["Pomp and Circumstance"]
If you would, please find your seats and take your songbooks.
We'll begin with 389.
The missions trip coming up.
We want to sing some missions-minded songs.
So 389, bring them in.
389, it begins.
Hark! Tis the shepherd's voice, I hear.
["Hark! Tis the Shepherd's Voice"]
389, on this first verse altogether.
["Hark! Tis the Shepherd's Voice"]
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for allowing us to come together tonight, Lord.
Lord, I just pray that you bless all aspects of the service, Lord.
And I pray, Lord, that you just bless those who are going to go on the missions trip, Lord,
and that they have safe travels and no interferences.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. 379.
Bringing in the sheaves, number 379.
Sewing in the morning, sewing seeds of kindness, number 379.
Sewing in the morning, sewing seeds of kindness,
Sewing in the moonlight and within the heat,
Waiting for the harvest and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Sewing in the sunshine, sewing in the shadows,
Fearing either clouds or winter-shielding breeze,
By and by the harvest and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Blowing forth the weeping, sewing for the master,
Though the law sustained our spirit of degrees,
When our weeping's over, our needle is welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bullet, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6, and then Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
And tonight will be in Ezekiel, chapter number 9.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
And then across the page, this coming Sunday,
is the Sunday in the month where we have the donuts and coffee
at 10 a.m. before the service to celebrate all the birthdays and anniversaries.
So you can come early for that this Sunday morning.
And then below that, we've begun taking portraits for the annual yearbook.
So please sign up at the rear of the auditorium.
We really want to get everybody in the yearbook.
Don't miss out. You will regret it for the rest of your natural life
if you don't get photographed for this yearbook.
It's a great opportunity just to get a nice portrait,
very well done, and to be in the yearbook.
And so the yearbook's nice because it helps you figure out who people are.
You could look at people's names if you forget their name.
You could pray for people. And so it's a great tool.
So be a part of it.
Below that, the Sierra Leone mission strip is coming up very soon,
and so be praying for those that are going.
We even have some people that are even leaving, what, in the next 24 hours?
Is that what you said?
In fact, let's just say a quick word of prayer as a church for the Sierra Leone trip.
Dear Lord, we thank you so much for those that have volunteered to go on this trip, Lord,
and we just pray that you would just fill them with the Holy Spirit as they go.
Give them safety, help them to get through all the red tape,
all the coronavirus red tape or any other red tape,
and help everything to go well.
And please, Lord, just lead them to those that are receptive
and help them to get as many people saved as possible.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, and then at the bottom is just a friendly reminder, a friendly note.
Just try to keep your kids under control.
That they're not too wild running around and treating the auditorium like some kind of a romper room.
And then on the back is the note about the bridal shower for Chandler Young.
This is going to be on Saturday, October 23rd.
This is put on by Mrs. Grace Young, 2 to 4.30 on that Saturday.
And so mark the calendar for that, ladies.
And then below that, keep praying for all of our ladies that are expecting
that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
And then at the bottom there is a list of other upcoming events.
That's about it for announcements.
So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days.
So going back to Monday, anything from Monday, all right?
Okay, got it.
Anything else from Monday?
What about Tuesday?
Anything from Tuesday?
Okay, and then how about today, Wednesday?
One, one.
And then I believe we had one for the van.
Was there another one besides that?
Oh, so you had another one.
So that's two then for the van.
Okay.
All right, anything else besides those for today?
All right, very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, we're going to sing Where the Soul Never Dies.
You should find the answer in your hymnal there.
Excuse me.
Where the soul never dies, to Canaan's land, I'm on my way.
Where the soul never dies, my darkest night will turn to day.
Where the soul never dies, no sad, bad, bad, love, no tears in eyes.
Where all is wild, and the soul never dies, a rose is blooming there for me.
Where the soul never dies, and I will spend eternity.
Where the soul never dies, no sad, bad, bad, love, no tears in eyes.
Where all is wild, and the soul never dies, a love light beams across the foam.
Where the soul never dies, fish eyes to bite the shores of home.
Where the soul never dies, no sad, bad, bad, love, no tears in eyes.
Where all is love, and the soul never dies, a life well-ended, death-lasting.
Where the soul never dies, and everlasting joys are real.
Where the soul never dies, no sad, bad, bad, love, no tears in eyes.
Where all is love, and the soul never dies.
When we get to that chorus, we're going to go a cappella.
Just let it ring out.
If you know the parts, please sing them.
No sad farewells, I'm on my way to Canaan's land.
Or I'm on my way to that fair land, the fifth verse.
Sing it out.
I'm on my way to that fair land, where the soul never dies.
Where there will be no parting, and then the soul never dies.
No sad farewells, no tears in eyes.
Where all is love, and the soul never dies.
Amen.
Please turn to hymn number 371.
Oh, bring your loved ones to number 371.
It begins, how can I meet him without my loved ones, number 371?
On this first verse.
How can I meet him without my loved ones?
How can I smile and obey your laws?
When I see Jesus dropping the glory, without the souls he finds such rose.
Oh, bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus, bring every brother and sister to him.
And of every birth, home with harvest, may all our dear ones be safe gathered in.
Time now for mourning, time now for pleading, time now to plead, to pay to the cross.
To make in heaven, to pay our loved ones, to pay to praise him before the Lord.
Oh, bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus, bring every brother and sister to him.
When come the reapers, home with harvest, may all our dear ones be safe gathered in.
All of the counting, they sing our Savior, great was receiving, suffering lost.
But once he prays, sing Jesus in heaven, for great and subtle, burning as dust.
Oh, bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus, bring every brother and sister to him.
When come the reapers, home with harvest, may all our dear ones be safe gathered in.
Time for investment in land or business, what cheap returns will have for our race.
But how the wise will, shining in glory, when souls appear, one eternal gain.
Oh, bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus, bring every brother and sister to him.
When come the reapers, home with harvest, may all our dear ones be safe gathered in.
Come when the greeting, praises and singing, when we meet Jesus with our own.
And will our labors sing but a trifle, and all our tears and toilet be done.
Oh, bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus, bring every brother and sister to him.
When come the reapers, home with harvest, may all our dear ones be safe gathered in.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter number nine.
Ezekiel chapter number nine.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with Brother Dan as he reads Ezekiel chapter nine, starting in verse number one.
Ezekiel chapter nine, the Bible reads,
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying,
Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate which lieth toward the north,
and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand.
And one man among them was cloth with linen, with a writer's ink horn by his side,
and they went in and stood beside the brazen altar.
And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub,
whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house.
And he called to the men, to the man cloth with linen, which had the writer's ink horn by his side.
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,
and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh,
and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city and smite.
Let not your eyes spare, neither have ye pity.
Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women,
but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary.
And they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain.
Go ye forth. And they went forth and slew in the city.
And it came to pass while they were slaying them, and I was left,
that I fell upon my face and cried and said, Ah Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel
and thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Then he said unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel in Judah is exceeding great,
and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness.
For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.
And as for me also, mine eyes shall not spare.
Neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
And behold, the man cloth with linen, which had the ink horn by his side,
reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.
Dear Father in Heaven, please fill the pastor's spirit,
and please give us all the ears to hear and receive wisdom from the sermon we pray this night.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
Ezekiel chapter 9, verse 1, the Bible reads,
He cried also in my ears with a loud voice, saying,
Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near,
every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate,
which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand,
and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a rider's ink horn by his side,
and they went in and stood beside the brazen altar.
Now, it's important when you're reading this chapter to understand
that this is not actually happening.
If you remember the context from chapter 8, this is a vision that he's having.
So he's seeing a vision.
This is not describing an event that actually took place,
but that rather when the elders of Judah came to him in chapter 8,
verse number 1, the hand of the Lord fell upon him,
and then he seized the glory of God, and he seized this vision.
And in chapter 8, if you remember, Ezekiel was grabbed by the hair of his head,
and taken and shown all the abominations that the leaders of Israel were involved in,
and how they filled the house of God with idolatry,
and they're worshipping false gods, they're worshipping the sun,
they're doing all these abominations, and God is very angry,
and he says in the last verse of chapter 8,
Therefore while I also deal in fury, mine eyes shall not spare,
neither will I have pity, and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice,
yet will I not hear them.
He's saying, their behavior is so bad, and they've committed so many abominations,
that I am done, I'm not going to be merciful, I'm not going to pity,
I'm not going to feel bad about it, I'm not going to spare, I am going to destroy them.
So in chapter 9, we're continuing that same thought, and this is still a vision,
and so when it talks about these men coming with destroying weapons in their hand,
he's just seeing this vision, it's symbolic of what's going to happen.
And so you've got this guy with a writer's ink horn,
okay, so he's going to be marking people with this ink.
So it says in verse number 3,
And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub,
whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house,
and he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's ink horn by his side.
And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,
and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men,
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
And again, not actually happening,
this is just a vision that he's seeing, symbolic of what's going to be happening.
And so this guy is literally, you know, putting a mark on people's forehead,
and afterward, he sends the guys with the destroying weapons through
to kill everybody who does not have this mark upon their forehead.
Now you say, this kind of sounds familiar, you know, except maybe the other way around,
you know, you think about the mark of the beast, for example.
But what you have to understand is that Satan is the great counterfeiter.
He'll take an idea that originally belongs to God,
something that comes from God's word, and then he'll twist it, pervert it.
It's sort of like when Paul warns about another gospel,
but he says, Which is not another, but there be some that would pervert the gospel of Christ.
So it's not like the devil comes up with his own gospel that's just a completely other gospel.
What he does, he takes the true gospel, he distorts it, he perverts it, he twists it.
And so this is how the devil is. He's a counterfeiter.
He takes things that are legitimate and turns them to his evil usage.
And so there are a couple of passages like this.
We've got, of course, Ezekiel chapter nine here, where God is proverbially marking the people that are to be spared.
OK. And again, they don't literally get a mark on their forehead just in the vision they get marked.
They get labeled in the vision, just symbolic of the fact that God knows who these people are.
And he's going to protect these people. And his angels and guardian angels are going to protect these people.
He knows who they are, even though they don't get a little physical mark, they're getting marked in the vision.
OK. But there's another similar passage in the Book of Revelation.
If you want to flip over to Revelation at the end of your Bible, in Revelation chapter number seven,
Revelation chapter number seven, it talks about people being sealed in their foreheads.
And it says in verse number three of Revelation chapter seven,
hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
And I heard the number of them which were sealed and there were sealed one hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
So here we have the one hundred forty four thousand being sealed in their forehead.
Now in Revelation chapter nine, if you flip a few pages to the right, this is where one of the plagues is happening,
these locusts out of hell that are coming through and harming people.
It specifically says in verse four, it was commanded them, this is chapter nine verse four,
that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree,
but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
So stop and think about this, in Ezekiel chapter nine,
the people who get the mark on their forehead are immune from God's punishment that's coming through,
where God is destroying the wicked.
The ones who have the mark in their forehead are immune from that, okay.
Then in chapter number seven of Revelation, we have the one hundred forty four thousand being sealed in their forehead.
And what is the purpose of that seal?
Well, now they are immune from this plague of locusts at the sounding of the fifth trumpet.
So when the fifth trumpet sounds, and these locusts from hell are tormenting people,
the men who have the seal of God in their foreheads are not harmed.
So it's a protective thing, right?
Then of course if we flip over to Revelation chapter fourteen, we're back to the one hundred forty four thousand,
and it says in verse one,
And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion,
and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his father's name written in their foreheads.
So now we see what that seal is from chapter seven, from chapter nine, when we get to chapter fourteen,
we see that this seal is the father's name written in their foreheads.
Now, here's what's interesting about this.
So the devil basically counterfeits this, because in Revelation chapter thirteen, the Bible says in verse sixteen,
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads,
and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Hear his wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast,
for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six.
So basically, the devil is using this same idea of marking people in their forehead,
so that they know, okay, you're a worshiper of the antichrist.
You know, you worship the antichrist, and then you receive this mark,
and the mark of the beast specifically, and this might get a little complicated,
so pay close attention to what I'm explaining here.
Okay, the mark of the beast is specifically the antichrist's name.
Okay, it has to do with his name, because it says in verse seventeen,
and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Okay, and again, the beast in context is the antichrist.
So, stop and think for a minute.
Whose name are they getting in their forehead in Revelation thirteen?
The name of the antichrist, right?
Either his mark, or his name, or the number of his name.
So these are all indications of his name.
You know, someone could have a mark that represents their name,
and then apparently, this name could be understood numerically, because it's the number of his name.
Does everybody understand that?
So whether it's the mark, or the name, or the number of the name,
in a sense, they're getting the name of the antichrist, one way or the other, in their right hand, or in their forehead.
Okay, now, in Revelation fourteen, we have the 144,000 on the other hand,
they are sealed with the name of God the Father in their forehead.
Do you see the difference there?
Having his Father's name in their forehead.
Now, go to Revelation chapter twenty-two.
Revelation chapter twenty-two, this is the new heaven, the new earth, everything's over,
great white throne judgment over, everything done,
and in the very end, it says in Revelation chapter twenty-two, verse three,
and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it,
and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.
Now, this is referring again in verse four to God the Father.
Why?
Because there would really be no significance in seeing Jesus' face,
because we already saw Jesus' face a long time ago at this point,
you know, because Jesus Christ has already come in the clouds,
the rapture has already happened, we've already been in heaven, already been on earth,
I mean, Jesus has been ruling and reigning on earth for over a thousand years at this point, right?
The significance here is seeing God the Father's face in Revelation twenty-two, four,
and that's whose name is in the forehead, which is consistent with Revelation fourteen,
having his Father's name in their forehead, right?
Now, think about this.
Anybody who sees the face of God, what happens to them according to the Bible?
They die, right?
You know, God said, no man shall see my face and live.
And remember, Moses just caught the glimpse of the hinders parts as God passed by,
and his face shone, and he had to put a veil over his face because it was just too blinding,
no one could even look at him when he came down from the mountain from just catching the slightest glimpse from the rear, okay?
But, because at this point, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,
at this point, death has completely ceased to exist after the great white throne judgment and everything,
there's no more death, there's no more curse.
At this point, they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their forehead.
So this is a new level here.
You know, we've already seen Christ for a long, now we're actually seeing God the Father, okay?
Which is totally impossible at this time.
The only one at this time who has seen God the Father is Jesus.
You know, no human, no mortal man has ever seen God the Father.
No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he had declared him,
but nobody has actually looked upon God the Father.
So here's why I'm saying all this, here's why this is all significant,
is that I believe that the events in the book of Revelation are literally going to happen in the future.
That there's going to literally be an end of the world with the anti-Christ and the tribulation,
the rapture, God pouring out his wrath on this earth, the millennial reign of Christ.
These things are all going to happen. I mean, it's all prophesied in scripture.
We're waiting for this to happen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
You know, this is what the Bible leaves us on this note at the end of the New Testament of expecting this to happen.
So, how in the world is the devil going to convince people to receive this mark in their forehead or in their hand?
Right? Because it seems like as soon as anybody talks about, you know,
hey, worship this guy who's supposedly Jesus Christ, he's supposedly the second coming,
he's supposedly the Messiah, and receive his mark in your forehead,
you know, that's kind of a big red flag right away. Is this the anti-Christ?
What's this thing about getting a mark in my forehead?
Because everybody would just immediately think of the anti-Christ at that point, right?
Because don't misunderstand what the word anti-Christ means.
The word anti-Christ in scripture, that anti-prefix, it's not the anti-prefix that you're used to,
like being anti-abortion, where you're against something.
That's not what the anti and anti-Christ means.
The anti and anti-Christ means in the place of Christ.
That's what that anti means, okay?
So, anti-Christ is one who is in the place of Christ.
He's impersonating Christ.
He's a false Christ, a false Messiah.
This is why the Bible says who is he, or who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ,
he's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son.
Why? Because you're looking for another Messiah that's not Jesus.
Well, that's the spirit of anti-Christ.
Because you're looking for one in the place of the actual Christ, Jesus Christ.
So, the anti-Christ is an impersonator.
He's an imposter.
You know, the Jews will say that it's the first coming.
The Christians will say it's the second coming.
But, you know, basically he's going to be accepted by this world as the Messiah, okay?
So, he's an imposter.
Now, a lot of people who are claiming to be Christian, but obviously they're not actually saved if they're worshipping this guy.
But there are going to be a lot of so-called Christians that are going to believe in and worship this guy.
Because, I mean, think about it.
There's 2.3 billion people in the world who claim to be a Christian.
But one billion of them are Catholics, and half a billion of them are Orthodox, which is like Catholic except a little worse.
And then you've got all kinds of other goofball denominations and Protestant, you know, Catholic light kind of denominations.
You've got all kinds of cults and all kinds of different, you know, Christians that aren't actually saved.
You know, they don't actually believe the Gospel.
And, you know, I'm not saying that only Baptists are saved.
Because there are people in other denominations that are saved.
There are a lot of non-denominational people that we run into that are saved, of course.
Because the thing that makes someone saved is whether they are fully trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation.
You know, are they trusting what he did on the cross?
Are they trusting his death barrel and resurrection to save them?
Or are they trusting in their own deeds?
Are they trusting in the fact that they've cleaned up their life and are living right now or something like that?
Or maybe it's a faith plus works.
Well, here's the thing.
As soon as you add any works, there's no more grace.
There's no more grace at that point.
Because it's either all grace or it's works.
So people that are not saved by grace, people that are not saved by putting their faith and trust in the finished work of Christ, okay,
they still go to church and claim to be a Christian and go through all these motions.
And look, I'll tell you right now, you know, Roman Catholicism does not teach the Gospel.
And people that believe in that doctrine are not saved.
So, you know, there you can just check off a billion people right there that are claiming to be Christian,
but they're part of this pagan cult of Roman Catholicism trusting in their own works to get them to heaven.
And, you know, we could go down the list of the Orthodox and, you know, talk about Lutherans and say,
even though the Lutherans are supposedly sola fide, we just knocked on a Lutheran's door 45 minutes ago.
And what did he say?
He said, well, I'm going to heaven because I've lived a good life.
That's what he said, right? 45 minutes ago, that's what he said.
You know, so much for sola fide, so much for faith alone, right?
No, but that's a typical answer you get from Lutherans all day long.
So you're going to have millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and hundreds of millions of people
who are calling themselves Christian, claiming to believe in Christ that are going to believe in the Antichrist.
Yeah, because the Antichrist is going to be incredibly convincing.
He's going to be so convincing that if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.
If it were possible, there would even be saved people that would fall for it, but the Bible is saying it's impossible.
If you're saved, if you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you're not going to fall for the Antichrist.
You might be an idiot in other areas and make a lot of mistakes in your life, but you know what?
This is one area you're not going to screw this up.
OK, if you're actually saved, you're not going to fall for because if it were possible, the elect would be deceived, but it's not possible.
So he must be incredibly convincing if he's that good that the Bible says if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.
This isn't going to be just some super obvious.
I'm the Antichrist kind of a guy who's just going to be saying Hail Satan or something.
You know what I mean? He's going to be slick. He's going to be believable.
He's going to be extremely believable, and he's going to raise some eyebrows with this whole mark in the forehead business.
Mark in the hand. It's kind of like, whoa, wait a minute. Are we sure this is Christ? Maybe this is the Antichrist.
You know, I believe that one way he could get over that hurdle would be to point people to Scriptures like Ezekiel Chapter 9, Revelation Chapter 14, Revelation Chapter 7, Revelation Chapter 9, Revelation 22, and use these kind of Scriptures to convince people, no, no, no, wait a minute.
Having Christ's name in your forehead is a blessing, and it protects you.
And the Bible says right here in Ezekiel 9 to kill everybody who doesn't have it.
Because think about it. I mean, isn't the Antichrist going to say, hey, if you don't worship the Antichrist, if you don't receive his mark, you'll be killed.
Well, you know, that might raise some eyebrows, but then he could just point to Ezekiel 9 and say, well, look, it's right here. It's straight from the Bible, Ezekiel Chapter 9.
And since people don't know the Bible, how many people have even read Ezekiel 9? Like, as far as Christianity out there, how many people have really read Ezekiel 9?
How many Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist are really even familiar with Ezekiel Chapter 9 and even understanding this chapter or what we're talking about tonight?
So it's going to be pretty easy to just kind of snow them with this, like, well, look, here's Ezekiel 9, here's Revelation 7, here's Revelation 9, here's Revelation 14, here's Revelation 22.
And those who are not saved, you know, will be deceived. And that could be a way that he could deceive them with these mentions because he's counterfeiting something that God had put in the Bible.
But one of the ways that the actual person who's paying attention would not fall for this is the fact that it's God the Father's name that goes in the forehead in Chapter 14 of Revelation and in Revelation Chapter 22, whereas it's the Antichrist's name who goes in the forehead with Revelation 13.
But here's what's interesting, is that in the NIV and these other Antichrist-friendly versions, in the NIV, they've changed this so that in Revelation 14, in your King James Bible, you look down at your Bible in Revelation 14, it says, having his father's name written in their forehead, you know what the NIV says?
It says, well, they have his name and his father's name written in their forehead.
So they have Jesus' name and his father's name written in their forehead.
And the Antichrist is impersonating who?
He's impersonating Jesus. He's impersonating Christ.
He's coming as an imposter of Christ.
And so he's saying, yeah, put my name in your forehead, just like it says in Revelation 14 of your handy-dandy NIV.
And I'm sure it's probably the same in the ESV, New American Standard.
I don't know, but I haven't checked this, but, you know, typically these things are similar in these modern versions.
Like, for example, here's the New American Standard.
Revelation 14, 1, having his name and the name of his father written on the foreheads.
So notice that in the Antichrist version, whether it's the New American Standard, the ESV, the NIV, you know,
they've tampered with this to where now it's an Antichrist-friendly setup, where basically, you know,
the Messiah, their fake Messiah, saying put my name in your forehead now is going to have a scriptural backing
if you don't have a King James, okay?
But, you know, it's no big deal.
I mean, what's the big deal about being King James only anyway, huh?
I mean, come on.
Get with the times.
Yeah, get with the times all right, the end times.
And you know what?
And by the way, you know, the modern versions, you know, we've often talked about them attacking the deity of Christ
and made a big deal about that, how they attack the deity of Christ.
And then, you know, opponents of the King James only movement, like, for example, James White would kind of jump on that
and say, oh, but look, there's these other verses in the NIV and these other versions that are affirming the deity of Christ
and so whatever.
But here's the thing, you know, it's really more accurate to say that the new versions are attacking the Trinity
more than they're attacking the deity of Christ.
They do attack the deity of Christ, but you know what?
They really attack more than that, and this is a little more accurate to characterize it this way,
is that it's an attack on the Trinity because think about one of the big things, you know,
1 John 5, 7 is gone in the modern versions, and isn't that one of the powerhouse verses on the Trinity?
You know, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
You know, the three witnesses, the three that are testifying, three persons, one God, 1 John 5, 7 is a powerful verse on that.
But you know, if you think about this thing of having His name and His Father's name written in their forehead,
you know, it kind of reminds me of this thing of baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
where the oneness Pentecostals, the modalists, those who deny the Trinity, would say, oh, that's one name.
The name of the Father is Jesus. The name of the Holy Spirit is Jesus. You know, that's what they teach.
When in reality, no, Jesus is the name of the Son. The Son's name is Jesus. Okay.
Now, you say, well, what's the Father's name? Well, here's the thing about it.
All of the names of God that are used in the Old Testament actually apply to God in general and are applied to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
So names like God Almighty, Jehovah, the Lord, all of those terms that we would use in the Old Testament, Lord of hosts,
Lord of Sabaoth, you know, which is Lord of hosts in another language.
But basically, the point is that all of these are used of God in general, so that Jehovah is used to refer to Jesus or the Father or the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is a name that's specifically the name of the Son. Jesus Christ is the name of the Son.
Now, apparently, there's a name of the Father that we're not aware of that's going to be in our foreheads, you know, way off in the future, New Heaven and New Earth thing.
And it might even just be figuratively, not literally, but either way, that's a name of the Father that's going to be on the 144,000, eventually our foreheads.
That's something that we probably just haven't been exposed to yet because of the fact that there are names of God that are revealed over time.
Like, for example, God said to Moses, I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name of Jehovah was I not known unto them.
So God, over the course of the Old Testament, reveals himself by different names.
And then in the New Testament, the name Jesus is revealed, and that's the name that's associated with salvation.
There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
It's the name of Jesus that saves.
But there are going to be other names revealed in the future because Jesus, for example, in the book of Revelation says, I will write upon him my new name.
The Bible says that Jesus, when he comes back in Revelation chapter 19, has a name that no man knows except he himself.
Jesus has a name that no one else knows except him.
So God has a lot of different names, and he reveals those names at different times.
And I know I'm getting kind of complicated with all this, but I'm just trying to get you to see how there's an agenda at work here with these new versions where you could change something that doesn't seem like it affects much,
where you just switch it from his Father's name to his name and his Father's name, and now all of a sudden you kind of open the door there for that to be a proof text that the Antichrist could use.
And you say, well, you know, you're just theorizing all this.
But here's the thing. Yeah, I am.
But at the end of the day, there's going to be an Antichrist.
He's going to put a mark on people's heads and on their hands.
And people who profess the name of Christ but aren't actually saved are going to fall for it.
So he's got to do something, and this seems pretty plausible of an idea.
So anyway, it's a bit of a rabbit trail, so let me go back and just finish up in Ezekiel chapter 9.
But, you know, it's important that we talk about the mark of the beast because there's so much bogus end times teaching out there right now that it's good to kind of bone up on the subject and to know what the Bible says.
And I've done some teaching on it recently, but let me just give you a super quick review on the mark of the beast while you're turning to Ezekiel 9 just so that you know your basic mark of the beast facts, okay?
So that you don't go around saying that the COVID vaccine is the mark of the beast or something stupid like that.
And I know that sounds crazy and stupid.
I've had people come up to me and tell me that.
I see people saying it online. I hear it all the time.
And it's just like, it's wild.
I'm like, I haven't seen anybody injected in their forehead yet.
I haven't seen anybody injected in their right hand.
You know, it reminded me of the joke that I heard where, you know, Biden walked in and found his son Hunter and all of his friends, you know, vaccinating themselves.
You know, but it wasn't in the forehead.
It wasn't in the hand.
Those of you who know a little bit about Hunter Biden, you know, might understand what I meant by that.
But anyway, you know, the bottom line is that the COVID vaccine has nothing to do with the antichrist.
First of all, no one has been revealed as the antichrist at this time.
Now, the Bible says there are many antichrists.
There are always going to be antichrists, lowercase antichrists, because anybody who, you know, denies that Jesus is the Christ is an antichrist.
You know, who is a liar, but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ, he's antichrist who denies the father and son.
So whoever denies the father and the son and the person who believes that there's this other messiah that's not Jesus, that person is a lowercase antichrist.
OK, so the Bible says little children, it is the last time.
And as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now, there are many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time.
So you've heard that antichrist singular shall come, the big one, but even now, even in the first century AD, he said there were many antichrists.
So the big capital A antichrist has not yet been revealed.
We don't see a man who has received a deadly wound and the deadly wound has been healed and all the world is wondering and marveling and worshipping this man
and saying who is like him and who can make war with him and he's so great and we believe in him and you don't have a false prophet telling you to worship him and so forth.
That's what happens when the mark of the beast happens, OK?
There's going to be an antichrist that people are worshipping as Christ, as messiah, and you worship him to get the mark of the beast.
Always, and I don't have time to go through all the verses in Revelation, look up all the verses in Revelation on the mark of the beast.
It's always associated with worshipping the beast.
You worship the antichrist to receive the mark.
You don't just, oh, you know, you got a COVID vaccine.
You accidentally got the mark of the beast or something stupid like that, OK?
I mean, the COVID vaccine, it's not even a mark.
It's not even a mark.
It's not even your hand.
It's not even your forehead.
It's not even the antichrist.
It's not even happening.
Like it's not required to buy or sell.
So what are we talking about here?
What does it even have in common with the mark of the beast?
Absolutely nothing.
But yet people are out there just to get views on YouTube or just deceive the foolish and the simple by coming up with all these dumb theories about it and whatever.
And look, just to be clear, I have not received the COVID vaccine and I'm not going to receive the COVID vaccine.
My family is not going to receive the COVID vaccine.
And I'd be shocked if almost anyone in our church has received the COVID vaccine or even will.
You know, I really doubt it because we're giving out those vaccine exemption letters like they're going out of style.
We're giving those things out like like we can't even print them.
We can't even keep enough ink in the printer, you know, to just keep churning those things out.
So, yeah, no.
So, you know, the mark of the beast, you worship the antichrist in order to receive it.
And so it's not something you're going to get by accident.
You won't need some YouTube video to tell you about that.
OK, you'll know.
And if you're saved, don't worry about it because you'll for sure know because the elect aren't going to be deceived according to the Bible.
So the mark of the beast is something that happens in the end times.
And you say, well, how do you know when the tribulation starts?
Right at the beginning of the tribulation, the first couple seals, the whole world's at war.
So unless we're in World War three, don't even come talk to me and even ask me if it's the tribulation unless World War three is happening.
Now, if World War three is happening, then I'm going to tell you maybe I won't even say even even if World War three breaks out and it's worse than World War two.
I will still not say that it's the tribulation.
I will say maybe.
Right. And then when the famine and the pestilence of the earthquakes, I'll say maybe.
OK. Only when the abomination of desolation takes place can we know for sure and say this is not a drill.
This is the tribulation.
OK, because I mean, think about it.
If you were living during World War one, you would have thought this is it.
I guarantee you there are so many preachers saying we're there.
It's happening. This is the second seal.
You know, same thing in World War two.
But were they right?
No, they were wrong.
So it might be World War three that triggers this thing.
Or it could be World War four.
You know what I mean?
There could be a World War four or five.
Who knows? Right now, I don't.
And look, look, it's World War three happens instead of saying maybe I might say probably.
You know.
But again, you don't know for sure until the abomination of desolation.
You don't know for sure until you have the Antichrist receiving the deadly wound.
His deadly wound is healed.
The image of the beast, worship the image of the beast, and all these different things.
Until you see that, you don't know for sure.
At that point, you do know for sure this is it.
And so don't get scared of all of these false alarms.
See that you be not troubled because the end is not yet.
Okay.
And to me, I feel like it's almost insulting of the end times when we have these minor things that happen.
And everybody's like, this is the tribulation. This is it.
And I want to make a meme where the tribulation is basically like, am I a joke to you?
You know, where it's like the tribulation talking like, or like God's wrath talking like, am I a joke to you?
Like, like coronavirus.
It's like the Bible says that the tribulation can be worse than anything that's ever happened.
And we could point to tons of other illnesses, tons of other diseases, tons of other government overreach,
tons of other wars and famines and pests that were way worse.
When the tribulation happens, it'll be worse than anything that has ever happened.
And so don't, don't downplay it by every, you know, a volcano spits out a little too much smoke and it's like, this is it.
You know, this is the, you know, it's, it's the fifth trumpet or, you know, no, you know, an oil tanker spills its oil.
One third of the sea just turned into blood.
It's like, hey, I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.
All right.
So don't be fooled by these false alarms.
Okay.
But let's actually talk about the chapter we're supposed to be here to talk about tonight.
Ezekiel chapter nine.
So he says in verse four, I'm just going to quickly blow through this.
And you say, I don't feel like you've done due diligence on Ezekiel nine.
Here's my excuse.
At the red hot preaching conference I preached on Ezekiel chapter nine.
And that was like two months ago.
So that's why I kind of went on a little bit of a rabbit trail because I really preached a lot on Ezekiel nine at the red hot preaching conference.
So anyway, that's my excuse.
So it says in verse four, the Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst of them.
This was the verse that I really focused in on at that conference because God doesn't just want us to abstain from the abominations.
Although that's a great start, you know, abstaining from the wickedness and the abominations that are going on in our society.
But that's not enough to be spared because you know what?
History shows and the Bible shows that if you're tolerant of the abominations, you end up getting wiped out as well.
Because the people here that are getting marked, they're not the people who abstain from the abominations.
It's the people that sigh and cry for all the abominations.
It's the people who actually care.
They're upset about it.
It bothers them.
So the people are just like, well, these abominations don't really bother me.
I mean, it's not really hurting me.
I mean, you know what they do in their private life, you know, whatever.
Nope, no mark for you, buddy.
You're getting smoked.
You have to care about it.
And you know, even Lot vexed his right to soul from day to day in seeing and hearing the unlawful deeds of those who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Even he was offended.
Even he sighed and cried.
You know, what does that make you if you're not even as spiritual as Lot, who's not exactly a spiritual giant of faith?
If you're less spiritual than Lot, where you're just sitting there, you're just OK with queers and fags and every other weird transvestite thing that's going on.
And you're just like, oh, whatever, you know, it's none of my business.
If you just think it's OK, what does that make you if you're not actually bothered by it?
And you know what?
There's only one reason why you wouldn't be bothered by is just because you've been desensitized and brainwashed by the media to think that way.
It's time for you to unplug and get plugged into this book and actually start getting upset about some of these things and actually have an opinion about these things that comes from the word of God, not from some kind of a broadcasting network that has just pumped all this junk into your mind for so long that now you're starting to think it's normal.
Now you're just used to it.
Now you just think it's just, you know, like any other sin, just like anything else.
No, it's abomination.
It's wickedness.
And so we ought to sigh and cry about these things.
I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from that conference.
Verse 5, and to the others, he said in my hearing, go after him through the city in smite.
Let not your eyes spare, neither have you pity.
Slay utterly, old and young, both maids and little children and women.
But come not near any man upon whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary.
Why?
Because judgment begins at the house of God.
And so that's where it starts.
You know what?
That tells me that the killing starts.
And remember, this is not literal.
Nobody's actually being killed.
Nobody's actually being marked.
This isn't being marked as a vision.
It's symbolic.
This is something that Ezekiel is seeing in a vision.
He's getting a spiritual view of what things are like.
What this tells me is that basically being in church or being a Christian doesn't make
you immune from getting punished if you're okay with all the filth and garbage that's
going on in this world and you're okay with it.
In fact, it makes you more likely to get into trouble with the Lord.
Because unto whom much is given of him shall much be required.
Judgment begins at the house of God.
And so, you know, having this attitude of like, well, at least I go to church.
At least I'm saved.
At least I'm a Christian.
Okay, well, if you're a saved Christian who goes to church, well, then that means you're
even more responsible.
You're even more liable to have your head screwed on straight and actually care about
these things and have the right view.
And it says in verse number seven, and he said unto them, Defile the house and fill
the courts with the slain.
Go ye forth.
And they went forth and slew in the city and it came to pass while they were slaying them
and I was left, this is Ezekiel talking, that I fell upon my face and cried and said, Ah,
Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon
Jerusalem?
Now, here's the thing about this verse is that we just finished saying that everybody
who sighed and cried about it got marked to survive.
But Ezekiel's watching this being carried out and what does he say?
It looks like you're killing everybody.
I mean, is the entire residue, you know what that shows?
How few people there were at this time in the nation of Israel's history that sighed
and cried about the abominations that were being done.
It shows that most people were okay with it.
Either they were participating in it or they were okay with it.
And the abominations ranged from obviously idolatry, infanticide, sacrificing their sons
and their daughters to Molech, all other kind of adultries and fornications and whatever
else that the prophets had been warning them about in Jeremiah and books like that.
So, you know, this shows that most people are not making the cut here and Ezekiel's
starting to get a little nervous that, you know, everybody's getting destroyed here.
And it says in verse 9, then said he unto me, so God's answering him, the iniquity of
the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great and the land is full of blood and the
city full of perverseness.
So you've got what?
You've got blood.
That's talking about murder, infanticide, abortion, whatever.
And then perverseness, you know, the perverts.
For they say, the Lord has forsaken the earth and the Lord seeth not.
God doesn't see what we're doing.
You know, we're just going to do whatever we want.
There's no accountability.
As for me also, mine eyes shall not spare.
Neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
And then verse 11 is a nice little closing for the chapter.
And behold, the man clothed with the linen, which had the ink horn by his side, reported
the matter saying, I have done as thou has commanded me, period.
Now, why is verse 11 significant?
Because verse 11 is a very cold verse, isn't it?
It's cold.
I mean, what could be more cold than an accountant with a ledger and a pen just tallying up
all the dead bodies and just like, okay, we did that, took care of that.
All done.
Here you go.
Finished.
It's cold.
And that's what God's expressing here when he says in verse 10, mine eyes shall not spare,
neither will I have pity.
And then verse 11, it's just the coldness of the accounting, bringing the book saying
it's done.
It's finished.
What does that mean?
Ezekiel is saying, oh, stop.
What are you doing?
Does he stop?
No, he doesn't.
And again, the emphasis over the past several chapters that we've seen is that they did
this to themselves.
He says in verse 10, I will recompense their way upon their head.
They did this to themselves.
You know, Ezekiel, if it bothers you so much that so many people are getting wiped out
and so few people are being spared, maybe you should ask yourself the question, why
so few people got marked as the people who actually cared about anything?
You know, instead of worrying about who I'm marking, maybe you should worry about who
actually sighed and cried at the abominations.
And you know, one way that we could apply this mentality that we see in Ezekiel chapter
9 into our lives is that sometimes as Christians, it can be hard for us, myself included, to
wrap our mind around the fact that so many people are going to hell.
Right?
It's hard for us as human beings to grasp that.
It's kind of just a hard to swallow pill.
Like, man, tons of people are going to go to hell when they die.
That's pretty hard to accept.
But it's what the Bible clearly says.
But see, when we look at that and say, man, broad is the way that leads to destruction,
many there be which go in their ad.
You know, man, there's so many people that are damned.
You know, instead, the question that we should be asking is, why aren't Christians doing
more to evangelize?
You know, why aren't Christians doing more to get the word of God out there and to, you
know, why aren't more legitimate mission strips happening instead of just, you know, hand
out some candy, tell some stories, build a house and go home?
You know, like actual gospel preaching missions.
There's like, why aren't more mission strips happening?
Why isn't more door-to-door soul winning happening?
I mean, look, how many Baptist churches are there in Phoenix?
We should all just be on top of each other.
When we go soul winning, it should be like there's three other churches on the street.
It's like, dude, this is our turf.
But how often do we run into other Baptists out there soul winning or other even just
evangelical Christians out there soul winning?
It's pretty rare, isn't it?
You know, I wonder how many other churches are aggressively knocking doors in this area.
I mean, there are a few independent Baptists that are doing it.
But what percentage of churches are doing zero, zero door-to-door soul winning, zero
going out and witnessing to strangers just zilch and they're just kind of getting up
and saying, hey, every once in a blue moon, you know, give the gospel to one of your friends,
one of your relatives every year and a half or whatever when, you know, when the opportunity
comes.
You know, how many church, what percentage of churches are actually going out on a weekly
basis and doing something, you know, either, you know, walking up to people in public,
just talking to strangers, knocking their doors, whatever.
And it's probably like, you know, you have to use scientific notation in a bad way to
describe the percent.
You know, it's going to be like a real, it's going to be like a lot of numbers, a lot of
zeros after the decimal point.
You know, sorry, I just lost everybody there.
But anyway, you know, it's going to be a real tiny number, you know, of people.
Percent's not going to work.
It's gotta be per mil or something.
Okay.
The point is that it's going to be the vast majority of Christians doing nothing.
You know, that's what we ought to be asking ourselves instead of like, well, how could
God be sending all these people to hell?
I'd be like, well, how could all these churches be doing absolutely nothing to get the gospel
out when heaven and hell are real?
Or how about this?
Here's another good question to ask.
How can all these people just be rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ when he gives them so
many chances to be saved?
Living in the United States of America, hearing about the word of God, hearing about Jesus.
You know, here's a good question to ask.
How come when I knock on somebody's door and they just look me right in the face and say,
I don't know if I'm going to heaven or not.
I have no idea.
And then I say, well, I can explain that to you in the next 10 minutes.
No, no, I'm busy.
That's mind blowing.
I mean, I'm just, I can't even wrap my mind around that.
And maybe part of it's because I got saved when I was six years old.
So I, it's, it's hard to remember like what it's like to be unsaved or I've never been
like an unsaved teenager or adult, but I'm thinking to myself, if I didn't know whether
or not I'm going to heaven, I don't, if I didn't know that and somebody comes to my
door with a Bible claiming boldly, confidently walking up and saying, I know for sure.
And I can show you in the next 10 minutes how you could know for sure.
Do I can't imagine saying no to that because I would at least want to hear what they even
have to say, even if I'm not necessarily going to believe it or accept it, I'd be like, well,
I need to at least hear this person out because they have an answer that I need or at least
they're claiming to at least they might have the answer I need.
So let me at least hear what they have to say.
That's why when I'm knocking doors and somebody, and I asked somebody if I can show them the
gospel and they say yes, that doesn't surprise me.
What surprises me is all the people saying no, because what we're offering is so incredibly
important and we're, we're, we're ready to just spoon feed it to them.
We've already got it all.
We've got the meat.
We've cut it all into little pieces for them, and we're just going to put it on the end
of the fork on the end of a spork and just, and just spoon feed this to them and make
it so easy to get saved.
Right?
I mean, isn't that, that's what soul winning is.
Going out and making it easy for people to get saved by, by breaking it down to them
and making it simple, taking them straight to the important verses and showing them.
And we've got all kinds of illustrations, and we've got object lessons, and we've got
all kinds of, of ways to just make it so easy.
And they're just like, nah, nah, we're, we're having dinner right now, and you know.
It's kind of a bad time, you know, like.
Or they've got like their video game controller in their hand telling you how, well I'm just
real busy right now.
And you kind of like look at their face, look at the controller, look at their face, look
at the controller.
You're like, oh, I understand, you're busy.
I get it.
I mean, think about it.
It's easy for us to be like Ezekiel.
God, you're being too mean, why are you doing this?
But you know what?
God's not the problem.
I mean, God is rising up early and sending prophets.
He's rising up early and sending his servants.
God did all the work for everybody to be safe.
You know, Jesus Christ lived that sinless life that none of us could live, and, and
I mean, he died on the cross, he was buried, he rose again.
It's all just gift wrapped and ready to go.
Free gift, paid for, by grace, just ready to roll.
And it's just like, what do you have to do to get it?
Well, you know, you have to climb to the top of this mountain.
You must climb the tallest mountain in Arizona.
And when you get to the top of the tallest mountain in Arizona, you must recite the gospel
of John from memory, standing at the top of Mount Humphreys in that thin air.
And then you must walk back down the hill backwards.
You walk up the hill, recite the book of John from memory, and then walk down backwards,
right?
And then when you get to the bottom, there's going to be a shaman there and he's going
to brand you.
And then if you're a man, you have to get circumcised if you're not already circumcised.
And I mean, you already just keep going?
I can just keep adding requirements.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Then you got to do a Mormon handshake.
And then you'll be issued your Mormon underwear that you have to wear all the time.
I mean, look, folks.
What do you have to do to be saved?
It's just like, believe in Jesus.
Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God will raise
him from the dead and thou shalt be saved.
It's so easy.
It's so incredibly easy.
It's just gift wrapped.
All kinds of people out there ready to explain.
And yet people aren't getting saved.
You know what?
At the end of the day, and I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but it's the truth.
It's a hard pill to swallow, but the people who go to hell after all that's been done
and after all that's been provided, they deserve to go to hell.
Now, look, we should have compassion and that's why we do have compassion and love for them.
That's why we're out there trying to get them saved before it's eternally too late.
But if in the final analysis they end up going through life and rejecting all the opportunities
and going to hell, at the end of the day, God is just to send them there.
And Ezekiel's kind of getting to see some of these harsh realities.
He's watching these people get slaughtered.
I mean, he's human.
It'd be like if we watched a bunch of people being cast into hell.
We'd be like, God, no, stop.
What are you doing?
But God's like, you don't understand.
These people have had a lot of chances and they did this to themselves.
Isn't that what he's saying in Ezekiel 9?
And it's, you know, in the end of the day, when it comes to the gospel, that's how it's going to be in the end.
It's going to be these people did it to themselves.
And at the end of the day, there's going to be some cold bookkeeping.
Remember that cold bookkeeping verse?
Oh, there's going to be some of that in Revelation, isn't there?
You know, whoever's name is not found written in the book is cast into the lake of fire.
That's, you know, pretty cold.
And so we need to get people saved before it's eternally too late.
And, you know, Ezekiel, yeah, he feels bad.
We feel bad.
But at the end of the day, let's not blame God.
You know, blame Christians who are doing nothing and blame the unsaved themselves.
You know, because at the end of the day, that's who's responsible.
It's not God's fault.
And those of us that are actually out evangelizing, it's not our fault either.
You know, because what did the Apostle Paul say in Acts chapter 20?
He said, I'm free from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
So he said, you know, I'm free from the blood of all men.
So, you know, he didn't take responsibility.
I'm not going to take responsibility.
If you're out winning people to Christ, you're not responsible either.
You know, the people that are responsible are the people who are disobeying the command to preach the gospel to every creature.
And the unsaved themselves are ultimately responsible for their own faith because everybody has free will.
And everybody has the chance, whosoever will, let them take the water of life freely.
So these are some hard truths.
You know, it's hard to swallow that pill, but that is the truth.
And so Ezekiel chapter 9 is a powerful chapter to kind of put it in human terms for us, where Ezekiel is actually seeing people physically getting killed.
And it's symbolic of physical destruction that was happening back then, but also it's symbolic of ultimate spiritual destruction for those who are not saved.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for salvation, Lord, and thank you that it's a free gift.
Please, Lord, just help us to share that with as many people as we possibly can.
Help us to love the unsaved and reach them with the gospel before it's eternally too late.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. Let's turn to hymn number 375.
375, work for the night is coming, number 375.
Number 375.
Work for the night is coming, work through the morning hours.
Work while the new is sparkling, work mid-springing hours.
Work when the day grows brighter, work in the glowing sun.
Work for the night is coming, and man's work is done.
Work for the night is coming, work through the sunny hill.
Filled by the stars with flavor, rest on the shore and soothe.
Give every flying minute something to keep and soar.
Work for the night is coming, when man works no more.
Work for the night is coming, under the sunset skies.
While their bright winds are blowing, work for daylight flies.
Work till the last week faded, waiting to shine no more.
Work for the night is coming, when man's work is done.
Amen. Great singing tonight. You are dismissed.
Thank you for watching.