This is the last time I think we could talk about this, drunkenness, in this chapter because Isaiah is full of it. He talks about it throughout this spirit of drunkenness because when Jeremiah talked about drinking of the cup of the wine, God sends spirits out into the world like at first kings. You remember the lying spirit he sent out to fool Ahaz into battle to get him killed? Well, God sends these spirits out into the world to deceive the ones that don't have a true faith or that's a weak link among his people. A people, it's testing or trying of their faith whether they're listening at God. And he wakes some people up. But since he knew that this was going to come into the church, He said he was going to allow satan ministers to come in as angels of light. Satan's ministers could transform themselves into ministers of light. In other words, he's going to allow the false prophets and the false preachers. And if you notice, Jesus talked about false prophets and teachers and preachers just as much as he talked, or more than he talked about hell. Because he said to many antichrists out there, that's what they are out there to do is lead you astray. because of what you're listening at. You have to be careful of what you're listening at and who you're listening at. The name of his drunkenness, spiritual slumber, Laodiceanism. The reason I say Laodiceanism, it comes all the way from Revelation. It's in the end of the book, in the Latter-day Church is the Laodicean Church is more closely paralleled with today's church of people of great wealth, prosperity, which really paralyzed the American church and the people in American Christianity. And they're wealthy and well-to-do, but they don't realize they're in spiritual poverty, that their nakedness, and they're in need of eyesight because they can't hear. Remember you told them you need come and receive of him so you can hear and you can see but the church for the majority of the church in the nation is in darkness it's in spiritual drunkenness because they've been drunken of the wine of God's wrath the wine that he's given of Babylon that cup of fornication in other words the spirit of this age you remember I told you drunkenness it means under the influence of you intoxicated, the toxicity levels will kill you this, this drunkenness is will kill you. But it's spiritual drunkenness, a stupor or a blindness. unconsciousness or unaware a lack of understanding you're not you're not in touch with the spirit to give you life to see what's going on around you as I told you about Elijah I keep saying the reason it sounds like both of them Elijah it's spelled E-L-I-J-A-H Whereas Elisha, it's still the Eli, but this S-H-A, Elisha. I could go on and say, it's not an American pronunciation, it's not Elisha, it's Elisha. Just like a lot Jah makes the Jehovah sound, Jah as in Jehovah, okay? but we're gonna go to start into Song of Solomon here. Song of Solomon is about the Shulamite that was in love with and they said this was about King Solomon or whatever but she was in a spiritual stupor or she was sleeping or in a dream state for parts of the Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon, the third chapter, the first of the fifth verse says, On my bed, night after night, I dreamed that I saw the one whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him. I said, so I must arise now and go out into the city, into the streets, and into the squares. And I must seek him whom I so love. She was dreaming of a beloved. She was thinking about it, meditating upon it. But this was as when you were sleeping. You remember I told you, it's as one's sleep. And when you wake up, it's as though it was real, but it's not real. So she was searching in places she didn't know. She's seeking after her beloved. because she had been thinking about it and meditating like the parable of the five wise and the five foolish they both thought about the bridegroom she says she must arise and seek him who her soul loves i sought him but i did not find him the watchman go around the city and they found me and I said have you seen him who my soul loves we're gonna just call the watchman the police or the people in the city that keeps a watch out or whatever but this time they treat so differently than they do in the fifth and the sixth chapter It says, scarcely had I passed them when I found him who my soul loves. I held on to him and would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother's house and into the chamber of her who conceived me. It comes bring a little out literal ality back to a figurative statement. In other words, She found the beloved who she was searching for. The fifth verse is the bridegroom speaking. It says, I command you that you take an oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the doves of the field, that you do not arouse, not awaken my love until she pleases. So he's saying, don't waken the church until it's a time. You know, you can only take an analogy so far, whatever. But the church have been walking around or going around in a spiritual stupor or days thinking about Christ. Many of us have thought about Christ. A lot of churches, a lot of people think about Jesus when hadn't really met Jesus, hadn't really had that true fellowship with Him or whatever. And he says, don't awaken. In other words, he'll bring us to a consciousness at an opportune time. But other than that, there are a lot of people in the church that are professing Christ, are in love with Christ and doing the works, but it's only in their minds. It's in their thought life. They are dreamers of thinking how it would be or will be with Christ, but this is not to be because they hadn't done the work yet. The faith hadn't connected yet. This first dream sequence shows the Sulamite in bed, and even in her dreams, she seeks the Beloved. Her love for Him in verse 1 is so consuming that she constantly looks everywhere for Him. When she awakens in the dead of night, she goes out into the city to look for Him. Start hearing about Christ and he says seek after him. He says to seek after him to look for him. And she looks everywhere. Verse 2. She goes down every street and into every square without finding him. She asks the policeman or the old watchman that's patrolling the city. the beats and everywhere in there. They're looking and she asks, have you seen him? But when they give her no help, she continues her search and immediately find him. So if you search for Christ hard enough, if you get out of your dreams and out of that world that you live in that's a daze and a dream, you get out, you study the word of God. You actually talk to people. You actually witness for God. Actually seek him with all of your heart. Because a lot of people are seeking Him just sitting in the house and just sitting around and not doing anything to bring this without a true faith. But it says, she is overjoyed and so fearful of losing him again, that she clutches him tightly and refuses to let him go until she brings them back to her mother's house, where they will be married. Since her relationship with the beloved is so wonderful, she advises other young women to make certain they are truly ready for the experience before they commit to a relationship of their own. We could look at that in Luke 14 chapter 26 through the 33rd verse, but I'm not going toward there now. I just want to say what an incredible prophecy of the church of today. Part of the church woke up from slumber with strength and commitment to seek the bridegroom. with the preaching came as he sent that spirit of Elijah into the world to turn the father's hearts back to the son, to turn the children's heart back to the parents, to open up our eyes, to bring us to consciousness. He sent preachers and teachers to awaken us, to bring us to awareness of Christ. He's made us alive. The regeneration has begun. The conversion. We are conscious and aware. We've heard by the hearing of faith. He's woken us up. But the others, he hadn't woken up. There's a spirit of a drunken stupor over some. That's in those churches. The Laodicean church is one that says, I'll talk about it in just a second. But after committing to looking high and low, and he said, you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart, mind, body, and soul. You have to fully put this in there. It's a lot of people been in church years and years who hadn't found Christ and don't know of Christ. But in their mind, they think they're saved. They think they know Christ. They think they're doing things for Christ, but they don't have that relationship with Him. Something hadn't quickened them in making them alive and continue, because if you get Christ, you have an ever-increasing faith. You have a spirit of unction that's alive. You can feel it, and there's assurance. There's something when you have that contact, and you have hope. gives you hope and a full assurance that you've been born again. It removes the feeling of guilt, of conscience of guilt and awareness. But it doesn't replace it, though, with complacency or lethargy or being lethargic or being apathetic. It replaces it with a zeal, a zeal that grows. It plants that seed of faith. It has works. It has works that engenders you to the bridegroom. These people were strong enough to overcome and pass by the problems they encountered out in the world. There were people lying to them. There were people giving them misinformation. This bridegroom wasn't taking any of that. Because something told her that was bore that when she found this pearl of great price She would know it and and she would tell anybody if you ever find Christ Don't leave you for his love But but a lot of people find Christ but people in the world like that parable of the sower the cares of this world the devil's the birds of the air steal it away from and hearing your neighbors talk. I hate to see that during this time. There are people talking people out of life. There are so many people sick and dying today listening at others and telling them what they don't have to do, what they shouldn't do. They're promoting death. It's like Satan. He was promoting death to Eve and say what God says is not true. You shall not really die. It's a lot of people. They're saying don't don't get the vaccine. Don't get the shot. You're not gonna die. Just have faith in God. God don't want you to be as God is. Well, you need God's help. You need God's protection. You need God's to inoculate you against this world and listening to the people. But you hadn't overcome those people of the world. There's a lot of people you're listening to you shouldn't be listening to. That shouldn't even be allowed in your house. That individual, that television show, that radio show, or whoever is getting you off the trail has prohibited your growth from your loved one. You're not getting stronger. They're putting more weakness and doubts and each day you're trying to dodge this thing. I just go out there, I don't worry about who has a mask and who doesn't have a mask, who had a shot and who didn't have a shot because my trust is in my beloved, it's in Jesus Christ and I have him. And all I can hear is take the shot. So I've been inoculated against these things. And if I die from this pandemic that's going on, fine, but that's the way God had it designed because I had faith in God and I trusted the ones that he had put me here to listen to. I'm not rejecting it. I don't know it all. I'm not basing it in myself. He said, before he had to knock on the door in judgment, these Christians have found Christ again and refused to let him go and they will not allow separation to occur again. I'm not going to let anyone, my brothers, sister, mother, anyone else to get in between me and Christ. Nothing shall separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. You can't tell me I have a lack of faith or tell me which direction to go because my religion, my belief in Christ is so strong that I'm fully persuaded in my own mind that he's able to keep me. And I don't know what you base in your decision or your faith is in, but mine is in Christ and in the word of God. That's why I'm walking here. Unfortunately, others have awakened more slowly, with much less strength and less of a resolve. Her being lethargic, lethargic, lacking of energy, without that vitality, without diligence, without zeal. Let's listen at this second song of Solomon, 5th verse, 2nd through the 8th verse. The Shulamite bride again. She says, I was asleep, but my heart was awake. A voice in my dream, my beloved was knocking open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. That's the voice of God. That's some preacher calling and trying to wake me up. I was in this world, walking around in a drunken stupor. I was asleep, I was unconscious, but this was my beloved calling me. You call in one hope of your calling. Instead of just sitting there dreaming, this penetrated to bring her to a consciousness. It says for my head is drenched with heavy night dew. My hair is covered with the dampness of the night. I had taken off my dress. How can I put it on again? I washed my feet and how could I get them dirty again? My beloved extended his hand through the opening of the door and my feelings was aroused for him. I rose to open for my beloved and my hands dripped with myrrh and my fingers with liquid sweet scents myrrh. And on the handles of the boat, I opened my for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. By time I opened for him, my beloved was gone. My heart went out to him, and when he spoke, I searched for him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he did not answer. The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me. This time the police, this time the people, the evil, the wicked, the beast, the people of life caught her and they beat her. They struck her. They wounded me. The guardsmen of the walls took my shawl from me. I command you to take an oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, as to what you tell him, say that I'm sick. I'm sick from love. I'm so sick from being without him. I'm lovesick, and I'm without my love. That's what has made me sick. Now this second dream, It's more tragic, it's where the people, and that's what's happening in this life. It's the people that's pounding the beloved, that's pounding the church, that's giving them the wrong information. If you look at Daniel, there'll be a time that he say he turns his people over to the ungodly, to the antichrists, to hear and to be tried and tested by that which is wrong in this life to see, will you listen at it? Will you follow it? Will you allow it to defeat you? And as they followed this, as they taken this or whatever, again, the shulamite sleep, but it's still somewhat aware of her surroundings. Then the beloved knocks on the door and beckons her to let her in. The preaching is loud and it's more ever vigilant. The beloved is there. And you remember she slept through it, Revelation 3 and 20. I'll come back to it in a minute. But you remember in Revelations 3 and 20 at the Laodicean church, he was at the door. He says, behold, I stand at the door of the church and I knock and I continually knock. And if anyone hears my voice, open up the door and I will come in. with Him and restore Him and He will be with me. But see, we can't hear that. God's preaching and His voice is coming and you're not listening because you don't feel you need anything from God. You feel you're in good health. You've got a little money. You got friends and things. So the lay of the sin felt he didn't have need of anything. But that was Jesus standing outside the church, knocking on the door, but you had been listening at the world. The world had made you comfortable. Fox News had made you comfortable. Tucker Carlson, and they found out this guy didn't took the vaccine, but he's telling all his viewers not to take it. Here's these preachers telling you about Jesus, but it's another Jesus they're telling you about, the real Jesus that's knocking on the doors saying, wake up. But you're not listening at Him. It says she, however, complains that she has just bathed and dressed. Remember, she had washed her foot, she had gotten ready. She was in a mindset that might have side effects to it. I'm hearing bad things. Dave Cassidy, you remember Cassidy, I told you, the Louisiana senator that turned against, and he was standing up against Trump and a lot of the Republicans. He's a doctor, he's a heart doctor. You seen him on Channel 2 yesterday? He says, these people running around here talking about anti-vaccine or whatever, in the schools, and it's been this way for years. You can't go to school without taking a shot, having been vaccinated for chickenpox, measles, rubella, and all these things. Children have to have these shots. For years, you've been taking shots, flu shots and all this stuff. When all of a sudden, Satan comes along and say, well, look, They hadn't tested it long enough. They hadn't did it. This bird of the air flies along and he's causing foolishness. And you know, that's why I say that America is so divided because I'm glad I don't have children. I have grandchildren that I worry about. I think they should make it mandatory. If you hadn't gotten a shot, I don't want you around my kids. I don't want you around my grandkids. A lot of people, you shouldn't be there. If that's your right, as you say, by secular, by your constitutional right, the government shouldn't be impinged on it. You're right, it's your right to die by yourself, but it's not your right to give it to somebody else to cause them to die. That's from a heart doctor, that's from the doctors telling you this. But you have more understanding than the doctors, and the preachers was God's doctors. See, because when Elijah, appeared on the scene. When Samuel came on the scene, anytime a prophet came in, people, reverend preachers in those days, prophets and things, they said, what's wrong Samuel? Because when a prophet came, he came with bad news. He came to deliver bad news. That wasn't good news when a prophet came. Because the priests were there to teach you You understand that? The priest was supposed to be teaching, but you hadn't been listening yet to the teaching of the priest. See, the pastor teaches now. They didn't kind of combine that role. But see, when the prophet came, it was too late. When Elijah came, it was too late. Repentance was all but gone. And 100 years after he preached, Assyria had carried Israel away. Babylon came in and took Judah away. Sometimes it's like those that go to the hospital. No, you didn't, you didn't caught the virus. Now we can't give you the vaccine. It's too late. So this is what she was saying. She was laying, she said, because I'm rich, I have prospered and grown wealthy. I have need of nothing. And you do not know that you are wretched, he says, poor, miserable and naked and without hope and in great need. People hadn't told you that. You listen to those nice hair, calm preachers with Mercedes and all this money. They want you to give them their money and everything. You highly favored with God. You have favor with God. He's going to protect you in all situations. He's God's people. That's what the prophets was telling me. They're not going to destroy the temple. They was telling Jeremiah, they're not going to destroy the temple. But they throw Jeremiah in the dungeon in the muck and mire because he said, God's going to destroy this place. That's why they hung Jesus on the cross and killed him, because he said, there's not gonna be a stone left upon the stone. He's gonna tear this temple down. No, we got people. And Jesus was the one that says, Isaac and Jacob shall sit down and the children of kingdom shall be cast out. That's what happened in the book of Romans. He throwed them out. He rejected them to allow the Gentiles and people who actually believed him, whose heart was with them. When she sees him trying to open the door himself, though it is locked from the inside, she relents and gets out of bed. So he's been sending people like the government sending people door to door trying, the vaccine is free. It's in every drugstore you go. You notice that's no sign, free shots, this is free. Well, the gospel is free. That's what it says in Isaiah 55, everyone that needed come in and the gospel is no charge. but no you would rather go to money coming so you can go in and give them all your money thanking tithes and offerings go get you in heaven and everything and then they go sell you a cassette on the way out and sell you this and say they always have some kind of way or another but you would rather pay for that you would be rather among the muckety wucks mucks you one of the lay of the sins you have no need of nothing you you in good health you know everything you have all knowledge It says, when she finally unbolted the door, the beloved is gone. It's due to her lethargy and unwillingness, he had turned away in disappointment and went to feed his flock. What an incredible prophecy for the church today. Part of the church is awakened slowly with a little strength. There are some that's coming around and taking the vaccine. There's some coming around and leaving the megachurches That's everything lovely and everything because they don't want to hear you got to suffer to any end You got to take a chance here. Shall I find faith when I come do you have faith because? Everybody's not hearing the gospel. He says he's gonna close the majority's ears. So they won't hear They won't be able to see The door, they have made excuses for refusing to invite him in. I'm just gonna wait a while to make up my mind. You've seen the ones where the husband, Steve Carter and him had taken the, you remember the one that ran for mayor? He died, you remember? The guy that ran against Cheryl Broome for mayor, he died. But his wife was on television. You seen her the other day, her and her twin sister? Well, we could go on and take the shot. They went on and took the shot, but Steve gone. Maybe he should have listened before that. But he's gone, and she's here taking the shot now. But some come around, let's hope some. They didn't listen at Noah, but you couldn't come around after Noah closed the door, after that time was up. Pharaoh kept repenting and fooling around and God hardened his heart. Our Savior struggles to force the door open, but it must be open from the inside. Disappointing, he turns away, and the sustained doors have already responded. So he must go back to that 99. He had came after that lost sheep. We're out suffering from the loss and there are those that hear our message through and forward. I'm glad when somebody hear the word of God say, man, I need to get back in the Bible. I need to start listening. I need to read the Old Testament, the New Testament. I need to pray. I need to fast. Man, I love to hear that. You need to get back to your first love. Even in the last hour, however, a chance to repent still remains. but the return to God will be frightening and painful because of your temporary resistance. You know, everybody don't make it back. God may take you out because really, do you want to hear those people saying, just like I was saying about these guys, why you decided to take the shot, but the ones you hear on the thing, well, you know, you didn't help your people die. You didn't got other people dead. Now you finally listening because you're scared now. Now you're scared, we don't know whether you love God or not, it's fear you're doing. Now we need to talk to address those. And let this be a warning, the time for our Lord and Savior return is close and we cannot afford to ignore the knock at the door. We must cast off the comfortable, clean, and secure bedclothes of our cozy lifestyles and gird ourselves to seek the Lord while he may be found. Isaiah 55 and 6 seek the Lord while he may be found calling him he is near Those doctors don't like telling you that or whatever and they're not trying as hard Now with those they get the virus because that was a willing choice of those At that time you remember the five wise and the five foolish it seemed that's Matthew the 25th chapter it seems hardening when they says They rose up and trimmed their lamps, and others say, well, give us some of your oil. I said, well, no, you go to them that buy and sell, because if we give you some of ours, we won't have enough for ourselves. So yeah, I don't, I would understand some parents holding their children out of school. I understand those hospitals or those employers or whatever that's firing the people that's not taking the shot or whatever that's doing these things. that can contaminate the other employees or contaminate their customers or whatever. You with your rights and things, but you don't have a right to take someone else's life. You don't have a right. You have a right to have a dog. You have a right to have an animal, but you don't have a right to have that animal off his leash. Oh, he don't bite, but I don't want your dog coming up to me. Whether he bite me or not, I don't want him running alongside me. He might not bite me, but he might. So the vaccinate against that, there's a leash law that your dog has to be tied up. He has to be in a pen. The Bible tells you you were in charge and that happened. But why don't you just abide by the law? Why don't you do the right thing and say, perhaps something would happen. Let me just make sure my dog can't get out. Let's do things with insurance. You had to make your, if you had a roof or two-story house, you had to put a barrier around it so wouldn't nobody fall off of it. That's why we have governments to keep you safe from yourself. If we didn't have government, we didn't have police. If you, these idiots running around here telling me to get rid of the police or whatever, you watch them. Them gonna be some of the first ones breaking in your house that you have a problem with. You need the police. Until Jesus Christ comes, you will need these protections because of man and man's inability to really care from his heart about others or even have sense. We don't have any wisdom. We're like Solomon, worldly wisdom, but he got away from God. All the wisdom, he lost everything and caused the kingdom to be divided because he was smart in this world, but with no godly sense. Revelation 3 17 you remember I told you is where Jesus Christ was and Talking with the lay at the scenes in that so just as which Sardis those and lay out to see it Lay out to see it was completely self to see they were self to see Because they wasn't converted. There are a lot of people in the church They've been going the church for years that they've been in the church, but they don't have the Holy Spirit You can go to church and not have the Holy Spirit. That's a gift that God gives you, and you can notice there's a difference. The lethargy is not there. The apathy is not there. The complacency is not there. There's a difference than having that spirit. Jeremiah says, like fire shut up in your bone. Jeremiah 17 and 19 says, the heart is deceitful above all things, and an extremely sick and desperately wicked. Who could understand or fully know it? The hearts could tell you, you know everything. Self could tell you, you all right, and you know how to keep yourself, and you know what's best for yourself. The self will bury you any day. That's your worst enemy is self. That's why he says you have to put self to death. Self know too much. Self is personal. Self becomes self-centered. It's only worried about the self. Their view of their spiritual state is diametrically opposed to that of Jesus Christ. The Laodiceans' view is diametrically opposed to Jesus Christ. They think they are right. They think that they could make it through. They don't think they need anything. When he's knocking at the door, hey, I got something out here I need it. I'm at your heart's door knocking. But your hearts become so callous, so hardened, no one can get in. You can't hear, you can't see. He says, you poor, wretched, and naked. And you think you have need of nothing. Laodiceans think they are okay. They generally do not know they are Laodicean. A Laodicean, God turns, those people have been turned over to a reprobate mind. It's like homosexuality. They think that God made them that way, so it's all right to be in church that way. It's all right to marry and intermarry because they think, well, God, and not that giving the world and the church and other people are accepting this. You have same-sex marriage and lesbianism and all these things. Instead of saying, no, I'm woefully sick. I can see something's wrong. I need to fight this. I can't be happy with this. Can you see that argument that a homosexual has? It would be the same argument as adultery has. Oh God made me this way. I'm just not happy with one woman. I have to have three or four women. There's a lot of people because a lot of people come up to you. What about David? What about Abraham? They had more than one wife. What about it? Doesn't the Bible show you there are wrong things that people and leaders and other people have? David had a whole lot of problems too, didn't he? Abraham had a whole lot of problems too, didn't he? So just because there's some anomalies here, that doesn't make it right. So I have to fight against different things that everybody has their cross to bear. So that don't mean you say, well, God made you this way. No, God says it's abomination to him. So we're not gonna let you culturize this into the church and say, you have your rights and you could do what you wanna do. You're free to marry who you wanna marry, your body's yours. No, your body's not yours. You don't have a right, a choice to murder and kill and to commit adultery. born a child and do all these things. No, it's not. But in the secular world, the government's telling you, no, the government shouldn't be able to come in your life to tell you to take a shot and tell you to do these things. You see how the argument goes? It's an objective argument, and it's relative to the situation you find yourself in. It's as in the time of the judges, every man did what was right in his own eyes. But what about this standard here? God's word is the standard and we're supposed to be standard bearers. We find the word of God that prohibits these things. In most cases, they think they're still Philadelphian and thus in good standing with God. They believe everyone has been asleep but themselves. Oh, you just wait, you will see what's gonna happen. You're taking that, you're doing this here, you're going to church. A lot of times you go into holiness, oh, that, that, he didn't went crazy in holiness, he following this here, you following the wrong thing, you will see or whatever, okay. So that's why I say you will have to know what you believe and whom you believe and have faith in the God that you serve because you may be serving another Jesus, there is another Jesus, Paul said. There's another gospel you trying of the spirits and they didn't got into you here. One of the lay of the Sianism's major characteristics is utter self-deception. There are those that think that the election was fraud. All is fraud and deception. One person plants the idea, the nation went along with it, and the nation had an insurrection where people violated the Constitution and tried to destroy the government because they believe one man said they frauded him. He hadn't had any proof of it. So you don't believe in science or the scientific theory or whatever, and he can't show you one shred of proof that that was fraud or the election was fraud, but there are people dying over this, and they're still fighting over it, and they're dividing the nation over it. It says the devil deceived the whole world. See, this is great, but it's the wine of God's wrath. It's drunkenness. God's doing this. No man's behind this. God's allowing this to happen. God has his chosen people. And we can't see the experiments that's going on because we're standing inside the border. We're not outside. We hadn't come out of the world. So you can't see the deception that's in the world. I was thinking about someone that I told you had caught the, I'm thinking about his congregation. What is it the congregation is doing? What are these people doing? Mm, mm, mm. Each of us must look carefully into the word of God for a true test of our spiritual condition. Now, I presume James, the first chapter, 22nd to the 27th verse, those that don't have the notes or whatever is the reason I'm telling the scriptures, but I'll give y'all those notes to look up this because in a month or so, I'm gonna be out for a month or two. We're not gonna have these things going on for about a month or so. Not presuming our evaluation of ourselves is the same as our savior. He is the ultimate judge. We shouldn't take God for granted. We shouldn't become complacent and think we got it made. Paul said he was pressing on toward the mark he hadn't achieved. But a lot of us think we're bulletproof, that nothing's gonna happen to us because we're children of God. And you don't know that. So if someone tell him, the doctor tell me about my blood pressure, say he was telling you about your A1C level, if the doctor says this is going on, let me get with my heart doctor and let him find out. I supposed to be having surgery, but the surgeon told me, well, I'm not gonna do this surgery until your heart doctor and your lung doctor approve of it also. See, even the world know that you should get counseling, good, good counseling. So he's referring me back to the specialists that know me. What preacher or what theologian has told you about these things? You remember I told you I was glad John McArthur turned and told his church that about the vaccine he stopped having the service and he start televising service and doing these things. I said I was so glad to see John not following these Antichrist religions that don't believe what God's doing in this day and time. God's working the work that you wouldn't believe and I've been preaching about that for years That he's working the work that we don't know the five wives in the five foolish Matthew the 25th chapter both of those groups was in the same place going to meet the same bridegroom, right? but there were five wives and five foolish first one says and The spiritually unprepared Christians may sit right beside the spiritually prepared Christians in church services in the world, wherever they may be. Similar to the state of the wheat and tares, they all grow together. The just and the unjust, they're all there together. They both seem interested in the same things and seem to have the same character. I said seems to. They both do. Both may be diligent giving tithes and offerings and serving their brothers. We've seen that in Isaiah also, where they were bringing offerings, they were making prayers, and they was going to the festivals and the feasts, but he says, I'm tired of your festivals and feasts. Who told you to bring offerings? I won't hear your prayers. He didn't say you're not praying to me. He says, I won't hear your prayers anymore, because it didn't mean anything. They honor me with their mouth and their lips, but their hearts are for you saying things that your actions and the things you're doing betray another. You're a hypocrite. He called it a hypocritical nation. There's nothing more than I see that this nation than it being a hypocritical nation. Half of Mitch McConnell's people in Kentucky, Less than 40% were taking the vaccine, they were dying off. He on television the other day said, take the shot, take the vaccine, there's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, because sooner or later, you see you're fighting a losing battle. You're telling the people stuff, now all your constituents losing their mothers and grandmothers and family. I mean, did you see the world news the other night where this man had this five-year-old boy that had caught it in the diet, say he lost his best friend? You mean to tell me you didn't let this child perish? because of your self-centeredness. That's why we have to preach the gospel. And Elijah says, God says he was sent in the spirit of Elijah. In other words, we need to get people's hearts turned back to their children. We need to get their hearts turned back to what's best for their children and what's not best for you, but what's best for your children. But we also need to get the children's heart turned back to your parents. You're not 17-year-old going with a 14-year-old girl, and when the father tries to sit y'all down with your family and talk about it, you rise up and murder him. That's not turning your hearts back. What's going on? What laws and things? None of your laws are working. God saw that, that's why he said it's by grace that you're saved. It's weak through the flesh. The law could not save you because of the weakness of the flesh. You can't keep the law. Why are you trying to live by the law? You need God's grace. Vaccine or no vaccine, none of that can save you. It's only Jesus Christ. He can save those that don't take the vaccine. He can save those that take the vaccine. Nothing is impossible with God. But don't tempt God. Don't tempt God. It may only be in a crisis that the real differences show up. And then attendance may begin to wane, or their monetary support in church may slow down or even stop. Sometime, that's why I say, I think God allows critical situations, and he sent Isaiah at a critical time. If you notice, I tell you, prophets come in a critical time after something has happened. Because the warning was already there, you violated the warning. But notice, God didn't come screaming from through the forest and screaming throughout the garden and said, hey Adam, stop, stop, leave the tree alone. He had warned him and told him of his choices. He chose death. So when God came, it's too late because you've eaten of the tree. When Isaiah came, he was coming because you had been warned. So when Jesus Christ comes back, when he's coming back for a church without a spot or a wrinkle that's been listening at his preachers and teachers, the five, four ministers that edified the church that had made the bride ready, not for a sleeping or a drunk bride that had slumbered and slept and hadn't gotten ready. It's too late to get ready. If you're not ready, we're leaving. And she says, go buy those, go to those that buy and sell. And it says, and while they, verse nine, and the foolish said unto the wise, give up of your lamps for hours is gone out. But the wise answer said, not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, and for us and you. But go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. And afterward came also the other virgin saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. But he answered and says, verily, verily, I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man comes. You should have been ready. I told you to get ready. I came here, I died for you. I left apostles, prophets, and teachers. I left all the sorts of ministers. I gave gifts to the church for you to be ready. When Jesus comes back, it's too late to get ready. You've been drunken in sleep and he told you to watch, to be watchful. The contrast between the wise and the foolish. Both groups were carrying lamps, right? So these vessels are not a sign of who was prepared. Similarly, a person carrying a Bible to church does not show that that person has been prepared by the study and by prayer. The previous week to overcome sin and produce spiritual fruit or anything else, you know, like I say, some people walk around with Bible so big and bring Bible to church. Is that Bible in your heart? Is it written on your heart? Paul left the parchments behind because they were cumbersome. If he hadn't written his laws on your heart, it's too late because Jeremiah said, the new covenant, in the new covenant, he write his laws within our hearts. How can a man keep from sinning against God? It's by hiding the word of God in his heart. Had you been meditating on it day and night? That's how you know God is through his word. But some popular preacher, some popular person that live around you, somebody that you admire something told you something else. So you like that prophet that had God had knew the bridegroom and God had given him a prophecy and he came and spoke the prophecy. And everybody heard that prophecy and his sons heard and went back and told this old prophet that wasn't any longer a prophet. He was jealous of the enemy, and he came back and told the old man, he said, look, I'm a prophet, too, or whatever, and God told me to tell you this. God told you, come on back with me, don't tell you at my house what he told me to tell you. He befriended him and made friends of him, and then God told the old man, I'm killing you because you didn't do what I told you to do. You trying to make friends with the world, you listening at the people that live around you. Some old hag come around here gossiping and backbiting or whatever, don't have a husband. Some guy on the job don't have a wife, don't have children. You listen at this guy on the news, they're trying to make a few dollars or whatever. Birds of the air. People you don't know anything about and they're telling you and you following their instruction. God's gonna kill you. Because what's in your heart? Now that you have fear, what's going on? It didn't help the prophet to be scared. God still killed him because he disobeyed God. It didn't help Adam to say, my wife did this. Well, because you listen to your wife, this is what I'm going to do. Because you're going to die. I told you you was. Neither does it show that the Holy Spirit exists within a person. Just because a person goes to church doesn't mean they're saved, doesn't mean they know God, doesn't mean that much at all, you see. It just means that they go to church, doesn't mean that the church is in them. Both groups slumbered and slept. Now, I might have to break that slumbered and slept down, but I'll have to do it some other time. But even the most dedicated and sincere saints may temporarily become spiritually lethargic. We all need rest. If you noticed while the bridegroom tarried, it says they all slumbered and slept. So like I say, we're all struggling, we're all trying to get there. They didn't say it was perfect. So the Bible does say, it's in red writing too, that they all slumbered and slept. So sometimes, like I say, some of us wakes up, but don't be sleep though. Don't do like Peter, don't wake up doing something rash. He says, be careful, the flesh is weak. We need to be being spiritually strong, spiritually awoken. Nevertheless, we should not allow ourselves to become lethargic about his eventual return because he did say he was coming back. Habakkuk 2 and 3 says, for the vision is yet for a point in time, but at the end it shall speak. and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. It's coming. What Jesus say, what's in this word is going to happen. Let's wait on it. No matter how things are turning out, God's word is right. What Jesus says is going to happen. the word slumbered is actually not uh... transit transient act way s slept should be sleeping a continuous act so slumbered sometime you catch yourself not know but sleep us you notice when the bible talks about those that slept or asleep there's a different condition about that you understand that Okay, thus we see the progression of lethargy. First, the virgins nodded their heads as if napping, and later they slept continuously and deeply. That's why I tell you a lot of times, if I'm saying something or catch a name or talk loudly, that means, okay, get up and get you a drink of water, do something, move around or whatever. Don't sit there because you could go farther and farther into sleep. Move yourself, you could see yourself going to sleep. Wake like I've had water in your face or do something. Weariness is the first step to further spiritual decay. It is vital to catch temporary earthly apathy early to prevent permanent disillusionment to God's word or the things of God or to become dull of hearing. That's why I say we always Checking ourselves in an area. You said man, I'm slipping. I'm not praying like I used to I'm not listening at the Word of God of this person. How did I how did this happen? You know always Oh Consciousness, it's a soberness to God's people Examine themselves the ten virgins service and reverence to God is done in a way that everybody else does you just go to church and In other words, you're just going by road. It's just like getting up in the morning or at night time saying, I will follow the prayer. You just remember what the Word is saying and you just sing it. But you're not coming to God actually praying this prayer from the heart. You see what I'm saying? Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. You're just saying something and your heart's that way. But are you really reverencing God as your Father when you get down to pray to Him? Are you really asking Him that that day that His will be done in your life, knowing what all that encompassed or whatever? See, that's why I said, you can tell the difference. That's why judgment, those that are spiritual, judges all things. So there's a noticing that comes, but I don't want to add that now because that may throw you off or whatever. But it is more than a habit and a sincere zeal. You know, it's a lot of people, they go to church because it's Sunday. That's the day to go to church or Saturday or whatever day to go to church. So they just go. It's time to go to church. Well, don't go because it's time to go. You know the ones that I like going to church is the one that was up Friday or up early Saturday morning and hungry to get here because man, I need to hear from God. Remember Isaiah, he was up early in the morning, he ran up. I need to hear from God. I need God. Who thirst and hunger after righteousness, I'm going to eat. Oh, it's lunchtime, that's why I'm eating. Oh, you're not hungry. No, I'm just eating because it's lunchtime. I'm hungering after this. Some people just eat to be eating. It's more of a habit, and that's why they go to church, because their parents went to church, or everybody around them has gone to church. Their lack of emotional maturity and forethought carries them through life in light-headed bliss, and so they remain with the church, just filling out a seat, because, you know, that's the social thing I do, is go to church. I'm being seen in church or whatever. But the Bible in Malachi says, I shall send Elijah. And you notice in the New Testament, they were asking Jesus, are you Elijah? Are you that prophet? They knew he was a prophet over them. Malachi says, see, I will send you another prophet like Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful Judgment Day of God. The Amplifier reads, behold, I'm going to send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day. So that spirit of Elijah he's sending is the spirit that his prophets, the true preachers, have that are having heart warnings. It's not the Joel Osteens and D.D. Jakes. Those are the Candlestrike preachers. But it's the preachers that's preaching with hellfire and brimstone and telling you where your fault lies. All the rest of the mega churches, these preachers preaching, just get on board. Everybody's invited. Jesus just loves y'all. It's not telling you, you got to strip down. You got to deny yourself. It don't have you leaving out of that thinking, what else I need to do? What I got to do? In other words, you're not trying to please God. You left out there with your head in your hand. You went out there looking at the prostitutes and everybody else, looking down on them. You went back to your house and everywhere you at, thinking you better than your neighbors and everybody else, because you go to church. But Elijah will break that spirit. first the prophets and prophecy larger first king eighteen nineteen to twenty one i don't know if i have a little time to get on here because when a larger came in against these props allied job came in against these profits of bail because one of profit comes in like i say It changes it gets alive because usually a prophet comes in with judgment and a solid word from God I say it's that time God's fit to work on you and that's the spirit of Elijah is here and we're seeing that And I think we could just do that next time that spirit of Elijah