Yeah, yeah, I got plenty of room right there, huh?
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
If you would, please take your seats and we'll begin our service this evening.
When you find your seat, grab a hymnal and turn to song number 51.
Song number 51, where will never grow old?
I have heard of a land on a faraway strait, it's a beautiful home.
Thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to be a church this evening
Please fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit as he preaches unto us and open our ears to listen to the message
And it's in Jesus name that I pray amen
All right next if you would turn to song number
130
Song number 130 yesterday today forever
the same.
I'm sad, I'm sad...
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 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in Psalm 78.
We've got soul winning times listed there below as well as Salvation and Baptisms.
Obviously Easter is already over.
RSVPs for the Mother-Daughter Tea Party are closed for April 27th, but still open for May 4th.
So if you'd like to go, be sure to RSVP right away.
The Church Roller Skating Night is six days from now, so it is the next Tuesday coming up.
and that's gonna be from six to nine p.m.
There's absolutely no charge, you just show up
and everything's covered, the skate rental's covered
and you even get a slice of pizza
and a drink into the bargain.
And so don't miss that, super fun activity.
On the back, keep praying for our expectant ladies
that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy
and delivery friendly reminder about the covered spots
that those are for other tenants
so we don't wanna irritate them.
Please silence your cell phone during the service,
and kids are not allowed to roughhouse, run or play
unsupervised before or after the services.
Other upcoming events, two days from now,
I'm gonna be preaching in Seattle, Washington,
this Friday night at the Sher Foundation Baptist Church
there, and so I'm looking forward to preaching
for my first time ever in Seattle.
I've been to Seattle a lot for work in the past,
but this will be my first time preaching there,
so I'm looking forward to that.
And then we got the KJV conference coming up in Vancouver just a few weeks away, May 15th through 18th.
So looking forward to that.
and Pastor Dylan Oz coming and preaching on the 25th.
So that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days.
Go, oh, also we have the free food over here.
There's also more stuff in the fridge,
like all of the meat and stuff is in the fridge.
So that'll come out after the service.
So you can check out that stuff over there
and get some free grub.
All right, anything to report from Monday for soul winning?
Anything else from Monday? All right, and then how about Tuesday anything from Tuesday? Okay
Okay
All right, and then what about today anything from today, okay, is that a two all right
Gotcha
Okay, anything else from today. All right very good keep up the great work on soul winning and with that let's sing our next song
Come lead us. Oops
There should be an insert in the front of your hymnal with the song entitled Am I, I am the Resurrection.
We'll sing through the song twice. I am the Resurrection.
I am the Resurrection and the life.
We don't live, don't live, don't live again.
Yes, shall we live, yes, shall we live.
And believe that then we shall never, never die.
I am the resurrection in the light.
And he never believed in me, though he forgave.
Yes, shall he live, yes, shall he live.
Song number 25 wounded for me
Jesus has risen for me, living for me, living for me, up in the skies, He is living for me.
He's calling for me.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm 78.
Psalm 78, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads,
Psalm 78, beginning in verse number one.
Psalm 78
Give ear all my people to my law and climb your ears to the words of my mouth. I
Will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us
We will not hide them from their children
Showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he had done
For he established a testimony in Jacob
appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should
make them known to their children that the generation to come might know them
even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them to
their children that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of
God but keep his commandments and might not be as their fathers a stubborn and
rebellious rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart a
The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle.
They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law and forgot His works and His wonders that He had showed them.
Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field of Zohan.
He divided the sea and caused them to pass through and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
In the daytime also He led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire.
He claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most high in the wilderness.
And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
Yea, they spake against God.
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?
Therefore, the Lord heard this and was wroth, so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger
also came up against Israel.
Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation, though he had commanded
the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna upon
them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven, man did eat angels' food, he sent
them meat to the full, he caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power he
He reigned flesh also upon them as dust and feathered foals like as the sand of the sea,
and he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habitations.
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,
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.
Therefore, their days that he consumed in vanity and their years in trouble,
when he slew them, then they sought him.
And they returned and inquired early after God,
and they remembered that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer.
Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth,
and they lied unto him with their tongues, for their heart was not right with him,
neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
Being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not.
Yea, many a time turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath.
For he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away and cometh not again.
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert?
Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
how he had wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zohan
and had turned their rivers into blood and their floods that they could not drink.
He sent diverse sorts of flies among them which devoured them and frogs which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase under the caterpillar and their labor under the locusts.
He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost.
He gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble by sending
evil angels among them.
He made a way to his anger.
He spared not their soul from death but gave their life over to the pestilence, and smote
all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength and the tabernacles of Ham, but made
And he led them on safely so that they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
He cast out the heave and also before them.
and divided them in inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies,
but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers.
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow,
for they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel.
so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,
and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
He gave his people over also into the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine,
and he smote his enemies in the hinder parts,
he put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like high palaces,
like the earth which he hath established forever.
He chose David also as servant and took him from the sheepfolds.
From following the use, great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Our Father in Heaven, thank you for this time together
and hear your word preached.
Thank you for faithful word Baptist Church
and thank you for Pastor Anderson.
We ask now that you would give him wisdom Lord
to preach your word to us Lord.
We pray that your law would continually be before our eyes
that we sit not against you.
We ask your blessing now upon this time
in Jesus' name we pray amen.
Man, Psalm 78, another Psalm of
Asaph, and this is the big one, of course,
when it comes to length.
And a lot of the long Psalms in the Book of Psalms
are long because they tell stories and go into history.
And this one's no exception.
It goes into the history of the plagues upon Egypt.
And I don't know if you noticed there,
it kind of supported what I was saying last week
about Psalm 77 referencing the plague of Hale
because the plague of Hale is emphasized in this Psalm
even though it doesn't list all of the plagues,
that's apparently one that ASAP seemed to focus on.
But at the beginning here,
before we get into the historical part,
there's a very famous part at the very beginning,
because this is actually quoted by Jesus Christ.
It says in verse number one,
give ear, O my people.
to my law and climb your ears to the words of my mouth, I will open my mouth in a parable,
I will utter dark sayings of old." And it's verse two there that is quoted by Jesus Christ.
Now whenever we're reading the Bible and whenever we're reading the Old Testament in particular,
we're looking for Jesus, right? Because
all throughout the Old Testament there are continual references to Jesus Christ and that's a very
rewarding way to read the Bible is to interpret it through that Christological lens and to be
thinking about the prophetic implications or the fulfillment in Christ.
But the one mistake that we don't want to make though is we don't want to just completely ignore
the meaning that also existed back then for that time because you have to remember that you know
Asaph is writing this song, he's coming out with this song and the children of Israel are singing
it back then and there's an application that's immediate for that generation and then there's
the future fulfillment in Christ. And of course we know that all throughout the Old Testament
prophecies and other scriptures are often having dual fulfillment or even a triple fulfillment.
They usually have an immediate application for them right then and there and then something further
out in the future often that has to do with the coming of Christ.
And so when it starts out here in verse number one, it says,
give ear, O my people, to my law.
Who's the one, this is actually not God talking.
This is the Psalmist speaking.
This is Asaph speaking.
And again, this is going to be later applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's going to be in the mouth of Jesus.
But at this point, it's in the mouth of Asaph, literally.
Give ear, O my people, to my law,
and climb your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will utter my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old."
Now you say, well, how can ASAP say,
you know, give ear to my law?
Well, if you would, keep your finger here
and go over to Proverbs chapter 3.
because you're going to find this throughout the Bible that men of God will often use this
personal pronoun to talk about their preaching, their gospel, things like that. And holier
than thou's will really have a problem with this. Whenever you want to take ownership of anything
about the Christian life, they want to correct you and they don't want you to have any ownership
of anything. So if you say something like, my church, they're just like, whoa, what do you mean
It's God's church. It's the Lord's church the kind of pedantic
Continual reminders that everything belongs to Jesus all the time is just a sign of a holier than thou
Because every normal person says let me invite you to my church this Sunday
Would you like to come visit my church?
I really love my church.
My new church has really been feeding me spiritually.
That's pretty normal to say my church.
You know, the apostle Paul talked about preaching the gospel and he called it my gospel.
Wait a minute, Paul, that's Jesus' gospel.
When he says my gospel, he's just saying it's the gospel that I'm preaching.
Okay, so when Asaph here says, listen to my law,
he's saying, look, I'm gonna give you rules that I teach.
These are, and as we go on in Psalm 78,
you're gonna see that these are things
that he got from his dad.
We got them from the previous generation.
We're passing them on to the next generation.
And we're taking ownership of these things, okay?
Look at chapter three of Proverbs there
in verse number one.
Because this is clearly not some kind of a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is just a father speaking to his son.
My son, forget not my law.
But, let thine heart keep my commandments, for length of days, and long life, and peace, they shall add to these."
So, dad is saying, forget not my law.
And obviously, yes, of course, we can apply this to the Father in heaven as a secondary application,
but the primary application is dad is saying my law.
Also, you'll find in the book of Proverbs, the law of your mother.
It's the rules. It's the law that she's laying down for you. Now a lot of times these are God's laws
Coming out of dad's mouth coming out of mom's mouth other times
They could be laws that are unique to mom and dad, but often especially in a biblical context
We're talking about really just human beings preaching God's law
and saying, this is my law, this is how I live.
I don't steal, I don't kill, I don't commit adultery.
It doesn't make you selfish or egotistical
to take ownership of the rules in the Bible
and kind of make them your own.
It's actually a good way to think about things, right?
And I hope you think of Faith Board Baptist Church
as your church and you think of your soul winning plan,
you know, your gospel that you preach out
when you're soul winning and so forth.
So don't ever be shy about these personal,
possessive pronouns, you know,
unless someone call you a narcissist
or egotistical or something like that.
But look at chapter four, verse one,
it says, here ye children, the instruction of a father
and attend to no understanding.
for I give you good doctrine, for sake ye not my law."
I love it.
Look at chapter 7 verse 1.
My son keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee.
Keep my commandments and live and my law as the apple of thine eye.
So when we see this over and over again in the book of Proverbs,
it doesn't really surprise us that Asaph would talk that way.
And say in Psalm 78,
What do you mean your people? Aren't we God's people? You know, we could say my country
My church, you know my city my town my city. You're saying you own the place
It's obviously a silly way to look at things
Give ear, O my people, to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known, and our fathers have
told us."
And so there's a tradition being passed from father to son.
Now before we move on here, let's talk about the Jesus quote here in Matthew 13.
So keep your finger here in Psalm 78.
because it's worded differently in Matthew 1335
because this is one of those situations
where the Old Testament is being paraphrased
and not quoted exactly word for word,
but the idea is the same.
Look at Matthew chapter 13 verse 34, first of all.
It says, all these things spake Jesus
under the multitudes and parables.
And without a parable, spake he not unto them.
And so when Jesus is preaching to the crowds,
he uses parables.
And a lot of times the crowds walk away
not really understanding what he was even saying.
Then he takes the disciples aside privately and he explains everything to them in great detail.
And the nice thing is that we as the readers, we get all those detailed explanations.
So we're not kind of that outsider crowd that's kind of left scratch in their head at some of
these parables. We're getting the inside stuff, like as if we were one of the 12 disciples right
there with Jesus, getting things explained to us. And so Jesus is speaking to the multitudes,
Everything he's speaking in parables in chapter 13 and it says without a parable speaking out under them
So, everything is obscure, everything's a parable to them, to the crowds.
But then to the disciples, he expounds things more clearly.
And the idea here is that the unsaved people are not going to understand the Word of God.
They're going to go through their whole lives and they're going to live and die without
knowing the truths of the Bible, without having the wisdom of the Bible.
right? The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And so you have to be
and have communion with God, then you read the Bible and then things are clear unto you, right?
And we have all those conversations between Jesus and His disciples where He's explaining everything to them.
Now, if a person who is unsaved reads the Bible, though, truths are just going to go right over their head,
they're not going to grasp it, okay?
Whereas we that are saved, we have the Holy Spirit as our teacher built in,
showing us all things, expounding unto us all things and guiding us into all truth.
And so that's kind of symbolized by the idea
that he's not explaining things to the crowd,
but he's explaining things to his inner circle.
The way you get in the inner circle is you get saved
and then you read the Bible
and then you get all the truths that you need.
And so it says that it might be fulfilled, verse 35,
which was spoken by the prophet.
Who's the prophet?
Asaph, because we're talking Psalm 78.
that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken by the prophet saying,
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things which have been kept secret
from the foundation of the world.
And then in verse 36, you see how he sends the multitude away
and privately explains things to his actual disciples.
So let's compare the difference here between these two statements.
The first part is the same, I will open my mouth in a parable,
It says in Psalm 78, here it says,
I will open my mouth in parables.
So it's virtually the same,
just the plural on the end of parable is the difference.
And that makes sense because of the fact that Jesus in the context is doing multiple parables,
so the quote is being paraphrased for that exact situation.
And then in the Old Testament it says, I will utter dark sayings of old, and then in the
New Testament quotation it will say, I will utter things which have been kept secret from
the foundation of the world.
are the dark sayings.
So this can in a sense help us to understand,
because it's being paraphrased in the New Testament,
if we're reading the Old Testament
and we come across dark sayings
and we're kind of wondering like, what does that mean?
What does it mean to utter a dark saying?
Well, it's something that is not easily understood.
It's secret.
Something that everybody doesn't grasp.
Everybody doesn't understand.
You need to have some hidden knowledge
in order to pick up on it.
Okay. And then it says, I will utter dark sayings of old, the of old in the New Testament becomes
From the foundation of the world, right? So again, it's not a word-for-word quotation
It's just paraphrasing we do this all the time when we're preaching
We just say hey the Bible says and then we sort of just give an idea from the Bible and not necessarily always a word-for-word
Translation or we might change it to fit the situation that we're talking about right now
And so that's what's going on in the book of Matthew with this and so
Asaph is saying, I'm going to open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
So there's all this wisdom.
and all of these teachings, some of which are obscure,
especially in the Old Testament,
because the people in the Old Testament
had a lot less knowledge than we have
as New Testament Christians.
And so a lot of the things that they're passing down,
they're copying scriptures, they're passing them down,
they're repeating prophecies,
but they don't necessarily understand what it even is
that they're even passing down.
and what it is that they're even saying all the time,
whereas now with the benefit of hindsight in 2025,
we can see things far more clearly
because we have the whole book, Genesis to Revelation.
So it says,
which we've heard and known and our fathers have told us,
verse three of Psalm 78,
we will not hide them from their children.
showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord
and his strengths and his wonderful works that he had done
for he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel
which commanded our fathers that they should make them known
to their children, that the generation to come might know them
even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them
to their children. And so
There's an emphasis here as we go down through this on, yes, the stories, yes, the wonderful
works of God, but another thing that keeps coming up over and over again are the laws of God
and the commandments of God. And that is something that's going to be emphasized
all throughout this chapter, right? It says in verse 7 that they might set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God. That's the things that God did, all of his wondrous and mighty
that they would keep his commandments and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation, a generation that set out their heart to write and whose spirit was not steadfast with
God. So in these introductory eight verses here, before we really get into the story,
we have this idea that the Word of God is supposed to be transmitted
from one generation to the next, right?
The fathers teach it to the children,
they teach it to their children,
they teach it to their children.
And if only it were that easy, right?
Then the Bible would be a very different book
because when we read about the history
of the children of Israel during the period of the judges
or during the period of the kings
or when they come back from the Babylonian captivity,
it's just continual failure
to transmit these things to the next generation constantly.
right? And then he's even saying to them in this passage, don't be like your fathers who were stubborn and rebellious.
So the idea is there's a failure often on both ends, you know, you didn't receive the teachings
You didn't receive the traditions on the one end or you're not passing them on on this end
Or they're refusing to receive what you're passing on or what have you, you know
Ideally, this is the way it's supposed to go father to son father to son father son mother teaches daughter
But unfortunately the reality of life is that you have children whose parents are rebellious
And there's often a breakdown in this transmission from one generation to the next.
But yet the Word of God still prevails, it still continues.
Why?
Because there's always somebody who's listening, right?
Somebody's always listening.
And it's not always the people that you think or expect.
You know, for example, Pastor Roger Jimenez and I,
we both went to the same church when he was a teenager.
I was a young adult and we went to that church
and we were hearing a lot of great preaching
from our pastor at that time and here's the thing,
we have taken that preaching
that we heard from our pastor back then
and we have
followed in his footsteps. And we have continued to stand on those things. We've continued to
preach those things. We've continued to follow that path that he laid for us. And here's the thing,
a lot of other people in that church did it. A lot of them did. A lot of them didn't. That's
just the way it is. You know, we can look back at who we went to church with at that time.
A lot of those people are still serving God and a lot of them aren't.
It's a mixed bag, but here's the thing about that is that Pastor Jimenez and I are pastoring churches
that are large churches, thriving, soul-winning churches, right?
And we were not necessarily the two that were voted the most likely to succeed.
You know, I guarantee you that there were probably other young people in that church
that different leaders and the pastor and the youth leader maybe put more hope in or
more stock in or they thought that this kid's going to grow up and do great things or this
kid or whatever.
But at the end of the day, you don't really know who it is that you're passing these
things on to or reaching.
You know, you get a whole bunch of people saved.
You don't know which of them are going to actually serve God with their lives.
Right because most people who get saved they just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
They get saved and they end up doing very little for God in their lives. It's a vast majority
But every once in a while you get a live one
You know and and here's the thing
You know as I'm preaching and there are a bunch of young people here kids teenagers young adults
I'm preaching the word of God week after week Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday
I don't know who's gonna pan out and who isn't
You know, hopefully there's some little boy or teenager or young man in this room
that's picking up when I'm putting down and some day will be
pastoring a church and preaching the Word of God and doing great works for God, but I have no way of predicting who that is.
And it's not hereditary. It's not like, well, you know, if you come from the right family
and we'll just, we'll just pick you and you're the heir apparent and you have so many churches
where the pastor's son is just automatically in line to become the next pastor because
it's some kind of a dynasty or something like that. That's not really the way it works,
unfortunately. Unfortunately, you preach the word of God, you just sow that seed as many
You know, and that's how the Word of God always continues from generation to generation.
Even if you have a particular church that becomes apostate or a particular family whose
children go astray, in the end the gospel always just keeps moving forward and keeps
growing and keeps on.
Because unfortunately there are these breakdowns, but yet the Word of God always gets passed
on to the next generation.
It's just not necessarily always the people that we think it is.
And so, the Bible here talks about the importance of passing on the commandments to our children
so that they will not be a stubborn and rebellious generation.
Okay, so now we sort of get into the story portion here, and the purpose of the story,
kind of the moral of the story, and I've got to hurry because this is such a long Psalm
and I want to try to kind of give you the big ideas from the Psalm, but the main focus
that God has particularly chosen the tribe of Judah.
to be the most important tribe that is going to be where the Davidic monarchy comes from and that Jerusalem,
the city of David, that is going to be the place where he chooses to put his name there as opposed to choosing
the tribe of Ephraim. Okay, because if you remember,
Joseph is the superstar in the book of Genesis when it comes to the children of Israel, right?
When it comes to the 12 sons of Israel,
Who is the one who's the star, right?
It's Joseph and he's the one who ends up getting a double portion from dad.
He becomes that heir, even though he's not literally the firstborn.
He gets treated like the firstborn.
He gets the double portion and Ephraim and Manassee each get a full portion.
Joseph's two sons.
But yet in the long run, Joseph does not end up being the most important tribe, the most
important tribe in the long run ends up being Judah, because that northern tribe of Ephraim
which is going to dominate the ten tribes.
is ultimately going to become so wicked and so disobedient
that they are going to go off into that Assyrian captivity
and never really return.
And you're going to end up with Judah being the southern kingdom
and that being God's chosen people and God rejecting.
the other ten tribes, and so Judah becomes Judea, and we have the Jews, the word Jews,
that's named after the southern kingdom of Judah, which primarily consists of the tribes of Judah
and Benjamin, whereas Ephraim and those northern tribes end up not being important in the long
run. They're not even hardly a thing by the time Christ is on this earth. They're barely even in
And it's all about the Jews, which are from Judah.
And so that's kind of the big idea that we're going to see throughout this passage.
Sort of the disobedience of Ephraim and why God ends up choosing to make the capital city
be a place in Judah and choosing someone from the tribe of Judah to be his king, David,
and ultimately Jesus.
So look what the Bible says in verse number nine.
We're just going to kind of have to look at the highlights.
But it says the children of Ephraim,
being armed and carrying bows, turned back
in the day of battle.
So, the idea here is that God has given them all the tools that they need to serve Him and then they end up just not being willing to fight the good fight.
They end up, they're armed, they're ready, and they end up just turning back in the day of battle, and then it says,
they kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law.
Now look, we are called, as Christians, to war a good warfare, to fight the good fight.
And some Christians today, they just don't have any fight in them.
They want to just go along to get along and just sort of float downstream in this world,
take the path of least resistance, take the easy way, and they end up not being blessed by God.
And God is saying, look, you've got to use the sword of the Spirit, you've got to get involved in the battle,
you've got to fight the good fight, stand for something, and here's the thing,
even just keeping the commandments of God ends up being a battle in the Christian life.
Is there all these forces coming at you trying to get you to break the commandments of God
and to break God's laws and to live a life that is displeasing to Him?
And let me tell you something, the Christian life is a life of following rules.
Okay, because, you know, there's been this recent stupidity that's been taught
about how we need to de-emphasize rules and de-emphasize the fear of God.
And look, obviously, yeah, rules aren't everything and there's more to the Christian life than rules.
But here's the thing, if you're going to talk about getting away from rules,
you're talking about being a really advanced Christian who's just walking in the Spirit
and just loving God and loving his neighbor so much, he doesn't even need the rules.
Okay, but what we actually see in practice is a bunch of baby Christians who are very
carnal and very much not walking in the spirit telling us that we don't need rules.
Okay, and this is what it's a problem because these big kind of fun center mega church type places
They're wanting to de-emphasize rules not because they're emphasizing walking in the spirit and
Just being at a higher level in your Christian life
No, it's just about forget the rules because we want to break them and that those are two very different things
It's very different to say well, I don't have to sit around thinking about not murdering and not stealing and not committing adultery
because I'm walking in the spirit and I love my my neighbor, so I wouldn't do those things anyway, right?
That's a little different that hey, man, we're free in Christ. Why are you trying to put all these rules on me, man?
You know, that's foolish and that is a twisting of scripture because even in the New Testament
There's a lot of talk about commandments and rules, aren't there?
Right? What did Jesus say?
If you love me, keep my commandments.
That is the New Testament.
The New Testament says this is the love of God
that we walk after His commandments.
For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments
as commandments are not grievous.
Okay, God wants us to obey him the apostle Paul said that he wants us to be
Sanctified by abstaining from fornication. That's a rule. Don't fornicate
Don't commit adultery. Don't kill don't steal be not drunk, right?
These are all rules in the Bible that we need to be following
And so saying, oh, those rules don't matter.
I don't need to worry about those things.
You know, I'm just sort of free in Christ
and I'm just walking in the spirit.
As you do those things,
no, you're not walking in the spirit
because those rules will let us know
if you're walking in the spirit.
Because if I see you stealing,
I know that you're not loving your neighbor
and walking in the spirit like you claim
or any of the other rules
that we could think about violating.
And so the rules are emphasized.
They refused to walk in God's law in verse 10.
That was a problem.
Verse number 11,
and forgot his works and his wonders that he had showed them,
marvelous things did he in the side of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zohan.
He divided the sea and caused them to pass through
and he made the waters to stand as a heap.
Obviously this is talking about the parting of the Red Sea,
wall of water on either side.
In the daytime also, he led them with a cloud, and all the night with the light of fire,
he claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers, and
they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most high in the wilderness.
So God is doing all these amazing things for them, miracles, crossing of the Red Sea, water
sinning against God and provoking Him.
Verse 18, they tempted God in their heart
by asking, meet for their lust.
Yay, they spake against God.
They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Right, so they're acting like God doesn't have the power
to meet their needs.
When in reality, God is making them hungry on purpose.
The Bible says he suffered them to hunger and fed them with manna so that they might know that man does not live by bread alone
But by every word that preceded the other mouth of God
He's teaching them a lesson
He wants them to be hungry and they're saying oh we don't have food because God doesn't have the power to give us food
No, God has the power to give you food. He's just not giving it to you because he wants you to be hungry
He has a reason he has a bigger plan
Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Yes, he can
Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?
I mean, I know he can make water come out of the rock, but I mean, can he also provide
flesh for his people?
Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth.
A fire was kindled against Jacob.
And anger also came up against Israel because they believed not in God and trusted not in
Though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven.
Look, no matter how many miracles God does for these people, it's like they're not getting it,
that God's power is unlimited and that God can do anything and that God can provide all of our needs.
Man, did eat angels' food, it says in verse 25.
He sent them meat to the foal.
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven and by his power he brought in the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them as dust.
So if you remember the story, they're complaining at this point
because they have manna from heaven to eat, angels food.
Which is like, you know, some kind of a carbohydrate or whatever.
It's some kind of a sweetened little wafer, honey, bread type thing, whatever it was.
We don't really know what it was exactly, but I'm sure we'll get to try it when we get to heaven.
It'll be on the buffet up there, even if you're in the smallest cabin as we talked about on Sunday.
You'll still have access to the buffet. It's just like on the cruise ship.
And so the thing is, that they got tired of just eating the same meal over and over again.
You know, it was too much oatmeal, they were tired of having oatmeal for every breakfast.
You know, of course my grandma, she ate oatmeal, you know, every breakfast and every dinner
for like decades.
And she lived to be 95 years old.
And she would literally, I asked her, I was like, what's the secret to your long life?
She said, well, number one, I honored my mother and father, you know.
oatmeal for breakfast, oatmeal for dinner.
And then she just ate something else in the middle.
Also, when I went to a Mexican restaurant with her,
she just spooned salsa in her mouth.
She just said, I don't need the chips,
just give me the salsa.
And she was just like, eating the salsa.
I was like, whoa, man, Granny goes hard.
I was like, dang.
She was just, wow.
She was on fire.
And so, you know.
They're complaining about a lack of variety in their diet and look we all want to have variety in our diet
But you know what when you're on the wilderness and God has just freed you from bondage and God's feeding you
You should just really be happy with whatever God's given you and kind of just eat what's on your plate and be thankful for it
But they said no we got to have meat, you know, we're carnivore and it's got to be meat
And so basically they're begging for meat and so God ends up sending quails
Okay, and he sends just this incredible amount of quail to where it's just they're raining out of the sky just some
Giant herd of quail comes in and there's just so many quail that that is just so easy to just get as much quail as you
Need and to eat these things now, you know, we have a quail here in Arizona, right?
And we see these things and I remember there was a phase recently where every morning I would look out the window and there'd be like this little trail of quail single file.
And then like at the end of the day you'd see them like going back to wherever it is they go at night
I don't I don't know but they'd be just marching in front of my house like this way in the morning
This way at night and you'll see them with that funny thing on their head whatever that's called
And so you see them around here in Phoenix, you know, that's what they're eating
I you know, I guess it'd be kind of like eating a little Cornish game hen or something, right?
So this is a pretty cool meal
So God ends up because they're provoking him and complaining and whining about it. He ends up giving them these quail
and raining the flesh down into their camp.
But God didn't like their attitude though.
So even though he gives them what they want,
he didn't like their attitude.
And so it says in verse 29,
so they did eat and were well-filled,
for he gave them their own desire.
Verse 30, they were not estranged from their lust,
but while their 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.
It's funny, I was talking to my cousin about a year ago
and she said, you know, hey, I was in an argument
with a family member, they didn't believe me
that there was a Bible verse or a Bible story
about God killing a bunch of fat people.
And she's like, she's like, I can't find it in the Bible
but you're, you know, I think you're gonna know where it is.
And I'm like, I know exactly where that is.
where he slew the fattest of them.
But here's the thing about that,
is that I think that the reason why God is killing people
after he answers their prayer,
after he gives them their request of having meat,
is obviously they weren't thankful for it,
and they weren't giving him the glory.
Because I guarantee you that these people who'd said,
oh, can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Can God give us flesh to eat?
If God would have given them flesh to eat,
and then they said, wow, I'm so sorry.
I shouldn't have said that.
I was being blasphemous.
God actually can provide.
God is all powerful.
Thank you so much, God,
for this little Cornish game hint
that I'm eating right now.
Right, but they obviously didn't have that attitude. They were not thankful. They didn't give him the glory
They did not glorify God and so they end up getting smoked unfortunately and God slew the fattest of them
Probably because the fattest of them is just a reference to the people that are just really carnal and just really focused on the things of this world
You know
Obviously, these people are the ones who are just really obsessed with food here, you know,
and they're not giving God the glory, they're not thankful, unfortunately.
And so it says in verse number, but then it also, not only the fattest of them, so it
wasn't just the fat people, okay?
It was also these kind of buff dudes.
They got smoked too, these jacked kind of gym guys.
The gym bros got smoked as well,
because it says here that he not only slew the fattest of them,
but he smoked down the chosen men of Israel, right?
So these are probably like big, muscular, strong guys as well.
You know, they have a bad attitude too apparently,
and they end up getting killed as well.
So we can take the heat off the the fattest. No, I'm just kidding it says in verse number 32 for all this
they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble when he slew them
Then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God
It's terrible that God has to start cracking skulls and hurting people and bringing the hammer down in order to get people's attention
God had done so many things for them, He's blessed them, He saved them, He redeemed them,
He got them out of Egypt, He's feeding them, He's providing for them, and none of that fixes it.
It says, no, they still won't listen, they still won't obey, they're still not exercising faith.
And then when He starts killing people, now all of a sudden, now He gets through to them.
Right because for all this it says in verse 32 they said still but then in verse 34 when he saw when he slew them
Then they saw him
And they returned and inquired early after God, verse 35.
And they remembered that God was their rock
and the high God, their redeemer.
And then of course, you know, they end up, you know, backsliding again
and, you know, falling back into their same ways or whatever.
You know, the reason why God ends up having to discipline
and having to beat us and having to do these things
is because people are stiff-necked.
and stubborn and they need that kind of
chastening to get them on the right path, the vast majority of the time.
That's just the way humans are. And I'm so sick
of this stupid, ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky Bible teaching
that just says, oh, we just got to just realize what God has done for us and then no discipline will be required.
Right? All you got to do is just show your family that you love them
As long as they know you love them.
You know, it's like, what planet are you living on?
Oh, in fact, you can even run a business like this.
You know, you're employees, you just got to love them,
and they're all just going to just obey
and do all the right things.
You know, man, I wish that life were like that.
It sounds great.
But unfortunately, a whip for the horse,
a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back
is the world that we actually live in.
OK.
And so this kind of pie-in-the-sky attitude that says,
oh, we don't need discipline. God's not going to discipline us.
I mean, it's absurd because the Bible talks a lot about God disciplining
and there's a lot of talk about the fear of God, you know, and we all need to have
the fear of God
in us. And we're going to get to that a little bit later as well.
But we see here that what finally gets through to people
and actually gets people to straighten up and fly right is when he starts
And then all of a sudden, that kind of wakes people up.
And look, I'm human too, I'm just like you.
And when I was growing up, the fear of God
is what kept me on the right path more than anything else.
You know and as you get older you start finding other reasons to serve God and you start serving God because it's just smart
And you're just following the wisdom of the Bible because you're just wise now because you've just picked up on these things over the years
And as you get older you grow in love for God and love for the Lord Jesus Christ
You're doing things out of love, but fear still plays a role all the time
And when you're young or young in the faith fear plays a big role
That's why we need to preach the fear of God and we need to preach the wrath of God and the justice of God
Not just only the love mercy grace and so forth. We need to get both sides of the coin and I hate these doctrines that make you choose
Are we gonna so we're gonna do things out of love or we're gonna do things out of fear? Hey, why not both?
I'm doing things for both
Some of the stuff I do out of love and some of the stuff I do out of fear, but at the end of day
You know what matters is that I'm doing stuff
You know, I don't care if it's the carrot or the stick that gets you working for God.
I just want you working for God. Amen?
And God uses the carrot and the stick.
Some people respond better to the carrot, some people respond better to the stick.
It doesn't matter which one.
works, whatever works. And guess what? The Bible says if we would judge ourselves then we would not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord.
So here's how you avoid chastisement, you judge yourself.
Right? So no, you don't have to go through life
getting spankings because you can just straighten up and fly right.
You think that God chastises you for good behavior.
You think he spanks you because you were so good?
No.
He punishes you when you're bad.
And so if you want to avoid chastisement, you got to do right.
Okay, that's the key.
You say, well that sounds like a fear-based motivation.
You got it right.
I'm glad somebody's grasped the teaching tonight.
It is fear-based motivation of do what's right or get a spanking.
And God's got a really big stick that he can spank you with.
Okay, and this is biblical stuff, and I'm going to prove it to you.
I'm going to tie this in with the New Testament, too.
Because what period of history are we talking about here in this story?
What period of history are we talking about?
We're talking about the children of Israel and the wilderness.
They've left Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea, they drank water from the rock, they're eating
manna from heaven, they're eating the quail that came from heaven, God's killing people
because they complain.
the wilderness, and that's going to become important in a moment.
But let's move forward a little bit here.
It says, you know, nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouths.
They lied on him with their tongues, for their heart was not right with him.
Neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not.
See, he's still stirring up a little bit of wrath, but he's not stirring up all the wrath.
He's holding back, right?
And so God's mercy doesn't mean anything goes.
God's mercy means, well, I'm not going to pour out all my wrath.
I'm going to hold back and give you a lighter punishment than you deserve.
For he remembered that they were but flesh.
You know, he's like, hey, man.
I know that you're human, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
All man's imaginations of his thought are only evil from his youth upward.
He knows human nature, what the flesh is capable of.
And so he says, hey, I remember that you're flesh.
A wind that passed of the way and cometh not again.
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert?
Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Now let's leave this for a moment now and let's flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter
10 in the New Testament.
First Corinthians chapter number 10.
And in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we have a very important key passage
that really helps us understand why the Old Testament exists,
why is it important, why should we read it.
Look what the Bible says in verse number one.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant,
1 Corinthians 10-1, how that all our fathers were under the cloud
and all passed through the sea,
and we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
Now, are we not talking about the exact same subject matter?
that we were just reading about in Psalm 78.
And did all eat the same spiritual meat,
and did all drink the same spiritual drink?
Look, this is all brought up in Psalm 78.
Verse 5,
But with many of them,
God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Isn't that what we just read about?
God, killing people, he slew them, he slew the fattest of them, he slew the chosen men
of Israel, great warriors, mighty men, strong muscular men, he destroyed them.
Now these things were our examples, it says in verse 6, to the intent that we should not
lust after evil things as they also lusted.
Now, the Bible is saying that when we read Psalm 78 or if we read the account in Exodus
or Numbers, we are supposed to be reading this as an example.
right? And it says it's written for our example so that we don't commit those sins that they committed back then.
So that we don't lust the way they lust it. Neither be idolaters as were some of them as it is written.
The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Verse 8.
Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day.
3 and 20,000.
Look, how can you read this and come to any other conclusion
than God is telling you,
hey, in the Old Testament,
there's a story where people committed fornication
and 23,000 people died in one day.
That is an example for you
so that you don't commit fornication.
Well, why not?
Because I just love God so much.
Because I'm just so filled with joy.
Is that what it's saying?
No, he's saying, don't commit fornication because 23,000 people died in one day committing
fornication.
And that's example for you.
So to sit there and say, God would never kill anyone for committing fornication is madness.
Of course he would.
Would God kill people for being wicked the way that he did in Psalm 78, or has he just
Read Hebrews chapter 10.
We can turn to Hebrews, instead of 1 Corinthians 10, if you want, we could go over to Hebrews chapter 10
and we'd find the exact same teaching in a different book of the Bible, talking about the fact that God will judge His people
and that God will punish sin among His people.
Okay, I mean, the Bible's really clear on this.
Okay, and what's funny is that this bozo that's been teaching this, Joe Jones, okay, in the sermon that he just uploaded tonight,
He's talking about how, oh, well, you know, he doesn't believe what we're preaching.
And he doesn't believe what Pastor Thompson preached, where Pastor Thompson just said,
yeah, if you just go out and live however you want, you're going to get beaten by God.
Because whom the Lord loveth, he chastineth, and scourges every son, and we receive it.
He has redefined that as oh, yeah, well God chases you he kind of like talks to you on the inside and and kind of like
Nudges you on the inside. Oh, I shouldn't be doing that
What no God's chastisement is actual physical stuff happening to you in your life
It could be getting sick, getting in a car accident, losing your job,
or getting physically beaten or something.
That's the kind of stuff that God will bring into our lives to chastise us.
It's all throughout Scripture.
He tries to redefine that.
But then he said this.
He said, well, here's one of the reasons why I know that this isn't true.
Because he said, you know, I got saved a really long time ago.
And he said, you know, I've done all kinds of horrible things.
And he said, I mean, really bad stuff like hurting people.
I'm like, what the hell is this guy having into?
And he's like, oh, I did all this really bad stuff.
I should be, if this were true, I'd be dead by now.
Well, but you forgot something.
You forgot that you gotta be saved
in order to get the chastisement.
Yeah, you're right.
You would be dead by now if you were saved.
And then he goes on to say this stupidity.
He says, well, if you guys believe this,
then whenever you give the gospel to people out of soul winning,
you need to be warning people about this,
because it really isn't right or fair for you
to give people the gospel, you know,
without basically giving them the fine print
that they could be getting these beatings or even death.
And I'm thinking to myself, like, okay.
So...
First of all, every time I give the gospel to anyone, I always bring up the chastisement of God.
You know why? Because if you get rid of this doctrine and buy into this stupid Joe Jones doctrine,
you know what you're going to end up with? This gospel that tells people,
hey, you just believe on Jesus and you have no consequences for anything you do from here on out and go to heaven,
then people are like, nah, that doesn't sound right.
And what's funny is whenever I'm preaching the gospel to people and I tell them that salvation is a free gift and that it's by faith alone,
you know, whenever I explain to them that God will chase us and chastise us on this earth, then they think, okay, that makes sense.
Because it seems a little too good to be true.
that you just live however and do whatever
and you just have no consequences and go to heaven,
that seems a little bit out there. But once you explain to them, well no, no, no, God will
chase and then chastise us on this earth.
but you'll still go to heaven no matter what
because you have eternal life, all your sins are forgiven,
he'll never leave you nor forsake you,
then it makes sense with people.
And usually I always explain the chastisement to people
when I'm soul-winning because
it really helps people grasp the gospel.
And that's why I feel like this doctrine that
takes away the chastisement of God
is going to probably be a big stumbling block
toward people getting saved.
Because I find that this is a huge stumbling block when I'm out soul winning when when you don't explain the chastisement
And then when you explain it, it's like it just clicks with people
Because otherwise sometimes they think that you're selling them a bill of goods and it's a little too good to be true
Yeah, I mean, you know what I'm talking about
Okay, but now let's talk about how absurd it is to think that somehow well
It's not fair to just sign people up for beatings and possible death in order to get them out of hell
Like stop and think about this like like oh well if I would have known
If I would have known that I'm gonna get chastised by the Lord on this earth
I'd much rather just spend eternity in hell than that. I mean why didn't you tell me that before signing me up for heaven?
Why would I want to go to heaven for all eternity and live in a mansion in glory for millions and billions of years with Jesus Christ?
I didn't know that I was gonna get disciplined
at some point
I mean, isn't that crazy?
I mean, what is with this guy?
He's crazy.
It's nonsense.
It's garbage.
Let me tell you something.
God will punish his children.
OK?
Now look, no matter what we do, we're going to heaven.
But if we have believed on Jesus Christ, we've been passed from death unto life.
We have eternal life.
Nothing could separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, but
whom the Lord loveth he chasteth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth.
So I don't understand why a pastor gets up and talks, well, you know, well, God didn't
punish me.
It's like, hmm, say that again real slow and think about, and think about what you're saying.
Okay.
Because the bottom line is, he scourges every son whom he receives.
If you be without Chastisement, whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and not sons.
That's what the Bible says.
And then he gets so mad and so offended that I called him a bastard.
Bro is calling himself a bastard.
He might as well wear a name tag that says,
hello, my name is Bastard, okay?
But the bottom line is that we as Christians,
we are going to be disciplined if we don't walk right.
Now look, there are a lot of reasons to live right,
and I frequently have given four reasons why I live for God.
Four very distinct different reasons.
One of them is to earn rewards in heaven.
One of them is to just show my love to Christ.
If I just love God.
right? If you love me, keep my commandments. One is just because I love God. I'm motivated by love,
right? So I'm motivated by love, motivated by earning rewards, also motivated by caring about
other people. Because there's the thing, if I just start living for myself, then people are going
to go to hell that I could reach with the gospel if I would live for Christ.
So I'm motivated by love for other people. I'm motivated by love for God. I'm motivated to earn rewards and yes
I am motivated big time
But I wanted to avoid chastisement from God because I don't want God to whip on me.
And here's the thing, obviously God would discipline me way more harshly than even the
average Christian.
And I'll tell you why, because I grew up in a Christian home, I grew up in all these
great churches, hearing all this great preaching with great parents, and I've read the Bible
so many times that I should know better.
So therefore if I were to go out and do stuff I'd probably get punished even a lot more harshly
then even someone who's just maybe newly saved or something
or someone who got saved later in life
or hasn't really had the privileges that I've had growing up
or the life that has been granted unto me.
And so obviously, yeah, God is gracious.
God is merciful.
Nobody's saying that God's just gonna come down on you
like a ton of bricks because you made the smallest mistake.
And this is the straw man that he keeps preaching like,
oh, you just, you miss a church service
come down on you and just kill you and trash you and destroy you.
No one has ever preached anything like that.
I mean we have all kinds of people in our church who go to church Sunday morning only
and when have you ever heard a sermon that says, you Sunday morning oldies
you better watch out because the hammer's about to come down on you.
Now look I think you should be here three to thrive.
I think you should be here three times a week.
I think the more preaching you get, the more church you get,
the better off you're going to be in your Christian life.
And I think we need more church,
not less as we see the day approaching.
But nobody has got up and said,
oh man, God's going to come down on you like a ton of bricks
because you missed a service
or didn't go soul winning enough or something like that.
That's just never been preached by anyone, okay?
Obviously, we're talking about you go out and get drunk,
you go out and commit fornication,
you go out and commit adultery,
you go out and start robbing stores
and shoplifting, stealing.
If you go out and have an abortion or something,
that's the kind of stuff we're talking about.
You think God's just gonna turn a blind eye
if I just go shoplifting tonight?
Is that what you think?
Do you think I'm just gonna shoplift
and nothing bad's gonna happen
because I'm just sanctified and I'm free in Christ
and God just looks down and says,
nope, never happened, all I see is Jesus.
There's no way.
Look, if I went to the store and stole something,
I would be shocked if I didn't get disciplined hard for that
because it's just so beyond the pale for a pastor
to be out there doing that.
But here's the thing. I think that if anybody in this room who's saved goes out on shoplifts, I think God's gonna punish you for that
That's a big deal. I think something bad's gonna happen. I think if you go out and get drunk
I think something bad's gonna happen to you. I believe that and you say oh, you're trying to scare me. Yes
I am trying to scare you and I you know what why do you think I read statistics about STDs to scare you?
And you know what? Those are statistics for the general public.
I bet if you're a Christian, you're way more likely to get an STD.
Because God could use that to punish you.
right and and look obviously we're talking about big sins getting you a big punishment little sins are going to get you a
Little punishment nobody is trying to say that God is just up in heaven
Waiting for you to slip up just waiting to hurt you and he just wants to nail you to the wall
And he's just trying to catch on a technicality. We don't believe that God is slow to anger and of great mercy
He is very merciful and kind and gracious and he gives us a lot of slack.
Thank God we'd all be getting our butts whipped every day.
He cuts us slack. We cut our physical children slack.
We don't come down on our kids for every mistake that they make
and just come down on them like a ton of bricks or else we'd be just constantly disciplining.
Okay, obviously, God is gracious and merciful, He cuts us some slack, and what did we see
in Psalm 78?
We saw that exact thing that God did not come down on them.
And let's go back to Psalm 78 and finish up here.
Verse number 38, it says,
So Old Testament God, Psalm 78 God,
is full of compassion and not stirring up all his wrath.
But he's still doing what?
Killing people!
Killing his own people!
When they are wicked and you know what you go out those doors and go start living a wicked life
I would not be surprised at all to hear about you dying young
If you rebel against the teachings of your parents that their fathers passed down to them and they're passing it to you
And they're expecting you to teach it to the next generation
And then you take that and throw it in the trash and go out and start living a worldly, sinful life.
We will not be surprised at all when we see your name in the newspaper.
Diane Young.
That doesn't make us unloving.
It makes us realistic about the fact that our God is a consuming fire.
And here's the thing.
We can love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and we can still be terrified by Him.
Because guess what every man of God in the Bible whenever he's confronted with the angel of the Lord
He pretty much falls over like he's dead
Now why is that
Why why weren't they just like you don't nothing scares me. You don't scare me. I ain't scared of nothing
No, whenever the angel shows up
They're just like falling on their faces
John the beloved apostle who leaned on Jesus breast at the at the last supper
Right? Probably one of the most godly Christians in the whole Bible.
My favorite personal Bible character is the Apostle John.
And when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, he fell at his feet as dead.
He just fell over like he's dead.
Now here's the thing, couldn't the Lord Jesus Christ have appeared unto him in any form that he wanted?
because the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in John chapter 21 in a much
mellower way because when he's by the side of the Sea of Tiberias and he's
sitting down and eating fish by the fire and they're sitting down and around the
campfire eating together nobody's fallen over like they're dead nobody's
super scared terrified but
Christ appears to John in a way that is so shocking unto him that he falls over like he's dead.
And the same thing with Daniel, you know, does this mean that Daniel didn't love the Lord
or that John doesn't love the Lord?
Because John is absolutely terrified at the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, you know, if I'm seeing the Lord Jesus Christ through Scripture,
If I'm reading Revelation 1 and I'm terrified, that seems like the right reaction, right?
And to say like, oh man, I better serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
I better work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2. This is Bible from the New Testament telling us these things.
And so the same God that's smiting people in Psalm 78
will smite people in the New Testament and if not then riddle me this.
Why did it specifically say in 1 Corinthians 10?
The stories about God smiting people in the wilderness for their sins
are for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world
are come. These things are written for our admonition in the New Testament.
church at Corinth. I'm talking to you Gentiles. I'm talking to you New Testament church.
That story is to scare you into not committing fornication. Now look, there are lots of wonderful
reasons not to commit fornication. One of them is so that God doesn't kill you. That's one of them.
There's other good reasons, right? Your future spouse wants you to be a virgin. Amen? That's a
is the chastisement of God that we fear because we fear the Lord.
I got to hurry up for sake of time.
But the Bible talks about them provoking the Lord and the wilderness.
I'm going to skip over the talk about the plagues, but there's a nice description of plagues.
It's really fascinating to look at the, I love these like story Psalms.
because it's so interesting like what is included and what is left out
because you know in Exodus the number is big long story whereas in Psalms
it's like a condensed version and it just it'll just mention like a few plagues
and just kind of mention a few details
and it'll mention things that are different than the
prose narrative. It's super interesting. I love these so you know
we already read it before the service but for sake of time I'm just gonna jump
all the way down to the end here.
But it says in verse number 59 it says when God heard this he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh
the tent which he placed among men and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the
enemy's hands. He gave his people over also unto the sword and was wrothed with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their young men and their maidens were not given to marriage. And so we're
talking about this idea of God sort of forsaking Shiloh as being the place where he would put his
That's a place where the tabernacle was pitched.
The house of God was in Shiloh for a time.
And the idea here is we're getting away from Shiloh
and we're moving to Jerusalem as the place where God will choose.
And so that's being described.
And when you read about this, it's hard not to think about
the captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel
with the Assyrians.
And so, you know, it's questionable, of course,
who the author is, obviously.
Are we 100% sure which ASAP this even is?
Are we 100% sure that ASAP wrote this Psalm?
You know, that's what the heading is,
but I'm not 100% convinced that all of these headings
are necessarily always accurate.
We don't necessarily know that for sure.
Different people have different views on that.
The King James translators chose not to put them
in the text as part of the text.
So, you know, they may not necessarily be authoritative.
That's a subject of debate.
But the other thing is,
that, you know, it could be a different Asaph, it could be a later song.
So, the question is, is this song written after the Northern Kingdom went into captivity?
Or is it from the literal man Asaph, who's living at the time of David?
Let's just say for a moment that it's the literal Asaph, who's contemporary with David, writing this song.
Then, I believe what's going on here is that there were some past things that happened like this.
instances of the Ephraimites getting punished and judged by God that we could read about in the book of Judges.
And that the reason that this sounds like the Assyrian captivity is simply because history repeats itself.
And then you could also say that Psalm 78 is prophetic and that let's say that Asaph is a contemporary of David, right?
And he's writing at the time of David, the Asaph of the historical books.
the future destruction of Ephraim.
He's talking about it retrospectively,
things that happen,
but he's also prophesying about the future.
Either way, it doesn't really change our interpretation
of the Psalm anyway, so it's not really that important.
But it says in verse number 62,
It says, he gave his people over unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation."
Now this is a really interesting verse, verse 65.
It says, then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth
by reason of wine.
Similarly here, because, you know, we don't expect the Lord to be likened to a drunk person, okay?
But that is what's happening here. That is the application here. It says the Lord awake does one out of sleep
It's just a comparison that's being like a mighty man who?
Shouted by reason of wine and he smote his enemies in the hinders parts
He kicked their butts would be how we would say that in our modern vernacular. He smote their high knees
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
Now, what's interesting about this,
and I gotta hurry, I'm trying to cram in a lot tonight.
The Lord awake does one out of sleep.
You know, sometimes we can feel like
God's asleep at the wheel
because he's not necessarily punishing the wicked.
You see the wicked getting away with things
and they're not getting punished, okay?
But here's the thing, at some point,
awakes as one out of sleep.
You know, all of a sudden, you know,
you're saying, where is the God of judgment?
And all of a sudden, boom, he's there
and he's coming into his house and he's got a whip
and he's chasing out the money changers.
You know, he comes suddenly.
and he comes when we don't expect it.
And obviously we know that there's the second coming of Christ,
but then there's also just judgment that comes suddenly.
And it's like God wakes up.
And obviously we know God's always awake,
he's all knowing, he's always alert.
But I'm saying from our perspective as humans,
it seems like, man, God's not doing anything,
God's not doing anything.
And then all of a sudden you just start seeing
the enemy is getting punished.
And it's like God just woke up or something
and now he's just coming after him.
and smiten their hinder parts, you know.
And then the other illustration that he uses,
besides like a man who wakes out of sleep,
is that it says, like a mighty man, verse 65,
that shouteth by reason of wine,
and you know that sometimes when people drink,
they can become aggressive.
or violent, right?
They drink and then they get in a fight or something.
And the idea is that God is just coming down on people
so hard.
And he is hitting people so hard and he's just going from one to the next just cracking so many skulls
It's reminding the psalmist. He's using this kind of humorous illustration of like it's almost like a guy who's just
You know a mighty man who's shouting by reason of wine like
Just out there just real aggressive
Because he's been drinking you know God is basically gonna out aggress
aggressive drunk people
Like he's gonna he's gonna hit he's gonna hit you harder than some angry drunk would
You know, it's kind of an odd illustration, but hey, I didn't write the Bible. I love it though. It's a great. It's a great illustration
It's beautiful
You know, it's good to see God kicking a little butt sometimes, you know
Smiting some hinder parts to use the KJV vernacular
And I believe that whenever we see people getting away with wickedness, God's going to wake up eventually and he's going to kick some butt.
That's what the Bible teaches.
It says in verse 67, you know, he chose not Ephraim, verse 68, he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
He built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth, which he had established forever.
He chose David, also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from falling the
He brought him to feed Jacob his people in Israel as inheritance
so he fed them according to the integrity of his art and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands of course there's a you know the
Christological interpretation of you know
Teaching the parables teaching the word of God teaching the truth is where we started the chapter and then we end the chapter with
David
Shepherding his people and the idea here is Jesus Christ the Lord is our shepherd shepherding us and so
This passage is beautiful for all of God's blessings and all of His goodness, His mercy,
but there's a lot in this passage about God punishing people,
about God killing people, about God hurting people,
and so we don't want to just gloss that over.
And if we go to passages like 1 Corinthians 10 and Hebrews 10,
we realize Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
And we realize that, yeah, that stuff is supposed to be an example.
I mean, I wonder how do you read Psalm 78 with the Joe Jones mentality?
You're like, oh man, God really used to smite some hinder parts back then.
But he doesn't do that anymore.
It's absurd.
It's madness, it's crazy, you know, and it's a dangerous doctrine because if people don't
fear God's punishment, according to him, you know, he says, oh yeah, these pastors are
afraid that if we don't preach fear, we don't preach the fear of God, we don't preach
discipline, then people are just going to go out and do whatever, but no, that's not
true.
They're just going to just do right because of joy, because joy, because gratitude.
I wish that were true.
You know, and I know personally, I need hard preaching in my life and there's the other thing is like, okay
Let's say you just don't believe in hard preaching
Then why are you a fundamental Baptist?
It's like did you stumble into the wrong building here, buddy?
Because like like what the heck like there are a lot of these
sloppy agape kind of you know good sin good devil cold hell kind of churches all over the city
You know, if you're going to buy into this weird, modern, liberal, watered-down, pansy Christianity,
then why are you calling yourself an independent fundamental Baptist?
Independent fundamental Baptist, rip face!
You know, hasn't the flagship conference of our movement over the last many years
been called the Red Hot Preaching Conference?
I think I'm preaching in August at something called the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
How do you even have a fire breathing Baptist fellowship if you're not going to talk about the fear of God or God disciplining people?
How do you even how does that even work?
This doctrine doesn't work
Okay, that's why nobody's preaching it
Okay? Except for people who just don't really care what the Bible says.
Give a little 15-minute thing that nobody really thinks too much about.
You don't think too hard about it.
It just kind of feels good and you got your latte, soy latte from the lobby
and you just kind of, you know, do it and you go home and you check it off.
People that are actually serious Christians, fundamentalists, Baptists,
you know, people go to Big Boy Church, right?
We actually like getting our faces ripped.
And and we kind of know that we need it even look I'm an experienced Christian that's been saved for what?
Yeah, 37 years or something, but man, I need my face ripped
You know like I need to hear hard preaching
I need to do hard preaching against sin because then you know it's right back at me
And I need to listen to hard preaching against sin to keep myself in the fear of the Lord all the day long as well
Does that mean I don't love God does that mean I don't do things out of love why not both?
Let's love God, but let's also fear the hinder parts mighting
That is ever
Looming overhead and it's just like oh man. We're just constantly worried constantly anxious constantly scared not not really
You know honestly like I'm just I'm just I'm just a chill guy just living my life
But it's just always like in the back of my mind
I'm not just thinking like oh, he's gonna beat me. It's just it's just it's always in the back of my mind though
And then whenever the temptation comes up, that's where it comes to the front of my mind.
Tempted to sin and you're just like,
You want to have that inflammation?
You want to have that severe itch and that burning?
That's what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 28, right?
I always think about those verses about the itch and the burning.
And here's the thing, any time I have any kind of inflammation.
Anytime I do itch at all, I'm itching, I'm just thinking like, oh man, God has the power
to make my whole body itch like this.
That's how I think.
Look, I've thought this way since I was a little kid.
I remember I was a little kid.
I used to get these really severe gas pains, and have you ever had those really bad gas
pains where you just doubled over and you're just like, oh man, it hurts so bad, right?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Okay, sorry to embarrass you all.
But I don't get them anymore except very rarely, but man when I was a kid I'd get like these severe gas pains and
I would just be like in the fetal position on the bathroom floor when I was like nine ten eleven years old with these like severe
Gaspanes just doubled over in a bunch of pain and and you know what even when I was nine ten eleven
I hadn't read the Bible that much and I wasn't very spiritual and I wasn't super serious about living for God
But I used to lay in the fetal position on the floor and this is what I thought
I thought, you know what? God can do this to me just by snapping his fingers or God can provide relief by snapping his fingers and my body is in God's hand and no matter how much money I have, no matter what I achieve in life, God can just put me on the floor writhing in pain any moment.
And I thought about that when I was a little kid because I'm just like, dang, I better be careful. Don't play with God.
But isn't that a man that's why I'm such a messed up person
No, that's why I'm living for God because that's how I think and you know a couple years ago
I threw out my back and
You know just going to the bathroom was a nightmare
So I literally because I just didn't want to have to get up to go to the bathroom
I just didn't hardly eat for days because I'm just like if I don't eat I won't need to go to the bathroom
You know because I wasn't so much pain. I just couldn't move
And you know what I was laying there thinking about?
Thinking about the fear of God.
Just thinking, man, man, it doesn't matter how smart you are.
It doesn't matter how rich you are.
It doesn't matter how successful you are.
It doesn't matter how athletic you are.
God can just absolutely just cripple you like that.
Say, oh, you believe in a mean God.
No, it's just the only God.
There is just the real God.
The real God.
And you know what?
Did that make me love God less?
No.
I love God.
I love the Bible.
but I'm also terrified.
Doesn't mean it's not a crippling kind of fear.
It only really even comes to the forefront
when the temptations are there.
And you think like, oh,
don't want to throw my back out.
Don't want to have that inflammation.
Don't want those gas pains.
Don't want to be burning.
God can do worse things to us.
Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you so much for these warnings, Lord,
and thank you that you are so gracious and so merciful
that you're not just beating up on us all the time, Lord.
You're very good unto us,
but Lord God, help us not to abuse the privilege
that we have as your children and go out and act a fool
and force you to have to really come down on us hard, Lord.
Help us to be smart enough to just judge ourselves
to avoid chastisement.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
If you need the words, we'll end the service by singing song number 467.
Song number 467, the B-I-B-L-E.
We'll sing through it twice.
The B-I-B-L-E.
Yes, that's the one for me.
I stand alone.
I stand alone on the word of God, the B.I.B.L.E.
The B.I.B.L.E.
Yes, that's the look for me.
I stand alone on the word of God, the B.I.B.L.E.