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

Hey man, we're there in 1 Kings chapter number 20. The title of my sermon is, To Smite or Not to Smite. So look at verse number 35. The Bible says, And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the Lord, Smite me, I pray thee, and the man refused to smite him. Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him and slew him. Then he found another man and said, Smite me, I pray thee, and the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him. So what is this in verse number 35? Basically you've got one of the sons of the prophets who's asking somebody in the word of the Lord to punch him in the face. I mean, smite means to hit somebody. He's saying, like, God has basically commanded you to punch me in the face, and the guy says, no, I'm not going to smite you. And he basically says, because you didn't obey what I said, you know, I told you to punch me in the face. You didn't do it. You know, now a lion is going to slay you. So this is a pretty, it's a pretty odd situation because, like, if your pastor came up to you, it was like, hey, punch me in the face. You'd have a hard time doing that. You would hesitate. In this specific example, there's some reason why God, you know, wanted this prophet to get punched in the face. Later in the passage, you know, he ends up putting ashes on his face as kind of a showing of afflicting himself. That's what they did in the Old Testament. They would put ashes on their face. So I just kind of think maybe, you know, he got punched in the face, so his eye is all big and swollen, plus he's got ashes all over his face, and that really kind of sells the deal for him to look afflicted. But basically, you know, in the Bible, there's just many examples, or, you know, the Word of God, it contains over, like, a hundred mentions of smiting. You know, God is smiting people. He's smiting nations. People are smiting each other. You know, there's examples of when the smiting is appropriate, and there's examples of when the smiting is not appropriate. This is one of those examples where it seems like it's not appropriate, but actually is. This is kind of an outlier. This is, like, the only example of this in the Bible. So as Christians, we should know the correct answer when we ask ourselves the question, to smite or not to smite? Okay, so in this first example, like I said, the man of God, he's speaking the Word of Lord. He's commanding him to smite him in the face, you know, pretty weird situation. But the lesson that I learned from this passage, and I want that, one thing I want you to learn is that when God tells you to smite, you better smite, because your life may be on the line. In this case, you know, this guy's life was on the line in kind of a weird circumstance, but there's plenty of other circumstances that you might not fully understand. You might not fully, you know, why is God commanding me to smite in this particular case? But you've got to know when to smite and when not to smite. So turn your Bible to Exodus, chapter number seven, and just be prepared. We're going to flip to a lot of Bible, because there's a lot of examples of smiting in the Bible. Turn to Exodus, chapter number seven. We're going to look at verse number 17, Exodus, chapter seven, verse 17. It says, Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. Turn to Exodus, chapter number eight, and verse number 16. The Bible says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. So for example, in Exodus, chapter seven, verse number 17, God is telling Moses to smite the river with the rod, and it's going to turn into blood. We just got to take it for granted that Moses just did what God said. He had enough faith to do that. But sometimes we don't have enough faith to do that. We might think, how is smiting the rod going to turn the water into blood? Why would I even do something like that? You might hesitate. Or, I mean, you could also fear what God is telling you is going to happen of, well, I don't want to smite the water with the rod because it's all going to turn into blood. What am I going to drink? Am I going to die? I'm not going to have anything to drink. I'm going to have to drink blood. So, you know, in those situations, Moses did what God commanded him to do. But we might not always have enough faith to do that, and we should have enough faith. We should know when to smite and when not to smite. Same thing in chapter number eight, in verse number 16, it tells Moses to stretch out the rod and smite the dust of the land that it could turn into lice. So after Moses already turned the water into blood, he knows that whatever God tells him to smite and whatever is going to happen, he knows it's going to happen. But again, he could think to himself, well, man, there's going to be lice everywhere. Is the lice going to get all over me? Am I going to get infected with lice? I don't want that to happen. But again, we have to have faith in God. There's a purpose of why God's telling us to smite and not to smite. Turn to Exodus chapter number nine. Exodus chapter number nine, we're going to read verse number 15. It says, For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to show in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. As yet exalted thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go. So again, we have another example where, you know, God is going to smite people if they don't let the people of God go. So turn to 2 Kings chapter number 13. Like I said, we're going to be flipping through a whole bunch of Bible, learning stuff from the Word of God about smiting. So 2 Kings chapter number 13, the Bible says in verse number 16, it says, And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it. And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands, and he said, Open the window eastward, and he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot, and he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. For thou shalt smite the Syrians in effect, till thou have consumed them. Verse number 18, And he said, Take the arrows, and he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground, and he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times. Then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hast consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. So again, the impression that I get when God tells a man to smite something is that he's pretty serious. It seems like there's some pretty serious consequences when God wants you to smite something and then you don't smite it, or you don't smite it enough. This guy, he smote, he smote a few times, but had he smitten more, then there would have been a greater result. Obviously, smiting more isn't necessarily always equal a greater result. That's why we got to know when to smite, when not to smite. So anytime, for example, false doctrine comes in or false prophets come in, I'm always thankful that Pastor Anderson, he immediately just smites it down. Pastor Anderson's not afraid to smite down any false doctrine that comes to our church. I'm always thankful that other churches are quick to smite down false doctrine. But sometimes, and I'm kind of confessing my fault, but sometimes I think, man, haven't we smited this doctrine down, but didn't we smite it down enough? There's a video against it. There's a sermon against it. This church has smote that false doctrine. That church has smote the false doctrine. But guess what? Sometimes smiting it three times isn't enough. As we see in this example, if we want to destroy false doctrine or false prophets for a few years, we might just smite it a few times. But we want to smite them, as the Bible says, until they're consumed. For example, in this church, we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. But the likelihood of us ever having a group of people that believe in oneness at Faithful Word Baptist Church is very unlikely, because it's been smitten so hard—there's been sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon—that the moment that anything like that was to ever pop back up, those people would immediately be gone. Because we want to believe what the Bible says, we don't want to let false doctrine creep into our church, because ultimately we love the Bible, we love God's Word. We want to believe what the Bible says, we want to know what the Bible says, and we don't want people to come in that are going to twist the Bible. So turn your Bible to Ephesians chapter number 4. In Ephesians chapter number 4, in verse number 14, the Bible says that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So what the Bible says is that if you're tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, you're like a child, because children, they're happy one second, and they're throwing temper tantrums another second. And one day they like this thing, and the next day they like that thing. And a lot of times children are easily deceived. You tell them one thing, they believe it. You tell them another thing, they believe it. The Bible says that if we're going to be a Christian and we're going to be strong in the faith, we don't want to be like children, we don't want to be tossed to and fro. And what it's talking about when it says being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, it's typically by other people. It's by false prophets. It's the sleight of men. It's the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. And a perfect example of someone who is lying in wait to deceive as a false prophet, in my opinion, would be Manly Perry. Now if you don't know who he is, he's a false prophet. And yes, I did say he's a false prophet. He teaches about every single false doctrine that you could teach about salvation. We believe that salvation is all by faith here. And he basically used our church to gain a following, and then he started preaching the exact opposite doctrines of what he was preaching just a couple years ago. So you could say, here's some sermons that he was preaching, a certain doctrine. And then two years later, it's the exact opposite, and he literally has lost his mind so much that he doesn't even realize that he preached sermons two years ago that are the exact opposite of what he's preaching today. So if you haven't heard Pastor Anderson's sermon from Wednesday night, then I definitely recommend that you listen to it. But guess what? Manly Perry has been smitten, amen? We done smited him, okay? And he's going to continue to be smitten until he's consumed, and we don't want any of his stupid doctrine here, right? As for example, the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So we believe in order to be saved that not only you believe, and then you ask God to save you. Now, what he said is that, well, you're teaching that people have to say a prayer in order to be saved. Nobody ever said that. You believe the gospel, and then you say, Lord, save me. That's God's calling upon the name of the Lord. You don't have to say it out loud. I mean, you can say it in your heart. But anybody who is saved is automatically going to think, man, I believe the gospel. Just save me, Lord. It's that simple. But that's just one example of a plethora of examples where he's just teaching false doctrine, where he's saying that Judas, who betrayed Jesus Christ, who the Bible calls a devil, he said that he believes he got more people saved than all the rest of the disciples. That's garbage. That's stupid. We don't want that dumb stuff in our church. Is it because we want to call people stupid? No. It's because we want to believe the Bible. We want to believe the truth of what the Bible says, and we don't want people lying about what the Bible says and trying to make people go toss to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Amen? So false doctrine. To smite or not to smite. Smite it. Amen. All right. Turn to Proverbs. We're going to turn to the book of Proverbs. It's in the middle of your Bible, right after Psalms. Proverbs 19 and verse 25, the Bible says, Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware, and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. So for example, should we smite a scorner? A good example of a scorner is somebody who just can't take any correction whatsoever. You say like, hey, here's a pro tip, and then they're just mad at you. Oh, well, no. I don't agree with that. That's just one example of a scorner. But the Bible says, hey, if we smite a scorner, the simple will beware. So some guy is doing something dumb, and then he gets whacked over the head. People that are wise, it's not really going to have that big of an effect on them. But people that are simple, they might go, oh, no, I better not do that, because I'm going to get bumped in the head. Right? Okay. But what does the Bible say in verse number 25? It says, reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. So somebody who's not a fool, they're not a scorner, they don't need to be knocked upside the head in order to figure out what knowledge is. So I'm going to say, should we smite a scorner? Probably not, because there's many other verses in the Bible that say, when you're dealing with a scorner, it's not going to turn out well for you. But smiting a scorner in the simple will beware, we don't want to just make the simple will beware, we want people to understand knowledge, not simply by getting smacked upside the head. So, turn to Psalm 141, Psalm 141. In Psalm 141, in verse number five, the Bible says, Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me, it shall be in excellent oil, which shall not break my head, for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. So then here's the question, should you let the righteous smite you? Well, the Bible is saying that if you let the righteous smite you, it shall be a kindness. Now, I'd rather be smitten by the righteous than the unrighteous. Now, I think smite in this context is being used figuratively as in kind of correcting your brother, reproving your brother, rebuking your brother. But if I'm doing something wrong, I would rather my brother who loves me to come up and correct me than for everyone who's my brother in Christ to not say anything, not say anything, and all of a sudden now the world's correcting me, or my job is correcting me, or the unsaved are correcting me. The Bible says that if the righteous is correcting you, it's a kindness. So if you're doing something wrong, or not even necessarily wrong, but just you could do something better, and your brother in Christ comes up to you and is trying to help you and correct you, you don't want to just have this constant attitude of just bristling. I mean, there's nothing worse than like you just think you know everything, and every time somebody wants to correct you on anything, you just, you bristle, and you're proud, and you stiffen your neck. You know, you're actually, according to the Bible, you're actually robbing yourself of kindness, because the Bible says if the righteous smite you, it shall be a kindness. I'm going to read from you, I'm going to read for you very quickly from Revelation chapter 3, in verse number 19, it says, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. So this is obviously Jesus saying this, but what Jesus is saying is, hey, if I rebuke you and I chasten you, so rebuke is to just sharply tell you what you're doing wrong, to chasten is basically to punish. Jesus says, hey, if I'm rebuking you and I'm chastening you, it's because I love you. You know, so you don't want to, again, you don't want to just view like your brother in Christ or your pastor or your deacon or your parents. You don't want to have this attitude where you just can't take any correction from them. I mean, you should realize, hey, if they're correcting you, it's because they love you. You know, sometimes it's good to ask yourself the question like, this person that's telling me this, how do they benefit from it? A lot of times that person actually doesn't benefit, you're the only person that benefits. And kind of ask yourself that question, then you'll realize, oh, this person actually loves me. It's always interesting when people ask you for advice, you give them advice and then they're mad at you and they don't like you. It's like, you're the one that asked me and whether or not I gave you that advice doesn't affect my life. I'm just trying to help you. I just love you. Right? So that's a very interesting attitude that people have with that. So turn to Isaiah chapter number 19, Isaiah chapter number 19, we're going to read verse number 21, Isaiah 19 and verse number 21. So Isaiah 19, verse number 21, the Bible says, and the Lord shall be known to Egypt and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day and shall do sacrifice and ablation. Yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord and perform it and the Lord shall smite Egypt. He shall smite and heal it and they shall return even to the Lord and he shall be entreated of them and shall heal them. So here's another question. Is it good for God to smite the unsaved? So obviously when we see in Isaiah 19, I'm going to read you from verse number 13. I'm sorry, that's the wrong verse. Hang on. I'm going to read you from Isaiah nine. Sorry, I wrote the wrong thing. Isaiah nine in verse number 13, you don't have to turn there, but it says for the people turneth not unto him that smited them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. And then in verse number, I want to give you some context in verse number 12 says the Syrians before and the Philistines behind and they shall devour Israel with open mouth for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still for the people turneth not unto him that smited them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. So when we're looking at the unsaved, in this example in Isaiah chapter number 19, in verse number 21 and 22, we see an example where Egypt, the Lord is going to be known to Egypt. The Egyptians shall know the Lord and they're going to do sacrifice, they'll vow to the Lord. But then it says the Lord shall smite Egypt, he shall smite and heal it and they shall return even to the Lord and he shall be entreated of them and shall heal them. This is an example where you have the Egyptians, which are a heathen nation, being smited by God and basically that's causing them to get saved and know the Lord. So ultimately, if the unsaved, if they're receiving smiting from God and it leads to them being saved, I'm going to say, yeah, smite it. Because ultimately what matters is eternity, whether or not we're saved. There's only two places you can go when you die. That's heaven or hell. And if you're saved, you have eternal life, you're going to go to heaven. And if God smites you to the point where he has to humble you so much to where you get saved, amen, that's good. All things work together for good in that case. So turn to Proverbs chapter number 22, Proverbs chapter number 22. So another question here, should you smite your children with a rod? I'm going to say no, because here's the thing. Smite in the Bible means to actually land a blow on them, like punch them. So we should not be punching our children or abusing our children. But look at Proverbs chapter number 22 and verse number 15. The Bible says, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. And I want you to flip over to Proverbs 23 and verse number 13 says, withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. So we shouldn't be smiting our children and hurting them and trying to injure them in any way. But the Bible does say that you should beat your children with the rod. That would be like a thin stick that you hit them on the buttocks with and it stings and it hurts. And that's what you're using as a punishment to teach your children that there's consequences for their actions. Adults that don't grow up and understanding that there's consequences for their actions, they don't get spanked by their mom, they don't get spanked by their dad. You want to know they're still going to get spanked, but you want to know who's going to spank them? The government. And last time I checked, I don't want the government spanking me. I'd rather get spanked by my mom when I'm a kid, get spanked by my dad when I'm a kid. Because if you grow up and you don't realize that there's consequences for your actions, there's consequences when you disobey authority, you're going to end up in jail. And last time I checked, I don't want to go to jail and I don't even want to go into deeper detail on jail because anybody who's been to jail knows it's a horrible place and other people are probably going to beat you up there too. So we should not smite our children with the rod, but the rod is necessary for correction. It says, hey, don't withhold, withhold not correction from the child. For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. The Bible's giving you a command. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. What the Bible's teaching is that if you punish your children, if they're getting spanked when they're doing wrong, that you're actually going to deliver their soul from hell because they're not going to grow up and be a wicked person with a hard heart. They're going to grow up and when it's saying you're going to deliver their soul from hell, it means probably they're more likely to get saved. They're growing up in a Christian home. They understand there's consequences for their actions. The Bible's basically saying, hey, not only is it going to deliver their soul from hell, but this is a commandment. Oh, I just don't really believe in that. I don't really believe in spanking my children, using a thin rod to spank. No, I would never do something like that. I just give them time out. I just take their iPad away and their iPhone away and their Xbox away and they just have to set a time out in the corner. That's not what the Bible says is punishment. The Bible says thou shalt beat him with the rod. All right, so turn to Psalm 23. Psalm 23. This isn't a sermon about child rearing, so we could go way longer into detail on that, but that's another sermon to be preached at another time. So Psalm 23 in verse number four, the Bible says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. So in the Bible, the rod, we just looked at Proverbs, the rod is basically talking about correction or chastening or punishment. You're getting your butt whipped with a rod. Now when the Bible talks about, here in Psalm 23 in verse number four, when it says thy staff, the way that I picture the staff, you think about the shepherd and they have the big, long kind of like shepherd staff thing, you know, that's kind of what's used to kind of bring you back in gently, right? If you think of Jesus as the good shepherd, and you're the sheep, you know, when God's using his staff, he's kind of like, hey, you're getting a little out of line, I'm going to bring you back in here, right? But if God's using the rod, it's like, hey, you better get back in line, okay, you're doing something wrong. Now here's the thing, the Psalmist here, it says a Psalm of David, it says, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me, okay? So this person, they're not just comforted by the fact that God is going to gently bring them back in. They're also comforted by the fact that when they get too far out of line, that God is going to pop them with the rod, okay? So we got to ask ourselves this question, you know, should God smite us a little bit with the rod when we're doing wrong? Yes, I mean, the Psalmist is clearly saying that, hey, your rod, God, your rod and your staff, it comforts me, you know, I don't want to get too far out of line where, you know, I don't want to get out of line at all, but, you know, if I'm getting out of line and I'm worldly or I'm backslidden or I'm, you know, I'm committing sins that I know that I shouldn't, you know, I want God to hate, I want him to gently bring me back in, but I also, if necessary, he needs to beat me with that rod, amen? Psalm, turn to Psalm 89. Psalm number 89 in verse number 31. Psalm 89 in verse number 31, it says, If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then, I want to, actually, I want to read from you a little bit. That's where I want to read from. If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. So, what God is saying here is that when you do wrong, he's going to punish you, but his loving kindness he's not going to take from you. You know, if you're a child and you're getting punished by your parents, you might, in your heart, you might feel really angry that you're being punished, but, you know, your parents are punishing you because they love you, right? They want you to understand there's consequences for your actions. And even God is saying, hey, you break my statutes. You break my commandments. Hey, I'm going to visit your transgression with a rod. I'm going to, it says, and he's going to visit your iniquity with stripes. It means you're going to get whipped, right? You're getting whipped. You're getting spanked. But here's the thing. God, he's never going to change the covenant that he made with you, that you're saved. In this church, we believe that once you're saved, you're always saved. The Bible says, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. God says that once you're saved, you're always saved, you're in his hand. Now, you're in his hand. You're doing wrong. You know, you're probably going to get spanked a few times, but he says, hey, just because you're bad, I'm not going to alter that thing which has gone out of my lips. I'm not going to break my covenant. One thing I think is interesting about that verse, it says my covenant will I not break. So basically, you know, God's not going to lie. He's never going to break his covenant with you. But he also says that he'll never alter the thing which has gone on my lips, which I used to always think of that as just another way of saying, like, I'm not going to lie. But the thing is, you know, you could alter the thing which has gone out of your lips in some situations and not necessarily be lying. So, you know, if you said to someone like, hey, I want to go soul-winning with you and the time is at 930 a.m. that you're going to go soul-winning, and then the person calls you and says, hey, I'm going to be a little bit late. And then you're like, well, let's just change the time to 945 instead of you being late for this. Is that okay? So in that case, you know, you did change what you said the time would be 930. Now it's 945. You didn't lie when you said it was 930. You just altered the thing which went out of your lips due to circumstances. God is basically saying, hey, even if there's circumstances involved where, like, you're doing bad and you're sinning and you're doing this, I'm still not going to change my covenant. I'm still not going to amend the terms here. So turn your Bible to Isaiah chapter number 50. Isaiah chapter number 50, 5-0. We're going to look at verse number 6. So here's another question about smiting. Should Jesus have been smitten? Well, according to the Word of God, it was necessary for Jesus to be smitten of God. So look at Isaiah chapter number 50 in verse number 6. The Bible says, I'm going to read verse number 5. The Lord God had opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. Neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. So basically, Jesus, this is an Old Testament reference to Jesus. Jesus was smitten, right? He gave his back to the smiters because they were whipping his back. They were ripping the hair out of his beard, of his cheeks. And it says he didn't even hide his face from shame or spitting. Sometimes, you and I, we can feel embarrassed or we can feel ashamed. In this case, when Jesus, when they're mocking him and they're spitting in his face, he didn't even hide his face from that. Okay, turn to Lamentations chapter number 3. Turn to Lamentations chapter number 3. In Lamentations chapter number 3 in verse number 30, Bible says, He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled with reproach. Then turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter number 53. Isaiah chapter number 53 in verse number 4. The Bible says, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. So because Jesus was smitten of God, we have the opportunity to be saved. So this is an example where we all love Jesus, and we don't want any harm to come to Jesus whatsoever. But the Bible says that it was necessary for him to be smitten so that you and I would have the opportunity to be saved. And that kind of sheds light on John 3 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So when it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, what's the context of what he gave? Jesus was subject to smiting on his face. They whipped him. They ultimately nailed him to a cross. They tortured him to death. And all that was necessary for you and I as sinners to have the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and to go to heaven forever. So all throughout the Old Testament, you know, God was smiting people. God allowed Jesus to be smitten. But now here's another question about smiting. Is God still smiting today? Does the world deserve to be smitten today? You know, Jesus was smitten because the sins of the world were laid upon him. The act of smiting, what we see in the Bible, it's always in response to sin, right? God is smiting sin. Is there any sin to smite in the world today? I think we could all say yes. There's a lot of sin in the world today that God is smiting, okay? And you could even ask yourself the question, you know, is COVID-19, is that a smiting from God? Yes, right? Now you could say, well, I don't know. I mean, I think the whole thing might be a hoax or this or that, whatever. But ultimately, all the consequences of COVID-19, God has allowed it to happen. Whether or not you think COVID-19 is real or not, you know, God has allowed this whole thing to happen. And I think we could all agree that it's a punishment to nations. We can all see that. Whether you think that people are dying or not. So turn to Numbers chapter number 14. Numbers chapter number 14. Numbers chapter 14 in verse number 11, the Bible says, and the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they believe me? For all the signs which I have showed among them, I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, for thou broughtest up this people and thy might from among them. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that thou, Lord, are among this people, that thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them by daytime, and a pillar of a cloud, and a pillar of fire by night. So God, does God allow for disease to happen? Yes, but God also actually smites people with disease. Pestilence in the Bible means disease. So, you know, in this case with the Egyptians... Let me back up here. So let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 7. 2 Chronicles chapter number 7. 2 Chronicles chapter number 7 and verse number 12. The Bible says, And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will hear their land. So, you know, so God is clearly saying, like, hey, I'm going to send pestilence on people. I'm going to smite nations with pestilence. But, you know, so here's the thing. Over the years, you know, Christian, so God is saying, when he smites a nation with pestilence, he said, even if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, they'll pray, they'll seek my face, they turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will hear their land. So guess what? You know, if you're saved, you know 100% sure, if you die today, you're going to heaven, amen, there's nothing that can change that. But I don't know about you, but while I'm on this earth, I would like for God to heal my land. Wherever the land is that I'm living, you know, whether it's Arizona, or Michigan, or the United States as a whole, you know, I would want God to heal my land of any pestilence that's among the people. Over the years, Christians have been serving God less and less, they've been reading their Bible less and less, they've been praying less and less, they've been going to church less and less, they've been preaching the gospel less and less, and now, look at our country, America, right? We're not this beautiful Christian nation anymore, right? And the only reason for that is, is because the people that are called by my name, it's all been going less and less. And do we need less and less of Christians serving God? No. Do we need to kind of say, hey, this nation's super wicked, we're just going to kind of put it on cruise control, we're going to kind of maintain what we got going on? No. We need to serve God more, we need to read the Bible more, we need to preach the gospel more, we need to come to church more, we need to love each other more. You know, our nation is just is wicked and sinful, and what does the Bible say in 2 Chronicles 7? It basically says like, hey, you have a wicked nation that I smite with pestilence, hey, but my people that are called by my name, you know, I'm going to heal the pestilence among them. So we don't have to worry when God is raining down on a sinful nation because the Bible says that all things work together for good to them that love God. You know, if for some reason, COVID-19 causes me to lose my job, and then I've got to move to this place or move to that place, maybe God wanted that to happen. Maybe there's somewhere that I've got to go. Let's say I lost my job, I had to move to such and such place, and there's someone there that I need to preach the gospel to that gets saved. It all works together for good, amen? So turn to Revelation chapter number 19. Revelation chapter number 19. So God was smiting back in the Old Testament. He is smiting today, and one day he's coming back to smite again, amen? So Revelation 19 in verse number 11, Bible says, Bible says, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords. The Bible says that eventually at the end of the world, Jesus is going to come back, and he is going to smite the world of all the wickedness. Obviously after that you have the millennial reign of Christ, and then you'll have the new heaven and the new earth, and then there will be no more need for any any smiting whatsoever. But, you know, we're waiting for that glorious day when Jesus Christ comes back. You know, we that are saved, we're going to glory with Jesus. But hey, all the unsaved, here's the thing, all the smiting that God's going to do to the unsaved and the end of the world and the end times, you know, some of those people, they're going to experience that smiting, and they're going to get saved. But a lot of them aren't. And so when they see Jesus come back, and they've already hardened their heart, and they've already taken the mark of the beast, you know, it's over for them. Done. So Revelation 21, 3, it says, And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. So what is smiting? It's getting hit. You know, you're just getting slammed with disease or a rod or a sword. You know, all that is pain. But the Bible says there's going to come a day that, hey, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. So when we look at 2 Chronicles 7, verse number 14, it, I'll just read for you. Again, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. So as Christians, we need to know when to smite. We need to know when not to smite. But we also need to recognize that whatever smiting from God is going to come on this nation or on this world or whatever smiting that is happening to the unsaved right now that's also affecting us, we just need to realize, hey, we're His people. Last time I checked, we're His people. Yeah, Christians are God's people. We're called by His name, Christians, Jesus Christ. Hey, as all this smiting keeps happening, all the horrible things that we see happening in the world and God's punishment on the wicked, what do we need to do? Do we need to just get all down and sad about it and sit at home? No. We need to humble ourselves. We need to pray. We need to seek God's face. We need to turn from our own wicked ways. And only then is God going to hear from heaven, and God's going to forgive our sin, and He's going to heal the land. Amen. Let's pray.