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All right, amen. Nineveh chapter three, we're done with this after tonight. And so I talked last week about how chapter one could really be described as doomed to creed. Basically God's setting the stage and announcing the destruction of Nineveh when chapter two was doomed depicted. A very detailed description of exactly what and how it's gonna happen. Of course, with the added challenge to go ahead and prepare yourselves because that's what you're gonna do anyways, but it's not gonna make a difference because nobody can stop the destruction once God sets it in motion. And today we're gonna go with doom deserve. Okay, doom deserve or destruction deserve, however you wanna put it. And we're gonna look at the whys. So the first five verses are broken down into two different categories and we're gonna look at those. And then really after that, it just gets super personal. And you're gonna see that. You're gonna see this word over and over and over again and it's thy, thou. And God is just speaking directly to that capital city, to that nation. And it is just him speaking what he's gonna do right to the Ninevites and it's intense. And it gives you a lot of insight on how God feels about the things that they fell into, which we're gonna get into here in just a moment. So with that being said, why does Nineveh deserve destruction? Well, look down here at verse number one in chapter three. So look at that verse there. It says, woe to the bloody city. It is full of lies and robbery, the prey departeth not. And so when we study the history in the Bible of Nineveh, going all the way back to the book of Jonah, what do you find? You find that God sent Jonah through great trials and tribulations to get to Nineveh, because they were ignorant. Remember, God highlights that, tells Jonah that, hey, look, the reason why I'm giving them a chance is because they don't know. They are literally ignorant of the truth. They deserve an opportunity. They deserve a shot at understanding the truth. What happened? Well, you go from the ignorant city to the receptive city, where even the king is down with it. He says, you know what? Who can tell if God's gonna go ahead and repent and turn from his fierce wrath and causes even the animal kingdom to follow suit with that? And so you have that generation there, okay? You go from the ignorant city to the receptive city. Now here in chapter three, God calls it the bloody city, okay? And so what does that lead us to? It leads us to a very basic, simple statement here, which is the first thing we're gonna look at, and that is the rejection of the truth, okay? So before Jonah had appeared on the scene, they hadn't rejected the truth. They just didn't know what it was. They had no idea, okay? And just to kind of show you a picture of this, keep your place there, but go to 1 Timothy chapter number one. And let's look at Paul real quickly. We're gonna look at a couple of things here. Paul wrote, we're gonna go to 1 Timothy and then Romans chapter one, okay? And you're going to find this to be a pattern that God uses from the beginning of time to the end of time, okay? He applies this to the nations of the world, as well as to individual people, okay? So, the ignorant city, receptive city to the bloody city, and that leads us to a rejection of the truth, which is the first reason highlighted here as to why God is going to destroy Nineveh and do it in a great, fantastic fashion with such detail, okay? So rejection of the truth, remember you start with ignorance, with not knowing, not understanding. Now, let's look at this here. Look at verse 13. So, Paul writing Timothy, explaining something about his self, he says this, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious? Notice those three things right there. We've talked about this before. It was very familiar verses. You know, a lot of times today, when we see blasphemers, persecutors, people that are injurious, we automatically will reprobate those people, okay? Sometimes there's a definite charge to that, but other times, maybe not. Okay, and look what he says next. I obtained mercy. So the question is why, how? How did he obtain mercy? And he tells you right after that, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, okay? Ignorantly in unbelief. That's the only reason that God gave him mercy after doing the things that he did. Now, I'm not in any way, shape or form saying that Paul's life is just as bad as Nineveh or the Assyrian kingdom, not at all, okay? But all the ingredients were there, but they were there in ignorance, okay? Now, hold that thought there, that word ignorant in your mind and go back in your Bibles to Romans chapter number one. I know it's not June yet. We're just gonna look at one verse, okay? One verse and we'll get the rest of it later. Romans chapter one. So we've got this word that we're holding onto on our minds, okay? Ignorantly in unbelief. Just like Nineveh started out, ignorant and unbelief. Romans one, look at verse number 21, okay? So obviously the Bible teaching us how people become a bloody person or a reprobate or a reject if you wanna use that word. Romans chapter one, verse 21. So Paul says, because that, now this is what I want you to look at here, okay? When they knew God. Remember, we say this all the time. There's a big difference between knowing God or understanding God and understanding what the Bible teaches about him versus actually believing and being saved, okay? A lot of times when you see these people out in society and they're like, yeah, you know, I was a pastor, I was in this Christian rock band or whatever, but I'm deconstructing now. I learned the truth, I'm free, okay? And that worries a lot of people and they say, well, that person believed and you're telling me all I have to do is believe, he threw away his salvation so that means you gotta work to keep it, okay? It's like, no, you don't understand the English language. That's what the problem is, okay? A big difference between knowing versus believing, okay? You have to know the truth in order to reject the truth, okay, we following here? Look at the verse again, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Okay, you're gonna go back to Nineveh chapter number three. So what does this mean here when we put these two concepts together, where Paul says, hey, I did these three things. I was a blasphemer, I was a blasphemer, I persecuted God's people and I was injurious. I was there when Stephen was stoned to death, I gave the thumbs up, I gave the okay, says I did it ignorantly in unbelief, that's why I received mercy. Then God talking about another group of people that we call reprobates because that's what he calls them, okay? And he says, there's a special thing about them that makes them different, that makes them that way. And that is what? Well, it's because they knew God, they understood God. So we're gonna say this, God gives light to the ignorant and darkness to the knowledgeable, okay? Now word knowledgeable there is in quotes, God gives light to the ignorant and darkness to the knowledgeable. Remember, Nineveh was ignorant of God and his words, what did God do? He gave them light, how did he do that? He sent his prophet Jonah to preach them, they accepted that truth and that truth remained in the land until a generation rose up that said, yeah, you know what? Leave that to the Hebrews, leave that to the Jews, leave that to those people, we wanna go back to the way things were because we were more prosperous, we could get away with this or we could do whatever we want, okay? And so because of that, you see the city of Nineveh move from the ignorant city to the receptive city and then now they are the bloody city and God has decreed and he's telling us there is a destruction coming that you will never be able to stop, okay? And again, it's important for us to know these things because people always want to accuse the Old Testament God of being this vindictive, mean, heartless, just tyrant, okay? And it's like, no, if you just step back and read the Bible, read the word of God, and just understand that you would see why he carries out this judgment to this group of people here, okay? So God gives light to the ignorant and darkness to the knowledgeable, of course that in quotes, remember, just because somebody knows the Bible, just because they know what the Bible says does not mean that they have received the truth as their own. Nahum chapter three, now let's move on here, look at verse number two. So the Bible says, the noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots, so what is going on here? Well, he's describing this coming battle, this battle that will come within their gates, within their city and provide something which goes along with my statement, look at verse number three, remember, God gives light to the ignorant and darkness to the knowledgeable, okay? God sent Jonah to the device, gave him that light, they received it, they could see, this next generation took that light and said, we don't want that, so God is gonna give them something here, look at this, verse three, the horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses and there is none end of their corpses, now look at this last phrase here, this last statement, it says they stumble upon their corpses, okay? I almost titled this Let the Bodies Set the Floor but you know that's, that is what it is, too, a little too close to that rock song that's out there from the 90s if you grew up in the 90s and up, but you get the point here, why are they stumbling? Because they can't see, why can't they see? Because they are flooded with dead bodies from the invasion of the Babylonian empire which God is going to raise up and allow to destroy these people and again, why? For one simple fact, they rejected the truth, they had the truth, God went through all that trouble to get Jonah over there and they had this great revival but it didn't last and so God says, now you're gonna get it worse than you ever would have gotten it before, okay? That is a principle throughout the entire Bible, it is not just for the Old Testament, it is also for the New Testament, that's why we talk about Romans chapter one, that's why we talk about how Jesus said that this generation that we're talking about here or this prior generation that is, the generation that Jonah went and preached the truth to that they would rise up against the generation which rejected Jesus Christ and his miracles and all that he did and just a side note here, you know, America is starting to fit this pattern like a warm glove on a very cold snowy day, isn't that right? I mean, that is what we are seeing, we have been a nation primarily that has had the most missionaries, the most churches, the most freedoms and you're starting to see that decay and go away, so let's move on now real quickly to the second reason because we gotta get through this chapter here, the second reason why they deserve destruction here, look at verse number four, key word right here, right off the bat, okay? Look at this, because of, so you want to pay attention to what he says here, okay? Because of, because what do people do? They ask questions, hey, why is God doing this? What's going on here? Why does the Old Testament God destroy people all the time? Jesus didn't do that, he came to just preach love and he forgave every single person who's ever, it's like, okay, no, because of the multitude, and here it is, of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts. Now, keep your place there, obviously, but go all the way back, if you would, in the Bible to Numbers chapter number 14. Numbers chapter 14, we're just gonna look at two verses here real quickly, Numbers chapter number 14. I've got a book in my office and anybody wants to look at it, you're more than welcome to after the service. It's got a, it's a really old book, it's like from the 60s, and it's got a lot of historical information and it is pretty interesting, and it's got a list of all these things that were discovered in Iraq pertaining to Nineveh. And I guess in the palace, the Assyrian palace, there was just thousands and thousands and thousands of books, and a lot of them survived the siege and have been translated. And there's inscriptions in there from Sennacherib just bragging about putting hooks through people's jaws, cutting people's throats, chopping their hands off, chopping their fingers off, and just being like, yeah, that's what I did. Just super arrogant, just super proud of that. And of course, the Bible speaks to a lot of that as well. So just something to kind of keep in mind, you know, God is not like, just, oh, you didn't accept my word, and that's it, I'm gonna do all this horrible stuff. No, they were a very extremely wicked people, okay? And they didn't just stop with their abuse of other people, okay? They promote, they're like America, okay? They exported their witchcrafts and their harlotry and their hoardums throughout the entire world. But what I wanna do there, just so that we all understand this concept, the Bible speaks a lot in the Old Testament about hoardums, okay? So I just want you to have a good idea of what that is in the Bible. So Numbers chapter 14, let's look at verse 33. It says, and your children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years and bear your hoardums until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. Okay, so what's going on here? Well, this is the aftermath of when Moses and Aaron had sent the spies out to see the Promised Land, okay? You all know what happened, okay? They all came back and were like, oh, they're too great, it's not gonna work out except for two guys, Caleb and Joshua. They're like, no, we can do this, we can take the city, okay? God is saying that that rejection, okay? That rejection of truth there is going, is basically hoardums, okay? It's turning from God. Because what are they doing essentially? They're rejecting what? The Promised Land, okay? God promised with his words, hey, you will inherit this land. All you need to do is just go this direction, I will lead you, I've got you, and they see it and they're just like, oh, we can't bear this, they're too strong, there's too many of them, but it is a great land. Look at all the stuff they have, okay? And God says that that rejection there is a hoardum. Okay, now how many of you knew that? You know, that's why we need to understand the words that the Bible uses. Now, just for a couple of other things here, look back up to verse number 29. Look what God says. He says, your carcasses, sound familiar? Hey, you're often gonna find that word with hoardums somewhere in that passage nearby that word, you're gonna find carcasses, corpses could be, why? Because God hates that, okay? Verse 29, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from 20 years old and upward, which have murmured against me. Now you can leave your place there. We're gonna leave it there. Go to Hosea chapter number four, real quick. Hosea chapter number four. And we see what hoardums are. Now, hoardums is a very deep, obviously, rabbit hole that you can go down into, but on the basic premise, what that is, it's a departure, it's turning away from the way that God wants you to go. So it's to basically say, you know what? I'm gonna go do my own thing, okay? And it starts off with who? It starts off with God's people, okay? Look here in verse number one of Hosea chapter four. Now, if you're not familiar with Hosea, Hosea was a prophet out of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and he prophesied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Very fascinating story here. We don't have time to get into it, but look at verse number one. It says, hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because, and here it is, there is no truth nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land, okay? Now, when he says there's no knowledge of God in the land you have to understand what that means, okay? What does that mean? They didn't have the word of God, they didn't have priests. I mean, come on, that's the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They knew the God of land, they knew that. So when you really study this out, what he's saying is that there's no knowledge of me in the land because you have rejected me. You have put me away. So let's fast forward here to verse number six. Very familiar principle right here in the Bible. It says, my people, okay, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast, here it is, rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. So that's kind of what's going on here. Now, here's the magic word of the evening, okay? Look at verse number 12. A little more insight into that word, whoredoms. So number 12, it says this. My people ask counsel at their stocks and their staff declareth unto them. Now look at this next phrase right here. For the spirit of whoredoms, okay, the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err and they have gone a whoring from under their God. And of course we understand what that's talking about there. We know that the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the very first religion that was established was basically a new evangelical style religion. Jeroboam son of Nebat says, you know what? I don't want my people to come down to Jerusalem to worship. So I'm gonna set up a couple of golden calves, worked in the past. You know, I think I can do a better job than Aaron did and I'll just make two more. And we'll just establish that as a religion. You can worship God through these golden calves and he sets one up in Bethel, one up in Dan. And of course, what did that lead to? It led to worshiping anything, okay? Just like modern Christianity, okay? A lot of these churches you go to out here, oh, you know, we will love the Bible. I got sucked into talking to this guy yesterday. You know, he's like, oh, I go to such and such church over here. Why are you King James only? I see that on the back of the invite. What about all the other versions? And you know, what about all the other religions out there and what about the more, you know? And it's just like, oh man, I don't have time for this tonight. But I tried my best to correct him. And he's like, oh, okay, okay. You know, but at that moment in time, he's just open to anything. You know, as long as they name the name of Christ. I mean, I don't agree with the J-dubs. You know, I don't like their version of the Bible, but they talk about Christ. You know, are they going to hell? Yes, yes, yes, they are. Whoa. Whoa, really? What about the, yes, the Mormons too. In fact, everybody from that side of the religion, that religion of human achievement and autonomy is like, oh wow. Well, I guess I'm going to come visit you. Yeah, sure you will. Sure you will. But what does that lead to? Okay, it leads to more whoredoms, okay? It leads to more and more idolatry and then the list goes on and on and on, okay? Now we all understand the physical side of whoredoms, okay? But I want you to understand just the spiritual side. Now go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 11 and we'll just make a little bit of modern application today what this might look like for the Christian. Now, before I get into these one more time, you can never lose your salvation. We got that, okay? So what you're going to find here about the spirit of whoredoms, okay? And you go to churches that are engulfed by the spirit, okay? An old IFP church, for example, okay? Where the old IFP preacher, he's retired. The new up and coming guy from the modern Bible college takes over, okay? That's what happened to the church that I got saved in in Washington state, okay? They got taken over by a pseudo new evangelical type and they're doing things more modern, more relevant, okay? A few years from now I predict there'll be full blown NIV message Bible, Catholics can come, we'll bring the Sodomites, the whole nine, okay? Because that's what happens, okay? And so what you find in those places is no chastity, no faithfulness to abstain from the flesh, no hard preaching against sin, no harder pain that they cause for others, just kind of like people that commit adultery. I mean, it's the same application really, it's the same exact thing, you know? So how might this look today and is the spirit alive and well? Who's the master? Well, we know the master of it is obviously Satan. Remember Satan's goal is to prevent people out there from hearing the truth, okay? Now, one of the ways he does that is by acting like he does, acting like a roaring lion and walking around the saved and trying to find out who's weak so we can pick them off one by one because the less of us that there are out here, the more he can send to the lake of fire with himself and of course we understand that truth. So don't think just because you're saved and stuff that you're not ever gonna be under attack or this so-called spirit of whoredom can't plague you because it definitely can. Look at what Paul says here of second Corinthians chapter 11, verse number two. He says, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Okay, so remember first Corinthians all the way through the, you know, the first 10 chapters of second Corinthians, Paul saying, hey, I want you back on the right track. Remember, I got you saved. We're not asking a whole lot from you. Can't you just get along with one another? Okay, can't you edify each other and just go preach the gospel and stop letting all these clowns come in here and get everybody excited about things we never talked about? Okay, that's what he means here. He wants to present this church, Christians, as a chaste virgin, a faithful follower, okay, to Christ, verse three. He says, but I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And that is one of the biggest battles that we have today are people trying to attach works, attach complications all throughout the entire gospel. That's what people do. That's something that we have to constantly be on the lookout for. Now look at verse number four. It says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which he have not received, or another gospel which he have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. Now we went over this several weeks ago, okay. He's not saying that, yeah, you might go off with them and lose your salvation and have to get reborn again. That's not what he's talking about. He's basically saying, I think some of you are gullible enough to allow somebody in your congregation that's a Judaizer, to allow someone in your congregation that preaches repent of your sins. There's independent Baptist churches all over this country that allow that to happen all the time. I went to one. I went to one in Tacoma, Washington, where the preacher was just, he was right on the gospel, a great soul winner, okay. Constantly preaching against repent of your sins. Guess what? One Thursday evening, soul winning time, guess what happens? Mr. Song Leader gets up and preaches a sermon that you gotta repent of your sins. He's just grilling us. He's like, the reason why you and you and you, the reason why your converts ain't coming to church is because you're leaving something out. Me and Kayden are like, what, what are we leaving out? He's like, you're leaving out repent of your sins. They gotta turn from their sins. And that's why God's not blessing this church. He just went off on it. And then Sunday night comes around and preacher gets up and he preaches a hardcore sermon against repent of your sins, okay. But it's like, you're a Corinthian though. Like kick the guy out, right. Like that's the solution. Oh wait, he can't kick the guy out, why? Because they have this church structure, which has a board of elders or deacons or bullies basically is what they are and they hold the keys, okay. And if you go against what they say, they boot you out. That's why we do church the way that we do, which is the way that the Bible describes it, okay. So again, the spirit of whoredoms is alive and well today. Okay, and you look at that church today, they're not soul winning, okay. Why, because Mr. Repent of your sins eventually got his way, okay. That is what I'm talking about. Now go to Revelation chapter number two. Revelation chapter number two. And let's look down here at verse number one. So just quick definition before we start reading here. The end of chapter one, we learned that the seven candlesticks represent the seven churches in Asia, which the Lord is walking about and auditing and giving feedback to. So let's take a look at this one here, Revelation two, verse number one. The Bible says this, "'Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, "'These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars "'in his right hand, "'who walketh in the midst "'of the seven golden candlesticks.'" Now pay attention to this, okay. This is what they're doing good here, okay. I know thy works. So they have works, they have some sort of works. And thy labor and thy patience in how thou canst not bear them which are evil. So they're doing better than the Corinthians were. Like Paul's fear was, I think if people come in with this false stuff, you're gonna bear with them, you're gonna welcome them in. Okay, these guys were a step above that. And they said, no, we're not gonna do that. And we're gonna prove that they're evil and reject them. And God commands them for it. Says, and now hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them lives. Why? Because it's very easy to tell the requirements of an apostle if you just read the Bible, okay. Now, verse number three. And hast borne and hast patience and for my name's sake, hast labored and hast not fainted. Okay, so they're even, I mean, they're praying in his name, they've labored for the name of Christ and he commands them for it. But there's a big problem here and it's found in verse number four. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Interesting, what was that? Verse number five. Okay, so keep in mind, they left their first love, verse number five. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. So we see this here that they left thy first love and that caused them to not do the first works. So the first love causes us to do the first works. So what I'm gonna say here for a last point and application for us this evening is stopping the first works is starting the spirit of whoredom, okay. So he's saying here, hey, by not doing these first works, by not going out and preaching the gospel, by just doing the first fold mission of the church which is taking care of each other, teaching the word, feeding one another, but neglecting all that other stuff and going out and actually making disciples and teaching. Because you've done that, you've actually left your first love which obviously would be the first works or obviously Jesus as well because God says, if you're not going to do this, I'm gonna take your church away. So this is very serious. And you say, well, why would he say that? Why would he take the candlestick away? Well, what did Jesus say in the gospels? When he was teaching at the sermon on the mountain? Well, he said that ye are the what? The salt of the earth, the light of the world. And then what did he say about that salt? What happens if it loses its savor? What is it good for? It's good for nothing but to be trodden underfoot. So that's how God feels about a church that does not do the first works. Look, how is a church supposed to grow? How are people supposed to grow if we don't take the word of God, which should be your first love and go out and give it to other people? Well, it's not, you're not doing anything. But what are we constantly being told by these other churches? We're told, hey, you don't have to go out and do this. People really don't like it when you knock on their doors. Yes, we all know that. Some people don't, but you know what? A lot of people do. And most people honestly don't mind. So there you have it. That's just something that these people out here say, because when we come knocking on the door and they realize we're not in the Jehovah Witness camp and we're not in the Mormon camp, we're not the apostolics, they get very jealous. And they're like, wait a second here. And I'm telling you right now, inside their heart, they're angry. They're like, oh, you shouldn't be doing this. You know, in that flesh, you're making me look bad. And I can't have that. So I need to degrade you. I need to put you down. I need to put you in your place. And so I would say that's kind of a modern day application of that. Of course, God's not going to destroy us, you know, in eternity or anything like that. There's nothing saying that. But you know, what do we see here with Ephesus? Most always I'll take it away. Where's the church of Ephesus today? It is gone. So obviously if they did get back to the first works, it did not last. So with that being said, let's move on now back to Nahum chapter three, and let's read through the rest of this here. So remember God gives light to the ignorant and darkness to the knowledgeable. And right here in verse number five, okay, this begins the very personal portion of this letter. Look at this language here. Verse five, behold, I am against, now look at that word, thee sayeth the Lord of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame. Yeah, you know what's sad about this? Is that you think about America today, okay, and you read this verse here, like, you know, there was a time where modesty was a thing in this country, you know? Now modesty is looked at as, oh, you're being legal, is I seen, I really liked your church, Pastor Jones, I came to visit a while back, I don't know if you remember me or not, and I don't wanna give the name, and why were all the women in skirts? Are you against instruments? You know, that's the type of stuff that we get, and it's just like, how did you come to that conclusion? Do you play an instrument? Come in and play it then, I mean, why didn't you ask? You got a flute, you got a violin, you want, I mean, bring it in here, okay? Nothing's stopping you, you just gotta tell me first or tell Kaden, it's okay. You know, but why were all the women in skirts? Before we even get to that, it's like, are you saved? Or did you just run out of here right after the service before I could catch you, okay? I mean, that's the question. But, you know, God's saying like, this is a shameful thing for this to happen, but in America today, it's not, okay? Our young people, our older generations, they have lost all sense of shame when it comes to immodesty. So, you know, God's saying like, hey, you know, if that's gonna be your stage, then guess what? I'm gonna make sure that people see what you really have under there. I'm gonna make people see that your armies and your gates and your spears and your swords, that they are not gonna save you, that they are absolutely nothing, that you're nothing more than a bunch of vulnerable, arrogant, destructive, bloody people, okay? So look down at verse number six and we're gonna continue on with a personal portion here of this letter. So he says, and I will cast abominable filth upon thee and will make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing stock. So he's saying he's gonna make these people reprobate, abominable in the sight of all people of the earth because of the atrocities that they had done to the nations, okay? They pushed witchcraft and all sorts of sorcery, whoredoms on other people. Imagine going from a nation that once carried the gospel and pushed the gospel as the main thing to now pushing sodomy and rape and pedophiles and all the garbage that our government is constantly saying that they're okay with, you know? Verse seven, and it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, Nineveh is laid waste, who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? People still see that today. Go talk to people that have been to Iraq and will say, man, I got to see some of the ruins over there of Nineveh and it was crazy. I got all these pictures, okay? So we're still fulfilling prophecy through conversation even this very day in America or in the world in 2024. Look at verse number eight. So again, look at the personality here. Art thou, okay? God speaking directly to the heart of them, okay? Art thou better than populace? No, that was situate among the rivers. They had the waters round about it whose rampart was the sea and her walls was from the sea. So he talks about this place that you'd have to go look it up, it's near Egypt, okay? It was a city that was looked upon back in the day as very influential, very rich, very seemingly secure. And a lot of people at the time I would imagine probably thought like that place is never gonna fall. People have that kind of view of America, oh, it's too strong, it's never gonna fall. We got F-16, we got all these planes and these military things and we're gonna blow you up. And you're starting to see that degrade even today. How many, our government is putting women in combat arms. I had to ask somebody this recently. I had seen this video where somebody sends it to me and we're females saying that they were in the infantry and I was like, this has gotta be a joke. This has gotta be a joke. So I asked somebody and they're like, yeah, no, that's true. And I'm just like, how in the world is that even possible? Like that, to me, that just blows my mind and makes me wish like I was never even in the military because that's just degrading. And it's not because I hate women, it's because I understand that job because I did that job, which is largely a part, the reason why I act the way that I do. But nonetheless, okay, that is a very difficult job, but yet our government is pushing that someday God is gonna make our government pay for that choice because we should never place women in situations like that. It is disastrous. It leads to one thing and one thing only and that is destruction, absolute destruction. That is what that leads to. Okay, they're lowering the standards for army rangers and allowing women to go in. They're gonna do the same for Marines. They'll do the same for Navy Seals. And you know what? You're gonna see here, you're gonna see verse number, I forgot what verse it is, verse 10 be fulfilled. Let's take a look here. Look at verse nine. It says, Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite. Put and Lubin were thy helpers. Verse 10, yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots. And here it is for their honorable men and all her great men were bound in chains. So God's saying, this is what happened to this city and this portion of the world here. And you think with your mighty men, you think with your fortress, you think you're gonna be able to stop me? Because remember the attitude that Sennacherib had. He told Hezekiah and Hezekiah's men, right? Hey, you guys are gonna be eating your own crap and you're gonna be drinking your own piss basically. That's what he said. And he said, or you could just come with me and do what I say. Don't let Hezekiah turn you to the Lord. He's not gonna save you. And so God is very upset about that and is giving Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, his own taste of his own medicine. Look at verse 11. Thou also shall be drunken. Thou shall be hid. Thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy. You know, obviously after Sennacherib's death, there were other kings of Assyria. So this is definitely going to apply to them as well. So just keep that in mind. Cause sometimes I say Sennacherib cause he's the most popular of the kings of Assyria and I like his nickname, snack on a rim. Verse 12, all thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs. If they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. And more personal description here of the coming destruction, verse 13. Behold thy people in the midst of thee are women. The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies. The fire shall devour their bars. Okay, so this is more of like what we talked about last week. More of that doom being described. And why is God doing this? Because they at one time had the truth. They have now rejected the truth and gone completely full abomination, full reprobate, a hundred percent gay. That's what they're doing. They're blaspheming God. So instead of actually backing up what Jonah had said, now they're taking the opposite direction. Oh yeah, that Hebrew God, he's nothing. He can't save anybody. In fact, we conquered his own people. What makes you think Judah that you're going to be able to stop us? Okay, that's the attitude. So God's describing down to the very person, what is going to happen and what he's going to do. Verse 14, look at what he says. Here's, look at the challenge in this. Draw the waters for the siege. Fortify thy strongholds. Go into clay and tread the mortar. Make strong the brickling. Okay, so God, again, like I said last week, he tells them exactly what he's going to do and then challenges them. Hey, fortify, build up some more. Do all that you can do, okay? Take your steroids, lift your weights, do your meditation, do all that stuff and see what happens. Verse 15, there shall the fire devour thee. Where? Where is there? Well, where they hunker down and decide that they're going to take up arms and fortify and strengthen themselves against God. Okay, look at verse 16. Thou, and we're getting close to being done here. Thou has multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The canker worm spoileth and fleeth away. And you know, as I read this, I can't help but make a parallel to the battle of Armageddon and the final Babylon as well. So in your own time, you know, go read Revelation nine, go read the entire book and think about these things. Okay, and you'll see the connecting dots. You'll see the pictures as well. In verse 17, thy crowned are as the locusts and thy captains as the great grasshoppers which camp in the hedges in the cold day. But when the sun arises, they flee away and their place is not known where they are. So again, God using an illustration to even make matters worse. Okay, think about the creation by the way that I made. Hey, and how they operate. That's how you're going to be after this battle. Look at this here, verse 18. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust. So instead of dwelling in their magnificent palaces in their spoil and all the places where they had conquered in the world, God's like, they're going to dwell in the dust. They're going to eat the dust. He says, thy people is scattered upon the mountains and no man gathereth them. So there will be no one found in this nation that can rally up strength and defeat the coming empire. It's not going to happen because God has decreed it. And then last but not least, we're going to leave it right here, verse 19. There is no healing of thy bruise. Hey, there's no way of getting out of this. It's the same for the reprobate. There's no healing of their bruise. God has cast an abominable filth upon them. He has marked them with specific traits that we can look at and say, ah, that person's done for. There's no helping them. They're done. They have the reservation in hell, okay? They have doom coming. It's the same thing here. There is no healing, verse 19, of thy bruise. Look at that personal there. He's like, your bruise, you have bruise. I'm sure when they got this, they were like, oh, who does he think he is? We're not bruise. And they probably, they did exactly what God said. They tried to fortify. They tried to strengthen themselves up. They sharpened their spears. They sharpened their swords. They trained, they recruited, and they fell to their knees and became one with the dust. Thy wound is grievous. All that hear the brood of thee shall clap the hands over thee. For upon whom hath not thy wickedness pass continually? So God says the world is gonna give what I'm gonna do to you a standing ovation. And it's gonna ring throughout the entire globe. It's gonna ring throughout the entire planet. People will be happy that the Assyrian Empire has fallen. And so that will definitely conclude the study. So again, if you're looking for reasons why, why did God do this? Why is God so descriptive with this destruction and with this doom? It's because they rejected the truth and that led to pushing whoredoms, getting people that could have received truth away from the truth. And then remember, God gives light to the ignorant and darkness, which is what he's decreed here to the knowledgeable. So with that being said, let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, again, for these Bible stories, Lord, that you've preserved for us that can teach us so many things about your heart and about your doctrine. We just pray that you'd bless the fellowship that you have for the service and bring us all again safely this weekend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.