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All right, so Isaiah chapter 46, it's kind of a culmination of the past few chapters where the similar themes are just, are brought up and mentioned here as we've been dealing with over the past few chapters. And one of the things that you've noticed probably that comes up a lot is just the references of God saying, you know, like, I'm the Lord, there's none else, there's none beside me, you know, and he keeps on bringing up that the fact that they're, you know, they're worshiping idols and how the idol is nothing and that I'm the God, I'm the one that declares the beginning from the end, I'm the one who tells you all these things, I deserve all the credit and glory and honor, and we see that theme just continuing on. In chapter 46, just kind of from a high level as a whole, it's just summarizing all of that once again, where he's just forcefully just kind of saying like, look, the idols are nothing, and I am the Lord, and I do everything. Now there's variation in more detail and kind of saying things slightly differently. So we're going to look into that as well as we go through this chapter, but this kind of just brings it all together here in this chapter here in chapter 46. Look at verse number one, the Bible says, Bell boweth down, Nebo stupeth, their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy loaden, they are a burden to the weary beast. Now, keep your place here, turn if you would to Jeremiah chapter 50. You say, Bessarines, what's bell? There's B-E-L, what is bell? Now, I think, I'm not positive about this, so just take it for what it's worth. I think that bell is probably short for bail, just kind of a contraction, and it may be a place, it may be referring to a physical location here, I'm not 100% certain about that. Nebo is definitely a place, there's a place in Moab, you can find many references to that in the scripture, but bell, whether it's a place or whether it's short for bail, I'm going to show you in Jeremiah 50 because there's another reference here to bell, bell is only found three times in the Bible, once here in Isaiah, twice in Jeremiah, and we're going to see the other reference here and kind of give you a little bit of insight why I think this might just be referring to bail or an idol of bail or an image of bail or something like that. One is because of the language there, bell boweth down, but it's using a similar language for Nebo, which is like a place, so these are places that are lifted up, being brought down, so bell's bowing down, Nebo stoopeth, stoopeth is just another way of saying it's bowing down as well, but look at Jeremiah chapter 50, verse number one, the Bible says the word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet, declare ye among the nations and publish and set up a standard, publish and conceal not, say Babylon is taken, bell is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, and then it says her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces, so with the same exact wording being used here, after Babylon's taken, it says bell is confounded, and it says her idols are confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, her images are broken in pieces. Now that doesn't necessarily automatically mean that it has to be that, but when I kind of put these side by side with very little information on just bell in general, it's not found very much in scripture, bell is probably an idol being confounded, and same thing with Merodach there being broken in pieces, the images being broken in pieces, either way, we see the overall context here too about the idolatry that's going on, and that God is bringing the idols to nothing, he's bringing them down, you know, the fact that people, you know, that that bell is bowing down and Nebo stoopeth is because what did people do before an idol, they they bow down and worship the idol itself, they're the ones falling down before, and he's saying the idols are gonna be the ones falling down, it says here their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle, your carriages were heavy loaded, they are a burden to the weary beast, so it's conjuring up an image here of a beast, a beast of burden, think of an ox or an ass that's traveling and carrying a carriage behind it, right, and the beast is just very weary, it's tired, and you're saying you've, the carriages were heavy loaded, they had a big load on it, and the idols were in those carriages, you know, kind of these cattle's burying these idols, it's burying the idolatry, it's working and just is being worn down by the idols and the carriages, verse number two there says, they stoop, they bow down together, they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity, so the, it's still talking about the cattle there, the beasts, just bowing down together, they couldn't deliver the burden, they couldn't make it, they can't make it to the finish line, but themselves now are gone into captivity, and you know, anyone who's going to hold to the idol, right, and bear the idol as that's your, you know, that's your saving thing, that's your saving God as some idol, some fake God, you're going to end up weary and worn out and failing and going into captivity, because the idol is nothing, it's just going to wear on you, it's going to drag you down, and it's not going to be able to provide you anything of value at all, it's only just going to be a curse to you and weigh you down and not allow you to get where you really want to go, it's a burden, and think about this, you know, every false God in every false way relies on a works-based salvation, well guess what, you're going to be working and working and working and bearing the burden and getting more and more weary until you collapse and go into captivity, because you don't have enough strength, you can't work your way, there is no salvation through that false God, through that idol, it all will fail you, just as the imagery here of the beasts failing, collapsing under their burden, trying to bear the weight of the idols, you fail. Verse number three, harken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb, and even to your old age, I am he, and even to whore hairs will I carry you, I have made and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you, see the Lord, the true God, will carry you, you don't have to carry God, the beasts are trying to carry these gods and carry these idols and they fail, because one, they are no gods, but the true God is a God that will carry you, he's there to help you out, he's there to deliver you in your time of need, that's why you need the real God, that's why you need the Lord. And it says here, and what a great, what a great thought, what a great, you know, few verses here, where he says, look, you are borne by me, like he, I bear you, God speaking, from the belly, like I formed and fashioned you all the way from the womb, he says, you're carried from the womb, a God's watching over you, protecting you, feeding you, providing for you, doing things for you, and even to your old age, I am he, so from birth to the grave, he's saying, I'm the one, even to whore hairs will I carry you, I will provide for you, I am there for you, what a great comfort to think that we have a God in heaven that from the moment you are born into this world, from before you're born into this world, all the way up until you breathe your last breath, he's saying, I'm there to carry you, I'm there to bear your burdens, I'm there for you. You don't have to be burying about and carrying God, God's there for you. In every idol, every false God requires your work to try to attain a salvation that you'll never achieve, whereas the Lord, the Father in heaven, he's there for us, he created us, he loves us, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, he didn't demand the payment from us for our salvation, he gave, he made the sacrifice, he bear the burdens of the world on his shoulders, God in the flesh was that beast of burden that bear the sins of the world and carry them on his shoulders and died and suffered and bled and died on the cross and rose again from the dead, that's true God, that's true love, think about all these false gods, people want to set up their own idols and set up their false gods and think that their gods are so loving and so great, first of all, they're not real, but second of all, they're really not that great, fundamentally, they're not, because the gods that anybody in the world, other than people who worship the Lord, they can't save, they're going to acquire them just to do a bunch of, you got to be a good person, you got to do right, now obviously, there's nothing wrong with being a good person doing right, but that's not going to save you, it's just going to wear down on you and it's amazing, you know, when you talk to people who are really sincere, that have been in a religion for a long time that teaches, you know, you have to work with heaven and they really, you know, a lot of people are kind of flippant and don't really care about what anybody teaches or who God is and just kind of live life and they don't really care, they try not to think about it very much, but some people really do care and they're trying to find, maybe they're trying to find the right way or they've been brought up a certain way and it's a huge burden to bear thinking, man, I don't know if I'm going to go to heaven, man, I've been working, I'm trying hard, you're going to feel like one of these beasts that are carrying these false idols that you have to carry yourself and do everything yourself, you're going to fail, you know, there's a church member, it's been a member of our church for a long time, still a member of our church and I remember having a conversation with him and, you know, he was saying how, how much it just bothered him in the religion that he was in, that was a total workspace religion and how, you know, depressing it was and how hard it was because he was always worried and thinking that like, you know, I don't think I'm good enough and everything else, just every day having that weight of just uncertainty, the weight of knowing I've done wrong, the weight of just having to bear a perfect life when you're not perfect and knowing that what you do, you know, so when you sin, it's wrong, but man, what's going to happen when you don't know the Lord, when you don't have that forgiveness and don't understand the gospel, what a weight to bear that is and if you never find the Lord, you ever find Jesus Christ, you're going to end up falling and going into captivity like those beasts of burden do in this, in this passage, in this story, but, but what a great, awesome statement, hey, I'm there for you from the birth to your grave, I'm there for you, I'm there to carry, that's what he said, I will, even I will carry, he's like, I'm gonna carry you, I will deliver you, he's there to save you, man, you know, don't ever forget that, I know we go through times that may, you know, seem real difficult, but you know what, God's there for you, he's there to carry you, let him be, let him be your strength, let him be your deliverer, let him take care of you, that's what he's there for, because he loves you and I don't mean to say that's what he's there for in the sense that he's your servant, but out of his love for you, he wants to help you, he wants to deliver you and he promises to do so, he says, look, I'm gonna carry you, that's what the true God does, verse number five, to whom will you liken me and make me equal, how can you possibly come up with anyone or anything that's like God, doesn't exist, you can't make God like an animal, you can't make God like a man, look, they're all imperfect, they're all creation, they are not the creator, and I was just listening to Ezekiel on the way into church tonight, and you know, I preached on Ezekiel 18 on Sunday, and it's a similar, you know, I mean, I was listening to chapter 31 or 33, and again, there's a reference of, you know, your ways are not equal, you know, the people are saying, oh, your ways aren't equal to God, and God's like, no, your ways aren't equal, like, my ways are right, and this is man trying to think that they're like, that they know better than God, right, God's like, no, you don't know better than me, I'm the one that'll tell you the way it is, I'm so far above you, my ways are right, your ways are wrong, but proud stubborn man's gonna go, no, my ways right and your ways wrong, and they want to call good evil and evil good, and God's saying, like he's saying here, well, who you're gonna make, who you're gonna liken to me, who you're gonna make my equal and compare me that we may be alike, like there's nobody you can compare to God at all, God is in a class and category all by himself, verse 6, they, so there's the, you know, there's the you, there's God, and there's they, they lavish gold out of the bag, so these are the idolaters, they lavish gold out of the bag and weigh silver in the balance and hire a goldsmith and he maketh it a god, they fall down, yay, they worship, now, because this is a little bit of a shorter passage and it fits in perfectly, I brought this up on Sunday, we're actually going to look at some, I dug up some of the passages, because I made this statement about worshipping and falling down and that that is worshipping, so I'm going to prove that tonight since it's also found in this passage here, they fall down, yay, they worship, now, I don't want, you know, if I misspoke on Sunday, I hope I didn't, falling down in your face is worshipping, that is 100% true, and that's what I was trying to express, and I don't, like, I don't remember exactly the words I used, worshipping can also include other things, right, so I'm not saying that that's like, that's the only thing that worshipping is, and I hope it didn't come across that way on Sunday, but what we're going to look at today is the many, many, many times where people are falling down in their face and it is being referred to as worship, so also like, like serving God is also worshipping God, there are other ways that you can, that worship can be used, that you're doing something where it's not always falling down in your face, but when you're falling down on your face before someone, you're worshipping, does that make sense? So worship isn't only falling down on your face, but every time you're falling down on your face before something, that's called worshipping, so hopefully that is clear, and I'm going to show you this from scripture, how many times the Bible is, you know, combining falling down and worshipping and essentially meaning the same thing, so if you want to follow along with these, you could follow along, we're going to start in Joshua chapter 5 here, keep your place in Isaiah 46, we'll be coming back to it. Joshua chapter 5 verse 13, the Bible says, And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, it might now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto the servant? So he falls on his face and worship. Second Kings chapter 5, and you know, you don't have to follow all these if you don't want to, you could turn, I'll give you a few to turn to in advance, we're going to look at Psalm 95, we're going to look at Daniel chapter 3. I'm going to read through some of these from Second Kings. Second Kings chapter 5 verse 18, the Bible says, In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant. This is Naaman the Syrian, right, after Elisha healed him. In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bowed myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing. So he says, when he goes in to worship, and I bow down with my master, please forgive me. That's what he's asking. The worshipping is the bowing down in the house of that false god. Second Kings chapter 17 verse 35, the Bible says, With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice. So notice, in this passage, he says, don't fear other gods, don't bow down or serve them, and then don't sacrifice. Fear, bow and serve, sacrifice, and then he says, in the next verse, that the Lord is the one, him you shall fear, him you shall worship, and him you shall sacrifice. So fear, bow and serve, sacrifice, translates to fear, worship, sacrifice. Right, so the bowing and serving is the worshipping. The bowing and worshipping, and serving is worship, when you put these two verses next to each other, which they are next to each other. Psalm 22 verse 29, the Bible says, all they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. So there again, bowing and worshipping. Psalm 95 verse 6, the Bible says, oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Daniel chapter 3, great passage here, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I brought this up on Sunday. Let's read through this briefly. Verse number 4, the Bible reads, then in Harold cried aloud, to you it is commanded, oh people, nations, and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack, foot, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Now ask yourself this question, if worship is something different than falling down on your face, what do you do? What is the act of worshipping once you're already fallen down on your face? Like, is it... No, you won't be able to see me if I get down on my face. Like, you get down on your face, do you just raise a hand or something? Like, what would be the act of worship? It's like, well no, those are two different things, falling down on your face and worshipping. Okay, well once you fall on your face, what is the worship then? You see, I'm saying like, it doesn't mean anything because the meaning is tied up in the falling down on your face. Because that's all everyone had to do here was to fall down on their face, which is worshipping. And look, I know it may sound like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I really want to drive home this understanding of worship being falling down on your face, okay, and bowing yourself down. Because one, there's many religions out there that practice this, and they're going to tell you they're not worshipping anything. But they are, okay? Whether it's the Catholics or the Buddhists or many, you know, of the East Asian religions. Like, even in part of their culture, they might bow down to each other. Not going to do it. You say, oh, it's just a sign of respect, like a handshake. Well, I'm not going to bow myself down to anyone because that's worship. You know, oh, that's disrespectful. Okay, we call it whatever it is, but I respect God more than I respect man. And I will gladly stick out my hand and give you a handshake. I will gladly speak to you with respect, but I am not bowing down to any man. And I don't care if it's part of your culture or not. There's a lot of cultures out there that do a lot of wicked things. It doesn't mean you just go along and do it. And honestly, a few people here probably know this story. I've talked about it before. This comes up. You might think this doesn't come up in day-to-day. It can. Okay, back when I was, a long time ago, back when I was in college, many, many years ago, I decided to take a martial arts class. And it met up in a gymnasium, you know, Saturday morning. We'd go and do a lot of warming up, exercises, all kinds of stuff before you get into the fighting. But the way that we started out, the way that the teacher started off our session every day, every time we'd go, there was a picture on the wall. So we had all the floor mats and everything. There was a picture, just an irregular picture frame, right? Just a normal-sized picture frame of some man who was the founder, I believe he was the founder, of this particular martial art, okay? And the way that we started off the class is that everybody would get on their knees and bow down to the picture of a man. That's what we did, okay? Now, at the time, I was unsaved. This was like my freshman year in college. I didn't get saved until my sophomore year of college. But even being unsaved, it was weird. Now, I'm an American, right? So, yeah, we don't do that at all. But I was like, you know, it's not part of our culture, so it wasn't like normal for me. But it also just seemed weird, like why? Like, it's a picture. I mean, we have pictures hanging up in my house, right? Like, no one's bowing down any pictures. It's nice to see a picture of someone. You might say like, hey, look, here's a picture of the founder. You know, cool, that's great. That's nice. It's nice to see his face. If I ever see him, I'll shake his hand. But we would start off by bowing down this guy and just thinking like, why would you elevate someone to the status of bowing down? Even then, it was just like, it's weird. I inherently knew, even without knowing that much, like it just seemed like worship to me. We were bowing down on your face, and literally like, we got down on our knees. Head to the floor, arms out in front of you. Now, I can't speak for any other type of martial. I didn't take like a bunch of MMA or anything like that. But if this one was doing it, there's probably others. I mean, I can't imagine it's that unique to this one. And I think it was a Korean martial art. I forget exactly if it is or not. Like I said, a long time ago. But understanding, you know, no Christian should be worshiping any man, any image, anything, anyone other than the Lord. That's who we're supposed to worship. And, you know, especially Christians that are going in and participate that and say, oh, well, that's just, I just have to do it. I mean, I like the class. I want to learn how to do the fighting. I want to learn self-defense. I want to learn the stuff. You know, don't do it. You know, even me personally, I purposely showed up a little bit late. Because that's the first thing that we did. So I would just show up after everyone's already running around the gym. It's like I just kind of blend in with everyone else, like all right, I'm here, you know. Because I really didn't like doing that. It's just too weird. But I also wasn't bold enough to just be like, you know, everyone else is out on their face. I wasn't like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, okay. I just, I wasn't even saved. It was not even, to me it was just like, well, I'll just show up later. And I'll let them do their worship thing and I'll just show up for the fighting. Well, let's keep reading here, right. So this is only the first reference. It keeps on basically saying kind of same thing, falling down, worship, fall down, worship, fall down, worship. Verse number six, and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. So he's saying, look, if you don't fall down and worship, you're being cast into the burning fire furnace. What did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do? Or what didn't they do? They didn't bow down. Which means they didn't worship. Because that's what it means, especially in this context here. Look at verse number seven, therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the corn, flute, harp, sack, but psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations, and language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up. Wherefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews, they spake and said that the king, Nebuchadnezzar, oh king, lived forever. Thou, oh king, has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the corn flute, harp, sack, but psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth that he should be cast in the midst of a burning fiery furnace. So, keep on, over and over again, jump down to verse number 15. Now, if you'd be ready, at what time, so he's giving him another chance here, if you, all right, we're going to see, if you do this, if you're ready, at what time do you hear the sound of the corn, flute, harp, sack, but psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music? You fall down and worship the image, which I have made, well, but if you worship not, so here he says, fall down and worship, then great, but if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands? So, instead of saying, you know, he doesn't have to say, fall down and worship every time, he then just says, you know, worship. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego answered and said to him, said to the king, oh king, oh Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of the hand, out of thine hand, oh king, but if not, be it known unto thee, oh king, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image, which thou has set up, saying, either way, we're not doing it. And you know, that's the stand that you have to be able to make, not going to do it, and I don't care if your best friend or relative invites you to some ceremony, some religious ceremony, or any ceremony where part of it's going to be bowing down to some image, to some graven image, to some, you know, whatever, you're going to have to say no, if you want to be right with God. So God's going to understand, no. You know what God understands? What he told you not to do. God understands his law when he said, don't bow down to any image. Don't worship. That's what God understands. Matthew chapter 4, where Jesus is in the wilderness, and the devil tempts him, Matthew chapter 4, verse number 8, about says, again, the devil taketh him up into exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 1 Corinthians 14, 25, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. Revelation 19, 10, and I fell at his feet to worship him. I fell at his feet to worship him. Revelation 22, 8, and I, John, saw these things and heard them, and when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel, which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, see, thou do it not, for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book, worship God. So when he falls down before the angel, the words are going to be saying, don't do it. Get up. Get up. Worship God. Because falling down on your face before someone is worshiped, OK? Now, I belabored that point. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 46. But I want you to see how often this is in scripture, just this concept. Now, worshipping, like I said, there's other contexts where it has more to do with the service, right? Maybe burning sacrifices could also be a form of worship. But you better believe that bowing down is worshipping. Offering up a burnt sacrifice, yeah, that's also worshipping. But bowing down on your face before anyone, that's worship. Don't do it. You're going to bow down on your face at all. You do it for God. Do it before the Lord. Do it before Jesus Christ. That's it. I mean, what happens? I mean, the Catholic Church is so rife with this. Besides all the idolatry, isn't that what they do with the pope? I mean, don't people, like, come and, like, literally get on their knees and, like, kiss the ring of the pope and stuff where they're just kind of bowing down before the pope? It's crazy. It's idolatrous. It's wicked as hell. Verse number seven here, Isaiah chapter 46, the Bible says, again, going back to referring to these false idols, that was the context here. They bear him upon the shoulder. They carry him and set him in his place and he standeth. From his place shall he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer nor save him out of his trouble. It's the God that can't save. It's the, you know, just some fake phony piece of material, doesn't do anything, requires men to carry him around. A God doesn't require man to carry him around, by the way. And every time I read this passage, it just reminds me. Y'all remember seeing that video that was popular online a while ago? And I think it's some, like, Latin American country, somewhere where the people are, like, walking through some big fancy cathedral and they got this huge idol, like, there's, like, four guys burying it on their shoulders and then one guy, like, stumbles and the thing just, like, falls over and just smashes all over the floor and it's just, like, super funny. They're all freaking out about it and this thing just is, like, destroyed in front of everyone. When I read this passage, it's every time, it's just, like, that just pops into my mind and it makes me smile. Because an idol's stupid, right? It'd be like, oh, but it's such a big deal. It's so tragic. It's not tragic at all. I don't care how old the stupid ceramic thing was or whatever, you know, like, thank God people aren't worshipping that stupid thing anymore. Sweep it up and throw it in the trash because that's all it ever was. People burying some stuff on their shoulders. Look, that's not God. What a lame, weak God you have if you have to carry him around with you. Verse number eight, remember this and show yourselves men. Bring it again to mind, oh, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. See, with God, there's wisdom. With God, there's knowledge. With God, there's prophecy. With God, God's able to tell you and prove to you that he's real, that he exists through the prophecies. You know, people like to, atheists especially, like to mock believers, right, and make you sound so foolish. Oh, you just have some blind faith. You know what, I don't have blind faith. I have faith, absolutely. But the faith isn't blind. It's not just totally, just unsee, you know, like in one sense, yes, I'm believing in things that I can't see, like I can't literally see God. But there is plenty of evidence to make it very reasonable to believe that God exists. It's not like, because they want to make it sound crazy, right, they talk about their flying spaghetti monster or whatever, whatever stupid illustrations they come up with, like you could just say anything and they would compare a Christian to just, oh, well, if I just make up some random thing and you believing in just some total fabrication, imagination is the same thing as believing in the Lord or believing in God or believing in Jesus Christ. That's not the same at all. It's not the same at all. It's not even close to the same thing because there's so much evidence that there's a creator to this creation that we live on. There's so much perfection, there's so much beauty, there's so much design in everything that you see that it makes it extremely reasonable and rational to believe that God exists, extremely reasonable. This isn't just some, oh, you just need some crutch or you just need someone to tell you what to do. No, no, it just makes sense. It's foolish to think that the DNA programmed in our body that is literally carrying out and executing, carries code and information on how everything needs to be done is all just by chance. Oh, it just kind of happened that way. That's stupidity and foolishness beyond degree. And anyone's going to claim themselves to be smart and think that, oh, it's just all by chance. I mean, just a lightning strike and some bacteria and this electricity just makes intelligence. Just makes intelligence happen, right? Sorry, I'm not going to get off on the whole rant on the stupidity of atheism. But look, the faith that we have in God is not a, in what they would call a blind faith, right? It's not an unreasonable faith. It's not something that's just, well, I think today I'm just going to believe in a furry blue one-eyed monster that is God, that can just do certain things. It's like just off the top of your head just coming up with something because that's what I want. I want something, some creature to be able to tell me what's right and wrong. No? That doesn't make any sense. But the God of the Bible makes a lot of sense. And not only does he make a lot of sense, he's also prophesied events to come that hadn't happened yet time and time again, showing who the real God is. Just because there's fake gods in the world does not negate the real God. Just because you could disprove, you know, Hinduism or Islam by the pedophile Muhammad or, you know, some other false religion, just because you could disprove those as being phony and frauds and fake does not negate that there is a real God. And one of the things about God, how he's differentiating himself from these idols, from these false gods, he's saying, I declare the end from the beginning. I already tell you about it before it ever happens. God made the plan and knew it and told of it before man even existed. Jesus Christ is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And he has opened up and revealed truth and revealed knowledge unto his prophets who have also shared that truth with a whole multitude of people so that everybody could hear it, everybody could witness it, you know, you could write it down and when it comes to pass, much later on, wow, look at that. It actually came to pass. Well, imagine that. How in the world could that possibly happen other than there was actual foreknowledge? These aren't just random guesses. Now, anyone may be able to make some type of prediction of some kind that someday may eventually come to pass. But the Bible is in the book of one prediction. How many predictions do you think you could make that would come to pass with zero of them failing? Because that's what we have in the Word of God. Zero failures. You say, whoa, some of it hasn't happened yet. Yeah, I know, but it hasn't failed. Just hasn't happened yet. And there are a lot of prophecies in the Bible that have already come to pass that have already been recorded. And they stand the test of time. Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Verse 11, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it. Everything that God says happens. He says, not only have I said it, I'm also going to do it. I'm going to be the one performing it. When I say something, it comes to pass. This is how you could know the difference between a false god and the real god. A false god can't keep his word because he doesn't exist. So if you get some writings or some other holy book or something and they make, you know, like the Mormons, Joseph Smith was claiming to be in communication with an angel and everything else and he made all kinds of prophecies, all kinds of predictions, oh, we're going to do this and Christ is going to come back here and, you know, and they don't come to pass. You know why? Because he's not of God. Because it's not the word of God. Because the Book of Mormon is not part of the Bible. It's not another testament. It's not, you know, another gospel. It's not, well, it's another gospel, that's for sure. It's a different gospel. But it's not, it's not, it does not belong, like, in the gospels in the New Testament. It's a doctrine of devils. Verse number 12, harken unto me, you stout-hearted that are far from righteous. Stout, you know, it's like proud. Stout-hearted person is just really proud, lifted up in pride because you're far from righteousness. Listen to me. I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off and my salvation shall not tarry. Listen and believe me. I'm bringing salvation. It's not going to be, you know, it's not going to wait. It's not going to tarry. What God says comes to pass all the time. He says that I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. It's a promise. I'm going to place salvation right in the midst of you, right there in Zion. God's not far off. He's not like when Elijah was, you know, making fun of the prophets of Baal, right? Oh, well, where is your God, right? Because they made the whole plan of saying, well, who is the real God? So you had all these prophets of Baal and then your Elijah. He says, you know what? The God that answers by fire, that's God. The God who actually will listen and perform when you ask him to do something, that's the real God. And the prophets of Baal, they cut themselves. They're crying out. They're doing all manner of different things to try to get the attention of Baal. But guess what? Baal's not real. Baal's a false god. Baal's an idol. And Elijah knew this because he knows the Lord and he knows there's one God and he knows it. So he mocks him. Oh, well, hey, why don't you yell a little bit louder? I mean, maybe he's sleeping. Maybe he's gone off on a far journey. You know, maybe it's got to wake him up. Because that's exactly how stupid their mentality is. It's just as stupid as the people who carried around an idol and calling that God. And oh, no, what are we going to do now? They stole our God. And that's how the heathen were like. You know, it's like, oh, no, our God. Dagon has fallen down on his face. Oh, man, what are we going to do? Let's pick him up. Like, we can't have God laying down on his face. Let's put him back up in his place. Oh, man. That was a close one. Our God, you know, like, was falling down. Help, I've fallen. I can't get up. You know, it's, that's Dagon. There's a few people who understand that one. All right, good. Sorry to make myself feel real old here. Thank you for giving me the courtesy laugh. These idols can't do anything. They're good for nothing. He says, I'm going to place my salvation in Zion. You know, the idol's nothing. It can't do anything. They're incapable of saving. They're incapable of anything. And the people, like, with the prophets of Baal, you know, they're trying to do all this stuff to get the attention of a God that doesn't exist. And that's why Elijah mocks him, saying, you know, oh, yeah, maybe cry a little bit louder. You know, you just got to wake him up a little bit. You know, he might just not be in a good mood or whatever. Until he finally has had enough, and he's like, all right, guys, like, he's not answering. It's not going to happen. All right, give it up. But then I'll take, you know, Elijah then, like, a boss comes in, and he's just like, you know what, let's pour water over this, because they're trying to, you know, he's like, dig a trench. I mean, let's just make sure this thing is just soaked. Just douse this thing with as much water as you can. He sets up the evening sacrifice. He gets ready to go. He calls on the Lord, and then consumes every last lick of water, the, you know, everything. Oh, you know, oh, that's just a story. You know, the funny thing about the Bible is not just some collection of stories. It's a historical document. I mean, it's confirmed many, many times by other documents in history, so many times over. These are, you know, these are witness events. But it's easy to just say, well, that didn't happen, or, you know, just call it a lie, call it whatever. But people do. It's old. That's just a myth. Okay. You keep calling it a myth, and you can keep calling on your false idol. You could lift up whatever. You could lift up yourself. You could be your own God, and it's not going to save you. You're going to fall down under the weight of that idol that you think that you're carrying, whether it's yourself or some other false God. And it's going to lead you into captivity. And unfortunately, if you don't get it right, if you don't come to Christ, it's going to lead you into eternal captivity. There's no getting out of that. As far as that word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for loving us. Thank you for, you know, it's great verses. You talk about carrying us from the womb all the way up until our death. We start off, for those of us that might live a full life from young to very old, we're helpless. We're in need, and you're there to carry us through and give us what we need all the way up until we get real weak and elderly, dear Lord, and that we need your strength and you promise to carry us all the way through, Lord. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for sacrificing Jesus Christ on the cross for us. Thank you for all that you do for us, dear Lord. Help us to make you known among the people. I pray that you will please use us mightily to bring forth the word of God and bring forth that glorious light of the gospel into the heart of the lost and the deceived, dear Lord. And I pray that you would please help us to deliver people from the burden of idolatry. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.