And the Bible reads, the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle,
pitched beside Ebenezer,
and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.
And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel,
and when they joined battle,
Israel was spitting before the Philistines,
and they slew of the army in the field about 4,000 men.
And when the people were come into the camp,
the elders of Israel said,
wherefore hath the Lord spit in us today
before the Philistines?
Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us,
that when it cometh among us,
it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.
So the people sent to Shiloh,
they might bring from the fence
the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts,
which dwelt between the Cheibim's
and the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas,
were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
When the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp,
all Israel shouted with a great shout,
so that the earth rang again.
And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout,
they said, what meaneth the noise of this great shout
in the camp of the Hebrews?
And they understood that the ark of the Lord
was coming to the camp.
And the Philistines were afraid,
for they said, God is coming to the camp.
And they said, woe unto us, for there hath not been such
a thing heretofore.
Woe unto us, who shall deliver us out
of the hand of these mighty gods.
These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all
the plagues in the wilderness.
Be strong and quit yourselves like men, oh you Philistines,
that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews
as they have been to you.
Quit yourselves like men and fight.
And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten,
and they fled every man into this tent,
and there was a very great slaughter
for there fell of Israel 30,000 footmen.
And the Ark of God was taken, and the two
sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas were slain.
And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army
and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes
rent and with earth upon his head.
And when he came low, Eli sat upon a seat
by the wayside watching, for his heart
trembled for the Ark of God.
And when the men came into the city and told it,
all the city cried out.
And when Eli heard the noise of the crying,
he said, what meaneth the noise of this tumult?
And the men came in hastily and told Eli.
Now, Eli was 90 and eight years old,
and his eyes were dim that he could not see.
The man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army,
and I fled today out of the army.
And he said, what is there done, my son?
And the messenger answered and said,
Israel has fled before the Philistines,
and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people.
And thy two sons also, Haphne and Phinehas, are dead,
and the Ark of God is taken.
It came to pass when he had made mention of the Ark of God,
that he fell from off the seat backward
by the side of the gate and his neck break, and he died.
For he was an old man and heavy, and he had judged Israel
40 years.
And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas's wife,
was with child near to be delivered.
And when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God
was taken, that her father-in-law and her husband
were dead, she bowed herself and travailed,
for her pains came upon her.
And about the time of her death, the woman that stood by her
said unto her, fear not, for thou hast borne a son.
But she answered not, neither did she regard it.
And she named the child Ichabod,
saying, the glory is departed from Israel
because the Ark of God was taken,
and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
And she said, the glory is departed from Israel,
but the Ark of God is taken.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord God, thank you for this time we have
to congregate and meet, to hear your word being preached.
Lord, just please bless this service.
Lord, fill Pastor Mahia with your Holy Spirit
as he preaches these truths out of your word.
Lord, we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.
- Amen.
Okay, we are actually gonna continue tonight
with the part two on my sermon
on Haphne and Phinehas from last week.
The sons of Belial, you guys already got
your Father's Day sermon this morning.
And so we're gonna switch back to just talking about
what the Bible says about false prophets tonight.
And so last week, I started off talking
about Haphne and Phinehas and how the first point
was the fact that they weren't saved.
And the reason I'm discussing Haphne and Phinehas
is to kind of give us an overview
of false prophets in the Bible
because of the fact that Haphne and Phinehas,
essentially, they fit the description perfectly
and they exert a lot of the quote unquote qualities
of a false prophet, of an infiltrator.
And so we wanna look at the story here
to see how that came about.
It says here in verse 17 of 1st Samuel chapter four,
and the messenger answered and said,
"Israel's fled from before the Philistines,
"and there hath been also great slaughter among the people.
"And thy two sons also, Haphne and Phinehas are dead.
"And the ark of God is taken, and it came to pass
"when he had made mention of the ark of God,
"that he fell from off the seat backward
"by the side of the gate, and his neck break.
"And he died, for he was an old man and heavy,
"and he had judged Israel forty years."
Last week we addressed the fact that Eli,
who is a prophet of the Lord,
but he's also a priest of God,
how he failed as a father to get his son saved.
And that was the main point
that we're trying to get across last week,
is the fact that if we don't work hard at praying for
and giving the gospel to our children,
we can't assume that just because they're coming to church,
just because they're sitting under the preaching,
just because they're making great friends at church,
that somehow we're just gonna relegate
that responsibility to someone else,
and someone else is gonna get them saved.
We should always, as parents,
have the salvation of our children on our minds, right?
The forefront of our minds,
praying for them daily, praying for them weekly,
and not just praying, but actually doing something about it,
planting seeds of the gospel in their hearts as children.
So that when they grow up, they get ready to get saved.
They wanna call upon the name of the Lord.
They come to us in confidence,
wanting to know about salvation and we can get them saved.
But here we have an example
of two quote unquote Christian children
that grew up in a Christian home.
And in fact, we could even say
they grew up in a pastor's home, right?
'Cause Eli is the priest of the Lord.
He's a prophet of God.
He's there to proclaim the word of the Lord.
And they didn't get saved.
But here's the thing is that they went into the ministry.
They were a part of the priesthood.
They're fulfilling the duties of a priesthood.
They're adults, they're married, they have children,
but they're wicked, false prophets,
according to this story.
And it is an example of what happens
when children grow up in church, in a house of God,
but their parents fail to teach them the ways of the Lord.
They fail them to give them the gospel.
They end up becoming some of the worst human beings
on the face of the planet.
They become reprobate.
And in fact, the famous statement
made about Haphne and Phinehas is
that they're the sons of Eli, but that they're also
the sons of Belial.
How can that be?
Well, because physically, they were the sons of Eli,
but spiritually, they're the sons of the devil.
Because Belial is referring to Beelzebub, Baal.
It's another way of saying a devil and/or Satan.
And so the Bible is kind of going out of its way
to give us that description of these two
so that on our end, we express no sympathy for them.
Because to say that--
for God to say that they're children of the devil's
sons of Satan, it's essentially to say
that they're offspring of iniquity.
They're wicked individuals.
They merit no sympathy or empathy.
And of course, you won't be able to express
any empathy towards them, especially
if you've read the story of some of the wicked things
that they do.
But the reason it's telling us here
that they're sons of Belios, because obviously, if you're
a saved person, you've read the Bible,
you understand that a saved person is called what?
A son of God.
But as many as receive them, to them
give you power to become the sons of God,
even unto them that believe on his name.
The Bible says--
it talks about in 1 John chapter 3.
It says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
And of course, what the Bible teaches
is that when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
God begets us through the gospel.
And it's through our belief in Christ
that we become children of God.
Now, once you become a child of God, you can't un-become.
I know that's not a word, but you can't not
become a child of God.
You don't lose your salvation.
He doesn't give you up for adoption or something like that.
He doesn't disown you.
Once you're a child of God, you're always a child of God.
And here's a great way to say it.
Once saved, always saved, right?
And just as your parents will always be your parents,
or your children will always be your children,
even if you have some sort of major disagreement with them,
maybe you don't see eye to eye with them,
maybe you're in your latter years and as an adult,
maybe you don't get along with your parents, or vice versa,
it doesn't change the fact that they're still your parents
and you're still their child, right?
Well, like men are spiritually speaking
when we're children of God, there
can be instances where Christians don't
see eye to eye with God, not because of God,
but because of them, right?
They're living in disobedience to the Bible.
They are in rebellion to the word of God.
They're not walking with God.
They're at odds against the Lord, per se.
But it doesn't change the fact that if they believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, then they will always
be the sons of God.
And the Bible tells us, "Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and scourgeeth."
Listen to this, "Every son whom ye receiveeth."
So a great indication that you're a child of God
is if you're in rebellion, you know what happens?
God chastises you, he spanks you, he punishes you.
Now I don't think you need to go live a life of rebellion
to prove that, right?
You know, a great way to prove that you're saved
is the fact that the Bible tells us
that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
If you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you believe what the Bible says,
you know that the Holy Spirit of God dwells within you,
that's proof enough.
Obviously there's people out there
that doubt their salvation sometimes
because of the fact that maybe they're involved
in a lot of sin, they've been at a church for a long time,
and they could allow doubts, thoughts of doubts to arise
because they're not putting the truth in.
They can often doubt their salvation
to question whether they're saved or not.
But here's the thing is that when you approach that person
and tell them what the Bible says about salvation,
they'll be in 100% agreement with you.
I've talked to many people and they'll say,
well, I know that I'm saved,
I'm just really backslidden, right?
But no person will say,
well, actually I've decided to convert
to becoming a child of the devil.
You know, I'm now a child of Satan or something, okay?
Or a saved Christian will never hate the Lord, okay?
And in fact, you know, backslidden Christians
will often be extremely grieved
over their backslidden state.
Even if they're trying to promote to you
that they're like, oh, I'm living a great life
and I'm being successful still.
Folks, when they laid their head on their pillow at night,
they're grieved, they are filled with sorrow and depression.
Because if the Spirit of God dwells within you,
you're grieving the Holy Spirit of God.
You know the truth, you know that you're not living a life
that's pleasing unto you.
And here's the thing, the Bible says taste and see
that the Lord is gracious.
And anybody who's gotten saved has seen and has tasted
of the graciousness of God.
And you know when you're backslidden, you miss that.
When you're out of God's will, you're out of church
and you're just not living right,
you miss fellowship with God.
Even if you've never had it in a deep manner per se,
you know what it's like to fellowship with the Lord
in prayer, in your Bible reading.
You know what it's like to have God touch your heart
through the preaching of God's word
or through a verse in the Bible.
You know the feeling when the word of God
resonates with your spirit and you're like,
man, I'm a child of God, I'm saved.
I have God as my heavenly father.
You know, backslidden Christians miss that.
And people can't tell me that they don't.
You can revel and enjoy sin all you want,
but just remember this, it's only pleasurable for a season.
And once that season is over, then you remember how much
you actually miss the Lord.
And so, you know, that's a side note there.
I'm chasing a rabbit there, but it's important to mention
that when you're a child of God, you're a son of God,
that never changes, okay?
So obviously, you know, Haphne and Phanehas,
what I'm trying to say here is that they're not backslidden
because they never went forward to begin with.
You understand?
Because, you know, you kind of wonder, like,
people who don't believe in the reprobate doctrine,
they don't believe in what the Bible teaches
about the systematic doctrine of reprobation,
you kind of wonder, like, how do you interpret
God calling Haphne and Phanehas children of Belial?
And then, I mean, the only thing I can think of
that they would even dare to say is, like,
oh, they're just backslidden or something.
But nowhere in the Bible does it refer
to backslidden Christians as children of Satan, okay?
And so, you know, these men are not backslidden.
They're very much demon-possessed, per se, okay?
And have lost out on their opportunity to be saved.
And you're like, well, you know,
people should pray for people like that.
But here's the problem.
And you have to understand the way the truth works, okay?
Because the way God, you know, gives truth to someone
is that obviously he gives it to them over a length of time.
And there comes a point
where a person tastes of the heavenly gift.
They're on the brink of salvation,
the truth of the gospel and salvation, heaven and hell.
The free gift of salvation is made abundantly clear to them.
And everyone here who's saved
knows that there is a point when you're on that brink
and your eyes were enlightened,
you tasted the heavenly gifts,
like you understand what the gospel is.
And every single one of you crossed over in belief.
You're like, whoa, free?
Whoa, I'm going to hell?
Whoa, you know, eternal life?
I'm crossing over, I want that.
But you have to understand is that there's certain people
who chose not to cross over.
And when we're talking about that line,
we're talking about just the explicit truth
where you're no longer confused about the truth.
Because I'm sure there's people here,
myself included in times past,
where we didn't know the gospel 100%,
where it was given to us almost like
in dark sayings and parables.
We heard it differently from different people
and we were just still darkened to that truth.
And you know, that's different if you're not confused.
This person, these individuals,
they come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
They know exactly what God has to offer.
They know exactly what their condition is.
And you know what they say?
I don't want it.
And then they begin to hate God,
believe it or not, in their hearts,
at which point God removes their ability to believe.
They become what the Bible calls reprobates
or as we see in this particular story, sons of Belial.
Okay?
And so, Haphne and Phanehas are not saved.
They're sons of Belial.
And unlike most false prophets
who seek to infiltrate a church,
these actually spawn from the house of God itself.
'Cause you know, you think of false prophets,
you think of, oh, people who are trying to infiltrate.
Wolves who are trying to get into the church, right?
And that very much exists.
You know, you have people, wicked individuals,
who try to make it through the doors of a church,
move up in leadership position,
or just gain the confidence of the people
via relationships and flattery
and all types of other tactics and methods.
And then what do they do that for?
To try to take advantage of the innocent.
Those are infiltrators, right?
These aren't necessarily infiltrators,
they actually spawn within the house of God.
And how do they do that?
Well, like I mentioned,
Eli, not making sure that his children get saved.
And here's how you can make sure
your children will never become reprobate, get them saved.
If your kids are just saved,
I mean, that's the most important thing,
because if your child is saved when they grow up,
and yeah, maybe they may make some bad decisions,
they may do some stupid stuff,
but you know what, at the end of the day,
because they're children of God,
God will work at getting them back on course,
God is gonna work in their hearts.
You know, the parents' greatest fear
is that our children will make bad decisions in life
that will affect them greatly as adults.
You know, we as parents, we're just, you know,
and my kids are still small,
but I think about their future,
I think about who they're gonna marry,
I think about, you know,
what are they gonna choose to do
for the rest of their lives,
that's important to me, and I worry about that,
but at the end of the day, you know,
all I can do is pass on the faith of salvation,
pass on the faith of what the Bible says,
and hope they make the right decisions,
but if they don't, they're still accountable to God,
and I have to recognize that at the end of the day,
God loves them more than I love them, right?
God thinks upon them, like my son, Bruce,
he's my son, but at the end of the day,
like my God is actually his God, though, 'cause he's saved.
Like Jesus Christ is his personal savior,
not just mine, but his personal savior, right?
Like when my son reads the Bible,
he's walking with God alone, not with me,
not with mom, not with anybody else.
Like when he prays, he's praying unto the Lord himself,
right?
So we have to understand that we can do all we can
on our part, but if they're saved,
we never have to worry that they become
a hafa-ni-in-fine-has, okay?
Now, let me read to you from Acts 20 and verse 29
in regards to this point of them not infiltrating,
but spawning from within the house of God.
It says, "For I know this, that after my departing,
"shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
"not sparing the flock."
Who is that?
The infiltrators.
'Cause it says, "Grievous wolves enter in among you,
"not sparing the flock."
But then it also says, "Also of your own selves," it says,
"shall men arise, speaking perverse things,
"to draw away disciples after them."
So there you have those who actually spawn
within the house of God.
And potentially this could be like an example
of Haphne and Penehas, where people grow up in church,
they never get saved, and they end up becoming spots
in your Feast of Charity, as we're gonna see in just a bit.
Now another thing that we mentioned,
that I'm gonna spend a little more time on this evening,
is the fact that Haphne and Penehas were incontinent, okay?
And I explained that incontinent means without restraint,
meaning they had no self-control.
Now look, don't apply this to yourself,
because I know a lot of us sometimes
don't have self-control, okay?
You know, I'm off the cut, and I have to work at self-control.
That's probably why I got sick in the first place, okay?
It was just like French toast, all the fix-ins,
and probably messed up my immune system, I don't know.
But you know what I mean.
There's instances where we may not have self-control
over what we eat, right?
You know, or am I alone on that?
You know, can I get an amen, please, good night.
You know you're all gluttons in here.
But you know, there's instances
where you may not have self-control
with the energy drinks, with the food that you,
okay, now I see, now I hit the button.
With the energy drinks, with the coffee,
with the sweets, with the fast food.
There's a lot of things that people
just don't have self-control over, right?
This is different than what we're talking about here.
This is an incontinent quality
where they can't restrain themselves
from doing wickedness, okay?
You know, eating McDonald's food is not wickedness, okay?
Because neither if we eat or we the better,
neither if we eat or we the worse, all right?
But here's the thing, when it talks about incontinent,
it's always in context of actually reprobates
and false prophets.
Because incontinent is actually,
the word is actually found in 2 Timothy chapter three.
And 2 Timothy chapter three gives this description
of what it's gonna be like in the last days.
And it kind of gives the characteristics
of the people who will essentially be in society.
And one of the characteristics
is that they're gonna be incontinent without restraint.
They just give themselves over
to some of the most perverse, wicked, vile actions, okay?
So incontinent means without restraint,
lascivious, with no moral boundary.
And we looked at the example with Haphne and Phinehas
where they were responsible for doing the animal sacrifices
as the priests were.
And so people would bring them the animal sacrifice,
but the instructions that God gave
in Leviticus chapter six, seven,
and you'll see in number six as well,
that God would tell them,
hey, the breasts and the shoulder are for the priests,
but the priests are not allowed to eat the fat.
Now we're in the New Testament
so we can participate of the fat, amen?
And fat's delicious and God allows that.
Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused,
amen?
But in Old Testament Levitical law,
the priests were not supposed to eat the fat.
They're actually supposed to burn the fat on the altar.
And so the manner in which they would do that
is they would put it in the cauldron and boil it,
so then it would separate the fat from the meat.
And once it was separated,
they would give that portion of the meat to the priests
and then they would roast it and then they can eat it.
That was their inheritance.
They can eat that and share that with their families.
And obviously the fat was supposed to be taken
and burned on the altar.
Well, we have this instance with Haphne and Phanehas
where it's being sawed in, it's being boiled,
and then they come and they're just like
sticking their forks in there and just pulling it out,
whatever's there.
And then he even has the gall,
and it doesn't say who it was specifically,
but he's a servant of one of the priests,
Haphne and Phanehas.
He even has the gall to say, don't give it to me sawed in.
And he's like, just give it, and the guy's just like,
whoa, before you take it, let it,
let us burn the fat presently first.
And he's just like, I don't want it sawed in.
I don't, you know, give it to me raw
or I'll take it by force.
So he's violating, he's committing sacrilege
with the animal sacrifices because he's disobeying,
he's having disregard for the animal sacrifices.
He's disobeying the laws
that they're not supposed to participate of the fact.
And then on top of that,
they're eating it raw, liver kink style, you know?
Or he's just taking it raw.
What does that show?
It shows that they're incontinent.
And it's my personal opinion,
and I think you could prove it with the scripture
is that, you know, these guys were probably major gluttons.
So how do you know?
Well, because their father was a glutton.
He said, how do you know his father was a glutton?
'Cause he died 'cause he was really heavy.
He fell off the back of his seat,
or he fell off his seat backwards
and then snapped his neck.
And it's said because he was very old,
but then it also says because he was also very heavy.
So all the weight that fell upon him
ended up snapping his neck and he died.
So if this man is heavy,
he probably produced very heavy children as well,
who were incontinent, and obviously Eli is saved,
but what he did in moderation, they're doing in excess.
So they're incontinent, they're taking the meat by force,
and the Bible tells us in Philippians chapter three,
now turn with me if you would, go to Jude if you would,
go to the New Testament, hold your place there
in first Samuel, we're gonna come back to that.
Let me read to you from Philippians chapter three
in verse 17, it says, "Brethren, be followers together of me
and mark them which walk, so as ye have us for an ensemble.
For many walk of whom I have told you often,
and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies
of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame,
who mind not earthly things."
I believe he's referring to what he addresses
at the beginning of the chapter, which are the workers
of iniquity and false prophets.
The Bible also says in 2 Timothy 3, verse number 3,
"Without natural affection, truce-breakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce--
I'll take it by force--
despisers of those that are good, traitors,
heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure,
more than lovers of God."
Look at Jude 1, verse 12.
Again, this is in context of false prophets.
It tells us here, these, referring to false prophets,
are spots in your feast of charity,
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.
"Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds.
Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead,
plucked up by the roots."
Well, in 1 Samuel 2, we actually
see that Haphne and Phanehas forcibly take raw flesh
with no fear of consequence.
So when it says they feed themselves without fear,
I mean, folks, these men should have fear
that God's going to strike them dead for defiling
and dishonoring the position of a priest.
But they're just taking it.
They're not afraid that something's
going to happen to them.
Why?
Because they're feeding themselves without fear.
They don't care about the consequences.
Because you wonder, how are these false prophets
in these churches just doing all these perverse acts
and they're not afraid?
Yeah, they're not.
The conscience is completely removed.
Because you think to yourself, well,
if I was in that position, I'd be afraid that God
would do something to me.
Well, that's because you're a safe person.
And we have the fear of God in our hearts.
You hear about pastors doing some of the craziest stuff
out there, coming to preach while they're intoxicated.
You know, a day after, they gambled and slept
with prostitutes and did all types of wickedness.
Like, how can you do that and not
be afraid that God's not going to strike you dead
the moment you open your mouth?
It's because they feed themselves without fear.
They don't think about the consequences
because the conscience is no longer there to tell them, hey,
this is wrong.
They're just satiating their ungodly lustre and continent.
Here in Jude, it states that these infiltrators,
false prophets, are spots in our feasts of charity.
What is that referring to?
Well, when you look at the phrase or the word spots,
obviously, a synonym for this in the Bible,
in 2 Peter chapter 2, are blemishes, spots and blemishes.
And when you read, for example, Ephesians chapter 5,
when discussing washing the church
with the water of the word, it tells us
that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy without blemish.
So I believe what this is saying here
is that it's the spot, the blemish,
can either be referring to just unpunished sin
or people that are just given unfettered access
where they're committing sins
and nothing's being done about it, okay?
Now you'd wonder why is it the churches
don't talk about false prophets?
I'll tell you why,
'cause there's a bunch of them in those churches.
The churches are just spotted with false prophets,
just doing all types of wickedness.
And you know, that's not God's will.
God's will is not that we tolerate the false prophet
because according to Ephesians,
he wants us to wash the church with the water of the word
that they may be without spot or wrinkle,
meaning that there's no blemish.
It doesn't mean that it's perfect without error.
It just means that you're keeping it clean.
It doesn't have leaven or those who are promoting leaven,
spreading leaven in the church.
You understand what I'm saying?
And so when the Bible says in Jude
that these are spots in your feast of charity,
it's almost as if these people are there.
In some instances, they crept in unawares,
but in other instances,
like Christians know that they're there.
And look, I've been to churches where you meet people
who you would say, this person's a false prophet
and no one does anything about it.
Pastors just like, yeah, he's just a little off.
Yeah, he's kind of weird.
We're trying to work with him.
Oh yeah, he has some weird views
about the Trinity or something.
He doesn't believe in the Trinity.
Oh yeah, he has some weird views
about this and that or the other.
And it's like all essential doctrines of the faith.
And they're just like, but you know,
okay, then that's a spot in your feast of charity.
And this is why they go there.
They feed themselves without fear.
They're not afraid of any consequences
that's gonna come upon them.
How does Hopney and Phinehas get away with this?
Well, first of all, their dad is letting them get away with it.
He's not restraining them.
So the Bible says, but also no one's saying anything.
Is there not a prophet in the land
that can just like say something about it?
It looks like the only guy who had the gall
to actually call something out
was the one who's separating the fat from the meat.
Where he's like, hey, let us just burn the fat presently.
And then he got threatened
and then he just shut up after that.
But even then, no one said anything else.
You're a bot in your feast of charity.
It goes on to say that they feed themselves without fear,
meaning they're shameless, they can't blush.
What if there's someone in our church,
let's say, I don't think there's a Judas here or anything,
but let's just pretend a month from now
we find out there's a Judas in our church,
and they get booted or whatever.
And you kind of think to yourself, wow, that's weird.
How is that person able to stay here for so long
and not know that this person's a wicked individual
because of the fact that they behave themselves shamelessly?
They don't react to anything, you know?
They're not necessarily scared
that you're gonna find out who they really are.
Now, this is not, you know, God's not saying this
so that we become like the police in church.
Be like, who's a false prophet?
Look at me when I'm talking to you.
What do you think about this?
You need to just start questioning people.
You know, the Bible tells us
that these shall proceed no further.
So, you know, I know people get paranoid
about false prophets sometimes,
and you know, they start, you know,
when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Everyone becomes a reprobate.
We don't want to be a church
where we think just every Tom, Dick, and Harry
is a reprobate or something, you understand?
You get what I'm saying?
You say, well then, well, what are we gonna do then,
like if there's a reprobate?
Well, this is God's church.
And so, you know, obviously we need to like rely on the Lord
and just know that God will expose people for who they are
and, you know, not stress about it
and go to sleep at night, resting our head on our pillow,
knowing full well that we've done all that we can.
And by default, just love everyone in our church.
You're like, yeah, but what if someone takes advantage
of my love and end up becoming a reprobate?
Well, it's not in vain in the Lord.
It's not like God's like, ooh, you love that person?
Ooh, you bought them a meal, called them brothers.
I mean, if you're ignorant, you're ignorant about it,
you know?
And God's not gonna hold you accountable
for the things that you don't know about,
about other individuals, you understand?
So we do what we can with what we know
and then just depend on the Lord for everything else.
And I don't think there's a Judas here
and anything like that, so don't get any ideas.
It goes on to say that there are clouds
without water as well in Jude.
Well, why does he call them clouds without water?
Well, let me read to you from Proverbs 25 verse 14.
It says, "Whoso boasts of himself of a false gift
is like clouds and wind without rain."
So often these are people who are very,
they come into a church and they are very,
you know, vocal about their gifts or something.
That they're just, you know, they are some great one.
Okay?
They have these very grandiose type of statements,
types of things.
And really what they are is they're clouds without rain
'cause they don't really deliver.
This is actually a characteristic
of a psychopath as well, by the way.
Okay?
Psychopath has very grandiose statements.
They boast of themselves as being some great one,
or they'll lie about their past of who they are,
you know, things that they're gonna accomplish
in the future.
But they're doing that in order to gain credibility
with you because they want the admiration of the members
so that they can take advantage of them.
It says also that they're carried about of wins.
What does that mean?
Well, think about Ephesians chapter four,
where it says that we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro, listen to this,
carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
So often false prophets will be individuals
who switch from doctrine to doctrine, okay?
Here's a good way to explain it,
they're spiritual grifters.
You know, whatever's popular at the time,
is like, oh, you know, Islam was important
and now like, oh, well, actually I'm orthodoxy now.
Oh, actually I'm Catholic now, you know?
Oh, and then, you know, I guarantee you,
if Mormonism becomes popular, they'll become Mormon too.
'Cause they're spiritual grifters.
They don't really have any conviction
of what the Bible actually says
and they don't care what the Bible actually teaches.
They're just kind of carried about of winds, okay?
Every wind of doctrine.
And then it says that there are trees
whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead,
plucked up by the roots.
Meaning that these are individuals
who will be plucked up by the Lord.
And by the way, when it says twice dead,
that should be an indication right there
that they can never be saved.
Why would God call them twice dead?
Why would he say that they're twice dead?
Well, because every person in this world
dives once, once they're slain by the law, right?
And if they don't get saved or believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
they will suffer the second death, which is the lake of fire.
So the first death essentially happens
when you are slain by the law.
You recognize you're a sinner before God.
Lord willing, you come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ,
and you're born again.
You've heard the statement, born once, die twice.
Born twice, die once.
So if you get saved, you don't suffer that second death,
the lake of fire, you don't go to hell.
Well, here it says that they're twice dead,
meaning that God not only views them as being slain by the law,
but He also views them as what?
As though they're already in the lake of fire.
And by the way, let me just say this,
if someone who's going to the lake of fire
is already blotted out of the book of life,
only people who are blotted out of the book of life
go to the lake of fire, understand?
So what does He say when He says twice dead?
It means they're no longer in the book of life.
And everyone's name starts off in the book of life.
So there's unsaved people out there,
their names are in the book of life,
not because they're saved,
but because they haven't died without Christ yet,
or they're not reprobate.
Once they get saved,
their names are permanently embedded in the book of life,
and they're no longer removed thereafter.
And the reason they start off in the book of life
is because God's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
He wants everyone to be saved.
So these are individuals who are twice dead,
plucked up by the roots.
Let me read to you from Ezekiel 34, verse 10.
It says, "Thus saith the Lord, 'God, behold,
"'I am against the shepherds,
"'and I will require my flock at their hand,
"'and cause them to cease from feeding the flock.'"
Listen to this.
"Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore,
"for I will deliver my flock,"
listen to this, "from their mouth,
"that they may not be meat for them."
So it actually says that God's gonna deliver
His people from certain shepherds,
and He says, "I'm gonna deliver them from their mouth."
Well, what's a shepherd doing feeding on the sheep?
I'll tell you what, it's not a shepherd,
it's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
He is a hireling.
He's a wolf who's feeding on the sheep.
And so a great parallel there with Haphne and Phanehas.
Go back to First Samuel, if you would.
Keep your spot there in the New Testament.
We're going to come back to that in just a bit.
So they're incontinent, meaning they have no restraint.
They're going there and just taking the meat.
They have no conscience.
The Bible tells us also in First Timothy chapter 4
that their conscience is seared with a hot iron.
That's why they can't really distinguish
between good and bad.
That's why they're capable of doing some
of the most heinous crimes, because it doesn't bother them.
Number two, regarding Haphne and Phanehas,
this is very important.
They're actually the ones who give God,
or give God's religion, a bad reputation.
Not us.
Not the hard preachers.
It's not the hard preaching, it's the false prophets.
People often accuse hard preaching as being the culprit
responsible for a bad testimony, okay?
But it's actually the false prophets
who are giving Christianity a bad rep.
And, you know, look what it says in chapter two,
if you would, chapter two of 1 Samuel,
and look at verse 17 of chapter two.
This is after the sacrilege of the Lord's offering here.
It says in verse 17,
"Wherefore the sin of the young men
"was very great before the Lord,
"for men abhor the offering of the Lord."
So after a while, people are just like,
"Man, I don't even wanna go offer
"an animal sacrifice anymore."
Because we're mistreated there,
they're just rude, they're just taking the stuff,
they're causing men to sin, you know?
And so, and notice it doesn't say they abhor them,
they abhor the offering of the Lord.
It's not right, they should be abhorring
Haphne and Phanehas, there's nothing wrong
with the offering of the Lord.
There's nothing wrong with the way things are being done.
Nothing wrong with the operation,
what God's institution of the animal sacrifice is,
where is the fault?
The fault is in Haphne and Phanehas.
The only people bothered by hard preaching
is lukewarm, watered-down Christians.
Let me just be honest with you.
You know, sometimes Christians say,
you shouldn't preach like that,
you shouldn't say those words,
you're gonna cause people to get away from church,
cause people to get away from the Bible.
You're gonna offend people
and people are not gonna come to church,
but literally that's never happened.
And people have this misconception
that we wanna force people in our church.
I'm not trying to force anybody to stay in our church.
I like when people come of their own will, right?
Like, why would I want people to come to this church
who don't wanna be in this church?
Now, if your parents come here and you're forced to be here,
sorry man, that's your lot in life, okay?
But here's the thing, if you're a grown man,
you have a choice to come or go,
to stay here or go find another church.
You're like, oh man, I gotta fend off that sermon.
Well, here's the great thing
about getting offended at a sermon at a church,
you can go to another church.
You can literally go find another church
and you'll never have to listen to me ever again.
The only people who come to our church
are people who actually enjoy the preaching,
who agree with the content,
who have been edified by the content.
And so when people say, oh, you're gonna scare people
away like that, you know,
people aren't gonna get saved, wrong,
because we've seen thousands of people
saved in our ministry.
And if God tells us to lift up our voice like a trumpet,
cry out loud and spare not,
show my people their transgressions.
If he says to reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long suffering and doctrine,
but you say, I shouldn't do that,
I need to side with what the Lord says
and not do it the way you say it, okay?
But let's just be honest,
the majority of people who say that
about hard preaching are lukewarm Christians.
Or they're just, like, not saved, you know,
they're just, maybe they're even Haphne and Phanehas.
They're lukewarm, watered down,
and they think, well, you're not gonna reach people
that way, wrong, we are gonna reach people that way.
But even if that were true, even if it were true
that we're not gonna reach people that way,
it's still right to preach that way
because that's how God wanted us to preach.
So if God says, this is the description,
here are your responsibilities,
I have no right as his employee to say,
well, I'm gonna do it a different way
because I think the company would you know benefit from a lot softer position or something like that.
You know he'd fire me. He's like this is your job. This is the description. This is what you
preach the entire council of God and that's it and let God take care of the rest. But the truth is
listen to me the truth is there will always be people who come to our church because there will
always be people who love the truth. There will always be people who love heart preaching. There
will always be people who are attracted to biblical preaching and so there would never be
a scarcity of people who want to hear this kind of preaching right and and here's another thing
is that at the end of the day do we really want lukewarm Christians in our church? You know that
having an apathetic attitude towards the things of God is very contagious. So when you have a
group of apathetic people towards the things of God that spreads in the church and then after a
while you have the church at Laodicea. Now I'm all for bringing the lukewarm Christian and then they
get fired up in our church, but I'm not for producing lukewarm Christians or Christians that
you know are watered down. There's always going to be someone who wants the truth, who wants the
preaching, who appreciates you know the unfiltered message of the word of God. We don't give God's
religion a bad reputation. There's plenty of people that can attest to the fact that their lives were
changed through heart preaching, my life included. And if it wasn't for heart preaching, not just the
heart preaching from the new infp, just from fundamental baptists in general who helped me
clean up my life. They helped me to get right with God. They helped me to stay on the path,
to love righteousness, to have love in my heart and compassion and mercy and have a heart for
souls and a heart for people. That's all been done through the fundamental baptist movement.
Well, I'm just saying though, if you don't give Haphne and Phanehas a chance though, if we don't
give Haphne and Phanehas a chance, then you know what's going to happen? No one's going to get
molested in our church because Haphne and Phanehas are laying with the women who assembled at the
house of God. He said, who's really, then who's giving Christianity a bad rep? How about Robert
Morris, who is the pastor of Lakeview Church in Texas. And it just came out that he's molesting
12 year olds in the eighties. He's a pastor. He's Trump's spiritual advisor. Now, when I heard the
news for like a split second, I was like, that makes sense. This guy preaches the false gospel.
That is the characteristic of what someone like that would do. He was a Zionist, a major Zionist,
dispensationalist, you know, Trump's advisor preaches a false gospel. All of the ingredients
that makes up a wicked person. And then, you know, the article that I read, I hated the article
because it's like, oh, his moral failure. That's not a moral failure. You know, cheating on your
spouse. Okay. Moral failure. It's called adultery though. But you don't call molesting a child
moral failure. That's called perversion, called refurbation. And it's not like pray for Robert
Morris because he had this moral failure. Folks, last week I talked about Jack Scott,
who's guilty of the same thing. And you know what? You know why people don't like Christian
churches is because of those guys. And it's because of churches that defend those guys.
I'm sure there's some Southern Baptist churches saying pray for Robert Morris to be restored
and pray that he gets right with God and they repent. Oh, he's so brave for coming out and,
you know, facing the allegations or whatever. Nonsense. The guy is a wicked pervert. He's a
haughty and finesse haus. He is a reprobate. He's an infiltrator who took advantage of the innocent
and he's not saved. He's twice dead plucked up by the roots because no child molester is a safe
person. Child molesters can't get saved. They're the ones who give Christianity a bad rep, not us.
Yeah, you could point to our churches all you want, but our churches are still reaching people.
And in fact, listen to this, we defend the victims of those Robert Morris types. We're not like other
churches. They like get on the victims, right? Like Bruce Goddard, who's just like, you know,
his song leader and his bus driver guilty of all types of molestations. And then he gets up and
he's like berating his congregation for going on the internet researching, you know, what's
going on with the investigation. And he's like going to bat for these guys. It's like, why are
you defending these criminals? These are, these are literal criminals. But even aside from being
criminals, they're wicked, reprobate, false prophets who use your ministry as an opportunity
to take advantage of innocent people. You know, people like Bruce Goddard, give the fundamental
Baptist a bad rap. What's your mean preaching? My mean preaching against Bruce Goddard? No,
you know what? There's victims out there that thank me for that because it seems as though
anytime someone gets victimized or molested, everyone turns on the victim for whatever reason.
She had it coming. She made, she did something to make him do that or whatever nonsense.
And I understand there's victims out there. They end up becoming reparates themselves.
They become haters of the Lord themselves. Okay. But I'm speaking of those who,
regardless if they become haters of the Lord or not, it's still a crime.
And you shouldn't defend people who are involved in criminal activity, especially a child molester.
Well, I just think you could be a little nicer though when you preach. You know, the apostle Paul,
how about I be like the apostle Paul? This is what the apostle Paul said,
though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge. He says, yeah, you can, you can tell me that I'm
that my speech is very rude, that I'm abrasive, but you can't say that I'm not telling you the
truth though, because the knowledge is on point. He said, yeah, but you should speak the truth in
love though. How many of you ever heard that? You know, speak the truth in love. Ephesians chapter
five, Ephesians four, speak the truth in love. But here's the thing folks is that when the Bible
says speak the truth in love, it doesn't mean speak the truth nicely. In love doesn't mean like
child monsters are evil, you know, or they're reprobate. It's not about how you deliver the
message. That's not what it's referring to. Speaking the truth and love literally means
speaking the truth from the right motive of love with the motive of loving that person.
Like you tell people the truth because you actually love them. And in fact, the Bible even says in
first Timothy one verse five, now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of
a good conscience and a faith unfeigned. The Bible tells us we should preach the word of God, not to
get a reaction, not because we don't believe in and we're trying to get people to think that we
believe it. We're preaching because we're doing it out of love, unfeigned faith, meaning not fake,
not the simulated faith. It's the compromising Christians and the unpunished false prophets
that give Christianity a bad reputation. It's the Jack Scops of this world. It is the Robert
Morrison's of this world. It's the, you know, whatever other false prophet has been out there
and they'll lump those people with us. And you know what? They'll lump, they'll lump these false
prophets with fundamental Baptists and other fundamental Baptists will be like, we don't condone
of those type of actions. Well, why don't you actually condemn them and just say they're not
saved. They're devils because that's what the Bible says, but they're not willing to do that.
You know, no one could ever point to our church and say that we defend
pedophiles and false prophets because we don't. And we disassociate ourselves to the point where
we're like they're devils, plain and simple. Go to second Peter chapter two, second Peter chapter
two. It's a great post father's day sermon here. I mean, this is in the Bible. So we need to talk
about this. Look at second Peter chapter two. And we got to talk about it because there's a lot of
churches that don't talk about it. I'm sure Robert Morris never preached a sermon on this
lest his people should find out that he was talking about himself. Look at verse one. It says,
but there are false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies to even denying the Lord that bought them and
bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways. Listen to this
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now, there's two ways to interpret
this. You can say that by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of is from the false
prophet himself, or could be referring to people speaking evil of the truth because of these false
prophets. The people will blame Christianity. They'll point the finger at churches and say,
oh, see, that's what churches produce. That's why I don't go to church. That's what people say.
Go back to first Samuel, if you would, first Samuel, which leads me into my next point
regarding Haphne and Phanehas, and that is that they beguile unstable souls.
What does it mean to beguile? To charm or enchant with the intent to deceive.
Look at first Samuel chapter two, verse 21. "Now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did
into all Israel and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation. And he said unto them, why do you such things? For I hear of your evil dealings
by all these people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lord's people
to transgress." Now, these men were married. They had families, they had children, but in spite of
that, they're committing adultery. They're laying with the women that are assembled at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation. And the only explanation for this is that the Bible says that
false prophets will often deceive those who are unstable. And psychopaths and false prophets,
the reason they like to infiltrate churches is because they think in their minds that there's
just very trusting people in churches. And there are loving, trusting people that are just want to
help individuals that are willing to take off, you know, the shirt off their back if they need
something, you know, and part money or food or whatever. And so false prophets will often
seek the unstable individual to take advantage of them. The Bible says that they have eyes
full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, the Bible tells us.
And this is why you hear about a lot of these false prophets often involved in a lot of adulterous
affairs, pedophilia, just wicked perversions out there because that's their motive. And this is why
it's important that a sermon like this exists because the reason why they take advantage of
the unstable, listen to this, is because there's unstable people in church, permanent unstable,
permanently unstable people in church. So what do you mean? You know, it should be that when
people get saved to come to church, they're unstable to begin with, but then later on,
they grow, they learn, and then they stabilize. You see what I mean? Like we should never just
remain babes in Christ, where it's just like, "All I know, brother, is that I'm saved, you know.
All I know is that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." Well, that's great, but let us go on
into perfection though. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and
faith toward God. You know, we should learn more other than just salvation. And obviously,
we should learn the intricacies of salvation, the various doctrines associated with justification,
but there's a ton of other stuff that you have to learn. And not just doctrine, folks. Listen to me,
Christian behavior and your ability, don't miss this, to discern. You know, Christians have to
learn how to judge righteously. God not only expects for you to grow in your knowledge of
the Bible, grow in your application of the Bible, but he also expects for you to grow in judgment
as well. What the Bible also refers to as discernment. We have to discern between good
and evil. And if you don't learn how to discern between good and evil, how to make the right
decisions, you will remain an unstable Christian for the rest of your life. Even if you have a
good heart, even if you love the Lord, even if you read the Bible, even if you go soul hunting,
every Christian in here should pray every day, Lord, give me judgment, give me discernment,
give me wisdom for every decision in life. You know, I pray that every single day because I want
God to give me judgment that I'm absent of from time to time. You know, as a pastor, I have
judgment, but you know what? I don't want to miss when I'm judging situations and I want to continue
to grow in my discernment so that I don't become an unstable Christian. An unstable Christian just
believes anything that they hear. An unstable Christian is unable to identify flattery. An
unstable Christian is incapable of detecting when someone's trying to take advantage of them.
Now given there's some instances where people in our church have been taken advantage of by others,
myself included. It's happened believe it or not. Financially take advantage of different
individuals in our church but here's the thing folks those same people I guarantee you I know
I can say this for myself it's never going to happen again. Say why? Because I grew in judgment.
Now it's not the it's not the way I wanted to grow in judgment though you know like the way I wanted is just to be infused
like I pray and then God just like I pray just like most of my hair he just like gives it to me
and then I'm just like I know but sometimes you just have to learn by experience too. We've had
people in our church come through our church take advantage of people financially and then you know
what it's just like oh man I've had it happen to me many times unfortunately. He said well what do
you do now? Well I just consider it as me paying for judgment. Is it worth it? Absolutely there's
certain judgment. Judgment is priceless. Discernment is priceless. So yeah you know I might have come
out losing a couple thousand dollars and I say that loosely more than that but you know what in
the long term I see it as okay now I grew in discernment. I grew in judgment. Now I'm smarter
now. This situation made me more intelligent. It gave me more wisdom. It gave me more judgment but
folks may you not be the person where something like that happens to you and you don't grow in
discernment. Where it's just like you know how many times does this have to happen to you before
you get get the notice that you know God's trying to teach you something. Pray God give me judgment
and discernment. You know you kind of wonder what's going on with some of the parents of these people
who are taking advantage of the kids. That the child that Robert Morris took advantage of,
where were her parents? Obviously they lack judgment. Well he's the pastor let him just go
spend a night no no one no one in this church will ever spend a night at my church unless like
you're just like been thrown out of your house or something like that but none of your kids are
spending out of my house and my kids are not going to spend a night at your house not because i think
there's a rep right here just it's because i got judgment and discernment that's why i don't know
that's not popular but folks you know what i paid a heavy price to learn judgment certain judgments
and discernment and so i'm trying to get my money's worth amen and so you know don't remain an
unstable christian it should be that when you come to church you gain a little bit more judgment
get one percent better you know you're not going to make an incredible amount of gains on one gym
session it's like an accumulative gym sessions right one like man or the same thing in the
christian life you know you come to church and your judgment just grows a little bit more a little
bit more a little bit more and you want to be a person who just judges right wouldn't it be great
for god to view you as a person who just judges righteously like this person has judgment they
make good decisions they have wisdom and so and by the way let me just say this if you pray for
wisdom you know god will give you wisdom or he'll also put you in a situation where you come out
losing so you can learn some wisdom you say why because pain is a great teacher pain is an
incredible teacher and you know what or you can be spared from that and god will send you someone
who has wisdom to give you wisdom don't be an unstable person and not listen to that counsel
how does the person remain unstable by not listening to counsel and so my goal as a pastor is to
continue to minister to unstable people to the point where they're no longer unstable like there
should be a steady flow of unstable people coming to our church right new people come
keep new people get saved but we should transfer them from unstable to stability from a lack of
judgment a simpleton to a person who has discernment you know where we're helping them
make the right decisions but then they walk with god they gain judgment now they can make good
decisions on their own you understand what i'm saying i know i chased a rabbit there but i mean
that's that's important because it says that they begot unstable souls and you know what we can't
be like all right who's the pervert or is there someone coming in here or whatever like we're not
doing that we're not suspecting anybody you know and just like going around the moral police here
looking for the wicked person or something like that what we do is give you judgment from the
pulpit you take that judgment and you judge yourself discern yourself okay look at chapter
two of first Samuel here's my last point i'm done regarding hafni and finnehas were not saved their
sons of belio they were incontinent they beguiled unstable souls and here's the last point this is
very important is that god wanted to kill them so why is that an important point well because
you know god is a righteous god and he always stands in sides with the victims and vengeance
is his sayeth the lord he's like oh you you just said that phrase because it just sounds cool okay
well let's you're right the bible says it better who did it better the bible did look at verse 25
and first Samuel 2 if one man sinned against another the judge shall judge him but if a man
sinned against the lord who shall entreat for him notwithstanding they hearken not unto the
voice of their father why because the lord would slay them now what does it mean when it says the
lord would slay them it says the lord it means the lord wanted to kill them that's what it
literally means so god was able when eli's talking to his sons and he's you know rebuking them he's
like reproving them he's giving the right advice even though it's watered down but god basically
switched them something in the in the minds of hafnian finnehas where he made them not listen
because it says they hearken not into the voice of their father because the lord would slay them
implying that god did something to make them disagree with their father so they can continue
down that path that would eventually lead to their deaths think about that that's powerful
that's very powerful that god is able to just like reach in the mind of someone who's like
and they're just like not going to listen and god will do that to people i mean we have plenty of
examples where god makes people insane you know nebuchadnezzar being one of them there's plenty
of people in the bible that god just gives them strong delusions god has that capability and that
power but he especially does it to the workers of iniquity it says in verse 31 and the man of thine
whom i shall not cut off from mine altar shall be to consume thine eyes and grieve thine heart
and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age and this shall be a sign
unto thee that shall come upon thy two sons on hafni and phinehas and one day they shall die both
of them it says he's saying look i'm he's gonna kill his son that's basically what he's gonna do
and if you know the story they go into battle israel's going to battle with the philistines
they're losing and so they're like we need the ark of the covenant well who's in charge of the
ark of the covenant oh hafni and phinehas are in charge of the covenant hey bring it over
they bring it over into the battle and then they end up dying in battle so god orchestrated the
deaths of hafni and phinehas why because the bible says that the wicked shall not stand in his sight
thou hatest all workers of iniquity he plotted their deaths he's not the only one and he definitely
won't be the they they're not the only ones and they definitely won't be the last one the point
that i'm making here is that hafni and phinehas are a segment of the population that does not
represent christianity even though they claim to be religious high priests or whatever and god has
a special hatred for people like that who are defiling the temple they're beguiling unstable
souls they're they're committing adultery on their wives with the women who who are congregating at
the house of god they are committing sacrilege and disobeying the commandments of the animal
sacrifices they're not listening to the council of their father their son's abelial and god just
fed up with them and he's like i'm going to destroy both of these guys and by the way let
me just say this and i'm and i'm done and that is you know this is not an isolated incident by the
way plenty of times in the bible where god killed people or literally god takes credit for it like
he killed them okay and so oh yeah in the old testament uh no in the new testament as well
talk about disciples who were killed by the lord what is the conclusion well here are the last three
three points that i want to make number one don't be an eli parents get your kids saved and be a
real person at home as you are here at church give your children the gospel love them don't be a
hypocrite raise them in the nurturing the admonition of the lord don't be a fake and a phony be as real
as you can be and when you make a mistake apologize for it own up to it be real to your kids don't be
an eli number two don't raise a hafnian fnahas discipline your children and get them saved amen
and number three we didn't mention him but obviously he's intricate part of this story and that is
seek to raise a samuel because this story is gravest it's like oh man this is crazy but you
know what like one thing we didn't mention is that this is a little boy though his name is samuel
and in the midst of all this perversion and wickedness is going on samuel is just serving
the lord got a little coat that his mom made him opening the doors of the house of god
just doing what he's told serving eli and he's walking with god you know the lord is speaking
to samuel and in fact the first time that god speaks to samuel he's telling him what he's
gonna do to eli he you know he's calling he's calling samuel and then samuel is just like here
am i and he's like let me tell you what i'm gonna do to eli's house and it's something that when
everyone hears their ears are going to tingle and he just tells them how he's going to destroy his
household his sons he's just going to just wipe them out so what's what's a good lesson from that
don't think your kids can't take this kind of preaching this is why family integrated church
is important because you'd be surprised how much kids can actually take well how do you know well
because god told samuel who's just like a little kid all the destruction is going to come upon eli
and his in his household and so don't be an eli don't raise a hapny and finnehas and lastly
raise a samuel let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the story
lord that warns us lord of the pitfalls of number one just being a bad parent maybe not
disciplining our children but mostly not giving them the gospel making sure that they're saved
lord help us to think upon the salvation of our children to be mindful of them lord and i also
pray lord that you'd help us to have discernment and judgment that we may not be unstable christians
help us to be stable in the word of god stable in the christian life stable in our spiritual
disciplines stable in church stable in serving you that we would grow in our judgment and
discernment lord to make the right decisions and to identify when someone's trying to deceive us
or take advantage of us lord give us wisdom lord give us judgment and i pray that lastly you'd
help us to raise the samuel as well and may you bless this as we go on our way thank you so much
for all that you do for us we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen song
number 212 that's our last song oh happy day song number 212 song number 212 singing on that first
verse oh happy day that fixed my toys on thee my savior and my god this big glowing heart rejoice