Music
Song number one for Kneel at the Cross, Christ will meet you there.
Song number fourteen, everybody sing it out on the first.
Kneel at the Cross, Christ will meet you there.
Come while he waits for you.
Listen to his voice, beam him with your care.
And begin life anew. Kneel at the Cross, leave every care.
Kneel at the Cross, Jesus will meet you there.
Kneel at the Cross, there is room for all who would his glory share.
Bliss there awaits, arm can ne'er befall those who are anchored there.
Kneel at the Cross, leave every care.
Kneel at the Cross, Jesus will meet you there.
Kneel at the Cross, give your idols a book on two rounds above.
Turn not away to life's sparkling cup, trust only in his love.
Kneel at the Cross, leave every care.
Kneel at the Cross, Jesus will meet you there.
Great singing everybody, let's open up the service with a word of prayer.
Lord, we love you and we just thank you once again for Steadfast Baptist Church.
We thank you for allowing us to gather here and praise you and hear your preaching.
Lord, hear the word of God being preached.
And we just ask you to bless this church and bless this service and fill it with your spirit.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
For our next song, let's go to song number 44.
Song number 44, We'll Work Till Jesus Comes.
Song number 44.
O land of rest for thee I sigh, when will the moment come?
When I shall lay my armor by and well in peace at home.
We'll work till Jesus comes.
We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home.
To Jesus Christ I fled for rest, he made me cease to roam.
And he bore secure on his breast till he conduct the ode.
We'll work till Jesus comes.
We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home.
I sought at once my Savior's side, no more my steps shall roll.
With him I'll pray, death's chilling, time and grief my heavenly home.
We'll work till Jesus comes.
We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home.
Great singing everybody.
Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin you can lift your hand nice and high.
One of our ushers can come by.
Get you guys a bulletin if you don't have one from Sunday.
On the front we have our Bible memory passage.
Psalm 59 and any child 18 or under that can quote the verse of the week
can get an ice cream treat immediately following the service.
I was actually in Phoenix this last Sunday and so I really appreciate
Brother Oz and Brother Ben preaching for me while I was out there.
And it felt like I was visiting the sun.
But other than that it was great to be out there.
And I really love Faith Ward Baptist Church.
It's really a great church, great people.
It was good to see a lot of familiar faces.
And so if you're ever obviously in that part of the country
you got to go check out Faith Ward Baptist Church.
They're kind of having a what they call mega conference
where they have a lot of guest preachers coming in for about a month period right now.
And so I got to go out there.
And also Brother Oz is going to be going out there to preach for them
in August as well for their Wednesday night service.
And so that's definitely just keep on the horizon.
On the inside we have our service time, soul winning times.
And then church stats.
Also on the right a list of several expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for all the ladies who are expecting.
I'm going to go over our prayer list in detail here in just a second.
But just a couple upcoming events.
August 15th through the 17th is the Mighty Men's Conference.
And if you want to put the date down.
There should be a sign up. There's a sign up sheet right?
Or no? I don't know. Okay.
Just at least get the dates and we'll get a sign up sheet going pretty soon
if we don't have one over there. I can't remember.
Also September 8th Dr. Stringer is going to be preaching for us.
Both services.
So I really encourage those who maybe are Sunday morning only
to try and come at least that Sunday night.
I won't be preaching so you don't have to worry about that.
But come see in here Dr. Stringer.
He's a great preacher.
Guest preacher. He's going to be coming in preaching
a couple different sermons on the King James Bible.
And he's a wealth of information on that subject.
And so even though I feel like our church really emphasizes that.
We've made documentaries and we've talked a lot about it.
He still brings a lot of fresh perspective and a lot of new information.
And so he usually preaches a lot of really interesting things.
So I highly encourage you to participate.
Also he's one of the most highly sought after guest preachers that exists.
I mean in some cases you have to book him two years in advance
just to have him come and preach at your church.
And so it's definitely something you don't want to miss.
October 4th through the 6th is the Heritage of the Lord conference
that we're planning on having.
And then it's not in the bulletin yet.
But I want to just add something to the bulletin and I'll put it in Sunday.
Brother Oz is going to be actually moving to Oklahoma City
in the near future.
And so we don't know exactly what day
because a lot of things are going up in the air.
August 4th, that evening service we're going to kind of have a dessert
and just kind of fellowship for everybody to kind of say bye.
And it may not be the last time he's here
but we feel safe that he will be here for sure
but it could be his last Sunday as well.
So we just want to at least have that.
And if you would like to get them a gift or do anything you can
we'll also probably have a basket.
Just collect either cash or gift cards
or anything that you'd like to just give them to help them with moving expenses
and just anything if you'd like to help them to be a blessing.
So that's just to put that out there.
August 4th, that's Sunday.
That's Sunday evening service.
We're just going to have a dessert fellowship.
And so if you want to bring your best desserts,
I don't know, what do you like, Dylan?
German chocolate cake.
All right, someone make that.
All right, there we go.
So we'll have a fun time of fellowship then
and it'll be bittersweet
but we really appreciate the Oz family
and we're looking forward to them moving up there
and helping out the Oklahoma City church.
So I just wanted to put that on your radar.
On the back we have some church rules and reminders.
Again, no running in the church building.
No children on the stage.
Children should also not be in the kitchen area unattended.
If you have an upset child or crying baby,
of course you can use our Mother Bay rooms at your full discretion
but if you're in the sanctuary,
if you'd please at least step out of the sanctuary.
Of course you can use that Mother Bay room the entire service if you'd like.
Also on Sunday afternoons we have a quiet time from 2 to 4
and that's where if you would like to just stay here in the sanctuary you can.
We just kind of turn off half the lights
and allow those toddlers or babies to take a little bit of a nap.
And then also we have Mother Bay rooms that are shared for everybody
if they'd like to use them.
We just want the children to be attended with their mother
and we have our fellowship area where you can do quiet activities
such as reading or using maybe an electronic device with headphones.
So that's pretty much all I have is those announcements.
We're going to go to our prayer list for a moment
and talk about that and we'll have a prayer as a church.
We've been continuing to pray for the Naims, for their grandmother,
for her vision, health, and salvation.
Also we've been praying for the Carlson's mother, Miss Rebecca,
and we've been praying for the Miller's friend, also Miss Tamara,
Brother Scott's nephew Mark, Miss Garcia's daughter who's also expecting.
That's exciting news.
We're praying for the Oz family.
We're praying for Brother Foley's fiance.
We're praying for also Brother Foley had another request for a co-worker,
his wife was hospitalized and so we've been praying for her.
Brother Guzman was asking for prayer for Pastor Gomez.
I guess he has some health issues and so we prayed for him
and then also his mother.
So several prayer requests there and you can pray throughout the week for them.
We'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family now.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church
and this opportunity to have services this evening.
Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting.
And blessing them with pregnancy.
I pray that you would just help them during their pregnancy
and give them a smooth delivery.
I pray that you would also please bless these church members
and friends and family that have serious health issues
and serious concerns.
I pray that you would, if possible, just give them a full recovery.
If they need a miracle, that you would just grant them a miracle.
I pray that you could just also help those who are maybe temporarily sick
or just under the weather that they could have a speedy recovery
and they could get back into church.
And I pray that you would continue to give our church family favor
for their work and for their jobs.
I pray that you would also help give us the opportunity
to present the gospel to those that need it
and that are lost and they'd soften their hearts.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week.
It's going to be Psalm 126.
And we have our special handout if you'd like to use that.
It'll make it a lot easier.
Psalm 126.
Alright, that was Psalm chapter 126 in your Bibles or special handouts.
Psalm 126 and everybody sing it out together on the first.
Great things for them the Lord and great things for us
Whereof we are glad
Turn again our captivity
O Lord
As the streams in the south
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy
Then said they among the heathen
The Lord hath done great things for them
The Lord hath done great things for us
Whereof we are glad
He that goeth forth and reapeth
bearing precious seed
Shall doubtless come again
With rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him
Then said they among the heathen
The Lord hath done great things for them
The Lord hath done great things for us
Whereof we are glad
Great singing everybody.
Now as the offering plates are being passed around
go ahead and turn in your Bibles tonight to Zechariah chapter 12.
It's the book of Zechariah chapter number 12.
Zechariah chapter 12.
The Bible reads
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel
saith the Lord
Which charges forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him
Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about
When they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the people
All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces
Though all the people of the earth shall be gathered against it
In that day saith the Lord I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness
And I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah and will smite every horse of the people with blindness
And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart
The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength and the Lord of hosts their God
In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an earth of wood
A fire among the wood and like a torch of fire in a sheaf
And they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left
And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place even in Jerusalem
The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first
That the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
Do not magnify themselves against Judah
In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And he that is feeble among them at the day shall be as David
In the house of David shall be as God as the angel of the Lord before them
And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem
And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications
And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced
And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son
And shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem
As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon
And the land shall mourn every family apart
The family of the house of David apart and their wives apart
The family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart
The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart
The family of Shimei apart and their wives apart
All the families that remain, every family apart and their wives apart
Let us pray
Emily Fall, Lord, thank you for Zechariah chapter number 12, Lord
And thank you for allowing us to be here
I just pray that you'd fill a past show with your spirit, Lord
To preach unto us your word and that we'd receive it with a glad heart
And I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen
Amen
Zechariah chapter 12, again makes a little bit of a transition from chapter 11
And of course it makes an obvious chapter break here
Where it brings up another subject
Says the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel
And so in the previous chapter we had talked a little bit about
The shepherds that were being described in the chapter 11
Of basically God being kind of this shepherd unto the flock of slaughter
And providing for them and taking care of them
Whereas there is coming a other kind of shepherd
Not the good shepherd but really the antichrist
Which was the idol shepherd, the false shepherd
That was kind of alluded to
Now the book of Zechariah is a prophetic book of course
But what we have to understand is that it has multiple layers
Of course a lot of Zechariah is being prophesied of the coming next 500 or so years
And the leading up to the Lord Jesus Christ
But then there's also tie-ins with the end times
What you don't want to do with any of these books, especially in the Old Testament
Is you don't want to get so dogmatic about any particular sequence of verses
All talking about the exact same event
Sometimes we kind of just have a random verse here or there
That kind of just allude to maybe a future event
And so we want to make sure that we're kind of considering
All of the different contexts that may exist in a chapter like this
I would say that Zechariah chapter 12 though admittedly is a little bit vague
And so what I kind of would assume is that a lot of people
Are going to probably approach a chapter like this
Especially not thinking about the entire book with whatever bias they already have
Or whatever predisposition they already have
And so they might just try to twist a lot of things in the book of Zechariah
And really what's important when you have any book of the Bible
That's not necessarily extremely clear or very detailed
Is you don't want to establish your doctrine on Zechariah chapter 12
You want your doctrine to be established in clear places in scripture
And then allow that to help us have an idea of what Zechariah 12 is really trying to describe and talk about
The end part of the book of Zechariah is a difficult book
And so we don't want to necessarily say
Well I have this unique doctrine and the only place I can prove it is Zechariah chapter 12
Well that's a scary place to be in
You want to make sure that in the multitude of counselors there's safety here
And we understand all the different passages in one cohesive narrative
In verse 1 it kind of talks about in a sense our minds
And we'll kind of address that when we finish this chapter here
But when God is describing himself here in verse number 1
I think he's just trying to remind the audience
Remind Israel, remind us as viewers or listeners or readers
That hey this is the Lord who really created everything
He's the all powerful being
He's the one whom we should really fear when it comes to our world and what's going on in it
Why? Because the Lord is the one who stretched forth the heavens
And layeth the foundation of the earth
And formeth the spirit of man within him
So God is a supreme creator
And created just things that are unimaginable for us
Stretching forth heavens
Laying a foundation of the earth
Whatever that means exactly
Of course we understand the earth has a crust
But inside somewhere is hell essentially
And a lot of liquid fire
How does that even work?
And then specifically even more complex than either of those is the spirit of man itself
Which is more of a supernatural creation
It's not even necessarily a physical creation
It's something that goes into the spiritual realm
And it goes to show that God is not just a carnal God
God is a spiritual God
And he created us to be spiritual beings
And we're supposed to have a spiritual connection with God
Not just merely a carnal connection
And a lot of people today they're just so focused on the carnal
And they think that that's how God wants them to interact with them
But God wants us to interact with them on a spiritual level
You know the Catholic today is trying to maximize his carnal experience with God
Going into a giant beautiful building
Going and eating the Eucharist
Which is blasphemous by the way
They have all the fancy garb and clothing and outfits
And the sanctuary service is just this pious exhibit
For them to be on display
But you know none of that really matters when your heart's not right with God
None of that really matters when you're not even saved
None of that even matters when you don't even care what the Bible says
You know God created us to worship God in spirit and in truth
And you know when you come into a church like this
You're not going to see the beautiful stained glass windows
You're not going to have all the fancy accoutrements
It may not even be the most enjoyable sensation carnally speaking
But you know what? People here actually care what the Bible says
And actually are here because they love God in their hearts and in their minds
And most of the people in here actually drive pretty far to come to church
I mean who in here would say it takes me over 30 minutes to get to church on Wednesday night?
Yeah, I mean that's more than half of the crowd
It takes over 30 minutes just to get here on a Wednesday night crowd home
For all people
All that burden themselves with it
Shall be cut in pieces
Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it
In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment
And its rider with madness
And it will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah
And will smite every horse of the people with blindness
And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart
The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength
And the Lord of hosts their God
In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood
And like a torch of fire and a sheaf
And they shall devour all the people round about
On the right hand and on the left
And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again
And her own place even in Jerusalem
Now this is what's interesting
In verse 1 we've had the burden of the word of the Lord
But in verses 2 through 6
He's not bringing a burden unto Israel
Because he's going to somehow make all of those outside armies
They're going to tremble at Jerusalem
They're going to be afraid of the God of Israel
And the God of Jerusalem
He's going to make Jerusalem seem like a cup of trembling unto them
They're going to be terrified of this city
They're afraid of the God of the Bible
He says in verse 3
Because he's also mentioning the fact that those that would make Jerusalem a burdensome stone
Well let me word it this way because it's kind of confusing language
In verse 3 the second part says all that burden themselves
So he's saying like
There's individuals that they're so burdened
That Jerusalem exists
And think about it this way
There's all these atheists and leftists
That are just so burdened with the idea that Christians exist
There's just all these individuals that are just so upset
That Steadfast Baptist Church is even here
And that we have a building and that we're meeting
And that we're even allowed to just read the Bible out loud
Or that we're allowed to just preach what the Bible says
I mean they're just so burdened with it and it just bothers them
It just irritates them so much
And many of them want to see you destroyed
This is what he's saying is there's people that are burdening themselves with Jerusalem
They just can't stand the fact that there's the temple
That the children of Israel are rebuilding it
You see this even at the beginning of the reconstruction project
Of all these individuals that are just so bothered
With them coming back, Ezra and Nehemiah
And them rebuilding that temple
And they have to go and cry to Artaxerxes
And they have to go and cry and whine
And Tobiah is sitting here just like
And they're just all mad about the fact that
They're rebuilding the temple
And they're burdening themselves with Jerusalem
It's not that Jerusalem's a burden unto them
In fact they could just leave it alone
It's not a problem
They're making it their problem
They're just making this an issue
Who knows how big the earth was population wise at that time
Could have been a million
Maybe it was less, it was most likely way more
Could have been a hundred million
I mean they had plenty of time
And really almost no reason not to just have expanded
Just in an extreme way at that point
Plus if you really kind of study archaeology
And you study geology
You'll notice that we have just an enormity
Of fossil fuels that are spread all over the earth
And all kinds of fossils everywhere
And the number of fossils is just considered just extreme
I mean think about geologists today
They think we have hundreds of millions of years
Of life from this planet based on just the number of fossils
So it seems like what died in the flood
Was a giant number
A huge number of animals, plants, humans
All kinds of things were destroyed at that time
Showing that God is willing to destroy many
Isn't that evident through animals indiscriminately in the Bible all the time?
How about when there's one man that's possessed with a legion of demons
And he just sends them into a herd of swine
And just slaughters just countless pigs
Thousands of pigs violently in the stream
Just to save one man
Meaning that God doesn't care about animals the way that the left does
Or the way that you do even potentially
You know God is just slaughtering
I mean think about how many animal sacrifices there are in the Bible
I mean God is just slaughtering animal after animal after animal
I mean the Bible teaches that animals are for us
Not us for the animals
I've never seen it, praise God
But I guess there's like a more recent adaptation of the Noah movie
And I've just heard from a few people that have seen it
That like Noah felt so bad about man like hurting animals
And like hurting the environment or something like that
And it's just like that's so stupid
You know just it would be better off to just kill literally every animal
Than for just even one human to die or be injured or harmed
You know God doesn't care about the animals
Their spirit goes back down into the earth
And God could create new animals whenever he wants, however he wants
You know animals are here for us, not us for animals
And if it's a bad animal
If it's being used by the wicked
God will just kill it too
Cause he just doesn't even care about that
That's meaningless to him
And so we have to understand that God is gonna slaughter
A lot of animals and humans here
One application that we could take probably from these three verses that we've already read
Is probably a more
A more near future prophetic interpretation here
That you know if you study history
The Greeks obviously kind of come through this period
Come through this area
And they don't necessarily destroy Jerusalem
Alexander the Great doesn't really do anything
But then you have later kings and Tychus, Epiphanes and other individuals that try to destroy Jerusalem
Come against it in certain military conquests
And God constantly delivers Jerusalem over and over
Because it's necessary to keep that city intact
Keep this people intact
And keep all of that ready for the Lord Jesus Christ who's coming down the pike
So I believe that some of these verses
Could very well have some level of application
For some of those battles
Some of those skirmishes
That we saw in the 200-100 BC area of timeline
Okay
So some of this would for sure have a
A prophetic semblance for that period of time
And I think even in verse 5 it says
And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart
The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength and the Lord of hosts their God
So even the rulers
They kind of recognize that what's keeping them alive
Is the people of Israel
The people of Jerusalem
Because God cares about them so much
And they're kind of his life blood
So they're their life blood
And it gives them strength in God
Saying oh wow these people worshiping God
That's what's keeping me alive
That's what's preserving us
And their strength is in the Lord ultimately
He's recognizing how much God cares about these people
Therefore they have strength in God
Because they're recognizing that consistency
Verse 6
He's kind of using a little bit of metaphor here
Somehow the leaders are going to just turn into fire
And basically just torch everybody on this ideal siege
Or this idea of a siege where there's all these armies
I think what's potentially being alluded to here
Is an end times event
If you keep your finger and go to Revelation chapter 20 for a moment
Go to Revelation chapter 20
The Bible does talk about an event
That pretty much fits what we've read
As far as verses 2 through 6
The idea of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
We gather together in Jerusalem
Armies compassing them about all around
And then God somehow bringing a fire down
That would devour all of those enemies
Well that sounds like the battle of Gog and Magog
Which is mentioned in Revelation chapter 20
That would make sense considering the prophetic timeline
That we've been seeing through the book of Zechariah
How it's been mentioning a lot of the events in the last 7 years
Of Daniel's 70th week
That we've been trying to study here
And in Zechariah, I'm sorry in Revelation chapter 20
Look at verse 6
The Bible says
Blessed and holy is he that hath pardoned the first resurrection
On such the second death hath no power
But they shall be priests of God and of Christ
And shall reign in them a thousand years
So according to the timeline
We kind of have a last 7 year period of history
Of human history
Some people refer to it as Daniel's 70th week
And at the end of this
Christ has come down from heaven with all the saints
To rule and reign on earth physically for a thousand years
That's what's being alluded to here in verse number 6
And specifically these people have taken part in the first resurrection
How in the world do people that are amillennialists or postmillennialists interpret that verse?
Like are they literally saying they've already been resurrected?
Because the people that are in this particular thousand year reign of Christ
Have been resurrected
They've already been taking part in the first resurrection
Did you read that with me?
I read it
Blessed and holy is he that hath pardoned the first resurrection
On such the second death hath no power
But they shall be priests of God and of Christ
And shall reign in them a thousand years
How does anybody interpret that?
With this amillennial or postmillennial view it's ridiculousness
And it's mentally brain dead
It's like a Biden moment
It's Biden doctrine
Because there's no way that that can even be interpreted with their viewpoint
So they probably ignore a verse like this
But it says after the thousand years, look at verse 7
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison
This verse is even worse for them
Because are you gonna tell me that right now Satan is bound in hell
And that there's no deception of Satan in this world right now?
Like I'm supposed to believe that Satan is somehow just in hell
And he's bound right now
And he's not deceiving the nations
And no one's being led by the devil
I mean this is just utter ridiculousness
Okay
If anybody says like, oh I'm postmillennial
That probably doesn't mean much to you
But think of it, this is what they said
I'm mentally retarded and think that the earth is flat
That's what you should hear coming out of their mouth
And I voted for Biden
I mean that is almost what is basically coming out of their mouth
When they say this kind of stuff
I'm all amillennial, I'm postmillennial
It's like you're just retarded
Okay
And again I understand that when it comes to end times
I give grace to people, I'll also be friendly with people
But just generally speaking, your idea is ridiculous
Your idea is foolishness, it's nonsense
It makes no sense
And it sounds like you haven't studied this at all
Or even thought about it
I mean how could you interpret the devil being bound in hell right now
I just don't even see what you would think there
Did you watch the Republican National Convention?
It seems like the devil's alive and well buddy
Okay, I'll get to that in a minute
Look at verse 8
You know, it's pretty clear what's happening
For a thousand years it's just peace
That's why we have the literal prince of peace
And for a short space, which we have no idea how long this is
How long is the devil going out and deceiving the nations for?
A day, a year, longer, I don't know
But, you know, it doesn't necessarily give us an exact timeline of how long the devil's going out
But he's going to gather all of the ungodly
And what's in Jerusalem? All of the saints
Okay, now, just think about this
It's like okay, well this is how you have to determine
Like, what in the world?
Like, that's not happening
Okay, of all the places I might flee to, that is not number one on my list
Or two or three or four, like there's just no way
But it's painting this picture of everybody flinging there
But think about it
If you're at the millennial reign of Christ
Where Christ is literally ruling and reigning in Jerusalem
The new built Jerusalem
Okay, yeah, that would make sense
It's like, we're all going to run there
We're all going to hide there
That makes perfect sense that we would find sanctuary in that particular city
Not a realistic scenario for today, folks, okay
Plus, it's not filled with saved people
It's filled with, you know, mixed multitude there at best
Many unsaved people in Jerusalem today
So this is not talking about some modern day, current event
This is talking about, if you read the rest of Revelation to this point
You would understand where we are in the timeline
We're way past the tribulation and the wrath period of God
And this is after the thousand years
But there's this one-time battle where people are gathered together against Jerusalem
God rains fire and brimstone down from heaven
And destroys them, devours them all
And then the Bible says, finally the devil's cast in the lake of fire and brimstone
And that's where the beast and the false prophet are, okay
So the beast and the false prophet don't even partake in this event
Think about that
If you were going to say that we're in the period of time
Where the devil is going out to deceive the nations one more time
That means we've already had the antichrist and the false prophet
And that the antichrist and the false prophet are already in the lake of fire
And we'll never see them again
You would have to have said that the antichrist has already come
When?
Okay, I know it's Adolf Hitler forever
But, you know, there were some worse people than Adolf Hitler
If you could believe that
It's called the Bolshevik Revolution
Now, go if you would to Ezekiel 38
Because I want to prove this a little bit more
Like, Revelation's very minimal in the details that it provides
It doesn't provide a lot of information about this
But I believe Ezekiel gives you more
And I should probably preach another sermon on it at some point
But I've tried to explain this a few times already
But if you understand the book of Ezekiel
It kind of gives an end times picture as well
And you have that valley of dry bones
The valley of dry bones is the resurrection
It's very clear, okay
Immediately following that in the book of Ezekiel Zechariah
It brings up this, like, battle of Gog and Magog
Well, the thing is, obviously, that just matches perfectly
With what we just read in the book of Revelation
But I believe what you have to do is you have to kind of understand
That things can be used multiple times in the Bible
And that what's actually being referenced initially is the battle of Armageddon
The battle of Armageddon
Which is a similar style event
It's where all these armies are gathered outside of Jerusalem
And God destroys them all with the sword that proceeds out of Jesus Christ's mouth, okay
Then afterwards, after the battle of Armageddon
You have the millennial reign of Christ where you're rebuilding the temple
That makes perfect sense with the book of Ezekiel
Because we have what? The dry bones, resurrection
We have the Armageddon event
Then we have them building the temple
Which is basically the rest of Ezekiel
If you've ever read Ezekiel, you get towards the end
And it's just like, temple, temple, temple, temple, temple, temple
Foreshadowing, what?
Two things, number one
The temple that we're reading about in Zechariah being built
Which is being built
And then the future, I believe
Rebuilding of Jerusalem and the city
When Jesus Christ is going to literally rule there
And reign there, okay
Some people get upset because, like, obviously the book of Zech-
I'm sorry, of Ezekiel brings up animal sacrifices
And, of course, we're not going to do animal sacrifice in the middle of the reign
But they did do animal sacrifices in Zechariah's timeline
All the way up leading into Christ
So any verse about the animal sacrifices is only for that period of time
And yet I do believe a lot of the temple can be dual fulfillment
About that second temple
And then, depending on how you're counting, the third or the fourth, okay
If you count the Antichrist reconstruction as the third
Then this would be the fourth
If you discard that one, then this would be essentially the third rebuilding of a particular temple in Jerusalem
But what I think is interesting, then, is when you come back, though
You can have Gog and Magog then also be Gog and Magog again
So it's like a dual fulfillment
And you kind of notice in Esther, like in Esther, they get this, like, special day to, like, slaughter all their enemies
And then they go back and they're asking, like, can we do it again?
And then they have, like, the exact same vin again
And I believe that's kind of also helping you understand, like, hey, there's, like, the Battle of Armageddon
And then, like, we have the Battle of Gog and Magog
And they overlap and they kind of have that same similarity
So don't get too confused on this
This is my interpretation of these chapters
But I want to do show you here, here in Ezekiel 38, a few verses
Look at verse 14
Therefore a son of man prophesied, saying to Gog
Thus saith the Lord God, In that day, when my people of Israel dwell safely
Shalt thou not know it?
And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou and many people with thee
All of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army
And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land
It shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land
That the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes
Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he of whom I have spoken?
And old time by my servants, the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years
That I would bring thee against them?
And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel
Sayeth the Lord God, That my fury shall come up in my face
For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken
Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel
So that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the field
And all creeping things that creep upon the earth
And all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence
And the mountains shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall
And every wall shall fall to the ground
And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains
Sayeth the Lord God, Every man's sword shall be against his brother
And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood
And I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the many people that are with him
And overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone
Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself
And I will be known in the eyes of many nations
And they shall know that I am the Lord
There's only one God, there's only one Lord
And he is going to make it known unto them in this particular event
Now of course a lot of this fits perfectly with the Battle of Armageddon
Because what happens? The nations of the cities fall
And then you have the Battle of Armageddon and he destroys all of them
Perfect
Also Gog and Magog, similar event
Horsemen, everybody gathered from all the four corners of the earth against Jerusalem
He rains fire and brimstone down in the Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation gives us like four verses on this approximately
Or a handful of verses so there's not a lot of detail
This I believe gives us a little bit clearer description of just a few of those minutia details
Okay
So if you combine all those I believe that is what's kind of being alluded to in the Book of Zechariah
Now we don't want to go so far as to say like every single one of those verses is only about Gog and Magog
Or that particular future event
Because I believe some of them are probably present day application
And then they ultimately have that ultimate fulfillment as well in the Gog and Magog battle
Go back if you went to Zechariah chapter number 12 now
With that in mind
So again you know some of these things that are future events
There's just very little bit of scripture just kind of sprinkled in a few different places
And you kind of have to kind of read them all just get maybe the best glimpse of what's going to happen
We don't have all the events, we don't know everything
I think it's still impressive that God can tell us things that are going to happen in the future and they're still going to happen
Like obviously if he just maybe spelled everything out with every tiny detail
Sometimes it could throw people off
But it's impressive to me how much he can actually even be honest about and just kind of tell you point blank
And then people will still do it
I mean think about the devil
The devil's like knows the Bible
Okay folks he's read it
He's already read like oh so Jesus is going to actually die on the cross
But you know he tried to stop that didn't he
Didn't he still kill a bunch of babies in Bethlehem trying to stop Jesus but he failed
He tried to stop Jesus Christ from rising from the dead
They sealed the tomb
But the angel rolled away the stone and Jesus Christ came out
And the devil constantly tried to kill all the apostles and stop the gospel from spreading
And use the Jews to move their move of envy and they fought the apostles and tried to destroy the gospel from going to all nations
But he failed again
And the devil keeps planting his tares amongst the wheat
But you know what he just keeps failing
And of course the devil's going to come with his antichrist
And he's going to try to destroy the entire earth with a flood
But then the earth's going to open up its mouth and it's going to swallow the flood
And he's going to fail again
And then he's going to fail in a worldwide catastrophe of warfare and famine
And he's going to fail with the mark of the beast
And then even after all of that and he's in hell for a thousand years
He comes out and he's like I'll try again
This is the reprobate mind
The reprobate mind
You know some people think that prison reform is a real thing
And it's like show me that in the Bible
You know the real prison reform is the people that went there innocently
Like Joseph or something right
Or they did their time and they weren't even guilty
We don't really see the prison reform system working
Maybe the guy that Joseph ministered to the chief butler or whatever right
Oh but as soon as he got out of prison he forgot Joseph
I don't even know like what is your example of prison reform
Maybe I'm forgetting somebody in there
But generally speaking you know prison reform is not a real thing
And when it comes to reprobate reform that's definitely not a real thing
You know some people get second chances and some people can learn from their mistakes
Don't hear me wrong
But you know the reprobate he is going to continue being a reprobate
The murderers and the rapists and the whatever
They need to be put to death according to the Bible because they're so likely to repeat offend
And so you know a reprobate will always offend
He even after going to hell if he got out would still wouldn't believe in Jesus
He would still just do reprobate things or whatever just like the devil does
And so you know I have no problem with them going to hell
Because that's where they have to be permanently
You know forever because that's what they're like
Now let's read verse 7 and we're kind of transitioning in this chapter
It says the Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first
That the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
Do not magnify themselves against Judah
This verse is a little bit of just kind of to keep everybody in check
God doesn't want leaders to think that they're more important than the average man
And so he's saying not only am I going to preserve leaders
I'm going to preserve the tents
So he's kind of contrasting the tents of Judah with the glory of the house of David
What's the glory of the house of David?
Well the house of David is exemplified in the kings
They're specifically like the royal lineage
And the glory is the king of that lineage
So not just the cousins and the uncles and the aunts like the king himself
Saying I'm not just going to preserve the king
I'm going to preserve the tents of Judah as well
So that the leaders and the royalty and the governors don't think that they're special
And the other people aren't
Because God's not a respecter of persons
God doesn't sit in heaven and say
Well I'll kill 10,000 regular people to spare one king
Because he's just so much more important
That's not God's attitude
God's attitude is that everyone is precious
And that everyone's special and unique in his sight
And he cares about the widow
He cares about the fatherless
He cares about every single person
And we never get lifted up in our hearts and our minds
Against people that are lesser than us
Against children or the elderly or whatever
You know there's these suicide pods
That are being put out there in foreign countries
And overseas, I believe Canada
I believe in parts of Europe
They're bringing in these pods to just kill people
And they're trying to recommend to the elderly
Or to the feeble or the weak or the injured
Just kill yourself because you're a burden on us
You're a burden on us economically
You're costing us too much money in healthcare
They're not costing us too much in healthcare
If we were going to try and eliminate the people that are costing us the most money
We would start with the government
That's who we would start with
We would start with all our congressmen and women
And all of our leaders
Because they're the ones that are sucking our economy dry
We'd start with the bankers
That's who we would start with
Those are the people that are sucking our world dry of money
And causing problems for everybody
It's not these elderly people
We have plenty of money
We have plenty of resources
All the famines and all the economic problems
They're caused by the rich people
Trying to suck more wealth out of everybody else
That's what's really happening
It's ridiculous to sit here and think that we need to save money and resources
By killing elderly people
They're not as much value
You're not worth it very much either
If you have that mentality
And you're definitely not worth more than those people
We shouldn't have this attitude of just like
This person's kind of a burden
Let's just kill them
Let's just get rid of them
It's funny
We'll kill elderly people
And think about it this way
Why is it that someone's even elderly?
Most likely it's because they honor their father and mother
That's the reason why they're old
And we won't be putting the murderers and rapists to death
Like we're going to keep them in the prison system
Paying all this money
Taxpayer money
Which I guarantee is probably even more
Than just keeping these elderly people alive
But then we're going to kill the elderly
You know they're not offering these pods
To the pedophiles in prison
Or to the murderers in prison
I mean if you said like
Hey we're going to put suicide pods
In the pedophile wing in the prison
I'm like okay great
Alright
Let's make it not voluntary
Alright
I mean I'm all for saving a buck right
But it's like
They're not trying to do this because they genuinely care
It's just the devil wants to kill people
And he doesn't want to kill the bad people
He wants to kill the nice people
So he's just like
Let's just slaughter elderly people through suicide pods
And look
I don't care if you're a burden on everybody
And you can't walk
And you're sick or whatever
Do not kill yourself
You still have value
You can still worship the Lord in spirit and in truth
You can still read your Bible
You can still pray
Hey you know
Some people have been telling me about this app
I have no idea what it's called
Maybe you can help me out
It's like something like Omegle or something
I don't know
You can just like
Get some random person on the phone
Just like that
What is it called?
O-M-E
T-V
Who's heard about this?
Three people
I don't know
There's this
There's this app
That apparently
It just
You
I don't know how it works
So forgive me if I say everything wrong
But in some way
You can just basically connect
With another person
That's just online
But it's random
So just like
Give me somebody
You know
It's just like
A shuffle
And then
You just get this person
Well a lot of people
At Faithful Word
Apparently have been doing this
Just to try and give people the gospel
So they're just like
Shuffle
Just give me somebody
And then they're like
Hey
You wanna
So instead of door knocking
Doing that
Now here's the thing
Do not forsake door knocking for this app
Okay
But I'm just saying like
If you were just bedridden
Or you were sick
Or whatever
Or you just can't get out
And you genuinely wanna see people saved
Like that's an opportunity
You could use it
Like you could get someone saved
So I'm just trying to say like
No matter what
If you have breath in your lungs
Use that breath to serve God
Don't kill yourself
That is just not the right move
Now I get it
If you're Samson
And you're being tortured
In your military event
And you can just knock down the building
And take everybody out
You know
I don't fault them for that
In fact
You know
We like to say that he committed suicide
It's arguable he didn't even really commit suicide
He was just killing them
And died in the process
You know what I mean
Now again
Yes obviously he ended up killing himself
That for sure happened
But you could argue that he wasn't purposely
Just trying to kill himself
He was just trying to kill everybody that was in there
And he knew he was gonna die in the process
As that particular result
Obviously Saul killed himself
And
But that one didn't really have much of a benefit
For anybody
Okay
Except for him just not getting tortured
Which again
If someone's in a situation where they're wounded
Under death
And they're trying to avoid torture
You know
I'm gonna look the other way
Alright
But
You know
You're not that person
Okay
And so you know
There's just no legitimate reason
Really in my mind
To kill yourself
I don't think you should
Because you know
According to Hebrews
The people that were being tortured
They didn't ask for mercy
And they didn't kill themselves
That they may obtain a better resurrection
So even in those scenarios
I'm still saying
Killing yourself is not the right move
Okay
I don't want anybody to hear me wrong on that
You should never kill yourself
I never will
Okay
I don't know anything about Hillary Clinton
I don't know what happened to Jeffrey Epstein
You know
I don't know how he hung himself
You know
It's impressive
Okay
It's impressive that he got the cameras off
And got the guards out of there
And then killed himself
You'd think like that would be the time to escape
It's like
Oh the cameras are off
The guards are gone
Let's kill myself
You know
Like what
Like that was weird
Right
Okay
There's a lot of weird stuff going on
Right
So you know
I don't have a death wish
But at the same time
You know
We should
Make it clear
That our lives are here to serve God
Even unto death though
Even unto potential slaughter
Whatever it is
You know
But you know
I'm not gonna go out willingly
I'm not gonna go out purposely
And we should recognize that
Even if you are in a position of prominence
Even if you are a pastor
Even if you are a deacon
Even if you are an evangelist
Or whatever
Or maybe you're a CEO
Or you're a business manager
You know
Don't think like
Oh well this little kid's not as valuable as I am
Or this elderly person
They're not as valuable as I am
Or I'm more important than them
You know that's the wrong attitude
We should be humble in our own sight
And that's what he wants them to understand here
Verse 8
In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And he that is feeble among them
At that day shall be as David
And the house of David shall be as God
And the angel of the Lord
And as the angel of the Lord before them
So
You know
Just saying that God's gonna strengthen them
And you know
When you rely on God
You rely on God
And you allow him to take vengeance for you
And you win
That can help strengthen you
And give you more confidence
You know we've allowed the Lord to fight some of our battles
Already
And he's already shown himself victorious
For our church specifically
And so that should give us confidence and strength
That you know what
God actually cares about us
God is gonna take care of us
We don't have to always fight every single one of our own battles
We can allow the Lord
And just trust in him
I think maybe what's kind of interesting is the way this is worded
It says
In the house of David
Shall be as God
Well at some point
It is God right
Cause at some point it's just gonna literally be Jesus
And Jesus is God
So you know that's kind of just an interesting illusion
That's kind of maybe there in the text
Verse 9
And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem
Now that's kind of a package
1 through 9
We've talked about hey God's gonna defend Israel against its enemies
Verse 10
And I will pour upon the house of David
And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications
And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced
And they shall mourn for him
As one mourneth for his only son
And shall be in bitterness for him
As one that is in bitterness for his firstborn
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem
As the mourning of Hadarim on in the valley of Megiddon
And the lancha mourn every family apart
The family of the house of David apart
And their wives apart
The family of the house of Nathan apart
And their wives apart
The family of the house of Levi apart
And their wives apart
The family of Simei apart
And their wives apart
All the families that remain every family apart
And their wives apart
Now
This is important
We gotta think about this chapter in two chunks
1 through 9
Is God's gonna defend Jerusalem against its enemies and destroy its enemies
That was really clear in the text
No way to misinterpret that
Second chapter
Second portion
Is this bringing of the spirit
He's pouring out on the house of David
The spirit of grace and supplications
And somehow it's bringing up someone being pierced
And they're gonna mourn for him as an only son
And then it's just saying all these families are gonna mourn for him
Well
I think every Christian could probably tell you that this passage is about Jesus
You know that one was pretty easy
When we look at this language right here it says
And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced
That's a real iconic phrase in the Bible
So it's pretty clear that we're talking about Jesus
Let's finish that point out and then we're gonna talk about this summary again
So keep your finger here but go to Psalm 22 for a second
We're gonna go to Psalm 22
We'll see that the Bible brings us up about Christ being pierced
And we have a lot of Old Testament prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ
Just interwoven throughout the entire text
The entire Bible is about Jesus
It's so funny to me when I asked somebody in the times past
I used to go to not a very good church
But I was helping the youth program
And I had asked one of the youth ministers like
Do you care what part of the Bible you know I like bring up or anything
And he was just like as long as it's about Jesus
And I was like okay well it's definitely about Jesus
So you know, check
I can't say, you can't say that I didn't ask
Alright that was basically the point of that conversation
But in Psalm 22 look at verse 16
For dogs have compassed me
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me
They pierced my hands and my feet
So here was an allusion also to the Lord Jesus Christ
And him being compassed about with dogs
Go if you would to the New Testament now to John chapter 19
Go to John chapter 19
So actually Zechariah is not the only verse that brings up him being pierced
I wanted you to know that okay
So there's multiple places that bring up the fact of Christ being pierced specifically
And go if you would to John chapter 19
Look at verse 33
Let's just read verse 32
It says then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first
And of the other which was crucified with him
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already
They break not his legs
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side
And four of them came there out blood and water
And he that saw it bare record and his record is true
And he knoweth that he saith true that you might believe
For these things are done that the scripture should be fulfilled
A bone of him shall not be broken
And again another scripture saith
They shall look on him whom they pierced
So there's the reference to the book of Zechariah
You could argue it's also a little bit of Psalm 22
But this is important and it's interesting because of the extreme accuracy of the Bible
Because the other two thieves that are crucified next to Jesus Christ
They're not pierced
They're not pierced because they were alive
So they break their legs so that they couldn't stay alive on the cross anymore
I guess, you know, I'm not an expert on the cross
But I guess part of what makes the cross so painful
Is the fact that you can lift yourself up to get a breath
By, you know, your feet that have been pierced with that nail
Which would obviously hurt
But when you're about to die from suffocation
That instinct inside of you that doesn't want to die
That need to live kicks in
And it's so strong enough that you'll even hurt yourself just to get that next breath
But once your legs are broken, even if you wanted to, you just can't
So Christ had already died
So there was no need to break his leg
But they had to check and make sure that he was really dead
So they stabbed him with the spear
And out came the blood and the water
As a proof that Jesus was dead
And that's an important proof too
Because we know that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead
He wasn't just injured and then came out of the grave
No, he was literally dead
And his blood was spilled
And that blood was then taken and then put on the mercy seat
Well, that's incredible
How did you know that all of these events would happen exactly like this?
There's only one way
It's because the Bible is written in heaven before the world even began
The word was already established
Forever thy word is settled in heaven
You can't just have all these random prophecies just all perfectly lining up exactly of Christ
Except for the fact that this is the work of God
This is the divine finger of God
And we even see in reference again to Jesus
This is not the Messiah that the Jews were looking for
They're not looking for someone to be a servant
To preach the gospel to the poor
To die on a cross
To be pierced
In fact, they were not looking for him so much
That they literally cried and screamed, crucify him
Crucify him, that's what they yelled
Now, go to Mark 16 for a moment
And I'll explain this mourning thing
Because there's some weird doctrine attached to this
That I've heard
People have all kinds of ideas
And it's usually like they already have their viewpoint
And then they just come to these passages
And then just try to interpret them based on their viewpoint
Rather than letting the context help you understand what it's trying to say
Some people might try to say like
Oh, well what this is talking about is how
Modern day Israel, whenever Christ returns
Is going to all see him
And they're going to feel, they're going to be like mourning
Like, oh man, we should have believed in you
And then they're going to all get saved
That is a doctrine that's out there
And that is not what the Bible is teaching at all
For a lot of reasons, and I'll explain that in a moment
But what it is explaining, I believe, and it's pretty clear
Is it's talking about Jesus dying on the cross
I mean, how could you read that in Zechariah
And read what we read in John chapter 19
And not say that that event is Jesus dying on the cross
It's not Jesus coming back
It's him dying on the cross
Now here's the thing
People were mourning at Christ's death
Who was mourning?
All the Jews that did believe in him
And of course, Jews at this time in history
Is a kind of a conglomerate term for just all of Israel
But that doesn't mean that they were all of the tribe of Judah
Because don't you remember the Apostle Paul
Telling us specifically what tribe he's from
Is the Apostle Paul of the tribe of Judah?
No, he's of the tribe of Benjamin
And he knows that, doesn't he?
So even at this time
There are still remnants of different tribes that exist
And they know their particular, maybe tribe distinctions
At that particular time
Today this does not exist, okay?
And that's a whole other sermon
But I just want to show you a few different verses here
Look at Mark chapter 16, look at verse 9
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week
He appeared first to Mary Magdalene
Out of whom he had cast seven devils
And she went and told them that had been with him
As they mourned and wept
Notice there's a lot of people somewhere
Mourning and weeping
Why? Because Jesus was killed
Go to Luke chapter 22
I'm going to look at a few different places in Luke here
It's important in understanding what we're talking about in this chapter
Luke chapter 22, look at verse 26
But ye shall not be so
But he that is the greatest among you
Let him be as the younger
And he that is chief
As he that doth serve
I don't
I feel like I wrote this down wrong
Now that I'm looking at this
What is the verse that I wanted?
Yeah, sorry, it was chapter 23
I just, it's my scribble
Bear with me
Look at verse 26 of chapter 23
And as they led him away
They laid hold upon one Simon
I say, Rhenian
Coming out of the country
And on him they lay the cross
That he might bear it after Jesus
And there followed him
A great company
Of people and of women
Which also bewailed
And lamented him
And there followed him
A great company
Of people and of women
Which also bewailed
And lamented him
Notice there's a lot of people mourning at Jesus' death
But Jesus turning unto them said
Daughters of Jerusalem
Weep not for me
But weep for yourselves
And for your children
For behold the days are coming
In the which
They shall say
Blessed are the barren
And the wombs that never bear
And the paps which never gave suck
Then shall they begin to say
To the mountains fall on us
And to the hills cover us
Okay
This is an important verse
To understand everything we talked about
Couple things
Number one
Not everybody was screaming
Crucify him
Okay
Peter wasn't
Mary Magdalene wasn't
There's plenty of people that were upset
That Jesus was being killed
Okay
So obviously the crowd and the leaders
They kind of got their way
But not everybody was upset
Or was willing for Christ to be killed
They're all rejoicing
But a large mob
A large group
Is still very upset
And mourning
Okay
And I believe that this is what's being alluded to here
In Zechariah
Of these different families
Mourning
Now why does it say apart though?
And this is why I believe it says apart
What is happening at this time?
What is the day that Jesus Christ is crucified?
It's the day of preparation
Preparation of what?
The Passover
Okay
What do you do at the Passover?
You go with your family
Apart from everybody else
And y'all eat the Passover sacrifice together
As a family
So you would have all these different families
All separated
Right after the crucifixion
Because it's Passover
So I believe what's clearly being illustrated
In the book of Zechariah
Is the timeline
When Christ was killed
It's saying hey
When are you going to be crying and mourning for me
Because you pierced me
It's going to be on Passover
And when is it that they
When are you going to have the most tears and the most sadness?
Probably immediately after the death
What is the death?
When they stabbed him in the side
Which is probably between the third and the fourth hour
It says at the ninth hour
In the Gospel of John
Which we understand is the third hour
So it's not necessarily 3pm exactly
But it's anytime between 3 and 4pm
And at 6pm
That evening
They are going to have to eat the Passover meal
Sacrifice
So everybody just witnessed Jesus Christ
Getting beaten
Bruised
Carrying his cross
Nailed to it
Died
Pierced
And the blood came out
So they all know
He's dead
He's gone
And then they're all in their own houses
And their own families apart
Crying and mourning
And weeping for Jesus Christ
And it's not just one group
But go back to Zechariah chapter 12
Keep your finger actually
Keep your finger here
Go to Zechariah chapter 12
And look what it says
It says
In the land shall mourn
Every family apart
The family of David apart
And their wives apart
The family of Nathan apart
And their wives apart
The family of Levi apart
And their wives apart
The family of Simea apart
And their wives apart
Notice this
All the families that remain
Every family apart
And their wives apart
Also did you notice
noticed like the women seem to always kind of be like not with the men, like
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, like they're coming to, they're coming unto
the sepulcher by themselves. So again, I don't know all the rituals, I don't
know all the customs, but it seems very realistic and reasonable that
even in these situations, a lot of it was it was separations of families
and even maybe the men and the women and how they did a lot of these
things. That makes perfect sense with what we're talking about. What does not
make sense is to say, well, God is just going to constantly deliver Jerusalem in
the end times from all of its enemies and then Christ is going to come and
we're going to, they're going to, all these Christ rejecting, God hating Jews
in Israel are going to see him and then magically believe on him and then
they also use this to justify the idea that they all know like what tribe
they're still love or something, which is silly because they don't even know and
I'll even talk to Christians and they'll say like, well, God knows which
tribe they're of. And it's like, how does that even work? I mean, like think
about it, think about intermarrying and intermingling Jews have had the
last 2000 years in a diaspora. You're going to tell me that they're still
distinctly like of Issachar, distinctly of Simeon, distinctly of
Benjamin. There's no way. Even if you, even if I believe that they had only
married descendants of Israel, they wouldn't be distinctly Simeon, okay?
But at that time, yes, at the time of Christ, I do believe there's probably
still people that are generally just Simeon, Benjamin, Judah, you know, Levi.
Why? They had to have that to even have the temple, folks. Only the Levites
were allowed to perform the sacrifices in that time. That's why Levi is
important. Levi doesn't exist anymore. The Levitical priesthood has been
done away with. It's gone. And when they reinstitute the daily sacrifice
mentioned in the end times, that is not godly, that is not biblical,
that is anti-Christ, okay? And think about what Christ is saying here in
Luke chapter 23. He said in verse 29, for behold, the days are coming in which
they shall say, blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bear,
and the pats which never get sucked. You know what? God wasn't saying,
in this chapter, every single time Jerusalem's ever surrounded by armies,
I'm always going to defend it. What happens when Titus comes in 70 AD
and literally wipes them off of the map, folks? Did you forget that part
of the Bible? So I'm supposed to believe that Zechariah chapter 12 just
didn't apply in 70 AD, but it's going to magically apply to 1948 Israel or
some other random event or today, modern-day event. Like, that is just
such a twisting of scripture and has nothing to do with the Bible.
It's a rejection of Christ, just like the modern-day Jews today reject Christ.
You know, it's just gross. No, God was protecting Israel until Christ came,
and at that point afterwards, they rejected him, he was wiped off the map.
And the only other time that he's going to protect Israel is when Jesus Christ
is ruling and reigning in the millennial reign. That is the next time
he's going to deliver it. There is no other 1948 or other modern-day
application where he's going to deliver it or defend it or whatever you think.
Oh, you just don't like Jews. I don't care about someone being Jew or
Gentile because they're both one in Christ Jesus, according to the Bible.
And you know what? I went to Faithful Word, and I got to hang out with a Jew
that saved. He was ethnically Jewish, and he was saved. And you know what?
He made a lot of Jew jokes, and they were funny, all right?
And I didn't hate him. I loved him. He's great. I hope every Jew believes
in Jesus Christ. But you know what? I hate the modern-day religion
of Judaism. It's wicked. And you know what? America is not a Judeo-Christian
country. You know, that is ridiculous. That is foolishness.
Oh, but you don't understand, Pastor Shelley. God's going to restore America
with Donald Trump. Didn't you see? God intervened. He grabbed this bullet
and, like, protect Donald Trump's head. I've seen all kinds of videos and posts
about this. God saved Donald Trump. Well, okay, I want to go to a place
in the Bible. Go to Genesis 14 for a moment. Go to Genesis 14 for a moment.
First of all, I think it's not provable what happened.
If you want to say God saved Donald Trump, that could be possible.
If you want to say, I don't think that happened at all, I think that that's possible.
To me, it doesn't matter at all. And it's like, well, but what if He saved
Him? What if He delivered Him? What if God orchestrated that event to save
His life? Well, you know what? God can save people's
lives, and it's not a good thing. Let me prove that to you, okay?
How about in Genesis chapter number 14? Look what it says in verse number 14.
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants,
born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
And he divided himself against them, and he and his servants by night, and smote them,
and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods,
and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him
after his return from the slaughter of Kedomah. God preserved the king of Sodom!
God divinely preserved the king of Sodom. That must mean the king of Sodom is an
awesome dude, right? Isn't the king of Sodom just a wonderful guy?
Let's go to the king of Sodom's casino, and the king of Sodom's golf course,
and let's hang out at the king of Sodom's marlago, you know?
Because God preserved his life. He must be an important person.
Just because God preserved the king of Sodom's life doesn't change the fact that he's reprobate
trash, folks. And you know what? We shouldn't judge Donald
Trump's character based on whether or not God preserved his life from a bullet or not.
Oh, does that mean that 50 Cent is the vine of God? Because he survived some bullets?
I mean, he's even more important and more valuable because didn't he dodge more bullets
or something? Who knows? How many times has 50 Cent been shot?
Nine times! 50 Cent is nine times more godly than Donald Trump, folks.
Wouldn't you know it? I mean, what kind of logic?
I mean, this is just the grasping of straws that American Christians have today to just
hope that something godly is going to come out of Trump.
And then they go and watch the Republican National Convention, where it's just basically
a Jew fest. We're just worshiping Jews. And then they bring in this witch, a literal
witch Sikh, who starts praying to some false god, Wagar Gugu or something.
I can't even say the name because it's so wicked.
And says that's the god that founded our nation and gives us prosperity.
How can the Republicans in that room and the so-called Christians in that room bow their
head and nod along? I mean, at worst, can you not scream false
profit or something or leave or throw something at her?
What in the world? You believe that Wagar Gugu saved Donald Trump?
And then they bring some prostitute on the stage to basically glorify sodomites and
glorify faggots and get up and say, like, it doesn't matter if we're gay or straight,
you know, we're all for Trump. That just goes to show me there's no one
that's on our side. Wagar Gugu and sodomites and whores, and
it's like, well, but she's changed her ways. What did she do?
She's not going to vote for the brain-dead Biden, she's going to vote for Trump?
Is that really repenting of your sins? I mean, good night.
The chick is still doing online pornography. She didn't stop being a prostitute, literally.
She's still a prostitute. This is the main speaker for Republicans today.
I hope you get excited to go vote for the prostitute's Wagugu.
Go vote for Jews, go vote for the Antichrist. I mean, just bring in the Antichrist already.
Someone interviewed me this week about my views on the Antichrist and all this stuff,
and they're just thinking, like, well, if the Antichrist is coming and you don't
support it, are you going against God? No, you idiot.
Just like in the millennial reign, I'm not going to go help the devil wrangle up Gog
and Magog. Yeah, is it going to happen? Absolutely.
Just like I knew that Jesus Christ was going to die on the cross, I'm not going to sit
there and hold the nail for the Roman soldier. I mean, like, what kind of incompetence
do you have to think, like, I'm going to go and give money to rebuild the Antichrist
temple, or I'm going to give money to bring in red heifers, or I'm going to give
money to bring in sheep or oxen or whatever in Israel to help them nuts to that.
Now does that mean, oh, you must be pro-Palestine. Look, I can hate more than one person
at a time, okay? I hate radical Islam. It's ridiculous.
A bunch of, you know, sand jockeys that can't read that are a bunch of pedophiles.
I don't like them. And you know what?
I don't like the religion of Judaism either. I'm an equal opportunity hatist, okay?
We need to make America hate again, and we have...
How can you not hate Wagar Gugu or whatever? That didn't bring us anything.
You failed already by bringing a woman on the stage and her little headdress praying
to Wagar Gugu. You know, it's just like, where's a red,
you know, blooded man to get up behind whatever podium they have and actually praise
the God of the Bible? Well, I'm sure the Jews would have freaked
out and cursed and pulled their beards out or whatever, but it would have been worth it
to see. Go to Psalm 30, I'll finish, all right?
Here's the thing. I could preach a whole sermon on that, all right?
I'm not going to. It's already been too long.
Let's bring it back to Zechariah for a second.
What's the big picture? There was a burden for Israel.
How was there a burden for Israel? The burden was the fact that Jesus Christ
is going to come and He's going to die. That was the burden that was being mentioned.
Obviously, God is going to deliver His people in due time at their appointed time.
But it's not just for no reason. It's a specific event.
And those that were there at Christ's cross, they were burdened.
And they were mourning. It was real tears.
They were very sad. And I believe that we, too, should understand
that that should be our attitude right now. Our attitude should be an attitude of mourning.
How can you not mourn when the president's options that you have is a brain-dead emperor
with no clothes on that loves Satan and is going to appoint Jews in every position
of our country's cabinet or the other guy that will put Jews in every single position
of our cabinet that allows women to get up and praise the God of water goo-goo?
How can you not mourn for our country at that point?
How can you not mourn for our country when they're passing laws saying that by
saying that Jesus Christ was killed by Jews that you're anti-Semitic and that it's
illegal? How can you not mourn for a nation when
we're still slaughtering babies through abortion? How can you not mourn for a nation
when we're literally praising sodomites and saying that they're fine and there's
no opposition party anymore? They're just great.
The opposition is just like whether or not we give painkillers to kids being molested
by them or something. I don't know.
What is the opposition anymore? I don't know.
Just let them get surgeries if they want. There's like no opposition anymore.
It's just open Satanism. How can you not mourn for our nation and our country?
It's gone, folks! You say, like, what's going to restore America?
Well, if half the nation got saved. Let me give you a really, really sad dose
of reality. Half of the people in our country don't
want to get saved. Because if half of our nation got saved, then
they might vote in someone that's saved. But elections aren't even real, number one.
Number two, good luck getting a 50%. The only reason why our nation was godly
for a while is because it started with a small group of people.
The earth's been filled. There's not a new place for Christians to
go and start a new Christian nation. Christian nations are pretty much probably
done at this point. And really, there should be a lot of mourning.
There should be a lot of mourning for how horrible our country is because of how many
people are dying going to hell. How we're filled with false prophets.
How we're filled with lies. How people are just so disillusioned today and they're
so confused and they're just not interested in the things of God.
And they don't want to hear about the Bible. You know, soul winning keeps getting less
receptive every year, I feel like. That should cause you to mourn a little
bit. To recognize if you just go to the store,
if you just go to the mall, if you just go out where there's lots and lots of people,
just recognize that most of these people are going to die and go to hell.
And they don't even care. There's so many people just dying and going
to go to hell. Jesus said this, though, blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. But you know what?
We need to mourn. Look at Psalm 30, verse number 50, and here's
the mourning that you need to do. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
as she's with them. Hey, we're mourning for the death of Christ.
We're mourning for our country. We're mourning for the evil and the wicked
that's out there. But you know what?
Take that mourning and allow it to motivate you to do something for Christ.
Because that's the only thing that matters.
And yeah, we will have mourning. Hey, you know what's coming next?
A great falling away and the man of sin being revealed.
You know what's coming next? Tribulation. You know what's coming next after that?
Great tribulation. You know what's coming next?
Mourning. But there's a positive message.
Psalm 30, verse 50. I don't know why I put 50.
It's like 10 verses, 12 verses. For his anger endureth but a moment, and
his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy
cometh in the morning. Yeah, blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted. Hey, there's coming a day when you will die
and you don't have to work anymore. But this is the time to work.
This is the time to take this world seriously, to take our opportunity seriously.
And you say, like, I want to make a difference.
I don't like seeing our nation being destroyed.
Okay. Well, if you want to make a difference,
go out there weeping, bearing the precious seed, and get someone safe.
If you can't go out there, if your legs don't work, use the weird app.
Ask Rich, okay? I have no idea how it works, okay?
And you young, single guys, maybe you can meet a girl.
I don't know. It's a double dip, right?
But, you know, just do something. Don't say this.
You know what? I'm going to vote in November for Israel.
You're like, I'm not voting for Biden.
It doesn't matter how you vote. You know, don't vote for that Israel.
So vote for this Israel. Vote for the people that are going to get
saved and that actually matter. All right, let's close with prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for your Word.
Thank you so much for the Scriptures. Thank you for giving us hope even at a time
of distress or even with future doom. We understand that our nation is definitely
turned away from you. I pray that we wouldn't, that we would recognize
that you're the one true God, that you're the only God that exists.
And we know that even if we are nobody in the world's eyes, you count every single man,
woman, boy, child, older person, younger person, widow, orphan, you count them all
as precious. And I pray that we would take that emotion
that we may feel towards our country and we would put it in the right place.
We would allow whatever mourning or sadness or disappointment we have for our country to
motivate us to get someone saved. And that we could go out there and preach
the only thing that matters which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I pray that you would just help our church to still be a bright and shining light
no matter how dark this world may get. And we thank you for the unspeakable gift
of your Son who died on the cross and was pierced for us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 104.
Song number 104, Lean on His Arms. Song number 104.
Everybody sing it out on the first.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
He'll help you along.
If you will trust His love on failing,
He'll fill your heart with song.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercy's through.
Looking home above, just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
He'll brighten the way, brighten the way.
Just follow gladly where He leadeth,
His gentle voice obey.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercy's through.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
Oh, bring every care, bring every care.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercy's through.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
Lean all to Him, people to Him.
His heart is full of love and mercy.
His eyes are never dimmed.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercy's through.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Great singing everybody, you are all dismissed.