Removal of Natural Blessings

We just covered chapter 4 of the book of Romans. We didn't quite get to verse 21 of chapter 4. Let's go over to Romans chapter 4 and verse 21. We read this about Abraham. From being fully convinced that what God had promised was also able to perform. We must be fully convinced. This is a definition of faith here. It's another definition. To believe that what God has said he will do. That's what faith comes down to. God says it, we will do it. So he was fully convinced of God's promises.

Romans and Galatians emphasized the promise of the one seed, Jesus Christ. And the promise of grace and salvation to all mankind, to all nations. But let's go back to the book of Genesis, chapter 12.

We will see that there was a dual promise given to Abraham. Abraham chapter 12. We'll begin to read here in verse 1. It says, The Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your kindred, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make a great nation, he says, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So here was a dual promise. A promise that he would make a great nation. So a promise of race, and also the promise of grace, that in you all the families of the earth would be blessed. So we have race and grace mentioned.

Now in chapter 15, chapter 15, this is reiterated again in verse 4. Let's go to Genesis 15 verse 4. It says, Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir. It says, But one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. So God said, You're going to have a child. You'll be the dad. Sarah's going to be the mom. And he brought him outside, and he said, Look now towards heaven, and count the stars, if you're able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. See, he believed God. He obeyed God.

And then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you up out of her of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I shall inherit it? And God then gives him a sign. So we find in chapter 15 that each time you read God-giving or reiterating the promise to him, there's a little more added. And here he talks about having physical descendants. They would be like the stars. In chapter 22 of the book of Genesis, chapter 22 and verse 15, verse 15, The angel, the Lord, called to Abraham a second time, and said, By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing. In other words, he was willing to offer up his son Isaac. You've done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son. In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you, or excuse me, multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is on the seashore your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies. In your seed, a reference to Christ, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So again, we clearly see a two-edged promise of physical descendants, and through the seed, the one seed through Christ, all nations, Israelites and Gentiles, would be saved. Here in chapter 22, the promise from God became unconditional. Prior to this, it was conditioned on his obeying God. Now God said, now I know, therefore I will do. And so he made the promise. Now these promises were later on passed on through Isaac and Jacob. Let's notice chapter 24, verse 60. Chapter 24, verse 60. They had to select a bride for Isaac. Rebecca was chosen. And notice, apparently, God inspired Rebecca's sisters. In verse 60, notice what they say here. They blessed Rebecca, and they said to her, our sister, may you become the mother of thousands and tens of thousands. And may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them.

Now notice, the physical descendants of Israel would possess the gates, but not just gates, the gates of those who hate them.

So it shows that whenever Israel would come to this great prominence, that they would be dealing with nations who would hate them, who would not love them, but who would despise them. And that they would possess gates like the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, choke points where they could control the sea lanes, things of this nature. In verse 67, Isaac brought her into his mother, Sarah's tent, and he took Rebecca. She became his wife. He loved her, so Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. It's an odd blessing to give to a sister. Sister's going away. Well, may you have tens of thousands of descendants, and they're going to inherit the gates of those who hate them. You know, that's not your normal, you know, going away, salutation. The descendants of Abraham would hate them. Now in chapter 26, chapter 26, verse 2, says, The Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt, dwell in the land, which I shall tell you, talking to Isaac. Sojourn in the land, and I will be with you, and I will bless you. For to you and your descendants, I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. So if God swears by himself, there is no greater power in the universe. It will happen. I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven. I will give to your descendants all these lands, and in your seed, again Christ, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Now why? Why was God going to pass this on? Verse 5, because, anytime you see a because, you need to pay attention to it. It tells you the reason. The reason being are because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my law. He did what I told him to do. So the promise was reiterated to Isaac by God. So it's passed on. Now we know who's going to go through it. It's going from Abraham to Isaac. Now back up to chapter 25 here, in the book of Genesis, and verse 23. This tells you about the birth of Esau and Jacob. In verse 23, you know, here Rebecca is straining, she's having problems, she's got twins. They're struggling to get out. You know, which one of us is going to come out first? You know, this is what was going on. The Lord said to her, there are two nations in your womb. Two people shall be separated from your body. They're going to be two different people.

One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. So two different people, the older Esau, would serve the younger Jacob. Before they were born, God had already determined who would be the greatest. Which one would rule over the other? It was going to be passed on to Jacob. Now, in verse 29 through 34, we discover that Jacob ends up selling, or excuse me, Esau ends up selling his birthright. And he said, what good is his birthright to me? He was hungry, so he fed him a pot of beans, of lentils. And as the last sentence in verse 34 says, thus Esau despised his birthright. So now Jacob has the birthright. In verse 27, Jacob, by deception, then gets the blessing that would perhaps have been passed on to Esau. Let's notice the account here. Remember, Isaac told Esau, go out, shoot me a deer, some venison, bring it back, and I'll bless you. In the meantime, we have this deception by Jacob. He came near and kissed him, kissed his father, and he smelt the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, surely the smell of my son is like the smell of the field, which the Lord has blessed. Therefore, may God give you of the dew of the heavens, the fatness of the earth, the plenty of grain and wine, and let people serve you. Notice, people were going to serve him, and nations bowed down to you. So, other nations would bow down before the descendants of Jacob. Be master over your brethren. Let your mother's son bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.

So, Jacob by Deceit receives this blessing. Notice what this blessing encompassed. Agricultural blessings to become very productive, and curses pronounced on anybody who cursed them, and blessings coming on nations that would bless them. Now, in chapter 28, beginning in verse 13, we find that his descendants were to spread off into all directions. Remember, Jacob lays down, he gets a stone, sees a ladder up into heaven. Then, here in verse 13, Behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, and your father and God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants. And your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, the stars of heaven, the sands on the seashore. All of these analogies are used. You shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, and the south. To you and to your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so, you discover again the promise of race and grace being outlined here. Each time the promise is passed on, more information is added about the physical blessings that were to come on his progeny, his offspring. The promise of the seed to come is repeated again. That never deviates. Chapter 35, verse 9. The Lord appeared to Jacob again when he came from Padanaram and blessed him. And God said to him, Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name. So he called him Israel.

The descendants of Jacob are Israelites. He had twelve sons. All twelve of those sons became the sons of Jacob, or the sons of Israel. All of them are Israelites. Notice, he goes on to say in verse 11, God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful, multiply a nation, and a company of nations shall proceed from you. Now we have something else added. One nation, a great nation, and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, I give to you, and your descendants after you, and I will give this land. And then God went up from him. So we find God again adding to this. Today, most people believe that the only Israelites are Jews, because that's all they know. They don't realize that Jacob had twelve sons, and that they encompass the people of Israel. The Jews, the tribe of Judah, is only one of those. They're only one of the twelve tribes. Now, in chapter 48 of the book of Genesis, Genesis 48, beginning in verse 14, Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

You find that Israel is going to bless them. And in verse 14, Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. So normally, the right hand, which conveys the greater blessing, would have gone on Manasseh's head. And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. Let my name be named upon them. So he says, my name will have special importance that would be named upon them. The name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Now when Joseph saw that his father's right hand was on the head of Ephraim, he displeased him. So he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's. And Joseph said to his father, Not so my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head. See, Israel didn't see very well at that point, so he thought he was getting confused. His father refused and said, I know my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude in the earth. So he blessed them that day. So the blessings of descendants becoming great and multiplying and great wealth was passed on to Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh. Even though we might not like to admit it in this country, God says that Ephraim would be the greatest. And so, as I think most of us realize and know, and we'll see here in chapter 49, that the descendants of Ephraim are the British Commonwealth, Great Britain and the UK, and then the Commonwealth of nations, what used to be called the British Empire. And then you have the United States, which has become a great dominant nation. Now, in chapter 49 verse 1, an extremely important scripture, one that should be circled and starred, Jacob called his sons, all 12 of them, and said, gathered together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.

We are living in the last days. So he says, I'm going to tell you what will happen in the last days. We're drawing very near the end of this world. So chapter 29 explains what will happen to each one of the tribes of Israel at the very end time. And I want you to notice what this implies. It implies that they all exist at the end time, that they're there. People may not know who they are, but they still exist at the end time. They're mainly in Western Europe, along with the British Empire or Commonwealth today, and with the United States. We have the nations of Israel. In verse 22, we find the blessing that was passed on to Joseph. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well. His branches run over the wall. The archers had bitterly grieved him. There would be those who would hate him, who would shoot at him, try to destroy him. They shot at him and hated him. Notice they would hate him. His bow remained in strength. It shows that his military power and strength would be there, and the arms of his hands were made strong. Why? Why has the United States, why has Britain in the past been such a great military power? Notice verse 24, by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. It says, from there is the shepherd and the stone of Israel.

It's by God's power, God's might, God has brought it to pass. God has backed us. God has given us a victory in two world wars. Verse 25, by the God of your Father, who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep, in other words, fishing, minerals, and so on, lie beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of your Father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors up to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Jacob and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. And so these blessings were passed on, and here you have these blessings being fulfilled in the end time. So that shows you when we should look for a great nation and a company of nations who are brothers, speak a common language, have a common heritage, common culture, background, and so on. Now notice some of the things that are said that would be passed on. Blessings on Joseph at the end time, he would be hated, but he would have strength, be strong militarily, strong weapons. It would be because of God's hands and blessings, not that we're better or greater than others. 1 Chronicles chapter 5, let's go over to 1 Chronicles 5 and verse 1.

We just read a summary of what I've covered in the book of Genesis.

Now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel. See, Reuben was the firstborn. He was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, we think Reuben, his France, because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the sons of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to birthright. Yet Judah prevailed over his brother, and from him came a ruler, although the birthright was Joseph. So the birthright belonged to Joseph. So notice again what we have discovered. The descendants of Joseph would be hated. They would possess the gates of those who hate them. Nations who curse them would be cursed. Nations who bless them would bless, be blessed. They would have agricultural blessings. They would have national greatness. They'd be a nation and a company of nations. The major fulfillment of these promises were passed on to Ephraim and Manasseh, the son of Joseph. God would bless Joseph with military power and might and authority. This would be God's doing. But I want you to notice that God said there would be nothing that would hold these promises back. They would be fulfilled. But I want you to notice a fundamental condition that God lays down. He promises to bring about these prophecies because of the obedience to Abraham. He promised them to Abraham. Abraham believed God, and so God gave him the promise. But for these blessings to continue on the people. Notice, in order for them to continue to be blessed with greatness and power, they had to obey God. They had to continue to obey God with their obedience or disobedience. God would do his part. But there would come a time when those blessings could and would be taken away from Ephraim and Manasseh. Brethren, are we living at the time where we see those blessings being ripped away from our people because of our disobedience?

I think that we're living in a period of time that we've talked about for decades, that we've read, we've written about, we've prophesied about, and one day it was going to happen and we see it taking place. Now, what should happen to us if we see it taking place? Should we just start to be content and say, well, that's interesting? Or should it be something that stirs us up, motivates us, helps us to see that we need to really be close to God ourselves?

As I said, we've talked about the fulfillment of these for years. Now we're living to see them. Let's go back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28. Deuteronomy 28 and verse 1.

Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 1.

We'll read verses 1 and 2 here because this chapter very clearly showed that God was going to carry out His end of the bargain. He would bless His people, but it was up to us to obey. That was true of ancient Israel, ancient Judah, and it's true when God fulfills these promises in the latter days. Now, verse 1, it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you, because you have obeyed the voice of the Lord your God.

So I want you to notice carefully we would have to obey these commandments. Now, this country was first founded upon the principles of Scripture and the Bible. God is constantly mentioned in our founding documents.

Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were ministers. Many of them had attended divinity school. You find that there's all kinds of references to God in their writings. The signers of these documents were mainly religious individuals. Their intent was that our country be founded on biblical principles and ethical conduct. And many of them said that our country could not continue. A democracy would not be able to continue unless it were built on ethical moral principles. And we have gotten away from those principles as a nation.

Now in verses 3 through 11, the blessings are enumerated. The blessings of the heavens above, the earth below, agriculture, our children, and on. Verse 10, he says, Then all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. So there'd be a certain fear, respect, all of the peoples of Israel. Verses 12 through 13 talks about the blessing of wealth.

And notice, verse 13, the Lord will make you the head, not the tail. We would be in charge. We would loan money to others. You shall be above only, not beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord, God says. Then verse 14, so you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. Brethren, have we as a nation gone after other gods? Has the God of the Bible been rejected by a large portion of our population?

Do we believe in diversity? So much so today that any religion is equal with the religion of the Bible, the scriptures, the moral tenets of what the Bible says. Today, our nation worships many religions, many gods, from all of the religions of the world are wrought here and worshiped. And God said that we should be a nation that obeys His laws, His commandments. Now, beginning in verse 15, God shows that if they did not obey, let's read it, if you shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, then all of these curses will come on you.

Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. And so He begins to go through and enumerate what the curses would be. Verse 16, agricultural and financial blessings would be taken away. Brethren, during the recent Democratic, or I guess the day before it started, convention clock turned over and we are now over 16 trillion dollars in debt. We're borrowing money from the nations of this world.

We're in debt to the Chinese up to our hawks and we're not lending to others. They come to us and say, well, how come you're so blessed but we're having to go to the other nations? I heard this morning that our financial status has been downgraded again to minus double A, which is not a good thing, especially when it comes to the high interests that we're going to have to pay to borrow money or to pay back money. Our health care isn't a mess. Our economy isn't a mess or is in trouble. Everywhere you look, we are having problems.

Verse 22 says, the Lord your God will strike you with consumption and fever, with inflammation and severe burning fever, with the sword and scorching, with mildew, and talks about our heavens being turned into iron, where it doesn't rain one spot and it's just like iron. Another spot, there's too much rain. So we would decline as a power into one day. We would eventually go into national captivity. As verse 32 points out, that there would be no strength in your hand.

The last sentence in verse 32. From coming to having strength in the arm, in the hand, and power, to the point where there would be no strength. Verse 43 of this chapter. He goes on to talk here that the alien who is among you shall rise up higher and higher above you.

Those would be the non-Israelites. And you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. A total flip-flop of what God said would take place if we obeyed Him. Notice the parallel chapter over here in Leviticus 26 and verse 17. Leviticus 26 and verse 16.

I read verse 17. It says, I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies, and those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues. Verse 19, I will break the pride of your power. I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

This morning, brethren, we heard on television—I'm sure you've been quite familiar and been watching it and following it—over 24 countries in the Middle East, even in Europe, like in England, in different places. 24 countries where our consulates, our embassies, are being attacked, where demonstrations, where thousands and tens of thousands of people are demonstrating against America, against who we are. These are terrorist attacks, and yet we find many of our leaders don't even use the word terrorists, don't even come out, and they just talk about problems going on. We are perceived in many areas of the world as being extremely weak and ineffective in the eyes of many nations, and they are taking an advantage of that. Let's notice in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 8, Jesus Christ shows here in Matthew 24 and verse 8 at the end time. Remember, He gave the Olivet prophecy about events that would lead up to His Second Coming. In chapter 24, verse 8, He said, All of these are the beginning of sorrows, or the beginning of the time of the tribulation. Then they shall deliver you up to tribulation, kill you, and you will be hated of all nations, talking about true Christians, about spiritual Israelites, as well as physical. You'll be hated of all nations for My name's sake, and many will be offended and betray one another, and will hate one another. So, we find hatred, again, being talked about here. There are so many prophecies in the Old Testament that describe what is to occur to our nations, the nations of Israel and the Jewish State today. Let's focus on one theme in the time remaining in the sermon that's talked about quite frequently in the Old Testament, and that is trying to buy our lovers and the consequences of that. Did God promise to bless His people if we obeyed Him? The answer is yes, He did. Did He say He would fight for us if we obeyed Him? Yes, He did. But today, we try to buy allies. We go into alliances. We sign treaties. These all seem logical if you're not depending upon God, if you're not trusting Him, to get as many people, nations behind you as possible.

You realize it's calculated. This is the latest I found. I'm sure there's some later figures. This was in 2008 that the U.S. spent around $25 billion a year on foreign aid that we give to countries like Egypt, Libya, Sudan, just different countries. I'm not sure all of the countries that we give them to, but many of the countries that we're trying to buy their allegiance.

Let's go back to the book of Jeremiah. I said there are so many areas, so many scriptures, that we could read and cover. But let me just give you a quick perusal of a couple of them here. Chapter 4 of the book of Jeremiah begins in verse 5. Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 5. Verse 5 of chapter 4 begins a prophecy that continues to the end of chapter 6. So you can begin in verse 5, read all the way to the end of chapter 6. It's one continuous prophecy. It's addressed here to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, which undoubtedly referred to the Jews during Jeremiah's day. They were about to go into captivity in the process of being taken captive, but also could refer to future inhabitants of the land. However, when you read through chapters 4, 5, and 6, you find that one of the recipients of this prophecy is not only the Jews, but also the House of Israel. Let's read it. Turn over to chapter 5 in verse 15. Chapter 5 and verse 15 in the middle of this prophecy. It says, Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar. O House of Israel, says the Lord, it is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. And then he goes on to describe it. Verse 19. And he says, I will and it will be when you say, Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us? Why is God allowing all this to happen to us? Why is it coming on us? Then you shall answer them, just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods, God says, in your land so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours. Verse 20. Declare this to the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, God tells them. So here we find, talking about the house of Israel, remember the house of Israel. The ten tribes went into captivity, 721-718 BC, to the Assyrians. They had gone into captivity 120 years or so prior to this time. So they went into captivity, later on became known as the lost tribes of Israel. And yet here they are mentioned about going into captivity again. We find that many prophecies of the Bible are dual, and this happens to be one of them. There was an application for that day, there's an application for the future. The house of Judah went into captivity in 604-585 BC, and at the end time, there will be a future captivity of the Jewish nation and of Joseph and some of the nations of Israel. Let's back up here to chapter 4 again, beginning in verse 4. Chapter 4, verse 4, God says, Circumcise yourself to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts, you men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Lest my fury come forth like fire. Verse 5, Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say, Blow the trumpet in the land. Cry, gather together, and say, As simple yourselves, and so let us go into the fortified cities. Because in verse 6, God says, I will bring disaster from the north. Great destruction is coming on the people. Now, they are going to end up going into captivity. So, in verse 19 of this same chapter, it talks about blowing the trumpet. It says, O my soul, my soul, I am pained, in my very heart, my heart makes a noise in me, and I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is plundered.

We know the Feast of Trumpets is coming up, and the Feast of Trumpets symbolizes the blowing of trumpets. The seven trumpet plagues in the book of Revelation.

You see here the sound of trumpets, one of the meaning of the blowing of trumpets. It is an alarm for war to announce warfare taking place. So, God tells the people, repent, circumcise your heart, change, and they refuse to do so. So, God is going to bring disaster upon the people because of our foolishness. In verse 22, he shows why. He says, My people are foolish. They have not known me. They are silly children. They have no understanding, God says. We look to our leaders. We ask for people, men of depth, men of understanding, men who know. They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they have no knowledge. Notice what today's English version says in the last part of this verse. Experts are doing what is evil, but failures at what is doing good. So, we find, we look at our nations, that we are experts at doing what is evil, failures at doing what is good. And then in verse 30, When you are plundered, what will you do? Though you clothed yourself with crimson, and though you adorned yourself with ornaments of gold, and though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you will make yourself fair. Your lovers, those that we give foreign aid to, those that we go to for help, those who are our lovers, our allies, will despise you, God says. And they will seek your life. They will despise you, and they will seek your life. But we find the same thing is true in chapter 5.

God says in verse 1 that He seeks for truth, so that He can pardon the people, and there is no truth. Verse 4, Therefore I said, surely they are poor, they are foolish, they do not know the way of the Lord. So, we've forgotten God's way, His plan, His purpose. In verse 7, He talks about our national sins here.

He says, When I have fed them to the fool, then they commit adultery, they assemble themselves by troops in the harlot's house. They were like well-fed, lusty stallions, everyone named after his neighbor's wife. So, you see the emphasis today on sexual sins. In verse 23 of this chapter, verse 23, But this people have a defiant and a rebellious heart. We defy God, and we are rebellious against God. In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 16, there are a lot of prophecies that we could read, but let's finish with this one. Ezekiel 16, verse 31. We need to be aware of the fact that God shows that anciently Israel tried to buy alliances, allies, they would ally themselves maybe with Egypt or other nations around them. Try to get their support for protection. We have done the exact same thing today, beginning in verse 31, chapter 16.

You erect your shrines at the head of every road and build your high places in every street. Yet, you were not like a harlot because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men make payments to all harlots. Normally, a harlot gets paid, God says, and you're like a harlot, but you make your payment to your lovers. That's what he talks about, how we pay our lovers to come to us. You hire them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. You're the opposite of other women in your harlotry because no one solicits you to be a harlot in that you give payment, but no payment was given you. Therefore, you are the opposite. And then going on, verse 36, Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, because of your filthiness you poured out, and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers. Verse 37 goes on to talk about our lovers. Notice, Surely therefore I will gather all of your lovers, with whom you take pleasure, all those you have loved, all those that we try to ally ourselves and get on our sides, all those who those you hate, I will gather them. And he goes on to talk about how national captivity takes place. You can go over to the book of Hosea, chapter 2, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 8, all of them. The book of Hosea was a specific prophecy written to the house of Israel before their captivity. And it talks about how they hired lovers.

Now God has given many warnings to our people.

Today we've had many warnings. Look at all the attacks over the last few decades against American facilities, overseas, embassies, ships, weapons, and so on. Look at 9-11. Look at all of these things. Observe what is going on in the Mid-East right now and in the Far East. God is trying to get our attention. He's trying to help us to see that, yes, we are hated worldwide. We're not liked. We are despised. Why? Well, because of our greatness, because of our power. And in a sense today, because even of our weakness, but because of who we are and what we've done in the past. And people want to bring us down. They want to destroy us. And the only way that we will continue as a nation, as a people, and especially with any power, is if we look to God because the power, the authority, the might, the strength, came from God, not from us. It is by God's hands, by His power. So God is trying to get our attention. He wants us as a nation to turn to Him, to repent of our sins and to change. Brethren, is God also trying to get our attention? Is He also speaking to the Church? Is He also showing us and telling us, look, you know, you've known these prophecies for years. Now they're beginning to happen. Are you willing to make sure that you are walking with me in the way that you should? Brethren, we all need to look at ourselves and ask ourselves, are we doing what we need to do to please our God and to obey Him? So the message goes out, the warning goes out. It goes to both the nation and the Church. And, brethren, if we have ears to hear, we need to hear.