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

Alright, if you notice in Isaiah chapter twenty-nine, the first verse starts off, whoa, whoa to Ariel. Now, for the next few weeks, and even just beginning with last week, I didn't mention this last week, but we've been in, we've been going through some different divisions, I call them, like through the book of Isaiah, and what you're going to notice now is for the next multiple weeks, the, the, the first words, the first verse is going to, is going to contain that whoa to. So last week, I believe, is whoa to the children of pride, right? Whoa to the crown of pride, excuse me, verse, in chapter twenty-eight. Chapter twenty-nine is whoa to Ariel. Chapter thirty is whoa to the rebellious children. Chapter thirty-one, whoa to them that go down to Egypt. Thirty-two does not start off with a whoa, but then thirty-three does, whoa to thee that spoilest, and now what's not spoiled. So this is kind of a theme that's, that's going on where, where God's saying, whoa unto you, whoa unto you, whoa unto you, whoa unto you, and whoa is, what is that? That's extreme grief and sorrow and sadness. God is going to bring a whoa upon these various people, and we start off here in chapter twenty-nine, we're saying whoa to Ariel. Now, Ariel is not found in the Bible very often at all. In fact, this is essentially the only place you're going to see this reference to Ariel, especially as a city. There's one other reference in the Bible to Ariel back in the, and I looked at, I forget, it was in, it's like in First Chronicles or something, right, where they're listing off a lot of names. So there's nothing really of significance that I could find in Scripture on Ariel, but we still know who he's talking about here. It's not a mystery, because it's defined in verses seven and eight in this chapter who Ariel is. So the first couple chapters, verses, he's saying, whoa to Ariel, Ariel, Ariel mentions Ariel multiple times, and then if you jump down to verse number seven, the Bible says, in the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition and that distress her shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall be as when an hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth, but he awaketh and his soul is empty. Or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold he drinketh, but he waketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite. That last phrase there, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. So chapter seven says, the nations that fight against Ariel, and then verse eight says, the nations that fight against Mount Zion. So here it's very clear that who, what's Ariel, what place is that, what city is that? It's Zion. Okay, it's Jerusalem. That's, that's what, what God is saying here is, whoa to this city, and he's using this name Ariel to reference Mount Zion. But anyhow, we're gonna go back up to verse number one. I just wanted to point that out, because this is the context and this is what the chapter is dealing with, is with this people. This is, this is the the context of the theme is, whoa to Ariel. So let's, let's keep reading here. And on top of all that, whoa to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt, right? Just the reference to David alone is a pretty strong indicator. Now you could say, well David dwelt in multiple cities, right? David reigned in Hebron. David, you know, it's kind of like, which one? Well then it becomes obviously very clear later on. But just more confirmation, the city where David dwelt, add ye year to year, let them kill sacrifices, yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be unto me as Ariel. So he's saying, you know, go ahead and keep killing sacrifices every year. Go ahead and keep on offering your sacrifices, but you know what? I'm still gonna distress Ariel. I'm gonna bring these, a whoa unto Ariel. Verse 3 says, and I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. So these are references to other armies coming in, you know, laying siege, raising up forts, camping round about the city, but who's the one he says is doing it? God is. This is, this is from God's, you know, the Word of the Lord. This is, this would be the narrator, God speaking, saying, you know what? I'm coming against the Ariel. I'm gonna raise up forts against you. Verse 4 says, and thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. So the whole point of verse 4 now here is he's saying that basically what he's gonna do is he's gonna bring them low, because what have we been dealing with? Chapter after chapter, everyone that's, that's gonna bring, have judgment brought on them, they're proud, right? They're lifted up, they're haughty, they're full of themselves, and God's gonna bring them low. So there's another way of demonstrating and showing them, you know what? I'm gonna bring you low. Now I want to just hit something, hopefully pretty quickly here, because he makes a reference to as of one that hath a familiar spirit. So the whole point here is saying this is, this is, you know, your voice is gonna be low, you're gonna be brought down, right? Even brought down to the dust, but then he says that voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. And the reason why I want to, I want to hit on this just, just real briefly, I'm not gonna go too far in depth in this, is that there's some false doctrines out there, especially when it comes to the doctrine of like paradise, and some people call Abraham's bosom, where did people in the Old Testament saints go when they died? There's a teaching out there that some people teach that Old Testament saints, when they died, went to the heart of the earth, which we know hell exists at the heart of the earth, but they believe in a certain area within the earth that was, that would be known as paradise, that was not a torturous place, it was not a place of burning and fire and everything else, but it was like a holding place where people, where the Old Testament saints would go until Christ died and rose again, and then they all went up to heaven after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ at some point. So that's a teaching out there, and it's a false, it's a false doctrine. I'm not going to go in depth on all the various reasons for this. We say, well Pastor Brisbane, what does this have to do with that? Well, there's a lot of little, you know, supporting arguments that they try to make along the way to prop up that doctrine. One of them is to try to determine, well, where did Old Testament saints go? And keep your place here, turn if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 28. So what they'll do is they'll say, well, Samuel, when he spake with Saul after Samuel was dead, right, when the witch called up Samuel, what they'll say is that, well, see, he came up, and that he was, you know, they focused on that direction of him coming up out of the ground. Well, he must, if he's coming up, he must have been below, right? So they're saying that he's, you know, physically like ascending out of, and I say physically, I should say spiritually, right? Because I don't think these people believe in like this physical manifestation. It was a spiritual thing that she has this vision, and she's seeing them. Now, this is dumb for a couple reasons, but we're going to, I'm just going to show you here. First of all, those who have familiar spirits, they're devils, first of all. Now, I do believe that there are many people today, as well as back then, that literally would communicate with devils, and they would have this, you know, through witchcraft and necromancy and enchantments and these other things that the Bible says, you know, don't do that stuff, and to stay away from that stuff, just like the men of Pharaoh were able to do their fraudulent miracles that I preached on a couple weeks ago. These things are real. I believe that they're real. I believe that devils exist, and that they have certain powers, and that, you know, there is this ability for man sometimes to be able to interact with the spiritual world, whether it be devils or angels. We see with Elisha, remember when Elisha was a servant, and then the armies came because they were seeking out Elisha because they wanted to destroy him because of the drought and everything, and he says, you know what, fear not, there's more that are with us than are with them, right? And then he had his, you know, Lord open up the eyes of my servant, and so his eyes were open, and he saw all the the angels that were around protecting him, so he knew that they were there. Whether he could actually physically see him or not, Elisha, doesn't matter, he knew they were there, but his servant literally was able to see them. God opened up his eyes to be able to see them, and what happened with this witch, we're going to read this story a little bit in chapter 28, she had a familiar spirit. I'm sure she was able to communicate with devils, it seems like, but what happened with Samuel was something, first of all, that was different. That was not normal because she was freaked out and was like, whoa, hold on a minute, you know, I see like God descending out, you know, like she saw something that was not normal, and it's because these witches, these people of familiar spirits, they're not able to communicate just with people in heaven, or I don't believe either with people in hell, like they're not just able to communicate with with human beings that have passed on, I believe what they are dealing with is angels or devils, right, be fallen angels, be these devils that they're that they're communicating with, but not actual people, and definitely they don't have the power to just, hey, I'm just gonna call so, you know, your grandfather or whatever, someone, it's one of your relatives out of hell or out of heaven, like just to have that power to just bring, just yank them out of wherever they are, I mean, if God's eternally punishing someone, right, someone's being tortured and tormented in hell, and then some witchcraft, some witch comes up here and it's like yank, like taking them out, like God's not gonna allow that, as they're being tortured and tormented in hell, like, like, oh, okay, oops, I guess there's nothing I can do, this witch called this this person up, like, no, in the same way, my friends, out of heaven, it's not like you're going around serving the Lord in heaven, whatever, whatever it is that that people do in heaven, I don't know, whatever service they have to God, like, they're serving Lord somehow, and then all of a sudden they're just, they're just, you know, wait a minute, no, no, no, and they come back down here, and they don't have that power, now, God allowed for this event to happen, it's a special, it's a special case, it's clear that this has never happened to this person before, who was normally dealing with familiar spirits, and this is something that's in the scripture for us to learn from, and that God ultimately was gonna, was giving Saul this, this message, and rebuking him from the, directly from the Lord, and letting him know that the sentence now is finally gonna be carried out against him, because he did these things, and even because he did this, it's like God's way of just saying, look, you know, you're, you're done, but let's, let's read this, and then I'm gonna expound a little bit more on, on what this, you know, what the deal is with this out of the ground, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground, that's what, that's what Isaiah said. Look at verse number seven, we're gonna get this, this in some context here, First Samuel 28, then said Saul unto a servant, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her, and his servant said to him, behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor, and Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night, and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. So this, what it sounds like, and again, I don't know all the details of this witchcraft, but he says, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, so use your familiar spirit, use whoever, what devil you're in communication with, to bring someone else for me to be able to talk to. It's like a gatekeeper for the other side, right, this, that's kind of what's being said here, like, call up your familiar spirit that you talked to, and have them bring me up, you know, whoever I tell you I want to talk to. Now, obviously, if something like this is happening, it's gonna be fraud, because it's gonna be another devil that they're gonna see, and talk to, and whatever, right, it's not gonna be the actual person. Now, the witch isn't gonna know anything anyways, because they don't know who the person is, or whatever, you know, and these devils are just liars and deceivers, but so here's what happens, right, and he says, and Saul says, bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee, and the woman said unto him, behold thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards out of the land, wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die, and Saul swear to her by the Lord, saying, as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing, then said the woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee, and he said, bring me up Samuel, and when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and the woman spake to Saul, saying, why is thou deceiving me, for thou art Saul? Now, that narrator there, it says in verse 12, and when the woman saw Samuel, this is how we know that she saw Samuel, because it doesn't say, and when the woman said, oh it's Samuel, it says, when the woman saw Samuel. Now, the narrator is very important, because we could read things in Scripture that are recorded, you know, if Satan is saying, is recorded as saying something, the truth about that is just that Satan made that statement, right, that the quote is accurate, but what Satan says, Jesus says there is no truth in him, so even when he's quoting Scripture, he's misquoting Scripture, even when he's, you know, saying things, it's not, it's never quite right, everything has a twist to it, everything is nuance and subtlety, but it's not truth, but it's still, if he says something, the Bible will record what he said, does that make sense? So, we always, when we're reading the Bible, man may say something, or do something, and it's recorded in Scripture, because that's what they said or did, but that doesn't always make it right or true, right, even Mary said unto Jesus, you know, that thy father and I have sought thee, right, but then Jesus answered, what, no you're not, that must be about my father's business, and the narrator in that passage says that Joseph and the boy's mother, whereas false versions will say his father and mother, because Joseph isn't the father of Jesus, he's the stepfather of Jesus, but he's not the father, because God is the father, God the father is the father of Jesus Christ, that's why he's a son of man, son of God, Joseph was not, but anyhow, so her saying that she was wrong in calling Joseph his father, Jesus corrects her, but she did say that, right, so my point is here, that in that situation, the narrator was right, because the narrator is a Holy Ghost, you know, Jesus Christ, the author of the Bible, but in this case here, when it says the one woman saw Samuel, this is the narrator, the person telling the story, which is the Holy Ghost, it's God, right, so she definitely saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice, the woman said, spake to Saul, saying, why hast thou deceived me, for thou art Saul, and the king said unto her, be not afraid, for what sawest thou, and the woman said unto Saul, I saw God's ascending out of the earth, so one thing that's clear to is, she doesn't really know what she's seeing, because, well, I mean, she's seeing gods, so she might be seeing some devils ascend out of the earth, it's a lower case G, obviously there's one God, and if you see devils ascending out of the earth, what does that mean? Nothing. Now, what people will say is, well, you keep on saying this, bring me up, bring me up, who should I bring up, bring up Samuel, bring him up, I would say this, it's kind of a natural way of just saying, like, if you, if you, now, I mean, of course, none of us would, should do this, or would want to do this, but if you did want to go and talk to someone and say, hey, who do you want to talk to that's dead, saying bring me up, you're not thinking, you know, it would be weird to say bring me down, like, it just would, it would just be a weird thing to say, because, why, we bury the dead, and you think about bringing them back up, or bringing them back, bringing them back, well, bring them up, or, you know, how many times have you used a phrase, like, well, call them up, I mean, is there, is, does there necessarily have to be some direction there, like, oh, well, then, that must be, they must have been down, no, it's a phrase that we kind of understand, I'm going to call him up, I'm going to talk to him, right, well, bring me up, and what people do is say, is try to get real focused on, well, see, look, Samuel must have been down, and what's down, well, it's under the earth, so he must have been brought up out of hell, and again, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a term, it's a, it's a phrase. Now, the reason why this is so stupid, though, is because if they say, well, he was in paradise, there's only, like, three, I think three references using the word paradise, and they're all in the New Testament, first of all, and there's only one of them that has direction, and it's caught up to paradise, there is no down, and on top of, on top of all of that, the, man, don't you hate it when your mind just stops. It's such a weird doctrine with Samuel being called up, what's it, there's one more point, man, I didn't write in my notes, oh, but what we do have, man, thank you, thank you, Lord, we do have a direction in the Old Testament for Old Testament Saints and where they go, with Elijah, Bob says he was caught up by a whirlwind, you know, the chariots came and, and carried him up to heaven in a whirlwind, so trying to say that, that these Old Testament Saints, and then, and then people, oh, well, he's just like an exception, so what, he was just hanging out in heaven by himself, like, it's just him, God, and the angels, I mean, it's nonsense, like, why would you think that everyone else didn't go there, and, you know, I preached on, on the devils and the angels, and the angels carry people to heaven, all that other stuff, and that's exactly what we saw in the Old Testament, we see the New Testament, same thing, people didn't go down to, I mean, even, even science will tell you, like, the whole heart of the earth is hot, the core is, like, super hot, like, immeasurably hot, like, it's just hot, because that's where hell is, it makes sense to us, like, yeah, of course science is gonna find that there's, there's, there's this huge flaming ball that's super hot in the center of the earth, because that's where God said hell is, and he described it as a fire that never shall be quenched, where the worm dieth not, and the fire shall never be quenched, I mean, yeah, it makes sense, so how are you gonna have some compartment there that's just not hell, but still called hell, because when the Bible says that Jesus went to hell, he went to, you know, it's ridiculous, anyhow, I'm gonna move on past, that's, that's an entire sermon, I preach an entire sermon on that subject, but I kind of wanted to point this up, because in verse, in verse 4 there of Isaiah 29, it says, as if one have a familiar spirit out of the ground, so the familiar spirits, the devils may be coming up out of the ground that the witch sees, and she called them gods, but it doesn't even say that Samuel came up out of the ground, it just says that she saw gods, plural, and it's not like Samuel was in multiple apparitions or something coming up, Samuel was one, so who knows exactly what she saw, but we definitely was communicating with Samuel, and the fact that they come up, the whole point is that, that obviously it has to do with the ground, but it doesn't mean that physically that's where his soul was, anyways, let's move on here, verse number 5, we already saw now that God was going to fight against Ariel, right, God is claiming the one to be the one who's gonna, who's gonna fight against the city, verse 5 says, moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible one shall be as chaff that passeth away, yea it shall be at an instant suddenly, thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire, and the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her shall be as a dream of a night vision, so now he's saying the nations are gonna be fighting against Ariel, verse 8, it shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth, but he awaketh and his soul is empty, or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold he drinketh, but he awaketh, and behold he is faint and his soul hath appetite, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion, so basically what he's saying is that it's gonna be brought to nothing, so there's gonna be all these nations that are gonna mount up against Zion, but it's gonna be just like, you know, someone, when you dream and you go to bed hungry or something, you have this dream like, oh man, I ate all this food, especially if you're like fasting or fasting for a couple days, and you just have this dream, like you're eating a steak, you're eating all this food, and it's so great in your dream, but then you wake up and it's like, you're not satisfied at all, right, you may have been satisfied in your dream, you wake up and the dream isn't reality, right, you wake up going, well it wasn't real, so these people have all these visions, all these dreams of coming against them, and what's gonna happen here is that God is going to destroy the nations that he uses to bring judgment, as he does multiple times, God brings judgment by nations, sometimes that are more wicked than the nation he's judging, but then they end up getting judged as well, and he's saying that these nations are gonna rise up against Zion, they're gonna be like these people who dream, that they have, oh man, this great meal, whatever, but then they're gonna wake up and it's gonna come to nothing, they're gonna be brought to nothing, look at verse number nine, the Bible says, stay yourselves in wonder, cry ye out and cry, they are drunken but not with wine, they stagger but not with strong drink, for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes, the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered, so God has caused this to happen, and we're gonna see in a minute why this even happens, and ultimately it's because their heart has departed from the Lord, but God brings them to a point where, you know, he's likening them to being like drunken and staggering, because what the drunken man do, they can't really walk straight, they stumble around, and he's using this illustration to say spiritually that that's where they're at, that they're that they're stumbling around, they don't know the truth, they don't have a light shining their path, they're not walking in the right way, they're just kind of staggering around trying to figure things out, why, because they don't have God, why, because they're not looking to the law of the Lord, why, because they're not looking to the truth, they're not looking to righteousness, they're not looking to the light in the lamp in the Word of God to lighten their path, they're just trying to do everything on their own, and so God says, you know what, I've poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, it's like you're sleeping, you can't see, you're blind, you can't, you know, he says, he hath closed your eyes, and he's talking to still the nation, to Ariel, the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered, so these these men of God, their prophets, God's blinded them, these, they're rulers, they're blind, the seers, they're blind, and you know what, when people are blinded, they're gonna say all manner of stupid things, and go way off course, you know, and if the blind lead the blind, both of them will fall into the ditch, and this is what's going on, this is what's happening here, now when it says here the spirit of deep sleep, you know, I've brought this up in the past, but I'm gonna bring it up again, don't be confounded or confused when the Bible uses the word spirit, especially about things like this, the spirit of deep sleep, it doesn't mean like a literal, like a literal apparition spirit, like the Holy Spirit coming down and, and, and, you know, possessing you or something, you know what I mean, it's, it's, it's more just that's how you're going to be, it's gonna, that's gonna be, he's gonna blind you in a sense that you're not gonna understand, God's the one that gives understanding, in fact this is a good, like in James chapter 1, I don't have this in my notes, you know, the Lord's the one that gives wisdom, the Lord's the one that gives knowledge, he instructs us, you know, we're led and taught by the Holy Ghost, we have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, but still, when we read the Word of God, the Holy Ghost should be teaching us and showing us things and opening up our eyes continually to things in Scripture, even though we're saved, God can still continue to open up our eyes and continue to give revelations just like he did in the past when he was revealing the Word of God, right, they didn't have all knowledge, but he was, he's pouring out more knowledge, more wisdom, more understanding, and God wants us to be wise, he wants us to seek after wisdom, he wants us to seek after knowledge and truth and know it, but when we're not seeking him, guess what, he can also cause us to not have it, to be void of truth, and he can cause the, the spiritual leaders and everyone else to give bad counsel and bad advice because they've been blinded to the point to where they're not even gonna be able to understand this, the Bible says in James chapter 1, in verse number 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, so you know what, God's, you know, liberal means freely, right, you think of Liberty, freedom, right, well that's where the root comes from for liberal and, you know, the problem with liberals today in our, in our political climate is that they're too free with things that they shouldn't be free with, it's like, it's like freedom to sin and just, not just freedom to sin, but like endorsing of sin, like, oh yeah, we just support anyone who wants to do everything wicked, everything against God, everything that's ungodly, yeah, that's what we're for and that's what we like, that's what the modern liberals are about, all the perversion, yep, fine, no, let's accept it, that's great, let's promote it, but when God's talking about being liberal, he's talking about being, you know, being generous, using, you know, giving liberally, so he's saying here, I'm gonna not just give you wisdom, I want to give you liberally, I want to give you lie to wisdom, he's gonna, he's gonna overflow, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him, verse 6 though says, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, right, so if you want to give wisdom from God, you know, great, he wants to give it to you, and he wants to be real liberal, he wants you to be wise, he wants you to have knowledge, he wants you to be smart, but you know what, go to him in faith, and don't go to him wavering, going, well, I don't know, you know, kind of wishy-washy, half in, half out, I don't really know if God can do this, it says, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, so you need to be all in with your heart, just, God, I trust you, God, please give me his wisdom, God, I want to seek things of you, and you're all in, right, you're asking of faith, because your heart is in it, and the problem with the people here of Ariel or of Mount Zion, right, here, their heart is not in it, let's keep reading in verse number 11, the Bible says, and the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, read this, I pray thee, and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed, so this is, again, more speaking to the spirit of deep sleep, that the gods closed their eyes, and they're saying, well, we've got, they've got this vision, but they just can't understand it, it's like people who are unsaved trying to read the Bible and understand it, they just have no understanding, they don't know what it says, like, here, can you, can you explain this to me, here, here's a book, here's this prophecy, but I don't understand what it means at all, can you, can you show this to me, and here, it's a book, right, like, well, hey, I've got this book, you know, can you read this to me, and they say, well, I can't, it's sealed, right, I can't, we can't break the seal, we can't open up, I don't know what it says, I can't read it to you, because it's sealed up, verse 12, and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee, and he saith, I'm not learned, so I can't read, right, that's what he said, giving it to someone who's not learned, like, well, I don't even know how to read, so I can't read that to you, wherefore the Lord said, verse 13, this is, this is the root of the problem, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men, so these people have this form of godliness, these people will draw nigh to God with their lips, they give lip service to God, they're gonna claim the Lord, they're gonna claim they believe in Moses, they're gonna claim this stuff, oh yeah, the Bible's true, they're gonna say this all day long, up and down, they're giving the lip service to it, and they've also even instituted certain precepts of man, they may be following certain rules, right, that, you know, that it says they fear toward me is only by precept of men, so, and what's the fear in relation to obeying God's commandments, so like, so they may be following some of his commandments, but it's not because they actually love the Lord, and they care about God, it's just because they're following some laws of man, and that's, that's how they're doing things, and that's why they're doing things, it's like, yeah, with their mouth, they're saying things about me, and they have these precepts of men that they've set up to try to instill fear of God, he says, but their heart is far from me, and that's what God cares about the most, God says, you know, get your heart right with me, get your heart, I want your heart, I want you to honestly and sincerely love me and seek me, and you know what, you do that, and you have your faith in me, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna open up, I'm gonna give you wisdom and knowledge, I'm gonna give it liberally, right, but when you don't, and it's all just lip service, and it's all phony, and it's all fake, then you're blinded, and I'm not gonna open things up to you, God isn't opening up the great truths, I mean, think about this, you got someone who claims, let's say they claim the name of Christ, right, and maybe they're living a relatively, you know, righteous life, just in general, but their heart is not toward serving God at all, I mean, their heart is just removed far from it, but they still might go to church, and they still might say, oh yeah, I'm a Christian, and kind of talk this talk, but they're just big hypocrites, and whatever, right, but overall, they still, like, they're not, they're not doing, like, extreme wickedness, because they've got these precepts set up, but they're still, they're, you know, their heart is far from God, God is not going to be opening up great biblical truths unto these people, I mean, he's just not, he's just not gonna be doing that, and they're gonna continue to walk around blindly until they could get their heart right with God, and even, you know, for the, for this, it's this whole people, because he's blinding the prophets, he's blinding the rulers, and they end up doing all these stupid things, and it's really frustrating for the person who can't see, for the person who does have their heart right, because you could be like, like, I mean, this is what we're seeing today, what are these people thinking? I mean, it's literally, there's so many people that are so blinded these days, they don't even have this facade, they don't even have the precepts, they don't even have, you know, a lot of them aren't even claiming the name of Christ anymore, you know, it's getting really wicked and bizarre, but you kind of look at people going, like, you have no wisdom at all, well, when your heart's not right with God, of course that's gonna be the case. Look at verse 14, the Bible says, therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid, and again, I think this is what we're seeing today, so the people who do it, like, the wise men here, it says the wisdom of the wise men, that's gonna go away from the people, right, the prudent understanding, people with understanding and actually prudent, they're not gonna be listened to anymore, they're gonna be ignored, they're gonna be brushed aside, because as a whole, the people have just turned, you know, the heart is removed from God, and we see today, those that have wisdom and those that have prudence are basically just trying to be silenced, and they're gonna be silenced, because God is putting blinders on everyone else, you know, that whose heart is far removed from the Lord, and they're gonna be destroyed, and they're gonna have destruction brought upon them. Woe unto them. Look at verse 15, woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who seeth us, and who knoweth us, and this, you know, I could preach an entire sermon on this, keep your place here and turn to Numbers chapter 32, don't worry, I won't, we're already well into this chapter, but seriously, seriously, think about that, the Bible says, woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who seeth us, and who knoweth us, these are people who think that they could get away with their sins, right, that they're doing things sneaky, they're doing things behind closed doors, they're doing things in the dark, oh, and no one can see us, and don't ever get this mindset where you think that you can do things, and that you can sin, and you're gonna be really sneaky about it, and you may, seems like you're getting away with it at first, and no one knows anything, but be sure, as the Bible says here in Numbers 32, be sure your sin will find you out, and you may start getting real comfortable and confident in your sin, thinking, man, I've gotten away with this for a long time, all that means is that when the roosters come home, when it's time to pony up for your sin, when God finally is gonna expose you, it's gonna be really bad. Nobody, you know, look, the Bible says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, and if you think that you can just sin, and watch whatever, put all filth in front of you, do all kinds of wicked things, whatever it is, and that that's not gonna catch up to you, you've got another thing coming, and what you need to do is repent now, and, you know, get that out, and confess, and forsake, and move on, because if you have this attitude that thinks, like they're saying here, who seeth us, who knoweth us, no one knows what's going on, right, we're gonna keep doing this, that's a bad place to be, Numbers 32 verse 20, the Bible says, and Moses said unto them, if you will do this thing, if you will go armed before the Lord, the Lord, now in this context, this is when they were making that deal about being able to keep the land on the other side Jordan, because they, you know, when they killed Og, and, you know, the king of Bashan, and Sihon, thank you, king of the Amorites, when they killed those kings, obviously they were able to inherit that land, they were saying, okay, well, we're good with this land, we don't even need to go over, this is great for us, Moses says, okay, you know, he goes to God, God says, fine, they say, okay, but here's the deal, you have to go and continue to fight, like, you can't just, you can't just be like, okay, well, we won this battle, we're just gonna say, here, see you guys, go have fun, have fun conquering the rest of the land, right, that's not gonna fly, so Moses says, okay, we'll do this for you, but you've got to go and cross over the river, and help your brethren, and, and go and fight, like, the battle's not over yet, just because you got this land, you still have to go out and fight, so what he's saying here is, if you'll do this thing, if you will go armed before the Lord, the war, and we'll go all of you armed over Jordan, before the Lord, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord, then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord, so he's saying, that's fine, you could do this, but you have to go and come back, now this is an instance where some people can probably hang back and not be noticed, right, out of all the people, all the children of Israel, you know, going forth to war, something else, if someone just kind of hung back, it's like, I ain't going, they could probably get away from it, away with it, in the eyes of, you know, their brethren, right, they might be able to figure out a way just to hide themselves, so that they're, they're not known, that they're, that they didn't really go forward to war, but this is why, then Moses says in verse number 23, but if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out, he says, don't think that you can just get away with it, you've been commanded to do this, you're not gonna do it, don't think that you're just gonna get away with it, and it's gonna be like nothing ever happened, your sins gonna find you out, and these people, you know, woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, you can't hide anything from the Lord, don't think you can get away with things, and God doesn't see, God sees everything. Verse 16, let's go back to Isaiah 29, the Bible says, surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay, for shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not, or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding, is it not yet a very little while in Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest, and that verse 16 there, he's saying, you know, like, God's the one who made you, you can't hide anything from God, right, I mean, you can't say to the guy, to the one that framed, that made you, he made me not, right, this is the same level of stupidity, thinking you could hide something from God, and then he says, isn't it gonna be real soon where Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and Lebanon is a forest, right, Lebanon's known the trees of Lebanon, the cedars of Lebanon, right, it's known as having this huge forest, and what he's saying here is that that forest is gonna be turned into a fruitful field, right, one where it's just wide open plains, and you've got, you've got crops and everything else growing there, and then he says in the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest, so basically these things are gonna be flip-flopped, where God's gonna take something one way and completely change it to be something different, and it says in verse 18, and in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness, the meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel, and this is I think prophesying Jesus Christ coming to this earth, when it talks about the deaf hearing in the eyes of the blind, blind seeing, this is what Jesus answered John the Baptist, when John the Baptist was put in prison, and he sends his disciples to ask him, because he started to have these doubts going, wait, are you the Christ, are you the one that should come, or do we wait for another, right, he had a momentary kind of lapse there, he started to question things, because they weren't playing out the way that he had envisioned them to, so he sends his men just to kind of confirm with Jesus, and the fact that Jesus answers the way he does is showing, he's not just saying, well trust me, what he does, he's bringing up Scripture, saying, well look, all this is happening, basically, basically he says, you know, it's me, without saying it's me, right, it's he's saying, well, you know what the Bible, he didn't have to say, well the Bible says this, he says this in verse number two in Matthew 11, I'll read this for you, the Bible says, now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto them, art thou he that should come, or do we look for another, Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again those things which you do see and hear, just go, go tell John again about the things, you witnessed it, he's not, he's not saying that he's doing anything that no one else knew about, he's not trying to give him some other evidence saying, you've seen and heard this, go tell him what you've seen and heard, the blind received their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended to me, why does he mention all of these things that he did, why, because it's prophesied in Isaiah, why, because John knows the Old Testament, because John knows who they're supposed to be seeking for, and God, and and he knows that there's a Messiah coming, and oh, Jesus actually did all these things, and even his own disciples are saying that they saw him do these things, and just like Isaiah says, in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, right, they're gonna hear the Bible, and what's Jesus preaching, God's word, the words of the book, in the eyes of the blind shall see out obscurity and out of darkness, and then it says the meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, just like Matthew 5, 5 says, blessed of the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, right, let's keep going Isaiah 29, we're almost done, I'm gonna close up this chapter, verse number 20, for the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, so he's talking about, you know, I believe the terrible one is Satan, he's bringing the terrible one to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, there are plenty of people that are just watching for iniquity, iniquity is sin, and what are they watching for, it's more who are they watching, they're watching godly people, they're trying to watch the children of God, they're trying to watch people who are doing anything for God, and they're watching and waiting for iniquity, and they want nothing, look, these people that have these, these, you know, subtle YouTube channels and everything else, they lie and wait, and they are just waiting to pounce on anything they could find, they don't care if it's true or not, it's just like the Pharisees did when they're trying to condemn Jesus, they were just waiting for anything, they're sending people out to try to catch Jesus in his words, right, they're trying to cause Jesus to sin, just so they could trap him, just so they could have something, they're waiting, they're watching for iniquity, they just want to find fault in you, and be aware of that, because as you continue to clean up your life, as you continue to serve God, as you continue to do more and more and more for the cause of Christ, people will be watching you, and they'll be watching you to try to bring you down, and look, none of us are perfect, but just be aware of that, because they do, they watch for iniquity, now here, this is a good thing, because it says all that watch for iniquity are cut off, so God's gonna take care of these people, but they're not cut off yet, they're still watching for iniquity, and verse 21 continues, it says, that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare, a snare is a trap for him that reproveth in the gate, now this is the, it says for him that reproveth in the gate, the Bible, and again, you have to go back, if you've heard this before, especially in the Old Testament, there's references to men who sit at the gate, and these are honorable men, you read in Proverbs 31, you know, there's the virtuous wife, but her husband is known in the city, he's a, you know, it's a man of renown, it's someone who people respect, it's a man of integrity, and these people who sit at the gate, these, that is the place where people who have wisdom in God's law, and God's judgment would be able to speak, and have their voice heard, and be able to give counsel and wisdom, and and be able to judge, right, that, that's where this took place, and again, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna expound on all of that, that's kind of a longer Bible study to get into just that concept of reproving in the gate, but that's who he's talking about, so this is who they're laying the snare for, the person who knows the law of God, person who has integrity, the person who's well esteemed as knowing these things, who reproves, reproves mean they're telling people they're wrong, right, calling people out, calling out wickedness, calling out sin, they're laying traps for those people, why, because they don't like their deeds exposed, because the children of darkness, they don't like the light shining on them, they don't want their deeds exposed, so they're gonna be laying traps for the person who's exposing them, who's giving the rebukes, and it says, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught, for nothing, basically, they don't even need a reason, they're trying to turn, turn the, aside the just, trying to make them of no, of, you know, no value, but that, that first part of verse 21 says they make a man an offender for a word, this is what we're seeing today, we're trying to do like this hate speech stuff, they're trying to make a crime out of what you say, and this is what they try to do, they try to trap you in your words, they're gonna make you an offender, they're gonna make you be breaking the law for a word, this is the same type of people that were trying to get Daniel in trouble, what did they do, they made up a law that says you can't pray unto God unless you go to the king first, right, so what'd they do, they made him offender in a word, because he didn't go to the king, he said I'm going to God, because I don't need any other mediator between me and God other than Jesus Christ, who is God, watch out, because this is, this is gonna continue, you know, as, as iniquity abounds, the love of many is gonna wax cold, and there's gonna be more and more people who are watching for iniquity, you're gonna be watching to set that trap, and they're gonna try to make you an offender for a word, for what you say, now the reason is because your words are powerful, and God's Word is even more powerful, I mean you want to know where true power, this is why, this is why I didn't become a career politician, when I was trying to decide, you know, when I wanted to make a change and make a difference in the world, and try to do something that was gonna be helpful, and something that was gonna be good, and be beneficial, early, you know, years ago, over a decade ago, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, the power isn't in politics, the power isn't in public policy, the power isn't in the president, the power isn't in any of those things, there's already spiritual wickedness in high places, do you think someone like me was gonna get very far anyways, of course not, not unless I sold out, and what good is that, then you've just made your life nothing, just go ahead and sell out, for what, for what, to get to get a little bit but, but I held off some of these things, I voted against it, you know what, why don't you go with God's Word, and try to spread God's Word, because there's power there, the more people that we could reach, and, and get the Holy Spirit to move into their, their heart, into their temple, into their body, that's real power, it's not our power, it's the power of God, so you, we all ought to think about investing in living, eating, breathing, sleeping, the Word of God, to be able to use the Word of God to help fill as many people as possible with the Word of God, because God's Word has power, the power to change, the power to actually do something, even in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation, even when people are corrupt, and, and, you know, into all kinds of depraved things, the Word of God still has power, and there's, there's nothing that can hold a candle to the Word of God, let's finish up this chapter here, verse number 22, therefore thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale, so now he's just gonna prophesy about something that's gonna happen a little bit in the future, because he's saying, well, they're not gonna be ashamed right now, even though all these things are happening, he says they're not gonna be ashamed right now, but, verse 23, when he seeth his children the work of mine hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel, so these people that are being spoken to, and saying woe unto Ariel, remember, they gave lip service to God, but they didn't seek him with their heart, but what he's saying is there's another generation, their children, they're gonna see their children who actually do fear God, it's not just by precept of man, they actually are gonna have their heart right with God, and they're gonna serve the Lord, see, because he's saying they're not gonna be ashamed now, but then when they see their children, he said then they are gonna be ashamed, basically, that's what's gonna happen when they see their seed going, oh, there's someone who really is serving God, there's someone who's really not just taking it in name only, but they're actually doing something, actually have integrity, they're actually sincere about it, then they're gonna be ashamed, verse 24 says, they also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine, now the good thing about this that I see is that there's still hope for these people who, yes, there was woe pronounced against them, but they weren't like the reprobate of the world, you know, just some reprobate, they were, they were someone who needed to be judged and punished, but then it sounds here like they're gonna come back around again, once they see some other people actually doing what they're supposed to be doing, then it says they that erred in spirit, they're gonna come to understanding, right, before they were blind, God had blinded them, they weren't seeing anything, they were like, oh, can you help us with this, can you help us with this, then this generation comes up, these children come up, and they actually start serving the Lord, now they're gonna be able to start understanding again, and you know, I'm hoping that with more churches like, like ours, and like other churches that are doing this, we could, we can inspire more of maybe the older generation has kind of lost their way, and do a lot of things with lip service, but have kind of lost the fire, and lost the heart for the work that's supposed to be done, and now are just kind of blinded in a lot of areas, because they've lost their way to see another generation come up that could be fiery, and zealous, and serve the Lord, and then maybe to start rekindling that fire again, there's hope, there's still hope, you don't want to lose that hope, and that's what's being taught here also in this passage, obviously specific on, on this gen, you know, in that generation, that group of people, but the concept is still the same, it's timeless, I mean something that, that will continue, it's the way people are, and we need to, to do our best, to be the best vessels, to watch out for the enemy, because they're going to be shooting darts at us, and be aware of that, and try your best, you know, as you stumble and fall, you know, everybody does, get back up, you know, get right with God, and, and keep, hopefully, hopefully you're more spiritual now than you were last year, hopefully you're doing more for God now than we were last year, hopefully it's even more than the year before that, and the year before that, right, hopefully you're still on this upward trajectory in your spiritual life, that's what we need to be, we need to keep focusing on, on higher ground, right, new heights I'm gaining every day, as far as that word of prayer, dear Lord, we love you, we thank you so much for your words, we pray that you would please just help us, help us all individually, dear Lord, in our church, help us to live righteously and godly, and we pray that you would please just, just help us to reach more people with your word, your word is powerful, dear Lord, I pray that you'll please bring more people to us, help build our church, that we can just continue to do even greater and greater things to serve you, dear Lord, we love you, and we just pray for your guidance and wisdom, and Lord, we're seeking in truth and sincerity and in faith, and we know that you will give it to us liberally as we ask you, in Jesus name we pray, amen.