Episode Transcript
The title of the message this morning is "Out of the Chimney."
In this chapter, we've learned that Israel had crossed the line by departing from the only true God to worship the false God, Baal.
He was a Phoenician God.
And having crossed that line, the Lord said, "Israel offended more and more."
We learned about that last week.
Last week, we learned that after we step over the boundary of God's truth, we're destined to walk on many lies.
And that's what happened to Israel.
And that's why our nation today is blindly embracing whatever the world tells them.
Fascinating.
I was listening to Dr.
Ben Carson this week.
And they asked him if Kamala Harris had any chance of winning.
He said, "Yes."
And he said, talked about how amazing it will be to watch the media, who will take someone who formerly was nationally disliked and suddenly transform her into a Godlike figure.
And everyone will love who they're told to love.
And everyone will believe what they're told to believe.
And it's amazing to watch that happen.
We've already seen it happen.
It's absolutely amazing to me.
But then again, it's not.
And as we get closer to the end, we'll see this more and more.
Well, people will be told to love what they're told to love, or they'll begin to love what they're told to love.
Do what they're told to do.
Think the way they're told to think.
It's going to be that way.
Remember, we will see the Tower of Babel.
Babel, however you want to pronounce it.
We're going to see that Tower, that societal thinking, merge back again as it was in the beginning, so it's going to come back to being the end.
It's going to be the same thing.
So just keep your eyes open for that.
But God had a solemn message for Israel in Hosea 13, verse 3.
And it pertains to any nation.
And any person who presumes that they can reject their Creator and have no consequences for it, because you certainly will.
God said they offended in Baal, and now look back in your text.
"Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud."
Now take your pen, if you have your Bible open, and underscore the word "cloud."
And then underscore the word "do."
And then go on down.
When you get through underscoring those, underscore the word "chaff."
And underscore the word "smoke."
"Therefore, because they rejected the one true God," here are the consequences for it.
They're going to be as the morning cloud.
"Because they exchanged the truth of God and made them a false God, instead they shall be as the cloud, the dew, the chaff, and the smoke."
Man, I love God's word.
These are the four things that God used to describe these backslidden Israelites.
And these four descriptions are divided into two categories.
"So because Israel exchanged the truth of God for a lie, they shall be as cloud and dew," that's one category, "and they shall be as chaff and smoke."
That's the next category.
"Four descriptions, two divisions."
Okay, let's look at the first division now.
God said Israel would be as the cloud and dew.
But God didn't say there would just be as any kind of cloud, did He?
He said there'd be like the morning cloud.
Now, this is science here.
Go ahead and circle the word "morning."
You all know how scientific I get.
Do you know what's special about a morning cloud?
Jonathan is my pastoral assistant.
Jonathan, do you know what's special about a morning cloud?
What did he say?
See, that's why he's my pastoral assistant.
None of y'all would have got that.
But the morning cloud is only around in the morning.
God didn't say Israel's going to be like an afternoon cloud.
He didn't say it's going to be like the evening cloud.
He said there'd be as the morning cloud.
Every word in the Bible that's put there for a reason.
You see, a morning cloud isn't around in the afternoon.
Morning clouds, that's those low-lying vapors that you see out there in the morning, in the cool of the day.
You get up in the morning like I do sometimes early in the morning, and when the temperature is right, you're driving to work, and there's this thick, dense fog out there you're driving through.
Or maybe you're looking out and there's a pond, as you're going down the road, and you look out there on some acres, and there's a pond, and there's that steam that's sitting over that pond.
Those are morning clouds.
They're the vapors that are there in the morning.
And those vapors may be so thick when you drive through them, but when the heat of the sun rises up in the sky, what's going to happen?
The vapors are going to burn off, aren't they?
That morning cloud's going to burn off, and it's going to disappear.
And what we need to understand here is that a morning cloud leaves when the sun rises.
That's significant.
A morning cloud leaves when the sun rises.
Morning dew also leaves when the sun rises.
When's the dew?
It's also in the morning too.
It leaves when the sun rises.
That morning cloud can be so thick.
That morning cloud can appear to be so permanent.
That morning cloud can spread out as far as the eyes can see.
And if you didn't know better, you'd think, "Well, this morning cloud's always going to be around.
It's not going anywhere."
But that morning cloud doesn't belong in the earth.
Those vapors belong in the sky where the rest of the clouds are.
And so when the sun rises, then the heat thereof is going to put that cloud in its place.
It won't be where it doesn't belong anymore.
This was the kind of people that Israel was.
They weren't rooted in their Creator.
They had no attachment to their Creator anymore other than history.
Because in their hearts, they had separated themselves from their Creator.
And they said, "No, we'll worship Bel.
Bel's our God."
Well, once they did that, it was like a plant getting plucked up, taking the roots out of the ground.
And once that happens, they can't stand the heat of the sun.
You take a plant, you pull the root up out of the ground, the sun comes up.
What's going to happen to the planet?
It's going to wither and die.
Same way when the sun comes up, what happens to the vapor?
It withers and it goes away.
It disappears.
It goes back up into the sky where it belongs.
But as far as the cloud's concerned here, it's gone.
It disappears because there's nothing to sustain those vapors here on the earth.
So when the sun rises, there is nothing to sustain them and they just go away.
And the same thing when the sun rises, there's nothing to sustain that plant.
It has no root, so it just goes away.
It withers away.
Jesus spoke about people like Israel in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13.
And speaking of them, he's speaking about people like them today.
Again, who deny their Creator.
You don't have to worship Baal to be like a morning cloud.
All you have to do is not worship the one true God.
It doesn't matter if you exchange God for atheism, God for Baalism, God for individualism.
It just matters that you exchange the truth of God for any old lie you choose.
And once you exchange the truth of God for a lie, the root has been plucked up, the sun has risen, and all of it's going to vanish away.
Jesus said in Matthew 13, 6, he says, "And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away."
They had no root.
Nothing to sustain them.
Nothing to keep them alive and around when they were tested.
That's the problem with every unbeliever.
The people who have no God have nothing to sustain them.
Now imagine with me for a moment, because when we went to Kentucky, we rented a vehicle up there.
And we had to get around then from the airport and to the ark and everything else.
And the rental agency encouraged me to rent an electric vehicle.
What did old brother Richard do, brother Doug?
No.
No, thank you.
I just picture me, my wife, my mom, my dad, and my in-laws all in that electric vehicle.
And no place to plug in.
No, thank you.
Like most people, I didn't want an electric vehicle because I didn't want to have to worry about a place to plug in or wait 20 minutes for it to charge on top of that.
But you see, people know, how come they're encouraging me to rent an electric vehicle?
Because they bought electric vehicles and nobody wants to rent them.
So they're just sitting there.
You see, people know that an electric vehicle is no good with an electric supply.
You get that?
An electric vehicle is no good without an electric supply.
Imagine with me for a moment, what would happen if all the electric vehicle owners suddenly banded together into one big party?
They banded together and they unanimously rejected the electric grid.
They absolutely rejected it.
Instead of plugging into the grid, suppose they begin teaching in the schools that the electrical grid wasn't real.
That's something that crazy right wing extremists like us just invented.
So we could suppress people's liberty to live free.
We have that freedom from religion that sued Athens several years back.
Well, you know what the freedom from religion is?
That's all the same as these electric vehicle owners saying freedom from the grid.
It's the same thing.
It's no difference.
Man, every beat of my heart belongs to God.
The composition of my body.
I didn't scrape myself together and put myself together and design myself and give myself life.
The very breath inside me belongs to God.
I acknowledge the grid.
But what if all these electric vehicle owners they got together, they say, "No, there is no grid.
That's an oppressive teaching made up from people who are weak-minded."
And they feel they need a grid to get around.
And they begin teaching in schools something entirely different.
They begin teaching the children in schools that electric vehicles were made to run off of good feelings and happy emotions.
Now see that laughing right there?
That would charge a vehicle quick.
God, there you go again.
We go miles now.
Miles.
And so we begin teaching people this.
And so all the kids in school begin believing this.
And they all reject it.
You believe in the grid?
Bunch of lies.
Now that may work fine for a few miles.
That may work fine for a while.
Because when they got those vehicles, they were fully charged.
Just like when we're born.
We got some miles in us when we're born.
God's given us that.
But then you reject God.
What's going to happen after a while?
You're going to run out of mileage.
See, that's the whole thing with the gospel.
God gave us the gospel so that we would not perish.
We would have everlasting life.
So that when our miles on earth ran out, we could keep going and going and going and going and live forever.
But no, they're rejecting the grid.
That belief catches on.
And next thing you know, the small minority of people who are preaching that you must have a grid.
You know why they began doing those people?
They began persecuting them.
They began putting them in jail.
They began hating.
They said, "That's hate speech telling people that."
It's hate speech.
They begin making laws to condemn them for their speaking.
Like they're doing in the UK right now.
Arresting people preaching the gospel on the street.
For a while, it appears that the majority who embraced the belief of good feelings and emotions, it appears like they're going to win.
But you know what they are?
They're nothing more than a morning cloud.
That's all they are.
When the sun comes up, when the light comes up, it's going to expose their foolish beliefs for the lives that they are.
And as much as they hate the electric grid, their vehicles are going to die without it.
That's reality.
You see, as an electric vehicle was made for an electric grid, people were made for God.
The people who deny God today and persecute those who preach Him, they're simply morning clouds.
That's all they are.
Those who believe they can run on something other than God are fools.
The Bible says, "A fool," they said in His heart, "that there is no God."
And when Jesus comes, He's going to— when the light, when the sun arises and the light comes, He is going to expose the false beliefs that they've been teaching in our schools for the lives that they are.
And people who reject Him are going to die without Him.
Like a plant that has no root without God.
They're going to have nothing to sustain them.
And when their belief is put to the test, they're going to fade away like the morning cloud.
Look back in your text, "And as the early do that passeth away."
Now, underscore the word "early."
Every word's there for a reason.
Now, when's the morning time?
Is it late or is it early?
Early.
Here's the kingdom of truth for you this morning.
The early do that passes away.
Godless people reign early, and then they pass away.
Godly people reign late and never pass away.
That's truth, brother.
The early do that passes away.
That's what God said Israel was, because they denied Him.
Godless people reign early and then pass away.
Godless people reign late and never pass away.
Now, in the book of Daniel, chapter 7, Daniel was talking about the time when the kingdoms of this world pass away.
Every time you look in the Old Testament or the New Testament, and you see God's kingdom being established, here's something you can always take to the bank.
Do you know what it is?
The only way God's kingdom can be established is if the other kingdoms pass away.
That's the only way.
In the book of Daniel, Daniel prophesies, and he talks about all these different kingdoms that are and that shall be in the future.
It's absolutely fascinating.
Persia, Greece, Rome, and beyond.
But then after talking about these kingdoms, which were a snippet of the future, he then comes in and talks about a kingdom that destroys all those kingdoms.
Those kingdoms pass away, and then God's kingdom gets established.
That's the late kingdom that replaces the early kingdom.
In Daniel, chapter 7, verse 13 through 14, listen to what Daniel said, "I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man," that's Jesus now, "one like the Son of Man," not the Son of God.
Always pay attention to how Jesus is being described in the Scriptures.
"One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away."
You see how the Bible's comparing one group to the other, "and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
Now, watch what's happening here.
The reason he's called the Son of Man is because when he comes back to sit on this kingdom and reign, he's coming back as a man.
So when the Son of Man returns from heaven, and when he sits down on his earthly kingdom to reign on earth, when the Son of Man sits down to reign, who else sits down to reign?
The human race sits down with him to reign.
And so now we rule in reign in the authority of God.
Suddenly man has now been given heavenly authority again.
He lost the heavenly authority in the Garden of Eden.
And now when Jesus comes back as a man, God's heavenly authority will be given back to the human race.
He sits down, we sit down with him, and suddenly all dominion is given to us.
And look what he says, "All people, languages, and nations shall serve him."
Do you know what that is?
That's God's promise to Abraham that in him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
All that's getting fulfilled now when the Son of Man comes and sits back down.
And that kingdom that he establishes won't pass away.
So the kingdoms that he replaces, those are the kingdoms of the early due, the morning cloud.
The kingdom that replaces them, that's the latter kingdom that comes that does not pass away.
And those who belong to Christ sit on that throne.
How about this?
Those who kneel at the cross sit on that throne.
Isn't that beautiful?
That's what happens.
Those who kneel at the cross today will sit on the throne in the end.
That's why we're sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus right now, but one day it won't be heavenly places.
It's going to be heavenly authority seated on earth.
And we're going to not be doing it positionally, but experientially.
And I thank God that believers in Jesus Christ, we're not early due.
Our kingdom doesn't pass away when the Son comes.
It's just getting started when the Son comes.
And I tell you what, as we get closer to November, and I'm absolutely fascinated with this, because we're seeing our world shaping up like we've never seen it before in history.
And as we watch the political unfoldings, I'm mesmerized by it.
Because I realize what I'm seeing is the beginnings of this global attitude.
The little collection of the Tower of Babel and the people coming back together and rejecting God and building their own little world system that rejects the knowledge of God.
And I know the closer we get to that, the closer Jesus gets back to us.
And I recognize it.
Listen, I don't want Kamala to get in the White House, but let me tell you, I don't look at that with dread and fear.
I look at it with hope.
I realize that everything going on here, even though it affects us today, it does affect us.
We should vote.
We should pray.
We should point out their sin and preach the truth.
We've got to do it.
We are the light that shines in the darkness.
But when we see these things come to pass, Christian, don't go around wringing your hands.
Don't say, "What are we going to do?"
Just realize what you see is morning dew, or morning cloud.
It's early dew.
And the early dew has to come to pass.
Before it can pass away.
But it will pass away, and then our kingdom will be established, which is not voted on by man.
It was voted on by God, and eternity passed in the covenant, in the gospel covenant.
It's going to come to pass, and once it comes to pass, it will never pass away, and nothing can destroy it.
And no one can vote it out.
I told you earlier that there were four descriptions in two divisions, remember?
The first division speaks about the wicked being early and passes away, right?
You've got the morning cloud and the early dew.
So that first division speaks of the wicked being early, or first, you could say, and then passing away.
Don't be discouraged again when these ungodly dominions start to increase their strength and spread their dominion abroad.
There was a precious saint in the United Kingdom this week that asked me to pray for United Kingdom.
She wrote in for help the Noam Save website years back, and she asked me to pray for her kingdom.
She said, "Our nation is in trouble."
And I fully understand her concerns, and she's right to ask me to pray for her nation.
She's right to pray for her nation.
God's Word commands us to pray for our leadership.
But again, don't be discouraged when you see these things come to pass because Jesus told us they must come to pass before He comes.
Their dominions come first.
They're the early dew.
This is their hour.
Their hour must come to pass.
You'll see Jesus saying that in the New Testament.
This is your hour.
This is your day.
This is your time.
My hour is not yet come.
You'll see Him saying that because He understands.
I'm just looking at a morning cloud here.
One day the heat's going to come on.
That cloud's not going to be able to stick around.
It's going to go away.
They won't be able to sustain themselves without God, even though they desperately try doing so.
They'll come first and pass away as they early do.
Look back in your text as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor.
Now, this is the second division.
The first division speaks of them coming early or first and then going away, passing away.
But this second division here.
So first, there are morning clouds and early dew.
And then second, they are chaff and smoke.
In the first category, they pass away.
That's their inability to sustain themselves apart from God.
But in the second category, they don't pass away.
In the second category, they're driven out.
You see the difference?
So the first category, they pass away.
That's their inability to sustain themselves apart from God.
In the second category, they're driven out.
And that's God righteously purging all wickedness from His kingdom.
Underscore the word driven.
Underscore the word out.
Genesis chapter three, verse 24.
So He drove out the man.
You see that?
So when we're seeing that they're driven out, look in the text as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor.
So that chaff is driven out.
And God drove out the man and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.
When Adam sinned, God said, "You'll surely die."
When God said, "You'll surely die," that's the first category, He'll pass away.
But Adam didn't just only pass away.
Adam was also driven out.
Both categories are there in the Garden of Eden.
And it's a picture of everybody who rejects God's authority.
They're going to pass away and they're going to be driven out.
Cause of Adam sinned, He was driven out of that Garden of Eden.
You know what that was?
That was God purging His floor of unrighteousness from that garden.
That the strongholds of this wicked world, they're not just going to pass away.
They're going to be driven out with a mighty whirlwind of God's righteous judgment.
God said they'll be driven out with a whirlwind.
No, not by the wind, only.
But by the wind out of the floor.
That wind is going in one direction.
That wind is affecting only one person.
It's not affecting the grain.
It's affecting the chaff.
And it drives out.
It doesn't drive in.
It drives away.
This is talking about Jesus' second coming.
In Luke, the Gospel of Luke chapter 3 verse 17, John the Baptist said Jesus is the one whose fan is in His hand.
And He will thoroughly purge His floor.
When John the Baptist was speaking about this, he's referring back to the very scriptures we're studying about this morning.
He's referring back to these Old Testament prophecies about them being like chaff that's driven out by the wind.
He says He'll thoroughly purge His floor and will gather the wheat into His garner, but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable.
So that which gets driven out gets burned up.
You see the connection there?
That which gets driven out gets burned up.
It's justice.
His fans in His hand was a fan do.
It creates wind.
And He's going to take that.
He's going to thoroughly purge His floor of all chaff.
So understand, do and cloud speak of the temporary occupation of unbelievers while chaff and smoke speak of the worthlessness of unbelievers apart from the God who made them.
I'll repeat that again.
Do and clouds speak of the temporary occupation of unbelievers in this world.
Chaff and smoke on the other hand, it speaks of the worthlessness of unbelievers in this world apart from the God who made them.
So God shall drive them away like chaff with the wind.
Look back in your text and as the smoke out of the chimney, which is where we got the title for this message as the smoke out of the chimney.
Wind also drives smoke from the chimney, doesn't it?
It drives the chaff from the floor and also drives the smoke from the chimney.
It creates a draw.
Chaff and smoke, do you know what they are?
They're the worthless remains that come when something has come to its end.
The worthless remains that come when something has come to its end.
When the harvest is over, when the harvest comes to an end, when the growing period comes to its end, the worthless chaff is put away.
When the wood has burned, when that wood has been burned up and it's come to its end, the smoke is put away.
And when the world is over, the wicked will be put away because they're going to be worthless without God.
Absolutely worth it.
There'll be no good in the kingdom.
No good at all in the kingdom.
They won't recognize the king.
They'll have nothing to do with the king's program.
When time has tested them, they're just going to be the worthless remains of what has come to an end.
Chaff doesn't belong on the floor.
Smoke doesn't belong in the house.
And unbelievers don't belong in the kingdom of God.
Children of God don't fear the rise of godless kingdoms.
They are morning clouds, but the sun's going to rise on them.
They are early dew, but they shall pass away.
They are chaff who dwell with us on God's floor right now, but his fan is in his hand and he will surely drive them out from us.
They are smoke from a fire.
That's quickly burning out.
And God's going to carry them all from his house.
They must fail.
We must rise.
They must leave.
We must stay.
And I'll close this message with a poem I wrote.
They fill the earth when there is no sun.
They cover the grain until the threshing's done.
But the sun shall rise and the wind shall blow.
The cloud will fade and the chaff will go.
The king will come.
We will remain.
All sin will be purged and he shall reign.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
I thank you that every word in it is truth.
And it is so old, yet it is so current.
And here it is shining light on our situation today.
And when we see it without your light, we despair.
But when we see it in the light of your word, we give a shout of great hope, knowing what is plaguing us today shall pass away.
And here's going to come a kingdom that shall never pass away.
And we're going to sit down on the throne with Jesus, who hung on the cross for us.
And Lord, nothing will ever, ever come between us again.
We thank you for that in Jesus' glorious name.
Encourage people's hearts with your word.
Let them, Father, stand strong as they see the enemy getting thicker and thicker in this morning hour, knowing before long the sun's going to come.
And they'll be burned up and put in their place.
In his glorious name we pray.
Amen.
