Good evening, everyone. Welcome here to our mid-week service at Calvary Baptist Church at Prehearn. And welcome, who does fitfully in tune with us via internet, our live streaming. Please open your handouts to number 203. Two, zero, three. Whosoever will. Number 203. Whosoever hear it, shout, shout the sound Spread the blessed tidings all the world around Tell the joyful news wherever man is found Whosoever will, may come Whosoever will, whosoever will Send a proclamation over Tis a loving Father calls the wonder home, Whosoever will may come. Whosoever cometh need not delay, Now the door is open, enter while you may. Jesus is the truth, the only living way, Whosoever will may come. Whosoever will, whosoever will, Send the proclamation over vale and hill, This our loving Father calls no other home, Whosoever will, may come. Whosoever will, the promise is secure, Whosoever will, forever messenger, Whosoever will, this life forevermore Whosoever will, may come Whosoever will, whosoever will Send a proclamation of her will and him This unloving Father calls the wanderer home Whosoever will, may come Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this evening that we have the opportunity of coming to a place that still believes in the truth. We're thankful that that word tells us that anyone can be saved if they want to be. If they listen to the work of the Holy Spirit, they can repent and be saved. We pray for those listening today that are not saved, that they would stop fighting against the truth, they know better, that they would want to know their forgiveness today while they have opportunity. Pray for those of us that are saved that we'd be faithful in our witness and help others to know the truth. We pray for Ronnie as he drives truck, that he'd have safety and wisdom in his duties. We pray for the Philippines as they continue to recover from the typhoons, that they can get things back in order. Pray for the families of the Amatis and the Pateras, that we can be a help to them in our Zoom meetings. Thy will be accomplished in our meetings. And we pray for our devotionals, that they'd be a blessing to the people that are reading them. Thank you for those that have found our website. We just want to be a help to people. Pray for protection from unruly governments that want to shut down the truth and help us not to be ashamed or afraid, but to be bold and faithful to Thee. Bless our time together here this evening. May Thy will be accomplished, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 364. 364. Yield not to temptation. Number 364. ♪ Yield not to temptation for yielding is easy ♪ This victory will help you some other to win. Fight bountifully onward, our passions subdued. Jesus, he'll carry you through. Ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen, and keep you. He is willing to aid you, he will carry you through. Shine, evil companions, bad language, disdain, But them holding reverence, nor take it in vain, Be truthful and earnest, kind-hearted and true. Long ever to Jesus He'll carry you through Ask the Savior to help you Comfort, strengthen, and lift you He is willing to lead you He will carry you To him that o'er cometh, God gave into a crown. Through faith he will conquer, though often cast down. He who is our Savior, our strength will renew. Look ever to Jesus, He'll carry you through. Ask the Savior to help you, Comfort, strengthen, and keep you. He is willing to aid you, He will carry you through. Number two, 384. 384, where he leads me. Number 384. I can hear my Savior calling I can hear my Savior calling I can hear my Savior calling Take thy cross and follow, follow me Where he leads me I will follow Where He leads me, I will follow Where He leads me, I will follow I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way I'll go with Him through the garden I'll go with Him through the garden I'll go with Him through the garden I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way Where He leads me, I will follow Where He leads me, I will follow Where He leads me, I will follow I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way. I'll go with Him through the judgment. I'll go with Him through the judgment. I'll go with Him through the judgment. I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way. Where He leads me, I will follow. Where He leads me, I will follow. Where He leads me, I will follow. I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me wisdom and glory. He will give me grace and glory. And go with me, with me all the way. Where He leads me, I will follow Where He leads me, I will follow I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way Take your Bibles and turn to Ezekiel chapter 37. Ezekiel 37, I'm gonna read from verse 15 to the end of the chapter, verse 28. And we'll stand, please, for the reading of God's word. Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 15, it says, the word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, moreover thou son of man, take the one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions. Then take another stick, and write upon it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions. And join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus sayeth the Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whether they be gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all. And they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them, so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd, They shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt. And they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children, for ever. And my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forever. My tabernacle also shall be with them, yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel. when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful again for thy word, thankful again for this promise given to the nation of Israel in a time when they were hurting because of their sin. They were discouraged, many of them, and thou didst direct Ezekiel to encourage them. The problem is, the sad truth is that for many years, even till now, Israel has not wanted this encouragement. They are still fighting against thee. They're still suffering because they're fighting against thee. Many Jews are losing their lives. Many Jews are living in fear. We pray that many Jews would be saved in these last days. And we pray that Mr. Netanyahu also would get saved and see his need to repent and know the truth. as he claims to believe in God, but he doesn't believe in the God of the Bible. We pray, Father, that he would want to know Thee, the true God, and not be so proud and arrogant. We pray, Father, that as we look at these verses, that those of us who are saved would be encouraged. We have a God who is truthful. He cannot lie. He does not lie. And we can trust Thee. And again, we pray for anyone listening that's not saved, that they would see just how foolish they are that they would want to know the truth and be saved today while they have this opportunity. Bless the reading of that word to our hearts and guide us in the study of that word, that we be attentive to the work of the Holy Spirit in each person that's listening, that we would want thy blessing, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. title of the message this evening is unity comes from God. Unity comes from God. The nation of Israel has been struggling for a long time and their struggles are because of their sin. I remember a few years ago that a woman asked me the question that is it it's normal for Christians to struggle. And the answer to that question is no, it's not normal for Christians to struggle. The only reason Christians struggle is when they're fighting against God. And that's what the nation of Israel is doing. The nation of Israel is not a Christian nation, but they are still the children of Israel, and they need to come to the place of repentance and turn to Him, to God in repentance, and they will do that one day. The suffering of man started with the fall of Adam. Before that, there was no suffering. Adam and Eve, when they were created by God, they didn't know what suffering was. They didn't know what it was to have a cold. They didn't know what it was to have a canker sore. There was nothing that bothered them, because there was no sin. But because of Adam's fall, man is cursed. and therefore we get colds, we can get the flu, we can have cancer, we can break an arm, we can have aches and pains. All of that is the result of the fall of man. Now, there are ways that we can avoid some of that. Some cancers can be avoided, some cannot. Some aches and pains can be avoided, but not all of them. When we stretch ourselves and we lift something that we're not used to lifting, it can give us a sore muscle. But we get over it. Our bodies are designed by God that we can get over those things and we can strengthen ourselves to protect against those things as well. But we are fallen creatures, and because of that, we face difficulties but the nation of Israel in particular as we look at our text is suffering spiritually and that spiritual suffering is causing them physical problems and that's the big problem that they are not willing to address at this time and Ezekiel was directed by God chosen by God to be a mouthpiece for him at a time when they were discouraged, when they were mourning the loss of loved ones, when they were out of their own land. Ezekiel, remember, is a captive in Babylon. He's not writing from Jerusalem. He's not writing from anywhere in Israel. He's a captive in Babylon, and he's writing to his own people. and reminding them of what's coming for them. And in today's and last week's message, he's reminding them of better times to come. So again, the first point we have is respecting God's Word. respecting God's word. And we have talked about this before, but God constantly in this book reminds us, as he says in verse 15, and the word of the Lord came again unto me saying, Over and over we find a similar phrase in the book of Ezekiel. So God is constantly reminding Ezekiel, constantly reminding the children of Israel, and constantly reminding anyone who reads the Bible that this book, as is every book, is inspired of God. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, That's important. God repeats it often, so therefore we should not be tired of hearing that. We need to be reminded, just as much as Ezekiel needed to be reminded, that this is God's Word. And that's very important that we are mindful of that fact that what we are reading here is God's Word. And it's an interesting thing when you think about how many people there are today who despise the Word of God. The perversions, every one of the perversions despises the Word of God. The committees that got together to write those perversions, those people despise the Word of God. The people that purchase those corrupt books and use them, they despise the Word of God. There may be the odd person that doesn't know that is truly saved walks into a bookstore is not attending a good church so therefore doesn't understand that just because a store calls itself a Bible bookstore doesn't mean it's a good store to walk into. Most of the Bible bookstores that are in North America aren't worth walking into. and so you're better off to stay out of there. But there may be some born-again Christian who is looking for a Bible and walks into one of those stores and asks the clerk, which Bible should I buy? And most of the clerks will not point them to a King James Bible. They may have one in their store. They may have one in their store. But if they do, they will say, well, this one's too hard to read. You can't understand it. So here, take this one, the ESV or the NIV or the New American Standard or some other perversion. They'll try to sell them that. I remember as a young person myself walking into a Bible bookstore, And asking the clerk which Bible would be a good Bible. And I think at that time that they wanted to sell me a new American Standard, if I remember right. And I don't think I bought it at that time. I don't remember having one at that age. But that's what they tried to sell me. And I, of course, didn't know the reason for the King James at that time. It wasn't until I was an adult for many years already before I finally was taught the importance of the King James over the perversions. And that's the problem with attending a New Evangelical Church. They keep the truth from you. They don't bother to teach the whole counsel of God. And it is very important for us to understand the importance of having the word of God in our hands. We need that. When you read a newspaper, you don't know what to believe from anything that's written in that newspaper. When you listen to the news on the internet or on the radio, You don't know what to believe because it depends on who is reporting, whether they're reporting the truth or not. Even when you want to get the weather. something as simple as getting the weather. My wife has two different apps on her phone that tell her what the weather is going to be on a particular day. Those two apps don't agree with each other. So which one do you believe? So even when it comes to the weather, you can't necessarily believe what you're seeing on the app. And then, of course, most weather apps today, they'll give you the temperature, but then they go ahead and they tell you, but it feels like this. You know, so they want you to believe what they are telling you it feels like outside. How about just leaving that alone and you walk outside and say, yeah, it's not too bad out today. Instead of them telling you, and most people are happy to be brainwashed by those people, oh, it feels like minus 20. It says it's minus 10, but it feels like minus 20. It's too cold. I can't go out today. Why not just take what the temperature is and live with it? But we have allowed people to impact our lives in these things, but we don't want God to impact our lives with his word. That's backwards. So Ezekiel here in our text is going to impact the people of his time, but also us today. He's giving us things that we need to know. And that's why God continuously reminds him, the word of the Lord came again unto me. Now in our country today, the truth is not appreciated. Some time ago, you may have remember hearing it in the news that the government came out and they said that there were over 200 grave sites in Kamloops, BC, I believe it was, where there were residential school children buried because the schools were so evil and the children died and were buried secretly in these places. And since that time there have been other places across Canada where they have made the same claim that there are residential school children buried there and it was because of the cruelty of the schools. But the reality is that not one of those supposed grave sites has been dug up. They haven't got one bone of a child that they have dug up that they can prove that it's actually a grave. Because the machines that they're using to supposedly tell them there are graves there, for instance, we have where Ronnie and Gerilyn lived, their neighbor building a house. And when they dug the basement, there was a bunch of rocks there. If they would have taken that machine and run over that property before they dug that basement, they would have found that there was something in there. They could have said, look at all the graves here. But what it was is all those rocks. And those rocks, it's a sonic signal that's being sent in, and it bounces off the rock and comes back. There's something there. That's all that machine can do. It can tell them there's something there, but it can't identify what it is. But in Canada now, they want to make it a crime to question the claim that there are these graves out there. You can't even question it. And yet there's no proof that there's even one grave there. Now, some places there will be because in some places they're actually going over a graveyard. But it doesn't mean it's children from the residential school. But that's where our country is. Our country doesn't want to know the truth. They want to push a narrative and they want us to blindly follow them in that narrative. And yet again, most people in Canada reject the word of God, which is the truth. and they don't want to know the truth. But God is far more gracious than our leaders are. God allows people to reject his word, and he keeps reminding them through the Holy Spirit that he is God, and his word is truth, and people would be wise to listen to it. And that's the same for anybody listening to this today. If you're listening and you're not saved, you are a fool. You are rejecting the truth, and it is the truth. You cannot refute what the Bible says, but you're choosing not to believe it. And that choice is very dangerous. And one day, you're gonna take your last breath, and without knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, you're gonna go straight to hell. And that's something that I'm not ashamed to remind you of, because it's the truth. And I don't want you to go to hell. You need to know the truth. You need to know God's forgiveness now, not just so you don't go to hell, but so you can begin to enjoy life the way God wants you to, that you can know his peace. And the only way to know God's peace is through knowing the forgiveness of sin in your heart. So Ezekiel is reminding the people here, reminding us that what we're studying here is not fiction. It's true, every word of it. It comes from the Lord, Jehovah God. The second thing we see is the joining of a broken nation. Now we have to go back to the time of King Solomon. What happened to Israel that it was a broken nation? And it wasn't because the people couldn't get along with each other, it was because God was judging Solomon. King Solomon was the wisest king that ever lived, one of the wealthiest kings that ever lived. His wisdom came from God. As a young man, when his father David died, God appeared to Solomon in a vision, and he asked him what he wanted. And at that time, as a young man, Solomon said, I need wisdom to know how to rule this great nation. And God was pleased with Solomon's request. And so God granted Solomon wisdom, but he also granted him great wealth. And so the nations around Israel looked at Israel during the time of Solomon's early reign, and they saw the wealth that was coming into Israel. And they also heard of the wisdom of Solomon. The Queen of Sheba, traveled from her homeland and came to Israel because she had heard of the wisdom of Solomon, but she wanted to witness it for herself. So she was willing to leave her home country and travel to Israel to actually meet Solomon, King Solomon, and talk to him. So Solomon began his reign as a wise man. But it wasn't long after he became a king that he began to demonstrate that he was pushing that wisdom aside for the wisdom of the world. And so the first thing we read about Solomon in regard to his own personal life is that he chose to marry Pharaoh's daughter. Now it was very common, Solomon likely knew this at that time, it was very common at that time and for many years afterwards that a foreign king would try to befriend a king that might be a threat to him, and he might try to marry that other king's daughter, thinking that if I have that king's daughter as my wife, that king will not invade our country because he won't want to kill his wife and he won't want to kill any children that we have through this marriage. And so it was an insurance policy. So we don't know, and well, I guess we do know, that Solomon didn't really love that woman. He took her as his wife, but it was an insurance policy, because if he would have loved her, he wouldn't have married 699 other women, and he wouldn't have had 300 concubines. Because if you love your wife the way the Bible teaches, you don't need a second wife, and you don't need 700 wives. So Solomon didn't understand what love is and so because of his sin of multiple marriages and the fact that the many wives he had were strange women who led him into idolatry. That doesn't mean that Solomon could blame them, but it means that we as men are easily led astray when we operate under lust. When you operate under lust instead of under true love, then you become a wet noodle. And your wives, your women that you are running after, you are going to do whatever it takes to be able to keep them on your side. And if you're not content with the wife that God wants you to have, but you think you need to go to bed with many other women, you're going to do whatever you need to do to be able to go to bed with them. So you're gonna buy them flowers, you're gonna buy them other things, you're gonna listen to them, you're gonna go where they want you to, and all kinds of things that you're gonna do just to try to keep them so that you can go to bed with them, because that's what it's about. It's not because you really love them, it's because you lust after them. And so that's what Solomon did. And he had many wives. And God said to him before he died, he said, after your death, because of your sin, I'm going to break this nation apart into two parts. And you remember when Rehoboam became the king, he didn't want to believe what the prophet had told his father, Solomon. And so Rehoboam tried to go to the north and after Jeroboam came to him and said, gave him a three-day opportunity to listen to the North. They wanted the tax burden lightened. Maybe somebody should go to our Prime Minister and talk about that. But that's what they did. They went to him and said, we want to lower lesser tax burden. And Solomon said, well, come back to me in three days, and I'll give you an answer. So in that time, Rehoboam, yeah. So in that time, he consulted with the old men who were there with Solomon, his father, and those old men told him, if you listen to the people in this, and if you lessen their tax burden, you'll have them loyal to you for the rest of your reign. And then Rehoboam decided, I'm gonna also consult the young men that are my age, I'm gonna see what they have to say. And so he did, he consulted them, and they told him, you need to prove to these people that you're strong, you're powerful. And so you need to tell them, my little finger is gonna be stronger than Solomon was. And so Rehoboam, being a proud young man, listened to the young men, not the old men. And the result was that the split took place. But it was designed by God that the nation was going to be split. It was God's design that the nation would be split into two. And so, Rehoboam took the north, 10 tribes, and they became known as Israel. The south, Rehoboam was left with two tribes, And that's all he had. So that was the problem. And that stayed that way for several hundred years. In fact, it was that way until the captivity. And then when the nation of Israel was brought back together again in 1948, there is no more two nations. There's no more Judah and Israel. It's one land now. There's one government, they don't have a king, they have a president, they have a prime minister, but it's one land. And so what Ezekiel is talking about here in verse 16, God says, moreover thou son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions. Then take another stick and write upon it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions. So Joseph was the favored son of Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons, but he only had two sons with Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. But Joseph was the favored son. And so that's why here Joseph is mentioned, and Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And Ephraim is often mentioned in the Bible to represent the North. And Ephraim is also often mentioned in the Bible as a very ungodly tribe. They were into all kinds of evil, and that's mentioned in the Bible. And so here, that's the name that is used, Joseph, the stick of Ephraim. And so Ezekiel is told to take these two sticks and to write these names on them. And then in verse 17, it says, and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. So God is giving Ezekiel the ability here to take these two sticks that he has in his hand and to blend them into one. Now, normally you can't do that. You have two sticks in your hand, you can squeeze them as hard as you want to. You can put them in a vice and you can squeeze them in a vice, but you're gonna splinter them, but you're not gonna make those two sticks become one. But Ezekiel here is told to take these two sticks and join them together and make them one. And he did, because God is using this as an illustration. He's using it as an illustration to prove a point of what he is going to do. Now, it's important for a nation to be successful that it be united. In our country of Canada, we have a government for the last 10 years that has been working hard to divide us as people. They have divided us in the sense of the native population of Canada. They want them to be against the Europeans and they want the Europeans against them. They have divided us in regard to the regions and in regard to color of skin and different things. Our government has been working hard to cause division. Used to be when people came into Canada, Europeans for instance came from all over Europe and from other Asia too came to Canada and we assimilated we became Canada. It was called Canada but then in when I was a younger person then there was the feud in Quebec and Quebec did not want to be part of Canada. They wanted to have the taxes of Canada to pay for their stuff, but they wanted to be called a distinct nation. They wanted French to be their main language, and not only that, they wanted to force the rest of Canada to have to speak French as well. So that's why Canada, doesn't matter where you go, you have bilingual signs, English and French. because Canada, the leadership of Canada has no backbone and so one province, Quebec, one province could demand that the tax dollars of the whole country need to be used to fund bilingual signs, bilingual labeling on every product sold in Canada has to have bilingual labeling on it because the demanded it, and the government, instead of saying, no, this is Canada, they allowed them to have their way. So now we have not just the French, but we have people from different regions, different places in the world coming to Canada, but they don't want to be Canadian. They want to keep their own language. They want to keep their own culture. And some of them, like the Muslims, they want to force Canada to become Muslim. They want to bring in Sharia law, and they're working hard at it. Just this week in Toronto, the Muslims raised their flag in a prominent square in Toronto, and they dominated that area, and they had police protection. Nobody could interfere with what they were doing. It wasn't that long ago that the Jews tried to raise their flag in Toronto and the police came right away and took it down. So our country, Canada, is supporting terrorists. In Luke 11, verse 17, Jesus says, but he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falleth. That's Canada. Canada is a nation that cannot stand for itself. That's why Mr. Trump can play games with us and we have no response. The only thing that our prime minister is doing is flying over the world trying to make trade deals with other countries. And because he can't get one with the United States because the United States is playing like a cat and mouse. We're the mouse and they're the cat. And they're playing with us. And we have no way of responding to them because we cannot defend ourselves. If we were invaded, we would bow the knee very quickly because we can't defend ourselves. We have no air force, we have no submarines, we have very few ships, battleships, and we have a depleted army. So we're in bad shape as a country. And the Nation of Israel, they are one nation now. If we look at the time from Rehoboam on until the captivity, We find that Israel was a weakened nation. The Assyrians, the Philistines, the Egyptians, if they wanted to, they could go and attack. And they did. They attacked whenever they wanted to. And the nation could not defend itself, the reason being because the North and the South were divided and they were fighting amongst themselves, and that weakened them. When another enemy came in, that enemy could play with them because they were defenseless. The only thing that kept Israel from being destroyed is the fact that God said to Abraham, I'm never gonna let you be destroyed. That's the only reason. It wasn't because they were so strong as a nation. But they're back together again, the nation of Israel is. They're one nation, and they are having some success. Now, we know that one of the problems two years ago when Hamas attacked in southern Israel, one of the reasons for that attack being so successful is because there was a lot of political unrest in Israel. There was a fairly large group of Jews in Israel that didn't like Netanyahu. And they were being supported by Joe Biden in the United States. The United States is wealthy, and they were funding that resistance in Israel. And so instead of Israel as a united nation, having their intelligence organized so they could see what was happening on their southern border, They were too busy, one side against Netanyahu, the other side trying to defend him. They were too busy with that and Hamas took advantage of that and came in from the south and slaughtered over a thousand people and took a bunch of captives. That's what happens when a nation is divided. After that Hamas invasion, Of course, it wasn't that long after that Joe Biden no longer was the president, Mr. Trump became the president, and things changed in Israel. The opposition that was there that wanted Netanyahu out was no longer being funded the way they were before. They're still there, but they don't have the money to fight. So they have kind of backed off. So Israel is a much more united nation right now, and that's why they have been successful in quelling a lot of the the Muslim opposition, the Muslim attacks against them. That's why they have gone into Gaza and been successful there. If Biden was still president, things wouldn't be as they are right now. But again, God is using Mr. Trump to fulfill his purpose. And so as God says to Ezekiel here, that he needed to take these two sticks and blend them together. And then in verses 18 to the end of the chapter, it says there, the third point, God never loses track of his people. That's the third point. So even though we have, today we have an organization called British Israelism, we have the Armstrong, Herbert W. Armstrong movement, and others like that, and they believe that they're still the lost tribe of Israel, and that's not true. There's no lost tribe of Israel. But in verse 18 it says, So as Ezekiel is taking these two sticks and putting them together and making it look like one stick, the people are not catching it. They're not understanding what's going on. You see, that's the problem when people don't know the Lord. There are a lot of people who read the Bible, but they don't understand what they're reading. They're just like the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter eight. They're reading it, but they're not understanding it. Why can't they understand it? Because they need somebody to teach them. Ethiopian eunuch was humble enough to realize that. He realized he needed somebody to help him to understand what he was reading when he was reading Isaiah 53. But most people today, they don't want to know what they're reading. They just close the Bible and put it away. And they say, well, this is a bunch of hogwash. It doesn't make sense. I'm not going to read this. But that's not the answer. Just because you put the truth away doesn't make the truth go away. And you're still held accountable by the truth. And so rather than push it aside and say, well, I'm not interested, you're better off to say, I need to find somebody who can help me to understand this. And of course, if you truly want to understand the word of God, God is going to lead you to the place of salvation. And so here, the people, they come to Ezekiel and they say, wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Verse 19, the Lord says to Ezekiel, say unto them, thus sayeth the Lord God. So again, God is reminding Ezekiel and the people, this is God's answer, not Ezekiel's answer. Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand." So you see Ezekiel here is being used by God to be a picture of God. He's not God, but in verse 19, God says Judah and Ephraim will be one stick in God's hand. He's going to bring them back together. So all the civil wars that took place from the time of Rehoboam on, fighting between the North and the South, that would be done. And that is done now. As I mentioned, there's conflict there between the more liberal part and the somewhat conservative part in Israel. That conflict will eventually be completely gone. And that will be at the end of the tribulation. Remember we said last time that the bones were going to be brought together and then later on the spirit would be put into those living bones and the spirit is not in them today. The nation of Israel is there but they're not a Christian nation and they will be a Christian nation at the end of the tribulation. They will recognize Jesus Christ as the one that they pierced they put him on the cross and they will recognize that and they will turn to him in repentance and be saved. And they will be the ones that will enter the millennium. So in verse 20, and the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes and say unto them, thus sayeth the Lord God, behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen. Today, the nation of Israel is scattered across the world. As I mentioned last week, there's over 7 million Jews in Israel right now. We don't know how many Jews there are scattered across the world. God does, but we don't. We know there are Jews in Canada. There are Jews in the United States. There are Jews in France. A few years ago, the Muslims tried to kill them off there, but they didn't. But the result of that kind of stuff is that Jews have been moving back to Israel. And they're gonna continue to move back to Israel as God allows pressure to be put upon them in Canada, in United States, in other countries, they're going to move back to Israel, because that's where God wants them. He wants them back in that land. And so it says here in verse 21, God is doing that right now. Verse 22, and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all. That's Jesus Christ. He's gonna be their king. And they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into the two kingdoms any more at all. So never again, when that happens, when God brings the nation back to Israel, And when Jesus Christ is their king, they'll never be divided again. Like I say, when you look at the nation of Israel, if you follow that nation at all, you know that since 1948, they claim, they pride themselves in being a democracy. They have never had a majority government in Israel since 1948. It's always been minorities. And then they have to form a coalition in order to be able to govern, because there's no one party in Israel that gets enough votes to be able to govern that land. So Mr. Netanyahu, he has people from the right, Orthodox Jews. He has other people in his coalition government. So he has to walk on his tiptoes to make sure that he doesn't offend any of these coalition partners, otherwise his government falls. And that has happened before. He's been prime minister, I think this is the third time. And every time, the government has fallen because he has done something that one of the partners or two of them didn't like. They said, we're done with you. And once he loses enough people on his side, he can't govern. It's like our government right now. We have a minority government. They just passed a budget on Tuesday night. How did they pass that budget? It's a minority government. How did they get it to pass? Well, they got a couple of people from other parties to abstain from voting, including two people from the Conservative Party, and they got one Conservative to cross the floor and become a Liberal. And so with those abstentions, and then two people from the NDP joining and voting with them, they got enough votes to be able to pass the budget by two votes. But really, the government should have fallen. But they were able to convince those few people that you don't want to have an election right now. It's too expensive. It's right close to the end of the year. You don't want to have election now. So they agreed to join them and passed it. So that's a fragile system that we have in our country as well. But in Israel, that's the way it is. But God says that's going to be over when Jesus Christ becomes their king. They don't need to have elections anyway. During the millennium, there's not gonna be any elections because Jesus is the king for the whole time. There's no need for elections. And then in verse 23, it says, neither shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols. That's still a problem today. You remember back when Hamas attacked them, they had a big statue of Buddha at their rock concert. So they still have idolatry in Israel right now. But God says, that's gonna be over when Jesus becomes their king. Nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned and will cleanse them so shall they be my people and I will be their God. So that's the repentance that's going to come. The nation of Israel is going to recognize that they have sinned against God. It's not God that's changing. He doesn't need to change. It's they that need to change. And that's something, again, that we need to understand as well. If you are trusting in God and following Him, you don't need to change just because people oppose what you're teaching and believing. There have been several churches I have pastored, and the people have liked me at first, but eventually there's something that I said to them that offended them, and they said, we want you out. Now, I could have been a politician, said, okay, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, I changed my mind, I'm not gonna do that anymore, and I could have stayed there. But I'm not a wet noodle. And so I wasn't wrong in what I did, so I'm not going to say I'm sorry. I'm not gonna apologize for telling people the truth. And that's the reality of where we're living today, is that a church can be a very fragile place if there are people in that church that don't love the Lord. And there can be people who make the claim, the last church that I pastored, when I got there, there were people that were in tears because they were so thankful that God had sent them a man like myself. But those same people, not that many years afterwards, said, you got to get out of here. We don't want you anymore. They were very fickle. And they were not grounded in the things of God. It wasn't because they weren't being taught, but they chose not to believe the truth. But when Jesus becomes the king, he's not going to allow anyone to overthrow him, because you see, it's not a democracy. Jesus is not going to be voted in. He's gonna present himself at the end of the tribulation as the Messiah, as the Savior, as the King, and he's gonna declare himself to be the King, and that's it. Now, there will be many people in the millennium who will oppose him, but that doesn't matter. He has the power to say, doesn't matter, this is not a democracy, you didn't vote for me, I'm the King, and I'm gonna rule. You don't like it? Too bad. He has that authority to be able to do that. So in verse 24, it tells us, and David, my servant, shall be king over them. Now, when David became the king, God promised him that his throne would be an eternal throne. But we all know that David died. And we know that there were many kings after David. So when it talks about David in verse 24 and 25, it's talking about his throne and it's talking about that Jesus Christ is of the seed of David. And so he sits on that throne. He is the eternal king. David was a type of Jesus Christ. So David, my servant, shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd, that's Jesus Christ. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. They shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. The word statutes there, that's God's law. He gave that law through Moses. And they're going to like that law. Throughout the history of the nation of Israel, except for the time of David, the nation of Israel has fought against the law of God. They don't like it. But they're going to like it. Verse 25, and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant. Jacob was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. And God promised Jacob that that land, same promise she made to Abraham, would be theirs forever. And so here, God is reminding the Jews of Ezekiel's day and reminding the Jews of today as well, that the land that he gave to Jacob, my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, Jacob lived in the land of Canaan. So did many other fathers of that present generation that Ezekiel is talking to. They lived in that land, and they're going to live there again. And they shall dwell therein, even they and their children and their children's children forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever." That's again, Jesus Christ, who is the prince, Isaiah chapter nine, the prince of peace. the everlasting father. That's Jesus, verse 26. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them. You see, that covenant of peace was broken, not because God couldn't keep it, but because the nation decided, we don't want you. And so they said, out with you. We want pagan gods. And God said, okay. You can have that. I'm going to bring the Babylonians in to take the South. I'm going to bring the Assyrians in to take the North. You want pagan kings? You'll have them. You'll find out what it's like to live under that pagan system. The Jews didn't like it, but they asked for it. And they suffered under that for a long time, even today. Even though they have a president, they have a prime minister, on paper they have a land, But in reality, the world still thinks they're gonna tell Israel how to live, what they can do and what they can't do. And so Mr. Trump is busy trying to negotiate peace deals between Israel and her enemies when Mr. Trump has his own country that he should be looking after, which he can't control. But he's sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong and trying to manipulate things in the Middle East. Verse 26, again, moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them and multiply them and shall set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. In the millennium, Jesus is going to build a temple. The Antichrist is going to have a temple. There's no temple in Israel right now. The Antichrist is going to be able to get some people together that's going to build, they're going to build a temple in the seven year tribulation and that temple is going to go up very quickly. They're not going to follow the red tape that we have in Canada. It takes years to build any major structure in Canada. Any government building takes years to build it and always over budget. That's not going to be the case when that temple goes up in the tribulation. The Antichrist is going to cut all the red tape out. That temple will be built quickly. Because by the midpoint of the tribulation, that temple will already be in use. The people will be used to going to that temple to do their sacrifices and so on. And then the Antichrist is going to enter that temple at the midpoint and he's going to defile that temple. and the Jews will despise that temple because it's been defiled and they will have no way of cleansing it. And so God says here, my tabernacle also shall be with them, yea, I will be their God and they shall be my people. And then in verse 28, and the heathen shall know that I am, that I the Lord do sanctify Israel. So right now, The world doesn't believe that God has his hand upon Israel. Mr. Trump doesn't believe that. Our prime minister certainly doesn't believe that. No nation in the world believes that. Not even Israel believes that. But the heathen, it says, shall know that I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever. When Jesus takes over the end of the tribulation, when he builds that temple, which will stand for a thousand years, when he builds that temple, there are heathen, there will be heathen. There will be babies born in the millennium. But they're all gonna be reminded by that temple, they're gonna be reminded that Israel is a special people. And today, as people walk past this church, we're not a temple, we're not the nation of Israel, but as people walk past this church, they should be reminded that there's a God and there are people that attend this place that are God's children, saved individuals. Not everybody that's here is saved. But that's what this place needs to be known for. It needs to be known for the fact that this is a place that's different. And I believe it is known for that. That's why so many people avoid it. Because they're scared of what goes on here. They don't know what goes on, but they're scared of it. And their imaginations are running over time. And so we need to pray, those of us that are saved, we need to continue to pray that people would wake up and see there's nothing to be afraid of here. What they need to be afraid of is the fact that they don't know the Lord. That's what they need to be afraid of, that they're on the way to hell. And they need to get saved while they have opportunity to do that. And we, those who have saved me to pray for boldness, that we can continue to remind people, invite them to come. Nothing scary going on here. We don't have no ghosts, no goblins in here. That's outside on that truck that was there a few weeks ago. That's not here. There's nothing to be afraid of here. But if you don't know the Lord, you're gonna be afraid because you're under conviction. You're not ready to meet the Lord. And so for those of us that are saved, we need to continue to be faithful and encourage people to come. Come and listen. Come and see. See for yourself what's going on. See if it's really as scary as you think it is. See if it's really as dangerous as you think it is. There's nothing dangerous going on here. The love of God is present in this place. We want other people to know that love for themselves. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word. Thankful for the promise that was given to Ezekiel in our text. Thankful how that we can see today that Israel is in their land. They're struggling there, but they're there. Doesn't matter how many people attack or try to attack them, they can't win. They can't succeed, not because Israel is such a great nation, but because there's a great God behind that nation. And even though Israel today is not walking in the fear of the Lord, we're thankful that we have a God who loves them and will not allow the world to destroy thy children. For those of us that are saved, we can take comfort in that. We can take courage in that, that the same is true for us. We're held in thy hand. And the world may defy thee and they may defy us. We don't have to be afraid. We need to be bold. Well, they might kill some of us, but they can't kill our souls. They can't stop the message because thy word is eternal. And so even though they take us, some of us out of the way, thy word will stand. We're thankful for that. So we pray that thy will be accomplished through this place, through our website. We're thankful that we have that website that we can broadcast to other places. We're thankful for each one that finds us. Pray that we can be a help to people to know thy peace and truth in these days of grace. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.