This morning's sermon is entitled, Wondering After the Beast. Wondering After the Beast. And if you'll notice, all of our Scripture just about comes from the Old Testament as we relate it to the New Testament. Our application always is in the New Testament The Scriptures was written from old for our admonition upon whom the ends of the earth had come. So we are to grow and understand from these Scriptures. The Scripture text of 2 Kings, the 21st chapter, the 9th through the 12th verse. And it reads, but they hearken not And Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake by His servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh king of Judah had done these abominations and had done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him and had made Judas also to sin with the idols. Therefore, thus said the Lord God of Israel, behold, I'm bringing such an evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever heareth of it, both ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab. And I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wiped a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies. And they shall become prey and a spoil to all of their enemies. Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day." That summation of Scriptures there, from that text, sounds like... Anybody ever did that to you, say they've wiped their hands of you? You know, he's wiping his hands of his people, Judah. And, you know, I look at this scripture in context when I hear somebody talking about Israel or God's people in the latter days. Seems like he's saying that he's through with them. That he's wiped it as you wash your dish. When you finish eating and wash your dish and turn it over, there's nothing left there. It's cleansed. Zechariah, our reading scripture, which we read, parallels the book of Revelation. How many of us have actually studied the book of Zechariah? If you see Zechariah, that's God lifting up that which is common grace. When he says, I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock, and I took unto me two staves, the one I call beauty and the other I call bands, and I fed the flock. But he's feeding them with wormwood, with delusion. He's feeding them to their mortal end, because that's the type of people they are. If we look at Revelation, there was destruction of the church, as we talked about last time, that he said he was going to fight against the church with the sword of his mouth, just as he did Judah, because Judah did worse than Israel did. He parallels, uses the allegory in the book of Ezekiel, that Judah was Sodom and Gomorrah. He paddled them out to Sodom and Gomorrah in which Judah did worse than her sister Sodom did. So Judah did worse than Israel did. And God was finished with this nation. Manasseh led them to that point. Manasseh himself, if you read 2 Chronicles, seemed to be turned to the Lord after all he had done. And the Lord restored him. He tried to restore back worship, but he couldn't. He had deceived the people, he had deluded the people, but the people had corrupted Manasseh. Because Manasseh was a child when he came to the throne. He was a co-regent with his father for about 10 years. But we know that was the son that was promised that the curse was going to fall upon the Babylon, was take all of the stuff until Babylon, that Hezekiah showed him in his home. So it was the administration, it was the people around Manasseh that corrupted Manasseh because the nation itself was actually corrupt, as this nation is. This nation is a corrupt nation. God's about to wipe His hands of this nation. But what their nation do then is seek to seduce or get a corrupt leader. That's what the church do. The church is corrupt. The church have apostatized. The church in this nation have moved away from God. And they're seeking to themselves teachers having itching ears that's going to say what they want them to say. First they have to corrupt the house of God. And that's exactly what the church is doing now. It has corrupted God's house. If you look at 2 Kings, the 21st verse, the first point here is God's house is the first to fall to this calamity. God's house is the first to fall to this calamity. And we see where in 2 Samuel, God had said that he was going to establish his house. He was going to establish David's house. That he was establishing himself, but the people had no respect to the house of God. Just as today they have no respect to the house of God. 2 Kings 21 and seven says, and he, Manasseh, Let's start up at the fourth verse. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, in Jerusalem, I will put my name, the central place, a central place of worship. He started putting the Astor. He started putting idols as Easter, as Christmas. As the virgin birth mother Mary, Mary worship as we have in this nation today. As the church has today, the worship of Mary. That's one of the largest things in the Catholic Church today. The assumption of Mary. The immaculate conception of Mary. But we look how corrupt the church is today. They've driven and brought in every pagan idol into the church. You have churches right here in Baton Rouge that has people shaped in the form of a Christmas tree singing during Christmas time. You have so many Christmas and holiday stuff within the church, it has become utterly corrupt. It's no longer a place of worship, and God's about to wipe His hands of this nation the same as He did Judah, because they had corrupted. He said, He built the altars to the host of heaven. the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his sons pass through the fire and observe times, used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set graven images that were in the groves, and he made in the house of which the Lord said to David and Solomon his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name. You know, that was the last work Jesus Christ had to do when He was up on the earth. And that is, purge His house. He had to purge the temple because the Pharisees had brought in the money changers. The Pharisees had corrupted God's house and His house had become a den of thieves. That's how it is today. It's a den of corruption, of thieves, of idolaters. Satan ministers have been transformed into ministers of light. It is utterly, in Revelation he says he was going to come and fight against the church because of their doctrines, because of their ways of what they were doing in the house of God. They had utterly corrupted it as they did in this day. This is the place where we should find rest. We have to do as Hezekiah did. Hezekiah purged and cleansed. He cut down the high places. He threw everything out of the temple just as Jesus Christ did. And that's what we have to do. We have to purge the house of God. Judgment begins at the house of God. Judgment has to begin at the house of God. He's going to put that seal upon his house. He's going to purge out everything that's not right. He's going to cleanse the house, and he says he's going to do it by his spirit. Satan tries to come in, and he spoke of it in Matthew, if a man sweeps and cleanses house, And if he don't put back in something into that house, Satan is going to come in and bring seven demons worse than the first. And the last state of that man is going to be just like Judah was here, worse than the beginning state. They were in worse condition now than they was when Hezekiah was in place. because their hearts were utterly corrupted. They worshiped God. If you look at the end of this, in Chronicles 33, chapter 33, and he had had him in chains in Babylon. At that time, Assyria was reigning in portions of Babylon, but God had taken him away to Babylon. And the 33rd chapter of 2 Chronicles, in the 15th verse, It begins at 11, wherefore the Lord brought him and the captain of the host, the king of Assyria, and took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with feathers, and carried him away into Babylon. But God restored him. Verse 15, And he took away the strange gods and the idols out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed thereupon and gave thanks and commanded Judah to serve God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the higher places, yet unto the Lord their God only. Now the rest of the Acts of Manasseh and his prayer unto his God in the words of the seers that spake unto him, are they not written in the book of the kings of Israel? And he was buried, not in the kings or the sepulchre of the kings, he was buried in the garden of Asa. So that shows that he didn't get an honorable burial. But that he had turned to God, but it was too late to turn the people to God. It says the people worshiped the Lord, but it was in the high places. And we see that Josiah had to come in, in his reign, and tear down these same high places. Because God wasn't accepting their worship in the high places. Like right now, God's not accepting the worship of the people in some of the idolistic places that they idly worship God in the temples, and in how they worship in God, because they're worshiping God in their own way. The second point is that human nature is depraved. We have a depraved nature and the preachers are not preaching that. It says God wants to bless you and you're wonderful in this. No, you are utterly corrupt. In that show, Iniquity, you were born in sin. David says that, behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. You're born with a death sentence over you. You're born under the law. You're shapen by the iniquity of this world. It's innate in you that's part of your nature because you inherited it from your father Adam. The Adamic nature is evil. Jesus didn't have that nature in him. He didn't have that blood. The blood that courses through your veins is sinful human nature that has to be crucified. It is carnal and you can do just like Judah, the minute that you have chance, the bodies, the dogs will return to the vomit. You will return to wallowing in the mud. That if you don't crucify that old man, that nature that's in you is utterly corrupt. When you're faced with two decisions, you either obey, choose to obey God, or you will choose to revert back to what you are. A murderer. You was a murderer from the beginning. A liar. Covetousness. Hateful. Bold. Proud. Arrogant. You want to handle things your way. When your back's up against the wall, when circumstances get up against you, I know what God's words say, but I'm not going to let this happen to me. I know how to protect myself. And that's what these people were doing. They were trying to get everything for themselves. It was just like it is today, self-centeredness. They were very self-centered. They were totally, as I said, depraved. It came from Adam. But we have to be born again. He told Nicodemus, unless man be born again, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. I don't care how innocent that babe looks, that babe has a sinful nature unless he's converted, unless he is born again. So we read about that in the book of Romans 1 and 2. How that when they knew God, in this nation knew God, and they glorified Him not as God. God had received their sacrifices at the Passover, they renewed the covenant with God, but yet they turned from Him just as fast as they turned from Moses in the wilderness. They ate and drank, and then they rose up to play. When Moses came down from the mountain, they were back in idolatry, worshiping the golden calf. And God said, these people that you brought up, he didn't say my people, these people that you brought up, they've corrupted themselves. And he says, stand back, I'm gonna destroy every one of them. Moses got a reprieve for them. But if you notice, he said every one of their carcasses was going to drop in the wilderness because of unbelief. That's why they didn't enter the Promised Land, because of doubt and unbelief. He was not well pleased. Now they all drank of the same spiritual rock. That rock was Christ. They ate of all of the same man, but only two received that life, and that was Joshua and Caleb. Even their leader, they caused their leader to corrupt himself. Moses allowed his anger, the people made him angry, and he smoked the rock, and he should have spoke to the rock. See, we want to hit things. We just want to just do it our way. And God had said, speak to the rock. And then Moses said, shall I give you revels, water, and smoke? He said, but for that, Moses, you're not going into the promised land, because you didn't glorify me. God just wants you to speak to the problem. He wants you to speak to the mountain. He said, if you just speak, and all these things that come about. Go around speaking the word. If you believe in the word and have faith and confidence in the word, speak the word. That's what Jesus did. He spoke the word. He said, Peter, how would you like to have those things that you say? You have to have faith to believe that they will come true though. You have to have faith in this body of doctrine. See, but you remember I said we have to be in Christ? Most of us believe on Jesus. But see, we have to not only believe on Jesus, through Jesus, we have to believe in Jesus. But most of us are in our father Adam. We're still in that old man. We hadn't pulled him off. We're not born again. We're not seeking to strengthen the inner man. We have to mortify the deeds of the flesh. Mortify the members of the body so that you don't obey them in the lust there, that they don't rule and reign you. Jesus said it would be better to cut off your arm if it offends you, to put out your eye. That's just how radical we have to go about on sin. We have to be radical against sin. In His deprived nature, man started to worship the creation more than the Creator. If you read the book of Romans, they turned against God and they started to defile their own bodies. and they worship everything under the sun, just as they did in Judah's day. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, they turn the gospel into a money gospel. They name it and claim it. All you have to do is pray to God for this and for that, for stuff. Not seek the kingdom of God, but pray for the stuff. But God tells His people, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man love the world, the love of God or the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eye and the pride of life. And none of these things are of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, but the word of God abideth forever. The world system that we were shaping in iniquity is this cosmos. Satan is the prince or the god of this world, and that's what drives our thought life. That's what drives our mind. And God says, have your mind renewed by the transforming of your mind. We need to start thinking the way Christ thinks. We have to allow that same mind to be in us that was in Christ Jesus. We have to be all of that same mind. The unity of that mind. You see, it's regulated or organized around false principles. That's what this world is. And it has made us what we are before God called us, which requires us to repent and be converted. That way of thinking has to be changed. Because God says, your thoughts are not like my thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. There's ways that seem right to a man, but the end is death and destruction. It's like, Science, conversion tells us that there cannot be a vacuum in life. When we have been swept clean by God's forgiveness and His Holy Spirit, something else must be done to keep it clean and holy and separate from the world. That's where sanctification comes in. That's why Jesus said, I have given them my word. I've sanctified myself. And he wants us to be cleansed by the word. That's the water that he's going to sprinkle on us. We have to live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Not just some of the scriptures. Every word. That's why Paul says he hadn't failed to declare the whole counsel of God. So we have to live and desire those things that God desires, those things that pleases the Father. Not our will be done, but His will be done. Now, no man can serve two masters, and that's the problem. We're trying to hold on to the world and plus keep religion. It's like they were, they wanted to keep or worshiping in the higher places. That's what Jeroboam did. They wanted religion to be made easy and they hold on to their old self. But you have to purge all of that out of you. And His Word purges all of that out of you. The doctrinal system of faith. It purges that if you take heed to His Word. The words go wash you and cleanse you. You can't say, well, I know what the word says, but I'm going to do contrary. That's unbelief. That's blasphemy. And that's what they did. They knew God and they knew what God desired of us. You know, Micah said, you know, what's desired of you to do good, to live justly and to do that, which is right. But we don't want to do that which is right. We don't stand up when we see people rebuilding the high places. We go on in with them and be partakers. Romans say, not only those that do such things, but have pleasure in those that do the same. We sit around with those people and gossip with them and tail barrel with them and put up with them. But we have to be staunch. We have to stand against this world. That's why it crucified Jesus. And that's why it could do you the same way. That's why they killed Manasseh's father because he wasn't strong and Manasseh was pliable and they shaped and formed Manasseh to be able to seduce him. That's what the false prophet does. He's able to seduce you away. He's able to take you away from what God had given us. We see, I got it in your notes there, where Josiah, which came in, he had to abolish everything that was established there. When they said that they worshipped a starry host there, see what this means. Look to turn to the book of Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel. The 8th chapter of Ezekiel. So, and he said to them, go in and behold the wicked abominations they do here. Because Ezekiel was the prophet in Babylon during the time when God had carried him away. Because like I said, God was about to destroy the house of Judah. About 40 years after Manasseh's death, God took him away into captivity. Because he said he wasn't gonna change his mind and that he was gonna send his people into captivity. He was tired of them. They had transgressed Him too much. And God showed Ezekiel in a vision what the people had did in Jerusalem and what they were doing during that time. And it says, so I went in and saw, and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before him 70 men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jackson 9, the son of Shaphan, with every man and censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dog? Every man in his chambers of his imagery, for they say the Lord seeth us not, and the Lord hath forsaken the earth. He said also unto me, Turn ye yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than they do. Now all these things that Ezekiel is prophesying of, they were doing during the times of Manasseh. because Manasseh reigned for 52 years. His reign was the longest of all of the reigns of the kings. This government in the United States has lasted longer than most country or most national governments last, and that's about 300 years. That's the length of any governmental reign or any government has reigned. And it has ran its corrupt course. It's ran its course and God's about to do as He did Israel, and that is wipe the plate. He says, then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. And remember, we discussed who Tammuz was. Then said he unto me, thou hast seen this, O son of man. Turn yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these things. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, inside the Lord's house. And behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped the sun toward the east." He came in and showed them in the midst of a sunrise service. This was a sunrise service that they were having. that these people were worshiping the stars and all of the hosts of heaven in which God had gave to all nations. And God had said, not worship these things. They did the same thing in the book of Romans. And this is a hodgepodge of religion in this nation. You could worship as you see fit. And that's what the incoming guy that's running for presidency has said, that it's not about what doctrine they believe, it's how they practice. So he can practice his religion behind the doors. He can live as a Mormon or Catholic or whatever he is. or whatever the nation goes for. But that shouldn't be so with God's people. That's why I said we have to be very aware of the days and times. See, because now this wasn't pointing at the leader. As you read the reading verse, we see that it was directed at the poor people or the people of the Lord, the common people. In other words, the nation, because you have to allow that. The people have to allow their leaders to corrupt them. That's what happens. A leader can't lead you if you don't follow. And that's what they have desired, is corrupt leaders. And God said He was going to give them pastors after their own hearts. That's what God's doing to the people. He's giving them pastors after their own hearts. I'm going to go about this in the book of Jeremiah. The book of Jeremiah, the 7th chapter of Jeremiah, starting at the 13th verse. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking. But ye heard not, and I call you, but ye answer not. Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name. He says, therefore, since the people hadn't listened at me, because they knew what God had required. Let me tell you that he said what he was going to do to the church, the ears of the people were going to tingle. You wait till God's finished with this nation. You wait till God's finished with this people and see how the people are going to be in amazement and in awe at those that didn't make it through. And what God is going to do to his people, he says, wherein you trust in the church. You trust in this house as the people trusted in the temple at Jerusalem. They trust in that. And as I said, the Catholic Church, one of their doctrine is that the church speaks, the pope speaks ex cathedral, and that the church could set up policy, and that is the church that is infallible. But we see here that's in error because the church is the bride of Christ and we see where there's apostasy in the church. That the bride had not getting herself ready, there were five wise and there was also five foolish. So there was only going to be a remnant out of the church left. because the church as a whole had moved away from the uprightness in God. Not that they didn't worship God. They worshiped Jesus. They worshiped God in the high place. They worshiped God as they chose to worship Him. His laws, he said, they hear my word, but doeth them not. So he says, that I shall do unto them as I done unto Shiloh, and I will cast you out of my sight. I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim." Look like they ought to realize if God had already taken and Israel was lost, they call Israel Ephraim. Ephraim had been, that's the lost tribes of Israel. If Israel already had been gone into captivity, it looked like Judah would have set up and paid attention to that. He says, I have already done it, and Shaloi says, I've cast your brother Ephraim out, the whole seed. See, because in the book of Hosea, you remember he said, Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone. That's against church doctrine, against church policy to keep pursuing people with the gospel. It says after the second admonition, let him alone, let him be heretic. See, because we're trying to convert people that's in hearsay, that's in false doctrine. That's how these people creep in unaware because you still receive them into your houses, into your churches with all this false doctrine. Therefore, pray not for this people, Jeremiah, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear you, Jeremiah." Jesus gave you that pattern in the book of John. He says, I pray for these. He was talking about his apostles, his disciples. He said, I pray not for the world. See, but people try to tell you God's going to hear prayer. He says, I hear not the prayer of a sinner man. God hears not the prayer of sinners. That's why Jesus said, I pray for these, not for the world. God's telling them, what do you think the book of Lamentations is about? Jeremiah was weeping and crying over what God had did to Israel. What God had did to Judah. Because there are some terrible things in there that happened to them. Very terrible. He says, see is thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem? In other words, they're doing this openly. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven. and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me in anger. Do they provoke me in anger, said the Lord? Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, upon beast, upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not be quenched. See, everybody gets to that tipping point. And we are made in the image of God. So God says, you've been pushed the wrong buttons here. You've continued on. And in the book of Revelation, he said, he that is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still. He that is unjust, let him be still unjust still. Somehow another man's got the idea that God needs him. And we get in our focus, our eye off the project. God had came to choose out and God had chosen him a people and he had created them for good works. The rest of them was going to be lost. The rest of these people are lost. So you losing your focus because you want to be God. You want to save everybody. You want to show your works. You want to show your good works, what you're doing. But you're not listening at God to see what He's doing, the work that He... Jesus says, my father still doeth work. We're walking in the kingdom right now. And the men were more guilty than the women. Because you see, the men allowed this to happen. They were cutting the fire. They were taking them to the God's houses. They were intermarrying these women. They were taking them to their churches, their places of worship. And then those that they didn't go worship with, go to their churches or their synagogues with, they did as Solomon did and did as Jeroboam did and did as Manasseh did. They set up gods right in their temple. Solomon set up gods to Ashtoreth, to Chemosh. He set up these women's gods and he built temples unto these women's gods. Men say, well, you know my wife, she do it. You responsible for your wife, Adam. Don't try to blame it on your wife. If a man rule not his own house, how can he rule the house of God? See, men won't be men and then they go try to blame it on the woman. It ain't the woman's fault. The reason she getting out of line here is because you're not under your federal head. If you were lined up with Christ, he's gonna make everything line up with you. But you ain't right, how you gonna get her right? How you gonna make her submissive to you? Because you think you powerful. Oh man, if you look at the Bible, it says a woman should be submissive to her husband. If you're walking right, if you're doing what you're supposed to do, God's gonna take care of that portion. She's grown just like you. You're trying to make her do something. God's, he made them male and female. God lines up with his word. If you walk and do what God says, a man wages pleasing to God, he'll make even his enemies be at peace with him. If you got hell in your home, it's because you ain't worshiping the God on the throne, or you ain't walking the way you should be walking. That problem lies right there. He says, men were more, 44 and 15 of Jeremiah says, then all these men, which knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, and all the women that stood by a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt and Panthros answered Jeremiah, this is after he had destroyed you. These people going to Egypt now, and God had told them to go on, go into captivity because you crossed the line. See, Josiah had tried to save him. That's how he lost his life. Trying to do what he wasn't supposed to do. He tried to be God. And that was the greatest king, law-abiding king that ever dwelt. There was no other king like Josiah. Because he was faithful to the law of God. He says, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her. and as we have done, and we and our fathers and our kings and our princes in the cities of Judas and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil." As long as we worshiped like that, as long as we had Easter and Christmas, as long as we worshiped the stars, as long as we did what we say we were going to do, then we have plenty. See, Satan couldn't bless you, but he can take you from under God. See, because Satan has power of material things on this earth because he's the God of this world. And Jesus knew that because he promised Jesus the same thing. He said, look, if you would bow down and worship me, if you would preach the gospel the way I want you to preach the gospel, if you would preach another Jesus, If you would do all these things, all these kingdoms I'll give unto you. Was there his? He had usurped them from Adam. Adam had gave away the legal lease to the earth. That's why Satan's the god of this world. Adam gave it away by not obeying God. But Jesus told him, Thou shalt worship the Lord and the Lord only. See, Satan was trying to make him provide for himself. He was trying to make him worship him in a way contrary to God. He entered through Peter. See, Satan is persistent. He entered through Peter and tried to do the same thing because Peter told the Lord that he didn't have to do it God's way. And God had just now, Jesus had just complimented him. That's why I say, watch those compliments. He said, flesh and blood hadn't revealed that unto you, Simon Bar-Jonah. But right next to that, Jesus said he was going to have to go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world. Peter said, no, we ain't going to do it that way. We don't have to follow that plan. That's not going to be so. Get thee behind me, Satan. See, if God wants you to suffer, you will have to drink of that cup. Whatever you're going through, God knows what you're going through. You better ask him to go with you, go through those things, because you could go through them. He says, but since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour our drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things that have been consumed by the sword and by the famine, and we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and made offerings that we make her cakes to worship and pour out. Since I've been in holiness, I've been broke a lot. Since I've been following what God has, my wife done left me. Since I've been following God, all of my friends have deserted me. Since I've been following God, lost my job. But this and that happened. Well, Joe say he had lost all that himself. He had lost all of his children. He said, though yet, though you slay me, yet will I serve you. I don't care what the cost is. I'm going to serve you no matter what I lose. See, he told Paul, he said, he told Anders, go show Paul what he's gonna have to suffer if he pick up and take this guy. Many things that he would have to suffer. You know, as many of God's people suffered at their hands. And that's what Jeremiah, he did for the last point. Look at chapter 9, that Manasseh spilled much innocent blood. He filled the streets of Jerusalem with much innocent blood. How did he fill the streets of Jerusalem with much innocent blood? You see, because a lot of preachers will take this gospel and they'll go tell you to stand out and hold signs at the Delta Women's Clinic over there on North Acadia. They'll tell you to go bomb abortion clinics. But this scripture has nothing to do with abortion. This scripture has, when it says that He caused and He shed much innocent blood, it has nothing to do with the unborn. These people, that this blood that He was shedding, and when it says that He shed much blood, though that was the blood of the prophets, but they hearken not unto God and Manasseh seduced him to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake by service to prophets, as he's trying to speak by you now. That's why I said you have to speak God's Word. They will cast you out of the synagogue. They will portray you as being evil. They will say that you're trying to set up Rome. Because the king of Judah had done these abominations and done wickedly above all the Amorites. Therefore, the Lord God said he was going to destroy Jerusalem because he had shed much innocent blood. And that innocent blood was the blood of the prophets. That blood was the blood of Jeremiah. That blood, not Jeremiah, They threw him in the cistern and in the mire. But they sawed, it was Manasseh and his crowd that sawed Isaiah in half. It was Manasseh and his crowd that came in to Hosea. It was Manasseh's women, as Gomer was, that was a whoremonger, a whore, and she committed adultery and went and had other children on the prophet Hosea. You see, some preachers have unfaithful wives. It was during that time that Joel was a prophet, and he prophesied. And Amos was just a poor farmer, and he came and prophesied. All these prophets, a lot of times, they had unfaithful wives, and it was a lot of wives that had unfaithful husbands. You see, you don't look and study the book of Isaiah and those minor prophets because all of them was prophesying during these times and all of them met death. They did just like the apostles. The apostles and Peter was taken out and beheaded. Paul was taken out and they took his head off. They crucified Peter upside down. James and John was in prison and Herod took John's head off. There was a lot of them that they killed. And there's gonna be a lot of us that it says the blood's gonna rise in the streets for standing up for the word of God. We've seen this during the attack on 9-11. Those of the prophets and the preachers said that this came upon this nation because of the works and the doings of this nation was labeled as terrorists themselves and treasonous and betraying this nation. When you tell this nation that this is a blood-sucking nation that has destroyed and don't stand up, they say you're unpatriotic. When you tell them of their governors and their presidents and their mayors that are all just looking for money in a corrupt political system, they're going to destroy you and you won't even be able to buy and sell. That's why you see Newt Gingrich. You've seen all of those politicians back off of Romney when Donald Trump and everybody else says, leave the monetary system alone. Don't touch the money. This mayor up in New Jersey came out. He's supposed to have been a surrogate for the Democratic Party. But one thing the Democratic Party didn't realize that this guy Cory Booker, or whatever his name is, that he loved money and he loved capitalism more than he loved the truth. And these days, people love the truth more than they love God. They will love darkness rather than light. And that's what this nation is, that they are erring awake. And they can be seduced with wealth. They can be seduced with money. And this capitalism is the wrong capitalism. I'm not saying there's a problem with capitalism in itself, but it's the tight capitalism that this nation has. Dylann Roddick wrote a book on, I think the name of the book is Greedy Bastards. And it's about the capitalism that Nick Romney promotes with Bane Capitalist because it's in him. He's not human. He don't have a spirit or soul to where he love people. He said, I don't really care about the poor. They have something else. He said, I love to fire people. In other words, he can't relate to the average person. An average person of God can see that this man is typical of those that could be in a crisis. That's why these political systems are lining up behind him because they know he's about money. And that's what this nation loved to serve, its manna. That's how they apostatized, and the church moved away. In Hebrews 2 says, therefore, we ought to give the most earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression received this just recompense of reward. How shall we escape? if we neglect such. Now the salvation that God promises to us is eternal salvation. But there's a salvation that God reveals Himself in creation. This is enough salvation to know that there is a God. And that's what He says, when the people knew Him as God, they glorified Him not as God. You see, you have to go on to perfection after knowing God. And these people in the Red Sea, they've seen the miracles. They've seen God work, but they didn't trust or believe God. They had an unbelief. They knew that there was a God. And that's why I say, you can't know God through intellect. And we see where they serve God in other places, but this didn't lead to eternal salvation. And that's what it's not leading to in this nation. It says, "...which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness, with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost." In the last days, as this falling away comes, I tell you, God was going to be the one, he says in 2 Thessalonians, that he was going to send such a strong delusion that they were going to believe a lie. In other words, that should be THE lie. They were going to love darkness rather than truth. And God's going to send this delusion, this preaching that's going to take them down the broad way. That's why we have to remember what Elijah wanted, that she looked back. In other words, she wasn't being diligent and scrambling away thinking God wasn't going to destroy all she had behind her, her children that was left back there, all of her belongings, and she didn't hurry away. She wasn't diligent. So those that are in the church, he says, not everyone that say it unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father shall enter into heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, hadn't we done many wonderful works in thy name? cast out devils in their name. And then he will profess to them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever saith, Hear of these sayings of mine, and do of them, I will liken unto a wise man. See, they had heard God. They were in the church. They were working under God's name. They were feeding the people of the community. They were casting out devils. They were doing the preaching and teaching. They were doing all this in God's name. But it was in name only. He says, many will come in my name. But see, iniquity, I told you, is the legalization of sin. They were in sin and hadn't been born again. They hadn't been regenerated. People can do things and good things, but Jesus said, I knew you not. Now these people wasn't afraid of Jesus. Because they were saying that they were worthy to go in by their works for Jesus. But that's not how you're saved. You're not saved by works. You're saved by grace. So they hadn't had this same thing Israel hadn't had. They hadn't had a circumcision of a heart. And He told them, I hadn't given you a heart to perceive. In other words, I hadn't changed your mind, your inner man, to love one another. These people didn't have the love of one another in there. They didn't love their brother. So how could they love God? If you hate your brother, if you hate any man, and God saying, I say love your enemy, you're not doing what that God say do. You know He say love these people, but I can't love Him. You telling God what you can't do, that won't be in heaven. Those that's in heaven will do those things that are pleasing to God. So if God say do it, Mary say whatever He say do it, do it. If He says just fill up the water pot, you fill the water pot. If He say pray for those that mistreat you, you pray for them. The evil will go barren in the church. That's where evil, it says, because iniquity shall abound, the love of men shall wax cold. They don't think that this don't work, this Christianity thing don't work, because they're not converted themselves, so they could only see everybody else as evil. And they go talk weakly about everybody else because they hadn't been, see, because they hadn't taken that beam out of their own eyes is the reason they can see other people's faults and failures. That's why you got to examine and work on self. So God's judgment fell upon these people as we come to closing this off where he says in the book of Matthew, these people that the blood that he had shared was the reason God wasn't gonna forgive them. That they couldn't be forgiven. And we will get to that point where there's no forgiveness because those people are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. And God had to judge them. See, because you have to have Jesus Christ's righteousness. They had their own righteousness. They were like the Pharisees. They were right within themselves. You have to be clothed in Christ. I keep telling you, you have to be in Christ. And to be in Christ means that there was an enemy that came in and sowed tares among the wheat. But they were hard to pick out. You couldn't pick those wheats because you would uproot them. And all through the centuries, this what has been done, they've been in the church and they've been growing in the church. And Satan had planted these people in the church. And God says, don't you do it. Wait, let them all grow up together. But Jesus proclaimed that in this latter days, he said, the harvest is ripe. He said, but the laborers are few. You pray to God that he send laborers in the harvest. We're praying that he send people in the church that are gonna be prayer warriors. They're gonna be warriors of the word that don't mind dying for Christ. That don't mind giving their life for speaking the word and doing the, which is right. So the messengers, those angels, the preachers, the witnesses, those out here that's going to stand up on their jobs, that's going to stand up in their neighborhood, that's going to be willing to be killed for Jesus' sake. When those people begin to stand and speak forth the judgment of God, just like Abel did, and Cain rose up and killed Abel because Abel was righteous and Cain wasn't. Whenever you strike another man, that means your work's not right. Because God said, he who kill with the sword shall be killed with the sword. So we have to have God in us to such a posture that God's going to cause our enemies to fall backwards from us. So they're going to be weeping and wailing of teeth as God pulls this through. And so as God rips open and cleanses the church, if we're not right in God, Be ready to be rooted up. If you're not one that the Heavenly Father planted, if you're not one of the trees that the Father had planted, the ox is being laid to the root of the tree. In this day and time, the deception is going on in the church first. It's going to be your own people, your enemies are going to be those of your own household. They're going to be people that you know. And that you don't be deceived, don't be lured away because this is not about the other person now. This is about you. This is about you being studied up. And it's gonna be, Satan's gonna be so crafty, if it was possible, he was gonna be able to deceive the very light. So we're gonna have to be careful in these days. Because what's going on, it's not about them, it's about us being saved. So, as we come to a close on this, we don't want to wander after the beast, and before we get fixed and fitted in with the beast, we have to stay in prayer to God. Heavenly Father, as I've given You a word, Lord God, help me, Lord God, to be strong in Your Word, to be established in Your Word, Lord God, to be strengthened in Your Word, Lord God, to strengthen others in Your Word, Lord God, to help them to see Your Word, Lord God, deceive you, Lord God, to take heed under your word and to do that, Lord God, to love their brothers, Lord God, and not wonder after the beast, after this world system. In Jesus name we pray, amen and amen.