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["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening. We're continuing in Isaiah chapter 20 and the Bible reads, In the year that Tartan came on to Ashdod when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and fought against Ashdod and took it, at the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loans, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign, and wander unto Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And I shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whether we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape? Let's pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear Lord. Thank you for our passage, O Lord. Please bless him tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're continuing tonight with our Bible study in the book of Isaiah. And if you notice, this chapter here is very much like chapter 18, where it's just a couple verses, so I'm actually going to cover it in my introduction and hop right into chapter 21. Now, chapter 20 is a pretty controversial chapter due to the explicit nature of the illustration that's being used here, namely the fact that Isaiah is preaching naked for three years. And I'm going to explain to you in just a bit as to why that is. Now, I want to remind you that we're still in this section in the book of Isaiah where God is pronouncing judgments on the nation. It's a pretty long, extensive section here. And it started off in chapter 13 with Babylon. It went through various nations. And tonight in chapter 20, he addresses Egypt again and Ethiopia. And then in chapter 21, he goes on to address Babylon again, actually. And then he addresses Edom. And then lastly in that particular chapter is Arabia. And I just want to remind you that this particular section of the book of Isaiah just has a lot of judgments. And so it may seem a bit redundant regarding some of the things that he's saying, but it should cause us to realize how important judgment is to the Lord, right? The fact that he's willing to spend so much time talking about judging the nations and what he's going to do to them. And in fact, if you were to just compare a lot of these chapters, it's essentially the same exact judgments upon each of them, just a lot of poetic descriptions of how he's going to destroy them, what he's going to do to them. And, you know, you may think to yourself, wow, you know, it just seems like you're saying kind of the same things. It's because the chapters are filled with a lot of the same things. And it just shows us that God is very much interested in judging the nations. And of course, the second half of the book of Isaiah will focus mainly on the restoration not only of Israel and Judah, but essentially of the entire world. And the main focus will be a lot on the millennial reign and the new heaven and the new earth. And so just want to keep that in mind that we are still dealing with the maledictions against the nations in these particular chapters. Now, let's look at chapter 20 here in verse number one. We're going to see Isaiah being used as an illustration. And the first thing he mentions here is the example of Ashtad. Look what it says in verse one. It says, In the year that Tartan came unto Ashtad, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and fought against Ashtad and took it, at the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Ammon. So the first thing we see here is that it's kind of given us the time period that Isaiah is going to give this sermon or this illustration during the year that the king of Assyria was destroying and taking Ashtad captive. And the reason that's important is because Ashtad is one of the five cities of the Philistines. You have Ekron, you have Ashtad, and I can't remember the other ones, Gaza, and the other ones are fleeing Iran. It doesn't really matter because they're Philistines, right? But one of them is Ashtad, and of course the Assyrians come and destroy it, they fight against it, they end up taking it captive, they besiege it. Now why is he even mentioning this in context of what he's dealing with the prophet Isaiah? Well I think the reason why he's even talking about this is to make an example out of Ashtad and to kind of give a preview to Judah of what's going to happen to them. So he's allowing Judah to see the judgment that's going to come upon Ashtad the Philistines, who were essentially a pretty formidable opponent of Judah for a long time. I mean they're always fighting against them, they're a thorn in their flesh, so he's allowing judgment to come upon them to essentially be an example of what's going to happen to them, and really to cause them to fear, right? And you know a New Testament principle that we can learn from that is that when we see someone become a byword or a proverb, when we see someone get chastised of the Lord, it should be an illustration to us of what can happen to us if we decide to follow in those same footsteps, right? We should never ignore the judgment that comes upon another Christian and some of the consequences that they face, because the same can be done to us if we decide to also make those bad decisions or get involved in those particular sins. And in fact you know the Bible says, You know one of the reasons God likes to openly rebuke the nations is so that other nations would give ear to it and fear. And of course the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. So in light of the fact that they fear God, in light of the fact that you know people, nations have been rebuked, they end up repenting, getting right with God. That's why it's important to preach hard sermons, amen? And you know I've preached a couple hard sermons, even on Sunday night I preached a hard sermon, and you may not have been involved in certain things that I was talking about in that sermon, but I guarantee you there's people in this church that even though they weren't involved in it, they were fearing. Why? Because lest it should come upon them. And that's why it's important to rebuke sin, reprove it, and correct it that others may fear, lest they should also get involved in like actions. And so Ashtad operates as a byword and a proverb to the other nations, but of course specifically to Judah. Now look at verse 2, it says at the same time, Spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sack log from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Yes, you read right. So, and by the way, let's keep reading here, it says in verse 3, And the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign, and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, and we'll continue reading in just a bit. I want to focus on these first two verses, and that is that God is instructing Isaiah to do something that he would not instruct you and I to do today. You know, he's telling him essentially to preach for three entire years in the nude. And you know, a lot of scholars and people who don't know the Bible will often try to interpret this and say, Well, it says naked, but you know, he did have some sort of undergarment. You know, he had underwear on, that's basically being naked, but no, he's naked, okay? There's nothing on, when it says naked, it means he has no clothes on, okay? And he's doing this for three entire years to be an example or an illustration to Judah about Egypt and Ethiopia. Now, let me talk a little bit about Isaiah's nakedness for just a minute, okay? Because it's important to address this, right? You know, being naked is obviously a sin to be nude in front of people. You know, God does not want us to expose our nakedness. He said, then what's the deal with this? Well, this is what we would consider to be the exception to a very obvious rule in the Bible. Because if the Bible's constantly telling us to cover our nakedness, to make sure that we're modest and have shame-facedness, but yet we have an example of a prophet nonetheless being naked as he's preaching, we wouldn't say, Well, I guess it's okay to preach naked then. You know, we wouldn't look at this particular example and say, Well, I guess God approves of nude preaching. It would be ridiculous to think that. We would say this is obviously a unique circumstance. This is something that was very unique to that time. This is not a commandment from God to other prophets to start getting behind the pulpit preaching naked because we see the example of Isaiah. This is the exception to the rule. And the problem with this is that sometimes people will take, obviously not this particular example, but they'll take other exceptions to the rules in the Bible and use that as the rule. Obviously, they're not going to use Isaiah because who's going to be able to justify preaching naked or being naked, period? No one is. But there's other instances in the Bible. For example, the Bible speaks against having long hair on men. And the Bible is very adamant about that, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. He is essentially dishonoring his head, which is Christ. It's very explicit when it comes to the teaching of hair on men. But yet you have the example of Samson. You have the example of the Nazarites growing out the locks of hair in order to perform an oath unto the Lord. And so what people will often do is they'll run with the Nazarite instruction. They'll run with the example of Samson and all of a sudden just apply it to Jesus. They'll apply it to just Christians. If they want to grow out their hair, well, there's the Nazarite vow. There's Samson because we have those examples. Yeah, but here's the thing. We also have the verse that says it's a shame for a man to have long hair. So what do you do? Do you just ignore one passage? Do you obey one particular verse at the exclusion of one passage or do you seek to reconcile both of them? And what we should be doing is reconciling them. And the way we reconcile them or the way we realize which one applies to us and which one doesn't is what greater percentage of the Bible teaches one or the other, right? So what greater percentage of the Bible teaches that a man should not have long hair? I mean, I don't know the exact number, but obviously it's a large percentage of the Bible. And quite frankly, if we just had the New Testament in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 or chapter 14 about men having long hair, that's all we would need because it's teaching very explicitly that if a man has long hair, he's dishonoring his head. That's enough there. And of course, the Bible makes it very explicit that the long hair, the head of man is Christ. And so that is obviously the exception to the rule that Samson had long hair. And no, Jesus Christ was not a Nazarite. He was a Nazarene, okay? And I know it sounds like Nazarite, but it's not the same thing. But yet people tried to make the exception to be the rule, okay? So, you know, you have 10 examples of the Bible teaching one specific thing. You have one verse teaching seemingly the opposite of that, and they'll run with that one verse instead because they're just wicked and sinful and they just want to disobey the Bible, apparently. But in order to have biblical integrity when it comes to interpretation, we need to holistically look at the Bible and see what it teaches. And obviously, we know that that would be wrong. You know, another example of this is the fact that the Bible is very much against not just idolatry, but when it specifies idolatry, it talks about molten images, graven images, right? Of anything in heaven above or an earth beneath. And you have this cult in this world, one of the biggest cults that has existed for the longest time, and that's the Roman Catholic Church, that literally makes it a part of the religion to worship idols. And if you ever get into a discussion with a Catholic about this, because anybody with, you know, two brain cells to rub together, I mean, honestly, you don't even have to be saved to know that what they do is idolatry and is worship. Well, it's veneration. Well, you can call it whatever you want. It's still worship, okay? And, you know, obviously, the Roman Catholic Church is the biggest gaslighting institution in this world. Or it's just they're just kind of ridiculous. It's like they think they're like Jedis trying to convince, trying to wave their hand around, trying to convince us that they're not committing idolatry and they're not worshipping Mary and all this other nonsense. But, you know, whenever you get into a discussion with them, what they'll often do is they'll point to the exceptions in the Bible. For example, the chariobims on the mercy seat, which are essentially we would consider to be graven images. And what they'll say is like, well, what about that? But what they don't realize is that when they bring up those examples, they're not arguing against us. They're arguing against the Lord, because he's the one who laid the rules of what idolatry is, what a graven image is, but yet he permitted the chariobims to be placed on the mercy seat, which are graven images. So we would look at that and not say, well, God is wrong. We would say this is the exception to the rule. And a lot of these arguments by Catholics are simply arguments against the Lord. You know, you tell them, hey, call no man father. And then they'll go through every example in the New Testament of father being used to supposedly a spiritual leader. And it's just like, who are you trying to convince, though? Me or the Lord, because he's the one who said it. And they'll tell you, they'll give you all the examples in the Bible of spiritual leaders, so-called, you know, being called father, which is, there's no example of that, by the way. They'll use all these examples of people that are being called father or dad or whatever. Obviously, that's not an example either. But, you know, some sort of like, you know, Abraham to call him father or something. And they think that, you know, that explains why Jesus said call no man father. But one thing they won't do is explain why Jesus said call no man father. It's like, well, thank you for doing a great job showing me why he said that, because you actually didn't explain why he said that. But what they don't realize is obviously the exception proves the rule. And calling our biological father father is not an exception to the rule. It's just common sense. Because Matthew 23, when he says call no man father is in context of spiritual leaders. He's saying no spiritual leader of a religious institution should ever be addressed as father or rabbi or master, should I say. You know, this is sinful. It's wrong. And so, oh, no, but, you know, let's just call the guy with the Band-Aid on his neck, father, who dresses like mama, right? But they'll point to the cherry bims, and look, there's other exceptions to this rule. What about the brass serpent? That's a molten image, but yet God commanded it to be done, and that is the exception to the rule. But people will take that exception, make it the rule, and use that as an excuse to make molten images and to worship them. Okay. You know, here's another one. What about Hosea marrying a harlot? That's not a rule in the Bible. God wants, does not want men to marry harlots, prostitutes, right? This is obviously something he was doing to illustrate a specific spiritual point. How about Ezekiel eating dung bread? I mean, that's a pretty radical illustration, and it's definitely wrong because it's something that's very unclean entering into the mouth of God's people. That was forbidden, but yet he had him eat, not human dung, but animal dung, which is still unclean. Okay. And then, of course, we have the example of Isaiah preaching naked. So you say, well, these are a lot of exceptions. Well, take it up with God because he's the one who put it there. So we can point to various verses in the Bible, passages that explicitly teach that we should not be naked. It's wrong. It's shameful. It's sinful. And, you know, point to that. But what are you going to do? So if you're going to use all these other examples as to why we can grow on our hair and make molten images and all these things, then you're going to have to say that we can also preach naked. But obviously that's a unique case for Isaiah. It doesn't make it the rule. There's just certain instances in the Bible, unique instances in the Bible that God is trying to get something across in a very explicit way and trying to get their attention. Therefore, he uses the prophets to do so. And, you know, Isaiah obeyed. So it says in verse three, the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia. So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captive, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. Now, people often say, well, I think maybe this is just before men because it would be really wrong to do before children and women. But honestly, it doesn't really say that. It's possibly before anybody who's there. Okay, because of the fact that, you know, it would be wrong for him to just be naked period. But obviously this is the exception, and it's a very explicit, raw illustration that he's using here. And he's trying to get something across. And he's not doing it for Egypt and Ethiopia, by the way. He's doing it for Judah about Egypt and Ethiopia. And just as he used Ashtad as an example of what not to do, lest you should be taken captive and destroyed in like manner. He's preaching naked to illustrate what's going to happen to Egypt and Ethiopia so that Judah will not follow in those same footsteps as well. Okay. And so, yes, he is definitely naked. And of course, it's saying that Assyria is going to come. He's going to take them prisoners. And it says young and old. So they're going to be naked, barefoot, buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. And so the principle that we can learn there is the fact that, you know, sometimes God uses these extreme illustrations to illustrate a point. And you know what? I guarantee the people who are there will never forget that. Certain illustrations require such extreme measures that you'll never forget it. Okay. You know, certain, you know, heads have to roll. And years from now, you will never forget certain illustrations because they communicate a very specific point. Okay. In fact, I don't even have to say. You already know what I'm talking about because the illustrations in times past have made that impression. And just as I'm sure to them, I made an impression. It's like, let's not disobey the Lord because I do not want to be walking around naked, taken captive by the Assyrians like they're going to do to Egypt and Ethiopia. So let's not do that. Okay. That's a good motivator, right, to stay right with the Lord. And you know, one thing that you can take away from that is look at the consequences that people face today. Look at the punishments that people face today because of their bad decisions and allow that to inspire you to not do the same. Look at the by words and the proverbs. You say, well, I don't know anything. Look at the ones in the Bible and allow that to inspire you to stay on the right track and not sin against the Lord and not disobey him. Don't be like the Egyptians and the Ethiopians. It says in verse five, and they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation and of Egypt, their glory. And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, behold, such is our expectation, whether we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Syria and how shall we escape? So what he's saying here is, aside from the fact that he's using them as an illustration of what not to do, he's also removing the confidence that they could potentially put in Egypt and Ethiopia. I mean, they're like, oh, man, Egypt and Ethiopia are going to help us. How are they going to help you when they're being taken captive naked? You know, they're not doing too well themselves. How are they going to help you? Okay. So he's stripping them of their confidence. He's stripping them of the faith that they have in these nations because the very nations that are supposed to deliver them are actually being delivered into the hand of the Assyrians in the most humiliating way. Okay. Both young and old. And so, you know, they're walking to Assyria naked and barefoot. The New Testament principle, walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding dark and being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. And so this is an illustration to us that we should not walk as other Gentiles walk. You know, the Gentiles, so to speak, the unsaved of this world, yeah, they may not be walking around naked, although some of them are, but they walk around with no shame. And we should not walk as other Gentiles walk, right? Just shameful, naked, spiritually speaking, barefoot. And by the way, some Christians are walking naked, spiritually speaking, because they're not putting on the new man, putting on righteousness, girding themselves. They're girding their loins with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the armor of God. They're essentially naked before the Lord because they're so fleshly and carnal. Okay. And so he's removing the expectation from Judah. He's removing what they're placing their faith in so that in turn they would essentially rely on the Lord once again, depend on him and not seek out these foreign nations that can't even help themselves. So look at chapter 21 now, chapter 21. So that's why Isaiah was naked. Okay. And, you know, three years, that's a long sermon. So every day he's getting up, he's just like, all right, here we go again, you know? And there's some extreme instances in the Old Testament. I mean, if you just read about Ezekiel, some of the things that he had to do, preaching on his side, right? And making like a toy city to illustrate what's going to happen and then eating bread dung, you know, just doing some crazy stuff. And even then, like, you know, how about the fact that God basically allowed his wife to die? He said, I shall remove the desire of thine eyes. And she died and he rose up and he preached again and all for an illustration. You know, and it's just like, man, that's rough, you know? Yeah, but you know what? These men are highly esteemed in the eyes of God, though. Okay. And God obviously favors them greatly. They're great men of God and they will forever be immortalized in the Bible as being these great prophets. Right. And so it's wonderful that they obeyed the Lord and did these things. All right. So let's look at Chapter 21. And so he's going to address Babylon once again. We're going to see the fall of Babylon and the conquest of Media and Persia. It says in verse one of Chapter 21, the burden of the desert or the sea as whirlwinds in the south pass through. So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared unto me. The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam, besiege O Media and the sign thereof have I made to cease. Now Elam is referring to just another way of saying Persia. And so what this is talking about is the fact that Media and Persia are going to be the ones to chastise Babylon. And we know that because of the successions of those kingdoms. Right. Those who take over after the Babylonians is the Medo-Persian empire. And there's a lot of debate as to who was that actually did this in this particular prophecy. Who was it? Was it the Assyrians? Because obviously the Assyrians are essentially the main character over these last couple of chapters. They're the ones who have been used by God as an instrument to chastise the nations. So to come to the conclusion that it's the Assyrians is reasonable. Others have said it's probably Mero. I forgot what his name is. He essentially left the Assyrians in order to... He revolted against them and then he also ended up taking over Babylon as well. But then when you really think about it historically it was probably Cyrus. Okay. And the reason why I say it's probably him is because in this particular chapter it actually describes in verse 5 what the people were doing when they were conquered. And it says that they were preparing a table. They were eating and drinking. And when you compare that to Daniel chapter 5 when Belshazzar is essentially using the instruments of the house of God to throw this huge party. This is where the writing of the wall comes. He ends up dying there and historically that's actually what took place. The Medo-Persian empire came in and actually took it over it says with ease because of the fact that they were eating and drinking. They were vulnerable. They weren't prepared. And so it was most likely Cyrus the Persian who was responsible for taking them over. It says in verse 3, Therefore are my loins filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold upon me. As the pangs of a woman that travaileth, I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted. Fearfulness affrighted me. The night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. Now what is he talking about? Well when Isaiah is listening to God about what's going to happen to Babylon, it troubles him. And I think what this speaks to is how compassionate Isaiah is. His empathy, his sympathy. Because even though Babylon deserves it, even though they deserve to be punished for their sins and their crimes, there are a lot of innocent people that are probably going to be punished too. And so he's probably thinking about those people. And you know Isaiah is a hard preacher. This man is a hard preacher. Takes hard stances. He's a man who obviously loves righteousness. He loves the Lord. Not at the exception though of loving the innocent. Even those who get punished because of their actions. Because when he's listening to this, it says that his loins are filled with pain. And you know there are instances where maybe we hear about a wicked reprobate being punished. And we're like, amen. Because they're wicked. They're children of the devil. But there's other instances where maybe people are punished who aren't necessarily reprobates. Maybe they've made bad decisions. Or maybe they're behaving wickedly. There should be a sense of pain that we feel when we view that. Or when we hear about it. Why? Because of the fact that when you are at the receiving end of God's hand of chastisement, it's not fun. And the Bible even tells us that we shouldn't rejoice when our enemy falleth. That's basically speaking to us that we need to make sure that we still have compassion and empathy in our hearts. And allow that to fill our loins with pain as it says here. He even says that he bows down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the scene of it. He's just like, oh man, this is making me sick. I just didn't even think about it. He says his heart panted, even to the point where he lost sleep over it. And this is over Babylon. Babylon's not a righteous nation. It's not a nation that is exemplary for righteousness. It's a wicked nation. But even then, he's thinking about all the people that have been affected by the wicked leaders of Babylon. And it makes me think of this. We have a lot of wicked leaders today in America. A lot of wicked leaders. And we definitely want the wicked to be punished. But here's the thing is that there's still a lot of wonderful people in America, though. A lot of innocent people in America. And so I sometimes feel like I'm being torn apart. Because one side of me is just like, God, judge America. I'm an accelerationist, somewhat. Just do it today. Just destroy the nations that are going to be destroyed. And just this righteous indignation for the wicked to be destroyed. But then the other side of me thinks about the innocent of America or those who are still looking for the truth. And we should obviously be affrighted over the fact that God, if he were to punish America in our lifetime, a lot of innocent people would suffer because of it. Not because God is angry with them, but because God is judging the nation as a whole. And sometimes the innocent suffer because of the actions of the wicked. And so we should have compassion for them. And this is why, yeah, even so, Lord, come. But at the same time, Lord, maybe you can tarry so we can get more people saved. So we can turn more people to righteousness. So I can win my family to the Lord. So I can win my children to the Lord. So I can win my mom or my dad or my brother or my sister or my neighbor or just people in general. May the judgment of God be held back so that we can turn more people to righteousness. And so, yes, the wicked need to be destroyed. And yes, there's a lot of wicked people in America. But we need to have the same compassion that Isaiah has where he's not like just sleeping like a baby. He's just like, that was a cool sermon. He's just like not even bothering. He's like literally losing sleep. The night of my pleasure hath turned into fear unto me, it says. He's just like tossing and turning, thinking about just the damage that this nation is going to receive because of their disobedience towards God. Look at verse five says, prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink, arise, ye princes and anoint the shield. I really think that this is actually referring to or addressing the fact that Babylon is at ease. They're unprepared for the judgment that's going to come upon them. And this is applicable to just pretty much anyone. But especially we can apply this to us as Christians that, you know, we should not be Christians who are unprepared for anything. You know, we need to be vigilant, right? We need to be watchmen. And in fact, he addresses that in the coming verses. Look at verse number six. He says, for thus hath the Lord said unto me, go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. And what's being talked about here from verses six through 10 is that God is telling Isaiah that Isaiah needs to tell Judah to make sure he sets up watchmen to view the destruction of Babylon. Okay. And to report what is it that he's seen. He says in verse seven, and he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses and a chariot of camels, and he hearkened diligently with much heat. And he cried, Allying, my Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights. And behold, here cometh the chariot of men with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. All my threshing in the corner of my floor, that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. So one thing we could see from this hold your place or go to Ezekiel chapter 33 is that God wants us to be vigilant. He wants us to be sober. He wants us to be aware of what's going on. But obviously, in this particular instance, it's what's literally happening in the physical world, right? Because he's talking about Babylon. But obviously, we know that these things aren't necessarily applicable to us in a physical manner in the New Testament. We apply this in a spiritual manner. And as Christians, we should be vigilant, spiritually speaking, about the spiritual warfare that's happening, okay? Not just in our personal lives, but just in general. You know, when we look at the woes of our nation, we need to view it from a spiritual perspective. Be spiritually minded as watchmen as to why these things are happening. Well, we all know why it happens because of Democrats. Duh! It's all the leftists! Pastor, don't you know? Well, yeah, those are the puppets, but we're Christians, though. We're legitimately the watchmen, and so we need to peel back and see what's the real issue behind all of this. The real issue is sin. The real issue is that, you know, the higher-ups have devils running them, okay? And if it's a spiritual problem that it requires, I know that this is really profound, a spiritual solution, not a physical one. The problem is that Christians are like, no, it's a spiritual solution, so it requires us to vote in the right person. That's actually the solution, Pastor, and that'll help us spiritually. Yeah, that'll put a Band-Aid over the artery that's already busted. Well, wait a minute. A Band-Aid doesn't do anything. Exactly! It's already bleeding out. It's not going to do anything. The watchman here is viewing Babylon falling to its knees. He's essentially reporting everything that's happening, but in the New Testament, we're to be watchmen not just to be vigilant over the souls of men, not just to be over the souls of our family, church members, et cetera, but even just the spiritual woes of the surrounding nations. When we look at a nation like India, you know, we can be a watchman over that nation and realize, well, the reason they're so filthy and disgusting over there with the food that they have and their sanitation or the lack thereof, it's not because they weren't taught properly. It's because they're pagan. They're heathen. They worship false gods. The goal is not conquest, destroy them and wipe them off the face of the planet. The goal is the gospel to clean up their souls and then eventually the chain reaction will be they'll clean up their lives. You understand what I'm saying? They'll actually clean up their streets and their food. Sorry to offend you Indian food lovers out there. I can't get close enough to eat it. So and I mentioned this already multiple times. Instagram put me off to Indian food. I will never eat. I don't even want to set my eyes on it because it's so nasty. And if you're offended at it, you know, you need a spiritual solution. OK, well, you know, we could we could be watchmen over the nations. And it's important because, you know, it's easy to just come up with the physical solution. You're not a good watchman at that point, though. If you are trying to fix the problem from a political standpoint, you're not a good watchman. You're not watching with spiritual lenses because the solution is spiritual. And I don't know about you, but there's no politician in this world who has a spiritual bone in their body. Sorry, this is not a theocracy. You know, and I know people like to pull out verses from the Old Testament, but just a reminder, they had a king and the king's authority was God. And it was a theocracy at that point. They actually follow the word of God. So that's not necessarily a good, you know, you know, example for us to use in the New Testament. The president is not the king. So what should we do then? Well, why don't we look at the example of the New Testament? Because don't you remember when Paul like voted in to write Caesar? And when Paul like, you know, tried to, you know, change things and did all these political campaigns, it never happened. I remember I put that on Instagram one time and they're like, wow, that's crazy. I didn't know that happened. Like it didn't happen. I was being facetious. Sarcasm just never happened. The point that I'm making here is that he's telling them to watch for the fall of Babylon, report it, learn from it, see why it's happening and report back to God's people as to why it happened. And in like manner, we need to have understanding of the times to be spiritual watchmen and look at the nations around us, not just our nation, but even the nations around us, and judge righteously as to why they're succeeding or why is it that they're failing. And even if they're succeeding, it's not because of they're spiritual necessarily. But, you know, obviously maybe there's spiritual people in that nation working behind the scenes, winning people. You never know to Christ or they're preaching the word of God. So how so? Because that's the only thing that improves the nation is God himself and the laws of God. Look at Ezekiel 33, verse one, it says, again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people and say unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coast and set him for their watchman, if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. Now, people will often use these verses to teach like a workspace salvation. But this is just literally referring to the fact, if we're to apply it in a spiritual manner to the New Testament, it's referring to the fact that we're watchmen in the sense of we need to preach righteousness to deliver people from the consequences of their actions, right? Blow the trumpet, the trumpet there signifies preaching. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, cry out loud and spare now, show my people the transgression, okay? And so as watchmen, we're constantly blowing the trumpet on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday evening, throughout the week, just warning people, warning believers of the actions, the consequences of their actions. He says in verse 6, but if the watchmen see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among them, he's taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. He said, well, how can we apply this to being a watchman over other nations? Well, you know, that's why I'm talking about India, lest we should become like that. We judge India because of all their paganism and their idolatry and say, is this what you want to be? Then don't become a Roman Catholic, because idolatry paganism leads to these types of wicked, adulterous, you know, filthy actions that nations participate in as a result of idolatry paganism, okay? We look at nations and say, you know, that nation is an example to us of what happens to a nation when they reject the God of the Bible, when they reject the word of God, when they mock the Lord Jesus Christ, when they begin to worship the creature more than the creator, when they're unwilling to eat the cow and more readily receive the cow's dung. And so, you know, this is what it means to be a watchman. It's not just preaching the gospel that's part of it, but also just judging nations, telling people the reason they're in the situation, the reason that that nation is a communist nation is because of the rejection of the Bible, okay? The reason that nation, you know, by the way, I mean, obviously it's going to apply to our nation. If Kamala Harris becomes president, you know, I got sermons for four years. Kamala Harris becomes the president, good night in the morning. It's like, you know why we have? Oh, it becomes voter fraud. No, it's because we're being judged. Because the most shameful thing that can ever happen to a nation is to get a woman as a president. It's wicked, it's sinful, it's wrong, it is an indicator that a nation has been judged, but just on top of that, Kamala Harris, to get a whore for a president is even worse. That's why we got to make sure, do your part and vote. No, do your part and turn people to righteousness to wake them up. You know, because there's people out there, you know, if you really want to like, like let's say voting was actually like a legitimate thing. You know, if you really want to make a difference, change the minds of the people because you have people out there who are literally saying, well, I'm voting for her because she's a woman and she's black. I mean, that's an indicator that a nation is cursed when those are their markers for voting. She's a woman and she's black, therefore I'm going to vote her in. What kind of nonsense is that? But you know what it is? It's a stupid nation and it's a spiritual problem. Oh, you're sexist. Whatever you want, you know, you don't know how to pronounce Christian very well, but I'll take it. You're just a sexist, racist, I'm a Christian. If you want to put that under it, I don't care. Because obviously whoever's calling me that, whoever's labeling me as that doesn't, you know, is already stupid anyways. And you're probably voting for Kamala Harris. The point that I'm making is that, you know what, as watchmen, we need to recognize, hey, guys, you know, yeah, it's bad that, yeah, they're going to, if they voted in a liberal, Democrat, leftist, but it's worse that she's a woman. Because here's the thing, if it was like a Republican, conservative, just like far right, conservative, and she was a woman, and it was a woman, the conservatives would probably vote her in. Because they're like, oh, but she's Republican. She's for Trump. She's Republican. She's against abortion. You know, it's still a curse. Let's say Kamala Harris was just a full right-wing conservative Republican, it still means that this nation would be cursed for the mere fact that she's a woman. Because the Bible explicitly says in the book of Isaiah, chapter 3, that this is what he does to a nation when he wants to punish them. Because no woman should ever be in a position of authority over a man, in a church, or especially a nation. But then when you have an idiot like Kamala Harris, that just adds to it. Like, well, we wouldn't care if I was a woman for the Republican party, it's just that she's a leftist, she's a babbling idiot, she's a woman though, let's just talk about that, she's a woman. And the Bible says that that's a curse on a nation. And if it happens, it's just the seal of God's judgment on this country that God is just saying, like, this is what you get, this is what you deserve. Not only do you deserve a woman, a leftist, a Democrat, but you also get an idiot, a whore, a babbling idiot, it's just an embarrassment. What are you doing? I'm being a watchman, I'm just telling you what the real problem is. You know what I mean? And you're just listening to too much talk radio, and too much Republican talk, too much conservative talk, you're too trumped out to listen to what I'm trying to tell you here, you know what I mean? Because let's just face it, if the tables return and there is no other candidate for the Republican party or whatever, for the right-wingers, and there's a woman running for president, but she held to all the views of a Republican, the Republicans will be fine with it. Not understanding that that's still considered a curse. The point that I'm making here is the fact that we, as God's people, are to be a watchman, not just for our own nation, but even judging the other nations and how they fall, what is it that brought about their fall, in order to warn us not to be like them. Go back to Isaiah chapter 21, he gets into the judgment of Edom here, he says in verse 11, the burden of Douma, he calleth to me out of Seir, watchman, one of the night, watchman, one of the night. Watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the night, if you will inquire, inquire ye, return, come. He said, well I didn't see Edom there. Well, the reason we know that Douma is referring to Edom is because he's calling out of Seir, and Seir is Edom. And this is a very brief description of their judgment. There's a far more extensive declaration of what's going to happen to them in the book of Obadiah. And what Obadiah talks about is the fact that they're just prideful. They're prideful, they're arrogant, they have despised Judah, they took advantage of Judah and Jerusalem when they were in dire straits, when they were vulnerable, they took advantage of them. And so God is punishing them for that. And I want you to notice what it says in verse 11, he says, watchman, one of the night, watchman, one of the night. What is it saying? It's saying that those of Edom are saying like, when is this night of judgment going to end? Because once the dawn comes, it's just like the war is over. And the watchman says, the morning cometh, and also the night. What does that mean? It means, you know, you can look forward to the morning, but just to let you know there's another night coming. And what he's basically declaring to them is just like, this judgment is not going to end. You might have a little bit of a break, but the night cometh once again. So what's the answer? The answer is return, come. In other words, get right with God. Okay. Because he's like, watchman, one of the night. Like, when is the night about to end? He's just like, it's about to end, but I just hate to break the news to you. You know, there's another four years of this nonsense. Okay. And so this is the judgment of Edom. And of course, if you want to read it on your own, there's a more extensive judgment in Obadiah. I'm not going to go through that because I'm almost out of time. And then there's judgment of Arabia. It says in verse 13, the burden upon Arabia in the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, all you traveling companies of Dedanim. The inhabitants of the land of Timah brought water to him that was thirsty. They prevented with their bread him that fled. For they fled from the swords, from the drawn swords, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. This is referring to the refugees of Arabia that are fleeing from the captivity. Verse 16 says, for thus hath the Lord said unto me, within a year, according to the years of an hireling, of all the glory of Kedar shall fail. And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken him. The point that he's making here in this particular chapter is the fact that no nation is exempt from the judgment. And it doesn't matter if there's one nation that is far more wicked than the other, each nation will be judged according to their works. Because one nation is guilty of pride, another one's guilty of taking advantage of the vulnerable. Another nation is just guilty of idolatry, but every nation shall be judged according to their works. Just as every person, the exclusion of Christians, will be judged according to their works. This is why the Bible teaches that there are essentially different levels of hell, different punishments in hell. It's all fire and brimstone, but there's certain portions of hell that are hotter than others, because they're low as hell. And some of them are designated for the most wicked of people. And the Bible says that the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. And so the purpose of these chapters that we're looking at here is to show that God's not going to leave no stone unturned. You know, it's not like, oh, I forgot this particular nation here or, oh, man, I'll get you later or something like that. No, he's systematically going through each nation and telling each nation, like, I didn't forget what you did 10 years ago. I didn't forget what you did 20 years ago. I didn't forget what you did to my people 50 years ago. Like, you're each getting your chastisement when it comes. And so what can we learn from this? Well, first of all, from chapter 20, let's learn not to be like the shameful nations around us, right? Like the Ethiopians, not literally, but the Ethiopians and the Egyptians, quote unquote, that are essentially shameful before God. Let's not walk as other Gentiles walk. But also what we can learn from chapter 21 is that, hey, let's be a watchman to warn people of the surrounding nations and to have spiritual lenses on. Now more than ever, by the way, and I have to talk about this every couple of weeks just because we are in election year and Christians have a tendency to just get a little off kilter and become a little too Republican during this time. OK, and I know I lose people when I talk about those things, but you know what? I'm a watchman and not for the Republican Party either. OK, I'm here to remind you where your focus should be and to remove the political lenses and put on the spiritual lenses. It's not as glamorous. Sorry. It's not as glamorous. It's not as hopeful. There's no immediate hope with these types of lenses, but it's the truth. OK, and so, you know, you don't want to be the person who's putting their expectation in the Republican Party or something. And then later on, you become ashamed because it ends up falling apart or turning on you or something like that. You know, because the politician lied to you or something. It's better to just put your hope in the Lord because he'll never he'll always meet those expectations. He'll never let you down, no matter who's in office. Amen. And so let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the illustrations that we see here. Lord, help us to be watchmen, to observe the surrounding nations and look at the fruits thereof and recognize that the problem is a spiritual problem. The problem in our nation is spiritual. And the solution is the gospel. The solution is the preaching of the word of God to reform the minds. And even though that may not make a significant dent, as we would want it to make for an eternity, we'll see how great the impact actually was. And regardless of the fact that if the message is popular or not, Lord, we should say it and report what we see and have the integrity to speak of what we see because it's right to do. And so I pray that you'd help us, Lord, especially this year to keep our minds in the Bible and be vigilant, be sober and recognize that all this is a spiritual battle. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.