Passing Under the Rod — David Wilkerson

Poland. And so it was unusual to be invited. The first time since the Communists have taken over Poland that they've permitted public meetings. We were in covered stadiums and they were full. Over 27 ,000 people attended.

Over 11 ,800 came to the altars weeping, crying out to God for mercy and help. And most of them young people. We visited with Communist leaders all through Poland, from governors and mayors. And they told us we have a problem.

Socialistic system's not supposed to produce this, but it has, just like capitalism. They have a drug problem. They have an alcohol problem that's out of control among the young people. And we believe the Lord's helping us.

We just opened a drug center in Budapest, Hungary, behind the Iron Curtain. Two weeks ago we dedicated that. And that's a milestone never before. Nikki Cruz is going to Russia for Crusades, certainly, shortly.

And God's opening the whole Iron Curtain countries. And I believe that's a fulfillment of prophecy. There's no iron or bamboo curtain that can hold him out. The Holy Spirit moves anywhere he chooses. And he's moving behind the Iron Curtain also.

Tomorrow morning and afternoon, the services primarily for the pastors and their wives. That's the burden of our heart right now. If you're a Christian worker, you're a lay worker, Sunday school teacher, you're a deacon in the church and you're active and you support the pastor, you would be welcome also.

But please don't come without your Bible. In fact, if you're sitting here tonight, I'm going to borrow a phrase from Brother Phillips. If you came without your Bible, you're naked. Don't come to these meetings naked.

I watched coming in and my heart sank. I only saw about one out of three people had a Bible in their hands. I find it inconceivable that a minister would come to a meeting without his Bible. You're going to need it tonight.

Please, if you didn't bring your Bible tonight, don't dare come without it tomorrow night. You're going to need it. I'm going to be preaching tomorrow night, God willing, on strange incense, the dark side of prayer, and the corruption and the pollution that's in the house of God in this matter of prayer.

They're having prayer sessions all over the country. They're calling America to prayer. I'm going to prove to you from the Bible tomorrow night that if you call a nation to prayer and they don't have clean hands and pure heart, that's going to produce judgment rather than stop it.

And God will not hear a prayer from unclean hands and impure hearts. The only prayer He hears comes out of clean hearts, except the sinner's prayer. And all this cry for prayer, I'm going to show you how it's perpetrating judgment.

It's not going to spare America. It's going to cause judgment on America. Do you understand that? The praying people in America who are unclean are going to bring judgment on America. And I'm going to show you how soon that judgment is coming.

The Prophetic Burden of Bible Preaching

My messages in the evening are rather prophetic. Tomorrow morning I'll be preaching and Brother Phillips will be sharing the pulpit with me. Brother Phillips is one of the finest, strongest Bible teachers I've ever met.

The first time I met him, we took a room in a motel with another preacher. There was just a table in the room and we got our Bibles out. We were there most of the day. And Brother Phillips began to open his heart and our hearts became one in the Spirit because he felt the cry for repentance like I did.

We wept and cried over the Word. And he's been traveling with us. And you won't hear a stronger preacher. Don't come if you're afraid of reproof. You will be reproved. But God's people love reproof. If you're walking in the Spirit, you'll love reproof.

Amen. Listen, he is a Baptist, ordained Baptist preacher, but Spirit-filled. I don't know how long they're going to let him stay in the Baptist movement because he probably preaches the strongest anti-eternal security message I've ever heard because he knows the deception of that teaching.

He believes like I do. I believe in eternal security, the eternal believer. If you're constantly living in faith and victory, you're eternally secure. You live for the devil and you're damned. I don't care how much...

No clapping, please. If you keep clapping, I'll never get finished here tonight. Please, hold your applause to the end. We'll give it all to Jesus. Don't miss Bob Phillips. The sessions with the pastors tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon and Christian workers are going to be very strong.

Very heavy word. I've seen preachers get up and run out because they had sin in their life. We've seen demon powers expose themselves under the power of His Word. Don't come to these meetings unless you're prepared to truly repent and let the mirror of God's Word expose what's in your heart.

Did you come tonight ready to hear His Word and to take it to your heart? It's the Word that changes us. Hallelujah. My message tonight, passing under the rod. Passing under the rod. I want to tell you right now before I begin, I believe that's what this meeting is all about.

It's called a Pentecost meeting, but He's bringing everyone who believes in a Pentecostal message under the rod. He's going to bring every one of us under the rod tonight. I want to show you something prophetic from Ezekiel.

We'll get into that in just a moment. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I need Your unction, Your anointing, Your touch. For without it, Lord, there are just merely words. Holy Spirit, come now. Open our hearts.

Come with a prepared Word for a prepared people. We've come to repent, Lord. We've come to look in the mirror and be honest. We haven't come to cover our adultery with tears. We've come to lay our adultery down, our idolatry down.

We didn't come to cover anything, Jesus. We've come to lay it down. Lord Jesus, deal with us tonight as Your children in love, but deal with us with the rod of reproof if necessary, and then bring the healing.

Lord, touch and anoint me, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please go to Leviticus 27 .32. Leviticus. I'll be reading from the New American Standard and sometimes from King James. You may have NIV, whatever it is.

You'll see it. The message is there. Go with me, please, to Leviticus 27 .32. 27 .32. I'm going to show you where this begins. This message begins here. If you don't get it in Leviticus, you won't understand it.

Now, before I go any further, I want to ask a question. How many of you tremble at this Word? Raise your hand, please. You tremble at this Book. I'm going to ask, raise your hand. You tremble at the Word of God.

Some of you aren't raising your hand. I'm going to ask again, how many of you tremble at the Book? I'm going to prove to you before we're very far that that's not true. We say it, but we really don't.

Leviticus 27 .32. Just one verse. And for every tenth part of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. Whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one will be holy to the Lord.

This is called the tithing rod. Now, all the flock was made to pass under this rod, and every tenth one was marked by a rod dipped in red paint, and the tenth one had its forehead marked, and it was taken off to a separate flock and reserved for the priesthood, for the Levites.

In fact, the rabbinate, this is the law of the rabbit, the rabbinate, rabbinical, what do you call it? Rabbinical law. And here's what the rabbinical law says. When a man was to give the tithe of his sheep or the calves to God, he shut up the whole flock in one fold, in which there was one narrow door capable of letting out one sheep at a time.

The owner stood by the door with the rod in his hand, the end of which was dipped in vermilion or red ochre, which is red paint. When the tenth one came through, he touched it with the color on the forehead or the side, and this was received as the legitimate tithe for the priest.

Ezekiel's Prophecy of Passing Under the Rod

All right, now go to Ezekiel with me, please. Ezekiel, the twentieth chapter. I want to show you the prophecy from the prophet Ezekiel. Now, we're going to find out whether you believe the prophets or not also before we're finished.

Ezekiel, the twentieth chapter, and I want you to go to the thirty-seventh verse. Ezekiel 20, verse 37. I like to hear the rustling of the leaves. That's music. Ezekiel 20, verse 37. Listen to the prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel.

And I shall make you pass under the rod, and I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant. Now, that's a prophecy not only for his day, it's a prophecy for right now. I will cause my people, every one of them, every sheep to pass under the rod.

Go to Ezekiel 34, if you will, please. Turn to the right. Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34. I'm going to take you through a lot of Scripture. Do you like Bible preaching? That's all I know how to do anymore. Bible preaching didn't come to tell you stories.

It came to preach his word. Ezekiel 34, verse. Let's start at verse 20. Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them, behold, I even I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep, because you push with side and with shoulder and thrust at all the weak with your horns until you've scattered them abroad.

Verse 22. Therefore, I will deliver my flock and they will no longer be a prey. And I will judge between one sheep and another. I look at me, please. You know, there's a judgment day coming, don't you?

When he's going to judge between the sheep and the goats. This is not the final judgment day. He's judging now between sheep and sheep, not between sheep and goats. I, the Lord, your God will judge among my own sheep.

Now, you're going to find something, want you to keep Ezekiel 20 open on your lap. Ezekiel 20. I'm going to come back to this prophecy all night long. There's something terrible and frightening that's happening in the spiritual realm.

Now, once you have that in your lap, just turn it, turn to me, look this way for a moment. I say. With all my heart that I believe that God right now is gathering every believer on the face of the earth to Joel's valid decision.

Now, you've heard this. The scripture is in Joel three and I read it to you. Fourteen. Don't turn to just listen. Multitudes, multitudes in the valid decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valid decision.

The sun and the moon grow dark. The stars lose their brightness and the Lord will roar forth from Zion. Why is the Lord going down on us from Zion now? Why is he gathering all his sheep in the valid decision?

We used to think this valid decision was when we decided for the Lord. Now, I've got nothing against Billy Graham using that as the valid decision. In other words, decide for Jesus. But the time is coming when the decision is not in our hands anymore.

It's not a matter. Well, Jesus, if you'll just be patient with me, I may decide. I don't even like that term. Decide for Jesus as if you voted for him. There comes a time when God says the decision is mine.

I'm the one who makes the decision. The valid decision is not our decision. It's his. He who roars forth from Zion is the one who stands and makes the decision. It's called the valid decision because it's his hour of decision, not ours.

Very soon, the decision will not be in our hands. Look at verse 33, chapter 20, Ezekiel 20, verse 33. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with my wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.

And I shall bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you're scattered in mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with my wrath poured out. And I shall bring you into the wilderness of the peoples.

And there I shall enter into judgment with you face to face as I entered in judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord.

Now, look at that. I'm going to call you into this valley. It's the same valley. It's called the Valley of Yawa. Yawa judges. That's the very name of it. The valid decision from Joe is the same valley here that he's bringing his people.

I'm bringing you and I'm going to judge you face to face. I'm going to face every one of my sheep and beside me. There will be a man in linen. This is a type of the Holy Spirit. We're sealed with the Holy Ghost.

We're going to have a marker. The Holy Ghost is going to seal and mark on the forehead everyone who sighs and cries of the abomination of the land. Now, listen to the prophecy close. I'm going to gather everyone who calls himself by my name.

I'm going to be Lord over them one way or another. I'm going to exercise my lordship. There's coming a day that every one of us, if not now, in the very near future, everyone is going to appear before God in Zion.

Psalms 84, 7. Everyone appears before God in Zion. That's holy Zion. That's the city coming down from God, a holy people. Christ Jesus has called his church into this wilderness that we face now for a day of judgment.

I shall judge you face to face. If I enter into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, I'll enter judgment with you, declares the Lord. And I say to you, I believe the day of judgment has already begun.

Judgment Beginning in the Household of God

The Bible says this, for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel? Judgment has already begun.

I'm not waiting for judgment day. Judgment has already begun in the house of God. Read it. Judgment begins with us first, but it's time for judgment to begin, to begin, to begin with God's household. This is exactly what Joel saw.

It's what Ezekiel saw. And we're there right now. Isaiah said, the Lord will arise to contend with his people. He's going to stand to judge his own people. The Lord will enter judgment with the elders and the princes of his own people.

He's going to enter judgment with his people. You know, the spirit of Herod is in the church today. The spirit of Herod. Herod stood before John the Baptist, this mighty prophet of God. And he loved the preaching of John.

He loved to go and say, John's a good preacher. I believe he went back to his palace, marveling at this powerful word that came forth. But he didn't obey the preaching of John. Never did get through to him.

I wrote a book called The Trumpet. Put the trumpet to thy mouth. Set the trumpet to thy mouth. I've had ministers come up to me and say, David, I believe every word of it. Preach it. And go right back home and sit before their TV idol and waste away hours.

I've had thousands of letters from Christians around the country. They say, David, I believe judgment's coming to America. I believe there's going to be a hydrogen holocaust. I believe America is babbling in Revelation 17 and 18.

They see the scripture and they hear the sound of the trumpet too. But it's just like water running off a duck's back. It's the spirit of Herod. Nothing changes in the household. They go right back and sit in front of their idols.

Nothing changes. The man has a daughter and goes back to his secret lover. The pastor stands and preaches like a ball of fire and goes right out and calls his girlfriend. The spirit of King Herod. But now God's going to contend with his household.

Ezekiel 7 and the Trumpet That No One Obeys

Go with me, please, to the left, Ezekiel seven, Ezekiel seven. We're going to read you an awesome prophecy. If you don't have your Bible, will you just listen closely? In fact, I'm going to read 14 verses.

Pastor, I want to tell you something. We have gotten so far away from Bible preaching. I've been in meetings recently where I've had people go with me from scripture to scripture and I see them get bored to death.

We want to be spoon fed. We want somebody just to try to shut us up. Hear me. It's only the word that changes people. We need to get back to preaching this book right now. Ezekiel chapter seven. I'm going to read 14 verses.

Will you follow me? Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, you son of man, thus says the Lord God, the land of Israel, an end. The end is coming on the four corners of land. Now the end is upon you and I shall send my anger against you.

I shall judge you according to your ways. Bring all your abominations upon you. I will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you. I shall bring your ways upon you and your abomination will be among you.

Then you will know that I'm the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, a disaster, a unique disaster. Behold, it's coming. An end is coming. The end has come. It is awakened against you. Behold, it has come. The doom has come to you, O habitable land.

The time has come. The day is near. I'll pour out my wrath shortly and spend my anger against you. I skip now to verse 14, 14. They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready. What's it say? No one is going to the battle.

You see that the trumpet is sounding, it's blowing. They made everything ready, but no one's moving. No one's going to the battle. My wrath is against all their multitude. Look this way, if you ever in your Christian lifetime heard so many trumpet calls, have you ever heard so much preaching of judgment coming in the land?

Would you tell you something else? If you're sitting here tonight, you've been on your knees, you've been shut in with God in the secret closet, pastor, pastor's wife, laity. If you've been weeping between the porch and the altar, you've heard the same trumpet sound I've heard and every other prophet and every watchman on the face of the earth.

You've heard the sound of a trumpet and it's blowing through the land. Never in my lifetime have I heard it. I heard it in Poland. You hear it down there in Britain. You hear it in China, hear it around the world.

The trumpet is blowing. The end is near. If that's so, why aren't Christians forsaking their idols? Why are Christians still lounging on beds of ease, corrupting themselves in front of their TV sets? Why?

You say it's not an idol, then why is all the furniture facing it? You say you tremble at the word. I want to prove you don't. Go with me to Deuteronomy seven, Deuteronomy seven, Deuteronomy seven, verse twenty six.

Why are you looking at that? Listen to me. If you read my book, The Cross and Switchblade, you know that God told me to get rid of that idol years ago and I did not spend my time instead of watching television, praying, seeking the face of God.

God put his spirit on me and sent me to the streets of New York and gave me a ministry to touch the world in one way or another, either by my books or something. And I say that humbly before the Lord, but he opened doors and he gave me a vision.

Years later, I brought it back just for sports and news, I said. And then finally anything went. It wound up we had four in our house. One in the kitchen, one in the den, the bedroom, and I don't know where, the guest room.

Four of these idols. One day, a few years ago, I was watching my favorite program, A-Team. Bloodshed, mayhem, murder. And the grief of the Holy Ghost fell on me because I'd been seeking the Lord. I'd been saying, oh God, whatever it takes, I'll pay the price.

I want to repent. I want to grow. And for about two years I'd been weeping and broken before the Lord. But up to this time, I wasn't ready to hear the Word. I wasn't ready to accept what God was saying.

In fact, I'd been preaching for about three months that He was going to come. Within five years, I thought, not a Christian would be able to keep the anointing and have this idol in their home. See, I was putting it off.

The Lord said, shut it off and go into your bedroom, into the secret closet. He turned to Deuteronomy and He directed me to this verse. I didn't even know it was in the Bible. And I read it and I almost passed out.

And I trembled at God's Word when I saw it. Brother, sister, it never went on again in our house. And we got all of them out. In fact, we got every TV set out of our ministry, our whole staff. We had $10 ,000 worth of TV sets.

And we took them out in the woods and shot them with shotguns and buried them in the ground. No clapping, please. You know why? Because we read this verse. Read it. And you shall not bring an abomination into your house.

Is that what it says? You shall not bring an abomination into your house. What is your TV set if it's not an abomination before God? The church of God used to preach against it 20 years ago. They called it the tool of the devil.

Every church of God evangelist found a new thunder against television. Now, you shall not bring an abomination into your house and like it, come under the curse or the ban. You shall utterly detest it.

You shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned or cursed. Is that in your Bible? I don't know how many said, is that in your Bible? You raised your hand. You said, I tremble at the Word of God.

Then what in the world are you doing sitting there watching Dallas and Dynasty and laughing at Bill Cosby when the world is coming apart and Jesus coming at the door? You're laughing at things that ought to make you weep before the Holy Ghost.

Idolatry, Holiness, and the Loss of Anointing

You know what broke my heart in Poland? 90 of the people in Poland have television, including Christians, and it cost one year's salary to get a color TV set in Poland. We had every minister's home, but two we went in had color television.

And the two most popular programs in Europe, same two here, Dynasty and Dallas. How, ladies, look at me. I'm going to look you right in the eye and tell you the Holy Ghost is bringing a word and you dare not call it legalism.

Every time a word of God comes forth now they call it legalism. And I hear people say we need balance. Balance is a code word for a divided heart. We hide all our idols behind that word balance. You can't show me anything in a word of God that a man of God is balanced.

He's an absolute fanatic for Jesus and His holiness. Went into these dear Polish pastors' home and looked at that thing. Ladies, you tell me you're a woman of God and you weep for your family. You say you believe judgment is coming.

Yet you'll sit and watch that which includes rape, incest, everything incubated in the pits of hell by pornographic minds and homosexual writers. And you have the devil's idol, the devil's eye, right in your home.

You know what breaks my heart? I could stand here tonight for two hours and give you 255 scripture verses, 255 about that idol, and most of you would not give it up for anything in the world. And I want to know, I want to know, what is there about it?

That's what Jeremiah preached. God said, what is there about me that worries you? What have I done to you that your idols mean more to you than to me, than I do to you? I want to ask you a question. What is there about that thing that so hassles you that you can't get it out of your home?

What is it that's attached itself to you that you can't walk out with it and say, out! That you can sit there and watch that and then come and cover the altar with your tears, and you come and raise polluted hands to the Lord, and you worship in praise and sing and shout before the Lord, when your mind's been polluted, you've been coming to His altar from your idol.

I'm going to tell you loud and clear. I don't care anymore what people think, and I say it in love. I'm asking God to give me patience, because He was so patient with me. And no preacher in the world can tell you what to do, and you won't do it unless you open to the Holy Ghost and He tells you.

But I'm going to tell you, it's absolutely impossible in these last days, even now. I'm going to say it loud and clear, and I want you to hear me, because I believe the Holy Ghost is on me. God will take His anointing away from you, pastor.

He will take His unction away from you. If you continue to sit before that ungodly idol, He will not let you handle His Word, because He said, let the servant of the Lord who carries the ark be holy and clean and pure.

Now, just getting rid of that idol doesn't solve it. Getting rid of the idol makes time for prayer and fasting and seeking the face of God. I don't understand why Christians are forsaking their idols.

I've been in ministers' meetings where I have felt the wrath of God against this thing. I was in a ministers' meeting, and about 400 ministers and wives, they stood up telling the great things God was doing in their churches.

God was moving some great new work, but something didn't register in my heart. I was getting sicker the more I heard, and I was the speaker of the evening. And I got up, and for some reason or another, I felt the wrath of God against this, and I said, gentlemen, we're not telling the truth.

You're not on your face before God. You're sitting with your popcorn and your potato chips and your root beer in front of your TV idol. And the Holy Spirit of God came down in that place, and one pastor after another stood, and others put their arms around him and said, David, you're right.

I've not been seeking God. I've been wasting hours. I feel that if I visit people and work hard through the day, I've earned a time of relaxation. I've earned some time. I've given God enough time. Is that the way we bargain with God?

I've given you enough time. Now, I've got some time, and does that give you a right to go and sit in front of an ungodly, evil idol? Every one of those pastors, every one of them without exception, that talked to me said, David, I'm not walking the streets.

I'm not fasting. I'm not praying. I'm not bringing a fresh word to the pulpit. I sit and waste my time getting fat in front of a television set. I'm going to read to you Amos 5 .10. Don't turn. Just listen to it.

They hate him who reproves in the gate. They hate the man who reproves in the gate. They abhor him who speaks with integrity. Do you know where the persecution is going to come before Jesus comes? It's not coming from the government.

The church is going to be persecuted, but the only people who are going to be persecuted are those who step out of the world and its system and walk in absolute holiness before the Lord, and it's going to be the carnal Christian who's going to persecute the separated holy ones that are walking the truth.

I never was persecuted when I just stood and told stories about drug addicts. I had thousands at my crusades, and I'd have two, three thousand come to the altar. I was sincere, but I'd go home after every night and sit and watch television at my hotel room.

I traveled for twenty years alone with my team, and my wife was home with the children. I'd go and watch R-rated movies right on the television set. My heart full of lust. The Lord kept me from adultery, but there was lust, and we have lust in the ministry today.

We have lust in the pew. We have lust in the pulpit, and it's being incubated, and we're changing, and we don't realize it. I was reading what an old-time preacher said today. We're changing and not knowing it any more than we know that the earth is spinning.

We're not aware of the earth spinning, but it's spinning all the time, and we're not aware of the influence these things have on our life, but it's changing us. It's changing. It's robbing us of our anointing.

It's robbing us of our touch of God. And the first thing that happens when you lose your touch of God is your discernment's gone. And the first thing that comes back when you get right with God, laid down your idols and pulverized, is God gives you back your discernment.

But now that I've been preaching about these things, I was talking to my associate Bob the other day, and he said, Dave, you know, when you and I were preaching about the idols of fear and anxiety and unbelief and distrust and pride, everybody could sit there and take it because you weren't getting personal.

But now when you start touching the idols like television and adultery and fornication, you get down to where people are really living. That's when the persecution comes. You know, it bothers me more than anything else.

Some Spanish, Mexican friends of mine down in San Antonio heard what I was preaching. That pastor stood and said, folks, the reason we're backslidden. That church, if you went in there, you heard the loudest, fastest music you could ever hear.

It looked good on the outside. It sounded like a revival, but there was a hollow sound to it because it wasn't backed up with purity. I can tell when I go into a meeting. I can tell because my heart gets sick.

I can tell where their hands are being raised, but not clean and pure before the Lord. It's a hollow sound. And he said, we have that hollow sound. He said, we have all this singing and shouting, but we don't have the holiness.

Burning the Idols and Confronting Compromise

And he said, I want every one of you to bring your TV set over the empty lot next door. I didn't know it, but they called the television station because I told them, if you do it in quiet, don't boast about it.

I told people, don't tell me. God doesn't want anybody to glory in anybody's flesh, not to glory in the flesh. But they had television sets piled ten feet high. And I thought, oh boy, they're going to say I made them do it and everybody's going to cry legalism.

And sure enough, here come the crew, television crews and radio stations and newspapers. You know what? While they were burning those TV sets and knocking them apart with their sledgehammers and saying, down with every idol, we'll pulverize them in Jesus name.

No more sex. No more violence for our children. We will not bring this abomination in our home. And they were praying and prophesying while they were beating them out with their sledgehammers. You know, one television station came out saying, it's about time someone made a statement.

The papers treated it well. Sinners, next day when they heard it, called the church all day long, said, if you'd have told us, we'd have brought ours. You're right. But you know where they got all the opposition?

Pastors in town. The ministers made an open statement of the foolishness of this thing. Including some assemblies of God. Would you go to Ezekiel? Well, you're in Ezekiel. Go to Ezekiel 8. Ezekiel 8. Verse 17.

And he said to me, do you see this son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they've committed here? That they filled the land with violence and provoked me repeatedly?

For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. They're putting the twig to the nose. Look this way, please. In Old Testament times, if you wanted to show a sign of disrespect, you went out and found the stick.

You picked up the stick. You held the stick under your nose and you flipped the stick. It was called putting the twig to the nose. In modern times, we threw away the twig. We use the thumb. And God is saying, my people are thumbing their noses at me.

You're provoking me. He said, I thunder at you in love. I speak to you in love. He said, you provoke me with your abominations. You're filling the land, your minds with this violence. And I come to you and I say, enough.

And you hold the twig to your nose. You thumb your nose at me. I've seen that. I've seen people walk out of my meetings lately, thumbing their nose at me and thumbing their nose at the truth and thumbing their nose at Almighty God.

They say, we'll not hear it. They hate those. They despise those who preach the truth at the gates. All right, I want you to go to Ezekiel 9. I'm going to show you a prophecy here. Ezekiel 9. I'm going to show you a powerful prophecy.

Verse one, chapter nine, Ezekiel. Then he cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand. Behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with the shattering weapon in his hand.

And among them was a certain man clothed in linen with the writing case at his loins. And they went in and stood before the bronze altar. Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the chair upon which it had been to the threshold of the temple.