Thanks so much for being here this morning and I want to preach a sermon on the sin of disloyalty,
the sin of disloyalty and we have a story here about Abimelech and before we kind of get into
chapter 9 and some of what he says, I want to look back at chapter 8 and I want to look at verse 34 if you can.
The Bible says, 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,
neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbabel, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.
Now, Gideon is a famous story where he delivers the children of Israel out of the hand of the Midianites,
In chapter number eight, the Bible tells us that the children of Israel
tried to make Gideon a king, but he refused to be the king
and he didn't want to be a king. He wanted God to be their king and God to rule over them
and to still be under the system to quote judges. We're reading in the book of Judges and it was
Supposed to be that the children of Israel were ruled by a system of judges and elders and that the word of God
Rains supreme in the land not a king
It's kind of similar honestly to how America is established because we have a quote
Constitution and in theory the Constitution supposed to reign supreme as the law of our country
However, obviously the Constitution is not being
uh... it's not being used correctly we have people abusing the constitution not
following the constitution and i get that but just generally speaking the way
we're theoretically supposed to operate is we have a constitution and then we
have leaders we have a system of judges you have the supreme court judges which
essentially interpret the law and based on their interpretations of the
constitution this becomes the law of the land and this would be similar to how the
are supposed to be operating in the Bible, that they have judges
that are interpreting the law, you have priests interpreting the law,
and you have people being guided by the Word of God, not just a king
that just gets to decide whatever he wants. Gideon,
as a man of God, realized it was wrong to be a king, didn't want to be a king,
and so he did not allow himself to become king.
Now obviously Gideon has problems, Gideon has a lot of children, 70 children, obviously this is not with one woman, okay?
Relax, ladies. All right? This isn't Mormonism, all right? And
one of the people that he has children with is
specifically a concubine. I want to look it back at verse 31.
Look at verse 30 actually and Gideon at three score and ten sons of his body be gotten free had many wives and
His concubine that was in Sheikham. She also bear him a son whose name
He called a bemelec and so a bemelec is one of Gideon's sons. He's of the 70 and
Yet he was of a concubine a concubine is kind of a lesser wife
the phrase broken down into Google translate is just like
one who me lies with.
And so that just kind of gives us an idea
of kind of what it's talking about.
A lot of people say this is like a live-in girlfriend.
Some people say this is like a common law marriage.
Some people would even have other interpretations.
I kind of think it just means all of it.
Concubine is just basically everything. It's just it's the live-in girlfriends the common-law marriage
It's a kind of it's kind of a catch-all phrase for just someone he lies with and
It could be a wife. It could be not a wife
Sometimes though if it's a wife
It's really looked at as a lesser wife an informal wife one where they didn't have the actual legitimate marriage
It's just kind of like what we would think in our modern contexts of a
a common law marriage.
So because of the fact that the relationship's not as serious,
often we see in the Bible a pattern
where the sons of a concubine are kind of a bad person.
And I'm not saying always,
but a lot of times you kind of see the son of a concubine
being a bad person.
And we can see Jephthah is the son of a concubine
in the next story,
yet he ends up kind of redeeming his brethren and being good.
So,
Not every son of a concubine is just bad or doomed,
but many times it's just kind of a bad omen.
And so we kind of have that precursor into chapter number nine.
Now let's start with verse one.
And Abimelech the son of Jerubibo went to Sheikam unto his mother's brethren, and communed
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 Sheikam, whether is better for you, either that all
the sons of Jerubibo, which are three score and ten persons, reign over you, or that one
So, Bemalick goes on to his closer of Ken Brethren, probably we're talking about cousins,
extended cousins, other people that are from extended family, uncles, and I would say it's
not even just limited to actual, like, really close relatives, it's just kind of like the
people that he's, the area he is from.
and the sense of his, quote, brother.
Obviously, at this time in history,
a lot of people are pretty closely related,
just generally speaking.
But he's going to his cousins, his uncles,
those that are of closer kin,
and he's saying, hey,
does it really make sense to have 70 rulers?
We should just have one.
And if you're gonna pick one,
you know, you should kind of pick me.
And the reason why you should pick me
is because of the fact that we are all related.
And so you kind of have this geographic deep disposition
to end up siding with one particular guy
just because of where he lives, who he's related to.
And a lot of people are like this.
This is in fact how most people are in the world today.
Most people in the world today
just kind of have a geographic or a family type
of loyalty today where it's like you live in Dallas,
you're a Cowboys fan.
And it's not because you like the Cowboys.
It's not because you played for the Cowboys.
It's not because you even know any of the Cowboys' names.
It's just because you live in the Dallas, Florida area.
Now, obviously, I get some people retain loyalty no matter where they travel, but let's just
be honest.
A lot of people, they pretty much just like the team where they live.
They like the organizations where they live.
They move somewhere else.
They just bandwagon on that particular organization.
They just like those people.
A lot of people just like Texas because you're from Texas.
And a lot of people, most people, I would say naturally speaking, just kinda, hey, this is my cousin, this is so-and-so.
So you just kinda have this built-in loyalty to the people that are close of kin, close to where you live, your neighbors.
And there's nothing wrong with liking these people, but at the end of the day, if you're going to pick a leader,
if you're going to pick someone to rule over you, is the most important qualification that you're related.
Or is the most important qualification that you are geographically close to this person?
You know, why didn't Epimalex say, hey, instead of letting these guys rule over you,
let me rule over you because I'm righteous.
Because I love God.
Because I meet whatever qualifications.
Or because God anointed me king.
None of those things are brought up.
It's just, hey, we're brothers.
And this is what you could call nepotism.
Nepotism exists in the world that we live in today.
It exists in the Bible.
where essentially you put someone in a position of power or authority
just simply because of who they are related to.
You know what, nepotism has serious flaws and serious issues
and we should not be in a state of mind where we enable nepotism.
Nepotism should not exist in our lives
and we could apply this to all areas, our business.
our family affairs, whether that be church, whether that be, you know, our government.
Our government has a lot of nepotism as far as, you know, Donald Trump gets elected into office,
and then it's like, oh, let's put Ivanka Trump...
positions of authority in our government. What has Ivanka Trump ever
accomplished? Why is she getting this position? We look at Joe Biden with
Hunter Biden, severe nepotism. Hunter Biden being put in all kinds of
positions of authority. He was like hired by foreign agencies and foreign
governments to serve and it's like this guy doesn't even know what's going on.
He's just doing drugs and prostitutes.
all the time. That doesn't mean any of the qualifications for this energy company that
he's working for across the seas. He doesn't probably even speak a foreign language. And
yet this guy is being put in positions of authority. And you know what, you see this
in churches a lot too.
Where it's it's almost like the pastor's son just automatically gets the church or something like that
And I'm always just thinking like why is why is the pastor son just automatically the next pastor or something like that?
You know, it just doesn't really make a lot of sense
You see nepotism with the wife the wife in a lot of churches today is now the assistant pastor or the co-pastor or something
And I'm just thinking like first of all women should never be a pastor
let alone why in the world is this guy just randomly his wife just is also the
pastor you know think about this if you went to a hospital you have like a
serious injury you walk in the ER room and they're like bring in so-and-so
she's married to a doctor she married a surgeon let's put it let's let's oh you
need heart surgery this lady married a heart surgeon well did she go to medical
Does she even know what a scalpel is?
No.
But she's married to a surgeon, right?
I mean, this doesn't make sense in any context.
You go to the car dealership.
Well, she's married to a mechanic.
You wouldn't put her in there. You wouldn't put her underneath the hood and try to get her to do your job for you
And why would we do the same when it comes to church or being a pastor?
Just because you're married to a pastor doesn't make you a pastor. That's just it's weird
It doesn't make any sense and with this guy. Hey, just because your brother's with this guy doesn't mean
He's now qualified to be the king of Israel. In fact, the Bible says not to have a king
Yet they just put a bimilek right into power right into authority why because of geographic loyalty
Because of family loyalty, but at the end of the day
He's not necessarily the most qualified leader. He's not the one that you want. Why does a bimilek want this?
Well, Abimelech wants attention, doesn't he? He wants power. He wants authority.
If there's 70 rulers, if there's all these different judges, if there's all these different rulers,
you know, Abimelech's not going to necessarily stand out amongst the crowd, unless he's really hardworking,
unless he does things that are more righteous than his brethren.
That would be the only way to kind of stand out in the crowd.
But you'll never stand out like a king no matter what.
And so the only opportunity for him to stand out in the crowd is essentially destroy all the other competition
and elevate himself as the king.
And of course, he can't appeal to his own righteousness or pedigree.
He simply appeals to the only thing he has.
Well, I'm related to you.
Well, we are close of kin.
That's why you should bring me in and put me up as king.
But this is an ungodly way to essentially make decisions.
And you could see that he's being disloyal to a few different people.
Number one, he's being disloyal to God, because the Bible makes it clear that they shouldn't
have a king at this point.
and that kings are not what God desires.
And I'm not going to show you all the verses on this,
but secondly, we can see he's disloyal to his father
because his father said explicitly that he was not going to be a king over them.
Let's just read a few verses on this.
Go back to chapter number eight.
Verse 22, the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son,
and thy son's son also, for thou hast 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.
Gideon, Jerubabel explicitly confirms this, re-asserts this attitude,
I'm not gonna rule and my son is not gonna rule and you should not have him be some kind of a king or some kind of a ruler.
So we see that Abimelech is disobeying God,
he's disobeying his father, and then of course think about this loyalty. He has actual brethren.
when it comes to all of these 70 that he's totally trashing and totally destroying
and replace of these other men of Sheikah who he's probably even less close and kind to.
I mean, we know for a fact that these other 70 all have the same dad.
They're all having the same father. They're all of Gideon.
And from his mother's perspective, there's no indication that she had another child outside of the children that she had with Gideon.
That would suggest to me, it's mostly likely, I don't know if you could prove it, but it seems reasonable to conclude,
that all of the people that he's about to kill are actually of closer kin to him.
then these men of Shechem that he's striking this deal with, that he's conspiring with to slay all these other brethren.
So he's disloyal to his family, he's disloyal to God, he's disloyal to his dad,
and yet he's just picking these other men and he's essentially conspiring with them to destroy them so he can be king.
Now, what does it say in verse number three?
And that his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem, all these words,
He is our brother.
So, notice something that's really important in this verse, verse 3.
The Bible says,
their hearts inclined to follow a bimilek.
Now, Disney Channel would have you believe that you should always follow your heart.
That whatever your heart wants or whatever just feels right is right. You know what?
That is not what the Bible teaches the Bible does not teach that your heart is always right
The Bible does not teach that you always have the right affections or the right desires and many cases
You have the wrong desires that your heart is set on sin and you have to renew your mind
You have to purify your heart
You have to wash and cleanse your heart through the word of God because you could have the wrong idea here
And, of course, I think, again, it's just natural that people often kind of cling to people because of their geography.
Well, he's from Sheikham, we're from Sheikham.
You know, we're from Texas, he's from Texas, they're Texas, they're men, huh?
We're from California, and they're from California. We're from Florida, and they're from Florida, you know
I would say this about Canada, but nobody cares, you know, so
Just kidding, but honestly loyalty stretches wide and far when we talk about
Asian continents boy, they are loyal to their places
You know you can offend Asians very greatly if you guess their country wrong
If you think of Japanese persons, Chinese, they're going to get mad at you.
Or vice versa, or Korean, or Philippines, or whatever.
They take pride in their nation. They take pride in their people.
And look, I'm not even saying this is wrong. I'm just saying this is natural.
There's nothing wrong with liking your people, liking your nation.
liking your culture, liking these things.
It's very natural, it's very normal.
There's nothing wrong with it.
But sometimes that natural instinct
gets in the way of spiritual things.
Sometimes that natural instinct clouds your judgment
and causes you to end up having the wrong loyalty here
and end up being disloyal to God,
disloyal to your father, disloyal to the right things,
disloyal to the truth because, oh, my heart's inclined.
to this particular situation or inclined to this particular person.
Says the verse four, and they gave him three score and 10 pieces of silver
out of the house of Baal B.
Wreth, wherewith a Bimalik hired vain and like persons, which followed him.
So they give him money to end up betraying his brother.
Now it's probably just coming off the page.
This sounds a little bit similar to Jesus Christ story, doesn't it?
Where you have brethren betraying each other, paying pieces of silver in order to betray and kill their brethren.
This is foreshadowing what's going to happen to the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it?
Where his brethren are going to turn on him and you know when we say brethren we're talking about people like Judas
We're talking about the Jews as a whole
Not necessarily as direct Ken because his direct brothers did not betray him and turn him over to the Jews
But they weren't necessarily as big as fans either
But at the end of the day, we have Judas and we have Jews betraying the Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of the Romans
And he's crucified and slain for us
And you could kind of liken these Romans under these vain and light persons
Vain and light persons because Rome is very vain
If you know anything about Rome or their culture or their history, talk about a vain, vain culture
All about appearance.
They love their parties and their games.
They're about the Colosseum.
They're about feasting.
They're about accolades.
They're about intelligence.
The Bible talks about Greeks,
you know, desiring wisdom.
And, you know, don't get confused on the word Greek
because since Alexander the Great
had conquered the entire world,
everybody just considered Greek
even though it was the Roman Empire.
Like the Greek culture had just basically taken over the entire world. So even at this time while Rome is in control
It's kind of a Greek culture that's just under the rule of Rome. It's very vain culture. It's all about intellect
Intelligence asking questions seeking wisdom. It's a lot about physical prowess
You know and again, this is just what we learn from history
But the Romans are very vain and light persons light meaning not serious
You know, light can be interpreted a lot of different ways, not reliable, lacking moral restraint.
You can see that the Greeks lack moral restraint.
The Bible talks about the Gentiles essentially just being full of wickedness.
They don't know anything good.
They're just going wholeheartedly after all kinds of fornication and adulteries and idolatry and just everything carnal.
I mean, the Gentiles are described as just the most carnal people.
on the planet, and those are being hired, in a sense, to slay our Lord Jesus Christ,
just like here, they hire these vain and light persons to follow Abimelech.
And you know, you need to be careful who's following you.
Just because you're gaining popularity just because you're gaining in attendance of
Followership or subscribers or whatever doesn't mean that it's actually good or positive
You could be getting a lot of subscribers that are vain and like persons
You know, there's all these young teenagers and people out there today that are gaining a following on tiktok
gaining a following on
Instagram, but you know if you met somebody and they say yeah, I spend five to ten hours a day on tiktok
Does that sound like a very serious person?
Does this sound like someone that is grave?
Because I would argue that the opposite of light is grave when we think about biblical
concepts.
Someone that has gravity.
Grave is someone that's serious.
Grave is someone that's taking the things of God seriously, whereas light is very unreliable,
not taking things seriously.
And we notice these are the people that follow.
Everybody out there can easily allow these minions to come and influence them or do their dirty work.
Because notice, the men of Sheikham, they don't want to do the dirty work.
They want to get other people to do their dirty work.
And you know, you'll always notice leaders, they always have these minions that do their dirty work for them.
You have that loudmouth woman, you have that weirdo psycho guy, that's just like some kind
of a sycophant or some psychopath, goag the Edomite.
That'll just go out of his way to just hurt and harm people.
They're basically just like a pit bull.
pit bull that's on the leash and you're just letting them off the leash and you
know they're gonna do all kinds of damage they're harmful they're a dangerous
predator and you know what there's people today that are like a pit bull and
they just want to be let loose to just wreck havoc
They're you know, this is what some people called chimping out
You know they just basically you let them out of the cage and they just chimp out and they just start breaking everything and
Smashing everything and destroying everything and you know what these people are just ready to be hired to just destroy something
You know some people their whole life. They just live to just destroy stuff
It's called BLM
Right
It's the LGBT protests that we see going on in our country and everywhere,
and where they just go up and down the streets and they just destroy things and smash things.
It doesn't even matter the movement.
It doesn't matter the cause.
One week it's pro-Elon.
The next week it's destroy Elon.
One week, it's hey, we're for this particular group of people the next week
We're against that group of people. It doesn't matter the platform. It doesn't matter the message
They're just ready to be hired to destroy things
When can I start smashing when can I start looting when can I start destroying and you know what sometimes people like this can exist in churches?
Sometimes there's people that are in a church and it basically they're just want to destroy stuff
And as a pastor, it's really important to not just allow people to just have this attitude exist in your church.
You should get rid of those kind of people.
And yet sometimes they see this destructive behavior in members and they won't deal with them.
They allow them to just do their thing.
And you know, they have this in their mind like, well, while they're destroying my enemies, they're my friend,
but pretty soon they'll turn and rend you.
You know this destructive behavior can often be turned on you look at Elon
Again, I'm just trying to say Elon was like the liberals best friend. Everybody liked him
Now it's like everybody's going out trying to key a Tesla vehicle or kick the tires or do something
I I don't own a Tesla. I probably never will but I
Did test drive one one time and as soon as I get in it. We're just driving people just flipping me off
And I'm like, if they knew me, they'd probably still flip me off.
Don't hear me wrong, OK?
Like, it was the right attitude.
They just didn't even know why they hated me.
But at the end of the day, it was like, I just get in this car.
I could have been like a liberal like them.
But probably not because you actually have to have money to actually buy something and you know liberals love to just mooch on everybody else
So it probably wouldn't be that person, but at the end of the day
I'm just saying you know there are people that exist to just hate there are people that just exist to destroy
There are people that just want to attack and you know what?
While we do preach against a lot of stuff,
and yet we go on the offense a lot,
that is not our only mission,
that is not our only calling,
that is not the only thing we should do in our lives,
we should be for a lot of stuff.
We should be for the King James Bible.
We should be for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We should be for soul winning.
We should be for church.
We should be for lights in the building, you know what I mean?
I get it, okay?
We should be for electricity that works, you know?
And maybe it's just dark in here to just warn you that
hey, this world is getting dark.
It's a dark time and you know people are just showing a lot of loyalty to the wrong things and in turn
They're being disloyal to good things
They're being disloyal to the word of God. They're being disloyal to the things of God, you know
We have a lot of people warmongering right now
Trying to support Israel and just bombing a bunch of people and destroying a bunch of people and again
That's that attitude this attitude just nuke them all destroy them all I saw some picture
It was just basically like an entire ocean in the Middle East and it said let's just do this
They can rebuild later
And I'm just thinking like that's the wrong attitude
And look, I'm not gonna say I haven't had that bad attitude in the past.
There's been times in the past where I just thought, you know what, Islam is such a wicked, false religion.
Just nuke them all. Put them back in the cave and nuke them all. I don't even care.
You know what, I don't believe that's the right attitude.
You know, we should try to give the gospel to people that are Muslim.
And you know what, some of us have gotten Muslim saved. Who's gotten a Muslim saved in here?
Yeah, look around. Now is it the easiest person to get saved? No.
But you know what? There was like at least maybe almost ten hands. Who's gotten a Jew saved?
Okay interesting zero
Now I'm not saying it's never happened my friend Pastor Anderson has gotten a Jew saved
I think he's baptized an entire Jewish family
But that's rare
You know there's there's a higher likelihood that Muslims are gonna get saved
So just from a gospel perspective only you know if we're gonna have to pick between these two nations, which one will we pick?
Yeah, we would pick the Muslim nation honestly and again Muslim nations at least throw fags off buildings
I mean hey a broken crock a clock is right twice a day
I mean they got a few they don't have their women telling them what to do. I'll tell you that
They're not bringing a bunch of feminism into America. That's for sure now look do I like Islam? No, it's a wicked religion
It's a false religion
Muslims are on their way to hell
But at the end of the day, you know what it's too bad religions
And I just want to sit here and just say nuke them all destroy them all kill them all burn them all
get rid of them, let's just hire some mercenaries and let's just nuke them all and destroy them all
just like the men of Sheikham. No, no, no, that's the wrong attitude.
Don't get this attitude. America. You know, that's not America anyways. America was not like this.
We did not have a foreign policy that just said nuke everybody in the Middle East. That is a new
recent development.
That is a Zionist agenda that is recent in our country.
We have tried to be a peacemaker.
We've tried to trade with all. We've tried to be kind to all.
In fact, Hitler was on Time Magazine at one point,
contrary to popular belief that he was always evil
and everybody hated him or something.
Now, obviously he's a bad person. Don't hear me wrong.
Somebody's going to tell me he's the best Christian ever.
I don't believe it, all right?
It's weird it's weird when people say that okay
It's weird when people say like essentially the Jews are always right and hitlers and the Nazis are the worst people ever
That's wrong, and then it's also wrong to say that Hitler's awesome and the greatest Christian ever both of these are wrong
Just like Islam and Judaism is wrong
And we need to make sure that when we're in a church we should be careful if we're around somebody that just always wants to destroy
Always wants to attack
Always just hates everyone, hates everything, never seems to be for anything, never seems to be on the positive or liking anything.
You know, we need to be people that have a lot of likes. And I get it, we're a fundamental Baptist, we try to be separated from the world, we try to oppose worldliness.
And so it might appear like we're against a lot of things, but we also need to be for a lot of things.
And we need to be for families, and for children,
and for preaching the gospel,
and for singing great hymns and songs
to the Lord Jesus Christ,
before Christians, before godly pastors,
before, hey, soul winning in any capacity,
in any context, before baptism,
before the King James Bible.
Hey, I'm for these things.
Hey, and I'm for education.
I'm for learning.
I'm for reading books.
I'm for exercise.
I'm for sports.
I'm for getting out there and doing things.
You know, for as the man is.
So is his streak, is what the Bible says.
You know, it's kind of funny that we go and play softball
against a particular church, and afterwards,
when I shake every man's hand, it's kind of like,
it's like this limp little thing or whatever,
and they all seem weak, and they all seem cowardly,
and then I'm like, oh yeah, that's because your pastor
is weak and cowardly, isn't he?
It's kind of interesting how strong men, often are strong,
and weak men are often weak.
And you look in the Bible, a lot of the great guys in the Bible are really physically strong.
Did you notice that?
Did you notice Jacob's like super strong?
It's like, hey, it takes a couple of people from First Baptist Wattaga to take the lid off.
But Jacob from Steadfast Baptist Church can just take it off by himself.
You know what I mean?
That's the kind of strength that we need.
And look, being physically strong is not all there is, but let me tell you something.
You know, there's a correlation there, isn't there?
It's a correlation to strength and working hard and having discipline and saying no to things.
And sometimes you have to say no to things like when someone says, hey, can we murder these 70 guys?
No.
I'm not going to do it.
Verse 4.
And they gave him three score and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal B. Wrath.
Notice where the money comes from from false religion, doesn't it?
He says in verse five and he went into his father's house at Ophrah and slew his brethren, the sons of Drubelbelle,
being three score and ten persons upon one stone, notwithstanding yet Jotham, the youngest son of Drubelbelle was left, for he hid himself.
And all the men of Sheikham gathered together and all the house of Milo and went and made a bimalek king by the plane of the pillar that was in Sheikham.
So they slay all their brethren, they make a bimalek king, except for one, Jotham is able to escape.
just the youngest is able to escape out of the household and notice again why were these guys slain
did we was there any sin i'm going to make it really clear what they've done oh but then you
never say what they did yeah hey here's their accusation here's their problem here's why they're
bad here's why they're wrong nope didn't mention it just slay them all
Just kill them all. Just get rid of them. They're all destroyed. You know why they're destroyed for envy. That's why they're destroyed
They're they're also in my opinion more righteous because they're not plotting to slaughter their brother. I
Mean if we're comparing them to a bemelec, they all seem better than a bemelec
And I would argue that they're ruling because based on a Bimelix accusation, he's saying,
Hey, is it better to have, you know, one ruler or 70 that kind of implies that these guys
were ruling?
So they must have been ruling, things must have been going pretty good,
and then what? Let's just slay them all, let's just kill them all, no accusation, no real reason.
It doesn't say that they started worshiping false gods, it doesn't say they committed adultery,
it doesn't say they were tolerating sodomites,
it doesn't say any of the reasons that are brought up in the Book of Judges to slay someone
or kill them or take over, it's just, just slay them, just kill them.
And you know what? You need to be careful before you start slaying people while you're doing it.
Why are you just slaying people? Why are you just killing people? They make a bimilek king?
But here's another question. What did what did a bimilek even ever accomplish?
Why are we why are we setting this guy up? Why are we making this guy the king?
You know, there's not really a pedigree there is there now it says in verse 7 when they told it to jotham
He went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and cried and said unto them
Harkin unto me ye men of Shechem
that God may harken unto you.
The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them,
and they said unto the olive tree, rain thou over us.
But the olive tree said unto them,
should I leave my fatness wherewith by me,
they honor God and man.
and go to be promoted over the trees and the trees said to the fig tree come
down and rain over us and the fig tree said unto them should I forsake my
sweetness and my good fruit and go to be promoted over the trees then said the
trees under the vine come down and 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 under the bramble
Come bow and reign over us.
And the Bramble said in the trees,
If in truth ye anoint me king over you,
Then come and put your trust in my shadow.
And if not, let fire come out of the Bramble
and devour the cedars of Lebanon."
Now, we have three different examples of trees that say no.
And, you know,
one of them I think could arguably be Gideon that's kind of put in this parable Gideon was asked to
Be lifted up above the congregation be the king and he said no
Now you have two more
You know you can look at this as one of the brethren or some of the brethren all the brethren it happens multiple times
Maybe in his parable he knew that there had been multiple times where they had approached other guys or approached other brothers and said
Hey, why don't you rule or why don't you lead and they said no?
But we see a pattern that multiple times, they're constantly trying to set someone up
and the godly guys are saying no, no, no, and then they come to the bramble and he says yes.
But notice he has a caveat, doesn't he?
He says, if ye put your trust in me, right, notice if in truth ye anoint me king over you,
then come and put your trust in my shadow, and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
So he's saying, look, if you guys are really true, if you guys are really sincere, then, hey, come anoint me and I'll rule over you.
But think about the whole situation again.
Abimelech is turning against his closest brother for a further away brother.
Why would then that further away brother believe that Abimelech wouldn't turn on him later?
or wouldn't go against him later.
He's sowing a seed of extreme disloyalty here.
He's disloyal to God.
He's disloyal to his father.
He's disloyal to his closest brethren.
Why would he then be loyal to you?
It makes no sense.
It's not and and them coming to be with him. It's not in truth or sincerity either
They just want to basically have their name the men of Sheikham rule and be an authority
And they want to have the preeminence among all the children of Israel. Oh, it's the Sheikham party now
It's the Sheikham political party and again, they're not doing it in truth
They're not doing it in sincerity. They didn't read it in the Bible. God didn't tell them to do it
Gideon didn't tell them to do it
They're not doing it because the Bible, they're doing it because their heart was incline to them alike.
And they're being disloyal in many ways.
They're being disloyal to God, disloyal to their Father, disloyal to Gideon.
Did you read what it said?
Let's remind you.
Verse 35 of chapter 8.
Neither showed the kindness of the house of Drubel, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.
You have God delivers you from extreme oppression, from extreme slavery, from extreme evil, gives you prosperity.
He does it through the hands of Gideon, and then you turn on Gideon, and you ram Gideon, and you attack Gideon, and you attack his house,
and you do evil, and you recompense evil for good.
How does this even make sense? That's not dealing truly. That's not dealing sincerely.
It's being disloyal is what it is and you know what? It's a sin
Now the Bible says in this parable it kind of he gets specific and that's what I like about Jotham
You know, he's a specific preacher. All right, he names names now. He says this
In verse 16,
Now therefore have you done truly and sincerely,
And they have made a bemelech king,
And have you have dealt well with Jerubovel in his house,
And have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands.
For my father fought for you and adventured his life far,
And delivered you out of the hand of Midian.
year risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, three
score and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his
maid servant, king over the men of Sheikham, because he's your brother. If you
have dealt truly and sincerely with Drupalbel and with his house this day,
then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. This is sarcasm,
He's saying oh, yeah, if you've done truly well get excited
Rejoice be real happy that you've done this
But notice he's rebuking him in the whole context
Yeah, he's saying as you totally trashed my dad and trashed our house that only did good under you
Yeah, wink wink nod nod if you've done truly and sincerely and bringing in a bimilek to be your king
Well, then get real excited
Be happy today. It's a glorious day
What does the Bible say if we keep reading?
Verse 20, but if not
Let fire come out of a bemelech and devour the men of Sheikahm and the house of Milo
And let fire come out from the men of Sheikahm and from the house of Milo and devour a bemelech
And Joseph ran away and fled and went to beer and dwelt there for fear of a bemelech his brother
Now
We have this great prophecy. He calls them out right away. He says hey
You guys have done truly and sincerely if you've done what was right
Well, then you know what get all excited and be happy with your new leader here
But if you haven't done right well, you're gonna be destroyed
Yeah, and this is the this is the problem with
Disloyalty when you sow seeds of disloyalty when you show that you're not gonna be loyal to someone
You know what you tell all your followers you don't have to be loyal. Yeah
And when you show that you're not loyal, well, it's gonna come back to bite you because the Bible says be not deceived
God is not mocked for what's over man. So if that should also read right and the last thing we need to do is
Show disloyalty
Because especially as a leader because when you show disloyalty boy people turn on you so fast and so quick and it's even worse
when you show disloyalty for no real reason,
for not a clear reason, for no justifiable cause,
you just, you just attack people or go, it's just,
it's such a bad move.
And you know, we live in a world today
where people are constantly betraying one another
and traitors and backstabbers and truce breakers
and false accusers and all kinds of evil in this world.
You know, at least at the house of God,
can we have some people that are gonna be loyal?
For the sake of time, I'm not going to go through the rest of the story, but what has the story in?
We already read it.
Abemilex people turn on him and they devour him and they destroy him and that fire comes out and look
When you side with a bunch of people that are just destroyers and vain and light persons
Well pretty soon. They're just ready for the next highest bidder and they'll turn on you again
Because you know, you know, you don't want to build a following of people
That turned on people to come be your friend. Yeah
You want people that are loyal to be your friend, you know, one of the things I like about brother Ben is
That whenever there was this big blow-up when I first came on to take step as Baptist Church, I
Kind of had some issues with Adam Fannin and he was the evangelist in Jacksonville, Florida at the time and
To my face everything Fannin said was good. He said
I can't wait to work with you, I'm so excited.
Adam Fanon said, I don't even need to be pastor.
I'll serve 10 years, just being the evangelist.
I don't need this.
But then behind my back, he's telling everybody,
I don't like Pastor Stanley, he's bad.
I need to be ordained in six months.
Wow.
So it's just like to me it's one story to everyone else is a completely different story so weird
So I basically said hey this guy's shown himself to be kind of bad wicked if you elect me as your pastor
If you guys want me to be your pastor if you choose me to be your pastor, I'm gonna fire
Yeah, and I made it clear I didn't I didn't like hide that I was gonna do that. I made it real clear
Everybody's like oh, that's real dramatic. Well, I've been dramatic from day one. Yeah, I've been dramatic from temple zero. Okay, folks
Like before I even came you already knew is drama
It's like funny people like oh, you're just always you know, I can't believe you're a dramatic right now. It's like what do you mean?
It's like it's Fannin, then it's Manly Perry, then it's Grayson Fritz, then it's who I mean just name up
I'm probably forgetting like a hundred names
Galligator
I mean there's all kinds of just people it's just like good night
Yeah, obviously there's gonna be drama because we're doing something for God. I get it
Okay, but this is what I like about brother Ben is that he was close friends with Fannin
And look, there's nothing wrong with that.
He was serving.
He was trying to help his leader.
But whenever this went down, he didn't just immediately
turn on Adam Fennin.
He just didn't immediately think he was bad.
He kind of was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.
He wasn't just ready to flip on a dime.
Because that would have been weird if I'd said, hey,
are you friends with this guy?
Yeah, I'm ready to burn him right now.
Even though he was wrong, even though he was doing bad things, it was like it took a lot of Bible,
it took a lot of thinking, it took a lot of just, hey, I'm not gonna just switch on this guy just because I'm gonna switch on this guy and he's right.
And obviously, you know, he made a good decision eventually, but at the end of the day, you know what?
It makes me nervous when people are just ready to burn loyalties, even if it's to a bad person.
Even if it's somebody that did something wrong, you know, it's kind of weird when people are just ready to just burn them
Now if you've already had a lot of issues and problems
I get it
But I'm just saying somebody that you were close to that you were friends with if you're just ready to burn them on a hair trigger
You know that shows you have a hard issue
You have some kind of a problem there because you're just ready to just burn people
You know because being disloyal is a bad thing
Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 12 go to Deuteronomy chapter 12 and the reason why loyalty is so important
Because without loyalty you can't really accomplish anything, you know when you talk about
Like a fighting context. This is so important and look I've never served in the military
God willing. I never will I don't want to but just
understanding from afar what it's like loyalty super important on the battlefield just because if you can't count on your
teammates comrades, sorry for the Russian, you know
Whatever your partners if you can't count on your your group your squad whoever it is that you're on the battlefield with
to have your back to do their job, you can die and if you're not doing a good job you can you can
cause other people to perish and to die and you need some loyalty, you need people to be willing
to die for you, you need people to do their job, do their work, if you're on the battlefield and
everybody's about to just run away, everybody's just looking out for his own self, people aren't
gonna like help you, people aren't gonna fight for you, people aren't gonna risk their life for you,
And you need that you need that loyalty, you know
It's embarrassing when you have a quote school shooting and you've all the Texas and police officers are afraid to go in and confront a shooter
Now again, there's a lot of conspiracy theories about what actually happened there
I don't know but just on the surface that situations embarrassing when law enforcement's afraid to do their job
Yeah, and you know if they're gonna make a vow to protect and serve they should do it
You know you're supposed to honor your oaths if you if you make a vow to somebody you're supposed to honor that
Breaking that would be a sin if you tell someone you're gonna be loyal to them
Or you're gonna be their friend or you're gonna do something for them and you break your word
You're a vow breaker. You're a truce breaker and that's a sin
And you know what I like about Jesus. He doesn't break vows
You know I like about Jesus. He doesn't forsake us or leave us or abandon us and that gives us the confidence
To fight for him and to go to the end
I mean imagine if Jesus Christ said hey your salvation's on the table. I don't know
I don't know if I want to give it to you. In fact, you could be doing everything, right?
I might just take it away for any reason. I might not even tell you the reason would that really give you the confidence?
Want to go to church and a servant and to go out and battle in the fight?
No, no, you know it gives us that confidence the assurance of salvation
Let me tell you something. You can't lose your salvation because God is the most faithful person in this universe
And God will never leave thee and God will never forsake thee and God will never give up on you and God is loyal to you
What does the Bible say in Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 19?
Take heed of thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. You know what?
Just like God will never leave you. You know what the Bible says do not forsake the Levite. Yeah, and look here's something
That you should be loyal to to church
As Christmas if Christ died on the cross for you if he gave his life for you
Then you know what and he bought this church with his blood. We ought to be loyal to church
Now I'm not saying it has to be just a church
You know what but you need to be loyal to church. You say Sunday morning. I'm gonna get my button church where the lights are on or not
Whether this sermon is getting recorded the highest quality or not because you know what all those people that we're gonna eat chips
Up their chest. They're sitting around not serving God this morning, aren't they?
All those people that are just counting on the internet to deliver them God, you know what sometimes you got to just show up
You know what church is not the internet church is the local assembly of the believers
We're having church right now. Now look, I'm not against people listening the internet
I'm not people down anybody listening to a sermon online praise God if you're sick
We have that great opportunity of still being able to listen to good preaching from afar
But you know what if you can't you get your butt in church and you sit down and shut up and praise God
You should be loyal to church Jesus Christ died for us. We ought to be loyal to going to church
and loving church and not forsaking the Levite.
The Levite represents the priesthood, represents the men of God, represents the peace of God.
And you know what the Bible says? You shouldn't forsake the pastors and the preachers and the priests of God
and the church of God and the house of God. That's a commandment.
I didn't say that. The Bible said that.
Deuteronomy 14, look at verse 27.
Why does the Bible say this? Because there's a tendency for people to forsake church, forsake pastors, forsake men of God, forsake the things of God.
And you know what? We should not be on a hair trigger to forsake men of God, to forsake priests, to forsake church.
We should love church. That should be where one of our biggest loyalties is.
Do you remember when we looked at verse 14, look at verse 27.
And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him, for he hath no part, nor inheritance with thee."
You know, Levite was such an important job, you know, he's giving up a lot of his life to serve God.
Therefore, you should then really be kind to that guy and not forsake him and take care of him.
And in the context, especially of history, it's about as good as you're probably ever
going to have it, you know, and even being a pastor here, whatever afflictions I've gone
through are extremely light in comparison to historical figures, to biblical figures.
But you know, I don't want to undermine the fact that, look, being a pastor that's going
to stand strong on the things of the Bible and is going to actually preach what the Bible
You know what? It's going to be a little bit of a sacrifice.
And they're going to have to make some compromises and, you know, maybe what they want.
They're not going to get everything that they want.
It may hurt their job.
It may hurt their career.
It may hurt their finances.
It may hurt, you know, their family sometimes.
You know, they're going to have people leave them and desert them and be a traitor and do all this kind of stuff to them.
But you know what? You don't have to be that person.
Why would it give us a commandment? Because a lot of people will.
A lot of people are going to forsake the Levite.
A lot of people are going to forsake church, are going to forsake pastors, are going to forsake good people.
And you know what? I want to be the person that's the opposite.
I want to make sure that I'm not forsaking pastors, but I love pastors.
I'm constantly telling people, hey, I'm for you, I'm with you, I want to help you, whatever.
I don't want to forsake good men of God.
You know, James chapter 4 says,
Now, I want to be really explicit about church for a second.
You know, I think when it comes to church, there are some important things to consider.
Number one, I believe you should go to the best church in your area.
And if you are going to the best church in your area, if you decide to then just decide to go to another church,
not the best church in your area, you know what the best church is in your area,
and you were going and you decided to go to a different one, not for a legitimate reason, I believe that's a sin.
You're going backwards. The Bible says to him that know what to do good and do with it not to him in his sin
If you have an opportunity to go to the best church in your area and you're not going to that church
Well, then you know what I think that's wrong
Not only that if you choose to go to a church you're going to a church and then you go to a different church that has worse doctrine
You're going backwards on doctrine. I believe that's again a sin. I
Believe that if the direction of the church
Heading backwards and not forwards. You know what? Hey, maybe you could make that change
But you know what if you're gonna leave a church that's going backward or you're gonna leave a church to go to a church going backwards
From a church is going forward. Well, you know, I believe that's wrong again
If you have if you're going to a church that's just gangbusters on soul winning and getting thousands and thousands of people safe
And you decide to go to church where they're not getting buster on soul winning. I think that's wrong in a sin, too
Because at least you're supporting the work, even if you're not doing it, you're just supporting the work of a church that's doing a great effort.
You know the Bible tells us when the children of Israel are supposed to go on the Promised Land,
you know, two of the tribes, two and a half of the tribes didn't want to go in because they weren't going to inherit.
But it's like, hey, why discourage you, you're brethren?
You know what? You're supposed to still go in there and fight with them anyways because it's wrong for you to just be selfish and do your own thing and discourage your brethren and not go to war and not get in the fight.
You know what? You go with your brethren to the fight.
Hey, if you're leaving a church during a battle, that's, I believe, a sin.
Then you're going to discourage other people. Now look, if the battle is because the pastor is changing the Bible into a false version, leave.
Right, I'm not saying that there isn't times to leave a church
What I'm saying is look if your church is being attacked
Because of a spiritual issue like they're being righteous and they're being attacked
I think it'd be wrong to leave a church during a battle. I
Think it's wrong if you go to a church if you leave a church and then the church are going to now you're going less
If you move churches and now go to church less than you were I would that's a sin
If you switch churches and you start reading your Bible less, it's a sin.
If you switch churches and you start going soul-winning less, it's a sin.
If you switch churches and now you're not getting that same sin out of your life,
or you're going backwards on sin, I believe that's a sin.
You know, why pick a church?
Hey, how about this church is the best church in my area that's doing a lot of soul-winning,
that's right doctrinally, that's moving in the right direction.
You know what? That is what we should be loyal to.
We should be loyal to that institution and as soon as that institution is not loyal to God
Well, then hey, we can trump that and say hey
I'm gonna go to the church as being loyal to God because my ultimate loyalty is the God
But you know what if your ultimate loyalty is the God you'll go to the best church in your area
If your loyalty is the Christ then you go to the church that's going so winning if your loyalty is the Christ
You'll go to a King James only church if your loyalty is the Christ
You'll go to a church that has the right doctrine because you know what that is the church you should be in
And you know you go to a church that's filled with saved brethren that love the Lord to because if you love your brethren
Then you love Christ if you don't love your brethren, you don't love Christ
What's another thing usually loyal to go to Proverbs 23, you know you should be loyal to as your parents
People need to be loyal to their parents
And it's sick how so many people are disloyal to their parents, but you know what when you sow seeds of rebellion
When you sow seeds of being disloyal, you know what it can happen in your life, too
When you just walk away from church. I mean if you just drag your family to a good church
This is a warning you take your family to a good church
But they're a good pre-chain and then you drag your teenagers you drag your kids out of that church and take them to a lame church
They notice
They notice and you're showing them some weird signs of this loyalty and then what are they going to do to you?
Nice thing if your parents aren't the best parents you stay loyal to them no matter what kids I
Don't care what your parents do you stay loyal to them you love them you do good to them
Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 23 or 22.
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,
and despise not thy mother when she is old.
You know what that is? That's loyalty.
It should be loyalty to your mom until she dies.
And then you know what? Stay loyal after the fact
and don't trash your mom even after she died too.
And you know what? Don't trash your dad,
get him in, respect whatever rules he had.
Be like the sons of Recap that just say,
hey, you know what? Dad said,
we can't live in a house, so I'm living in a tent.
Dad said we can't drink wine so I'm not drinking wine and we're not talking about alcohol. We're talking about juice. All right
No one should drink wine period
when we talk about alcohol
Ephesians chapter I'm just gonna go to mark chapter 7 go to mark chapter 7 the Bible says children obey your parents and the Lord for
This is right honor thy father and mother
Which is the first command with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth look
There's consequences to being disloyal to your parents. It's a sin
It is a sin to not be loyal to your parents. It is a sin to not honor your parents
It is a sin to not be loyal to your church and to church the church of God
It's a sin not be loyal to Christ and to the word of God
It is a sin to do these things and you know what a Bimelech? Hey, he wasn't loyal and look how it turned out for him
Now in the story, I don't think I didn't read all of it
Pardon me if I get this wrong wasn't it like three years or something like that someone can help me
Yeah, it was like around three years or something
Maybe more maybe less, but it wasn't immediate when he ended up getting destroyed
Yeah, and this is what some people think they're disloyal and nothing bad happens for a year and they're like oh see I got away with
Oh see I'm good, you know those seeds of
Disloyalty sometimes take a long time to grow
Just like a plant, you know, you put like a tree you can't get a tree overnight
You a tree takes years to grow, but boy once you get a giant tree. It's hard to get out
It's hard to pluck that thing out
And you know what you don't want to just sit there and sew all these seeds of this little thing
You know what we need to be selling seeds of loyalty
We need to be demonstrating to those around us. Hey, I'm a loyal person
Hey, I'm gonna be loyal to my parents and you know what when your children see you loyal to your parents
That's gonna plant seeds into them that when you get old they'll be loyal to you
When you're not loyal to your parents in their old age boy, you're asking for trouble when it comes to your kids
Now again, I don't care what mom and dad do though
If your mom and dad don't take care of their parents you still take care of them when they get old all right
Don't follow in their footsteps. You do right, but you know what?
We should be
Honoring our parents into their old age mark 7 verse 9 says this this is Jesus speaking
And he said in them full well you reject the commandment of God
They may keep your own tradition for Moses said honor thy father and thy mother and who so cursed with father mother
Let him die the death
But ye say, if a man shall say to his father, his mother, it is Corbin.
That is to say, a gift.
By whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free.
And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother, making the word
of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and many such like
things do ye.
Notice,
They're just trying to get all these people out of the hook of honoring their parents.
Hey, it's no problem.
Just be disloyal to your parents.
Just like the Pharisees, it is no problem for them to be disloyal to God, is it?
The Pharisees and the Sadducees reject the word of God, trash the word of God repeatedly,
and do the same thing.
They're just like, hey, let's just trash our parents too, because you know what?
They just have no loyalty.
We need to have loyalty to our parents because ultimately our Heavenly Father is more supposed to show loyalty to
Supposed to show loyalty or heavenly father
You know praise God that Jesus Christ was loyal to us that when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane
And he said that he didn't want to go to the cross
That he said nevertheless not my will but thy will be done
That when he was on the cross he said father forgive them for they know not what they do
That when Jesus Christ was dying for the sins of the world, you know what he didn't give up
He didn't quit because he said at any moment. He wanted to he could have just asked for a legion of angels
And he would have gotten
At any point he could have ended it at any point. He could have just said I'm done. I don't want to this is too hard
I don't like it. This isn't fun. You know what Jesus just put away that little button and just said you know what?
I'm not pressing that button. I'm loyal and think about it. He's loyal to us
You don't deserve it. People think like, oh, I'll be loyal to people that deserve it.
Well, I don't deserve it, and Christ is loyal to me.
Christ is loyal to you. You know what? My parents don't deserve it. Be loyal to them.
Oh, my church doesn't deserve it. Be loyal to your church. Be loyal to the priests of God.
Be loyal to the Levites. You know, you should also be loyal to your spouse. Go to Proverbs 31.
I was going to bring up friends, but then I realized I had like eight sermons this morning.
So that's going to be just not good to this evening.
But, you know, hey, we got a lot of stuff to think about.
You know, we need to be loyal to the people in our lives.
Spouses, you just have to be loyal to your spouse, man.
Proverbs 31, look at verse 10.
Who can find a virtuous woman for her price as far above rubies?
The heart of her husband, notice this, does safely trust in her.
So that he shall have no need of spoil
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. You know, I kind of like the last part of verse 11
I never really thought about it this way. Maybe you have you probably have I have it
Is it's like he's saying you know what she's not a gold digging whore, right?
right
He's saying she's not gonna leave him even if he doesn't have a lot of money
Yeah, even if he's poor, you know, there's a lot of women today that have a rich guy walked by they're just red
They're ready to jump ship, right?
They're ready to just drop them like a bad habit and do whatever, but you know what this guy says, you know what?
My heart is safely trusting in my wife. I don't need spoil. I don't need to be rich
I don't have to have a five car garage. I don't have to live in the nicest part of DFW
I don't have to make tons of money
You know what my wife loves me period and she will do me good and not evil all the days of my life
That's the kind of wise that we need to have that's the kind of women that we should have in the society
That's the kind of daughters that we should raise today and say you know what I'm gonna give my heart under my husband
It doesn't matter for better for worse for richer for poorer. It actually made it
Hey inflations kicked us all in the nuts guys
I'm sorry ladies. We got kicked hard on the nuts and then stomped on and then pissed on by our government and inflation and the Jews and
Usury and let me tell you something. None of us are probably better off in the short term right now
Yeah, many guys are working double shifts extra things trying to figure out ways to make money because it's hard
Yeah, I've had more than one job. I've had two jobs or more for the last decade
There's never been a time where I haven't had overlapping and I'm not saying like you have to do this
I'm just saying it's hard. It's hard to provide. It's hard to make up the money
And if you know what your husband's only working with one job just be content with such things as you have
Right get food and clothing. You're supposed to be content
I'd be loyal to your husband and love your husband and appreciate him no matter what and you know what do good unto him
All the days of his life look what I say verse 12. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life
You know what that is loyalty
We need some loyal wives today
You know the Bible says let not the wife depart from her husband
The Bible says that if you put away your wife, you're committing adultery against her
You know how many men are divorcing their wives today or wives divorcing their husbands. It's evil. It's wicked and
Of course, what happens when they get divorced? Well, they get remarried
And then you know what happens?
They get divorced even more likely.
Because when you sow the seeds of disloyalty,
you reap the seeds of disloyalty.
Let alone all the rampant adultery that happens.
Look, when you commit adultery to someone,
why do you think that they're actually
committing adultery on you?
That's insane.
If you think, oh, we're going to divorce our spouses
and run off together, why in the world
would you ever think that person would ever be loyal to you?
You know, it's just it's it's it's crazy how people just have just such a short-sighted mindset and they don't realize
Hey, when you're disloyal other people be disloyal to you
We need to be the most loyal people and set an example of loyalty, you know in our government
They even have this thing called spousal testimonial privilege. It's that you're not required to even testify against your spouse ever
In fact, they even had some provisions where, as a spouse, I could just petition the court
and say, I don't even allow my wife to testify against me and they would just honor it.
Now I don't know if that still is an effect, but it used to be.
It used to be just like, you could just say, they're my spouse, they can't testify against
me because I said so.
Yeah.
Because it's like you just it just shouldn't happen. It's not a reality
Now I get it because we live in such a perverted society
Sometimes you have this like reprobate psychopath child molester. I don't really care what you do that guy
But apart from your husband or spouse being a literal child molesting psychopath reprobate
Then you know what you just keep your mouth shut and you're loyal to him and you love him
Gov would to second Timothy
And I'm going to finish on this point.
What should our ultimate loyalty be?
It's Christ.
If Christ is loyal to us, we should be loyal to him.
We should be loyal to him and loyal to the people that we talked about.
Church, we should be loyal to the things of God.
We should be loyal to our spouse.
We should be loyal to our parents.
I mean, these are really important.
Obviously, sometimes there's conflicts.
And I'm not saying that you always know exactly how to handle everything that takes discretion.
But you know what? We should be loyal to the truth.
So if there's ever a conflict of some of these parties, then I'm just gonna be loyal to whatever's true
To whatever's right and my ultimate loyalty is always to Christ
Christ is that Trump card and the Bible even says in Revelation 2 be thou faithful unto death
How can I be faithful in the death if I didn't know that Christ?
Had has me he's got me. I've got that safety net. I've got that security blanket that no matter what happens
That's why he's saying be thou faithful unto death
You know, what is Christ asking for?
Extreme loyalty.
I mean, if someone's saying, you have to die for me,
that's pretty much the ultimate price.
We could argue maybe Abraham.
Abraham was asked to offer his son.
That's another picture of the ultimate loyalty,
the ultimate price being us.
Either give of your child or give of yourself
is pretty much the ultimate price being asked to be paid
in the Bible.
Why?
Because Christ demands extreme loyalty.
And you know what, we should show extreme loyalty to the things of God.
The Bible says, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
And you know what, what would be the point of having any of these relationships if you
couldn't count on them?
What would be the point of having parents or having children if you couldn't count on
them?
What's the point of having a spouse if you can't count on them?
What's the point of having a church if you can't count on them?
And you know what, when people have need, when people want stuff from us, we should also
be loyal to them and help them.
And I don't know those people. I don't know those people that are coming and asking of us and asking of me to help them
And we're just nah, we can't help kick rocks, buddy. We're pretty much. I mean we're 24 seven. Let's do it
What do you need? Let's help now sometimes you need to be told that you're wrong
Sometimes you need to be told that you're stupid
But I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be disloyal. I'll tell you that you're stupid
Faithful are the wounds of a friend
This is what the Bible says.
But the kisses of an enemy are the people.
Beware of the guy that'll give you a kiss.
That should always be the case, right?
You know, the Bible says in Romans 12
that we're supposed to be a living sacrifice.
The Bible says greater love hath no man than this
that a man laid down his life for his friends.
The Bible says hereby perceive we the love of God
because he laid down his life for us
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
In 2 Timothy chapter 2, look at verse number 8.
Remember that Jesus Christ at the seat of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
wherein I suffered trouble as an evildoer even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect sakes,
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him, if we deny him.
He also will deny us if we believe not yet. He abided faithful. He cannot deny
Himself, you know, I love about Christ even when we fail. He won't fail us
He'll never fail us. He'll never leave us
But you know what whether the apostle Paul say therefore I endure all things if you look at the definition of charity in 1st Corinthians chapter 13
You know what charity does it endures all
things because the apostle Paul was showing the ultimate picture of love and charity
And true sincerity is saying, hey, I'm never going to leave thee.
I'm never going to forsake thee.
The sermon's over, but I want to make one last proclamation.
Maybe it's dark for a reason, I don't know.
But here's the thing.
All these people that have forsaken and given up
and trashed and walked away and attacked the new IFB
and its pastors.
If you have done truly and sincerely, then you should rejoice in what you've done.
You should be really happy about it.
You should be really excited about it.
You know, I've seen a lot of examples of, hey, when you're disloyal for no reason,
when you're disloyal, when you're walking away and attacking people,
because you want the preeminence, boy, it doesn't turn out so good, does it?
When you're not showing yourself to do things in sincerity and integrity,
boy, you're sowing some really bad seeds of disloyalty.
When you're attacking those people when you're forsaking Levites when you're forsaking men of God when you're forsaking the things that are right
You know what the Bible says hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren
How are you gonna lay down your life for the brethren when you're walking away over nothing?
And look, we've had all kinds of shapes and sizes of this.
We've had judices and fakes and frauds and frenemies
and people that were sincere and backslidden and walking back and whatever.
I mean, you've got all shapes and sizes, but let me tell you something.
It's all the same of Himalayan.
When you sow these seeds of disloyalty
and when you walk away from good friends and from good men of God
and people that haven't done anything wrong to you,
boy, let me tell you something, you are in for trouble.
That fire may come out and destroy your bramble
You should be warned
Just like Jotham said hey what you've done
Hey, if you're true and you're sincere and you've done right just be so excited and rally behind your guy and
Isn't it so funny that so many people they just rally behind their pastor just because of geography
I mean everybody just likes their pastor and their pastor can do no wrong no matter where they are
You know, that's not the right attitude
You know if your pastors walking off a cliff don't walk with them
Your pastors walking backwards don't walk with them if your pastor saying you don't need to fear God run screaming in the other direction
If your pastor gets up and says he believes the earth is flat run away
You know hey if your past is getting up and switching Bibles or doing all this weird stuff
You don't run away, but you know what be careful too when you see your past to be so disloyal
Be careful
Well, I just I sure would not want to be friends with someone when I watch them just trash a lifelong friend
That'd make me nervous confidence in an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth
And a time of trouble
And you know what we need some friends with some loyalty. I'm gonna preach that tonight. You know, we need we need some riot or die friends
If you want to hear that sir and come tonight, all right
Let's go in prayer. Thank you heavenly father so much for being so loyal to us and sending your son and allowing him to go through
Such pain and suffering. Thank you for never giving up on us. Thank you for never quitting on us
Thank you for always loving us. Thank you for always being there for us
Thank you for wanting that fellowship with us no matter what
I pray that you would just help us as a congregation set an example of loyalty to you, loyalty to the things of God, loyalty to church, loyalty to our spouse, loyalty to our parents, loyalty to our friends.
I pray that you would help us to just not be someone that just easily walks away, someone that just faints in the days of adversity, but rather is willing to deal hardships and endure difficulties.
pray that you would just help this church to just continue to have unity and
love for the brethren. I pray that you would help use this church to do great
exploits and for us to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world. In
Jesus' name we pray. Amen.