WEBVTT 00:12:43.140 --> 00:12:48.230 on the afternoon service, and it's the first snow of the year, so the worst is yet to come. 00:12:48.230 --> 00:13:04.650 Alright, so let's turn to song number 134, my anchor holds song number 134. On the first, 00:13:04.650 --> 00:15:25.590 though the angry surges roll, my temp is driven, so I am P-O-4, say stand up, can't see the snow, 00:15:25.590 --> 00:17:24.960 say excuse me, could you open us with a little prayer? To song number 224, song 224, there shall be 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:45.560 showers of blessing, there shall be showers of blessing, this is the promise of love, there 00:17:45.560 --> 00:18:13.520 shall be seasons refreshing from the savior of a blessing, we see jobs round the showers we plead, 00:18:13.520 --> 00:18:40.390 there shall be showers of blessings, vibing us and the vows on the source of blessing, 00:18:40.390 --> 00:18:58.430 jobs are showers we plead, there shall be showers of blessings, send them upon us, 00:18:58.430 --> 00:19:28.410 oh lord, now refresh our blessing with jobs round us, our four showers we plead, 00:19:28.410 --> 00:19:48.590 there shall be showers of blessings, oh that today they must to God we, oh Jesus, we call 00:19:48.590 --> 00:20:06.690 us a blessing, with jobs round us, our four showers we plead, 00:20:06.690 --> 00:20:13.510 good saying, and if you don't have a bulletin, please raise your hand and Asher will bring one 00:20:13.510 --> 00:20:20.250 to you, let's look at the verse of the week, Hebrews 12 verse 15, the bible says, looking 00:20:20.250 --> 00:20:26.090 diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you 00:20:26.090 --> 00:20:31.290 and thereby many be defiled, and like I said this morning during the sermon, there's nothing wrong 00:20:31.290 --> 00:20:36.200 with bitter things happening to you as long as you're not allowing the root to spring up 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:41.400 and defile you and hurt the people around you, and if you want to look at the inside page, 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:46.220 we're on YouTube, Facebook, Rumble and X, so please give us a follow, service time as usual, 00:20:46.220 --> 00:20:52.170 Sunday morning at 11, Sunday afternoon service at 4 p.m., and Wednesday night Bible study at 7 p.m. 00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:58.360 We'll be going over Judges chapter 5 this coming Wednesday. It's a son of Deborah and Barak talking 00:20:58.360 --> 00:21:04.310 about the execution, you know, nailed, going through the temple, so it's a really nice story, 00:21:04.310 --> 00:21:09.750 so please join us on Wednesday night. And then we have soul winning Sunday afternoon at 1 30, 00:21:09.750 --> 00:21:16.960 and Saturday morning at 10 30 a.m. So today we have 13 soul winners, and how many salvations? 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:23.620 Let's see six salvations, so praise the lord for that. It's a good receptive spot there, and so I 00:21:23.620 --> 00:21:31.140 mean praise the lord for for the indoor apartments, amen. So and salvations, and last week's attendance 00:21:31.140 --> 00:21:36.600 is for you to see. I mean it's glad to have brother Matt back, you know. I was joking this morning, 00:21:36.600 --> 00:21:43.340 you know, this is a joke, okay. So Matt may screaming, maybe screaming at a nurse, "Let my child go!" 00:21:43.340 --> 00:21:47.760 And then they start bringing all the plague, saying all the firstborn getting killed in the 00:21:47.760 --> 00:21:55.230 NICU, and they finally let the baby go, you know. Anyway, it's a bad joke, but yeah, it's good to 00:21:55.230 --> 00:22:01.730 have him back. So let's look at the upcoming events. The pie and pray service will take place during 00:22:01.730 --> 00:22:07.380 the Sunday afternoon service on November 23rd. That's two Sundays from now. So just bring a pie 00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:11.750 that can feed your family, and then we can all share. It'll be a modified service with a song 00:22:11.750 --> 00:22:17.880 request, a sermon net, and then we get to partake pies and raw milk, maybe some raw egg too, you 00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:23.100 know we can make that happen, I don't know. Christmas service will take place during the 00:22:23.100 --> 00:22:27.450 morning service on December 21st. There will be a regular song wedding and then the afternoon 00:22:27.450 --> 00:22:33.160 service after that. There'll be a pollock right after morning service. Join us for the Christmas 00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:38.950 Eve service on Wednesday, December 24th. Songwenni Marathon coming up November 22nd is the last Gary 00:22:38.950 --> 00:22:44.920 Songwenni Marathon of the year. We'll meet at 10 30 a.m. at the address below, and then we'll 00:22:46.110 --> 00:22:49.770 finish the year up with the Winter Wonderland Songwenni Marathon. We'll meet at the church 00:22:49.770 --> 00:22:53.990 building at 1 p.m. and then we'll go out for three and a half, four hours songwenning straight. 00:22:53.990 --> 00:23:01.070 So the rationale behind this is I don't care how cold the weather is, how heavy the snow is, 00:23:01.070 --> 00:23:06.160 we'll push ourselves anyway. Now you can warm in your car if it's too cold, but the goal is 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:10.360 to push it out just and finish the year strong and then we can partake the barbecue or like 00:23:10.360 --> 00:23:17.020 whatever food afterwards. And then please help us with the cleaning of the church building right 00:23:17.020 --> 00:23:22.760 after the right right right after the service. We'll have a mass preaching night on November 23, 00:23:22.760 --> 00:23:28.870 November 20, November 30, during the during the afternoon service. So please let me know if you 00:23:28.870 --> 00:23:32.290 want to preach. Let me know your sermon topic so I can get you to sign up for it. 00:23:32.290 --> 00:23:37.700 Titan offerings for you to see. Let's look at the birthdays coming up. 00:23:37.700 --> 00:23:45.100 We have Samuel's birthday on the 15th. So let's sing happy birthday to Samuel. Ready? 00:23:51.120 --> 00:24:13.540 Happy birthday, happy birthday, God bless you. All right, congratulations. What's next? Okay, 00:24:13.540 --> 00:24:16.570 let's sing one more song and then we get to take off the offering. 00:24:16.570 --> 00:24:24.310 Turn to song number 174. My Jesus, I love thee. Hopefully I don't butcher another 00:24:24.310 --> 00:24:29.470 sound like this morning. Song 174, my Jesus, I love thee. 00:24:31.730 --> 00:27:45.100 My Jesus, I love, I know. Take up the, uh, spring. 00:27:45.100 --> 00:28:55.000 Mac, would you pray for the offering? Ezekiel 44, we're going to be in Ezekiel 00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:00.470 chapter 44 tonight. If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand and Usher will hand you 00:29:00.470 --> 00:29:07.330 a Bible so you can read along. Ezekiel 44, verse 1 reads, "Then he brought me back the way of the 00:29:07.330 --> 00:29:14.150 gate of the outward sanctuary which looked toward the east, and it was shut. Then said the Lord unto 00:29:14.150 --> 00:29:20.080 me, 'This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it. Because 00:29:20.080 --> 00:29:26.750 the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince, 00:29:26.750 --> 00:29:33.230 the prince, he shall sit in to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by the way of the porch 00:29:33.230 --> 00:29:40.200 of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. Then brought he me the way of the north gate 00:29:40.200 --> 00:29:45.590 before the house. And I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, 00:29:45.590 --> 00:29:52.950 and I fell upon my face. The Lord said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, 00:29:52.950 --> 00:29:58.670 and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the 00:29:58.670 --> 00:30:05.820 Lord, and all the laws thereof, and mark well the entering in of the house with every going forth 00:30:05.820 --> 00:30:10.990 of the sanctuary, and thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, 00:30:10.990 --> 00:30:17.350 thus saith the Lord God, O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, 00:30:17.350 --> 00:30:23.400 and that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised 00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:29.590 in flesh to be in my sanctuary to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, 00:30:29.590 --> 00:30:35.270 the fat, and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. 00:30:35.270 --> 00:30:41.720 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things, but ye have set keepers of my charge 00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:44.510 and my sanctuary for yourselves. 00:30:44.510 --> 00:30:49.970 Let's say of the Lord God, no stranger uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh shall 00:30:49.970 --> 00:30:55.600 enter into my sanctuary of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. 00:30:55.600 --> 00:31:01.960 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray 00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:07.550 away from me after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquity, yet they shall be 00:31:07.550 --> 00:31:12.230 ministers in my sanctuary having charge at the gates of the house. 00:31:12.230 --> 00:31:16.710 And ministering to the house they shall slay the burnt offerings and the sacrifice for 00:31:16.710 --> 00:31:21.540 the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. 00:31:21.540 --> 00:31:25.140 Because they have ministered unto them before their idols and caused the house of Israel 00:31:25.140 --> 00:31:29.930 to fall into iniquity, therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord 00:31:29.930 --> 00:31:32.610 God, and they shall bear their iniquity. 00:31:32.610 --> 00:31:37.250 And they shall not come near unto me to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come 00:31:37.250 --> 00:31:42.960 near to any of my holy things in the most holy place, but they shall bear their shame 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:45.760 and their abominations which they have committed. 00:31:45.760 --> 00:31:50.630 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, 00:31:50.630 --> 00:31:52.790 and for all that shall be done therein. 00:31:52.790 --> 00:31:57.430 But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary 00:31:57.430 --> 00:32:01.840 when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister 00:32:01.840 --> 00:32:07.540 unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith 00:32:07.540 --> 00:32:08.890 the Lord God. 00:32:08.890 --> 00:32:13.730 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table to minister unto 00:32:13.730 --> 00:32:15.690 me, and they shall keep my charge. 00:32:15.690 --> 00:32:20.320 And it shall come to pass that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they 00:32:20.320 --> 00:32:25.400 shall be clothed with linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them while they minister 00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:28.800 in the gates of the inner court and within. 00:32:28.800 --> 00:32:35.570 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins. 00:32:35.570 --> 00:32:40.100 They shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat. 00:32:40.100 --> 00:32:44.840 And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they 00:32:44.840 --> 00:32:50.260 shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, 00:32:50.260 --> 00:32:55.080 and they shall put on other garments, and they shall not sanctify the people with their 00:32:55.080 --> 00:32:56.070 garments. 00:32:56.070 --> 00:33:00.510 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. 00:33:00.510 --> 00:33:03.770 They shall only pull their heads. 00:33:03.770 --> 00:33:08.000 Neither shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the inner court. 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:12.260 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away. 00:33:12.260 --> 00:33:16.290 But they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a 00:33:16.290 --> 00:33:17.680 priest before. 00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:22.510 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them 00:33:22.510 --> 00:33:25.900 to discern between the unclean and the clean. 00:33:25.900 --> 00:33:34.680 And in controversy, they shall stand in judgment, and shall judge it according to my judgments. 00:33:34.680 --> 00:33:39.600 And they shall keep my laws, and my statutes, and all my assemblies, and they shall hollow 00:33:39.600 --> 00:33:41.130 my Sabbaths. 00:33:41.130 --> 00:33:48.720 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves, but for father, or for mother, 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:53.670 or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister, that have no husband, they 00:33:53.670 --> 00:33:55.140 may defile themselves. 00:33:55.140 --> 00:33:59.370 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days. 00:33:59.370 --> 00:34:04.560 And the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, 00:34:04.560 --> 00:34:08.710 ye shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord God, and it shall be unto them, poor 00:34:08.710 --> 00:34:09.710 and inheritance. 00:34:09.710 --> 00:34:16.050 I am their inheritance, and ye shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. 00:34:16.050 --> 00:34:21.320 They shall eat the meat of the offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering, 00:34:21.320 --> 00:34:24.350 and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. 00:34:24.350 --> 00:34:30.350 And the first of all, the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every 00:34:30.350 --> 00:34:36.010 sort of your oblations shall be the priest. You shall also give unto the priest the first 00:34:36.010 --> 00:34:41.740 of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. The priest shall not 00:34:41.740 --> 00:34:48.870 eat of anything that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast. 00:34:48.870 --> 00:35:14.400 Brother Brett, could you please pray us into the service? 00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:19.090 Amen. You're there in Ezekiel 44. Thank you, Evangelist Justin John, for having me preach, 00:35:19.090 --> 00:35:21.780 and for Pastor Thompson letting me preach. 00:35:21.780 --> 00:35:25.170 And so the title of my sermon is, "Where are the sons of Zadok?" 00:35:25.170 --> 00:35:31.650 If you look here in verse 9, we'll read again, it says, "Thus saith the Lord God, no stranger 00:35:31.650 --> 00:35:37.250 uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary of any 00:35:37.250 --> 00:35:41.760 stranger that is among the children of Israel. And the Levites that are gone away from me 00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:46.060 when Israel went astray, which went astray from me after their idols, they shall even 00:35:46.060 --> 00:35:52.140 bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates 00:35:52.140 --> 00:35:57.100 of the house, and the ministering to the house. And they shall slay the burnt offerings and 00:35:57.100 --> 00:36:02.090 sacrifice of the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. Now look 00:36:02.090 --> 00:36:09.550 down to verse 15, it says, "But the priests of the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept 00:36:09.550 --> 00:36:14.430 the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray, they shall come near 00:36:14.430 --> 00:36:20.000 to me to minister unto me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:26.320 blood, saith the Lord God. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near 00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:33.070 to my table to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge." Now it's almost impossible 00:36:33.070 --> 00:36:37.310 not to notice when reading this passage that there is a group of people that went astray, 00:36:37.310 --> 00:36:42.620 and there is a group of people that kept the charge of the sanctuary and did not go astray. 00:36:42.620 --> 00:36:48.460 And as we look at the world today, and even back then, we can safely say that most people 00:36:48.460 --> 00:36:53.250 have gone astray, just in the world. The whole world lieth in darkness, and most people 00:36:53.250 --> 00:37:00.670 did not choose to receive the Lord. But even amongst most Christians, even most Christians 00:37:00.670 --> 00:37:06.800 go astray. You think of when Jesus cleansed the ten lepers. There were nine that went 00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:12.150 on their way, and there was one that turned back and rejoiced and praised God. And Jesus 00:37:12.150 --> 00:37:17.210 said, "Where are the nine?" Only one has turned back. He said that there were ten that 00:37:17.210 --> 00:37:24.130 were cleansed. And so, it's a common theme that people go astray and they go after idols 00:37:24.130 --> 00:37:32.030 and they go after their own way. And most preachers even go astray. It says that they 00:37:32.030 --> 00:37:37.190 took the people with them, but the sons of Zadok, they stayed by the stuff. They kept 00:37:37.190 --> 00:37:46.100 the charge of the sanctuary. And so, I want you to turn to Zephaniah chapter one. When 00:37:46.100 --> 00:37:52.890 reading through Ezekiel, you have to kind of remember he's in exile in the place called 00:37:52.890 --> 00:37:58.390 Tel Aviv by the river Chibar, which is not a desirable place to be. It's kind of like, 00:37:58.390 --> 00:38:03.610 if you see how African refugees are, they'll be in a place where it's just all dirt, and 00:38:03.610 --> 00:38:08.140 it's kind of, it's not a desirable place to be. They're there because nobody will attack 00:38:08.140 --> 00:38:13.700 them there, because that's a refugee. There's nothing strategic that would be wanting there. 00:38:13.700 --> 00:38:21.740 And so, the Babylonians have put Ezekiel in this undesirable place next to the river Chibar, 00:38:21.740 --> 00:38:29.360 but in Zephaniah, he warned that these things were going to happen. Because when you're 00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:33.970 reading through the major and the minor prophets, it kind of goes where Zephaniah and then Jeremiah 00:38:33.970 --> 00:38:38.850 comes on the scene and says, "Well, hey, because you guys said that nothing was going to happen, 00:38:38.850 --> 00:38:44.230 that this is what's going to happen now." And then, you see at the end of Jeremiah, 00:38:44.230 --> 00:38:53.060 he gets a pass. He gets to stay in Jerusalem as a remnant that's exiled by the Babylonians 00:38:53.060 --> 00:38:58.290 and the rest are taken away into captivity. And then you'll see Daniel is in the capital 00:38:58.290 --> 00:39:05.800 and he's being trained in the ways of the Babylonians. And they want him to bow down 00:39:05.800 --> 00:39:10.270 to the idol of Nebuchadnezzar, but there were three ones that didn't bow down to it. There 00:39:10.270 --> 00:39:14.870 were three guys that stayed by the stuff out of all those thousands that were there. And 00:39:14.870 --> 00:39:19.670 when you're reading through Ezekiel, Ezekiel is in this place that's kind of a muddy, dirty 00:39:19.670 --> 00:39:23.630 place next to a river that dries up in the summer. It's not really a great place to be. 00:39:23.630 --> 00:39:30.850 And in the 25th year that he's there, God sends him this vision in the book of Ezekiel. 00:39:30.850 --> 00:39:35.370 And so I want you to read Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 12. It says, "And it shall come to 00:39:35.370 --> 00:39:41.860 pass at that time that I shall search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that settled 00:39:41.860 --> 00:39:47.010 on their lees." And they say in their heart that the Lord will not do good, neither will 00:39:47.010 --> 00:39:51.390 He do evil. They're just kind of saying the heavens are brass. God's not going to care 00:39:51.390 --> 00:39:56.860 either way. The devil may care, but God He won't is what they're saying. They're saying, 00:39:56.860 --> 00:40:01.440 "Well, nobody's going to care what we do. God's not going to punish." And you've heard 00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:06.640 people say that recently, that God's not going to punish no matter what. And there's this 00:40:06.640 --> 00:40:10.970 dangerous movement in America where God saved you and He's your buddy and He's your friend 00:40:10.970 --> 00:40:14.030 and you don't have to obey Him and you don't have to have any fear for Him. And that's 00:40:14.030 --> 00:40:19.550 hogwash. And that's what brought the judgment of God on the people of Israel, is that they 00:40:19.550 --> 00:40:24.730 rose up to play and went after idols. They worshiped the calves of Dan and Samaria that 00:40:24.730 --> 00:40:32.700 Jeroboam had set up and they did not turn to the Lord. Look at Jeremiah chapter 2. Jeremiah 00:40:32.700 --> 00:40:40.160 calls them out on this. The Lord sends Jeremiah to preach Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13, "For 00:40:40.160 --> 00:40:45.880 my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, 00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:50.930 and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." You know, I think 00:40:50.930 --> 00:40:55.360 about how the Bible is the word of life and how there's no truth that comes out of, you 00:40:55.360 --> 00:41:00.000 know, in the world other than out of the Bible. The Bible is the truth and it is the way of 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.750 life. It is how you should live. It is living waters by which you will be refreshed and 00:41:04.750 --> 00:41:09.010 that you can live your life. And people turn away from it and go their own way and they've 00:41:09.010 --> 00:41:13.460 made themselves cisterns that can't even hold water. The things that they teach you, 00:41:13.460 --> 00:41:17.640 they don't last. They don't, they don't subside. You know, if you keep going along with the 00:41:17.640 --> 00:41:23.260 world, you just have to keep going and changing no matter what. And people that change on 00:41:23.260 --> 00:41:28.110 what the Bible says, then several generations later, you don't even have any semblance 00:41:28.110 --> 00:41:31.840 that they were even Christian. That their descendants were Christian or that it was 00:41:31.840 --> 00:41:36.720 even a Baptist church at one time. You know, I can think of a Baptist church that became 00:41:36.720 --> 00:41:41.730 a first Baptist church of the brethren and then it went on to be something else and now 00:41:41.730 --> 00:41:47.570 it just has this weird flame on it and it says the tabernacle. And every time I pass 00:41:47.570 --> 00:41:51.900 it I think strange fire. That's what's going on. That's what they're offering at that 00:41:51.900 --> 00:41:59.630 church is strange fire. Some non-denominational tabernacle. What is that even? We don't know. 00:41:59.630 --> 00:42:03.050 But at least when somebody's Baptist you know that they're standing on the fundamentals 00:42:03.050 --> 00:42:14.570 of what it means to be a Baptist. Turn to chapter 5 of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 5, 31. "The 00:42:14.570 --> 00:42:19.820 prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means. And my people love 00:42:19.820 --> 00:42:25.600 to have it so. And what will you do in the end thereof?" So this here says that when 00:42:25.600 --> 00:42:30.710 those prophets go astray it says that the people love it to be so. They love to be in 00:42:30.710 --> 00:42:38.520 sin. And they love to be in idolatry and wickedness. And they want somebody to give them a pass 00:42:38.520 --> 00:42:47.430 to go and play, is what they want. And not do what the Bible says. And sometimes unfortunately 00:42:47.430 --> 00:42:52.370 churches are measured by the spirituality of the preacher and everybody just follows 00:42:52.370 --> 00:42:56.810 after him. And if he doesn't take it seriously, they don't take it seriously either. If the 00:42:56.810 --> 00:43:01.380 preacher doesn't take marriage seriously, nobody in the congregation takes it seriously. 00:43:01.380 --> 00:43:06.210 If nobody makes sin exceedingly sinful from behind the pulpit, nobody in the pew is going 00:43:06.210 --> 00:43:12.790 to take it seriously either. And that's what's happening in our churches today. And you think 00:43:12.790 --> 00:43:17.630 about Jeremiah, he warned the people and he was called a traitor. They said that he was 00:43:17.630 --> 00:43:20.930 sent there by Nebuchadnezzar and that his scribe was actually the one, I mean Barak the 00:43:20.930 --> 00:43:26.130 scribe is actually the one, writing all this and telling him to say all this. And so they 00:43:26.130 --> 00:43:29.640 make up all these lies and actually arrest Jeremiah. And you remember how horrible it 00:43:29.640 --> 00:43:34.740 was for Jeremiah and he was in the mire, in the hole. And then they come and they carry 00:43:34.740 --> 00:43:41.230 away into Babylon, Jeremiah is spared. He gets out by the skin of his teeth because 00:43:41.230 --> 00:43:50.040 he stayed by the stuff and he did what God told him to do. And so when we're reading 00:43:50.040 --> 00:43:58.310 through Ezekiel 40 through 48, I think a pastor told me one time, he said if you ever want 00:43:58.310 --> 00:44:01.130 to preach somewhere and you don't know if somebody's going to preach the same thing 00:44:01.130 --> 00:44:05.430 you preach, just preach out of Ezekiel 40 through 48. Because no, but most people that's 00:44:05.430 --> 00:44:09.880 kind of a hard saying for a lot of the things that are in there. It's hard to understand. 00:44:09.880 --> 00:44:13.420 And the mistake a lot of people make when they read through it is that they apply a 00:44:13.420 --> 00:44:17.780 lot of that stuff to the millennium and that's false doctrine because they're still offering 00:44:17.780 --> 00:44:24.440 sacrifices in this time. And what I believe that it is, and I'm not saying this is exactly 00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:28.920 right, but what I believe that it's talking about is that this is what the children of 00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:33.610 Israel could have been had they not gone astray. This is what their nation could have been 00:44:33.610 --> 00:44:40.200 like when God restored it after bringing them back from the captivity. And because they 00:44:40.200 --> 00:44:45.440 went their own way, you know, God ended up, and they ended up rejecting the Lord Jesus 00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:54.410 Christ when he came to this earth, they did not get this entire fulfillment of this story 00:44:54.410 --> 00:45:01.770 here, or this vision that he gives Ezekiel. But I think he showed Ezekiel this and this 00:45:01.770 --> 00:45:08.640 is what it could be like when I restore, when I restore, when they build that second temple. 00:45:08.640 --> 00:45:14.870 And so you also have problems with, if you try to say that it's the millennium, that 00:45:14.870 --> 00:45:18.840 the prince that rules over it, he's married. And so Jesus wasn't married and didn't have 00:45:18.840 --> 00:45:23.370 kids, and he didn't have some lieutenant governor, you know, like Michael Beckwith, leading over 00:45:23.370 --> 00:45:28.900 the millennial kingdom. So he's not, there's no lieutenant governor. It's Jesus Christ 00:45:28.900 --> 00:45:34.620 sitting on the throne and the disciples ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel is what he said 00:45:34.620 --> 00:45:40.130 it would be. So you have a lot of problems if you try to say it's the millennium as you 00:45:40.130 --> 00:45:49.140 read through it. And so, but the Levites, you know, they walked away and they walked 00:45:49.140 --> 00:45:54.290 in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. And if you see in the scriptures, it talks 00:45:54.290 --> 00:45:59.280 about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, being, you know, because remember the kingdom split 00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:04.960 after Solomon, that he's the one that caused Israel to sin by making the calves of Dan 00:46:04.960 --> 00:46:10.000 and Samaria so that they would worship those instead of going down to the southern kingdom 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.840 and worshiping where they were supposed to at the temple. And, you know, it was the first 00:46:14.840 --> 00:46:18.620 Jeroboam, come as you are, original drive through church sort of deal. You don't have 00:46:18.620 --> 00:46:23.170 to come and stay. You just come by and you worship the calves and you go on your way. 00:46:23.170 --> 00:46:26.820 And you can play and sing and dance and do all the, you know, be half naked kind of like 00:46:26.820 --> 00:46:31.930 they did in the time of Moses and just do whatever you feel is on your heart and not 00:46:31.930 --> 00:46:37.670 do right is what Jeroboam offered them. And the people fell for it and they sinned. And 00:46:37.670 --> 00:46:43.250 26, 27 times it talks about that people went after the sins of Jeroboam. And some of these 00:46:43.250 --> 00:46:49.530 Levites went with them and they took the people astray with them. But the sons of Zadok, they 00:46:49.530 --> 00:46:56.910 kept the charge of the sanctuary. Now, who was Zadok? Zadok was the priest when David 00:46:56.910 --> 00:47:04.380 was king. And he's the one that anointed Solomon as king with Nathan the prophet. And so he 00:47:04.380 --> 00:47:11.470 was faithful in the things that God had given him to do. He was a very good priest. And 00:47:11.470 --> 00:47:16.220 his sons, a few hundred years later here, they're talking about it in Ezekiel that they're 00:47:16.220 --> 00:47:20.690 the ones that kept the charge of the sanctuary, stayed by the stuff. Somebody said, "I preach 00:47:20.690 --> 00:47:26.850 out of the Old Testament a lot." And I'm pretty narrow-minded. I'm about this narrow-minded. 00:47:26.850 --> 00:47:32.290 And so a lot of this, though, you turn and right there, that's all the Old Testament 00:47:32.290 --> 00:47:37.470 right there. And that's a lot more to explain. And a lot of people have read this and read 00:47:37.470 --> 00:47:43.940 some of this, but they don't know how to apply this to this. And so I've read both enough 00:47:43.940 --> 00:47:48.240 that I like to preach out of the Old Testament, because I think sometimes that's the part 00:47:48.240 --> 00:47:53.030 people have trouble applying and trying to figure out what actually from the New Testament 00:47:53.030 --> 00:47:59.550 applies to the Old Testament. And I also love all the stories, because you go through thousands 00:47:59.550 --> 00:48:05.660 of years of history and you see how people end up based off of what their ancestors did 00:48:05.660 --> 00:48:11.660 or what the people did in that time and who they followed. And you see how people end 00:48:11.660 --> 00:48:16.840 up. In the New Testament, you hear about people leaving, but you don't really, like Demus 00:48:16.840 --> 00:48:20.240 has forsaken me, having loved this present world, you don't really hear much more about 00:48:20.240 --> 00:48:26.820 him or read much more about him. And so, you know, we know in the New Testament, we've 00:48:26.820 --> 00:48:30.400 read through the New Testament a lot, or at least I did when I first got saved. I read 00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:33.740 through it over and over and over again because I was like, and I listened to it in my car, 00:48:33.740 --> 00:48:37.480 I was like, I just got to cleanse my mind of all the garbage that I've learned, all 00:48:37.480 --> 00:48:41.740 the music and all the things that I learned. And so I listened and listened and listened 00:48:41.740 --> 00:48:47.130 through it. And then once I felt like I understood it, when I was reading through the Old Testament, 00:48:47.130 --> 00:48:54.580 I started understanding more and more of it. And so the sons of Zadok, they stayed by 00:48:54.580 --> 00:49:00.480 this stuff, and Ezekiel saw them in this vision a few hundred years later. And so I want to 00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:09.800 read Ezekiel 44, 23. It says, "And they shall teach my people the difference between holy 00:49:09.800 --> 00:49:18.240 and profane, and cause them to discern between clean and unclean. And in controversy they 00:49:18.240 --> 00:49:23.570 shall stand in judgment, and they shall judge it according to my judgments, and they shall 00:49:23.570 --> 00:49:33.870 keep the law in my statutes and my assemblies, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths." And so 00:49:33.870 --> 00:49:38.960 I want to ask, when it talks about between holy and profane, has anybody found something 00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:44.270 that's better than the Word of God out there? They haven't, have they? And has there ever 00:49:44.270 --> 00:49:50.520 been anything where somebody goes away from the Word of God and they're more holy than 00:49:50.520 --> 00:49:57.210 people that stick by the Word of God? Is there anybody like that out there? There's not. 00:49:57.210 --> 00:50:02.290 And so, people don't go astray because they're unsatisfied with this and they find something 00:50:02.290 --> 00:50:06.530 better. They go astray because they don't read this at all, because they're lazy and 00:50:06.530 --> 00:50:10.790 they don't even look at it. And they look to themselves and their feelings and they 00:50:10.790 --> 00:50:16.980 look at society and they just go and do what it is that they want to do. That's the thing. 00:50:16.980 --> 00:50:22.140 People don't just leave the King James Bible and find something better. They just never 00:50:22.140 --> 00:50:26.640 pick it up. They don't pay attention to what it says. They don't heed to God's Word and 00:50:26.640 --> 00:50:35.990 they go on the fruit of their own way. That tells me that there's holy and that anything 00:50:35.990 --> 00:50:41.150 else other than holy is profane. What does profane mean? It means common. I don't mean 00:50:41.150 --> 00:50:46.680 to get that deep tonight, but that's what it means. It's either holy and it's right 00:50:46.680 --> 00:50:50.570 and it's righteous or it's just something common and it's something that most people 00:50:50.570 --> 00:51:02.390 do. It can even be something sinful. This world, they love sin. They love for it to 00:51:02.390 --> 00:51:09.440 be so, like it said in Jeremiah, and you think about just even something simple. If somebody 00:51:09.440 --> 00:51:15.780 wears a toupee, it's okay to laugh at somebody for wearing fake hair, isn't it? If they're 00:51:15.780 --> 00:51:21.860 on their bicycle and it's flapping in the wind, it's okay to laugh at them, right? But 00:51:21.860 --> 00:51:28.000 some freak puts on a wig and a dress and high heels and you're not supposed to laugh at 00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:33.200 that though. You know what the difference is? It's because it's not a sin to be riding 00:51:33.200 --> 00:51:40.460 your bike with a male toupee down the road looking like a fool. That's not a sin. But 00:51:40.460 --> 00:51:43.730 the reason you're not allowed to laugh at the other thing is because it's a sin and 00:51:43.730 --> 00:51:49.480 people glory in their shame, people glory in sin today. You can wear shoes that make 00:51:49.480 --> 00:51:55.160 you three inches taller as a man and people would laugh you to scorn. But all of a sudden 00:51:55.160 --> 00:51:58.740 a guy puts on high heels and they want you to reverence that person. They want you to 00:51:58.740 --> 00:52:03.280 worship them is what they want. It's not enough that you accept them anymore, it's they want 00:52:03.280 --> 00:52:10.190 you to bow down and worship that. They want you to worship their sin. And sin needs to 00:52:10.190 --> 00:52:15.390 be exceeding sinful today and what's an abomination today will be an abomination tomorrow. And 00:52:15.390 --> 00:52:20.390 the preachers that accept it and don't call it out, they will be ashamed and they will 00:52:20.390 --> 00:52:26.400 have menial tasks. The Bible says that he that breaks the least of my commandments and 00:52:26.400 --> 00:52:32.410 teach men so he shall be the least in the kingdom of heaven. And the problem we have 00:52:32.410 --> 00:52:38.480 today is that people are bringing in the uncircumcised in heart, they're bringing in the unsaved, 00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:43.450 they're bringing in the sinful ways of the world into the churches and leading, the preachers 00:52:43.450 --> 00:52:51.850 are leading the people astray with these false beliefs and with this seeker sensitive movement 00:52:51.850 --> 00:52:58.520 that's in our country. And you know in the 60s people would laugh at just sin, fools 00:52:58.520 --> 00:53:03.780 would make a mock at sin and they'd just say oh well that's funny that they do that. 00:53:03.780 --> 00:53:07.850 And so they told you to laugh at it for like 20, 30 years and then all of a sudden they're 00:53:07.850 --> 00:53:12.780 like oh hey that's not funny you can't laugh at that anymore. You know oh you're transphobic 00:53:12.780 --> 00:53:18.120 you're this, you're that. And so the world just keeps moving the goalposts where if you 00:53:18.120 --> 00:53:25.710 keep going along with them you are no standard at all. And it becomes idolatry is what it 00:53:25.710 --> 00:53:36.860 becomes. And so Ezekiel 34, I want you to turn to Ezekiel 34 verse 18 it says, "Seem 00:53:36.860 --> 00:53:42.370 it that a small thing unto you that ye have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread 00:53:42.370 --> 00:53:48.390 down with your feet the residue of your pastures, and to a drunk of the deep waters, but ye 00:53:48.390 --> 00:53:53.380 must fowl the residue with your feet." And as for my flock they eat that which ye have 00:53:53.380 --> 00:53:59.160 trodden with your feet and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. I remember 00:53:59.160 --> 00:54:05.830 Pastor Jack Hyles preaching, "Get your stinking feet out of my drinking water." And it's 00:54:05.830 --> 00:54:10.450 okay as a pastor to have feet of clay but you shouldn't have your shoes off up here 00:54:10.450 --> 00:54:14.270 at the pulpit showing people your stinking feet and putting it in the drinking water 00:54:14.270 --> 00:54:19.580 and making holy profane and making profane holy and just muddying up the waters of what 00:54:19.580 --> 00:54:25.870 the Bible says and muddying up the gospel and leading people astray. It's wicked and 00:54:25.870 --> 00:54:31.770 they'll be held accountable for that but the listener will be held accountable also. You 00:54:31.770 --> 00:54:37.830 need to take heed to the words in this book and there's sins that disqualify a man of 00:54:37.830 --> 00:54:47.760 God like drunkenness and adultery and idolatry I would say. But preachers do sin but if they're 00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:53.300 disqualified they should step down but like Greg Block for example is somebody that was 00:54:53.300 --> 00:55:00.890 married to his secretary and left his wife and he's very popular today now. He's coming 00:55:00.890 --> 00:55:08.250 up again in the conservative movement. You'll see him on the news and people like that, 00:55:08.250 --> 00:55:13.450 they shouldn't be pastors. And they don't have enough sense to step down and they lead 00:55:13.450 --> 00:55:22.090 people astray. And the Bible says in Proverbs 28, 4 it says, "They that forsake the law 00:55:22.090 --> 00:55:29.140 praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them." And that's the problem 00:55:29.140 --> 00:55:32.810 with our society is they that forsake the law praise the wicked. And that's why there's 00:55:32.810 --> 00:55:38.500 so much praise into the wicked today in our society is because people have forsaken this 00:55:38.500 --> 00:55:47.100 book and they've forsaken the way of the Lord. Psalm 12, 8 says, "The wicked walk on every 00:55:47.100 --> 00:55:54.750 side when the vilest men are exalted." And when you go astray with these people, what 00:55:54.750 --> 00:56:01.240 you believe will become unrecognizable as Christianity. You will not have biblical Christianity 00:56:01.240 --> 00:56:08.540 if you accept everything that the world wants you to accept. And so be a son of Zadok where 00:56:08.540 --> 00:56:13.570 you stay by the stuff and you don't just bend and lick your finger and put your hand up 00:56:13.570 --> 00:56:19.130 like a reed shaking in the wind and just kind of go with any direction that the wind's going. 00:56:19.130 --> 00:56:27.190 You need to stick with this book and stick with what it says. And so I think of in Sardis, 00:56:27.190 --> 00:56:32.320 he told those men, he said, "Hey, turn to Revelation chapter 3, actually I don't want 00:56:32.320 --> 00:56:40.660 to turn there." Because Sardis had a name but they were dead. That they were living 00:56:40.660 --> 00:56:45.760 but they were dead. And so if you look in verse 2, he told them, he said in Revelation 00:56:45.760 --> 00:56:51.700 3 verse 2, he said, "Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to 00:56:51.700 --> 00:57:00.520 die if I have not found thy works perfect for God. Remember there that thou hast received 00:57:00.520 --> 00:57:07.110 and heard, and hold fast and repent. If thou therefore shall not watch, I will come on 00:57:07.110 --> 00:57:11.680 thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I shall come upon thee. Thou hast a 00:57:11.680 --> 00:57:16.990 few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me 00:57:16.990 --> 00:57:23.280 in white, for they are worthy." And hey, that's kind of like what he told those sons of Zadok, 00:57:23.280 --> 00:57:27.160 that they will be worthy, that they will be the ones in the inner temple doing the fat 00:57:27.160 --> 00:57:32.980 and blood sacrifices, that they will be the ones that are near God. You know, the Bible 00:57:32.980 --> 00:57:38.080 says, "Draw an eye unto God, and He'll draw an eye unto you." But it also says, "Cleanse 00:57:38.080 --> 00:57:43.860 your hands, ye sinners, and purify your minds, ye double-minded." So it says that you need 00:57:43.860 --> 00:57:50.290 to get right with your sin, you need to get that right, and then get closer to God. You 00:57:50.290 --> 00:57:55.760 don't just get to keep your sin and try to draw an eye to God, because God does not accept 00:57:55.760 --> 00:58:02.020 that lifestyle. God does not accept for you to be in gross sins and try to draw near unto 00:58:02.020 --> 00:58:12.080 Him. And so these men that were in Sardis, even though the church wasn't doing right, 00:58:12.080 --> 00:58:17.470 they kept right, and they stayed by the stuff, and God said that they would walk in white 00:58:17.470 --> 00:58:24.130 with Him. And so we need to remember that today. When we think about the things that 00:58:24.130 --> 00:58:30.470 happened with the sons of Zadok, and with the children of Israel that were taken away 00:58:30.470 --> 00:58:34.250 into captivity, there were people that were protected that were in that remnant that didn't 00:58:34.250 --> 00:58:39.690 get taken away into captivity. And they were the ones that kept the charge of the sanctuary, 00:58:39.690 --> 00:58:44.600 and they were the ones that when Nehemiah came along to rebuild the temple, that they 00:58:44.600 --> 00:58:51.350 were the ones that were there. And so we need to have those kind of people that are 00:58:51.350 --> 00:59:00.050 faithful and that aren't going to change on the Word of God. Because Jesus Christ, 00:59:00.050 --> 00:59:06.000 He died so that you could have all the words in this book. Not so that you could just consider 00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:12.940 the lilies. Or so that you could, you know, whatsoever men, you would have to do it and 00:59:12.940 --> 00:59:16.490 you'd do so also likewise under them. You know, those are all good things, but there's 00:59:16.490 --> 00:59:21.210 a lot in here more than that that you need to apply to your own life and get right in 00:59:21.210 --> 00:59:32.870 your own life. And so Jesus Christ, He died for our sins and He's coming back as the 00:59:32.870 --> 00:59:38.890 Lion of Judah. He's not coming back as the Lamb this time. And so these people are going 00:59:38.890 --> 00:59:45.040 to be terrified when Jesus Christ comes back and rules and reigns on this earth. And they're 00:59:45.040 --> 00:59:48.820 going to hide in the mountains and the rocks as they fall upon us and hide us from the 00:59:48.820 --> 00:59:58.460 face of the wrath of the Lamb. And we as Christians, we need to have that fear for Christ and for 00:59:58.460 --> 01:00:05.740 God the Father, because we are His children and He can punish us if we do wrong. And we 01:00:05.740 --> 01:00:09.610 don't need to be like those people that were in the book of Zephaniah where it's like, 01:00:09.610 --> 01:00:16.040 "Well, you know, God's not going to do good or evil to us." You better believe that if 01:00:16.040 --> 01:00:20.940 you do wrong, if you just go into sin, that He will punish. It says, "They that despise 01:00:20.940 --> 01:00:27.160 Moses' law died under two or three witnesses." And how much sorer punishment are we going 01:00:27.160 --> 01:00:31.400 to receive when we have this whole book and they just had the word given by the mouth 01:00:31.400 --> 01:00:36.250 of Moses? When we have this whole book, when you can sit down and read it anytime you want 01:00:36.250 --> 01:00:39.800 and you don't want to obey it, and you think, "Oh, well, God's just not going to punish 01:00:39.800 --> 01:00:49.140 me. We live in grace now." You got the amazing graces up there, Joseph Jones. God's not 01:00:49.140 --> 01:00:53.000 going to punish. God's just going to say, "He loved me enough to save me. He's just 01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:59.890 going to let me do whatever." No, He's not. There's a big difference between your positional 01:00:59.890 --> 01:01:06.520 sanctification and your progressive sanctification where you can have your candle put out early. 01:01:06.520 --> 01:01:11.350 He put the candles out in those churches. It didn't do what they said. He can put your 01:01:11.350 --> 01:01:16.310 individual, your person candle out early. God can come see you come in and smash you 01:01:16.310 --> 01:01:23.810 like a bug. Driving out here, I'm sure you know that's true, that He could smash you 01:01:23.810 --> 01:01:38.780 like a bug any time He wants. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 01:01:38.780 --> 01:01:46.140 15 verse 58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding 01:01:46.140 --> 01:01:51.880 in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the 01:01:51.880 --> 01:01:57.540 world." So that there says, "Our labor is not in vain. Keep going along and keep doing 01:01:57.540 --> 01:02:04.700 the work." And it says, "Be steadfast and be unmovable." Don't just change on the 01:02:04.700 --> 01:02:11.090 truths in this book just because of your feelings. And that's what's wrong with a lot of what's 01:02:11.090 --> 01:02:17.960 going on in the world today, is everybody just accepts everyone else's feelings as true. 01:02:17.960 --> 01:02:25.180 And whether, you know, we used to be, and most of my jobs have been in the science field, 01:02:25.180 --> 01:02:29.790 it used to be you could just believe a biological textbook, and that would be good enough for 01:02:29.790 --> 01:02:35.570 most people in science nowadays. But now they want to tell you that men can get pregnant, 01:02:35.570 --> 01:02:40.860 and that gender's fluid, everything's fluid, you can change it, you can be an attack helicopter, 01:02:40.860 --> 01:02:44.960 you can be a horse, you can be whatever you want to be. If you just believe, just close 01:02:44.960 --> 01:02:48.900 your eyes and believe hard enough, you can believe, be whatever you want to be. Except 01:02:48.900 --> 01:02:54.800 for a Bible-believing Christian, you can't be that. And they've rejected what their own 01:02:54.800 --> 01:03:00.920 textbooks say biology is. They've rejected chemistry, they've rejected everything that 01:03:00.920 --> 01:03:06.740 was taught to us in school about herd, even just herd immunity, that people get sick and 01:03:06.740 --> 01:03:11.750 they spread it around and it goes away. Has anybody died of COVID lately? Does anybody? 01:03:11.750 --> 01:03:18.190 No. I don't have COVID, but I give it to people anyway. You know, it's like, well, I had to 01:03:18.190 --> 01:03:25.050 wear a mask, right? Even though you weren't sick. Oh, it's one of the symptoms. Crazy. 01:03:25.050 --> 01:03:33.980 We live in a crazy world, and it's just going to keep getting crazy. How crazy will it get? 01:03:33.980 --> 01:03:37.590 Well, kind of like Thomas Jefferson said, "Tiredness will take it however far along 01:03:37.590 --> 01:03:42.490 you will accept." And that's how far along the devil will take this world, is however 01:03:42.490 --> 01:03:49.750 far you're willing to accept, and however far along the Christians are willing to accept. 01:03:49.750 --> 01:03:53.960 Because Jesus Christ said, "Upon this rock I built my church, and the gates of hell will 01:03:53.960 --> 01:03:59.870 not prevail against it." And the devil will not prevail against the church, but Christians 01:03:59.870 --> 01:04:07.290 can abandon the church, and abandon the ways of the Lord, and it will prevail against them. 01:04:07.290 --> 01:04:11.550 You're not guaranteed an outcome in your life that it's never going to prevail against 01:04:11.550 --> 01:04:18.510 you. It will not prevail against the church, and against the standards that God has given 01:04:18.510 --> 01:04:26.000 it right and wrong. And if you abandon that, then you have no guarantee of whether or not 01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:32.220 you'll stand. And it's harder to stand alone than it is to stand with your brethren, just 01:04:32.220 --> 01:04:39.310 so you know. If your brethren don't go out soul winning, you probably won't go out either. 01:04:39.310 --> 01:05:06.520 That's how it is. And so I want to look back at Ezekiel 44, look down in verse 27, "And 01:05:06.520 --> 01:05:11.870 in the day that he goeth out into the sanctuary, and unto the inner court, to minister into 01:05:11.870 --> 01:05:18.480 the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord. And it shall be unto them 01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:24.970 for an inheritance; I am their inheritance, and ye shall give them no possession in Israel; 01:05:24.970 --> 01:05:31.380 I am their possession. So, you know, I think of when Peter asked the Lord, he said, "Well, 01:05:31.380 --> 01:05:34.420 Lord, we've forsaken all." He said, "What are you going to give me? What are you going 01:05:34.420 --> 01:05:39.990 to give us?" And he said that he would give them mothers and brethren and houses and lands 01:05:39.990 --> 01:05:44.930 a hundredfold in heaven. But he also said, "In persecutions, though." You know, he's 01:05:44.930 --> 01:05:51.700 going to give it to you in persecution. And so, I'm sure it was hard for these men of 01:05:51.700 --> 01:05:58.020 Zadok to just stay by the stuff and be exiled there in Jerusalem and to be, you know, keeping 01:05:58.020 --> 01:06:03.130 the charge of the house of the Lord when it's not really a popular time to do it. During 01:06:03.130 --> 01:06:09.370 the carrying away of Babylon, I'm sure that wasn't the heyday of the children of Israel, 01:06:09.370 --> 01:06:15.270 that that was the best time to serve, but that's when they served. And, you know, you 01:06:15.270 --> 01:06:21.490 may be, has anybody ever heard the legionnaire song, the Polish national anthem, the legionnaire 01:06:21.490 --> 01:06:27.940 song? No, probably not. But it says in that song, it says that you'll probably be dead 01:06:27.940 --> 01:06:34.770 and gone before good times ever come back, you know? And so that may be true, even in 01:06:34.770 --> 01:06:42.460 the ministry. You may serve, and you may serve hard and endure suffering, and it may be long 01:06:42.460 --> 01:06:46.630 after you're gone before it actually, before you see, but anybody sees the fruit of what 01:06:46.630 --> 01:06:55.030 you did. And so, but we need to keep serving anyway, because our inheritance is the Lord. 01:06:55.030 --> 01:06:59.180 We're going to receive an inheritance for the people that we've won to the Lord, for 01:06:59.180 --> 01:07:04.760 the people that have forsaken us because we stuck to the standards, because of things 01:07:04.760 --> 01:07:09.760 that you've lost just in your life because of persecutions, those things will be repaid 01:07:09.760 --> 01:07:23.260 unto you. So, as I think about this, you know, I think that God's showing this to Ezekiel 01:07:23.260 --> 01:07:31.140 in a vision, and Ezekiel's in even a much worse place than these men are. And Ezekiel 01:07:31.140 --> 01:07:38.830 was a man that people said to him, "The ways of the Lord are not equal." Well, I don't 01:07:38.830 --> 01:07:45.460 think anybody had it as bad as Ezekiel had it, really, in that time, at that place. 01:07:45.460 --> 01:07:50.500 Because that was probably the worst place to be in the Babylonian captivity. He was 01:07:50.500 --> 01:07:57.130 just exiled in the worst land, in the dried up barren land, and he was called to preach 01:07:57.130 --> 01:08:00.840 to those people and say, "Yes, the ways of the Lord are equal, and the ways of the Lord 01:08:00.840 --> 01:08:07.290 is just, and the Lord is looking for a man to preach what He has told him to preach. 01:08:07.290 --> 01:08:12.570 To stand before Him in the gap between the land so that He would not destroy it. 01:08:12.570 --> 01:08:15.970 And God said, "I found none." 01:08:15.970 --> 01:08:22.410 Ezekiel 1-23 is kind of telling him how He's going to destroy Jerusalem, it's just an inevitable 01:08:22.410 --> 01:08:23.980 fact. 01:08:23.980 --> 01:08:28.190 And then in 25-32, He's telling him all the nations that He's going to destroy after that 01:08:28.190 --> 01:08:30.790 and how He's going to judge them. 01:08:30.790 --> 01:08:36.960 Because God sometimes sends the evildoer to punish His children, to punish like He did 01:08:36.960 --> 01:08:40.710 with the children of Israel, but then He also punished those nations. 01:08:40.710 --> 01:08:44.610 As He said in the book of Habakkuk as well. 01:08:44.610 --> 01:08:51.080 But in Ezekiel 40-48, He talks about how He will restore that temple and how He would 01:08:51.080 --> 01:08:56.220 have restored it in a much better way than if they would have stayed by the stuff, if 01:08:56.220 --> 01:09:02.090 everybody would have stayed by the stuff, I think, rather than just those sons of Zadok. 01:09:02.090 --> 01:09:06.330 But the problem is, it's that most people aren't staying by the stuff. 01:09:06.330 --> 01:09:10.050 Most people aren't holding the standards, most people aren't reading their Bible, they're 01:09:10.050 --> 01:09:14.980 not praying, and they're not seeking God's face of what to do with their lives. 01:09:14.980 --> 01:09:19.660 They're just out there aimlessly wandering around and just not sticking to the Word of 01:09:19.660 --> 01:09:23.470 God and not sticking to the truth. 01:09:23.470 --> 01:09:32.320 And when times have got hard in my life, you know, I've turned to God and I've asked Him 01:09:32.320 --> 01:09:34.100 what it is that I should do differently. 01:09:34.100 --> 01:09:37.620 I don't hear an answer back, obviously, like an audible, you know, the whole sky doesn't 01:09:37.620 --> 01:09:41.320 light up and God doesn't give me an answer, kind of like when Jack Scott, the whole room 01:09:41.320 --> 01:09:43.710 lit up and God told him to preach. 01:09:43.710 --> 01:09:47.070 You know, that, that, that, and then we've seen what happened with him. 01:09:47.070 --> 01:09:51.000 But that, that's the kind of, that's kind of stuff, you know, that I worry about is 01:09:51.000 --> 01:09:53.130 when you should talk to God and ask him what you should do. 01:09:53.130 --> 01:09:56.660 But when he starts talking back in an audible voice, I questioned that. 01:09:56.660 --> 01:10:00.520 So, but when God will reveal to you in wisdom through his word, what it is that you need 01:10:00.520 --> 01:10:02.300 to do. 01:10:02.300 --> 01:10:05.620 And most of the time, kind of like Joshua, he says, Hey, get off your face. 01:10:05.620 --> 01:10:09.260 You already know what you're supposed to do. 01:10:09.260 --> 01:10:15.160 And so we need to read our Bible and we need, and we need in this time, we need to more 01:10:15.160 --> 01:10:19.680 than ever, we need to hold the standards that are in this book and not change on what this 01:10:19.680 --> 01:10:22.110 book says. 01:10:22.110 --> 01:10:26.650 And when people want to have a different version of the Bible, or they want to have a commentary 01:10:26.650 --> 01:10:33.950 that tells you what it is the Bible really says, they're just trying to lead you astray. 01:10:33.950 --> 01:10:40.620 And when people change on the Trinity, and when people change on the fundamental doctrines 01:10:40.620 --> 01:10:46.400 of what it means to be a Baptist, we need to reject those people and stay far away from 01:10:46.400 --> 01:10:52.560 them and not have fellowship with them and pronounce them, "Oh, you're saved, but you're 01:10:52.560 --> 01:10:53.540 a little confused." 01:10:53.540 --> 01:10:54.530 I don't think so. 01:10:54.530 --> 01:11:00.330 If you believe in a different Trinity than what the Bible teaches, you're not saved. 01:11:00.330 --> 01:11:05.960 And you may be, you know, you may be a baby Christian and not understand totally what 01:11:05.960 --> 01:11:09.940 the Trinity is or how it is applied, because great is the mystery of godliness. 01:11:09.940 --> 01:11:12.510 We don't all understand everything about the Trinity. 01:11:12.510 --> 01:11:21.090 But if you reject the fundamental parts of it, you're not saved. 01:11:21.090 --> 01:11:27.710 But we live in a world where idolatry and drunkenness and revelings and evil things 01:11:27.710 --> 01:11:30.520 abound. 01:11:30.520 --> 01:11:31.630 And will you stick by the stuff? 01:11:31.630 --> 01:11:37.780 Will you be a son of Zadok and keep charging the sanctuary of God's house? 01:11:37.780 --> 01:11:41.450 Or are you just going to go to some fun center and just try to search your own heart and 01:11:41.450 --> 01:11:44.140 find yourself? 01:11:44.140 --> 01:11:47.240 And so let's bow our heads and pray, "Heavenly Father, thank you for the day you've given 01:11:47.240 --> 01:11:48.230 us, Lord. 01:11:48.230 --> 01:11:52.380 I pray that you would help us, Lord, to be steadfast and sure and be unmovable, Lord, 01:11:52.380 --> 01:11:54.490 always abounding in the word of truth, Lord. 01:11:54.490 --> 01:11:59.370 And I pray that you would help each person here, Lord, to endure hardness as a good soldier 01:11:59.370 --> 01:12:00.470 of Christ. 01:12:00.470 --> 01:12:02.130 We love you and in Jesus' name we pray, "Amen." 01:12:02.130 --> 01:12:09.280 Thank you, Brother Andrew, for the sermon. 01:12:09.280 --> 01:12:26.660 Let's sing one last song, go to song number 325, "Trust and Obey," song 325. 01:12:26.660 --> 01:12:43.490 When we walk with the Lord in the light world, what a glory He sheds on our way, while we 01:12:43.490 --> 01:12:47.230 do His good will. 01:12:47.230 --> 01:13:16.820 He abides still and with us, and obey, trust and obey, for there's no other to try to 01:13:16.820 --> 01:14:12.630 share a cloud but He's smart, trying not to doubt, sub on, there's no to trust, all 01:14:12.630 --> 01:16:40.470 agree, there's no to trust, we will say, He says, we are saved.