🎵Music🎵
I'm going to sing Angels We Have Heard on High page 285.
🎵Music🎵
Sing it out on the first.
🎵Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains, in the mountains in reply,
echo back their joyous strains, Gloria, in excelsis Deo.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.
On the second.
🎵Music🎵
On the third.
Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing.
🎵Music🎵
323. Christmas carols in the blue are from like 260 to 295 I think. Yeah. 323.
🎵Music🎵
601. All the way in the back. Is that the last hymn?
601. Battle Hymn of the Republic on the first.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hath loosed the faithful lightning of his terrible sword. His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. His truth is marching on.
282. Oh, holy night.
🎵Music🎵
A lot of hands. Brother Eli in the back.
264.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel, page 264.
On the verse.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel, in ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel.
Julian.
214.
Jesus loves me, page 214. On the verse.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Bill.
276. On the last.
Page 276. On the last.
Come, desire of nations come, exit us, I humble home.
Rise, O woman's conquering sea, bruise in us a serpent's head.
Atoms like this snowy face, stamp thine image in its place.
Second Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love.
Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King.
272.
We three kings of Orient are.
On the first.
We three kings of Orient are,
Fearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.
O star of wonder, star of light, star with loyal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.
Brother CJ?
291.
What child is this?
Page 290.
All right, on the first.
What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sweet,
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch their keeping.
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Ace, ace, to bring him far, the babe, the son of Mary.
Callie?
Again.
Hark, the herald angels sing, page 276.
On the first.
Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God in sin respect and sound.
Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies.
With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Glory to the newborn King.
Two more.
Jack.
Page 100.
You don't know it.
I don't know it.
You got another one?
99, beneath the cross of Jesus.
Page 99.
On the first.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, I think would take my sin.
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land.
The home within the wilderness, the rest upon the way.
From the burning of the noontide heat,
in the burning of the day.
One more.
Brother shop.
270.
I think I picked the whole Harrington family.
That's good.
On the news.
Joy to the world, page 270.
On the first.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room.
And heaven and nature sing.
And heaven, heaven, nature sing.
Great singing.
At this time, we'll have our announcements.
We're going to do a quick announcement, the quickest one
probably ever.
All right.
The service times are 10.30 AM, 3.30 PM, 6.30 PM.
Sunday, Sunday, Thursday.
And obviously, this morning's canceled today,
so we didn't have any homeowners out on the praise report.
You can't see it because I only have one copy of the events.
Everything that I said in the morning announcements
still holds true.
And the only thing that's different
is we have a men's spiritual leadership class
this coming Tuesday at 7 PM.
So I don't know if you guys remembered it
or marked it in your calendars, but that's what's going on.
So 7 PM the 6th, which is this Tuesday, so in two days.
All right.
That's pretty much it for announcements.
We were saying happy birthday.
So we changed.
So I don't know if you remember, guys,
but I changed the men's spiritual leadership class
from Wednesday to Tuesday because Pearl Harbor was
attacked and Brandon's birthday is on Tuesday.
That's all I got from announcements.
Let's sing another song.
What was he talking about?
All right.
Let's turn to page 267, Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne.
Page 267.
Sing it out along the first.
Thou didst leave thy throne in thy kingly crown,
when thou came as to earth for me.
But in Bethlehem's home there was found no room
for thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.
Heaven's arches ring when the angels sing,
proclaiming thy royal decree.
But in lowly birth it's now come to earth,
and in great humility.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.
The foxes found rest in the bird's-hair nest
in the shade of the forest tree.
But thy couch was the sun, O thou Son of God,
in the deserts of Galilee.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.
Thou camest, O Lord, with the living Word
that should set thy people free.
But with mocking scorn and with crown of scorn,
they bore thee to Calvary.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
there is room in my heart for thee.
When the heavens shall ring and the angels sing,
hath thy coming to victory?
Let thy voice call me home, saying,
Yet there is room, there is room at my side for thee.
My heart shall rejoice, Lord Jesus,
when thou comest and calls for me.
Amen. Great singing.
At this time, we'll receive our offering.
Brother Sean, can you bless the offering for us?
In heaven, I thank you for this day, Lord, and I thank you...
Amen.
piano plays softly
All right, go ahead and turn to Exodus, chapter number 5.
Exodus, chapter 5, if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand.
One of the extras will bring you one.
It'll be in Exodus 5.
Exodus 5, the Bible reads,
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Let my people go,
that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord,
that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?
I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us.
Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert,
and sacrifice unto the Lord our God,
lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.
And the king of Egypt said unto them,
Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works
get you unto your burdens?
And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many,
and ye make them rest from their burdens.
And Pharaoh commanded the same day,
the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,
Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick,
as heretofore, let them go and gather straw for themselves.
And the tail of the bricks, which they did make heretofore,
ye shall lay upon them,
ye shall not diminish aught thereof, for they be idle.
Therefore they cry, saying, Let us go, and sacrifice to our God.
Let their more work be laid upon the men,
that they may labour therein, and let them not regard vain words.
And the taskmasters of the people went out,
and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying,
Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
Go ye, get you straw, where ye can find it.
Yet not aught of your work shall be diminished.
So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt,
to gather stubble instead of straw.
And the taskmasters hated them, saying,
Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
And the officers of the children of Israel,
which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them,
were beaten and demanded.
Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick
both yesterday and today, as heretofore?
Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying,
Wherefore dealest thou with us with thy servants?
There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us,
Make brick, and behold, thy servants are beaten,
but the fault is in thine own people.
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle,
therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.
Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you,
yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were an evil case,
after it was said, Ye shall not diminish aught from your bricks of your daily task.
And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh.
And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge,
because ye have made our Saviour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh
and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.
And Moses returned unto the Lord and said,
Lord, wherefore has thou so evil and treated this people?
Why is it that thou hast sent me?
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name,
he hath done evil to this people.
Neither has thou delivered thy people at all.
Brother Alex, will you pray for us?
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word,
and thank you for the Preach of the Word.
Words today. Thank you.
Amen. Okay, we're in Exodus chapter number 5,
and beginning in verse number 1, the Bible says,
After Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
Let's pray, Lord. We thank you so much for a great day in church.
Pray that you would just bless everything that comes out of your Word.
Good night, Lord.
And I just pray that you would help us all to get home safely tonight,
and pray that you would fill me with your Spirit as I preach your Word.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
All right, so I only got a few points here tonight.
Well, obviously, I'm going to try to cover the whole chapter here,
and that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to go long.
You know, Brandon's saying like 15 specials there,
so that's his fault, so he can't blame me.
Anyway, so basically the last chapter,
it kind of finished off with Moses being called by God
and him finally accepting even though God had to get mad at him.
So basically he had that burning bush experience,
and then at the end of the chapter he goes back
and he goes back with his children and his wife to Egypt.
He meets up with his brother.
God was going to kill him because one of his children wasn't circumcised,
and basically now we're into the next chapter here.
So basically, point number one,
we see Pharaoh rejecting the Lord God of Israel.
So Moses was clearly told, if you remember last week,
Moses was clearly told that he was supposed to preach,
Thus saith the Lord, right?
And so what's he do right when he gets in?
He does exactly what he's told to do.
He says, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go,
that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
It's not just Moses preaching his own words to him
or telling him what he has to say.
He's telling him what God has to say,
and there is a big difference between our own opinions
and how we deliver things versus the fact that,
so God is telling him to say this.
There's a big difference between our opinions
and what we have to say and what God has to say.
And he says, Let my people go,
that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord,
that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?
I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
So what's his response to the word of God?
His response is, Who is the Lord?
And obviously he's the Lord God of Israel.
That's who he is.
He's the only God that there is.
All other gods are false gods,
and if you want to put a small g there,
they're false gods.
They're devils.
They're designed religions behind these devils,
and obviously Satan is the puppet master
of all these minions of hell,
including the false prophets,
which we'll probably get into, I think, next week.
But Pharaoh says, Who is the Lord,
that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?
Notice how he doesn't have a very good attitude about it
because he's Pharaoh,
and what he says goes in the land of Egypt,
but he even says, I know not the Lord,
so what's that saying?
He's not saved, obviously.
He doesn't know who God is.
Neither will I let Israel go.
So he's basically just like, I don't care what you have to say.
I don't care what your God has to say.
I don't even know who you're talking about.
But this is a rejection of God's word
because this is written in the Bible, isn't it?
So he's rejecting the word of the Lord.
The word of the Lord's coming unto Pharaoh,
giving him an opportunity to make a decision,
and what's he do?
He just throws it back in Moses' face and acts like,
you know, he doesn't have to listen to the God of all creation,
the one that allows us to live, breathe, sleep, eat, enjoy our lives,
blink, breathe while we're sleeping, blink while we're, you know.
I mean, our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made, the Bible says,
and this world was made for us to enjoy,
and, you know, God wants to enjoy us.
But Pharaoh here is speaking what's already in his heart.
Now, God did say that I will harden Pharaoh's heart,
but the path to what Pharaoh becomes, which is a reprobate,
and he probably already is here at this point, possibly, maybe not,
but definitely the progression of a reprobate is for them to start out
rejecting the word of God, rejecting what God has to say, and he's there.
So, yes, God does harden Pharaoh's heart first according to what's here.
You know, in the next chapters it talks about how God hardens his heart,
but Pharaoh hardens his heart also.
So, but the rejection of God's word, you know, this is the first time God's coming with a man,
this is the first sentence that is spoken to him by a prophet of God,
and his first thought is to reject the word of God outright and to say,
I don't care, I'm not going to let him go anyway, and I know not the Lord.
So he admits he doesn't know him, which he's admitting he's not saved, obviously,
and refuses that request.
So there's more going on here than just an innocence of not knowing,
because a lot of people don't know who God is,
but maybe they aren't really totally shut off to the idea of believing in God,
and when we come to them and we help them understand the truth of who God is
and the truth of what the Bible says it takes to be saved,
those people who might have not known or, you know, obviously weren't saved,
maybe had some different thoughts about who God was,
they are still open to listening to the word of God,
and you all know because you're soul-winners
and you know that when you go to the door when someone's receptive,
that's because they're allowing God's word to come in
and they're mulling over what he's requesting them to do.
They're not just like, I don't know who God is, I don't believe in God, get out of here.
Some people do that. Some people reject God outright.
Some people just open the door and they go, and then close it.
I'm sure, who's had that happen to them before?
Or just they look, you know, they just, they can't just,
they have to show their disgust for who we are and who God is
because that's really, they're not rejecting us necessarily,
they're rejecting what we represent.
They're rejecting the God of Israel just like Pharaoh does right here,
and let me tell you something, it's a dangerous place for people to have that attitude.
It's a very dangerous attitude to have.
Now I'm not saying that people that act like that automatically become reprobates,
but I'll tell you what, Pharaoh, God, you know, God does say
that he was going to teach the whole world about him through that vessel of Pharaoh.
He's going to destroy him and everybody's going to know who the God of Israel is.
And so even when, you know, even after 40 years of them wandering in the wilderness,
the nations that they were going to take over were still afraid of this story 40 years later.
Think about that. They knew what happened. They heard what happened.
Rahab the harlot heard what happened, and she was a harlot.
And see, even a whore obviously can get saved, and she was actually in the lineage of Jesus.
So, I mean, obviously she's not a whore anymore, but she was called Rahab the harlot.
I mean, that's like her name forever, right?
You know, but she was a harlot before, but you know, when she got saved,
she received what the God of Israel had to say to her.
And she ended up getting saved and allowed her whole family to get saved too, if you think about it.
Held the scarlet thread out the window, which basically pictures the blood of Christ, right?
So anyway, Pharaoh's not just innocently like, I don't know who God is, you know.
Let me hear about him. He doesn't say that, does he?
He's just constantly resisting.
He's constantly resisting the preaching of God's word,
and later on you'll see the miracles and the great wonders that God shows in Israel.
Not everybody got to see those things.
Only certain people in moments of time in history have got to see those things,
and this guy was rotten to the core.
So, and you know, people that reject the Lord, they're in danger of being just like this guy is right here.
Just like all the people that rage against us and against our church.
You know, I mean, there comes a point when they're just, God's just saying,
you know what, I'm finished with these people.
And they show that with the heart and what they say.
You know, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, right?
Number two this evening, this afternoon, Pharaoh persecutes the people for Moses and Aaron's sake.
So basically Moses is the one that comes with Aaron to say these things to Pharaoh,
but the people have already kind of received what Moses had to say.
Remember he made the, you know, he showed the miracles to the heads of the tribes of Israel,
the elders of the people, and they believe. Remember?
That was kind of really basically the last thing that happened in the last chapter.
So now the people are behind them, but they're the spokesmen for God to Pharaoh.
It's not like everybody gets to come in and talk to Pharaoh.
It's Moses and Aaron. Remember, Aaron was supposed to be the main talker
because Moses said that he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue.
Verse number three says, and they said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us.
Let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God,
lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.
Now, I mean, I'm going to just apply this to our modern day things,
you know, that would be a modern day application to this.
So God does expect us to worship him in spirit and in truth.
He does want us to do things. He said, you know, we should be doing good works.
We should be serving him in the way that he wants us to serve.
It's not like we are hired by God and then he just says, go ahead and just serve me however you want.
No, this isn't, you know, Burger King Baptist.
You know, God doesn't just allow us to have everything our way.
And he, you know, he has specific things that he wants us to do.
And so to those that refuse to serve God and go to where he says to go
and to participate in activities that he says to participate in,
you know, that's a bad place.
You know, I mean, that's a good thing to do to do those things that he wants us to do.
So we're supposed to, you know, participate like he says.
We're supposed to serve how he says.
We're supposed to go where he says to go.
And what are those places?
Well, how about church?
Church is a place that you're supposed to be going.
Where does he, you know, he says it's the pillar and ground of the truth.
So why are you here today in a snowstorm?
Well, because you care about the Word of God.
You care about going to church and doing what God says.
And, you know, what's the other thing? Soul winning.
Now obviously it's not necessarily the day for soul winning,
but, you know, we do go soul winning on a regular basis here.
That's an activity that God wants us to do.
So, because Moses is saying, lest he fall upon us.
Who's the he? It's God, right?
So, you know, he's saying, hey, let us go three days draining into the desert.
Let us sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence.
And, you know, it says, or with the sword.
So what's he saying? He's saying, unless we obey what God has to say,
he is going to punish us.
So you can't just be a Christian however you want to be.
That's not an option.
He wants you to serve him the way he wants you to serve him, not the way you want.
So, do you have a pestilence in your life?
Or are things in your life getting chopped up?
Well, it could, and let me just caveat this,
that sometimes we go through trials because God allows us to go through trials.
Sometimes it's persecution.
But what he's talking about here is God laying the pestilence on them
and the sword upon them for not serving them the way,
serving him the way that they're supposed to be, right?
So, is God, you know, so it is possible that God is angry with us
for not serving him the way that he wants us to.
And so, you know, sometimes we need to do some spiritual checkups
and just feel like, you know, why is all this stuff happening in my life?
What's going on? Am I doing something that I'm not supposed to be doing?
You know, and obviously if you're not, if you're right with God or whatever,
and nobody's 100% sinless, I'm not saying that,
I'm just saying that are you right with God?
Is there some kind of dark, deep secret that you're doing?
Or maybe it's something that, you know, you just continue to do
even though you know it's wrong and have a flippant attitude about it?
I mean, that's not a good place to be
because you don't want him to send the pestilence on you.
You don't want him to send the sword against you.
And if you got sick this week or if you were sick for a while,
I'm not saying that this is what happened.
I'm just saying that, you know, sometimes we do have to take, you know,
a spiritual thermometer and check and make sure that we're all doing the right things
because otherwise, you know, God will fall upon us.
And, you know, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
That's what the Bible says.
So of all things that we should be afraid of, you know,
none of you were afraid to come to church today, you know,
not because of the sodomites and not because of the snowstorm.
Nobody was afraid to be here today.
So, you know what is scary, though?
Is falling into the hands of the living God
when he's, you know, putting bugs in your life,
when he's making you sick,
when he is bringing the sword against you.
And then that's a time when you just really need to get right,
which is kind of piggybacking off my last sermon, really,
but let's go to verse 4, excuse me.
It says,
Now, obviously, you know, the children of Israel are enslaved.
They are literally in hard bondage doing work with rigor
and they're being forced to build all their store cities
and to, you know, build all these things for the Pharaoh
and probably work in their fields raising their cattle,
raising, you know, all these different things that they're having them do,
it's all free.
And I'm sure that they're not being treated right.
I'm sure they're getting the lash.
You know, to be whipped with a whip is very excruciatingly painful.
And these taskmasters aren't just, you know, speaking to them roughly.
They're hurting them when they don't do what they want.
And, you know, I mean, I've watched some stuff about slavery just recently.
It really just made me really angry to see how people have been treated
over the last centuries.
And, of course, you know, loading up all these Africans in slave ships
like they're pieces of meat going to the, I mean, laying them next to each other
in shackles on boats, 700 people, and then losing like 30% of them
because of disease and things like that.
It's really wicked.
Slavery is so wicked.
The Bible actually puts the death penalty upon people that would be slavers.
And there is a difference between someone that's an indentured servant
and a slave, okay?
Slavery is wicked.
An indentured servant is someone that owes a debt,
or maybe they just say, I'm going to work for you.
This is how much I'm going to charge you or whatever.
And then you are their servant as far as like whatever work you said that you would do,
that's what they expect.
There's a contract of some sort.
And then once you're fulfilled with that contract, in the Bible it was six years,
and then they had to let them go, right?
And if they wanted to stay with that person,
then they would, you know, put their ear against the wall or whatever
and, you know, give them a pierced ear or something, right?
They'd put an awl through their ear, which, you know, that sounds like it would hurt.
But it was a sign to show that that person wanted to stay with that person
and continue to work for them past the six years that they were required.
Because, you know, if you stole someone's car back then,
or chariot or whatever it was, you stole something from them,
if you didn't have the money to pay them back, then you had to work that off.
That's, you know, they're being forced to do something,
but it's because they owe a debt, okay?
Or if they would lease off their property,
I mean, there were just all kinds of different business arrangements,
but after the Jubilee, they had to let all that stuff go back.
That's what I was kind of talking about this morning,
where, you know, you'd say, well, you know, I'm just going to not,
you know, I'm going to mistreat them, you know,
and I know the Jubilee is coming up,
and I'm not going to give them what they need to have.
Because if you read further into that passage,
it's talking about, you know, if you have someone that's an indentured servant,
and you let that person, you know, you go,
you're supposed to let them go with the things that they would need.
So, like, in America, there was white slaves before,
or white servants before there was black servants.
Did you know that?
I know they don't teach that now in the cultural appropriation school systems anymore,
but they were rounding up Irishmen and Englishmen
and making them work the fields and all that stuff,
and taking them down to South America,
where they couldn't handle the heat because they were white,
and melting like snails down there.
So, I mean, that was happening.
Then they just started going and buying men from Africa.
They would round them up, and they'd put them on these ships,
and they would take them all around the world.
There was, like, a triangle of slavery that was going on.
And guess who was part of that whole thing?
Just take one stab in the dark.
The...
Yeah, I don't know.
The Jews, yeah.
So, the more I look into it, the more I see it,
and, man, I'm probably going to preach a sermon about it,
but I figure I'd better just wait until, you know, some other things.
I've just got to kind of pick my battles here.
But what I'm saying is that what the children of Israel were going through
was hard bondage, real slavery, different from indentured servants.
Because didn't the Lord say,
let my people go that they may what?
Serve me.
He's not saying, be my slave.
He's saying, serve me, because there is an option to do it.
There is an option to serve the Lord,
and if you don't, you're wrong,
but, you know, maybe God's going to plague your life,
or, you know, have the sword come upon you or whatever.
He's not going to make things comfortable for you.
If you think that, you know, you're just going to get your fire insurance card,
and that, you know, you're going to live out the rest of your days happy, wealthy, and wise,
well, that's probably not really going to happen,
because that's a pretty selfish attitude to have.
You know, not only are we supposed to serve God,
but we're supposed to serve other people.
So, but look at verse 5, it says,
And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now...
Oh, excuse me.
Let's see, where was I at? Yeah, verse 5.
And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many,
and you make them rest from their burdens.
So, you know, if you think about this,
this is a picture of what Christ does also.
Now, Moses is letting, you know, and not on purpose necessarily,
but because Moses is interrupting Pharaoh and the whole schedule of things
and saying let these people go,
you know, that's his whole workforce, his whole enslaved workforce
that God's asking him to let go three days in the wilderness
that they can serve him and sacrifice him.
But Christ, you know, Moses pictures Christ in a lot of different ways,
and Moses is letting the people rest from their burdens
even if it is for a short time.
But turn over to Matthew chapter 11
and we'll see what Jesus says about resting.
So, obviously, they're getting a short rest,
and things are about to get really hot and heavy for the children of Israel
because of Moses coming with that message of God.
See, and just because a man comes with the message of God
and the people are being persecuted because of what that man said,
that doesn't make the man wrong.
It makes the people that are persecuting him wrong, doesn't it?
But look at Matthew 11 verse 20, and I'm getting ahead of myself.
It says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
So, Christ also wants to let us rest from our work, doesn't he?
And so, a lot of people labor to get into heaven.
A lot of people are heavy laden with their sins.
I think it's very interesting that he uses these terms here
because anybody that works for a living,
anybody that has lifted heavy things, or maybe that's what they do for a living,
they can understand this really well,
and most of the people that Jesus was talking to were common people.
They weren't people in king's households necessarily
that were the main people that listened to his messages.
They're people that are part of a workforce.
They're part of a farming culture or a shepherding culture,
work that's really hard,
and obviously they were being oppressed by the Romans at this time
and being under the tribute of the Romans,
but look what it says.
It says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
See, Jesus wants to give you rest. It's just a different type of rest.
He's not saying, Come unto me and I'll never make you work again a day in your life
because I'm going to make you rich.
It's a different type of rich.
It's a different type of labor that he's talking about.
He's talking about the labor of trying to be right with God,
the heavy laden things that we have upon our lives,
the sin that so easily besets us,
but he says, If you take my yoke upon you,
and think about this in a service animal type of thing,
not service dogs, but a service animal.
So a service animal is like oxen, okay?
The thing that goes across their backs
when they're tied together and pulling something is a yoke.
So that yoke is the piece of wood
that is attaching it to another animal of like sort
because they weren't supposed to take a donkey or an ass
and then tie it to a different type of an animal like an ox
because that's a picture of having fellowship with something
that's not the same kind as you, right?
But it says that he's meek and lowly in heart,
For my yoke is easy.
To be yoked up with Christ is easy.
It's so easy that it's free.
So there's no burden that he puts upon us to pay for our sins.
He paid them for us.
So it's easy because, and his burden is light,
he's not going to impress some kind of thing.
I mean, if you're thinking about salvation here,
we have to rest in the fact that he paid for everything for us.
So here's picturing salvation that it's easy
and that if you put Christ on,
you don't have to worry about laboring to get into heaven
because there's no labor involved on your part.
There's no sins that you have to continue to pay for
as far as eternity is concerned in order to get into heaven.
He will give us rest
because if we rest in him,
he died and then the Sabbath days of rest
were him paying for everything that we did during that time.
The Sabbath day was always a picture of the fact
that he was going to do the work for us
and that we have to rest without doing works in order to be saved.
That's what the picture is.
People still think that you have to keep the Sabbath day,
but they're wrong.
They're wrong about that.
They might even call Sunday the Sabbath,
and I get that,
but there is no command to keep the Sabbath in the New Testament.
As a matter of fact,
it says let no man judge you in meats, drinks,
the verse, washings, carnal ordinances,
Sabbath days, all that kind of stuff.
So now Moses, think about how Moses pictures Jesus here.
Moses pictures Jesus here
because he's also allowing the children of Israel to rest.
He's saying you're allowing them to rest from their burdens, right?
Turn to Numbers 12, verse 3.
Now Jesus says,
I am meek and lowly in heart.
So Jesus wasn't weak.
He was meek.
What does that mean?
Easily entreated upon.
They're not going to just yell and scream at you over
necessarily every little thing.
That's basically what it means to be easily entreated upon.
He's meek and lowly in heart.
That means his heart isn't lifted up with pride.
The opposite of lowly would be high, right?
He's not high in heart.
He's lowly in heart.
He came to be a servant for us.
Remember in Philippians chapter 3?
He came to be a servant for us,
and then he came in the form of a servant,
and he was meek and lowly, right?
So Moses also in his time was meek and lowly.
How does he picture Christ?
Look at Numbers 12, verse 3.
It says,
Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men
which were upon the face of the earth.
So you see how Moses is a picture of Christ
because what's that attribute?
Well, Moses was very meek.
He was the meekest man on the whole face of the earth.
But again, meekness doesn't mean weakness
because Moses did some pretty hardcore things, didn't he?
Moses would get angry, you know,
and it's funny because people say,
well, you know, being angry is not right.
You know, being angry and sinning is not right.
And Moses did get angry and sinned,
and God didn't allow him to go into the Promised Land because of it.
So he did have a temper problem.
He did.
But when he came down and smashed the Ten Commandments,
you know, he was righteously anger.
I mean, he comes down.
Everybody's naked and dancing and fornicating,
and now there's two golden calves that they're worshiping.
His brother, who's supposed to be the leader there,
he's just like, well, I don't know how it came,
how it happened.
It just poof, and then the calves were formed.
It's like, nobody's believing that, dummy.
He's just like, don't let my Lord wax angry.
It's like, yeah, sometimes you get angry.
Was Jesus ever angry?
He was angry.
You know, remember, Jesus is God,
and so he is from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
It was a mystery in the Old Testament,
but, you know, one would say the angel of the Lord sometimes,
or would say, you know, there's just lots of different appearances of Christ
because Christ didn't just,
he wasn't just here when he became the baby in the manger.
He always has existed.
So, I mean, I think it's very telling that Moses was very meek
above all that were upon the face of the earth
because Jesus was the same way.
So, how does he picture Jesus?
Well, he was the meekest man in the whole world at that time.
Jesus is the meekest man that ever lived.
So, let's look back at Exodus chapter 5 verse 6.
Exodus 5 verse 6, it says,
And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people,
and their officers, saying,
He shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore.
Let them go and gather straw for themselves,
and the tail of the bricks which they did make heretofore,
he shall lay upon them,
he shall not diminish ought thereof,
for they be idle.
Therefore they cry, saying,
Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
So, because Moses and Aaron come with this message saying,
Let my people go that they can serve me.
So, instead of taking it out on Aaron and Moses,
they didn't do anything to Aaron and Moses.
They took it out on the people that were following Aaron and Moses.
They took it out on the people.
And why would he do that?
Well, because if you take it out on the people,
then maybe he'll have less of a backing.
He'll have less, they'll have less people backing them up.
And the way to do that is to persecute them.
So, they're already being persecuted.
They've already, they're oppressed, they're enslaved,
they're working hard,
and now they're taking and making it even harder.
But, that's what the world does when, you know,
when people start to serve God,
the world attacks.
And, you know, sometimes the world attacks in many various different ways.
Look at verse 9, it says,
Let there be more work laid upon the men,
that they may labor therein.
Let them not regard vain words.
So, what are the vain words?
Thus saith the Lord.
So, further proof that Pharaoh is just a piece of garbage
calling God's words vain words.
So, you know, and look, serving God can be hard.
I'm not going to lie, it can be hard.
Serving God, not being saved,
but serving sin is even harder,
and that's what this is kind of a picture of.
If you want to continue, you know, to serve God,
you might have some persecution from the world.
That might make things more difficult for you, right?
Because, isn't that what happened?
They're already working hard,
but now they're working even harder because they find out,
hey, these people are behind Moses and Aaron.
These people are agreeing with them.
These people have their back.
Well, let's just make things a little bit harder for them.
And, obviously, Pharaoh can be a representation of the Antichrist,
but also of the devil himself.
So, what's the devil do?
Well, hey, let me just enact my little sleeper cells into their lives
and see whether they can really take the heat.
And then that's when, you know, you start to receive the persecution.
Usually, you know, the form of it hits pretty close to immediately
when you start telling people, guess what, I got saved.
And you're super happy, and you're super joyous about those things,
and then the people in your family are like, what?
What are you talking about?
And they start getting upset, or your friends are like,
okay, well, I'm really glad for you, but, you know,
why do you have to go to church three times a week?
And so it starts in small increments, but it does happen.
And like your work, if people find out you're a Christian, what do they do?
Things are harder for you than they are for other people there.
Getting promoted is harder.
You know, having the boss mad at you is easier.
I mean, people will find out you're a Christian
and they'll try to ruin your life.
They'll try to ruin your life at work
and then try to ruin your life with the boss,
which ruins your life because you get fired, or whatever.
Things like that happen all the time, but the persecution does begin.
Once you say, hey, I'm thinking about, you know, leaving all this stuff behind,
then the world wants to reach back in and grab you and pull you back out.
And, you know, we'll receive persecution,
and the Bible talks about how, you know, the parable of the sower,
you know, some receive it with joy,
and then, you know, when persecution and affliction arises,
by and by they're offended.
And so some people, as soon as they get a whiff of persecution,
they're like, I'm out of here. I'm done.
And then they'll never serve God because they started to serve God
and they're disillusioned
because they should be getting into a church
and getting sound and doctrine rooted and grounded in the faith,
but then one little burst of persecution,
just someone calling you a Jesus freak or something
is going to make you stop serving God? Really?
After he bought you and saved you?
But some people, that's how they respond.
But it usually hits in the form of family, friends, and work right off the bat.
And so what happened with Pharaoh is that, you know,
instead of punishing the man of God right away,
they're trying to punish the people that are following him.
Now turn to Matthew 10, verse 34.
See, a lot of people think that, you know,
life is just a bowl of cherries after you get saved,
but that's when the battle zone begins.
That's when the war begins.
That's when Christ has enlisted you as a soldier,
and sometimes we have to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
That's what the Bible says, that we're going to endure hardness.
Why would you have to put on the whole armor of God if there wasn't a battle?
What's armor for? To go through a battle.
Why do you have a sword? So you can chop people up, right?
So spiritually we've got to chop people up sometimes,
but, you know, sometimes Jesus chops us,
you know, he chops up things in our lives too,
and he wants to divide things out of our lives.
You know, when we're starting out and getting saved
and you start becoming a soul winner,
the Bible says that he purges us.
He takes and clips some parts away that are lacking
so that we can bring forth much fruit, you know.
So when you're tending, you know, I'm not like a major plant expert or whatever,
but I do know that you're supposed to like, you know, trim bushes and things like that,
and trim them a certain way so that then those branches can bring forth more fruit,
and that's what Jesus is talking about.
But anyway, Matthew 10 verse 34 says,
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth,
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother,
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
That's a hard saying.
You know, not a lot of people can receive that.
You mean I just need to just stay away from my parents and hate God?
Yeah, that's kind of what it's saying, isn't it?
If you love them more than you love Christ, then you're not worthy of them.
It's not saying you're not saved. It's just saying you're not worthy of them.
And, you know, he said he came not to send peace, but a sword.
But I thought he was the Prince of Peace. He is.
He wants you to have peace in your life, so he wants those people away from you,
so that you can grow, so you can plant roots,
so you can get better and become a great tree that's planted by waters, right?
So that your roots grow deep and strong, your trunk and everything's healthy,
the bark is good, you know, it's going to just continue to flourish and be great next to that living water.
He doesn't want us to be entangled in the former lives that we used to live.
He wants us to separate from all that stuff, all those people, and he wants us to move forward.
And you know who's supposed to be the most important thing in our life?
The Lord. The Lord is supposed to be the most important thing in our life.
And so that's why he said, I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Why? Because fights happen over Christ.
People always say, there's this, you know, I don't know if it's a boomer thing,
or maybe even from before the boomers or whatever,
but you're not, sorry boomers, but you're not, you know, they say,
I remember hearing this growing up by multiple people that were of the boomer generation.
They'd say, you don't talk about politics, and you don't talk about religion.
And what do people fight about at, you know, family get-togethers?
Politics and religion. It's true. That's why they say don't talk about it.
But they don't, you know, it's funny, they always have an article for you to read,
or, you know, I've walked into landmines before at family get-togethers,
and when people challenge me, I just cut them to the quick, I don't care.
Grandma, mom, anybody.
If you don't know what it's like to have unsaved family members
that just, like, want to just, you know, stick it to you whenever they get a chance,
then, you know, some people, they have saved family, or saved parents, or saved grandparents or whatever,
that's great, but not everybody's from that.
You know, so sometimes it's good to avoid those pitfalls,
but, you know, you'll ask, hey, if I come over, you know,
please not have the TV on, or, you know, whatever,
and they're, like, watching Harry Potter when you get in.
It's like, you know, that stuff's not an accident, okay?
There's, you know, I know there's someone here that, you know,
their dad never talked to them again because they refused to carve pumpkins,
or let their kids carve pumpkins.
It's just like, really, that's what you're going to divide over?
That's really sad. It's really sad.
But it's either Jesus or the pumpkin. Which one are you going to choose?
I mean, you can still have a pumpkin, just you start carving up, you know,
you're carving, you know, your false gods in there or whatever.
I mean, that gets... I'm stepping on toes.
But, you know what I'm saying? Like, if you know it's a practice,
it's like a heathen practice, you know, if there's some, like, warning in your heart
about something you're doing, then listen to that warning.
We have intuition for a reason, you know, and intuition and conscience
are things that God has given us. They're tools that He's given us.
So, like, when you're walking down a dark alley and there's no lighting,
you don't have a flashlight, you don't have a cell phone,
and you see some guy that's, like, six foot ten and, you know,
muscled down, are you going to walk down that alleyway?
If you're a woman, are you going to walk down that alleyway?
Probably not.
There's just things that we can get into dangerous places
and, you know, we're going to, you know, we need to avoid those types of things.
So, when you have a warning in your heart,
I'm sure that people that are about to be killed by a serial killer
have, like, an, oh man, I shouldn't have gotten in the car with this person,
or whatever. That's the time to open up the handle and jump out
and face whatever you got coming with the road or whatever,
but I'm just saying that there's things in our lives that happen
and, you know, you should listen to the warning in your heart
about things like that because that's your intuition,
whatever you want to call it, that's a warning that's saying,
get out of here, get away from this person, or whatever.
I don't know how I got off on that trail, but anyhow, let's move on here.
So, let's see, so it is important to get into a church that teaches the truth
and the Bible and, you know, again, being saved is easy,
living the Christian life is hard.
Let's look back at our text at verse 10.
It says,
And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers,
and they spake to the people, saying,
Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
Go ye, get you straw where you can find it.
Yet not ought to your work shall be diminished.
So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt
to gather stubble instead of straw.
And the taskmasters hasted them, saying,
Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
And the officers of the children of Israel,
which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and demanded.
Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick,
both yesterday and today, as heretofore.
When the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh,
saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?
There is no straw given unto thy servants,
and they say to us, Make brick, and behold, thy servants are beaten,
but the fault is thine own people.
So they're going back and whining to the person that told them to do that.
You know, so they're going back to the boss that's already,
you know, they're already serving hard bondage over.
And then, you know, he's told them to be this way with them
and they're going back to Pharaoh, going, It's your people's fault.
It's like, he's like, Yeah, no, it's my fault.
So, but, you know, when you straddle the fence as a Christian
and you're just like going to the world
and you're trying to be on both sides of everything,
you want to identify with Christianity, but at the same time you love the world,
you can't be that way.
You cannot straddle the fence.
It's either Jesus or it's the world.
You can't have it both ways.
It's not going to work out.
So it's just like other religions, you know.
You can't have Jesus and serve Sheba.
You can't have Jesus and have the totem pole.
You can't have Jesus and whatever other false thing that you would do.
It's Jesus and, you know, he's a jealous God
and he's not going to put up with it.
And so if you're trying to be a friend of the world
at the same time as you're being a friend to God,
it's not going to work.
And you know what?
Who are you going to make angry?
The person that can actually really do some damage to you.
You know, again, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So don't be a compromiser.
Don't be, you know, some spineless, wimpy, you know,
brow-beaten, hen-pecked, you know, lily-livered, pink tea,
drinking lavender shirt-wearing, you know, whatever.
Back-scratching boot-licker, okay?
So you can't be that way.
So what are they doing?
Going back to lick Pharaoh's boots and trying to ask him for help.
Who should they have been asking for help from?
God, right?
So instead they're going back,
Oh Pharaoh, please.
And they're just acting all weak.
And he says,
But he said,
You're idle, you're idle.
Therefore you say,
Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.
Go therefore now and work,
for there shall no straw be given you,
yet shall you deliver the tale of bricks.
So he's like, Shut up, boot-licker.
Get back out there and get to work.
And you're going to grab the straw yourself.
So basically they're asking them to do,
they probably already have a really tight schedule
and a big amount of production that they're supposed to get done
or they're going to get beaten.
And now they're being asked to go out and find their own straw
to mix in with the brick
and produce the exact same amount with gathering other stuff.
So having extra tasks to do on an already tight schedule
and he's saying,
You've got to produce the same exact amount of work
in the same amount of time.
Which is basically an impossible task.
And that's why they're beating them and saying,
Get your work done.
Fulfill your daily tasks.
So it's just not right.
And even in today's workforce,
you'll see like places,
I remember when I worked for Walmart at a distribution center,
the people that worked there,
every year the production changed to they had to do more.
So same people as they get older and older and older
and they're already chucking five, six, seven hundred boxes per hour,
that is going to wear your body out really fast.
And if you don't meet the production,
then they give you a mark in your matrix
and if you don't cut the mustard for a certain amount of time,
then they just fire you.
So when you're older,
they're saying,
Go out and get more straw.
You're supposed to be doing more than when you,
you know, doesn't it make sense?
Well, now you've been here longer,
you should be able to do more.
No, the more your body wears out,
the less you're going to be able to do.
How can you expect someone that's 65 years old
to get up and throw five, six hundred boxes per hour
onto a conveyor belt putting the stickers on
or whatever else you're doing
or doing forklift work mistake free if you make a mistake.
Bing, they ding you for that too.
And obviously, you know, things are going to happen.
If you're driving around trying to pull out pallets from,
you know, four stories up without making a mistake,
pulling that thing down, putting it in another slot,
you're going to bang stuff.
You're going to get into accidents.
But that's kind of what it's like nowadays,
probably working.
I've heard like there's, you know, at Amazon,
the conditions are pretty rough like that too.
So in these big companies that are just making billions of dollars,
they don't care about you.
You know how many things a paper guy filled out for people
that couldn't go back to work
because they're permanently injured
for all the work they were having to do?
It's like, well, you know, there's always something,
it's your fault whenever you get hurt.
Whatever, you shouldn't have twisted.
You should have pointed your toe this way when you did it.
It's like this is the kind of stuff that they do,
and I would sit there and fill out the paperwork,
and I'd just be like, this is messed up, man.
This is messed up.
This person can't ever come back to work again,
and they're like, well, sorry.
You know, sorry you got old.
Sorry you blew your knee out.
You can't do it anymore.
That's kind of what Pharaoh's doing here.
He's just making them do more than they can actually do.
It's pretty bad.
And a tale, by the way, it's not some tale to be told.
A tale is a number or a total.
That tale of bricks,
whatever their production was for that day,
they had to get it done,
now having to do more work on top of it.
But again, worldly Christians sticking up for the world,
loving the world's things,
and people that hate God,
that's just a weird perspective to have.
And this is kind of what's going on here.
They're trying to play both sides of the fence.
They said they're with Moses and Aaron,
and then things get hard for them.
They go whining to the boss.
They go whining to the king,
who's a piece of garbage.
Obviously, they have to obey him.
They're being beaten and forced into heavy labor,
but then they're still going to them to lick their boots.
They're not going to Moses and Aaron and saying,
hey, help us here,
or going to God,
who's the God of all heaven and earth.
They're just going and whining to Pharaoh.
Look at James chapter four, verse four.
James chapter four, verse four.
It says,
Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God?
Enmity means opposed or hostile to.
So, friendship with the world is enmity with God.
It's opposition to him.
It's hostile to God.
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.
So, whosoever is the friend,
there's a lot of whosoever in the Bible,
and a lot of them are good,
but this is not a good whosoever.
Whosoever, that means anybody that's a Christian, right,
will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.
So, I don't know about you, but I don't know about God.
I want to be his friend.
I don't want him to look at me and say,
I'm hostile because I'm a friend of the world.
I'm a compromiser.
I'm a spineless wimp that's afraid
to stand up for the things of God.
Exodus 5.19,
And the officers of the children of Israel did
see that which were evil in case,
after it was said,
ye shall not menish out of your bricks
of your daily task.
And they met with Moses and Aaron.
So, they go to Pharaoh first,
and now they're going to Moses and Aaron,
who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh.
And they said unto them,
the Lord look upon you and judge,
because you have made our Savior
to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh,
and in the eyes of his servants,
to put a sword in their hand to slay us.
So, what are they doing?
Now they've gone to Pharaoh.
He didn't see it their way.
Now they're going back and whining to Moses and Aaron
and blaming them for what's going on,
when God is the one that sent them there.
So, who are they ultimately blaming here?
They are blaming Moses and Aaron,
but they're also blaming God.
And so that's, again, a bad spot to be in.
And they're even using spiritual language here.
The Lord look upon you and judge.
That's a good thing to say when you're right,
but I'll tell you what,
when you're wrong, it's a bad thing to say.
Because you know what?
If you're saying, the Lord look upon you and judge,
and you're the one that's wrong,
guess who he's going to judge?
It's not going to be that person.
It's going to be you for saying such a stupid thing.
It says, because you have made our Savior
to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh.
And again, this is what goes on.
This is what happens with preachers
when they actually get up and preach the truth,
and I'm not the only one that does.
I know that.
But when a preacher gets up and preaches the truth,
you know, and then Christians get mad about that.
And then they side with the world
over someone that's saved.
It happens all the time.
Again, I don't get mad about the messages
from the queers necessarily,
because that's just what they do.
I mean, they're everything that I said they were,
and I don't apologize for that for one second.
But what really upsets me
is when phony baloney Christians
or compromising Christians, they might even be saved.
They might think that they're doing the best intentions,
but I'll tell you what.
The minute they side with the world
over siding with a man of God for preaching the Bible,
let the Lord look on you and judge.
How about that?
Because I'm not the one that's making Pharaoh
your Savior to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh.
God is the one that told me to preach the whole Bible.
So look, I'm not gonna ever apologize
for preaching the whole Bible,
because that's what I'm supposed to do.
Preach the word.
Be instant, in season, out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
You're like, well, you do it too much, pastor.
Well, I'm sorry that we live in this time,
because if we all would have been born 50 years ago,
it wouldn't be anything like this.
But it is.
And Esther, Mordecai said,
maybe you don't realize that you were born
for such a time as this.
And sometimes we've been born into a very weird era.
And I'm older than a lot of people in here,
and I remember that it was still a horde not that long ago.
And now it's like, Christians are sending me messages
saying that I'm bad and I'm the devil
and I'm going to hell.
And it's just like, whose side are you on?
Like, are you on the side of people that hate God?
Because ultimately that's what Pharaoh was.
They're going to lick the boots of a reprobate
and then coming back and blaming Moses and Aaron
for what they had to say.
All they said is, thus saith the Lord.
That's what they said.
And anytime I get up and preach,
I'm saying, thus saith the Lord.
And if people are getting mad about that,
that's their problem.
Because you know who I care about being a happy?
God.
And I'm not going to go and whine and kowtow
and compromise and apologize for something that God said.
Why would I apologize for that?
Why don't you apologize for being an abomination
in the eyes of God?
Why don't you apologize for failing to preach
the truth of what the Bible says?
Why don't you be ashamed of that?
Because it is a shame.
And you're a sham if you're sticking up for these freaks
and these weirdos and these pedophiles.
You're like, how do you know they're not pedophiles?
Any pervert that messes with little children
is a pedophile, and therefore they are a sodomite.
So that's the problem.
And look, I'm never going to stop saying
it's weird to be a child molester.
I'm never going to stop saying it's weird to be a sodomite
because it is weird.
It's weird, it's disgusting, and now it's like,
now it's all about drag queens.
See, they push through all the normal,
it's normal to be a lesbian, it's normal to be a gay man
or whatever.
But then they're like, look at these freak shows,
they're normal too.
They're not normal, folks.
Don't let anybody ever convince you that that's true.
Please.
If there's one thing you should never compromise on,
there's a lot of things.
But don't ever compromise on that
because it's never going to be normal.
And freak shows dressing up
and putting on weird, strange costumes
sometimes demonic, probably always demonic.
I mean, if a guy's putting makeup on
and wearing women's clothing,
it's pretty demonic.
And then they're like,
let me read you that time story, children.
Weird.
It's weird that you would even take your children
to a place like that.
Groomers.
They are groomers.
Like, we're getting tired of people calling us groomers.
That's what you are.
What do you mean?
All you have to do is just look at the libs of TikTok.
They put all that stuff up there.
I don't really want to look at their freakish faces
of the people they put on there all the time.
But you know, they'll silence that.
They'll silence this.
Everything is silenced except for
the weirdest and most gruesome things
and trying to make it normal.
What else are they going to make normal?
Serial killing's normal.
They're just identifying as a serial killer,
so it's just fine to go around murdering people.
I mean, would that surprise you?
Because a lot of those freaks are serial killers.
John Wayne Gacy.
Who's the woman that was the notorious serial killer?
Eileen what?
Yeah.
Who else?
Jeffrey Dahmer.
Who else?
There's a ton of them.
There's just a whole bunch of them are these freaks.
Yeah, so, I mean, if they're threatening to kill us
and burn our church down, they're just,
but they're just, they just love people.
Is that loving?
That they want me to be murdered and my wife to be raped?
And my children to be killed?
And your little children?
That's loving.
I've never felt the love as I felt last week
of these people.
But see, isn't that weird how it's okay
for them to hate me just because I hate them?
And then to go way over the top of anything I said.
I never said any of that stuff.
Anyway, sorry.
It's just a really strange world we're living in.
It makes me sad to see my grandchildren
grow up in a world like this.
But, you know, we've got to press on, right?
It's not all depressing.
So, but, you know, these people were blaming
God's men for preaching what God said.
And that's what happens today.
And people are like, it's all your fault.
That's why people are leaving the church.
It's like, no, it's all your fault
because you're not even really a Christian
and you're teaching a bunch of crazy.
This Lutheran minister, I'm sorry,
but it's just on my mind.
This Lutheran minister said that all these,
he messaged me some stuff.
He's like, you're the reason the church is leaving
or people are leaving the church in droves.
It's like, you're letting wolves
in to eat the sheep of your congregation.
So I don't care if I turn away everybody in America.
But you know who I'm always going to turn away?
The predators that compass this place round about
and try to get in to have access to our children.
That's what I care about.
I care about them not having to see that stuff.
Any minister that lets one of those freaks
into their church to molest their children's eyeballs
and the eyeballs of everybody in that church,
you know what really started this all off?
Ryland's dad.
He got me mad.
But he was on the right track.
But he was telling me about this video at a Lutheran church
where they're having a drag queen strip dance or something
in the church.
He's like, have you seen this?
I was like,
Yeah.
So, sorry.
That's why I try to not have deep conversations with people
before I have a church service.
But if that's really going on,
we are in dire straits, folks.
We are in dire straits.
And we've got to stick together.
Last point here is God's men being the out scouring of the world.
Look at verse 22.
It says that Moses returned unto the Lord and said,
Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people?
Why is it that thou hast sent me?
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name,
he hath done evil to this people,
neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.
So at some point, you know,
even the mightiest men in the Bible doubt about things.
And Moses is just like questioning God here
because he thought it was going to be different.
He probably thought he was going to walk in and Pharaoh was going to be like,
Yes, Moses, don't beat me anymore.
You know, I don't know.
I don't know what he thought that Pharaoh was going to let him go.
God told him he wasn't going to let him go until the very end.
So he should have expected it.
But even, you know, great men, even John the Baptist,
he was like, Are you the Christ or should I look for another?
I mean, he's in jail.
He eventually gets his head caught off.
And then wonder, you know,
but he doesn't realize that he's the greatest,
talked about as the greatest man born among women.
And that, you know, he probably has great rewards in heaven
for the things he did, but sometimes people will doubt.
And it's because sometimes,
and, you know, I'm not trying to get you to feel sorry for me at all.
I'm not, don't take that as this point here.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
Don't take it that I'm saying that because
I knew what I signed up for when I signed up for it.
I knew that things were going to get worse.
I knew that people were going to get mad about some of the things that get preached.
I'm not doing it to make people mad,
but I just know that it does.
I was trying to get into another assisted living home,
and the person in charge was like,
yeah, so we just don't want you to preach certain things.
And I was like, okay, like what?
She's like, well, just controversial things.
I was like, okay.
Like, you know, things that are like political.
It's like, well, I'm not really that political,
but I said, what do you mean controversial things?
I said, basically from the time you open up the Bible to the time it ends,
there's controversy in it.
So I said, I just need a specific list on what you don't want me to preach.
But, you know, why go to a place where they're going to censor me?
And obviously there's a time and a place to preach certain things,
but I'm not going to go and say,
okay, well, here's the list, guys.
Just don't preach about this.
Because literally everything in the Bible is pretty much controversial.
Except for God's love.
That's the only thing that's not.
And they don't realize that if you love, you have to hate something too.
You can't love children without hating perverts.
You can't love flowers without hating the weeds.
Everybody in this world hates something.
Quit lying.
Don't lie to yourself.
There is people.
Look, if Trump was assassinated tomorrow,
these people would have dances in the streets
and probably be a party like no other.
And they're sitting there trying to judge me about what I said.
They wish death threats and all kinds of things
on conservatives and Christians all the time.
So, anyway, 1 Corinthians 4.8 says,
Now you're full, now you're rich,
you have reigned as kings without us,
and I would to God you did reign,
that we also might reign with you.
It's the apostle Paul talking to the church in Corinth.
And he says,
For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last,
as it were appointed to death.
For we are made a spectacle unto the world,
and to angels and to men.
Isn't it true that Paul was really hated?
Did he deal with the brunt of everything?
He did.
But I gladly will bear that shield for our church.
And they're threatening me, they want to kill me,
whatever, whatever, and you by proxy in some cases,
but most of the time they just hate me.
But what do they hate?
They hate the thus saith the Lord.
They hate the God of Israel.
They hate the Bible being true.
They hate all that stuff.
So it's not really me that they hate in reality.
My face has an evil that they want to attach
to all these things, but they're like,
Christians don't talk like you.
What do you mean?
The apostle Paul wrote Romans 1.
Do you think he didn't catch any flak for that?
Did you write this, Paul?
Did you write this?
Oh, we're reprobates, huh, Paul?
Do you think anything's changed?
Nothing's changed.
It's all the same.
There's no new thing under the sun.
The man that wrote one of our favorite chapters,
I'm sure he got persecuted for that.
Do you think Jude got persecuted for the things
he preached in his epistle?
Do you think Peter got some people mad?
We're talking about the Roman Empire, folks.
They started their downhill trend,
and after Christ they had all these crazy
and weird Caesars, and making their...
They're the most disgusting, revolting people
that could possibly be in charge.
They'd make Barack Obama look like a Boy Scout.
But anyway, Paul's saying here, though,
that he set us forth last.
Like, basically, they're the ire,
they draw the ire of all the hatred
and stuff like that.
It says, we are fools for Christ's sake,
but you're wise in Christ.
We are weak, but you're strong.
You're honorable, but we are despised.
Even under this present hour,
we both hunger and thirst and are naked
and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place.
And labor, working with our own hands,
being reviled, we bless, being persecuted,
we suffer it.
So he's basically saying that they're getting
all the persecution, and the people of the church
are just being able to enjoy it, enjoy being in church.
It says, being defamed, we entreat.
We are made as the filth of the world
and are the off scouring of all things unto this day.
And I'm not saying that I'm in this category.
I do have a certain dwelling place.
I do have a lot of the things that they didn't have.
But it is true that the person that God puts in charge
of a church or of a ministry,
they're going to draw the fire of the heathen
when they're preaching the truth.
And if you just want to give up and go to a church
that never preaches on these things,
it just sweeps it under the rug,
they say, oh, you know, homosexuality's a sin,
but so is stealing pencils.
All things are equal.
Do you really think that's true?
I really hope not. Please don't say yes.
It says, and we labor, working with our own hands,
being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it.
Being defamed, we entreat.
We are made the filth of the world
and the off scouring of all things unto this day.
The filth, what would you say filth is?
Excrement?
Or the off scouring?
You know when you let a bowl or a pan or something,
you don't soak it under the sink
and it gets all that stuff on it?
Have you ever made oatmeal before?
The real oatmeal, not Quaker State or whatever.
Or not Quaker State, not what a Quaker's about.
Quaker State's an oil.
I hope it's not Quaker State.
But anyway, you have this scum that's hard to get off
and sometimes even the biggest scrub pad won't take it off.
We're like that to people.
The off scouring, something you want off or away from you.
I write out these things to shame you,
but as my beloved sons I warn you.
For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ,
you have not many fathers.
For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Wherefore I beseech you, be followers of me.
So Paul's like saying hey, be a follower of me.
Follow what I'm doing and I'm not ashamed
to bear that reproach.
And I'm gonna have you turn to one last thing
and I'll be done here.
2 Timothy chapter one verse 15.
So at the end, Paul basically was forsaken
by almost everybody.
Is it because he only preached the love of God?
Or is it because he preached half the doctrine
you find in the New Testament?
And a lot of that doctrine is pretty hairy.
It says, This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia
be turned away from me, of whom are by Jealous and Hermogenes.
The Lord give mercy unto the house of one Ciphorus,
for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.
And look, I'm not comparing myself to anybody in the Bible.
Don't get me wrong here.
But I'm just saying this, that like if you know
that I'm being maligned and the people are after me,
I would just ask that you don't be ashamed of me.
And I would also ask this if you would pray for me.
Because I need encouragement sometimes too.
I'm not afraid for one second of ever coming to this church.
I'm not gonna say, oh I'm so scared, I'm gonna stop.
You know, please help me.
Someone else take over, I just can't handle this anymore.
I knew what I had to handle when I got here,
but I still, the one thing I really need from you all
is I need you to back me up.
And I need you to pray for me.
And you know, sometimes the things they do,
you know the reason why people attack like this,
like I've been attacked, is because they want me to feel that way.
They want me to be afraid.
They want me to give up.
And everybody has doubts sometimes.
So I'm not saying I have doubts, I'm just saying that,
well maybe sometimes I do.
Maybe sometimes I do.
So you know, doubts of, you know, is this really worth it?
But that's just a doubt.
Everybody has doubts.
But it is worth it.
I know it's worth it.
And you know, I just would like some support.
And I know that you guys are here to support me.
You're here right now in the middle of a snowstorm.
So you're still listening.
So I appreciate that.
But I'll take the heat.
But just please keep me in mind, you know, as the week goes on
and just pray for me.
I'd appreciate that.
Look at verse 17.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me.
So this guy finds Paul.
He wasn't ashamed of him.
And he not only, he sought him out very diligently and found him
so that he could encourage him.
And so sometimes, you know, even the Apostle Paul needed some encouragement, didn't he?
So you know, you should just stop and realize that every once in a while
your pastor needs some encouragement too.
So I'm not saying come to me right after the service and make it weird.
I'm just saying, just remember me.
That's all I'm asking.
All right, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the Bible.
We pray, Lord, that you'd help us as we go through hard times.
And Lord, this isn't even really the hardest it could be,
but as we go through hard times, I pray that you would just help us, Lord,
to be strong, put on the whole armor of God, Lord,
to realize what's the most important things in our lives.
And of course, that's you.
I pray you'd just take everybody home safely, Lord.
And I pray that the evil, wicked people that are attacking,
that they would just be rebuked by you.
And we'll give you the praise and honor for that.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Page 329, God leads us along.
Blue hymnals, page 329.
See now, all the first.
In shady green pasture, so rich and so sweet,
God leads his dear children along.
Where the waters cold flow bays the weary ones sweet,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the flood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long,
Sometimes on the mound where the sun shines so bright,
God leads his dear children along.
Sometimes in the valley in darkest of night,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the flood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long,
Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
God leads his dear children along.
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the flood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long,
Away from the mire and away from the clay,
God leads his dear children along.
Away a thing for eternity's day,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the flood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long.
Amen. Thank you for joining us this Sunday.
I'd like to see you back here next week
and enjoy the rest of your week.
Be safe out there driving home.
Brother Evan, can you end us a little word of prayer?