You
great thing. Let's open the service and we're to prayer. Father, thank you for this wonderful
and beautiful day that you've given us.
Thank you for the second service, Lord.
Get that extra service.
Hear your word of God.
And Father, we love you.
And I just pray for your Holy Spirit upon the preacher.
And may our singing glorify you in Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
Let's see, song number 245.
Song number 245, the old account was settled.
On that first verse, there was a time on earth
Within the book of heaven, an old account was standing
For sins yet un-forgiven, my name was at the top
And many things were loamed, I went unto the keeper
And settled long ago, long ago
Guess the old account was said a long ago
Hallelujah! And the records said today
Oh, I might wash my sins away
And the old account was said a long ago
Now before we sing that second, I know it's later in the day and not Sunday night
But I want to hear everybody say Hallelujah on that chorus, alright? On that second verse
The old account was large and growing every day
For I was always sitting and never trying to pay
But when I looked ahead and saw such pain and woe
I said that I was settled
I settled long ago, long ago, long ago
Yes, the old account was settled long ago
I said a long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago.
Yes, the old account was settled.
wash my sins away and the old account will settle long ago the last oh sinner trust the
Lord be cleanse of all your sin for thus he have provided for you to enter in and then
if you should live a hundred years below up there you'll not regret it you settle long ago long ago
was said a long ago hallelujah and the record's there today for we wash my sins away at the
old account was said a long ago. Great singing. Great singing everyone good evening welcome
to first words about this church just a few announcements before we sing our next song
which will be until then and I believe there's a handout for that there.
We would like to welcome you to a Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m.
So when the teams or times are there below continue to pray for the expecting mothers
For some events tonight. We'll be having a homeschool craft meetup after the p.m. Service
If you have questions you can reach out to miss Sarah Mahia
Tijuana's mission trip will be Saturday March 29th meeting at the building at 915 if you have any questions
Or you'd like to participate, please go on and reach out to brother Hernandez
Ladies' prayer breakfast will be Saturday April 5th at the building at 10 a.m. Our Easter service
We're having a big push to get as many people as we can invite your friends or neighbors
That guy down the alley
Anybody invite I'm talking about that and he just invite people to always for our Easter service. It'll be
Sunday April 20th. There is a breakfast
that that's gonna that we're gonna have um it's at 945 there's a sign-up sheet in the back
the food drop-off will be at 930 to 940 and we'll start eating at 945. Science Meetup will be Sunday
April 27th after the evening service please silence your phones and not be a disturbance to the
service that's it for the announcements and please grab your grab your song sheet until until then
Song sheet. Until then. Until then.
Put your hand out. On the first verse.
My heart can't sing
When I pause to remember
A heartache here
Is but a stepping stone
That's winding, always upward This troubled world is not my final home
But until then, my heart will go on singing
Until then
Until then, with joy I'll carry on
Until the day my eyes behold the city
Until that day God calls me home
I'm in the place of city.
I know we're all going to be glad to see the Savior.
So we're placed down in the final chorus.
The last verse.
They take its home of misery and strife The soul of man is like a waiting falcon
As the ushers come forward for the offering, please turn your bibles to Judges Chapter 8.
Good evening tonight. We're in Judges chapter 8
Judges 8 the Bible reads
The men of Ephraim said unto him why hast thou served us thus and that thou callest us not when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites
They did shide with him sharply, and he said unto them,
What have I done now in comparison of you?
Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Ebi-Ezur?
God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Aureb, and Zeb.
And what was I able to do in comparison of you?
Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that.
And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over he, and the three hundred men that were with him,
feigned, yet pursuing them.
And he said unto the men of Sukkoth, Give I pray you loaves of bread unto the people that follow me, for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zeba and Zalmanah, kings of Midian.
And the princes of Sukkoth said, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmanah now in thine hand that we should give bread unto thine army?
And Gideon said, Therefore, when the Lord hath delivered Zeba and Zalmanah into thine hand, Then will I tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars?
and spake unto them likewise, and the men of penuel answered him, as the men of sukkaths answered him,
and he spake also unto the men of penuel, saying, when I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.
Now Zeba and Zalmanah were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about 15,000 men,
all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east, for there fell in 120,000 men that drew sword.
And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt intense on the east of Noba at Jogbehah,
and smote the host, for the host was secure.
And when Zeba and Zalmanah fled, he pursued after them and took the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zalmanah, and discomfited all the host.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from battle before the sun was up.
And caught a young man of the men of Sukkoth, and inquired of him, and he described unto him the princes of Sukkoth, and the elders thereof, even three score and seventeen men.
And he came unto the men of Sukkoth, and said, Behold, Zeba and Zalmanah, with whom ye did abrade me, saying, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmanah, now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men, that are weary.
And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness, and briars, and with them he taught the men of Sukkoth.
and he beat down the tower of penuel and slew the men of the city.
Then said he unto Zeba and Zalmanah, what manner of men
were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, as thou art, so were they.
Each one remembered the children of a king. And he said,
they were my brethren, even the sons of my mother, as the Lord liveth.
If ye have saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said
unto Jethar his firstborn up and slay them.
But the youth drew not his sword for he feared because he was yet a youth
Then Zeba and Zalmanah said rise thou and fall upon us for as the man is
So is his strength and Gideon arose and slew Zeba and Zalmanah and took away the ornaments that were on their camels necks
And the men of Israel said into Gideon
Rule thou over us both thou and thy son and thy son son also for thou has delivered us from the hand of Midian
And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you.
And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his prey, for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.
They answered, We will willingly give them, and they spread a garment and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.
And the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold
Beside ornaments and collars and purple raiment
That was on the kings of Midian and beside the chains that were about their camels necks and Gideon made an ephod thereof and
Put it in this his city even in Ophrah and all Israel went thither in a whoring after it
Which thing became a snare into Gideon and to his house thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel
So that they lifted up their heads no more and the country was in quietness 40 years in the days of Gideon
And Drew Bale, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house.
And Gideon had three score and ten sons of his body begotten, for he had many wives.
And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also buried him a son whose name he called Abimelech.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age,
and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash's father in Ophra of the Abbeezerites.
And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead.
that the children of Israel turned again and went a whoring after Balaam and after Bail Beiroth, their God.
And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side.
Now this showed they kindness to the house of Jerubael, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.
Let's pray do look on just thank you for this time
We have to come together and hear the preaching of your word Lord
Just please bless pastor and fill him with your Holy Spirit Lord as he preached unto us your word Lord
And just give us in the congregations ears to hear and that we take away
These truths from your word Lord tonight, and we pray this all in Jesus name amen
Amen, okay, we are in Judges chapter 8 this evening look down at verse 30 it says in Gideon had three scoring ten sons of his body
Begotten for he had many wives and his concubine that was in Shechem
She also bear him a son whose name he called a bimelech and the time I sermon this evening is the tyranny of
Abimelech the tyranny
of Abimelech. We're going to talk about the biblical character Abimelech this evening.
We're going to go through chapter 9 and just look at some of the exploits that he did, his tyranny
towards the children of Israel. And tonight I also want to draw some parallels between him
and the Antichrist. There's a lot of things that I saw just in chapter 9 that reflects
the coming Antichrist that I want to draw attention to.
And if that doesn't interest you, don't worry.
We have a bunch of principles that we're going to go over
regarding the life of Abimelech that you can apply to yourself.
And so you could ignore the other stuff
if that doesn't really interest you.
Now, let me give you a couple of things
by way of introduction before we get into Abimelech.
And let's just talk about the Book of Judges in general.
We have the Book of Judges that essentially refers
to the system of the judges.
Now, what is that?
Well, when the children of Israel go into the Promised Land
under the leadership of Joshua,
Of course Joshua distributes the inheritance to the 12 tribes of Israel, different portions
of land that they received and of course during this time they're still under what we would
call a theocracy, meaning that they didn't have an earthly king reigning over them,
God was their king, right?
He's the one who's ruling over them, he is the one who's sanctioning and giving permission
and protecting them and ruling over them and that was the system that they were under.
The nation essentially goes into decay, and the reason they go into decay is because of the fact that they start worshiping false gods.
So once a leader passes off the scene, the natural course of the nation is that they forsake the Lord their God, and they end up worshiping false gods.
This is essentially the vicious cycle that we see in the book of Judges.
And in fact, in chapter two, you see that once Joshua dies, they begin to worship Baal,
and then God ends up delivering the nation into the hands of the oppressor for decades,
depending on who it is or what they did. And after that time, the children of Israel would cry
unto the Lord for deliverance. God would raise up a judge who essentially operates as a military
destroy the oppressors,
deliver the children of Israel
out of the hand of the oppressors,
and then they would worship God again.
So this would happen over and over again.
So you would have, for example,
judges such as E. Hut, one of my favorite judges,
because he's left-handed just as I am,
and he essentially destroys, he kills Eglon, right?
He essentially pierces him through with a dagger,
and he delivers the children of Israel
out of the hand of the Moabites,
and they live happily ever after until he dies.
And then the children of Israel are like,
oh, when the mice, when the cats away,
the mice come out to play.
So once that leader dies, they're like,
well, we're going to start worshiping Bill again.
And this is essentially the cycle that we see
over and over again for literally 12 judges.
Because the book of Judges essentially highlights
12 different judges broken up into minor and major judges,
major being that they're the judges
that the Bible really talks extensively about,
like Samson, you got Sammy who's also a judge.
Of course, Gideon as we see here and so that is essentially the course of things.
Now, what is the Book of Judges really teaching us throughout this time?
It's teaching us that no system will ever work this side of eternity because at the end of the day the problem isn't systems,
the problem isn't an absent or the presence of a king or of a ruler, the problem is sin.
Because even under a theocracy where God is ruling over them, they're in a nation where the statues of the Lord are being exalted.
I mean, they're the nation from which salvation comes from. They're still behaving wickedly. They're still worshiping false gods.
They're still doing abominations. And in fact, I mean, just read Judges 19.
For the proof of that right where there is just grievous crimes of sodomy and rape taking place in Judges 19
And one of the major themes of the book of Judges is that every man is doing that which is right in their own eyes
In spite of the fact that they have God
Miraculously delivering them providing miracles great leadership. They have the word of God
But yet when the authority isn't present
Every man does that which is right in their own eyes, and so what do we learn from that?
well
we can learn from the book of judges is that no system is perfect and
We need to look forward to a you know the millennial reign of Christ or more specifically the new heaven the new earth
Where sin is just completely taken out of the picture?
Satan is not even in the picture right death is no longer in the picture
You say are you sure that no system is perfect? Well think about this the millennial reign
Has Jesus Christ ruling and reigning physically on this earth?
But people are still sinning against the Lord right and even towards the latter end of that millennia. What happens?
You have Satan gathering, you know
All the people from the ends of the world for the battle of Gog and Magog to fight against God
That's obviously showing you that the problem isn't the leader because you have Jesus Christ who's the greatest leader and
Yet in spite of that people still do wrong. Why because it's a sin problem
So, judges really emphasize the fact that, you know, the heart is deceitful above all
things, desperately wicked.
What does it mean to be desperately wicked?
It's like, they just can't wait for an opportunity to do wrong, right?
Oh, the leader's gone, the judge is gone, all right, let's go back to our old ways,
worship, bail, asteroth, all these false gods, then God has to chastise them, the cycle continues.
So, here in this particular story...
In chapter eight, you have Gideon, right?
And of course, Gideon is the person, the judge,
who is essentially the legitimate original OG of the 300.
Okay, we're just talking about before the service.
You know, the Spartan 300 was a fallacy, okay?
That's phony, they kind of beef up the numbers a little bit
in that story, whereas Gideon actually has only 300.
And of course, if God be forced, who could be against us?
God ends up fighting on their behalf.
And Gideon's a great leader.
He's a great judge.
He does great exploits.
And in fact, he's so good that once the battle is over
and he delivers the children of Israel
out of the hand of the oppressor,
the people want Gideon to be their king.
But there's no, there's not supposed to be a king at this time, right?
Of course, we know that later on children of Israel asked for a king
They want to be like all the other nations all comes into the picture
But prior to that God only wants judges under his jurisdiction
He's ruling over the people, but yet they want get in to be a king
He refuses and then of course we see what takes place later on and we'll get into look at verse 32
Brother Ruby you could turn that off
Kick it back on at about 35 40 minutes about an hour
Depending on how long the sermon is
Look at verse 32 and Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash's father in
Orphra of the Abyserites and it says and it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead
that the children of Israel turned again and went a whoring after Balaam and made Bail Barith their God.
And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side.
So literally as soon as he dies, they start going back to idolatry and keep in mind that another name for Gideon is what?
Jeru Bail.
And it's a nickname essentially that was given to Gideon that essentially means that he's casting down bail because he's going
He's taking the statue the idol of his father, and he's throwing it down, you know
And so they nicknamed him Jeru bail
He's the one who's casting down that false god, but yet he passes off the scene they start worshiping false gods once again
Now tonight we're gonna specifically highlight one of his sons. He has 70 sons who are of one
Many wives should I say but then he has another son of a concubine, which is a bimilec and really a bimilec is
What we would and what the Bible would consider to be a byword and a proverb
What's a byword and a proverb? It's like you screw up so bad
That you end up being the illustration for generations to come of what not to do, right? That's just putting it wrong
And a bimilek is literally an illustration of what not to do.
And in fact, you don't have to turn there.
Let me read to you from 2 Samuel, chapter 11.
This is hundreds of years after the fact.
During the reign of King David, it says in verse 21,
who smote a bimilek to son of Jerubesheath?
Did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes?
Why went ye nigh to the wall? Then say thou the servant you ride the hittite is dead also?
So obviously Abimelech is being used as a military illustration of what not to do, right?
He's like, why are you gonna go so close to the wall?
Don't you remember what happened to Abimelech and how a woman killed him?
Now the irony in that statement is the fact that Abimelech did not want people to remember him as having a woman kill him.
Because when the woman cast a stone upon his head,
it broke his skull, but he wasn't dead yet.
And so he's just like, hey, come stab me real quick
because less they should say a woman smoked a bimilek.
Well, here we are in 2 Samuel 11
and that's what they're saying, a bimilek.
In fact, here we are thousands of years later
and we're still saying in a bimilek, a woman killed you.
So he wanted to avoid going down in history
as being a victim of a woman destroying him with a stone
You know, he's the byword and the proverb.
Sorry, the Holy Spirit was listening.
He was pending all this down for us to remember
for thousands of years.
Okay, so he's a byword and a proverb.
Now let's look at a couple things regarding,
I'm gonna go to chapter nine if you would.
And again, I'm gonna give some principles regarding
his life and his tyranny, but I'm gonna relate some of it
to the Antichrist.
So first and foremost, let's talk about his name, Abimelech.
What does Abimelech actually mean?
Well, Abimelech means my father is king.
That's literally what the term, the name of Bimelech means,
my father is king.
Now, if you've read chapter nine,
which I'm pretty sure over the last couple of days,
you went through chapter nine.
If you're reading through the Bible reading schedule,
you've gone through this particular story,
unless you've fallen behind
and hopefully tomorrow you catch up or tonight.
But if you've read through the story in chapter nine,
you see that, wait a minute,
of Bimelech, your name is my father is king,
but hold on a second, your father's not a king.
Gideon's not a king?
Gideon's a judge, right?
Look at actually I would had you go to chapter 9, but go to back to chapter a look at verse 22
Then the men of Israel sent into Gideon ruled out over us both thou and thy son and thy son's son also
For thou has delivered us from the hand of Midian and Gideon said unto them
I will not rule over you neither shall my son rule over you the Lord shall rule over you
Now by the way, there's this teaching out there that states that well the judges are kind of like kings though
You know, we can view the judges as kings.
Well, not according to verse 23,
because he's literally saying,
I'm not gonna rule over you,
my kids are not gonna rule over you,
but that's not the exclusion of the fact that he is a judge.
But he's specifically telling them,
I'm not gonna be your monarch,
I'm not gonna rule over you,
God is supposed to rule over you,
you don't need a king,
God is your king.
So for Abimelech to be called,
my father's king is kind of weird, is it not?
Because,
Gideon was not a king, he was a judge.
It's almost as if a biblical is coming in his own name.
And the Bible says in John chapter 5 in verse 43, when talking about the Antichrist,
I am coming my Father's name and you receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
And ironically, when you have Abimilate coming to the men of Shechem to promote himself to being king,
they're not asking him to be king.
He's putting himself in a position to be king.
They receive him because he's of their bone, he's of their flesh.
And of course his name is...
My father is king so essentially saying that he's claiming the inherited right to rule. He's a fraudulent king of Sheikham
okay, and
By his own name. He is essentially exalting himself go to Daniel chapter 11
Daniel chapter 11 and when you go to then Daniel chapter 11 just put a bookmark there
We're gonna read from it right now, but we're gonna reference it a couple times throughout the sermon
Daniel chapter 11 and look at verse 36
And what's interesting about Abimelech also is the fact that he is the son of one of the
concubines of Gideon, showing that he's essentially a what?
A bastard.
Okay?
He's not a legitimate child, okay?
And of course, a bastard, spiritually speaking, is someone who is not of God, right?
They're not saved.
And so you see that parallel, look at verse 36 regarding a prophecy of the coming Antichrist.
This is immediately talking about Antiochus Epiphanes, but it's also referring to a future Antichrist that's going to come in the future.
Don't allow yourself to be influenced by these nonsensical preterists out there.
They try to claim as though, oh, it all took place in 70 AD.
There's no coming Antichrist, that already happened, and there's no Rapture, all that stuff took place in 70 AD.
Well that's funny, the last time I checked the whole world was not wondering after a beast during 70 AD.
Maybe the immediate world was, but even then the last time I checked the Antichrist didn't receive a daily wound to the head back in 70 AD,
and died and came back and everyone worshiped the beast.
So there's a lot of things that the Bible talks about that has not yet happened.
And what do people do with the descriptions of the rapture in the Bible, if that's already
happened?
The fact that we are changed in the twinkling of an eye, the fact that it says that the dead
in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
I don't know if you know this, but we're not physically with the Lord right now.
And none of us have been caught up into the clouds.
Well that's figurative of what?
of what?
How about this, and let me just get on this
for just a little bit,
because preterism is a frustrating doctrine,
and unfortunately a lot of people are bit into it
because of the fact that their eyes are being opened
about the Jews and about Zionism,
but it's causing them to go to the extreme opposite
to preterism because they associate the rapture
and the resurrection with the false doctrine
of the pre-tribulation, rapture, and dispensationalism.
So they're looking at something
that's complete contrast to that, which is preterism, okay?
But how about this?
You know, the millennial reign of Christ.
And that's one thing they can't answer,
because everything to the Preterist is symbolic.
Oh, it's symbolic, it's symbolic.
Okay, what is a thousand-year symbolic of?
I don't know.
We haven't figured that out yet.
You'll never figure that out.
You'll be ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of that truth.
Look at Daniel 11, verse 36.
It says,
"'And the king shall do according to his will.'"
And he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God and shall speak marvelous things against the God of God
And shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished for that that is determined shall be done
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women
Nor, regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all, but in his estate shall he honor the God of forces, and a God whom his fathers knew not, shall he honor with gold and silver and precious stones and pleasant things."
Now, Abimelech is essentially someone who's exalting himself to place himself in a position of authority, and in fact, we see that he's financed by the gold and the silver from a false God.
So he's actually honoring false gods, and he's not honoring the God of his father, Gideon, which is the God of the Bible, right?
We see those parallels there. Now, this is literally referring to the Antichrist, who in the end times, according to the Bible, is going to be a fag.
Because it says that he's not going to desire women. You know? That means that he's a homo.
He's not the regard of the God of his father's nor the desire of women nor regard any God
Why because he's gonna magnify himself above all now a way to describe this is what we see in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2
When talking about the rapture the resurrection it says that that day
Shall not come except to come a falling way first and the man of sin be revealed the son of perdition
Who opposed it and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God sit at the temple of God
Showing himself to be God, okay, and this is what the great falling away in the New Testament is referring to
Falling away means apostasy. Now obviously we see apostasy today. Do we not?
You know, we see churches teaching crazy stuff, perverted things about salvation, about Jesus Christ, just nonsensical doctrines.
But hold on a second, the great fallen away, the greatest example of apostasy is when the entire world rejects the God of the Bible
and they worship a man known as the Antichrist who is essentially calling himself a God.
Now why is he doing that?
Give himself credit or to give himself, you know that position is that he actually dies and he comes back to life
Okay, and we see that in Revelation chapter 13
Now go go back to judges chapter 9 if you wouldn't
So see first and foremost that a bimalic means my father is king
Well, who's your father because it's not giddy and giddy is not the king
Well, Gideon, you know, had a bimalic with a woman of Sheikham, his concubine, essentially showing that he is a bastard child.
That's what the Bible literally teaches about that.
So he's an illegitimate child.
And it's interesting because Job 41 verse 34 when talking about Satan says,
He beholdeth all high things.
He is a king over all the children of pride.
Right?
Referring to Satan.
Overall the children of those who are prideful and we see that a bimalek is definitely prideful now
What are some applications we could gather from this aside from the parallels that we see with the Antichrist?
Well, you know we should never feel entitled to something just because it's in our pedigree, right?
He feels entitled to be a king.
He feels entitled to be in a position of authority
just because his name is Abimelech.
Just because his dad was Gideon.
Just because his name means my father is king.
Folks, let me just say this.
You don't deserve anything.
I don't deserve anything.
We should work for the things that we have
and be grateful for what we get.
And everything to ourselves, well, I deserve this.
I'm built different.
This is what I deserve, you know,
I think that I deserve all the money,
I think I deserve the prestige,
I think I deserve the authority,
I should be behind that pulpit preaching,
I should be the one song leading,
I should be the team leader.
No, you don't deserve those things.
None of us deserve anything that we have.
And let's just be honest,
let me give you an exaggerated statement,
but it is true, if all we got was salvation,
the side of eternity, that's enough.
If all we got was saving the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, all we got was eternal life, that actually would be enough, right?
Like anything on top of that is literally a cherry on top. It's just extra.
And quite frankly, we obviously know that the Bible promises us more than just salvation.
You know, the Bible talks about the love of God, the passeth all knowledge, to know the
high depth, length, breadth, width, and depth, to know the love of Christ, the passeth all
knowledge.
We know that he blesses us beyond what we deserve.
We know that he's gracious to us.
The Bible says that the blessing of the Lord makeeth rich and he adds no sorrow to it.
But here's the thing, you still don't deserve it.
And that's why it's called the grace of God, because grace is getting what we don't deserve.
Grace is getting what we don't deserve.
So we should never feel entitled to a particular position,
to finances, to prestige, fame,
whatever it is that you might think it to yourself,
I deserve this, quite frankly we don't.
We can work hard for things, we can pray for things,
but at the end of the day if we don't get it,
never have this victim mentality,
this entitlement mentality,
well I deserve this because of X, Y, and Z.
you know, my pedigree or something like that,
you know, says that this is what I deserve.
And you know what, this is a problem in our nation today,
where we have a bunch of abimilex in this nation
that feel like they're entitled to certain favors
just because either the color of their skin
or they didn't grow up with mom and dad
or they had it rougher in life or whatever it may be
and they feel they're entitled
to whatever kind of prosperity and success.
It doesn't work that way.
You know the Bible tells us that we should work hard for what we have and be thankful for what we have and
You know what if you don't like your stage in life economically then go change that
But don't expect for it to be given to you on a silver platter
Just because of the color of your skin just because of your the way you grew up
Just because of the traumatic things that happen in your life folks. We all have traumatic things happen in our lives
There's no one in here who hasn't
had a traumatic experience except for the white people.
Maybe not, I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding.
We've all had traumatic experiences.
We've all had hardships.
We've all gone through afflictions.
We've all gone through tribulation.
And we should never have this attitude.
And by the way, let's say you've never
had a trial tribulation, but your previous generation did.
That doesn't mean that you're entitled to success
just because your previous generation suffered and you
Oh, you know, this is my ancestor's land.
Are you the ancestor, though?
You didn't suffer for this, you know?
It's just like, yeah, but you know, my ancestor's this,
and my forefathers, you weren't them, though.
I cannot take credit or have anything
just because of the successes of my father and my mother.
I need to pave my own way, create my own success,
work hard for what I have.
That's how the world works, my friends.
And look, let me tell you what happens
when things are handed to you on a silver platter.
You become a spoiled brat.
Let me give you a biblical example of this, Solomon.
Solomon's cool, I get it.
Why is this man that ever lived?
The guy was an awesome king.
He wrote the book of Proverbs, the majority of them,
the book of Ecclesiastes, the songs of Solomon.
I mean, the man was very talented,
but let's just be honest though,
the kingdom was kind of just given to him
on a silver platter.
And in fact, he didn't have to earn anything that he had.
Because in his day, there was no wars.
David fought all the wars.
David was the man of war.
David was like, you know, David.
But his son Solomon didn't have to fight for that.
And what happened when he didn't have to struggle?
What happened when he didn't have to go through afflictions
and trials and tribulations?
He allowed his heart to go after covetousness.
He ended up marrying 700 wives.
And I can't remember how many concubines.
300 concubines, 700 wives.
You got some time on your hands there, Solomon?
Got himself a zoo?
You got apes?
He literally says that everything he said his eyes upon,
he just took.
He's like, what kind of animal is that?
I don't know, but I want it.
Let me get that and he's collecting wives like he's collecting beanie babies and stuff
He goes through and he's not it's not like he's conquering lands either
He's just kind of visiting. He's just like I'll take five of those
I'll take two of those like he's ordering from a menu or something
And you know guys say it might look at him be like why
That sounds pretty good to me. That's a pretty good deal. Yeah, let's look at how Solomon ended his life though
And the fact that pagan women ended up driving
his heart away from serving the Lord.
And after Solomon, the kingdom was split in two.
Why, because he never struggled.
A little soft, okay?
The point that I'm making here is that, you know,
abimelech, don't have this abimelech mentality.
Well, you know, my father, and by the way,
like my kids, for example, they cannot use the fact
that I'm a preacher to their advantage
and use it as a means to gain a position
They need to work hard for it, too.
Now, they are given a goodly heritage.
Their daddy's a preacher, their mom is a preacher's daughter,
their uncles are preachers, their grandfather's a pastor.
I mean, they have a rich heritage, right?
But that doesn't mean that they are not to work hard for it.
We don't want to raise soloments, okay?
We need to make sure that they work for what they have.
And you think of the apostle Paul,
and I know we haven't even started on the chapter yet,
but you think of the apostle Paul.
You know, Paul's a Paul had a pedigree.
He was a Benjamin.
He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee.
He was zealous of the law.
But what did he say?
He counted it all, but what?
Dung.
That is a Greek for crap.
Meaning he's just like, it means nothing to me.
Why?
Because he's following after Christ.
So he wasn't like, hey, by the way,
you know I'm a Pharisee, right?
Like, you know, I know a lot, right?
Yeah, that was me, you know?
He's out there preaching Christ and him crucified.
And he's earning his why because he said by the grace of God
I am what I am and I labored more abundantly than they all he didn't say you know because I'm a Pharisee
I labored more than abundantly than they all he said by the grace of God
I labored more than they all look at verse number one. So we see that abimelech means my father is king
Hold on a second your father's not a king your father's a judge
You're coming in your own name
Exalting yourself to be in that position of king look at verse one
We see that he seizes the kingdom and abimelech the son of Jerob Baal
Went to Sheikham unto his mother's brethren and commune with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father
Saying speak I pray you in the ears of all the men of Sheikham
Whether it is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerobail,
which are three scoring ten persons, ran over you, or that one ran over you,
remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. So what's going on here?
Well, Abimelech is saying, he's going to the men of Sheikham and he's just like,
hey, there's a problem.
There's no king. So you got to choose.
You know, do you really want 70 sons of Gideon to rule over you or should me just one rule over you?
Well, first of all, there was no problem to begin with. What do you mean?
This is what's called the Hegelian dialectic where someone creates a problem in order to be the solution
So he's creating this problem like oh, there's no leadership. Hey, there's a bit like there's not supposed to be a king
We're just waiting for the next judge to come that God is gonna raise up
It's not a judge that's put in himself in a position of authority. God is raising them up
And he's kind of he's kind of exaggerating here
Is he not because he's saying like do you really want 70 people to rule over you?
Or one, and by the way, I'm your flesh and your bone too, by the way.
What is he doing?
He's perverting judgment.
He's seizing the kingdom by flatteries, because he's saying, you know, I'm of sheikim too.
I'm your bone and your flesh, so don't let that, you know, help you in your decision
of who to choose, but just remember, you know, I'm one of you guys is what he's doing there.
What is he doing? He's obtaining the kingdom by flattery look at Daniel chapter 11 and verse 20
Regarding the antichrist that says in verse 20 then shall stand up in his estate a razor of taxes in the glory of the kingdom
But within few days he shall be destroyed neither in anger nor in battle and in his estate shall stand up a vile person
To whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom,
but he shall come in peaceably
and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
So what do we see with the Antichrist?
According to this prophecy,
he's not gonna come and seize the kingdom by force,
he's actually coming in peaceably
and he's obtaining it by flatteries.
This is how he establishes the covenant
at the beginning of Daniel's 70th week.
Well, what is the Bimbler doing?
He's obtaining the kingdom peaceably and by flatteries.
He says in verse 22,
And with the arms of a flood, they shall be overflown from before him and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant.
And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small people.
What is Abimelek doing?
He's becoming the king with a very small people.
And in fact, so small, it's just the men of Sheikham that are essentially strengthening Abimelek to become the king.
And let me just say this, he's not even the king of Israel.
He's just the king of what?
Sheikham.
Just like a small little portion.
So he's becoming strong with a small people.
He's coming in peaceably, taking it with flatteries,
but he's also using the flood of armies
to overtake his opposition.
Now, what's an application that we gather from this?
A bit more like a self-will.
And just as we saw in the first point, he is essentially putting himself in a position of authority.
He's making himself be the king.
No one's asking him to be king. God didn't put him in a position to be king.
He's making himself become king.
Now, why is this important?
Well, you know, in the New Testament, God speaks against being self-willed.
Right?
And especially when it comes to pastors.
And the Bible tells us you don't have to turn there and in Titus 1 7 is for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God
Not self-willed
Not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy looker. What does it mean to be self-willed?
It means that you manipulate situations to essentially put yourself in a position of authority. You're willing yourself to do that
You see, God wants us, God wants pastors to start churches.
He wants pastors to preach the Word of God,
but he wants them to do it the right way.
Not through deceits, not through flattery,
not by flexing their position in the appropriate manner.
And I don't want to discourage anybody
from becoming a pastor, by the way.
You know, because the Bible says,
if any man desire the office of a bishop,
he desire with a good work.
If you have a desire to be a pastor
and you meet the qualifications,
just be a servant.
Be a blessing in your church and let God magnify you.
You don't have to magnify yourself.
And we have an issue today with churches
where you have people magnifying themselves
in order to become pastors.
I mean, years ago, this is years ago,
many of you probably don't even know this person.
There's a situation in a different church
where this guy was the evangelist of that church plan.
And then another pastor ended up taking over
those particular churches,
including the one that he was over,
and he didn't like that.
And he sought to essentially seize position in that church
to become the official pastor,
and he essentially hijacked that church
from the actual official pastor of the church.
You know, this is a person who's self-willed.
Rather than just be like, hey, you're the new boss.
You let me know how I can be a blessing
throughout this tumultuous time.
Just I'm here to serve.
What do you need me to do, right?
And look, when we started this church back in 2017,
I wasn't the one who started, I was the boots on the ground,
but there was another pastor who was in charge, right?
He was the official pastor, and I specifically told him,
look, you know, I want to be a pastor one day,
and, but at the end of the day, I don't really care,
I just want to help you, I want to serve here,
I'll preach, I'll do whatever it is that you want me to do,
and if you feel like you don't want me to be the pastor here,
I'm fine with that as long as I get to serve.
Whatever it is that you want.
Why, because I don't want to be a selfless person.
You say, why not?
I'll tell you why, because then God will judge me.
and it goes against God's will to do so.
Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth.
And look, if you wanna be a team leader in our church,
for example, don't exalt yourself, let others exalt you.
Let God magnify you.
Let God recognize your exploits.
Let God cause others to recognize the things
that you've done to recognize your works
in order to promote you to being a leader
or something like that.
Don't put yourself in a position of authority.
Don't be a self-willed person.
Let me just say this.
Being self-willed is actually an attribute of a reparation.
Because it says in 2 Peter 2.10,
but chiefly, them that walk after the flesh
in the lust of uncleanness despise government.
Presumptuous are they, self-willed,
they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
So often the self-willed person exalts themselves
as they put other people down.
they put the leader down, right? Why? Because at the end of the day they despise their own government,
they despise their own leaders. Go back to Judges chapter 9 and look at verse number 3.
So he obtains the kingdom by flatteries. They end up promoting him.
He seizes upon this position of being a king. Look at verse 3.
We see also that he ends up murdering the opposition.
Verse 3 says, and his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Sheikham.
All these words and their hearts inclined to follow a bimalik for they said he is our brother
Not that he's qualified
Not that he has good leadership
Not that he's done great exploits. He's our brother and
They gave him three scoring ten pieces of silver out of the house of Belbury with where with a bimalik hired vein and light persons
Which followed him now before I get into the actual point. Let me just point out the fact that what does a bimalik do with the money that is given to him?
He buys his followers
Right he goes on his Instagram and he gets a bot or whatever
And he purchased just a bunch of followers, right? Why because he can't really give followers on his own
He can't really get anybody to follow him
So he has to buy these followers and what happens when you purchase followers those followers and the being vain and
Light people meaning they're not people of substance
Okay
We want to be people of substance and we want people to follow us to be people of substance right now
It's funny because you know recently I've been posting a lot on Instagram making a lot of videos about the Jews and
About Israel and about the Jews and whatnot and there's a ton of people who just they're just loving the content
And they're just, I've never heard this before,
this is great, and I'm thinking this is like another day
in the office for us at First Works Baptist Church.
Like, I'm thinking to myself, like,
my church members don't even follow me on my Instagram
because this is just boring to them.
They've just already heard it.
They don't even like it.
They're just like, oh, it's pastor, you know.
This is from Sunday sermon or something, you know.
They just share whatever, they just share the video
just to be supportive, you know what I mean?
And then, I guarantee you, most of them haven't watched
the video all the way through, but they're on there
arguing with other people in the comment section, you know?
Which, keep at it.
But I remember, someone messaged me and they're like,
oh, yeah, this is what happens when you buy your followers.
You just get a ton of followers overnight
and you're just purchasing your followers.
And I'm thinking to myself, like, first of all,
I don't even know how to buy followers.
I know it's possible.
But secondly, just look at the comment section.
You'll see that a lot of them are not bought.
Cause some of them don't even agree
with what I'm talking about.
I mean, folks, there's people in my DMs
just like cursing me out.
They're angry, they're upset.
You think I'd pay for that?
They're just like, bro, I gave you this much money,
you're over here cursing me, do your job.
You had one job, and you're attacking.
These people are legitimately following
because of the content, but let me just be honest with you.
The vast majority of them don't agree with the majority
of what we believe here at this church.
So don't let the numbers fool you, you know what I mean?
You can have someone, 100,000 people watch a video,
but I guarantee you 99% of those people
don't agree with 100% of what we preach here.
You say, well, how do you know?
Because 99% of them are Catholics.
How about that?
And you know, people with Catholics' message you mean,
they're just like, brother, I'm just like, whoa, whoa.
And they're like, we love you, we're praying for you.
And I'm thinking to myself, keep scrolling.
And you won't love me anymore.
Because last year, I had an entire series against Catholics.
And I'm thinking to myself, you don't know
what I really truly believe about you.
I'm just on the Jews right now, okay?
And so the point that I'm making here is that
as a leader, we want people of substance to follow, right?
You know, 15,000 on your social media platform
doesn't really mean much because you're not really
interacting with those people.
You know the substance followers are the ones in here.
The hundred and seventy on Sunday morning. That's a people that those are people of substance
So how do you know because they actually got out of bed on Sunday morning and drove themselves and God dressed brush
Her teeth brought a Bible and they came to listen me scream at them for an entire hour
Sometimes under cold conditions, you know
And, but why is that?
Because they're actually, you know,
the people in our church are people of substance.
They believe the word of God.
They want to serve the Lord.
They esteem the words of God.
Whereas vain and like people don't.
And let me just say this is that not every church
is filled with people of substance.
Folks, there's tons of churches out there.
What we would call the liberal fund centers.
The football stadiums filled with church members.
Joe Olstein-type churches who are filled with
vein and light members, meaning they're there
because of the music, the smoke and the mirrors,
the purple lights, they're not there for the word of God.
And quite frankly, not much of the word of God
is being preached there anyways.
This is why you could probably go to one of those churches
and ask 20 different people what they believe about salvation
and you'll get 20 different answers.
Or as I promise you, I promise you,
you come on a Sunday morning to our church,
talk to 20 different people,
ask them what they believe about salvation,
you will get consistently the same answer
every single time.
The only difference would be is if you're talking
to a visitor who's not even saved.
But you talk to me, you talk to the leaders,
you talk to any, you talk to the teenagers in our church.
They will give you the right answer.
Why because we don't have vain and light people in our church
We want our people to be saturated with the word of God with doctrine
We want people to follow who are of substance. Okay, the Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16
Wherefore I beseech you be followers of
Me he also says in 1st Corinthians 11 verse 1 be followers of me even as I also am of Christ
So we never want to take this attitude of like well, you know, I only follow Jesus. I don't follow any man. That's a contradiction
I only follow Jesus, I don't follow a man.
Well, Jesus said to follow a man.
So apparently you don't follow Jesus enough.
You didn't follow him to the passages
that commands you to follow a man.
Because the Bible says that he gave some apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ.
So he's literally saying that he gave gifts to all men
and who are the gifts,
they're the men that you should be following.
Now, we don't want blind followers either.
Or it's just like, we'll just follow you off the edge
of a cliff and don't matter what happens,
we're just gonna follow you to the ends of the earth.
That's not the type of following that we see.
God doesn't want you to follow someone into a ditch, okay?
You follow someone as they follow Christ.
So as long as the pastor's following Christ,
and of course I'm following Jesus, yes.
You know, I'm reading the word of God, I'm serving Christ.
You know, as long as a person's following Christ,
you should follow them.
Your team leaders following Christ, you should follow them.
Follow their lead. Okay
He says in verse 5 and
He went into his father's house at Ophrah
and I want you to notice this extremely wicked deed that he does here and
Slew his brethren the sons of Jerobiel being three score and ten persons upon one stone
Now what's then he had jotham the youngest son of Jerobiel was left for he hid himself
So, what does he do?
As soon as he becomes king, as soon as he's sanctioned to be the monarch of Sheikham,
what does he do?
He murders the opposition.
His brothers, 70 brothers upon a stone.
Now, poetic justice, by the way.
Think about that for later on.
So, he's not leading through inspiration, through just effort and, you know, winning wars.
What is he doing?
He's destroying the opposition so that no one can essentially oppose him, challenge him,
so that his brothers don't take his position.
He's like, I'll just kill all 70, and then no one can be the king, okay?
Now, what is this, how does this picture the Antichrist?
Well, how about the fact that the Antichrist will make war with the saints and overcome
them?
He goes to war with the remnant the remnant referring to
Believers right the Bible says that he makes war with the saints that he overcomes them
Revelation chapter 6 that he says that he saw under the altar the souls of them who were slain for the word of God and for the
Testimony which they held why did Abimele kill the sons because there were sons of Gideon?
He didn't kill anybody else. I mean he sought to destroy Jotham
And why was Jotham spared? Why was he able to escape?
Well, we'll see in just a little bit.
He's actually preaching against Abimelech and against the men of Sheikham.
Look at verse 6.
So, he slew all these 70 brothers,
and then Jotham, the one who escaped, he preaches this parable.
And it's actually a pretty funny parable when you think about it, okay?
Because, look what it says in verse 6,
It says,
This is the parable the trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them and they said into the olive tree
Rain thou over us, but the olive tree said unto them should I leave my fatness where with my where where with by me
They honor God and man and go to be promoted over the trees and the tree said to the fig tree come down rain over us
but the fig trees said unto them,
should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit
and go to be promoted over the trees?
Then said the trees into the vine,
come down rain over us.
And the vine said unto them,
should I leave my wine which cheereth God and man
and go to be promoted over the trees?
Then said all the trees unto what?
The bramble, come thou and rain over us.
So what is he saying?
He goes to the men of Sheikham
and he said, notice that you didn't get a good leader,
you got the bottom of the barrel.
Because what is Bramble?
Bramble are briars and thorns.
What is a briar and a thorn figurative in the Bible?
A reprobate.
The worst possible leader that you can get,
it's just like they couldn't get the fig tree,
they couldn't get the one that produced wine,
they couldn't get any tree of any substance,
you had to go to the worst baser sort type of leader
to reign over you, the Bramble.
Now look what it says in verse 15,
and the bramble, signifying who?
Abimelech, set into the trees,
if in truth ye anoint me king over you,
then come and put your trust in my shadow.
And if not, listen to this, let fire come out of the Bramble
and devour the cedars of Lebanon on the Bible sets.
Now what do we see in the end times when it comes to the Antichrist?
Well, the Bible says that he sets up the abomination of desolation,
the false prophet comes and they call fire down from heaven to anybody
who doesn't place their trust in the shadow of the Bramble,
also known as the Antichrist.
So we see those parallels there.
Look at verse 19.
Says if you then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jarrah Bale
This is Jotham speaking and with this house this day then rejoice seeing the Bimelech and let him also rejoice in you
But if not, let fire come out from a Bimelech and devour the men of Sheikham and the house of Milo
and let fire come out from the men of Sheikham and from the house of Milo and devour a Bimelech and
Jotham ran away and fled and went to beer and dwelt there for fear of a Bimelech his brother and by the way, of course
Jotham pictures, right?
The saint who's in the end times running from the abomination known as a bimilek right the abomination of desolation
And why is he staying alive because he's actually preaching?
You know you want to stay alive in the end times you better make sure you're preaching the gospel and preaching the word of God
Don't go into some bunker
Don't escape to the the hills. Well, you know, I'm a prepper, you know, I got beans. I got lentils
I got food for weeks. I got water for weeks
Thank you is what I'm gonna tell you
Because you're gonna go off the scene and God's gonna provide that for me since I'm since I'm like preaching the gospel
And even if he doesn't he's gonna do what he did to Elijah and allow Raven to feed them
You know we don't want to have this attitude that when the end times come if it comes in our lifetime
That we just go in a corner and hide ourselves until it all just passes over until the Lord comes back
You know the wicked flee when no man pursues
Okay, and you know what it's gonna be the greatest time on the face of the planet
It's a time to preach the gospel to get people saved and you know what if they kill you and they kill me
Well, at least we go out in style
What a great way to go out serving the Lord, but I believe he will keep alive those who are like Jotham
Willing to preach against the bramble
against a bimalak, okay
Let me read to you from Micah chapter 7 and verse 1 through the lens of judges 9
It says what was me for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the great gleaning of the vintage
There is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruit
The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men.
They all lie and wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net.
That they may do evil with both hands earnestly.
The prince asketh and the judge asketh for reward, and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire.
So they wrap it up, and I want you to notice this. The best of them is as a briar.
The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.
The day of the watchman and I visitation cometh now shall be their perplexity. So what is he saying?
You know the best leader you got is a reprobate
It's the best you got
He says the should the most upright one is as a thorn hedge
And this is why I don't vote
Why because the best of them is as a briar the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge
You know, I think I think it works though. Well really because you know in the end times they're going to be electing the Antichrist and
He is the biggest thorn. He is the biggest bramble
Look what it goes on to say in
Verse 22 we're almost done here. So what do we see here? We see that Abimelech takes the kingdom by flattery's
He slaughters his brethren
We see the prophecy of him calling fire down to consume them who oppose him as we see in the end times.
And then we also see that he ends up turning on Sheikham.
So, the very people that helped him get into power, he actually turns against them.
Look at verse 22.
When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel, by the way, three years, then God
sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sheikham, and the men of Sheikham
dealt treacherously with Abimelech.
So now there's this civil war between Abimelech and the men of Sheikham.
Now, how does that picture end times in the Antichrist?
According to the Bible, the Antichrist becomes powerful
with the very small people.
And this is why I believe the Antichrist will be a Jew.
And that should be a not controversial point at all.
And for people to deny that, they'll be like,
oh, I don't know, that sounds kind of weird,
sounds kind of blasphemous, you know?
Well, here's the thing is the Jews are expecting a Messiah.
They're expecting, and by the way,
their Messiah is not a divine Messiah.
There's nothing divine about their and times Messiah. He's actually a political leader
Who's gonna win wars for them? Okay?
and
if they're waiting for a Messiah and
The major narrative that's being pushed through the Republican Party and fundamental Baptist churches
Conservative churches is that Islam is the Antichrist and the Jews are God's chosen people
Then obviously, and by the way, it's being pushed by churches that don't know the Bible
You know, why is that narrative always being pushed? Now look, I'm not for Islam
I'm against Islam. I'm against Muhammad and the Quran
People who believe in Islam will go to hell. They need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
And obviously the religion as a whole is anti-Christ. Yes
But here's the thing as a Baptist though
I've heard this time and time again that the Antichrist is gonna be a Muslim the Imam
That's what's gonna happen, and it's just like this constant narrative
That's being pushed out there constant there, and you know you can say like I you know the Imam is an Antichrist for sure
But it can we really say is the Antichrist
because
Who is Satan really trying to deceive us obviously he's trying to deceive the whole world
But what group of people is he's trying to deceive the most Christians who think that they're saved?
Right and what is the common theme amongst churches regarding the Jews is that they're God's chosen people
We ought to bless Israel
Okay, it doesn't matter how many war crimes they've done
It doesn't mean Bolshevik. I don't want to hear about it
You know, no matter what took place, there are still God's chosen people.
And folks, this is why Zionism and the pre-tribulation rapture go hand in hand.
Because the pre-tribulation rapture teaches the immanency of Christ, which means that he can come at any moment.
But let me just remind you, according to Bible prophecy, the only one who's coming at any moment is the Antichrist.
And according to Revelation chapter six,
he's not coming per se from heaven,
he's just coming on a white horse
just as Jesus Christ comes in Revelation chapter 19.
He's an imposter, he's an impersonator,
and the Bible says that he's given a crown,
like a bimbolek, and he's going forth what?
Conquering into conquer,
which is exactly what the Jews want.
And so to say, to think that the Antichrist
is not gonna be Jewish is outlandish in my opinion.
Now, here's another reason why I believe that
the Antichrist is Jewish, is, and by the way,
when I say Jewish, I don't really care if I mean
Jewish ethnically or religiously,
it doesn't really matter to me.
If you just claim the Jewish, you know what I mean?
Whatever, okay?
If he's ethnically Jewish, doesn't really matter,
if he's religiously Jewish, doesn't really matter,
I just believe he's gonna be Jewish, one or the other.
But we see that they're waiting for their Messiah,
They're gonna, they're gonna help him be promoted to become the ruler of this world
But according to Luke chapter 21 he ends up turning on them
Why because once he proclaims himself to be God
According to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 the Jews aren't gonna be fine with that. Why because they don't want a divine leader
They want a political ruler. Well once he steps out of the boundaries of being that political leader to becoming deity
They're not cool with that
Now look at Luke chapter 21 if you would
Luke chapter 21
And by the way, let me just remind you
That the Bible tells us who is a liar, but he that denied that Jesus is the Christ
He is anti Christ that deny at the father and the son
And you know there's no group of people more guilty of that than the Jews in Israel
They deny that Jesus is the Christ and the Bible says that they're liars because of it
Right and specifically says that they're antichrist and this is why later on it says you know little children
It is the last time as you know that antichrist shall come
Even so now are there many antichrist whereby we know that is the last time so yeah
Do antichrist exists now of course, but according to the Bible. There's one that's going to come in the future
And again, he's one that denies the Christ and by the way antichrist. What does antichrist even mean antichrist means in the place of Christ?
So he's coming as a Christ and imam is not gonna come claiming to be Jesus
Hello the imam is not gonna say, you know, he's Jesus. He's Jesus Christ
No, the Bible says that whoever comes as the antichrist will proclaim himself to be like the God of the Bible
Look at Luke 21 verse 20 referring to the tribulation here says when each of see Jerusalem come past with armies
Then know that the desolation thereof is nigh
Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains and let them which are in the midst of it depart out and let not them
That are in the countries entered therein to for these be I want you to notice this the days of
Vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled
So according to the Bible there's going to be a time that's called the times of the Gentiles
Where the Antichrist armies will come past Jerusalem for 40 and two months
And God specifically calls this the days of vengeance
upon this people.
Who are these people?
The people who are in Jerusalem.
So the very people that the Antichrist used
to get into power, he's turning on them thereafter.
He's going to come past their city, you know with armies and he's going to end up destroying them as well
Why because at the end of the day God is going to use the antichrist to execute vengeance upon a people
Who have blasphemed the Lord crucified Jesus Christ and done horrible atrocities throughout history?
Look at go back to judges chapter 9 verse 52
So Bimelech what does he do he turns on sheikham?
He starts going to war with them and this war ends up extending into different cities, overcoming different people,
and he gets a little too big for his britches, okay?
He ends up cornering them in a tower to fight against them.
And he's trying to burn it with fire
because part of the prophecy is like,
I'm gonna burn you with fire as a bramble
if you don't essentially submit to my leadership.
That's essentially what he's talking about.
Look at verse 53.
It says, in a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone
upon a bimalic's head and all to break his skull.
So he got a little too ambitious.
He's trying to like burn down the tower with fire.
And then you know, this lady's just like,
Like the anvil back in Looney Tunes, you know, he's like burn it down and boom
Breaks the skull
You know, he basically receives a deadly wound to the head
Only difference is he's not healed, right?
He receives a deadly wound to the head so verse 54
Then he called hastily into the young man his armor baron said unto him draw thy sword and slay me then men say not of me a woman slew me
Slew him and his young man thrust him through and he died and when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead
They departed every man into his place
Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech which he did into his father and slain his 70 brethren and all the evil of the
Men of Sheikah did God render upon their heads and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jeru Baal
Now what is the relation with the Antichrist?
Well, obviously he receives a daily wound to the head, but I want you to notice that a stone was dropped upon him
And according to Bible prophecy, the way the New World Order is destroyed is the stone which the builders disallowed the standings because of the head of the corner.
It is that stone in Daniel's vision that essentially destroys the New World Order, okay?
That's what the Bible teaches.
Go to Proverbs chapter 26, if you would, Proverbs chapter 26.
So we see there that he essentially reaped what he sowed.
So throughout these this sermon you see a lot of the parallels between him and the Antichrist
But you also see that the principle that's being taught here is that when there's a vacuum of leadership
Often some of the worst types of people try to take over
Because they didn't need a king they were fine with the system of the judges
But yet, in spite of that, he sought to seize power, to overcome Sheikah, and he did not have their best interest in mind.
He ended up killing a lot of people, dishonoring God, and God had to punish him for it.
Now, what in conclusion, what is the principle, the ultimate principle that we can learn from Abimelech?
Well, look at Proverbs 26, verse 27, it says here,
Whoso dig at the pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth the stone, it will return upon him.
He killed his 70 brethren upon a stone.
And the poetic justice there is that how did he die?
With a stone.
The principle that we can learn is that you will always
reap what you sow.
And you know what, we as God's people,
we should never have malice towards people,
violence towards individuals,
and do wrong or evil towards individuals.
The Bible says that we should sow to the spirit
so we can of the spirit reap life everlasting.
But just remember, you know, God is not mocked
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Abimelech did not get away with the violent
and malicious murder of his brothers,
the seizing of power, God not only allowed him
to die a horrible death, his worst fear came upon him.
Why, because he's just like, kill me,
because I don't want to become a Bible where people
are saying that a woman killed me.
They're like, yeah, I got you.
And then hundreds of years later, yeah,
how did Abimelech die, oh, a woman killed him.
I don't know about you, but I want to make sure
that I'm constantly sowing good seeds,
that I'm sowing to the spirit,
that I'm not sowing to the flesh,
that I'm not digging a pit for people to fall there in,
and I'm not rolling a stone to roll upon people
because at the end of the day,
just because I'm a child of God
doesn't mean I'm exempt from punishment from God.
Now I'm saved, I'm going to heaven no matter what,
but like we talked about this morning,
the Lord says, vengeance is mine,
save the Lord, I will repay,
and the Lord shall judge his people.
And so let's pray Father we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for this byword and proverb of abimelech
And it's tyranny, Lord, that came to an end
to teach us the lesson, Lord,
that people reap what they sow.
And I pray that you'd help us as your people
to recognize the importance of raising up godly leadership
lest someone wicked tries to come in place
and seize power for their own lust
and their own desires and covetous agendas, Lord.
I pray that, Lord, you'd help us as your people
to take heed to the principles they're of.
We love you, we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Please turn the song number 129, Rock of Ages, song number 129.
Song number 129, all that first verse. Rock of Ages, clap for me, let me hide myself in thee.
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