Let me tell you something, the truth is hate to those who hate the truth.
And you know what?
This book now, the Bible, is being called hate speech now.
Just saying what the Bible says, you're hateful and you're this and you're that,
and they'll put all these labels on you.
But let me tell you who ought to be scared.
The pastor who's holding back and refusing to preach the word of God
because it's not popular today.
He ought to be scared of what the Lord is going to do to him.
You know what? None of these things move me.
And you know what? I'd be afraid not to preach the way that I do.
Because it's these bunch of compromisers that ought to be afraid
of what the Lord is going to do to punish them for standing up
and saying I'm going to preach to you the whole counsel of God
and then holding back part of it.
It's fraud.
God wants us to preach the whole word of God.
It's the compromisers that ought to be afraid.
You know what? If we offend God, the Bible says in Luke 12,
you don't have to turn there, but the Bible says in Luke 12 verse 4,
And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body,
and after that have no more they can do.
But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear, fear him which after he hath killed
hath power to cast into hell.
Yea, I say unto you, fear him.
I mean what can man really do unto us if you think about it?
Now go to 2 Timothy chapter 4.
What can man really do unto us if you think about it?
I mean they can kill the body, but you know what Paul said?
To live is Christ and to die is gain.
But honestly, you know what I've noticed in the Bible?
And I want you to really get this point because this is kind of the point of the whole sermon.
The whole sermon tonight is about the fact that Zedekiah was told by the Lord,
Do this. Real clear. Do this and you'll be fine.
Disobey it, you're going to die and people around you are going to die and everything like that.
And he disobeyed it because he was afraid and then all the bad things came upon him.
Okay, that's what the sermon is about.
Listen to me.
I'm not disputing the fact that sometimes in the Bible people were killed for their beliefs.
Like Stephen comes to mind, right?
Stephen is stoned to death and so on.
And there are a lot of other people in the Bible who are righteous people who died for their beliefs, okay?
And the Bible does say in Revelation, you know,
the devil shall cast some of you into prison and you shall be tried.
But let me tell you something.
As I read the Bible from cover to cover and you look at godly people,
most of the time God actually preserved them.
It's not like they're all just killed, they're all just slaughtered.
Look how many people in the Bible didn't get killed, didn't get slaughtered.
And Jeremiah is a perfect example because in the end Jeremiah ended up being completely safe.
When the Chaldeans came in and are killing everybody and raping a pillage, he's fine.
They unchain him and give him money and say, you're free to go buddy.