Letters to the Churches Bunny Trail Part 4

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Letters to the Churches Part 5

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Okay, so we have been working our way through the book of Revelation and we're up to the last cycle as it relates to these cycles of judgment.

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And we noted when we were looking at Revelation 16 and then going into the last and final cycle of judgments that we saw a reemergence in scripture in the last days of the plagues of Egypt.

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And that's an important bit because we recognize that these plagues are a judgment of God against the false deities of Egypt and specifically the false god -king who wears a snake hat known as Pharaoh.

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And Pharaoh is a stand -in for the devil. And so you'll note then that if we understand our types and shadows in the

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Old Testament properly that these plagues are a foreshadowing of God's final judgments at the end of the world.

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That being the case, it behooves us to at least walk back through them for the purpose of reminding us about how

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God operates in judgment. And I've said it before and I'll reiterate it, the idea that we are presently still in the throes of a global pandemic that those pastors and preachers out there who are saying that it is

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Satan who sends pestilences and plagues like this, they are wrong. Plagues and pestilences are part of the judgments that God sends and it's

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God's prerogative to send these things. And the book of Revelation promises that as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ that there will be more than just COVID -19.

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And the impact that it'll have globally will be catastrophic. And so we need to recognize that this, unlike, you know, believing the false theology of Kenneth Copeland who believed that Satan was the one who sent

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COVID -19, those comes from God. And the message, if you're not exactly sure what the message is, as it relates to these things, the message is repent.

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That is the message. Repent. And so you get the idea.

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There's a glare? I'm sorry about that. I have to sort that out.

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Okay, so all that being said, we were looking at, and there's a little graphic I'm going to throw up here.

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And that is that if you were to Google, you know, plagues of Egypt and then gods, like this is an example of, you know, kind of using the

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King James Version, of the different deities that bit the dust as it relates to the plagues of Egypt.

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And so we were up to the frogs in our last time together on this topic.

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And so we know that Happy and Hect, these are false deities of Egypt, they bit the dust and they were not able to stand up against Yahweh.

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Now, in what follows here, the Hebrew word that gets translated in the

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King James as lice can also be gnats or small flies. And so there's a little bit of a question as to how that works as it relates.

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So, you know, the King James Version refers to the plague that we're about to take a look at in verses 16 through 19 as lice.

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That's not exactly the right translation. You know, we know that. So we're going to stick with the

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ESV's translation and we'll see how this all plays out. So Exodus 8, 16 and 19 is where we now pick up the story.

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So Yahweh said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff, strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats.

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All right, so these aren't exactly lice. These are flying. I hate gnats.

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Have you ever been on a walk outside and didn't realize you were walking into... They clump together like, you know,

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I remember a few years ago, Barb and I, you know, we got some bikes and we were out on the greenway.

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And I had the unfortunate experience of actually riding my bike through a swarm of gnats. Of course, you can't see them coming because they're so small.

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And next thing you know, it's like they're in my nose, they're in my mouth. Yeah, it was, you know, as much as I valued the protein, the taste was just not there for me.

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So, yeah, right, a little salt, right, yeah.

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So Dwayne has a recipe for that. Great. So, yeah.

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And they get in your eyes and it's like, oh. Okay, anyway. So anyway, strike the dust of the land so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.

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And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast.

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All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. So we're not talking about some isolated gnat clouds here.

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We're talking like one big gnat NATO, like all over Egypt, you know.

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And, yeah, yeah, right. So the magicians then tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not.

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So now Janus and Jambres have run to the end of their ability. They can't control these things.

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So there were gnats on man and beast, and the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God.

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But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them as the

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Lord had said. Now, we're going to note, this is an important bit of all of this. You'll see this recurring theme then also in the book of Revelation.

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The purpose of God's plagues and judgments is for people's repentance. That's the purpose behind them.

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It's you suffering the consequences of your sin. And here Egypt is suffering collectively for their own sins, for their idolatry.

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But specifically now, the book stops with Pharaoh, the guy who wears a snake hat, and it says

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Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And you're going to note here throughout the text, we're going to see this.

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Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart.

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God hardened Pharaoh's heart. It changes. And so the idea then to persist in impenitence and unbelief in the face of what is undeniably the work of God is to risk

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God finally saying, okay, fine, have it your way. So he would not listen to them as Yahweh had said.

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So then Yahweh said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says

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Yahweh, let my people go, that they may serve me, or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and their houses, and the houses of the

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Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies. We're not talking about one or two flies here. We're talking, again, just ginormous swarm of flies coming into your house.

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And that's going to ruin anyone's birthday cake, I'm just saying. So also the ground on which they stand.

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But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen. And this is where God is going to make a distinction. The Israelites are living in the land of Goshen, and they are not going to have the fly issue.

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So where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, so that you may know that I am Yahweh in the midst of the earth.

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Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen. And Yahweh did so.

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There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants' house, throughout all the land of Egypt.

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The land was ruined by swarms of flies. So let's take a look at the count here.

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So when it came to the gnats, Seb, the earth god of Egypt, was also the god in charge of dust, if you would, the dust of the earth.

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Seb bit the dust. And now I can't even pronounce this fellow's name. Wachit. Rhymes with hatchet,

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I guess. So now he's bit the dust. You know, every one of these false deities, they're powerless against the real

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God. And that's kind of the point. And over and again throughout the Old Testament, the real

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God will, well, make a mockery of the false gods and demonstrate that the lights may be on, but no one's home.

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None of these gods actually exist. And the worship of these deities is as a result of demonic activity.

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So then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron. He said to them, you go sacrifice to God within the land. Stay here, but don't go too far.

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Moses said, it would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, are an abomination to the

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Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings that are abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?

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We must go a three -day's journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, as he tells us. So Pharaoh said,

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I will let you go to sacrifice to Yahweh, your God, in the wilderness. Only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.

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So then Moses said, behold, I am going out from you, and I will plead with Yahweh that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow.

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Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to Yahweh. So Moses went out from Pharaoh, prayed to Yahweh, and Yahweh did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people.

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Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart. As soon as there was relief, he decides to go back on his word, and he did not let the people go.

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Well, that's not good. So continuing on now, the plagues get worse.

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And you'll note in that last plague, not only did Pharaoh personally get to see that all the flies departed at exactly the time when

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Moses said they would, but that none of the people of Israel living in the land of Goshen had to deal with the flies.

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So you clearly can see miracles going on, and now the difficulty of the miracles is multiplying in a sense where everybody can see this is truly the hand of God.

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So Yahweh said to Moses, upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks.

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But Yahweh will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.

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And Yahweh set a time, saying, Tomorrow, tomorrow Yahweh will do this thing in the land.

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And all the next day Yahweh did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.

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And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead, but the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

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So now we've got a, you know, at this point, this is going to start resulting in tangible riches coming into the hands of the

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Israelites because at this point, who has livestock and who doesn't? The Israelites.

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So the Israelites, their livestock is, you know, it's going to be purchased and some of it sold, and they're going to have to start over.

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But, you know, in an agrarian society, I mean, this type of plague is going to wreak economic ruin.

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I mean, we're talking about devastating the entire economy, and the consequences of this devastation are going to have an impact negatively for years to come.

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Yes, Marilyn. Yeah, that's a good point.

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Yeah, that's a good point, because at this point, the magicians are not going to want to follow along, you know, because all we'll be doing is adding to the misery of the people.

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Right, correct. Yeah, we can kill our livestock too. Yeah, I bet you could.

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Yeah, yeah, that's true. And that wouldn't have gone well. Over and again, those who've set out to curse those whom

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God has blessed, it has always turned out very poorly for them. All right, so now the economy is truly suffering.

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Here's the thing. With all of that, that many animals dying, I mean, we're in danger of what other kinds of things.

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I mean, we're talking like real actual diseases, diphtheria and other things like this, because of all of these rotting carcasses.

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They're not going to be able to move quick enough to harvest any of the meat there in order to save.

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So all of this stuff is being spoiled. They've got to put that stuff in the ground quick and bury it before the stench and the pestilences that follow such a mass die -off start taking root.

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So Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, Take handfuls of soot from the kiln. Let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh.

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It shall become fine dust over the land of Egypt and become boils breaking out and sores on man and beast throughout the land of Egypt.

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This is an example of a plague sent by God. A physical, very painful plague of sores breaking out on the

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Egyptians. That's an example of God sending disease. So let's take a look.

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Let's check our scorecard again here. So Uachit has bit the dust, and then we've got four diseases on the cattle.

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We've got four Egyptian deities biting the dust here. Ptah, Hathor, Meneves, and Ammon.

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Okay, and then with the boils, we've got Sekhmet, Serapis, and Imhotep.

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Yeah, I don't know Egyptian. Yeah, that guy.

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So none of these guardian deities are able to stop the

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Lord. So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw it in the air and it became boils breaking out and sores on man and beast.

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And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the

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Egyptians. But Yahweh, and now we've got those ominous words, Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh. At this point,

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God said, fine, you don't want to repent? All right, I'm going to affirm you in your impenitence and Pharaoh will not have the ability to repent now.

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That is taken from him. And he did not listen to them as Yahweh had spoken. Yahweh said to Moses, rise up early in the morning, present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says

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Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For this time

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I will send my plagues on you yourself and your servants and your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

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For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth.

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But for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all of the earth.

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You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Aha, there we go.

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Exalting yourself. Isn't that what we do? So behold, about this time tomorrow

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I will cause very heavy hail to fall such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

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Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter.

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For every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.

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All right, so God's gonna send bowling balls of ice. You know, that's, it's, can you say, you know, cranial injury here at this point?

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So who, but to note this, whoever feared the word of Yahweh among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the house.

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You could just see somebody going, um, Pharaoh, I need to go to the bathroom. And then, you know, and then running to get his cows.

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Quick, get everything under shelter. Yeah, right, you know. So, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of Yahweh left his slaves and his livestock in the field and they perished.

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So then Yahweh said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.

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So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven and Yahweh sent thunder and hail and fire and rain down to the earth and Yahweh rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

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There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail. Now that's some kind of hail, okay?

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Hail that's on fire? What kind of hail is that? Okay.

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Yeah. Really? All right, yeah.

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Yeah. If those of you online who missed it,

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Joshua said that it's called hail fire. Okay.

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So there was hail, fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

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The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast.

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The hail struck down every plant of the field, broke every tree of the field, only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

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I've never heard of storms as just selectively picking some part of the land and not other part of the land.

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It does have to start in some place. Yeah, that's true. And you know, it's undeniably, this is the hand of God because not only did it go down exactly as He said it would, but you've got that weird thing, hail, that's on fire coming down and then destroying everything and leaving exactly what

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He said. So Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, this time I've sinned. Yahweh's in the right and I and my people are in the wrong.

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You think? Okay, so plead with Yahweh for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail.

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I will let you go. You shall stay no longer. So Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city,

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I will stretch out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will cease. There will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth is

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Yahweh's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear Yahweh Elohim.

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The flax and the barley were struck down. The barley was in the ear and the flax was in the bud, but the wheat and the emmer were not struck down for they are late in coming up.

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So they hadn't quite come up high enough yet for that to happen. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, stretched out his hand to Yahweh and the thunder and the hail ceased and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.

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But when Pharaoh saw the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again, yet again, and he hardened his heart.

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So this time, you'll note that he's hardening his heart and then as we move forward from here,

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God's going to just confirm it forever. So he and his servants, so the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. He did not let the people of Israel go, just as Yahweh had spoken through Moses.

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Apparently, he's not a man of his word. They should have gotten this in writing. All right, let's take a look at the scorecard again here.

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So, Nut, Isis, Seth and Shu have all bit the dust now as far as the false deities of Egypt.

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So Yahweh said to Moses, go into Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants so that I may show these signs of mine among them so that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how

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I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them that you may know that I am Yahweh.

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So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

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And by the way, isn't that what we're all called to do? All right, you're going to note that Pharaoh isn't getting a special treatment here.

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You know, he's required to humble himself before the true God, but none of us are. No, we all are.

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He says, let my people go that they may serve me for if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

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They shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land. They shall eat what is left to you after the hail.

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They shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field. And by the way, didn't we have a big, somewhere in the last year, there was a big locust swarm that went through a particular country and kind of gobbled everything up.

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And have you guys heard of murder hornets? Yeah, that's a thing now here in the United States. Yay. We have murder gnats.

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Yeah. Well, we, of course, ended up, of course, the state bird of Minnesota, you know, the mosquito. So we have those.

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So, but, all right. In the Bible, they call them plagues. Here, it's just summer. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

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So, I can't. So I'm just, you know, I bow to your superior skills here.

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So they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and you shall eat, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and all the

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Egyptians as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from the day they came on this, on earth to this day.

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So then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. Pharaoh's servants said to him, you're going to know, they get it now, so that how long shall this man be a snare to us?

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Let the men go that they may serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? They've passed the point of no return at this point.

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So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, serve

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Yahweh your God. But which ones are to go? Moses said, We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds, for we must hold a feast to Yahweh.

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He said to them, Yahweh be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.

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No, you go, the men among you, and serve Yahweh, for that's what you're asking. And then they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

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No, that's not what they were asking. Pharaoh's lying here. So then Yahweh said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts so that they may eat.

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They may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hell has left.

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So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night when it was morning, and the east wind had brought the locusts.

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The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt, settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before nor ever will be again.

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They covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land, all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left.

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Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.

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And then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.

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Now therefore forgive my sin. Please only this once and plead with Yahweh your

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God only to remove this death from me. So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with Yahweh, and Yahweh turned the wind into a very strong west wind which lifted the locusts, drove them into the

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Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt, but Yahweh hardened

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Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the people of Israel go. Yeah.

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All right, let's see. Check the scorecard again here. Locust Serapia, Egyptian deity protector from locusts, bit the dust now.

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We're getting down there in plagues. We've got two left. So Yahweh said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that could be felt.

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So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

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Hmm, three days. Hmm, okay. They did not see one another nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.

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But all the people of Israel had light where they lived. Could you imagine being like the next door neighbor of Goshen?

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Okay. How come they have light? It's almost like a cartoon.

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Remember those Bugs Bunny cartoons when Bugs Bunny would paint with black on a hole or something on a wall and then he'd be able to jump through it?

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Anyway, seriously. There had to be some Egyptians that were just houses away from the light that was in Goshen.

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Is there any denying that this is the hand of God? So Pharaoh called

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Moses and said, Go serve Yahweh. Your little ones also may go with you. Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.

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Moses said, You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings so that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our

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God. Our livestock also must go with us. Not a hoof shall be left for we must take of them to serve

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Yahweh our God and we do not know with what we must serve Yahweh until we arrive there. But Yahweh hardened

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Pharaoh's heart. And you get a note here that God's the one at this point. There's no going back for Pharaoh.

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There's no chance of repentance. He wouldn't let them go. Pharaoh said to them, Get away from me.

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Take care never to see my face again for on the day you see my face you shall die. And Moses said,

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As you say, I will not see your face again. And then comes the description of the final plague, which is the one that is quite fascinating for us as Christians because this is a type and shadow of the sacrifice of Christ.

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Scripture says of Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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And Paul says of Jesus that Christ our Passover Lamb has been slain. And here you're going to note one of the interesting things here is that this plague will only make a distinction if your home is covered by the blood of a lamb.

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If your home is not covered by the blood of a lamb, even if you live in Goshen, you're not safe.

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And so this plague becomes like a picture of what Christ accomplishes for us.

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We, each and every one of us, have the blood of Christ over us. And when

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God sends the destroyer to judge the earth, he sees the blood and passes over each and every one of us and we do not suffer the plague.

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We're saved. So Yahweh said to Moses, yet one more plague and I will bring upon Pharaoh, not upon Egypt.

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Afterward he will let you go from here and when he lets you go he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people that they ask every man of his neighbor, every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold and jewelry.

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By the way, any Pentecostal preacher out there saying that the great transference of wealth is going to take place and you're going to have your neighbors show up at your door and give you their gold and their 401k and all this kind of, it's nonsense.

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When I was in the charismatic movement, they were talking about the great transfer of wealth that was supposed to happen. That was in the 80s.

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And look what's happened to me since. So this is not what this is about.

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This is really a type and shadow then of the wealth of the nations being given to the children of God who are the inheritors of the earth when

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Christ returns. The great transference of wealth is the great divestiture of wealth as a result of people who persist in sin and unbelief and refuse to repent in the face of God's judgments.

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And as a result of it, we are then to be the heirs of the earth. So when it's all said and done, when

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Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, it's going to be a new heavens and new earth and every resource on planet earth will be ours, given to us as a gift.

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That's the whole picture here. And so you can talk about it in that sense, but that's an eschatological reality coming when

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Christ returns. So Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

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So you're going to note that Moses now has major street creds even among the Egyptians because everything he says is going to happen, happened.

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So Moses said, thus says Yahweh, about midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle.

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There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt as there has never been nor ever will be again, but not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know

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Yahweh makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. And all of these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me saying,

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Get out, you and all the people who follow you and after that I will go out and he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

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Then Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

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So Moses and Aaron did all these things, wonders before Pharaoh and Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

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And then here's the details. So Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, This month shall be for you the beginning of months and it shall be the first month of the year for you.

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Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their forefathers' houses, a lamb for a household and if the household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat.

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You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.

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You may take it from the sheep or the goats and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

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What time is twilight? Three in the afternoon. Three in the afternoon, ninth hour, that's when all the

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Passover lambs die. When did Christ die on the cross? Three o 'clock, exactly the time he was supposed to die as our

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Passover lamb. Now, a little bit of a note here. This is an aside and since we're already in an aside, this is an aside to the aside,

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I guess. But if you've ever heard anybody like Larry Huck or these modern day people who talk about the importance of Christians returning to their, quote,

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Hebrew roots and usually these wackerdoodles make a big deal about the so -called

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Hebrew calendar. When is, according to the modern day

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Hebrew calendar, when is the head of the year? What's the beginning? It's in the fall.

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Okay? It's in the fall. According to scripture, what is the first month of the year for Hebrew supposed to be?

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The answer is Nisan, that's the month. And it's in the spring. In other words, anybody who makes a claim that the

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Hebrew calendar is somehow prophetic and that we need to somehow be in sync with that thing, I would note that the modern day

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Hebrew calendar is completely out of sync with what God says. The beginning of the year is in Nisan and that's the first month of the year for the

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Hebrews and the modern day Hebrew calendar reflects some of the, shall we say, innovations of the

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Pharisees. And so, anybody who claims that the Jewish calendar is the thing we need to be looking at doesn't know how broken that thing is.

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So, you know, because here we have God directly claiming that Nisan is the first month of the year for the

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Hebrews. So Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year, needs to be at the time of the Passover.

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Yes, it's way off. Way, way, way, way off.

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Alright? So I won't charge you extra for that little aside. Let's keep going. What was that,

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Dave? That depends.

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Okay, so the Roman calendar is a solar calendar and the

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Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar. And the lunar calendars always have to have a leap year where they can readjust things to get back in sync with the moon cycles.

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And so Nisan will either fall in March or April depending on where their calendar is.

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Yes, that's exactly why Easter moves all over the place. Yeah, I mean, every time we get past Advent and past Christmas, I have to look ahead and go, alright, when's

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Easter? Because you've got Lent and you've got the midweek services that you have to kind of work into all of that.

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And it moves around. I remember a couple years ago, I was really loath to the fact that Easter fell on April Fool's Day and I knew exactly what was going to happen, is that the atheists were just going to have a heyday with it on social media and they did.

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So on that particular Easter, on social media, I posted,

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Christ is risen. And some atheists typed back, April Fool's, you know, it's like, ugh.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. And then some Yahoo said, yeah, Jesus came out of the tomb and saw his shadow so we have six more weeks of winter.

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You know, anyway. So I always hate it when

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Easter falls on April Fool's Day just because you just know what's going to happen. And it happens.

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All right, continuing on. So they shall take some of the blood then, put it on the two doorposts of the lintel of the houses in which they eat, and they shall eat the flesh that night, roast it on the fire with unleavened bread, bitter herbs, they shall eat it.

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Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roast it, its head with its legs and its inner parts and you shall let none of it remain until the morning.

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Anything that remains until the morning, you shall burn it. In this manner, you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste.

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It is Yahweh's Passover. I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

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I am Yahweh. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are and when

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I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

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And this is a picture then of God's judgment. And you'll note that in the types and shadows the Passover is a picture then of what

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Christ experiences in our place. He is the substitute for the firstborn so that the firstborn are not killed in those houses.

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But in a similar manner then the idea that Christ takes this judgment on himself.

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If you do not have a substitute then you face the judgment of God directly and the plague hits you.

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So you'll note the Passover lamb plays the role of the substitute. Something had to die. Either the firstborn was going to die or a lamb had to die.

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You get to pick. Which do you want? And so those who had the

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Passover lambs their firstborn did not die. So this day shall be for you then a memorial day.

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You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh throughout your generations. As a statute forever you shall keep it as a feast.

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Now a little bit of a note here. The Hebrew word olam often times people misunderstand that olam somehow means for eternity.

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That's not really what's going on here. A statute forever as long as the covenant that God is in with these people is still standing then it stands as a statute that they have to obey it.

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This is the reason why we recognize that the Passover according to Colossians is a type in shadow that the substance belongs to Christ and we

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Christians are in no way obligated to keep the Passover or the Sabbath or any of these things. But we see that these were set up to point us to the fulfillment of these in Christ.

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So seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses.

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If anyone eats what is leaven from the first day until the seventh day that person shall be cut off from Israel.

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Leaven here is a picture of sin. Throughout scripture yeast is described in terms of describing how sin and false doctrine infects us.

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So getting rid of the leaven is a symbolic act of removing the sin out of your life out of your household.

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So on the first day you shall hold an assembly. On the seventh day hold a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days.

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Those are high Sabbaths by the way. What everyone needs to eat that alone may be prepared for you and you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread.

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For on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever.

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In the first month from the 14th day of the month that evening you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening.

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For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.

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You shall eat nothing leavened in all of your dwelling places. You shall eat unleavened bread. So he then gives the instructions to the people of Israel which is kind of a little bit of a repeat.

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And then you've got Moses giving a discourse in chapter 13 talking about how

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God's going to set them free and which way are they there to go.

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And then you have the plague itself. Actually the plague itself

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I think was at the hang on a second here at the end of this hang on let me get there yeah here we go at the end of 12 at midnight

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Yahweh struck down all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon no distinction based on class.

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All the firstborn of the livestock those would be the livestock then that had to have been sold to the

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Egyptians from the Israelites. Pharaoh rose up in the night he and all of his servants and all the

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Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

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Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said up go out from among my people both you and the people of Israel go and serve

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Yahweh as you have said take your flocks and your herds as you have said and be gone and bless me also.

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So those are the 10 plagues and that's some of the so when the darkness hit then the god

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Ray Amen Ray Aten, Atum, Horus, Thoth all of the

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Egyptian sun deities and the moon deity were bit the dust and then the final plague was the judgment on all of Egypt's gods every single one of them they were perfectly powerless to stop all of this and the whole point was repentance yes

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James not in this text people get the concept of the angel of death coming through from an off text in another portion of the

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Old Testament and so there's some question as to how that worked because it's described in other portions of scripture as the destroyer or the angel of death but you're going to get it in the cross references scripture always interprets scripture so the people who are talking in those terms they have a biblical justification for it it's just it's not in the original narrative it's in other portions of scripture okay all right

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Elizabeth says at some point Janice and John Rhys could not duplicate the miracle judgments of God why? because the devil

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I would note that Janice and John Rhys were probably able to do what they did by the same way our magicians do things by sleight of hand and illusion or to some degree maybe they had the ability to do stuff via sorcery via dark arts related to the devil but the devil is not capable of creating the devil is not capable he can only twist creation he's not capable of actually creating anything and the devil's power is truly limited now all of that being said the whole purpose of this was to refresh our minds as it relates to the plagues of Egypt which are making an appearance then in the seven bowls of God's wrath being poured out starting in Revelation 16 and what we're going to do now we'll just kind of finish off we're going to kind of note then the callbacks to these plagues as we're working through these bowl judgments and we'll note that the world has already ended four times in the book of Revelation it's already ended four times we're now kind of on the final fifth and final cycle of the world ending in the book of Revelation which again

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I think bears witness to the fact that this thing is not a linear book so when you get the people who wrote the

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Left Behind series and you get dispensationalists who try to take this thing and flatten it out and make it into a linear timeline that's missing the whole point alright so as we work through this then we're also going to note that if you remember back in Revelation 13 in fact let me come back to 13 that the devil the dragon in order to wage war against the church created two ultimate weapons and this is kind of like one of those this is like one of those

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Godzilla movies or something like that you know so the first is this multi -headed beast and then the second one is the beast from the sea that utters blasphemous words who has looks like a lamb but has the voice of a dragon that's the false prophet and we're going to note that from Revelation 13 to Revelation 17 the first beast that the devil conjures up stays the same the second beast is just called a beast and then it's called later the false prophet and then by the time we get to Revelation 17 and 18 that second beast is referred to as the whore of Babylon and it's in this regard then that we'll that next week we'll take a look at the connections between Jezebel of the

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Old Testament and her daughter Athaliah in regard to how they in some way are depictions if you would of the whore of Babylon in the book of Revelation so you'll note that many

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Christians rightly recognize that Jezebel and what she represents that there's something significant regarding it but where they err is when they claim that the

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Jezebel spirit has somehow attacked the United States and it's like what?

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and then you'll see it in an upcoming episode I've got Jennifer LeClair quacking on about Athaliah and the daughter of Jezebel and they have no ability to actually connect the type and shadow dots to its fulfillment which is found in the book of Revelation and as a result of it you've got

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Jennifer LeClair and others claiming that we can be attacked by sneaky squids or the Athaliah spirit or the Jezebel spirit and it's like I feel like the solution to all of this is just to give everybody a container of Morton salt and tell them to salt their windows so these spirits can't get in I mean this is nuts okay you know anyway alright but all that being said let me review this real quick so in Revelation 13

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I saw a beast rising out of the sea this is the dragon conjuring this up first mega weapon of the devil in waging war against the church is this beast which really typifies totalitarian political systems that outlaw

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Christianity and so forms of this in our human history that we've seen would include first and foremost the

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Roman Empire that made Christianity illegal and martyred the Christian saints in the early part of Christian history you would also see with the rise of Islam and Sharia law a version of this you know that's and notice it's multi -headed so you know it doesn't have just one manifestation it's multi -headed it takes on different forms

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I would note that Bolshevik Soviet Russia was indeed a manifestation of this and Nazi Germany to a degree if you read

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Heinrich Himmler's biography Heinrich Himmler who was the head of the

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SS made it clear that once the Nazis had finished with the Jews that the Christians were next that was the final solution did not merely try to solve the problem of Jews but also the problem of Christians and that's in Heinrich Himmler's biography that was published just a few years back so that's what this beast really is so this beast rising with ten horns seven heads ten diadems on its horns blasphemous names on its head the beast that I saw was like a leopard its feet were like a bear's its mouth was like a lion's mouth and to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound its mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast and they worshipped the dragon for he had given his authority to the beast and they worshipped the beast saying who is like the beast who can fight against it and then you'll note that the beast was given a mouth to utter haughty and blasphemous words it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God blaspheming his name and his dwelling that is those who dwell on earth it was also allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them yeah that's right okay so you know

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I'll remind you we all get together in the huddle here we are out on the football field and the quarterback says alright here's our job are you ready we're gonna get slaughtered and we go alright let's do this alright yeah on three break okay alright so that's so note that we're not gonna be able to stand against this thing

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Christ is gonna destroy it so an authority was given to it over every tribe and people and language all who dwell on the earth they will worship it everyone whose name is not written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain if anyone has an ear let him hear if anyone's to be taken captive to captivity he goes if anyone's to be slain with the sword with the sword he must be slain in other words if you find yourself at the executioner's noose as a result of something like this rising up within our country note this then that everything's going according to plan you can just take it easy just go ahead and die get it over with and everything's going according to plan so nothing crazy's going on here so this calls for the endurance and faith of the saints and that's the theme of the book of revelation patient endurance second beast just as a reminder

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I saw another beast rising out of the earth it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon oh look a cute little sheepy what's wrong with that thing okay this is a picture of false

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Christianity of false religion this is this is a religious counterfeit created by the dragon for the purpose of dragging people to hell and snaring

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Christians within churches and destroying them this is so you're going to note that you know this has been going on for how long since the beginning of the church as a result of this do you think the devil has decided to sit this beast down and not use it no this beast is still quite active so it had two horns like a lamb spoke like a dragon it exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence makes the whole earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed it performs great signs even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on the earth telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived and it's allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain lovely right but so the idea then is now we have

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Rodan and Godzilla running throughout the earth destroying everything and one is a political system and the other is the religious is a religious thing created by the devil all to wage war against the saints and it's the second beast then that we read it stops being referred to in this way and then is referred to as the false prophet but now with the seven bold judgments this beast explicitly is going to be talked about in terms of being the whore of Babylon and she's going to be described as drunk with the blood of the saints and this is where Jezebel actually comes into play but all of that being said let's come back then to 16 and pick up our context

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I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God so the first angel went out and poured out his bowl on the earth and harmful painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshipped its image hey wait a second that sounds exactly like right?

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right that's exactly what that's why we did that so the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea it became like blood wait a second

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I recall yeah okay so here we've got all these plagues of Egypt making a reappearance which means those are all the types and shadows pointing to the future judgment of God of the whole earth and so the sea it became like the blood of a corpse and every living thing died in the sea and you're going to know in this cycle then in Revelation now the seven bowl judgments it's not a third of the earth or a third of the sea or a fraction of it now it's everything so those of you out there who know friends who are out there you know we need to save the earth and stop global warming they're not going to like this but what

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God has planned he's going to wreck the whole ecosystem and I can't imagine what's going to end up happening to planet earth with the entire oceans destroyed

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I mean how many people's economies and much of their food depend upon the oceans alright so yeah that's what we're talking about a complete cataclysmic judgment of God leading to the mass die off of species in all of the oceans of the earth yes sir we're in trouble yeah that's right yeah that's exactly right right no but I would note this that as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ what

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God has promised is not a pristine earth but an earth that he is intentionally

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God is intentionally wrecking alright okay and you're going to note that remember when the plagues of Egypt hit and they were saying we're ruined and this is what we're talking about here these plagues are designed on purpose to wreck everything to where humanity is going to go oh my goodness how are we going to breathe yeah and this is going to create all kinds of mass panic and problems but the whole point what does

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God want repent okay that's what he wants he wants our repentance so the third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood and I heard the angel in charge of the waters just as just are you oh holy one who is and who was for you brought these judgments for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink it's what they deserve so this now okay remember

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God says vengeance is mine all right so remember what were we told to do if you're going to go to prison go to prison if you're going to die by the sword you're going to die by the sword the beast is going to wage war against us and we're going to get conquered but God says vengeance is mine saith the

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Lord do you think that God is not going to act in justice against those who have shed the blood of his blood bought children he is and so what we're seeing here now is

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God now expressly acting for the purpose of vengeance against those who murdered his prophets and Christians and saints and so and God is just in all this and then

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I heard the altar saying yes Lord God the Almighty true and just are your judgments if you remember earlier in the book of Revelation you had the martyred saints saying how long oh

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Lord and they were told they were resting under the altar and just rest a little while longer so now that God's acting in judgment to vindicate them and to exact blood for those who had taken their lives now from under the altar the martyred saints are going

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Amen! Finally! Hallelujah! right? so then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and it was allowed to scorch people with fire oh something's going wrong with the sun here you know so my question is what kind of SBF do we need here?

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you know yeah SBF asbestos okay you know don't go outside forget masks you're going to need a full asbestos suit here they were scorched by the fierce heat they cursed the name of God who had the power over these plagues and what?

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they did not repent or give him glory huh so then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and its kingdom was plunged into darkness people gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the

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God of heaven for their pain and sores and they did not repent of their deeds it's the same narrative it's the same narrative we just read in Exodus now it's fast forward to the end of the earth so then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river

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Euphrates its waters was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east and I saw it coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet and here it is okay so that remember that second beast the one that talks that looks like a lamb but talks like the dragon it's now referred to here as the false prophet and then in the next chapter you'll see it as the whore of Babylon out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs for they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for the battle on the great day of God almighty where does that battle take place by the way yeah

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Armageddon otherwise known as the battle of Armageddon so you'll note that this false prophet is going to raise up and work in tandem with the political powers that be at the end of the age for the purpose of stirring them up to wage war against God and you're going to note this that I would

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I am 100 % convinced since the man of lawlessness is a church man that these are people who are going to be false prophets in the name of Jesus who think that they're going to be waging war against the devil that are in fact waging war against Christ so they will assemble them for battle on the great day of God almighty behold

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I am coming like a thief blessed is the one who stays awake so note here the thief imagery is mentioned and that's referring to the last battle the last day no secret rapture here blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on so that he may not go about naked and be exposed and they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called

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Armageddon actually Harmageddo is what it's called in Hebrew and this is where we're going to leave off and we're going to pick up next week and we'll see how these types and shadows these events are shown in the types and shadows in 2

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Kings as it relates to Jezebel and Athaliah so alright Sheldon says sounds like the times of Noah as the people didn't repent as he preached yep that's exactly right

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Sheldon and I would note this that even Christ himself likens the day when he returns as to the days of Noah and so you'll note as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ more and more people are going to have less and less to do with sound teaching and especially that exalts