If you can and are able, let's stand and let's read the Word of God together. Psalm 119, beginning in verse 113. I hate vain thoughts, says David, but thy law do I love. Thou art my hiding place and my shield. I hope in thy Word. Depart from me, ye evildoers, For I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. And I will have respect unto thy statuettes continually. Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statuettes, for their deceit is falsehood. Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, I love thy testimonies. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. May the Lord bless the reading of His Word this morning. You may be seated. If I had a title for this sermon this morning, It would be the State of the Union Address in a lot of ways. But a real simpler title, and I think a more appropriate title might be, Hold Me Fast. This is the first day of 2023. And if you're like me, I can't think of a better place to be than in the Lord's house on the first day of the new year. Of course, I can't think of a better place to be than the Lord's house any time. I know this is a whole lot better place than being down at the Huntsville Hospital or at National Vanderbilt Hospital getting chemo treatments, huh, Carrie? I'd heap rather be here amongst God's people than having to do the things that we have to do with this old flesh of ours that's always giving us up. And certainly one of the things that constantly causes us much trouble is sin. Of all the maladies that affect us, sin sickness can hurt us the worst. However, true believers hate sin, don't they? I know they hate it most certainly in others, and terrifyingly so in themselves. I know that's the case of me. Yeah, I hate sin in the general sense overall, but I hate it more in me than I do anybody else. To see this world of Christ rejecters promote and perform abomination after abomination should certainly grieve your spirit if you are a believer. But hey, it should grieve everyone's spirit to see how immoral our world has become. But to recognize your own sin, no matter how small, should make your heart bleed with sorrow deep into your very soul, especially, listen, especially since our Lord endured the wrath of His own Father for our sins. And mind you, it's all of them. For the least to the greatest of our sins, He endured the wrath of God for them. The least, least little sin, He endured the wrath for. And it should make your heart bleed, because He shed His precious blood for you, for your sins. It certainly should never make you miss a church service. To never forsake the assembling of yourselves with the saints. God has placed you with here, and be about exhorting one another, helping one another, encouraging one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching, says the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 10, 25, and the ill days of perilous times are upon us, and that day is approaching with lightning speed. What day is it? It's the day of judgment! It's that day that Christ is going to come. He's going to settle all the affairs. And we want to be in His number, nowhere else. So the fundamentally faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ should not be ignorant to the fact that these perilous times are up on us. Jesus gave us a full list of what will happen as those days approach in Matthew 24 and 25. Paul gives us an accounting several times in the Book of Romans, 2 Thessalonians and 2 Timothy, just to name a few. And of course, the apostle John gave us the whole of Revelation. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that we have several Old Testament books that give grand warning, and I hate to say grand, but it's grand that we get a heads up before it gets here, amen? But gives us terrifying warning, even of what is going to come. The times and the seasons are speaking loudly as to that day of the Lord, which cometh, according to the Word of God, as a thief in the night. And you believers here, and myself, and all believers that are listening by Facebook, if you are, we are not in darkness that that day should overtake us like a thief. We are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness that has the world in its grip. This is what I want to show you, one of the ways that we know that perilous times are coming fast upon us. And how I want to do that is talk about the one activity that is predominant to all peoples, and yet is so maimed and maligned, it's amazing. And that is seen in just one word. And that single word is worship. Everybody worships. Everybody. Cling down to those tribes way in the Amazon, away from everybody in the world in general. They worship. They worship something. Deepest heart of Africa, here in America, worship is a big word that permeates all of religion, all the occult, every cult, everybody worships something, someone. And so I thought about that and I began to think about where we are as far as religion is concerned in the world. I want you to consider with me three things this morning. First of all, I want you to consider the state of religion this hour. Secondly, I want you to consider the state of the local church this hour. And last but not least, most certainly, let's together consider the state of the culture this hour. First, let me begin with what I consider the state of religion this hour. If you have been paying attention at all, You have to realize that there is a new form of godliness that has become pervasive throughout the world of Christianity, Catholicism, and Judaism, just to name three religions. And I must tell you that it is not a new form of godliness, but actually an old form of one. Today, what we're finding is that people are practicing the godliness of Cain. The religion of Cain. You remember, he refused to worship the Lord as taught to him by his father, Adam. What God had taught Adam in the sacrifice of the animals in obedience to God and for worship of God, his brother Abel performed. But Cain refused. Cain was going to do it his way. And even after he did that, God gave him ample opportunity to correct his worship and bring right worship as he should. But you know the story. Cain got mad, rebelled against God, and rose up and killed his brother in a fit of rage, of anger, and jealousy toward God, toward his brother. The Antichrist system that began in the Garden of Eden had made its way out of Eden and had taken Cain hostage. And it is obvious by the state of religion this hour that the mystery of iniquity doth continue to work as much a modern-day religion has also lost, or in fact rejected holiness, true godliness, and righteousness as it is presented in the Word of God. They have reverted to the religion of Cain. David begins this stanza, verse 113, with these words. He says, I hate vain thoughts. And that's what it is. The religion of Cain is all vanity. Remember what Cain brought on his altar that he built? His altar was luxurious and loaded up with fruits and vegetables and flowers and things that he had grown. Whereas Abel did what he was told to do, and he reared up a pile of stones, and got a lamb without spot and blemish out of the flock, and sacrificed it, and poured out the blood before God, and God received that, because that's what God required. Without the sacrifice of blood, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. In obedience, here's what Abel did. The Cain know. And so his offering was vain. His sacrifice was vain. What David means by vain, and what we know the definition of vain is, is pretty taxing. Listen to the definitions of that four little word, that little four-letter word, if you would. The definitions are ambivalent, ineffective, hopeless, unsuccessful, unproductive, futile, useless, abortive, worthless, fruitless, pointless, disrespectful, and even blasphemic. Did you hear those? I hope you did. Don't go fall asleep yet. I know you all went past midnight partying like you're Baptists or something. Vain was a value of Cain's worship, and vain was Cain himself. Vain also has the definitions of one that is complacent, conceited, egotistical, pompous, prideful, proud, arrogant, self-centered, braggadocious, smug, and I could go on, but you certainly have got to get, certainly you've got the picture by now. And as these definitions define modern religion of this hour, the doctrines, yea, even the terms of holiness and godliness and righteousness are no longer heard in religion today. They're not studied anymore. They have been rejected for a worship that doesn't have any value. In fact, I'm not sure that most who grace pews in religion can even define these terms in the simplest way. Certainly you won't find the activity of holiness and godliness and righteousness being performed in those houses of worship or amongst those who claim to be worshipping, especially after they leave the building. And why should they worship or how can they worship is a better question. When, number one, sin no longer grieves modern-day religion or what it has and does to all of humanity. It doesn't grieve them what sin is doing to our land. Secondly, they can't worship because how can you bring right worship when its preachers, and priests, and rabbis will be, and are many times, nothing more than ladder climbers, child abusers, gay, and yes, lesbian, transgender, or effeminate, and not only do not condone any of these things, excuse me, they go along with them, but don't condemn these things, they condone these things. And thirdly, they cannot worship sin that they have fundamentally rejected the truth as it is given in the Word of God. You cannot worship what you've rejected. And because of their rejection of a truth, they have done what the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans chapter 1, verse 18. Turn there with me. We have read this over and over before, but it sure fits this State of the Union address for this particular New Year's Day. In verse 18 in Romans 1, Paul writes, that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all their ungodliness and unrighteousness, because they hold the truth in unrighteousness. Though they claim to be a church or a synagogue, or whatever. They reject the truths of the Word of God and condone sin on every level. Verse 19 says, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, or has been shown to them, because God has shown to them, And the invisible things of Him for the creation of the world are clearly seen by them, and they are understand by the things that are made, or understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that these are without an excuse. They have no excuse for doing what they are doing. Because they knew God, they know God, but they don't glorify Him as God. Neither are they thankful, I'm paraphrasing for you, but have become vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts was darkened, are darkened. They professed themselves to be wise, yet they became fools. They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things. So what does God think about all that, folks? Well, we know. Verse 24. Wherefore, God has also given them up to the uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, because they've changed the truth of God into a lie, and they've worshipped and served the creature, including mankind in that creature definition, more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. What a shame. What a terrifying shame. And lastly, they cannot bring right worship because they refuse to consider or even care about the consequences of their actions, of this generation's sex-driven madness. Instead, they promote it and indulge it. Our President signs laws to protect it. Our Supreme Court signs laws to protect it. And do you think God is happy with that? So for this reason, verse 26, God has allowed them to go on in their vile affections, both men and women, clerics alike, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Likewise, also the men leave the natural use of the woman, burning their lusts one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God has given them over to a reprobate mind. That's a mind that can't even think straight anymore. To do those things which are not convenient, things that they know that's going to cause their judgment to be hellfire and damnation. Their minds are so vexed, they're so reprobate that they're filled, verse 29, with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. They're full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, disrespectful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Oh my land! Godly worship is lost to them. Which brings us to our second heading of this sermon. And that is, consider the condition of the local church this hour. We've looked at religion as a whole where it is today. But what about the local church this hour? Now you would think that the grassroots local church would be in a better state, and some are. There are some true churches still left in America. Say amen, thank God. But as Paul states in Romans chapter 2, verse 1, He says, "...that thou art inexcusable, O man, whoever thou art that judges. For wherein thou judge another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judges doest the same things." They may say they don't like what they see in modern-day religion, but from what we see and understand, the very same things that's being done in the world is being done in local churches. Again, the vain thoughts of Psalm 119, verse 113, that David hates is sadly in practice in many of the local churches you will find today. Yes, there are some that strive to maintain right worship and humble and dedicated exaltation of our Lord. And that's the only worship the Lord is going to take. God will only receive worship that is done, performed in spirit and what? Truth. And you can identify these churches in the way they conduct their worship, and who their worship is directed to. You'll know. Christ will be the center and focus of all they say, all they sing, all they do. It won't be about me. It won't be about I, about number one. I could have wrote a song about that. Oh, somebody beat me to it. Again, consider that little word vain. I'm sorry to say that modern Christology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology is lost in the local church. I saw your face get really big then. Let me tell you what those little terms mean. Christology, that's a study of Christ. Not much is done these days. Soteriology, that's a study of salvation, a study of Gospel. Not much of that is done today. Ecclesiology, that's a study of the Church, the history of the Church, where it came from. Not much of that is done today. Not much is done or said or preached that just absolutely draws men to the cross, that shows men their sin, that show men how that their sin is going to send them to hell. Instead, there's flowery little sermons of psychiatry that is done every week. and the Gospel no longer is the church's singular message to be preached in the church and out of the church. The new godliness or the old form of godliness is again complacent, conceited, egotistical, unproductive, worthless, fruitless. I'm not going to do all those terms again. The modern-day local church today is really braggadocious about itself. But you think about it. You'll hear churches talking about, oh, their music program. They'll be talking about their big buildings and things. I've had people stop me on the street and say, Brother Darrell, you ought to hear the music at our church. Many of them never, never say to me, Man, you ought to have heard what our preacher preached last Sunday. He lacerated us. Souls were in the aisles crying out to God. I never hear that. Ironically, what we're seeing in the local church today is the Laodicean Church of Revelation 3. Turn there with me, if you would. Hold your hand to 119. We will be coming back. In verse 15, the vainness of modern-day Christianity as it applies to a local church, and their love for the Lord and the things of God, of His Word, His demands, and what they ought to be doing for the Lord is a passé message. It's old hat. It's a new day. We don't need all that fire and brimstone preaching, they say. And so as a result, they're neither cold nor hot, They're lukewarm, says Jesus. And the Lord said He would and will spew them out of His mouth." Oh my! Remember that vain are the words of a double-minded men and women. And sadly, that is what is filling the pulpits of America today and every Protestant denomination, including Baptists this hour. James 1.8 says that these leaders are unstable in all their ways. And like the Laodicean church, verse 17, they all say that they are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And that's pretty evident by what you see going on in their buildings and their programs and the like. And from the looks of where they are, Mega churches, massive fortunes, wrapped in expensive clothes and cars, and outlandish Las Vegas-style performances on their platforms on Sunday morning are now the rule instead of the exception. Screaming guitars, thundering drums, near-naked dancing on the platform. Wednesday night, I'm going to bring a video in for you to see that I found on YouTube of some of the Christmas programs from the churches even in our own denomination. I believe it will scare you. It may make you sick unless you become too jaded. Preachers in skinny jeans and t-shirts brandishing their muscles and tattoos and the latest cool haircut. Or women acting like men standing in the pulpit even drag queens and transgenders, you name it, leading supposed worship services. Their godliness is on par with Sodom and Gomorrah. Based on what some of these so-called churches are doing, Sodom and Gomorrah may fare better than they in the judgment. As a matter of fact, Matthew 10, 15, Matthew 11, 23, Matthew 11, 24, Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for them. Can you imagine that? The religious leaders! That's who He said this to. And you have got to know, you have to know that that applies this day. Hold your hand there. If you can hold your hand there in Psalm 119 and flip to Ezekiel with me. I'm going to have your hands cramping for sure before I get through here. Ezekiel 22. Ezekiel's in the Old Testament. Flip right to it. If you go right after Psalms, you'll go to, for example, Isaiah, and then you'll come to Ezekiel, Jeremiah, those bigger books there. But Ezekiel 22. And see if you can see this pattern that was amongst the Jews in that day in our local churches today. Starting in verse 25 of Ezekiel 22, we read here that God says, There is conspiracy of a prophet in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening its prey, or the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Verse 25. Look at verse 26. Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and the profane. Are we not seeing that today in churches? There's no difference between the holy and profane. They brought the world inside. Neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening to prey." Boy, that's a good example of our government today, hey? "...to shed blood, destroy souls, and to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed themselves with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken." Man, you see a lot of these guys on TV in their skinny jeans and stuff and say, I got a word from the Lord. Give you some harebrained thing they thought up. Can he be found in the Word of God? And God says, I haven't spoken. I didn't say a thing. If it's not in the Bible, we're to leave it alone. Amen? The Lord says in the Laodicean style church of this day that they don't even know that they are wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. They don't even know that they can't hide from the Lord, though they try. They try. They wrap it up in religious terminologies and things, and signs, and supposed gifts, and things, and, oh, it sounds religious, but it's not from God. They cannot hide the facts of their condition, their form of ungodliness, which has moved the world right into the pews according to 2 Timothy 3. You don't have to turn there, but here's what Paul says, and these folks are part and parcel of the perilous times that Paul said would come when men would be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, etc., etc., etc. And he culminates that five verses with this, "...having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, for such turn away." And so there, back in Revelation chapter 3, the Lord counsels these Laodicean Christians, if they are, in verse 18, "...to buy from him gold trodden to fire, that thou mayest be as rich as white raiment, that thou mayest be as clothed, and that the shame of thy neckness do not appear. And anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see how bad off you are, and return to me," says the Lord. If they were ever a true church, they better get to their faces and repent in dust and ashes. I want to tell you, behold, he cometh quickly, and his reward is with him. What we read here is why the whole of organized religion right down to the grassroots churches in small towns in this country will follow the Antichrist as the false prophet will lead them. Friends, this is the era of carnal Christianity. And as the world goes, so goes the church this hour. They will worship the beast as much as they heathen this world. Revelation 13, 8. Revelation 17, 8. They have already got a jump on antichrist worship by rejecting the Word of God with amazing audacity. everything from women pastors to drag queens leading services is already being tolerated and this is Antichrist. Critical Race Theory, Black Lives Matter, Theology, Wokeness, LBGTQ, Affirming Churches, etc., etc. is no longer the exception. Rather it's the norm. I'll probably get in trouble for preaching this sermon. But God help us this hour. Somebody has to sound the siren and warn these poor, deluded people before it's too late. Probably this Baptist church, you've been warned this morning. You listening by Facebook, you've been warned. Then lastly, let's consider the state of the culture this hour. Of course, I've given you quite a bit of the state there because it's infiltrated the church. So we really don't need to. But for the sake of you that don't pay much attention to the news, and God bless your heart, sometimes I like to not pay attention to it. But for your sakes and my sakes, I do. But you've got to be living in a cave where you're absolutely brain-dead not to see where this culture is now. The true scope of the term, the doctrine of total depravity is on full display and in living color. We don't have to define it. We only have to point to the culture and the culture by its deeds defines depravity. The mentality or lack of mentality or mental acuity or as best described as total depravity, has no gender bias. It affects them all. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 6, the proof that women are affected as much as men. Paul says in verse 6, "...for of this sort are they which creep into houses, and leave captive silly women slain with sins, let away divers lusts." And notice there's a glaring fact in verse 7, that they are ever learning and ever able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just keeping a record of 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 6 and 7. Now mind you, what is so glaring about this is that these men and women are ever learning. There's never been in the history of the world such an explosion of information. such available technology that you're able to get online on YouTube, for example, and watch live events from the other side of the world. Elon Musk has put 25 or so satellites in orbit that's providing what is called Starlink now. And anybody, anywhere, doesn't matter where they are, can get internet. No joke! You can be in the deepest jungle in the world, and if you have a computer and it's got a battery on it, for example, and no electricity even, and you've got some way of firing up that little satellite receiver, you can get internet. They fired up, I think, the last one the other day. Walker watched it in the morning. And yet the world as a whole is unable to come to the knowledge of the truth. on any subject, on any matter, any identity or otherwise. No matter the historic data, no matter the science, no matter the lightning speed of the technology that is available at their fingertips, this culture sees right as wrong, and wrong as right, and can't even tell what gender they are in most cases. Isn't that something? God help us! He was someone that was applying for the job of the Supreme Court, couldn't give a definition of what a woman is. And you can see this in the new handicap they developed that's called gender dysphoria this hour. This is a new term supposedly given to identify these poor, demented people that think God made a mistake and made them the wrong gender. The term is actually given to endorse this abomination and make the perpetrators of this psychotic behavior feel good about themselves. If you don't know what gender dysphoria means, it is the condition of feeling one's emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to their biological sex. I hope this doesn't gain a whole lot of ground. Because your pastor may end up identifying as a jar of Miracle Whip. Oh, I don't mean to be so flimsy about that. But here's the easier definition. All this is is men wanting to be women, and women who want to be men. But I'm going to tell you right now, if you challenge them about this, The government, our government, the Biden administration will call you racist, homophobe, white supremacist, urban terrorist. Brother Darrell, you're going too far. That can't be true. Check the news. And to protect these that champion or identify as the opposite of their true gender, college-educated men and women can't that are simply refusing to give a simple, truthful definition of what a woman or man is. Even saying men now can get pregnant. Lord, I hope it don't happen to us. Oh, what am I going to do? I'm 70 years old. But it's all done in order to protect these abominations. That's all it is. Our Supreme Court has endorsed it. Our president signed executive orders endorsing it, giving it a race like you would blacks, whites, Asians, Indians, putting it on par. I guess I'm labeled a racist. I may be fined or even jailed. for offending these. Real quickly, Pew Research, an article that was reprinted in Breakpoint magazine, one of the Christian magazines that I sometimes frequent, had this little blurb in there. And what Pew Research had found is that the early days of the sexual revolution reframed the morality of sexual behavior But today it's gone further, undermining the already fragile identity in the rising generation, fraying it in the various directions of the ever-growing acronym of sexual identities. Anywhere from one in five to nearly forty percent of young people today identify as LGBTQ. Forty percent! In that same article, the writer reported that it had been heard recently that one junior high school class in the Northeast was asked recently how many of them identify with the LGBTQ. I get them wrong. And it was said that everyone in that class raised their hand and said, we all do. We identify. A junior high The culture in one accord, even now, worships Antichrist. We'll worship the Antichrist. And you better be careful if you speak up and out about this Antichrist system that's even now being worshipped. I told you at the beginning of this sermon, it's all about worship. David says, I hate vain thoughts. Well, why, David? Well, going back to Psalm 119, he tells us, verse 115, it leads to evildoers. Vanity always leads to evildoers. It's obvious that David had seen much of this debauchery in his day, but God also may have given him a glimpse into the future, and he is allowed to see the explosion of filth in the world, and the consequences of it. David was a prophet, you know. David maybe had also seen how vicious God will be in His wrath on all evildoers. I bet that wasn't a pretty picture. And we need to warn everybody of the wrath to come, no matter what it may cost us. We need to tell everybody, repent! Repent! God is not going to let you get away with this! Look at Psalm 119 again as we near our close. Verses 118 and 119. David writes, Thou hast trodden down all them that err from Thy statutes. That's what God does. For their deceit is falsehood. God put us to weigh all the wicked of the earth like dross. Notice, if you will, that the terror of the Lord causes David to say, as a result of what the Lord had evidently shown him, verse 120, My flesh trembleth for fear of thee. He's seen what God can do, and David's trembling. He's trembling because he knows that God, not only is a God of love, but God is a God of wrath. You can't thumb your nose in His face and get away with it. He says, I'm afraid of thy judgments. I know what you're going to do now. I remind you that this same psalmist penned the following terrifying words in three of his other psalms. Psalm 5, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. That means lies. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. How about Psalm 7, verse 11? God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. He also hath prepared for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. And then in Psalm 11, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked in him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall reign snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup, of their end. And David wrote those words. He had seen it. By the Lord, by the Holy Spirit in him. And oh, it made him tremble. Psalm 119, 120. Therefore, David appeals to the Lord. Look back at Psalm 119, verse 113. He tells the Lord, I love your law. I love your law. Verse 114, thou art my hiding place and my shield. I have nowhere else to go. I hope in thy word. Nothing else, just in thy word. He says, I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to thy word that I may live, says David, and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Verse 117, "...hold thou me up, and I shall be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually." He is fully trusting in the Lord. David would not straddle the fence. In closing, I've looked at the condition of modern-day religion with you. I've looked at the local church with you. And we've looked now at the local culture. But what about your condition, this hour? Forget all that. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless by that crimson flow? Yea, are they white as snow this morning? Oh, how should you not consider the fact that Jesus is coming and He's coming for a people that has their garments dipped in His blood. You ought to be crying out every day, draw me nearer, nearer, precious Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Perilous times are here, the evidence is overwhelming. Repent! Thank my people! These evil days will have religion, the local church, and the culture coming after us. Because of what we believe, what we stand for. Are you ready? Are you ready? You know, in Psalm 22, verse 13, David reminds us how that Jesus said, "...they gaped on him with their mouths like a ravening, roaring lion." I got news for you. That's what they're going to do today to us. I promise. These are my last words. Proverbs 28. Read it for yourself with me. Proverbs 28. Look at verse 13. This is the business you ought to be about. Verse 13 tells us, He that cometh to sin shall not prosper. But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them," that is his sins, her sins, "...shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth always," and that feareth means fears God. "...but he that hardeth his heart shall fall into mischief." Again, look at who controls America today. Look what's going on in religion. And look at verse 15. As a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. So for 2023, we must do what the Apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Now you're going to look at me real funny because this is what I'm going to say. Happy New Year! Oh man, I tell you, I agonized over this sermon They would tell you all the hours I spent this week on this sermon. But this is where we are. This is where we are. Our only hiding place for what's coming at us is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Come my people, hide thyself. for a little while until the indignation be passed. Father, thank you for your word today. Bless us, Lord. Help us. Help us. Lead us and guide us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.