The fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel,
slay ye every one his men that joined unto Baal pi'ar.
And behold, one of the children of Israel
came and brought unto his brethren
a Midianite-ish woman in the sight of Moses
and in the sight of all the congregation
of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from
among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of
Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman
through her belly.
So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
And Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phineas, the son of Eliezer,
the son of Aaron, the priest, hath turned my wrath away
from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my
sake among them, that I consume not the children of Israel
in my jealousy.
Wherefore say, behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace,
and he shall have it, and a seat after him,
even a covenant of an everlasting priesthood,
because he was zealous for his God,
and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
Now the name of the Israelite that was slain,
even that that was slain with the Midianites woman
was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house
among the Simeonites.
And the name of the Midianites woman
that was slain was Caljbi, the daughter of Zur.
He was head over a people and of a chief house in Midian.
And the Lord spoke on Moses, saying,
vex the Midianites and smite them,
for they vex you with their wiles,
wherewith they have becalled you in the matter of Pior
and in the matter of Cosby,
the daughter of the Prince of Midian,
their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague,
for Pior's sake.
Let's pray.
By the God, we thank you, dear Lord,
for the King James Bible.
Thank you for this wonderful church you've given us,
and for the youth you have given us, dear Lord,
please bless them.
in their lives, your Lord.
And please bless Pastor Mejia
as he preaches your word onto us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Whoa, this is pretty loud here.
All right.
What?
We're...
We're in Numbers Chapter 25 this evening, and of course today, as I mentioned, is our youth.
I'm just going to have to hold on to this.
Today is our youth rally, and so the sermon this evening is geared towards the young
people in our church, but the principles obviously could be applied to everyone across the board.
And so the title of my sermon this evening is The Javelin or the Flesh Hook, The Javelin
or the Flesh Hook.
in just a bit. Look at Numbers 25 and verse number six and says,
And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought into his
brother and a Medianish woman in the sight of Moses and in the
sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were
weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest saw it.
He rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his
Here we have the famous story of Phineas, the son of Eliezer who essentially takes a bold stand against the evil that's taking place in his nation.
Of course, we know that Phineas is the son of Eliezer, who is the son of Aaron, who is essentially the high priest of the nation of Israel, this tribe that is selected by God for the priesthood, and let me give you a little bit of a context of what's taking place in this particular story.
Prior to this, before Numbers 25, we have Israel up until this point able to avoid the cursings of Balaam.
And of course we know that Balaam in the Bible was a false prophet.
He's being hired by Balaak to curse the children of Israel.
And of course this happens over a span of a couple chapters where Balaam wants to curse the children of Israel.
He wants to invoke cursings upon the nation, but is incapable of doing so because of the fact that God is blessing Israel.
His hand is on Israel. He is with Israel at this time.
And so, Balaam, as much as he wants to curse the nation of Israel for unrighteous wages, he cannot because God won't allow him to, right?
And so, we often think that once the story ends with Balaam, basically tell him, Balaak, hey,
I can't curse those whom God has not cursed.
They're blessed of God.
We think to ourselves, oh, okay, that story is finished.
They moved on.
You know, they live happily ever after.
But we find out in Revelation chapter two,
according to Revelation chapter two,
that Balaam actually circumvents that little principle there
and he's able to essentially cause the children of Israel
to curse themselves in order to earn wages.
Okay?
And this is essentially what takes place in Numbers 24 and Numbers 25.
Balaam was able to construe a plan for the children of Israel to be judged by God.
in order or by causing them to sin, should I say.
So we have to think of, you know, God can't,
is not gonna curse you if you are in right standings
with God, if God is blessing you,
it's because you're obeying the Lord, you're serving God.
However, you can place yourself in a position
where God can punish you, where God's curse can be upon you
if you disobey God, right?
And so this is something that Balaam understood.
I can't curse God for you, Balaak.
However, what I can do is cause the children of Israel to fornicate.
I can cause the children of Israel to get involved in idolatry,
thereby causing the curse of God to come upon them,
and therefore I can get paid.
And that's exactly what took place.
Balaam ended up getting the Moabites to tempt the children of Israel
to commit Hortom, specifically fornication,
as well as participate in their idolatrous practices
and worshiping bell pure.
And so because this temptation was put forth,
they're fornicating with the people,
they're eating things, sacrifice them to idols,
therefore God ended up cursing Israel,
God ended up destroying the children of Israel,
and Balaam ends up succeeding in this area.
Look at Numbers 25 verse one.
It says in Israel, abode and shittim.
And the people began to commit hordom with the daughters of Moab.
And they called the people into the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat and bow down to their gods.
Again, this is what Revelation chapter 2 is referring to when it says that they ate things, sacrificed them to idols, they are fornicating.
It's a call back to Numbers 25 when the Moabites...
tempted the children of Israel to participate in these evil deeds.
Verse 3 says,
And Israel joined himself to Belprior,
and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
Now, this isn't the sermon this evening, guys,
but let me just say this is that,
you know, if you want God to continue to bless your life,
if you want him to bless your finances, bless your health,
bless your family, bless you as a child.
You better make sure you're staying,
you're steering clear from fornication.
You better make sure you're steering clear
from idolatrous practices
or any iniquity for that matter, right?
You know, Satan can't come and destroy your life.
He can't come and curse you.
But what he can do is tempt you.
And if you give into those temptations,
then God's cursing can come upon your life.
No one can destroy you but you yourself when you decide to veer off the paths of the Lord and do things that are displeasing in his sight,
you can cause God's wrath to come upon your life and destroy you, okay?
And this is exactly what happens. Look at verse number four.
And the Lord said unto Moses, you might think to yourself, well, you know, God didn't, was God really that mad though?
Was God really that upset that a few people were fornicating and they're committing idolatry?
Doesn't He love Israel?
Aren't those His chosen people at the time?
Well, look at verse 4 says, the Lord said unto Moses,
Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Son.
That the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.
So, God's remedy...
God's punishment God's curses he says this I want you to hang everyone who worship belpior and hang them before the Sun
That's what he means by that. He's essentially saying tie a noose around their neck and hang them facing the Sun to be an example
Into the nation that this is what happens when you disobey God
This is what happens when you fornicate
This is what happens when you commit idolatry you shall be hung before the Lord as an example of what not to do
Now, you would think to yourself that, you know, that should be enough, right?
Well, God made an example of it.
Look at verse 5, in Moses' sentence of the Judges of Israel,
slay ye everyone his men that were joined unto Belpior.
So aside from the fact that they're hanging these heads from before the sun in the sight of all people,
he's also commanding everyone, all the judges to slay everyone his men that were joined to Belpior.
So a great slaughter, a great judgment is coming upon the nation of Israel.
It's a pretty crazy sight if you think about it a lot of people are dying a lot of people are being executed
A lot of people are being made a byword and a proverb
verse number six says and behold
One of the children of Israel came and brought into his brethren a
Media nightish woman in the sight of Moses not know about you, but you know if I was in the nation of Israel
And, you know, the nation of Israel was committing fornication.
They are committing hordom.
They are committing idolatry.
And then all of a sudden, God just starts hanging people.
Your buddy next, your next door neighbor is being killed by the judge.
You might think to yourself, you know what?
I think we need to get right with God.
I think, I think we just got to stop eating things, sacrifice them to idols.
I think we're going to make sure and just clean up our lives, repent of the sin, get
Now you would think that that's what you would think that's what I would think
So keep in mind that this is verse six is taking place in the midst of all of all of these events of these
Executions, okay?
He says and behold one of the children of Israel came and brought into his brother a median Irish woman inside of Moses now
In case you don't know the median Irish woman. He's not bringing her
He's not bringing this median Irish woman so that the children of Israel could witness to her
This is not an evangelistic type of a meeting here, okay
And it says in the side of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
So what's taking place here?
Well, I'm not trying to get graphic here
But essentially what you have here is someone a member of the children of Israel bringing one of these mobile females
that was used to cause the children of Israel to stumble
and he's bringing them to one of his brethren
in the sight of everyone.
I mean, everyone's weeping at the tabernacle,
they're repenting, they're getting right.
He doesn't, he's not taking it serious.
He's bringing a median Irish woman
so they can commit hordom with her
in the sight of God, in the sight of all the people.
I mean, this is extremely wicked, right?
Very brazen, very evil, extremely wicked, bringing this woman that we later on realize or the Bible tells us here that her name is Cosby
in order to fornicate, commit hoarding with the children of Israel during a time period when they're supposed to be repenting.
It says in verse 7,
And when Finneas, the son of Aaron, the son of Aaron the priest,
saw it, what did he see?
He saw the brazen iniquity, the brazen sin,
the median Irish woman, Cosby being taken in
to go and commit hordom.
When he saw it,
he rose up from among the congregation
and took a javelin in his hand.
Now, what do you think he's going to do with this?
Well, obviously we know what he does with it, right?
He makes human shish kebab.
That's what he does.
because according to the description in the chapter,
they're in the very act of committing fornication,
of Hortom, and Phineas goes and he essentially,
he essentially thrust them through and he kills them.
And he stays the plague because God is so furious
with the children of Israel for this brazen sin,
he sends a plague to destroy the children of Israel
and the person who ends up saving the nation
is Phineas and is Javelin.
We think of the story. We're like wow. This is an amazing story. You know Phineas is such a great guy. Well, here's the thing
He's the only great guy
It's an entire nation
So out of all the righteous people in the nation of Israel out of all the men have gone to the nation of Israel
Because this is being done in the sight of all the people
Phineas is the only one who stands up and does something about it
Phineas is the only one that sees it and says let me brought can I borrow this javelin real quick?
I'll take care of this out of the entire nation.
I saw for a man among them that should make up
the standard gap and make up the hedge,
but I found none, the Bible says.
You know what we need today?
We need some Finneases in our nation.
We need people to stand up with the javelin in their hand
and pierce Cosby through.
and remove the plague from our nation,
remove the plague of fornication from our churches,
remove the plague of iniquity from the churches,
remove the stigma of sin, the little leaven
that leavens the whole lump, and take up the javelin
and do something for God, be like Phineas.
He took up his javelin, incredible story.
And of course, God ends up honoring Phineas
to son of a liaizer for it.
Now I know this is not necessarily a spear,
this is a kitchen knife that's
Tape 2, a stick here, but so just pretend that this is a javelin for a second.
It does the same thing though, I promise you.
Go to 1 Samuel 2 if you would. 1 Samuel 2.
So you look at this example of Phineas, the son of a liaison, he's just like, amen.
This man was zealous for the Lord, this man stood up when no one else wanted to stand up,
he stood apart from everyone else, he wasn't a priest, he was a son of a priest.
He stood up took the javelin and did what no one else wanted to do
Then you know what if people if someone did this today, you know that you know what?
They will say a valeser or a Phineas. Hey, you should have just prayed for them
Why are you being so abrasive?
Whoa javelin serious
Wow, you're just like a radical or something like that.
Oh, wow, you know, you throw people out of your church for fornicating and for drunkenness.
Wow, seems a little extreme.
Yeah, Phineas was a little extreme when he took the javelin, he made human shish kebab.
Let me tell you something, that kept the plague from spreading.
Not only that, but God says that he was going to bless Phineas because he was zealous for
God's sake.
He was zealous for God's sake.
And that's why God blessed him.
someone who stood in the gap he made up the hedge he stood up and made a
difference and removed the plague from the nation because he did something a
little extreme but let me say this he was the one who took up the javelin now
you know what's interesting about this story is that there's another Phineas
in the Bible isn't that interesting and what's interesting about this other
Phineas is that he's also a son of a priest
He's also of the house of Levi of the tribe of Levi
He's also responsible for spiritual duties, but yet he's essentially the exact opposite of the Phineas of numbers 25
Look at 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 12. It says now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord
And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came,
and while the flesh was in seething, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand,
he struck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot.
All that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took for himself,
so did they, they did in Shiloh until all the Israelites they came hither.
Now, here we have Phineas.
the son of Eli, but instead of taking up the javelin, he takes up the flesh hook.
And what is he using the flesh hook for? Well, you know, Phineas,
the son of Eleazar, took up the javelin in order to make a difference in the
nation of Israel.
Phineas, the son of Eli, took up the flesh hook to feed himself.
Stripping the meat from off the sacrifice of the portions of the animal that he was not supposed to have.
Taking the portions of the animal before he was even cooked.
He's taken it. He's digging. This is not a flesh hook, but this is as close as I can get here.
He's taken the flesh hook. He's digging into it. And what is he doing?
He's actually sitting against the Lord by not performing the duties of the priesthood in its proper manner.
But he's doing it for what? For selfish reasons.
He's feeding himself.
It says in verse 15,
Also before they burned the fat,
The priests' servants came
And said to the man to sacrifice,
Give flesh to roast for the priests,
For he will not have sod and flesh of thee but raw.
And if any man said unto him, let him not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireeth,
then ye would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force."
I mean, what is this called? It's called gluttony.
This man is a gluttonous individual, and he's just like, I don't even want you to just give it to me now,
and if you don't give it to me now, then I'll just take it by force with the flesh hook.
It's an extremely evil person and it's not just Phineas as his brother Hofney, but for
the sake of the sermon we're only going to focus on Phineas, the son of Eli.
He says in verse 17, wherefore the sin of the young men was great, was very great before
the Lord, for men abhor the offering of the Lord.
I'm assuming that when Phineas, the son of Eleazar, when he took up the javelin and made
You know, the Bible doesn't say it, but I'm just gonna assume that he probably inspired a lot of people to serve God
I'm sure there's people around. It was just like, hey, I should have grabbed the javelin
You know, I thought about grabbing the javelin
Next time I'm gonna grab the javelin
Why because when you when you take a stand for God you end up inspiring others to do the same
Let me say this when you take up the flesh hook to feed yourself
You cause people to abhor the offering of the Lord as well
the things of God because of your example. So here we see a completely
different Phineas in the service of God. Instead of taking up the javelin as
Phineas the son of Eleazar did to save the nation, he's taken up the flesh hook
to feed himself. One takes the javelin and takes a stand. The other takes a
flesh hook to feed the flesh with flesh. The sermon this evening for you young
people is will you take up the javelin?
or where you take up the flesh hook.
Are you gonna use the javelin and actually save others?
Or are you gonna be a selfish little brat
with the flesh hook and feed yourself?
And of course I'm addressing the young people
but I'm talking to some of you adults too though.
This evening. I want to compare these two biblical characters Phineas and Phineas and I want to ask you will you choose the javelin or
Will you choose the flesh of go to chapter one if you would a first Samuel first Samuel chapter one?
Let's compare Phineas and Phineas
Phineas the son of Eleazar Phineas the son of Eli and
As similar as they are they're obviously vastly different, but let's talk about some of their similarities number one
Regarding Phineas and Phineas, let me say this, is that they were both raised in godly environments.
Phineas the son of Eli and Phineas the son of Eleazar were both raised in very godly biblical environments.
Were their parents perfect? Absolutely not.
Were they sinless? Absolutely not. Did they have everything together? No, you know Eli.
Eli was a very fat man, which is why he died. He snapped his neck when he fell backward
But you know what I guarantee you he was still a good father to a certain degree. I'm sure that he loved the Lord
I'm sure he had somewhat of an example to give his sons
They're both raised in godly environments.
Look at 1 Samuel chapter one and verse number three.
It says,
And this man went up out of a city yearly to worship
and to sacrifice and to the Lord of Host and Shiloh.
And the two sons of Eli,
Haphne and Fenehosh,
the priests of the Lord were there.
Eli was the high priest at Shiloh,
but he also fulfilled the role of the judge in Israel.
Go to Psalm 16, if you would.
Psalm 16.
He said, what's the point that you're making when Phineas is the son of Eli?
What I'm saying is here is this, you know, he didn't have an excuse.
Why did Hoffney and Phinehas become such evil wicked people if they were raised in a godly
home?
I'll tell you why.
Because they chose to be wicked.
They chose to be evil.
They chose to reject the Lord.
Eleazar on the other hand, Phineas who was raised by Eleazar was the son of the high priest
The Bible says in Exodus 625 an Eleazar, Aaron's son, took him, one of the daughters of Puthiel,
to wife, and she bear him Fenehas. These are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according
to their families. You know the point that I'm trying to make here is that all of you to a
certain degree are being raised in a godly environment. All of you are. Now I'll be honest,
maybe if you're to compare with someone else's environment that you're growing up in,
Maybe they have both mom and dad going to church.
Maybe they have both mom and dad going Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday evening, serving God.
Maybe they're soul-winning. Maybe their parents are sold out for the things of God.
Yeah, maybe that's true. And maybe both of your parents are not in church.
But you know what? That still doesn't give you the excuse to deviate from the ways of the Lord.
Because even then, you're still being raised in a godly church.
with godly people, with the Word of God,
godly examples, and God expects you to use that
to serve the Lord anyways.
You say, well, you know, yeah, but you don't know my situation, though.
My dad's not around. My mom's not around.
My parents aren't really serving God. And if they are serving God,
they serve God as some liberal church or something like that.
I don't have it as good as some of the other kids here, some of the other people here.
Yeah, but you're still being raised up in godly environment.
Look at Psalm 16 verse 5
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot
And I want you to notice this in verse number six the lines are falling unto me in pleasant places
Yay, I have a goodly heritage
You know what anybody who's sitting under the sound of my voice tonight can say the same thing
You have a goodly heritage
Folks, I have a goodly heritage. I wasn't raised in a Christian home, but I have a goodly heritage though
And you know what? I'm not talking about my physical ancestors. I'm talking about my spiritual ancestors
The fundamental Baptist of yesteryear and those who have trained the pastors that came before me that trained me that influenced me
That's my goodly heritage. And you know what? I'm not gonna sit here and have a victim mentality and say to myself
Well, because I wasn't raised in a Christian home a fundamental Baptist home with the King James Bible with both mom and dad and church
Therefore, I'm not gonna try as hard
No, you better put a hundred percent effort into serving God and seeking after the Lord even if you were raised by Eli
Eli wasn't the best dad of course. He wasn't
Bro's overweight. He stopped listening to the Lord
He ended up suffering the consequences because of it
But you know what at the end of the day to him server much is given of him shall be much required
And you know what at the end of the day they still had Eli who's the high priest and judge as a father
They still had the word of God. They had access to the truth and they should have taken that truth
Taken the baton put away the flesh hook and taken up the javelin and in fact think about this folks
Phineas the son of Eleazar is the ancestor of Phineas the son of Eli. He had that example
So even if he thought to himself, well, you know, my dad is not the best dad. He's such a hypocrite
He's overweight the guy doesn't even preach the word of God anymore. Yeah, but hold on a second. Don't you have don't you have Phineas?
Aren't you named after?
Phineas the son of Ali Hazer who stayed the plague and did something great for God
But even if you don't have someone like that in your lineage, you know what? You're a son of God
You're a child of God and you know at the end of the day the lines are falling on to you in
Pleasant places. Yeah, how pleasant. Well, how about the fact that you're an independent fundamental Baptist Church?
Instead of you know being in some liberal
Limpuristic church out there with purple lights and fog a false modern version of the Bible
Some limpuristic pastor with weak preach in a 20-minute sermon at
with the false gospel, it sounds to me like you are in a pleasant place
compared to that. So yeah, you know, you can say here in complain about
well, you know, you just don't know my situation. Well, I know that you're not in
a liberal church
because you know, there's plenty of people out there
who attend a liberal church with both parents
and they go to all the services and they're involved in all the activities
I'd rather be in this church with one parent or no parents
than to be in a liberal, non-denom church
with false preaching, a false Bible,
a false gospel with both parents.
Now, you know, God bless those who maybe are saved
and they're going to a church like that
and their parents are deceived or whatever,
but I'm just giving you the comparison here
that the lines have fallen onto you in pleasant places.
And look folks, you don't just go, listen up children,
you don't just go to a fundamental Baptist church,
you go to a new IFB, fundamental Baptist church.
You have a great godly heritage.
You have a great godly environment.
And listen young people, your dad might not be involved.
Your parents may not be involved, but you know what, you have plenty of
Phineas's in here who have taken up the javelin that you can learn from them.
You have plenty examples in the church
that you can follow here. Will you take up the javelin
or will you take up the flesh hook? This shows us that just because you come from
a godly home
doesn't automatically mean you will pad out for God.
So don't take your home for granted young people like oh, yeah, my mom goes to church
My dad goes to church. So everything's gonna be fine. No, you got to make sure that you serve God though
You got to make sure that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you start reading the Bible
They you start serving God that you make the right decisions that maybe your parents didn't make
God has given you the proper boundaries and habitations conducive to seeking the Lord
It's funny. Both are from the tribe of Levi. Both had fathers who were priests to the Lord.
Both were given much, yet only one panned out. Only one. And you know what? I guarantee you
there's people in here who might be on either or other side. Phineas the son of Eli or Phineas
They were both given a godly environment, yet only one panned out because he took up the javelin.
Go to chapter 2 if you would, chapter 2.
Let me get more specific regarding these two, Phineas and Phineas.
Number 2, let me say this is that aside from the fact that they were both raised in a godly environment,
one rejected the gospel and the other was saved.
One rejected the gospel and the other was saved.
Look at verse number 12 of 1st Samuel chapter 2.
It says, now the sons of Eli, I want you to notice this, were sons of Belial, they knew
not the Lord.
Now isn't that interesting?
Because you have here Phineas and it says that he's the son of Eli, but in reality he's
actually the son of Satan.
What does that mean?
It means he's not saved.
Whereas you have Phineas who's the son of Elijah, but what is he really?
He's the Son of God
And we see here that they knew not the Lord you know what this tells me that just because you go to a godly church
Just because there is a right gospel doesn't mean
You'll actually accept the gospel and you know you better not take the truth
That's being given to you today and on Sunday and on Sunday night and on Thursday night on a monthly basis for granted
Hey young young kids listen up here. You better get saved today
You better take this serious
Because you know our kids die too
Kids grow up
They grow up and you know what there can come a time where you realize what the truth is and you reject the truth and you can become
Phineas the son of Eli
Who was inwardly a child of the devil?
You say well, you know
I don't really think about that stuff.
You better start thinking about that stuff.
You better start thinking about salvation.
Listen up, you young people.
You know, do you know that you're saved?
Are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven?
Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're saved?
You better.
And if you don't, you better get that settled tonight.
You know, we had a fellowship,
almost like last week or something.
And I had a lot of guests over at my house.
And some of our members brought their brother there.
And I have known these guys for quite some time.
And they were like the last ones to leave.
And I was just kind of chatting with their brother
who they brought.
And it kind of just struck me.
I was just like, oh man, I don't even know if this guy saved.
Because you know, I think we make the mistake of assuming
sometimes that someone is saved, right?
And mid conversation, he's talking to me about something
and I'm just like, hold on a second.
Is this guy saved?
And then the brothers were like, yeah, I think so.
And I said, are you saved?
And the guy said, yeah.
What do you have to do to be saved?
He was like, hmm, that's kind of complicated.
And then the other brother was just like,
aw, nah, he's not saved, bro.
He ain't saved, bro, he ain't saved, because the brothers knew, like, if you can't give
a clear answer, if you don't know, what would be complicated?
Probably not saved.
I said, you can't leave here until you know beyond a shot of a death that you're saved.
I said, let me give you the gospel.
He was like, all right, gave him the gospel, called upon the name of the Lord, in tears,
and got saved.
And he told me he said, he's like, man, like I just didn't I have not wanted to come to your church for a long time.
I said, and I felt like Satan was probably keeping me from coming here because I didn't want to deal with this issue of salvation.
And now I know that like Satan was trying to keep me away from getting saved.
But now I know that I'm saved.
And he said, you know, I came home today and my brothers were about to leave and all of a sudden my brother turns to me and he's just like
Do you want to go to the fellowship tonight?
And he's kind of thought about he's like
Yeah, I'll go
But the reason he was so hesitant is because it was just bothering him about this matter of salvation
But he ended up getting saved
It's the young man who got baptized this Sunday
Let me tell you something folks, you know being in a church like this is a blessing, but it can be somewhat of a curse
Why because the truth is always being given
So much truth is being given
And you can take it for granted and just reject the gospel reject the gospel and you can listen to me
Become like Phineas the son of Eli who although was the son of Eli was a child of Belial
He was a wicked individual who never got saved.
You know, your parents could only do so much, kids.
Our church could only do so much.
You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ yourself.
Let me remind you, you can't get to heaven
because your parents are going to heaven.
You cannot get to heaven because mom knows for sure that she's going to heaven
You cannot get to heaven because dad knows that he's going to heaven
You cannot get to heaven because you go to a fundamental Baptist church when they preach the right gospel
The only way you can get to heaven is if you believe in the gospel yourself
One was saved and one was not
One actually believed on the Lord and one did not you're in chapter 2. Here's my third point
is that one fed his flesh and the other walked in the spirit.
One inherited his father's weaknesses, the other embraced his godly heritage.
We saw this in chapter 2 verse 12 where it talks about verse 14 that he struck it into the pan
or kettle or cauldron or pot, all that the flesh had brought up the priest took for himself.
So they did in Shiloh until all the Israelites that came fit, they're skipped down to verse number 22.
He says, now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did into all Israel, and I want
you to notice this, 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 ye such things, for I hear of your evil dealings by all this
people?
This is sad.
You have Hoffney and Feneha's doing wickedly. What are they doing?
They're literally committing fornication with the women who are assembling at the door of the house of God
What are they doing? They're essentially instead of grabbing the javelin. They're taking the flesh hook and they're feeding themselves fornication
They're feeding themselves flesh. They're feeding the flesh with the flesh and disobeying God
The Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 70 their heart is as fat as grease
But I delight in thy law go to Numbers chapter 25 if you would go back to Numbers chapter 25 hold your place there in 1st Samuel
Numbers 25 so we have hop excuse me. We have Phineas the son of Eli
He's taking the flesh hook. He's feeding himself
He's selfish, taking his heritage for granted,
taking it for granted that his dad is a priest,
that he's of the tribe of Levi,
he's of Israel, he gets to serve God in the church,
he gets to serve God in the house of God,
and what is he doing it?
He's using it to fulfill his own ungodly desires and lust.
take an advantage of the local church in order to do so.
Look at Numbers 25 verse 6.
And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought into his brethren
a Medianite-ish woman in the side of Moses
and in the side of all the congregation of the children of Israel
who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it,
he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand
and he went after the man of Israel into the tent
and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.
So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
You know what's interesting here is that we have two examples.
Phineas, the son of Eli, who gave into his fleshly desires, literally, right?
He's eating flesh, giving into those fleshly lust, those fleshly desires.
And then we have another guy named Phineas, the son of a lazer, who mortified the deeds of the body,
mortified the flesh, literally going into the tent and killing that which was plaguing his nation.
Go to Galatians chapter 5, hold your place there.
Galatians chapter 5.
Hey young people, let me say this, you know, you need to learn
While you're in our church, how to use this?
How to use this more and use this less?
How to walk in the spirit and not fulfill
the lust of the flesh?
How to take up the javelin to mortify the deeds
of the body instead of taking up the flesh hook
to feed your own flesh?
And let me just say this, not just the kids.
Some of you adults need to do the same thing too.
You know some grown men in this church grown women in this church need to start taking up the javelin and
mortifying the deeds of the body of
covetousness of lust of adultery of fornication of greed of things that will destroy your not destroy your life
Put the flesh hook down
Stop feeding your flesh all the time
Learn how to get up and mortify the deeds of the body
and read your Bible in the morning.
You know, I know I sound like a broken record sometimes,
but, and I know a lot of you don't even know
what a record is, but you know, some of you need to put
the flesh hook away of just video games.
Like, that's my personal opinion.
I can't make you do it.
I'm not the Baptist police, but let me just say this.
You know, as a grown man though,
Can we just put away the video games?
What am I what else am I supposed to do to like have one?
Why don't you take up the javelin and go actually do something for God and prove yourself?
Go get a job
Go make some money
Go be a responsible young man, or how about this? How about this? How about this? How about this? How about this?
How about like you go try to find a wife?
Mortify that thing, amen. Not the wife. You know what I mean though.
You know, why don't you put the flesh hook away of pornography? How about that?
Feeding your flesh with pornography with the flesh hook,
why don't you put the flesh hook down if any is the son of Eli and pick up the javelin and actually
mortify
fornication in your own body?
Have some self-control, amen
Oh man, you just don't know how hard it is
to not be married.
Yeah, I do know.
There was a time, you know, I wasn't always married.
I wasn't born married, you know?
Every young guy experiences the same thing, okay?
It's a natural desire, it's completely normal.
But you know what, you need to have some self-control though.
You know, and stop tempting yourself,
stop picking up the flesh hook of pornography.
Constantly going to your phone, going to the internet,
looking up things that you shouldn't be looking at.
I shall set no wicked thing before my eyes.
I hate the work of them to turn their side.
It shall not cleave unto me.
You know what that means?
Put away the flesh hook.
I'm not even going to touch the flesh hook.
Constantly feeding my flesh with ungodly things,
destroying your mind, filling it with lasciviousness,
concupiscence, the filthy works of the flesh.
Why don't you take up the javelin
and put the old man to death?
Now, some of you young people are like,
I don't know what you're talking about.
You know what, as long as you stay away from that,
you won't know what I'm talking about.
You know, how about we put away the flesh hook
of just sleeping in all day long?
Now, if you work graveyard, then you gotta sleep in.
But I don't know anybody who works graveyard all the time.
And you know what, if you do, then this sermon
is not for you, but this point is not for you.
But let me just say this.
How about putting away the flesh hook of laziness?
How about making the morning your friend
and waking up with a clear mind?
And look, there should be no 20 year olds in our church
with just a lack of energy.
I should not exist.
You know, I remember being in my teens,
my late teens working jobs,
12 hour shifts, 13 hour shifts, 14 hour shifts
with minimal sleep and I still had energy.
Now you got this Starbucks type of mentality
where you're three days out of the week
and you're just so exhausted
you can't even make it to church on Thursdays or something.
Kidding me?
You're a young man.
Why don't you just put away
the flesh hook of laziness and excuses.
And you're like, oh, you just don't know how it is.
Well, try having six kids.
Yeah, and look, all the men who have a lot of kids
know what I'm talking about.
And look, if you think it's hard now,
just wait till you get married,
and then you start having kids,
and then they get sick.
Projectile vomiting.
You could kiss, would you get married?
Have kids?
Kiss sleeping goodbye.
It's just a good night's rest doesn't exist all the time.
It just doesn't.
So, you know, you need to learn how to function with this by putting to death the deeds of the flesh of laziness
excuses slothfulness
When that old man gets up and says why don't you just stay up till four o'clock in the morning and play whatever call of duty
Or whatever it is that you guys play
Say you know what I'm putting the flesh hook away
I'm not gonna mess with that and you know what if the flesh hook, you know gets up if the old man gets up
It wants me to pick up the flesh hook. I'm picking up the javelin instead, and I'm gonna put that to death. Oh
Man, you know, yeah, but I got nothing to do right now then put the death idleness
And go find something to do and look let me just tell you right now if you got nothing to do come to the church
We'll give you something to do
There's brother. He leases. There's tons to do here. There's a lot to do here
My son volunteers now and on Tuesdays. There's plenty for him to do
We never run out of things to do. So if you ever feel idle, you just got nothing to do. Just come on down
I'll help you put away the flesh hook
And I'll help you pick up the javelin to actually go do something
Let's put the death the plague of sin that's plaguing you
And look, folks, I think it's important to work,
not just to pay bills, I think it's important to work
just to work so that you can be tired.
I think it's important to work just to teach you
a work ethic.
I think it's important to work just to keep you out of trouble.
I think it's important to work just to keep the mind going
so you can grow and learn.
He's like, well, you know, I'm just financially stable
already so I don't really have to worry about it.
Well, just go work just so you don't die early.
Go work and do something so that you don't get involved in sin.
Because work helps us with that, amen?
What am I saying?
I'm telling you, put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh
like Phineas the son of Eli did.
Put away the flesh hook and pick up the javelin and put the flesh to death.
Look at Galatians chapter 5 verse 15.
It says, but if you divide excuse me if you divide if you bite in devour one another
Take he that you be not consumed one of another
This I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh
For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh
These are contrary the one to the other so the cannot do the things that ye would
But if you be led to the spirit
You're not under the law go to chapter 6 if you would chapter 6 and look at verse number 8
It says here in verse number 8 for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption
But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life ever lasting
What are these verses saying it's saying that we need to take up the javelin far more often in our Christian lives
And look, let me ask you this, have you met your goals
as far as reading your Bible's concern this year?
You know, far too many years, we go by too many years
where Christians start off with a particular goal
in January and they never accomplish their goal
by December.
You know why?
The flesh hook.
They don't take up, this is heavier than the flesh hook.
It takes more work to actually pick this up.
It takes more work to actually thrust it through.
It takes more work to actually take a stand against your flesh and do what you're supposed to do
Can I just admonish you now? I know we're a little over halfway through the year. Can you pick up your goals again about Bible reading?
Your scripture memory, how about that?
And look, maybe you're already on top of your scripture memory. Maybe you're on top of your Bible reading
Maybe you're on top of your prayer life. But how about other goals like learning Spanish?
I think we need to pick that up again as well
What are just some regular goals that you had that you just put away because of the flesh hook?
It's easier to pick that up than to pick this up
But you know what the results of picking this up are far more rewarding
than that
Than the flesh hook because afterwards thy mouth shall be filled with gravel
It's not pleasant to pick this up, but the results of that are not pleasant either
What am I saying? We need Phineas the son of Eliezer in our church to just pick up the javelin and put the flesh to death
To rule over your own body
To make yourself do what you're supposed to do. You know, I
Obviously, this is not a spiritual thing, but you know it can be
Some of you just need to stop putting the flesh put the flesh hook down like literally and not eat so much
And pick up the javelin and start lifting a little more
I'm I'm I'm I'm being honest with you right now. No, we're gonna have pizza after this
And I'm definitely gonna gorge on that pizza
You know, we need some discipline in our lives
We need some discipline in our lives
We discipline
Keep under our body bringing into subjection
And you know, we can't live like crackheads
It's just you know, where the flesh hook just controls the body at all times
Wake up at whatever time you eat at whatever time, you know, some of you just need a schedule
Pick up the javelin and make a schedule for yourself when Cosby is being put to death
You know it's time and then you say you always talk about like health and lifting and all that
You know why because sometimes that plays a major role in your spiritual life
Believe it or not, it's not the main factor, but it plays a huge role in your life though spiritually speaking
And there's times when people struggle spiritually. You know why now? It's not because they're not walking with God
It's not because they're not reading the Bible. It's not because they're not going to church
I'm gonna tell you why it's because they're not picking up the javelin and actually eating a good diet and actually exercising
They're depressed they're discouraged. I'll tell you why because too much of the flesh hook not enough of the javelin
Hey, I want to pass her a discipline church
Doesn't mean we can't have fun we're gonna have fun tonight
Doesn't mean we can't you know splurge every once in a while, but you know what we need to be disciplined
And you know when you're disciplined physically you end up being disciplined spiritually you end up being disciplined emotionally as well
What's the point that I'm making you know, you have Phineas the son of a laser
who picked up that javelin and did what no one else wanted to do.
And let me say this, you know, this message tonight,
maybe, at least if I could just reach one Phineas in this church, though,
who's willing to get up and pick up the javelin, my job is done.
Because you know, at the end of the day, sometimes it's only one Phineas son of a liaser who ends up listening,
who ends up getting up and putting Cosby to death.
We're looking at the differences between Phineas and Phineas.
Phineas the son of Eliezer, Phineas the son of Eli.
One took up the flesh hook, the other took up the javelin.
Number four, one was the cause of the destruction, the other was the cause of salvation.
First Samuel chapter 3 verse number 10 says,
And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.
Then Samuel answers, Speak for thy servant here.
And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears
of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.
In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his
house.
When I begin I will also make an end.
And I want you to notice this, for I have told him that I will judge his house forever
for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained
The nation was being destroyed obviously because of the lack of the lack of discipline from Eli
but ultimately it was being destroyed because of
Hoffney and Fenehas who were essentially, you know
desecrating the office of the priesthood
committing fornication with the women that assembled at the door of the house of God and
desecrating the offerings of the Lord. Let me ask you some children. Let me ask you some young people
Will you be the person in your family that breaks the generational curses or
Will you be the reason why there's a new generational curse in your family?
Hey adults, let me ask you something. Are you gonna be the one who breaks the generational curse in your life and in your family of?
laziness
fornication
divorce
wickedness
Or you're going to be the one who actually gets up like Phineas, the son of Eliezer and breaks that generational curse via the javelin.
You can be the destruction of your family, you can be the destruction of the nation, or you can be the solution as Phineas, the son of Eliezer was.
The plague was stayed because of Phineas, the son of Eliezer.
Go back to Numbers 25, if you wouldn't, Numbers 25.
Here's my last point, and that is,
one ended his life in dishonor,
the other was zealous for God.
1 Samuel chapter 4, verse 21, you're in Numbers 25,
it says in 1 Samuel 4, 21,
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, for the ark of God was taken.
Now obviously, Haphne and Phinehas were children of the devil, they were not saved or in hell today.
There's no doubt about that.
But quite frankly, they ended their life in dishonor.
Whereas let's look at Phineas the son of Eleazar, number 25 verse 9 says,
And the Lord spake unto most the same, Finneas the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel.
While he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consume not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Wherefore say, behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it in his seat after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.
because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
What will you be remembered for at the end of your life?
Will you be remembered for fornication, divorce, adultery, drunkenness, theft, greed, feminism, effeminacy?
Or will you be known for being zealous for the things of God because you abstained from the flesh hook and you chose to take up the javelin instead?
What's the sermon this evening? The sermon is simply this.
Just because you're Phineas doesn't mean you're Phineas, the son of Eleazar.
Just because you come to this church doesn't mean you'll pan out.
Just because you grew up in the Christian home doesn't mean it's going to turn out for you.
You know why because at the end of the day you have to choose to take up the javelin
You have to choose to reject the flesh hook
You have to choose to be like Phineas the son of a laser and actually stop the plague in your family
Stop the plague of your sins stop the plague of rebellion stop the plague of laziness
You have to take up the javelin yourself
And you know what we need to make sure that as a church
We don't just make up excuses as to why we struggle in a specific area
Well, it's just my dad is always like that. My parents were always like that
It's just the environment I grew up in you don't know my mom you don't know my dad. Yeah, but hold on a second you might be
You might be Phineas the son of a laser, but at the end of the day you're Phineas the son of God though
So you don't really have an excuse
And what I wanna do in this sermon is remove away
all the excuses that people have of why they don't serve God,
why they can't put in 100% effort,
why they keep taking up the flesh hook.
I want you to just say, you know what,
I'm just gonna put away the flesh hook
and just take up the javelin instead.
And from here on out, I'm gonna work at,
I'm gonna work at putting Cosby to death.
I'm gonna work at, and you know what?
You might be the only one in your family who does it.
Phineas, the son of the Asia, was the only one
of the whole nation.
He was the only one that decided to get up
and take up the javelin and actually do something about it.
And you know what?
You might be the only one in your family
that decides to do something about it.
Can I say this?
I was.
There's plenty of people here who were.
And you know what?
No one might follow you.
You know what?
People might criticize you.
They may mock you.
They may think that you're an extremist.
For taking up the javelin, but you know what? You will be honored by God
Which is all that matters
Certainly simply this stop playing around take up the javelin put down the flesh hook after the pizza tonight, of course
Put away the flesh hook and take up the javelin and stay the plague of the nation stay the plague of your family
Staying the plague that's plaguing you and do something about it. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word
Thank you for these two examples. Yeah, we're thankful for the example of Phineas the son of Eli
Not because he was a good example, but because of his bad example that we can learn from and avoid
Help us as your people Lord to put down the flesh hook in our personal lives and take up the javelin
Maybe honored through our lives Lord. Maybe we'd be zealous for your sake
Maybe we stay the plague not just in our nation, but even in our personal lives and our families
And all it takes is just one person one child one teenager when young and though one adult
To actually make a difference and I pray you help us to do so. We love you. We thank you pray the sins in Jesus name. Amen