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

Thank you very much. Thank you. 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. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah. I was in Japan for work. I was in Japan for work. No, no, I was there. I went there. A guy who was there, he married a Japanese lady. And he said that original inhabitants of Japan were forced onto the highlands. And then looked down on by the Japanese family. I'm like... The original Japanese are... Right, you don't know. You're just assuming. Oh, yeah. No, no, I did the one the pastor did. I went there because the officer stood there. Good evening. Welcome to Faith Ward Baptist Church tonight. It's very good to be here for our Wednesday night service. If you would all please find your seats and take your song books. We'll begin with our song service tonight. Let's go to hymn number 259 to begin. Hymn number 259. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Hymn number 259. We'll begin on that first verse. We have heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Number 259. Let's sing it out together on this verse. 259. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Bear the shoes to every land. Climb the skis and cross the waves. On earth is our Lord's command. To Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Lock it on with gold and dime. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Tell your sins far and wide. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing ye my praise. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Shout salvation full and free. High is hill to deepest paces. This our song of glory. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. This our song of glory. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. We're going to start singing tonight. Let's go ahead and open up the search for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to be here on this Wednesday night. We thank you for the songs we're able to sing together as a church. We pray you please have your blessing upon the song service. And full pass it with your spirit as he preaches the word to us. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Number 210 is next. 210. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Hymn number 210. Sing the parts. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Greater than all men. How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall his praise begin? Taking away my burden. Setting my spirit free. For the wonderful grace of Jesus. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Setting my spirit free. For the wonderful grace of Jesus. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Wonderful compassion's grace of Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Wider than the mountains. More than like a fountain. More than like a fish. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. Greater than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Reaching to all the lost. I, and I have it all. I, and I have it all. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Reaching to all the lost. I, and I have it all. I, and I have it all. I, and I have it all. I, and I have it all. Same to the utter most. Same to the utter most. Chains have been torn asunder. Chains have been torn asunder. Giving me liberty. Giving me liberty. For the wonderful grace of Jesus. For the wonderful grace of Jesus. Reaches me. Reaches me. Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. High above the mountains. Sparking like a fountain. False, sufficient grace. For even he will even be. Prodder than the scope of my transgressions. Greater far than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the distribute. leys of the lost. I, and I have it all. I, and I have it all. Greater far than all my sin and shame, O magnify the precious name of Jesus! Praise His name! Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the Most Defiled! By His reforming power, Great King and God's dear child! Purchase in peace and heaven, For all eternity! And the wonderful grace of Jesus, reaches me! Wonderful the massless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea! High above the mountains, Hark the night, the mountain, All salvation's grace will be revealed! Greater than the scope of my transgressions, Greater far than all my sin and shame, O magnify the precious name of Jesus! Praise His name! All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6, Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Tonight we're in Ezekiel chapter number 43. We've got so many times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page are the birthdays and wedding anniversaries for June. And then we've got the birth announcement for baby Oliver, born on Tuesday of last week, and baby Lazar, born last Thursday. And so thank you to everyone who prayed for a good outcome on both of those. And keep praying for the rest of our ladies that are expecting. And then we had a good trip to Payson. Fifteen soul winners, eight salvations. How'd Mexico Monday go? Eight people saved down in Mexico for Monday. Excellente. And then we've got the mega conference coming up. Not this Sunday, but next Sunday is when that's going to start with Pastor Jared Pazarski. And then we're going to have a whole bunch of other great pastors coming through. In rapid succession. And so I know you're going to enjoy that. And don't forget that there's a special reward for those who have perfect attendance. So you might want to think about that. If you think that that's something realistic for you to try to shoot for that. And then other upcoming events are listed there below. And again I want to emphasize that the popcorn for all dads is a really special, gourmet, local, high-end popcorn. Alright. It's very good stuff. Alright. That's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. So going back to Monday, of course we've got the eight from Mexico. Anything outside of Mexico Monday? We've got a five and a two. Alright. Alright. And then what about on Tuesday? Any groups from Tuesday? Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Anything else from Tuesday? And then what about today? I know we had six in the church van. What about outside the van? Okay. Anything else outside the van? Alright. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And let's sing our next song. Alright. We're going to sing song 139. You should find the answer on your hymnal there. If you don't have one, please raise your hand. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Let's sing it out. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. And I agree with those that rise up against thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. For they speak against thee wickedly. For they speak against thee wickedly. And I in peace make thy name in vain. And I in peace make thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. And I agree with those that rise up against thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. I count them my enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. And I agree with those that rise up against thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, I hate Thee. You all are singing excellent this evening, so keep it up with number 261. 261, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Hymn number 261. O soul, are you weary and troubled? Number 261. Let's sing it out together on this verse. 261. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. Through death into life everlasting, We pass and we follow Him there. Over us sin no more have dominion, For more than comforts we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, When the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the line of His glory and grace. His works shall not fail you, He promised, Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, When the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the line of His glory and grace. The entire chapter, beginning in verse number one, follow along silently with brother Hesse as he reads. Ezekiel 43, starting in verse number one. Ezekiel chapter 43 in the Bible reads, Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and his voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Kibar, and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate, whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house, and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor kings, by their whoredom, nor by their carcasses, of their kings and their high places. In their setting of their threshold, by my threshold, and their posts by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. Thou son of man, show to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their iniquities, and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof, and write it in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house. Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits. The cubit is a cubit and a handbreath. Even the bottom shall be a cubit and the breadth of a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span, and this shall be the higher place of the altar. And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit, and from the lesser settle even to the greater settle shall be four cubits, and the breadth one cubit. So the altar shall be four cubits, and from the altar and upwards shall be four horns. And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof. And the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad, and the four squares thereof, and the border about it shall be half a cubit, and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about, and his stairs shall look toward the east. And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord God, These are the ordinances of the altar in the day, when they shall make it to offer burnt offerings thereof, and to sprinkle blood thereon. And thou shalt give to the priest the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me to minister unto me, saith the Lord God, a young bullock for a sin offering. And thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about. Thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it. Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house without the sanctuary. And on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall cleanse the altar as they did cleanse it with the bullock. When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish, and thou shalt offer them before the Lord, and the priest shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the Lord. Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering. They shall also prepare a young bullock and a ram out of the flock without blemish. Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it, and they shall consecrate themselves. And when these days are expired it shall be that upon the eighth day and so forward the priest shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, saith the Lord God. Father in heaven, thank you for the Bible. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Ghost as he preaches your word, and help us, your children, learn doctrine and do it as well. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Ezekiel chapter number 43, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and his voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city, and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Kebar and I fell upon my face. So if you remember, many, many chapters ago, and in the lifetime of Ezekiel, this was decades earlier, decades earlier he had seen that vision by the river Kebar, and this was that vision that was described in Ezekiel chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 10 of the Lord riding upon these cherubim and there were the wheels within a wheel and all of these really complicated descriptions about seeing the Lord in all of his glory, if you remember back to that time. So he's seeing that same vision again. He's seeing the Lord in that same way. Now remember, up to this point, what we've had starting in chapter 40 where we started this new section is that the hand of the Lord was upon him and in visions of God he was brought to the land of Israel and there's just a man showing him these buildings, but there's not necessarily been a lot of explanation about what he is seeing or why he is seeing it, right? It was just measure this, measure that. And a little bit of directive in chapter 42, remember the part where it said, oh hey, the priests are supposed to switch into other clothes before they go out and deal with the people. Other than that directive, there hasn't really been any instructions. It was just more looking at buildings, measuring them, seeing a temple, seeing a holy place, a most holy place, etc. So this is very different in chapter 43 because now all of a sudden God is showing up and God is actually going to explain to him what's going on and what he has been seeing and what he's been looking at and why and what he is supposed to do with this information. So this is kind of a pivotal chapter here. And so when the glory of the Lord shows up, the Bible says that the glory of the Lord comes from the east. Now why is that? Well, this is obviously symbolic that the Lord enters from the east and he comes from the east and then his glory fills the temple. The Son is actually a picture of God and his glory. For example, in Malachi chapter number 4, which in context is surrounded by a lot of prophecies about the coming of John the Baptist and the coming of Jesus Christ, right at the last few chapters of the Old Testament, setting us up for the book of Matthew, talking about John and Jesus and so forth, it says that the Son of Righteousness, S-U-N, of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. And it's surrounded on both sides by prophecies about Jesus. And so the Son coming up in the morning is a picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so we have church on Sunday, the first day of the week, and a lot of people freak out, like, you're worshipping the Son! You're pagan! But we're not worshipping the Son, S-U-N, we're worshipping the Son, S-O-N. But here's the thing, we're not going to bring in a lamb and start worshipping a physical lamb either, are we? But yet Jesus is represented by what? The Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God. We're not going to bring in animals and worship him and say, oh, you know, you represent Jesus. That would make no sense. It would make also no sense to worship the actual Son, meaning the big, giant, burning ball of gas out there. It would make no sense to worship that, but yet it pictures the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection when it comes up every morning. And if you think about it, the Earth actually revolves around the Son and not vice versa. You know, newsflash, OK? So if the Earth is going around the Son, which makes sense because, you know, it doesn't really make sense that we would necessarily be in the center of things. It makes sense that we revolve around him if the Son represents God, if the Son represents Jesus, right? So basically, it makes sense that God approaches from the east in all of his glory, sort of like the sun rises in the east and shines literal light or brightness, God comes and shines with his glory and so forth. So that's part of the significance of why God enters from the east. And then that's going to come up a few times in the next few chapters as well. And his voice is powerful like a voice of many waters. The Earth shines with his glory and he sees this great vision of the Lord, just like he saw by the river of Kibar. But here's another interesting thing. In verse 3 it says, It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw, when I came to destroy the city. Now, this is Ezekiel talking. And Ezekiel says, when I came to destroy the city. Now, when did Ezekiel destroy Jerusalem? But here's the thing. If you remember, God was constantly telling Ezekiel to destroy the city just through his preaching. So obviously the one who's actually going to physically destroy it is Nebuchadnezzar, and actually not even literally Nebuchadnezzar, but his armies and his captains and so forth, of the Babylonian army that he sent. Those are the people that are physically doing it, but it's a judgment coming from God. And basically Ezekiel, if you remember, set up like a model of the city and destroyed that model. And so when he says, I destroyed the city, he actually destroyed like a model of the city. But also in later chapters, if you remember, he verbally destroyed the city just by talking about it being destroyed. And then later in the book of Ezekiel, this is a little bit of review, but he also talked about how Ezekiel in his preaching should cast these people down to hell and cast these people in the lower parts of the earth. Because basically by getting up and preaching that they're going to hell, that's him like verbally putting them in hell, portraying them as going to hell so that people could understand the seriousness of what's coming, the wrath of God. And so by preaching about the destruction of Jerusalem, by mimicking the destruction of Jerusalem, by destroying a model, that's what he means here when he says, I came to destroy the city. Obviously this is Ezekiel talking, and he's not the one who physically destroyed it, but he destroyed it in a figure, symbolically with his model. So it says in verse four, the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house. And the man, that's the man that he's been with for the last few chapters, the man stood by me and he said unto me. So now God is speaking directly to him again as he did earlier in the book of Ezekiel. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever and my holy name. Now so far we don't have a complete sentence, do we? So far that's a subject. It's just listing a bunch of things, but that's all the subject, okay? And so it's actually, he's listing all these different things, but we don't have a verb yet, right? Okay, now we get into the verb. Shall the house of Israel no more defile? So what we just saw, that big list of things, were all the things that we're talking about, but they are things that are going to be not defiled anymore by the house of Israel. Now why am I making a big deal about this? Because this verse is a little tough to understand, so I want to make sure that we all grasp it correctly. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, what place is he talking about? Okay. Where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever and my holy name. He's talking about Jerusalem, right? He's talking about the place where the temple is located. And if you remember in other places in the Bible, he says that the earth is his footstool, right? Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Jesus taught the same thing when he said not to swear by heaven, for it is God's throne. Don't swear by the earth, for it is his footstool. So when he talks about the place where the soles of his feet rest, the place of his throne, where I'll dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever and my holy name, these are the things that we're talking about. These things shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings by their whoredom, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. Now, when the Bible says they shall not defile these things anymore, that's not necessarily just a statement about the future, because when the Bible uses a future tense like that, it's often a command like thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill is literally just future tense, like you're not going to kill. You are not going to commit adultery. But we use that to give commands sometimes, don't we? Sometimes we would just say, don't commit adultery, like a direct imperative command, but sometimes we'd use the future command like, you are not coming back. You are not going out of the house looking like that. That's actually a future. Does everybody see what I'm saying? So when it says here that these various things, which are the object of the house of Israel, shall no more defile, meaning they shouldn't be defiling these things, like he's basically telling the house of Israel, don't do this. You guys shall not defile my holy name, the place of the soles of my feet, the place of my throne. Why? Because in the past, what have they done? They have defiled in the past Jerusalem. They've defiled the temple. They've defiled his name. Okay, so these are the things that they have historically defiled. And he's saying, they shouldn't do it anymore. Don't do it anymore. So I hope that that makes that verse a little clearer, because I know the first few times I read this verse, I was a little bit confused by it, and so I wanted to just really break that down and make that simple. Neither they nor their kings by their whoredom. So this is how they've defiled it in the past, right? Because if it says, they shall no more defile, it means they used to defile it, and he doesn't want them to do it anymore. So how did they defile it? By their whoredom. And it says, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. Now, when the Bible says whoredom, it could be, and often is, just referring to literal fornication, right? Fornication is called whoredom, sleeping around, sins of that nature, adultery. Obviously, God has railed on those things throughout the book of Ezekiel, and God is often bringing down judgment for things like that. But sometimes when the Bible uses the word whoredom with respect to Israel, it's talking about not a physical fornication, but them going whoring after other gods. Because when they worship a false god, it's sort of like committing adultery since the Lord is their husband, and he's their one god. They're only supposed to have one god and be faithful only to him, sort of like a wife is supposed to only be faithful to their husband, and they go whoring after other gods. It's sort of like a wife that would go unto other men instead of her husband. So that's possibly what we're referring to here when he talks about their whoredom. And then this is interesting, nor by the carcasses of their kings. Now, how did they defile God's house or Jerusalem or God's name by the carcasses of their kings in their high places? Let's keep reading because he's going to mention that one more time. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds and their posts by my posts and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom and the carcasses of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. Put the carcasses of their kings far from me. Now, why is God offended by dead bodies of kings here? Because of the fact that they have crossed a line between that which is sacred, that which is holy, and that which is profane. And the threshold is basically the division between what's holy and what's profane. And so they set their threshold by my threshold. So they have crossed the line and made that which is profane encroach upon that which is holy. And what they're basically doing is burying their kings in these religious places when they shouldn't be buried in a holy place. You're not supposed to bring a dead body and bury it by the house of God or bury it in a holy place because a dead body is unclean, according to scripture. But because they're elevating their kings too highly, they're burying him in a sacred space giving him too much honor that even his dead body would be buried in like a holy sacred space. It's like they're mixing that which is political with that which is holy or religious or sacred. They're deifying their kings maybe a little too much or just worshipping them too much, putting them on too much of a pedestal, or just thinking, oh, we want to give these kings so much honor that we're going to bring their dead body and bury it in a place that's supposed to be holy and supposed to be clean from that kind of contamination. Because it doesn't really matter who the person is, their dead body doesn't belong in a sacred space that's supposed to be holy unto the Lord. And you know, as far as an application of this in our modern times, you say, you know, what can we take out of this and apply in 2022 is that sometimes Christians and churches can get a little too excited about political candidates and political leaders and actually bring them into a sacred space where they don't belong. You know, like for example, you'll have pastors getting up and praising, you know, say Mitt Romney or something who's a Mormon. And it's like, is church really the place to get up and talk about how great Mitt Romney is or how we need to vote for Mitt Romney or something like that? Because wasn't Mitt Romney the Republican candidate many years ago? And so it's like, you know, if you're an independent fundamental Baptist, you've got to just support the Republican candidate no matter what, and they'll even often do that in church. And so to me, that seems to violate kind of the spirit of this. Because, you know, you say, well, Romney's not a dead body, but he's dead spiritually. He's a walking spiritual corpse who's going to go to hell when he dies because he's Mormon. And Mormonism is a cult, and he's not only a devout member of that cult, he actually served as a pastor or preacher in that cult for a few years where he preached and brought the Sunday sermon in his cult. And then, you know, you have a Bible-believing Baptist church get up and promote him or talk about him. You know, if somebody wants to be for him in their personal life or, you know, outside of church, they say, well, hey, I don't want to vote for Obama, and I feel like I just have to vote for one of the two candidates, so I'm just going to vote for Romney, and here's why I think we should vote for Romney or something. Fine, but why don't you keep that out of church? Because that has nothing to do with church. Your political opinion that's not biblical has nothing to do with church and should be kept separate. Now, obviously, there are some political issues that are appropriate to be brought out from the pulpit because, for example, you know, a big political issue would be like abortion to a lot of people. I don't think it's a political issue. It's just a moral issue of murder. You know, it was a moral issue before it was ever a political issue. It's just the Bible. Thou shalt not kill. So, you know, I would have no issue getting up and preaching against abortion and even getting up and preaching and saying, hey, if you vote for these people that are for abortion, that's wickedness on your part. You're being wicked because you're participating with them. Somebody runs and says, hey, I'm for abortion. Let's legalize abortion, and then you vote for that person? You're enabling that murderous wickedness. Now, I think that kind of preaching is appropriate, but is it really appropriate to just start lifting up some Mormon and saying, hey, you know, we need to be for Trump? You know, Trump in his personal life is a super wicked person. He's not a Bible-believing Christian. He's a very immoral individual. Now, that doesn't mean you may not like him politically or want to vote for him. You do whatever you want out there. But the house of God is not the place to be a Republican pep rally for all the Republican candidates, whether they're Mormon, no matter what their personal lives are like, no matter what kind of filth they're involved in and wickedness. You know, I think we should just keep those things separate and put a division between the holy and the unholy, between the sacred and the profane, and not get all excited about some worldly individual toward bringing them into a sacred space where they don't belong. This is sort of like when King Uzziah, you know, marches into the temple with the censer to offer incense, and God struck him with leprosy because he's crossing a line into a space where he didn't belong. And I think that's what they're doing with these dead bodies. They're burying them in a sacred space that's within the bounds of what is supposed to be considered a holy place. And, oh, let's honor him by burying him there, okay? I've been in churches where they've had unsaved politicians come in on Sunday morning and speak from the pulpit in church on a Sunday morning, and the unsafe politicians are given the mic to speak and say whatever, police chiefs, fire chiefs, and mayors and governors are just given the floor on Sunday morning. I was at an independent Baptist church before where the police chief is brought in and honored. And, by the way, what about these ceremonies, even if they don't give them the floor? What about ceremonies where on Sunday morning we're going to honor all of our local officials and we're going to give an award to the police chief, we're going to give an award to the fire chief. Is that what church is for? Is church about giving awards to our local leaders and politicians? You know what they're actually trying to do is just butter them up. And when I was in Bible college, they explained why they do it. They say, oh, well, you've got to make friends with these people and honor them because later you're going to get in trouble with them and you want them to be nice to you. So they taught us in Bible college you've got to schmooze all these people and you've got to wine and dine all your local political leaders so that they go to bat for you when you need that building permit or when you need to get out of trouble, get out of jail free card or whatever. You want to have the police chief on speed dial and whatever. And so I've sat in these independent Baptist churches where they bring in all these people. Once a year they'll have like a honor our local police Sunday, honor our local firefighters, and they bring these people in and give them awards. That's not church. You know, we only have church a few times a week. It's supposed to be all about the Bible. It's supposed to be about Jesus and lifting him up, not exalting unsaved worldly leaders. It doesn't make any sense. And they brought in this police chief one time and he literally came up and he spoke. He accepted the award that they gave him and he said, you know, I was in a horrible car crash a while back while I was on duty. And the car flipped over and he said, but you know what? I think if I died, I would have gone to heaven because I'm a pretty good person. It's in a Baptist church on Sunday morning. And he said, and he said, I think I would have gone to heaven because I'm a pretty good person. But he said, and because I pray this prayer every night. He pulls out a piece of notebook paper, unfolds it and just reads a Catholic prayer off a piece of paper. And I'm sitting in a Sunday morning Baptist church, King James only, soul winning Baptist church, and listening to some Catholic prayer read by some unsaved police chief who thinks he might be going to heaven. And I'm just like, does this really belong in the house of God? And the same thing when they bring in Jews to come and speak that aren't saved, that don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but oh, it's a rabbi or oh, it's a politician or oh, this guy fought in the Israeli military. I've seen churches literally have a service where they bring in some guy who was like an Israeli veteran, just to talk about killing an Arab or something, you know. And it's just like, dude, this isn't what church is for. And so I believe what God's getting at here is look, you've defiled these holy places, these sacred spaces, by honoring politicians, kings, civic leaders to the point where you'll violate my law, you'll bring in a dead body because it's his dead body. I mean, they wouldn't have anybody else reading Catholic prayers on Sunday morning, but it's the police chief. Oh, but it's the governor. Oh, you know, it's the fire chief or whatever. And you know, it's such poetic justice for that North Valley Baptist church out in Santa Clara, California, where they're constantly one that is schmoozing all their government officials and honoring them and giving them awards and doing all this. But then isn't it funny when COVID happened, that church is getting socked with like, I don't know, $20,000 fines every time they had a service when they weren't supposed to. And the government was just slapping them with 15 grand, 20 grand. And they've been buttering up the politicians for 20, 30 years. And here's what you receive for buttering up the politicians for 20 years. You receive precisely nothing. You get nothing. It didn't even work because when it all came down to it, they didn't do anything for you. You're not going to believe this. Politicians don't keep their word and they don't actually have loyalty to their constituents and their supporters. I mean, how many times you think people have supported a certain candidate and put all their blood, sweat and tears into a campaign, and then the guy doesn't do what he says he's going to do. So then it's like, you know, you're doing all this for this guy for 20, 30 years, and then all of a sudden you need help from him, and all of a sudden he does nothing for you. He does nothing. And the pastor was making these videos where he's like practically crying on camera saying like, we just want to have church. We've been closed down for months and we just want to go back to church. You know, we tried to be reasonable. We tried to obey and we just said, just help, please. And it's like, OK, so how's that police appreciation Sunday working out for you? How's that fireman appreciation? And you know what? If I thought that that church were a good church, I wouldn't be rebuking it so harshly. That church has got other really serious, but there's so much false doctrine and so many faggots coming out of that church. That's a whole other sermon in and of itself. But anyway, I'll just, yeah, I don't even have time. I don't got time for that. OK, that's a whole sermon. But the point is, you know, here's a church that has been just totally praising and honoring all their local politicians on God's time. You know, with their little Sunday here and Sunday there of appreciating these people, appreciating them for what? So they can persecute you when you're trying to have church because they want to just drag out the covid thing for however long. It was a little bit of poetic justice there, wasn't it? You know, that basically they did all this for the politicians and they got nothing in return. OK, we need to be worshipping the Lord on Sunday morning, not worshipping the fire chief, the police chief and the mayor. Oh, and by the way, if you're preaching right, none of those people are going to like you anyway, no matter how many doughnuts you give to the police chief. He's still not going to like you. OK, and so here's the thing. You know, these people that are schmoozing with all these people, they're probably not preaching hard enough. Because if they were actually preaching harder, they wouldn't even if I sent doughnuts to the police chief, he wouldn't be thankful. OK, he'd probably eat them, you know, because he can't resist. But, you know, he's not going to do anything for me. And, you know, and look, even if I wanted to parade, if I wanted to parade all the politicians and local officials across our platform, I really doubt they'd show up if they if they did a quick Google search on who I am and what our church is like. They probably wouldn't even show up anyway. Amen, because they're not invited because I don't want them here because last time I checked, church is an assembly of born again baptized believers. So if you're not a born again baptized believer, you're not invited unless you're just brought as a visitor so that hopefully you can get saved or, you know, we're trying to reach you or something. But you're not invited up on the platform to be honored or no. And look, you say, well, we should honor our police. OK. Hey, look, I'm not against you honoring the police somewhere else. If you love that police chief and want to honor him, go honor him. I mean, for all I care, you can put olive leaf crowns on his head and you can make all kinds of obeisance to him. You know, I'm hey, that's no skin off my back. But is church the place to do that? You know, you want you say, well, we ought to honor our firefighters. Well, then, you know, go run his little charitable 5K or something, but don't bring it into the house of God because we need to keep church separate. OK, and not mix the profane, not mix in the political with church. And so I think that that's what they're doing. They're setting their threshold by his threshold. They're bringing the carcasses of their kings and defiling that which is supposed to be sacred. And they've also done all these whoredoms and abominations. Some of that could be referring to literal whoredoms, literal abominations, or it could be the whoredoms of whoring after other gods. Either way, you know, would fit here because they've done both and Ezekiel has preached about both throughout the Book of Ezekiel. So he's saying in verse 9, now let them put away their whoredom and the carcasses of their kings far from me and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. Now, let's change gears here a little bit. We've been talking a little bit, especially in the first sermon I did, chapter 40 and the chapter 41 sermon. We kind of talked about how to interpret this whole section of chapters 40 through 48 because there's a belief out there teaching that it's an end times thing. And the dispensationalists, the Zionists, the Judaizers, they were teaching, if you recall, that this is like a temple in the millennium. And we talked about how really bad of a false doctrine that is because it's putting animal sacrifices in the New Testament. Because all throughout this passage, there are animal sacrifices described in detail, including in chapter 41 and subsequent chapters. It's all throughout. There's Levitical priests, blood of the sacrifice, burnt offering. And these Judaizers and dispensationalists, Zionists, pre-tribbers, they actually, many of them, probably even a majority of them, believe that literally animal sacrifices are coming back in the millennium. And we talked about how stupid and unbiblical that is, how wicked that is since Jesus is already the sacrifice once for all and we're not going to go backward to the Old Testament. The Old Testament's done. We're in the New Testament. We're going to stay in the New Testament. We're not going back. And so we talked a lot about that. But I feel like chapter 43 is really the coup de grace that just completely destroys that doctrine that tries to claim, oh, this is an end times millennium temple. Because here's the thing. Ezekiel 43 is when God shows up and literally explains what we're doing here. So we've been here for chapters 40, 41, and 42. And in the middle of this, he shows up in chapter 43 in all of his entourage with all the wheels within a wheel and everything. And he shows up and he flat out says what they're doing. So it's funny how this is like a mystery to people like, man, what is Ezekiel 40 through 48 about? Which temple is this? Is this Zerubbabel's temple? Is this the millennial temple? Is this some other temple, you know, in the new heaven and the new earth? Which, of course, Revelation says there is no temple in the new heaven and the new earth. But, you know, there's all this like talk, like there's some kind of a debate. Well, in reality, God just flat out tells us right here in this passage. Because what does he say? Let's read it. It says in verse 10, thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. And let them measure the pattern. Now, as I taught a few weeks ago, what he is seeing is a pattern. Remember how we compared it to the pattern that Moses was given before he built the tabernacle. This is a pattern for the temple that they are supposed to build when they return from the Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah and all those guys. Okay, I don't think this is up for debate at all. That's what it is. Okay, it's not about the end times, it's about the temple back then. And the reason I don't think that this is even a debate is because God spells that out right here in Ezekiel 43. Because think about this, Ezekiel is a real person at a real place in a real time. And God is showing up to this person, Ezekiel, saying, thou son of man, you Ezekiel, I'm talking to you singular, thou is singular, right? Show the house to the house of Israel. So what is he supposed to do with what he's being shown? What is he supposed to do with this information? He's supposed to show it to people that were literally existing and living back then and saying, here's a pattern of a temple. Let me show this to you right now. Now, keep reading though if you're not convinced because it's going to become explicit. And if they be ashamed, verse 11, of all that they've done, show them the form of the house and the fashion thereof and the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof and all the forms thereof and all the ordinances thereof and all the forms thereof and all the laws thereof and write it in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof. And all the ordinances thereof and do them. Okay, show them all this so that they can do it. So how is this, oh, thousands of years later. Really? Because he's saying, you guy back then, say it to people back then, do this stuff. Does everybody get that? To me, it's just like, case closed, done. I'm done here. Ezekiel 40 through 48 is a mystery. It's not a mystery. He's saying, do this. You, guy, tell these people to do this stuff. Now, that makes perfect sense since we're in the Old Testament. Making it, you know, the old temple got destroyed. Build another one. Makes sense. Have Levitical priests. Do animal sacrifices. Makes perfect sense because we're 500 years before Christ. So because we're 500 years before Christ, of course, yeah, let's build a temple. Let's do sacrifices. Let's have Levites. Let's have a priesthood. Let's do all that because we're coming back from the Babylonian captivity. But to me, I mean, this verse is just conclusive. Just Ezekiel 43, 10 and 11 is just case closed. Tell the house of Israel to do everything that you're seeing. How can they do it if he's showing them something that's impossible for thousands of years? For thousands of years in the future. He's telling them, no, no. Because not only are you going to look at this pattern of the house, the forms thereof. That's the shape of the house. Do that. See that shape? See those forms? I mean, read it one more time. I don't want to belabor it too much but in verse 11. If they'd be ashamed of all they've done, show them the form of the house. What's the form of the house? What it looks like? What it's shaped like? How it's built? Show them the form of the house and the fashion thereof. Show them what this house is like. Show them how it's fashioned. Show them how it's made. Show them how it's built. Show them the blueprint for this building and all the forms thereof and all the ordinances thereof and all the forms thereof. Wait, didn't he already say all the forms thereof? So in verse 11, he's like, show them the form of the house. A couple lines later, all the forms thereof. A couple lines later, oh, by the way, did I mention all the forms thereof? So three times he says this. The forms of the house. Show them what the building looks like. Oh, did I mention you're going to show them what this building looks like? What it's shaped like? The form of the house? The ordinances thereof? And did I mention the form of the house? Do you notice that that's repeated? Now, of course, some liberal would just say, oh, it's a scribal error. They absolutely wrote it twice. No, no, no, God repeats things for emphasis. God doubles and triples things for emphasis repeatedly in the Bible. And write it in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof. How can they keep the whole form thereof if they're not going to build this building? No, no, no, just kidding. You guys are going to build a totally different temple. This temple's for the millennium. This temple's, you know, 2,500, 3,000 years away. You know, here, let me show you guys a blueprint for the temple. Psych, build something totally different. It doesn't make any sense, does it? This is conclusive in my opinion. I don't think that there should be any debate. I think that this other view has just been fabricated, this other millennial temple view, just to prepare for the Antichrist because when the Antichrist comes on the scene, you're going to have animal sacrifices. You're going to have a bunch of Judaizers with all their hakflem, shabbat shalom, trying to bring us all back under the old covenant when the old covenant is dead and gone, and we have the new covenant, and we're not going backwards. God's plan does not move backwards. God's plan moves. This train moves in one direction, forward, okay? This train is bound for glory. This train, choo, choo. We're not going backward, okay? Jesus Christ died on the cross once. He sprinkled his blood on the mercy seat once, and those animal sacrifices were a figure for the time then present. They're done. They're over. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. The veil has been rented to. There's no more Ark of the Covenant. Sorry, nobody's going to find it. No treasure hunters are going to find it. It's gone. It doesn't exist. There will not be an Ark of the Covenant again except the one that's in heaven. There's no Ark of the Covenant on this earth, no more temple, no more animal sacrifices. Yeah, they're going to build a temple, and they'll probably have some counterfeit Ark of the Covenant and everything, but it's all going to be of the Antichrist, okay? The Judaizers are fulfilling Satan's plan. It's that simple. And to me, if you really want to understand Ezekiel 40 through 48, just make sure that you draw a big box around verses 10 and 11 and highlight it and put a star next to it and draw arrows at it from all directions. Put exclamation points, okay? Maybe just like put this on a Xerox machine and just blow up just that part real big and just read it 100 times, okay? And then you won't wonder what this chapter is about because he tells you what it's about. And then look at verse 12. It says, this is the law of the house. Upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof, round about, shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. This is how things are going to be in our generation. He's saying, tell them so that they can do this, so that they can build this. And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits. The cubit is a cubit in hand breath, and then we get back into just all these measurements that we read at the beginning of the service. I'm not going to belabor you with all these measurements. Verse 15, the altar shall be four cubits, and from the altar upward shall be four horns. What altar? The altar that they are supposed to build when they get back from the Babylonian captivity. It's that simple. And the altar shall be 12 cubits long, 12 broad, square in the four squares thereof. You say, well, I don't know if the altar they built was exactly like that. I don't know if the temple they built was exactly like that. It's a pattern. Now, when you're given a pattern, how well you follow that pattern is up to you. Now, I'm not saying that the children of Israel did everything according to this pattern when they got back. In fact, I promise you that they didn't, because they mess up everything because they're human. And so when the children of Israel come back to the Babylonian captivity, guess what? They don't end up following these rules. They don't end up following these commandments. They don't end up doing everything. You know, this lays out a vision in coming chapters of all the 12 tribes coming back and stuff. Folks, that doesn't mean it's going to happen. It's a pattern. It's a plan. They're being shown a pattern. God tells us it's a pattern. He used the word pattern. I didn't come up with that. I mean, I was saying it a few chapters ago that it was a pattern, but then here it is. Right? So apparently I didn't just suck that out of my thumb here. You know, it's a pattern. It's not, because remember I explained how Ezekiel's not seeing the future. This isn't a vision of the future. He's seeing a vision of something that's not real. He's not there physically in a real place at a real time. He's in visions of the Lord right now. He's being shown a vision. He's in the spirit. Okay? And that's what it said at the very beginning of this whole thing in chapter 40 that in the visions of God, he brought me to Israel. You know what that means? He didn't really bring me to Israel physically, bodily. He brought me there in the visions. So he's not really there physically. His body is still in captivity, but spiritually he's taken in a vision and shown these things. And what he's shown is not real. It's a pattern. Okay? And so he's seeing it as a vision of what could be or should be or what they're supposed to do. And then he's supposed to take note of everything, document everything, and then deliver this to Israel and say, okay, this is what God wants us to do. He wants us to make this building. He wants the Levites to be over here. He wants this burnt offering to happen at this time and so forth. That's what this is. On what authority? What's God talking? God shows up and says this is what this is. Mystery solved. And then he goes into all of these specific things. And then it says in verse 18, we're going to skip over some of the measurements that we already read for sake of time. Verse 18, he said unto me, son of man, thus saith the Lord God, these are the ordinances of the altar and the day when they shall make it to offer burnt offerings thereon and the sprinkled blood thereon. Makes zero sense in the New Testament or the millennium. Makes perfect sense in the Old Testament where it belongs. Thou should give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me to minister unto me, saith the Lord God, a young bullock for a sin offering. And then we go on and on through the blood and the burnt offerings and sanctifying the offerings and so forth. Verse 26, seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it and they shall consecrate themselves. And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day and so forward, the priest shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar and your peace offerings and I will accept you, saith the Lord God. Now, one other thing I want to deal with quickly before I'm done is an objection that someone raised, which to me, I don't think that this is even worth debating since God just explicitly stated what it is. But someone could raise the objection and say like, well, in verse seven it says, the place of my throne, the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. So he's going to dwell there forever, so it can't be back then because it didn't last forever. But what you have to understand is that we could also go to other places in the Book of Jeremiah where he talks about the fact that the Davidic monarchy is going to last forever, the nation of Israel is going to last forever, the Levitical priesthood is going to last forever, and all of these things are going to last forever. But what we have to understand about that is that these things are all fulfilled in Christ and go on forever through Christ and the church. Okay? That's what's going on. And otherwise, none of this makes any sense in Jeremiah or Ezekiel. What do I mean by that? Is that how can you, as a Jew, reconcile the fact that God says that David's monarchy is going to last forever when it stopped for the last couple thousand years? Because even if you got excited about, oh, they're back in the land, 1948, Israel's back. Okay, what about the fact that it stopped existing for all that time? And you say, well, it didn't stop existing because they still stayed a nation in their captivity and whatever. But hold on a second, though. Where's their Davidic king right now? Is David reigning over them right now? Is a king descended from David reigning over them right now? Absolutely not. Now, what we understand as Christians is that the house of David ruled over them until Jesus came. And because Jesus is the son of David and Jesus is the king of kings, he's the king of the Jews, he reigns forever and ever. His kingdom never ends. That's why those promises are fulfilled. They're fulfilled in Christ. No one could really make an argument that the Levitical priesthood never stopped or that the Davidic monarchy never stopped. But what happened is Jesus fulfilled the Levitical priesthood and brought in a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. But the Levites were not forsaken or abandoned because every single Levite who believed in Christ was grafted into the olive tree in the New Testament. And so the Levites are not forsaken or abandoned. They're still priests. You know that the Levites are still priests right now as long as they believe in Jesus. It's like, ah, the Levites didn't get to keep being priests. Yeah, they did as long as they believed in Jesus. And I think the best way, I think you and I were talking about this, brother Hester, weren't we talking about kind of these splits? And it's like all throughout history of the nation of Israel, there are these splits where you have to be on the right side of the split to still be God's people. So it's like, you know, you start with like Abraham, right? And God's going to make Abraham a great nation. But then there's like Ishmael Isaac. You're not on the right side of that split. You're not God's chosen people. You've got to be on the Isaac side of that, right? But then it's like, okay, Isaac, yeah, we made that cut. Okay, but now it's like Jacob and Esau. You've got to be on the Jacob side, right? Then you get to a point where there's a split between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom and God's not with that northern kingdom. That northern kingdom is not worshiping God. And by the way, you know what that northern kingdom was called? Israel. Now all of a sudden you have to be in the southern kingdom. It's called Judah. If you're in the kingdom called Israel, God's your enemy. God's against you. God's fighting you. And so it's like there's a split and you better be on the Judah side. And all the northerners who loved the Lord and wanted to worship the Lord, they defected and immigrated down into the southern kingdom. Okay, well guess what? Then you get to the Babylonian captivity and, you know, a lot of people there get scattered and never come back and don't make the cut to actually come back and be part of the renewed kingdom. Okay, but then when Jesus Christ comes along, guess what you have? Another split. Those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ are cut off. That's why John the Baptist said, Think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham, and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. So there's a split there. He's like, if you don't believe in Jesus, even if you have Abraham as your father, you're not God's people. You're not the children of Abraham. You're not the children of God. You, you know, so I don't understand why this is so hard to understand that if you don't take that Christ turnoff, you're on a freeway that's a highway to hell is where you're going. You know, it's like, you know, you're driving down the freeway, and there's, and you like, you miss the cutoff or whatever. You know, there's all these splits. It's like, it's like, I just want to stay on Interstate 80. You know, I just want to stay on Interstate 80, but it's like sometimes to stay on Interstate 80, it's like sometimes you have to be on the right, because you'd expect, like, well, if I just stay in this left lane, you know, I'm going to stay on 80 or whatever, but then it's like some left exit for 50 or something. It's some other, you know what I'm saying? And so, like, you have to pay attention to the directions, and stay, so it's like you have to keep, you got to be on the right side of this thing, and so when Christ comes, that's the ultimate split. Like, if you miss that turn, if you're not in the right lane, when it comes to Jesus Christ, and you stay in that left lane, all of a sudden now you're headed for hell. All of a sudden you're not God's people. You're not Israel. So is God going to, could God really say, I'm going to dwell in the midst of Israel forever? Could God say that in the Old Testament and it be true? Yeah, because guess what, I'm Israel. You're Israel. That's what the Bible says in the New Testament, folks. It literally says, we as Isaac was are the children of promise. It literally says, we are the circumcision who worship God and the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Folks, it's rejoicing in Christ Jesus and trusting in the Lord, and not trusting your own works. That's what makes you the circumcision. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, he's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart and of the Spirit. Try this on. Galatians chapter 6, verse 16, and as many as walk according to this rule, peace beyond them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God are those who walk according to this rule. It is the people who follow the book of Galatians, which teaches salvation by faith, not of works, and spends whole chapters explaining how the physical Jews are not God's chosen people. Galatians 3 and 4. Okay, the best chapters in the Bible to prove that. Well, besides Romans 2 and Philippians 3 and, you know, John 8, Romans 9, 10, and 11. I mean, we could go on and on, but the point is, but other than that, you know, Galatians 3 and 4 are great. The point is, Israel continues through Christians. Christians are the new Israel. We're the true Israel. They are an imposter, the Jews. They're not saved. They don't believe in Christ. They're not the children of God. Jesus said you're of your father, the devil. Okay. They're the anti-Israel. Exactly. Because anti-Christ means in the place of Christ, right? Well, guess what? There's an anti-Israel. There's the true Israel and then the anti-Israel. The true Christ, the anti-Christ. Okay. Just like there's like a satanic trinity in the book of Revelation of like the beast, the false prophet, and the dragon. You know, the devil's the great imposter and so he's got his anti-Israel. So, you know, you say, I'm anti-Israel. No, you're anti-Israel, Judaizer. I'm for Israel, the real Israel, God's Israel, the Israel of God, not man's Israel, not the cheap imitation anti-Israel over there. Okay. So Israel continues through Christians. And here's the thing. God has not replaced the city of Jerusalem as being the ultimate capital from which he will rule. He's not going to show up and rule from Independence, Missouri like the Mormons teach. The Mormons literally teach that at Christ's second coming, he will rule and reign from Independence, Missouri. Independence, Missouri isn't that cool. I've been there. Okay. But Missouri's not that cool, but anyway. But, you know, it's easy to say that when you, you know, live in the coolest state. But the point is that, you know, Christ, when he returns, he's not going to pick some new capital. He's not going to be reigning from Missouri. He's not going to be reigning from the United Kingdom. He's not going to be ruling from Madrid or Berlin or Buenos Aires or, you know. He's going to come back and he's going to rule and reign from where? Jerusalem. And our capital city, it's not the anti-Jerusalem over there. It's the heavenly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is in bondage. It's Sodom. It's Egypt. But the heavenly Jerusalem. But it's the heavenly what? The heavenly Jerusalem. And when Jesus comes and rules for a thousand years, he will still rule from Jerusalem. So he has not reneged on that being the place that he chose to cause his name to dwell there and saying David's going to reign forever. The Davidic Kingdom's going to go on forever. The city of David, Jerusalem, is always going to be the capital. It's going to be. Okay? But that doesn't mean that there's going to be this unbroken chain of physical Israelites, physical temple, because we know that the temple got wiped out in the first century A.D. Anyway, you want to interpret this. And this verse is not alone because we could find lots of other verses about the perpetuity of Israel, the perpetuity of God's house, the perpetuity of the Davidic line. But it continues through the church. The house of God continues. The church. Right? The church is God's house now. Israel continues. It's Christians. The Davidic monarchy continues because Christ is rolling and reigning right now in our hearts. And in the future, he will physically return and actually literally reign for 1,000 years in the millennium. And so that's how these promises get fulfilled. So that doesn't bother me at all that God talks about the fact that I'm going to dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. I mean, God's dwelling with us more tangibly right now than he was in the Old Testament anyway because we're actually indwelled by the Holy Spirit and wherever two or three of us gather together in his name, he's right here in the midst of us. What else do you want, friend? Here we are. And so I just wanted to deal with that possible objection that someone could raise of claiming, well, whatever this is, it's supposed to go on forever. Ergo, it must be in the millennium. Wrong, because guess why it's not in the millennium? Because God said it was for back then. That's what he said. Done. Animal sacrifices are back then and God flat out said in verses 10 and 11, it's back then. And these verses about God dwelling in the midst of them forever, well, I could point to you to a whole bunch of other verses just like that in Jeremiah and Ezekiel that have nothing to do with this because it's just about the continuation of God's promises that get continued through Christianity and into the end times. And without Christianity, you know what you'd have to basically say is that these things didn't come to pass. And that's what Jews, if you talk to Jews about, and I've talked to a lot of, I think I've talked to a lot of Jews more than the Judaizers have. I must have somehow talked to more Jews because when I talk to Jews, you know what they say? Oh, it's a failed prophecy. It didn't happen. If you actually ask Jews and say, well, you know, what about this thing about David's monarchy going on forever? Well, it just didn't happen. Failed, failed prophecy. Ezekiel had some failed prophecies. Jeremiah had some failed prophecies. Why? Because they don't believe the Bible, my friend. And you say, well, you talked to really liberal Jews. I don't care what Jew you talk. You could, you could literally bring to me every single Jew on the planet and line them up one by one to talk to me. None of them believe the Bible. Okay? None of them. Now, I don't really have to do that, do I? Because what I could do is just take a statistical sample, get the standard deviation, right? Get my sample size large enough and be able to say with a 99% confidence, hey, guess what? Jews don't believe the Bible. Or I don't even need to do any kind of complex statistical analysis or confidence intervals or t-test. All I really have to do is just look in the Bible when Jesus said, if you believed in Moses, you'd believe in me. If you believe Moses, you believe me. Then I don't have to take any sample. I can just take God's word for it. But I've also done the sample. I've also spoken to many Jews. I've never met a single Jew in my life who, when it came down to it, actually believed that the things in the Bible are true. Now, maybe if you just ask them, you believe the Bible? Yeah. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, OK, well, what about this verse? Oh, I don't believe that. I mean, how many times have you had somebody tell you, well, I believe the Bible. And you're like, well, I don't believe that. I can't even count how many times I've had somebody say, well, I believe the Bible, but I don't believe that. Women keep silencing the church. I don't believe that. I literally had a Christian point at that verse in my Bible. I read the verse, and they're like, you believe that? And I'm like, yeah. I mean, I'm like, it's in 1 Timothy right here. It's 1 Corinthians. It's in the New Testament. And they're like, you believe that? And they were literally wearing a shirt that said, like, Jesus Christ. It was like a Christian shirt. It was a professing Christian pointed at my Bible. They literally put their finger on my Bible and said, you believe that? About women keeping silence in the church? Yeah, I believe the whole thing. If I didn't, I wouldn't be a Christian. And so, yeah, you might have some Jew somewhere that would claim that they, oh, I believe the Bible. But when you start asking them, do you believe this part? You believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale? No. You believe that, you know, what about this prophecy about, you know, David's monarchy last forever? Failed prophecy. You know, oh, you believe in this creation account in Genesis? Nope. You know, well, what about this over here? Noah's Ark, global flood? Nope. And maybe you'll find some Jew that believes in the global flood. Give me a few minutes with them. I'll find all the parts they don't believe. Just saying. And even if one of them did say, oh, I believe all that, which I've never found one that would even claim to believe the things that are in the Bible. Even if you did, I'd just say, well, they're lying. Because who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Messiah? He's antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? End of story, folks. That's probably the end of our prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord. And Lord God, I just pray that you would help us in our own personal lives to understand the difference between the holy and the unholy and to maintain that separation where necessary, Lord, help our church not to become secular and political and bringing in unsaved people for whatever reason to exalt or honor them when we ought to be honoring and exalting Jesus. And Lord, help us to follow the patterns that you've given us in our lives, Lord. And you've given us a pattern for how to live our lives. You didn't give us a building to build, but you gave us other patterns. Help us to follow those patterns and to pattern our life after the New Testament. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Take your psalm books, please. Let's go to hymn number 127. We'll sing 127. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Hymn number 127. Let's sing it together on that verse. 127. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take him at his word. Just to rest upon his promise. Just to know the saint, the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. How I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust in Lord. Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to trust his cleansing blood. Just in simple faith to plunge me. In God's healing, cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. How I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust in Lord. Yes, it's sweet to trust in Jesus. Just one sin itself to cease. Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. How I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust in Lord. I'm so glad I learned to trust him. Precious Jesus, Savior friend. And I know that thou art with me, will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. How I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust in Lord. Hey, that excellent singing tonight, you want us first? .