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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, and welcome to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. It's very good to see you all here on this Wednesday night. If you would all please find your seats and take those song books. We'll begin with hymn number 427 tonight. Number 427, We Three Kings of Orientar, number 427. On that first verse, let's all sing it out on that first verse altogether. One, two, three, four, two, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six. One, two, three, four, two, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six, seven, six So maybe you can get on some kind of a waiting list or something. I don't know how that works. Anyway annual Christmas caroling is coming up on December 21 at 5.30. So, plan on being here right at 5.30 so that we could break into groups, get organized, be at the door shortly before six, and then go out for about an hour. Maybe a hair less, if anything bike Figure comes out of the door in about three percent. We don't wanna go beyond an hour because it gets a little exhausting at that point. And then, we come back and have cookies and hot cocoa here and then, speaking of cookies, cookies December 26 the cookie bake-off is at 4 30 and on that day we will have our normal Sunday services 10 30 in the morning six at night but we'll have probably some kind of a Christmas type sermon and other upcoming events we've got the soul winning small town trips to globe and San Jose Arizona all right not not we're not going to Costa Rica and we're not going to California we're going to one time I was this close back when I used to fly a lot for my fire alarm business I was this close to accidentally booking a flight to Costa Rica instead of California I had to do a job in California which is SJC and I accidentally put in SJO and I was like man this is like a hundred and fifty dollars more than it usually is but I'm like well I got to do this job and I was about to I was like oh whoops wrong place so but this is a San Jose without an airport okay so it doesn't even have a code how many people live in San Jose Arizona do you don't remember you're supposed to know this stuff man what do you a couple hundred people or something yeah that's why you've never heard of it so San Jose Arizona that's coming up on December 17th through 18th and that's about it for announcements let's go and count up the soul winning from the past few days anything from Monday anything from Monday got it it looks like Mexico Monday had six people saved on that trip so praise the Lord for that okay anything else outside of Mexico Monday or any of that how about Tuesday all right anything else from Tuesday and then I know today we had one in the van what about outside the church fan anything outside the van a couple more these are two different okay sure those are distinct all right very good keep up the great work on soul winning and with that let's sing our next song come lead us right in the front of your hymnal you should find the insert with the two songs we'll start with God rest ye merry gentlemen God rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing give its name remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day from Satan's power from God our heavenly father blessed angel and on to certain shepherds on tidings of the same was born the son of God Oh right this day is born us is the shepherds and those tidings rejoiced and much in life and left their flocks of the eating in Tempest born and bled, And bled to Bethlehem, strength laid The Son of God to find. O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. Amen. Good singing. Your hymnals, or flip that sheet over rather, and we'll sing angels we have heard on high. If you know the parts to this, please sing it out. Angels we have heard on high. Sing it out. Angels we have heard on high, Singing, singing o'er the plains, And the mountains in reply, And going their joyous ways. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Shepherds why this jubilee, Why your joyous strains prolong, What the glad sun's tide is made, Which inspire your endless arm. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Come to Bethlehem and sing, Then whose word the angels sing. Come, Lord, your amended name, Christ the Lord, the newborn king. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Sing within the manger lay, Jesus Lord of heaven and earth, Mary Joseph, land her reign, And sing with the star-sailor's birth. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Gloria, in excelsis Deo. Amen. Good singing tonight. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 17. Ezekiel chapter 17. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one. Follow along silently with brother Hester as he reads. Ezekiel 17, starting verse number one. Ezekiel chapter 17, the Bible reads, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel. And say, Thus saith the Lord God, A great eagle with great wings, long winged, full of feathers, which had diverse colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar. He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic. He set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field. He placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. There was also another great eagle, with great wings, and many feathers, and behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It was planted in a good soil, by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. Say thou, thus saith the Lord God, shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? It shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power, or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon has come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon, and hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him, he hath also taken the mighty of the land, that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand. But he rebelled against him, in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses, and much people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape, that doeth such things? Or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered? As I live, saith the Lord God, surely, in the place where the king dwelleth, that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he break, even with him in the midst of Babylon, he shall die. Neither shall Pharaoh, with his mighty army and great company, make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons. Seeing he despise the oath, by breaking the covenant, when lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, As I live, surely mine oath, that he hath despised, and my covenant, that he hath broken, even it, will I recompense upon his own head. And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass, that he hath trespassed against me. And all his fugitives, with all his bands, shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds, and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it. I will crop off from the top of his young twigs, a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain, and eminent. In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it, and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing. In the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell, and all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and have done it. Dear, dear Father in Heaven, please fill the pastor's spirit, and please give us ears to hear, um, for the sermon this night. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Man, Ezekiel chapter 17 starts out in verse number one, and the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel. Now, this first part of the chapter is a little bit tough to understand and tough to follow, so it makes sense why he's saying this is a riddle. You know, it's something that you have to kind of figure out, but if you read the rest of the chapter, all of the elements of the parable are actually explained in the rest of the chapter. So I'm going to break this down verse by verse as we go through it here. It starts out in verse three, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, A great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar. So this great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, represents Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and this makes sense because elsewhere Nebuchadnezzar is represented by a lion. He's the head of gold in the statue where you have the gold, the silver, and so forth, and so the gold, the lion, the eagle is sort of the king of birds, just as the lion is the king of the jungle. So the eagle here just represents a powerful king, and this is all interpreted later in the chapter as we'll see. I'm not just pulling this out of my hat here, but the great eagle represents Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and it says he came unto Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar, he cropped off the top of his young twigs and carried it into a land of traffic, he set it in a city of merchants. So here Lebanon represents Jerusalem. So the great eagle that comes is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and he comes to Jerusalem, which is near Lebanon, he comes to Jerusalem, and he crops off, he takes the highest branch of the cedar, the highest branch of the cedar is the king of Jerusalem, king of Judah, which his name is Jehoiachin, okay, and then he also, it says, cropped off the top of his young twigs, and this represents basically the young princes and the people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, those type of guys, that he took captive not only the king, but also these young people that are the elites, which is represented by the young twigs, the top of the young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic, he set it in a city of merchants. So the picture is of a bird coming and grabbing a branch and grabbing some twigs and taking it somewhere, but what this represents is the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, he takes king Jehoiachin, he takes the best of the young people, and he takes them back to Babylon. Now it's interesting that Babylon is called a city of merchants or a land of traffic because we're probably all pretty familiar with the famous chapter in Revelation, Revelation chapter 18, where Babylon the great is fallen, and when you read Revelation chapter 18 about Babylon, the thing that really stands out about Babylon is the merchandise, right? It even has a big list of all the different merchandise, and if you remember all of the sailors and those that go forth in ships, when they see the destruction of Babylon in the end times and they stand afar off for fear of her burning and smoke, they're going to look at Babylon and say, alas, alas, that great city, and they're going to weep because no man buyeth our merchandise anymore. Nobody's going to buy our stuff anymore because Babylon is destroyed, and so Babylon, the original actual literal Babylon, was a place that was known for merchandise and traffic, according to this scripture right here, so it makes sense that when God is talking about a place in the end times figuratively as Babylon, he would pick a place that's big on traffic and merchandise. Traffic just means buying and selling stuff and importing and exporting, so he's going to call this end time place that has a lot of imports, a lot of merchandise, buys a lot of things, her merchants were the great men of the earth, he's going to call it Babylon because it's like Babylon in that regard. Now, you know, I remember when I was a kid, I used to think that the Babylon in the book of Revelation was the literal city of Babylon. In fact, there were even some preachers that preached about that back in the 1980s and early 90s where they preached and said that, you know, Babylon's being rebuilt right now because Saddam Hussein actually was starting to rebuild the city of Babylon, and they said, you know, hey, this is being rebuilt so it can fulfill prophecy, and that's what they thought, but, you know, there's a little thing called the Gulf War that put it into that, and so it didn't, it's uninhabited, but see, God said that Babylon would be destroyed and it would never be inhabited again, and so it's never going to be inhabited again. It's not inhabited right now, it's not going to be inhabited. Also, it makes absolutely no sense for the Babylon of Revelation to be the literal city of Babylon because let's say Babylon were rebuilt. It would take an awfully long time for it to again become the biggest merchant city on the planet to the point where when it got destroyed, people would say, well, nobody's going to buy our merchandise. See what I'm saying? And so it's not referring to the literal place Babylon in Revelation. In Revelation, a lot of things are identified with like a code word. Why? Because he's not just going to tell John, okay, write this down, John, United States, okay? It's not going to make sense, but just write it down, because what happens is if the Bible's prophecies were that specific and just spelled that out or spelled out exactly these places, then it would become like a self-fulfilling prophecy because everybody knows exactly what's going to happen or whatever and it could, that's just not how God operates. God only gives very specific prophecies about things that are happening in the very short term and things that are farther out get more vague and he'll often use symbolic language like he'll call a place Sodom. I mean, he calls many places in the Old Testament Sodom that are not Sodom just because they're like Sodom, right? And we do that all the time. We'd say, you know, man, this, you know, New Orleans is like a Sodom and Gomorrah or Las Vegas is like a Sodom or something. You know, you throw out these places that are like that, okay? Well, there's a place in the end times that's like Babylon and one of the ways that it's like Babylon is all the merchandise. You know, I personally believe that the place that's being destroyed in Revelation chapter 18 is the United States, but here's the thing, that would only be if Christ returned, you know, sometime in the near future. If he doesn't return for several hundred years or something, then obviously all bets are off because who knows what other powers will be raised up, but right now I'm reading Revelation 18. The only place I can picture being destroyed and people saying nobody's gonna buy our merchandise anymore would probably be the United States because otherwise it'd be like, all right, throw it in reverse. We're heading for the U.S., you know, to unload this stuff for the dollar tree or whatever. All the the stuff, I mean, think about how much comes in from China on a daily basis, all the the manufactured junk for Walmart and Dollar Tree and whatever. So anyway, that's a bit of a rabbit trail in the sermon here, but I just wanted to point that out. The land of traffic, the city of merchants is what Babylon was known for, so therefore end times Babylon is also going to be a place that's like that, and that's why there's that long list of merchandise in Revelation 18. So basically Jehoiachin and the young elites get taken to Babylon. It says in verse 5, he took also of the seed of the land and planted it in a fruitful field. He placed it by great waters and set it as a willow tree and it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature whose branches turned toward him. Now here's the thing, when you're studying the Bible, especially in the book of Ezekiel, trees can often represent kings or kingdoms, and this will become especially apparent when we get into the early 30s of Ezekiel, but for now we see that this seed that gets planted in a fruitful field, this is Zedekiah, the next king. So Jehoiachin goes into captivity, the young people go into captivity, and then the great eagle Nebuchadnezzar sets up another king that's going to be in charge and that king is Zedekiah, and he gives him his kingdom, he gives him his authority, he puts Zedekiah in power, and Zedekiah is going to become a spreading vine of low stature. He's not going to be a great big cedar tree, okay, like Jehoiachin or like the kingdom of Judah was under Josiah even, but rather he's going to be a spreading vine of low stature whose branches turn toward him. So basically it's going to be just kind of a weak kingdom that's doing the bidding of Nebuchadnezzar. That was what happened because Nebuchadnezzar comes in, he takes over, he takes them captive, and he puts his guy in charge, Zedekiah. That's kind of his puppet ruler that is supposed to do what he says and he's supposed to just have a weak kingdom and be under the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and his branches are supposed to turn toward him and the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs. Verse 7, there was also another great eagle. Now the other great eagle is Egypt. Now right now you're just kind of taking my word for all this, but the rest of the chapter is going to explain all this, okay. So right now I'm explaining to you as we go and then we'll see how what I've told you is accurate. There's also another great eagle with great wings and great and many feathers. That's talking about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And you can see how this is an analog with the king of Babylon, right? Babylon is a huge superpower. Egypt is also a huge superpower in the world at that time. These are two very powerful kings. So the other great eagle is Pharaoh and it says in verse 7, behold this vine, so remember the vine was planted by Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah is given his kingdom, he's put in charge, but now instead of being toward the king of Babylon like he's supposed to, he bends his roots toward this other great eagle. He bends his roots toward Egypt now instead and shot forth her branches toward him that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It was planted in a good soil by great waters that it might bring forth branches that it might bear fruit that it might be a goodly vine. So instead of relying upon Babylon and being watered by Babylon, now it wants to be watered by Egypt. It wants to stretch its roots toward Egypt. Verse 9, say thou, thus saith the Lord God, shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up the roots thereof? The king of Babylon is going to do that. And cut off the fruit thereof that it wither. It shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? Tell them, behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem. So here's where we get the interpretation. And have taken the king thereof and the princes thereof, we talked about that, and led them with him to Babylon. And had taken of the king's seed and made a covenant with him, that's Zedekiah, and had taken an oath of him, he hath also taken the mighty of the land, that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand. Okay, so what is Nebuchadnezzar's plan? He doesn't want Zedekiah to be some powerful king with a powerful kingdom. He wants him to be weak. He's supposed to just be kind of this low-lying, spreading vine that relies on him. He's supposed to be a vassal of the king of Babylon, but instead Zedekiah gets high-minded, and he wants to have an independent kingdom. He wants to have more power, and so he's going to team up with Egypt to try to do that. But the problem is that he swore an oath to Nebuchadnezzar. That's how he even came to power. Zedekiah got in power by promising to be loyal to the king of Babylon and making a covenant with him, swearing an oath to him, but now he's getting a little too big for his britches, and he's going to go to Egypt, and Ezekiel is prophesying and saying this is not going to prosper. He's going to end up losing everything. He's going to end up being taken captive to Babylon himself. It says in verse 14 that the kingdom might be base. Right? Nebuchadnezzar wants the kingdom small. He wants it weak. He wants it base. That's the plan, and if he keeps the covenant, then at least that kingdom can stay there for what it's worth. But here's the thing. We know from the book of Jeremiah, it's God's plan to completely wipe out Jerusalem and leave nothing left. Also earlier in Ezekiel we saw that too. So therefore God is kind of working this out to the point where Jerusalem just gets completely wiped out. The kingdom does not have a continuity. It breaks continuity during the Babylonian captivity and has to be re-established, right? In the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the return, they have to restart things because God utterly wanted to destroy the kingdom of Judah and utterly destroy Jerusalem, and then it gets replanted a few decades later. So here it says in verse number 15, but he rebelled against him. So Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, sending his ambassadors into Egypt that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape that do us such things? Or shall he break the covenant and be delivered as I live, say the Lord God surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king? So where does the king dwell that made him king? Babylon, right? That's where Nebuchadnezzar dwells. Whose oath he despised and whose covenant he break, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. Notice the thing that gets repeated over and over again. You broke the covenant, you broke the oath, you broke your word, it's just over and over again. You know God doesn't look kindly on people who break their word, break their oath. You know if you promise to do something, you have to do it. You know if you make a vow to do something, you have to do it. You know it's better to just not vow at all than to make a vow and not pay what you vowed. Now also we see here that he's making an oath to the heathen. Nebuchadnezzar is not Jewish, he's not an Israelite, he's not of his brethren. He makes a covenant with this heathen king, he makes a vow to a heathen king, and God still expects him to honor it. You say well that's obvious, Pastor Anderson. Well can somebody explain that to the Jews? Because the Jews have a doctrine that says that it's okay to break their oaths to someone that is not an Israelite, that's not a Hebrew. In fact, they have this thing called the Kol Nidra oath, and you know when I first heard about it, who knows what I'm talking about? Put up your head if you already know about this. When I first heard about this, I didn't even believe it because I'm not one of these people that just believes everything I hear. I was skeptical about this because you hear a lot of stuff against Jews and a lot of it is just kind of made up or it just it's just kind of a talking point that somebody's repeating from somewhere and there's a lot of stuff like that. And when I first heard about this Kol Nidra oath, I thought it was just one of those things where people are just getting carried away attacking Jews or something. But I'm telling you, I fact checked this, I looked this up, and it is a real thing where the Jews will basically on the day of, I believe it's on the Day of Atonement, don't quote me on that part, but once a year they go through this thing where they basically say, you know, every vow that I made over the last year is totally null and void and every vow I'm gonna do for the next year is totally null and void and this basically just allows them to just lie and break oaths and because they just they just negate everything they said for the last year and everything I'm gonna say for the next year and you know the with the overlap and everything basically they can just lie with uh with no repercussions. Now that sounds crazy doesn't it? Like can you imagine going to church and you know and it's like all right it's Easter Sunday guys and part of what we do on Easter is we basically just everything that we said we were gonna do everything we promised all the commitments we made all those we made you know we're just gonna nullify that as a church and we're gonna just plan on breaking our word going forward for the next year. It's all part of the Christmas service or something. It's like what? That's why I didn't even believe it until I read up go ahead and I dare you to fact check that and research that and it's k-o-l-n-i-d-r-e is how it's typically transliterated into English. Look it up for yourself and see if I'm telling the truth. It's the truth is stranger than fiction folks. I mean it's it's truly bizarre but there's an attitude that there's a double standard of morality when it comes to dealing with your fellow Israelite or your fellow Jew versus dealing with the Gentiles that you would basically you know be able to lie cheat steal or whatever. Okay now obviously that's not what the Bible teaches and here's a great example where the Bible says hey you make an oath to a heathen king that's even that's oppressing you you better keep that vow you better keep that oath that you made it doesn't he can't just pull out the Kol Nidra or something and fix this. God doesn't look at it that way. That's crazy and so it goes on and on about how he despised the oath he broke the covenant I mean it's very repetitive okay and in fact it's going to repeat it even more we've already seen it several times but keep going verse 17 neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty armor army and great company make for him in the war by casting up mounds and building forts to cut off many persons seeing he oh by the way did I mention he despised the oath by breaking the covenant when lo he had given his hand I mean hey they shook hands a handshake should have been enough you let your yay be yay and your nay be nay you know the Bible says the one who will receive the blessing from the Lord is the one who swears to his own hurt and change it not you know sometimes you make a commitment to something and it ends up hurting you but you have to follow through anybody who's ever been in the business world knows that this happens all the time a contractor will underbid a job and then what does he have to do he has to finish the job and and he ends up losing money because he underbid the job but you can't just be like oh well I'm sorry I underbid this like well tough you know and it's a bummer talk about swearing to your own hurt you know when you underbid that job but sometimes we make commitments to do things and then circumstances change but we still need to follow through on our commitments here's a commitment that you need to follow through on marriage you say well my wife's an unbeliever my husband's an unbeliever okay Nebuchadnezzar is an unbeliever you know what happens when you break your vow to Nebuchadnezzar you're in hot water with the Lord well guess what God doesn't want you breaking your vow to your spouse even if they're an unbeliever you need to honor that vow you know you need to stay with your unbelieving spouse now I'm sorry that you married an unbeliever but you need to stay with your unbelieving spouse that's what the Bible says okay and so don't just say well they're an unbeliever so I'm going to go ahead and break this vow I'm going to go no no you need to stay and make that work as unfortunate situation now the only exception I would give to that is if your spouse is literally and not just like a maybe if your spouse is for sure a reprobate meaning that they're like a pedophile or you know an open homosexual or something then I would say yeah get away from that person because that's disgusting okay but other than that you know the Bible is clear you need to stay with your unbelieving spouse okay you stay with your spouse it's till death do us part and we live in a society of easy divorce but as Christians we should not adopt this easy divorce mentality we need to have a do or die mentality when it comes to marriage okay and I and whether they're a believer an unbeliever the oath the covenant the vow still stands therefore thus saith the Lord God as I live verse 19 surely mine oath that he hath despised and my covenant the broken you say pastor are you reading the same verse over and over again I'm not these are all different verses how many times is he going to bring this up oh by the way you made an oath you made a covenant you see the point is here the big colossal sin that Zedekiah has done is by swearing an oath in the name of the Lord and breaking his word that's what makes God mad okay now here's the thing you could look at things that the United States does and say well I think what the United States is doing here is good or well I think what they're doing here is bad or I think this is ethical or this is not ethical but but you know what one thing that's clear is that if the United States promises to do something they need to follow through on what they promise to do okay so if they sign on to some kind of an agreement that says we're not going to use torture then and they make that vow then they shouldn't be using torture even if you thought it was ethical to use torture which it isn't by the way and by the way we also have a document called the Bill of Rights and the Eighth Amendment to the Bill of Rights says cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted and it doesn't specify on whom it just says cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted so could our government actually ever legally torture anyone for any reason and the answer is no because of the fact that we've made that agreement as a covenant we've got the Constitution the Constitution is our covenant and you know it's amazing how the United States doesn't honor that covenant of the Constitution there are so many things in the Constitution that don't get honored at all they're meaningless I could I could give you a whole bunch of examples you know the Constitution says that for any dispute of a matter of over twenty dollars we get a jury trial so what if Raymond and I have a dispute over a hundred bucks if we go down to court you think we're going to get a jury trial you say well that's stupid because twenty dollars isn't what it used to be no you want to know what's stupid what's stupid is that twenty dollars isn't what it's used to be that's what's stupid I'm not being stupid the people who print money and have made twenty dollars be a lot less are the ones that are stupid well that's not what they intended when they wrote that you know what they intended when they wrote that they intended that twenty dollars would stay twenty dollars because it would actually be based on precious metals you know silver is pretty much worth the same as it was hundreds of years ago gold is pretty much worth the same as it was you know if we were buying gasoline and gold or buying gasoline and gold now versus then or buying our groceries with silver now versus silver then you know what what's this inflation that you speak of you know what inflation is it's the government printing money out of thin air that's not backed by gold or silver now here's the thing you might say well pastor Anderson I think the Federal Reserve is wonderful and I think printing money out of thin air is wonderful and I just love fiat currency and the debt-based economy okay well then you know what you have to do then you either have to amend the Constitution and change that $20 figure or you are breaking a covenant that you've made with the American people of what you're going to do as a government why do we just but see the problem is we think it's okay to just ignore the Constitution and here's the problem if you start ignoring the part about $20 well what else are you gonna ignore you know what you're gonna ignore next is the Sixth Amendment saying that every crime because that's for civil matters right the $20 or more every criminal matter gets decided by a jury all of them and by the way the Arizona Constitution says the same thing but is that what actually happens I mean if I committed a crime where the punishment is up to 90 days in jail I will get no jury only a crime that could send me to jail for more than six months gets me a jury trial now back when I went to court in 2009 about that Border Patrol incident I had a jury trial but only because of the fact that the prosecutor stipulated that like we demanded a jury trial based on the Constitution because Mark Victor attorney for freedom.com or whatever his website is he's into the Constitution and freedom so he just always demands a jury trial even though it's just gonna get denied he just asserts that he just files tons of motions because that's what good lawyers do right they just kind of just hit up with a bunch of paperwork and just aggressive defense just keep them busy and mess with them you know so it's just like demand for a jury trial but here's the thing the prosecutor was nervous that the judge was gonna rule in my favor so the prosecutors like okay let's do a jury trial so it's very out of the ordinary that I had a jury trial for something that literally if I would have been convicted it would have been a $400 fine so I you know I spent I spent over 10 grand on a lawyer so I could not pay 400 bucks is basically what I did you know it didn't make a lot of sense financially but it was it was quite a ride you know so it was a good time those it was a learning it was I was I was paying for education for other people not for myself I was educating other people but but anywho the point is and I learned a lot too the point is though that you know I can be put in jail in Arizona for a month or three months or six months without a jury with a judge just sentencing me whereas in reality every single crime according to the US Constitution and the Arizona Constitution should get a jury trial we're guaranteed that in a bill of rights but do we get that no we don't get that it's just a judge deciding unless it's something big then you get a jury trial okay this is not right and you say well you know you expect them to get a jury for every little dumb thing no here's what I expect I expect them to stop arresting people for every little dumb thing because if it's not a big enough deal to have a jury maybe it's just not a big enough deal you know what I mean maybe we just shouldn't worry about it if you're gonna say it's so minor and doesn't matter well then why are you arresting me and if it is a big deal then we need a jury jury trial okay and here's the thing you could disagree about whether juries are good or bad maybe you disagree about you know the $20 thing but the point is though that's the commitment that was made that's the oath that has been made and all of the police and politicians and military what do they do they swear an oath to uphold the Constitution that's a commitment that's a vow that's an oath and yet we just even just the Bill of Rights the most sacred part of the Constitution the first 10 amendments the Bill of Rights we're just like a sixth amendment nuts to it eighth amendment nuts to it and we're just blowing these things up well okay what's next the first amendment second amendment I mean pretty much the only amendment that our government doesn't violate you know they haven't tried to quarter troops in our house yet you know those of you that have actually read the Constitution knows what is that the third amendment it's the one that we never talked about you know it's always talking about first amendment second amendment fourth amendment fifth amendment sixth amendment you know and then there's the one seventh eighth we've just talked about and then there's the third amendment you know I've never had the government try to quarter troops in my house but they've pretty much violated my rights in every other possible way okay so you know it's sort of like Samson when the only thing he hadn't done was cut his hair you know you made all the other mistakes so anyway the point is though we shouldn't take this lightly oh by the way you know what else the Constitution says it says that only Congress has the power to declare war and yet how many wars have we fought without the Congress declaring war every war since World War two the last country and and if you're ever playing trivial pursuit this will help you out the last country that the United States ever declared war on was Hungary in 1945 or something maybe I have the year wrong but it was for sure it was sometime in the 40s it was during World War two before it was over because it ended in 1945 sometime in the 40s the United States declared war on Hungary because Hungary was allied with Nazi Germany so that's the last time we declared war was the 1940s so what wars have we fought since then what we fought since then we fought the Korean War Vietnam War Gulf War part one two three four I mean the Gulf War had more sequels than you know I don't know spider-man or something what which which franchise has the most sequels I've never even seen that I don't know what that is but okay it's it you know it's got more sequels than fast and furious the Gulf War like I can't even keep track of the sequels I can't even keep track of that universe there's too much there's too much cannon to deal with in that universe of the Gulf War but I mean all these Gulf Wars Afghanistan Iraq all undeclared wars why didn't Congress declare war why didn't we say like all right we're declaring war on Afghanistan declare war on Iraq no instead here's what happens the president just gets up and he's just like an hour ago we started bombing them he like tells you about it retroactively so yesterday we bombed them and then it's like oh and then we're gonna ask Congress to approve it sometime in the next month and they still don't do a declaration of war it's just like within a month they're just like yeah you bombed stuff that's not what the Constitution says you know shouldn't the elected representatives of the people in the House of Representatives and the Senate shouldn't they be the ones making the decision whether we go to war or not not just a president whether I don't care if it's Bush or Clinton or Obama or Trump or or Brandon or I'm sorry Joe Biden you know basically whoever it is you know they shouldn't just be able to just unilaterally declare war and a lot of times it's political motivations for the for having these wars and so I don't care what you think about these issues I'm bringing up it doesn't matter what you think it doesn't matter what I think about politics or whatever we should all agree that you have to keep your word and do what you said you would do and if you're gonna sit there and say you know hey I am swearing to uphold the Constitution I mean isn't that what Joe Biden said didn't he get up and put his hand on the Bible and swear before God that he's gonna uphold the Constitution then he can't do these things he needs to be reading the Constitution and seeing like okay you know this is what it says and and whatever and then do what the Constitution says because that's the commitment that he has made okay so did I miss a joke here or something guys oh he does yeah he doesn't remember that yeah exactly he should have to read it every day because of his his cognitive problems just to keep it fresh in his mind but anyway Ezekiel chapter numbers I just didn't want to be left out guys you know I want to have fun too okay well I'm preaching but the point is though you know whatever your opinion is about these matters if you're gonna get up and swear an oath that you're gonna do something you better be doing it it doesn't matter whether well it's okay for Israel to be independent and you know God gave us this kingdom and you know it's the son of David and this is our guy and God gave us the kingdom we're not supposed to be no no you swore to Babylon that's your can't you have to do what you said you would do now let's keep reading here because God even gets stronger on this point I mean he's already repeated it kind of a crazy amount how many times it's been repeated okay where do we leave off to somebody no 20 and I'll spread my net upon him and I will and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon and I will plead with him there for his trespasses that he had trespassed against me against me so notice that by breaking his covenant with with Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon God says you trespass against me and what what about verse 19 therefore thus saith the Lord God as I live surely mine oath that he had despised and my covenant that he has broken even it will I recompense upon his own head look out God just takes ownership of this oath he says look if you're gonna swear in my name I own this oath now there's three parties in the south there's that a chi there's Nebuchadnezzar and there's the Lord and the Lord is saying look you swore an oath in my name you better do it and he's angry that he's not doing it he says in verse 21 and all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it thus saith the Lord God I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar and will set it I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent in the mountain of the height of Israel while I plant it and it shall bring forth bows and bear fruit and be a goodly cedar and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell now this is a really interesting part at the very end here because we change gears in verse 22 it's all been very negative so far hasn't it very negative in chapter 17 until we get to verse 22 so all the way up to verse 21 it's doom and gloom Zedekiah he broke his word he's gonna be punished God's angry but then we change gears in verse 22 God is going to take of the highest branch of the high cedar he's gonna set it and it's gonna create a giant tree that all the fowl and animals are gonna live it now now here's the thing Zedekiah was planted as just a low base little spreading vine thing he's not supposed to get too big and then he's like oh maybe I can get a little bigger if I team up with Egypt and it's like no but what God is saying here is that God is going to plant a king in Jerusalem that is going to be the greatest king in the world okay now remember also this tree with all of the animals living in it everything this same type of language is used over in Daniel chapter 4 about Nebuchadnezzar himself you know because he's got this great big Kingdom and then the tree gets chopped down that's where Nebuchadnezzar loses mine for seven years okay well here we see that God is going to create this super powerful Kingdom with this great King that he's going to establish and it's not Zedekiah it's not a guy that was put in power by Nebuchadnezzar and he makes an oath to be loyal to Nebuchadnezzar and then breaks his word breaks his oath before the Lord that's not the right way of doing this so is Israel going to be established yes is there going to be a great king there yes but it's going to be done by God in God's timing it's not going to be done by lying and cheating and breaking your vow it's going to be done the right way and got something of course we know that this king is Jesus it's the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is going to be the king that's going to be established in Jerusalem and his kingdom is going to be obviously a worldwide Kingdom Jesus Christ going to rule and reign now of course in the Bible there's there are many dual fulfillments even triple and quadruple fulfillments of prophecy and in fact when anybody boxed at this idea of dual fulfillment I have to just do a facepalm because it's literally prophecy 101 it's literally throughout the entire Bible you can't get away from this thing of dual fulfillment of prophecy it's just the theme in prophecy I mean all the way back to Genesis when God says in the day you eat that fruit you will surely die okay there's a dual fulfillment because the first fulfillment is that the day they eat the fruit they die spiritually but they literally die though like do they physically die no but God said in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die when they eat the fruit they die spiritually okay but then that's the shadow fulfillment the literal fulfillment comes later because that eating of the fruit sets in motion a course of events that leads ultimately to their physical death because if they had stayed in the Garden of Eden they would have lived forever so the the the the immediate fulfillment is you die spiritually and typically with prophecy in dual fulfillment the second fulfillment is usually the more literal you know the first fulfillment's like a shadow fulfillment and it almost feels like God's exaggerating when that fulfillment happens you know like Babylon's gonna be destroyed it's all gonna happen in one day it's never gonna be inhabited now Babylon does fall suddenly to the Medes and the Persians but does it happen in one day does it happen in one hour not really is it never inhabited again no at the time of Christ it's still inhabited it was inhabited even for hundreds of years after the time of Christ it slowly faded away it didn't but now it's totally empty and totally uninhabited but you see there's going to be a more literal fulfillment someday in Revelation 18 where there is a place that literally gets destroyed in one hour in one day completely wiped out completely nuked off the face of the earth so we could go I could literally and I think I have done whole sermons on dual fulfillment and just show example after example after example you know just like when when the Bible says you know a virgin shall conceive and bring forth the Sun you know and you shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted as God with us that happened if you read the context of that chapter Isaiah 7 that happened at that time that Isaiah preached that but it wasn't a virgin birth that happened basically he's explaining how long something's gonna tape so he says a virgin is going to conceive and bring forth the Sun and by the time that child says my father or my mother or by the time he knows to eat the good and refuse the evil XY and Z is gonna happen so he's explaining a timeframe that a woman who's a virgin right now is basically going to get married have a kid and when that kid is a certain age XY and Z is gonna happen but it's also prophetic of Jesus Christ where literally a virgin shall conceive right where Mary is a literal virgin who conceives without knowing any man without being with Joseph did you see how there's a dual fulfillment the first fulfillment is just someone living at that time and if you it's impossible to read Isaiah chapter 7 and not understand what I'm saying if you actually read it carefully so there are a lot of things that are happening back then and then they have a future more literal film it so there's a this prophecy here of you know I'm gonna establish the Messiah I'm gonna establish the son of David I'm gonna put a king in Jerusalem that's gonna have this amazing Kingdom you know there's a shadow fulfillment when God brings them back after 70 years and basically they get set up with another Davidic King right it's a rubable is a rubable is the Davidic King he's anointed whatever but that's not really that doesn't really live up to this though you know what I mean but it is a shadow fulfillment of that he is giving them hope that they're coming back from captivity they're gonna have the Davidic King son of David King but what's the big fulfillment Jesus but then when it comes to Jesus there's a shadow fulfillment and there's a dual fulfillment because with Jesus Jesus Christ when he died on the cross is the king of the Jews that's what it said on the sign above his head right Jesus Christ the king of the Jews that's how he's portrayed in Matthew and Jesus Christ in that sense is ruling and reigning right now he's ruling in our hearts he's the king of Kings he's the Lord of Lords he's up in heaven and he rules in among Christians but but here's the thing some people think that's all he does no no there is a literal reign of Christ coming where Jesus Christ will literally sit on the throne of his father David and rule the birth from Jerusalem in the millennium okay so that's a future fulfillment see a lot of people the preterists make the mistake of just putting they just they see that first fulfillment I gots it done they they they'll sometimes they'll even go so far as say the second coming of Christ already happened okay so there there are people who make that mistake as preterists but then the the futurist which obviously what we are futurists like we believe that there's an end time still coming second coming of Christ millennial reign a lot of times what the futurists do though they ignore the first fulfillment because they're scared of being a preterist but the true story is that yeah there was a fulfillment back then but then there's a bigger one coming and so you know it'd be like if I start saying in Isaiah 7 you know that's not a virgin birth that's actually a virgin who gets married and has a kid people could be like oh yeah you say something gets a virgin birth no no what I'm saying is there's two fulfillments and the second one is more literal than the first one this is prophecy 101 okay so the point is that yes in the first century AD there was a seven-year war called the Jewish-Roman war okay that lasted for seven years and in the midst of that seven years the temple was destroyed you could just all you have to do is go on Wikipedia and look up Jewish-Roman war get the dates the temples destroyed in 70 AD the war starts in 66 to 73 or whatever the exact dates are on that and somewhere in that neighborhood you know in the midst of the week the temple is destroyed that's not a coincidence that's a shadow fulfillment but the preterists will say oh that's all folks nothing more to see here give me a break you really think that the events of Revelation have already happened you think Matthew 24 has already happened nothing even close to those things has happened it's still coming and in fact the abomination of desolation has two shadow fulfillments because Antioch is a fit epiphanies in the second century BC okay the Romans in the first century AD and then there's going to be an end times abomination of desolation so the point here is that Jesus Christ is being profit in this in these last three verses are we talking about Zerubbabel yes are we talking about Jesus the first coming yes are we talking about the second coming of Christ yes it's all of the above that's the right way to read the Bible and the biggest mistake sometimes we make when we're interpreting prophecy is where it has to be an either-or nope first century AD that was nothing no the first century AD was a fulfillment of prophecy when the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD it's a fulfillment of prophecy it was a fulfillment of prophecy when Antioch is epiphanies desecrated the temple in the second century BC but it's going to be the big one still in the future okay and so that's what we have here let's quickly finish here verse 24 as so as a result of this great king in this great kingdom being established in verses 22 and 23 and all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree and have exalted the low tree you know the high tree is Babylon the low tree is Israel I've exalted the the low tree I've dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish I the Lord have spoken and have done it that's one interpretation here's another interpretation is that you know God basically is going to get rid of the the Jews as being his chosen people and Christians will be his chosen people so those who were a dry tree in the past the Gentiles they're gonna become the green tree and the one who was a green tree in the past Israel is gonna become a dry tree what are the prophecies associated with the coming of Christ in what Luke chapter 1 is it every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low right he's gonna lift up the humble and the meek and the lowly he's gonna bring down the mighty men that's a major prophecy in Luke chapter 1 and it's a theme with the coming of Christ that he will lift up the meek and the lowly and bring down the proud and the arrogant and that's exactly what we see here isn't it the high tree being brought down the low tree being exalted the green tree and the dry tree reversing roles and remember what did Jesus even say when he's on the the cross or when he's heading to the cross this isn't in my notes or anything oh yeah I don't have any notes sorry but anyway he he says if they do these things in the green tree you remember when he's telling the women I'm I'm just going off top my head here but remember he's on his way to the cross and all the women are crying this is in the Gospel of Luke and he's like don't weep for me weep for yourselves weep for your children and he talks about someday people are gonna be calling for the rocks to fall on them and everything and he says if they do these things in the green tree what shall be done in the dry you remember that so again we have that green dry tree symbolism so I think that's a great interpretation here to say you know the green tree was Israel the dry trees the Gentiles now the dry becomes green and the green becomes dry because let me tell you some Israel is a pretty dry place when it regards the Gospel of Jesus Christ it's dry as a bone over there okay but you could also read this same verse as you know Israel is a dry tree during the captivity and he's gonna replant them with Zerubbabel and Jeshua the son of John the deck and they're gonna become a green tree again both interpretations are correct because of the fact that this prophecy for sure easily has three layers Zerubbabel first coming of Christ second coming of Christ and that's just that's just for starters okay so we have to understand the Bible is very deep and so it let's say I have an interpretation of a passage that I really like and that I really believe in and it really preaches well and then someone comes along with a totally different interpretation of that same passage you know there's a good chance that we're both right when it comes to like symbolism and allegories because a lot of times these parables and allegories and symbols can be read two three four five six different ways that are all valid now if somebody teaches a false doctrine their interpretation is not valid but if we're all teaching the same correct doctrines symbols in the Bible can go either way a lot of times you know I could look at I could look at for example the story of Daniel Shadrach Meschach and Abednego I can look at those stories and I could look at you know hey if you don't if you don't worship this image you're gonna be thrown into a fiery furnace the obvious interpretation there is it's the Anna it's like the Antichrist the image if you don't worship him you die right but then I could turn around and I could I could take another more difficult interpretation of saying well you know Daniel Shadrach Meschach and Abednego were ten times better than everyone else in chapter one they were ten times better than their peers and yet if they don't worship the God that he set up they get thrown in the fiery furnace you could say like it doesn't matter how good you are and how many works you do if you don't worship the Lord if you don't put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior you're going into a fiery furnace called hell now you know we you could what I just said is is kind of a strange reading of that but it's valid because it's true that even if you are ten times better than your Christian neighbor if you don't believe in Christ you're going to hell and your Christian neighbor who's only one tenth as righteous as you are is going to heaven because he believes in Jesus okay so the point is you know there are different when it comes to symbols and allegories and things there's not necessarily one right answer but you just have to make sure that whatever however you read the symbols you better walk away with a with a right doctrine with a biblical doctrine that's the big thing you know I remember there was a preacher who who had kind of a strange interpretation of of Esther many years ago and people kind of freaked out and act like he was a complete heretic or something or they didn't believe the book of Esther was scripture but he did believe the book of Esther was scripture he was just interpretate interpretating it it was interpretating it you see he was just interpreting it backwards sort of like I did just now where I'm kind of like reading another layer into the Daniel story okay which is obviously not the surface meaning it's obviously not the primary meaning but there's still a valid truth that's there deeper under the surface and everybody freaked out and because he was making basically Haman the good guy and Mordecai the bad guy I don't think he was actually saying that that Haman was actually a good person he was just basically doing what I just did and I'm not saying that it's always recommended to come up with these wild interpretations but the point is that you know what matters at the end of day are the clear statements in the Bible we get our doctrine from clear statements and then we use that to interpret darker parables riddles prophecies and things like that and you know I'm not going to call someone a heretic because they interpret a passage differently than I do or interpret a story differently as long as at the end of the day we end up with salvation by faith alone as long as we end up at eternal security the believer as long as we end up at the Trinity you know I'm okay if somebody has a different interpretation and I might even look at their interpretation say that's not even valid but the other day I don't really care because you're not teaching heresy but a lot of times I'll say well that's the opposite of how I preach that passage but we're literally both right because of the fact that if you preach this passage that that's the rubable you're right first coming of Christ you're right second coming of Christ you're right so I hope that I didn't confuse you more in the last few minutes I'm trying to just show you how to read the Bible a little bit and to understand that especially when you're in these difficult books like Ezekiel prophetic books there are gonna be a lot of layers of meaning and a lot of different things going on below the surface that's why we love the Bible because we can read it 50-100 times and it's still fun to read because you're never gonna you keep peeling it's like an onion you just keep peeling it and you just never reach the end let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word Lord it's powerful Lord help us to apply it to our lives help us to be the kind of person where we do what we say we will do where we honor our commitments where we don't break our word and and and and break commitments and and break our wedding vows Lord help us to stay faithfully married and be faithful in all areas Lord and help us as we study your word to have wisdom and understanding and in Jesus name we pray amen amen let's go to him number four hundred and thirty four number four thirty four a little town of Bethlehem four hundred and thirty four a little town of Bethlehem Bethlehem how still we see the line number four hundred and thirty four let's sing it on this first verse together God the king that makes two men on earth how silently how silently the wondrous gift is given so God embarks to human hearts the blessings of his death no fear may hear his coming God in this world of sin where these souls will receive himself the dear Christ enters in Oh Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel. Amen. Great singing tonight, chorus list. Amen. Amen.