Bible Study: February 22, 2023

Okay, so tonight we're going to be in Isaiah 26. You know, a lot of the chapters we've been in lately have talked about burdens against this nation and this people and that and whatever, and they always end with God in charge. Isaiah 26 is just one of those hopeful, very inspiring and uplifting chapters. So it's going to be a good Bible study tonight because it's going to put us in the time of the millennium and the time leading up to it when God has all the prophecies of doom and destruction for the world have come to bow.

Jesus Christ has returned to earth. The people that have been led captive are now returning back to the land that he has had in God's way of needing to permeate the earth. So I want to draw our attention back to Isaiah 25 verse 9 because this is the chapter 25, of course, leads into chapter 26. You can see that chapter 26 begins in those three words, in that day. So we know that in that day is talking about a time ahead of us, the time of Jesus Christ returned, but it's talking about the people of God who have been brought back or who are being brought back from captivity and put into the land that God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long ago.

So in verse 9 of Isaiah 25, it says, It will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the eternal. We've waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And last time you'll remember we talked about waiting for God, one of those attributes we have to have. We know that God is true to his word. We can trust him. We can rely on him. In his time, he will save us. We have to wait and be patient for him and show that trust by the waiting we do. So we come down to 26, we see in that day. And as we come through here, we'll talk about people, but it's talking about that same day that is there in verse 9.

And we see this song of joy, really, that is being sung in that day. It says in chapter 26, verse 1, In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. Well, Judah, you know that area, that's where that's part of the Promised Land. That's where God will bring his people back to. We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.

I mean, they now have a strong city. They no longer are trusting in machines and weapons and fortifications and armies and all this stuff. We have a strong city. A strong city is when you rely on God and he is the one who you look to for salvation. And it says we have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. And that's talking about God, God, instead of walls and bulwarks and these things of men that provide or that we think provides us protection and fortification from the world, it'll be God.

God is trusted in. Let's turn forward to Isaiah 60. Near the end, God talks about those walls again near the end of Isaiah. We'll see these recurring themes throughout Isaiah of the future and how things will be. You know, in this chapter and all of Isaiah 2, we learn several things about us, what we need to be developing in our lives as we live and live the way that God wants us to live.

And in chapter 60, in verse 18, Isaiah says, You know, it won't be bricks upon brick upon brick upon brick. It'll be God is our protection. God is our fortress. God is our refuge. And your gates praise. People will praise God. They will realize who He is, trust Him, and give honor and glory to Him. If we go forward, even a few more books into another major prophet, Ezekiel, we read something about those walls. And when we have a picture of the millennium after Christ returns and the people are coming back to the Promised Land, and what happens?

It's an interesting thing that God puts us here and tells us something about the way Satan works with man and how even in the millennium when Christ returns and mankind sees the glory of God, sees that Jesus Christ has come on the earth, He establishes people, and there still will be people who have thoughts in their heads. Just like after we're baptized and hands are laid on us and we have the Holy Spirit, there's still thoughts that come into our minds.

We all have experienced that, right? We have to reject those thoughts, reject that temptation, and not let those thoughts and that influence of Satan dominate us. But here in chapter 38 of Ezekiel 38, we come down here and if you read through it, 37 is the famous chapter about the dry bones, the resurrection. And then you have chapter 38 and you have this time after the resurrection and you have these the people of you know says in verse 2, Gog and Magog, Rosh, Meshach, Tubal, and everything. But if we come down to verse 10, we see this this land without walls.

It's clearly not a city in the world that we have today. In verse 10 it says, It says, But there's those thoughts. You know, Satan will be above the way at this time as we picture by the day of atonement. But there's still those thoughts that linger in our minds. This is the purification process that we go through in our lives. You know, we ask God to cleanse our minds, get these evil thoughts and desires out of our heart, and replace it with the pure and perfect thoughts that that he has. So on that day, it'll come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind and you will make an evil plan.

You will say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go to a peaceful people who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates.

Here's the land in the future. They don't have walls. This is that strong city that's relying on God that doesn't need walls. It doesn't need bulwarks. It doesn't need weapons. And here's this other people is like, wow, they're completely unwalled. I'll go down in verse 12. I'll take plunder and take booty to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited against the people gathered from the nations.

That's who God's talking about. The people of Israel who he brings back who have acquired livestock and goods who dwell in the midst of the land. And so they make this plan and they go forth and they go out to do that. But it doesn't succeed. I think you probably know the rest of the story as you reach out.

Chapter 38 and chapter 39, God intercepts those people. They don't come into Judah. They aren't going to lay, hold, or plunder a people that are relying on God in those unwalled villages. And when we come to chapter 39, we see in chapter 39 verse 8, we see the end of this group of people that thinks they're going to come down and attack these people whose salvation is God. Chapter 39 verse 8 says, Who pillaged them, says the Lord of God. So you have this people that in these unwalled villages, you know, that want to come across those unwalled villages and God shows, I'm salvation.

I'm refuge. I'm your peace. I'm the one to look to and trust. I will protect you. And in the next few verses, we see that very thing in Isaiah 26. We go back there. Again, we read verse 1, we have a strong city. We have a strong city. Not because it's nuclear armed, not because it's got the highest walls of any city on earth.

We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, he says in verse 2, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. The righteous nation that keeps the truth, there's God's people. The definition of God's people today, the people who keep the truth.

We talk about that over and over again. Jesus Christ says, he's the way, he's the truth, he's the life. We have to live the way. We have to become the truth. It has to become part of what we are, knowing and living by every word of God. In that time when Christ returns, the people that will come back to Judah, they will be a nation of truth. His truth will be extant on the earth.

That righteous nation which opens the gates, that righteous nation which keeps the truth, may enter in. That refers back to Isaiah 25 verse 9, that we read at the beginning of this Bible study. One of the most calming, as all of us have these scriptures that we cling to and remember, and they have meaning and they inspire us. Isaiah 26.3 is one of those among many for me when he says, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you.

That is so true. I think in times when we are in trials, we might be sick and facing a dire health crisis. We might be facing some kind of tribulation from people in the future. We may have people lined up against us for some reason, find ourselves in certain traits or certain straits, I should say. But if we keep our mind on God, if every time we feel that fear, if every time we feel something, we keep our mind stayed on God, it brings us that perfect peace.

Think about Jesus Christ and that Passover day when he knew when he entered into that day what was going to happen, when he was out in the garden, when the Romans came and he was arrested. He was scared as any human being would be. I mean, scared dreaded what was going to happen to him. But you know through it all, what he did was keep his mind on God.

He didn't let fear captivate him. He kept his mind on God and that's what his focus was. And that kept him in perfect peace. It can do the same thing for us if we would just learn, keep our eyes on Christ, keep our mind stayed on him, whatever the trial, whatever the, whatever confronts us. God knows. God says, I'm here. I'm your refuge. I'm your strength. I'm your rock, as we'll read here in a little bit too. Trust in me. Trust in me and put your faith in me. And if we will do that, we would be kept in perfect peace.

You know, as it says in Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7, we don't have to turn there. The peace that surpasses all understanding is the peace that when people see us go through some of the rigors of life and more so as we head closer and closer to the return of Jesus Christ, we'll say, how can they be so calm in this crisis? How can they just not cave when people are angry with them for what they believe or whatever it might be? How come when they have this serious situation facing them, they're not upset, they're not scared, they're not rushing to every ally to find out what they can do? Because our mind has stayed on God. Just keep that verse in your mind as you go through trials, whatever they need be. Keep, you'll keep him in perfect peace.

God tells us if our mind has stayed on him, trust in him. Verse 4 repeats that. Trust in the Lord forever. Trust in him forever. Forever is him, right? Our forever is in Christ, not in our strength or our intelligence or anything, right? It's all about him and what he does and our trust and how we yield to him. Trust in the Lord forever.

For in YAH, the Lord is everlasting strength. And in the Old King James, I think it's actually translated, for in YAH, the Lord is the rock of ages. We'll come back to that in a minute as well. But let's look at that word YAH there for a moment. You know, most of the time when we see the tetragram, tetr... whatever it is, tetragram, why am I coming back? Y-H-W-H, it's translated capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.

But in this case, and in Isaiah 12 verse 2, we saw it, you know, a few chapters as well. The translators there actually used YAH. They did not defer to the capital L-O-R-D. And the commentators say, and I'm not, of course, a Hebrew scholar or anything, but the text in those cases where YAH is put there instead of L-O-R-D, there was such a significance placed on the trust that they wanted... that indicated that we should have in God that that's why they felt they had to use YAH.

It was even greater than capital L-O-R-D. One of the same, but whatever, however the Hebrew is phrased and the sentences or words around it, it was like this was even of more strength, more trust, more glory given to God, more reverence of His name than the typical Y-H-W-H and the way the words were formed. So when you see that, like here in Isaiah 26, verse 4, in Isaiah 12, verse 2, that we read 14 chapters ago, it's even more emphasizing the greatness of God and the reverence and the fear that we should have of Him and how great He is.

And of course there in verse 4, it talks about Him being the rock of ages, everlasting strength, eternal strength. And of course, I know that we know many places where God is referred to as a rock. We can go to the New Testament and there Jesus Christ says, upon this rock, referring to Himself, upon this rock I will build my church. And then He talks about Peter being a smaller rock, right?

But Jesus Christ is the foundation. He's the cornerstone. He's the rock. Now we can go back to Israel coming out of Egypt and wandering in the wilderness. And where, when they were thirsty and crying for water and thought, you know, God just brought us out here so we would thirst to death. Where did the water, where did the salvation came from?

Moses went and God brought water forth from the rock. It's God who gives us salvation. And God is His Holy Spirit that we have life and sustenance and all those things. So we have these pictures of a rock in the Bible, throughout the Bible, from Old Testament to New Testament. But let's do take just a little bit of time, because this is such an important concept when we talk about rock and the stability of rock and how the analogy of the Bible is, God is our rock.

They are immovable, they are stationary, they last for thousands of years. I'm sure there's rocks on the earth that were there at the beginning of creation. They are a symbol of stability and trust, fortress and strength. So let's go back and just look at a few verses to see how prevalent that analogy is in the Bible. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 32. Some of you will remember from Florida when we were doing a Bible study through Deuteronomy a few years back. We got into the latter chapters of Deuteronomy.

We see they're all very much future-focused. They're talking about the time yet ahead of us when it talks about Israel's future, when God is inspiring Moses before he dies to tell what's going to happen to them in the latter days. In Deuteronomy 32, we have this song that will be sung. In verse 4 of Deuteronomy 32, the song that Israel will sing, he is the rock. He is the rock. His work is perfect.

We drop down to verse 15 through 18. He talks about the malady of Israel. They grew fat and kicked. God gives us plenty. We enjoy the good times. They grew fat. They were robust. They were energetic. They grew fat and kicked. But then it went beyond that. They grew thick. Your obese and their energy and zeal for God waxed. They just waned as those progressions got so enamored with the wealth that they have and the things that they have.

Exactly what God said back in Deuteronomy 8. They were like, I'm going to plant you when your bellies are full. Don't forget me. Don't forget me. Israel did this. The more they had, the further away they grew from God. Israel, verse 15, he forsook God who made him. It's never God who leaves us. We leave God by our actions and by our pushing Him aside or forgetting Him. Then he forsook God who made him. He scorefully esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with foreign gods. They started trusting in other things more than God. With abominations, they provoked him to anger.

They sacrificed to demons, not to God. Gods they did not know to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. We see that happening again. New things. Lately, there's been this sensation for some reason with Satan. I didn't watch the Grammys, but like all of you, you've probably seen some of the scenes played back from one of the acts, the singing acts on that, where it was literally a depiction of Satan with the demons around him and the fire raging and whatever.

And in one sense, the adulation of Satan that came about, and another one, the outcry about what is this being done on our TV, where Satan is actually being lauded and almost worshipped, and some of the comments that came out of some of the producers. Yeah, Sherry? Did you hear about the abortion clinic they're setting up in New Mexico, and it's being set up by the Satanic Temple? That comes out of Salem, Massachusetts. But they're actually putting, they're supposed to be doing it this month, starting to put them in the abortion clinic, where they can do all this.

And they've got the statue of the horned goat with the Satan emblem on the forehead, and all kinds of vulgar things around it, plus two little children at his feet.

It's kind of unreal when you see these things, right? And that's where society's going. That's where it is. You've probably seen the pins that they were wearing. It's something. I don't know where that was. Something going on with abortion, a pin with a heart in abortion. We love abortion. Who loves abortion?

It's just as society moving further and further away from God into areas that just kind of defy the imagination that people could do that.

So anyway, going on in verse 18, then, of the rock, who begot you, you're unmindful. You've forgotten the God who fathered you.

And so, you know, as we look at society around us, I mean, you and I know it's God who's blessed this nation, but more and more, we forget God. We move further and further away from Him. If we go to Psalm 18, you know, David, throughout the Psalms, he often refers to God as His rock in Psalm 18 and verse 31. It says, Psalm 1831, who is God except the eternal? And who is a rock except our God? It's God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

So, you know, David recognized that, recognizes that as He knew God, a man after his own heart. We go down to verse 46, you know, the same Psalm. He says, The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

We go over to Psalm 62. Psalm 62 and verse 1.

And we have this concept of waiting for God. Truly my soul silently waits for God. From Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.

Those are all things that we can think of when we're troubled.

Verse 5, same chapter, Psalm 62. My soul waits silently for God alone. My expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory, the rock of my strength. And my refuge is in God.

I could go on and on, and you can too. There are a lot of verses that I'm sure you've thought of where God is referred to as a rock. There are some of the hymns that we sing in our hymn. They'll talk about God is my rock of our salvation.

I guess it's called God is my rock, refuge and strength.

A lot of the themes as we go through these chapters in Isaiah, they teach us the things that we need to know. It's in the format of what it will be like in the millennium and how people are there.

If we go back to Isaiah 26, we see this concept, trust in God. He is our rock.

When we go on to verses 5 and 6, again we have God talking about the pride that could be in all of us. What happens to the proud?

In verse 5, he says, He brings down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low to the ground. He brings it down to the dust.

The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.

We have the proud of the earth. You and I can be prone to pride. We have to always check that and ask God to make us mindful when pride is getting the better of us.

Always remember, it's not us who does things. It's got to be God's way or it's a useless, futile time and thing that we're doing.

God will always bring the proud low. We should remember if we're ever brought low or humbled in some way, be thankful to God that He's still working with us.

You need to be humble because it will only be the humble. That's who He looks to and that's who He works with.

Verse 6 is really a reference back to chapter 25 again, where it says, The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

If we just fill the chapter back, I guess it wasn't last week, two weeks ago, in chapter 25 in verse 4, remember we talked about the strong cities.

You made the strong cities a ruin. Verse 4 of chapter 25 says, You've been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in His distress, a refuge from the store or shade from the heat.

Well, God looks to the humble, right? When we're humbled, He delivers them.

And that chapter 4, verse 4 there, is talking about the humble, the people of Israel who have been humbled who will come back.

And He's talking about these proud nations, these proud peoples.

And what will bring it down? The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

The humble. You know, it's God always who gives the victory. Not us, not our smarts, not our weapons, not our schemes, not our strategies.

You know, God. God will do that. And, you know, the humble, the humble, God will give the victory, the victory too.

Going on to verse 7 then.

You know, we see the way. Lately, every time I see the two words together, the way I think of Jesus Christ saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

So, you know, we see the way. God shows us the way. We're supposed to be living the way, teaching the way, demonstrating the way, being an example to our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers of the way, just as Jesus Christ was.

But in verse 7 it says, the way of the just is uprightness.

Oh, that's true, right? Christ was upright.

The next line, almost upright. You weigh the path of the just. So the way of the just, the ones who are living by God's way, is uprightness.

Almost upright is what Isaiah, or God inspired Isaiah, right here, calling God almost upright.

And so uprightness is, if you look in the concordance and strongness, it says it can mean the straightness, the evenness of God.

You know, in Matthew, I guess it's Matthew 7, it says, straight and narrow is the path, right? Straight and narrow is the path.

Keep your eyes on God. March straight ahead to Him. So it could have been, you know, straightness or evenness.

Now, those words will go pretty well because the next phrase there in verse 7 is, you weigh.

And when we think of an even scale, how many times in Proverbs are we reminded of when God talks about, you know, on a scale?

Make sure that those scales aren't even and you're not trying to put yourself in more favor and giving more than what the other person has.

God is in the even scales, right? What you sell, you sell the right amount and everything. And so we have this concept of uprightness here in verse 7.

The way of the just is uprightness, straight and narrow path. You weigh the path of the just. They're even. They're steady. They're walking in the way of God.

Verse 8, yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for you. See how that keeps coming back? We've waited for you.

We had the patience. We had the faith in you. Even when things look dire, when it looked like it was hopeless, our faith remained in you.

We didn't take matters into our own hands. We trusted in you and you came, you know, you came through and in whatever way God does.

So Lord, we have waited for you. The desire of our soul is for your name and for the remembrance of you.

That's what God wants us to have developed in us. That what our true desire in life is to bring glory to God's name, to do the things that God wants us to do, to be like Him.

The only way that happens is through His Holy Spirit as we yield to it. I mean, no other way, right? It has to be. The only way we know and can live God's way is with His Holy Spirit leading and guiding us.

Without His strength, we fail. We fail. Without His Holy Spirit, we fail. The desire of our soul is for your name. That's what we want is what you want.

Just like when Jesus Christ, you know, said on that last night or that night of that Passover night, you know, nevertheless, your will be done.

You know, if it's your will, let this cup pass through me, but your will be done. My desire is to do the things that you want.

And when we pray, thy will be done, you know, it has to that has to become part of us. And that's truly, truly what we want is for God's will to be done with my soul.

You should have took that thermometer from up there.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. With my soul, verse nine, I've desired you in the night.

Did I read that? Yeah. With my soul, I have desired you in the night. Oh, no, no, I didn't. Okay.

Desire of our soul is for your name and for the remembrance of you. Finishing verse eight. And then with my soul, I have desired you in the night.

Now, that probably, you know, may make you think of David, right? How many times did David, when he would talk about meditating, he would be talking about meditating in the night as he would wake up.

God's thoughts were on his mind. We'll read a few of those verses here in a minute, because again, we're seeing, you know, how God works with us.

What we do when we wake up, what's on our mind? Where is our desire and everything? Yes. With my soul, I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me, I will seek you early.

And so, you know, let's look at a couple of things there, because David, a man after God's own heart, talks about those very things as he wrote those psalms and as God inspired him. So there's a few verses here. I'm just going to go through a few psalms. Let's start in Psalm 42.

Psalm 42 and verse 8. Psalm 42 verse 8. The Lord, the Eternal, will command his loving-kindness in the daytime.

Okay? Command his loving-kindness in the daytime. And in the night, his song shall be with me, the prayer to the God of my life.

And there, verse 9, you see him referring to God as his rock there. In the night, his song will be with me. We go forward to Psalm 63. Psalm 63 and verse 1. Verse 1. Oh God, you are my God. Early, early I will seek you. Right? That's verse 9 of Isaiah 26. By God's Spirit within me, I will seek you early. Oh God, you are my God. Early, I will seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My splash longs for you. In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. You can feel David saying, you know, with my soul, I desire to be with God. I want his will to be done. If we go down to verse 6, you know, he's talked about early I will seek you. In verse 6, when I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches because you have been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of your wings, I will rejoice. I meditate on you in the night watches, in the middle of the night.

Forward to Psalm 119.

He talks about the night watches there in chapter 63. He talks about them again in Psalm 119. Of course, we know Psalm 119 is one of those Psalms where David is just praising God and meditating on his word. How great is your word? How wonderful is your word? I contemplate your word. You know, how energized he becomes, how zealous he becomes, how much he desires it. In Psalm 119 and verse 148, he says, My eyes are awake through the night watches that I may meditate on your word. You know, in the sense, when you look up other translations and what those words translated are there, it shows this anticipation. David says that this verse shows David was anticipating the night where he could just lay and meditate. He could just lay and meditate on God's word. You know, I'm eager for the night to come. When all the day's work is done, I can just lay there and think about you. I can think about your word. You know, that's what was in his heart. My eyes are awake through the night watches that I may meditate on your word. I don't want to sleep. Yeah, Dave. Yes, I think this is also a great—sorry, the light in here is not too good—but I think it's a great prescription as well for just, you know, when it's—a lot of times in the middle of the night when you're laying there, it's all silent. And that's when your mind can play tricks on you. That's when these invasive thoughts from Satan or fears can really come at you. I know it happens for me at times, and I think meditating, you know, while you're laying in bed or like the one verse about singing songs, you know, going over hymns and things in our minds can really help be a prescription to that because it can really help us to continue to focus on God in his way and strengthen our faith as opposed to just sitting there in the, you know, the still of the night and letting fear or negative thoughts in our minds.

I think it's a great prescription to go against those negative things. Yeah, you're exactly right. You're exactly right. The next time you wake up and you're, you know, even sometimes we can devise these plans, right? Someone did me wrong and boom, boom, boom. We can go on and on and on. Think about that. Make yourself stop and start thinking about God and meditating on his word, and you'll see those feelings, that anxiety, that fear, you know, dissipate. Xavier?

Just across the page. Sorry. Just across the page in verse 165, it complements what is already said in Isaiah verse 3, as well as what Dave and you are saying from the Scriptures. It says, It says, Great peace of those who love your word, and there is no cause for stumbling.

And it starts in verse 62, where it says, I rejoice in your word.

Are you in 119? Yep. 165. One's all 165. Okay. Okay, I see.

Yeah, see, I mean, Psalm 119, sometimes we, you know, we rewrite, we read through that because we just think, wow, we got 176 verses to get through, but boy, there is a lot of meaning in Psalm 119. If you just take it, you know, stanza by sand, it's ordered here by eight verses at a time, but there's a different thought in each one of those eight verses that are there. You know, sometimes when you want to do a Bible study, that would be a good one. What is God recording in each of those, what is it, 22 times 8, 176 verses? So yeah, very good point.

So anyway, you can mark down Psalm 143.82. It talks about seeking God in the morning. I won't turn there.

You know, he just, he talks about looking for God in the morning as well.

So anyway, you know, here in Isaiah 26, when it talks about seeking God early, seeking Him in the night and doing those things, those are all things, you know, that we can do.

God is showing us we got to make ourselves do it, right? We got to choose God's way. It doesn't come automatically. We have to train ourselves.

I'm not going to do it that way. I'm going to do it this way. And then it becomes, it becomes you, you know, when these things come up in our lives.

So, okay. We go back to Isaiah 26. We're in the middle of verse 9.

You know, in the middle of verse 9, then it says, for when your judgments are in the earth, well, when will that be? That will be the millennium after Christ returns, right?

When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. You know, you know, Habakkuk 2.14, the word of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In that day, everyone will know the word of God and the peace. The peace will be on the earth.

Even though those thoughts that we read about in Ezekiel 38 may come among some, you know, peace will be because of God's Spirit and the knowledge of God that is being practiced in the earth at that time.

In verse 10 and 11, then, you know, it's talking about those, you know, before the return of Jesus Christ. We have, you know, we've talked about all these peoples, the peoples of Egypt and Syria, you know, of Syria, all those nations around there, Ammon, Edom, Moab, Arabia. It says, you know, and God destroys them, right? We read all those in those 11 and 12 chapters back in Isaiah 13 to 24.

And here in verse 10 it says, Let grace be shown to the wicked. You know, God does show grace. We have to remember God loves all mankind.

It is, God's will is that none would perish, that everyone would choose Him. And His plan of salvation includes every man, woman, and child who has ever lived. They will all have a chance to choose God or reject Him.

Now, when Jesus Christ said in John 5, 28, 29, all men will rise. All will rise, some to eternal life and some to condemnation. It will either be life, eternal life, or eternal death, right?

But God's will is that none. None would have to die. But we know, sadly, that some will not choose God. They will not let God help them overcome their desires.

And so, but God does show grace. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet He will not learn righteousness.

There will be the second resurrection. We talked about that. We read about that in Revelation 20, where all, you know, every man and woman who is not part of the first fruits, you know, follow God as you and I do. And as we allow Him to purify and perfect us as we go through our lives, we would be there as part of the first resurrection.

Everyone else who has ever lived with Him, the first, second resurrection. And so God will, He will show grace to them. He will allow them to know who He is. He will open their minds to the truth. And yet some, yet some will not learn righteousness. Simply not going to do it, right? Sometimes today, you know, we know God has opened minds.

You know, they understand the truth. They understand Sabbath. They understand Holy Days. They understand God's way. They may understand. It's like, I don't want to do that. I want to choose. I choose the earth. I'm simply not going to do it.

Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet He will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness, where's the land of uprightness? Who dwells in the land of the upright? It's the humble of the earth. It's the people that, the nation that keeps the truth that they may enter in. In the land of uprightness, He will deal unjustly.

Just like those people in Ezekiel 38, who, you know, thought comes into my mind, let's go down and attack that unwalled city. Let's plunder them. They're easy pickings.

In the land of uprightness, He will deal unjustly. You know, we read Ezekiel 38. That's at the beginning of the millennium. Let's go back to Revelation 20.

We even see after a thousand years of Christ's reign on earth. What the world has experienced during that time is a time of peace, a time of abundance, a time of harmony, no wars, or if there's many things going on, God stops it immediately. It has been a wonderful time to live. And so you have this kind of unbelievable situation at the end of all this. After those thousand years of Christ's reign on earth, that we refer to as the millennium, we come to Revelation 20 in verse 7.

And we read about the time after those thousand years have expired. You remember, on the Day of Atonement, it pictures the time that Satan is bound. He's bound for a thousand years where he can no longer influence the earth.

Doesn't mean that all the thoughts of man have been erased from them. They still have their thoughts. But it says here in verse 7, After the now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison. And he will go out to deceive the nations which in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

So, I mean, here you have this after the thousand years are expired. You have, again, people when Satan is loose, because the people that are resurrected in the second resurrection have to make a choice just like you and me. We have a choice in this line, Deuteronomy 30, 19, the choice of a lifetime, God says, for those whose mind he is open now, I set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life.

What choosing life isn't just saying I want life, choosing life is living the way, the truth, and the life that God has called us to.

And so they'll have to make the same choice. Do they choose to live by God's way? Or are they going to choose their old way and follow and be influenced by Satan?

Somewhere in our life, we simply have to say no to our own natural desire. Christ says, deny yourself. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

Those are our words when we think about them that have some tremendous meaning for us. We have to say no to self and choose God.

Anyway, so we'll go back to Ezekiel 26. In verse 10 here, in the land of uprightness, he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the eternal.

Simply will not feel to God. Kind of hard to understand, but there will be some who do that. And not just a few. The Bible says many, which is an interesting word for God to use.

In verse 11, when your hand is lifted up, they won't see. But they will see and be ashamed for envy of people.

There's some tricky wording in there, too. When you dissect all those words, then look at what envy can be.

There's a number of things. When your hand is lifted up, when they see you conquering the nations, they realize, wow, it's God. God lifted his hand against us. We've been defeated.

By the humble of the earth, they won't see them, but they will see and be ashamed for envy of people.

What it's talking about there is when they see the other people who have yielded to God and how he treats them and what goes on with them, and the zeal that they have for God, that they will be ashamed.

Why didn't we see this before? Why were we so blind that we rejected God? Think about the people who have had the opportunity to know God in this lifetime and just thought, it's easier just being in the world and living the world. Forget what I heard. I've got time to do anything else.

What will that be? How embarrassed I am that I didn't choose God when I had the chance? What was I thinking? They will see and be ashamed. That word is always there. They will be ashamed for envy of people. Yes, the fire of your enemies shall devour them.

They devour themselves by the choices they make and the zeal they have, not for God, but the zeal for their own ways of doing things apart from God.

Okay, verse 12. Lord, or eternal, Y-H-W-H. Eternal, you will establish peace for us. You will establish peace for us. 1 Peter 5, 10. Peter, as he's closing his first epistle there, he says, May the God of all peace settle you. May he establish you. May he grant these things to you.

It's God who establishes us when we live in God, when our eyes are stayed on him, when we have his Holy Spirit and he's leading and guiding us and we're letting him do that. Lord, you will establish peace for us. For you have also done all our works in us.

You know, that's a mouthful right there. You have done all our works in us or for us. You did it all. We don't have any credit. We can't pat ourselves on the back. It's not even for our salvation because it's only God's Spirit that allows us to yield to him so that he can do his works in us and for us and through us.

Even Jesus Christ, who lives his life perfectly, says in John 5, 19, the works that I do, they're the Father's, right? The words that I speak, they're not my words, they're the Father's words. He was completely yielded to God and he was in perfect peace and joy when he was completely yielded to God.

And the closer and closer we get to God, to God, where we yield to him and are willing to give up whatever, we feel joy that we can't understand until we've experienced it. And just like Christ, when you experience it, you desire it.

And the more you yield to God, the greater that is. Lord, you will establish peace for us, for you have also done all our works in us. And then he muses on our lives past. Oh, Lord our God, masters besides you have had dominion over us. But by you only, we make mention of your name.

We've all had bosses. Some of them were very nice bosses. Others were good, were taskmasters and whatever. We've all had them. They had control over us. We're all men under authority, right?

But only by you do we make mention of your name. Only because of you do we even know who you are, that we can bring glory to your name and that we can live your way.

We literally owe it all to God. Not one of us found this way. God found us and opened our minds to this. They are dead, verse 14. They will not live.

Well, not again in this lifetime, right? We all die and we're gone from the earth. They are deceased. They will not rise.

But it doesn't mean never resurrected, right? Because we know there's a resurrection of all men. God talks about that. Jesus Christ himself said, all will rise. If you look at John 5, 28, 29, I think we all know those verses very well.

All men, the day is coming when all men will hear his voice and rise. Some to eternal life, some to condemnation.

So it's not about they won't rise now. They're dead. They're gone. They may have been stern taskmasters, but now they're gone. They're not part of our lives anymore. Our lot is to live for a while and then we're gone.

Therefore, you have punished and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish.

That's the way of life, right? This little mortal life we live. If it's 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 years, whatever it is, it's just a fleeting passage of time.

Well, we're gone. People may initially miss us, but after a while it's like we were never even there.

So futile. If that's all there is in life are these years that God gives us now. It's about what we do now for eternity. That's what God is preparing us for. That's what the meaning of this life is.

Otherwise, we're forgotten. My Bible references Ecclesiastes 9-5 there. So let's go back to Ecclesiastes 9 and see again the Bible, the same things we're learning in Isaiah.

Now, I can spend time on every one of these verses and things like that to show that the Bible also supports itself throughout it. There's nothing here. There's a ton here.

But you can support it from other places in the Bible because the Bible all says the same thing. Verse 9, or verse 5 of Ezekiel, sorry, Ecclesiastes 9-5.

The living know they will die. We all know that's our lot in life. Hebrews 9-27.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten.

The memory of them is forgotten. And that eventually happens. You know, even with the great people of earth, sometimes, you know, those things are, they will be remembered for a while.

The rest of us will do them, but they're just names. You don't know them. The memory of us disappears. That's what God is talking about. This physical life.

So preparation time, it's a great time for us to get ready for the rest of the time and yield ourselves to God. But it's all about eternity. It's just the first phase of our existence.

Okay. Let's go back to Isaiah 26, then.

Isaiah 26, we were just finished verse 14. They're dead. They're gone. You've made their memory to perish. Verse 15. You've increased the nation, O eternal. You've increased the nation. You are glorified. You have expanded all the borders of the land.

Do you see the praise and how many things that Isaiah, that through Isaiah, God is making known to hear? He talks about increasing the nation, expanding the borders.

We read in the Old Testament about expanding the territory. I remember back, it's probably been 20, 25 years ago, there was a little book back long ago called The Prayer of J. Bez.

Maybe some of you remember that. Someone wrote this little book on a prayer that was there in 1 Corinthians 4. Let me look at my notes here and see where that verse is.

1 Chronicles 4. Let's go back to 1 Chronicles 4 because we see this expanding our borders, enlarging our territory as something that God keeps giving us more and more.

1 Chronicles 4, this little prayer that Dez prayed in verse 10, talks about enlarging our territory.

How does God bless us? Today, he may not take our city-sized lot and give us another acre, but maybe he will. Maybe we move to a larger land, or maybe our borders, maybe our wealth increases as we live God's way of life.

He enlarges us as we live our life, as we do everything according to his will. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10, He called on the God of Israel, saying, Just a little prayer, but look how much Jabez said in that. If you would bless me, if you would keep me from evil, and that you would prevent me from causing pain for other people. God answered the prayer, so God granted him what he requested.

His heart was in it. It wasn't just looking to see how he could enrich himself, but it was looking to live God's way of life. If we go back to Exodus 34, I always remember Exodus 34, 24, because as people are leaving to go away from the feast, sometimes they've got job worries, and sometimes house worries, and things like that. In Exodus 34, 24, God knew that even when he was going to have ancient Israel leave their homes three times in a year to go to Jerusalem to keep the days of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles, they would have these things.

What about who's going to watch over my house and whatever? Chapter 34 of Exodus 24, I will cast out the nations before you, and I will enlarge your borders. Those days, just like now, someone rushes over in Ukraine, what do they want to do? They want to enlarge their borders. They want to take over Ukraine and enlarge their borders. So we've got this war going on.

It's been the way of the world. I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders. Neither will any man covet your land when you bow up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. Do what God said. If he wanted to bless you, it's got to be that you've got to do God's will. In Psalm 18, David talks about this concept as well. Psalm 18 verse 36.

He says, Psalm 18 verse 36, you enlarged my path under me so my feet didn't slip. See the concept? Well, you did it, God. You enlarged it. I was maybe dangerous slipping, but you provided for me. I didn't have to worry about it. You did it. And God does. He'll enlarge us. And in verse 15 of chapter 26 of Isaiah, that's what he's talking about.

You've increased us, God. Not by our might, not by our weapons, not by our military schemes, our military commanders. It's you who did it, just like God does it in our lives. Right? You've increased the nation. You've increased the nation. You've expanded all the borders of the land. Verse 15. Verse 16, Lord, in trouble they have visited you. In trouble they—that's referring to God's people, right? When they were in distress. When they were in distress, they recognized what they had done. It's a marvelous thing when we recognize what we've done and we acknowledge our faults.

Lord, in trouble they visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. That was difficult times. We've talked about those difficult times. Remember, even in the prophecies back there against nations like Syria and Egypt and Ammon and Moab. There was also the prophecy against Judah, the prophecy against Jerusalem. Israel fell. Tough times. Lord, in trouble they visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. Well, we're in times of trial. Don't go running haphazardly toward finding anything in the world to cling to.

Turn to God. Seek Him. Pour out a prayer to Him, just like Hezekiah did when we talked about him. When Assyria was breathing down Judah's neck, he didn't run and say, I've got to make an alliance over here and get this done and use all my weapons and get everything aligned. No. What did he do? He took it to God.

Pour out a prayer to God, and God took care of it. In trouble they visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. As a woman with child, that shows how great the trouble was upon them. In Jeremiah 30, we've talked about the time of Jacob's trouble. We've talked about that in sermons. We've talked about it here in the Bible studies as well, the times of Jacob's trouble, when men are bent over in pain that they've never experienced before, just like a woman in travail.

As a woman with child, and is in pain, and cries out in her pains, when she draws near the time of her delivery, so have we been in your sight, oh Lord. Tough, tough times that are prophesied. It really hurts. It's terrifying times. Things that we have never experienced before.

So when it talks about men having these things, men have never experienced the pains of birth. And so it's like, what is happening? How difficult is this? And God sees that time. When those times come, turn to God. He says, turn to Him in a time of chastening. Remember chastening? I've talked a few times in years past about pai Hadea, right?

The Greek form of pai Hadea. In Hebrews 12, verses 5, and 4 or 5 times in Hebrews 12, the chastening when it's talking about there, that God deals with us as sons when He chastens us, is times of pai DIA. The training that may be difficult, but we turn to God. It's an opportunity for us to deepen our trust in God, turn to Him and keep our eyes fixed on Him as we read back in chapter 3 of this chapter. So these times of intense trouble. In verse 18 we go on.

We've been with child. We've been in pain. We have, as it were, brought forth wind. We've given birth. And then we realize we haven't accomplished any deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen. We haven't done anything. What have we really accomplished? We put all our effort into doing things our way, and it is amounted to absolutely nothing. The only way things get accomplished and we ever have any kind of satisfaction in life when God opens our mind is to yield to Him and let Him do His work through us.

Otherwise, life is futile. It can be frustrating. We can try. We can try and wonder why things don't work. Complete satisfaction comes only in yielding to God and allowing Him to work through you. That's it. And Isaiah, as God inspired him, puts it beautifully. We haven't accomplished any deliverance in the earth. We've done nothing. We've done nothing except fight against you, but at least now we've learned our lesson. Yield to you, it's the way to absolute. Gop gop-e, it's the way to true joy, true peace, all those benefits of the Holy Spirit. We haven't accomplished any deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

We thought, the Assyrians thought, we're high and mighty. We'll be the world rulers. It didn't happen. It ended in disaster, as it did for Babylon, as it did for the Medes and Persians, as it does for every world-ruling empire, as it will for America, as it will for the end-time Babylon empire. That will be extant on the earth before the return of Jesus Christ.

And then for the next three verses, the last three verses of chapter 26, we have the hope of the resurrection.

We have in this chapter, it is a beautiful chapter, it's a millennial chapter, and then the hope of the resurrection that is the hope of all mankind. Jesus Christ sacrificed his life that our sins could be forgiven. The hope of the resurrection is because he was resurrected after being three full days and three full nights in the grave. Not the Friday to Sunday thing that the world says, but three full days and three full nights as the only sign that he's the Messiah. So we have the hope of the resurrection. Verse 19, Your dead will live. Simply put, we know that, right? 1 Corinthians 15, resurrection chapter, says, you know, in a moment of the twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ will rise. And this corrupt body will put on in corruption. You know, in Revelation 20, we read about the first resurrection. Even in the Old Testament, the resurrection is there. If we go back a few books here, right before the book of Psalms, the book of Job, Job talks about the resurrection. So it's not just a New Testament concept. It's there. It's there in the Old Testament as well. Every time I preach the funeral, not one of the pleasant things in life to do, but every time, every time, probably every minister in the church turns to Job 14 and talks about, you know, uses Job 14.

And verses 13 to 15. It's just the way God has made us. We have this temporary first part of our life that we live. We die. We're asleep. We wait for the return of Jesus Christ if we've lived our life, as He is our judge, to be resurrected at the time of His return to eternal life. Job, in verse 14, verse 13, says, oh God, that you would hide me in the grave. You know, a few chapters back, we talked about a place of safety. You know, we talked about the caves in Petra and the place for God's outcasts and whatever.

Well, you know, as I've heard it said, sometimes in the year, the grave is a hiding place, right? You wait there and you wait there until Christ returns and then all of this is is passed. Oh, that you would hide me in the grave. That you would conceal me until your wrath is passed. Well, we know what that wrath is. It's the time of the day of the Lord. That you would conceal me until your wrath is passed.

That you would appoint me a set time and remember me. God never forgets us. If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service, I will wait till my change comes. The very same change that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15.

You shall... Wait. Are you saying the place of safety is Petra? I'm not. I said that we talked about... I'm not saying that. No, I'm saying we talked about a little bit about that back in Isaiah 16.

Where God says, yes. So, yeah. It only God knows where and if there is a place of safety. Mr. Shavey? Yes, sir. Yeah, Dale here. Hello. Yeah. Some people think the grave is a place of safety. Yes, Paul. In a certain way it is. Yeah, it is, right? I mean, it's all passes. It all passes when you're resurrecting. The first thing he says, you will call and I will answer you. You will desire the work of your hands. So, right? I mean, what is God doing with us now? He's working with us.

He's working with us to perfect us so that when he resurrects us, we can serve him for the rest of time. So, in verse 19, if we go back to Isaiah 26, that's what it says, Your dead shall live. Right? Your dead shall live. That's 1 Corinthians 15, the first resurrection. Together with my dead body, they shall arise. Awaken, sing, you who dwell in dust, for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Excuse us, Christ. They'll hear his voice, come forth, some to everlasting life. And, you know, in the book of Daniel, he'll talk about the resurrection as well in Daniel 12. I won't take the time to go there since I'm looking at the time here. But in verse 20, it says, Come, my people, enter your chambers. Here we have God saying these things again, right? Then this does harken back again to Isaiah 16, where he talks about his outcasts and these things.

Come, my people, enter your chambers. Shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation is passed. And so we have again in the book of Isaiah something that we reference that God talks about here in Isaiah 16. If we go back there again. In chapter 16, verse 3, in this prophecy against Selah, which is the land of today's land of Jordan, and Selah, you know, where it was, is in the area where Petra, this fascinating places, you know, today with all these caves, you know, God talks about the land of Jordan, and Selah, and whatever.

In verse 3, he says, Take counsel, execute judgment, make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day. Hide the outcasts. Don't betray him who escapes. Let my outcasts dwell with you, O Moab, be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler for the extortioner as at an end. The other places are consumed out of the land. So we go back to that. God's talking about hide my outcasts, whoever his outcasts are. And I have in my Bible Jeremiah 3017, you know, that also references outcasts. Let my outcast dwell with you. He comes back to this again.

Come, my people, hide yourself as a word until the indignation is passed. We know when the indignation is. And then we'll go forward to Zephaniah. We've been in Zephaniah before. It's a third book from the end of the Old Testament. Going backwards, you have Malachi, Zechariah. I never do it going backwards. Zechariah, Zagai, and then Zephaniah. I guess the fourth book from the end of the Old Testament. Zephaniah 2, verse 3, Seek the Lord, seek the Lord all you make of the earth. Who are the make of the earth? Should be you and me, right? That's the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Seek the Lord all you make of the earth, who have out politics justice. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. We have these verses that surround us. God indicates something. We don't know yet what it is. We pair that together with Revelation 12, 9. 12, 9 through 12 or 16, whatever the end of Revelation 12 is. We still have this thing that God is talking about here that we don't know exactly what he's talking about. Go back to Isaiah 26 and finish the chapter here.

For behold, the Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. Got the picture of Revelation 19, right? Jesus Christ coming from heaven with his saints behind him, armed with his sword. If you read, I'll be with you in just a minute, Becky. He's armed, he comes down, and he makes a swift destruction of the armies that are gathered together against him there.

The Literal comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain. So, inspiring and uplifting chapter of chapter 26. As we move into chapter 27 next week, we see it begins within that day as well.

We'll be talking more about some of those prophecies of the future. I think inspiring also ties a lot of the principles of the Bible together. It also gives us some life lessons of what we need to be doing and how we need to be if we want to be there at the time that Jesus Christ returns.

Okay, Becky, you got a question or comment? I think I may have mentioned this before, a different chapter in Isaiah, but in verse 20 of this chapter where he talks about shut the doors behind you, it reminds me of Genesis 7.16 about the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, and as God had commanded Noah, then the Lord shut him in. And I mentioned before, he shuts the door and they just have to trust him. And it always reminds me of what they went through. They just sort of rode out the storm and they didn't... I don't think they questioned it. So this verse here makes me think of that one.

Yeah, you're exactly right, and that's a good analogy. And God saved them through that whole time, right? Yeah, that was their place that he kept them from the storms of life and the destruction. Yeah, very good analogy.

Any... Savior?

Well, should be earlier we read in the verse where it said, straight. It was that Isaiah 26 verse... what's that? 6 or... no. Are you talking about the lasting rock? Yeah, Isaiah 26, 4, we talked about 7, okay. Yeah, there's a verse in that we all quote a lot. It's 2 Timothy 2 verse 15 that says, Rightly dividing the word of truth. Yeah, the word literally means to cut straight. Excellent. Yep. You see that concept? That's in that word upright, right? Yeah, the straightness, the evenness of the scales and yeah, very good. So we shouldn't be crooked with God's word. It should be faithful and cut straight. Right now. Exactly. Very good point. So...

Mr. Shaby? Yes, ma'am. Can you just ask Xavier if he was in Ocala this last Sabbath? Because I think I saw him on the video. I just couldn't film for sure if it was him.

We were in Ocala this past summer. Okay, I heard you give him the program. Is it Lou? No, I met Lou, but I didn't meet Cheryl. No. No, I wasn't there. Oh, okay. But I thought it was you there when I saw you because you gave the opening prayer, I believe.

Okay.

See, I did it. People can keep track of you. That's a good thing.

Sherry lives up in the Ocala area, so... Oh, I didn't know that. No. Okay.

Do you think the church is ready to be a spirit of comfort for this world?

I think the church is. I think God is getting us ready. I don't think we're there yet. I think we've got work to do in that area, so...

And he will get us ready if we let him, so...

With that question. Yeah. Go ahead. Becky and then Jeff. Okay.

Okay, Jeff. Hey, Jeff.

He has?

Yeah, I just understand that there's a lot of suffering out there, and a lot of people looking for answers, and we've been through a lot.

We're able to answer so many questions for so many, if we're just a little bit more compassionate and not as confrontational with what we know.

Yeah. Well, we are commanded to cry aloud as fair or not, right? So we do have to do that. So sometimes that is confrontational, but we're just doing what God tells us to do. People have to be aware of how they're departing from God, so...

Where's Ocali, that place you were talking about?

Ocali is in Florida. It's in Central Florida.

Okay. How do you spell it?

O-C-A-L-A.

Okay, thanks.

Very well. Maybe God probably next time we're visiting there, you'll be there so we can meet and say hi.

Let her know. Next time you're going to the military now. Hey, Dale.

So sporadic. Thanks. Xavier, you mentioned... what was the word you mentioned again about the covenant and dividing?

Oh, it's Arthotomeo. It's in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15, where we said, rightly divide. Yeah, rightly divide. And I was thinking...

Yeah, thanks. I was thinking, you know, we used the term cotidil, and, you know, it relates to the covenant. Remember Abraham divided... remember the animals in Genesis 15?

That's part of the covenant he was making with God, was making with them.

I just thought what Xavier said reminded me, you know, the idea of cutting and rightly dividing.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yes, yeah. The Genesis 15, yes, covenant, yes.

Yeah, thank God. God is kind of, in a way, cutting a deal with us in a way. We have to follow it. Because the covenant, yeah.

Donna, you got a comment?

Donna Lombardi?

Yeah, you have your microphone muted if you're trying to say something.

Okay, how about D.F. Squibb?

Nope, okay.

I was on a Zoom call and I couldn't figure out how to raise my hand, but you guys are figuring out how to raise your hands, but I finally figured it out. So, Donna or Mr. and Mrs. Squibb, yeah, you got to unmute your microphone if you wanted to say something.

That's down to the lower left-hand corner.

Okay, Xavier.

One more.

Go ahead, go ahead.

We enjoyed your Bible.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Slavy, can you hear me now? Yes, yes, huh?

Okay, this is Donna Lombardi. So, when you were talking about, shut the door, I thought of another verse. It's from Matthew chapter 6 verse 6.

And it's, but thou wilt now praise, enter into thy closet, and wilt thou hast shut thy door. Interesting.

Yeah, see, God uses those phrases and they all have meaning for us when we put them all together, don't they? Yeah. Yeah.

Now, Mr. Okay, oh, okay. Raymond. Raymond's from Cincinnati. How you doing, Raymond? Okay, can you hear me? I can hear you, yes. Okay, good. I was thinking about Isaiah the 27th chapter, verse 20, about the closing of the door. Like, there's a time frame, like, okay, time's over. And I think about Jesus Christ, he says, and the door is shut in the New Testament. Like, time is over. That's it.

So anyway, but I love the Bible. I love the Bible study. It's like the Bible is just so alive and vibrant and wonderful. The Bible.

Oh, my God, opens our minds. It's, yeah, it is amazing. It produces a zeal. That's a good analogy, too, right? The bridegroom and the, and yeah, it goes into the door, it's shut. Yeah, very good. So Xavier.

We read in there, what was it? Exodus, what, was it 34, Brother Shabir? Yeah, Exodus 34, 24. Okay, where our Lord talked about the people and them offering to demons. In Leviticus 17, verse 70, it talks about demons, but he specifically calls them goat demons. And we were talking earlier about what they're doing in in Massachusetts and as well as in our Arizona. Was it Arizona? New Mexico. New Mexico, thank you. Thank you, Cheryl. And it specifically calls them goat demons in Leviticus 17, verse 7, that they will no longer worship goat demons.

17, verse 10?

Leviticus 17, verse 7. 7.

Exactly. Yeah, wow. Okay.

Yeah, we're living in a time that's kind of like unreal when you look at what's going on with all that, all that, what people are, what people are glorifying, so.

Hey, Ellusagut, how are you doing?

Yeah, I'm fine.

Yes, Shavi, thank you very much. Thank you for the Bible study.

As in chapter 26, verse 20.

That verse 20. Looking at verse, looking at that verse, I can see, I like the fact that we don't claim to know exactly how God is going to protect His children during the time of the indignation. Right.

But looking at those verses, God tells His people that they should come. God's people are to enter the chambers. They are to shut the doors. They are to hide themselves. So these verses are, these words are active. It tells me that the church, God's people have an active role to play in the last days.

But I feel, I feel, I'm just thinking as long as we do our part in keeping to God's commandments, doing what God commands us to do, I think we can leave the rest to God to decide how He's going to protect us during the time of indignation.

You're exactly right. Our job now is just trust in God, follow Him. He will reveal whatever it is He needs to reveal. I don't think He has revealed everything yet. He will reveal at the time it is, but we're going to have to have faith in Him and trust Him, right, to, Jesus Christ said, follow me. So wherever it is, whatever it is we want to do, we've got to have that faith in Him that we'll do that. It may not be, probably won't be the easy choice. So you're right. Yeah. So, thanks. Thanks.

Okay. Anything else? Anyone? Hey, very good comments. Very good comments. Thank you for your participation. Yeah, just brief. Thanks. Yeah, I just hope I explained okay what I was trying to say. I think 1 Timothy 2 and 15 says, you know, write me dividing the word. Right.

Right. Yeah, you know, God made a covenant with us at baptism. I mean, we need to continue to write the word of truth. I hope I explained what you were trying to say. You did. And you were comparing it to Genesis 15, the opening up of the covenant, the animals cutting them straight down. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I could I just say, Mr. Squibb was out there and Mr. Squibb is from Newfoundland, so am I. So if he's still there, I wanted to say hello to him.

He heard you. Oh, good. Mr. Shabey. Yes. Gloria. Okay, no, no, I'm looking. I'm looking for a name. That's what I'm looking for. Okay, Gloria. Gloria. Oh, hi. I'm over here. I just wanted to show you what a great preparation all this has been for the Passover. And we're supposed to be really getting ready. And if we use all these scriptures, it would just remind us how much God is helping us to get there. Thank you. Thank you. You can look on the new refreshed website. We put it up. Not we, Peter and the IT team put up a Passover Bible study there, too. So we're going to have we're going to have six of those leading up to Passover and some sermons that pertain to that as well. So, yeah, you know, we're going to lead everyone into Passover with we'll try to anyway through that website as well. So are they video or there is Yeah, the Passover ones are videos. They were done several years ago. But yeah, they're video. Okay. Yeah, good. The new website looks good. Yeah, yeah, they did a good job. Together with quickly, but okay, everyone, I'm gonna everyone's done. It's been great, great spending this evening with you. Have a wonderful rest of the week and Sabbath and we will look forward to see you all next Wednesday. Okay. Okay. Good night, everyone. Thank you.