(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to be here on this Wednesday night. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You got 10 people saved while you guys were down there. Great. Well, the fields are wide into harvest down there in Sonora. And so those trips happen once a month for anybody who's interested in going is the first month or the first Monday of every month. And then on the back, we've got the note about the baby shower. That's this Saturday for Mrs. Rochelle Cooper. All ladies and girls are invited to attend. The church will be catering in Panda Express. So therefore, please RSVP so that we can make sure that we get the right amount of food for that. And then keep praying for all the ladies that are expecting that they would have safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. And then other upcoming events are listed there below. That's about it for announcements. So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. Going back to Monday, we got the ones from Mexico Monday. Anything else outside of that? Okay. Got it. Got it. All right. Gotcha. And then how about Tuesday? Anything from Tuesday? Anything else from Tuesday? And then today, I know we had two for the church van. How about outside the van? Anything else outside the van? Gotcha. All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. We'll be sharing our song books to hymn number 21. Number 21, what a wonderful Savior, number 21. And we'll sing it on that first verse. It begins Christ has for sin, atonement made, what a wonderful Savior, number 21. Christ has for sin, atonement made, what a wonderful Savior, we are redeemed, the price is paid, what a wonderful Savior, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. I praise Him for the cleansing blood, what a wonderful Savior. I reconcile my soul to God, what a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He lifts my heart from all that's saved, what a wonderful Savior. And now He reigns and rules the earth, what a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. He gives me overcoming from what a wonderful Savior. And I am finished running out, what a wonderful Savior, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. To live I've given all my heart, what a wonderful Savior. The world shall never share a part, what a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. Amen, up to hymn number 310. 310, Footprints of Jesus, number 310. Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, hymn number 310, let's sing it out. On this first verse together, 310. Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, hymn number 310, let's sing it out. On this first verse together, 310. Footprints of Jesus, that make the pathway home. We will follow the strength of Jesus wherever we go. Only in the new white mountains, he will share. For along lies the new white mountains, now in the near. Footprints of Jesus, that make the pathway home. We will follow the strength of Jesus wherever we go. Still he lived and all will preach in the Lord. Glory, Lord, for ever he served in the Lord. Footprints of Jesus, that make the pathway home. We will follow the strength of Jesus wherever we go. Then at last, when Christ sees us, our journey done. We will follow the strength of Jesus wherever we go. Footprints of Jesus, that make the pathway home. We will follow the strength of Jesus wherever we go. Let's sing it together. All right, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around. Let's turn in our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 26. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning with verse number one. Follow along silently with Brother Hester as he reads Ezekiel chapter 26. Ezekiel chapter 26, the Bible reads. And it came to pass in the 11th year and the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, because that Tyrus has set against Jerusalem, aha, she is broken, that was the gates of the people. She has turned unto me, I shall be replenished. Now she has laid waste. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the nations. And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord. For thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will bring upon Tyrus, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses and with chariots, and with horsemen and companies and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field, and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up a buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee. Thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hooves of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets. He shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise, and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses, and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease, and the sound of thy harp shall be no more heard, and I will make thee like the top of a rock. Thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon, thou shalt be built no more, for I, the Lord, have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus. Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made, in the midst of thee? Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones and lay away their robes and put off their broidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling. They shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble at every moment and be astonished at thee. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee and say to thee, How art thou destroyed that was inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants which caused their terror to be on all that haunt it? Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall. Yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. For thus saith the Lord God, When I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee, when I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in the places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou shalt be not inhabited, and I shall set glory in the land of the living, I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more, though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God. Dear Father in Heaven, please give us wisdom from the servant tonight, and please feel the path through your spirit to teach us, and we pray, and thank you for this night, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. Ezekiel chapter number 26. We're continuing the portion of Ezekiel where Ezekiel is told to preach against these various foreign nations. So the first 24 chapters of Ezekiel, he was primarily preaching against the nation of Judah. He's preaching against the Israelites themselves for the first 24 chapters, which is basically the first half of the book, because it's 48 chapters long. Now we're entering a section in Ezekiel where he's preaching against these various nations. Last week we saw that he was preaching against the nations that make up the modern-day country of Jordan, which would be Edom and Moab and Ammon. These are the neighbors of Israel to the east, and also the land of the Philistines, which is the modern-day Gaza Strip like southwest of Israel. Well, now we're entering a section where he's preaching against Tyre, and often this city will be associated with another city called Zaidon, and a lot of times they'll be kind of both in the same breath, Tyre and Zaidon. And these are just to the north of Israel on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and these are Phoenician cities, what would historically be known as the Phoenicians. So they're also a Semitic group of people with a similar language, the same alphabet as what the Israelites would have had at that time. And so this land to the north of Tyre and Zaidon, it's like a seafaring people that are known for their ships, etc. And this is actually a really interesting section in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 28 is probably one of the most interesting chapters in the whole book of Ezekiel, and 26 and 27 are sort of setting up that chapter because this is a trilogy of chapters about Tyre. After that, he's going to preach against Egypt and some other places in Africa. But let's jump in here to Ezekiel chapter 26. It says in verse 1, And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, that was the gates of the people, she is turned unto me, I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. So this is a little bit similar to the chapter last week in chapter 25 where people who are gloating about the destruction of Jerusalem are getting punished because they are delighting in seeing God's people crash and burn. Even though they deserve it, even though the children of Judah are being punished by God, still, it's not right for the heathen nations around them, which are also really wicked, and they have their own problems with idolatry and innocent bloodshed. It's not right for them to delight in seeing God's people crash and burn and be punished. And so because they say, aha, and then they want to take advantage of the situation and actually kick them while they're down and say, hey, let's take this opportunity to replenish ourselves. Let's go down there and seize on those resources and benefit from the calamity that Judah is going through. Because of this, God says he's going to bring judgment upon Tyre, which is here spelled Tyrus. Same place as Tyre, usually spelled T-Y-R-E in other places in the Bible. And so he says, I'll cause many nations to come up against thee, in verse 3, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. So there are going to be a lot of illustrations or metaphors about the sea and the ocean. Because remember, this is a coastal city that's right on the coast. They have a lot of ships in the sea. They do a lot of seafaring. That's what the Phoenicians are known for. That's what Tyre and Zidane are known for. So that's the type of illustrations that God's going to use. You know, the first thing I want to point out is that, you know, the fact that God is even preaching to these nations shows that he cares about people other than Israel and Judah. He has a message for them. And even if it's very negative, even if it's a message of doom, this still shows that God has some interest or cares. Because otherwise, God could just say nothing to them and not warn them and not speak this unto them. Part of the purpose of speaking these things unto them is so that when these things come to pass, they will know that he is the Lord. Because if you remember in chapter 25, look at verse 11. It says, I will execute judgments upon Moab, and they shall know that I am the Lord. That's a good thing. You know, at least they're finding out who the true God is. And so God has always throughout history been the God of the whole earth, and he's interested in everybody. Obviously, Israel is his flagship nation, but yet he is still sending prophets to go preach against other places. And oftentimes, they could respond positively because look at the Book of Jonah, where Jonah, an Israelite prophet, goes and preaches to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and they end up getting right with God, and people end up getting saved. And Jesus even points back to that and says, you know, the men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. They repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. So we see that sometimes they could respond positively to a very negative message because Jonah's message was 100% negative. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. He doesn't hold out any kind of hope, and we know he had a bad attitude because after Nineveh gets right with God, Jonah wants God to destroy it anyway. Jonah's disappointed that Nineveh doesn't get destroyed. So obviously, that's an extreme example where Nineveh gets right with God, but there were probably always individuals in every city and every nation that responded to the preaching of God's Word because God's Word is powerful. And so if God's Word is preached and if God's Word comes into an area, even if the majority scoffs at it, there are always going to be those people that believe the Word of God. And that's why when we get to heaven, people will be in heaven from every nation, kindred, tongue, and family of this earth, according to the Bible. So he's preaching to Tyre, and he's even preaching to them in a way that they can relate to by using a lot of nautical or maritime or ocean-type illustrations for the message. It says in verse 4, they, the many nations that come against Tyre, they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the nations. Now remember, what did they want to do with Jerusalem? They wanted to despoil Jerusalem. They said, we're going to be replenished by Jerusalem. We're going to go down there and get those resources. And he's saying, you know what, whatever you wished upon Jerusalem is the exact same thing that's going to happen to you. You're going to be spoiled of many nations. What you wished on them is going to come back around, and you will reap what you've sown. Now what does this mean? I will scrape her dust from her. Well, if you know anything about the earth, the soil, the ground, is that the part of the earth that is productive and good is really just a thin layer of soil. And then if you dig through that soil, you get down into earth that is much less productive. It has less nutrients. It can't really be used to produce any fruit or anything like that to grow anything. And then below that, you get to the absolute bedrock where it's just really of no value for agriculture. And so when he says, I'll scrape the dust from her and make her like the top of a rock, basically if you were to scrape away the earth and just go down to bedrock, now a piece of land that really is of no use for growing anything or producing anything, this is bad. Throughout history, great civilizations have risen up in areas with fertile soil. But then after they keep irrigating it and tilling it and farming it, every single year they lose a little bit of soil. It might go down just a fraction of an inch or an inch or a few inches, but just over time erosion and just over farming and using it means that eventually you run out of productive soil because the soil is replenished very slowly. Unless you make a point to really dung it and bring in the manure and actually have some kind of a program of rotating crops and fertilizing the earth, eventually you wear it out and then that civilization will end because they'll have to move somewhere else because the ground is just now good for nothing. And then they go somewhere else. And very few civilizations can go on indefinitely because you'd have to have a really good system or a really good ecology that would keep replenishing that topsoil. And so when God says, I'm going to scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock, he's basically saying, I'm going to erode you down to just rock to where you're unproductive, you're unfruitful, you're good for nothing. This is just an illustration or a metaphor. He's saying, I'm going to destroy you and make you unproductive and you're not going to be worth anything. Just like as if the earth had had that layer of dust removed from it and all the topsoil had blown away as dust. So he says, it shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea. So imagine someone is washing fishing nets and then they want to sort of stretch out their nets and spread them out and dry them out. And they're looking for a place to do that. You know, they want to find like a clean, smooth rock to do that on. And he's saying, that's basically what you're going to be. I'm going to make you just a smooth rock. That's the only thing you're going to be good for because you're going to be so desolate when I'm done with you. That's what he's threatening to do here. It's a bit of play on words as well, since the name of Tyre, Tyre basically means a rock. So he's like, I'm going to make you like a rock. I'm going to make you like a smooth stone that is so unproductive that pretty much the only thing it's good for is just for a fisherman to throw his net there and just let it dry out. And it says in verse number five, it shall be a spoil to the nations. We talked about that verse six and her daughters, which are in the field, shall be slain by the sword. And they shall know that I am the Lord. So when this horrible judgment comes where God just scrapes them clean and wipes them out and makes them desolate. And even their beloved children are going to be slain by the sword because, you know, these invading armies are going to come in and these armies of the Babylonians and others, they're not going to show mercy. There's a lot of other scripture on this, too, that says, you know, that when they come in, they're not going to even pity old people. They're not going to pity the young. They're going to come in and they're just going to slaughter people. And so that's a scary thought, right? An invading army coming in and just killing everybody and even killing the children and so forth. And, you know, this is what happens in the real world. And so God is warning people to get right with him because if they're a wicked nation, this is what they have coming. They could always repent, get right with God, and then God could back off from his wrath like he did in the situation with Nineveh in the Book of Jonah, you know, because that's what he's trying to do. And, you know, you might look at this and say, oh, it's so cruel, you know, the daughters are going to be slain and everything. It's not that God wants to do that. It's not that God's even the one who's going to do it. It's the Babylonians that are going to do it. It's these other wicked nations that are going to do it. God is warning them so that they could avert this catastrophe. You know, they are going to face this because of their wickedness. And you know what? We could warn people the same way just about the fact that hell is real and that if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to go to hell when you die. I mean, that's what we go out and warn people about every single week. We show them in the word of God that we're sinners and that we deserve hell and that there's a punishment for our sin and that Jesus is the way to be saved and that, you know, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So it's not that God doesn't love us. It's not that God doesn't care about us or hasn't provided a way out for us, but the doom is real. Okay, and so when it comes to salvation and people don't believe in Jesus, they're going to go to hell. But even after we're saved, okay, even after we're saved, that does not mean that we are immune from being judged by God on this earth. Whether saved or unsaved, God will judge nations. God will bring a city or a nation into judgment because of their wickedness. And so we would want to warn people about that, too, and warn America and say, look, America, get right with God. If you keep going down this path of sodomites and abortion and transvestites, you know, you're going down a dark path. You're going to face the wrath of God. And it's not going to be pretty. And guess what? People die. And guess what? Sometimes it's old people. Sometimes it's children. Sometimes it's grandma and grandpa. Sometimes it's young kids. And, you know, as unpleasant as that is, that's the world that we live in. Deal with it. You can pretend that it isn't so. But it's reality and God's warning them about it. Verse seven, for thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north with horses and with chariots and with horsemen and companies and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field. And he shall make a fort against thee and cast a mount against thee and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls. And with his axis, he shall break down thy towers. So Tyre is a well fortified city and they feel like they're invincible. Nothing could get through our defenses. We've got the walls. We've got the towers. We've got the Navy and so forth. But it's not really going to do much for them because Nebuchadnezzar is going to come with so many people. He has so many allies. He's a king of kings, meaning that he has other kings following him with their resources and their armies. And he's going to bring all this to bear. And he's also going to bring technology to bear. OK, these engines of warfare. When it says engine, obviously we're not talking about a combustion engine. He's not gassing up his tanks and coming over with aircraft and stuff like that. The engines of war that we're talking about, we would look at as maybe being primitive or what have you. But still, they could be very formidable and very effective. Because these type of engines of war, they could be along the lines of catapults. They could be catapulting things that are flammable or hot liquids or just rocks and projectiles. Battering rams, whatever type of engines of warfare and siege craft, ladders, something as simple as a ladder. But that can get you over a wall when combined with these other technologies and things. And so they're going to show up. Here's what he's saying. Nebuchadnezzar's got a system. He's done this before. This is not the first city that he's attacking. He's attacked a whole bunch of other cities. And he's got a war machine. And he's got the equipment. He's got engines that are basically designed to break through your defenses and you're not going to win. That's what he's saying. So the buckler is talking about a handheld shield that an individual soldier would use. And then the engines of war are against the city itself. And axes are going to be used to break down the towers, et cetera. Verse 10. By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee. Thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the chariots when he shall enter into thy gates as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. So picture a city being attacked and a breach is made in the wall, right? They break through the wall in one spot and men just pour through. They just pour through that opening. He says that's how men are just going to pour into the city of Tyre and you're going to be defeated. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets. He shall slay thy people by the sword and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. Garrisons are just troops that are stationed somewhere. They're like full-time soldiers being stationed somewhere. They're going to go down to the ground. They shall make a spoil of thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. So it's likely that Tyre is probably a place known for their music and they probably being a big city and successful and well-known, a lot of culture. They're probably really well-known as musicians and they have a lot of popular music and he says well we're going to shut that down. You know the music is going to be shut up because you're not going to be singing, you're not going to be playing the harp, you're going to be getting smoked by Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. And I'll make thee like the top of a rock, this is a repetition from earlier, thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon, thou shalt be built no more for I the Lord have spoken it sayeth the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus, should not the aisles shake at the sound of thy fall when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? Now why are the aisles shaking at the sound of thy fall? The aisles here is referring to other sea powers because this is not the only Phoenician city, there are going to be other similar cities. We obviously know about Tyre and Zion but spread out throughout the Mediterranean and in this region, other aisles, other coastal type cities and places where seafaring powers are. They're going to be scared to death when they see what happens to Tyre because they're going to look at it as, well, if that could happen to Tyre, that could happen to us. Tyre is this mighty sea power and if they get destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's army, then what chance do we have? They're going to tremble, they're going to be scared to death when they see the slaughter that happens at Tyre. It says in verse 16, then all the princes of the sea, so other kings, other leaders of these sea type powers, they shall come down from their thrones. They're going to get off their high horse, all their pomp and being all lifted up and we're so mighty, we're so powerful. No, they're going to come down from their thrones, they're going to lay away their robes, they're going to take off the fancy outfit and put off the broidered garments. That's like our modern word, embroidered. They shall clothe themselves with trembling. I'll tell you what they're going to be wearing. They're not going to be wearing some fancy king's robe and a king's crown. They're going to be wearing fear as a garment. They're going to be wearing trembling and astonishment as clothing. They shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble at every moment and be astonished at thee. So this is a sign of being humble. Instead of being elevated, up on a throne, fancy outfits, he's saying they're going to take off their clothing and they're going to sit in the dirt. Basically just showing how destitute and desolate they feel. Outwardly showing what's going on inside their heart, the fear, the astonishment. They're going to tremble at every moment and be astonished at thee. They're going to look at Tyre and just be dumbfounded. Like, wow, how can this happen? We are doomed. We have no hope if that's what happened to Tyre. We're next. That's how they're going to feel. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee and say to thee, how art thou destroyed that was inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city? Renowned means that it's famous. The renowned city which was strong in the sea. She and her inhabitants, which caused their terror to be on all that haunted. I mean, they were the sea power that terrified other nations. And historically, the Phoenicians were really big on sailing and especially in wars. Sometimes other countries would even hire them, you know, in order to be their sea power. In order to just act as mercenaries because these guys know how to sail because they're a seafaring people. And he's saying, man, you guys were so strong in the sea. You had so much power in the sea. And you caused terror in the hearts of other nations when your navy showed up. But now you have been destroyed. Now you've been brought down, Tyre. Verse 18, now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall. Yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. For thus saith the Lord God, when I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee and great waters shall cover thee, then when I shall bring thee down with them that descended the pit. And before we go on, let me say this. You know, he's using an illustration here about waters covering them like a tsunami coming over their city and just like enveloping it. But this is just a metaphor. It's not literal. There's not a literal tsunami that's coming. But remember, he's speaking their language. They're a seafaring people, so he's using language about ocean and waves and things like that. The wave here that's coming, the tsunami that's coming, is Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. So Nebuchadnezzar and his allies are these waves that are going to crash over and inundate the city of Tyre. Because the waters can often represent nations. Remember in the book of Revelation, the waters on which the great horse sits represent peoples and nations and tongues and kindreds. And so the great waters that are coming, also in the book of Daniel, it's the same way. The waves of water is like it's really like a wave of troops, like a flood of troops that are going to come gushing into the city. That's the illustration that he's using. And so he's going to bring the great waters to cover them. Verse 20, when I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit. And the pit is referring to hell. And this is going to get a lot more explicit later on. Because remember, we got these three chapters, 26, 27 and 28 about Tyre. 28 is the really interesting chapter about Satan. And then after that, we get into like chapters 30 and 31. We start getting into some really interesting scriptures about hell and a lot of talk about people going to hell and going down into the pit and so forth. So this is just starting to give us a taste of that. Talking about people who descend into the pit. This is talking about people who go to hell when they die. With the people of old time. And shall set thee in the low parts of the earth. Again, hell is referred to as the nether parts of the earth. Nether means lower. The lower parts of the earth. The nether parts of the earth. This is a reference to hell because the current location of hell is in the center of the earth. Now obviously hell is a supernatural place. Hell is not just a purely natural place because obviously that would not work. Because if it were a natural place, then basically people would just burn up and be consumed and it would just be over. But according to the bible, hell is a place where people continue to exist after they die. And it's not their body that's there, but it's their soul that's there. Now eventually, hell is going to be relocated to the lake of fire in outer darkness and the bodies of the unsaved will also be thrown into that lake of fire. But currently, right now, it's people's souls who go to hell. And hell is a supernatural place where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And so the fire burns forever and they have no rest day nor night and it's a place of conscious torment of the unsaved. Their soul is burning in hell. But it's always referenced as being down into hell. It's the lower parts of the earth. Even in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 4 for example, talks about Jesus descending first into the lower parts of the earth before ascending up into heaven. And so as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, Jesus said, So shall also the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now the heart of the earth, does anybody know the French word for heart? And that sounds an awful lot like what English word? Core, right? So our English word core comes from that French word for heart because English borrows a huge percentage of our vocabulary from French because the French ruled over England for about a hundred years or something. You know, starting in like 1066 AD, the Normans conquered England. So we get a lot of our words from French. So we have this word core. And in fact, the center of the earth is scientifically called the core. That's what's referred to. And obviously we use the word core all the time for like the core of an apple or something. And then we could also think about an artichoke, right? And the heart of the artichoke. So guess where the heart of the earth is? You know, the heart of the earth, it's not six feet under. That's not the heart of the earth. You know, when the Bible says that Jesus would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, it's not just referring to the tomb. Because that would be on the very skin of the earth. That would be on the very exterior of the earth. But that's not the lower parts of the earth. Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth according to Ephesians. Jesus was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And so the nether world, it's sometimes called, right? The lowest parts of the earth is what we would call the center of the earth. The core of the earth, the heart of the earth. And so that's what this is referring to. And notice how it says, then the descendant of the pit, in verse 20, with the people of old time. Here's the thing about the people of old time. They're still there. They're still there. When you go there, you're not alone. The people of old time are already there. And they've already been there. And they shall be there. Because it is a place of torment. And it's a place of continued consciousness. So it's not like you die and it's over. You know, a lot of people commit suicide because they just can't take the pain anymore. Well, they're in for a rude awakening because the pain is going to continue. And it's going to continue worse. So, and I'm talking about unsaved people, of course. If a saved person commits suicide, they would still go to heaven. Although, obviously, committing suicide is not the will of God. And it would be a sinful thing to do. It would be a hurtful, wicked thing to do to commit suicide. But it has nothing to do with your salvation. But I'm saying people who are unsaved and they commit suicide, they're going from out of the firing pan and into the fire. No pun intended. Okay. So basically, the people of old time, the first thing I want to point out is that the people of old time are still there. The second thing I want to point out is that, you know, with the people of old time is a reference to the fact that you're no different than other people who have come before you. You know, that's what he's telling Tyre. You know, you think you're special. You think that you're invincible. But guess what? You're just like everybody else who said the same thing and they got wiped out the same way and they went to the same hell that you're going to go to. And, you know, as America, we think that we're special, don't we? I mean, sure, other empires have risen and fallen, but America is forever. America is eternal. America is invincible. America can never be defeated. Folks, we are already watching the downfall of America in slow motion right now. I mean, look, do you really think that America is going to continue to be the great nation that we've historically been on the path that we're on right now? You know, you think about what makes America great. What makes America great? Look, and let me just say this. I do believe that America, the United States of America has probably been the greatest nation that has ever existed in the history of mankind. That's what I think. I mean, who else is there? I mean, you could go back and look at other nations and other empires, but I don't think you could even find anyone who's even a close second to the United States of America as being the greatest nation that has ever existed on this planet. I mean, if you go back to, you know, Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome, I mean, they had some impressive empires and achievements, but nothing even close to what the United States had. And think about how we've spread our language all over the world to the point where over two billion people speak English on some level, you know, if you include second language speakers. Obviously as a first language, I think it's around like, you know, what, don't quote me on this, but you know, what is it? 500 million people or something, maybe they speak it as a native. Am I close? Something like that. But like, you know, we got 340 million people in America, but some of them don't speak English, I've noticed. I'm soul winning. You know, I've noticed that there are a lot of them who don't speak English. But anyway, you know, you've obviously got Australia, England, parts of South Africa, you know, you have other places, Canada. But the point is, you know, maybe my numbers are off, but it's somewhere on the order of like a half a billion people that speak it as a native. But if you include all the second language learners, people are learning English, now you're over two billion at that point. And the thing is, you know, this is so incredible that you can go to places like Germany now. And you know, when I went to Germany like 23 years ago or 22 years ago or whenever it was, you know, nobody spoke English. And you had to speak German because people didn't speak English. Now you go there and all the young people, teenagers and young adults, they speak English fluently. It's incredible. And in most parts of Europe, like half the people, literally half the population speaks English. I mean, you could travel all over Europe. You know, well, no, you can't because of COVID. But if, you know, if they ever go back to normal over there, you can travel all over Europe and just speak English. You don't even have to learn a foreign language and you could get around. Don't try that in Mexico. It's not going to work because you got to speak Spanish in Mexico. But anyway, I digress. The point is that we've spread our language around the world in an unprecedented way. We have our military bases in 150 nations plus. I mean, take that Roman Empire. You know, the Roman Empire is nothing compared to what we have achieved. Okay, as far as just our cultural influence is just huge. Just financially. I mean, we spend more on military than like a whole bunch of second, third, combined. You could combine other nations spending. And so we have historically been the most powerful, greatest nation. And then how about spiritually? I mean, how about the nation that's done more soul winning than any nation in the history of mankind? More missions. More missionaries have gone out of the USA than any nation in the history of mankind. So look, obviously you have to acknowledge that the United States of America has been a great nation. And probably, like I said, you'd have a hard time arguing against the fact that it's the greatest nation that has ever existed in the history of mankind. Whether spiritually, culturally, you know, linguistically. I mean, go down the list. Okay. English is the language. Okay, England, but come on. It's the US, folks. Who are we kidding? So it's the greatest nation that's ever existed in the history of mankind. What made it great? I mean, there must have been something that caused us to be more successful than other nations. I mean, I guarantee you other nations would have liked to have had the success that we've had. I mean, I guarantee you that Brazil, you know, also, you know, they're colonized by Portugal. We're colonized by England. You know, I guarantee you Brazil would love to be some superpower and have the prosperity and influence that we've had. Why not Brazil? I mean, Brazil's got a couple hundred million people. They're both in the new world. I mean, what's going on? You know, why not other countries throughout the world? Why not countries in Asia, Africa, Europe? Why are we the greatest nation in the history of mankind by so many metrics? You know, there has to be a reason why. And I would point to the fact that, you know, we have been the most evangelical Christian nation in history. So we've been historically, and I'm not saying our leaders, but historically, we've had more Baptists, more evangelical Christians. We've had the Bible, you know, deeper into our society. And we've had a lot of freedom. So the freedom has made us great, right? People thrive when they have liberty. So we've had a lot of freedom. We've had the Word of God. We've had, you know, a lot of missions and soul winning going on. A lot of preaching happening. But we've also had people working hard. I mean, and we've had smart people, right? Because look how many inventions have been invented in America. A lot of stuff has been invented here. So that, you know, in order to invent stuff, I mean, you've got some people that are really learning science. And they're really studying. And they're scholarly. And they're learning. And then you have other people that are just working hard. And just building things. And creating things. And so, you know, these are the type of things that would make our nation successful. Obviously the spiritual component is number one. But humanly speaking, it's a work ethic. It's knowledge. It's studying. It's intelligence. It's, you know, morality. Right? Being godly. Having a family. Right? That family values. I mean, you know, we could go down the list. But, you know, every single thing that I'm mentioning right now is going away. I mean, what have I just mentioned that's actually improving in our country? Is the work ethic improving? Is the morality improving? Is the godliness improving? Is the missions improving? Is the soul winning improving? Are people in America just getting more scholarly? They're just getting smarter. They're just learning more. I mean, people are just reading more books than they've ever read. Is that what's happening right now? I mean, look, am I missing something about America's greatness? If I'm missing something, help me out someone. What attribute of America has made us great? Besides being in God's good graces and pleasing the Lord. Being moral. Preaching the gospel. Being smart. Working hard. Am I missing something? Anyone? Anyone? Okay, now can someone actually make the case that America is maintaining these values or improving? How about the family? Families falling apart. You have today more children today are being raised by people that aren't married. I mean, if you look at the statistics, it's a minority. And it's dramatically a minority of kids today that are being raised by their biological parents. In a normal family. Mom, dad, kids. And so, you know what? If that's your situation, hey, listen to me, you bunch of whining teenagers. You bunch of sniveling little brats. If you're being raised by your biological parents, that's something to thank God for every single day. Now, if that's not your situation, you know, we can talk about your blessings another time, okay? Because you've got a lot of blessings too. But I'm talking about the kids in this room that are growing up with your biological mom and dad. You're in the minority. You're not the norm anymore. You're the exception now. Because most kids are not growing up that way. And you say, oh, what's so great about that? Well, you know what? There are a lot of problems that come from having a broken home and step-parents and all kinds of issues. And so, it is a blessing. Sorry to offend you. Oh, what are you saying about divorce? Oh, I'm just saying that God hates divorce. Any questions? That's what the Bible says. God hates putting away. And so, I'm for the traditional family. I'm for mom, dad, raising their biological kids. That's the best case scenario. And again, I'm not against people that are not in that situation. I understand that we're living in an imperfect world. But we should all be able to agree that that's the ideal that God has set forth, the family. Okay. Well, something's wrong with America when that's the vast minority. And you have the vast majority of children being raised either by single parents or parents that are just living together and they're not married or whatever. That is not ideal. And that breakdown of the family is going to take away from our greatness as a nation. Not only that, but the work ethic. I mean, have you driven around Tempe lately? Have you driven around Phoenix lately? And like, I kid you not, it's like you've got bums on every corner, able-bodied young people. Young. I mean, this guy, just now driving here, this guy must have been in his 20s. They'll be like early 20s out there, just bums. And literally, I played a game yesterday. I was riding my bicycle and there were all these bums everywhere. I was counting like how many bums and now hiring signs I could see at the same time. And I made a game out of it. And I was at this one corner and there were bums on every corner on, I want to say it was like Ray Road maybe. And there were bums on every corner. And it was like Wendy's was hiring and a couple other fast food places were hiring. On the Border was hiring. And then some other places that weren't even food places. It was just like, it was literally from where the guy's holding the sign, he could see like four now hiring signs just if he just rotated. He wouldn't even have to move. And he could see like four now hiring signs. And it's just like, oh man, I need help. Help me out. God bless. Down on my luck. Well, you know, fortune favors people who get their butt to work. I think, I don't know if that's how the saying goes. Fortune favors the bold or something. But fortune favors people who get their butt to work. Oh, I'm down on my luck. Luck is not a factor. Luck has nothing to do with it. You're not going to work. The work ethic's hurting today. And even the people who do go to work, you know you've seen how your coworkers are. Think about your job. Have you seen some coworkers slacking? Folks, nowadays if you just show up and just are an average worker, you're like a superstar. If you can just show up sober and just get through the workday and just not take too many smoke breaks and just get something done and be productive, I mean, you're a superstar. Folks, the work ethic is hurting. Religion is hurting. The preaching is not what it used to be, folks. It's hard to find hard preaching. That's why so many people listen to my preaching online. It's not because I'm a great preacher. I'm an average preacher. It's because I'm the only game in town. You know, they listen to me and my friends because we're the only ones who are even preaching hard. You know, it's like, it just makes it easy for us to get all kinds of listeners online because it's just like, you know, we got the corner on the market. Because there's just so many churches that are just not preaching hard on sin. They're afraid to get up and really rip face and tell it like it is. And so, you know, people hunt for this kind of preaching. They search for it. And the channels just keep getting deleted. But people just keep looking for it. It's like a scavenger hunt every week, you know, to find the sermons from Faithful Word or Verity Baptist or whatever. So the point is that, you know, religion is hurting. Oh, and how about soul winning? You know, we got all kinds of great independent fundamental Baptist churches all over the great state of Arizona. But you know what's really sad about the independent Baptist churches around Arizona that I've noticed? Is that I've noticed that going to their websites, because a couple of years ago I just went to all their websites just to kind of see what's up, you know, just to see how they're doing. You know what I noticed this trend? Is that more often than not, they have scaled back the soul winning to either once every other week or once a month. So instead of, you know, and these are churches that have historically had once a week soul winning. You know, they have soul winning every Saturday or soul winning every Tuesday night or whatever. Historically, they had a weekly soul winning opportunity for people to show up once a week and do some soul winning. Now they're going to twice a month. Now they're going to once a month. Now here's the thing. That would already be bad enough, the fact that they're scaling it back, because it's like, you know, we don't need less soul winning. We need to get out there every week and knock some doors. Amen? But not only that, it'd be bad enough if they're scaling it back. But I can virtually guarantee you that any church that's scaling it back to once a month or twice a month is a door hanger. It's a gospel tract. It's not real soul winning. Because anybody who's actually serious about doing real soul winning is out there every week doing it. Anybody who goes out once a month, that's like an obligatory, okay, once a month we'll drag ourselves out there and just hang a door hanger. And I'm telling you, I get the testimonies. I hear what the word on the street is about people visiting other fundamental Baptist churches and going soul winning. And they show up and people are just inviting people to church and that's all it is. Because, you know, if you're only going once a month, it's hard to even really stay in practice. But I guess it doesn't take much practice to put a door hanger on somebody's door. I mean, it's not really that hard to just be like, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof. You could get a machine to do it. You could get a robot to do it. You could train a chimpanzee to do it. I mean, why not just get a trained monkey and then you don't even have to get out of the car. You could just like drive really slowly down the street, hand the track to the trained monkey and the monkey will run up to the door like, woof, woof, ah, ah. And then it'll just put it on the door. And in fact, that might even get people's attention more. The fact that a monkey's putting it on the door. You could send a monkey or a robot. But you want to know what a monkey can't do? A monkey cannot preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and win someone to the Lord. A monkey cannot open their Bible and explain to someone while they're filled with the Spirit of God, explain the gospel and preach the Word of God and speak the Word of God with boldness and authority. A monkey can't do that. A machine can't do that. It's going to take a human being to do that. And so, you know, if I wanted to just leave a door hanger, couldn't I just put it in the mail? Why don't we just put a stamp on it? I mean, that's what the mailman's for. Why are you trying to take away the mailman's job? The mailman has that job of dropping off pieces of paper. Okay? It's our job to open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. That utterance may be given unto us. Utterance. Not that door hangers may be given unto us. That handing outedness may be given unto us. That utterance. Utter. Utter. What does utter mean? To utter means sound comes out of your mouth. That's what an utterance is. If sound is not coming out of your mouth, you're not preaching the gospel. Unless you're using American Sign Language. Okay? But that's not the situation of anybody. Who in here is fluent in American Sign Language? Put up your hand if you know it. Zero people. Alright. Therefore, if sound isn't coming out of your mouth, you're not preaching the gospel. So, if anybody would have raised their hand, I was going to be like, come up here and translate the rest of this sermon. No, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't put you on the spot like that. So, the point is though, that the soul winning in Arizona is on the decline. Not at Faithful Word. At Faithful Word, we're just adding more. At Faithful Word, we're like, once a week? Okay. Once a week's great for the individual church member. But hey, what if we have a soul winning time on Saturday and people have to work on Saturday? Or what if they're busy on Saturday? Why don't we put a time on Wednesday? And if Wednesday doesn't work, let's have a Thursday time. We have soul winning times seven days a week. It's not that we expect you to go out soul winning seven days a week. But it's that someone from our church is out there seven days a week. And we want to make it easy for you. That's why we have soul winning that meets in other parts of town. We have soul winning in the morning. Soul winning in the evening. Soul winning in the afternoon. Soul winning on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. What's your excuse? Oh man, I just don't think I can fit it in. Well then, we'll make an appointment. Yeah, we'll make an appointment with you. Yeah, give us a call, email, and we'll make an appointment with you. You say, well the only time I'm free is 3 a.m. Well, you know what? We'll find some bum camp at 3 a.m. And we'll preach the gospel to the bums in the bum camp. I mean, we're not going to knock doors at that time. But we'll figure out a way to go soul winning at that time. But I really doubt that's necessary. I really doubt that's the only time you have free. I guarantee you that one of these weeknights or one of these weekends, we could get out and put in an hour of soul winning and be a silent partner and learn the ropes. But here's the thing. Yeah, our church is doing a lot of soul winning. But isn't soul winning on the decline in general? So, soul winning's on the decline. The preaching's on the decline. The work ethic's on the decline. The culture is on the decline, my friend. You know, we're not exactly putting out, you know, artwork on the order of like the Mona Lisa right now, you know. The music that's being produced right now isn't exactly Handel's Messiah. Okay. So, you know, our culture is on the decline. Morality. We've got just all the filth and the sodomites and the transvestites. Folks, we are not different. Oh Tyre, you think you're so special? Guess where you're going? Exactly where the people of old time went that did the same thing you're doing. The same way that you are is the same way they were and you're going to the same place. And the Bible says that the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. In order to forget God, you have to have known God in the past. America has been a God knowing nation, but the nations that forget God get turned into hell. And we're not special. We're not different. We're on our way down that dark path. And shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, verse 20, halfway through verse 20, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit that thou be not inhabited and I shall set glory in the land of the living. I will make thee a terror and thou shalt be no more. You know, they used to be a terror because people were like, oh man, I'm so scared to death of Tyre. They're such a powerful nation. We better mind our P's and Q's with Tyre because they've got a fierce navy and they've got a fierce military and, you know, we don't want to mess with Tyre so we fear Tyre. But now Tyre is being made a terror because it's like, oh man, I'm so scared I'm going to end up like them. Now think about this. Do you think that some nations would be afraid to mess with the United States? I guarantee you that our military is a terror. Our special forces are a terror where they wouldn't, you know, countries would fear us sending in a team of crack troops and what we would do, the carnage that we could do. Or with our weapons and with our bombers and technology and so forth. You know, we are a terror to this world. Don't mess with us, right? But hold on a second. Someday America is going to be a terror to this world for other reasons. You know, if we are the Babylon of Revelation 18, which I believe we are, you know, then people are going to be terrified standing afar off, terrified looking at the smoke rising up and saying, oh man, this is scary that this could happen to the U.S. But even if we're not that Babylon, we are definitely a Babylon. There's no question about that. We are like unto Babylon even if we're not the end times Revelation 18 Babylon because that would mean that, you know, Christ would have to be coming within a certain amount of time and we have no idea is Christ going to come in our lifetime or he could come 200 years from now. We don't know that. Nobody knows that. But even if we're not the Babylon, we are a Babylon and just as these other nations that have gone down a dark path have seen their empires destroyed, the same thing will happen to America because we are not special. American exceptionalism. You think you're the exception? You're not because you are just going to be another example of the rise and fall of a great nation. It says here, I will make thee a terror and thou shalt be no more, though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God. You know, it's just where, whatever happened to them? You know, and there have been some great nations and empires and cities throughout history and now it's like, whatever happened to them? Whatever happened to that great power? I mean, right now, today in 2022, we're not thinking about the Phoenicians as being this powerful seafaring force. Now obviously the Phoenicians continued after this time, you know, and even after the city of Tyre was a shadow of its former self. Obviously there's other Phoenicians in other places. But the point is, you know, eventually all of these empires, they stopped being what they were. You know, think about the Roman Empire. You know, but then you fast forward to World War II and Italy was kind of a joke in World War II, you know. Sorry to offend you, Brother Joe, you know, I'm not trying to say anything about Italians or anything, but it's just, you know, Italy was, you know, I think Hitler was probably wishing he didn't team up with Italy after a while because they didn't really bring much to the table and they brought a lot of baggage until, you know, Italy wasn't exactly the key player in World War II. If you've studied World War II, you know that it was, you know, Germany is kind of carrying Italy along and Mussolini ended up being kind of a joke and Italy ended up being a bit of a joke, nothing against Italians or anything. But the point is, once they were the terror of this world, but in World War II, not so much, right? Today there aren't a bunch of Phoenicians sailing around striking fear into the heart of, say, the U.S. Navy. Okay, you know, now the U.S. Navy is probably the one that would terrify others, but someday we will be a terror for a different reason. Okay, so don't, and then we could also just, in closing, we could apply this to our lives personally, too. You know, even as a nation could think that they're special, they're invincible, they could never be defeated, we could think about ourselves that way. And think like, oh man, I've got so much money in the bank, I've got so many skills, I've got, you know, I've got so much knowledge, I've got so many resources that, you know, I am unstoppable, unbeatable. Man, there have been some arrogant people like that that God has brought down hard. And those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. He is able to bring down anyone. And anybody who's a Christian, that's who I'm preaching to tonight, right? Saved Christians. Anybody who is a saved Christian who gets backslidden and starts living a sinful life and gets out of church and stops reading the Bible and starts getting all sinful and worldly and wicked, you know what? You're not special either. You're going to be whipped by God because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. And if you're without chastisements, then you're bastards and not sons. That's even worse. So either way, you're not going to get away with it. Tired didn't get away with it. The United States isn't going to get away with it. You're not going to get away with it. Just remember that God controls your destiny. And if you want to be blessed, the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this great chapter, Lord, and for this example of tire that's so much like the United States in so many ways, Lord, a powerful nation, a nation with a powerful navy and with an empire and influence, Lord. Help us to realize that we're not special and that we must love and obey you if we want to be blessed in this world. Lord, help every single person to apply this to their own personal life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Take your hymnals, please, and go to hymn number 389. Hymn number 389, bring them in, number 389. Hark! Tis the shepherd's voice I hear, number 389. Let's sing it out on this first verse, number 389. Hark! Tis the shepherd's voice I hear, howling with answers dark and clear, calling the shepherd, God of strain. Hark! When the shepherds fall away, bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sea. Bring them in, bring them in, bring the blood and bones to Jesus. Hark! The shepherd's voice I hear, howling with answers dark and clear, calling the shepherd, God of strain. Hark! When the shepherds fall away, bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sea. Bring them in, bring them in, bring the blood and bones to Jesus. Hark! The shepherd's voice I hear, howling with answers dark and clear, calling the shepherd, God of strain. Hark! The shepherd's voice I hear, howling with answers dark and clear, calling the shepherd, God of strain. Hark! When the shepherds fall away, bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sea. Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sea.