Alright, we're here in Hosea chapter 9, we'll finish the whole chapter here today, and the
name of the sermon is, In Assyrian Takeover.
In Assyrian Takeover, that's actually the first point as well in this sermon.
Notice what it says in Hosea chapter 9 verse 1.
Hosea 9 verse 1.
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy is other people.
For thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn floor.
And you know what God's saying to His people here, O Israel, He's saying, you know what,
I don't want you to rejoice, right?
He's like, you're not going to be blessed anymore, you know, you've gone a-whoring after
a false God, and maybe some of the heathen nations, maybe they are rejoicing, and maybe
they have stuff, but you're not getting anything.
He says, Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy is other people.
Verse 2.
The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
So He's saying, you're not going to be blessed with material blessings, financial blessings,
okay?
So we're going to take a finger in Hosea 9 and go to Malachi 3, Malachi 3, Malachi chapter
3.
What we need to understand as Bible-believing Christians is that we play by a different
set of rules than the unsaved world out there.
See here's the thing, as Bible-believing Christians in a church like this, where you know what
the Word of God is, and you've heard the Word of God preached, you know, God expects you
to obey these things.
And if you decide, I'm going to live my own life and just put God on the back burner and
not care about Him, well, I mean, God might never bless you then, because God expects
you to put Him first in life, and that might mean you make some sacrifices in life.
And see, the heathen world, maybe they can rejoice for these material blessings, but
as God's people, God expects you to be in church and serving Him and reading the Bible
and going sowing and doing these things.
Malachi 3, verse 10.
It talked about how the floor and the winepress shall not feed them.
Notice kind of a cross-reference here in Malachi 3, verse 10.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house.
And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive
it.
And when it says, bring ye all the tithes, well, ye is plural in the Bible.
And he's saying, my people, I expect them to bring their tithes, which is the 10%.
What's the purpose for that?
Well, that there may be meat in mine house, right?
I mean, the tithes is what actually finances the operation of the church.
I mean, if no money comes in, then you're not going to be able to operate as a church.
Now here's the thing, we're doing fine as a church.
You know, obviously we just had the events on Sunday and the church paid for everything
and you know, big expenses, but you know, God has blessed us.
That is the purpose of the tithes though.
The tithes come in for the operation of the church.
That's the purpose.
Now in the Old Testament, they didn't have the local church, but you had the nation of
Israel and basically, you know, they were the ones that had Levitical law and they had
the rules and these things like that.
And so the people of that nation were expected to tithe and you had the Levitical priests
that would be living off of the tithe.
Okay.
Verse 11.
And if you do this, he's saying in verse 11, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes
and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.
What is he saying there?
Well, what he's saying is if you're faithful in the tithes, which is your 10%, then I'm
going to rebuke the devourer.
And basically what that means is your farmland and the stuff you're growing, you're not going
to lose it due to some natural disaster or some animal eating it up.
He says, you know what?
The fruits of the ground will not be destroyed.
Okay.
Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
And the vine casting her fruit before the time would be like, for example, there's a
time period that goes by for a fruit or for a gouli vegetable to grow.
And if it doesn't reach that point, then it's not going to be very good, right?
Let's say it takes a couple of weeks for a fruit to grow and it's like one week short.
Well, it's going to be pretty disgusting, right?
I mean, fruits and vegetables, they need to grow to their maximum.
And he's saying, if you're faithful to me, I'll make sure that the fruit and the vegetables
you're growing, they're just going to last.
Okay.
Now I've never had, you know, crops that I've grown, but my parents had some fruits and
vegetables in their backyard.
And the big problem you have is deer that come in and just eat everything.
And what the Bible is basically saying is I'm going to make sure the animals don't come
and destroy that your food that you have, if you're faithful to me.
Verse 12, and all nations shall call you blessed for you shall be a delightsome land, saith
the Lord of hosts.
The result of that is going to be that other people are going to look at this country and
say, man, they're really blessed by God.
Man, they're really blessed.
Look at everything they have.
They've got, I mean, they're worshiping their God and they're making sacrifices and yet
they still have more than other people.
How is that possible?
Go to Hosea chapter nine, Hosea chapter nine, Hosea nine.
I don't believe it's our goal to be rich in life, but I do believe that if we're serving
God, God can provide our needs.
I do believe that.
And obviously to some degree he's provided all of our needs because we have a place to
stay and we have food.
I believe according to the Bible, he is going to provide our needs if we're faithful to
him.
Now, the key is this, that you're giving the tithe is what it said, right?
That's one aspect.
Obviously reading the Bible, going to church and serving God, but what it said was 10%.
That's what the tithe is.
It doesn't require you to give your first fruits offering or cheerful giving, whatever,
and all these different, the four types of offerings that they're supposedly are.
There's one.
It's the tithe is what, and here's the thing, quite honestly, 10% is a lot of your money,
right?
I mean, God says he's going to provide your needs, but quite honestly, that 10% kind of
hurts a little bit and it's pretty crazy.
Churches are asking for more than that, but God says, if you give it 10%, which is obeying
my rules, I will provide your needs.
Okay.
Hosea 9 verse three, they shall not dwell in the Lord's land.
Okay.
These are the people of Israel are not going to dwell in the Lord's land.
You say, I thought they got an everlasting covenant.
That land belonged to them.
Well, not according to Hosea 9 verse three, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they
shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
Now notice how it mentions Egypt and it mentions Assyria.
You say, why does it mention two different ones?
They're going to eat, they're going to return to Egypt and they're going to eat unclean
things in Assyria.
That's a bit of a tricky verse.
It almost seems like a contradiction.
Is it Egypt or is it Assyria?
Okay, well, I'll give you my thoughts on this.
Go to Hosea 8, Hosea 8, Hosea chapter 8, Hosea chapter 8, Hosea 8 verse 13, they sacrifice
flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings and eat it, but the Lord accepted them not
and now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
Notice this, they shall return to Egypt.
They shall return to Egypt.
Now my opinion when he's saying they shall return to Egypt, I don't believe he's being
literal that they're going to physically return to Egypt.
What I think he's saying is they're going to return to bondage because if you remember
Egypt in the book of Exodus, you know, God led his people out of bondage, right?
Even today I was reading in Deuteronomy, I should have written it down, talking about
how they're going to return to Egypt.
You know, if they don't obey these things, but it was clear from the reference he's talking
about returning into bondage.
Okay.
Go to Hosea 11, Hosea chapter 11, Hosea chapter 11, Hosea 11, because we know that Assyria
took over Israel.
They were led into captivity, into Assyria.
So I believe what he's saying is they shall return to Egypt as in they shall return into
bondage where basically they were servants.
Okay.
Hosea 11 verse 5, he shall not return into the land of Egypt.
So remember in Hosea 8 and 9 it said they're going to return to Egypt.
Here in Hosea 11, he shall not return into the land of Egypt.
So what I believe it's saying is they didn't physically return into Egypt even though they
actually wanted to return, but they were in bondage, but the location of the bondage was
actually Assyria.
He shall not return into the land of Egypt and the Assyrians shall be his king because
they refused to return, meaning refused to return to the Lord.
And so they go into bondage and Assyria is the one that's over them.
Okay.
And it's just like in the days when Egypt was over them.
Go back to Hosea 9.
Hosea 9.
Even in that verse in verse 3 though, I think it teaches the same thing there where it says
they shall not dwell in the Lord's land.
Well, if they're not going to dwell in the Lord's land, where are they going to dwell?
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, which I believe is referring to being under bondage,
but where is that location?
And they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
Okay.
And when you're reading through the Bible, Assyria is the one that actually took them
over.
Okay.
So you're going to return in your Bible to second King 17.
I'll show this to you.
Second King 17.
And so when he's saying, you know, they're going to return into Egypt, I think what he's
saying is they're going to return into bondage, right?
I just read that this morning in Deuteronomy, and it seems like it's a common phrase that
pops up.
And when they were underneath the control of Egypt, they couldn't freely worship God.
Right?
Now, here's the thing, you know, over this last year, a lot of people have complained
about various rules that the government has.
I think all of us, if we didn't openly complain inside of our hearts, you know, we complained
a little bit, right?
We're a little bit frustrated.
And look, you know, obviously I'm the same exact way, but I want you to realize the big
reason why God led his people out of Egypt is because they couldn't freely worship the
Lord in Egypt.
They were restricted from serving God.
And quite honestly, at least for us, we haven't really been restricted so much from serving
God.
Now, soul winning was definitely rougher six months ago, right?
I mean, going door to door, whenever when it first started, people were very scared
and everything like that, but we were able to still freely serve God.
And so quite honestly, that is nothing compared to the captivity when they were under Egypt,
and they were not able to worship God at all.
That's the main reason why he led them out.
Second Kings 17, notice what it says in verse one.
In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah began Hoshea, the son of Elah, to reign in
Samaria over Israel nine years.
And he did that which was evil on the side of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel
that were before him.
Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant and gave him
presents.
And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to sow
king of Egypt and brought no present to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year.
Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.
So you're seeing here in verse four that instead of giving their yearly, you know, offering
or whatever to Assyria who was basically controlling them, they choose to try to give
it to Egypt.
Now the reason why they're doing this is they're trying to side with Egypt to side against
Assyria because Assyria has taken over the world.
So instead of giving money to Assyria, their plan is this.
So we can stop giving money to Assyria, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to give money to Egypt instead.
It's like, I mean, did you think this one through?
Because now you're going to have two nations, right?
I mean, if you get out of Assyria's control, then Egypt's over you, right?
And so they're not giving money to Assyria.
And so the king of Assyria is mad.
Verse five, then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to
Samaria and besieged it three years.
He says, you're not going to give us money anymore.
We're just taking over, right?
Verse six, in the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel
away into Assyria and placed them in Hala and in Haber by the river Gozen and then in
the cities of the meats.
So you see, they go into captivity to Assyria, not to Egypt.
But yet there's those verses where it talks about them wanting to return to Egypt because
what they're doing here in 2 Kings is they're giving money to Egypt and trying to side with
them.
And God's saying, I'm not letting you return to Egypt, you're going into Assyria, okay?
So that they returned into Egypt just for the fact that they were in bondage, but now
to Assyria, okay?
Now this isn't really in my notes, but look at 2 Kings 16.
This is kind of a rabbit trail, but look at 2 Kings 16.
Let me turn there myself, 2 Kings 16, and notice what it says in verse six.
At that time, Rezin, king of Syria, recovered Elath to Syria and drove the Jews from Elath,
and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day.
Now you notice that word Jews in 2 Kings 16 verse six.
Did you know this is actually the first time you see the word Jew in the entire Bible?
It's the first time.
Now when you think about it, because there's this misunderstanding that the Israelites
and the Jews are synonymous with one another, but look, Jacob was all the way back in the
book of Genesis.
And the first time you're seeing the word Jew is all the way in 2 Kings 16.
You say, why?
Well, because there's that separation of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern
kingdom of Judah.
And so when he's saying Jew, it's someone from Judah.
That's why that term ends up coming up, because it's someone from Judah.
It's not really hard to see how Jew comes from Judah.
So an Israelite and a Jew, they're not the same thing, and that's a bit of a rabbit trail,
but it does kind of tie into this whole book.
What you saw in 2 Kings 17 is this, that Assyria takes over Israel.
Go back to Hosea 9, Hosea 9, Hosea chapter 9.
It also teaches us that you can't meet the world in the middle, right?
I mean, they're giving money to Assyria, and instead of just taking a stand and saying,
we're going to trust in God and pray to God and serve God and He's going to protect us,
they say, well, let's just do something a little bit not as bad.
We'll just give money to Egypt, right?
No, you just got to take a stand on what's right, okay?
Hosea 9, verse 4, they shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they
be pleasing unto Him.
Their sacrifices shall be onto them as the bread of mourners.
All that eat thereof shall be polluted, for their bread, for their soul shall not come
into the house of the Lord.
What will ye do in the solemn day and in the day of the feast of the Lord?
For lo, they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them.
The pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them, thorns shall be in their
tabernacles.
So when it's saying nettles shall possess them and thorns shall be in their tabernacles,
you're thinking of God's house, and just imagine a beautiful church building, okay?
A church building that just had lots of money put into it, like a building like that one
over there or whatever.
And yet, you know what?
The people were driven out and it just has thorns and nettles covering it.
It's like, I mean, you might have spent like, I don't know, 10 million pesos on that building,
but it doesn't do any good once there's thorns and nettles and everything covering it, right?
And that's what the Bible's saying.
Israel, they had everything provided by God, and they probably had a lot of nice buildings,
and they were just covered up with thorns and nettles, right?
And sadly, that's happening throughout the world with churches.
Churches that actually, I mean, in America, there's a lot of independent Baptist churches
where the churches are paid off.
They've got land, they've got a building already built, but they don't have any members.
Because like 40 years ago, they were a real church that was going soul winning and serving
God, and the church was growing and thriving and people were excited.
And then what happened was they just tried to reach out to the younger generation and
they met the world halfway and it doesn't work.
They tried the world's methods because you see these mega churches that are doing this
rock music and stuff like that, and so the independent Baptist tried the same thing and
it doesn't work.
And all across America, you're gonna find independent fundamental Baptist churches where
the average age of people is like 70 years old.
Nobody's young.
The churches I was in in West Virginia, I like the people at the church, they were nice
people, and the people that were at that church were good people.
There's a reason why they were at that church, but it was sad because it's like, where is
the younger generation?
And that's one thing that shocks people about our movement, it's like, how are you guys
reaching the younger generation?
I mean, you caught hold on those new method, no, no, no, we're going back to the old methods.
We're going back to the Makalumong methods that were forgot about a hundred years ago.
You say, why, they work.
How can you not get excited about soul winning?
I mean, soul winning is exciting.
It causes people to say, you know what, I'm gonna change my perspective on life because
man, this is awesome.
I mean, just this past week where we broke every single record we've had by far, number
of soul winners, number of salvations, we had the soul winning marathons.
Look, we all were exhausted, right?
You get back on Friday, you're like, man, I'm tired, right?
And then, you know, Saturday, you know, many people were out soul winning again and then
Sunday church, the sweetheart banquet, the singles activity and everything like that.
I mean, we were exhausted, but you know, you woke up on Monday morning and you're like,
man, this is awesome, right?
It's like, we're part of a church that's doing something.
We have great fellowship and everything and you know, what are we doing here?
What's the magic secret?
We're going back to the old paths, we're going back to the old fashioned ways.
We're not trying these new modern ways, we're going back to the old ways and unfortunately,
churches are looking at the size of their congregation and they're thinking, oh man,
you know, it's like, I got to find a way to make this grow.
Yeah, but here's the thing, you can artificially make something grow very quickly.
That doesn't mean that it's a good thing though, right?
I mean, I could come back in a couple months from now and be like super huge, like super
muscular, right?
Because I'm taking steroids.
But is that good on your body?
It'll make you grow really quickly, right?
I mean, there's no question about it.
I mean, if you use human growth hormone or use any form of steroids or things like that,
it will make you just get huge very quickly, very strong and everything like that.
But is that actually good long term on the body?
Or do you see most bodybuilders die when they're 40 years old?
You see these guys that are really muscular and then they die of a heart attack when they're
40 years old and you're like, what in the world?
Right?
Because it's not good on the body.
The same guys you see really muscular, then they get on the treadmill like two miles an
hour and they're walking really slowly and everything.
But you know, it looks good.
They get really strong and everything.
What am I saying?
Here's what I'm saying.
You know, if a church has a healthy real growth, it's going to take some time.
And our church has certainly grown.
But if you've been with us from the beginning or even along the way, it's not like we just
skyrocketed.
You say, Brother Stuckey, could this church skyrocket?
Absolutely.
Look, we could have 35 year olds show up to our church every Sunday starting this Sunday
if we wanted.
We could easily make it just grow immediately.
But you know, we don't want that.
You say, why?
Well, that's not what you see in the Bible.
We're going back to the old paths and you know what?
That takes time, right?
Takes time to grow.
But it's a real healthy growth that's good for the long term.
Okay, now look at verse number seven.
We saw the Assyrian takeover.
Now look at the abominations of Israel themselves.
Hosea 9, verse 7, the days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come, Israel
shall know it.
The prophet is a fool.
The spiritual man is mad for the multitude of thine iniquity and the great hatred.
And you know, these verses are a bit confusing.
They can be taken a few different ways.
What I think he's saying is that the prophets in Israel themselves are just fools, right?
Are just Bobo, Hangal, Tonga, whatever you want to call it, right?
They're just morons.
They don't know anything about the word of God.
They're just fools, right?
They're crazy.
The spiritual man is mad.
And you know, when you listen to some of these preachers, Baptist preachers, you're just
like, what in the world?
They'll give you an interpretation of a parable and you're like, the spiritual man's mad.
Like, he doesn't know what he's talking about, right?
He's crazy.
And you know what?
That's the world that we're living in.
That's the world that they were living in.
Go to Jeremiah chapter six, Jeremiah six, Jeremiah chapter six.
I think what it's saying is the people that want to serve God are looking at these spiritual
leaders and they're just like, they're insane.
They're crazy, right?
It doesn't make any sense.
The things that they're teaching, the things they're saying.
And look, you know, it's sad because I've been a part of a lot of Baptist churches with
a lot of good men that were pastors and everything, but you know, some of the churches I was at,
they would often lean on commentaries.
And sometimes, you know, they'd give, you know, we'd be talking about the Bible after
service with me and my friends and the pastor, and they would give kind of an interpretation
on some various verses in the Bible or something like that.
And it was just like one of these things where I wanted to hide my face from what I was actually
thinking on the inside.
I'm just thinking, that's crazy, right?
It's just like, you know, that Melchizedek was not an Old Testament appearance of the
Son of God, that he was just a normal man.
I'm just thinking, what in the world?
It's like, I don't know how you come to those conclusions, right?
That's the world we're living in today.
Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 13, Jeremiah 6 verse 13, for from the least of them, even on the
greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness.
And from the prophet, even on the priest, everyone dealeth falsely.
They're covetous, they're liars, they're phonies.
Verse 14, they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly saying
peace, peace, when there is no peace.
So they're lying to the people in order to get a material advantage on them.
They're bad people.
And look, unfortunately, most Baptist pastors here in the Philippines, they seem to be bad
people to me.
Now, I haven't met most of them, but I've listened to a lot of them preaching.
And I'm not saying every single one, but certainly a lot of them are preaching a false gospel.
They're not going soul winning because they've graduated from having to go soul winning.
They're just sending out the members to preach, repent of your sins, door to door and stuff
like that.
And it's just like, you're looking at the spiritual leaders and here's the thing, you
expect that you can go to a spiritual leader, ask them questions about the Bible or listen
to them preach.
And when you hear them preach, it motivates you to do right and to serve God.
And you're learning and you're like, man, that's making sense.
That's what the Bible is saying.
Okay, I get it.
This is really like a puzzle that's being put together.
It's really making sense.
And yet during their day in Jeremiah chapter six, they couldn't go to the spiritual leaders.
In most Baptist churches here in the Philippines, if someone that was like minded like us would
show up and you would listen to the sermon, you would just be waiting to hear all of these
false things.
Right?
You'd be on your guard like, man, you know, let's see, oh, he said that.
Oh, he said that.
Right?
I mean, that's reality.
So many false things that you hear in church or you just hear nothing.
You just don't hear anything because it's just stories.
No explanation on any verses whatsoever.
So they don't say anything wrong, but they don't really say anything.
And see, the biggest problem with churches is not what they're saying.
It's what they're not saying.
They're not preaching the truth.
That's the problem.
Churches are not preaching the truth.
And you know what?
That's what we have in the Philippines.
Right?
Go back to Hosea chapter nine, Hosea nine, Hosea nine, Hosea nine, Hosea nine.
Now I think he's making a distinction here.
And this is kind of tricky when you're looking at these verses.
I'm not dogmatic on my interpretation of these verses seven, eight, nine, as it goes
from the prophet and the spiritual man.
But then it talks about the watchman in verse eight and the watchman, it says, was with
my God.
The watchman of Ephraim was with my God.
So I think this is referring to someone who's like not bowed his knee to Baal.
This is someone who might not, might not be a spiritual leader, you know, might not be
a preacher, but he's someone who's serving God.
The watchman of Ephraim was with my God.
Okay.
Then it says, but the prophet, so you see a distinction made, you got the watchman that's
with my God, but the prophet is a snare of a fallow in all his ways and hatred in the
house of his God.
So he's a bad guy.
Okay.
So we've got these prophets that are false preachers, they're phonies, they're liars,
they're frauds, they're crazy.
They don't know what they're talking about.
And then it says this in verse nine, they have deeply corrupted themselves, referring
to these spiritual leaders as in the days of Gibeah, therefore he will remember their
iniquity.
He will visit their sins.
It says as in the days of Gibeah, you say, what are the days of Gibeah?
Now let me just give you a heads up that on Sunday I preached two sermons about love,
right?
You say, brother, you're such a hateful preacher.
I preached two sermons on love, right?
On Sunday, two sermons on love.
So don't get mad at me that we're going to Judges chapter 19, because we got to find
out.
Go to Judges 19.
We got to find out what are the days of Gibeah?
Go to Judges chapter 19, Judges chapter 19, Judges 19, and it made a reference to the
days of Gibeah.
So what is that referring to?
Judges chapter 19 and look, Judges chapter 19, in my opinion, is the most disgusting
chapter in the entire Bible.
It's the most disturbing chapter in the entire Bible that when you read it, it's one of these
chapters where you don't, because you know, when I'm reading the Bible, I usually try
to picture things in my head, right?
You're reading about the crossing of the Red Sea and you're picturing in your head how
things are happening.
You're paying attention to the words or Jesus is healing someone and you're trying to really
pay attention to exactly how the Bible says it.
And Judges 19, it's one of those things you almost just want to read over.
You don't really want to picture exactly what's being said in Judges 19.
And you know, I don't necessarily think God wants you to either because of the fact God's
very discreet in Judges chapter 19.
But this is one of the two chapters, in my opinion, there's two chapters on homosexuals
in the Bible.
And this is one of those two chapters.
You got Genesis 19 and you got Judges 19.
And in my opinion, Judges 19 is worse than Genesis 19, in my opinion.
They're both pretty bad.
Judges chapter 19, you say, why are you saying this?
Because this is what the Bible is talking about, the days of Gibeah, what it's referring
to.
Judges 19 verse 10, but the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed
and came over against Jebus, came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem, and there with
him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.
Verse 11, and when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent and the servant said unto
his master, come I pray thee and let us turn it into the city of the Jebusites and lodge
in it.
Now notice what it says in verse 12, and his master said unto him, we will not turn aside
hither into the city of a stranger that is not of the children of Israel.
We will pass over to Gibeah.
And what he says is this, he's like, hey, you know what?
It's late at night and everything.
He's like, we're not going to be dwelling with the heathen tonight, right?
We're going to be around God's people.
We don't want to be with the heathen.
I remember when this is sort of similar.
When we were moving to Sacramento, California, six years ago, my wife and I are five years
ago or whatever, and it's like a 43 hour drive, 43 hours.
And so I left on a Monday morning and we made it to church on a Wednesday night.
So we left on a Monday morning and we drove like 14 hours and I drove at the speed of
light.
I drove so much, you know, obviously I shouldn't do that, but it was a very long trip.
Okay.
It was supposed to be 43 hours.
It took a lot less than that.
I'll just say that.
Right.
And so, you know, we drove like 14 hours or something.
Then the second day we were driving and driving, driving, and here's the thing, you're driving
pretty much like before it's light outside and then you're driving.
But once it starts getting dark, you got to kind of stop or it's going to be dangerous,
especially because I'm really tired.
You know what I mean?
You're driving that long, you know, and it's like my wife doesn't drive, so it's just all
me.
So we were driving for 16 straight hours.
And I remember, you know, we were going and, you know, there's not hotels at every single
exit and all of a sudden we're approaching Salt Lake City, Utah, which is like the hub
of the Mormons, right?
The Latter Day Saints and everything.
And I was looking, but the next exit was going to be like, you know, an hour and a half away
for a hotel.
So it's like, so we dwelled in Salt Lake City, Utah, right?
Right before we were in Sacramento, California.
Not exactly the same thing, but it's like everyone's Mormon there, right?
So it's like amongst the heat and so to speak.
But in this story, in verse 12, he says, you know, I feel more comfortable dwelling with
the children of Israel with God's people rather than a heathen nation.
And doesn't that make sense once you just think logically, it would be a lot safer dwelling
with God's people than unsafe people than with the world or heathen nation that's worshiping
another God.
Wouldn't it make sense that being in a Christian country should be safer than being in like
a Hindu country or a Muslim country or of some other religion?
I mean, it makes sense as you're going through, these are God's people.
This would be the safest place to be.
And that's what the master thinks, right?
And you know, this is interesting because, you know, in our, in our, our, our kind of
a modern day thing, you know, actually let me read some more verses.
We'll talk about this here in a second.
Verse 13, and he said unto his servant, come and let us draw near to one of these places
to lodge all night in Gibeah or in Ramah.
And they passed on and went their way and the sun went down upon them when they were
by Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin.
Benjamin's one of the 12 tribes, okay?
And they turned aside thither to go in and to lodge in Gibeah.
And when he went in, he sat him down in the street of the city for there was no man that
took them into his house to lodge him.
Verse 16, and behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which
was also of Mount Ephraim.
And he sojourned in Gibeah, but the men of the place were Benjaminites.
Verse 17, when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the
city.
And the old man said, whither goest thou?
And whence comest thou?
He's like, where are you going?
And where did you come from?
And he said unto him, we're passing from Bethlehem Judah toward the side of Mount Ephraim, from
thence am I.
And I went to Bethlehem Judah, but I am now going to the house of the Lord.
And there's no man that receiveth me to house.
Yet there's both straw and provender for our asses.
And there's bread and wine also for me and for thy handmaid and for the young man which
is with thy servants.
There is no one of anything.
He says, we've got food, we've got all of our supplies, we just need a place so we're
not outside.
Verse 20, and the old man said, peace be with thee.
Howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me only, only, lodge not in the street.
Lodge not in the street.
Doesn't that kind of remind you of in Genesis 19, where, you know, lodge just like, no,
don't stay outside.
You say, why is he saying lodge not in the street?
Well, it's a very dangerous place.
You say, why?
Well, it's filled with a bunch of homos.
That's what we see in this story.
Right?
Look at what it says in verse 21.
And so he brought him into his house and gave provender onto the asses and they washed their
feet and did eat and drink.
Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold the men of the city, certain sons of
Belial, and a son of Belial is a son of a devil, is a reprobate.
Because here's the thing, as people that are saved, right?
When you got saved, that was your spiritual birthday, right?
When you were born again, born into God's family, and you received eternal life, meaning
that you're never going to go to, you have eternal life, it's never going to end, right?
You were born into God's family.
And when somebody has a child, that child is always going to be their child.
My son, Zeph, is always going to be my son.
My daughter, Christabel, is always going to be my daughter.
They don't become somebody else's child, right?
I mean, if they disobey me or whatever.
When you get saved, you're always going to be God's child.
You're always going to be a child of God.
Because we're all God's creation, but you have to be born into God's family to be a
child of God, okay?
Well here's the thing, the Bible says there are people that are sons of the devil.
Now some people get this idea, well everybody before they're saved is a child of the devil.
Really?
Is that what the Bible says?
No, everybody's a creation of God.
And if you get saved, you get born into God's family, however, people can go the other route
and they can become a child of the devil, right?
They can reject God over and over and over again and they become a son of Belial.
They become a son of the devil.
Now here's the thing, when you're born into God's family, how long does that last for?
Forever.
Can anything ever change that?
No.
So why is God using that terminology?
What is he trying to teach us?
Well when you're born into the devil's family, how long does that last for?
Forever.
Can anything ever change it?
Nope.
Because they're a son of Belial, which means a son of Baal, right?
Which is false worship, devil worship, they're a son of the devil.
Here's the thing though, do we believe that God created people damned with no hope of
going to heaven?
Absolutely not.
He died for the sins of the whole world.
But they made a choice and they became a son of the devil, okay?
That's what the Bible teaches.
So they are a son of Belial, the Bible says.
And it says certain sons of Belial beset the house round about and beat at the door and
spake to the master of the house.
So this man's traveling through with his family and all of his supplies and everything.
And then all of a sudden he talks to this old man, he wants a place to stay.
And all of a sudden the sons of Belial find out about it.
And all of a sudden they're banging on the door.
Now isn't that kind of a strange reaction?
Why are they doing that?
Okay?
Notice what it says, beset the house round about, so they're surrounding the house, okay?
And beat at the door and spake to the master of the house, the old man saying, bring forth
the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.
Now what is the Bible saying?
I mean is the Bible saying somebody new came to town and they're like, I want to shake
his hand.
That's why we're surrounding the house.
We just want to shake hands.
We just want to get to know this person.
No, no, no.
When it's saying no, that's a word that's used when the Bible's trying to be discreet
with, you know, physically knowing them, okay?
When a husband and wife get married, that they know each other.
That's the term that he's using.
And so there's these homos that surround the house and they beat at the door and they say,
bring out that man.
We want to know him.
What are they saying?
They're saying we want to rape that man.
That's what they're saying, right?
Verse 23, and the man, the master of the house went out onto them and said unto them, nay,
my brethren, nay, I pray you do not so wickedly.
So here's the thing.
If they just want to shake hands with him, that's not wicked, right?
It's clear they want to do something wicked, something vile, right?
I mean, if they just said, we want to know him, we want to shake his hand, get to know
him, take him out to eat, get to know his family, it wouldn't say, you know, do not
so wickedly, right?
When he's saying no him, they're saying they want to rape this person, okay?
Look, I know this is not the most fun thing to talk about, but this is the word of God.
It says the days of Gibeah, that is what Hosea 9 is referring to, and look, we're going verse
by verse on Wednesdays.
I didn't choose this.
It's just kind of, and look, I write my sermons in advance, so I was looking at, okay, what's
the sermon about?
Okay.
I'm not a sermon, but I just preached on Love on Sunday, right?
And so then it says this, seeing that this man has come into mine house, do not this
folly.
Behold, here's my daughter, a maiden and his concubine.
Them I will bring out now and humble ye them and do with them what seemeth good unto you,
but unto this man do not so vile a thing.
So this man says, you know what?
I'm going to offer, I'm going to offer my daughter a maiden and his concubine.
So he's going to offer two women.
Now why would he offer a bunch of homos women if they want to rape the man?
Well, because there's actually really no such thing as a homo, because every homo is actually
bisexual.
That's what the Bible teaches, because here's the thing, God didn't create them as a homo.
God created them as a normal person with natural desires, and it's a desire for someone of
the opposite gender, okay?
So he understands this, hey, you know what?
They want to rape this guy.
Maybe they'll just settle for these women.
Now I don't know why he's offering his daughter.
I don't know what's wrong with these people in the Bible, but that's what he's doing.
Because he understands, you know what?
Their door swings both ways, right?
That's reality.
I mean, just from the news in the last couple of months, you know about the homos, their
door swings both ways, right?
I mean, it's like Judges 19 in real life here, right?
And so he says, you know, verse 25, but the men would not hearken to him.
So the man took his concubine and brought her forth onto them.
And so the concubine's thrown out there, and they knew her, meaning that they sexually
abused her, they raped her.
They knew her and abused her all the night until the morning, and when the day began
to spring, they let her go.
So they rape her throughout the night.
Now this is not really something you want to picture in your head, but this is what
the Bible says happens.
It really brought to light just from the last couple months in the Philippines, major story.
It's like, oh wow, this is exactly Judges 19, right?
Like and you know, what ends up happening?
Well, you know, I'm not going to go on with the story because I don't want to spend my
entire time in this.
But basically she's dead.
They killed her, right?
And so whether it was an accident or they're just abusing her and she happened to die,
I don't really know, but she died, right?
And you know, what you're seeing here is this is what homos are like, this is what the reprobates
are like.
Now here's the thing about this.
What a homo is, it's a symptom of the actual problem.
It's not the actual problem.
The problem is they were rejected by God because they rejected God.
They rejected God so they got rejected by God.
So one of the symptoms down the road has become filled with these disgusting desires.
Now here's the thing, right when you become a reprobate, you are filled with these disgusting
desires.
However, it takes time to reach this level of depravity.
Somebody who becomes a reprobate yesterday does not do this the next day.
This is something that goes further down the list where they just get worse and more disgusting
and wicked and wicked and wicked and wicked as more time goes by.
So what's interesting is the Bible links this with Israel and the days of Gibeah because
what's happening in Judges 19, this is not happening in a heathen nation.
It's happening amongst God's people.
And see a modern day application is this.
You would expect the Christians of the world to stand up and preach against the LGBT.
But is that what you see with churches now?
I mean the churches are doing everything they can to say, hey, we don't hate them.
We love you.
We welcome you in.
You're welcome here at such and such Baptist church.
Well they're not welcome here.
If this is the only place in Metromaneo where they're not welcome, then they're not welcome
here and they're also not welcome in our church in Pampanga.
They're never going to be welcome here.
You say why?
They're sons of the devil.
They're daughters of the devil.
They're reprobates.
They can't be saved.
So what would be the purpose of having people that cannot get saved here in church?
This is what the Bible teaches.
It says sons of Belial in the passage.
And look, here's the thing.
If you have young children, do you really want these sort of people around your children?
I mean, do you really want these sort of people in church?
I mean, even if you don't agree with me, even if you say, Brother Stuckey, I see that it's
pretty bad.
The homos are bad people.
I get that, but I'm not sure I agree totally like you.
But do you really want these sort of people that might rape and molest someone around
your children?
Do you want to have an atmosphere at church where you've got to be careful because you're
like, oh, man, we got a bunch of pedophiles in here.
Recovering pedophiles.
They said they were sorry.
They had that worldly sorrow.
They said they'll never do it again.
They were taught evolution.
That's why they became like that or whatever, like Jeffrey Dahmer.
It's like, do you want these sort of people around you?
And this is the reason why we'll never have children's programs.
Children's programs are such a danger.
Such a danger to those children.
And here's the thing about this.
When you have all of these children's programs, what you're saying to filthy pedophiles is
this.
Hey, this is a good place to come to.
This is a place where you could have access to kids.
Because people that are like this, they're going to want to work in places like the school
system, at daycares.
They'll often take up foster children.
Why?
Because of the fact they want to harm little children.
Because they're disgusting, they're filthy, and they get worse and worse with time.
Look, obviously I'm not saying every teacher's bad.
We have teachers at our church.
I used to be a teacher.
But I am saying those sort of positions where they have access to kids and they can get
away with it.
And here's the thing.
It's also very true at churches.
Pedophiles feel very safe at most churches.
And they come and they say, man, this would be...
And you know what?
Here's the thing.
When they show up, they're going to act normal for a while.
They're going to act normal so people will start to trust them.
Here's the thing, though.
When people like that show up to our church, they're probably not sticking around.
You say, why?
Well, I don't think they're going to like the preaching.
And they're going to say, oh, wow, I don't have any opportunity with any of these kids
because the kids are with their parents.
Now, we understand that having kids in the service, it can cause distractions.
The kids act makulit, they're ma'ina sometimes.
But here's the thing.
It's for the safety of those kids.
And as a parent, we ought to be thankful for that.
My parents once showed up at a Baptist church.
This is why they had a bad taste for Baptists because they went to a Baptist church one
time and they showed up and I was very young.
My sister was very young.
This is before I could even remember.
And they showed up and there was nobody to work in the nursery.
And so they asked my parents, first time visitors, can you watch the nursery today?
It's like, I mean, how stupid is that?
First time visitors.
And my parents spent the time in the nursery and look, they didn't have modern technology
like you might have now.
They didn't get to hear the sermon.
So their time visiting a Baptist church, they were just in the nursery watching kids.
It's like, they'll just let anybody be in the nursery.
They'll let anybody watch the kids.
It's not a safe environment for children.
But what's shocking is how it's God's people that are basically protecting the homos here.
And then even after this, they defend the homos.
It's like, what in the world?
They raped and killed this woman.
We don't have time to go into the whole story, but it's like they defend them.
It's like they fight on their side because the people are like, man, this is an abomination.
Bring these people.
And they defend them.
And the tribe of Benjamin, it's like, what in the world?
And you're defending the homos.
And yet, isn't that what you see in today's world, sometimes with Baptist churches?
I mean, it was just a couple of weeks ago, our friend in California, Pastor Mejia, his
church got bombed by a bunch of sodomites.
And then there's some Baptist that are there like, wow, he was mean now.
It's like you're on the side of the sodomites.
I mean, it just blows your mind sometimes because I'll be honest with you, even in look,
I'm friends with Pastor Mejia, but even if it was a pastor that I didn't know, or maybe
I wasn't a fan, maybe I thought he was maybe Bastos, or I didn't like his preaching or
things I didn't like.
Look, I mean, if his church got bombed by homos, do you really think it'd be hard for
me to figure out whose side to be on though?
Even if I didn't like the pastor, guess who I dislike even more, the homos.
I don't know how you can hate a saved person or even a normal person more than the homos.
And yet you have people that are siding with the homos.
It's like, what in the world?
And yet that's the days of Gibeah that Hosea 9 is talking about.
Now go back to Hosea chapter 9, Hosea 9, Hosea chapter 9.
This is why when King Saul, you know, in 1 Samuel, he selected to be king and you know,
King Saul when he started was a very humble man.
And one thing that shocked him was, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin, because here's what
ends up happening is the rest of the tribes get a really bad taste for Benjamin because
they were defending homos.
And it's like such a terrible abomination that saying you're from a Benjamite would
be very embarrassing.
And King Saul was like, you're going to select me as the king when I'm of the tribe of Benjamin?
It's like, you know, it's pretty embarrassing to say you're from the tribe of Benjamin,
but King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, right?
King Saul was named Saul from tribe of Benjamin in the Bible, I don't know why.
And so, you know, that's what the story is, that's what it's talking about the days of
Gibeah.
And look, I don't have time to go into Judges 19 fully, but it's like the most disgusting
story in the entire Bible.
And what you see is these homos, it's not just that they're interested in guys.
What they're interested in doing is causing harm, because the homos are going to tell
you this.
Well, you know, we're not harming anybody, you know, it's just consensual relationship.
We're both in agreement about this.
Is that what happened in Judges 19?
Or did they beat at a door and say, we're going to rape that guy against his will?
Right?
It's not consensual.
You say, well, they're not harming anybody.
Yeah, they are.
And here's the thing about this.
If you read the Bible, this is not a debate, right?
Because whenever you have people that are Christians, and then they say that we're too
harsh on the homos and everything, they never give you any Bible about it.
I mean, they've never even read Judges 19.
They've heard about Genesis 19, but obviously it's either been a long time or they read
it in some other version or whatever.
I don't really know.
Right?
I mean, it's not really that hard to get to Genesis 19 in your Bible reading.
That's the 19th chapter of the Bible.
But it's just like, whenever they try to defend them, they don't give any Bible verses.
It's like that guy that I was arguing with today, I said, well, what's your Bible verse?
It's like, you don't believe Jesus is God.
What's your Bible verse?
And he just uses logical arguments.
Where's your Bible verse?
He doesn't have one.
Why?
Because whenever you talk to people about the Bible and they get mad and disagree, do
you notice how they never give you any Bible verses?
They don't know what they're talking about.
The only reason why any Christian would defend the homos is because they don't know anything
about the Bible.
That's reality.
Hosea 9, verse 10.
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at our first time.
So he looked in the fathers as being very special.
But they went to Baal Peor, they're worshiping a false god and separated themselves onto
that shame.
And their abominations were according as they love.
So it talks about the days of Gibeah.
It talks about worshiping a false god.
And look, it doesn't really get much worse than worshiping a false god.
Worshipping Baal.
Right?
I mean, wouldn't it be like the worst thing to have a child grow up and then they're worshiping
like a false god?
You go to visit their house and then you got a statue of like, you know, Shiva, right?
In the corner or something like a Hindu god.
You know, one of those gods is like, or something like that.
I mean, it would be embarrassing, right?
I mean, it would be sad for your child not to get saved.
But I mean, if they're worshiping a false god like this, it doesn't get worse than that.
And that's what the people of Israel were doing.
They're worshiping false gods, right?
And they're worshiping Baal Peor, it says there in verse 10.
Verse 11.
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth and from the womb
and from the conception.
And so when you think about a bird, okay, birds don't fly immediately, right?
You know, there comes a time when the mom has to kick those babies out of the nest or
those those birds out of not not babies, but birds out of the nest, right?
And it's like, you know, why?
Because here's the thing, birds cannot fly at first, but they need to take that step,
right?
Where they need to learn how to fly.
But it talks about Ephraim is like a bird that flies away right from the womb, right
from the conception, right from the birth.
Well, it doesn't work that way.
They need time to be able to fly away.
And what that kind of shows me or what makes me think of is just that Ephraim got very
arrogant and thought I can just fly on my own.
I don't need God.
It'd be like a baby being born and then just that baby walking from day one doesn't work
that way.
Right?
I mean, it takes time for babies to develop that.
And then Ephraim, though, just seemed to think that they didn't need God.
It's like, you know, God chose you and everything.
But now you're just like a little bird and you're just like, man, I'm ready to fly without
God.
Right?
You're never going to reach that stage.
And they were just really arrogant.
Okay.
Verse 12.
And what happens to a bird?
What happens to a bird that tries to fly from the birth?
Well, they're just going to fall and smash into the ground.
I don't know if birds die from that or not.
I'm not really an expert on birds, but they're certainly not going to fly from the birth,
right?
Or from the womb.
Verse 12.
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them that there should not be a
man left.
Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them.
Ephraim, as I saw, Tyrus is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring forth his children
to the murderer.
It says Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer, meaning the children, if
they grow up, that they're going to end up being killed.
And, you know, there might be a dual reference because, you know, you don't have to go there
for sake of time, but it talks about the devil and it says he was a murderer from the beginning.
So I'm not sure it's saying they're going to bring up children and then they're going
to end up serving a false god or serving the devil.
Or it's just saying, you know, kind of a dual application because they're bringing up their
children.
They're not going to end up dying because in the next verse it talks about a miscarrying
womb.
So I think the main application is physically dying, but saying you can have as many kids
as you want and they're just going to die.
They're not going to make it, okay?
And so point number one was an Assyrian takeover.
Point two were the abominations of Israel.
Point three is basically the abuse from God where he's going to punish them.
Hosea 9, verse 14, give them, O Lord, what wilt thou give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
And so this is a curse upon the nation where they would have, the women would have a miscarrying
womb and it says dry breasts.
And so miscarrying womb would refer to a baby that dies in the womb, but then dry breasts
would refer to a baby that's born and yet the mom doesn't have any milk to feed that
child.
And, you know, sometimes, you know, and it doesn't mean that someone's done anything
wrong if this takes place, but, you know, sometimes, you know, mom might have a child
and they don't really have a whole lot of milk, right?
You might have to supplement the milk with, I mean, with Zeph, you know, he was losing
weight.
He wasn't able to get enough milk.
And so we had to supplement the milk for him because he wouldn't have been able to make
it just on breast milk.
He just wasn't able to get enough.
And, you know, women can, you know, I'm not an expert at this.
Ask my wife, right?
There's certain foods you can eat, certain vitamins, minerals, I think dairy, you know,
butter or whatever.
I don't know.
And it's going to give you like more of a supply.
But the Bible is saying, you know what?
These women, because they're cursed by God as a nation, will have a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
Verse 15, all their wickedness is in Gilgal for there I hated them for the wickedness
of their doings.
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more.
All their princes are revolters.
Now he's not really referring to people as individual people when he says, I will love
them no more.
He's referring to as a nation.
But you know, there's plenty of verses that talk about people that God does not love anymore.
And there are plenty of people God says that we should not love.
And that goes back to someone who is a child of the devil.
Okay.
Now, when it comes to somebody's personal enemy, you're not supposed to hate your personal
enemy.
However, when they're God's enemy, that's the difference.
Okay.
You know, sometimes we argue with people out soul winning or whatever, right?
Today, you know, last week, today just had these people from these cults that want to
argue with me or whatever.
That doesn't necessarily mean that they're a reprobate.
It just means that they're like really stubborn in what they believe, even though they don't
have a Bible verse for what they believe doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad person.
But if someone is a bad person, if someone is a child of the devil, that's someone we
should dislike.
Now, here's the thing about this.
When people are members of false churches, you know, I'll give them the benefit of the
doubt unless I know more information.
Now, if they're the leaders of false churches, I don't give the benefit of the doubt.
You say why?
They're probably reprobate.
They're probably a child of the devil.
Look, if somebody is a leader of a church and they've been preaching a false gospel
for 30 years, do you really think a five-minute explanation of repentance is going to clear
that up?
I mean, for 30 years, they've been preaching a false gospel, and you're just going to show
them John 3.16.
They're just going to change their mind.
They've never heard that verse before.
No, they've already made up their mind.
Right?
And I'll tell you what.
I've seen this before with someone who I was friends with in college.
He was a Mormon.
I had a good friend of mine in high school who was a Mormon, and, you know, he went to
college when he was a freshman, but then he went on his two-year Mormon mission.
And, you know, before that two-year mission, right, you know, and I just got saved, you
know, the one year that we were in college together, you know, and I had known him from
high school.
And, you know, I had just gotten saved, so I wasn't really an expert at soul winning.
I didn't really know what to tell him and prove that Jesus is God and things like that
and everything.
But, you know, the guy was a humble guy, really nice guy.
Well, he comes back from his two-year mission, and, of course, I know a lot more about the
Bible now.
Right?
I've gone soul winning.
I've learned a lot about what Mormons believe and things like that.
And, you know, I actually had a conversation with him.
You know, we sat down.
We had lunch together and everything.
He became such a Mayabang Bastos person.
I mean, he completely changed after the two-year mission.
You say, why?
Because he made up his mind permanently, I believe, what he's going to believe after
that two-year mission.
Because you have to understand, those Mormons, they're preaching a false gospel day after
day after day after day after day, right, to tons of different people.
So I'm not saying that none of them are saved after that point, but it's like they pretty
much a false prophet for two years, and then they usually make up their mind about what
they believe.
Verse 16.
Ephraim is smitten.
Their root is dried up.
They shall bear no fruit.
Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
My God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto him, and they shall be wanderers
among the nations.
So here's the thing.
If they are wanderers among the nations, does it really sound like God gave them this land
that they have permanently?
Because you only wander if you don't have a home, right?
I mean, you know, it's not like tonight I'm wondering about where am I going to sleep
at night.
I'm not going to wander around and say, well, maybe I'll sleep over here.
Maybe I'll sleep here.
No, no, no.
I know where I'm going to sleep tonight, right?
Well, I mean, my kids are sick, so I don't know which room I'm going to end up, but I
know what house I'm going to sleep in tonight, all right?
So I'm not a wanderer because I actually have a home.
Well, here's the thing.
Israel's going to be wandering among the nations, and, you know, isn't that fulfilled throughout
history, how Israel just wandered among the nations?
You say, how was that fulfilled?
They got kicked out of nation after nation after nation.
Nobody wanted them.
You say, why?
They're very bastos and very maiyabon because they're sitting here saying, hey, we're God's
people.
It's like, really?
It's like you're wandering around with no home and you're God's people, right?
And just over this recent 100 years, things have kind of changed.
It became very rich, and they promoted Zionism through a lot of different methods and things
like that.
But there's no question if you're reading the Bible, Israel was rejected.
They're done.
They're not God's people, and neither is the southern kingdom of Judah at this point either.
They've both been rejected.
That's what we see.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your
word in all these different topics and help us to know our Bibles, God, and even things
that are maybe not the most pleasant, like Judges 19 and the days of Gibeah.
There are a lot of things maybe that are not the most fun to read and things like that,
God, but it's in the Bible for a reason.
And help us not to trust what the news media wants to tell us or trust even what other
pastors might tell us, but let us just trust what the word of God says.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.