to the book of Isaiah. So if you open your Bible in the middle, it's usually the book of Psalm. And right past Psalm is Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and then Isaiah. And so it's one of the largest of the Old Testament prophets. And I want to announce I forgot to say that there was a set of keys found yesterday out in the front of the church. It looks like a Ford key and what looks to be a GMC replacement key. I don't know. The van looks like this, our van. I walked out there to try it. I thought maybe it was one of our people's. But if you've lost it, it has a remote button on lock and lock. It looks like an aftermarket product. If you're missing that, please see me, and we'll try to get it back to whomever. Isaiah 50, please, Isaiah 50, and we're looking down. If you'll go to verse 21, and we're gonna preach the beginning of this chapter, kind of up to this verse, but it says in verse 21, and thy ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. Again, let's read that again. And thine ears shall hear a word behind these saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. Let's pray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to speak. I pray that you bless, Lord, those that are here, those that are listening on Zoom. Pray for our church, that we'd get healthy again and everybody get back here. So bless this now. As we look into your word, give me the wisdom to say things that you want me to say exactly right. In your name I pray, amen. And then this year's theme, as we have posted up here, as we always try to do, is the old time way. It's our biblical theme. And so it's a theme that we're saying this is the spiritual direction of the church. This is the direction that we want to emphasize. And we preached at the Vision Sunday on, I think, the January 12th, Sunday morning and Sunday evening on the topic of the way, God's old way, like we sang at the beginning of this service, the old-fashioned way. Now, we're not talking about just being old-fashioned for the sake of being old-fashioned, like we all have to start dressing like we're Amish or something. There's no virtue in that. That's not really the issue. What we're talking about is, for instance, as this memory verse has, Jeremiah 6, to says, look out the old paths and the old ways, and that's where we should walk, in God's path. On the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the word way, the word path, the word for, are synonymous, so that we're talking about in this passage, where the prophet Isaiah is preaching, he's preaching part of the prophet's ministry in the Old Testament, was to proclaim the Bible, to proclaim God's word, they were preachers. And part of it was to predict the future, to talk about what the revelation from God. So they were the Old Testament, the Old Testament preachers. And Isaiah is one of those, we call them these in the major prophets. Isaiah, he's an interesting figure in history in the Old Testament. His name means Jehovah saves. It is actually synonymous with the Old Testament name Joshua or Hosea. In the New Testament, it is synonymous with the word Jesus. It means Jehovah saves. He is thought at the time to be related to the royal family there of David in the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdoms. he prophesies for a long time. At the end of his reign, prophecy, sorry, he is under the reign of Hezekiah and near the end of his prophetic ministry. And one commentator that I read really believes that Hezekiah the king was married to Isaiah's daughter. So he has a unique relationship with Hezekiah and the history there of the attack of the Assyrians upon Jerusalem after they had destroyed the northern tribes. Here they come after the southern tribes and Jerusalem's walls are surrounded and God miraculously delivers. That was in the time of Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah, though, has always been a figure where Hebrews 11.37 talks about the men that were violently killed for their preaching in the Old Testament. And he uses the words there, sawn asunder. And Jewish history, Jewish tradition tells us that's a reference of Isaiah. that at the end of his ministry, which would have been under the evil king of Manasseh, who was the son of Hezekiah, can you put the pieces together? That if he indeed is the father-in-law of Hezekiah, Manasseh could have been guilty of putting to death in this cruel way his own grandfather, the preacher. This is the state of things in the country of Israel at the time that he is prophesying. They put him inside of a tree and they literally took a big saw and sawed it into pieces. And that was the end of this prophet is a gruesome death. But it is exactly what. happened to this man. Very interesting history. The book itself can kind of be divided into two sections, but this is only generally speaking. The first 39 chapters are kind of filled with predominantly warnings to the nation of Israel, while the last part of the chapters talk about the future restoration and revival, even going into the future millennial reign of Christ by the end of the 66th chapter. It is only a generalization because the first 39 chapters do contain prophecy. We are reading in prophecy right here. This is talking about a future event. And then in the latter part there are some warnings. So that's just a generalization. But the nation itself is on a downward spiral toward complete apostasy and judgment. And Isaiah's prophecies were aimed at reproving them and calling them to repentance. And that's where we're at in this chapter without a doubt. And it reminds us really of America and the land that we're living in and the day we're living in today. Isaiah's day had a veneer you'd say of external religion but it was only skin deep. Its leaders might say, God bless Israel, like ours say, God bless America, but they're not willing to come and find out what God wants them to do. It's only skin deep. Large percentage of the people would have said they had faith in God, yet they brazenly break God's holy law And the Jesus today of the United States that people worship is largely the imagination of their own thinking. And it's the imagination of a Jesus that is cuddly and loving and everything I want him to be, but no demands and no commitment expected from me. And that's not a biblical Christ. Partway through his prophecy, the northern tribes are all overtaken by Assyria. The two kingdoms had been split after Solomon's day, Solomon the son of David. And after Solomon, Rehoboam and Jeroboam split the kingdom, the southern kingdoms last a good deal longer, but in 722 BC, the northern kingdoms are taken and the southern kingdom lasts all the way till 586. The Assyrians, like from Nineveh, the Assyrians take over the northern kingdoms. And later Babylon marches with Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the kingdom of what is called Judah. The difference would be the northern called sometimes Ephraim, most of the time it's called Israel. The southern kingdom is called Judah. The passage for this morning is from chapter 30, is part of a prophetic passage that begins here and goes from chapter 31 and 32. But notice, if you will, in verse number one of this chapter, something interesting. He says, woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. It's an interesting thought that these people seem to be described as sinning, as it were, in layers. Like doing one thing wrong isn't enough, but you have to put upon it another sin and another sin. It's like somebody who's unfaithful to their spouse, and then you've added that sin against your spouse, but it's also a sin against God. You've also broken the trust, and you've also lied about it, so you're a liar, you're an adulterer, on and on and on. It seems like brazenly the people of God and American people have no problem like Israel with doing whatever they feel like doing and then claiming that they believe in God. It's a sad day where we're reading and it's a sad day that reminds us of our day. They are rebuked here also for trying to find a human solution to their problem. So they're constantly looking not to God for the answer to the running together of the Assyrians where they're coming to destroy, they're running away from God and they're going down to Egypt and putting their trust in Egypt. But Egypt is later defeated, miserably defeated. Look at verse number three here. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh in Egypt be your shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. And that's kind of what America is doing. If I could look out across America and say, one of the problems of wokeism is that they're trying to find answers to their life's thinking in their lust of their flesh without asking, what does God think about these issues? And you're going to find out, we get into our text, that God says, hey, that's all wrong, so I'm going to tell you, you're going to hear, this is the way, walk ye in it. This is the way, walk ye in it. Notice in this verse one that the Spirit of God is present in the Old Testament. working on the hearts of people, so that they had the same conviction in their heart when they heard the prophecy, the word of God, but they denied the prophecy, turning away from it and put sin upon sin. Notice in verse seven, what God says that their strength should be. For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore have I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still. God says, I'm going to take care of you if you learn to wait on me. In America, listen, the answer is that we need a repentance to come back to God, and that's written in verse number eight. It speaks of this, and we'll get to it in a few minutes, but God's answer in your life is not to trust in yourself, but to trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways, remember the way, the path, in all of your journey, he says acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. In other words, there is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the ends of thereof are the ways of death. But there is a way that God is expecting for us to go. But it is not a woke way, it is God's way. It is not a way that pleases you and you can make up all the rules. It is a way of God's word. You see in verse one, their sin was that they're going to find counsel, but not of me. And God is the creator, he's the sovereign, he is the one that you'll stand before in judgment. It's his word that we bow to and ought to give reverence to and say, if this is what God's word says, then I should obey it. But people don't want that, they want a God that conforms to their ideas. They wanna bend God to fit my concepts of what I think God, I've heard this said many times, and when I'm out and people say, well, I don't believe God would be that way. You know, they're talking about a God who won't punish sin. Well, I don't think God would be that way. It doesn't really matter what I think God is. It doesn't, you know, it doesn't matter what you think I am. It doesn't change me. I mean, God is not the formation of your ideas and your imagination. God is God, independent of everything, and he declares himself who he is to an extent, not everything about God, You say, why? Because he's infinite. You couldn't fit infinite into 30,000 verses. It's God. But he is everything this book says he is, and so much more. Not who we think he should be. Their problems are laid out in the verses from verses seven through verse 17, and then we're brought back to the graciousness of God in verse 18 through to verse number 21, And really the rest is prophetic about the return of Christ, things that are yet unfulfilled. In the future day when Israel will one day again recognize God as their savior, the tribulation time, they will be given teachers who will guide them in their paths of truth and in righteousness. And this is the context of the wording of our verse. They're gonna come and they're gonna say to them, this is the way walkie in it. So what are the problems that they had? Number one, they were despising the Lord. Despising. Look at verse number eight. Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. Okay, so he's saying write it in a book that this is a rebellious people, lying children. that will not, not cannot, will not hear the law of the Lord. Now they had a look of religion. They were still sacrificing in the temple. They had all of the garments that were described in the book of Exodus. If you're reading through the Bible in a year, you're getting into that place of end of Exodus and Leviticus right now probably. They had all of the trappings that went into the religion. They looked religious, but the Lord says they are a rebellious people who will not hear the word of the Lord. What does it mean? Well, there's a lot of religion out there that won't lead you to Jesus. There's a lot of religion that is there really for the trappings of men to be seen of men, but is not following the Bible. And the Christian is admonished. You are admonished. If you're here and you don't know Christ as your Savior, there is only one way to heaven, and it's not the Baptist way, it's the Bible way. But when you don't want to hear, you are rebellious and will not listen. God says that's a rebellious people, and that's what Israel was like. They despised the word of the Lord. Can I say this, I want you to understand, I'm not trying to be sarcastic or mean, but if you say you love the Lord, you do not really love the Lord, none of us do, if we will not adhere to his commands. Bible says if you love me, keep my sayings. His commandments are, as he describes in 1 John 5, in verse three, he says, hey, my commandments are not grievous. The Lord is not commanding you to do something. In fact, in Israel's day, one of the problems that they had is that they would take their children and they would sacrifice them to a false god, which named the name of Molech. And Molech was shaped as like a furnace, a brass furnace with his arms hanging out like this. And then they would beat the drums in a beat, in a loud beat. It sounded like a rock concert. I hate rock and roll music. It's from the devil. But they'd beat that to hide the screams because they would take a live baby and they would put the baby right into the brazen arms of this monstrous God they worshiped. Now that's a God whose commands are grievous. And the world is no different today. They want you to put the hands of your children out there into the ideology of this world, send them up to the colleges where they're teaching you that a man could become a woman, or that men could have babies, and it is on and on, this foolish, unbiblical things. And they say, give us your children. And all the while people are saying, well, I don't wanna be like that pastor, he's strict. I am not strict, God's commands are not grievous. He does not ask you to give your children off to a wicked ideology. He gives you the truth and he guides you with his own hand. He protects you and guides you, loves you, and will fulfill all of his promises because he loves you. But if you will not hear God's word, then you're outside of the protection of God. and the demands of the world are very, very grievous. Let them become addicted and see what kind of addiction does to their bodies. Let them get into the sin of this world and fornication and see what the problems that results and the fact that they will never understand how to have a godly home again. Because the commandments of this ideology of the world is very grievous. But God's commandments are there to help us, to protect us. They despised it. So many want the affirmation in life that you're okay. You want a pastor to get up and say, hey, pal, I think you're doing just great, I approve. Like, it would be fine, I think the church would be full if I would take on an attitude that I was just a rubber stamp. What do you think you should do when you're at home? Oh, it's okay, I think I'll put a rubber stamp. I think God is happy with that lifestyle. because people want reaffirmation that they're just fine. They refuse the rebuke that God gives when your life is not right. I will not change. I will not do what God says. They despise the Lord. Secondly, they have a dereliction of the Lord. They just leave. Verse number 10, look at verse 10. Which say to the seers, that's a prophet, The seers are those that see the future. There's another name for prophet. He said, see not. And to the prophet, prophesy not unto us right things. So the prophet would emphasize his preaching. Don't tell me what is very mean. This sounds like today, doesn't it? Speak unto us smooth things. Prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way. We don't like the way of God. It's too tight. It's too commitment-oriented. It's too demanding. Turn out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Well, that's our world. They're totally given up on God. In the best nation ever founded in all of history, in the greatest of our founding, we have We have it perfectly illustrated here. Israel founded, I would say, the second of all nations to be founded like ours is, grounded in a God who loved them and redeemed them. But wait a minute. Did anybody notice this in verse number 10, where he says, prophesy not unto us? Wait a minute. I don't really understand where they thought that the people should dictate what the preacher is preaching. That's kind of backwards, isn't it? Shouldn't God be telling the prophet what to speak on? Right? And here we have the people. Yeah, I'm sorry, brother. At this time, I'd be glad to talk to you afterwards, but I didn't understand you. I'll be glad to talk with you. I can't hear too well over there. So we'll talk about it. I just don't hear you. But the people are saying demands on what the preacher is going to preach. And I'm saying this, that I find that to be the truth today. Pastor, don't preach to us what the Bible says. Wait a minute. I wasn't supposed to take a consensus on truth. Like I'm supposed to pass out a piece of paper? What do you think about drinking alcohol? No, the Bible's against it. That pastor's trying to tell us what to do. No, you just don't want to listen to God. I'm not being bold just to be bold. I'm telling you what God says. And we are just like them today where we say, I don't like what that preacher says. Now let me tell you this, it wouldn't matter where I drew a line on all of the issues that the church has to follow, but I'm not gonna pass out a paper and say, what do you think? Because everything in God's word in the New Testament is spelled out, and it's supposed to be the Bible telling us what to believe, not me, not you. And I have an obligation to not worry about pleasing the people in the pew, I'm not here to please you, I'm here to please God. And by doing so, your spiritual needs will be met. If we preach the truth of God's word, and I can't do it with an apologetic spirit, like, oh, I'm so sorry to tell you this, that sin is sin. Like I should have a turnaround collar and wear a dress. Make everybody feel good. Now, I'm not trying to do the opposite. It's not my attempt. I'm gonna get down here today, if you could just follow me, all right? I'm not trying to attempt to make you feel bad, okay? I'm not trying to be sarcastic or make this like an adversarial thing between the pastor and the pew. But I'm trying to say we are mirroring what Israel did. So follow me for a minute. Let me try to tell you an illustration. In a spectrum, you know, you have this long spectrum. We have our founding fathers of our country way over here. Don't you agree? I mean, they are ultra conservative. They were following what we would call the free market system. Now, the problem is the requirement of that to be sustained is a holy people. There has to be a relative obedience to God to sustain what our founding fathers had given us. But we have gone the whole spectrum, and as you're watching things unfold, are you not seeing the same things? We were very close to that edge, weren't we? more than I thought we were. I'm finding out, we were so close to the edge of falling out into a place where our country was about to be dissolved, where it could not ever be, so we were right near the precipice where it's just about over. If you agree with me, say amen. Say pastor, now you're preaching politics. Now follow what I'm saying. I believe we need God's revival to fix this. But what happened in November and what's happening in the last few weeks, how far back is the arm going to come back? And I think it'll come back a few degrees. Unless we have a real widespread revival and obedience to God's word, we're not going to come back all the way. We're gonna come back in terms of small degrees and small benefits that come because people quit thinking in this kind of ridiculous anti-biblical way, and we start applying common sense and reality of God's word and his truth to the average life, but we're only gonna come a little ways. But I'm gonna tell you something, this wokeism that we're fighting in politics and in our culture, and I'm not just preaching politics, they're into my realm. Culture is everything to do with the Bible. Morality is what they're saying. They've told the pastor, you're not allowed to preach on any of these things, and that's bogus, that's wrong. They're not allowed to tell the world and the Bible what to say. They're trying to destroy your faith. But the fact of this wokeness is not a battle that just came about because of our country and our culture, but rather it has been in Christianity at least very visibly in America since the second half of the 1800s, long before we had anything else. And we had a real faith in this country, people who believed I mean, there were some people that weren't right, there were some criminals, there always will be in a fallen world, but we had people that were going to school, and the schools were built not to build a great nation, but to build a people who could understand the Bible. That was the purpose that they started the public school system for. And now you can't even carry a Bible in the public school. Now it's against God, against the country to believe in God. They have science now. Now listen to what I'm trying to say if you'll follow me. The battle started way back here, where they gave up the text, and gave up into modernism and liberalism, and when this happened, we have lost a battle. So that today, the mainline denominations that used to preach some of the truth of salvation, they're not like the United States, real close to dying. They're dead, and they're dragging the culture with them. They're getting up like what we saw in St. John's Cathedral, demanding of a nation that everybody conform to their wickedness of anti-Godism, and then they claim to believe in God. They have an externalism of faith, they say they believe in God, but they promote sodomy, this wokeism, that's what I'm talking about, which is so against God that you can hardly get any more opposition to God than that. They hate God and what he stands. They will not walk in this old time way. Now get this. We would like to come back. How far do you want to come back? How far should you come back? We should be happy with a little bit of steerage into the right direction. Like, okay, we're only sinful this far. For the individual looking at what God's requirements are, how far do you wanna go back? Now if I came, I almost tried to find one of those like triangle George Washington hats today. I'd have had to, I mean, I know David, you have one. Just to look, and maybe a white wig. So that would make me a better capitalist, wouldn't it? If I wore that? Of course not. Like when we're talking about going back, we're not talking about returning to this absurdity where it's gonna make all the difference if we would all dress like 1700s. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a belief. We're talking about a country that has given up on God and we're reaping the results. And a Christianity that has so far been content to follow the culture from a distance behind that I have been preaching against for 30 years. Saying things like 30 years ago, I preached that if you allow these people to break down the word of God, soon we're gonna have homosexuals demanding to preach in pulpits. Not just they are, but they are in the Baptist circles. The Southern Baptist Convention has two churches now with men that are married to husbands. God help us. We pulled out of the convention, if you must know the history, back in the 1920s. The Baptist people that we are called Independent Baptists, one of the biggest and first breakouts of us that were independent came before there was the World War II and the cross-dressing of the women into men's clothing, and before there was the effects of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and before there was the Scopes Trial. There was a bunch of Baptist preachers that could see far enough ahead that said, the direction is not the old way. The direction that they're going is the wrong way, and they broke free from these conventions. Long before all of this other stuff came out. So where do you want me to go back to? Pastor, I'd be comfortable if you just obeyed what I think it should be. And that's really at the heart of what this is. Each person wants to say, I want a faith that makes me comfortable. I want a list of things that God wants in order to please God. I'm not talking about salvation. Salvation is completely free. But I want a list of things that make me happy. And then if the pastors get up and preach about it, they end up receiving the arrows and the condemnation of the people. If we cross a line that's not on your list. And it wouldn't matter where I drew the line. It literally wouldn't matter if 99% of what I preach made you happy. Like you were convinced that it's true from God's word. Then 1% is gonna come up and you're gonna say, I'm so mad at that guy. Why are you mad at me? I'm not preaching my way, it's his way. And how far do you want a Christianity to go back? Are you happy with the fact that we are just going to, in our country, come back a few degrees? Hey, I'd like it to go back to the days of Ronald Reagan's kind of conservatism. Amen? I was 10 years old in that decade when he was president. I'm gonna tell you something. It was a better day to live in than today. But that isn't the way the founders made it. It was still bad then. You see, the Holocaust against the unborn started a lot earlier than that. And we were standing at abortion clinics protesting. And abortion hadn't been approved for more than 10 years already, 1973. The right, they say, to have an abortion, the right to kill somebody. We look at Rome and we think, oh, those Colosseums of gladiators, they were pigs, they were slaughterers, they loved blood. And what are we doing to the unborn? And we're happy, we're content that we just get a few degrees in the right direction. Reverse weight is overturned, amen. But it doesn't seem to make a difference. Now, I'm just, on a side note, we need a spiritual revival to change the country. Good politics is not the answer, it's a help. But we need a countrywide revival. But we are guilty of this, telling God, I don't want to change whatever it is your pet thing is. Like one person said, well, I just drink casually. Drink alcohol. Well, what does the Bible say? Have you ever asked God what does the Bible say about drinking? Oh, but pastor, you're getting into that area where you're not supposed to be in. No, I actually think if it's in the Bible, I'm supposed to preach it. You're putting demands on it. I mean, the Bible says Jesus turned water into a wine. Well, if you're gonna be consistent, let's not be ignorant. Let's be honest that wine referred to anything from a grape, and fermented wine and unfermented wine are two different things, and the Bible condemned anything that was red and moveth itself aright in its cup, and he said that good wine is new wine that's not fermented. And then the desire because people want to drink, they fit the definition to their life. They bend the truth to do what they want instead of bending our lives to fit what he says. So just leave it, just forget it, I'm gonna get out of here. Tell me smooth things, preacher. Come on, let's go to church where we just talk about the positive side of things, and listen to me, listen to me. If your children, little, as they were little, are out playing, not on the road where you live, but on a highway, and traffic is coming, and there's a problem, their life is in danger, would you care about being only positive? When you instructed them, I think it's best if you choose to be on the other side of the street or on this side, but not the middle. Because that's, oh wait, can't be negative. I was about to be negative. How do you put that positively? No, you're gonna scream at them. You're gonna risk your life. I have often up here, I love you guys, but I have risked my friendship with you to tell you the truth. Why? Because your life is in danger. Your life is in danger. You follow the world, your life is in danger. You follow God, then the blessings you just won't even be able to comprehend. It is a positive word once you get past the negative because God blesses those that love him and he takes care of them. You just got to keep reading the book of Isaiah because there's a historical interlude that refers to the fact that God delivered them from Assyria when they turned to God. Miraculously. Verses following here from about verse number 12 through 17 talks about the destruction. And really, I only want to generalize for time's sake, but look at verse number 12, if you will. Wherefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because ye have despised this word, and trust in oppression and perversion, and stay thereon, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out of a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel. So they had these walls around Jerusalem, and the enemy had besieged those walls, and he's saying, you know what's going to happen? It's going to break through there, because you have despised the Word. And I'm telling you that a lot of what we face, the difficulties of life, the things that I counsel on, are the breaking from not following the Word of God before. Why would you want to add to that by not coming all the way to where God wants you to be? To go back to His old way and walk in it. So let's go lastly at the demand, the demand of the Lord. What does He demand of us in verse 18? And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. So God is so gracious, you know what? All of us. So I have felt in my life that the Lord should have done away with me a long time ago. And yet he's been so merciful to me. But he's been merciful to all of us. He's waiting for us. I mean, think about that. The almighty God of heaven, the sovereign of the universe, stops in his judgment, literally, to just wait for you to get right with the Lord. What should he do? Right? I mean, Nick, shouldn't he just punish sin, like right now? I mean, I would think so, he'd be right if he did. Oh, Don's off into some wrong thing, bow! You know? It wouldn't even be an effort for him. And if he did that, outside of his promises, based upon my life, I would say, I deserve it. But according to the word of God, God is waiting for you. Because he's gracious. He's waiting for you to come to His terms about salvation so that you can be eternally saved. And Christian, those that are saved, He's waiting for you to come to His terms of what it means to walk with God. Not my terms, not ours. Not like, well, I like this kind of lifestyle, so therefore God must be pleased with it. Well, why don't you ask God what He thinks about it? God demands this. He says, I wait. In verse number 18, let's keep reading. And therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment. Now look at what he says. Blessed are they that wait for him. So in this case, in this context, instead of solving your problem by running to Egypt, he said, just wait on my answers. So he said, I'm waiting for you to repent, and blessed are the people who will wait on my answers to the problems. Not despising the word, but wanting the word. I'm just about finished, we'll get here. Verse number 20, look at verse 20. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way. walkie in it when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. There's a way that God wants to give you the truth from his word and the compromisers will be ashamed. The rebellious will be notified. The teachers will be seen. Now this is talking about a future day of restoration, I believe. It goes into a place where this part is talking about way down yonder, God is going to restore the nation of Israel in a way that they are, today they're very rebellious. I mean, Tel Aviv is the number one capital of sodomy. The most sodomistic city in the entire world is in Israel. They're evil today, but there's coming a day when they will turn to Christ. And what's left of them, what's left of them in the book of Revelation. But I'm applying this as a principle to us. Christian, do you really wanna be right with God? So we talk about being in a way, God says, there's a way I want you to walk. Get into my way and walk therein. Come into God's path. Say, I'm gonna, whatever needs to be changed in my life, God, I'm gonna change it. whatever I need to give up and whatever I need to take on, so that these words about Christianity that we think are evil, like the word commitment, the word obligation, the word that is a commandment, we say, oh, those things, boy, I don't want a faith that's restrictive. I'm not talking about this. I'm just talking about pleasing God. But we can't pretend to please God because we make up the rules. We go back to the place where God is God and he gets to decide what the way is. And they says, when you find that way, he said, walk in that way. That's the path. Don't despise the word of God and certainly don't despise the preacher for trying to be faithful to the word of God. I've never ever come up here and said, hey, you have to agree with me in 100%. If you'd listened to Sunday school today, you would have heard me again explaining, please, I beg of you, look at the truths of God's word and study it out for yourself to make sure what I'm saying is accurate from the word of God. But then when you find it from the word of God, that's what I'm talking about. Let God determine what we do and don't do. not man. And we're pretending, if we think we're pleasing the Lord, doing our own thing. God hates sin. And He's a holy God. If you're here today and you don't know Christ as your Savior, when you die you'll end up paying for your sins for an eternity, but Jesus came and died in your place. And you can have the wonderful, free grace of God to wash away that guilty sin. It's the only way for it to be washed away. is through Jesus Christ. Now, Christian, this is a message mostly to the Christians of our church, those that have already been saved. The old-fashioned way, it's not just talk. It is a commitment to God's word to let God determine what Christianity is. And he says, that's the way you should walk. Would you pray with me now? We're going to close the service. Heavenly Father, I pray that you'd please bless what we're trying to do here for you. I pray that, God, you'd touch hearts in this invitation. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.