Nahum 3:5: The Nakedness of Assyria

Okay, so we're in Nahum chapter the beginning of chapter 3 so just for context.

I want to read the end of 2 into 3 Behold I am against you declares the Lord of hosts.

I will burn up her chariots and smoke a sword will devour your young lions I will cut off your prey from the land and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard

Woe to the bloody city completely full of lies and pillage Her prey never departs the noise of the whip the noise of the rattling of the wheel galloping horses and bounding chariots horsemen charging swords flashing spears gleaming many slain a mass of corpses and Countless dead bodies they stumble over the dead bodies all because of the many hollow trees of the harlot the charming one the mistress of sorceries who sells nations by her hollow trees and Families by her sorceries and this is what we're going to concentrate on today

Behold I am against you declares the Lord of hosts and I will lift up the skirts over your face and show the nation's your

Nakedness and to the kingdom your disgrace I will throw filth on you and make you vile and set you up as a spectacle and it will become about That all who see you will shrink from you and say

Nineveh is devastated who will grieve for her? Where will I seek comforters for you again?

These are heavy words from the prophet Nahum Describing what God is going to do to the

Ninevites. So real quick. Let's recap last week Verse for a serious slain because of her hollow trees, which basically is being unprincipled immoral deceitful and disloyal they were

Notorious for breaking contracts or covenants that were they were in with in with people and taking advantage of them

She which is Nineveh is charming which means deadly charm sorceries.

She exerted a corrupting influence throughout the Near East She sells betrays in other words

The monarchy based in Nineveh did not hesitate to use treachery and deceit to achieve its aims

Many nations aside from Assyria including Tyre and Israel also played the harlot basically every nation under earth because of the depravity of mankind

Says we'll follow you Lord and ends up turning their back on him Both the believer and the unbeliever resemble and are loyal to the one they trust you will become like what you worship

So when you worship the Lord, you're going to become like him You're going to reflect his nature to the people around you when you worship anything else.

You're going to look like anything else Assyria was like Jezebel and that she compelled other nations to worship foreign gods

Ultimately Israel would later become the great prostitute who would ride the beast and be issued a certificate of divorce by God This would result in a new covenant based on God's faithfulness not man's the new covenant is based on the death burial and resurrection of Jesus which as Christians we would be in the new covenant now

So again the verse behold I am against you declares the Lord and I will lift up your skirts Over your face and show to the nation's your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace

Once again, we hear behold. I am against you Note it.

Well is literally behold Behold me. I Yahweh creator of all am against you

I Will not send an angel to devastate you. I myself will come to bring judgment against you

He who takes on the Lord of the worlds he shall end up in shame before the whole of the world

God will set him up as an example before his the entire universe Ezekiel the prophet of Israel's exile

Frequently uses the phrase I am against you According to Ezekiel the consequences of this direct opposition from the

Lord are quite shocking and this was this is what Ezekiel has to say False prophets shall not be listed in the records of the house of Israel 13 8

No foot of man or beast will pass through the whole of Egypt Both the Pharaoh's arm shall be broken and his sword shall fall from his hand

God shall hold the false shepherds accountable and remove the sheep from them God will make

Mount Seir a desolate waste and will turn its town into ruins God will put flesh hooks in the jaws of Gog God will send ravenous birds and beasts to devour his enemy

Now again, this is not what we normally hear about God in Christian circles right we hear for God so loved the world and they stopped there

They don't ever get to the end of John chapter 3 They don't hear about where it says

God hates people Psalm 5 Psalm 7 Psalm 11 Romans chapter 9 Quoting the

Old Testament Jacob. I loved Esau. I hated we never hear about the hatred of God God hates sin and that's a problem for us because we commit it

Right, but God in his love and mercy provides Jesus as a way out

You have to come to God on his terms not yours So we have to see the full orb of what the scripture says about God God is not a teddy bear in the sky like Santa Claus who's just wanting to give you our gifts no matter how you act

Right, you have to submit to God on his terms Remember earlier in Nahum who can stand before God's indignation who can endure the burning of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him This is what we started

Nahum out with and God is now telling the Ninevites the Assyrians I am against you.

You will stand before me and you're not going to end up standing in the judgment You will be wiped out completely

So again, the terrible words I am against you are used against Nineveh Nineveh will now be exposed to public disgrace

Just as in the case of judicial exposure of the nakedness of a harlot and we're going to go through each one of these verses

I want to explain to you what it means to expose someone's nakedness Nineveh is no longer the proud

Queen of harlots holding the lies and destinies of nations in her capricious hands

Now she has been made a public object of scorn and contempt. There will be no sorrow at Nineveh's passing only rejoicing and remember

Obviously Nahum is an Israelite He's telling he's giving this prophecy to the

Israelites, but also to the Assyrians Does anyone remember what the what the name

Nahum means? Yes comfort Right.

So this is going to be comforting to the Israelites to know that their enemy is going to be destroyed

Remember this is these are hard. These are tough tough words, but this is against Nineveh this is against Assyria.

This should bring comfort to Israel. However, Israel is going is going to suffer temporary consequences for their sin

Nineveh is going to not only experience temporary consequences. They're going to experience eternal consequences

So hey, let's go through these verses Jeremiah 13 22 and if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me?

It is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence

I myself will lift your skirts over your face and your shame will be seen

Nakedness is gonna relate to shame shaming people Ezekiel 16 thus says the

Lord God because your lust was poured out and your nakedness Uncovered in your whorings with your lovers and with all your abominable idols and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them

Therefore behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure all those who you loved and all those you hated

I will gather them together against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness and I will judge you as Women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

Yes Yes, yeah, so again, like I said there's going to be temporary short -term

Consequences for for believers but eternal consequences for unbelievers ultimately those people in The New Covenant Their shame is going to be covered and we're gonna we're gonna get to that but good point

But this is Israel unbelieving Israel, right faithful Israel All right, who remains faithful to the covenant by faith, right?

They're not going to be exposed like this But this is these are pretty graphic words, right?

This is this is this is heavy Right Hosea to plead with your mother plead for she is not my wife and I am

NOT her husband again He's talking about Israel that she put away her whoring from her face and her adultery from between her breasts

Lest I stripped her naked and make her as in the day She was born and make her like a wilderness and make her like a parched land and will kill her there with thirst

Micah pass on your way inhabitants of Shafir in Nakedness and shame the inhabitants of Zanon did not come out the lamentation of Beth Ezel shall take away

From you its standing place this practice of exposing to the public those

Accused of unchastity is Used by God in a graphic figure of speech for his public censure of this nation of violence

Proud and hoarding Nineveh must now bear the disgrace and indignity that she had so often exposed others to Literally stripping them and forcing them to march into captivity naked

Again, and we're going to see this in another verse when soldiers came in they would cut off The the undergarments of the soldiers and let them walk back to their back to their city naked

Biblical images evoked by the word naked are many and varied they include among other things original innocence defenselessness and vulnerability exposure and helplessness humiliation and shame guilt and judgment

Sexual impropriety and exploitation each of these various nuances needs to be carefully identified in each

Scriptural context although they there may of course be some degrees of overlap so naked this is obviously a negative term and this

Used to expose their shame their defenselessness humiliation guilt and judgment sexual impropriety

God exposing your nakedness is not a good thing Okay, let's not forget

In Psalm 9 the nations have sunk in the pit that they have made in the net

They have hid their own foot has been caught the Lord has made himself known He has executed judgment the wicked are snared in the work with their own hands in other words

What is happening to Nineveh Assyria is what they've done to other nations as they did it

It's going to happen to them Psalm 7 he makes a pit digging it out and falls into the hole that he has made his mischief returns

Upon his own head and on his own skull his violence descends Okay, so it's an eye for an eye the way you've treated others is going to be the way that you're treated back

Proverbs 5 to the iniquities of the wicked ensnare him and he is held fast in the cords of his sin

All right, that that's basically the way you Mistreat others is going to be brought back upon you now conversely Jesus said to them pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use it will be measured to you and Still more will be added to you

For to the one who has more will be given and from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away

In other words when you bless somebody you're not just going to get the blessing back. You're gonna get the blessing in abundance pressed down shaken together pouring over Okay, so we have to remember.

Yes when we mistreat somebody that that would come back upon us All right, if we were unbelievers our sins are forgiven, but in temporal consequence way it could come back on us

But when we bless others, we're storing up for our self treasure in heaven and God multiplies that thank goodness

God is a good and gracious and generous God The most positive image of nakedness in the

Bible is also the first Where we read regarding Adam and Eve in the garden that the man and his wife were both naked and felt no shame

This is a strongly positive image connoted connotating such pre -fall qualities as innocence freedom openness paradisal simplicity and sexual intimacy in marriage

So Adam and Eve are created in God's image naked, but not ashamed

Right, this is the way they were created there was no sin yet in the garden It's only until sin comes in that now the shame comes with it.

They're both naked and No shame felt no shame the striking verse this striking verse once again signals impelled contrast between the original state of the human race and the latter state between paradisal simplicity and civilized complexity between Transparency and concealment between transparency and concealment between a childlike lack of self -consciousness and Adult shame over one's private body parts

Okay, this is obviously carried into today's society when we're as as human beings

Coming into the world. We're sinners. We come into the world sinful and this becomes evidence of our shame

Right we cover ourselves up Nakedness as an indication of deprivation is another example in which vulnerability and Unprotectedness are in view for example the parable of the sheep and the goats

Where the naked is translated by by the NIV as needing clothes Right, so the sheep would needed clothes meaning

God's people Gross exploitation of the poor is illustrated in Job 22 where both literal and metaphorical aspects are properly meant

You demand a security from your brothers for no reason you strip men of their clothing leaving them naked

In other words, this was a way to embarrass other people leaving them naked

Deliberately stripping off the garments as an act of humiliation is found in 2nd Samuel 10 for where Hanan King of the

Ammonites sent away the envoys of David with their backsides exposed Prisoners of war were ritually stripped and led away naked and barefoot contrary to all artistic representations

It's almost a certain fact that Jesus was stripped naked when it crucified when crucified as a criminal by the

Romans So all the depictions you see of Jesus with a loincloth over him probably not the case.

In fact, I've heard it from several different Specialists in that area Jesus was naked when they crucified him again.

It was a public act of humiliation To be crucified was the worst possible way to die at that point in time in society

It was the most humiliating not only the most excruciating. It was the most humiliating way to die

Especially completely naked in front of everyone. What a shame

Feelings associated with but not limited to failure public exposure disgrace embarrassment

Social rejection ridicule and dishonor Right. This is what shame means.

We see this pervasive throughout society Especially on social media people looking to shame other people then other other people using it

Oh, they're whatever shaming me right using it to play the victim to get to get the sympathy

Generally speaking shame was a core value in the biblical world Greeks Romans and Judeans all considered shame to play a pivotal role in their cultures

This perspective can be difficult to understand in modern societies where shame is largely regarded as a private problem

Guilt might better be described the cars might better describe the corresponding modern value

So does anybody remember a novel that was written that would expose or shame someone?

You think of a novel written. Oh gosh. I don't know when it was written that you would read in it as a classical

Scarlet letter right give a little can you give a little Okay.

All right. Yeah Maria, okay Okay Prynne, right

Right. She's got to wear the red a It stands for adultery everywhere She goes

All right and then it finally comes out that you know with with the man she slept with who happens to be a minister and They decide to go away together, but it was to publicly shame her to mark her to identify her sin for everyone to see right

Even in Japanese cultures when you would come in when they were defeated by an enemy if they knew that they were

Going to be defeated rather than let the enemy kill them.

They would end up killing themselves It was called committing harry -carry. It was an embarrassment to get killed by your enemy.

You killed yourself. Yes Practice for the Romans to okay So there he is.

He's killing himself, right? It was shameful to be caught as a prisoner by your enemy

You see how shame can motivate you to do certain things Nakedness as humiliation leads us to consider the complex issue of shame guilt and punishment

And this sends us back to the first couple in the Garden of Eden where before the fall Adam and Eve were both naked and they felt no shame

But as soon as human rebellion and self -assertiveness Reared their ugly heads shame guilt and self -consciousness took over Pathetic attempts at self -concealment are replaced by God's own provision of covering

Henceforth nakedness was unnatural now. Obviously they sinned. What was the first thing they did?

They hid from God and they covered themselves up So now today when someone does something wrong and they're in the public eye and they have the possibility of being

Exposed and they conceal it. What's that called? What would you know that as yes a

What a cover -up, right? Let me just go through this right you got this one corrupt furious polls hit

Cuomo for nursing for home nursing home cover -up Government cover -up led to the grand feld.

Where's the other one a drugs bribery and the cover -up, right? They're trying to cover and conceal their their crimes.

They're trying to conceal their sin The problem has never been a hiding God. It's always been a hiding man.

We try to conceal our sin We try to cover it up and get rid of it as if it doesn't exist

The problem is on the day of the Lord. He's going to expose that and your sin is going to be seen

Illicit sexual sexuality and nakedness are linked together a number of times in the Bible Although it must be made quite clear that in Genesis 3 the sense of shame and nakedness after the fall has nothing to do with sexual relations this had to do specifically with their sin and Their disobedience their rebellion towards God trusting in what and trusting in their own intellect saying well

I'll determine what's right and wrong not God because the serpent came in and tempted tempted them

Did God really say did he really mean that? However Ezekiel in 1636 speaks of exposing your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers

Forbidden sexual unions are also spoken of as uncovering the nakedness of some person for example

Habakkuk 215 Mention drunk mentions drunk at parties where deliberate intoxication is induced as a prelude to lustful leering on nakedness

Okay, so you need to see the negative connotations of nakedness throughout the scriptures this isn't just Nahum at Nahum's time.

This is throughout the scriptures. We're going to get to some New Testament examples as well the

New Testament is very explicit in indicating that Metaphorical nakedness is an undesirable state and that redemption means being clothed with the garments of God's salvation

Revelation 318 speaks of the shame of nakedness being covered with white garments bought from the risen

Lord The Apostle Paul and speaking of this eschatological hope of the resurrection of the body

Longs not to be found naked but rather to be covered with the heavenly dwelling which

God himself provides Here's the quote through Revelation for you say I am rich and I have prospered and in need of nothing

How self -deceived is that? Not realizing that you were wretched pitiful poor blind naked

I Counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white

Garments that you may clothe yourself and and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen

Ultimately, you're going to stand before God You're either going to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, or you're going to go in with your own record

And if you go in with your own record, that's going to be exposed before God and you'll be judged for what you've done

This is why you need to be born again part of the new covenant clothed with the white garments

Jesus is perfect righteousness 2nd Corinthians 5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home in other words your body is destroyed

We have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this tent in this body

We groan longing to put on our heavenly dwelling if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked

For why we were still in this tent. We groan being burdened not that we would be unclothed

But that we would further be clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life

And you see the difference between clothed and unclothed Isaiah brings this out

Says I will greatly rejoice in the Lord My soul shall exult in God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels

Paul says for as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ Right when you had the righteousness of Christ you have that imputed to your account so that when

God looks at you He sees Jesus's record you you are declared innocent in God's sight because of the righteousness of Christ So your nakedness is not just covered.

We're gonna see this in a little bit. It's removed So God stripping people in judgment.

There's so many different times where this actually happens, right? God says lest I stripped her naked

God loosens the belt of the strong. The Lord will make their foreheads bare He removed

Judah's protective covering. I will uncover her lewdness. I will show the nation's your nakedness

This is Nahum 3 5. I will lift your skirts over your face and your shame will be seen

I will tear off your veils. I will tear the magic bands off your arms I have stripped

Esau bare you stripped him from thigh to neck. You've loosed my sackcloth Remove the filthy garments from him you see over and over and over how

God talks about exposing the nakedness or the shame or the guilt of People who are going to be in rebellion to him or even believers who need to be exposed to move them back towards Exercising faith right sometimes our shame is exposed your sin will find you out the scripture says

So sometimes as a believer when your sin finds you out it should drive you back to Christ back to saving faith

Luke 12, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light and whatever you have whispered in private rooms

Shall be proclaimed on the housetops Everything that's done in the dark is gonna eventually going to be exposed by the light.

We have to remember That thankfully because of Jesus our deeds are not going to be exposed that way

But for the unbeliever, that's not true So now here we have God clothing people in mercy and the

Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them Right God. This is the first actual it doesn't say it was animal sacrifice

But the only way you can get animal skins is if you sacrifice the animal Okay So here's the first evidence of an animal being sacrificed in order to clothe

Adam and Eve to cover their sin But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow's thrown into the oven

Will he not much more clothed you Oh you of little faith He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner giving him food and clothing

Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather

I wrapped you in fine linen and covering you with silk again. These are Examples of how

God clothes us with his righteousness what the New Covenant demands Perfection holiness the

New Covenant supplies. We get that freely in Christ Jesus Let your priest be clothed with righteousness and let your saint shout for joy her pre her priests

I will clothed with salvation and her Saints will shout for joy But the father said to his servants

Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet

It's the prodigal son when the prodigal son finally comes to his senses and decides I'm gonna go home

You know, even even this the servants over there get food I'm wallowing around with the pigs in the mud and again wallowing or touching pigs back then for a

Jew is Is wrong, right? You're not supposed to even go near pork pigs. They're unclean animals

So he's now coming back to his father. And what does the father do? He runs out to meet him and he clothes him with his robe and puts his ring on him his signet ring

Right, so he clothes him with righteousness and he gives him that ring of authority. I Will read greatly rejoicing the

Lord my soul shall exalt in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride

Adorns herself. All right So you see again the dichotomy between the faithless and the faithful the faithless are going to be exposed their deeds are going to be laid bare for all to see and The faithful are going to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ Christ.

All right, they're going to be covered up basically and We're gonna find out anyway, this is the essence of the gospel and you guys have probably heard this word before Kapar Kapor.

It's a verb meaning to cover to forgive to expiate and to reconcile Anybody know the word that we use in English to describe

Kapor? Kapor? You know it but you probably just don't recognize it.

Yes Kippa The Kippa it's a word you all know.

It's atonement Right, this is the word for atonement to cover to forgive to expiate to reconcile

The word is of supreme theological importance in the Old Testament as it is central to an

Old Testament understanding of the remission of sin At its most basic level the word conveys the notion of covering but not in the sense of merely

Concealing like I told you before the nakedness not only is your shame Go it's not just covered your shame and your guilt is going to be removed by Christ Yes, Jerry Yeah, yeah young Kapoor the day of atonement

Rather it suggests the imposing of something to change its appearance or nature

It is therefore employed to signify the cancellation or writing over of a contract the appeasing of anger

Proverbs 16 14 in Genesis 32 and the overlaying of wood with pitch so as to make it waterproof

The word also communicates God's covering of sin so God just doesn't cover the sin

Okay, he writes over it and removes your guilt as well in the

Old Covenant persons made reconciliation with God for their sins by employing something that would appease the offended party in this case the

Lord and cover the sinners with righteousness In the Old Testament the blood of sacrifices was most notably employed by this imposition sin was purged and forgiven however

The offenses were removed leaving the sinners clothed in righteousness Of course the imposition of the blood of bulls and goats could never fully cover our sin but with the coming of Christ in the

New Covenant and the imposition of his shed blood a perfect atonement a true covering and Removal of our sin was made on our behalf

Romans 9 Romans 5 9 But God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners

Christ died for us Since therefore we now have been justified by his blood

Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God For if while we were sinners we were reconciled to God by the death of his son and much more

Now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life? More than that we also rejoice in God through Jesus Lord our

Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now have received reconciliation So God not only clothes us with righteousness

He pays the price for our sin such that it's paid in full that is now removed

So we no longer have sin we're clothed in the perfect righteousness of God Which is what we need to stand before him to be considered holy

Yes Certainly, absolutely.

So in 1st John 2 we read my little children I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin But if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the

Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world

So propitiation means to make satisfaction for our sins Jesus is the location or place where sins are forgiven in traditional translations

It's rendered the mercy seat So that term kept kipper like kipper on your head is

Is the mercy seat where the blood was spilled and you were covered from that? It's the place of forgiveness the place where sins are forgiven

We have our hopes out on the Living God who is the Savior of all people especially of those who believe

Now that might pose a problem for us as Calvinists like wait a second that says he's the

Savior of all people Right, but especially those who believe in over there

You see is the propitiation after our sins, but for not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world

I thought Jesus died specifically and only for the elect Right.

How do we explain that? Gary North says it best It says it means simply that Christ died for all men giving unmarried gifts to all men in in time and on earth

Some people go to eternal destruction and others are resurrected to live with Christ eternally

But all men all men have at least the unmerited gift of life at least for a time

They are therefore there are therefore two kinds of salvation eternal spiritual and temporal earthly So even the death of Christ Allows people to live even though they've sinned.

What does God say in the day that you sin? You will surely die right Adam and Eve didn't die.

We didn't die the first time we sin All right, there is there is a common grace extended to all mankind and salvific grace

Given to believers people who put their faith and trust in Jesus alone. Does that make sense?

Okay, I think I was a little unclear. But anyway Like a prostitute and then of his nakedness would be exposed to the nation

She had oppressed this penalty was doubly appropriate since the Assyrians literally stripped the vanquished and forced them to march into captivity naked

Prostitutes in ancient times were also publicly shamed and all kinds of filth were thrown at them

Going both in ancient and modern times a nation's defeat is a terrible disgrace

Those who saw this once attractive harlot Nineveh would flee in disgust and shock

Nineveh would be totally disgraced before the nation's and exposed for the wretch that it was

When the city lay in ruins, no one no one would mourn or comfort her rather The world's people would rejoice that Nineveh's cruelties against them had ended

So again, this is going to give comfort to a Syrian and of his enemies Namely Judah, okay

And it's going to bring destruction to Nineveh my question for you.

Are you clothed right now? Or will you be exposed? Have you made?

Have you taken advantage of God's provision for sin in Christ Jesus? Otherwise you will stand we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ And if we've we do not have a

Savior if we do not have the perfect righteousness of Christ If we were not clothed the way

God clothes us closes people with salvation You are going to be exposed and your disgrace is going to be made evident to everyone who's there

You need to repent and trust in Christ again. Like I said earlier you need to come to God on his terms not yours

Okay, you are the guilty party and you've offended God. You don't get to make the terms

You don't say well, you know, I know I did this but this is how I'll take care of it

You don't get to make those terms. God is the one who sets the terms. He's the one who makes the payment

Okay, he's the one who created you he's the one you've offended he's the one you need to be reconciled with Reconciliation happens through Jesus Christ.

There's one mediator between God a man the man Christ Jesus you need to come to Jesus on his terms, which is

Unconditional surrender you surrender completely to him admitting your sinfulness and clinging to him the way you would cling to a parachute

If you want a plane and the plane was going down You would cling to the parachute because you'd be afraid you don't want you don't want to die fear is a good thing

Fear you need to be afraid of things that you should be afraid of so the reason I say this to you is to put the fear of God in you and Let you know that there's a parachute.

Okay, there's there's a way to be saved. It's through Jesus Christ alone Okay, so is there any questions for me with regards to this?

It's tough stuff Yes Yeah, not only is

Sin not considered shameful It's celebrated right we celebrate sin now.

We don't we don't even look to hide it Right we come out we have pride month and pride day and all these different things to highlight our sin and celebrate it

And unfortunately, these poor people are going to stand before a holy God and he's gonna say

I am against you I'm against you So some of the most difficult words you can hear.

Yes, Jerry Yes, and we have

God's law written on our hearts right we recognize when we're guilty and I always used I like to ask people

When I'm talking with them out on the street or wherever in conversation, I said, have you ever felt guilty, you know, like yeah

I'm like, you know why they're like no I said because you were guilty You don't feel guilty if you're not guilty.

I mean, that's not evolution. That's God's law written on your heart You recognize your guilt when you do something wrong

Right, but what does what does the human heart do to solve that problem? Covers it up Pushes it down it suppresses that Right as believers.

You're still gonna sin to a certain extent, right and you don't want to suppress that You want to see what it is that you're doing because God is is is bringing the dross to the top

So that you can identify it and address it and work on it, right?

Don't worry. Once you work on that sin and take that dross off. There'll be more to come You'll have a lot more things to work on, you know, it's a continual process.

Yes Lawrence Mmm, that's that's that's an excellent point.

So Lawrence was explaining and I'm just doing this for the people on the on the recording Or the sacrificial system the meat was all given

That that all belonged to God except for the skins. The skins were given to the priests to clothe them.