Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 733. Bible Study: Isaiah 45 (God appoints Leaders, the importance of Surrendering to God's will, God is Faithful!)

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733. Bible Study: Isaiah 45 (God appoints Leaders, the importance of Surrendering to God's will, God is Faithful!) · Faith by annm2705

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  Chapter 45 from the book of Isaiah.
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  First, let's pray, Dear God, as always be with us as we read
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  through this scripture and give us wisdom and insight into
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  Isaiah's teaching and word from you.
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  We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is what the Lord says to
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  his anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of and sub to
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  subdue nations before him, and to strip kings of their armor to
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  open doors before him so that gates will not be shut.
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  I will go before you and will level the mountains.
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  I will break. Down gates of bronze and cut
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  through bars of iron. I will give you hidden
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  treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may
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  know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by
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  name. For the sake of my, of Jacob, my
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  servant of Israel, my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on
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  you a title of honour. Though you do not acknowledge
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  me, I am the Lord, and there is no other.
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  Apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though
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  you have not enough acknowledged me, so that from the rising of
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  the sun to the place of its setting, people may know there
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  is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no
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  other. I form the light and create
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  darkness. I bring prosperity and create
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  disaster. I, the Lord, do all these
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  things. I'm going to pause there.
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  That's verse 7 and go back and talk about things.
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  So very interesting when studying Scripture and doing a,
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  a more of a deeper dive into Scripture, which is
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  enlightening. If you go to
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  blueletterbible.org, it's interesting because you can go
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  on the toolbar. Once you search the verse,
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  there's a button to the left or a little, I don't know, link on
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  the left that says tools. And you can go to that and it
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  will show you word for word what is written in the original
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  Hebrew if you're in the Old Testament or the Greek in the
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  New Testament. And the word for anointed is
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  actually messy Messiah like Messiah and Messiah is really
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  known as anointed 1. And so when we see that word
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  throughout Scripture, it can mean so many different things.
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  And so this of course is referring to Cyrus because Cyrus
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  is named. But it's interesting because if
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  you would read it in with the the actual Hebrew word in there,
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  it says this is what the Lord says to his Messiah.
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  It doesn't mean his Messiah. It means Messiah means anointed
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  1 And that's something like in other parts of Scripture when we
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  see that there are other possibilities for
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  interpretations when you see Messiah written.
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  So anyway, I just thought that was interesting.
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  I just found this out the other day doing a Bible study and are
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  doing a deeper study of the word of God.
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  And but it was really good. And this where I'm referring to
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  this is in the book of Daniel, because when you talk about the
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  70 sevens, there is so much in there to really it.
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  It's hard for anybody to understand.
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  And I don't know if there is anyone who has understood it
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  correctly yet. I think we probably won't even
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  know until hindsight and then we'll see because there's so
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  many. There's just things like with
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  everybody's theory that just don't quite seem like it's.
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  A. 100% accurate. And again, this is this is one
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  of those things where when we get to the book of Daniel, maybe
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  that'll come to light there, but that word is used and it has to
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  do with the anointed 1. And so just very interesting,
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  but I won't talk anymore about that right now.
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  So let's go back to this as Cyrus.
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  If we recall from just the last chapter, we learned that when
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  Isaiah prophesied this, it was 100 years before Cyrus was even
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  born. And he was talking about this
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  one named Cyrus who was going to subdue nations before him.
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  Now we can also see that God is in control here.
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  And God just decided I'm going to use Cyrus for this purpose.
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  And he was in so many ways, it seems like Cyrus is also a
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  foreshadowing of Jesus. And I've talked about this
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  before because a lot of times in Scripture there will be a
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  literal event, but it has symbolic significance.
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  And I think this is again a literal event that has symbolic
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  significance and points to Jesus so.
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  And here's here's. Why as I read through this when
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  I got to to open doors behold before him so that gates will
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  not be shut now of course that's what a king would do or somebody
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  conquering another area. They either the cities were
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  often walled and they had gates that were closed and a lot of
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  the business was transacted at the gate.
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  So it makes like a literal sense, but then when you get
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  into the when you get into the deeper meaning of it, all this
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  actually, oh wow, I just realized that we aren't even in
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  chapter 44 or 45 when I did the search.
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  So what I did is I when I read that, all of a sudden it
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  triggered the thought of actually the quote in Revelation
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  about open doors and shutting open and shut doors.
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  And so I was like, this is like Jesus and it's like a
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  foreshadowing of Jesus. And then just searching what he
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  opens in the electronic version of the Bible, the
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  blueletterbible.org comes up two different verses. 1 is actually
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  from Isaiah 22, verse 22. And this is interesting because
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  it says, again, I believe this is in reference to Jesus also,
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  but Isaiah 22 verse 22 says I will place on his shoulder the
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  key to the House of David. What he opens no one can shut,
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  and what he shuts no one can open.
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  And so in context it. Let's see.
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  Oh, this is also like another one that seems to be a
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  foreshadowing. Because it says.
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  In that day I will summon this. Sorry, I'm jumping around,
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  Isaiah chapter 22 says. In that day, I will summon my
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  servant Ileakim, son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe
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  and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to
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  him. He will be a father to those who
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  live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah.
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  I will place on his shoulder the key to the House of David.
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  What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can
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  open. I will drive him like a peg into
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  a firm place, and he will become a seat or on the throne of honor
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  for the House of his father. All the glory of his family will
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  hang on him its offsprings and offshoots all its lesser vessels
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  from the bowls to all the jars. In that day, declares the Lord,
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  the peg driven into the firm place will give way.
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  It will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it
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  will be cut down. The Lord has spoken, so it seems
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  like this is like the second time that there was this
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  foreshadowing of something that Jesus would do.
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  When I think about a peg drawn into a firm place, I also think
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  about the cross and I think about the load on the cross that
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  would be cut down is all the the burden of the sins that would be
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  removed by Jesus's death on the cross.
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  So in my mind, those are things that I think about how that is a
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  foreshadowing of Jesus, but it was specifically about a
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  servant. So then when we get to the Book
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  of Revelation, this is. Where it is talking about.
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  Jesus, it says to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia write
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  these are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the
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  key of David. What he opens, no one can shut
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  and what he shuts, no one can open.
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  Now the he that's being referred to was revealed to us earlier in
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  in the Book of Revelation, because it was I want to get to
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  that. It was in chapter 1 of
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  Revelation, and it says right away the revelation from Jesus
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  Christ which God gave him to show his servants what soon
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  must, what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his
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  Angel to his servant John. So John received this
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  information from an Angel messenger and it says that
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  here's what it says. I am the living one.
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  I was dead. And now look, I am alive forever
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  and ever and I hold the keys of death and Hades right there for
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  what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.
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  And and then it so it's a message that goes out to it goes
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  through the mystery of the stars that you saw in my right hand.
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  And the seven golden lamp stands as this.
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  The seven stars are the angels or the messengers of the seven
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  churches. And the seven lampstands are the
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  seven churches. And then it, there's a message
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  to each of the seven churches and it's basically a message
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  from God and a message of what they're doing right and what
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  they're doing wrong, what they need to do and about the future
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  and promises and rewards and all sorts of things.
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  But again, this, this verse applies to Jesus at this time.
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  So again, there's multiple foreshadowings of Jesus in the
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  Old Testament. So then it says, as always, you
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  know, God goes before. If he calls someone, he goes
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  before, that person says I will go before you and will level the
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  mountains. And the mountains, the word that
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  was used there is something that was only used one time.
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  When you look deeper into that, and sometimes I think mountains
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  are powers. I think they're mountains can be
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  symbolic of a certain power and I almost believe it might be
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  spiritual powers or spiritual entities and we'll just have to.
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  I don't have a lot of study on that, so I can't go much further
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  than that. But it says I will break down
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  gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.
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  And when I read that, I thought about Daniel who has a dream
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  later or not Daniel, but Nebuchadnezzar who has a dream
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  and all of these dreams that he has of this of this statue are
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  multiple rulers. So Nebuchadnezzar dreams about
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  the statue, and each part of the statue is made of different
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  materials until it gets down to the feet.
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  And then there's the iron mixed with clay.
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  And there are multiple visions that kind of a line up, at least
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  through my study Bible. That's what it shows, which
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  makes sense to me about these different kingdoms that arise
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  over time. And so the. 1st Kingdom was the
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  Babylon Kingdom which is represented by gold.
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  The next one was the Persian Kingdom which is modern day Iran
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  and that was represented by silver.
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  And as I say that, I think about in Scripture where gold and
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  silver, it's often referred to many times.
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  And so is this like Babylon, which is in modern day Iraq, and
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  then silver, which is in, you know, not in, but represents
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  Iran from this statue in the dream found in the book of
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  Daniel. So bronze is also another
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  Kingdom. And that Kingdom is Ionia or
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  Assyria or like the Greek, but it's really Yevon.
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  So it's it's ultimately like Turkey is really where it is.
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  So it's I will break down the gates of bronze Turkey and then
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  cut through the bars of iron, which is actually symbolic of
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  the Roman Empire, like the different kingdoms that came
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  along the way. So if you read it and just
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  substitute for the the materials that he's talking about, if this
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  does tie into the dreams that were the prophetic dreams that
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  were given in the book of Daniel, then the bronze would
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  represent Turkey and the iron would represent Roman.
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  And the last Kingdom was like a mixture of clay and iron.
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  So, and it just was like a broken up kind of a.
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  Kingdom And there was also this rock that crushed that iron and
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  clay Kingdom and that is symbolic of Jesus, of God.
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  We talked about that. I think in the last chapter.
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  So the final Kingdom, it's an evil Kingdom, and Jesus will
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  crush it and put it to an end. And just like in the beginning
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  of Genesis, where God tells the beginning, tells the end from
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  the beginning. He says that he will create
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  enmity between your seed speaking to Eve from the Garden
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  of Eden and your seed talking to Satan the serpent and that.
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  Eve seed, which ultimately would be Jesus, would crush the head
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  of the serpent Satan, and then the Satan would strike his heel.
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  So there is that, you know, there's this.
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  This battle between the two, but that was told from the very
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  beginning. But ultimately, Jesus, the seed
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  of Eve, the seed of a woman, which is referring to Jesus, is
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  what will crush Satan and his. Kingdoms that he's sown seed and
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  created these kingdoms that were adversaries to Israel.
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  So it's really interesting when you get into it and it all kind
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  of makes sense and just as Jesus said, you know, I've I've told
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  you the the beginning or the end from the beginning.
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  I keep getting that mixed up. So anyway, I will give you this
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  is God speaking through Isaiah. I will give you hidden
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  treasures, riches stored in secret places.
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  He's saying this to Cyrus, his anointed one for this task.
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  I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored.
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  So I will talk about that. What the Bible, what the study
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  Bible says, what were these hidden treasures?
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  As Cyrus conquered nations to build up his empire, he took
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  possession of great wealth. Ancient writers have commented
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  on the legendary wealth of Lydia, which Cyrus conquered in
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  546 BC, and of Babylon, which he conquered in 539 BC.
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  God was both equipping and rewarding Cyrus for the great
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  deed of freeing the Exiles. On the other hand, this may be
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  an allusion to the temple treasures that the Babylonians
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  had seized and which Cyrus found and returned to the Jews.
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  So that, you know, there's often a double meaning in these, you
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  know, Scriptures are kind of broad based, but where you could
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  have multiple meanings within one, but then Scripture
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  interprets Scripture. So it's it's interesting in that
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  way. But so anyway, those are that's
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  about the hidden treasures. I skipped over a question about
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  how was Cyrus the Lord's anointed?
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  This anointing was figurative to be sure, but God was empowering
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  Cyrus for the task of returning the Jews to their homeland.
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  Though the word Messiah means anointed one, Cyrus was not the
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  Messiah, the special one to redeem God's people.
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  He was just a shepherd, and that's mentioned in verse 28
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  later on, or a leader prepared by God for a unique task.
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  So God has a specific purpose for every single one of us, and
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  He will use it. He will use our desires, our
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  free will for His purpose to accomplish His task.
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  So it's really interesting when you come to that realization
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  through Scripture when he says I will summon you by name, talking
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  to Cyrus and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do
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  not acknowledge me. So God's purpose prevails.
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  What does it mean that Cyrus would not acknowledge the Lord?
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  Isaiah declared that Cyrus would call on the Lord's name in verse
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  in chapter 41, verse 25, and that God supported Cyrus so that
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  he would know that Israel's God is the Lord.
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  Yet here it is stated that he did not acknowledge the Lord in
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  the Cyrus cylinder made of baked clay.
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  The king attributes his victories to Marduk, God of
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  Babylon, though in Ezra chapter one verse 2, he is quoted as
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  asserting that the Lord had given him dominion.
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  Clearly Cyrus used the names of deities without any sense of
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  exclusiveness. So he was not turned to God, but
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  yet God used him. That's why we never avoid God's
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  purposes. There may have been some, you
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  know, maybe he liked to conquer people and that was his desire.
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  And God used that that will to accomplish God's purpose of
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  rebuilding the temple and also bringing the Exiles from
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  Babylon. So God is always in control and
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  he mentions it twice that although you have not
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  acknowledged me, he can still just like he did with Pharaoh,
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  like Pharaoh would not turn to him even though all those
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  plagues were sent. So God just used to, you know,
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  he was like, OK, fine, you can have your your way and I will
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  bring about all these different things.
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  Finally, it was the death of the first born, I think that
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  eventually made them able to leave after all these, I think
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  10 plagues that occurred. So God will work with our free
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  will. We don't necessarily have to be
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  on his side, but. He is sovereign, so we will.
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  That's actually when you think about it.
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  That's the way that God lets us determine our destiny.
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  God doesn't send anyone to hell. We choose it.
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  We choose it if we reject God or we just choose it, Yeah, it's
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  basically if we reject God. So ultimately where we end up is
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  our responsibility, but Jesus made it possible for us to be in
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  the Kingdom. So I don't want anyone to think
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  that I'm saying that you do it by what your works or anything.
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  You don't. Your works are actually evidence
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  that the Holy Spirit is working inside of you, that you've
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  submitted and surrendered to God.
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  But it's not how we get to God's Kingdom.
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  We will be judged based on our works, but it's not how we get
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  there. How we get there is what Jesus
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  did on the cross for us. That's why Jesus is the only the
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  way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father
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  except through him. But Jesus said that, you know
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  that wasn't it. And if you think about it, like
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  a lot of people love to say if you believe and if you if you
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  say that Jesus died on the cross and he resurrected because they
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  use one verse in Scripture in isolation.
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  If you believe and speak with your lips that Jesus is the Son
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  of God and he was raised from the dead, and then you will have
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  eternal life. You know, people will say
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  something to that effect, but that's one verse in Scripture
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  and that isn't complete. And that's what there's a lot of
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  people who I think are misled by that because they will profess
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  their faith, They will profess believing in Jesus, but that's
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  where it stops. Nothing else happens.
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  And if that's all that it took, why would Jesus say in order to
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  enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born again, born of the
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  Spirit. The the only way that we are
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  born of the Spirit is when we become submissive to God, when
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  we finally say, OK, I am going to do what you want to do, even
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  though it's not what I desire in the beginning.
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  And I will surrender my will to your will like God.
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  I want your will to be done in my life.
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  And I'm going to struggle with this, but I'm allowing, I'm
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  accepting, I'm receiving. I want the Holy Spirit to to
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  operate in me and I'm willing to let the Holy Spirit change my
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  life. That's basically what being born
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  again is, is surrendering, doing it on your own and saying, God,
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  I, I can't do it on my own. But I know even if I may not
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  completely accept everything yet, I know that what you say is
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  true. I know that what you say is
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  right and help me get help me get to that point.
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  So let your Holy Spirit work in me.
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  That's we need to give permission to God.
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  That's how we get saved. We are saved by Jesus death on
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  the cross. If he didn't die on the cross,
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  it still wouldn't be possible. So, but again, remember what
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  Jesus said and if you just think like, well, you know, I don't
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  know if I. Believe you because the Bible
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  says if you just believe, Doesn't Satan believe that Jesus
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  is who he is? He wants to defeat Jesus, but he
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  knows who he is. He's not denying who he is.
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  He doesn't like so another verse in scripture says, yet even the
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  demons believe and shudder. So think about when Jesus went
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  to that man that was in chains and he's he asked who he was and
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  the man replied, Legion because he had so many demons possessing
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  him. And then Jesus cast out those
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  demons and those demons recognize Jesus and they said,
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  why are you here? Are you here to send us to the
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  abyss? And please let us go into the
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  pigs. And so Jesus allowed that to
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  happen. But then the pigs ran off the
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  Cliff and drowned in water. So like demons apparently have
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  to possess something, have to inhabit something.
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  If we don't have the Holy Spirit residing in us, we are
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  susceptible to demons and we don't even know.
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  I've actually heard people who claim to be Christians and they,
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  they were claiming to be Christians and but they were
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  having this struggle with sin and they, it was their own
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  testimony that said this, they, they got deliverance from
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  somebody they didn't even know. They had some spiritual entity.
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  But it's really weird when they talk about it like they say
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  they, they, they have this like feeling like they were going to
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  throw up and they didn't really throw up or vomit, but it, it
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  was that same like gagging kind of experience where this thing
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  came out of them and they went to a a pastor who, you know,
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  commanded in Jesus name that the demon leave them.
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  And these people are testifying. This literally happened to them.
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  And one of the things in the world is that the current
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  religion, people don't like to talk about demons and spiritual
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  things. But isn't that almost like
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  something from the enemy? Because if Jesus said we had to
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  be born of the Spirit, don't you think talking about the Spirit
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  is really important? Because if we don't know about
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  the Spirit, or we say, oh, that's kind of like people were,
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  you know, naive back then. They didn't understand things.
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  No, I think that's a lie today, that people think that they're
• 26:05
  so smart that these spiritual things were just naive people
• 26:09
  and it wasn't true. The spiritual world is real.
• 26:14
  In Ephesians chapter 6, it says we we do not wrestle against
• 26:18
  flesh and blood. We don't wrestle against people,
• 26:20
  we don't fight with people. We're spite fighting in the
• 26:23
  spiritual battle. If a person is not surrendered
• 26:27
  and allowing the Holy Spirit to work within them, they are
• 26:31
  susceptible. I'm not saying everybody's
• 26:33
  possessed, but they are susceptible to demonic
• 26:38
  influence. And you better believe that
• 26:42
  demonic influence is real and it will like mention, I don't know,
• 26:49
  it will put thoughts into people's heads, their negative
• 26:51
  thoughts. I think that when people have
• 26:54
  suicidal thoughts, that's coming from something demonic because
• 26:58
  Satan wants to kill and destroy. It's not normal.
• 27:02
  It well, I shouldn't I have to be careful how I say that like
• 27:07
  normal people can have those thoughts, but it's not, it's not
• 27:11
  from God, it's from his enemy because his enemy wants to kill
• 27:15
  you. So often times when people are
• 27:19
  getting close to God, they will all of a sudden get these
• 27:23
  thoughts like I'm not worthy, I'm worthless, I'm bad, all
• 27:29
  these things like the world would be a better place without
• 27:31
  me. That's all demonic because
• 27:34
  you're getting closer to God. And so the demonic realm is
• 27:38
  saying, OK, this is a great target.
• 27:40
  You know, they think they're on their way to getting closer to
• 27:43
  to Jesus and I'm going to tell them they're unworthy and
• 27:49
  they're terrible and all these horrible things.
• 27:52
  And so a person will get to the slow point in their life
• 27:55
  believing that that and and struggling with that.
• 28:00
  So that's just, you know, and it's really a period of testing
• 28:04
  at that point, call on the Lord and realize that you are
• 28:09
  valuable to God. And that God, you know, it says,
• 28:14
  you know, you have to remember this verse for God so loved the
• 28:16
  world that he gave his one and only Son so that we could be in
• 28:21
  his Kingdom forever, like we are valuable.
• 28:24
  It also says that, you know, God feeds the birds and we are more
• 28:29
  important than the birds. So don't worry about anything
• 28:31
  like God will provide everything for you.
• 28:35
  It's a matter of surrender, a matter of us, because God gave
• 28:39
  us free will. I think there's some law with
• 28:41
  this that if we don't say to God, you have me, you can do
• 28:45
  whatever you want, your Holy Spirit can operate within me.
• 28:48
  If we don't give that permission, there's something
• 28:51
  legal about that, like we have a right to deny that.
• 28:54
  That's how we end up being separated from God eternal
• 28:57
  eternally when we reject God. But if we, if we give God that
• 29:04
  authority, he could do whatever he wants, but he gave us free
• 29:07
  will. If we give God that permission,
• 29:10
  then you better bet that he's going to accept that and work in
• 29:14
  our lives and protect us and change us and we become a new
• 29:20
  creation. And that's how we become a
• 29:23
  sister or a brother to Jesus. So it's phenomenal what God did.
• 29:27
  And the enemy knows how this works.
• 29:29
  So the enemy is there to stop it because the enemy wants to seek,
• 29:33
  kill and destroy. So let's get back like to what I
• 29:37
  was talking about before in Isaiah chapter 45.
• 29:41
  God's will prevails. We have a choice of are we going
• 29:45
  to align ourselves with God will, God's will, or are we
• 29:48
  going to fight against it? So we have to remember like it
• 29:54
  says in verse 6, I form the light and create darkness.
• 29:59
  This is God talking. I bring prosperity and create
• 30:04
  disaster. I, the Lord, do all these.
• 30:07
  Things. So when we see disasters
• 30:10
  happening, that's judgement, that's a warning, that's a sign
• 30:15
  from God that we need to wake up.
• 30:19
  And often people will turn to God when everything else in
• 30:25
  their life is taken away. It's completely destroyed.
• 30:28
  They've got nothing else. So unfortunately, but
• 30:32
  fortunately, God is their last resort.
• 30:36
  They've tried everything else and it hasn't worked.
• 30:39
  And finally they surrender. So God can use disasters to
• 30:45
  bring about something good and does evil make some of the
• 30:50
  disasters happen like sicknesses and plagues?
• 30:53
  Yes, I believe that just like God let the Angel of death go
• 30:57
  through Egypt as one of the the plagues, one of the last plagues
• 31:04
  were the first born or or died. So God, we can't allow that, but
• 31:11
  God is ultimately in in control. And so the ones who were
• 31:15
  protected were the ones God's chosen ones, who put the blood
• 31:19
  of the Lamb, who who were obedient to God.
• 31:24
  God told them what to do. God through Moses, he told them
• 31:28
  what the Israelites needed to do.
• 31:31
  The Israelites obeyed and they were spared.
• 31:34
  Obedience is really important. We don't get salvation by
• 31:38
  obedience, but we show God we love Him by being obedient.
• 31:43
  If God tells us to do something, we should do it.
• 31:48
  And we have to remember that God is behind prosperity.
• 31:52
  All good things come from God. He is also behind disaster, so
• 31:59
  God could stop disaster. Just like Jesus rebuked the
• 32:03
  storm when he was in the the boat with the disciples and they
• 32:08
  were fearful because a very wicked storm was brewing and he,
• 32:12
  Jesus was sleeping. And they're kind of like saying
• 32:14
  what's? Wrong with you, Jesus.
• 32:15
  You know, look at this happening.
• 32:17
  We're going to die. And Jesus was like you of little
• 32:20
  faith, don't you know? And he rebuked the storm.
• 32:23
  He's in control of it. That's another piece of evidence
• 32:26
  that he was the Son of God because he had the authority to
• 32:29
  do that, so he was able to stop that.
• 32:32
  That's why a lot of things are requested, as long as it's
• 32:35
  within God's will and the Holy Spirit is residing within a
• 32:38
  person. When a person says in the name
• 32:41
  of Jesus, because Jesus has been given all authority.
• 32:44
  So when we speak something, that is the authority that we are
• 32:48
  given through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, by the power of the
• 32:51
  Holy Spirit, which is from God. And that's how things happen.
• 32:57
  So that's why. When we hear in the name of
• 32:59
  Jesus, that's why you heavens above, rain down on rain.
• 33:05
  No, you heavens above, I'm OK. I'm picking up where I stopped
• 33:09
  in Scripture at verse 8. You heavens above rain down my
• 33:13
  righteousness. Let the clouds shower it down.
• 33:16
  Let the earth open wide. Let salvation spring up.
• 33:21
  Let righteousness flourish with it.
• 33:24
  I, the Lord, have created it. So in all of this messed up
• 33:29
  world we have, there isn't a future restoration that God
• 33:34
  alone will be behind, and it's when it's after Jesus returns.
• 33:40
  Woe to those who quarrel with their maker, those who are
• 33:44
  nothing but pot sheds along the pot, among the pot sheds on the
• 33:49
  ground. Does the clay say to the Potter,
• 33:52
  What are you making? Does your work say the Potter
• 33:56
  has no hands? So we have to get to a point
• 34:00
  where we submit to God. We have to realize that we are
• 34:03
  the clay. We are what?
• 34:05
  He He formed us like He is the Maker.
• 34:08
  He is the Potter, we are the clay.
• 34:10
  We are being formed by Him and we it's not the other way
• 34:14
  around. We can be creative because God
• 34:18
  made us in his image and likeness, but that doesn't mean
• 34:22
  we don't create God. And when we try to create
• 34:26
  something that we would call a God, that's going to be very
• 34:31
  disastrous for us. Because that will provoke the
• 34:34
  anger of God. So there are no gods but God,
• 34:38
  and he very clearly says that. In verse 10, woe to the one who
• 34:42
  says to a father, what have you begotten, or to a mother, what
• 34:46
  have you brought to birth? This is what the Lord says, the
• 34:50
  Holy One of Israel and its Maker, concerning things to
• 34:54
  come. Do you?
• 34:55
  Question me about my children, or give me orders about the work
• 35:00
  of my hands. It is I who made the earth and
• 35:04
  created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the
• 35:09
  heavens. I marshaled their starry host.
• 35:12
  I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness.
• 35:18
  I will make all his ways straight.
• 35:21
  He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free.
• 35:26
  But not for a price or reward, says the Lord.
• 35:31
  So at first when you look at verse 13, if you look in the
• 35:37
  Hebrew where it's inserted, Cyrus, it actually in Hebrew it
• 35:43
  says him. So they put a name in there
• 35:46
  instead of like our translation, put a name in there.
• 35:48
  I will raise up him in my righteousness.
• 35:50
  I will make all his way straight.
• 35:52
  He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free.
• 35:55
  So this is very much like Jesus. But here's where it's not like
• 35:59
  Jesus, but not for a price or reward.
• 36:05
  So he's not doing it for a price.
• 36:07
  Jesus did it for a price. He gave his life.
• 36:11
  He was the ransom. So Cyrus is doing it, but it's
• 36:14
  not like he's doing it for a price, which I thought was kind
• 36:18
  of interesting. OK, verse 14, this is what the
• 36:22
  Lord says. The products of Egypt and the
• 36:24
  merchandise of Cush and those tall Sabians, well, it says here
• 36:30
  who were the tall Sabians? They were probably South and I
• 36:34
  read another part where it talks about north.
• 36:37
  So I don't know which, but they were probably Arabians from
• 36:40
  Sheba, which is the modern Yemen known for trading as a mighty
• 36:45
  people. They were mentioned along with
• 36:47
  the Egyptians and the Kushites, the Sudanese as one day coming
• 36:51
  to. God's truth and obeying Him in
• 36:55
  large numbers, they are further evidence that the gospel is good
• 37:01
  news for the people everywhere. So that means we are actually
• 37:04
  going to in God's Kingdom have Muslims as sisters and brothers.
• 37:13
  So isn't that wild thinking that Muslims, well, there are some
• 37:18
  who are becoming Christians and, and this is talking about, and
• 37:22
  again, it's not forced upon them, but God is revealing
• 37:26
  himself to them. And this is talking about that
• 37:30
  they, they don't have to do these horrible things like get
• 37:33
  themselves blown up the way their radical beliefs currently
• 37:38
  are. There is one who loves them, who
• 37:43
  is God. He does have a son and his son
• 37:47
  is our salvation. And so along the way along this
• 37:52
  time, and it could be through disasters, people will come to
• 37:55
  know the Lord and they will know that all of their efforts, they
• 38:01
  don't need to do it. They don't need to wipe out
• 38:03
  other religions. They don't need to wipe out the
• 38:05
  Jews and the Christians in order to have this.
• 38:08
  They, you know, it's the enemy who's deceived them into
• 38:12
  thinking that they are in this idolatrous religion if they
• 38:17
  believe in the Son of God. And so the enemy's really good
• 38:22
  at it. And if we go back in Scripture,
• 38:26
  I've mentioned this before, the last book of the Bible was
• 38:29
  written in 90 AD, the Book of Revelation and in something
• 38:34
  that. Paul.
• 38:35
  Or Peter wrote, I can't remember which now, but one of the two
• 38:39
  wrote this. That said, if an if an even an
• 38:41
  Angel gives you a different gospel than the one we've given
• 38:44
  you, something is like he is he is to be cursed is what it said.
• 38:50
  So think about this. If the Bible's last book was
• 38:53
  written at 90 AD and everybody was believing it until there was
• 38:57
  a new revelation that Muhammad got in the six hundreds from
• 39:02
  quote an Angel and it says that Satan can masquerade as an Angel
• 39:07
  of light. And then all of a sudden people
• 39:10
  started stopped believing and started thinking, well, gosh, if
• 39:13
  I believe in Jesus, then I'm idolatrous and I'm thinking
• 39:16
  there's multiple gods, but there's only one God.
• 39:19
  And so they're trying to do the right thing, but it's being
• 39:23
  deceived. Like Jesus is the Son of God.
• 39:25
  He was born of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
• 39:30
  That's why he is not only a human person, he is not only a
• 39:36
  prophet. He was sinless.
• 39:38
  That's why his death on the cross was able to make atonement
• 39:42
  for all nations, all mankind. So it's really probably hard to
• 39:47
  wrap your head around, especially I know if you come
• 39:51
  from religion that doesn't teach this, it's really hard to
• 39:55
  understand, but this was the first religion, so.
• 39:59
  I believe. That this was the first.
• 40:01
  Why did it get changed like that?
• 40:03
  There was a warning in the Bible that said something like that
• 40:05
  would happen, and it did. And then look at how many people
• 40:08
  it's taken away. And that's deception.
• 40:12
  The great deception. So let's go back.
• 40:17
  So it says the products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and
• 40:21
  those tall Sabians, they will come over to you and will be
• 40:24
  yours. They will trudge behind you,
• 40:26
  coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you
• 40:30
  and plead with you, saying surely God is with you and there
• 40:34
  is no other. There is no other God.
• 40:37
  So God does all this because he wants to be known.
• 40:40
  God's glory will be known by all.
• 40:43
  Back to verse 15. Truly you are a God who has been
• 40:47
  hiding Himself, the God and Savior of Israel.
• 40:51
  All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced.
• 40:56
  They will go off into disgrace together, but Israel will be
• 41:00
  saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation.
• 41:05
  You will never be put to shame or disgraced to ages
• 41:09
  everlasting. So Israel will be saved in the
• 41:13
  end. And there will be a remnant.
• 41:15
  There's going to be quite a bit of wrath from God that comes on
• 41:19
  Israel because they denied Jesus and didn't recognize him for who
• 41:26
  he was. But many, many Jews will come to
• 41:30
  faith and, and, and find out that Jesus was the savior.
• 41:33
  I mean, here we are in the book of Isaiah and it's so many times
• 41:38
  been talked about Jesus, been a foreshadowing of Jesus.
• 41:41
  It's been pointing to Jesus. So if Jewish people would read
• 41:46
  the book of Isaiah, but they don't have the benefit of the
• 41:49
  New Testament of what it was documented about Jesus, you
• 41:53
  know, their ancestors actually came in contact with Jesus.
• 41:55
  But I guess they're forbidden to read the New Testament.
• 41:59
  But if they did, maybe their eyes would be opened.
• 42:02
  For this is what the Lord says, He who created the heavens, He
• 42:06
  is God, He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it.
• 42:11
  He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be
• 42:14
  inhabited. That's another interesting thing
• 42:17
  I think about today's world and how they're talking about
• 42:20
  overpopulation and and that, you know, we have too many people,
• 42:24
  we don't have enough resources. That's, you know, a godless
• 42:28
  society that says that because God didn't create this to be
• 42:32
  empty. He said go forth, be fruitful
• 42:35
  and multiply. He didn't say you better.
• 42:38
  Stop it at a certain point because it's going to be too
• 42:40
  much. That's like taking away from
• 42:42
  God. Do you not think that God
• 42:44
  created the earth? That he can't create more to
• 42:46
  sustain the life that. Is create is.
• 42:50
  Born so again, this is just like how godless our society is and
• 42:56
  thinks lately. But He did not create the earth
• 43:00
  to be empty, but he formed it to be inhabited.
• 43:04
  He says I am the Lord and there is no other.
• 43:06
  I have not spoken in secret. He shared all the stuff with his
• 43:10
  prophets from somewhere in the land.
• 43:13
  That was my comment. From somewhere in a land of
• 43:16
  darkness. I have.
• 43:18
  That's how he formed. It says in Genesis that the
• 43:21
  earth was formless and dark when he formed it.
• 43:24
  I have not. Said to Jacob's descendants,
• 43:27
  Seek me in vain. I, the Lord speak the truth.
• 43:31
  I declare what is right. So prophecy from God will
• 43:36
  happen. There might be false prophets
• 43:40
  who say things that are not from God.
• 43:42
  Well, those things won't happen. But if something, a prophecy
• 43:46
  comes through a person and it happens, then you can know that
• 43:50
  that was from God. Gather together and come
• 43:54
  assemble you. Fugitives from the nation's
• 43:56
  ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to
• 44:00
  gods that cannot save. So again, God alone is
• 44:03
  salvation, and that salvation was.
• 44:06
  Received. By Jesus death on the cross and
• 44:11
  Jesus death on the cross is for all nations, all people who have
• 44:17
  died, all people who will die, all people who.
• 44:20
  Currently are dying that. Jesus covers His sacrifice made
• 44:25
  atonement for all. Declare what is to be presented.
• 44:31
  Let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago?
• 44:35
  Who declared it from the distant past?
• 44:38
  Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from
• 44:42
  me, a righteous God and a Savior.
• 44:45
  There is none but me. God is our Savior, and God and
• 44:52
  Jesus are. Connected by the Holy Spirit,
• 44:56
  like the Holy Spirit that that's I think that's.
• 45:00
  The great mystery that our minds don't quite fully comprehend
• 45:04
  yet. But God's Spirit came to Mary
• 45:08
  and enabled her to be pregnant with Jesus.
• 45:13
  So he's he was a man and he gave up.
• 45:17
  His heavenly rights like his, and he still had his authority
• 45:22
  and he still had the power of the spirit, but he gave up his
• 45:25
  position as this, you know, in the heavenly realms with the
• 45:30
  Father, where he was not tormented by.
• 45:34
  People, But he actually came down and like what said it may,
• 45:38
  he made himself a little lower. When He came to earth here to go
• 45:44
  through all of what He had to do to enable us to get into the
• 45:49
  Kingdom of God to live with the Father someday.
• 45:53
  Turn to me and be saved. So there is no question anywhere
• 45:58
  in the Bible. I know when I read it, it was a
• 46:00
  difficult thing for me to see, but it was repent everywhere.
• 46:05
  So repentance brings us to salvation, turning to the Lord,
• 46:08
  changing our mind, saying, okay, my will, I'm going to abandoned
• 46:13
  that. But I'm going to turn to you God
• 46:16
  and say that your will agree with you and say that your will
• 46:20
  is righteous, your will is just and let your Holy Spirit work in
• 46:26
  me so that my eyes are not blinded by it.
• 46:30
  That we have that freedom that comes through knowing God.
• 46:34
  That we are not burdened by the things that we thought were.
• 46:42
  Limitations were slavery on us. The like the 10 commandments,
• 46:46
  those are guardrails to protect us from falling off the Cliff.
• 46:51
  And because when we break them, we lose our connection with God,
• 46:57
  we separate ourself from God. So.
• 47:04
  Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth.
• 47:06
  So it's for everyone, For I am a God, and there is no other.
• 47:10
  By myself I have sworn my mouth is uttered in all integrity, a
• 47:15
  word that will not be revoked before me.
• 47:20
  Every knee will bow by me, every tongue will swear.
• 47:24
  So I know we're not supposed to use God's name in vain.
• 47:29
  Like I swear to God, it says, you know, just say yes or no.
• 47:34
  Anything more than that I think can get us into trouble.
• 47:38
  But God is swearing by himself. So, and Paul writes about that
• 47:44
  too in Romans chapter 14, verse 11.
• 47:46
  It is written as surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee
• 47:50
  will bow before me, every tongue will acknowledge God.
• 47:54
  So he was repeating Isaiah chapter 45, verse 23.
• 48:02
  Paul was, and this is in reference to Jesus, He's given
• 48:06
  all authority. He's going to be the king on the
• 48:09
  earth and all nations will come to him.
• 48:13
  They're all nations will be coming for the feasts of
• 48:16
  Tabernacles. It's a joyous celebration.
• 48:19
  And don't you wonder why more and more, actually, there's a
• 48:22
  whole bunch of people right now. If you haven't heard or been on
• 48:25
  social media for anybody who's in the End Times prophetic, you
• 48:28
  know, looking Watchmen kind of thing, so many people are
• 48:33
  talking about the Feast of Trumpets.
• 48:35
  Someday in September is going to be the time of Jesus's gathering
• 48:42
  of people. Many people believe it because
• 48:45
  of the idiom no man knows the day or the hour that referred to
• 48:49
  the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah.
• 48:51
  So a lot of people are looking at.
• 48:55
  Things that have been happening in the world and thinking that
• 48:59
  September, this is going to happen, I am hesitant, very
• 49:04
  hesitant. I do think that someday that's a
• 49:08
  very good possibility, but I also think that the abomination
• 49:13
  of desolation has to happen first before that will happen.
• 49:18
  So not to say that that couldn't happen between now and
• 49:22
  September, because it could, but.
• 49:25
  And there was another interesting thing that I just
• 49:28
  listened to last night from a very well educated, well versed
• 49:32
  Hebrew speaking scholar, biblical theology, where he
• 49:38
  actually came to a conclusion and even wrote a book.
• 49:42
  And it's actually a free resource if anybody wants to
• 49:44
  read it. There's a lot of detail.
• 49:46
  He's really intelligent. And I would have to read over it
• 49:51
  several times to kind of absorb everything.
• 49:53
  And I don't know that I necessarily agree with
• 49:55
  everything that he presented, but I always try to keep my mind
• 49:58
  open because I don't want to get so locked into I know exactly
• 50:03
  how this is going to happen or believe exactly how everybody
• 50:07
  else thinks. Because humans are fallible and
• 50:11
  we can get it in our heads or be taught something.
• 50:14
  And maybe it's not exactly the way we thought.
• 50:18
  Look at how so many people refused to acknowledge that
• 50:23
  Jesus was the Messiah because they had it in their mind it was
• 50:27
  going to be a certain way and it didn't happen the way they
• 50:29
  thought it was going to be. And so I don't want to be one of
• 50:33
  those people about Jesus's return that it's like, Oh no,
• 50:38
  it's not going to happen because it's not the way I think it's
• 50:40
  going to happen. So anyway, this person.
• 50:43
  Whose account I don't let me see if I can even find it because I
• 50:46
  just watched this video. It was like 2 hours long last
• 50:49
  night, but it's I hope I can find it and I'm searching here
• 50:57
  to see if I can come across it because like I said, it's
• 51:03
  something that I so it's sorry, it's not what I was trying to
• 51:10
  play that, but the account is called Abraham Dash overcome
• 51:16
  Babylon and I just came across him.
• 51:20
  I don't know if that I believe everything that he has to say,
• 51:23
  but I did watch that 2 hour video and it was very well done,
• 51:29
  well researched. I of course there's assumptions
• 51:34
  that everyone makes and those could be false or wrong or he
• 51:39
  just posted this about 3 weeks ago.
• 51:41
  So if you really want a detailed description of what he thinks
• 51:46
  about Daniel's 70 weeks, it's it's worth listening to, but
• 51:51
  it's very, very long. So maybe when you're trying to
• 51:53
  go to sleep, need something to listen to anyway, he, he, he
• 52:02
  claims or his theory is that the abomination of desolation is
• 52:06
  actually a nuclear missile. And that is the very there a
• 52:10
  very good possibility. So if that if he is right about
• 52:16
  what he believes that could happen at any point.
• 52:20
  I mean, we and, and the thing that I keep in mind too, is that
• 52:24
  in Scripture prophecy, it says when everyone is saying peace
• 52:28
  and safety comes about sudden destruction.
• 52:31
  What does it feel like we're saying right now?
• 52:34
  This is like August 18th of 2025.
• 52:38
  It, it seems like we're seeing peace agreements with people.
• 52:43
  There are, you know, like people are, you know, coming to their
• 52:46
  end saying we don't want war anymore.
• 52:48
  We're going to have peace. And that just, you know, knowing
• 52:52
  Scripture is really important. I'm not saying that it's going
• 52:55
  to happen now. It could happen, you know, many
• 52:58
  years from now. But I think we need to be aware
• 53:01
  of what Scripture says and to be watchful in the sense that we
• 53:05
  need to stay prepared. We need to be confident that if
• 53:11
  Jesus returned very, very soon, that we would be able to stand
• 53:17
  in front of Him and know that we've done our best, that we
• 53:20
  have surrendered, we've received the Holy Spirit because we have
• 53:23
  to have that, that we have to have that done.
• 53:26
  We believe Him and we are doing our best to live not as a
• 53:32
  hypocrite. We can't be living as a
• 53:34
  hypocrite because it tells us in the Bible that if we live as a
• 53:38
  hypocrite, if we know what we should be doing, and yet we're
• 53:41
  not doing what we know we should be doing, all we're getting is
• 53:45
  we're saving up wrath of God for ourselves.
• 53:48
  So there's no excuses for doing something you know is wrong.
• 53:53
  If you feel like, well, I can't control it, that just means you
• 53:56
  need the Holy Spirit to intercede.
• 54:00
  And it says that God never puts us through anything greater than
• 54:03
  what mankind has been through and that if he does put us
• 54:06
  through a test, he always gives us a way out.
• 54:10
  So we're using excuses because we don't want to, we don't want
• 54:15
  to surrender to God. I know I struggled with that
• 54:18
  when I got to that point where I realized that, you know, I, I
• 54:22
  wasn't, I didn't want to, you know, but then finally I was
• 54:26
  like, OK, it's not worth it. You know, like I, I will
• 54:29
  surrender. And, and actually that's when
• 54:32
  like I started noticing things from the Holy Spirit, which I
• 54:36
  believe are from the Holy Spirit because I started having dreams
• 54:39
  with the name of Jesus in it, which I never did before and
• 54:42
  have had like over 70 of them so far.
• 54:44
  So things genuinely did change and my life started changing
• 54:50
  very gradually. Things started changing, but it
• 54:53
  I think it was basically me submitting to God's Spirit.
• 54:57
  Instead of doing what I wanted to do and hanging on to those
• 55:00
  things just to say, OK, God, you take over.
• 55:03
  I've made a mess of things so I need you to take over.
• 55:07
  And anyway, I don't know where I, I guess I was talking about
• 55:11
  Romans chapter 14. You know, every tongue will
• 55:14
  acknowledge God. And so now let's go back to
• 55:17
  verse 24. They will say of me in the Lord
• 55:20
  alone, our deliverance and strength.
• 55:23
  All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to
• 55:26
  shame, but all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance
• 55:31
  in the Lord and will make their boast in him.
• 55:34
  So Israel will be saved. So I will go through some of the
• 55:41
  questions and answers that I did not read through.
• 55:45
  There shouldn't be very many, and then we'll wrap this up.
• 55:48
  Why would a loving God create darkness and disaster?
• 55:51
  God sometimes brings disaster as punishment for sin, such as the
• 55:56
  darkness that plagued the Egyptians if the specific
• 55:59
  disaster in mind here was the captivity of the Jews, this was
• 56:03
  clearly intended as a lesson for Israel, one that would draw them
• 56:08
  into greater obedience. What should we do with our
• 56:15
  doubts and complaints concerning God?
• 56:18
  The point at the point at issue in this quarrel was probably
• 56:23
  God's disclosure to his people that.
• 56:26
  He would deliver them through Pagan Cyrus.
• 56:29
  We cannot accuse God of using inappropriate means to achieve
• 56:34
  his ends. There is a rich.
• 56:36
  Biblical tradition of faithful people including Abraham, Moses,
• 56:41
  David, Job, Jeremiah and others expressing to God their feelings
• 56:46
  and honest disagreements with him.
• 56:49
  But their complaints brought them closer to God rather than
• 56:53
  turning them away from him. So that's.
• 56:56
  Like I can relate to that too. Like when you first read the
• 56:59
  word of God, you just, you have you have issues with some of it
• 57:04
  because we are sinful. So we do have issues with some
• 57:06
  of it. But then over time, like I don't
• 57:08
  have an issue with with this anymore.
• 57:10
  Like what I read in the Bible, I don't have an issue with it.
• 57:13
  And that has happened over time as I've been seeking God and
• 57:18
  reading daily for the most part since 2019.
• 57:23
  And yes, it's the renewing of your mind, the the changing of
• 57:28
  your mind through the Holy Spirit of God.
• 57:32
  And what was a pot shed? It was a broken piece of
• 57:36
  pottery. Pot sheds were very common and
• 57:38
  were used in a variety of menial.
• 57:40
  Tasks this is you know when he was talking about like the clay
• 57:44
  and the Potter and so forth. How would God make Cyrus's way
• 57:47
  straight Cyrus's medio Persian army.
• 57:50
  So he Cyrus was from basically Iran.
• 57:54
  That area would defeat Babylonians.
• 57:57
  That is modern day Iraq as prophesied in Isaiah 13.
• 58:03
  As used here, the word straight probably describes the direction
• 58:07
  and swiftness of Cyrus's victory.
• 58:10
  Within one year of Cyrus's capture of Babylon and 539 BC,
• 58:17
  the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the
• 58:21
  temple. That's interesting.
• 58:23
  Just a year. So what does the Bible
• 58:27
  definitively reveal about creation?
• 58:29
  The Bible teaches first and foremost that creation is the
• 58:33
  work of the triune God. Genesis describes a six day
• 58:39
  creation period. However, Bible scholars are
• 58:41
  divided over the interpretation of the Hebrew word translated
• 58:45
  day. Some say that each day was a
• 58:48
  literal 24 hour period, others note.
• 58:51
  That the word for day is sometimes used in Scripture to
• 58:55
  describe an indefinite period of time.
• 58:58
  Now I agree with the the words like this is my own commentary.
• 59:01
  You know, I agree with that day is used like that.
• 59:05
  But here's where I came to the belief that it was a 24 hour
• 59:12
  period because it talks about and there was morning and then
• 59:16
  there was night and then there was mourning and then there was
• 59:19
  night. And so that's within a 24 hour
• 59:21
  period. So that's where I came to the
• 59:24
  conclusion. And for us to to deny that God
• 59:29
  couldn't do that in six days. We're foolish.
• 59:32
  He's God. How could we say that he
• 59:35
  couldn't make that happen? Of course he could.
• 59:39
  The biblical account also teaches that human beings were
• 59:42
  the result of. Divine A divine creative act
• 59:46
  some Christians view Adam as literally the first human being
• 59:50
  created by God. Others view Adam as a selected
• 59:54
  representative of humanity Still others view the story of Adam
• 59:58
  and Eve as a symbol of the gradual development of
• 1:00:02
  humanity's moral and spiritual status, including the sinful
• 1:00:06
  nature over time. Romans chapter 5 verse 12
• 1:00:09
  through 9 says that sin entered the world through one man and
• 1:00:13
  that Adam was a. Pattern of the one to come.
• 1:00:17
  Does this language require the existence of a literal Adam?
• 1:00:21
  Long standing interpretation says yes, while some more recent
• 1:00:26
  interpretation says either no or maybe.
• 1:00:29
  Some say. Romans 5 uses what appears to be
• 1:00:33
  a literal parallel between the first Adam and the second Adam,
• 1:00:37
  Christ to explain not only the presence of sin in the human
• 1:00:41
  race Adam, but also its remedy, Christ.
• 1:00:44
  Many people think that in Roman. Humans 5 Adam stands for
• 1:00:48
  humanity's condemnation. Christ stands for the believers
• 1:00:51
  justification. Well, if we look at the gospels
• 1:00:55
  in Matthew and Luke, it gives a genealogy and it ties Jesus to
• 1:01:00
  Adam. So I have a hard time believing
• 1:01:05
  that Adam was a made-up person because there's like a
• 1:01:08
  genealogy, genealogy ancestry that's been documented
• 1:01:14
  throughout the Old Testament. So the.
• 1:01:16
  Story of Adam and. Eve.
• 1:01:19
  I do believe that the serpent was Satan and it's so it's not,
• 1:01:24
  you know, some people will say like a snake.
• 1:01:26
  Well, it's called a serpent. I believe in the Bible.
• 1:01:29
  And so it's not quite the same thing.
• 1:01:31
  But you know, with these cartoons that we see that depict
• 1:01:35
  these things, you know, it becomes, it looks like, you
• 1:01:39
  know, a made-up story. But when you really dig into the
• 1:01:43
  actual words that were used and understand the Bible or get have
• 1:01:48
  parts, you know, get revelation from reading the Bible, then you
• 1:01:53
  see that it's not such a far fetched thing that you know this
• 1:01:58
  and God can do things. Was it literal?
• 1:02:01
  I believe yes. Was it also symbolic?
• 1:02:04
  Yes, I believe. But that's what I say when I
• 1:02:06
  read through the Bible in a lot of different ways that there is
• 1:02:10
  a literal event, but it has a symbolic meaning.
• 1:02:14
  It has a deeper meaning, just like the parting of the Red Sea,
• 1:02:17
  Jesus being the way, you know, it's like there's so much the
• 1:02:20
  sea is often referred to as people like in the Book of
• 1:02:23
  Revelation. The Bible all ties together.
• 1:02:26
  These things were literal, but they were also.
• 1:02:28
  Symbolic. So very.
• 1:02:31
  The Bible's just so interesting and the more you read it, the
• 1:02:35
  more these things I think get revealed along the way.
• 1:02:38
  So why would God hide himself? The preceding verse speaks of
• 1:02:42
  idol worshipping nations coming to Israel's God.
• 1:02:45
  From their perspective, Israel's God was different because he was
• 1:02:48
  not made of wood or stone. Because God is invisible, He was
• 1:02:53
  hidden from their eyes. God responded by saying that he
• 1:02:57
  was not hiding. He reveals himself to his
• 1:03:01
  people. So that's.
• 1:03:04
  You know, I have like a a lot of mystery about the Father, Son
• 1:03:09
  and Holy Spirit. Like in the book of Genesis, it
• 1:03:11
  talks about God was walking with Adam and Eve or he was walking
• 1:03:16
  in the garden and he's called out to them.
• 1:03:18
  Where are you? So.
• 1:03:20
  Would a spirit be described as walking and did?
• 1:03:23
  I don't know if I really went into the actual words, like if
• 1:03:26
  his it was just his presence. So and then Jesus says that no
• 1:03:31
  one has seen God but him, but if they've seen him, they've seen a
• 1:03:37
  reflection of the Father. So I think about those verses as
• 1:03:41
  I'm reading through scripture and a lot of times when God
• 1:03:44
  interacts, it makes me wonder, is that really Jesus?
• 1:03:49
  I don't know, but maybe someday we will.
• 1:03:54
  We can, we can ask Jesus someday or ask the Father.
• 1:03:57
  Like, can you tell us like, where were you and where, you
• 1:04:01
  know, like how did this happen? And then maybe someday we'll
• 1:04:04
  we'll get those answers, but I don't know if we'll have those
• 1:04:07
  answers before we are actually. In the presence of God someday.
• 1:04:11
  So anyway, the important part is that we are prepared to be in
• 1:04:15
  the presence of God. If we want to be in God's
• 1:04:18
  Kingdom, there are things we need to do, not to work it off,
• 1:04:23
  but to surrender our will to God's will and receive the Holy
• 1:04:28
  Spirit.