. The trials prove that Satan's a liar, that Job is not gonna curse god to his face if god takes away all this stuff, that god's worthy of our love simply because of who he is. Otherwise, we got a whole lot of mercenaries, people becoming Christians for the prosperity gospel and all the other things. So that's the purpose of the of the sacrifices during the millennium. And so the door is shut, verse two, then said the Lord unto me, this gate shall be shut and it shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it because the Lord, the God of Israel has entered in by it, so he's coming in that way. When he left, he left by that way. Ichabod, the glory of the lord had departed. Therefore it shall be shut. Chapter 43 verse four. It's shut, man. And the glory of the lord came into the house by way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. And so for one thousand years the Shekinah glory of god to not depart. And it is for the prince. The prince shall sit in it to the and eat bread before the lord. So David is the prince according to Ezekiel thirty four twenty four and Ezekiel thirty seven twenty four and twenty five. This is David as a prince and part of the Davidic covenant. So David the prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the lord. He shall enter in by the way of the porch of that gate and shall go out by way of the same. Verse four, then brought he me the way of the North gate before the house and I looked and behold the glory of the lord filled the house of the lord and I fell upon my face. We talked about that last week. It's it's appropriate to fall upon your face before the lord. We the closer you and I are to the lord, the greater humility. The light of who he is exposes our darkness, exposes our sinfulness. So if you're Peter, say away from me from a sinful man when the Lord demonstrates his power and you're overwhelmed and you're like, you know, who am I? And Isaiah chapter six verse three when the Shekinah glory of the lord came, he he was overwhelmed. And John the beloved fell at his feet and fell at the feet of even angels shining bright and so even at their glory. And in first Kings chapter eight ten eleven, the glory of the Lord filled Solomon's temple when it was inaugurated. And the Lord said unto me, son of man, mark well and behold with thine eyes and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all of its laws and mark well. Now these aren't Mosaic laws, some of them are taken from the Mosaic law, this isn't the reinstituting of the Mosaic law. This is kingdom law and it stems from Jesus. So now remember the law is good. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away. So part of the kingdom law is in the Mosaic law, but it's not a strict adherence to the Mosaic law. And so some of some of it's included. Mark well and behold with thine eyes and hear the with thine our eyes ears all that I say unto thee. So, you know, watch, listen. Jesus said to the seven churches, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. I have a real hard time getting through to people today. It's very difficult. Everybody's got an idea. Everybody's got a YouTube prophet. Whole thing going on. And it's very, very and smugness. Rob and I are talking about that. Arrogance. And it's gonna get worse with the AI. Kathy said that she's looking up stuff on Google, searching for stuff that she knows there. She watched it before. It's not there anymore. It's scrubbed. Mhmm. So everything's changing with AI interpreting or or sorting through what they want to divulge or what they wanna make known and not letting you get at what you already studied, what you already knew before. So be a student of God's word and know God's word. And when AI starts to mess with God's word, make sure that you're not one that's using the AI bible. You know? Don't don't go there and allow God's word to be hidden in your heart and don't allow it to be changed even one jot or one tittle, you know, not even a nothing. And so mark well, and hear thine ears and all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all of its laws and mark well the entrance of the house with every egress from the sanctuary and thou shall say to the rebellious even to the house of Israel. So Ezekiel is gonna be able to speak to this remnant of Jews that have been run out of, you know, the temple in Baba by the Babylonians and now they're in Babylon by the brook by the River Chebar and and Ezekiel is a part of that remnant and speak to the rebels even to the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God, oh ye house of Israel let it suffice you of all your abominations. And so the desecrating of the temple, the bringing in the an altar under Baal and all the horrific things that they did. When we think in terms of the Jews that are gonna be in this temple, some of them might wanna think back to when the nation was rebellious. Maybe even some of them that are there remember the Antichrist temple and the desecration of the Antichrist going into the temple to declare himself to be god, demand to be worshipped as god. And Jesus removes that temple, that third temple. This is the fourth temple that god builds on top of Mount Zion. But there's gonna be people there who got saved and they got saved according to an unconditional covenant. And where's that unconditional covenant? Jeremiah thirty one thirty one where God is gonna put his law in their heart so the Jews that are in the millennium are born again believers with God's word in their heart. They're not gonna be rebels but they could be reminded, all of us can be reminded of where rebellion gets us. And it's one thing to sin, all of us sin, but it's another thing to persist in rebellion. I I I like peace. I love peace. And I have no peace. There's no peace, saith the Lord of the wicked. So when you're in a rebellious mode, there's no peace. So, you know, confess. Get right with the lord. Restore fellowship. Don't live in a rebellious manner. So that you have brought unto my sanctuary foreigners, the uncircumcised in heart and the uncircumcised in flesh to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread and fat and the blood and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. So the bringing in the antichrist, bringing in all of the unbelievers, all the gentiles and everything. And you remember Solomon, even in his temple, that Solomon had 700 wives, three three hundred concubines. Right? And that's a thousand women in his life. Holy smokes. And he he married and indulged in many foreign women. And these foreign women what he did is he began to build them temples to their gods. So he introduced apostasy. He introduced sacrilege to the nation of Israel, and they never overcame it. They they never overcame all that. So if you are a Jewish king, king Ahab, and you marry Jezebel, a Sidonian princess, that Sidonian princess insist upon the worshiping of Baal and Ashtoreth. And so in a time of apostasy, falling away from the Lord, and with the assistance of Jewish kings, these foreign influences come in and then and then pretty soon the nation of Israel is being enticed by Midianites, you know, and and different sexual rituals and things that they would do in their in their belief systems and such. And so it became intoxicating to the flesh, and and it's not you know, and even Manasseh sacrificing his own sons, sacrificing your own children because you're backslidden and you're worshiping Baal. It's horrific. And so the Lord's saying don't don't allow any of that to happen in in the millennial temple. And you have not kept the charge of mine holy things, but you have set keepers of my charge in the sanctuary for yourselves. So you've Jesus turned over the money changers tables. You know, the people were making a big business out of these things. The the bankers there, the money changers, and people couldn't offer lambs and pigeons and not pigeons, but doves and bullocks and things like that. So they'd come there, and you as a farmer, you as a person that's raising a lamb and you wanna come and offer one, you know, under the lord, you have to give it to the priest to sacrifice and everything. And they'd look at it and they'd say, no, it's not kosher. It's got a blemish. It's gotta be unblemished. And you know it's not blemished, but you're not a priest. So you've got to buy one from their buddy who's got one and you've got to pay an exorbitant amount of money for it and that's how those guys are getting rich. And then also they would only receive the temple shekel. So if you came in as a foreigner from another part of the country with a different coinage with the Roman and Greek Greek cultures there, then you have to transition your foreign coin into the shekel and there was a markup. So Jesus comes in and takes the tables of the money changers and he throws them over, you know. And my father's house a house of prayer, he made it a den of thieves. And so throughout history, men have tried to make a business out of religion. Right? And the Lord's saying that's not gonna happen here and not gonna happen. It's for holy things. And let's see verse nine, thus saith the Lord God, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in the flesh shall enter into my sanctuary of any foreigner that is among the children of Israel. And so who wants to read Nehemiah thirteen one through nine? So Nehemiah and Ezra the priest are coming back after seventy years of captivity and they're going to reestablish, you know, rebuild the temple. And they're gonna have to reestablish that of worship, scriptural worship. So Nehemiah thirteen one through nine, what's what's that say, you guys? Alright. No foreigner. And what's it mean to be uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in the flesh shall enter into my sanctuary of any foreigner that is among the children of Israel. So you're cutting away the foreskin of the heart. You're cutting away the fleshly part of the heart. God wants the flesh to die and he wants the life of the spirit to be dominant. Nehemiah thirteen one through nine from Vicky. On that day, the book of Moses was read aloud in in the hearing of the people, and there was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God because they had not met the Israelites they they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them, our God. However, to who who whoever turned the curse into a blessing. When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent. Before this, El Asheb, the priest, had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our of our god. He was closely associated with Tobiah Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles and also the ties of grain, new wine, and olive oil purchased for the Levites, musician musicians and gatekeepers as well as the contribute no. Con Contributions. Thank you. I was going the wrong direction. Contributions for the priest. But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem for in the third the thirty second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Sometime later, I asked her his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here, I learned about the evil thing Elijah had done in providing Toba a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Toba's household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God with the grain offerings and the incense. Nice. So Nehemiah had to do some separation, had to remove Tobiah and Sambalat. They were trying to infiltrate the temple and undermine the, you know, the worship of the lord and all. So they and when Constantine institutionalized the church, the church was inundated with unbelievers that wanted positions within the church because the church was tied in with government. And and so that led to what we know today or we call today as the dark ages when the church basically was compromised with lots of ungodly unbelievers in places and positions and coming after the true church, not wanting people to have bibles and things like that. So that separation. And when we talk in America about a separation of church and state, it's not that the church would be out of public life. It's that we wanna keep the government out of the church. That's what it's for. Because the founders of our country, they didn't want a state run church like they had in Great Britain, like they had in England, and they wanted the freedom of religion. And Thomas Jefferson, in reading a letter from a Baptist preacher, an inquiry of a Baptist preacher, said there'd be a wall of separation. Well, in the fifties, Lyndon Baines Johnson tricked people and people fell for it that they would give a tax exempt status to the churches if the churches wouldn't be involved in politics, if they wouldn't endorse candidates. And that Johnson thing has been rescinded now in recent years, but churches could be threatened by the IRS that they lose their tax exempt status if they became politically active. Linda Bain Johnson almost lost an election in Texas as a senator as a result of the churches getting together and wanting to, you know, vote for a candidate. And so so the people were duped into thinking that that separation of church and state meant that the church couldn't be involved in public life, that they couldn't be involved secularly. And yet our country, the halls of justice, have the 10 commandments on the wall with Moses and all. And the first book for our school system, our public school system, our government purchased Bibles, and the Bible became the first textbook for our school system. The 10 commandments were taught in the school system, and our culture was built on a Judeo Christian ethic, meaning the old and the new testament. So what you don't want is the government coming in and polluting the church. You don't wanna be a state run church. So churches need to be careful in not receiving money from the government because when you receive money from the government, then they have stipulations about what you can and cannot do. Let me give you an example. So if you have the Salvation Army and they're trying to help the poor and feed the poor, they can apply for government grants and Catholic services get government grants. But then what comes if you're not careful is you're not allowed to preach the gospel to the men and women there lined up to get food at the Salvation Army because of a separation of church and state. And so that's a that's a a bad thing. So on our end, the church, we need to make sure that we aren't unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And we're in the world but not of the world. And so we we remain separate and but not isolationists. We gotta go in and infiltrate and share the gospel but not be yoked. So so thus saith the lord, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in the flesh shall enter into my sanctuary. There used to be a wall of separation, the Gentile wall, and if there's a a sign on it that said any Gentile that crosses over, you know, this wall into the Jewish precinct area, you know, your death is your own fault. You know? So the Gentiles were let know that don't go don't cross this line. And and the Levites that are gone away far from me when Israel went astray who went astray away from me after the idols, they they shall even bear their iniquity and yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary having charge at the gates of the house and ministering to the house. They shall stay the burnt offering and the sacrifice. Notice this, here's a distinction. I love this distinction. Watch what's going happen. So these disobedient ministers, disobedient priests, they still get to be priests but their ministry is only gonna be to the people. So if you're Moses and you've got a mixed multitude of people driving you crazy, you know, Just crazy with flat earth stuff and all this stuff. You know? I mean, isn't it a blessing if your ministry can be directly to the Lord? Oh, man. Let me tell you. Oh, finally I get some fellowship. Gosh. The stupidity that's just so it's like twilight zone. It's like the twilight zone today. It's mind boggling. And Laodicea means people rule. The Laodicean church, the smug, prideful, rich and increased with goods in need of nothing mentality, Jesus said you're naked, poor, blind and miserable and you're lukewarm and you make me sick. But their leo people, the see a rule, they they don't allow themselves to be ruled by Jesus. They kick Jesus out of the church and he's on the door knocking. That's a picture of what we're up against today is everybody and their brother has a dream and a vision. God told me. God told me. You know? And they don't have a working knowledge of the scriptures. They don't know the scriptures and they don't know how to use the scriptures. And all they can go on is feelings, dreams and visions, and mind boggling. So I just love this distinction here. The sanctuary having their charge at the gate of the house and the ministering to the house they shall stay with the burnt offering and the sacrifices for the people and they shall stand before them to minister under them. I don't want that job. I don't like people. You know that? I don't like them. Because they ministered unto them before their idols. So you like to be around them, you get to be around them. And and you brought in the idols. You brought in their idols because you like them so much. You wanted to be liked by them. That's why you allowed their idols in. So you want their idols. You want them. You get them. And cause the house of Israel to fall into iniquity. You guys were the watchers. You guys were the ones who are supposed to, like Paul said in Acts 20, take heed over the flock which he's purchased with his own blood. There's gonna be wolves that emanate from within and from without trying to steal this flock and hurt this flock and they were supposed to be the gate watchers, the ones that, you know, check the wolves at the door so they don't prey upon the babes, you know, the young the young believers and stuff. Therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the lord god, and they shall bear their iniquity and they shall not come near unto who? They're not gonna come near unto me. You and I have access. Ephesians one, we have access because we're in the beloved and we can boldly according to Hebrews four, we can boldly come before his throne not of judgment but of grace, merited favor. Right now we can. Imagine when we're in our new glorified bodies ruling and reigning with him as kings and priests. How much more we have access. And they shall not come near unto me to do the office of a priest unto me nor to come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place. But they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. That's amazing. We talk right now about, you know, rewards, the Bema Seat judgment. And, you know, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And, you know, what we do now what we do now and how ever faithful we are right now with what he's given us to use and and to be and to serve will determine how we serve him in the millennium. Right? These guys had positions at priests and they abused those positions and we don't want to abuse our position in the body of Christ. But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house for all the service of it and for all shall be done in it. And so same thing is true with the tribulation saints. The tribulation saints are in a mode of service, but you and I, the church, the bride of Christ are kings and priests. Isn't that amazing? And we have an exalted role as we serve the Lord. Revelation five verse 10. I love it. Sons of Zadok 15 through 31 here. He's gonna go with a specific family of priests that pleased him in the time of Solomon and of David and first Kings one thirty two and Solomon, first Kings two twenty six and two thirty seven and thirty five. And we already went over Zadok and we already proved that before, but these are the sons of Zadok. But the priests of the Levites, the sons of Zadok who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me. Notice me. Me. Me. Me. Me. I love that. And my servant Job. My servant Moses. I love I love when the Lord brings that ownership upon a person's life and and I love it. From me they shall come near to me to minister unto me and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood saith the Lord God. And what a a blessing to worship the lord. Worship John four verse 23. Jesus said unto the woman, believe me the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father. Ye worship you know not what? You know not you you know what we worship. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when true worshipers Don't you want to be a true worshiper? When true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeks such to worship him. God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. A whole lot of pretenders. We need it to be real. They shall enter into my sanctuary and they shall come near my table to minister unto me and they shall keep my charge. Colossians three twenty three says, Whatsoever you do, do it heartily. That means your whole heart not half hearted. Do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto man. And that's how many of you served in the Navy. That's how you served at the shipyard. That's how you served as lawyers maybe, as doctors, as janitors, whatever sphere of whatever you've done, you've done it as under the Lord. You're a bond servant. You willingly serve him. He's given you the earring and you're a slave to Christ. And so you're doing it you're taking it up a level. You're doing this as under the Lord not unto men. And that's the witness that we want to have is that you know Jesus is our boss. And if I'm called to be a father, you're called to be a mother, you're called to be a brother or sister, you're called to work, your work that which you do is priestly service. You're doing it as unto the Lord and God's going to give you divine appointments with people that won't attend church. And they're watching your work ethic, they're watching your honesty, they're watching if you work when the boss isn't watching, they're walking watching if you steal when others steal, if you laugh at dirty jokes, all those things. They're watching you cause they heard you say you're a Christian. And they want to see if you get drunk with the rest of them. If you go to the same bars they go to, same places they go to, same casinos they go to, they want to see if it's legit. If it's real. So they shall enter into my sanctuary and they shall come near my table to minister unto me and they shall keep my charge. And it shall come to pass that when they entered into the gates of the inner court they shall be clothed notice with linen garments. Any of you ever had a silk shirt? You ever had a linen garment? Ever had a wool garment? What's the wool do to you? Scratchy. Prickly. Yeah. All prickly. And how about nice cotton cotton garment? But what about your sheets on your bed? How many thread are they? A thousand. Do you like wool? Do you like wool sheets? Egyptian cotton. So the sailors used to have peacoats that were wool peacoats that the water just rappels off. Right? But you wear a shirt underneath it. Right? Right? And now they're more refined than one that I wear, but I had one years ago that my dad gave me. And, man, that was that was rough. It was rough fabric, but but it was durable. And so, yeah, Kathy and I've got Egyptian 5,000 5,000,000 thread silk sheets. Right? Yeah. So soft. Almost as soft as her skin. You know? Aw. Yeah. So, I mean, would you wanna be next to some hairy woman with rough skin? Alright. So linen linen garments. Hey, honey. It's time to honey, it's time to shave your legs. You're you're you're poking me. Alright. So it shall come to pass where did I get all that from? Alright. And it shall come to pass that when they enter into the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them. So wool is the type of fabric for a common person, a worker in the as a farmer or whatever, the carpenter, and it it the emphasis here is sweat and the sweat represents flesh. And it's okay to sweat, I like to sweat, but it's different here. God's differentiating the type of power that's going to be used, the type of source of the power shall come upon while they minister in the gates of the inner court and within. They shall have linen turbans upon their heads. They shall have linen breeches breeches upon them. So if I wear Levi's, it's from the tribe of Levi. Right? And so that would that would be right. Upon their loins and they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat. So here's a here's a phrase for you. We want inspiration not perspiration. Right? A lot of people working real hard. Martha, she was doing things that needed to be done. She was, you know, cleaning the house and getting ready for the dinner party with Jesus. That stuff needs to be done. But Mary chose that was more profitable sitting at the feet of the Lord to be inspired of the Lord. And then Zechariah four verse six, you've got that memorized. Right? It's not by might power but by my spirit saith the Lord. So when it says it's not by might nor by power, it's natural power. Jesus said in Acts chapter one verse eight, you shall receive power which is dunamis, spiritual power, when the holy ghost comes upon you. So the service that we offer to the lord, none of us are sufficient to do this work. None of us. Because we're fighting with demons And, you know, every Saturday it's a grind. Saturday's a grind for us. And for Rob and Vicky, Monday's a grind. It's not so hard on me, but there's a grind. There's a there's an oppression. There's a fight that's that's there. You gotta be really careful. And even Sunday morning as you're entering and as you're starting out, the devil wants to distract and cause all sorts of flesh. And, you know, I know you guys when you're driving to church, you're fighting with each other. You're just yelling, screaming. And when you when you get up in the morning and you're trying to get the kids ready and dressed, fights break out, you know, and everybody's fighting. And then once church is finished, it lifted. You made it again. And so there's a spiritual battle going on and you you can't you can't do the work of the spirit in the arm of the flesh. So it needs to be and so that's what this is typifying. That's what this is showing is that it's gotta be a work of the flesh. I mean a work of the spirit. So Matthew 14 verse 30, Peter stepped out of the boat full of faith. If it's you Lord, let me come to you. And he was walking on water. And so we write songs. If we keep our eyes on Jesus, we can walk on water. Right? And he took his eyes off of the Lord. And he began to take his eyes were overwhelmed by the wind and the waves, the storms, the opposition that was coming against him. And when we are fixated and we are overwhelmed by the opposition and the lies of the wicked one, then all of a sudden everybody's freaking out lining up to go get a COVID shot. Right? Because they have no faith. They they're filled with fear. They're overwhelmed with fear and they have to check that. And so this morning, Britney was reading the bible to little Isaiah and the kids and I said to Isaiah, well, where did she read? And he says, well, those three brothers that were in the fiery furnace. And I said, you mean Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego? And he goes, yeah. Those guys. That's what we read about. Well that's what I tried to convey to adults. This is a nursery lesson. This is a very basic Sunday school lesson that Jesus is with us in this trial and he wants us to trust him not be overwhelmed with fear and not give into the threats of Nebuchadnezzar. Not bow down and worship him. Not not give up your faith and give up your security out of fear of a point nine percent, you know, point one percent chance of getting sick. We all get sick every year. So anyway the devil tries to with the Rabshakah, he tries to convince Hezekiah to surrender and Hezekiah is gonna need to be inspired. He's gonna need to go into his prayer closet. He's gonna need to listen to the Lord, you know. Are these Assyrians gonna really be allowed to destroy us like they've destroyed all these other nations? The Rabshek is a liar. The Rabshek is like Joseph Goebbels for Hitler, for for Adolf Hitler. They're propaganda ministers and they study human behavior and they try to get people to think irrationally and be overwhelmed with fear. And once you get them afraid, you can get them to do anything. So the rabb shekahs breathe in all sorts of threats. And Hezekiah did a beautiful thing. He took the letter, took the threats, and he held it up to the Lord. Lord, this is what they're saying about you. This is what they're saying about we are people that we can't meet in church anymore, that we can't sing, that we can't have communion. What do you think about that, Lord? Have we forgotten that? Has the church forgotten those lessons already? Have we moved on? Those are key lessons because it's gonna come again. And so God caused one angel to destroy a 185,000 Assyrians, one angel. And when Jesus saw Peter lop off Malchus' ear, whoop. Don't you know Peter that I can call down 12 legions of angels if I want to? A legion is 6,000. Right? 6,000 times 12 is 72,000 angels. One angel wiped out a 185,000 Assyrians? You know? I mean, the Lord has a whole host, a holy host of angels to subdue the devil. The devil's taken and put in the abyss by one angel. The beast and the false prophet, the hero of the planet during the tribulation period, they're subdued with the brightness of the Lord's coming, the sword of his mouth, and then they're grabbed by angels and hauled off to the they don't even get a burial. They're hauled off to the lake of fire where they spend all eternity. So greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world and we need to remember the life of the spirit. Except the Lord build the house, they that labor labor in vain that build it. Men can build churches and they can look good from the outside. But the real key is when the trials come. Who has the faith to refuse the PPE money? Who has the faith to keep the church open? Who has the faith to resist the fear mongering? And that's the key issue in the time in which we're living because it's coming again. They saw how many people give into it. It's coming again. When they go forth into the outer court even into the outer court to the people they shall put off their garments. So you got these real nice linen robes and everything. God wants separation. He wants the holy from the common, that separation. Put off their garments in which they ministered and lay them in the holy chambers. So you got a place there at the temple, a little closet, a little room there for the priest to change their clothes and all. They shall put other garments and they shall not they shall not sanctify the people with their their garments. So neither shall they shave their heads nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads. So they get to have some long hair like a Nazarite. Right? And he says neither shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the inner court. You know how I think about that. So who wants to read Leviticus ten eight nine? Who wants to read Proverbs 31, four and five? I'll take Proverbs. Okay. Proverbs 31, four and five and Leviticus ten, eight, nine? How about Leviticus two verse seven or twenty one seven? Think it's twenty one seven. Leviticus twenty one seven? I'll do that too. K. It's it's a work of the flesh. You're gonna have to work by the flesh. So, yeah, it's it's has to do with the flesh. The flesh in nature working the curse. To me, a person that works hard and sweats today, it can be well pleasing under the lord, you know, matter of the heart. But he's differentiating the life of the spirit versus the life of the flesh and the priestly duty is is to be in the in the power of the holy spirit. So, yeah, I think I think by the sweat of the brow is an indicator of the curse that's upon man and in our in our flesh, we're not gonna be able to you know, there's a whole lot of unbelievers that are in ministry. There's a whole lot of unbelieving pastors and worship leaders and people in the church trying to do the work of the ministry in the arm of the flesh Mhmm. With their own self effort, their own ingenuity. The devil is a genius and many of his musicians and pastors and others are geniuses too. They're very gifted. Hollywood people are very gifted. They can channel demons. They can memorize whole scripts and just get into character, and it's a phenomenal means of talent that they have. But it's a demonic channel in many cases. And there is a spiritual side of it. It's a dark side of a dark spirit that many of them are able to operate within to influence people. And that Antichrist and the false prophet are gonna deceive people, the lying signs and wonders. So there definitely is a part of the demonic, definitely an aspect of the human side of the curse like Vicky's bringing out, the sweat. But being born again, being born of the spirit, our sufficiency is of Christ. Who is sufficient for these things? Paul asked the question. And then he answered the question, you know, sufficiency is of Christ. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And Jesus said without me you can do nothing. So And a lot a lot of us have to learn these lessons even those of us that are saved that we try so hard to do something for the Lord, to build a church or to serve the Lord, and and we kinda spin our wheels. We spin our wheels in many cases. And then before a w Tozer said before god used a man greatly, he must hurt him deeply. And you see a Jacob changed. You see him, Israel, governed of God and walking with a limp. You know? And so there's an aspect of the death of the flesh so that we can operate in the power of the spirit. And Adam and Eve in the flesh tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, but God in his grace and his mercy pointed to the cross with coats of skins that they that they wore. And then also guarded the tree of life with an angel with a flaming sword to keep them away, you know, from an eternity in their sinful sinful nature, sinful condition. So alrighty. So in Matthew fourteen thirty, Peter sunk because he got his eyes off the Lord and couldn't couldn't continue. So put on the other garments and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments neither shall they shave their heads nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads. So they can they can trim but their hair is gonna be a little bit longer but not not super long. They're gonna they're gonna trim it a bit. Neither shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the inner court. So Leviticus ten eight and nine. And the Lord spoke unto Aaron saying, do not drink wine nor any strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee When you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, it shall be a statue for every excuse me, statue forever throughout your generations. So if you were to continue to read there, Rob, would you come across Nadab and Abayu offering strange fire? Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And pastor Chuck points out that he believes Nadab and Abayu went into the offer the strange fire drunk. They were drunk and God smote them dead. That's why God had to make it real clear. Don't be serving me while you're drunk. So you worship leaders, musicians, don't be treating it like it's a gig at a bar, you know, if you're serving on the church worship team. Make sure you don't come with a hangover. Make sure you don't drink before the gig. You know, the whole thing, you know. And God doesn't want it. He doesn't want strange fire. Proverbs thirty one four and five. It is not for kings, oh, it is not for kings to drink wine nor for princes strong drink. Least they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Ever see a drunk politician? Ever see a drunk judge trying to make a decision in in inebriated condition, drunk drivers, drunk doctors, drunk airline pilots. You don't wanna be a drunk pastor, drunk Christian. Losing your faculties, using your ability to think, coming under the influence of marijuana, any kind of drugs, any kind of sorcery in the book of Revelation, pharmakia. You wanna have your faculties. You wanna be led by the spirit and not a false spirit. So are you kings and priests? Peter called us a holy priesthood, a holy nation. Right? So neither shall they take for their wives a widow nor her that is put away but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel or a widow that had a priest before. So you can marry a widow but it had to be one that was sanctified by by being married to a priest ahead of time. Kathy's told me many many many times if I'd have known you'd be you were gonna become a pastor I'd have never married you. So some women don't think it's a high calling, you know. I got her to laugh. Okay. Now remember over here where it talked about Vicki read about a Moabite. You're allowing the Moabites in, the Ammonites in, and all that. Remember here where it talks about wives and all that? Think about Boaz taking on Ruth the Moabites. Now think about Matthew chapter one and the women that are listed there in the lineage of Jesus and their backgrounds. Ruth, Moabites, Bathsheba, an adulterer, Tamar who tricked Judah is in that lineage. You've also got Rahab, the harlot from Jericho in that lineage. Ain't that amazing? That Jesus came through. And and Ruth is from an incestuous relationship that came out of Sodom and Gomorrah with Lot having incessant relationships with his daughters. So I mean this is this is a sordid sordid place for Jesus to leave the splendor of of deity and take on the form of a man to become the god man. Crazy, isn't it? So he can identify with any of us in our sinful condition and yet in the priesthood there needed to be a separation and an emphasis upon a separation of the holy and the common. And so neither shall they take for their wives a widow nor her that is put away but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel or a widow that had a priest before and they shall teach. So so we look at the purity, the separation they want, the inspiration not perspiration, the separation the emphasis upon holiness in common, the purity that's needed, and now how to think. Now god prescribes how I want you to think. The the number one thing that I'm craving is fellowship with people that can think, that can think biblically. Think about it for a minute. People that you know now that claim to be Christians, can you really have sweet fellowship based upon the word of God? Aren't there just a hodgepodge of ideas all over Kitsap County, everybody and their brother, you know, I think, I think, I think. You know? It's it's the people haven't been taught the word of God. They just don't know the word of God. If you talk about the rapture, they'll tell you the rapture isn't even in the Bible. You know? It's such it's such idiocy. It's mind boggling, the idiocy. So from the womb, from a child, God's saying with my people, I want you to train them up in the things of the Lord. I want you to take them through the scriptures from the womb to the tomb, know. Mhmm. And so they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and cause them to discern, oh, I love that word, between the unclean and the clean. Our kids are being taught that we don't even know if the guy's a girl or a boy. How did that happen? And they say most of the Hollywood people their kids are, know, confused about whether they're a boy or girl. They're transhuman and all that. Where did that come from? Didn't come from the word of God. Are Christians confused about that? What about, you know, gay pastors, lesbian people in the pulpit, just whatever can desecrate, whatever can whatever can degrade God and who he is. And they shall teach my people, notice they're my people. Job of the pastor, job of the, you know, the person that represents the Lord is to teach his people. Go and make disciples Jesus said. A disciple is a learner, a student. So they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common. There's a difference between that which is holy and that which is unholy and cause them to discern. How do you cause someone to discern between the unclean and the clean? You teach them. So if if your kids are saying, hey, I wanna watch this movie. I wanna watch this movie. And and my friends are all watching this movie. Their parents watching this movie and and you say, hey, it's rated such and such. That's not a clean movie. It's not a good movie. Well, there's just a couple bad parts. How are you gonna teach them the importance of discernment? I heard a guy say it this way. You make some cookies and you hand out the cookies to everybody. You let them start eating them. And then they say, well, what what's in these cookies? Well, they're they're 9095% this and 3% that, and there's just a little bit of dog poop in them. Just a little bit, though. Just a little. Just just fast forward that part. Just spit spit that part out. You know? What do you mean a little bit? Well, it ruins the whole. So God's into absolute truth, not half truths. Absolute truth. And we want to get away from absolute truth that he's the authority that Jesus said you know the truth and the truth will set you free. Jesus said I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Incarnate truth. Pilate says what is truth? Well he's standing right there in front of you. Know? People don't seem to know what the truth is. It's so many lies upon lies upon lies. Doctrines of demons is being taught in the church. Lies, fables, fairy tales. False prophets. False prophets. And it's it it can all be solved with and fixed with the word of God. Amen. All you gotta do is bring in the truth and it'll expose all them. All you got to do is, Ephesians five eleven, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them. Use the truth to expose them. And boy do they get mad at you. They hate being exposed. They'll do anything to shut you up. So and in controversy they shall stand as judges and they shall judge if according to mine ordinances and they shall keep my laws and my statutes and mine assemblies and they shall hallow my Sabbaths. So you always hear people say judge not lest you be judged. As soon as you correct somebody and give God's word as the truth, they're right there to say, hey. Who are you to judge? Well, he's saying I get to use the word of God to judge. I have to use the word of God to judge. It's not me judging you. It's the word of God judging your action. You know, in first Corinthians six, Paul starts out by saying, be not deceived. Right? Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And then he goes through a whole list describing the unrighteous. Yeah. It's pretty clear. So don't be deceived. So we have to stand upon the word of God. What we're not to do is to condemn people and we're not to judge self righteously. We're not to judge like a pharisee where we've got a great big beam in our eye and we're looking and critical of somebody with a little speck in their eye. That's what he's saying judge not lest he be judged. Is the pharisees were pious and self righteous and thought they were better than everybody. So not a hypocritical judgment, But hey, if you really love the guy, get the beam out of your own eye and then go over there and take the speck out of his eye. Because that speck in his eye is causing him not be able to see very good, you know, either. So no humanism. No relativism. Humanism, relativism, existential humanism is if it feels good, do it. It's also in the book of Judges. Every man doing that which is right in his own eyes. I feel, pastor. I feel. Well, did you have some pizza? Are you gassy? What what do you feel? You know? I I feel. I got indigestion. I I feel. I had a dream. I had a vision. Well, how's it line up with the word of god? And we're getting so entrapped by tears, emotions. If somebody cries, can't even reason with them anymore. All it takes is one person crying on the phone and you can't reason. You're not going to able to reason. You might as well just start singing feelings because people can't reason. They can't rationally reason between right and wrong and the importance of discernment between that which is good and that which is evil. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, the kiss of inanimate are deceitful. You must confront sin. You can't call it love and call that tolerance is love. And so even in the millennium the Lord is making sure that people don't water down the word. First Peter two nine we're part of a royal priesthood. You and I right now. A royal priesthood. A priest stands before the people representing God. You represent God before the people whom he loves. They look at you and they think, who what's god like? What's god like? They shall hallow my sabbaths and they shall come near no dead person to defile themselves but a father or a mother or a son or a daughter or brother or a sister that has no husband they may defile themselves. So the priest is different in that if he defiles himself by getting around a dead body then he's going to have to go through the prescribed cleansing and spend seven days away from serving as a priest. His family, it's okay with them. Now we want to turn to Judges chapter 16. We saw criteria of hair, We saw the wine, and now we see a dead body, and it reminds me of a guy named Samson who had a Nazarite vow. Right? Do you remember his Nazarite vow? We're gonna look at this even though you know it. We're gonna remind ourselves of the secret of Samson's strength and the secret the power of Delilah. Right? Don't underestimate the power of Delilah And this big old strong guy you know what it reminds me of? Have you guys seen Bill Belichick lately? Bill Belichick, the Super Bowl coach of the New England Patriots. He is 72 years old, the most winning coach of all of them. Famous, recently retired, and now he's UNC, University of North Carolina football coach. He got away or got rid of his 60 year old, you know, had a divorce years ago, got three kids I think, but got away from a woman that he was dating that was 60 years old. And now he's got a woman that's 24 years old. 24 years old. And it's so embarrassing to watch. It's just embarrassing. It's like you're this big, strong, autocratic, you know, man's man on football field with men and all that. And now the proverbs that Solomon wrote in regard to a man with a woman, you know, you're being reduced to a crust of bread. You know? He's on a CBS interview and she's interrupting the interview, this woman. And she's like taking control of him. It's so bizarre, absolutely bizarre. But he seems to to like it. Alright. So let's see. The first 14 verses who wants to read the first 14 verses? Judges 16. Yeah. Okay. And then from 15 to 22, who wants to read that? I guess I'll do it. Okay. And then from 23 to the end, who wants to read that? I'll do it. Okay. So so we're looking at Samson. Now he's a Nazarite, special, special dude. And one of the things as a Nazarite is you're not supposed to drink the fruit of the the vine, the wine. Stay away from the wine. So previously, he messed around with the wine partying and stuff and he didn't lose his power. Then you're not supposed to touch a dead body, corruption. And then he's making jokes about, you know, honey out of the eater, a dead lion, you know, that he touched and got the honey out of the out of the he did a riddle and, you know, touched a dead dead lion but didn't lose his power. So now two strikes and he's still powerful. He's got one more, the long hair. Right? The long hair as part of his separation and Delilah wants to know the secret of his strength and she's gonna get big bucks from the Philistine dudes if if she can get it. Okay. Go ahead. 16 verse one. Then went Samson to Gaza and saw there a harlot excuse me. Yes. And went under her. And it was told the Gaza saying, Samson is some has come hither. And they come they compass him in and laid a wait for him all night at the gate of the city and were quiet all the night saying, in the beginning when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight and rose in midnight and took the doors of the gates of the city and the two posts and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon the shoulders his shoulders and carry them up to the top of the hill that is before Hebron. And it came to pass afterwards that he loved a woman in the Valley Of Sorek whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came upon her and said to her, entice him and see wherein his great strength lieth and what means he may prevail upon him that we may blind him to afflict him and that we may give thee every one of us an 1,100 pith of silver. And Delilah said into Samson, tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth and whereupon thy mightiest thy are bound to afflict thee. And Samson said unto her, if I bind me with seven green wits that were never dried and shall I be weak and be another man. And then the lords of the Philistines brought up up to her seven green wits which had been dried and they bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait abiding with her in the chambers And he said unto them, and the Philistines be upon Samson. And he broke the wits as with the low and the broken when it was teaches the fire, so his strength was not known. Then Delilah said unto Samson, behold, thou has mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherein was that might be bound? And he said unto her, if I bind me fast with new ropes and never were that were never occupied, then shall I be weak and be as another man. Goliath therefore took new ropes and bound them therein within and said unto him, the Philistines will be upon thee, Samson, and there they were lying awake abiding in the chambers. And he broke them from off his arms like a thread. Delilah said unto Samson, hither into thou hast mocked me and told me these lies. Tell me therein thou might be bound. And he said unto her, if thou werest to seven locks of my hair with the web, thou were to weavest seven locks of my head with a web. And she fastened it with the the spin and said unto him, the Philistines will be upon thee, Samson. And he awakened out of his sleep, and away it went with the pin and the beam and with the web. And she said unto him, how cast thou say, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? Thou has mocked me these three times and has not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart and said unto her, thee hath not come a razor upon my head. For I have been a Nazarite unto God for my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go for me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, come up this once, for he hath sowed me his all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up onto her and brought money in their hand, and she made him sleep upon her knees. And she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And he said and she said, the Philistines be upon us, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out at other times before and shake myself, and he with not and he with not that the Lord had was departed from him. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with feathers fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. My turn. Sorry. You can do it. Okay. Which one? What? 23. You're on 23. 1620. Thank you. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for an for an offer to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon, their god, and to rejoice for they said, our god hath delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god for they said, our God hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport, and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto unto the lad that held him by the hand, suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of of the Philistines were there. And there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the Lord and said, oh, Lord God, remember me. I pray I pray thee, and strengthen me. I pray thee only this once, oh, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Sam and Samson took hold of the middle the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was born born up, of the one with his right hand and of the other with his left. And Samson said, let us let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all of his mat all of his might, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So to so the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren and all of the house of his father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zoran and in the burying place of Monah, his father, and he judged Israel twenty years. So Samson had a great privilege and opportunity. When he was born, God separated him as a as a Nazarite. And the Nazarite wasn't to touch a dead body, wasn't to cut his hair, and wasn't to drink the fruit of the vine. And and he was used mightily of the Lord, but he didn't value the privilege that he had in his walking relationship with the Lord. So he gets involved with this harlot and he's toying with her and he puts the dreads in his hair and the ropes and all that sort of thing. And then now it comes down to the hair. He didn't lose his office. He didn't lose when he touched the dead, you know, lion. He didn't lose when he drank wine. But now it's his hair. And so the secret of Samson's strength is his relationship with the lord which he didn't value. And in that devaluation and not valuing it and liking Delilah more and her love more than, you know, than the love of the Lord. He winds up being beaten by a woman whose name means brought very low. That's what Delilah means. And so the devil's studying the devil's studying the weaknesses of people. David's weakness was women also with Bathsheba. And and he said to the Philistines are upon thee and Samson, and he awoke out of sleep and said, will go out as other times. You know, you think you can just keep, know devaluing your relationship with the Lord and go out as other times. And he knew not that here's the tragic part. He knew not that the Holy Spirit had departed. Didn't even know. The Philistines took him and put out his eyes brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze and he did grind in the prison house. And so sin what? Sin blinds. When we sin it blinds us. When we sin, it binds us. We go into bondage. And when we sin, we wind up grinding. You're grinding away grinding away, not enjoying your walk with the Lord. And now we see like with Jonah and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah a second time. Right? And we see the grace that God bestows upon Samson in that his hair began to grow back. So he's blind, he's bound, and now he's grinding as a trophy to the Philistines. And he tells the lad put me by the pillars there. And his vengeance, he wants to bring vengeance for his eyes. And and so as an act of his flesh, wants vengeance upon these guys. And the lord says, alright. I'm gonna let him have his vengeance. And we we see Jesus saying, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. We see Jesus upon the cross and we see Samson here, you know, wanting to avenge his two eyes that they plucked out his eyes and such. And so he wound up dying a fleshly man, but but he killed more in his death than he did in his whole life. So you and I need to value being Christians. We need to value the privilege we have in being Christians. The privilege we have of the word of God. The privilege we have of the holy spirit living and dwelling within us, and the privilege we have to serve the lord as kings and priests. It's pretty amazing. And if we don't value the lord, if we leave our first love, who knows what could happen. And the Lord gives us space to repent. He just wants us to confess our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So the priest that touches a dead person has seven days for cleansing and the day that he goes into the sanctuary and into the inner court to minister the sanctuary he shall offer sin offering saith the Lord God and it shall be unto him for an inheritance. So the priest is not going to inherit land like the rest of the people. The people are gonna receive land outside Jerusalem. There's gonna be land that's given to the people upon the planet but the priest does not get that inheritance. And it shall be unto them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance. In Genesis fifteen one, the Lord told Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceedingly great reward. Would you be content with that? Would you be content with the Lord being your inheritance and you'd be able to say the Lord is my portion. The Lord's my portion. What's your portion? What do you have? The Lord's my portion. I get the Lord. And ye shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession. That's amazing, isn't it? The Lord's my portion. They shall eat the meal offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. So you remember don't muzzle the ox while he's treading out the grain. And every time you guys take me out to lunch I remind you that. Right? That I'm the ox. Right? And so as I'm serving the Lord and providing the spiritual food to you, then you don't muzzle me, then you're giving me the material food so that so that I can eat. So Kathy and I, we subsist off of, you know, the tithes and offerings that are given to the church. And what's interesting here is it's just amazing to me that it can be such a privilege to own nothing but to be put in a position where the Lord's your possession, where he's my portion, he's my inheritance. They shall eat the meal offering. So the Lord's providing for these priests from the sacrifices that are brought. There's a portion of it that's sacrificed. There's another portion that they get to take home fresh meat to their family. And I was watching doctor Kent Hovind the other day and he was talking about bread, how bread he's quoting the proverb, how bread is good for the heart. You ever read that proverb? And and today, little Isaiah came in before we came here, and there's this bread that I have that's been there probably two months. And it won't go moldy. It's just white bread, but it just won't rot. It just won't go away. So Ken Hoven was talking about that and he said, you know, the the real meal, the the grain, when you grind it and you make it the flour and you make the bread and you have fresh bread, it used to be good for people's heart, used to be good for you. Well, the business people genetically altered the kernel, altered the grain to take out two components that were very healthy because by taking those two components out, the bread will last forever. The wonder bread will stay on the shelf and never mold, you know. But the problem is you got gluten and all this other bad stuff, you know, within the the genetically altered stuff and it doesn't feed you. So I thought of this. I thought, you know, the Lord wanted people to eat fresh bread, not bread that been on the shelf for weeks and weeks and weeks. Yep. And the food here is food that that day they're bringing it home to the family. Yeah. You know, the it's been slaughtered. They offer. Now they're bringing, hey, dad. What's what's what's what's today? We got lamb chops, son. You know? And I just think that's so cool the way if we eat god's food. You know? If we do things god's way, just how amazing it is to do things god's way and the benefit thereof. So I'm your possession. They shall eat the meal offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. And the first of all the first fruits of all things and every oblation of all and every sort of oblation shall be the priests. What a deal. He shall also give and I wrote here shall be the priest and y'all shall give unto the priest the first of your dough. D o u g h. I put a little dollar sign right there just to be funny. Just to be funny. Alright? So it's your dough. It's your it's your unleavened bread. Right? Your unleavened bread. Britney's making unleavened bread right now. She's got the starter and she just keeps making sourdough bread like crazy. And Kathy said it's super good for her. It's helping her digestive. And so that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. So not the stuff that won't last, not the leftovers. This guy's getting these priests are getting the first. They're getting the best. And I think that's a pretty cool thing that we're kings and priests and the Lord wants to give you and I. Now who wants to read Revelation five verse 10? I will. So while she's getting there, I'm gonna read this last part. So no leftovers. When you went out to get manna, the bread of life, you could only gather some people hoarded, some gathered little, but it molded overnight. You had to go out each day to spend your time with the bread of life. Each day, you go into a devotional to get your spiritual food. You don't just last on Sunday, Monday. Every day you go out and feast upon the manna that's coming down from heaven. Right? And you couldn't hoard it. And it says here, the priest shall not eat of anything that is dead of itself or torn whether it be fowl or beast. So I wrote here no roadkill. Don't don't grab a roadkill, a dead deer, and bring it to the temple and say here priest this is your food. You know, no roadkill. Fresh God food, you know. Bring it alive. Bring it there alive and healthy and let the priest slit its neck and let blood go down and and the whole thing. And they have a way of bleeding though, a way of bleeding the animal as a means of keeping it healthy. Alright. Go ahead. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. Isn't that amazing? You and I are kings and priests and the Lord is our portion, the Lord is our inheritance, And we got our new glorified bodies. We're gonna be able to travel like who knows how fast, going through walls, all that other sort of stuff. And and the Lord's gonna take care of us. I mean, it's it's just amazing. The best truly is the yet yet to come. Deuteronomy eighteen one through five. The Levitical priest that is all the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire and the inheritance. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren. The Lord is their inheritance as he has said unto them. And this shall be the priests due from the people from them who offer a sacrifice whether it be an ox or a sheep and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. The first fruit also of the grain of the wine of thine oil and the first of the fleece of the sheep shalt thou give him for the Lord thy God has chosen him out of thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord him and his sons forever. So basically does a city, does a culture value the spiritual part of their lives? If they don't value the spiritual part of their life, they only want the material, emotional or whatever, then they're not going to put a whole lot of effort in cultivating their relationship with God. So Ephesians four says God gives as a gift to churches. As a gift, my pastor is a gift to me. His consistency and his dedication to teaching me the word of God has allowed me to have a family, to order that family in a biblical godly manner, to watch my family members get saved, to watch watch my dad and brothers and and others get saved. And it and it all stems from someone obeying the lord and going and making disciples and taking us through the scriptures and equipping us, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. And so that's the Ephesians four description. He gave some apostles, some prophets, evangelists, and teachers. For what purpose? For the perfecting of the saints, which means maturity for the work of the ministry. So we all are serving the Lord as kings and priests and especially in the millennium when we're in our new glorified bodies but even presently. And the Lord's our portion. You know? It's it's amazing to to see to see what the Lord's saying about in the millennium there and not so worried about real estate and retirement and how much money is in the bank and that you're willing to walk by faith. And again, God told Abraham, Abraham, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. And then I think about the pronouns. Me, me, me, my, my, my. God describing his relationship with the priests of Zadok and their ministry as unto him. And so Colossians three twenty seven, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men. And that's how we get through the season of discouragement when we're in a time of apostasy and people don't value the things of the spirit, the things of the lord. They don't attend church. They don't want the word of god. They don't want the fellowship, the prayer, and the allurement of entertainment and material things captivates and draws them away. And false teaching, false prophets, false everything begins to inundate. And you think of Jeremiah, forty years of ministry in a time of apostasy. Ezekiel, Isaiah was cut in two by Manasseh. So anyway, something to look forward to to to get the lord's perspective. People people are fickle, but the lord, he's he's you can you can bank on him. You can bank on him in what what he's when he says, I'm your portion, when he says, I'm your inheritance, you can take it to the bank. You know? Alright. So let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the time we can spend your word in reminding us of the eternal versus the temporal. And Lord, we pray that we would store up treasures in heaven where moth and rust doesn't corrupt, where thieves can't break through and steal, Lord. Where our treasure is, there our heart be also. And Lord, we pray that you have our heart. And we pray evermore, Lord, that we could be those intercessors that fill that gap between people that don't know you and yourself, Lord, and that we could bridge that by pointing them to Christ who bridged that gap. That they would come to know you, that they'd come to learn of you and enter into a deep rich relationship with you in these last days. We pray prophetically, Lord, that you would help us with the scriptures to connect the dots and to help people discern the times that we're living in. Give us great discernment between good and evil, between right and wrong. Help us to be to study, to show ourselves approved under God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth Lord. As we use the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to determine doctrine, to determine what's true and what's false. So help us Lord, we pray. Help us to get to know you and help us make you known. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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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.

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