Episode Transcript
You take your Bibles and turn to Hosea chapter 10.
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While you're turning there, our weekly total was 106 gospel contacts for the week,
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and that brings our yearly subtotal up to 984.
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So keep passing out those tracts and sharing the gospel with folks.
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I noticed when I went up to the 19th floor, Friday, someone had taken one of my books.
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So I've got to restock that Monday, and I sure enjoy going up here and seeing someone
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who has taken one of our books or tracts and off to read it.
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Hosea chapter 10, God willing, we'll be expounding verse 8 this morning.
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Hosea chapter 10, verse 8, the title of the message this morning is "The High Places."
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The high places, you'll see that a lot in the Bible, the high places.
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Brother Shepherd has been looking at some of those passages as well in 1 and 2 Kings
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as he's been teaching through that about the high places.
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In verse 6 and 7 last week, we learned about one of God's principles of kingdom authority,
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namely that God designed the earth to be ruled by man under the authority, the power of God
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in heaven.
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This is why Jesus will rule on earth one day on the throne of his father David as the Son
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of Man.
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This is also why Satan will not attempt to rule directly on earth, but will attempt to
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rule the earth through the man of sin.
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One will be the seed of the woman, the other will be the seed of the serpent spoken of
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in the book of Genesis.
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We saw last week that Israel's false God, their calf, would be carried away to the king
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who conquered it.
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And Israel's king would be cut off.
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And now in this verse we're looking at today, we learned about a third aspect of this false
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religion and of kingdom authority as well.
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And that third aspect is it's going to take place when Israel is conquered by Syria.
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Here's the three things.
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Israel's calf would be carried away.
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We saw that last week.
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Israel's king would be cut off.
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We saw that last week.
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Thirdly, Israel's construction would be cut down.
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So repeat that again.
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Israel's calf would be carried away.
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Israel's king would be cut off.
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And now this week, Israel's construction would be cut down.
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Bible says in Hosea 10.8, "The high place is also of Avon.
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The sin of Israel shall be destroyed."
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Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you so much for your word.
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God, I pray you remove all distractions today.
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We reckon ourselves to be dead indeed and to sin, but alive unto you through Jesus Christ
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our Lord.
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Glorify your name.
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Teach your people.
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May all eyes be on you.
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We yield ourselves wholly unto you today as instruments of your righteousness.
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Glorify your name.
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Edify your saints.
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We pray in Jesus' wonderful name.
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Amen.
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The high place is also of Avon.
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If you'll remember back a few verses, we learned about the place called Beth-Avon.
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Y'all remember that?
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We learned that Beth-Avon and Beth-El were the same place.
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Beth-El, El meaning God, Beth meaning house, Beth-El, that was the house of God.
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Avon means emptiness, vanity, and Beth meaning house.
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So when God left the house, when God left Israel, Beth-El became empty, so it became
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Beth-Avon.
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House of nothingness, a house of emptiness.
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As Jesus said when he was here, he said, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."
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That's the way he told those Jews.
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So we're talking about the high places of Avon.
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Israel had rejected the one true God and began worshipping that idolatrous calf that they
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made instead.
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The idolatrous calf of Beth-Avon.
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So now, Hosea refers to Beth-Avon as simply Avon.
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Make sense?
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Simply Avon.
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Inequality, emptiness, iniquity.
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If you have a dictionary, someone asked me last week, they said, "Well, I think I've
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read before where Avon means iniquity, and it also does, but it means emptiness."
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Let me show you how those two go together.
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You see, when God is gone, emptiness is all that's left.
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Emptiness therefore is ungodliness.
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Make sense?
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God's not there.
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Emptiness is all that's there.
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So emptiness is ungodliness.
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God is gone.
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Now in the land of Avon, where God no longer was, there were these high places.
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In our study last week, we learned about the calf.
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We learned about its king.
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The calf is the false god that Satan hides behind, remember?
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And the king is the earthly ruler who's guided by that false religion of the devil.
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So what are these high places?
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The high places were the places where Israel sacrificed to their false god.
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You have to have a place where your religion is executed.
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Everybody wants a special place like that.
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We've got a place right here, don't we?
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We've got a place where we come, where we teach, where we sing praises to God.
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This is our place right here.
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We also do the same thing in the tabernacle of our own hearts, don't we?
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But there is a physical location, and God has told us in the New Testament, too, to
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not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
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Well, you have to assemble somewhere.
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But false religions have the same thing.
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All the false religions have the same thing.
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The high places were the places where Israel sacrificed to their false gods.
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They're called high places because they were elevated places, like on a mountain or on
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a hill.
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They were up high where the people constructed their altars, where perhaps they built their
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temples or whatever religious paraphernalia that they used, that they desired to execute
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the worship to their false gods.
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No different today.
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Atheism and humanism.
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Do you know where the places are?
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There were that enshrined, the universities.
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Exactly where it is.
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When you think of atheism, when you think of humanism, when you think of all this, they
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do so under the guise of education, of intellect.
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If you try to argue God, they'll say, "Oh, you're back in the Stone Ages.
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That's superstitious stuff about God.
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You're showing how uneducated you are."
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But today's American universities, they've become the high places for humanism and atheism.
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The Buddhist temples are their high places, whether it's altars, totem poles, tarot cards,
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or even the religious temples.
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It doesn't matter.
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It's all high places in Beth-Avon.
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It's a whole bunch of religious nothing.
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It's all it is.
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The ungodly nations worshiped their false gods in these elevated places, and what Israel
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did, Israel just saw what they were doing.
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They mimicked them.
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They adopted their customs, and they started doing the same thing.
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We'll have high places too.
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We want a king like them.
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We want high places like them.
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Before they came into the Promised Land, when they left Egypt and they were going through
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the desert, God told Israel, "Now, here's what's going to happen.
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When you get into the Promised Land, there's going to be people over there who don't worship
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me.
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They're going to be worshiping false gods.
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They're going to be worshiping these false gods on these elevated places.
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They're going to be getting up on the mountains and on the hills.
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When you go there, you need to tear those places down."
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That's what God told them.
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Deuteronomy 12, verse 2.
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Deuteronomy 12, verse 2, if you're taking notes.
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God said, "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall
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possess served their gods upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree."
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These were some of the places where they worshiped their false gods and said, "When you go there,
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destroy it.
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Tear it down."
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Why?
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Because there was only one place where Israel could worship the one true God.
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That was the tabernacle that God constructed, had them construct.
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We learned about the tabernacle this morning in the Genesis to Jesus class.
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The tabernacle was made according to the pattern that God gave Moses.
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Then the tabernacle therefore became a pattern of the promised Savior to come.
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There's only one God who made all things and there's only one way to worship God and that
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is the way God has revealed to us in His Word.
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All other places are false places.
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False worship, false gods.
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God says, "Tear them down."
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The tabernacle became the temple when it became a permanent structure, but it was the same
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thing.
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The temple is also called the sanctuary in the Bible.
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God said, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them."
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The purpose of the sanctuary was for God to have a special place near His people so that
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He could dwell among them.
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See, the people's sin wouldn't allow God to dwell with them.
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It separated them from God.
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So God told Moses in Exodus chapter 25 verse 8, and let them make me a sanctuary that I
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may dwell among them.
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No sanctuary, no God.
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You have a sanctuary, you have a God.
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No sanctuary, no God.
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Beth-el, Beth-aven.
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The Israelites probably thought these high places got them closer to their false God.
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You got people have that idea, they think, "Well, up on that mountain I can be closer
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to God."
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No, you can't.
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The psalmist says, "If I go down to hell, you're there.
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If I go up to heaven, you're there.
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Wherever I am, there you are.
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God's omnipresent.
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God's everywhere."
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You can't get any closer to God by going up a mountain.
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In fact, it's kind of the other way around.
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They probably thought that going higher would get them closer, but they were forgetting
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about their forefathers at Mount Sinai.
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When God gave those 10 commandments to their forefathers, they weren't even allowed to touch
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the mountain God was on.
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If you have a high place and you can go up there and get closer to your God, then your
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God isn't much of a God.
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He's not much of a God at all.
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They weren't even allowed to touch the mountain that God was on.
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The high place of Mount Sinai could not get them closer to God.
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It actually drove them away.
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So God said, "Make me a sanctuary, so I may dwell among them."
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God had to make a sanctuary down where they were so he could fill the sanctuary with his
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presence and dwell among them.
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Here's a kingdom truth.
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We don't get close to God by going up to him, but by God coming down to us.
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We don't get close to God by going up to him, but by God coming down to us.
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I'm so glad, Brother Shepherd, God didn't tell him to make that sanctuary on top of
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Mount Sinai.
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And then everybody has to take that journey.
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That's what they do with the Muslim religion.
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You've got to take a journey to Mecca if you possibly can once in your lifetime.
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You've got to take a journey to Mecca.
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I'm glad that God didn't say, "Make me a sanctuary up here.
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I'll bring him in a tabernacle up here, and I'll dwell inside that tabernacle that
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y'all can come up to where I am."
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And everybody, could you imagine being an old person?
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Some of y'all, some of y'all right now aren't so old, but could you imagine climbing up
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a mountain to see God, to get close to God?
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And here you are having to go up there.
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We had a brother this morning.
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It's good to have her travel to nurses back.
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He's got an AFib like me.
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He forgot his medicine.
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He had to go back home and take his medicine.
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You imagine him having to go up that mountain.
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The air is getting thin.
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Oh, I'm trying to get closer to God.
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I'm trying to get God to get close to God.
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We don't have to go up to him.
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He comes down to us.
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And he does it through a sanctuary.
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And we learned this morning in the Genesis Jesus class, the sanctuary being a pattern
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that God gave Moses was a pattern of Jesus to come.
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What does that tell us about the sanctuary?
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It tells us in order to bridge the gap between man and God, God's going to come down to us.
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And that's exactly what he did in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Whoo, man, revelation, the tabernacle of God is among men.
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That's what it says.
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Praise God.
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The tabernacle of God is among men.
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Jesus said in John chapter six, verse 51, John chapter six, verse 51, I am the living
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bread which came down from heaven.
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Isn't that good?
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Oh, man, there was living bread inside that tabernacle called show bread.
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And that show bread, when they ate that show bread, that show bread wasn't on the mountain.
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They didn't have to go up to the mountain to get that show bread.
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That bread came down to them in that sanctuary.
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There was a picture of Jesus coming down from heaven that a man made thereof and not die.
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I'm the living bread which came down from heaven.
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The high places couldn't get Israel any closer to God.
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They were simply an elevated place where they worshiped their false God.
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Therefore, God called the activity that they did on those high places.
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Look back in your text now.
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The sin of Israel.
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The sin of Israel.
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This was a deviation from the pattern God had shown them in his word.
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It was a false God.
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It was a false form of worship even though they were sacrificing and things like that.
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Things were similar to the pattern God gave but it was not the pattern God gave.
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Underscore the word sin, the sin of Israel.
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Listen, God created all things.
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He created me and you and he alone has the authority to tell us who to worship and how
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to worship.
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Period.
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No matter how sincere Israel was in their false worship, God called it the sin of Israel.
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Not Israel's mistake.
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Not Israel's ignorance.
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Not Israel's alternative lifestyle but Israel's sin.
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There's only one God and there's only one way for us to come to him and that's the way
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he ordained in his word.
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God rejects the false message of diversity, equity and inclusion that the world is trying
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to shove down our throats.
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The truth is it's God's way or the highway.
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It's all there is to it.
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,320
Those high places and the false gods they serve there were condemned by God.
00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:06,920
Therefore God said, look back in your text, they what?
00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,000
Shall be destroyed.
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,400
Destroy them.
00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:15,000
God told Israel to destroy them instead of destroying them, they embellished them.
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:19,720
So now what's God going to do?
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:21,480
He's going to drive Israel out and he'll make sure they're destroyed.
00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:26,400
He said they shall be destroyed.
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,540
Not tolerated but destroyed.
00:17:28,540 --> 00:17:33,240
Not appreciated for their cultural differences and artistic contribution to society but destroyed.
00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:43,560
Israel did not fear God in the time of Hosea.
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,120
They didn't take heed to God's word here.
00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:50,560
So instead of worshiping God in the sanctuary, they worship false gods in the high places.
00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:57,340
So God said, look back in your text, the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars.
00:17:57,340 --> 00:18:05,840
Underscore, the thorn and the thistle.
00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:13,560
So the thorn and the thistle is going to come up on their altars.
00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:15,960
Y'all ever been to a place before?
00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:19,680
There used to be something going on there and now that place has been abandoned and
00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:24,640
now there's just, you know, briars and things like that just grown up where it's at.
00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:29,380
They just take over.
00:18:29,380 --> 00:18:31,120
That's the image that God's giving here.
00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:34,880
Just thorns and thistles are going to take over.
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:38,640
After God drove out, the Israelites said there wouldn't be anyone left around to worship
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:42,280
those false gods in those high places.
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:45,720
The altars they once sacrificed on in the high places, God said they'd be overcome by
00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:51,080
thorns and thistles.
00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:54,000
The thorn and the thistle.
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:55,800
Now this is very, very significant for us this morning because the thorn and the thistle
00:18:55,800 --> 00:19:01,840
are the products of the curse of Adam's sin.
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:05,560
That's very, very important.
00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:07,800
Genesis chapter three verse 17 and 18.
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:11,760
Genesis chapter three verse 17 and 18.
00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,480
And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:23,000
the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it.
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:29,000
First is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:35,960
Look down verse 18.
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:39,200
Thorns also and thistles.
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,000
Same thing we're seeing here in Hosea.
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,280
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:49,880
field.
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:50,880
So when God's saying that the thorns and the thistles are going to come up and cover that
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:54,240
altar and overgrow that altar that they were worshipping on, we're looking at the product
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:59,920
of Adam's curse, the thorn and the thistle coming up, covering up, overcoming that altar
00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:07,200
where they once worshiped.
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:08,560
This morning in the Genesis of Jesus class we were looking at the need for mercy and
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:15,680
how God gave that mercy seat in the most holy place of that tabernacle.
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:21,000
And we used Jesse as we gave the illustration of him being a thief, and we gave the illustration
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:30,240
of Chris having his house broken into by Jesse, and Jesse stealing the money out of Chris's
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:36,280
house.
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:38,960
And so when we looked at mercy, I said, "Now let's say I'm the judge, and let's say that
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:48,280
Jesse comes to me and he says, 'I don't have any money.
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,200
I can't pay the man back.
00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:54,320
I'm guilty.
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:55,320
I've spent it all in Las Vegas.
00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,200
I've a sinned.
00:20:58,200 --> 00:20:59,840
But judge, I wish I could take it back, and I can't have mercy on me.'"
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:06,200
And the world's idea is that me as a judge would say, "I have mercy.
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:13,040
I love you, Jesse.
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:14,960
I have mercy."
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:15,960
You know what Chris said when I said that to Jesse?
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:20,320
He said, "I'd be angry."
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,960
And he was right because the violated has not been made whole, and Jesse's still a thief.
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:36,240
That's not mercy.
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:38,560
That's judicial misconduct.
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:42,400
And so with God's mercy, do you know what happens?
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:48,040
The violated gets restored.
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,120
He's made whole.
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:51,760
Everything taken away gets restored back, and the thief is made righteous.
00:21:51,760 --> 00:22:00,280
That way Jesse's no longer a thief.
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,880
He's happy.
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,680
And Chris is no longer out his money.
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,880
He's happy.
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:10,560
So you know what happens?
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,160
You know how that happens?
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:13,160
Jesse doesn't have the money to pay back Chris.
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:17,000
Chris isn't happy with Jesse, but as a judge, I take the money and I restore Chris back
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:23,920
myself.
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:25,160
And somehow I'm able to give Jesse my righteousness.
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:31,120
That's the work of that sanctuary.
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:33,640
That's the work of the one true God.
00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:36,560
The problem is, with these high places, when it's all said and done, they could not take
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:45,960
care of the curse of sin.
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,000
They were actually overcome by it.
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:51,880
In the end, the thorns and the thistles covered the altars they sacrificed on.
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:58,720
Now that's the exact opposite of what happens with the pattern God showed us in the mount.
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:04,560
It's the exact opposite of true Christianity.
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:10,240
The worship on the high places, it gave them the appearance of being closer to their false
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:14,800
God.
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:15,960
The worship on the high places had sacrifices being offered that were similar to what they
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:20,800
offered the true God.
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:22,300
Just like Cain, he offered on an altar too.
00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:26,040
But in the end, their religion couldn't put away the curse of their sin.
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:31,520
When all was said and done, the thorns and the thistles overcame the sacrifices they
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:36,360
made on those altars.
00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:40,120
Sacrifice Jesus made was just the opposite.
00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:43,760
Thorns didn't overcome Jesus' sacrifice.
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:46,480
Jesus' sacrifice overcame the thorns.
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,480
I wrote a little poem whenever I started thinking about this point.
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:53,800
I'll share it with you.
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,280
The thorns were put on Jesus' head.
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,320
They punctured him and then he bled.
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,200
The blood was given to atone.
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,720
Our sin was covered.
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:07,120
Now it's gone.
00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:09,960
My wife and Miss Glenda, they made a little crown of thorns up here since Easter's coming.
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:22,240
Look at that, thorns.
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,200
Put on Jesus' head.
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,600
But you know what?
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:29,120
Jesus went to that tomb.
00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:30,800
He bled and put those thorns away.
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,160
There's no thorns overcoming the cross.
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,520
The cross overcame the thorns.
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:38,280
The Bible says that he was made a curse for us, that Christ has redeemed us from the curse
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:44,680
of the law, being made a curse for us for it is written, cursed is every man that hangs
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:49,160
on a tree.
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,480
Every false religion is a high place that is powerless against the curse of our sin.
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:59,480
I don't care how devoted you are to a false religion.
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,280
I don't care if you're in the Mormon religion, you've got holy underwear.
00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,520
I don't care if you're in the Buddhist religion, you've got a big old pot belly Buddha.
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,720
I agree with Brother Shepherd what he said about Buddha the other day.
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,440
If they're going to make an idol of Buddha, they should at least give them abs.
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:17,000
But they didn't.
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:18,000
They gave them a big old pot belly.
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,000
I guess that's before Keto came out.
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,880
But every false religion is a high place that is powerless against the curse of sin.
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:32,400
Only the cross of Christ can overcome the thorns.
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:37,740
When Jesus comes, everybody who embraced a false religion, they're going to be left to
00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:42,340
face God in the judgment of their sins because their sins were never put away.
00:25:42,340 --> 00:25:50,400
This bore God's judgment in our place.
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:53,200
But they, having rejected Jesus, will be left to face God's judgment on their own.
00:25:53,200 --> 00:26:00,520
Look back in your text and when this happens, "And they shall say to the mountains, 'Cover
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:05,960
us and to the hills, fall on us.'"
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:11,280
Now this is a great lesson in Bible prophecy because God is...
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:19,080
Where when it comes to Bible prophecy, you have a near far reference.
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:24,480
Is almost always a double reference.
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:27,160
Where God addresses the immediate and in so doing, he prophesies about the far off future.
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:35,560
And when one comes to pass, the other comes to pass.
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,720
And there is this complete synergy, if you would, of the Scriptures.
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:46,000
And so what's happening is this, by putting this prophecy in here, because God's not saying
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:53,360
that the people of Israel, when these high places are destroyed, that they're worshiped,
00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:58,960
he's not saying that they're going to cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on them
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,240
then.
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,320
What he's saying is this, by putting this in here, he is showing us that the high places
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:10,440
where they worshiped are addressing the high places of our day, the false religions of
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:18,440
our day.
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:19,840
And so what happens to Israel, how they were judged, how the thorns and the briars overcame
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:27,240
their false religion rather than our true religion overcoming the thorns and the briars,
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:32,040
as it ends with them, so they'll end with the whole world.
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,040
As it ends with them in worshiping their calves, so they'll end with them who worship the humanisms
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:39,820
and the atheists and the Buddhists and the false gods of India, and any other religion,
00:27:39,820 --> 00:27:46,080
any other perversion of Christianity, it will all end the same way.
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:51,640
They're all high places.
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:53,360
In the temple, there was a holy place.
00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:57,640
There was a most holy place.
00:27:57,640 --> 00:27:59,800
There was no high place.
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:02,800
There was one temple with one God and one way to get to that God, and there were precise
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:10,040
measurements, precise directions, precise instructions on how God and man come together,
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:18,520
which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,280
You get off of that tabernacle, you get off of that Savior, you have nothing left but
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:26,280
a high place, which is an empty place.
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,080
You don't have Beth El, you have Beth Avon.
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,780
And in the end, God says, "Here's what's going to happen.
00:28:32,780 --> 00:28:37,080
They're going to cry out to the mountains and to the hills, fall on us, hide from us
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:43,800
from the face of God."
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,640
Why?
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:46,640
"Because their sin was never put away, and now they stand before a holy God, the God
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:53,240
of the mountain on Mount Sinai, and there's no border between them.
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,520
There's no Moses to protect them.
00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,640
There's no mediator.
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:01,000
There's no mercy.
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,200
It's just judgment."
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:08,840
One day when Jesus comes, the Israelites who serve their false gods in the high places,
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:16,100
as well as every other person who embraced something other than the Lord Jesus Christ
00:29:16,100 --> 00:29:21,280
and Him crucified, will plead for the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the judgment
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:26,440
of God, but there'll be no place for them to hide.
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:31,740
And God, I have hid myself behind the cross of Jesus Christ.
00:29:31,740 --> 00:29:38,440
I've hid myself behind the atoning blood, just like those Israelites did on Passover
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:42,960
night.
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,560
But like Israel, all those who reject Jesus as their Savior will have to stand before
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:51,300
God without Him, naked and ashamed in their sins, not being covered by the sacrifice of
00:29:51,300 --> 00:29:57,480
Jesus Christ.
00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:58,720
They will call out for the mountains to cover them.
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,200
The Apostle John prophesied of the same day that Hosea prophesied of in Revelation chapter
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:08,360
6, verse 14 through 16, saying, "And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together,
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:16,440
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, and the kings of the earth,
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:21,760
and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:26,120
bondmen and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains,
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:31,960
and said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:37,400
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.'"
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,720
There are two things we can receive.
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:47,100
You can either receive the mercy of the Lamb, or you can receive the wrath of the Lamb.
00:30:47,100 --> 00:30:53,160
But one way or the other, you're going to stand before the Lamb.
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:59,160
I have stood before the Lamb at the cross and received His mercy.
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:04,680
But if you stand before the Lamb without the cross, you will receive His wrath.
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:11,160
The high place is not a holy place.
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,800
It's not Beth-El.
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:15,800
It is Beth-Avon, and it will come down.
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,160
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,920
Thank You, Father, for giving us the difference between the holy places and the high places.
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:29,760
The holy places that put away the curse of sin, the high places that are overcome by
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:34,760
it.
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:36,460
And I thank You, Lord God, that You've given us all a Lamb.
00:31:36,460 --> 00:31:40,040
And, Father, I pray, Lord, through any here today that have not stood before that Lamb
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:45,680
at the cross and accepted His death in their place to put away their sin, believing on
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:53,920
Him as their Savior and sacrifice for sin.
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,440
I pray they will.
00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,400
I pray they'll stand on the rock instead of crawling, calling for rocks to fall on them
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:04,340
and hide them from the face of the Lamb.
00:32:04,340 --> 00:32:06,720
May they receive His mercy that they may not receive His wrath.
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,960
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,160
