Zechariah chapter number eight beginning verse number one the Bible reads again
the word of the Lord came to me saying
thus saith the Lord of hosts I was jealous
for Zion with great jealousy and I was jealous for her with great fury
thus saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion and would dwell in the midst of
Jerusalem
and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth and the mountain
of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain
now the word jealous in the Bible is different than we use the word
jealous today unfortunately when we say jealous today what we really mean
is the biblical word envious
see the Bible talks about envy and jealousy and unfortunately we don't
really use the word
envy anymore in our modern vernacular
we've sort of just replaced it with the word jealousy
and we just kinda combine those two into one thing
so let me just explain to you the difference when the Bible says
jealousy it's talking about
being protective of something that belongs to you
whereas envy is the opposite it's where you desire something that does
not belong to you
you want something that belongs to someone else but when someone wants
something that we have
we often say oh you're just jealous you're just jealous or you're jealous
of him or jealous of her
what we really mean is that we're envious of them
so it's important to understand that sometimes words
have changed in meaning or people have misused them for so long that that
sort of becomes the new meaning
so there's a huge difference because when we want something that belongs to
someone else when we desire what is not our own
that is a sin so envy is bad
it's covetousness thou shalt not covet that's when we desire or envy
something of someone else whereas jealousy is often quite
appropriate okay now the kind of jealousy where we're envying
now obviously that's wrong the Bible doesn't use it that way but that's how
we use it
in 2015 but also
we hear people talk about for example a jealous husband
and they say oh you know he's one of those jealous husbands
well biblically that's actually a good attribute
for a husband to have obviously a man
should be protective and possessive of his wife because she belongs to him
and he doesn't have to share her and he shouldn't share her and he should
not want to
share her and it's the same thing with the wife she should be possessive
of her husband
and not want to share him with with other women and and she should be
uncomfortable with her husband being very buddy buddy with other women
and he should be uncomfortable
with his wife being buddy buddy with other men that's actually a righteous
attribute
that is biblical jealousy the Bible for example says that the Lord's name
is jealous he's saying you know he doesn't even say jealous is my middle
name I mean he says jealous
is my name so God is a jealous God it says that
over and over and over again meaning he doesn't want to share his glory with
anyone else
he doesn't want you to worship
other gods and just sort of include him as what he wants
all the glory all the praise all the worship
because he's a jealous God also when it comes to salvation
he's not gonna share the glory with you because you've done many works and
you think that your deeds are your works are somehow
getting you to heaven that's why the Bible says for by grace are you saved
through faith
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not
of works lest any man should boast
so he doesn't want people to boast
about their works that's why salvation is not by works it's only by faith
that way he gets all the glory because if salvation is by faith alone
then it's all that Jesus did that gets us into heaven his death
his burial his resurrection therefore he gets all the glory
we don't get any glory because we'd repented of all our sins or did a
bunch of good works or
joined the church and turned our whole lives around
that would be a glorification of self when we say
I did all these things and now I'm going to heaven that's boasting
so the Bible teaches that God is a jealous God
and this is God speaking in verse 2 he says I was jealous
for Zion with great jealousy
and I was jealous for her with great fury
the Bible says jealousy is the rage of a man
and rage and fury are both two very similar words
it makes God angry when his people will serve other gods and
have other gods before him and so forth now look at verse number three it
says thus saith the Lord
I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem now
when we stop and read that
it should become obvious to us that if he's returning to Zion that he must have left
because you can't return somewhere that you haven't left
now again just to briefly give the context to the book of Zechariah
this is them coming back from the Babylonian captivity
the children of Judah had worshiped other gods
provoked the Lord to anger and as a punishment
they were carried away to Babylon where they stayed for 70 years
in captivity and God turned away from his people because they turned away from him
and then when they were in captivity
they turned back to the Lord they got rid of their idolatry
and then because they returned to him he returned to them
and this is a theme in the book of Zechariah all the way back to chapter one
this idea of draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you
and then just in verse number 15 I believe
in chapter 7, I'm sorry, chapter 7 verse number
13 he talks about how if you won't hear me when I talk to you
then I won't hear you when you talk to me
so this is a principle that's really just hammered in the book of Zechariah over and over again
that if we return to God he'll return to us
if we listen to him he'll listen to us
if we are pure he'll show himself pure unto us
etc etc that's a biblical principle that Zechariah really drives home
so what we need to understand is that when the children of Israel
turned away from the Lord and worshiped other gods he did turn away from them
now a lot of people today have this mistaken idea
that God is just always blessing the Jews
and they're always his chosen people no matter what
and basically no matter what they do that land belongs to them
and what's being taught in the vast majority of churches today
is that God made an unconditional promise to the children of Israel
they'll use that term unconditional
just a carte blanche of just worship Satan
and deny Christ but the land is still your land
and that is a lie all throughout the Bible when they didn't have the faith
that land was not given to them
that's why when they first got there they couldn't even go in because of unbelief
in the days of Joshua and Caleb
they had to wander in the wilderness 40 years because they didn't have the faith
then once they get in there they were supposed to possess all the land
but because they lacked faith what happened?
God left the Philistines to inhabit some of the land
they didn't ever get the whole thing because all these other nations took bites out of it
as a punishment because the land was not given to them unconditionally
it was given to them upon the condition that they would serve the Lord
over and over again that's very clear in the Bible so
when they turned away from them he turned away from them
and then now it says he's returned to them
now that they're worshiping him once again and serving him and that's why it says
I'm returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem
and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth
and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain
so when God is blessing Israel
when God is returned unto Israel what's the result?
it's a city of truth
it's a mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain
now could that be said today of Israel
that it's a city of truth?
no because of the fact that ninety-nine percent of the people over there don't
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
as the Son of God as their Savior therefore it's not a place of truth
why? because Jesus said I am the truth
Jesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life
no man cometh unto the Father but by me
which means that every Israeli who's on their knees
praying to the Father if it's not through the Son
their prayer is hitting the ceiling and going no further
God is not listening to any of them and I'm tired of hearing about
how God answered the prayer of these Israel not if it's not through Jesus
he didn't because no man
cometh unto the Father but through him it says
having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus
by a new and living way which he had consecrated for us through the veil
that is to say his flesh and having a high priest over the house of God
let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith
I mean the Bible tells us over and over again that we have boldness to
come before the throne of grace
and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need
but it's always through Jesus it's always through his blood it's through
his flesh it's through the Savior
he's the high priest he's the mediator between God and men
see it doesn't say there's no mediator there's no mediator between God and
Is that what the Bible says? No, it says there's one mediator between God and men
the man Christ Jesus that mediator
is how you reach the Father through Jesus there's no way to bypass that
so therefore those in Israel today
are not talking to God the Father they're not worshiping God the Father
because they're not going
through the proper channel and there's only one channel
so the Bible here talks about Jerusalem being a city of truth
that's a city where the Word of God is being preached and exalted where Jesus
is lifted up
that could not be said of Jerusalem today so you can't just cherry pick
verses from Zechariah and try to apply them to 2015
when over and over again in almost every chapter in Zechariah
he keeps explaining what it means to be blessed by God and how it has to
do with worshiping him serving him obeying him believing him and so forth
all things that they're not doing look at verse number four
Thus saith the Lord of hosts there shall yet
old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem
and every man with his staff in his hand for very age and the streets of
the city
shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof
why bring that up? Because of the fact that if there are old men that shows
that people are
living a long time they're living in peace and they're healthy
and they're growing to be old that's a sign of blessing the fact that
they're gonna live that long
and then he also says that the streets will be full of boys and girls
that's also a blessing when children are being born and by the way our church
is really being blessed right now
all these little kids being born the Bible says
children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his
reward
as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are the children of the youth
happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them they should not be ashamed
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate
so God is talking about them being blessed and he talks about how they're
gonna have old men
and they're gonna have children growing up in their church
you know or in their nation but when you go to the churches today in
America
sometimes you go to churches and it's only old people
and there are almost no children that's a bad sign
you know God's blessing is when we have
the whole spectrum now we're a little bit lean on old people I admit
okay but that's because we're a newer church we've only been around
for 10 years stick around and we're all gonna grow old together
right and then it'll be all the all the young people now we're all gonna get old
but then we'll also have God willing you know all the little kids and and
young people growing up
so that's a sign of God's blessing he's just explaining that that's what
he's gonna do in Jerusalem verse 6
thus saith the Lord of hosts if it be marvelous in the eyes of the
remnant of this people in these days
should it also be marvelous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts
thus saith the Lord of hosts behold I will save my people from the east
country
and from the west country and I will bring them and they shall dwell in the
midst of Jerusalem
and they shall be my people and I will be their God
in truth and in righteousness now stop right there if he's saying
future tense I'm gonna bring them back and they are
going to be my people and I am going to be
their God you know what that tells me is that they previously were not his
people
and that he was previously not their God
go to Hosea chapter 1 and you'll see the same thing Hosea chapter number 1
because again a lot of people have this idea that it was just a carte blanche
for the children of Israel
no matter what they do no matter what they believe that they're just
automatically God's chosen people and that is simply
not the case in Hosea chapter number 1
basically God is talking to people
that are in disobedience it's the children of Israel this is you know
hundreds of years previously but obviously the same principles
apply it's the same nation of Israel
and he basically tells Hosea
to name his sons these various names
and the names have significance you know for example
there's a son named Jezreel and then there's a daughter named
Lo Ruhamah verse 6 let's start there and she conceived and God
said and she conceived and bare a daughter and God said unto him
call her name Lo Ruhamah for I will no more have mercy upon the house of
Israel
but I will utterly take them all I will utterly take them away
isn't that what he did when he took them to Babylon? no mercy
take them away okay look at
if you would at verse 7 it says but I will have mercy upon the house of Judah
because at this point the northern kingdom of Israel was the one that was
in sin
and he said I'm gonna take them away whereas the southern kingdom of Judah
was still worshiping God at this point so he said I will have mercy on them
but then later on they follow in the footsteps of the northern kingdom and
he doesn't have mercy on them jump down to verse 8 it says
now when she had weaned Lo Ruhamah she conceived and bare a son then said God
call his name Lo am I
for ye are not my people and I will not be your God
I mean this this is even in the Old Testament this is even before they
rejected Jesus and he told them that the kingdom of God will be taken from
them
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof he looks at people that
had previously been
his people as a nation and he says you're not my people that's what lo
am I the low means not am I means my people
name your kid not my people because that's what I feel about Israel right
now they're not my people
and this is quoted this a very significant scripture in Hosea
you can go back to Zechariah but it's very significant because it's quoted in
Romans
where he says to them that they're not as people but that in the place where
it was said unto them
that they were not his people there shall they be called the children of
the living God
and in Romans 9 he explains that the Gentiles who receive Christ
that they will become his people instead of
the unbelieving Christ rejecting Jews where the kingdom of God is taken
from them
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits of which made up of all
believers
predominantly Gentiles
that includes a small remnant of believing Jews but it's predominantly
Gentiles
look at Zechariah chapter 8 where we left off there
where he talked about how he's going to be their people
look at verse 9, thus saith the Lord of hosts
let your hands be strong ye that hear in these days
these words by the mouth of the prophets which were in the day
that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid
that the temple might be built so again this book is to encourage them
in the work of building the temple and to let them know
that God's gonna bless them now they're gonna be old men they're gonna
be little kids running around
and you will be my people I'm gonna return to you you're gonna be my
people I'm gonna be your God
things are gonna be great just obey me be strong in the Lord
and encourage yourselves and I will bless you you're gonna be a blessing
again
this is what he's saying to them and again it's just
people don't get this today because this is the message that should be preached
unto Israel
that they're doomed that they turned away from God that God can't bless them
that they're not God's people that he's not their God
and that they need to return to him
and it's through Jesus and that that's the only way it's gonna be
but he says here in this scripture
you know I'll be their God in truth and in righteousness
okay those are the qualifying factors so
it says in verse number 10 for before these days there was no higher
for man nor any higher for beast now
in our modern vernacular what we would say there is that there weren't
any jobs
when they say hey there's no higher for man there's no higher for beast
what they're saying is that people couldn't find a job and that's sort of
like today
when things are going bad in our country you'll hear people talking
about the lack of jobs or we need to bring back the job we need more jobs
so there's nothing new under the sun they're saying the same thing back then
when God wasn't blessing there was no higher for man or beast
and then when things are going good for them then the jobs abound
okay that's what he's saying here for before these days there was no
higher for man nor any higher for beast
neither was there any peace to him that went out
or came in because of the affliction for I said all men
everyone against his neighbor but now I will not be under the residue of
this people as in the former days
saith the Lord of hosts for the seed shall be prosperous
the vine shall give her fruit and the ground shall give her increase
and the heavens shall give their due and I will cause the remnant
of this people to possess all things
notice he says I'm not going to be the same way that I was before
so it's not that God changes in the sense that God's character never
changes he said I'm the Lord I change not
the Bible says Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever
it's not that who he is changes but his behavior toward us
does change based on what we do with his word
based on what we do with truth and righteousness so
God does not just treat us the same no matter what
no if we do right he treats us well and if we do ill
he treats us poorly that's what the Bible teaches over and over again
it's not that God kind of just knows whether you've been good or bad
but he's just gonna bless you anyway no matter what because he's just got such
a big heart that's a fairy tale according to the
Bible how God is to us is based upon what we
do so when we see scriptures in the
Bible where it talks about for example God repenting
and people become confused like well I thought God never changes
so why would God change his mind when we look at all the verses where he
talks about he's going to do one thing and then he repents
it's not that God is indecisive up in heaven or that God's character changed
God never changes because when you're perfect to begin with
how can you change God started out perfect
he and he's gonna end up there's no reason to change
okay now the Bible talks about there being a change from Old Testament to
New Testament but it's not because God changed and
it's not because God did something wrong and he's okay
let's try this again let's you know let's roll out the beta you know
testament let's roll out testament 2.0 because
there were some bugs in 1.0 that needed to be fixed see in
Hebrews it talks about how he made a new
covenant because he said if the first covenant
listen to these words carefully this is from Hebrews 8 for if that
first covenant had been faultless there should been
have been no place found for the second now
at first glance you might look at that and say oh there's something wrong with
the first covenant because he said if the first covenant had been faultless
there should no place have been found for the second but here's the
next words for finding fault with them he
says right and he talks about how Israel had
broken the covenant that's why he has to bring in the
new covenant so God changes his behavior toward us
God changes his attitude or his action toward us
based on what we say and do but it's not that God himself
changed in the sense that he's still the same God that he always was
he still has the same opinions the same
teachings the same doctrine it's amazing to me how people think that the
God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New
Testament when God dwells in eternity outside of it
look a day is with the Lord as a thousand years
so how long ago was the new was the Old Testament two days ago
you know we think of it as like oh yeah that was thousand years ago and we
want to just kind of throw out the whole Old Testament
and just say oh yeah God was really harsh in the Old Testament you know he
wanted to stone homosexuals and stone adulterers
you know but that you know that was thousands of years no that was two days
ago from God's perspective that was just a
couple days ago I mean God was killing homos a couple days
ago and I mean from his perspective does
everybody understand what I'm saying right
so we can't just get this attitude that God's different no
God has made changes in the New Testament
okay but God did not make changes in his personality
that's why when we read the book of revelation for example
we see all the same wrath and hell fire and damnation
of the quote Old Testament God because you'll hear people in the world
refer to somebody believing in more of an Old
Testament God than a New Testament it's the same God
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever
the Lord does not change he's that he was perfect
there's no reason to change the law of the Lord is perfect
and a lot of these laws by the way are coming back in the millennial reign
of Jesus Christ so you know don't make any
mistake about that so we need to understand that doctrine
because people will sometimes accuse God of changing
or changing his mind and God only changes his mind
in the sense of I was gonna do this but then the people changed
so now I've changed my mind about how I'm gonna deal with them
because they changed not like I changed my mind because I was wrong
because he's never been wrong and that's why you know
people who believe that in the New Testament
God's view has totally changed on for example adultery or homos or whatever
it blows my mind how sometimes they can say things that sound really
blasphemous because they'll they'll talk about
Old Testament laws and they'll say that they're bad
for example I've heard independent fundamental baptist preachers
criticize Islam and say Islam is a wicked religion it's so violent
because they believe in stoning adulterers and homos like what but by
doing that you're actually calling God wicked because that's what God said to
do two days ago two thousand years ago
and look obviously I understand that that's not the law of the land
that's not the it's not our job to to enforce that or anything because
we're New Testament Christians we're not running things we never will
be running things but to sit there and say that those laws are bad
no the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect those are actually good laws
if our government were smart they would take lessons from the Bible
they'd be studying Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy figuring out
how to have a government that pleases God because God made up a great
plan for government so God didn't change it's just that man has changed
and so God changes his attitude or action
and the reason why this matters is that we want God
to be a loving merciful and blessing God in our lives don't we
we want the God of compassion to listen to our prayers don't we well
how do we get a hold of the God of love mercy and compassion well
there's only one God but here's the thing he'll show himself merciful
loving compassionate gentle pure unto us if we are humble
and obey him whereas if we become prideful and arrogant
and we go after other philosophies or other gods or if we
start living a sinful life then we're going to start dealing with the God
that's more of a stern strict punishing God
it's up to you so people that are hateful toward God they oh God's so mean
yeah he's mean to you
because you're in sin you know it's you
you decide how God's going to treat you and how God's going to deal with
you it's really up to you because God
has in his character love compassion mercy but he also has in his character
wrath vengeance jealousy and fury and we have to decide whether we want to be on
God's good side or on God's bad side he can be your best friend or your
worst enemy what a friend we have in Jesus because
we believe in him you know because we're going to church and we love God
and we're trying to to obey whereas people who just
completely mock and spit upon God's laws
I mean he's the worst enemy that they could ever imagine and it is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God the Bible says
God the Bible says is terrible yeah he's vengeful you know
so but but but then we think well no God's loving and merciful and kind
now we talk a lot about the mercy and love and kindness of God
because that's the side of God where we hang out or at least we should try
to right but what's funny is when the
world starts talking about how loving and kind and merciful God is
and you just have to think yourself not to you you don't believe you know
you don't believe in Jesus so you don't have access to the the
mercy of God because we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ but the Bible talks about how before
we have Jesus we're at enmity with God so that's an important distinction to
understand look down at your Bible there in
verse number 13 it says and it shall come to pass
that as ye were a curse among the heathen O house of Judah
and house of Israel so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing
fear not but let your hands be strong now
what's interesting about this is that it talks about the Jews
the house of Judah being a curse amongst all nations where they dwelled
think about that he said as you were a curse among the heathen
what would be the opposite of being a curse among the heathen
being a blessing now when somebody is staying at your house for example
let's say you have a visitor from out of town sometimes that person's a
blessing meaning that you enjoy having them
around maybe they help out a little bit around the house
maybe they help out playing with the kids maybe they bring a lot of
fellowship and good times and laughs and and joy
to the house maybe they can even you know talk to you about
biblical things and refresh you spiritually by
by talking to you about the Bible and just being a blessing where you say
boy I'm so glad that so-and-so visited
it was so good to have them staying with us what a blessing to have them
around right you had experiences like that you
know somebody visits and it's an enjoyable visit
but then aren't there sometimes visitors that come and stay at your
house that are a pain unto you and they're a curse and
you're thinking like when are they leaving
how much longer is this visit going to endure
because they're actually causing extra work and they're being a pain and
and maybe they're causing all kinds of strife and friction and
anger and you can't have one accord with them and they're
they're creating a bad atmosphere in the home and you're thinking to yourself
you know this person is not a blessing enemy this person is a curse
okay what about in a church there are people who show up to church
and they're an asset to the church they're a blessing to the church
they're helping out hey what can i do to help they're involved in soul
winning program they're singing out during the
singing they're smiling and greeting visitors
they're friendly they're doing the soul winning you know they help out with
cleaning whatever and they're they're a part of the
team and you're glad that they're there
and they're a friend then there are other people coming to the church and
just cause trouble and they're a pain in the neck and you
wish that they weren't even there sometimes you know people who who just
show up and they they don't help anything
they're just a burden just a hindrance okay they're just there to cause
trouble that would be a curse so now let's
think about this passage with all that in mind
it says it should come to pass that as you were a curse among the heathen
oh house of juda and house of israel so i will save you
and ye shall be a blessing fear not but let your hands be strong let me ask
you something are unsaved jews a blessing to the
nations where god has driven them or a curse
what about after they get saved i mean isn't this simple and it's so
funny how these zionist jew worshiping type
christians they love to quote zechariah it's funny i never hear them quote
these parts of zechariah you know in the course of this area
here we are we're eight weeks into this thing
right and in the course of the last eight sermons we've seen a lot of
verses that kind of just demolish zionism and just demolish this sort
of jew worshiping doctrine but yet those
aren't quoted at all and everybody talks about
oh pastor anerson needs to read zechariah well you know i'm reading zechariah
and you know what i'm i'm finding that marching to zion
the the film just rings true because god talks about
unsaved jews being a curse among the heathen
and then he said i'll save you and then you'll be a blessing
now to me that just seems obvious doesn't it isn't it just something
that makes perfect sense that unsaved jews are a curse where god's
driven them and that when they get saved they become a blessing
now we pointed out in in our film marching design that just in the last
thousand years alone it's been documented
47 different times where the government
literally made a law that said just think about this now
47 times the government has made a law where they said
we are expelling all jews from our country every jew
must leave the country or they have to convert
to christianity or they have to leave they cannot be jews here
okay 47 times now you say oh that's nazi germany but here's the thing
that's not even including germany this is that's not including nazi germany
this is going back hundreds and hundreds of years this is
england spain italy i mean just all over europe
they're just constantly being thrown out now here's the thing if they were
a blessing would they have been thrown out 47
times now i'm not getting up here saying hey
we need to expel the i don't believe that i believe
that you should let people believe what they want to believe and he that is
unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still
i don't believe that it's our job to impose
our religion on other people and force people to convert to christianity
it should be their free will right we preach them the truth we show them
the bible but at the end of the day they make the choice hey if you want
to serve the gods that your father's worshipped on the other side of the
flood go ahead but as for me and my house we
will serve the lord okay so i don't believe in forcing
jews to convert or muslims to convert but you have to just ask
yourself i'm not saying i support that legislation
but you have to ask yourself if this happened 47 times
could it be that maybe those 47 countries weren't all just horrible
people kicking out these wonderful nice loving
peaceful people maybe they might have had a reason to kick them out 47 times
like maybe they were a curse unto them
like maybe zechariah 8 is actually true
and that when they're not saved they are a curse amongst the nations
where they live and not a blessing you know i heard
something in the news lately i don't really follow the news at all so if i
hear something in the news it must be
something big because i don't pay any attention
to the news because it just it's it gets boring to me because it's so
repetitive same thing you know you can ignore it for three months and
you come back and it's all the same thing but i heard i keep hearing people
tell me that you know this donald trump he wanted to
ban muslims they said or something i don't know if
that's really true or not but they say people were talking about
this issue of like hey should we ban muslims should we ban
islam or not allow muslims but here's the thing why are they talking about
possibly banning muslims or saying hey we don't want muslims here
is it because they see the muslims as a blessing
or is it because they see the muslims as a curse under them
okay so that's what i'm saying so historically
people have looked at the jews that were not saved as being a curse now
let me say this and again i'm not condoning this viewpoint you know my
viewpoint i've preached on this so many times i can't even count
you know god has made all nations of the earth of one blood and i believe
that judaism and islam they're all wicked
religions but you know we want these people to be saved we love them and
want them to turn unto jesus christ okay but let me just tell you this my
grandfather was a police lieutenant in los angeles
california okay lieutenant takaberry and this is
like there was a movie spin-off based on him
but anyway so lieutenant takaberry was you know
in the vice squad and and he was in the la police department for years and
he was an unsaved man thank god he got saved
at the end of his life before he passed away
but throughout his career as a police lieutenant
he was not a christian not a believer okay
and he hated jews and when we were growing up we we were going to
churches that really taught us zionism we we thought our whole lives that the
jews are god's people and we have to bless them no matter what
you know that unconditional promise the carte blanche it wasn't until i was
24 years old that i figured out that that's not biblical
just because that was so ingrained in me growing up
so when i was growing up i mean we were taught
jews are god's chosen people bless them that bless you curse them the
curse you know all that and i remember our grandfather would
just be railing on how much he hated jews and
we're thinking like whoa you know those are god's chosen people
what are you doing and my my parents just told me well he's
not saved you know he doesn't know what the bible says
then later we read the bible but anyway so but but you have to but it's like
why did he feel that way he was not a religious zealot
the reason that he felt that way i'm i'm just telling you a story now
okay he felt that way because he was in the police department and he worked
on the vice squad and so here's what he's dealing with
prostitution okay child molesters human trafficking pornography
all the strip clubs and the bars and all the the wickedness
of la because he's on the vice squad vice is like when people have a really
bad habit right so the vice squad is the part of
the police department that deals with just all the worst
sinful stuff okay and he told us he would constantly tell us
but we just we didn't listen we it kind of just went over our heads
because we just we're just like no they're god's
people we just had that so ingrained he would tell us how they were like
behind all the crime he told us he said they're running all the prostitution
they're running the pedophilia rings he said they're running the pornography
industry he said they're controlling all this
filth and smut he said they're the scum of the earth
i'm that's not what i'm saying i'm telling you what you know lieutenant
takahberry may he rest in peace said
so i'm just telling you that that's where he's just an
unsaved guy not a christian not a bible but
he's just looking at it from a worldly perspective saying these people are a
curse under los angeles these people are ruining the sea these
people are bringing in the worst filth and it has been true throughout
history that they have been responsible you
know okay think about gangster rap
think about dr drae ice cube easy e right okay now the lyrics
that these rap artists would rap with were very offensive
when i remember when gangster rap came on the scene i was a kid
and it was all over the news of like wow
we've never seen music taken to this level of the stuff that they're saying
and they were questioning whoa is freedom of speech going too far you know
but i'm just saying people were freaking out when gangster rap came out
because it's so offensive to women it's promoting violence promoting drugs
just promoting the worst stuff who knows what i'm talking about okay
and you think to yourself like whoa you know
where is this coming from did you know that the the first big
gangster rap group that broke on the scene nwa
you know dr drae ice cube easy e all you know
whatever dj yella or whatever the whole whatever their names are the point is
and they just had a resurgence of this because there was a movie that came out
recently about it so you see shirts everywhere now
advertising this group you know like a retro
throwback to when gangster rap first kind of came on the scene and
broke through did you know that that group was
managed and shepherded and brought into the
mainstream by a jew a white jew you know because you
think of it as like yeah you know it's black people music
but no it's actually shepherded by a white jew
no joke he's the one who brought them in
and funded it and you know he got them all in with the big
uh you know record labels because you know if you're just doing your own
thing you can't really succeed in the industry you got to get to the big
record companies everything and it was all it was all engineered
by a guy who's jewish but it's and you say well what's that proof
that's just one story yeah except that you look at so many
wicked filthy things look at hollywood talk to anybody who
actually works in hollywood and they'll tell you hollywood's run by jews
anytime there's an actor in the news i always
just go to their wikipedia page and just control f jew and just it's like
most of the time they're jewish just to see are they jewish and usually
they are so i mean adam sandler richard
drifas you know uh jerry seinfeld you know
william shatner leonard nemo i mean you go down the list
of the actors and they're just it's i literally
talked to somebody who works in hollywood and
and she said everyone here in hollywood because we were trying to use
their services for something and and she said everyone
who works with us here in hollywood is either a jew or a homosexual and
you've offended both that's what i was told by an industry
insider
so if you think about the horrible influence that hollywood is
and realize that it's run by jews and then you realize that here's a
police lieutenant in los angeles he's a very well-known man amongst the
police there he was a very well-respected guy he was
he he told us it's all run by all the pedophilia here in los angeles
the organized crime the the the prostitution it's all run by
by the pimps there it's all run by the jews
okay and he wasn't a conspiracy theorist he's just he's just there
every day seeing it okay and then you think that even
something that seems as far removed from the jews as gangster rap
you know you don't really think of that as coming from the jews but it did
they're the ones who said i mean they're the ones who basically
listen to the filth that's coming out of the mouth of these
of these gangster rap artists and say like hey we can make some money off
this because they have this ethic that says
make money of on anything human trafficking pornography
trauma it's just their god is money okay now you say you're a racist
you're anti-semitic hello being jewish is not a race
it's an ideology it's a religion it's a culture
it has nothing to do with their race because the fact that most of them
look just like me and just like you they're white people hello is anybody
home they're polish they're ashkenazis look up ashkenaz in
the bible and notice he descends from j-fifth okay
so they're basically people who've just embraced a christ rejecting
religion a christ rejecting ideology and that
ideology has really become the ideology of the
united states in many ways to the point where the love of money
which is the root of all evil has become a part of our culture today
in america and that is the jews being a curse among us
when they bring in gangster rap you know you didn't know that they brought
that in but they did look it up
it's true i'm you look it up and you'll see that i'm telling the truth
uh when they bring in all this filth and smut and hollywood and they're
exporting it to the whole world with hollywood
but if they would get saved they'd be a blessing and by the way
when you get saved your race doesn't change so this has nothing to do with
racism it's just a fact that when you're not saved
and you're jewish you're worse than the general population because their
culture is a wicked culture period it's a love of money
anti-christ uh just make money at all costs
type of a culture where where they'll make money through the most illicit
means imaginable but let's let's look down at our
let's finish up here he said in verse 13 it shall come to pass that as you
were a curse among the heathen oh house of judah and house of israel
so will i save you and you shall be a blessing
fear not but let your hands be strong for thus saith the lord of hosts as i
thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath
saith the lord of hosts and i repented not so again
have i thought in these days to do well into jerusalem
and to the house of judah fear you not of course what changed they changed
now he's doing well to them verse 16 these are the things that ye shall do
speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor execute the judgment of truth
and peace in your gates and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts
against his neighbor and love no false oath for all these
things are things that i hate saith the lord now when it comes to loving a
false oath you want to talk about a false oath here's another thing that
has to do with judaism and let me say this when i first heard
this i didn't even believe it i heard somebody say this and i said
that's an exaggeration there's no way that's true
and then i went and looked it up and it was true that the jews
have this thing called the kohl niedra oath who's ever heard of this
kohl niedra it's k-o-l if you want to look this up later
k-o-l-n-i-d-r-e it's called the kohl niedra oath where once a year
and i first heard this i didn't even believe you're not gonna believe me but
i looked it up and it's true i mean you could just type it into
wikipedia kohl niedra oath it has the text of it and
everybody makes fun of you when you point them to wikipedia
ah wikipedia is a bad source hey buddy at the bottom of the wikipedia
page it gives you all the sources and you can fact check everything on
wikipedia at the original sources everybody like demonizes wikipedia like
oh he said wikipedia he just lost all credibility
it's an encyclopedia people it's a tool
you go there and it you can fact check everything it tells you where to
go you've obviously never noticed the
footnotes at the bottom of wikipedia but anyway the kohl niedra oath that
once a year the jews get together
and here's what they say every vow that i made for the last year
every promise i made for the last year
and every vow that i make for the coming year and every promise i make
for the next year is null and void
are you listening to this just every vow i make every oath
every promise that i've made for the last year is null and void
and every vow promise or oath that i make for the next 12 months
is actually null and void.
And they literally believe that it's okay to lie and break their word, break their oath,
break their vow to the goyim, to the Gentiles.
You know, they stick together and they're not going to do each other dirty, supposedly,
but oh, all the 99 point, you know, whatever percent of people that are not Jews, it's
open season on them.
And they even get together and have a ceremony where they decide that all their promises
are void.
All the O's.
And it sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
That they actually get together once a year and do this.
Even Jews that aren't even that into it, that don't go to the synagogue every week,
they'll go to this service.
Look it up.
It's real.
And by the way, while we're on the subject, the Jewish synagogue in Tempe, Temple Immanuel,
the rabbi down there, from what I understand, is an open homosexual.
Because the rabbi from Temple Immanuel, the big giant synagogue in Tempe, he came down
here back at the AIDS free Christmas last year.
He came down here and he stood out here and had the shawl and offered prayers unto
Shekinah out there on the lawn.
And listen to this.
He said, I felt like I needed to be here as an open homosexual.
I needed to be here to protest Pastor Anderson, the Jewish rabbi here in Tempe.
I mean, I'm telling you, they're not a blessing.
They're a curse.
Okay, let's keep reading.
But look, if they get saved, they'll be a blessing.
Let's keep reading.
Verse 18.
And the word of the Lord of Hosts came unto me saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
the fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth month.
And by the way, the reason I brought that up is because I said love no false oath,
because God hates false oaths.
He hates it.
But he says in verse 19, the fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth
month and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be the house of Judah,
joy and gladness and cheerful feast.
Therefore love the truth and peace.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, it shall yet come to pass that there shall come people,
and this is a key scripture, I want you to pay attention to this, that there shall
come people and the inhabitants of many cities and the inhabitants of one city shall
go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the
Lord of Hosts.
I will go also.
Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem
and to pray before the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men
shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the
skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that
God is with you.
Now, this is real important.
Let's stop and park it here for a few moments and then we'll be done with the sermon.
But this is saying that from Zechariah's perspective, there would be a future time when people
from all nations, there would be people coming to Jerusalem to hear the truth of God's
Word.
Isn't that what it says?
And to pray before the Lord at Jerusalem.
And it says that ten men shall take hold out of what?
All languages.
Out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that
is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
Now, people will mistakenly, again, try to take this scripture out of its context and
apply this to some future period.
Future period.
Like, for example, at the second coming or at the millennium or something.
Let's see what the Bible says, though.
Keep your finger here.
Go to Acts 2.
Let's see if this prophecy's already been fulfilled or if it's still coming.
What did he say to Zechariah?
He said that there's going to come a day when people will come from every nation
under heaven to come pray at Jerusalem.
Out of all languages.
Okay, let's see what the Bible says in Acts chapter 2.
Look at verse number 1.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it
filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared under them cloven tongues
like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and there
were, pay attention, dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under
heaven.
Do you see that?
It says, now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded
because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
So are these people of other languages?
Yeah.
And they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, behold, are not all these
which speak Galileans and how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were
born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwarves of Mesopotamia and in Judea
and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts
of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Crete and Arabians,
we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
You say, well Pastor Anderson, no, these are all just Jews, no, no, no, he said Proselytes
and Jews.
What's a Proselyte?
Somebody who converted to being a Jew from another nation.
He says, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
So isn't it crystal clear that this was already fulfilled in the past?
God's telling Zechariah, you're going to rebuild this temple and this temple is going
to be a house of prayer for all nations and people are going to come from all over
and they're going to grab hold of the skirt of the garment of a Jew and say, we're
going to go with you because we know God's with you and they're going to come pray at
Jerusalem and that's where they're going to learn the truth of God's word.
Already happened.
You say, well, but you know, it's still going to happen again.
Look at John chapter four, John chapter four, John chapter four.
See God is done with the Jews, done, finished, game over, insert coin, it's over, okay?
And yet people say, well, I still think he's not done, I still think he's going
to return to the Jews with mercy, I still think that they're going to be his chosen
people once again.
No.
They're that fig tree that would never bring forth fruit ever again, the Bible says.
But look down, if you would, at John chapter four, because remember, this is Jesus talking
before he has instituted the New Testament in his blood, okay?
This is during his earthly ministry, okay, he's still, you know, he's under the law
and so forth.
And look what the Bible says in verse number 19, the woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive
that thou art a prophet, our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in
this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
So what's interesting is that he says here that at that time, he said, you know, look,
there's this controversy, excuse me, this controversy of whether they should worship
at this mountain in Samaria, or whether they should worship at Jerusalem.
He's telling them, you don't even know what you worship.
We know what we worship.
Salvation is of the Jews, meaning that Jerusalem is where you're supposed to worship.
We have the right religion down here in the Old Testament scriptures, okay?
Not their false religion of Samaria.
But he says to them right after saying that, you know, hey, salvation's of the Jews,
he says, but, and people will try to quote this today, salvation is of the Jews, they'll
try to quote that in 2015, because they didn't get the but, because it says, salvation's
of the Jews, but, but the hour cometh, and now is.
He's saying, look, here it is, because I'm here, I'm the Messiah, when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
And he said at the end of verse 21, if you look there, he says, when you're neither
in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
So are we supposed to go to Jerusalem to worship God today?
No, we're just supposed to worship him wherever we are, in spirit and in truth.
So when the Bible talks about them all coming to pray at Jerusalem out of all nations,
that already happened.
That's an Old Testament prophecy that was already fulfilled in the Old Testament.
The evidence is the day of Pentecost, they were there, all nations are all praying,
and they'd been doing that for years.
That wasn't the first time all nations showed up.
They'd been showing up for years, all nations had been showing up.
All nations under heaven it says, and it says that they all heard it in their own
language, meaning they were of foreign languages.
And so today, salvation is not of the Jews today, wrong.
In the Old Testament it was.
What does it mean anyway when it says salvation is of the Jews?
What does of mean?
It means that they are the source of it, it comes from them.
Why?
Because unto them were committed the oracles of God.
They had the word of God, they had the Old Testament scriptures, and they had the
truth.
They worshiped the true God back then, and so salvation emanated forth from them.
They were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles to bring salvation to the other
nations.
But, but, the hour is coming, Jesus said, and now is.
When that's no longer going to be the case is what he's basically saying in a nutshell.
Because he's explaining that they're going to worship him in truth and in spirit.
And by the way, Jesus said the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they
are life.
And Jesus said, I'm the truth.
So all that to say this, when we read the book of Zechariah, we need to always, first
of all, understand the context of the book of Zechariah, understanding what the book's
even about.
And the themes of the book of Zechariah.
But secondly, what we need to realize is that when you're reading a book that's prophetic,
that was written several hundred years before Jesus came, you have to evaluate whether these
prophecies have already been fulfilled or is the fulfillment still coming in the future.
And when you have a scripture about people coming to pray at Jerusalem and taking hold
of a Jew and saying to a Jew, God is with you, it's pretty easy to relegate
that to the Old Testament.
Why?
Because salvation is no longer with the Jews anymore.
Because you say, well, yeah, but some of them are saved.
Yeah, but they're not Jews anymore.
Because in Christ, there's neither Jew nor Gentile.
See, those today who are saved, they don't call themselves Jews, they call themselves
Christians.
Don't you think over the last 2,000 years, some Jews have converted to Christianity in
every generation?
Well here's what happened when they converted to Christianity.
They started practicing Christianity and stopped practicing Judaism.
And then what did they teach their kids?
And then pretty soon, their kids' kids' kids forgot that they'd ever been Jews because they
rejected that false religion.
Look, my great grandfather was a Mormon, okay?
But guess what?
My grandkids might not even know that.
Because they're not going to care.
Because they're going to say, I come from a long line of Baptists.
You know, who cares about that?
So the point is that, you know, you've got to look at Old Testament prophecies as
whether they've already happened or whether they're still going to happen or whether there's
a dual fulfillment.
This is clearly something that has already happened.
We have a perfect picture of it happening in Acts chapter 2, and we have a scripture
in John 4 explaining why it can't happen again.
Because things have changed.
We're in the New Testament now.
So beware any time somebody pulls out an Old Testament scripture and brings it out to you
as future prophecy, future from 2015.
Sometimes they're right, but you've got to go back and study and check.
Because the majority of the time I see people taking Old Testament scriptures that have
already happened and trying to apply them to today.
You know, God's talking about how he's going to judge Damascus or something, and
then they're like, oh, this is happening in the news right now because, you know,
we're bombing Damascus right now.
We're fulfilling God's word.
They just kind of apply whatever the scripture, no regard to context.
We need to study to show ourselves the proof.
And let me say this.
If you're not saved tonight, you're not a blessing to anybody.
You're a curse.
We need to understand that salvation...
By the way, when God said to Abraham, in thee shall all nations be blessed and thou
shall be a blessing, thou is all through Christ, according to Galatians 3.
And then we also need to understand that after we're saved, if we want God to bless
us, we have to do what's right.
See, getting to heaven is a free ticket.
You just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
It's just a free pass into heaven through the blood of Jesus.
But it's not a free pass to God blessing you.
God's blessing comes through walking through the path of...
You have to walk through the door of obedience.
You know, the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience.
Salvation's free.
God's blessings come through daily obedience.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
And there's so much false teaching out there.
Help us to study books like Zechariah that some people have never even read
because they're obscure books that are not that popular.
But Lord, help us to really study this book
and understand the truths that are in it
because this is a big issue right now, Lord.
This whole Jewish-Hebrew roots movement is being crammed down our throat, Lord.
We need to know what the Scripture really says.
We need to know what Zechariah says
so that when somebody pulls this out,
we won't just be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
We'll know what the rest of the book says.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.