In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: It went from Chapter 8 to Chapter 11, and I forgot to tell you about the next section because I just dove right into part of Chapter 12. We never finished it, but we'll finish it tonight. Hopefully, we will do Chapter 13 and 14. We're going to pick up speed a little bit if we can because we're not even a third of the way through. For me, really the main thrust of the book of Ezekiel as far as it applies to us doesn't take place until we get up into the Chapter 30s. We want to get there as fast as we can.

We want to get out of God spanking his people for their idolatry and get into the prophecies that concern the times we're living in. Amen? Maybe some of you need to be spanked. I'm not looking at you, Karl, just because I'm looking at you, but your buddy goes like this behind you. Sometimes we need to be spanked. Would you agree? I'll tell you, I love it when the Lord does that because it reminds me of two things. He says he only disciplines those he loves, and he only disciplines those that are his.

Every once in a while when the Lord just takes me, as it were, to the woodshed, I am reminded, "Thank you, Jesus. You love me and I'm yours." You're applying some wisdom to the seed of understanding, and it's good. Let's pray and we'll dive into our study this evening. We ended up in Verse 22. We'll back up to Verse 21 there of Chapter 12 if you want to turn there this evening. That's where we'll pick up.

Father, we thank you this evening that we can come and gather as your people, study your word. We would just ask that your Spirit would take your word, plant it deep in our hearts, and then you'd give permanence to the things that we study tonight. Speak to us, we would ask, in Jesus' name. Amen. Again, this book is laid out in sections. It's interesting because he gets the first series of visions from Chapter 1 on into Chapter 7.

From Chapter 8 to Chapter 11 was another series of visions and they're separated by a few years. As we come into Chapter 12 all the way through Chapter 24, it's another section. You'll see it as we walk our way through it, but there's a theme associated with it. The theme in this section is "Objects of Judgment." They're going to object to the judgment that God brings, and then God's going to answer, as it were. He's going to tell them why this judgment has to come.

In fact, let's just take a look real quick at the end of Chapter 14. We're going to get there tonight, hopefully. At the end of Chapter 14, there in Verse 23, it says, "And they shall comfort you when you see... when you understand their ways." We're going to see tonight that that word for "ways" is used 35 times in the book of Ezekiel and it's always speaking of an evil way. When you see the evil that is involved in my people's lives and their doings. Seven times these two words are coupled together in the book of Ezekiel: your evil ways and your doings.

He said when you see these things, you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord. You're going to understand that because I'm a holy God, I'm a righteous God, I demand holiness and righteousness of my people. Aren't you glad in the New Testament, Jesus is our righteousness? That righteousness is imputed to us. Our righteousness is not based on our performance; it's based on what Jesus did for us.

As we come to Christ and we're born again, as we've been studying on Sunday mornings in Ephesians, we're still called to put off the old man and to put on the new man and to put away sinful behavior. That's called sanctification because God wants us to be a people that has nothing between us and him, and sin is that barrier. If you're here tonight and you're depressed or discouraged or you're just going through a hard time, one of two things are happening. Either you're in a spiritual warfare because you're doing what is right and the enemy's just buffeting you, or God's correcting you.

It behooves you to find out which one of those are because maybe God is allowing you to experience some difficulty because he's trying to correct. Or maybe you're experiencing some difficulty because he's bragging on you like he did Job. Either way, in this life, you're going to have some difficulty. The refiner's fire as far as knowledge is not a bad thing. As he goes through this section, Chapter 12 all the way through Chapter 24, it's them bringing their objections to what God is doing before the Lord and it's him answering.

This is why this is happening. In fact, as you go through this section, you're going to find three things that they're going to say. They're going to say, number one—this is their first objection you're going to see and we'll see it here at the end of Chapter 12—"We have heard all of these things before but nothing has happened." There was a proverb going through the land that, "God's judgment isn't coming. We've been hearing this forever. It's not going to happen. There's no way God just wouldn't do that. He's a God of love and he's not a God of wrath and he's not going to discipline us."

Their first objection is that "God, we've been hearing this forever and it hasn't happened." So he's going to say as we go into Chapter 12, "It's going to happen. In fact, there's going to be no more delay, and I'm going to put an end to that proverb." We have the same thing in the New Testament. Peter tells us, he warns us in his epistles, that in the last days, scoffers will come and they're going to say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For since our fathers have fallen asleep, all things have just continued as they were."

Peter has to go on and say they're willingly ignorant. God judged this world before in the days of Noah. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, and there's a judgment day coming. You need to be warned. I think we need to pay more attention to the warnings that are in the Bible than the promises. There's over 3,000 promises, but there's a lot of warnings. A lot of those warnings came from Jesus saying, "Listen, you don't know the day or the hour that I'm returning for the church, but you need to be ready."

You need to be alert. You need to be sober-minded. You need to walk in holiness and walk in righteousness. You need to put off the old man, put on the new man, as it were. The first thing he's going to remind them about is just because it hasn't happened quickly or it hasn't happened in the past, it doesn't mean it's not going to happen. Secondly, those who say we will be delivered are right. They're listening to the false prophets, and there are false prophets today that are preaching love and "this best life now" and everything can go good and well.

"Name it, claim it, seeking the things of this life." There are some people saying, "Well, that's right. What you're saying over there at Gold Country Calvary Chapel about Jesus is coming and he's going to judge the world and take the church out, that's wrong." Well, he's going to say when it happens, you'll know that it was right. There is that as we walk through this section. Lastly, God will never do this to his people.

They thought they held a certain privilege and a certain position because they were God's people. Because they were God's people, God wouldn't judge them in this way. Yet we find in the New Testament just what I told you: that God does discipline. He disciplines those that are his. Judgment has to first begin in the house of the Lord. You're his sons, you're his daughters. If we sin, we're sinning out of light. We know better. Amen? We're not sinning like the heathen; we know better.

He disciplines those that are his. How many have been disciplined by the Lord in your Christian experience? Every hand should go up, and some two. I'd put both of mine up, but my elbow hurts too bad. I'd put my feet up too. But then it would look funny. I'm telling you right now, God disciplines those that are his and he disciplines those that he loves. They were saying because God loves us, he's not going to discipline us.

That couldn't be further from the truth. That's what's before us as we move through this next section between Chapter 12 and Chapter 24. Let's finish out Chapter 12 this evening. We'll back up to Verse 21 because it starts with again, and you're going to see this a lot. I used to remember how many times this phrase was in the book of Ezekiel, and it's a lot. It says, "And the word of the Lord came unto me saying." Often we're seeing Ezekiel as he is waiting on the Lord, as he's in prayer, as he's entertaining the elders of Judah that have come to see counsel for him because they're recognizing him as a prophet.

Often he will say, "and the word of the Lord." I think everyone who stands and speaks and represents the Lord in any pulpit or any position, whether it be a prophet or a pastor, ought to be able to say that what I'm telling you is the word of the Lord. I can say that because I'm never telling you, "This is what Mike Warren says." We're opening the scripture and we're going through the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book.

I can say to you when we're done with a message, "Thus saith the Lord." The Lord has spoken because we're reading his inerrant, inspired, his authoritative, and his sufficient word. The sufficiency of his word. He says here, "The word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, what is this proverb that ye have in the land of Israel saying, 'the days are prolonged and every vision faileth'?" They're saying, "God's judgment isn't coming, and these other prophets that are prophesying that, like Jeremiah, Daniel, Isaiah a hundred years before, those things aren't going to happen. Those prophecies of doom are going to fail. We're just going to go on swimmingly well day after day, and nothing is coming. There's not going to be any interruption to our lives."

God's not going to interrupt it. That's one of the things that he disciplines the people in the New Testament for. They said, "Just like in the days of Noah, they thought it was just going to go on every day until it began to rain." God has an MO. When sin reaches a fever pitch, he interrupts human history and he steps in and he deals with it. When the stench of sin in the days of Noah reached the nostrils of God to the point where he repented that he ever made man because they were completely wicked, and he only found one man, Noah and his family, to be righteous, he delivered them.

He said build an ark and for 120 years through Noah, God warned the people that you need to turn from your pernicious ways. You need to repent. You need to come back to the true and living God and stop the wicked behavior that you're practicing. For 120 years, I think they went down and mocked Noah. "What are you doing, Noah?" "I'm building a boat." "What's a boat, Noah?" Because it had never rained. The dew covered the earth.

We don't even know if there were rivers because the Bible says that the dew covered the earth. It watered the plants. Then Noah says, "Well, it's going to rain for 40 days and 40 nights." "What?" "Well, water is going to fall out of the sky." "You've got to be kidding me. You've been in the sun too long, Noah. It's going to fall out of the sky for 40 days and 40 nights and then the fountains of deep are going to erupt and water's going to gush out of the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountain is going to be 15 feet underwater and how long can you tread water because God's judgment is coming?" They ignored it and they laughed until God shut the door and it began to rain.

We're told in the New Testament as it was in the days of Noah. There's a warning that Ezekiel is giving to these people. God said, "What is this proverb that I'm hearing that I'm not going to interrupt human history? I'm not going to deal with sin." Then listen to what he says: "Therefore you tell them, 'Thus saith the Lord.' This is God speaking. 'I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.' But say unto them, 'The days are at hand and the effect of every vision is going to be completed.'"

You think I'm prolonging? I'm done. You tell them that I'm going to cause this proverb to cease because judgment is coming. "For there shall be no more any vain visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel." I'm going to put an end to these false prophets. When we get into Chapter 13, he's going to tell us about the false prophets, he's going to warn us, and he's going to judge the false prophets. There's plenty of them running around today.

Listen, we are pilgrims and sojourners. We don't belong here. We are God's people and we have a promise in John Chapter 14 when Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled." There's a lot of things going on in this world that could be troubling. Would you agree with me? But we're not to let our hearts be troubled because he tells us, "I go away to prepare a place for you." You see, there's something going on in heaven right now. God, through his son Jesus Christ, is preparing a place for us because we don't belong here. This is not our home.

Then he says, "If I go away, I am coming again." There's the promise to receive you unto myself as a bridegroom receives his bride. We're going to be whisked away to our Father's house so we will be with him forever. I think some of the difficulty that comes in our life just breaks all the tentacles that try to hold us to this world, and it frees us so we start looking up. We start anticipating and expecting.

I was kidding with Pastor Todd. His knee is bad, and that's okay because he can still get up here to lead worship because he doesn't need his knee to play the guitar. My elbow is bad, and that's okay because I don't play the guitar, I'd need an elbow if I did, but I can walk up here. We're falling apart! We need new bodies. How many need a new body? Yeah. Listen, the price for that new body's already been paid. We're going to heaven.

But he's telling them, "Listen, I'm going to put an end to this. I'm going to put an end to the false prophets. I'm going to put an end to this prosperity teaching where you're focusing on this life and not that which is to come." Oh, and by the way, what's the smiley guy's name? Joel Osteen. This is not your best life now. If this was your best life now, you should be disappointed. Paul said, "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, it's not entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him."

When we get to heaven, we're going to find out what eyeballs are made for. We're going to see in a spectrum of light that we can't even see it. We're going to understand what our eardrums were made for because we're going to hear sounds like we've never heard them before. We're going to be in sensory overload. That's why we need a new body. We're going to stand in the presence of the one who is love, who is holy, who has made us holy, who's washed us in his own son's blood, who will wipe every tear from our eyes.

That's what the church should be longing for. We should have a mindset and a worldview that we just have to muddle through this life in preparation for that which is to come. We want to live this life in a way that honors him because one day we will stand before him. We want to be able to say to him, "I fought a good fight. I finished the course. I never gave up. I defended the faith. I guarded the faith in my life and those around me. And now I want that crown that you promised."

He's saying, "Listen, I'm going to do away with these false prophets." True prophets always warn people. True prophets always challenge people to have a deeper walk with the Lord. True prophets or pastors teach people to have relationship with the true and living God and touch this world just as lightly as possible, seeing that the present scheme of things are rapidly passing away and you should touch them just as lightly as possible.

True pastors want to turn the heart of the people back to the Lord, not to themselves. Focus on heaven and not earth. Prepare them for their departure. Get them ready for Christ's coming. Warn them as much as tell them about the promises. Oh, the promises are really neat and they're really cool and I like reading them, I like studying them, I like receiving them, but the greatest promise is that Jesus is coming back for me. He's not going to leave me in this... did I say democratic? He's not going to leave me in this cesspool.

By the way, Republican, Democrat, same bird, just two different wings. They're all messed up. I'm looking for a government where there is a king, the king of glory, the king of righteousness that will rule with a rod of iron, and everything you possess in that kingdom will have holiness unto the Lord ascribed upon it because everything will be dedicated to the Lord. That's what we're moving toward. He's saying, "Listen, I'm going to put an end to this nonsense."

Verse 25: "For I am the Lord. I will speak and the word that I shall speak." Now, this is in contradiction to the false prophets. God says, "I'm going to speak and the word that I speak shall come to pass. It shall be no more prolonged. There's no more delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word and I will perform it, saith the Lord."

I think we're living in a time not unlike what we can see there as we study about the condition of Israel as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Hosea, and some of the smaller minor prophets are speaking to that time. We're living in a day where the world is just like that and the church has lost its way. Jeremiah will tell us, "seek the old ways, the good way, the righteous and holy way."

What should be happening in the church is contrition and brokenness, repentance, a desire to be holy, and an absolute mourning for the things that are in your life that shouldn't be there. To come into a place where you can feel God's presence, not one where it's replaced with smoke machines and lighting and theater and drama, where the true word of God under the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit goes forth and it cuts to the core of our heart and it prepares us for the coming King.

God says because you've said, "Where is the promise of his coming?" and there's a lot of people saying that today. You can call around ask any church in town, "What's your eschatology?" and they'll tell you, "We don't have one. It divides people." I would agree, it does. True eschatology divides people. It divides sheep from goats. It divides wheat from tares. It divides the saved from the unsaved because 27% of the Bible is eschatology.

God wants us to know this is not our home. We're just passing through. Soon and very soon, the King of Glory is going to come and take his bride for his son, and there's going to be a marriage supper. Then God's going to judge the wickedness of this world. You have to be ready. We are called to keep that ever before the people as true pastors. We might not get done with this sermon. You may never have to hear me again. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, that means you could blink your eye after looking and listening to me and open it again and we're on the throne and whoa! Then you'll hear the voice of your Father.

I want to hear the voice of my Father every day. I'm homesick. Are you homesick? I hear these things being said in the church today, "No, no, no. Amillennialism means there's no interruption. Jesus is not going to come. He's not going to take the church out. There's no seven-year tribulation. There's no millennial reign," although it's mentioned numerous times in Revelation. They're saying things are just going to keep going day after day, every way and every day things are getting better and better.

No, they're not. We're moving toward God removing his church and judging this world. Here, because they were saying that, like they're saying it today in this day of judgment, God says, "I'm not prolonging any longer. It's coming." Verse 26 again: "The word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, behold they of the house of Israel say, 'The vision that he seeth is for many days to come.' It's way off in the future. No sense getting stressed out over it. The prophecies are for a time way down the road, afar off."

"Therefore say unto them, 'Thus saith the Lord God. There shall none of my words be prolonged anymore, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord.'" I think I'm hearing that same spirit today where people are saying, "No, there's no judgment day coming." I'm going to tell you, when I read Barna's research and you look at how many churches actually teach Bible prophecy, actually have a doctrinal statement on their website or on their statement of faith about their position of Jesus coming back, it's far and few in between.

Less than 3% of the pastors in pulpits in the United States today believe that Jesus is going to interrupt human history again and take his church out. Did you know that? 3% of senior pastors today. I'm telling you, man, we're going home. Oh, I forgot to give you my prophecy update. Israel, at the end of this month, is practicing. It's the greatest military exercise they've ever conducted and they're going to be practicing how to invade Iran and take out their nuclear, and they're telling them they're doing it.

We know our eschatology, don't we? I was listening to Erik Stakelbeck, the watchman. He's confused on his theology because he's saying, but he's getting smart. He said, "You know, I look at Ezekiel 38 and 39, but I think something else has to go on before that." Duh! Psalms 83. What do you think sets off Ezekiel 38 and 39? I hope we get there before the Lord comes. I'd better speed up, huh?

Here's the deal, man. They're about to set off Psalms 83. Psalms 83 ends with the Lord showing up so the whole world knows that God and God alone saved Israel. When the dust settles and the smoke clears, what we find is all of Israel's enemies are destroyed and for the first time in the history of Israel, they will have received all of the land promised to them in the Abrahamic Covenant. Did you know that?

What will they possess then? The oil. Why does Gog and Magog and those hordes—Turkey, Germany, Russia, Iran—why do they come down now to attack Israel? For a spoil. What would they own that would cause these nations to attack them? Oil. Why do you think our nation no longer is predominant in oil? Why do you think everything is relying on the Middle East? Because God is setting the scene. I'm going to tell you, Israel doesn't practice things they don't do. There's nothing fake about them.

Man, it's just one more piece to the puzzle. I'll tell you guys about it on Sunday again. Listen, he's saying, "I have spoken it. There's no more delay. You say I'm going to prolong? I'm not." Now he deals with the false prophets in Chapter 13. "Listen, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy and say unto them the prophecies out of their own heart but hear the word of the Lord."

In Hebrew, it's a funny phrase. It doesn't come out quite that well in English, but listen carefully: "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets who prophesy." And say unto them that prophesy, they that prophesy out of their own—and you could circle that word, it's kind of a mistranslation and I think it's important as we go further down—they prophesy out of their own mind, out of their thinking. These are male prophets. In a few moments, he's going to deal with female prophets, prophetesses, false prophetesses.

He's going to say they prophesy out of their hearts. They prophesy emotionally. I'll tell you, the stages are full of these false teachers, these women who are false teachers, not just the men. Here God says, "Ezekiel, son of man, I want you to prophesy against the prophets who prophesy out of their own mind and you tell them, 'Thus saith the Lord.' God is speaking."

"Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto you foolish prophets who follow their own mind and have seen nothing. Oh Israel, thy prophets are like foxes." They're slippery, they're conniving. They're like foxes in the waste places. In Israel, if there was a city that was abandoned or some buildings that were waste, the foxes would take up root. They would burrow underneath the foundations. They would disrupt the structure and they were just hard to get rid of because they were so quick and so sly and so sneaky.

What he's saying is those false prophets, they disrupt the foundation. They're sneaky, they're sly, they're hard to catch. They're everywhere, and they prophesy out of their own minds. "O Israel, thy prophets are like these foxes of the waste places. Ye have not gone up into"—now he's speaking of these false prophets—"you have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord."

The scene that he's saying is they prophesy false things but they don't stand for Israel. They're not a guard over or a protection over Israel's spiritual life. You see, the job of a pastor, the job of a prophet, is to stand in the hedge and to make up the gap. To be a wall against the enemies that would come in. The shepherd in those days, when he was out in the field, he had a staff and the staff had a crook on one end and a knob on the other.

One part of it was to rescue the sheep, the other part was to correct the sheep. You'd just knock them in the head. But that's what a true shepherd did. Peter said, "Feed my sheep." That's what Jesus said through Peter. "Feed my sheep. Don't do it for money, but of a willing heart." One day when the chief shepherd comes, you as an under-shepherd are going to give an account for how you took care of God's sheep, how you protected them.

Your job is to drive away the wolves. Your job is to protect the sheep. When we were in Israel, an interesting thing, we weren't supposed to be there, but the tour guide took us over this place. He said, "Now jump over the fence and run down here real quick and I want to show you something." It was interesting because it was right out of the city of Bethlehem that we did this. We went over the fence and we went down and there were sheep pens, natural sheep pens where these rock structures had come over and it had been eroded out underneath. They'd built these rock walls up so high. At night, the shepherd would put the sheep in there and he would sleep as the doorway to protect the sheep.

It would have probably been the same field that the shepherds were in when the angels appeared announcing the arrival of Jesus. It was right outside of Bethlehem. When Jesus says, "I'm the door to the sheep pen. All who try to go in any other way are thieves and robbers. I'm the door." He's saying, "I'm not only the way, the door, the life, but I'm the protector." True shepherds protect their sheep. They don't tell them what they want to hear; they tell them what they need to hear. Amen?

He's saying to these false prophets, "You say things that aren't true. You prophesy things that are lies." In fact, in Jeremiah Chapter 6, Verse 16—and I'm going to quote a lot from Jeremiah because he's a contemporary, he's saying the same thing—"Thus saith the Lord, stand ye"—now he's talking to those leaders of Israel—"Stand ye in the ways and seek and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way, the righteous way, and walk therein. And you shall find rest for your souls."

The response: "But they said, 'We will not walk therein.'" God again reminding the leaders, "Man, walk in the old ways. Follow the old paths. Get into the word. Walk in the good way. There's rest for your soul." But they wouldn't listen. Listen to what it says in—well, I know why you got the wrong verse because it was Ezekiel 22, not Jeremiah Chapter 30. But let me just read it to you. They came and said, "Hey, they don't have 31 verses in Jeremiah Chapter 22." It's because I meant to write Ezekiel for the guys up on the board.

Ezekiel Chapter 22, this is still part of this same section that we're going to be in where he's warning the people about false shepherds and false prophets. In Chapter 22, in Verse 30 and 31, it says this: "And I sought for a man. I sought for a man, a godly man, a man of God. I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap." That would breach those places where the enemy could come in. That would be a watchman, as it were, on the wall.

That would sound the alarm when danger was coming. God said, "I looked for a man that would stand in the hedge, that would make up the gap before me and for the land that I should not destroy it." For the saddest words in scripture: "But I found none." There was no man to stand up. I had Isaiah warning, I had Jeremiah warning. I had Ezekiel and Daniel. I had Daniel's three friends. But where was the high priest? Where was the king of Israel? Where was the king of Judah? Jehoiakim was corrupt.

Where was the man that was supposed to stand up and protect the spiritual life of my people? I sought for a man. Often when I get alone and I pray, I ask, "Lord, I want to be that man. I don't want you in my generation to ever say you sought for a man in Grass Valley and you found none. I want you to be able to say, even if they didn't hear, I had a prophet that spoke for me." Prophets don't draw big crowds. They draw a lot of ridicule.

Then he says in Verse 31—and again, this goes along with the theme of Chapter 12 on through 24—"Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them in the fire of my wrath. Their own way"—there again is that evil context—"their own evil way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord." God is always looking for people that stand up, and may we be those people. May we be a people that just doesn't go with the flow of things, that doesn't just say, "Let's go play church, let's just live our lives and we'll give God Sundays."

Let's be the people of God who sound the alarm, the salt and the light of the earth. Let us be those that cry out in these last days. You need to make straight your way, prepare because the Lord is coming. The King of Glory is going to show up. He's coming for his church. We're going home soon. You need to be ready. Stop your pernicious ways, repent, turn from your wickedness and turn back to the true and living God. Serve him. There are benefits in that.

He will give you the power of his Spirit that you might sanctify your life and make it holy and acceptable unto him. You need to get in the fray. Yes, it's a battle. Put on the whole armor. He gave it to you. Ask for the baptism of the Spirit. Speak his word and speak it in truth. We need to be that in this generation. Would you agree with me? You know, one of the things they tell us at the radio station, the reason why they like the Calvary Chapel guys, at least the old school ones, is we still stay true to the word.

You go to KFIA and the program director will tell you, "There's stuff we have to because they're Christians and they buy the time. We have to put their stuff on, but most of it is just garbage because they're false prophets telling the people what they want to hear—smooth things, easy things." Where are the Jeremiahs warning this generation? Where are the Ezekiels warning this generation? Where are the Isaiahs? The Isaiahs have passed from the scene. Chuck Smith is gone. Billy Graham is gone. Charles Stanley's on his way out.

We are going to be responsible for this generation of believers. We need to stand and we need to speak the word of God as straight as we can with much unction of the Holy Spirit that God would give us. We need to seek the old ways. I came out of the hippie movement. Are you kidding me? Don't tell me that we have to make the word of God acceptable for the culture. The word of God and the power of God stepped in in the late 60s and early 70s into our culture and it conformed us into the image of Christ.

We had a balding man in a suede suit and a turtleneck just open the word and for hours tell us what God's word said, and there was something about it that we wanted to obey. When you try to become like the culture, the word, the culture, both things perish. We need to become the salt and the light of this culture of this day, of this generation, and we need to speak truth with authority. We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We need to stand on the authority of God's word and we need to pray like we've never prayed before that God would prick the hearts of men and bring them to repentance because the time is short. God's about done playing games with this world and with this apostate church that we're told would be in existence in the last days. I'm not judging; these are not accusations, these are observations. These are observations. This is what's going on today.

We're living in the final moments. There is a departing from the biblical faith. Even amongst Calvary Chapels, when Chuck Smith went to be with the Lord, there was a fracture in us because some wanted to stop teaching the Old Testament and New Testament, stop beating the drum of prophecy, stop warning the people. "There's enough Old Testament and New Testament, just kind of give a survey." No, I'm going to give you the whole word because when I stand before him, I want to say, "I gave them your word. I said, 'Thus saith the Lord.'"

How did I know that? Because I read it. I may not have got all the commentary right, but I read it. Lord, if I got something wrong, it's your job from the time it leaves my lips till it gets to their hearts to change it. I do my best. I see through a glass dimly. But there is a time where we ought to take God's word serious. We ought to be begging for the power of the Holy Spirit. We ought to be repenting and we ought to be walking as straight as we possibly can. No dabbling with things we should not be dabbling with. Amen?

Because they were doing that and now he's rebuking the prophets because the prophets are saying, "Hey, it doesn't matter how you live. God's not going to judge you. Oh, that stuff's afar off. It's for many days down the road. It's not for our time. God wouldn't do that to us; we're his people." So he begins to rebuke these prophets and he says to them, "I looked for somebody. I looked for a man that could stand in the gap, and you leaders, you didn't do that."

Verse 6 says, "They have seen vanity and lying divination," says the Lord, "saying, 'The Lord saith,' when the Lord hath not sent them. They have made others to hope." Listen to this. This right here really convicts me. Years ago, it convicted me. Years ago, it not only convicted me, it encouraged me not to preach an easy gospel. Now, listen carefully as we go through this section. We're probably not going to get through Chapter 14.

"They have seen vanity and lying divinations saying," listen carefully, "'The Lord saith,' and the Lord hath not sent them." They're saying the Lord sent them and they're speaking for the Lord, but they haven't. They have made others to hope that they would confirm the words. The idea in the Hebrew is that they give people false hope. There are pastors today that are standing in pulpits that are giving people false hope. They say things like, "God is love, and if you just accept God, pray a little prayer, you're okay. It doesn't matter how you live."

You don't think that's not going on? It's going on even in this city. They will say, "What is this stuff about Jesus coming? Don't go to the doomsayers." There's churches in this city that will say that. Then they say things like, "You don't need to bring your Bible. We'll hand out these little papers and then we'll have you fill them out when we do our little sermonette to a sermon to a Christianette." Then they'll say, "We don't teach doctrine here because doctrine's divisive."

What did Paul tell Timothy before he departed? "I charge you before God who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom: you preach the word. You do it in season and out of season. You correct, you rebuke, you comfort and instruct with all long suffering and doctrine." Because the day's coming when men will heap themselves teachers—and we're there—that will teach them smooth things, easy things. The word there in the Greek is *mythos*. Myth, fairy tale, storytelling. They will turn their ears away from the truth unto these fables.

But you, Timothy, you make full proof of your ministry. You do the work of an evangelist, which is calling people to repentance. You teach the word. I think we're in that time and I pray that we'd be so salty, that our words would be filled with salt and full of grace because we're living in a world that is putrefying. Amen? I make no apologies for telling people you need to repent. Men, you need to love your wives like Christ loved the church. Wives, you need to submit to your husbands like Christ calls the church to submit to them. Fathers, you better step into that spiritual role and raise up your children and train them in the way they should go because when they're old, they won't depart.

You better step up and be a man of God, a man of the word, a man of prayer. God's going to hold you men accountable for your families. You better step up and stand up. You better seek God's mind and his heart, and you better find out what his will is and you better bring it into your home. Pastors, if you're listening to me, you better stand up and speak up and bring the word of God back into those churches. You need to call people to repentance. You need to challenge them to serve the true and living God, to lay aside every weight, every distraction, every sin that does so easily beset them and run the race with endurance that's been set before them, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of their faith.

They better be preparing their hearts, their minds, their souls, and listen, getting ready for the Lord Jesus Christ to come back. It shouldn't shock us. We're children of the light, not children of the night. I don't know how you can go to a nightclub on Saturday night and drunk and dance and do all this stuff and show up on a Sunday morning. In fact, he's going to talk about that in a few moments. Let me move—I'm preaching, not teaching. Let me teach. Let me move on. Verse 7, sister?

"Have you not seen the vain vision and have you not seen them speaking lies of divination whereas you say, 'The Lord saith'? Howbeit, God said, 'I've not spoken.' You're saying things that I never said. You're teaching things that I never taught. You're saying that I sent you, and I didn't send you. You were sent; you just went. You went to seminary and you thought that this was a profession and not a calling."

God is saying to Ezekiel, "Have you seen this?" Now, watch what God says in Verse 8: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, because you have spoken vanity and seen lies," speaking to the false prophets, "because you have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore behold I am against you, saith the Lord. And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity and divine lies. They shall not be," he says three things, "they shall not be in the assembly of my people." When we get to heaven, they're not going to be there.

All of you false teachers and false pastors and false prophets, you ain't going to heaven. I'm going to look in the camera and say that. You're not going to be in the assembly of God's people because you've prophesied lies. You led God's sheep astray. You said things that God never said. You gave them permission to do things God never gave them permission to do. Because you've allowed that in your congregation, you're going to stand before Almighty God. He's going to judge you, and you're not going to be in the assembly of the righteous. When we get to heaven, you're not going to be there.

You better repent while there's still time. I heard recently that one of the famous evangelists repented for deceiving the people and making it about money. I'm waiting to see if that is a true repentance. Hybels, who started this whole—what is that? Squirrel Creek. It's pretty squirrelly. Willow Creek. That whole movement, this thing here. At one time, some Calvary Chapel pastors, they challenged him and said, "You're leading the people astray. You're giving them false hope and false conversion. You're telling them all they've got to do is pray a little prayer, they don't have to change, they don't have to live any different because God is love, and he's okay with it."

When the Bible says that it breaks God's heart when his people go off a-whoring after idols. He repented, and he started teaching the Bible. His church diminished by half. His finances went down to a third, and so he went right back. Right back. I thank God that the elders of this church have put me in a position I don't have to compromise. The tithe of just the elders and the pastors of this church pays for what we see here. So if you don't want to hear truth, there's the door. Because narrow is the road that leads into heaven and few be they that find it.

He says, "You prophets, you false prophets, you who preached a false gospel, you who gave people a false security, you won't be in the assembly of my people." Number one. "Neither," number two, "shall you be written in the writing of the house of Israel," or the house of my people. There's a book of remembrance, we know. When I begin to bring up the remembrance to reward, you won't be written in that book. Then thirdly, he says this: "Neither shall they enter into the land of Israel." They have no inheritance with my people. "And they shall know that I am the Lord God."

You know, we don't run fast and loose with the things of the Lord. Pastors, and I'm one, you're going to stand before God and you're going to be under a more severe judgment. You have the capacity, you have the capability to either lead people in truth or to lead them astray. I will tell you, I believe with all my heart that we are saved by grace through faith. That's not of ourselves; it is a gift from God. You can't earn it. It's not based on your performance; it's a gift that you receive.

You receive it when you bow your knee in brokenness and humility before the God of heaven and you repent of your sins, and you receive that cleansing of his son's blood on your life and on your heart, and you're born again by the Spirit. You are saved by grace through faith. That's not of yourself; it is a wonderful gift from God, not of works lest you could boast. But there's a second part of that passage: "But you are his workmanship, his *poiema*, his work of art, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God foreordained that we should walk in them."

Don't tell me you're born again by the spirit of God and you can be drunk on drugs, fornicating, committing adultery, and doing all these wicked things. Don't tell me that you got the same grace I got because you didn't. Because saving grace is changing grace. You see, God gives you a new heart, and that new heart hates the things God hates, loves the things God loves, desires to walk in holiness. It's your passion. The thing that you mourn the most over is the fact that you're not able to do it and it breaks your heart.

It breaks your heart. You fall on your face and you ask your Father, "Father, forgive me for transgressing your law. Jesus, forgive me because I just didn't consider at that moment when I sinned what it cost you to pay for that sin. I took that for granted. Holy Spirit, I grieved you and I quenched you and I ought not to have done it." You're not saved by works. James will tell you that. But works should be the evidence that you have been saved. Amen? You're not saved by works, but works is the evidence that you have been saved because the fruit of the Spirit will flow out of you. Amen?

Oh, and by the way, one of the fruits is self-control and getting rid of all those desires of the flesh. Listen, let's read on. He says this in Verse 10: "Because even because they have seduced my people saying 'peace' and there is no peace. And one built up a wall and others daubed it with untempered mortar." You built a wall but the mortar that you used had no strength. In fact, he's going to say not only did you build it with untempered mortar, then you whitewashed it so they couldn't see the shoddy craftsmanship.

You prophesied things that weren't true. You led people to believe something that wasn't true. You prophesied peace when there should have been brokenness. You know, James says that our laughter should be turned to mourning. We ought to cleanse our hands, you sinners. We ought to grieve and mourn. We ought to repent. We ought to humble ourselves because if we do that, then God will do what? He will lift us up. In Isaiah Chapter 66, the Lord says, "To this man or woman will I look, to the man and woman that are broken and of contrite spirit and who trembles at my words."

Because the preceding verses were talking about the people saying what they were going to build for the Lord, what we were going to do for the Lord. The Lord says, "I'm not impressed with what you could do. Listen, what could you do that would impress me? The heavens and the heavens can't contain me. The earth is my footstool, and you're going to build something that would impress me? Really? But to this man will I look. It'll get my attention every time. To the man who is broken and contrite, broken for his sin, contrite, teachable, and who trembles at my words."

God is saying there's none of that going on in the land with all these false prophets. They seduce my people. "Say unto them that daub with untempered mortar that shall fall. There shall be an overflowing shower, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend." He said, "I'm going to send challenges, and we'll see what that wall is made of." It's what Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 7. You remember there's two people that build.

One built his house upon the sand and another built his house upon the rock. And the storms came, and they do come. And the winds blew, and they do blow. He said the one who built their house upon the sand, it fell, and great was the ruin. But the one who built his house upon the rock, Christ Jesus and upon the eternal word of God, it stood when the storm comes. God is saying here, "I'm sending a storm. I'm going to test that wall to see if it can stand." You're going to find out that it won't.

He says, "Lo," Verse 12, "when the wall is fallen, because anything that's not based on the word of God, driven by the Holy Spirit or led by the Holy Spirit, that doesn't come from the heart of the Father to our heart, is vanity." And so he's saying, "I will knock it down. It shall not be said unto you, 'Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed?'" People are going to say, "Listen, you promised me all of these things, but it didn't work." Because it doesn't work. You know what works? Serving the Lord.

Then he says this, Verse 13: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury. And there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down that false wall," is the idea, "that wall that was built with untempered mortar, that was over-covered with whitewash. He said that wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar and bring it down to the ground so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered. You'll know what you built on. And you didn't build on the word of God. You didn't build upon a right relationship with the Lord. You built on false teaching, and I'm going to bring it down. So that the foundation of it will be discovered or exposed, and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst thereof."

He's speaking to the false prophets. "And you shall know that I am the Lord." In other words, everything that these people have said is going to be exposed for what it is. I think during the tribulation period, the reason why as we study through Revelation we find that there's a multitude that can't be numbered that are going to come out of that because those people have sat in Bible teaching churches at one time. They didn't like it and ran over to the pastors that will daub with false mortar and that's all going to be exposed and they're going to realize, "What was I thinking?" And I think they're going to get real serious at that moment. Amen?

We want to get real serious now. We want to go on the first bus. How many want to go on the first bus? You don't want to go on the second bus. First bus has air conditioning and cushioned seats. The first bus when you get off you're handed a crown, the victor's crown. Second bus is like the upholstery is like a board covered with paint and it's rough and there's no air conditioning, but you get there and you get unloaded and you get handed something to serve with because you serve around the altar.

Listen, I'd rather suffer now for the cause of Christ and have my Father say, "Well done." I'd rather have the smallest church in town, but the emptiest one nanosecond after the rapture, and have my Father say, "You did it right, Mike. You were faithful to my word and you warned them. Well done. Not perfect, but good and faithful servant." Amen? So he says to the false prophets, "You're going to know one day that I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, that false thing that they have built, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and I will say unto you, 'the wall is no more, neither they that daubed it.'"

I'm going to put an end to the false prophets and I'm going to put an end to the false prophecy and I'm going to put an end to the facade that the people will know that I didn't say that and those people didn't represent me. Then he says this, Verse 16: "To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem and which see visions of peace for her, there is no peace, saith the Lord." You should have been warning the people that judgment was coming, that they could be those who grieved over what they see and be marked like Ezekiel said with the seal of the Holy Spirit.

You see, guys, listen. America's not coming back. I'm not a doomsday prophet, I'm just a Bible teacher but I am a student of prophecy. America's not coming back. We're past the tip-over place. The blood of the aborted babies is crying out to God. The absolute wickedness that's in our leadership there in D.C. is demanding God's judgment. The immorality, the wickedness of this nation... listen, the stench of it has reached the nostrils of God and America's being judged. We're going to see before we end here tonight that one of the ways he judges is he removes the bread and he brings famine, he brings war.

When the church is gone and the seals are opened, in the very first part of it, we have the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The first one is the Antichrist; he comes on the scene. The second one is war. The third is famine followed by death. We're in a position right now—and I'm not a prophet, but mark my words—there's going to be a food shortage in the next three or four months. See, my minor in Secor College was agriculture.

To feed the population that we haven't been able to feed for years now—we're close to seven billion people on this planet. You understand that in the 1800s we only reached one billion people. We're at seven billion and growing. We cannot feed our population now. We've had to engineer seed that does not reproduce to get the growth. Most of the seed that you buy when you plant it and you reap the harvest of it, you can't take the seed from the tomatoes and replant it; it won't grow.

The breadbasket of Europe has just been destroyed, the Ukraine. Oh, and by the way, where do you think America gets most of its fertilizer? Because we've overused the land. We didn't rotate the crops like Jesus said so that the land lay fallow one out of every seven years. How many know why the Mayans, that whole civilization just all of a sudden ceased to exist? Archaeologists and anthropologists have tried to find out what happened to them. They were here one moment and gone the next. Well, I was in Guatemala and actually Belize on the border of Guatemala, but I got to visit one of those ruins. The tour guide said, "Anybody know why the Mayans just disappeared?" I raised my hand. He said, "Well, I bet you don't know," and I said, "Well, I bet I do. You want to bet? I'm not a betting man." He said, "Nobody gets it right." I said, "Crop rotation."

He said, "How did you know?" I know from two ways: I studied agriculture and I studied the Bible. And they used up the land and now it doesn't produce, and they had to move somewhere else. Our soil in the United States cannot produce; it's used up. We have to put fertilizer in it. And where does the fertilizer come from? Russia. You don't think God is setting this world up for his judgment? Aren't you so glad before he judges the world, he removes the righteous, like in the days of Noah? Judgment didn't come until Noah was in the ark and God shut the door. Judgment didn't come to Sodom and Gomorrah until righteous Lot was removed and then it rained fire and hellstone upon that city.

And listen, man, we're getting out of here soon because God, I think I hear him saying, "I'm not delaying any longer. The stench of the sin of this world has reached my nostrils, and I don't judge time by seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months; I judge it morally. And when it reaches a fever pitch, my holiness will break out." How many more innocent people have to be murdered? You're not even safe in church now. Last weekend, a guy walked in, killed one guy, wounded five in a church. Some guy shows up at a store, no rhyme or reason, just starts murdering people.

The love of many, Jesus said, would wax cold and lawlessness would abound. That's the final thing. Everything else was birth pains: Israel's birth as a nation, they have control of Jerusalem, which had to happen. And now we're living in a time where lawlessness is abounding and the love of many is waxed cold. Jesus is coming for his bride. I'm telling you, we're living on borrowed time. You need to get ready. Trim your lamps, burn them bright and clean. Make sure you have extra oil because you're soon going to hear the bridegroom comes and you need to be ready.

Here's what he's saying in Ezekiel, and we can learn from the lessons of Ezekiel. They were saying, "Oh, he's not coming, no judgment," and they were living in absolute debauchery like today. God says, "I'm going to knock down their false security, their false wall, their false teaching, their false preaching, their false conversions. And I'm going to expose the foundation of it to be something untrue and they shall know that I am the Lord."

"Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon them that have daubed it with the unmortared temper and I will say unto you, 'the wall is no more, neither are they that daubed it.' To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem and which see visions of peace for her, there is no peace, saith the Lord." You should have been warning the people that judgment was coming, that they could be those who grieved over what they see and be marked, like Ezekiel said, with the seal of the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters, these false prophetesses of my people, which prophesy out of their own heart. The false prophets of the men, the male prophets, prophesied out of their own minds and these women are prophesying out of their hearts. They prophesy emotionally. And I'll tell you, the stages are full of these false teachers, these women who are false teachers, not just the men. Here God says, "Ezekiel, son of man, I want you to prophesy against the prophets who prophesy out of their own heart." They prophesy against them.

"And say, 'Thus saith the Lord God, woe to the women who sew magic charms.'" That's the idea for pillows in armholes. You probably read that and go, "what in the world?" Bad translation. They even in Babylon were selling charms that you would put around your wrist, and spells, and divination. These prophetesses, Jewesses that were prophetesses. They teach their people to seek sorcery and witchcraft. By the way, do you know what sorcery and witchcraft is? Do you know where we get the word from the Hebrew into the Greek, into the English? Witchcraft. *Pharmakeia*. Pharmacy, drugs.

Fentanyl. Opiates. Because it opens your mind to things your mind should never be opened to. Back in my drug-doing days, I opened my mind to things my mind should never have been opened to. What he's saying through their witchcraft, they put a veil over the eyes of my people. That's what these false prophetesses are doing, these soothsayers. He said they put a veil upon the head of every stature to hunt souls. Will you hunt the souls of my people and will you save the souls alive that come to you?

You have a false gospel. You're going to hunt for the souls of my people, God says. You're going to have them come to you and you're going to promise them life. And will you pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread? For money? You're going to preach a false gospel, lead my people astray, to slay the souls of them that should die and to save the souls alive of them that should not die by your lying to my people that hear your lies.

He's saying you lead my people astray and then you give false hope to the people that aren't mine. You're leading my people astray through your lies. "Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I'm against you. I'm against your charms, your sorcery, wherein you have hunted the souls to make them fly and I will tear them from your arms, those souls, and I will let their souls go. Even the souls of them that you hunted to make them fly." Like a captured bird is the idea.

"And your veil also, I will tear and deliver my people out of your hand and they shall be no more in the hand to be hunted and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you with lies, you have made lies, you corrupted the heart of the righteous, you've made it sad, you've broken them, whom I have not made sad, and you strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wickedness by the promise of life."

You are telling people you can be wicked and still have eternal life. You've saddened the hearts of the people that love me because they know that's not a right message. And yet you've made the people who don't want to serve me think they're okay in their wickedness. You know, Solomon had it right; there's nothing new under the sun. This almost reads like today, doesn't it? Well, let's close out tonight. We'll get done with Chapter 13. "Therefore," God says, because you've done this.

Let me just ask you a question, and you can do a show of hands. How many know today there's a lot of false conversions and a false gospel of hyper-grace presented today? Amen? How many know that? How many know that they have lessened the call of God's people to have the Holy Spirit control their hearts, mind, soul and strength so they serve the true and living God, but we're told that it's okay? You know, I thank God. We have people come here for a while and we have people leave, and we find out later, "well, you're legalistic." No.

Let me ask you, a lot of you have been here for a lot of years. Have I ever taught that you need to earn your salvation? Have you ever heard it come from my lips? No, you haven't. Have I ever told you that your salvation is based on your performance? You see, that's the definition of legalism, that you think through your works you can earn your salvation. I'm telling you, we are desperately wicked. We are so broken we can't see up from down and we need God from outside of us to save us. Amen?

But I will tell you, and they call it legalism, that after you're born again of the Spirit, you should put off the old man and put on the new, and you should walk in newness of life, and you should put away sinful practices, and your heart should be wholly given to please the true and living God. Amen? That's what James says. "You say you have faith? Show me your faith without works. How would you show me your faith without works? Because I will show you my faith by my works."

I've messed up a lot as a Christian. I've broken the heart of my Father way too many times. I've had the devil tell me, "If you were saved, you wouldn't have done that." And my reply to the enemy is, "I wouldn't be this broken over what I did if I wasn't saved. I'm broken." Because before I was saved, sin never affected me like this. I'm grieved to the core of my being that I'm still capable of sinning against my God. Ah, that's how I know I'm saved. Unsaved people don't grieve for their sin. They're happy to continue doing it.

They just want their fire insurance and go live their life. I don't want that. I want God's presence in my life. That's it. My prayers are singular. I don't even pray, "Lord, give me, give me, give me" anymore because I know if I seek first the kingdom of heaven, then everything else will be added to me. You know, I know that all I need, all I want, all I desire is him. That's it. It's not complicated for me because if I have that, I have everything. I don't need anything else. I don't need man's approval. I need his.

"So what about your wife?" Well, he gave me her and I have her approval. In fact, she is the Holy Spirit in my life. When I want to give up, she won't let me. Listen carefully: "Therefore you shall see no more vanity." God's going to put an end to this vanity, this false teaching, this false foundation, the falsely daubed walls, all of the hypocrisy that's going on. He's going to remove his bride. "Therefore you shall see no more vanity nor divine divination for I will deliver my people out of your hand and you shall know that I am the Lord."

How will he deliver us in this time out of their hand? We're going up. We're getting out. You know, there was a show, I don't even remember the name of it, but that song stuck in my head. I don't even remember watching it, maybe just seeing the first part and turning because it didn't look like anything I wanted to watch years ago. But the theme song was "Moving on Up." That's all I remember about it. "Moving on Up." It caught me because, you know what? I'm moving on up. I'm going to leave this place behind. I'm moving on up.

We're moving on up, guys. You know how God's going to deliver us from their hand? He's going to take us out and then he's going to judge, just like he's always done. I want to leave you with one last question. Do you think this world is ripe for the judgment of God? Do you think it's deserving of it? Do you? I mean, do you think it's ripe or do you think it's got to go a little further? It's not quite yet a stench. I mean, how much further can it go? Are you vexed that you're living here?

Ezekiel said that God sent the Holy Spirit to mark those that were bothered by what was going on around them. Are you bothered? Does it mess with you? Does it—I mean, it messes with me where I want to get carnal about it and I know I can't. And I know the answer. I'm moving on up. It's time to go home. Amen. Make sure that you are ready. Make sure that you are ready. Make sure that your election is a calling sure. And if you're dabbling with things you ought not to be dabbling with, repent. Ask God to forgive you. Ask him to help you. Put it away. Turn from that and turn to him and you'll find everything that you need in him. Amen?

Amen. Let's stand. I've used up the worship team's time and I've used up my time. I've used up some of your time. I'm good at using up time. I'm glad when we get to heaven time will be no more. Amen. Nobody will accuse me of using up time again. You know, the first time Brian Call got a hold of me to speak, they said, "Well, now we want you to speak an hour." "So can you do that?" But they were saying it like, "can you speak that long because every session needs to be an hour?"

I said, "You don't know me, do you?" The problem will be staying at an hour. And the first time I spoke there, seeing that man was down here timing me with his watch and it was 59 minutes and like 15 seconds. He said, "You did good." I said, "No, I didn't. I still have a minute." So the second time I taught, it was one hour and one minute. He said, "You went over." I said, "No, I didn't. You said I could have an hour. I averaged it out. There were two messages, two hours."

Listen, I love God's word and I love you. I love you enough to tell you the truth that you would never be deceived, that we would stand before Almighty God one day together because we didn't trust untempered mortar or listen to the false prophets, but we put our trust in the true and living God and we served him with all our heart. Amen? Amen. Father, thank you for these dear saints. They are so patient with me. I have pastors say that we wouldn't even have a congregation. Well, you've got to train them. It's like boot camp. You've got to get them, got to work up to it. But Lord, we love your word. These people love your word. We love you. We like to hear about it, Lord, especially that last part where you're going to come and take us out. You're going to remove us from their presence so they can't harm us anymore. Lord, we thank you for that promise.

I just pray for these dear saints tonight, each and every one of them. Bless them, Father, we pray. Keep them safe, we ask, Lord. Fill them with your Spirit, Lord. Pour out your Spirit upon us, Lord. Put a hunger in our hearts for your word. We thank you for it, in Jesus' name. Amen.

I love you.