(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Amen. All right, for our next hymn, turn, if you would, to number 409. 409. The fight is on. Hymn number 409. ["The Fight is On"] 409, we'll sing that right on the first. The fight is on. The trumpet sound is ringing out. The pride to arms is heard up for a year. The Lord of hosts is marching on to victory. The triumph of the rice will soon appear. The fight is on, O Christian soldier. And face to face it's stern array. With armor gleaming and colors streaming, Where I belong in faith today. The fight is on, but we are weary. It's all in this vital fast. If God before us is better for us, We'll sing the victor's song at last. The fight is on. Morality, soldiers brave and true. Jehovah, peace and victory will assure. The love, O Lord, the armor God has given you. And in his strength, forever we'll endure. The fight is on, O Christian soldier. And face to face it's stern array. With armor gleaming and colors streaming, Where I belong in faith today. The fight is on, but we are weary. It's all in this vital past. If God before us is better for us, We'll sing the victor's song at last. The fight is leaning on to certain victory. The flow of prophets spans the eastern sky. His orders say, in every that shall order thee, The horn will break, the dawn of peace is nigh. The fight is on, O Christian soldier. And face to face it's stern array. With armor gleaming and colors streaming, Where I belong in faith today. The fight is on, but we are weary. It's all in this vital past. If God before us is better for us, We'll sing the victor's song at last. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. At this time, we're going to go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, please raise your hand and an usher will bring you one. On the front, you'll see our Bible memory passage of the week, Hebrews 6, verse 16. We're getting close to the end here, so keep up the good work on that. And you'll see our updated contact information is on the front of the bulletin, so make sure you save that info on your phone. The website just went live about an hour, hour and a half ago. If you haven't seen it yet, I wouldn't even be mad if you pulled out your phone right now and looked at it. I'm really, really excited about it. And a big thank you to all the developers that are brothers in Christ that helped with this project. And they're not just a charity case like, oh, you know, we've got brothers helping us. These are actually really great developers and they made an awesome website. And it looks great right now, but it's not even done. There's going to be some more things done to it. So thank you to all those men that helped you know who you are. I appreciate it. On the inside is our service times listed Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening at 430, and our Wednesday evening Bible study, of course, at 7 o'clock tonight. Our soul winning times are listed there. Please make note of the soul winning time in gold. That's our Saturday rally where we have a short sermon and a song before we go out and preach the gospel. It's a great time to join us for some soul winning on Saturdays. Nursing home ministry is scheduled there. If you partake in that ministry, make note of those times, please. On the bottom, you'll see our year to date stats. And of course, this is including when we were steadfast Baptist Church as well. In the calendar year 2025, it'll be all anchor, but we're just combining stats for the bulletin for this. And you can see November has been a great month. We had 28 salvations just this weekend. So it's been a great month of soul winning. Keep up the great work on that. And our email address is listed there to report those totals. Please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed, our expecting lady for the church for her pregnancy. Upcoming events, December 9th, we're going to meet here at the building at 630 p.m. for Christmas caroling. December 20th is going to be the ladies Christmas party. December 21st is a soul winning rally just with a Christmas theme. Get some food and coffee and we'll go out and preach around Christmas time the gospel. And December 31st is our New Year's Eve party, which I wanted to confirm what day of the week that fell on. Yeah, so that falls on a Tuesday. So what we're going to do is we're going to have that Tuesday be our midweek service for that week. So don't come here on Wednesday because Tuesday is going to be our midweek service. We're going to have a normal service just like usual with music and everything. But the preaching for this service is going to be a men's preaching night. There's a sign up sheet in the back. Really looking forward to hearing the men preach. So that's going to be our midweek service for that week. And then, of course, after the preaching, we're going to have food catered and have a time of fellowship and games and fun. There is a QR code there if you'd like to give online to our church. And on the back is our prayer list. Please make note of those requests. And if you have any requests, you can email our church. I made the emails easy to remember as possible. abckjb1611 at gmail dot com. Pretty simple. So unfortunately, they didn't just have abc at gmail dot com. That was taken already, I guess. I tried to find the most simple one that wasn't taken. So. All right. Let's go and go to the Lord in prayer as a church. Dear Lord, thank you for this new church, Anchor Baptist Church. I pray that this church would be a place where people can come and hear the truth of God's word preached, where they can come and develop great friendships with godly people that love you and that love each other. That also this would be a great church that's a powerhouse of preaching the gospel in this community and help us to continue this vision for the duration of this church, Lord. And we also want to pray for our members that have prayer requests and our friends that have prayer requests that you answer these according to your will. We pray for Brother Moses, who recently came here from Germany, fleeing persecution. Pray that you just bless his life and that you would just bless him for the great stand for Christ that he's taken, that you would just help him to find work to be able to provide for himself, Lord, that you would just bless the works of his hands. We also pray for Brother James Perry that his back would be healed, that he would get the care that he needs to heal, Lord. And we also pray for Brother Cameron's mom, Barbara, that she would have a heart soft to the gospel and also that she would heal her body of cancer. We pray for Brother Alex Lee who's been looking for work. We just pray that his interviews go well, that he finds favor in the eyes of his employer and you and that you just give him the right opportunity that he needs to be able to provide but also to serve you, Lord. And we pray for Ms. Sean Furr, her coworker, Terry, that her cancer would be healed and Ms. Remi, that her tumor would also be healed, Lord. We also pray for those in our church whose family members are not saved, that you just please soften their hearts to the gospel and that they, especially around the holiday season, would think about Christ, think about the Bible, and that they would just get a good opportunity to hear the gospel this holiday season, Lord. I also pray during this week, during Thanksgiving and all the festivities going on that you would keep our members safe, especially with a lot of drunk drivers at this time, and that you would just bless our church this weekend. We love you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. That's going to be it for announcements. This time we'll go ahead and go to our third song. All right, if you will get your white handouts and turn to Holy, Holy, Holy in your white handouts. Holy, Holy, Holy. We'll sing there starting on the first. Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, Holy, Holy. Merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, Holy, Holy. All the saints adoring, passing down their golden crowns around the classy sea. Tear of Him and stare of Him, falling down before Thee, which works at our hands evermore shall be. Holy, Holy, Holy. Though the darkness hide in thee, though the eye of sinful mankind more remain not see. Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee, perfect and wild in love and purity. Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord God Almighty. All that works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, Holy, Holy. Merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy, Holy, Holy. Good evening. Tonight we're in 1 Samuel 15. The Bible reads, Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid weight for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Teilam, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid weight in the valley. And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel. When they came up out of Egypt, so the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites, and Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest unto Shur, that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the phalings, and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. And when Samuel arose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night, and he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil and sheep in oxen the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in thy words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle and at rent, and Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord. Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me. Agag the king of the Amalekites, and Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah to worship, and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for our new church. Thank you, Baptist Church. And we just ask that you would help us learn from the Lord. And we ask that you will pass the altar to the Holy Spirit, and that you would help us in using the prayer. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, we are in 1 Samuel, chapter number 15 this evening. Let's start reading in verse number 1. The Bible says, Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. If you would turn to Exodus, chapter number 17. We start off this chapter with Samuel speaking to Saul, and he's saying, look, God chose you, and so since God chose you, it's time for you to listen. It's time for you to hearken to the voice of the Lord. Of course, this is something that Saul has shown to have a serious problem with, being someone that's presumptuous and kind of just does his own thing. Samuel's saying, listen, I want you to pay attention to the instructions I'm going to give you. Then he brings up this group, the Amalekites, and God says to, through Samuel, to Saul, that he remembers what the Amalekites did. And the first thing that jumped out at me in this chapter is the fact that while we're saved, God doesn't remember our sin. God forgets about our sin. He's forgiven us of our sin. The scary thing for the unsaved is that God remembers every sin of the unsaved. God remembers the transgressions of the wicked, and here we are in the book of 1 Samuel, and God is bringing up something that happened way in the past in history. He's saying, I still remember what the Amalekites did. Let's look at what they did in Exodus chapter 17. This is what God is talking about here in verse number 8. The Bible says, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. So when they were having this battle, it was kind of a back and forth where the children of Israel were winning, the Amalekites were winning. The children of Israel were winning, going back and forth, there's a lot of death happening on both sides. Then it says in verse 12, But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And verse 14 is interesting. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. God is saying because of this, because of the fact that the Amalekites are fighting against the children of Israel for no reason, they're attacking God's people, God says, I am going to make sure that I wipe these people off the face of the earth. He's saying, I'm going to wipe out the remembrance of them from under heaven. In fact, why don't you just go ahead and write this down in the Bible? Because I'm going to wipe them out so hard that you wouldn't even know who they are if it wasn't for the Bible telling you. Can anyone go to Amalek today? No, Amalek is destroyed. The Amalekites have been destroyed by God. Yet here we are all the way, you know, this story is in Exodus, right? Here we are in 1 Samuel and God's saying, I remember what the Amalekites did. You know, that's a scary thing to think about because the unsaved, like I mentioned, when God looks at us, he doesn't remember our sin, he's forgiven us of our sin, but he will always remember the sins of the wicked that are unsaved. And he will hold them accountable for their sin. Go to Hebrews chapter number 10, Hebrews chapter number 10. And you know, I'm sure as Christians we often take for granted the fact that our sins are forgiven, that God doesn't even remember them. But you know, that's not the case for the rest of this world. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 16 says this, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. Notice verse 17, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. You know, this is a good proof text that you don't have to be sinlessly perfect to get to heaven because our sins still exist, it's just that God doesn't remember them anymore. You know, you're not going to have to stand before God as someone who's been saved, someone who has had all of their sins wiped away by the blood of Christ, and say, well God, let me explain this sin, and let me tell you about this sin. He's going to be like, what sins? I've already forgotten all of them. Jesus Christ is our advocate, he's our mediator, and God the Father has completely struck it from the record. You know, there's a book, and he's saying, hey, there's another thing in here, your record's clean, he's forgotten about our sins. But go to Jude, and I want to show you that this is not the case for the ungodly, this is not the case for the wicked. Hey, this is not the case for the Amalekites. Here we are, a large period of time later, and he's saying, I still remember what they did. You know, you think that God would have just forgotten, or just let it go by then, but here's the thing. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and he doesn't just forget things. He's not going to just let things go. No, he's got to punish sin. Jude, verse 14, says this, And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have not have spoken against him. You know, if someone's unsaved in this room, or listening to this, or just the reality of unsaved people in this world is that God is not going to forget about you. It's not like you're just going to slip through the cracks, and God's going to forget about your sin. No, Jude was prophesying about this thousands of years ago, that God is coming to execute judgment upon all. And the truth is, the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you know what? The reality of hell is something that is on the table for all of mankind. And it's something that all people have to deal with by deciding whether or not they're going to believe the gospel. Because God is not going to just forget your sins unless you have the blood of the Lamb applied to your life. Go to Matthew chapter number 12, Matthew chapter number 12. We're going to see Jesus talking about the things that God is going to remember someday in the judgment. Verse 31 of Matthew 12, Jesus said, Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh a good man, out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. So get the picture here. On one side you have Hebrews 10 telling you that those that are saved, God is not going to remember your sins. God's not even going to remember your iniquities. It's all forgiven. It's as if it never even happened to begin with. Then on the complete other extreme is the unsaved, where God says that they will give account for every idle word that is spoken. See, God, to the unsaved, to the wicked, he's not going to forget that one time that they blew off their mouth and blasphemed the name of the Lord. God's not going to forget every single instance that they had an impure thought, every single time that they disobeyed authority, every single time that they didn't honor their father or mother. You can just keep going down the list of all the commandments that people have broken. God is not going to forget a single instance of breaking his law. That's how harsh he is on the unsaved. That's why they go to hell. Oh, God's not harsh. Excuse me. The unsaved spend eternity burning in hell. Yes, God is harsh, but God's righteous because those people deserve it. Why? Because they've broken God's commandments. So have we. We deserve it as well. But that's why salvation is by grace. No one deserves salvation. We all deserve that harshness from God. But thank God, God has given us mercy by us trusting in his son, Jesus Christ. And so now God does not remember our sins. Go back, if you would, to 1 Samuel 15. So just seemingly out of nowhere, he's saying, hey, I still remember Amalek. I still remember what they did. Now he's going to give some instruction on what he wants Saul to do. Verse 3, God speaking through Samuel, the Bible says, Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Sounds like God's really serious. He remembers what they did, and he's so angry about it, he says, I want you, like I said in Exodus 17, to wipe their memory from off the face of the earth. He's saying completely extinguish these people, all their possessions, the women, the ox, everything, infant and suckling. I mean, this is not the normal MO for Israel going to battle. This is something that's way above the normal threshold. He's saying, I want you to completely kill everything. God remembered their sin, and now God is ready to avenge. Stay there, or actually go ahead and go to Romans 13. While you're turning there, I'll read real quick Romans 12, 9, the Bible says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. You know, I'm sure that Moses and Joshua were upset at the fact that the battle kept going back and forth and that they were losing a lot of men, presumably, and I'm sure at times that they were just really upset and wanted to go and take vengeance back on the Amalekites and wipe them off the face of the earth, but it really wasn't the time for that. God wanted to wait until he told Saul to do that, and I think one of the things that this could teach us is that we need to wait in life for God to avenge us, because here's the thing. God hasn't forgotten about the things that the wicked have done to us. God has not forgotten about all the hard sayings that ungodly sinners have spoken against our former pastor, Pastor Shelley in Steadfast Baptist Church. God heard every idle word of the protests. God heard every idle word of the railers and the false accusations and the lying news media. He remembers all that, and someday he will recompense that, because guess what? Those reprobates are unsaved, and they're going to split hell wide open. But, you know, sometimes we could have the temptation when we see the wicked like the Amalekites in our life attacking us, hurting God's people. We could say, man, I want to take them out myself. I want to take care of this issue right now, when really what we don't realize is that in the future there's going to be a Saul that God tells to go destroy those people. In the future, there's going to be a drunk driver that runs over a pride parade. In the future, there's going to be some Muslim go shoot up a pride, you know, faggot bar, whatever. God is going to bring vengeance, and we shouldn't be the ones that go and take it upon ourselves to take vengeance for our own behalf. Now, here's the thing. You say, well, it seems like they're taking vengeance because God's, you know, there's men here that are told to go wipe these people out. What you have to understand is that God uses men to execute His wrath oftentimes. You see God judge people sometimes in the Bible where He just supernaturally judges them, right? Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, hell literally just opens up and He just sends those sinners straight into hell. That's of God. Then there's other times where God tells men to execute judgment. Now, this is one of the purposes of government. Now, I know today Americans think that government is there to tell you what mask to wear, how many booster shots you should have, if you can or can't homeschool your children, how much money you owe them, but that's actually not why government was created. Look at one of the reasons why government was created in Romans 13, 3. It says, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. By the way, that's how you know if you have a bad government, if government is being a terror to good people, to the righteous. That's how you know you have a wicked government. But they are supposed to be a terror to the evil. The evil should be terrified of government. The wicked should be terrified of law enforcement, of law enforcement officials and the court of law. The wicked should be scared of those people. It says, wilt thou not then be afraid of the power? God's given them power. Do that which is good, and thou shall have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God noticed, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. The Bible talks about this minister, who is basically an official of human government, who does not bear the sword in vain. Now, what do you use a sword for? For utterly destroying people, just like the Amalekites were supposed to be utterly destroyed. That's what you use a sword for. And the Bible is saying here, hey, righteous government doesn't bear the sword in vain. Their sword isn't just something pretty that they hang up on the wall. No, they're supposed to use that thing against the ungodly, against the wicked evildoers. Why? A revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. You see, God gave us laws in the Bible that merit the death penalty, and God expects someone on this earth to carry that out. Now, it's not us. It's not individuals. It's not the family. It's not the church. It's human government. And so God says, hey, thou shalt not kill. He talks about, hey, if you shed man's blood, then your blood needs to be shed. He's not talking about some random guy going out and just killing someone because that person's a murderer. He's saying the minister of God that bears the sword not in vain. That's the guy that should go execute that person. And, of course, today we have a good system if it was followed properly where you're charged with a crime, you're arrested, you're supposed to get a speedy trial of your peers. It's supposed to be an impartial trial. You're supposed to have the presumption of innocence and that your presumption of innocence remains valid until there is beyond reasonable doubt of your guilt. Jury has to convict you, and then you are sentenced by a judge of what the judgment is going to be. There's nothing wrong with that system. That system's great. But here's the thing that should happen is that the government that bears the sword not in vain should look at someone that's committed adultery and say, oh, look, Leviticus 21st 10 says that this person should be put to death and they should put that person to death. Why? Because that's what the sword is for. And it's not for us to take vengeance on ourselves. We should wait for the proper authorities to take vengeance for us. And here's the thing. Yeah, we're living in a time where our government doesn't follow a lot of the laws of the Bible, but, you know, they do still follow some. And some punishment against evildoers is better than none, right? You know, I would rather someone who is a serial killer at least be locked up in a cage for the rest of their life than nothing to happen to them. Now, obviously, I would rather them get put to death like the Bible says, but my point is don't go avenging yourself on the wicked, on the Amalekites of this world. You know, there is proper authority, proper channels for God to take care of things, and God will take vengeance. Sometimes that is through man. Go to Deuteronomy 18. Now, the question is, why is God telling Saul to wipe out this whole nation? The men, the women, the infants, the sucklings, the ox, the ass? I mean, this is a gruesome description that we're reading here. And if you're not aware of other scriptures in the Bible, you might think, you know, is God kind of going overboard here? And a lot of people would look at this story and blaspheme the Lord and call them all sorts of wicked names for this story. But I want to explain to you why God is giving this severe of a punishment to the Amalekites. Deuteronomy 18, 9, look what it says. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. So he's saying, hey, when you come into the promised land, which of course that was after Moses, don't do the abominations of the people living there. Here we are in 1 Samuel, they've already gone into the land, right? They're in Israel. So the nations that are around them, we could safely assume, are the ones that it's talking about here, because they're in the land. Verse 10, there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. Notice this next phrase, and because of these abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God, for these nations which thou shalt possess hearkened unto observers of times and unto diviners, but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee to do so. So notice, God is saying, because of all these things, this is why I'm driving out these nations from before you, because they are a people full of witches, full of necromancers, people trying to communicate with the dead, people that pass their children through the fire. These are barbarians. These are the lowest human beings, people that would give their children up to the fire to sacrifice their children, people that are charmers, consult with familiar spirits, wizards. I mean, these are extremely wicked people. This is not your average, unsaved guy that we knock on their door, and they're living a pretty good life. They're going to work. They're taking care of their family. They're just unsaved and mix up on the gospel. That's not who the Amalekites are. The Amalekites are people that you may have never even met in your entire life. That's how wicked they are, people that are extremely evil. Go to Leviticus chapter 18, Leviticus chapter 18. Let's see what else these people were like. So we see so far they're witches, necromancers, consulting with familiar spirits, giving up their children to the fire. Look at Leviticus 18 21. The Bible says, And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech. We see that again. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, I am the Lord. Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is an abomination. So what are these people? Sodomites. Neither shalt thou lie down with any beast to defile thyself therewith. Neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto. It is confusion. You know, sometimes I read this and I think, wow, God actually had to tell people this stuff. Why? Because people were doing this. Look what it says in verse number 24. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things, notice, for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you. Did you read that? The reason God is casting out the nations before the children of Israel is because they were all defiled in these things. Passing their children to the fire. Men with men. Women with beasts. That's how sick and disgusting these people are. Can you start to see maybe why God would say, hey, why don't we just nuke this whole country? Why don't we just wipe these people off the face of the earth since all their children are being molested by sodomites anyways and are living a disgusting life, being tormented, being abused. Even their animals are being abused. Why don't we go ahead and just kill all the oxes and asses too while we're at it since these poor animals are being abused by these sick Amalekites. Look at verse 25 and the land is defiled. Therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it and the land itself vomited out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments and shall not commit any of these abominations neither any of your own nation nor any stranger that sojourneth among you for all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you and the land is defiled. Let the land spew not you out also when ye defile it as it spewed out the nations that were before you. You know, so we're starting to get a picture of why God would be so harsh with the Amalekites and in God's judgment, which let me remind you, is better than my opinion, is better than your opinion. You know, His ways are higher than our ways. We have the flesh, we have a sinful mind, we don't understand things as good as God does and God looked down from heaven and saw a bunch of Sodomites, saw a bunch of beastophiles, saw a bunch of witches and said, you know what, these people aren't even fit to breathe air. These people are not even fit to be alive, to even be around your nation. Why? Because people like this corrupt the world. They corrupt the world. And you know, the truth is we all corrupt things to a certain extent because of our sins. But you know, there's a difference between sins that are natural, that are common to man, a man lusting after another woman. It's wrong. It's a wrong thing to do. There's no excuse for it. But you know, there's a big difference between that and a man that would be with a child and a woman that would stand before a beast. These are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. They're not even in the same universe. And someone that is that demented, here's what you got to understand about people that are guilty of these type of sins, is that they will do anything. They will do things that your mind cannot even fathom unless someone opened up the criminal record and said, here's what this person did. Because you know, if we didn't know about people like Jeffrey Dahmer, we wouldn't even be able to think about how someone could lure someone into your apartment, drug them up, and then chop up their body and eat them. That's what that sick sodomite Jeffrey Dahmer did. You know, these are things that we can't even comprehend because we're normal people. But guess what? God knows everything. And he says, look, the Amalekites, you just need to kill their women, their children, their asses, their oxen. All of them need to die. That was God's righteous judgment. And you know, today we have people that want to love the Amalekites. Today we have people say, oh, just give counseling to the Amalekite. Look, let me tell you something. This is gross, but let me just say it. A woman that would stand before a beast, there's nothing you could do to fix that person. That person needs to be put down like a dog because, quite frankly, the dog is better than her. And a man, same thing for him. And a sodomite, same thing for him. And a pedophile, same thing for him. That's why Jesus said that it's better for someone that offends a child to just go ahead and have a millstone tied around their neck and to be dropped into the sea. It's better for that to happen than to offend one of these children. And so God sees, God knows the future, God knows what the world would look like if nations like the Amalekites were just allowed to continue to live and thrive and how much damage that they would cause to people's life. And God actually, in His love and in His mercy, says these people have to go. And what you have to understand is that people call God hateful, but on the other side of the coin, whenever you see the hatred of God, is the love of God there too as well. Because you know what? Yeah, God does hate the pedophile. God does hate the sodomite. God does hate the beast-a-phile. But you know what? He loves the child that was going to be abused by that person. He loves the innocent victim that was going to be harmed, that was going to be drugged, that was going to be murdered by that innocent person. And so God is actually protecting the innocent by telling Saul to wipe these people out. Go back to 1 Samuel 15, 1 Samuel chapter 15. God remembers what the wicked did, and He's not going to show them mercy. He wants them destroyed. Verse 3, Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them and tell Aiim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid weight in the valley. And Saul said unto the Kenites, so this is a different group, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. So notice God isn't just on a bloodbath campaign here where He just wants to kill everyone. No, because when the Kenites showed up, they were not someone that was like the Amalekites. They were actually just innocent bystanders. And so Saul warns them and says, hey, get out of the way. We're coming to take care of these people. Get out of the way. Lest you get destroyed with the Amalekites. And so we see on one hand, God remembers what the wicked did and he's ready to pay them back. God also remembers the kindness and the good that the Kenites did to the children of Israel. And he's showing mercy on them. Makes me think about how Jesus talks about how if someone just gives us a glass of cold water in the name of a disciple, he will in no wise lose his reward. Right. So while God sees every sin, every idle word, and he's going to hold people account to that, he also sees every good thing that is done. And he remembers that and takes that into account when he's making decisions as the Lord of the universe. So he looks down and he sees these Kenites and he kind of puts it in the heart of Saul here to warn those people. Why? Because these aren't the beast of piles. These aren't the Sodomites. These are actual just innocent bystanders. Verse 7, And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah, until thou comest to Shur that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. So here we see once again, Saul disobeying God. Because God made it very clear, I want to wipe out the remembrance of these people from the earth. I want woman, child, suckling, ass, ox, I want you to destroy everything. And while he mostly obeys God, you know what, he said, I'm going to keep Agag. I'm going to keep their king. Not only am I going to keep their king, I'll destroy the things that are vile and refuse, but I'm going to keep the things that are good. I'm going to keep things that are nice. I'm going to keep the things that have monetary value. And Saul, once again, he's the leader, but you know what, he's not following God, he's just on his own program. And you have to realize that in life, God has given us very detailed instructions, and he expects us to follow them exactly as he said. And when you obey God, 90% of the time, you know what, you could still incur the wrath of God on your life. And God could still look down from you and be angry at you for partial obedience, because partial obedience is disobedience. If he says, kill them all, the answer is, did he do that, yes or no? No, he did not. He could sit there and protest saying, well, I killed most of them. Well, I mostly obeyed you, Lord. But you know what, let's see how God feels about it. Verse 10. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king. He's saying, I regret this, for he has turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. Notice in God's eyes, you know, we might read this story and we might see a guy who we say, yeah, he partially obeyed. Yeah, he followed God to a certain extent. But the way God sees it is he says, hey, this person has stopped following me. This person has stopped obeying me and hath not performed my commandments. You might look at this or Saul might look at this and say, oh, I have performed your commandments 90% of the way. No, God says you have not performed my commandments. No, he says you're not following me whatsoever. 1 Samuel chapter 15, look at verse 9 again. It says, But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good. It would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile in refuse that he utterly destroyed. Why is it that Saul did not fully obey God for the same reason that a lot of Christians and a lot of Christian leaders do not fully obey God? You want to know what it is? It's the love of money. That's what it is, because Saul was told to completely wipe everything out. But notice all the things that were good, the fatlings, the lambs, and he would not utterly destroy those things. Only the things that were vile in refuse. He looked at the people God told him to destroy and he says, OK, this is bad. This is vile. This is gross. Yeah, we could destroy this. Oh, but no, look at the assets that this guy has. Look at all the cattle this guy has. Look at this fatling. I'm going to keep those things. He looked at things that had monetary value and he refused to destroy them. He refused to obey God. Why? Because he had some sort of love of material goods in his heart. Go to Romans Chapter one, Romans one. While you're turning there, I'll read First Timothy six ten. The Bible says, For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You know, it made me think about this today and not just today. Through a long time in this country, our country has had a serious problem with the Amalekites. They're called the Sodomites today. The Amalekites in our nation is the LGBTQ two seven five nine or whatever you want to call them. That's the Amalekites today in our country. And you know what? God has given us very clear passages in the Bible of how he feels about it, what he did to them. And he tells us in the New Testament, hey, everything that I told you in the Old Testament about them is still an example unto you today of how I feel. But there's a lot of Saul pastors that they see, hey, God's told me to destroy them. But you know what they do? They spare. They spare and they won't do it. You want to know why? The same reason Saul did it. They love money. They want to have a big building. They want to have the nice programs. They want to have the prestige and they don't want to piss people off. That's what they don't want to do. They don't want to do the rough, nasty job of explaining to people that sodomites are a bunch of pedophiles that hate God, that molest children. You know what they'd rather do? They'd rather get up on Sunday and put a weird smile on their face and talk smoothly and softly to them and tell them every Sunday about the love of God, the love of God, the love of God. OK, what about the love of God when God told Saul to kill men, women, children, babies, oxes and asses? We need to talk about that love of God. Oh, yeah, you don't want to because you love money. And the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Now, where's our clear instruction? Where did God clearly tell us how he feels about it? Romans one, verse 24, the Bible says, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections, just like the vile things we read about in Leviticus, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burn in their lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. I'm not going to break down everything in this chapter tonight. It's outside of the scope of this sermon. We'll do that sometime. But the one thing I just want you to realize about this chapter is that it is crystal clear that we're talking about sodomites here. Women have left the natural use, they've perverted nature, and men are now with men doing that which is unseemly. We're obviously talking about sodomites here. Now notice what it says, verse 28, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, Oh, they'll get saved. The Amalekites will get saved. Let's pray for the Amalekites to get saved. Let's preach the gospel to the Amalekites. They don't even want to retain God in their knowledge. They don't want to think about God. They want to do anything but think about God. God gave them over to a reprobate mind, means rejected. God has rejected these people just like he rejected the Amalekites. Where was the message of hope for the Amalekites? Where was Saul going up to them and saying, Yay, 40 days and Amalek shall be overthrown. And then they get right with God and repent. No, no, no. It was kill them all because they're reprobate. They're rejected to do those things which are not convenient being filled. Now the Bible is going to tell us what they're like with all unrighteousness. Remember I said things we can't even think up of. Just everything that's possibly a sin is what they're filled with. Fornication. That's obvious. The most perverted form of fornication. Wickedness. Yep. Covetousness. Yep. They got nothing else to live for but this world. Maliciousness. Full of envy. Murder. Debate. Deceit. Malignity. Whisperers. Backbiters. Haters of God. Despiteful. Proud. Right? Pride month. Boasters. Inventors of evil things. They sit around and think about ways to harm. Disobedient to parents. Without understanding. Covenant breakers. Without natural affection. Implacable. Unmerciful. Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things, notice, are worthy of death. Not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them. Hey, you know, to the pastors out there, I missed the part in this chapter, I missed the part in this description where it says, worthy of going to church. Oh, filled with desire to change their life. Where in the Bible do you see any group of people that's given such a long list of adjectives to describe how wicked they are? This is the this is the list right here where God is just taking so much time to explain to us how terrible sodomites are, how wicked they are. Where in this passage do you see bring them to church? Where in this passage do you see let them be around your children? Where in this passage do you see go over to your gay uncle's house for Thanksgiving and hang out with him and let him talk to your kids? Hey, where does he spend Christmas with the faggot family members? No, you just see warning after warning after warning telling you how bad they are. And at the end, God says, oh, they're worthy of preaching the gospel. Is that what he says? They're worthy of loving them to Christ, changing their ways. No, he says they're just like the Amalekites. They're worthy of death. Now, did I just make this up or is this just the Bible tonight? Yet how many pastors will never preach this chapter? Oh, they'll preach the first part about how we're not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Oh, amen. Amen. From faith to faith and amen to those things. That's great. But you know what? There's a lot more in that chapter that God gave us. And there is major problems happening in our country because of Saul pastors that want to spare a gag. And guess what? It's making everyone else gag, too, by you sparing a gag. You know, who wants to go to church with a flaming faggot next to you? And, you know, we live in Oklahoma, praise God, where I almost never see these people. Maybe it's just because I was protested for so long that I was just used to seeing hordes of faggots every week of my life. So now it just feels like they don't exist. I know they exist here. Of course they do. But, you know, it's like even if they're not everywhere in your peripheral and you're not just thinking about them all the time, which thank God I'm not. I hope you're not. You know what? This is still in the Bible for a reason. And I'm not just preaching this because, oh, I just love to preach against the Sodomites. I mean, what other application can you make? I mean, what's the group of people today that God's not going to show any mercy to, that God has no love for, that God wants completely destroyed? It's faggots. Those are the people today. Those are the Amalekites today. And you know what? America would be a better place if our rulers opened up Leviticus, verse 2013, and said, hey, let's start executing this law. Let's start implementing this law. And I'm not saying, hey, let's not take vengeance, right? Let's allow God to avenge us. We're never going to advocate violence against any Sodomite. I don't recommend anyone goes out and does anything to them. I think you should just stay as far away from them as humanly possible. But what I do think is that the government should be rounding these people up. I think that the government should be putting them to trial, that the government should lawfully be putting them to death, because that actually is the loving thing to do for our country. And guess what? I'm not Saul, so I don't care of the financial consequences of preaching this truth, because I actually love people and actually victims. And you know what? It's just a shame today how our country went from being a godly nation, went from being a place where homos were so afraid to exist in the United States of America that they used to be in the closet. Some of you young kids have never experienced a time where Sodomites were in the closet. You know, there's other places in this world where Sodomites are still in the closet. It's called Russia. They are in the closet in Russia because you know that if you fly an LGBT flag in Russia or you promote any type of LGBT propaganda in Russia, that that is a crime in the nation of Russia? Did you know that the state-sponsored news media of Russia got up on their government-funded program? This is like NPR. This is like PBS. And they said, we will pay for one-way flights to the United States for all Sodomites. It's just like, dun dun dun dun dun. It's like, this is great. This is wonderful. And obviously Russia is not some beacon of the gospel, I get that, but at least they don't want these freaks in their nation. And what a shame it is that we're the trash can for faggots. Russia is like, hey, where do we put all of our Sodomites? Let's just pay for a flight to America. Let's just send them to Miami. Let's send them to San Francisco. Let's send them to Dallas, Texas. Yeah, there's a lot there. Wow, what a shame. Go back to 1 Samuel 15. You know what? I think that God is angry at pastors like Saul today. Like God was angry at Saul. He says, look, this guy's gone back from following me. This guy's not obeying my commandments. I think that's how God feels today about pastors that won't preach about this issue. Verse 12. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told, Samuel saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set him up a place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal. Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Notice the self-deception of Saul here. And no one even asked him. He just comes up and says, hey, I just want to let you know, blessed be the Lord. Of course, let me start with that. Let me get my spiritual talk going here. Just want to let you know that I have obeyed God. OK, if someone came up to me saying that, I would immediately have a lot of questions. Why are you saying this? Hey, I just want to let you know I've done really good today. I've obeyed God. I've not sinned at all. It's like, this is weird, but this is how deceived Saul is in his mind. And this is and this is kind of what pastors do. This is exactly what they do today. They say, well, I preached that it's not a delightsome lifestyle. I've obeyed the commandment of the Lord. I said that Sodomites need to repent of their sins to get saved. It's like, hold on, idiot. When did the Bible ever say being a sodomite is a sin? Guess what? It never says that. Never says that. Oh, let me let me take a bold stand right here. This church will always preach that being homosexual is a sin. Hey, idiot, the Bible says that they should be put to death. The Bible brings up in Leviticus 18 how their abomination and they should be put to death. Leviticus 20, their abomination and they should be put to death. Romans one. They're worthy of death. OK, Jude. Hey, remember when I killed all the sodomites in Sodom and Gomorrah? Yeah, this is an example of how I feel about it today. Death. Where where is the oh, they're sinners, though. No, you haven't obeyed the word of the Lord preacher by getting up and saying, well, I've obeyed God's commandments because I said that it's not a good lifestyle. The Bible doesn't care about their lifestyle. The Bible cares about their life. The Bible cares about them being alive because they're hurting other individuals. And God expects his men to actually faithfully preach what God told them to preach. Not just, oh, yeah, I've obeyed God. I said it wasn't good. We don't hey, we don't have any pride flags up here, Jude. Like this is the stance of Baptists today. Oh, yeah, the Methodists, they've got flags on their church. But here we're not flying an LGBT flag. Guess what? That's not a stand, idiot. You're being Saul. You're being stupid. You're being disobedient. Verse 14. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Hey, it's really obvious to tell that Saul didn't obey because God said, kill everything. And he's hearing. It's like. Samuel's like, what is this, Saul? Oh, you obeyed God? Then why am I hearing these animals? It's like, oh, old IFB, you obeyed God? Then why am I hearing about children being abused in your church? Why am I hearing about Cameron Juvenelli, the faggot, being moved from one Baptist church to another after being exposed as a faggot? Why am I hearing about that? Hey, the bleeding of the sheep in mine ears is proof that you have not obeyed God. Stay there. I'll read for you. First Timothy four or five. Twenty four says some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. Hey, some sins are very obvious and in the open. And it's very obvious when sodomites are in church that the pastor has not obeyed the voice of the Lord. It's very obvious when Israel flag is in church that the pastor is not reading his Bible. That doesn't understand Zionism, doesn't understand replacement theology. And in your life and in my life, I'm sure that there are sins that are open beforehand, that people could just look at us and say, like, yeah, this person has that problem. And, you know, when when you start to hear the bleeding of the sheep in your life, you should say like, hey, maybe this is a sign that I'm actually not obeying God. Maybe I actually need to make a change here. Maybe this is a clear, obvious sign that there's something wrong in my life and actually fix it and not have this self-deluded mentality of of Saul saying, oh, I've obeyed the voice of the Lord. Look at verse 15. It says in verse 15, And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites. So he blames other people for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. And the rest we have utterly destroyed. So what does Saul do? Once again, he gives a spiritual excuse for his sin. And I'm going to keep hammering the same application about these pastors that won't preach against the LGBT sodomites because they do the exact same thing. They give a spiritual reason. Well, we just want them to be saved. Well, we just want to love on them and explain to them the love of Jesus. But it's like, guess what? It doesn't matter what you want, because God rejected them. Whether you like that or not doesn't really matter. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. And so if there's nothing God could do for them, there's nothing that we could do for them. The only thing that's going to happen by inviting sodomites into your church is that they are going to harm people in your church. And, you know, it's just a shame how bad pastors have become today where the hireling is like the guy that sees the wolf and flees. Right. But yet pastors today are worse than hirelings because they're not just seeing wolves come into their church and just running away from the problem. They're actually inviting the wolves into their church. Like that's how bad of a shepherd that they are. I mean, could you imagine if you got hired to watch over a flock? I used to live in Idaho and there's a lot of wolves there and the wolves will go in and they will kill an entire flock of sheep in one night. They won't even eat the sheep. Like they'll just tear them to shreds and just kill them all. Let's say an Idaho farmer, OK, hires you to protect his flock. And you set up in your camouflage. You've got your AR 15. You're ready to go. But you decide, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out a predator call. You know what a predator call is? It's a call that sounds like a dying animal with the goal of having wolves come to you so that you can shoot and kill them. It's really fun. OK. But you're like, all right, I've been paid by this by this guy to take care of his sheep. I know what I'll do. I'm just going to call the predators here. Hey, you can come to this flock. I love you. We'll invite you. Hey, go play with the sheep. Go play with sheep. You don't watch the sheep. In fact, I'm out of here. You wolves have got this right. That's what pastors are doing today. They're not just so stupid or lazy that they just fall asleep when they're supposed to be watching or something like that. They're literally just getting out the predator call and just crying out to the world. Come to my flock. Come hurt the children here. Let me tell you something. This block is not up for sodomites to prey on because this church has a no sodomite policy. No one who is involved in any unnatural sin is ever welcome at Anchor Baptist Church is ever welcome at any activity of Anchor Baptist Church. And, you know, I expect if one of those freaks try to come to this church for the ushers to immediately call the police and to lawfully remove that person as a trespasser. This is not an argument with them. It's not a conversation that they're going to have. No, they're not allowed. Period. End of story. Well, what if the laws? I don't care. I care what the Bible says. Verse number 16 says, Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel. And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And, you know, it cannot be stated enough. It cannot be said often enough how dangerous the sin of pride is in our lives. When God is saying, look, when you were little in your own sight, everything was great. God had Saul planned to use him as a great leader and a great king. And we've seen a lot of chapters in this book where we just focused on the great leadership qualities of Saul and what a good man he was. I want to know why God was using him is because he was little in his own sight. He didn't look at himself as being someone special or great or wonderful. But now he's this guy that thinks, hey, you know, I know God told me to do this, but I just think that we should spare Agag. I just think that we should spare all the nice things from Amalek. And God's saying, you know, hey, I'm upset at you because of this, because you're no longer little in your own sight. Verse 20. And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. No, you didn't, Saul. And here's the thing about people that are prideful. It's one of those annoying sins to deal with because people that are prideful are completely blind to their issues. Pride is a blinding sin. And people that struggle the most with pride, they don't even know that they're prideful oftentimes. That's the scary thing about it, that we have to really ask God to search our hearts and pray and look at the scriptures and examine our actions to objectively decide whether or not we're being prideful. Because if you're just up to left to decide, am I prideful, you're pretty much always going to think no. But the truth is, you look at God's commandments and you say, God told you to do this, but you just thought it was totally fine to not do that. You're prideful. Oh, you know, I know the Bible tells me to obey my husband, but you've got to understand my husband's an idiot. My husband makes the wrong decisions. You're prideful. Oh yeah, I know the Bible tells me to listen to my boss at work, to be subject to him, to not work for him with just eye service, but to be fervent in spirit with him. But what you've got to understand is that I'm better than my boss. Pride. And the reason you disobey him is because you think you're better than him. And here, Saul thinks he's better than God. Saul thinks his way is better than God. And again, this is like a lot of pastors today where they don't say, this is the final authority. The King James Bible is the final authority. They say, whatever my opinion is, is the final authority. And when the Bible doesn't jive with what they say, oh, don't worry. In the Greek, it actually says to spare a gag and all the nice things. And that's how they get around God's commandments. Oh, I know that the Bible says to kill all of them, but what you've got to understand is you don't speak Greek. And if you go back to the Greek, it actually says whatever I think, because I'm better than God. That's the Saul mentality. Look at verse number 21. It says, But the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the things that should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. And you see what he does? He blames the people. Yet we saw the narrator of the Bible said that Saul and the people spared a gag. Saul and the people spared all the things that were nice and good. Yet he wants to be a weak leader here and just blame his followers. And this is what this is what pastors will do, too. It's like, hey, pastor, why aren't you preaching against the LGBT? Why aren't you preaching what the Bible says? They may not say this with their mouth, but this is the reason. Because of the people. Because the people will get mad, because the people will leave my church, because the people will stop giving me money. And so they decide to make a political decision to not preach the truth because of the people. They'll blame the people for their own sin. Or it's like, hey, husband, why aren't you going to church? Why aren't you leading your family? Why did you stop soul winning? Why did you stop being free to thrive? Oh, you got to understand my wife, weak leader. You Saul of a leader, you. Oh, why did you spare? Well, because the people did it. No, you're just weak. No, you're just a coward. No, you're just a hypocrite. No, you need to just gird up your loins like a man and just say, yeah, you know what? I need to get back in church. Yeah, I need to tell my wife, let's go soul winning. Yeah, I need to tell my children, let's serve the Lord and not just blame your followers. Verse twenty two, and Samuel said at the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken than the fad of Rams. People make up all these stories in their mind and they think, well, you know, I'm making this big sacrifice of doing all this work. But here's the thing. If you're sacrificing something but you're not obeying God, God doesn't have any pleasure in that. You know, you got people all over this world in false religion that will give their life savings to a false church. You got people in Mexico that will literally beat themselves. And I know someone who witnessed his mother as a child in Mexico. Wake up in the morning and get one of those things and just start beating herself bloody. That's a great sacrifice. But guess what? God's not pleased with that because God never told you to do that. And so it's like, oh, well, I wanted, you know, make this big sacrifice of all these great things. That's why I spared a gag. That's why I spared the good things. But guess what? God doesn't care about that. He cares about you obeying his voice. Right. So it's like, what would God rather a preacher not preach against the sodomites, not preach anything controversial, ignore the spicy passages of the Bible so that he could build some big building, some big ministry and have all this money. And the pastor's thinking, oh, Lord, look at all this money that I'm using for you. But hold on. Would God rather actually a preacher or pastor to maybe not have all this great things he could sacrifice, but actually to obey the voice of the Lord? You know, I don't think John the Baptist had that much money. Yet he was the greatest man born among women. Where was John the Baptist supporting 100 missionaries to whatever country? When did John the Baptist do that? When did John the Baptist donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to anything like that? Not saying there's anything wrong with that stuff. If God has blessed you to do that, great. But I'm just saying God doesn't want us to disobey his commandments and refrain from preaching the whole counsel of God at the expense of building something big. Having a bunch of money, having a great program. You know what? If we have to be John the Baptist in the wilderness ministries, but preach the whole Bible, that's the church I want to go to. Go to verse 23 while I read Romans 13 10, the Bible says, Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Pastor, you say you love God. Well, loving God is fulfilling the law. Christian, you say I love God. Love is fulfilling the law. Love is obeying the commandments. Verse 23 says, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. You know, God looks down from heaven. He sees a stubborn Christian, a stubborn preacher, and he thinks in his mind, this guy's acting like an idolater. This rebellious person is acting like an idolater. You know, God looks down from heaven at a wife that rebels against her husband. You know what he thinks? This woman's acting like a witch. That's literally what the Bible says. That should not be us. And notice what he says. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected thee from being king. Rebellion leads to replacement. Rebellion leads to replacement. As a leader, as a country, I mean, think about the Jews themselves. Christ came. Did they submit to him and accept him as Lord and Savior? Nope, they rejected him and they were replaced. Saul rebelled against God and he was replaced. Verse 24, And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned. So finally, it gets through a little bit to him. For I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and my words, because I have feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee. For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. Saul says, hey, I've sinned. Will God please forgive me? Will you just turn again with me so that I could worship God? And you know what Samuel's answer was? No. That's, and think about it, because in the scope of salvation, Saul is saved. And we'll come to that later in this book to explain why Saul is saved. But I believe firmly that Saul is saved. So God has forgiven his sins from a salvific standpoint. But when it comes to restoring him as king, that ship has sailed. God is done with him. And once someone has become a proverbial Saul, once someone has rejected the word of God and God has rejected the word of God, there's no helping that person restore. There's things in your life that you could do that, of course, you could never lose your salvation. But there's sins that you could commit. There's actions that you could perform in this life to where once you do them, though you're sorry, though you repent, though you ask for forgiveness, there's going to be irreversible consequences for those things. You know, what comes to mind is things like adultery. You know, oftentimes someone commits adultery. What should their spouse do when the other spouse commits adultery? They should forgive them. That's what should happen. But the reality of life sometimes is a lot more messy than that. Sometimes you commit adultery on your spouse and your spouse divorces you and leaves you. And it's never repaired ever again. Now, that's the right thing to do. I'm just telling you that those things happen, right? Hey, you could be really you could go out and drink on New Year's Eve. You can go out and drive down the road and you could go kill someone for being a drunk driver. And you could wake up the next day in your vomit feeling really sorry for yourself. You could be praying to God and asking him to forgive you. And if you're saved, he does he does still love you. And he has forgiven your sins. But you know what? That person ain't coming back. That person's dead. There's nothing you can do to fix that. The Bible says he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. Once you get to this stage that Saul's gotten to, there's no fixing it. Saul, you're done being king. Right. And it's kind of like pastors that that do really grievous sins. Pastors that are found out to be committing adultery. Pastors that are found out to be, you know, going out and gambling at casinos and hiring prostitutes. Look, there's no restoring that. I hope God forgives you. I hope you live a good life. I hope that you still be a sole winner. I still that you hope attend a different church. Right. But being a pastor is never in the cards again for you whatsoever. And Saul has just shown himself to be too prideful, too stubborn, too self-willed. And you know what? He's just done with leadership. He's not going to be a king anymore. Verse 27. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle and it rent. Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and have given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. So he gets mad. He rips his garment. And Samuel reminds him of this truth that we all should think about, that there's always someone better than you out there. There is, you know, there could only be one person on the earth that's the best at one given thing. And guess what? In this room, we're not any of it. OK, look, there is a better pastor out there. There is a better song leader out there. There is a better greeter out there. There is a better there's a better everything out there because there's always someone better than you. And so if you're in a position, if you have leadership in any way, you know what? The right view is, God, please use me, though I'm a sinner, though I'm, you know, just a man. I pray that you just enable me, help me to do this great work, not just think like, well, I'm the king of Israel because I'm head and shoulders above the people. And I make the decisions here, even if God tells me to do something, I'm smarter than him. You know, that's a good way to get replaced. And he rips the mantle here. And it's a symbol of the fact that God's ripping away his leadership. And really, what this also symbolizes, stay there, is Matthew twenty one forty three. Jesus said, Therefore, I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Just like the kingdom was taken from Saul and given to who? David. The kingdom of God was given to physical Israel, the Jews, and was then taken from them and given to spiritual Israel. God's children today, Christians. Verse twenty nine. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. I love that title of God. Strength of Israel. You know who that is? That's the Lord Jesus Christ and the strength of Israel today. That nation over in the Middle East, that's not the real Israel. It's a fraud. It's a fake nation. They think, oh, their strength is the fact that they're Jews and they have favor with God and they have the Iron Dome missile defense system. But really, the strength of Israel is Jesus Christ. That's the strength of Israel. And if that false nation doesn't have Jesus Christ, they have no strength. And we're going to see, actually, when the Antichrist comes to power, that he's going to march into Jerusalem and destroy that place someday. And then Jesus is going to come down and reign for a thousand years from Jerusalem. Verse number thirty. And he said, I've sinned, yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people and before Israel. And turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord. He's like, yeah, I've sinned, but just honor me anyways. He's just living in some sort of fantasy, not facing reality. You know, hey, he could honor you before the people, Saul, but it's over between you and God. God wasn't hearkening to your voice in the last chapter when you prayed on him. You know what? It's gone too far. You're not going to be king anymore. Verse thirty-two. Then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. I just, I love the picture of this, Agag coming to him delicate. You just imagine, like, Agag's like, so you're not mad at me anymore, right? You're not going to kill me anymore, right? You know, the bitterness of death is past. And then Samuel brings the yo mama jokes into it. He says, as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Hey, there was a man that actually feared God. There was a man that was actually willing to do the dirty work. There was a man that was actually willing to take out the sword and look Agag in the eye and said, hey, Agag, you made a bunch of women childless and now your mama's going to be childless. Boom! Just chops them up. That's a real man of God right there. That's a dude that was actually filled with the Holy Spirit. That's a dude who many Baptists today would say is bad. He has a bad spirit. He's crazy. He's a freak show. This pastor doesn't have the spirit of God. Well, what would you have thought of Samuel hewing Agag in pieces after bringing his mama into it? The last thing Agag ever heard was a joke about his mother. Wow. I love the Bible. I mean, the Bible is awesome. Oh, the Bible is so boring. What are you talking about? This is better than any movie. This is better than any Netflix show. I mean, this is fantastic. Then Samuel went to Ramah and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul and Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. I kind of understand how Samuel's feeling here because Samuel loved Saul. They were friends and it pains him to see the road that Saul has gone down. Someone that used to be good. Someone that was on the right path. Someone was doing the right thing. And Samuel had to watch Saul get filled with pride and start disobeying God and start doing stupid things, saying stupid things, being a terrible leader. And you know what ended up happening is that they were not friends again for the rest of their life. They separated each other and they didn't see each other for the rest of their life. He was sad about it. But you know what? Samuel was not willing to compromise to stay friends with Saul. Samuel wasn't going to say, well, OK, you know, because I like you, Saul, because we're friends, I'm going to tone things down a little bit. I'm going to walk as you're walking. No, Samuel's a man of God and he's going to do the dirty work. He's going to do a gag of pieces, whether Samuel wants to or not. And, you know, you will experience this in life if you haven't already, where you're going to love someone. You're going to respect someone. That person may even be a leader like Saul. And you're going to see them start to change. You're going to see them start going down a bad path. You're going to see them. They used to preach spiritual sermons. They used to cue the a gags and pieces. They used to preach hard. And now every sermon is trash. And now every sermon is carnal. And now every sermon is coming from a Saul. And you know what? Hey, that kind of sucks sometimes, but I'm still going to hew a gag and pieces. I'm still going to obey God. And if I have to separate from someone and that person is not really my friend for the rest of his life. So be it. You know, I go to Luke Chapter 14, Luke Chapter number 14. This will be the last verse tonight. Luke 14, verse 26. Jesus said, If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. You know, while we have human relationships in this life that we love and treasure. I mean, these are some of the greatest of them, right? Mother, father, wife, brothers, sisters. I mean, for a lot of us, these are the dearest people in our lives that we care the most about. And also the fact that we, thank God, have a church that is so knit together in unity. You know, there's a lot of relationships in this church that are at family level, if not exceeding family level. But I'm just trying to tell you that if you want to be the disciple of Jesus Christ someday, if you stick around in church, you will have a soul that you love in your life that will stop following God. You will have a soul in your life that will start to get prideful, that will disobey God's voice, and that will be replaced someday, and you have to make a decision at that point. Are you going to be like Samuel, where you're just going to stay steadfast, you're going to continue to obey God, you're going to hew up agag, you're going to stick with the hard preaching, you're going to stick with soul winning, you're going to stick with a red-hot church, you're going to stick with the Bible, or are you going to change and follow after your friend? Well, this is the choice that's before you. Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, or do you not? That's the real decision that you're making. And some of you have already had to make that decision. If you haven't, you will in the future. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this great chapter in your Word. I pray that you would just help us and the preachers of our country to recognize the amulek of our nation, that we'd be willing to preach hard against the things that you want us to, that we would be humble and realize that your commandments and your Word is wiser than us, has better ideas than us, and I just pray that we would submit ourselves to those ideas. And I pray that we would be like Samuel, that though sometimes it's hurtful to separate from friends, that we would esteem Jesus Christ higher than any human being on this earth. We love you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our last hymn this evening, if you'll grab your hymnal and turn to number 415. Victory through grace. Hymn number 415. 415, we'll sing there starting on the first. Conquering now, exhale to conquer, Pride in the King in his might, Be thou host of all the faithful, Into the midst of the fight, See her courage advancing, Clad in her brilliant array, Shouting the name of their leader, Hear them exultingly saying, Not to the strong is the battle, Not to the swift is the race, Yet to the true and the faithful, Victory is promised through grace, Conquering now, exhale to conquer, Good is this wonderful King, Let the armies which he's leading, Follow this glory they sing, He is our Lord and Redeemer, Savior and monarch divine, They are the stars and forever, Pride in his kingdom will shine, Not to the strong is the battle, Not to the swift is the race, Yet to the true and the faithful, Victory is promised through grace, Conquering now, exhale to conquer, Good is this wonderful King, Let the armies which he's leading, Follow this glory they sing, Yet to the true and the faithful, Victory is promised through grace, Conquering now, exhale to conquer, Good is this wonderful King, Let the armies which he's leading, Not to the swift is the race, Yet to the true and the faithful, Victory is promised through grace.