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Number three, and the Bible reads, for behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the prudent and the ancient, the captain of 50 and the honorable man and a counselor and the cunning artificer and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes and babes shall rule over them and the people shall be oppressed. Every one by another and every one by his neighbor, the child shall behave himself proudly against the agent and the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of his brother or the house of his father saying, thou is clothing, be thou our ruler and let this ruin be under thy hand. In that day shall he swear saying, I will not be in healer for in my house is neither bread nor clothing, make me not a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. To show of their countenance the witness against them and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. One to their soul for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say to the righteous that it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. One to the wicked shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way thy paths. The Lord standeth up to plead and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof for you have eaten up the vineyard, the spoiler of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of hosts. Moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet. Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their calls and their round tires like the moon, the chains, the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands and the tablets and the earrings, the rings, the nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel and the mantles and the wimples and the crisping pins, the glasses and the fine linen and the hoods and the veils. They shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell they shall be stink instead of a girdle or rent and instead of well set hair baldness and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war and her gates shall lament and mourn and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. Let's pray. We thank you heavenly father for the King James Bible. Dear God, we thank you for this wonderful church you've given us and we thank you for our pastor dear Lord. Please bless him tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen, okay, we're continuing this evening with our Bible study in the book of Isaiah, chapter number three. In chapter two, we were essentially covering, it's giving us some imagery here of the millennial reign and of course it also talks about the day of the Lord and as we know, the day of the Lord is essentially referring to God's judgment upon a particular nation. Of course, here we're talking about Judah and Israel but it's essentially a microcosm of what's gonna take place in the end of the world where when Christ comes back to rapture his people, the day of the, that's considered the day of the Lord and that's when God begins to pour out his wrath upon this world. And so throughout the Bible, you see that concept of the day of the Lord that's often associated with God's judgment, God's wrath and that's what was being talked about towards the latter end of chapter two. Now chapter three is a continuation of that judgment and tonight we're gonna look at the profile of a nation that's under judgment. What are some of the things that God does when God begins to judge a nation that has forsaken God, forsaken the Bible, forsaken biblical principles, what does God do to a nation? What is exactly, how is it that he judges them? What does he do to them? Well, the first thing we're gonna look at is that he's going to remove the necessities, essential necessities and competent leaders, okay? Look at verse number one, it says, for behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water. What is that referring to when he says the stay and the staff? Well, you think of the word stay, it's referring to that which establishes you, that which essentially keeps you afloat and the staff is referring to essentially a rod or a stick that you would lean upon, that you rely upon. So when he says the stay and the staff, he's referring to the fact that he's removing the essentials of life, that which we would rely upon to live and that's why he specifically says, excuse me, the stay of bread and the whole stay of water. Now, how does he do that? Well, throughout the Bible, you see that God, when he judges a nation, will often bring famine, right? Meaning that he will allow it not to rain, he'll keep the rain from coming upon the crops and therefore creating a drought, therefore creating a famine, people starve. That is a way of how he removes the stay of bread and the stay of water. Other instances, he sometimes sends an east wind, as we see in the book of Hosea, that destroys the crops. If it's not the east wind, if it's not the famine, sometimes he'll send locusts to come and eat the crops, destroy the crops. God's very creative, okay? He has a variety of options in which he destroys the essentials of life. So one of the first things that he does when he's judging a nation is that he removes their food supply, he removes the bread and the water, he essentially begins to curse the ground, he begins to curse the land. And when I think about this verse, I think about 2 Chronicles 7, where the Bible says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, he says, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and listen to this, and will heal their land, okay? So what God is saying here is that if God's people repent from their sins, they get right with God, and they seek God's face, then he's gonna heal the land, okay? It's not gonna be cursed, it's not gonna be filled with famine and pestilence and locusts, that which will consume the food and all their resources. Let me read to you another verse here from Haggai chapter one, because if you remember in the previous chapters, we see that Judah, in the previous chapter, excuse me, it says of Judah that they have treasures and riches, essentially that they have an abundance, and it's because of that that they're essentially forgetting God, right? And we talked about the fact that when you have an overabundance of resources and money and possessions, people have a tendency to idolize money and forsake the Lord, okay? So sometimes God has to make you broke in order to humble you and get you back to where you need to be, where you're looking for God again, and you're asking for your daily bread. But it reminds me of this verse in Haggai one, verse six, where it says, ye have sown much and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into bags with holes. Now this is a perfect example of someone who decides to just forsake the things of God, to get out of church, to make more money, to get a second job, and they become fixated on becoming wealthy, right? But then they forsake church, they forsake the spiritual responsibilities, and yeah, they're working more hours, they're getting overtime in, maybe they're working a second job, but you know what? If you're a Christian, God's not gonna allow you to prosper. And he's gonna allow those wages that you earn to go into bags with holes. In other words, he's gonna make that money disappear one way or another. And that is one way that God gets people's attention. The Bible tells us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And whether you like it or not, sometimes our hearts are tied into our resources. So it's important to invest in things that you wanna give your heart to that are right things, such as church, other people. Why? Because then your heart will follow that. If you invest in stupid things, you're gonna get stupid appetites and stupid results, right? If you invest in buying video games, then you're gonna lose the heart for the Bible and the things of God, and you're gonna be a lazy game addict, okay? If you're investing in frivolous things that don't matter, that's where your attention and your affection is gonna go. And so he's telling us here in Haggai that sometimes God can even hinder you from making more money. And you're like, well, I got this really great plan to make more money, and I got this great boss, he's gonna give me extra hours. You can have the greatest boss, the greatest of financial circumstances, and that money can still go into a hole where you'll never see it ever again, if that's what God wants, okay? So I'd rather just have both, amen? You know, where you're able to pay your bills and please God. And in fact, when you please God, you can pay your bills. And sometimes he even gives you a little extra on top, a little cherry on top, a little abundance. The Bible says that he gives us all things richly to enjoy. Why not be in God's good favor by obeying him? And then you can still earn those extra wage or whatever it may be. But we see in Isaiah that obviously Israel's not doing that. So an over in abundance is not causing them to get closer to God. They obviously don't have the discipline to have an abundance and continue to serve God. It's causing them to forsake the Lord. And you don't have to turn there, but in Isaiah 36, he kind of addresses the same thing. He says in verse six, "'Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed "'on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, "'it will go into his hand and pierce it. "'So is Pharaoh king of Egypt "'to all that trust in him.'" So one of the glaring weaknesses of Judah and Israel is they're putting their trust in everything but God. They're putting their trust in their resources and their riches, but they're not really trusting in the Lord. They're putting their trust in Egypt and in Pharaoh and the government and political authorities, but they're not really trusting in the Lord. So God's trying to bring him back to this point of trusting in him. And part of doing that is removing the most essential of resources. And you say, well, how does that help to get you back? To worshiping God and serving God. Well, Psalm 119, 71 says this, "'It is good for me that I have been afflicted, "'that I might learn thy statutes.'" It's when you're in great trial of affliction that you have a tendency to read the Bible more. It's when you're broke that you have a tendency to make more time for the Bible. Why? Because you ain't got no money to go out. You don't have money to go buy stuff and go hang out and go on vacation and go out to eat or whatever it may be. You don't even got the gas money to go to the nearby Starbucks. And if you had the money to go to nearby Starbucks, you don't have money to buy a Starbucks. So now you're gonna invest more time into the things of God. And of course, as you obey the Lord, as you live a righteous life and learn biblical principles, God will bless you with abundance and sometimes even riches. But the point that's being made here is that Judah and Jerusalem had riches and abundance because God blessed them and that caused them to forsake the Lord. And it's for that reason that he begins to remove the stay and the staff. They're no longer established because he's removing that bread. They no longer have that staff that they're leaning upon because God is removing the water as well. He's creating some form of famine in the land. Look at verse number two. So now he not only removes the essentials to life, food, water, but he also begins to remove capable leaders. And this is a mark of true judgment upon a nation. Look what it says in verse two. The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the prudent and the ancient, the captain of 50 and the honorable man and the counselor and the cunning artificer and the eloquent orator. So what is he talking about? He says he's gonna remove these people from the land. Who are these people? He's talking about military might. You think of a nation, they're in need of some sort of military army to protect them from outsiders and foreigners who are trying to invade. He's also removing judges. That's a curse, why? Because of the fact that you need righteous judges in order to judge judicial things, tell people right from wrong, hey, you should owe this person this money, this person should be put to death. You need someone to exercise justice in the land, right? Well, that person's out. He's removing prophets. So the spiritual leaders are out. So now you don't know what God expects from you. You're not getting preaching and you don't know what the word of the Lord is saying. He's removing those who are knowledgeable and wise, managers, people who are able to be captains of 50s, the noblemen, people of moral uprightness and even engineers. Because he talks about the cunning artificers. These are the inventors, these are the engineers. And of course he talks about the orators referring to those who are communicators. Now you think to yourself, well, removing these people is a sign of God's judgment? How so? Well, the removing of these members of society is a curse because they're essentially, they're the ones responsible for the advancement of a civilization, understand? And so when you remove these types of people from a land, that nation, that civilization can't really go forward. It can't advance. You're removing essential people from that society that can help that society not only thrive and grow but become better, that is a curse. This is a curse because God gives men like that to a civilization so they don't remain primitive, understand? And you look at different nations in the world, some of the most primitive nations out there are people of less intelligence, okay? And often it's associated with a false religion. So often these nations that are poor and underdeveloped are often nations that don't have Christ as their God and therefore suffering the consequences of it. Now, when I think of this particular passage, I actually think about the country of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, okay? Now, if you know anything about the Khmer Rouge, it's something that took place between 1975 and 1979 where a dictator by the name of Pol Pot who was the prime minister of Cambodia at the time committed mass genocide of the Cambodian population where up to three million people were essentially exterminated, okay? And the people that he specifically targeted, listen to this, were the intellectuals of the land. So doctors were killed, lawyers, teachers, religious leaders, and even people with glasses. And I'm not joking, if people walked around with a pair of glasses on, they were done because they were considered educated and therefore wiped out. And Pol Pot was a very wicked Marxist dictator, okay? And his reasoning for executing and committing this mass genocide of the quote unquote intellectuals is because it was a sign of Western civilization influence. Oh, God forbid that smart people would be in the land and that the West would influence other nations to become smarter and more intellectual and better and improve a society. But that's literally what he said, okay? And so we see here a parallel to Isaiah chapter three that part of a curse on a nation is that he removes these types of people from a land. And that's what happened to Cambodia. He said, well, how do you make that parallel though? You know, Pol Pot is very wicked, he's a dictator. You know, can we really say that God did that? Well, think about this. You know, the country of Cambodia is a nation that has embraced and identified as being Buddhist since the fifth century AD. And obviously you know there's various types of religions there. You have animist, Hindus, Islam, but primarily it's Buddhist, okay? And obviously all of those are false religions. And in fact, Buddhism became the state religion in the 13th century. So for 2,000 years, and by the way, it still is, but for 2,000 years, you have this nation who has rejected the truth. Like, oh no, they're in darkness. You know, they didn't know better. Any nation that is worshiping false gods, adhering to a false religion, is a byproduct of a nation who has rejected the God of the Bible. Because every human being in this world knows about God. Okay, they have the witness in themselves, and I'm not gonna re-preach that, but they have the light of their conscience. They have different missionaries that have gone there throughout the years. They have the testimony of creation. And so everyone, if they're actually looking for the truth, will find the God of the Bible. And if they end up veering off into a false god, it's an indicator that they've rejected the light that God gave them, and began to believe a lie, okay? So, Cambodia's a place where Buddhism has reigned, essentially indicating that the nation of, also the nation of Israel, Israel's been on my mind lately. The nation of Cambodia has rejected the Bible. Now, you say, well, you know, does that mean that they've never had the truth, though? No, I believe that there's been pockets of time throughout the history of Cambodia where they've had the truth come to them. And in fact, there was a 90-year period, starting in 1863, known as the French Protectorate of Cambodia, where France essentially seized Cambodia, okay? And they protected it, right? But they essentially took control of Cambodia for 90 years. And France wasn't a Christian nation, it was predominantly Catholic. But Catholicism is at least more closely in proximity to Christianity than Buddhism is, right? And of course, France was already an established nation, it was already advanced. And so when they came to Cambodia, they improved a lot of things. The infrastructure was being improved, public works were being developed, roads and railroads were being constructed. I mean, Cambodia was advancing as a society after the French kind of took over. And of course, if you have Catholicism going there, they're not Christian, but you're gonna have some form of a person that believes in true Christianity to come there. And in fact, in 1923 is when they recorded Protestant missionaries going to Cambodia. So Protestant missionaries were going there, they're preaching the word of God, they're preaching the gospel. Well, in 1953, Cambodia ended up getting their independence from France. So they're no longer under that protectorate of France. And in 1965, listen to this, the prince of Cambodia ends up expelling all missionaries from there, okay? So 1965 to the day, 90 years after the French came, the prince expels all missionaries. And there's a rumor that states that, well, between 1970 and 1975, they were allowed to come back into the land for about five years to preach the word of God. And it's possible that that was the case. But then after that, you have year zero. What is year zero? 1975, when Pol Pot takes over the Khmer Rouge and just wipes them all out, okay? And he not only kills, commits mass genocide, but they're even bombing the rivers where there's fish. I mean, he's destroying the food, the state and the staff. He's removing these important people from the land. And the point that I'm making here is that the indicator that a nation is being judged is when the gentility, as they say, of a society is removed. Basically, these important people of knowledge, people who are doctors and lawyers and teachers and religious leaders, they're completely taken out, okay? So Cambodia is a perfect example of what's taking place in Isaiah chapter three. And you say, well, aren't there missionaries there now? I mean, probably, maybe. I don't know what they're preaching over there. But I'm just saying like in general, Cambodia is not a Christian nation. It's far removed from Christianity. And the Cambodia of today is suffering the consequences of embracing paganism for the last 2000 years. And so God, you know, the Bible tells us that at this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And so you're like, oh man, the Khmer Rouge is bad. And it was bad. Pol Pot is a wicked person. And you know, he is a devil. But you know what? According to the Bible, he was an instrument in the hand of God to correct the nation and punish a nation who has clearly rejected the truth. That's a hard truth for a lot of people to swallow, but it's fact, my friends. And God did this continuously throughout the Bible where he would use a foreign nation to judge his people or other people, even though they're extremely wicked themselves. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 28, verse 15, as a roaring lion and a raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. Proverbs 29, two says, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. They're saying like, you know, when there's righteous people in the land, everyone's happy. You know, laws are being instituted. You know, the wicked are being removed. Everything is going great. God's laws are being carried out. The people rejoice when there's law and order. But when there's disorder and crime and the person who's responsible for it is the leader himself, then the people mourn because of it, okay? And so we see there a clear indication that a nation has been judged. And I'm sure there's plenty of other examples that we could pull out from history of different nations that would fall under that same category as Cambodia, okay? Look at verse number four. He goes on to say, I will give children to be their princes and babes shall rule over them. So we're gonna look at the deterioration of social order here. He says in verse five, and the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another and everyone by his neighbor. The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable. So what do we see here? We see that roles are being reversed and authority is being usurped. He says, I'm gonna give you babes to be your rulers, children shall rule over you. It says the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, referring to the fact that you're gonna have young people who despise the ancient, the elderly, okay? That are disrespecting their elders, right? And unfortunately, we see that today where a lot of young people just lack a lot of respect and it's an indicator that they weren't whooped when they were little, right? And so now, we are seeing the ramifications of an undisciplined generation that was not corrected by their parents and they behave themselves proudly against the ancient. Now, hold your place there, go to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, we're gonna come back to Isaiah chapter three, go to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, we're gonna read a couple of verses here. So it says that the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, everyone by his neighbor, the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable. So base means like the worst types of people. They're gonna essentially behave themselves proudly, it says, against those who are honorable and noble and deserving of respect. Those who don't deserve respect are gonna be dishonoring those who do. And let me read to you from Proverbs 30 verse 21, it says, for three things the earth is disquieted and for four which it cannot bear, for a servant when he reigneth and a fool when he is filled with meat, referring to that reversal of the roles. Look at Ecclesiastes 10 verse five, there is an evil which I've seen under the sun as an error which proceeded from the ruler, folly is set in great dignity and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth. And I'm gonna get to this point in just a bit, but go back to Isaiah chapter three. What this is essentially referring to is that people who are just the lowest scum of the earth are gonna be people who are esteemed in the eyes of the world, okay? They're gonna be put on a pedestal and of course specifically it's referring to children behaving themselves proudly. And it's making me think of this passage right here, Proverbs 30 verse 11 says, there is a generation that cursed at their father and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes, you know, behaving themselves proudly and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. Essentially referring to the fact that when you remove the men of this society that actually improve a civilization, you're left with children, you're left with the basis of people and there's no one to correct them. There's no one to chastise them, to rebuke them, to correct them. There's no one to bring justice to crimes committed by these types of people. You understand? So they're given unfettered access to become disrespectful and dishonor people. Look at verse six, it says, when a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father saying, thou has clothing, be thou a ruler and let this ruin be under thy hand. If that day shall he swear saying, I will not be a healer for in my house is neither bread nor clothing, make me not a ruler of the people. So what do we see here? Well, we looked at first that when leadership is removed, then you have the basis of people taking over, disrespecting the elderly, being dishonorable towards those who merit honor and then there is a collapse of leadership qualifications because we see here that this person's like, oh man, you're dressed nice, why don't you rule over us? Now unfortunately, we do live in that age today. You know, the influencers, right? Or Hollywood or it's just like, oh, this guy has a million followers because he dresses like a complete idiot because he has expensive clothing or whatever it may be. Oh, be thou a ruler over us. What does that person have to offer you? He's the basis of people. So when you remove the important people of society that advances society, people begin to look up to the worst types of people and admire and esteem the worst types of people. I mean, think about this. How many people out there actually esteem the opinion of Hollywood actors? Oh man, you ever heard of the cult by Denzel Washington? Who gives a crap what he thinks? He's an actor. Yeah, but he just, he says these things. Yeah, he's acting when he tells you that. His job is literally to memorize lines and say it in such a way that he convinces you that he's playing a particular character. So when he told, you know, when he's giving his little speeches or whatever, he's still acting. And people use him for like inspiration videos. He's acting. But I'm telling you, people literally look up to these people as though they merit some sort of honor or influence. They're actors. They know nothing about spiritual matters. Why would people go to, you know, Kanye West, for example? I mean, good night. You know, people are eating crow now. You know, those Christians who were defending Kanye West saying, oh, he's saved, you're being judgmental. Now he's just completely apostate. He was apostate before, but now it's like a doubly apostate because he's saying, you know, me willing and, you know, he's saying that he has things against Jesus and, you know, he doesn't like Jesus because he didn't answer his prayers or whatever. Who cares what he thinks? He makes music. That's all he does. I want to know what Taylor Swift has to say about this. Listen to your Swifties. You need a swift kick in the rear end. Why would you go to the Swifties or the Taylor Swift for any type of advice? Why? Why, because they got like a million followers on their social media platform. Well, those million followers are people who said, thou hast clothing, be thou ruler over us. It's not like thou hast intelligence, thou hast salvation, thou hast the word of God. It's like, you're dressed. And in fact, you know, it's even worse than that because now in our society, people follow those who are not dressed on social media, right, following, you know, only fans, girls or something, because, you know, oh man, they got a lot of followers and they're beautiful or something like that. You're a simp. You're a simp, you're a wimp, and all you're saying is, you're worse than this guy right here because this guy is least following someone with clothes on, right? Because this guy is saying, yo, thou hast clothing. You're saying, thou hast no clothing. Rule thou over me and I'll pay tribute to you. That's what you're saying. But this is the world in which we live, my friends, where we see a collapse of leadership qualifications that all of a sudden, because a video goes viral or something, all of a sudden, oh, this person must know about life, knows nothing about life. And you know what? It's great when Christian videos that are actually espousing the right doctrine go viral, but at the end of the day, you know what? If some doofus out there says something about Christianity and he ends up going viral, it doesn't make what he's saying true just because a bunch of people watch the video. Actually look in the Bible to see if that's true, right? And it doesn't matter how viral my videos go. At the end of the day, why don't you look at the Bible for yourself? Plain and simple. And you know what? Millions of views or thousands of views doesn't give me credibility of teaching the Bible. The Bible gives the credibility because you could look at it for yourself. So collapse in leadership qualifications, it's like, well, we don't have the mighty man. We don't have the counselor. We don't have the judge. We don't have the prophet. You've got clothing. Why don't you rule over me, Denzel Washington? Why don't you rule over me? You know, what's another actor out there? You worldly people. Go ahead, you're about to say it right now. What's another actor? Come on. Wahlberg, Mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg. Yeah. Mario Lopez. Mario Lopez. Isn't that guy from like 100 years ago, isn't he from Saved by the Bell and stuff like that? He's still influencing people? You know, well, people look to athletes, right? Don't they look to athletes? Football players, basketball players. You know, it's just like they throw a ball through a hoop. They catch pigskin. That's all they do. They're players in a coliseum. That's all they do. So how is it that you can look for someone like that towards leaders? They're literally for entertainment. Oh, but they have clothing. It's nonsense, my friends. Basically teaching that any warm body can be a leader. And obviously, keep in mind that previous to this, he said the base men, right, it's referring to like the bottom of the barrel. And nowadays, it's the people who are the bottom of the barrel who are being placed at the very top. And let me give you some verses here that this makes me think of. Daniel chapter four, verse 17 says, this matter is the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, listen to this, and seteth up over it the basest of men. So what is he saying? This is a curse upon a nation. When I remove people who are capable and competent, and I give you the basest of men to rule over you. Give me an example. How about Biden? He is the basest of men. Where, I mean, the long list of gabs that he has said is just innumerable, okay? Things that he said just makes no sense whatsoever. These last four years has been a crazy ride. It's almost as if, and here's the thing, he's entertaining. He's like an entertainer. That's who God gave this nation, though. Think about that for a minute. The Bible says of Jeroboam, when he created his own religion, it says in verse 31 of 1 Kings 12, and he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. I mean, think about churches today, and obviously, we're not in the condition that Judah or Israel's in, but we're heading in that direction, where you have people who are pastoring churches who do not qualify to pastor churches. Oh, but he wants to be a pastor. It doesn't matter if he wants to be a pastor. Does he qualify? Now, it's great that someone desires to be a bishop, but at the end of the day, the qualifications are there for a reason, and here's the thing, folks. You look at the most famous churches in America today, the biggest churches in America today are filled or have leaders that are the basis, the lowest of the people. I mean, Steven Furtick is a perfect example of that, when on Easter Sunday, wears a freaking doily as a sweater. He literally has like his grandma's sweater on, a pink sweater with a bunch of holes in it, looking as gay as the day is long. It's like, you know, I would've paid attention to your message, but I can't, because your sweater's too loud. It's overpowering, you know, but maybe that would be better though. There's probably more doctrine in that sweater than there is in his actual sermon. But he is the lowest of the people who's being placed as a man of God in the land. Joel Osteen, you know, a lot of these false prophets, essentially, is like a curse on this nation. Why, because it's an indicator that people have turned away their ears from the truth and are being turned onto fables. It's an indicator, it's a result of people and churches not preaching the Bible, rebuking, reproving, exhorting with all along, suffering in doctrine, and the Bible told us that the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Well, that's why we have a heap of false teachers out there who are very famous, very popular, very wealthy, and you know, they lead people astray. You criticize any one of these people online, oh man, people will be all over you. That's like their favorite gay pastor or whatever, you know? And that sweater was like $2,000, by the way. $2,000 for that ugly sweater. You can take that to an ugly sweater contest for Christmas, ugly Christmas sweater, and you would definitely win every single time. Let me read to you from Micah chapter seven. This is a parallel to what we're looking at in Isaiah chapter three regarding a judgment upon a nation. It says, the good man has perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man, his brother with a net, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward, referring to briberies, and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. In other words, they're very vocal about their mischievous deeds. You see this on social media all the time. People are very just, they have no shame whatsoever. The best, listen to this, the best of them is as a briar. Now, in the Bible, someone tell me, what does a briar signify? What does it symbolize? Thorns and briars are what? Reprobates. He's like, the best thing you got is a briar. He's like, well, that's not good. Yeah, I know, but that's like the best you got. That's showing you how bad of a condition that nation is. The best of them is as a briar, the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh, now shall be their perplexity. What is he saying? I'm removing all the righteous people from the land and this is all you're gonna have to work with. You know, when it comes to the Republican Party, the best of them is as a briar. Right? You know, they just passed a bill through the House yesterday, and I'm gonna preach on this on Sunday, so I don't wanna steal my thunder, but they passed a bill that essentially if legalized, if Biden puts a stamp of approval on it and the Senate does, will essentially make saying that the Jews killed Jesus illegal. Look, who in the world would even propose such a thing? Republicans did it! They're the ones! And you say, why? Because the best of them is as a briar, that's why. There's your beloved Republican Party trying to criminalize the Bible. Well, what's the penalty? Who cares what the penalty is? I'm just mad over the fact that anyone's even considering that. It's just like, well, you know, there's no penalty. It's not that big of a deal. I don't care if there is a penalty because I'm gonna say it whether it becomes legal or not. I'm just, as soon as, if it is enacted, I'm just gonna say it like generously, just out of spite. But who cares what the penalty is? Who cares if they have another agenda? Who cares the fact that it's even being considered and stated it's wicked? Because of these Republicans, these conservatives. Good night in the morning. You're like, oh man, I thought they had conservative values. The best of them is as a briar. The best Republican out there is probably some wicked fag or something. That's what the Bible's telling us. Go back to, or you're already in Isaiah chapter three. I don't wanna steal my thunder for Sunday, but I took a little off the top. So he's telling him, I'm judging you, and this is how I'm gonna judge you. I'm gonna take away your food. I'm gonna give you famine, and you're not gonna see this, but I'm gonna remove all the good people out of your land just to show you how good you had it because the only thing you're gonna have to work with is the basis of people. Children are gonna behave themselves proudly against you. You're not gonna have father figures. You're not gonna have judges and counselors and prophets to correct people. When there's no magistrate in the land, there's no one to put people to shame. So no one's being punished. No justice is being executed. So put it this way, guys. Hey, you have a father in the house. Praise God, amen. Why? Because the dad's there to put people to shame in the household when people are behaving shamelessly. Understand? We're there to execute justice. Oh, my dad's a little hard on me. Good. Maybe we need to be a little harder. Why? Because of the fact that we don't want you to, we don't want you to become like these people right here. We don't want you to behave yourselves proudly against the elderly. And think, oh, man, you know, oh, you're 16, 17, 18 years old now. You're just like a grown man. You're still a kid. And if you're living in your parents' house, yeah, and they're still paying your bills, you're still a kid. They're feeding you. They provided a home for you, a roof, a bed, a refrigerator full of food. You have no reason to behave yourself proudly against your mom and dad. Yeah, but they don't know the rapid rate doctrine like I do. Look at verse eight. So now we're gonna look at the reasons why he's judging them. He says in verse eight, for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance does witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. So one of the reasons why he's essentially judging them this harshly is because of the fact that they are committing these abominations proudly. What does that mean? It means their countenance is just like, yeah, I'm doing this. No shame, not embarrassed. They're declaring it as Sodom. Sodomites declare their sin pretty disgustingly, and this is how Israel's behaving. Shameless, they cannot blush, they don't care, and so therefore, God's saying, you brought this upon yourself. That's what he says at the end, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Verse 10 says, say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Now that's a great passage for our church, okay? Because when you look at our nation, you're like, oh man, I can see a lot of this stuff taking place in our nation. Well, say unto the righteous, it shall be well with them though. So God is not gonna destroy the righteous with the wicked. He always talks about the righteous remnant that he's gonna spare. Our works, our service towards God is not in vain. And if God just wipes out all of California, he decides to wipe out all of California, I guarantee you, this one little section right here will be just fine. And many other little sections who are actually preaching the word of God, why? Because it shall be well with them. God's not gonna just wipe you out because of the consequences of the wicked. He sees the labor of love, he sees what churches do, and he's not gonna forget it. He says, they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with them, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. A great example of this is when God is judging Egypt. And God's people are in Goshen, even though Egypt is being completely decimated and destroyed, Goshen is just fine. And I believe that principle still applies today. Verse 12 says, as for my people, children are their oppressors. And some people wonder, is this like literal children? Well, it could be referring to literal children because the beginning of the chapter indicates that the men are removed. Or it could be referring to just men who act like children. You know, I think that'd be a good verse for Biden right there, right? He just acts like a baby, okay? Now here's the kicker. Women rule over them. So in a chapter that's talking about the profile of a nation that is being judged by God, one of the things that God brings up is when a nation has women ruling over them. Like where, like where though? Anywhere. In a household, politically, religiously, it's all bad. Because that's not a woman's place. Well, I don't like that. Well then take, you know, beef with God says in verse 12. He's literally saying, women ruling over you? You know, I don't know if the Philippines still has like a woman ruling over them, they did at one point. You know, that's an indicator that that nation's been cursed by God. God is punishing that nation when he allows that. Yeah, but I read in the Bible about this lady named Deborah though. And she was a judge of Israel. Oh yeah, when was that? What, do you know when that was? It was in the book of Judges. And what was the theme of the book of Judges? Every man doing that which is right in their own eyes. Oh, what a fantastic illustration to bring up there. What a fantastic example of women leadership when the country is just in complete disarray, disobeying God, worshiping false gods, you know, especially when the tribe of Benjamin is committing faggotry. What a great example of when to pull out the Deborah card. That's more of an indicator that a nation's cursed by God when the only one capable of teaching the Bible is a woman. Oh, you just hate women. No, I don't. A woman gave birth to me and I'm married to a woman and I have three women as my daughters and there's women in my church who listen to me every week and they're listening to me right now as I say this. Women are great. We're talking about order though. And you know what? Joel Osteen's wife needs to sit down and shut up and not preach the Bible. You know, Joyce Meyers needs to stop getting a facelift and just lift herself off that platform and never preach again. Because all you're doing is confirming that this nation is cursed. Every time you get up and preach the Bible, Joyce Meyers, with your joker-looking smile, because that's what you are, you're a joke, you are confirming that this nation is being cursed by God. Why? Because it's a woman who's ruling over a congregation and shame on Mr. Meyers. Where the hell are you, Mr. Meyers? What's wrong with you? You know, it's just like if this was applied to a church, it's like all the men would be gone, and what are you doing there, Mr. Meyers? Are you the child? You know, it's like he removes all the best of men of a church and just leaves it with a bunch of women, but why is he still there? You know? And what a shame that he's literally sitting under his wife's preaching, and he's probably providing the majority of the content for her sermons. It's a curse. And oh, you're against women preaching? No, of course I'm not against women preaching. Women preach at our church every week, just not here. They go and preach the gospel to get people saved, and there's godly women in our church who are very eloquent at giving the gospel to others and getting people saved for sure, or even teaching their kids the word of God. My wife is an excellent preacher. I hear her preaching the word of God at home to our kids. She's like letting them have it, and you know, she's teaching the word of God. She's quoting verses. That's great. But never is Mrs. Mejia ever gonna come here and share the word. Why? Because it's against the Bible, and it's an indicator that our church is cursed. Joyce Meyer's church is cursed. Joel Osteen's church, cursed. And whatever other woman preacher out there. And you know what? That's why we gotta make sure that Biden stays alive, amen? I know we want him to just kick the bucket, but you know what? He needs to stay alive. You say, what? Because if he dies, Kamala takes over, and now we're really screwed. That is the nail in the coffin to let us know that this nation is officially cursed. So Lord, please keep Biden alive. You know, please. You know, if he has to climb stairs, put him in one of those chairs, and just like, heh, heh, heh. Do what you can to keep that man alive. Please keep him alive. Why? Because then we're gonna have an Isaiah 3.12 here, where Kamala takes over, and she's, and then President Kamala. I mean, ugh! Oh my people! They which lead thee, cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy path. You're like, well how do you know they're not teaching you the right things? Because it's literally saying that the ones who are leading them are causing them to err. And I've said this before, but women preachers are, first of all, it's not biblical, but second of all, they're more likely to teach a lot of false doctrine. Cause the Bible literally says in First Timothy chapter two, when telling us that women shouldn't preach, it gives us the example of Adam and Eve, and it says that Adam was not deceived, but the woman being the transgression was deceived. And that's in context of a woman preaching. It's more susceptible to false doctrine. How do you know? Cause she's the reason why we're here. She lifts him and believes some false doctrine from the serpent. The apostle Paul said it. Look at verse 13. I'm gonna breeze through some of this. This is God reckoning with Judah. He says, the Lord standeth up to plead and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof, for ye have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor, say it the Lord got opposed. What is he saying? I'm gonna take account with all of the leaders who are taxing the people and they're suffering, they're struggling, but all of their riches is in your household. You're beating my people to pieces. He's essentially making them give account of their actions. Look at verse 16. It says, moreover, the Lord sayeth, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wants and eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet. Now, what is he talking about there? Well, one of the curses of this nation is the fact that the women are just extremely proud and arrogant because God's will for a woman is to be meek and quiet. But here we see that they're haughty. What does haughty mean? Just another word for prideful, arrogance. And it says that they walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes. And wanton would be like seductive eyes. So it's just like, they're just like, you know, just walking around. And then it says like walking and mincing as they go. What is mincing? It's just like kind of like gliding, just basically having a superiority complex, understand? And it's not like it's just one woman. It's just all of them are like that, okay? And for some reason, they're making a tinkling with their feet. They have some sort of ornaments on their ankles because they want everyone to know that they're there. Understand? And I think what the main thing that he's trying to get across here is that they're just very proud. Prideful, they're arrogant, they're haughty. And the Bible tells us these six things that the Lord hate is seven or an abomination to him, a proud look, the Bible says. That's the stretched forth neck, the superiority complex, the portrayal that you're better than someone else. God is not pleased with that. Proverbs 21, four says a high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin. And these last couple verses here of the chapter, he's just focusing a lot on the women. And of course, when you have the removal of leadership, a woman ends up kind of filling that void. And it's just like, well, I gotta pay the bills here. And I'm the one that's making it happen. So it makes them proud. It makes them arrogant. And God's not pleased with that. The boss lady or whatever. That's not right. That's wicked. And you know what? If you're in that situation, God bless you. You're doing the best you can in your situation with what you have. But at the end of the day, God still expects you to be humble and not have a haughty spirit to make people think that you're just all that and a bag of chips. God can literally cause a drought in your life. He can create a famine. And in fact, look what he says in verse 17. He can disfigure you. Therefore the Lord will smite with the scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the Lord will discover their secret parts. Now, the remainder of these verses here from verses 17 to 23, he's basically saying that everything is gonna do to them. So he has like, he gives this description of some of their ornaments and some of the stuff is just weird. Like they have round tires, like a moon. Like the majority of their appearance has to do with like hats and bonnets and they're just very like decked out. They have the tinkling of their feet, bracelets and chains and mufflers. It's like a car, you know? It's like the bonnets, ornaments of the legs, the headbands, tablets and earrings, the rings and nose, nose jewels, changeable suits of apparel, the mantels and the wimples and the crisping pins. So he goes through all this and he says, I'm gonna replace all that with just a massive scab. Cause you know, what is a scab? It's just like a wound. It's like a natural band-aid, right? You have a wound and it bleeds and it hardens, it's what we would call a scab. So he says, I'm gonna remove all of these appearance, all this appearance that you have, all these ornaments, and I'm just gonna put a scab on your forehead. I mean, how embarrassing do you think a woman would be? Right? I mean, even the most humble of ladies in our church would be embarrassed to just have a huge scab right here. Just come to church and you're just like, hey pastor, right? Even if like you're really humble, right? Now think about these ladies though. Cause they got their bonnets, you know, they got the Botox, if we were to put it parallel to today, what was that, Xanax? What was that thing that people are doing now? Where they're like making themselves try to look younger? What is it? Just say it, you can speak in church, it's fine. I'm just kidding. Yeah, yeah, you worded it. Just say it again. Ozempic, that's what I was talking about. What is Xanax, what is that, the antidepressants or something? Ozempic? Ozempic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what it is. It's like, it's basically trying to make you look younger. Right? And you know, people are like taking that now, all these Hollywood movie stars are taking that now, but they look horrific though. It's like backfiring on them. So they're trying to do all these outward things to make themselves look beautiful, and God's like, you know what, I'm just gonna give you a fat scab. You're just gonna look ugly. Because what is he saying? He's basically saying like your wound is incurable, because God sees the heart, right? It doesn't matter how outwardly beautiful you look or how outwardly beautiful you think you look, you know, at the end of the day, if you're just as ugly as sin in the inside, that's how God sees you. He sees you as ugly as sin. It doesn't matter what your outward appearance is. So he's like, I'm gonna remove all that, put a scab on your forehead, and put a scab on your head. Let me read to you from 1 Peter 3, 3, it says, Who's adorning? Let it not be the outward adorning of the plating of the hair, and of the wearing of gold, and putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Now if you are a woman who you think you look beautiful, or you are beautiful, praise God, and you know, your husband should be thankful, but don't let that go to your head though, right? Don't let that go to your head, be humble, make sure that you're not allowing yourself to become haughty and prideful. Why? Because that is disgusting in the eyes of God, okay? And we're not saying that people should be like Amish people in our church, right? You know, see your husband about however he wants you to look, you know what I'm saying? What I'm saying is regardless of how you look, there's ugly people who are prideful too though. There's ugly women out there who are prideful. There's butt ugly women out there who are prideful. On social media who literally think that they're just goddesses, they're a 10 or something, but really what they are is they're like a 10,000 pound, literally, and they're literally like putting down men and talking smack about people, and it's just like, you don't need a scab, you don't need a scab. The land is filled with pride. And obviously the same goes with dudes, there's dudes out there that are just the same, but obviously we're trying to focus on women right here because the context is talking about women, okay? Where they think they're just all that, and in my day they used to say all that in a bag of chips, you guys don't know what I'm talking about, but just get the spirit of the letter here. But in reality, they're just as ugly as sin. They're just as ugly as sin. And so God is focused on the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, he esteems a woman who is of a meek and quiet spirit, and I don't think he's condemning the wearing of these things, by the way, okay? Because it's saying that the adorning shouldn't be the outward adorning of the plating of the hair and it goes through all this, but the hidden man of the heart. In other words, you shouldn't put so much focus on the outward appearance, you know, put the makeup on the inside, right? First, okay? Make sure that you're walking with God, that you love the Lord, that you love your husband, that you love your children, that you love the things of God, that you love righteousness, and of course, that in the sight of God is of great price. You're like, well, you know, but if I don't focus on those other things, I'm not gonna attract the right guy. Well, you might attract the wrong guy though, okay? And we'll move on from that, but that's what he's saying here. Look at verse 24, let's finish up. Says, there shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink, and instead of a girdle, a rent, instead of well-set hair, baldness. Man, I mean, he's basically saying like, oh, you love to put tires on your head and make it look like a moon and get your hair done or whatever. I'll take care of it, I'll just make you go bald. Instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth and burning instead of beauty. Basically, filled with disease, because often when the Bible talks about a burning, it's referring to some form of disease, some STD of some sorts. And so it's just like, don't worry about all that, I'm just gonna uno reverse all that, and you're just gonna have the exact opposite of everything you've tried to make yourself look better in, and you're gonna be miserable. Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war, and her gait shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. So we looked at the profile of a nation under judgment, and it looks like America. Essentially, the important men are being removed, but not completely, because they're still great churches, they're still men of counsel and wisdom and prudence. But you know what, we do see a pattern here that the children are behaving themselves proudly against the ancient. We do see that the vast majority of the population are steaming that which is an abomination in the eyes of God. People who don't know anything but how to dress well, or they know how to do pranks well, or whatever it is that they do on social media. They do, and then of course we see the profile of women that God's not happy with, and that is the fact that they are prideful and arrogant. They've lost the meekness, they've lost the humility there. And that's it, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the book of Isaiah, thank you for chapter three, Lord. Help us to be aware of these things, and as we read the book of Isaiah, help us to look to the nation that we're in, and compare it to what's taken place, Lord. The Bible's very much relevant, and sin will always be sin, the sinful nature of man will always exist this side of eternity. And so help us to continue to go to your word, and never lean on the stay in the staff, but rather lean upon the rock who is able to provide for us in times of leanness, Lord. Help us to please you in all that we do, Lord. There might have been some hard truths tonight, but help us to receive it with meekness, the engrafted word, and rejoice in our spirit over these biblical truths. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.