Episode Transcript
You take God's precious Word and turn to the book of Hosea, chapter 11.
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Hosea, chapter 11.
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This past week, we passed out 132 tracts.
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And y'all keep that up.
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We won't delay anymore. We need to get into God's Word.
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We've spent a lot of time, but boy, it's been a good time.
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And what an encouragement it is to hear from Brother James,
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and what God is doing in his life.
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Looking forward to fellowshiping with them after church.
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Hosea, chapter 11, verse 5, will be expounding this morning.
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The tile of the message is the holy places.
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The holy places.
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Now, in verse 4 last week, God beautifully explained
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how he had taken Israel, who was lame on their feet in Egypt,
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who was dead in their trespasses and sins,
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and caused them to walk out of that land of bondage.
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God said he healed them.
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He healed Israel.
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Jesus healed people who couldn't walk in the New Testament.
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He healed them like Jesus healed and raised the dead,
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and took them by the hand and raised them back on their feet,
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enabling them to rise and leave Egypt in the power of his grace.
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God said he drew Israel from Egypt with the cords of a man.
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And he was speaking of Moses, who foreshadowed Jesus, the true cord,
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by which God would draw us out of our bondage to sin and death.
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By being lifted up on the cross from the earth,
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Jesus said he would, what, draw all men unto him.
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The problem is the new generation of Israelites
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had rejected the God who loved them.
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When his prophets called for them to return to God,
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they rejected God, and they went a whoring after the gods of the nations around them.
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The grace of God brought their fathers out of bondage in Egypt.
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God's grace brought them out, and it would be God's grace
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that would have to keep them out of bondage.
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So by rejecting God's grace, the new generation forfeited everything
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that the previous generation had received.
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In John 8, verse 36, Jesus said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free,
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ye shall be free indeed."
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The grace of Christ brings freedom.
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That means the absence of Christ brings bondage.
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So having rejected the grace of God that set them free from Egypt,
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Israel would now return to Egypt.
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How be it, God said, if you look now at Hosea 11.5,
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he shall not return into the land of Egypt.
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Notice the emphasis I'm putting on the words.
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Israel would return to Egypt because they rejected God.
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How be it, verse 5 says, "He shall not return into the land of Egypt."
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That may sound like a contradiction because I just said Israel was going back to Egypt,
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and now Hosea in chapter 11, verse 5, is saying he's not going back to Egypt.
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But listen to what God told Hosea back in chapter 8.
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In Hosea 8, verse 12-13, God said, "I have written to him the great things of my law,
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but they were counted as a strange thing.
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They sacrificed flesh for the sacrifices of my offerings and eat it.
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But the Lord accepted them not.
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Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
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They shall return to Egypt."
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So in chapter 8, God says they're going back to Egypt.
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But here in chapter 11, verse 5, this morning, he says they're not going back into the land
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of Egypt.
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And it seems like a contradiction, but it's not.
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Israel would return to Egypt, and yet they would not return to Egypt.
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In verse 5, underscore the word land in your Bible, land.
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Israel would be returning to the same bondage they experienced in Egypt, but they would
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not be returning to the same place where they experienced it.
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You see what's happening here?
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They would return to their former condition, but they would not return to their former land.
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They're not going back to Egypt, literally.
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If God were to send them back to Egypt, he'd have to bring them back out of Egypt.
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And God's already done that.
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We've already had the Passover.
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We've already had the Red Sea part.
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We've already had the plagues.
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We've already had the Passover blood applied to the doors.
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They're gone.
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God's not repeating that again.
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Jesus isn't coming back and dying on the cross again.
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None of that's going to happen again.
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However, this new generation having rejected God's grace, they rejected everything that
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came along with it.
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They would be returning to the same bondage, but not to the same place.
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They would return to their former condition, but not their former land.
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When God said they would be returning to Egypt, he was speaking about Egypt in the spiritual
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sense, not in the geographical and national sense.
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Remember back to what the Bible said about the two witnesses in the book of Revelation.
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In Revelation chapter 11, verse eight, after the two witnesses are going to be killed for
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their testimony, the Bible says, "And their dead bodies shall lie on the street of the
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great city," which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.
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For also our Lord was crucified.
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Well, Jesus wasn't crucified in Egypt.
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He was crucified in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, but here the Holy Land is being called
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Sodom and Egypt.
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Isn't that something?
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The great city where our Lord was crucified in Jerusalem spiritually is called Egypt because
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the Jews in Jerusalem were in the same spiritual condition as if they were the people of Sodom
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in Egypt.
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As Israel rejected their God in Hosea's time, so they, like the people of Sodom, how they
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rejected God's message then, and like the people in Egypt, how they rejected God's message
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when he said, "Let my people go," so the Jews rejected God in Jesus' time.
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No difference.
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But that's not the only time that Hosea is speaking about this morning.
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He's not just talking about the time in Sodom or the time in Egypt or the time in Jerusalem
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when Jesus came.
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Remember Hosea is a book of prophecy.
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Hosea is not only prophesying about near-time events for Israel, he is prophesying about
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end-time events for Israel.
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He is not only describing Israel's spiritual condition in his time, but he's also describing
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the spiritual condition in the end time of Israel, which is why the Apostle John in the
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book of the Revelation described Jerusalem spiritually as Sodom and Egypt.
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The same way God described them to Hosea, they would return to Egypt.
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So when God said Israel would return to Egypt, he meant Israel nationally would become Egypt
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spiritually.
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They would become a heathen nation, listen now, dwelling in a holy land.
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Repeat that again.
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Israel would become a heathen nation dwelling in a holy land.
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Israel wasn't going to Egypt.
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Egypt spiritually was coming to them.
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They wouldn't go to bondage.
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Bondage would go to them.
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Once again, they would be a heathen nation dwelling in a holy place.
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That's exactly what our churches are becoming in our day.
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In the end time, the Apostle Paul said there would be a great falling away from the faith.
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That means people won't be leaving the church.
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You see, Israel wasn't leaving the land of Israel.
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They weren't going to Egypt. Egypt was coming to them.
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They weren't leaving for a heathen land.
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The heathen land was coming to them.
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They were going to be spiritually Egypt.
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When Paul said there would be a great falling away, he didn't say there would be a great
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going away.
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He said there would be a great falling away.
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That means people won't be leaving the church, but the church would be leaving the truth
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that set them free, just like Israel did during Hosea's time.
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You see, Egypt was never Israel's problem.
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You know what Israel's problem was?
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The same problem you have today.
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The world, the flesh, and the devil.
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That's it.
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That was Israel's problem the whole time.
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That's our problem as well.
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Israel left Egypt, but they didn't leave the world.
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They still in the world.
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They left Egypt.
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They didn't leave the flesh.
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They left Egypt.
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The devil tagged all the way to the promised land with them.
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Their enemy followed them all the way to the land that God gave them, and that's where
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the next generation, if they rejected, God's Word would fall before their enemy.
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Our forefathers, they may have brought us into a Christian nation.
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They may have came over here, spread the gospel, and had great revivals in the past.
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If this generation rejects God's Word, then they will fall to the enemy in a once Christian
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land, just like Israel was doing.
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If this generation of churches departs from God's Word, then like Israel, they will fall
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to the enemy while they occupy the church.
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The fact that Israel remained in the holy land and at the same time became unholy people
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is a warning to me and you.
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If it can happen to the offspring of Abraham, it can happen to us, and it's happening right
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now.
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Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem.
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The Savior of the world was rejected in the most holy place on earth.
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It was the people who worked in the temple that rejected and called for the crucifixion
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of the Lamb of God that was represented by the temple sacrifices, of the light of God
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that was represented in the holy place, of the presence of God among us that was represented
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in the most holy place, of Jesus being our high priest that was represented by the priesthood
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themselves.
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In that most holy place, the greatest offense was committed.
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That's why the most holy city in the world is called Sodom and Egypt in the book of the
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Revelation.
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Here's the kingdom and truth for you this morning.
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Our victory is not in a place, it's in a person.
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Put no trust in your ministry, put no trust in your church, put no trust in your rich
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Christian history or your denomination, for we can be defeated by the enemy in the most
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holy places.
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Brother Richard, how was Israel defeated by their enemy?
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That's what we have to get to.
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How was Israel defeated by their enemy?
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I'll tell you.
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Here's how Israel was defeated by their enemy.
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They quit being their enemy's enemy and they started being their enemy's friend.
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I'll repeat that again.
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Here is how people were defeated in the holy place.
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They quit being their enemy's enemy and they started being their enemy's friend.
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Boy, God brought them in that promised land, land of milk and honey.
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He defeated their enemies.
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He helped them drive them out.
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They didn't drive them out all the way as they should.
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He helped them drive them out.
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He put kings on the throne.
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He blessed them financially, blessed them with wisdom, blessed them with victory.
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Whenever they got comfortable in that promised land, they then became friends of the world.
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They wanted a king like the nations around them.
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They wanted to worship the gods of the nations around them.
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They quit being their enemy's enemy.
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They drove them out and they wanted to become just like them.
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That's how you fall to the enemy in a holy place.
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James chapter four verse four says, "Ye adulterers and adulterers," says, "No, ye not, that the
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friendship of the world is the enmity of God.
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Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
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They quit being their enemy's enemy and when they became their enemy's friend, they became
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the enemy of God.
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You see what happens there?
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They became friends with their flesh and began yielding to the lust thereof.
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Romans chapter eight verse seven through eight, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against
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God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
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in the flesh cannot please God."
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They became friends with the devil.
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So ah, Brother Richard, how they worship the devil.
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They worship the devil by worshiping those false gods.
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You see the devil masquerades behind all false worship.
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You may think Brother Richard, they weren't worshiping the devil.
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They were just worshiping those graven images of the nations around them.
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But the devil is behind every graven image no matter what the name that image goes by.
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In the book of the Revelation, there will be an unholy trinity.
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God has a holy trinity, the father, the son, and the holy spirit, and the devil has an
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unholy trinity.
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He has a counterfeit Godhead which will consist of the beast, the dragon, and the false prophet.
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The dragon is Satan, that old serpent, the devil.
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And the dragon, Satan is the power behind the beast, and he will receive worship through
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that beast.
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Revelation chapter 13 verse 4.
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Revelation chapter 13 verse 4.
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And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast.
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And they worshiped the beast saying, "Who is like unto the beast who is able to make war
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with him?"
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And guess who the unholy trinity wants to make war with?
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Guess who the unholy trinity are the enemies of?
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They're the enemies of the kingdom of God just like they were in Hosea's time.
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Revelation chapter 13 verse 6.
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And he that is the false prophet opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme
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his name in his tabernacle in them that dwell in heaven.
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And guess what the false prophet is going to do?
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He is going to do just like they did back in Hosea's time.
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The false prophet, you got the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
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The false prophet in the end time is going to ordain an image as a focal point for the
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world to channel its worship to the beast and the dragon.
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You'll have an image.
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The world will worship the image.
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That worship through the focal point of that image will go to the beast which ultimately
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goes to the dragon who is giving the beast its power.
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He masquerades.
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Revelation chapter 13 verse 13 through 15 says, "And he doeth great wonders so that
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he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth and the sight of men, and deceiveth
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them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do
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in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make
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an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.
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And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast
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should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should
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be killed."
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So the world will worship the image which represents the beast and behind the beast
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is the dragon being worshiped from whom the beast gets his power.
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So Israel having become a friend of the world, the flesh and the devil had become the enemies
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of God.
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And the problem with that is, you say, "Well, I want to make friends of the world.
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Why not be like the world?
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Why not just go along to get along?"
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The problem is when we make friends with the enemy, the enemy doesn't make friends with
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us.
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No matter how much you love the world, the world will never love you back.
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No matter how much you love the flesh, the flesh will never love you back.
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No matter how much you love the image you worship, the devil behind that image will
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never love you back.
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You can be their friend, but they'll never be yours.
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Your enemy will always be your enemy no matter how much you love him.
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The only person who will ever love you is the one your enemy hates, and that's the Lord
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Jesus Christ.
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While dwelling in a holy place, Israel made friends with unholy people, with an unholy
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enemy.
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So now their unholy enemy would defeat them in the holy place.
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While living in a holy place, they made friends with an unholy enemy.
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So now the unholy enemy would defeat them in a holy place.
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They would return to Egypt, but they would remain in Israel.
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By becoming friends with God's enemies, they became the enemy of God.
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And when God is not your friend, your enemy will destroy you in the holy place you're
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in.
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You want to know why the devil?
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We can all admit the churches are becoming more and more like the world, right?
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You look at a nightclub, and you look at a lot of our churches today, they can't tell
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any difference.
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The music sounds the same, the stage looks the same, it's all a performance, it's all
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a show.
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And the truth is going out just like it was going out of Israel in that day.
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And the world is becoming more and more, I'm sorry, the church is becoming more and more
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and more like the world.
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We've mentioned here some of our local churches that in times past have on Sunday mornings
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dressed up in Disney characters.
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We had one in this very county, a large church, that used movies from Disney as their sermon
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series in their church.
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The churches are becoming more and more like the world.
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You want to know why the devil wants churches to become more and more like the world?
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It's because he wants them to become his friends so he can destroy them in their holy places.
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That's what's happening.
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What we're seeing happening to Israel in Hosea's time, people in holy places getting destroyed
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by an unholy enemy that they made their friends, that is what the devil is trying to do in
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our time and that's what he is accomplishing in our time.
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He wants us to become his friends, to be friends of the world so he can destroy us in our holy
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places.
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Now by serving the heathen gods, Israel would have to serve a heathen king.
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Watch how this works.
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They had embraced the gods of the nations around them.
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But you can't embrace a nation's god without embracing a nation's king.
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It's just not possible.
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God said Israel shall not return to Egypt, look back in your text, but the Assyrian shall
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be his king.
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See how that works?
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Here's the kingdom truth.
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Every god has a king and you can't take one without taking the other.
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Every god has a king and you can't take one without taking the other.
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It is impossible to embrace a god without embracing its king.
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It is impossible to embrace a king without embracing that king's god.
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Jesus Christ will never be your king unless his father is your god.
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His father will never be your god if Jesus isn't your king.
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He said if you have me, you have the father.
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You don't have me, you don't have the father.
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Every king has a god, every god has a king.
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If you accept deity, then you must also accept the authority the deity reigns through.
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If you accept a deity, then you must also accept the authority that deity reigns through.
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Israel had accepted the world's deities and now she would become subjected to the world's
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authorities that they reign by.
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They were supposed to worship god alone.
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He said thou shalt worship the lord thy god and he said you shall have no other gods before
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me.
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Had they done that then they would have lived under god's loving authority.
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But now having rejected god's deity, they would have to succumb to the world's authority.
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The siren would be Israel's king. Why? Look back in your text because they refused to
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return.
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They refused to return to god when god through the prophets called for them to do so.
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They wouldn't return to god so Egypt would return to them.
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There once was a time when our nation's founding fathers suffered persecution for their faith
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in foreign lands.
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My most favorite writer, one of my most favorite writers, I suppose Charles Spurgeon would
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have to be my favorite, but my second most favorite writer is John Bunyan.
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When he wrote Pilgrim's Progress he was in prison for preaching the gospel without a
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license.
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They tell you something, the world can't give me a license to preach the gospel.
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Jesus said all power is given unto me, go ye therefore.
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My license comes from the Lord Jesus Christ who sent out his church to preach the gospel.
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And here's this man in prison for preaching the gospel.
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And our founding fathers, they suffered persecution for their faith in foreign lands and they
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came over here hoping to gain freedom to worship.
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And those people by God's grace they gained independence over the people who oppressed
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them and they gained the ability to worship freely here.
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And for years as I grew up we were considered a Christian nation.
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And we like Israel we prospered greatly by God's grace.
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But our nation turned from God.
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And when the preachers called for them to return to God, just like the prophets called
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Israel to return to God in Hosea's time, before Hosea's time.
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When the preachers called for America to return to God they did just like Israel did.
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They rejected those preachers.
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They reject our message today.
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They say we're crazy, we're uneducated.
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And they refused to return.
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I pray often with my wife when we pray in the mornings that God will bring a revival,
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a repentance to America.
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We're never going to be able to go back to the freedom that we had until we embrace the
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grace of God that brings us freedom.
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Just not going to be able to do it.
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And I pray for that repentance, I pray for that revival, but as I watch, the Bible says
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the more those prophets preached to Israel to return the further they went away.
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And it seems like it's happening in our land too.
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So they refused to return.
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So now this siren would be their king.
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Now failing to return to God, Egypt at this time, is returning to us.
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See what's happening?
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By us failing to return to God, Egypt now, like Israel, is returning to us.
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Bondage is coming to us.
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Financial oppression.
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China could turn our nation off like a light switch if they wanted to.
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We saw how supply chain demand can hurt us.
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We're dependent on these other nations.
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And they can turn us off.
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Egypt at this time is returning to us.
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One nation under God has now become one nation without God.
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And we are falling before our enemy in the holy places.
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I'll tell you what though.
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This is one holy place I don't want to fall.
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I want us to continue to stand for the truth.
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As Brother James Marithi said this morning, if your church doesn't preach the truth, get
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out of it.
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If something ever happens to me and something ever happens to Brother Shephard, I don't
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care if your children go here, your mother goes here, your grandmother goes here.
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If the truth ever leaves this church, you need to leave too.
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And go wherever that truth goes.
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But not that Egypt will come in here and this church will fall in a holy place.
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I don't want to be one of them.
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Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
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God, we thank You Father for the severe warnings that we have about watching what happened
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to Israel.
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The most holy place in the world is where the greatest transgression was ever committed.
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And Father Lord, we do not trust in Central Baptist Church.
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We do not trust in the pastors here.
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We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We trust in Your holy Word.
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And Father, I pray that we'll be faithful to follow it to the very end.
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To follow Your Word all the way until the time when we step into heaven, lest we fall
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in the holy places.
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Help us to never become friends with the world, lest our church become the enemy of God.
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In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
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