Ezekiel Part 11

All right, we're going to pray. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word and we consider what you have revealed to the prophet

Ezekiel, we pray, Lord, that we would heed the message of a call to repentance of all of our sins, trusting confidently in the mercy and forgiveness that you have.

May we see our sin the way you see it, as an abomination, as something to be detested, as something that's worthless.

And may we see Christ only as that which is precious and the love that he has for his bride as the thing that we seek in having mercy from you because of him.

And through the Holy Spirit, which you have endowed us with, we ask, Lord Jesus, that you would bear the fruit of repentance in our lives and be glorified in the acts of love and mercy that we do for others.

Because these are the good works that you have called us to. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. OK, we are going to continue with our study from last week.

And last week, I had gone on an excursus and hadn't gotten back to the text.

And we didn't finish the excursus, really. Really? Don't look so shocked,

Cleveland. I did. And so we must have a proper resolution to the original bunny trail.

We went on to two bunny trails. The bunny trail within a bunny trail. I know Bruce was very proud of you. He was proud of me?

Yes, he was. I can't. It was more a circular.

Uh -huh. And then a cliffhanger. And then a cliffhanger. All right. So we, to start off with, are in 2

Chronicles. And I'm going to back up into chapter 6, since we have a little bit of time.

And I want to read Solomon's prayer of dedication, and then what happens in the aftermath.

So this is the dedication of Solomon's temple. So here's what it says, starting at verse 12 of 2

Chronicles chapter 6. And this is going to stand as a really good juxtaposition to what we're going to see in Ezekiel 10.

Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all of the assembly of Israel. And he spread out his hands.

Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide, three cubits high, and had set it in the court.

He stood on it. So he actually legitimately made a platform. He knelt on his knees in the presence of all of the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

And he said, O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all of their heart, who have kept with your servant

David, my father, what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth and with your hand you have fulfilled it this day.

Now therefore, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, what you have promised him, saying, you shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel.

If only your sons pay close attention to their way to walk in my law as you have walked before me.

Now therefore, O Yahweh, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed which you have spoken to your servant

David. And you're gonna note, God promised David that there would never be lacking a man to sit on his throne.

And how'd that work out, by the way? Here we are in Ezekiel and the current fellow reigning from Jerusalem is not the legitimate heir of David.

That, David's dynasty has come to an end at this point. And you'll note that Christ, how long is he gonna reign on the throne of David, by the way, how long?

Like forever? Forever and ever, right? I saw some Yahoo today on Twitter said that God is a dictator.

It's like, you have no idea what God is like. Seriously, really, God's a dictator? Christ is king of kings and lord of lords and he doesn't strike me as an

Adolf Hitler type, right? So you'll note that Christ is going to sit on the throne of David forever and we as Christians then recognize that we are citizens of the kingdom of Christ.

We are citizens of his kingdom. He's the one who calls the shots, which is why I always would like to remind people if they, how come there are no

American, why is the American flag not on the altar? Why is it in the foyer? Because once you step foot into the sanctuary area, you're no longer in the

United States. This is an embassy and you are now in an embassy of the kingdom of Christ. He is king, he's in charge, he's lord.

And so you'll note that God did actually keep the promise that he made to David, just not in a way that Solomon could expect.

And you'll note that Solomon, who started well, ended very poorly. I would note 700 wives could have a corrupting impact on a fellow and especially if a lot of those wives were the hot foreign chick types and who worshiped idols and they did and they were a snare to him.

And you'll note that that's a snare of his own doing, okay? And as a result of it, he ends so poorly that God, right before his death, makes it clear that he's going to tear the kingdom in half and he did.

And that's what led to the split between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Ultimately, it was Solomon's sin.

But we continue. So this is his prayer at the dedication of the temple. God will indeed dwell with man on the earth.

That's a question. But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Hmm. What do you guys think?

What's the answer to that question? It's a great question. Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Yes, yes, that's kind of the whole point of the incarnation.

And his kingdom will be forever and ever, right? Okay, so God will indeed dwell with man on the earth.

Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built.

But we are coming close to the season of Advent and we're not that far away from Christmas.

But what Solomon said is true. Not even heaven or the highest heaven could contain God, yet God contained himself in a tiny little package that needed diapers changed, right?

It's amazing when you consider it. I mean, just the irony here is so amazing. Yet, have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, oh

Yahweh my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you.

That your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name.

Now, let's do a little bit of work here too. Let's do a little temple theology, shall we? Okay, God promised to set his name in the temple, on the temple, which is part of the reason why the glory leaves.

And we as Christians, we are called what collectively? The temple of God. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the

Holy Spirit? And so you'll note, this theology impacts like a deeper understanding that you cannot see with your own eyes then, the importance of baptism.

When you were baptized, you were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy Spirit. God placed his name upon you and indwelt you with the

Holy Spirit and our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. That's kind of the idea here.

And so you kind of see this is important stuff that you see going on here. There's a deeper layer to all of this.

Yes, it's true that God did in times past set his name on the temple, but now he has set his name on each and every one of us in the waters of baptism.

So that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers towards this place. And listen to the pleas of your servants to the people of Israel when they pray toward this place.

And listen from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, do what?

Forgive. Solomon knows full well the whole purpose of that temple is for the forgiveness of sins, these animal sacrifices, all because of the transgressions of his people.

And so note then, listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people,

Israel. I always have to point out words like this in the biblical text nowadays because of the nonsense that is parading as prayer that isn't prayer.

It's a masquerade when people say, all right, let's pray. I decree and declare and I command and control and COVID -19 and all that kind of weird stuff, right?

That's nonsense. We're not commanded to decree and declare. We're called to humbly ask

God to make our supplications, our requests, our pleas made known to him, right?

That's our attitude, humble human beings, beseeching God that he would forgive us, that he would grant us the things that we need, although we are neither worthy of them or have deserved them, and in fact, we deserve otherwise.

So if a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

If your people, Israel, are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people,

Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers.

When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people,

Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk and grant rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemies besiege them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people,

Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hand toward this house, then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know according to all of his ways.

For you only know the hearts of the children of mankind, that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers.

Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people, Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays towards this house, hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your people,

Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea and maintain their cause.

If they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin, and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near.

Yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive and repent and plead with you in the land of captivity saying we have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly, if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive and pray toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their pleas and maintain their cause.

Forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now, oh my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

And now arise, oh Yahweh Elohim, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.

Let your priests, oh Yahweh Elohim, be clothed with salvation and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.

Oh Yahweh Elohim, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.

Remember your steadfast love for David and your servant. It's a great prayer, absolutely amazing prayer.

And then this is what happens. This is the close of it. As soon as Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of Yahweh filled the temple.

And the priests could not enter the house of Yahweh because the glory of Yahweh filled the

Lord's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of Yahweh on the temple, they bowed with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to Yahweh, saying, for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever. I would note that Patricia King would sell her mother into slavery to have a religious experience like this, right?

But there it was, and you'll note, it terrified people, it shook them up. They were face down on the ground, nose to the pavement, and Yahweh, he is

Yahweh. He is good, his steadfast love endures forever. And so the temple is then the place to pray, to cry out to God.

And that's what we see happening in the centuries, the years, the decades afterwards, all the way up until the complete apostasy of Judah.

And now this is what makes what comes next so utterly tragic. Ezekiel chapter 10.

I looked, behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim. There appeared above them something like a sapphire, an appearance like a throne.

And he said to them, the man clothed in linen, go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim, fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.

And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house, when the man went in and a cloud filled the inner court, and the glory of Yahweh went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of Yahweh.

And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

And when he commanded the man clothed in linen take fire from between the whirling wheels from between the cherubim, he went in and stood beside a wheel.

And there a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and he took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen who took it and then went out, and the cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings.

And I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheel was like sparkling beryl.

And as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness if a wheel were within a wheel. And when they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without turning as they went.

And their whole body, their rims and their spokes and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes all around the wheels that the four of them had.

And as for the wheels, they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels. And everyone had four faces.

The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was a human face, the third face of a lion, the fourth face of an eagle.

And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Heber Canal, and when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them, and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them.

When they stood still, these stood still. When they mounted up, these mounted up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

Then the glory of Yahweh went out from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim.

And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out with the wheels beside them.

And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of Yahweh, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.

These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Heber Canal, and I knew that they were the cherubim.

Each had four faces, each had four wings, and underneath their wings, the likeness of human hands.

And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the Heber Canal. Each one of them went straight forward.

Terrifying, absolutely terrifying. And it's necessary that Ezekiel show us what he saw, because no human being would have seen this with their own eyes.

If God had not opened his eyes to see this reality, then we would have no concept of it.

But we see then that sin, persistent, impenitent sin,

God indeed is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and look at how patient over decades, more than a century,

God was patient, wishing for, hoping for, calling for their repentance.

But they would not turn. But you remember that part of Solomon's prayer?

If they sin against you and there's no one who does not sin, if you are angry with them and give them to an enemy that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and they repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying we have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly, if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive and pray towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

So you'll note that any of those Jews in captivity who knew their

Bible, and it was clear there were few that did at this time, that they wouldn't have seen this until they actually got their nose into the book.

But I know a guy, I know a guy who legitimately read that text and did exactly what it said.

And this is where we should remember this portion of Daniel.

Let me find the text for you, I think it's nine, here we go, here we go. So Daniel, who is a contemporary of Ezekiel.

He is in Babylon along with Ezekiel, right? So these guys are living at the same exact time.

Daniel says this, in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, by descent of Mede, who was made king over the realm of the

Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the book of the number of years, according to the word of the

Lord, to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

So here we got Daniel reading Jeremiah, reading his Bible and going, you know what, we're gonna be here for a while, guys.

In fact, Daniel probably isn't even gonna leave Chaldea, he's not gonna leave

Babylon at all. So then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed to Yahweh my

God, and made confession saying, oh Lord, the great and awesome

God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and your rules.

We have not listened to your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and all the people of the land.

To you, oh Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us, open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all

Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them because of the treachery that they have committed against you.

To us, oh Yahweh, belongs open shame. To our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you, to the

Lord, our God, belong mercy and forgiveness. For we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our

God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants, the prophets.

And here I've highlighted this, and there's a reason why I highlighted this text. Note that even

Daniel properly points that the voice of God is heard in the written scriptures, that they had turned away from the voice of God that's in the

Torah. They had turned away from the voice of God that was in the prophets. This is where we hear the voice of God now, in the

Old Testament, written by the prophets of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, written by the apostles that Christ Jesus chose to be his, his apostles, his men on earth to speak him.

And he said of them, the one who hears you, hears me. The one who hears, hears me, hears the one who sent me, right?

So here, this is a great confession of sins, but along the way also noting, we failed to obey the voice of our

God by walking in his Torah, in his commandments, his laws in the scriptures.

All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice.

That's where God's voice is found. It's in the word. Stop looking for God's voice inside of you, okay?

That ain't where you're gonna hear it. You're gonna hear it in the scriptures. You're gonna hear it through a sinful man named

Chris Rosebrough when you come to Kongsbinger, okay? And that's kind of the thing, the reason why we cover me up, why does

Rosebrough wear that big white hot thing? Believe me, I wish I didn't,

I wish I couldn't, you know. Especially in the summer, when we get a little humid out here, okay,

I'm sure that all this Latin for fire suit, because that's what it turns into.

It's really toasty up there, the best way I can put it. The reason why we cover me up is because it's not about me.

We cover me up so that when I eventually meet my demise, the next guy that comes along gets to put the fire suit on, and he gets to preach the same word, the same gospel, the same scriptures that I'm preaching, and that fellow is weakened as sinful as he will be, he will be teaching you, and you will be hearing

God's voice through him as he opens up the scriptures. So the idea then is that don't pay attention to me.

It's not me you're listening to when you come to Kongsbinger. You're listening to the voice of God in the word, and that's my job.

And if I ever start preaching my own words rather than the words of God, get rid of me.

I've become useless to you, okay? In fact, more than likely become a danger. But I come to church to hear the voice of Christ myself.

The weird part is that it's like hearing the voice of God in my own voice. It's weird, okay?

Did you guys ever remember that episode of Seinfeld where they discovered books on tape, and George Costanza found a book that he wanted to hear, but the guy reading it sounded just like George Costanza, and it drove him nuts because it was like listening to himself?

It's really meta, but that's the thing. For me, if I want to hear the voice of God on Sunday, I read the text,

I preach the text, and I hear it in my own voice. But I recognize that the voice of God is not me.

I am not God. I am not the Messiah. I am in much need of the Messiah.

I need to be forgiven of my sins by God just like the rest of you. But you'll note how amazing God set this up, that even we sinful men get to partner with God and get to preach and to teach his word and to call sinners to repentance.

There are ones who plant and some who water, but they are nothing. God is the one who brings the increased. So when we neglect the word, we neglect the voice of God.

You'll note that Daniel here is making it very clear that we didn't neglect your voice in the false prophets that were among us.

We neglected your voice by neglecting the scriptures. So because of this, the curse and the oath that are written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out upon us because we have sinned against him.

He has confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us by bringing upon us a great calamity.

For under the whole heaven, there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem.

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our

God, turning from our iniquity and gaining insight by your truth.

Therefore, the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us.

For the Lord Yahweh our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.

And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for yourself as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city,

Jerusalem, your holy hill, because our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers,

Jerusalem and all your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore,

O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy.

And for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.

O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that is called by your name.

For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.

O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, pay attention and act, delay not for your own sake,

O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name. What a great prayer.

Oh, it makes me wonder. It's like, you know, I'm kind of in search for like an

Advent midweek service, you know, theme. I got four weeks this year. I got four weeks rather than three.

And I'm just thinking, it'd be kind of fun to do like a study on like the penitential prayers of the scriptures, you know.

That would be fun. But note here, absolute, open, honest confession.

All right, have you ever heard somebody confess their sins and go, yeah, that's part of it, but I don't think you're gonna pass a lie detector test on that one, right?

That they're holding something back, right? They're not exactly really opening up here.

They're not truly being honest, right? I'm always tempted this way when

I'm wrong and I have to apologize to my wife. I know this struggle, right? It's like, and she says, what are you apologizing for?

And the words stuck in my teeth, right? It's like, okay, you know, and she always knows it.

She always knows like an open, honest apology. And she knows the ones that I struggle with.

This one was full -throated and honest. And these words, we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.

This is a wonderful thing because we as Christians, we get rocked, we get buffeted, we get knocked to the ground by the devil, the world, our own sinful flesh.

And there are many things that each of us have done that we are legitimately ashamed of. And you'll note then that we can come before God with this exact same attitude.

I'm not coming to you because I am righteous. No, because of your great mercy, because I am in desperate need of that.

And I recognize it. Good prayer, right? Okay, so the tragedy now has occurred there in Jerusalem.

The glory of the Lord has left the temple. And wow, do you think for a second that God doesn't take sin seriously?

And do you think that just because God is patient and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and desiring your repentance, that somehow that that means that he's going to do nothing?

That's not how God is. Next part. So the spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of Yahweh, which faces east.

And behold, at the entrance of the gateway, there were 25 men. And I saw among them

Jeazaniah, the son of Azur, and Pelletiah, the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

And he said to me, son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city.

God knows them by name, right? Who say, the time is not near to build houses.

This city is the cauldron and we are the meat. Therefore, prophesy against them. Prophesy, oh son of man.

So the spirit of Yahweh fell upon me. And he said to me, say thus says

Yahweh. So you think, oh house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind.

You have multiplied your slain in the city and have filled its streets with the slain.

Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat and the city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it.

You have feared the sword and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord Yahweh.

I will bring you out of the midst of it and give you into the hands of foreigners and execute judgments upon you.

You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel. You shall know that I am

Yahweh. This city shall not be your cauldron nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it.

I will judge you at the border of Israel and you shall know that I am Yahweh. For you have not walked in my statutes nor obeyed my rules, but you have acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you.

Let's let this sink in for a second here, okay? That's a bad thing, right? Obeying the rules of the nations that are around us.

Take a look at our world right now. Would you describe it as a law and order world?

No, it hasn't, but I would note that there have been times when there's been a lot more law and order than there is now.

Consider the old ways, consider the old generation. Consider the high watermark, if you would, of Christendom.

I would think that things were far better under control back then than they are now. It just seems like the whole world has been unbuckled from truth, unbuckled from God's law, and as a result of it, people are acting according to the rules of the nations.

And is it any wonder then that anytime I open up what used to be known as Twitter, it's now called

X, I sometimes think it should just be renamed Triple X, because it is just scandalous what goes on on that platform.

It is horrifying, okay? And it's like I use it now just to post things, okay?

And I do as much as possible to not engage in too much conversation or even reading what's coming through the suggesteds on that site, because the only thing

I hear is the complete cacophony of hatred and chaos, and just the world is coming apart at the seams.

Yesterday was the British version of Memorial Day, okay?

And they had several hundred thousand people on the streets of London protesting against the

British government and calling for the support of Hamas. And you just sit there and go, what is going on on planet

Earth? And of course, the whole Hamas -Israeli conflict, the photographs of the utter destruction that are coming out of there are just devastating to look at.

The death toll continues to rise. Hamas continues to fight. Israel continues to fight.

Buildings keep coming down. More refugees keep fleeing south. It's just a complete mess.

And you'd listen to the pundits. They keep opining that we're probably on the brink of World War III.

What's happening? Well, I would note this. If you were to look at Western civilization and ask yourself this question, are we in an age, in an era, where God's word is looked at, is honored and sought after for advice and wisdom?

Or are we in a world that is postmodern? In a postmodern world where all truth is acidically destroyed and the only thing left is your own personal truth that you choose for yourself?

I mean, one of the symptoms is this nonsense that I can somehow choose my own gender and my own personal pronouns, right?

You know, if anyone asks me what are my pronouns, I'm gonna say your majesty, okay? And insist that they follow their own dumb rules to their own shame.

Mine are sire and lord. I like those, right? Okay, you want me to play your stupid game?

All right. I'm gonna show you how stupid this game is by choosing something like this, right?

But you're gonna note that when we abandon God's commands, when we seek our own way, when we follow our own hearts, when we follow the rules and philosophies of the world and the nations of the world around, where does this always end?

Yeah, it ends in genocide, God's judgment and his wrath. And we are not made wise by such things.

We become abject fools. I recently did a video looking at Charisma magazines.

The guy who runs Charisma magazine, the name is Stephen Strang, and he invited modern day apostle and prophet

Chuck Pierce onto the Charisma magazine's channel on YouTube to talk and to tell us what the spirit is saying regarding the conflict in Israel.

And if you know anything about Chuck Pierce, the guy is not capable of stringing together a single lucid sentence, okay?

I always use the phrase blue sleeps faster than Tuesday. That's because that's like the extent of my ability to come up with dumb sentences like this.

This guy can string on paragraphs of sentences just like that one after another and say nothing.

I likened it to those comedians who use something called double talk in order to confuse people to get a laugh.

But here's the thing. There are not some, we're talking hundreds of thousands and if not millions of people who think that Chuck Pierce is a prophet of God, and that video has been watched not a few times, but a ton of times, and the guy isn't saying anything.

We are called as Christians, we are called by God to hear his voice.

And if you think that Chuck Pierce is speaking the voice of God, you are under a judgment of God.

You are under the delusion that was prophesied in 2 Thessalonians, that God would send a delusion to those who did not love the truth, so God sends a delusion so that they'll love the lie.

And you'll note then, we got all these people bloviating these stupid words that are clearly not from God, and the world continues to hurl headlong towards the abyss, and those who would speak the truth are shouted down, are canceled, are mocked, are ridiculed, ignored as some kind of a raving lunatic, right?

But when I was growing up, nobody would have listened to Chuck Pierce or given him the time of day.

Something seriously has changed, and we need to pay attention. The change is not a good one.

God's judgment is upon much of the world. And now as the darkness gets darker and darker, it is more imperative that we speak the truth so that people hear

God's word, because as it gets darker and darker, the little lights that we have now shine brighter and farther.

I would remind you that during wartime, like World War II and Vietnam and stuff like this, soldiers were not permitted to smoke cigarettes out in the field, out when they were on duty, because then they become a target in the middle of the night because those little lights can be seen in the dark, right?

So note then, take out your Holy Jesus cigarette lighter and light that thing, okay?

And it's a terrible analogy. My metaphors are not working today, but did you hear what the pastor

Kongsvinger said? He said, light your Jesus lighters and cigarettes.

What on earth is going on there at Kongsvinger? So leaving Jesus wasn't bad enough? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. He was from California. Yeah, that's right, right. I did grow up in Southern California, but it wasn't legal back then in California.

I'm just saying. Okay? Anyway, I think you get the idea of the point that I'm making here, okay?

And that is that God is rebuking those

Jews in exile, rebuking them because they acted according to the rules, the philosophies of the nations, rather than hear the voice of God and his word.

You'll note that God's commandments, scripture describes them as the law of liberty.

It is Satan who tries to convince you that God's law are a straitjacket. God's law is the thing that he's using to oppress you, to suppress you, to keep you down, to keep you from experiencing your potential, to keep you from having fun, because God is a cosmic killjoy of the universe, right?

But you'll note that when we break his commandments, we hurt ourselves horribly.

When we break his commandments, we hurt other people horrifically. And yet when we keep his commandments, that is those times when we have peace in our life rather than a guilty conscience.

We know this, right? So it came to pass while I was prophesying that Pelletiah, the son of Benaiah, died.

And then I fell down on my face and I cried out with a loud voice. I said, ah, Lord Yahweh, will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

So although he couldn't really be seen, that was kind of a weird bit, you know? Someone died while he was prophesying.

So the word of Yahweh came to me. Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, go far from Yahweh.

To us, this land is given for a possession. Therefore say, thus says the Lord Yahweh. Though I remove them far off from among the nations and though I scatter them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.

Therefore say, thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered.

I will give you the land of Israel and when they come there, they will remove from it all of its detestable things, all of its abominations, and I will give them one heart and a new spirit and I will put within them,

I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.

And they shall be my people and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations,

I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord Yahweh. Now, this is an interesting text.

So let me ask you this. When the children of Israel, finally after 70 years, were able to return back to Judea, to Jerusalem, to Israel, was that fulfilled then?

Was this prophecy fulfilled then? Not exactly.

Not exactly. In a temporal sense, maybe, but I don't know. Yeah, yeah, right.

Did God replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh and was that the permanent status of Israel?

No. So here's where we have to recognize a very important fact and one that gets me in trouble with Michael Brown all the time and I don't care, okay, and that is that in the scriptures, any text in the

Old Testament that deals with eschatology, okay, things that are not yet fulfilled, that have to deal with the end of the world, an eschatological promise, it cannot be interpreted in such a way that it is to be applied to genetic

Jews. It has to be applied to those who are Israel by faith.

Does that make sense? And so you're gonna note here, I was like, when I see a text like this, I sit there and go, oh,

I can't wait, and you sit there and go, but Rose, bro, you're about as Jewish as spaghetti, you know, yeah, yeah, about as Jewish as a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, right?

Okay, all of that being said, how then can I even think that this applies? Because we've all been grafted into Israel.

The church hasn't replaced Israel at all. Every one of us, according to scripture, who believe in Jesus Christ, we have been grafted into Israel.

We are part of Israel, and so you're gonna note then that you remember all the way back to the

Tower of Babel. We have to remember a little bit of Old Testament history here.

At the Tower of Babel, what was the problem? God said, fill the earth and subdue it.

What did they say? They played clump ball. If you don't know what clump ball is, okay, back when my daughter

Faith was like five, six years old, she was on a soccer team, and six -year -old girls don't play soccer well, okay?

They don't understand the idea of positions, and so it turns into this thing we call clump ball, okay?

Just this movable thing of like girls just moving around the ball, this one big clump, and every now and then, the ball would like splurt out and go into the net, and it wasn't really exciting to watch.

It was entertaining, but it was clump ball, okay? This is what humanity did after the flood.

God said, disperse. They clumped together. They clumped together so much so that they decided they were gonna build a tower known as the

Tower of Babel, and God came down and just did something amazing, and that was one guy was working on the tower, and he said, could you hand me a hammer?

And all he heard was, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And they couldn't understand each other. The whole building project came to a collapsing end, right?

And what did the people end up doing? Hey, does anyone here speak English? Yeah, I speak English.

Oh, thank God, okay, and they would get together, and then some guy would say, I was hoping my wife didn't speak

English, but oh well. You know, that's a whole other story, but God made sure all the spouses spoke the same language, but broke up families and everything like this, and what did they have to do?

They had to go and fill the earth. God dispersed them, right?

So when you read this text, you have to see yourself as being dispersed into the nations by God himself, because we are, and right now,

I'm currently sojourning in American Siberia, okay? It's the best place ever, okay?

David Fagerlund came up to me after the service, and he said, you know, this is our Indian summer. It's like, okay, you know, this is the last.

He was like, so don't get used to this. This is gonna be gone in like two weeks, because we got this warm weather that's gonna be around for a little while, and we all know what happens.

As soon as this little thing passes, the wind is gonna start whipping and all that kind of stuff. So here

I have been scattered to Minnesota, right? Love it, okay? But the thing is is that there's a day coming when we who've been scattered across the face of the earth, we who are

Israel by faith, we will be gathered, and God is gonna remove all the detestable things and the abominations of this earth.

He's gonna give us one heart, a new spirit. God has already given us this Holy Spirit, which is a deposit, guaranteeing the inheritance of what is to come.

God's gonna permanently remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. We will no longer sin, right?

So when you read a text like this, as Christians, when you read an Old Testament -esque catalogical text, this applies to us, okay?

And I can hear Michael Brown going, no, thou shalt not steal. Get over it, dude.

We read the Old Testament through the New, and that's the way we're supposed to do it.

So when you hear something like this, you sit there and go, well, that wasn't really fully fulfilled when

Nehemiah and Ezra and all of them came back from captivity because they went right back into their problems pretty quickly, and then by the time the

New Testament opens they're completely under the control of the cult known as the Pharisees, right?

So you can kind of see how this all plays out. So then they will be my people, I will be their

God, but as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the

Lord Yahweh. So then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the

God of Israel was over them, and the glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city, and the

Spirit lifted me up and brought me in, the vision of the Spirit of God, into Chaldea to the exiles, and then the vision that I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles all the things that Yahweh had shown me.

It's tragic. Utterly tragic. Is it any wonder that sin is always referred to as foolishness?

We've exchanged the glory of God for worthless, worthless trinkets, false gods, false doctrines, false teachers, false prophets, rather than the true

God who is. We've exchanged his glory for that. This applies to all of us. All right, let me do a quick thing real quick here.

I'm gonna do a quick thing quickly. All right. Yeah. Ha ha ha.

I can't do. I don't have that much time. Yeah. Ha ha ha. Okay.

Can you expand a bit on the repenting all your soul? Not sure I know what that entails.

So the idea here then is that repentance, if you just consider what repentance is, repentance has two parts to it, and repentance is first and foremost recognizing your sin and even lamenting over it, but that is not sufficient as far as what repentance is.

So it involves a change of mind, and that is worked by God's words, and if you wanna be more specific, by God's law.

God's law convicts us of our sins, shows us a need for a savior, but that's not complete.

So in order for repentance to be a true repentance from God, there has to be an opposite side of it that has confidence that God will forgive, that God is merciful.

For the sake of Christ, he will forgive me all of our sins. So then the idea then, we can say that as Christians, we do repent with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength because we do not speak the falsehoods about ourselves where we say things like,

I'm not that bad, it's okay. You know, it's just a little bit of sin. It's just a white lie.

No, we don't do any of that stuff. We just come right out and say, yep, God, I've sinned. I've done it, thought, word, deed, the things

I've done, the things I've left done, and then on the other side, I'm sorry for these things.

Have mercy on me, forgive me, and we have confidence that God would forgive us. So a lot of times people hear a phrase like repent with all of your heart or all of your soul and think that that's not something that can take place.

It is something that does happen. It happens as a work of God, the Holy Spirit, and all true repentance is that.

It legitimately is, whereas as a pastor, I can spot when somebody is holding back because they're trying to justify or to somehow soften the blow on their sin.

I know this was bad, but I'm getting better. It's like, yeah, no, we have to have a chat about that.

That's that repentance that still hasn't said the truth about itself, but you'll note then as Christians, we are by the power of the

Holy Spirit given that gift to repent. God repents us through his word. And even if we're not fully aware of all of our sin, that does not matter.

That legitimately doesn't matter. That when we confess our sins, God is the one who gives us the strength to say the truth about ourselves and then to be forgiven.

So, and then how often do we do that? Every single day and every single divine service.

You get the idea, okay. Okay, let's see here. Let's see here.

Okay, Adam, I'm not sure what you're getting at. Let me see here. So it has to do with the authority presumed prior to canonization of each of the texts.

Okay, so here's the thing. Adam, if you can email all of that to secretary at kungsvingerchurch .org.

Secretary at kungsvingerchurch .org. And then really like nail down your question to like a very explicit question, although I see it in the handwriting there.

We'll see if we can take a crack at that when we get together in two weeks. It's on my phone. I'm gonna have to,

I'm running out of time here. So next week there is no Sunday school. The following week there is.