Ezekiel Part 15

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Ezekiel Part 16

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All right, we are going to pray and then we will get started. We'll continue with our walk through the book of Ezekiel.

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Lord Jesus, as we open your word, we humbly ask that you would help us through your Holy Spirit to rightly understand what is revealed there.

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Ezekiel can be a dark book and difficult to understand. And we ask that the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help us to rightly believe what has been revealed here through these oracles from Ezekiel so that we may believe correctly and do accordingly.

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We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Last week, we worked our way through chapter 14 of Ezekiel and it was kind of weird because we had to do it from my office because of weather conditions.

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By the way, good call on that one. When I end up driving out to Emmanuel, I drove on a consistent sheet of ice all the way from East Grand Forks to Radium.

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It was, and there were some times where, you know, I'm sitting there going, I can't go any faster than like 40, 45.

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It was a long drive. So you called, but then when we got here on Wednesday for the midweek services,

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I'm all, oh, we haven't been here since last Wednesday. It just felt weird. But so we're gonna continue on and then you'll note that there's, the oracles against Jerusalem are getting stronger and eventually you'll see as we get into some of the later chapters,

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God will make good on his promise that he is going to judge impenitent

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Jerusalem. And we must keep this in mind, having worked our way through the book of Jeremiah, that this is a devastating act of God in judgment that results in 90 % of the

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Jewish population of that time dying. 90 % dying in the campaign of Nebuchadnezzar.

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The only people who survive are those who surrender. God promised them their lives if they would and those who did survived and their population got whittled down to less than 6 ,000 people in exile and then you've got certain number of sporadic refugees who had kind of fled.

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But you'll note that even to this day, the Jewish population globally is not that high. And it's absolutely terrifying when you consider that.

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But Ezekiel 15 now reads, and the word of Yahweh came to me, son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood?

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The vine branch that is among the trees of the forest, is wood taken from it to make anything?

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Do people take a peg to hang any vessel on it? Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel.

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When the fire has consumed both ends of it and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything?

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And you're sitting there going, these seem like self -evident questions. The answers are kind of like obvious, right?

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Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less when the fire has consumed it and it's charred can it ever be used for anything?

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Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which

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I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am

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Yahweh when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate because they have acted faithlessly, declares the

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Lord Yahweh. Again, devastating prophecy, but note here, and then they will know that I am

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Yahweh, okay? If Ezekiel had prophesied something vague like I feel like the

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Lord is telling me in this coming season that there may be a suddenly, okay?

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Would people know that I am Yahweh from that? No, not at all.

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And so you'll know, true prophecy, that when it gives a prediction, especially of God's judgment, and the people do not repent, then people will know that he is

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Yahweh. And here's the thing. They're going to know he is Yahweh regardless. You think of the story of Jonah and the great fish, and this is an example of the one exception.

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When God gives a prophetic word, there's only one exception as to when it will not take place.

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If he speaks a word of judgment against the people and they repent, God promises to relent.

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And so that is the only caveat. And so you think of Jonah, and this guy, he has to be like, he hates humanity.

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I read one book that described him as a xenophobe, and I thought, that's not a bad way to put it, because he did not want those people to repent, and he was really, really cheesed off.

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That's like an 80s term, no duh. Okay, that's another, that's a 70s term, but that's a whole other story.

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But all that being said, the guy legitimately was angered and incensed because he knew that he preaches this word.

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And here's the thing. Not only did the people of Nineveh repent in sackcloth and ashes, their cows repented in sackcloth and ashes.

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Their animals, that would be like, Roseboro, you need to repent, so my wife and I, and my cat, we repent in sackcloth and ashes.

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I now have a cat, so. Yeah, she runs the place. She's now in charge.

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But you get the idea. So when God comes to you and basically gets in your face, it's repent or else.

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Either way, God is going to be acknowledged as the true God. You will know that Yahweh is

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God, and you will know either in repentance and know his favor, his mercy, his forgiveness, his kindness, or you will know him in his judgment.

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And the sad bit is that we sinners, this is what we do. If it were not for the grace of God, we couldn't repent anyway.

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We believe that if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit, that none of us would believe in God and trust in him.

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And so we know then that God works through his word, and yet these people hearing the word of God continue to just push back against it.

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And God goes, all right, well, you're gonna know that I'm Yahweh, but you ain't gonna like how you know it, okay?

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You can experience my grace, my forgiveness, or you can experience my wrath. And you'll note that what has happened to these people in their impenitence stands then for all of us to consider.

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Because is there any of us who can, who gets to somehow avoid this conversation with God?

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Not a single one of us avoid this. And so this is the conflict that comes to all of us.

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This is the conflict that we see when God threatens. He says, if you persist in sin and unbelief, you continue under the wrath of God.

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Again, let me show you those words from John the Baptist. And in my sermon,

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I noted that many people do not recognize that these words are actually the words of John the

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Baptist, but they are. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.

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He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

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Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

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Before class today, I was talking with one of our youth, and he was asking me, when were the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets all made?

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And so we looked at the book of Genesis, right? Day four. And so I looked at him and I said, that means the earth is older than the sun.

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And he was kind of like, oh, whoa, okay. Because you ask any astronomer today, which is older, the earth or the sun?

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And they'll all say the sun. Have any of them witnessed the creation?

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Not a single one of them has witnessed the creation. And they'll say, well, we know this has got to be true because we have the

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James Webb Space Telescope and we can see how planets form and how galaxies and solar systems and stars and stuff.

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So it has to be what we're seeing in our telescopes. Well, we can see how children are born, right?

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Does that mean that human beings didn't have a beginning? I mean, after all, which egg hatched

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Adam, okay? If you were to tell the average person, listen, we all come from a man.

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They're gonna set their blue hair on fire, you know? But what does the scripture say?

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We all come from a man, every single one of us. Adam was formed first.

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Eve was created, was fashioned from bits and pieces of Adam. And then we all come from those two parents, which means that every single one of us, this is why we're called mankind.

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Do I have to mansplain this to y 'all? Okay. But all that being said, you'll note then, everyone just, no, it can't be that way.

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No, that's not how we, and they base everything on what's observable. But is that a good way to determine everything?

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You'll note your eyes can deceive you, and they do. Because if you come to the

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Lord's Supper and you look with your eyes, what do you see? A quarter -sized piece of bread and some really cheap wine, right, and grape juice for some of you, okay?

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That's what you see. That's what you see with your eyes. Now, the late

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Norman Nagel used to put it this way. You need to take your eyes out of your eye sockets and stick them in your ears.

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You know, because the point is, is that we see with the ears of faith.

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And so God's word is true. That means that the earth is older than the sun.

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And I don't care what the scientists say. I don't care what they're observing in their James Webb Space Telescope.

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And then they can sit there and say, but we know that the universe has to be a bazillion years old because here's how fast light can travel, and we're getting light from distant places that are this far away.

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And sitting there going, well, that's spectacular that God gave us that light and made it speed up so that we could see it here, right?

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Because that's no indicator of how we got here. The truth about how we got here is the word of God.

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It's not that we are science deniers. We don't deny the science. We just sit there and say, you don't have enough data.

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You weren't there. You didn't see the universe begin. You were not there.

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And so because no one has observed this thing, who then can we trust to tell us the truth?

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Again, I point out the fact that years ago, I got into an internet tussle on Twitter.

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It used to be called Twitter. I feel like the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, it sounds like it's related to a certain

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Purple Rain guy that I know. But it used to be called Twitter. And Tony Jones of the

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Emergent Church Movement. And nobody follows, the Emergent Church Movement is bankrupt. It's gone, it's done, it's weed working stuff here.

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But Tony Jones was all the rage at the time. And at the same time that Rob Bell was like, everybody hung on Rob Bell's stupid pontificating words where he said absolutely nothing, but did so in these most profound ways, right?

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But all that being said, Tony Jones was talking about how we as Christians need to embrace evolution.

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And I took him on on Twitter. I said, Tony, you are aware Jesus is a, this is gonna be awful, a six -day creationist, right?

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You are aware of that, right? And his response, I mean, without skipping a beat, he said, well, if Jesus had been born today, he would be an evolutionist.

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And then he blocked me. If Jesus had been born today.

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And it's like, no, he wouldn't. He's an eyewitness to the creation. Who do you think was the one who said, let there be light?

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Jesus is the Devar Elohim. He is the Devar Yahweh. He is the one who said, let there be light, and there was light.

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So I always point this out. To have a different opinion about how the earth came to be here than Jesus had is foolishness.

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Because who among us has ever raised ourselves from the dead after being killed? Three days after we've been killed.

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I'm gonna go with Jesus. So John the Baptist testifies. He says, whoever receives his testimony sets a seal on this.

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God is true, for he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the

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Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

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Wait, are you saying John the Baptist was a Trinitarian? Don't you think you would be after you saw the baptism of Christ?

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Okay, John the Baptist was there. He's the one who was pouring the water. And here he sees the

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Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove. He sees the Son in the water and he hears the voice of the

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Father from heaven say, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He became an instant

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Trinitarian. This last of the Old Testament prophets. The Father loves the

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Son. How does he know that? Because he heard the Father say that. And who has given all things into his hand?

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And then these words from John the Baptist. Whoever believes in the Son of God has.

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Present tense, you own it now. Has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

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Now, here's the funny thing. If you were to take these words up in your mouth and you were to say them in particular company, people would turn on you hard.

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Who are you to say that? Who are, oh, that the wrath of God remains?

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You, arrogant, narrow -minded, bigoted, evil patriarchy stuff, ah, okay, right?

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When they lose their mind, their brain's short circuit. It's kind of fascinating to watch. But here's the thing, all right?

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And I was reminded of this. I'm kind of, I'm way off base at this point. Who cares? Okay. Is that, so I have an episode of Fighting for the

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Faith coming out this week. Three hours and 20 minutes long rebuttal against the remnant radio guys.

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And one of the things they accuse me of, and this is hilarious. They accuse me of being hypocritical because I am part of the

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American Association of Lutheran Churches. And did you know that the American Association of Lutheran Churches doesn't believe that prophecy today is infallible?

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Therefore, we believe infallible prophets in the ALC. Did you know that? Okay. What's really funny is that this was an argument they used against me two years ago, but they sought no understanding.

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I explained it to them two years ago, but they didn't learn anything. So I contacted Dr. Cary Larson from the

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ALC. And Dr. Cary Larson knocked it out of the park. You'll have to, you know,

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I've got his full response, the email they sent me that I read out. But Dr. Larson pointed something out.

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He said that we do believe in prophecy today. We at the

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American Association of Lutheran Churches. And where did he point to? The pulpit. And here's the thing.

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When you consider, let me show you something here. In fact, I gotta open up my accordance because I find it a little easier to find stuff here.

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The Apostle Peter, if I were to do a search in the epistles for oracles, okay, oracles of God, and I gotta go search the epistles, all right.

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And here is, in the book of Peter, listen to what he says in chapter four.

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I'm gonna add a little context. So he's writing to Christians. Show hospitality to one another. Without grumbling.

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As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

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Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies.

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What does it mean that when one speaks? We're talking about teachers and preachers in the church. To preach as if they are speaking the very oracles of God.

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Have you guys noticed that at the funerals at Kongsvinger, number one, I don't preach people into the kingdom based on how good they were.

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I don't sit there and go, oh, I thank God for Arlen. He was such a good guy. He worked really hard and the community loved him and stuff like this.

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I make a point of saying the reason why that guy's in the box is because he was a sinner, right?

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So we just get that out of the thing. But you know what I do? For all of the members of Kongsvinger who die in the faith,

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I say words like this. He is with Christ. You will see him again.

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When Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, he's bringing him back with him. How can

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I say such things because at that point, I'm speaking prophetically, right?

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And here's Dr. Larson's point is that we today prophesy but everything we prophesy is in scripture.

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And so I can say that if any of you were to have an unfortunate accident and we have to do your funeral next week, right, that I will be proclaiming the truth that you are with Christ, that you will raise victorious on the day when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead and that you will be in eternity in the new earth.

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I will preach that about you. Why, how? Because God always is telling the truth.

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His word already says that. So you'll note coming back to what

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John the Baptist said, John the Baptist said, whoever believes in the son, he doesn't say potentially might, if they're really good, have eternal life.

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Note this last of the Old Testament prophets and giving us words that we can preach today as Christians, whoever believes in the son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

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How is that any different than what we're hearing Ezekiel preach? It's not, it's the same message.

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And note the certainty, note the finality, note the unvagaryness of it.

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Is that even a word, unvagaryness? Yeah, but you'll, but I'm always trying to like create language to help me get my thoughts up.

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Clarity, yes, the clarity. What a great word, clarity.

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I need help. Yeah, this is what happens.

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This is part of the grass withering. It not only withers on the top, it withers on the inside as well.

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But note again the clarity, the unvagaryness of what he says. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life.

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How? And you speak with that kind of certainty and everyone loses their mind. But we are called to prophesy these words, these oracles of God and proclaim these truths.

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So I used to say I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I'm beginning to think that may be wrong.

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I'm called to a prophetic office and when I speak the word I prophesy. And when we looked at the end of the world, at the end of the church year and the beginning of this church year we're considering the end of the world and all those beautiful texts promising these great things.

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You'll note that my job was to just preach that confidently as if you all already have it, because you do.

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Otherwise I don't think you'd be here. I mean don't you guys have better things to do on a Sunday to be here than hear me blather on about how blessed you are in Jesus if you don't believe in Jesus, right?

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And so that's kind of the point. So coming back then to our Ezekiel text. Oh wait, what?

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What are you doing over there? They're all related.

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Yeah, the people complaining about the funny trills, they must be new here. The scriptures connect this way.

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They connect this way and I like showing those connections, okay? So back to chapter 15, verse six.

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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, like wood of the vine among the trees of the forest which I have given to the fire for fuel.

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So have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem and I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them and you will know that I am

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Yahweh. His words come true. What he speaks is truth. We can trust him.

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When I set my face against them, I will make the land desolate because they have acted. Faithlessly declares the

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Lord Yahweh. And that's exactly what God does to this present creation when Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

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He makes the land desolate. Have you considered the oracle of second

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Peter as it describes what happens to planet Earth when Jesus comes back? It's terrifying, by the way.

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Let me pull that up since everyone's complaining about the bunny trails. Might as well give them more to complain about. No. It's a challenge.

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Challenge accepted. Listen to what

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Peter writes in second Peter chapter two. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones.

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Whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, these false teachers, these false prophets, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.

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They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots, blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you.

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They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. Boy, those words really kind of stand out right now.

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You consider the fall of the so -called Kansas City Prophets.

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The Kansas City Prophets were three men. One of them, Bob Jones. And Bob Jones, shamefully known for using his prophetic office for the purpose of undressing women in his office, and got caught doing it.

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You think of Paul Cain, who, well, he had a homosexual sin.

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And then now the revelation of the sexual picadillos of Mike Bickle, right?

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Having eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin, they entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children.

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Forsaking the right way, they've gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved gain from doing wrong, but was rebuked for his own transgression.

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A speechless donkey spoke to him with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs, misdriven by a storm.

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For them, the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. Does that sound like strong words?

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Unvigoriness here, right? Super clarity, right? For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

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They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

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For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

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It would have been better for them to have never known the way of righteousness than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

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What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit.

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The sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire. So this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.

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In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind that by way of reminder, you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the

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Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing first of all that scoffers will come in the last days.

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Following their own sinful desires, they will say, where is the promise of his coming?

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Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that heavens existed long ago.

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And the earth was formed out of water, through water, by the word of God. There's no astronomer that would agree to that.

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But it's true, right? And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished, mentioned of the global flood.

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But watch this, by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.

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But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as 1 ,000 years and 1 ,000 years is one day.

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The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises. Some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

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And all means all here, it doesn't mean some, okay? Calvinists are wrong on this.

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But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens, they will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed.

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Since all of these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn?

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But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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And so you'll note, heaven and earth will pass away, Scripture says, but Christ's words,

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God's word, will never pass away. What's gonna happen to Minnesota? It's gonna burn.

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What about North Dakota? Burned too, United States, Canada, where the Canadians are from, that's burning too, all right?

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Hawaii, gone, France, UK, Russia, Ukraine, the modern -day state of Israel, all of it, gone.

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He's gonna destroy the whole lot of it. He's going to make a new heavens and a new earth, and so you'll note the connection then to what it is that we're looking at, and the connection is strong due to the fact that God here is speaking words of judgment against Jerusalem, but in speaking words of judgment, he's mentioning his wrath as a fire and saying that none will escape, and the reality is is that that's the fate of everybody who persists in sin and unbelief, not those merely dwelling in Jerusalem 2 ,600 years ago.

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I will make the land desolate because they've acted faithlessly, declares the

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Lord God. And this is, now this gets into an interesting conversation here.

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So if the church is the bride of Christ, and it is, and we've all been grafted into Israel, Israel's supposed to be the bride of Yahweh, supposed to be.

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But what happens when your bride decides that she's gonna cast a wandering eye towards other lovers?

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These other lovers being false gods, that's the picture that's being invoked here. Again, the word of Yahweh came to me.

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Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem, your origin and your birth are of the land of the

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Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite, and your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries, okay?

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Sorry, I couldn't help it, it just seems like it fit. At least

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I wasn't alone, okay. I just vocalized every word I was thinking. And as for your birth, on the day that you were born, your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you.

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You rubbed, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitted you to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you.

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But you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred on the day that you were born.

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And when I passed by you, I saw you wallowing in your blood, and I lay, and I said to you in your blood, live, and I said to you in your blood, live, and I made you flourish like a plant of the field, and you grew up and became tall, and arrived at full adornment.

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Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.

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When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness.

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I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord Yahweh, and you became mine.

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Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.

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I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather.

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I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck, and I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

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Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was a fine linen and silk.

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Embroidered cloth, you ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty, and your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the

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Lord Yahweh. Beautiful picture, by the way, okay? Beautiful picture of God finding this child, this infant cast away that nobody had pity on and he had pity on it, and raised it, reared it, cleansed it, then clothed it, and now it's advanced to royalty.

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This is his bride. But you trusted in your beauty.

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There's a problem right there. I know a creature who trusted in his beauty. That would be Satan. Okay?

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We'll see that in the later parts, like chapter 28 of Ezekiel. We'll see that. This is the similarity between Ezekiel 28 and what you're seeing here is that Christ's bride goes

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Satanic, takes the things that have been gifted to her, and then trusts in those things rather than the one who gave that beauty.

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So, well, I must really be somebody because I wear Gucci, you know. I wear designer threads, and I shop in Beverly Hills, and Rodeo Drive, and my mommy gave me a

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Beamer, you know. Used to live with people like that. Terrifying, stupid, perfect impersonation.

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Right? But you get the idea here, okay? We all know this person. At least we've seen them on TV.

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You trusted in your beauty. You played the whore because of your renown, and then lavished your whorings on any passerby your beauty became his.

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You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them you played the whore.

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The like has never been nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which

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I had given you, and made for yourself images of men and with them you played the whore.

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And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them.

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Also my bread that I gave you, I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey, and you set it before them for a pleasing aroma, and so it was, declares the

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Lord Yahweh. Consider the picture here. So now whoring Israel takes the good gifts that God has given her, and she takes them and offers them to false gods.

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Oof -da. Mess, right? Also my bread that I gave you,

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I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey, you set before them as a pleasing aroma, so it was, declares the Lord Yahweh.

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And you took your sons and your daughters whom you had born to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured.

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Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

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I want you to consider the implications regarding abortion, right?

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How does God look at those little ones? If God is our

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Heavenly Father, and He is, we're taking His children and sacrificing them for our pleasure, for our life.

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In all of your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

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You don't remember when you started out, right? And here's the thing, I'm constantly reminded of the fact that God has been gracious to me.

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I wasn't always a Christian. I've been a Christian my entire life. And so, if I ever get the temptation to think

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I'm high and mighty, I gotta remember, I come from some pretty sketchy stock, right? And after all of your wickedness, woe, woe to you, declares the

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Lord Yahweh. You built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square, at the head of every street.

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You built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring.

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You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring to provoke me to anger.

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Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the

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Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. When the

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Philistines are sitting there going, whoa, those Jews sure as are pagan, the irony has kind of sunk in, right?

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You played the whore also with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied. Yes, you played the whore with them and still you were not satisfied.

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You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea and even with this you were not satisfied.

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How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, basically turning

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Jerusalem into one big red light district. That's what he's describing here. Yet you were not like a prostitute because you scorned payment.

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You did it for free. Oh, adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband.

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Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all of your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings.

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So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore and you gave payment while no payment was given to you, therefore you were different.

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This is the kind of oracle that'll burn the eyebrows off your face. Therefore, oh prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh.

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Thus says the Lord Yahweh. Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers and with all of your abominable idols and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore behold,

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I will gather all of your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated.

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I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them so that they may see all of your nakedness.

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I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy and I will give you into their hands so that they throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places.

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They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare.

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They shall bring up a crowd against you. They shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords and they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women.

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I will make you stop playing the whore and you shall also give payment no more.

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You will satisfy my wrath on you and my jealousy shall depart from you.

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I will be calm and will no more be angry because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged me with all of these things.

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Therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord Yahweh. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all of your abominations?

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Merry Christmas, everybody. And you know, right? This is flamethrower

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Oracle kind of stuff. This is the kind of prophecy that makes you just stop and take pause.

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Whoa. And you'll note that none of us are immune from this wrath of God and each and every one of us, by our own sins, we have earned this wrath as well.

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And yet God has given us mercy, mercy. All right, let's see here.

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Behold, everyone who uses Proverbs will use this Proverbs about you.

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Like mother, like daughter. You are the daughter of your mother who loathed her husband and her children and you are the sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their children.

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Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite and your elder sister Samaria who lived with her daughters to the north of you and your younger sister who lived in the south of you is

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Sodom with her daughters. Not only did you walk in their ways, you did according to their abominations.

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Within a very little time, you were more corrupt than they in all of your ways. As I live, declares the

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Lord Yahweh, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

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In other words, Sodom and Gomorrah were more righteous than you were. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister

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Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but that did not aid the poor and the needy.

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They were haughty and did an abomination before me so I removed them when I saw it.

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Now, what's funny is that liberals like to point to this text and say, see, the sin of Sodom wasn't sodomy.

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The sin of Sodom was that they weren't good hosts and hostesses, they weren't hospitable.

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Did you read the text? Because it explains that the root of all of that was their pride.

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And not only did they not aid the poor, God mentions this, they were haughty and did an abomination before me so I removed them when

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I saw it. What would that be? Okay, and you'll note that there were fellows who, the three angels had shown, the two angels, two angels had shown up and said, and the men of Sodom wanted to know them.

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I would note that, yes, it's true that gang rape is, shows a lack of hospitality to your guests.

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I'm pretty sure that's how that works. But you get the idea here. It says that if you read the entirety of the text, it makes mention of the other bit, right?

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Samaria has not committed half your sins. You think you're more righteous than the Samaritans?

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You're not. You have committed more abominations than they and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you've committed.

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So bear your disgrace. You also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they.

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They are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

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I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your fortunes in their midst so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them.

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As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters after, shall return to their former state in Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state and you and your daughters shall return to your former state.

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Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride before your wickedness was uncovered?

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Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her and for the daughters of the

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Philistines, those all around who despise you. You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares

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Yahweh. I hate to leave off on judgment but I've run out so we'll just have to leave off there.

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We'll pick up with God's everlasting covenant. When we reconvene for Sunday school in two weeks.

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So yes, we will on New Year's Eve, we are having a normal church service and a normal Sunday school.