Rebellion, Obedience, Ruling — Robert B. Thompson

Presence among us and the spirit of praise that you give us Lord and the prophecies and your presence with us Lord. I just appreciate it. We appreciate it Lord and we just Want to be a place where you can be with your holy angels Lord to be among us.

Do we lift up holy hands? Well, we pray for each family represented here Lord that there will be peace and solution to problems. That you'll be present to keep in health and to protect each one of our families Lord.

We do need your help and we pray Lord for the little children. Be with them Lord and reveal yourself to them and bless their teachers and in the nursery Lord. And as we continue, you know, the needs that are here and we pray the Holy Spirit will bring Jesus where the need is.

We thank you Lord Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. We'll turn in our Bibles to Ezekiel 43 we're going to read verses 1 through 7 again. I believe we read that last week. We're going to read it again.

It'll be for those of you that don't have an NIV with you. It'll be up on the board. Up on the screen and you can read out loud along with us. Ezekiel 43 1 through 7 it's up on the screen now. You can read out loud with us if you care to.

The Glory of God’s Presence in Ezekiel’s Temple

Then the man brought me to the gate facing east and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen When he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kibar River and I fell face down.

The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court and The glory of the Lord filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me.

I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. He said son of man. This is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever.

The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name. Neither they nor their kings by their Prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places. Now I want to talk a little bit about the kings at the high places.

Conformed to the Image of Christ

The background for what we're doing. We're talking about being conformed To the image of Christ. Christ is the temple of God and those. It's portrayed in symbolic form in Ezekiel and so we Are taking things from Ezekiel's temple here and applying them to us.

Because we're being made Into the image of Christ. Romans 8 29 be be conformed to the image of his son. And we want to talk about Ezekiel 43 -7 their kings at their high places, but before we do. There was something I felt the Lord spoke to me about last night.

Harry Potter and the Antichrist Spirit

And it's about the Harry Potter books. How many have heard of these the Harry Potter book? I'll tell you what. I think the Lord said and Then you can weigh it and do as you will. I Think this is what the Lord said.

It is not. The books do not describe a contest between good and evil. They are all evil. The books are designed in their purposes. To put the demon world in a good light. To familiarize children with the demon world and make it acceptable to them.

Because The demons will be more clearly revealed in the years to come. Also to put the straight world in a bad light because Harry Potter's People that took charge of him after his parents who were wizards died Are straight that is they're not into the wizardry and they're put in a very bad light from what I have read.

Does that correspond with what you have okay? Then I want to comment on something that part. I believe the Lord told me. And then I want to comment briefly myself and some thoughts that are engendered in my own mind.

Education, Worldly Values, and Obedience

The Antichrist world Will value education for its own sake. That the movie the Titanic teaches history. And it comes in under that then Christian people feel. Oh, well. There's good there. The Pokemon as we spoke before teaches social skills.

So we figure well, there's good there the Harry Potter series encourages reading and So we feel there's good there, and you see that's the way Satan works. Because We value education and I want to tell you something money is the Antichrist equivalent of God's power.

And education is the Antichrist equivalent of The spirit of wisdom and knowledge, and I have a fair education. So I'm not speaking as an ignoramus pretty well as far as education is concerned We put a value on it as though There's something inherently good in it, but I wish to say this neither the knowledge of history nor social skills Nor reading ability are of value in themselves.

But only as they enable us to keep God's commandments. Say well that that that strikes against us Americans because We have been taught because of the Antichrist spirit in America that education is a good thing in and of itself.

If that were the case Then our centers of higher education The great universities would be places of real Human development and morality and and honesty righteousness. And they are not there's a great University where I was raised originally and My uncle Used to tell me how the students from that University would come and He lived in kind of a row of houses there.

Joined together they would come and sit on his front steps Drunk one o 'clock in the morning. This is one of the greatest universities country known all over the world. Univer education in and of itself Does not promote The one thing that God esteems over all and that is the keeping of his commandments and Ecclesiastes 12 13.

I know you're all acquainted with that aren't you fear God and Keep his commandments this is the whole duty of man and And so any any effort in the realm of education or the arts and sciences are Not inherently good.

I was reading in the in the current geographic a young man Who survived the earthquake in Turkey? Probably a Muslim and some. Those who are interviewing him asked him how he felt about this great earthquake.

That it killed so many people and left something like a half million people homeless. And this is what this young man said and I thought praise the Lord he said Because of the earthquake there were billionaires who became penalists overnight, and he said this earthquake was to teach us.

Listen to this that the values we should seek Are a good and honest heart. Because they can't be taken from us. That's in the geographic this month and also in the geographic this month is a discussion of Samoa now because of the writing of a certain anthropologist.

We were given the impression that Samoa was a place of licentiousness poor morality. This has never been the truth. It was a lie. That I learned in college and now that Christianity has entered into Samoa.

They are so religious and so moral much more than the United States. It's called the by I believe the term is the Bible belt of Polynesia we just we're so blind in America. We think that we are Righteous and the rest of the world is pagan.

The book by the famous Anthropologist would give us that impression. But I read either in the Reader's Digest or one other magazine how? Her data was skewed and Faulty as was true also of the Kinsey report and Yet, we bought these as though they were true.

They were taught in the bastions of education. They were not at all true. Not at all true both of them have been exposed including the Kinsey report not true and yet because of Our worship of the God of education We have assumed there's something inherently good in these for our young people instead it it drove them straight into immorality.

Believing that this is what's going on in Samoa and in America. All of the Kinsey report it was not true. So we Now I've taught in schools where children are worshipped that is Where the parents were professional people and of course they put a great emphasis on education.

And I know that is true of us as Americans by and large we feel there is something inherently good in socialization. In education and in money we have been deceived we are the pagans. We are the pagans we are sorely in need to be taught morality by the Samoans and By others we need to humble ourselves and realize That American Christians by the scabs will be getting Harry Potter books for their children because they believe well, it's better than watching television.

Neither television nor books nor radios or magazines or any of them are inherently good. It's only what they communicate. That is good and a store of worldly knowledge does not lead to the knowledge of God and the one thing we're on earth for the reason we're here is to learn the knowledge of God and to do his will and so we need to recognize that money and Education and Socialization are Egyptian gods.

They're not they're not the values of the God of heaven. And I know it's an adjustment because none of us want to appear ignorant or Uneducated or not savvy or unsophisticated. But we better. Because it's leading us to death rather than to life.

And if we value our children what we will inculcate in them is the prime Value of prayer of the Bible and of righteous living. Whether they ever learn the square root of three or not. It isn't going to make any difference in their life, but it's going to make a difference if they don't know how to pray.

Or if they worship at the altar of education. Or of money or Socialization. These are Egyptian values. They are worldly values. They are Antichrist values. They are not God's values. Fear God and Keep his commandments.

This Is the whole duty of man hallelujah? We're proud, but we can learn. If that's what we want if we want to know God he'll teach us about himself, so I was talking about Ezekiel 43 Verse 7. The expression the kings at their high places.

Repentance as Turning to Obedience

Now all of us. Since we were born in sin and formed in lawlessness as the psalms says. Have had a battle all of our life. With the impulses in our flesh. Anybody in here has not had a battle with the impulses of your flesh.

Now the Bible tells us how to deal with these. We don't blow them off. We don't say everyone's doing it. We don't say we're saved by grace. We don't cop on to these things. We do what the scripture commands.

We confess our sins and that term in 1st John 1 9 implies Repentance. In fact the proper way to live Is to live in a state of repentance and Repentance does not mean gloom, and it does not mean sorrow it merely means to turn.

The root meaning of the word is turn. What do we turn from. We turn from disobedience to God's Commandments. What do we turn to? We turn to obedience to God's Commandments. It's just as simple as that and The impulses in our Adamic nature are Contrary to God's Commandments.

Now by God's Commandments I mean the things that were repeated by Jesus Christ and his apostles that were commanded to do of which there's several hundred of them in The New Testament, and we're supposed to do them.

And our impulses are against these so to repent means to turn from Not doing what God has said. To doing what God has said it doesn't take a postgraduate degree. To understand that and we find out these Commandments as God feeds us a little bit at a time as we pray and read his word or hear preaching or What or have a dream or however it comes to us that we become aware? that we're doing something against what God said and then our response is to Repent that is we go to God for Strength we go to the mercy seat and we turn From what the Bible condemns and this is the normal Christian life.

It is a continual warfare, and it will be till the day we breathe our last. That does not mean it's a grievous path. It is not the Bible says to keep God's Commandments are is not a grievous thing to do.

To sin certainly brings grief, but keeping God's Commandments brings life and health and joy. So God is leading us in the way of peace and life. But we have a battle in our personality that wants to go contrary to God's Commandments and this contrariness Though we don't always recognize it always results in death.

That results in grief sometimes in sickness sometimes in remorse. Sometimes in the betrayal of promises that we've made. Always there's no there is never gain in sin. He who commits sin Jesus said is the slave of sin.

Now no one in here wants to be in slavery and so Christ came to set us free. But we have to work it doesn't just happen. We have to continually Repent continually and as I say this is not I'm not talking about we walk around with a long face all bowed down.

Because if when we do that God withdraws because then we're weak. It's the joy of the Lord that is our strength. And it's only as we walk in joy that we have the strength to repent and thus gain the daily victory.

Does that make sense? All right now We find as we go along that we can overcome. Handily, it is not this great Overcoming the victorious Christian life. It's not this great Endeavor that a few Christians managed to Pull themselves into by some Herculean effort.

Overcoming living victoriously each day is the normal normal expected Christian life. Anything other than this is Subnormal and defeated and there's no one in the house here that wants to be subnormal and defeated.

I'm sure of that. But we have been taught a lie sometimes that Satan has fostered that we cannot overcome we most assuredly can overcome and Christ did not come to forgive the sins of the devil, but to destroy them in your life and mine now.

Suffering, Chastening, and Higher Ground

We're talking about the Kings at the high places after we've had some experience in battle and have gained the victory and our joyfully working righteousness. God causes some of the Kings That have really been the parents of many of these minor Things that we've overcome to surface now, here's where the fats in the fire because We may have many times God brings forth these Kings Through suffering we don't know them unless we're fortunate enough For God to pick up his option on us as it was prophesied this morning.

That many of us are in unfamiliar places and We don't know whether we're a foot or horseback. We don't know where God went. And when I gave a little call there were several who stood and I I knew I felt That prophecy was right on the money.

There were several here that needed to hear that because they're wondering What happened? What hit me? There are several people like that here and as they notified us by standing well You're fortunate and if you will listen to the prophecy it said because if you will go through faithfully and obediently Many You you will you will enter into places that many have desired.

Was that about the gist of it Larry that many have Desired it reminds me where Jesus said there has been Kings and wise men That wish to hear the things you're hearing as he spoke to the fishermen so God's ways are not our ways and We say well, why should God pick me up for some great thing in his kingdom?

Well, why should God pick out anybody for some great thing in his kingdom as Someone said if you if you get Really overly impressed with some great man. Just picture him getting out of bed in his pajamas and you realize he's no different from anyone else.

We get overly impressed with people if they are skillful enough to bluff Their way through. But They all eat food like you do and they get cold like you do and they get tired like you do. It's just that they're better at bluffing than you are and So you get the impression that somehow They are super.

Well, they are not they're just as scared as you are so we have we do our we get our dailies victory and then God I like to use expression. He picks up his option on us and That means we're in for a treat.

We're going to be brought as Jesus said to Peter's places. We wished we didn't have to go. And of course in the time being as it says no chastening seems joyous, but grievous. But afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness and that's greatly to be desired.

What it brings is the knowledge of the Lord. There was a time when Jacob worshiped at the altar of Bethel meaning the house of God and Then Jacob went on to another altar called El Bethel Meaning the God of the house of God and there are myriads of believers who know Bethel.

But not too many who know El Bethel. They know all the ways of the house of God and they're familiar with them. But they have never met the God of the house of God the consuming Furnace the furnace of Israel the Bible calls consuming fire.

But if you are among the chosen many are called and few are chosen, but if you are Among the chosen and God sees yes, I've got higher ground for you, honey. I've got higher ground for you. Then you're going to be brought into places where you lose control of Your salvation so to speak.

That is you the moves you used to work that work don't work anymore. And you figure everything has gone crazy, yeah. I like everything orderly and it's not orderly. I like things predictable and they're not predictable anymore.

I had certain things that I treasure above all and it looks like I might lose them. I ain't fun. And I ain't fun. But if you've been serving the Lord and doing what you can rest assured. It's not the devil didn't get a lick in that is not what happened.

What happened is God has higher ground for you? And the only way he can get you up there is by knocking out the things that you depend on until you Depend on him alone that makes good preaching, but it's hard living.

But it's necessary if you're going to go past Bethel the hell Bethel you have got to meet the furnace of Israel. And know him know God. Not just about God, but know God. Behold God is my salvation now in this process.

Confronting Hidden Motives and Spiritual Pride

These great kings at the high places in your life. Become manifest and they're very close to your personality in fact. They are what you are. You thought well. I am by this time. I'm a pretty pure Christian.

People look to me. I've got a testimony. I'll have you know. One of the righteous well what we need to understand is that well you can understand it from the peanut. How many would like to be a peanut a?

Peanut has a husk how many enjoy? Peanut husks well that proves you're a sheep and not a goat because goats love them. But you see that husk plays a very important role. What is it has to protect the peanut until it's ripe?

Otherwise you're green that isn't so hot. As it is that old husk that you can use the stuff a mattress with or use the silage or whatever you want to do. There's that old husk, and it's very important.

Until the peanut is ripe and. And that's the way we are we don't realize it, but many of our motivations. Are not coming from God and yet we may have been a good sturdy Christian for 20 years. And we thought sure.

We had the thing by the tail on a downhill pole. And then all of a sudden we go into this darkness the stuff begins coming up, and we didn't know it was there. I Think my backslidden, or we may try to justify it and say well.

That's me. That's what I am all this. This is really this is really. This temper I have or this this driving commanding spirit. I have whatever I need this to do. God's will. This is how I do God's will it's how you did God's will in the past.

Yeah, but God has something better for you. He wants to get rid of that driving spirit that drives other people nuts. You just don't realize it he wants you to get rid of that ego that you felt was so necessary.

Because I've got to have that ego strength. I've got a because I'm a. Because it helps in the kingdom your ambition or you desire to be preeminent. If I'm not preeminent, how am I going to lead people around?

In all these things. But you see if they're not in the image of Christ, then they have no lasting part in us. Because Christ was not a controlling person. Whatever I Forgot to do it. He was not a he did he had no need of preeminence.

According to Philippians the second chapter he didn't go around with a great ego. How great I am see me I'm the king of Israel. He didn't know any of these things and so little by little God shows us this this great Ambition that has carried you to this point.

What's necessary? Until the peanut was right. But after the peanuts, right. It has to go and right then we're faced with a radical that means that the root of radical Change and how we perceive ourselves and what we're willing to accept.

And then we look back at what we did when we were 10 years younger. Oh dear Jesus take the memory of that from me. What fools these mortals be. And I thought I was so spiritual Lord Lord could other people see through me.

But they loved you anyway, and so some of us may be ripe for this kind of a Treatment that may be not. But when it comes remember if you've been serving the Lord the devil has no power over you. He wish he did but he doesn't have near as much power as the church gives him credit for he works by deception.

Not by power. Now you Do your homework read your Bible serve God to the best of your ability course. You're going to make a lot of mistakes. We all do. You'll come a day if if you're fortunate when God picks up his option on you and then.

Perseverance, Pruning, and God’s Faithfulness

That's what you call pruning. That's what you call pruning. I think God doesn't prune you all at once. You give up though. He does enough to give you another course of fruit. And then when he feels you did a good job there.

And there's all kinds of suckers and everything else that grew out there too at the same time. God says, you know, they can do but I can get more out of this individual. And If God gets more out of you That means the world gets more out of you you get more out of you your family gets more out of you everybody wins and So God is cracking diamonds here.

And he said boy they may end up as glass. I'll do it. I think I'll try it. Master jeweler comes down and he either gets out of that a handful of glass. Or he gets something of great value. Eternal value.

Value for God value for you value for the world. Now if you run from the hammer if you run from the pruning shears, I Don't say you'll be lost. But I will say this and God and his goodness may blot the memory of your fear.

From you in the ages to come but what you could have been Never be realized since there are several that stood. I say this to encourage you. Don't quit. The only thing you can do really wrong is quit.

Have faith in God. He said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Have faith in God brother doll used to say he'll put it through if you can stand the pulling. And that's the truth. Don't compare yourself with anyone else except Jesus.

Let him be your model and Just say well if I don't get anything in this life. It isn't that important. What's important is His God and his will. Lord, I just want to serve you. I don't care if I sweep up behind the horses in the Royal Parade or sit at the right hand of Christ in his Majesty.

Just as long as God is pleased. You have that attitude you go far in God. God loves to pour people from one vessel to another. He Says in the Old Testament speaking of one of the tribes as their scent has not changed.

They still smell the same. God wants you every so now and then. Change your smell so you're not the same old person that you was. Something basic and something radical at the root has changed in your life.

You didn't realize it was possible. You've gone from what you were to something new. God will change your name. Don't get off the bus. Stay with it. God's. There's one thing about God. He is faithful.

And if you love him, he is not going to drop you. He is not going to abandon you. He knows what you need. He knows that more than you do he has a vision for you. He has a goal. He has a high calling a Mark and a place in the kingdom has already been prepared for you.

And he's put that mark before you and if that mark is high To some it's given to set up my right hand and my left if that mark is high. Then God is going to deal with you more sternly more Stringently than he does with people who do not have the same calling.

And so be encouraged. You won't have any trouble unless When some of these high Kings at their high places are Called forth and suddenly you see yourself man. I thought I was an apostle and here I'm a spoiled little kid, and if you will accept that stand before your maker the creator of heaven on earth whose heads reaches above the clouds.

You stand before him, and he says you're a little kid you haven't even started. Then instead of saying well, I have to you know. Or running from God you know to maintain this king in your life if you can.

Take it. Humble yourself before God and recognize your only dust you'll make it fine. Because you're not doing it. He is doing it. Christ the Redeemer The Creator is doing it, but you must do your part.

It isn't the sword of Gideon alone of The Lord alone, it's the sword of the Lord and of end of Gideon. You've got to do your part. One of the main Evangelical messages today is so utterly destructive.

And so we don't have to do anything. Christ does it all. Oh No, you have to pray read your Bible keep the commandments of the Lord do the best you can. Keep hitting your head against the wall keep on being frustrated.

Learning and everything it's not in his makeup. He's a king. He's teaching you court manners. And he says get back up on your feet gird up the loins of your mind. You can do better than that. Quit feeling sorry for yourself and going around to people to try to get them.

Sorry if you don't do that stand up. Be a son of God your father is the king and He'll honor that. The fearful end up in the lake of fire and fear and self-pity are very close relatives. You can do it.

It's up to you. God will do his part. Amen. Time to pass the offer to pass that'll loosen up the situation. All right. Now we're on Ezekiel 43 11 and if there ever was a verse that's apropos. It's this Ezekiel 43 11.

Returning to the Bible’s Regulations and Laws

And if they are ashamed of all they have done make known to them the design of the temple its arrangement. Its exits and entrances its whole design and all its regulations and laws write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all Its regulations.

This is the one thing the church has not done. It is preaching its Traditions that is not Following the Bible today is back to the Bible hour. We're a bunch of Lutheran. This is back to the Bible hour.

Let me give you a good example. Stan you'll enjoy this acts 238. How many know acts 238? Well Peter gave him a good spiel. Now. This was very important because the Holy Spirit was so powerful. He was coming as a wind and he was shaking the room and this was the birth of the church.

So what is said at these points? Stephen's proclamation. Peter's words are very important. This was when the church was born in the fire of the Spirit and so Peter gave his spiel about how God had made Jesus both Lord and Christ and The people were convicted.

Thousands of them are convicted there convicted. And this is what they said. Men and brothers, what shall we do? In other words, okay, so God has made Jesus Lord and Christ. Here we are Jews are all Jews.

What do we do? And you know, I don't think this is ever preached as a way to get saved. I've never heard it preached as a way to get saved. We have departed from the word. How do we preach today? Let Jesus into your heart.

You won't find that in the book of Acts. They didn't preach that this is what they preach. And I pondered that and those of you who have tracked with me closely. No, I thought well. Maybe it's because the Lord is closer that we do this intuitively.

The messages change. I don't know good. I can feel it. You know people want to get saved and I let Jesus into your heart. Well, I don't come to a conclusion. I Do it what's the wild. This idea of letting Jesus into your heart comes from Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 and This is what it says.

Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will stop with him and he with me. And it's from this verse I remember Maude Blackstone's mission she had a Big thing of a mission for one thing she had a mother there she was with her apron on old mother white hair.

Weeping for her boy, and that's how Maude Blackstone got some of those drunks to repent but I remember also up there what it was Jesus knocking at the door. Well, I don't come to a conclusion about this.

That expression behold I stand at the door and knock. Was not addressed to sinners it was addressed to the church Laodicea and I think we made it a kind of a one-time thing. Open your heart. Jesus comes in you're saved.

That's it. Wait, you go to heaven. I'm going to tell you what I think about that verse. I think that's something that happens to us every day. I Think the Lord is knocking on our heart. I'm talking about Christians.

That's not for the unsafe. That's for the church. The Lord is knocking on the door of your heart and my heart every day and What he's saying, would you please for crying in the soup? Let me in every day.

Do you live with that? You say well, how does he knock? Well very gently in the spirit, but if you can't hear it, he knocks louder. If you don't get that he knocks louder. Pretty soon the whole house is shaking.

You know, will you hear my voice and open the door and quit from your headstrong impulsive? Behavior. And the next verse talks about being on the throne with Christ. That's not talking to sinners. What he's saying is if you will Let me into your life.

I'm gonna knock on the door of your house every day so that you can learn to let me in every day until finally we Are sitting on the throne together. Cool, how's that Greg? Well, some say that's fine.

Others saying I think more blackstone was right. Oh, then what do we do with acts 238? We preach it. Hey. You never heard anybody say let Jesus into your heart and repent missing vation. We don't understand the gospel.

I love it. What does repent mean? Come on kids. I told you I defined it for you. What does it mean? Turning from not doing God's Commandments to Doing God's Commandments. And so you come to a sinner. He's under convicted conviction.

What must I do from disobeying God. Well you say the sinners don't know What disobeying God is. Don't kid yourself. They know far more than the Christians do. Just leave them to their own conscience. They know they're doing wrong here.

They're under conviction. Repent and Be baptized. And not only that stand the baptizer. Not only that but be baptized for the remission of sins. Now how many times you heard that priest? That is the original evangelistic statement.

What does that mean? What does the water get to do with my sins? It's this. If you if a sinner comes to Jesus. What do I do? I want to be saved. I'm afraid of hell. This is what you do. You turn from your disobedient ways.

You get baptized in water and when you do them it's it's a type to you that the blood of Christ has washed away your sins and You come up out of the water a new person. That's how we're supposed to get saved.

Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations. Now what does mark 16 say we all know that he that believes and is baptized. Shall be saved. What a Christ come preaching repentance.

What a John the Baptist come preaching repentance, why don't we preach today let Jesus into your heart. There's no repentance, and then we follow it up with grace grace grace. And we don't not supposed to keep his commandments.

The net result is the one thing that God Wants is not being done in the church for whatever reason. And of course Satan has a big stake in this because of John 14 23, and you've all know that verse if a man loved me he will keep my word and what and My father will love him and what and we will come on to him and abide with him.

Well. If we don't keep his word this isn't going to happen, and I'm here to tell you people the one thing on earth. That Satan fears is the coming of the Father and the Son. Into the Christian he is not afraid of Christians with all their doings.

Their irritation, but he's not afraid of it. But he is deathly afraid of the Father and deathly afraid of the Son. Well what we want is the Father of the Son. But you can't get it by believing only you have your belief must lead to Doing what he said.

Does that make sense? You see now how Satan has got at the original thing by taking repentance out from the very start there's no repentance doing. You just believe and Then following it up with the customary teaching.