This morning's sermon coming from the book of Jeremiah, the 25th chapter, the 15th through the 38th verse. And it's drinking stagger. Drinking stagger. And last week we started to tell you about what the Lord was doing in Israel, in Judah. This was the second captivity in Jehoiakim. And he was taking the people off, allowed the people to be taken away captive. But he told Jeremiah to go to the people. And it reads, it started the 15th verse. It says, for thus said the God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this spirit at my hand and cause all nations to whom I send thee to drink it. and they shall drink and be moved and be mad because of the sword that I was sent among them. Then I took the cup at the Lord's hand and made all the nations to drink unto whom the Lord had sent me, to with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and the kings thereof and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation and an astonishment and a hissing and a curse as it is this day. Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people, all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and the kings of the land of the Philistines, Ascalon, and Asa, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the Isles, which are beyond the sea. And all the kings of the Arabian, and all the kings of the Mingle people that dwell in the desert. And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Midi. He says, and all the kings of the north for the near one with another, and all kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. And the king of Shishak shall drink them. So here it covers the whole world, just as in the end time, it covers the whole world that could drink of the wine of God's wrath. Now, as I told you, the cup being assembled, that each man is getting a portion allotted to him. We will look at the irony of this. The Gentiles, some of the nations that he had displaced out of the land of Canaan, and that their cup had become full, they had drunk until their iniquity had came to the point of judgment. And God could feel this word to Abraham that that's when his descendants had came back unto the land. They were a type and shadow of God's people to the church today. That's throughout the nations of the world, that's scattered throughout the world. And just like they were his chosen people then in the church, now being his chosen people, those that God calls to be moved out of their homelands, wherever you be at, that's your homeland, that's your Judah, that's your Jerusalem. Whether it's here in the United States of America, whether it's Australia, Asia Minor, any parts of the Northern Hemisphere, any parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Because as children of God, you were chosen people, those that were called out for God's purposes. And just as when the heathen overstepped God's Word and iniquity, so be it to his own children that do the same. They were cast out of the land. We'll be cast out of the earth. We'll face this same cup. That since we've been drinking of the cup of the devil, we'll partake of that cup. That cup contained doom and destruction. It contained annihilation. And God's gonna pour that wrath out, as we see in the book of Revelation, in the form of vials and bowls. There'll be pestilence, famines, and distress in the land, as we see throughout the world today in each and every nation. So, drinking of this cup was man's view of the Word of God covering the whole earth in that we must, we must walk in God's Word. When Habakkuk seen that God was pushing Babylon to judge and to bring out his will, his purpose over his own people, he said, Lord, far be it from you. They are much more wicked than us to have them to punish us for wrongdoing. That's what we see in the world today. So many so-called Christians, so many so-called people talk against other nationalities, other races, or whatever, and say, well, these are idolaters. They worship other gods or whatever. And they see those as punishing us. Well, it's also vice versa to them that we are punishing them and pressing them. But within that mix, we have God's people that are living by faith. As he told during the time of Habakkuk, Habakkuk said that just shall live by faith. Those that God's word has wretched, those that take heed unto God's word, that hearken unto God's word. He said none of these things will come nigh thee. Now we know also that in that cup of suffering that we take from Jesus Christ, He said we must also drink the cup as He drank the cup. In His cup was death. In His cup was the sin of all mankind laid upon Him. He paid for that with His life. That's why He said that if there'd be any other way. So there's no other way for us to be saved than to come through Jesus Christ. He says, I'm the way, I'm the truth and the light. If any man hunger or thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And out of his belly are full rivers of living water. That's if we come unto the Lord and drink of His cup. That cup turns to a cup of blessing for us. That cup turns to protection for us. That cup turns to our strength. It turns to us and it saves us. It makes us who we are. It makes us Jesus Christ. It makes us think like Christ. It makes us act like Christ. It makes us the sons of the living God. Because those that are drinking of that cup are led by the Spirit of God. But you can't drink of both cups. So if you drink of the cup of Babylon, the cup of this world, the cup of the devil, those things are what influence you. He calls his people to come out of Babylon and to be separate. to be sanctified. He can't pull us out of the world. He says these I leave in the world but keep them from the evil that's in the world. Now the evil that's in the world is that we will suffer tribulation in this world. We will suffer being teased because they teased him. We are part of that suffering that he took. They gonna accuse us unjustly. But they accused him unjustly. So we gonna be accused that way. But we have to walk as he walked. We have to drink of that cup just like he drunk it to the dregs. He says, drink all of it. In other words, totally submit yourself to the will of God as he did. He didn't want, he says, is there any other way? And see, he says, I'll drink it all. I'll drink that which was given to me. We have to take what God sends our way. We have to take some time not feeling good. No matter what today is, we may not feel good, but we have to go on in the morning. We have to keep on pressing our way. We have to remain strong. We have to remain vigilant. We have to keep on praising and lifting him up and being a light to us. We have to be that lighthouse. We have to be the salt that doesn't lose its savor. That savor, if we lose that savor, we no good but for nothing to be cast out and trodden underfoot. So when his people were sent to Babylon, the cup that he gave Jeremiah was the gospel, it was the word of God that was spread throughout the world, throughout the entire earth. We're witnesses to carry forth that message of God. If we're carrying forth that message of God, that's what sustains us. That's what gives us eternal life. Because as we partake of that cup, as we drink of the blood, as we eat of the broken body, he says, unless you do that, you have no life in you. So we have to understand what he was talking about. A lot of them didn't understand what God was talking about. When Jesus brought this new covenant, he says, this is the new covenant in my blood. This is the new covenant. He ratified the covenant with many, whosoever would believe. whosoever would believe so, they would be the children of faith. Saying through him, I can do all things. That that condemnation that falls on the world had not fallen on to me because there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. So I'm gonna partake of being called a fool. That's what Paul said, who's fool are you? He said, we are fools for Christ, they said. We servants of Jesus Christ. And people sometimes look at it and he says, it's going to be a remnant. He said, it's going to be a small number that are able to uphold that. But we still, even though small in number, we are to proclaim his word loudly. We're to be seen as a light that people should, when they see us, they should see somebody that's energetic, they should see somebody that's serving God. No matter if it's in a wheelchair, no matter if it's on your deathbed, you have to glorify God even in that death. As Stephen being stoned, he still gave glory to God and he stood as a Christian saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. We all have to have that disposition. As a lot of times, I see you take a lot of abuse. You take a lot of people saying things, and you just take it in stride. See, he's shouldering the burden for us. Because he says, all ye that are heavy laden, come unto me and rest. He's our burden bearer. That's how we bear the burdens of this life. It's no burden unto us because He says, I will put nothing on you that you cannot bear. So whatever's coming in our way, and we continuing in His Word, we meditate in those Scriptures day and night. We've hidden His Word in our heart for that very purpose to sustain us during those times. That we wouldn't be weary in faith. That we wouldn't just give in. That our hope lies in a risen Savior. That He is risen, therefore He is risen in us, and therefore He is our life. And that we're not to fear what man should do to us. He hadn't given us a spirit of fear. As this fall upon the world, as they drink of this cup, they have no hope in their sickness. They have no hope in their times of distress, in their times of peril and calamity. can't see the silver lining in the cloud that is thus our Lord coming closer and closer and that he is destroying the wicked and that his day of judgment is upon us and that we face not judgment, we don't face this destruction that the world is facing because we are living by faith. The justification of the believer is throughout the whole theme of the Bible. We're clothed in His righteousness. By His blood, He justified many. We've been placed in right standing with God, and Jesus being our judge, who we stand for, He's our advocate, He's our perpetuation. He's all in all for us. The fullness of the Godhead lies in Jesus Christ, bodily. See, we can see, we can feel, we have a faith that's of assurance in Jesus Christ. Us now, we see the object of our faith in Christ is that object. We're not saved by any work that we should do. But that faith that we have, it gives us the zeal to do good works in Christ Jesus. gives us that zeal we have on a wedding garland. Now we're reading scripture came from Matthew 22 and nine. As we look at Matthew 22 and nine, we need to see what that's about there. We need to see what God's talking about there because there'd be many come into church today. Like I say, it's many in the church today and they are not living in the fullness of God. They're living, they're coming to church and they're going through the motions and they hadn't been filled with the Spirit. Because what? They had put on Christ. They're not partaking of his cup. You see, you have to be robed in his righteousness. You have to lay down your life. You have to crucify Seth. You have to present your bodies that living sacrifice. So as you put on Christ, you're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. When God looks at us, he's seeing his son. There's no more there. We can come to the throne of grace and petition God openly. We can petition Him because Jesus had made the way. We come by the blood of the Lamb. That's the only way we can approach that throne. It's in Jesus Christ. Just like the blood atoned for and covered the children of Israel from the deaf angel that night, it covers us from the deaf angel of that cup of God's wrath being pulled out. We don't have to face God's wrath. We don't have to face that judgment. We can stand boldly in that day. Boldly in that day. Now, what happened? He types and shatters. This Jesus tells a story here. He said, then said he to his servants. This was a king that had invited certain people to his wedding feast. Like I said, it's Matthew the 22nd chapter. And he had invited them. Just say it was the church. It's just like Judah. that he had invited us. And instead of the church partaking of that feast, instead of drinking of the wine, eating of the bread, a lot of us are busy. We had celebrations to go to. We had bought fields. We have to go plow fields. We have to go do all various other things. And Jesus Christ is calling unto us to come to the Supper of the Lamb. Jesus answered them, spake unto them in a parable, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king heard them, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers up and burned up their cities. Then said he to his servants, the wedding is ready, but they which were bidding were not worthy. Go ye out, therefore, into the highways, and as many as you shall find bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all so many as they found, both bad and good. Everybody was invited to the table. See, both Jew, Gentile is invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb. There's no separation there. God invites whoever will, let him come. Whoever will, let him come unto me. Let him come unto me and drink. As he cast the children out of the kingdom, as he cast Judah out of the promised land, as he cast the heathens out of that land, he cast them out into Babylon, out into the world. But we are types of those servants that he had bitten, that when he cast you out of Judah, that you're living by faith and you're testifying by faith and you're a witness, you pray for the peace of Babylon. You pray for the peace of your city where you live. You pray for that nation, for the peace of that nation. You witness and testify of him on the job. You be at anybody come. You can come unto Jesus Christ, whether he be of any nationality. Now let me tell you this though. That's why a lot of times you sit around on your jobs or places and you talk religion with people and you notice that you have various religions and all y'all believe in Christ different ways. You believe in God in different ways or whatever. And what happens, everybody goes to church. Everybody comes into church believing in God in their way. But let's see what happens, though. So all were bidden to come. So the whole world has been spoken of about Jesus Christ. And even religions that once didn't acknowledge Him, acknowledge Him now as Jesus, as God. Some say He's a God. They call on the name of Jesus, but see, they don't continue in His word. They don't follow Him. See, He said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciple. Most people believe God exists. Most people believe God died for them. The churches are packed on Easter and Christmas and different days. You catch the average person on the street that's not an atheist, they do believe in God. So all those are bidden to come. But let's see what happens when that king come in to that marriage ceremony. He comes into that marriage supper and he looks around. It's just like the five wise and the five foolish. See, it's just like these people in Judah that had been hearing God's word preached. In Jeremiah 25, he said that he had preached to them some 20 some years he had been preaching to them about salvation. Verse three of Jeremiah says, from the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and 20th year, he had been preaching 23 years, the word of the Lord had come unto me and I was spoken it unto you, rising early and speaking it to you, but you hadn't hearken unto me. See, that's the reason they were cast out. They had heard the word, but they had rejected the word. And you got many a people in this nation that say they are Christians, but they're Christian in name only. They're professors of Christ. So there's a measure of people that does the name of Christianity. But when Jesus Christ comes in, He's checking wedding garments. Because He gave gifts unto men. He gave gifts unto the church. And to that church, that five-fold ministry, the gifts that He gave unto them was for the edifying of the church. It was for the building up of the church. That He should come and find a bride. A chaste virgin. That means not given to idolatry. That meant not given to spiritual fornication and adultery. That means a bride without a spot or a wrinkle because they have been washed by the Word. The Word is what washes and purges us and cleanses us by taking heed to the Word of God. But here Jeremiah told them, he had preached to them some 23 years and they had not, hadn't hearken unto the word. We know that Amos said, and just like it was prophesied for the day, there will become a famine of hearing the word of God. That God's word was gonna be scarce. And see, now it's scarce because you hear God's Word, but you don't hear the fullness of God's Word as Paul says, I've declared unto you the whole counsel of God's Word. You hear God's blessing plan. You hear God's prosperity. You hear God's healing plan. But you don't hear God as a judicial official. You don't hear of the terrible God. You don't hear of the awesome God. You don't hear of the Jesus that says, yes, you taught, meant, and deal in these things you ought to have done. But these others you should have done also and not neglected the weightier matters. You see, there are plenty that he told us to do in seeking the kingdom of God that others lack. See, they don't preach repentance and remission of sins. They just add Christ to what they already have. And so they go in dressed up like lay of decisions. And that's what the church is today. They're lay of decisions. They're rich. They have need of nothing, they feel. They have all that they need, and Christ says, you poor, wretched, and naked. That's what condition they are before Him. They're at the wedding feast, but they're not clothed. They're not clothed in Christ, and that's why, even though they had good works, they had good works there, they had did all kinds of things, and they had cast out devils, but he didn't know them because they lacked the fellowship with him. They didn't have fellowship with him. So he said, I never knew these. You see, they were inside the feast, and they ended up just like Judah was. He told the same parable, he says, Abraham and Isaac shall sit down, and the children of the kingdom shall be cast out, and publicans and harlots shall enter in before they do. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you shall no wise enter in. Now the Pharisees were a pretty good step of them. The Pharisees took heed unto the laws of giving and of the law. But see, that was a physical and an outward sign, because without the Spirit and the power of the Spirit, they crucified the Savior. They didn't have what God had gave, and that's the love of God. See, unless the love of God is shed abroad in your heart, you're going to hate your brother. You're going to hate those things that God loves. You're not gonna have an understanding of God. You will have a zeal for God without knowledge. And that's what they had. That spells doom and destruction on any case. He said, my people suffer for the lack of knowledge. They perish because they don't know me. See, to know Christ is to walk with him and to know all about him. And as friends, he reveals that unto us. in that closest time, in the most intimate of times, holding your wife in your arms, sitting down, going in and out with your children, you tell them of some of your most dear and intimate secrets. That's when it comes with Christ, in the dark hours of our gloom. that he speaks and says this is the way walk therein. But see, we're so busy, so crowded out with the things of the world in that the thorns and the cares of this world have choked the word of God out of us. And we've become dull of hearing. And unbelief has, in the end, become drinking of the cup of the world. You can't drink of both cups. That which you did have has been taken from you. These people were a pathetic lot. As they were beaded to the supper, verse 10 says, so they were furnished with both good and bad. And verse 11 says, and when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not a wedding garment on. He came in his own righteousness. He had been busy building bigger buildings. He has been busy working on his finances. He has been busy building towers to heaven. He has been busy with charitable works. but he didn't know what condition his soul was in, that it would be required of him that night. He was so busy with work, he was like Martha. He says, Martha, Martha, you're encumbered by much work and the needful things Mary has chosen to sit down and listen at my word, to take heed to what I'm saying. It takes a sharp mind. It takes an opened up mind. as he opened up the disciples' minds on the road to Emanus, that he opened up their understanding because they knew the Scriptures and they had lost all hope. They said, we was hoping that he was the one, according to the Scripture, that would be our deliverer. But since he didn't come in the way we thought he should come, he should come as a conquering hero, king of kings, but he came as a suffering Messiah. Thus, we don't see, we don't understand, and we've lost all hope. But He opened up their understanding that they might understand the Scripture. That Jesus must need suffer to enter in. That He wasn't coming, and He wasn't going to direct us down the broad road. He told us, narrow is the way to heaven. Narrow is that gate. The broad road, it'd be many going in that way. It'd be many called, but only a few chosen. You will see a lot of them at the feast. But they won't all be chosen. So as he came up to this man, he says, unto him, friend. That's when he told Judas, didn't he? Judas came up to him with a kiss. He betrayed him as a friend. Because the Scriptures, he was to fulfill all Scriptures. And he says, a woman in the house of my friend. He that set at table with me and ate of my bread is he who had betrayed me. Those that have came into the house of God, those that had said, these things we will do. It wasn't coerced out of them. He didn't coerce it out of them. They agreed to do that. That's why it says, you come willingly. They had volunteered. sin in the flesh, because you've made that statement that you would do it, and you're doing it by your own words, you condemn. You vowed and vowed to say that you would do these things, and then you went your own way. Whereas it had this other son that said he wasn't going to do them, he went his way, but later on he came back and did those things that the Father had asked him to do. Which one of those was justified? It's better not to make a vow than make a vow. If you said you would be with me to the end, now you've forsaken me. Demons have forsaken Paul. You've failed to hear my word. You've failed to do what I told you to do. And I told you to put on Christ. See, he told Peter, Peter said, he showed me how to put off this dyntabon. He told me how to lay aside every weight and sin that's besetting me from running this race. He had snatched me as one, as a brand out of the fire. He had plucked me away from the gates of hell. When I was standing on my reclaim, I had not a slip until I came into the house of the Lord. And I saw what the end of the wickedness was going to be. I saw what happened when He placed me out in the world, that those that were betraying my children, those that were luring them down in ways that they shouldn't go, that God has a purpose here. And when that cup is full, they'll drink of those cups. See, Jude didn't understand that God was still sovereign and still in charge whenever he lost all those sons. He knew that God was, but he just didn't have understanding. That's at the end. That's when Job said, I've heard of God, but now I understand. See, we have to get the understanding of God. What is God doing? What cup is he pouring for me? Let me not say anything till I could understand it. It's bad to speak without understanding. We should be quick to hear. But slow to speak. Don't react so fast. Wait upon the Lord. Wait till He reveals these things to you. See, Jephthah was one that was rash. He wanted to do what God said, but he made all kinds of promises to God, and he promised a vow that ended up costing the life of his only daughter. You see, that's what happened to us in our time. When we lay down and get carried away with the surfing thing that is in the world and going along with the world, He's going to come back and find us over indulging. Or else we're going to be in God weary in time as the disciples was. And they say, what you couldn't watch and pray with me? He came back and found him asleep. You see, when Peter was spiritually asleep, he got up doing things irrationally. He got up doing things irrationally. Jesus had already slowed him down from speaking so much. You could see the change in the man in 1 and 2 Peter, how much the Spirit had did, because he did at least what Jesus had told him to wait in Galilee until he'd be endued with power from on high. So you have to have power from on high to work in God's way. See, God didn't look at that vow when he vowed. That's why he came back and restored Peter, because when Peter said, Lord, I'm willing to die for you, he was talking about physical. And Jesus had told him this fight is not in the physical. We're fighting against principalities and powers. He said, Peter, you don't know what you're saying. See, a lot of us make dedication and make vows under God, and we don't know the pressure that's gonna be brought to bear when we begin to drink of that cup. That's when he told James and John, you shall drink of the cup I shall drink of, but the cup my father giveth me, I have to drink it all. Can't nobody drink my cup. You can't drink my cup, deacon. I can't drink of your cup, because God had allotted that portion for you. Could nobody else bear what Jesus bared, because he was holy and pure, and he felt the sins of the world lay on his back. He was the only one who could drink it, because he was the only sinless sacrifice. He was the only one sinless, and that's why suffering hurt him so bad. That's why when he said, if it's any other way, He knew the magnitude. See, that's what we don't realize, the magnitude of what sin did to him. When we start realizing the magnitude of what sin did to our God, we'll stop sinning. We'll pray every time sin comes our way and pray, Lord, pray to help me not do this. Help me not look at something I shouldn't be looking at because it only puts another nail in your car. It only gives you more in that cup to drink, see, because he died for our past and future sins. That's why it says, as a man sinned willfully after receiving the knowledge of God, there remained no more sacrifice for him, because he knows what he's doing to God. Just like Judas, when he says, woe be unto you, you know you betrayed the Son of God. You knew what you was doing. You openly rejected his word. You openly went against God, and that's what's in the world today. These so-called Christians are willfully going against God, and it's not gonna end up right for them. It's not gonna be a pretty picture. You'll wish that you had never been born. We have to be able to discern the body of Christ. We have to be able to walk there in. We have to be able to not make rash vows. We have to be able to walk slowly, circumspectively in this world. So he says, then said the king, bind him hand and foot and take him away. Bind him. And you see, Jesus not necessarily have to bind us. We bind ourselves. and cast him in the outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but only a few chosen." You see, we're bind by the cords of our own sin. We're bind by our own sins. And what God had loosed, let us not bind. What he had unbound, let us not unbound. See, that's what happened when we get into churches, loosening and binding things God hadn't bound and things God hadn't loosed. That's why when he told Peter, give him power to loose and power to bind, a lot of times people call themselves casting a devil out of you or praying a blessing over you. Sometime that blessing of richness, of wealth, of winning almost like a lottery, if you know of God, removing circumstances from you. He laid that on you for a purpose. That's why we should pray that his will be done. Just like he laid the suffering on Jesus in the death, he was willing to do it that way. We should try to change God's will. It's dangerous when you go trying to remove something God has placed upon you. Paul realized this, and then he came back to tell us, he says, God had given me my thorn in the flesh to keep me humble. It was a purpose that God had did this unto me. I prayed for it to remove thrice. But see how he says, my grace is sufficient. I tell you, whatever he places on you, well, it's paralysis. whether it's poverty, whether it's loss of children, whether it's a bad relationship. You know, there are bad marriages out there. We don't all marry the person of our dreams. Or let me put it this way, the person that we marry of our dreams and fantasies, it's not always turns out to be the person that we marry. But see, we have more power and trust in God than we do men. So we married the wrong one. She's not treating us right. He's not treating me right. But God hated divorce, and I'm not committing adultery. They're not committing adultery. I just have to bear that burden. That's my cup of the drink. Maybe she won't clean up. Maybe he won't clean up. Maybe they're nasty. Maybe they do all kinds of things. Maybe they're lazy. Maybe they just won't act right. Maybe they put us in financial bonds they shouldn't put us in. Maybe they let the children do all kinds of things. Maybe we have all these, but you know we've been buying these 10 or 20 years or this number of years. I just have to bear this. I have to live for God myself. Now, the problems I cause, I have to get closer to God. But if I didn't, it had to be a bad marriage. I mean, it's my bad marriage. It was like Hosea, he was stuck with a wife that was a prostitute. Those tears that wasn't his, he still had to feel them. He still had to love them. He still had to, she said, Gormley, you're my wife. God said, you see how I feel now, Hosea, that you didn't, they went out, Israel, they went out and committed adultery on me. Now you see how I feel, I took her back. I took her back. See, it's a lot of times we don't just dump things to the side. Your children may act up on you, they may not be all turned out the way that you want them to be, but they're still yours. They're still yours. That's just, we have to do what? Forbearance. That's why he says forbearance and long-suffering are part of the fruit of the spirit. We have to suffer long sometimes. We have to put up with a whole lot from different people, from different things. It may not be the job you want to, you may, but you're still not gonna go on that job. Don't go on that job stealing. Don't go on that job not giving him a full day's work. Don't try to not work because you work unto him as the Lord. He may be a hard task master, and that's what Paul told Philomene. He said, you go back. He said, now, Philomene, you treat him as a brother or whatever, but if not, he's still your slave. You remember, you have a master in heaven. You see, those people that given us unfair wages, those that's cutting out on them, living wages of the poor. Those that enslave us and then bondage us here in Babylon, I'm going to drink that cup. I'm going to do just like diabetes did. I had my problems in this life. I ate all the crumbs that fell from your table. But do you realize what happened? When they died, the rich man was saying, only if you could just send Lazarus and let him dip his finger in there and bring me some water. So Davies wasn't all he was put out to be. They thought he was doing all he was, but he fooled the world. He was wealthy. It's a lot of them fooling the world, not saying that they're Christian and they have all kinds of wealth. But see, God sees your heart. That philanthropic work that you were doing and doing all the giving of the millions and things, you was just giving back some of that you was stolen. You're like a Zakiya. Zakiya said that's why he was giving back fourfold. See, because the little penance that you're giving away in taxes and charity contributions, you'd have stolen more millions than that. You're still using unobtrusive labor you still using and taking advantage of people, it's just that you try to free your heart and mind by giving and doing sometimes. And you will come back and say, didn't I defeat the needy? Didn't I give to the church and the poor? Didn't I do all these? He said, I never knew you. You see, because your hands are covered with blood, you hadn't been punched. Now you fool everybody else. But my people had come out of Babylon. They knew that you have to have clean hands to serve God. You see, you could also have appearances. A lot of times, one spouse talking about another spouse, everybody else thinks that's the bad spouse. But the one that's the good spouse, everybody says that's the wrong one. But it's the other one that's the devil. They didn't portray this person as a bad person. That person's not bad at all. But see, they got more popular friends than you do. They got more people behaving and saying, well, they ain't right, that ain't right, they ain't right. See, you don't know the other side of the story. You see, that's what drinking the cup is, that you have to suffer for righteousness sake. You can't always get it told. You can't always get it straight. Not in this life. But see, you know the God that you serve is able and that you do what you're supposed to do. He will enable you to do and walk by faith. That's what he does for us. He enables us to walk in his ways. These others, they said, he said, eventually they'll drink the cup. They didn't drink the cup at that time. It was some 14 to 20 years later that Jezebel died after Ahab died. But she died a much more tragic death. We hear of Jezebel in the book of Revelation, that spirit that was here to seduce his servants. But see, if we believe in the living and true God, we know that everybody's gonna get what they got coming to them, because God has a law of sowing and of reaping, and that with a man soweth, he shall reap. So you talk about me and you mistreat me, but I know I serve a God that is able and vengeance is all unto Him. That as long as I'm going around preaching the Word and teaching the Word of God, that day is coming. The day of the Lord is coming. He don't pay all bills on Friday, but there is a bill that's coming due that you will have to pay. Don't run up the check so high you're not going to be able to pay that bill. See, because I didn't run up the check. My check that was run up, it expired on me because I said I'm not worthy. I'm going to have to drink of Jesus' cup. I want Him to pay my bill. I'm going to continue on drinking of His cup because I'm not worthy to pay the price because I would lose my life. And He says, he that loses his life for Christ's sake shall find his life. See, I lost my life for Christ's sake. That's why sometimes you can go to church and stand up and all, there's nobody there. That's why you say I believe in Christ. You see, I believe that the day should be right here where Christ put it. I believe that Christ has it all worked out. It may not look like that, but my trust and faith is in him, not in circumstances, not in how things look. Oh, that's happening around me. See, because living in this world long enough, you'll know that everything that looks good ain't good as it is. And a lot of those things that look good, after a while, they decline in value. They decline in services and help. We know a lot of people change after you've been with them a while. A lot of times people say, I'll do this and I'll do that. After a few years together, they won't even give you respect at all. Let alone doing this and that, they won't give you the respect that's due you. They won't give you the respect that they give someone else. They give you respect, less respect than that person because I've become despised in your eyesight because I don't fulfill all your dreams and hopes and imagination. You see, that's why God looks at those that are poor in spirit. You see, you know you don't have any, that's why we're bankrupting him. Those that are poor in spirit, that's who he's looking for. He brings down the proud, the high-minded, those that are hardy, those that are, that's why he said they should drink of the cup. You see, just let them keep on drinking out of the cup of the world. Don't you partake of that cup. You keep drinking from the Lord's cup. He don't want you to drink out of cups of devils. Don't be influenced by this world. Don't fall and get the mark of the beast. See, the mark of the beast is starting to be influenced by the world system to come under the influence of. You see, that's what the cup is. It brings you in under the influence of whose cup it is. We don't want the world to influence us. We want the world to be intoxicated by the Spirit of God. We don't want to be drunken by the world's cup. They've drunk of that wine. So, as we want to look at Christ pouring out that cup, that we will be getting dressed while we're drinking of the cup. We're putting on the whole arm of God. We're putting on the whole arm of God. He's strengthening us a little bit day by day. Day by day, He's been strengthening us. But we will have to drink of that cup. Let's keep drinking of that. Be drunk in Christ. Revelation 14 and 9 says, And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. He is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fine brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the pupil cup. We have to drink of the Lord's cup. We can't drink what's in their cup. Their cup is full of pleasure. They say, take up the pleasures of this life. You can do this. It's not going to hurt you. It's in the Bible. You can do this and you can do that. Listen at the Lord. Eat of his broken body. Stay in his word. His grace is to follow you, his communion and fellowship. Him and the Father will come in and suffer with you. and that as you commune with Him, I can open your eyes up. I ask Him to give you wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. And Father, strengthen each and every one that hears this message, to give them an understanding that even I, Lord God, as meager as I am, as a vessel of the Lord, as the words I came to utter, Lord God, that you would produce an understanding in their minds, in their heart's mind, Lord God, that you would give them wisdom and knowledge and understanding to make use of the word, because I'm just a special instrument, Lord God, trying to modify the deeds of my body, whereby your word can control and prove me to them, because without a preacher, they can't hear. So help me speak that which becomes sound doctrine. Let me, Lord God, take heed to the gospel that I preach. Let it give life to the hearers thereof, Lord God. Let your purpose be accomplished in that word, Father. Lord God, help us to study, to show ourselves approved. Women that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing your word of truth, Lord God. Help us not to revile when we revile upon Lord God. Strengthen us in the times of our weakness, Father. Your Word be our way, Lord God. Your Word, Lord God. Help us, Lord God. to be inspired by one another's works, Lord God, to exhort one another. In this day and time, Lord God, as darkness is coming upon the earth, let us be light unto one another, Lord God. Let your spirit be the light that's on our path, Lord God, to give us light on that path, Lord God. To as we walk, Lord God, that we walk in you, Lord God, to keep our