The Lion Face of the Cheribum — Keith Malcomson

The Lion Face of the Cherubim

Praise God. Here this morning, I want you to turn again with me to Ezekiel chapter one. We're gonna move on to part four in this series, the four seasons of life. And we're taking this step by step through what the word of God reveals to us.

But I wanna go to part four here, and I've called this the lion face of the cherubim. Last week, we dealt with the human face of the cherubim. That season in life where all you feel like is a man. You feel your humanity.

But here this morning, I wanna go to the next of the four faces, the lion face of the cherubim. Read it in Ezekiel chapter one and verse five. Also out of the midst thereof, that is the fire, came the likeness of four living creatures.

And this was their appearance. They had the likeness of a man. Then verse 10, as for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side. And they four had the face of an ox on the left side.

They four also had the face of an eagle. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your grace and your mercy that you speak to us, that you open up your word, that you give us a desire for yourself that we can feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that we can feel the drawn.

Lord God, that we're dissatisfied, oh God, when we lie at ease in Zion. Oh God, there's no satisfaction. Lord God, when we neglect spiritual things, but oh God, there's a conviction, there's a drawn, there's a desire, there's a dissatisfaction with anything else than walking in fellowship and communion with you.

Now Lord God, I pray through these messages, oh God. Lord God, no matter the season, whether it's wintertime or summer, whether it's springtime or autumn, Father, I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you'd quicken us, that you'd revive us, that you'd stir us, oh God.

Lord God, I pray that you'd work out your divine purpose. No matter the season we're walking through, whether we feel like a man or whether we feel like a lion, Father, I pray, Lord God, perform your divine purpose.

Lord God, we know that you've ordained things for every season of life. And Father, I pray that you'd lead us, you'd teach us. Lord God, that faith would stir within our heart. Lord God, no matter whether we have to walk through a barren wilderness or a beautiful forest, oh God, that you'd show us and teach us and make us to know that you have a plan, a purpose, oh God, that there's a reason, oh God, that it works something within us of eternal weight and glory.

And Father, I pray this morning, let something of that eternal weight and glory come down in this gathering that's not of the flesh, that's not of the imagination of man, that's not by mere atmosphere, oh God.

But oh God, we pray that you'd work inside our innermost beings, that we would be your habitation, your dwelling place, your temple, oh God, that we'd be literally your skin tent, and that you'd come and reveal your glory and your fire and your power and the knowledge of the Holy One.

And Lord God, we give you glory this morning in Jesus' mighty name, amen. My message, the lion face of the cherubim. We're looking at the four faces of each of these four cherubim. All four have the same four faces.

Each of them, though they have one body, they have four faces. Those four faces are part of one creature, one being. Or one Christian person. The face may be different at different times, depending on what angle you look at it, or what they are doing, or what direction they are walking in or what they're going through, what season of life.

But it's the same person, the same living creature, the same spiritual life. And yet there's four different faces. Face depicts something, reveals something. And we've already seen that, that the word likeness that's used here in verse five and again in verse 10, it means the closest resemblance that I can possibly describe to you.

So when he looks at the beast and said, this is what their four faces resembled or looked like, he's saying, they're not an actual lion. They're not an ox, they're not an eagle, but this is as close as I can get it.

Do you know these four creatures that come out of the fire? In verse five, he said, these four creatures have the full appearance of a man. And that's why it's so important for you, because although they're angelic beings that dwell in the presence of God, yet to you and to I, they reveal symbolically in revelation, the appearance of a man or what a Christian man in the church ought to be.

When you study the cherubim, you see what you ought to be. You see the potential of through grace, what you can become in Christ. You may sit here and say, I'm not all that I desire to be. Well, join the club.

None of us are. We're all a work in progress. But do you know what? There's something about seeing a pattern and an example and an image that God says, this is what I want to make you. It should stir up faith and desire and a vision where you say, I'm not satisfied as an earth creature.

I'm not satisfied being wingless or eyeless or faceless. You know, in this world, if they say you're double faced, it's a bad thing. But I want to tell you, when I say you're four faced, it means something radically different.

It is a good thing when you're four faced like these characters, like these creatures, when you have that full expression that no matter whether you feel or look like a man or a lion or an ox or an eagle, you're the same person living the same Christian life, walking in the same direction.

So whether you feel your humanity or your lion-like nature that we're going to deal with this morning, you keep going forward. Remember what we said about them? They're always moving forward. They're always moving in the direction of the spirit of God.

The Lion Face and the Christian’s Seasons

And so that's what we see. The second face here is that of a lion. As you look at these living creatures, their front face that's looking right at you is the face of a man. But listen to what verse 10 now tells us.

The face of a lion is on the right. As you look at these living creatures, it is a human face looking at you. But to the right, to your right, as you look at them, is the face of a lion. To the left is the face of an ox.

To the back is an eagle. All of this has meaning and symbolic imagery. It says in Revelation 4 and verse 7, remember in Revelation, the four beasts are distinct animals. Each one don't have four faces.

They are that animal. And so in Revelation 4 and 7, it says the first beast was like a lion. In other words, the entire cherubim was like a lion. It embodied all the features of a lion. When you looked at that beast, you said that is as best as I can describe it.

It's like this cherubim is like a lion. And you know what? That lion has six wings. And it's a remarkable creature for us. When we go to the New Testament in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and 2, listen to what Paul the Apostle writes to young Timothy, who's a young preacher.

He says this, preach the word. That's a command. No preacher has a right to preach who doesn't preach the word. I'm tired of mere testimonies and I enjoy testimonies. I am tired of dreams and visions.

I am tired of little stories about cats and dogs. I am tired of all the fluff and the bubble whenever it's not the word of God. A real preacher has a singular command, preach the word. If a preacher doesn't preach the word, he is an apostate.

He is false. He's not real. I don't care how quiet he is, how weak he is, how ungifted he is. I don't care about that. I could care less if he stumbles over his words or can't put a message together. I don't care.

This thing I care about, preach the word of God. I will excuse a preacher for lack of gifting, but not for not preaching the word. Listen to what Paul says to the young preacher, preach the word, be instant, in season and out of season.

To be instant means to stand on guard, to be ready to, or as we used to say in the army, stand to. You know when a soldier hears that command, stand to, it means immediately, whether you're sleeping, whatever you're doing, cooking, immediately you grab your rifle and you stand on duty.

You don't talk, you don't ask, you don't ask, begin to say, where, when, how, you immediately stand in your position. Paul says, preach the word, be instant, stand in your place, Timothy. Get your rifle and stand in your position.

Listen to what he says, and preach the word in season and out of season. Paul is saying to this preacher, there's times you're gonna have to preach in season and out of season. It doesn't matter whether it's in season or out of season, you've got to preach the word.

You do not have a choice about preaching. If it's out of season, you can't say, well, no preaching for me. It's out of season. Nothing is happening, no fruit, no one's responding. The climate isn't right, the rain isn't right, the moving of the spirit isn't right.

A preacher doesn't have any right to do that. You know, a preacher's got to preach out of season, just like he preaches in season. What is in season? It's the right season. The sun is shining right. The rain has fallen right.

The climate is right. Everything is right. And everything is growing and blossoming and happening. When you preach in season, everything works the way you want it. And yet Paul says there's a place for preaching out of season.

It's not wrong to preach out of season. It's wrong to hunt out of season. There's nothing there. You may not want to fish out of season, but a preacher has to preach out of season. You realize in the Christian life, you may say it's out of season.

It's the wrong season. All the elements aren't there. So I'll just draw back as a Christian. You have no right to do that. You've got to be a Christian in season when everything is so commoditious to it and helpful to it and beneficial to it.

And it's so fruitful and it all works so well. What do you do when the whole climate is against your Christian life? The sun isn't shining. You're walking in a wilderness. You've got to be a Christian out of season.

Oh, that those words are grippous this morning. I've got to be like the cherubims, whether it's a human face or a land face. Let's just live a Christian life. You wake up this morning and go, well, I went to bed on fire, burning, praying, worshiping.

I wake up this morning. I feel like spiritual death. I don't think I'll go to church today. I can't sing in church today. I can't pray in the prayer meeting today. You just need to understand I'm in a certain place.

Do you realize that's okay if you're a young Christian and you're growing in this? If you're down the road a bit and you haven't learned, that is not an option. You need to rethink and retake your steps again because you know what?

We live this Christian life in season, out of season. There's a consistency, a steadfastness, no matter what it is. What is the out of season? It's when it seems illogical and pointless to live this Christian life.

That's the test of your Christianity. It's not in season that you're tested. It's out of season that you really show your mettle and show what sort of Christian you are. When everything is adverse to your Christianity and it's hard to live as a Christian, now we'll see the sort of Christian you are.

Anyone can be happy clappy in the right environment. Anyone, anyone can rejoice when all the circumstance are in season, but let it go the other way. When we begin to look at this lion face of the cherubim, we see the second season of the Christian life.

Last week was the human season. Now I'm gonna deal with the lion season of the cherubim or the second face of this cherubim, the face on the right of the head. One body, but four faces, four different seasons.

Judah, Royal Authority, and the Lion-Like Christian

When you go into the Old Testament, and like we said last week, as you looked at the camp of Israel, all 12 tribes camped around the tabernacle, the house of God, the place of God's glory and presence.

On the front side was Reuben. They had a banner, there was three tribes there, and they put a banner up and it had a man's face on it. As you looked at the house of God, to the right was the tribe of Judah with two other tribes, Issachar and Jebulon.

All three tribes were there. They also had a flag or a standard or a banner. And on that banner, guess what it was? It was the face of a lion. It was the image of a lion. Now we're beginning to see a pattern here.

So as you looked at the house of God, to the right, those three tribes, the tribe of Judah, they exalted their banner and it had this second face of a lion. Isn't it remarkable how all this ties in? On the right side of these four cherubim is the face of a lion.

And so it was in the house of God. All of this is tying in. It says in Genesis chapter 49 and verse nine. Listen to this prophecy concerning the tribe of Judah. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey my son Dard gone up, he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as an old lion.

Who shall rouse him up? And so we see Judah, Jacob's prophecy is all about the lion. This image of the lion. Jacob is a man. Jacob is a tribe. Jacob is a portion of God's people who camp around God's tabernacle.

And yet, although they're people, the image for them or the prophecy about them is this lion-like nature. Do you know men and women amongst God's people can be lion-like just like they can be man-like?

You can have the imagery of these lion. Listen to what else was prophesied. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and until him shall the gathering of the people be.

And so it says that this lion tribe has the scepter of royalty within it. In other words, kings are gonna come out of Judah. Do you know we know that the lion is the symbol of a king. It's a symbol of royalty in our contemporary world.

But do you know what? It is the symbol of a king in the Bible. The lion is the dominant symbol of being king-like or royal in virtue. And so Judah was to raise up this royal household out of the line of David were to come mighty kings and great kings.

But the symbol of this tribe was the lion. Whether they were camped and static, the standard was always the lion. When they began to march, do you know what happened? It was Judah would take the lead.

Judah always went in the front as Israel began to march again out into the wilderness. It was always a banner with a lion on it that was at the front, not the flag with a human face. Why? When we feel our humanity, we don't wanna move forward.

We don't wanna go forward in the purpose of God. But do you know when the whole house of God begins to stir, it's not a human face looking at you camped by the tabernacle. As soon as they begin to move, Judah has to go out in front.

You know why? The lion will always lead the way. This begins to reveal something of this lion-like face that ought to be a season in your life. If you're always a human in your Christian life, you need to begin to ask serious questions.

You need a time of seeking God's face. You need a time of searching the word of God. If you're dominated by humanity and you never have an eagle season, you never have a lion season, you never have an ox season, I would challenge your Christianity.

If all you feel is the normalcy of your humanity and your thoughts and your emotions, I would get very worried about you. But if you claim that you're always a lion, that all the time you function like a lion and have the courage of a lion, I would actually probably call you a liar or a hypocrite or a game player or someone who's deceived.

No one is ever like that. If you never have that human time, that valley time, that discouraged time, that time where everything is dry, I would actually worry about your spiritual state because it's not natural.

It's not biblical. It's not even what's in God's pattern. It takes different times and seasons to actually make you what you are. When we go over to the New Testament again, we see that the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John correspond to these four faces.

Remember last week, we said that the man's face corresponds with Luke's gospel. I also mentioned that Mark's gospel is the ox. John's gospel is the eagle. And so we see that Matthew's gospel reveals Christ the King.

That's the whole theme of Matthew's gospel is the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't reveal him as an eagle or an ox or as a man. It reveals King Jesus in a very special way. And you know what Matthew's gospel, the symbol of it is, is the symbol of the face of the lion.

Matthew’s Gospel and the Kingdom of Heaven

Now, let me just take you into this. I'm gonna give you six points about a lion and I'm not gonna go much into Matthew. I'm gonna jump straight over that. I'm just gonna give you a few facts about Matthew as the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of the King.

And then I'm gonna give you six simple, very short points concerning the lion-like face of the cherubim. Because I want us to see there has to be a lion-like season in your life. There is a time where the spiritual life gets stirred.

It's not you. It's not a work of human ingenuity. This is a work of the spirit of God to make you lion-like at certain distinct times. And so when we go to Matthew's gospel, the word kingdom is mentioned 148 times in the New Testament.

56 of those times are more than a third of the times it is mentioned in Matthew. In other words, no other book in the New Testament mentions the word kingdom more than Matthew talks about it. It dominates the gospel of Matthew.

Never think all the gospels are the same. They're not. They have a different emphasis. They have a different purpose. They're trying to reveal a certain thing. They preach the same gospel about the same person to the same people.

And yet there is an emphasis that is very unique and you need to learn that. And so we see kingdom, the word kingdom dominates it. Do you know what a kingdom is? A kingdom is that realm ruled over by king.

A king actually has dominion, authority, superiority, and control of that realm. So if you find a kingdom, there is always a king reigning and ruling and commanding. There are certain rules and legislation within a kingdom, like a citizen.

You can't just do what you want. You can't drive at any speed unless you're driving between Tipperary and Limerick and they always drive at whatever speed they want to, as I found out this morning. But do you know what?

You've got legislation, laws, ways of operating within a kingdom because there is a king reigning and ruling over that. In Matthew's gospel, we have the term used kingdom of heaven 32 times. That term isn't mentioned anywhere else in any other book in our entire Bible.

None of the other gospels use it. Only Matthew talks about the kingdom of heaven. The others talk about the kingdom of God, but 32 times Matthew talks about the kingdom of heaven. In other words, a kingdom that's come from heaven, dominated by heaven, ruled by heaven.

If you have a Christian life and you say, well, I just wanna do this and I wanna mix a bit of Catholicism with a bit of the new age and a bit of secular society and it's all the same, you know nothing about this kingdom.

Do you realize this kingdom is under the authority of a king, he makes the rules. And if you're gonna be a citizen or part of this kingdom, you either submit or you get cut asunder. And that's what Jesus actually taught.

You don't have a choice to make the rules of this kingdom. You're either a citizen of it or you get rejected by this kingdom, but you cannot change the foundation of it. And so this term isn't used anywhere else.

When Christ came preaching 600 years without a king, Israel had Herod, they weren't rightful kings. They were happy, they weren't direct descendants of King David. So there'd been 600 years and you've got a paper cutout king, a tyrant trying to claim to be of the seed of David.

And so when you had Christ coming, it was a volatile time. Let's know how Matthew 1, verse one opens. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. So the very first verse of Matthew chapter one begins with his genealogy, explaining his family line of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know where it goes back to King David and then to Abraham. In other words, he is of this royal line of Judah. He is of the tribe of, that's who Jesus Christ is. Do you know what his banner is? It is the banner of the lion.

You know what he's called about in revelation? The son of David of the tribe of Judah. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Christ actually embodies this lion-like nature. When you look at him, you see his full humanity.

He wept, grew hungry, grew tired, but you also see this lion-like dominion of royalty where he is bringing a kingdom. When you begin to experience this lion-like face, do you know what it means? You're operating in the kingdom of God.

You're not living as a human person. You are a kingdom person. You're beginning to think according to the kingdom of God. And there is a royal authority. You know what it says in revelation one? If you're washed in the blood of the lamb, if you've been forgiven, if you've been changed, you have actually become a king and a priest unto God.

If you're forgiven and washed in the blood, here this morning, you are an actual king. And you know what that means? You shouldn't be getting defeated by the circumstance of life. You've been called to have dominion, to have authority, to make your stand, to draw a line in the sand and to roar like a lion.

I'm not into dominionism. Oh no, I don't believe that. There's a teaching that says we're gonna usher in the kingdom. That's heresy. That's a false teaching. You know what? When Jesus comes back, then the saints possess the kingdom.

They take over the kingdom after Jesus comes back. We're not gonna usher in the kingdom. But you know what? When you really operate like a lion, you know what you begin to do? You begin to put down the standard of God and say, this is the kingdom of God.

I'm gonna operate under this kingdom. Please remember here, before I go to these six points, remember that the lion can be the symbol of the devil, just like it can be the symbol of Jesus. That means an individual could think they're lion-like, act like a lion, and they could be acting like the devil.

1 Peter 5, verse 8, it says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion. He's not a lion. Remember who Satan is. He's a cherubim. But look at this lion-like face. It takes on something very, very wicked and sinister.

Now the devil, who was a cherubim, fallen in sin, become wicked. That lion-like nature now seeks to devour the saints of God. And so the devil going about, roaring like a lion, trying to terrify you, threatening to destroy you.

He walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith. You need to stand against this lion-like devil. You have the authority to resist him in Jesus' name. But then listen to what Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 16.

At my first answer, no man stood with me. All men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and he strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear.

And listen to this sentence. And it's in this context, men are against him, men deserting him, the battle is ferocious. All these people lining up. Paul is in prison, about to die. Everyone has deserted him, but the Lord is with them.

Then he says, I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The lion represents the devil. You need to be aware, there is a character of the lion that's devilish. There's a way of acting like a lion. I'm bringing this down very personal, because I'm scared as I deal with the lion.

You could think you're being lion-like by being proud. Proud could be mistook for the grandeur of a royal lion very easily. Are you being courageous and ready to face your enemy? Actually, you could become devilish and begin devouring the saints, accusing the saints.

You could become like a demon from hell. And it's a lion-like nature, but not God's lion-like nature. You need to be so careful here that you understand what I'm saying this morning. It says in 2 Samuel 23 verse 20, that one of David's mighty men called Benaiah says he was a valiant man or a warrior or a soldier who had done many great acts for God.

Listen to one of the acts he done. He slew two lion-like men of Moab. Remember Moab, we're dealing with Ruth the Moabitess. These two men were from Moab, an idolatrous nation, a pagan nation, an unbiblical nation.

And here are these two men. See, when you looked at them, when you looked at their face, they took on the character of a lion. You go, I know they're not a lion, but there's something about their appearance, their muscles, their grandeur, their courage.

They're fearful. And so here's David's mighty men. He slew two lion-like men that were vicious and he killed them. You know what that tells me? You can have a human man or a human woman that takes on a lion-like nature of the devil.

They are lion-like, but it is devilish. It is destructive. It is dangerous. And it's against the kingdom of God. But listen also in 1 Chronicles 12 in verse eight about the Gadites who followed King David.

It says the Gadites separated themselves unto David in the hold, in the wilderness, men of might. And men of war fit for the battle that could handle shield and buckler. And listen to this, whose faces were like the faces of lions and were as swift as the rose upon the mountains.

So here's men who separate themselves on the King David. They are soldiers. They are fighters in the kingdom of God. They join themselves to a royal king of the house of Judah under the banner of the lion.

And you know what he said about this entire group of men, entire group of soldiers, that when you looked upon them, their faces were the faces of lions. So we see that men and women can take on the appearance of a lion.

That's what the Bible is saying. But you better be careful. You're not like those of Moab instead of those of the Gadites. You need to be careful that you're not fighting against David's army instead of for David's army.

Six Marks of the Lion-Like Christian Life

And so there's lion-like men in the kingdom of Satan and in the religious world. And there's also lion-like men who walk with God and they've taken on the spiritual appearance of the saints of God. Let me just give you six simple points here about a lion.

I want you to hear this concerning because this comes out of the fire. And I believe if you're to be a Christian in season and out of season, you're like a man, you feel your humanity, but there's gotta be a place where you take on the appearance of lion-likeness, the face of a lion, the nature, the appearance, or the attributes of a lion.

I believe there's a season in a Christian life. Sometimes you're like an ox. Sometimes you're like a man. We'll even look at what it's like to be an eagle, but there's gonna be a time where God takes you through a period that you embody the traits of a lion, not the lion, the devil.

He devours, he's destructive. He leaves nothing after him. But you take on the nature of King Jesus, his royal line, his authority, and it's very productive. I've got six points here. Number one, righteousness.

Righteousness Produces the Boldness of a Lion

It says in Proverbs 28 in verse one, "'The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.'". When we think of a lion or a person being lion-like, we think they're bold, and we're gonna come to that in the other points.

But I wanna start here with the backbone to boldness and being lion-like. What is the source of being lion-like? What makes you lion-like? What brings you in this season that no matter what it's like around you, you've got the face of a lion?

It could be wintertime, it could be autumn, and everything's falling off the trees, and yet your nature is such that you're lion-like. Well, let's hear in this verse, "'The wicked flee when no man pursueth.'".

Do you know wickedness makes cowards? See all the big guys here that burn houses down and fight in the streets and laugh about their drugs and get thrown in prison. You know this well enough. I've been here a short time.

I wanna tell you those guys are some of the, and I hope they watch the video as well. They are some of the biggest cowards in this city. I've got more courage than all of them put together. I wanna tell you that.

I don't have a fear or a thought about them. But I tell you, those men are utter cowards. You know how I know that? Sin makes you very cowardly. You lose your courage. You cannot have courage. And so it says here, "'The wicked flee when no man pursues him.'".

You know why? His mind is everywhere. No one's running after you. Who are you running from? Him. It's all in your mind. It's your sin that has messed you up. You're lying awake thinking, they're against me and they're against me and they're against me and this is gonna happen and I'm gonna get them.

You know what? It's all in your mind. You're not important enough for that. You think you're so important that everyone is talking about you. You know what the effect of that? That's sin. That is wickedness.

And so the Bible's very clear. A wicked man is a coward. He runs from every stirring of the wind. He just runs. But look, the righteous are as bold as a lion. If you want the boldness of a lion, I mean in your Christian life, do you wanna stand in the face of the enemy, in the face of opposition and act like a lion to have the boldness of a lion?

The word bold means to trust, have confidence, to rest secure. If you wanna be as bold as a lion, look at a lion. Have you ever seen a lion running from someone? Have you ever seen a scared lion? You know, my little doggy beagle Shiloh isn't scared of much.

The big trucks come down the road, she attacks the big, she leaves the small ones alone. The bigger the truck, the more angry she gets and she will viciously go for it. I've seen her take on three big dogs.

She's not a bit scared until yesterday. The first time I ever, ever seen her scared. I was walking her past the house I don't normally go by and here I could see the big black dog and it got up on the fence.

It was taller than me. It made a bark that sounded like a, I don't know, a hurricane. And I went, oh, I wonder how she's gonna respond. And she's looking for the dog. As soon as she's seen this big, massive thing, bigger than a man, you should have seen her.

I seen her acting a way. The tail went down, the belly went down and she began to run for one mile. She kept looking over her shoulder to see if that big black monster was following her. Do you know what it says?

The righteous are as bold as a lion. Righteousness gives you boldness. I had talked to Shiloh, is there something bothering your conscience? Is there something going on that I need to know about here?

Where's your great courage gone? It disappeared. Do you realize that a good conscience gives you boldness? There is something about walking with God, being right with God that makes you very bold. You go, God is with me, I'm doing the right thing.

I'm not scared of man. I'm not scared of what's gonna happen to me. I'm not scared of the dangers of this world. Do you realize the righteous become as bold as a lion? If you want this lion-like nature, this is the pathway.

If your heart condemns you, you won't have courage. You won't have strength. You won't have a voice. You won't have any of the things that mark a lion. It says over in Leviticus 26 and verse seven, and ye shall chase your enemies.

That's what I'm talking about, being bold. But you need righteousness. You know, in Leviticus it talks about when you're walking with God, this is what will happen. When you're not walking with God and you're walking in disobedience, this is what's gonna happen.

And so he gives you a description. When you walk with God and obey God, you will chase your enemies and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall put 10 ,000 to flight.

Look at this, were you gonna have five chasing a hundred? Do you realize where that boldness comes from? Righteousness, a right life, a right conscience before God. If your conscience isn't right, your heart condemns you and you can't be sure you can stand in the fight.

There's something about being right with God. You go, I'm gonna stand. Though all men desert me, like Paul was deserted in prison, all the churches of Asia left me. All these individual preachers I trained, they left me.

I'm alone in the prison, but God is with me. That's why he delivered me from the land. I'm not scared one iota, I wanna tell you. And yet it says in Leviticus 26, when you walk in disobedience, I will set my face against you and ye shall be slain before your enemies.