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

Amen. So last week, if you remember, we left off dealing with the captivity of Judah in 2 Kings chapter 25. What I want you to do is keep your place there in 2 Chronicles and go to 2 Kings 25. We're just going to review a couple of things real quick. And so, as we read this chapter here, you'll notice that it left off with the children of Judah going into captivity, and then it goes right to Cyrus, king of Persia. And I want to show you how 2 Kings ends because it's a little different. It ends in a time period before that. And so, let's go through this here. 2 Kings chapter 25, look at verse number 8. It says, and in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the 19th year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebu-Zaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem. Verse 9, and he burnt the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem. And every great man's house burnt he with fire. So, if you want to learn about the destruction of this temple, you would come to this chapter here and you could read about that. Nebuchadnezzar comes in there with his army, he burns down the temple, and basically, you know, it's just rubble. They have to go dig through it and remove all the treasures and things like that. And it's important because we're going to go over the first half of Ezra today, and we'll come back to that though. Look at verse 10. It says, and all the army of the Chaldees that were with the captain of the guard break down the walls of Jerusalem roundabout. Now, the rest of the people that were left in the city and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon with the remnant of the multitude did Nebu-Zaradan, the captain of the guard, carry away. And we don't have time to follow this throughout the entire Old Testament, but you remember they basically, the children of Judah went in captivity in different waves, okay? It's about three different waves. And it's important to know that because when you're reading through Isaiah, or not so much Isaiah, but Jeremiah and Ezekiel, it really helps to know that and understand that because you'll be like, wait a minute, you know, the last king of Judah was Zedekiah, and you'll read about him going into captivity, but then it'll jump and start talking about Jehoiakim, you know, and so you'd be like, wait, what's going on here? I thought they went into captivity under Zedekiah. Well, they went in waves. And so just remember that. Now, you're there in verse 11, just real quick, go to verse 27. And this is the end of the chapter here. And it says, and it came to pass in the seventh and 30th year of the captivity of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the 12th month on the seventh and 12th day of the month, the evil Merodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, out of prison. And he spake kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon and changed his prison garments. And he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life. And his allowance was a continual allowance, given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life. Now go back to second Chronicles chapter 36. So I just wanted you to see that, that if you're reading the captivity story in second Kings, it ends with the just talking about evil Merodach, king in Babylon. And he obviously reigned after Nebuchadnezzar. And the reason why I want you to know that is just because we're going to talk about that a little bit here momentarily. So let's move on here. So now we're going to jump back into the captivity story from a different angle in second Chronicles 36, look at verse 15. It says, and the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes. That means early. That's all it means betimes. It just means early. So rising up early, rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people. So there was no remedy. And so again, you know, just, just more evidence, more ammunition about, you know, against the Zionist doctrine, right? I mean, God just clearly angry telling you plainly why he's upset, why he was angry, why he sent them into captivity, why he, you know, no longer allowed them to be a nation with a king, you know, in control of themselves. And it's because they mocked the messengers of God. He gave them chance after chance, after chance, after chance. And they rejected his counsel. They rejected his wisdom. And so in verse 17, he says, therefore, so for these reasons, for that reason, he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with a sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stopped are stooped for age. He gave them, he gave them all into his hand. And so, yes, God will use heathen people to accomplish his will. You say, well, you know, is it possible that God would do that today? And absolutely. I mean, God could, you know, and will someday use another nation possibly to destroy this country. He does it all the time, you know? And so you got to kind of wonder what kind of a mental state somebody would have to be in to say, well, God's pleased with the Jew today. God's pleased with these people over in Israel today, even though they completely disregard anything to do with Christ, anything to do with the Bible, even the Old Testament, you know, it just blows my mind how somebody could sit there in front of their congregation week after week after week and say, they are the apple of God's eye, even though they're doing the same exact things that they were doing here. You look at verse 18, it says, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King and the princes, all these he brought to Babylon. So he's basically cleaning house. He's taking all the treasures. You know, I mean, he has no respect for anybody. This guy, I mean, he's telling his men to just conquer, go in there and kill, you know, do destroy basically anybody who didn't leave. And remember, God was sending prophets to Judah during this time and the times before this, during Jehorakim's reign, saying, Hey, just go, just go into captivity. And if you haven't read Jeremiah yet, a lot of the book of Jeremiah deals with that subject where the people were like, you know, and I think you're a false prophet, Jeremiah, I'm not going to listen to you. Our prophets say that we're going to win this world. We're going to win. And God's going to help us when the reality is God's like, look, there's nothing that you can do to stop the captivity. It's going to happen. You can't stop it. You might as well do yourself a favor and just go into captivity. And that was what a large part of Jeremiah's ministry was in people that didn't listen. They were left over here when the Babylonians came in, when they got tired of playing games, they suffered death, you know, and that's a big deal. Look at verse 19 that says, and they burnt the house of God and break down the wall of Jerusalem and burn all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the good, the goodly vessels thereof. Verse 20 and them that had escaped from the sword carried away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath for as long as she lay desolate, she keepeth. I'm sorry. She kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and 10 years. Now keep your place there. Like I said earlier, but go to Daniel chapter number five, Daniel chapter five. And so if you keep on reading there, I already mentioned it. It, uh, second Chronicle leaves off talking about King Cyrus. Okay. Whereas, um, second Kings 25 leaves off with the Babylonian, uh, empire, you know, taking over or already in place already in charge while you're turning to Daniel five, I'm just gonna read for you this verse out of second Chronicles 36 verse 22, which says, now in the first year of King, our King, I'm sorry, in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet might be accomplished. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying, thus saith King Cyrus or Cyrus, King of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, hath the Lord God of heaven given me. And he has charged me to build an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is there among you of all this people, the Lord, his God be with him and let him go up. So if you get done reading second Chronicles, don't think that it's in chronological order. Cause there's, um, obviously the children of Judah, they go into captivity, right? Who's the, the reigning world power at the time was the Babylonian, uh, empire. Well, it's, it's, it's just skipped at the end there and basically gives you a little tiny bit of insight about Cyrus and his plans to build the temple, which we're going to pick up in Ezra chapter number one. But before that is Daniel chapter five, Daniel chapter five is a great chapter in the Bible to basically describe the time period that is not covered here in chapter 36 between the children of Judah going into captivity and Cyrus King of Persia. So Daniel chapter number five, uh, like I said, it's about, um, the transition is about going from the Babylonian empire to the Medo-Persian empire. All right. Hopefully everybody's with me. So what I want to do is I just want to go through some of this chapter here and just show you some different things. And we'll talk about some different things that are going on here. So Nebuchadnezzar is no longer King. It's Belshazzar who is King. We're going to talk about this here in a moment, but look down at verse number one. So this is a story about the handwriting on the wall. You ever heard that popular phrase, you know, the writings on the wall. This is the chapter in the Bible where that saying comes from. So verse number one, it says Belshazzar the King made a great feast to a thousand of his Lords and drank wine before the thousand Belshazzar while he tasted the wine commanded to, uh, to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem that the King and his princess wives and his concubines might drink there in now, obviously this isn't a wise thing. And if you've read Daniel chapter five, or if you just listen to what I just said about how this is a transition from going from the Babylonians being in charge, basically the world power to the Medo Persians being the world, the world power. Um, do you think they should be eating and drinking and partying right now? And the answer is obviously no, because they're not being vigilant. They're not being diligent. They're not watching. They've basically, they think they've got the world under wraps. They think that everything's okay. And they have no idea that their own destruction is about to come. And think about this is a big deal. If you've read Daniel chapter two about the statue, right? Who was the head that was the Babylonians. And then next was the arms, right? That is the Medo Persian empire. So obviously there's been a lot of planning and a lot of studying, a lot of work on the side of the Medo Persians, because I don't think that they just showed up to Babylon this night and said, you know what, let's just see what happens. Let's just see if we can beat these guys, right? Maybe they were sitting around drinking their booze and, and lifting themselves up. Right. And then they just come to Babylon. Well, let's just see if we can beat them. You know, maybe they listened to some rock music and got all psyched up and figured, you know what, let's just go see if we can take over our whole empire. That's stupid. That's ridiculous. Obviously these things weren't planning for a long time, but the Babylonians, you know, just no wisdom, no, no regards for God or anything like that. They're just partying. They're just living it up. They have no idea that their whole entire world is about to be turned completely upside down. So look at verse number three, it says, then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem and the King and his princess, his wives and his concubines drank them. They drank wine and praise the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. And by the time you get to the new Testament, what does Paul tell us that they're really doing here? They're worshiping devils, right? The things that these people are sacrificing unto, the Bible says are nothing more than devil. So this is basically demonic devil worship that's going on here. Verse five, it says in the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the King's palace. And the King saw the part of the hand that wrote. So this guy is drunk, right? But he's not drunk enough to realize that something really terrible is about to happen to him. Verse six says then the King's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smoked one against another. So this guy's drunk. He's having a good old time, right? Everything's great. You know, he's got his bud dumber and all that stuff going through the system, right? And then all of a sudden he sees these fingers. He sees his hands start writing on a wall, but no person, no body, right? Just this message going on the wall. And that would probably sober anybody up if you think about it, because that's not just something that you see every day. And so if the Bible says that his countenance changed and he's like, uh-oh, the adrenaline kicks in, he sees this and now he's scared. He's fearful. He's fearing for his life. So it's amazing what alcohol will do to you. It gives you a false confidence, right? We should never drink wine. I don't care what anybody says, right? Alcohol is dangerous. It's bad. There's nothing that's going to profit you. You know, a lot of people say, well, if I have a glass of wine and it's good for your heart, well, there's a ton of other things that are good for your heart. And guess who pays for those studies about the wine? Do you think it's your local nutritionist? No. It's people that have investments in the wine industry that pay for those, right? And that, my friend, there's never anything good in the Bible regarding alcohol ever. It's always bad. And you know what? You're going to see the results of that, right? Obviously this isn't the first party they've had. This was their culture. This is how they were. They have no discernment, basically. They have no idea that for months and months and months prior to this, that another nation, another kingdom was gearing up and getting ready for war. I mean, do you think that the Persians and the maids never spied on these people, never sought, you know, never decided to go and count the cost to see whether or not they could actually defeat them? You know, and the answer is obviously yes, they did, but they were too busy being drunk and living in sin and which clouds your discernment. It's true. That's what the Bible is teaching us here. So look down at verse number seven. It says the king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers. And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing more make known to the king the interpretation thereof. And that's because God makes the wisdom of this world foolishness. You know, God's only going to allow people that he decides to have the answers to his words, to his wisdom. And so there's no astrologer, there's no psychic, there's no wizard, there's no wise man, no scientist, no college professor that would have ever been able to interpret this. It had to come from God. Wisdom and truth, plain and simple, it comes from God. It's very easy to understand that. Now look down at verse number 12 here. Daniel chapter five, look at verse number 12. It says for as much, so what's going on here, obviously they get no answer. And then somebody's like, oh, remember Daniel? He can tell us, right? And it goes on to start explaining. It says for as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding and interpreting of dreams and showing hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation. Now you notice that Daniel's nickname Belteshazzar is very similar to Belshazzar who is the king of Babylon. Obviously, if you look at the first part of it, Bel, Bel, Belial, right? It's a name of their false god, the devil. And so I was thinking about this last night and it never, you know, they nicknamed Daniel Belteshazzar, but he never really like flipped out about it. He just kind of rolled with it, right? I mean, Daniel's a perfect example of somebody who lived in just this, just a pagan culture. I mean, his, you know, his daily duties, he was surrounded with, you know, people that were probably just full of the world, right? Just perverse, drunks, just vulgar and doesn't really ever say, and we don't know, it doesn't ever say that he flipped out about this, but it just, I was just kind of thinking that the lesson in that for us is that sometimes when you're at work and people, I don't know if they, maybe they give you a nickname or maybe they just say some stuff. It's a good idea for us to pick our battles. You know, this obviously wasn't important enough to Daniel to fight about, you know, but when they made a law saying, Hey, you can't pray to God anymore. What did you do? He opened up the windows and said, no, I'm going to pray to my God. I don't care what you say. You see what I'm saying? There's certain battles that we need to pick. And when it comes to the word of God, that's one that we're going to stand up for. That's one that we're going to fight about, you know, but little piddly things here, you know, um, doubtful disputations. One person thinks veganism is the best diet. Another person thinks it's keto. Another person thinks it's three meals a day. Another person thinks it's one meal a day. Well, not to fight over those things right now, when somebody says, Hey, well, all of that stuff in the Bible is garbage. Then we're going to have a problem. You see what I'm saying? So we need to pick our battles. Um, so just, just, just food for thought there. Uh, you know, you could preach sermon after sermon after sermon about Daniel. A lot of great things are going on here, but I want you to look back at the verse there where it says, uh, where they described Daniel. They say that he had the ability to dissolve doubts. You see, that's what it says. Dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel. Why is that? Because he had the wisdom of God because he sought the word of God. He obviously studied what he had and he knew the word of God. He was a safe person. And you know what? What is the one thing that dissolves doubts for us today as Bible believing Christians? Well, that's the word of God. It's the Bible, right? The Bible should dissolve doubts. You say, what are you talking about? Let me give you an example. Let's say somebody comes to you and says, Hey, in Matthew chapter one, guess what it says between Josiah and Christ, there's 15 or there's 14 Kings, but I counted 15. And actually I went back in the Bible and I counted 17 or 18. What do you think about that? Don't you think that Matthew made a mistake? I think Matthew made a mistake. You know what? That's not somebody who's a dissolver of doubts. That's somebody who is a dispenser of doubts. And that's that bozo that's been coming in here the last couple of services. That's who I'm talking about. This is disgusting. Look, we should never be dispensers of doubts. We should be dissolvers of doubts, just like Daniel was. You see what I'm saying? The Bible, soul winning, everything that we do should be to dissolve doubts. I mean, why do we go knock on people's doors? Get them safe to dissolve their doubts. Right? That's why we're King James only because being King James only dissolves doubts. Does it not? I mean, think about it. Everybody that I've ever met in my life, and you might say this is anecdotal, but everybody who's original manuscript only, scholarship only, modern version only, whatever you want to call them, they are full of doubts. Right? Most of them don't know whether or not they're safe. They doubt their salvation. Right? And that's, you know what? It's funny because they're the same people that want to preach this, repenting your sins garbage. And all that does is cause doubts. Right? Because who can tell whether or not they've turned from all their sins? Nobody can. The Bible says, for there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Everybody sins. So when people get up in front of their congregations or they make YouTube videos and they preach it, you have to turn from your sins. All that does is dispense doubts. It doesn't dissolve them. And when you get up there and you say, well, you have to go back to the original manuscript to get the real meaning. You're not a dissolver of doubts. You're a dispenser of doubts. That's what the Bible is teaching us here. We want to be a dissolver of doubts. And you know, after I preached that sermon on Sunday morning, this bozo comes up to me and he's like, you know, that's good that you got the 15, but what about the other ones? Is that somebody who's interested in dissolving doubts? No, because the Bible says that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So obviously if you read Matthew chapter one, you run into a problem. The first thing you need to realize is the Holy Ghost wrote that. So if those names aren't in there, then he omitted them for a reason. You take those names, you go back and you read about them. And it's very simple to understand why they are not in Matthew chapter one, right? But that's not good enough for somebody who's a dispenser of doubts, right? That's how you can discern whether or not somebody is on our side or against us. So I was going to wait to do that some other time, but you know, it is what it is. It had to come out. So it says that he was a dissolver of doubts and that's exactly how we needed to be. You know what this guy did to brother David while he's given the gospel to somebody and David was like, well, you're at the part where like explaining all you have to do is believe, right? And he's like, well, what do you mean believe? Right? So David's, imagine this, David's giving the gospel to somebody who's not saved. This bozo's over here saying, what do you mean believe? What do you mean by that? And then the guy who's not saved is like, he means to trust, to believe, you know, in faith. So you got an unsaved guy teaching a guy who's supposed to be a silent partner what believe means. I mean, what do you think that is? That person's a dispenser of doubts. That's what it is. That is foolishness. That is, it's like, man, there must be a lot of these low level devils here in the treasure valley or something. Either that or somebody paid this dude to come in here and do this stuff. I don't know. One of the two is true. Either he's on someone's payroll or the prince of the treasure valley just has a plethora of these same type of devils that lie, that claim to speak different languages, right? They ride bikes all over the place. They go to the dollar store. What else? Come on, help me out here. I'm pissed. Well, what's another one? Yeah. Living in a van, you know, wearing sandals when it's cold and rainy. What else? Sitting with his legs folded. All right. Yeah. The pants, hiking the pants up like he's wearing capris. Yeah. Comment. Yeah. Yeah. You know, saying like things that are like borderline perverted, you know, watching the kids, you know, look, there's a lot of similarities here that are just bizarre, man. I mean, this dude is a dispenser of doubts and a dispenser of hell. You know what I mean? And, and, and I'm really pleased that like everybody in here is like instantly got it too. There was nobody like, no, just give him a chance. Ain't nobody like that. Even the kids, even six year old little Cruz is like, he's a devil. You know what I mean? It's like, it's a done deal on the six year olds. You know, I can tell that somebody is a problem. You know, and this guy's running around, you know, trying to sow doubt about what I preached Sunday morning saying, well, that wasn't a very good example. Well, that wasn't good. I need to see more proof. I need to see the proof that there was a dyke on the NIV committee. You know what I found when somebody told me that there was a dyke on the NIV committee, you know what? I just believed it because it made sense to me. And then, yeah, I looked it up later on, not because I wanted to prove it, but you know, it's just like, come on, if you're King James only, you're not going to be questioning, you know, a lot of that stuff, you know, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't go research stuff. Please don't misunderstand me. But I'm just simply saying that we are to be dissolvers of doubts, not dispensers of doubts. And what this guy and what his type and what his kind are, they dispensed out. That's why he went soloing with them and said, you know, did pastor really say this? Did he really mean this? Does he really think that? Is he really this, really that? It's because he's just a dispenser of doubts. It's his devil. That's what they do. It's disgusting. And I'm sick and tired of it, man. It's like, wow. Can't you guys come up with a better devil? You know what I mean? Can't we just get somebody a little different in here? It's, you know, be thankful in all things, right? Be thankful in all things. All right. I have no idea what I was talking about before all that. Look at verse 24. We'll just start there. I'll start this whole thing over and I'm just kidding. All right. Verse 24. It says, Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written. Many, many, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of a thing. Many, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel, thou are weighed in the balances and aren't found wanting. Prez, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. They commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. Now, a dispenser of doubt would say, Well, why did he make him the third ruler if he was the king? Why didn't he make him the second in charge? There's a few different positions about this, and I kind of, this is why we're only going through half the book of Ezra tonight because I went off on a rabbit trail while I was studying and stuff. But there's some historical documents, and I don't put a lot of stock in what that says. I just stick with what the Bible says. I just believe it. Okay. But there is some evidence that says that Belshazzar was kind of like a king while the other king was off, you know, doing his conquest and doing his different things like that. That could be a possibility. So maybe technically Belshazzar was actually second in charge, so he was able to promote Daniel to third in charge. Another reason is maybe he already had somebody that was second in charge that he wasn't going to remove, so he gave in. I mean, it doesn't, either way you look at it, it doesn't dispense any doubt, right? We know that God put these things in here for a reason. It doesn't, you know, there's no doubt about it. The thing you need to know is that Belshazzar just offered him that position, and it was very, very, very short lived because if you look at verse 30, it says, and that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. So it was a very short promotion for Daniel, but, you know, he didn't want it anyways, right? He's like, just keep your junk. You know, I don't even care about this, but they decided to give it to him. He gets, he gets slain. Look at verse 31. Here's another point of contention for dispensers of doubt. It says, Andarius, the median, took the kingdom being about three score and two years old. So if you go online and you look who was the first king of Persia, they're going to point you to different passages and chronicles, like 36, and say, well, Cyrus was the first king. And then the haters, the Greek only people, the Hebrew only people, the scholars are going to say, this is why we need to constantly look up new revelation is because of things like this. It's confusing. It doesn't make any sense. Because this says that Darius came right in and there was, you know, first of all, here's what you understand. There was more than one Darius that ruled the Medo-Persian or the Medo-Persian empire. Now we just think about it and you look at this, it says, Darius, the median took the kingdom. It's not really a problem, right? Because remember the Medo-Persian empire was a dual nation empire. Okay. Because when you get further along in Ezra and Nehemiah, you're going to see Darius, the Persian. So obviously it's a different person. So God gives us this information here. Darius, the median took the kingdom, right? Being about three score and two years old. So this guy is 62 years old. And so God's just given us a couple of insights so that you can discern and have some placement and differentiate this Darius from the other Darius. Okay. That's not a contradiction. In 2 Chronicles 36, it just said in the first year of Cyrus's reign. Okay. It doesn't say that Cyrus was first and all this. There is a passage of Ezra that makes it sound like that, but either way you look at it, you know, the Bible at the end of the day is true and we ought not to go off of secular historical charts over the Bible. If this says that Darius the median took the kingdom, then guess what? That means Darius the median took the kingdom, you know, and then you can go over to chapter number six, go to Daniel chapter six. It says, if you look at verse 24, Daniel 6, 24, just a little bit about what's going on here after this. So there you have it. Daniel chapter five is the end of the Babylonian reign. They get conquered by the Medo-Persian empire. Look at verse 24, Daniel chapter six says, and the king commanded and they brought those men which had accused Daniel and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children and their wives. And the lions had the mastery of them and break all their bones and pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den. Verse 25. Then King Darius wrote unto all the people, nations and languages that dwelt in all the earth. Peace be multiplied into you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast forever in his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. And his dominion shall be even unto the end. He deliver and rescue it and work at signs and wonders and heaven and earth who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. And then verse 28, it says, so this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus, the Persian. So you see how the Bible does that. It gives you clues, right? These, that's why these things have to be studied out in the Bible. And you know what? We have what God wants us to know. We don't need to know every single Babylonian King in order, you know, because you know, a lot of these people, honestly, they're right. These, uh, things in history, they do have an agenda, right? I mean, if I were to write history, I'd probably have an agenda to, you know, let's face it. We're human. God's words are perfect. And he's given us and preserve for us exactly what we need to know. And there's no contradiction here regarding these Kings. And so go back to second Chronicles 36 real quick. I'm just going to read two verses and then we're going to go to Ezra. So second Chronicles 36, look at verse 22. So we just went through Daniel. We saw the end of the Babylonian empire. And then now you can come back to second Chronicles 36, 22 and get your bearings a little bit better. It says now in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying, thus say of Cyrus, King of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, half Lord God of heaven given me. And he has charged me to build him and house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is there among you of all his people, the Lord, his God be with him and let him go. Now go to go over to Ezra chapter one, and we'll start going through Ezra. And I'm just going to leave you with a two quick points out of chapter four, and then we'll be done. But so that's how second Chronicles ends. It kind of skips over all that stuff about the Babylonians, you know, going into captivity and all that, and Darius, and it goes right to Cyrus, King of Persia. Now, Ezra chapter one, look down at verse number one, says now in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. Sound familiar? The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, thus saith, Cyrus, King of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth. And he has charged me to build him and house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Exactly what we just read, confirming that these words are true. Verse three, who is there among you of all his people? He or his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in He is the God which is in Jerusalem. And so remember they're having to rebuild this temple because Nebuchadnezzar burnt it with fire and they took all the treasures out. And verse four, it says, and whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts beside the free will offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. And then it talks about people rising up, getting excited, going out and getting ready to make offerings and then jump down to verse number seven. It says, also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem and had put them in the house of his gods. Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithridoth the treasurer and numbered them unto Shesh-bazar the prince of Judah. And then it goes on to start talking about these different numbers. You get over to chapter number two, it gives a genealogy of different people that rise up that are, that are going to help the cause that are, that are going to go back to Judah. Now, what I want you to do is skip to verse 61, Ezra chapter two, look at verse 61 and says, and the children of the priests, the children of Habbiah, the children of Kos, the children of Barzillai, which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called after their name. Verse 62, these sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore were they as polluted put from the priesthood. So they're trying to rebuild the priesthood. They're trying to get everything back in order. They're trying to make plans. They're trying to get the priesthood back up so they can do the sacrifices so they can get things back kind of like the way they were. They're trying to follow the word of God, right? They're excited that King Cyrus has allowed them to go back and build. But what I want you to understand is they carefully and diligently search and make sure that if they're going to put somebody as a priest, that they meet the requirements that God has set forth in his word, right? That's why in verse two, it says that, that they were as polluted put from the priesthood. But what do you have today in modern day Israel? If you want to be a rabbi or something like that, do you have to prove by genealogy that you're born, you know, of one of these tribes, the children of Israel? No, you don't. You just have to convert to Judaism, right? And so it's really, again, just more, I mean, this is like the million thing that we've gone over since starting our study in the Old Testament. You see what I mean? There's no way you could be honest and read the Old Testament and come to the conclusion that modern day Israel is pleasing to God or doing things God's way, or even following the Old Testament. There's no way because they aren't all. If God were to come back and say, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to let Ezra and Nehemiah just for sake of argument here, come down there and set stuff up. They would say just about everybody over there is polluted from the priesthood, right? Because they don't know what tribe they're from. Most of them are just people that converted to Judaism and moved back to Israel or because their mom said we're Jewish. So, you know, there you go. There, there you have it completely opposite of what we read in the Bible here. And we look at verse 63, it says, and the ter Shatha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim. And we don't have time to talk about that tonight, but look at verse 64, the whole congregation together was 40 and 2,303 score. Now, if you think about that from when we first started this, right, how many people they had, I mean, think about when they were under Moses' leadership, right? They had a lot of people. How about when they were under David or, I mean, heck even, even King Saul, David, Solomon. I mean, they were a large nation, all 12 tribes, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And then, you know, obviously we already read about Israel going into captivity. Now Judah's gone into captivity and a remnants coming back and they're down to 40 and 2,303 score, just a fraction of the power that they used to have. Verse 65, beside their servants and their maids of whom there were 7,337 and there were among them 200 singing men and singing women. And if I was alive during this time, I would not be included in this at all. Verse 66, their horses were 736, their mules, 240 and five, their camels, 430 and five, their asses, 6,720. Now go over to chapter number three. So it's just giving you some insights as you could put into perspective what size of a nation we're dealing with here, right? And remember they're ruled by a governor now, no longer an independent king. And so at the beginning of chapter three, you're gonna read about the rebuilding of the altar and then it's going in and it's describing the rebuilding of the temple in verse number eight. So Ezra chapter three, verse eight, look at this, it says, now in the second year of their coming into the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month began Zerubbabel, the son of Sheol, Teal and Joshua, the son of Josadak and the remnant of their brethren, the priests and the Levites and all they that were come out of the captivity under Jerusalem and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward to set forth the work of the house of the Lord. Then stood Joshua with his sons and his brethren, Cadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah together to set forward the workmen in the house of God, the sons of Hanadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites. Verse 10 it says, and when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph with symbols to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And verse 11 it says, and they sang together by course. So by turn, this wasn't just some free for all type of a rock concert. Okay. They had an order to this by course in praising and giving thanks into the Lord because he is good for his mercy and worth forever toward Israel. Now you stop right there. Isaiah is going to take you right here. See his mercy endures forever to Israel. So ignore all the bad stuff that they do over there. There's still God's chosen people. It says it right here, but they're going to ignore every single passage that we've gone over up to this point. Right. And by the way, who's the Israel of God today? It's chosen. It's Bible believing Christians. Those of us who are saved, we've already gone over that. So yes, his mercy does endure for, you know, forever toward Israel, the Israel of God. And look, look at the rest of the verse. It says, and all the people shouted with a great shout when they praise the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. So most of the people at this point are probably younger, right? They've heard about the destruction of the temple. You know, they've been taught, you know, why they went into captivity. So there, there's some excitement here, right? But there's also some sorrow. It says in verse 12, but many of the priests and Levites and, uh, and of the fathers, I'm sorry, and chief of the fathers who were ancient men, they had seen the first house when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy. So I want to say an ancient man, obviously it's talking about the old people, right? People that were maybe, uh, young children, teenagers when the first temple was around, maybe during the last part of Zedekiah's reign, right? These people would have remembered what the temple looked like and the size and the things that were still around during that time. And they're seeing this new temple, right? And they're seeing these crowds of people and how it's not the same. And it finally sinks in and they realize how much the nation has changed, how much they lost. And they realize it's never ever going to be the same again. And so you have this multitude of people that are crying and weeping that are just sad. And then you have the new generation that's excited that wants to get on board, you know, because all they've ever heard are the stories that probably the ancient men have told them. And so you have this mixed noise verse 13, it says, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people for the people shouted with a loud shout and the noise was heard afar off. And so that's how that is going at this time. Let's skip over to chapter number four, because in chapter number four, we're going to start to see that adversity comes up during this time. So remember, they've got authorization from Cyrus. They've got his blessing. They've got his command to go and rebuild the temple. But then as always, you try to do something for God, guess what? Then comes the dispensers of doubt, the devils, the people that want to halt the work of God. And so if you look down to verse number one, it says, so now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple into the Lord God of Israel, it says, when they are, then they came in verse two, then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers and said unto them, let us build with you for we seek your God as you do. And we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Ezra had an King of Assur, which brought us up hither. So what I want to do is I just want to give you a couple of points out of this chapter about discernment. And number one is discernment is dependent on your involvement. Discernment is dependent upon your involvement. Now here in verse two, you have a situation where these people, right? These guys, they're working to rebuild the temple. They're on board with the plans. They want to see it succeed, right? And then you have people coming up to them, Hey, we love your God too. We want to worship him too. We want to help you as well, right? And this is where you're going to see their discernment kick in. So it says, which brought us up hither. Look at verse three. It says, but in verse three, but Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, ye have nothing to do with us to build an house into our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the King of Persia hath commanded us. Keep your place there, but go to Leviticus chapter 10, Leviticus chapter 10. So I said, point number one, and like I said, I've just got two quick points for you this evening. Point number one is discernment is dependent on your involvement. And what I mean by that is if you want to be discerning, you want to have discernment, you have to be involved in Bible reading, right? But not only that, you need to be involved in church. I mean, there's a reason why every single person in here from six years old and upward knew that our dispenser of doubt was the devil. And it's because of your involvement in church. It's because we've gone through this several other times, right? So that's what I mean when I say discernment is dependent on your involvement is dependent on you listening to the preaching is dependent on you doing your own Bible reading is dependent on you being open to the truth. And this applies on so many different levels because see, modern Christianity looks at this and they would probably question this. If you were to just tell them the story, they'd probably be like, well, that's pretty mean that they just turned those guys away that wanted to help, right? Because, I mean, think about it, modern Christianity, you can go into any Christian church. You can go to the stupid Episcopalian church over here and probably just be welcome. Tell them, you know, hey, I'm a Christian too, right? And they'll just welcome in without questioning you, without asking you whether or not you're saved or you believe a little bit different on us. It's okay. All are welcome here, right? But that's not how it's supposed to be, right? These weren't people like that because they were able to discern that these people were not really there to help. They were there to dispense doubt. They were there to destroy. They were there to stop the cause of God. And that's why I said that your discernment levels is dependent on your involvement. So Leviticus chapter 10, look at verse number eight. It says, and the Lord speaking to Aaron saying, do not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee. When you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, it shall be a statue forever throughout your generations. And verse 10, and that ye may put difference between the holy and unholy and between unclean and clean. And so look at verse 10 again, it says, and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy. So does God want us to put a difference between things that are holy and things that are unholy? Yes, of course, right? And your involvement in learning that and applying that in your life is gonna help your discernment like go through the roof. Look at verse 11, it says, and that ye may teach the children of Israel, all the statutes with which the Lord has spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. Now you can leave your place there and go to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12. And so you can see, right, their discernment was totally dependent on them following these commandments, on them staying away from the alcohol, staying away from these things and putting difference between holy and unholy. So if they did that in verse 11, there's a promise that says, and that ye may teach the children of Israel, all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. So our involvement studying and reading the word of God is what makes us better. It's what makes us able to edify, to dissolve doubts, to just help people. You wanna become a better soul winner, how do you do it? You don't do it by watching videos, right? Although that does help, you do it by getting involved. You do it by hearing the gospel preach. You do it by studying. You do it by getting challenged and making sure that you're able to answer those challenges on your next go around. Look at verse number one, Romans chapter 12, verse one. It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Verse two, and be not conformed to this world, but ye may be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You see, this doctrine is taught all throughout the Bible. If you want to have discernment, you have to involve yourself in the word of God. You can't be somebody who's a dispenser of doubts, right? That's why you can go up to any new evangelical Christian and just say, hey, have you heard of Charles Stanley? Have you heard of David Wilkerson? They're great guys on. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, the Christians are great, without even doing any kind of research, without even looking into the matter. Why do they do that? I'll tell you why they do that, because they have neglected to make a difference between the holy and the unholy, because that's considered offensive to Christians today out in the world, right? They don't want to put away the world, right? They want to be conformed to this world, and therefore they cannot, they cannot, they cannot renew their mind. Therefore, they can't prove what is acceptable to God. That's why they look at us as being crazy. It's because they themselves have conformed to the world, right? That's the whole reason why they can't tell that being fundamental is something that pleases God. You know, believing in the word of God, you know, dressing the way we, I like being a fundamentalist, because when some bozo walks in here, it's super easy to spot them, right? I mean, think about it. It's easy. You can tell it in their speech and the decisions they make and how they dress, how they look, and you say, you're not supposed to judge. Well, the Bible says the spiritual judges all things. So look, we have to be involved in church. You have to be involved in the fight if you want to be a discerning Christian, which I hope you do. Everybody should have that goal. So go back to Ezra chapter four, and then we're going to go to first Peter five and we'll be done. Well, first Peter five and then second Corinthians four, then we'll be done, right? I'm trying to hurry. I know it's Wednesday. People's eyes are rolling in the back of their heads, but we'll get through this last point. Point number two, discernment is vital when dealing with persecution, right? Persecution is going to come. People are going to try to come mess with us, right? Pastor Menes spoke about that in great detail, why he was here. And that's why I say discernment is vital when dealing with persecution. Look at verse number four, Ezra four, four, then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days of Cyrus, King of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, King of Persia. Now turn to first Peter five. And then in verse six, it says, and in the reign of Ahaziah, in the beginning of his reign wrote the end to him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. So you can see what's going on here, right? They're trying to build. They're trying to do what Cyrus said. The adversaries rise up and what do they do? They make accusation. They write to the King and say, Hey, don't you know if you give these Jews back this temple and you let them come here and worship God, they're going to put a tax on you. They're going to rise up and they're going to put other Kings in a bondage. Look, they did it in the past. So the Kings look at, you know, they look at their records and go, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. They did do that. Let's stop the work. You see what I'm saying? That's what's going on in this time. And you know what? A church like ours is going to have the same type of persecution. There's going to be people that hire counselors against us. And I think we've had that already. I think we're dealing with that right now. I can't prove who hired him, but somebody did. Like I said earlier, it was either the Prince of the treasure Valley, or it was somebody else. And you all know who I might be talking about, right? But either way, somebody hired this fool to come in here, whether it was a demon or whether it was somebody who used to be among us. I don't know, but I'm going to find out first Peter chapter five, look at verse five. Remember point number two is discernment is vital when dealing with persecution, because think about it. When somebody is hiring a counselor to come in here, they're going to try to act like us. They're going to try to be like, they're on our side, right? They're going to try to be like one of us. And you know what? We have to be discerning. We have to be above these liberals out there because they can't tell when a pedophile's among them. They can't tell when there's some bozo among them. They have no idea, but you know what? We can't be like that because we're actually out there fighting these battles and our discernment is vital. We have to know when people are up to no good so we can kick them out of here. Cause all they do, all they do is slow the work of God down. First Peter chapter five, look at verse five. It says, likewise, younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Verse six, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And so understanding these things is great. We need to be humble. We need to realize that there's nobody in here that understands every single thing in the Bible, right? Nobody does. I get up here and I say, lost people are going to heaven and say, people are going to hell and I mix my words up all the time. You know, we all do things like that, but nonetheless, you need to be humble, right? I've read the Bible, you know, more than 15 times, but I don't get up here and say like, no, I'm always right about every single thing. Never do that. We need to be humble because that's what God blesses is humility and being able to be teachable, right? And you notice it in verse six, it says that he may exalt you in due time. So who does the exalting? It's God. We should never be a suck up type of a person, right? Don't be a suck up at your jobs. Don't be somebody who just goes up to the boss and is always trying to please them and telling them what they want to hear because you know what? That's being a respecter of persons and it doesn't do any good. It sure doesn't make God happy. You ought to earn your reputation the hard way by being humble, by working hard, because you know what? The Bible says that God is the author of promotion. If you want to get a promotion, guess who's going to give it to you? It's going to be God. Whatever that promotion may be, whether it's another child, whether it's a situation in your life, whether it's your financial status, whatever it is, if you want that next level, you got to understand it comes from God. And you know what? It's the same in this church. We want this church to go to the next level, but we're not going to do it if we have a church full of pride, prideful and boastful people. Amen. Verse seven, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you, right? I love the Bible that this dissolves my doubts. So now when I have doubts, when I have situations that I need help with, I know I can trust the Bible and it's going to dissolve those doubts because I know I can trust that I can cast all my problems on him. And every single person here needs to understand that because the Bible says, for he careth for you. That's what it says. Verse number eight, be sober, right? Be sober. Obviously don't be drunk with wine. Don't be drunk with alcohol, which is an excess and all that. We understand that. But when he says be sober, he's also talking about your mental state because somebody who is drunk on pride, somebody who is filled with pride, the Bible says is not sober minded. That's why in Titus chapter two, verse six says young men likewise exhort to be sober minded because young men tend to struggle with pride. It's true. I was young once. I understand that, right? When you're full of pride, you are not sober minded. And in verse eight, in first Peter five, it says, be sober, be vigilant. And then he tells you why, because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. You know what? There's been a devil that's coming in and out of this congregation, looking for people to destroy. And he's found a few since this church has first started, hasn't he? Thank God they keep sending these ones that can't put their costume on all the way. Like I said, be thankful for all things. It is kind of funny at the end of the day. Verse number nine, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Turn to second Corinthians chapter four, second Corinthians chapter four. You know, there's some comfort when you're going through persecution, you're going through trials, you're going through problems, to just remember that your brethren that are in the world are suffering the same things. It's true. You're not the only person that's had problems. None of us are. That's why he says, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. We're not the only church that has bozos coming in and out all the time trying to dispense doubts. Right? It happens at Verity. It happens at Sure Foundation. It happens at Faith Award. It happens at All Scripture. It happens at all these different churches. Right? And there's some level of comfort when we look back and we think about that. Oh yeah. You know, it's not just us. Our brethren are going through the same trials and tribulations that we are. You know, there is some comfort there when you think about that. So you're there in second Corinthians chapter four, look at verse eight. He says, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. And why aren't they destroyed? Because of the power of the word of God, because it dissolves doubts. It dissolves your problems. Verse 10, always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We have the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak. Right? So it always goes back to believing the word of God. That's the power. That's where the power is at. Not with wisdom of words of this world, but with God's word. That's where the power is at. And notice he says, I have believed. He didn't say I came in there and tried to dispense doubt on God's word. I tried to dispense doubt on whether or not you guys are really getting people saved because I got saved out of the NIV. No, no, that's not Christianity, my friend. That's not okay. That's not this chapter here. Now look at verse 14. He says, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up also, raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you for all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the Thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God for which cause we faint not, but through our outward man, I'm sorry, but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day. And so you want to know how to get through times of persecution and trials and tribulations and problems is understanding that your new man is renewed day by day. So you say, okay, I messed up today. You know, somebody cut me off in traffic and I said some stuff I shouldn't have said or whatever. Right? Well, guess what? You know, the new man is renewed day by day. You don't have to go to the priest and confess your sins and kneel on a bed of rice and do all this junk and go to the pastor and tell him, you know, I need to come to the altar tonight because I cussed these people out or I did this or I said this to somebody. You don't need to do any of that. The Bible says the new man is renewed day by day. You just need to confess it to God who is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our iniquities, right? And then move forward. That's what he's saying here. This is how we win, not dwelling in the past. Verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and internal weight of glory. So you take a look at your problems, whatever they are, go back to Ezra chapter four, whatever they are, whatever you're going through, it does also help you to understand that it's a light affliction, that it will pass. It's not going to last forever. If you're saved, it will end at some point, even though it may not seem like it is right now. And then while you're turning back to Ezra four, I'm just gonna read for you the last verse here, verse 18, which says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And so what that's talking about is where are your thoughts? Where is your mind? Where is your motivation? Where is your zeal? Is it on the temporal or the eternal? You see what I'm trying to say here? You see what Paul's telling the Corinthians? Hey, you need to focus on the eternal. That is what makes somebody a good Christian, when they can put aside the world, when they can differentiate between holy and unholy. And once you do that, the Bible says that you're not looking at the things that are seen, but you're putting your trust on the eternal. That's where your focus is, right? I mean, it has to be that way in this church. That's why we have so many people going out week after week, soul winning in the community. That's why you guys keep coming back here, Wednesday after Wednesday, Sunday after Sunday, obviously, because your focus is on the eternal and you need to keep it that way. You need to keep it that way. So let's finish up here. We'll just read here about how the king orders the work to stop and then we'll be done for tonight. Ezra chapter four, verse 17, then sent the king an answer unto Rahab the chancellor and to Shemshai the scribe and to the rest of their companions that dwelt in Samaria and unto the rest beyond the river, peace and at such a time. The letter which he sent unto us hath been plainly read before me and I commanded and search hath been made. And it is found that this is the city of old time hath made insurrection against kings and that rebellion and sedition have been made there in. There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river and toll tribute and custom was paid unto them. Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease and that this city be not builded until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now that you fail not to do this. Why should damage grow to the herd of the kings? Now, when the copy of king Artaxerxes letter was read before Rahab and Shemshai the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews and made them to cease by force and power. Then ceased the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And so we're going to stop there for tonight, but I just wanted to give a good marking point. So where we can pick up next week, you see that the king believes lie. He believes the, uh, the argument that these people have, that they're just going to put you into tribute. They're going to put you into bondage. So we need to get rid of them. You know, that reminds me of that reminds me of these apartment managers that send me letters and emails, you know, saying, but the law says you can't solicit here. You need to stop and cease the work of God right now. And you need to not ever come back here. Cause we'll call the cops. Well, in our case, the law clearly defines that we're not soliciting. And even if it didn't, we'd still be going back because I don't care. And neither does anybody in here. So let's borrow that word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the stories in the Bible. Thank you for all that came tonight. I just pray that you'd bless the fellowship afterwards, Lord, the soul winning this week and church services this weekend in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.