Thank you very much.
Thank you.
If you want to please find your seats, please take your hymnals.
Go to hymn 165.
We'll begin this morning.
Hymn 165.
Oh, worship the king.
Hymn 165.
Once you find your place, we'll sing it out of that first verse together.
165.
Oh, worship the king.
All glorious above.
Hymn 165.
Sing it out together now.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All glorious above.
Hymn 155.
All cast
that is pleasing to your ears.
I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, hymn number 116.
116, he leadeth me.
Hymn number 116, we'll sing it out.
Right on that first verse,
he leadeth me, O blessed thought.
Hymn number 116, one, one, six.
Sing it out together now.
He leadeth me, O blessed thought,
O words of heavenly comfort, fraud.
What e'er I knew where I'd be,
stilled is God's hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, he leadeth me,
by his own hand he leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.
Sometimes it seems God's deepest gloom,
sometimes marine and sours bloom.
My water still o'er troubled sea,
stilled is his hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, he leadeth me,
by his own hand he leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.
Lord, I would clasp my hand in mine,
whatever word or repine,
contact whatever lot I see.
Since this time God have leadeth me,
he leadeth me, he leadeth me,
by his own hand he leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.
And when my task on earth is done,
when by thy grace the victory's won,
in that whole way I will not flee,
since God through Jordan leadeth me.
He leadeth me, he leadeth me,
by his own hand he leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.
Amen.
This time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
And instead of our regularly scheduled broadcast,
we're going to have a special guest speaker
this Wednesday night, which is Pastor Roger Jimenez
from Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California.
Listen, even if you only typically come
on Sunday mornings,
make a point to come here this Wednesday night.
You will not be disappointed.
Hearing Pastor Jimenez preach in person
is something that you will not want to miss.
And so mark the calendar, make a note,
pull out your smartphone right now
and do whatever you need to do to get yourself down here.
This Wednesday night, if at all possible,
you'll be in for a treat, I'm sure,
listening to Pastor Jimenez preach.
I will be preaching at his church
this coming Wednesday night as well.
If you know anyone in Sacramento
who doesn't already go to Verity,
maybe you could let them know that as well.
Maybe some of my old childhood friends
and family will show up, that never happens.
All right, below that, we've got the soul winning times,
we've got the salvation of baptisms,
we've got birthdays and anniversaries listed across the page
as well as the list of pregnant ladies
so that you can pray for them to have a safe
and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
On the back, hey, did I mention this Wednesday night?
No, I'm just kidding.
Below that, we've got the note
about the Dripping Springs soul winning trip
on Saturday, March 9th.
The itinerary and sign up sheet for that is here to my right.
Men's preaching class is every Tuesday night,
no spectators allowed, but all men who participate
in soul winning are welcome to come and participate in this.
They just need to prepare a five minute sermon
and you can see Brother Segura for more details
as well as to be issued a copy of the textbook.
And so, see Brother Segura about that if you're interested.
Below that, other small town soul winning trips
that are coming up and that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song, come lead us.
All right, in the front of your hymnals,
you should find the insert of This World Is Not My Home.
If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand,
we'll get one to you.
And we'll sing it on that first.
This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through.
My treasures are laid out somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon deep, the heavens open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you.
If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon deep, the heavens open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
They're all expecting me and that's one thing I know.
My Savior pardoned me and now I never go.
I know He'll take me through, though I am weak and poor.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you.
If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
I won't have one to say, my work is nearly done.
I'm happy now to say, my race is almost done.
It's full of my eyes unsaid on heaven's open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you.
If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
To stop the glory land will lay eternally.
The saints on every hand are shouting victory.
The sons of sinners praise them back from heaven's shore.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you.
If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Amen.
Excellent singing everybody.
Going our hymnals now to hymn 321, 321.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Hymn number 321.
We'll sing it on that first.
Three, two, one.
Sweet are the promises, kind is the word.
Hymn number 321.
Sing it out.
Sweet are the promises, kind is the word.
Here are far than any message that ever heard.
Nor was no either Christ in this I see.
Be the great example in their factory.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Follow all the way.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Follow Jesus every day.
Sweet is the tender love Jesus has shown.
Sweet are common and divine, mortals are known.
Unto thee, everyone, faithful is he.
Be a great example, there's a pattern for thee.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Follow all the way.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Follow Jesus every day.
Sing it all the way.
Great is student's loving words, how much be.
Wearing heavy faith and very sweet best relief.
Trust in his promises, faithful and sure.
Lay upon the Savior and my soul is secure.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Follow all the way.
Where he leads, I'll follow.
Follow Jesus every day.
Hey, that guy's taking his phone off.
All right, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Numbers chapter 11.
Numbers chapter 11, fourth book of the Bible,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers chapter 11.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads Numbers chapter 11.
Numbers chapter 11, the Bible reads,
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord.
And the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled.
And the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
And the people cried unto Moses.
And when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched.
And he called the name of the Lord, and the fire was quenched.
And when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched.
And he called the name of the place, Tabira, because the fire of the Lord burnt among them.
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell alusting,
and the children of Israel also wept again and said,
Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely,
the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic,
and now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes.
And the manna was as coriander seed and the color thereof as the color of delium.
And the people went about and gathered it and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar
and baked it in pans and made cakes of it.
And the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.
Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families,
every man in the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly.
Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the Lord,
Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?
And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight,
that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?
Have I conceived all this people?
Have I begotten them that thou shouldst say unto me,
Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child,
unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers?
When should I have flesh to give unto all this people?
For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat.
I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
And if thou deal dost with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand,
if I have found favor in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel,
whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them,
and bring them under the tabernacle of the congregation,
that they may stand there with thee.
And I will come down and talk with thee there,
and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them,
and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee,
that thou bear it not thyself alone.
And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow,
and ye shall eat flesh. For ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying,
Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.
Therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.
Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days,
neither ten days, nor twenty days, but even a whole month,
until it come out of your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you,
because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you,
and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?
And Moses said, The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen,
and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them,
or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them?
And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short?
Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or not.
And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord,
and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people,
and set them round about the tabernacle.
And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him,
and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders,
and it came to pass, that when the spirit rested upon them,
they prophesied and did not cease.
But there remained two of the men in the camp.
The name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Midad.
And the spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written,
but went not out unto the tabernacle, and they prophesied in the camp.
And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said,
Eldad and Midad do prophesy in the camp.
And Joshua the son of Nun the servant of Moses, one of his young men,
answered and said, My Lord Moses forbid them.
And Moses said unto him, Envious thou for my sake?
Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets,
and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them?
And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea,
and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side,
and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp,
and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day,
and they gathered the quails.
He that gathered least gathered ten omers,
and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, it was chewed,
the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people,
and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.
And he called the name of that place, Kibraat Atzewa,
because there they buried the people that lusted.
And the people journeyed from Kibraat Atzewa unto Hazeroth,
an abode at Hazeroth.
Father in Heaven, I pray that you please turn the hearts of your children
to the preaching of the word, as Pastor Anderson preaches your word
with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit, Father.
Help us. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
The title of my sermon this morning is The Mixed Multitude.
The Mixed Multitude.
In Numbers 11, it says in verse 4,
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell alusting.
Now, what is this mixed multitude?
Well, keep your finger there in Numbers 11.
Flip back to Exodus chapter number 12.
Exodus chapter number 12, of course, the children of Israel
are slaves in Egypt for 400 years.
And when they finally leave Egypt after God has plagued the Egyptians
with the ten plagues and Pharaoh has finally decided to let them go,
when they leave, not only the children of Israel end up leaving Egypt,
but a mixed multitude comes with them.
And the reason that they're called a mixed multitude
is simply because they're coming from various nationalities
of other groups within Egypt.
Some of them could have been Egyptians,
but probably a lot of them were just other nationalities
that have been enslaved by the Egyptians
or maybe just other foreigners or just other groups
that aren't necessarily really making it in Egyptian society
or they're just not happy in Egypt for whatever reason
and they'd rather throw in their lot with the children of Israel
and go along with them.
Look at verse 37 of Exodus chapter 12. The Bible reads,
And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Sukkoth,
about 600,000 on foot that were men besides children.
And remember that about 600,000 is talking about the Israelites themselves
because it's even going to break down what number from what tribe,
et cetera, in the book of Numbers.
But then it says in verse 38,
And a mixed multitude went up also with them.
And this is talking about other people from a mixture of nationalities,
from various nationalities,
and flocks and herds, even very much cattle.
So they've got a bunch of mixed multitude people
and then they've also got a bunch of flocks and cattle and herds,
animals that they're taking with them.
And also, of course, in the previous verses it talked about how they,
you know, quote-unquote borrowed stuff from the Egyptians.
So they're taking a lot of jewels and treasure and spoiling the Egyptians.
So back to Numbers chapter 11.
So we see there's this group of people
that have attached themselves to the Israelites
but they are not actually the Israelites.
And what we're going to see as we study this
is that these people have joined up with the Israelites for the wrong reason.
Okay, now if they had joined up with the Israelites
because they believed in the Lord,
because they wanted in on the people of God,
they want to be God's people, they want to worship God,
they want to know the truth, they love the word of God,
they love the law of God, then that would be great.
And of course there are people like that.
And I'm sure some of the people in the mixed multitude were like that.
We have clear examples in scriptures of foreigners joining themselves
unto the people of God and worshiping the Lord for all the right reasons,
becoming Israelites and so forth.
But in general, the Bible lets us know,
and we're going to look at more evidence for this,
that the mixed multitude is there for the wrong reasons.
They're not there because they believe in the Lord.
They're there because they feel like their financial prospects
are better with the Israelites than they are staying in Egypt.
They think things are going to be better for them,
so they're in it for all the wrong reasons.
We're going to see a New Testament analogy of this as well.
So look at Numbers 11 verse 1.
It says,
And when the people complained, displeased the Lord,
and the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled,
and the fire of the Lord burnt among them,
and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
And the people cried unto Moses,
and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched,
and he called the name of the place Tabirah,
because the fire of the Lord burnt among them.
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting,
and the children of Israel also wept again and said,
Who shall give us flesh to eat?
And so what we see here is that the mixed multitude
end up being instigators where they begin to lust,
and then this leads the Israelites to also begin to complain again
and say, Who will give us flesh to eat?
They say in verse 5,
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely,
the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.
But now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all.
So are you starving?
Well, you know, besides this manna before our eyes.
So it's not that they don't have anything to eat.
It's that they don't have the party in their mouth that they're looking for.
They just have the manna.
Jump down to verse 33.
God ends up giving them flesh to eat.
He sends them quail to eat.
But then it says in verse 33 that while the flesh was yet between their teeth,
ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people,
and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague,
and he called the name of that place Kibrot Hatayvah
because there they buried the people that lusted.
Now if you would flip over to Psalm 78.
In Psalm 78 we get another version of this story written by the psalmist.
And so what we've seen so far is that the mixed multitude
attaches themselves to the Israelites,
and the reason why they're so disappointed in Numbers 11
with the quality of the food is because they're there for material gain.
They're there for material reasons.
They're not there because they believe in the Lord.
They're there because they think it's going to better their financial situation.
And so that's why when it doesn't cause them to live a better life,
well then, you know, they're mad.
They want to go back to Egypt because they're not financially better
or, you know, better from a culinary standpoint.
They're not eating better food or living a better lifestyle.
They're out roughing it with the people of God in the wilderness,
and they're saying, hey, this isn't what we signed up for.
We want to go back to Egypt. We don't like this.
Look at Psalm 78. It says in verse 18,
and of course this is also talking about the children of Israel
because remember the mixed multitude were the instigators,
and then ultimately all of the children of Israel are complaining
and saying the same thing in general.
It says in verse 18,
they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
Yea, they spake against God.
They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people?
So it's like, you know, they ask for water, they get water.
They ask for bread, they get bread.
Well, yeah, but what about meat? What about flesh?
You know, I'm not a stinking vegetarian over here.
What are you coming at me with all this manna?
Whatever it is, just not good enough.
They're whining, they're complaining, they're provoking God to anger.
And by the way, if it displeased the Lord when people complained in Numbers chapter 11,
do you think that God is pleased with complaining Christians today in 2024?
You think God's pleased when you complain to your parents about the food that you're being served
or complain about, you know, how you don't have enough money
or complain that you can't eat all the steak and lobster that you want to eat.
Obviously the same attitude is present today
and that's why God said that these things are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come to the intent that we should not lust as some of them also lusted.
Okay, they have a bad attitude.
They're not content.
They're not just thankful to have food and raiment.
No, nothing's good enough.
Nothing's good enough.
They're whining, they're complaining and it's just as sinful now as it was then.
But it says in verse number 21,
Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth, so a fire was kindled against Jacob
and anger also came up against Israel.
And then look at this key verse here, verse 22, it says,
Because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation.
You see, ultimately these people's problem was that they weren't actually believers.
And if they're not actually believers, if they didn't believe in God,
if they didn't trust in his salvation, then are they a benefit to the people of God?
Should they be attaching themselves to the people of God?
Should they have even left Egypt with the Israelites in the first place?
No.
That was supposed to be a holy nation, a peculiar people.
It was supposed to be God's people, not just, hey, anybody who wants to do better,
the grass is going to be greener over here in Canaan land, so come on in.
No, they're supposed to be coming because of the name of the Lord.
And here we see that they believed not in God and they trusted not in his salvation.
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and it goes on about the miracles that he did.
It says in verse 29,
So they did eat and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire.
They were not estranged from their lust, but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
and remember, that's exactly what it said in Numbers 11.
While they were still chewing, it said Numbers 11.
So this is clearly a reference to Numbers 11.
It says,
While the meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them
and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
Even though they had seen all these wondrous works, they did not believe.
They did not believe in the Lord.
They were not saved.
They're not believers.
That is ultimately the problem.
Now if you would flip over to John chapter 6.
John chapter 6 in the New Testament.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Of course, I've been preaching sermons through the book of John.
We've been seeing things from chapters 1 through 5.
And in John chapter 6, we have Jesus Christ having fed the 5,000, right?
So Jesus has fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes.
So he performed this great miracle where he multiplied food.
And I think you're going to see what a parallel this is in John chapter 6 with what we saw
back in Numbers chapter 11 and Psalm 78.
It says in John chapter 6 verse 24,
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples,
they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus.
And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me,
not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.
He's saying, look, you are here for the wrong reason.
It's not that you've seen the miracles and you believe that I'm the Son of God,
that you actually want to be saved, that you're actually here for a spiritual, righteous reason.
No, rather, you have come because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
You're here for the free meal, for the free ride.
It's not that you think it's amazing that the Son of God has fed 5,000 people
with five loaves and two fishes.
It's that it was a free meal, wherever it came from, and they didn't consider it.
Now, remember, not only did they not consider it,
Jesus even rebuked his own disciples for not considering the miracle of the loaves.
It was almost as if they had tried to explain it away or they just hadn't fully grasped
or allowed it to sink in the amazing miracle that Jesus did when he fed the 5,000.
You know, we see that in Mark chapter 8.
And so here we see that these people have, they're a multitude, by the way,
and they've joined themselves up with the Christians, with the people of God, with the disciples,
but they're there for the wrong reasons.
It's a lot like what we see in the Old Testament where people just are there for the food,
the mixed multitude that's going with the children of Israel out of Egypt.
And so you can see how this could be a parallel with a symbolic meaning
because, of course, the Old Testament nation of Israel is called the church in the wilderness.
Well, they're wandering in the wilderness with Moses, right?
And so that church in the wilderness has a bunch of fake hangers on that are there for the wrong reasons,
a mixed multitude that is among them.
And, of course, the Bible tells in the New Testament that even in the church,
the same thing is going to exist.
There are going to be people that are in our churches, in Christianity, claiming the name of Christ,
whatever, for the wrong reasons.
They don't actually believe in Christ.
They are there for a wrong reason.
And so Jesus tells these people flat out,
You didn't seek me.
You're not seeking me because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.
You're here for the food.
Labor not for the meat which perisheth.
And the labor here is referring to the fact that they, in the preceding verses,
have worked really hard to try to find Jesus.
They're searching for him. They're looking for him.
They're trying to figure out where he went, and they finally track him down.
Why? To get free food.
To get in on the party.
Labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of Man shall give unto you,
for him hath God the Father sealed.
He's saying, look, instead of being just out here trying to get free food,
what you ought to be trying to do is figure out how to get eternal life.
How to get saved. You should care about the gospel that's being preached,
about the word that's being preached,
because everlasting life is way more important than just a temporary meal.
You know, if you eat of that bread of life of being saved,
you will never hunger.
If you drink of the living water, you'll never thirst.
I mean, that's way more important than a physical meal,
being spiritually saved, having everlasting life.
So they respond to him because he says,
well, you know, don't labor for the meat that perishes,
labor for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life.
Then they said unto him, verse 28,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said to them,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent.
And so the implication there is you don't believe on him.
You need to believe on him.
You need to get saved.
Just like the mixed multitude in the Old Testament
did not believe, here we have another mixed multitude
that doesn't believe on Christ.
They said, therefore, unto him, verse 30,
what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work?
They said, okay, well, we'll believe, but you've got to show us a miracle.
And then they give him a little nudge in the direction of the kind of miracle that they want.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert.
As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven.
Well, look, is it really just that they really want to find Jesus?
They really want to find salvation.
They really want to find Christ, and so they're kind of nudging him toward this miracle.
No, they specifically want a miracle that involves free food, right?
Like, hey, I got an idea.
You want to show us a miracle?
How about more free food?
He just finished telling them that they're there for the wrong reason
because of wanting the food, and then they pull that out, the same thing.
Go, if you would, to Jude, to the epistle of Jude right before the book of Revelation.
You have Jude.
And by the way, you know, one of the things that I think of when I think about this idea
of the mixed multitude leaving Egypt with the Israelites,
not because they believe in the Lord, but just for a better financial prospect,
you know what I think?
I think of Muslim immigration.
Why do Muslims come to Europe and the United States?
Is it because they want to find Christ, the Son of God?
Is it because they want to convert to Christianity?
No, because they show up here, and they're still wearing that head covering.
They're still practicing that false, wicked religion, and they show up here.
Why?
Why would they come here?
Why come to America?
I mean, it makes it a little harder to get to the GameCube on your hodge.
It makes it a little bit, you know, why would you come all the way to the other side of the world?
To, you know, a Christian land, to a Christian nation.
Well, I guarantee you that the reasons for coming to the United States of America
or coming to Europe are primarily financial.
I don't know.
I think it'd be pretty hard to argue with the fact and just say,
no, no, no, they just really love baseball and apple pie and the Fourth of July and fireworks,
and they're very Jeffersonian, you know, in their philosophies.
No, my friend, they're coming here to eat of the loaves and be filled.
And look, I'm not saying that there's necessarily anything wrong with moving to a new place
because you have a better financial prospect there.
Hey, if I lived in a messed up place, I'd want to get out of there too,
and I'd want to go somewhere nicer.
But the problem is that these people, they don't realize that part of the reason
why the part of the world that they're from is messed up is because of Islam.
Islam has messed it up.
Islam is a corrupting influence, and so, therefore, you're leaving this messed up place
because it's messed up because of Islam, and then you want to come here and bring Islam here
where you want to mess this up too?
You want to mess this place up too and turn this into the place that you came from?
You know, if you come here, you know, truly if they'd been mindful of that country
from whence they came out, they might have also had opportunity to have returned.
You know, if it's so great where you came from, then go back.
But no, you're here, and why has God blessed America?
Because of Christianity.
Now, here's the thing.
If you look at the Muslim refugees that are flooding into Europe and other places,
you know, you find that the biggest reason why they're coming over is because of warfare,
because there's so much violence and warfare in their home country.
They want to get out of there.
They want to come over and be somewhere like the United States or Europe or somewhere else.
But here's the thing about that is that Islam is an inherently violent religion.
It's inherently violent.
So why do you want to bring the violence with you?
Because by bringing the Koran and Islam and the teachings of Islam,
you're bringing the violence with you.
Now, some people would say that that's not fair to say that.
They would say, you know, hey, that's not fair because, you know,
we could point to a bunch of violence done by Christians.
We could point to violence done by Hindus and Buddhists.
You know, it's not just us that are blowing ourselves up or, you know, whatever,
being violent or at war or whatever.
But let me tell you the difference.
First of all, when they talk about Christianity being violent,
it's pretty much Roman Catholicism that they're talking about.
It's Catholicism.
And I'll be the first to admit that Catholicism is garbage.
Okay.
But even that being said, let me tell you the colossal difference between, say,
oh, Christians over here are violent, Christians over here are fighting unjust wars,
you know, this religion, that religion.
The difference between that and Islam is that Christianity is not an inherently violent religion.
Of course, you could have bad people committing violence in the name of Jesus Christ,
but that doesn't make Christianity violent because someone twists or misinterprets the religion or whatever.
The difference is that the Bible clearly, very clearly,
teaches that peace is the way of Christianity versus Islam where the violence is baked in.
Let me just prove it to you.
Okay.
First of all, Jesus Christ himself, let's look at the founder.
The founder of Christianity, Jesus, was never violent.
Right?
You never see him actually hurting people, killing people, you know, organizing an army,
and going and fighting a physical war.
He even flat out said, my kingdom is not of this world.
If it were, then my followers would fight.
In fact, when one of his followers pulled out a sword and chopped off somebody's ear,
you know, it's the most violent thing that happened in his entire three and a half year ministry,
he puts the guy's ear back and heals it.
He says, hey, put up thy sword and get it in his teeth.
Those that live by the sword will die by the sword, Peter.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Our weapons are not carnal, the Bible says.
They're spiritual.
We're fighting a spiritual battle, and Jesus Christ was not violent at all whatsoever
and never let any kind of a warfare or jihad with his followers.
Not only that, the one time one of his apostles got violent for a second, Jesus fixed it and said,
hey, don't do that.
He put the guy's ear back on.
And look, if your ear got reattached, quit complaining.
You got your ear back.
Shut up.
And so no harm, no foul when your ear is reattached.
And so here's the thing about that is that Christ, the founder, is not violent at all.
OK, now let's look at the founder of Islam.
I mean, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, literally just even in the very earliest days of the religion,
is raiding caravans, killing, robbing, and pillaging from the beginning.
Even according to their own official story, their own official religion, he's raiding caravans.
He's conquering and defeating enemies.
And all of his subsequent following leaders, the people who inherited that torch from him,
the various caliphs that came after him, you know what?
They continued to conquer.
They continued to fight.
They continued to kill and take over and be violent and so forth.
Now you say, well, what about this Christian ruler?
You know, he was doing conquest.
The difference is the Bible never told him to do that.
The founder didn't do that.
Jesus didn't do that.
The apostles didn't do that.
And the Bible said specifically not to do that.
Whereas with Islam, you got the founder doing it, Mohammed being violent, killing people,
raiding, pillaging, robbing, leading troops into battle.
His following leaders, his apostles, quote, unquote, leading troops into battle.
The violence is baked in.
It's in the Quran.
It's in their other hadiths.
It's in their own history.
It's their founder.
It's his followers.
It's all about the violence.
It started out violent.
It continued violent.
And it's still violent.
Whereas with Christianity, anybody who is being violent is operating against the New Testament,
against the example of Jesus, and against the example of the apostles.
That's a pretty big difference, isn't it?
Where you have just an intrinsic violence in Islam and you have an intrinsic peacefulness
and free will built into Christianity.
Also, you know, you could point out the fact that, you know, Muslim countries are the most
illiterate countries in the world.
The top 10 most illiterate countries in the world, they're Muslim countries.
And you could say, well, what about over here when the Catholics kept people illiterate?
Again, number one, they're Catholic.
Number two is the fact that that is the Catholic church disobeying the Bible.
Show me in the Bible where it ever praises illiteracy or where anything is promoted or
where Jesus is illiterate.
Last time I checked, Jesus was writing in the dirt.
Last time I checked, Jesus went to the synagogue.
As his custom was, he pulled out a scroll and he started reading.
The apostles are reading.
Jesus is reading.
Their founder, they brag about him being illiterate.
They brag about the fact that the illiteracy is baked in.
The sexual perversion is baked.
You go, oh, what about this Catholic priest over here?
Again, he's Catholic.
Okay, but you can even say that, oh, there could be perverts in all religions.
Of course, there are perverts that have infiltrated into all religions.
But at the end of the day, though, the perversion is built in with Mohammed, who is openly a
pedophile, who they will all admit was married to a nine-year-old and consummated the marriage
with a nine-year-old.
Disgusting pervert who's rotting in hell as we speak.
Piss be upon him.
And so the thing is, you know, the difference between some bad actors in Christianity or
bad actors in other religions is that with Islam, this is in the warp and the woof of
their religion.
It is literally, it's the founder, it's the people that he passed the torch to or that
took the torch from him or usurped or whatever you want to say.
Hey, all of it is inherently violent, inherently promoting illiteracy, inherently.
I mean, if you tell people, hey, our greatest hero is illiterate, you know, what do you
expect?
It's inherently perverted.
And it's like, you know, basically you got this mixed multitude that basically wants
to come over and it's not because of the name of the Lord.
It's not because of Christianity.
It's just because they can do better financially here and then ultimately maybe there can even
be enough of them where they can turn our country into another Muslim crap hole.
Wouldn't that be great?
Where was I, beloved?
Book of Jude, verse 4.
The Bible says,
For there are certain men, crept in unawares, who were before of old, ordained of this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only
Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord having
saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward, what did he do?
He destroyed them that believed not.
So a lot of people who came out of Egypt did not believe.
They weren't there for the right reason.
They're part of that mixed multitude or even just unbelieving Israelites, of course.
Same thing.
I mean, just like we have plenty of non-Christian Americans or we have plenty of, you know,
I don't know, Muslims that homegrown terror or whatever.
But anyway, the point is that in the church, there are going to be, the Bible tells us,
false prophets and false teachers that creep in unawares.
There are going to be Judas Iscariots in the bunch that are not actually saved.
They don't actually believe in Christ, but they're in church for some other reason.
Maybe they could be in church for business reasons.
Maybe they could be in church for political reasons, for relationship reasons.
You know, they're just trying to keep some man happy or some woman happy or they're trying
to keep their parents happy or their children happy or whoever.
There could be people here that are here for the wrong reasons and God is saying that just
as in the wilderness, there were unbelievers and afterward they got destroyed.
It will be the same way in the church in the New Testament.
Flip back if you would to 2 Peter, just a couple pages to the left in your Bible, 2
Peter chapter 2.
What's the sermon about?
The mixed multitude.
Now, in the Exodus, it's people who are other nations besides Israel yoking up with Israel,
which on the surface isn't inherently bad.
It could be a good thing, but the problem is they're doing it for the wrong reason.
You know, God repeatedly throughout the Old Testament says that it's wonderful if foreigners
will join up with the nation of Israel, worship the Lord, keep the Passover, get circumcised.
I'll give you an example.
You don't have to turn there.
Stay in 2 Peter 2, but Isaiah chapter 56 is a great passage on this.
Isaiah 56 verse 3 says, Neither let the son of the stranger, stranger means foreigner,
neither let the son of the stranger that has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying,
The Lord has utterly separated me from his people.
So God says don't let the son of the stranger think that the Lord has utterly separated
him from his people.
That, oh, you know, because I'm the son of a stranger, because I'm the wrong ethnicity,
because I'm the wrong nationality, I'm not a full-fledged member of God's people or something.
He says, no, don't think that way.
A couple of verses later he says this, verse 6, Also the sons of the stranger that join
themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants.
Everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my covenant, even them
will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar, for my
house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.
Of course, Jesus quoted that in the New Testament.
The Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others
to him besides those that are gathered unto him.
And so, you know, God's saying, look, don't feel bad if you're the son of a stranger.
Hey, don't worry about it, because you know what, if you're serving God, if you love the
Lord, then that's great, and I'm going to accept you.
You're one of us.
You're one of us, and there are lots of passages we could point to about foreigners being assimilated
in, but the difference is that it's about believing in the Lord.
It's about coming for the right reason.
It's about wanting to be one of God's people, not just, oh, well, my financial prospects
are better over here, but I'm going to go ahead and bring my idolatry with me.
I'm going to go ahead and bring the religion of the Philistines or the religion of the
Canaanites or whatever, or in modern day, I'm going to bring Islam with me or whatever.
That's the problem, is that they're coming for the wrong reason.
I'm not xenophobic or negative toward immigrants per se.
I say the more the merrier.
I'm glad that Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in America.
I just hope it keeps growing.
I love it.
I'm not one of these people that just wants to lock everybody out or something.
But at the same time, we want to keep the Christian character of our nation.
I'd rather that more Christians are coming over, evangelical Christians coming over,
than that it's a bunch of Muslims and Catholics coming over, changing the nature of our culture
and so forth.
But again, I'm not in charge of these things.
I'm never going to be in charge of these things.
I don't want to be in charge of these things.
I thank God that I don't have to make any decisions about any of this.
And so at the end of the day, what I'm going to do is just try to win people to Christ
from all nations.
I'm not down on immigrants who are here.
You know, Islam makes me mad.
You know, it bothers me because it's a messed up religion.
But here's the thing.
It doesn't mean that I hate Muslims because I want to win Muslims to Christ.
And hey, at least we can witness to Muslims here without getting our head cut off.
Because if we went over on their turf and start, you know, preaching to Muslims over
on their turf, we'll be imprisoned or even killed, right?
Because that's what they do in the countries where they're in charge and they take away
people's freedom and they abuse people of other religions and so forth.
And so, hey, I would much rather at least have opportunity to win an Iranian to Christ
in America than to have to go to Iran and, you know, because I just wouldn't do it.
Because it's just a suicide mission at that point and suicide missions are for Muslims
not Christians.
So Book of Jude, or we went to 2 Peter actually, 2 Peter 2 verse 1, it says, there were false
prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be
evil, spoken of, and look at the next word, through covetousness.
So why are they there?
Why was the mixed multitude attached to the Israelites leaving Egypt?
Because of covetousness.
Hey, I want the prosperity that I think the Israelites are going to have.
My prospects aren't good in Egypt and so I'm going to throw in my lot with the Israelites
and see if I can do better because it's all about the food, the wining and dining, it's
all about money, whatever.
Well the Bible ties in that same thing here, talking about people who through covetousness
will be fake, fainted, they will infiltrate, they will bring in damnable heresies, they
will cause the way of truth to be evil, spoken of.
They will give Christianity a bad name.
And here's the thing, the people who give Christianity a bad name are actually not saved.
Because who gives Christianity the worst name?
Roman Catholics.
Because when atheists or agnostics want to talk about the evils of Christianity they
want to talk about, hey over here this massacre carried out by Catholics.
The Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition and they want to point out all these different
things.
Oh you say Islam is violent?
Well Christianity is violent too.
Just look at these Catholics over here in Lebanon or over in wherever.
And everybody's quick to point at these phony, bogus, pagan, idolatrous, crept in, unawares,
infiltrators of Christianity and it causes the way of truth to be evil spoken of.
Folks that is a mixed multitude.
That is not the true people of God.
Now in the Old Testament we have a physical, visible nation of Israel and then you have
other pagan nations and it's a physical, literal nation.
In the New Testament there is no physical nation that is the people of God.
In the New Testament according to 1 Peter chapter 2, the people of God, that group consists
of everyone who's saved, red, yellow, black and white and it doesn't even matter where
they are geographically.
They can be scattered all over the world, all different ethnicities.
If they believe in Jesus Christ they are the people of God.
So stop, and I don't want to get too complicated, I hope you understand the point of the sermon
this morning, is that just as the physical nation of Israel had a bunch of other people
attaching themselves for the wrong reasons, the spiritual Israel of the New Testament,
the spiritual nation of the saved children of God, has a bunch of unsaved people who
attach themselves.
So it's not about ethnicity or race in the New Testament and it really wasn't ever truly
about that in the Old Testament either because of the fact that those people could convert
and become Jews no matter what color they were.
That was never the issue.
Even Moses married an Ethiopian for crying out loud.
But the point is, and God backed him up when his siblings got angry, but the point is that
in the New Testament you've got unsaved people that represent a mixed multitude in churches
and in Christianity in general.
They don't believe.
They're there because they ate of the loaves and were filled.
They're there because of what they can get from the church.
Whatever their motivation, whatever their reasons, they are the wrong reasons.
And you know, going back to even just the origins of Roman Catholicism, I mean why did
Constantine the Great, why did he make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire?
Is it because of his religious zeal for Jesus Christ and the Bible?
Is that why he did it?
It was a political move.
It was a political move to consolidate power because of the fact that the power had been
divided between four different rulers earlier on.
And so he wanted to consolidate power for himself and the Roman Empire in general realized
with the Christians, hey, if you can't beat them, join them.
And so they ended up subverting it, co-opting it.
You know, I don't want to get all political because I'm not into politics, but I'm going
to just like get political only just for sake of illustration.
The politics aren't important.
It's the illustration that's important because I don't really care about the politics, but
this is just such a good illustration I'm just going to use it.
But I remember back many years ago there was this movement called the Tea Party movement
and when it started out and you'd go to these Tea Party events, it was all like a bunch
of Ron Paul supporters.
It was a bunch of like small government, libertarian minded Republicans, like Ron Paul types.
You know, it was like the Constitution Party and all this that was against like the mainstream
Republican Party.
And I remember going to these events and you're just surrounded by all these kind of like-minded
people if that was your ilk.
And then I remember from one year to the next, all of a sudden Tea Party became like John
McCain and Sarah Palin and you're like, what the, like what?
When did the, does anybody, who would say like, yeah, I kind of remember that exact
phenomenon.
Okay, so at least a few people kind of remember this history.
And it was just kind of like, what in the world?
This is just the Republican Party.
This is, this doesn't feel like the Tea Party movement or whatever.
And what it is is that the whole Ron Paul revolution, Tea Party type movement, whatever
you think about it, whatever you believe about it, was counter-cultural to the mainstream
kind of big government, pro-war Republican Party.
And this was people trying to reform it.
And then pretty much the Republican Party is just like, well, if you can't beat them,
join them.
And they basically just kind of took over it, co-opted it, and just became Republicans
and it's just all about Republicanism.
And it was just kind of like one year to the next, I felt like that change happened.
And so that's the same type of thing that we see here where basically, and you know,
that's probably what happened in the Protestant Reformation too.
You know, you got a bunch of people reading the Bible and saying, salvation's by faith,
but then you get these big old giant, you know, religions coming in and saying, okay,
yeah, yeah, yeah, faith alone.
But you know, faith alone doesn't really mean what you think because the, I mean, the slogans
of the Reformation are great, sola scriptura, right?
Scripture alone, grace alone, sola fide, faith alone.
I'd be a Protestant if it weren't for Protestants.
It all sounds great.
But then it gets co-opted, it gets hijacked by people who come along and create a religion
that's like 90% Catholic.
I mean, look, tell me how different are the Lutherans really from the Catholics?
I mean, how different are they really?
There's baptizing babies, telling you that you're literally eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of Jesus and all this stuff.
It's the same garbage, the same works-based salvation.
I mean, sola fide, really?
Because I go out soul winning every single week and I'm constantly talking to Lutherans
and you know, it's funny how they're not fully trusting Christ as their savior and believing
that salvation is just by believing in Christ.
They all, all of them believe that you can lose your salvation.
So wow, okay, so Christ did all, you just have to believe in him.
Oh, but by the way, don't screw this up because you got to do your part.
You got to do your works or whatever.
I mean, what is that?
Folks, let me tell you something, okay?
The devil will often infiltrate and send in his minions to teach damnable heresies so
that the way of truth will be evil spoken of.
I mean, look, Christ never sent us on a jihad, but the Pope has called for some jihad.
You know, the Pope has called for violent campaigns against, you know, to retake Jerusalem
from the pagans.
You are the pagan.
You're the biggest pagan in the world.
And plus, why do we need to retake Jerusalem from anyone?
Who cares?
I mean, do you think I care who controls Jerusalem?
I live in Arizona.
The Pope lives in Italy.
Who cares?
You know what I mean?
Like, just eat your spaghetti and let them do whatever they want.
Nuts to them.
But again, it's this carnal idea that, oh, there's something special.
You know, this magical, you know, holy land or, you know, ah, you know, ah.
It's a bunch of superstitious, hocus pocus.
Christ is wherever two or three people are gathered in his name.
Christ is in our hearts.
God is the God of the whole earth.
And you know what's so funny is that, oh, holy ground.
You want to know what the original holy ground was in the Bible?
The original holy ground was in Arabia at Mount Sinai.
It's not even in Israel.
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet because you're in Arabia.
No.
The reason why it was holy ground is because the presence of God was there.
And then later, when Joshua is entering Canaan land in the actual Promised Land in Israel,
he's again told, put off your shoes from off your feet.
The place where on your standing is holy ground.
Wait a minute.
Excuse me.
I thought that was Mount Sinai.
Now it's, you know, just outside Jericho near the Jordan River?
No, my friend.
It's wherever the presence of God is.
It's wherever two or three people are gathered together in his name.
And so the mixed multitude are fake Christians just like the mixed multitude in the Old Testament
are fake Israelites, hangers on people who have attached themselves to Christianity or
the name of Christ for the wrong reasons.
All of Roman Catholicism falls in this category.
Because of other false, fake, bogus versions of Christianity caused the way of truth to
be evil spoken of, they don't actually believe in Christ.
Because if they actually believe in Christ, then they'd be going to heaven.
But they don't.
They're trusting in their works.
They're trusting in their pagan rituals, their false religion.
And here's the thing about that is that even within a Bible believing church, even within
an evangelical Christian church, a Baptist church where people actually do believe Sola
Fide, it's not just a slogan, it's actually a reality of what we believe, salvation by
faith alone, by grace alone, to God alone be a glory, through Christ alone, you know,
scripture alone, right?
We actually believe that stuff.
We're more Protestant than the Protestants.
We actually believe their slogans more than they do.
But even in the right kind of church, there is going to be a mixed multitude.
And I'm not talking about nationalities because you know what, God has a house of prayer for
all nations.
We want people here from every ethnicity, every nationality.
You know what?
We would love to have former Muslims as members of our church.
We would love to have former Catholics in our church.
We would love to have former Hindus, former Buddhists, right?
That's not the issue.
It's got nothing to do with ethnicity, my friend.
It has to do with the fact that we want our church to be an assembly of born-again baptized believers.
And you know what's funny is that all our lives we're told, oh well a church is a called
out assembly of born-again baptized believers.
We're told that our whole lives and then you get up and actually say, hey, the people in
the church should actually be saved people.
We want our church to be saved people.
And people are like, eeee, I thought that was your whole definition of church that you
taught us our whole lives.
And now you want us to fill the church with unsaved people?
Now look, hey, if there are a couple of unsaved people, great.
I hope we have a few unsaved people here this morning so that they can hear the truth and
get saved.
So that they could be witnessed unto and get saved.
But you know what?
I would be very unhappy if 10% of the church were unsaved or 20% of the church was unsaved,
40% of the church is unsaved.
Oh, isn't it wonderful?
Isn't it wonderful that half of my church is unsaved?
I mean, it's just so great because I just get to preach the gospel to unsaved people
everywhere.
Isn't it great?
No, buddy, because you're missing the whole point of what church is even supposed to be.
It's supposed to be believers.
And if an unbeliever comes in, great, let's get them saved.
Great.
Bring it.
Look, I'm 100% for you bringing unsaved people as visitors.
Amen.
But you know what?
I want this church to be overwhelmingly filled with saved people.
So the unsaved person is an anomaly, not the norm.
Not like, well, 70% of our church is unsaved.
Isn't it great how many unsaved people we've been able to attract?
At that point, are you even church anymore?
You're missing the whole point.
You say, well, don't you want to get people saved?
Yeah, out there.
I want to get people saved out there.
Because yet, you know what?
Do we get people saved in this assembly?
Sometimes.
What percentage of people would you say our church gets saved outside of these doors versus
inside these doors?
99% outside these doors, less than 1% inside these doors.
Because last time I checked, the Bible said, go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature.
It didn't say bring every possible creature into your church in order to get them all
saved.
The Bible says, no, go and preach the gospel to every creature.
And look, my friend, the mixed multitude is real today in Christianity.
It's people that are here for the wrong reasons.
You could look at it spiritually.
That's the most important way to look at it.
You could also say politically there's a mixed multitude when you see a bunch of Muslims
coming into Christian countries and remaining Muslim.
That's a mixed multitude.
Now here's the thing, if you have a mixed multitude among you, well, guess what?
You're always going to have a mixed multitude.
They had it in Exodus.
Even Jesus had Judas Iscariot in his crew.
You know, what do we do?
Like are we on a witch hunt to purge out the infiltrators from faith for Baptist church?
Absolutely not.
Because Jesus already told us there shall be false teachers among you.
There shall be false prophets among you.
There will be people who are crept in unawares.
There will be false brethren.
It's going to happen.
So make peace with it.
And I just realize it.
And what I'm not going to do though is allow those people to influence me.
Like the mixed multitude that fell a lusting and then they influence the people around
them toward the same wickedness.
We should not be influenced by the mixed multitude in our church or in any church or in Christianity
in general.
We need to identify the fact that yes, there are people among us who don't belong here
and we're not going to let them influence us.
And we're not just going to assume that, oh, if somebody's from church, they're cool.
Somebody's a fundamental Baptist, they're cool.
Oh, King James Baptist, well, here, let me just put you behind the pulpit and I don't
even know what you believe.
Folks, the average IFB church puts strangers behind the pulpit regularly.
It's true.
They will regularly have guest speakers that they barely know and then they get up and
preach heresy and then it's just like, oh, whoops.
You know what?
I mean, you know, maybe we should just stick to putting people behind the pulpit that we
know.
It'd be a lot less weird things coming across the pulpit.
Folks, there's a mixed multitude.
There are people crept in our words.
Now when it comes to, you know, politically or ethnically, the fact that we have, you
know, Muslim immigrants or people bringing false religion, you know, getting mad about
it isn't going to help anything.
You're not in charge.
You're not, you know, you're not running the border or whatever, deciding who comes in
and who doesn't.
None of us has any power over those things.
I don't sit around worrying about or getting upset about things about which I have no power.
And to be honest with you, I don't even want the power because I wouldn't even know how
to handle it.
I wouldn't even know what to do, you know, but I don't want to.
I have enough to say grace over.
God has put me in this position and I'm going to do the best I can in the position that
I fill and I'm not trying to run the whole world.
I'm here to preach the Bible.
But the bottom line is though that we have a situation where people are coming from all
over the world to the United States or other places in the Western world and they're often
coming from these Muslim countries or countries where other false religions dominate and what
we need to do is make the best of that situation by winning those people to Christ so that
they're no longer a mixed multitude.
Because I mean, if you think about it, the mixed multitude, they're clearly not part
of Israel, right?
That's why they're called the mixed multitude.
Whereas a guy like Caleb, you know, look at Caleb and see the fact that he is not ethnically
biologically descended from the 12 tribes of Israel, you know, and yet he is seen as
a full-fledged Israelite.
He's not seen as mixed multitude because he has been totally assimilated.
And so here's the thing.
Let's assimilate these people by getting them saved.
But it's like, well, no, let's assimilate them into America but then let's just kind
of like respect their religion and say that, hey, you go ahead and keep your religion.
You know, my friend, the religion's got to go.
And look, I'm not getting violent with anybody.
I'm not forcing anybody to do anything.
I would never force anyone to be a Christian.
But you know what I would do?
I'd get on my knees and beg someone to be a Christian and I would preach the gospel
to someone and try to reach them.
And so we should try to reach this mixed multitude that's pouring into America and Europe.
Let's try to reach that mixed multitude so that they're not a mixed multitude anymore.
We can get them saved, get them Christian, and get them off that bogus religion and at
least all things work together for good to them that love God.
And so I'm looking at it as, hey, you know, maybe this is a bad thing for a lot of people
but for me it's just a soul-winning opportunity, it's just a mission field.
And I'm going to love those people and seek to win them unto Christ.
That's going to be my attitude toward the mixed multitude.
And then when it comes, same thing, even the spiritual mixed multitude, the fake Christians,
the Catholics, the, I almost said Mormons but I forgot that they're almost impossible
to reach, you know, the fake Christians of types that actually give a rip, you know,
we could actually win them to Christ and then they're no longer a mixed multitude anymore.
That's what we ought to do.
You know, look, we need to love people and try to reach them.
Basically if God's going to judge people, that's up to God.
If God, you know, the fire of the Lord is going to burn people up, that's God's problem.
We should never get violent like that.
It's not our problem.
My problem is just to get as many people saved as I can and preach Christ and preach godliness
and preach the Bible to God's people.
Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this example in the Old Testament from the mixed multitude,
Lord.
And then Lord, even in the New Testament, you had a mixed multitude, Lord, that was
following Christ and so, Lord, we just pray that we would be faithful to preach the gospel
to the lost, that we would not be influenced or tricked or fooled by the mixed multitude.
Lord, help us just realize that there are just a lot of fake Christians out there.
There's a lot of fake Christianity and these people don't believe and they're claiming
the name of Christ for some other reason, just like the mixed multitude followed Moses
for some other reason.
Lord, God, please just help us to be faithful in preaching the gospel to the lost.
Help us not to be hateful or malicious toward foreigners, Lord, but help us rather to try
to reach them with the gospel and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Take your hymnals, please.
Go to hymn 402, 402, our best, hymn number 402.
Sing it out together now.
Here ye the master's hall, give me thy best, glory in grace,
Sing it out together now.
Here ye the master's hall, give me thy best, glory in grace,
glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace,
glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in
in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace,
glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace, glory in grace,
glory in grace, glory in grace.
Glory in grace, glory in grace.