Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 831. Bible Study: Ezekiel 9 (What happens when we "blow off" the warning vs. turning to God, being renewed by His Spirit)

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831. Bible Study: Ezekiel 9 (What happens when we "blow off" the warning vs. turning to God, being renewed by His Spirit) · Faith by annm2705

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  Starting with Ezekiel Chapter 9, we'll continue and see how many
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  chapters we can get in, maybe up to 11 today, hopefully.
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  So to make progress, let's start first with the prayer.
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  Dear Lord, please be with us as we read through these chapters
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  or this chapter and give us wisdom and insight from the Holy
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  Spirit and speak to us personally and make our hearts
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  of stone into hearts of flesh. Bring us close to you as we read
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  this and give us wisdom to understand what is written here.
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  We thank you for all that you've done for us and realize that
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  there is so much that we do not know about the entire realm of
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  that is being spoken of here and and that you are giving us some
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  insight and we certainly appreciate that.
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  But we ask for our eyes to be opened, our hearts to be
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  softened in Jesus name, Amen. Then I heard him call out in a
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  loud voice. Bring near those who are
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  appointed to execute judgment on the city, each with a weapon in
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  his hand. So this, let's see, this is the
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  Lord. Remember the Lord is showing
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  Ezekiel these things. So it's the Lord who calls out
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  bring those who are appointed to execute judgment.
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  So see how when judgment sometimes comes, especially
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  after God said if you do this, then this will happen.
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  It does come to fruition and people seem to blow off God's
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  warnings over and over again. And the Bible just shows us that
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  God is patient with us and He is merciful and he gives us this
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  window of opportunity to repent. But there will be a time when
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  the time is up and judgment arrives either individually,
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  personally or as the whole world.
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  So in this specific case, Ezekiel is, he has been warning
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  the people of this. He's been enacting these scenes
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  for all people to see and things keep coming back to him.
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  Like he keeps having these visions and God keeps telling
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  him over and over again. And this is another time when he
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  is being told about this and now he is seeing the judgement
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  coming. First he was seeing the warning
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  and people weren't listening to him, and now he's seeing the
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  judgement come. So he says verse 2.
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  And I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate
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  which faces N, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.
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  With them was a man clothed in linen who had a riding kit at
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  his side. They came in and stood beside
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  the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of
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  Israel went up front above the cherubim where it had been, and
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  moved to the threshold of the temple.
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  Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the
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  writing kit at his side, and said to him, go throughout the
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  city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who
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  grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done
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  in it. Now this is really interesting
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  because history repeats because God is essentially the author of
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  history. And and so we see here that God
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  is appointing a, it says a man. And I looked up in the in the
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  Hebrew and it didn't, it didn't say that it was an Angel or
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  anything like that. It just said it was that was it,
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  it was a man. It, it talked about men.
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  So what we see though, in the Book of Revelation that an Angel
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  goes out and seals the foreheads of the servants of God.
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  That's found in Revelation 7 Chapter 7 verse three.
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  Do not harm the land or the seas until we put a seal on the
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  foreheads of the servants of our God.
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  Then I heard the number of those who were sealed 144,000 from all
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  the tribes of Israel. And then it lists out all the
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  tribes, 12,000 from each tribe. And it goes through the names of
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  the tribes that are included in this.
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  And like I've mentioned before, the interesting thing is that
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  the tribe of Dan is not mentioned.
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  So the tribe of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naftali, Manasseh,
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  Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, tribe of Joseph and the tribe of
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  Benjamin. So some of these are sons of
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  Joseph like Manasseh, but Dan is missing.
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  So anyway, we don't really know why, but these there maybe there
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  just wasn't anyone who served God at this point because it
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  said these are the servants of our God in verse 3 of
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  Revelation. So again, history is repeating
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  itself and this is before any harm is done to the land or the
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  sea or the trees. These people are sealed and
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  these people from the tribes of Israel.
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  So I just thought that was that was interesting.
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  Then it says in Ezekiel, in the book of Ezekiel.
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  I'm going back to that. Oh, actually, I want to pause
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  again because I forgot there was one other earlier time when God
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  did this also, He spared some people.
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  And this is in Exodus 12. And So what he did was he was
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  warning people again about what they are, what they were to do.
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  And there was before this Angel of death during Passover, he
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  told them to do something to put blood on their doorpost so that
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  the Angel of death would Passover when when it happened
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  so that you can find it is in Exodus chapter 12.
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  And this is right before the Exodus.
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  This is what happened. And that's kind of interesting
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  too, you know, if if history repeats itself and God shows
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  these things over and over again.
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  So Exodus was the first time that I recall that somebody was
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  sealed, except there was also that time in Genesis when I
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  think it was Cain who killed his, his brother.
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  And then he was marked too, in some manner.
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  He was marked so that no one, you know, whoever would actually
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  do something to him would get 7 times the punishment or
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  something to that effect. I mean, like there was there was
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  like some kind of he was marked in some manner.
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  And I didn't look it up before this study, so I'm not going to
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  talk any more about that. But in Exodus, this is 1 where
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  people were marked for protection.
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  Then we see in Ezekiel there are certain people that are marked
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  for protection. And then we also see in
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  Revelation, these people are marked for protection.
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  That happens three times. And it's kind of interesting
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  that God does. And even, I mean, looking back,
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  I mean, I, I should look up that in Genesis, because I believe he
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  was also marked for protection, even though he was not, he
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  didn't do good. He, he was, he did some evil
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  things, but somehow he was marked.
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  And God, I don't know, I'll have to read that again.
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  But in these other cases, these are actually servants of God who
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  whom he Marks and God usually when he does something three
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  times, he shows it for emphasis. And, and I can see these three
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  instances where it was when you have the Angel of death that's
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  going to arrive and kill the first born, but God says to mark
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  your door with the blood of the lamb, which was symbolic of
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  Jesus. Like essentially this is just
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  pointing to Jesus, how Jesus saves us.
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  Jesus rescues us. And this is before the harm
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  comes on the land in the in the Book of Revelation.
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  And again, these are servants of God that are sealed and they are
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  from the tribes of Israel. And here we see that in Ezekiel
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  there are people who are preserved and they are
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  essentially the servants of God who are marked.
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  They're actually, it says that it's those who grieve and lament
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  over all the detestable things that are done in it about the
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  city. So there are people, God always
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  has a remnant of people. These are people who are
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  repentant, where they actually see the evil that's happening
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  and it grieves them like they are.
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  They are connected to God in some way.
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  So there are some people who are spared.
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  And just like again, Noah's ark, there were eight people who were
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  spared from the flood. So God does always seem to have
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  a remnant and He provides for those before destruction comes.
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  Did you notice that pattern? Like in Noah's ark, They got on
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  board the ark before the flood came.
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  And so they were protected. They were sheltered.
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  These things are just coming to me right now while I'm talking
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  about this thing. I had only talked, thought of
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  putting Exodus and Revelation, but also in Revelation before
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  harm happens, they're sealed. And before these, these men who
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  are coming to pronounce judgment on Israel so people are spared.
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  So going back to the Scripture, verse five in Ezekiel Chapter 9,
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  as I listened, he said to the others, follow him through the
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  city and kill without showing pity or compassion.
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  Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and
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  children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark.
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  Begin at my sanctuary. That's pretty bold.
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  And we know that God is just, He is righteous, He is love, He is
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  merciful. So these, if God is just and he
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  is righteous, then that means whatever happens to these
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  people, even though it sounds horrible, like slaughter, the
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  old men, the young women, the young men and women, the mothers
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  and children, that means there's something God wouldn't do that
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  to quote innocent people. And that's probably another
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  thing that we have to think of is that really none of us are
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  innocent. We've all broken God's
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  commandments. And one thing that was coming to
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  mind this morning early was just that just about the label of
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  sin. And sin, the actual meaning of
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  it originally was to it was an archer's term that means missing
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  the mark. And so if we think about sin
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  being missing the mark of perfection, we all do that.
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  None of us are perfect. And so we all miss it.
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  And and so we, we are incapable of making ourselves holy enough
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  to be in the presence of God. That's why God sent his son.
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  That's why we need the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit
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  changes us and make with our free will.
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  He helps us to become holy. He puts the thoughts of God in
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  our mind and the desires of God in our mind and starts to win
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  over the the fleshly desires. So that's what the Holy Spirit,
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  the Holy Spirit starts changing a person and that's what Jesus
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  was referring to about being born again.
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  This is a new life that the Holy Spirit brings.
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  It's a spiritual life. It's a spiritual change in a
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  person, a person's, I guess, starting to imitate or emulate
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  the character of God in a small sense, because none of us could
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  consider ourselves anywhere near God, but just that we start to
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  take on some of the characteristics, some of the
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  character of God. He made us in his image, but
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  when we're born spiritually, we start having the, the character
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  of him, the our, our, our spirit changes with the Holy Spirit.
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  So anyway, it's he's, he's bringing judgement.
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  He says begin at my sanctuary. So he's not starting out with
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  strangers. He's starting out with those who
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  knew him but didn't follow him, weren't obedient to him, ignored
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  him, didn't care about the warnings, heard the warnings,
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  but chose, Nah, I'm not going to do it.
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  That's where he started. So they began with the old men
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  who were in front of the temple. Then he said to them, defile the
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  temple and fill the courts with the slain.
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  It's pretty gruesome. Go.
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  So they went out and began killing throughout the city
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  while they were killing, and I was left alone.
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  I fell face down crying out. Alas, sovereign Lord, are you
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  going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this
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  outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?
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  As soon as I read that, all of a sudden I thought about Abraham
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  praying to God multiple times for Sodom and Gomorrah and his
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  nephew Lot was there. And Abraham kept pleading with
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  God with different numbers of people.
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  If you find X number of people there, will you sit?
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  Will you spare the town? And then he kept making that
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  number lower and lower and lower and lower to God.
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  And he's like, I don't, I don't know what the final number.
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  I think it might have been if there was one person or
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  something. You know, Abraham's pleading
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  with God about the destruction. He's trying to intercede for
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  Sodom and Gomorrah. And so it says when they when
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  the angels came and got Lot and his family ready to leave before
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  the destruction happened, Here's another time where angels come
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  and help people get away from the danger that's about to
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  occur. And they, they were warned about
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  it too. But this, just like I said, just
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  came to my mind with, with the pleading that Ezekiel is doing
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  on behalf of Israel. Abraham did the same thing to
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  the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in particular his
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  nephew Lot. And Lot was spared, but not all
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  of Lots. I think his daughters.
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  It was Lot and his two daughters and his two daughters were
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  engaged. Apparently it says their
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  fiancees at some in some translation of the Bible.
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  But they didn't take him seriously.
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  They didn't take a lot seriously or the Angel seriously, but they
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  didn't take the warning light to come.
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  And, you know, let's get out of here right now because
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  destruction is coming. They blew it off and the same
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  thing happened for Lot's wife. She was told don't look back,
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  keep on going, just keep on going.
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  Destruction's coming. She did not listen to the angels
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  and her life was not spared. So we have to think about that
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  too, because we're hearing a lot.
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  I don't know if you are, but I certainly AM.
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  And it could be algorithms, but I am certainly hearing a lot of
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  repent messages, people boldly talking about repenting and, and
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  people who dream. That seems to be the only thing
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  that's coming through on these dreams of people.
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  They're, they're all saying like this is really important.
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  It's, it's like, I really feel like there is a big warning
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  right now for people to repent today.
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  If you don't believe me, just like get on YouTube and search
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  people who are having dreams and see if you find the same
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  commonality in their dreams that they are saying that they're
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  hearing from the Lord or they had this dream and it was about
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  repent and it was also Jesus is coming soon.
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  So I know a lot of people don't, you know, believe that thing
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  just like, just like they didn't back then.
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  One of these days it is really going to happen.
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  And so do we risk it and, and just say he's been supposedly
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  going to come back for like 2000 years and he's not here yet.
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  There's people who are saying that.
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  And that's only because God is patient and merciful and he
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  wants everyone to come to repentance.
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  So if we haven't repented and made ourselves ready for his
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  Kingdom, then we probably should pay attention to these chapters
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  of Ezekiel because there will be a day.
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  And do we want to be one of those people who are unprepared
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  and then receive judgement instead of rescue from God?
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  All right, so let's see verse 9 from Chapter 9.
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  He answered me, The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is
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  exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed
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  and the city is full of injustice.
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  They say the Lord has forsaken the land.
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  The Lord does not see. So I will not look on them with
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  pity or spear them, but I will bring down on their heads what
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  they have done. This it says.
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  Then the man in linen with the writing kit at his side brought
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  back a word, saying, I have done as you commanded.
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  So right there we see that this actually happened.
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  It's not a future, but it ties it.
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  It's like a foreshadowing of the future because in the Book of
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  Revelation, it says this is going to happen again, that
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  angels will do this. And we also saw it in the past
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  at the Passover of in Exodus chapter 12.
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  So the line number 10 or verse #10 So I will not look on them
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  with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their heads
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  what they have done. It's this is a very strong
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  statement about you reap what you sow.
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  If you are just sowing rebellion against God, God's going to
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  bring about justice. And going to bring that on you
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  and also if you are serving God and and in obedience to him and
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  surrendered to him, if he is Lord of your life, you don't
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  have anything to worry about because you will reap what you
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  sow either good or bad. And that's what I think this
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  chapter is really saying is that there is a, a preparation and
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  people can either be prepared to benefit or be prepared for
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  judgement. And I will read through the
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  questions and answers for the Study Bible.
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  And then I don't know if I had anything from Amir's book that I
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  had underlined, but I'll check that before I close out.
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  And I'll just close on this chapter and I'll do another
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  recording too, to catch up. So wouldn't it have taken more
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  than six men to execute judgment on the city?
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  The language and description of these men suggest that they
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  were, that they were actually angels rather than human men.
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  Huh. OK, I didn't see that in the
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  Hebrew, but OK. This is what the the study Bible
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  says. Not only do people have guardian
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  angels according to Hebrews one verse 14, but nations and cities
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  can have them as well. These angels operate in the
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  spiritual realms with the authority given to them by God.
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  We can see a pattern of this though, because we can see that
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  in Exodus it was the Angel of death who went around doing that
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  judgment for God on Egypt and all the first born and those who
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  did not mark their doorpost. Let's see in in the story of
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  Noah, it wasn't necessarily angels involved, but God just
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  rescued them. In the story of Lot, there were
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  angels that rescued Lot and his family, and then in the Book of
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  Revelation, the angels are the one who seal.
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  So there's both. It could be both possibilities
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  and I guess it doesn't really matter because it could be
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  either one, but somehow people are marked.
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  It would make more sense if it was angels.
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  I just didn't see that in the Hebrew text.
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  So either way, it just doesn't mean it happened.
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  That's that's the point. So was this a vision of what God
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  was this a vision of what would happen, or a record of actual
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  events? Both.
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  Ezekiel foresaw that God was about to abandon Jerusalem and
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  punish its sinful people. The temple would be defiled,
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  men, women and children would be slaughtered, and the invading
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  armies would unleash their fury. The people dismissed Ezekiel's
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  vision, but his prophecy later became a record of actual
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  events. What was in a writing kit?
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  This was a small case hung from the belt to carry a scribe's
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  writing equipment, items such as Reed pens, a knife to sharpen
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  the pens, and ink. Some think it may be related to
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  the Egyptian Writer's Palette, a wax writing tablet that included
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  receptacles for pen and ink. Why did God's glory move to the
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  threshold of the temple? Grieved and angry over his
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  people's rejection, God fulfilled his promise to leave
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  the temple if they turned away from him.
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  That's back in First Kings Chapter 9.
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  But rather than leave instantly, the glory of the Lord departed
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  in stages. The Glory moved one from above
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  the Cherubim in the Most Holy Place to the threshold of the
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  Temple as told in Ezekiel 9. Second, from the threshold to
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  above the Cherubim of Ezekiel's vision.
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  That's in chapter 10 to the east gate of the temple #3 and #4 the
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  4th time the presence of the Lord moved was to the Mount of
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  Olives just outside Jerusalem, and that's in Chapter 11.
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  So there were stages where He was just gradually departing.
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  And so let's see. Put a mark on the foreheads.
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  God is not unfair. Each individual is held
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  personally responsible to Him. Compare this with Revelation 7.
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  Three another time when God is said to mark or seal those who
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  belong to Him. What was this mark?
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  This mark refers to the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet
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  Tov tov, which is similar to an X.
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  It distinguished the righteous remnant from the unrepentant
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  Jews who would soon be captured and destroyed by the invading
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  army. That's interesting.
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  I don't know how they know that, but maybe from other historical
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  books, but I'm not really sure. It's in the study Bible.
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  Why did God judge without showing pity or compassion?
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  Mercy had earlier been offered. Hey, that's what we have to
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  remember too, that God's offering us mercy right now.
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  In the Old Testament, total annihilation Was the judgment
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  unposed on those who were so rebellious that they would never
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  repent? There could be no no cure or
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  reform for such people, only destruction.
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  That holds true for us today too.
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  If we don't repent, if we refuse to repent, all that we can
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  expect is judgement for that. And like in Hebrews, it says no
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  one who has the Holy Spirit keeps on sinning because if you
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  do, then the only thing that you can be prepared for is to face
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  the judgement of the Lord. And I'm obviously paraphrasing
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  that, but, and I don't recall where it is, but maybe I'll look
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  it up. But it's in Hebrews, I know for
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  sure. So you might you could run
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  keywords like keep on sinning and you'll probably find that
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  verse in the NIV version. OK, so why were they told to
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  defile the temple? The glory of the Lord had
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  departed the inner sanctum of the temple, making it
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  spiritually empty. By profaning the temple, they
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  signified it its uselessness. The sanctuary was defiled by
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  opening it up to Gentiles, other ceremonially unclean people and
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  animals. Why did God want burning?
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  Oh, actually this is for the next chapter.
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  So that's that's the end of Chapter 9.
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  I'm going to look in Amir's book and see if there was anything
• 27:27
  that I had underlined for Chapter 9 when I was reading it.
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  He did bring about, he talked about the mark of the beast
• 27:35
  because that's another marking, but it's that's of the beast.
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  It's not of God. So I don't know, I could maybe
• 27:43
  read that part of it too. Might as well.
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  So the mark of the beast from in Chapter 9.
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  At the end of chapter 8, God promised to act in fury.
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  In Chapter 9 we see that fury carried out.
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  A divine call is made for those who have charge over the city.
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  Suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate
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  which faces N, each with his battle axe in his hand.
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  One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer's
• 28:12
  inkorn at his side. They went in and stood beside
• 28:15
  the bronze altar that was from Ezekiel 9.
• 28:19
  I must admit that I particularly like the way this is Amir's
• 28:23
  book, the way that the King James that the new kings James
• 28:28
  words this passage. The ESV and NRSV both describe
• 28:33
  what these men carry as weapons of slaughter, while the NIV
• 28:39
  gives the innocuous title of deadly weapon.
• 28:42
  But with the new King James Version I picture gigantic
• 28:46
  Viking looking behemoths stepping forward with horned
• 28:50
  helmets on their heads and their battle axes in their hands and
• 28:53
  ready to go berserk throughout the city.
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  Along with them came out one more, a scribe ish looking man
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  wearing linen and carrying a pen and ink.
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  Together they gathered by the bronze altar to receive their
• 29:05
  mission. The man with the pen was told to
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  go through the city and find all those who mourned over the
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  sinful state of Jerusalem and the people of God.
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  Believe it or not, some of them were still out there.
• 29:17
  It had only been 13 years earlier when the faithful Daniel
• 29:20
  was taken. Then just four years ago,
• 29:23
  Ezekiel was hauled away to exile and his commitment to God was
• 29:28
  enough for him to be called into the prophet profession.
• 29:32
  Like that remnant of hair tucked away in the seam of Ezekiel's
• 29:37
  garment, there will always be some who remain true to the
• 29:40
  Lord. As the Lord found the faithful,
• 29:43
  He was to give them a mark in contrast to the mark of the
• 29:48
  beast. In the end times, this would
• 29:51
  this would be the mark of the best, not the beast.
• 29:56
  In Ezekiel's book, in Revelation 14, an Angel warned that anyone
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  who received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image
• 30:07
  could receive the fullness of God's fury.
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  But here in Ezekiel, the mark is the mark on one's forehead.
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  Was a good thing to the battle axe guys, he said in my hearing.
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  Go after him throughout the city and kill.
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  Do not let your eyes spare, nor have any pity.
• 30:27
  Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and
• 30:31
  women, but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark, and
• 30:36
  begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders
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  who were before the temple. Then he said to them, Defile the
• 30:43
  temple and fill the courts with the slain.
• 30:45
  Go out. And they went out and killed in
• 30:48
  the city. What must Ezekiel have
• 30:51
  witnessed? I think of some of the videos I
• 30:53
  see as I disseminate news through my Telegram channel.
• 30:58
  The brutality of this world is sometimes so great that I have
• 31:02
  to put my phone down and walk away for a time.
• 31:05
  And that's just watching it on a screen.
• 31:08
  For Ezekiel, the violence was live and in color.
• 31:12
  It's no wonder he once again found himself on his face, this
• 31:17
  time crying out. Ah Lord God, will you destroy
• 31:21
  all the remnant of Israel, pouring out your fury on
• 31:25
  Jerusalem? When David cried out for God to
• 31:28
  stay his hand of punishment against Israel as a result of
• 31:32
  his own sin, we read that he told the Angel of the Lord.
• 31:36
  It is enough. Now restrain your hand.
• 31:39
  In First Chronicles chapter 21, verse 15, God's response to
• 31:44
  Ezekiel's pleading was very different.
• 31:46
  He said, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but
• 31:51
  I will recompense their deeds on their own head.
• 31:55
  Ezekiel 910. The people of Israel had simply
• 32:00
  gone too far, too far. There would be no more respite.
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  This is harsh punishment for unrighteousness.
• 32:10
  Some will receive a taste of its bitterness here on earth, but
• 32:16
  for everyone without the salvation that comes through
• 32:20
  Yeshua, they will experience it after this life is over and for
• 32:26
  them it will not end. We need to take God's Word
• 32:30
  seriously. He didn't say this for our
• 32:33
  entertainment. He said this for warnings, to
• 32:36
  prepare us to, to save us, to get us ready.
• 32:41
  And if we ignore what is said here, we can expect what has
• 32:47
  happened historically. So it is a warning.
• 32:50
  It's something to take serious and pay attention.
• 32:54
  So that concludes Chapter 9 from the book of Ezekiel.