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

You You You You You You You You All righty good good afternoon everyone good to see you all in the house of God Can I get you to grab your hymnals and turn to him number four hundred and twenty-nine Him number four to nine hark the herald angels sing Him number four to nine and when you found it, can I get you to stand please? Oh Angels sing glory to the new born King See my God and sinners Joyful all ye nations rise join the triumph of the skies with Angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem The hair of angels sing glory to the new Christ the Everlasting Lord late in time behold him come offspring Veiled in flesh the Godhead singing hail the incarnate deity Please as man with men to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel Well the herald angels sing glory to the new Son of righteousness And life to all he brings risen with Mild he lays his glory by for that man more may die more to raise the sons of born to give The Herald angels sing glory to These nations come fixing us I humble Cruising us Adam's likeness now we face Stampedine image in its place The second Adam from above Reinstate us with The Herald angels sing glory to the new Alrighty brother Jason do you mind opening in a word prayer? Say we love you We're thankful for everything you've done for us Lord And we thank you that we can meet again for the second service I pray you'd be with us and you'd be pleased with everything that we do Lord that you would be glorified and your name exalted and lifted up Can I get you to turn now to him number 147 him number one four seven leaning on the everlasting arms number one four seven You What a fellowship water joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms water blessedness water peace is mine leaning on the everlasting arms cleaning Hey safe and secure Leaning on the everlasting Oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way How bright the path grows from day to day Hey Say Ben secure from all alarms Hey on the everlasting What have I to dread what have I to be? on the everlasting I Have blessed peace with my lord. So me leaning on the everlasting arms Safe and secure from all On the everlasting Alrighty final him before the Bible reading Can I get you to turn to him number 255 him number 255 come and dine Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed him as his chosen people come and die With his man a heat of feed and supplies our every need Oh to sweet us up with Jesus all the time Come and dine the master call us come and die You may feast at Jesus table all the time He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine to the hungry callers now come and die The disciples came to land us obeying Christ's command for the master called unto them come and die They found their hearts desire bread and fish upon the fire. Does he satisfies the hungry every time? Come and dine the master call it come and die You may feast at Jesus table all the time He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine to the hungry callers now come and die Soon the land will take his bride to be ever at his side or the host of heaven will assemble be Oats will be a glorious sight all the saints in spotless wine and with Jesus. They will feast eternally Come and dine the master call it come and dine You may feast at Jesus table all the time He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine to the hungry callers now come and dine All righty good singing I can I get you to grab your bubbles now and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 10 Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and brother Brody's coming up for the Bible reading From the Bible Ecclesiastes chapter 10 Dead flies caused the ointment of the apothecary to send forth the stinking saber So doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor a wise man's heart is at his right hand But a fool's heart at his left Yea, also when he that is a fool walketh by the way his wisdom fail at him and he saith to everyone that he is A fool if the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee leave not thy place for yielding pacifies great offenses There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun as an error which proceedeth from the ruler Folly is set in great dignity and the rich sit in low place. I Have seen servants upon horses and princes walking a servants upon the earth He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it and who so breaketh and hedge a serpent shall bite him Whosoever removeeth stone shall be hurt therewith and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby If the iron be blunt and he did not wet the edge then must he be put to more strength But wisdom is profitable to direct Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment and a babbler is no better The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious But the lips of a fool will swallow up himself the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness and at the end of his talk is mischievous madness a Fool also is full of words a man cannot tell what shall be and what shall be after him who can tell him The labor of the foolish wait where is everyone of them because he knoweth not how to go to the city Woe to thee O land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning Blessed art thou our land when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for the strength and not for drunkenness By much slothfulness the building decayeth and through islandness of the hands the house droppeth through Our feast is made for laughter and wine maketh Mary but money answer with all things Curse is not the king curse not the king No not in thy thought and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and That which have wings shall tell the matter Dear Lord, I thank you for this day and everybody here I pray that everybody can learn something useful from the sermon that Kevin has to provide in Jesus name. I pray amen So normally the Sunday afternoons I've been going chapter by chapter through the Bible and I did mention that we're going to start going through the book of John And that was my intention and even even up to yesterday But I just remembered how long some of these chapters are in the book of John and it's a third It's an afternoon service. I didn't want to preach too long, especially afternoon service So what I decided to do, I'm gonna save the book of John for our Wednesday night services And I've decided to continue the series that I've been working on English idioms influenced by the Bible English idioms influenced by the Bible part 3 is today So we got we read Ecclesiastes chapter 10 that's basically so we get to last verse verse number 20 there Let's have a look at this It says curse not the king no not in thy thoughts and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber For a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which have wings shall tell the matter This is where we get our English idiom a little birdie told me a little birdie told me so as we keep going through this Series don't forget. We're looking at how much the Bible the King James Bible has influenced our English language And we see here that hey look if you be careful about what you say especially have people in authority You know you might think it's a private matter. It's a secret. You know it's a Situation but be careful what comes out of your mouth because it's very likely a little bird or somebody will go and report what you? Said to someone else and of course that saying a little birdie told me is To know a hidden truth, but keeping the source a secret to know a hidden truth But keeping the source a secret and we even get this commandment there all right in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 be careful about what we say we know the Bible often speaks about how we need to be careful about our tongues the words that we speak and And you know if I can just be as honest as I can just complete transparent And I'm comfortable being transparent because I'm assuming you guys are the same But you know there are things in this brain that gets processed. You know certain information Observations of people or families of things that process in this brain some of those things are true some of those things are false But before they come out of my mouth in fact. There's a lot that doesn't come out of my mouth Let me put it that way Come out of my mouth because I realize this thing you know we need to be people that guard our tongues Okay, and you know is it is it is it appropriate for me to say this about somebody you know it might be my brain It could be false. I don't know what if I say something and even though it's in you know it's a Private matter and maybe I'm sharing a secret you know how can I expect somebody else to keep that secret if I could not keep that secret myself and You know you might say something and you know something might come to your mouth And then you know you did not want an individual to hear about that and then you find out they hear about it make Situations awkward could cause conflicts hey if you say something about the king the king can come down hard on you Just because you said some some words that maybe you should have been more careful about and so this is essentially teaching us That we need to be careful of our tongue. We need to learn how to control our tongue You know it is easier to correct a wrong thought right we can have wrong thoughts It's easy to correct the wrong thought there then to correct it after it's come out of our mouth Because people might think hey you've made an accusation. You know you said something Which you know you've not you know you've not fully processed in your mind And you know we need to be we need to be people that learn how to you know keep thoughts private you know Unless number one we are sure that it's true and even if it is true you really need to speak it is is it really your place to say such things and We need to be really careful about this in the day and age that we live in Because everything I'm preaching right now is on YouTube by the way Did you know that like there was a time back in the 80s and 90s that? Preachers could preach and say whatever they wanted to say they could be completely honest completely transparent Because they weren't concerned the words. They'll speak would get out of the walls where they preached You know and I need a little bit more careful It's not stopping from preaching what I want to preach But I'm also a little bit mindful hey that what we say in this church is going out there on the Internet And one thing you need to learn especially young people You know because the social media world that we live in that what goes on the internet stays on the internet forever Forever Okay, there are websites that have closed down that you can don't have access to anymore But you go back to way back time machine, and you can find the website all Everything's been recorded. You know you might post something on Facebook, and then I'll delete that yeah, but you know somebody could just take a screenshot of what you wrote and You might have great regrets You've got to be careful about what you communicate Because now there's a lot of little birdies that are telling a lot of little people okay about things that you may have said You know before becoming a pastor I went back to all my social media accounts and went back to my comments on Facebook my photos And I deleted and I cleared everything that could potentially look a little damaging toward me And there wasn't anything excessively horrible, but for example Maybe I you know I went to a work events and maybe there was alcohol served at that work even though I don't drink alcohol But just saying you know bottles of beer or something like that on a table that I'm sitting at could you know communicate the wrong? message You know so I was you know before I became a pastor I made sure that I just went through deleted whatever there was Untagged myself from whatever photos may have looked a little bit inappropriate You know and because oh, you know obviously what we want to have a clear testimony We want to we don't be communicating something that is not quite right or not not true so we need to be just watchful about what we say and You know when it comes to secrets you know I've got a very different opinion to many people at secrets We all have secrets we all have things that we you know are private to us And we may only be comfortable to share certain things with certain people like for example my wife knows all my secrets Like I'm comfortable with her knowing my secrets But there are things that my wife knows about me or whatever that I don't want everyone everyone to know right But you know what happens a lot of times is that you've got a secret And you really want to tell you know you kind of need to get it off your chest You need to tell someone so you tell someone a secret and then you tell them look don't tell anyone All right, and that's the expectation. I reckon I can trust you with these words, and then before you know it They are that little birdie that has gone and told someone else and then you get mad at them you get mad at them for Revealing your secrets, but you're getting mad at the wrong person the one that first spoke the secret was yourself Okay, how can you get mad at someone else revealing your secrets when you're the one that reviewed it to them to begin with? Like how can you expect that other person to keep something secret that you yourself could not keep secrets? So when someone Titles a secret out there I don't get upset with the person that said it I get upset with the person that began with that secret The one that should have kept a secret right, but hey this is a true saying you know be careful about What you say because a little birdie will take that you know and before you know it. It's out there in the world Sometimes there are people that you know as a pastor they want to share things with me, and it's fine Understand, but you need to understand like there might be things that you say to me and not intentionally even maybe completely Accidental it might come out of my mouth when I'm talking to someone and then I'm like oh, I wasn't meant to say that Okay, like you know not that it's intentional not that you know I'm trying to go and reveal secrets But it's something that I've heard and you know it's just how it is It's hard to sometimes you know if a situation presents itself And you think those words might contribute to the conversation you might say something Inappropriately that really was meant to be private or a secret and so I strongly encourage listen You know if you want to share some burden with me. That's fine. I get what you're coming from I'm a sinner as well I know I know what it is to sin I know what it is to have regrets and the consequences of sin But I don't need to know every single piece of dirty laundry in your life Okay, I really and you know no one in this church needs to about know every single You know dirty laundry that you have in your life like not like you don't need to share all your skeletons in your closet so everybody in the church because A little birdie could come along take that information, and then it's known by people that you were not hoping You know would hear about that. You know all your all your you know secrets all the dirty laundry all those all the skeletons in closets You can't tell Jesus though you go to the Lord God say Lord. This is my situation You know can you please forgive me for what I've done You know and here's the one that you need to talk to if you want to share secrets You can't help but keep a secret you know and you got to tell someone go to Jesus and tell Jesus your secret He knows it anyway. You know the Lord God knows these things anyway So you might as well tell him that gives the opportunity to get it off your chest And you know that he's not going to tell anyone because he's forgiven you right as far as the East is from the West You know then our sins we removed from us Alright, let's go to Isaiah now. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 40 Isaiah chapter 40 So as I said these are English idioms influenced by the Bible We're just looking at different idioms that have come from the Word of God and that we still use today in our English language But Isaiah chapter 40 please Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 15 Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number 15 Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number 15 the Bible reads Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket All right, so we have our next idiom a drop in the bucket as we will say it today Right when we use that idiom. It's a drop in the bucket. You know you'd say that it's a it's a very small Insignificant matter it's a very small insignificant thing Alright, this is where I say like everyone's got an opinion and like if you get bothered about everybody's opinion Everyone's opinion is just a drop in the bucket. It's a drop in the ocean So you better learn not to get offended by everyone's opinion, or you're gonna be offended for the rest of your life But everyone's opinion everyone thinks their opinion is so important and so you know amazing, but really it's a drop in the bucket What really matters for us of course is the opinion of God now going to God's Word God What do you have to say about this matter? You know there are some people that would ring 10 pastors to hear 10 opinions And they'll say well this one pastor agreed my opinion, so I'm gonna do what he said That's just you're just doing what you want to do But you know what our opinions our truly is a drop in the bucket I think it's it's humbling to remind yourself that you know what you have you know if it's the Word of God It's the Word of God. Okay. That's the biggest. That's the greatest opinion. There is it's not an opinion It's a fact it's the truth, but you need to just remember that yourselves what you have to say You know it's it's a drop in the bucket And it says here in Isaiah 40 15 behold the nations so the nations are as a drop in the bucket the nations are Insignificant okay in what sense it says and are counted as the small dust of the balance Behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing Now of course when we think about our our world our society you know The you know when you think about powers that be we would often think about the greatest powers being the powers over the nations All right that you know every sovereign nation is a you know it has power and authority of course it does But inside of God, it's just a drop in the bucket inside of God. It's a very small Insignificant thing and this is really helpful for us as Christians because We know that this world is going down the toilet We know that the wickedness is increasing the laws that have been passed are more ungodly as the time goes on And it just seems like man. You know like the whole world right like to us the world is this big thing You know to us this world You know it seems like like we're just it kind of feels like are we the only ones Like are we the only ones that just truly love the laws of God You know the world is going a completely different direction But again when we look at it from the side of God God says look don't worry about that It's just a drop in the bucket It's just a very small thing the nations of this earth are just dust as it were a small dust Not even dust small dust right in the balance behold he take off up the Isles as a very little thing This number 16 and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn Nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering Now of course when when you read about the burnt offering you know of course that's been a sacrifice unto the Lord Right the burnt offering was to picture the ultimate burnt offering which is the Lord Jesus Christ All right his sacrifice him being that perfect Lamb of God that will die for the sins of man and It's tell us here You know even if God Even for the whole nation the whole nation of Lebanon or all the beasts of Lebanon was to be offered as a as a sacrifice It says that there's not enough beasts to be sufficient for the sacrifice Like there's like no good on this earth Really like you cannot offer an entire nation all the animals on that nation to be made right with God You cannot fix this world by sacrificing a nation unto him then it says in verse number 17 all nations before him are as nothing and They accounted to him less than nothing and vanity all these powers you know All these laws to God it's nothing In comparison to what though verse number 18 to whom then will you liken God or what likeness? Will you compare unto him? so in comparison to God All these other powers that are on this earth are nothing. They're a drop in the bucket They're like a very small piece of dust. They're a very small thing in comparison to our Lord God and Again it's very encouraging for us Because we might say hey the world does not respect the Bible the world does not respect the Word of God but brethren Who cares about the world? It's a very small thing. It's vanity It's vanity right our Lord. God is promises us. He promises us a new heaven a new earth All right new nations new kingdoms to come I don't know exactly how these nations of kingdoms are gonna be divided But God says so in his word All right, and again in comparison to God isn't it great that we have Such a great God like when you think about his creation that's such a great thing you think about the nations as great powers But they are so insignificant in light of God in fact as we keep going for this Idioms you'll notice just how you know the nations the powers are just in God's hands You know it's God's decision whether it's going to rise up kings will take him down. It's in the hands of God and So it's great comfort to know That you know the nations are a drop of a bucket. You're there in Isaiah. Please come with me to Isaiah 57 Isaiah 57 verse number 19 Isaiah 57 verse number 19 and While you're turning there I'm gonna reach to you from 2nd Corinthians 4 18 which says while we look not at the things which are seen But the things which are not seen for the things which are seen a temple for the things which are not seen are eternal So again the nations in comparison to God we can't see God Okay, but he's eternal. Okay. We trust on the Lord God through faith, but the things that are temporal these things are gonna pass away They're not always gonna be here. We know that Christ is gonna come back one day, but Isaiah 57 verse 19 Let's look at the next idiom Isaiah 57 verse number 19 It says I create the fruit of the lips Peace peace to him that is far off and to him that is near save the Lord and I will heal him You know the only place that we can find true peace is in our Lord God The only place you know when someone passes away you say rest in peace the only person that's resting in peace are those that have trusted Christ the Savior, but that peace comes from the Lord all right look at verse number 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace save my God to the wicked There is no peace to the wicked The next idiom that we're looking at is that idiom that we say there is no rest for the wicked Have you heard that one? There is no rest or there's no peace for the wicked and This idiom in our English language is kind of It's kind of like this humorous idiom like for example You know if you're working long hours you're working overtime on the job right and someone goes to you say man You're still working so yeah, there's no rest for the wicked It's kind of like this humorous type thought like you're just blowing it off You know like kind of like yeah, I'm just wicked you know I got all these hours to do You know when you're trying to meet a deadline, but you're just being overworked. That's how our world kind of uses this idiom But actually it is very serious like it's not humorous at all what we find in the Bible It's actually so serious because we saw earlier that peace is available Available from God right the moment. We've trusted Christ as our Savior We've made peace with God and we no longer need to carry that burden You know we don't have to worry about where we're going because we know that we've made peace with God But those that have not turned to the Lord when it says here. There is no peace saved all to the wicked of Course there's no peace in this life All right, I mean it might seem like sometimes that the wicked are getting away with what they've done It seems like they're having a great time Trampling over other people being greedy right taking advantage of people it might seem like they're having a good time But God is telling us. They really have no peace they have no peace. You know they've got the regrets. They've got the you know They Don't know where they stand for eternity They don't know where they're going to stand before God and that when they stand in judgment day But not only do they not have peace on this earth of course We know when they pass away the Bible makes it very clear That there's a place called hell a place of fire and torment where they're going to be tormented day and night forever and ever And so it's not a humorous thing no rest for the wicked. It's not humorous thing It's actually quite a serious thing you know for those that have not trusted Christ as Savior They're not going to find rest on this earth. They're not going to find rest in the world to come It's interesting how many people say rest in peace when people pass away, but they're not at peace They're not there. They're in torments Okay, they're in torments unless they have trusted Christ and so once again. Just a reminder brethren that In fact let's go look over some 19 again. I create the fruit of the lips You know where to be fruitful where to use our lips to be fruitful aren't we we have the gospel message? Where to use these lips where to use this mouth to bring full fruits? Okay, to plant the seed of God's word in someone's heart that they can know Jesus Christ as a savior Man, what a wonderful work that God has given us because it truly is no rest for the wicked Please come with me to Isaiah 52 Isaiah 52 in verse number 7 Isaiah 52 in verse number 7 Isaiah 52 verse number 7 Alright this one's another interesting idiom. Isaiah 52 verse number 7 Familiar passage to many of us it says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings That publish of peace remember that the wicked have no peace Hey we go and publish peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publish of Salvation that's safe unto Zion thy God reigneth It's our job to publish peace isn't it it's our job to make peace between God and man Hey, we can't make peace on this earth. This this earth is going to have wars until the day Jesus Christ comes back Okay, there's gonna be wars. We can't make peace on this earth, but we can bring peace between man and God individually Okay, it's our job to publish salvation. It's our job to use our lips to publish peace Look at verse number 8 thy watchman shall lift up the voice Now of course we're talking about the city of Jerusalem here They've got watchmen that are looking within the walls to make sure things are running well in the city They're also looking outside to make sure enemies are not trying to come in and infiltrate the city It says the watchman shall lift up the voice with the voice together. They shall sing For they shall see eye to eye When the Lord shall bring again Zion the next idiom is to see eye to eye to see eye to eye How do we use that today? Well, when we say hey, you know, we see that eye to eye. What are we saying? We're saying that we're in agreement. All right, we have the same we're saying we have the same views We have the same opinions. We see this eye to eye all right, and What are they seeing eye to eye about The watchman lift up shall lift up the voice. We're talking about those that publish salvation You know what brethren we are watchmen We are watchmen if you have the good news of salvation in your mouth. You are a watchman Okay, you ought to be watching for at our community watching your family watching your friends those that are destined to help you those that you know and haven't received Christ the Savior and We're trying to get people to see eye to eye with us Hey, these watchmen see eye to eye with an with each other will touch upon that soon But we're trying to bring people to understand that Christ is salvation Look at verse number nine break forth into joy sing together. I seen eye to eye we're together So I love Church because we all have different backgrounds We all have different ethnicities You know some of us grew up in a Christian home. Some of us did not But we can come together we can sing together we can praise God together because we see eye to eye So I the morning sermon was so important because if we don't see eye to eye on the gospel Can we truly see eye to eye on the most important doctrine of the Bible? Let's start there. Let's start on the gospel. Let's make sure we see eye to eye on that Look, we're not gonna see eye to eye on every single doctrine of the Bible Can I honestly say that every church I've been at I've seen eye to eye with the pastor on every single thing is No, I can't say that. I don't even see eye to eye with everything with my wife Okay, and we're one flesh. We don't still we still don't see your things like you're never gonna see eye to eye You know on every single issue with every single person on this planet Okay, it's not possible But what do these watchmen see eye to eye about? that The need of publishing salvation That's what they see eye to eye about. Okay, the need to publish salvation Let's look at verse 9 again break forth into joy sing together You waste places of Jerusalem for the Lord have comforted his people and have redeemed Jerusalem Have you been redeemed? Have you received salvation then we need to see eye to eye Okay, what is the mission of this church? Is it to just have a Just to get together with some random people Is it just a ticker box? I went to church now brethren. We've got a mission Okay, we've got a mission in this church to preach the gospel to the lost Okay, we have soul winners that go out door to door preaching the gospel and they're not doing it to show off They're not doing it. So hey, look at me. Look how much I look how great of a Christian I am They're doing it because we must publish peace We must tell people how to be saved we have the words of eternal life Do we see eye to eye on this You say pastor. I'm just not up for it. I'm not I'm not a soul winner. I can't speak the words I can't I've never given the gospel to anybody Well, maybe that's the case, but you can still see eye to eye with us You know, you know who's not welcome to this church Who's not welcome to this church anyone that comes to this church and says preaching the gospel is a waste of time That I don't care if that person's even saved you're not welcome in our church because you're just gonna be discouragement Say past those guys that go soul winning between services. I think they're just doing it for the praise of men Well, I know they're not but just say well Let's say they really are doing it for the praise of men at least they're preaching the gospel Something most Christians don't do at least they're publishing the words of everlasting life Okay, and then let God sort them out at the day of judgment whether they did it for the Lord or for themselves But brethren this church I want to see eye to eye Not on every single little doctrine because I don't like some of the men we get together on, you know Thursday, you know Bible study. We don't see eye to eye on everything do we I don't think so But can we see eye to eye on the most important things? Of course we can. Okay, this brings unity in our church. We must have unity in the gospel you know Paul of course takes Isaiah 52 here and he writes, you know, he repeats it in Romans chapter 10 I'll just read it to you Romans chapter 10 verse number 15 He says how shall they preach? except they be sent as It is written as it written in Isaiah as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace And bring glad tidings of good things You see brethren we need to see eye to eye on the gospel we must have unity on the gospel unity in the mission of winning the loss to Jesus Christ and You know what? If you're on board, then you're welcome to church You know what? If you say pastor, I can't get out there, but I'm willing to pray I'm willing to pray that God will use the soul winners I'm willing to pray for those that have heard the gospel that they would be convicted They would truly understand what it is to be saved Then you're on board then we can see eye to eye. We're in agreement then That's the most important thing. I don't want to just have church for the sake of having church I don't have just church for the sake of feeling better. Hey, you know, there are some other Christians and Okay, good. Good. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. But let's go win the loss Who's gonna do it It's got to be you. It's got to be me. It's got to be us that Preach the gospel of the good news Alright, please come with me to Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60 There's quite a few idioms in the book of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 60 and verse number one Isaiah 60 and verse number one The first two words arise shine arise shine. What's the English idiom that we use today? rise and shine Rise and shine. We don't say that. Does anyone use that lingo in the mornings rise and shine wake up get up early Rise and shine. That's where it comes from. It comes from this very From this passage here in Isaiah 60 and of course that idiom rise and shine means to wake up and get out of bed Rise up. It's it's no longer dark. The night's over. You know, the morning has come rise up early and get out of bed what I really I really like this because I Mean, I remember I mean, it's not in my vocabulary so much, but I remember going to like School and we had like a school camp and then our teacher would walk into the cabin Rise and shine So, but where's that come from where those words sort of come from? Well, it's I always find it interesting when if it's in our English language, there's something Within us there's something That wants to be stirred up Like I'm just talking about humanity in general like there's this desire to wake up to some Reality and what we read about here in Isaiah 60 verse 1 it says I rise shine For thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee So when we think about that term rise and shine we think about hey the sun's out the Sun is risen But in context of Isaiah 60, it's the glory of the Lord that is risen upon thee Okay. Now the context of here is not an individual person But it's about or I believe it's the nation or the city of Jerusalem This is about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the second time, okay when he comes back to establish his kingdom Let's keep going there. It says in verse number two Or maybe it's you know, look you can see verse number two says for behold the darkness shall cover the earth So again when we think of that word rise and shine we think okay night is over. The morning has come. It's daylight well behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people But the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee look at verse number three and the Gentiles shall come to thy lights and Kings the brightness of thy rising now you can continue reading this in your own time But this is definitely about the coming of Christ when he sets up his millennial reign upon this earth Arise shine Christ has come like the whole world is saying. Hey, you've come out of the darkness We Know that before Christ comes the Antichrist is going to set up his kingdom It's a kingdom of darkness is what it is. All right, but you know what when Christ comes back the morning star Alright, he's going to shine You know his glory and light upon this earth and the Kings those in authority those of all nations Are going to come and worship him one day one day this entire world is going to be under the authority of Jesus Christ okay, and I really like this because If we use this terminology rise and shine wake up in the morning it kind of just shows me that programmed within our language a Desire to see Christ come back though. We're not fully understand it like it's in our language people use it It's a but it's almost like subconsciously There's this desire like God when are you going to deliver this world from darkness and sin? Okay, we know that Christ will come back and rule of this earth a rise shine All right, Jeremiah chapter 13 come with me to Jeremiah chapter 13 Jeremiah chapter 13 and verse number 23 Jeremiah chapter 13 and verse number 23 and Brother Jason, I think this was your favorite idiom Well, you mentioned one of them anyway Jeremiah 13 23 It says can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots Hey, so what's the idiom there a leopard can't change his spots. All right, a leopard can't change its spots So God's asking this question. Can Ethiopian change his skin. Can he go from dark skin to light skin? I Don't know how Michael Jackson did it I'm like normally most people can't change the color of your skin Alright kept all the leopardy spots. Can the leopard change that it's programmed in their DNA, isn't it? Okay Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil. God is speaking to the southern kingdom of Judah He says look you can't even do good You can't like just like like the Ethiopian can't change his skin just like the leopard can't change his spots He's telling Judah. Look you can't even do good like you're so accustomed to do evil Like it's such a you've got this habit to just be wicked people and God's realized you've gone too far Like this nation cannot change any longer Now if you know the book of Jeremiah God gives the nation time and time again time and time again to get right with him and as he's given them time God is also allowing the Babylon kingdom to gain power You know and and essentially using that kingdom to one day wipe out the southern kingdom of Judah To take the people into captivity. All right, God is getting that judgment ready But he's giving them time and time and time again to be made right with God He just keeps telling them look just come back to me and you'll be you know, you'll be fine things be okay with the nation But we see there are certain points of the book of Jeremiah. He realizes look you're just like a leopard that can't change its spots Now, how do we use that today? You know often say leopard can't change what we're saying that you know There's a person that cannot change You know that a person can't change their character or habits usually in a negative sense, right? They've got a bad character They've got bad habits. Say look a leopard can't change its spots. You know, he can't get any better than that. And So it comes of course from this passage here Now let's keep going there verse number 24 Isaiah 13 24 it says Therefore because you can't change your spots because you're just so accustomed to the weevil Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness So, you know, of course the people take into captivity Verse number 25. This is thy lots the portion of thy measures from me safe Lord because thou has forgotten me and trusted in falsehood They've trusted in there. If you know the story they their false idols, you know, they worshiped other gods It did not worship the God of the Bible God says they come to a point where they can't even change their spots. They can't even they can't do this anymore Which makes sense because you know, God speaks about this nation in I'll just quickly read to you from Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 30 says reprobate silver Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them the word reprobate means rejected Okay, they rejected the Lord Lord's rejected them. They can't change their spots One thing we learn is just that that doctrine, you know, once someone is reprobate they cannot change Once they've given up a God God's given up on them I'm not gonna teach that to that today, but I'm just trying to show you that that generation Was reprobate not everybody not every single person in that nation was reprobate There was a lot of good men like Jeremiah like Daniel and his free friends that were taken into captivity But God is saying as a generation that was a reprobate nation they could not change their spots They could not change the color of the skin. They're done for they're gonna be wiped out by the Babylonians and Then God would have a new generation not a reprobate generation Okay But a generation that has learned to trust the Lord again that new generation would be the ones that would come back into the land after those 70 years But One thing that I want you to understand you're not reprobate. Okay, you're children of God Okay, I know we use this language. I'll let it can't change your spots, you know, brother so-and-so brother Brody's bad habits You can't change it. I can't like just like let me can't change the spots You can't change his bad habits, but that's actually the wrong teaching You can change your spots if you're a child of God. Okay, the reprobate can't but you can you've got bad Habits you've got bad character traits Please don't turn around and say pass. I'm too old. This is just the way I am. No, no God's given you a personality that cannot be changed You are who you are, but your bad character traits can be changed. You can change your spots Okay, you can it just becomes harder as you know, I understand that. Okay. I'm in my 40s. I realize up It's hard for me to change now Now that's an excuse but we can still change keep your finger there and come with me to Come with me to Ephesians chapter 5 Come with me to the New Testament Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 25 Ephesians 5 25 Ephesians 5 25, please Ephesians 5 25, so, I don't know whoever the eldest person in this church is you might say pass. It's too late for me I am what I am. No, you can change your spots You can you can you can clean up yourself a little bit more you can become a little more holy Okay, you can change your bad habits. You can change your back to characteristics because the Bible says in Ephesians 5 25 husbands love your wives Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spots or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Reverend you can become more holy you can get rid of the blemishes the bad habits the bad characteristics you have Okay, don't turn around and say my bad character. That's my personality. You got it wrong Your personality is given to you by God. He's not going to give you bad character It's just our selfishness or bad upbringing. Maybe we weren't raised properly by our parents We were not taught to have good character. I had to overcome those selfish. No, maybe we weren't taught to be selfless We've been taught to be selfish. Okay, but please don't get to a point where you say pastor. I can't change If you say look I can't change I can't get any better then I don't know why you're at church Because what we see here Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word you see you ought to be desirous to come to church to be washed by the water of his word and To pass I've got spots. I've got wrinkles. I've got blemishes and Look, I don't need tonight. Like I said, I need to know all your dirty laundry. Let God's Word reveal that to you Okay, and with his help, it's the washing of his word. It's the washing of Jesus Christ He can help you live a more holy and clean life So don't take this idiom and apply it to yourself. Olympic can't change its spots. You can change your spots And I'm glad you're in church this afternoon so you can wash yourself for the water of his word Come with me to Ezekiel now Ezekiel chapter 18 Ezekiel chapter 18, please Ezekiel chapter 18 in verse number one Ezekiel chapter 18 in verse number one Just give you a moment to turn there Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse number one the Bible says The word of the Lord came unto me again saying What mean ye that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying? So let me just bring you up to speed here There is a proverb there is an idiom if you want in the land of Israel at this time that is saying these words It says saying the fathers have eaten sour grapes and The children's teeth are set on edge So this is a saying this is a proverb that is being said in the time of Israel So essentially what it's saying is that if as parents if you eat sour, if you eat sour grapes like you're probably I don't know You know when you eat sour things you're kind of like you kind of react, right? And a sour is the difference of bitterness, but you get the idea like it's kind of bitter You know now the father's ate the grapes if it's gonna affect anybody it should affect the father It's not the children the children aren't eating the grapes Okay, but the problem goes if the father have eaten the sour grapes and the children set up children's teeth on an edge It's like what the parents do what their sins and who's saying the concept of this is that basically there's a saying that goes That children are going to bear the sins of their parents or that children are accountable for the sins of their parents And this is a proverb that's been said in the land of Israel during this time, so God's asking this question Why is this probably being said because it's not true, okay? Let's keep going there So sorry, what is the idiom? What is the English idiom? You know that you've eaten sour grapes have you heard that before? You've eaten sour grapes. How do we use that today? Basically when someone becomes angry or bitter Because something developed not the way they did not want it to develop all right, I mean maybe you know I've seen this in the workplace where maybe someone expected to get the job and Someone else gets the job, and they you know and you see their anger you see their bitterness about it They think I was better qualified. I should have got that position It's how that person's eating sour grapes. That's how we used to say don't we okay that that bitterness the Anger when things do not go their way But how were they using it here in the time of the Bible? God corrects them in verse number three says as I live safe the Lord God Ye shall not have occasion anymore to use this proverb in Israel. You guys stop using this proverb. It's not true Verse number four behold all souls are mine as the soul of father So also the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die God is saying look the one that has eaten the sour grapes the one that has sinned Here's the one that's going to face the consequences of that sin We cannot blame children for the parent sins, and we can't blame parents for the children's sins Okay, it doesn't work that way everyone is accountable for their own sins in their life But the problem was Back then and God's angry at they're using that is well. You know the kids are accountable for their parents sins That soul shall die now some people if you read the book of Ezekiel 18 some people think this is about salvation Like the salvation of the soul going to heaven, but it's actually talking about Civil governance and judgment on this earth so for example Let's say you know a father had done a crime worthy of the death penalty All right for whatever reason justice could not be served to that father then the child The proverb is I'm not sure if they were doing this or not But they were basically saying the child should then be the bearer of that crime because of what his father did God's saying no the soul that sinneth it shall die okay the one that has committed a crime Worthy of the death penalty that is the person that should be put to death not their children Okay, so God is is correct in this in the nation of Israel And of course this just brings back to the reality and it's kind of sort of what I mentioned in the morning again You know children know it's good that your parents bring you to church But you have to make your own personal decision one day whether you're going to trust Christ as your Savior Yes, he's a savior of your parents, but is he your Savior have you trusted Christ? You know you cannot go to heaven based on what your parents have done or not done And You know I'm just thinking about this young man that I once preached the gospel to at work He was he was a Muslim, and he asked so many questions. I gave him the gospel and he said to me You know out of all the ways to heaven what you explained to me makes the most sense Like what you explained to me that we cannot go on our own we needed a sacrifice and that sacrifice was Jesus who is God because that makes perfect sense to me and He goes I would love to believe it But I can't believe it because I know my parents won't believe it And I can't accept this thinking then that my parents are going to go to hell because I know they're not going to receive this message So it says well if my parents aren't going to get saved then I don't want to be saved either It's basically that problem No, we're all accountable for ourselves I Mean I don't think it's young man realized, but hey if you made the decisions to trust Christ Then the Lord can use you to reach your parents But you know we're all accountable for our own sins and look and I understand you know It we even read about this in the Bible that the consequences of our sins can carry to the third and fourth generations The consequences and parents wins remember this like the wrong things that we do will affect our children Could affect our grandchildren etc ok but the sins that we have committed are not going to be put upon our children though There might be consequences, but the sins themselves are on us You know and this is why each one of us is why we believe You know in in personal salvation each person has to make a decision Whether they're going to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ or not You know everybody has to do that on their own and of course this is the way that God intended things to be You know we can't say to a child are you going to hell because your dad was such a wicked person Maybe that that was the most wicked person on the planet okay, but the child of that person has their own Ability and decision to trust Christ as Savior. You know that they are not responsible for the sins of previous generations We live in that society now don't we? We I mean, that's the society we live in now like the black lives matter thing It's like all white men are to blame for slavery even though You know Africans put themselves in slavery Took their own people and saw them off to white some white people and they blame white It's like this is like generations ago this happened Like I don't think anybody today would be like yeah, you know let's just enslave You know all these Africans, but that's they want to blame You know current generation for what the previous generations have done That proverb is actually comes to true right now in 2022 that proverb that God said not to use is back Okay, everyone's accountable for the previous generations now apparently Anyway, that's not the way God intended things to be Everyone is accountable for themselves all right, please come with me to Daniel chapter 5 Daniel chapter 5, please Daniel chapter 5 Daniel chapter 5 in verse number 4 So the previous idiom that we looked at was eaten sour grapes How it's used today, and how it was used in the time of the Bible But Daniel chapter 5 in verse number 4, please Daniel chapter 5 in verse number 4 we're coming to the end of the Babylonian Empire here and This is not King Nebuchadnezzar, but this is King Nebuchadnezzar's grandson Belshazzar it says in verse number 4 they drank wine and Praise the gods of gold and of silver of brass and iron of wood and stone So Belshazzar he's got this big party going on They're all getting drunk having a great feast and they're worshiping false gods in verse number 5 in the same hour came four 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 as they celebrate and have a drunken feast all of a sudden a hand appears on the wall and starts to write something on the wall And this is where we get our English idiom. The writing is on the wall The writing is on the wall. You guys familiar that one writing is on the how do we how does that get used? In fact the way it gets used today is very similar to the of course with what we see in the Bible when we say the writing is on the wall, we're saying that something unpleasant or Unfortunate is about to happen Right. Maybe you got suspicions that you're gonna be fired from the job because you really messed up Some might say man the writings on the wall. Yep. It's gonna happen Yeah, you know something unpleasant something bad is about to happen and of course when this hands hands Man's hand was writing upon this wall this miracle and just this hand, okay Obviously, it was something unpleasant that would happen to King Belshazzar. Let's keep going there verse number six Then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him So that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another Okay, because it's just this vision this apparition that appears all right now, what was the writing on the wall? Let's drop down to verse number 25 So they essentially they end up getting Daniel Daniel to come and interpret What has just taken place and interpret the words on the wall in verse number 25? It says and this is the writing that was written many many tackle apportion This is the interpretation of the thing Meaning God have numbered thy kingdom and finished it I won't keep going there. Okay, but God have numbered thy kingdom and finished it Daniel is saying look This is the hand of God. God is telling you your kingdom is over Belshazzar. It's done. It's finished And this brings us back to the first idiom that we looked at that our nations the powers that be They're just a drop in the bucket Okay, we should not fear powers. We should not fear the wickedness of man We should not fear the laws that get brought into Put into place that are contrary to God's word because God can just take down a government God can take down a king God can take down an entire kingdom if he so wills you allow the next person to come and rise to power and So the writing was on the wall for King Belshazzar the writing was on the wall for the Babylonian Empire drop down to verse number 30 it says in that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldean slain and Darius the median took the kingdom being about free school and two years old Okay, so that was the end of the Babylonian Empire then you got the Medes and Medo Persian Empire They come in and they take over of course the Babylonian Empire the writing was on the wall for the Babylonians and So that's the final idiom that we're gonna be looking at today, but just to bring it all together you know powers Insignificance a drop in the buckets. Yeah So insignificant in comparison to the power of our Lord God Reverend our Lord has this world in his hands He's in control of it all Okay, God allows the wicked to rise he takes them down when it's when it's time Okay, there is no rest for the wicked by the way. It seems like these men of power You know the corruption looks like they get away with it, but they're not gonna get away with it In fact most of this world's not gonna get away with the sins that they've done Okay, only those that trust Christ only those that trust Christ can truly have peace, but don't forget brethren We've got the words of peace You know God can use us to reach people to bring men and women into the peace with God salvation And don't forget once we're saved. Hey, that's just step number one praise God free gifts step number two Change your spots Okay, look at your bad habits. Look at your bad characteristics. Don't say oh, that's just how I am I'm stuck in my ways past and I know you're stuck in your ways well That's what God says about the Israelites of old. They're stiff next people we can be stiff next sometimes say Lord I know what you want me to do, but Lord I'm 41 now Chris Emma again. Am I 41? Okay. I'm 41 now Lord I'm a pastor. Is that enough? No, there's still stuff that God needs to refine in my life I'm sure there's still things that God needs to refine in your life. All right, let's pray Heavenly Father Lord just want to thank you Lord for your Bible or thank you for these idioms That have influenced our language or there's so much even just in the way we speak law that comes from your word So we can truly see Lord your hand in our language and the hearts of men and Yeah, God just just thank you for showing us the power of your word and Lord I just thank you that you've allow us to have peace with you for the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and Lord We're looking forward to Christmas to remember in the birth of Christ The fact that you sent him here Lord because of your great love toward us. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen All right, please take your hymnals Take Your hymnals Matthew have we got 306 hymn number 306 Have thine own way Lord You if not, we can sing 305 306 all right. Let's try 306 have thine own way Lord You Have my own way Thou art the part I am While I am waiting Oh Wash me As in my presence Humbly I Oh Help me I pray Surely is Touch me Me By My me Now see I You