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

Amen. Ezekiel chapter 35, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it. Now the area being referred to, Mount Seir, is the domain of Esau, or Edom. And so this is pretty similar to other places in the Old Testament where God is rebuking Edom and the Edomites, similar to what you could find over in Malachi or over in Obadiah or somewhere like that. But he's saying, Prophesy against Mount Seir, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate, and I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And so this is God talking about judgment that he's going to bring upon Edom, the Edomites. And these are obviously enemies of Israel historically. The Israelites and the Edomites do not get along, although they descend from the two brothers Jacob and Esau, who ultimately made things right with one another. But it says in verse 5, the reason why God is against Mount Seir and is going to make them desolate, it says in verse 5, because thou hast had a perpetual hatred and has shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee, since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Now what's interesting here is that in verse number 5, he says that the reason why they're going to be punished is because of their perpetual hatred. But then at the end of verse 6, he's rebuking them for having not hated blood. So in verse 5, he's upset about their hatred, and in verse 6, he's saying that they didn't have the right hatred that they should have had. Now a lot of people today have bought into this worldly philosophy that just says all hate is bad. Hatred is just bad, period. But yet that is not what Scripture teaches. The Bible says clearly in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that there is a time to love and a time to hate. It's not that hate is bad, it's what type of hate or who the hate that is directed toward that determines whether that hate is sinful or whether it's a righteous hatred. You know, the Bible says that God hates all workers of iniquity in Psalm 5.5. The Bible says, him that loveth violence, God's soul hateth. And there are over 19 clear Scriptures in the Old Testament that talk about God specifically hating people. Not even just hating an idea or hating a certain sin, but even hating reprobates and super wicked people. And so we don't want to get our doctrine from Star Wars. I know we've got the Sith there in verse 6, I don't know where that came from. But the Star Wars mentality basically says, you know, oh, you know, hatred is the path to the dark side. And a lot of people, this is how they think, but guess what? That's a fictional movie, okay? We're talking about Christianity, we're talking about the Bible, and so we're not going to buy into the world's philosophy that just says, oh, that's hate speech. You know, how dare you speak out against X, Y, and Z or rebuke X, Y, and Z or how dare you call out this false, you know, you're just so full of hate. You know what? I am full of hate because I hate sin. Because I hate those who hate the Lord. Because you can't love the flowers if you don't hate the weeds. And so the Bible says here that Edom is in sin because they have not hated violence. Now the blood there is referring to violence, right? We're talking about shedding of innocent blood, we're talking about hurting people, murder, and the Bible's clear, we should hate violence. Now it's not just enough to not like violence or not to love violence because we don't want to be that guy whom the Lord's soul hateth, you know, because we love violence, right? But here's the thing, it's not enough to say, I don't like violence. It's not enough to say, I don't love violence. We ought to say, I hate violence. Because the Bible here says, you didn't hate violence. Shame on you for not hating blood. That's what the Bible is saying here in Ezekiel chapter 35 verse 6. A lot of people just feel like, well, I'm just going to be safe and just kind of love everybody and just love everything just to be safe. Why would it be safe for you to disobey the Bible? You know, when the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 19, 2, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord thy God. You know, if you're just going to play it safe and love those who hate the Lord, well, guess what? You're just disobeying the Bible. You're not playing anything safe. I guess you probably also just want to play it safe and just do a bunch of works in case they're required to get into heaven. Maybe you could just play it safe and just practice a little Buddhism and a little Hinduism, a little Islam, just to sort of cover all your bases. You could be kind of like the used car dealer who's got a cross and he's got a Star of David. Just depending on who he's trying to sell the car to, you can just kind of pull out that necklace. You know what? There's no playing it safe. You read the Bible, you figure out what the Bible says, and you put all your eggs in that one basket called the Bible. I got all my eggs in one basket. Jesus! Is that safe? It is safe because Jesus Christ is the source of safety and salvation, safeties of the Lord, salvations of the Lord, and so God's Word is perfect. And so I don't need the world to tell me and I don't need a science fiction movie to tell me that anger is always wrong or that hatred is always wrong or that fear is always wrong because fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate and hate is the path to the dark side. But no, actually, you know what? I know that God is angry with the wicked every day. I know that the Bible says, be ye angry and say not. Apparently, it's possible to be angry and say not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. There is a righteous anger. There is a good fear. How about fear the Lord? And then some people would say, well, when it says fear the Lord, it's not really fear. That's why it says fear the Lord and serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Just in case you thought it was not real fear, it involves trembling, shaking. That sounds like real fear to me. And so therefore, fear has its place in our lives. We should not fear what man can do unto us. We should not fear the devil or his minions, but we should fear the Lord always. We should fear our father and mother, the Bible says. In Leviticus 19, let every one of you fear his father and fear his mother, I'm the Lord. So there we go. Fear your parents, fear the Lord, love the good and hate the evil, the Bible says. And we should hate sin. We should hate adultery. We should hate abortion. We should hate murder. We should hate violence in general. We should hate the shedding of innocent blood. These people did not hate what the Lord hated. Instead, they hated the people of the Lord. Isn't it interesting how the people that call us out and claim that we're so hateful because we hate sin, because we hate the haters of the Lord, the people who call us out for that, isn't it interesting how hateful they are? Because they'll throw a brick through the church building window. They'll put a bomb in the church building. They'll do all these things that make it crystal clear that they hate God's people. I don't think there's anybody on this earth who just has no hatred whatsoever. It's just people pretend that they don't because they're supposed to say that. But yet, the queers and lesbians of this world, they hate Christians. They hate Jesus Christ. They hate normal conservative families. That's what they hate. And so in this passage, Mount Seir is going to be desolate because they hate Israel, which at that time was the people of the Lord, the people of God. So the way we'd apply this today, we as Christians are the new Israel. We're the spiritual Israel in the New Testament. And so basically, these wicked people, they don't hate violence. They don't hate bloodshed. They don't hate sin. They don't hate adultery. They don't hate what the Lord hates, the proud look, the lying tongue. They don't hate what God hates, but they do hate God's people. They do hate righteousness. And so that's what we see going on here, nothing new under the sun. The people who are evil and wicked, they hate God's people, and they don't hate violence. Now as far as what's going on with that Sith there in verse 6, I always just thought that was a typo in my Bible, but apparently, it is just an archaic spelling of the word since. So it's pretty easy to understand because it basically just seems like Mike Tyson is reading the verse to you, and then you pretty much get the right meaning. But basically, it's just saying, you know, since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Thus, verse 7, will I make Mount Seir most desolate and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. And I will fill his mountains with his slain men in thy hills and in thy valleys and in all thy rivers shall they fall that are slain with the sword. And so what we see here is that what goes around comes around, isn't it? They didn't hate violence. They shed innocent blood. They persecuted God's people, and now that's going to come around to them. The Bible tells us in Revelation, he that leadeth into captivity must go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. This is the patience and faith of the saints. That's in Revelation. And then we have Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. What did he say? Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. And so always remember that and think about that. If you're ever tempted to carry out any act of violence in this world, just remember that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. And what goes around comes around. And God has not called us to be violent in any way, shape, or form. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers. And the Bible says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not physical. They're not of this world. It's a spiritual battle that we fight. We should never get physically violent. If you do get physically violent, then that will come back to you. Even if you're doing it in the name of God, because of the fact that Peter pulls out the sword and chops off Malchus' ear, he's doing that in the name of Christ. He's doing it on Christ's behalf. But then Christ corrects him and says, hey, Peter, put up thy sword again in his sheath. Those that live by the sword shall die by the sword. And he actually healed the guy's ear, showing that, look, I'm not calling you, Peter, to be fighting physically and to be using the sword to defend me. Just fight the spiritual fight. Fight the good fight. And so we don't need to be violent as Christians. The Bible says here in verse number 9, I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy city shall not return. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, because thou hast said, these two nations and these two countries shall be mine. Of course, referring to the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And we will possess it, whereas the Lord was there. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thine anger and according to thine envy, which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them. So again, it's going to come back on you. Your anger against God's people, your envy of God's people, your hatred for God's people is going to come back, and basically you're going to be punished by that same degree, by that same measure, just as you hated and envied and persecuted the people of God. It's going to come right back around to you in measure, and it says that I will make myself known among them when I have judged thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies, which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, There lay desolate, they are given us to consume, thus with your mouth you have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me, I have heard them. You know, the people today that blow off their mouths and blaspheme God and blaspheme Jesus Christ and the media, or even just in their everyday lives, and they just breathe out all kinds of threatenings and slaughter against Bible-believing Christians, folks, all of these things are heard by the Lord. Every idle word that man shall speak, the Bible says, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. And that's obviously talking about the unsaved. They're going to give an account for those things that they've said. Therefore, it's not necessary for us to physically fight or to physically get in there and defend Christ because God hears everything, God's going to take care of it, vengeance belongs unto the Lord, He will repay, we need to put up the sword back in the sheath and just keep on preaching the word of God and serving the Lord and not get tangled in a physical fight. And so he says in verse number 14, Thus saith the Lord God, When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee, Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir. And all I do Mia, even all of it, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Now this is kind of a short chapter. What I want to do is I want to explain a little bit just about this section of the book of Ezekiel in general, and I'm going to spill over just a little bit into chapter 36 because chapter 36 is kind of a big chapter. And so that way I'll have more time to deal with the meat of it next week by getting a little bit of the preliminaries out of the way this week. So we're entering some really interesting chapters in the book of Ezekiel, and we're entering some chapters that have been very misused and twisted, and a lot of things have been preached out of these chapters that are completely wrong, that are completely false. The typical Zionist, pre-tribulation rapture, dispensational kind of teachers have really just gone crazy with chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39. So these are four chapters that really need to be preached, and we really need to put some of these foolish ideas to bed that have been taught in Baptist churches over the last many decades. So what are these chapters about? First of all, we don't want to read scripture out of context. We need to situate these chapters in the greater context of the book of Ezekiel. So let's remind ourselves, what is the book of Ezekiel even about? The book of Ezekiel is a book that covers the period of the captivity of the children of Judah. The southern kingdom of Judah, they are in captivity. If you remember how Jeremiah was constantly preaching how judgment's going to come and they're going to spend 70 years in captivity, Babylon is going to take over. Well, in the book of Ezekiel, that has already started. Ezekiel chapter 1, that's already going on. The first wave of the captivity has already happened. Then there are subsequent waves of destruction in captivity that Ezekiel prophesies. So if you remember, in the early chapters of Ezekiel, when we were in the single-digit chapters and in the teens of Ezekiel, we were talking a lot about how bad Israel was and how sinful they were and how God was so upset with them and God's going to punish them. So the first part of Ezekiel is very negative toward the children of Israel, toward the kingdom of Judah, and he's rebuking them. They've already suffered the first wave of the Babylonian captivity, but more of them are going to be destroyed. More of them are going to go into captivity. Ezekiel is preaching these things from captivity himself. He's with the captives. And so that's the context historically of the book of Ezekiel is Israel in captivity. Now what's going to happen next historically? You got the 70-year captivity. What comes next historically? The return from captivity. And this is what we read about in books like Ezra and Nehemiah. This is what we read about in the prophets of Haggai and Zechariah. That's the next phase. So Judah is a sinful nation. They get judged by God. There's the 70-year Babylonian captivity. And then at the end of that captivity, they come back to the Promised Land, and the nation of Israel is re-established. And also that kingly line or kingly succession doesn't die, because some of these kings, they die. All their kids die. But if you remember partway through the captivity, Jehoiachin, 37 years into the captivity, he's lifted up out of captivity, and he ends up having kids. And then that ends up being the lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so the nation continues, the Davidic line continues so that Christ can be born, and so forth. So that's what you have to understand is the context of Ezekiel in captivity now, looking forward to a future of returning to the Promised Land. Now this happened in the very near future. He's not talking about the 20th century primarily. He's not saying, hey, in the 20th century, Israel is going to become a nation again. That's not what he's saying. He's talking about them coming back like in a few decades. That's the primary context here. So the way the book is laid out makes sense. It starts out early in the book of Ezekiel, rebuking them, because they're still being punished. They're not even fully wiped out yet. And so waves of judgment are still coming on Jerusalem. The captivity is still getting going, and it's still in the early stages. So God's very negative about Israel. Then that was the first section. Then if you remember, we got into a long section where he started rebuking other nations and telling them how they're going to be judged too. What are some of the other nations that he rebuked in that section? Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, Babylon. And now he's rebuking Edom. So he's rebuking the neighbors now and saying, hey, not so fast, guys. You're getting excited about seeing Judah and their downfall. But guess what? You're next. And we saw a lot of that with Tyre, Sidon, Egypt. And now we're seeing it with the Edomites. So now we're entering a new phase in the book of Ezekiel. Getting into chapter 36 is where it really ramps up this idea of Israel being restored. So you start out with Israel punished. Then you start out with everybody else is getting punished too. So wipe that smile off your face. Then the third section, now we're getting into restoration, hope. So now we're getting into a positive part of the book of Ezekiel, positive for Israel, because it's not over for them. They're going to come back. They're going to be restored. God's not just going to wipe them out. So he gets very positive about that as we get into chapter 36. So just starting out at the beginning here, you'll see what I mean in chapter 36, verse 1. It says, also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Now in chapter 35, he was prophesying against the mountains of Seir. So he's prophesying against one mountain in chapter 35. Now he's prophesying positively about a mountain in chapter 36. It says, thus saith the Lord God, because the enemy hath said against you, aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession. Verse 3 of chapter 36, therefore prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God, because they've made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people. He's talking about all the bad things that have happened to Israel, which they deserve. It's because of their sins. But they've done the time. They've paid for their crime. Therefore ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God, thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the rivers, and to the valleys, and to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about. It's kind of a long sentence here. He's just kind of really setting this up. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all I do mea, referencing the region of Edom again, which have appointed my land unto their possession, with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds to cast it out for prey, prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, and to the rivers, and to the valleys, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I've lifted up my hand. Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. Now that was like really a mouthful, basically just repeating a lot of the same things over and over again just about how, look, you've had it bad, you've become a reproach, you've been a shame, but guess what? It's going to get better now because it says in verse number eight, but ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel, for they are at hand to come. So verses one through seven, that kind of tongue twister of that super long sentence, was just talking about how bad it's been. It's been bad, it's been really bad, but God's punishing other people, and now you're coming back. So what we have there in this first part of chapter 36 is almost an outline of the whole book of Ezekiel right here by saying, hey, you endured all these things, the heathen, they're going to get what's coming to them, and guess what? You're coming back now. And that's the part of the book that we're leading into now. So he's saying, all right, mountains. The mountains are not actually, obviously, they don't actually have a personality, or a soul, or a consciousness. This is poetic, just kind of personifying things that are inanimate objects. And so he's basically saying, all right, mountains, shoot forth your branches, and yield the fruit, because guess what? The Israelites are coming back. So get ready to feed them with your fruit. Behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown, and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it. The cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded. So we're going to get into some stuff later in this chapter that pre-Tribbers and Zionists love to abuse. That's what we're going to talk about next week. Right away, as we're reading this, if we actually read the whole chapter, instead of just listening to some Zionist pastor just jump in like halfway into chapter 36 and just make things mean whatever he wants them to mean, we've actually been here for the last 35 weeks reading every verse of the whole book. So we know what's going on here, that you've gone through all these things. I mean, verses one through seven, you've gone through all this stuff. And now, it's coming to an end. You're going to come back to the land. But then they just want to say, no, no, no, this is 1948, this is 1948. Well here's the thing, obviously, when we have an Old Testament prophecy, there's usually a foreshadowing also of some greater future event, a dual fulfillment. But the problem is they are taking this and applying it to the 20th century, to Israel, to 1948, and that is a wrong application because it doesn't fit. It's not parallel. It's not the same situation at all. Now, there is a future fulfillment of these things. I mean, chapter 36, chapter 37, 38, 39, these do have end times prophecy significance. But here's the thing, we have to make sure when we actually apply these things that we apply them to things that are actually relevant, like the analogy has to be there, right? You know, obviously, things are symbolic in the Bible, but we don't want to mess up the symbolism, do we? You know, if we're reading Genesis chapter 22 and Isaac is being bound by Abraham and Abraham is about to offer up his only begotten son, you know, yeah, what are we really talking about there? You know, we're talking about the Father sending the Son to be the Savior of the world. We're talking about God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, right? But that's because they line up, right? We've got a Father, He's offering His Son, okay, there we go, boom, it fits. But we don't want to start making Jesus represent the devil, and the devil represents Jesus because, you know, you don't want to get into goofed up interpretations here, okay? So as we study this, we need to be examining critically the claims of these pre-Tribbers and Zionists that would claim that this chapter, Ezekiel 36, is teaching that 1948 was of God, and that basically God is for Christ rejecting Israel. Now that on its face should just be rejected out of hand as absurd. Why would God bless Christ hating, Christ rejecting Israel? I mean, that right there, it sounds stupid to even say it, doesn't it? Because it is stupid. That's why it sounds stupid. Okay. So, but Ezekiel 36. Well, hold on a second. First of all, let's understand Ezekiel 36 in its primary context. What's Ezekiel 36 actually about? It's about something that already happened back then. And if there's a parallel event in the future, well, then it better be parallel. It needs to match what we saw back then. The real event needs to match the event that's being foreshadowed. Am I right? So as we go down through this, it says, you know, you're going to come back. It's going to be great. Men, verse 12, yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel, and they shall possess thee, and thou shall be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. Thus saith the Lord God, verse 13, because they say unto you, thou land devourest up men and has bereaved thy nations, therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations anymore, saith the Lord God. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee, the shame of the heathen anymore, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people anymore, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall anymore, saith the Lord God. So again, what you've been experiencing in verses one through seven, all the bad stuff that was preached in the first part of Ezekiel, hey, it's not going to happen anymore. The judgment's over. You're going to come back. It's going to be great. Israel is going to be a nation again. Verse 16, Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings. Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Therefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols were what they had polluted it. God's saying, look, I was fully justified in what I did to Israel. When I punished Israel in the early part of the book of Ezekiel, I was fully justified. They were violent. They committed murder. They committed idolatry. And so I gave them what they deserved back then. But there's future hope. There's future redemption coming. But hey, I was right for what I did back then. That's why he says, you know, I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, verse 18, and for their idols were what they had polluted it. And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries according to their way, and according to their doings I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land. He's saying, you know what, it made me look bad. What made him look bad? What made the Lord look bad about the children of Israel being scattered? What it's saying, if we actually read this carefully, don't misread this, okay? It says, when they entered into the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord that are gone forth out of his land. Basically it gave God a bad name because the heathen looked at it as a defeat of the Lord. Because the way a lot of these polytheistic nations looked at things was, well, if your nation loses a war, it's because your God lost to our God. You know, our God's stronger than your God, that's why you guys lost. So basically the fact that God had to judge his own people and punish his own people and scatter them, it kind of made himself look bad because a lot of people interpret that as a defeat of Jehovah at the hand of these other gods of Babylon, okay? So that's what that verse is actually saying if you read it carefully in verse 20 there. Verse 21, but I have pity for my holy name. He's saying, you know, I don't want my name to be like that. I want people to realize, he's saying, that this wasn't a defeat of me, this was me disciplining my people, but it's not a defeat of me. I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen whither they went. Therefore, say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. So I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Now again, pay close attention. Why is he going to bring them back into land in verse 24? Because he says, my name has been profaned among the heathen. Is it because the Israelites, when they got to these foreign countries, said, oh man, blankety-blank, the Lord blank him, and is that, no, no. The reason that the Lord's name was profaned was simply by the fact that they even showed up in those places, because their defeat and their scattering itself is what made the Lord look bad. Does everybody see what I'm saying? Because see, what the Zionists will do, and the pre-triples will do, is they'll say, see, God's going to take people who just don't even believe in God, and they're super blasphemous against God, and he's going to bring them back to the land just for his own sake. They don't even believe in God, and he's just going to bring them back. That's foolish. That is not what the Bible teaches, because that would fly in the face of what the Bible teaches everywhere else. When we see, I mean, look folks, don't read one chapter by itself. Read the whole Bible. What kind of a people do we see coming back in Ezra and Nehemiah? Are they unbelievers? But this is the stupidity that the Zionists teach. They teach, well, according to Ezekiel 36, God brings them to the land in unbelief. Now, can somebody please show me where it says unbelief here? Can somebody find that for me, because I'm having trouble finding it? But yet, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard one of these Zionists say, well, you know, Ezekiel 36, he brings them back in the land in unbelief, I would be a super wealthy man if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that, because they just constantly repeat that about, he brings them back in unbelief. Oh, that's funny, because that's not how it looked in the book of Ezra. Sure seemed like in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, everybody is confessing the Lord. Everybody's praising the Lord. Everybody is worshiping the Lord. They're reading the Bible, and they're building the temple, and they're crying about their past sins, and they're talking about how they're going to do it right, and so forth. And even when they sin, even if they marry, you know, you don't get any inkling of these people don't believe in the Lord. You'd never get that in a million years, reading Ezra and Nehemiah or Zechariah and Haggai. Even though they make mistakes because they're human or because they're sinners, and they might maybe be more interested in their own houses than God's house, or maybe they're, you know, oppressing people and not being fair with the poor and so forth, there is no inkling that they don't believe in the Lord or that they're not saved or something. No, that's not what the Bible is teaching. So you can see why you don't want to misread this passage, and you can see how if you misread a passage, you can get these kind of wild ideas, like, oh, these people, they're just going into the land just blaspheming God, and he's going to bring these blasphemers back. No, the people that he brings back actually want to serve God. They're actually interested in worshipping the Lord. And all you have to do to see that I'm telling you the truth is just read the book of Ezra. Read the book of Nehemiah. Read the books of Zechariah and Haggai. And so it says here in verse number 23, I'll sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen, which ye've profaned in the midst of them, by doing what? By sinning and going into captivity, okay? Because by going into captivity, it looked like a defeat of the Lord to the polytheistic heathen. And the heathen shall know that I'm the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes, verse 24, for I'll take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land. Verse 25, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and so forth. And so we see here that basically God is going to bring them back into the land, and then He's going to do a mighty spiritual work in their hearts and lives, and they're actually going to do a good job of worshiping Him, at least on some level or in the short term or whatever. Now again, the Zionist reads this, and he reads, he brings them back in unbelief, and then they get saved. So he takes this part about, you know, I'm going to put a new heart in you. Oh, first he brings them back in the land, then he gives them the new heart. So this is how they interpret this. In 1948, he brings all the blasphemous, Christ-rejecting, Christ-hating Jews into Israel. Then once they're in the land, he gives them a new heart, then they get saved, then they follow Christ. Well, that's funny, because here we are, and it's been how long now? Somebody do the math. You know, let's see here. What is that, 75 years approximately? So here we are, 75 years later. Folks, it's not even the same people anymore. Think about how dumb this is when those people have virtually all died. All the people who God supposedly brought into the land in 1948, virtually 90-some percent of those people are burning in hell right now. They're literally burning in hell right now. So basically, God's like, I'm going to bring you into the land, and you're all going to go to hell, but your kids or grandkids are all just going to get saved for no apparent reason. Now, listen, folks, I am not a Calvinist, and this is not a Calvinist church, and so what we believe is that salvation is a personal decision, and that if anyone is damned, it's their own damn fault, because if you go to hell, it's because you chose to go to hell, because you had every opportunity to go to heaven, didn't you? You can believe on Christ whenever you want if you're not saved tonight. If you're in here tonight and you're not saved, get saved. What's stopping you? Because you know what? People out there that are lost, they can get saved, and when we go to them and preach them the gospel, they have a choice, and they can either accept or reject the free gift of salvation, and that is a personal decision. And so I don't believe in this idea that basically God has predetermined which people go to heaven and which people go to hell. That is not taught in the Bible, it's a misuse of scripture, it's a false doctrine. God has not predetermined which people will be saved. He is predestined and foreordained that those who believe on Christ will be conformed to the image of Christ and glorified, and that He will get them all the way to the finish line of salvation. But He has not foreordained which people will be saved, because the Bible says that He will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. Bible says He tasted death by the grace of God for every man, and that whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely, whosoever will may come. Believe that? Okay, so if we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for everybody, and that the free gift is available to all, and that it's only one's own pride and unbelief that is hindering them from being saved, and that at any time they could choose life. I mean, God says, look, there's life and there's death. Choose life! Choose life isn't just an anti-abortion slogan, it's a quote from the Bible. The Bible literally says in Deuteronomy, choose life. That's a Bible verse, okay? So explain to me now this pre-trib, dispensational, Zionist doctrine that says the Jews in Israel are just magically going to get saved in the end times. Wouldn't they have to make that decision? I mean, how does that work? You know, God's just like, okay, so I'm going to send all the Jews in the second century to hell, the Jews in the third century are all going to go to hell, you know, unless they get saved, unless they, and then they're not Jews anymore, then they're Christians. So I'm going to send the Jews in the fourth century to hell, another hundred years of Jews in the fifth century, hell, sixth century, all Jews go to hell, seventh century, Jews go to hell, eighth century, Jews are going to hell, ninth century, Jews are going to hell, tenth century. How about just a thousand years, one thousand years of Judaism, one thousand years of celebrating, one thousand years of Jews going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus, right? So one thousand years of Jews going to hell, right, okay, that brings up to the year 2000. And then you're not going to believe this, but in 2001, Jews who died went to hell. In 2002, when the Jews died, they went to hell. In 2003, they died and went to hell. In 2004, very few of them got saved. Very few of them got saved in 2005, extremely few, like it's not really even statistically significant how few, I mean how many got saved, okay? You just round it down to zero because it's just a few that got saved, okay? And we've had a few saved. But as a percentage of people that we've won to Christ, it rounds down to zero even though we've had a couple of them saved. What am I saying? What I'm saying is that Jews don't believe in Jesus, number one. Number two, Jews aren't typically receptive to the Gospel. Now we still love them, we still want to witness to them, we still preach the Gospel to them, we still hope that they'll be saved, but in general, they are one of the most closed off, least receptive people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, okay? Is that how it is in 2022? That's how it was in 2021. That's how it was 10 years ago, 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago. So why would I believe this nonsense that all of a sudden millions of Jews whose parents and grandparents and great grandparents and they themselves right now want nothing to do with Jesus are all of a sudden just going to be like, ah. I believe in Jesus now. That's not going to happen because that's not the way salvation works. And they're like, well, it's God that's going to do it. God's going to give them the new heart. God's going to, okay, okay, then basically, then you know what, the Presbyterian Church is down the street for you so that you can join and become a Calvinist except that the Presbyterian Church isn't pre-trib. So I don't, you know, you're kind of in a, you're in a bind, you know, because you're not going to like the Presbyterian Church either. But let me tell you something, you know, you might as well be a Calvinist at that point. If you're going to sit there and say that God, through an act of his will, is going to just cause millions of Jews to get saved in the end times, even though he hasn't done that over the last 2,000 years, you're basically, I guess, saying that if God wants someone to get saved, they're going to get saved. But I thought that God wants everybody to be saved. Does God want everybody to be saved or not? So why doesn't God snap his fingers right now and cause a bunch of Jews to get saved? Because they have to get saved. They have free will. They have to make that choice, don't they? Does everybody see what I'm saying? And so you can't just take away that free will and say, well, in the end, or sometimes they'll be like, well, you know, one-third of the Jews in Israel are going to get saved in the end times. But again, how does that work when people have free will? How do you just decree one-third of Jews getting saved? Now, if you're Calvinist, then that should work great for you, right? God can just be sovereign, and he just decrees one-third, just magically gets saved in the end times, even though they've always historically had no interest. Folks, this doctrine is a foolish doctrine, it's just I think a lot of people haven't thought it through. If you haven't really thought it through, and you're getting part of Ezekiel 36 out of context, oh, yeah, I mean, they enter the land in unbelief, and then God's going to do a big work, and then here's what these people will say also, they'll say, well, when they see Jesus come in the clouds, then they're going to believe in him. They just want to see proof. They just want to see evidence. Well, that's not how faith works, is it? Because faith is the evidence of things not seen. How do you hope for something that you've already seen? Okay? Faith is the evidence of things not seen. And they'll say, well, you know, the Greeks require wisdom, and the Jews desire a sign. But what did Jesus tell the Jews? There shall no sign be given unto you. That's what he told, right? Oh, they want a sign? What's the context of that? Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. What is the context of this verse that they love to quote, the Jews require a sign? Because they'll take this verse out of context, the Jews require a sign, and they'll teach, like, God's going to give them a sign. I mean, that's what they require. He'll give them one. Well, why didn't he give them one in the 5th century AD or the 6th or the 7th? He just let 2,000 years of Jews go to hell on a bobsled, so why all of a sudden now he's going to give them the sign that they want? No. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks a sign. An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but one, the sign of the prophet Jonah, because as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Here's your sign, the resurrection of Jesus. All right, well, oh, man, I've got to save that for this Sunday, right? I saved it. It can't go off too much on the resurrection because I've got to save that for Easter. But this thing of, well, the Jews require a sign. Well, let's see what the Bible says in verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 1. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So what is the method by which people get saved? It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So how do people get saved? By seeing a sign or by preaching God's word? The preaching. That's why when the rich man who's burning in hell wanted to send Lazarus back to talk to his brothers, he said, well, if they see somebody raised from the dead, they'll believe. And what did Abraham tell him? He said, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. So according to scripture, if the Jew goes to the synagogue every week and listens to Moses and the prophets and he doesn't believe in it, then he's not going to believe when he sees a sign either, is he? He's not going to believe if somebody comes back from the dead. Jesus did come back from the dead. They didn't believe. But even if they see a sign, they won't believe because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith doesn't come by seeing and seeing by Jesus in the clouds. That's not what the Bible says anywhere. There's nothing like that in the Bible. And so it says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. You know, sometimes when I feel bad about my preaching, I just think about this verse, you know, and God uses the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So people can make fun of me and make fun of the things that I say and make fun of the things that I preach, but people are saved. Right? People grow in the faith. It's the word of God being preached. And so it says in verse 22, for the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek wisdom. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to give the Jews a sign and we're going to give the Greeks wisdom. Is that what it says? Folks, what's the context? It says the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. We're giving neither. You get neither. You get the foolishness of preaching. Believe in it or perish. Believe or be damned. Believe or die. The Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. And unto the Jews, oh, they just love it. No, they don't. To the Jews, he's a stumbling block. And unto the Greeks, foolishness. Right? We go down to the university and it's like, oh, the Bible. Okay. So it's foolishness unto the wise of this world, the Greeks of this world, those who, you know, engage in this type of philosophy and science and things. They look at that and say, oh, you know, the word of God is foolishness. We're smarter than that. You know, that's from a time when people weren't that smart, but we're smarter than that now. That's the attitude of the Greeks. Then to the Jews, it's a stumbling block. You know, the Jews do not like Jesus. They will choke on the gospel and they don't like it. They trip up on it and they're not interested. So, you know, the Jews, what do they want? A sign. What are we going to give them? Preaching. The Greeks, what do they want? This is like a, yeah, it's like a pep rally. What do the Greeks want? Wisdom. What are we going to give them? Price is fine. I mean, you know, it's true. Guess what you get? What you don't want? This isn't just like have it your way religion. Oh, you want a sign? Sure. What would you like? Would you like me to walk on water right now? I don't remember Jesus saying that. Oh, King Herod, you want to see a miracle? Hey, well, you got some water? I can turn it into wine. You know, you got any dead bodies I can bring back to life? Hey, he didn't give a sign to people who are looking for a sign. He said, you know what? You evil and adulterous generation that's looking for a sign, guess what you get? You get one sign called the resurrection because you get the gospel and you get the preaching and that's it. And if that's not enough for you, well, sorry. That's all you get. So it's kind of mind-boggling that someone would actually quote the verse, the Jews require a sign as proof that in the end times when Jesus comes in the clouds, that's what's going to cause them to believe when they get their sign. Like God's just up in heaven for 2,000 years just like not giving them a sign and then finally just like, okay, fine. Here you go. Are you happy? Yes, we're happy now. Thank you. And then they all get saved. What kind of a bizarre version of the Bible are they reading? But, you know, we preach Christ crucified under the Jews, a stumbling block under the Greeks foolishness, to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. See, those that are saved, unto us which are saved, the gospel is the power of God. We love it. Christ crucified is way better than a sign. Christ crucified is way better than wisdom and the world's philosophies and scientific data. Christ crucified is, we love it. We're satisfied. But the Jews aren't, the Greeks aren't. Okay. That's what we see in scripture. And so this idea that when Christ comes in the clouds, they will all suddenly believe and that's what's getting, that's not correct. Okay. Now, next week when I preach through the latter part of Ezekiel 36, a little bit of what we just read and then take it all the way to the end of the chapter, we're going to talk about what Ezekiel 36 actually does mean. You know, tonight I'm kind of explaining to you what it doesn't mean. And then we're going to see what it actually does mean, actually reading word by word, verse by verse, see what is actually stated. Not reading things into the text that aren't there. Not reading into the text and say, well, he brings them back in unbelief. Yet there's no mention of unbelief. Yet we go to Ezra and Nehemiah, we don't see them in unbelief. We see them confessing the Lord and actually, you know, God brings back the right people. You know, a lot of people go captive and most of them never come back. He brings back a righteous remnant is what he does. He doesn't bring unbelieving rejecters of his word and rejecters of his name. And then, bam, he gives them a new heart. And this thing about, oh, I'm going to give you a new heart, you know, this is not talking about God overriding their free will and forcing them to get saved. Okay. That's a wrong doctrine. You know, what we're actually talking about there is a foreshadowing of the new covenant that's going to come after they come into the land. And if we actually compare scripture with scripture, we'll talk more about that next week. We could go to Hebrews and talk about the new covenant and what it looks like and see the parallels between that and what we see in Ezekiel 36. Because in the short term, they're going to come back to the land and have spiritual revival. But in the long term, when they come back to the land, what do we know is coming several hundred years later? Jesus. And then what's going to come? The Holy Spirit. Okay. And the Holy Spirit is going to have a new ministry unlike he's ever had in the past. That's part of what's being prophesied in Ezekiel 36. Also, if we want to look even further into the future, there is going to be a time when all Israel shall be saved. Now, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, you just said that that would never happen. That's because those turkeys over there in the Middle East that call themselves Israel are not going to get saved en masse. And again, individuals can always be saved. You know, maybe one of them got saved today. I sure hope so. Right? I mean, they can always, you know, individuals can be saved. But in general, believe me, people have been trying for the last 2,000 years. There have been people who have tried really hard to – it's not that the Jews haven't been witness to. They got witness to more than other people. You know, we should have spent more time on other people that were more receptive. But the Jews got witness to. That's not the problem. Okay. The individuals can be saved. But those turkeys over in the Middle East in general are doomed and damned. And they're never going to be fixed as a nation, as a whole. The reason that all Israel shall be saved is because those people over there are going to be wiped out and punished and decimated during the tribulation period and into the wrath of God being poured out. Okay. They are going to face their punishment and their doom for rejecting and mocking the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there's going to be this thing that we seem to have forgotten about here called every single person who's ever been saved, who ever lived, resurrecting from the dead. You know, the Zionists are so into the pre-Trib rapture, they forgot that the dead in Christ shall rise first. So if the dead in Christ rise first, right, then we're talking about a resurrection of all the saved people throughout all history. And by the way, that includes Old Testament saints. Old Testament saints are also going to be resurrected. And we shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years, and so will they. The reason that all Israel shall be saved is because unbelieving Israel is going to be destroyed and the saved Israelites from all of history are going to be resurrected and populate the land. That's why Jesus told his 12 disciples that they were going to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. He said, but what did he say? In the regeneration. So let me ask you this. In the regeneration, which is another word for the resurrection. In the regeneration, when we're in the millennium, is Peter going to be there in the millennium? Is he going to be there? Are you going to be there? Am I going to be there? How about John? Andrew? Philip? Right? They're going to be there, right? Okay, how about Daniel? How about Moses? You know, I mean, how about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Are they going to be there? Okay, guess what? All the saved people are going to be resurrected. Okay, and so that's why Jesus could look at his 12 disciples and say, in the regeneration, you will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. What are the 12 tribes of Israel? Reuben, Gad, Asher, right? Do those tribes exist today? Nope. There's no tribe of Reuben on this planet, there's no tribe of Gad, there's no tribe of Asher, there's no Isaacar, there's no Zebulun, it doesn't exist. The so-called Jews are the tribe of white people who converted to Judaism hundreds of years ago, okay? They are the 13th tribe, okay? They are the tribe of Honky, okay? They are the tribe of Cracker. They are white people, they're Europeans. That's what they are. Ashkenaz. Look up Ashkenaz in genealogy, he's a white dude. They're Europeans, mostly. They're mainly Europeans that have converted to Judaism over the years because they hated Christ. They didn't like Jesus, so they converted to Judaism. Give me the Bible, but just hold the Jesus. That's what they did. Okay. So, you know, you've got these bunch of white people, but even the ones who would claim that they're from a certain tribe would predominantly be from like Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, because that's the southern kingdom. Ten northern tribes are known as the Ten Lost Tribes. That's why they're called the Ten Lost Tribes, because they're lost. You can't find them. They don't exist. The only way that the 12 disciples can sit on 12 tribes, or sitting on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel, is if those 12 tribes of Israel were resurrected from the dead, just like Peter's coming back. I mean, isn't Peter dead right now? Is John dead right now? Okay, so if Peter's going to be there, if John's going to be there, it sounds like the resurrection has happened. So they're sitting on thrones, they're back resurrected, and they're judging the 12 tribes of Israel, who are also back resurrected. So during the millennium, all Israel shall be saved, because there's going to be the Deliverer that's going to come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and it's going to be a righteous nation of Israel in the millennium. That's what's actually going on, my friend. And so that's kind of a lot maybe to take in in one sermon, but hopefully a lot of that was review for you. But next week, we'll go through, verse by verse, the latter part of Ezekiel 36, and really hammer this down, what is being taught in that particular passage. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And there are so many charlatans and deceivers out there that want to basically take away our blessing, and they want to give it to Esau. They want to take away our blessing and give it to Ishmael. Lord, thank you that we are the chosen people. We are the elect. We are your people. We are the circumcision. We are spiritual Israel, Lord. Thank you that we are your people and not second-class citizens in your kingdom. And Lord, help us to walk worthy of that vocation wherewith we've been called. And Lord, just open our eyes as we study this difficult section of your word in Ezekiel and these dense prophetic passages coming up in chapter 36. And really, to the end of the book, Lord, just give us wisdom and understanding and help us to put away some of the preconceived ideas that we've heard that were not consistent with what you've taught us in the word. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.