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Give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Let's pray. Do you have any prayer that I really wanna focus on and emphasize, but if you look at verse one, the Bible says this. In the 10th year, in the 10th month, in the 12th day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So if you remember, we've been dealing with the different kings that surround Israel, and now he's gonna focus on Pharaoh, king of Israel, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. Speak and say, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, which had said, notice what he says. This is the problem with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He says, my river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. He says, my river is mine own, referring to the possession of the river, and I have made it for myself. Now keep your place there in Ezekiel 29. We're gonna come right back to it, but go to Deuteronomy chapter number eight in the Old Testament, you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter eight, and we see the problem with Pharaoh, and of course, if you are familiar with Egypt or the history of Egypt, you know that one of the reasons that Egypt was such a prosperous nation was because of the fact that they had the Nile River to produce fertile ground for the land, and of course, they used it for fishing and for being able to have merchandise go up and down the river and things like that, and Pharaoh is referring back, and in fact, the Nile River was so instrumental to the success of the nation that their gods were, the gods that the Egyptians worshiped were basically surrounded the Nile River and were connected to the Nile River, and when there was problems with the river, they blamed the gods, and when the river was being blessed and they attributed that to the gods, and here, we've got Pharaoh saying that my river is mine own, and I made it for myself, because if you remember, the Pharaohs saw themselves as deity, they saw themselves as gods as wealth, and he's taking credit for this river that brings prosperity to the nation of Egypt. Now, if you're there in Deuteronomy eight, I want you to notice, we see similar terminology to this, that God deals with his people. Deuteronomy chapter eight verse 10 says this. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, and what we learn in that little phrase there, or those couple of sentences there, is the purpose of God's blessing. The reason that God blesses you, the reason that God blesses me, is that we might turn around and give the credit and the glory to God. He says, when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Notice verse 11, he says, beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God. Now, here's what you need to understand. The purpose of the blessing is that we might turn around and bless God and give credit to God. The problems with the blessing is that oftentimes when we are blessed by God, we tend to forget God. He says, beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Notice verse 12, lest when thou hast eaten and art full and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied, notice verse 14, then thine heart be lifted up. And if you remember the last chapter in Ezekiel, we talked about and we learned about the hearts being lifted up because of riches and because of beauty. And here he says, look, if God blesses you and you forget to acknowledge God, you forget that it's God who gave it to you, then thine heart may be lifted up, notice, and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and droughts where there was no water who brought thee forth out of the rock of Flint, notice verse 16, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end, verse 17. And thou say in thine heart, so I want you to notice, in verse 14 he says, then thine heart be lifted up. You say, well, how do I know when my heart is lifted up? Well, you know when your heart is lifted up, if you say these things in your heart, notice verse 17, and thou say in thine heart, my power and my might and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this well. When you look at your possessions and you say, it's because of my power, it's because of my strength, it's because of my ability, is this not what Pharaoh was doing in Ezekiel 29? He was saying, my river is mine, mine own, and I have made it for myself. He's looking at a river that brings prosperity to his kingdom and he says, not only does this river belong to me, but he's actually taking credit for the river itself. He's saying, I made it myself. And God says, look, often when we are blessed, we forget to acknowledge that our blessings come from God and we start to think that my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this well. Notice verse 18, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. He says, you don't do that. He's saying, you as Christians, you as believers, you as followers of God, don't fall into the trap of being blessed and thinking that somehow you did it all and it was all because you're so smart, because you're such a hard worker, because you're better than everyone else. He says, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, don't miss this, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth. Look, any blessings you have, any successes you have in life, we have to remember to acknowledge we must give God the glory and not take credit for ourselves, that he may establish his covenant, that he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day. Go back to Ezekiel 29. And this is a problem with people. God blesses you, God strengthens you, God gives you success in whatever area, whether it's your secular business, even with pastors. If churches are growing, if the ministry is going well, we can have the tendency to have our hearts lifted up and say, well of course it's going well, look at how great of a leader I am, or look at how great of a preacher I am. But look, whenever God blesses you, you need to just take a step back and realize that any blessings that you have are a result of God's favor upon your life. Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above. It's not you, it's not your strength, it's not your talent, it's not your ability, we are sinners that deserve to die and go to hell. And any good that comes from us comes to us because of God. And Pharaoh did not understand this, so notice the result for Pharaoh, look at verse four. Ezekiel 29, verse four. But I will put hooks in thy jaw, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of the rivers. So he's using Pharaoh as an example, he's using this dragon in the river, and he's saying Pharaoh's like this dragon in the river that thinks, is taking credit for the river, that thinks that the river belongs to him, and even thinks that he created the river. And God says, okay, well here's what I'm gonna do to you, you great dragon, I will bring thee up out of the midst of the river, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales, and I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness. So notice the terminology here, he says I'm gonna take you out of the river, and I'm gonna kill you, and then I'm gonna leave you thrown in the ground, in the wilderness. Thee, and all the fish of the river, thou shalt fall upon the open fields, thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered. Now you say, well why does he say that, or why emphasize that, and here's the point, and if you remember, the Pharaohs saw that, or thought, or believed that their future in the afterlife had to do a lot with how their bodies were taken care of after their death. Remember they had to be mummified, and that's why they built the pyramids, and that's why they built these great buildings to house their corpses, why? Because they thought that how their body was taken care of, and how their body was treated after their death had a lot to do with how they would be treated in the afterlife, and here Ezekiel is kind of poking at Pharaoh, and saying look, when God's done with you, you're gonna be left dead in an open field, no one's gonna bury you, no one's gonna mummify you, no one's gonna build some pyramid for you, now shall not be brought together, nor gathered, I have given thee for me to the beasts of the field, to the fowls of heaven, and here's what God is telling Pharaoh, is you better acknowledge me, and not think that your prosperity comes from you, or from your own source Notice verse six, and all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reeds of the house of Israel, and we're gonna come back to these verses later on, but look down at verse number nine, and the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste, and they shall know that I am the Lord because he had said, the river is mine, and I have made it. So the first thing we see in this chapter is that we must give glory to God and not take credit for ourselves, but I wanna spend some time talking about verses three and four, because if you notice, if you go back to verses three and four, he says this, speak and say, thus saith the Lord God, behold I am against thee Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he's gonna use this analogy about Pharaoh, but he says this, he calls him this, the great dragon, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his river, which hath said, my river is mine own, and I have made it for myself, and then I want you to notice how he describes this dragon, verse four, he says, but I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, so he says, you're this great dragon in the midst of the river, and you've got scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of the river, and all the fish of the river shall stick unto thy scales, now in the book of Ezekiel, this is the one time that this word dragon is mentioned, but throughout the Bible, the Bible speaks of dragons, the Bible speaks of these creatures called dragons, and I'd like to just take a few minutes and kinda look at this tonight and study this out a little bit, go to the book of Job, you're there in Ezekiel, if you open up your Bible just right in the center, you're more than likely following the book of Psalms, right before Psalms you've got the book of Job, go to Job chapter 41, and notice verse number one, and people will look at the Bible mentioning dragons and they'll scoff at it, they'll laugh at the Bible and they'll say, ah, the Bible's silly, it talks about dragons, and it talks about unicorns, and it talks about all these animals, these mystical creatures that don't exist, but I want you to notice that the Bible talks about dragons and unicorns, and I'm not preaching about unicorns tonight, but the Bible talks about these creatures as actually existing, and I wanna explain to you tonight that dragons actually exist and have existed throughout history, and I'm gonna show it to you in scripture, Job chapter 41, look at verse one, Job 41 and verse one says this, canst thou draw out Leviathan? Now notice, he's talking about this creature called Leviathan, and he says, with an hook, so this creature's in water, and he says, can you draw it out like you draw out a fish? Can you go fishing for Leviathan, or his tongue with a cord which thou setest down? Look at verse two, canst thou put a hook into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Notice verse seven, canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? He's talking about, are you able to penetrate the skin of Leviathan with barbed irons? He says, or his head with fish spears? He said, are you able to take a spear and penetrate and stab and thrust through a spear into this creature, Leviathan? Notice verse eight, lay thine hand upon him. Remember the battle, do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? He says, look, when you see Leviathan, you're gonna fall in fear, you're gonna be cast down at his sight, verse 10. None is so fierce that there stir him up. Who then is able to stand before me? And this is what God is saying, because he's saying to Job, he's saying, look, you can't even stand up to Leviathan, you think you're gonna be able to stand up to me? I created Leviathan, and that's the point of the passage, but he gives us this description of this creature named Leviathan. Notice verse 12, he says, I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. And there's a reference to his size. This is a big animal, it's a big creature. Who can discover the face of his garment? Or who can come to him with his double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride. Shut up together as with a closed seal. Notice what it says in verse 16. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined, talk about the scales. You can't penetrate the scales, they're so connected. And remember, Ezekiel mentioned the scales of a dragon. Verse 17, I'm sorry, verse 18. By his kneesing, is that word kneesing or kneesings? It's like our word sneezing, right? But the word sneezing means to kind of blow out snot, excuse my language. Kneezing is the same idea, it means to blow or to puff or to kind of just have air coming out of your nostrils. This is what the Bible says about this Leviathan. He says by his kneesings, a light doth shine and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. So he says when he kind of huffs and puffs with his nostrils, he says a light doth shine. Look at verse 19. Out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire leap out. He says when he opens his mouth, lamps of fire and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils go with smoke out of a seething pot or cauldron. It's talking about the fact that fire is coming out of his nose and his mouth. You say, Pastor, is the Bible really talking about a fire-breathing dragon? And the answer is yes. Look at verse 21. His breath kindleth coals and a flame goeth out of his mouth. And people say, ah, this is a fairytale. How could it be? Look, we have animals today. There are creatures on this earth today that will produce fire and explosions. With a bombardier beetle, we'll have chemicals that mix together in its body and produce some sort of a combustion. We have electric eels and electric rays and animals like that that produce electricity. And here the Bible is telling us that there is a creature named Leviathan that is able to produce fire and produce smoke comes out of its nose and its mouth. Look at verse 22. In his neck remain his strength and sorrow is turned into joy before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together and they are firm in themselves. They cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone, referring to his strength. Yay, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid. By reason of breakings, they purify themselves. The sword and him that layeth at him cannot hold the spear, the dart, nor the haberghion. Look at verse 27. He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood. So again, referring to the strength of this beast, he takes iron and he can break it like you and I break straw. He takes brass and he breaks it like rotten wood that's weak that we can just kind of break with our hands because this is a very strong animal. Now you're there in Job. Go to Psalms. Just the next book over, Psalm 74. And let's look at what the, you say, well, what is this Leviathan? This massive, strong creature that breathes fire out of its mouth and nostrils. What is it? Psalm 74, 13. Notice what the Bible says. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Talking about God. Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Again, the Bible refers to the fact that there are dragons in the waters. Look at verse 14. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave us him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. So here we're told that God can break the head of Leviathan and in verse 13, it talks about the fact that he breaks the head of the dragon. So what is Leviathan? Leviathan is a dragon. He is a fire-breathing dragon. Go to Psalm 104 and verse 25. Psalm 104 and verse 25. Notice what the Bible says. Psalm 104 and verse 25 says this. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping and innumerable, both small and great beasts. Notice verse 26. There go the ships. There is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein. Go to Isaiah 27. This is, if you go back to Ezekiel, and from Ezekiel you go backwards, you're gonna have Lamentations, Jeremiah, Isaiah. Isaiah 27, this is the last passage we'll look at about Leviathan. Now I want you to notice that this Leviathan is a huge, massive, strong reptile that breathes fire and the Bible calls it a dragon. Isaiah 27, look at verse one. Isaiah 27 verse one. And that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. So again, we see this creature. And he's equated to Satan. Satan's called a dragon and he's called a serpent. But this was an actual animal that lived on the earth. And it wasn't just Leviathan. There's other dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible. Go back to Job. You're there in Psalms. Go back to Job, Job chapter 40. We were just in chapter 41 to go look at Leviathan. We go to chapter 40 and let's look at another animal. And here's what I want you to understand. When we read about dragons in the Bible, what we're reading about is what we today know as a dinosaur. Now people will today, they'll kind of balk at that and they'll say, well, I don't know if that's true. And here's why. Because evolutionists have taught them that man and dinosaurs did not walk side by side. And today we're told that dinosaurs were extinct years, millions of years before man ever walked on this earth. But here's the point. The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches that man and dinosaurs walked side by side. And go to Job chapter 40. But let me just give you some things to consider. According to evolutionists, the earth is 4.5 billion years old. According to evolutionists, human beings have been around for about 200,000 years. So the earth is 4.5 billion years. Human beings have been around for about 200,000 years and dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. So if that's true, which is not, but if that's true, then they make the conclusion that no human being ever saw a dinosaur. That no human being ever saw one of these massive reptiles because they went extinct 65 million years ago and human beings showed up 200,000 years ago. Now to contrast that, the Bible teaches that the earth is about 6,300 years old. And dinosaurs mostly, not completely, died off during the Noahic flood about 4,500 years ago. Human beings have been around since the beginning. They were created. Everything was created in the first week of the world's existence. So according to the Bible, if you believe the Bible, which is true, then you would have to believe that man and dinosaur walked side by side. You say, well, OK, well, if that's true, then wouldn't the Bible tell us that man and dinosaur walked side by side? Well, let's look at it. You're there in Job chapter 40. Look at verse 15. Notice what the Bible says. Behold now, Behemoth. So we've got another creature here known as Behemoth. And people will say, oh, well, you know, the Bible doesn't mention dinosaurs. Why doesn't it mention dinosaurs? And here's what you understand. The word dinosaur is a newer word. It didn't even exist when our 611 King James Bible was translated. It was invented in the 1800s, 1842 or 46, something like that. And so you can't look for a dinosaur in the Bible by the name of a dinosaur. The word didn't exist. But if you notice, if you look at this passage, Job chapter 40 and verse 15 says this. Behold now, Behemoth, which I made with thee. So not that he existed 65 billion years ago and you came into existence 200,000. God says, Behemoth, which I made with thee. Notice how he describes this piece. He is grass as an ox. Verse 16, lo, now his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He's referring to the fact that his strength comes from his loins, from his belly. Notice verse 17. He moveth his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his stones are wrapped together. We're told that he moves his tail like a cedar tree. He says his tail is like a tree, and he moves it like this massive tree. And today, the modern Bible versions, the NIV and the ESV, they'll change Behemoth, and they'll say that it's an elephant or a hippopotamus. The problem with those two animals, though they are big animals, is that you couldn't really describe their tails like a cedar tree. You could describe their tails like a piece of string, maybe, but not a cedar tree. Notice verse 18. His bones are as strong pieces of brass. Again, referring to the strength of this piece. His bones are like the bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God. He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. He says, look, this is the chief of the ways of God. This is the biggest, the greatest, the most grandeur beast animal that God created. Look at verse 23. Behold. And again, just referring to the size of this animal. He drinketh up a river and hasteth not. He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. This is just a huge animal that walks up to the river and just drinks up the whole river. He taketh it with his eyes. His nose pierces through snares. He said, what's being described here? It's a dinosaur. Behemoth is a dinosaur. And God is speaking to Job and telling Job, Job, you know Behemoth. And he's describing Behemoth to Job. And Job's like, yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. You say, how can that be? Here's why. Because man walked with dinosaurs, and they're even referenced in scripture. They're called Behemoth. They're called Leviathan. A huge, massive, gigantic reptile that walked on this earth. Now, here's the point. And you can go back to Ezekiel, but I want to read a few things for you. The Bible refers to these massive reptile creatures, and they're known as dragons. And we would find that to be true because of the fact that the earth is 6,300 years old, and God created all animals on Creation Week, and Behemoth was created at the same time as mankind. But here's what's interesting. There are credible historical figures who confirm that there have been massive reptile creatures on the earth. And they called them dragons. I'm not talking about the historical account. We just looked at the biblical account. We just looked at scriptures that refer to these massive, huge, reptile animals. So according to the Bible, hey, man walked alongside massive reptile creatures. They called them dragons. But even more than that, according to just historical, credible figures, there have been these massive creatures, known as dragons, that walked and lived alongside men. Let me give you some examples. There's Herodotus. Who is a Greek historian. And more than just being a Greek historian, he's actually known as the father of history. Let me just read to you a little bit about this man, Herodotus. He lived in the fifth century BC. He's a Greek historian known as the father of history. He was the first historian to collect his materials systematically and test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. He's known as the father of history because he's the man that kind of invented the process of documenting history. I mean, I don't know that you could really talk of a more credible historical figure than the guy who invented the idea of writing down and documenting and fact checking historical events. And this is what he said. This is what he wrote. He said, there is a place in Arabia situated in a place in Arabia situated very near the city of Buto to which I went on hearing of some winged serpents. And when I arrived there, I saw bones and spines of serpents in such quantities as it would be impossible to describe. The form of the serpent is like of the water snake, but he has wings without feathers and as possible to the wings of a bat. So here we have this. Look, a Greek historian, not a Bible-believing Christian at all, and he's the father of history, and he documents the fact that he saw these skeletons of these winged serpents, and he saw them, and he documented it. You say, oh, I don't know if I believe that. OK, how about Alexander the Great? He's a credible historical figure. He conquered the known world and wrote about it. The king of ancient Greece, Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was the king of the ancient Greek kingdom. Here's what he wrote. He wrote, in 330 BC, after Alexander the Great invaded India, he brought back reports of seeing a great hissing dragon living in a cave which people were worshipping as gods. So he documented that he saw this great hissing dragon and that the people living in India were worshipping this creature as a god. You say, OK, well, I don't know. OK, how about Aristotle? I mean, this is a Greek philosopher where if you go to universities today and you're taking like a philosophy degree, they're going to have you read this guy's writings. I mean, this guy is a credible, respected source. Even today, he's red. He's a Greek philosopher, lived in 384 to 322 BC, made significant and lasting contributions to nearly every aspect of human knowledge, from logic to biology to ethics to aesthetics. And again, I'm not promoting him. But today, you talk to just secular, worldly people. They're going to say, oh, yeah, Aristotle, a Greek philosopher. I mean, he would be a credible source in history. Here's what he said. He said, the eagle and the dragon are enemies, for the eagle feeds on serpents. The glanus in shallow water is often destroyed by the dragon serpent. That's what he wrote, Aristotle. You say, oh, well, I don't know that we can trust that. OK, so you trust everything else he writes? Everything else he says about philosophy, about biology, about ethics, all that's good. But then he says, hey, I saw a dragon. And you're like, I don't know. OK, how about Marco Polo? He was a traveler and a merchant. Marco Polo, it's not just a pool game, all right? Marco Polo was one of the first and most famous Europeans to travel to Asia during the Middle Ages. He traveled farther than any of his predecessors during his 24-year journey along the Silk Road, reaching China and Mongolia, where he became a confidant of Kublai Khan. And this is what he documented. He said, leaving the city of Yaqui and traveling 10 days in a westernly direction, you reach the Providence of Karazhan, which is also the name of the chief city. Here are seen huge serpents, 10 paces in length. That's about 30 feet. And 10 spans girt of the body. That's about eight feet. At the fore part near the head, they have two short legs having three claws like those of a tiger with eyes larger than a four-penny loaf and very glaring. The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man. The teeth are large and sharp. And their whole appearance is so formidable that neither man nor any kind of animal can approach them without terror. Others are met of a smaller size, being eight, six, or five paces long. And again, Marco Polo is a credible historical figure. He went around and traveled and documented. And people read his writings today and all that. And he wrote about these massive reptile creatures. And he called them dragons. Let me give you another one. How about Noah Webster, an educator? You're probably familiar with the Webster dictionary. The famous American Christian educator, Noah Webster, published his American dictionary of the English language in 1828, 13 years before the word dinosaur was first used. This work defines the noun dragon under two separate headings. The second gives reference to dragons in scripture as a large marine fish or serpent called Leviathan, a venomous land serpent, as in Psalm 91, and the devil, who is called the old serpent in the New Testament. Webster's next heading for dragon has a single definition, a genus of animals, the Draco. They have four legs, a cylinder tail, and a membranous wing radiated like the fins of a flying fish. Look, in 1828, Noah Webster puts in his dictionary a description or the definition of the dragon. He talks about an animal that lived, that they could describe. He calls it a genus of animal, the Draco. You say, why is this? And here's the point that I'm making. The Bible refers to the fact that there's these massive reptile creatures that lived alongside men known as dragons, and then you have credible historical figures, Aristotle, Marco Polo, Noah Webster, people that today they still agree and listen and read the writings of these men. And these men said, hey, there's dragons. There's these massive reptile creatures. And then archeology proves the Bible to be true. Because in 1842, they began to dig up these massive skeleton structures of huge reptiles. And define irony. You got the word of God telling you, hey, there's these massive reptile, huge, strong animals. And I'm sure people were like, I've never seen something like that. I don't know, Job saw something like that. God talked about it. Then they dig up these animals. And instead of saying, hey, we found Leviathan. Hey, we found a dragon. Hey, God's word is true. No, instead, they use those same skeletons to try to disprove the Bible. They say, oh, no, this isn't a dragon, it's a dinosaur. And it existed 65 million years ago. How do you know that the bones come with a tag? The bones come with a death certificate? I mean, how do you know that it existed 65 million years ago? And you think they would look at these bones and say, well, I mean, Marco Polo talked about dragons. Aristotle talked about dragons. Herodias talked about dragons. And old Webster talked about dragons. All these different people, they talked about dragons. There's all these accounts of these huge. Here's what I'm telling you. People will scoff at the word of God and say, ah, it's got these mythical creatures. I'm a scientist. I don't believe in that. But you'll go to a museum and look at a huge, big reptile. Oh, that's a dinosaur. Look, it's a dragon. And it just proves that God's word is true. And people will say, oh, you guys believe in fairytales. You know what? I believe in fairytales. Let me tell you. I believe in any fairytale this book wants to tell me, I believe it. You say, oh, you believe in fairytales? Absolutely, I believe in fairytales. You know what, you know what's funny? There's no new thing under the sun. You know that everything that this world, you know that Satan, all he can do is copycat God? All he can do is take away from God. God has this huge fire-breathing dragon, and he uses it to illustrate Satan, doesn't he? I mean, didn't we read there in Psalm 71 that God, or Isaiah, excuse me, that God was gonna take his sword to slay the dragon? Think about this. In the book of Revelation, we read about the dragon, the great dragon, that old serpent. And then we read about a king coming in a white horse. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, but you know what? You could think of him as Prince Charming, coming on a white horse to kill the dragon and save his bride. Say, you believe in fairytales? Look, I believe that fairytale any day, instead of believing the fairytale that we came from monkeys, the fairytale that we evolved from apes, the fairytale that though there are credible figures in history that documented seeing dragons, and that the Word of God writes and confirms for us that there's these huge massive creatures called dragons, and then we dig up their bones, and we're like, no, no. Actually, these don't confirm the Word of God. These actually prove the Word of God false. Are you crazy? Men walked with dinosaurs, and they were called dragons, and they're called behemoth, and they're called, and look, and you say, well, what's the point? Here's the point. God said, let us reason together, and though we walk by faith and not by sight, and though we believe everything from the Word of God by faith, we ought not be afraid to allow the Word of God to be, it will stand up to reason. It will stand up to logic. It will stand up to whatever bones they wanna dig up. It'll stand up to whatever test they want to do. Why? Because the Word of God is true. Because the Word of God, and look, we don't have to sit there and be intimidated. Oh, no, they found another dragon. When they find another, praise God. Every dragon, they wanna call, whatever they want, Tyrannus Dragosaurus, because it confirms the Word of God. Go back to Ezekiel 20, 29, and I realize I spent a little more time on that than maybe I should have, but let's try to go through the rest of this chapter. In this chapter, we see that we must give God the glory and not take credit for ourselves. We also learn about these dragons, these factual creatures that today we know as dinosaurs, and these dinosaurs, they don't attack the Word of God. They don't destroy the credibility of the Word of God. They actually confirm the Word of God. But number three, let me show you this in this chapter. In this chapter, we learn this lesson that everyone has a crutch, and you wanna make sure that you've got the right one. Notice what it says in verse six, Ezekiel 29, verse six. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed, okay? That's referring to a slender plant, something that you use to be able to hold yourself up to the house of Israel. So he's saying, look, Egypt has been a staff to the house of Israel, verse seven. When they took hold of thee by the hand, thou didst break and ran all their shoulders, and when they leaned upon thee, thou breakest and made us all their loins to be at a stand. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring a sword upon thee and cut off men and beasts out of thee. It's funny, because when we talk about evolution, right, what do all these scientific evolutionists always wanna say to us? Religion is a crutch. Religion is for the feeble-minded. You just kinda need that. You need religion as a crutch to kinda get through life. Well, you know what's funny about that? They're right, but here's what they don't understand. Everybody needs a crutch. You say, oh, I believe in evolution. That's your crutch, because here's the thing. It takes as much faith to believe evolution as it does for us to believe the word of God. In fact, more faith, because you've got no proof, which is why it's known as the theory of evolution. And look, everyone has a crutch, whether it's drugs or it's alcohol, whether it's money, whether it's your business or your success or whatever, and God says, hey, you're using Pharaoh as a crutch, and he is going to break. When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break. So people wanna say, oh, you use religion as a crutch. You know what, I'm not ashamed of that. God is my crutch. I am thankful I've got a crutch that will never break. I'm thankful I have a crutch that you will never disprove. I am thankful I have a crutch that will never fail me, because your money will fail you, your drugs will fail you, your alcohol will fail you, your fornication will fail you, Pharaoh will fail you, but God will never fail you. So he's like, ah, you got a crutch. You know what, I'm thankful for the crutch I've got. I'd be worried if I was leaning upon the crutch of evolution. I'd be worried if I was leaning upon the crutch of this world. Notice verse 19, Ezekiel 29, excuse me, 16. Ezekiel 29, 16. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel. And again, referring to the fact that you need to make sure you have your confidence in God. You need to make sure that you are trusting in God. Let me give you one more and we'll be done. Go to Ezekiel 29, verse 17. So what we've learned is that we must give God the glory and not take credit for our successes. We've learned that dragons are factual creatures, not known as today, known as dinosaurs. We've learned that everyone has a crutch. Make sure you pick the right one. Make sure you pick one that doesn't break under your weight. Let me give you the last point, last thing we can learn from this passage. And what we can learn is this, that God will make sure that you get paid for your work. It's an interesting concept. We talked about this already, so I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but let's look at it real quickly. Look at Ezekiel 29, verse 17. The Bible says this, and it came to pass in the seventh and 20th year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, caused his armies to serve a great service against Tyre. Now, if you remember, a few weeks ago, we learned about Alexander the Great and the prophecy of Alexander the Great in the book of Ezekiel. Well, this is part of that story, because if you remember, the prophecy was that many kings were gonna come against Tyre, like the waves of the sea. And when we look at history, we see that that was true. And Babylon came against Tyre, and Greece, Alexander the Great, came against Tyre, and the Roman Empire came against Tyre, and all those things. What's interesting about that story is that Nebuchadnezzar was doing God's bidding, because he was bringing the judgment of God upon Tyre, and notice what it says there in verse 18. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled, yet had he no wages nor his army for Tyrus for the service that he had served against this. This has not happened yet. Ezekiel is predicting that Nebuchadnezzar is gonna come against Tyre, and he's going to conquer them and beat them, but he's not gonna get paid. He's gonna have no wages nor his army for Tyrus, and this, of course, happened. I'll just read for you, and we talked about this already, so I don't wanna spend too much time on it, but let me read for you from Ancient History Encyclopedia. It says this, the prosperity of Tyre attracted the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar, the second of Babylon, who lay siege to the city for 13 years in the sixth century BC without breaking their defenses. During this siege, most of the inhabitants of the mainland city abandoned it, because if you remember, the city of Tyre was divided into two sections. One, it was a part of the coast, the mainland, and then it had an island that was part of that same city. History tells us that when Nebuchadnezzar came against Tyre during this siege, most of the inhabitants of the mainland city abandoned it for the relative safety of the island city. Ashu became the suburb of Tyre on the mainland, and remained so until the coming of Alexander. The article goes on to say this. In Nebuchadnezzar's campaign, the mainland city of old Tyre was captured, because he took the mainland. The Tyreans, however, removed their wealth to the island fortress and simply laughed at him, laughed at Nebuchadnezzar. So Ezekiel is actually prophesied. He said, look, Nebuchadnezzar's gonna come against Tyre, but he's not gonna get paid. He's not gonna get their spoil. And then years later, hundreds of years later, or excuse me, not hundreds of years later, but decades later, this event actually happened where Nebuchadnezzar comes against Tyre, takes over the mainland city, but doesn't take it quickly enough, and the people go from the mainland to the island. They stay in the island, and Nebuchadnezzar's not able to take the island. He spends more time there than he showed up. He loses a lot of money, and he walks away having taken over Tyre without being paid or receiving spoils or wages for his work. So this is what God says to Nebuchadnezzar, verse 18. Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, because his army to serve a great service against Tyrus. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled. Yet had he no wages nor his army for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it, verse 19. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey, and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God. So Ezekiel is telling Nebuchadnezzar, he's telling him, look, I realize that you're not gonna get paid for the work you do for Tyrus, so God is gonna give you Egypt as your payment for that work. It's just interesting that here we have Ezekiel telling the kings of the world, hey, Nebuchadnezzar, you're gonna take Tyrus, but you're not gonna get paid. And people are like, come on, Ezekiel, what are you talking about? Nebuchadnezzar's the man. I mean, Nebuchadnezzar's just conquering land after land after land, and then Nebuchadnezzar shows up to Tyrus, takes over the land portion of it. The descendants, or the people flee to the island, and he's not able to take the island, and he walks away with no spoils. And then, of course, if you remember, in fact, let's just look at it real quickly. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 26. If you remember, Ezekiel made a prophecy about Tyre. Notice what it says in verse number, let's see, where was it? Where is that verse? Look at verse 13. And I will cause the noise of thy song to cease, and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard, and I will make thee like the top of a rock. Thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon, thou shalt be built no more, for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus, shall not the isle shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee, then all the prince of the sea shall come down from their thrones and lay away their robes and put off their broided garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling. They shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble every moment and be astonished at thee. So he's referring to the fact that they're going to be destroyed and take over the land. I'm looking for the verse where it talks about how they did it, good night. I should have wrote this down. Where was that? Where it talks about the causeway. Look at verse four. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets. He talks about the nation's coming, good night. Verse 12, is that where it is? And they shall make a spoil of thy riches and make the prey of the merchandise, and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses. They shall lay thy stones, that's where it is, and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. So if you remember that Ezekiel made that prophecy where he said they're gonna lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. And this is exactly what Alexander the Great did when he came. He destroyed, he did what Nebuchadnezzar failed to do. He took the mainland, destroyed it, made it like a stone, like the Bible says, and then he took the wood and the rubble and the stones and he created a causeway and he created a man-made bridge, went in, basically walked across the bridge onto the island and took over Tyrus and destroyed it. And it's interesting because this is all just historical fact, but yet Ezekiel predicted it. And Ezekiel talked about it and he said these things would happen before it happened. And again, the point is this, that God is not only the God of the Bible, God is the God of the universe. God is the God of this world. He is in control. The heavens do rule. So we must always just have confidence in the word of God and like this dinosaur thing. We must never allow the world to throw something at us. Oh, what about dinosaurs? Well, they're in the Bible. Well, where's the word dinosaur in the Bible? Well, our Bible was translated in 1611. The word dinosaur wasn't created till 1842 or 43, 46, something like that. And so you can't look for dinosaurs in the Bible by the name of dinosaurs, but you know what they used to call them? They used to call them dragons. And they used to call them behemoth. They used to call them these massive animals. And our confidence should always just be in the word of God. And here's the point, and we're done. If God can tell you the truth of history before man can, God was telling us about these dragons before they found the bones to prove it. And if God can tell you the truth of the future before man, God was telling us about Alexander the Great before everybody knew who Alexander the Great was, telling us about the things he was gonna do and the things he was gonna accomplish. And not just in Ezekiel, Daniel was doing the same thing, giving us prophecies of Alexander the Great. If God can tell you what happened in the past before we realized what happened in the past, and God can tell you what's gonna happen in the future before we acknowledge and realize what happened in the future, here's the point. God can be trusted, and the word of God can be trusted, and our confidence ought to be in the word of God. And yes, we walk by faith, but it's a reasonable faith. It's a faith that can withstand the tests, it can withstand the challenges, it can withstand the exams of this world. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your work, thank you for the Bible, thank you for these chapters, and these just interesting things to talk about and study out on a Wednesday night. Lord, I pray that you would bless us as we continue to study the book of Ezekiel, and Lord, we just pray that you would continue to bless our church, and Lord, I ask for this weekend as we just move forward and have soul winning and have services, Lord, I pray that you bless the weekend services, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.