Music
Good morning everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats.
As you find your seat, go ahead and turn in your songbooks to song number 66.
Song number 66 at Calvary. Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able.
Song number 66 at Calvary.
All together nice and strong on that first verse.
Years I spent in vanity and pride
Caring not my Lord was crucified
Knowing not it was for me
He died on Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
God in there was multiplied to me
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary
By God's Word at last my sin I learned
Then I trembled at the law I was burned
Till my guilty soul in glory turned
To Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
God in there was multiplied to me
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary
Oh the love that true salvation's planned
Oh the grace that brought it down to man
Oh the mighty gold that God did spend
At Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
God in there was multiplied to me
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary
Now I give to Jesus everything
Now I have my hope as my king
Now my righteous hope can only sing
Oh, Calvary
Blessed Trinity
Alright, great singing. Thank you for being here this morning.
Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song.
Which will be song number 5 in your song books.
When I survey the wondrous cross.
If you want to get that ready in your song book.
Song number 5.
If you did not get a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
Important information on there.
Of course we have our Sunday morning service at 10.30.
Sunday evening at 5 p.m.
And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock.
Currently going through the book of 2 Samuel.
So we hope to see you there for our midweek Bible study.
You see the soul winning times and teams.
If you want to learn how to soul win.
How to preach the gospel.
Get your friends, family and of course strangers saved.
You can see me after the service to be placed on the team.
We will receive some training for that.
If you have any questions you can see me after.
And then of course you see the list of expecting mothers.
If you can continue to pray for them.
The important reminder is there at the bottom.
Please make sure that you are supervising your children in the building at all times.
No children should be in the mother baby room alone without their parents.
And of course no men allowed in the mother baby room.
Or in the women's fellowship restroom.
Fathers if you need to take your kids out during the service.
You can utilize the foyer or fellowship hall during the service if you need to do that.
And then some of the upcoming church events tomorrow.
January 30th we have the barstool soul winning.
And so if you are interested in participating in that.
You can see brother Ulysses Hernandez.
Depending upon how many people go we might take the church van.
Of course thank God that we got a church van now amen.
So we will be using that for tomorrow.
We will meet here at the building at 1130 for lunch.
And then we will head out to barstool for a couple hours of soul winning.
And we will have dinner out there as well.
Again if you are interested in that you can see brother Ulysses Hernandez.
You can sign up with him.
The ladies prayer breakfast is coming up this Saturday February 4th.
You can see Ms. Janelle Gonzalez for more details about that.
And then Ms. Angela's baby shower is on February 12th on Sunday.
And then of course we have the Belize missions trip coming up.
You see the dates there February 26th through March 5th.
If you can be in prayer over that we get a lot of people saved.
And we collect a lot of information.
Keep in touch with a lot of people there for a future preaching service in the month of November of this year.
And so please pray for that.
And then there at the bottom no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee.
Please make sure you are not loitering in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service.
And then as a reminder our quiet time is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Throughout the whole building lights will be off throughout the entire building.
And then please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service.
Alright and that's pretty much it.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Song number 5, When I survey the wondrous cross.
Song number 5.
Song number 5, When I survey the wondrous cross.
All together nice and strong on that first verse.
When I survey the wondrous cross.
On which the prince of glory died.
My richest gate I count what haunts.
And for contempt on all my pride.
Four minute heart that I should boast.
Saving the death of Christ my God.
All the vain things that charm me most.
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet.
Sorrow and love flow me go down.
Dear such love and sorrow me.
Or thorns composed so rich a crown.
Work of the realm of nature mine.
That were a present for Jesus.
Oh so amazing, so divine.
Depends my soul, my life, my own.
Amen. Wonderful singing.
At this time the ushers will come forward to receive the offering.
You can turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter number 32.
Thank you.
Deuteronomy chapter number 32. The Bible reads.
Give ear O ye heavens and I will speak.
In here O earth the words of my mouth.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain.
My speech shall distill as the dew.
As the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass.
Because I will publish the name of the Lord.
Scribe ye greatness unto our God.
He is the rock, His work is perfect.
For all His ways are judgment.
God of truth and without iniquity.
Just and right is He.
They have corrupted themselves.
Their spot is not the spot of His children.
They are perverse and crooked generation.
Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise?
Is not He thy father that hath bought thee?
Hath ye not made thee and established thee?
Remember the days of old.
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask thy father and he will show thee.
Thy elders and they will tell thee.
When the most high divided to the nations their inheritance.
When he separated the sons of Adam.
He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
But the Lord's portion is his people.
Jacob is a lot of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land.
And in the waste howling wilderness he led him about.
He instructed him.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, floodereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings.
Taketh them, beareth them on her wings.
So the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him.
He made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields.
And he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock.
Butter of kine and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams are the breed of Bashan.
And goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat and that is drink the pure blood of the grape.
But desherin waxed fat and kicked.
Thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness.
Then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation.
They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods with abominations provoked him to anger.
They sacrificed unto devils not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up whom your fathers feared not.
Of the rock that begat thee thou art unmindful and has forgotten God that formed thee.
And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.
And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be.
For they have a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.
They provoked me to anger with their vanities.
And I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people.
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell.
And shall consume the earth with their increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
I will heap mischiefs upon them, I will spend mine arrows upon them.
They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction.
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison of serpents of the dust.
The sword without and terror within shall destroy both the young man and the virgin,
the suckling also with the man of grey hairs.
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make them remember of them to cease from among men.
Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely,
and lest they should say, Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this.
For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end.
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them,
and the Lord had shut them up?
For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.
Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps.
Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures?
To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.
Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants,
when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.
And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock, and whom they trusted,
which did eat of the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me.
I kill, and I make a lie. I wound, and I heal.
Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever.
If I wet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment,
I'll render vengeance to mine enemies, and reward them that hate me.
I'll make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh,
and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives,
from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants,
and will render vengeance to his adversaries,
and will be merciful unto his land and to his people.
And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people,
he and Hoshea the son of Nun.
And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel,
and he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day,
which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
For it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life,
and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land,
whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
And the Lord spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
Get thee up into this mountain, Abarim, unto Mount Nebo,
which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho,
and behold the land of Canaan, which I gave unto the children of Israel for possession,
and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people,
as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hore, and was gathered unto his people.
Yet you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh,
in the wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
Yet thou shalt see the land before thee, and thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you for this opportunity to assemble here in your house for the preaching of your word.
I just ask that you would meet with us here now this morning.
Please be with our pastor. Please strengthen him and fill him with your Holy Spirit,
and just bless the preaching of your word, and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen. All right, we're in Deuteronomy chapter 32, and look down at your Bibles at verse 39.
It says here, See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me.
I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal.
Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
And the title of my sermon this morning is how to get God to kill you.
How to get God to kill you.
And we see here in Deuteronomy chapter 32 in verse 39 that God specifically says that he not only makes alive,
in other words, he brings people back to life. He'll resurrect people.
We know that because of the rapture. We see that throughout the Gospels,
even throughout the Bible where God miraculously brings someone back to life.
He takes credit for that, but he also takes credit for taking someone's life as well.
Now this particular message in this sermon and what the Bible teaches here,
Christians can often have a hard time coming to terms with this,
because of the fact that they have a hard time thinking,
well, why would God end someone's life, or why would he violently take someone's life like that?
But these are the same people that will tell you and will readily admit,
my life is in his hands, and God holds the breath of every human being in his hands.
And they recognize God's power in that respect,
but all of a sudden when God decides to take that life and take that breath,
then it's just like, whoa, hold on a second. Is that really God who's doing that?
Why are we going to credit that to God?
Well, this is due to an imbalanced view of God, if you think about it.
You know, Christians have a tendency to emphasize the benevolent qualities of God,
which there's nothing wrong with that, but they'll do it at the exclusion of emphasizing his wrath and also his judgment.
You see, a proper balanced view of God is to recognize that he's not only loving, he's kind, he's merciful, he's gracious,
he is long suffering, but he's also wrathful, he's also vengeful, he also executes judgment.
He is to be feared, amen? He's not only to be loved and adored and worshiped, but also feared.
And the Bible is crystal clear that God can, has and will end people's lives.
He will cut them short and sometimes in the most violent way.
OK, you say, why would you do that?
Well, obviously, one of the reasons he would do that is to punish that individual, but also that they may be an object lesson for others.
Right. When someone dies and you know that it was by the hand of God, it was God's judgment on that person.
It causes God's people to fear and not just God's people.
It causes all people to fear and to recognize that the Lord is a terrible God.
He is greatly to be feared.
He is a wondrous God who can execute judgment upon anybody because he said, I kill and I make a life.
He takes full credit for that. Go to Hebrews chapter 10, if you would.
Hebrews chapter number 10. I'm going to read to you a couple of verses here in this regard.
It says in Proverbs chapter 10, verse number 27, you're going to Hebrews chapter 10.
Proverbs 10, 27 says, The fear of the Lord prolongeth days.
And I think pretty much everyone here wants to live as long as they possibly can.
Right. I mean, we're talking about here on this earth.
We want to live for decades on end to serve the Lord and to enjoy our families, to enjoy our children, our spouses, to enjoy life.
Well, one of the ways you can prolong your days is not necessarily by eating healthy.
It's not necessarily by exercising, although there's nothing wrong with those things.
The greatest thing you can do to live long is to fear God.
The Bible says when you fear God, you will prolong your life, your prolonger days.
And the Bible goes on to say, But the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
Deuteronomy seven, verse number nine says, Now know therefore that the Lord thy God,
he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.
Listen to this and repayeth them that hate him to their face to destroy them.
He will not be slack to him that hated him.
He will repay him to his face.
I mean, when's the last time a Sunday school lesson was taught on that particular verse? Right.
Where the Bible specifically says, I will repay you to your face.
Like, wow, that sounds really vengeful and hateful.
Well, you know, that's how God is sometimes.
And he's saying, you know, don't mess around.
Don't disrespect the God of the Bible.
Don't think you can just, you know, blaspheme his name and mock him and think that you can do all types of evil towards his people, towards him himself.
And he's not going to do anything about it.
In fact, he says, I will repay you to your face.
What is the implication there? You will know that it's him.
If he's saying to your face, he's going to he's basically saying the last thing you're going to see is my face judging you.
You're obviously going to see that you essentially are being punished by the hand of God.
There will be no question about it.
Now, why preach a sermon like this?
Well, Proverbs 16 says, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
And so a great reason to preach a sermon like this on a Sunday morning where we have the biggest crowd is so that we can motivate you to fear God.
You know, you might have some sin in your life.
You're involved in something that you know is not pleasing to God.
You know that there's something in your heart or in your life that God is not pleased with.
Well, a sermon like this will help you to get back on track and help you to recognize, hey, God can take your life at any moment,
sometimes in the most violent ways in order to punish you and, you know, get your attention.
And you don't want that.
And so we want to fear God.
You know, the Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 10, verse 28, fear not them which can kill the body, but after but are not able to kill the soul,
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body and hell, the Bible says.
Now, thankfully, you know, I think the majority of the people in this building are saved.
They believed on Jesus Christ for salvation.
There might be someone in here who has not done that.
They're not saved.
You know, you haven't believed on Jesus Christ for salvation.
You don't know where you're going to go when you die.
Well, you know, a sermon like this should motivate you to get saved today because of the fact that God can not only destroy your body.
He could also destroy your soul in a place called hell.
He can split hell.
He can cause you to split hell wide open, descend into the lowest parts of the earth for all of eternity, and you'll be eternally damned forever.
But you don't have to.
You can believe on Jesus Christ today.
You can trust him as your savior and believe in that eternal gift and live forever.
But, you know, the majority of people here are Christians are saved.
And you know what?
Even though we can't lose our salvation and thank God for that, there's nothing that can take it away.
There's no sin that can really separate us from the love of God and from that salvation.
God can still punish our bodies here on this earth, even to the point of death.
OK, now go to Genesis chapter.
Oh, no, no, I'm sorry.
I had you turn to Hebrews Chapter 10.
Stay there.
Let me give you some examples this morning of people who were killed by God.
OK.
And, you know, the popular term today is he unalived him or something, you know, like killing has become such a offensive term,
such an offensive word that they have to word it differently.
Like, well, he unalived him.
Well, no, no, no.
God kills.
OK, God kills.
God destroys.
And you don't want to be on the receiving end of this type of punishment.
Let me give you a couple examples of where God does this.
Now, first off, let me say this is that, you know, God will judge the world.
OK, so when he kills people, you know, he's no respecter of people.
Whoever disobeys him, whoever is rebellious towards him,
whoever blasphemes him, he will deal with that person face to face.
He will repay that individual to their face.
And it's not just Christians he deals with.
We obviously know that he will chastise Christians for their disobedience, but he actually just judges the whole world.
And when people, you know, balk at this and they're just like, well, you shouldn't preach something like this.
This is too harsh.
It's giving God a bad name, a bad reputation.
Well, let me just take you to Genesis, chapter seven, where he just floods the entire world and kills everyone.
And he just left eight people alive.
I mean, how about that?
He drowned every single human being on this earth with the flood and only allowed eight people to survive.
I mean, think about that.
Well, does God really kill people?
Yeah, he did it in Genesis, chapter seven, where he essentially just flooded it.
And not just, by the way, not just people.
He killed all the animals, too.
Okay, there you go, PETA.
All these animal lovers that are just like, oh, this abuse.
Well, you know what?
You don't have to worry about researching who killed the dinosaurs.
It was God, okay?
You know, he basically drowned them.
And if he didn't drown them, he did it some other way.
And you know what?
He will take full credit for it.
He doesn't need Christians to defend him and say, well, you know, you know, he didn't really mean to.
He didn't really want.
The Bible says he repented the Lord that he had made man on earth.
That's what the Bible says.
And Christians need to stop apologizing for God's judgments and just say plainly the judgments of the Lord are perfect and righteous altogether.
He's righteous in all his actions.
Whatever he says is right to do, because at the end of the day, he is the ultimate judge of the universe.
And so when he executes judgment upon an individual, upon a nation, upon the world, because he's perfect in his judgment,
that means that person deserved it.
That means the world deserved it.
That means that nation deserved it, okay?
We can't stand in judgment of God because he is the ultimate judge.
The Bible tells us in Genesis 721,
And all flesh, all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, referring to birds, and of cattle, and of beasts,
and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man, the Bible says.
He didn't let anything to live.
And you say, well, that's Old Testament.
Well, it actually gets a lot worse in the New Testament, because there's a book called the Book of Revelation,
where he kills a lot of people through supernatural means.
He turns the water into blood.
He sends meteors to come crashing down upon people.
He sends the locusts out of hell to torment men for five months.
I mean, he's doing all types of things to destroy people.
And you know what the interesting thing is, is that you have people on social media like,
well, if God just showed himself, I'd believe.
If God would just prove that he exists, then I would actually believe.
But in the Book of Revelation, he's executing all these supernatural acts,
and the Bible says that they still didn't repent.
They still didn't get right.
And we're talking about some crazy supernatural acts,
where there's horses that are breathing out fire and brimstone, asphyxiating people.
They have tales of serpents that are abiding individuals.
You have these locusts with faces of lions and hair like a woman,
who are just stinging people and biting people and tormenting them five months.
And in the midst of all that, they still don't get right with God.
They still choose not to believe on Jesus Christ.
So it goes to show you that it doesn't matter what supernatural act takes place.
Sometimes people are just stubborn, and they hate the Lord.
But God will judge the world.
He's judged the world before in Genesis chapter 7 with water.
But in the Book of Revelation, he's going to baptize it with fire.
And he continues to judge nations.
He continues to judge kings and magistrates and different rulers and individuals.
Now, let's talk about God judging the wicked,
because we obviously know that God will judge the world just in general,
but he also judges really evil people.
And when I say evil people, I'm referring to reprobates,
individuals who are just wicked and vile monsters of this world.
God will strike vengeance upon those individuals.
Now, I had you turn to Hebrews chapter 10,
but hold your place there in Hebrews 10 and go to Genesis 38, actually.
Go to Genesis chapter 38.
Put a pencil or a piece of paper on Hebrews chapter 10.
We'll come back to that in just a bit.
Let me give you some examples of where God smites and kills people.
And you want to pay attention.
You want to make sure you write down these verses,
because whenever you go to a church that has a Sunday school class or lessons,
you'll never hear stories like this,
because most pastors don't like talking about this because it's so uncomfortable.
And it obstructs their display of who God is.
But we want to be entire, perfect and wanting nothing
when we're describing the nature of God.
Let's talk about Er and Onan.
Look at Genesis chapter 38 in verse number 1.
It says, And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren
and turned into a certain Adulamite whose name was Hera.
And Judah saw their daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah,
and he took her and went in unto her.
And she conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Er.
And she conceived again and bare a son, and she called his name Onan.
And she yet again conceived and bare a son and called his name Sheila.
And he was at Chesed, where she bare him.
And Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
So obviously Er was born, he's a grown man now, he's married.
Look at verse 7.
And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.
Now, people are like, well, why though?
Why did he do it?
Well, it says because he was wicked in the sight of the Lord.
Yeah, but what did he do though? It doesn't matter.
Like, people think that God owes people an explanation or something.
Right?
When he judges a nation, when he floods a nation,
when he allows some natural disaster to come upon them,
people think that God has to send a divine message to say,
hey, I know this looks bad.
You know, that these thousands and millions of people might have perished or this individual died.
So let me just, before you hate me even more, let me just explain why I did this.
God owes no man any explanation.
And this is the greatest explanation you're going to get.
He was wicked before the Lord and the Lord slew him.
He didn't even go into details.
He didn't give any details of what he did.
You say, well, what are we supposed to do, just believe that he was exceedingly wicked?
Uh, yeah.
Wicked enough for God to slay him and kill him and destroy him.
He must have been a very evil individual for the Lord to do that.
Okay?
Slough means to slay, means to kill.
It's just the past tense of that.
But the point that I'm trying to make here is the fact that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
So when you see God execute judgment upon a nation or whatever it may be, a person,
and there's no explanation for it,
we know that what God did was right because the judge of all the earth, the Bible says, will do right.
Okay?
But let's read on.
And Judah said unto Onan,
Go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brothers.
He's basically saying, you know, in order to continue the family name and the descendancy here,
you know, marry your brother's wife who's a widow and raise up seed.
In other words, have children with her and raise up seed so that you can,
we can have more descendants in the family.
Verse number nine says in Onan knew that the seed should not be his.
In other words, his children wouldn't necessarily carry on his name.
It says and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, I'm not trying to get graphic here, but the Bible is pretty, pretty explicit there, right?
He essentially, he went into his brother's wife.
He's married to her.
And instead of essentially doing it the natural way in order to have children,
he didn't want to have children with her.
So he essentially allowed his seed to spill on the ground because he didn't want to have children with her.
Okay?
Lest that he should give seed to his brother.
Verse number 10.
And the thing which he did displeased the Lord.
Wherefore, he slew him also.
So at least he's given us more of a reason here of why he killed Onan.
But apparently these guys are pretty bad, pretty wicked, and God's not necessarily given us a reason as to why.
But you know what?
One thing we can say about Onan is that he wanted all the gratification with no responsibility.
He wanted all the gratification without the responsibility.
He wanted to commit fornication.
He wanted that physical relationship, but he didn't want to have children.
And you know what?
We don't know what was going on in Onan's heart.
He might have hated children or something like that.
We don't know exactly what was in his heart.
But we do know this is that people who today in 2023 will practice something like this because they don't want children.
That's wicked.
Because children are a blessing of the Lord, my friends.
And children are a reward.
They are the heritage of the Lord.
We should not despise children and think of means to not have children.
We should find ways to have children. Amen?
In the most natural way, of course.
But he was wicked.
He displeased the Lord, and the Lord slew him also.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter 2, if you would.
1 Samuel chapter number 2.
Sir Ur and Onan were both killed by God.
And we don't know if they're saved.
The Bible doesn't indicate.
But let's say they were.
I mean, what an awkward meeting in heaven.
You know, for them to meet each other, it's just like God killed both of us.
You know?
But who knows?
Maybe if they weren't saved, then obviously it doesn't matter.
But he's like, I just don't know, pastor.
You know, shouldn't we have a reason, though?
You know, isn't that unrighteous?
No, God is not unrighteous.
And God, again, doesn't owe us an explanation.
The Bible tells us that God says, if I were hungry, I would not tell thee.
For the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.
God doesn't owe us an explanation.
He's like, if I were hungry, if I was thirsty, I'm not going to go and tell you.
If I execute judgments upon the world,
he doesn't need to come to you and explain why.
Why? Because of the fact that he's God himself.
He's the righteous judge.
And we need to rejoice in his judgments.
And in fact, in the book of Revelation, when he's judging the world,
you know, he's killing a lot of people in the book of Revelation.
I'm talking about during the wrath of God.
And the angel comes and essentially says, you know,
thou has given them blood to drink and your judgments are right.
And you know what?
Often in the Bible or throughout history and of course in the book of Revelation,
God allows people, you know, people in this world are so bloodthirsty
to kill children, to murder people, to be violent.
What does God do?
He essentially gives them what they want and he executes judgment upon them.
He spills their blood and destroys them.
And so we don't need an explanation from God.
We need to rejoice in his judgments.
But these people were killed.
Let's look at another example here.
First Samuel chapter two, verse 22 says, Now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did unto Israel,
unto all Israel, and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
So Eli is this prophet.
He has these two reprobate sons who the Bible calls the sons of Belial, the sons of the devil.
And these guys are evil.
They are perverting the offerings of the Lord.
But they're also committing fornication with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle.
So they're essentially using their position of power to take advantage of believers, of the innocent.
They're using their position as priests, okay, to commit wickedness and to essentially steal and to pervert judgment.
And you know, God's not happy about this.
Look at verse 23, and he said unto them, Why do you such things?
This is their father speaking.
For I hear of your evil dealings by all this people.
Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear.
Ye make the Lord's people to transgress.
So that's the biggest thing that Eli does.
He just gives them like a slap on the wrist.
You shouldn't do that.
No, no, no, no, no.
Okay.
And let me just take a commercial break.
That's not proper discipline either today in 2023.
Don't do that.
Don't you know all you did it.
Don't do it again.
You know?
Okay, Eli.
You know, there's a lot of people who have followed this form of discipline for their children, and then they get a Hophni Infinehas.
Okay.
You know, obviously, God's not pleased with Eli's parenting skills either.
Says in verse 25, If one man sin against another, the judge will judge him.
But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?
Not withstanding, they hearken not unto the voice of their father.
Listen to this.
Because the Lord would slay them.
So the reason there's Hophni Infinehas, who are the sons of Eli, chose not to hearken unto the counsel of their father as weak as it was,
is because essentially God hardened their hearts so that they wouldn't listen.
So what do you mean?
Like, what do you mean God hardened their hearts so they wouldn't listen?
He essentially made it so that they would disobey their father and not correct the sins.
Like, why?
Well, it says there at the end of the verse 25, because the Lord would slay them.
Now, what does that mean?
Would slay them?
It means he wanted to slay them.
If you were to look up that word would, it doesn't mean, I mean, it could mean that he's about to or he's going to,
but it also means that he has the desire, he wishes to slay them.
So God had it in his heart that he wanted to kill Hophni Infinehas because of their perversion of the tabernacle,
because they're fornicating with the women that assembled at the door.
And you know what?
God didn't take that lightly.
And let me say this.
God does not take lightly when spiritual leaders abuse their positions of authority to take advantage of the innocent today.
When they abuse their positions of authority to molest children, to fornicate with the women that assemble at the house of God,
to pervert the offerings of the Lord.
God's going to turn a blind eye to that.
He said, what does he want to do?
He would slay them.
Now, he did it to them to make an example unto Israel and unto Eli.
And because quite frankly, he just hated Hophni Infinehas.
He said, well, I know people like that in this world that haven't been taken care of.
Well, the judgments of the Lord are right.
And you know what?
He will repay them to their face one day.
Okay.
Go to Acts chapter 12, if you would, Acts chapter 12.
The Lord would slay them.
This is a lot different than the message we get today by most pastors that, you know, oh, you know, God still love Hophni Infinehas.
He was just being merciful.
No, God, the Bible says he desired to.
He wanted to.
He wished that he can slay Hophni Infinehas.
He wanted to kill them because they were such perverts, wicked individuals.
And, you know, we as a church, as Christians, should not take this lightly and, you know, try to sweep, you know, these things under the carpet when they take place in other churches or something.
When there's child molestation and rape and all types of wickedness and evil and criminal activity taking place in a church, we don't want to say, well, we should just pray for them, brother.
Call them out.
They deserve to get called out.
Shame on them for using their position of authority to take advantage of the innocent.
You know, and that's why we don't have a pedophile Reformers Unanimous here or something like that, where it's just like, oh, if they're a former pedophile, we want to help them, you know, find their way back to the Lord.
No, we'll find, we'll help them find the way out, men, by a nine and a half foot, you know, up their rear end and out the door.
Well, that's not very Christian.
Well, then you don't know the Bible.
Okay.
You don't know the word of God because the Bible condemns people like that and tells us not to associate with individuals like that because the Lord, you say, well, that's very hateful.
Actually, it's very loving towards the children in our church.
How about that?
It's very loving towards the children, towards the families in our church.
And so, you know, God judges people like that.
Look at Acts chapter 12, if you would, Acts chapter 12.
Talk about God judging the wicked.
The evil of this world.
Look what it says in verse 20 of Acts chapter 12.
Here's a New Testament example.
Since there's always people out there that are just like, well, that's Old Testament, as if God changed in the New Testament.
Like in the New Testament, he reformed, you know, he's gotten older and he's gotten more mature in his older years or something like that.
It's just like, you know, he's not as angry anymore.
He's not as vengeful anymore.
He just kind of takes it easy on this world.
And, you know, he's kind of compromising now in the New Testament.
Wrong.
The Lord is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
God does not age, my friends.
His character doesn't change.
His nature doesn't change.
He still feels the same exact way.
And in fact, he's far more vengeful in the New Testament.
And let me explain to you why he's more vengeful in the New Testament.
Because now in the New Testament, we know more.
You know, we have the name of Jesus now.
And the Word of God has gone into all the world.
God was actually more merciful in the Old Testament than he is in the New Testament.
Why is that?
Well, because of the fact that, you know, the Bible tells us that the ignorance of the heathen God winked at in the Old Testament.
You know, there's people who just did wrong and obviously, you know, they were still punished for it to a certain degree.
But God was essentially merciful even to the heathen in the Old Testament because they didn't have the truth as people have it today.
But now the Word of God is spread abroad all around the world.
So now no one has an excuse.
You understand?
Everyone in this world has heard the name of Jesus.
Everyone.
Well, not, you know, in Cambodia or Laos or something like that in the 1040 window.
They've all heard the name of Jesus because a lot of people there are Muslim.
And you know what?
Islam teaches about Jesus.
They don't believe he's the Savior, but they've heard the name of Jesus.
So don't tell me no one knows the name.
Everyone.
Even the guy in the jungles of the Congo.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Because the guy has a cell phone.
Everyone has Wi-Fi now.
Let's just be honest.
That world that you're talking about doesn't really exist.
I mean, there might be pockets of it throughout the world.
But you know what?
You go to the most poverty-stricken parts of this world.
They have Wi-Fi.
They have phones.
They have YouTube.
They have TikTok.
They're doing TikToks.
So don't tell me that they don't have access to the truth, my friends.
And to whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required.
Therefore, God is far more judging and vengeful in the New Testament.
Because now, listen to this, we know better.
Now we have that knowledge.
Okay.
Well, they don't know the gospel.
But let me explain something to you.
When someone dies without having a full understanding of the gospel, they still go to hell.
Let me explain why.
Because of the fact that God gives every single one of us a measure of light.
And when we respond to that measure of light in a positive way that we want more truth, he gives us more truth.
So when a person dies without Christ, they die, you know, they're unsaved, and then they get a full presentation of the gospel,
that means they rejected previous truths that were given to them.
That's an indicator that that person did not want the truth, okay?
Because anybody who wants the truth in this world, they will get the truth.
And God will send them that truth, you know, immediately.
He'll send a soul owner, he'll send a missionary, he'll send someone to give that person the truth.
By miraculous means, if he needs to.
Look at Acts chapter 12, verse 20, it says,
Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre of Sidon,
but they came with one accord to him.
The king's chamberlain, their friend, desired peace because their country was nourished by the king's country.
And upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
He's making a speech, okay?
Verse 22 says,
And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
So, you know, we don't know if this guy was an orator, he had a silver tongue or whatever,
but apparently, whatever speech he was given inspired a lot of people.
And obviously, this might be just flattering people,
just people just kind of, you know, blowing up his head a little bit.
And they're like, This is the voice of a god, it's not of a man.
You know, they're just kind of praising him.
Verse 23,
And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him.
Okay, what does it mean to, what is smote?
It's a past tense of smite, which means to hit him, okay?
Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory,
and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
In case you didn't know what smote meant,
basically he puts the phrase there, gave up the ghost, meaning he died.
Okay.
Now, what's going on here?
Well, this political leader was praised and compared to a god,
that he had some sort of divine ability,
or he was, you know, placed on the same pedestal as deity,
and he didn't say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, only God, you know, is the true God,
and God gave me these abilities, worship him.
He took all the credit, and so God's like, Alright, you know, I gave you a voice,
I gave you this ability, I gave you this position,
and you don't want to give me credit?
Smite him.
Smitten died, and then, to die in the worst way, had worms eat his body.
And let me just say this, we all want to die an honorable death, right?
Like, we want people to remember us for the works that we've done,
we want people to remember us for the service that we did for the Lord,
but we also want our funeral to be honorable as well, right?
And obviously, we can't necessarily determine that because, you know, we're gone at that point,
but you know, when I die, I want a Christian funeral, my friends.
I don't want to be cremated.
Look, I don't want my unsaved family, you know, who are of different religions,
trying to implement their pagan beliefs upon my funeral.
You know, when I die, I'm a Christian, okay?
I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe the word of God,
may everything about my funeral be Christian, not Buddhist, not Hindu.
Oh, why are you hating on that?
Because there is only one true religion, my friends.
It's called Christianity.
All other religions lead to hell, that's why.
So why would we, as God's people, be accepting of another religion
that has sent millions, yea, billions of people to hell?
Think about that for a minute.
You know, honor me, you know, don't...
God dishonored Herod by allowing him to be eaten of worms and then put it in the Bible.
He could have just, like, allowed him to be eaten of worms and we just never found out about it
because he didn't put it in the Bible.
But he wanted us to know he was eaten of worms, okay?
He gave up the ghost, he was smitten, this was a public thing that took place
and obviously God was not happy with this guy, okay?
Now go to Hebrews chapter 10, if you would, Hebrews chapter number 10.
You say, wow, you know, God's pretty, like, he's kind of mean, huh?
Well, he's not mean because he's not average, okay?
You know, is he angry? Absolutely. Does he get furious with the wicked? Absolutely.
But you know what? The Bible says in Psalm 139 verse 19,
Surely thou will slay the wicked.
David's saying this of God, he's like, surely thou will slay the wicked, okay?
Now this should motivate the wicked, if they're not reprobates, to get right,
believe on the true God, right? And actually serve him and not continue in their wickedness,
not continue in their path of evil, but that they would seek the Lord
and want to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, okay?
So obviously he's going to judge the wicked, we obviously know that, that's like basic.
But you know what? He will judge his people as well.
So guess what? You and I, we're not exempt from this type of judgment.
You and I can also die a horrific death if we choose to disobey and live in rebellion.
And at the end of the sermon, I'm going to give you four things that can get you killed by God for sure, okay?
So hang on to the very end because you want to hear these four things that will get you,
because what's the title of the sermon? How to get God to kill you.
And this is not like someone asked me like, hey, I want God to kill me. How do I do this?
I'm really trying to figure this out. You know, what do I have to do?
No, this is just as a preventative measure to let you know if you really want to mess around and find out,
these are the four things you have to do in order to get killed by God, okay?
Now you're in Hebrew chapter 10. Let me read to you from Psalm 78 verse 31.
This is referring to God's people. Listen up. It says,
The wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works.
So God came and just destroyed a bunch of them, the healthiest of them, the fattest of them.
And Israel still sinned thereafter. Verse 33 says,
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble.
When he slew them, then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God.
And they remember that God was their rock and the high God, their redeemer.
Look at Hebrew chapter 10 verse 26. It says here,
For if we sin willfully after that we receive the knowledge of the truth.
There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fire and indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
Now let me explain what this means because a lot of people get confused regarding this passage.
And people who believe you could lose your salvation will use this passage of scripture to teach that you could lose it
because there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
And what they're implying is that if you are just willfully sinning,
Jesus is not going to come back and sacrifice himself again for your future sins.
That's basically their interpretation of it.
But the Bible teaches us that when Jesus Christ sacrificed himself,
he did it for past, present, and future sins.
Which, by the way, were all in the future from Jesus Christ's respect 2,000 years ago.
Do you understand that?
So even your past sins were future to him 2,000 years ago.
So it's kind of nonsensical to think, no, he only paid for my past sins, not the future ones.
They're all future for him when he did it.
I mean, think about that.
What this is saying, because he's addressing the Hebrews,
he's stating that when you sin, you can't just go do an animal sacrifice on a daily basis as they used to do in the Old Testament.
You see, in the Old Testament, when people would sin daily, they would take a daily sacrifice to atone for that daily sin.
Not for eternal life, but to essentially make a reconciliation between them and God for that particular day.
That's why sacrifices were done every single day.
And he's saying here, if you sin willfully, you can't just bring a lamb to the high priest on a daily basis.
There remains no more sacrifice for sins because now we're in the New Testament,
and Jesus Christ, who is the lamb of God, has sacrificed himself once and for all.
He says in verse 27,
So someone who sins willfully has made themselves an adversary of God.
And yes, even referring to God's people.
You can become an enemy of God by your willful disobedience,
by the fact that you just don't want to serve him.
By becoming a friend of the world, you become an enemy of God.
Verse 28 says,
It's like, you know, in the Old Testament, when someone just disobeyed the law of Moses, they were committing capital crimes.
The Bible says they died without mercy.
What does that mean?
They came to him and they stoned him with stones without mercy.
Okay, so this is obviously not referring to salvation.
It's not referring to heaven or hell.
It's just referring to punishments on this world because he's addressing Moses and the people that died at his presence for disobeying his laws.
Verse 29 says,
He's saying, this means that you will get it harder than that person because you're trotting underfoot the Son of God.
And you know, let me just say this, Christians who backslide, they can go pretty far.
They can go pretty far, my friends.
They can get to a point where they are observing false religions, where they are associating with people who worship false gods and tolerate those things and they're still saved.
I mean, think about Solomon, right?
He had all these wives and they're taking his heart away to serve false gods, you know.
There's different people in the Bible who have done that.
Christians today do that.
And you know, when a Christian gets away from God, and when we say get away from God, we're saying, you know, they get out of the fight, they get out of church, they get out of the Bible, they stop serving him, they stop essentially living for him.
They can get to a point where they're involved in such grievous sin that they become an adversary towards God.
Like God finds that disrespectful.
They're going to whatever, you know, parties where they're drinking and smoking and committing fornication and getting involved in theft.
You know, God's not going to be like, oh, oh, my son.
You know, they're doing offerings because it's just fun to do or something like that.
They think it's fun to do or because they want to respect their friend's religion.
Like, dude, I'm a Buddhist, come on.
I know you don't believe this, but just, you know, let's just do this offering real quick.
All right, man, whatever, you know.
God's not going to be like, oh, you know, he doesn't really mean it.
God finds that disrespectful.
How do you know?
Listen to this.
God says, listen, listen closely.
He says, my name is jealous.
So you know, he says, I'm jealous.
He goes, don't get it twisted.
I'm not only jealous.
Listen to this.
My name is jealous.
What is he saying?
He's just like, don't mess around with me.
If I see that you're, you know, flirting with the false gods of this world
and you're kind of entertaining the false gods of this world,
you're observing the day of the dead.
You're being friendly to your Buddhist friends and doing offerings and all this other nonsense
because you want to tolerate them.
That makes God jealous.
And here's the thing.
You know, there's jealous husbands out there that do some crazy stuff.
They've done some wild stuff.
They beat up a lot of people.
Some of them have even killed people because they're so jealous.
I mean, that exists, right?
You know, God's done worse.
And he has no problem with saying, OK, you want to be an adversary unto me?
You want to mock me and worship false gods?
And in fact, the Bible says when you worship false gods, even if you don't believe in those things,
when you partake in that, he says you're whoring after other gods.
You've gone a whoring after other gods.
You know what he's calling you?
A whore.
He says you're being a whore.
Those are the terms that the Bible uses.
You're being a whore.
That's what the Bible says.
And in fact, he says he calls them adulterers and adulteresses.
Like, oh, that's kind of extreme, you know, and they're just trying to be nice to their friends.
That's not the way God views it.
And look, folks, we just need to have the same view that God has.
Stop thinking like the world.
Stop thinking like the lukewarm Christians of this world.
Stop listening to Rick Warren and Joel Osteen and all these weenies
who just don't want to even tell you what the Bible truly says.
This is the Bible here.
God says, I'm jealous.
You're being a whore.
You have the horror of a forehead.
And you know what?
When they continue in that idolatry, God says, OK, gotcha, smitten and die.
He said, man, that's rough.
But you know what, though?
Them dying is the best thing for them because now they're in heaven.
In Paris, for sure.
Probably a little shamed.
Like, hey, brother, you know, how'd you get here?
Like, persecution?
You know, uh, you know, were you preaching?
It's like I was worshiping false gods.
Oh.
Yeah.
There's a group.
Solomon's right over there, actually.
If you want to meet Solomon, he's right over there.
You know, I mean, how embarrassing is that?
I want to die serving God, you know, and, you know, obviously,
if it's in God's will for me to die of a heart attack or whatever, you know,
as long as I die of a heart attack preaching.
Look, I'm just like sodomites and go to hell.
I'm just like, die.
I prefer preaching God's word hard and dying serving God.
Rather than dying disobeying God, being rebellious towards God,
Saul, who, by the way, was killed of God.
Let me just get something straight here.
The Lord loved Saul.
He loved him.
He chose him to be a king.
And Saul, in his stubbornness and wickedness, just waxed worse and worse,
to the point where it's like, you know what?
You're going to die in the worst possible way.
And he sent the Philistines to kill him.
They wounded him, and Saul knew, like, his time was up.
So he went the coward's way out and basically killed himself.
But you know what?
God still didn't let him get away with it.
Because when the Philistines found him, they decapitated his body,
they decapitated his head, and they pinned his torso to the wall with spears.
So they dragged his body throughout the city of the Philistines,
took his torso and pinned it on the wall for everyone to see.
Disattached from his head.
You're like, that was God's plan from the beginning when he wanted to judge him.
So God's like, okay, you can kill yourself, but that's not over yet.
You're having a dishonorable funeral.
Now, thankfully, they ended up coming and they took his body down
and they gave him a proper burial under a tree,
but it wasn't an honorable death, my friends, because God will judge his people.
Listen to me, young people.
Don't mess around with God.
Oh, my parents are so strict. They make me come to church.
Be thankful that they do.
Oh, man, my parents are so strict.
They don't want me to have any fun.
No, they don't want you to, like, die, you know?
My parents won't let me go out on Saturday.
Maybe because your parents don't want you to get raped and stuff, you know?
Oh, my parents are so...
Yeah, maybe they don't want you to be successful in this world by worldly standards
because they don't want the Lord to slay you.
Have you ever thought about that?
And look, just because you're successful in the world
and you have all types of money or whatever, it's not success with God.
Now, if you're successful in your business, you're a successful businessman,
but you're in church, you're reading the Bible, you're soul winning,
you're putting God first, that's God's blessing on your life.
But, you know, there's so many Christians out there
that just want to be successful for this world
and just apart from God and not give God the glory.
They want to be like the Herod of this world.
The Bible says, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
or lose his own soul, or listen to this, or be a castaway?
It's not success with God.
You know, God considers a person of great success
when they're actually leading their family,
they're serving God, they fear Him.
And you know what?
If you throw a little bit of money in that mix
and you're successful in your business, praise God for that.
God, you know, He's given us all things richly to enjoy,
but you better put God first.
Don't mess around. His name is jealous, my friends.
And this is your yearly, monthly reminder that God will kill you
if you decide to get too far.
You want to know how God can kill you?
That's one of the ways right there.
Go to Acts chapter 5.
Now Herod was not God's people,
but I think it was important to mention him just because of the way he died.
Look at Acts chapter 5.
Look at what it says in verse number 1 of Acts chapter 5.
But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold the possession
and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it
and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.
So let me explain what's going on here.
Everyone is just like doing fine and dandy at this church.
They're feeling generous and gracious.
So they're selling their property to bring to the apostles' feet
to distribute to the needs of the believers, right?
Barnabas has just come and given a great offering.
And apparently he's recognized for it.
They honor him because of it.
So Ananias and Sapphira, they're a married couple.
They also sell their possession.
And according to this verse, they claimed that they were going to bring to the apostles
that which they claimed was the amount, you understand?
It's like, we're going to bring this amount or whatever.
But then the Bible tells us that they kept back part of the price.
So why would they do that?
I'll tell you why.
Because of the fact that really what they wanted was the recognition of the people.
This is what's called hyper-spiritual Christians,
where they just want people to recognize what they're doing,
but they don't really care for the actual service themselves.
They're kind of man-pleasers is what they are.
So the Bible says in verse 2,
And they kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it,
so they're kind of in cahoots, you know,
and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Verse 3, But Peter said,
Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost,
and to keep back part of the price of the Lamb?
Whilst it remained, was it not thine own?
It's like, why would you say that was what you're going to bring?
Why didn't you just bring what you wanted to give and you would have been fine?
But instead you lied about it.
You had this hyper-spiritual attitude.
You kept back part of the price because you wanted to be praised for your sacrifice.
He says here, And after it was sold, was it not thine own power?
Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God.
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost,
and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
So as Peter's telling them this, Ananias just drops dead.
He's just like, you know,
And the young man arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him.
So they just had a funeral right then and there for him.
Well, it's not over yet.
Verse 7, And it was about a space of three hours after when his wife,
not knowing what it was done, came in, and Peter answered unto her,
Tell me whether you sold the Lamb for so much.
And she said, Yeah, for so much.
So Peter's kind of giving her an opportunity to be like,
Well, it's not for so much.
You know, this is basically, we want to actually give this.
We should have said this amount first.
But she's like, Oh, yeah, we're a big sacrifice.
We're trying to help here and all these things, right?
Verse 9, Then Peter said unto her,
How is it that he have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door,
and shall carry thee out.
That is a pretty gangster statement to make there.
Verse 10, Then she fell down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost.
And the young man came in, found her dead, and carried her forth,
buried her by her husband.
And so she dies as well.
She falls over and dies.
You say, Man, that's kind of, you know,
it's kind of messed up, you know.
They gave something.
You know, what's the deal here?
Apparently, God does not take lying to him, you know, lightly.
And isn't it a stupid thing to try to lie to God?
Like, you think you're going to get away with lying to God?
But why, you say, Well, does that mean if I don't tithe, I'm going to, like, drop dead?
No, but you know what? A lot of people, more people would tithe, though,
if people just died if they didn't tithe, right?
For sure.
They would not miss a beat on that, right?
You say, Why did God do that in this particular story?
Well, look at verse 11.
And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
It caused them to fear. They're just like, You know what?
We need to straighten up here and behave ourselves and live honestly
and not lie about our service unto the Lord.
What did it do? It struck fear in the hearts of the church.
So this shows us that God wants his people to be afraid of him.
I don't want to be afraid of him.
Yes, you do.
Because being afraid of God keeps you away from wicked stuff.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
The Bible says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 16,
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that is sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death.
I do not say that he shall pray for it.
God says people can get to a point where it's just too late.
We should pray for one another, but it gets to a point where you just can't pray anymore.
There's a sin unto death.
Look at 1 Corinthians 3, 15.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
What he's referring to is the judgment seat of Christ.
At the judgment seat of Christ, essentially what the Bible is indicating here
is that when we come before the Lord Jesus Christ to be judged of him, not for salvation,
but to be judged for the rewards that we're going to get,
somehow we're going to bring our works with us and he's going to try them by fire.
Some supernatural act where there's a fire there that will purify our works.
And if it's gold, silver, precious stones, that means they're legitimate works that you did for the Lord.
And, you know, he'll probably forge a crown out of those gold, silver, and precious stones
to give to you so that you can rule over the nations.
You understand?
However, the chapter also indicates that there shall be wood, hay, and stubble.
So some people are just going to be in wood or whatever and people are going to be like,
this guy really thought it was like a bonfire, you know what I mean?
It's just like throwing wood in the fire or something and it's just going to burn up.
It's not going to be anything.
And that person's not going to get any rewards.
They'll still be saved because salvation is a gift. Amen?
And it says there that they'll be saved, yet so as by fire.
So they'll suffer shame, they'll suffer loss.
They won't get any rewards, they don't get to rule over the nations.
But you know what?
When we're all there, it's not even going to matter anymore.
It's just like, I'm just thankful to be here, kind of thing, right?
Verse 16 says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
He's referring to the fact that when we got saved, the Holy Spirit came to dwell within us.
If you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you.
He's sealed until the day of redemption, right?
And you're like, that's great.
The Comforter dwells in me.
Oh, man, you know, I have the unction of the Holy Ghost in me.
That's great.
Yeah, but it says in verse 17, If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Yeah, that's great.
So that means if you decide to defile the temple of God with sin, with filth and perversion,
or whatever it may be, you know, God says, okay, being that you belong to me,
I'm going to go ahead and destroy you because you're destroying what belongs to me,
which is your body.
Okay.
I'm almost out of time here.
Go to 1 Kings, actually, let's see here.
I need to skip some here.
Go to 1 Kings chapter 13.
And then we'll go to 2 Kings chapter 23.
There's a lot more examples that I can give.
I mean, obviously, the Bible is filled with God killing people.
We can make a lot very long series with this because he does it throughout the Bible,
and he's not ashamed of it.
But one example is the nameless prophet.
Okay.
And he's not called the nameless prophet.
I said nameless prophet because they didn't give his name, you know.
God also doesn't feel like it's his responsibility or whatever to just like tell you every name of every individual in the Bible.
Sometimes he just doesn't tell you.
Okay.
And this particular person is a prophet, and he's doing a great work in a sense that he's preaching God's word.
God's commanding him to preach the word.
And so God tells him, hey, stay in this particular spot, stay in this particular area.
He's commanding him to do so.
And then an old prophet comes to him and essentially tries to get him to leave that area.
And look what it says in verse 18.
He said unto him, I am a prophet as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord,
saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water.
But he lied unto him.
So the young prophet is just serving God.
He's preaching the word.
God says, stay put.
This is where you need to be.
Don't move.
An old prophet comes and says, hey, come with me.
And the young prophet's like, I can't.
God told me to stay here.
He said, oh, don't worry.
God spoke to me as well.
And he told me that you can come with me and come eat and drink.
But he's lying to him.
OK, verse 19.
So he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drink water.
Now, what the what the nameless prophet should have done is said, sorry, I didn't get that memo.
He might have told you that, but he didn't tell me.
He told me to stay here.
And I don't care if you're old and you're an old prophet.
You might have done works in the past.
It's a no go.
I'm staying here.
You know, if you got that much communication with God, then tell him that I need him to speak to me to make sure that I can leave this place because he's commanding me to do this.
Verse 20.
And it came to pass as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came into the prophet that brought him back, referring to the old prophet.
And he cried into the man of God that came from Judas, saying, Thus saith the Lord, for as much as thou has disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and has not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee,
but came his back and has eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread and drink no water.
Thy carcass shall not come into thy sepulchre of thy fathers.
So the guy lies to him.
And then the word of God does actually come to the old prophet.
And he's like, oh, no.
Hey, man, you're going to die, actually.
You actually disobey the word of the Lord.
I mean, if you're the young prophet, you're like, well, thanks.
It's just like walk out or so.
Verse 23, and it came to pass after he had eaten bread, because he's like, well, I guess this is my last meal.
And after he had drunk that he saddled for him the ass to whip for the prophet whomever he had brought back.
And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him.
And his carcass was cast in the way and the ass stood by it.
The lion also stood by the carcass.
So this obviously, because, you know, people want to try to explain this away.
Well, the lion was hungry, though.
Well, yeah, but the lion didn't eat the prophet.
And then there was an ass there that he could have eaten as well and he didn't touch him.
The guy was just dead there on the floor with the lion just sitting next to him.
And what does the lion represent?
Satan.
So what does this show us?
It shows us when we disobey the word of the Lord, he can send Satan to come and destroy our bodies if he wants to.
Now, this shows us, folks, that, you know, we might feel bad for the young prophet.
It's like, oh, man, it's not his fault.
But at the end of the day, my friends, the simple pass on and our punish.
And you know what?
If someone puts a stumbling block before you, that person will suffer the punishment of the consequence of their actions.
But you will also suffer the consequences of your actions for disobeying the word of the Lord.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Go to 2 Kings 23.
2 Kings 23.
I'm going to skip one of the examples.
I want to talk about Uzzah, who put his hand to the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of God.
And God just slew him there for touching it because of his blatant disobedience.
But let's get let's look at this last example here of King Josiah.
And then I'm just going to give you the four points briefly and then we're done.
OK, Josiah is a great king.
I mean, he started off great.
Everyone pretty much loves Josiah.
He takes the sodomites out of the land.
He's just like an awesome king.
But, you know, at the end of his life, he got involved in business that didn't belong to him.
And it says in 2 Kings 23 verse 28.
Now, the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did are they not written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
Verse 29.
In his days, Pharaoh Neko, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates.
And King Josiah went against him and he slew him at Megiddo when he had seen him.
Now go to 2 Chronicles 35, 2 Chronicles 35.
He said, well, that doesn't really say much.
Well, 2 Chronicles 35 is the expanse version of this particular story.
What it's saying here is that the king of Egypt was going to fight against the king of Assyria.
This is like an isolated fight taking place here.
But then Josiah decides to get involved in that particular battle.
Now, by the looks of 2 Chronicles 35, it might be that God was judging one of these nations by sending a foreigner to destroy that nation.
God was against that nation.
And Josiah shouldn't have gotten involved.
Look at verse 20.
After all this, 2 Chronicles 35 verse 20.
And after all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neko, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates and Josiah went out against him.
But he sent ambassadors to him saying, what have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah?
I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war.
For God commanded me to make haste, forbear thee from meddling with God who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
So he's saying, why are you getting involved in this?
God sent me to destroy this nation.
It's like that quote from Genghis Khan, right?
Where he basically tells, he had this quote where he said like, if you had not sinned so greatly, God would have not sent me to punish you.
That's what he said, Genghis Khan.
And this guy, he's saying, God sent me to destroy them, don't meddle with this.
It's not your business.
Verse 22, Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him,
and hearken not into the words of Neko, from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
And the archer shot at king Josiah, and the king said to the servants, have me away, for I am sore wounded.
The servants therefore took him out of the cherry and put him in the second cherry that he had,
and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his father's,
and all the Jews in Jerusalem were born for Josiah.
What's the problem here?
The problem is, he got involved in business that didn't belong to him,
and more specifically, he was trying to disrupt the chastening hand of God on another nation.
Now what's the lesson that we can learn here?
The lesson is this.
You know, when people are being chastened of God, you better let God do that and don't get involved.
Someone gets church discipline from our church, don't try to get involved in that, Josiah.
Keep your nose out of that, Josiah.
Mind your own business, Josiah.
Let God take care of that individual.
You keep serving God, just enjoy what you're doing, Josiah,
and don't think you've got to get involved in every situation out there.
Mind your business.
But also, I mean from a practical level, don't just get involved in random fights out there in the world.
Sometimes you can die doing that.
So Josiah was a great king, but you know, not too wise.
Not too wise.
Alright, here's the last thing.
Let me tell you what will get you killed by God, okay?
Here's four things that will get you killed by God.
Very simple.
Listen up.
Don't miss it.
Because this is like, man, what am I going to do?
Like, how can I, I'm going to die!
Am I going to die today?
Well look, if you're unrepentant, if you're self-willed, if you're stubborn, and if you're rebellious,
these things can get you killed by God.
Because here's the thing, folks.
We all struggle with sin.
We have this old man dwelling within us who we fight against every single day, and sometimes we fall short.
Most of the time we fall short because we still have this old man.
But if you're unrepentant and you just don't care, if you're self-willed and you just want to disobey God,
if you're just being stubborn and you don't want to get right with God, and then you become rebellious,
okay, that'll get you killed by God.
It's like, when?
Who cares when?
And you know, one thing about God is that he doesn't give you, like, appointments.
He's like, hey, so, probably like in June.
When's good for you?
You know?
I know you've got a lot going on, but June seems like a free month.
I'm going to take your life then, okay?
I know it's kind of awkward.
There's no appointments with God.
For some people it's sooner, for some people it's later, but do you really want to find out what category you fall into?
Well, I'm going to keep committing fornication, I'm going to keep smoking pot,
I'm going to keep just living in rebellion, and then I'll just get right later.
There may not be a later for you.
In fact, let me just say this, you might die today.
You might think, well, you know, I'll just get right somewhere down the road,
I'll start serving God somewhere down the road.
Let me give you a rude awakening.
You may not even have a down the road.
This might even be your last year, my friends.
That is the honest truth, and you know what?
One of the reasons I'm preaching this is because a friend of mine who I knew for many years,
he just recently died, but you know what?
He was backslidden for like 10 years, and not just backslidden,
I'm talking about backslidden in the worst way where he's just completely obstinate against God.
He just refused to get right, and you know what?
He died a pretty bad death, and everything is dishonorable the way he went, unfortunately.
And it was a great reminder to me, it was a great reminder to me to remind my church
and God's people, hey, you know, and this guy was young, he was younger than me.
So you young people don't think, well, you know, when I'm like 35, 40, when I'm super old or something,
but wait, 40 is not super old, okay?
When I'm super old, then I'll start serving God.
You may not even have that chance.
How do you know?
You don't determine when you like die unless you commit suicide or something like that,
but even then, God can take you before that plan.
And you know what?
At the end of the day, you say, well, what am I to do then?
Well, here's what you can do, okay?
These are the things that will keep you alive aside from everything else that I shared.
Love the Lord.
Just love the Lord.
Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Strive to love him as best as you possibly can.
Be tender-hearted.
How do I know if I'm tender-hearted?
Well, are you bored with what I'm preaching right now?
Are you just kind of like, eh?
What am I going to eat for lunch?
I want to go to In-N-Out.
He said he was going to be done by now.
That's not tender-hearted towards the Word of God.
Tender-hearted is just like, Lord, is it I?
Lord, is it I?
Love the Lord.
Be tender-hearted.
Be repentant too.
Like if you have sin in your life, just get it right.
Get it right.
Confess that.
Repent of it.
And then here's the last thing.
This last thing will make sure that the other ones will fall into place.
Listen to this.
Stay in the fight.
Stay in the fight to stay in church.
Stay in the fight to fight against your flesh.
Stay in the fight to fight against the world.
And stay in the fight to fight against Satan.
Because when you do those things, then you will want to love the Lord.
You will be tender-hearted.
And you will be repentant.
Don't fall into this trap where you just become complacent and cold towards the things of God.
Folks, I've seen a lot of people go over the last even 15 years.
I've seen a lot of Christians go.
And unfortunately, the majority of them were all backslidden.
And time and time again, God has proven to me that He's not messing around.
I've heard this preaching since I first got saved.
But I didn't realize how real it was until it literally started happening.
Where God was just taking people out.
He was un-aliving people.
Destroying people because of their rebellion.
And you know what it caused me to do?
It caused me to fear.
And say, you know what?
It's not worth it.
I want to keep serving God.
I want to keep sinning out of my life and do the best that I can.
And you know what?
We all fall short.
That's why we've got to keep a tender heart and say,
Lord, thou knowest my goings out, my coming in.
You know how weak I can be.
But deep down in the recesses of my heart, I love you.
And I love your word.
I love your service.
Help me to just stay in this thing because I don't want to get away.
Don't allow.
And let me just say this.
I'll close with this.
I already closed my Bible.
Let me say this.
Don't allow yourself to drift too far.
Because that's where it starts.
Where you begin to drift a little bit.
You know what?
Soon enough the tide will take you farther than you want to go.
And you realize, I've drifted too far.
I'm not close to shore anymore.
I can't see the lights anymore.
And you begin to drown in your rebellion.
Don't allow yourself to drift.
In fact, just stay in the shallow end.
And in fact, just stay out of the water altogether.
Don't even hang out at the beach.
Go into the mountain.
The rock of your salvation.
Just hang out there.
Because people who drift, they just don't know it.
They just go further and further and further out.
And then it's just too late.
It's too late.
I grieve for people who have strayed away from God and have been punished in that condition.
But you know what?
I don't want to grieve for them anymore because the judgments of the Lord are right.
And as cold as it may sound, those people deserve what they had coming to them.
Because God was merciful to them.
He was gracious to them.
He was long suffering towards them.
He warned them.
And you know what?
This is God's warning to you.
You better stay right with God.
And if you're not saved, you better get saved today.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Help us as your people to stay on the straight and narrow, Lord.
And there is no greater life than the Christian life.
And thank you so much for all the blessings you've given us, Lord.
We're thankful for your love, for your mercy and your kindness.
But we're also thankful that you are a wrathful God.
That you are jealous.
And it keeps us in line, Lord.
Help us to keep our hearts tender towards your word.
That we may never grow complacent or apathetic towards the things of God.
May we shed a tear when we read the Bible, when we sing a hymn,
when we think about the goodness of God and how good you've been to us.
May it cause the swelling in our throats and the rejoicing in our hearts, Lord.
When we think about these things, help us to stay right with you
and to stay in the fight all the days of our life.
We love you. We thank you.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please turn your songbooks to song number 44.
Song number 44 as our last song.
We'll work till Jesus comes.
Song number 44.
All together nice and strong on that first verse.
O land of rest for the eyesight, when will the moment come?
When I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home.
We'll work till Jesus comes.
We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home.
To Jesus Christ I plan for rest.
He made me cease to roam,
waiting for soccer on His breast till He conduct me home.
We'll work till Jesus comes.
We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home.